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Dan
Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.
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Dan
on today's Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. It is Final Four weekend and we're going to preview both games. Games. We've got our good friend Stanford Steve on the show. Great time with Steve. Awesome interview. Steve's the best dude of the year. Maybe dad of the year. You'll you'll understand after you listen. We're gonna talk about the Eagles and Jalen Hurts some smoke there. Pft. We got some national sports podcast topics. We got Fire Fest of the Week. We're sending you into a big sports weekend and it's all brought to you by Our friends at Planet Fitness. Planet Fitness. Listen, March Madness, it's tough. It's crazy. We got a lot going on. It's time to lock in at the gym. That's why Planet Fitness brought its mobile Black Card spa bus tour back for the second year. I actually did this last year in San Antonio. It was delightful, bringing recovery directly to fans so they can stay strong for March's biggest moments. They had a. They had a massage one. They had a compression chair. They had, like, a. A cool chair, a heating chair. It was awesome. So the recovery lounge, the hydro massage, the mobile Black Card spa features some of the innovative amenities that you'll find in Planet Fitness Black Card Spas, like that massage chair and I. Hydro massage is my favorite. Hydro massage and then massage chair. That's the way to go. So rebound and recover this March with Planet Fitness. Join today in club online or in the free PF app. Hours, amenities, and offers vary by club. Check out planetfitness.com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18 years old to enroll or 13 to 17 with a parent guardian. Okay, let's go.
Max
Yeah. Martin Mite.
Hank
Yeah.
Max
Barn at my tank.
Memes
Yeah.
Dan
Barn at my tech.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
Welcome to part of my take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Friday, April 3rd, and, boys, it's Final Four weekend. But before we preview the games and talk the Final Four, what's going on in Philadelphia?
Max
Well, I got a question.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Is everything okay with Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown?
Dan
I don't know. Pft. There's a lot of smoke. This is the biggest story.
Max
Okay.
Dan
Oh. What do you want to say? Oh, Tiger got it. Dude, the footage. The footage came out of Tiger's DUI arrest. He's pretty fucked up.
Memes
Yeah. I mean, you could go puking Nakua to rehab. That's another.
Max
That's a nice light story to get started with today. Max.
Memes
This isn't a light story.
Dan
That was April Fool's, right?
Max
I don't think so.
Dan
Yeah, I know it wasn't. It's just I noted that on Wednesday, like, imagine having a real story. Like, that's a brutal day. So, like, did you see Jerry Sandusky retired? Shout out Jerry Sandusky. He retired. Twenty years, working in football. Mm.
Max
So, football guy.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Jerry Sandowski.
Dan
Well, no, talk about Gerard Sandusky.
Max
The. The Ravens and the Ravens.
Dan
Oh, it's a good guy.
Max
Yeah, great guy.
Dan
Shout out Jerry Sandusky, by the way, for. For surviving after the other Jerry Sandusky and being like, I'm gonna keep doing my job in football.
Max
He's another victim of Jerry Sandusky.
Dan
It's crazy. It's crazy.
Max
Like, everybody looked at him sideways for the rest of his life.
Dan
Yeah, but. Yeah, 20 years. But he announced it on. On Wednesday, April 1st, and I was like, damn, imagine announcing your retirement 20 years as the voice of the Baltimore Ravens on April 1st and having everyone say, ah, April Fools.
Max
So when I woke up in the morning, the first article that I read, I saw online on the ESPN.com homepage. It was the Jalen Hurts Philadelphia Eagles article. And I thought it was April Fools. I was like, why is this article coming out right now? It seemed like it was just a mean April Fools to troll one person, our good friend Max Lente. And then I read it and. Did you read the article?
Dan
I read. I read most of it.
Max
Okay. Hank, did you read the article?
Hank
I did not.
Dan
Okay.
Max
Zach, did you read the article?
Zach
I did.
Max
Okay.
Memes
And that's the longest art. This was the most words I've read
Max
in, like, 10 years yesterday. Max, you said that you hadn't read it yet.
Dan
It is like, that's why. Oh, I didn't read all of it. I fell asleep halfway.
Memes
Correct. Because it was a whole lot of nothing. It was a great point, Big Cat. Point. Big Cat.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
It's a big article. I. I'm going to do the. The wind horse.
Dan
Okay.
Max
There were a lot of sources, a
Dan
ton of sources as well.
Max
My big takeaway from this is there are some people in that still work for the Eagles in the front office and the coaching ranks. The Philadelphia Eagles that authorized a hatchet job against their starting quarterback.
Dan
Correct.
Max
Not just your Patulos. Not just the guys that used to work there. Your Brian Johnson's. Not just your.
Dan
Your.
Max
Your former employees that might still hold a grudge. There's some guys inside those walls that gave the go ahead and the green light to run a clear hit piece against the guy, your Super Bowl MVP starting quarterback and the guy that should be leading you for the next five to 10 years. Why would they do that?
Memes
Yes.
Dan
So I had the exact same takeaway. The actual contents of the article is basically everything we knew. You know? Oh, he. The offense was stale.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
He didn't want to let it rip, you know, the four Verts to end the season. All these things I feel like most people knew.
Max
We actually picked up on the four Verts conversation when it happened.
Memes
That was also misleading in a lot of tweets and what was actually put in that. In that article. Go on they said that Jalen Hurts was the one that made the call for.
Dan
No, he agreed.
Memes
He agreed to it. But if you. If you look on a lot of headlines on Twitter, it says Jaylen Herz made the call for. For V. For four verts.
Max
I think it was.
Memes
He.
Max
There's a couple options, and he selected four verts.
Dan
No, no, no.
Memes
They. It looked like N. Sirianni and Kevin Mulo didn't know what to do. And they were like, oh, Herz, what
Dan
do you want to do?
Memes
And he's like, I don't know. Four verts. Why? If you're the. If you are the play caller, make the call.
Max
Agreed. In that little description you just gave right there, Max, Jaylen Herz did make the call.
Dan
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
And wrong.
Max
That's what you just said, though.
Memes
But like the way that you look it up online, it's like that he. That he changed the call at the line also.
Dan
Does it. In the way you just described it, does it make you a little nervous that the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles is Gus Duggerton? Because what you just described is literally every big moment when I've played the college football game, and I'm like, what the fuck do I do? What the fuck do I do? All right, I'll just do four verts.
Memes
He's. He wasn't the play caller.
Max
Well, there was that other play call at the end of the packers game, which we talked about. When that game went, when that game happened. That was. That was one of the worst games, Terrible football game. And that called the deep shot to AJ apparently when devonte was coming off the field, they asked him like, hey, what the. Was that play call?
Dan
Yeah.
Max
And he just said 1 in 11.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Which is Hertz and A.J. brown. So maybe they're. Maybe they're too good of friends.
Memes
Sure.
Dan
Either way, back to the big picture. And Max, I don't know if you. I don't think. I'm not trying to troll you. I'm actually talking about this article because there isn't a lot going on. We're going to get to the final four.
Memes
Kirk Cousins, also Kirk Cousins.
Dan
We'll talk about. Kirk Cousins signed an 11th straight year having fully guaranteed contract in the NFL. Congrats. Absolute God. In terms of contracts, Max. My. If. If I were an Eagles fan, the things I would be worried about from this article. Again, not the contents. It's more the fact that one at the best case scenario you have some massive leak problems.
Memes
We're all trying to find the guy who's. Do who's doing this?
Dan
Okay. And then the worst case scenario, there actually isn't a massive leak problem. This is a coordinated attack. Kind of like what PFT was saying, that they are trying to get ready, get everyone ready for a move that's coming to get rid of Jalen Hurts.
Memes
I would not be surprised if. How he.
Dan
Right.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
Because it did feel like a. Hey, we're not. We're getting everyone ready. In the mindset, we're basically giving you ammo. So when this happens, you can say, aha, it was because of all this. And, you know, we're dumb as fans. If you give enough reasons and anonymous sources and enough, like, talking points when they. If they make a drastic move, you could be like, well, yeah, you know, there was. There was some issues.
Memes
It's. It's the. It's. A lot of people are saying it's basically what they did with Carson Wentz and Jalen.
Dan
Right.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
Right.
Memes
That, like, I would not be surprised if there's a day two quarterback that. That corrected correct.
Dan
Or.
Max
Or maybe a Ty Simpson or a Tanner McKee. I would be surprised with anything because Hertz gets paid a lot of money. I actually. I think it's Tanner McKee because they.
Memes
They were shopping Tanner McKee.
Max
Yeah, true.
Memes
If it was Tanner McKee, they wouldn't have been shopping him.
Max
Max, can take your headphones off real quick?
Stanford Steve
Yeah.
Dan
Please.
Max
Okay.
Dan
Hank, where you.
Max
This is.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
This is wildly disrespectful to Jaylen Herz.
Dan
I agree.
Max
Like, the guy is a Super Bowl MVP quarterback. He outplayed Patrick Mahomes in two Super Bowls. He had a bad season last year. The whole offense had a bad season last year. And for everybody to just like, turn and take their knives out and start stabbing this guy in the back repeatedly. It feels. I mean, it's a. It's a up situation he's got.
Dan
He doesn't have a lot of friends in that building.
Max
He doesn't. And I feel. I feel bad for the guy. He doesn't deserve this. But it does feel like it was according. They called in the code red.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
And they're just having a little sock party on him. Just beating the out, put a hit out. I feel bad for Jalen.
Hank
Hurts.
Max
He doesn't deserve any of this stuff. He's way too good a player.
Dan
What do you think, Hank?
Hank
I'm just wondering how this affects A.J. brown's trade value.
Max
I. I think it actually. It seems like.
Hank
I think it hurts it because I think it seems like he's gone no matter what.
Dan
Yeah.
Hank
So it might help, you know, Max, put on your headphones trying to. To acquire him, because the Eagles are pretty much. They've. Seems like they made the decision to move on from A.J.
Memes
brown.
Dan
Yeah.
Hank
Or Jalen Hurts. But I think Getting rid of A.J. brown is part of that process.
Max
I don't know. I think that this might make it more likely for them to keep AJ Brown and move on from Jalen Hurts.
Hank
That would be crazy, because he's a Super Bowl MVP that outplayed Patrick Mahomes twice.
Dan
Why not trade both?
Max
There's some propaganda from Hank.
Dan
Why not trade both?
Hank
I feel like if I was an Eagles fan, that would drive me insane to trade both. Yeah.
Dan
But A.J. brown's gone. In your mind.
Hank
I. That's biased mind. Yes.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
And where does he go in your mind?
Hank
New England.
Memes
I appreciate. I appreciate you acknowledging bias Bias.
Dan
Yeah.
Memes
I wish I. No, I appreciate that.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Max, do you think it's more unbiased?
Hank
He's still gone.
Max
Do you think it's more or less likely now that A.J. brown gets traded?
Memes
I don't know. I think I. I've thought AJ Brown was probably gone for a while now. I think it's just gonna. He's just gonna get traded after June 1st. The one he's not gonna. Yeah.
Dan
The one thing I will say that I. I do love about Philadelphia, and, Max, you could back me up. I'm PFT's division rivals with Philadelphia. Hank hates the city of Philadelphia. I think I've always been fair. I like Philadelphia. I think the fans are awesome. I think it's good for the ecosystem. They're going to spend the next, like, week trashing Jeremy Fowler. And then when they do trade Jalen Hurts, they're going to be like, jeremy Fowler, you were right.
Max
I think they're still going to hate him. Like.
Dan
Like, there's a chance that everyone. A lot of Eagles fans hate Jeremy Fowler. And then, like, come September, they're going to be posting Jeremy Fowler's article being like, this is why.
Memes
But what about when Jalen Hurts has an MVP year?
Dan
Then they'll be able to trash him still. But you see what I'm saying.
Memes
Yes, I am. I'm aware of that situation.
Dan
Are you blocked by Jeremy Fowler?
Memes
I haven't said anything about. Actually, no. I did say one thing.
Dan
I said, tweet him right now. Just say, fuck you, buddy. Just tweet him.
Memes
I don't know. I was fired up yesterday. I quote, tweeted some, like, random Eagles account that was like, why are we running this story today? But. And people were like, obviously, it's an Eagles count. They're going to post about it. But I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about Jeremy Fowler. I should have, quote, tweeted Jeremy Fowler himself.
Dan
Yeah, say you, buddy to him. Just say it. Just send a shot. Yeah, yeah, send it.
Max
They're at a crossroads. Yeah, they're at a cr. That's what Jeremy Fowler's reporting is. This is a crossroads. It could also be like, oh, you're going.
Dan
I. You don't even have to do. You could just do At Jeremy Fowler so it's not public. Like, it's. Oh, yeah, I'm not even if you want to go full.
Max
Full out there, but yeah, this could just be one season. And let's see what happens with Jalen Hurts. Like, he has to. Something has to change going to this year, and then if nothing changes, then they move on. Or it could just be this. This off season. I don't know.
Dan
He went with get. Yeah.
Max
I love it.
Memes
That's a memes line. Yeah, I was trying in my head, I was like, if I were memes, what would I. What would I say here? And I think get. Is that. Is that a good. Good play? A good move right there.
Dan
Perfect. Yeah, we'll. We'll follow up in. In 20 minutes, see if you got blocked. Because I think he was blocking some Eagles fans.
Memes
That is what it is.
Max
You gotta shoot the messenger sometimes. Yeah. If you get bad news, you got to shoot the messenger. Especially if it's. If it's an article that comes out early. April just. Hey, FYI, it honestly sounds like a way that me and Big Cat would start an episode, a part of my take in a dead week in April, just to. With Max.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Like, it came out of nowhere. I have no idea what. It sounds like something that's been planned for a long time.
Dan
And. And the. The fact that it's, you know, happening when the entire league is at the same hotel.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
In Arizona. Doesn'. It's just. The leaks are really what the problem is, Max. Unless. Unless, again, it's the. The plan is this.
Max
Is.
Dan
This was all planned out, and then they're gonna draft a quarterback or move on from Jalen Hurts.
Max
I don't think it was like six or seven guys just, like, independently deciding now is the time to leak.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
I think there's. There were a couple people that gave the green light and said, yeah, you can talk to Jeremy Fowler now saying
Dan
someone in the Eagles put a hit Out.
Max
I'm saying somebody at the Eagles might need to have a message sent to him.
Memes
Or maybe Kevin Matullo just has a
Stanford Steve
lot of buddies that one of the defenses, the staff.
Memes
I was trying to look into that. I think he is, because I haven't seen anywhere that he's not.
Dan
Okay, he's not. Not on the staff. He's not. Not on the staff. Yeah, that's fair. He's somewhere.
Memes
Oh, wait, that's a complete lie. He's passing game coordinator for the Miami Dolphins.
