Big Sports Radio (Weekend of February 22, 2025)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Reaching across the country for the biggest sports news this weekend,
from Atlanta to Seattle, from Boston to la This is
Big Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Big Sports Radio. Glad you're here with us one last
time on this show. We'll talk more about that here.
Coming up in just a bit. Larry Smith, Mike Kegley,
Brad Sturty here with us. Lots to talk about big
game in New York. It is Illinois. It's number three duke.
Talk about that in just a second. Here Tom Izzo
finally breaking through and taking over the legendary late Bob

(00:43):
Knight atop the Big Ten. That conversation coming up. Also,
we'll talk a little Lindsay AA tournament. We got the
first look at the seedings, the banner debacle in Champagne.
Steve Weisman, who's a duke beat writer from the Raleigh
News Observer, joining us at the Bomb of the r
talk more about this Duke. Dylan Sen here to talk
Big Ten basketball and the legend. Rod Woodson is on

(01:07):
the show later on. We'll see what he's up to
right now living in Vegas. Guys didn't realize that, but
he's gonna come along here as well. Let's talk basketball
in the game that we had circled off our calendar.
You know, the Big Ten teams normally don't go out
of conference right like, once they get to they turn
you know, in the new year of the calendar. You know,
they've gotten this lately with the larger schedules. They play

(01:27):
a couple of games in early December, they go back
out of conference. Once they go back in in January,
they don't go out again. So the fact that Illinois
scheduled this game to play Duke at Madison Square Garden
in late February is really out of character. At the time,
it seemed like a genius move because Illinois earlier this
season had a unit they're playing as if they were
a potential Final four and national championship contender. Then came

(01:52):
recent games and illness and injury and bizarre playing patterns,
and all of a sudden, this potentially looks like on paper,
which is not very competitive.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yes, it's an Illinois team that's a shell of where
they were six weeks ago against the Duke team that
No I will say one thing I'll say about Duke
because they they have they really haven't played. The ACC
schedule hasn't been you know, the gauntlet that it used
to be, And so I think they would have a
different record, maybe in the SEC where you go in
every night and it's it's a tough game, and even

(02:25):
the Big ten, I think, you know, they would have
a much different record. So, but Illinois is just not healthy.
If Illinois healthy, this is a different game. I feel
like they could match up a little bit with Duke.
But man, with it the way they are right now
and your star player, uh Yakhonas is coming off a
five hundred and eleven turnover game against Wisconsin, this is
a This is a really tough, tough game for Illinois.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
Yeah. I think this is one that Illinois fans have
went from we got an opportunity to beat Duke on
the big stage to hey, I wonder how good Cooper
flag is. So I I just I just think it's
it's going to be an interesting time for Illinois fans
who are really rationalizing lower expectations than what they anticipated.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
So I gotta tell you a funny story about that
Illinois fan posted that he sold his tickets to a
Duke fan and he made about one thousand dollars on
the exchange, and he brought tickets to a Broadway show
instead of going to the game. So hey, man, do
what you gotta do.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Listen, it may be more entertaining than this game. This
game hit maybe over a half time. And boy, just
to just to rub a little salt in the wound
for Illinois fans, how about the promo that that Fox
was running last week when Illinois was playing Michigan State
the night game. So when the promos, it's a thirty
second promo and it's just it's all Cooper Flag the

(03:50):
Duke side, right, Oh, it's Duke, It's Cooper Flag and
national player of your candidate. And he's dunking and he's
still he's celebrating, he's flexing versus Illinois trying to take
him down.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
They showed three shots.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
One of Ty Rogers, who's red shirting this year, doesn't play.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
It was it was a it was a highlight from
last year. The other ones.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Number two is Dre Gibbs Lawhorn, who's only started two
games all season. He doesn't even then he only played
three games three minutes that night. The third one is
Kylon Bonswell, who flexing, who's a role player like not
gats Berry, Shaka Jonas, not tomaslav Ivisich. I mean, the
two best players in the team you ignored. That's how

(04:28):
bad it was. And then they must have.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
Realized their gap.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
I'm watching them or you know, later on in the
week right a few night, a couple of nights ago,
I'm watching Fox in FS one, and then they came
back and they they clearly saw the error of their
ways and they replaced it with it looks like a
dunk by Gibbs Lawhorn. It also could have been like
a really impressive rejection of a fast break dunk against
Gibbs law Horn. So it's like, of all the of
all the players you could show, that's all you got.

(04:53):
Still no no, no shot of the of the guy
Yakachonas who potentially could be a lottery pick in almost
every mock draft, or Will Riley, who is a potential
first rounder.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
No shots of those.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
But that just shows you the lever of level of
respect that Fox has for Illinois in this game.

Speaker 5 (05:10):
Go don't hurt not much.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
I I think I'd rather have seen Brad Underwood like
screaming an official or something more exciting. But no, it's
a it is true. I mean, Duke's the name team
here Illinois has. You know, last year, I think that
Illinois team was kind of a media darling with all
the Terrence Shannon issues and they were a story. You know,

(05:33):
whether it's Marcus Damas, Terrence shanned, a lot of Colemanhawkins,
a lot of old guys. I don't think they know this.
Maybe they just can't spell or pronounce Jack Jonas, so
they just use something different. Let's just go do it.
Do they have a guy named Smith? Maybe we could
go with that exactly.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yeah, it's it certainly shows you the power of recency
bias because Illinois was looking really good just five and
a half weeks ago, and the whole worm has turned
once Yacachona's got the four arm injury and then everything

(06:07):
kind of changed for Illinois because it's been in a
death spiral of health issues and Lord only knows what
is next. So let's just hope for the safety of
our players.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
Yeah, yeah, well look for Illinois.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
You know, first Elite eight run last year since two
thousand and five, and we've talked about how important it
is for a marketing and pr and platform elite status
that you got to get to that second week and
consistently they've only done it once, so there are programs
still that's that's on the come, and you know, we'll
see if they can get there. Maybe this was this
year or whatever, but certainly they're in a much better
place now that we're even just four or five years

(06:43):
ago in Champagne.

Speaker 5 (06:45):
Speaking of all the injuries and illness and whatever.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Here's Brat Underwood talking after they got blown out at
Wisconsin by twenty one points about all of the just
the illness and injuries that they have suffered through.

Speaker 5 (06:56):
He said he hasn't seen anything like it. Here's coach Underwood.

Speaker 6 (06:59):
Yeah, end of the day, guys, we don't have very
many healthy bodies. Tommy didn't make the trip with us.
He drove up you know, before the game because he
said he wanted to try to play, and and Jake
Davis got sick right after pregame and said he wanted
to try to start. But he didn't even join us

(07:19):
at halftime. He was in the in the restroom. That's
why we didn't shake hands with them after the game.
They don't need this, But thirty eight years, I've never
seen anything like what's gone through our team with Trey
will Now, Tommy Tommy's literally practiced maybe once in a
month from mono and then the ankle injury and now

(07:44):
and now this.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
So yeah, it's you know, you've got guys like Eva said,
you had mono. Then he comes back, springs his ankle,
and then he gets sick again, doesn't even fly with
the team, drives up to the game. On the day
of the game, miss Is the morning shooter. Jake Davis
goes there. He starts the game against Wisconsin and then
has to go throw up at halftime and can't even

(08:05):
come out for the second half. It's amazing. They didn't
shake hands after the game. And it wasn't that about
any animosity. It was just, like Bret Brettenwood tells Greg guard,
I just don't want to get your guy sick. You
guys are playing well right now.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Well, and look, we we all know the real reason.
Of course, he wanted to see the scenic route on
I thirty nine between Bloomington and Rockford, which isn't about
in a tourist manual that has ever Yeah, right, who knows,
But if you have to drive that two and a
half hours, it's not a fun two and a half hours,

(08:42):
and especially if you're hooked up to an IV while
somebody else is driving probably wasn't a lot of fun
for him either.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, and let's face it, Wisconsin driving Wisconsin also not
a party. So I mean, yeah, it's hopefully he had
a good book or got some sleep, because it is
I thirty nine, one of the newer interstate sections in
the country. Doesn't it's pretty no question, no right, say
I Duke Tom Mizzo. Give him his props. So he
gets to win the other night against Illinois, one other

(09:08):
game here this week, and so he finally surpasses Bob
Knight win them are three p fifty four, the winningest
all time coach in Big Ten history.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, give Iszo credit. I mean, this dude has been
around forever and he has done He just consistently puts
together a team that can compete in the Big Ten conference,
and he plays a difficult schedule in the non conference
gets him ready for conference play, and then he's He's
had multiple teams make great runs. In March, he got
the one national title. But I thought it was interesting

(09:37):
when he, you know, after the game, when he said,
you know, he trade the record to get the three
national titles that Bobby Knight has, you know, so, but yeah,
just he's what he what he's done is really impressive
there at Michigan State because they are not they aren't
considered a blue blood historically, but he's made them, you know,
they're part of the Champions Classic, all those things. He's

(09:58):
made them a marquee name in college.

Speaker 4 (10:01):
Yeah, under his watch, they've pretty much passed up Michigan
the big brother in the state. And certainly he's done
a fantastic job to get his name up there with
names like Knight and Katie and it's great for him.
And you know, the guy has built a program. He
had a nice foundation, but really strengthened it and made

(10:23):
it much stronger than it ever was before he got there.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah, no question about that. Put this in perspective.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
His first Big ten game was back in January nineteen
ninety six the Spartan Speed Indiana and Bob Knight. On
that night, John Shier, the Duke head coach, was in
grade school at the time. Bruce Pearl, who is the
coach of number one Auburn, had just won his Division
two national championship at Southern Indiana. He was trying to

(10:50):
rebuild his name after the stuff he did at I
was an assistant coach.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
If you don't know, go look it up. We won't
waste time on that.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
Here.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Gallon of gas was a dollar twenty eight back in
nineteen ninety six.

Speaker 5 (11:02):
And the movies.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Twister, Independence Day and show me the money, Jerry maguire,
that's what we're talking about.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
That's how more importantly Larry at that point only had
one hundred and sixty seven suits. Yeah, it's really early
in his career.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Here's how old I am. I was already at CNN.
That's how long. That's how long that was.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
He only had He only had one tie closet.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Yeah, totally, yeah, right, he didn't. He didn't have the
three tie closets that were around his through different parts
of his house in case he needs to switch ties
at home.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Yeah, And he has a kitchen tie, and he has
the bathroom tie.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
And it's like mister Rogers. He has little little closets.
He just goes into, comes out in a new outfit,
exactly outfits more times than Taylor Swift.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
He has phone booths around his house. He goes in,
he comes out in his super Larry costume, you know,
with the tie.

Speaker 5 (11:59):
Why why today, said, I don't know if I've seen
that tie before. Yes you have, Yes, you have.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
It's like a woman in persons, you know, it's like
me and my ties. I just don't see it. Oh no,
this is an old one. No, this is not a
new tie.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
She's just then you know what. She doesn't remember him,
but she humors you.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Oh oh exactly, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that was
the one you got in nineteen eighty seven.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
Here's the scary thing, guys.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
WNBA season's coming up, and always vowed to wear a
different tie each week, So we're about to add to.

