PMS 2.0 1309 - St. Paddy's March Madness Monday With Darius Butler, Rick Pitino, Greg Sankey, Tom Izzo, & AJ Hawk

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1309

Release Date: March 17, 2025

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Introduction to St. Patrick's Day and Sports Highlights

Pat McAfee kicks off the episode by celebrating St. Patrick's Day, emphasizing the holiday's roots and its significance to the Irish community in the United States. He acknowledges the hard work and contributions of the Irish in America, setting a festive and appreciative tone for the show.

Key Guests and Upcoming Interviews

• Tom Izzo (Michigan State Coach): Scheduled to join later in the episode to discuss Michigan State's basketball prowess.
• Rick Pitino (St. John’s Coach): Expected to join approximately 19 minutes in to talk about St. John’s recent successes and upcoming NCAA Tournament run.
• Greg Sankey (SEC Commissioner): Set to appear around the 40-minute mark to address the SEC's record-breaking representation in the NCAA Tournament with 14 teams.

SEC's Dominant NCAA Tournament Performance

Greg Sankey discusses the SEC's unprecedented 14-team presence in the NCAA Tournament, a significant increase from previous years. He attributes this success to experienced coaching, strong commitment, and strategic investments in basketball programs. Sankey emphasizes that the SEC is prepared to compete at the highest levels, mirroring their dominance in other sports.

"Every one of our 16 coaches has been in the NCAA tournament with at least one team as a head coach. Six have reached the Final Four." ([41:24])

Controversy Surrounding Tournament Selection

Pat McAfee expresses frustration over the exclusion of West Virginia and Indiana from the NCAA Tournament despite their strong performances. He criticizes Bubba Cunningham, the Athletic Director of UNC, alleging bias and conflicts of interest due to his $104,000 bonus tied to UNC's tournament inclusion.

"It's hard not to automatically say, well, this seems to be a little bit contrived, doesn't it?" ([04:41])

Interview with Rick Pitino: Building a Championship Culture

Rick Pitino shares insights into rebuilding St. John’s basketball program, focusing on cultivating a culture of hard work and resilience. He discusses his coaching philosophy, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and adapting strategies to overcome adversity.

"If you miss two or three, don't deflate. Just move on to the next play." ([22:44])

Pitino elaborates on the phases of his coaching tenure, highlighting the transition from building a strong culture to preparing for the NCAA Tournament by simulating high-pressure environments.

"One of all of them means the most to me along with the Knicks, because the other programs we went into Madison Square Garden at Louisville..." ([25:29])

March Madness Dynamics and Team Selection

The hosts delve into the complexities of March Madness selection, debating the criteria used by bracketologists and the perceived favoritism towards certain conferences like the SEC. They discuss the implications of having multiple teams from a single conference, questioning the fairness and transparency of the selection process.

"West Virginia was in the tournament. Now wouldn't have been a high seating." ([03:37])

NFL Updates: Record-Breaking Contracts for Defensive Backs

Darius J. Butler joins the show to discuss significant NFL contracts, highlighting Derek Stingley Jr.'s $30 million per year deal with the Houston Texans. The conversation touches on the evolving value of defensive backs in the NFL and how these deals impact team strategies.

"Derek Stingley Jr., His ball skills separate him from the pack." ([16:44])

Pat McAfee’s Personal Anecdotes and Community Engagement

Throughout the episode, Pat shares personal stories, including attending his daughter's volleyball tournament and celebrating St. Patrick's Day abroad. These segments add a relatable and personable touch to the show, fostering a sense of community among listeners.

Conclusion: Embracing the Madness and Looking Forward

As the episode wraps up, the hosts reflect on the ongoing excitement of March Madness, the implications of SEC's dominance, and upcoming sports events. They encourage listeners to stay engaged, enjoy the festivities, and look forward to future episodes covering more sports insights.

"Remember, there are always upsets waiting. You have to be prepared and a little bit lucky too." ([23:59])

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Notable Quotes:

• Pat McAfee: "We hope you all get a chance to enjoy life for a little bit in honor of your Irish brethren." ([00:00])
• Greg Sankey: "We are functioning in men's basketball like we do in women's basketball or baseball, softball, football, gymnastics." ([41:24])
• Rick Pitino: "We rely on perseverance, a very strong defensive work ethic." ([22:44])
• Darius J. Butler: "Derek Stingley Jr. gets paid a ton of money and you just saw Jamar Chase get his bag. He's getting 40, 40 plus a year." ([17:52])

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Key Takeaways:

1. SEC's NCAA Dominance: The SEC's investment in basketball has led to a record 14-team presence in the NCAA Tournament, drawing both praise and criticism regarding the selection process.
2. Coaching Strategies: Interviews with coaches like Rick Pitino and Tom Izzo reveal the emphasis on building resilient teams capable of handling high-pressure tournament scenarios.
3. NFL Defensive Backs: Significant contracts for players like Derek Stingley Jr. highlight the evolving importance and valuation of defensive backs in the NFL.
4. Community and Personal Stories: The show's blend of sports analysis with personal anecdotes fosters a connection with the audience, celebrating both athletic achievements and cultural festivities.

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Conclusion:

This episode of The Pat McAfee Show offers a comprehensive look into the current state of college basketball, NFL developments, and the interplay between sports success and administrative decisions. With in-depth interviews and lively discussions, Pat McAfee and his guests provide valuable insights while maintaining an engaging and relatable atmosphere for listeners.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome, on this St. Patty's Madness. Monday, March 17, 2025. This program starts now. Paddy. That's right, a lad from Ireland, way back in the day, who eliminated all the snakes from Ireland. We celebrate the shit out of him today. Happy St. Patrick's Day to everybody on Earth. Obviously, it's a holiday that is supposed to revolve around having a good time, celebrating life and having a booze cocktail or two, maybe a little green beer, maybe smoke a little green tree, have the time of your life. And in memory of not only St. Patrick, but your Irish friends who like to enjoy the shit out of life. Now, I'm not saying life is always good for the Irish. Folks have been a very blue collar crew since the very beginning. And if you look at the history of what the Irish have done for the United States of America, I think people would have a lot more respect for what the Irish have done and what they've built and who they fought for and how they fought for this particular country. But on this St. Patrick's Day, all we say is Cilantia. And we hope you all get a chance to enjoy life for a little bit in honor of your Irish brethren. Now, with that being said, we decided to stay in the blue collar jeans. And we have two Italians on today, two of the greatest Italians in sports history. Coach Izzo of Michigan State, greatness icon, obviously for the Spartans, will be joining us in the next hour. And the godfather of New York, Coach Pitino of St. John's Johnny's. The rise of the Red Storm on Vice is currently electrifying. He'll be joining us about 19 minutes or so and then at 40 will have the commissioner of the SEC, Greg Sankey. Okay? He's got 14 teams in, in the tournament. Nobody's pumped. That's a record. In the history of the tourney, how many teams did they have like 10 years ago? Like six or something like that? Four maybe. Then he got eight, then they were down to six. And post Covid, you start looking at the numbers of how much the SEC has invested in basketball. Now they have a record 14 teams in the NCAA tournament, which is obviously a record. Can't wait to talk to Sankey about that and let him know. Everybody's pissed. Everybody's pissed. No league is good enough to have 14 teams in the tournament is what people are saying on the Internet and around the world. But also most people are saying West Virginia got screwed. West Virginia, the Mountaineers. Now listen, has it Been the highest of highs for the Mountaineers over the last five, 10 years. In sports, our rifle team just won another national championship. Boom. How you doing? Keep it moving. Our gymnastics team, I believe is the top 40 program on Earth. There's other sports that are obviously soccer team dominating both men's and women's. So you talk about sports. In West Virginia there's been a lot of success. But at the men's basketball, men's football, there hasn't been, you know, the national moment for a while. And I think that was held against us. Coach devries, now there's a lot of future conversation about him maybe leaving West Virginia, which sucks completely because he and his son, you know, came into West Virginia, in the city, in the state, in the university. Really love these, these two, you know, they're saying he's going to leave. I'm hoping he doesn't. I'm hoping that he has a little bit of an axe to grind because how this season ended. But they held against us that his son, his boy got hurt. His boy got hurt. Whenever Rich Rod's introductory press conference happened, that was two months, three months ago. And they used that against him for going into the tournament. Now with that being said, in football, obviously Florida State was on like their fourth string quarterback. Third string quarterback. That all happened like the last games of the year, like boom, bang, pow, everything happened. This has been like a long time. This kid hasn't been playing. And in 111 of these so called bracketologist specials, people, you get it. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

West Virginia was in the tournament. Now wouldn't have been a high seating. Obviously we should have played a lot better throughout the season and you know, certainly had a little bit of a get back a setback. And we didn't do well in the Big 12 tournament either. Lost very early. But in 111 of these so called experts brackets, we were in. West Virginia was in first time ever a team has been in all 111 bracketologies brackets and didn't make the tournament. So obviously they're holding something against West Virginia that is just another chip on the shoulder. Obviously it's bullshit. We don't love it, we don't like it. Play better, you're indefinitely. But nonetheless, West Virginia will be back. Okay, West Virginia will be back on top in all the big sports. And it starts with the football program. Will that start next fall? We're not sure. Will that be in the next two years? I believe it. And this West Virginia basketball team obviously had a great year this year. Not good enough I had a good year this year. Not a great year this year. In a conversation to make it the top 68 is, you know, you can't be getting too upset in that entire thing. But with that being said, West Virginia got screwed. And you know who benefited from all this? Who's that? The University of North Carolina, who I think we're all starting to hate, I guess. Are we all starting to hate University of North Carolina?

[Ty Schmidt]

I think so.

[Pat McAfee]

Is this just because of what happened? So riddle me this. The athletic director of unc, Bubba Cunningham, okay? Big Bubba, and obviously his name came up because I think he wasn't the biggest fan of Mack Brown. Mack Brown was the head coach of the football team. What does Bubba want versus what does the chancellors want? What? Ba ba ba ba ba. Bubba's name has been, you know, through the tabloids and the headlines. We shall say, especially whenever you're the athletic director of a program, esteemed program like University of North Carolina, especially in that Tar Heel blue with Jordan and everything they got going on, people are going to talk about Bubba Cunningham. Especially when your name is Bubba. That's not a very normal athletic director name. Got Bubba calling his shots down there in North Carolina. Well, everybody's saying Bubba did call a shot. Bubba was the head of the selection committee chair, whatever the hell it is. And he also gets a $104,000 bonus if North Carolina makes it. Bubba's made a lot of money. Okay? Bubba's made a lot of money. About $104,000 check coming around. That's not a bad thing to take place. It's hard not to automatically say, well, this seems to be a little bit contrived, doesn't it? The last team in that got in over, I think there's multiple teams that are not necessarily through. Indiana was the second team out. Now once again, play better. I'm pissed off about it, too. Who, who, who? Hoogers are a basketball place now. Granted, Signetti's got him playing great. Football as well. Could be a fantastic sport. University not making the tournament sucks. But UNC makes it over them, and they have. Well, obviously West Virginia is pissed. And then Bubba's sitting up chair of the whole thing, getting $104,000 bonus because of this. It's hard not to be like you cook the books. Hey, Bubba, I've met some Bubbas before. They weren't above cooking the books, okay? And I know you are probably a fantastic athletic director. Congratulations on getting Bill Belichick down there. That's a big play. They've also said that you guys are all in obviously football wise. That was a part of Bill Belichick Owen there. So I assume there's some good that you have done and I'm sure you are respected by a lot of North Carolina people. But I'll tell you what we think at West Virginia. We think this crooked son of a bitch went in there and he said he wasn't in the room when North Carolina Carolina was being talked about. Okay, Were you in a room when West Virginia was getting talked about? Did North Carolina get brought up when West Virginia was getting talked about? Because if it doesn't, then I don't think you guys are doing your job properly. So nonetheless, Bubba, I know it's a hard job. I know we're talking about 64 to 68 here. Although there's automatic bids of teams like everybody's mad North Carolina is going to get in. Then I saw the same people on CBS Sports that were upset about it say they're going to beat San Diego State. So like you're not supposed to be in Tournamen, but also about to probably win their first round. Not saying it's guarantee, I'm saying that's been the chatter. So there is madness already begun in March and people West Virginia aren't happy.

[Connor]

Not at all.

[Pat McAfee]

People of Indiana aren't happy. No. And that happens to be a large part of my Rolodex. So I got a lot of texts from people saying you can be a coward tomorrow. And because ESPN is one making these decisions. You think ESPN wants Bubble Cunningham to look good? That's what you think. Why do you think that is the case? Why do you think they want to put over the ACC now over everybody else when I thought all they want to do is put over the sec? Well, they do want to put over the. That's why they got 14 teams in there. It's like, okay, who are we pissed at? Yeah, are we pissed at Sankey? Are we pissed at espn? Are we pissed at Bubba? Are we pissed at the committee? I'll get to the bottom of it because fuck everybody. Now with that being said, go Johnny's Go Johnny.

[Connor]

Come on now. Go Johnny red storm's coming.

[Pat McAfee]

St. John's team won the Big East. Hey, who was the team that won the last couple Big east and what did they go on to do? Let's go to the talks table at Boston. Connor. Happy St. Patty's who, who won the Big east the past couple years?

[Connor]

That'd be UConn and happy St. Patty's Day to you too.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Connor]

And then UConn I believe, if memory serves me right. And granted, it is St. Patrick's Day, so yeah, we've been making fun of Italians and drinking beers all morning, but I believe they went on to win every single game by 10 plus points on their way to back to back national titles.

[Pat McAfee]

So is that what St. John's going to do? We shall chat with Pitino here in about Coach pitino in about 12 minutes or so. Ty Schmidt. I know there are some people in the back that are saying Big east or I'm sorry, the Big Ten. I got a chance to go down and watch Big Ten basketball, something. Michigan back on top. Congrats to the Big Ten champs, Michigan. You guys fired your coach. Allegedly. You guys are going to take West Virginia's coach, bring him back to Iowa. I hope you don't do that. Obviously the guy's building something special over there. Supposed to be a mountaineer, but if he's go back home, everybody will be like, yeah, this is always going to happen. You know, that whole conversation. Big Ten basketball though, Michigan State's the team. We got to help here. Michigan going to be able to go in shot. Because I watched this Michigan State team win, lose to Wisconsin with my own eyes. Obviously got studs everywhere. Jay Rich's kid is a. He's a. He's a real guy. Atkins at kins. What's his name? Atkins? Yes, Atkins. He has this swat four feet, I mean 15ft in front of me probably. He was flying through the air. You got coach Izzo, obviously he's gonna be joining us next hour. Is Michigan State gonna be able to go on a run? That Wisconsin team beat him and then Wisconsin obviously lose the Michigan. Michigan great. I think early then they got a little bit of a downtime. Now they're back being great. How's the Big Ten going to fare in this entire thing?

[Ty Schmidt]

I think Michigan State will be pretty solid. But you talk about, you know, perceives it. I mean, Michigan wins the, you know, the conference tournament and they're so they're playing their best ball of the year. They get a 5 seed in the tournament. So it's kind of like, yeah, I.

[Pat McAfee]

Saw they beat Wisconsin twice, they beat somebody else twice, and they got seated lower than those people. What the hell is the selection committee doing? Everybody's mad about UNC over West Virginia and Indiana. There's a lot of other issues. Everybody's saying about this election committee as well.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. But a lot of teams in the Big Ten, I Think Foxy would attest to this. Not only is this probably a down year for the Big Ten, but you got a team like Michigan State who should be there. They're talented, they have one of the best coaches. But teams like Wisconsin, like, they're one of those teams where if they shoot the ball well, they might score, you know, 90 points and could beat anybody. And if they don't, like, their defense is unbelievable. But we're looking at, I mean, the Big Ten championship in the first half, I think it was like, you know, 29 to 26, a bad basketball. You get a lot of that in the Big Ten. So it's one of those things where a lot of these teams, if they shoot well, they can beat anybody. But if they're not shooting well, like they could, they could get beat by 30, by anybody. And that's kind of the problem with the Big Ten.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Big 12 didn't get as many teams represented. I. I saw their commish came out, spoke a little bit. Obviously the ACC is having a down year for the ACC. So all eyes are on the SEC, which we'll talk to Sankey here in about 30 minutes or so to get his thoughts and opinions on the amount of people saying the SEC's bullshit. Now quickly, 1/2 of the hammer down Cowboys AP Town with a sweet hoodie on Happy St. Patty's to you as well. Who's the odds on favorite to win this entire thing and what are some lines that we should keep an eye on?

[AJ Hawk]

That would be the Duke Blue Devils. They are the odds on favorite even without Cooper flag right now. They assume he's going to play here at some point, but they are your odds on flavor favorite. And then you got the two big dogs, Florida and Auburn at the top of the sec. Obviously we talked about the SEC and how many teams they have. They are just littered with favorites up there to. To win the tournament. But as of right now, Duke is your favorite. And then you know, the SEC teams and you know, Houston teams like that that are. And then of course your guys, you guys, Johnny's.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you.

[AJ Hawk]

One of the favorites.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Florida. Florida. I watched them against Tennessee this weekend. Got got a chance to watch all these championship games. You know, it's fun to kind of like dive in back into basketball. And it was, it was watching that Florida team very good.

[Connor]

Thoroughly enjoyed it. And I haven't watched any college basketball.

[Pat McAfee]

All year and I think Tennessee teams.

[Ty Schmidt]

Very good as well.

[Pat McAfee]

And then getting a chance to watch Michigan State, Wisconsin number nine for Wisconsin Light Skinned kid, I didn't know his name. Killed us. He's got a gun. This kid was so good. He was real. It was like I got real excited to get back into the madness of March. And speaking of the Madison March, last thing here as we wrap up. Pete Tamils reporting. The West Virginia politicians plan to announce action against the NCAA in tournamen selection committee later today tied to wvu. Snub worth noting there that now Governor Patrick Morrissey was the attorney general in the state who successfully challenged the NCAA transfer rules. If you remember, that was because, like, people were getting paid. So like you're taking away employment opportunities by only one transfer happening. If you do recall this at the beginning of the nil, Patrick Morrissey was the Attorney general. Now he is governor one in November. Follow up, this is him replying to it. Yep. Today I'm joining a West Virginia attorney general to announce actions against the National Corrupt Athletic association live stream at 1pm right here on X. Governor Patch Morris, he said, listen, I. I wanted to do this as an ag. I did. Now I'm governor. So I got a little bit more say. I'm sick and tired of what's going on at the ncaa. Good luck over there. I don't know if they'll be able to overturn it in a few days. Maybe Western gets an attorney and maybe because all this momentum that they're going to be able to go on a run, which I do like that the state's like, no, yeah, this is bullshit. Yeah. We're not going to do. We're going to. We're going to need some answers. Okay. You're not just answering Reese Davis, who did a great job in his interview. You're going to have to be answering a court of law, brother. Okay, who said what? At what time? Can we get a transcript of what happened in those meetings? Hey, bubba, you said you weren't in there when North Carolina was being discussed. That's interesting because the notes that I see here, you were eating a muffin in the corner of the room. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's what he's readily and willing to do. Former suit. Suit, obviously. So he's ready for the suit. Excited for all that. The madness has already begun before the game started. And that is a magical thing. Now let's go to the NFL. Massive deals were done over the weekend. T. Higgins, Jamar Chase, highest paid. Congrats to them. We'll talk more about that in a matter of moments. But at the DB position, there was a signing that ruffled the entire Numbers of every salary cap across the NFL. Derek Stingley Jr. Of the Houston Texans signed for 30 mil a year. This comes a few days after JC Horn of the Carolina Panthers side for 25 mil a year. There was a convo about maybe the DB market being down. Now we're seeing 89 million guaranteed over three years for an absolute stallion in Derek Stingley Jr. Ball Hawk. Joining us now, everything DB good D, bad D. Host Darius J. Butler.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yo, yo, yo. What's good? Y'all got me.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. You look fantastic. Where are you at currently? So we can tell everybody?

