Tony Kornheiser (2:32)

Yeah. No. Yes. I watched the Canadian game, that last power play that was incredibly exciting. It looked like Canada had 80 shots on goal and somehow Couldn't get it in until McKinnon got that. So they score with just two seconds left in the power play and just 35 seconds left in the entire game. I mean, they have. Canada has cut it close a couple of times now.

Mike Wilbon (3:01)

Yes, Canada.

Tony Kornheiser (3:02)

If Canada invented high. It's their sport. It's their national sport. If they hadn't gotten in to the Winter Olympics gold medal game, I think there's a sense of mourning in all of Canada. But they made it and it was truly exciting. I thought. I really did. Can I just mention one other thing, Mike? I watch the Olympics, as you know, every day. I watch in the morning and I watch in the early afternoon. And curling is on every single day.

Mike Wilbon (3:27)

That's a lot.

Rich Eisen (3:28)

Yeah.

Tony Kornheiser (3:28)

When does curling end? When does it end? Are they going to play the gold medal game in August? Where do they get these brooms? They are out there hours every day. Curling every day.

Mike Wilbon (3:40)

Tony, of course, you and I have covered multiple Winter Olympics each. And the curling. We would go to the curling. You or I would go to the curling.

Tony Kornheiser (3:49)

It's fun.

Mike Wilbon (3:49)

And our colleagues remember, they would get angry. They're like, what are you doing? You're wasting our time.

Tony Kornheiser (3:55)

It's fun.

Mike Wilbon (3:55)

You're going to the curling. You couldn't find it on television. And now, like you, I turn on Peacock and the slash on my screen, is curling enough?

Tony Kornheiser (4:07)

It is possible that they are showing reruns of curling from another Olympiad because it's on all the time.

Mike Wilbon (4:15)

It is on all the time. I enjoyed it when I was there. But let's not get crazy. Let's move instead to Adam Silver's attempt to quash tanking. The NBA commissioner told the league's general managers yesterday he plans to implement new anti tanking rules for next season. Among the possibilities, fewer protections when trading draft picks, freezing the lottery odds at the trade deadline, or even flattening the odds for all lottery teams. Tone, which of any of these proposals resonate with you?

Tony Kornheiser (4:48)

I'm gratified that the NBA is going to try and get rid of tanking. I believe that tanking is a much more serious problem than you do. A much more serious problem than load management, which occurs occasionally 10 or 12 times a year. Tanking occurs every night, all 82 games. When a team is trying to lose like that, I think it cuts to the heart of the integrity of each of those games. Cuts to the heart of the integrity of the league. I think it creates a fraud when you buy a ticket and I think it destroys that thing which makes sports Great. Which is honest competition. The Washington Wizards have tried to lose for three straight years. Utah, Sacramento, who else is trying to tank a lot of teams. Brooklyn is trying to tank. Dallas is trying to tank. Milwaukee now is trying to tank your team. Chicago traded its entire team and they are trying to tank. Memphis traded Jaren Jackson Jr. And John Morant doesn't play and they're trying to tank. Indiana can't win. New Orleans, if they had a draft pick would be tanking. They just stink. So I'm glad that this is in the center of the discussion. There's two things that I like, Mike, because you have to get at the reward. One would be you cannot have a top four pick in consecutive years. I would vote for that. And another would be I'd flatten the odds out completely on the lottery. I wouldn't give an advantage to somebody who lost the most games. I'd make sure all lottery teams, you know, were in there. I think you have to deincentivize tanking and go to the reward area.

Mike Wilbon (6:19)

It was flat to start with Tony. Then they unflattened so they go. So you unflatten, so you go back. So you just hip hop back and forth so you can get a nice appearance. This is about appearances and it stinks. I don't like tanking either. But if you're thinking that load management happens 10 to 12 times a year. You not watching the same sport I'm watching. It happens every damn night somewhere every night 10 to 12 times a year. What if you freeze the positioning at the lottery just means you can tank all your games early. These things are for show. They're stupid and they will not work. And if you want to get rid of tanking, you better get rid of a draft. Because if you have a draft, any sport and you say when Banyama is at the top of the damn draft then I'm going to tank to get him. And anything other than that is a phony lie. It's a lie and I would. I don't care who the commissioner talks

Tony Kornheiser (7:20)

to because what I'm saying I would prevent you from tanking. I would work a system that prevents you from tanking because it calls into question the integrity of the entire league. Let's stay with the NBA and let's talk about two young and up and coming teams who had big wins. Last night the Pistons once again beat the Knicks. Their third victory over the Knicks so far this season. Closing out that series three nothing. Last night Detroit won at Madison Square Garden by 15 points and they were without all star center Jalen Duran and his backup Isaiah Stewart. And the spurs beat Phoenix by 27 points as Devin Booker only played nine minutes for the Suns. And Dillon Brooks, you boy was serving a suspension. Wilbaugh, who had the more impressive win, the Pistons or the Spurs?

