← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Colin Cowherd Podcast - Final Four Preview, Tiger Woods Crashes Again, NFL Replacement Refs, Jaden Ivey Bounced By Bulls
00:45:01
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This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human the Volume.
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Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, American Beverage. If you think about some of the most iconic drinks in the country, the ones you grab at a barbecue, the ones you raise to celebrate your team, that have been part of your story for decades, Coke, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, there's something people don't always think about. The companies behind those brands are still making their drinks right here in the US While there's a lot of talk about bringing manufacturing back, America's beverage companies never left. They're American companies making American products with American workers in America's hometown. So 275,000 men and women across all 50 states. Real jobs, good paying jobs, the kind of jobs you can raise a family on. So more than 100 years, those brands have been part of everyday lives and they're still here, still investing, still operating in communities around the country. So if you care about strong local economies and companies that walk the walk, check out the good work and what they're doing at we deliver for America.org. All right, I feel like this is an emergency podcast being that I live in Chicago and have Bull season tickets and Danny Parkins loves the Bulls. So here's what's, here's what's interesting about the Jaden Ivy story. And this happens infrequently, but occasionally you've been, I've been doing this 30 plus years. You've been doing it about 20 years, 15 years. So occasionally you get lucky. So it just so happens in the last week, I made a connection that I didn't know at the time. I didn't care to somebody at Purdue that over the course of Jaden Ivy's career was in the mix with Jaden Ivy at Purdue. I won't say. I'll just say he was in the mix. And so I called this person on the Jaden Ivey story and he said injuries are tough for Jaden Ivey because he was a gym rat and if you took the ball away and the gym away, he could get lost. And he struggled. And that he didn't really mesh well with a lot of people at Purdue. And then I called an NBA source last night and he said, well, if Detroit's letting you go and you're a top five pick and they're desperate for guards to go with Cade Cunningham, there's an issue. He said the bigger issue is that the Bulls didn't do due diligence, that the Bulls should know better. Like it was well known at Purdue, well known In Detroit. That and I. And I don't like when the media talks about, you know, mental illness. I'm not making that leap. That's not. That's not. I'm not in that space. I did say today, though, Danny, because I heard a lot of Christians say, well, so you'll keep the criminals, but you'll fire him. And I'm going to give you what I said on the air. I said, at the volume, I have 60 employees. If one of them ever committed a crime, misdemeanor dui, something that's illegal, something that's serious. But they were tremendous workers, contrite, apologized, were well liked, I would not fire them. However, if you said, quite legally, you started talking race, religion, politics at work and were a bad hang and it was not productive for the chemistry at the volume, I would fire you. And so this idea that, well, what about the criminals? What about, you know, Josh Giddey's story, which was allegations, nothing proven. Where it's only allegations, nothing proven. But in small, I would guess conservative okc Sam Presti's like, this isn't going to work. But big city Chicago's like, yeah, we think it is. And he's been terrific. So I guess my take was it's easy to jump to, hey, this is. It's religion. It's freedom of speech. Well, we know that argument doesn't hold water. But my take is a lot of times, Danny, that if, if you are not good in the room, if you're a bad hang. Politics, race, religion, they're tough topics in the workplace, are they not?
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Listen, they're. They're tough topics anywhere, and then you certainly don't want them in the workplace. And you've experienced this in your career. I'm sure there are different rules for different people. Yes.
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Lawrence Taylor, Bill Belichick stories.
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Yeah. Like, we. I will treat all of you fairly, but I will not treat all of you the same. Right. That. That's like a tenant of coaching. That's a tenant of leadership. Not everyone needs to. Not everyone gets treated the same. If Jaden Ivy was averaging 25 and 12, he could probably ask Joe Cowley, the beat reporter of the Sun Times, if he had consummated his marriage in the proper way, in eyes of the Bible, whatever. Like, like that. That's a. I pulled it up. Because, like, for anyone who doesn't know the story, like, here's a paragraph from Joe Cowley's column on Jaden Ivy. And Joe Cowley, again, beat writer for the Bulls for the Sun Times a buddy of mine.
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Yeah. Yeah, he's good.