Dan
No,
Memes
I thought I looked into it. Yes, I did
Max
look into it.
Dan
Now we got the best researchers in the business here.
Max
He's down in Miami.
Memes
You know what probably happened is I. I think I googled it to look at this, and then I got distracted by something and follow. Didn't follow through.
Dan
You googled Kevin Patulo and saw the first picture of him in Eagles.
Stanford Steve
That hat.
Dan
And you're like, oh, I guess he's still on the team.
Memes
And here it still says teams.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, yeah.
Memes
But then, you know, you got it. All you got to do is look over to the overview and it says Miami Dolphin. And I remember. And now that we talking. We're talking about this. I remember when he got hired by the Dolphins.
Dan
Yeah.
Memes
Because I remember thinking, like, wow, what a loser organization hiring a loser coach.
Dan
Okay, that's it. Max. That was actually very. That. That wasn't. I think we all. That was good.
Memes
That was respectful all around.
Dan
Yeah.
Memes
I'm okay with all of that.
Dan
I think we all agree because we all kind of had the same takeaways. Like, it's not the Jaylen Herz bashing, it's the leaks. And is this something that they're trying to set up another play from?
Max
Like, if there's a guy that's that good, that's played at that high of a level, and you're not getting it out of him anymore. You have to look at your coaches first. There's something else that. That might be going wrong. The fact that they all turned on him at one time tells me they're. They're looking to get him out of there.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
And some team would probably be looking to overpay for him. And how he. You know, how he sees a situation like that and he won't be able to help himself if the team's like,
Memes
that's another thing about the leaks. Like the. If he was trying to get rid of them now, his stock just went down after. After this. True.
Dan
Good point. Like, good point.
Memes
How he's very big on like trying to get the most out of all of their guys right now is not the most after this.
Dan
Yeah. Yeah. That's actually a fair counterpoint. Kirk Cousins, like we said Raiders signed built for million dollars. He has now made so he's fully guaranteed for again the 11th straight season. Shout out Kirk Cousins. If he plays out this contract, he will make $343 million in his NFL career.
Max
Yeah. Absolute legend. Good for him. Played it right. I mean going back to the first time he got paid, everybody called him weird for like they said the situation was messed up going into like back to. Back to back tagged years and then somehow his agent only picks up the phone for guaranteed money. Even going to Atlanta. The guaranteed money that he got there for not really working that hard. Pretty. Pretty legendary. Yeah. And then this contract with Vegas. It sounds like it's a. It's really a one year, 20 million dollar contract. And then they can, they can go back to it after the fact. I know the Raiders are saying that they, they don't want Mendoza to start this year.
Dan
Yeah. So Kirk might start. And it's also. I. I can't think of a better pairing than Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza.
Max
Yeah. We were. We're live on Wake up Barstool when it broke and big T goes. They might build a mega church.
Dan
Yeah, they're, they're, they're the. They're. They're gonna be best friends. Yeah.
Max
It's gonna be great. It's. It's a perfect, perfect fit. And Kirk Cousins is going to be pretty much like a. Like a coach. Yeah, he's gonna be like a second coach trying to. I think he'll be a good teammate helping to bring Mendoza along. And probably they'll. They're just like brothers. They're the same guy. Just one's a little bit younger and a little bit bigger. But they're going to get along well. And I feel like this is. It's a very funny thing that there's such a great fit. But it's also in Las Vegas, the city that's like least it's the. It's the least Kirk Cousins city in North America.
Dan
I think it's at least Fernando Mendoza city.
Hank
They need a wild card third string.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Swag Kelly.
Dan
Yeah. Swag Kelly. Yeah.
Max
Get Kelly Kid Kelly in the mix there.
Dan
Johnny Manziel.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
That would be so sick.
Hank
They could.
Dan
I think they little Heaven and Hell.
Max
Yeah. They need a little bit of in that locker room.
Hank
Right.
Dan
Well, Max Crou is still there.
Max
That's true.
Dan
Yeah. He's a dog.
Max
He is.
Dan
He's an absolute dog.
Max
Yeah. Christian Wilkins back in the mix. Yeah. Yeah.
Dan
The. Okay. Any. Any other things before we do final four talk? The Jaden Ivy thing has gotten weirder.
Max
It's very, very weird.
Dan
It's also just everyone's picking aside and not I. The. The story was that he. I hope it gets Akr general manager fired, which he should. But the story that he. He basically said told the trainers that Jesus healed his knee and then he got an mri and they're like, no.
Max
I mean, I. Far be it for me to tell him that he's wrong.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Like, try to. Okay. Try to play.
Dan
Might. Might be.
Max
And then Jesus got. Jesus got crossed up too.
Dan
Yeah. The. And then Tiger, the. All the. All the videos came out. Did not look good.
Max
Yeah, the body. That's what happens in movies. Like after the. The good guy, the cop, like, wins at the end. They show up with the ambulance. They're like, here's a blanket to put over you and a little butterfly bandage to stitch up your face.
Memes
Yeah.
Dan
They save the kid out of the well.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
They give him a blanket.
Max
I don't know what that Tiger needed a blanket for that, but Tiger taking a knee that was like. He looked like Drew Brees. It was a solid knee that he was. It was a solid knee for a long. Yeah. I just hope. Same thing with Tiger and. And Ivy. I hope that they both are okay.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Mentally.
Dan
Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Should we talk about the final four? Are we ready? Should we. Do we. We do have a. We're gonna do a bet. So let me do. Let me do the ad real quick and then we'll do. We'll figure out a bet for the people. It will be tough for people in Illinois to be a three team parlay. And some people are not gonna be able to bet it because we're gonna. We're gonna include the Illinois Yukon game. Because before we talk about DraftKings, Chevy, our good friends at Chevy, we love Chevy. Football season might be over, but you know how it goes. The minute the big game ends, we're already talking about what's next. Free agency, the draft, who's getting paid, who's grinding. Because for football guys, there's no off season. And that's exactly why they roll with the Chevy Silverado. Silverado is the truck that shows up every time. Built to haul, tow, and take a beating. But smartware accounts with modern tech that makes it life easier. Big screens, available camera views that help with towing and parking in a cabin. That feels right. Whether you're road tripping, heading to practice, or loading up for the weekend during the season, it's the mvp. The tailgate. After the season, it turns you in. It turns into your training camp, truck hauling gear, tackling home projects, and doing the work that never stops. Because the grind doesn't take breaks. And neither does Silverado. Check out the current offer and build your own Chevy. Silverado Chevy.com we're also brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Every March tournament delivers the unexpected. Brackets break, upsets happen, nothing goes exactly as planned. And this year, DraftKings sportsbook is leaning into the chaos with a mystery reward you'll never see coming. All customers guaranteed rewards. Every single round. Opt in and boom. A single use mystery promotion drops straight into your account. What is it? That's the fun part. You won't know until it's yours. And whatever it is could flip your entire tournament strategy. One thing we could tell you. Each round, there'll be a new mystery offer valid for the men's and women's tournament. When you're set to place your bet, just select your mystery token in the bet slip and use cash or DK dollars to lock it in. The tournament is unexpected, but round by round, you're guaranteed an offer. Opt in today at DraftKings Sportsbook. Your mystery reward is waiting. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE to opt in and claim your mystery reward at DraftKings Sportsbook in partnership with DraftKings Sportsbook. The crown is yours.
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Dan
Okay, boys, what are we thinking? Or should we preview it and then we'll do our pick?
Max
Let's just do it now.
Dan
Okay?
Max
Let's do the pick now.
Dan
Okay. What do you got?
Hank
I would like Arizona Moneyline.
Dan
Okay. Okay.
Max
I don't hate that.
Dan
I don't hate it either.
Hank
Plus 105 right now.
Dan
Plus 105. Arizona money line.
Hank
The fact that they're underdogs is crazy to me.
Dan
Michigan's really, really good.
Hank
Arizona has looked.
Dan
Arizona's really, really good. They're two of the best teams in a long, long time to be matched up in a final Four. Pft. I think you got to go with a total in this game.
Max
So I'm actually going to be not in Illinois this weekend. So does that mean that I could make my leg. The Illinois game?
Dan
I. Well, I. I was gonna do it because I'm gonna be an indie.
Max
Okay.
Dan
Yeah. If you wanted.
Max
So I'll just.
Dan
Well, if you have something else, because I have. I was gonna take the first half over Illinois in Yukon.
Max
Okay.
Dan
63 and a half, I believe it is. And we'll. We'll make sure it's updated. But yeah, that was gonna be mine. So you can go off that.
Max
I was gonna go with Yukon over 68 and a half points.
Dan
Love that.
Max
I don't think that they're going to start off shooting as poorly as they did in the Elite Eight.
Dan
Yeah. Okay. So there it is. I'm excited for these games. I think it's gonna be great. Great, great basketball.
Max
Very excited.
Dan
So. So if we're just going just quick, quick stats in facts. You. Everyone knows that the. They love the. The Ken Palm stats pre tournament. And, and so 19 of the last 21 champions had a top 10 Ken Palm offense. If that holds true, UConn's eliminated. It's Illinois 1, Arizona 4, Michigan 5. Those are the three that fit the profile.
Max
Now what was Yukon?
Dan
They're 28th. But here's the wrinkle to that stat. So like I said, 19 of the last 21 champions had a top 10 Ken Palm offense. The two champions that did not have a top 10 Ken Palm offense. Any guesses? Yeah, twice. Yeah, 2011 Yukon and 2014 Yukon.
Max
Makes sense.
Dan
So it's really. The stat is 21 out of the last 21 champions have either had a top 10 offense or been named Yukon.
Max
But. But also those are the old iteration of Yukon. Yeah. Not. Not like the current Danny Hurley iteration.
Stanford Steve
Correct.
Dan
But yeah, that was a Kevin Ollie Yukon and that was Jim Calhoun's last championship. But it is funny that the two. The two outliers are Yukon. Who is here.
Max
I think that it's a very important conversation that we should start having just in case does win another national championship. That would make it three for Danny Hurley. I think that would make Danny Hurley the best bald coach in sports history.
Dan
In sports history.
Max
I think it would. The only. I. I thought about it. The only other option could be Red Arbok.
Dan
Okay.
Max
But he wasn't bald for his entire career.
Dan
Okay.
Max
I think right now he's. He's up there. I think he's already on the Mount Rushmore of bald head coaches. But if he wins a third, that puts you in rare fight air with college basketball.
Dan
Well, wouldn't you under that same reasoning? What about Bill Self?
Max
No, no toupe like Danny Hurley. He wears it loud, he wears it proud. He owns it. He is very bald. There's no questions. Like we're not talking about Tom Thibodeau here. We're talking about Danny Hurley. Bald. Bald.
Dan
All right. I got a couple others that I'll throw out there.
Max
Okay.
Dan
If we want to go talking soccer.
Max
Pep, Pep Guardiola.
Dan
Has he won a lot? I think he's won a lot.
Max
I honestly don't know that much about Pep.
Dan
I know that I'm look up Pep Guardiola winning.
Max
He's Hank's best friend's best friend.
Dan
Yeah, that's true. Hank, do you have any thoughts on Pep?
Max
Joe Missoula loves him.
Hank
I know nothing about him.
Max
Okay.
Hank
Who's call Man United, Some team.
Dan
I actually don't know either. I think he was man city for a while and then he was. I think he's somewhere else now. I don't know how much he's won.
Max
I think he's. He's very, very highly regarded.
Dan
How many trophies? Pep Guardiola, how many trophies? He's won 40 major trophies. They give out trophies for everything though. That includes 12 league titles, 16 domestic cups, 12 international titles, three Champions Leagues and four FIFA Club Club World Cups. That's a lot.
Max
It's a lot.
Dan
I. I guess a shitload of trophies.
Max
I think I'll. I'll make this a non soccer related.
Dan
All right. Non soccer. Tom Landry.
Max
Do we know? Because Tom Landry had the hat.
Dan
He did have the hat. So we don't know if we want to eliminate him. Yeah. Was Tom Landry bald? I think he was. I think he was very bold. I think he actually had like the perfect male pattern. Bald. This Larry David.
Max
He had the hoop.
Dan
Yeah, he was. Yes. I'm looking at a picture of Tom Landry. He was. He was very bald.
Max
But the hat, I feel like.
Dan
Yeah, I agree.
Max
That's a hat.
Dan
I'm just throwing out. Guys get the discussion going. Matt Nagy.
Max
Yeah, he's up there too. He has to be.
Dan
Yeah. He won coach of the year.
Max
I keep forgetting that.
Dan
He did win coach of the year. Tarkanian, I believe, is bald.
Max
Yep. Rick Majeris.
Hank
Yep.
Dan
Rick Majeris. Yeah, but I.
Max
If he gets.
Dan
You're right. No, I. I'm just throwing out names. Just throw out names. But I think you might be right.
Max
Like somebody. Somebody told me Tony Dungy should be up there in that conversation. I think as it stands right now, I have one. Danny Hurley's got two college basketball national championships. Tony Dungy has one Super Bowl. Yeah, those are equivalent, I think.
Dan
Okay, what about Scotty Bowman?
Max
Okay, now. Now we're getting in some territory that I'm not that familiar with some. Scotty Bowman, he won. He's a legendary coach. How many Stanley Cups does he have?
Dan
He won 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 9. In certain. In some capacity. 9. 9 Stanley Cups. As a coach.
Max
As a coach, that's a lot. What about a head coach? That's a ton.
Dan
That's a shitload of Stanley Cups. I don't know. So that would be okay.
Max
I would. I would respectfully, I would put Scotty Bowman maybe ahead of Dan Hurley. But, like, what are. Who are the other coaches that have 3? Off the top of my head? Bob Knight, right?
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Roy Williams, I believe, has three. Who else?
Dan
Oh, of college coach.
Max
Yeah, it's.
Dan
It's Roy. Bob and I has four, I believe, College coaches championship. Roy. Who else?
Max
Jim Calhoun.
Dan
Jim Calhoun has four. Three. He has no. He has four. No, he's three.
Max
Three.
Dan
He's three. Jim Calhoun has three. We're not going all the way back there.
Max
Hank just wanted to shout out, Adolf.
Dan
Coach K. Roy Williams trying to think. Yeah, so, I mean, you're right. Pft. It's a good. It's a good.
Max
Just a little thought. Starter.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Maybe get this good thought.
Dan
And I don't. I don't hate the. The take that he would be. He'd be the. The best. Scotty Bowman probably hurts his case a little, but Bob Knight has three, Jim Calhoun has three, Roy Williams has three, and then Bill Self has two, Rick Patino has two. Cal still has one.
Max
Cal's got one. Yeah, but I mean, if Hurley gets this, he.
Dan
Wright's got two.
