Tony Kornheiser (2:40)

Yeah, I agree with all of that. I loved Pasquintino. I loved the three home runs. I loved what he said. You know, you're welcome. USA Most of all, though, Mike, what I love was that after every home run, because I watched this game, after every home run, he went over to the espresso machine in the Italian dugout, had a cup of espresso. I think I have this right. I think when you hit a home run, you put on a sport jacket because it gives you a sense of sophistication. And then you drink the espresso and then they hug each other. And that is so much more sophisticated. So much better than spitting sunflower seeds at one another.

Mike Wilbon (3:18)

Yeah.

Tony Kornheiser (3:19)

So he hit home runs last night.

Mike Wilbon (3:20)

We're scratching.

Tony Kornheiser (3:21)

He hit home runs last night in the second and the sixth and the eighth. He basically won the game by himself. But he hadn't had a hit in the entire tournament prior to that. And I got to thinking, because he's a slugger, he had 32 home runs for the Royals and 113RBI. I was wondering, did he think he should be on the United States team? But they've got. He's first baseman, and they've got Bryce Harper and Paul Goldschmidt, and they're not Italian, so they couldn't have. They couldn't have slipped and gone somewhere else. Yeah, you mentioned that the United States gets Canada next. I don't know if we can win the tournament, but that's yet another sport in which the United States is playing Canada. In the last three or four weeks, we've seen this a lot. And then if we win, we get Korea or the Dominican Republic. I will say this. I found Mark Derosa, pointed to his own clubhouse some time back and said, honestly, We've got the 30 best ballplayers in the world in that clubhouse. I'm going, whoa, hold on a second.

Mike Wilbon (4:17)

Maybe hold on a second.

Tony Kornheiser (4:18)

Are you telling me that Shohei Atani and Juan Soto are not in the 30 best? Come on.

Rich Eisen (4:23)

Come on.

Mike Wilbon (4:23)

I don't know about that either, Tony.

Tony Kornheiser (4:25)

Yeah.

Mike Wilbon (4:26)

By the way, did we beat Canada in curling? How'd that turn out? I've forgotten.

Tony Kornheiser (4:29)

Anyway, I don't know about curling. Beat him in hockey.

Mike Wilbon (4:32)

You know, let's move to Max Crosby's first public comments since the Ravens backed out of their trade for him last night. The All Pro pass rusher. Posted quote, I'm a Raider. I'm back. Run that bleep. Close quote. Tone, do you expect Crosby to remain a Raider?

Tony Kornheiser (4:52)

No, I don't. I think that in the next few days and weeks, I think the Raiders are going to listen to a lot of teams, come up with offers. I think they're going to find one of them acceptable and they're going to trade them. But if they want them to stay, that's fine. They just went out and spent a lot of money on free agents. They are a better team now. They're a better team now than they were when they were negotiating this trade. Plus they have the number one overall pick, which we assume will be Fernando Mendoza, who's going to get tutored by. Hello, Tom Brady couldn't get much better tutoring than that. So if they want to keep Crosby, he's a great player, I'm with that. But no, I don't. I don't actually think that's what's going to happen. I just want to circle back to the Ravens for a second because they too, on the field, they too are a better team than when they started with this trade because they've got Trey Hendrickson and they've got both number one draft picks. So they're better on the field. I don't know if they're better off the field. I don't know how other teams in the league now view the Baltimore Ravens. I think it is fair to question whether they were ever truly going to go through with this trade or if they just backed off as a matter of convenience. So I sort of wonder about that. I know there's a lot of talk among agents. I don't want to do deals with the Baltimore Ravens because, Mike, in the last few months or maybe even few weeks, you know, they got rid of a very popular head coach in John Harbaugh and they reneged on a deal for an all pro player.

Mike Wilbon (6:20)

It's very secondary to me how people view the Ravens, how they going to view Max Crosby because another team said, no, you're damaged goods. And so that's what matters to me. Max Crosby is going to be a Raider because nobody else is going to offer a one and a one. I doubt anybody's going to offer a one and a two. People forget Tony. We should have known. There should have been more examination of this. Late in the season, Max Crosby stopped playing. Why? And what was the result of that going to be? And so these things, when they involve knees and meniscuses, they don't just go away. And so other people don't just get blamed. There's stuff that's happened, I'm familiar, you know, a Couple of my famous athletes, my favorite athletes of my life, one of them, Derrick Rose, whose career was never the same after Manisca issue. Never the same. Okay, so, no, I think teams are going to not look at the Ravens. Don't look at the Ravens, look at Max Crosby and. And. And wonder. You have to get an honest assessment out of what's up. And maybe you leave him there. I hope he can be Max Crosby and be great wherever he is. It looks like to me, that's going to be with the Raiders and not necessarily somebody else.