[Darius J. Butler]

We are back in New Orleans where we work for the super bowl, obviously, but now we're here for a huge volleyball tournament for my daughter. Shout out to you. Gave her some great tips Playing a new position this weekend, outside hitter. She usually libero the back line defense, and now she's up near that net. So they've been. They've been kicking ass, having a great time out here. A lot of. I feel like a kind of a bum because I'm not in the St. Patty's spirit. A lot of green out here. Big St. Patty's town out here. Was not aware of that.

[Pat McAfee]

What's your problem? What is your problem? Thought you were Irish. Honestly. Yeah, you're Irish.

[Darius J. Butler]

The coach said they had some shit for us. I haven't got a chance to see the coach yet, so once I get into the Convention Center.

[Pat McAfee]

Uniform.

[Darius J. Butler]

Uniform, yeah. Hopefully I don't get pinched before. Before she gets it to me.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen, all you gotta do is happy St. Patty's with a D and then just keep walking. Act like you understand it more than anybody. Okay? We know you're very busy. Shout out to your daughter. By the way, I saw that spike. That was awesome. She kicking ass. A lot of floaters, huh? Serves a lot of float. Everybody floating?

[Darius J. Butler]

Not everybody. It depends on who you run into. Some of these teams, look, you got teams from Cali, Texas, Alabama, New Orleans, Florida. So you run into some of these, it's a difference. It's level. So. But that team, that was a lighter level team, but we've definitely ran into some dogs where it's one player that just controls the game every time it gets to that left side. Yaga is getting old. You gotta be careful. No free balls. No free balls.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I understand that. And the video you sent me, shout out to Maya, she had a great pass. Then she got outside. Boom, bang, pow. It was beautiful to watch. Anyways, I love it. Good dadding. Volleyball is a great sport played in high school.

[Darius J. Butler]

It is.

[Pat McAfee]

Love the sport. It was probably my favorite sport I played in high school. I think probably because there was really no pressure on what was going to happen. You know, there was no thought of like, am I going to do this for a professional? Because I just got introduced to it. But I love it. It is a great sport. Okay, let's get to the DBs getting paid. JC Horn, 25 miles a year less than a week ago now. Derek Stingley Jr. Getting 30 mil a year, 89 million guaranteed. Why do you think Derek Stingley was the guy to take this big jump in to pay for DBs? And how do you feel about the deals that are kind of unfolding now?

[Darius J. Butler]

First of all, talk about good daddy, all these guys, football is in their blood. You're talking about second, third, even fourth generation with Stingley. His grandpappy, a great grandpappy, was a New England Patriot. All SEC guys, all first rounders, all guys living up to their billing. But Derek Stingley Jr. He's just. He's a little different. Even as talented as that LSU 2019 team was. A lot of people that you talk to in that building around that program said, this is the guy. This is probably the best guy on the roster. And he's lived up to it outside of injuries that kind of plagued him throughout his college career and early on in his NFL career, but he's been healthy. He hit his stride last year, been the first team All Pro, five interceptions, played all 17 games. He could do everything. He could play off, he could play, man, you can leave him on an island, he can come up and tackle. But his ball skills, I think, separate him from the pack. Patrick Surtan Jr. Defensive Player of the year, phenomenal technician, can do everything as well. J.C. horn, once again, another guy who, if he stays healthy, he'll continue to be one of the best DBs in the league. But Derek Stingley Jr. Him and Patrick Sertan right there, 1A, 1B. As far as best cornerbacks in the.

[Pat McAfee]

League go, okay, so we looked up the numbers. Jalen Ramsey, I think, has the third highest average for per year in Jalen, though. We've seen him doing this a long time time. You know, we see Jacksonville, we see him in Jacksonville, la. Now he's in Miami. Obviously that's a very long, great career. We would say that the next generation of dbs corners, we're in a very good spot.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, we are in a great spot right now. The Quinon Mitchell of the world, even Cooper Dean, we'll see what he does to the Happy St Patty's Day leading the way for the exciting whites. But yeah, these, these guys, they're, they're doing their thing. And it's still, still a wide gap. You just saw Jamar Chase get his bag. He's getting 40, 40 plus a year. Year. And now with Derek Stingley Jr. Really, really completely resetting the cornerback market, getting 30 million a year. So it's still a wide gap there. But these guys are valuable, especially when you can travel, when you can follow that number one receiver to the left or to the right side of the defense with the guy. We got all pro money, Andy. Now who's going to be doing that following number ones, that kind of changed the defense and gives the defensive coordinator a little bit more freedom when it comes to taking the other guys away around the field. But yeah, we're in a good spot right now. As long as that continues to trend north for those top cornerbacks. That's big time for the who whole position group as a whole.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, well, good luck down there to your daughter. I hope, Hope they give you some green, you know, for a good.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, I get something I gotta get, so I gotta watch my six a lot. It's a lot of. Everybody else got green on standard white sitting there. Boom. Yeah, I get on paid, I get on board.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, good luck out there. We appreciate you joining us. Congrats to the corners, ladies and gentlemen. Dare you stay. But it was cool. He was sending me videos. Saw it on his story too, of her playing. Yeah, yeah. So he's so into it too. He was like, hey, she's playing a new position. We gotta get to a gym. We need like 30 minutes at least. Is there anything I could do? Quickly I was like, yeah, let me remember back to high school. Let me think back to a drill that we did. I don't know, if I had to teach my kid, this is what I would do. Bang. We're working while standing. Let's just get the top spin on this thing. Then we had to jump, then we had to point. And obviously she's more athletic than I would ever be. She's Darius J. Butler's daughter. And she's good, She's a good player. She's good at defense, she's good at offense. Seems like those tournaments he's really enjoying the shit out of. That's good, dad. Now, ladies and gentlemen joining us. Okay, you want to talk about dads? How about a godfather? Uh huh. Okay. How about going back to New York and turning the place upside down? And in doing so Having a documentary shot about the season and just delivering gems seemingly every single time that he speaks. Only coach in the history to take six different teams to the NCAA Tournament. The Big east coach of the year from the St. Johnny's Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Rick Pitino. Yeah, Coach. How are you, paisan?

[Rick Pitino]

I'm great, thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, happy St. Patrick's Day. I know you can't wear any green because of the school colors and everything like that, but just know that we're celebrating the hell out of you and the Johnnies over here while we're drinking some green beer. Such. Let's talk about this season. And Coach, first of all, you're electrifying every clip that comes out from you. Speaking to your team is wonderful. The one that I enjoyed most, that made me feel like I was back in the locker room is whenever you were pissed off at your guys for when adversity struck, that they continued to, like, kind of collapse. You said, who. Where were you raised that you have such a weak mentality? When do you dig in? Like, the motivation that you were giving to these guys obviously struck home. They come out and crush in the second half. Is that, like, your life motto that you're putting into your players? Like, how do you develop what messages you want to send at the time? Is that just your beliefs and how you have got here? And honestly, I fucking love listening to you, coach. And I've never played basketball a day in my life.

[Rick Pitino]

Well, thank you. I think it revolves around the structure of your team. This team is a hardworking team, but they count that misses too much. We're not a great shooting team. We rely on. On perseverance, a very strong defensive work ethic, and if we miss two or three, we deflate. And I keep telling them, you keep shooting, you move the basketball, you take open shots, you never deflate. You just get on to the next play. And we had a tendency early in the year, because we're all new to each other, of deflating. So I got him out of that. We went out at halftime of that game. We won it in the Big east final. We were down three at halftime. We came back out, we won. We got down 15 early, down three at halftime, won it by 15. So it's. It's just a matter of dealing with adversity. I. I never, ever wonder about dealing with adversity with my team. I've always concerned myself with dealing with success. With every team I've ever coached, success is so much more difficult to deal with than adversity.

[Pat McAfee]

You get comfortable. You win the Big east title, obviously, and I saw you talk to the team and to the about it, and obviously you're incredibly proud. You talk some shit, which seemingly is classic Coach Patino and that all. But what is the message to the team after you win the Big east title? Because obviously there is a comfortability about having a successful season that comes with winning a title. And now your most important basketball happens. So how do you keep everybody kind of grounded?

[Rick Pitino]

Well, we broke down a season from the beginning in three phases. Phase one was to try and have the best biggie schedule season that you could possibly have, try to win it, get in the ncaa. Then you play three games. And we tried to mimic these because we have very little NCAA experience on this team. Only two players have played in the NCAA and one did not play. Zubia. Four, who's had a great year, did not play. So we took the Big east tournament, said, okay, this is the first round of ncaa. Second game is the second round, third game and so on. And we put a lot of pressure in each game to survive and advance. So we did that. Now phase three is you're playing against teams you've never seen before. And probably if you're lucky enough to get by the first round, then you play the toughest 710 matchup there is in the country.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the next round is what everybody's talking about because could be a couple of legends. On that note, Anthony Dijiulio has a question for you. Coach Pitino.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Coach, I know it's one game at a time. Let's say you get by Omaha and then it's either or Bill Self or Coach Kyle. Do you like in that second round, potentially going against a future hall of Fame coach in those guys where you, you kind of know who their teams are, who, who their teams will be versus a coach that you've never gone against. And you don't know their style.

[Rick Pitino]

You know, it doesn't come down. Every coach in the NCAA is going to be really prepared. They, both Bill and John, know exactly what not to do because they've been been there many times. The other coach may not have been there and they're not familiar with the ncaa, but these two guys are hall of Fame coaches. They know what not to do. Their teams will be well prepared. They, they're going to have great talent, certainly. So we're super excited to be in the tournament. St. John's right now. We've turned the corner, we've built the culture and now we just got to take it to Another level. In the next few years, we hope to build it to a new level.

[Pat McAfee]

I love what you're doing, love the excitement around the city. I don't get to New York as often as I should. You know, it's a beautiful town, beautiful city. Seth Greenberg told us that you're just dominating New York. Post back page is just patino, patino, patino. And then I saw your quote about being from here and how St. John's is representing the entire city. I assume that's a massive piece of the recruiting pitch, right, to build back.

[Rick Pitino]

St. John's I think more than anything else. Think about this. At Kentucky, we went to two championship games and we were never invited onto the Tonight show with Jimmy Fallon. Here, we win the Big East. We're on the Tonight show with Jimmy Fallon. So, as you know, New York's the media capital of the world, the financial capital of the world. And if you win, everything is exaggerated. If you lose, everything is exaggerated. So you better win.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well, I think you're doing just that. It feels like that's the only thing you do. Speaking of winning, how'd your liver do against quarter Jameson?

[Rick Pitino]

I had two beers.

[Pat McAfee]

Just a little fact, a little journalism here. Ty has a question.

[Rick Pitino]

I was looking for a Jameson's commercial. They didn't hit me yet.

[Pat McAfee]

Yet. Hold on. It's on their way. You know, they got a lot going on right now at St. Patty's they were underwater. They'll probably catch up later this week. Ty has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Coach Nil has obviously changed the way college basketball is in a big way, and it's still early on. But how have you noticed, like, your booster support and Nil compared to maybe what it would have been at like a Kentucky or a Louisville? I know Mike Rapole just came out and basically said, like, hey, anything coach needs, he's going to get moving forward. So how is that whole situation been at St. John's obviously, winning a Big east tournament doesn't hurt either.

[Rick Pitino]

So obviously, Mike Ropoli along with other boosters have been great for St. John's but everything's going to change next year. So we've adapted to the. To the NIL last two years. Now it's going to change. It's going to go the revenue sharing by the schools. Each school gets 22 million. Football will dominate the pool because they have more players. So here's the luxury we have along with the other 10 Big east members, the we don't have football. So the revenue sharing will come more into basketball. We will have more money in basketball than all the football programs. So we've got a lucky break along those lines. And revenue sharing will really help the Big East.

[Pat McAfee]

Coach, you know, your journey back here to the spotlight is a beautiful one. And you know, we live in Indianapolis. We're not that far away from your previous homes. When that ended, how it ended was there. And you gave that adversity speech to your team. Was there ever a doubt that you were going to get back to this moment? Not that you did with Iona, you know, but like now you are back to being in the spotlight, being talked about as a goat again. Everybody, you know, like, did you ever have a doubt that that was going to take place? Or. Or is this always the vision to get back to the top?

[Rick Pitino]

Well, the NCAA enforcement staff is. I won't call them corrupt, I will call them inept.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Rick Pitino]

And the reason I say that is it takes them five years to decide your fate. So whether you're guilty or innocent doesn't matter. It's going to take them five years to judge you. So after five years, I get exonerated when? Well, now I'm over in Greece coaching a legendary program, Panatonikos. And to be perfectly honest with you, Pat, I thought I was going to end my career in the Euroleague, which wasn't bad, by the way. I was visiting Moscow, St. Petersburg, Madrid, Tel Aviv. I visited places I'd never experienced. Panetanaikos is like the Boston Celtics of Europe. So it was a wonderful thing for me. I learned an awful lot at age 65 being over there. So I thought that was the end for me. Then I went back to coach Iona University, where we lucky enough to go to NCAA two out of three years. And that was very exciting. And I wouldn't have moved From Iona, just St. John's was a local team and I got a chance to move over to here.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so expected to maybe stay over there in Greece or in the Euro League. And then as opportunities continue to arise. And did you get a new, I don't want to say perspective or love or hunger after the five year exoneration to reprove, like everybody can eat shit, basically. A lot of things were said about you, coach. A lot of things.

[Rick Pitino]

I think a lot of people say, well, it's great you're having a redemption. I really don't believe in the word redemption because those who judge you really don't know the facts. They really don't know either way, innocent or guilty, they don't know it. And so you take obviously if something went wrong, you're the head of the team. You have to be responsible for all actions that go on. So obviously things were done the incorrect way. I suffered the consequences. Left a great job at the University of Louisville and I talked to my team. I didn't hang my head. I took off for Greece. Didn't know one person. My wife and family did not go with me. I arrived in Athens, Greece, not knowing a person. The entire arena at halftime, when I walked out, out, there's a cloud of smoke. Everybody smoking in the arena. I was choking to death. And if I did anything good over there, I said to the prime minister, listen, you got to stop smoking in restaurants. You got to stop smoking. And we got that passed. They don't smoke in restaurants anymore, they don't smoke in arenas. So that was a great thing. The experience of coaching Panna tonight goes was about as enjoyable as anything I've ever done in coaching. And like I said, just earlier alluded to, I learned so much. The Euroleague is like the Golden State warriors with 35 year olds who didn't make it in the NBA. They had a pass cut move and the offenses were brilliant.

[Pat McAfee]

So you're a Greek lobbyist, one of the goats, and the only guy to ever take six different teams into the tournament. Now, you talked about the three years with Iona. We actually have a little year question for you. Connor has one.

[Connor]

Yeah, Coach usually doesn't take three years. Obviously you mentioned with St. John's this being your second year and things already kind of turning around. And then there's a graphic that we have, and it was basically every single school you've been at the year before, they were obviously not very good. And then by the second year of the Rick Patino coaching tenure, they are unbelievable. And you've been to the tournament, obviously, the first coach ever to win the conference tournament with five plus teams, I believe. What would you say is kind of the Coach Rick Pitino culture that gets instilled that kind of hits home for so many of the players? Year two, is it the guys you bring in after that first year, or is it the guys that are kind of already there understanding how you want them to play basketball?

[Rick Pitino]

Well, all of those combined. But let's look at it this way. You're taking over a program. Kentucky was on probation. The Knicks won 21 games. The Louisville was down and out. Providence was dead last place since the inception of the Big East. So they're all falling on hard times. You come in, you don't have enough time to recruit so the first year is just building a culture of hard work, building a culture where everyone plays with unbelievable passion. And in the second year, you bring in your own players, you've established the culture and now you're ready to go. And then from that point on, now you've built the culture. Now you have the reputation to bring in even better players, and now you've built a strong program. So it's all pretty much been the same. But the one thing I can tell you is this one of all of them means the most to me along with the Knicks, because the other programs we went into Madison Square Garden at Louisville, one back to back Big east championships and I was so proud of the guys and one team won the national championship. But this is doing it the same way. But you're doing it where you grew up, eight streets from Madison Square Garden and this is your home. The people all talk like you. When I was in Louisville and Lexington, nobody sounded like me.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you said the word prepared the way you said it earlier. And everybody was like, the hell is this guy saying around here? All the people in New York seemingly rallying around you. I was at Madison Square Garden last Monday. What a place. 20,000 some were in there. I mean, it was glorious.

[Rick Pitino]

Yeah, the Big east semifinal and the Big east final with all St. John's fans. It just brought back memories of when I was coaching. Unfortunately, I coached against Lou Konasecker, who was 100 this year and passed away. But I was coaching against Lou. Providence versus St. John's remembered. Coached against Rolly Massimino, John Thompson Sr. Jim Boeheim, P.J. calissimo, all the Jim Calhoun, all these great coaches in the Big east at that time. It was a wonderful experience for a young coach.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so let's talk about that in conferences. I went to West Virginia when West Virginia was in the Big east, obviously. Absolutely legendary run in the football world and still running in the basketball world. The SEC now is having a moment here in college hoops. Do you pay attention to all that? Is there something or a reason you would point to other than just nil and maybe the SEC investing more at these schools? Why do you think the sec, SEC is having this record breaking type season?

[Rick Pitino]

Well, obviously they have. They have more teams than just about anyone. The Big 12, Big 10 now they've all expanded where the Big east has not expanded. I've been trying to get them to expand now for two years. I think that even combining, like Coach K said, the ACC with the Big Eastern basketball would be a wonderful Thing So larger is better, certainly. But the sec, I can tell you right now from every team that I've watched, they are unbelievable. Every team you're talking Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Arkansas.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm leaving out Auburn, Alabama.

[Rick Pitino]

They're all incredible. Also great veteran coaches, you know, they're all, you pick your boy. Who do you like better? Nate Oates or Bruce Pearl? Who do you like better? John Calipari, Mark Pope? You know, they're all great, great. And they're veteran coaches who, again, know what not to do as well as what to do. So the SEC has maybe the best combination of coaches who have had wonderful experience, but so does the Big 12 and so does the Big Ten. The Big east right now has a lot of young coaches, including myself.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, absolutely. Hey, you look younger than ever. That lotion routine must be the real deal. You Italians got something special in there. You know, you pies up. Got it figured out. Big East, ACC would be absolutely bananas. That would be great basketball. Holy.

[Tom Izzo]

Yeah.

[Rick Pitino]

And I think it's necessary to combat all the people combining their conferences. We need something to, although we had five teams out of 11 make the tournament, that's great. But we need something to make it even better. And I've always believed if it's not broken and you're successful, break it and make it better. Because other people will.

[Pat McAfee]

Because other people will. You're right. Other people who have either different moments, motive, or more money will come in and try to change what is working. That's been since the beginning of time in all businesses. Speaking of business, your business, the film, who you said, every time you watch the SEC for a tournament, what do you do? Are you. How far out are you watching film and preparing your team? Is it game by game? Like, how do you prepare the Johnny's here?