Max
He's young and still a lot of. A lot of meat left on that bone.
Dan
He's an incredible coach.
Max
He's a great, great head coach. I think sometimes, and when we talk to him, I was thinking about this. Sometimes he's such a psychopath that we just kind of fall in love with how funny is and how, like, how polarizing he is, and we forget the fact that he is a very, very good basketball coach. X's and O's.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
And a super smart guy.
Dan
Yes, yes. He, he's a hell of a coach. And I, I, we're gonna talk about it with Steve. But the thing I keep going back to is that UConn in the Big east versus UConn in the non conferences. Stark difference. They've lost six times in the last four years in the non conference and this is a non conference game now for Illinois. Illinois has been, it's, I would say they're the least talked about of the four teams just because UConn's been there. Michigan, Arizona. Everyone's saying that's the national title. I totally disagree. Illinois is so goddamn good. And Brad Underwood is such a good coach as well. Underwood is 75% against the spread win percentage in the more prep time rounds. So that's round of 64, sweet 16, final four. So that's tied for fourth best minimum 10 games for any coach since 1985. The top four are Chris Beard, Chris Mack, Dan Hurley, who's 10 and three against spread and Brad Underwood nine and three. So he's an insanely good coach and it's going to be an awesome matchup. I think I feel like Wagler is just going to be, I don't know, this might be his, he's already had his coming out party. But yeah, it's like even more so.
Max
I mean when, yeah, when, when he takes over games, he's the most fun to watch. Yeah, I, I have no idea. I. In either of these two games, I think they're both going to be awesome games. I think that's. My prediction is they're both going to be within five.
Dan
I would love it.
Max
I think they're.
Dan
The fact that both spreads are this low.
Max
I think they're both going to be close games. If, if you had gun to my head, I would say Arizona and I would, I think I would say Yukon. But Illinois is a great team.
Hank
Rowdy atmosphere too.
Max
Rowdy.
Hank
Oh, like Yukon. Illinois being there. Easy, easy trip for them.
Dan
Michigan always travels well.
Hank
Yukon powerhouse. Yeah, I think it's going to be one of the more rowdy Final four games.
Dan
They are also. Illinois is the just by point differential entering the final four. They're the fourth best team seated three or higher to make the final four. In terms of point differential, they're. They're plus 19.8 points in their first four games. The best three or higher was 2023. UConn plus 20, 2022 and a half and they won the title. So it's like yeah, these get in the game that they played early in the season. Just throw it out. Or Steve will tell you exactly why. The one thing he didn't mention. It was also a game that was played on an NBA cup floor.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
And it was brutal to watch. So I hated that I. I was contemplating BYU early in the season on NBA cup floors. Like this is just because NBA cup. You get it. But for a college game. It makes no sense. Yep. So that game's be great. And then Arizona, Michigan.
Max
Oh boy.
Dan
It's. It's gonna be awesome.
Max
Big boy basketball.
Dan
Big boy basketball. The only thing I'd be worried about if our Michigan is that they gotta stop giving Elliot Cadeau stuff that he's allergic to. Right before they leave.
Max
Yeah. So what happened? What was he allergic to?
Dan
I don't. Was allergic to. But he had to get medical attention. He was carted off during Wolverine's practice after suffering an allergic reaction. That's like. That's got to be. We're at the end of the season. You got to know what the guy's allergic to.
Max
This sounds like some. Some classic Tom Flurry, some Ohio State hijinks, some.
Dan
Some malfeasance.
Stanford Steve
Yeah.
Max
I don't know. Like. Yeah. What are you getting allergic to in the middle of practice?
Dan
I don't know. But yeah, it does. It does feel like something's up.
Max
He is going to be okay though for the game.
Dan
Yeah, I think he's going to be fine. There was also. I think. I think I saw. There was the Yaxel was. Was live. Was he live streaming last night till like two in the morning. Did you see a story like that?
Max
Yaxel is. He's a. How do we feel about Yaxel?
Dan
Well, I said I, I.
Max
He seems.
Dan
He's. He's unbelievable player.
Max
He is a great player. He also seems to be like very easy to hate.
Dan
Yeah. All right. I don't know if he was live stream maybe I just saw that in passing. That was not correct. Yeah, well, I, I don't like the. We talked about it. I don't like that he was like calling out being disrespected by freshman guarding him when he's 23 years old. But man, I don't. Michigan doesn't deserve another title after football.
Max
Yeah. I mean it's. This is. We're living in the Dave Portnoy snow globe.
Dan
This would be his final boss. This gotten everything else.
Max
This is it. Like he's. But all he's focused on is how bad the Red Sox are.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
That's the only thing that he cares about right now.
Dan
Well, he did. He did decide he was going to bet the Red Sox every single game this year. Have they started? 0 and 6.
Max
1.
Dan
51 and 5. So that's a tough start. Yeah. He. Yaxel is very good. Michigan is awesome. This is going to be just Titans. I. I don't know. I don't know about this game. I keep going back and forth. You like Arizona a lot?
Hank
Love Arizona.
Max
Is this a classic length versus Strength?
Dan
I think it's just length versus length.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
And strength versus strength.
Max
Yeah. I mean, I. I feel like Arizona's bigs might be more powerful, but not by much. But Michigan's bigs are great on defense. I'm excited. I. Again, I think it's going to be another close game. I think. I think, Hank, I would agree with you. I would say I would lean Arizona, but I think. I think America is the real winner. That's my take.
Dan
Absolutely. By the way, the. Did you see the. The ratings for the Duke Yukon game was like 19 million people watch. We're in a. It's proving true for all the. For all the naysayers and people said that college. College sports are. Are going down and. And the tournament is lost its luster. People are watching.
Max
We are in a golden age of Duke choking.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
The last five years have just been a hell of a run that America's been on. So that. Yeah. You said 19 million?
Dan
I think so. If you can find it. Max. I think it was 19. It was a lot of people. A lot of people tuned in late to see and what a game it was. Did we. Do we cover that game?
Max
I think we're going to talk about with Stanford Steve for a little bit. Yeah.
Dan
All right. All right, all right. What else? Oh, no, I was off.
Memes
No, you're right. Oh, peaked at 19.
Max
Yeah.
Memes
Average 13.5.
Dan
I don't. Can I just say, I never will understand how any of this works?
Max
Oh, the, the like average rating and the one that comes out overnight. No, don't, Don't.
Dan
Do not get it whatsoever. You could sit down and explain it to me. How are they tracking it? The Nielsen rating makes no sense to me. I like, I get the concept of it that they just put it in average person's home and then they try to. But I still don't get it.
Max
Yeah. For a while you. You had to write it down. Like you would have to keep a log of everything that you watched in your house and like mail in a notebook.
Dan
Do you know that we have a person in this office who used to be a salesperson for the Nielsen ratings. He used to go door too, selling Nielsen boxes. Did you guys know that?
Max
If I were to guess, Stephen Che de. Oh, really?
Dan
That's classic.
Max
Yeah. I mean, Stephen Ch. Is the number one box guy that we got.
Dan
He is the number one box guy.
Memes
What does a Nielsen box like? Why would a consumer like to have that?
Dan
You get power.
Stanford Steve
Yeah.
Hank
Your views matter.
Dan
You get paid like 100 bucks a month or.
Memes
God.
Dan
Oh, yeah.
Max
The power you would have. Like, you. You could watch whatever you want, and then the powers that be that collect that data, they would think that whatever it is you watch is typical of like a hundred thousand homes. It's very powerful position.
Memes
I'd like to get a Nielsen rating in Zach's apartment.
Dan
Oh, yeah. Zach, did I give you an assignment this week? I can't remember.
Zach
Assignment this week?
Dan
Yeah, to research something. I can't. I'm vaguely thinking that I did, but I can't remember.
Zach
I think the last assignment was the fun facts for the group of 16.
Dan
Okay.
Max
I gave you an assignment.
Zach
I. Yeah. Notes on the Eagles article.
Max
Yeah, I. I didn't ask you about those.
Memes
We don't have to. We already did this.
Max
No, no, we.
Dan
Oh, no. I asked you to look up.
Max
That's my fault.
Zach
Yeah.
Dan
We.
Zach
Fasting. I think we talked last week in the. Fast went well. Yeah, we were talking fast at the. In Arizona.
Dan
I ended it at 50 hours and I actually did. It was great.
Zach
Did you. Did you go blowout meal on the way back in or ease in?
Dan
I eased in. That's what I called an hour after easing and I went blow out meal.
Zach
What was the.
Memes
What did you ease in with?
Dan
Bone broth and some carrots.
Zach
What'd you blow out with?
Dan
Just a huge plate of spaghetti and meat sauce.
Zach
Oh, what an evening.
Dan
It was great. And then ice cream.
Max
Zach, National Sports System, national sports podcast. What. What were your notes that you took from the Eagles article?
Zach
You want me to share a couple?
Max
Yeah.
Zach
Just like some things that I noticed that were in the article regularly pushing back on things that would diversify the offensive scheme. Hertz may be scared of his own coverage. Not the most coachable. Also, poor body language maybe hurts. Maybe. Surrounded by yes men. And with the Eagles passing game breaking completely down last season, they may have to heavily rely on Saquon Barkley moving forward.
Memes
The yes men thing, this is exact opposite of yes men. This is.
Zach
I was just going off the article.
Max
He's just going off the report, but
Memes
this report in itself proves that he. There's not yes men because it's people that don't agree.
Ad
That's.
Zach
That's why you tweet him.
Dan
Get.
Max
Okay, yeah, yeah, You're. You're being a yes man right now.
Dan
Oh, update. See if Jeremy Fowler blocked you. I did have two other things. One, this is for upft, a pro Wemby stat.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
Are you ready for this? The San Antonio spurs on Jan. 31 this year, or their record was 32 and 16. Their record on April 1, which was Wednesday, 57 and 18. They lost two games. Two games in the month of February and March.
Max
Yeah, they've been. They've been on a hell of a run. Also, our guy stat hole, he has put together a couple stats for me just to raise awareness to how good Wimby has. Has been, how effective he's been. He's got a new stat that he came out with. I love this stat. It's just called things. So it takes into account everything. Like, points are things, rebounds are things, blocks are things, steals are things. And Wimby leads SGA and things this season on a per game basis by. By quite a bit, actually. He's the number one guy in the NBA in terms of things per game. And also his defense is just so much better than SGA's. Wimby's number one by far in the entire NBA. B ball Paul is second, and then I think SGA is eighth on his own team in defense. So if defense matters, I feel like you got to go with that one.
Dan
You gotta. Yeah, you gotta. Okay, I've got two. I have two other things. Okay, go ahead. You go. Go ahead. No, you go. Well, I was gonna say, what. What do we think is a group knowing that LeBron James has most likely watched us? LeBron was on with our guys. Bob does sports.
Max
It's cool.
Dan
He probably saw Hank. Dave laughing, Hank's face when he was not allowed to play in the Internet Invitational. He saw you and Luke Kwan. Pft.
Max
He probably was blown away by me and nade shots. Camaraderie, though.
Dan
He saw. He saw me deny a bunch of appeals and do nothing else. That's pretty crazy.
Max
Yeah.
Hank
I mean, LeBron, like I said, I've said it. When, you know, we've talked about him doing the. The golf swings on the side, on the. On the sideline. It's like the. The farther we get, the more I'm like, I kind of love this guy. Like, we're. We're a lot more Alike than maybe I ever thought.
Max
That's you and LeBron.
Hank
He goes to work and thinks about golf. Then he goes home and watches. You know, Bob does sports in the Boys.
Dan
Like, yeah, same. Yeah.
Max
You guys are pretty much the same guy.
Hank
Pretty much.
Dan
Pretty much the same guy.
Max
He struggles to. To dunk now, too. Yeah, I. I think in the. In what I've seen so far from the video, he. LeBron might just be hilarious. He might just be a very funny guy.
Memes
I don't like you guys just switching up.
Dan
Like, I'm not.
Max
This is.
Dan
No, I'm not. No, no, no, I'm not. This is.
Memes
No, I. I've always liked LeBron.
Stanford Steve
This is golf. LeBron.
Dan
I'm not.
Max
This is golf. LeBron that we're talking about. LA golf.
Dan
LA golf. But I'm not. I'm not switching up.
Max
When he was talking about Memphis, that was very, very funny in the video. Like, he is. I've never seen LeBron do this sort of content before. I like it.
Dan
Yeah. I. Max, I want it on the record. I am very much looking forward to the opportunity for LeBron, and there's probably a.05 chance he actually competes in Internet invitational, but I'm looking forward to that moment when he's standing over a big putt. And I will say absolutely nothing, but I will laugh when Dave says something I like. I'm a pussy.
Hank
I was thinking about that as well. And I think in my head, in my imagination, it goes like, him being like, oh, I think I want to do the interpretational. And then someone on his team giving him a binder. Things that Dave has said and other people at barstool have said, and he's like, oh, maybe not.
Dan
Yeah, yeah. But imagine Dave standing over a LeBron putt. I mean, it would be a fever dream. It actually would be like, how did we end up in this. In this spot?
Max
Oh, LeBron and the Duke going out, day one as a team.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
By the way, incredible.
Dan
By the way, Tommy Lloyd, did you see his. His press conference? He's. I feel like he's the UNC head coach.
Max
I think he might be the UNC coach.
Dan
He said, I've got my full focus on this team. Nothing is distracting me. That's how I've decided to approach it. He's not a multitasker, and his wife would attest. I'm 100 locked in on Arizona basketball right now. I'm excited to see what this team could do. I have a real strong belief in this team, and this team deserves my Full attention. So what? That's what I'm giving them. I feel like when you. When you bring in your wife as a shield.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
As a character witness.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
You're gone.
Max
Yeah. I think Tom.
Dan
Hey guys, I swear to God I'm not going to unc. Just ask my wife. Oh, she does? Oh, she's not doing a press conference. Well, if you could ask her, she would say the same.
Max
I think Ms. Lloyd might be very active on Chapel Hill Zillow right about now. Yeah, I think she might be cruising looking at some nice living rooms.
Dan
She's probably getting some tips from. From Jordan on. Yeah, she's probably getting some. Some. Some tips on where to brunch with Jordan.
Max
Oh yeah.
Dan
Let's look at Chap. Dude, Chapel Hill is one of those places that beautiful look incredible.
Max
Gorgeous there. Gorgeous. North Carolina in general.
Dan
Five million. Oh, you're going five milli.
Max
Top five state.
Dan
That's just land. We just got land for five milli. He's gotta. He can't be buying land. You can't be buying land. You got to be buying.06 that.
Max
That's what you can get for 6 milli. There.
Dan
Oh yeah. That's a nice house. That is pretty Tommy Lloyd. You're gonna like that.
