Transcript of Final Four Weekend As Michigan And UConn Advance, John Fanta Talks CBB + Possibly Taking The UNC Job, Geno Crash Out + National Sports Podcast Topics And Who's Back

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On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we have the national championship game set, Final Four weekend recap. We got our good friend Johnny Fant on the show who he might be in the running for the North Carolina Tar Heels head basketball coach job.

There's some whispers, there's a lot of college circles going on there.

So, uh, we might have just recorded after a long weekend and spent half of the interview just trying to pitch him the job and getting I think he wants the job. He wants the job.

He kept on saying no, and then he's like, but in that cute, like, coquettish way that Johnny does, you know? Yeah. No.

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Okay, but first, the Chainsmokers.

The Chainsmokers. Hey, get over Chainsmokers.

I love the Chainsmokers. I was, I was so confused when that was happening and it just kept going and they kept going and the two guys ran out on stage. I was like, is this the Chainsmokers? Because they— respectfully, I don't want to detract from the body of work that the Chainsmokers has done. Like the Chainsmokers, they've been extremely successful.

Hank, you're a big Chainsmokers fan. I feel like you're about to disrespect the smokers.

No, no, no, no.

I'm a smoker. I'm an absolute smoker.

I'm a chain gang. I'm on the chain gang.

All right, you can be chain gang.

I'm a smokehead. Okay. And it's not disrespectful. I say that the Chainsmokers, they look the most like a podcast of any massively successful EDM group. I thought there were podcasters that ran—

two white guys.

Yeah, yeah. I'm saying that as a podcaster.

I was in the building on Saturday night. I feel bad for the Chainsmokers. That was not exactly the crowd. That was set up for the Chainsmokers, for the Smokers. I don't think the Smokers were going for the, for the crowd. Oh, I know they weren't, but still, there's got to be a check. Of course they were going for the check, and they probably got a fat check, but there's still got to be a little part of them. Because so Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts play, massive, massive stadium— I want to actually mention something about that in a second— they had, they were in one of the end zones, they had, I don't know, 40 people who I think were just paid actors to come in looking like they weren't at a basketball game and dancing in front of their, their DJ set, like booth and the rest of the crowd. Because if you've never been to a Final Four game, just imagine how many middle-aged dudes can you fit in one football stadium with that? They just wear throwback Q-Zips all the time. Yeah, that's exactly what the Final Four is. So then you get the smokers out there and everyone was just looking around like, what the fuck is going on right now?

No disrespect to smokers. Yeah, that those are the paid actors in front. It was very bizarre.

The arena was literally on fire.

Yeah.

And just like burned the place down. I, I forgot that there was a basketball game coming up afterwards. I was like, I wanted to go outside, smoke a cigarette after the Smokers got off stage.

The whole thing was weird too because, I mean, you guys were watching on TV the, the pregame. They had the fake James Naismith.

Oh yeah, yeah.

They had like 9 people on a desk. I know that, uh, you know, at Barstool we, we like to pack people on, on a desk and, and as many people as possible, but I think there was 9 people at one point.

You didn't enjoy the game of Naismith or No Smith?

Yeah, Naismith or No Smith is a pretty excellent game.

Max is shaking his head like he's upset about something.

I I don't like your tone when referring to the Chainsmokers at all. I thought you're saying you're chain gang.

I am. You're not.

I am on the chain.

Smokeheads are chain gang.

He's chain gang. I'm smokehead.

I bang chains.

Yeah, dude. The Chainsmokers, like, listen, you don't like—

no, you don't like—

I've never, I've never heard an artist go out on stage and be like, let's take it back to 2015.

Yeah.

Like an 11-year callback. It's usually like, hey, let's go. Anybody out there remember the '70s? They're like, hey, you remember, guys are dead. You remember where you were like 10 years ago? Let's get in that vibe.

Yeah, 10 years ago was sick.

Yeah, 10 years ago was sick. I agree. Which is why I like the Chainsmokers and I like the concert. In fact, I think that they should take Closer and that should be the new one shining moment and just be like, let's get in the— wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

No, let's be sarcastic.

Yeah, you're being sarcastic.

