Coach Dan Hurley, Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus, Ovi Breaks The Goal Record, An Incredible Final Four And All Time Choke By Duke

Summary

Pardon My Take – April 7, 2025: Coach Dan Hurley, Mark Hoppus, Ovi Breaks the Goal Record, an Incredible Final Four, and Duke's All-Time Choke

Hosted by Big Cat & PFT Commenter from Barstool Sports

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1. Breaking NHL’s All-Time Goal Record: Alexander Ovechkin

Alexander Ovechkin, Washington Capitals’ star forward, made history by breaking Wayne Gretzky's longstanding all-time NHL goal record. The hosts celebrate this monumental achievement, highlighting Ovi's dedication and remarkable consistency over his career.

• PFT Commenter ([03:21]): "Some call him a one trick pony. That's not the case. But he is very, very good at that one trick."

• Dan Hurley ([05:29]): "It's also awesome that Ovi's done it all in one jersey. This is something that doesn't happen often in sports as well."

Discussion points include Ovi's decision not to score an empty-net goal, ensuring his record-breaking goal's legitimacy, and the emotional significance tied to his family and the historic venue, where Gretzky scored his last goal.

• PFT Commenter ([05:28]): "He did it from his office. Perfect shot."

The conversation also touches on the challenges Ovi overcame, such as several strike-shortened seasons and a broken leg, underscoring his resilience and longevity in the sport.

2. Final Four Basketball Extravaganza

The Final Four delivered thrilling games, with significant attention on Florida vs. Auburn and Houston vs. Duke. The hosts delve into standout performances, strategic plays, and unexpected outcomes.

a. Florida vs. Auburn: Walter Clayton Shines

Walter Clayton of Florida showcased an outstanding performance, scoring 34 points, becoming only the second player since Larry Bird to score 30+ points in back-to-back Elite Eight and Final Four games.

• Dan Hurley ([14:07]): "Walter Clayton saved me one more time. That's how I'm going into this game."

Highlights include Clayton's unstoppable baseline three-pointer and his ability to consistently find the net despite Auburn's defensive efforts.

• PFT Commenter ([16:18]): "He's a problem. An incredible player."

b. Houston vs. Duke: The Ultimate Choke

In a dramatic showdown, Houston triumphed over Duke in what many consider the biggest choke in Final Four history. Despite Duke's analytical superiority—leading in field goal percentage, assists, and steals—they faltered in the final moments.

• PFT Commenter ([25:41]): "They're the only team to have a higher field goal percentage, more assists, fewer turnovers, more steals, and still lose in the NCAA tournament."

Criticism is directed towards Duke's Cooper Flag for missing crucial shots in the last minutes, emphasizing the importance of a true point guard in high-stakes games.

• Dan Hurley ([27:32]): "Duke gets all the hate. That was the biggest choke in Final Four history."

The hosts express mixed emotions—celebrating Houston's tenacity while lamenting Duke's missed opportunities.

3. Exclusive Interviews

a. Interview with Coach Dan Hurley

Coach Dan Hurley, celebrated for leading his team to back-to-back national championships, shares insights into his coaching philosophy, team culture, and preparation for the championship game.

• Coach Hurley ([75:22]): "Everything is pretty automatic by this time of year... you have a point guard who can bring the ball up the court."

He discusses the critical role of assistant coaches like Luke Murray in devising defensive strategies against formidable opponents and maintaining team morale during high-pressure situations.

• Coach Hurley ([77:07]): "We're riding with Florida. I'm not getting off that."

The conversation highlights the importance of trust and communication within the coaching staff to adapt strategies swiftly during tournaments.

b. Interview with Mark Hoppus of Blink-182

Mark Hoppus, bassist and vocalist of the iconic band Blink-182, discusses his new memoir, "Fahrenheit 182AMemoir," reflecting on his experiences with the band, personal challenges, and creative processes.

• Mark Hoppus ([108:41]): "When you're going through [cancer], just write... it's really helpful to me."

He recounts Blink-182's formation, creative milestones, and the evolution of their music, emphasizing the brotherhood and resilience that sustained the band through numerous reunions and challenges.

• Mark Hoppus ([117:28]): "We have a shorthand and a brotherhood and a friendship that we just come back together... it's like, okay, cool. What are we gonna do now?"

Mark also touches on his battle with cancer, detailing how writing and recording his memoir served as a therapeutic outlet during treatment.

• Mark Hoppus ([117:53]): "I think that people are going to discover that I'm smarter than people think that I am and that also, I'm a lot darker than people think that I am."

His reflections offer fans a deeper understanding of the man behind the music, highlighting his vulnerability and strength.

4. Concluding Thoughts

The episode wraps up with the hosts expressing excitement for the upcoming championship game between Florida and Houston, predicting a close and exhilarating match due to the comparable strengths of both teams.

• Dan Hurley ([44:59]): "I think it's going to be a great game because I think both of these teams are just really... they're amazing, awesome teams."

The combination of historic sports achievements and insightful guest interviews makes this episode a must-listen for sports enthusiasts and Blink-182 fans alike.

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Notable Quotes:

• PFT Commenter ([04:02]): "He sucks. So I paid 20 bucks. I need to cancel that subscription immediately so I can get my money back."

• Coach Dan Hurley ([99:07]): "We feel like we've been honest that... we've been honest."

• Mark Hoppus ([140:30]): "I'm a lot darker than people think that I am."

This comprehensive summary encapsulates the episode's key moments, providing listeners with a vivid overview of the discussions around Alexander Ovechkin's record-breaking achievement, the dramatic Final Four basketball games, and exclusive interviews with Coach Dan Hurley and Mark Hoppus. Through engaging conversations and insightful analysis, Big Cat and PFT Commenter deliver an episode brimming with sports passion and personal stories.

Transcript

[Dan Hurley]

Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

[PFT Commenter]

When your home system or appliance breaks down, American Home Shield will help fix or replace the covered item, no matter its age. Visit ahs.com listen for 20% off any plan.

[Mark Hoppus]

See ahs.com contracts for coverage details, limitations.

[Dan Hurley]

And exclusions on today's part in my take, we have a two for for the people. We have two great interviews. Coach Dan Hurley on the show to talk about the Final Four national championship. Also everything that's gone on the last six months in his life. Really good interview, honest interview. And then we have a great interview with Blink 182 Mark Hoppus. Really, really awesome conversation with him. Legend of the music industry. And we're going to talk about the Final Four. We're going to talk about OV Breaking the record. Great weekend in sports. And then we're going to finish off with a Monday reading, which I don't think we've ever done a Monday reading for our guy Mike Florio. But Mike Florio gave us a beautiful Monday reading that we're going to finish the show with. We are brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. When it comes to college basketball and March mania, one thing is for sure, nothing's for sure. Upsets, buzzer beaters, Cinderella's advancing, top seeds. Going home early. It's all going to happen. Bet the unexpected. Every upset, every day with DraftKings sportsbook. With live betting, exclusive content, promos and parlays, DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready to make your first bet? Check out the matchups and pick a team to win. It's that simple. First time here's something special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet $5 to get 150 in bonus bets instantly. Bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get 150 in bonus bets. When you bet just five bucks on only on DraftKings, the crown is yours.

[Mark Hoppus]

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[Dan Hurley]

Okay, let's go. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. Bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Today is Monday, April 7th, and Alexander Ovechkin is the goal king. He breaks the record. Congratulations to ovi. Congratulations to pft. Incredible. Incredible moment.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I mean, it was. It's been great watching him. That's been one guy that pretty much since I was in college. I've gotten the pleasure of watching OVI score that same goal over and over and over and over again. Some call him a one trick pony. That's not the case. But he is very, very good at that one trick.

[Dan Hurley]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

So he. That goal that he scored, it was awesome to see him scored from his office against the Islanders as that's the same place where Gretzky scored his last goal too. They did it in the exact same number of games. I noticed that Memes was running the account today, so he made sure to post about all class by the Islanders congratulating Ovechkin. That was the first thing that he posted.

[Dan Hurley]

That was the first content.

[PFT Commenter]

No, the first go. He had a graphic. And then the first like highlight of after that goal was the Islanders congratulating ovi. But I, I agree. Memes. All class. Great job by the boys in the barn. Great win today. The game on Friday though. I watched him play against the Blackhawks. Big cat. I don't know how you deal with this Jerry Reinsdorf because it was on NHL network. It was a. It was a nationally broadcast game. I couldn't watch it. I had to download an app and then pay $20 to be able to watch a month worth of Blackhawks games.

[Dan Hurley]

I've been watching all the games illegally this year.

[PFT Commenter]

Good.

[Dan Hurley]

I have a workaround that I. I will not tell, but I have a workaround that I've been watching the games legally because he's such a piece of. Yeah, I don't want to give him money.

[PFT Commenter]

He sucks. So I paid 20 bucks. I need to. I need to cancel that subscription immediately so I can get my money back. But the game on Friday was awesome because OV had what ended up being the game winning goal and then he could have stayed on the ice to get a hat trick.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

With an empty netter. And he told Carberry, the coach, no, don't put me in the game. Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want to break this on an empty netter. So instead, we got Ryan Leonard. Ryan Leonard Skinner's first NHL goal on an empty netter that could have been ovi's. So OBI was like, it. I. I know it's at home, and I don't think anybody would have given him a hard time if he got an empty netter. When you take into account that he also got the game winner. And it would have been a hat trick.

[Dan Hurley]

Right.

[PFT Commenter]

That would kind of take away some of the. Some of the sting from the haters that might be, like, fake record. But he said, no, I don't want to do it on empty netter. Instead, he did it from his office.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, he did it perfectly.

[PFT Commenter]

Perfect. Perfect shot. That shot has been happening for 20 years. Yeah, he's been scoring that goal for 20 years. Nobody's ever figured out how to stop it. Nobody ever will figure out how to stop it. And then, yeah, he had. He had his two sons there. They came down on the ice. His wife, his mom was in attendance. His. I'm terrified of OB's mom, by the way. I think she could beat the. Out of me.

[Dan Hurley]

Probably.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

But it was. Yeah, it was perfect. You didn't want, like, in these memorable moments. First of all, it's crazy, this record. Like, I think a lot of people thought this record would never fall. Credit to John Buchegras. He actually has the receipts. In 2010, he wrote a blog being like, hey, could Ovi break this record? And this is when Ovi was, like, 24 years old.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

And he. He did an entire list, like, being like, here's what I think. He could score every year, like, throwing in injuries, throwing in, you know, maybe waning a couple years. And he's like, yeah, I think he could do it. People called him crazy then because this was one of those records that's like, it's never going to be broken. And so credit to Boochie for. For being the first call. But the fact that he did it, how he did it, not doing the empty netter, scoring that goal, the celebration was perfect. You didn't want the goal to be like, you know, either, like a deflection or something, you know, where it just doesn't. Obviously it doesn't matter how he scores, but it was perfect that he scored that way.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Great shot. Great assist by Tom Wilson. The. The crazy Thing is. Well, also, you're right, the celebration was perfect. Just slide on the belly.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

That's what I love about OVI throughout his entire career, every time he scores a goal, he turns into a four year old.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

That's like, I score goal and he like jumps against the glass and he freaks out. You can go back and watch the goal that he scored when he was a rookie.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

His rookie season, they called the goal against the Coyotes where he's sliding on his back, rotates, does a toe drag past defender, and then scores from his. From his side. Essentially, the coach of the Coyotes in that game was Wayne Gretzky. And you could see the look on Wayne's face after he scored that goal, where he looks up at the scoreboard, he's like, holy, this kid's really, really good.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Somebody else pointed out Brian Buet was the goalie that day, and he was the on ice reporter for the game where OVI scored his goal. And also Austin Matthews was in the crowd. That's like the. The Chris Berman, Tom Brady thing. Austin Matthews was watching.

[Dan Hurley]

And the. One of the craziest ones. That was very cool. In 2004. This date, the Capitals win the draft lottery for the rights to draft OV.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

So on this date, 20. Whatever it is, 21 years ago, they. They're like, we're about to draft OV and our franchise is about to be completely changed. And then on this date, 21 years later, he breaks Wayne Gretzky's record, which everyone thought wasn't going to happen. I also was thinking pft, because it is. It. It's crazy. It's like there's unbreakable. There's very few records that like, still stand in all of sports where you're like, holy shit. And be like, man, this is crazy. This happened. I'm so. I'm so happy that he won a Stanley Cup.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I know.

[Dan Hurley]

Like, that would have. This moment changed everything.

[PFT Commenter]

This moment would have kind of sucked.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, it would have been great. It would have been super impressive that he did it, but it would have kind of sucked because it would have been. Everybody would be like, never won the big one.

[Dan Hurley]

It's also awesome that ovi's done it all in one jersey. This is something that doesn't happen often in sports as well. Like, it's very cool to think, like, even from a big. And we're gonna about to get into NHL playoffs, so we're gonna have Biz and Yans and Wit on a bunch, but like, like, to Have Sydney Crosby and ov.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Be one Jersey guys and also completely live up to the hype. Yeah. Is pretty cool.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Live up and surpass the hype for both of them. And it's, it's funny because over the years, I used to hate the Pittsburgh Penguins. I hated them so much. But now as both OV and Crosby get older, it's kind of like you respect the other team.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

It's like they've. Crosby was really, really good. OVI was really, really good. And if you go back and look at. Because I was fully prepared to battle haters, I thought that there would be many haters. Oh, I don't think that that would try to tear it down. Surprisingly, not surprisingly. Everybody was like, this is great, but can I just say the things that I would have said if there had been haters?

[Dan Hurley]

Sure.

[PFT Commenter]

I was anticipating the empty. Empty netter goals, those guys. But again, as I've said before, if you score an empty netter, it means that you were winning the game.

[Dan Hurley]

Correct.

[PFT Commenter]

And a lot of those winning games were because OVI had scored earlier. Correct. And then he had two strike shortened years. Essentially lost like a season and a half to, to lockouts. I don't know if they were strikes or I think they were lockouts. And then, yeah, there was one where.

[Dan Hurley]

The hockey didn't start till like January and played like whatever.

[PFT Commenter]

And then there was Covid games and then there was a covet season. So he's lost about two seasons worth of games throughout his career. And he still did it. And he's still going. Still going. And also credit to Wayne Gretzky because if you took away all of his goals, he would still be the all time leading points getter in NFL, NHL history. Which is crazy.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So he was obviously much more of an assist guy than, than OVI was. But over. Yeah. The best goal scorer of all time. And he's not done. And he did it in a season where the Caps are not only competitive, they're competitive for the President's Cup.

[Dan Hurley]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

And.

[Dan Hurley]

And he broke his leg.

[PFT Commenter]

And he broke his leg and he's still playing great. Like this is one of his better seasons that he's having right now.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So, yeah, I'm, I, I was very pumped. I'm not gonna lie. I, I got a little misty eyed because something like this happens and you think of all the times you got to watch your favorite player scoring these goals over the course of your adult life and it was really, really cool to see. I don't know, I don't want to say it's unbreakable, because that's what they said when. When Gretzky got it. But maybe Ryan Leonard will get one day.

[Dan Hurley]

It's. It's gonna be very hard because he's still going, and I don't know if he's gonna stop, like. And you know what? I love it, too. That ovi. He's. He's doing it with his way in terms of. Not the best body.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

You know, kind of just a guy's dude.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

I saw this clip of Maker Dance.

[PFT Commenter]

Benzemaker.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, I saw the clip because there's been so much OV content. It's all been so funny. The. His first ever golf round, he had a whole in one.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

He's just like, yeah, I hit it in.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it was so hard.

[Dan Hurley]

Swung and missed on the first one. I was like, what do you mean? I hit it in.

[PFT Commenter]

When he got the. The key to the city, I think when he was a rookie, he was like, no speed of limit in Washington, D.C. today. He's been so funny.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

So funny. So. Yeah. Congrats. Pft. Congrats, ov. Really, really cool moment.

[PFT Commenter]

At some point, I would love to have OVI on part of my take, but I feel like that that would need to be in person. Might be a bit of a language barrier there.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, probably. Probably would be a language barrier. Yeah. I didn't see many haters at all. I saw one straight tweet that was like the biggest loser tweet ever. But that was. Someone was like, he likes Putin.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah. I mean, imagine.

[Dan Hurley]

Imagine. Imagine someone breaking the record and liking Hitler. And it's like, what?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, for.

[Dan Hurley]

For a while there was like, also, you know, have you looked up what. What Bobby Hole has said?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I created the DC sports superstar triangle a few years ago. I think it was right during the invasion of Ukraine, but Jaden kind of got rid of the sports triangle. But for a while, the sports triangle was. You can only pick two of these. Three of these three things. One, generational talent. Two, does not have a debilitating injury. Three, does not support a murderous dictator. So you can pick two of those. Yeah, you can't pick three.

[Dan Hurley]

Can't be choo.

[PFT Commenter]

To my knowledge, and I hope, no, nobody asked Jaden Daniels what he thinks about Putin. Yeah, please.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, let's keep that off.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. We don't need to know. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was super cool to watch.

[Dan Hurley]

Very, very cool. Also, I. I did see a insult stat that someone posted about the Sabers that this just crossed. I got tagged in it because insult stats. I get tagged in insults. That the last time the Sabers made the playoff playoffs, Alex Oetkin was 594 goals away from breaking the record.

[PFT Commenter]

That's crazy.

[Dan Hurley]

That's insane. I think they have the record for. I know they have it in the NHL. They might be close for all sports.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that's. That's nuts.

[Dan Hurley]

Not being in the playoffs.

[PFT Commenter]

Meme says yes.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, do they. They go back and forth at the Jets. Oh, okay. So right now it's the Jets. As soon as the season's over, it's back to the Sabres switching back and forth. So memes. It happened against the Islanders.

[PFT Commenter]

You.

[Dan Hurley]

You feel like they did a very classy job.

[PFT Commenter]

They did a very classy job.

[Dan Hurley]

The ceremony took way too long. You got to do it at one of the 20 minute intermissions. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, they had that red carpet out there instantly. Yeah, they were ready to go. Okay, 50 has the shirt with the date on it already. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go buy the shirt.

[PFT Commenter]

Go buy. We got all sorts of OV. Goat merch up in the store right now. My favorite is the one that shows him scoring the same goal for 20 years. Yeah, the Goat King.

[Dan Hurley]

Do we have any. Any other sports to talk about this weekend?

[PFT Commenter]

There were some sports happening this weekend. Yeah, there was a great game on Saturday.

[Dan Hurley]

Valero, Texas Open.

[PFT Commenter]

No, I was talking about the crown. Congrats to Nebraska.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Big 10, two or three of the Dodgers. So I, I mean, Ovi deserved this top of the show, but I, if, if you guys been like, hey, you guys want to just talk about Duke's downfall for four hours, but like, sign me up. I'll take off my pants right now. Because that was.

[PFT Commenter]

It was great.