Max
Yet two.
Dan
Oh, basketball.
Memes
Got a basketball.
Max
Basketball.
Memes
Basketball.
Dan
That probably was Tommy Lloyd's doing.
Max
Yep. Are they aided in to appeal to Tommy Lloyd?
Dan
I feel like though, I mean Arizona's a pretty nice place to live too.
Max
It is. But I mean you know, it's hot there.
Dan
It's hot in the summer.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
But it's a dry heat.
Max
Swamp ass.
Dan
It's dry heat.
Max
The tiramisu sucks.
Dan
It's a dry heat. Okay, we got anything else? Should we get to our guy? Oh, anything. Masters Pre pre preview.
Hank
Sad pill's not playing.
Dan
Yeah. First time since that there will be at least one of Tiger or Phil.
Max
I'm sad about that too.
Dan
That is sad. I like seeing Phil out there. Oh wow. He's looking at a 13 million dollar Arizona house.
Max
You can get a better house in Arizona, but damn, the price is better in. In Chapel Hill. More bang for your buck.
Dan
Some of these houses on Zillow, when you get to that price point it's just. It looks like a museum. Like you. You would live in a house where you. You'd be worried that you'd break anything.
Max
And I think it's. They're the kinds of houses that you'd like still be finding out different features of your house after like two years of living there.
Dan
Yeah, it's just an insane Airbnb where it never feels like home.
Max
Yeah. I didn't know there was a fireplace in this room.
Dan
Just one time I would like. I would like for like a 13 million dollar house on Zillow to have in the living room just a lazy boy that looks like it's been farted in 7,000 times or just a room
Max
that's just a wall of TVs. Yeah, yeah, just give me. I wanna. I wanna know what normal house in America has the most TVs.
Stanford Steve
I got a lot.
Max
Yeah, you do have it.
Dan
Might.
Max
It might be you.
Dan
Might be. It might be me. Okay, let's get to our interview with Stanford Steve. And then we have Fyre fest to end the week before we get to
Max
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Max
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Dan
Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest our. Due to the year he came on for conference championship week, we are not going to see him at the Final Four. Sadly, the tradition is. Is. Is broken. It is Stanford Steve. He's going to the women's Final Four with his daughters. Shout out dad of the Year due to the year and dad of the year. So because we're not going to see him, we figured, hey, let's have you on before the Final Four. What a Final Four it's going to be. Get all your thoughts. Are you going to regret not spending that Sunday with us though? Because that was. I think we did it probably six or seven years in a row. Sunday, Final Four. Go get wings with Steve. I'm sad.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, it's Indie Titus. Get him back off the mat. Get him out of the mud.
Max
Good luck.
Stanford Steve
See how he's doing. But yeah, I, If. If I'm gonna do trade. Trade you guys for something, it's got to be the family, right? Wifey and kids, Arizona. I figure it's a. It's a decent spot to go Scottsdale, but yeah, this is tradition that's broken and it's totally my fault. And I appreciate the lack of ball breaking on your part, Dan, but I know it'll. You guys haven't even gotten there and it'll probably pick up once a couple cocktails start flowing and that's how things go. But we're. We're big boys. We can handle things.
Dan
You hit my soft spot. Because I actually like as a kid, all I wanted to do was go to the Final Four and I, I am going to. I'm planning on someday. I actually was thinking about it this year, but my son's just. He's like. He's six years old. I don't know if he can do a full weekend. So in the future, I'm going to start bringing my kids to the Final Four. So you hit my soft spot. That's an excused absence. But let's do it. Let's hop in. What a Final Four. Oh, I totally forgot. Pft. Braylon Mullins hit that shot against Duke.
Max
Yeah, we should turn Off. We should talk a little bit about, about the Elite Eight, how we got here, Steve. So you were at the game, Steve, how close of a vantage point did you have of this shot?
Stanford Steve
If you see media, if you see Rob Dowster from field of 68, I'm sitting right next to him. Like he has a perfect video down the other end. I was on the other end, first row, saw the whole thing firsthand. So yeah, that was, that was an all timer. But I will say this, and people have their thoughts on what they do when their teams play and whatever, but this, you know, Dan has known me for a long time and I, I do believe in the happiness hedge. I do believe in the reverse jinx. Yeah. And that came to the all out fruition pre tournament. Let's just say Dan and I are in sort of the same pools and there are investments made in teams before the tournament and UConn is one of my teams for a possibility of some good finances. But to sit there and watch it, I, I always expect the worst, even being a Duke fan. And it was just sitting there the whole second half. Like Bill Raftery walks over to me at halftime of the game and we're just sitting there telling like, what's the line on this game? And I was like five. And he's like, who do you got? I'm like, the team that's down 13. He's like, oh, that's not good. I'm like, no, they'll make a run, we'll be fine. Like it's, it's it. The whole time I'm like, our house is going to be bad. How's this going to be bad? The history of Duke and UConn, you know, going all the way back. I think the last time in a tournament was that 04. But then, you know, you have the late in our years which really started up, I think Yukon's angst towards Duke and everybody has their story about Duke. So then Duke loses and it's always immediate. Like when it happens now because of the hatred and you guys are in this tier, it's like, all right, I'm not going on social media for like three days. So I get to Monday night, I get home, Scott and I do the show. It's probably three in the morning. We had Alex Caravan on the show. We, we did bad beats of the March college basketball season. We did something else. So I just go on to post those clips and the first thing I see is Dan talking about how he came multiple times on Sunday. And I'm Just like, this is why you don't go on social media. There's nothing good that's going to come out. You have to take a breather. I go back to the Packers super bowl with Brett Favre when they lost to the Broncos and I'm in college. It was like, all right, you can't watch SportsCenter for a week because that's all they talk about in that. And I think it's part of the grieving process. But to Dan's point, I still have this. Dan?
Dan
Yeah? What do you got?
Stanford Steve
And it's all I have to throw in your face.
Dan
Oh, 2015.
Stanford Steve
Yep, right there, buddy.
Dan
Listen, that's fine. Listen, I know that I've said this speech a billion times. I'll never get that back. But you know what I will get is a ring every time Duke goes out in tragic fashion. And holy shit, I'm like, remember, Remember the old Patrick Waugh quote, Like, I can't hear you because I got so many rings in my ears. That's what I got right now with Duke, because I got you. That was. I'm still coming, by the way. Like, right now, I'm coming.
Stanford Steve
I bet you are.
Dan
Wait. All right, so I will give you credit, Steve. You called this. You said Duke wasn't on your list. Yes, it was it because of the cause. Like, this is. This is what happened with them this year. They lost three games total, and all three of them, they had a massive lead and they couldn't figure it out in the end. My theory is this. And you could tell me if this is wrong. I think it's just the arrogance of Duke for these last two years, to hold on and kill Foster, obviously getting hurt hurts. But the arrogance of Duke the last two years being like, you know what? We don't need a true point guard. We don't need a guy who we can trust, who can get his shot off the dribble, who can bring. Who can break a press, who can, in those big moments, calm down the offense. They thought they could. They were better than basketball.
Stanford Steve
That's great that you look at that way. I'm sure they assess the roster, and I. I don't see how they're that hateable. I. I get everybody's Angstrom Sports K and how great he was. But, like, these guys, the last couple years have been just awesome to watch. What I will say, which I think is maddening, and it's got to be maddening for John Shire. And to your guys, point is, he was the point guard in 2010 on the national championship team. He was the guy that they ran a play for in that exact circumstance. Yep, give me the ball. They're going to follow me. I will go to the foul line and make the shots. And he did that throughout his career. So that, that's one thing. But, like, you know, you guys are football guys, and we say this all the time, whether it's college football or NFL football. And this is the way I kind of related to it is we have a rookie, say you got a rookie quarterback in the NFL, right? And he's going to the playoffs. And it's like, well, he's not a rookie anymore. He's got 15 starts and he's, you know, he's seen everything he needs to see, you know, as a rookie, goes, blah, blah, blah, all this. That's what Duke is, you know, relying on freshmen. You know, you say they're, you know, they're. They've lost two games. They've won 30 games. You know, they're not freshmen anymore. They're still freshmen. And the whole thing starts because Cam doesn't catch the ball clean. He gives it to Sar, and Sar gives it to Kaden, and that's what happens. So the, The. The. The presence of mind, too, of UConn in that instance, to not rush and foul or, you know, do something crazy and just take it in and wane it out, proved to be the best. And, you know, we had Caravan on. He talked. You know, you guys had Hurley on. It's really hard to simulate those kind of instances. And they said they do it in. In practice and they were ready for it. So all credit to them. It's. It's been an unbelievable run. But, you know, to that UConn point again, thanks for pointing that out, Dan. The list, it's 22 years in a row. All four teams are in the Final Four that were on the list. So it's, it's dicey at that point of the game, but UConn is a team, you know, what was say, three and a half weeks ago before the Marquette loss. They're on the one line.
Max
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
You know, like, they're like. And then, you know, they had a. I, I said alternate. They just. They were the number one team in the whole NCAA Tournament that just need to get out of their conference with the bullseye they have, how physical the Big east is, knowing the payback that was coming with St. John's in a collision course in the Big east championship to, to, you know, get back at them for the embarrassment that they gave them in Hartford. They just need to get out of the tournament. And it was, you know, one of my most disliked things with the brackets was seeing St. John's and UConn, two of the only two of three Big east teams. There was a third team that made it, right? Is there a third team that made it east 13?
Max
Was there a third team? Max?
Dan
Was there a third team?
Stanford Steve
I think that was.
Memes
You guys are the basketball guys here.
Max
Was there a third team?
Dan
All right, Matt.
Stanford Steve
Baseball.
Max
Hofstra.
Dan
Hofstra didn't make it.
Max
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
But to see those two teams in the same bracket, I honestly thought that they were going to meet in the Elite Eight to go the Final four. Duke beat St. John's yeah.
Dan
Duke whistle. Duke whistle.
Stanford Steve
Beat St. John's Got it.
Max
Okay, Steve, I want to jump back something you said about John Shire. He's been in that position so many times as a player.
Stanford Steve
Yeah.
Max
Does that make it worse for him as a coach, the fact that, that he allowed this to happen?
Stanford Steve
I go back and forth. I'm sure he. It's. It's a rough one, you know, because you, you know, look at Tennessee. Great story. Elite 3 Elite Eights in a year and they get run out of the building by Michigan. And then you have Duke, who's, you know, was the one seed put in the toughest region and is right there on the Cusp 2 point lead with 10 seconds left. I think that's the art of coaching, right? Pft. Like you have to hand it off at some point. Like you can only put your guys in out there in certain situations. I, I think they would take that scenario back in a second. If that's what you got to do to go to the Final Four, they would take it. So I feel like the difference there,
Max
though is like Tennessee, Tennessee overachieve big time. Duke underachieved big time with the players that they have.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, that's the expectation thing. And I get it. Everybody wants a championship or the season sucks. Like Nebraska basketball. I know it's not in the same tier, but like they lose to arrival in Iowa, but they made, you know, they won their first two NCAA tournament games of all time. Good season. I'm not saying it's a. It's a successful season for Duke, but that's how hard it is to win, man. And when you magnify things down for what UConn has done, it's absolutely incredible. It is 17 and one for caravan on teams. It's. It's nuts with. And that's all you ask for right. In the NFL, you're playing all season to get in it. You know, they call it the tournament now, the, the playoffs. You want that opportunity. And what UConn has done with the opportunity has been unbelievable. And then you look at Duke's opportunities with double digit leads the last two years in a final four, in an elite eight, it's it, it hurts for sure because you're at that point, you put in all the work, you did everything you were supposed to do, and you can't close the door. But I thought this one was more of UConn making place because I go back to watching that in the first half. Yeah, the last 324, Duke doesn't score, they're up 19. And if you get that in thing into the 20s, you never know what's going to happen. UConn's got to change their style of play. They got to, you know, pick up pace and all that, and now you're really up against it. But the last 324, Duke, not so I think, you know, Sarma's two free throws and there wasn't too many field goal attempts, but that sort of weathered the storm. And then in that building, you know it, you guys both know it, that the, the 5050 fans, which, I mean it's a great basketball area here in D.C. and a lot of Maryland and Georgetown and anybody that's 50, 50, that's at that game is rooting for the underdog. And against Duke. Yeah, so it went from like 60, 40, I would say at the beginning of the game when Duke's rolling to at definitely 50, 50. And the momentum swung it even more. So it was a frenzy for sure.
Dan
And I want to have your back. Steve, you, you are right. Duke didn't have a bad year. I know that you were off, off social media, so you probably missed it, but I, I listened to a bunch of Duke podcasts on Monday morning and so you probably missed this, but this is from the Duke basketball roundup and they summed it up perfectly because you guys did hang banners. So this is the guys. It was the first time in Duke basketball history the duke teams won 35
Max
games in consecutive seasons in back to back years, folks.
Dan
How greedy are you? Yeah, are you really going to lament
Max
a lost season or something like that
Dan
in a year where we won 35 games and hung multiple banners? It was the first time. Multiple banners.
Max
Hardware.
Stanford Steve
And you just came again?
Dan
I just came again, Steve.
Max
I, I got one, one more question about this because like, you know, Big cat Played. You did, you did win 35 games back to back years. How.
Dan
Multiple banners.
Max
How greedy are you? Multiple banners. Where would this stack in terms of the disappointments of the last like six seasons for Duke basketball? So just to, to run it back, there was the loss in the final four against unc, which was Coach K's retirement. There was one season where Duke didn't even make the NCAA tournament as well. There was a loss against Tennessee in The round of 32, the loss against NC State in the Elite Eight, and then last year the loss in the final four against Houston. So I guess what I'm saying is this might not even be in the top four.
Stanford Steve
Yeah. And when you're in the tournament that much and you go that far all the time, then. Right. It's really hard to rank still. The all timer is 95 with Grant Hill, Scotty Thurman in Arkansas making that shot at the end that, that, that really hit. Losing to Jason Kidd in 93 for Bobby Hurley not to go back to the lead eight. That one really hurt. So. Yeah, it's up there.
Dan
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
When you make it as a lot, it's, it's hard to decipher.
Dan
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
I appreciate you bringing up all those great times. Yeah.
Dan
All right.
Stanford Steve
Well, friends do.
Max
People do forget the time that. Yeah, people forget the time that Duke didn't make the tournament. Yeah, we don't talk about that.
Dan
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
Who won it that year?
Max
That's a, that's a fair question, Steve.
Stanford Steve
Anybody put up a banner?
Max
It's a fair, the very fair question.
Dan
All right, Steve.
Max
China Wuhan.
Dan
Thank you for, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. No, I'm just kidding.
Max
Thank you. I want to say something nice, Steve.