Let's get in the transfer portal because we're leaving Villanova. Yeah, we leave in Villanova.

Yeah, I'm not being sarcastic. I thought it just made no sense for the Final Four and it was really weird. Weird and awkward in the stadium. I'm not being sarcastic. Racist. Racist.

Yeah. Yeah. Good point.

Why? You're against the big artists at a big sporting event. Go on, Hank. Keep going because I know what you're trying to do, but there's no possible world where you're going to land this plane.

I already did.

No, you didn't. Plane landed.

Done. How?

How? How is this?

Point Hank. Point Hank.

And guess what? If the plane doesn't land, Hank will still give you a shout out.

Yep. Facts. Well, no, I just think, you know, you're not the intended audience. And he's at those— they're actually fantastic. I think I am the intended audience if they're at the Final Four.

You would think that, right, Hank?

Like, yeah, well, I was 30 when the Chainsmokers were rocking. I am the intended audience. I don't—

yeah, I thought that they did an excellent job of getting paid. I'm not going to hate on them getting paid.

No, definitely not. Okay, let's talk about the games though. UConn, Illinois. It was going into this Final Four, we all were very excited. We had this idea that, uh, the number 1 versus number 2 team, Arizona, Michigan, playing the, the, the late game was going to be one of the best games of all time. We had Illinois versus UConn, the early game, which I was saying don't sleep on that game, it's gonna be great. Turns out both games kind of stunk, and the Illinois-UConn game was just UConn being better at what UConn wants to do, and Illinois, a combination of it felt like they were never comfortable and they just had a horrific, horrific shot luck where I think every single ball just like rimmed out. UConn was banking threes. Yeah, UConn at one point had more banked threes than Illinois had assists.

Yeah, like halfway through the first half. Yeah.

So But that, that's what UConn does. Like, their offense will always find mismatches. They'll always get guys open looks. Braylon Mullins, off of the unbelievable game against, you know, the unbelievable shot against Duke on Sunday, he's back in Indianapolis. Is it too big for the freshman? Not at all. Like, he had not only the start of the game where UConn played basically a perfect first 5 minutes of a game, and but he also hit that huge dagger 3. With, I think, 55 seconds left. And that's just UConn. Like, they are— they just know what to do. They've been there before. And that's what you expect out of UConn. It might not be pretty all the time. Their defense was, was very, very good all night. They were getting Illinois uncomfortable. And UConn will win a game like this.

I think it's a combination of bad, bad shot luck and also just really good defense by UConn. Yeah, I think shots are like—

so, you know, it just never got comfortable.

Yeah, they had— they had a bunch of late— there's so many times when if UConn if they would commit a turnover, miss a shot, quick rebound, Illinois pushes down to the other side of the court, and they just put up like the most brick of a layup that you've ever seen. Um, the ball at one point— who had the sitter that it like pretty much sat on the back? Yeah, Stojakovic sat on the back of the rim, rolled off. Like, they had a combination of very, very bad luck, bad shot selection, and also just great defense by UConn. Wagler was the only one that was able to get what resembled a good offense going, but like even he had to just like at some point he was taking some bad shots too. Yeah, but he was the only spark that they had.

The, the ball that rolled off the cylinder and stayed on there forever.

Yeah.

You guys would like this. In the, in the suite that we were in, Dave just said Jake Marsh just came himself. Yeah, it was like, it was almost like a real-life wedgie.

Like, yeah, the ball stopped.

It stopped.

And then he just decided, okay, I can move again now. But it was, it felt like the spread of this game should have been like 7 or 7.5, because that's right, every time Illinois got it back and made it like a 6-point game or a 7-point game, then UConn would just hit a big 3. Yeah. And just like keep that distance in between them. So it never got close enough to really feel like, uh, like the lead was in serious jeopardy.