Speaker 5 (12:28):
That tie collection here in a couple of months, it's
been even worse.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
Now, do you realize that there is one athlete who
made sure to wear a different suit, a different outfit
every time he was on the air. That was Rick Flair.
So you are the Rick Flair of broadcasting.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Oh my goodness, this has gone off the rails quickly.
Hey listen really quick. I'm like, get this, Larry flatir No,
not everybody compared to Rick Flair. Oh my goodness, what
a show to on this very very memorable weekend for
Big Sports Radio. The first look at the NCAA seedings
comes out. I love that they do this because I said, hey,
as of right now, the committee says these are the

(13:10):
top sixteen teams. I didn't see a lot of surprises there.
Very sec heavy at the top two lines, as they
should be. I thought all the teams, that Auburn being
at the top, Duke right there, they all were very
deserving of the seedings that they got.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, it's pretty interesting though. If you were seated highly,
you probably lost. Alabama's lost twice since then, Texas A
and M lost for News, lost twice since then, Kentucky lost,
You go down the list. I mean Kansas got beat
twice and destroyed they were on the list. I mean
it's it was like I want to Texas Tech got

(13:47):
ranked in the top ten, they lost. So I think
the moral of the stories you didn't want to be on
that list today, but you want to be on that
list at the end of the year.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
Yeah. And it's so different than football, where they kept
out a list and then that list handcuffed them for
what they could do at the end of the season.
At least we don't have to. They haven't made that
mistake on the basketball side.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah, yeah, there you go, all right, We've got much
more to come. NBA All Star Game. Yeah, we got
to talk about it. Unfortunately. Also the banner fiasco to
top all banner fiascos, It just was so embarrassing Saturday
night at Illinois.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
We'll talk about it coming up. This is Big Sports Radio.

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Speaker 5 (15:24):
Welcome back here at a big sports radio. Glad you're
still with us.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Larry, Mike and Brad we were talking college basketball minute
ago and the banner situation. Look, when when a player
gets a you know, in the Ring of Honor right
in football, or they get their banner, raise the rafters,
their jerseys retired, it.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
Is one of the most ultimate amazing things.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Illinois had two of them last week, and one of
the criteria for them is you got to be an
All American. Well, Kolfie Colburn, as big as he is,
people forget how good he was. I don't know how
that happened. Seven to one, three hundred pounds, two time
All American. He had his banner raised a Tuesday night
when Illinois beat You now that banner, they'd already raised
it to the rafters. They just had the official ceremonies.

(16:05):
They kind of brought it back down, put it back
up again.

Speaker 5 (16:07):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, then Saturday night, because it's NBA All Star Game
weekend and Tarren Shannon is a rookie in the NBA,
he had his his jersey had not been up in
the rafters, and it showed because when they unveiled it
fellas it was upside down. Insert rim shot right here.

(16:28):
Thank you really talk about yourself?

Speaker 5 (16:30):
I'm for clept.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
It was. It was interesting. I was about fifteen feet
away and Tarn Shannon looks at that jersey, it's like,
does it switch when it goes up there? I mean,
you can just seem like going through his head, like
I don't think that's the way it's supposed to look,
but it was. It's a stunning thing for that to
happen with all the protocols, you know, all the things

(16:52):
they did to make that a special life for him,
and then the protocols in place, one of them didn't
include hanging the banner correctly. It's just stunning to me
that that can be the thing that we miss mess up,
that that you can mess up, you know, in front
of millions of people, because they it was national television
and it became the story for a few days.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah. I think the lesson learned there is if you
ruin the reveal of what the jersey looks like to
ensure that it's not upside down, that's okay. And I
think that somebody should have done that check the last time,
and I hope nobody got fired over that, but it

(17:34):
had to be terribly challenging for both Terrence Shannon Junior
and Josh Whitman who were there watching it.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Do you remember that commercial when the guy, you know,
maybe they just guy, just need the snickers. Hey, the
great job painting, but who are the chefs? Right, you know,
it's you know who was one of those moments.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
It really was.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
And it's sad that that's art, right, like that's an
ad campaign, and yet this was real life like it
really had you.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Know, maybe instead of the State Farm Center, it should
be called the All State Center and it'll protect Illinois
from mayhem.

Speaker 7 (18:08):
Like them.

Speaker 5 (18:09):
There you go, there, you go exactly right, you know.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
And and here's the thing about that is that with
Arren Shannon, it's upside down. The bad thing is it
was done during halftime, Brad, as you know, so there
was no time to fix it, so they had to
raise it and let it hang there during the second
half upside down, which, by the way, you missed it. Yeah,
by the way, Illinois basketball went upside down as well.
They missed the final nineteen shots in the game and

(18:33):
saw a twelve point loss.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
They couldn't handle the banner. It was too much for
the players, the emotional problems.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
It was like that. It was like the worst omen
of all time because online you had Illinois fans going
the second half is already cursed. Terrence Shannon's the banner
was upside down and they were right.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, here's the cool, cool thing about it. Though, he
comes out a couple of days later and then one
of the classiest acts by an athlete that was ever dissed,
and you and boy, and there are a few athletes
that have been dissed worse than what Tarren Shann has
been dissed by Illinois. Let's just let's just call it that.
And again, look at if you don't know, look up
the whole story last year.

Speaker 5 (19:12):
It was crazy.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
He comes out with a special T shirt with his
his banner, a picture of his banner upside down right
in his jersey on the shirt, and he's selling them
online Game day Spirit dot com and all proceeds go
to the local boys and Girls club.

Speaker 5 (19:28):
That's what you call class.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, that's that's taking a negative turn it into a positive.
Just really impressive from Terry Shannon. But we've always we've
always known that kid. He was. He's a persevere guy.
He's a he perseveres through difficult situations and plays through
pressure and he's just a class act.

Speaker 5 (19:46):
You know.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
He and his mom just made the best of a
situation that could have been really, you know, a negative,
but they turned it into a positive. And that's what
you that's what you do, turn that frown upside down.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yeah, and I told her, you've done it. Incredible double
job raising a great young man because you see the
behaviors that he has done in the worst of situations,
and most of us wouldn't handle things as well as
he's done. And he's still so young. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
He came back last year after the six games that
he set out due to the school suspension, had to
sue his own school to begin playing again. Came back,
sets the all time single season scoring record, most outstanding
player in the Big Ten tournament, just had an outstanding
finished his career and then now a top first round pick.
The Minnesota Timberwolves had a nice couple of games last week.

(20:37):
Maybe they'll kind of figure things out here for them
as well. Speaking of NBA All Star weekend, the All
Star Game fellas, I'll just be honest with you, I
couldn't watch. I began watching and I turned off once
Kevin Hart started.

Speaker 5 (20:51):
I had to do something else. Sorry, I couldn't do it.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
I don't I don't know they did do something that
makes it a little more. Make them play underwater, make
him play I don't know, maybe where where a three
piece where a suit and tie Larry Larry the Larry
Smith All Star Game. Yeah, I don't know, but it's
just not exciting. I mean, I thought the dunk contest
was cool. Mac McClung was is pretty impressive. I still

(21:18):
like the three point shootout, the skills competition, those time
things are fun. But the game is just it's a
joke because nobody wants to get hurt. That's not why
they're playing. And they don't give they don't give effort,
nobody tries to play any defense. People shoot half court shots.
It's just a it's a glorified exhibition. There's no competition.
It's just not an exciting thing. And I it was

(21:41):
never a knockdown, drag out thing, you know, Major League Baseball.
You said the All Star Game, but like Pete Rose
would kill a guy, score right, right, But it's never
been like that. But it was much more competitive back
in the day than it is now. It's become it's
become something different.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah, I gotta be honest with you. I I stopped
enjoying All Star games. When I was a kid. I
wonder if those are just something that you get past
a certain age and you're like, yeah, I don't think
I would risk life or limb or anything for an
exhibition in the you know, in the middle of the season.
To me, maybe you could do figure out some new

(22:21):
way to do some sort of fan weekend or some
sort of interactions. But the All Star Game is kind
of worthless. But what if you had guys who were
All Stars in their local towns. Maybe you do some
sort of charity drive or some sort of you know,
service drive wherever you know, they get people to go
down to homeless shelters and feed them or know something

(22:43):
something that is different. I know it wouldn't be a
huge TV watching thing, but at this point I think
the All Star concept has run its course and that
that's just that's just me. But I'm not really interested
in anymore.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
Yeah, I think it's hard.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
And the one suggestion that I would make is maybe
try the Major League Baseball model where go back to
East West, stop with the team check Team Cannas, Team Lebron,
Team Staph or whatever you know, and and go back
to East West, and whoever wins gets home. Court edge
in the finals NBA Finals. I think for baseball that
made it interesting. I know I paid attention more. I

(23:20):
was curious and how it came out. It puts strategy
back in the game.

Speaker 5 (23:24):
Maybe you do that.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
I don't know what else works, because it's just it's
just a lot of like you said, it's it's a
it's a lot of look who's in the stands and
what they're wearing, and you know, it's they stopped the
game to talk about the inside the the NBA guys, and.

Speaker 5 (23:40):
Yeah, it just was a lot of stuff.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Give give the winning team a million dollars each. Yeah,
what's I mean to make it worth their while?

Speaker 5 (23:48):
Yeah, because ten thousand ain't getting it.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
That's give million dollar I mean that's what fifteen million dollars?

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, oh well yeah, yeah, oh well you've got it. Yeah,
make it to where it's it's it's something big, you know,
but yeah, the.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Zero or make them Hey, I got an idea. Make
it a wager. If you're on the West, you have
everyone puts a million dollars in and then the winning
team gets to keep the million dollars. Oh there you go,
make it. I bet THEYD play a little harder.

Speaker 5 (24:14):
You bet they Yeah, yeah, I see what you did.

Speaker 8 (24:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
I just like I said, I think you can do
a lot of different gimmicks. But I'm just I'm not
certain if as Phonsie jumped the shark. I'm not certain
that the all star concept hasn't jumped the shark.

Speaker 7 (24:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yeah, very good.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
I love that.

Speaker 5 (24:32):
Yeah, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
I clicked over to the SNL special and was thoroughly
entertained for three hours. So yeah, there you go if
you haven't seen it. By the way, Black Jeopardy was outstanding. Okay,
up next, Duke beat right the Duke Duke beat Rider.

Speaker 5 (24:45):
Steve Wiseman Joyce is right here, Big spurs Ring Grease
is cheap, but the airfare costs a fortune. Paris not
much closer.

Speaker 9 (24:52):
And again, airfare, at let's face it, flying anywhere it
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Speaker 1 (26:49):
You're listening to the Big Sports Radio Network with Larry Smith,
Mike Keighley and Brad's Dirty.

Speaker 11 (26:59):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
One of the big games we can been looking forward
to is number three Duke taking on Illinois. Glad to
have with us her on the show. Steve Wiseman, he's
a Duke beat writer for the Raleigh News and Observer. Steve,
Welcome to the show. Uh and boy, congrats on Duke
once again. We were talking here in the in the break.
You know, Mike Krzewski is now retired. They are the
critics that John Shire, Oh, he's his zan Picku Chown's

(27:21):
did a great shop with this team and once again
they just have not missed a beat. Once again they're
gonna headed to a number one seed. And uh and
they were, you know, one of the candidates to win
the national title.

Speaker 11 (27:32):
Yeah, it's it's really worked out the way they wanted
it to. When they set the succession plan up and
everything that John would you know, work under him for year,
annoying he was gonna take over the program. Uh. And
you know they haven't made a final four yet, So
that's that's the one hurdle they need to clear. They
almost made it last year, of course, lost to the Elie,
but you look at his record. They won an ACC
championship the first year, Lee last year looking like, you know,

(27:56):
a number one seed like you said, this year with
with a chance to win at all. So that's that's
what they set it up to be. And you know,
it's it's hard to argue that it has not been successful.
I think that it's clearly it's clearly worked the way
they wanted it to.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
Yeah, you know John from the Chicago Suburbs Illinois program.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Well, obviously I think coming out of high school, came
down to Duke or Illinois and he chose the Blue
Devils and Blue Devil for life. What kind of pressure
has this been on him? It feels like on the
outside he's been embraced. You mentioned no final fource that
the Leveill change that doesn't happen here in a couple
of years. But it feels like it's, like you said,
even the fans have embraced him, and it's it's been

(28:35):
a good transition.

