Loading summary
Transcript437 lines
- [00:00]
Matt Norlander
As a man, finding a truly great
- [00:02]
Gary Parrish
pair of pants can feel impossible.
- [00:05]
Matt Norlander
Some wrinkle the moment you sit down. Others look fine but don't travel well, don't move well, or completely lose their shape throughout the day when you're flying, commuting or packing light. Most pants just aren't built for real life.
- [00:16]
Josh
That's why There's Jack Archer. JackArcher.com makes the jetsetter tech pant designed to be the one pair of pants you actually need. Comfortable enough for travel, polished enough for work, and versatile enough for wherever the day takes you. The Jetsetter Tech Pant is wrinkle free, stain resistant and built for all day comfort. With flexible stretch, customizable fit options and thousands of five star reviews, these are the pants you'll reach for every day.
- [00:42]
Matt Norlander
Jack Archer Ready when you are For a limited time, get 15% off your first order using code getjack@jackarcher.com again that's promo code getjack@jackarcher dot com for 15%
- [00:55]
Gary Parrish
off your first order. This is Gary Parrish from CBS Sports here to tell you that I used to think travel pants meant sacrificing style. Like sure they're comfortable, but you'd never actually want to wear them anywhere nice. But I don't think that way anymore. And that's because of the Jetsetter pants from Jack Archer. These are hands down the easiest pants I own. They're great for my back and forth flights to NYC during the college basketball season. The fabric is wrinkle free and stain resistant, which is huge when you're commuting, traveling or just living life. I can wear them all day and and they still hold their shape. No sagging, no stretching, no looking sloppy by the end of the day. And they're also the ultimate travel pant. I can pack one pair, wear them on the plane and show up looking put together without ironing or changing. And the fit is fully customizable. You choose your waist, your length and your fit, whether that's athletic, slim or straight, tall guys, short guys, everyone's covered and somehow they're just $89, which feels like a steal for pants this first it'll get 15% off your first order with code getjack@jackarcher.com again, that's promo code getjack@jackarcher dot com for 15% off your first order. Gary Parish welcome back CBS Sport. I own college basketball podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting, dodo birds and leaky black. Per usual, Matt Norlander is here with me. If you're watching on YouTube, Honor Brandon Davies. The only way that's appropriate. Smash the like button. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the Island College Basketball Podcast, please do that wherever you subscribe to podcasts like Apple and Spotify. Let's get into it today. It's a mailbag episode with questions from listeners. Some questions are basketball related, some are not. Norlander, you got something you want to throw in here right at the top? Or you want to go straight to the questions how you want to do?
- [02:47]
Matt Norlander
We have called your inquiries, plucked your emails, noted your notes, listed your love letters, cobbled together a menagerie of typical correspondence for the end of this show. By the way, some of you just use Always, Always email, the show shouts to cbs Gmail.com Some of your emails will never see the light of day. Some of them sit in the inbox for a good three, four, five months and then wind up on a podcast just like this one. A mailbag special. So reminder, email the show whenever you want, however you please. Some of the stream of consciousness stuff we get, GP is just outrageous, but it does make me chuckle. I'll toss in a few of those at the end. We can, we can dive right in. Listen, it's a mid month, It's a mid May Monday mailbag. We've already like the chat. We appreciate everyone dialed in the live chat. We've got like, well, Milan Momchila would stay in the draft or transfer folks. We, we talked about that last and we're not doing NBA.
- [03:38]
Gary Parrish
Who cares? There's gotta be a, there's gotta be another college basketball podcast out there that will tell you stuff like that. All right, theoretically.
- [03:46]
Matt Norlander
But this was the first college sports podcast period to ever go video. Don't fact check that. Everyone knows that. It's true. Let's dive right in. We gotta when tournament expansion became official, we got a an influx. Maybe five, six or seven questions about that. I I picked out a few here near the top of the show about that. I'll take the first two and then GP can take the one after that. Tyler from none Other than Memphis, what's up Tyler?
- [04:09]
Gary Parrish
Homie, he said.
- [04:10]
Matt Norlander
With NCAA tournaments expanding the 76 teams, does it quicken the possibility that the men's game will move away from halves toward playing four quarters? I thought I remembered reading somewhere that men's basketball could not move away from halves, in part because of all the commercial breaks associated with the two halves format already being budgeted out in the TV contracts for the NCAA tournament. Would expansion of the field also cause a redrawing of of the TV contracts. We'll be grateful for your thoughts and insights. Let's get to that one first. Then we got a question about Dayton that we'll get to after here. GP you can take it away. I've got a I've got actually an official update in regard to this that transpired earlier this this month. Nothing yet on quarters, but we actually have an update from the ncaa. But what say you?
- [04:52]
Gary Parrish
Well, every other level of basketball plays quarters. We're the only one doing doing halves. And the argument in favor of quarters over half is that it improves game flow, resets team fouls, all of that stuff. But we haven't gone there and I haven't heard anything that makes me think we're going there in the next three days or anything like that.
- [05:12]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, no. Here's what we have from the D1 men's basketball rules subcommittee. It met earlier this month. It's looking deeper into the potential eventual change to quarters. We'll see. Here's the exact wording from the release quote because this is not a rules change year, the committee's focused on current trends and potential future modifications. A central topic was whether NCAA men's basketball should further evaluate transitioning from two halves four quarters. While the concept has been discussed in prior years, the committees plan to seek additional feedback from the broader NCAA men's basketball community and key stakeholders to determine whether a format change would benefit the sport. The release continues. Areas of evaluation include the potential impact on pace of play, game flow and strategy, particularly the resetting of team fouls, as well as overall game length. The committees will also examine possible commercial implications, including effects on broadcast structure and fan engagement. End quote. It's not just to the heart of the question. College basketball on the men's side isn't still two halves because the NCAA tournament is broadcast on CBS and Warner Brothers Discoveries Networks. That why that's not why this is the case. It's because it is baked into every single television contract. So this is as much CBS as wbd, as espn, as Fox, as NBC. And because these media deals always overlap, you know, you don't all have all of them coming up at once. It doesn't work like the NFL, where the media rights holders all have their deals renewed at the same point. Men's basketball has been kind of stuck in this loop, if you will, for a while. I remain nonpartisan on this issue. GP like staying at two halves is fine by me. If they did it, it wouldn't bother me if they went to quarters, it would not prompt me to push back. I do think in a new format, if you went to 4/4/4 and you kind of look at what happens in the women's game, the games will be a little bit faster. Instead of having seven fouls be the bonus for one on one and attending the double bonus, I think you go to quarters, you'd have five being the bonus you'd file. Five and six would be one and one and maybe the seventh foul would be two shots. I don't want to get rid of the one on one. I think it's a. I love that wrinkle to the game in general. You'd lose one timeout if you go to quarters. Given the under 16, under 12, under 8, under 4, you. You got to get that timeout in there somewhere. So it would probably be what's going on as a floating timeout. The NBA uses this. We'd have to see where it would be used. But I do think the games would be a little bit faster and I'm open to it. But honestly, this is one word. There are definitely some people that are fairly impassioned on this. Like men's D1. College basketball is the only level college or higher across the world that is still on two halves. When are you going to get up with the times? I'm all for that if we want to do it, but if it doesn't happen, just me personally, G.P. it doesn't bother.
- [07:47]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, I think I'm with you. Like, I would put it to a vote. As long as we can work out all the technical stuff that needs to be worked out. Put it to a vote. I'd vote for it, but it's not something I'm passionate about. It's not something I spend a lot of time thinking about or going, I can't believe we're going to spend another season with halves. This is shameful. I just don't think. It's not that big of a deal to me. I recognize it could improve the game, but it's not something that I think's a high priority on the list of things we need to address.
- [08:15]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, I agree with you, but it's a good question. Given that the tournament is going to expand and like, some of the general principles of the TV contract did tweak, but no. He also asked, like, does the TV structure for the tournament change significantly? It doesn't. The NCAA tournaments contract with CBS and Warner Brothers discovery goes through 2032 and there's still a number of years before they open a negotiating window. Another question pertaining to expansion, Dominic wrote in why was Dayton picked as the first Foresight, I'm surprised they do not move it around like the other sites. We have gotten this email I want to say a half dozen times over the past five years or so. So I don't think we've ever included a mailbag. When the tournament expanded for the first time beyond 64 teams back in 2001, Dayton got that first game that 60, that team 64.65. I would trivia time you GP I know you don't have any. I didn't even remember it either. The very first additional game beyond the idyllic 64 team field in 2001 Northwestern State beat Winthrop. Dayton had a first weekend site that year so it naturally fed in. They supported it well up until 2000 and 2010, 2011 we only had 65 teams. Oh Glory era, where have you gone? But because of that it always made sense to have Dayton be the site centrally located. They do support it well. They got the first four they continually show out because it's a very awkwardly placed thing. You have these fan bases who have no guarantee that their teams are going to make it to Thursday and Friday the first round which is where is someone, where is somewhere we can place this game to have that. We'll have the community that will actually buy tickets show up, put butts in the seats. That's that's essentially why Dayton got it the first year they did it. They didn't want to mess with a good thing and it has become like part of the fabric of that community which never say never but based on my conversations with NCAA officials for now really a decade or more like they have no intention of ever taking it out of Dayton because it is the location, the airport, the fan base, the community that will show up regardless of who is playing in those games. That is why Dayton got that site. We're going to have a second site and actually sent this out last week. JP I think not guarantee. I guess there's a chance it could be one city that's not on this list but I think one of these 10 cities and this will get this will be determined about two months from now or so. They're literally in the bid process right now. I think one of these 10 cities will get that second opening round site. Albuquerque, New Mexico Dallas, Fort Worth area Des Moines, Iowa Denver, Colorado Kansas City, Missouri Las Vegas, Nevada Omaha, Nebraska Phoenix, Arizona Salt Lake City, Utah and Wichita, Kansas. Some of those sites already have first weekend sites next year. So the thinking is like, well, if they've already got the site, why would, why would they be in play? I wonder if the NCAA tries to do what they did in 2001. Like, for example, I'm pretty sure Omaha has one next year. I think, like, do you just do this again? See if you can feed in some people. GP Tell me what you think on this. Some people think that the opening round now moving forward, should already be played at a site that has a first and second round. To me, that makes logistical sense. Maybe you rotate that every single year if the geography allows for it, and keep dating as the other site. I would love to see Albuquerque, New Mexico, get it because that's, that's an area that loves college basketball. There's some real attachment to the tournament. There you go. And I know that. I know it's a real contender whether or not gets it or not. I don't know your, your thoughts on. I don't know how they should handle the second other opening round site, which will not be in California because it's too far west. You got to have something that people can fly into and fly out of and not be too logistically problematic for the winners that got to go on and play that Thursday and Friday first round game.
- [11:46]
Gary Parrish
I wouldn't mind, like, like, I certainly wouldn't vote against Albuquerque because of the Pit, and I wouldn't mind, like, prioritizing things like that. Like, you know, like, let's go play this, this basketball game that we've invented for reasons we've discussed. Let's, let's, we can play it anywhere, but, like, to try to add something to it, let's put it in a historically significant college basketball place. So the Pit, I think, would qualify as one of those. And so that, hey, I guess, you know, you start the season, your goal isn't to be in the, what amounts to the first four, or whatever we're going to call this thing now. But hey, for the rest of your life, you'll be able to say you played at the Pit or you played at Hinkle or you played. And again, there's way more stuff that goes into it than what I'm saying right now. But if you want to add to it, bringing in some of these interesting historical places wouldn't. Wouldn't bother me. But this is a little bit like quarters and halves. Very low on the list of things I would be passionate about. I don't really care where they play these games.
- [12:50]
Matt Norlander
All right, your next step. What do we got?
- [12:51]
Gary Parrish
Ben? From Oklahoma. He wants to simplify the selection process. Here's what he writes. He writes, is it a better, more fair process to use only strength of record when selecting tournament teams and then have a committee seed those teams? I asked because I think it would create better transparency and eliminate bias when selecting teams. It also seems more fair than using the range of criteria we have today, including the quad system, where an opponent ending with a net ranking of 51 instead of 50 impacts your quad wins. Where strength of record would treat 51 versus 50 the same way it treats 50 versus 49. I'd bet that it doesn't greatly impact the tournament teams, but would let teams know where they stand. Sure, I'm open to any sort of ideas, but here's the truth. Correct me if I'm wrong. We have a million bracketologists out there now, some professional, some otherwise, and we almost all kind of as humans agree on what teams should be in the field every year. So I think we're doing okay there. I think we can let humans just handle picking the field if we want. I mean we don't have to, but they seem to do a pretty good job picking the field. There's not a whole lot of crazy arguments every, I mean we agree on all but one or two teams just about every year. All right, so I think we're fine there.
- [14:05]
Matt Norlander
We'll see if that changes once we get to 76 and those God awful. So we'll see if that stands to be true. GP Generally speaking, I would agree with you, but like a year ago you and I didn't think Carolina should have been in the tournament.
- [14:20]
Gary Parrish
There's always one, but, but what I mean is there's always one, it's just one or two, it's not many. So I think humans do a pretty good. We have gotten to a place where the reason almost anybody can put together a bracket is because the process is detailed, public, um, you know, we know what they're looking for, we know what matters and what doesn't, what should and what shouldn't. And so you can just apply the same logic and reach the same result. Where I think we have more problems is with the seating. And so I would be open to some sort of metric seeding the bracket. Like we'll pick the teams and then let's, let's seed it based on strength of record in some other predictive metrics.
- [15:05]
Matt Norlander
Be predictive whether you, what you're, what you're suggesting here is actually a twist on some, some people think there shouldn't be a Selection committee at all.