Tony Kornheiser (7:37)

So you just. You tossed them off the Bears three weeks ago. You wanted a minority.

Mike Wilbon (7:42)

No, I told you, I'm giving up a one and a two. I told you that before. We got the news on the knee. Not a one and a two. And $30 million. No.

Tony Kornheiser (7:51)

How about a one? How about a one? We turn to Kyler Murray, the biggest shoe yet to drop in free agency. According to the NFL Network, Murray is in Minnesota to talk to the Vikings. But the NFL Network also reports that Murray plans to have a conversation with three to five other teams. Wilbon, circling back to Minnesota here, would you have confidence in a pairing of Kyler Murray and Kevin o'? Connell?

Mike Wilbon (8:14)

No, No, I can have. And they're both not just competent. I mean, OConnell's had some great success with Minnesota. Kyler Murray has had flashes. But it's not about that. It's about this presumption, and there was far too many of it on too many networks last year that cover football, including this one, including from the mouths of very smart people, that o' Connell was just going to whisper in the ear of this kid from Michigan, and they were going to go on and win 14 games again. See, that was wrong. I don't hear enough oops. I was wrong. When these things are wrong, that was just dumb wrong. And so they got it wrong with the kid from Michigan. They drafted him in the top in the first round. A lot of us thought, who watch Big Ten football religiously, why are they doing this? What is he shown? And it turns out that after two years, now only one year of actual playing time, they're trying to distance themselves from him. So they got it wrong. So the quarterback whisperer must not be able to whisper to everybody because he would whisper to the guy they drafted.

Tony Kornheiser (9:24)

Yeah, well, what. What McCarthy had shown them was he was the quarterback on a national championship team. And so they were intrigued by that.

Mike Wilbon (9:31)

Which means what? What does it mean?

Tony Kornheiser (9:33)

I don't know what it means, but we're going to Find out next year with the Raiders, we're going to find out with them, too. That's what's attractive about certain quarterbacks. I don't know Kevin o' Connell from Kevin Garnett. What I do know about him is that he was the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams and he worked for Sean McVay, who people know is your new best friend ever since you had lunch with Duke. Love him. And there are a group of quarterback geniuses out there, offensive geniuses. Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan and Liam Cohn and Mike McDaniel and Matt LaFleur. And Kevin OConnell's name is mentioned among

Mike Wilbon (10:10)

them all the time.

Tony Kornheiser (10:10)

So if the question is, would I have confidence, Would I have confidence in his pairing, my answer is similar to yours, and my answer is not necessarily. Not necessarily. And I love Kyler Murray. He's the most exciting player in the world to watch. But I'm not certain he was with, you know, an offensive guru, Cliff Kingsley.

Mike Wilbon (10:30)

Yes, he was.

Tony Kornheiser (10:31)

It didn't work out that well. His record in Minnesota was 38, 411 and 1428 in the second half of seasons. So I'm, I'm not certain about this. And again, I think it's probably a good spot for Murray. And, and, and I think Murray has talent. But also, Mike, when I look at Kyler Murray, I still see in my mind a baseball player. I do. I'm not certain, you know, and o' Connell's done well with Darnold and he's

Mike Wilbon (11:01)

done well with cousin.

Tony Kornheiser (11:04)

Not that well with McCarthy. You're right about that. Let's take a break. Coming up, Miami of Ohio takes its first loss of the season today. What's the word for that?

Mike Wilbon (11:13)

A top ranked Duke gets his first test without two significant contributors tonight. So what does he got? A cauliflower ear? You can't whisper in J.J. mcCarthy's ear. What? Cause he had one great quarter against the Bears in his first division. Everybody had him in the hall of Fame.

Tony Kornheiser (11:31)

That division has four offensive coaches. That division has all the great offensive coaches, right?

Mike Wilbon (11:39)

Yeah.

Tony Kornheiser (11:39)

Well, Campbell and Your Guy and LaFleur, they're.

Mike Wilbon (11:43)

Blame it on the scouting. Then what went wrong? What happened?

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Tony Kornheiser (12:56)

Time to get down and wordy with Wilbon. What's first?

Mike Wilbon (12:59)

Previously unbeaten Miami of Ohio's loss to UMass today was blank.

