"A scream-out-loud moment"

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Tony Kornheiser Show

Episode: "A scream-out-loud moment"

Date: March 30, 2026
Host: Tony Kornheiser
Guests: Michael Wilbon, Jay Bilas

Main Theme

This episode centers on the electrifying NCAA tournament game between Duke and UConn, dissecting the game’s stunning finish and its place in college basketball history. Regulars Michael Wilbon and Jay Bilas join Tony to reflect on great endings, coaching decisions, basketball culture, and personal anecdotes from the weekend in sports—including baseball, women’s basketball, and even a discussion about Tiger Woods’ ongoing struggles.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: NCAA Tournament and the Yukon-Duke Classic

• [03:15] Tony: Reassures listeners he hasn’t “given up on baseball,” but the NCAA tournament's drama, especially the Duke-UConn matchup, is front and center.
• Early banter about watching games, TV channels, and Tony’s lack of tech savvy.
• Wilbon & Tony discuss surprise contributions from little-known Nationals players and the excitement of the baseball season start.

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2. Recapping the Duke-UConn Game: "A Scream-Out-Loud Moment"

Game Narrative

• [06:56] Tony Kornheiser:

  “Duke has had its share of last-second wins...but Duke has had a share of last-second losses as well.”

• Sets up why, despite a lopsided score for much of the game, the finish entered “greatest games” conversation.
• UConn rallied from as many as 19 points down, cutting into Duke’s lead and never giving up.
• Tony on UConn's belief and coach Danny Hurley:

  “I like Danny Hurley. I’m not in the majority on this…but he certainly convinced his team they could win this game.” [08:40]

The Final Sequence

• [09:13] Tony summarizes: With 7 seconds left, Duke leads by two. UConn fouls; Duke needs only to run out the clock or get fouled. Duke’s Kaden Boozer throws a risky pass, it’s tipped, UConn’s Alex Karaban dishes to freshman Braylon Mullins, who drills a deep three at the buzzer—an “impossible” finish.
• Quote:

  “One of the most dramatic endings I’ve ever...that anybody has ever seen, really. I shouted so loud, my girlfriend in the other room thought I injured myself.” [11:10]

• Wilbon: “It’s, as Wilbon would say, a scream-out-loud.” [11:24]

UConn and Duke Legacies

• UConn’s strength—recent national titles, could’ve been a #1 seed, proves their pedigree.
• Reflecting on Duke’s history of both thrilling victories and heartbreaks.

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3. Breaking Down the Game: Analysis with Jay Bilas

[16:36] Jay Bilas joins.

Jay’s Perspective on the Ending

• Bilas:

  “You’re not used to seeing Duke on the other end of that…”
  “They had to make several mistakes to do it. The crown mistake… was, you know, thinking that young Boozer had to do anything other than stand there.” [17:28]

• Tony and Jay deconstruct the missed opportunity: holding the ball versus making risky passes.
• Tony:

  “Just stand there, son. They’re going to foul you. They have to.” [18:32]

On Tournament Magic

• Bilas:

  “That’s what has made this tournament what it is… moments you can’t anticipate and cannot easily explain away.” [18:51]

Kaden Boozer's Learning Moment

• The pressure on young Boozer; Bilas references knowing his father, Carlos Boozer.
• Both stress the teachable nature of tournament heartbreaks for players and coaches.

How the Ending Compares to Other Classics

• Compares to the “Laettner shot” in ’92.
• Bilas emphasizes that while the overall game wasn't as tightly played as others, the ending was unforgettable.

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4. The Evolving Landscape in College Hoops

The Rise of International Scouting

• Illinois’ unexpected rise:

  “They have a system of scouting Europe…more sophisticated and more expensive, has a greater budget than certain NBA teams.” [24:20]

• Schools like Illinois and Arizona leveraging international talent and deep analytics.
• College programs now resemble pro franchises, with capologists, data experts, and global recruitment.

Changing Perspectives on Great Teams

• Jay on Michigan/Illinois comparisons:

  “Let’s hold on for a second…you turn on TV this morning now, and that is what you will hear.” [22:21]

• Pushback on labeling current teams “the best ever.”

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5. Other Weekend Sports & Personal Touches

Women’s NCAA Tournament

• Jay’s personal investment: His connections to Carol Lawson (Duke coach) and Kiki Rice (UCLA player).
• The emotional challenge of watching friends and family intersect in high-stakes games.

Tony & Wilbon’s Weekend

• Humorous asides about dog care, cookies, and baseball prospects (Nationals surprises, Dom Smith’s Braves heroics).

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6. The Tiger Woods Sidebar

[29:32] Jay Bilas:

• Discussion on Tiger’s off-course issues:

  “We’re dealing with this again. At least it’s the fourth one that we know about where there’s been a accident…”
  “You’re worth going on a billion dollars. You can get a driver…” [29:57]

• Sympathy but exasperation: impact on Tiger and his children.

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7. More Mailbag and Listener Engagement

• Tony and Michael riff through listener emails about bracket picks, opening day memories, and Dom Smith’s unexpected turn as an Atlanta Braves hero.
• Humorous banter about prizes for the bracket contest and the eternal optimism of Cubs fans.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tony (on the UConn-Duke finish):

  “I shouted so loud, my girlfriend from the other room thought I injured myself.” [11:10]

• Jay Bilas (on Boozer’s mistake):

  “Thinking that young Boozer thinking that he had to do anything other than stand there…” [17:28]

• Tony (on tournament drama):

  “This is, as Wilbon would say, a scream-out-loud moment…and he ain’t ever used it like he used it last night.” [15:58]

• Jay Bilas (on Illinois’ European recruiting):

  “Illinois scouts Europe, Tony. They have a system…more sophisticated and more expensive than certain NBA teams.” [24:20]

• Wilbon (on his rooting interest):

  “The best is the kids don’t quite understand. Boots is old enough to understand, the younger boys, like, ‘I don’t think Duke’s gonna come back from this.’ Mom’s like, ‘Nope, no, they are not.’” [06:47]

• Jay (on tournament endings):

  “If you’re just a fan…you couldn’t…I don’t think you could help but just appreciate how unbelievable that finish was.” [34:04]

• Tony (on UConn’s status):

  “Let’s not sell UConn short…they’re among the five best teams in the country, and everybody understands that.” [12:29]

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• [03:15] – Tony, Wilbon, and Jay banter baseball, transition to focus on NCAA tourney
• [08:20–11:32] – Tony’s dramatic recounting of the UConn-Duke ending
• [16:36–21:41] – Jay Bilas and Tony break down the last sequence, discuss Duke’s meltdown
• [21:41–26:22] – College basketball evolution: international recruiting, analytics, comparisons
• [26:22–29:32] – Discussion about Illinois, how pro-level practices have transformed college hoops
• [29:32–32:21] – Tiger Woods segment: empathy and frustration over his ongoing problems
• [34:01–41:49] – Second Bilas segment: Deeper tactical breakdowns, UConn’s poise, Illinois’ skills
• [44:19–46:54] – North Carolina coaching search and perspective on Hubert Davis
• [47:42–58:00] – Listener mail: bracket chat, Cubs and Nationals, Dom Smith’s Braves highlight
• Throughout – Lighthearted banter, asides, and listener engagement in the show’s trademark irreverent tone

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Episode Takeaways

• The Duke-UConn thriller was less about sustained back-and-forth and more about an “unbelievable” final sequence that will live in tournament lore.
• Coaching brilliance, player poise (or lack thereof), and the unpredictability of March Madness are places where sports transcend mere results.
• College basketball has transformed: deep international recruiting, pro-style structures, and data-driven decision-making are now the norm.
• Personal bonds and multi-generational fanhood color the show, as much about friendship and tradition as sports analysis.
• The show blends humor, irreverence, and unabashed fandom—especially Tony’s joyful disbelief at the weekend’s sports drama.