It was, uh, it was 4 points with a minute left. And then, but that's the thing with UConn is that, you know, they've, they have had, uh, and we've talked at length about it, their non-conference you know, what they do in the non-conference outside of Danny Hurley's crash out in Maui, uh, last year. They've lost 3 total games, and, and one of them was to the national champion last year by 2 points. One of them was in at Kansas on at Fog Allen. Um, they, they are so good when they need a bucket to draw something up to get someone open, uh, and confuse the defense and run guys through screens and pin downs and all these things. And like, even there was a moment I think Brad Underwood, he didn't have his best game. I thought there was a moment where he— Illinois started to get some momentum and he called a timeout. It was maybe like 2 minutes left. And then Danny Hurley, they just, they just had a perfect offensive set for Terrence Reid to get a post touch and score and get an easy 2. So it's just that's what UConn does.

They just, whenever they need it, they can get it. And that, and that's what it felt like, like to your point. Every moment that felt like Illinois was getting back in it. And the crowd, it was 70% Illinois.

Yeah.

And it got loud every single time they had a little bit of a charge. And then UConn would just answer and answer with a bucket or a stop. And it just kept them— kept them away the entire night.

Yeah, it was Illinois. They got the lead in the— I think there were like 7 minutes left in the first half. We battled back and it was 22-21, a 1-point lead. And then after that timeout, then it was just all UConn from that point out. It never really felt like it was going to be in jeopardy for the Huskies.

And it's also the— we talk about all the time in football, the end of half, start of half situations. That was apparent last night as well, where it was Illinois had fought back and they had made it a somewhat close game, that 22-21. And then within the last, you know, I don't know, it was like the last 5 minutes of the game or 5 minutes the first half, it ended up being an 8-point lead going into half. So you were back right at square one where UConn was playing much better and comfortably in the league.

Yeah. And Illinois, so they, they got shut out by, by, by UConn earlier this year. I want to say I'm looking it up right now.

The last 3 times they've scored less than 65 has all been UConn.

There you go. Because I knew it was— I think it was 62 or 61 points against UConn this year.

And it happened in the tournament 2 years ago in the Elite Eight.

Yeah. So that defense from UConn has Illinois' number. Yeah, it just does. And yeah, it was, it was bad shot selection. There's also panicking and it was shots being effective. Are affected. And it was just UConn swarming defense.

The, the saddest place to be in, in a Final Four is at the team hotel after a loss. I was staying at the Illinois hotel. I went— I drove back last night, but I went back to get my bags. And it's just— it's so tough because the Final Four is— you guys all been to it. It's, it's like a festive, fun atmosphere. Everyone's having the best time. You're with your college friends. There's just a vibe to it and then to have it ripped out of you on Saturday night and you just kind of look up and you say, what the fuck? I just want to go home. Yeah, it's the worst feeling.

I imagine I saw Brad Underwood being interviewed and he just kept saying that he was sad. Yeah, just like I'm just— my emotions are sad right now.

It was an incredible season for Illinois.

Yeah, it was. It was. It was a great season and it stinks that it's ripped away from you, but UConn was just a much better team. Yeah, there was much. But the thing is, I don't know if UConn is— I don't know what Danny Hurley would say if you talk to him about like ranking the 3 teams that he's coached to the championship game. My guess is that he would not say that this is the most talented team that he's had that's reached the championship game. I think that would probably be a second one that you put up there. But he might say this is the best team, like, like the way that they operate as a team. To be able to get here that, you know, since they might not have the talent that they had a couple of years ago to be able to reach the championship, it might be the best overall, like, all-around team that he's had.

Yeah. And they're— I mean, they're— think about who they've hit, who they've now beaten on this, on this run here. They beat, you know, the Furman game was weird. The UCLA, you know, it was a little bit closer. Terrence Reid was unbelievable. UCLA was close, but they were, you know, Mick Cronin, UCLA, they were, they were playing good basketball down the stretch. Michigan State was a dark horse Final Four team, right? Duke was the number 1 seed overall, and Illinois was, uh, you know, just gone to Houston and bullied Houston in their house. They've had a hell of a path, and they've— it just— every time you're like, hey, UConn, no way could they keep this up, they just keep answering it.

They keep doing it. So they shot 36% from 3, which I, I think they were happy with. Um, what do you think they're going to need to shoot from 3 to win on Monday night? What would that percentage probably be?

Probably 39-40.