Tony Kornheiser (13:06)

It's nothing. That's my word. Nothing. They are still going to be in the tournament. This is the drama of this is past us. It doesn't really matter. They're going to go in maybe instead of 32 and oh, they're going to go 31 and 1. They're still going to have the best record of any school in the tournament. I mean, I guess we should have and could have seen this coming. Mike Their last three games they won by two, by two and by two in overtime. So I guess, I guess that they were due for a loss. But what is the net result of this? The net result is a Mid American conference is going to get two bids and consequently some 11th or 12th seed in a large conference that's waiting on the bubble to get in is not going to get in. And I don't think that's the worst thing that ever happened. I mean, the magic is gone from Miami of Ohio and I suspect their seed will drop. I suspect that they'll go from an 8 or 9 to an 11 or a 12. But they're still in the tournament.

Mike Wilbon (14:05)

They are. Tone but my word is mind changing. Whose mind might it change? Mine. I spent the last two weeks saying Miami of Ohio is in. They've already earned it. And that seems to have been the case. They already earned it. Yes, but then, but then, Tony, I think what happened here with this loss and we can see it coming not just because of the scores but because it was probably wearing them down. Those kids probably never dreamt they'd be on an undefeated team into mid March and it probably just wore them down to a frazzle. Now I'm hoping this loss will just release them because I'm rooting for them. But if you're out there watching and you're a casual fan and you're saying, wait a minute, should this team have been in any way this loss could be mind changing. And so it annoyed me. I'm still rooting for him, but. But it annoyed me they dropped this game.

Tony Kornheiser (15:07)

Yeah, I got to be honest, I could see them going out in the first round by a substantial margin. Now I'm rooting for. I could. I don't want it, but I could. Let's see what's next.

Mike Wilbon (15:17)

Tonight's ACC tournament opener against Florida State will be blank for Duke.

Tony Kornheiser (15:24)

My word is uncertain. Duke has been an eight man team all year and now they are a six man team because they have lost two starters, Caleb Foster and Patrick Gungba. They're out. They were giving Duke 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. They were giving Duke the third and fourth most moments on the squad, most minutes rather on the squad. And they were the third and fourth leading scorers. And you know, they don't have anybody on the bench that can replace them. If they had a better bench, they'd have used more people. To this point, I don't think it has any meaning at all with Florida State because this game doesn't matter. Duke's going to be a 1 seed no matter what happens in this tournament. But it could have a lot of meaning in the second week of the NCAA tournament because they're not. I don't think they go into the bench. I think they ask their other players to play more minutes. I think that's how they solve it.

Mike Wilbon (16:19)

We're going to have what we call honest disagreement here. So my word is scrimmaging. And it's scrimmaging for two reasons. One, because like you said, the Florida State game in and of itself means nothing. So it's like a scrimmage. You're going to go out there. We're going to. Here's what we're going to concentrate on tonight, fellas. But Toni is also like scrimmaging because Duke has to find something else and they do have to go down the bench. And they can go down the bench. And Jon Shire is a hell of a coach. We haven't talked about him much because he's still living in the glow of the coach, Mike Krzyzewski. And so we don't talk about Josh. He's a Chicago boy and I pay attention to sort of what he does and how he does it and who he's got on his team, who he's got on his bench. And Duke does have a bench. And this is next man up time. People talk about it, but they're not about it. Duke can actually do something about it. Jon knows who those people are and how to get them ready, and I think he's going to have to get them ready. Like you said, not for this tournament before the next one after round one, but scrimmaging because the result doesn't matter. But what they're looking at does.

Tony Kornheiser (17:30)

Do you think John Shire went to high school with your mother and Red Fox? I'm just asking. I don't know. That'll have to be the final word. Let's take one last break. Still to come, one of the hottest players in golf sees his Players Championship end early.

Mike Wilbon (17:45)

The big matchup between the Celtics and Thunder doesn't feel so big anymore.

Tony Kornheiser (17:52)

No, because a lot of people aren't playing. You know what I suspect, Mike? I suspect the Celtics feel in their hearts they can beat this team. Why waste it before the playoffs? They were very close until Jaylen Brown got thrown out. They were ahead by two points with the other team in San Antonio.

Mike Wilbon (18:08)

We're going to have to wait till the playoffs for everything. The NBA just wastes our time. The NBA mostly wastes people's time until mid April, but only for six months to be great.

Tony Kornheiser (18:20)

It's not like it's a long time. It's only six months. Why?