- [15:12]
Gary Parrish
Right.
- [15:12]
Matt Norlander
Something the committee should only be used to seed and then have essentially like strength of record and or wins above bubble. The two resume based metrics, they don't have efficiency baked into them. That has been suggestive. We cut to what you're saying GP we kind of have that. I actually did the data the past two years on this. So in 2026 the only team trivia time, only one team would have been left out of the 2026 field as an at large. If you went by WAB hierarchy, if you will. What team was that?
- [15:42]
Gary Parrish
I don't know.
- [15:43]
Matt Norlander
Auburn. Terrible record, great wins above bubble. That was the only team that if you had said okay, every team that gets that large is, is wins above bubble. Tear it out. Auburn was the only one that was above other teams that got in. Texas and SMU were right behind it. They went to Dayton. McNeese was a 12 seat all bid. And then the other teams that just made the field were right behind there. San Diego State, Indiana and Oklahoma. In 2025, little bit murkier year one officially for the web on the NCAA side, West Virginia was the best team that was left out. It was 42. Carolina got in at 43. But then at 44 San Diego State went to Dayton. A little bit of a gap. Xavier at 49 in 2025 was the worst team with web to get in. So it's. I some people don't want to have the biases influenced with the committee. I get that. And there can actually be some real times where we have some real criticisms for going after it. To me having a committee is all part of the process. Selection Sunday, that is a massive television moment and it is, it is feature, not bug. As far as I'm concerned. With every so often you're going to have controversies of seed lines and teams in and out. Ultimately how much does that matter? Well, it matters for the team that didn't get in versus the team that did. I get that. But having a viable, legitimate way of having a committee build out a bracket GP and then having authentic response to those decisions I think is part of what makes March, March in general. If you had it so where it was just automated and you just knew in real time like John Gastaway has, has, has, has lobbied for this for I think a half decade now. His idea is there shouldn't be a committee at all. And everyone knows like from the start like here's based it on WAB strength, the record, whatever you want to do and then literally game by Game, you follow it the entire season so that you go into Selection Sunday, you know who's in and who's out. So that way in the middle of January, like you know where you stand and how you climb and you fall. There's something to be said for that. But then you'll. You suck all of the drama.
- [17:30]
Gary Parrish
I think it's too rigid. I just think it's too rigid.
- [17:33]
Matt Norlander
I would agree. I would tend to agree.
- [17:35]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, I wouldn't like that. I, I think it's too rigid. I Humans do a good enough job picking the teams, so I'm happy to let humans keep picking the teams. In fact, if I were going to argue one aspect of it, I would say they don't need to spend as much time together picking the teams as they do. Like the idea that you have to spend a whole week together to get. I could put that thing together in an hour. Give me an, Give me, give me, give me a solid hour on Sunday afternoon. I'll knock it out for you. So. And it'll be close to what you were going to do anyway, so. But I'm happy to let humans pick the teams. And then if you wanted to use a metric, we could debate it, discuss it. A metric to seat it. That would be fine with me. Let's move on.
- [18:16]
Matt Norlander
Just one more note for next season since we're on the topic of web and now that we have the expanded field, just as a general rule, if a team's got a top 50 WAB, they're going to be in the tournament no matter what. There'll be a lock. I. I wouldn't shock me if we got to like 53 or 54 being that. But as a big round number cut off, just keep in mind if if you're 50 or better going in the selection Sunday and you're not an automatic bid, you're going to be in the field. There won't be any doubt. The math won't suggest otherwise. All right, Brady from Kansas asks. Norlander convinced me that changing the 76 teams will hurt the regular season. I too love that February is college hoops and I am always checking bubble watches that month in the past that watch list almost doubled as a hot seat watch list and as you all mentioned created a great storylines. That drama will be gone. I agree Brady, but he really wants to know of all the appliances that have gotten worse in build quality, which one makes Norlander the most angry? Because in the midst of my rant about this, I dipped into the of our world and how stuff that is built now or built over the past 10, 15, 20 years. It doesn't last the way that it was built in the 50s, 60s, 70s, like literally this year, the year 2020. My parents got married in 1981. They were gifted a microwave. It lasted until 2026. My mother has owned the same dresser, I think since 1971. Now, that's not necessarily an appliance, but it's, you know, it's, it's built like
- [19:35]
Gary Parrish
it's just a hunk of wood.
- [19:36]
Matt Norlander
It's a hunk of wood. That incredible carving. Someone did it with their hands. It looks phenomenal. It'll last 80 years, right? If not longer. So which appliance that's gotten worse in build quality bothers me the most. I went through this. The ones that have gotten better. Televisions, inarguably have gotten better.
- [19:58]
Gary Parrish
Incredible.
- [19:59]
Matt Norlander
I think ovens, slash stoves have gotten better. And let's say now versus 1976, let's put a 50 year cutoff on it.
- [20:07]
Gary Parrish
Hey, I have a brand new stove.
- [20:09]
Matt Norlander
It's really nice, really good. Okay, but it's not just how good it is, is it? Can it last? Can this thing last for three decades? Right? Three and a half decades. I think ovens have gotten better. Microwaves, I don't know. I just, I just share the story about my parents. One, it finally died after 45, 45 years. Now, was it safe to be eating food out of that in the past decade? I can't say, but I think microwaves are probably neutral. But then you get into refrigerators.
- [20:37]
Gary Parrish
Okay.
- [20:38]
Matt Norlander
Air conditioners.
- [20:39]
Gary Parrish
Yes.
- [20:39]
Matt Norlander
Dishwashers. Washers and dryers.
- [20:42]
Gary Parrish
Yes.
- [20:43]
Matt Norlander
Toasters. Slash, toaster ovens. Washing. Washing machines. That's my one. I think washing machines are the worst culprits here. The lifespans are terrible. We actually have one. I meant, I meant to go check and check and look at it. It's an old school. We bought it new. But the style that it is was, that was the build and style that they built in the 60s and 70s. Because when, when we had this washing machine that we inherited with our house and when we bought the house, they said, yeah, this thing's like a year and a half old. You're good to go. This thing shit the bed on us in like 20, 22, maybe 23. And so then we had to go out and buy a whole new washing machine. And the guy was like, this is the one you're going to want. It's not as flashy, gets the job done. It's going to last. You 15, 20 years. I think the answer is washing machines, but I'm curious on GP's list.
- [21:32]
Gary Parrish
Okay, so I hear you on all this stuff. We are in year 16 or 17 in our home, same home for the past nearly two decades. And we are on our second stove and oven. We are on our third microwave. I mean, I can't even tell you how many refrigerators I would even.
- [21:53]
Matt Norlander
I remember the refrigerator stories from, like, year two of this podcast.
- [21:56]
Gary Parrish
Then we went through a thing where Lowe's just kept bringing me refrigerators. I would, like, call them, and I'd be like, yo, you have already brought me a refrigerator. You do not need to. They brought. I had three fridges. I bought one. They brought three. They just kept breathing them. I finally just kept one. I was like, you know what I mean? It's not my responsibility anymore. I tried to give this back. If you guys come and get it, you can come and get it. But I'm not going out of my way to call you again to tell you just brought me another refrigerator. This one's on you. So, anyway, I had a bunch of refrigerators. Is a pool an appliance?
- [22:28]
Matt Norlander
No. I would say no. Pools have gotten better, right?
- [22:33]
Gary Parrish
Let me tell you something about owning a pool. You're going to spend whatever you spend to get that pool put in your ground, and you're gonna be like, I got a pool. Just know you're gonna pay for that thing about three more times before it's over.
- [22:46]
Matt Norlander
I refuse to. To get a pool.
- [22:49]
Gary Parrish
I mean. I mean, it's just.
- [22:52]
Matt Norlander
It's like. It's like the boat. You don't want to own the boat. Anyone out here listening to the show that's between the ages of, say, 15 and 24, you don't want to own the boat.
- [23:01]
Gary Parrish
Okay?
- [23:02]
Matt Norlander
You want to be good friends with the person that owns the boat. You don't want to own the pool. You. You want to live close to the person that owns the pool.
- [23:09]
Gary Parrish
See, I actually. I don't know if it's complete. I agree completely with the boat. The. Anything like that. You will not. Any. Any. Like, we have some things that are, like, big purchases. Like, hey, let's. Let's. It'd be not. Would it be nice to have that thing. Let's get that thing. And then. And then we talk about all the things we're going to do with this thing, and we don't do anything with it. We have those in our home, and those are. That's always true. My argument for the pool would be that, you know, we wake up on the weekends and you don't really. I mean, now we just go play baseball every weekend, but you don't have to wonder what you're doing. Like, the kids are going to hang out the pool, your friends are going to come over. Like we have. Our home becomes a gathering place for our friends, for our children, for our children's friends. And so that's kind of nice. I like that. But then something breaks. Every three weeks something breaks. It's just like, hey, hey, gp, you know, you need a new filter system.
- [24:07]
Matt Norlander
Of course. Filter. That gets you every time.
- [24:09]
Gary Parrish
Another filter system.
- [24:10]
Matt Norlander
No question about it.
- [24:13]
Gary Parrish
What was wrong with it? What happened to the old filter system?
- [24:16]
Matt Norlander
We're going to get to GP's pool in this house before we get to the end of the show, by the way. Good question. As someone mentioned in the comments, and actually I think someone had hit us after we talked about. I had my rant there. It's also because of the. Apparently this is what they want you to believe. The energy restrictions around how they build these appliances now versus how they built them 50 years ago. That all. It's all connected one way or the other. I don't know. All I know is the whole appliance industry in this country feels like one big racket to me. These things are not built to last 20 years anymore. And that's infuriating.
- [24:47]
Gary Parrish
The one thing I will say, TVs are mumbling. I can remember one, like 20 years ago, you're going to buy a big flat screen TV that was going to cost like three grand and, and weigh 4,000 pounds.
- [24:57]
Matt Norlander
I remember the first time out of college, lived in a house with some of my buddies. First of all, the TV we got, I would never own. It was massive. But we all pulled in. You say three. Like, I want to say we bought it at Costco. I want to say that bad boy must have been 27, $2800. And now thinking about that was like 05 06. Get out of here. I'd never, I'd never have that TV.
- [25:21]
Gary Parrish
I just put like a, like a 85 incher in a room on one of the kids rooms. And I think it costs like.
- [25:30]
Matt Norlander
Kids rooms.
- [25:32]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, we have big.
- [25:33]
Matt Norlander
Ridiculous.
- [25:34]
Gary Parrish
We have big. We have big televisions. We have lots of televisions and big ones.
- [25:38]
Matt Norlander
We do, we do. No, do what you got to do. But yeah, like, and this isn't. We do no TVs in the bedrooms for the kids.
- [25:44]
Gary Parrish
So no, that's. Listen, everything you're gonna say is the better way to do it. No iPads, no iPhone.
- [25:50]
Matt Norlander
You're like not only a tv, we're building your own private movie studio in your bedroom, kiddo.
- [25:56]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, my son, my son has a movie theater in his room. And so. But I think it was like 300 bucks. It's like cost nothing. I mean, I don't mean nothing. But relatively speaking, TVs have, the quality has improved and the price has come way down.
- [26:11]
Matt Norlander
I'm team television, undoubtedly. So TVs I think is the one appliance that has objectively gotten better. And I think, I mean, knock on wood, like, I still have two TVs on our other side of our house. We've had those for more than like, I'll eventually replace them, but they're more than 10 years old and they still work totally fine. So keep moving. You got the next question. Danny from Waterloo.
- [26:32]
Gary Parrish
All right, Danny, he's got an IL question. He says the NIL Clearinghouse was supposed to be set up to vet all these deals last year. All the talk was this is the last year of these bloated contracts since they couldn't really be supported for the amount of money they are actually getting market value now for the 20, 26, 27, the amounts in teams budget seemingly have almost doubled. How is this getting past the clearinghouse? Have any deals so far been rejected or does the Clearinghouse. We hold no power to turn down deals and we are back to where we started with perpetually increasing contracts. Related email comes from Connor from Connecticut. He wrote the House settlement promised transparency though. Why aren't there any public dollar figures for what players are earning? Shouldn't the public be able to see what each roster earns collectively, individually? Well, just to circle back to the top, the College Sports Commission has rejected NIL deals, most notably I think with Nebraska football players. And then an arbitrator affirmed it. But all of this stuff is just going to end up in court again. And the truth is, and I'll let Norlander piggyback off this, but the truth is right now most staffs at the high major level are operating as if we can spend what we can, what we can get. Well, whatever we can get our hands on, we can throw it around however we want to do it. And we are not operating under the idea that somebody's going to tell us no. Somebody might, but they're not. You are not sitting down. You're not jumping on a zoom with a transfer portal guard and saying, we would love to give you $2 million, but we don't know if that's allowed right now. You're saying we got $2 million. Come get it. That's the way this is going.