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This episode is a must-listen for anyone who loves college basketball, sports history, and the distinctive wit of Tony Kornheiser and his friends.

Core message:

Sometimes sports deliver moments so wild, so unpredictable, there’s nothing to do but scream out loud.

Transcript

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hey, it's Tony. You know what we're going to talk about today? We're going to talk about the Yukon Duke game. We're going to talk about it with Wilbon. We're going to talk about it with Jay Bilis. We're going to talk about it among ourselves. But first, let the sales weasels breathe. Okay, quick question. Why should your energy boost taste boring? The new fruity rainbow shots from five Hour Energy are proof that caffeine can actually be a treat. These bring an explosion of fruity flavor with a tasty caffeine kick. Think sweet, colorful candy vibes, but in a tiny bottle that gives you the perfect boost. Caffeine just got a serious flavor upgrade. There are 17 flavors in the full five hour energy lineup. 17. So you've got options depending upon your mood. But this fruity rainbow launch is all about bold, playful candy flavored chaos. And somehow all that big flavor fits into a portable 2 ounce shot. No bulky drinks, no sugar crash, no sticky wrappers. It's a zero sugar treatment that's totally sweet tooth approved which makes it feel indulgent without slowing you down. If you want your pick me up to actually taste fun, this is it. Get candy flavored chaos with fruity rainbow 5 Hour Energy shots available online at 5 Hour Energy.com or on Amazon. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start. Thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is. With thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app Download today.

[Show Announcer/Commercial Voice]

Previously on the Tony Kornheiser Show.

[Michael Wilbon]

Well, my favorite is leading up to opening day because the excitement that we all have. We get a text from Saliza and Chuck Todd just wondering like how's the offense gonna do? And they put up a 10 spot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, Salizza I think said that he didn't believe they'd get 10 runs first five games. You know, something like that. And now they're excited.

[Michael Wilbon]

Now they're tone.

[Jay Bilas]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And I watched it on channel 1261.

[Show Announcer/Commercial Voice]

The Tony Korniser show is on now.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I watched it yesterday on 1261 also.

[Michael Wilbon]

But now this, the channel's established. You just have to hit last.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't ever. I don't know how to hit last. I don't know how that works. I don't ever go to 1260 or 1262 or anything above about 861.

[Michael Wilbon]

Oh, those are the music channels for

[Tony Kornheiser]

the dog, is that right?

[Michael Wilbon]

Probably. There's always, like, random radio channels.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I have no idea where this is, but I know if you wait a little bit. Not as long as with streaming. If you wait a little bit for cable, eventually the Nats game comes on. I'll talk about in a second, but let me establish the geography here. We are down one body today, live. We are down Nigel. Nigel is away. Nigel will be away all week, and when he gets back next week, he'll tell us all about it. But we're not going to bother him by calling him now. It's nothing bad, nothing mandatory. It's very lovely. And nothing he really has to do. And if we find out there's really nothing he has to do, then we don't need him back.

[Jay Bilas]

No.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Did I say that? I didn't mean to say that. Sean is helping us today. Sean, from his perch in New Jersey, is helping us, gathering the guests and making the show work. And just so you know, that's how it works. So Michael is here and I am here. And Jesse, still under the weather with diarrhea. It's no good. She is here as well.

[Michael Wilbon]

The 2am walks?

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, not this morning. But I was up anyway thinking that she was gonna start to whine. So it's, It's. It doesn't really work for me one way or another. So let me get to everything. Look, we are going to talk about the Duke, Connecticut game with Wilbourn. We're going to talk about it with Jay Billis. We're going to talk about it amongst ourselves. I did want to start. I just. So you don't think I have given up on baseball? Because I haven't. Early on, the Nats won yesterday. They.

[Michael Wilbon]

Great start by mackenzie Gore.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, well, that was on another team that's on the Texas Rangers, right?

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah, well, against the Phillies.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. Mackenzie Gore, who we gave up on for reasons beyond. Beyond my comprehension, but the Nats won. The Nats won two out of three in Chicago. They won six to three yesterday. So they won 10 three or 10 four. Then they won six three. They lost 10 three. It's okay. That's a really good start on the road. There are two people on the team that I had played integral roles in the win yesterday and in. Certainly in the case of the Kid Weimer. Is that his name?

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. Picked up in January.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know who he is. He's now hit two home run each game they've won. He's not made an out. He's hit a home run. Is that right?

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. Think he's 6 for 6 to start the season.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Who is he?

[Michael Wilbon]

A couple walks.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Who is he?

[Michael Wilbon]

I. I've never heard of him. What position does he play Thursday? He's in, right?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. So I don't know anything about him. There's another guy who came in in the ninth inning who I guess is auditioning to be the closer. Although in a 6, 3 game, it's not quite as tight as something else. And he has the unfortunate name of Beater.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yep.

[Tony Kornheiser]

What is his first name? Do we know? I'll pull it up. Yeah. And he THREW A perfect 1, 2, 3 inning in about 10 or 11 pitches.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. And a lot of that's, like, where does the save actually come? Because when he saw Bregman get the second home the day, I think it was the inning prior to that.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Birthday today, by the way.

[Michael Wilbon]

Nice.

[Tony Kornheiser]

32 years old.

[Jay Bilas]

Nice.

[Michael Wilbon]

I saw him checking out the hairline in the dugout.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is that. Oh, is his hairline receding?

[Michael Wilbon]

No, it looks good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. That's Clayton. What's Clayton Beater.

[Michael Wilbon]

Clayton Beater.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. So those two people were very good for the Nats. It's too early to care. It's way too early to care, but I'm just saying it's not way too early to care.

[Michael Wilbon]

It was fun to see a young team that you're still trying to figure out. Put up some runs.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I paid no attention to the golf this week because of the NCAs on the weekend, but Michael Gary Woodland, who has won one major in his life, the U.S. open.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah. 2019 at Pebble.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah. He won it. Hasn't won much since.

[Michael Wilbon]

He's not won anything since.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hasn't won any tournaments at all.

[Michael Wilbon]

No.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Oh, okay. And had literally brain surgery.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He had a brain tumor a couple of years ago.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yes. And then more recently, he's talked about the, you know, the lingering effects of that with PTSD and sort of the guilt that he has felt as he's trying to figure out his place in this, you know, the profession that he knows.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He seems to be universally like, yeah, Sands loves him. Sans loves him. I should probably. I should probably call the Sans stuff up. Sands does love him. He said, in my 36 years as a sportscaster, I've never liked a professional athlete more.

[Michael Wilbon]

And athlete is the. Is the perfect term for him. He's an athlete, not just a golfer.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, Wilbon knows about this. Wilbon says he all he wanted to do. He grew up in Kansas. He wanted to play for University of Kansas, or ku, I think they call it there. And he wasn't good enough, apparently. But, you know. All right, so this is another sands text at 7:28 last night, about five minutes after that game ended.