Speaker 11 (28:37):
They have mostly obviously, you know, no, there's no one
approval ratings for anybody in this world. So there are
some who noted that. You know, last year they lost
to Carolina twice, that's the rival, and then then lost
to in C State in the a SEC Tournament and
the eight. So that didn't sit well in the off season.
So in this little neighborhood with our three schools here

(28:57):
of the triangle, that that gets brought up quite a bit. So,
but yes, the overall big picture, he's handled the pressure
pretty well and I've seen him over the last this
is his third year, grow into the position and be
more comfortable to make bold moves. And like last offseason
when you know, they had to tell some people, we

(29:18):
don't there's not gonna be a place for you in
next year's team, And they brought in three transfers from
outside the program, Elite Brown Mason Gillis from Purdue and
see On James from Tulane, who helping big parts of
what they're doing. He had to change kind of the
culture of the locker room to build it around Cooper Flag,
and he felt emboldened and able to do that. I
don't think coming into his first year he would have

(29:41):
maybe done that. He was kind oft off feeling his way.
But yeah, so he's he's grown into it and he's
doing a pretty good job.

Speaker 5 (29:47):
Yeah, talk about Cooper Flag. He's an outstanding player.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
The ESPN announcers give him kind of you know, superhuman
adjectives sometimes, but that's to take away that I think
he's a really fun player and someone I'm looking were
to seeing up for, you know, up close and personal
on Saturday. Tell us about what from your seat, how
good this young man is.

Speaker 11 (30:09):
So the biggest thing is he impacts the game everywhere
on the court. He's leading them in every stat category, right, assists, steals, rebounds,
you know, points, obviously, block shots. You don't see that
very often, especially in a team that's right number three
in the country and gonna everyone's see this as the
by tournament like there's a guy uab doing it. But

(30:29):
that's you know, a little lower level basketball, and they're
like five hundred team. So that's the one thing that
jumps out and people ask me a lot, how does
he compare to the past great duke freshman Zion Williams
and R. J. Barrett, Jason Tatum on down the line.
It's the way he impacts everywhere. I mean, Zion was
the human highlight reel and every night he did dunks

(30:49):
that were unbelievable. Cooper had a couple of those in
that pit game last month and that was the biggest thing.
But Zion did those every night. But what but Cooper
does is you know your offense runs through him. He
can decide I don't need to score to night for
us to win, I need to pass the rebound and
he'll have eleven points and fourteen to fifteen rebounds and
seven assists. Whatever they need defensively, he can do it.

(31:12):
And at such a young age to be able to
do comfortable, to make to see how the game's going
and make those decisions on the fly, it's pretty impressive.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, what's it been like to watch this acc You've
been around the a CEC for a long time, around
this game for a long time. Look, you can't lose
six as soon to be seven coaches in a span
of three years and all the NCAA championships, all the
final fours and not have some kind of letdown. That's
taking nothing away from the coaches there now, but Shryzewski, Beheim, Williams,

(31:46):
Josh Pastor is not one.

Speaker 5 (31:48):
Of those elites. But still he's a guy who's a
veteran of the game.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
List goes on and on what's it been like from
your end to watch you night and night out, and say, gee,
a conference usually could be eight nine bids.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
Maybe lucky to get fined this year.

Speaker 11 (32:05):
Yeah, I mean I think no more than four or
maybe three. Yeah, it's really we refer to it as
the brain drain. It's just you know, and again it's
the experience. I mean, just not that long ago. There
were four active Hall of Fame coaches in this league
when Patino was at Louisville and Kay and Roy and
Bey Hunt, and then since then Tony Bennett won a
national championship at Virginia in twenty nineteen, Duke had three

(32:28):
and not Duke. The ACC had three number one seeds
in the NCAA tournament, Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina. That's
only five six years. It's not ancient history. And now
we're talking about maybe getting three teams in the tournament
because all those guys are gone. And so the next
generation has yet to establish itself at that level. And
again Josh Shire looks like he might be ready to

(32:51):
be that, but he's got to get to a final
four and win a national championship to really stamp that down.
And so, yes, there are placement guys that have come
in right off at Syracuse. Syracuse is not nearly what
they used to be, right Pitt used to be a
team when they were in the Big East that was
routinely a number one and number two. See the install
of a tournament as Jeff Cable has done a better
job building them back up, but they're still not They're

(33:13):
not going to make the tournament this year. That'll be
two years in a row. So that next generation really
hasn't established itself yet. And so we've seen the slippage
in the level play at the conference. And it's it's
said for me, as somebody who's covered this league for
fifteen years in a row, to see that happen. But
it didn't happen overnight. It was a little bit here,
a little bit there, and now that we're in this situation,
so they've got a there's some programs that need to

(33:36):
invest in IL. Pat Kelsey at Louisville's doing a really
good job. Maybe he's going to get that program back
up to where it needs to be to make this
conference good. So he's a he's a win in that category.
But there's a lot of guys that aren't doing the job.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah, yeah, Kelsey, fantastic job. The year and a year
from last year with Kitty Paine has been outstanding. Where
the Cardinals one of those teams that will be one
of those three bids, it looks like it's pretty much guaranteed.
Talking to Steve Weisman again, Duke Beak Rider with the
Rally News and Observer, Duke Illinois. It's on Fox eight
pm Eastern tip from Madison Square Garden. Can't wait, Excited,
great atmosphere. This is an Illinois team that has had

(34:11):
some big wins this season. They knocked off a ranked
Arkansas team on a neutral court. We're competitive with the
Alabama team on a neutral court.

Speaker 12 (34:19):
Beat.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Missouri took the number one Tennessee down to the wire,
but they really struggled of late with just a ton
of injuries illnesses, and they had a you know, as
you know the other night against Wisconsin. At Wisconsin, the
starting center was late to the game because of the
flu up all night the night before. The kid who
replaced him played eight minutes and then went to the
locker room and he spent the rest of the.

Speaker 5 (34:39):
Night in the bathroom with the flu.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
I mean it is first off, any concerns about you
guys have an extra hand sanitizer on the bench. Have
you heard about that? And talk about in terms of
this Illinois team, what do you know about them and
what have you seen from them on the outside.

Speaker 11 (34:55):
Well, yeah, by the way, illness is Mason Gillis missed
a couple of games Duke last week with he was
out with the illness. Two kind of same situation.

Speaker 13 (35:03):
So he's back.

Speaker 11 (35:04):
But anyway, so you know, stuff's going around, right, that's
kind of the way.

Speaker 13 (35:07):
This is tom of year.

Speaker 11 (35:08):
But yes, you know, I look forward to this game
when they scheduled it, I thought this is a great
late season, little boost for both of them to step
out of conference and kind of get an early peak
at what the tournament's going to be like in March.
So I think it's cool Illinois. Again. I thought this
would be a battle of frank teams and it's not
because Illinois has really struggled the last few games. And

(35:29):
I did watch some of the game with Wisconsin and
saw them, you know, end up losing by what twenty
one points, so they're not rebatning as well. One thing
I know, ILLINOI is really struggling on the inside. And
Duke lost the rebanding battle to Clemson when they lost
that game a couple of weeks ago, and that was
a rare thing for them, and they've really emphasized that.
And then against Virginia on Monday night, they won the

(35:50):
rebounding battle of forty one to twenty one. It was
like fifteen to three at one point. I mean, they
just dominated area. So from an Illinois perspective, that's that's
an area of concern because he's back strong there in
Illinois's week, and Duke's defense has been really good. And
last night or when I watched the Wisconsin game, Illinois
turned the ball over a lot in the first half.
They had trouble get into their offense. It looked like

(36:11):
they were struggling with that. And Dude's been very good
at half court defense that you know, forcing teams into
bad shots MT Creighton turnovers. Those are areas of concerns
for Illinois going to this game that I hope when
this game was set up months ago wouldn't be the
case to be a little more competitive. But there's there's
some serious edges for Duke in those in those things.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
Yeah, and the rebounding, you're exactly right.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
I believe it's been five straight games they failed to
get to forty rebounds. They're two and three in those games.
This is a team that's number two right now. They're
neck and neck with I think it's Alabama in rebounding
forty four point three rebounds a game something like that. Obviously,
again tomasova Visch being down he had modeled and he
had a badly sprained ankle.

Speaker 5 (36:53):
Now the flu thing.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Murice Johnson Junior fractures his wrist on a tremendous block
shot on the Michigan State game Saturday. I mean, it
is just one that I don't know if you're familiar,
but but the guard Kylon Boswell, for reasons that we
don't know. I don't know that it was almost like
a you know, JOBU moment of Major League. But he
was burning sage. Uh, pregame around the around the courts

(37:16):
before they played USC. It was a Saturday morning, eleven
am local tip off.

Speaker 5 (37:20):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
They were supposed to win easily, ten twelve point favorites,
and they lost and that began the tailspin. So the
joke in Champagne is find Jobu's wrung, like you got
to do something because since then, uh, you know, Yaka
Chonas was out with you know, a forearm injury and
then you know, four or five guys had you know,
the flu or, and then I Visitch Monto and then

(37:41):
you know it's Beerez.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
It's like, really stopped this, stop the bleeding.

Speaker 11 (37:46):
The reverse effect was the opposite direction. Yeah, maybe he
read the directions backwards. I don't know what happened, but yeah,
that's not that's not good. He needed he needed an
intervention here, straighten this out, because that's that's bad luck cursed.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
And then they were twelve and two and again I
think lost like five and seven. Since that something like that,
Tell me what concerns you about Duke Henning into March
right now? Obviously, Boy, they're blowing teams away every single night.
I would think that that Duke Nations looking forward to
Elderly bringing their best for a competitive March like game.
Even though no matter, even though they got guys out,

(38:19):
maybe they can get healthy here the next couple of days.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
What what's your concern about this Duke team as they
hit the tournament.

Speaker 11 (38:27):
Well, Number one is they had an injury come up
the other night at Virginia. They lost Malite Brown, who
is their sixth man and are really a big key
to their defense. He can guard one through five. They
switch all the time in the half court sets, which
makes it tough to run an offense against it. He
does things that come on male you watch the seventh
foot two freshmen from Africa can't do. And with him out,

(38:49):
Malik's dislocated his shoulder and he's gonna be out for
a few weeks there. They think, you know, hopefully they'll
getting back for the NCAA tournament. That's that's the kind
of the hope. But they play without him in January
and they kept winning, but you can see the defense
not quite as sharp, and so that's a big concern. Now,
is is that going to happen and they'll be able

(39:11):
to get through the acc schedule because they're not going
to play anybody that's that's going to the tournament here
down the stretch. Illinois is the one that they're going
to play and then acc tournament. So that's a concern
for me, is how is his health going to be
when he comes back. Can they put him right back
in or is he gonna be done for the year.
I mean, it's they're still assessing. You know, a dislocated
shoulder can be a long recovery if it's if it's

(39:32):
not handled correctly. So that's a concern. They're playing much
better offensively right now, and I think that that's a
good thing. They had a little stretch there where when
they played Clemson, when they played they close game with
wake Forest, where they were turned the ball over a
little bit more. They're normally a team that is a
lot more assistant turnovers. They kind of got away from

(39:52):
that a little bit. Now they've kind of found their
groove again, so they have to keep that up. I mean, obviously,
any night you can have a night where you shoot
four out of twenty from three and that puts you
in danger of losing. They're better.

Speaker 5 (40:06):
Out of those nights, by the way.

Speaker 11 (40:08):
Exactly, you know, it happens, but so you've got to
find other sources of consistent offense. And uh so that's
that's what they're doing right now. They seem to be
doing that. So they have to continue to get that.
But the defense has always been there, and that's that's what.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
They have to have. Yeah, yeah, and I think that's
the staple.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
And that's why, you know, if we talk about consistency
and the changeover from Skrychevski to Shire, that's philosophy has
always been there. I think, like you said, why there's
still one of the elite teams. Yeah, Illinois. We joke
they shoot threes as if it's oxygen. I mean it is,
just you know that they missed twelve straight to the
end of the game three pointers against Michigan State. Well,
they're in the bonus. That's another conversation. Head to New York.