- [28:14]
Matt Norlander
So well. Timed email, I think this got sent a few weeks ago, but the CSC just released earlier this month. It is a, it is a very good question. It's, hey, we were told this nil Go College Sports Commission was going to be vetting all these deals. Are any of them getting turned down? Here's, here's the data from the CSC most recently. And then overall from March 1st to April 30th, so that's two months worth, 5, 500 deals were cleared with the value of $75.85 million. That is $13,790 per nil deal that was approved. There were 442 deals that did not get approved that were worth collectively 26.87 million. That's $60,800 essentially that did not get approved. Now beyond that, since the NILGO platform launched on June 11, 2025 and through April 30, 2026, this is per the CSC, 26,556 deals with a value of $242.35 million have been cleared. More on that in just one second. But beyond that, you have 1153 deals worth 56.17 million that were not cleared over the past near year. Now 26, 5, 56 deals, 242.35 million cleared in Nilgo. That's great news. And the fact that they're actually turning down some also pretty good news in terms of like they are vetting this out and they're getting it done. Maybe they're even getting it done more efficiently than people thought. They turned down the Nebraska deal. That was essentially like an associated quasi collective. And they said no, players can't make money off of this. And some people think, okay, maybe this CSC operation with an I'll go, we'll actually have backbone here. But I gotta, I gotta tell you, $242.35 million worth in nil deals since June 11, 2025. That's not all the money that's out there. It's at least if you account for football and men's basketball alone and don't even get into every other sport, women's basketball, you know, there's some, there's been some high profile baseball and softball players that have gotten good deals. Texas Tech, you know, famously paid one, paid a woman a million dollars to play a year ago. Right. 242.35 million hp minimum. That's a third of what's actually been paid or purported to have been paid in IL deals by these schools. So it is a valid, legitimate question. But there's still, I'm not going to call it like dark money, but there is definitely money that's not being accounted for. This is not, if you go based purely off of what was men's basketball last season alone. I reported on it like it's, it's beyond this number, period. So it's good initial signs, I guess, supposedly. But yes, we will say we will still have more fights on all of this and I like the fact that we're getting actual data on it. So I really like this question. Danny from Waterloo, the other one from Connor, you know, why aren't these contracts for players public? If not the players on a player by player basis? Why aren't the schools making it public? Obviously private schools aren't going to give it up, but on the, on the, on the stateside with state universities, why aren't, why aren't we knowing what they are paying individually? There actually have been some movements, you know, with Freedom of Information act request to do this. They just, they. Most schools consider it to be prepared, proprietary information. It could put them at an advantage or a disadvantage if it was truly publicly known and entirely transparent. I think a lot of people would like to know, but we have not, we have not reached that point yet.
- [31:56]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, like I said, when all of this was unfolding in real time, all you're doing here is bringing cheating back into the game, bringing in cash back into the game. It just, it defies logic and everything we know about the sport, about the value attached to players, about the way coaches have operated forever. It defies logic to think that you're going to recruit somebody under the idea that they will get some sort of nil deal worth $1.4 million to play basketball for you. Then an independent body says, no, you can't take it. And then we just stop right there like, oh, well, too bad. Let me tell you how that one version of that conversation is going to go. All right, this is not ideal, but don't worry, we got you. That's the way that goes.
- [32:51]
Matt Norlander
Yep. In that shelf. GP just nailed it.
- [32:54]
Gary Parrish
Yeah. Yeah. Hey, this is not ideal, but we got it. Don't. We'll figure it out.
- [32:58]
Matt Norlander
People are more emboldened to do that now than ever before too.
- [33:01]
Gary Parrish
100. Because they don't even feel like they're cheating, right? Used to, you had to get past the mental hurdle of I am cheating. Now these, these guys don't even think they're cheating. Like, they don't even really view it. It's like not, they don't feel bad about it the way they might have in a. How about this? In a sport that has long been dirty, there were some men I know who were like, I just can't do that. I just. And now I think this is free just about everybody up. So they can deny whatever deal they want to deny, but that money is still going to roll downhill. It's still going to get where it needs to get to one way or another. And that's why rather than this, you know what? I was for nothing. No rules. Do whatever you want. Pay whoever you want with whatever you want. I don't care how much. I don't care where you get it. If somebody wants to turn into the dodgers and spend $300 million on a, on a basketball team, fine with me. And if somebody else only has 30,000, that's their problem. That is more sensible to me than this, than fake rules that nobody's even following. This is just, this is a huge waste of time and money.
- [34:12]
Matt Norlander
This is what happens when the players are not employees. We got another question. Based on NCAA workings and the structure of the sport, we are going to get to that right after the break. First, let's have a word from our partners.
- [34:23]
Gary Parrish
Your summer starts now with Memorial Day deals at the Home Depot. It's time to fire up summer cookouts with the Nex Grill 4 burner gas grill on special. Buy for only a $199 and entertain all season with the Hampton Bay West Grove 7 piece outdoor dining set for only $499. This Memorial Day, get low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot while supplies Last priced invalid May 14 through May 27 US only exclusion supplies. See homedepot.com Pricematch for details.
- [34:53]
Matt Norlander
So good, so good, so good.
- [34:56]
Gary Parrish
Everything you want for summer is at Nordstrom Rack stores now and up to 60% off. Stock up and save on the brands you love like Vince Sam, Edelman Frame and free people. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack
- [35:21]
Matt Norlander
ready. To soundtrack your summer with Red Bull Summer all day Play. You choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best.
- [35:28]
Gary Parrish
Are you a festival fanatic?
- [35:30]
Matt Norlander
A deep end dj?
- [35:31]
Gary Parrish
A road dog or a trail mixer.
- [35:33]
Matt Norlander
Just add a song to your chosen
- [35:35]
Gary Parrish
playlist and put your summer on track.
- [35:38]
Matt Norlander
Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings.
- [35:41]
Gary Parrish
Visit Red Bull.com BrightSummerAhead to learn more.
- [35:44]
Matt Norlander
See you this summer.
- [35:47]
Gary Parrish
All right, next, you got Jackson from Ravenswood.
- [35:51]
Matt Norlander
From Ravenswood, West Virginia. Does West. Does West Virginia have the best collection of town names of any state in the country? I don't know. Just when I Ravenswood. Hell yeah. And we had. Forgetting what it was called. Split Fork. Right. We had one from Split Fork, West Virginia. I gotta know more. I gotta know more.
- [36:10]
Gary Parrish
Send us in your best Virginia that we were celebrating.
- [36:14]
Matt Norlander
I can't remember.
- [36:15]
Gary Parrish
I know, I know, I know.
- [36:18]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, there we go. Bill with us. That's right. There we go. Just listen to Lovely day in the car yesterday. Love how that works. That was our last. That was. This is our first mailbag since I did. Since December, since I think we did that one. All right, he says with the end stub we got like five or six about on this general question, he said. With the NSA discussing the shift to five and five eligibility model, there's been some coverage about whether the recently exhausted seniors will receive a fifth year. However, I haven't seen much discussion about players who have already committed or transferred under the current rules and are relying on what they believe is remaining eligibility, but who might fall outside the new age based window. For example, steel venters, born May 16, 2001, after time at Eastern Washington, including multiple red shirts with injury issues and a season at Gonzaga, he actually had two. He's now committed to play for Washington for 2627. Is he really? I didn't all right, so if the new rule is implemented without a brand, without a broad grandfather clause for players already enrolled or committed, could someone inventors situation suddenly find themselves ineligible for the season they've planned their future on? Or is the expectation that current committed athletes will largely be protected under existing rules during a phased rollout? Okay, we have not yet Talked about the 5 and 5 rule on this podcast the entire year. This is a question to at least have us approach this. We'll inevitably wind up talking about this more as this legislation moves along later during this offseason. If you are unfamiliar 5 and 5 is this idea that moving forward the new eligibility model for men's and women's college basketball would be you get five years to play college basketball from either the time of your high school graduation or if you're an international project from your from the day you turn 19. So it essentially keeps everyone that's, you know, 24 plus out of the sport in perpetuity from thereafter. And we don't have, you know, international players coming over and starting their college careers at 22, 23 years old. And then, you know, they wind up still playing in the game at 25, 26. John Calipari has been a big proponent of transfer stuff. And to a certain extent, some of this he met last week in, in D.C. with, I was told he talked about 50 senators on trying to get a skinny bill. It's kind of related to this, kind of not. It's more about transfer stuff and all that. But the five and five rule would say, you know what, you can play five if you're, if you're good for five, but if you get injured in three of those five years, that's just the breaks and you get two years of eligibility. There are some proponents for it, there's some that are not. Some people think that there should be, like, real benefit in having a true red shirt medical year where you get better and you don't lose a year of eligibility as a result of it. I think we will get to a five and five to the heart of this question. The NCAA just has to brace for. I know this is always the, like, the bottom line on this, but this is inevitable. Like, it has to brace for. If they try and do five and five and they try and make it where it kicks in starting in 26, 27, every single player who was outgoing this year is going to say, why am I not getting the benefit of this? Why is there going to be an arbitrary cutoff where I don't get that benefit of a fifth year and this starts activating there. So they need to figure out a way to say, you know, what the five and five starts now, it can be retroactively applied to any player that wants it. It does create chaos with the rosters. But if you're going to get to this model eventually, and I think, I think they will, I think they will, then you just got to brace for what is coming there. As for Ventures specific situation, he would be grandfathered in. But a lot of people had a lot of questions on this. I like it. GP5 and 5. You like it? Or do you feel it's, you know, not really fixing what's at the heart of the issue? Because some coaches say, you know, you do this, it's gonna get players transferring five times in five years. And, and they, and they are very, very, very much against the idea that because they think it will exacerbate the transfer problem.
- [40:00]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, it definitely could. I'm, I. Tell me how it's gonna stand up legally. I'm for stuff that's going to stand up. I'm for legal things that, that's going to hold up in court. And so I have read enough smart lawyer stuff to, to, to reach the conclusion that there are people who think this, this can hold up in court and, and keep the NCAA out of the legal system. So in that respect, if it works, if it's legal, I'm. I'm fine with it. The still venture situation would 100% be grandfathered in. They're just, that's just, that's easy. Just you, you, you. The more complicated one is the other scenario you threw out where, like, suddenly Braden Smith is eligible to play basketball next year. I know. I just don't know that because these watches are already pretty much in shape.
- [40:52]
Matt Norlander
So, so you're like, if you change this at some point.
- [40:55]
Gary Parrish
So, you know, here's what I would do. I mean, yeah, I don't just. It ain't good for anybody if all of a sudden an entire slew of awesome basketball players is eligible because, like,
- [41:10]
Matt Norlander
you have to invent a new university.
- [41:13]
Gary Parrish
I mean, you really would like you were. Okay, so you're, you're a transfer. You've got all the great options in the world, and you pick this school because you're going to be the starting point guard at this school for this price. All right, let's go. Now all of a sudden, because this goes into place, this school just pays for somebody who's obviously better than you, and now you're stuck as a backup plan. That's just not. I, I think we got to avoid that. So here's what I would do. Get this. Get the best lawyers in the room and say, how do we legally make 5 and 5 work? But leave the, the people who just exited college out of the equation. How do we legally make that happen? You just got to that. That's the question. Come back to me when you got the answer.
- [41:57]
Matt Norlander
But then you got the other side. Like, you got the incoming high school players. You know, there's an entire, like, every year there's all of these players coming in that deserve their opportunity and they're. And their full allotment of it.
- [42:08]
Gary Parrish
So. But even like, I think, I think I read a quote for like, Rick Patino. He was like, I would love to have Zubi at TO four back, but it's kind of like we're We've moved on. Everybody has moved on. I think going backwards in that respect would be a mistake. It's the high school players that get pushed out. It's the. It's. You think you're going to be the starting small forward at, you know, some Big 12 school, and now they just. They got somebody who's better than you. We got to avoid that. I think. I don't even think the coaches really want to deal with that right now. I don't get the sense that they do. So figure out a way where you can legally implement 5 and 5 without having to look backwards. And. And then that's. That's what I would be for.
- [42:45]
Matt Norlander
All right, what do we got next?
- [42:47]
Gary Parrish
Let's see here from Zach in Hartford, Connecticut. He wants a ranking. He says now that the tournament is over. I want to circle back to reference something Matt mentioned on the pod right after UConn beat Duke, since we now have the full context of how their season ended. Where would you rank Braylon Mullen shot in the history of the NCAA tournament? If you kind of beat Michigan and won it all, could it have an argument for number one? I think just off the top of my head, yeah, I would rank it third behind Leitner and behind Chalmers.
- [43:19]
Matt Norlander
If they had won the title.
- [43:21]
Gary Parrish
I think I would rank it third right now.
- [43:23]
Matt Norlander
No, I mean, no, I have a list, so there's no way it's third. No, they didn't win the title. Like, it's a big time shot. Here's here. His exact wording is, where would you rank Braylon Mullen shot in the history of the NCAA tournament? Now, he didn't say buzzer beaters because I initially started building out a list, and Mullins wasn't technically a buzzer beater. It was inside one into a weird technicality on that. I got a list. I got a top 10. All right, here are the honorable mentions in no order. Did not make the top 10. Again, biggest shots in the history of the tournament. Not the best buzzer beaters. Those are two different things.
- [44:04]
Gary Parrish
Okay?
- [44:05]
Matt Norlander
And this was not easy. And this is just one man's take. Okay, Honorable mentions in no order. Danny Ainge, coast to coast to beat Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 with just over two seconds left in 1981 for BYU. Similarly, Tyus Edney, coast to coast to beat Missouri in Boise for UCLA back in the first weekend of 95. Mario Chalmers for the tie with 2.1 left, regulation. 2.1 left. Slash Dozier for the championship.
- [44:41]
Gary Parrish
That's so off, you're Way off here. That's a. That is one of the.
- [44:43]
Matt Norlander
I know you're not gonna. You're gonna have an issue with. I think you'll have an issue with my number 10. But I have a reason why I put it on there. And then it's going to be hard to justify any other one in my top nine. The two more honorable mentions. Bryce Drew Valpo over Ole Miss 1998, first round. And then us read from just inside half court for Arkansas over Louisville in 1981. 49ft away. Those are the honorable mentions.
- [45:12]
Gary Parrish
Wrong on Chalmers. That's crazy. And that was a. A three pointer to send a national championship overtime that they won.
- [45:20]
Matt Norlander
I know. I got you.
- [45:21]
Gary Parrish
I. I'm the history of the sport.
- [45:23]
Matt Norlander
I have number 10. This is the only one that no one's going to agree with. But it's the literally the longest and therefore most unlikely shot to win a tournament game in the history of the tournament. Paul Jesperson be on half court.