[Michael Wilbon]

So you had left our house at this point.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I left your house. I'd gotten back home. Sands, I love sports. That's because Duke lost.

[Michael Wilbon]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And I said, haha, I knew you would. He said sports. Nothing like it, you know. So he was happy because he wants Duke to lose not only every game, but he wants to lose each game.

[Michael Wilbon]

Top bedtime routine for our household.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I can imagine. I mean, I didn't know what to say to Liz, you know, tough. It's a tough.

[Michael Wilbon]

The best is the kids don't quite understand Boots. He's old enough to understand the younger boys. Like, I don't think Duke's going to come back from this. Mom's like, nope, no, they are not.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, this is. Duke has had a part of the highlight reel, right? Duke has had its share of last second wins. Everybody knows the Leitner game. Duke has had its share of that. But Duke has had a chair of last second losses as well. Last year in the Final Four, they were up 11, I think, on Houston with not much time to go, and they lost that game and Houston ended up losing the final game to Florida. But being in the final game last night, this is one of. It's hard for me to say this accurately because I understand the pushback. When I say it's one of the greatest games ever played, and you say, well, it was a 15, 18 point game for so much of the game. How can it be one of the greatest games ever played? Well, if you watched it, you knew it was because there was, I'm not going to say an inevitability that UConn would win, but there seemed to be an inevitability that UConn would climb back in the game, which is exactly what they did with about 80 seconds to go in the first half when they were down, I think 19 and they cut it to 15 or 16. And Danny Hurley, who is annoying to a lot of people, referees, people in the media, the general public, I like Danny Hurley. I'm not in the majority on this. Danny Hurley, whether he lost faith in his team or not, I don't know. But he certainly convinced his team that they could win this game. And from the beginning of the second half after that 82nd period in the last part of the first half, they stayed in it. They gave up points. Duke maintained its lead. Duke had some very good plays. But UConn cut it. Got it under 10, got it to about six or eight, maybe it was 10 with a couple of minutes to play. But UConn never gave up. UConn never lost faith. And UConn played great. And you get to the end of the game, and this is the ending that no one who's seen it will ever forget it. You get to the end of the game, Duke does a very smart thing. Whether intentional or not, Duke Fouls with about seven seconds to go. Ten to seven seconds to go, whatever it was. UConn is down three at that point. Duke fouls. Don't let him get a three point shot. They go to the foul line. They make one of two. With less than 10 seconds to go. Am I correct on this?

[Michael Wilbon]

Seven seconds.

[Tony Kornheiser]

With seven seconds to go, Duke is up to. You have to get across the mid court line in 10 seconds, but if there are not 10 seconds left, you don't have to. You don't have to. UConn has to foul. It's the only way you. They have to foul you. Hope you miss the shots. Get a shot at the three to either tie or win. For reasons unknown to me, Duke inbounds the ball cleanly, makes a second pass and a third pass. Third pass ends up in the hands of Kaden Boozer, right?

[Michael Wilbon]

Temporarily, yes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And instead of waiting. They have to foul him.

[Michael Wilbon]

They're trying to.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They have to foul him. They. They're down, too. There's no time. They have to foul. Instead of waiting to be fouled and accepting that as fate and winning the game, he throws a pass that is tipped. It is recovered by UConn. Alex Cariban gets the ball on the right hand side. He is guarded by Cameron Boozer. He's the best three point shooter on the team. But he's had a terrible night. Terrible night. He's made one, his most recent three, but he's had a terrible night. He finds. What's the kid's name? Mullins. Freshman. Freshman. Oddly enough, from Indiana, because Indiana is the site. Indianapolis is the site of the final.

[Michael Wilbon]

Indianapolis.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And he just drills it 30ft deep. Yeah, very deep. Like Caton Clark Land. You know it's deep. And he drills it right in. Like, not off the board, not off the room. Boom, right in. And UConn wins. And the delirium. The delirium on the UConn bench is something that when you watch, you know, it stays with you. The sadness that Duke wasn't as much sad as sort of stunned. Yeah, yeah. Whoa, whoa. Didn't expect this. What do we do now? And you head to the exit. I mean, you have point three to go, but you're not even going to get. Do you get a shot?

[Michael Wilbon]

I mean, you try and throw it

[Tony Kornheiser]

across the entire court, you don't really have a chance at that point. One of the most dramatic endings I've. I've ever. That anybody has ever seen, really. I shouted so loud, my girlfriend thought from the other room, thought I injured myself. Well, okay. Yeah. I mean, this is. This is, as Wilburn would say, a scream out loud.

[Michael Wilbon]

I went straight to cleaning the Dutch

[Tony Kornheiser]

oven, you know, trying to add some. I mean, it's one.

[Michael Wilbon]

It's just.

[Tony Kornheiser]

It's remarkable. I. I walked out of the house because.

[Michael Wilbon]

Didn't take any leftovers, you know.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, you had a cookie. I didn't take a cookie.

[Michael Wilbon]

You didn't take it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I didn't take a chocolate chip cookie.

[Michael Wilbon]

Wegmans cookie.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I did not. I did not get the bucket. I just thought we should le at that point because. And let her have silence around her to do whatever she wants to do. Again, Duke has won a share of these games. Now, Duke has lost its share of these games, and it is a miraculous victory for UConn. And let's not sell UConn short. UConn would have been a 1 seed had they not lost to St. John's in the Big east, the last Big east game that they played. They would have been a one seed, actually, had they not lost to. Was it Creighton or Butler or one of those teams. I think it might have been Creighton in the regular season of the Big east that dropped them off the one line, onto the two line. UConn. Not this past year, when Florida won. Previous two years. UConn won national championships, two in a row. You don't have to feel like, oh, boy, they had no business in this game. No, there are two. There are two. They're among the. I think they were the first two. I'm going to say they're among the five best teams in the country, and everybody understands that. But it is still, nonetheless, a great, great win. An unexpected sort of unbelievable win. And again, I would call it one of the great games ever. Even though you can make the case that it wasn't close for so long, it wasn't all that competitive. But, gee, Michael, I always had the sense that UConn was going to be in the game at some point. They're just too good not to be. You're not beating a 14 here. It's a two. So we will talk about this with Wilbond, we will talk about it with Jay Bilis. And you'll talk about it amongst yourselves, I'm sure. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

[Show Announcer/Commercial Voice]

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[Show Announcer/Commercial Voice]

Delivery area this is the Tony Kornizer Show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

This is a song called Trips around the. It is written by Dwight Michaels who writes in My name is Dwight Michaels. I'm a loyal little who has recently stepped away from the glamorous life of a heavy equipment operator to more fully pursue my love of music. Most nights you can find me playing in the honky tonks and bars of Southern California fronting my band Sticks and Stones. If you chance to wander into one, give me a hearty Lecheserie or at the very least the TK Salute. This is from his debut solo album, All Night Dwight and again, this is called Trips around the Sun. We'll play two of his songs today and we're grateful that a Little himself has sent some stuff in. He plays in Michael Wilbond and as I said in the open. Wilbourne has this phrase, a scream out loud moment and he uses it a lot, but he ain't ever used it like he used it last night. I mean, you what, when you saw that drop, what were your thoughts?

[Jay Bilas]

I. You know, it automatically goes up there in NCAA tournaments history. I, I. You're not used to seeing Duke on the other end of that? Nope. I mean, you know, I mean they've

[Tony Kornheiser]

been on both ends.

