← The Ryen Russillo Show
The Ryen Russillo Show
St. John’s! Acuff’s Rise & More Tournament Thoughts w/ Jim Jackson, Plus Hunter Pence Talks Baseball!
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One token per customer token expires at the start of the final NBA game each day. When offered bet placed on days PRA stat leader receives equal share of 2 million in non withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days. Additional wagering restrictions apply. Terms@sportsbook.draftkings.com promos we're talking NCAA tournament. What I don't get to here, we'll get to later with Jim Jackson. I'm just going to run through a bunch of the things that I loved from the weekend. And of course we start with the Johnny's St. John's beats Kansas first sweet 16 for St. John's since 1999. I could tell this story for 10 minutes. I will not do that. But I remember where I was in 99. It shouldn't be that hard. I was 23 years old, Negril Djing Margaritaville, playing scrubs 1,000 times a day, and I had the whole place to myself. St. John's Ohio State sat down. Chicken salad. Yep, a huge salad with chicken all over it. Although not a lot of mass back then, I didn't like how I felt when I took my shirt off. And I've never forgotten that feeling the rest of my life. And I was like, well, this is good. Life is good. Was DJing a lot. But I was like, life is pretty good right now. Let's go Johnny's. And then 200 some kids from Ohio State showed up on shuttles from Mobay and took over the entire place. And it was absolutely hell. And I want to blow my brains out when they missed the free throws at the end. But not yesterday. I felt good. I got up to the couch, I yelled yeah. Twice. Real loud. One of us felt good to be back. St. John's up 54, 40. And you're like, this feels like 30 points in this kind of game. But if you're a St. John's fan, you know you have to just buckle up, strap yourself in and go. They're probably not going to score for like eight minutes and it's going to be brutal. And 54:40 turns into 65. 65. There's a fouling strategy there by Bill Self to use up all the fouls to get closer to the bonus. But actually fouling, delaying any momentum for St. John's offensively. That's why we have the first foul in the last two minutes rule in the NBA, because back in the day when teams didn't have team fouls in the quarters. And they would go hack a shack. It would be like, all right, this is pointless to watch, try to get into the bonus to then have him take free throw. So let's just do first and last two minutes. That's why they changed that rule. I do wonder if 90s NBA fans or protective 90s NBA people watch that game against St. John's against Kansas, and they watch that and they go, now we're talking. This is the good stuff. St. John's can't shoot, but somehow they're making threes even though they didn't make any yesterday. Well, they did. But 11 of 35 is exactly something to be proud about. They kept taking them. And at halftime, Patino goes, well, they don't think we can make them. And so far we're proving them right. And thank God for Bryce Hopkins, because he hit six, which I think is double his career high, and was kind of the difference of just balancing out anything that was happening outside, because nothing was going to happen inside, because 1. You know, KS is really good defensively as well. And Zubie, edge of four. There's like five guys in basketball now that can throw an entry pass. And even with Bdinga being in foul trouble, it just didn't seem like St. John's want to go to Zubi as much as I think that they probably should have. But I thought it was interesting at least watching the game, I was like, I wonder if Patina just tells, like, some of the guys, like, hey, enough threes. And it was actually the opposite, because in the post game, he said, I told him, you've got to just keep shooting them. You got to keep shooting if you got to keep going to find a way to make a couple of these things and hang on. And so you have the foul strategy at the end, which everybody's been crushing Self for. But I would just at least add this. If you're saying that he should have saved one extra foul, the foul the next time, asking college kids to foul, like, say, however, the clock runs down to like two or three seconds when somebody's probably getting right near their shot, and instead of a really tough shot to make, maybe you're fouling them and sending them the free throw line. I don't know that it's as clear as everybody's making it out to be. The, like, self absolutely screwed up by fouling, consistently, ruining momentum, taking time off the clock, using up all these fouls, but then didn't have another one with four seconds to Go where Darling, who has zero points the entire game ends up hitting the game winning layup which looking at that angle still it's amazing that he got that thing off. So the Johnny's move on Iowa knocks off on number one seed against Florida. I had so many great things to say about Thomas Hou for Florida. I was gonna. I might have done an hour on him. He saved Florida's ass in this game. His aggressiveness, the way he just does not relent at all. I love him. I'll talk more about him when we get closer to the draft because the Gators are eliminated. And if you look at how Florida got back into this game, it was how offensively it was incredible pressure. I felt like Iowa probably had some easier looks offensively once they got through this full court and three quarter court stuff. Like Florida was throwing all sorts of stuff at Iowa and Iowa was still totally fine, breaking the pressure and then resetting and running more clock. And this game was about pace. When you looked at where Iowa was on the slowest side of things in college hoops and Florida on the fastest side. They held Florida to a season low 61 possessions and it still almost didn't work. Florida misses one of the two free throws, they're up 72, 70. Sturts breaks the press. It looks like defensively one of the Florida players took a bad angle or a gamble. You let Sterts get behind you, now he has full momentum. And now the defender on Vulgaris in the corner has to come up to meet Sturts because still it's only a two point game and Sturts makes the play. Vulgaris gets his toes behind the line and hits a three. And how about this kid's story? He hadn't seen his. He's from Spain, he lost his father when he was nine and he hadn't seen his mother since August. And she makes it to the game and she's over in that corner. And as Iowa is celebrating for the game winner, he runs over to his mother again. Hadn't seen her since August. What an incredible story. Iowa, great people and a great weekend for the state. America needs farmers. That means only one defending champ since 2007 has advanced past the sweet 16 as Florida is eliminated. Obviously UConn winning back to back 23 and 24. The outlier there. Just a little note on the whole defending champ thing because anyone that wins seems to be in this hurry to be like, hey, we need to turn the page. And I understand the mental part of that, right? Like you don't want your young Group your kids coming into the next season thinking, hey, we're owed this, right? Like, hey, we're the shit. But is there something to be said of maybe the motivation of just talking yourself into once you're in the tournament and you are the number one seed in your region, that you are defending something? Because I see a lot of guys talking about this all the time, and it's just. Look, it's nearly impossible to repeat, but maybe a psychological switch on the whole thing where you decide if you're the next defending champ to just embrace it and say, yeah, we're the defending champs and everybody needs to take us out for them to have success. Because this whole it's new and we haven't done anything. Well, again, anyone's going to get eliminated. So you can come up at every different storyline or result that you want to. UConn, UCLA, Terrace Reed, 31 and 27 in the first round against Furman. That's right, 31 and 27. He had four points in the first half only on free throws. Terrific job. You knew UCLA was going to be up for the challenge defensively. If someone had told me that UConn's going to have to win a tournament game without Caravan doing everything on offense for them. And he's a terrific player. We know his resume, but he's a complimentary offensive player for the most part, and he goes for 27.
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He.
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He's doing everything because you never quite know what you're going to get from UConn offensively. Mullins, their freshman who's a first round pick, hasn't really looked up for it. Going back to the St. John's game in the Big east tournament final where it looked a little overwhelming for him. Furman, he went 0 of 8 from 3, so I don't know that he's overwhelmed by Furman. He just wasn't hitting his shots. And he hits a Huge shot for UConn. Hurley goes nuts. He keeps firing away. So he may have woken up, which balances out UConn's offense quite a bit. If you have Reed, if you have. Have Mullins and you have obviously Caravan. But that. That's at least something there for Yukon with all their guards and how much they're going to get after you defensively. Can I interest you in a little Mick Cronin? So Caraban blocks Perry, I believe, up top at the rim. I thought the block was fine. Maybe it was a little physical. Maybe there was some body stuff. It was already kind of going downhill for UCLA at that point. And they're down 9. UCLA doesn't get the call. The official that's on the baseline is now running a past the UCLA sideline. And Cronin goes with the most condescending clap right towards the official. All right, Yukon crosses half court. They're getting ready. Just about. There was actually kind of like a choppy little play there that maybe it could have been a travel Yukon. And the official turns right around and gives Cronin the technical. So that means Caravan hits the two free throws, they get possession, they score a layup, and now they're down 13. So a couple things on this I could see the announcers have so many things going on, it's hard to keep track of it. So we go to commercial, because, of course we went to commercial. The NFL's like, God, there's a lot of commercials in this. You come back and they used, I thought, a bad replay that was behind the bench. Because Cronin immediately is like, I didn't even say anything. It's like, well, yeah, but you know what you did? You didn't get a call, and you acted like an asshole, because you do that all the time, and you knew what you were doing. And I didn't even say anything. And because they used the replay that they did, Stereotor is kind of like, well, if he didn't really say anything, and then, you know, even Lapis, who was terrific, is kind of like, you know, that's a lot. I would have been Tech, you know, I would have gotten a million technicals if that was the kind of thing. It's like, no, no, no. You've got to see the other replay. You've got to see the entire play the entire time. And look, it was going downhill for ucla. They were having really a hard time getting anything going offensively. The pressure by the guards, UConn, which I can't wait for the Michigan State game, by the way, in that specific matchup with fears against these guards for UConn. But it felt like the life came out of UCLA a little bit there. And I don't. Cronin't do him any favors whatsoever. And we've seen this from him before. We saw it in the Arizona game when they were up big two years ago in Arizona, came back. I thought the situation that he had with Jamerson when he threw him out of the Michigan State game, and he was totally wrong about it, then got into the reporters. I'm just telling you, like, I know he's won. And it seems like players love to play for Him, I think he's won almost 70% of his games. So, you know, that's really all we care about. But as a non parent, maybe nobody gives a shit, but it's just like, I don't want you playing for him. I'm actually impressed how he continues to get players knowing what you're signing up for because it is him against the world. And I'm not telling you like, Hurley's a sweetheart, but you almost like when you watch a Cronin Hurley game, you don't even notice Hurley as much. And I guess I just don't understand it. Like, you walk out onto the court, it's like, is everything you're doing focused on your team winning or do you have these moments where you cannot help yourself and you make it about you against all the things that are going against you. When again, when things are going south, you need to kind of be there for your team to try to get them out of this funk. And it was still plenty of time left in this game. And again, I'm not saying it's the only reason they lost. It's far from it. But just add it to the list of stuff with him that I can't stand watching. Let's see, what else. Michigan, Arizona look much better than Duke to me. I have some thoughts on the draft picks. I don't think I'm going to share them all today. That could be something I do going into the weekend. But just a simple part of it. Like if you're sitting there and you're in the front office for an NBA team and you're however the rest of this tournament goes, and you're talking about all these different players and one guy on the staff, I don't care if it's your video guy, maybe it's your analytics, you know, and if somebody said, hey, is it crazy to think that Acuff, Arkansas, is the best player out of this draft class in five years, I don't think anybody else in the room should tell that person that he's crazy. And whether It's Peterson's first three against St. John's where you're like, oh, yeah, okay, that's why this guy's the number one pick. But I wouldn't say Peterson had like. It was a very Kawhi game from Peterson, and I'm not even talking about like Izzy or is he going to play tonight? Kawhi parallels, but the moments where it's like, hey, you kind of, you're the number one pick, probably. So, like, can you. Can you get cooking here a little bit. He had Reuben praying a switch, and he swung it, and I was like, all right. But at the same time, I went back and looked at the clip. It looked like three guys were kind of on him. So maybe that was a very smart, like, Peterson thing of like. And against okc, where it's like, what do you want me to do? Just drive into three people here and say, cool, I'm the number one pick, so maybe there's an advanced thing of him, or maybe people should have tried to get away from him and bring some of that defensive help away. Or maybe St. John's was going to do any of that stuff. I thought Peterson was fine. I don't think it was special. It's funny to see everybody watch Cameron Boozer now for the first time and be like, wait a minute, what the hell's going on with this guy? I don't know that Cameron Boozer was necessarily amazing in the second half against tcu after doing nothing the first half, I think TCU was. The entire team was in foul trouble. They ran a foul trouble graphic. There weren't any players from Duke on it. It was all TCU players. So eventually, when your entire front line's worried about the next foul fouling them out, they're not going to play Boozer the same way and it's going to be a little bit easier for him. But I would say this in defensive Boozer, the Michigan game exists. I watched it. I'm sure you watched it against that front line. So that's why we talk about them debons up. The good and the bad. It looks great and the bad looks really bad. And then you have Fleming's Houston, who's in the mix, Caleb Wilson, who's hurt. Is all I'm saying is that the Acuff thing. And by the way, Derrick Rose's run as I used the comparisons here with Rose with Cal and Memphis and now Acuff at Arkansas with him. The Derrick Rose run to the number one pick was happening around this time. It was Beasley all year long and Rose, it was kind of like undeniable as it kept going and going and going. You're like, no one can stay in front of this guy. Like, this is special. We talk about guys breaking down defenders and getting to the hoop and finishing as small players. There's nothing you can do with Derrick Rose. And Acuff is like, I don't know that he's as quick as Rose, but that's not a knock. It's just as effective and with his size and a little bit more oomph to him. I really think that this is a little bit more. I don't want to say it's wide open because teams are pretty clear on Peterson still being the guy. NBA teams that I talk to are way less concerned with all the Peterson stuff than I think the media, once we started catching onto the story and talking about it all the time, which I think were totally fair criticisms. But I just don't think a suggestion for Acuff is necessarily the wrong thing here. All right, so I guess I did do a little bit more draft than I thought I was going to do. Iowa State. How about that team? I wish Jefferson were healthy. I might get real weird and pick them to be in the Final four. I had them in the Elite Eight because I fell in love with them. I fall in love with Iowa state once every 13 years. I just realized this. You go back to 2000, Pfizer, Michael, Nurse Tinsley, and then in 2014, Yang Gang. Can I interest you in a little Melvin Edgem. And then you've got DeAndre Kane, King Asiatic, Nobody's equal. That was actually Big Daddy Kane. I think DeAndre Kane was like 31 when he played for Iowa State that year. So here we are again in 26. I love this team. I love Iowa. I would be huge Iowa guy today on a Monday, which I know is, you know, Hawkeyes are like, wait, you were so nice to us and now you're talking up lames Iowa. It's not what I say. That's what they say. Let's see. Purdue, if they're rolling with Fletcher Lawyer and Kaufman Ren at this point, they're a completely different team. We saw in the Big Ten championship game. Lawyer, lawyers. 