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Before Ivy even stepped foot in Chicago, there were rumblings from Detroit that he was a, quote, preacher, end quote. Those rumblings undersold it. His interviews became sermons in which he asked reporters whether they had been, quote, saved and whether they had fornicated before marriage, end quote. My bad. I was just checking in on how your knee felt. That is odd workplace behavior. You know what I mean? So, like. But. And. And he wasn't performing, and the Bulls were bad and so.
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Right.
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I think you just add all of this up and then you add on the social media stuff, and I certainly was not watching all of his Instagram lives. But, like, it's just, if you become a distraction in the locker room and you are unprofessional in your dealings with professional media, and then you bring it out publicly, so it's not even a story that can be contained because you're doing it on, you know, IG Live, broadcasting it to thousands and thousands of people. It was a pretty obvious decision for the Bulls, though. They have a ton of egg on their face because, again, according to Cowley's reporting, at least some of this was known from Detroit. And this is a front office that has really, really struggled. And also, no players apparently, are sad to see him go again, based on Cowley's reporting. So it's like you traded for a guy who wasn't good, was a distraction, was unprofessional, and wasn't liked. That's not doing due diligence. That's just a terrible look for the front office.
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B
Well, and the other thing is, listen, I do think Christians sometimes get marginalized. The media, I think we would both admit, can be snarky and dismissive.
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A
Sure.
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B
But there are also Christians who love to play the victim, and they always feel persecuted. And it's like, guys, you can talk about the Christian thing all you want. Replace his opinions on religion and make them about politics. Now people will say, well, what about Steve Kerr? Steve Kerr's got multiple trophies. Well, what about Greg?
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Not the same rule for every person.
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That's right. What about Popovich? Popovich is a legend. He's a top three coach in the history of the league. Jaden Ivey is a disappointing, weird player that is injured, and when he goes into rehab, even at Purdue, I made one call. That's my disappointment with the Bulls, the diligence. I made one call. I had one interaction with a Purdue person, and they're like, yeah, he wasn't well liked there. He once he, he got, I think he got hurt his freshman year. He didn't get to go to the gym. And they're like, he went sideways. He, he, he was a guy that. Now do I think the media should be talking about mental health issues? We don't know shit about that. I mean, let's get out of that space completely. But, and I, and I've said this before, I, Danny, I'm sure you've done this. I've worked at four or five radio stations, two networks, multiple TV stations. You know, in Tampa, I work with a weirdo and it was a reporter and he got sent out the door and he was very, very capable. He was weird. And it's like he didn't do anything illegal. He just made people uncomfortable. And it's like, bye, bye. And companies have a right to do that. And so, you know, again, this kind of perpetual victimhood, the Christians are being attacked if it doesn't. Listen, it could be, he could have just gotten into politics. And you know, I know people do say, well, the NBA is very anti Trump. All right, well, it's a very, you know, they are. But again, Kerr and Popovich have sort of led the brigade on sort of anti Trump politics. But they're also not players. They're long term contract management position. So that's the way the world works.
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Yeah, listen, and I'm sure that there's plenty of owners in the NBA that are pro Trumps. That are pro Trump. Right. Like in, in the bill, in the billionaire class. So listen, I do not look at the Jaden Ivy situation as a freedom of speech issue.
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No, it's not a free speech, you
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know, like, like, but so if that,
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if that,
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if that is being taken up as his cause or his plight and he's good, well, then 20 teams should be in line to sign him. But my guess is that's not going to be the case. You know, like, if he, if he is good enough to get the job, he will. Sports are a meritocracy, ultimately, always. Right. It's the, it's the ultimate meritocracy. More so than politics. More, more so than any other form of life. It is the ultimate meritocracy. So if Jaden Ivy has gotten to the point where the juice isn't worth the squeeze, we've seen that time and
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time and time again in every industry.
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Exactly, exactly. So I don't, I don't feel sorry for him. I looked at it more through the prism of just another sign of incompetence by the front office. Of the team that I root for and to continue to miss the playoffs in the NBA. Colin, Most teams make it.
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Yeah. Well, you know, and other, I mean, I work for Fox. They got rid of Tucker CARLSON and Bill O'Reilly because Bill O'Reilly was so inappropriate. You know, people were getting sued now. So. Well, there are lines in terms of inappropriate behavior, you know, and Fox got rid of people that they thought were entirely inappropriate. So. And what in what Tucker Carlson did, I don't know if it rises to illegal, but it was certainly inappropriate. His emails in the workplace. So this idea he should sue the NBA. He had seven games left and was going to be a free agent and they were not going to re sign him. Every company in any industry, public or private, can say, we're going to give you a $10 million check, which the Bulls did. Here's your guaranteed money. Good luck in free agency. There's no lawsuit to be had. He's not a lawyer who got disbarred. He didn't get sent. He wasn't in. He's not being sent to a jail. It's like, dude, here's a check. Best of luck on the market.
