Transcript of CBB With John Fanta, Steve Smith Sr Dominated The Weekend, Picking A New Pope, Who's Back Of The Week + Monday Reading

Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Ariott started out 30 years ago by revolutionizing cowboy boots, making them as comfortable and easy to wear as athletic shoes. Now, we apply that same innovation and performance know-how to industry-leading work boots and workwear. We develop and test both in the lab, then out in the real world, on real real job sites with real workers. Bottom line, these are seriously comfortable work boots and workwear that do the job so you can do yours. On today's part in my take, we have our good friend, the face of college basketball, Jonny Fanta. It's about to be March, so we catch up with John Fanta, talk some teams that could make a deep run. What's going on with St. John's, Duke, SEC, just being a Powerhouse. Great time with John Fanta, and stick around for a bonus dunk at the end on his little mini hoop in his office. We're going to talk whatever happened this weekend, mostly Steve Smith. We have who's back in the Week, and we have a Monday reading for the people, and it's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings.

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Even guys that don't like football, They try to avoid me because I'm always trying to get them to like football. Football.

Welcome to part of my take, presented by DraftKings. Take it to the rack with DraftKings Sportsbook. Every point counts. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code take. That's code take for new customers, get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks. Only on DraftKings, the Crown is yours. Today is Monday, February 24th. Just when you think we don't have any sports to talk about Steve Smith fucks some guy's wife. Yeah. So viewer discretion-Not just fucks.

He rearranges her IUD. Yeah.

So viewer discretion advise, if you're taking your kids to school right now, The biggest story from the weekend was-They might be Steve Smith kids. They might be Steve Smith kids. The biggest story of the weekend was Steve Smith senior, recurring guest, friend of the program. Would love to actually have him on to talk about it. If he ever gets to a point where he can, I'm guessing right now.

We may be having some harder conversations with family.

Might be a little bit busy right now. But yeah, the weekend, just when you think like, Hey, there's not a lot going on. You had great college basketball slate, a little hangover from the NHL All-Star game. We have a guy who in his at was Lamboni, so Lambofield and Lamborghini, I think, decided to take to Twitter on Saturday morning and tagged, A-B-E-S-P-N-T-M-Z, the Panthers, Steve Smith, NFL, NFL Network, Ghost Golf Club, Taylor Made Golf, and Yeti Coolers, and said, My wife works for the Marching Ravens. She met Steve Smith senior at work. Steve Smith has been fucking my wife. I got receipts. I got a lot more, homie. Wow.

Now, what was this guy's In-game.

I went and I followed him right away. I don't know if he's deleted, if he's nuked his account since. I think it was... Yeah, he did. So he did delete everything. I think he was just like, Hey, I'm mad. I'm going to get divorced. I'm going to try to make this miserable for Steve Smith. But yeah, it was quite a decision to essentially wake up on a Saturday morning in February and be like, Hey, world, I got cucked by Steve Smith.

Hears all the proof. Attention World and also Yeti Coolers. Yeah.

He did have a lot of proof. I'm going to read some of the proof. It was quite something. Steve Smith definitely is going to have to get a new cell phone number because he Oh, yeah. This is his Facebook post. It says, Hi, I am Nicole Martinez, though I won't be a Martinez much longer. So he's writing under his wife's Facebook.

Yeah, this is fire.

You see, I've been cheating on my husband, and I've been doing so with the very famous Steve Smith senior. Picks attached for reference. I had him hidden under number three, but that's been fixed. My husband bought me a house. He stood by my side after I had been arrested twice for domestic violence, and this is how I repay him and our son. There's plenty of messages here. Steve, crazy, the revealing messages a celebrity will send. Baltimore Ravens, he tagged him. I am also I am also a member of your team band. I believe I violated some fraternization rules by hooking up with Steve at the training facility. And then tag me ESPN TMZ, Carolina Panthers, Antonio Brown. Now, I do feel bad for the kid. This is sad in that respect. But yeah, this guy decided to take it. Would you like to hear some of the text that Steve Smith sent this guy?

I would very much like to hear some. The pictures are all time, too.

Yeah. So Steve said, See, now you're me. Wow, you look stunning. About to go to work. I'm getting a little Chuck, and then autocorrected Chunky. Then he said, Take me deep down your throat like you like. You wanted to suck me off. She said, I did. I would have gagged on it, but I had to come home. He wrote back, You enjoy it. You like to feel it. She said, I like feeling it deep in my wet pussy. He replied, Me too.

Her wet pussy. Yeah, that's these He might have a pussy? He might have a little oldy situation going on. Front pouch.

Letting you taste it, though, would be a turn on. I would have shot my nut all inside your pussy. This is so brutal. She replied, I love making you come. I enjoy it more when you come beside me. He replied, Noted. Bookmark. Noted there is like, Hey, honey, can you make sure that you remember to get this before you come home?

Yeah, take the trash out tonight.

Not, Hey, Steve Smith, can you make sure that you come inside of me when you come?

Noted. Noted. Emphasized.

Noted. Then let's see, it keeps going on and all. Yeah, he said, It's 20 degrees. He sent a selfie. That's nice. Turn you over and get deep inside of you. She replied, You're so hot. Deep is an understatement. It felt like you were going to rearrange my IUT. You were so deep, L-O-L.

That's a wild thing for For somebody's wife to be posting to another guy. Yeah.

This whole thing is crazy. Oh, whoa. This one I hadn't seen yet. She replied, The connection was something I couldn't just walk away from. The passion is hard to forget. He said, I wasn't alone with it. She said, No, I was right there with you. Stadium full of people, and I only saw you again. He said, You had me wanting to explode Friday, but holding you was quite all right with me. She said, That spark lit fireworks. You were a gentleman, and that was part of the reason I came back. I wanted to give you a proper goodbye. She was part of the Ravens band, and there's People then found clips of Steve Smith directing the Ravens band.

Now, what instrument did she play?

That's a huge question.

It's a big question I would like to know the answer to.

It's got to be... Really, flute is really the only I think that is... Flute would be solid. Drum?

No, it can't be a tuba. Saxophone will be solid. Saxophone is sexy.

Saxophone is sexy, but yeah, if it's a tuba, if it's a drum, you got a problem.

It should beat the dick like a drum of chips.

Yeah, here's Steve Smith. I mean, Steve Smith has to be like, Fuck, this could have happened like Master's Weekend or-Yeah, this is the right-Conference Championship.

The husband understands the sports calendar when he releases, for sure.

He waited on this for the perfect timing. Yeah.

What does this tell us about Lamar Jackson as a leader? The fact that this type of fraternization is going on between the marching band and former athletes from the team? I like that that was his main point that he made at the end of the Facebook post. I'm pretty sure that my wife getting her IUD flipped inside out by Steve Smith is technically a violation of the band's fraternization policy. Yes. You're going to want to look into this, Ravens. Something you might want to be aware of, Baltimore. It's also like the Ravens aren't...

When you think of Steve Smith, no one's thinking Ravens. No, you think Panthers first. You do the little Ravens. There also was a clip that the guy posted of him calling Steve Smith and being like, Hey, you fucked my wife. And Steve Smith just said, I'm sorry. And then stayed on the phone call for about a minute and a half. Storing up guy. Not saying anything. Yeah. It was-Facing the music. Yeah. You want to play it? Play it. It's very crazy.

This is our Saturday. I don't think we're going to get those hats, Big Cat. No, we already got them. Oh, we did?

Yeah, we got them. He sent it to us right after the Super Bowl. Okay. They're up in my office. Okay, here's the call. Yeah, you've been fucking my wife, bro.

What you got to say for yourself?

I'm sorry. Good guy.

That was pretty nice.

He doesn't run from it.

I'm sorry.

I said I was sorry. What else do you want?

I do think he should probably be more mad at his wife.

I mean, he is very He is very mad at his wife. Yeah, I guess he is very mad at his wife. The posting on her Facebook account.

But yeah, what a story.

Yeah, it's pretty wild. It took me about, I'd say 30 minutes to get fully caught up on this story when I woke up this morning going back because I was trying to figure out why Yeti Coolers was trending.

Yeti Coolers, by the way, has been silent on the story.

It speaks volumes.

I would really like... I think Shady Rays, our good friends of Shady Rays might have been tagged as well. This is one of those situations where Yetty Coolers, you got to act fast.

You got to stand up.

You You got to release an anti-cuck cooler. Put it on sale, it would go nuts online.

Yeah, no cheating allowed with this cooler. Or, yeah, this cooler is perfectly engineered to keep sperm at perfectly frozen levels. Now, TaylorMade Golf, that's one company that we could probably lean on a little bit. And Shady Rays. Taylormade, to my knowledge, hasn't said anything. No.

We need some statements. Why was he doing that? I have no idea, but it is- Maybe they sponsor some of his pods or something?

I don't know. Maybe.

Maybe they're just like, We know Steve Smith likes to golf.

Well, yeah. When I saw Shady Rays, I thought this might be pod-related.

Yeah, but not a great weekend for Steve Smith, I would say.

What you got, Hank?

What do you think?

No, I'm trying to find the TaylorMade connection.

What do we think he's doing right now?

Steve Smith? Yeah. Well, I don't know what his family situation's like. I don't know. Is he married?

He is married.

A lot of kids. He probably got the call. Not good. He probably got the call a couple of days ago and then was just waiting like, This is going to come out. Then he probably tried to take his wife on a vacation somewhere where they're off the grid.

I don't even know if he got the call. This guy felt like he went zero. I think he might have found out late Friday night. He didn't have time?

He just went nuts. Because if you're Steve Smith and you get that call, you have to be like, Honey, we're going to go to Alaska. You've always wanted to go check out Denali National Park. Let's go hiking. Let's do the whole thing.

Honey, I was reading up about Aaron Rodgers staying in a gnome's closet in Oregon where they just sit in silence for three days. I think we should really do that. Yeah. Got us something special. Let's just get off the grid.

Let's go to South America for a while. Just hang out in the rainforest. You don't need that phone. We're on our phones too much, I've realized, as a family. Too much screen time.

I can't get over the fact this guy just decided, Hey, today's the day I'm just going to let everyone know that I got cucked by Steve Smith. Again, he has every right to be upset, fucked up, just get divorced before you cheat, especially with kids involved and all that stuff. But you don't have to also go online and let everyone know. Then I think he might have some regret because he did nuke his whole account and was like, Whoops.

He probably should have done that. I'm the world's most famous cuck right now. That's a title you never want to hold.

I will say, though, credit to him, releasing the text, the text were... You can't come back for the text. That might be worse than the Ray Allen tweet.

I think it's a little bit different because one was the tweet accidentally. The other was- But that was meant to be a text. Yeah, the other was just two consenting adults firing at each other, hot and heavy.

Letting you taste it, though, would be a turn on. I would have shot my nut all inside your pussy.

What is he saying?

Take me deep in your throat like you like.

Did he say letting you taste it? Yeah. Talking his nut.

Yeah, and that's when she said, I enjoy it more when you come inside me, and he said, Noted. I also think- That's the one I'm going to take away from this whole thing. Steve Smith replying, Noted. To a married woman being like, I would like for you to come inside me.

That would be a good Mount Rushmore to save up for the sometime. Mount Rushmore of professional athletes that you would not want to find out that your wife is cheating on you with. He's definitely because he's a dog. He's a dog. You see how he plays, he gets inside the pads.

He plays through the whistle. Yes. He's not going to take any... He's not going to cut any corners.

No. He fucks through the tea and nut.