43% from three, three straight years. He's ridiculous. And then you've got Braden Smith at the controls, all time assist leader. Something I did notice in their second round win. He's got bedazzled Nikes. Bedazzled. I'll say this about NFL evaluations. I want my corners wearing chains. I want my wide receivers wearing chains. You could say you don't want your guard wearing a chain, but if that guard is wearing a chain, that tells me something about him. Probably doesn't make a ton of sense because you get ripped off probably every single game. I don't even know that it makes a ton of sense for the guys outside to be wearing them all the time. But do you want Braden Smith? Do you want your point guard wearing bedazzled I don't know if they were Kobe's or not. I think yes, I think yes. He's on the draft boards probably as an early second round pick. I do wonder if a team's going to draft him just to teach everybody else like Akeem's camp to be like hey, we're doing the Braden Smith entry pass camp and we're going to throw entry passes for three straight days and then you're going to learn how to do it. It takes a little bit more than that but I, I think I like it. And obviously like everybody else watching Purdue these last couple weeks, how could you not love this team? I'm going to end here Nebraska Vandy going back a couple days, terrific game and I'm not new if in February I probably wouldn't give Nebraska any love with five white guys because it'd be the wrong month to do it. But it's March. I don't know if they were inspired by The Lakers recent five man rotation of five white guys. First time in, I don't know, 10 years, something like that. So you've got the game winner. No timeout by Horber. Fred Hoiberg I think is how you pronounce it. Here's what I'm going to start tracking. Do the ex players that are now head coaches, do they not call timeouts because they know it's better because it's chaos on the court and everybody's kind of running to the ball and there's always bad help look, we see in the NBA as well but no time out and maximizing that chaos, is that something that the non player coaches won't do where because they didn't play and they're making up for all their insecurities as not being as good as a player to get to play anywhere of note? Do those guys call timeouts because it's like yes, here's what I'm going to do. And the players who are far more secure in their basketball world or their life and what they've accomplished, are they like man, I'm just going to run it out there and see what happens. And a game winner for Nebraska on the five white guys. Now I've got to imagine there was a little kid watching that game somewhere and you know, maybe he went to a summer camp to play hoops last summer and maybe it didn't go great. You know, maybe his dad picked him up at camp and his dad's maybe south of the 510 equator and his mom's a spitfire but she was a gymnast and there's a maximum height on those moms and maybe they talked about it, talked about what made more sense and maybe Christmas, he got a lacrosse stick for Christmas. I'd like to think that little white kid somewhere after that Nebraska game and he watched that game, he threw that lacrosse stick away and went outside in the driveway and started getting some shots up. All right, before we dive into today's breakdown, a quick word on the tool that keeps people's workflow tighter than my takes Microsoft365 copilot the world moves fast. Your workday even faster. 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No, it is the ironic part. First of all, thanks for having me. The ironic part is Michigan State in particular. Tom Izzo is probably my favorite coach that I've covered, you know, since I started back in the Big Ten Network 2007. They've kind of opened up their doors to me to be able to get a really great insight into why the program has been so successful over the years. And a lot has to do with the culture that Tom Izzo has kind of placed together. And so for me, a Michigan thing is great because, look, I grew up 45 minutes an hour outside of Detroit from Toledo. I spent a lot of my formative years playing basketball, honing my skills in Detroit. A lot of Michigan players, former. Our great friends of mine from Glen Rice to Terry Mills to Sean Higgins to Fab 5, Mark Hughes, all of those. Jalen, all of those. So it's really, Ryan, more of a football thing than it is basketball. And plus, when I was in school, our rivals were Indiana. It wasn't Michigan. But, you know, some people got to burn their boots, man, when they go across those state lines sometimes, man, you know, they don't want to buy gas in Michigan or Ohio. They'll wait till they get there. I'm not. I'm not. That's too draining for me, man. That's plus and plus. Having Michigan State, two outstanding teams in the way Michigan and Dusty may have planned, I mean, you can't help a root for them.
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Yeah, they're both incredible teams. Whether it's the history with Izzo and that culture thing is something I'm always trying to understand. And then you just have Michigan, where I'll. I'll ask you this way because I think it's exciting. I can't wait to talk Arkansas, Arizona. But if we just looked at, like, that front line for Michigan, you know, Lindenberg, Mara, the transfer, ucla. But there's Morris. Johnson has moments where I'm like, damn. I'm like. He can kind of do a lot of different things. Would you rather have their front line or Arkansas's back court?
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Oh, because you went. You win basketball with your back courts, you solidify games with your front court, but you win it by your backcourt. God, that's a. That's. That's a tough one. I'm going with. I'm going with the front court of Michigan. And the reason why is because it's the versatility within that front court. Because you can bring Mara out, you can bring Lindenborg out, you can place Morez Johnson out, and he can make plays, facilitate, or you can go big and just power the ball inside, especially when you're not shooting the ball well. Those three complement what their Backcourt maybe sometimes lack in shooting, but which is rare because like we saw, you know the other night is when they get it going in St. Louis, which you know, they knew the playbook in and out because of Dusty May and Josh Ford said they're like Kendra spirit, so to speak. They know each other, they're great friends. But when that front court starts to dominate and just body punch, body blows, body blows, it's just hard to compete with.
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That's the right answer.
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I think.
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The other one is dynamic as this Arkansas backcourt is. We're talking about two freshmen, you know, and London Borg can bring the ball up, which is just a ridiculous matchup. Part of it, you know, I spend so much time on the draft and so I'll watch college basketball probably too often almost in a detrimental level of like hey, look at Mara dominating as this kind of traditional post guy. But then they'll bring him up as they start their offense and then he can pass behind him depending on different stuff that they're doing. And you know, sure there's Jokic, but I don't want to compare anyone to him. Do you think the NBA is either designed to prevent that from being such an advantage or the NBA has just moved in a direction where maybe they're ignoring somebody like Amara, like an old school, hey, we can run offense through the high post and maybe NBA teams will do it every now and then on some sort of entry and then there's sort of like a double action off of the same thing. But. But I'll watch Michigan play and go, it is such a college offense. But yet these. We're talking about three guys that are NBA players.
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Well, it's two different thoughts thought process. Think about it like this. College is a safe haven. If you're a big man to play conventional post up basketball, you can still do that. The women's game, also the men's game, you can be a post up player conventionally as Zach eating to kind of dominate it inside. But the beauty about Michigan is this, is that Mara, despite being seven plus feet, yes, he'll get on the post, but that's not where Dusty May generally uses him. Unless he has the mismatch and they want to get a tough bucket, they'll put Mara in the post. Generally Mara is lifted because that provides more space for the backcourt for Elliott Cadeau, Namari Burnett and those guys to really have more space to operate. But if you look at the NBA, it's more you bringing centers out, you're allowing the guards to facilitate and if you have a Jokic, if you have an Embiid, if you have a center that when we had Ivicher Zubac, he did, he posted up, but a lot of times he was in that pick and roll position up top in that short row to make plays. So the NBA is adopted to having the centers up, elbow free throw line extended in order to have more space for those driving lanes for their, you know, guards and forwards.
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Yeah, I, I guess I, I look at like some non shooting bigs. Like it's hard to live now in the league because you'll go like, hey, we love the defense, we love the brim protection, we love the rebounding. Like Zoo's a perfect example of this stuff. But then there's always kind of this moment that you'll have. It's like, yeah, but I'd love if I had a stretch five.
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Oh, wait, but look, Jalen Durham, now he's starting to shoot the ball better, but he and Isaiah Stewart are. I'm going to lower my shoulder, I'll get to my spot, I'll get the hard baskets when we need it. Offensive rebounds, they're not stretching the floor, but within their system, it makes perfect sense to what they're doing. Shingoon is a whole different story in Houston. He's able to step out, utilize his passing and his skill set. So I think each organization is a little bit different. Every organization, as you know, Ryan, not blessed to have a sengun or a Jokic that can really facilitate, that can really shoot it, that can really be a threat. So it's, you got to kind of pick your point. Okay, who do we have? Who are we? What is our personnel? And how do we evolve our offense around that to make it make sense
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on the Michigan State UConn matchup? Because you had Michigan State and I'm going to, you know what, however much of the rest of you got to watch or travel and all the assignments we'll get to.
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I was watching it.
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Yeah, I imagine, I imagine. I just didn't want to put you in a tough spot. But with Michigan State, like Fears, you know, there's, there's very short list of point guards that are just in complete command of the game. And I thought he was brilliant against Louisville. And then the first thing I thought of in that matchup with UConn is like, I just can't fathom that UConn will let him get into his stuff and control it the way he did against Louisville. And Fears was incredible in that game with the passing you know, there's always going to be probably a couple shots there, but you kind of, kind of take that with the entire package. That's Fears. How would you see him preparing for like what UConn's going to try to throw at him defensively?
- [31:32]
C
Nothing different. Because the thing about Fears in Michigan State is, and it's going to be, I mean, a fabulous matchup. And I'm just looking here as I go down DeAndre Bembry, who's came off of injury but finally played last night, those two, Danny. Dan Hurley is going to figure out a way to try to negate what Fears does, but they still have to play their defensive sets, which they're not going to press up a lot. Okay. They may apply some half court pressure just to bleed some time off the clock, but a pressing situation or trapping situation, depending on how it is, is something that Dan Hurley hasn't done yet. Now they are hedge a little bit more. They'll show they don't want Fears to kind of turn the corner, but they're going to force him to be a jump shooter. Okay. That's the thing when you have Jeremy fierce, is that you want to keep him out of the paint and force him to take jump shots. If he, if his ability to pull up on a 15 foot jump shot, if he hits that on consistency, then it's gonna be a long night because what you're going to do is be able to now offset different things that he does, especially passing the ball. So I don't see, I see, I see it from this perspective. Ryan, with Dan and covering Dan all year, looking at different point guards that he played against, is that if they eliminate fears from turning the corner, breaking down the defense, getting two feet in the paint and now forcing defensive rotations, now those sprayouts are not there. So that point of attack defense initially and that pitch and roll defense is going to be very critical for you guys.
- [33:13]
A
I, you know, when the rankings came out, it was like Deuce the number one overall team. And I understand with the resume and the head to head later in the season against Michigan, neutral court. You know, we all watch that game and. But man, I got to tell you, watching the Big 12 championship, I just went, how can anyone think any team is better than Arizona? That's again my opinion. The depth, the versatility, all the different things they can throw at you. Where would you see Michigan in comparison to obviously with Florida gone here, the other two number one seats.
- [33:44]
C
I love Michigan. I love the versatility. I've covered them a lot this year, of course we had them in the region in buffalo. So the two games that they played to get to the Sweet 16 were there. So it's one of those things where I love Arizona and their versatility and Michigan and Arizona are very similar from that perspective because you have sides across the board, you have an excellent backcourt. I think La Cadot, from a leadership perspective maybe a little bit is ahead of Burry's just because he's played longer, he's been in the situation. So you can kind of count on that. When Elliott Cadeau is focused in there, I would give that advantage, not from a physical perspective because I think Burris with his size is probably a better player at this point. But with regards to knowing how to run a team in a situation, in a one game scenario, Elliot to do has been there and I'll lean into that a little bit more in a matchup if I had to put those two together because of that. But Michigan is right there. You tell me. I know they took a loss to Duke, you know, but Michigan is right there. Right there. And it's not a lot of separation between the three. This is what I'm saying.