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Yeah, it's not, it's not the exact same situation, but you're right in terms of how quickly he was going to be gone from the Bulls. Anyway. When I got my job in Kansas City, the guy before me who I was replacing had gotten a job in Dallas. So classic. Just like moving to a bigger market story. And I'm driving to Kansas City and I got the U Haul and they're like, you know, you're arriving on a Monday or Tuesday and you're going to start the following Monday. But come in, do your paperwork, meet everybody. We'll bring you into the radio station. And I'm driving into the radio station during the time slot of the guy that I'm replacing. And he was a bit of a shock jock, still working, actually. And he goes, the topic was, would it be better if the Royals this year won 90 games or the owner died and we're on the home of the Royals. And I was like, oh, my God. Like, what are you doing? And they, But I got into office, they were like, can you start tomorrow? I was like, yeah, sure. So this guy just, you know, went out in a blaze of glory trying to make headlines and be crazy. And it's like, that's a thing you could maybe do on like rock radio back in the day if you weren't a affiliated with the team. And it would be in Poor taste, but okay. But, you know, there's just. There's some things that some companies are and are not willing to tolerate. And if they only have to give you, pay you for four days of not working, they're going to send you going. That's the radio equivalent.
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B
It's. It's amazing. It's so. It's amazing to me how naive a lot of people are on this. If I had to read one more. So you'll keep criminals but let him go for free speech. It's like, oh, people, this is not complicated. I said this today. There are tens of thousands in Americans. Tens of thousands of Americans have been arrested. Some seriously. And they are working and highly productive today in corporations or private companies. And there are tens of thousands of people. What there aren't is tens of thousands of people who are viewed as bad for the room and weird and odd and preachy that remain employed for years at a company that doesn't happen because I've been in environments where that person is shown the door. I've also worked at companies where people have done really dumb things. Dui. They apologize, they're contrite, and they remain employed. Like, it's just not. People are so naive. This whole NBA, NFL, we know the NFL. NFL's got some bad guys in every locker rooms. But if they are productive and again, and people make mistakes and you know, they have, they've come, they've gotten therapy or rehab. People are willing to give you second chance. America's all about the second chance. Yeah.
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And listen, there are clearly. And you referenced some of them with, like, the Fox employees earlier. Like, there are clearly some, like, where it doesn't matter what your ratings are and if you cross a line that is untenable for a company because of morality or illegality, then you're gone. But if there is, like, this is a different topic. I don't know if you want to talk Tiger woods or not. But like, oh, I do.
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I do. I have it on the list. Go ahead.
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Okay. Okay, great. But like, and like, this is not my main Tiger woods opinion. But like, people, there is. There is seemingly some sentiment of, like, the PGA Tour is should, like, cut ties with Tiger Woods. I will be floored if that happens. Right. I have plenty of Tiger thoughts that we can get to. But like, he is so valuable to them on so many levels. Forget captaining the Ryder cup or if he plays on the senior Tour. Like, they are trying to modernize the tournament. Over a million people watch the golf league for it's Guys playing golf on a simulator. But over a million people watch it when Tiger woods plays. He is a singular force of nature that I do not believe that Augusta or the PGA Tour or his sponsors are all of a sudden going to turn their back on Tiger woods because of this latest incident. He's too valuable to the entity. Now, that might also be part of the problem that enables him to not change his behavior. But these companies are not going to take up a moral stand against their bottom line with Tiger Woods.