[Dan Hurley]

Holy fuck, was that an incredible final four delivered. So let's talk Florida, Auburn first. Because I want to just edge myself a little bit more. And then I want to talk about Houston and then I want to talk about Duke.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Dan Hurley]

Because I had. It was a haters. It was the best hater watch I've had in a very long time. I barely slept last night. I was just reading message boards. All the shit. All right, so Florida, Auburn. Great game. Walter Clayton. Walter Clayton is so fucking good. He had 34 points. He's the first player to score 30 plus in back to back elite eight final four games since Larry Bird. I think Larry Bird might be the only one who's ever done it besides him. Pretty. Pretty good company there. 34 points and it was. You know what's crazy about what Walter Clayton did? I actually thought Auburn played decent defense on him. He was just so good that. Like that baseline three that he made, that was. You can't do anything about. He had a couple drives where it felt like there were four Auburn players, and he found a way through and finished at the hoop like he was out of control. I also saw the best way to sum up how good Walter Clayton is is a tweet from March 16 where a guy named T. Black said, Walter Clayton Jr. Is so raw, you forget his first name is Walter. And Walter Clayton replied with a bunch of laughing emojis. But that's the fact.

[PFT Commenter]

Is Walter Clayton the best Walter AY ever in the history of sports?

[Dan Hurley]

Walter Aon? I would say, yeah. There's probably a couple other Walter a.

[PFT Commenter]

I can think of one.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

But.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, but it's true.

[PFT Commenter]

It is true.

[Dan Hurley]

Walter Payton. Is it like that name fit? Because that's what you named people back then. Walter's not a name you hear anymore.

[PFT Commenter]

Walt.

[Dan Hurley]

Walt.

[PFT Commenter]

Walt. It's. Yeah, I think he's probably right. I don't. When I. When I think about Walter Clayton, I don't think about Walter. I just think about the W. I think about.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, I just think about. That guy's raw.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So I. I love watching him play. Elijah Martin, I. He might be. He might be the best dunker in college basketball right now.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. That's how that dunk changed the energy of the game.

[PFT Commenter]

That's how I evaluate NBA talent.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Based on how you dunk in college.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And Elijah Martin. Yeah. Take him one.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. He was. It was Florida also, like, the first half, their front court looked like they didn't know how to hold the basketball, play basketball like Condon didn't have. I mean, Condon was still impactful. He didn't have the best offensive game. But second half, it felt like a combination of Walter Clayton just absolutely taking over. And Elijah Martin also. And Janai Broom, who I. I feel like the beginning of the game, you saw Janai Broom, the real Janai Broom, then his adrenaline wore off, and it just wasn't the same. Like, the injuries kind of caught. Finally caught up to him. And it was clear he wasn't fully healthy. And then this. The other guys on Auburn, outside of Baker Mazar, like, they needed to be great, and there wasn't that much, like, Todd Pettiford, who I love, was not great. And so that's where the difference in the game came.

[PFT Commenter]

Baker Mazara gave him A little bit of offense. He made some big shots.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, he scored like 10 points in the first.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't think Alex Condon played well. Well, when he was out there defensively, he was still.

[Dan Hurley]

He still is like out there doing.

[PFT Commenter]

He's bigger than. What's his name? Ha. Yeah, he, he has better. I don't know how you pronounce his name, but he's better offensively clearly than, than Condon has been. Yeah, but then Condon, yeah, he's, he's a bigger body on defense.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, it was. I mean he did not. He had a game to forget in terms of offensive numbers. But I, I still think he's important in, in some of the things he does especially. I mean he had, he had a, you know, some big rebounds of block, but yeah, it was. Florida felt like they could have played a lot better. Their front court was not good.

[PFT Commenter]

They didn't have their best game and they still beat Auburn because Walter Clayton.

[Dan Hurley]

Pretty good because Walter Clayton is like that. Yeah, he was incredible. Incredible.

[PFT Commenter]

Now I think, I think Big Cat Houston's going to be a little bit different than Florida in terms of defending Clayton.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, well. But again I, I. Auburn, like they, they did a lot. They, they like Walter Clayton wasn't, it wasn't like he was getting open look after open look. He's just been so much in the zone and they were saying that after. Like he's just been in the zone.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

So I, Yeah, I mean they're going to defend him differently but I just, he, he was making shots that you can't really. It happened in the Elite Eight when he had that shot that he, you know, where he was standing in the lane and basically just dribbled backwards and then popped it right before anyone could even realize what he was doing that baseline three. Like he's just doing shit that it's, he's playing on a different level.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he's great. He's. He's an awesome player. This game had way too many reviews.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Way too many out of bounds reviews.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And it got to the point where like players were doing the. Look at it again.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

For things that I didn't care if they got right or not.

[Dan Hurley]

It just had dumb basketball down the stretch. Auburn. Auburn. I think they're biggest fatal flaw besides Janai Broom being injured was just. They, they had a lot of dumb basketball moments.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

And, and those came out at the end of the game where it was just like, what is going on right now?

[PFT Commenter]

But it was great watching these even when you know one team would pull away because Florida had what they were down by eight points at halftime.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Even when the game wasn't that close in the moment, you could still watch these guys play and be like, these are two great teams that are playing each other.

[Dan Hurley]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

It felt good to, to feel that way about college basketball.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Dan Hurley]

And have a final Four, actually deliver on a game that we, we needed, we need. The second game was a fantastic game. Second game was incredible.

[PFT Commenter]

Houston, would you say all time, all.

[Dan Hurley]

Time choke job, all time game, all time choke job. So I don't, I have a lot of Duke hate that's going to flow through me, but I don't want to forget how good Houston was and how impressive they are as a team. And Kelvin Sampson, he had the quote afterwards. No one ever loses anything as long as you don't quit. When you quit, I don't care you've lost. And like that watching that game. And, and coach Danny Hurley tells us this about like most, a lesser team would be dead. It did feel like Houston was dead and they just didn't give up. And their guys made big play after big play down the stretch when the game started to tilt and their defense ratcheted up. And I think like more than anything with Houston, it's their culture as a team. And a program like was was illustrated at the end of the game when you had things like J1 Roberts, who's 67% free throw shooter, hit two big free throws to go up. Also I found out afterwards that Kelvin Sampson has everyone on the team. They take 150 free throws a day, even on days off, and they tape it and they review the film. I love that, love that they had the Tugler moment where probably one of the dumbest plays ever with, with Joseph Tugler trying to strip the inbound before the ball comes in.

[PFT Commenter]

That's, that's Houston culture.

[Dan Hurley]

Ends up in a technical foul con. Knipple hits the free throw, but what happens? He's, he, he stays locked in and he hit. He has the put back dunk. That makes it 67, 66. Yeah, like shit like that. Where. Or I don't know if you saw, but like the Malik Wilson like the, the, the sequence with 32 seconds left. You can look at the game, you can look at the box score. 32 seconds left. It's like Oozon gets subbed out for Malik Wilson. Malik Wilson subbed in. Malik Wilson Steel. That's the next play. Like Kelvin Sampson knowing, hey, we have an offensive defensive possession here. Put in our best guy, that changes the whole game. L.J. crier, who was 2 for or sorry, 3 for 13 in the Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteen, he was 6 for 9 from 3. Like just shooting like. It's just all these guys that are just so good and they didn't give up. And the way they fought was so impressive because it did feel like Duke was going to steamroll him and it felt like there was no chance and the game was over and they just didn't stop fighting. And Duke had what, one field goal in the last 10 minutes?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So if you look at the stats for Duke's offense, I think they had one field goal. Yeah, one. One basket from the field in the last 10.5 minutes of the game. Can we pull up this, this video from Mike Underscore Gaki J A G A C I A C K I they also had. Because this is. This is Houston in practice.

[Dan Hurley]

Is it though? Is it the diving around?

[PFT Commenter]

This is what Houston does every single practice. They have two guys line up and then the coach throws the ball. I don't know if that's Kelvin Sampson or not. Somebody throws the ball out, then they just wrestle on the court to see who gets loose ball. This is, that's how Houston play plays all the time. This is an awesome way to end practice at an elite college. Like they're running into the walls and wrestling each other.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And that's how they play. And at the end of the game when they get that steal off the inbounds pass, was that. That was C on James. That was inbounding that.

[Dan Hurley]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

I thought he might have had a concussion earlier in the game when he landed on his head. So he inbounds the ball, it gets deflected twice, goes bounces out to take the three and then the put back dunk on it.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, that was the Tuggler dunk, which was an incredible. And Malik Wilson was one who stole it.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Also this, this, this drill, Duke's last rebound, not offensive or defensive. Last rebound in the game was with 3 minutes and 24 seconds left.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, pretty.

[Dan Hurley]

That was, that was it. Like they just. And they put the pressure on them. They, you know, started. It was just. It was. The whole thing was so impressive by Kelvin Sampson because if you watch the first 30 minutes of that game, you thought Houston was going to be outclassed and they just did not give up whatsoever and kept fighting and kept fighting and I was completely in like their game plan. Like Malawk didn't have any rebounds. It was very clear what they were doing. Making. Pulling him away from the hoop and giving themselves a chance to get those offensive rebounds. Kelvin Sampson is an insanely good coach. And they also had Jim Nance wearing his lucky sweater that he's never lost him.

[PFT Commenter]

And he was crying.

[Dan Hurley]

He was crying.

[PFT Commenter]

He made Jim Nance cry tears of joy at the end of it, which was incredible. Here's some fun stats about Duke. And actually, before we get to the. The fun stats about Duke, Cooper cup is awesome. Or sorry. Cooper flag is awesome. He's in the. He's in it. Listen, wait, can we.

[Dan Hurley]

Are we doing the Duke stuff? Are we getting the Duke hater on?

[PFT Commenter]

Let me get to it. Let me get to it.

[Dan Hurley]

He's not clutch.

[PFT Commenter]

Cooper. Cooper flag is incredible. He had.

[Dan Hurley]

Not clutch.

[PFT Commenter]

He had a great game. Offensively, I don't.

[Dan Hurley]

I'm throwing all this.

[PFT Commenter]

He had a great. I'm gonna get to it. He had a great game passing the ball. He had a great game just making the right decision. Great game. Defensively, he was doing it all. But as our good friend and recurring guest Skip Bayless would like to know, does he have the clutch gene? And I. I sat down, I watched 15 minutes of Skip Bayless breaking down Cooper Flag. And when I say 10 minutes of those 15 minutes were actually Skip Bayless talking about LeBron and the ways that he's disappointed him. It was a perfect video from Skip Bayless. He reminds him so much of LeBron James, except he might be a better free throw shooter than LeBron James. But at the end of the game, you got to get up if you want to get it in. He didn't get it up. No hit off the front iron. He had his chance.

[Dan Hurley]

He. Duke has been in four close games all year, and I think three out of four, he's either fallen down or.

[PFT Commenter]

Missed the shot in Kentucky.

[Dan Hurley]

Not good. Not. Not a clutch player. I'm not saying anything nice about Duke. Duke gets all the hate. That was the biggest choke in Final Four history.

[PFT Commenter]

They're the only team to. To have a higher field goal percentage, more free throw attempts, more assists, fewer turnovers, more steals, and lose. In the history of the NCAA tournament, other teams were.335. 0.

[Dan Hurley]

Damn.

[PFT Commenter]

When doing that in March Madness.

[Dan Hurley]

Best teams ever. Analytically.

[PFT Commenter]

Does Coach K win this game?

[Dan Hurley]

I have some Coach K questions for later. He. He might. I don't know. He. They. They shouldn't have shown him on the TV as much. Also, Coach K trying to use the media on Friday to write a story. Being like, Coach K is the real Reason John Shire has shined is because Coach K is taking a step back. I see you. Coach K. He was trying to make it. It was not a nice story.

[PFT Commenter]

That's. That's.

[Dan Hurley]

It was literally like John Shire owes everything to Coach K being like, I'm not coaching this team anymore.

[PFT Commenter]

That's what a lot of people do when they retire. I would say every person does that when they retire.

[Dan Hurley]

He wanted credit for not showing up to practice for a team. He doesn't coach a lot of coaches. Facts are fact. He literally wanted credit for not showing up to a practice for a team. He didn't write the story. Oh, he didn't write the story. He didn't write the story. All right, so Duke biggest choke in Final Four history. Best team ever. Actually, no, it's a con. It's. It's either this Duke team or the 99 Duke.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, those are the top.

[Dan Hurley]

You can just decide. I. I won't debate it. It's one of the Duke teams. Duke has, has. Has had a 10 year drought of no championship game appearances. Here are some of the players that have played for Duke in that drought. Brandon Ingram, Luke Canard, Jason Tatum, Marvin bagley, Gary Trent Jr. Wendell Carter, Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, Vernon Carey, Paolo, Mark Williams, Jared McCain, Cooper, Flag Khan, Canople and Malwak. That's some pretty good players. No championship appearances. They choke.

[PFT Commenter]

One done.

[Dan Hurley]

They're choke artists.

[PFT Commenter]

When was the last Duke championship appearance?

[Dan Hurley]

That. That's not relevant to this conversation. Pft. I was nice enough to do OV to start the show. Don't do that. The what?

[PFT Commenter]

When? Was that you?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, that's me.

[PFT Commenter]

I was purely thinking that's mean.

[Dan Hurley]

I start. We started the show with OV when we had two final.

[PFT Commenter]

You know what I mean?

[Dan Hurley]

Incredible.

[PFT Commenter]

You know what I was.

[Dan Hurley]

Let me get my Duke hate on.

[PFT Commenter]

You know what I was thinking about? I was thinking about how many more national title appearances that UNC had in that same time span.

[Dan Hurley]

One.

[PFT Commenter]

No, no, they've been to three.

[Dan Hurley]

One.

[PFT Commenter]

One.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, one. One. I think they've been to three.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm just. I'm what I'm doing. I'm sorry that you got caught by a stray big cat, but it was a stray.

[Dan Hurley]

It was a. It was a shot straight.

[PFT Commenter]

It was a stray. But it just. I'm trying to defend my Roy Williams better coach in North Carolina while he was in North Carolina than Coach K was take. Which is aging like wine because I'm counting this as a Final Four loss for Coach K because he Was so close to the court.

[Dan Hurley]

That's true. And they kept on showing him non stop. Yep. So best team of all time was what I kept on hearing. Maybe I said it as well. Turns out you need a point guard. An actual point guard.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Cooper Flagg was handling. He was bringing the ball up the court.

[Dan Hurley]

As soon as Houston started putting the pressure on inbounding the ball. A point guard who can bring the ball up the court. A point guard who can, when shit starts to fall apart, be like, hey, guys, I will run this offense. I will get us a field goal in the last 10 minutes. Yeah, that was probably a miss. Proctor, true point guard.

[PFT Commenter]

Proctor seems pretty comfortable with just standing there on the court. He, he looks like he should be bringing the ball up the court every single time, but he. What he likes to do is get down court and then stand at the edge, stretch the defense a little bit, and then not get the ball and not shoot it.

[Dan Hurley]

Also shout out Proctor. He's actually the only good thing I'll say about Duke. Thank God that you thought you were a good enough free throw shooter to not pass it to Cooper. Fucking flag at the end of the game. That was insane. Proctor being like, I got this as the worst free throw shooter on the court for Duke was absolutely insane. Cost them the game. And I love Duke fans complaining about the over the back. Oh, my God. Could you imagine being a Duke fan who gets every call every year, never plays an away game, a true away game ever. And being like, man, the rest really got us justice. Winslow touched it. Okay. Not during the regular season. No away games. They don't play true. They don't play true out of conference away games. They don't. Coach K never would schedule them. They play. Where do they play? Oh, they play in fucking Atlanta. Oh, they play Madison Square Garden. Oh, they play. Maybe, maybe. You know what? I haven't done my research on John Shire yet because I'm just getting my hate back, which last night reinvigorated all my hate. Maybe John Shire has. Coach K. Never did. He wouldn't play away games. You know this, Hank. No, you said. I didn't know. You said out of conference. Well, I, I, I, I. Obviously they have to play in conference. I bet you they try. I bet you they probably talk to the ACC and they're like, make everyone come to us.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you think the fact that Coach K has stepped away from the team has led to their lack of conditioning, which Houston excels in, and that's what made them get the tired legs at the End of the game. Because Sean Char wants to be like, I'm not like all the other coaches. I'm a cool coach.

[Dan Hurley]

Good question.

[PFT Commenter]

I make you run.

[Dan Hurley]

Good question. So I. That was a choke of all chokes. I was stunned.

[PFT Commenter]

Stunned. You know what? Like, okay, I agree with Skip Bayless and Big Cat in that Cooper Flag probably doesn't have the clutch gene. If I'm drafting number one in the NBA draft and I'm. I don't know, the Utah Jazz, I would pass on them.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And let whoever is picking after take them. Like, because you're not going to win with them.

[Dan Hurley]

That's true.

[PFT Commenter]

So if you're the Jazz, don't. Don't draft them.

[Dan Hurley]

You don't win league games.

[PFT Commenter]

Don't. Don't pick them, please.

[Dan Hurley]

It felt so good to just get my true hate back because I was struggling with this because, you know, I watched Duke this year and I don't hate John Shire like, I hated Coach K. And Cooper Flag seems like a nice guy. And Con Nipple, whatever, he's got a red face and he's good at basketball, all those things. He was there in 2015. Yeah, he was. I saw that. Yeah, he had his Badger. He probably had a Sam Decker jersey on or Frank Kaminsky. But last night, just watching dude choke, there really is no better sports watch.

[PFT Commenter]

What if this was Con Nipples ultimate payback? This was like the Count of Monte Cristo where he waited all these years, decided, no, I don't want to stay in state. I want to get. I want to get recruited by Duke so that I can miss a few field goals in the Final Four.

[Dan Hurley]

And he was pretty good, though.

[PFT Commenter]

Really get revenge. But you have to be. Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You have to be good enough to get close.

[Dan Hurley]

He played. He played a pretty good game. But I. I'm not giving any compliments. It was just. It was euphoric. I loved it. And I have Max.

[Big Cat]

You.

[Dan Hurley]

Did you like that game? Do you count yourself as a Duke hater?

[PFT Commenter]

Whatever.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, okay.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't. Not biggies.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay. All right. That's good. The. The last question I had about this, and I. I literally, I. I stayed up till 2am Just watching videos. I re. Watched the end of the game a bunch of times. I went on message boards. Duke fans just crying, crying, crying. Love it. Oh, the. Over the back. Oh, my God. I need more people crying about that. This is so good.

[PFT Commenter]

This is where it back.

[Dan Hurley]

It was a ticky tackle. Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Don't care. This is where.

[PFT Commenter]

Here's where it backfires in Duke fans because they'll. They'll incessantly show this replay, not realizing that it makes everybody happy to watch.

[Dan Hurley]

Yes, I. It's the total reverse.

[PFT Commenter]

It's the complete reverse. Because what is that a call every single time? Probably not. Is the fact that it happened to Duke, does that make the majority of people who watch it very happy? Yes, you're absolutely right.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

That's actually a highlight reel for everybody else, not one that you can be like, we got, because it's like, this is great.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And to me, again.