[Rick Pitino]

I think what I've always done is defensively, we will prepare, do everything to go against Omaha's offense. But offensively, in the next three days, you prepare for the weekend. So let's say that it's not true, but let's say that Arkansas played a matchup zone. So in the next three days, we got to prepare for Kansas, Arkansas and Omaha offensively. So we don't go into one day prep offensively going against defenses you haven't seen. But defensively, we just focus in on Omaha.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Hey, thanks for that insight. Now I feel like a genius. You know, they've been preparing for this. This defense for the last four or five days. Sunday, you know, that's what I'm going sound like an whenever I act like I know what I'm talking about when I don't. You certainly do though. And you're a good lobbyist in Greece. I assume you'll be a great lobbyist at the Big east office. Big East ACC would be awesome, kid Me, that'd be the best basketball. That would be the best conference tournament in msg, obviously. Oh, my.

[Rick Pitino]

Matt, do you remember the pitch noggle game with against Louisville in two 2013 you 2005?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, brother. Pit snoggle and I maybe fortified just like you. A couple beers, maybe a quarter. Jameson, four to five pitchers at Club Z afterwards. Yeah, I remember pit snoggle. You got pit snoggled was the thing.

[Rick Pitino]

So we. We were playing basically 2, 3 zone because we only had seven players and the seventh player had a stress factor so he couldn't practice. So we were just playing flat 2, 3 zone. We went out there and they made. I believe it was 13 or some incredible number of threes at halftime. We cut it from 18 to 13. We went up at halftime. We had about 10 minutes. We took all the chairs. They run a Princeton offense with their great coach and we're going over at halftime man to man, which we hadn't played the whole season trying to defend the backdoor offense. And the guys were so brilliant. We won it in overtime.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Rick Pitino]

But we changed our entire season defensively in a halftime moving to chess.

[Pat McAfee]

That's good coaching. You know, it sounds like you know what the you're doing and I'm happy you did that. Beine was obviously the coach at West.

[Rick Pitino]

Beine was a tremendous coach.

[Pat McAfee]

Gansey, Beeline, pit snoggle. I'm trying to think of that. There was a Jamie on that team.

[Rick Pitino]

His son. His son was great.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Pat. Yeah, Pat was. And Gansey was a dog. Don't get it twisted. That squad was great.

[Rick Pitino]

Great.

[Pat McAfee]

Until you move chairs at halftime and caught him a man. You're an ass. Of course we could have had a great time in Morgantown, coach. We could have had a great time. We appreciate you. Good luck the rest of the way. You don't need to know this and add any extra motivation. Connor and I are all in heavy on the Johnnies, especially since West Virginia got screwed heavy on your team. I can't wait to watch you.

[Rick Pitino]

Thanks for having me, guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, the Godfather, the Rick Patino. Yeah, coach. All right, halftime changes. Yeah.

[Connor]

They were prepared.

[Pat McAfee]

They were prepared.

[Connor]

It comes down to that preparation.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. Yeah. I don't know.

[Seamus]

I don't know either.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know how you transition into the preparation there, but, Yeah, I don't have enough of a New York accent. But as soon as he said prepared on the thing there, I'm like, oh, he gets back home, too. I assume it's just dialed. Oh, yeah, up a thousand. He's the king back there. And watching them win this weekend was cool. That was a cool thing to kind of watch him do. Scared me a little bit, you know, especially because the bet that we placed on them to win it all. But then the information was immediately put. UConn won. They won one. You win, you win. You got a good squad. You got a good squad. I like that. He's like, hey, guys, we're gonna miss shots we can't shoot. Yeah. All right. So you guys get upset that you can't shoot. I know you can't shoot. So whenever you miss, let's just. Actually, the only reason why we're shooting, so you guys can have some fun. We need to be. That's a good mindset. It's all in how you frame things. I bet you Pitino it sounds like from watching his vice show every message he's delivered, I'm like, I like the way this guy talks and frames things. That's all coaching is. How do you frame something in somebody's mind to either drive them or bring out the absolute best in them? And the way he delivers his message like that, the mental toughness speech that he gave about adversity and bad battling and digging in, like, it was awesome to see him kind of deliver that. And I. The boys obviously listened and reacted in the second half, like you said, too.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like, you know, you got to empower these guys. He said a lot of the guys on this team, like, don't have any NCAA tournament experience, which, like, we've seen when you have, like, teams with older back courts and guys who have played in the tournament before, like, that really matters. But it's also a good thing they won the Big east tournament because with the selection committee, who knows, they lose that, they might be looking at, like an eight seed or a nine seed.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Maybe worse.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Well, that's. That leads perfectly into this selection committee seemingly liked one conference more than everybody else didn't.

[Connor]

Ridiculous, man.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that all about? Record breaking 14 teams in the dance. Joining us now, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, ladies and gentlemen, Greg. Psyche. How you doing, Greg? Didn't know you wanted into the selection committee's office and paid them all off. I didn't know that's what we were doing in March, Greg.

[Greg Sankey]

No, that's, that's earned, man. I can go through the record if you want. I think they said it on the show. 89% of our non conference games. I'll, I'll go through all the data.

[Pat McAfee]

For you that informs it Now, Greg, that's why we love you. Because we think you not only represent your conference in a fashion that has all your schools thankful, but you have a lot of pride in the sec. So whenever I see the reaction that I saw whenever 14 teams were selected on the Internet, I couldn't wait to chit chat with you. Going into this particular, I guess, SEC conference tournament, then into the selection Sunday, everybody talks about how great the SEC was this year. The SEC, the SEC. It's the SEC's year. Now granted, that's media fodder and people say that that is what it is. But why do you think the SEC was so good at basketball this year? Is it investment? Is it commitment? What do you think it is that really transition from you guys having four to six to eight teams in the tournament each year to now to 14 commission?

[Greg Sankey]

We had to learn some hard lessons. We spent a lot of years with, with three or four teams being in and that was it. And I think all of those words you used are part of it. I'll start with coaching. Every One of our 16 coaches has been in the NCAA tournament with one team at least as a head coach. I think six of them have been to the Final Four. A lot of depth and a lot of experience. There's the commitment. We have new arenas, new facilities, trying to manage through this new era of name, image and likeness and the transfer portal. Perhaps we've been a bit ahead, but I don't know that it really matters. If you're great at like nameums and likeness, if you don't have the right leadership in place and, and I'll really start there. To go back 10 years ago, we needed new expectations for how we performed on the men's basketball side. Side, because we, we succeeded in everything else quite candidly, but we didn't even meet our own expectations in men's basketball. And that's what's different today is we're, we're functioning in men's basketball like we do in women's basketball or baseball, softball, football, gymnastics.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, you go through the golf. Yeah, yeah, all of them. Yeah. Men's and women's is what he was talking about. You guys take a lot of pride in how you're sports do and you know, the conversation about the basketball. We need to get better in the men's basketball for the dance. I think a couple years back the Big Ten had a ton of teams. I don't remember these. 10 something, maybe 10 plus. Yeah, maybe 12. And then first round or second round, not great. Like the Big Ten ended up not performing as well. Didn't have 14 teams, which is obviously record breaking number, but had a lot. It was supposed to be the big 10 year and then got in and it was almost like upset after upset. Do you think your teams are built for the tournament to go on a big run? And how will you be talking throughout all this? If your teams do well, will there be a tweet? Oh, oh. Or are you just going to idly watch your squads go out there and compete?

[Greg Sankey]

Well, talking seasons behind us. And Pat, last Monday I sent a memo to our coaches to say, hey, whatever, wherever you're seated, wherever your sights are set, whatever your opponent, just focus. And so we want to stay focused as a group. So I'm going to own that as well. Now there is a level of pride and I think there's a level of pride in the league. Really cool set of text messages from coaches yesterday who gained access, who got in maybe as 8, 9, 10 seeds. And it's a grind for those guys. And I said back to them, I'm proud for all of us. I'm proud of what we do. On the women's basketball side, you know, we've got got every One of our 16 universities represented on either the men's or women's side. I think that stands alone. We've got two number one seeds on the men's side, two number one seed on the women's side. I think as we go forward, there's a chance for upset. Sure. When you're like 8, 9, 10, 11, you know, losing is not an upset. Yet. The level of competition this year in our league, in winning almost 90% of our non conference games, a bunch of those against high level teams, and then playing through the grind of our conference schedule on the men's side and the women's side means you're prepared for just about anything. Now you have to go meet the moment. You have to go meet the moment. And that's the question that comes up. And the records are clean. We're all undefeated at this point. And then week to week, game to game, you have to make your way through six games over three weeks to see who the national champions will be.

[Pat McAfee]

Every time you answer, I just Think to myself, I wish this guy was the commissioner of whatever league I had. You know, the amount of pride, investment, everything. You go to all these games, you talk to all these people and you're not scared to be like, yeah, our conference, we're better than you at sports. Like we are. That is our goal, that is our mission. Not only academically, but we like to play well on the, on the athletic side of this all, I love the way you chat and I think there's a lot of hate because of, you know, for a long time during the football season, the sec. SEC was a big thing for espn. And obviously ESPN has deals with the acc, they have deals with the Big East, I think they have deals with the sec. They got deals with a lot of people. But no, it's SEC sp. And like the fact that you're even on my show right now, people are gonna say that I'm in on the SEC spn. It's like, well, if the Big Ten had this many teams in there, we'd have Petiti on here too. Paisan say, Happy St. Patty's like, it's just a conversation. You've been very good to us. But I think the SEC just gets a lot of disrespect because the amount of shine in light on the sports teams from down there. Do you agree with that or do you try to not pay attention any shit?

[Greg Sankey]

Well, I hear the noise. I'll tell you one thing about the Southeastern Conference. We are not uninteresting, right? And I think people want to watch, they want to be in conversation about that, which is interesting. And whether it's 14 men's teams, 10 women's teams. You know, you go back when I threw out the Sesame street quote at game day last December, about one of these things is not like the other. Like I can only use that once. I can't use it over and over. People may interpret that as arrogance. I think that's really defining who we are, who we've become, how we want to function. We want to be unique. And I use with Pete Thamel in an article the word unicorn because we're a unicorn league. Just the historical success, it hasn't happened in over 40 years in men's basketball, basketball at the college level, the kind of non conference success, the kind of high level competition. And I'll just say from our fan standpoint, to be in Nashville for the last week, you can hear in my voice, yeah, yeah, I've got the post tournament congestion, of course, be around that, feel that environment, that Intensity that that's really unique and special and credit to what happens on our campuses in our communities. Sometime that might be a little bit over the top, but it's what makes us special, I think.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And go back to your point about the early history of those SEC schools. I think Saban talked about how, you know, there was no professional sports in any of these places. So the universities were the sports teams. They were the ones representing the entire state, the city, everything like that. So generations and generations. I'm not saying it's not like that. Like Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, you go through the big organs. Like there are places that have, have massive fan base. And I'm not saying that is just in the sec, but it feels like it's everywhere in the sec. It is like this is what we will live and die with. And the sports teams obviously are supported in a massive level. Now on that note, you did a little bit of this with Texas in Oklahoma. Now Coach Patino just brought it up literally 15 minutes ago. Go ahead, con man.

[Connor]

Yeah, Commission. When it comes to conference expansion, do you talk to other commissioners about the benefits? Do they ask you, hey, you know, how did you go about it? What is that process like? Because Pat mentioned, you know, coach Rick Pitino has been kind of lobbying to the Big east about bringing in more teams, maybe something with the acc. Is that something you talk to other commissioners about or is it more so, you know, if the right teams come along, that's when certain conferences should consider adding teams in.

[Greg Sankey]

If you want to shut a meeting down, ask me to talk to my colleagues about expansion and you will watch them run to the corners of the room. Like all of a sudden me talking about expansion is like front page headlines. What's going on? So not a lot. I really look at our expansion with Oklahoma and Texas. And again, I said this last week, if you want to go someplace and challenge yourself academically, challenge yourself at the highest level of athletic competition and not spend hours upon hours on an airpl, this is the place to be. We can get from one side to the other pretty efficiently. And you know, the last three weeks I've been on 14 of 16 of our campuses and I can make that happen much like our teams for in person meetings. When I think about expansion, I've always thought about something that's connected to who we are. And Oklahoma and Texas really represented that great universities within a geographic footprint. You know, Oklahoma, contiguous state, relationships from the Big Eight, the Big 12 days, high level expectations for their athletics programs across the board. And and that's who we are and that's why it fits. And that's probably driven other decisions. We, obviously, we're kind of early in this current round of movement, but like, the bottom line is if I roll into a meeting and say, hey, let's talk about expansion, it goes quiet really quick, quickly.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, you should tell ACC and Big east to combine forces for basketball.

[Connor]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

You should, you should. That would be. That would be awesome. Okay. You don't want that 14 to get touched. That 14 number. Getting an attorney obviously could be. Dancing Tone has a question for you. Just mentioned something about it.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Commissioner, you just talked about being on 14 of the 16 campuses and being in Nashville. And we've been with you at the national championship stuff. We know you like going to the game games with 24 teams in between the men's and women's tournament. Can you just tell everyone, like, hey, I. There's too many teams in. I'm just going to stay home and watch these.

[Greg Sankey]

No, I'm not. I'm going to go. So I'll tell you, a long time ago, I'll tie the Rick patino thing. In 1986, I thought he was going to be a high school basketball coach in upstate New York. He was speaking in a coaching clinic when he was at Providence. It was the year that Billy Donovan was a senior. They went to the Final four. So like October 86, he spoke for three hours and it was rivet. Just like went by in 10 minutes. And so you go back to like the 21 year old me who was going to coaching clinics trying to figure out how to coach basketball. To be able to go and experience first and second round games in this role is a moment I cherish and appreciate. So this week my plan is to be at games in Lexington and Raleigh. I'll see five of our teams between those two places. Bounce back and forth on the men's side next week. Week, we actually, right across the street here in Birmingham, host the Women's Suite 16 and Elite 8. Hopefully have a bunch of our teams there. So I'll split my time that way. And then coming to the Final Four, you know, you don't know what happens, but I'd really, really love to be figuring out how to bounce back and forth between Tampa and San Antonio because we had a bunch of San Antonio, because we have a bunch of teams in those men's and women's final four events.

[Pat McAfee]

Buddy, the whole world is open. You guys have nobody in the final. Yeah, the whole world. I'm Saying it's crazy because in your mind it's like, hey, we got to go here now. We got to go now we're in there in the SEC probably feels as if there is like a us against world mentality all the time. But it got. Especially with a record breaking number of teams, you know, a record breaking number of teams getting in there after West Virginia gets absolutely hosed. Absolutely hosed. Commish, I don't know how you can change it, but you, you need to, okay, you need to change everything that happened in West Virginia. Maybe let us in the sec. Something about something think about.

[Connor]

It'd be good.

[Greg Sankey]

That makes people nervous when you start saying that I was going to put you on the selection committee. That could fix it as well. So you got two ways you can go there.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah. Oh, hell yeah. And it seems like I might watch more college basketball than people that are in there. And I, I watch next to none. Yeah, exactly. So don't laugh, don't laugh. Don't laugh. Commish can't be laughing at that.

[Greg Sankey]

I'm not. I smiled some and then I self corrected so that people wouldn't interpret anything from that facial reaction.

[Pat McAfee]

Smart. That's a good play. That's why you're the best. Commission. Last question here. Speaking of your conference. Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Commission. So obviously we're coming off a national championship where the Big Ten wins in football and then you have a record breaking season in basketball. Do you think it would be fair to say that it's kind of trending towards, towards the SEC becoming a basketball conference? I know it's, you know, it's different down here and all that kind of stuff. But do you think that narrative will get started all after you have a season like this?

[Greg Sankey]

First I'm thrown by the Iowa gear in front of you and not on you. For the first time that we've ever.

[Ty Schmidt]

Been together, going through some tough times right now.

[Greg Sankey]

Reconfigure. We want to be in everything when you go. I mean, Pat's the one who threw in gymnastics. I think we've got 1, 2 and 3 in gymnastics nationally right now. Baseball, baseball, 1 in softball, you know, I haven't checked the golf and tennis rankings, but we gotta be close. There was a point a couple weeks ago where we had 14 teams or 14 sports in competition and we had the number one ranked team in 12 of those sports. That's what we want to be.

[Pat McAfee]

Damn.

[Greg Sankey]

And when we go through this change, we talk a lot about out opportunities across the board. We want to be great in everything. And I think we can do that. Now. We're going to go through change as we. We deal with name, image and likeness payments and this revenue sharing stuff out of a legal settlement if it's approved. But that doesn't change our aspirations.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, we have a heart out here in like 90 seconds. You saying 12 out of 14 sports currently being played have SEC school is the number one overall team. Is that good? I don't know. Know, everybody can keep getting mad. We just stay committed to sports down there, which is why I think a lot of us who understand what's going on down there have such appreciation, respect for it. Quickly, though, you just mentioned that their revenue sharing, that's going to go through, we all just assume. I mean, that's been the conversation basically for the last six months.

[Greg Sankey]

Well, we have a responsibility to prepare, but that's up to a judge, not to me.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, but everybody is acting as if it's going to go through. Right.

[Greg Sankey]

As far as the behavior, I understand they're preparing for that reality. But again, again, whether a settlement is finalized is up to the court and to the judge in the courtroom, not. Not to me.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, so let's hope that it goes through. Let's hope that judge goes hammer on some regulations on college sports going forward. We appreciate you so much, Commish. Good luck the next few weeks with your conference.

[Greg Sankey]

Thanks, guys. Good to be with you. Be well.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, that Nashville voice is sounding fantastic. We've all heard it. Ladies and gentlemen, Greg Sankey. We became a fan of Greg Sankey during COVID which a lot's coming out now. I'm learning. If you were just to scan some things, like some new article, new articles coming out, just big publication. Yeah, I think so. A publication that's potentially. Anyways, we're all learning and we all need to remember it for the future. But remember, there were some conferences that were saying, we're not playing football, we're not playing football, we're not playing football. Sankey came out and said, we're playing football. Okay. I don't know what everybody else do. We're playing football. Football. Then some schools were trying to get to the SEC and then all of a sudden kind of forced everybody else's hand to continue to play football. That's when we met Sankey. We're like this guy. This guy loves ball and he's always been good to us. People are hoping his schools lose. He's saying, I don't think that's the case. The second half of the basketball season.

[Darius J. Butler]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Rick Pitino]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Darius J. Butler]

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[Rick Pitino]

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[Pat McAfee]

So you can look like cake. You got goals, we've got results. It's GNC baby. Visit yourgnc or gnc.com Patties Day is happening currently in obviously. We hope you all have a moment to take a breath and enjoy your life and cheers to your Irish, you know, family, compadres, brethren. You named it. Just a slaunche to forget about the worries and the bad times and to have a good time. In the name of the fine Irish folks, the toxic table is here at Boss of Connor not Ty Schmidt Con man. Like seeing the green jacket on this St Patty's Day alongside the Kangol.

[Connor]

Yeah, it's one of those days that you look forward to. You know I also have my timing Robinson T shirt on. Just kind of my favorite one that I have. It's just one of those things that.

[Pat McAfee]

Reminds that's first day of school shirt right there.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It is kind of first day of school shirt and you wear that on St. Patty's Day. As an Irishman you want to have your best fit. You want to be doing everything you Can. To enjoy the day to the fullest. And that's what we. We've been doing. You know, I mentioned in the first hour, we've been, you know, drinking Guin Eye and making fun of them, and there's nothing more fun than doing something like that on a day like today.

[Pat McAfee]

I believe it is Guinness. I. Or excuse me. I don't. I'm not 100% sure that's on me. We.

[Seamus]

That's.

[Connor]

We were saying. We're saying get high in Ireland, so I figured we kind of.

[Pat McAfee]

You were saying plural.

[Connor]

Plural. Guinness.