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B
Well, my take on him was people always say, when you know, rich men and rich, successful men, often athletes get into car wrecks or DUIs. How stupid. How do you not have a driver? Number one, I get in my car five times a day. You know, it's not like Tiger's got a 9 to 5 job. Drop me off at work and pick me up. So Tiger doesn't want to pay a million dollars, a half a million dollars a year for a guy to park outside his Jupiter, Florida home and take him to Vons or Safeway. Okay. Secondly, a lot of successful men and athletes are adrenaline junkies. They got six cars, maybe 12. They like to drive them, and they think they're bulletproof. So if they got a cocktail or four, if they smoke a blunt or two, they like to get into the car and they, hey, man, I'm bulletproof. So when I look at that, do I feel bad for Tiger? Absolutely. I think his job now is to be a better dad. Right. The golf thing is secondary, but when I hear people just jump to the, how can he not have a driver? Guys, athletes, you know, it's an outlier to find a wealthy athlete with fewer than a half dozen cars. Guys in cars. I mean, it's an alpha quality. It is a testosterone quality. Fast cars, fast driving. And so, you know, I just. I'm not defending the actions of Tiger, but he's clearly got a major problem. There was a story about opioids found in his body. It's awful.
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Well, that's what it is.
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Yeah.
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Yeah. So wait, listen. The half a million or a million dollars a year Tiger could afford. It chooses not to because of what you were talking about. Most likely he likes. He likes either driving his cool cars. I mean, that car that he flipped was $250,000 car, and he probably has a lot of them. And also, this is pure speculation, but we have reason to believe it. I mean, Tiger woods has done some shady things with relationships, and he might not want a witness to where he's going at all times. To see who he might want to see. But the thing that is just so obvious. You talk about having a few drinks or smoking a blunt, you know, he blew a 0.0, he had no booze in his system, but they found two hydrocodone in his pocket. Like he's had a ton of surgeries. He clearly is. Listen, I can't diagnose addiction, Right. It is fair to speculate that he is addicted to pain pills or at the very least dependent on them, and is clearly. And has just from the last DUI and the toxicology report that came out, there was a bunch of it in his system. He represents a lot of the symptoms of it. Glassy eyed, puffy face, lethargic. You know, pill opioids are scary because they work like, you know what I mean? Like they're, it's, it's big business. Someone very close to me has a serious problem with it. We've tried many different things to get them help. It's a scary thing. But if you deal with chronic pain and that little white pill is the only thing that gives you relief, it's hard to say no to it because dealing with chronic pain is awful. But the thing that you can't do, you have to have better judgment than to get behind the wheel of a car. If you're taking opioids every day, you just. It's dangerous. You are a danger to yourself and society. And if he had pills in his system, which we again assume that he did based on his previous history and based on the reports of the officers at the scene and the physical evidence of he had more in his pocket, it's just dangerous, man. It's just straight up dangerous. Even if he's not behind the wheel of a car, taking that, being that dependent on that quantity of opioids is just a very dangerous thing. And when he's had a couple dozen surgeries at this point, it's no surprise that that's the situation that he's got himself into. So you're right about men and cars and adrenaline junkie and all that. But if he's taken a high dose of pain medicine every day for chronic pain, he's probably never in condition to drive. If we're being totally honest. Like he really. It gets, It's a hard thing to manage. So I, I do feel badly for him, but he's gotta, he's gotta stop driving somehow because. Or he's gotta get the pain situation under control because it's dangerous, man. It's. It. Those things are. They are scary with how much they work. I don't know if you've ever had a big surgery, but, like, I've had spinal fusion surgery and. Which is what Tiger has had.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And it's like you can be in the most pain ever, and then you take one of those pills and you feel like you're floating. You're like, this is the greatest thing in the world. So, yeah, he's got a serious, serious problem on his hands.