He's going to find the corners. Yeah. He's going to get inside the corners. Yeah, targeting. All the way inside them.

That's got to be a penalty, removing an IUD with your dick. That's also one of those problems that I'm just blessed to never have to worry about in my life.

Yeah, but it was what? To bus up an IUD?

Yeah, to accidentally remove an IUD with your penis. I'm not even close. That's one thing I will never be accused of.

Not same zip code. That thingYeah. That's like we've never... There's a certain level that we've been able to drill into the Earth's core. We're never going to be able to get to the middle of the Earth. You just can't. That's me and IUDs.

I'd have better luck catching a lanternfish with my dick than I would finding an IUD with it.

If there's oil at the surface, I can find it.

Yeah.

Anything deeper than that, not for me.

Who else would be on that Mount Rushmore? Athletes, Shaq, probably. Shannon Sharp.

Stefan Diggs. Shannon Sharp after hearing him, fuck.

Yeah, Stalian. Richie Incognito? Incognito, probably, yeah.

Yeah, that would be a good Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore of guys you don't want to wake up one day and be a cuck to.

Oj Sam's. O. J. Simpson. O. J. Simpson is a good one. O. J. Simpson. O. J. Simpson.

nick Foles. O. J. Simpson, yeah. Nick Foles is a... Yeah, that's an underrated one. But yeah, that was the biggest story of the weekend. Yeah, that was- Steve Smith dominated the weekend. The woman also, Obviously, her pictures were put out there, and there's a lot of people who are having a field day. Yes. Making a lot of comparisons. Someone might have said Steve Smith really cheated, blew it all up for sex with Jeff Van Gundee. Someone might have said that.

That's a little unfair. The glasses. Jeff Van Gunde. I think it's more about the glasses. Yeah. Because he's a bald man. That is a bald, bald man.

Oh, And yeah, Steve Smith cheated on his wife for Jeff Van Gundy. Lock him up and throw away the key, bro.

I think just using Jeff Van Gundy's name in a post is a cheat code because whenever you see it written, you think about Mark Jackson saying it.

Yeah, Jeff Van Gunde. That's true. You say it in that word. Yeah. Okay. I had a few people tweeting, being like, You guys better address the Steve Smith thing. We will. In the back of my head, I was like, Dude, it's leading the show. There's nothing else going on.

Consider it addressed.

We could- Noted. Yeah, noted. Should I lead the show with this story that is captivating and just I couldn't get enough of it? Or should we maybe guess where Matt Stafford might get traded?

Giants, probably.

Giants, sure. I don't understand that, by the way, to segue. The Rams played the Eagles the best out of any team in the playoff. I know Matt, Matthew Shriver is old, and they're in a transition, but I went away from the playoffs being like, The Rams were right there. If a couple of things break differently, they could have feasibly won the Super Bowl.

I think it's also Matt Stafford not wanting to commit right after the season was over and being like, I got to think it over. So you know he's thinking about retiring, so you might as well get something for him at the end of his career.

It also might be that the Rams are like, Hey, we can get Sam Darnold younger, cheaper.

A younger version of Matt Matt Staffard.

Matt Staffard is significantly better than Sam Darnold. But still, that would be he stays in the Sean McVay coaching tree. You could probably talk Sam Darnold into... He's a SoCal guy. You could talk Sam Darnold into taking maybe a little bit less because you're like, This is the situation where, hey, last year was pretty awesome. You want to keep doing that? Or you want to go be the Titans starting quarterback and be back to square one in three years?

I think that's the one because he's like a dog that's gone through four or five different homes. He wants a familiar place. He values going to a good coaching situation over anything else because he knows how bad it can be if it's not. I think he probably would take a little bit less money to play for Los Angeles and another team if it came down to that. But it also makes perfect sense for the Giants because right now it's like Dable has to win. You got to win now. He has to win something.

You knocked yourself out of the top three pick. No, What are they, three?

They're three.

They might have knocked themselves. I think they still will be able to get Kam Ward or Shador Sanders.

I would go with Kam Ward.

I would, too. Big time. I'm not a Shador Sanders believer.

Love his dad, but I'll just say it.

I'm also not really a Kam Ward guy either.

I like Kam Ward. Tell us, show. I like Kam Ward, which is why I would be very happy with the Giants getting Stafford, short-term rental, maybe not getting Kam Ward. Yeah.

Matthew Stafford is still a very good quarterback. It's just a question of how long will he quarterback for?

We'll have to have Jerry O'Khanel listen to his wife's podcast. Tell us what's going on for that situation.

This is Combine week, technically. We're going to be down in India on Tuesday and Wednesday doing interviews. We will get Schefter on. We'll get Racine on. Friday show, we're going to get all the It was from the combine to get us all the information. Another football-related topic. Hank, did you see your coach's girlfriend and how she wears her Yeah, it's fashion.

Yeah, that's fashion?

That's what we're talking about?

I just was asking your question. It's fashion for somebody in elementary school.

Who are you guys to say I'm talking about fashion? I was just asking your question.

Don't That's offensive.

Bill Belichick was at the UNC game, and his girlfriend was wearing her jacket like she was 15.

I thought it It looked good. I thought it was a good outfit.

There we go. That's enough said. We don't have it. Doesn't need to be anything else? I just wanted to ask if you had seen it.

Well, I mean, to her defense, basketball games, it's very tough to dress for a basketball game because it's always super hot when you're next to the Sport. It's cold outside right now in Chapel Hill. She's going half on, half off. It's a utilitarian. It's actually the same way that... I mean, Bill Belichick is the king of inventing new ways to wear his jackets, cutting the sleeves two-thirds of the way off.

It was It's a funny visual. You have to admit that.

It does look like that's his daughter.

It's a funny visual.

I thought it looked good.

I thought it was perfectly normal. Okay. By the way, PFT, Ovi, hat trick.

Huge. Ovi is back. Any time that there's a short little break for some of these Russian players, they somehow come back playing really, really well afterwards. I think this was supposed to be the game that he was going to break the record at. That was my initial prediction before he got the injury. Now, I think he's going to do it this year. I think he's going to do it against the Penguins at the end of the season.

I would agree.

The pace that he's on is absolutely incredible. It's so cool, too, to watch him after he scores a goal. He skates right over to his son, who's in the first row. That's awesome. And pounds the glass for him. Yeah, Ovie is really fucking good. And the Is it the Caps are-Is it the Caps here? Yes, it is. It is the Caps year. I'm all in on the Caps. There we go. They're legitimately a good team. They've got a bunch of great players. Somehow, it felt like they were just going to reengineer their whole roster to ensure that Ovie breaks the record, and that was going to be the reason to attention to the Caps for the next two seasons. But somehow in that rebuild, they also were able to get good again. Caps year? Yeah, I think it is the Caps year. I believe they have the best record in hockey. It's them or the Jets. But I think the Caps are number one. I got them at, I think it was 20 to 1 or 25. I think it was 20 to 1 when I bet on them earlier this season. Watch out for the caps.

Everyone's on notice. Everyone's officially on notice.

The league should be on notice.

They have 84 points. We have Shane, by the way. Max is still on vacation. Yeah, they have the most points in the league.

I was thinking about, you tell me if this is a good idea or not, trying to time it to go to the game that Ovie breaks the record at. But I only get one game I can do it. You should. I only get one game to pick. Why not? I think I can do it.

Why not? So what?

In the next 15 games, you think? I don't know if the next... I mean... 20?

He's what?

Thirteen away, you said? The pace that he's on has been incredible. So it could happen in the next 15 games. But I'd say more likely, I think it's the game against the Penguins towards the end of the regular season. Let me see when that is. That's the one. I think if you're looking at League-wide narrative, having him break it right in Sydney Crosby's face would be incredible.

April 17th. Are they going to play him, though, when he's like... Yes. But depending on play-offs, get him rest.

No, he's playing. They're going to play him.

April 17th. What day of the week is that?

You got to go. That's the last game of the regular season?

In Pittsburgh? Yeah. That would be awesome.

It's a Thursday.

Shane's doing a great job, by the way. Yeah, you're crushing it. You're crushing it. Yeah, Max is out for another day. He took his vacation a week after we took our vacation. And yes, we do miss Aldi. I'm happy Shane's here.

Aldi hung out for pretty much the whole day on Friday, just chilling in the office. That man is incredible. I miss him so much already.

He was texting me this weekend, just texting me like it was just a picture of him. Here, I'll show you. It was just a picture of him on the ice taking a slap shot. That was it. It was like an update. No context. We're back, boys. Just him on the ice. That's good for him.

Bumping and grinding. Bumping and grinding out there with the boys.

Yes, so Ovi. Incredible day. Can we find out what day of the week it is, Shane? Thursday.

Thursday. Thursday, April 17th. That might be a field trip. Get it done. I might have to bring home the record.

Get it done.

But yeah, great weekend. They scored eight against the Penguins on Saturday, seven against the Oilers, 15 goals in 24 hours, basically.

Hockey's back.

Hockey's so bad. Hockey's so bad. I wish Max was back, too, just because I wanted to talk to him about Embiid. Yeah. And what's going on with that. That was the most depressing series of press conferences that I've heard in a long time when they're explaining, obviously, he doesn't feel good.

They got to just shut them down.

Yeah. Well, the Sixers are exploring options for the knee injury.

Okay, so here's a crazy stat about the Sixers. Mba, Twitter, Twitter guy, good reporter, Stefano, tweeted this, The Bulls have held on to the 10 seed for every single day since January first. They've gone seven and 16 in that stretch. The Sixers have gone seven and 18 during that same stretch and dropped from 11 to 12. The Bulls were actively trying to get worse, and they still can't get rid of the 10 seed because the Sixers were that bad. Another fun stat I saw over the weekend was the games with at least 20 points this year, Paul George has nine.

Payton Pritchard has 17. That is a fun stat.

Now, this is just hindsight, guys. No one could have ever expected the Paul George to Philadelphia thing not working.

Well, the funniest part about that is-We all said it wouldn't. Paul George is now the one that's his little bro in Joel Embiid. Being like, When I was going through this, the multiple times I've gone through this, Joel, I found that just playing makes me feel better. That's the only way to get better is to just play your way through it. Joel and B, just like, No, man, I'm not going to do that. I just don't feel like playing. I'm not going to do that.

He should just get mono. He has it, basically. Here, I'll call Max. Let's just see if we can... He's still on vacation, so he's probably at a John Summit concert right now. Do you think he misses us?

No.

Good, because Oldie was... Although Hank and I were laughing, people being like, Uh No, Max. Hey, statement on the Sixers. They stink. Joel Embiid, they should shut them down for life, and they should tank for Cooper Flag. And what about, should they trade Joel Embiid?

No.

Okay. We're on to next year. How do you feel about his contract?

He's worthy of that contract for sure.

He's an MVP. He's one of the best players in the league. Went healthy, just got to get healthy. How is he worthy of the contract, though? How is he worthy of the contract?

He didn't really play. He hasn't played. He's going to play. Hank, hit him with the stat.

I'm done with this.

No, no, listen to the stat. You need the stat. I'm trying to have a nice steakhouse meal right now.

Okay. The last day of my fitness vacation.

Okay, listen to the stat. 20-point games this season. Paul George has nine. Payton Pritchard has 17. Payton Pritchard has 17. 20-point games. Paul George has nine.

Paul George is horrendous. Okay.

So you admit that.

Max, your entire statement on the Sixers should have just been birds.

Also that.

Okay.

All right. What about Yaboo?

I love Yaboo.