[Jay Bilas]

They have been. Anybody who's played at that level for that long has been. But you know, what comes to mind more quickly for me are Killed Latener and Austin Rivers. Yeah. And you know, I mean, this is, you know, sort of what Duke has had for decades. And you know, first of all, I'll give you credit for calling it early when it was still, I think, a seven point game. You said they're going to come all the way back. I thought Duke steadied itself with about a minute 17 left. I think it was a five point lead. And I thought, okay, this is what they'll wind up with. They'll eat this out. Oh my God. I mean, because they had to make several mistakes to do it. But the crown mistake, of course, which they did, was, you know, thinking that young boozer thinking that he had to do anything other

[Tony Kornheiser]

stand there before.

[Jay Bilas]

Even if you miss both free throws, they're gonna have to go without the benefit of the NBA rule where a timeout puts you in half court? No, in under five. They're gonna have to go the full court and make the shot now, which happens. Yeah, but that's a lot easier, a lot harder than a kid and there's, you know, having a ball tossed to him with five seconds in, a clear open shot, no chaos. And it's just, you like this. I'm not really seeing this.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, I can't stress this enough. You're getting the ball. Duke has the ball. After the foul shots by UConn, Duke has the ball with less than 10 seconds to go. So they don't even have to clear half court. There's no violation. They don't have 10 seconds.

[Jay Bilas]

That's right.

[Tony Kornheiser]

When you make that third pass and you get it to the Kaden Boozer right around half court, just stand there, son. They're going to fail you. They have to. There is no other play. They have to.

[Jay Bilas]

No other way.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So this is something that you say to yourself, my God, it's the last way I expect them to lose. It is.

[Jay Bilas]

Didn't see that coming. Didn't see it coming at all. But you know what, Tony? That's, you know, part of a large part of what has made tournament what it is. This. This irresistible thing that comes to us every year, that you have moments you can't anticipate and it cannot easily be explained away. And I hope that, you know, as somebody who has known Carlos Boozer, the dad, you know, for 25 years or longer. Longer that it doesn't, you know, that Kaden Boozer, who I think is sort of emerging, and he doesn't have anywhere near the ballyhoo of his bigger brother, but in this tournament, you start to see, okay, wait a minute. Here's a 6 foot 5 inch kid who can do all this stuff, including, by the way, make free throws, which, you know, that's what he needed to do in that moment. So, man and Duke. For Duke to be on either end of both those things, to win a tournament game that way, on the women's side, you know, one round earlier, and then to lose a chance to final Four that way on the men's side, really, really, really stunning.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So you mentioned Carlos Boozer. Carlos Boozer played in the pros. When he saw that happen near mid court, he knew exactly what happened. And he had to sink, right? His heart had to just sink because he says to himself, oh, my God, kid, hold the ball.

[Jay Bilas]

Hold the ball.

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

Sure.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jay Bilas]

Carlos didn't play 15 years in the league for nothing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So I don't I mean, I was saying this in the open. I said, I can't defend what I'm going to say because you can come back at me and you can say, well, it was a 15 point game for so long. But I'm going to say it was one of the great games I've ever seen because of the way that UConn got back in it, starting with about a minute and a half to go in the first half. And whatever we think of Danny Hurley, and, you know, he's a controversial figure, but he convinced his players that they were not out of this game. Right. He convinced them to believe in themselves. He did a great job. That, that's what you saw on the.

[Jay Bilas]

Well, that's what he does. I mean, that's who he. Like, like a lot of people in various professions and certainly including in the coaching profession, Danny Hurley is a guy who can irritate the hell out of you. But there's no, there's no other valid opinion other than that he is a great coach.

[Tony Kornheiser]

He is a great.

[Jay Bilas]

And he now is the position to win the third championship in time.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Jay Bilas]

He's a great coach. Yes. I, I never thought that, that UConn was not going to make a run or not going to believe in itself or not going to make it a game. I didn't find it a particularly great game. Obviously, it's a great comeback.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Jay Bilas]

But I, you know, I, I, that's a great ending. You know, there are people, even people affiliated with Duke, I won't get into who, but who in the last couple of weeks said to me, I don't know how good this particular team is. There's some flaws in it. People go crazy. Let's, let's hold on for a second. And you know, people have talked about, in the same, in a similar context, they've talked about the Michigan team that's out there, that's blowing people's doors off. And they said, oh, the greatest Michigan team ever.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And I'm like, no, stop. Stop, please.

[Jay Bilas]

No. This is, this is. You turn on TV this morning now, and that is what you will hear.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's insane.

[Jay Bilas]

And so I think it's insane because there's a team that won the championship in 1989, and there's a team that featured three NBA players who each lasted like 20 years, you know, and they lost to a better Duke team.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Jay Bilas]

Like you can say, well, that Michigan team, those Michigan teams lost to Duke. They lost to a duke team with two of the 10 greatest players in the history of College basketball in terms of accomplishment. So I'm not willing to go there yet. But there were. There were people who saw something or thought they perceived something about this Duke team that was lacking, and maybe they showed up yesterday.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You went to the regional, right, In Chicago.

[Jay Bilas]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And the team that came out of there is Illinois. Or is that Michigan who came out of there?

[Jay Bilas]

Michigan. Michigan.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Michigan came out of there. So you have two Big Ten teams in the Final Four. The surprising one to me is not Michigan. And Duke beat Michigan at a neutral side, and that's why Duke was ranked ahead of Michigan. It's as simple as that. But the Big Ten is much better than the acc. The proof of it is in this tournament. And Illinois was the team that surprised me the most. I mean, Illinois, I didn't know anything about them. Illinois looks really good to me. They do.

[Jay Bilas]

We can go back to earlier Ptis in December and I saw Illinois in person and my only thought about Illinois was this team can win the whole thing. They have. They have now. They're not and should not be thought of ahead of the Duke team that just lost yesterday. Or the Michigan team.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's right.

[Jay Bilas]

That is also in the final.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Or Arizona.

[Jay Bilas]

Or Arizona. But I thought that and said it several times out loud because I just thought. Because I don't know that I've said that about an Illinois team in at least 25 years, maybe longer. They just think that size, skill, you know, depth, moxie, international veterans who. You know, these kids in Europe, they become pros very early, too. And then they come over here at 19, like Luka, and they've been pros since 15, and they got something to offer. And Illinois has a team full of that. Illinois scouts Europe, Tony. And they have a system of scouting Europe and bringing players that's more sophisticated and more expensive, has a greater budget than certain NBA teams. I'm not going to say who right now, they do a better job. And so this is what, you know, in this era, it's more than just nil. It's. You have to have money, you have to spend it. You have to figure out how to spend it and mine the talent worldwide. And so Illinois isn't the only one. I'm looking at Tennessee and. And who was this French kid? And I was at courtside and it was great to just see these people in person and be able to see Tony. They have analytics experts now in college. They have capologists. They have international scouting, and it's unbelievable. They have general managers, some schools. And I know these people because they, at various points in their lives were other things in college basketball, they were assistant coaches, they were things that sounded lower level. And now college basketball, in order to be successful, you have to run it like a professional team, like an NBA team or the team at the top of the Euroleague standing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I agree with that. And watching Illinois, they killed Iowa on the boards. They had more offensive rebounds than Iowa had defensive rebounds. They're big. That's big boy basketball. They're good.

[Jay Bilas]

I mean, if they shoot it, Tony, if they shoot it. They don't always shoot it, but if they shoot it, your. Your chances are you can't beat them.