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B
Listen, I take a 3 millimeter cannabis gummy about a month ago, and I felt like Cheech and Chong at a Hollywood party in the 70s. It's like I was so tingly and high. I woke up the next morning and I told my wife, I'm like, yep, I'm done with cannabis gummies. She's like, how many did you take? And I'm like, half of one. I'm just. I have thin blood. I'm like, I walk by theraflu. I just walk by it and I'm knocked out. Like, I can't take anything. Today's show brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet. Florida Sportsbook, biggest weekend in college basketball is almost here. The round of Forest set. And what A round of four it is. Michigan, Arizona, Illinois, UConn. Now's the time to step up your game with daily dancing boosts. On Hard Rock Bet, you get a live profit boost and a parlay profit boost for the games. More ways to shoot your shot, more ways to cash in with a boosted odds. And all those great last second buzzer beater moments we've seen, they still pay on hard rock bet. They're handing out $25 bonus bets if a team you bet to win or cover hits a buzzer beater. Because when the lights are brightest, every shot matters. So if you haven't joined Hard Rock BET yet, now's the time. New signups can double their winnings in the first 10 bets max 50 bucks. That means if you would have won a hundred bucks in your bet, now it's 200. So don't sit in the bench. Download the Hard Rock BET app today. Get the party started. Payable in bonus bets. Not a cash offer offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital LLC in Alder States. Must be 21 plus and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee or Virginia. To play. Terms and conditions apply. Concern about gambling in Florida, call 1-888- admit it in Indiana. If you or somebody you know has a problem, call 1-809 with it. Gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Pivot to this. Yeah, I am, I am on an island, but I think most officials are great. The NFL, according to NFL Ops, over 99% of calls are right now. Now that's NFL ops, but I think that's a fairly reasonable number. We are watching the ABS system and what we're finding is home plate umpiring is difficult. But again, half the time the umpires are right and there's just not that many challenges, which is pretty amazing considering batters are different sizes, the zone is different, the ball's going 98 with movement and even when you pat your head, it's a silometer. It's just outside. So officials are good. So there's this sense that you can't go with replacement refs. And in most instances I think there's very few great of anything. And I'm sure you can find replacement refs. But if I'm the NFL, here's my take. All you people do is complain about baseball umpires and NBA refs and they're full time and our guys get 99% hit rate. Our league is growing faster than any other league. So it's clearly tolerable for television and radio and streaming consumption. Well, it's working. Why do we have to go full time? The other sports? I mean, you can't win an NBA series without 75% of the fans claiming it's rigged. It's just an automatic. It's rigged. So my take is the NFL's like, folks, we got part time guys 99% right. Our games don't take 30 minutes for the last two and a half like the NBA. We don't need an ABS system necessarily at the, you know, for our calls. And it's working.
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So.
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So what's the point of us going full time?
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Yeah, listen, the argument for going full time is they have the money. That's. That's probably the only argument. I don't know if the 99% figure is correct. I think that officiating has been damaged like the public perception of officiating has been damaged by HD television. Like we have this ability to microscopic slow down NBC. It zoom in. They can show us three replays immediately before the next snap is done. And it's just total. And we're debating it for 45 seconds, for a minute, for a minute and a half on these replays. And then the rules analyst will come on TV and be like that should be overturned and then the ref on the field is like call stands and we're like what the hell's going on? You know, it's like I think that's why public opinion on refs is so much is so out of skewed with. Out of skew with the reality of it. Like of course they're very, very good and umpiring is virtually impossible. I had a hard time doing it for like college age beer league baseball when guys are hungover puking in right field. I was an umpire for a couple of summers and I'm like this is ridiculous. Like I am straight up guessing as to what is a ball and a strike. So I can't imagine doing it at that. But I just think that the, the NFL is in such a position where they're Teflon whether they do it or don't replacement refs or not.
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B
And they know that.
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They know exactly, exactly. And they. And they know it. And so I think that, I think you are probably right with the direction this goes. They went. They tend to win labor standoffs with players. They'll win this one with the refs. Like they are totally Teflon. And I agree by and large refs are better than we give them credit for. But I love that ABS exists in baseball now.
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B
Oh yeah, it's great.
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A
I do love. It's a game.
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B
It's a, it's a game show. I get a reveal and a studio audience.
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A
It's great and it goes fast. Like it, it's. It might be the best use of replay since tennis where like tennis, you know, tennis is just like in out and it's instant and it's binary. Like that's never going to be topped but just like the speed of it, how infrequent it's used. The strategy behind like do you save this one or do you use it? Should it be the pitcher, the catcher, the batter, like it's the dugout. Can't call for it. It's great. It's a great ad for baseball.
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B
All right, let's. Let's wrap it up by going hard rock bet. Yukon plus two and a half against Illinois. Michigan minus one and a half against Arizona. Illinois is fascinating. They went heavy into the European market and Brad Underwood has built a team that is intentional, that is efficient, that's got size. Peja Stojakovic's son. They got twins from Croatia and an under recruited guard Wagler who is just unbelievable. 6 6, impossible to defend at the college level. I think they're a handful for Ucon it's impossible to me to not take the two and a half points because UConn is so good in the second half and there's just so built because they're so physical, they wear teams down. I think Illinois is better. I've watched them now play four times. I watched them twice in the regular season. I've watched them twice in the tournament. I think Illinois is better offensively. I think they have more weapons. I think they're going to be really hard to defend. I don't love UConn's guards. You know, Taurus Reeds obviously carried him in the first half against Duke. He's an old school big. I'd probably, I think Illinois is going to win it and I think it's a one or a two point game. I would probably hard rock bet, take UConn in the points. What say you?