He's not going to come back. But he's too good to tank. With a guy like Yaboo, you're not to get Cooper Flag.

Are you feeling a little pressure from Oldie in his performance?

What do you mean? I'm happy that he had a good performance.

Yeah, but he- Good producer.

Good for the show.

Good for the show.

Good for the company. Great.

What do you think about Steve Smith, Max?

What do you think about Steve Smith? Steve Smith is a dog.

Yeah, a dog.

He started the program. We led the show with it, with Steve Smith. Yeah, they have to. Have to. All right. Okay. Enjoy the rest of your fitness vacation. We'll see you tomorrow. All right. Bye. Hank and I were laughing because people were like, Oh, oh, Max is in trouble. Oldie sitting in the producer chair. Oldie doesn't own a computer. Being like, You guys found a Canadian who can also produce a podcast? The last thing I said to Oldie, I was like, Hey, do you have a computer? If we ever want you to zoom in, and And Oldie will see him at some point in the future. We're working through it. He's got a wife and kids back in Canada. But he was just like, Oh, yeah, my wife's got an apple. I was just like, Okay, no chance he knows how to work it or anything.

No. I mean, say what you want about Max. He is capable of pressing a button. Yeah. Oldie, I don't think if we told him press the button, he'd just be like- I don't want him to, though. What's a? A puck? Yeah.

He's a beauty. But yeah, Oldie is going to be part of something going forward, so we do miss him. All right. Other of the things I had written down for stories. Yep, I've got one, too. So Ovie, we fall... Yeah, you go.

Okay, the New York Yankees. Oh, yes. How the Mighty Have Fallen. The New York Yankees are relaxing their grooming standards. After all these years, The Yankees used to stand for something. You know that? You could set your watch to the New York Yankees. Yep. You weren't allowed to have sideburns. They made Johnny Damon cut his hair and trim his beard. And now this, now the statement from Hal Steinbrenner on the alteration of Yankees' facial hair policy, which is very funny that the New York Yankees have a facial hair policy. In recent weeks, I've spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees spanning several errors.

Here, I got you.

To elicit their perspectives. Yeah, there we go. To elicit their perspectives on our long-standing facial hair and grooming policy. I appreciate that their current... You go ahead.

I can't read this. I appreciate their earnest and valid feedback Can you make it a little bit bigger?

Yeah, see, I'm getting fucked over here.

These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialog that dates back... Stop messing with it. That dates back several years. Ultimately, the final decision rests with me and after great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniform personnel to have well-groom beards moving forward. It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.

We used to be a country, a proper country, and then this. Don Mattingly and his sideburns, it'll be a tale lost to the ages. Kids won't understand that anymore. Goose gossage, punch an air. Why now? Good question. Who are they specifically going after?

Do you think maybe Juan Soto was like, I really wanted to grow a beard?

This might have been part of Juan Soto's contract.

What's the free agent class coming up?

Maybe there's something there. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. There's got to be an angle. Can we look that up? 2025 or somebody that might be key in the trade deadline this year.

Yeah, because it does feel weird that it just happened now.

Yeah.

You have to think Derek Jeter signed off on this, right?

Yeah.

Have to.

Vladdy Jr.

He's got a beard, right? No. Schwerber? Schwerber already had so many bombs in that short Porsche. He would.

He would love it.

Yeah. Yeah, I think the Yankees who just lost their luster.

Listen. Bo Bichette, he's got some flow to him.

I know that it's half joking, but the Yankees, they're douchebags, and they need to stay that way. Yes, I This is what makes the sports... I think it's the old George- They're not the Yankees anymore. Yeah, the old George Steinbrenner quote, There are MLB players, and they're Yankees. You want the Yankees to have that type of arrogance compared to everyone else, and part of it is these antiquated, you can't have a mustache that goes beyond your lip. I hate this.

You think if they won the World Series, they wouldn't have done this?

I don't know, but I hate this. The Yankees should stay the Yankees. That's a whole evil Empire thing. That's the whole point.

It's so funny that they just resigned Aaron Boon, right?

Yeah.

Well deserved. Well deserved. Congratulations to Aaron Boon. People were mad at them at that, and they're like, Don't worry about it. We're going to make up for it next week with big announcement. You can have a mustache now. Yeah.

This is stupid. I don't like this. I hope that the Yankees as a team and a clubhouse, silently protest by not having long beards.

What if they all grew beards instead? That would suck. That would suck, wouldn't it? It would be stupid.

The thing would look stupid. George Steinbrenner is spinning in his grave.

They're trying to have a good moment of PR after what were those brothers out in right field last year? Oh, yeah.

That was a flash in the pan. Capo Negro?

We forgot it. The Capo Negro brothers. After that, they're like, We got to do something that will make people happy with us. Okay, you're allowed to have a gotino. Yeah.

By the way, speaking of the Caponegro, Negroes. My other thing that I had was that we might get a new Pope.

Yeah.

So I did a little research on some names.

What, Hank? Just a wild transition.

I was thinking of an Italian name. How about this? I literally looked up the potential popes, and I just based it on names.

Alabama beat the shit out of Kentucky this weekend in college basketball. And in other news of popes beating- There we go.

You like that, Hank? The Pope's on his deathbed. He stopped listening. We're going to talk some college basketball with Johnny Fanta, by the way. Anyway, the Pope Francis, he is on his deathbed. Yeah. Kidney failure. Yeah, kidney failure doesn't sound good. Hopefully, he's okay. I'm going to guess he's probably not going to be because he's pretty old. But anyway, hopefully he's not in pain. Our colleague, KFC, actually, he's a number one Pope rider. He loves the Pope talk. He actually broke down in a great blog about who could be the next Pope based on actual intel. Like stats? Yeah, and what they do normally. By the way, I watched the Conclave. Good movie, weird ending, but good movie. The Pope talk is hot right now because that's actually a movie that's going to be is up for an Oscar. Yeah, he broke it down, and he was like, he had actual stats, like the majority of popes don't get chosen from here and there and whatever. I just looked up names, so I wanted to throw out some names for you. I'm going off straight names, vibes, popable guys, in my opinion, and they probably have no chance, but I wanted to throw some names.

You guys ready? Yeah. Okay. We do have one guy from the US that has a chance. He's from Wisconsin. I think he's the Cardinal in St. Louis. His name's Ray Burke.

He's a St. Louis Cardinal?

No, he's from Wisconsin. I guess technically he would be. I don't know where he is right now, actually. But yeah. All right, so here we go. This is my one-one pick. Cardinal Pierre Batista, Pizza Bala.

Okay. What do you think about that? Yeah, I like the Pizza Pope. Is he a big boy? Is he a big boy?

I don't know. Can we get some eyes on Pizza Bala?

Because here's what I think the Vatican desperately needs. We need a fat Pope. Yeah. A fat Pope would absolutely rock, wouldn't it?

Pierre Batista.

I want that little cap that they wear on their head to be so tiny. Yeah.

Pizza Bala. What a name. Then I also have Cardinal Matteo Maria Zupi. We have a Zupi here. Thought that would be good. Matthew Liberatore. Gordon Garchefo. These are all names that I think could make big-time popes. Lorenzo Baldeceri. That's pretty good.

Yeah, I like a Lorenzo. They don't keep their name, do they?

No, they have to change it. But I'm just going off of just vibes, just off of name vibes.

This Baldecero guy, this Lorenzo Baldecero guy.

John or Francis or something.

This Lorenzo, he looks like a Pope, doesn't he? He's got a little Dick Cheney vibe to him, but he looks like a Pope from Central Castile.

Yeah. Victor DiMuckeji, that would be a good Pope. And then here's the last two I got for you. Are you looking these up? What? What are you laughing at, Shane? Memes wanted me to Google fattest Pope in the world.

No, we need a fat Pope.

Yeah, we do need a fat Pope. All right, here's a couple of heavy hitters for you. Ready?

If we get a Pope that's above 350 pounds, I will become a Catholic.

Hey, it would be awesome. If we just had a fucking hausse of a Pope. It's the fattest. I'm sure there's been a Pope that was so fat. Look at that guy.

See, wouldn't that be awesome if that was a Pope?

Okay, here's the last two that I got for you guys. You ready for this? Francesco Cocopalmero.

Okay. Pretty good.

Yeah. And then another one. The two that I'm leaning towards are Pierre Batista, Pizza Bala, and then Fabio Baggio. Fabio Baggio. Fabio Baggio is ready to have good, right?

Let's go Fabio Baggio, yes.

So it's Pope talk.

I like that. If you had a fat Pope, you could have a mass mass. Yeah, that'd be pretty good. I need a fat Pope. That's my analysis. Fabio Baggio. How do they elect him? They get together in a room? I know you saw the movie.

I saw the movie, so I'm actually an expert on this. They get all the Cardinals under 80 in a room together. They shut everything down. Basically, they can't talk to the outside world, and they all vote until they can get, I think it's two-thirds majority, and then that person is the new Pope.

So they sequester them. They're like a jury. They can't talk to anybody.

Yeah, and it could take weeks.

Okay, and then they like- They do a vote. Then they like to smoke. When the gray smoke comes out, a new Pope has been elected. No, white smoke. White smoke, okay.

gray smoke is when they haven't. So yeah, that's them sitting there.

They should do a different color besides gray and white. Those are too similar.

Yeah, that is a little similar. But yeah, so they sit there. Again, I'm an expert because I saw one movie about it on a plane. They sit there and they politic, and The first time they vote, there will be, I don't know, 20 guys receiving votes, and then they'll slowly get it down to a couple of people, and they'll go against each other, and then we'll get a new Pope.

Do you think that'd be a good job to be Pope? Probably not. I don't think it'd be any fun.

I feel like you get blamed for a lot of shit.

You get blamed for a lot of stuff. You do get to meet Jim Harbaugh once a year. So that's cool. And God, I would assume. You get to meet God eventually. Yeah, but the Harbaughs, they always bring you a set of cleats. Here's the Mayor Jordan It's... Yeah.

You probably do get some cool trinkets.

Yeah. But you never get to fuck.

Yeah.

But I'm guessing most of these guys probably do the celibacy thing.

Yeah. I think the Cardinals all have to.

Wasn't the last Pope the one that was tongue-kissing kids? It was Dalai Lama.

It was Dalai Lama. It was Dalai Lama. But there have been other issues.

The Vatican has never done anything like that.

Yeah, that's my breakdown. I'll send you all the names, memes. You could put them on a graphic for best names I think would make new Pope.

Yeah. Fantasy celibacy Boys.

But Kevin does actually have... He was breaking it down like it was a futures market, and I read the whole blog.

It was great. Can you actually bet on who the next Pope is going to be?

I would like to, if you can.

Yeah. They should make commercials. They should do attack ads on each other.

Yeah, who's I'm just saying there's one guy who everyone thought was going to be the last Pope, and he lost, and it's like, he's just always a bridesmaid. He can't win the big one. It's fucking awesome. That's so funny to me. There's some cardinal sitting out there, and you go and do mass, and then you talk to him after. He's like, Yeah, you think you're going to be able to beat Mahomes this year? Probably not. All right, so what is it? Pietro Peralin is 4-1 odds favorite.

Okay. I want the pizza guy.

Yeah, I want Fabio Baggio or Pizza Bell.

Also, having an American Pope would be awesome. Yeah, it would. That'd be great.

We'd get to flex. We need a little swag after we lost the All-Star Game.

That'd be like the US winning the World Cup in soccer, is if we got the Pope.