[Tony Kornheiser]

You had, you had a head exploding situation over the weekend with, with Duke and ucla, did you not? You want to tell people about that?

[Jay Bilas]

I did, I did. I mean, Carol Lawson's Duke teams, who I normally. Carol Lawson doesn't matter where she is. The Celtics, you know, various places, the Wit, you know, the Mystics.

[Tony Kornheiser]

She was with the Wizards. Tv. She was the Wizards.

[Jay Bilas]

Wizards. I'm a Carol. I'm a fan of Carol Lawson. And this starts with you, this starts with the, with the, with the, with the friendship you had with her dad, her late dad, decades ago, when Carol was in high school and becoming on our radar. God, now for, you know, 35 years more, longer. And so anyway, I've gotten to know Kara, but been friends with her for a long time. And also though a person who's in our lives because of the parents who are, we're close to the Rice's, John and Andrea. Their daughter is Kiki Rice of Sidwell High School. And Kiki talk about being on the radar, you know, I mean, she and her brother Mateo, since birth. We're not casual friends of the family. And people know the aunt Susan Rice. Yep. And you know, you know, so you follow as they have followed our son growing up and we followed their children growing up because they're all about the same age. And all of a sudden Kiki Rice is being recruited by everybody in the world and becoming one of the standout players in women's basketball and going to UCLA and being a four year starter and now in this, in this situation where she's in the regional final against Carol Lawson. And I know that Kara recruited Kiki, that there's like, I don't remember any like specific small details, but I know that Carol Lawson had to, had to recruit Kiki and would have loved to have had her and if she had her, would, would be in the final for herself this coming weekend in Arizona. And it's in Arizona, where the Rice is like the Wilbond. Spend a chunk of time and some of a lot of it together. And so I will probably get to the Women's Final Four in Phoenix. But watching them play each other yesterday, like, you know, what's my rooting interest here? And how do I. What side am I coming down on? And Carol's gonna get more chances at this because she's Carol Lawson and she's been in and around the best basketball franchises, college and pro, her whole life. And Kiki was only going to get one more chance at this particular distinction, and that was yesterday. So I think that tells you where I came down for a minute.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Understand that. All right, you want to spend 30 seconds on Tiger. Tiger sort of fortunate in that out of the news completely because of these games. Out of the news completely. But your thoughts. We had to do that show live on Friday. We had to go live. And your thoughts were the same as mine, which is sadness again, you know. Yes. And we're not unexpected, really. Not unexpected.

[Jay Bilas]

We're dealing. We're dealing with this again. At least it's the fourth one that we know about where there's been a accident. We know about a public citation or an arrest, multiple. Dude, you're worth going on a billion dollars. You. You can't get a driver. And, you know, look, look, Tiger has talked to enough people over time in a limited way, including me, that this is not the garden variety Friday night out, too late, too long. This isn't that. Tiger woods has enormous injuries that he has had to navigate. Enormous ones. One that almost caused him to lose his right leg. And so just to get out of bed and function at the physical level that he does, there are prescription medications that are required. So whatever's going to come out is going to deal with that. We already know publicly. It was stated by police. He pressed past a breathalyzer test. No, no, no, no, no. We're not talking about that. We're not talking about safe driving from a party you were at too late. We're talking about an ongoing thing that he has to manage that is essential in his life, but again, worth approaching a billion dollars. You can get a driver, a series of drivers who can do whatever you need to do. Why are you having this thing happen repeatedly? And it's just like. It's just so disappointing. It's so dis. I had somebody last night tell me that. Look, probably the only people he's going to listen to in an interventional way are his children who are old enough now to do that. And I'm like, God, okay, maybe that's true. But how unfair is that to his children if that's true? You know, when I think of who's at Stanford and the other we know is a budding star in the golf world, his son, and just, it's just, it's awful for a lot of reasons. But you want to say, dude, do you value your life and buy the life of others? I mean, I know these things didn't seem. They've never seemed to really hurt anyone else, but they could.

[Tony Kornheiser]

They could.

[Jay Bilas]

So that's the story. They could just me, Tony, on every level.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. All right, I will see you later. We will do the show later. All right, Michael. Boys and girls, we will come back with Jay Billis. I'm Tony Kornheiser.

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You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Once again. This is Dwight Michaels, a little who plays music. And as he said, he's out in the bars in Southern California. This is called Angeline. Michael, if people like Dwight Michaels want to send in their original music for us to play on the show, how do they go about it?

[Michael Wilbon]

Send us your music by emailing it to jinglesonyquinizershow.com and it plays in Jay Billis.

[Tony Kornheiser]

And I, you know, I wrote before the end of the game last night, before I even watched the game, I wrote down a thousand questions. None of them make any sense anymore. We'll get to some of them, I'm sure. But I wanted to ask you this. I mean, you, you play basketball at Duke now in your professional capacity. You cannot be, you know, prejudiced for or against any school or anything like that. And you're not, and nobody ever thinks you are. But I'm also thinking that down deep in your heart, you still root for Duke a little bit. And as someone who watched that last night, what were your thoughts at the end of that game?

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

Like it would have been if the situation had been reversed. Like, I think if, if you had a situation where Duke came back from 19 down and somebody hits a shot, say Kaden boozer hit, hit a shot to beat UConn, I would have felt exactly the same way. It would have been an, oh, my God, what an amazing game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Jay Bilas]

You know that part of that, Tony,

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

it's been 30, 30 plus years now where I go to games where I don't care who wins. And that was an adjustment for me at first, but it's not anymore. So I was kind of, I was just watching the game. You Know, I mean, it's my job to watch it. I had to watch it, but I would have watched it anyway. And if you're just a fan, you could, you couldn't. I don't think you could help but just appreciate how unbelievable that finish was. And, you know, I was a grad assistant at Duke when Laitner hit the shot against Kentucky in 92. And so those two endings were very similar feeling. But the 92 game was a better game. Like, that game was played at an unbelievably high level. This one was high level too, but it was more. It was filled with more mistakes. And when John Shire was on the podium afterwards, he said, look, it wasn't just that one play. And he's right. There were a number of plays in the second half. Like, Duke only scored 28 points in the second half. There are a number of turnovers and miscues and mistakes. And then great play by UConn. You can't have one without the other. Like, you have a comeback, you're going to have great play by the team coming back, and then you're going to, you have to have mistakes by the, the team that gets overcome. And Duke made a ton of mistakes. But when, when Shire said it, it wasn't just that one play. Well, he's right. It's not just about that one play until it's down to one play. And then it was about that one play and, and Duke did not handle it very well and opened the door. And Braylon Mullins took advantage of that open door and just shut the whole thing on Duke. But it was amazing. Like, I was like everybody else, you know, you're kind of stunned going, what just happened? Like, that's impossible. It was incredible.

[Tony Kornheiser]

So there are two questions that suggest themselves right off the bat. One is, and I've said this a thousand times already today, there's less than 10 seconds to go in the game. You have a two point lead. You do not even have to get over half court. You just wait and be fouled. You hold the ball, you wait and be fouled. Right. I mean, that's sort of unbelievably elementary. I'd like your thoughts on that. And the second thing is, the best three point shooter on Connecticut is Caravan. Now, he'd had a very bad night, but he had made his previous three. He was in a position to take that three. He gave that up to Mullins from greater distance. Mullens sank the shot. What are your thoughts on both of those things?