- [45:38]
Gary Parrish
Jesperson over Tomers is what you're submitting.
- [45:41]
Matt Norlander
50ft away. Number 10.
- [45:43]
Gary Parrish
It's outrageous. You know this is outrageous. You cannot say number nine. It has a bigger shot in the NCAA tournament than Mario Palmer.
- [45:54]
Matt Norlander
I understand. No one's gonna agree. No one's gonna agree. I agree. Hey. No one's gonna agree. I got you. I got you. I just. I. I'm taking the L. I'm just. It's my life.
- [45:59]
Gary Parrish
Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Go ahead. Something. I'm enjoying this.
- [46:03]
Matt Norlander
All right. Top 10 shots in the history of the tournament. Nine is Brayla Mullins. They didn't win the title. The sequence is insane. Yeah, Mullins is definitely ahead of Chalmers. Crazier shot, crazier sequence.
- [46:19]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, sure, but like one's in the Elite eight and the other ones.
- [46:22]
Matt Norlander
You didn't even have Chalmers ahead of Mullins four minutes ago. What are you talking about?
- [46:26]
Gary Parrish
No, I did. I said Leightner and Chalmers would be ahead of Mullins.
- [46:29]
Matt Norlander
That's crazy. Okay. Number eight. This is a crazier sequence. And. And was part of a title run. Number eight, Kihei Clark. Mamadi Diaquite. 2019 Elite Eight. Send the game to OT versus Purdue. Virginia won the title.
- [46:45]
Gary Parrish
Sure.
- [46:46]
Matt Norlander
And that's an insane sequence. That's number eight.
- [46:49]
Gary Parrish
Re.
- [46:49]
Matt Norlander
Watch that again. It's produced 70 to 67 with less than 10 seconds to go. No. Joel Eastern intentionally fouls Ty Jerome to get him to the line. It's a one on one. Jerome makes the first. I think he unintentionally short arms the second D. Akita gets in there, taps it into the backcourt key. Hey. Clark chases it down patiently waits, gets it back to Dakota who barely gets the shot off at the horn, sends it to overtime. That's number eight. Number seven is the only shot in the history of the final four and the national championship. That was a buzzer beater where it was a win and go on losing. You're out. Team was trailing, ball was in the air. Lamont Butler 20, 23. San Diego State over FAU 71, 70 to 72, 71. They get to the title games. The only time that's ever happened on that stage.
- [47:43]
Gary Parrish
You've got that numbers.
- [47:45]
Matt Norlander
Number six is Keith Smart shot in 87 to give Indiana the title. I went back and watched this. Syracuse got hosed. Keith Smart shot goes through the net with four seconds to go. And the clock operator doesn't stop it until there's one second job. Go back and watch that game. It's outrageous. The ball is through the net at five, going to four and they don't hit stop on the clock until there's one second. Syracuse had no chance, gave him a title. Huge shot. Number five because of the lore associated with it is the origin story for Michael Jordan. In 82 he hits the shot now he hits the shot that wins the title for North Carolina. But the basket comes with 17 seconds to go and there is a critical sequence after that in which Fred Smith turns the ball over and then Carolina wins the game. So if Jordan hit that shot with three seconds to go, they would be higher on the list. It's a massive shot, but it didn't come in the final 10 seconds, let alone the final five seconds. It came with 17 and change to go. But it is the start of the Michael Jordan story and therefore has a massive place in the history of the NCBA tournament.
- [48:52]
Gary Parrish
Four more.
- [48:55]
Matt Norlander
The aesthetic equality of Jalen Suggs hitting a 37 footer running in the Final Four to beat UCLA and send Gonzaga to the title game. It's like the third longest buzzer Peter in the history of the tournament. That's number four. Number three is the accident. It is Wittenberg's air ball. Lorenzo Charles catches it, dunks it through with two seconds to go. They didn't stop the clock back then. Time runs out. NC State succeed, wins the title. Obviously the top three are on a tier to themselves. Laitner to beat Kentucky in 92 Elite Eight. The buzzer beating finish on an unbelievable unforgettable play to maybe the best game that's ever been played Leitner had 31 points. 10 of 10 from the field, 1010 from line. Classic shot. Every kid's practiced it in their driveway for generations since. And the biggest shot in the history of the tournament is the one true buzzer beating shot. Wittenberg to Lorenzo Charles was not a buzzer beater. Chris Jenkins hit a three pointer as time expired to have Villanova beat Carolina in the 2016 national championship game. That's my number one.
- [50:04]
Gary Parrish
Okay. Had a blind spot for Chris Jenkins. All due respect to Chris Jenkins, that. That belongs way up there on the list. I'm fine with Chris Jenkins even being number one. I would redo my list. Chris Jenkins has got to be there. Lakers got to be there. And Chalmers is top three. That's great.
- [50:17]
Matt Norlander
Josh Chalmers is not bigger than Lorenzo Charles and NC State. He's not sorry. NC State beat Houston and five slam a jama in 1983 and was considered like the first quasi Cinderella to win the title. That's bigger than Chalmer shot. You will not find anyone that that's siding with you that. Sorry. North Carolina State 83 over Chalmers didn't win the game. Got it to overtime. Huge shot. Don't get me wrong. Chalmers for the tie, not Chalmers for the win. It's a great question.
- [50:42]
Gary Parrish
Argue it. I don't know that we need to argue it. Here's what I'm saying. I dare you to put that list in a graphic, put it on social media and see what happens. Josh, get that.
- [50:56]
Matt Norlander
Send it out.
- [50:56]
Gary Parrish
10 biggest shots an NCAA tournament history. I want you to send out a list that has Paul Jesperson on it, but not Mario Chalmers.
- [51:07]
Matt Norlander
Longest buster feeder in tournament history. I had to note it.
- [51:10]
Gary Parrish
I, I make sure it says in big bold from Matt Norlander. I don't want anything. I don't even want my face on this thing. All right. Let's see how proud you are of this list. Once the, Once the.
- [51:24]
Matt Norlander
I got you think I care what people are gonna say in the app Mentions come at me. Paul.
- [51:29]
Gary Parrish
Jess.
- [51:29]
Matt Norlander
People say that Lorenzo Charles should be number one. It's not. Jenkins is number one. Won the title. True buzzer beater. Three pointer. Got it done.
- [51:36]
Gary Parrish
That's, that's. I got no issue with Chris Jenkins being number one. I got real issues with Mario Chalmers.
- [51:43]
Matt Norlander
I'm aware.
- [51:43]
Gary Parrish
I'm aware. All right.
- [51:47]
Matt Norlander
All right. Nick from Ohio found us. Wants to know with Rick Barnes and Kelvin Sampson still looking for a title at 70 plus years old. Where do you rank the respective careers among zero title winning coaches? I have a top 10.
- [52:01]
Gary Parrish
Oh, my God.
- [52:03]
Matt Norlander
And Ben Jacobson's on the list. Where do you put him? Coaches with no titles. Barnes and Sampson.
- [52:15]
Gary Parrish
I would put Kelvin Sampson. So who is the greatest coach in the history. Okay, I like. I. Okay, here's what I would say. I think the greatest coach. Tell me if I'm off here. Is the greatest coach in the history of college basketball without a national championship. Is it Mark Few?
- [52:37]
Matt Norlander
It is.
- [52:38]
Gary Parrish
And I think Kelvin Sampson goes right behind Mark Few.
- [52:40]
Matt Norlander
I agree. They're my top two.
- [52:42]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, I think that's it. I think It's Mark Few, 1. Kelvin Sampson, 2. And then we can debate it from there. But that's the top two. And I think Rick Barnes would be in the top half of the list. But closer to the middle than the top,
- [53:01]
Matt Norlander
my list was Mark V. 1, Kelvin Sampson, 2, Eddie Sutton, 3, Guy Lewis, speaking of Houston. In 83, I have him for Lou Henson, 5, Jim Larnega, 6. Two different schools of the Final Four for laranega, Rick Barnes, 7, Gene Katie, 8, Bob Huggins, 9, John D. Line, 10. Those are my top 10 coaches without a national title.
- [53:19]
Gary Parrish
So we're not too far off. Like, Rick's in the mid of a top 10 list. Rick would be close to the middle.
- [53:24]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [53:26]
Gary Parrish
And Kelvin would be close to the top.
- [53:28]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. Some good names, by the way, on that list. Good question. You're next.
- [53:32]
Gary Parrish
All right, let's go to Scott from Terry Hot Indiana. He asked, where does Darius Acuff Jr. Rank in the pantheon of California? John Caliperi, freshman.
- [53:42]
Matt Norlander
You got a list?
- [53:44]
Gary Parrish
The consensus is Anthony Davis is number one.
- [53:46]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [53:48]
Gary Parrish
Scott says his number one would be John Wall. Where's Darius Acuff Jr. Do you have a list?
- [53:56]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, I got a list, baby. I got it.
- [53:59]
Gary Parrish
I did not put together a list. I bet yours is suddenly gonna have, like, Donnell Mack at number four or something.
- [54:03]
Matt Norlander
No, but then the. The sorting of this and the cutoff was agonizing.
- [54:13]
Gary Parrish
Anthony Davis is number one.
- [54:14]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [54:15]
Gary Parrish
National Player of the year.
- [54:18]
Matt Norlander
Number one.
- [54:19]
Gary Parrish
Pick all that stuff. So the list starts with Anthony Davis, greatest caliperry freshman. I think you can go Darius Acuff next. Although I think I would go John Wall, but. Yes, but I am. I am skeptical that Darius Acuff will ever be an mvp, so he might not accomplish things in the NBA that.
- [54:38]
Matt Norlander
This is just how they were just. Yeah. The conversation ends the day they play their last game in college.
- [54:44]
Gary Parrish
Junior was a better college basketball player than Derrick Rose and a better college basketball player than perhaps everybody who played one Season for John Calipari other than Anthony Davis, the other player I would put in there that could maybe push a cup down to three would be John Wall.
- [55:01]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, here's my list. Anthony Davis 1. This is the best. John Calipari 1 and done. Freshman. As college players. Nothing to do with what they became as NBA players. Their NBA stock. This is who they were, how they produced in College. Anthony Davis 1. John Wall 2. Darius Acuff Jr. 3. John Wall, a better all around player. That's why I did that. Derrick Rose 4. Carl Anthony Towns 5. Michael Kid Grilker 6. DeMarcus Cousins 7. Reed Shepherd 8. De' Aaron Fox 9 and Malik Monk 10. And that means this again, this is just college production. That means guys not on the list. Murray Present. Jamal Murray, Marcus Teague, Julius Randall, Devin Booker, Brandon Knight, Shea Gilgis, Alexander. The two time NBA MVP Tyler Hero. Tyreek Evans. Bam. Out of bio. Emmanuel Quickley, Tyrese Maxey, the list goes on. It's wild. It's insane, man. It's. It's just. It's just nuts. But I think people might have their thoughts on Rose maybe a little bit tilted in retrospect. Rose was not the best player on that team for the entirety of that season. GP can speak this as well as anyone. I think this is a clear top three. I think it is. Davis One can have the conversation about Waller or Acuff Jr. And then a little bit of a line. Rose hit a rocket ship in March, but that was not what he was the entire season. I think in totality you put him four and then cat five.
- [56:29]
Gary Parrish
Derrick Rose might have had the greatest NCAA tournament run of any one year. John Caliperi player even better than Anthony Davis's. Although Anthony Davis won the title and D. Rose didn't. But yeah, Darius Jacob had a better season of college basketball. Derrick Rose, I believe was a third team All American. Chris Douglas Roberts from that Memphis team was a first team all American. All right, let's take one more break, get a word from our partners, then we'll come back. And we got a question from Aaron. It's a three parter and I'm gonna let Norlander read it. So that's good. Come on.
- [57:01]
Matt Norlander
Bonjour, compadre.
- [57:03]
Gary Parrish
It's the Priceline negotiator.
- [57:05]
Matt Norlander
How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget, the Priceline app. It's got hotel deals, flight deals, rental car deals, all of those deals in a bundle deals, game day deals, concert trip deals. No one deals more deals than Priceline. Hold Your horses. There's more. The app lets you filter hotels by neighborhood vibe, star level, and amenities like pools and spas and beachfronts and.
- [57:28]
Gary Parrish
Wait, I'm not done.
- [57:30]
Matt Norlander
Stop cutting me up.
- [57:30]
Gary Parrish
Priceline. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto tv.
- [57:40]
Matt Norlander
Then I heard a voice.
- [57:42]
Gary Parrish
Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows,
- [57:46]
Matt Norlander
and they were all free.
- [57:48]
Gary Parrish
It's just so Beautiful on Pluto TV. Free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100, and the X Files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV stream now. Pay Never. All right, Norlander, go, go.
- [58:04]
Matt Norlander
Be honest. I'm regretting that Chalmers situation. So just, just so you know, real time here, some regrets. Throw them at number 10. All right, Aaron, who played at Grinnell
- [58:12]
Gary Parrish
College, Jesperson is number two.
- [58:15]
Matt Norlander
It's the longest buzzer beater in tournament history.
- [58:17]
Gary Parrish
Paul Jesperson over Mario Chalmers in terms of biggest shots at ncaa. Just tweet that. Just tweet that. If you're ranking. If you're ranking biggest shots in NCAA tournament history, how far ahead of Mario Chalmers is Paul Jesperson? You guys think
- [58:37]
Matt Norlander
we all make mistakes?
- [58:37]
Gary Parrish
All right. I don't know, man. I mean, it was a long shot, but it was.