[Dan Hurley]

And listen, I. I was accused of reverse jinxing this year with Duke. I actually, will be honest with everyone. I was. That was not my intention. This is. I was thinking about it because I was literally laying up in bed just. Just relishing in the moment. I was like, why is this feel so good? I had actually come to the conclusion that this Duke team was one of the best teams of all time and they were going to win the title. Like, I had. I had become at ease with the fact that it was going to happen so that it wouldn't hurt as much. So it was almost like a reverse sucker punch. Like, I never saw this coming, and it made it that much better.

[PFT Commenter]

It's like when we're talking to Titus, we get to say, Duke let me down.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm disappointed by Duke because I. I did think that they were the best team in the country.

[Dan Hurley]

I did. I.

[PFT Commenter]

And they were fun. They were the funnest Duke team to watch that I've. I've seen in probably 30 years. And they let me down. They let America down. But again, they also gave America quite a blessing because America had the White Lotus memes ready to go.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And that would have gone to the sad graveyard of unused memes and. And memes. I'm sure you have quite a folder of. Of memes. It's like the. The saddest story ever written.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Meme. It was never sent.

[Dan Hurley]

It was just so sweet. The whole thing was so beautiful. I loved every second of it. A stunning, stunning loss. So here comes my last question, and I think you guys will. Will agree with me, but I want your take. Deep down, if we had true serum, Coach K's happy. He's happy.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't think so.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, he doesn't want the next guy to win a title in his third year.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't think he's ever happy.

[Dan Hurley]

The former player assistant. He. He is happy because he's a narcissistic piece of. He's happy.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't think he's. I don't think Coach K is ever happy, even when he's winning, but he's.

[Dan Hurley]

Probably a little happy. He's probably a little happy after that. He probably was like, see, John, it's a lot harder than you think to win these things.

[PFT Commenter]

Look at that. Look at that foul. Look at the foul on Cooper. Flag.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, man, so good. He shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have gone over the back. That was a blatant foul.

[PFT Commenter]

Looks like.

[Dan Hurley]

I call that 100 times out of 100.

[PFT Commenter]

Looks like he ripped that guy's right arm.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. It actually should have been a flagrant, too.

[PFT Commenter]

Notice how they're only showing this angle of it. They're not showing the other one where he's grabbing him in the back and get his thumb up his asshole.

[Dan Hurley]

You guys don't think that Coach K is. There's a small part of him that's like, now I get to sit John Shire down and be like, john, the first three years were good, but our standard here is national champions.

[PFT Commenter]

Coach K is probably. I'll. I don't know if he's happy, but I don't think he's a cell phone guy. I think he's probably a landline guy still to this day. Probably just has the one in the kitchen with a really long cord. He's probably pulled up a chair next to the phone and just sat there. Not gotten up off the chair at all. Waiting for the call from Coach Shire.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

To ask him for guidance.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

How do you bounce back from something like this, Coach? What could we have done differently? He's been just post up in his kitchen like Junior Soprano, just waiting for that call.

[Dan Hurley]

So here's why I think he's happy too. Because if you're a legend like Coach K, and I've said it, he's the best college coach of all time. And. And I'm. I hate him. I hate his guts. But that's just a fact that I believe when you leave Duke, you don't. You. There's like, There's. There's different paths that can go down. The, The. The. You know, Duke is an institution. Go down. They could completely bot him out. And I think that would be bad. Cause Coach K would then be like, blamed for. Hey, it was all about you. You didn't have a succession plan. All this stuff. You could have someone who goes and wins at the level that Coach K wins right away. And then it's like, hey, it's Duke. It's not Coach K. Isn't this the perfect spot for Coach K where John Shire, the. The. He had the succession plan. He's the.

[Big Cat]

The.

[Dan Hurley]

The school has not dropped off in terms of a level of basketball, but what Coach K has done to win titles gets magnified. Even more of that's really hard to do because John Shire couldn't do it with one of the best analytic, analytically, best teams of all time. I think Coach K is happy.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, when you can't score in the last 10 and a half minutes of the game.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, I think he's happy. I think he's happy, Hank. A little part of him is like, I get to go fucking teach some lessons. I'm going to show up to practice, I'm going to be like, man, I remember how hard it was, but I did it five times. You guys haven't done it any times.

[PFT Commenter]

Do you think Coach K. You think he's calling up, like, one of his tech guys that used to work for him at Duke and being like, we need to build a PowerPoint this offseason just in case Shire wants it. Like, I'm. I'm willing to come in and show it to the team. I just need you to come over for two days and we'll build the PowerPoint together and send it. We'll have the deck ready to go if they need it.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, definitely. When did Coach K. Well, how many years into his coaching did he win his first title? 91. It was like 11. Right. 1980 was his first year. Right. And so 11.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

So if Shire did that in three years, that's too fast. No, because it's based off of the foundation that Coach K built, but it's still too fast. He wants Shire to win one eventually. If this. Ha. If we're talking 10 years from now, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have the same take. It's also different. It's different eras like this. Shire's playing one and done. He's gonna have different rosters every year.

[PFT Commenter]

Coach K was doing one and done.

[Dan Hurley]

So he literally lasted. The last title he won was one. And, guys, but we're. We're talking about his first 11 years, you know? Yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

You know what's so funny is they're probably going to win one of the next different standards in the next couple years. I'm just gonna say Duke's probably going to win a national championship, and it's going to be with the Boozer Twins. And then Coach K will be able to say, like, David, they're only here because of me.

[Dan Hurley]

God damn. Was it sweet. I loved it. It just.

[Mark Hoppus]

It.

[Dan Hurley]

It. I felt alive again. I don't know. Something. Something happened to me where I was like. Man, I was.

[PFT Commenter]

There were so many times in the last two minutes of the game, three minutes, the game where I was just asking myself out loud. I was actually talking to Blake. Is this really happening?

[Dan Hurley]

Is this happening?

[PFT Commenter]

Is this happening? Right?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Are we going to do this?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, please. This is also going to happen.

[PFT Commenter]

Don't give me blue balls. This is happening, right?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm not dreaming this.

[Dan Hurley]

Hey, here's. Here's a question. Should Duke go to a real conference? Because clearly playing the ACC this year hurt them when it came to playing in close games.

[PFT Commenter]

What were they against the top 25 teams on Kim Palm? I think. I think there were about 500.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Because they didn't play. I mean, I know they beat Auburn. Guess where they played. Auburn, Hank. Where? Cameron Indoor. Yeah, there's one bad one in there for you.

[PFT Commenter]

They won't add Arizona this year.

[Dan Hurley]

I mean, that's. Come on, Arizona. That's. That's like half Duke fans there. I. I said, by the way, I admitted. I admitted that John Shire might have changed that Coach K did not play true road games out of Conference 5.

[PFT Commenter]

And 4 against Ken Palm. Top 25.

[Dan Hurley]

Duke should probably leave the ACC.

[PFT Commenter]

Did the ACC leave Duke a long time ago? Duke should be independent.

[Dan Hurley]

Duke should be.

[PFT Commenter]

They should be like dam in football.

[Dan Hurley]

They are the Notre Dame of basketball. Oh, my God. Ah. I just loved it so, so, so, so, so much. And it is great, too, whenever some. Whenever Duke has a loss like this and then there's some new fans are like, they like, kind of realize. They're like, oh, you're. You're. You're never going to get over 2015. That's where the hit. I'm like, yeah, dude. Yeah. I've admit that a million times over, that a small part of me died. I'll never get back. And every time Duke loses in a tragic way and this was a tragic loss, a tiny little, like one, like 0.01% of my life comes back.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I think Duke, for the most part, it's like people that went to Duke and people whose families went to Duke. Hank. But I think most casuals love it when this happens.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

Oh, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I'd say. I'd say almost all.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And this is sweet revenge, sweet justice.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. It's not like Notre Dame, where there's a lot, like, there's a lot of Notre Dame fans Just because the Irish Catholic thing, you. I feel like you have to have, like, there's not a lot of Duke fans.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, there are.

[Dan Hurley]

I think there's a lot less Duke fans and Notre Dame fans, and I just.

[PFT Commenter]

There's those people that are just fans of excellence.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Where they're like, yeah, they win a lot. And I, I appreciate all the work that goes into it, but, yeah, that's what you get for. For bouncing JMU out of the round of 32 last year.

[Dan Hurley]

Cooper flag and John Shire having to show up at 8 in the morning for the Naismith Awards. Oh, that was beautiful. Cooper flag in that little golf cart. Oh, Cooper flag hiding in a room because the media availability. They were running out the clock on it. Ah.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, I still want that guy so bad. That dunk that he had where he. He just swung around horizontal.

[Dan Hurley]

I feel like this hate's got to come out of nowhere. What do you mean? I feel like this year you've. You've said that you like kind of.

[PFT Commenter]

That you kind of like.

[Dan Hurley]

Because I couldn't. I couldn't fully. I was one, guarding myself because I thought they were that good. And two, I've always said that, like, I'm not going to just hate John Shire. Like, I hated Coach K. I have to let it build. And so, yeah, that was a good. That was a good moment for you. Great moment. And it also. It was literally so shocking. I. I think you guys agree, like, that loss was so shocking. Yeah, I thought they were gonna win it all. So having that just gifted to me, it was like, oh, my God. I feel again.

[PFT Commenter]

So it's also. It's like watching Duke lose is fun for most people. The fact that it happened against this Houston team, which is so fun to watch, especially if you're a fan of football, because they play like a football team.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Watching them do this to Duke was extra nice because they. They just out toughed them.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, it re. It really was though, Max, to answer. It's just I. I was People's accused of the reverse jinx is wrong. I was convinced they were the best team that we've seen in a long time. Like I really was. And forgot to have a point guard. Oh, is that important in basketball, like a true point guard? Max, when you won your titles, did you have point guards?

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Name one.

[Dan Hurley]

You want me. I can name. Yeah, I can name multiple.

[PFT Commenter]

You had awesome point guards.

[Dan Hurley]

All the Archie Diaconos, Jalen Brunson, Ryan.

[PFT Commenter]

Archie Diacono, Scotty Reynolds, he didn't win, but he was.

[Dan Hurley]

Gillespie. Colin Gillespie and Connor Gillespie. Is there Connor?

[PFT Commenter]

I don't think so. Okay. Connor Gillespie. Did he.

[Dan Hurley]

There was two.

[PFT Commenter]

Archie.

[Dan Hurley]

There was two arches. Yeah. All right. Should we talk about the. The championship game that will not be including Duke.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Houston, Florida.

[Dan Hurley]

So let me do this. Let me do this. Read real quick because we have. Pft. You and I both won our bonus bets.

[PFT Commenter]

We did.

[Dan Hurley]

So DraftKings, the finals for March Mania are here. The only thing for sure is it's the last time to bet on college basketball this season. Players are sweating out who will be taking home the championship. But you aren't. Don't miss your last chance to bet on college basketball this season with DraftKings Sportsbook. DraftKings is offering all customers a no sweat parlay every day for the final games of the season. How does it work? Opt in and place a bet on any eligible parlay. If your bet doesn't hit, you'll get a bonus bit back in the amount of your original bet. Bet the unexpected with DraftKings sportsbook. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE to get a no sweat parlay every single day. Only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours.

[Mark Hoppus]

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[Dan Hurley]

All right, so Florida, Houston. I. This is going to be a great game. This Final Four is delivered. I think this is going to be a great game because I think both of these teams, they're one, so close to each other and two, I don't. And I could look really stupid saying this, but, like, I don't think either team is. Is good enough to blow out the other team. There's. That's how close they are. You know what I mean? I think it's not like last year where you're like, okay, Purdue could hang, but UConn's really good. I think both these teams are just really?

[PFT Commenter]

They've got a lot of great players. They're awesome, awesome teams. Like, there's no question that Florida can score against Houston. Will they score enough? I don't think that they will. I, I have a, I have a future on Florida that I put in. I'm going to be probably going against that. But the, the parlay that I'm putting in with my winnings. I'm going A lot of rebounds from Houston. I'm betting on a load of rebounds. Juwan Roberts, seven rebounds. Manuel Sharp three rebounds. Tugler five rebounds.

[Dan Hurley]

Just rebounds.

[PFT Commenter]

And then I've got L.J. cryer, three. Three pointers worked in there, plus 500. But yeah, he's on night. A lot of, a lot of rebounds. It's a big gym. People forget that. Yeah, big gym.

[Dan Hurley]

I, I, I also have a future on Florida, so I'll be rooting for Florida. I'll probably just put the bonus bet on Florida. Just more Florida. Cause I'm not a hedge guy. Did you see also there, this is a battle of the nerds. So Ken Palm, which is the most popular analytics site for college basketball. Ken Palm had Duke as the number one team going to that game. They had Houston number two. Florida number three. Another site that I frequent. Bart Torvik had Houston as number one going into that game.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Dan Hurley]

Bart Torvik has won this round. Yeah. He had Houston as the better team than Duke. And Ken Palma's head. Duke is historically great swords.

[PFT Commenter]

If Houston is a better team than Florida.

[Dan Hurley]

Yes. Florida's his fourth best team.

[PFT Commenter]

I, I also get team of destiny vibes from Houston.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh yeah? Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I get that huge, like that blob against Purdue. They also have that kid Jace. Have you seen Jace? He's kind of like unofficial member of the team. Yeah, he's like a little kid that, that goes around with him. They bring him to like all their huddles, all their locker rooms and. Big fan of Jace. I don't know. I get, I get Kelvin Sampson the way that he's, his career has gone recently.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

This feels like team of destiny.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. No, I, I agree. I, I have a lot invested in Florida and I'm basically like, Walter Clayton saved me one more time. That's how I'm going into this game. Yeah, I, I think Walter Clayton just do it again.

[PFT Commenter]

I think they're going to do a better job than most of limiting Walter Clayton.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. But still he's, he, he's still like even that Texas Tech game. I think he didn't have a point for the first 10 minutes.

[PFT Commenter]

I should never have seen that video of them wrestling around for the ball at practice because that's gonna. That's gonna change everything in terms of how I analyze Houston.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, I can't go against these guys now. I just can't do it.

[Dan Hurley]

All right, shout out the UConn women's team.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Paige Buckets. She came back for her fifth year. She had an up and down career with all the injuries, but UConn, they beat three. I still don't really understand how they were the two seed.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I don't know. I just know they're bad for women's basketball.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, they. They beat 31 seeds on the way to a championship. Their 12th championship. Also, Sarah Strong, their center. I think she's a freshman. She's going to be like the best college basketball player of all time. Because I. I'm pretty sure. Well, one. It pays to stay at college now.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

In the women's game, and I think it doesn't. The women's game, you have to stay for three years.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know what the rules are, but I do know that a lot of them make more money in nil than they would.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Wnba.

[Dan Hurley]

Sarah Strong. She's a freshman. She's a problem. She is a problem.

[PFT Commenter]

That's a great name, too.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Yeah, she was incredible. 24 points, 15 rebounds.

[PFT Commenter]

They smoked the Lady Cox, oh, twice this year.

[Dan Hurley]

They beat him by 20 plus.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Will never make sense that they were.

[PFT Commenter]

The 3i bad job by the committee. Who's the buddy? The Bubba Cunningham of women's.

[Dan Hurley]

Liam Bloodman said that the Big east had a down year, so that's why. But it's still. When you win, when you beat three one seeds as the two seed and then also win the championship game by 20, I feel like you shouldn't have been a two seed.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So where's she gonna play? Is it the Wings? Who has the. The number one pick?

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, let's. Let's hit the simulator. Do we have the simulator?

[PFT Commenter]

I think she might be a better WNBA player than Caitlin Clark. What about that?

[Dan Hurley]

Whoa, whoa.

[PFT Commenter]

What about that?

[Dan Hurley]

I'm a juju guy.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Have been for a while now. Sell tickets, as many tickets or get as many ratings. No, the ratings were. It was crazy.

[PFT Commenter]

They were bad.

[Dan Hurley]

It wasn't bad, just the difference. It was like 14 million last year and 4 million this year.

[PFT Commenter]

But you just got to hope for like a Magic Bird type thing, like a rivalry.

[Dan Hurley]

Dallas.

[PFT Commenter]

Dallas. Congrats, Dallas.

[Dan Hurley]

Nico Harrison gets his hands on Paige. Buckets Trades are away.

[PFT Commenter]

Shout out to Gino. Or.

[Dan Hurley]

Wait, are you simming it?

[PFT Commenter]

I think they already did the lottery, didn't they? Because they. They're going to draft them and then they'll have to play real soon. I think I just.

[Dan Hurley]

I just wanted to sim It. Wait, what is the. What. What do the sky have as a pick? Oh, we gave our pick to Dallas. No, you get.

[PFT Commenter]

Wait. Reset.

[Dan Hurley]

Let's reset. Let's reset. Damn it. No, you gave your pick to Washington.

[PFT Commenter]

Why are we. Why are we simming the draft?

[Dan Hurley]

Wait, but then why does it say that we have the third pick? Says that you're giving it to Washington. Then they have the fourth pick.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

That was bad management. I don't know who we got in that trade was a bad trade.

[PFT Commenter]

Let's go, Mystics. Is it M I, S, S, space, T, I, C, K, S or M Y? Why? There we go. That was a joke, Max. Yeah. I think Paige Buckets. I think she's got in her. She's got the clutch gene.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. The Myics have the third, and the Mystics have the third, fourth, and sixth pick. Yeah. Holy. We're back rebuilding.

[Big Cat]

That was bad.

[PFT Commenter]

I should have known that joke.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, you should have.

[PFT Commenter]

I was like. I was like, I'll look up at it.

[Dan Hurley]

You should have. You should have.

[PFT Commenter]

It's a terrible joke, too.

[Dan Hurley]

You should have known it. Okay, any other sports, so official picks for. I know. Hank, you have Houston.

[PFT Commenter]

Houston.

[Dan Hurley]

You have.

[PFT Commenter]

I got. I'm good. I have a future on them, so I'm going to say Florida, but, yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

I'm riding with Florida. I'm not getting off that.

[PFT Commenter]

But if I were to bet it right now, I would. I would take Houston.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Max.

[PFT Commenter]

Florida's more.

[Dan Hurley]

Florida. Florida. Yeah. Okay. What was that? That was painful to get out.

[PFT Commenter]

No, they're. They're just fun.

[Dan Hurley]

They are fun. They're more scoring, so I. I appreciate that. That's true.

[PFT Commenter]

But you love dogs. Yeah, I do. But scoring Clayton, fun. I like what Dan Hurley says. They're wolves.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Honestly, if we could just do. If we do the championship game, you're like, duke actually won that game, but it's guaranteed they lose. I'd be like, sign me up. I want to watch them lose again. I don't even need a chance. Could never be in that fashion, though.

[PFT Commenter]

That was.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, one in a million.

[PFT Commenter]

It was incredible. It was stunning, Hank.

[Dan Hurley]

I'm gonna watch it again tonight.

[PFT Commenter]

As a. As a former, and I. I think, still. Closeted Duke fan.

[Dan Hurley]

Duke is my favorite future on Duke. Is my favorite college basketball team.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, I don't have a team that.

[Dan Hurley]

I would root for over Duke. Obviously, last night was unique in that I had a future that I bet in February. And they happen to line up. But. But you're also not a big college sports fan. Right?