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

Well, first, so you're correct in that you could have held the ball. Like Cameron Boozer caught the initial inbounds pass with 10 seconds to go and he was double team. Now he could have just held it, maybe got tied up or whatever. But there's also value and get rid of it and take some extra time. Then they got to go over to domes are the original inbounder. But there was nothing wrong with Duke passing the ball the first two times.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Right.

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

The real mistake came when Kaden Boozer caught it near mid court. You know, the players at least at Duke and I think just about everywhere you're taught when you're, you're, you're going against a press, you catch the ball, you turn and you face the defense before you do anything. And Coach K used to just say catch and face. Like catch and face. We did those drills every day. And he caught it, dribbled it, and then jumped up in the air to try to pass. And when you're trying to pass over the outstretched arms of defenders, oftentimes you know, in a double team you try to pass around and, and you know he had two guys wide open down the court. If he gets it over those two guys games over. But he didn't. It got deflected but, but the mistake was you catch, face the defense and at worst you get tied up, but you're probably going to get fouled. And you know, just being strong with the ball. And I've always, this has always been, I've always wanted to do this on television, but you know, your producers tell you we don't have enough time is take one play like that and then, and then go. What the coaches would say in film because the same play, the coaches say completely different things. You know, Danny Hurley would have been saying, hey, great job on the trap, high hands, I got the deflection. Great poise here, good decision. And John Shire would be going, how could we be that week? Like catch face do that. You know, it would be two totally different interpretations based on your viewpoint.

[Tony Kornheiser]

What about the giving up caravan? Giving up the three

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

unbelievably poised and smart play. And that's where I think his experience level really came in is, is he knew he could have taken that shot, but he had two defenders right in front of him. And Mullins was the one that threw him the ball after the deflection. And so he kicks it back.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes.

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

And then Mullins can really shoot it. Like if you, if you had seen him in high school, he made a lot of those shots where he would just Come down and take a shot from just about that distance. So Caravan knows that. But to have the poise to realize that all that in the moment because they're guys that are really smart and can break down things and understand it. And then there are those that can do it under pressure in the moment. And, and Alex is both of those. I mean, that was a, that was a next level decision that he made and it obviously turned out to be one of the iconic moments in the history of the game.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Absolutely. And the one you remember in the same package is the Leitner play. It's. That's. I mean, they've come to mind almost immediately. So we have a Final Four. Michigan's really good. Arizona is really good. We've seen UConn win twice with at least one or two of the same people in the last three years. Illinois is sort of the wild card. And I wondered about, I saw Illinois for the first time about three weeks ago when I said to Wilbon, where did they come from? Where did they get these players? That's big boy basketball. They're really good. They out rebounded Iowa. They had more offensive rebounds than Iowa had defensive rebounds. What do you think of Illinois? Do they belong in this, in this group?

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Kind of like you. I've been on Illinois all season. I think earlier in the season they didn't defend at this level. And the last month or so they've started to guard at the level of their offense like they're the best. You can make an argument, at least analytically, they're the best offensive team in the country because they've, you know, Brad Underwood, who has been a, you know, he was the Kansas State and all that stuff, and he started his career in juco, you know, so he was driving the team around the van and doing all the dirty work and all that stuff. And he's recruited internationally like they call their unit the Balkan Five. So he and Tommy Lloyd at Arizona are probably the two coaches this year. And Tommy's been doing it for 20 years, since he was at Gonzaga, of bringing in international players. And the guys that Brad has are really skilled. They've got positional size and they can all shoot it so they can spread the floor on you. They're really good. And then Andre Stojakovic went from being a starter who I thought was their best player early, and he's come off the bench now and he's been a weapon off the bench. But that freshman, they have, Keaton Wagler, he wasn't even ranked in the top 150 coming out of high school last year. And Underwood son Tyler saw him, I think, when he was scouting another player, if I've got the score of the story right, and came back and said, hey, this kid's really good. We got to get him. And he's Tyrese Halliburton. Like, he's unbelievable. And talk about poise and never getting sped up and all that. He's the. He's unbelievable. He had 25 in the regional final.

[Jay Bilas]

He is.

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

He's legit. He's the real thing.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I just wondered about it, you know, did they. Do you go through Eastern Europe with. With a rake and then start collecting people and bring them over? Are they pros? Did they have to apply for college eligibility? I mean, I don't know any of these people, but they function so well together.

[Jay Bilas]

Yes.

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

So all those things you mentioned are true.

[Jay Bilas]

Not the rake part, but.

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

But all these guys play in international competitions like the FIBA Under 18 Championships. So they're all scouted by both the NBA and college coaches. But I think in order to be successful recruiting internationally, it takes a ton of time and a ton of money, too. You've got to spend lot of time over there. And the United States and the college system has become really important to international players. Now, that wasn't true years ago when there was amateurism, because why would you come over here when you could make money playing in internationally? Now you can make a lot of money playing in college and get an education and prepare yourself for the NBA or even playing professionally overseas. So it's become way more attractive. And I think more colleges are looking there. And, you know, look, I think this all stems Back to the 92 Olympics, Tony, when. When we had the dream team. International basketball exploded after that. And I think a lot of what we look at, like, I think it's the last five, maybe six MVPs in the NBA have all been international, internationally born, at least. And, you know, you hear people saying, well, the international players do this better, all that. I don't know that any of that's true. What I do know is it's really arrogant of us as Americans to think that we're the only ones that can play this game, because we're not. There are more players around the world that can really play, and we're seeing that now here, that they're coming over here. Same thing in baseball. What did we think? That. That because Abner Doubleday invented the game, we were going to be. We were going to be the only ones. Shohei Ohtani is probably the best player to ever play. And. And he didn't grow up in Shawnee, Mission, Kansas.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, you're right. You're right about all. Yeah. And the arrogance is the right word on that. I wanted to. I'll get you out of here on this. I know that. That you were pals for a long time with Hubert Davis. We all understand what happened at North Carolina. Where did they go? I mean, North Carolina is one of the pillars of college basketball. What. What do they do now?

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

Well, they're going to take a swing at the fence on this one, and I think it's going to be the first time that they're going to look outside the Carolina family, which has always been an issue for me, is like, you know, I think any job opens, you get the right person, and if the right person is in your family, great. And both Duke and North Carolina have been extremely fortunate. You know, Roy Williams was in the family, John Shire was in the family. But I think right now, you know, if they could get Billy Donovan, I think that would be a home run. Outside of that, I don't know. There are a bunch of good candidates and a bunch of people who want it, but, you know, it's tough when you fire somebody and then you don't have somebody lined up and. And so I don't know how long this is going to take, but my sense is that Billy Donovan wanted it, and maybe he does. I don't know. But if he. If he wants it, there's no reason why he has to play out the season in the NBA. You know, they're not going to cry if he leaves. So if he really wants it, you know, you would think they could get this done pretty quickly.

[Tony Kornheiser]

If he wants it and they want him. Absolutely. I mean, and by the way, I would just add parenthetically that when Hubert Davis was named, he was. That was a good choice. I mean, that made all the sense in the world, it seemed to me. Somebody who had been on the bench and had been a player there and had conducted himself, you know, in a great manner and. And immediately went to the final game. Right. So, I mean.

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

Yeah, but it made sense when they fired him. Not to fire him, but.