We probably would end up winning the World Cup after that. Okay, that was all I had. Let's see who's back. Who's back of the week. Then we'll talk some college basketball with Johnny Fanta. Who's back of the week is brought to you by our friends. It truly, truly unruly is the first high ABV hard seltzer that actually tastes good. Truly Unruly is a hard seltzer that breaks all the rules, drinks light, parties hard with 8% ABV. It hits hard but still tastes amazing. It's the official hard seltzer. A part of my take. Find Truly Unruly at a store near you or visit www. Trulyhardselter. Com. Strawberry Smash is my personal favorite. Oldie was drinking them. That was the first time Oldie had tried it. He great ad. He was ready to go after that. The The weather's getting a little warmer. Golf is coming back. Hank's wearing shorts today.

That's by who's back. Shoot. Damn.

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Who's back in the week is Celtics, Boston Celtics, National Sports podcast. There were some talking heads in the national media this week, this past week, saying that the Knicks were actually going to be a good test for the Celtics. They might be coming for the title.

They played on Sunday, and the Celtics waxed them.

Wait, Talking heads. You were the talking heads. Who were the talking heads?

You were the talking head that were saying there's something wrong with the Celtics.

No, they got off to a rocky 2025, but they've since course-corrected easily.

Okay. They're five now, the last five, haven't They've won each by minimum 13. So back on. Couple of 20 pieces. It's back on.

All the way back on. So who are you calling out? Say it with your chest. A PFT commenter.

Oh. Oh.

I'm a talking head?

That's what you're doing right now.

My head is talking.

Your head is talking. Yeah.

Well, I put a bet in on the Knicks last week to win the Championship, and then I told Hank about it, and we had a little off-air part of my take, embrace debate. And I want to say for the record, I was wrong. I'll admit it. After four days, might as well light that on fire. So the future had four days. It was the shortest future of all time. Yeah. Russell Wilson wants to raise that future. It was a bad bet. The Celtics are much better than the Knicks. Although, come playoff time, Yeah, I'm going to be teaming up with Jerry. We're going to be bing bonging you.

You don't have to play the Celtics.

Yeah. Well, so part of the bet, in theory, was that the Magic might have to play against the Celtics. I think the Magic could beat the Celtics.

Oh, okay.

Sure. Why? Anything could happen. Then you might ask, why then wouldn't you just bet on the magic to beat the Celtics? To that, I said, it's a great point. I don't really have an answer to that. Good point. Yeah.

So you're back? Celtics are back. Okay.

My Who's back of the week is JJ Watt. Jj Watt is back. He is probably going to come out of retirement to play for the bangles because he owns one of those English football teams, Burnley, right? Yep. They're goalkeeper hit him up, slid into the DMs, and was like, Hey, JJ, any chance that you could come back to play for the Cincinnati bangles? Because their goalie is apparently a bangles fan. Then JJ said, If you don't let it in a goal for the rest of the season, then yes, I will do that. I think as It's been seven games. Clean sheets. Clean sheets for seven games. And JJ is now looking at Zillow. He's cruising Zillow in Cincinnati saying it might actually happen. This is awesome. I think there's probably too many games for the rest of the season? No. When does it end? April? Yeah.

I don't know what league they're in, but they are in the Championship League. Okay, so how many games they got left? Shane, use your words when you're doing a podcast.

They've got a lot of games left. It's 13. Thirteen games left.

Thank you. Shane was just going over it with a mouse. Yeah.

You got this, Shane. You got this. That would be an incredible story if JJ J. J. Actually came back to play. He has to. He has to if they do it. I'm rooting for that to happen. I don't know. He would probably get cut what first week of training camp, you think? No. You think JJ could still play right now? Yes. He looks light. He looks skinny.

I think he has to take it seriously. Yeah, he'd have to make a comeback. I think he would be able to do it.

Yeah, it would rock. I hope that it does happen.

Yeah. This is big for Burnley because if he stays this hot, they'd be promoted into the EPL or in the league below. They've been on a tear. Man, what a story. That is an awesome story.

Yeah, I hope this guy keeps it up because I Rock.

Yeah, clean sheets. Okay, my who's back is Jed Hoyer, who is the Cubs President of Baseball Ops. Mixed bag for the free agency, but we just found out. So Pete Crowe-Armstrong, Cubs center fielder, really fast guy, changed his number from... He had been 52, and he changed his number to number 4. The story goes, it happened a week ago or so, Pete Crowe-Armstrong was shooting hoops with Dansby Swanson and Nikki Lopez when Jed Hoyer stopped by Hoyer had seen enough of Pete Crowe-Armstrong's number 52, a lineman's number, he said, it was time for the center fielder to have a fast guy digit on his jersey. He said, If he makes a shot, I've got to change it. I was like, That's fun. Why not? Let's do it. So Jed Hoyer took a shot from about 12 feet away, drained it, and now Pete Kroer-Armstrung is number 4.

I love that.

That's a good GM-ing. That's a good GM-ing because we've talked about this before. There are such things slow guy numbers and fast guy numbers.

Yes, especially in football. I don't really think about in baseball that much, but maybe that's the new money ball. It just make your guys change their numbers.

It matters. He will be significantly faster. He's already very fast, but he'll be significantly faster in number 4.

The uniform is going to weigh less because it doesn't have that extra digit on there. That's true. It's also true. If you were to say winners and losers in baseball this weekend, winner, the Cubs for having a GM that knows what he's doing, loser, the Yankees for turning their back on tradition. That's facts. For spitting in the face of honor.

That's facts. Also, sticking in baseball, I believe that I saw Trevor Bauer released a video that says, Why I Chose the Czech Republic to continue my baseball career. If you want to watch that video. They have baseball there?

Apparently.

Why I chose baseball in the Czech Republic. I wonder why.

They probably have a very liberal policy when it comes to filming YouTube videos during During the season.

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Drones.

Yeah, drones.

Okay, let's get to our interview with JJ Watt. What JJ Watt? He's the picture right in front of us. Our interview with John Fanta. What are you What are you guys doing in the studio right now?

They're getting ready for... Pug is about to nail this number.

We got a Monday reading.

Shane told us to come in here. It's on him. Oh, no.

Oh, no. All I said was Big Cat was doing is who's back.

We got a Monday reading. I miss Max. Max would have never made that mistake.

I miss Oldie. Oldie would have taken a piss and thought we were going to leave. You guys can stay for the Monday reading. If it's cool, I'll stay, as well as Jack Pug. I like that. By the way, you are Jack's boss.

Pug is a weapon on the roulette table. We should have known that, right? Of course. With the lotto ball.

Pug is a walking lucky machine.

Pug is a dynamo when it comes to roulette. Look at him.

He's the cuteest guy we got, and good things happen to him. You need a guy like that around. Or it's like something just crazy happened. He's like, Oh, Pug did it again. He just was Pug.

Thanks, guys.

Okay, let's get to our interview with Johnny Fanta talking College Ball, getting you ready for March, which is right around the corner, and it is brought to you by our friends at Chevy. Chevy has packed more capability in the Silverado Trail Boss so that you can pack more fun into your weekend. Have yourself a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with the truck that says no to nothing. Tailgates, spontaneous camp shopping trips, DIY projects. Bring it on. What about a cross country road trip? Silverado was the perfect ride for last year's Grit Week out West. Recently, they helped us give fullbacks the recognition they deserve with the Lowman Award. Well, the Silverado Trail Boss is built like a fullback. We're talking 495 pounds a foot of torque. Hold on to your soda's max. Plus, the Trail Boss gives you an extra two-inch lift, so maybe Hank can finally dunk. Silverado brings the grit, then pairs it with all the latest truck tech inside and out. The result, a truck that can do it all. Then show up on Monday with a story to tell. So learn more about the Silverado Trail boss at chevy. Com. Chevrolet, together, let's drive.

We're also brought to you by our friends at No Bull. No Bull is a footwear brand for training and for daily life, built to support you in your pursuit of physical, mental, and emotional strength. No Bull is known for their best-in-class award-winning footwear. You can see it right here. I love these shoes. They are super comfortable, super lightweight. Our friend Mike Rupoli created So with options across training and lifestyle, No Bull has options for everyone. No Bowl celebrates a no-bullshit approach to wellness. No Bowl is about being a work in progress and embracing the constant evolution to being better. The job is never done. So we love these shoes. They're very, very comfortable. Are you wearing them right now, PMT?

I was wearing them all week, and I'm not wearing them right now. But yeah, they're great. I was wearing them all day Friday, all day Saturday.

Super, super comfortable. Exclusively part of my take, listeners, No Bowl is offering 30% off your order, visit www. Nobullproject. Com/pmt for 30% off your entire order. That's www. Nobullproject. Com. /pmt for 30% off here. I'm going to show you. For those watching on the YouTube, these are the shoes, and they are awesome shoes. Like I said, super lightweight, super comfortable, no bull. Go get them right now. Use that back/pmt for 30% off your order. Okay, here he is, Jonny Fanta. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. He is the face of college basketball. It is Jon Fanta. Johnny, great to see you. Great to feel March creeping up here. Did you actually see that you were the face of college basketball? Did you see that tweet go viral? I don't know if you saw it, but someone from the stands, I don't know if you saw a BFD. Someone from the stands caught John Fanta mid full-fisted popcorn in his mouth and was like, This is the face of college basketball, whether you like it or not. I was like, That's my fucking guy. He is. That was a help. You know what?

I'm saying this as someone who does the same thing because my wife always gets mad at me. When I take a handful of popcorn, you can feel that I'm taking a handful of popcorn.

Absolutely. There's an aura about a box or a bag of popcorn. The fact of the matter is this. Popcorn, and I'm serious about this, is my absolute favorite snack. I can't live without it. If I'm at home chilling and watching the game, forget the chips, forget the pretzels, forget the veggies and dip, go straight for the Orville Red and Bacers, and don't look back.

Okay, hold on. Very important question because I find myself as a popcorn connoisseur as well. Do you always go microwave or do you get fancy with it? I have the air It's not air fryer, but the air blower thing, and I also sometimes do it on the pan to give it a little extra taste. Do you do that?

Yes, I've got a couple. I've got the O'Pop-Pop, which you can get on Amazon or any site. I highly recommend. Where you could put the kern in. It's like a yellow... It looks like a silicone bowl, but I promise you, it's totally safe.

You could pop-I have that as well.

Pop some popcorn, and then all you have to do take the top off, and it doubles down as the bowl. It saves you the glass. It saves you having to pull out the plastic bowl. No, it went home, it's homemade. I have the old-school Orville Redenbach or the electric spinner that goes around, and then you take it and you flip it upside down, and then that becomes the bowl, or you can put it in a bowl. But we've got a couple of homemade makers, and I've got the Whirly pop, too.

Okay. On a summer night, on a summer night. Okay, yes. Yes.

Pft, when I'm really feeling it and it got the bonfire going in a movie or something, it's downtime, and you know you could throw something in the dishes and say, I can wait till Sunday morning. I've had a couple of pops. I'll go with that, too. But popcorn, to me, If you're home, if you're not on the road, what are you doing? Make it homemade. Make it the right way, the way it was meant to be made. Yes.

You get the added bonus of your entire house smelling like popcorn, which is better than any candle out there.

I like I like to mix it up, too, with the different seasonings. I like to go not strictly butter all the time, but I'm a big fan of the white cheddar cheese. I like that taste. I like to put a little lemon pepper on there, too. Lemon pepper seasoning on the popcorn is a nice treat.