- [58:46]
Matt Norlander
It was Grinnell College, known for its three point happy offense. He sent a three part email. 1. Can we get an update from Pat Kelsey on whether the closing of the straight of Hormuz has impacted the health of his children or attractiveness of his wife?
- [58:59]
Gary Parrish
I hope not. I hope not.
- [59:01]
Matt Norlander
I think. I think Louisville's situation is entirely unaffected by the. The security situation in the Strait of Hormuz. I think we can answer that.
- [59:12]
Gary Parrish
They put mines in the water.
- [59:14]
Matt Norlander
They did. They did.
- [59:16]
Gary Parrish
That's tough.
- [59:17]
Matt Norlander
And then he wants. He wants some power rankings from both of us. So he wants my Vermont ski power rankings. Ski mountain power, which I'm all too happy to do. I can be quick on this because I know this is for a very narrow portion of our audience, but there are some out there that like to. To slap on the. Slap on the skis and go, go hit the slopes. Sugar Bush is my number one. It's where I learned to ski. And I will always have a soft spot for Sugar Bush. Killington. Biggest resort in the Northeast would be number two. J Peak. It's the. It's the northernmost mountain in Vermont, but it can be epic. Especially on some, some fresh POW days. That would be three. Smugglers Notch would be four. And then narrowly I would have Magic Mountain, which is an independent operation, narrowly over Bromley. He wants to know for number three, GP's Delta Lounge power rankings. Can GP confirm whether the Delta Lounge in Detroit is still self serve liquor and draft beer? That got me into trouble a few times. Gp, I trust you have done more research or thinking about this and any question, do you have a top three? A top five Delta Lounge power rankings across this great country.
- [60:15]
Gary Parrish
Any place with any Delta hub is going to have a great Delta Lounge. Sky Club. So Atlanta. The B, the, the Sky Club in the B terminal is terrific. Just because it's, you know, gigantic. Plenty of, you know, buffets the whole deal. The new one at LaGuardia is nice. I say new, it's a few years old at this point, but it's right through security. So you go right through security, boom. Then it's just right there. Go upstairs. That's usually where I'm at. LaGuardia Sky Club. If you ever see me, that's probably where you're gonna see me. I'm in the Memphis one. It's very small, but it's not. Those are my people. I love, I love that Detroit. I don't know if they still do the self serve in Memphis. They used to, it was like, just go grab your vodka bottle, pour it yourself. Now they got Ms. Pam back there handling it for you. Now Ms. Pam will handle it for you. But for a while it was just like you're on your own. But you make it as strong as you want. So I'm not sure if they still do that in Detroit. I hadn't been to the Detroit. Salt Lake City, great. Minneapolis, great. Any of the Delta hub is going
- [61:15]
Matt Norlander
to be right off first name basis, by the way. I don't think I didn't pick up on that.
- [61:19]
Gary Parrish
Ms. Pam, these are my people. Sometimes I will see like somebody from the Sky Club like out in the wild and I get real excited. Like I like I see a buddy who like checks my bag sometimes. I saw him at Kroger and I was like, man, how you doing? He's with his family. I was like, man, I guess I, I guess I never even thought about you had a whole life outside of the Sky Club. It's good to see you, man. How you been? I get real excited. Oh my.
- [61:47]
Matt Norlander
Yes, they do. They are human beings that run, that run their own lives as well. That's too funny. You're next. Tara's Up.
- [61:54]
Gary Parrish
Okay. Tara, a gal who's a hundred percent bow maker, has a question. Not about Purdue at all. She said she's been listening for more than a decade and her boyfriend refers to us as my hoop friends. When I quote something from the pod, I couldn't help but notice Shaka took a trip abroad, most likely to Turkey or Thailand. Let's stop here for a second. Do we think Shaka went abroad to get hair?
- [62:17]
Matt Norlander
Do we believe that you think I haven't texted and asked Shaka. Keep reading.
- [62:21]
Gary Parrish
Okay. I couldn't help but notice Tara rides that Shaka took a trip abroad, most likely to Turkey or Thailand. I like that part. A few years ago and now has a full head of hair. I've also noticed his team hasn't fared as well the past few seasons as in years past. Begs the question, is coach smart Better with. Without hair. Is coach smart. But I. Okay, first let's. Do we think Shaka? Because here's the thing. Do you know I could grow hair? I could grow hair.
- [62:51]
Matt Norlander
No, I'd love to see it.
- [62:52]
Gary Parrish
I could grow hair everywhere. Except for like right there.
- [62:56]
Matt Norlander
Right there.
- [62:56]
Gary Parrish
I'd struggle with that. But I could. I could have hair by next week if you wanted me to.
- [63:00]
Matt Norlander
Let's do it.
- [63:01]
Josh
All right.
- [63:02]
Gary Parrish
I don't think so. I think it's over for me. And so I. Here's what I've always believed. I believe Shaka was a self made bald man and then decided he wanted to have hair and he could go back to being a bald man whenever he wanted. And he can have hair whenever he wants. It's up to him. That's what I thought. Is that true or not?
- [63:23]
Matt Norlander
We'll get to that. First of all, if you're watching on YouTube here, she dropped in. She dropped in the Turkey A with the umlauts and everything. Because they're not turkey anymore. It's Turkey A. So I appreciate it.
- [63:35]
Gary Parrish
Hold on. We don't even call turkey turkey anymore.
- [63:37]
Matt Norlander
Not. No. I mean, you still can, but they're. They're trying to shift off the meat and it's just Turkey A.
- [63:43]
Gary Parrish
Well, I knew that we had done that thing with the Gulf of Mexico. I knew we had changed that, but I didn't know we had changed turkey too.
- [63:49]
Matt Norlander
Well, we didn't. I think it was turkey did it. But the fact that she picked turkey in Thailand. So I texted Shaka and I was like, hey, listen, man, we do these mailbag shows and we get the most random questions. Here's what he texted back. He said, I've never been to Thailand, but would love to go someday. I always cut my hair short going back to seventh grade to save money. Then I let it go during the COVID shutdown and my wife requested I keep it. So I go to the barber periodically now for the first time in my adult life. And then in terms of correlation with my hair and us winning, I guess there's a much stronger connection to having excellent players. End quote. I sorted some data. Okay, I got the numbers for you. You ready for this? Shaka. Bald versus follicle. Shaka. Shaka. Bald. 253 and 134. That's a 6, 54 win percentage. Shaka. Since he decided to gross, there's a direct cutoff covet happened. So he was bald as a head coach from his early days at VCU, you know, 16, 17 years ago, all the way through the 2019-20 season. And since 2020, 2021 to now, he's always had hair. So it was an easy cut off. He didn't do it in the middle of a season. With hair. 2020 to present 129 and 69. A.652 win percentage. It's really negligible. There's not much difference there. NW tournament record. Bald 7 and 7 with with hair 3 and 5 Final Fours. Bald 1 with with hair. 0 regular season titles. Bald. 0 regular season titles for Shaka with hair 1. He had one with Marquette. So I think shock is right. Doesn't really matter. This was a random ass question that I was all too happy to text the coach about and look up myself. It doesn't seem to matter whether he has hair or not. How well his teams do in the. In the grand scheme.
- [65:38]
Gary Parrish
Well, I'm team ball Shaka.
- [65:40]
Matt Norlander
Like when I know what I'm not. I'm team. This is me now. I think I am team her Shaka.
- [65:50]
Gary Parrish
Because when I decided. When I decided to go bald, I was like, among my. Among the things I was considering, I was like, you know what? Maybe I look like Shaka.
- [66:02]
Matt Norlander
Someone in the chat is pointing out. Let me make sure he did. Let me check this chat here. They're saying he can he dismissed. He never dismissed the turkey claim. That's correct.
- [66:10]
Gary Parrish
That is correct.
- [66:11]
Matt Norlander
He never brought up turkey.
- [66:12]
Gary Parrish
A He said, I never shocked a word about turkey. Interesting. Went out of his way to say I've never been to Thailand, but didn't deny ever going to Turkey.
- [66:25]
Matt Norlander
When did they change more here?
- [66:26]
Gary Parrish
And I heard about that man Jack
- [66:28]
Matt Norlander
from Michigan, who may be getting married Asks on a recent episode, Norlander said he knew all the do's and don'ts of weddings because he works so many of them. What are your top five do's and don'ts for weddings? Also, whenever I get married, I think I want a wedding band. And he takes on DJs versus wedding bands. GP, you got some do's and don'ts.
- [66:47]
Gary Parrish
Don't you know, if you were getting
- [66:49]
Matt Norlander
married, not attending the wedding, These are two very different things. If it's your wedding, what's the do's and don'ts?
- [66:54]
Gary Parrish
I mean, like, don't black out. I'd say don't black out. Be a good one.
- [67:00]
Matt Norlander
That's a big one. Yeah.
- [67:01]
Gary Parrish
That's a big one.
- [67:02]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [67:02]
Gary Parrish
I mean, I've been to weddings where people have blacked out. I mean, we had to wake the group, like, the best man. We were like, bro, you got.
- [67:09]
Matt Norlander
That's get up.
- [67:10]
Gary Parrish
The wedding is. You have got to put on some sunglasses and get outside.
- [67:16]
Matt Norlander
I once, as I mentioned before, like, I worked weddings leading up to it, and I once worked a wedding where groom was gonna back out, like, wasn't, I can't do this. I can't go through with this. And the wedding plan of the person who was running my boss effectively rallied him and got him down that aisle. But he was an absolute mess, and his groomsmen didn't know how to handle it, and he was ready to walk out of the damn wedding hall and get the hell out of there. And, yeah, my boss, she made it happen, and it was.
- [67:50]
Gary Parrish
Okay, let me stop here for a second.
- [67:51]
Matt Norlander
How long is that? I don't know, but, like, 165 people waiting for. For him to be down at. Because she was up in the bridal suite. She hadn't come down yet, and he was in, like, the. The cocktail hour area, and she got him down there, and that wedding went off without a hitch. But that was a wild scene to witness.
- [68:10]
Gary Parrish
Okay, here's what I'm wondering. Is it really the right thing to do to encourage someone into a legal agreement with another human and they are telling you they don't want to do. Like, I would imagine if on your wedding day, you ain't so sure about this, you're gonna have another day down the line where you. You're still not so sure about this.
- [68:35]
Matt Norlander
That's the GP wedding. Don't. Don't go down the aisle. If on the day of you have second thoughts.
- [68:42]
Gary Parrish
I actually think that's probably not the worst advice in the world. My. My My more specific advice would don't plan the wedding if you're not sure you're gonna go through with it. But, yeah, I would wonder. I would. Me. I would be like, I can't let everybody down. I just have to get married today. That's what I would do.
- [69:01]
Matt Norlander
That's what most people do.
- [69:02]
Gary Parrish
Yeah.
- [69:02]
Matt Norlander
Having seen, like, behind the scenes before it happened, that was. I mean, he was losing his mind. Like, I cannot do this. Like, everything. The picturing is what this guy was going through for about 10 minutes. You know what? Who knows? Well, you got other do's and don'ts.
- [69:19]
Gary Parrish
I mean, I just think don't black out pretty good. Let's just start there. The start and stop there.
- [69:24]
Matt Norlander
Here's a couple of. Here's a couple of my. In my experience of having worked so many of these over the years, don't ask someone to speak publicly who can't handle it for any reason. So even, like, even if you've got a best man and they've got a, you know. You know, they can, like, just. You can do workarounds. The best man or maid of honor doesn't have to. If they can't, whether they're. Whether they're blacked out or if they're not going to public speaking, don't have them do. If they can handle someone. Someone that is close to you can speak to. What you two mean as a couple.
- [69:52]
Gary Parrish
I was listening to a podcast, AI, and they said one of the. Like. They were saying, like, the very innocent way, because it's designed, like the. To just re. Just to make you feel good and keep you engaged. And so one of the examples they used of, like, this taking people down a. Mostly in, like, who cares? Not a big deal path, but it's like, you can see how it takes you to scare your. You know. So the lady would say, you'll sit down with AI and you'll say, hey, I want to. I got to give a speech at a wedding. Can you help me with it? They say, sure. You know, Matt, let's. Let's do it. And you say, okay, I want it to be funny. And they say, okay, let's write a funny speech. And then you go, all right, here's what I was thinking. Is that funny? And they go, oh, man, that's the funniest. And then you got the speech, and this thing's telling you it's funny. And then you get up there, deliver it, and you think you're Dave Chappelle and you're not. Yeah. And like, Just so it'll do that with business ideas. It's just taking people to ridiculous places because it's just telling you what you want to hear. And so. Yeah, yeah. I have given a bad wedding speech before. I was adult. I was the best man at a wedding. And me and my best friend have a similar sense of humor. And yeah, we'd been drinking all that stuff and I just was. I was just. It was a story that was perfect for the bar but not the wedding. It was. It was like. And I remember this one time and I was, you know, I got going and I could tell, like, right. I could tell like, okay, some. This is really working with this crowd.
- [71:23]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [71:24]
Gary Parrish
And the rest of the room is like, what is this guy doing? This is supposed to be a special day. And you're just up there story time in it. It was. Yeah.
- [71:34]
Matt Norlander
No ex boyfriends, no ex girlfriends, none of that stuff. Yep, yep, yep, yep. A couple more don'ts. Don't be a control freak about the music unless you are literally friends with the DJ. Like, I was you, like 10 to 12. Absolutely. Do not play these songs. That's allowable. Don't go and give them 50 songs they can't play. Do not go cash bar under any circumstances. Do not feel obligated to go to every. What's that?
- [72:01]
Gary Parrish
What's the problem with cash bar?
- [72:04]
Matt Norlander
Because you want open bar.