[Jay Bilas]

But to me, you know, I think

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

they pulled the plug early, but that's their business, not mine. That's their choice. But, you know, you're dealing with a situation where there's Duke, North Carolina, Alabama football, where if. If you don't win to your fan base's expectation, and their expectation at times is Unreasonably high. You're vulnerable. And once the money people start complaining like Hubert Davis fought a number of different battles in the last year. He's got a new ad coming in. So the old ad is, is hanging on for one more year. And, and what often happens in those situations is the old ad takes the heat for firing somebo, the new ad gets some Runway and that's part of this too now. And, and then they get the fans to keep their mouth shut for a period of time because there's always a honeymoon for a new coach. So all those factors were part of this.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Thank you. Thank you, Jay. I hope we're on PTI together at some point this week. Thanks very much.

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

Thank you, Tony. Appreciate it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

But Jay Billis is wonderful, absolutely wonderful. We will take a break. We will have email and jingle when we return. I am Tony Cornell.

[Show Announcer/Commercial Voice]

You're listening to the Tony Kornheiser show.

[Tony Kornheiser]

James Bug with that guitar solo there. Very, very lovely. Michael, you, it's your turn to do the Bethesda bagel.

[Michael Wilbon]

And yes, Bethesda bagel, we love them. And you will as well go online, check out location near you. We got bagel sandwiches this morning. Breakfast sandwiches. I waited in line for these. They are hot and ready.

[Tony Kornheiser]

That's good. And Nigel doesn't get one.

[Michael Wilbon]

No. Well, we could hold it in the fridge for it.

[Tony Kornheiser]

We could do that before we get to the mailbag. Let me just say she said there is no reason and the truth is plain to see But I wandered through my playing cards would not let her be one of 16 vestal virgins were leaving for the coast and although my eyes were open they might just as well be closed. That's Proko Haram. That's one of the great Chaucer tunes of all time. There aren't that many Chaucer tunes of all time. Thanks to our guests today, Michael Wilbon and Jay Bilis. Thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple podcast podcast Spotify in order to see if you listen to Apple. Leave us a review from Steve the sycophant Dr. Grandpa Satchmo goat, my legion idol. It was about to happen, dear Satchel Duke. Had to do was get the ball past half court and I'd have my first perfect Final Four bracket. So I guess three out of four isn't bad. At least it's not five and 11 from Sam Fritz in Schaumburg, Illinois. How many exclamation points followed the Steve Sands I love sports league text after The Duke Yukon game? Yeah, I mean, he didn't have to have any. Just I love sports. We know what Sands is thinking.

[Michael Wilbon]

Wasn't on it myself, but you know, probably out of respect for the house.

[Tony Kornheiser]

From Jim Dugan in Eastern Maryland via Baltimore. Thank you, Captain Tony and crew for an enjoyable podcast. When you next talk to Steve Sands, please ask, wasn't that Yukon shot against Duke one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen? P.S. i hate Duke too. I don't hate Duke. I root for Duke. Charles A. Jenkins. I don't know what this is. It's a picture.

[Michael Wilbon]

Oh, it might be connected to another. To another one of the emails.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay, well, I've lost it. We'll get it at some other point from Chuck Murphy in Columbia, Missouri. As someone who is trying to become a potato farmer, you may appreciate this tidbit of information. The woman to whom I'm related by marriage is currently sitting in fourth place in the TK bracket challenge. Her entry is Paige's mom. She picked UConn to win it all because UConn potatoes are her favorite.

[Michael Wilbon]

That's good.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No need for hocus pocus junk data analytics when you have that going for you. I'm in 459th and using Wilbond math, just a couple of spots behind her. Michael, she has her eye on that extra toaster you have laying around. Hate Duke. Can't stand Duke. Eat it, Duke. Chris Joyner. We loyal Littles constantly are in search of the magical connective tissue that brings us a little closer to Uncle Benny's table in Atlanta. We got that Saturday evening as Braves legend Dominic Smith. Yeah, grand slam. Old number eight strode to the plate with a legendary steely eyed determination. Bottom of the ninth, full count, bases loaded. In a tie game, Dom shattered the cool night air, sending the ball into the right field seats for a walk off grand slam to win the game. When the cheering finally died down, I, and I'm sure all Littles across Braves country paused and thought of you surely asleep and dreaming in the days of Scherzer, Rendon and the Oregon working. Good times, old chum. Good times. Next time you're down this way, the first plate of Magic City lemon pepper wet wings are on me. That's funny.

[Michael Wilbon]

Check out the subject line on that previous email. I think it'll make more sense.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Domination. Oh, the other one.

[Dwight Michaels (musician)]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yukon potatoes.

[Jay Bilas]

And going back.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Was the picture a message from Sansi? Oh, it's a. Oh, it's a hate Duke situation. I hate Duke situation. Another one. Spencer and Southie Boston, but never revere. If someone asked you who leads the Atlanta Braves in RBI slugging and home runs through the first two games of the season, what would be your answer? Obviously, their MVP, Ronald Acuna Jr. Right. Or maybe their perennial All Stars, Austin Riley or Matt Olson. If not them, surely one of the recent Rookie of the Year winners, Michael Harris II or Drake Baldwin. No title belongs to the player who won the game on Saturday night by working the count full, then annihilating the payoff pitch for a grand slam. None other than your beloved Dom Smith. I'll leave commentary on whether we think he'll hit another home run this year to professional sports radio hosts like yourself, but for one night, Dom Smith is an Atlanta Braves hero and I'm glad for him. You know I'm glad for him, but he was not that here Ethan Newman in Denver, Colorado last year you made the cut off for bracket winners at 15, just a couple of spots ahead of where I finished. To avoid a repeat of me missing out on a prize, would you mind pushing the cutoff for prize prizes this year to 1876?

[Michael Wilbon]

See what we can do? Yeah, we're low on prizes this year. We might actually have to give real prizes.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Well, shirts and stuff. Stuff we've worn.

[Michael Wilbon]

Keyboard. I'm thinking like gift cards.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't know about that. From Tim Ratterstorf Ratterstorf With Masters week almost here, my dad and I will be at Augusta next Monday for the practice round. Somehow, after getting rained out last year, we get to do it all over again. At this point we are starting to believe we might be two of the luckiest people on the planet. If any littles are on the grounds, we will be at the far end of the 16th tee box grandstand at 4pm if you see a son sharing a beer with his old man, both wearing green, that's us. Come say hello. First round is on me. I wrote you last year about our Masters trip, but it did not make the cut, largely because likely because Mark Muldoon delivered a better email. I'm trying again, mostly in the hope that this takes uptime otherwise reserved for wizards talk. My dad, uncle and brother in law made our first trip to Augusta after hitting the 0.55% lottery. We drove down listening to the pod.

[Michael Wilbon]

Always enter the lottery.

[Tony Kornheiser]

What?