[PFT Commenter]

But did you feel.

[Dan Hurley]

But like, if I had to pick one team that I wanted to win, it's Duke.

[PFT Commenter]

But you've been. You've been poo pooing your. Your Duke fandom this year. Quite a bit. Watching that game on Saturday, were you like, this fucking sucks?

[Dan Hurley]

No, because he has no future. I. I have a Houston future, which I was like, this is a loser. This is a loser. This is a loser. Literally only after the over the back call, obviously, that's when they took the lead. Great call, by the way. I could not. I could not believe what was happening. Like, it was one of those games where you just sit. I think we just sat in the gambling cave for like 25, 30 minutes after, just stunned.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

But I felt bad. I feel bad for Duke. I don't like seeing people pile on. Just jealous people, you know.

[PFT Commenter]

You think.

[Dan Hurley]

Do you think we're piling on?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I think, you know, you.

[Dan Hurley]

You hate them because they beat you in the only time you'll ever make the championship.

[Mark Hoppus]

And.

[Dan Hurley]

And it's just sad to see they're kids. But I admit to all of what you just said.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. So it's not like. It's not. Aha moment. What you said is exactly right.

[Mark Hoppus]

No, I just.

[Dan Hurley]

I don't like seeing it. You don't like seeing my hate?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they said it's very ugly.

[Dan Hurley]

Yes. That's crazy.

[PFT Commenter]

It's ugly.

[Dan Hurley]

Why can't I do. Why can't I hate? Well, it's you. It's you. It's the proverbial. You do all the Duke haters. Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, that's everybody I know.

[Dan Hurley]

I'm saying you asked me about my Duke fandom. It's like, you don't like how much I don't enjoy. Like, I don't. I'm not living and dying with the team, but I do not like seeing people, you know, jump down their throats.

[PFT Commenter]

Maxim. The NBA Draft Lottery 1 time.

[Dan Hurley]

I like jumping down their throats a lot.

[PFT Commenter]

No, no, I wasn't paying attention. You guys submit for. For the class.

[Dan Hurley]

I really like it.

[PFT Commenter]

Sim. If the Spurs. If the spurs get it again.

[Dan Hurley]

Spurs.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm gonna store the Alamo.

[Dan Hurley]

That was very funny. I was in San Antonio for a day and a half. We did two live shows and we're doing barstool live on Friday. And we're just like halfway through the show and Dave was just like, oh, yeah, I forgot. I hate Popovich. He just said. I was like, what? The whole crowd was like, what? Dude, Popovich is also like this, like Brad Stevens. Like Brad. Steven, you don't have Brad Stevens without Popovich to an extent. Yeah. Yeah. So that, that didn't make a lot.

[PFT Commenter]

Of sense to me, but.

[Dan Hurley]

And I didn't realize that Popovich had a stroke.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

David didn't know that either, but yeah, it was very funny moment. San Jose. Thank you. San Antonio had a great time.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it's a great love.

[Dan Hurley]

Going down to San Antonio was. Was a blast. Okay, let's get to who's Back of the Week then. We have Dan Hurley and Mark Hoppus. Two great, great interviews. Who's back of the Week is brought to you by our friends at Truly Truly Unruly Lemonade combines the high alk fun of Truly Unruly with everyone's favorite lemonade. Level up your lemonade. 8% ABV, 100% delicious. Four supercharged lemonade flavors. Bumpin Blue Razz, OG Original Lemonade, punched up pineapple and wild pink. They're absolutely delicious. It's gonna get unruly this summer. This is the best lemonade out there. It's 8% ABV, 100% delicious. It's the official hard seltzer of pardon my take. Find Truly Unruly lemonade at a store near you or Visit Truly Hard Seltzer.com Truly Hard Seltzer.com Go check it out now. We love truly unrulys. Okay, Hank. Who's back of the week? My who's back of the week? Augusta National, Masters. Masters week. Golf in general. Big week for golf. Big week for mini golf.

[PFT Commenter]

It's probably going to rain out though, on Monday at Augusta, but it looks.

[Dan Hurley]

Like good weather for. For the week, for the most part.

[PFT Commenter]

I love that you're locked in on the weather forecast. I'm super locked in. Real dimplehead.

[Dan Hurley]

Super, super excited. I mean, we're gonna do a Masters preview on Wednesday. You just jump in the gun. It's Masters week. Okay, who's back?

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, the Masters. That's fair.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay, fair.

[PFT Commenter]

Who's back? Hank thinking about the mask.

[Dan Hurley]

Hank thinking about the master. Yeah. It's Masters week. How's the weather? It's not looking good for Monday, but it's looking good for the rest of the week. What does Monday match matter?

[PFT Commenter]

It Doesn't.

[Dan Hurley]

I don't know why PFT brought it up.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, I was just trying to rain on his parade.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, okay. Friday. I mean, I am. I am a big. Like, I get really bummed out when there's bad weather at the master.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah. I mean it. I don't want anything to impact Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Definitely not that. Like the rain delay that Brooks had to deal with when Hank cursed him by releasing the shirt. But yeah, it'll probably soften it up, right?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

It ends on Monday.

[Dan Hurley]

We got a. We're gonna do our masters preview on. On Wednesday. We're gonna have a great show preview. Maybe have one of our good friends on. But I gotta. I gotta pick for you guys. You want me to hear it right now, Jake, Something a little crazy out of the. Out of the box here. I'm thinking Brooks.

[PFT Commenter]

I like that.

[Dan Hurley]

I like that.

[PFT Commenter]

I like that he's won there before.

[Dan Hurley]

I bet Brooks.

[PFT Commenter]

I know he hasn't.

[Dan Hurley]

Every single year.

[PFT Commenter]

He was.

[Dan Hurley]

I'm a loyal guy. I'm a loyal guy.

[PFT Commenter]

I like Max Homa.

[Dan Hurley]

There we go. Hank. I like Brooks. I bet Brooks.

[PFT Commenter]

I bet Max.

[Dan Hurley]

And then I'm doing my live round robin again. I love. It's a big week for live. Huge week. Was going to show out in a big way. Love that for you. Okay. Pft.

[PFT Commenter]

My. Who's back of the week this week is John Moran. Because we talked about him on Friday's show when he got in trouble. For what? They investigated him. Him for doing a simulated gun on the court. And then they reprimanded him. They said, hey, jock, knock it off. Even with the fake guns. We should have specified that when we told you not to hold any guns. This includes fake ones. And then on Friday he goes out there and he just does the fake gun again.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Which respect.

[Dan Hurley]

Very funny.

[PFT Commenter]

I respect the hell out of that. I don't know if he, like, did it. And then it's just like a involuntary reaction when he makes a shot to pretend to hold the gun or if he did it intentionally. And then memes went mega viral. Yeah, mega viral. Memes with the clip of jaw pulling the gun out. When did the. The trend of like, is there an AI program that just simulates somebody grabbing a gun out of nowhere or is it just quakes?

[Dan Hurley]

It's called Quake.

[PFT Commenter]

Is he the trend? He's the one man trend. Because this is going to be a thing now.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like somebody's going to design a piece of software that probably takes like a week to write and it's just gonna be like engineer anybody to pull out a gun out of nowhere.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

It's all gonna be traced back to his brain, which I love. He got it from like one of.

[Dan Hurley]

Those AI type in whatever things, but.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, he's the one who, who did it the first time and now it's for everything. Yeah. I just, I love the fact that John Morant can't quit holding fake guns.

[Dan Hurley]

My new favorite.

[PFT Commenter]

It's the best addiction of all time.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. My new favorite argument online too is people being like, John Moran is getting treated unfairly.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, yeah, that's like he's being there.

[Dan Hurley]

The. The NBA coming down on him for his fake guns is just ignoring all the history of John with real guns. I love that.

[PFT Commenter]

It's great. I mean, it is behavior that like a five year old would do when they learn back in the day, if you were like playing cowboys and Indians or like cops and robbers, you just go around like doing the finger gun point.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like this.

[Dan Hurley]

I do my son and I have to stop myself because I'm like, I shouldn't do this.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, you have to like teach a six year old. Hey, don't always go around pointing a fake gun. John Moran, again, I think it's progress. Yeah. By jaw. That he's now doing fake guns exclusively. And they might be super soakers. We're not sure. But yeah, it's very funny that he just continues to do it after they tell him not to.

[Dan Hurley]

Were you guys toy gun houses growing up or you had to go to your friend's house to play with the toy gun?

[PFT Commenter]

I had a friend that had.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

The best toy gun collection.

[Dan Hurley]

Cap guns, all the stuff.

[PFT Commenter]

I go over there and I'd be like, we had some super soakers. First thing. Yeah, first thing I'd say, walk in the door. You want to play guns.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And be like, dude, I play guns all the time. I'm like, yeah, but I don't have guns, so I want to play guns.

[Dan Hurley]

Nerf guns, cap guns, all that.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. You're either that house or you had a friend who had that house. Max, for you.

[PFT Commenter]

No, I wasn't allowed to have guns.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah. Probably actually like, like our parents probably did it just because they're like, oh, this is probably not right. Max parents probably like, he really actually shouldn't.

[PFT Commenter]

He shouldn't have a gun.

[Dan Hurley]

Like his, his temper.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, also an Italian walking around carrying gun, you would get profiled in ways that. That me and Big Cat might not.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. If you Had a gun when Big Dom. Fake Big Dom called in on Wednesday, Would you have used it? And by using it, I mean just even flashing it, if Jerry was in the room, probably. You would have flashed it. I would have at least flashed it, maybe.

[PFT Commenter]

Jerry. Yeah. Just imagine every time that Max does this.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Actually just slamming a clip into it.

[Dan Hurley]

We just need to get quick. I used to be so bad as a kid.

[PFT Commenter]

I, I. Oh, I used to get.

[Dan Hurley]

So many technicals in basketball.

[PFT Commenter]

Of course we're going like this just for losing my temper.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Okay. I have two. Who's back of the weeks. First one is Aaron Rodgers, because there's a theory floating out there. So Pat McAfee has a show on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh. Yep. Memes, what's the name of the show? I think he's got. I think he's doing, like, a homecoming show. Can you look it up? Can you tell us what the name of the show is?

[PFT Commenter]

Hometown Throw down.

[Dan Hurley]

It's. So the theory is that Aaron Rodgers is waiting for that show to come out on stage and say, I'm going to be a Pittsburgh Steeler to fuck over the mainstream media, which I would love. That would be awesome. What's the look for the. No, no, it's a live show, like, in Pittsburgh in a theater. We got. I'm trying not to look at Twitter.

[PFT Commenter]

You told me not to be on Twitter.

[Dan Hurley]

Just Google Pat McAfee Live Show, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Wednesday. That's basically what I Googled.

[PFT Commenter]

No, you didn't put live show or Pittsburgh.

[Dan Hurley]

You said. Yeah, you said, big night out with Pat McAfee and friends. Okay, so I think it's sold out. Memes give it to us. What's it called?

[PFT Commenter]

The Big night at.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, there we go. Memes loves doing the accent, so I think he might announce that, which would be sick. And Pat's the type of guy who could pull this off. Tell to like, Pat has enough poll that he could be like, hey, Aaron, you want to. You want to announce your signing at my show?

[PFT Commenter]

The whole world is content now. Yeah, it really is. It's like, okay, we're gonna wait for a podcast to do this. We're gonna have this guy, my podcast, and then that guy, I gotta go on his podcast because I beefed with this other guy on this other podcast, and then it's a big podcast crossover, and then it's the pod crossover that will end them all.

[Dan Hurley]

But I have. I kind of like this. And no offense to our good friend Adam Schefter, who we love, but, like, I kind of like every now and then, a player stealing it from the insiders and being like, I control my own message.

[PFT Commenter]

No, don't get me wrong. Like, this is what Pat's doing. This is if we had our way. And, like, Blake Griffin was announcing his return to the NBA.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Because he can dunk again. I would love for him to do that on this year's show.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

But, yeah, it's just if Aaron Rodgers has been waiting and he actually hasn't told teams for the last month because he's like, I got this live show thing.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm trying to do. That's kind of up.

[Dan Hurley]

I. I kind of like it.

[PFT Commenter]

But if it was your team.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, yeah. I'd be pissed.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, you'd be pissed.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. But I just like that. I like chaos and. And the. You know what? I'm kind of like a you to power kind of guy.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, you are. Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

We're rage against the machine.

[PFT Commenter]

You are like that.

[Dan Hurley]

We are. We're big time rage against the machine. The establishment. Them.

[PFT Commenter]

Except in this case, the establishment is also our friend Adam Schefter.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

But also, we can hold two thoughts in our head at the same time, which is he's the machine. Sometimes I kind of like the machine.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

When it's Chef or he can be cool.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, the machine. We need to have noties on for the machine.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. When. When the machine delivers the goods, you're like, I'm glad we have a machine.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. It would actually be nice if Schefter got it, like, two seconds before and then everyone else didn't.

[PFT Commenter]

That would be. That would be a funny twist, because you know what that would be? That would be Adam Schefter raging against Chef should just go to the show.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. That would be great too, if he's just reported. So get it first. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

If Schefter. If Chef. They're like, right before the show scooped Aaron Rodgers, then that makes Aaron Rodgers the machine.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And Schefter wins.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. This has nothing to do with anything in my who's back. Except for the fact we were talking about Pittsburgh. But I saw sometimes you see the perfect tweet. And I saw the perfect tweet the other day. It's from Larry David's mistress. And this person said, Paul Skeens looks like if you tried to draw Josh Allen from memory. And that nail.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, he really does. He was in the GQ photos.

[PFT Commenter]

The mustache is an important difference.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. If you were just like, close your eyes and draw Josh Allen. You'd end up with Paul Skeets.

[PFT Commenter]

I would just draw a goat.

[Dan Hurley]

No. There you go. All right. My other. Who's back Is censorship it because Kike Hernandez got censored. I don't know if you guys saw this.

[PFT Commenter]

Did they not put the accent on his name?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, they did not put the accent on his name.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Dan Hurley]

He's going on the team flight for the Dodgers, and he was wearing a hat, and they blurred out the hat and he was like, why did you blur out my hat? Turns out the hat was a skeleton with its nose inside of an ass. And it said butthole whisper.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I saw the picture of him getting on that plane and I was like, there's. There should be something there.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Center of his hat.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

That's an awesome company. I don't know. I don't know anything about the butthole whispers, but I'm all in.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. I feel disrespected that my hat got Photoshops is what he said. That's pretty cool. When you're the Dodgers, you could do this kind of memes.

[PFT Commenter]

How. How scared are you whenever you have to tweet Kike Hernandez. Highlight.

[Dan Hurley]

Good question.

[PFT Commenter]

How scared? Yeah, not that scared. Okay, good, good.

[Dan Hurley]

Probably memes is so not racist.

[PFT Commenter]

No.

[Dan Hurley]

That he doesn't even know.

[PFT Commenter]

No one would know. Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay, let's get what? The booth boys showed up early. We got a Monday reading. Shane, got you in here. Okay. I want to read early. Yeah, they want to read. All right, let's get to our interviews. We're going to do coach Dan Hurley first and then Mark Hoppus. Two great interviews. It is brought to you by our friends at Taxaction. Can you believe it's already April and your taxes are due on April 15th. That's coming up fast. Hank, do you have any tips? Go to taxact.com if you've waited this long, you've made a mistake. But thankfully, Taxhack.com is here to help you. They have expert assist. They can answer all the questions that you might have along while you're doing your taxes. All their experts are US based. But don't wait. Today's the day.

[PFT Commenter]

Don't wait till tomorrow.

[Dan Hurley]

Go to taxact.com today.

[Mark Hoppus]

Get your taxes done.

[Dan Hurley]

Yes. 100% credentialed, 100% U.S. based. So they know the ins and outs of the tax laws. You can get the answers you need starting at $20. If you need a little help or a lot, they can answer all types of tax related questions. It's Crunch time and you want to get it right. Tax act makes it easy so you can get them over with and be done for the season. Okay. Here he is, coach Dan Hurley. Okay. We now welcome on a very, very, very special guest, good friend of the program, two time national champion still as of the taping of this show, reigning national champs. It is coach Dan Hurley that this is your last 24 hours. Is there anything you, what do you do? Is it like when Miss USA loses her crown? You got 24 more hours where your champs. Are you going to do anything special with it?

[Big Cat]

I think I'm going to, I'm going to celebrate tomorrow.

[Dan Hurley]

There you go.

[Big Cat]

You know, I'm going to take, I'm going to take all of Monday because I didn't really think about it until the weekend where it's like, yeah, it's about to expire and would you get eliminated from the tournament? I mean, it's, it's obviously it's, you know, it's over. You're not going to win it again. But there is still time.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Left.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah. Reigning national champion. That, that might be one of the last times people get to call you that for at least another year. So. So enjoy it. Is that the net behind you?

[Big Cat]

There's some of the stuff. This is my wife's office. So she's got some stuff with the kids, you know, some like flag football and some little League mixed in with like an elite, A Final Four net.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

So it's like, it's just like random stuff from the kids, cyo, third place trophies, all that type of stuff.

[Dan Hurley]

Was it weird? I mean, it's, it's crazy to say, but it must have been weird this weekend not being at the Final Four. I know you saw this. John Fanta reported that both coaches have shared a lot of words with the officials in this game that are not safe for television. Danny Hurley doesn't go to a Final Four and all of a sudden we've, we've run amok and all the coaches are acting with bad behavior like, you got to get back to clean this up.

[Big Cat]

I thought the, I thought TV could have did a better job. Just like, you know, right as the coaches were getting angry at the officials that, you know, normally, you know, with me, the camera stays a little longer, gets the full interaction and I just thought that maybe they, they, they just, I thought they pulled the camera a little early when we could have saw something good.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, you did. You quote to, you said, no way. What a disgrace. Which I, I Like, because it is. It is very funny when it's like, oh, wow. A coach trying to win a very high stakes game gets. Gets animated. That's crazy. Never seen before.

[Big Cat]

No. And I don't think coach. I mean, I don't think Coach Sampson's going to be very intense, you know, at all. I mean, I don't think that he's a, you know, hard coaching guy that sometimes, you know, has questions about a call. Yeah, but, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, yeah. I think him and Todd are. They're gonna. I mean, that's Steel cage. I mean, I shared the court with Todd. I mean, Todd is an intense coach. Most of the coaches are. I mean, you look at the Big East, I mean, you know, there's some intense coaches and Todd's an intense coach. And. Yeah. I mean, it feels weird not to be playing, you know, it does. It's, you know, something you. You. We just got. Just got accustomed to it the last two years, man, really, the last couple of years has felt like one long year.

[PFT Commenter]

So have you been watching the game since you got eliminated or you just, like, I don't want to see.

[Big Cat]

No. In 22, when we got bounced, like, you know, in a very unceremonious way, you know, by New Mexico State and Teddy Allen As a 5 to a 12, I couldn't watch it. I mean, it was, you know, just unbearable. But no, this. I. I watched. I watched the game straight away this time. It was. It was like, disappointed we couldn't go on. But, like, I also, I wanted to kind of see what the teams that were still playing were doing and, like, why they were still playing and why we were, you know, like, how. Yeah. What did they get right? That, that, that. That we didn't get right with the squad, you know.