I got the machine that melts my butter on top. You put the butter on top and then it melts it for you and then you put it on. Look, here's the tweet of Johnny Fanta in action.

Yeah, but I'm seeing all those kernels going into the mouth.

No, it's clean. He's just going like that. Super hot. That's a man's handful. No dainty shit.

It's an efficient shovel of popcorn. It's a dunk. You should be making all those.

Listen, that was a situation where I had... My wife and I are very excited. We're expecting. We're thrilled. We're looking forward to it. Congrats. Wait, wait. Thank you. Thank you. Baby boy doing May. We had the one o'clock appointment on Friday. I had a game on Saturday that I was calling, and it was in It was at Drexel, Charleston and Drexel, a mid-major game. I'll do any game in the country. Every college basketball game is beautiful to me. And hop in the car rental, zip down to downtown Philly. Well, as you guys know, it was congestion on a Friday evening. Get in the hotel room, take a quick shower, zip over to Wells Fargo, sat down. I'm not a big like, Let me sit down the building and go get dinner. That's not who I am. I'm like, But I got to have something. And so I went up and got a big box of of corn and sat down and enjoyed some Friday night hoops. I love it. I had a blast doing it. I love it. You have to. You got to do it. All right.

Well, thanks for joining us, John. That's all we had. It was just popcorn talk.

What are your thoughts on Smart Fit?

Talk to you in three weeks for Selection Sunday.

Thanks. All right, so I got my bone to pick with you. You ready for it? It's not a serious one, but I love college hoops. I watch way too much college hoops. I bet on every game. I needed a A little more sense of urgency from you when Xavier was blowing the cover today against Seton Hall. I needed a little bit more. They were up like 20 with five minutes left. That's going around right now. My Badgers, an all-time bad loss on Saturday. But Xavier cutting the lead, and it was like one of those situations that Seton Hall was never going to win the game, but they went from no chance of covering to covering. I needed a little more urgency from you to let us know that this was threat level midnight. If you had watched the whole game like I had to watch save your cover and then just be like, What the fuck just happened? I needed something there.

Your dedication level to watching that, that game was stuck in neutral for a good 45 minutes. That just shows why you're different. You're a different breed to be able to go all the way through. Thanks for joining us. What was the spread?

It was nine and a half. I was like, I had it as like, Oh, man, this is easy. They were up 10, they were up 15, they were up 20. It was so easy. And then it was just like, No, let's fuck around and let Seton Hall cut it to five with 40 seconds left.

To me, this embodies college basketball. Sorry that I didn't have more urgency there on the spread. I appreciate it. That's an apology there, and you could pick that bone anytime because I don't want to see you get your money taken from you. What I will say is this. This is why I tell people on the tournament, when people say, When the non-casual better. The guy who literally puts down two or three or four things in the entire year, Super Bowl, March Madness, and maybe they do something during the NBA Finals or World Series or whatever. I tell them, Just play any 13, any 14, any 15, and go ahead, dump 50 bucks, $30, whatever on any 16. You're going to come out okay. Because this is the sport. Yes, college football has insanity. There's no question about it. It It has some absolutely bonkers results. But college basketball, from that perspective, guys, is just at times, for lack of a better term, disgusting with the endings of games And whereas you might need to go 90 yards for a countdown, if it's a bucket, if the difference is literally a basket, somebody could heave the ball 50 feet, and it could go into the basket, and it could produce a total turn of events in Vegas.

Vegas. So that's why I say there's nothing... We call it mark madness. Nobody ever rolls their eyes when you say it. People say it's the best. I live for it. I can't wait. The only part I hate about it is that it only last three weeks, and it really lasts two weeks because then you got the final four, and it's a matter of three games. Seton Hall was down by 21. They trailed by double digits the majority of the game. They were within three with a minute to go. It embodies this sport. Expect the unexpected. And if you want to have fun in a sport, go ahead and have fun in college basketball and take the home dogs and let it fly.

Yeah, it is. It's crazy. The Oregon-Wiscom game, which I should be more mature to not let it ruin my Saturday, but it 100% ruined my Saturday. They were up 16 with six minutes left. Or Arizona, BIO, late night last night. Got a prediction for you. You got phantom calls. Yeah, go, go.

Best thing that ever happened in Wisconsin was that one.

I agree. Thank you.

That's the thing that ever happened. They're going to go back in the lab. Greg Gard is going to rip his team apart over the next couple of days. I think Gard, I understand Wisconsin fans have been frustrated at times because they've been looking for his teams to turn a corner offensively. This is his best offensive team. The ball pops. John Tonja is a beast. Blackwell, fantastic player. Max Klezman, a match-up problem. Wisconsin can still be trusted. Don't let one Unravel job at home, Big Cat. Tell you, and I tell you, and I tell you're not one of those guys, but you You know there's Badger fans out there who are like, Same old, same old. I'm here to tell you right now, it's not the same old Wisconsin, and I believe in this team. I believe in this team as much as any of the top teams in the Big Ten. Yeah.

No, I agree. Listen, Kirk Penny has done a great job making that modern offense. It was just one of those games that it just ruined your mood. But I agree. It's hard to win in conference. Oregon's a good team. They're a tournament team. Hopefully, can galvanize around it.

Yeah, that's what you hoped for. By the way, Oregon just gave you all a lesson now, because if Dana Alvin makes a sweet 16, everybody's like, How did that just happen? What just happened? They're talented. I would urge, If you're just joining college basketball because you were involved with football, which a lot of fans are, don't watch a team play once and say, now that's what I think of them, because if you do that, you're doomed for failure when the madness comes. Oregon Oregon won the players era back in November. The joke was they played for money and they played totally better than they played the rest of the year, even though the guys are still getting paid pretty good money. Phil Knight's got deep pockets out there, but they're a dangerous team. The Oregon Ducks with Dax and Schelstad and Nate Biddle, who's a seven-footer who's a match-up problem, don't sleep on the ducks.

Big time.

Don't sleep on the ducks.

Dana Altman's a great coach.

I do make that mistake every year. I really start paying attention to college basketball right the day after the Super Bowl. That's when I go binge all in on it. And so I get a couple of games under my belt, but it just confuses me because I make my snap judgments, and then I find out that I'm totally wrong about my snap judgments. Then I go into the tournament just having no idea what to do. Would you say... Because I actually thought the same thing that you just said about Wisconsin and the loss they had to Oregon. I felt the same way about Kentucky, getting their ass kicked a little bit. I mean, it was a different game, obviously, Wisconsin in overtime. But Kentucky getting handled by Alabama, I thought that Pope is going to do a good job in turning his guys around and having them ready to play in the tournament. Is that crazy for me to think that?

It's not crazy, provided that Lamont Butler and Jackson Robinson are healthy for Kentucky. If those two guys are healthy, PFT, then you're going to be talking about a situation where Kentucky's offense is as dynamic as many of the top offenses in the country because they've got flame throwers. Kobe Brea is a stud. He's one of the best pure shooters in the sport. Amari Williams, as a big man on both ends of the floor, really good defender. I think that that's the biggest what-if for Kentucky. Are they going to be able to play defense in the tournament. They could score at will, which I love. If I'm picking between a team that's just defensively stout or a team that can get buckets quickly, I'm taking the latter in today's day and age. Ask. Tennessee has been better the last two years, but that held them back. Texas A&M, I don't trust them. I don't trust them in the tournament because at times, they get stuck in the mud. Being physical is great until every ref in America calls a foul two minutes into the game because they say... In March Madness, the officials are getting evaluated for the next rounds.

Just like the teams are trying to move on, the officials get told whether or not they're moving on to the next round. So when there's a bunch of calls in a game, it's because they're trying to follow the rules so that they can advance and make more money. The fact is, Kentucky I like Kentucky's upside still. I am not out on Kentucky. I don't think anybody should be. But we know this, when this team shows up for their first round game, there's going to be the narrative, the spotlight now on Mark Pope. Can he be different than Cal? Can he spin a different song? If they make the sweet 16, people didn't know what to expect from Pope in year one. They haven't done that since 2019. I still like their upside, but they've got to get healthy. If they're not fully healthy, they're a team that maybe they win a first-round game. I don't trust them enough to make the sweet 16. They need Robinson, they need Butler, but they've got dudes, man. That team put together some terrific early season results, and they're very difficult to defend.

Yeah, they can light it up. You're Big East. Let's just be honest, John, down year. Some of the teams have been down. Yukon has been, I would say, Danny Hurley would say it, has been a disappointment overall. But St. John's has been the bright light. In St. St. John's. We had Coach Patino in here last week. They look for real. I think they might be more towards the Texas A&M than a Kentucky where they do struggle shooting the ball at times, but their defense is ferocious. I trust Rick Pitino in a tournament setting. What do you think the ceiling is for St. John's? And maybe the Big East overall, do you think there's maybe a chance that some of these big East teams, a Marquette, could surprise teams, even though the conference as a whole is a little down compared to last year?

So first and foremost, St. John's can make the final four, and the statistical data backs it up. Just this past week, this was on social. Since 2011, there have only been two teams that have shot less than 32. 5 % from three and have made the final four. They were Rick Patino's Louisville teams, one of which won a national championship. No, NCAA, you can't take away a banner and a trophy from Russ Smith and Paden But that's not... I don't know where you two stand. No, I agree.

Yeah. He's got a tattoo.

He had to get the tattoo removed.

He's got a tattoo. Yeah. Forget it.

Come on now. This St. John's team plays a lot like those Louisville teams. They are relentless. Here's what they've got going for them. Multiple explosive guards who make plays for their teammates. R. J. Lewis, he could be Biggie's player of the Year. That kid never stops. He has fully understood what Rick Pitino is about. Kedari Richmond, Brooklyn boy, putting on for his city, living for the big spotlight, and delivering in that spotlight. Those two, they get everything started for this team in a lot of ways. When you can dump it into Zubi Ejafor, and he's playing at the level that he's playing at. Davon Smith brings the fire. Smith and Richmond are like fire and ice. Smith with his pace. Richmond is back to the basket, Uncle Drew, I'm going to put you to sleep, but then make you pay type game. St. John's is a New York team that has a New Yorker who's out to write his last chapters his way, to go out his way. What Patino is doing, as you guys felt in your studio, you felt what I'm feeling covering Patino. This is a guy who's been through everything in his career and now is a really refreshing personality in college basketball because he doesn't give a damn.

And he's out to do one thing: win. Win, win, win. And he's got Mike Rupoli backing him with money. He's got Madison Square Garden on fire, again, feeling like nick, playoff games for a Biggie's contest against the likes of Creighton or Xavier, or over the weekend now, Connecticut. And they are a real threat to make it to San Antonio this April. And what a scene that would be if Rick Pitino is down there at the final four. That would be wild. In terms of the rest of the Big East, I'm with you. Marquette has definitely struggled as of late. Cam Jones is still a stud. Connecticut has to have a... They're just not what they've been the last two years. The question now is, can they win two tournament games and be one in the sweet 16? For them, I think they're a victim of their success in terms of the narrative. Dan Hurley, we know what he said, and that he certainly made headlines with all of that. I think they've had trouble accepting the fact that they're not a national title contender. As a result, things have spun off. It's not good, but because there's just an okay team, a solid team, now people are going crazy.

Some people are like, Well, they stink now. Well, compared to last year, you weren't going to duplicate that, guys. There's a reason why John Wooden is the only guy who's done that.

Yeah.