[Michael Wilbon]

Always enter the lottery.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah, we drove down listening to the pod and squeezing in a few questionable rounds of golf along the way. Sunday night we crushed T bones and planned to be at the gates early. What we missed was an email saying the course would open late due to weather. We figured that out when signs on I20 said gates closed. Naturally, we assumed Augusta had made a mistake. When we arrived, it felt like the Griswold family pulling up to Wally World. Empty streets, empty parking lot. I checked my phone calls, empty chairs and empty tables. We turned out around for breakfast and immediately had the Scotty Scheffler experience. No, not Scotty. A police officer jumped out, waved us down like we were trying to steal the Hogan Bridge. We don't do U turns in Georgia, sir. Fair enough. At a dinner full of equally despondent diner full of equally despondent patrons, tables started quietly leaving one by one, dropping 20s and heading out the door. So we followed suit, left our forks upon the table boy, hoping this time we would not get in trouble with the law. It's a James Carville reference to the song Good News. The gates were open. We were suddenly among the first cars pulling into the lot. We walked the back nine, grabbed beers at Amen Corner, watch balls skip across 16. And then the weather horn blew. A short day, A perfect day. On the drive to Charlotte, my dad's phone dinged. Augusta refunded our tickets and invited us back for this. Unbelievable. So now we go again. Another walk at Augusta with my dad. That is something I do not take lightly. Thanks to you and Michael for always reminding us what that relationship means. And thanks to Augusta national for giving us a story we get to keep adding to. We will see you next Monday and this time we are starting with a peach ice cream sandwich. Many thanks. You know, this is lovely from Tim Ratterstorff. Just lovely. Please tell our host Tim Googarty and Kevin Walsh to eat it, which I have done from Greg Collins in Luca, Illinois. Dom Smith. How many of these do we have?

[Jay Bilas]

A lot.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Dom Smith with a walk off grand Islam in a second game with the Braves starting to feel like the one who got away. David Hall Hartford, Alabama earlier this week I sent a sarcastic email lauding the Braves signing of Dom Smith. Game two of the season. Mr. Smith hits a walk off grand slam against 2025 saves leader. Perhaps I judged him too harshly. In my defense, your previous criticism probably predisposed me to think poorly of Dom. Do you know why? Because he was terrible here. He was terrible here. Of course, the carriage could still turn back into a pumpkin sooner rather than later. Richard Schaefer Max in Ohio. I'm catching up on a few episodes, but his autographs. You were clueless about the new game way back in 1984. I was attending a Cincinnati Reds game that launched and included a post game special event for people selling Snapper Power equipment with my dad, who at the time was one of the regional salespeople of the year for Snapper. I remember the event having some sort of buffet for the guests right outside the players locker rooms. The players were cycling out of the locker room greeting fans, grabbing a bite, co mingling with us nobodies and signing a few autographs. I was thrilled since I played catcher and at the time Johnny Bench was my favorite player. After getting a few players that happened to be there, I approached JB and to my dismay he refused to sign and scurried away. As I stood there next to my dad in complete disappointment, I felt a tap on my shoulder and an older gentleman said he would sign my hat. I handed it over not knowing who this towering man was, but as he left I turned to my dad to ask who it was. My father just standing there completely gobsmacked. He asked me if I knew who that was and of course I didn't. He gleefully told me that we had just met Ted Klosewski and my only response, like a dope, was who? One of the great power hitters in the history of the Cincinnati franchise. Mark Elliott in Prospect, Kentucky. I know that commercial you mentioned on Friday. A few things happen here. Every time it goes on it's that, you know, Papa John's one. I start. I dive across the couch for the remote, desperately trying to remember where the mute button is. I start to question why and how we've plummeted as a society all within my lifetime, it seems. I realize that my might not be the target audience for this program. I quickly surmise I don't want to be the target audience for this program and I make a note to myself not to go to Pop John's hope. Jesse's feeling better. Not yet. We don't have a dog currently, but I remember those 2am walks in the rain. Yeah, not yet, not yet. And from Ed Butterfly. But you are so right. Having opening day up north outdoors is absolutely nuts. Coldest I've ever been in my entire life was opening day at Wrigley in 1985 and having gone to college in northern Wisconsin, that is saying something. In the early 80s had a client from whom I really wanted to get more business. My contact was there was a huge Cubs fan. So in 1984 when the Cubs made it to the postseason for the first time in my lifetime, I've scalped some tickets and took her to the first game, it featured a leadoff home run by Bobby Denier and ended as a 13 nothing blowout. Great fun. However, after the Cubs went to San Diego leading the series two nothing but then proceeded to lose the next three. We commiserated all winter because for baseball fans on the north side of Chicago, the April mantra is always this is going to be the year. I took her to opening day in 85. I was Natalie, dressed in a turtleneck and a Harris tweed sports jacket. Not a good idea when the brick and concrete of the Friendly Confines had been chilling overnight in sub freezing weather and the wind was blowing in off the only recently thawed Lake Michigan. It was so cold that night after Harry Carey sang Take Me out to the Ballgame for the seventh inning stretch, we watched the rest of the game from Murphy's bleachers across from center field with Irish coffee, not beer ed butt. P.S. after that 13 nothing playoff romp, we were walking down the crowded ramp from the upper deck. Stuck alongside us in the crawling mass of humanity was Don Drysdale and a few of his broadcast team. I said to him, well, it's games like this where you earn your money. He smiled and said, you got that right, son. If you're out on your bike tonight, everybody, as always, do wear white.

[Jay Bilas]

You want to talk real customers, kid, that's me. I'm like the mayor of Duncan I go from Marblehead to revere.

[Dwight Michaels (musician)]

My daddy. He dug ditches he dug them straight and true he dragged my ass to work with him. Now I dig ditches too. I learned the value of a dollar, how to get to work on time and the pride that came from earning what was mine. That was never my intention was not what I got planned See, I would be the leader of a big rock and roll band I tour the world and in my spare time I'd drive sports cars in the Bulls Sang the songs that made the young girls swoon that became a source of tension between my dad and me he did not share my vision of what work was meant to be but he was patient with his firstborn Let me make all my mistakes Bailed me out of a couple of nasty scrapes My repaid his simple kindness by putting him through hell I chose to chase a life of sin and that didn't go so well to appreciate create the wisdom of the things he'd said and done we take a few more trips around the sun. Through the hard times and the good times My dad was always there he loved us and he made the time to show how much he Cared he was the blue that held us tightly the rock on which we lean the finest family man I've ever seen it was an honor just to know him there's much more I could say Just know I'm gonna miss him each and every day But I'm grateful that the Lord sought me to keep Give him a good long run and that we got to share those trips around the sun could not have chose a better man to show me how to be a man I'll never be his equal but I'll do the best I can I think about him every time I've tried Every time I've won As I take another trip around the sun

[Jay Bilas (continued)]

yeah

[Dwight Michaels (musician)]

hold his memory here with me until my race is run

[Jay Bilas]

and hope for

[Dwight Michaels (musician)]

a few more trips around the sun. Sam. You just might be the prettiest woman that I've ever seen. Angeline. You were on my mind, girl Morning and evening and all the hours in between I get a thrill just from hearing your name oh, how I wish that you felt the same say you think about me say you want me Angeline oh, Angeline There's a fire that consumes me inside do you know what I mean? Angeline girl Trying to try just to get right beside you here's the thing that bothers me Tell me how come when you're out with me there's always somewhere or other that you'd rather be? What's it take to win your love? Tell me Angeline I'll do anything that you ask me Surrender my life and my will you try to dissuade me? But, baby, I love you still Sam. Angeline Beautiful face of an angel I see in my dreams Angeline yeah, it's true there may be lots of fish in the sea but you're the only girl for me Because I know how happy we be when you come to and finally see how good we'll be together Pretty little Angeline until then I will pray for the day when my waiting is over and I hear you say you're glad that we're together Pretty little Angeline so glad that we're together Pretty little Angeline so glad that we're together A pretty little angel. Sat.