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Tony Kornheiser (20:59)

Happy time people. Happy 47th birthday. Ryan Day, the Ohio State football coach, won the national championship in 2024 and at any other school that would be good enough. But Day has a 24 record against that school up north, so there are always some yahoos and Columbus seeking to get rid of them. Day is 82 and 12 at Ohio State, 55 and 5 in the Big Ten. Consider those numbers for a second. Day started out as a record setting quarterback at the University of New Hampshire, where his offensive coordinator was Chip Kelly, who later rejoined him at Ohio State. Along the way, Day coached at Boston College, Florida, Temple and in the NFL at Philadelphia and San Francisco. Day was on staff at Ohio State when Urban Meyer left and Day succeeded him.

Mike Wilbon (21:47)

Tony of those five Big Ten losses, four are to the School of New. It's sort of a blemish, but there's no question he has had a great is having a great run at Columbus and you got to ignore the fools who want to question with any loss whether he should be fired. Just get off the stage.

Tony Kornheiser (22:07)

It's an astonishing record.

Mike Wilbon (22:09)

Thankful you got it.

Tony Kornheiser (22:10)

Astonishing.

Mike Wilbon (22:11)

Yeah.

Tony Kornheiser (22:11)

Happy anniversary. BYU and Western Kentucky around this day 14 years ago, the Cougars pulled off the biggest comeback in NCAA Tournament history on a memorable first four night in Dayton. BYU rallied from 25 down to beat Ione in the play in game, breaking Duke's old record of coming back from 22 down to beat Maryland in the national semifinals in 2001. BYU's rally was the second big turnaround that night in Dayton. With President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron in the stands. West Western Kentucky came back from a 16 point deficit in the final five minutes to beat Mississippi Valley State 59 58. Well, you think Jerry Rice got 44 of those tickets?

Mike Wilbon (22:54)

What do you think could have I you would hope that Jerry Rice might have been in attendance watching Mississippi Valley State. Those Dayton games. I'm at first I was always like ah but they've grown on they're pretty good grown on me over they're pretty

Tony Kornheiser (23:08)

good half yeah they are. They're pretty good. Happy trails to last night's game for the Timberwolves. Minnesota lost its third straight last night, this one by 25 to the Clippers. Kawhi had 45 points. The win is the Clippers sixth in seven games puts them at 33. 32 after starting the season six. 21. This apparently makes the Clips the first team in NBA history to move above.500 after falling at least 15 games under.500 in the same season. And the recent success comes after they traded James Harden to the Cavaliers.

Mike Wilbon (23:43)

It's a nice run. They're not tanking. And the question becomes though, could you see them in a series beating if they played in beating either Oklahoma City or San Antonio? And the answer is no, you can't. So nice. What they're doing is admirable.

Tony Kornheiser (24:03)

I would have said they would have no chance without James Harden. I'm surprised at this. I have to say I am surprised at this. Let's go to the big finish. Jason Tatum out for Celtics Thunder tonight. Your thoughts?

Mike Wilbon (24:16)

This is not a surprise. You didn't think Jayson Tatum was going to go Cal Ripken right out of the gate after coming back from, you know, a serious injury like that. So just expect it. Colin Morikawa withdrew from the players after tweaking his back this morning. I love Mor. Aren't you disappointed?

Tony Kornheiser (24:35)

Yeah, he had finally won after about three or four years of not winning. He won at Pebble. He looked to be having a really good year. BYU and number five Houston in the Big 12 quarters tonight. Who you got?

Mike Wilbon (24:46)

I got the banter anytime I can see him. But Houston, Tony Houston, I think Houston still a real threat. Capitals at the red hot Sabres tonight. Will Buffalo win its 9th straight?

Tony Kornheiser (24:58)

It's very hard for me to pick against the Washington Capitals, my hometown team now. But Buffalo's only two points out of first in the conference. Buffalo's real good. Last one. Northwestern at 18th ranked Purdue tonight. Are you smelling upset?

Mike Wilbon (25:11)

See, I'm wearing purple. I'm going to the United Center. I'm going to be loud behind the bench. Loud as his voice will allow. We almost beat Purdue. A week could go. It wouldn't be out of the question. It's gonna be a tough game, but it was not out of the question.

Tony Kornheiser (25:26)

You'll have no voice at all on Monday. We're out of time. We'll try and do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

Mike Wilbon (25:31)

I'm Mike Wilbott. I'll till Monday. Knuckleheads. Shout out Corey Billups. We still sound terrible.

Rich Eisen (25:37)

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