[PFT Commenter]

So how do you feel about, like, watching Florida? Are you taking the mentality of, like, if they win the national championship, at least we lost to the national champion, or are you angry at Florida and you're like, I hope these guys lose because I'm pissed at them. Those are the only two options.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. This is how fans think, by the way. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Is there a third?

[PFT Commenter]

No.

[Big Cat]

That's it.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Well, no.

[Big Cat]

Can you be another option?

[Dan Hurley]

The third is like, you could even go even further where if you are rooting for Florida to kill Houston and then you can say, well, we actually played Florida the toughest, so we're second place.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

I think when you've experienced championship glory, you're. You don't, like, get the petty moral victories that way. I Think you're just like, I mean you, you do notice and you say to yourself, like, we had opportunities in that round of 32 game, you know, up, up three with the ball, you know, in transition. Three and a half minutes to go with the chance maybe to, to get a three in transition to take a six point lead. But we turn the ball over, it then goes to the media timeout. And you know, from there Clayton, you know, Clayton took over and did a little bit of like a Kemba Walker Shabazz Napier thing and he's kept doing it.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

You know what I mean? I respect how, you know, Todd, I mean, he put, I think, you know, both, you know, listen, Houston is amazing. They're doing it on culture and will and you know, and, and just a program mentality. You know, obviously with Florida and I think with Duke, they put together like incredible rosters, man. Like their roster construction is like top, top notch, you know, high level stuff. And same thing with Auburn, but you know, Florida, you know, I take no solace and haven't had a shot in that one to keep it going.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, so, so from their perspective, from Florida and Houston's perspective, you win the Final Four game, what is the next like 24, 36 hours look like from a coach's perspective? How much are you actually putting into a new game plan? And how much was like, hey, we just gotta, we gotta trust what we're doing and hope what we're doing is gonna work here instead of trying to overload the guys with new information.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So, you know, you've got one of your, you got one of your coaches on staff that's obviously, you know, doing, you know, all of the advanced work on, you know, those other teams, right. Whether it was, if you're Florida, they're already, you know, they've got, you know, a fully detailed scouting report on, on, on, you know, on, on Duke, you know, or Houston and you know, but you go and you, you play that semifinal game for us, like we just focused on, in the, in the 14 tournaments, just that first game. Only we did not, you know, whether it was superstitions or just not wanting to get ahead of ourselves, we focused on just that one opponent that first game. And then, you know what, what happens is you, you get back so late on the bus ride back to the hotel after the semifinal game, you're, you know, last year I probably watched one of Purdue's games, you know, just the NC State came on the way back to the hotel and then at the hotel the night of the Semis and then you're literally that next day you're doing so much media and you've got such a short practice time that you're just walking around a tablet, you know, trying to get three or four of the Purdue games in that day on Sunday just to have as much knowledge and, and feel for them as you can as a head coach. And obviously you're going to put a lot of trust into your assistant, you know, which with us was Luke Murray. Get ready for that Purdue game, you know, and really letting him, you know, come up with a defensive game plan and trust in your staff that way. But like the game is on top of you, but so quickly and you're, you're part like obviously you're really tired, long ass season and. But everything is pretty automatic by this time of year, man. Like, you know, you know, the place that you're calling versus man versus zone, you know, you know your substitution pattern. I mean everything is pretty automated at this time of year because you've just, you've played so many games. You've played like 40 games.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

How much time do you have to actually implement anything that you find on tape through like advanced scouting? How much time do you have to, to actually translate that to a change in the game plan for your team?

[Dan Hurley]

Team?

[Big Cat]

You had a, you going into the semifinal game. You could do some real things, you know, with those days. I mean, if you played, if you played on a, you know, on a Saturday and then you don't play again until that next Saturday in the final four, I mean you could really throw some wrinkles in on offense, some wrinkles in on defense. But basically all you're going to get with your team, you're probably going to get at, you know, two video sessions, two maybe two, maybe three video sessions before, you know, the national championship game. Going over tendencies, going over personnel. I think it's mostly going to be heavy personnel driven, trying to take things away individually from the other team, like, you know, trying to chase three point shooters off the three point line. You know, if there's a dominant post score, are we trapping the post? Are we playing at single coverage? Are we trying to set them to one shoulder or the other? Is this a team we should try to pressure more or, or sit in gaps and make them shoot threes? I mean, there's not a whole lot of adjustments or wrinkles you could do because you're going to basically get maybe an hour and 15 minutes a day before the game on the court to walk through some things. Some coaches Shoot around the day of the national championship game. Some don't. They try to save the legs. And some just, you want to get on the court and do the walkthrough. I mean, we would always go out there and do the walkthrough because you can't put a person like me just in the hotel all day. The day of a game, you got to turn, you got to let me out of the cage for a little while.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. All right. So. So, so it's very interesting that the assistant coach is doing a lot of the prep for you when you're in this short tournament setting. Now, when you're like in the game. So Luke Murray, for instance, you're in the game against Purdue. Is he like telling you things like, hey, I know they're about to do this. And then you, you obviously trust him to a level where it's like, like, all right. Or, or even like in the huddle, is he drawing stuff up instead of you? Because he has an intimate knowledge of what their next plays might look like.

[Big Cat]

So a lot of what the, A lot of what the, the coaches that have the scout do, I mean, they're handling a lot of the other team's offense. So, you know, you'll see those guys like, you know, when an opponent's taking the ball out in an out under and they see the formation, they'll be standing up and yelling to our team, hey, you know, it's screen to screener or, you know, it's, it's, or if they hear a play call or something that they recognize, you know, they'll stand up. If it's a half court, you know, set play that they're running, they'll stand up and yell, you know, stagger, flare, screen back, screen, and try to let them know what's coming, you know, more. So I think from a defensive standpoint, you know, and, and, but they deal with them a lot. Like in the TV timeouts are really long in the NCAA tournament. So you're in those huddles. Huddles. Feels like halftime in a regular huddle. So they're giving them a lot of information, you know, before I get into the huddle, after yelling at the ref for talking to Tracy Wolfson, you know, then I'll come into that huddle and they'll have gone through a lot of like the, the stuff that they wanted to think about for us defensively.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

What do you talk about with Tracy Wolfson when she comes over and she tries to ask hard hitting journalism questions? You know, either during the game or coming out of halftime? Do you have. Have a script ready to go for where you're like, here's where I'll say something and not say anything at all?

[Big Cat]

Well, I mean, my Sid, Bobby Mullen, you may have heard of him.

[Dan Hurley]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

He. He'll tell me before the game, hey, you know, you've got TV at the under 12, but I mean, once the anthem hits, I'm like, all that has gone out the window, and all I could see is red, so I'll have no idea that that camera's coming my way. And I mostly just check. I don't have, like, any white stuff on the side of my mouth. Because your mouth gets real dry.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

You're just yelling at people and, And. And feeling the pressure of the moment. So I just, mostly, I never know what she's going to ask, and I just don't want to have any white stuff on the side of my little.

[Dan Hurley]

Piss that you have that you just took your swig of piss. So you got like a little piss coming down your chin or something.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, which I could not have in the actual piss bottle. So I know people were upset, but you have to use the March Madness cups, you know, you.

[Dan Hurley]

But it was piss, right? It was still piss.

[Big Cat]

It's pissed from a redheaded person or, you know, a ginger.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Just get yourself fired up. All right, so after. After the game against Florida, there was some hubbub. There was a lot of Dan Hurley discourse going on that you had to address. You know, the tunnel, you know, Bobby Mullen. Was there any point? Luke Murray, like, two days later was like, like, hey, are you going to apologize to me for saying shut up? Because that was like. That was like, maybe like fifth on your list. But that was a very funny clip that was going viral.

[Big Cat]

I just. When I saw the clip, just how casually I said, yeah, just to. Shut up.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, shut up. Sometimes you got to be direct.

[Dan Hurley]

You didn't even stop your sentence. You, like, barely stop where you're going. You just shut up.

[Big Cat]

But the thing, though, I mean, Luke's been with me since Wax Wagner. Yeah. I mean, since the Wagner days. Since then a second tour of duty at roadie and now back with me a third time. So obviously, you know, we've got a. We've got a great give and take relationship that way. But I just. I was making a. I do something I wanted to do on the court, and then Luke was just telling me either something that he saw or wanted to do, but I. I was so focused on what I wanted us to do that. I just quickly wanted to tell him to shut up.

[Dan Hurley]

It is. Did you not year. I know there was, there was obviously the Creighton thing, which I, we're, we're big fans of rivalries. We love rivalries. We think there should be passion. We, that's why we're a fan of yours. Like, sports are boring if guys aren't, you know, with their heart on their sleeves playing with their emotions. But did you think it was a little weird that the criticism kind of ramped up this year when I actually think you've maybe gotten a little bit more calm than the Wagner Rhode island days. But the only difference being you won back to back national titles. So people like, oh, he's too much. It's like he's not really changed. He's always been this way.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, listen, it's definitely, it's, I mean, it's, it's the winning. I mean, there's so much there. I mean. Yeah, I mean, I was like, I was, I'm an at times, I mean, that's, you know, it's just who I am. I mean, I'm from, I'm from Jersey, you know, like when you're from like North Jersey, like New York, you know, New York City area, I don't think it's as like offensive to people like outside of that area. Like people in the Northeast, I think they, they, they understand me more that way. I think there are people though that like, live in the Midwest or maybe if they're from like, you know, parts of the west coast that they just don't understand human beings like me, that we could get, you know, as intense or as emotionally charged, or you could put as much of yourself into, into a competitive endeavor and then take the results as badly. I mean, we could break them down individually. I mean, you know. Yeah, I didn't think the refs really cheated us in the Florida game. I thought there was a call on a caravan drive, that there was a foul that needed to be called that would have kept it at a two possession game if he made his free throw. And I felt like that, you know, that, that, that, that was on my brain as I was heading down that tunnel as, as our pursuit of a three peat in this incredible historic run that we had been on as it all had gone down in flames and I was filled with all this emotion. I mean, did I actually believe what I said? No. To a fellow combatant that was about to enter the ring? I just kind of said something to like the Baylor guys that we played this year, like, like, you know, you better be on your. You better be on your. Today, because they ain't going to do you no favors out there. You're about to go play a one seed as a nine or an eight seed. Yo, you better be ready to go. And that's just kind of what combatants say to each other. I had no idea that somebody would be like, you know, in. In a tunnel area where there is never media when these games end. I mean, backed by the locker rooms, there is never. I thought it was like my safe space. Yeah. You know, where I could just say some shit and let off some steam and then. And the Creighton one. You know, that gentleman waited a long time for me to get back to that tunnel. I felt like he deserved for waiting so long. It was like a. It was like waiting for Santa at the mall. Like, you wait. He waited forever for me to get back there. I did tv. I felt like he. He deserved an interaction.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I understood karma at that point. That's why I didn't get pissed when, you know, when the kid on Creighton dunked the ball in the Big east tournament. If you notice, I really didn't flip out. I understood that karma. I had said something to the balding guy, and then. And then I got my comeuppance at the Big east tournament, and that's why I didn't flip out and act like the victim.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I got what I deserve. Karma and other coaches get that, too, when they say. You know, when they say. Shit.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, that. That's a very fair answer because I think that's. That's what we always love about sports is like, sometimes you're on top, you talk your. Sometimes you eat the.

[PFT Commenter]

And that's.

[Dan Hurley]

You keep going.

[PFT Commenter]

And I'd like to say, hand up.

[Mark Hoppus]

We.

[PFT Commenter]

We did a bad job for not even thinking that through after the crate thing. Like you were doing that guy a favor.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like that. That made that guy's year to have an inter. To get cussed out by Dan Hurley. That's worth the price of the ticket right there. So. Good job growing the game, coach.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Balding, though. I called him baldy. He's. He was. He's balding, not baldy. And telling me that I sucked.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And that I was a horrible coach and that, you know, a bunch of things about, you know, my family and, you know, just people are yelling a lot of these vile things, but mostly they're telling you that. That you suck. And I was telling him that I don't suck.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, but we, we should start writing. We should, we should start writing stories where it's like Dan Hurley ignores fan that calls him, tells him he sucks for two and a half hours.

[Mark Hoppus]

How could he?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, well, I mean, if you want to put it in that perspective, like you probably this year have ignored 400, 000 people that are telling you that you suck. Yeah, that's. They don't write stories about that. That's where you keep your cool.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. One balding guy at Creighton. It's the end of the world.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. And the social, you know, you don't realize, I mean, it's like, you know, you, you don't become beloved when you win. You, you do. I mean, listen, the media, I mean, part of it is the standard that they hold you to, I guess that if you're a championship level coach, that there's this gentlemanly fashion that you're supposed to conduct yourself, you know, with that. You know, I don't, I'm. I guess I see that point when, when you become a, you know, one of, you know, you know, one of the faces of college basketball, that there is, is I guess a more gentlemanly way that you could handle yourself in victory and defeat. I guess there's a perspective with that. That's just not my perspective for me right now. You know, my perspective is I don't want to change a whole lot of things about the way that I go about my coaching and my fire, my intensity, because it has produced, you know, it's produced historic success at, at Yukon the last couple of years.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, that's fair.

[PFT Commenter]

We actually, we have a, a Villanova fan. If you want to do just a practice run, Max, you want to just tell him that he sucks, See what he says? Yeah, you suck.

[Big Cat]

How are you guys doing?

[PFT Commenter]

That's good.

[Dan Hurley]

Look at that.

[Big Cat]

Personal growth.

[Mark Hoppus]

That's personal growth.

[Dan Hurley]

Incredible.

[PFT Commenter]

I, On a serious note, I loved watching the games. I loved watching the final four. We had two great games after, you know, a ho hum start to the tournament. In terms of competitive, can you break down what you saw from the Houston Duke ending the last like three minutes of that game? Because watching it, as a fan, I felt a lot of things as I watch it. But I want to know what somebody that knows their, somebody like you can tell us what happened at the end of that game.

[Big Cat]

I mean, just Houston's got some dogs and you know, just like a lesser coach and, and lesser, just a lesser organization or, or, or, or team or something. I mean, they. They just would have lost by 15 or 17 in that game. But Houston is just a bunch of wolves, man, led by a wolf. And, you know, it sucks for Duke and it sucks for. For John because, like, you know, the way he put that roster together was just. It was meticulous. And, you know, he. I mean, he had. I think he had the, you know, just the best team, you know, just from top to bottom. I mean, it felt. It felt bulletproof going into that tournament. And it looked bulletproof. And there was a. Just, I think, obviously not being in a lot of close games, I think just really hurt them a lot. You know, just not having to inbound the ball versus pressure, not having to shoot one on ones with pressure on them. Them, you know, whereas Houston's played a lot of close games and. But I, you know, obviously, you know, they had a super year and, and just. But not being in those situations, not having pressure possessions, you know, down the stretch just hurt them. And we were. I mean, we were not good last year in close games. You know, at UConn, we weren't good either. But, you know, the remedy for that is just whenever we got teams down, like, they got Houston down, you know, we put away. And they really needed to find a way to just put Houston down and keep that game 14, 16, 18, back to 12, back to 15. They. Once that shit got below six, it was. It got scary.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, it's true. It's a really good point that they. They. They missed a few. They had that stretch where they had like one field goal in 10 minutes and it felt like that kill shot just never. They let him hang around for too long. Dumb question. So Cooper Flag, obviously, you know, he won Naismith player of the year. You guys recruited him heavily. I. If I were running a program and I missed in Cooper Flag, like, picked another school besides my school, I would be like, fuck this. I'm going to be sad about it forever. Were you. Do you ever, like, throughout this year, were you ever a moment where, like, man, that would be sick if we had Cooper Flag on our team, or are you just so focused on your team? Because that's what I would do. I would, like, have a bad day and be like, I wish I had Cooper Flag.

[Big Cat]

I mean, if I did robot coach talk more often, I could save myself. A lot of. A lot of people get pissed at me when I say, yeah, we just focused on our season, and I always focused on the next practice, and I never think about shit like that. But no, when. When he played that Crazy game against Notre Dame. I'm like, my God, if we threw him on our team with some of these guys, I mean, what would that look like? I mean, I probably wouldn't have just blown a seven point lead the last 30 seconds at Seaton hall twice, you know, like. So. Yeah, I mean, no, but, but then I'd say this, you know, like, when you're watching their team play this year and the way that their staff put it together and just the quality of what they put together, you're like, you know, he made it, he made it. I mean, that was a great choice too, because they put a squad around him and that, that, that thing was, was, was impressive. And then you meet him, he's a total baller, that kid. He's a dog. I mean, he's a warrior, that guy. Just. He's got a lot of swagger and just a lot of pop to him. That. That guy is just what basketball needs.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, he is. He's tremendous. But I, Yeah, it was, it was an incredible season for him. All right, so I do have a question about Houston in this matchup, because you did play Florida.

[Big Cat]

But yes, I was. But yes, I was jealous.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, that's, That's a good human, like, because you're right. Like, most coaches would be like, no, we're. We got the guys, we got. But if you're watching Cooper Flag and he was, he was down between Duke and UConn, and you're like, shit, this would have been cool.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And the thing with, like, guys like Cooper, when we first took over the job and first got the job at UConn, it had fallen off so far that we couldn't really. The first couple recruiting classes until we won that first, that first Natty. Like, we didn't even swim in the waters of recruiting five stars because we were still just trying to get our head above water. So he was the first five star one and done that we really went after because Steph Castle, he was a guy who's ranking had moved up and he committed to us so early that he wasn't like this one and done top five, top ten player. When he committed to UConn, like, he was like a top 30 guy. So.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Did you ever. Do you ever have moments where you were like, I said the wrong thing to Cooper Flag, like, oh, I could have done this different. Like, he probably didn't. Like, he, you know, I empty.

[Big Cat]

Like, we went. We. We emptied. We empty.

[Dan Hurley]

You did everything.

[Big Cat]

All of our clips. I mean, we, we said. And you know, because we, we understood the, you know, the, the, you know, the pull to Duke, and obviously Duke's a special place. And, you know, we were talking to him about dynasty. I mean, we knew we had a squad that, that, that would, that had probably the best chance of anyone to win two. Two in a row. So we were just talking dynasty, you know, dynasty, dynasty. We're going to get three in a row. Dynasty. You're from Maine. You know, you're in this, you know, you're in this area. But yeah, we still have a shot of dynasty. If you get three and four years is still a dynasty.

[Dan Hurley]

That's.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, that's fact. You said that you emptied the clip. Did you offer his twin brother a scholarship, too?

[Big Cat]

Ace is a player, man. Yeah, Ace could play. Ace is like, stretch, you know, I think he's going to Maine. I mean, you know, Ace is going to light up some high majors in these buy games.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I would have done Ace good player.

[PFT Commenter]

I would have done like the Giannis thing. Like, yeah, we'll get your brother on the, on the squad, too.