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Yeah, no, you're right. I actually enjoyed hearing his honesty over the weekend, that clip where he was like, We lost our swagger in Maui, and I can't coach them the same way. I can't be as tough on them. That probably hurts some of those guys, but you never know. I mean, that's why the tournament is a tournament. You get hot at the right time. They still have guys that have been there.

100%. You still have people who understand what it takes to perform on that stage. In the NCAA tournament, that's very helpful because I can't tell you how many teams, and Yukon won't be one of these teams. They play in an NCAA tournament first or second round game, and you watching them, you don't recognize them. You genuinely do not understand what you're watching. You're like, this is not the team that I watch throughout the season. So you're exactly right, Big Cat, is this is a Connecticut team that I still think with Liam McNeely, solo ball, and if Hassan Diar can stay healthy. The problem is you went from Adama Sonogo, Donovan Clingon, to Donovan Clingon, Samson Johnson. Samson Johnson and Terrace Reid, neither one of them is a one on an elite team. And that's where things have gone wrong. Watch out for Creighton still. Ryan Calkrunner is an absolute beast. Steven Ashworth is a terrific point guard. And you just know the Big East tournament could throw a curveball or two. But St. John's hasn't won it since 2000. And I can't help but think that Lou Karnaseca is smiling down on this team and providing some magic.

Just a touching note, but an interesting note. When John Thompson passed away in 2020, Georgetown proceeded to win the Big East tournament. Patrick Ewing told me, John Thompson was here with us. He made this happen. Rick is an unbelievable coach. But if St. John's were to win this, and they haven't done in a quarter century, it is Patino. But the year that Louis passed, I wouldn't bet against the Red Storm because not only are they really good guys, but there's something magical with this team.

I'm hoping they get to San Antonio, too. That'd be so much fun if they were in the final four.

Yeah, and Rico Bosco would look like the dumbest person alive.

Yeah, that's That's true. Back to Dan Hurley again real quick. Do you think that if you were to give him truth serum and hook him up to a lie detector and ask him, Do you regret not taking the Lakers' job this offseason? What do you think he'd say?

I don't think that he would regret it. I don't think he would-Night with Huka? No, I don't think he lives with regret that he didn't take that job. I don't. Because I think that Dan is so happy with his wife and his situation of being the king. And this goes back to why I feel he didn't take it. If you go to the NBA, you become secondary, if not tertiary, if not whatever the next wheel is, fourth, fifth, sixth wheel. You could get in the headlines, but not for the right reasons. Think about the best NBA coaches. Okay, Joe Mazula goes crazy on an official. And so, yes, that makes headlines. But are we talking daily about how great Joe Missoula is? No, we're talking... I mean, for the right or wrong reason, we're talking about Jason Tatum, and we're talking about Brown, and we're talking about their core of players, white and company, who make them a championship team. The coaches story gets told by the local press and people covering it, and you guys will bring it up if they win another championship. But we're not breaking down NBA head coaches during this time of year.

Hurley is in the headlines every day. Don't tell me. He loves it, and that's a good thing. We need more of that energy in college basketball. My reason for it is there are some people out there who despise him. There are some people out there who love him. You two do a show that's the premise in a good way. We want to be talking about it. During Conference Championship Week of the NFL, they got done breaking down Mahomes and Allen, and what would happen in the NFC and if the commanders could pull it off and what the Eagles would be doing. They got done with the segment on debate shows, and the B-Block was Hurley saying he's the best coach in the sport, and what do we make of this? Or that he went off on another official or that he went crazy here. He is who he is unapologetically, but you're not getting... If he's doing the NBA, guys, the NBA people are looking at it as this isn't going to last. It's just not going to last. It's different. He would have had to change everything about his act, I feel, to be in the NBA, where coaches, to me, are not the priority.

The NBA is the furthest thing from a coaches league. If you even so much as make one mistake, you could be eaten up and thrown out immediately. He is best in college. I don't think he regrets it.

I agree. I like him in college as well. I want to go down to the ACC real quick because you just had a take that you think that Maryland is a dark horse to reach the final four. How much did that pain you to say that, John Fanta? Because we all know that you hate Maryland, and you've hated it. And now all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you're giving credit to the Herpes.

They're good.

Well, I love that you went down to the ACC to talk Maryland because Maryland deserves to be in the ACC. They're an ACC team, and they always will be. So that was so well done by you.

By the way, that tournament should be in Greensboro every year, for the record.

At 100 million %, the ACC tournament should never be anywhere but Greensboro. Keep your conference tournament in the same location every year. Why? Familiarity is good. As for Maryland, they are dangerous. Kevin Willard has done a terrific job with this team. Why? Derrick Queen, throwback player. He's got this Moses Malone style to his game, as style as that could get in 2025. When When he's got the ball, the game slows down, but you're forced to play it that way. Julian Reece, tough. I mean, this guy plays with muscle. He's on the attack. He's a good defender. He understands the assignments. And then last year, you talked about Maryland's frontcourt. But last year, they didn't have enough guard play, and they certainly didn't have enough shot making. I think much like Greg Gard and his staff, Kevin Willard and his staff went to the lab. And they said, Look, we want to play hard. We want to be gritty. That's all nice and whatnot. Toughness is awesome. But at the end of the day, we don't even have a Jack Golke on our team. We need to find shot making. Jacobi Gillespie has been that. Salvin Miguel has been that.

Rodney Rice is that as well. The Crab 5 is outstanding. By the way, whoever came up with Crab 5 to describe the Maryland starting five, that is an elite job right there. You've got Scott Van Pelt Courtside, cheering you on. He's so into it, and I love it about him. And Maryland Basketball, when they're cooking, they're one of the brands that's fun in the sport. That fan base is electric. They're going to be all over us talking about them right here, right now. I think they're dangerous. You know why? They're not overreliant on any one or two pieces to win. They've got a nice complementary balance to their group in terms stuff, they don't say, We got to get post-scoring. No, they use the drives to kick and hit threes. And because they're hitting threes, Maryland can go deep.

Yeah. No, I agree. The one thing you could say about Maryland is they have maybe a thin bench. I always will take a great starting five over... I never understood when people were like, Oh, we go 11 deep, we go 10 deep. Listen, when it gets crunch time, you got to have your best five guys. And has an incredible five guys.

It's a load of crap when people are like, Yeah, I've got nine or 10 deep. Okay, do you put nine people on the floor at the end of the game in the sweet 16? No. Give me your best five. Their 18 to 22-year-old kids. I also laugh when people are like, Yeah, they're getting tired. This guy's wearing down.

Yeah.

These kids come back to campus in July. It's too long. In college basketball, they get three weeks off and they have to come back and start working out. That's the problem with the calendar. The kids want to play in the games. The games are the fun of the sport, not the transfer portal chaos. You need five or six guys. You need a six man and maybe a body, a postbody at seven or eight. Jay Wright won a national championship with six players. Yeah.

It's the old Pat Reilly, where it was like, play six, trust five.

Yeah. You know what it is when you say, Oh, I can go eight or nine deep? Yeah. That's my life during Brown's training camp this upcoming summer. We feel that we've got two or three really strong options, potentially a quarterback, and I'm going to be staring at a rookie, another backup who should be at Walmart, and a veteran pickup, probably Kirk Cousins. That's probably what I'm going to be staring at.

Yeah, you probably will.

You know what happens when they say to you, We've got two options here? It means you don't have one.

That's facts. Actually, talk about the ACC. This is my strategy. Tell me if it is a sound strategy or really stupid. I have just ignored Duke. I am going to ignore Duke, and I'm going to say the ACC is so bad that Duke is completely inflated and wants to get into the tournament, I'm not going to have to worry about them. The ACC might have three teams in the tournament. Smu might be their fourth, but Clemson, Louisville are good. Duke, obviously, is great. But am I making a mistake by just completely ignoring Duke and being like, Look, they played nobody. That whole conference sucks. As soon as they step up into the tournament, they're going to get a rude awakening. I'm not going to have to worry about them.

Now, it's not the right strategy. God damn it.

I know it's not, but it's the only way I can deal with it.

Do you think a buddy texted me on Saturday night and they said... And I couldn't help but chuckle in a good way. I know you have your own, so I'll bring it up on this show. But they said, Coach K cuts down the nets this April. Shier takes down his piece and hands Mike the scissors.

Man, that would kill me. I mean, I know they're killing teams, but the ACC sucks, John.

It sucks. Well, is Illinois... Are they in the ACC now? They came in that game.

Illinois is very injured. You know that. They had the flu. Their season has completely gone sideways.

Duke is damn good. They are a spectacular team. They're a wagon defensively. I just think the amount that their length does to alter. You can't run your game plan, plan A or B, against what they're going to do because they're going to come out. Seon James said, I'm going to get on Kesperoshek, Kachonis, who's a top five pick in the draft. And he said, I'm going to limit him. And even if he makes some shots, I'm still going to do what I can to shut him down as much as possible. But then it goes beyond that. To me, the fact that they were dominating to the level that they dominated in that first half against Illinois held them to 0 for 16 from three. I had Illinois fans being like, It's not them holding us. We can't make a shot. Get out of here. You couldn't make it because of how they defended you. Oh, number two, Cooper Flagg only had one field goal making the first half. This is not just because of Cooper Flagg. He has a lot to do with it. And I think Cooper is a fantastic player and will be the number one pick in this draft.

Full stop. It's over. If on draft day, you wake up and the batting lines are getting shaken up by insiders and stuff, enough. It ain't happening. He's going number one. There's no reason why anybody should pick anybody else there or take that risk on. You got to pick him first. But it goes beyond him. This team, Isaiah Evans, has turned into a different player now. Khan Kanipal, he plays the game a little crazy Intensity-wise, in a good way. He's got Kam Spencer-like jeans. Remember, Spencer for you, Khan, last year, a little bit like Kanipal's always going. Crazy, yeah. Fama Malawatch, really strong. They didn't even have Malik Brown. But if If they're making any perimeter shots, any, it's over. They are not going to lose. Now, your hope, Big Cat, is that they show up to the Alamo Dome. If they do, let's say they make the final four, I'm sorry. It is a football stadium. There is a unique shooting background, and sometimes teams that are iffy from a shooting perspective can shoot miserably. Then the game looks a whole lot different. Game always looked better when the shots are going in. But right now, if you force me to take Duke/Auburn or the field, today I would take Duke/Auburn.

Listen, Florida's good.

Houston's good. The entire SEC.

Texas Tech is really good. It's awesome.

If you were Would you say, do you think that the winner of the SEC tournament is also going to play in the Championship game or not? What would you say to that?

No, I'd say no, because I think Auburn could get taken out of that earlier than expected, because I think there's going to be some teams that may be a little more desperate I also don't trust conference tournament champions. Just by virtue of, it takes a lot for you to do that to win it, and then you got to go right back to the road and play in the NCA tournament, and you just played till Saturday or Sunday. I always look, bracket help here, at Thursday or Friday at the latest, losers in their conference tournament, if they're a steady NCA tournament team, because I like the fact they can go back. They're pissed off they didn't win their conference tournament. They got a couple of extra days to rest. They went back, they saw their girlfriends on campus, get a nice free weekend with your honey, and then you say, Here's how I go dancing.

Nc State last year, though.

That was desperate. They needed it.