[Seamus]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We had a good time in Ireland, by the way. I hope everybody's having as good a time as we did over there.

[Connor]

They definitely are. On a day like today.

[Pat McAfee]

I hope they are. We had a blast over there. I don't know what's going on over there day to day. I guess my algorithm showcases. I guess because my name's Patrick McAfee, they're like, you're gonna want to see this, bub. And I'm like, oh, okay. I hope it all gets figured out. Obviously, we can't wait to get back there. The more events that Ireland hosts, the more opportunity it is for us to go over there. So every time we get a chance to, you know, say, do we want to go to Ireland? Everybody in here goes, yeah, yeah, we would like to go to Ireland. Ireland's a fun time. They took care of us mightily. And obviously, there's another college football game. I believe Iowa State is in that game.

[Ty Schmidt]

Iowa State, Kansas.

[Pat McAfee]

There's an NFL game obviously happening over there. A lot of things taking place in Ireland. We will enjoy it as we will enjoy the Irish today. One half of the Hammer Done Cowboys. AP Tone is here. Enjoy. Joining us live from an addict in Ohio, ladies and gentlemen. He's a college football national champion, a Super bowl champion, a Rider cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawk. Oh, green hoodie. Green hoodie on AJ Hawk.

[Connor]

Good lad.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey.

[Seamus]

Happy Patty's Day, America. That's what Connor told me this morning. So I strapped my green sweatshirt on. Yeah, it's a big day here. I live in Dublin, Ohio, so St. Patrick's Day is obviously a big day.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of drunk whites rolling around tonight. I can't wait to see the photos or the rollout. Happy St. Patty's to you, bub. And it's. It's a glorious day. You know, maybe. Maybe a little shamrock, maybe a little lucky, you know?

[AJ Hawk]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, didn't get lucky AJ over the weekend.

[Seamus]

Who's that? I heard You a little bit upset, huh?

[Pat McAfee]

West Virginia, Indiana and Ohio State. You need to start speaking up, too, pal. You have a platform. Obviously, you're a former president of Ohio. Ohio State got screwed in this entire thing as well, pal. Yeah, they did.

[Seamus]

The thing is, Ohio State, when they dropped their first game in the Big Ten tournament, I think everyone kind of knew their chances were very slim to get in. Now, West Virginia felt like they got even ripped off even more than the Ohio State team. So I guess we just had a couple days to prepare for this.

[Pat McAfee]

We dropped our first game in the Big 12 as well.

[Seamus]

Well, I don't know what you guys were thinking after that, but I know we still have State fans. Thought we we missed our opportunity. We missed our chance here.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, our Quad one record. So good. Was so good.

[Connor]

Six wins in Quad one.

[Pat McAfee]

What do we got? Quarter Quad one, Quad two, Quad three and Quad four. Four, if whatever. We go to make decisions. We don't care if it's the first quarter or fourth quad. Yeah. Because UNC 1 and 12 or something. In good quad games.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

West Virginia, undefeated in good quad games. Maybe one loss. So you tell me how that works out. Oh, I know how. The guy running the whole thing is getting 104 racks if his team gets in. And all of a sudden, he said he leaves the room. Okay, Bubba. Okay, Bubba. I would like to let Bubba know that I understand he is a man of honor. I would assume some people would say that to know him. I understand he's probably a phenomenal athletic director. And I would hope that my athletic director would be in a room where it happened, making moves through, trying to get my school in there. That's why I'm saying Ren Baker. Hey, we need to get you in the room where it happened, Ren, so you can do some handshaking and maybe a little bit of moving and rattling and saying, you know, next year, maybe we shake your hand. If your hand's located maybe still on your wrist or anywhere else, you know, or if you need us to shake, rattle and roll, we'll be able to do that. Ren Baker obviously said he was devastated for the team, disappointed for the team. Coach Devries, who is potentially not going to be the coach of the Mountaineers much longer, which is the rumors around. Are you guys hearing the same rumors in Iowa?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep, that and Drake's head coach as well. But apparently his buyout is pretty hefty, so I don't know if that is. But that is, yes, that he is linked to Iowa heavily.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so I mean, that's what's happening in West Virginia. So, yeah, it's a bummer, but we have to pick another team now. West Virginia said no to all tournaments, by the way. We said no to all of them.

[Connor]

Respect.

[Pat McAfee]

Nit. There's another one. No, we're not doing. I mean, maybe, but it also might be because the coach, you know, it all feeds the speculation that a coach who is a guy seemingly good for West Virginia, his boy, good for West Virginia, and then we get him, and then all of a sudden he's gone. It's just like, that's tough. That's a heartbreaker. That is. That's a heartbreaker. Speaking, especially if we're supposed to be an attorney, we're not. So. Con man and I kind of put our wagon on the St. John's Johnny horse. Even more so after talking to Patino in the last hour. What a legend of a man. Now, granted, that could change here in about 14 minutes. Whatever. Coach Izzo, Michigan State joins us. We might. We might latch our wagon elsewhere, but since Ohio State is not in, what is the team that you are potentially pulling for? I. I don't think. Yeah, I guess we pick St. John's are pretty high up. It could be anybody. What team are you latching?

[Connor]

No one seats.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, no one seats.

[Seamus]

Okay. No one seats. When I was a kid, whenever I throw out a bracket, I always had Duke winning no matter what. I grew up a big Duke basketball fan.

[Pat McAfee]

Stay with Duke. You got Duke. Okay. We need somebody to represent Duke on this particular program.

[Seamus]

Give me Duke.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so you got Duke. All right, Tone, who you going with?

[AJ Hawk]

North Carolina.

[Pat McAfee]

I like what they did. Okay, North Carolina now fair what they do, Tone. Well, they potentially, you know, their way.

[Seamus]

Is this the first time anything like this has happened? This blatant?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So the stats that are coming out are interesting, like West Virginia. And I don't know if this is a real stat, and I don't know who is the 111 people. There was 111 bracketologists or something that fill out their projected brackets. I don't know if it's media or pundits or experts or whoever it is. This is the first time ever that all 111 had one team in, and then they don't go in. So not even one out of the 111 experts thought that West Virginia was not going to be in there. And it's all because the Quad won. Shit. The Quad one record, the Quad two record, all the points, some of the wins, and yada Yada, yada. Now, granted, they exited early from the Big 12 tournament, so that was probably held against them. DeVries got hurt like months ago. They held that against him, too. It's like, okay, a lot of basketball has been played since that took place. But yeah, a lot of people are saying it's the first time in the history of basketball it's happened. Even though every single year we're talking 64 to 68 here and people are upset about who didn't get in. Which reminds us, whenever we're talking 12 team playoff for football, they can make this thing 100 team playoff and 101, 102 are going to be pissed about not having the opportunity. I changed my mind.

[AJ Hawk]

I immediately regretted my decision.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. Who are you going with?

[AJ Hawk]

I'm going to go with Bruce Pearl and Auburn. I like the way he talks about his guards.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep. He talked about his guards in a fashion and said they were tough. Now he said it differently and obviously, obviously there were some on the Internet. They're like, you can't say that. Well, it's the real world. Everybody else was like, yeah, it's probably how a basketball coach talks to his team and we're finally getting actual sports coverage. Like, hey, this is actually what it sounds like whenever a coach is talking to it. Yeah, but I don't like the way it sounds. Well, that's on you. We're just telling you how it actually goes as opposed to everything else. You saw his point guard was like, yep, absolutely. And Bruce just kept rolling. He sat it and then just kept rolling. They had to stop him almost and be like, do you know what you. Oh, I don't. What are we talking about? Yeah, that's the reason why our team's different.

[Connor]

It's a compliment.

[Pat McAfee]

Guys will get down the pack. Yeah, this. It's a compliment. Hyping up the boys here. I'm hyping up the boys in this entire thing. You're right. I mean, Auburn could certainly have a squad. Tennessee look good. Florida look great. Ty, what team are you picking? Because your team doesn't even have a coach right now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I'm going to roll with Drake. I'm going to stick with Iowa, the state of Iowa. And I'm going to go with the Drake Bulldog, who a lot of in 29 and 3, a lot of people said they got job getting an 11 seed as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so we have our teams now that we're picking. I would like to showcase another one of the small schools that got in for the first time ever And I guess the way people are talking about it down in Carolina, the school is a good time.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

When High Point University, the Big south champs, got announced into the bracket, their place went ape. Look at this video of AJ that's awesome. I mean, that's what it's all about.

[Connor]

Huge pop.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what it's all about. They packed that whole arena out just because they already knew because they were champs. So they're automatically in. It's like, let's just go find out where we're going to be. And then also, so let's go berserk and let the world know how appreciative and pumped we are about this. I hope High Point does well. I hope they go on a magical run strictly because of the way they were rolled into my life, which is them getting announced, they're seating in the tournament.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Seamus]

I don't know, like, how much if you guys know a lot about High Point or not. The only thing I knew, like, High Point was where my wife goes there for a big interior design, like, thing twice a year. And then I hear their college there is gigantic for, like, CEOs and big time business school and networking and everything. I don't know what you guys. If that's true or not.

[Pat McAfee]

So what we heard, and I think Connor knows a little bit more, so he'll go here in a second. What I heard from a lot of people is they have a good time down there. I heard it is a good time.

[Seamus]

Very nice. Very nice. And you get set up for life if you do. If you do the right thing when you go to school there.

[Pat McAfee]

Right here. And Good Time University, from what I heard. Yeah. People were talking about, like, not a lot of people make it, you know, because good timing so much is what I heard.

[Seamus]

Yeah.

[Connor]

AJ Kind just said, you know, if. If you do the right thing there, you're set up for good. But that's about 1% of the student body that does the right thing. I believe they have a couple pools on campus you can just go. Outdoor pool.

[Pat McAfee]

I guess you got to pull in the middle of campus, like, go shoot the shit.

[Connor]

Just hanging out there. I actually did. I know a guy, took him eight years to graduate, and he didn't regret one of those years, even though it did cost him about, you know, half a million dollars to get through, to get through his time there. But most people who end up at High Point, if they're not from, you know, warm climate, they don't last at High Point. They have to go back up north, go back to the cold and actually go to school somewhere.

[Ty Schmidt]

Which I believe is why they have like an 80% acceptance rate. Like, it's. I've looked at like, you don't even need to take like the ACT or the SE SAT to get in there. It's. It's not, you know, like, so pretty much way off.

[Seamus]

My bad. I'm way off on this school then. My bad.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You're saying a lot of things that I complete opposite about.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, I'm.

[Seamus]

I'm going off. When one person told me that's the problem I'm doing, I didn't check. I didn't check this person when they told me all this information. Like, oh, that's pretty cool, man. That's great.

[Pat McAfee]

Because I saw the video and I'm like, I love this place. Holy hell, I love this place. So I come in here this morning. Another coastal elitist, Bruce knew some people that potentially went down to High Point. Then we started looking into it. I think, I think there was comparison to South Harmon Institute of Technology, which I love. I. I absolutely love that. But the way they reacted to the seating, it's like, that looks like a place I would love to go to. And I assume there's going to be even more people now. What did you learn in more of your research?

[Ty Schmidt]

Like I said, you know, it must be because they like to have a good time down there. If you're letting 80% of the people who you know want to go to your school in, a lot of people are dropping out. So I think it's very, very easy to get in there, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's kind of a come one, come all situation. And guess what? If you can't hack it here, at least you have a great story to tell. After a year or two.

[Pat McAfee]

We hope. I don't know what their football team, if they have a football team, but we hope they have a massive football game someday and would love to come to a show there. Would love come to High Point just because the energy that is seemingly around that university. Let's pivot away from the madness. We'll dabble back in about seven minutes or so when Michigan State icon Coach Izzo joins us. Let's talk about the NFL, most specifically Cincinnati, Ohio. They get Ja'marr Chase and T. Higgins deals done. Ja'marr Chase becomes the highest paid non quarterback in the history of the NFL. 40.25 a year. You see, if Myles Garrett's going to get 40, I'll get a little bit more than that. He certainly did. And T. Higgins becomes the highest paid number two wide out in the history of the NFL, both over $100 million. Now, granted, the Super bowl champions have paid two wideouts at a very high, high clip. They also paid a quarterback a high number. They've now paid their running back at a high number. And they were able to win the Super Bowl. Now, they had a lot of young dogs on the defense. They were able to build up an offensive line, become the best in the NFL and go on a run. What does this deal or these deals say to you, A.J. and what is most important now for the Bengals to get back into the relevancy of the Super Bowl? They're going to be able to score. They're going to be able to light it up, I think if they hit on a couple key pieces. Welcome back, Bengals. Is that how you're feeling? Is that. Is that how Ohio feels?

[Seamus]

Yeah, I think. I mean, this is like a. I feel like this is a. A turning point for the, The Bengals as a franchise, as an organization. What, what do you think of. When people think of the Bengals, they think, oh, they're family run, they're cheap. They don't want to spend money. They're not going to do this. But we, we know, we've talked about the indoor facility they have now, and I didn't think there was a chance that they were going to sign both these guys. I thought they were going only going to be able to find a way to get Jamar done. But I believe what Rap Sheet last week said.

[Pat McAfee]

It's.

[Seamus]

It's definitely possible that they're going to get both these guys done. And now they're talking about. About, you know, their, Their ongoing talks with Trey Hendrickson. If they get Trey back as well, then, yeah, we're. This is like turning the page. This is a new Bengals organization.

[Pat McAfee]

Before we dive into Trey Hendrickson for these two dudes, congratulations. And to your point about Cincinnati Bengals spending money, to the Bengals fans, congratulations. This is a fantastic time to be a Bengals fan. You got a quarterback from Ohio, Ohio. He's got his pieces that he absolutely loves and your team's investing and doing business. You talk about that indoor facility. They also sold the naming rights to the stadium for the first time in the history. So it's like, welcome, welcome to the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm excited to see if it works out now with Trey Hendrickson. There's been a lot of different reports, a lot of different, I believe Diana Rossini tweeted sources say Cincinnati is working to retain Trey Hendrickson, and discussions are ongoing going between the two sides. The Bengals are attempting to do what many in the league thought difficult and keep and pay all three of their stars. Then Jeremy Fowler put out a tweet this morning that was basically alluding the same thing about the pieces that would have to fall in place for a deal with Trey Hendrickson to take place. That feels difficult. That feels like a really difficult. That feels like a very tough move at this particular case, especially what the market is for a sack king like player. Hopefully we'll be able to learn more over the next few days, but this one feels very difficult. So I understand that they've said that they were going to sign T and Jamar and T even put out a cap thing and then they get the deal done. And I understand they said they're going to sign Trey Hendrickson as well, but in the modern world, this one feels like it's going to be difficult to get done just because he's coming off his best season, he's the best in the league, and this is potentially the last time deal is going to happen for Trey. So. So that'll be impressive if Duke does this. You're talking about magician with this entire thing and obviously we're pulling for him.

[Connor]

Yeah, it just doesn't seem possible. Like with if you look at Max Crosby, what'd he get? 91 and a half million guaranteed. And then Myles Garrett got 110 million guaranteed. I forget if that number is correct, but it was north of 100 million. And both those guys didn't have the year that Trey Hendrickson did. And sure, trace 30, 31. But then there's reports about know teams from GMs that they're calling and the asking price for Trey is impossible. Impossible to meet. Yeah. So it does feel like one of those situations where unfortunately for Trey Hendrickson, he's about to bite the hey, this is how Cincinnati does business bullet.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, Cincinnati's new business.

[Connor]

Yeah, well, we know how that works. And the T and Jamar thing is incredible. The fact that they could get that done is awesome. But, you know, you posted something on X last night and it was just a question, you know, is this style of ball is pouring $125 million in cap hit between your quarterback and two wide receivers. Is this, you know, a way to get back to the Super Bowl? Yeah, there it is. Can Cincy make it back to the Super Bowl? And I think if we've learned anything from the past two Super Bowls. No is the answer. And I know it stinks for Cincy.

[Pat McAfee]

And I was paid. Two guys got a.

[Connor]

They paid a quarterback for 100 million less than what the Cincinnati Bengals just did.

[Pat McAfee]

But salary cap went up.

[Connor]

But the salary cap did go up. Absolutely. But the thing is too, you know, the Eagles have those very pivotal positions on defense locked in with the draft and Cincinnati can, you know, absolutely draft guys. And I saw a report that was kind of mind blowing and that was that the Bengals are really going to have to nail their draft picks on defense which. Holy shit. I, I didn't even think of that. Maybe they do that and then, then they're fine and it doesn't really matter. But the thing with the Eagles is they did nail their draft picks. All of them at the most important positions. The D line in the corners. And so it's, it's one of those situations and you know the, the Chiefs even and the Rams going back to the super bowl from the 2023 season, like that was a ground and pound. Like hey, we're going to beat you up. We're going to hold on to the ball. It's going to be, you know, possession versus what Cincinnati seems to be fixing to do, which is still electrifying football like that. It is cool to watch them throw it all over the yard. And a lot of fantasy teams are going to have their players.

[Pat McAfee]

Eagles have the best offensive line in football.

[Connor]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a whole nother conversation about whenever you start comparing the team. Well, they pay. Two wide receivers paid. A quarterback even paid to running back. It's like they have the best offensive line in ball. They lose. Jason Kelce still have the best offensive line prepared. That is a massive ordinary deal. Like can. Can Joey B. Stay upright? If he can, the offense can go. Now how are you going to stop the other team? And are you going to be able to give your defense enough rest? I, I don't know. I'm excited to see their vision, you know, cuz obviously Duke is a good football mind. They were in a Super bowl just a few years ago. So can they re replicate that? We shall see. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

If I'm a Bengals fan, I'm spinning like this because. And I, I've watched terrible offensive football over the last however many years. I think it's. It's easier to get better quicker on the defensive. Defensive side. So if you are going to pay a side, I think the right side to pay is offense. So because you're not going to like. It's just the Eagles went from 26th to in 2023. In defense, they get it. They get a new DC which the Bengals are going to do. And as long as you hit on your first two draft picks and they're incredible corners, you know, and they turn out to be great. And you're off your defensive line. Youngins, they're playing well too. You know, you get pretty good on defense pretty quickly.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so congrats to the Bengals and today's boys. Trey Hendrickson. I don't want to be a bearer of negative news, but that feels. That feels like that's going to be tough. That feels like that's going to be tough. Only one year left on his deal. This from Jeremy Fowler. A few things to keep in mind as the Bengals try to extend Trey Hendrickson. Uptick in talks occurred late last week before the Higgins chase started to get locked in. There's definitely trade interest, but the Bengals have not shown an eagerness to deal him. Okay, we've heard the same thing. This will inevitably be a new money issue. Currently over 16 million in 2025. So even as Cincy offers 2 years, 60 million, that makes 3 for 76. This dynamic is a factor here. Yeah, because 90 just became 90. Something became number for Max just a few weeks ago. So, you know, how would they be able to do it? Duke was able to get it done with the wide receivers, so hopefully he'll be able to do a trade, but that seems unlikely. But if it is unlikely, how come.

[Connor]

They won't let him go get entertainment.

[Ty Schmidt]

Contain some trade talks?

[Seamus]

Yeah, well, I mean, it's all. They're negotiating through the. The media as well, I would imagine. They want to get the. If they're going to deal him, they want you to, hey, come, come throw us a few first round picks or something.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I.

[Seamus]

Which isn't gonna happen, but no chance.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's why I think that's potentially what has been happening, you know. Yeah. Hey, you want Trey Henry? Sweet. We need four. Four ones. We're not gonna do that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, we gotta pay him too.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. All right, we'll do it. You guys said you wanted them. We have them.