Dan
As soon as you texted me, I said it. You did. He, Steve, said how much you could just do. Duke, you got. I was like, just a little touch. Just a tiny touch.
Max
Steve. Thank you. You gave, you gave out a very sharp pick at, at, at the, the start of the tournament. On the women's side, you said it was Texas and usc, South Carolina to make the final four. Parlay them. It was I believe, -125. I got it at. So thank you, Steve. That was a nice little nest egg I squirreled away from myself. Now I got some bullets ready to fire. Hope a lot of people out there took your advice.
Stanford Steve
I appreciate it. I, I woke up, I forgot about it too. Woke up the next morning to some text of people that put it in. I guess the day they listened.
Max
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
And woke up with a plus, buddy. So that's always great to do. But yeah, we're, we're trying. Yeah, if you listen, you could have had Duke not to win the region.
Max
Also, get back to Steve in a second. He's brought to you by our very dear friends at Twisted Tea. I'm gonna crack open an ice cold Twisted Tea this weekend for the Arizona and Michigan game. Excited. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea, 5% alcohol. Twisted Tea is the perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long. Whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. Now back to our good friend Stanford. Steve.
Dan
Okay, let's talk Final Four. I, I, I, I want to push back on something. That's the narrative that's going around right now, that the national championship is the late game on Saturday night. I think that's so disrespectful to UConn in Illinois. Two teams that absolutely can win this whole thing. And so I'll start with UConn. We just talked about him. But just to put it in perspective because we, we think alike a lot and we said this conference championship week when we were talking about it, that UConn is just. They get beat up in the Big East. In the Big east, they always have moments. The Marquette loss, all that stuff. Just to put into perspective, in the last four years, Yukon, UConn is 56 and 6 in their non conference and their losses are 1 at Allen Field House. Tough place to win. The absolute disaster in Maui where they lost three games and it was just a total shit show. And then they lost to the national champions last year by two points in Florida. And this year they lost to Arizona. Early in the season when they were down a couple starters, they lost by four. This team, when they get out of the conference is completely different. And so I think that like, discounting UConn in this game and possibly Monday night is crazy to me. How do you think this matchup is with Illinois? Because Illinois is also like, they're just so good. They're so big. They do everything. They play great ball. They, they spread the ball around. Keaton Wagler might be the best bang for a buck freshman we will ever see in the, in, in college basketball.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, and I made a mistake of going back and watching the first game when they played. Guys, it's even. Don't even bother.
Max
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
I mean, Kai Boswell leads Illinois in scoring 25 points. He handles the whole. The ball the whole game. Wagglers had foul trouble. I think he took three shots in the game. Terrace Reed was off an injury. UConn was still finding themselves, but UConn boat raced him solo. Ball was making shots, they made threes. Rybay played 22 minutes. I think he scored more. The terrorist Reed. So that's a waste of time. Illinois looks like a totally different team now. But I. To your point, Dan? I, I totally agree.
Dan
I'm just.
Stanford Steve
I think we should be fortunate that we are getting Arizona and Michigan to play like we're getting that game. And I said before the tournament we need to see like the combination of Arizona, Michigan and Florida, like maybe two games. But like those teams need to see each other. And then the way the bracket breaks out, we do get Arizona and Michigan in the final four. But I'm totally with you, Illinois, I mean, the fam. A two hour drive, I believe, from Champaign. You're a Chicago guy, you would know that and how orange goes and travels. There'll be. I never doubt Michigan because of the army that they have as a fan base, but there's going to be a whole hell of a lot of orange there. And then you got UConn, which when I think about it and what makes Hurley and that program so special. They're not afraid of a goddamn thing. Yeah, they go play Russia right now like they don't care where the game is. They're going to show up and play. So I think they're super dangerous. They still have versatility. Demery's not healthy at the point guard position, but Malachi's got plenty of experience and he was the guy that finally made a three for UConn. He was the first guy to make a three for UConn. Whoever had that in your player props of your. You cashed in big time. But this the winner of UConn. Illinois could for sure win the national championship. The problem is you got to win this one.
Dan
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
And you mentioned the re. You know, the rematch aspect. It doesn't mean anything. You know, Wagler has been unbelievable in what he's done. And I, I think it was Stan Van that was calling his games and talk about the way he decelerates going to the Hoover and the way he has size and length in his ball handling and the overall size. I went and saw Illinois play Maryland here and I just couldn't believe, like starting lineups. They Come out how big they are. But I look at what UConn did to Duke and their size. They made guys run off screen. They made the bigs and all that size run on the, and work their asses off on the other side. So I think UConn does the same thing. I do think Mullins has a lot on him, like the social media aspect of today's game. A kid from Indiana going back, a kid that made the shot, I mean, doing the Today show, how does he handle that? There's not a better staff to handle that than Dan Hurley staff. So you have that factor in. And Solo ball is the guy that looks like there might be a wrist issue. But, you know, he's, I think he's under 30% now from 3. That doesn't bother me. He has plenty of experience. So I like UConn in the game. Illinois has been the most impressive team to me in getting here. And what the road was, having to go to Houston and do that, having to play, you know, everybody's favorite story in Iowa and, and, and having a game against them and arrival from your conference to get to a Final Four. That road is, is pretty darn impressive. But I, I, the experience of UConn and what Terrace Reid has done, we put up a graph.
Dan
Crazy.
Stanford Steve
Last night on SportsCenter. I just was thinking off the top of my head, you know, 31 and 27 against Furman being at the Michigan State game. You know, Michigan State comes back, takes the lead twice in that game. And Bo, every time after that happens, Hurley calls timeout, they run their offensive set. Where does the ball go? Down to the block. Reed gets a bucket. He's in the tier of Akeem Olajuwon and Bill Walton when it comes to points and rebounds and what you're averaging in an NCAA tournament. That's how special this run has been in the four games that he has played. So there's more trust for me in what UConn does. And with that, and I, I, I believe UConn wins a really, really close game.
Dan
I think Terror Street's going to be the big, big thing in this, because I don't, I think Illinois is going to let him shoot a lot. Like, I think they're going to say, hey, yeah, if you don't hit your threes, we're going to be fine. And, and we're going to make sure that you don't hit your threes and get comfortable. And UConn hasn't been hitting threes and be like, hey, Terror street, you can take 20 shots in this game. We can live with that. Especially with the, the size that Illinois has and on the glass like they, they will not let you like pound them on the glass so that it's okay, you know, Terrorist Reed, if he's getting the ball down low, it's not as much. Terror street has been awesome. As long as he can't get a couple shots. You know, he's getting a lot of his own rebounds. If they stop that. Illinois is just so tough. It's such a great game. It really is.
Stanford Steve
And like to your point too, they, they, they have so much size where they could just play behind Reed and say shoot over us.
Dan
Right?
Stanford Steve
But he is that. I mean his footwork is unbelievable. He was the best player on the floor against Duke and watching it was just so damn impressive. And the other thing, what UConn does is they run all that stuff at the beginning of the shot clock to get you out of position. Whether it's a switch, whether it's a, you know, a backdoor cut, you are out of position to defend different things. And we haven't really seen those back. You know, that caravan made great with clinging when they won the back to back titles. That stuff's still there. So Illinois has to be buttoned up. But to their point, they have been very, very improved defensively and that's why they've gotten here. They buckled down. Not many team people thought they could go to Houston and win an ugly game. They did that because they made threes, as you mentioned.
Max
So on the other side, Arizona, Michigan. I think everyone's going to be talking about the, the bigs in that and like will Michigan's defense, will they be able to stop Arizona's bigs? It's like a, that's, that's where I think most people's eyes are keying in on. But from your perspective, who is the most important player, Maybe not the best player in this game, but the most important one?
Stanford Steve
I think it's Karchenkov for Arizona because when you look at matchups and who's going to guard who, I really like the idea of Arizona having buries and Bradley to put on Cadeau being here in D.C. and going to the Duke, Michigan game. Duke beat them because they control the glass against all that size and Cadou couldn't make shots and now you have two guys that could trade off on guarding Cado. So I think, or I believe Arizona can frustrate Michigan offensively. And then in Karchenkov you have a guy I'M not saying he's gonna do it, but he can match size with athleticism against Yaks. You know, Lindenborg has been the best player, you know, in the tournament. When you look at, from moments and flashes and, and ones, alley oop throws and he's. I believe he's 6, 9, 2, 20, which is, which is some size going up and down the court. But Arizona has a guy. Del Orso is a guy who could come off and make threes. And if it does get tight, my favorite thing about Arizona is they don't care who scores. You know, co op had some big baskets while Purdue was making a run and, and buries can make threes. Bradley's as good as it. As it gets as far as, you know, having the ball in your hand late in a shot clock and getting a basket. So it. I favor Arizona. And then my, my biggest issue is the coaching matchup. I favor Michigan. I think Dusty May has an edge there bringing FAU to a, to a Final Four and then also handling. You know, we talked about expectations earlier. Like FAU had everybody back from that Final Four team. They didn't even. I don't even think they made the tournament. Yeah. And you have that. But he's had success with Michigan. He's got what he wants in that roster. And both teams are really capable of like a tidal wave, an avalanche in that, like in the Tennessee game, What was it, 22, 0 run in the first half. That puts that out. Arizona comes out in the second half and shuts down Purdue. So both teams get a lot of easy offense off their defense. Who, who has the bigger spurts in that? And they're not great three point shooting teams. And now you're going into a football stadium. And that also makes me weary of points and I hate doing it. And Dan, you'll probably hate even more. I think you got to take the under.
Dan
I. Listen, I'm going to be at the game.
Stanford Steve
Yeah.
Dan
I can't take an under at a game I'm at, but I actually.
Stanford Steve
Have you ever, like. Can you make a list of unders you've taken in person?
Dan
Never.
Stanford Steve
That's unbelievable. Start it. Just start it.
Dan
It'd be fun. Yeah. Never going back to Indy.
Stanford Steve
You've had great moments there as a fan.
Dan
I'll go to you. I'll go to you. Don't make us go back to. What angle did you like the most about the Braylon Mullen shot? What?
Max
The.
Memes
The.
Dan
No, I've. I've. I'm so stupid. I'll take Like I'll go to an early season Cubs game at Wrigley and see the flags blowing in and I'll be like over six and a half. Gotta do it. And then watch like a one nothing game and be like, fuck. Every, every ball hit hard, you know, ends up 20ft from the, from the ivy. The. So Michigan. Let me. I'm gonna push back on you. I kind of like Michigan in this game.
Max
Okay.
Dan
And here's why. I just. And maybe this will. This is why the matchup so fascinating to me. Michigan is the best team in the country at rim. Denial and letting team score at the rim. They don't let you do it. They just. They have the size to stop you at the rim. That's where Arizona wants to eat. It's a true best on best and it's kind of like a. It's a gamble of which best is going to win. I. I think it's we. Michigan's. I don't know.
Stanford Steve
I just love the bracket and how we got here with these four teams. And we get here and we have a what, one and a half point spread? And a two and a half. Two point spread. Yeah, maybe that's one. That's one's. One and a half. Two. Like, it's amazing how it all works out. I. Max is in a research guy. I was going to say. I want to say the last time UConn was an underdog in the Final four was in Detroit and they lost to Michigan State.
Dan
But anyway, no, they were probably an underdog with Ollie, weren't they?
Stanford Steve
Oh yeah, that was before.
Dan
Yeah. It's 24.
Stanford Steve
Sure. They beat Florida.
Max
Steve, do you think that Dusty May might be distracted, like actively trying to recruit Arizona's players during the game?
Dan
Good question. Pft. Yeah, really good question.
Max
Maybe he's talked to these guys and he's like, hey, I'll let you get 20 and 10 if you promise that you're going to be a Wolverine next year.
Stanford Steve
Oh, I thought you maybe because he was going to go to North Carolina.
Max
Oh, well, that too. Yeah. So he's probably taking the phone calls on that side. But then I think during the game he's gonna be like, I need. I need. I need this guy to be a Wolverine next year.
Stanford Steve
You can't doubt him with how he's gotten. Guys. Yeah, he's. He's hit. He's hit a pluses in the portal.
Max
But that is January, February, Izzo. May, May, May.
Stanford Steve
Hurley.
Max
That's. Yeah, there you go. That's the calendar.
Stanford Steve
Hurley's at the end of March.
Max
I, I am excited to see this matchup because I, I don't know if, if Arizona goes down, do you think they try to shoot the ball? You think they try to like, catch up, trying to hit threes, or do they just keep it up and say, we're going to pound you on the inside it?
Stanford Steve
I, I think officiating is huge. As to, you know, we've seen Margaret, you know, files early in games. A Walker got in file trouble against Purdue, who has plenty of size and he's not the biggest guy. He uses his girth to, to move guys around. So Arizona shoots open threes. I don't think they'll shy away from those. It's just a matter if, if you get down like, you know, UConn, if they get down double digits, We've seen that before. They're not going to shy away from anything. Arizona tends to stay with it. You know, I mentioned co op in that run, making those like 12 footers in the lane. Those are, those are shots you don't see anymore because it's, it's three pointers or dunks. But I don't see either team tense enough because both teams, I think big cat's a bit Ken Palm guy. What do you got for Ken Palm on these teams?
Dan
For what?
Stanford Steve
Michigan's what they gotta be top five offense, top defense.
Dan
They're. They're five offense, one defense.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, when he got in Arizona and
Dan
Arizona is for offense to defense, it couldn't be a better matchup. And by the way, the back to the over under, I actually like the under in the first game too. Yeah, I wouldn't bet it. But I think that those two teams
Stanford Steve
are going to like the trend and step up and take it under.
Dan
The way UConn and Illinois play, they are, they are very methodical with their possessions and they're, that's why they're so efficient. Especially Illinois is so efficient is they get the best shot and they're not, they're not trying to, you know, make it a track meet. They're just going to get great shots.
Stanford Steve
You should just like next year, you know, when all those playoff expectations come for the Bears, just take all under Caleb Williams player props that way wouldn't
Dan
have hit this year.
Stanford Steve
I was just saying if he doesn't play well, then you win money.
Dan
Which under, under, underarm props. Yeah, no, listen, there's a time to take unders. It's in a movie theater.
Stanford Steve
When, when, when have you movie unders.
Dan
You go to a Movie theater. You put it. You spray the board on the unders. You watch the movie for two hours. You come out and you say, oh, I won. I lost. I won. I lost. You go down the board and you're like, okay, I didn't have to sweat any of these out. I have to worry about.
Max
It's on games you don't watch.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Playing, but watching. I'm with Big Cat on this one. Watching a game live. If you're at the game and you took an under on it, that you might as well not go to the game.
Dan
Correct.