- [35:07]
A
Yeah, I totally get that. I guess my thing with Arizona would be, you know, the Buries versus Godot, like experience thing. I can't, I can't win that. Right. But I think you said it and I would agree that Burry's is a better player. I mean he's, he's a more talented guy. And I think what's really impressive for this Arizona team with all these other options, especially with Jaden Bradley being Big 12 player of the year, is that they closed the gate. They wanted Buries to have the ball in his hands to close out Utah State. So when I see something like that with a young player, I'm like, man, that tells you something. But I think Bradley offers Arizona another point of attack on the ball option if like, hey, we want to give him a look now we're going to let him initiate where I think unfortunately because of Michigan and the injuries, it's, you know, look, we're comparing something that would have to happen much further down the road. But I, I swear every time Arizona brings somebody in, I'm like, okay, this guy is making a positive impact now too. And it feels like it's eight guys.
- [36:05]
C
No, it is. Jaden Bradley is one too, where he offsets what Burries can do, co op because he's able to go get it when you need it. And that X factor in a One game scenario is instrumental to moving on. And we've seen it time and time again in college basketball. Ryan, you've been around this enough to know backcourts win you games and they lose you game. Okay. And to have the offset between the two where either one can go get it is a benefit to Tommy Lloyd there in Arizona because like you said, you wanted to get the ball here. But this option over here, who happens to be the player of the year, the conference is pretty damn good. It can go get it. Yeah, I mean that's. I mean, when you're sitting here drawing stuff up, it's great. But then when you're putting the scouting report together, you're like, okay, if we trap, Burr is here and the ball gets over to Bradley, now he has a three on two on this side and now on the second side he can go to work. Now we don't have enough players, so. So it's a quandary for opposing teams when you have a player like Bradley who can just go get it as well. And I say I cut like Malit. Time is there in Arkansas with, you know, Darius Acup.
- [37:22]
A
Yeah, perfect transition. Because that's what I wanted to ask you about because I mean, Malik can go and it's just, hey, sorry, man. The other guy's going to be maybe a top five pick and Acuff and was SEC player of the year and has been on an absolute tear with these 30 point games. But Malik is like, when he gets his chance and he can make something out of absolutely nothing and his size and his athleticism. So, you know, every one of us has been excited about this draft class for a long time, but it's certainly kind of had its ups and downs, whether it's what you think at aj what you think of the Peterson storyline and, and just the steadiness of Boozer, but then you're like, if you're taking him number one, does your fan base understand that, like he might not exactly be like our go to offensive guy for the next 10 years, which, you know, is part of it too. And there's a bunch of other names here, but when you watch Acuff and I had said this at the top, I'm not saying he's the best player in draft, but I would think when front offices are talking about this class and maybe it's teams that don't even have to worry about picking up there, but I don't know that it's a wild scenario to say, hey, what if in five years he ends up Being the guy. Do you think that that's a crazy statement based on what you've from him?
- [38:26]
C
No, because he's built for it. The mentality and how he plays. The beautiful part about how he plays is that he's putting up numbers without turning the ball over. So his usage rate is very high, but yet his mistakes are minimalized. And that's what you have to look at from a young player who's running his program and his team and still making the right plays. Okay. Yeah. Sometimes a shot like he struggled at the beginning of the game and then finally got it going, okay, that's something. Sometimes you can't control how many times it goes through the net. But my decision making, where and when and who I get the ball to in certain situations, that to me tells you about the IQ and knowledge of the game. Okay. That allows him to be able to compete and impact the game without scoring the basketball. And at the next level, nobody thought Jalen Brunson would be doing what he's doing. Okay. Defensively, we don't know if he can guard in space. Offensively, he's not as athletic. His foot pee, his foot speed is a lot slower, blah, blah, blah. The young man knows how to play and he's a winner. And then you put him in a situation in the NBA, we seen how he's been able to prosper. All these things. Talking about acup with the defense with. Everybody comes to the NBA with a flaw in their game, okay? Luka has been in the league 18,000 years and still has a defensive flaw. Okay? But what he gives you is a chance to win basketball games with his IQ and decision making ability to put the ball in the basket. Now again, Luca6869, don't get me wrong, but that's my point about Akon is that his ability to control a game is what you look for when you're in the NBA.
- [40:13]
A
Totally on the same page with that. Like, I don't think it's a 50, 50 split. Hey, defense is half the game. No, when you're this dynamic and on top of everything else too, when you're a guard, they can get past everybody. And then his, his changing of angles, like I don't want to ever compare anyone to right? The. The way he switches hands as he's finishing through traffic, like that's just a spe. No one's ever going to be Kyrie to me. I don't even think Iverson was as good at the rim finishing as even Kyrie was because Kyrie did it longer than. But there's some stuff with him. And, you know, look, defensively, I remember, you know, look, I did a bunch of draft shows around espn and then they would have some guard and we go, how is he going to stay in front of Russell Westbrook? And I'd be like, how many guys stay in front of Russell Westbrook? Like, one on one.
- [40:56]
C
Let me give you something. It's a player that got, let me see, Back to back MVPs, 2006, 2007. I played with him and he wasn't the best defender. Oh, Steve Nash. Oh, okay. So stop. Stop with all of this. Do you give the effort? Is. Is my point. Jaden Brunson is not the best defensive player, but he's going to fight over screens. He's going to try to give you the effort. He's just not going to be, you know, orange cone out there. And I think Darius Acuff is the same way that, you know, he gets in a situation, he's going to give the effort because he understands that that hurts his team if he does it. Okay. He's 18 years old, so if we're going to judge based on that and what he is today, but compared to where he can be and what situation he is, I think it's kind of unfair, you know, to heap that and say he won't be a better defensive player. I think he will be. I really do. Just because of his makeup.
- [41:58]
A
Yeah. I've always felt like defense is a lot like relationships. If you just understand and you care. There's.
- [42:05]
C
I mean, we're not. We're not asking him to be. March is smart. Okay.
- [42:11]
A
Right.
- [42:12]
C
That's not what. When New York got Carmelo Anthony, what did they get him for? They got him to put the ball in the basket, and everybody knew that. So you're sitting here talking about where he's not making plays or his defense. That's not why we got him. That's. That's. That. That wasn't the purpose. So when you draft a player like that, like a cup, you know, it's some shortcomings over here, but this pile makes up for that shortcoming.
- [42:40]
A
Yeah. And. And having said all that about what his future is, I think Arizona is going to put him. They're going to hunt him on multiple possessions. Yeah, right. Because he. I think he can.
- [42:50]
C
He can.
- [42:51]
A
I don't know if he's upright too much. I mean, I was really paying attention to his last game with him defensively, and I think there was communication issues through Everything. Look, they're not a good defensive team on top of everything else, and there's problems behind him. But, yeah, I wouldn't worry about it now in the draft prospect. I'd worry about it Thursday night because, yeah, they're going to be like, all
- [43:09]
C
right, buddy, I'll go hunt him all day long. Wherever he's at, put him in the pick and roll and force him to have to guard. Now, as a player, I would take that personally, okay? And say, okay, I may not be the best, but damn it, I'm gonna give you my best effort. I'm fighting over the screen. If I get a switch, it's a big man on me. I'm gonna make sure to root him out, meet him early so he doesn't get deep post position. That's my mentality. If I'm thinking like that, if you're gonna go at me, I'm gonna make it extremely difficult for you to kind of win those battles over and over and over again. When you think that you can just continue to kind of milk that cow, so to speak, you're going to have
- [43:49]
A
Texas, Purdue as well. Like, I think anybody that loves basketball loves when Purdue is rolling because it's just brilliant. It's balanced, it feels good.
- [43:59]
C
Have you ever been. Have you ever been to a game at Mackie?
- [44:02]
A
No, unfortunately not.
- [44:04]
C
Let me tell you something, man. It's a lot of basketball venues around the country that, you know, Kansas, Duke, but. But it's something about Mackie arena when Purdue is rolling because it's built for basketball and you can just feel it. It's no sweets, you know what I mean? And it's just when they play and you got a. An electric crowd with a team that just is working, like Matt Painter knows how to kind of implemented system. There's nothing like it, right?
- [44:40]
A
And I, I. You can tell how much they appreciate it, and you can tell it's almost. You talked about the culture thing with Michigan State. It's like, hey, when you come to Purdue, you're just expected to play the right way. And not saying that it guarantees success, but this isn't, this is quite the run that they've been on here, and I know you've had them, so I just wonder in your prep for them, it's, you know, again, somebody who played, like, can you explain to us, like, why it's one. It's a talent standpoint. They've won 29 games. Okay, there are two sets, so this isn't necessarily a surprise, but what is it about their Execution and the guys that they go after, that seems to kind of give them an advantage where they just don't feel like they're going to beat themselves.
- [45:16]
C
Yeah, it's interesting because Matt Painter was in school when I was in school, so we played against it. He's a year under me. Okay. So the way Matt had to play is the way he coaches. You know, keep that in mind. It's, it's. You find players that are willing to do the little things all the time, make the extra pass, get on the floor. Defensively, we may not be the most athletic team every year, but from a intelligent perspective, following the scouting report, okay, understanding plays that are being run defensively, offensively, that's how he recruits. Now. Every once in a while you get a Jaden Ivey that's just athletic and out of control, and you kind of morph into what he can do. A Gene Katie gets a Glenn Robinson. You're like, okay, I mean, I'm used to doing this, but with this guy, he's a little bit different. When you get a Zach Eady, you know, you tend to focus and change some things. But the core group of what you get with a Purdue is, is what reflects Indiana Blue collar going to work extremely hard, being a great teammate, but we're going to play a certain way now. They play with more pace now, too, with Braden Smith, you know, Fletcher Lawyer, but they still just kind of methodically kind of pick you apart.
- [46:44]
A
Yeah, and I love that Braden was a guy that wasn't getting power conference offers until the very end, and Purdue was on him early. So kind of your Painter point, it's like he sees something. He's like, hey. And like he was even. I mean, not only does Fletcher make half of his threes, but Painter at one point this year was like, you know, he's actually just great at inbounding the ball, too. And, you know, it's like these little things.
- [47:05]
C
How important is that when you see the problems. What was the game last night?
- [47:09]
A
Kansas.
- [47:10]
C
Kansas couldn't, could not get the ball in. So those simple things right there. And you know this Ryan, too, because at this time of year, all the possessions matter. During the regular season, possessions that were lost or empty, you can make up for right now in the tournament. Those empty possessions that you don't get shots at the rim, they come back to haunt you. Kansas breaks if they cut those turnovers down by six. Okay. It's a different ballgame. So to your point, I know I can trust Foster taking the ball out because he'll make the right play and get it in. If not, he's calling the timeout and then we reset and try to get it back in. Those little things are so important. But it goes back to who are you recruiting? What is my roster construction? Okay. And that goes back to scouting. But also understanding mentality of these young men that you bring in.
- [48:09]
A
How do you expect the Cam Boozer, Zubie Edge of 4 matchup to go?
- [48:15]
C
This is the difference with Zubi and this. And I got a chance to cover St John's throughout the course of the year. And I, and I, and I had to do game when they played at Michigan State. Brian, if you don't have that boost of energy all game to deal with Zubies energy, forget about it. Because it's not once, it's not twice, it's three times that he's going after everything. And the most difficult part is why there's such an outstanding offensive rebounding team because they don't stand still. Prototypical with Biggs, you can go put a body on them and block them out, root them out. Zubi is always moving. Dylan Mitchell is always moving. You see what I'm saying? So now in order to get that check, you got to be moving. Your head has to be on the swivel. Cam Boozer's energy level and focus and awareness is going to have to be at the highest that he's been at all year when dealing with Zuby
- [49:10]
A
because I, I'm a St. John's fan, okay? So this is not new to me. To see them blow the lead yesterday when you just go, they're going to have these seven minutes where they can't score and that's the only way they can survive. And they're likely going to be down to Duke and it's going to go all right. When you hit that stretch when you can't score, are you defending them enough? And you know, I don't know that Duke's blown anybody away here. I kind of like TCU in that matchup a little bit to keep it competitive, but the foul trouble thing was just a disaster. And you know, Evans carried him a bit there. Offensively, SAR can kind of space the floor a little bit, but they're, they're asking a lot of Boozer. So I'm not saying, look, this is not an easy, Easy opponent for St. John's but this isn't some wild offense that is going to be difficult to contain. So I don't think it'll be as ugly as the Kansas game. But I expect this game to have some real ugly stretches.