[Dan Hurley]

The whole, the whole gang's gonna be. So, so Houston, though, so you obviously, you played Florida in the tournament. Houston, you haven't played since you were in the AAC your first couple years. Which is always so funny when you look back and you're like, oh, yeah, UConn was in that conference for a while. What is it when you're playing a Kelvin Sampson team? Like, what do you, what do you do for the way they rebound and defend? Because it is unlike any other team where they, they just feel like they are part of every single board that gets, you know, every shot that goes up, they've got a chance for that offensive rebound unlike any other team. So what do you do? What is Florida doing?

[Big Cat]

I mean, nothing prepares you for it. I mean, we were, you know, we competed against those guys in, you know, back, you know, back when we were in the aac. And then just watching it, you know, my brother played against it, the Big 12 this year. I mean, it is. You really feel like you're under siege. I mean, it is, it is just wave after wave of. And the, the life or death, relentless pursuit of the basketball. I mean, you can't, you can't go do two on two rebounding drills the week of that game and try to get these guys ready for it, because the way they get after it, you can't prepare for. It's like a pass rush that just. The quarterback is going to be rattled and it kills it Kills your transition offensive game because it's hard for you to even run on them. Because, because getting a defensive rebound feels like survival. You know, some of the things I think that they have going for them is, is, you know, their ball screen defense is really aggressive. You know, so they're going to get the ball out of Clayton's hands, they're going to blitz him in ball screens. But will they make those fatal mistakes the last five minutes that teams like ours made, Texas Tech made, you know, Auburn made late in games where Clayton has gotten those, those threes off the Dr. Where, where your, your hedge guy is a little late getting up to the level of that ball screen and Clayton has got these crazy threes that he is hitting off the dribble. Like these incredibly high degree of difficulty shots where if you just make one mistake in ball screen defense and your big does not get up there and hedge it or blow it up or blitz him, that's where he's just burying people and ending people's seasons.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be an incredible find. You know, Championship game, we got a.

[PFT Commenter]

Prediction, we got a final score.

[Big Cat]

You know, I, I just don't want to show up and make more enemies. I mean, I've got enemies at all over the place. I've added the Lakers this off season and.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, have you thought about like, what if I had Luca? That'd be cool. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

You know, I just. Well, no, I mean Florida's fans already hate me because I, I blamed it on the refs.

[Dan Hurley]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

So I didn't give their, their proper respect on having beaten us fair and square, which they did beat us fair and square. I'd like to get that, like to get that out there, but man, it's a tough one, man. I, I, I, I, they're Houston to me, you know, and listen, they both played games they could have lost in this tour tournament.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

You know, so they're both battle tested, I think. You know, you know, Florida had the game versus us in the Texas Tech game that both could have gone the other way. Houston had the Purdue game and the Duke game that could have gone the, could have gone the other way. I mean, it's basically the, the heater that, the heater that Clayton has been on, plus their front court, you know, versus like Houston has been knocking on the door of this for the last couple of years. Years. So I guess I would take Houston.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay. Yeah. It's going to be an incredible game and it is like, I mean the, we needed this final four because The. There weren't a lot of. I mean, for a while there, your game against Florida was the best game, was the most dramatic game we had for like, you know, a week there. So it was good watching great basketball. All right, so I have one last question for you, coach. Always great to have you on it is my. The Roback question. R, H, O, B, A, C, K.com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. Q, zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com promo code, take. My last question is. So you have a book coming out or it's out called Never Stop, which is the perfect title for a Dan Hurley book. Can it. Am I allowed to stop every now and then? Like, never stop, never stop.

[Big Cat]

I mean, you're like a shark, right? If a shark stops, it dies.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Or at least I've read that.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And then, I mean, listen. I mean, some of the stuff that I've been doing. Should I stop? I mean, I mean, maybe I'm gonna. I've got a lot of things to consider this off season and I am. You know, listen, I didn't go to San Antonio and parade myself around there. I have self awareness and situational awareness where I felt like the best thing to do was to lie low and not head to San Antonio and parade myself around, you know? Cause I do think that people. People needed a little break from me. The run we've been on the way, this year's gone. You probably won't be seeing a whole lot of me until it's time to. To then go and talk about the book. Yeah, obviously I've got to get out and plug the book when the book comes out.

[Dan Hurley]

Right. And it was smart. Like you weren't on 60 minutes or anything or did anything like that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that stuff was all shot in the summer. Majority of that stuff. Stuff was. Was shot a long time ago.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

All right. You did a good job on 60 Minutes. You didn't flip out at the interview or anything.

[Dan Hurley]

That would have been funny if you had.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. If you got mad like, that's not a fair question.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Don't touch my piss.

[Big Cat]

I was, I did get worried with 60 minutes because there was some concern in my camp that based on the way the year was going, that that could turn into a hit piece. Oh, just. There was, you know, I had, obviously, obviously. You know, the meltdown in Maui where I tore my Lululemon pants when I was. You know what, There was an over the back call there that, you know, that, that got that that obviously set a lot of things in motion, but there wasn't as much anger with that over the back call as the one last night.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And, you know, where were all of the slow mos of my over the back call that set me off?

[Dan Hurley]

It's a good point. It's a good point. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Not the same stage of game. I would say a quarterfinal game in Maui and around Thanksgiving and the national.

[PFT Commenter]

Semis, they should call it the same way either way.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Consistency.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, you're right.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Well.

[Big Cat]

Speaker 1 well, we.

[Dan Hurley]

Listen, my people, we. We've been accused of being Dan Hurley apologists, but we. We feel like we've been honest that you. We've. I think every time that you have one of these things happen, happen. We literally say what you said earlier, like, is he an. Yeah. Do we want more of it in sports? Yeah, like. Like. And I think I actually have said the quote. Like, Dan Hurley will tell you he's an asshole sometimes, which you did just now. So, like, what are you gonna do? I like sports are supposed to be entertaining like this. I want the bad blood. I want the rivalries. I want passion. I want all this. Never stop.

[Big Cat]

Guilty as charged. It makes the sports. I think it makes it better. I mean, it makes the crowds better. Better. When we go and play some of these games, the environments that, you know, that I bring my team into, it's like the intensity gets ratcheted up just because of, you know, just of our. Our presence and how much people want to beat us because, you know, they hate us and they hate me. And I think the thing that. That most of these fans of a lot of these other schools, though, is they just. They, you know, that they hate the fact that we're able to do something that is obviously so hard to do. And we did it twice. And we did it. We did it twice. We did it two times in a row, and we did it with historical margins that will probably be. Never be done again.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Did you ever say to yourself, like, after you lost a game against Florida. Well, at least we covered again.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. That streak alive.

[Big Cat]

Well, I noticed that. So I think Bobby. I think Bobby Mullen again, I'm gonna. I think he might have mentioned to me the, Like, I get trolled a lot, I guess, by the gambling sites. Like, they took some shots at me this year, and I guess that's why, you know, I guess I cost them a lot of money.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, true.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, not in the tournament. Always bet on. On Hurley in the tournament.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Yeah. It's.

[PFT Commenter]

I Mean, it's a, it's a good.

[Dan Hurley]

Streak is still alive in my eyes.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, you could still, you could still go so. Well, coach, thank you. It's always great having you on and next time ne, next year. I know we were trying to work it out, but when you come to DePaul, you got to come to our office. Office. Put us through a quick drill. Cause we got the full court here, so that would be fun. Well, you could just beat us up for like 20 minutes, give your guys an off day. You could actually have them watch you bring your whole team. They can watch you beat us up. That would maybe good team bonding training session.

[Big Cat]

I think just a 20 minute. A 20 minute session.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

Make us 20.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, we'll drink piss.

[Big Cat]

Like defense condition drink piss before you start. And we'll just, just like, like, like offense, like skill work to like some defensive fundamentals, to some cardio and then to some game situational live play. Yeah, like, yeah. Like a real hard 30 minute workout.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm in.

[Dan Hurley]

We're in. We're in. Well, coach, thank you for, for, for joining us and we'll talk soon.

[Big Cat]

All right, boys.

[PFT Commenter]

Dan Hurley was brought to you by our great friends over at Game Time. Baseball is back. There's nothing like getting to a baseball game, especially last minute. Lucky for me, I always use Game Time, the official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports. Max, can you actually look up the Cubs play the Phils soon, right?

[Dan Hurley]

That they do. That they do.

[PFT Commenter]

So Phillies in Chicago, they're playing a series here. Look up what the price for that game would be to get in the first game. Lucky for us, we always use Game Time, the official ticketing partner of Barcelona Sports. They make getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the app actually go down the closer it gets to showtime. Plus, if you purchase a super deal when buying tickets on April 22, game time will plant a tree with the proceeds for Earth day. So if you look at those Phillies at Cubs tickets, I'm saying, Max, this has to be a mistake because I'm seeing you can get tickets for $11.

[Dan Hurley]

I'm seeing 10.

[PFT Commenter]

$10.

[Dan Hurley]

$10 to get in.

[PFT Commenter]

A nice crisp Hamilton to get in. That's amazing. That's a great deal. Go to historic Wrigley Field, the Friendly Confines. If you use Game Time, you can get them for 10 bucks and you can put the savings back in your pocket. Spin them at the ballpark on a hot dog, a new hat, or some good old fashioned cracker Jack. Get a get a beer cup. Get a beer cup of the baseball bat the baseball beers that they got there. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use code PMT. Get 20 bucks off your first purchase terms. Apply again, create an account and redeem code PMT. Get 20 bucks off. Download the Game Time app today. What time is it? Game Time. Dan Hurley is also brought to you by Simply Safe. With longer daylight hours, you may be spending more time away from the house and giving burglars more opportunities to strike. FBI crime data shows break ins are more likely during daylight hours than under the cloak of night. Protect your home with Simply Safe's proactive security that helps stop threats before they happen. With Simply Safe, millions of Americans enjoy the new standard in home in home security and greater peace of mind every time they arm their system. When heading out in the morning or when locking up each night after I got my clothes stolen from our front porch, you know what I did? I got in touch with Simply Safe because I want to stop that in the future. Traditional security systems only take action after someone has already broken in that's too late. Simply Safe's Active Guard outdoor protection can help prevent break ins before they happen. It's got AI powered cameras backed by live professional monitoring agents that monitor your property and detect suspicious activity. Visit simplisafe.com pmt get 50% off a new system with professional monitoring and get your first month for for free. That's simplisafe.com pmt s I m p l I s a f pmt. There's no safe like Simply Safe. And now here's Mark hoppus from Blink 182.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest. He is an incredible musician. He's also an author. It is Mark Hoppus from Blink 182. He's got a new book out called Fahrenheit 182AMemoir. And we are very excited to have you on. We're big fans of yours, yours, big, big fans of Blink, big fans of your career. But you have a book now. So we got to start with the book because yeah, I, I'm always curious, you know, you've had a very interesting life. I would put you up there of, of people I'd want to read a book about. But what, what made you jump to write a book? Because I always am like, is there a part of you that says is this an egomaniac move to write a book? But you have an Interesting life. Yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah. That was the hardest thing for me to. About writing the book was thinking that anyone would be interested enough to read a book that I had written, so. But when I was sick, I got sick with cancer a few years ago, and my doctor told me, when you're going through this, just write. Just write. Like, nobody's ever going to read this. Just write your feelings, write your thoughts. And so I started writing all this stuff while I was undergoing chemotherapy, and it was really helpful to me. And then so I had this stuff that I'd written, written, and my manager was like, you should write the story of Blink 182 from your perspective. And, you know, Travis has his. His Weimar and Tom has written books. But I really wanted to tell the story of Blink182 through my eyes and my experience because it's my favorite band of all time. I love my band members, and I'm such a huge fan of Blink182 that I wanted to share these stories.

[Dan Hurley]

That's awesome.

[PFT Commenter]

That's really cool. So I. I might be a bigger fan of blinking182 than you are.

[Dan Hurley]

Maybe.

[PFT Commenter]

Maybe. I'm not sure. I took the shades off for this interview out of respect. I think there have been, like, three guys that we've interviewed on this show. I just want to look you in the eyes, Mark, because I. Your. Your band provided one of the seminal moments of my childhood, which was getting kicked out of school for the first time when I got sent home, because I was right. I was wearing a T shirt that said Blink182. Crappy punk rock.

[Mark Hoppus]

You got kicked out of school for crappy punk rock?

[PFT Commenter]

They sent me home early. It wasn't like a suspension, but I felt like a badass. And I felt, oh, wow.

[Mark Hoppus]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So.

[Mark Hoppus]

Well, thank you for that. I appreciate being part of your. Your story.

[Dan Hurley]

I was gonna say you're part of my childhood, too. Just that when Enema the State came out, I was like, wait, women can be that hot? Because I was also like a. Holy shit.

[PFT Commenter]

I think maybe the soundtrack to my first hand job.

[Mark Hoppus]

Nice.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

You've been there for all to be there.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

Through all these important moments in your.

[PFT Commenter]

Lives, the ups and downs. But no, we appreciate you coming on the show. And you guys. I. I noticed last year all the small things kind of became a sports anthem.

[Big Cat]

I.

[PFT Commenter]

Some somewhat out of nowhere. I'm not sure how it happened, but I know that you're a Dodgers fan.

[Mark Hoppus]

I am.

[PFT Commenter]

And Tom is a Padres fan.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yep.

[PFT Commenter]

And the Padres were Using all the small things as like their pump up song in the series against the Dodgers. Did you think about calling the Dodgers and being like, I do not give you permission to use this song?

[Mark Hoppus]

No, not at all. I like. You know, the Avalanche used it as their fight song on their run to the Stanley Cup. The Padres were using it during our playoff season last year against the Dodgers. I just love that people care about that song enough after whatever it is. That song was released in 1999. It's 2025. It's 25 years of that song and it's become a rock jock anthem. Awesome. Love is.

[Dan Hurley]

It is good. So the. The book from you. Your. From your perspective and it goes through your whole life. Do you think it would have. I mean, I. I think part of why it's going to be so interesting is you guys broke up a couple times but still got back together. And that feels good because I know that like the bands break up and they never get back together and everyone just sits there being like, man, my favorite bands just no longer, you know, exists. So, like, getting back together on both times. How. How is it different? And also it. Does it make it. The writing the book a little easier knowing that it had somewhat of a happy ending?

[Mark Hoppus]

I am so thankful that after all that our band has been through, the breakups and the reunions and breaking up again and getting back together again. This is the third iteration of Blink 182 and people still want to buy albums and listen to our music and come to the shows and to have that kind of fan base. I don't even call it fan base. It's like to have that many people support our band is just so incredible and we're so thankful for it. When we sat down this last time when we were talking about let's do Blink182 again, let's do it on entirely our own terms, the way that we want to do it. The three of us. Blink 182 forever. Like, we can't mess this up again. I don't know if I can curse on your show. We can't fuck this up again. The third time is just. We will be a joke at that point. Like, if we're getting back together as the three of us, it has to be forever. And that's it. And everybody is like fully on board and it's the best feeling.

[Dan Hurley]

So. So when that conversation happens, is just the three of you in the room and is I. I would imagine it's just very. You guys have been through so much Together that it's kind of. Everyone's stripped down to, like, we know each other like brothers.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, totally. Both times that, like, you know, it's been. When Tom quit the first time he died, he and I didn't speak for, like, four years. When he quit the second time, we didn't quit. We didn't talk for a while, and then we were just cordial with one another. But when we come back together. Together, it's almost like, what are we doing? Like, that was so dumb. Why did we ever get to that point? There's a shorthand and a brotherhood and a friendship that we just come back together, and it's like, okay, cool. What are we gonna do now?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. That's awesome.

[PFT Commenter]

The first time you guys met, you broke your feet trying to impress him. Is that true?

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah. I met Tom the day that I moved to San Diego. I woke up in the morning. I was in Ridgecrest, California, which is in the middle of the Mojave Desert. That's where I grew up. I drove to San Diego to move in with my mom and stepdad to go to college in San Diego. Got to San Diego, unloaded all my stuff, which was just my clothes in a trash bag. And I. My sister was in high school at the time, and she said, oh, you know what you should do? You should meet my friend Tom. He's my boyfriend's best friend. He plays guitar, and he's trying to start a punk rock band. And so I grabbed my bass, drove over to Tom's house that night, wrote our first songs together, Kind of became bros at that point. The bromance began, and afterwards, like, we were sitting. I was sitting out in the cul de sac in front of his house. I was smoking cigarettes, and we were kind of talking and stuff, and I looked over, and I saw a light pole, and I was like, I bet I can climb that light pole. And I climbed all the way up, and I came back down, and I just jumped off way too high. Ended up, you know, busting my heels. Was on crutches for six weeks. But the next day, Tom Collins like, hey, you want to come over my music?

[PFT Commenter]

That's cool. He was like, that was sick.

[Dan Hurley]

That's awesome. Respect.

[PFT Commenter]

This is a guy that I vibe.

[Mark Hoppus]

With, like, nice crash, idiot. Let's make some music.

[Dan Hurley]

Did you.

[PFT Commenter]

So.

[Dan Hurley]

So when you. When you guys decided to make music together, was it instant? Because one of my favorite parts about, you know, music and. And watching bands and. And their growth. It feels like that first album always has that spark to it, and it has that like everyone together and you're, you're all trying to make it together. Is that fair, a fair assessment, like where you guys had that spark right away, like, oh, we did. We were meant to do this together.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah. You know, the, the first song that Tom and I wrote together was a song called Carousel. And you know, we had just met. I plugged in my bass in his garage, which he had turned into his bedroom at his parents house. And he said, do you have any ideas for new music? Because we were talking about bands we like. And I said, oh yeah, I wrote this thing a couple weeks ago and I played it for him, but it was really incomplete. It was just like a little riff. And he goes, oh my God, that works perfectly with this thing that I've been working on. And he played me his guitar thing. I'm like, it's even in the same key. Like it works perfectly. And so we had already started writing songs with each other before we'd even met. And it felt like, you know, it felt like it was meant to be from day one.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm always curious when I'm talking to musicians about when you know that you're, you're going to commit to this full time, that it's going to be your job. Because it's fun to play music with your friends, it's fun to be in a band, but at some point you guys have to commit to it and say, this is my focus. If, if we need to get into a van and travel around for like three weeks, we'll do it, we'll make dog money. But this is going to be my full time gig right now. What was that for, you guys?