Max
It's like going to the game, be like, well, I'm. I'm signing up to have the worst time ever at this game.
Stanford Steve
Yeah. But you could put yourself in a position where you can win really early.
Max
No, but that doesn't matter. No, you can't win early because with an under, you never know. Like, it's, It's. It's always alive. Like you can. The possibility of losing that bet is. Is always looming over you.
Stanford Steve
Yeah. I think the Chiefs for the last super bowl they played in had that under him, which was dead lock. And Mahomes didn't come out of the game and threw touchdown.
Dan
Oh, so you're saying life's too short to bet the under sometimes. Yeah. Yeah.
Max
Steve, while we have you here, you're also a football guy. What do you think's going on with Jalen? Hurts.
Stanford Steve
You know, I said on Sports center last night when Scott offered just the idea of Philadelphia and what it brings to the table, I think the medicine everyone in the world needs, whether you root for the Eagles or you don't, is a 4 and 13 season for the Eagles. It'll be great for everybody because it'll manage the expectations for Eagles fans. And then everyone else can remember what it was like back in the day when the Eagles were not a good football team. So I think that's. That's a great. A great synopsis. If they just want to go 4 and 13 and let everybody else in the. In the NFC east have a piece of the pie and, and everybody else that doesn't root for them, root for their teams, and they. We don't have to, you know, cover every waking second of that football.
Max
I'm sick of it.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, it's, It's. It's. It's. I mean, and we don't even live there, right?
Dan
Yeah, they are the economy, right, Max.
Max
I don't want to keep talking about them all the time, and. But they, they're just constantly shoved in my Face. And I don't want to keep bringing up Max because Max has health problems when he talks about the Eagles with his blood pressure. And I don't want to do that to him. So I'm just. I'm. I agree with you, Steve. I think let's. Everybody just. Let's take a step back and let the Eagles do what the Eagles are going to do.
Dan
Leave the. Max, you should recreate the Leave Brittany alone video.
Stanford Steve
And what's a. What's the flyer. I never see him anymore. Get him at Eagles games.
Max
Yeah.
Memes
Flyers are fighting for a playoff spot.
Dan
Let's go. The lamp. Steve, what do you got for the women's. Do you have a. Do you have a bet? It was it. This is. I'm excited for the Women's Final Four. The tournament has not been great. It's just been buzz saw after buzz saw with all these teams.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, just look at the point spreads and what they did. And now we actually have point spreads in the single digits, which is mind blowing to me. I have like seven different bets on UConn to win it all from the, you know, beginning of the season. I got it. I think it was minus. I went and saw him play. They played in Annapolis here against Louisville. I think it was first game of the year. Bet him. I think it was around minus 190. It got all the way up to 280. I have. And now they're minus 180. And I think that. Just do that instead of having to worry about laying the six and a half.
Max
Okay.
Stanford Steve
I do like them. How about a UConn men's women's parlay? Moneyline parlay. That could be profitable money. I just don't see anyone untouching them. South Carolina doesn't shoot the ball well enough. I think Texas and UCLA are gonna have a battle. Texas beat UCLA. That's UCLA's only loss. But I just don't think they had. The winner of that game has enough to keep up with UConn offensively, you know, UConn, the Elite Eight got strong and Az Fudd taken away and the role player stepped up. It's just what Geno does. He grooms these players for these kind of moments. I love this press conference talking about the. The atrocity that the tournament is having to come do media at 7am in the morning and have a shoot around at 7pm they went from Fort Worth right to Arizona, so you got to assume they're locked in. And I just. I don't like the matchups right like as. As we see the tournament, the matchups for UConn. I don't like any for the opposing team and I trust Geno in this scenario. I think Sarah Strong and Az Foot are that good and I. I believe they cut the nets down.
Max
Are you going to be taking any unders at these games?
Stanford Steve
I was actually thinking about the Texas UCLA under.
Dan
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
Familiarity with that and you know, those teams seeing each other and you know, defending the three point line, that's what you got to do when you're rooting for that under.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
All right.
Dan
Yeah. All right, Steve, I got one last question for you. It's a Roback question. R H O B A C K.com promo code. Take 20% off your first purchase. No, it's a good one. Roback.com promo code.
Max
Take.
Dan
We made the bet before, before the tournament that if Duke wanted all you'd come to Max's bachelor party. Is it. Is there a chance you could still come to Max's bachelor party?
Stanford Steve
Yeah.
Max
Okay. Due to the year. That's why he's the dude of the year.
Memes
Be a great get.
Dan
Be our.
Max
The number one guy.
Dan
That'd be our 11 pick.
Stanford Steve
We could go through some contract negotiations.
Dan
Okay. Listen, all you gotta do is show up. Everything's paid for.
Max
Yeah. Steve, you would be. You'd be first overall out of the list of invites we have. Well, fanta, Fanta number one.
Memes
So many invites out there.
Max
Yeah. Kevin Willard. Well, he's good. It's a package deal.
Stanford Steve
What about Scott?
Dan
Scott? I haven't invited Scott. Should I invite Scott? There's zero.
Stanford Steve
He's a big fan of Max's. After the Maryland Philadelphia discussion.
Max
Oh. What do you say?
Memes
I just said what I was feeling. That's all I did.
Stanford Steve
I understand. I understand.
Dan
You gotta understand something about Scott's moments here. Yeah. Steve knows this obviously better than anyone. Scott Van Belt is literally like a Jack Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to like the. The. The part that you see and the nice. He's the nicest guy in the world. Like, such a good friend. But when Maryland basketball comes up, you don't want to be anywhere near him. Like, don't even admit that.
Max
Don't joke. It's not. It's not funny to him when you bust his balls.
Dan
There are no jokes about Maryland.
Memes
I agree. I don't think it's funny when you guys bust my balls every single day.
Max
Yeah. The difference. The rest of the world begs to differ.
Memes
Yeah, but I don't find it funny.
Dan
But we Do.
Stanford Steve
It's funny. It's hysterical.
Dan
All right, so it's.
Stanford Steve
It's not enough if you see Scott at Augusta this week when he's got the suit on and he's all like, don't bring up Maryland.
Max
No, no, don't. And we'll have him on the show after. After the Masters, as this tradition. Yeah, Max, you can. You can invite him face to face.
Dan
Yeah, we'll invite him in.
Memes
I. I have nothing bad to say about Maryland basketball.
Max
Yeah, that's my whole point.
Memes
I. I'm not sorry that I stole his coach. I. I just said that I don't think about Maryland basketball.
Stanford Steve
That's all.
Memes
That's all I was saying.
Dan
All right, I'm gonna face some right now. Let's see if he'll answer, because, like, imagine if we. What is.
Memes
He also can't hear me because I'm in the. Yeah, that won't even work.
Stanford Steve
When he said Butler's cabin. That's a perfect place to answer your face.
Dan
Yeah, but imagine, like, because there is the. You know, everyone's been in this spot where you over invite, and then if everyone says yes, what if Scott and Kevin Willard are just sharing a cabana on Saturday? Tops off just having some. Some drinks with the boys? That could be good.
Max
Yeah, that could be good. Men, fences. I like that.
Memes
I like that idea. Maybe we could find some unity between Maryland and Kevin Willard.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Steve, one last. Last question. You mentioned earlier, before we started taping, you might have a. A draft nugget for me. So I. I guess you're an insider now.
Stanford Steve
No, no, you guys, I was just doing some homework around here, down here in the district, you know, what are we, 400 days away from having the draft here?
Max
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
But for this year's draft, who do you want the commanders to get at seven?
Max
All right, so I think that it. If the physical and the medicals check out, which is a big if, I don't have access to any of that information. Caleb Downs, I think. I think he might be the best player. I think he might be the best player in the entire draft. It's just about like, do you want to spend that pick on a safety, number one, and then number two, is he healthy medically? And then I've heard a lot of smoke about love recently that if love is available.
Stanford Steve
That's what I wanted to get. Love is always available.
Dan
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
Just remember that.
Max
Yeah. Keep an open heart.
Stanford Steve
I didn't like that Caleb Downs didn't run a 40. I'll just say that. Oh, anywhere I did not. I. I don't like that as a safety. Like, just run it. I mean, they say. They say the field, they run on at pro day, at Ohio State's 39 yards, too. So you're gonna have a good time.
Max
I mean, I've seen enough of him playing football that I know he's fast as shit. Like, I'm not worried about his speed.
Stanford Steve
Okay. As far as the running back goes, the last running back drafted in the top 10 to win a Super bowl with that team is the last running
Max
back drafted in the top 10 to win a Super bowl with Washington team, obviously.
Dan
Oh.
Max
With the team that they. That they picked drafted. Yeah. I don't know.
Stanford Steve
It's gonna be like Reggie Bush, but he didn't lead that team in rushing that year. Thomas led the Saints that year. And so you go back even farther. It's Jamal Lewis with the Ravens.
Max
Wow.
Dan
Wow.
Stanford Steve
So that's what scares me about Jeremiah Love, because I hate to admit it, but we kind of need a lot of pieces on the. On the roster here.
Dan
Well, that's the thing. It's like, if you draft a running back top 10 as a team, that's not one piece away, and a running back is one piece way. I think Jeremiah Love is incredible.
Stanford Steve
And I think guys like ezekiel Elliott was one.
Dan
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
Todd Gurley was one. Obviously, Barkley changed teams. McCaffrey changed teams. So it's just something. Just something. While you're watching, are you guys going to the draft?
Dan
No.
Max
No. No.
Stanford Steve
Remember when you used to go to the draft?
Dan
It's not that great. The problem with the draft is it's made for tv. And it also, like.
Stanford Steve
And Friday and Saturday are way. Are way more fun. As a fan.
Dan
Yeah. And. And you can't, like, no one's going to do an interview right before their biggest night of their life.
Stanford Steve
Yeah.
Dan
You know, they're not going to fuck that up.
Stanford Steve
And the teams aren't there.
Dan
Right. And the teams aren't there.
Stanford Steve
So, like, would you guys go to the draft if you were getting drafted?
Max
Yeah. Would you go fishing with your.
Dan
Fishing with my dad and Wisconsin Thomas?
Max
Yeah.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
If I was so Styles, would I go.
Stanford Steve
If you were Sonny Styles, would you go to the draft?
Max
Yeah, if I was. So I would try to be on camera as much as possible with my shirt off. Yeah.
Stanford Steve
What if you were Ty Simpson?
Max
Yes. No, no, I would have Ty Simpson. That's a big. Like, when is this guy going to get picked? Possibility.
Dan
No, but I would. Here's why I would. If I were Ty Simpson one Orlovsky has been doing a great job of boosting up Ty Simpson and also we're going to have Ty Simpson on in a couple of weeks. So as soon as he comes on pmt. Look what we did for Josh Allen. Ty Simpson, top 10 pick. Might want to bet it right now before he comes on pmt. That's insider trading. That is insider trading.
Max
I think I, I, I'm excited that Pittsburgh gave all the kids in town the day off school. I think that's great. It's like, yeah, the NFL's in town so the schools aren't going to be a thing. Don't worry about that. I was, I respect their respect for the game of football, but I'm not going to go to the draft anymore. I don't think it's just like there's, it's so, it's so much better on TV and it's not even that good on tv.
Stanford Steve
Wow. So you're saying you could be better?
Max
I'm saying it. Well, yeah. I mean the draft is like essentially they call names and then you, you get excited about the name that you hear for your team.
Stanford Steve
You don't booger on the desk. Is that what you're saying?
Max
I'm just saying like the, the spectacle of the draft is not, I, I don't love watching it. I love finding out the information from the draft as it happens. But like, I don't know that you can make that a must watch TV endeavor.
Stanford Steve
They did cut down the time in between picks, so that's good.
Max
They did. Bad news for the Vikings.
Dan
I think we're do draft in the middle TV and then we'll have just Yukon Duke, last 10 seconds on replay on both sides. Steve. I, I'm not joking. We sat in the gambling cave. We, we rewatched it like seven times.
Stanford Steve
I bet you did.
Dan
Yeah. It was so good.
Stanford Steve
I'm coming in charge of that remote to keep rewinding.
Max
I think that it was unanimous. Yeah.
Stanford Steve
Who actually did it because I, that I always wonder about the games because I, I tune in. Like I said, I was not tuning in after that game. But you have. You guys had two separate cave, like one New York and one Chicago.
Dan
No, we just had the one here. We, I just, we just have a guy who actually was, I think it's been my assistant. Dom has been remote guy all, all March. He's done a good job. So he just has him in his hands. Do you know what we did too, Steve, is because of the stupid, you know, first two Rounds the. The scores are ahead. We put. We taped the TVs this year.
Stanford Steve
Love it. Great job.
Dan
Dom taped all the TVs for us.
Stanford Steve
That's a hell of a job because you had. I got. When I was at home, the off nights not being at the games, I had to put the game that was first on the direct cable.
Max
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
Tv. But then that game sped up.
Dan
The.
Stanford Steve
The second game that started, I think it was Iowa. Nebraska sped up. They were literally at the same time of the game in each. So. Yeah. You had to not look at the top of the screen. Great job by Dom getting the tape up there.
Dan
Yeah.
Max
It does seem like the easiest thing for them to fix.
Dan
Yeah. It's makes no sense. Yeah.
Stanford Steve
There's. I can write a book on how we could fix the tournament. Yeah, it could be so much better.
Dan
Okay. Steve, you're the best. Enjoy the final Four in Arizona.
Stanford Steve
Everyone at JT's, you said hi?
Dan
Yes.
Max
Yeah. Please do.
Dan
Yes. Yeah. Are you going?
Stanford Steve
I believe so. You know, three kids under 12, I feel like JT is the best. A great spot to go.
Dan
That's fine.
Max
Get the medium, get the spicy, and then get the. The works.
Stanford Steve
I'm just gonna get like a variety and I'm just gonna call that the Titus.
Dan
Yeah, Crack the. Crack the window. Leave him in the car.
Max
It's not that hot in Arizona.
Dan
Hey, I'll be right back. I'm gonna eat 30 wings. Oh, imagine Steve.
Memes
Yeah.
Stanford Steve
He's got.
Dan
He just leaves the car on with the ac. It's got the. The sign that people put for their dogs, like, don't worry, these three little girls have air conditioning. I'm just inside eating board.
Stanford Steve
Adane S. All right. You didn't go to Wrigley for that Angels game, did you? That was 10 degrees.
Dan
No, no.
Stanford Steve
Oh, my God. That looked cold.
Dan
The fact that we had to play five games in March in Chicago, the scheduling making makes no sense.
Stanford Steve
Every year, Major League Baseball.
Dan
Every year, Major League Baseball. Opening day should be literally today. That's when it should have been. It shouldn't have been last week. They. It just felt off. It should be right before the Final Four, so. All right, Steve, you're the best. Enjoy your trip.