(40:49):
It's Duke Illinois. I know Duke gets the MSG. You know,
it feels like almost every year, for one reason or another,
favorite Times Square place to grab a bite to eat.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
What's your favorite?

Speaker 11 (41:01):
Oh man, man, that's the I don't I don't go
to Times Square. I go to Little Italy.

Speaker 5 (41:06):
Oh yeah, Okay, okay.

Speaker 11 (41:08):
Yeah, Like there's a place called Benito's too. That's my
place in little Italy. I like to go there. There's
another place that's closed up. So many Italian restaurants in.

Speaker 13 (41:18):
New York City.

Speaker 11 (41:18):
But okay, yes, and you gotta get and you gotta
go to the Junior's. Get a Junior's cheesecake, like you
got it. That's the Times Square. That is Time Square Cheesecake.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
And literally is a short it's a short uber ride,
short cab right, yes, not far away? Yeah, yeah, okay,
far away. We have a lot of Aliani fans who
listen to this, and so they're gonna be looking for
a place and there we go. We're gonna say, Steve
told you to get there. So all right, Steve, listen.
Great to spend some time with you. Save travels and
good luck the rest of the way here. Hopefully we'll
talk with you again soon.

Speaker 11 (41:48):
Very good. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
All right, Thank you, sir, Steve Wise. Once again, he's
a Duke beat writer Raleigh News and Observer. Be sure
to give a follow on social media. It is number
three Duke against Illinois eight pm Eastern tip on Fox
from the greats Madison Square garden.

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Speaker 3 (44:13):
We're back here, and I just got to say, Mike,
women's college basketball has become like cool. Kaitlyn Clark made
it exciting, and you know it was so it was
like Yukon Tennessee for a long time. And now Caitlyn
Clark came in exciting. But now she's gone. But this
game is still awesome. There are so many girls playing

(44:34):
now that are like at a high level. It's really
fun to watch this game. The way it's evolved.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
Do you think it's from the fact that over the years,
you know, they have encouraged with the increase in scholarships,
et cetera. We're starting to see the payoff of ten
to twenty years of letting the sport percolate. Because, like
you said, in the old days, there was like two
three contenders every year, and now it's like that you

(45:03):
could pull fifteen teams and if they got hot, they
might win.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
Yeah, I'm not sure it quite extends that far, but
I think it's growing. I think it eventually will extend
to fifteen to twenty teams. I think right now you're
you're probably in that, you know, eight to ten teams
as opposed to two to three teams. I think we're
making that progress. There's just more players. So, you know,
there's some great players in college basketball right now, and
we've talked about We've talked a ton about before, you

(45:31):
least talked about Clark, but now now it's you got
some different ones. You've got Page Beckers, who's kind of
become you know, at Yukon, Juju Watkins at USC, Hannah
Hidalgo at Notre Dame, and the Bets girl at UCLA.
I mean, just fantastic players. I mean, so, who's your
player of the year. I don't know how closely we
followed it, but who do you think you're player of

(45:52):
the year?

Speaker 4 (45:53):
Preseason, I would have said Juju Watkins, and she's had
a great year. I wonder though, across town, with Lauren
Betts and the way UCLA is playing, if that might
be the MVP this year. You know, I mean, there's
there's so many to choose from, but I'd have to
give Bets the early one. But you've got you've still

(46:13):
got that that awards given I think on April second,
so you've still got the Big Ten Tournament, You've still
got the NCAA Tournament. So I think the if somebody
wants to control the script, they can, They can write
a really neat ending for their season.

Speaker 5 (46:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
For me, I think it's Hannah head all Go. I
think she's the one at Notre Dame their rank number
one now, and I feel like they're she's the one.
She's she's the straw that serves that drink there for them.
Look at number one Seeds, you know, it seems like
South Carolina was a lock, you know and everything, and
they had a seventy one game home wing streak and
then you know, they you kind of goes in and
they didn't just beat them, they just destroyed them. It

(46:52):
is insane the way they dominated. Azy Fudd, who has
not played for seems like she's always hurt.

Speaker 6 (46:58):
You know.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Sarah's strong page Back's just a really good Yukon squad
now starting to click and getting that win at South
Carolina was huge. So number one Seeds, I mean, usc U,
c l A, Notre Dame seem to be pretty much
kind of locked in there and then we'll see who
comes out of maybe the sec whether it's you know,
or Yukon or whoever it is that's able to get

(47:19):
over that hump.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
Yeah, there's there's there's quite a few. I think you
got to give Notre Dame the edge. But to see
South Carolina beat at home is a big deal. If
it's a one point loss, it's a big deal. They
get beat handily. I mean, I wonder if you go
back in the record books, like when was the last
time they lost by a sizable amount, you know, anywhere,

(47:41):
and that that's just a pretty impressive thing to do.
Now can you can you duplicate it? The other thing
is is Ohio State was galvanized by being beat by
Michigan and football. Could this be the wake up call
that that makes South Carolina turn into the to the
big tough bully on the you know that everybody thought

(48:04):
they might be this year.

Speaker 5 (48:06):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
It's an interesting question. You know, I left out Texas.
I apologize Texas and Bells would be in the mix
of that number one seed, but you know, I think
it's uh, you know, but I don't know. I mean,
I don't know what the I look at this list
and when you see a team, when the number five
team can beat the number you know whatever, Now there's
number sixteen by thirty at their place, and you've got
LSU obviously Ohio State. You go down the list, there

(48:29):
a lot of really good basketball teams. I I mean,
I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of
teams that have a chance to make a deep run,
you know, in the NCAA tournament. And so this is
this is gonna be fun. This is a lot of fun.
I always think that, you know, we Caitlin Clark's highest
scoring game my in her career. This is switching gears
here a little bit was forty nine points, right, yep.

(48:52):
We just had a Vandermilt freshman who scored fifty points
again McKayla Michael Blake, right, and she has now scored
fifty points twice this year. I mean that doesn't have
fifty five against the other day.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Against Alabama's football defense.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Maybe, I don't know, but it's fifty five. She originally
had fifty three over Florida, and then she got fifty
five against Auburn. So my goodness, this is pretty u'
high scoring by freshman in ever. Atlanta Della Donna scored
fifty four for at Delaware when back in twenty ten.

(49:35):
But you know, it's pretty I don't know, back and.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
Back against against other SEC teams is pretty darn impressive
since anybody says you're you're playing a power team there.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Yeah, that's that's crazy. I mean fifty points is a lot, yes,
so I mean that's a lot of points.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
How many times did you score fifty in a game? Brad?

Speaker 3 (49:55):
I never scored. Forty five was the most points I
ever scored in a single basketball game.

Speaker 5 (49:58):
So you know that was it for me.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
I'm just I'm not you know, I'm not worthy. So
it's okay, but you know, I maybe I should have
shot more exactly exactly, but my teammates would not agree
with that.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
But you know that's what everybody says when they graduate
from high school. You don't I had a shot more.
I might have played college ball.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
No, you wouldn't have No, it's uh no, it's it's funny. No,
But I really will say this, How do people?

Speaker 6 (50:24):
You know?

Speaker 3 (50:25):
How do you how do how? Why is there so
many more girls now that we see just coming up?
And do you feel like I think you could win
with young girls young players in the girls side more
than the boy's.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
Side, because women mature quicker, maybe from an emotional standpoint
compared to men who knows.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
Well, definitely for emotional You don't see them like, you know,
usually punching lockers and breaking hands and things like that. So, uh,
it's pretty interesting, you know when you think about it though,
But you bring these freshmen and they're ready to pull
up more. You know, Juji Watkins last year, Hannah and
aug last year. They were fantastic as freshmen. And you
don't usually see people who are able as freshmen to
lead teams to final fours and titles.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
On the other side of Carmelo, It's never happened, right, Yeah, well, I.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
Mean you could say Anthony Davis kind of you could say,
you know, Oka four and Jones, but I mean really
it's you know, those guys were they had older guys
that really.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
Were huge there.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
They weren't just the guy, you know. So but yeah,
I would say, maybe maybe it's Cooper Flag this year,
but it's almost has to be a generational person to
do it. On the men's side.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
Yeah, totally totally agree with you.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
All Right, we background for this, We'll talk some more
sports skipping around. What do we have next? Let's talk
about some I don't know, maybe some Big ten basketball
on the other side.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Mike keg Ley, and Bratt Sturdy.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Dylan san is a good friend of the show. Fort
Wayne Journal Gazette covering a Big Ten basketball Indiana and
Purdue when it's talk both and some Big Ten hoops
as well.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
Dylan, welcome back, Good to see.

Speaker 7 (52:03):
You, absolute Larry, thanks for having me on as always.

Speaker 11 (52:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
Absolutely. I think last time we talked was still footballs.
We're shifting now to basketball. Let's talk a little Purdue
right now. We were discussing hearing the commercial break about
just the gauntlets that we knew these teams were going
to face, the teams we thought were going to be
the leading contenders for Bigton title at the beginning of
the season, and that's happened right now. That lost the
other night to Michigan State. Three straight losses, but no

(52:28):
shame in that they're all to ranked teams.

Speaker 7 (52:30):
Yeah. No, like you talked about the gauntlet, Purdue is
in it right now. They played Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State
all in a row, two of them on the road.
They lost all three of them. It's not what you
want if you're Purdue and the bigger problem is that
despite the fact that their opponents are very, very good,
you can see some of the issues that we are
going to crop up against even teams that are not
as quality. Right, Wisconsin shot seventy two percent in the

(52:54):
second half against Purdue Michigan Michigan State shot sixty eight
percent in the second half. They're just not doing a
good enough job of staying in front on the perimeter.
They're not doing a good enough job of communicating in
the ball screen. Matt Paynter talked last night about how
he did not get them ready to play in terms
of defending Michigan State's ball screen actions, and basically, Michigan
State just ran the same action over and over and

(53:16):
over again, and Purdue never really figured it out. And
Matt Painter said, that's on me. He needs to be better.
But the players seem to be better too, And they
did not do a good enough job against Wisconsin, especially
if staying in front of their man on the perimeter,
they just kept getting in the lane. Same thing with
Michigan State. They the whole point of their game planning
as Michigan State was keep these guys out of the paint,

(53:36):
and Michigan State has forty two points in the paint.
So there's some issues that Prdue needs to figure out
here in the next couple of days.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, because you got Andiana coming up next. And listen,
they're a team right now with nothing to lose, right,
I mean, you know their coach is stepping down. They're
on the outside looking in the NCAA tournament bubble and
it's over in Bloomington. So if you don't get things
squared away in the Ada struggle, they still have a
lot of talent. This is still the Big Ten and
it could still turn out poorly for Purdue this weekend

(54:03):
if they don't take care of those.

Speaker 7 (54:04):
Things one hundred percent. And it's one of those things
where they played in Westlafayette and Indiana led that game
with about ten seconds left before Produce scored the last
six points in a row to win that one. So
Indiana's going to come into this game knowing that we
can beat this team, right, we almost did it once.
Now we get them at home, and it's going to
be basically, this is Indiana's super Bowl for this season, right,
Like you hadn't done what you wanted to do so

(54:27):
far this year, as you said, you are on the
outside of the NAA tournament bubble looking in. This is
the time now you let games get away against Michigan
and UCLA and Maryland and Produe the first time. If
you are going to make any kind of push, it
needs to be now. And so they are going to
throw everything they have into this game. It should be
a really good atmosphere down there in Bloomington. Because Mike

(54:47):
Wiszon is stepping down, You're not going to have maybe
some of the ugliness that you had earlier in the
year with the fans being really upset and ornery. So
it's just gonna be one of those things where it's
a really really good assembly haul atmosphere, which is what
we saw last week against ucl and it should be
turned up even higher for this Purdue game, which does
feel like a winner go home game for Indiana, the
first of several winner go home games for Indiana.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Quite frankly, yeah, no, we know Purdue is going to
be head of the NCAA Tournament and they'll be, you know,
a high seed and one of the teams expected to
get to the second weekend and beyond again this year
for Indiana. From your perspective, what went wrong this year.
I mean, this is a team that I get a
program that was one of the top spenders in NIL.
I mean reports of you know, six seven million dollars
potentially if they spent this year, and yet this never

(55:31):
came together. They just you know, I go back to
they were blown out. I think it was Louisville, which
turned out to be a pretty good team. Yeah, all
amount of one of the holiday tournament games somewhere, and
it felt like this the season went downnill from there.