- [50:02]
C
Well, two. Two things here we're talking about. One, the ability for St. John's to hit consistent jump shots. That's always been the key. They're very similar to the Houston Cougars. Okay. Houston is. Remember two or three years ago, it was just throw it up. We're going to get the offensive rebound. We're going to outwork you and just. Just bear you down defensively. Okay? And if we make jump shots, that is going to be. That's just going to elevate us anymore even more with St. John's San and Isaiah Jackson, Dylan Darling, those guys can hit shots early now. That takes the stress off the offense to kind of be perfect to try to get something inside against a big Duke team, too, as well. Okay, so can they make enough jump shots to keep the game competitive where they need to be, which allows Zuby, Dylan Mitchell and those guys to have an effect on the interior? That's always been the case for me with St. John. And let's put this. Factor this in. It's a guy on that sideline who is just a master, and that's Rick Patino underneath, out of bounds, plays, side, out of bounds, plays. Defensively, did you notice defensively, they pressured the whole game, but it wasn't like it's a 1, 2, 2 press. It's a 2, 2, 1 press. It's just, I'm in your jersey all the time. I'm irritating. And what that does, Ron, it just wears you down over time. Not just physically, but mentally.
- [51:34]
A
It sucks. It sucks when you're like, I'm never going to have a free chance to bring the ball up the entire day and they're going to rotate all these different guys. And again, it's not like some full court press. It's just. It's pressure. And then you're just sitting there and you're going like, if you're Kansas, you've got to come up with something a little different here. Like bring. You know, it's pretty simple. Sometimes it's like just bring somebody else up, bring another guy up. But maybe they just don't feel like they have the depth of ball handler. But you would think there's at least three guys out there at the same time that Kansas would like. And then it just. Then it starts getting in your head. And, I mean, Duke fans don't need any reminder of what an inbounds issue cost them. Going back to last year when they just, they couldn't get the ball in the end of the game.
- [52:12]
C
Yeah, yeah. But that's what. That's what Coach Pitino does is that it's those. You die by a thousand little cuts. Okay. And it just wears on you where. And it wears. And it bleeds into the shot clock a little bit. Okay. And so the consistent pressure come second half. Where does that put the Duke back corner. That's what's going to be interesting to see. And it wears into your legs too, as well.
- [52:40]
A
I want to be able to try to get to a couple of the games because I knew you had so many of these teams with Fox. But Iowa, Nebraska, how do you see that one going?
- [52:49]
C
I got to look up to what was the record during the course of the season between the two. They split it, right? Yeah. Sturgis boy shoots the ball out of it. He shoots the lights out of it. I know he didn't shoot well the other night, but it was his facilitating that got his teammates open. Ben McCullen has done an excellent job of slowing down the pace. Remember, Fran McCaffrey wanted to get it up and down. This Iowa team is more.
- [53:15]
A
If this one doesn't.
- [53:16]
C
No, no, no. This Iowa team is way more methodical because of their personnel. But what they don't do is turn the ball over. Nebraska on the other end, they want to get up and down. Fred Hoiberg has done a phenomenal job with his roster construction and putting in NBA type of offensive system that can Iowa. I mean, and again on a neutral court. 1 and 1 during the season, they've seen it. But the way that Fred Hoiberg is able to manipulate his offense with some NBA type of isolation plays, pick and roll plays is going to be the key for me. How defensively Iowa is against this Nebraska team on a neutral court.
- [54:00]
A
Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I saw the number on how limited the possessions were for Florida. And even blowing a lead like no one wins that game. No one wins that game against the one seed when you've blown that big of a lead. And yet they get down two and then game blouses. Illinois in fourth place team in the Big Ten, which speaks to their depth. You've talked about Houston. They had an offensive rebounding stretch against A and M in their game where it was. So I think A and M just. It's way too early to say the game was over, but I felt like in that moment, it's like it doesn't even like this is such a humiliating possession. You can't get the ball back from Houston. Houston's deep Fleming's more talented, I would say, than Wagler, but Wagler has come out of the recruiting abyss here. And again, we're talking about somebody who went from like 250 to 150 in his class, which is still ridiculous. This guy's going to be a lottery pick and this good. And I think Illinois has every chance against this Houston team, but you never know. Like, with Houston, there's never going to be an issue of effort and all that kind of stuff. And I wouldn't say that. I mean, there's so many of these teams that are left right now. I just respect the fact that it's like these guys are all kind of bringing it. You can't really back walk into, into the sweet 16 unless you're just so supremely talented you've lucked out against the opponents.
- [55:17]
C
But here's the thing with Illinois, too. You can't duplicate like St. John's to force the power, the energy that they bring. I don't care what you do, you watch it on tape. You try to simulate some of the defenses that they run in practice, but you don't have the personnel to emulate that. Can they absorb that first hit when Houston is getting up into them? Shots maybe are not falling. Boswell can't bring the ball up the way he really wants to. Wagler now is feeling the pressure, you know, from that Houston defensive physicality. That's going to how you handle that. To me, that first five minutes of the game is going to be a telltale sign of what's going to happen for the rest of the game. For Illinois, forget all the X's and O's and all that other stuff. That's the first and foremost thing that they're going to have to tackle, is being able to absorb that first physical punch, and not actually a punch, but the physicality that they bring to the table those first, you know, three to five minutes of the game.
- [56:18]
A
Yeah, and the other thing, too is like, granted there's only 60 draft picks, but when you start looking at, like, top 100 rankings for NBA prospects, and granted, we've already touched on Wagler as, as a lottery pick, but the line, I have four guys that are, like, at least in the mix here. So this isn't some massive talent deficiency that maybe you would say with other just well coached, kind of gritty Big Ten teams. I don't have a ton on Iowa. I just hope Jefferson comes back. This is who's scoring two points a game at St. Mary's four years ago. He's terrific. They still roll without him, so I don't have as much on that one. What I would love to do is go back to a freshman year, Jim Jackson with Ohio State, and taken on UNLV in the tournament. You were hanging. I was looking it up again this morning. I don't. I don't remember everything, but you were hanging in there at the half. I try to figure out if you were like, we've got this shit. As a brash freshman who was immediately just on the scene scoring, or if you were like, this is actually a little bit more than I expected.
- [57:18]
C
No, no. At halftime, even late in the game, Greg Anthony hit a big shot to put him up eight. We were down five, I believe it was, and Greg hit a big three. So we were right there to the last, you know, three or four minutes of the game. Did some free throws happen? But we felt that we could compete, and if we put ourselves in the position, we could win the game. Now, again, this is the UNL with you. We knew exactly who they were, but we knew who we were. We just had to play, and that's what we did. At the end of the day, you lace them up just like anybody else, you know, and you want to compete. And we put ourselves in a position, Ryan, that us. And also Ball State, remember that year, kind of pushed unlv, I would think, more than some other teams in the tournament that year, the second game they had, and then they wouldn't play ball. Stick.
- [58:07]
A
Yeah. Look, you were. You were right in it. So, you know, when I was going back and looking over the stuff, I was like, oh, let me go back and look at some of his tournament stuff there. And I was like, all right. You know, because like, UNLV was like. They were like the bad guy, the evil guy in a horror movie for so many different people. Last thought. I have to ask you an NBA question because on top of everything else you're doing, I'm just going to leave this one vague, but what is this Clipper season been like, and where do you think it's going? You mean this up and down, a little roller coaster?
- [58:41]
C
Yeah, it's been a. It's been. For me, it's been interesting because at the. At the beginning, kind of understanding who the Clippers were as a team, knew that we were going to be better, but they. The start was just. It just the connection. It was something there at the beginning just wasn't there. And I'm not going to blame Chris Paul for that. It was just the energy in the building on the court just wasn't there. Then all of a sudden, boom. It just starts to morph into something. James is rolling, Kawhi is rolling, Zoo is playing well. You got the bench playing well. And you know, you have that, that stretch between, you know, late December all the way up to, you know, James had got traded, then Zoo got traded, and then now you rebuild this whole thing. That Russian looks totally different. So you had three different seasons within one so far for the Clippers, which I don't think I've seen before. Like this I've been a part of, you know, but yet still being very competitive right now, it's just been crazy, man. And I love every bit of it. I love being in the middle of the chaos, you know what I mean, and figuring out what's going to happen because I just, I love Tyler and what he's doing. I love Jeff, Mr. Ballmer and kind of staying with it and the beauty of it. Ryan, going through the, this, this, the early period now. One time did you see a coach, general manager throw a player under the bus and blame a certain individual or a group of players for why they were where they were. And I think that says a lot about the organization and the people.
- [60:29]
A
You're a busy man. Fox for college hoops Clippers throughout the season and for tournament fans. Jim's going to be on the call for CBS on the Thursday and Saturday games, I believe here. So that's Texas, Purdue, Arkansas, Arizona. Does that check out?
- [60:43]
C
Yeah, it checks out, but I mean, we're gonna be on cbs, but it's through tnt, the partnership. So Brian Anderson and I, yeah, Ali laforce. It'd be fun, man. I looked at it, I was like, so we got the second best region, I feel from a competitive perspective and team wise, but all the games themselves, when you get to this point, I just think this, it's, it's the best time of year.
- [61:07]
A
It's the best. I mean, I was, I don't want to say I was hoopsed out late last night watching Timberwolves, Celtics, but it was awesome. And honestly, I think so many of the broadcast teams are terrific. There's so much depth and I've just enjoyed the entire thing. So hey, man, thanks for the time today and doing this.
- [61:23]
C
Anytime, man.
- [61:23]
A
That segment was presented by Microsoft, Microsoft Copilot, the AI assistant that actually helps you get stuff done. Copilot works across Microsoft 365 Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook. Turning chaos into productivity. Need a presentation. Copilot builds it. Need a summary of A meeting you definitely zoned out in. Copilot's got you. Let copilot do the heavy lifting. You just take the credit. Learn more@Microsoft.com M365 copilot he might be one of the most popular guys that's ever lived in San Francisco after a couple World Series. And he is part of the opening day coverage for Netflix. It's Hunter Pence who joins us on the show this morning. The Yankees at the Giants, Opening day, next Wednesday on Netflix, 8:05 Eastern Time for your first pitch and a bunch of games as well. Good morning, man. Good to see you.
- [62:10]
B
Hey, good morning, Ryan. Very excited to be here. Thanks for having me. And very excited for Yankees, Giants and baseball getting back to in swing of things again.
- [62:20]
A
I want to start with young guys because, you know, we taped with passing and I just love like at the beginning of the year going through like the prospect reports and being like, okay, you know, is this guy. Because it's always the excitement of something new, like hoping you're going to see something you've never seen before, which isn't entirely fair. But was there a moment for you? Because I remember when you came up and you're 24 and you're all knees and elbows, you're like, have you seen this guy play? Like, it is wild, the joy that he plays with. But you had hundreds of games in the minors after being kind of a fairly high pick the second time around. So I almost feel like your path is kind of the odd path now. Or was it that they felt like you're someone that needs way more seasoning before you get that debut?
- [63:04]
B
I think it was kind of just the pro, you know, the culture that they had, the, the mindset and, and I think that the, you know, the regime that I kind of came up in was extraordinarily smart. You know, they want to make sure you're mentally ready. You're not getting out ahead of yourself, that you really learn the game. And they taught me in that Astros organization coming up extremely well. I learned they, they did a. I'm very thankful because they put you through schooling and I was like, kind of a sponge for that. Like, you go in the morning and it's not just play baseball. You go into the class and study the rule book and you study, like certain plays. And a lot of, you know, a lot of players are like, I just want to play baseball. I want to lift weights, I want to go do the thing. But I like, ate that up. And it was like, extremely valuable for Me throughout my career in particular. But yeah, it definitely isn't necessarily the way because I do think that there's more information available to kids. There was not that much like Internet and people sharing secrets. There was a lot of secrets in baseball back then. There was not YouTube and all these things where you can study from some of the greatest minds in baseball. So I think a lot of these kids are just so much, far more far ahead of where we were in our time because we had a lot to learn from the professionals that that information just wasn't available. So they're knowing this and doing the same thing as Aaron Judge or whoever the greatest player is, Mike Trout, they biomechanic it all and scienced it out. They're doing that in high school. And so in my opinion, the player today is just so far more advanced than we were back then.
- [64:30]
A
And when you came up though, I mean, you hit.322, you know, a bunch of pops in 100 plus games. Did you think, like, wait a minute, I've got this. In that first year with Houston, you
- [64:42]
B
know, I was, I was definitely locked in. And when, you know, I look back at my career, I would say my rookie year I had something going. And it's funny, I'm not sure how much. Ryan, you played baseball. It's a finicky sport and it's timing and it's delicacy and you'll see someone be an all star and then be released the next year. And for me, I had this like, get your foot down early and I was in sync with it and I thought that I had it down. I was in sync with it the whole way. I kind of had an injury where I slid and like kind of broke my wrist. And then I like never was able to get that foot down early again the rest of my career. So I like got back into leg kick and all this stuff, but I was just in a good rhythm from the fall league where one of my teammates from the fall league had told me, like, hey, your foot needs to get down earlier. And it carried over. And then I was kind of back to square one the next year because I could never get it going again.