- [72:05]
Gary Parrish
Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, it's not like there's a. You just want open bar as opposed to cash bar. Okay. Yeah, I'm fine. I thought there was like, real issues with cash bar. You prefer.
- [72:13]
Matt Norlander
Don't do that to your guests. Don't feel obligated to go to every single table and say thank you as a couple because that will eat up like 30 to 40 minutes of your night.
- [72:22]
Gary Parrish
And let.
- [72:22]
Matt Norlander
People are going to want to say hi and talk to you anyway. Let them come to you. Which goes to my dues. Take pictures before the ceremony. It's fun. You do the first look, it's more private. It loosens the muscles a little bit. And you are that much better for when the moment comes when she walks down the aisle. Some people don't like to see the bride, period, before you actually, actually walk down the aisle. I think the pictures before the ceremony, from a logistics standpoint and a nerve standpoint, way, way better. Put a lot of thought. Do put a lot of thought into who you are sitting with whom, because it can make the night all that much better. And where those tables are seated around the wedding venue. You don't want to get into this situation where your wedding is, is formulaic by the numbers. All right, 7:15, we're doing this. At 7:40, we're doing this. It's 8:05, we're doing this. You want it to be free flu, you know, flowing, fun, loose. If there are people that are good at meeting strangers and they're kind of like at this kind of table, but they might, you think they might be better, you know, meeting some of your other friends for the first time, put them at the same table. It can really make a big difference. Do get a videographer, have a professional document event beyond just photography. You will want to go back and watch. My wife and I intentionally watch our video every five years to go back and see. And it's incredible. I'm just really glad that we have the video portion of all that. Eat your food. Eat every single meal. I can't tell you how many weddings in my college days that I worked where the bride and groom went around and thanked everyone at the table and the appetizer and the salad and the entree was sitting there cold and then you're starving. That's how you black out, by the way. Sit down, eat your food, take it in, like soak in the room. We, you know, I was very intentional about that. Like we ate our dinner when everyone was eating. We just kind of looked around and just like took notice of how incredible this night was to see everyone that was in the room had no, no regrets about it whatsoever. And then don't be the guy that refuses to get on the dance floor if it's your wedding man or woman. Like, lead by example. You don't have to be an amazing dancer. The more the married couple is on the floor, the more people are going to want to get out on the floor and go ahead and do that and, and it'll be an incredible wedding. So a few do's and don'ts.
- [74:24]
Gary Parrish
No, those are good. Especially the dance thing. I think sometimes people get it so in their head like, I'm not a dancer. I don't go on the floor. Don't be that person because you are making it more of a thing by, by just, just go do it. And everybody will laugh or smile or do whatever they're going to do. Just get add the same hang up with opening presents. I don't like to open presents in front of other people. I don't know how to fake surprise or enjoyment or like, I'm not good at like, oh man. Thanks brother. These socks are amazing. Like I don't know how to do that. Right. I'm just like, you know, thank you for the socks. I don't. So I don't like to open presence in front of people. So I would like, you know, we'd be at my mother in law's house and everybody's opening presents, and I'd just be there hoarding presents unopened. And then you find out you're just looking weird to everybody. You're just being a weirdo who won't open a present. So now I just. I open. I'm not first person to open presents. I just get it over with. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. That's nice. Thank you. I've always wanted one of these. Thank you so much. And I just get it over with because. But that took 20 years of work before I could open presents in front of other people. But the way I had to get. The way I had to get there was to go, nobody. It's not weird that you're opening presents. It's weird that you're not. You're being a weirdo. Cut it out. Hey, some more do's and don'ts. Do make it a short ceremony. People want to get back. People want to get back to drinking and hanging out. All right.
- [75:47]
Matt Norlander
If you can do it. An hour is torture.
- [75:50]
Gary Parrish
We're here because we love you and we want to share this day with you. But wrap it up. All right? Say I do kiss her and let's get on with it. I'm ready to go get another drink. Also, I went to a wedding. Let's just say within the past. Let's stretch it out. Five years.
- [76:06]
Matt Norlander
Okay, 20 years.
- [76:07]
Gary Parrish
I went to a wedding once.
- [76:08]
Matt Norlander
I went to a wedding in my life. There we go.
- [76:11]
Gary Parrish
And the whole. I guess this is hit or miss. It was real miss here. The person. What do you call the person who work works the wedding?
- [76:27]
Matt Norlander
Just say wedding planner. I have another bit, but just so I don't. A huge. Don't. Do not put the cake in your wife's face. Don't do it. I don't care. I'm just saying. That's another. Don't.
- [76:37]
Gary Parrish
Go ahead. Who's the person that says, and you may kiss the bride. Who says that to you?
- [76:43]
Matt Norlander
It could be. It could be a priest. It could be. We had a justice of the peace. It could be any. Anyone.
- [76:48]
Gary Parrish
Okay, here's what I would say. If you hire that person straight out of a comedy club, tell them to be funny. But if you hire that person straight out of a Church, tell them just to marry you. This is what I mean. It was like they tried to do a whole, like. It was a bit like, bro, just say. Just say what you're supposed to say and get out of here. It was like he was doing a stand up routine and it was just uncomfortable. The whole thing was. And then the bride and groom, they clearly rehearsed the whole thing and they were involved in it too. And they had little jokes. It was like. It was like there was moments set up for jokes and I was just like, I guess if this was really funny, maybe it would work. But I'm not nobody's laugh. Everybody just seems like what? It just seemed off. If. How about this? If you're let. Let the funny people be funny. And if you're not that, just say I do and kiss. You can just say I do and kiss. You don't have to try to put on a show.
- [77:45]
Matt Norlander
There we go.
- [77:46]
Gary Parrish
Yeah. I thought I was gonna look like Shaka when I shaved my head. And to see him then abandon that, it's disappointing on two levels. A, I don't look like Shaka, so that's disappointing. And B, Shaka doesn't even want to look like Shaka anymore. So think about that. That's what I was aiming for. I want to look like bald Shaka Smart. And then it turns out ball Chaka smart doesn't even want to be ball shocker smart. I'm trying to be something ball shocker smart doesn't even want to be anymore. It's tough.
- [78:14]
Matt Norlander
We got a few like non question emails that I want to hit on here. I think you've got the first one from Bill. We get this question in some shape or form every single month, so we might as well toss it into this episode.
- [78:28]
Gary Parrish
Bill from Clifton Park, New York, he wants an ion college basketball greatest hits episode. He says this is probably more for Josh, but I think myself and all fans of the on college basketball pod would love to have a compilation episode that has clips of the origins of all of the recurring inside jokes on the pod. More of us than there are of them. Devin Downey, part Boilermaker Dodo Birds. Brandon Davies Camel Fighting Leaky Black Peacock Sun Devil. Mick Cronin as the best coach in UCLA history. Somebody started a blog at one point and was actually doing this. I don't know what happened, but it was like. If you ever wonder what is the Devin Downey story? Here is the Devin Downey story. And it was very good. Some of it, I just forgot some of the actual Origins of these things.
- [79:13]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [79:13]
Gary Parrish
I had to be reminded of because I forgot where they. Where they came from.
- [79:16]
Matt Norlander
This is a good idea that we are not going to ask Josh to do. But in theory, if you went back and called like 25, 20 to 25, there's even other ones that not listed in the email that would be worth including. And you put all of them into one episode. I'm sure a lot of people would because the podcast, like it grows every year. So there are people that are coming to this podcast in 2026 or arrived in 25 or 24 that have no idea where Devin Downey came from. And we. And. And every single time it's time to do a mailbag, there are questions in our inbox that are asking about this. I love the idea. I just don't know if we can like literally spend that time to go and dig and dig. Now, some of these episodes are findable. Never say never. This is a very good idea just to have available to. Hey, here's your Ion college basketball primer episode. What you need to know as when they reference this stuff. So this was a good idea from Bill from Clifton Park, New York. Never say never. But that would be a little bit of debaf. I would like to help the fans if we can, but we'll see.
- [80:20]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, they're all organic. Like, they're just things that happen. Like, I know the Devin Downey one was. I was looking up something about Kentucky and it was like. And Kentucky hasn't done this thing since that year. It was Cal's first year. John Wall, DeMarcus cousins, they started whatever. And oh, first loss was to South Carolina, Devin Downey. And it was like, man. Shouts to Devin Downey. And then it was like the neck, it came up again just randomly and I was like, yo. Shouts to Devin. And then it was just like we just. Then I started for a while. I would build in a place every episode and I would circle it back to Devin Downey. Do you remember how we'd be talking about something. I'd figure out a way to trace it back. I'd be like, so you remember, like, and what it reminds me of. And it would be Devin Down. And I abandoned that at some point. But they're all like that. They're all just sort of things that just happened and then happened again. And then we just. We did what we do.
- [81:16]
Matt Norlander
Blake in the chat is saying you should clip the time that GP's audio got stuck on repeat. A Gameson, which I still have on my computer I don't think so. I don't think this will come through. No, it's. It's. So good because we didn't know what was happening.
- [81:33]
Gary Parrish
I didn't know what was happening.
- [81:35]
Matt Norlander
That was so funny. Oh, man. That was.
- [81:38]
Gary Parrish
Fighting with something as simple as the Campbell fighting camels. And then I was like, you know on YouTube, like you can watch camels fight. Like they will actually fight each other. Yeah. I'd spend. Probably spent a good 45 minutes one night watching camels fight each other.
- [81:56]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, I dropped the way of the dodo axiom, I'll tell you that. I know. I. Well, I dropped way of the dodo and you. I don't think I'd ever heard the saying, I don't know. By the way, they're trying to bring the dodo back. You're aware of this, right?
- [82:08]
Gary Parrish
I think, I mean, I got like a.
- [82:10]
Matt Norlander
This goes back to last fall. We've got like at least a dozen emails, people pointing us to the fact that they're trying to potentially bring the dodo bird back.
- [82:16]
Gary Parrish
Well, I might have to think about how I feel about that.
- [82:20]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, I don't know how I feel about it either. Okay. A few non question emails. Although this first one technically, I guess technically as a question, but it was a question. In the middle of season, someone, Andrew from Greenville, South Carolina said, I parked next to GP at the Charlotte airport and he sent along this picture. Josh, if we have it with an I love Chester, South Carolina bumper sticker on the back of the car, which is pretty cool. He also asked, here's bringing up I love Chester, South Carolina if in all seriousness, if anyone listening has access to an I love Chester, South Carolina bumper sticker wants to send to me in GP we'll throw it in our podcast backgrounds here. Why wouldn't we want to do that? He goes as a Gamecock basketball fan. Lamont Paris is clearly going to be fired. Give me some realistic hires we could make. I got bad news for you, Andrew. You got one more year. Lamont Paris. Did you see Sam Deckers on staff at South Carolina? Did you see that?
- [83:08]
Gary Parrish
I don't think I saw that, no.
- [83:09]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, Paris was a former assistant Wisconsin when Decker played there. So Sam Decker has made his way to the college coaching ranks. Okay, these are questions. And GP has not seen these ahead of time. So I just like to drop these on them here. Stream of consciousness correspondence.
- [83:23]
Gary Parrish
Okay.
- [83:24]
Matt Norlander
Says, hi, Gary and Matt. I'm a semi shut in who loves your podcast, GP did you know we are massive in the semi Shutting community, by the way.
- [83:30]
Gary Parrish
I was not. I didn't know that, but I'm. It's. I'm pleased to hear it.
- [83:34]
Matt Norlander
This is the email. I remember you finding girls in a cabin where you were staying. The time Gary had two tennis elbows from trying to dismantle a swing set. That's right when you said your kids flooded the yard with the garden hosts. Both of you are younger than I am, but you might know that Arizona and BYU, who square off today, were whack rivals in the 1960s through 1978. My childhood was in Colorado. I'm now in California. My brother was a DJ in Memphis where he became friends with Rick D's who recorded Disco Duck. I lost my brother in 1982. He was 31. I look forward to your next podcast. Kelly said,
- [84:07]
Gary Parrish
Rick D's a legend.
- [84:08]
Matt Norlander
There's so much going on. The Rick D's is a legend. There's so much going on.
- [84:12]
Gary Parrish
A lot going on. Rick D's is a legend.
- [84:15]
Matt Norlander
I remember you finding girls in a cabin where you were staying. That's me when we booked the Airbnb in Vermont.
- [84:21]
Gary Parrish
Me and my buddies happened to me. That sounds like something I would have had with.
- [84:25]
Matt Norlander
And it was double booked. Yes, that did happen. That was going on more than a decade ago.
- [84:31]
Gary Parrish
I haven't had that exactly. But within the past few years, I checking into a hotel and they just activated a key and gave it to me. And I walked right in on a woman. She's standing there in a bra. She's just standing there, like, standing there. And I was like, oops. And I was like, yo, man. Yeah, I think you might have. I think I might have just committed sexual assault on accident. Like, you got to check my key and room number again. So. But I never had a whole cabin full of girls. That sounds exciting.
- [85:04]
Matt Norlander
I think it was like three of them. We did not wind up splitting.
- [85:06]
Gary Parrish
That's more than enough. That's. Hey, that's probably more than you need.
- [85:10]
Matt Norlander
Ally wrote, I would love to enroll my kids for private basketball lessons. Do you offer any? This was sent to the pot email account. An email from January. Good morning, gents. Love the show.
- [85:20]
Gary Parrish
GPU actually offer.
- [85:23]
Matt Norlander
GP Buzz Williams has stolen my soul. All is lost. I'm moving to Pinnacle Bank. Aaron sent this with two turtle emojis.
- [85:30]
Gary Parrish
Well, those. Those fellows got that virus on that cruise ship. And did you see where they sent them to clinical that. Well, they sent them to Nebraska. And I was like, they better not. They better not take these sick people to Pinnacle Bank. We just got Pinnacle bank popping the way it's supposed to again, and we're gonna put a bunch of virus people inside Pinnacle Bank. No way. No way.