Speaker 7 (55:42):
Yeah, it was one of those things where it was
in the Bahamas was where that tournament was, and they
lost that game by thirty and they were never competitive
in it. And Louisville was a brand new team too.
It's like, well, Louisville has all these transferred, why are
they so far ahead of you? And what it is
for Indiana, I think that if you want to point
to one thing, it's that the guards never really came together.
Like they tried to flip over the guard rotation from

(56:04):
last year because that was what helped him back last year,
where they didn't really have a ball handling point guard
who could really set the offense and guys who could
create off the dribble. They went out and thought they
got two of those guys, Canaan Carlisle and Miles Rice,
guys who were really highly ranked the transfer portal, guys
who they probably had to had to sholl out some
pretty good nil for. And neither of those guys has
been a consistent difference maker for the Hooters this year.

(56:24):
Miles Rice has had his moments where he's been really
really good, but he's also had some time where he's
really struggled, turned the ball over, just hasn't had it
can in Carlisle, just his jumper is trick. It It
just is, and he is a very very good player,
athletic long really plays hard, good on defense, who is
just unplayable at certain times because he can't shoot from

(56:44):
outside of twelve feet with any consistent rhythm. So it's
been a problem that he's shooting i think thirty five
percent from the.

Speaker 13 (56:51):
Follow a lot.

Speaker 7 (56:52):
So it's one of those things where they thought they
had two difference makers at guard that were really going
to make everything else work, and those guys have not
been the difference makers they thought, and so they're basically
kind of running things back. But essentially with Umar Ballow,
at center instead of khalil Ware. And I know I
like Umar Ballo a lot, but he is not khalil Ware.
So basically you've just kind of taken a step back

(57:13):
from even where you were last season, which is frustrating
because you really thought you were changing things up. Luke
Goodie has been good, but outside of that, it's been
it's been tough for Indiana.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Yeah, I've been fun to watch Luke Goody and this
his following year and what he's done for that team.
He's just such got such a nice stroke, you know,
the hometown boy if you will, from right here in
Fort Wayne.

Speaker 5 (57:30):
I believe coming coming home.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
You know, is this part of also a video game
mentality that I think for fans for coaches so much
that you lose a big name like like where you.

Speaker 5 (57:41):
Know, there's a big sweepstakes to get bollow you get him.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Oh we're gonna We're going to this, We're going to that,
And you don't understand that if things don't come together,
that just doesn't matter.

Speaker 11 (57:50):
You know.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
We just talked with one of the Duke beat writers
earlier here in the show, and he was talking about
how Duke went out and got just three in il guys.

Speaker 5 (58:00):
And I think now.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
It's in this era where it's still fairly new, coaches
are trying to figure out how do they manage this.
You need to keep some guys to have a culture,
to continue your culture, but you got to bring in
different makers too and try to find a way to
melt them.

Speaker 5 (58:13):
And that's got of the new challenge.

Speaker 7 (58:14):
Yeah, I absolutely think that that's part of it. And
I think that Indiana thought they had done that obviously
with Rice and Carlisle and Balo. Those are guys you
think you can build a team around. But the thing
with Indiana was that they didn't turn over the roster entirely.
They brought back some pretty significant pieces. Trey Galloway, Mackenzie
Andbaco and Malik we Renew. These are guys who were
good for them last year who they brought back probably

(58:35):
gave them some pretty significant anil to come back and
you think, Okay, these guys can take a leap. Mackenzie
and Bacca has not taken a leap. He's basically the
same player he was last year. Trey Galloway is the
same player he was last year. No, that's to be expected.
He's a fifth year senior Malik Renew I think is
a better player than he was last year, but he
was hurt during the middle of the season there, especially
when they played Illinois. I don't believe he played. It

(58:57):
was one of those things where those guys to Rice
and Carlisle not working out the way they hoped. It
was the guys that came back that didn't really take
a significant step forward, especially the younger guys and Renew
and Mbacco who he thought, Okay, they were good last year,
can they be all big ten really up there in
the conference this year? And no one really took that

(59:17):
huge I'm at Indiana superstar, I'm leading this team leap,
not any of the returning guys and not any of
the new guys. And I think that's been the problem,
is that there's no one who's really grabbed the reins
and said I'm my back, boys, we're going to win
this one. And they don't really have that guy. I
think they thought Enbacco could be that guy. I think
they thought Renew could be that guy. I think they
thought Ballo or Rice or Carlisle could be that guy

(59:39):
at certain times, and none of them has really stepped
up in that way.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
That's fair.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
So Indiana making the change at head coach what he
decided to step down a lot of buzz all around
the country. Obviously, this is a program that would be
a very attractive job for anybody. Who are you hearing
that are some of the top candidates?

Speaker 7 (59:58):
Yeah, I mean it's one of those things where you're
hearing the same list of candidates from basically everyone. Obviously
the top of the list was Brad Stevens. He seems
to indicate that he is not interested in that job.
As reported by Field of sixty eight, that was the
kind of the home run Hail Mary maybe maybe maybe
kind of thing. I no one really thought it was
going to happen, but you know it, dare to drink right.

(01:00:20):
The more realistic home run I think that people kind
of zeroed in on is Dusty May at Michigan. I
don't know how much more realistic it is, because he
is in his first season at Michigan and he is
reportedly working on a new contract that he has not
signed yet to be clear, but he is Indiana alumnus,
was a student manager under Bob Knight in the late nineties.

(01:00:41):
Indiana native, his mother lives in Bloomington. I believe all
of those things. So is one of those things where
he is the guy that you want if you're Indiana.
If he says yes, I think you probably signed him immediately.
He just a question of whether he would leave a
conference rival after one year, especially a conference rivalry he
has in first place all alone in the Big Ten

(01:01:01):
right now. I mean, he seems happy at Michigan. He
has a darn good team there. What would happen? Does
he feel like that's something that he can do? Maybe not? Right?
So then I think the question is on everyone's mind,
is okay if Brad says no, if Dusty says no,
then where do you go next? And that's the question
that no one really knows. There's been fifteen twenty names
that you can find out there, but it really is

(01:01:22):
one of those things where no one really knows what's
since Scott Dolson's mind.

Speaker 13 (01:01:25):
Right now.

Speaker 7 (01:01:26):
They want, we know, they want to proven winner from
a power for conference more than likely, who is not
going to need a whole lot of run up to
get comfortable in this job. But that means you're looking
at one of the better coaches in the country and
it's going to be tough to pry any one of
those guys away from their current job. It's going to
take a buyout of their contract, it's going to take

(01:01:46):
a significant probably pay raise, it's going to take nil commitments.
Everything needs to come together for this. Now only takes
one guy to say yes, but there's going to be
a lot of guys who probably say no because you're
looking at that pool of some of the best coaches
in the country who are likely comfortable where they are.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Dylan, I threw a name out of a week or
two ago that I think you have to make this
phone call and you have to put a treasure chest
of gold in front of him and make him say no.

Speaker 5 (01:02:10):
And that's Rick Patino. And he's a New York guy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
He's got Saint John's you know, not what he wants
him to be, but boy, a quick turnaround, as he
always does. Next to Bruce Pearl, I mean Bruce Pearls
another guy. Bruce brings some baggage, but he's not leaving
Auburn either, But he just wins. Patino just wins. And
he's won in every conference. Acc he's one in the SEC.

(01:02:35):
Here's a shot in the Big ten. I think Patino
in the Big Ten would be amazing.

Speaker 7 (01:02:41):
Yes, I don't think that that is outside of the
realman possibility either. I think that they probably will at
least give him a call. He is He absolutely is
a winner. He's one like he turned Iona around it
in one year. He's turned Saint John's around it and
basically a year and a half. And I think Saint
John's is a place where, for as much tradition as

(01:03:02):
they have up there in the Big East, Indiana probably
could offer him a package interesting enough to him that
he would probably think about it. Now, the question is,
are you going to break the bank for a guy
who's probably only going to be the coach for four
or five years? Right, because he is I think seventy
two years old. For he seems to be like he's
not slow in down, that much is clear, but how

(01:03:22):
long can he keep that up for?

Speaker 11 (01:03:23):
Right?

Speaker 7 (01:03:23):
So are you going to really break the bank for
a guy who is not going to be a long
term solution?

Speaker 5 (01:03:28):
Now?

Speaker 13 (01:03:28):
I've heard some.

Speaker 7 (01:03:31):
Interesting ideas where it's like, well, you bring in his son,
who is currently doing very well at New Mexico and
his Big ten head coaching experience in Minnesota, bring him
in his kind of a coaching waiting situation. If that's
what it takes to get him that No solid reporting there,
It's more just like kind of an idea. But I
would be intrigued by that. Now, the question is does
he have too much baggage? If you're Rick Patino right India,

(01:03:52):
Scott Dolson has talked repeatedly about wanting to unite the
fan base with this hire, right, is that someone who
would be a little bit divisive?

Speaker 13 (01:03:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:03:59):
I think a lot of the fan base would just
be like, well, he's a winner and we'll figure out
the rest later. But is it someone where you would
want to a safer pick in terms of just a
guy who is going to be around for a little
bit longer, who has a little bit of a cleaner slate.
I don't know, but that's a guy I think what
would probably listen quite frankly, and he put it like

(01:04:20):
Jeff Goodman from Field of sixty eight put him on
a list of home run HighRes for Indiana. That's usually
one of those things where a guy's agent is putting
the name out there for a reason. You know he's
not on that list. If if the agent hasn't said, hey,
put him on there, you know that kind of thing,
so I think he would listen. Just a question of
whether Indiana makes them call.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Yeah, yeah, I mean winning cures everything, so any like winning, right,
So exactly, I want to talk a couple of questions
to really let you go. We've talked about Illinois and
the struggles over there. What do you guys see from
the hoo's your state looking west in this Alani program
right now? Really struggling injuries and ildest's have really taken
a toll. Bread und would said of the night. In

(01:04:59):
his thirty eight years, he's never seen anything like this
in terms of the sickness running through his locker room.

Speaker 7 (01:05:04):
Yeah, it is one of those things where I mean
I was ready to put Illinois in the Final four
when they played in Bloomington in January. They were up
by thirty in the first half of that game, and
I was like, this is a juggernaut, Like India didn't
play well that night. To be clear, it was really
really poor from Indiana, but that looked like a juggernaut
of an Illinois team. The freshman point guard whose name
I can never pronounce and I will not try on

(01:05:25):
this show. He is a stunt. He is really, really,
really good, and I think might end up being a
first round NBA draft pick at some point. He's awesome.
I've been really impressed with the way they were able
to flip over the roster from losing so much from
that ely eight team last year. But it's really kind
of fallen apart here for them the last couple of weeks.
Obviously part of that is the sickness, and that's kind

(01:05:46):
of going around right now. It's been a tough flue
season for a lot of people, I think, but it
is one of those things where you need you're going
to need to figure something out here, and maybe they
end up getting an eight or nine seed in the
NCAA tournament and they scare a one seed, but it's
not where you thought they would be with as much
talent as they have on this team. And at certain point,
it's like, why, kind of like Indiana, why has this

(01:06:07):
not come together in the way that it looked like
it could, especially because they played so well early in
the season, Not like Indiana, where this thing kind of went,
like we talked about with Louisville, kind of went off
the rails pretty early Illinois won some big games early
in the year, and they played it against Tennessee and
we're right in that game right to the end. There
was every indication this is a very very good team.
In these last couple of weeks, it's like, what is

(01:06:28):
going on here? And so you have to kind of
ask those questions as we get into late February.