Stanford Steve
Appreciate you guys.
Max
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Dan
Okay. Fire fest of the week. To wrap up the show, Hank wearing the Morgan and Morgan sweatshirt.
Hank
Morgan and Morgan.
Dan
That's a company man. Always, always, always.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
Nice sweatpants. Thanks. Going to a strip club later.
Stanford Steve
What?
Dan
As a call back to our inside joke about Shane showing up to the bar on Friday with sweatpants on. And he said he was going to strip club later.
Max
Those exact sweatpants, the gray ones.
Memes
It was like. It looked exactly like you were.
Max
You wear gray sweatpants to a strip club. You were a brave man.
Hank
I know. Shane is rolling his eyes.
Dan
He's so bad right now.
Hank
This is not. This is not, not. I'm not.
Max
You fixing it bolted.
Hank
I don't want it.
Dan
I don't. I don't think he ended up going. But he did show up to the bar.
Memes
No, he went home and got changed after.
Dan
Yeah, it was a tough one for Shane. He had the exact same sweatpants on. And he's like, yeah, I'm thinking maybe we'll go to strip club tonight. And we always like in gray sweatpants.
Hank
I don't want to.
Dan
I would not have brought this up.
Hank
And I. I don't like to be the one to expose the boys. I would have brought it up unless it's topical. We did. We did. Also, I took the boys, the Airbnb boys out to dinner on Wednesday and he just came down wearing sweatpants. I was like, I don't think you can wear those. He's like, I didn't bring any of their pants.
Dan
Yeah, he didn't. I don't know what happened.
Memes
He's like the fifth time that's happened on a trip.
Hank
I was like, I don't like, you can try. I just don't want you to get turned away.
Dan
Right.
Hank
And then he kind of was like, I didn't bring other pants.
Max
I was like, why I'm gonna stand up for Shane. Sweatpants are. They're comfortable, but if you're packing for
Dan
a trip, you gotta.
Max
Yeah, you gotta pack.
Memes
At least you're also a crazy outfit guy, too.
Max
That's not necessarily true all the time,
Dan
but yeah, that's all right.
Max
I do pack. I always pack one pair of jeans. At least
Memes
you got to have one pair of jeans.
Dan
Next year on spring break. We. We got to get. We got to get.
Hank
Shane, you might not tell a story about your friend.
Max
What's up?
Hank
Can I tell a story about your
Dan
friend now that we're on the. Yeah, yeah.
Hank
I was with 15, his two buddies from high school.
Max
Yeah.
Hank
And same thing. We were going to dinner and his buddy from high school was wearing red capital sweatpants in a Washington commander's T shirt. And his other buddy's like, dude, you
Max
can't wear that to dinner.
Hank
And I was like, this is, this
Stanford Steve
is where you get it from.
Hank
People's like, yeah, come on, man. Like, you gotta at least wear some nice clothes.
Max
Come on. Yeah, take off those Washington capitals comfy sweatpants. No. Who, who gets dressed up like that?
Hank
Like, PFD is literally basically what you're wearing right now. I don't know what pants you're wearing.
Max
Yeah, no, he. Yeah, 99 of his. His is like team issued gear. But. Yeah, listen, I get it, Shane. Like, you want to be comfy, but like going to a strip club and sweatpants is. That's kind of wild.
Dan
That's.
Max
That's a wild boy.
Dan
I almost could.
Max
Great.
Hank
So I'm think black sweatpants.
Dan
Yeah. Say dark sweatpants and. But gray sweatpants. We, you know what around shoved up
Max
with you know what?
Hank
We.
Max
Instead of doing like matching shirts for Max. Max's bachelor party, we should get matching gray sweatpants for strip club night.
Memes
No thank.
Max
Get juicy written across the ass. Yeah. All right.
Hank
No, I am, I am just, just casual today.
Dan
I'm.
Hank
I'm I'm sick. I've got.
Dan
You actually are sick.
Hank
I've sneezed. I don't know if it's allergies. Like, I don't. I'm not an allergy.
Dan
No, it's not allergies.
Hank
I'm not allergy guy.
Dan
Don't have allergies.
Hank
I'm not allergy guy. I've never had allergies in my life,
Dan
so why would you say I don't know if it's allergies?
Hank
I have sneezed rough estimate, like, a hundred times in the past day and a half.
Dan
I can't stand max.
Stanford Steve
Does it.
Dan
Did this a couple weeks ago. Remember? You were sick? Yeah.
Memes
It was one day.
Dan
Yeah, but you were like, oh, it's allergies. Like, no, it's not.
Memes
It could have been allergies, but allergy
Dan
people use it as a. They're sick. And also, how could it be allergies? Still none of the changing of season, but none of the trees are starting.
Hank
It was nice on Monday. That's the thing. It was nice on Monday. And Tuesday. It was warm, and it got cold maybe some. I don't know. But I.
Dan
How do you get allergies when the trees aren't bu.
Max
Anytime the weather circ. Circulates, like, 25 degrees or 30 degrees back and forth, they're like, oh, it's the allergies. Changing the temperature.
Dan
Yeah, it's called spec. Allergies.
Max
It's called night and day.
Hank
I'm not blaming the allergies because I don't typically get.
Dan
You don't have aller. You're not allergic to anything. That's why you can't blame it. You're sick. But I just.
Hank
Yeah, I have some type of bug that has caused me to sneeze and, like, not sneeze once. It's like, when I sneeze, I sneeze, like, six times in a row, and I've had, like.
Max
You're sick.
Hank
Every hour or so.
Dan
You're sick.
Max
You're describing having a cold.
Hank
Yeah. So I got a cold.
Dan
Okay. Is that your fire vest?
Hank
That's my firefight. Well, like, you guys know when I sneeze, it's like, it's. It's violent and it's loud.
Max
It's worse than your Zach.
Hank
I mean, I was doing front of Zach, and he was like, what the is wrong with you? And it's like, there's nothing. I mean, we've said this before, but there's nothing worse than, like, sneezing is like, the worst thing that can happen to you sometimes it feels good.
Max
I like to sneeze, but what if you're.
Hank
When you sneeze and you don't have, like, a tissue or napkin snot rocket, and you're in front of someone and you just have to, like, sneeze, but then if you sneeze into your sweatshirt,
Max
it's like, oh, I hold it in. If I don't have something, I'll. I'll just straight up, like, plug my nose, you guys.
Hank
Yeah, no, my seas are way too powerful for that. You can't plug up, like, my brain, I think would explode if I tried to.
Dan
To.
Hank
To hold in that power.
Dan
Do you guys not rock it?
Hank
No.
Max
No.
Dan
I love snot rocking outside. It's great.
Hank
I don't really have. I don't have that in my arsenal.
Dan
Oh, it's. It's awesome.
Max
I'll miss it. Like, gets caught on your face.
Dan
You gotta really blow.
Max
Yeah, I really gotta let it have it.
Dan
Yeah, blow.
Zach
All right.
Dan
Pft.
Max
Feel better, Hank.
Dan
Yeah, feel better.
Max
We're all rooting for you.
Hank
Thanks.
Max
Get well soon. Appreciate it. My pretty good week for me this week. I did forget a birthday on April 1. I thought it was worse. I thought I forgot my dog Blake's birthday, but I got mixed up. It was actually Leroy's birthday on April 1, so happy retroactive birthday to Leroy, my dead dog. And then I also. I was actually just talking to Zach about this the other day, and before we came in here today, I decided that right now, if you've been watching the barstool State Farm basketball league that we've done, which has been a great series, I did. I pulled my calf on the first day of. Of warm ups and the first day of the games. And so I haven't really been able to exercise since then. And then when I started to do rehab on my calf, I pulled my other calf trying to exercise that. So I haven't been able to run. And I'm. I'm worried that I'm going to get really, really out of shape, even more so than I am right now. So I decided that would just start walking. I'm. I'm taking a page out of Frank the Tank's inspirational journey, and I'm going to try to get as many steps as I can in. One way to do that is with those, like, little walking pads. And I told. I. I told the fellas I was going to get one. And then your assistant Dom said, we actually have some that have been ordered that have never Been used. I was like, okay, let's get it set up. So Zach reminded me that I'm going to get it set up. The rule I came up for myself with is if I'm. If I'm scrolling, I'm strolling.
Dan
Oh.
Max
So I'm not going to let myself just mindlessly scroll through my phone.
Dan
Right.
Max
Unless I'm on the walking pad and I feel like that's gonna. My steps, they should be like easy. 10,000 a day, 12,000 a day. Like, I could check emails and stuff, but if I'm. If I'm scrolling, I'm strolling and.
Dan
But it's crying.
Max
It's really just started to. To occur to me how much strolling that's going to be a lot of stroll.
Hank
Like how many steps yesterday?
Max
Yesterday? 8,000 steps. 8,000. I forget the exact. I was strolling for a little bit, but I haven't got the pad set up. I just.
Dan
I got it.
Max
I strolled on my own. But I also. We did sit down and watch the baseball game yesterday for a little bit, and I was on my phone for that. But yeah, that's. If you look at your screen time. Just imagine if you took every second you were on your phone and you were walking somewhere. I feel like that's a great, crazy, great diet.
Dan
Yeah, I like it. I'll try it. I'm gonna get a couple pads set up, like randomly around the office.
Max
You're scrolling, you're strolling.
Hank
I'm trying to make a video right now. A compilation, I think. I literally didn't make a single shot in three games of the Barstool Basketball Association.
Max
Yeah, but you had that great block on Max.
Hank
I did that.
Dan
And also you don't take it that seriously. No. Right. So it doesn't matter.
Max
You made that layup against Katie.
Hank
I did make that.
Max
You yourself.
Hank
I made the layup.
Dan
Yeah, you yourself.
Hank
Well, I mean, I didn't like, bail out. I didn't pretend I was ready to go and then fake an injury like right when it started so I'd have to play.
Max
So at least I had that guy.
Hank
I wish at least I had that going for me.
Max
This is good, actually. This is progress because yesterday Hank told me that I was just retired from
Hank
all sports because my answers soccer thing, he's like, oh. I just. I'm not going to say it, cuz I. I support.
Dan
I know what you're going to say.
Max
Say it. Say it.
Hank
I support you.
Dan
I don't.
Max
I don't.
Hank
I don't want this to come. I don't want us to call less.
Dan
Just say it. He's injured a lot.
Max
This last year's been bad.
Memes
Never injured for golf. That's right.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
I didn't say that.
Hank
Max said that. Max said that.
Dan
It's true.
Max
That's. No, that's not true. My back was up during the Ryder cup last year.
Dan
Yeah, but you played.
Max
Yeah, played through it.
Dan
Right.
Max
But here's. Okay, here's what it comes down.
Dan
Else you're too in. You're in a wheelchair is like, literally.
Max
I was literally in a wheelchair with, with the calves both being pulled at the same time. And I, I told you guys, like, a year ago. Is it golfing?
Hank
Well, so it's like, I think it might.
Max
Whatever's.
Hank
Whatever you got going on, it's working.
Max
I think I said this on the show, like, a year ago for some reason, in the mornings when I wake up, both my calves have been super tight. That was like, a year ago. I started to notice it. Then I pulled one, like, four times. Then I pulled the other one when I was trying to recover from the first one. I'm deathly afraid that unless I do, like, months worth of physical therapy, that it's going to be the Achilles.
Dan
So why, why don't you do physical therapy?
Max
I have been doing that.
Dan
Oh, you have. You've been going to a physical therapist?
Max
I went to one physical therapist. I got the exercises, and then I'm doing those on my own. That's how physical therapy works usually.
Dan
I think if you're actually afraid, you should go see the physical therapist like, two or three times a week.
Max
Well, I went to the physical therapist, and they said, here are the exercises you can do. And then I'm doing all those exercises. But, Hank.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, you're, you're, you go to the
Memes
physical therapist once a week, and then you do those on your own throughout the week, and then you go back.
Max
I'm not gonna go, though. I, I, Yeah, you're surprised.
Memes
You're just, you're just, you're, you may well just looked on YouTube, like, how do I do.
Max
I got this. Which I might have done.
Dan
Yeah, yeah, there's. Did you actually see a physical therapist?
Max
No, I just looked up. I, I did it, but I did. On YouTube. Yeah, I, like, I had an appointment. No therapist on YouTube.
Dan
This is the part with injuries, like, because, I mean, I do the same thing as you, where I was like, I, I think I got. When I hurt my calf. You did do the same exact. Yeah, no, no, I'm saying I hurt my Cat. But I. I know that it won't be. I know that I'm going to. I should be going to a physical therapist. When I hurt my back, when I threw up my back, I went to a physical therapist three times a week for, like, two months. That was the only way it got better. You can't get better unless you just go.
Max
I do have an appointment.
Dan
I. I fully understand. I. Fuck. I did the exact same thing of just not going.
Max
I do have an appointment that I didn't go. Next Tuesday morning, I have an appointment with. With the back doctor.
Dan
Okay.
Max
So that's locked in. And then I'm doing the physical therapy that I got from the doctor that I basically saw online. And I've been doing those exercises, and I'm walking. But I know that if I play in the soccer thing, it's like, this would be a bad time to pop the Achilles.
Dan
Agreed. Yeah, agreed. Very bad. I don't think it's a good time.
Max
There's not never a good time. But I'm. And I think the fact that I'm thinking about it makes it more likely that it's going to happen. So I got to get the Cavs back to being strong again, and then I can do your little soccer tournament.
Dan
Tank, by the way, speaking of doctors, I think I. Have you guys ever seen a dermatologist?
Max
No.
Dan
My wife signed me up for that. I don't want to go. You got good.
Max
You got good skin.
Dan
I know, but they're going to be like. They're probably going to be like, don't go in the sun or something.
Memes
I still got to find a primary care doctor. I haven't had.
Dan
I got one. He's good.
Stanford Steve
Years.
Dan
I got one. He's good. He's good. Yeah, he's a nerd. Like, big time nerd.
Max
Good.
Memes
We need it.
Dan
Yeah, that's.
Memes
I. I want my.
Dan
He's the one who, like, was like, what do you do? Like, remember I told the story that he. He asked, like, how many drinks I have a week? And I was like, I actually don't really drink. And then I caught myself. I was like. But I used to, like, get up because I was like, I don't want to look like a loser. He's like, yeah, I don't. Why are you telling me this? He was very honest with me. It's good. I don't care. All right. My firefight. Ready for this, Hank?
Hank
Yeah.
Dan
It is true. Fire fest. So last week, we went down to Scottsdale. Awesome trip. We're gonna do it Again next year. It was great time. So, like, I was with my kids for 90% of the trip. Then we did the show. And then on Friday, I played nine holes with PFT and my friend. I enjoyed golfing on Friday. He did.