- [85:50]
Matt Norlander
Rich from Newport, Rhode island says, love this show, fellas. Good mix of quality basketball analysis and comedy. I was on the bench press and had to stop mid set when GP goes. I'm not sure I know how to tip a hat. It was a ridiculous comment, but so funny coming from an egghead, which, which feels like a straight shot. If you guys ever come to Rhode island to visit Andy Katz, look me up. Let's grab a beer. Go for higher.
- [86:21]
Gary Parrish
Just. I'll take it again. I'll take it again. I've heard worse.
- [86:25]
Matt Norlander
I just. First of all, when we going to visit AK in Rhode Island, GP I mean, you guys ever come to Rhode island to visit Andy Katz, look me up.
- [86:37]
Gary Parrish
What if we did take a. It's me and you just got hopped in the car. We just texted Andy be like, hey man, we're coming to see you and we're going. If you don't mind, we're gonna rope in this other fella from Providence.
- [86:50]
Matt Norlander
Okay, next one is related to a show that I was not on. So me coming to this email kind of cold made it even better on my end. Mr. Parrish, I'm a longtime listener, high school teacher, and basketball coach in Florida. January 9th show you tried to justify a traffic ticket and court date for driving with a cell phone in your hand. Man up. You broke a law that has been on the books for quite some time and endangered other drivers and pedestrians. Look at the statistics for distracted driving. Man up, check your ego and pay the fine. Then announce on your show you made a mistake and are man enough to accept the punishment. John Kelly and Oviedo, Florida sent that email. I, I, I don't need the details of this, but this was amazing to read having not been on that show.
- [87:33]
Gary Parrish
Okay, let me tell you what happened real quick. I have a self driving car, Okay? I have a self driving it dry. It drives me wherever I want it to go. And so I was doing a radio interview. And the truth is though, the Bluetooth is nice for radio. It just sounds better like this. It just sounds better when you're doing this. And so I was doing a radio interview, driving to work and got pulled over, blue lights behind me and like live on the radio. I had to like get off the, hey, I'm getting pulled over. I gotta let you go. Congrats on a great. Yeah, so cop comes up and he's like so you know why I pulled you over? I said I have no idea. He said well you know, it's a hands free device state and you work, you had your phone in your hand. I said yes sir, I did. And he said well that's illegal. And I said I got you. But I don't know if you know, but my car drives itself. So like not only am I perfectly safe doing this, you know what, I'm also perfectly safe doing this. I could drive like this, it wouldn't matter at all. I could just drive like this, I could do this, I could drive like this all day long or like this, it doesn't matter. And so he just looked at me like I was crazy as he would, as he should and he wrote me the ticket anyway. And yes, I did pay it because
- [88:52]
Matt Norlander
like, because you've got an 80 inch television, your son's room. Yes, you did pay it.
- [88:57]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, you pay it because you don't want it to get pulled over next time. And now I'm, now I'm in the back of a cop car for unpaid traffic ticket or something. So of course I paid it. But I think the argument is solid. Like I get it. I think it is completely dangerous to be driving and talking on the phone. I agree. But when you have a self driving car, what is the danger involved? What like my car sees things before I see them. My car swerved to miss a butterfly the other day. All right. I know it like this was actually a not great part. It actually swerved to, to miss a butterfly. Yeah, I was like we don't need to be swerving to miss butterflies. Okay, let's take out that butterfly.
- [89:42]
Matt Norlander
See the waymos that look like they became sentient and started circling the cul de sacs like something.
- [89:47]
Gary Parrish
I'm not here to tell you the first off, the self driving is amazing. It does sometimes get confused. It does sometimes go. It gets confused sometimes. But practically speaking I am at. No, I'm, I am in. I am not making the streets any more dangerous by talking on the phone in a self driving car. I just don't believe that I am. That car is doing what it's going to do whether I'm involved or not. It is probably doing it better than I would do it if I didn't. If I were, if I were like this.
- [90:19]
Matt Norlander
I wants to know, does a self driving car know to pull over if a cops behind it?
- [90:22]
Gary Parrish
Yes, yes. It picks up on all of that stuff it pays attention to like the, the, the cop doing the school crossing. You Know where he's waving you through or telling you to stop. It sees all that. It's, it's, it's genuinely amazing. I'm not trying to do a commercial for it. It is, it's wild how advanced the technology already is. I can, I can, I can get in my driveway, hit. We had to go to a baseball tournament in Oxford, Mississippi this weekend. I can hit M. Trade park and it will just drive me straight there and I can sit there like this the whole way, no problem.
- [91:05]
Matt Norlander
I'm mentally not there. I can't do that.
- [91:07]
Gary Parrish
It freaks people out because like I'll get people like my kids friends and they'll be in the back seat and I'm just like, I'm so used to it now. I just really just hit a button.
- [91:17]
Matt Norlander
You're more likely to die on the way to the airport. You're going full Lloyd Christmas from dumb and Dumb.
- [91:22]
Gary Parrish
Listen, I know none of this is good, but bro, I'm, I fall asleep all the time. I'm just like sitting like this in the car. Yes.
- [91:33]
Matt Norlander
Dude.
- [91:33]
Gary Parrish
I'm going 80 asleep.
- [91:34]
Matt Norlander
I gotta, I gotta go 80 miles and take a nap.
- [91:39]
Gary Parrish
I am, I'm 80. I'm going, I've got it in mad Max mode. I'm going 80 dead asleep.
- [91:50]
Matt Norlander
It's ridiculous.
- [91:53]
Gary Parrish
I mean this is how much I trust these things.
- [91:57]
Matt Norlander
Wow.
- [91:57]
Gary Parrish
When my middle guy who's now 12, gets his license, his first car will be one of these self driving cars so that he doesn't have to do a thing. These things are incredible. Like I don't think people who have never experienced them understand just how incredible it is to have a car that drives you everywhere. I think we will look back in like I don't know what period of time and it'll be like, oh well, you still drive your car. That's crazy that you still drive a car. Why would you do that? It's going to get there.
- [92:29]
Matt Norlander
Andrew from Massachusetts wrote in. He said he had a story to top all of GP's run ins with TSA on. I took out his stuff, looked into his hoagie, had a hoagie examined by tsa. Can you top that one gp? Because I don't think you can.
- [92:45]
Gary Parrish
Hoagie. They took, they took a hoagie from him?
- [92:48]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. Got a hoagie from a Wawa. You had to let us know.
- [92:51]
Gary Parrish
So hold on, we're just talking about purchase something out of machine. What are we doing?
- [92:56]
Matt Norlander
Got the hoagie from the Wawa before he went to the airport and then when he went through tsa, they said, we got to check out that hoagie.
- [93:03]
Gary Parrish
Yeah. Like, I don't. I don't know. Yeah, I just sort of understand the rules at this point. I don't even try stuff like that. I just, it shouldn't be a problem. You should be able to bring a hoagie through. I agree. Like, I don't understand how we got. There's that one bit some comedian from another country does where he's like, in other countries, they just don't do TSA the way we do it here. Like, it's not as complicated in the, you know. Yeah, I think we lost our way a little bit. I think we got a little too careful with it.
- [93:34]
Matt Norlander
Ralph from Oklahoma City. Credit to Matt Norlander for the award winning bird calls. Your coverage of March Madness has been excellent. And your interpretation of a hawk wasn't bad either. There's a nest of Mississippi kites near here and you nailed it. That's what they sound like. Thanks for all the great coverage. If you say so. I don't want to have to do that again. Jacob from Richmond, Virginia, around the time of Selection Sunday on the pod, you talked about the over under for coaches with top four seeds with no final four appearances. The over under was 1.5 G. GP took the over, Norlander took the under and the over cashed. Tommy Lloyd and Brad Underwood got there. Congrats to GP And I got a couple trivia times for you. Okay, trivia time.
- [94:10]
Gary Parrish
Let's go.
- [94:11]
Matt Norlander
See, this is the thing where I would love to not know this, but I wrote the email. I know it. Mike Malone gets the UNC job. Bob from Stanford who has sent in stuff before. Trivia time related name the four coaches to win an NBA title and make the Elite Eight. Malone would join the club if he can get the Tar Heels at any point into the regional Final Four coaches.
- [94:31]
Gary Parrish
Larry Brown.
- [94:32]
Matt Norlander
Correct. Larry Brown did it and he's the most recent 104 Pistons title, 1980 UCLA Bruins and 1980 Kansas Jayhawks won a title and got to the Elite Eight at the college level.
- [94:49]
Gary Parrish
I know I'm going to know him when you name them, but like I go blank.
- [94:52]
Matt Norlander
Let's see if I can hint you here. You would not. Unless you're like, you're just not going to know the the one coach coach the Dream Team. How about that? Remember who goes to the Dream Team?
- [95:10]
Gary Parrish
Oh, Chuck Daly.
- [95:11]
Matt Norlander
Chuck Daly. I did not know he coached Penn to the elite 8 in 72.
- [95:15]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, I don't remember that either.
- [95:17]
Matt Norlander
Detroit. I'll give you the other two. Jack Ramsey. Dr. Jack Ramsey. The great late Dr. Jack Ramsey. Took St. Joseph the final four in 61. And then of course won the title in 77 with Bill Walton and the Portland Trailblazers. Then Paul Westhead, LMU Elite Eight and. And Lakers. So good on him. Bonus trivia time. What coach won five NBA? You don't have to guess it. I could tell you. Well, this guy won five titles, went back to college and never made the tournament. John Kundla.
- [95:51]
Gary Parrish
Yep.
- [95:52]
Matt Norlander
It's the Minneapolis Lakers. Won titles in 49, 50, 52, 53, 54 with George Mikin. And then coach Minnesota never got to the tournament. Well, it wasn't 70, 16. Field wasn't even.
- [96:04]
Gary Parrish
He didn't know. It's poor adapter.
- [96:06]
Matt Norlander
One more trivia time for you. This is a good one. Porter from Chicago quizzes us in the. Ken Palmera, what coach has finished with the top ranked offense the most times? I got three. Three trivia times here. This is question one. Which coach has the most number one offenses in the history of Kenpum?
- [96:26]
Gary Parrish
Is it Mark Few?
- [96:31]
Matt Norlander
Want to go again?
- [96:32]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, of course I want to go again.
- [96:34]
Matt Norlander
Okay. Which coach is the most number one offenses?
- [96:40]
Gary Parrish
Oh, I mean, let's just go. Mike Shashevsky.
- [96:45]
Matt Norlander
Let's go.
- [96:46]
Gary Parrish
Come on. Duke.
- [96:48]
Matt Norlander
That is correct. Seven times Duke had the number one offense under Coach K and Ken Palm. All right, which coach has the most top ranked defenses in the history of Kenpom? Hint. Also in the hall of Fame.
- [97:04]
Gary Parrish
Also in the hall of Fame. Top ranked defenses. Ken Palmer. I'm just gonna say Roy Williams, but I don't think that's right.
- [97:21]
Matt Norlander
Give it one more go. Still coaching in college. Pass.
- [97:25]
Gary Parrish
I was gonna say Tom Izzo.
- [97:28]
Matt Norlander
No, one more.
- [97:32]
Gary Parrish
Still coaching. Yep. Now I just need a list of names. Is it John? It's not John Calderi.
- [97:42]
Matt Norlander
Rick Patino. Okay, four times top ranked defense. That's the most last one. This is a good one. What? Three coaches have had both a top ranked offense, defense and top ranked defense. These are in different seasons, but they've actually had number one in both.
- [98:01]
Gary Parrish
Okay, so Mike Shashevsky, let's go.
- [98:03]
Matt Norlander
That's right.
- [98:05]
Gary Parrish
Okay. Rick Patino. Gotta get a point guard. Gotta get a point guard. Has hall of Fame coach John Caliperi had to have done it. Did Jay Wright ever do it?
- [98:33]
Matt Norlander
Hall of Fame coach. Still active.
- [98:36]
Gary Parrish
Still active. Hall of Fame coach.
- [98:37]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [98:42]
Gary Parrish
I don't know. Tell me Mark Few. Okay. Of course. Jesus. I've already said Mark Few.
- [98:48]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, but you didn't say for that question.
- [98:49]
Gary Parrish
Yeah. And from now on, just consider. Among my answers to everything is Mark Few. No matter. No matter what the question is, Mark Few is going to be among my answers.
- [99:00]
Matt Norlander
And then an outrageous poll here. In 2009, in 99, 2000, this coach had the number one defense. And then the next year in 2000, 2001, this coach had the number one offense, one seeds in both years. Long out of college basketball since
- [99:23]
Gary Parrish
in loot
- [99:29]
Matt Norlander
what right conference. You could never imagine this school ever being this good again. Probably asking AI right now.
- [99:44]
Gary Parrish
Stanford, Mike Montgomery, Diego.
- [99:48]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, how about that? Mike Montgomery, Mark Few, Mike Shashevsky. The only three coaches to have coached a number one offense and number one defense in the history of Ken Palm. There's. There's the list our. Our reader that sent us in. Porter from Chicago even gave us all the data. Pretty. Pretty cool stuff. Love it. Before we get out of here, yes, this has been a long episode. They always are. But I've enjoyed it thoroughly. We had a good 10 notes of correspondence on Paris versus Josh. On the golf course, more people pick GP to win than Josh. We would save this for the mailbag episode. Josh, why don't you flick on that mic? Bring yourself on cam if you so choose, or want to. It's up to you. Have a very quick recap of how this went. When you went and visited GP and you guys both got out on the links a few weeks ago.