- [65:34]
A
Were you shocked you were traded so
- [65:36]
B
early with the Astros? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Just because I think the nature of me is I was a Texas kid, I was with the Astros. I wanted to be with one organization. You dream of being a Craig Biggio, a Jeff Bagwell, these guys that really inspire you and it's not out in your control. So I Definitely didn't think they were going to trade me. But I will say this. After. After I was traded and living through the experience and getting to play in Philly and getting to, like, play in some of these other cities and knowing where the Astros were at that time and what they were going to go through for the next years and where I was in my career, I have to give a big thanks to Ed Wade and Drayton McClain for being like, this kid is, like, ready to go play in the playoffs. Like, we can get a bunch of talent and try to build around it. But it was a way better deal for me to get traded than to stay with them. And what they. Because they were about to sell all the players, sell the team, and do this massive rebuild that would have been my prime years. So I was very fortunate to get traded. I didn't know it at the time.
- [66:38]
A
Yeah, that's kind of interesting, too, because, like, you're still putting up numbers, you know, that's. That's. By the way, that's really interesting on, like, the rookie year and then feeling this way and then never feeling that way again, despite putting together a really nice career with multiple all star appearances here. But to then end up in San Francisco, it almost feels like your joy for the game was rewarded. Not that these other stops weren't incredible, but the run that you go on that team that you have, the way that you're embraced in that city, and again, I think you've always been a fan favorite everywhere you've gone, but that just felt like a lot of transactional uncertainty for somebody that was producing and that was young. And it was almost like you were rewarded for that with the Giants.
- [67:19]
B
Yeah, I mean, I went to the Phillies the first year, Astros to Phillies and then Phillies to Giants. But, yeah, when I got to San Francisco, it was a very unique team. You know, we had. We had some really big, fun personalities. You know, you talk about Lincecomb kind of in his Cy Young era. You talk about Bum Garner just emerging, Sergio Romo, Brian Wilson's over there, you know, just some really. Pablo Sandoval, you know, the Kung Fu Panda. It was a wild time to be with the Giants. It was a lot of personalities. And really, this city, you know, I think it really helped me awaken to who I am. I just kind of really aligned and dig the city. That kind of creative vibe, the kind of free mind, almost hippie vibe. I wouldn't say hippie all the way. Like, like. But I definitely am kind of like that free spirit that Likes to laugh and be a little bit different, and my playstyle was a little bit different, so I just fell in love with. I felt like right at home. And I kind of feel like I became myself when I got over to San Francisco and. And Boats was just like amazing at putting all these crazy personalities and getting them to go one direction like he was. He's kind of a bit of a risk taker. He likes a little personality. He wants his players to be risky and crazy and fun and exciting to watch. And he kind of like encouraged that and brought it out of us.
- [68:38]
A
Who would make a better roommate? Lincecombe or Bum Garner?
- [68:42]
B
I mean, they're both. It just depends on what you want. It depends on what you. But Linceum's really kind of awe. He's a bit of a. A loner. Like, he granted, he's like a great teammate and he shows up and when he was there, he's honestly one of the most giving, kind people, but he just was like an introvert that wanted to go and be by himself. Bum Gunner wanted to spend time and, you know, go hang out, get outdoors. He was gonna. He was gonna do something cowboy. So if you wanna do some cowboy stuff, you want Bum Gunner?
- [69:12]
A
Yeah. And especially if you want to close out, because I love those teams. I love those teams. I love the level that he elevated to. Like, you want to talk about somebody who responds to the moment in a way. Like we're talking about all time unhittable stuff during those years in the postseason, it just turned. He liked the guy turned into just Superman and it had to be. What was it like for you to watch?
- [69:33]
B
Yeah, I mean, really impressive. And as Ryan, as someone who's like, really curious about, you know, meeting the moment, about success, like, I love like the psychology, the mentality, like, I love kind of learning both through, you know, failure, people who don't do well and do well and like, what. What is that secret sauce or whatever the belief, so to speak, from like the. The Kung Fu Panda. But really the thing that was super cool with Bumgarner is it was never a big deal to him. Like, he was never like, oh, we're in the World Series, it matters. He was just like, it was like the same guy. He was very neutral. Like, and there was no highs, there was no lows. He actually. And he self was very self aware of this is like, if he was pitching against a team that wasn't considered that good, he didn't do very well. Like, he, he like the better the opponent was, the Better he got, it was like he, he, he loved the challenge. And so like when it got a bigger stage, he got bigger and better. And when it wasn't a big stage, it was, he kind of like wasn't his best self. So that was kind of what I noticed from Bumgarner. He was extremely strong minded, strong willed and, and literally like just a walking, living, breathing, real life cowboy. Like he would go home and like rope like he, you know, like roping cows and stuff and like, yeah, just get on the farm and do that stuff.
- [70:56]
A
You make a great point though about meeting the moment with him though, because, you know, I remember I was on daily every day back then and you'd get geared up for the World Series, you start talking about it and then you look at the seasonal stuff and the pitching matchups and everything and you go for somebody that's this dominant, the regular season is not as dominant as the other dominant guys. There was these maybe 5 to 10 pitchers that are starters. Look at all these numbers and why are Bum Garner's numbers not to them? And then he's like, Pedro. I don't even like comparing anyone to Pedro, but it's like absurd levels of efficiency. So that actually makes a lot of sense that once he was geared up and ready for it, there was just something they responded to. Football, basketball. I feel like you game plan, right? You figure out how you want to defend things, you figure out how you want to attack things. Baseball, it's probably more about a lineup getting on the same page about how they want to attack a pitcher. But for all of this Dodgers talk, especially with the team that you're involved with being in the same division, is there any kind of blueprint? Is, does there exist a game plan of like, hey, this is how you get these guys in la.
- [72:05]
B
Oh, I mean there's not like one way. It's like, you know, like I think Mike Tyson had a really good, you know, and you can take a one on one fight. You could even think of like, you know, I don't like to talk about like a battle on a battlefield or whatever, but everyone has a game plan to get punched in the face. And like, with regards to baseball, there's, there's so much chess going on. The deeper you get into the game, the deeper it goes. And I think one thing that I get a little upset about is people being like, the Dodgers bought their World Series because if you watched the way that they played and who their heroes were, and yes, you buy yourself probably a really good chance to make it to the playoffs. But look at what the Mets spent and they didn't even make the playoffs last year. Okay? So if you watch the Dodgers, they execute. They do the little things right. They are disciplined, yes, they have great pitching and they have Ohtani. But that doesn't just like, run you over. We've seen people like, you know, like, Barry Bonds never won a World Series. Probably the greatest player I've ever seen. People argue it was Willie Mays, but I never watched Willie Mays. I got to talk with him. It's not like players individually. It's execution. And Dave Roberts, if you've ever. I've got to interview him. I've been very lucky because I'm covering a lot of this is absolutely brilliant at how he leads of game planning. And they just have a wonderful team. But watching their playoff run and like the Phillies, how they were able to pull off the wheel play in game two to steal a game that they really needed, you know, and then when the moment happens, a guy who, by the way, I think is an incredible bullpen pitcher, I know he is, throws the ball away when he doesn't really need to. He just needs to get one out. Orion Kirkering. That cost them a game. The Dodgers don't make mistakes. And they. And the Blue Jays still could have beat them. They suffocate you. You have to earn it. And they're very talented. And so I think you got to tip your cap to. To what the Dodgers do. But if you do want to beat them, you just. You have to play the game the right way. You have to, like, you gotta find a way to score a run. I think I watched a series when the Giants were actually playing really good towards the end of last year. They had. We shot ourselves in the foot a lot. Unless you're like, really in the weeds. We dropped a ball that was like infield in. They send their runner, we catch, we throw. Bailey drops the ball.
- [74:22]
C
This.
- [74:22]
B
This out ball is the difference in, like winning a series and giving us a chance to make the playoffs versus getting knocked out. And this is one of 162 against the Dodgers. So we had one game one. One of our young pitchers pitched really well. And then we lose game two. And then it kind of snowballs. But for me, you just have to play the. You have to play the game the right way. I do think that there's. There's probably at least seven teams that are equally talented. And any team in the big leagues can beat anybody on any given day. It's just the Way it is, we watched, and I'm not going to say Italy was like, not as good or talented because they had a very talented lineup, but we watched them beat the US and the wbc.
- [74:59]
A
You're right. I mean, that's. That's the crazy thing of some of the other Dodgers teams that you were like, this is loaded, maybe pre. This ownership, and then they're getting bounced out. There's plenty of teams, especially with the structure of the postseason, where a team's closer to 100 wins and the team 80 wins ends up getting through it all. We're not that far removed from Arizona, Texas in the World Series, which was an incredible story for parody for a sport that ultimately, again, I think historically doesn't get enough credit for the parity that it has. But the Dodgers are la. It's the headlines. It's every single player. It's the salary cap stuff that, well, well, different salary, but the tax stuff that people are just more aware of and there's just angst around it where I don't know if it's good or bad, if they won a third one here. It's exciting. I actually think it's probably good for baseball in a way that people wouldn't admit, is that people are going to be rooting against it now, collectively that. Now, again, I was talking with passing about this earlier, but it's just this common enemy that everybody else would have. Who are the seven teams? I'd be really interested to hear that from you, Hunter.
- [76:02]
B
Well, let me even take it back to their first World Series where, like, it was very way closer than it looked because, you know, you bring in. Who is it? Nestor Cortez for the first lefty. You intentionally walk and it's like his first outing to face Freddie Freeman and he hits a crazy clutch walk off. But even that Game five where like, they. They were way ahead and then they make all these errors. Like Judge drops a ball that he never drops. Like Cole doesn't cover first. The innings kind of escalating. It's like the Yankees were just as talented and maybe had a chance to roll. You know, if you're looking at it right now, I can just go off the top of my head, teams that can compete with the Dodgers. I think it's easy to say the Yankees have a lineup. They can do that after the Cubs added Bregman. They have. They have the power. The Mets, obviously, with Soto and that lineup are extraordinary. I think the Giants and Padres both can match up with them. You're looking at musgrove coming back. You're looking at some, some, Some really power arms over there. They have obviously Machado and Tatis and a young core with, with, with Jackson Merrill that it's an electric lineup. But the Giants just added, you know, Luis Arise, who looked incredible in the wbc. Harrison Bader in center field. Malley, who arguably was one of the best pitchers in the Rangers line arsenal last year, is kind of quiet, but his numbers stack up with DeGrom and, and Evalde. So that's just off the top of my head. The Red Sox obviously are the Red Sox and they can do what they do. We saw what the Blue Jays did last year and oh, by the way, they added the strikeout leader, more strikeouts than ever been done before, and the Korean League last year, Cody Ponce, who I know very well and I know the work that he put in, he's going to be like a frontline starter for the, for the Blue Jays as well. I know they lost Bo Bashette, so that'll be interesting to see. But there's, there's multiple teams and there's going to be a couple teams like, like, I think the Reds. I saw Chase Burns in spring training. You got Francona running that and Burns. It looks insane. It's like 99 bullet missiles, Slider. He can change the shapes of it with a curveball and a change up. Then you also, you know, obviously. Who is it? Hunter. Hunter Green. So there's some young talent coming up. There's some really solid teams, and that's just like, like off the cuff. So there's many teams. The Phillies, I mean that, like they could do it for sure.
- [78:25]
A
Yeah, I think the Phillies are. I don't know. It's very odd. Like when I was doing my preseason stuff and kind of looking through it, I was like, why is everybody off of this team? This team. This team seems loaded in a division with a ton of question marks because you never know if the Mets are going to figure it out. Feels like the Braves entire rotation is a question mark after sale. And so I'm, I'm just kind of excited to see what happens in Central because the Reds have loaded up. Green's supposed to be back middle of the season. We'll see what happens. The Cubs are probably better. Milwaukee always seems to be better than ever, whatever we think they're going to be.
- [78:59]
B
Yeah, I didn't mention Milwaukee and I know that they had a tough series against them, but yeah, Milwaukee don't. They're young and talented. That's, That's a good Point Ryan, with
- [79:09]
A
stuff, guys, because this is. Now you were talking about the biometrics and all the stuff now, spin rate, and everybody's kind of looking at everything and that you look at this generation, like, soaking it up a little bit more. Now, when you look at the top, top guys, like the Skeens, the Skubal Crochet, there's more names that I could throw at you here from just a stuff standpoint.
- [79:34]
D
Point.
- [79:35]
A
You're in it every day, watching it. Like, how fast is this advancing for just how hard it is to hit some of these guys now at the top, you know?