[Connor]

What? DK Go for DK Metcalf. Different position.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, everybody wants a first and something. And then all of a sudden reality sets in.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And it's like, we'll take a second. Yeah, we'll take a second. We'll do that for sure. And then some guys go for an absurd.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You are exactly what you're worth. And you are. Your worth is what somebody's willing to give, give. And that is just kind of how it all works out. Congrats to Derek Stingley Jr. Speaking of worth highest paid corner, 30 mil a year he's getting from the Houston Texans. This is obviously a massive signing for corners as a whole. We had Debut on in the first hour. He is currently at his daughter's volleyball tournament down in New Orleans. Good luck. Hey, let's go. Let's get some wins. He said that they run into some teams that got some high from different states, but they're going to battle just like this dude. Absolute stud. You know, Deebot brought up how injuries early kind of slowed down, but then whenever he was 100% healthy, he's become exactly what they projected for him to become. Kacerio didn't want to lose him. Kacerio paid him a shit ton of money and he becomes the third, I guess multi generational player to get broken off at the DB position. Sertane obviously gets paid a shit ton of money, J.C. horn gets paid a ton of money. Now Derek Stingley Jr gets paid a ton of money and Jalen Ramsey rounds out like the top four in DB pay. How do you feel about the signing, AJ and what were your thoughts immediately upon reading it? I was surprised with the number. I was very surprised that it was 30 a year, but I was incredibly pumped for Derek and his family.

[Seamus]

Yeah, I mean, I, I, I guess surprised by the number, but with this salary cap going up in the salary some of these dudes are getting, I mean not, not shocked by it, but Debut said it best. I mean, when you have a guy that can line up outside, he can follow the best receiver and you can trust him and you feel very, very good about that. It opens up your whole playbook as a defensive coordinator. So yeah, I give him credit for, for getting this thing done. Who knows what a corner is going to get two years from now. So good for them and good for Derek Stingley Jr. If you can cover guys and you can rush the passer defensively, you are going to get paid, that is for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so I don't want to, you know, hypothesize too much because, because you know, I'm a dumb ass. So why would I want to do that about what the future potentially looks like? But now that we're getting back to running a lot, you know, being able to man on the outside is going to be vital. So we go back now to the Darrell Revis type days, you know, whenever people are just locking people down. So you can commit more to the box because it feels like the box is going to become more important with the prevalence of running coming back into football. So if you got a guy, I think you're going to keep a guy and that means those prices should go. There's going to be a high end and then there's going to be a young group. That's what there's going to be. I don't think there's going to be any more middle ground at corner, you know, where they're going to move into safety or nickel or something like that. I think with how you're going to have to commit to the run game and I might be talking completely out of pocket. I am a doofus. But with how you're going to have to commit to the run game, I think they're going to want to have guys that can ISO. I think that is going to be a. We're either got a guy that can ISO. We're going to pay him, or we're looking for somebody that can do it. I think that's potentially the next step. A.J. you would know football better than me. Your early thoughts on my hypothesis. I. I like that.

[Seamus]

And think about, like, just think defensively. If you were a coach and you know, every team you play has whoever their number one receiver is an absolute monster. He's a complete stud. A lot of teams now have two, sometimes three guys like that. So if you at least have one lockdown cover corner that you feel great about that he can take their best player away or at least live limit their explosives. Yeah. It really opens up everything else you can do. And like you said, if you're. It is a cool time in the NFL that we are getting back to some physical downhill football when it really matters. And if you have a dude outside like that that you feel good about, it just makes your job that much easier.

[Pat McAfee]

As a play caller, Revis is literally just all right. You know, they were playing. They were playing 10 on nine or 10 on eight or whatever, you know, on that defense. Because it was just Revis is going to do revisit and then we all can now play football. Like that is. That is a weapon. You know, like Rex Ryan obviously understood that. Bill Belichick obviously understood that. And I'm not saying that there's going to be just Darrell Revis is falling out of trees, but it's like everybody's going to be looking for that now, especially with this back.

[Seamus]

It's back.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Because you'd be like, well, why would skill Positions get paid well because they need a counter so that we can. And more meat and more men at these running backs that are fast, strong and bigger than they've ever been in the past.

[Connor]

Yeah, and it's not just running backs now. You know, every single quarterback, like it was 10 on 9 when Revis was there, but it's 10 on 10 now. You know every single QB is moving around, especially the young ones that are coming into the league. Like you saw what Jaden Daniels did. I'm not saying anybody else is going to be able to do, you know that, but just looking at the QBs that are, you know, projected in the first round now. Shador, Ken, Cam, Ward, Jackson, Dart, like when we pull up their highlights, they're running, they're moving around all over the place. So like, even that aspect of it makes you think, like, okay, well, having those man guys on the outside and then to AJ's point about, you know, him getting paid, he's, he's going to be 24 in June. That's a three year extension. Like, think about when he's 28 being able to re up again and, you know, who knows where the league will be at then it might already be turned back to, you know, throwing the ball over the place.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's go back to the madness that is March. Ladies and gentlemen, it is an absolute honor to be joined by this icon from Michigan State. He became the head coach up there in 1995. Eight Final Four appearances, a National championship, obviously an absolute stud in a paisan that has led Michigan State in a way that has every Spartan fan around the globe saying, that's our guy. Legend go the best. Love Tom Izzo so much. That's Evan Fox. You have no idea. Evan Fox actually put a photo of he and Coach Izzo into the group this morning when he was 10 years old. Yep. Wow. 2005 Michigan State basketball camp right there. Ladies and gentlemen, the man from that photo alongside Evan Fox, Coach Tom is. Coach how you.

[Tom Izzo]

Well, I know your show is a little different than most, but I didn't think you guys were drinking on the show. That's a little bit too much for me. I don't deserve that, but I do. It is an honor to be on your show. I think I know my buddy Mariucci just talked to you the other day and him and I have been a long time together, so this is great. I'm a football guy at heart. I actually like football more than basketball.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, well, that's probably why your teams are so damn Tough, you know, and why we have so much appreciation. And that's what I was telling Coach Mariucci. And he said, obviously he grew up with you in Michigan, has watched this, tries to support as much as possible, says he comes to every Big Ten championship, says he's tried to get to a couple games this year that are historic. Let's talk about that now. You've been breaking a lot of people's records as you've continued to go here with Michigan State and every record that passes. Do you try to celebrate? Do you try to think back, back? Do you reminisce? Is there nostalgia? How do you handle all the. That's kind of coming with this stage of your career at Michigan State.

[Tom Izzo]

You know, Mari came in for our Indiana game. I was supposed to break Bob's record then, and we lost at home. So Mariucci wasn't invited back for a month. You know, I got rid of him. But you know what? Those, those kind of records aren't as important to me because that just means you stayed somewhere a long time. I'm. I think the records that are important to me are the banners that hang and the rings you get and the things that will last. You know, records are made to be broken. Banners are made to stay forever.

[Pat McAfee]

11 time Big Ten season champions, obviously. And you say just because the records happen is because you stay somewhere a long time. That's very rare, man. Especially nowadays. Coach, they'll get rid of people. They will can people. They will move on. Fran just got moved on in Iowa. I think a lot of people assumed he'd probably be there for a long time. But everybody in Michigan State loves you, from the football people to every single fan. It's like you embrace everything that is Michigan State. What does that mean to you? And what is Michigan State to those that maybe don't understand? What are the type of people, what is the type of culture that you try to have with your team?

[Tom Izzo]

Well, we're kind of the blue collar institution in this state and damn proud of it, by the way. But you know, Nick Saban and I started together as assistant, then we started together as head coaches and kind of had similar philosophies. And you know what I've enjoyed about Michigan State? They've been good to me. I think I've been decent to them. And you know, the blue collar ness is what I like. You know, it's a multi. There's many different kinds of people here and multicultural in a lot of ways. And, you know, we are what we are. And for the Most part, you know, I'm really proud of what we are. Mark D'Antonio came here, and we went to a Final Four. They went to a Final Four in the same year. Those are exciting times when you can do things like that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Foxy still remembers getting all boozed up. I was in college when that happened, Coach. So I went to both the Final Four in Indianapolis. Watch your team. And I watched the football team as well. One of the greatest years of my entire life.

[Tom Izzo]

Foxy, we love you for that, man.

[Pat McAfee]

We love you, Foxy. Idea. You're the legend. Foxy actually has a question for you, Coach. Okay, Coach. January, February, Izzo is an absolute real thing. I've watched it my entire life. And I just need to know, from your perspective, what's the secret sauce? How do you do it? Is it just a combination of the entire season coming together and finally you're getting hot at the right time, or do you actually, right now at this time, crank practice up, do anything different? Different? I need to know, because I've watched it so many times in my life.

[Tom Izzo]

Well, these last couple years, there was no March then because it was January, February, and things weren't as good. But, you know, for the most part, guys, we have had some luck in March. March. I said, God put March on the planet for basketball coaches. And it's been good to me. But I. I think it's a combination of things. Some good players, I think we try to. After the first couple years, Year four, we're in a final Four. Year five, we won it. And I kind of learned then that this is the new standard. Nothing else will be accepted. And you got to build towards it, you know, and you don't want to be so good in December and then not very good. You don't want to burn guys out. So we've kind of had a philosophy, and at the same time, I'm the luckiest guy in America. Why Michigan State? From Magic Johnson, Mateen Cleaves, Steve Smith, you know, Draymond Green. I mean, those guys are all calling back now this week and making sure they're threatening our guys. To be very blunt and honest about it, they threaten them. And that works better than the coach doing anything.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, the standard's the standard, okay? We will rip those jerseys off of your backs. You don't show up. I got respect for that. When the alumni buys in, especially whenever you've been around that long, it's easier to sell to the team, I would assume.

[Seamus]

Go ahead, AJ Coach, you mentioned that you like football better Than basketball. What is it about football that you love so much? And do you ever, you know, incorporate some kind of football drills? Bring the pads in, knock the guys around a little bit at practice?

[Pat McAfee]

Hell, yeah.

[Tom Izzo]

Well, I can tell you the funny story now. You probably heard it, but in 2000, when we. Or 2001, when we won the national champ, we went to three Final Fours, and we went to Ohio State, and we lost the rebound battle for the first time. And I think 18 games. And I. I said. Then I. I got back, I told my equipment man, call Saban. Tell him I need 12 sets of gear at practice tomorrow. We play a game called the war game. It's a rebounding drill. So we had practice. I was mad. I brought out the pads. All the players, you know, the six, nine guys are wondering, what the hell is a pad? So Mateen Cleaves was teaching guys how to button their chin straps. Laps. He was loving it. I was mad. I wanted to be a grind drill. They started having so much fun. For 15 minutes, we beat the hell out of each other and nobody got hurt. Now, if I did that today, I'd probably get sued, so I don't do that as much anymore. But that was fun. And you know what? I had Zach Randolph, I had some guys that got after it. And that's why we went to three straightforward Final Fours.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so hold on. I know you can't do the drill now, but let's go back in time. We're on wood with pads. Are we on a wrestling mat? Can you take me through the drill? How's this? Are we just. We just. What are we. Oklahoma drills? What's going on, Costa?

[Tom Izzo]

Oklahoma drills. I know that one, too, but five guys line up under the basket. Five guys at the three point line.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom.

[Tom Izzo]

We hit each other. And whoever gets the ball, gets the ball. And it was all on hardwood. It was a football team on hardwood. It. It was. Somebody called my team that at the Final Four that year. They said, well, that's nothing but a football team on hardwood. And he was right. But it won a national championship, so it wasn't all that bad.

[Pat McAfee]

No, we didn't get the pads back out. We didn't get the pads back out. It sounds like. I like that you have a tough team. I like that you have a tough team. I like that that's part of your culture, the blue collar. And it came out on senior night. One guy was ready to fight two people. Go ahead, con man.

[Connor]

Yeah, coach. As a football, clearly you were pretty pumped about Trey Holloman. Kind of throwing down at mid court when Michigan decided to, you know, basically do the exact wrong thing. There's actually cut up footage of them not standing there for any free throws until then. It became a little bit of a scene. And then after the game, of course, you gave the speech and kind of gave Trey that honor as a junior to kiss the logo at mid court, which is reserved for seniors only. When a moment like this happens, is this something you're showing every recruit, like, hey, you're coming to Michigan State. This is the kind of guy we want. Being able to throw down for your teammates. And how proud were you when, you know, just watching from the sideline after the dust settled, like, wow, Trey Allman's an absolute junkyard dog. And we gotta love that.

[Tom Izzo]

Well, first of all, time out. You know, I wasn't proud of it.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Tom Izzo]

I gotta do my job.

[Pat McAfee]

And.

[Tom Izzo]

And I didn't even know what happened. But you got to flashback to the Fab Five sitting with their butt on that thing, rubbing it on it. There was a lot of things people don't know when you've been here 30 years. You know, I was actually here 40 because I was here as an assistant. So there was a lot more to it. I talked to my players about it, but I don't condone anything that is that crazy. I'm not that crazy and I didn't condone it, but I, I felt like after I heard what happened, after I saw the voice stuff, there was a lot more to it than you would. The average person would know. So I just wanted to make sure they know. Everybody's got a tradition. Can you imagine, guys, you, you guys, you, you played football, both of you. Can you imagine the banner at Michigan that they touch every time they come out? If our football team stood under it and didn't let them do it, there'd be a hundred thousand fans fighting. That's just the way it is.

[Pat McAfee]

I got it. And I think all of us respected and appreciated the way you handled it with your player. Now the Michigan people are gonna be, hey, you're just standing there. What you want them to do, there's always going to be an out. But I do appreciate the rivalry, you know, like, that only happens in a rivalry. Yeah, it's weird how it's never their fault either, but, you know, neither here nor there. Coach, don't laugh. You know it, you know it well.

[Darius J. Butler]

But you know what?

[Tom Izzo]

You one thing that a rivalry, you know, like John B. Used to ask me, you know, one day I said, well, you, you gotta hate your rivals, you know, you. You can respect them, you can't like them. Do you like your wife's ex boyfriend? I mean, it's illegal to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

Respect, respect, respect. Ty has a question for you, Coach.

[Ty Schmidt]

Coach. Being another Big Ten guy, I've watched enough of your teams over the course of my life to know that you're not exactly, you know, about the. Everyone these days is kind of talking about how much kids have changed from, you know, maybe 20, 25 years ago. How much has, like, your coaching philosophy changed over the course of your career? And like, how different is it coaching kids. Kids now than it maybe was when you had those teams with Matin Cleaves and Mo Pete and guys like that.

[Tom Izzo]

Oh, those guys were fist fighters, you know, I mean, I mean, it has changed, but I use the football term all the time, you know, when, when things change and you got all these different offenses and defenses and at the end of the day, you still got to be able to block, tackle, not turn the ball over, you know, and in basketball, you still got to be able to defend and rebound to win on the road and. And not turn the ball over. So I think I've changed some, unfortunately. I think I'm getting back to the. My old self. Your show maybe brings it to fact.

[Pat McAfee]

You.

[Tom Izzo]

You say and do what you want on this. You're not politically correct all the time. Well, and I would be considered not a politically correct guy all the time. But I think if you spend time with your players, they know you're coaching them to win championships. You want them to be pros, you want them to.

[Pat McAfee]

To.

[Tom Izzo]

They want to do these things that 1% of the world does, but they think everybody should just be able to do it by pat you on the back and nice job, buddy. You just missed 10 shots in a row. That's great, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but remember the old cliche is they don't care what you know until they know that you care. Like obviously those moments.

[Tom Izzo]

My death.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Oh, really?

[Tom Izzo]

Yeah, I got a sign. It fell down, but I keep it on my desk all the time because is. You're right about that. It is true. I gotta make sure I get in here.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, this. Oh, no. Oh, no. This is the 20 years difference thing too, you know, it's got a half face. You need to slide to your right.

[Tom Izzo]

I think to my right.

[Pat McAfee]

There you go.

[Tom Izzo]

Is that better?

[Pat McAfee]

Smack the wood, slide to the left. Yeah, yeah. Perfect. You nailed it. You nailed it. Absolutely.

[Tom Izzo]

Oh, the other right. I got It.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the. That whole. That. That's a cliche for a reason, though. Like what people see on TV at the biggest gift, a coach and a player interacting. They don't see the actual hundreds of hours beforehand to get to know that person. Are you a guy that views all them like your kids? You know, you hear a lot of coaches say that type of thing, like, I wouldn't let my kids do this, so I'm not gonna let my players do this. Is that how your relationship is with the boys on the team? And has it been that way throughout the entirety? Have you had to evolve?

[Tom Izzo]

Well, you know, my two kids are now 30 and 25 and unfortunately, I have to admit, I spent more time with my players than I did my kids. And that's not always fair there. That's the reality of coaching, as I think every football and basketball coach and probably other sports too, but that is the reality of it. I try to bring my family in with my team because you don't get enough family time unless you do that. But hell yeah, you look at them, you know, you want them to be successful, you want them to be great, you want them to win championships, you want them to, you know, have a life after basketball. I mean, really, our job is to make the next 70 years better than the first 20. Money. It's getting harder to do because holding people accountable and things is, you know, people look at that as illegal nowadays.

[Pat McAfee]

I think it's coming back. I think it's coming back. Stay strong, stay strong. I think it's coming back for the good of everybody, by the way. For the good of everybody. If everybody's allowed to make money while. And earn money for what they do and what they bring. Sweet. If they're also able to evolve and to become men, you know, going forward and women in sports, that'll be great for society as a whole. I think it's coming back. Tony, is the last question for you here. Coach his own.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, coach kind of around that, around the family and the 20 years difference and being able to coach guys harder, is it, is it easier when you have Jason Richardson's kid, Jace Richardson, on the team, are you allowed to coach him a little harder because he is the son of a professional athlete and they kind of just come in with an idea of, of the work and the, and the ethic and all that that you have to come in to be successful.

[Tom Izzo]

You know, Jason's been a treat. He was not only raised by his father, who was 14 years in the league and one, you know, championship, two final four, national championship here and all the things he accomplished. But his mother is a coach too. She coached him, so he's getting it from all sides. And he has been an easy kid to coach because, you know, he expects more of himself than I expect of him. And that's, that's pretty cool when that happens. So, yeah, Jason has helped. And when Jason was here with Matina and those guys, man, it was, it was a little crazier back then, but it was fun too. And it's an honor that he'd put. Let his son come play for me. After 25 years for your team to.

[Pat McAfee]

Go on a run, what do they have to do? Coach, what is the, like, what is your main thing here for your squad?

[Tom Izzo]

Yeah, we got to get a little better with our three point shooting. That's been a weakness all year. But we've defended, we've rebounded, we've, we've ran good, we shot free throws, we got to the line. You got to be good enough to be great and then lucky enough to win in this tournament because there's always a Cinderella out there, there or there's always an upset waiting. You know, unlike your guys sport football, usually the bigger, stronger, better team wins. We got to put that damn orange thing in that hoop. And some nights, no matter how good a play you run, it just doesn't get there. And so that's why I say you got to be a little lucky too. But I like the fact that our defense travels and we'll see what it can do for us.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, Coach. Well, good luck. And hopefully it's nine from Final fours for you and all of the Sparties. Foxy, you have anything to say to him on the way out? Coach, thanks for everything. You're the man. You're the goat. Can't wait to watch you guys win the title this year. And, and, and. Go green.

[Tom Izzo]

There you go. Go white.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah. That, that was a big moment. We appreciate you, coach. Ladies and gentlemen. Tommy, Coach needed you gonna go right back for. Had to. Yeah.

[Connor]

Get this guy a new pair.