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A
So you know, it opened at a smaller number than that and so I, and I thought the sharp side was Illinois and so I'd probably like. If I had to bet it today, I'd, I was like, well if I was willing to bet it at one or one and a half and I had to bet it today, I'd bet it at two and a half. I have some UConn futures that I'm just going to let ride, so I won't be placing a bet on the other side of it. The argument I think for UConn is their coach is just much better. Like Brad Underwood has done a very nice job of recruiting, but he is not known for being a great like situational coach. They were winless all of their overtime games this year. He's not a good like you know, play like out of bounds play coach. And so, you know, in the event that Illinois gets out of sorts, like is he going to be able to rein it in? I was at the game at the Garden when UConn played Illinois this year. UConn destroyed them, but Wadler didn't play. The fact that Walker could be is not going to be a top five kick in this draft. I mean shows how insane the draft is.
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B
Like this draft it's, I mean Boozer at this point and he played well against UConn but you question his athletic ability. Boozer could drop to seven. I mean seriously.
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A
Yeah, the draft is ridiculous. And I think Illinois has the size where Terrace Reed should not.
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B
Yes.
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A
Dominant Terrence Reed is a hilarious college basketball player. He, he's huge. He's a pretty good athlete. He cannot go left. I like, I don't understand. He can't he passes a wide open left handed like and they over guard his right shoulder. It just, it doesn't matter. He just, he can always get to a spot and hit that little right handed baby hook. I'm like force him left.
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B
He can't do it.
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A
But it doesn't matter. He still gives you 20 and 10. So yeah, I think that UConn is a, is a dog. I don't even really think this UConn team is that good. I've seen him because my nephew goes there. So I saw him twice in the Big east tournament and once in the regular season game in person, all at the Garden against Illinois. But Braylon Mullins has been really good in the past. He's been terrible in March and it is possible that that shot just unlocks him because he is an NBA prospect as a shooter. So maybe he can go off for UConn. But yeah, I like, I like Illinois in that spot. And then Arizona Michigan to me feels like the NFC championship game.
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B
Yeah. Yeah.
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A
Where Rams Seahawks was the real super bowl. Right? I will be. Listen, it's single elimination college basketball. Anyone can win on any given day. But I would be pretty floored if the left side of the bracket, the Illinois UConn winner beat the Arizona Michigan winner. Well, you know, I think that Arizona Michigan game is going to be all time.
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B
Well, it's the Shaq Kobe team that beat the Blazers in seven at Staples. And you're like everybody knew the winner of that was going to be Indiana. Like it wasn't, you know, it was Rick Smith's was in big trouble. I will say this. I went to the United center because I wanted to see Michigan in person. Yeah, it's the best passing college team I've ever seen.
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A
Oh, wow.
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B
I think Mara Adai, Mara was a defensive player at UCLA, scored five points a game. Now he's up to about 12 points a game. And I asked Dusty May, the coach off the air. We were talking before we went on the air for about two minutes and I said I didn't know Adaya Mara had an offensive game. And he said he was a really good passer. Even at ucla he just didn't score a lot because you know, their guard play was really good. But he has, he's got it. I mean he is really hard to defend. First of all, he's a tremendous defensive player. So he eliminates just, he eliminates a lot of your ideas. It's like Wemby, like he's just eliminating even the pursuit of certain shots. But He's a tremendous passer. And watching, watching Michigan live, I mean, you can. There's no question if you go to games live, it's just different. You see different things.
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A
Yeah.