Mike Wilbon (8:01)

Yeah, Spurs. Nice job out of you. Go have some cold cuts. The New York Knicks. We signed off this show yesterday that was screaming louder than I just was in the tanking segment. The Knicks had better win and they better win convincingly. Instead they get their doors blown off in Madison Square Garden by a team missing its second best player and his backup. What? They're missing all their muscle and Cade Cunningham goes in there and basically points his finger in the chest or face of of every New York Knick. Tony, the Knicks can't beat them. I know the Knicks had a similar situation with Boston last year and they were still able to come back and flip it in the playoffs. I don't see that the Detroit Pistons are for real.

Tony Kornheiser (8:54)

I don't want to let you off the hook quite this easily. I want to go back to yesterday's segment in anticipation of this game when you said, and I'm directly quoting you here, the Knicks had better win this game. They had better win this game. And then you thought they should win by 20 points. And I believe I asked you, well, what happens if they don't win? Well, I woke up this morning and the world was still spinning and the Knicks had lost. So nothing terrible happened. The Knicks. The Knicks have now lost by 84 points in three games to Detroit by 31, by 38 and last night at home by 15. The Knicks look like a D3 team against Detroit. There's no reason to ever believe that Detroit won't beat them in. Except that last year Detroit beat him three out of four in the series and then lost to him in the playoffs rendering useless. What happened last night? Let's take a break. Still to come, Michigan and Duke face each other tomorrow. We will ask Jay Bilis what he will be looking for.

Mike Wilbon (9:53)

We'll also ask him how tank worthy this upcoming draft class really is. Are you surprised that the Knicks got their doors blown off like that?

Tony Kornheiser (10:02)

Yes.

Mike Wilbon (10:03)

In the garden.

Tony Kornheiser (10:03)

Yes. But I'm happy. I'm happy to be able to quote you saying the Knicks had better win.

Mike Wilbon (10:09)

I quoted me. I quoted me from yesterday before. You did.

Tony Kornheiser (10:14)

Yeah, but you didn't give it the emphasis. You didn't. You didn't do the acting job today that you did yesterday.

Mike Wilbon (10:20)

Tony. 84 minus 84 in three games.

Tony Kornheiser (10:24)

Ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

Rich Eisen (10:27)

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Tony Kornheiser (12:10)

We have a couple of huge matchups in college basketball this weekend, which makes it the perfect time for a visit from our great friend, the dashing ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilis. You are in Washington, D.C. tomorrow is number one Michigan against number three Duke. That's a big time. Get your popcorn ready. Deal. What are you looking to find out from this game?

Jay Bilas (12:34)

Well, if Michigan is every bit as powerful as I think they are, Tony, like Michigan I think is the best team. I think Michigan and Arizona have been vying for that throughout the year. Arizona has a couple of injuries right now, but Michigan has been as close to a juggernaut in college basketball as we've seen in a while. They've got tremendous size across the front line and I think it's only Michigan And Florida vying for best front line in the country. And they cover up the rim. You know, only 20% of the shots that are taken against them are around the rim. That's how good they are. And they've got depth. They've got five guys that average in double figures. And they've got Yaxel Lendeborg, a transfer from uab. Last year there were two players that led their teams all year long in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks. One was Cooper Flagg of Duke and the other was Yaxel Lundeborg of uab and he's in the player of the year conversation with Cameron Boozer. I think Boozer is ahead, but Yaxel Lindeborg is the real deal.

Mike Wilbon (13:39)

You mentioned Arizona, Jay, which is a perfect transition to talking about them. Fourth ranked Arizona of course at second ranked Houston. Arizona's lost two of three while Houston just lost to Iowa State. Are you seeing any advantage there? Another huge matchup. You leaning either way?