Yeah, above 40. They—

Caraban's gonna have to start hitting some threes. He's, he's, he's been in a funk, and he's gonna— because you're gonna need— I think that's the difference. I think when, when, you know, Solo Ball, who's actually in a walking boot, but Solo Ball going 3-for-7— I think Braylon Mullens was 4-for-7, Caraban was 1-for-7. You need Caraban to also be 4-for-7.

Yeah.

And then it feels like you have a chance.

And then my other question was, have we reached the Ryan Fitzpatrick went to Harvard with Braylon Mullens is from Indiana?

Yeah, we're pretty close.

I think we're pretty close.

Did you know that, Hank?

Braylon Mullens from Indiana.

Well, this is— everyone's doing the thing right now. Dussey May is— it's Ohio State fans and Indiana fans are like, we could have had Dussey May. Yeah, because there is a tweet going around that Ohio State announced like they did final interviews with Dussey May and Jake Diebler. Yeah, that hurts. So Indiana fans are saying, oh, we could add Braylon Mullens and Dusty May. The whole fan fiction thing.

Yeah, hurts. It does. It does. But they— Indiana fans love doing that to themselves.

Oh yeah, big time. And also, Demery, I thought was unbelievable. He— I think he was— he the one who had the big rebound because that was it, the rebound when it was, I think, before the Braylon Mullens shot when he got an offensive rebound, but he ended up having 7, 7, 9, and 7, which is in a Final Four game. He was all over the place. That was, that was the possession. I think it was like a minute left. UConn misses, it was a 4-point game, gets an offensive rebound, hits a 3, and that's it. That's lights out. Game over. Yeah. All right. The next game was supposed to be the best game we've ever seen. And it might just be the best team we've ever seen because it was an absolute demolition by Michigan to the point where I, I questioned on Twitter, Max, I, I'm sure you saw this, but I was like, given the hype of this game and the 1 versus 2 and they have 5 losses total between them and everything everyone was saying, is this the most like thorough beatdown in a Final Four game? And people were mentioning the Oklahoma-Villanova game from 2016.

Yeah, but Oklahoma wasn't Arizona. Oklahoma was good. It was a 2.5-point spread in that game.

Didn't UNC get their ass kicked, uh, by Kansas?

But I think, I think UNC got back in that game a little bit.

You— I just remember this was never a dog walk.

This was— I guess there was a moment. It was that moment where, um, it was like maybe a 6 or 7-point game, and Arizona had 2 free throws, missed both of them, got the offensive rebound, then missed the front end of another foul. And then it was, it was basically from that point on, it was like, yeah, you guys have no chance.

What was crazy is right off the bat, Lindborg gets in foul trouble. Yeah, he got 2 fouls like instantly, instantly in the game. And I thought that that's Arizona's chance, like Arizona could win this game now. Boy, was I wrong because Michigan seemed like they played better. And then he came back into the game, then got injured.

Yeah, their best player only played 14 minutes.

He played 14 minutes and when he did play, he was affected by it. So I thought he actually He didn't play bad when he got back, but he looks—

no, he had two threes. He came in and just was a spot-up jumper.

He did look slow and he looked affected. He looked affected by it. But Michigan did not need him. No, because they had the giant Spaniard who just put his nuts on everybody's face.

Morrow was unbelievable. He, he definitely made himself a lot of money last night. And it was just everything Michigan wanted to do. It felt like the vibes from the two teams. Michigan just wanted to take it to him. The speed they were playing it with. Elliott Kadoh was incredible. He was at one point— and this is, this is a credit to Dusty May, who's having an all-time run right now, because I don't know if you guys saw, like, Dusty May before the game scouting UConn-Illinois courtside. You gotta— you like, retrospect, I should have just put everything I had on Michigan because that is such a memeable moment if you lose against Arizona. To be sitting out there not with your team, watching the first game and taking notes and keeping score. Dusty May knew that they were— they had the game plan to beat Arizona. He knew it was going to be fine because you don't set yourself up for that situation unless you have ultimate confidence in your team.

But when I saw that, I thought that other coaches, they definitely have guys that do that for them.

Oh yeah.

So I thought Dusty May wanted to be seen when he did that.

Like, right. That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was—

that's, that's a meme. That's that. If you lose You get dragged.