Speaker 5 (01:06:31):
Yeah, no question, You've got Duke on Saturday, and so
maybe they pull off a miracle. We'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
But Maurice Johnson Junior just a beast at power forward rebounding.
They miss him right now again the rebounding has gone down.
We'll see how they finished out. Like you said, they're
going to be in the tournament. I mean it's almost
unless they lose out. I don't see that happening. But yeah,
so we'll see what happens here in March. Got about
thirty seconds left here. You've seen them all right now,
best team right now in the Big Ten in your mind?

Speaker 7 (01:06:55):
Yeah, I think actually it's kind of a counterintuitive answer.
I think it's Wisconsin. I think it was kind of
is a very very good team. John Tonjay, their guard
has scored thirty and back to back games against Purdue
and against Illinois. They're beating everyone right now. I think
they're a better team than Michigan is. I know Michigan
is the top of the conference right now. Give me
Wisconsin to probably win the league down the stretch here

(01:07:16):
with a little bit of easier schedule and make a
deep run in March. I love the Badgers this year
and what they've done. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Boy, they're old and they're good, right. I mean, you know,
age makes a difference here when you're trying to get
to especially this time of year. Hey, Dyl, will let
you go out of time here. Really appreciate your time
as always. Enjoy the games.

Speaker 5 (01:07:32):
We'll hopefully see you here at the Big Ten Tournament
and down the line as well.

Speaker 7 (01:07:35):
Absolutely, thanks for having me on as always, looking forward
to it, all.

Speaker 5 (01:07:38):
Right, Appreciate you, buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
All right, Dylan sin once again he's with the Fort
Wayne Journal Gazette talking a lot of Big ten hoops
right now for due trying to turn things around against
Indiana CBS game this weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:07:47):
All right, mordicam right here, stay with us.

Speaker 16 (01:07:49):
Life can be full of risks. One thing you shouldn't
take a risk with, ever, is your family's health.

Speaker 5 (01:07:55):
Insurance.

Speaker 16 (01:07:55):
If you're self employed or you now need affordable health insurance,
to make this free call right now and see how
the Health Insurance help Line can help you get it.

Speaker 10 (01:08:05):
Eight hundred four four eight oh wait two eight eight
hundred four four eight oh w eight two eight eight
hundred four to four eighth eight two eight. That's eight
hundred four four eight zero eight twenty eight.

Speaker 13 (01:08:31):
We're back.

Speaker 3 (01:08:32):
Mike Cagley, Brad Sturdy, Larry's Tony Cardero is on the
uh behind the scenes, he's running the board back there.
Speak of running, Mike, we got we got a race.
We got a race coming up. We got Tyreek Hill
and Noah Lyles. They're going head to head. Lyles won
one hundred and nine point seventy nine and Hill says

(01:08:52):
he can beat him. Tyreek Hill's really fast, but I
don't know. I don't know that football guys beat there.
But I think the cool part about this is the winner.
The winner gets the winner of our race. And I'm
pretty sure that our race will be more exciting because
our race will include a buffet. Every ten yards. You

(01:09:15):
must eat a whole plate of food. That's the only
way to do this.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
And I'll tell you what, we will destroy either one
of those gentlemen. If that's the rules, they have no chance,
cause I can, I can. I have one eating contest.
Somebody's like, I can eat a piece of cake quicker
than you can. I put a whole piece of cake
in my mouth and swallow, and they're like, did you chew?
And I'm like nope. But we're racing them, weren't we.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
Yeah, there's no point chewing. Chewing's overrated. It's just a
waste of time, exactly, the waste of energy, waste of energy,
waste of saliva.

Speaker 4 (01:09:44):
I got the full flavor of the cake without any
teethy background.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
So so what do you think about this race? What
do you think about their their side of the race,
you know, which is a little bit different than our side.

Speaker 11 (01:09:55):
I like it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
I'm not certain you're going to beat that that score
my or who you are I mean at that time,
but I think it's fun. You remember back in the
seventies when they used to have the all the All
Stars what they call it the All Stars, because I
remember watching Joe Frasier almost drowned in the pool when
they had the sports Stars do it, and then they
did the Battle the Network Stars.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
Yeah they had that too.

Speaker 4 (01:10:19):
People were like killing to be on Farff Fauston or
Linda Carter's team.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
I would have been too, and I was like eight.
So Battle of the Superstars Yeah, oh no, it's good stuff.
It was fun. Now I think it's interesting. I think
it's just fun.

Speaker 7 (01:10:36):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:37):
I'm I'm pretty sure that Lyles is gonna win, but
I do think it's fun. It could be, uh because
I'm there's no doubt that Tyreek Hill's really fast though.
Ye Now here's the other thing. If they have to
run in pads it could change everything, right, I mean yeah,
but maybe it might be different if you have to
be chased by a two hundred and seventy five pound
defensive linement. Also different were evaded defensive you know, so

(01:11:01):
I think there could be difference there.

Speaker 4 (01:11:02):
Well, you know. The other thing is is there are
guys like I always thought that was the key of
Dion Sanders. Dion Sanders, I swear, as God is my witness,
he ran the same speed with pads on that he
did when he didn't have pads on. I mean it
was just amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:11:16):
Yeah, I mean the other guy there, guys, you know,
Bo Jackson was a sprinter. But man, that dude just
running by guys. And you know Eryl Green, Daryl Green.

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
Remember when he caught Tony dor Sat from behind, I
mean Dorset was like, what what is that happening?

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
How did anybody get there? So yeah, I don't know.
You know, at least those guys when they were running,
they weren't hit with a can. You know that's bad too.
So how about uh E j Or Eagles GM, Howie
Roseman getting hit with the beer can at the parade?
What is what is going on in Philadelphia?

Speaker 4 (01:11:53):
I don't know. The last time I saw somebody get
hit with a beer can was down in Carbondale when
they still had the Halloween cell abration. Oh yeah, some guy,
somebody from one of the bars forgot to put up
plywood on their sign and people were throwing loaded beer
cans at it. And a guy dressed up as Batman
and a guy dressed up as Robin climbed up the
ladder to where this this sign was and they said,

(01:12:16):
fair Gothamites, don't throw at the don't throw at this sign.
And then everybody drunk goes, hey, let's throw a Batman
and Robin.

Speaker 5 (01:12:26):
The sign.

Speaker 3 (01:12:27):
We were throwing at the sign. It was only at
Batman and Robin.

Speaker 4 (01:12:30):
Yes after that, so I guess they accomplished something. Although
Batman fell the last ten feet when he got hit
in the back of the head.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Nick, it can happen to you, So you wonder. I
don't know. You know, they were happy. This is a
happy Philadelphia crowd. Two people got shot. What would have
happened if it was an unhappy crowd? Would like five
people get shot, and and the and the coach GM
and you know players also get hit with beer cans.

Speaker 5 (01:12:54):
How does that work?

Speaker 4 (01:12:55):
I don't know. I don't think any of us want
to know. Let's just let's just say in Philadelphia there's
never a thought when they lose of ever having any
type of parade or public celebration.

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
The losing parade is much worse the one they had
in Kansas City. So I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:13:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Can you imagine that, Wow, we had had a do
you have our losing parade to celebrate our season?

Speaker 4 (01:13:19):
The winning parade was just minor scarring.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
Hey, speaking of minor scarring, how about that USA Canada
USA Canada hockey game. First of all, they bow the
US United States National anthem, and then there was three
fights in nine seconds.

Speaker 4 (01:13:36):
It was like, let's go and and and they needed
to rent out like a few boxing referees to show
up and just jump onto the ice to start refereeing
the individual events that were going on. I mean, you
hear the joke. I went to a hockey game and
a and a boxing match broke out. Well there was
this was like the Royal rumble or something.

Speaker 5 (01:13:55):
Yeah, what was that?

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
They were like the it was like the Hanson brothers, Right,
we jump out and we've got that going on.

Speaker 4 (01:14:04):
Never adult moment in a hockey game.

Speaker 8 (01:14:06):
Oh yeah, I know.

Speaker 3 (01:14:07):
That's the only bad thing is when they you know,
they try and make it so it's like about passing
the puck and scoring goals and things like that. I mean,
who cares about that stuff exactly, drop the gloves and go.

Speaker 4 (01:14:24):
Yeah, it's I tell you what it was.

Speaker 6 (01:14:27):
It was.

Speaker 4 (01:14:27):
It made for great theater on on television, especially when
the All Star Game was relatively h stodgy.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
It for the NBA, they had an All Star Game.
I didn't turn it on. I watched some highlights of
Mac McClung dunking.

Speaker 4 (01:14:44):
Yeah. I don't know, but that dude can dunk.

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
He's pretty impressive.

Speaker 5 (01:14:48):
You know, he can jump.

Speaker 3 (01:14:49):
You know, I still don't know how do they get
the car in there? I mean, like, how do you
what do you just randomly, Hey, we got a car
back here, let's ring car in. Something that can happen
to do you do you practice that out on the street?

Speaker 11 (01:15:02):
Ball?

Speaker 13 (01:15:02):
Like? Is that how you do it?

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
Like you just drive on the I mean because you
don't like hit your house. You don't have a court
where you drive your car in right practice?

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
I would I could do it. I could. I could
literally do a layup over like three hot wheels.

Speaker 3 (01:15:14):
Well I couldn't.

Speaker 4 (01:15:15):
I'd fall on.

Speaker 3 (01:15:18):
I might finish the shot, but I would still get hurt.
So nothing good can happen there.

Speaker 5 (01:15:23):
So I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
It's a it's very intriguing. Yeah, So anyway, this is
obviously fights. I mean, you know, it's back to the
days of Bob Probert and Tony Twist uh and it
was just going to see who could who could win
the most. So so that's what hockey is. It's starting
to be exciting again. Let's do it. Let's have these uh,
let's have these hockey fights. You used to have three
fights in nine seconds, all game long until somebody wins.

Speaker 4 (01:15:46):
So that would be a very very tiring game for
those hockey players.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Yeah, but very enjoyable for the rest of us. Yes,
we'll be back right after visits.

Speaker 8 (01:15:55):
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So what do you do? You rack up credit card debt.
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(01:16:30):
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Speaker 10 (01:16:42):
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Speaker 16 (01:17:02):
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Eight seven seven nine two seven three three eight oh
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that's eight seven seven nine two seven thirty three eighty.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
Mike keg Gley and Brad Sturdy.

Speaker 5 (01:17:37):
Welcome back here to the show.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
Obviously, the Super Bowl gets a little farther back in
our rear view mirror, but we certainly want to bring
somebody in. He knows a little bit about football, a
little bit about Super Bowls, a little bit about a
little bit of everything. Rod Woodson is showing us right
here on the show. Rod is a pleasure. Welcome to
the show now.

Speaker 13 (01:17:52):
I definitely appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:17:54):
Yeah, you got it, you got it. Hey, you saw
the game. You know again it's been a few days ago.
Now what were your thought I mean, you know, what
were your thoughts watching that? And boy, just how the
Eagles defense came through. I know you had to appreciate
how they attacked the Chiefs line and just really kept
a great quarterback like Patrick Mahomes so on the run
all night long.