Jay Bilas (14:00)

Well, I think the advantage has to go to Houston. One, Arizona is a little banged up. They have an eight man rotation and two of their rotation players are going to be out, including a starter in their second leading scorer, Koa Pete, who had 30 points in the opening game of the season when Arizona played and beat defending national champion Florida. Pete's going to be back relatively soon and they've got another player in their top eight, Dwayne Aristote, who can really shoot at lengthy, lengthy wing who's got an illness and he'll be out for a little while. So they're down to a six man rotation and that's going to be really difficult, especially playing against a team like Houston that is really good at home and great defensively. So I think it's going to be really important for Arizona to handle the traps, the post double teams that Houston throws at you and they've got Kingston Flemings who is one of the not only best freshmen, one of the best players in the country and a guy who had 42 points at Texas Tech a couple weeks ago.

Mike Wilbon (14:58)

On any given night, of course we are all aware of Arizona and Houston have been the whole season. Let's go to the other end of the spectrum. Miami of Ohio, undefeated at 26 and O.J. yet there are people talking about them being on the bubble. If that happens, I am going to encourage a boycott of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. This can't be serious, can it?

Jay Bilas (15:24)

Well, yeah, because it's difficult. You know, Miami is a really good team and do I think they're worthy of inclusion into the NCAA field as an at large team. I do. They can beat a lot of people, but they haven't played a schedule that has given them a whole lot of resistance. Now, I give a lot of credit to just winning and they're 26 0, but if you look at the metrics, they're ranked, you know, below the top 70among other teams. Because not only just sort of their, their like kenpom.com metrics, but the fact that they haven't played a very challenging schedule, part of that is maybe their league hasn't offered as much resistance as maybe it normally would. Travis Steele, their coach, is an outstanding basketball coach, has said publicly it's really hard for them to get games. Nobody will play them. He's saying that may be true, maybe not. I think they could have done better. But if they were to lose in the semifinals of their conference tournament, I could see a scenario where the NCAA tournament selection committee would say, wait a minute, this team we have to put in before them. And they could wind up at the end of the line. The best thing for any team, major or mid major, is win your automatic bid and take it out of the committee's hands. If you don't do that. And every, every team in the country has the ability to do their peers in their own conference. If you don't do that, you go in the pool with everybody else. And, and I think if they, if they only lose one game, that being in their conference tournament, I think they'll still get in.

Tony Kornheiser (16:59)

You don't want to get Wilbourne started. If you go anywhere near analytics and metrics, Wilbur's head will blow up. You don't want to do that. Let me get you out of here on this. This is a far afield story. The NBA says it wants to crack down on tanking, which I applaud. How tank worthy, though, is this year's draft class?

Jay Bilas (17:20)

It's as tank worthy as I can remember. This freshman class, which is going to dominate this year's NBA draft in the first round, is as deep and talented as I can remember. Like, we oftentimes have great players at the top, but we hardly ever have this kind of depth where you can go 20 deep saying, man, this dude's a starter in the NBA in the future and maybe even a star. That's possible with a lot of these guys. And you combine that with the fact that next year's freshman class and the one that's coming after that are not as highly regarded as this one and certainly you've seen NBA teams say, hey, you know, it's worth us getting in there. We need to get in there. So this is going to be a great draft and like I look forward to every draft, but this is one I'm really looking forward to. We just haven't seen a freshman class like this in a long, long time. And the number of 40 point games these freshmen are putting up. Darius Acuff Jr. Of Arkansas just put up 49 the other night. We've had multiple players put up 40 point games and you don't see that very often.

Tony Kornheiser (18:28)

Thank you Jay. Enjoy the game tomorrow.

Mike Wilbon (18:30)

Thank you. Appreciate it, man.

Jay Bilas (18:33)

Thank you guys.

Tony Kornheiser (18:35)

Catch more of Jay on college game day tomorrow morning starting at 10 Eastern. Let's take one last break. Still to come, UCLA coach Mick Cronin apologizes for ejecting his own player.

Mike Wilbon (18:45)

Good should and the Kings make franchise history in, of course, a bad way. So many good players at the top. Tone the Wizards, they're going to get somebody. Ah, how about that?

Tony Kornheiser (18:57)

Yeah.

Mike Wilbon (18:57)

Ready for that?

Tony Kornheiser (18:58)

Well, as you know, I would, I would give them whatever pick they get and give them 10 deeper than that.

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Tony Kornheiser (21:02)

Happy time, people. Happy 63rd birthday, Charles Barclay Barkley is on ESPN now. The whole basketball show moved from Turner to ESPN. The oddity for us is that we used to have Charles on this high quality cable program all the time. He was our first guest ever and now that he's in house, we don't have him at all. Clearly we love Charles. Everyone loves Charles Barkley. That might explain all the commercials Charles does. He does Capital One, he does Subway, he does Row, the weight loss thing. He's done commercials for Dick's Sporting Goods, Nike, right guard and McDonald's. Wilmon. Who do you think does the most commercials, Charles? Peyton Manning or Shaq? These guys are selling everything that isn't nailed down. And say hello to your family for us, Charles.