[Mark Hoppus]

I was in college and Blink was starting to play some shows and we'd get more shows over the weekend. So you know, one week and we played San Diego and the next weekend we play la. And then like a month later we'd play San Diego, LA and Phoenix. And then a couple weeks later we play San Diego, Louisiana, Phoenix, San Francisco, Sacramento. And so I was missing a lot of college, I was doing poorly in school. And the band was just starting to create this kind of tiny little spark where people would come and see us play and we were getting more opportunities. And I went to my mom and I was like, look, we're making 50 bucks a show at this point. Like we can barely afford gas money, but we can afford gas money now and there's an opportunity to go on tour maybe sometime in the future. What do I do? Because I don't want to fail out of college and, you know, waste all this money and waste my parents money, money. And she was like, you can go back to college anytime. There are people in their 40s that go back to college and finish their degree. You only get one chance to be in a band. Get out there and go find your dream. And I was like, all right, cool. And so I ended up living at her house with my mom and my sister and my stepdad until I was in my mid-20s, just treating the place like a skateboard flophouse. Me and my bandmates and skater loser friends would stay the night there. We would stay up till 4 o'clock in the morning playing Street Fighter 2, screaming. My parents would come out in the middle of the night, shut the up, we're trying to sleep. And we'd go back to it and it was, it was great. It was the only way that I was able to start being an abandoned tour at all was that my mom was like, yeah, live at home, go do your.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And very cool. Mom move things. Things kind of took off when Dude Ranch came out. And when you're recording that and you're listening to Damn it for the first time after you've recorded it, do you know this is going to be a hit? Like my life's going to change.

[Mark Hoppus]

I mean, we thought it was a cool song and we thought it was a high highlight of the album and we thought it would be the first single. But first, like we didn't have singles at that point. People weren't really playing us on the radio too much. There were a few stations in Southern California that were playing M M's off a Cheshire Cat. And maybe Josie. No, Josie was on Dude Ranch. So maybe they were playing M M's off of Cheshire Cat. But we didn't have singles until Dude Ranch. And so when we were recording, like we didn't know that that was going to be a single that was going to be played on the radio we were going to film a video for. It was just the highlight of the record at that point. So that song we still play as the big closer of our sets, even now, 30 years later.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, and I remember the first time when I heard the intro to Damn It, I was like, I love this. Before the song started. Really? I was like, I love this song. This is now my favorite song. And you wrote the guitar port for that, right? And so when you're, when you're showing Tom the guitar part, is he like, dude, what the talk? I. I write the guitar Parts?

[Mark Hoppus]

No, we've always written kind of everything together. Like he writes, he'll be like, I think the bass goes like this. And I'll be like, I think the guitar goes like this. And we have license to change one another's ideas or try and come up with something better. When I wrote the guitar riff at the beginning of Damn it, I wrote that on a. On an acoustic guitar that I had busted at my mom's house, and it only had the bottom three strings on it. It only had the EAD strings on it. So that's why I just has those. You can play the whole thing on three strings. Yeah. And that's kind of. I think the limitation was why the song is kind of good because it's so simple and catchy.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Do you have a moment in the history of Blink 1A2 where you're like, oh, shit, this is now changed forever? Like, we. Some, you know, whether it be a album song or, you know, getting, you know, a tour or anything, we're like, okay, we've. We've hit the point of no return where this is now. I've made it, so to speak.

[Mark Hoppus]

Well, made it like, this is the point of no return. I would say probably during the Enema the State era, where we started, like, touring enough that we were playing amphitheaters and arenas and, you know, we had hit songs on the radio and we were playing, being played on trl and we'd walk into like a clothing store somewhere and they'd be playing all the small things. What the is this? And at that point I was like, wow, okay, now I feel a little confident that this is going to be at least going for a few more years. You know, you never know what's going to happen as a musician, as an artist, you know, a performer, actor, whatever it is. Like, what's the next gig? What's. Are people going to still care in five years? And, you know, we've always worked and written the best songs we can and toured our asses off and believed in ourselves, and it's worked out well for us, but you can't ever count on it, you know.

[Big Cat]

Right, right.

[Dan Hurley]

Do you think it's harder or easier like in today's because, you know, we obviously have access to more music now with Spotify and all the. But like you mentioned trl. I remember as like a kid, a child of the 90s, like coming home and turning on TRL and being like, oh, these are the top 10 songs right now. And. And like that being something that's I don't want to call it monoculture, but it felt like that as kids that time. Do you think it's. That was like a big part of breaking through. And today it might be a little more difficult.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, I think it's really difficult then and now in completely different ways. Back then, it was expensive to record the, you know, now you can have your laptop computer, a few rudimentary microphones, and you can record great sounds, and you can put together songs and you can upload them to, you know, SoundCloud or there's, like tens of thousands of songs being uploaded all the time to the streaming services, and you can use your social media to get the word out there, and you can be on all these different things, but it's harder to cut through all the noise now. Now, back then, it was expensive to record. It was expensive to get your music out there. You.

[Dan Hurley]

I.

[Mark Hoppus]

We literally had to drive to a building, an industrial park in downtown San Diego to pick up cassettes, go home, go to Kinko's, print up all the artwork for the cassettes, cut them out by hand, fold them all up with my mom and my sister, my stepdad and bandmates on our living room floor, and drive them around to every single record store in San Diego just to get music in stores that hopefully people would maybe see us at a show and buy our demo. And it was five bucks, right? So that was a lot of work back then. And you had to flyer. And if we had a show, we like Tommy to go to his high school and stuff, flyers for a band show and his friend's lockers and hand them to people at lunchtime. And I would flyer my colleges, and we would go to record stores and put flyers everywhere. And so it was a lot of physical work and movement to get the word out. But once you got played on, like, MTV or you got played on a radio station in Los Angeles called KROCK or KROCK New York. There are a few like. Like, once that. Once you reach that barrier, then it really got the word out.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And it. In the TRL era, when the all the Small Things video came out, that was. It felt like a moment because, like, we were going through the boy band era at the time, and then this comes out, and it's like giving kind of like a. A you to the boy band. But it was funny. It was like a funny joke. But I read an excerpt from the book that you didn't know anything about the boy band music videos while you were filming that video. And so while you were doing that. It was like, you. You were like, are fans gonna like this?

[Mark Hoppus]

I didn't like it. I thought it was a terrible idea. I was like. When they pitched the idea and they. They were like, we're gonna, you know, do spoofs of Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, 98 degrees inside sink. I was like, okay. And we were filming it. I'm like, this isn't funny. Like, I don't understand what we're spoofing. I don't know these videos. And I went to, like, Bandmates Management label. This isn't funny. I don't back this idea at all. I'm going to go on record and say, I think this is going to be a horrible video. And I was wrong as.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, very wrong.

[PFT Commenter]

Can we just get naked again?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

Can't we just, like, run around in our underpants or do something stupid? But, yeah, that video was just genius. And I think it was the right time in trl. I think that people. Because, like, the pop thing had grown so exponentially and it was so big and it was everywhere, and it was ubiquitous. Just, you know, pop stars and pop videos and very manufactured, safe stuff and kind of, you know, Green Day had already come and kind of kicked the door open. And then Blink was poppy enough that we were accessible, but not so punk that we were, like, you know, off putting to people. And we kind of just slid perfectly into this change between pop music and what was taking over at that time, which was punk rock and new metal and a lot more edgier, distorted guitars, heavy drums. I think people were ready to kind of go off a little harder, laugh a little and. And be a little more edgy.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. You had an absolute heater, too, with album titles, so you.

[Mark Hoppus]

Thank you.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Dude Ranch, which, by the way, is Dude Ranch, does that come?

[Mark Hoppus]

No, but I don't. When I said Dude Ranch, I just thought it was a funny thing. But I don't know if Tom this whole time thought, oh, my God, that's come, but maybe he does. It wasn't my intent when I suggested the title, but I think it's a great joke. And then Enema of the State was something that Tom came up with and was genius from day one. There's even video somewhere of Tom talking to the camera. We're shooting photos for the. For the COVID of the. Of the album, him. And he's talking about how he's so great, he's going to. He wants to become a model for Enemas. Enema and he goes, of the State. Enema of the State. He goes, haha, that's funny. Hey Mark. And you can see the moment where Enema of the State came about. Then take off your pants and jacket. I think is just genius.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean it's.

[PFT Commenter]

It was so good that you were like, I don't know that we can. Let's just. Next album, self titled.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, self titled, exactly. Next album. We're like, we're not going to try and do it. But at that point we were like, we're serious rock band now. We're going to make an art rock album. And we don't want to have a joke thing at all. Like we want to stand on our own two feet and not have it be a joke thing. And so we did the untitled record, which is a lot more serious and a lot more introspective and kind of where we were at that point.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In that course of. Of your albums, in like the creative process, did you. Were you guys ever feeling pressure from. Because we've heard a million stories of, you know, the record execs and trying to fit you guys in a box. Were you able to stave that off and be yourself? Yourself?

[Mark Hoppus]

Totally. We were very lucky in that in the beginning, the labels didn't care enough about us to come down and put any pressure on us. They were, you know, they were like, yeah, just go do your thing and we'll put it out. And kind of just left us on a. On our own. And then by the time we did that with Dude Ranch and Enemo the State, then when we did the untitled record, we recorded that mostly in San Diego. And most of the label people like, I'm not going to drive down to San Diego, no way. Like I'm not. I'm not leaving LA and driving all the way down to San Diego to listen to what these dudes are doing. And so we've always been really autonomous and basically at the end just turned in our record and said, there you.

[Dan Hurley]

Go, that's awesome, that's great.

[PFT Commenter]

And. And when Enema comes out, obviously you make the switch to Travis on the drums, who I think is one of the best rock drummers of all time. Just an incredible musician, maybe, maybe the best songwriting drummer of all time.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

When you think of how he breaks down songs, did that put any pressure on you to up your game as a songwriter to be like, this guy's way better at his instrument than anybody I've ever played with? I gotta step it up.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yes, Entirely. When Travis joined the band, the. The whole everything leveled up. Like, you know, I felt pressure to be a better songwriter. I know Tom felt the same. Travis would come in and, you know, Tom and I would present these ideas that were like, you know, really straightforward punk rock songs, whatever. And Travis would be like, what if I played this beat on top of it? And then you're like, oh, that takes the song to a totally different place. And then. Then we'd build on that. So Travis joining the band brought in elements that we had never really incorporated into our band before, because Travis came in with, like, all these different musical influences. He grew up listening to punk rock, but he also grew up like a metalhead, and he grew up playing in drumline, and he grew up listening to hip hop and rap music. And so he brought in all these different styles to Blink that really creatively inspired me and Tom to bust out of our. We're a punk rock band and. No, not just a punk rock band. We're a rock band with all these different cool influences.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Is there an alternate universe where Travis is just the best God drummer of all time? If you ever give him the call.

[Mark Hoppus]

From the A dope. He was a great drummer in Aquabats. He was killing it. When we watched Travis with Aquabats, and we're on tour. Blink 182 and Aquabats were on tour together, and that's when we met Travis. He was doing stuff in a ska band that you're like. That is way beyond what a ska band should be doing. Doing.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah. Just. Yeah. Incredible drummer. And. Yeah, you guys have had such an incredible career. Is it harder to write pop punk songs as you get older? Because so much of what you started with in your catalog is, like, teenage angst, right? Like, you're not getting laid, you're pissed off at your parents, that sort of thing. Is it harder to write that type of music getting older and dealing with different problems?

[Mark Hoppus]

Sometimes. What. What really it is is you think about, like, you know, for me, I think back to moments that I was upset or inspired or. Or felt angry about something and extrapolate that. And I'm not trying to write songs about, like, I. I'm angry at my parents, and chicks won't talk to me about things like that. I'm more writing about songs from memories of my life or things that I see in the world or things that I see happen in my friends. And I think it would be disingenuous for me to be like, you know, writing about high school Stuff. Unless. Unless it was something that I remembered from my high school and was writing it in that frame of mind. But I'm not trying to be like, yeah, you, mom. Yeah, right.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah, right. Although, like, after you write family reunion, are you like, maybe we've peaked as a band? This is a great song.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, that was pretty rad. And in fact, when we recorded take off your pants and jacket, we were like, in. We were in full reaction against enema of the state where we were on trl. And it was poppy and it was fun and it was bright and it was all these, you know, fun time, summer things. And we went in and we're like, we're wearing all black, everything. We are fugazi. We are punk rock. We are post emo, post hardcore. Like, no more joke. The label came in to hear the record when we were done, and what we did is we played them the three joke songs, which was when you grandpa a song about Tom having sex with a dog. And I forget what the third one is. Right. Oh, Mother's day, which is like, you know, a song about Mother's Day being a celebration of having sex with your mom. And we played them those three songs as if those were the record.

[Dan Hurley]

What was her reaction?

[Mark Hoppus]

Really concerned looks between the label president and the head of A and R. Because we were like, yeah, this is what we want to do. Like, we want to take it to a different level. And then we played him those three songs.

[Dan Hurley]

And so, yeah, that's great. All right, so. So I. I read when you were battling cancer, you did the thing that I am always so nervous about because I share on Instagram, I share, like, pictures of my kids to just my friends. You shared that you had cancer to everyone accidentally. Accidentally on your Instagram story.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

What that had to have been. I mean, you already were battling cancer then on top of that, that had to have been like a. Oh, fuck, this sucks. Really bad moment.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah. I had intentionally not been public about my cancer diagnosis. I had told my friends and I had started chemo and I was on my third round of chemo, chemo, and I accidentally posted it and I was trying to, like, I'd put. Put a picture of me starting chemo. Round one, let's go to just my friends to be like, let's go and be positive and whatever, make a joke out of it. And so round three, I posted a picture of myself saying, yes, one cancer treatment please, while I'm hooked up to my iv. And they had. I. They had just given me my Benadryl which makes me tired. And so I. I took the picture and I posted it. And I started feeling groggy. And two minutes later, my manager, April, calls up and was. Was like, did you mean to post that on Maine? And I was falling asleep and I was drugged out of my brain and I was. And my last thought was, oh, fuck. And I woke up a couple hours later, deep into chemotherapy and looked at my phone again. All these people texting people, calling people all. And by the time I was done with my treatment that day, which probably took whatever four to six hours, and I was driving home, I felt like hell. My body was full of all these toxic poisons, burning all the cancer out of my body, body. And the publicist is like, you have to make a statement. People like radio stations are running with this. And so we pulled over to the side of the road and I typed on my phone something. My wife was driving and I typed out something, you know, I have cancer. I'm very lucky to have great doctors and family and friends to support me. And I'm, you know, hope for the best.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, that says. That's brutal. Yeah, go, keep going. Sorry.

[Mark Hoppus]

And so, yeah, I really, I wrote that and I texted to our friend Lisa Warden, who runs, you know, who ran Krock Los Angeles and now runs 98. 7 in Los Angeles. And she read my statement over the air immediately. And we're still on the side of the road and I'm still full of dry. And it felt like I was Tom Sawyer at his own funeral. When he sneaks back into his own funeral and he's hiding in the rafters and looking at what people think about when he. They think that he had passed. And it was really surreal and it was like, ah, shit. Everybody knows I'm sick now. And I didn't expect the outpouring of love and support that I got from the world. I thought people would be more like, haha, finally you got yours, you son.

[PFT Commenter]

Of a. Oh, how you feeling now? You feel healthy?

[Mark Hoppus]

I feel really healthy. I really have to work hard at staying healthy. And I go to the gym five days a week and I'm working out with weights and I eat right and I stop drinking and like all this stuff. So I'm in a really good spot. The only part that is lagging at all is my brain fog hits from time to time, and when that happens, it sucks.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're feeling so much better. I. I got a question for you about. About the relationship with Tom. Obviously, thick and Thin ups and downs. Did you ever think that, like, the. One of the first times you guys broke up when it's like Tom is really into going off and finding aliens somewhere? Did you ever think that that reunion would end with you being like, tom, you were kind of low key, right? About finding aliens, everything? Yeah, my bad.

[Mark Hoppus]

I've asked him that before. I've been like, you know, hey, you're kind of right. And he's like, I know, but Tom has so many takes on so many different things, especially aliens. Like, he told me at one point in the same conversation that he just. He'll just start talking and he rambles and he can't stop and he'll talk to you at you for half an hour. And in the same conversation, he said, we never landed on the moon. That was a hoax perpetuated from a studio in Burbank Bank. And the reason that Kennedy was shot was because he found out when we landed on the moon that there were secret alien glass castles on the dark side of the moon. So I'm like, well, which is it? Did we go to the moon or did we not go to the moon? And then he kind of thinks and he goes, exactly, Exactly.

[Dan Hurley]

Gotcha. Yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

So if you come up with enough takes, eventually something's going to be right.

[PFT Commenter]

That's the premise of this entire show.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, there you go.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, we just throw enough things at the wall that every now and then we could be like, told you guys, totally.

[Mark Hoppus]

You're like, aaron Rodgers is going to come back and win and win. You know, the. The Lombardi?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[PFT Commenter]

I could see Aaron Rogers and Tom getting along real well.

[Mark Hoppus]

Oh, totally. Yeah, totally. They, you know, Tom, for fun for a long time, would go and he, he would buy, like, military grade night vision goggles and he would go on missions, go camping to try and find Bigfoot.

[PFT Commenter]

That's awesome.

[Dan Hurley]

Badass.

[PFT Commenter]

That's. Yeah, that sounds like a fun guy to hang out with.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, totally. Tom rules. He's awesome. And I love that he chases whatever, like, whatever it is that he wants to do, he's gonna go do it.

[Dan Hurley]

When you guys, when you guys had your period where you weren't talking and then you get back together, I know you said, like, once you're in person, you pick right back up, but was it, Was it difficult? I mean, thinking like your best friend in the whole world, you don't talk to him for four years. That's. That's gotta be hard. It also has to be a little sad. Like, even. Even looking back now being like, I missed four years of your life.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, totally. It sucks. It was. It was painful. It was. I felt like I had lost not only my band, but my best friend and my sense of self. And what was I if I wasn't mark from Blink182? I'm just Mark Hoppus. Some dude that was in a band or what am I? Or who should I be? Or, you know, like, my creative partner was gone. My band was gone, My sense of self, everything. It sucked.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Who texted first?

[Mark Hoppus]

Tom called. The first time Tom called me out of the blue. And I looked at my phone. It was a. It was a San Diego number. And I'm like, huh? And answer the phone, it was Tom. I'm like, hello? And he goes, hey, it's Tom. And I like, oh. And I walked outside and like, how you doing, dude? And he's like, I'm good. How are you? And I'm like, I'm good. And it was like a. It was kind of like we picked right back up from four years ago, but not an argument's sake. Like, we didn't be like, you know what? You sucked. Whatever. But we. We had a really great conversation. How are you in your life? Where are you? Just like family, kids, mental health, that kind of stuff. And then he goes, so what have you learned over the past four years?

[Dan Hurley]

Whoa.

[Mark Hoppus]

And I was like. And then we had a really great heart to heart about what each of us had learned over the past four years. And it was really, like, instantly wholesome and great and fulfilling and, like, I felt like. Like the floodgates opened and I felt all this, like, love and opportunity and. And, I don't know, life come back into me.

[Dan Hurley]

That's really cool.

[PFT Commenter]

And the first time you guys get back into songwriting mode together, what's that like? Are you guys doing it like you're writing together or you come with ideas? You sit down.