Max
He really did.
Dan
I'm scared.
Max
We had a really good time.
Dan
I actually enjoyed golfing, and that is my fire fest.
Hank
It's a fun sport.
Dan
Like, we had a. It was me, BFD and my good, good friend, and we had a good.
Max
Very good. We had a blast.
Dan
It sucks.
Max
We had such a good time. I. I feel bad even saying this, but since you. You brought it up in the fire fest, we started playing some holes in the back nine as the. As the college basketball games were tipping off.
Stanford Steve
I said it.
Dan
I said to pfd. I was like, hank would it. Because I had the. I had the game out. I was watching it.
Max
Yeah.
Dan
We were about the first five minutes of St. John's Duke. I was like, if Hank saw this, he would. Would. He would be killing me.
Hank
No, see, I. I'm. I'm. I'm supportive. Nothing but support.
Dan
Appreciate that.
Memes
This is. Yeah, this is Hank's. This is.
Dan
The fact that I was playing golf and enjoyed it is his dream. It's his last infinity stone. Me being like, hey, will you take me out golfing? I actually asked him to golf tomorrow. Yeah, because we're not scheduled. No. Yeah, because I have to go to Indy. But I was like, hey, maybe we'll find a. In my stupid brain. I was like, we'll find a course, like, halfway to. To Indianapolis. Stupid.
Max
Just stop on the way.
Dan
Yeah, it was stupid.
Zach
Okay, Zach, my firefights this week is. I think people on the Internet might just be too in on grammar. Too in on spelling. I've been attacked, unfortunately.
Dan
Spell protein.
Zach
We. We did this pro. All I have is pro. T I, N, E. I don't know. I don't have the other one.
Max
Wait. P, R, O, T, I, N, E. Yes.
Zach
Which is not correct. We just did this at the desk. That's not right. But I would. I don't. I don't have the other spelling.
Dan
Why are people attacking you?
Zach
It was. This is what happened.
Max
Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean you don't have the other spelling on you?
Dan
So I got the correct one. Matt, let Max tea this story. Okay. Go ahead, Max.
Memes
So we're sitting back here this morning. Zach shows me a bunch of replies to a comment that he had on Instagram. It was Gary Breca.
Dan
Tedx did a. Yeah, he did a
Memes
video of Himself throwing out a bunch of McDonald's being like, you don't need this. And Zach was like, I'm getting roasted by fitness people online right now. Because I said, what a waste to the. To this guy throwing out all these McDonald's. And it's bullshit. It's like everyone's roasting me because it's all just fitness guys. Memes pulls up the actual comment and he says, smh, what a waste. But spells it W A I S T. So no one is roasting him for his fitness. They are roasting him because he spelled it W A I S T. The
Zach
seed oil guys and the hydrogen water guys were coming after me and I just thought it was via them being fitness pilled. They knew waste was waste. That's one of the things I don't understand with spelling is. Or grammar is.
Hank
Were you trying to. Are you trying to smash.
Dan
When they read that, Can I see some of the replies?
Memes
They actually don't. Because in this scenario you could be talking about. Yeah, his weight.
Max
It could be a great compliment.
Memes
Those are two different things.
Stanford Steve
Yeah, you should.
Memes
You could be saying, wow, what a waste on Gary Brea.
Zach
That's a good point. Never mind. It sounds like I'm hitting on him now.
Dan
Complimenting his waist because he's throwing out the McDonald's.
Zach
That didn't click.
Hank
Damn.
Max
It is a double entendre. You actually sneaky made a great joke.
Dan
Oh, no.
Max
These people are being very mean to you.
Dan
Yeah, they are.
Zach
I just don't understand the oh, I
Dan
love this guy saying 1010 rage bait. Like, you did this on purpose.
Zach
That one felt good, but I didn't have the. I didn't have the courage to reply to me like, it was not on purpose.
Dan
Yeah, that was actually totally true. It was already.
Max
Oh, man, they are fitness pilled.
Dan
They're big time fitness build.
Zach
We've got a bunch of red light guys just going in on grammar.
Dan
Yeah, some of these guys are crazy, man. Like, they're just like, oh, yeah, alcohol is actually. No, I saw that. That. I think it was Grant Cardone, 10x. He was like, there's no good benefit to alcohol. It's like, okay, yeah, there is. What about, like hanging out with friends in college and partying and having a good time and like being able to talk to chicks.
Max
What about. What about getting drunk?
Dan
Yeah, that's.
Max
That's a pretty good orange right there.
Dan
Yeah. What about having a nice twisted tea on a backyard, Middle of July? Yeah. Fucking sick. Great times.
Max
A lot of benefits.
Dan
Love it. Good show. Hey, Are you guys streaming?
Memes
Zach, take the floor.
Zach
We're gonna be streaming on Friday.
Dan
What are you streaming or.
Zach
Me and Max gonna play the rewind game. We're gonna build a dynasty of vhs. Dynasty. We're gonna play retro rewind.
Max
You're opening a.
Memes
We're opening a video store virtually. And we're gonna start. Start this right after the act. We're gonna go for a couple hours. This is. This is the first week of the weekly Zach streams. I'm gonna join them tomorrow. We're gonna do it together.
Stanford Steve
It's gonna be funny on Zach.
Memes
Hop in the PMT YouTube chat.
Dan
Sign me up for. Probably not in the next two weeks, but after that, we still got to win with Oregon. We. That's. That's. We still owe a national title with Oregon.
Zach
It slipped away. It was right there. His fingertips.
Hank
I also just was playing fall guys before we did the show because it was up already on the computer, and I got to the final round and it said the graphics weren't updated for the final round and booted me.
Memes
That's a problem.
Hank
Yeah.
Max
Shane, are you wearing sweatpants?
Dan
I think he's mad. He's not looking.
Max
Put the cans on. He's not looking.
Hank
Yeah, he rolled his eye roll that. He just did. I know. The second I got brought up is what he did.
Max
Shane, are you wearing. Are you mad at us?
Dan
I'm wearing sweatpants. Are you mad at us? There's nothing sacred anymore.
Max
What? The credit to me.
Hank
I said I didn't want to do this and I wasn't gonna do it.
Dan
Credit to me. I did say we did go. Yeah, it was you. You were having fun with it on Friday night. Maybe not. H. You thought it was funny, and then you didn't think it was funny. Definitely didn't think it was funny. Pft. Got you the t. The tiramisu was awesome.
Max
No, you were very.
Dan
No, like, the move to get me tiramisu was awesome.
Memes
I don't.
Max
Well, I don't need. I don't need a pity. Thank you. No, but I don't know what you want from me.
Dan
Do you want me to be legit with my reviews, or do you want me to agree?
Max
No, I agree with that. Yes, I do. But don't say you enjoyed the tiramisu. I enjoyed the move, but, like, I could gesture.
Hank
It was a terrible order.
Dan
Yeah, I just. I want to be 100 real with these. I can't be a joke here, you know, for the tiramisu. No, this is not.
Max
This is the farthest thing from a
Dan
joke right now, Shane. For the tiramisu crawl, we will all wear sweatpants.
Memes
Fair.
Dan
I was gonna anyway. Yeah, yeah. We will all wear the same gray sweatpants.
Memes
And we. We probably will be going to nice restaurants.
Dan
Yeah, let's do it. Maybe we finish tisu crawl with the strip club as you're all puking up.
Max
Teru got a lot of lady fingers at the strip club.
Dan
Oh, yeah. All right. Good show, boys. Let's finish it off with numbers. 23, 3, 16.
Hank
Because Max Homa just missed a birdie on the 16th. 16.
Max
I'm gonna go with 90.
Memes
56.
Max
9, 0.
Zach
19, 10.
Dan
Max is 69. Very 10.
Max
Super 10.
Zach
99.
Stanford Steve
Oh, it's.
Hank
When you're in, it's magic. Imagine living where we were last week.
Memes
I got tan last week, and so. And someone asked if I was on the peptide tan.
Max
Oh.
Dan
Oh, yeah.
Memes
Which is an awesome compliment.
Max
Did you see that guy's. That guy's video?
Memes
What guy?
Max
The peptide tan guy.
Stanford Steve
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Memes
Someone sent it to me and it was.
Dan
And it was actually spider.
Memes
Spider sentence.
Max
It looks like it to me.
Memes
He was like, I know you're taking peptides. You looked really tan this week. Are you on the peptide?
Max
It looks like that. That picture of Hank.
Dan
35. 35, anyone? Anyone?
Memes
Anyone?
Dan
No? All right, let's do one more.
Hank
Gonna spread my wings.
Dan
23.
Memes
56.
Max
Sweet 16. 90.
Memes
Same number. Same again.
Hank
It's my chance.
Dan
Someone's getting it. Sweet 16. 73. 73. 73.
Memes
We just had 73, right?
Dan
Yeah.
Max
Numbers hot. The hottest in the world. Happy birthday to recurring guests of part of my take. Frank Kaminsky and Eric Andre.
Dan
Oh. Oh.
Max
Love you guys.
Memes
Also, Brandon Graham.
Dan
Happy birthday, Amanda Bynes.
Max
I'm retracting the.
Dan
Brandon, what is Frank's birthday?
Max
No, no. Happy birthday. What is Frank.
Memes
Happy birthday.
Max
Well, you can't.
Memes
Why are you being so rude to Brandon Graham?
Max
This is me and memes segment.
Dan
Yeah. When is Frank's birthday?
Memes
Well, memes. Brandon Graham.
Max
Wait, April, wait.
Dan
Oh, no.
Max
I think I looked up the wrong. It's.
Stanford Steve
It's Saturday.
Max
It's April 4th. Right.
Hank
Okay, so it's April 3rd.
Max
I know, I know. This show's remarkable how bad you are.
Dan
April 4th.
Max
I think I'm allowed to wish Frank Kaminsky a happy birthday on Saturday on a Friday episode of part of my team.
Dan
You're a joke, but I agree.
Max
Thank you. Memes with Hank.
Dan
Oh, man, that was good.
Max
When is Amanda Bynes birthday?
Zach
Third.
Dan
Same with Eddie Murphy and Al Balw. Oh, man. Frank Goodall. It is.
Max
It's. It's April 4th. It's not April 3rd. I'm sorry that I'm a day early.
Memes
Brando.
Max
Let hey, let me be the first to wish Frank Kaminsky and Eric Andre happy birthday. Love you guys.
Memes
Oh, Robin. Adam Scott. Oh, there's a bunch of birthdays today.
Dan
Adam Scott.
Memes
Yeah.
Max
Oh, and Luke mccaffrey. Happy birthday to Luke mccaffrey.
Stanford Steve
We already got.
Dan
Audio's going. Audio's going.
Stanford Steve
All right.
Max
Yeah, keep that in. Happy birthday. Luke McCaffrey looked up the wrong date. I am. I'm terrible at this. I'm trying.
Memes
All right, we're keeping it. All right, we're keeping it now.
Max
Every day I try.
Dan
Hi.
Max
I love you guys.
Dan
Hey.
Zach
Love you guys.
Dan
Love you guys. It.
Date: April 2, 2026
Hosts: Big Cat, PFT Commenter, Max, Hank, Memes, Zach
Guest: Stanford Steve
This episode of Pardon My Take dives headfirst into Final Four weekend, exploring both the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments, current drama with the Philadelphia Eagles (specifically Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown), and the barstool hosts' usual blend of banter, sports analysis, and offbeat humor. The episode features an in-depth Final Four preview with guest Stanford Steve, fiery debates on NFL rumors, plenty of actual sports insight, and the traditional “Fyre Fest of the Week” segment to close it out.
"There are some people in that still work for the Eagles...that authorized a hatchet job against their starting quarterback." – Max (06:24)
“If you look on a lot of headlines on Twitter, it says Jalen Hurts made the call for four verts. He agreed to it, but he didn’t change the call at the line.” (07:32)
“At best case scenario, you have some massive leak problems. Worst case, it’s a coordinated attack to justify moving on from Hurts.” (09:33)
“They're at a crossroads...let's see what happens with Jalen Hurts.” (14:04)
“He has now made—if he plays out this contract—$343 million in his NFL career. Absolute legend.” – Big Cat (18:24)
“I feel like this is a very funny thing...but also in Las Vegas, the city that's like least—it’s the least Kirk Cousins city in North America.” – Big Cat (19:43)
“Far be it for me to tell him he’s wrong, like, try to play.” (20:39)
“People are watching. We are in a golden age of Duke choking.” – PFT (37:19)
Key KenPom & Stat Notes:
UConn vs. Illinois
“UConn, when they get out of conference, is completely different...I think they're super dangerous.” (68:08)
Arizona vs. Michigan
General Takeaways:
“I think America is the real winner. That's my take.” – Hank (36:39)
“That’s why you don’t go on social media...you have to take a breather, it’s part of the grieving process.” (54:50)
“When I sneeze, it’s violent and loud...I have some type of bug.”
“This is wildly disrespectful to Jalen Hurts...it’s a fucked up situation he’s got.” — Max (10:55)
“If I were an Eagles fan, the things I would be worried about from this article...it’s more about massive leak problems—or it’s a coordinated attack.” — Big Cat (09:33)
“I always expect the worst, even being a Duke fan. The whole second half...I’m just sitting there thinking: how’s this going to be bad?” — Stanford Steve (52:14)
“Remember the old Patrick Roy quote? ‘I can’t hear you, I’ve got too many rings in my ears.’ That’s me right now with Duke.” — Big Cat (54:58)
“These are two of the best teams in a long, long time to be matched up in a Final Four.” — Big Cat on Arizona/Michigan (24:28)
“When you magnify things down for what UConn has done, it’s absolutely incredible.” — Stanford Steve (60:26)
“I think the winner of UConn-Illinois could for sure win the national championship. The problem is — you gotta win this one.” — Stanford Steve (69:29)
“Just say ‘fuck you, buddy’ to him…send it.” – Big Cat (13:39)
“How greedy are you? ... multiple banners!” – Reciting a Duke podcast (62:41)
As always, the PMT hosts mix sharp sports insights with unfiltered, irreverent humor and deeply loyal sports-fan energy. Personal anecdotes, extended riffing (especially on sports media tropes and fashion faux pas), and pop culture references abound. The episode is both a deep-dive sports commentary and a “hang out with the boys”—fun, self-deprecating, and designed for the true sports diehard (or those who want to feel like one).
This episode delivers heavy Final Four breakdowns, a real-time diagnosis of Philly sports chaos, a Duke fan’s postmortem, and all the mishaps and triumphs of Barstool personalities. Standout guest Stanford Steve brings signature wit and expertise, capping an episode that’s part sports symposium, part group therapy for fans everywhere.