Mike Wilbon (21:43)

Yes, Charles, please do say hello to the family. It's Shaq. Shaq has more commercials, I think, than Peyton and Charles combined. I really think he doesn't. Charles, you see how Charles, how skinny Charles is. Do we want to go on some sort of rant that Charles should gain some of his weight back? It's like he has to have new suits every couple of weeks. He looks great.

Tony Kornheiser (22:06)

Yeah, he can afford.

Mike Wilbon (22:07)

Great.

Tony Kornheiser (22:09)

He can afford new suits. Happy anniversary, Gary Williams. This is obviously our day for shouting out to our friends. On this day 16 years ago, Grevious Vasquez's half court shot at the buzzer that would have beaten Georgia Tech was waved off because Maryland assistant and former Terps great Keith Booth had called timeout before Vasquez took his shot. So with 1.5 seconds left after the timeout, Maryland inbounded the ball to Cliff Tucker, who had a three pointer from the left wing and Maryland won anyway. Tucker later said, quote, it meant a lot to me that coach had the faith to draw the play for me. Unquote. Maryland's home court is now named the Gary Williams court with a replica of Gary's signature.

Mike Wilbon (22:48)

I don't reckon that Gary was real happy with Keith Booth for that time out. I'm just. As I recollect that game and that situation, I am grateful to have had a front row seat to so many years of the Gary Williams show. Great coach and of course we love him. Happy anniversary.

Tony Kornheiser (23:09)

Happy trails. To the 15th game in a row for the Sacramento Kings. I don't know whether they're tanking or just lousy. Either way, the Kings lost by 37 to the Magic last night at home. The 15 straight losses is a new team record for a franchise that has stunk for long stretches of its history. The Kings actually had two winning seasons recently, but then fired head coach Mike Brown last season after five straight losses and there's little hope ahead. The team is without Damontas Sabonis and Zach lavine the rest of the way and face the spurs and former player franchise player De' Aon Fox on Saturday.

Mike Wilbon (23:44)

Yeah, good luck with that one, Tony. Wasn't Light the Beam fun when Sacramento was good a couple of years ago and they lit the beam, the purple beam into the sky in the city after the games? I just thought that was. Yeah, you can have your traditional powers be great, fine. Let the Lakers and Golden State be great. I thought it was really cool when Sacramento was a threat.

Tony Kornheiser (24:07)

Yeah, I think I slept through Light the Beam because I recall them hardly ever being in the playoffs. I don't know. In the last 20 years. Let's go to the big finish. UCLA coach Nick Cronin says he has apologized to Steven Jamerson for ejecting him from the Bruins loss to Michigan State. Your thoughts?

Mike Wilbon (24:25)

I mean, it's okay. It's nice he did it, but it's too late. And the kid, like you said yesterday, he. You can't play there again. Transfer portal time. Indiana coach Kurt Signetti agreed to a new deal that ups his salary to 13.2 million. Is that high enough to keep him from fleeing?

Tony Kornheiser (24:44)

I think it is. I think he really likes it there, you know, but he's worth 10 times that. Indiana hadn't won for 100 years. The brewers gave manager Pat Murphy a three year contract extension. Does that make sense to you?

Mike Wilbon (24:57)

Two time defending NL Manager of the Year, certainly a reward. The MLS season begins this week and I know you're excited, so break it down.

Tony Kornheiser (25:07)

Messi. That's all I got. Last one. Clippers and Lakers tonight. Are you intrigued?

Found App Spokesperson (25:12)

Yeah.

Mike Wilbon (25:13)

Because even though people keep asking how far the Lakers can go in the playoffs and the clippers are like under.500, I am intrigued because I think the Clippers are a better team right now.

Tony Kornheiser (25:24)

We are out of time. We will try to do better the next time. And I'm Tony Kornheiser I'm Mike Wilbon.

Mike Wilbon (25:29)

Have a great weekend. Knuckleheads. We're on the Deuce Monday and now tgl.

Tony Kornheiser (25:36)

You know ptl tgl get into a

Mike Wilbon (25:40)

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Tony Kornheiser (25:42)

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Jay Bilas (25:56)

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Tony Kornheiser (26:01)

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Jay Bilas (26:02)

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Jay Bilas (26:06)

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