- [79:43]
B
But as science advances for pitching, it advances for hitting as well. And I definitely, like, got to reap the benefits of that in 2019 when I really learned it. And I definitely. I know for a fact that now that I understand kind of the physics of that matchup and, like, the geometry and, like, what you're trying to do. It was a massive advantage for transitioning to the broadcast booth because, like, I'll be honest with you, I was like a competitor. I love the game. I didn't know mechanics very well. I just, like, practiced a lot. I got as strong as I could, as fast as I could. I went out there. I wanted to see the ball hit the ball. I played, like, a guessing game, a gambling game. I would. I would, you know, figure out what the pitcher was throwing and. And practice that off the machine or whatever, and set traps. But then when I really learned the math of it, you see the game in a little bit of a different way. So I do think that, you know, the pitchers. I mean, like, skiing's. What he's throwing out there, honestly, even mentally, is like, I don't know how you hit that because, like, you have to guess right? And that's kind of it. It's just some of the. Some of the nasty stuff. Crochet, as well, can just be absolutely oppressive, and they're creating really funny angles. But if you do learn and learn how to change and manipulate your barrel. So it's kind of like. It's like playing math. It's like you have, like, this window to hit the ball if you're on plane with it versus, like, this window if you. If you get your barrel on plane. So, like, your contact point as the ball's passing, like, if. You know, and I'll give you a for example, like, I was terrible at hitting sinkers my whole career, and to kind of like, make this more digestible. And so a sinker is essentially, like, I'm up To bat, right? And it's coming in at me, and it's. And it's coming down, like, it'll sink down and in towards me. All right? So what I would do, because I had a very flat bat pass. So if the ball sinking, you have a very small chance with a flat bat path to hit a sinking ball. It's going to, like, catch the bottom of your bat and you're going to hit a grounder. That's why sinker ballers get grounders. I would just try to swing my flat bat path underneath. So if the ball was here, I was swinging like two balls underneath it and hoping I met it all right, Because. But I had, like, this window to hit the ball. But if you take almost like instead of your barrel coming through straight, you go through really vertical, almost like a golf swing. Now all of a sudden your barrel is on path with the ball. It's like running into your barrel. And so, like, you could like, hit a really good hit for like, this window of time of your barrel coming through the zone if you just match the plane of what the pitch is doing.
- [82:06]
A
I love that. That was terrific because, like, especially with skiings where, you know, they have those overlays where it shows you where the ball is released from, and it can be four different pitches. And he's just masterful, not only with the stuff and the velocity and the spin rate and all that stuff, but it's the starting point. Like, good luck tunneling.
- [82:26]
B
The tunneling that pitchers do is insane. And there was very few pitchers that could really tunnel well. But when they could, it. It is really, it's impressive. But I think a lot of pitchers are able to do that now, more so than before. And you have to, you have to, you have to guess and you have to, you have to play, like, percentages, basically.
- [82:46]
A
Who would you have to guess at? Like, it just drove you crazy. Somebody that you went up against or you're like, okay.
- [82:52]
B
I mean, there's a lot. Obviously the, you know, and, and the thing is, is the worst is to be in between. And there's, there's. There's two approaches to hitting that, that give you a good chance to battle. If someone's not like, insane like 99 with like a 86 mile an hour split with the. But the, and the arm speed stays the same because it's hard to throw 99 and have something come out. 86 and your arm moving the same. Right? Like, because, because, like, the throw 99, it's. It's coming through like this and then sometimes they'll slow their arm down for, like, the other pitch. And so you can kind of follow the rhythm of the body movement, if that makes sense.
- [83:24]
A
Yeah.
- [83:26]
B
So let me think off the top of my head. It's like Garrett Cole, you know, Verlander, Scherzer. These are guys you got to, like, really. You got to hunt a certain pitch in a certain location. You got to think with them. Like, Verlander just, like, really, really, really studied. Roy Holiday was another one who was like, you know, he was a doctor out there, and he had cutter, sinker, change up. He had, like, six pitches, and he also did, like, three hours of study on every hitter in the lineup before he faced you. Like, he knew what you had for breakfast before you knew what you had for breakfast.
- [83:59]
A
It felt like, I guess when I'm ever thinking of, like, the. The guessing part of it, like, if you're going righty, righty, and you just go, all right, like, anything away. I'm just going to swing like, I'm not even trying to pick up the pit. I'm just. I'm closing off this half of the, you know, the strike.
- [84:21]
B
Let me give you a better example, and I'll give you someone that's a really good tunneler from really early on. And I think. I don't know. He was doing it kind of before I was really young. Ben Sheets with the brewers, he was doing 95 mile or think of a four seamer. It has a lot of carry right into off of it. He would throw a curveball. So essentially what he wants to do is he wants to throw a high fastball for a ball to get you to swing at, but he wants to show you first. So he's going to get the curveball. It starts high and comes in for a strike. All right, so now it started high, it's a strike. Now he's going to throw a four seam fastball really high, and he wants you to swing at that because you think it's the curveball for a strike. And then, like, maybe he throws. Maybe he throws a curveball that starts, like, it looks like a fastball, and then it dives in the ground, and you chase that. So that's kind of the cat and mouse game you're playing. It's like, am I getting. And with regards to even what I was telling you with the swing path, to hit a curveball, you want to be steep, similar to the sinker. And to hit a four seamer, you can't. It's really hard to be steep. And hit a ball that's carrying. So you have to be flat. So you got to pick one or the other. And you have three strikes and you have like three or four bats off the guy. If you really match the play and you don't miss your pitch, you need to sell out for that pitch and let the other one go. Now, with regards to you being like, oh, I'm going to take away the outside part of the plate, it's not necessarily that simple, Ryan, because let's say Adam Wainwright. Adam Wainwright was like a slider away sinker. He had four seamer. He had the big, big curveball as well. But he loved to like, it's called strike the ball and ball to strike. So he loved to throw you like sinker on the outside corner. It's a ball all the way. It looks so far away from you, it comes back and it nibbles the outside corner. Molina was good at like getting hit him a little bit off the plate. And so now you're like, you're kind of out there and then he'll throw you a slider that starts right on the outside corner, like, oh, that's the sinker. And then it goes away and it's off the plate. So he's like doing this kind of east, west and then a four seamer in to speed you up and then slider away. Can you lay off of it? Strike the ball. Can you lay off of it? Now I'm going to. Now I'm going to zip you with that ball to strike. And so that's. And then he still has Uncle Charlie and four seamer in off that. He always freaking threw like it was never a strike, but it was always a fu man. Like he was good at it.
- [86:30]
A
Who was the best the third time through the lineup?
- [86:36]
B
You know, it was a small. It's hard to. I feel like Baumgartner was one of those guys that got better as the game got on. There's a couple of them, you know, there's a couple of them that you could get to early and then once they settled in, you were just in trouble. I'm. I'm not able to really get one off the top of my head. I know Jake Areata was pretty good because he could have commander issues early and he had a two year window. We were like a 0.75. It was pretty ridiculous. You know, I think Wainwright was another one that like once he settled in, he got better. And the V might not have gotten harder, but he just got in rhythm with the game. And he just started like really commanding everything. But if he hung a curveball or didn't quite have feel for something, you could get to him a little bit early as well.
- [87:19]
A
Yeah. Because it's just such a rarity down. But I like, I'm so excited, I think, for this year, just because of the depth of the top line starters
- [87:27]
B
and oh yeah, there's a lot of fun matchups to watch. Right.
- [87:30]
A
Like, Skeen still hasn't thrown north of 200 innings. And not saying like, hey, let's blow this guy out, get him at 280, like back in the day or 320, you know, some of the absurd inning numbers that happened years and years ago, but I just think when you have the arsenal some of these guys have, it still might be better than your fourth reliever coming in in the fifth or sixth inning. But, but we'll see. We'll see. I can, I can only hope, you
- [87:53]
B
know, who asked on a lot of things? Ryan. He's going to be, he's going to be there on Wednesday, the Netflix game, Logan Webb, 200 innings, and then Max Freed. I mean, what a, what a, what a way to start off the season. Those are two bangers right there. I mean, so anyway, I do think that the innings pitched has been lost on baseball. And I think that it's like, you want to talk about like, like locker room credit, like how much that weighs on a team, how you like. Because even like if you're throwing in your fourth reliever and sorry to go on this tangent, if you're throwing in your fourth reliever every game over and over, the weight that that has on the bullpen, they're not going to be as sharper as Chris. But when you have these guys that are eating innings and keeping those guys fresh and allowing your manager to keep that balance. Because if you, if you just like, absolutely pound your, your relievers that are like getting the job done by the end of the year, they're, they're either going to be hurt or they're not going to be as effective. So innings, I think, bring that back to baseball. Start respecting innings, because we need to. It's important.
- [88:55]
A
Do you guys ever have reunion parties and then somebody starts off from the lineup apologizing to Matt Kane for the lack of run support over a couple of years there?
- [89:02]
B
I mean, pretty much every day, you know, not only Kane, but Bum and Lince come all of them. It was called torture baseball. All right, we know that they carried us. We had great pitching. The Core 4 as well. Was incredible. But we did play good defense behind him. So, you know, there's, there's one, one thing. But yeah, no, we just need to
- [89:20]
A
say Kane had like two years. No, Kane had like two years in there where it was like unbelievable. Like, I was a huge Matt Kane fan there for a while and I was like, what is going on? It's like, do they all hate him?
- [89:33]
B
No. You want it so bad for him. Kane is the best. He's an amazing human. Like it. We want to score, right? Man, it's tough.
- [89:42]
A
I'm psyched for you. I was watching interviews last night and it just seems like you're the guy and throughout all the years, as the young guy that somehow became the old guy, you stayed the young guy. And I know it was kind of a cool send off for you to end up back with the Giants and be part of the broadcast team and more importantly, to be with Netflix for the Yankees at the Giants Opening day will be on Netflix exclusively 8:05 Eastern. First pitch. Thanks, Hunter.
- [90:09]
B
Thank you, Ryan. It was a pleasure.
- [90:12]
A
Microsoft Copilot. The AI assistant that actually helps you get stuff done. Copilot works across Microsoft 365 Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook. Turning chaos into productivity. Need a presentation. Copilot builds it. Need a summary of a meeting. You definitely zoned out in. Copilot's got you. It can analyze data, rewrite emails, brainstorm ideas, and even help you sound like you know what you're talking about, which, frankly, is a miracle. So stop pretending you're going to circle back or touch base or whatever corporate phrase you've been faking. Let copilot do the heavy lifting. You just take the credit. Microsoft Copilot. Work smarter, Work faster. Work like someone who actually read the instructions. You want details?
- [90:52]
B
Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [90:56]
A
What's up?
- [90:58]
B
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.
- [91:01]
A
I have every toy you can possibly
- [91:02]
B
imagine, and best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [91:07]
A
So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life Advice. The email address is life advice rrmail.com Ceruti and Kyle are with us. Maybe just a quick Johnny's check in because we had a lot of people not so much checking in on me. It was pretty obvious what I was probably doing when the Johnny's one and Darling bells. Church bells, man. Unreal. No FaceTime this time from Kyle. I called a bunch of dudes.
- [91:32]
D
But I did not call you guys. I called a bunch of dudes.
- [91:34]
E
I don't like hearing that. I. I did send. I sent an emoji to the two of you guys and I was ready. I mean, the kid. It was. It was earlier than bedtime. I was ready to go. I was hoping for the FaceTime and it just never came. So sorry. Boy, was I stay ready.
- [91:47]
A
But I didn't.
- [91:48]
D
I didn't want the letdown that would have been.
- [91:49]
A
I would have.
- [91:50]
D
Like, the adrenaline was so high, you know, everything was off the charts. I'm like, this would really bring me down.
- [91:55]
E
I thought the emoji was like a hey, I'm available. But you know. And it was your emoji too. It's the two. It was the two beer glasses.
- [92:02]
A
Yeah, yeah, I use that for.
- [92:03]
D
That's my thank you emoji. That's my good luck. That's like, you know, it's a triple threat. It was great. I stayed in all weekend watching the games and then I was like, Sunday's. Sunday's the day. And went there like an hour before the game. Stayed a little bit after because there were some other fun games going on. But, man, the whole. A lot of people in the bar were like, what's going on? Like, they weren't there for college basketball. It was more like adult types. And then I was like, like, Johnny's right. All of us were pulling the same direction. And by the end, I mean, everyone was. It was just like a beautiful scene. Everyone was. Was into.
- [92:38]
A
Was fun. Not a lot of fun.
- [92:41]
E
I imagine the last five minutes wasn't super fun, but.
- [92:44]
A
No, I. I thought they were going to lose 345.
- [92:47]
D
No.
- [92:47]
A
Yeah.
- [92:48]
D
But I had a bunch of like non basketball watchers, like, they got this. So like, I had like started this
- [92:53]
A
wave of Johnny stuff. I' you.
- [92:55]
B
I guess this is.
- [92:56]
D
This will be better than nothing. So thank you, guys. They were so into it.