- [33:40]
B
Like even in the NFL game, you don't even see the safeties when the ball is snapped. When you go. And then you go to a game and you watch an Ed Reed and you're like, holy hell, he is everywhere. Or Earl Thomas for Seattle or Nick Imanoara. If you're a Seahawk fan, you're like, oh my God, he's so much better in person than he is on television. Michigan in person, it is. Wow. To do a 21 nothing run, I mean, in the elite eight on a neutral floor is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's playing. That's playing. That's playing like a low end, like the 318th rated team at home on a Saturday night on homecoming or something. You know what I mean? Like that doesn't even make sense. So I think Arizona's got good guards. And between Michigan and Arizona, this is why the NIL is great. We could have nine NBA players that didn't exist. When Duke and Butler played in the final, they shot under 40%. When Duke and Yukon, when, when, when Butler and Yukon did the following year, they shot 31%.
- [34:43]
A
Well, I mean, that's one of the worst games of all time. The game was unwatchable.
- [34:49]
B
So the nil, they did it to the Indiana Hoosiers and the Miami Hurricanes. It used to be you'd have to go to junior college to solve problems. And those guys never academic issues. They weren't very good against the competition at the juco. Now, oh, we got, we need a corner and you go by Georgia's like, so you get these college teams like Indiana didn't have a weakness. They were literally good to great everywhere. Everywhere. Even Nick Saban's team is. You'd be like, they're not very good on the O line. They've got a bad right tackle. You know, their safeties are a little physical, but they can't run. So I mean, I look at Michigan and I'm like, I guess they don't have great guard play. But passing, shooting, threes size, they may have the best player. Yaxel Lindenborg. I'll take Michigan.
- [35:39]
A
Yeah, listen, I think it's very close. Arizona's depth is impressive. They just, they don't, they don't make mistakes. You mentioned the size for Michigan though. That's the thing that jumps off for me. They're all huge like every, every player is gigantic. It's like every guard is 6, 5, every wing is 6, 9. They've got multiple dudes. It's like 611, 7 2. Like, they're just huge. And so that tends to be a fairly overwhelming thing in college basketball. They were my pick before the tournament, so I stick with them. But I do think it is a. I do think that game is a. Is a legitimate coin flip. As someone who said after the opening weekend of the tournament that Cinderella was dead and that they've taken some of the madness out of March, allow me this opportunity to say these games have delivered, because that was my thing. I was like, listen, if you're going to give me 20 point blowouts and I can't get Cinderella, and which is what the tournament was built on in terms of its popularity. My whole thing was like, okay, but then Elite Eight, Final Four title game, when it's like, basically it's one game on at a time. I don't want to be watching blowouts because if you have a blowout early, but there's four games on at once, it doesn't matter. Oh, the game on TBS is a blowout. I'll lock in on true TV. True TV's a blowout. Let's go over to CBS and like the, the beauty of the first four days is 64 down to 1648 single elimination games in a condensed period of time. It's just awesome tv. And I did think that the opening weekend was lacking because of the margin of victory and the lack of upsets.
- [37:26]
B
The end is now much better than the beginning.
- [37:29]
A
Correct. And it used to be a tournament that got worse as it went along because you would see a Cinderella and then they would be in a standalone window and then they would get destroyed by North Carolina and you'd be like, oh, well, that wasn't a very fun Elite 8 game or whatever. And so I was like, oh, it's still college basketball. So I was a little concerned that we were going to get blowouts, poor play, whatever the case may be. And we got one or two. But the, the second weekend was so great. And this Final Four should be. I mean, Ken Pomeroy says that this is the greatest Final Four matchup ever, based on his rating between Arizona and Michigan, two highest rated teams to meet in a final forever. It's like, okay, well, that I'm in on that. And then you got Dan Hurley, who's going for three titles in four years. First program to have to do that since John Wooden and UCLA like, okay, I'm here for that. And then Illinois is a wildly talented high end offensive team that can score 90 points. Like, it's, it's great. It's great.
- [38:36]
B
It's like if you ran a TV network and nobody was under contract, that's what college basketball is. And you're like, ooh, we could really use Mike and Tony after your show with Nick Wright and Chris Broussard and Kevin Wilds, and you could just go buy them. The Murdaughs would go, let's just go write a check. All right, Mike and Tony's on our team. Whoa, that fills a hole. That's a really good half hour. And then you're like, Stephen A. Smith, you want to do an hour and a half, two hours in the morning? I got no contract. All right, we'll fill that hole. That's what it is. Every programming network, you have holes. You're like, oh, we'd like to hire somebody, but they're under contract. That's the NBA. College basketball now is like, if the NBA, you could trade anybody at any time and there were no contracts. I mean, Michigan's like, you know, we're really good, but we could use a rim protector. UCLA will take yours. And we could use a really dominant, older physical player, kind of, you know, a 69240 runs the floor. Oh, let's go get Yaxel Lindenborg, who would have gone pro if not for an il. So it's like, Michigan is good. And it's just like, it's just remarkable in college sports now it is pro sports with no contracts. You could just go get. I mean, can you imagine if, you know, you're a Bears fan and you're like, man, we could use an. We could really use an edge rusher. And it was. You could get any single player, not by trading, just go buy him. And if he liked the contract, he would come and play for the Bears at rush end.