Speaker 13 (01:18:14):
Yeah, you know it's I thought Philly was going to win.
I didn't think they were going to dominate him like
they did for the most part. But when you go
back and I've been I was telling everybody last week,
when you go back and watch Patrick Mahome when he
struggles against certain teams, it's the teams that can rush
for and drop seven and he because he wants to

(01:18:35):
take some of those shots. And the one thing I
really loved what Vic Fangio did was that they put
hands on eighty seven. Everybody at the line of scrimage
were getting hands on the receivers, which disrupts the timing
for Kansas City, really every offense in the National Football League,
And it was so kind of it was companying to

(01:18:55):
see it again because I was like, that's what we
would have done. We would have put hands on that guy.
I wouldn't let him get off the line of scrimmats.
So I wasn't surprised that the Egos won, but I
was surprised that they're so dominated the way they were,
especially with the defensive front. They couldn't block those guys.
I mean that front four, they just couldn't block them.
And you know, Vic, I think he ran one or

(01:19:16):
two blitzes the whole game, and he just really trusts
his guys to go go get out of Patrick Mahomes,
and he struggled to find the guys, but he kept
struggling because they kept getting hands on eighty seven the
receiving corps going down the field. They wouldn't let him
get behind him. They kept everything in front of them.
It was a great game plan that that Philly had

(01:19:37):
for him. And I'm so happy for one of my boys,
Darius Slay. I'm so happy that he got his first
Super Bowl ring. But then I'm sad for one of
my guys for Kansas City and Jayden Higgs, who's a rookie,
didn't get the Super Bowl, but he got there, so
you know, hopefully next year then he can get one.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. You know what's it like
when you come to the end of the sea. It's
such a physical game. You come to the end of
the season, and then the highs and lows of that
of the of the winning and then because look, there's
no guarantee can get back there.

Speaker 11 (01:20:10):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
Listen, for both of these franchise they've franchised, they've been there.
I mean the Eagles two and three years. The Chiefs,
we know almost every year they're there. But it's it's
such a sport. And I think even with Kansas City
and as great as they have been, it's it's amazing.
And I've said this, I give them prompts even though
they didn't get the three peet I get them prompts
just getting their three years in a row because especially

(01:20:31):
today with the salary cap and with injuries and the
way the game is. You know, remember when Dan Marino
got there in year two, like oh the Dolphins are
gonna you know, and he never got there again, right,
So what's it right on for a player when you
get to that point and you get there and then
you come away one half the team will get the
rings and the other didn't. With there's no guarantee you'll

(01:20:53):
ever get to the stage again, no matter what this
season was like in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 13 (01:20:58):
Yeah, I mean I played seventeen years. I got there
three times, one to one lost to you know, the
likelihood of you keep going back for Kansas City. It's
great because you got Patrick Mahomes, you got fifteen. He
kind of neutralizes some of your weaknesses that you might have.
But then when you look at the collective body of
work for the Eagles, man, them dudes, they're stacked across

(01:21:19):
the board. And yes, it is hard to keep those
guys right, especially when quarterbacks are getting so much money nowadays,
and you maybe can pay two to three to four
guys on your whole football team or everybody else, you're
gonna have to start taking bits and pieces. Are like,
you're not gonna have great players, You're just gonna have
good players, and you just it's hard to do. So,

(01:21:40):
you know, to see what Kansas City has done, it's
amazing because I even go back to when I played
where Buffalo Billings went to four straight right, they didn't
want any Yeah, but I keep telling people, you know
it is to go to four straight Super Bowls. I
know they didn't winning the wide right multiple years, but

(01:22:01):
what they did and what they accomplished is crazy. And
at the end of the year, there's one winner and
there's thirty one losers. Yeah, it's just what it is. Yes,
you want to win the Super Bowl. And that's the
only way that we can As players, we want to
be the best at what you do collectively, and the
only way you can do that is bring the Lombardi
Trophy back to the city. You know, I won't be

(01:22:24):
surprised if if the Eagles are back again next year. Now.
I know they got a couple of free agents guys
that played well for them, but I think they've done
a really good job of always replacing those guys. But
then Kansas City, I think they got to up They
have to upgrade their off of the line. I think
they have to make sure the establish that run game,

(01:22:46):
and they need a fast breakout receiver, you know. You know,
and if they can do that again, obviously they'll be back.
And I think they got to get that third or
the second corner. I get they got to solidify that
position because as that second corner was taking advantage of
a couple of times against that in that game with Philly.

Speaker 2 (01:23:05):
Yeah, talking here with the great Rod Woodson, as we're
talking a little football and some other things, you know,
that's one thing, and that's kind of what I was
alluding to, is that I really thought that Kansas City
once the Mahomes massive contract kicked in. You know, they
signed him, but it was going to take place in
a couple of years down the road. Once that kicked in, okay,
the championships are going to stop. And somehow they've managed to,

(01:23:26):
to your point, piece this together while paying him that money,
planning ahead. But I think again it finally did kind
of catch up two of them, and now again in Philadelphia,
will see what they can do is they try to
piece things together at the same time you mentioned seventeen
years in the NFL. I've got a friend of mine
who played, was a star college player. I had a
try out in the NFL, didn't go any any further
than that. Now in his sixties, and even he has

(01:23:48):
issues where when he was in his late thirties he
had problems getting up out of bed in the mornings.
What's that lying for a player once the cheering stops
and you had to kind of deal with some of
the injuries and the stuff that maybe you try covering up,
and now it's right there in front of you.

Speaker 13 (01:24:03):
Yeah, you know, I mean it's I had injuries, but
I kind of I'm a blue collar guy from the
Midwest man that you know the pain is that the
pain is what it is. I don't let it tells
me what to do. In eighty nine, after my third
year in the league, I had a counter defect in
my left knee, which is a chipping of the cartilage
in my left knee. In the ninety five I had

(01:24:25):
the acl and my right knee. So I do have
orth arthritis in my left knee more so than my right.
And for me it's been I've been very blessed to
have people around me to kind of help me guide
to finding alternative ways to having pain pills in those

(01:24:48):
non opioid therapies that you could have, and so I
partner with this company called Persera. I take the medicine
called Zoretta. It's a long lasting shot in the joints
that help you with arthritis. And I tell you what,
the first time I took it, it was amazing that
I took the shot. The doctor said it's gonna take

(01:25:10):
twenty four hours for it to kind of kick in.
It's like a thirty five minute drive on the other
side of the city. I'm driving back home with my
truck and I'm like, and I normally can feel my
left knee when I haven't been too long, right, And
as I'm driving, I'm like, oh, shoot, what the heck?
And I jumped out my truck and it felt amazing.
It felt so good. That was my first time jogging.
The following day, I'm ten yeared.

Speaker 5 (01:25:33):
Wow.

Speaker 13 (01:25:34):
Wow, Okay, I'm an old track guy, so I love
being outside. I love, you know, being on my feet,
being around with my grandkids, being with my dogs. That
was my first time going outside and moving really quick. Again.
Probably what you know, it's probably not a great iay
to do that, because you do have worth artists and
your joints. But I tell you what it gave me,

(01:25:54):
that that feeling that everything's going to be okay. Because
my oldest grandson lives with us, and I'm Dad two
point zero because my daughter moved back to California and
she's an executive chef at a small vineyard out there.
He wanted to stay with us, so I'm taking him
to all his basketball games, I go to all his practices.

(01:26:14):
We do everything together, so I'm always on my feet
with him. And then we have five dogs, and I
got to walk my dogs and got to take them outside.
So and then I got the wife duties, you know,
so I got to clean the house when I'm off
season and all that stuff. So I've been blessed that
I've had friends to show me the way. But then

(01:26:34):
I've been blessed to meet up with a company with
Zaretta and then Persera, the main company purchased Uretta several
years ago, and I've been using that product ever since,
and it gave me some normality at the end of
the day, because we are human, you know, we can
play seventeen years. We did a great thing people seens
on TV. But those issues that hit us as we

(01:26:57):
get older, hits all of us. Doesn't matter if you
played football, didn't play football. And I found a kind
of saving grace for me in the company Zeretta that
Persarah purchased a couple of years ago, and I've been
using that for the last five years and it's been
a tremendous help for me and moving around and trying

(01:27:17):
to keep off that old age.

Speaker 5 (01:27:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:27:19):
That was my next question was how long you've been
on this and what kind of difference has it made
for you to take this again, Like we talked about,
I mean, seventeen years in the NFL and that doesn't
include college and high school and pee wee. I mean,
you know your body took a toll. But to your point,
we all get to that point where we hit a
certain age where you know the body's gonna You're gonna

(01:27:42):
have issues.

Speaker 5 (01:27:43):
It's just it's just with anything with wear and tear.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
What kind of difference did that make for you with
the the issues you had before with your knees and
now that you've experienced afterwards.

Speaker 13 (01:27:54):
Yeah, when I first retired, I was about thirty seven
thirty eight years old, I was fine. And then over
the last couple since we moved. Right right before we
moved here, I could feel my knee if I was
standing up too long, walking around doing things, doing items
and taking the kids to sporting events, I could feel
my left knee really starting to burn and it hurt.

(01:28:16):
It was kind of stiff. And then I one of
my really good friends, Sawmon Wilcox, called me up and said, hey,
I think this might help you. You know, I know
you don't like taking medicine, you don't like taking pills,
but this therapy might help you. And I started taking Zaretta.
So I called Chad Hansen, who was a team doctor

(01:28:39):
here in Vegas because we just moved to Vegas at
that same time. I called him up. I went to
his office. He put the injections in the knee. Like
I said earlier, I got out of the office, I'm
driving in the car, and I could not feel my
left knee at all. I mean, it's just, you know,

(01:29:00):
I didn't feel that pain, that aching, that burning sensation
that I would normally have. And then when I got
out of my truck and I have a big, uplifted
up truck, I jumped down and I'm like, normally I
got to like sit there and stretch like an old man.
No one has to do because everything's gotten tight over
the fifteen minutes here in the car. But I didn't
do that. And so I've been a big advocate to

(01:29:20):
all my guys out there to get off the pain pills,
get off the non that opioid medicine. Don't take it.
There's alternatives there, you just got to find it. Because
I didn't know this medicine existed until Solomon and Wilcox
called me one of my buddies. So I'm a huge
advocate of, you know, different therapies that are non opioid therapies.

Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
Yeah, Solomon's a great guy. I've spent some time with
him over the years and with his broadcast career, of
course knew him. He was a player too at the Bengals.
And you know he's a guy like you. If Solomon
gave me some advice, I would I would trust it.
He's a stand up guy. And it sounds like. The
good thing thing is that you don't have any kind
of sound effects or side effects, sound effects, side effects,
any other issues with this medicine.

Speaker 9 (01:30:07):
No.

Speaker 13 (01:30:07):
You know the great thing I love about it. You
know I'm not diabetic, but if you were, the one
thing about this medicine is that it stays in your joint.
He doesn't go into the blood the blood stream, and
it wouldn't affect that. You know, it can be affecting
your blood sugar in any capacity. So no side effects
has been awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:30:27):
Man.

Speaker 13 (01:30:27):
I tell I give everybody I talk to. I'm on
I go golfing and I'm on the course like you can,
and some of my buddies and they're like, you can
see that they're kind of hobbling around. I'm like, dude,
you might want to call you might want to start
taking Zeretta and they have You know, Sarah has some
different medicines. I know that Eddie George, I can't remember
exactly the medicine, and he the therapy he took with Prisera.

(01:30:49):
But he had both of his his knees replaced at
the same time. Oh wow, which is the craziest thing, right,
one at a time, right, But he didn't both of
them at the same time. So he takes a different
medicine under Prosera, And they have multiple medicines underneath that,
underneath Persera and what they own. But I know for me,

(01:31:10):
zerettas been a lifesaver for me, just to be able
to walk around, clean the house, walk with the kids,
and go to all these events with my grandson.

Speaker 2 (01:31:18):
Yeah, man, that is awesome. Well, listen, I know you've
got a big birthday next month. I'm not gonna say
which one it is, but it's a it's a big milestone.
You got any special plans with your family, your friends?