- [93:00]
E
Yeah, I had. It was part of a parlay, but I had like an all Kansas line, right? So it's like, just don't lose by 10 or whatever. And they were up 14, like, probably. I don't know what was that? Like midway through the second half and I texted my buddies, I was like, this is cooked. Like, they. I don't know how they're going to score. And then from that point on, Kansas just went on a run. I was like, oh, no. I just jinxed my guy.
- [93:17]
A
Kyle and Ryan, that's all right. Right? It worked out for everybody. And we love the support from Ceruti, even though I know he doesn't really care. So.
- [93:26]
E
No, I'm happy that my friends are happy. I have no connection to Canada. Or Canada. Kansas also. No connection to Canada.
- [93:33]
A
Both accurate statements. Yeah.
- [93:34]
E
No, it's true. Yeah, that was a weird, weird slip. But, yeah. No, so I was just. I'm rooting for the Johns and, you know, Duke. I got no connection to Duke either. So let's go. I'm more of a Big east guy, man. I grew up in Connecticut. Like, I missed the old Big east tournament, too, so.
- [93:45]
D
Dude, that would be such an elite a. That would be. I didn't want to say it out loud.
- [93:49]
A
Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, I get some old T shirts and sifting through here. All right, well, I think that covers the St. John's recap because people want to know what you had done.
- [94:02]
D
What the Shotzis bailed on. Bailed on the. I went for an intimate setting. I bailed on the. The Buffalo wings thing.
- [94:09]
A
Yeah.
- [94:09]
E
Yeah, I think that's the right call. Let's be honest.
- [94:11]
D
There was a guy who was finishing up a NASCAR race as the second game came out, I was like, all right, at some point, we have to. We have to all agree what's what. By the way, Jordan team Jordan won their fourth race of the year. Pretty great start for Michael Jordan and his drivers there.
- [94:24]
A
Anyway, yeah, we have a lot of. Connect to those guys. Right. That's Denny Hamlin, our guy. Right, right.
- [94:31]
E
Love Denny.
- [94:32]
D
That's your guy.
- [94:34]
A
Yeah, we had him on.
- [94:35]
E
We had Danny on. He was awesome.
- [94:36]
A
Yeah, they consistently. He's got a podcast, and then, honestly, they've been nothing but super nice and follow ups like, ask if we want to go to Daytona.
- [94:46]
D
They've been asking that. Are you serious?
- [94:48]
A
Yeah. They actually won't be asking about you going. All right, stop it. They're trying to make it a surprise. Oh, my God. So Rudy's like, I don't think he. I don't think he can go this year. Said something about some landscaping around the house. I'd go to David.
- [95:03]
E
I'd make it work.
- [95:04]
A
Yeah, I guess if you want to go, we'll. We'll try to figure it out. I just didn't. Never.
- [95:09]
D
Yeah, I'd love to be kept abreast of whatever's going on with that, but, yeah, we can talk.
- [95:12]
A
You'd like to be involved in Jordan, Jordan, NASCAR and really successful run.
- [95:17]
D
Just keep me plugged in.
- [95:19]
A
Yeah, we'll see what we can do. The guy probably stopped texting me because he was just like, this guy's getting an unbelievable invite and he's kind of just going like, yeah, sorry, non committal. Yeah, would love to. Don't think I can do it. All right, maybe, maybe a follow up or two. But let's get into the, the meat and bones of this deal here. Hey, fellas. 171 centimeters, 70 kilos. The light guy. No player comp. I have no redeeming features. I've been getting shit at work for eating my lunch with a spoon. Everyone thinks I'm a child and needs to grow up and move to a fork. My main reason is I eat barley, parentheses underrated grain and more stays on the spoon. The other thing is, which may make the email pointless, is I don't really care. Now you did email us.
- [96:08]
D
Spoon's easier to watch too.
- [96:10]
A
That being said, aren't I just being efficient in a way? I hope I'm wrong because if you side with me, I may tell these mid 20 coding non drinking dweebs to put it where the sun don't shine. I'm constantly tired with my two kids, four and three quarters and two and a half, shout out roots. And as I eat the same lunch every day, their pointless spoon jokes may tip me over the edge. Over and out. So he sent a photo in here. Nice little pre made deal. There are the oats, there are the tomatoes. I mean, this guy's eating, right?
- [96:45]
E
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't know people were still eating barley. I thought that was like a. I'm
- [96:49]
D
gonna have to google what that looks like. Doesn't sound like it's gonna look good. Is it boiled? What do you call, is it boiled barley? What is it?
- [96:57]
A
I've never dipped my toes into the barley game, to be honest with you.
- [97:00]
E
Okay, so versatile cereal grain, one of the first to be cultivated. Known for its nutty flavor and chewy texture. I'll say. It looks kind of like farro and I love farro, so by the way,
- [97:10]
D
anything that sort of is going to be plentiful like this, I'm using a spoon. Rice. Like little ground beef rice. Deal. I'll just go in with a spoon, put it back.
- [97:19]
E
You ever try to eat the Israeli couscous? You need a spoon. You can't with a fork, you get like four.
- [97:25]
A
Nice.
- [97:25]
D
They named a twist.
- [97:26]
E
They're like the wrong size that like they're chopped.
- [97:27]
A
Yeah, I don't like couscous.
- [97:29]
E
Not the small couscous, like the bigger couscous, the Israeli couscous.
- [97:31]
A
I just rather have rice.
- [97:33]
E
You know what I'm talking about though, right? I do. Because couscous I agree. I don't love couscous either, but Israeli couscous is like a top tier side for me.
- [97:41]
A
Wow. Israeli couscous.
- [97:43]
E
There's probably another name for it. I'm just. I don't know why I'm calling it that.
- [97:47]
A
Well, I just don't. I don't know. I don't know how that'll be received.
- [97:50]
E
Right, Great.
- [97:53]
D
Look, big spoon guy.
- [97:55]
A
I'll just say that this guy's right. This guy's right. There's this fear of the spoon that doesn't make any sense at all.
- [98:03]
D
Because you're essentially shoveling. Is that why? Because you're basically shoveling food into your
- [98:07]
A
mouth with the spoon.
- [98:08]
D
Like, that's how I feel when I decide to use a spoon where others would use a fork. If a meatloaf is crumbly, I'll use a spoon.
- [98:15]
A
I can't believe we just got this email. Because I did it recently because the only thing I had downstairs was a spoon. And I grabbed the food and I didn't feel like going back upstairs. And so then I was like, all I have is. I was like, well, what do I care? And you're right. It was like a public shaming thing. I was like, well, if I'm by myself, no one can see that I'm doing this. And I'm sitting there smashing this teriyaki bowl, and I'm going, this is so much better. This is so much easier. Especially when you're working out of the container and you're just maximizing clearance. So there needs to be big spoon, needs to get involved. There needs to be a movement here where adults are going back to the spoon and that it's accepted. So I think this guy's a pioneer. And on top of what you're eating, why isn't everyone even messing with you with how healthy you are? 70 kilos.
- [98:59]
D
Not a lot going on in that workplace. If this is. This is what they're ganging up.
- [99:03]
E
This feels like one of those dude things where, like, you just kind of rag on a guy for something that's slightly weird, but not really that weird.
- [99:08]
D
Tuna.
- [99:09]
B
Just don't let it go.
- [99:09]
E
Yeah, big tuna, exactly. Like this is what that is. I don't know that it's really. Yeah, you know, they've clearly just isolated you.
- [99:16]
D
Not, like, going on it with a
- [99:17]
E
guy they could have some camaraderie about. Even though, yeah, you're probably doing it right.
- [99:22]
A
I think you embrace it to the point you start playing Spoon man by Soundgarden.
- [99:27]
E
Start Learning the spoons and just on your lap and all that stuff. That'd be sick.
- [99:31]
A
Just wear a shirt. Soundgarden shirts. Maybe start. Yeah, learn the spoons. Do it. There's a guy, I think on Instagram right now who does it in his car, and I'm like, I don't think it's. Either it's not that hard or he's not that good, but I love the effort, I love the passion. Did you ever see the outtakes? I don't even know if it was an outtake of Eastbound and down. When Danny McBride's talking about, like back in the day, he's like, man, we're not pitching in Seattle. He's like, we had to fucking spoon, man. From Soundgarden. Our barbecue.
- [99:58]
E
Yeah,
- [100:01]
A
yeah. It's so. I love that show, man. It's so good. Random references. He's like, like, all right, cut. Chemist, DJ Mark Farina, all the volumes. Oh, man. And if things work out, we're looking as if we could get Trishell from the Real World. Vegas.
- [100:22]
D
It's probably on my list. I'll slide that in front of the next Sopranos. Rewatch. I'll get back on Eastbound and Down. Yeah, but to this guy, I agree with which way you're leaning. Maybe go to like a Crate and Barrel. But they have all those crazy like full, full sets where you want to like, hey, we're moving into a new house. And just see if there's like any good looking spoon there. Maybe one with like those like hard edges or something. And then just have your special spoon. Really, really lean into it. Just get one, one set of silverware for the office and. And like a real, real outstanding spoon. Remarkable even.
- [100:54]
A
I think you singing spoon man in your cubicle would be unbelievable. Speaking of rock bands, little cleanup here. Our guy was checking in. 41 year old male preferred genre of music is 70 to 90s rock. I throw it on his background music on the radio, Pandora, et cetera. To go about my days. You can imagine Aerosmith is in the rotation a lot. Oh, I can end. I don't need to imagine. A few weeks ago, the topic came up during Life Advice and Ryan threw out an A smitty as a shorthand for the band. Since then, that name has been an Earworm. Never before had I heard it. I think about it several times a day, Ryan. Was that accepted nomenclature where you're from or was that just off the top of your head? I need to know so I can gain some acceptance and move towards closure. Thank you. Love the pod. I did not invent it, but I don't really think anyone ever called him that. I think it was always like a heckle. Here's the thing. Congrats to Aerosmith. Incredible catalog. Great work, guys. If you met somebody that was like, a. Smitty's my favorite band of all time, you're like, what the fuck is wrong with you? Right? Is that a fair statement? Now, someone listening to this? Right now, your favorite band is Aerosmith, and good for you. But it's weird. It's a weird favorite band to ever have. So there was always kind of like a thing with them where. Sure, I had the cassettes, you know, dude, looks like a lady killed it in junior high for me. All right, Pump. We've covered this recently. All right.
- [102:25]
D
Right.
- [102:27]
A
But a guy from Mass, I think. I can't tell if it's. I don't remember if it's John Hallassy or Winnie. Mike Wynn from the old diehards day. It was one of these guys, and it was a classic Boston guy thing where he just was like, oh, what do you mean, a Smitty? And he made it up. And I haven't forgotten about it in like 25 years. And whenever Aerosmith comes up, I say a Smitty under my breath, even though I don't think any. He calls him that. So I didn't invent it. But I too chuckle internally because I just think about the guy that still loves Aerosmith. And then I would think it'd be even funnier if he's from Mass. And he was like, dude. He's like, you see an ace Smitty at Foxwoods.
- [103:09]
D
You hit me with Reeves a couple years ago. I'd never heard Reebs. And it's been like. It shook me up. I haven't really been able to say it in conversation, but I'm going to one day. I'm thinking about how to make it fit in. I really like that. Never heard that before.
- [103:23]
A
Look forward to it.
- [103:24]
E
It does get me thinking because I've really never thought about this. Like, who. Who are the P1s for? Arrows.
- [103:30]
D
The.
- [103:30]
A
A Smitty P1s.
- [103:31]
D
It's just gotta be like a great time in your life. It's maybe not like it's the best thing ever, but it might be. Like I was telling Ryan, when I went to Jamaica, the Take Care album first came out. It came out like three days before. I took a freshly 18 all. Yeah, a freshly 18 all inclusive Jamaica thing. And I just had that in my little Wired Apple headphones on, repeat, bouncing from bar to bar. And it's like, that album is great, but I think there's no way it'll.
- [103:57]
A
It's.
- [103:57]
D
Bet it's better for me than anyone else because of what exactly was going on when I was doing that.
- [104:01]
E
I'll back you. That's. That's. I think that's one of the better albums.
- [104:03]
D
Yeah, it could be the best one.
- [104:04]
A
I don't know.
- [104:04]
E
The 21st century, there was a. There's a lot of Drake hate going on. And that came up recently.
- [104:10]
A
Yeah.
- [104:10]
E
That's a pilot for the record. That's an incredible. But back to your Aerosmith point, I feel like. And you kind of hit on this, Ryan. It's. What's. What made me think of it. When Armageddon came out, was it, like, 98. I was like, oh, Aerosmith are, like, the coolest fucking band in the world. And then you hear, like, Dream on and then Walk this Way with Run dmc. And when you're. And I was in, like, middle school, and I'm like, yeah. Like, dude, what does it get better than Aerosmith? And then. But I think you just kind of, like, grow up and you're like, wait. Aerosmith are actually just kind of like a fun, you know, whatever band, but they're not like, your favorite band, you know, So.