[Pat McAfee]

I thought you weren't gonna do it. No, thank you. You lobbed that one up for me. Yeah, well, also I thought we're, I thought we're going to miss the entire. What's the entire thing here? The entire thing is go green, go white with coach Izzo. Got that photo of it. If 10 year old me would only know.

[Connor]

Watch this.

[Pat McAfee]

Congrats to you, Fox. Yeah, I mean, you grow up in the Lansing area. He literally is God. Like, actually, Foxy has loved Michigan State. Yeah. Loudly, proudly, through a lot.

[Connor]

Ride or die.

[Pat McAfee]

And when you play basketball from the Lansing area area, every single coach you ever have tries to be Tom Izzo. And it, you know, it means you're running a lot, you're physical, the rebounding, all that. You're getting yelled at all the time. And obviously none of them are Tom, but that's how it is.

[Seamus]

Really.

[Pat McAfee]

Do they.

[Seamus]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Do they.

[Pat McAfee]

Do they got. He got an octave up there. Oh, he's known for his raspy voice because he's yelling all the time.

[Connor]

Raspy?

[Pat McAfee]

No. So my voice. He did have a raspy voice. It was fantastic. My voice gets like that whenever I lose it, and I never know if there's gonna be a voice that there. So, like, I'll go to speak, which is tough whenever you're a professional speaker, you know, not knowing if you're going to have it. So every once in a while, you'll. You'll travel to a different octave because you know, you have to go. You know it's there. You know it's there. So whenever he did the rival race and got all the way up there, I'm like, oh, I wonder if he was battling there. Didn't know if the voice was going to be these basketball coaches, some of them him very much so. Oh, definitely. Had they won Saturday and played yesterday, he probably would have had no voice. Him and Hurley. Yeah.

[Connor]

It feels like all the. All the most successful ones. Cal, Pari Patino, like, all the ones that actually go.

[Pat McAfee]

They get.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah. Last year. I think it was last year, right. Foxy, where he was ripping a kid on the sideline. Was it two years ago?

[Pat McAfee]

No. Was it for a three point. I'm trying to, as he brought it up, like every once in a while get after a guy. And I'm not always politically correct. I remembered him on the sideline, people killing him. So people were so mad. It might have been two years ago.

[Connor]

Might have been two. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

As he was saying it, I was like, oh, yeah. I do remember you getting after somebody. Yes. I like that, though. I like good accountability. Coach.

[Seamus]

You have to.

[Pat McAfee]

In basketball.

[Seamus]

Basketball, I feel like you kind of have to, like, you got to be on them every second. Because if you have 11 laps, like, yeah, team goes on a run, you're done.

[AJ Hawk]

Did you see the player that his. I think it was. Was it Michigan? His gum fell out and he decided to pick up his gum off the floor. He got back cut. Easy layup. Oh, Screwed him.

[Pat McAfee]

Who's coach at Michigan? First year there, Right. Dusty May, first year at Michigan, wins the Big Ten. I think he's the first coach ever to win win the Big Ten tournament in its first year as the head coach, I believe is what I heard yesterday. I was trying to keep up with all the news and learn as much as I possibly could. Had to go over to CBS Sports Network. They had a show on for a long time. I appreciate them. They were on for like three hours afterwards breaking down every single team. I was trying to learn everything I possibly could. Yeah, it was hard to find information out there from any other network. CBS was seemingly on it. We appreciate them doing that. Biggest story of the day is what? Oh, the brackets out. Who are these teams? Can we learn about them? CBS did that for us. So shout out to them and shout out for spending a day with him also yesterday. AJ I don't know if you saw this. The players had like a four hour rain delay, thunder, lightning down there in Jacksonville. Rory McElroy, was he going to blow it after such a long wait? Well, he ended up tying with a man named Spawn. Then they slept on it overnight. Spawn. Probably not a lot lot. Rory knew it was going to be St. Patty's whenever he woke up in the morning and had an opportunity to win his 28th PGA Tour Championship. Damn. Rory very early, very quickly established dominance over Spawn. First hole would end up getting a birdie with a beautiful drive and a beautiful chip and a wonderful putt. He would be minus one through the first hole of a three, three hole aggregate battle and he didn't have much competition. Spawn lasted about one shot on 18 and the first hole he sprayed it into the rough, couldn't even see the ball. Then they get to 17. The second hole he puts one in the water. As expected, he was plus three through two holes against Rory McIlroy. And Rory just coasted to a dub in a three hole extra playoff this morning down at the Players in Jacksonville. And I'll tell you, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen literally from the first swing of Spawn. And that's like the experience, that's understanding and I think it's a little bit of the Irish understanding that St Patty's Day needed a Rory Dub. AJ from the beginning of this week where Rory was grabbing phones of collegiate golfers to now being the champion on a Monday with the longest players in a long time, how do you feel for the state of golf? I watched yesterday and would have watched if there was no delay and did Watch after the delay. I enjoy the golf is back.

[Seamus]

Yes. But I think this venue makes it awesome. Obviously the island green, then the winds picked up on the weekend. Like these guys make it look too easy though. That's the problem. Like they're shooting these crazy scores when it's blowing crazy wind. It doesn't matter. They just find a way to. To continue to score. But yeah, I felt like wins. If you watch Spawn, if you would have drained that birdie putt on 18 on Sunday night to win it all, boom, he goes home, he wins it. When he left that thing like, in short, you felt like, all right, yeah, it's been a good run, bud, but it's going to be a tough for you to win this three hole playoff tomorrow.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he's going to have to eat dinner on this. He's going to have to lay down on this. Him and his brain and his pillow tonight are going to have a lot of chat about. Yeah, I'm supposed to win this thing tomorrow morning. Three best holes of my life.

[Seamus]

Three very difficult hole every 16, 17, 18. Seem scary as hell to play as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Mark closer, which I respect out of the way. The whole TPC sawgrass is constructed in it all. I put out a tweet that said, you know, it's saying patties like Rory has no chance of losing this. And it really did feel that way. Like even from their warm up to them showing up to getting to the first hole, it all felt like Rory was comfortable and Spawn was not. And that is what the game of.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. And Rory even said, I think Rory coming into it knew that. I think he said, hey, this is the. After he won, he said, this is the fourth time I have won on St. Patty's Day. And now Rory joins Jack Tiger and Scotty Scheffler as the only players in the history of golf to win multiple players and multiple major championships. So, yeah, it's quite a group to be a part of.

[Pat McAfee]

Congratulations to Rory McElroy. Obviously a beautiful day for the Irish lad. And now the next tournament, what starts tomorrow that call for life. He's quite a grind, but he won four and a half million dollars, I believe today at the players. And they went back to. What's that?

[AJ Hawk]

I thought it was. I thought it was more like five.

[Pat McAfee]

And I think the tweet I saw said four and a half million because Jack was like 50,000 or something whenever he won way back in the day. And how much golf has kind of evolved and changed.

[Connor]

Yeah, and spawn got like 2.27. 5 million. Like both are still going on. Very happy.

[Pat McAfee]

He knew that last night when he was laying down. Exactly.

[Seamus]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Worst thing happens, I wouldn't 2.27 and it's exempt.

[Seamus]

He's exempt into a lot of the big tournaments to the rest of the year. Still like a life changing second place finish for him.

[Pat McAfee]

Certainly is. Let's do another NFL deal that happened over the weekend. Makai Becton is signed with the Chargers to play guard to your 20 million bucks. Congrats to Makai. Makai goes from being a bust out of the jets at tackle, goes to Statland University in Philadelphia, moves down to guard, becomes a dominant interior offensive lineman, wins a Super bowl and now signs a two year, $20 million deal on a Jim Harbaugh team. So congrats to Maai. They're going to love him over there. I think from everything we heard. And once Herb gets his hands on Maai in that weight room, the sky is the limit for old Makai in that offensive line.

[Connor]

Yeah, we've talked about the Silver bells club with Khil Mack, you know, using those 200 pounds dumbbells. I. I assume Maai Beckton might have some of that in his future as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, before we wrap up here on ESPN on this St. Patty's Man Madness. Monday, March 17, 2025. Happy St. Patty's Day to all of you. Who would we be if we didn't bring in our favorite Irishman? Ladies and gentlemen from the wwe, Seamus. Yes. Are you all right? The old days fell apart a few points. Paul, here, come over here and say hello, will you? Paul owns the Mulligan Fire here in Hobo. Hey, launch a boss. Launch a you on the. I, I hope he looked after you when you were in Dublin, Pat. Oh, he looked after you. Yeah. A lot of those Guinnesses, bub. A lot of Guinnesses. Paul. I had a good time over there, pal. Thanks for the hospitality. Brilliant. That's brilliant. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Hey, happy St. Patrick for your hairline. Okay. Get on the chest there. Get over here.

[Connor]

Right.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Hey. Hey, buddy. Happy St. Patrick. That is. Hey. Thank you, Irish people. All right. Night. We'll never remember. Okay. Yep. Amen. Oh, go on. Go on, Seamus. Go on, Seamus. Go on, Seamus. Okay. Thank you, Seamus. For Seamus. Happy St. Patty's Day. Okay. All right.

[Connor]

Legend tired.

[Pat McAfee]

Happy. He's the fan that was shocked. Chocolate milk. Obviously he would never chug actual beer on television. No, that'd be silly.

[Seamus]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I would never do that. He's gonna have A good one. Seamus is ready to go. We will continue this program on YouTube, ESPN, Disney and TikTok Live. The March Madness stuff is so spectacular because it's a sport we rarely pay attention to on this particular program. And then it injects itself into our life and it takes over. And I can't thank the college hoops committee enough, our community enough for kind of building to this moment. And from what I've heard, the SEC is about to walk right through this thing. Or what a Saint John's Johnny's. Make some magic. How about some teams out of the Big 12 that maybe got in over top of West Virginia? Will they be able to do their thing? Big Ten grind and pan football? Are you going to be able to go? Or maybe a Cinderella story that won their conference championship for an automatic bid? Who's going to turn their school into a place that every basketball fan on earth knows about? Who's going to change their enrollment from one to maybe triple the size in one magical moment to a shining moment just a few weeks from now. That's what March Madness is all about. So from us to college basketball. Slanta, happy St. Patty's Day. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. I don't think we're off yet.

[Connor]

Yeah, I was going to say, did we change it to 153?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, it was 54 30. Yeah. Another minute and a half.

[Seamus]

Sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Outfit, guys. It's 153 right now.

[Seamus]

Still on. I think we're still on.

[Pat McAfee]

Still. Perfect.

[AJ Hawk]

That might be my favorite thing that's ever happened.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Pretty good little happening there. I'll tell you, it's been a great Saint Patty's Fantastic.

[Connor]

I mean, yeah, one of the best days of the year, start to Finish, really.

[Pat McAfee]

Tim McAfee went to a beer garden this weekend, Shut her down.

[Connor]

Obviously busted his right.

[Pat McAfee]

I get a. Yeah. Pulled his calf. Yeah. Happened last week, obviously. You tell me, Bob. You tell me running.

[Seamus]

Was he racing people in the street?

[Pat McAfee]

You know, my dad's not like a boozer, like a big boozer at all, but like St. Patrick's Day just becomes like it has. Like he's good for a long time.

[Connor]

Squatting a picnic table with everyone sitting on it. Probably that's what happens.

[Pat McAfee]

Are we drinking or not? What's it on his back like? He's John Cena with the aa. Speaking of tonight, Monday Night Raw in Brussels, John Cena returns. From what I've been told. Oh, he'll Cena said, I will not be there. It was like a Nine hour flight. It's tough with the day job, but I do know Michael Cole and the boys will be absolutely crushing it. We will all watch along in awe at the greatness. Happy St. Patty's to all of you. And I already said goodbye once. I'm not doing it again. Okay, we'll continue this digitally and we'll see you tomorrow, Sancha. All right.

[Greg Sankey]

There we go.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Let's go to the bathroom. Cancel this. Jeez Louise, that was such a good one. Still.

[Connor]

Yeah, still great, you know. Still great.

[Pat McAfee]

It was. No, 53 was a good one.

[Connor]

Oh, that's what I'm saying. It was still great.

[Pat McAfee]

We should just want the. We should just want the black.

[Seamus]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Just let it sit for 90 seconds.

[Connor]

And people can just read all the. That's on the screen.

[Seamus]

Still.

[Pat McAfee]

Sports center. After us. I. I don't know if we should take pride in this or not.

[Ty Schmidt]

Up.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Huge. Good show though. We like the people that host that show. Yeah. Without a doubt they like us as well, which is very cool with them. And I think it's doing good. So if we were just leaving 90 seconds deader, I would kind of fuck them a little bit.

[Connor]

Good point.

[Pat McAfee]

Which we would not want to do to them. No.

[Connor]

Ever.

[Pat McAfee]

There are others. Well, I'm joking. It's another year around the sun. We're older. We're more mature now. Yeah.

[Connor]

So it works.

[Seamus]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Seamus]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, ladies and gentlemen, here's to you. Here's to the dream. Here's to us from the whole damn team. Can't thank you enough for wearing your green. Happy St. Patty's Sancha, everybody. Ever had your deposit blocked by your bank right before a big bet? Ever needed cash at 2am for another shot at the tables? But hit your ATM limit. Edge boost has your back. Edge Boost is the first ever bank account built for betters. With Edge Boost, all your gambling related transactions will always be approved. No more headaches for you high rollers. You can move up to $250,000 a day on your Edgeboost Visa debit card with unlimited withdrawals. This works 24,7 for instant deposits. Never wait for a wire to clear again. It gets better every time you deposit into a qualified gambling account, you earn cash back rewards up to 0.5%.

[Connor]

All this for no usage fees and no minimum balance.

[Pat McAfee]

This is a bank account, not a credit card. So there is no approval required or credit checks. Finally, edgeboost has a suite of responsible gambling tools to help you manage your bankroll and make informed decisions. What Are you waiting for? Go to edgeboost. Bet that's edgeboost. Bet. If you want tools that stand the test of time without testing your wallet, Harbor Freight is the place for you. Expert engineers design and rigorously test Harbor Freight tools to bring you top quality. Whether your next project is big or small. Harbor Freight carries a wide selection from hand tools to power tools to automotive tools and welding equipment. And with prices lower than other top brands, but with the same top quality, you're getting more for your money at Harbor Freight. There are over 1, 500 Harbor Freight stores in the U.S. so come see for yourself. Whatever you do, do it for less at Harbor Freight patties. Nailed it. AJ's wearing a green hoodie. You know, it's a big day. It is St. Patrick's Day. We hope you are all in enjoying the hell out of it or at least mentally having a moment of happiness and enjoyment, you know, all because your Irish family and friends, you know, decided to make this a holiday. Way back. I actually got a chance to celebrate St Patrick's Day in Ireland one time. And you know, everybody says like, well, it's not the same. America is in Ireland. America ruined it. America ruined it. They were very Boozozed up on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, where I was, but they did like the night before I was in this, like, smaller town. They did it the night before into the morning, had a parade through the town, and then it was kind of over. After the parade, everybody, like, kind of called it quits. I don't know if that town is like every town, but that was town I was in. And you're pretty exhausted at the end of it, but you're definitely pretty banged up too. And the parade is obviously fun. And you go through the entire town. Ah, everybody's faced. And then you're kind of done for the afternoon. So I think they did celebrate it over there. I assume it is different than over here because over here it's just a lot of people saying we can get hammered because the Irish are having a day today. And that's okay too. We currently have a live camera on the Temple Bar in Dublin, Ireland. Slant to all parties enjoying themselves. Love the lighting, Love the lighting. Love the shamrocks. I love that we walk through that area and certainly remember all of it.

[Connor]

No doubt.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, that is the. That's the best part, aj. We can't wait to get back over to beautiful Dublin. Ain't that accurate?

[Seamus]

Dublin's pretty awesome, man. It was my first time ever getting to step foot over there. And yeah, the people, it's. Everything's about the people. Like obviously the old history, tradition, everything about it. But the people are. People are all like Seamus, which. Look at Seamus, he's like the nicest, most fun dude you could ever be around.

[Pat McAfee]

I said this at the beginning. Nicest until not, you know, like, that's the thing.

[Seamus]

I said this at the beginning a good way.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, in a good way, obviously, but also, if you want some, come get some, you know, that is. Yeah, I said that at the beginning of the show that like, you know, we're having a couple Italians on the show today and izzo and patino and it's like the Italian and the Irish, you do the research, are like the. These are blue collar, one in the same blue bloods. These are the blue collar, blue bloods here. The Irish and the Italian. So it is a. I think it's a very similar group of. Of humans. And whenever we got over there, not scared of shit talk, you know, not scared of shit talk, which is blue collar community, which we all come from one. So I think that's why we adapted so easily over there. But just willing to have a good time too. Like, yeah, if this is what you want to do, let's do it. Live music everywhere. You know, I had a. I can't wait to get back.

[Connor]

Oh, so punk.

[Pat McAfee]

I cannot wait to. I'm gonna do it differently this time.

[AJ Hawk]

What do you mean?

[Seamus]

Why?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we're gonna make sure that the audience can hear our show so that our show isn't just me trying chugging beers to a crowd of a couple hundred Irish lads who are packed into JR Mah over there having a good old time. Which I would recommend to all those people that we just saw in Dublin go to JR Mahon's. It is a great pub, Stories, great time, good people. But it was back then nobody could hear us. You know, everybody's being quiet. These Irish lads are like, hey, pal, we're having a Friday here. You know, trying to get up and you're kinda. Come on. We can't even hear what you're saying. We can see you, we can't hear you. So that's when the beer chugging started. Started. It was like, hey, here's to. Here we go. Thanks for coming out. You know, I can't hear a word we're saying, but let's go ahead and do that. And then one thing led to another. I think I did 10, 12 of them and dance with Mrs. Saban.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Obviously a lot of hup hup. Talked to a local American football coach. Yeah, he was awesome. He was good. It was a good time. And then got a chance to kind of meet everybody that was out and about in the city. Felt like. And. And saw a lot of different places, and it was a good time. I cannot. I legitimately can't wait to get back and. Happy St. Patty's to everybody over there and in the United States recreating what we did, you know, over there, either today or yesterday or Saturday. A lot of people had their St. Patrick's Day celebrations over the weekend, obviously. So, you know, congrats to everybody surviving or thriving currently on this St. Patrick's Day. AJ.

[Seamus]

Yeah, it reminded me. I was walking with Seamus One. I. I got separated from the pack. I walked with Seamus somewhere that night after the show. And we're just walking, you know, there's people everywhere. And all of a sudden he's like, oh, hey, there's. And he goes. And he hugs this girl. He goes, hey, aj, Meet my sister. And his sister was right there, standing outside some. Some like, the awesome building that they were at. And I didn't. I never asked him, like, hey, did, you know, did you just randomly walk, like, I hope you guys work this out. If not, this is awesome. And we hugged her, met her. It was great. And we just kept moving. And she went her direction as well. I'm like, I never got to ask Sheamus, like, did you guys talk before this?

[Pat McAfee]

And does Sheamus call everybody that he knows? His sister?

[Connor]

Yeah. Is that exactly what my brother.

[Seamus]

He might be right. He might be right.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean, Seamus is the greatest. Yeah.

[Connor]

He's the man.

[Pat McAfee]

He is so much fun, him on that flight over there. Just the best. Holden Court, you know, his seat was at the perfect spot as he was just pouring. We delayed our trip 45 minutes strip. Because Seamus was trying to find proper mugs. That's right. He did proper Guinness mugs from a proper pub. He goes, I finally found a place, you know, gave like, a put over some bar we've never heard of. And here Magaly's is over.