Speaker 13 (01:31:29):
No, I mean it's I'm gonna be sixty. I'm blessed
to be sixty, to get to that age. Do I
have any plans?

Speaker 1 (01:31:39):
Now?

Speaker 13 (01:31:39):
I don't. I'm not that type of guy, right, I
don't plan stuff for myself, like I'd rather be here
with my family celebrated, everybody seeing happy birthday. We'll sing,
you know, we'll FaceTime my other daughter in California. She'll
say happy birthday. We'll eat our German chocolate cake. That's
my favorite cake. We'll eat that, okay, and then I'll

(01:32:01):
start writing me. I'll start watching some sci fi movie
again on Netflix or something like that. Gotta be my birthday.

Speaker 5 (01:32:08):
There you go, there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
If you're like me, my kids always you know, Dad,
what do you want? And I'm like, hey, listen, you're
my gift, You're my blessing. I'm blessed and I've got
a great life. Guy got me up this morning, and
we're going to go make this happen so well. Listen,
an early happy birthday, Happy sixtieth birthday from all of us.
Great to talk with you, and we're glad that if
you're paying free with this and listen, hopefully we'll chat

(01:32:29):
with you again and we'll talk to more football.

Speaker 13 (01:32:32):
Absolutely anytime you going to hit me up, I.

Speaker 5 (01:32:34):
Certainly will appreciate it. My friend.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
All right, Rob Woods once again the great legend, Hall
of Famer, and we're thrilled to have me here, super
Bowl champion as well. I hear in the show to
share not just about football, but also some great things
about what he's doing. They're in the medical field, things
helping him feel a lot better. All right, say what
this is Spike Sports Radio.

Speaker 12 (01:32:55):
Fans of Big Sports Radio and Sports Spectacular podcasts have
a new home on the Chief Sports Network. Find your
favorite programs and content all in one place by downloading
the Chief Sports App in your mobile device. Created in
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(01:33:20):
is also the home of one of the leading national
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Morgan and twenty four to seven Sports JC Sherbert. Download
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of our markets for your loyal support of Big Sports

(01:33:41):
Radio and our Sports Spectacular podcast, and we look forward
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Chief Sports App.

Speaker 5 (01:34:05):
You know, it's funny, it seems like we picked football.
We were so much better.

Speaker 2 (01:34:10):
Speak Well, yeah, except for except for Mike. He's bad
all the time.

Speaker 13 (01:34:15):
We we was.

Speaker 3 (01:34:19):
To finish third, finished third, that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:34:22):
And and Mike's there, He's there to help us out.
So then set the barlow. Last week was bad in
our picks. Guys, we were we were, I mean Illinois
Michigan was one. I really thought Illinois would. They were
gonna come together. Everyone's healthy now. And then you you
don't play two guys who's to start for you? And
then you can't hit shots in the final eight minutes
at all, and not even for the free the one

(01:34:44):
free throw they had, they missed that one too. So Brad,
you mentioned that they were actually minus two in the
final eight minutes because the one basket they made in
the timeout they decided it wasn't a golden and they did.

Speaker 3 (01:34:53):
Yeah, they took it off the board with a goaltender review.
It's like, okay, never mind, just kidding. Now you have Neggadi.
How many points you scored the last day minutes negative too.

Speaker 4 (01:35:03):
Yeah, there's really not much you can say about that
because it was just it was the closest I've come
to feeling like the thirty to zero that happened against Yukon,
And you really shouldn't feel close to that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
Yeah, you know, I wrote about that on a lot
of guys dot com. Was not going to mention it here,
but yeah, it really was. It just was, you know,
you kept looking for I want to be Apollo Creed's manager.
Throw the towel, Throw the damn towel, and nobody would
throw the towel in It just kept going and kept going,
kept going.

Speaker 5 (01:35:32):
I was trying.

Speaker 3 (01:35:32):
I tried throw a water bottle. Some of it slipped,
so I missed, hit my TV. I was trying to
fit in, so I threw a water bottle and missed
from Of course.

Speaker 5 (01:35:44):
My wife walked through. It's as well, how we do it?

Speaker 2 (01:35:46):
I said, you don't want to know, just just just
go back to reading your book whenever you were doing. So,
what's you don't want to talk to me right now?

Speaker 15 (01:35:53):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
Okay, So those were the picks. Last week, Brad got
the win. Congrats to you, mister thirty. He's back to
Brad the Greek once again. All right, this week, some
great games. Now that we get down to the end
of the month that we're getting into March, these are
really fun matchups. Let's start in the Big twelve right now.
Iowa state number two in the country at one point.

(01:36:14):
But everyone's kind of taking a back seat to Houston
just playing some outstanding basketball. Kelvin Samson say what you want,
loves his cell phones, loves his cougars, knows how to
coach in basketball.

Speaker 5 (01:36:23):
It's Iowa State and Houston in the Big Twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:36:25):
Who do you got Houston's coming in winning five straight?
These are two teams both ranked and analytics. You know,
his top ten teams. Iowa States when four in a row,
they're getting healthy. They got back Mom Silovich, you know,
and that's really helped them because he's a you know,
a guy can really shoot it from deep. But I
just think Houston is going to take this one. I

(01:36:47):
think Houston at home is a really good team, and
I think they find a way to get the win
over Iowa State.

Speaker 4 (01:36:52):
Two good defensive teams, and I will take the Houston
defense over just about anybody if you're talking on an
individual night. So I'm gonna go with Houston as well.

Speaker 5 (01:37:01):
Yeah, same here.

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
I think that TJ is a great coach for the Cyclones,
and I think I would say it could be a
dangerous team in March. But Houston's just playing too well,
right now, that was an epic game when they got
to win over Arizona. I'm gonna take the Cougars in
this one, too. Great matchup. This is a toss up
in the SEC. Tennessee and Texas A and M.

Speaker 3 (01:37:23):
Well, these are probably I think Tennessee is the number
one defense of the country and A and M is
the number five defense in the country. So this is
gonna be one of those what do they call them,
a slobber knocker. It's gonna be in the sixties. Teams
are gonna have a hard time scoring. It's at Texas
A and M. And I really think, you know, the
Texas A and M was really on a roll until

(01:37:44):
they lost to get drilled by at Mississippi State. They
had won five in a row. But I just think
Tennessee is the team that's gonna win this one on
the road.

Speaker 4 (01:37:53):
Yeah, I'm gonna go with Texas A and M. At home.
I think they can pull this off. This is a big,
big matchup up, and Tennessee will have power outages in
terms of their offense. Occasionally they do.

Speaker 2 (01:38:07):
There's no question they They've had some Knights that have
really been head scratchers. I think both of these coaches,
Buzz and Rick have done just outstanding job with these two.
The Aggies have come out of Really we didn't know
what this, you know, SEC was going to look like.
And you hear about you know, Tennessee and Auburn and Alabama,
and you thought Arkansas was going to be there. Instead,

(01:38:27):
it's the it's A and M. It's been up there
and it found themselves in the top ten. Despite that,
I'm gonna go with the Valls in this one, though
I may regret it because they have had their lapses,
but we'll see if they can get healthy and get it.
Went on the road New York again. We talked about
earlier Illinois and third ranked Duke. The Blue Devils thought
they're going to get a really good test outside the ACC.

Speaker 5 (01:38:48):
They might still, but right now in paper, this looks
a little upsided. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:38:54):
The weird part about this, this is one of their
I think this is still one of their toughest tests. Yeah,
you know, when you look at their schedule, I Illinois
is uh just you know, going by their net, you
know what, only like eighteenth and net. I think that's
the toughest opponent they've played since Auburn. So back on
December fourth and the third, third or fourth toughest game

(01:39:14):
of the season for them overall. So it's still a
tough game for Duke. But I just think the Blue
Devils are are two right now, a healthy Illinois team.
I might have a different viewpoint, but I think the
Blue Devils get this win. I think they're just too
much for the Alina.

Speaker 4 (01:39:29):
Yeah, I think the Blue Devils are going to win this.
And of course when I pick games, it's really more
like calling it falling with style.

Speaker 5 (01:39:39):
Well, let's see Keckley picks Duke. So hey, Illinois.

Speaker 4 (01:39:41):
Fans, they should be pumped right there.

Speaker 2 (01:39:47):
They're listening, going, hey, hey, guys, listen, got shot, got
a shot at this exactly, So I'm gonna take Duke.

Speaker 5 (01:39:53):
I would I would lean closer to the Illinois colleague.
What what Brad said?

Speaker 2 (01:39:57):
I if I knew the health status, But we just
don't know what the flu bug going through the entire team.
Who's being able to suit up for forty minutes in
this We just don't And with Morez Johnson out with
the fractured wrist, it's it's really hard Illinois right now.

Speaker 5 (01:40:12):
As you mentioned earlier in the show, five straight games.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
They failed to get forty rebounds and the number two
rebounding team in the country barely behind Alabama right now.
Hard to do that if I visich is is less
than hundred percent and morez is out, that's tough to do. Hoping,
I hope Illinois can can pull off the upset, but
I'm going with Duke as well. Finally, Purdue losers of
three in a row at Indiana.

Speaker 3 (01:40:36):
Yeah, this is a This Purdue team is not what
you'd expect right now. They've kind of gotten on the
struggle bus, but I still think Indiana's also had a
little struggle here. But it is at Indiana. But I'm
gonna go with Purdue. I think Purdue gets to win
over Indiana. I just don't think the Hoosiers have the
shooting to win consistently.

Speaker 4 (01:40:55):
This isn't the Zach Eady Purdue team, but it's still
a Purdue teams. It's good enough to be the big
brother of Indiana and they are going and Purdue is
going to win.

Speaker 2 (01:41:07):
Yeah, Purdue three straight losses, but all three to ranked teams.
I think Indiana will be spirited if they've played a
little better basketball since Mike Woodson said he was, you know,
going to step down. I think produced too much in
this one, and they get the victory. So we'll see
how we do. And that brings us to our bittersweet
message is this is the final show for Big Sports Radio.

(01:41:28):
It's been such a man a pleasure for the past
two and a half years to be here with you
every weekend on this station and talking about primarily college sports,
but all things sports as well.

Speaker 5 (01:41:38):
You can see we're all buddies here. We've had a
great time.

Speaker 2 (01:41:42):
It just comes a time to transition into something else,
and we just want to tell all of our listeners thanks.

Speaker 3 (01:41:49):
Yeah, it's been a great, you know, great time doing this.
We all get along so well and we love talking
to whether it's college football, college basketball, or NBA major leagues,
whatever it is, or even just pizza. So there's nothing
wrong with that. So it's been a great I appreciate
everyone for listening. It's been a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (01:42:10):
Yeah. We really try to be someone who comes into
your home and is a positive for you for a
couple hours where you can smile and not think about
all the weird stuff going on in our world. And
if you like what you've heard on this show at least.
You can also look for our ALIGNI Guys Sports Spectacular
that you can download as a podcast and you can hear.

(01:42:32):
It's a little it's still got a lot of big
ten but we would love to have you join us
over there and we will be back in the future
at some point.

Speaker 5 (01:42:43):
Yeah, we've got that.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
We've got this show, the Sports IQ Show coming up
starting on March third. The Daily Hours show as well,
that got the same format in terms of just a
lot of great conversation, no screaming, no politics, and look
for that as well as well as the Atlanta Guy
Sports Spectacular. All right, so for all of us here,
we want to say thanks so much. We appreciate you
and wish you and your family continued blessings as we

(01:43:07):
will talk to you again very soon.

Speaker 5 (01:43:09):
Thanks again.

Speaker 1 (01:43:13):
This has been a presentation of LMBC Sports LLC and
Revision Sound. We'll be back next week on Big Sports
Radio Network.

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