- [40:02]
A
It would, it would, it would be wild. It would be. It would be exciting. I don't think the leagues would go for it.
- [40:10]
B
But you don't think the billionaires would like that?
- [40:13]
A
Yeah, I don't think they would love it. I'm going to give you a $200 million contract that you can get out of whenever you want. I don't think they'd sign up for it, but yeah, it wasn't and is a singular thing. Like, college basketball is a. Like, it was kind of the only place where VCU could beat Duke, and now that's impossible. And so I do have to mourn that a little bit because you're not going to see the equivalent of VCU doesn't exist in the NFL in Major League Baseball. You know, the Pirates can do it for a game, but they're not going to do it over 162 to get there. The inequality is too big. So, like, it's gone. But if we keep getting Final Fours like this, I'm going to forget about Loyola and Florida Atlantic pretty damn quick.
- [41:01]
B
Danny Parkins, Tiger Woods, NFL reps, the Final Four, and the Jaden Ivy story, which is, it's interesting. Whenever there's a controversial story, you know, I knew when I did the story today, you know, you get feedback. I don't follow it, but I got so much feedback from friends and people around pro sports that reached out to me. But I want to, I want to end it with a story. Back in 1986, I got out of college and I got a job in Las Vegas doing one inning of Play by Play and then sales. And so my boss was Larry Kent up, who has passed away. He hired me at the Baseball Winner meetings. I was like eight credits shy of a degree. I went to the Baseball Winner meetings in my AMC Pacer, which eventually caught fire in a freeway in Vegas. And I left college 8 credit shy because they offered me an inning of Play by Play and sales. And I was 22. And I thought, AAA baseball inning of play by play, Padres, AAA affiliate. My mom's like, you should probably go for it. This sounds like I'm listening to my son. You should probably go for it. So I drove down there, took the job. So I'm there like a month and a half, two months. And the Desert Inn was this really ritzy old school Las Vegas casino with an amazing golf course. Now the Wynn is there. So the Desert Inn was swanky. And Larry Kentop was a great golfer and he had a membership there. So about a week into my job, he's like, hey, let me take you to lunch and introduce you to some people. And it was like I could see the money, you know, handkerchiefs and suits, necklaces, Rolexes. Everybody was tan. It was just like the richest room I'd ever been in. I'm from rural Washington State. And as we're leaving after lunch, I even remember what I ordered. I ordered a tuna melt. I'd never had one. It sounded good. I mean, you know, I just literally, I remember the day. I remember the moment. And as I'm leaving, Larry introduces me to a guy who just looks rich and he says, larry goes, oh, this is my golfing partner, Bob. So and so Colin wants to be a sportscaster. And he goes, oh, well, listen, I don't know much about it, but he said, don't talk politics or religion. And I'm like, yeah, that kind of, you know, to this day, that's kind of it. In sports, you can talk some, I guess you can take stands. We've seen that historically, but it does hold mostly true. Politics and religion in sports, it can be dicey. It can be difficult. Now, there are different rules for status. LeBron can do it, others can't. But I just remembered that moment when the Jaden Ivy came down. It's like even to some things, you know, treat others like you want to be treated. You know that book, Everything youg Learn, you learn in Kindergarten? I remember that moment. Kid, don't talk politics or sports or politics. Kid, don't talk politics or religion in sports. You'll have a great career. And I thought, jaden, you're not good enough to preach.
- [44:13]
A
And now you're tan and have a nice watch.
- [44:18]
B
And now you know the rest of the story.
- [44:20]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You followed Bob such and such after your tuna melt. And now here we are.
- [44:29]
B
All right, Danny, great stuff.
- [44:31]
A
Talk to you, Colin. Thank you. The volume Shoot your shot.
- [44:37]
B
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