- [104:43]
A
I don't know, like, some bangers. Some absolute bangers. First time I heard Dream On, I was like, how come these guys aren't bigger than Zeppelin? And then it was like, oh, right.
- [104:51]
E
And you listen to Zeppelin and you're like, oh, all right. Yeah. There's just levels to this.
- [104:57]
A
Yeah. Trying to think of, like, a basketball comp for Ace Smitty, like, Dejounte Murray. That's probably not good enough. No, it doesn't sound like it was good enough. It has to be somebody where it's like, yeah, a ton of points. Like, awesome. I get it. But come on.
- [105:20]
D
I don't know.
- [105:20]
A
Joe Johnson.
- [105:21]
D
There was a time where he seemed pretty.
- [105:23]
E
That's actually not terrible.
- [105:24]
A
He's like, dude, you actually don't understand. Dream on, though.
- [105:27]
E
No, this is for, like, a couple nights, you know, in the Associate. You know, I feel like Joe Johnson, like, you're talking, like. Like, really good, but not ever great and not put up with the greats. Joe Johnson. It's not terrible.
- [105:39]
A
It also has.
- [105:39]
D
Did I nail that?
- [105:40]
A
I think there's a. There's a good. Like, if somebody said, my favorite player ever is Joe Johnson, you'd be like, what? Right okay.
- [105:50]
B
All right.
- [105:51]
D
Nailed it. Cool.
- [105:52]
A
Yeah, I think we spent enough time on that. Picture this. It's Monday morning. You open up your laptop. Outlook hits you with 87 unread emails. Your calendar looks like a game of Tetris played by a toddler. Your boss wants a report. Your team wants a presentation. You want a nap. Enter Microsoft Copilot. Copilot summarizes your emails.
- [106:12]
C
Boom.
- [106:12]
A
You're caught up. It drafts your report in Word. It builds your slides in PowerPoint. It even pulls insights from your Excel data. Suddenly, you're the office hero. People think you're organized, responsible, maybe even promotable, all because Copilot did the stuff you didn't want to. So if you want to reclaim your time, or at least pretend you have your life together, try Microsoft Copilot. Copilot. Because sometimes the smartest move is letting AI do the work. Okay, beat strip. And angry girlfriend. Five' ten, 200 pounds. Player comp washed. Russell Westbrook. I love to push the pace and get down the court maniacally, but sometimes I get out of control. Also a very willing shooter, but not super accurate. It. Sorry for a long email. Here's the deal. I have a girlfriend. My closest friend, who's gay, invited me to his beach house this summer with two straight girls he'd become friends with through an abroad program he did a couple years ago. The last two times him and I did this beach trip, he extended an invitation to my girlfriend as a courtesy. My girlfriend is a good hang in groups. Her hanging out with me and my friend was not a negative on those trips.
- [107:14]
D
Awesome.
- [107:14]
A
Full stop.
- [107:15]
D
That's great, dude.
- [107:17]
A
This year, he wanted to invite his female friends and did not invite my girlfriend. There are a couple wrinkles to this. His friends used to live out of the country until recently, and now they're back in the States. So it's understandable he wants to spend time with them over his buddy's girlfriend. But also, I have sometimes complained about my girlfriend to him, so there's a chance that I've lowered her stock in his eyes as a good hang.
- [107:38]
D
Insider. Insider trading there. Shouldn't have let that slip.
- [107:42]
A
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm always amazed with the guys that like our default setting. They will never complain about their significant other. And then what act of betrayal is it to, like, go, hey, you know, she's been on my case about this or whatever, and, like, venting, like, that's what your friend is supposed to be there? Yeah, I'll use it to match a
- [108:03]
D
little if, if one guy's got something, I'll use it to match.
- [108:05]
A
How do you match?
- [108:06]
D
No, I'll just use it to match. Like, you know.
- [108:08]
E
What about your wife, Kyle?
- [108:09]
D
I do, I do, I do. But I'm just saying I'm among my, my buddies. Like, normally it's like I'll bring it up like, so I got something else to say. But it's like I usually, I'll usually let. I'll polly it back. I'm not usually serving it up. This is different, obviously. This is showbiz
- [108:27]
E
fair.
- [108:29]
A
Okay. All right, so there's that. The classic life advice. Follow how cool is my girlfriend. In short, she is all caps. Very jealous. As an example, used to needle me over a former female co worker my age who was a little creepy to me, even though I did nothing to invite the attention. Stuff like that. I tell my girlfriend that I'm going to my friend's beach house without her, she's going to think something changed with my friend and that he doesn't like her anymore since she was invited the last two times. Secondly, she will.
- [108:56]
E
For the record, that's kind of legit though. For the record, she was invited, now she's not invited.
- [109:00]
D
Yeah, this stinks.
- [109:01]
E
It's the same event.
- [109:02]
D
It's got a little stink on it.
- [109:03]
E
It's not gonna. It's. It's not just like, oh yeah, all right, nevermind, get you next time kind of thing.
- [109:07]
D
Did she go? Did she decline the invite or.
- [109:10]
A
No, she went.
- [109:11]
D
She did go.
- [109:11]
A
Yeah. This is strange. Yeah. No, no, there's just other new chicks going, you can't go this time. There's not enough space on the banana boat. So again, she was needling me over a co worker. A little creepy. Even though I did nothing to invite the attention. Stuff like that. If I tell my girlfriend that I'm going to my friend's beach house without her, she's going to think something changed. And my friend doesn't like her anymore since she was invited the last two times. Secondly, she will ask who else is going to. I do not think I can get away with a lie here, nor do I want a lie. If she finds out I'm going to the beach with two straight girls, she will not be happy, to say the least. One of the straight girls has a boyfriend, the other is single, so not really covered on that angle either. What should I do? My friend would not hate me for backing out of the trip and I would definitely lie and make up a reason so as not to reveal how little Trust there is in my relationship. Also, the two girls are not committed to coming yet, so if they back out, maybe I can reintroduce the possibility of my girlfriend coming along instead. Like I said, while she has jealousy issues, she's okay in group hangs. Appreciate the help. Love the pod. Go. Johnny's all right. Thanks. Is there no room? Did I miss that?
- [110:21]
D
I thought he just said he wasn't sure. I thought there was.
- [110:23]
A
We don't have the blueprints with us.
- [110:25]
D
All right. I mean, that just. Man, it made me like, listen, this would be so much better if there's room. Dude, please, like, just do it for me. You know what I mean?
- [110:32]
A
I don't.
- [110:33]
D
Cause right now, he's operating in. Oh, maybe this is because I said that in passing. He doesn't even know. I think just go straight to the source. You know, you're buds. Work with me on this.
- [110:43]
E
Yeah, that's. I mean, that's obviously the easiest and most simple way to do this. It is odd that he wouldn't invite her. And I think it's fair to be like, hey, like, can my girlfriend come, too? If you think it's gonna be a huge problem. And it sounds like, you know, this is a situation where you're not looking to break up with your girlfriend. You're looking to stay with her. So you're probably gonna have to take whatever side she's gonna be on in the situation. If he says no, then you're not. You're not going on this trip. But I think you just have to go to the source and ask him why she can't come or if she can't come. Don't make a confrontation.
- [111:10]
D
Yeah, because even if you did go, you're like, dude, you're only getting, like, 80 me. I'm just thinking about later. This is. You're not even getting the full. The full thing here. And it's not like you're asking him, like, hey, can you buy her a ticket to the concert? It's like, can I just bring her in the car with me? So, yeah, this is. This is. This is not a weird ask. Not like Serutti's, like, World cup ask.
- [111:28]
E
This is like, I didn't ask for no.
- [111:31]
D
We know.
- [111:31]
A
How's it going, by the way?
- [111:32]
D
Wink, wink.
- [111:33]
E
The same as it's always been. I'm not asking.
- [111:35]
A
All right.
- [111:37]
E
Yeah.
- [111:38]
A
I thought maybe the word would get out. It would.
- [111:41]
E
Yep. No, I had so many people hit me up. Be like, I can't believe you would think that was okay. I'm Like I said, it's not okay. That's why. But I was.
- [111:48]
A
I wanted validation.
- [111:49]
E
I got validation. Whatever you said, I was not gonna do that.
- [111:55]
A
Yeah, but sometimes, like, who are we kidding? There's soft launches on the show. That's not what that was. That was. You're not known to be a soft launcher for benefit.
- [112:06]
E
Yeah, I'm not. Yeah. Thank you. You know me well enough to know that I would not just be like, I'm gonna test the waters on my guys. It's. I. It's an. It's a. It's an insane ask. I said it was an insane.
- [112:17]
D
And all tripped up.
- [112:17]
A
I love it here.
- [112:18]
E
Now I'm throwing my wife under the bus. But she was like, it's not an insane ass. You should just ask him. And I'm not gonna ask.
- [112:22]
D
God, this is so.
- [112:23]
A
Again, the ask was if I can ask. Tickets.
- [112:26]
E
Yeah.
- [112:26]
A
What were the dates again?
- [112:28]
E
Taylor Swumens, the Summer.
- [112:29]
C
Summer.
- [112:30]
D
This was a master class. Honestly,
- [112:33]
A
this is pretty easy. You've got to work with your guy here first and foremost. Okay. And I don't know if you're overreacting to a criticism shared here or there. Like, you could be creating a lot of stuff in your head where you now think that she wasn't invited because of all these different things. It could be just a square footage thing. Again, we don't know. We don't know what the layout of this place is.
- [112:56]
E
He got. He's got to know he's jamming you up, though, right? Like.
- [112:59]
A
Yeah, there's no way.
- [113:00]
E
He doesn't. He doesn't understand the consequences.
- [113:02]
A
Does this guy love drama? He should understand it all.
- [113:05]
E
Yeah.
- [113:06]
D
It could be that he's the type of. Our email is the type of friend who's, like, very easygoing, doesn't want to ask anyone for anything. Like, enjoys being the guy who's, like, never late. You know, just.
- [113:15]
A
Yeah, say what?
- [113:15]
D
Like, we'll make plans.
- [113:16]
A
Like, he.
- [113:17]
D
He might enjoy being, like, the perfect. Everything goes smoothly. Whereas I have other friends that are like. Like, you know, if we're going to do this thing, I need you to do this, this, and this for me. And then you got to pick me up. Like, I just have. I have some friends like that, and I have some. And other friends I think want to enjoy being, like, the seamless addition to a group. And I think this guy might just want everything to be perfect without having to ask. So I think you just gotta put your foot forward there and, you know, be real. Be real about the situation.
- [113:45]
A
We also, you know, we don't know what the beach situation is. Is it the Hamptons? Are we talking about in Hampton park in New Hampshire? You know, so that might be the problem. Like, it's this unbelievable setting, and he's like, I don't want to be left out, but you know what you can't do? Here are the things we can definitively say. You can't go without her. All right? That's the number one thing. So you tell your friend that even with whatever the backstory is, whether that's actually impacted her, his opinion of her, or if you're completely creating a scenario in your head where that had way more to do with it than it actually did. Maybe he just has these two other friends. Maybe he really likes you and was thinking the whole thing out. And then maybe you just say to him, hey, dude, that's not going to work. And he goes, oh, my God, I didn't even think about that. Right, right.
- [114:35]
D
Sounds like that didn't happen yet.
- [114:36]
A
You just say, now, look, the thing is, is regardless of how many bedrooms there are, like, if you go by yourself, you weren't sharing a bed with anybody. That we can, I think, safely assume, if you're going with your girlfriend, you're sharing a bed, so how much room you're actually taking up. So it is a bit of a weird invite here based on. It's not like he's taking up another room if she's showing up. So I think you just go to him and say, hey, you cannot. I can't go.
- [115:02]
D
You can't do this to me, man. You can't do this to me.
- [115:04]
A
Yeah, you need to understand that straight guys, gay guys, we all get it.
- [115:10]
E
He is trying to play 4D chess, and he's like, I don't like this girl. And this is the first thing I'm going to just do this little subtle soft launch into, maybe you shouldn't be with this girl. Maybe that's what he's doing.
- [115:20]
A
Yeah, a real puppet master here. But I don't think you can go for the benefit of our emailer here, you didn't say you wanted to break up with her. You didn't say any of this stuff. Jealousy stuff can be really, really annoying, especially when it's stuff that you didn't do. So good luck with that. Enjoy your summer. All right, that'll do it for the show today. Thanks to Kevin, thanks to Tom, thanks to Cerutty, thanks to Kyle. We'll have a good 10 minutes because we had so little NBA today after a big NBA weekend. But look, it was just, it wasn't going to be on the radar with all the tournament games. So we'll stay on the tournament throughout. Can't wait to keep doing that. And then opening day baseball today, passing more baseball later this week. So please, please subscribe to the Ryan Rossillo show Barstool Sports.