- [100:40]
Josh
I mean, was a blast, I think. I mean, I won't speak for GP Thought it was an enjoyable time.
- [100:45]
Gary Parrish
Would you enjoy before.
- [100:46]
Josh
Before we go any further, let's make sure. Let's make sure that we both had a good time. Yeah, I. You know, I. We're not dumping on anybody here, but it wasn't particularly close.
- [100:58]
Matt Norlander
What'd you shoot, Josh
- [101:01]
Josh
at Southwind, I think it was 77 CP. Is that right?
- [101:04]
Gary Parrish
I mean, it's outrageous. Like, 77 at South Wind. Just. Just out the car is outrageous. All right. Like, I. I have been a member there for however long. I will never sniff that. Like, never. I. There's just.
- [101:21]
Matt Norlander
He just pulls into the lot, takes the clubs out of the bag, hops on the course and blasts.
- [101:28]
Gary Parrish
I knew I was in trouble. Okay, let me tell you what. I knew. I was in trouble. When his dude's got arm sleeves on, he's got his golf shirt on, but then sleeve, like, looks like.
- [101:40]
Josh
Well, I. I had played the day before and did a bad job with sunscreen, I'd have done a bad job with sunscreen. The day before. So I was. And I was on. I was touring the mid south, seeing some buddies in Nashville. So I was going to play a lot of golf over the next few days. I was like, my arms cannot get any redder. It's already, like, it's gonna be a problem. So I had to go and get sun sleeves. So I rolled up. I rolled up in sun sleeves, so I couldn't. I couldn't not play well. Rolling up in sun sleeves, there's some pressure on that.
- [102:11]
Gary Parrish
I knew I was in trouble. Now, here's the truth. He's like a. Like, we joke around, but, like, son of a doctor, grew up around it and, like, you know, probably. Probably took lessons when you were a kid and that kind of stuff. And I. I'm from Horn Lake, Mississippi, and I just sort of. You grab whatever club was laying around in the garage, and you just start swinging it like it's a baseball bat. You do the best you can. So, like, we go out there and I. This is the way I play golf. I. I generally, I think, Josh, we could attest to this. I'm going to put the ball on a tee, and I'm going to hit it, and it's going to generally go the direction I want it to go down. I'm not going to roll it. I'm not going to, you know, hit it 30 yards over there. And then I'm going to go hit my next shot, and it's going to be around the green. And now. And now let's see how many more it takes to get it in. And that's golf. I'm having a good time. And Josh is more like, all right, I think I'm gonna try to put it down the left side of this fairway so I've got a better angle coming back over that bunker because you. And like, I'm trying to hit it near the. My approach shots are designed to be around the green, and he's picking out spots on the green, and then that's just. They're different. I don't know. At some point, like, genuinely don't. No, I just. I just don't. I just did. The best I have ever, ever, ever shot at south wind is an 88. And that is when I hit every fairway on the back, but more likely gonna be low 90s. And so, like a 77. Now, you take me to, like, a normal course. I can. I, like. I mean, the most normal, basic public course. And I. I have broken 80 at one of those before where it's Just like you're never having tree trouble. There's no rough.
- [103:52]
Matt Norlander
You're just playing Connecticut. That's a different situation altogether.
- [103:55]
Gary Parrish
So many trees, narrow fairways like South Wind there. There's more balls in the water at the FedEx Andrew Championship every year than any other tournament. It on tour, and it's never close. It's never close. And you ready for this? This is the other one. Josh played all 18 with one ball. Tour players do not get through that with one ball. I've never got through it with one ball.
- [104:22]
Matt Norlander
I just love that people are like, all right, my guess is Parish beats him by like two strokes. I'll say Paris beats him by like six or seven strokes.
- [104:29]
Gary Parrish
Oh, to always take the younger guy who, whose parents went to college, you
- [104:35]
Josh
know, I, I could have done so. So two days later, in, in outside of Huntsville, I, I, I could have done this to you. I went and shot the best round ever. I shot 69.
- [104:49]
Matt Norlander
Hold on. Legitimately. You broke 70?
- [104:52]
Josh
Yeah, yeah. Here, I got the, I still have the card here.
- [104:56]
Matt Norlander
Oh, my gosh, that sound.
- [104:58]
Gary Parrish
That's just like a whole different deal.
- [105:00]
Matt Norlander
That's a. Look at all this. Look at the birdies on that line. That's a joke, dude. Wow. Good on you.
- [105:05]
Gary Parrish
No, I am, I'm basically a bogey golfer. You know, like, that's what I would be. I. A tee shot, you know, down there, approach shot, around the grain. Now, it could be an adventure, but. Yeah, but 66 times.
- [105:19]
Matt Norlander
Outrage.
- [105:19]
Josh
That, that's, I mean, that's out of my mind. I've never, never, never touching that before.
- [105:25]
Matt Norlander
Out of my mind. But it must have been an easy course.
- [105:29]
Josh
It was, it was tight and I was, I was hitting every fairway. So, like, after the tee shots, if you were finding your ball, it was, it was gettable, but on a, if you're missing left and right. It was, it was, it would have been a problem, but yeah, just basically a perfect driving.
- [105:46]
Matt Norlander
I'm like, closer to gp, but I'm not even. Like, my average round is probably like 96, 97. Like, I every, I play like 10 times a year, say, on average. I play 10 times in a spring, summer, fall. That's probably what average is. Like. If two of those 10, I can be at a 92 or 93, then I'm feeling good. Have 189 in my life. That's. I've broken 90 once and that's it. But Connecticut courses, man. Like, the trees, the woods, like, it's, it's, it's no joke.
- [106:12]
Gary Parrish
On some of these, I think the place we. Because I got a buddy of mine, he's around my age, and just decided to start playing maybe three years ago. He was just like, man, you guys talk about it like, it's the best. I just want to try, you know? And he went and took some lessons, and he's gotten to the point. And this is where I think it's. This is the point you need to get to if you just want to be able to have fun with it, where you're not. You're not embarrassing yourself with. With people. Like, where Josh isn't bored playing with me, where I can kind of keep up with him a little bit, right? You got to get to a point where you can. You could hit the ball 240 down there to 20 down there, whatever it is, and then go get it, hit it again, and it's going to be around the. You gotta. You can't be rolling balls all day if you can get to the point. And that's where I'm at. Like, I can. I'm not gonna be rolling balls. You know, I'll miss hit one, obviously, but I'm gonna get the ball generally in the direction I want to get it, and I can. I can keep up with you. And if you never get to that point, you can. You can have a good time. I.
- [107:04]
Josh
For. It is the thing that's most, like, that wears on me the most. Like, and for the most part, I. I've been playing golf, like, by myself for a long time. My dad didn't play. It was my grandfather that introduced me to it. And then, you know, I had opportunities because of my dad when I was younger. But my dad, he tried to play to his credit, and. But. But doesn't really. So I've been playing solo golf for a long time, and the thing that wears on me is when I can never say, yeah, good shot. Like, I. I want to be able to, like. Like, I. I want people in my group to hit good shots. I don't want to have to be silent the whole time because then nobody's having a good time. And. And I hate it when people say good shots to not good shots. Like, don't say good shot. If it was a bad shot, everyone knows it was a bad shot. You don't have to say good shot.
- [107:53]
Matt Norlander
But, yeah, we can wrap it. I played two weeks ago with my buddy, and then we got paired up, and one of the guys, like, he was like, first, he, like, he striped it, and he had, like, good natural power but he was a little bit erratic and like, first three, four holes he was really playing well. And then by like, I want to say 13 or 14, like, he had a few bad ones and, and, and one of them was like, it wasn't a terrible shot, but it wasn't great. Dude threw his club against the golf cart and I'm like, that's the worst. When you get paired up with something. Like, it starts one way. Like the 7 o' clock show ain't the same as the 9:30 show. And that, that turned heavy. And just don't do's and don'ts for weddings, do's and don'ts for golf. Do not be the guy at the course. Or if you get paired up with another twosome, you become a rage. A hole by the 14th, though, because, you know, I bet you he shot. I bet you he probably shot like 85 on the day. Like, he shot better than me. But just don't be. You'd be that guy with your three closest friends if you want. But if you're paired up with someone that you don't know, like, like it keep. Keep that in a different group because it got. It was like, it was. Was I awkward? I'm like, what are we doing? This dude literally just threw his nine iron against the cart on the. For the approach to 14. It was super weird.
- [109:08]
Gary Parrish
I get frustrated, so I'll say, like, you know, I'll cuss at myself, but I don't start throwing things or anything like that. Like, I'm always having a good time. Like, I'm always. No matter how the golf is going, I'm outside, like, with. Usually with friends, like, enjoying a nice place. I can hear the birds chirping. Like, the bad days are good days. But I've got friend. There's one guy who's in my. One of my Sunday groups.
- [109:35]
Matt Norlander
Everyone knows it's Vernon. I'm sorry, Everyone knows it's Vernon. It's okay.
- [109:39]
Gary Parrish
No, no, this one's not Vernon. But yeah, like, Vernon's a Chris Vernon from the Ringer podcast and he's one of my Sunday groups. We played yesterday. But another guy, he gets so mad, like, he just shuts down. So this is a very normal thing. He would live in downtown Memphis, drive all the way out to Southwind, 35 minute drive, get there, get a cup of coffee, warm up. This is a true story. We're on the first tee box. He hits a tee shot, goes a little right. Second shot from the rough, hits a tree, comes back at him. He literally Picks the ball up, walks over to the cart, gets the bag, takes it off the cart, walks back to the clubhouse. Quits. Never even made it to the first crane. He was so mad. And that's like, crazy, crazy.
- [110:29]
Josh
We might need to check on that guy.
- [110:30]
Gary Parrish
We might need to check on that guy.
- [110:35]
Matt Norlander
Just be like.
- [110:35]
Gary Parrish
He just say, like, I just. This is not. I'm just not gonna spend my time like this tonight. If it's no better than this, I'm just not gonna spend my time like this. I'm like, bro, you got up two hours ago to come out here and do this. You've swung the club twice. He took two swings and left.
- [110:51]
Matt Norlander
That's almost as insane as hopping in the car and going to. Going to. Going to bed at 80 miles an hour. That's pretty close.
- [110:57]
Gary Parrish
I could drive like this. I'm driving home. I'm a blindfold most. Let me show you how I'm driving home today.
- [111:12]
Josh
The mailbag is going. It's going so well.
- [111:15]
Gary Parrish
It's going.
- [111:15]
Matt Norlander
Just, just. Just put this on social media right there.
- [111:19]
Gary Parrish
That's the way I'm driving home today. I.
- [111:22]
Matt Norlander
For everyone listening, which is still in the overwhelmingly majority of this podcast, I'm
- [111:28]
Gary Parrish
surprised I'm even still here.
- [111:30]
Matt Norlander
Well famous it ever was. He just put a winter hat over his face entirely and just said that's how he's riding them, you know, I dare you to do that, by the way. I dare you, bro. I will do it over your face and ride the entire way home and live stream it.
- [111:45]
Gary Parrish
Okay. I swear. I was about to say I will do it. I'm just. I'm being completely honest with you. This morning, on the way to work, I tried to hit it and they temporarily took it away from me because they said I was abusing it. So I don't know if I have it when I get back in my car because I temporarily took it away.
- [112:09]
Matt Norlander
You have to manually drive yourself.
- [112:11]
Josh
Oh, no.
- [112:12]
Gary Parrish
It said you've been ignoring our instructions because I'm driving around like this. So they took it away. But I don't think that's fair. I don't think you should be able to take my driving away. Who do I need to talk to about this? I need to hire Darren Heitner. Like, they shouldn't be able to take my self driving away just because I was getting a little loose with it. So I'll see if I got it when I get to the. I'm gonna walk down there now. I'm gonna see if I got it. If I do. I'm driving home like this.
- [112:49]
Matt Norlander
Top two, longest mailbag show ever. We will have another one. I promise. It won't be this long. This was a. This was a fun one. We also had time to kill here on a Monday. We will be back on Friday, CBS Sports Network. We're going to TV for that one. That'll also be on YouTube and in the feed. Me and this guy right here. That's a pod. Thanks for listening, Josh. Just end the show. We. We. This is. This is how
- [113:16]
Gary Parrish
Carolina Terry Teago's a legend. So is Hawk and Larnell and Hormoos. Hold on,
- [113:24]
Matt Norlander
hold on, hold on. Hormuz. Hormuz. And the shouts. Can we make a deal? When that baby's wide open again, it
- [113:32]
Gary Parrish
is never gonna open again. That straight is never open again. It's over. It's all over. The straight is never opening again.
- [113:40]
Matt Norlander
All right, do what you gotta do.
- [113:42]
Gary Parrish
The straight is never opening again. They got mines in that thing. It's wild. I'd hit 70 golf balls in that straight. Josh would hit zero my ball. I'd have a bunch of Callaways in there just getting blown up. Blowing up my Calloways. If you're not subscribed, please go subscribe anywhere. You subscribe to podcasts like Apple and Spotify. There's more of us than there are of them. That needs to be reflected in the comments. So do that. We're gonna talk to you again on Friday on tv. I'm wearing the same outfit. Till then, take care of. Paramount podcasts. Everything has to come to an end. Streaming May 22nd on Paramount.
- [114:34]
Matt Norlander
Plus the acclaimed series the Shy reaches its final chapter.
- [114:38]
Gary Parrish
We from Chicago. It's my home.
- [114:41]
Matt Norlander
From Emmy award winner Lena Wade.
- [114:44]
Gary Parrish
There are two types of people in this world. Those that reach for more, and those that just enjoy what they got. This the Shy. Anything's possible Singing this song to you the shy the final season. Streaming May 22nd only on Paramount. Plus.