Nc State last The fear was that was the- They kept it going. One of the wildest cinderellos we've ever seen, and that's inexplicable. But that's why we watch. I was thinking about that. Here's the best part about March Madness. By the Championship game, Even somebody... I love the sport. I'm bummed out that it's over, and it's one game. So let's just say it's Duke and Auburn. It's a dream matchup for the sport. But the best part is Duke's in one region, Auburn's in another region. That means there's two... Let's just say... And by the way, I would say, if you made me bet, I'd say, Okay, I'm going to be wrong on one of them, and one of them bouts out earlier than expected. But I'm saying I'm getting one of them to win it all. There's still two other regions that Duke and Auburn have no no control over that the chaos is going to happen. That's why the madness is the best. It's nonstop you looking, going from true TV to TNT to TBS to CBS and say, What the hell is going on right now in my life?

It really is. Then you get your Jack Golke is involved, you get your magical moments like that. It really is the best.

It's the best event of that you wake up a day, you wake up on a sports day, and it's a glorious day. But by the end of the day, you are saying someone's name that you didn't know existed at the beginning of the day. Yeah.

Don't sleep on Florida, John. Love them. Florida is good, and they're getting guys back, and it's like their size is a problem. They have three losses on the season. I know that two of them were away. They've only lost once at home. They're a good team.

Really good team. They're very good. And Walter Clayton and Elijah Martin are studs. Walter Clayton isn't all-American. When Elijah Martin is on, he's one, two. And Chinyalu had a very good performance this past weekend. They're big. Alex Condon has taken that next step. They just got hand logged and back. They are tough, man. That team is very, very good. They are an offensive juggernaut. They can come at you in waves. I agree with PFT. Texas Tech, tough. Grant McCausland has done a great job. Jt Toppen, absolute stud. They've got depth. Elijah Hawkins is a really good distributor of the basketball. In terms of other teams, teams that are not at the top of the country, but I still like a lot, not the very top of the country anyways. Don't let a Michigan loss to Michigan State get you out on Michigan.

Oh, I think Michigan's overrated. Although I love Danny Wolf, I think Michigan's overrated. I think Michigan State is the team.

Well, Tom So he's got a group that... How magical would it be if Iso in year 30 made the final four? Yeah.

But wait, go on Michigan, though, because my problem in Michigan is they're sloppy with the ball, and I think that just kills you in the tournament.

Yeah, it can be. But sometimes when you play together that long, your numbers don't tell the full story when you get on the big stage. And that's where my argument is. It's like, at some point, Amari Burnet, Trey Donaldson, Roddy Gale and company are just... I'm betting on them I'm betting on Dusty May, who's made a final four run, and I'm betting on veteran players. They might be turnover prone, but I just know that I've got Vlad Golden and Danny Wolf, and in the NCAA tournament, you, my opponent, I have likely never seen any combination like that because of the uniqueness of it. So I think they pose matchup problems to what they can do. But there's a number of these types of teams that could be really interesting in the tournament. I mean, you can go right down the line. Mississippi State down there in Starkville. Chris Jantz has a really intriguing team. St. Mary's is tough again, and they're going to win the WCC. How about Randy Bennett and the job that he does year in and year out, having them as good as they are? And there are umbrella teams. There are a couple of teams wearing the slipper again.

Drake can wear that slipper. Yale is back and loaded, and don't sleep on the Akron Zips out of a mid-American.

Okay. What about Houston? I keep waiting for Houston for it to finally be their year. Last year, it did feel like it could have been different until the unfortunate injury. But I still think from what I've seen from Houston, they're a very tough team. They're a team that you don't want to play against. That's the style they always play. Do you think that they would have a chance?

Do you know what the difference is, PFT, that makes me say they have a chance? Their shot making. Houston's always been held back by having multiple guys who can dial it up from downtown. So they've had Marcus Sasser, they've had Jamal Shet. They've had some talented individuals. This feels like a perimeter that really can share the sugar and make threes in waves. L. J. Crier had 28 points in the win over the weekend over Iowa State. Crier had a couple of stepbacks that were flat out ridiculous. Emmanuel Sharp is steady. He's tough. If you're going to go to Houston, you have to be tough. It's like going to... If you're not going to play hard for Kelvin Samson to be tough, you're going to go get sent to Wieny Hut, juniors. It's just how it is. It's a non-negotiable. He has someone stand there at the at the front of the club, and if you don't bring that, you're done. And I don't care if it's practice, I don't care if it's summertime, I don't care if it's a team bonding trip to a lake. You have to be tough. But the guy that's open things up for them is Mylos Usan.

Mylos Usan is a clutch shotmaker, big-time shotmaker. And Jouwan Roberts is a guy who's embraced his role. This is Kelvin's best offensive team. I'm never worried about whether they can get stops or not, but in the past, you guys know this, Houston, Tennessee. A&m is good, but when your sole goal is to get teams stuck in the mud, in a game of shot making where the opponent has those types of players, at some point, you can't get them into the Mud. Houston can win a game out of the mud this year.

Yeah, I agree with that. All right, a couple of last questions. Who's going to be the next coach for Indiana?

If I had to make a prediction right now, I would say T. J. Atzelberger. I think he makes a lot of sense. Yeah, very I think he's done a phenomenal job at Iowa State, and I think he's been outstanding at Iowa State. But I think that this guy is one of the best coaches in the sport who can take on the Indiana fan base and will be strong. So if If I were to... It should be the guy that Indiana pursues the most. And I'm just thinking, if I'm Scott Dolson, who's running this search, you got to bow down to whoever you're hiring and say, Look, we need you. Everyone Someone's like, Oh, it's Indiana, the aura. Come on, man. Kids don't know about that. They don't. They see the Candy Cane pants, but the days of Coach Knight, I mean, God bless them and may rest in peace. But the fact is, that was a long time ago. You got to get a guy who coaches with toughness, who gets his teams to play endlessly hard, and a guy who can educate the kids on what it means to play in Indiana. I think that's Berger is one of the best three coaches in the sport.

The building job he's done at Iowa State, think about this. Iowa State hasn't made a final four since 1944. He could lead them to the only their second final four ever this year.

Yeah, he's been awesome, and they're a good team. They've been a little banged up, but they're a very good team. All right. I enjoy so much the John Fanta- Can I give one before?

Sorry to cut you off. My favorite ending would be Indiana who just beat Purdue, makes the NCA tournament, they're on the bubble. They win a game or two, and Mike Woodson sits down and says after the game, You know what? I actually have had second thoughts. I'll be back next year.

They are a bubble team. I mean, this is a big win for them today. They've had flashes where they've looked really good. Even the first time they played Purdue, they played their balls off. They lost it, Macky.

But- What's it can do that, though.

Yeah. He's still the coach. It's absolutely true. All right, so I love the Twitter Live, the Twitter space as you do when you fly off the handle of people. Because I feel like it's almost like you got a Francesa thing going where it's like, Hey, if you come at me incorrect, you're going to get shown the door pretty quickly. What's a big no-no when someone comes at John Fanta in your spaces?

Well, when a caller says, Excuse me, I'm talking, or, John, this is where you're wrong, or, No, John, you're not listening to me. And it's like, I just got done listening to you for two and a half, three minutes. Look, I love the fans. Love it, just like you guys do, too. We bring them into different stuff and engagement. But there's a, hey, it's... Somebody came on two weeks ago and was like, Here's where you're wrong on Providence. Here's where you're wrong. And all these things. It's talking down to me.

Come on. It's your space.

I'm not putting up with that. There's a line to cross there. It's like when I was growing up and my dad said, These are the things that you have to do on Saturday. These are your chores. If you started to speak up and say why one of the chores was a bunch of bullshit, you got caught. That was the end of it.

Yeah, you got hung up on. It's a non-negotiable.

You were sent out to the yard and you were picking the weeds in the mulch. Maybe that night, you got to sit out on the patio and have a diet coat. But the fact is, you don't come into the space and start start trying to run it. Then we have... Because it's spaces, it's not radio. So I... Well, people come on, and you guys know this, they start telling me everything they know about the game. But we're talking Xs and O's in the weeds deep, and it's four and a half, five minutes. And I've said before to the people, Sir, do you have a wife?

The guy will say back to me like, Yes, I do.

I go, Well, one, does she ever Can't get a word in edgewise? Listen to yourself. We've all been in the cocktail party or the wedding or the thing where we love somebody. We love our parents' friend or the friend of a friend. But you know when you're having a beer or a wine, you've got to budget out about 10 to 13 minutes to get their latest thoughts on whatever's happening in the sports world.

Yeah. What fan base is it that gives you the most grief?

Oh, boy. I mean, the fan bases that caused the most chaos up in the Northeast, look, the Yukon fans are relentless in their pursuit. Providence fans can be absolutely unhinged out of control. You don't know where things are going to go, and it's just how they are. That's Friertown. It's what they do. They can't forget about Ed Cooley. And so every space has at least one caller who just turns it up, up on the intensity meter, and they get started. Who else has come at me? I mean, Big Blue Nation and I are very close. We're in a good place. I get the ACC fans who are mad at me sometimes when I'm like, look, I'm sorry, but North Carolina, they're not a tournament team. And if they didn't have the North Carolina name, we wouldn't even be talking about them. That's just a fact. You know who got on me this year a lot? Purdue fans. For not having them in the top 10 during during times when people thought it. One week, I ranked them like 21st. Now, with the way they're playing recently, they just lost Indiana. They're back to the 20s this week.

It's not just on the edge. They're not a top 10 team. They're not a top 12 team. They're just not.

No, they don't defend well. They miss Edie so much. They should have just kept him forever. Should have been like, Hey, sue the NCAA for a lifetime deal with Edie.

Whoever makes the Edie statue, should one demand triple money because it's a seven-foot-four statue, and two, you have to get that right. Sports subculture thought here. What's going on with statue makers lately?

It's been bad.

Yeah. Wired, tired. Or statue maker is tired. Whoever the statue maker is out there, this is your chance to step up. Yeah.

I don't care if they're teaching statue making anymore. What's that? We're not teaching it. The kids don't learn how to make a statue in school anymore.

No. I mean, come on, wake up, and whoever's tasked with that, get it right. Yes.

I agree. The Washington Commander is the one good thing that they ever did with Dan Snyder was the Sean Taylor statue because it didn't have a statue to it, so you couldn't screw it up. It was just an empty suit. It was perfect.

Yeah. All right, John, I got one last question for you. Roback question, rohopack. Com, promo code take. 20% off for first purchase, Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, roback. Com. Promocode take. This has been awesome getting everyone pumped for March Madness, catching you up on college basketball. My last question is, could you throw down a dunk for us?

Absolutely. Why not?

Okay. It's got the... For people who are listening, John's got his mini hoop behind him.

There's one dilemma with this, okay? This is a new office set up, and my wife set up the hoop, and she did tell me when she set it up on the wall, Don't dunk on it because the hoop is literally wrenched to the wall. But because you two asked, I'll try it anyway.

What if John Fanta brought down the whole house?

Tear that shit down, John. It's a load-bearing hoop.

All right, he's going up. Oh, man, what a slam. What a slam. Oh, another one.

Is he going to go triple slam? Oh, off the backboard. Oh, off the backboard.

Wow. There we go. That's some lateral quickness for his girls. Let's dance. Here comes the madness.

Let's dance. Let's do it, John. I love it, John. You're the best. We'll definitely have you back on when we get to Conference Championship Week in the tournament. Love talking to you, and you are the face of college basketball.

Thank you, guys. That's very, very humbling. I appreciate that. If you're a fan out there as we're talking, and when this goes live, you are inside three weeks away from the best postseason tournament in American sports. Facts.

That's going to be great. Facts. All right. Thank you, John.

Thank you, guys.

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But not all in our solar system.

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Yeah, I agree. I just didn't know if it was bigger than all the planets.