[Connor]

It's great.

[Pat McAfee]

It's great bar. And then Paulie over there in Jersey, I assume that they. It's my brother. I'm surprised he didn't say.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's talk about some news. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody, and congrats to Tim. Surviving another one, you know, that's good news. Kind of pulled a calf.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Strained a calf. Not 100%, you say there last week, just kind of Leaked into the weekend.

[Connor]

Yeah, I saw him limping. That's not true.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he was doing calf raises over here on the steps in the. I walked in, he was over there. I got worker's thing. What happened? Straight. My calf. When did you do that? Last week. Oh, really? Was it St. Patrick's Day celebration on Saturday? Saturday, no. What do you think?

[Connor]

Why is he lying?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it was last week. You know, it was hurt. I'm like, all right, Tim, he needs to get better because what he's doing in this weight room on a daily basis is awesome. Have you seen this guy in here?

[Seamus]

Hey, we're talking, Tim. Yeah, I believe it.

[Pat McAfee]

And I'm telling him he can get on some science. You know, like, at his age, there's a lot of things, you know, that if you wanted to get, like, all the way back, like, kid, he's like, dude, he's. Dude, I'm not doing that. I'm like, all right, okay, okay. You know, it would help maybe even with this calf or something. I'll need it. All right. Shout out to Tim McAfee. Happy St. Patrick's Day to him. Some football news we haven't chatted about. Cooper Cup. We officially get some numbers. Three years, $45 million deal in total. And I don't think I fully understood the significance of him going back to Seattle. I guess he's from outside of Seattle, obviously played college in that state. State. And he talked about, you know, having Washington back across his chest, and then the letter and then, like, the response of the people, the. The boys coming home. You know, it's like, that is really what they're selling. And in a time where the Seattle Seahawks are potentially losing fans, that they can definitely regain, but they've certainly lost interest of some of their fan base. Some of the 12s have certainly seemingly not had as much optimism about what's going on with the Seahawks than they had in the past. Especially moving on from Pete Carroll, moving on this new era. Other teams were actually taking over the stadium in primetime games. Never happened in the history of my understanding of the Seattle Seahawks bringing a hometown kid back, especially one that is as beloved as it appears as Cooper cup is in Washington. Good move, business wise. Also get Sam Darnold a weapon. Good move, football wise. I like this a lot for the Seattle Seahawks. They.

[Seamus]

I think it makes sense on all ends. Obviously, Cooper gets to come home and everyone. All the fanfare with that, but they need him. Like, they need Cooper cup to step in day one and be the man and be a stud for Sam Darnold. So it's going to be huge for that whole receiver room. But yeah, Cooper cup like like we've said a million times on here when healthy is one of the best receivers in the NFL. The question is how long can he stay healthy.

[Pat McAfee]

And I think there was a report that the Seahawks can get out of the Sam Darnold deal. I think Florio reported the Seahawks can get out of the Sam Darnold contract after one year 37 and a half million dollars. So I don't know exactly how that all comes to be. The structure allows the Seahawks to escape the contract after one year in 37 and a half million. While it's generally frowned upon for teams to scrap contracts when the guarantee flips from injury only to full in the early days of the waiver period. That's what the Raiders did with Derek Carr in 2010. 23. The good news for the player is that it gives him a head start on free agency by more than a month. If the Seahawks pick up the second year of the Darnold contract at 27 and a half million, it's a two year $65 million deal. That's an average of 32 and a half million per year. Okay, so it's a one year deal with a two year option by the team coming up next year. 37 and a half million this year. Then a two year option team side after the season ends before free agency. Period, period opens up. So I wonder why that was the structure that Sam Darnold agreed to. How much was he being offered at other places? And is this another opportunity for him to bet on himself and play great ball while making good money? Yeah.

[Connor]

Another thing talked about in the article and just about the contract was how you know, towards the end of the year if Seattle isn't having a good year, it would be a situation where he might get benched because of his injury guarantee for next season.

[Pat McAfee]

So just like what happened with Derek.

[Connor]

Carr, just like what happened Derek Carr and Dan Jones is who they referenced with the Giants just this past season because that's exactly what happened with with them. That's why they benched him so they wouldn't have to pay him anything.

[Pat McAfee]

So the deal is you're not our Dan Jones and Derek Carr. You are not in our next year plans. So we're not paying you any next year's money right now and you might injure yourself walking down the steps. Isn't that what they said? Derek Carr, right?

[Seamus]

Oh yeah. Kept get out of here.

[Pat McAfee]

Turned his FOB off, you can't get in. But he goes from stone wild starter for however many years, not 10, whatever it was from the transition from Oakland over to Las Vegas as well. He goes for starter, starter, starter, and then. Yeah, you're not allowed in the building. How about that? We'll get your shit, okay. Out of your locker because we don't want, you know, on the back so you're not getting hurt here. If we haven't made this point clear enough, you will not be around and we will move forward. And then he's come out and like, you know, I wish it was a little different. I wish I could have said goodbye to a couple people in the time. I don't think he said anything negative. If I recall, I talked to him at the Pro bowl afterwards and I asked him about it and he was just said all the right things, did all the right things. He ends up with the Saints. They give him a big deal. He's a starter coming up next year. But that was an interesting situation. Daniel Jones is different because they wanted to keep him around. They just wanted him to do.

[Connor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Like defensive. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Practice squad safety.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Hey, you're going to be on over here half speed. Now. Let's not get too good at defensive end because then we got to maybe play you. We don't want to do that, remember? So let's not do too much good stuff. And then he asked for his release, ends up with the Vikings, now with the Indianapolis Colts. So those contracts are so many interesting little things because of precedent that has happened. You know, anytime something has happened in the past, people lean on that. And that's why everything happening for a first time is so damn important.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, like you said, like, it really does make you wonder whether what other offers he got because, like, when you really dive into this like this isn't that. I mean, granted, you know, it gives him another opportunity to kind of like prove himself. But for what he did, you would. I mean, that this really isn't that much security. Like there is a chance, you know, they're a new team. Their offensive line isn't as good as Minnesota's was. He's going to have, you know, I mean, Cooper cup, but then in jig. But they're losing two of those receivers. Like there is a. A scenario where you could see he. He doesn't have a great year and he does get benched at the end.

[Pat McAfee]

Of the year and there's a chance he goes on a balls for sure. And then, you know, everything activates. I Only team decision is an interesting forfeiture. You know, like after this year, it's like team decides whether or not they want to implicate or imply the next two. Or implicate in. What's the word?

[Connor]

Like activate.

[Pat McAfee]

Activ. Whatever. There's a word somewhere.

[Connor]

Implant.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no. What? Institute. Institute the next two years of the deal. Impale. Yeah, they want to impale Sam Donald's bank account with the next two years of this deal. They can do that. That's interesting because you would think you would at least want a little bit of say there. I, I don't know how often this takes place. I, I don't. Was Sam Darnold offered by Minnesota? Yeah, that's. I mean, what was he offered by Minnesota?

[AJ Hawk]

Reported he was offered by the Steelers.

[Pat McAfee]

Was he offered. Okay, so it's like west coast must have been similar.

[Seamus]

It must have been similar situation though. Similar. Like there's tiers to contracts. You know, some people have, you know, it might look like a five year deal, but it's really a two year deal. And then it's like year by year the team has a decision after that. But if you're an owner, if you're a gm, you would like every player on the roster to have a contract for every single year they get to make a decision. Hey, if you, if you live up to it and you earn it. Yep. We'll, we'll pick it up on the next league year and you'll have another year under your belt. But yeah, this is definitely a team friendly situation.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Because they're negotiating at this year's price. So you. But salary cap's going to go up and potential value is going to go up and you're stuck in it. Whether you like it or not, it's. Yeah, that's good. Hey, Schneider's driving a good business up.

[Seamus]

Oh yeah.

[Connor]

Well, in Vegas, like Vegas was tied to Darnold, but you could kind of make the assumption they picked Gino Smith over him because they ended up trading for him and gave something up instead of going after Darnold. But with Washington, we do kind of have to remember it's no income. It's just like Florida. You're kind of getting that entire great.

[Pat McAfee]

Tax benefits in the state of Washington. Not Washington D.C. but in state of Washington you have great. I wonder because remember they came out and said Geno Smith was offered the same deal.

[Connor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

I wonder if it was this type of deal and Gino was like probably that's. No, because they said 35 to 40 this is 37 and a half. That would be right in between 35 to 40. So now we know a little bit more about why Gino opted basically to be traded out of Seattle and turn down their deal. Probably because of that. Yeah, that is probably the reason why.

[Connor]

Thousand percent.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Connor]

Especially after being proven being there for.

[Pat McAfee]

A few years, you know, now everything's starting to come together, isn't it? Everything's starting to come into focus.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Like what the hell's going on with Aaron Rodgers? I saw him playing flag football this weekend. Looks like he could still spin it. He was, he was, he was standing flat footed just like this right here. Flat footed, didn't even move. Boom, bang. Powder touchdown. Look at this. Boom, bang. Powell out route. Running back. Thank you. Touchdown. Feeding that guy might be a player.

[Connor]

Hold on.

[Pat McAfee]

We just think about maybe moving them in there. What did you hear from Aaron about the flag football tournament? And obviously he does this every year. And the reason why I know that is because normally when he's at this, it does become news because there's something that has to be done and it's for charity. It's given back. He does, he's done this every year that he's been on our particular program. I don't know how many years going back. I don't know if he won this year. I don't know if Josh's team won. There's a little bit of shit talk, which we love, but NFL quarterbacks, former NFL quarterbacks take a team and then they play in an actual tournament and then they raise money. It's a beautiful event. And every time Aaron's at it, there's a conversation happening around him. What have you heard about the tournament and what have you heard Aaron's going to do? A.J. just tell us.

[Seamus]

I mean, honestly, I wish I knew. I wish I knew what was taking so long. I really do. Like, for real, I, I have questions as well. From, from my side. So I, I don't know what the, what the deadline might be. I don't know when a decision would come. And I don't really know what's going on behind the scenes. But what. Yeah, like what could be holding up now and when does it happen?

[Pat McAfee]

You tell. That's the. Those are the questions.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's what he's asking.

[Pat McAfee]

Those are the questions.

[Seamus]

This one's.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, this is.

[Seamus]

This one. I don't know for real. This one I don't know what's happened for real. I'm confused.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so as the days have moved into at least a Week, you know, there's never been any indicator that Aaron was going to give an answer. There's never been anything from Aaron's team that says he's making a decision. There's been nothing from Aaron Rodgers about him playing ball again, like, there is literally nothing. And there's been cities that have gone through full cycles. This guy's going to be our quarterback all the way to fuck this guy. I'm sick of this guy. He didn't want to be our quarterback. And it's like he has said a thing. He's just. Just kind of waited on the beach with a blanket around him with obviously wired headphones. That beautiful sun with the sunset with our last sights on this continental United States of the sun. And he's contemplating, wondering, trying to figure out the life that is Aaron Rodgers. And there's obviously a blood moon last week, so the views are obviously spectacular out there. So there's all that going on as well. So it's a fascinating dilemma because there's reports that came out now that said the Minnesota Vikings are trying to figure out what the fuck they want to do, and Aaron's allowing them the opportunity to figure out what they want to do. Once again, I've been told nothing. I have asked. I have certainly asked. AJ certainly hasn't asked. AJ said, I'm not. That's my friend. I'm not gonna fuck it.

[Seamus]

Have the Vikings said anything, though? Have the Vikings said anything like, hey, hey, JJ's our guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Nothing has been said by the Minnesota Vikings, which also leads to the mystery of it all. I believe Shefter said on the Shefter podcast last week that nothing has indicated that the Vikings and Aaron Rodgers are in there. Is that something that was said? He.

[Ty Schmidt]

He may have said that. I know that. Yeah, he indicated. Because I know, I asked him, like, hey, is it a possibility? It was. This was a couple weeks ago, but is it a possibility that the Vikings decide that he wants to go there? And he said he's supposed. He supposes it is a possibility, but nothing he has heard would suggest that they have any interest in Aaron Rodgers right now.

[Pat McAfee]

And Rossini. Now, Rossini has had a lot of posts and once again, every situation is fluid, you know, especially with Aaron, you know, you're talking about a goat. But basically every situation, especially whenever it's business, a free agency, I mean, look at the Milton situation, everything is pretty fluid. So there's been multiple different, you know, reports, but I believe Rossini last week put out a post that was like, the Minnesota Vikings are trying to figure out what they want to do in the future, and Aaron is willing to give them the opportunity to figure out what they want to do. That was the first time, really, that it was reported. We had hypothesized about Aaron going to the Minnesota Vikings a lot. Just like, hey, they need a quarterback or they don't, and J.J. mcCarthy. But they might need a quarterback. And with the way they're built, they're built to win right the fuck now. And Aaron Rodgers might not be able to run like he was able to run 10 years ago. He can still move and he can still spin it. And in that offense, if you can spin it, I think you're in an okay spot with Kevin oconnell. So is that a real thing now? We sit and wait and see. And once again, Aaron has said absolutely nothing. I think Aaron is still trying to figure it all out as well. Or maybe he's just rap. I know. I know less than anybody. A.J. knows more than anybody. Which is what everybody needs, understand for sure. Which.

[Seamus]

Which in this situation is. Is basically nothing.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Connor]

Basically. Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

Put on a SE ticker. Speaking of ticker, thank you to se. Hey, the sea ticker is becoming a thing. It's on a couple other shows. Oh, really? Have you seen this?

[Connor]

I have not.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, shout out se. I like that. That's a good play. Nobody was ever on the ticker. SE geek. You know, it's good business. It's good. Move, you're on the screen. Shout out to the SeatGeek ticker. And shout out to SeatGeek. As a whole, the greatest ticket buying platform on planet Earth. And AJ, over 28 million downloads. Let's assume it's near 29 million now because this is from a month ago. 30 maybe. Yeah. Especially now with so many events to go to. So many. So many live events.

[Seamus]

Summertime coming up.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, summertime. Get a ticket. You can go see. It's fucking 40 degrees outside.

[Connor]

Yeah, it's cold.

[Ty Schmidt]

It is.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm done with it. I started looking at houses in Puerto Rico. Yeah.

[Seamus]

Next to the Paul brothers.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know where they're at exactly. Yeah, that's what I did. I wanted to take my daughter on a nice stroll outside. You know, I'm home for the weekend. It's good. Let's go outside. It's fucking 40 degrees. Where? 30. How is it? Why is it so cold? It was just 70 degrees. This is the fifth winter we have had in this spring cycle. I'm done with it. In Puerto Rico. Z82 in part of the cloudy. I saw the same thing on my phone on my weather app.

[Connor]

Son of a bitch.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm going. I just want to go outside with my daughter. I can't. There's 50 mile an hour winds and it's 40 degrees.

[Rick Pitino]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Jesus Christ here.

[Seamus]

Pretty windy. Very windy.

[Pat McAfee]

So windy.

[Darius J. Butler]

So.

[Seamus]

So people were scared to death in Ohio.

[Pat McAfee]

They were.

[Seamus]

People thought like it was going to be one of those storms like you got getting your. Get in your basement, hunker down. Like all that.

[Pat McAfee]

Neighbor's house. Dock off. Through. Through garage. That's a big dock through also is Wendy through the. Like the docker. I don't know what it's called. Foxy. Grew up on a lake. The boathouse. Yeah, through the boathouse. Garage. That's cool.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, God.

[Pat McAfee]

They leave theirs up in the winter. Yeah, that's on them. Yeah, that's what. That's what I've learned in this entire thing because I was surprised by it. And they're like, man, I shouldn't have been there. It's like. Well, it's in the. In the garage now. I've never seen anything like it. Waves. These waves that are hitting.

[Greg Sankey]

Oh, boy.

[Pat McAfee]

Unbelievable. Looks like the Pacific. Pacific Ocean.

[Connor]

It's real chop when it gets that windy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it was unbelievable. And then the lake effect, I guess the wind, because there's nothing to stop. It just kind of. It seems like picks up speed. Oh, yeah. Swirling. I think we're hearing a train. I'm a whole. I don't know if this lake life's for me, but I can get down to Puerto Rico.

[AJ Hawk]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

And if I was going to Puerto Rico and I want to go to a live event down there, I use sinking.

[Connor]

Amen.

[Pat McAfee]

Ain't that right, aj? Oh, yeah. Can we get the sun, though?

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Can we get the sun? Sun?

[Ty Schmidt]

No, kid.

[Pat McAfee]

With the warm, which I still don't understand how that works. Okay. Never will. I'm not getting into it.

[Seamus]

Which part?

[Pat McAfee]

I could be so sunny and it's, you know, like what's. Well, the atmosphere. Okay. All right. Can we change it, you know? Well, we are actually. It's ruined. It's like. Okay, all right. I would just like nicer weather. Grew up in Pittsburgh, went to Morgantown. Live in Indiana. Sure. I think Indiana is the windiest place, you know, I think it is one of the windiest place, at least. Obviously there's tornado alley and everything over there, which sucks. That is. The tornadoes come through here, too. It is crazy thing. It's always windy here. All. Every Day is windy every day. It never stops. The wind never quits. The greatest maybe durability and conditioning out of anything is the wind in Indianapolis, Indiana. It never wavers. It is always windy. And then whenever it's cold as it's just like, we get arctic storms and it's just blowing through town. And I thought it was done. I thought it was done. But it turns out that little prick groundhog might have been right. Yeah, he was. Yeah. I don't like it.

[Connor]

We're not even at that time yet.

[AJ Hawk]

What do you mean?

[Pat McAfee]

Feels like two more weeks. It's always gray in Indiana. That's the worst part for me. Yeah, you should see Pittsburgh, brother. I mean, that's even way more gray. Way more gray. I don't know how that's.

[AJ Hawk]

We were born in the dark.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, exactly. More rain days. I don't remember what year it was. One of the years when I was living there. Yeah, maybe. Maybe all of them. It was definitely one of the years where I was like, jesus Christ. It feels like it rains every day. You know, more rain days than Seattle. Everybody talks about Seattle, how it rained so much, it's like, go check B R Real. Yeah. I don't know if it's still that way. Haven't been. Haven't lived there in a while, but there was a time that I assume it's the same rain all the time. Now, granted, there's a toughness that comes from that. You know, whenever you got to go outside and get smacked in the mouth with cold wet. The worst. The worst combination in what? Cold, wet, right in the face. There's a toughness that comes with that. But, yeah, rain and then Morgantown. I mean, it's. You know, you're doing this one here and then out here. So I. I almost. I almost quit. Almost said I'm going Puerto Rico. I didn't, though. I still need all four seasons. Need that in my life. But I'm getting close. Yeah, I think I'm getting close. I'm getting soft. I'm getting close.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, at this point, you know, when you have a set.

[Pat McAfee]

We.

[Ty Schmidt]

We had a 70, 75, 77 degree day on Friday. And you can't. You can't turn that in. There were tornado warnings on Friday night.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it's going to happen again here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. But then on Saturday, I mean, you gotta. You gotta turn the goddamn heat on in your house. It's ridiculous.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. Because you don't. It's 50 degrees.

[Ty Schmidt]

I wake up in the morning and it's. Yeah. 52 degrees in my living room.

[Pat McAfee]

It's like, well, hey, listen, we know it can be worse. We understand that. We're just saying we're done with it. Yeah, we're done with it. So the sun needs to act accordingly. Now, we did look up, obviously Pittsburgh receives slightly more rainfall annually than Seattle. Yeah. So, yeah, it rains all the time in Seattle. Not all the time time. I'll tell you why. Cuz it can rain more of the time and it does in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So this is a stage of my life I never thought I'd get to where I'm almost done with it. I'm almost done with it.