[Mark Hoppus]

The first time we got back together on Neighborhoods, Tom had an idea for a song that became Up All Night. And it was great from the beginning, but writing songs after having been so adversarial and so, like, the band broke down and everything else. When we first started writing songs, we were very cautious with one another. Another, very tender with one another's feelings, Very like, you know, let's not accidentally knock out this flame that we have going. And bands, especially with Blink, like, we need to be able to say, that's a great idea, but I don't like this section or this could be better or what? Like, you don't Want to just be like, oh, yeah, that's great. Oh, yeah, totally. That's good. Oh, yeah. You know, so you need to be able to push back on stuff. And that took us a while to get to that point where we could say, like, I understand what you're going for, but let's do it this way, or I think we could do it different, or I don't like that idea.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I'm always interested, too, to know. Know how you come up with the order for songs on an album, like the track list. Because I feel like you got to tell a story, right?

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, it's like a set. Like when you. Like, we still very consciously think of how one song goes into the next song as if you're listening to an album and you. Like, I did the. I did the sequencing for Anima of the State and Take every Pants and jacket. We all did it. For the Untitled Record, Travis really led the charge on One More Time, and it's a very important thing. You're trying to tell a story. You're trying. Trying to, you know, start strong and, you know, have highs and lows and emotional. Like, songs that are similar can't be next to one another on the record. Songs that are in the same key maybe don't align necessarily on one song going into the next. So that's something we take a lot of time and. And. And care doing.

[PFT Commenter]

And so the. The trilogy of anthems that you have. Anthem, Anthem Part 2, Anthem Part 3. How do you know when you're writing a song like this could be an anthem? We should name this one Anthem Anthem.

[Mark Hoppus]

Those are all Tom songs that start with Tom, and he wrote Anthem, and it was an awesome song. And then we were writing Anthem 2. We were like, well, this kind of has the same vibe as that and kind of with Anthem 3 and Anthem Part 3 on one more Time, I think just really shows how genius Tom is as a songwriter. Like, I listened to that song. You know, we've been performing that song for a year. We've known. We've had that song in our lives for probably a year and a half, maybe even two years at this point. And when we play it on stage, it still gives me goosebumps because. Because Tom is such a great songwriter, it's so, like, the guitars are soaring, and when he's singing it, you like, it's coming from his soul.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

All right. So, Mark, I have. I have one last question. I know PFT probably has the last question as well. My last question, the Roback question. R, H, O, B A C, K.com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. Q, zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Promo code, take. So your book, Fahrenheit 182. The. The COVID by the way, I meant to make mention. I just. Whenever you put, like, pink or some type of neon on a cover, I instantly like, oh, I got to read this book. You just walk by, you're like, that was really smart. That. That works.

[Mark Hoppus]

Interesting story about the book cover is during the pandemic, I started Twitch streaming, and I opened up a discord. And on the discord, I was talking with people and fans and whatever, and we kind of built this rat community, and. And one of the people in the discord is this woman named Jo, who just happened to be a book designer. And so when it came, like, literally, she designs the covers of books. And so when I decided to write a book, I hit her up and she's like, I would love to do your book cover. And so that's the product of it.

[Dan Hurley]

She's. She knocked it out of the park. All due respect. She did so. All right, so obviously people who are huge fans of Blink, huge fans of yours, are going to buy this book. Book. What do you. What do you think they're going to find out about you in this book that they might not have realized, you know, when reading about your whole life.

[Mark Hoppus]

I think that people are going to discover that I'm smarter than people think that I am and that also, I'm a lot darker than people think that I am.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, okay.

[Dan Hurley]

That's a good combo. Smarter is always being a little bit smarter than people think you are. That's also the premise of this show. We want people to think we're idiots, and we are idiots for the most part. But it is good to do it that way. It's. It's bad to go the opposite way and just be like, oh, you're. You're actually dumber than I thought.

[Mark Hoppus]

Totally.

[PFT Commenter]

In what way darker do you think?

[Mark Hoppus]

I think that I've. I deal with anxiety and depression a lot more than people think that I do, and a lot more than I allow people to think that I do. But I'm very honest in the book about my struggles and about my shortcomings and the difficulties that I've had, and I think that will surprise people because I think most of the time, people think of Blinker 82 to as fun brotherhood, youth parties. Go, have a great time, and then they'll read this and be like, Whoa. Okay, so this dude really is goth in his soul.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I, I watched some of your tw, your Twitch streams and some of the content you started putting out over the pandemic. You, you love collabing with people, you love working with.

[Mark Hoppus]

I love, I love that process. I love creativity. I love people bringing an idea and me working on it or me presenting an idea to somebody and then making it better. When you write a song and you're driving home from a studio and you put on, you know, used to be it would be on cassette and you'd put the cassette in and you're like, holy. I'm listening to a song that I love that didn't exist two days ago. There's no feeling like that in the world.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it's pretty cool. No, I've, I've appreciated what you've done. What's your going rate for, for a Mark Hopus feature? What do they have to send you?

[Mark Hoppus]

I think it's ten grand.

[PFT Commenter]

Ten grand?

[Mark Hoppus]

But, but it's also free. I mean, I don't do anything for money and I don't do anything unless I like the song or I like the people or I believe in it. Like, I'm not for sale. But it would be ten grand.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, I just, I like the song featuring Mark Hoppus that they wrote.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

And then you're like it, I'll jump on this track.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, I should. But I'm. But I'm not on that track. What was that band that did featuring Mark Harper?

[PFT Commenter]

I forget the name of that band.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, but it's a great song song and I love it. And I thought it was really clever that they use my name as like a. I don't know, a meme. Like a meme grab. I think it's really awesome the way that bands now, they'll make shorter songs. They'll do a song that's two minutes long. Hot Mulligan was the name of the band, by the way.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

They'll like write two minute songs that are so hooky that you go back and listen to it a second time because then they'll get two streams. So rather than write a four minute song, bands will write a two minute great song that you'll just listen to twice.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes. Really smart.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So I, I've got a band here at Barstool Sports. We're called Pop Punk and we're, we're a pop punk band, but we're like also a parody of pop punk bands. Like we've got a song. My real Girlfriend, which is about obviously fake girlfriend. We've got a song called Peaked in High School we just recorded. I'm gonna send you. I'm gonna send you through your literary agent. I'm gonna send you Peaked in High School. And if you like it, just say. Just record yourself saying peaked in high school. School. And I'm just going to use that.

[Dan Hurley]

In the track featuring Mark.

[PFT Commenter]

If you just want to say peaked in High school right now, I'll just grab this audio.

[Mark Hoppus]

Peaked in High School.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, there you go. Peaked in High School featuring Mark Hopus.

[Mark Hoppus]

It's on.

[PFT Commenter]

So Jerry O'Connell is going to pay the guy, play the guy who peaked in high School.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, I love it. Well, Mark, thank you so much. We appreciate you joining us. Good luck with the book tour. When you're in Chicago, we'd love to have you come by.

[Mark Hoppus]

I'll be there.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Also, I. I saw you sold your Banksy. Were you just tired of telling everyone that you had a bank Banksy?

[Mark Hoppus]

You know what? Honestly, when we bought the Banksy, it was. I loved it. And it changed our lives forever. Like, we love that painting so much, but it became worth so much money that it started to feel. And then we ended up putting it in storage for its own protection. And like, I didn't want a painting to sit in a box somewhere. And it started to feel like we were talking about Banksy, like we owned a Banksy. It started to feel like ego and I didn't like that.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay. And you gave it to. You gave it a good cause. I just know that if I had a Banksy, I would tell everyone that I had a Banksy.

[PFT Commenter]

And that's why you get the first.

[Dan Hurley]

Thing out of my mouth.

[Mark Hoppus]

Totally. Yeah. No, I was super proud of it. And then it became worse so much that I was like, oh, now I sound like a snob and I don't like that.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I have a Banksy. It's not here right now.

[Mark Hoppus]

Yeah, totally. It's in storage, but it's cool.

[PFT Commenter]

Trust me, it rocks.

[Dan Hurley]

All right, well, thank you so much, Mark. Everyone go buy Fahrenheit 182. And thanks so much, man. This was so much fun.

[Mark Hoppus]

All right, see you soon.

[PFT Commenter]

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[Dan Hurley]

All right, wrap up with a Monday reading from our good friend Mike Florio. Rare to have him be in the Monday reading because usually the Monday reading is something crazy. Well, actually, you know what? This is crazy. So here it is.

[PFT Commenter]

Usually, Florio is spot on.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. This is the best fan fiction he's ever done. This is where Flora is like, we're in the spot of the calendar where he. Because I think he does take a vacation after, like, minicamps.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Before training camps.

[PFT Commenter]

It's. You know what it is?

[Dan Hurley]

This is not vacation time. And it's still low because we're not at the draft.

[PFT Commenter]

It's an exercise in creative writing.

[Dan Hurley]

Creative writing. Bengals, Bears could, in theory, come Together and pay for a stadium in Chicago, New York. Okay. New Jersey has two teams. Los Angeles has two. If London ever has one, it will likely have two. What about Chicago? The market currently supports two teams in the sport that used to be America's pastime. Nice dig there. Real nice.

[PFT Commenter]

People from forget. Yeah, that. Boxing, baseball, horse racing, that was the big three.

[Dan Hurley]

And with the Bears getting nowhere when it comes to finagling taxpayer funding for a new stadium, the solution could come from having a second team play there. Instantly, the inventory of games would double from 10 to 20.

[PFT Commenter]

Math checks out.

[Dan Hurley]

Yep. It'd become much easier for the Bears and possibly the other team. Unless it's just a tenant to pay for the building with minimal public assistance.

[PFT Commenter]

That was also kind of mean that he. He said 10 to 20 not count downing playoffs.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Also, they can pay for these stadiums. They just choose not to.

[PFT Commenter]

The billionaires.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah, they could. They could. I mean, they could probably. McCaskies are poor, but they could. They could sell the team to someone who could pay for the stadium. Enter the Bengals. They're less than three months away from the final countdown to the expiration of their lease at Paycor Stadium. During the league meetings this week, executive vp Katie Blackburn said the quiet thing out loud. After 2024, the Bengals can go wherever they want to go. It's easy to come up with a list of cities that currently have no NFL teams. With the best outcome for the Bengals and the Bears could be to partner up in a new Chicagoland stadium. I disagree. That is not the best outcome for the Bengals.

[PFT Commenter]

No, not at all. Not. It's far.

[Dan Hurley]

Even close.

[PFT Commenter]

It's far from the best. They shouldn't move. There should be a rule saying that teams should not be allowed to move just because their owner doesn't want to pay for new stadium.

[Dan Hurley]

That's.

[PFT Commenter]

That's part of the price of owning a team. And guess what? When you get a new stadium, your team is worth a lot more money and you'll end up making money on.

[Dan Hurley]

Also, like, this sounds stupid, but like AFC south or sorry, South, West, NFC South, NFC West, AFC South, AFC West. I could somehow see it moving. Maybe that's because they have like the north and the East. East. You can't move those.

[PFT Commenter]

You can't change the. The NFC North.

[Dan Hurley]

Although the Browns. But yeah, the.

[PFT Commenter]

No, you can't. The. The Packers, Bears.

[Dan Hurley]

You can't change. You can't move Cincinnati. Like, that's the AFC North.

[PFT Commenter]

Right.

[Dan Hurley]

That's football.

[PFT Commenter]

Right. But I'm saying, like, why couldn't they.

[Dan Hurley]

Still be the AFC North. They could, but, like, if they're. If they're in. I don't know, like, if they're in San Diego. The San Diego Bengals are in the AFC North. No, they can't. They can't. Oh, I was saying if they're staying in Chicago. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I'm saying, like, they. I just don't. I do not believe that those teams can move again. The Browns, I know moved, but.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. So what are the other cities that people are throwing up? Because for a while, Las Vegas was a very important city. Because every team would threaten to move to Las Vegas.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Because it was open. So now it's. My guess is probably San Diego probably used to have. They used to have one.

[Dan Hurley]

They failed. St. Louis is always out there.

[PFT Commenter]

St. Louis is out there. They got the Battle Hawks, though.

[Dan Hurley]

All right, so I'm looking at.

[PFT Commenter]

And then San Antonio. Go.

[Dan Hurley]

Potential expansion cities is from AI, Sacramento, San Antonio, Orlando, Toronto.

[PFT Commenter]

You know.

[Dan Hurley]

No, Toronto actually could stay in the AFC North.

[PFT Commenter]

No, it's too close to the Bills.

[Dan Hurley]

And it's also Canadian.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, those are Bills fans. Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay, back to his article. So not the best outcome. We all agree Bengals should stay in Cincinnati. The chances of this actually happening are low. Not low enough for Florida. Write the. The story it is.

[PFT Commenter]

I'm just putting myself in Flor's head. Here is the whole genesis of this article. Like, this is kind of weird. They're spending money on people. They have to have some plan to make more money. Like an obscene amount more money.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Since they're giving contracts to their own players.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I think that's probably. He thought about that too hard and then he's like, they're probably planning on moving.

[Dan Hurley]

I also think he's just a master at writing, like any. Any type of fanfiction where it's like, it's not going to happen, but it could conceivably happen. So I'm going to write about it knowing people will click on it. He's great. Yeah. Just put it in theory. Yeah, in theory. Oh, Florio should write a blog. Maybe you should get back on your. On your blog game for one return once. Pft. And maybe in theory, the NFL could create a Coliseum where all the teams.

[PFT Commenter]

Play and also wild animals.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. Bring back Rome on Sunday.

[Dan Hurley]

They just go back to back to back to back to back.

[PFT Commenter]

Like the. The Bears actually take on the Bengals. Except it's the animals.

[Dan Hurley]

Right. The chances of this actually happening are low. In theory, it's possible it would make.

[PFT Commenter]

A lot of money.

[Dan Hurley]

That was me reading the article again. And with the political winds blowing more and more strongly against subsidies for football teams worth upwards of 10 billion and beyond, it might take brash creativity to solve the current stadium situation for the Bears and the Bengals.

[PFT Commenter]

Are the current political winds actually blowing that way? Because I feel like we're still doing the thing where owners threaten to move, and then they get more tax breaks from the city and then they stay. I think that's kind of what's been going on.

[Dan Hurley]

I think, in general, people are a lot more against paying tax money for these stadiums because the franchise costs are so insane.

[PFT Commenter]

I agree. But it still happens.

[Dan Hurley]

But it's more.

[PFT Commenter]

But we're like, this sucks. Fuck you.

[Dan Hurley]

It's more than. I feel like 30 years ago, it was just like, oh, yeah, stadium. That's a public good.

[PFT Commenter]

Which brings me to a point I've been mean to bring up with Max. The Eagles should play ter. They should pay tariffs on Jordan Mylata. They should disagree. That should cost you more money.

[Dan Hurley]

Where are the other boys, you guys?

[PFT Commenter]

You.

[Dan Hurley]

You got them in. You got them freaking out. I didn't freak him out. I just. I didn't know if they wanted to sit in the booth for. For 30 minutes left of the show. Get them in here.

[PFT Commenter]

They're coming.

[Dan Hurley]

All right. Bengals and Bears. That would suck.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, I don't think anybody would be happy with that.

[Dan Hurley]

I can. I just. And we love Florio. Wait, why? What? Be cool. Because the Bengals would move out of Cincinnati. I'm not for that.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, they got. They got a good fan base. Be fun for Chicago. You're the problem with the world. You are the problem with the world. You're like, yeah, it'd be kind of cool to say we got two. You're completely discounting everybody in Cincinnati and, like, Northern Kentucky that loves the Bengals. And you're like, yeah, it'd be kind of. I'd like it if they played in my backyard.

[Dan Hurley]

Can I just throw? And we love Florio. We do. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. You're the problem.

[Dan Hurley]

I feel like Florio didn't. Florio is the problem always.

[PFT Commenter]

He's. Your. Your point. He's the reason that. That you would accept a new team that you don't care about.

[Dan Hurley]

Well, it's not me. I'm not, like, a Chicago fan or a Bengals fan. But, like, as someone that lives in Chicago would be cool.

[PFT Commenter]

I can say that. Think about traffic.

[Dan Hurley]

It depends where the stadium is. So that's. That's where I. I think Florio Kind of missed the mark here. If he really was going to do this article, I was expecting him to pick a random location in the middle of Indiana and be like, this is equidistance between Cincinnati and Chicago. Both teams just drive. Bring back two and a half hours.

[PFT Commenter]

It's like a floating stadium in Michigan.

[Dan Hurley]

I wanted that is Cincinnati's like, you know, a little less than a five hour drive to Chicago. She'd be like, yeah, here it is. This, this random town will now be the host of the Bengals and the Bears.

[PFT Commenter]

Hank, I kind of don't hate that idea.

[Dan Hurley]

What?

[PFT Commenter]

Move them both to Gary, Indiana. Get rid of all the track.

[Dan Hurley]

That would be a little bit of a commute for the Bengals fans.

[PFT Commenter]

They make the truck.

[Dan Hurley]

You think so they'd be like, yeah, we're going to drive three hours.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know if that guy. Three and a half with the giant beer cross state line. That might be an issue too.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Okay. Hey, booth boys. I didn't, I didn't want to scare you off. I just also didn't want you to have to sit in that hot booth next to max for 30 minutes.

[PFT Commenter]

Sorry there was some confusion, but we're back.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Pug, has Max threatened you over the course of the past weekend?

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah. Watch the pmtv. It was very well done. It's been good.

[PFT Commenter]

We just, we can't have another flare up.

[Dan Hurley]

That's right.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

Right.

[Dan Hurley]

And you are his boss.

[PFT Commenter]

Really?

[Dan Hurley]

Inside these walls, like inside these walls when we sit with the mics on, you are the president. You're everyone's boss.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

So anything you want to do.

[PFT Commenter]

Try slap him? Yeah.

[Dan Hurley]

No. Yeah.

[Mark Hoppus]

Never. I would never.

[PFT Commenter]

That's such an alpha move right there. Just making him think about it.

[Dan Hurley]

I thought you're good. Good.

[PFT Commenter]

Good guy. Max had your side, Pog.

[Dan Hurley]

At least I got one.

[PFT Commenter]

Max that has my back.

[Dan Hurley]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Just kidding.

[Dan Hurley]

Okay, Pug, you, you are the president. So why don't you. Numbers. Why don't you decide first? I'll go with 99.

[PFT Commenter]

Three. That's up.

[Dan Hurley]

Memes. Memes. You've been jumping around. Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, eight. I was gonna pick.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, man. If you get 15. Actually, no, I'm not gonna do 15. You want 15 memes.

[PFT Commenter]

No, I wanted eight.

[Dan Hurley]

I'm going to do 73. I just said eight.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, Han's got it.

[Dan Hurley]

73. One. You're not going to get it. Memes. You never do 15. Jack. Oh, Jack. One.

[PFT Commenter]

I, I, I just said one.

[Dan Hurley]

You, that one.

[PFT Commenter]

You did on purpose. Two.

[Dan Hurley]

You're going two.

[PFT Commenter]

Go two. Two. That's what I I got for p. Pft that one time.

[Dan Hurley]

Pft.

[PFT Commenter]

Got that. I got number three this time.

[Dan Hurley]

Oh, seven, man.

[PFT Commenter]

One away.

[Dan Hurley]

So close.

[PFT Commenter]

Love you guys.

[Dan Hurley]

Sa.