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All right, let's wrap up. We got Monday reading. Pft, I sent it to you if you want to do the Monday reading because I also wanted to say this is a shorter Monday reading before we do the longer one. I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and because we've been traveling and everything, this was just the tweet of the guy who said, The world needs to see this. Met this guy at the bar on Saturday. Ball knowers find ball knowers telepathically. An hour later, we exchanged numbers. Now we've been tossing names back and forth all week and saying where they went. I know you're here somewhere, brother. It was just a dude who met a random dude at the bar, and they just They linked up, and that's all they've been doing.

Would this guy go to school?

Yeah. He just sent Jamal Charles. Texas. Texas. Then Dexter McCluster. Back to him.

I love it. South Carolina.

Then Jason Witten, Blaine Gabbard, back and forth.

This is how dudes meet each other. Yeah.

This is this male friendship. People were hating on him.

There should be Tinder. It should be a Tinder app for guys that just want to say dudes' names to other dudes.

Also, I'm just going to throw this out there. Steve Smith, if you had found someone like this, maybe you wouldn't be re-arranging the IUDs. Be productive. Sometimes you just need someone when you're thinking, Hey, I want to... Noted, I would like to come in some guy's wife. Instead, just text your buddy and just be like, I don't know, Bo Wallace, where'd he go to school?

Yeah, it's honestly a very productive thing. I think that dude should do this. Just have a way to link up with other guys online just to say names. Okay. Also, Kyle Hamilton put out a thought-provoking question last week on X The Everything app. In a Royal Rumble format between every president that's ever lived, who wins? Lincoln. You think Lincoln? He's a wrestler. Taft probably has him by about, I don't know, 100 pounds. Because he have the stamina. Teddy Roosevelt got shot and gave the rest of his speech. No other president has done that, Hank, per Hank.

Clinton's got them silent killers. Yeah.

Just choke you out with his dick. I was under Hamilton, kill the guy.

I was saying actual people that will kill you.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, if Obama was allowed to use his drones. Yeah. What do you think Hamilton? He's got bodies. What? No. Didn't he get shot? I thought he killed a guy in a duel. Aaron Bur.

Never saw the Hamilton musical. Me neither.

I think Ben Franklin.

Ben Franklin would be a good one. He'd be a really good president. How do we not pick him first? He would 100% be it. All right.

So Monday reading. This is from Reddit. Am I the asshole for pretending to think beans and chili are woke to prank my cousin who is obsessed with being anti-woke and who loves chili. My cousin is known for making chili, and he's good at it. He makes his own chili flakes from his secret combination of various dried chilis. It has a very nice kick. It's like the perfect amount of spice. Hot, but not too hot. He also always adds kidney beans, not canned beans either. That's a process if you're cooking your own beans, committed to it.

I like beans and chili. I'll just say it.

I think it might be woke. Okay. Anyways, for the past two or three years, my cousin has become obsessed with all this bullshit about what is or isn't woke and how woke things are the end of the world. He's always been a good dude, so I don't know what his bag is, but he's completely obsessed. It's annoying. The other weekend, I was at his place and he was making his famous chili, so I got the idea for a little I'm a prank. I was like, I'm surprised you still put beans in your chili. He was like, What? Why? I was like, Beans and chili are so woke. Everyone's saying so. He was like, What do you mean? He was genuinely concerned as if this was something serious. I said something like, yeah, beans and chili are woke. The original conservative Texans who made chili only used meat and chili. San Francisco Libbs started adding beans to chili in the '60s because so many hippies were vegetarian. Now all the woke scientists are saying beans are a better protein source than meat. He didn't say anything to that. I imagine he just stewed on it after that.

Yeah. Literally. I just assumed he'd know I was fucking with him and get the joke, We've always fucked around with each other in jokes about and all, but he was quiet all dinner. Just yesterday, I was back again at his place, and he was making his chili again. There were no beans. It was a totally different chili. This guy has been making his chili with beans for 15 years. I was like, What's up? Where's the beans? He was like, I don't fuck with that woke shit. I was like, What? He was like, Beans and chili are woke. Even you know that. Everyone else was like, What? Because what? I was like, Dude, I was just fucking with you. He got really angry. He dumped his chili in the sink and told everyone to go home. I thought he was pranking me back or something, but he was serious. This dude totally lost it. He texted me later and said this exact thing, I researched this online, and it turns out you really were lying to me. Beans are not woke. How could you do this? We went back and forth for a bit. His position is, even though we have historically pranked each other, I went too far that I betrayed him, that I made him question his chili.

I tried to ask him if this had all made him think he cared too much about woke. Like, what if beans and chili was woke? So what? He ignored that and demanded, I apologize. Did I take this too far?

Oh, man. No.

Not far enough?

You did take it too far in the fact that if he makes really good chili, you might have just lost your chili guy.

You lost your chili guy. I'll say he had very good reasoning for why beans and chili might be woke. Yeah, it sounded real. In Texas, a lot of chili is made with no beans. That part is true. But the San Francisco hippie lips adding the beans as protein, this is a very well-constructed prank.

I love this story just because it's just perfect for where we're at overall. Did you guys see, by the way, Ballsack Sports had a very real tweet this weekend about Elon?

Did they go woke?

They broke character.

It was so funny. What they said.

Just talking about Elon being a bad guy and misinformation and stuff. Listen, everyone's going to have their opinion, but it was just very funny that it came from Ballsack Sports.

Yeah, Ballsack. Sometimes you need to use your platform. You must use your platform. But Elon, also another re-arranging IUD guys. Yeah. But probably through Starlink.

Yeah, but not even doing it in the fun way. Yeah.

I feel like he uses his satellites to disable women's birth control. Yeah. Is he actually Is he fucking? I don't think so. Or is he mailing his sperm?

I think he's just... Yeah. He's just repopulating the Earth. What a weirdo. Anyway, this guy might have lost his chili supply. Yeah, that's tough. Which is not worth it. If your cousin made that go to chili, it's a A serious joke, but you got to figure out a way to get this back.

Yeah, it's great that it was a perfect prank because this guy took his chili so seriously that he then questioned his entire life. I just love the idea. He probably thought he might be gay. Yeah. Dumping it all out. I've been enjoying beans in my chili this whole time. What's wrong with me?

No, we're not doing this shit anymore. I don't make it. He's trying to find the Ballsack Sports, but all he could find was, I'm letting my one nut hang post-cancer. I'm tired of Elon. Oh, that was a precursor.

All right, so Ballsack Sports. That's ironic that he had nut cancer.

Is that real? Ballsack Sports? Yeah.

I didn't realize. Congratulations to Ballsack Sports for beating cancer.

He has multitudes. Yeah. Wow. Big weekend. Listen, the internet picked up where sports left off this weekend.

His name is Ballsack, not Ballsack Sports. So he had to change the handle. Yeah, that makes sense. So you have to change the handle.

Yeah. Yeah, there was also the guy. Did you see the guy playing Russian roulette? He lost. Yeah. That was bad. I don't know why that got my algorithm.

Yeah.

Why are you looking at me like that, Mr. Goon. Sounds awful.

Stuff videos, they're back on X.

I also found out that it was the guy who did the 360 puke.

Yeah, it was him.

That's sad because that 360 puke rocked.

The guy was angry about meme coins. Yeah. Don't do that. Yeah.

Stick to just making jokes about Steve Smith. That's a cleaner way to do it. And jokes about beans and chili. Do you guys like beans and chili? I do.

Yeah, I don't mind them. But it is like Texas chili is just meat. It's basically It's just meat.

It is a pot of meat. It is correct.

There is some truth to it. I know this guy did it as a joke, but I think I agree with him that beans and chili are woke.

I just would never... If I had an insane chili plug, I would do everything in my life to keep that relationship alive.

Also, maybe beans. No beans and chili might be woke now that I think about it because dudes eat chili, then they sit around farting for the next day. True. This is like nerfing chili. It's not letting dudes fart. Dudes can't even fart anymore because we're taking the beans out of chili.

Yeah, good chili gets you all hot and bothered.

Yeah. There's nothing less woke than dudes sitting in a room with each other, farting on each other after enjoying a nice pot of chili.

All you're going to get out of a beanless chili is a quief, maybe. Yeah. That's extremely woke. Okay. Pug, got anything on the chili?

Chili is delicious with or without beans. Bothers your You have a sensitive tummy, though. No, chili is okay. You can't put sour cream or cheese in it.

You're very bad. You have a sensitive tummy.

Lactose Intolerant.

Yeah, which we've done this before. That's fake. It's real. It's fake. It hurts. No, it's fake. Everyone's lactose Intolerant. If I eat too much ice cream, my tummy hurts. Am I lactose Intolerant?

A little bit, probably.

So everyone is. Yeah, there's levels. So no one is.

There's levels to it.

No one is. How long have you been lactose-intolerant? Found out two years ago. Yeah, see, this is not true. You were eating ice cream, drinking milk all your life, and then all of a sudden someone told you you're lactose-intolerant? Yeah.

That is being lactose-intolerant is woke.

That's bullshit. Oh, we didn't even talk about the fact that Hooters is bankrupt.

It's true, yeah. Guys don't even like boobs anymore.

I was thinking about it because it's the old meme. They feed us poison, and they take away the cure. Taking away breasts. Special shout out to Devin Booker. I feel bad for him. I don't know if you guys saw, but he has been a Hooters fan for his whole life.

Has John Gruden commented on this yet?

He's got to be beside himself.

John Gruden might buy Hooters.

Yeah, Devon Booker had his tweets from 2012. So what was he? How old was he? How old is Devin Booker?

That was when he was in college.

No. No. Maybe high school? 2015, I want to say he was in college. How old is Devon Booker? You could just Google that. You don't have to follow. Shane's all over the map. He's 28 years old. How old would he be in 2012? Someone do some math. 1996. He's 28.

So it'd be-15.

Yeah, 15, 16. He said, I'm thinking Hooters tonight with the fellows. At Hooters chilling, Headed to Hooters. And then yesterday, he said, Please don't go Hooters. Yeah, it's tough. I love that.

He's committed to it. Tough break for him. Tough break for Gruden. Tough break for John Daley.

Yeah.

Brutal.

Tough break for guys. Taking away tits.

Restaurants.

It's bullshit. If Twin Anchors goes, there goes the whole shit.

Twin Peaks.

Twin Peaks. Twin Anchors has great ribs in Chicago.

Tilted Kilt. All the restaurants.

Tilted Kilt. Twin Acres is. Shout out Twin Anchors. Awesome. Was in the Dark Knight Rises. See? Fun fact. Fun fact that no one cares about.

I feel like this Hooters thing might be... Because if you work in marketing at Hooters, you know that putting out a release being like, Yeah, we're probably going to have to close everything up. People are going to be like, No, please don't go, Hooters. Well, that's what happened with the Red Lobster, right?

Yeah, until Blake Griffin saved them. Have you seen his commercials? Yeah, they're great. We should pool our money together and buy Hooters and Big Dog shirts. I like that. And then just retire.

Yeah.

That's it right there. Kevin Love posted a picture of him when he was 10 years old at Hooters. Love it. Yeah, see, there's memories at Hooters. Yeah.

Is that a real picture of Booker and Durant?

No. At Hooters? No, I don't think so. Okay. Numbers. Four. Combine Week. We'll have some good interviews coming this week. Three.

Five.

99, Pug. I'll go four for Oldie. Oh, you went four? Sixty-five. 61. I'll go back to back, 61. 21. 31. It's your birthday.

Love you guys.