[Connor]

Yeah, I've been done with it.

[Pat McAfee]

I used to talk on the, you know, the super good weather. I assume you did too, aj. I assume you did. As a guy.

[Seamus]

Yeah. As I get older, I do understand why people spend like three or four months down in Florida in the winter. I do understand that.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, here you'd have to spend seven months maybe, because you never know when it's coming back. Easy come, easy go. Each day something new. You know what, though? It's about to get warmer. Let's go, let's go, let's go. It doesn't matter how warm it is outside. No, it doesn't. Or how cold it is outside. It's all about what's the temperature at the show. And it's going to be perfect. And it's going to be electrifying, especially whenever you buy your tickets from our friends at SE. Now, Seatgeek is offering right now a $30 off off with the code PAT2025. PAT20,25. $30 off to, you know, new or repeat purchasers. There are some restrictions apply. I do believe if it's more than 30 bucks, you can't. They're not gonna owe you money. Okay, that's gonna be. They'll actually rate the tickets for you. If it's green, it's a good ticket. It's red. Bad ticket, shit ticket. Hey, you can get a better ticket somewhere else, but if it's green, it's like, hey, good ticket, good price. We scan the entire Internet for. For you. You're welcome. Shout, seek. You can also scan a QR code. That's for ESPN bet, which by the way, going to be very active over the next. Oh, yeah, three weeks or so. Yep. Might be getable. Okay. Might be getable where they are.

[Ty Schmidt]

Might be. You might be right.

[Pat McAfee]

They might be getable.

[Ty Schmidt]

Might have some crazy promos coming up.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, maybe some zany promos. The fine print, but definitely do that. Sure. But then maybe some. Some late movement. Yeah, you know, maybe.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe some late movement. I haven't kept. I haven't kept up with it with college basketball, but some of these sports books a little later than the others. Some sports books much more comfortable with their shit in making decisions. Other people following decisions that are being made in places. So let's remember that as we attack this March Madness. If you're gambling that maybe we got an opportunity here. We have not done an ESPN March Madness yet, so we do not know. And you only find out in real time. You only find out when the bullets are flying. So let's keep an eye on that, you know, because some people are creating the lines and some people are watching others. And it's like people can get got gumpy. Who you like in this tourney? Who. Who is your. Your team of destiny? So I. I was on Alabama, but.

[AJ Hawk]

Grant Nelson, their big man, he's getting.

[Pat McAfee]

Imaging done on his leg today. If he's out, that changes things. I actually like Tennessee. Okay. Tennessee played Florida. Well, lost to him obviously in the SEC championship. But that SEC tournament was a grind. Yeah, it was a tough one all season. They got him. They got him calloused up. Did you hear Sankey, A.J. as he spoke about the SEC team? He said there's currently 14 sports being played. At one point in the last couple weeks, there's 14 sports being played. 12 of them had an SEC team at number one. So, yeah, people are mad about 14 teams in the tournament. Well, we can do that in every sport if we want. And it's. He didn't say that exactly, but kind of. They got a lot of pride down there in their sports and it's paying off, especially if you look at the current dance.

[Seamus]

Now. I love how Sankey came on and instantly he talks about, hey, I can go through each one. I'll go through each team and tell you exactly all their. Their quad wins or whatever. When do we start using the whole quad situation?

[Pat McAfee]

That feels like this year. That feels like this year.

[Seamus]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

They didn't use it though, by the way they talked about it. They didn't use lose it because West Virginia, a lot of quads. We had ATVs out of the barn and UNC.

[Seamus]

What is a quad one victory?

[Pat McAfee]

That's good teams. I think it's like. But like, who.

[Seamus]

Who decides a good team like ranked wvu.

[Pat McAfee]

WVU beat Gonzaga when they were ranked third in the goddamn country. Ken Palm. Right. That's the rankings. I Don't know what that is.

[AJ Hawk]

They don't use him anymore. I would assume there's 300 some D1 basketball school pools. You know, you divide that by four and you figure out the quads.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, and Chris Anderson, Mountaineer, journalist. This guy was on it last night. This guy was on it. He's the one that found $104,000 bonus. I do believe Chris Anderson was like this basically all night is what I was reading from Chris. Chris Anderson had me fired up. I just want to let Chris Anderson know I appreciate his work, his due diligence. This is what he said. Listen, his very first team left out of the NCAA, a tournament team obviously. WVU had six quad one victories this season. The last three teams in UNC, Xavier, remember them? And San Diego State, they have five quad wins combined. Quad one wins combined.

[Seamus]

So what happened?

[Pat McAfee]

You tell us, A.J. that's why the governor of West Virginia is currently doing a press conference with an actual National Corrupt Athletic association banner in front of him. At the press conference he said, I want information, I want the notes from the meeting. I want to know who was where, when, what happened. That is why I'm doing this today.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, and I think that's why so many people are as pissed as they are because like you said, like if you want to eliminate this whole thing then you just got to be a little bit better and you'll get in.

[Pat McAfee]

But agree.

[Ty Schmidt]

But Joe Lunardi, who's you know, the godfather of bracketology, tough to book. Yeah, very tough to book, Tough to get a hold of. Although we did look at his rates and you know, maybe there is something that could be done there, but.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh yeah, his booking fee is good. Yeah, exactly. Might get him next year for two weeks after. Exactly. Might not be real.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly, but. And he like, you know, he typically gets, you know like 98 or 99% of the teams correctly in the field in their seed. He had West Virginia as like an eight seed. It wasn't like, you know, one of the last four in one of the 11s in the playin game. So everyone assumed that they were like comfortably and not, not even anywhere near like really on the bubble. So when it comes to comes out that they're the first team out of the tournament, it's kind of like, well, how do you go from being you know, like in like that 52, 51 spot at large to completely missing the tournament? It just doesn't make sense.

[Pat McAfee]

And then there's other teams that are pissed that are in the tourney, like there's a lot of people about the seating. They're like, well, how is this the. How is this the seating? Like, we're in the turn. So I guess there's always going to be something that you can begrudge or whatever. But it feels like this year there's a lot of people just being like this bullshit. Because it's not just West Virginia people, you know, a lot of West Virginia people are saying this is bullshit for West Virginia. Now, UNC being one of those schools that's always on top in the basketball world, has been historically. And then also Bubba Cunningham, the athletic directors, being the head of the selection committee, being a part of it. People don't love whenever they feel like they're being bamboozled, you know, especially if it's a big name. Especially if West Virginia, a school that I don't want to say gets little to no respect, but gets little to no respect is getting the butt end of it. Easy to create baby face heel here in this particular story. But it's not just this situation. There's a lot of other situations in the seating where people are like, was it. What was the thought?

[Connor]

Michigan.

[Pat McAfee]

What was Michigan?

[Connor]

Five seed, you know, and they just won the Big Ten. Like, what are we. What are we even talking about?

[Pat McAfee]

So I think what the governor of West Virginia is saying is we just want a little. Little transparency.

[Connor]

It's my explanation here.

[Seamus]

I like that he's doing it. Good for him. I'm glad he's doing that.

[Pat McAfee]

He was the same dude. We had him on the show, remember? He was the attorney General. We had him on the show.

[Seamus]

Oh, yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he was. He was pushing for. What's that called? Employment. No. Yeah, I think it was in the employment world anyways. They weren't letting people transfer. And then he was like, well, if they're able to make a million dollars over here, hear. And they're not able to hear.

[Ty Schmidt]

Aren't you kind of like breaking labor laws or something?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, like some labor laws. Aren't you kind of withholding whatever it is. He took them to court and won. And then that's. It's kind of.

[Connor]

Kind of started the trans.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, kind of started the. The whole. The whole damn thing in that whole thing. So he's not scared to go after and suit, like actually go about it. He's been in there before and he is a former attorney general, so he is a suit. So, like, that is kind of his ambition, especially when he feels like his state has been bamboozled, wronged, robbed.

[Seamus]

What's the banner say on the podium.

[Pat McAfee]

National Corrupt Athletic Association.

[Seamus]

I mean, that's a great touch. That's great touch to let people know.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly where you stand for a governor.

[Seamus]

Walking right up, in case you guys are confused.

[Connor]

Huge fly.

[Pat McAfee]

This is what this is about right here. If you don't hear me today, see me today. Okay? We're in this country and we're sick of this. We're right here. Guy here feels the same way. We're together. Don't need to say anything else. West Virginia needs being in tournament. If they're able to turn this around this quick, it'll be unbelievable.

[Connor]

Yeah, it might happen.

[Pat McAfee]

I talked to Got Hope. I talked to Jimmy Seafood John. He's a big UNC fan. I guess that's not his name. Oh, that's the name of the team that Pitino coached.

[Connor]

Yeah. I'm sorry. And mix that up.

[Pat McAfee]

Greece. Yeah. Menadakis.

[Ty Schmidt]

I believe it is great shows.

[Connor]

What's Minidocus?

[Pat McAfee]

I think that's his last name.

[Ty Schmidt]

His last name?

[Connor]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Wait, look this up, please. John Minidakis. I believe it is.

[Connor]

Mine was funny. Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't think his name is Minidakis?

[Connor]

That's not real.

[AJ Hawk]

M I N a D a K I s. Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

John Minidakis. Okay, okay. Greek lad who owns Jimmy's Famous Seafood over there in Baltimore. Fantastic crab cakes. They did start a few things, though. You know, like those cicadas that came out of the ground for the first time in 40 years. You remember them?

[Seamus]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Humming and buzzing. They had a cicada parade. Yeah, okay. Over there. And they're the ones that started the entire thing.

[Connor]

What else?

[Pat McAfee]

People were talking. Well, now we got a little bit more information.

[Connor]

What was the thing that you heard from them?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, there's. There was a little bit of convo about, you know, Covid 18. No, no.

[Connor]

The New York Times said they came from a lab leak in China they.

[Pat McAfee]

Released that was covered 19.

[Connor]

Oh, okay.

[Seamus]

Sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

We're talking about COVID 18. Nonetheless, Jimmy's famous Seafood is a great place with great people with great food. Gonna have to get past some of the things that they've done. Yeah, Every time I go there, I have a block blast.

[Connor]

Super nice. Redid it.

[Pat McAfee]

He's a really nice. Whole new bar deck area. Used to be a hole with kind of people did kind of say that. Old school. Not a whole old story.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And they've updated everything. Good business. These two kids, Metadakis and his brother, they got it when they're in high school. Kids, Good kids. Good men.

[AJ Hawk]

Good men.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, good dads, great chefs. The mom's right in the bakery. Yeah. Bakeries, Chef's kiss. It's downstairs. Yeah. Go to the bakery.

[Connor]

Chefs do kiss their mother.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. That's good news because they're good chefs.

[Connor]

You just said.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Connor]

The menendexes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Talking about the minute. This could be a minidakai situation. Yeah.

[Connor]

The menendeuses.

[Pat McAfee]

No, it's dachis. I believe these are the brothers right here. Okay. The one on the left, John. Huge UNC fan. Okay. Die hard UNC fan. So he put out a smart ass tweet to me, you know, oh, sorry you guys didn't get in. You know, And I told him they need to acknowledge the and forfeit their spot to the West Virginia Mountaineers. Do what's right for college basketball. Do what's right for the future. UNC says they love college ball. They're one of the staples and pillars of college ball. Do what's right. Forfeit your spot and call West Virginia and say, guess what? You're in. And then also, also give us all your jump warm ups. Yep. Shoes. We want all the fits. Exactly. We want all.

[Seamus]

We want all your Jordan stuff. Send it all to me.

[Pat McAfee]

All your Jordan stuff.

[Seamus]

I'm sure they'll do that, right?

[Pat McAfee]

They'll do that minute. Dawkis, I don't think he responded. I don't know if he's thinking about it, but it is. It's one of those things where this might motivate this team too, you know, like, immensely. They're playing against San Diego State and.

[Connor]

They slapped the floor.

[Pat McAfee]

San Diego State, the CBS people are like, got UNC beaten. San Diego State just. Just did a 20 minute thing about they do not deserve being said.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're gonna make it to the sweet 16.

[Pat McAfee]

That was an interesting little dilemma I think everybody was having. But that's Madison March. All right, we're gonna get the hell out of here. Monday Night Raw starts in like 20 minutes, I think on Netflix. Can't wait to watch. Cannot wait to watch. Bomb the Montier. But this day. On this day.

[Seamus]

Where's me again?

[Pat McAfee]

They're in Brussels.

[Seamus]

Jean Claude Van Damme. Is he gonna show up? That's where he's from.

[Connor]

Who knows?

[Pat McAfee]

Who knows?

[Connor]

Good.

[Pat McAfee]

Who knows?

[Seamus]

Sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

You never know what's going to happen with Jean Claude Van Damme. But on this day, after the selection, with the thing with the day, with the poem, with the halba, that was gonna be very, very difficult. Very, very appreciative.

[Ty Schmidt]

Of.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody's at the wwe, basically saying, like, hey, you know, And I'm gonna hate watching it, to be honest with you, because I'm. You know, I need to wear a headset in here while we watch it. Yeah, I need to put a headset on. Get in there. Call it.

[Rick Pitino]

For sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Practice. Call it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah.

[Seamus]

Get in Cole's ear. Get in Cole's ear to throw him some gems. Can you get wired up so you can at least drop a few things you want him to say?

[Pat McAfee]

I never know what he's wired to because, you know, he's deaf. So he's got the. He's got his hearing aid things inside of his head, like his implants. Then he's got another headphone on top of that, which is what I'm hearing and everybody's hearing. But his ear things can Bluetooth to other stuff. So, like, you could be talking to him one time, and he. No way. Because his actual ears are just on a video that's on his phone, and he's just completely checked out, like the biggest noise cancer canceling operation of all time, you know, because he needs those things to hear. But then every once in a while, it'll be like, one ear, and then he'll take you off his ear, and then he'll put you on a speaker. It's like. But then he has the headphones on the outside there. So I think I could maybe hack into one of those ears if I really wanted to. But I'm just going to take in the entertainment. Entertainment that is Michael Cole.

[Connor]

Hell, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It's gonna be hard not to be there, though. We're on road WrestleMania.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Getting close.

[Connor]

A month away.

[Pat McAfee]

Real close. Real close. Never again. Never again. Okay, we're gonna get out of here. Let's go. Enjoy that. And then we'll be back tomorrow. We'll be off Thursday, Friday for the tourney. You know, March Madness. And. Yeah, it's a wonderful time to be alive. We can't thank you enough. Big night out is gonna be cool. Big night out's gonna be really cool. Big night's gonna be really cool.

[Seamus]

Sold out. What? Hour, hour, and 10 minutes.

[Pat McAfee]

92 minutes, 92 minutes. Hour 32. Secondary market available, I do believe. Which I don't love, but, I mean, it was kind of expected. Don't love.

[Seamus]

There's no way to. There's no way to stop that, is there?

[Pat McAfee]

Nah. I don't know. A lot of artists have tried, you know, A lot of artists have figured. Try to figure it Out. Taylor Swift has a good angle. I think there's a couple comedians that have a good business plan around it. It's not easy. I don't know how you do it, especially with how good these, you know, ticket scalpers or. Yeah, good news is you get a ticket, a problem, promise it'll be worth it. You know, there's some of those ticket prices are absurd and I would not spend that for anything, but I promise it would be worth the price of admission. I'm going to try my best. And I think the show is packed. The show is packed. Oh, yeah. And people are now brainstorming because. Even more so because they saw the reaction. So now I think people are understanding, oh, this is actually a thing, you know, because it wasn't really real until. Okay, now this is an actual thing that's gonna have to happen. So then now everybody that said, yeah, I'm in started, like saying, oh, I could also. And it's like, oh, all of a sudden, the show getting a little bit better. All of a sudden everything's starting to like, even. What I'm saying is the people that are gonna be part of the show are giving, like, I think they were very excited about the reaction and what the possibilities are here. So I think it's like, brainstorming starting to happen even more.

[Connor]

Love it.

[Pat McAfee]

So it's coming together really, really, really well. Really, really well. All the technical aspects have been completed, which is a big deal. Big. Those have to get tested, though. Yeah, those all have to get tested. The stage, Hilarious. It's part of the show, though. Stage is part of the show.

[Connor]

Has to be.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, there's some big things that are part of the show, but those have to be built. So whenever I'm pitching what I would like it to be built, like, hilarious convos. And I appreciate these people for taking me serious whenever I'm saying the things that I'm saying. Need. Needed to be able to smoke one side. Okay. Need to be able to have smoke come out of one side of that. Because we don't know if we're going to need. We can definitely do smoke on one side. Should we do smoke maybe on both sides, though? And then alternate. Yes, good idea. Yes, good idea. See, I. I would. Yes, that would be good. Lighting needed to be able to be specific. We need the lighting to be able to be specific. Okay. Just need it to be. You know what I mean? I Needed to be able to be. Need to be able to, like, okay, so we can set it up so we can. Boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Anytime, right? I'm like, yes, that is exactly what I'm talking about. And that's like the WWE people, you know, like, whenever you're working with, like, the greatest on earth at things, it's like, I think it's gonna come together quite well. I think it's gonna come together quite well. I do believe it's gonna be streamed. Where at, though? Where at, though? Yeah. How will that go? What will the setup be? Will it be free? Of course. Nobody should have to pay to watch our shit. But if you're in that building, you're going to get a chance to experience a show of a lifetime and potentially walk out of there with a much bigger bank account. Over a million bucks being given away in the arena. Now, granted, that should move some tickets just to begin with because you could potentially walk in there and holy shit. But I think a lot of people are wondering what that means. It's like, it's going to be sweet. I think it's going to be a pretty electric environment and shout out to the vitamins that have gotten me to this place where it's like, we could do all this. Yeah. And hopefully, you know, it's a show that people talk about for a long time and can't thank you all enough for the love on it. Now let's get the fuck out of here. March Madness Cook cooking. NFL off season. Cooking. The road to Wrestlemania on fire. And tomorrow we'll be back. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Happy St. Patty's everybody. Happy St. Patty's Day. Enjoy the hell out of it. Shout out to the Irish Tone and the Romans. St. Patty's Day.

[AJ Hawk]

St. Patrick was Roman.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Of course. Did you hear that?

[Connor]

Yeah, I heard it.

[AJ Hawk]

That's why we had two Italian coaches on, because we wanted to, you know, an Italian lion.

[Connor]

Who would have thought?

[Pat McAfee]

Thomas in a name substitute an A.

[Connor]

For no can't spell lion without Italian.

[AJ Hawk]

You think you ruined NASA? You should Google that story, brother.

[Pat McAfee]

Have a great St. Patrick's Day. Unified.

[Connor]

You killed Jesus.

[Pat McAfee]

They would say we were hired. All right, we appreciate you. Happy Saint Patrick. Stay unified. We're in this thing together. Let's have a good time. Team on me. Team on three. Actually, Team on me. Sloancha on three. One, two, three. Sla. Goodbye.

[Darius J. Butler]

In case you didn't know, these young men are driven. They are prodigies, the savants, the ones we've been waiting for, like Damian Lillard, for instance.

[Pat McAfee]

He doesn't see guidance or mentorship.

[Darius J. Butler]

He's a leader. He isn't waiting for the baton to be passed to him. He's taking it for himself. He's relentless in a pursuit of greatness, always pushing to one up himself. He is accomplished, but far from satisfied. He embodies what it means to have an unstoppable drive and are shaking up the status quo in their community and beyond. And Damian Lillard drives a Toyota. A new generation of Toyota drivers are here and they want you to know one thing. You can't stop my drive.