He did not. Yes, he did that on purpose because he wanted the cameras to see him out there and he was confident. I think 99% of the time a guy, a coach will take one of their assistants and be like, this is your job to scout this game. Yeah, I'm going to be behind the scenes.

The—

so Elliott to start the game, he was phenomenal, like one of the best 5-for-17 shooting performances I've ever seen. And I say 5-for-17 because at the beginning of the game, yeah, he ended up with 10 assists. 5 rebounds. He controlled the entire game. He brought— like, he had them all screwed up. He got Bradley into foul trouble, which— that changed the game as well. But at the beginning of the game, to start, I was like— I turned to Dave, I was like, what's going on? Like, he's just— is he like getting paid by the shot or something? Because he just kept on chucking it up. Turns out that in reports after the game, that was all part of the game plan, that Elliott Kadot was essentially missing shots on purpose. To, to like miss— missing high on the backboard because Morrow was able to, to clean it up. And that was part of their game plan against Arizona, knowing Arizona has all these big guys, has all this rim protection, that the second shot was there a lot. And you watch it back and you're like, oh yeah, he did do that a few times where it was almost a, a direct pass tomorrow off the top of the backboard.

It's a genius game plan, and Dusty May's on an absolute heater right now.

Okay, so at halftime Charles Barkley kept talking about how Cadeau was taking these shots and missing them, and they were great misses. Yeah, this part. And they're like, he needs to shoot the ball more. These are great misses that he's putting up. They're talking about like the Kobe miss.

Yeah.

You know, like a shot that's more easily rebounded by your own team. So like when I, when I heard Charles Barkley talking about that, you'll have to forgive me if I didn't think that Charles Barkley had his finger on the pulse of like a new wave of basketball analytics. But goddamn if he wasn't right. He was right that he was able to pick up on that. I guess a guy like Charles, that's what he does. He rebounds. He can see it from that angle. But yeah, he was, he was breaking the defense down and drawing a lot of guys. So then if he missed his shot, then yes, it's almost like a pass.

Yeah. And it was, it was a genius plan. And it felt like that Michigan had a genius plan. They had— they also had Arizona. Like the size of Michigan bothered Arizona. Where Arizona was having to take threes they don't want to take and get into shots they don't. Because Arizona, everyone knew what Arizona was. They wanted to just be as close to the rim as possible, bully you down low, get to the free throw line. And it just felt like they never got into a rhythm and they never got into a situation where they felt good. And it is, again, it's Arizona is the— is— was the number one team in the country. Like, they were— they're number one on Ken Palm. And Michigan just obliterated them. This is the second time this year. This is where Michigan is right now. And it's, it's going to be interesting to see what happens Monday night because you have the best team in the country, Michigan, versus the best coach slash running dynasty in the country, UConn. It is— as much as people think, oh, what are we going to watch, Michigan's going to kill them— it is— there is some really great storylines.

We're gonna have Johnny Fant to break it down as well, but Michigan has played, uh, the number 1 team twice this year, uh, and on neutral courts, and it was Gonzaga and it was Arizona. Gonzaga was the beginning of the season. They beat both of those teams' brains in, like obliterated them. So both times that they have been against those number 1 teams, they have just absolutely destroyed it.

What about Duke? What was Duke ranked second?

I think it's number 1 on Kenpom. Duke was maybe 1 AP, but like 3 on campus.

Beat them. Yeah, but if you look at, yeah, Michigan's losses this year, the two— you have to say that they're two juggernauts. Duke, who's the best team in college basketball, still shocked that they lost. And then their other loss was to the Badgers. Well, and Purdue, by 3 points. Well, regular season.

Yeah.

Um, and then that— yeah, they lost Purdue where they got beat by 8 points. But if you throw it— you can almost throw out that Purdue loss because at some point I feel like in the Big Ten tournament, if you're Michigan it's not the biggest thing in the world if you get bounced out. You just want to win at least one game. Purdue was playing good basketball down that stretch, but they, they dominated Arizona, like absolutely dominated. And maybe it's because Arizona's young, they didn't have the experience.

100%, I think that plays into it.

Michigan was much, much, much more experienced than they were. Like, Arizona's got great players. I, I love Coop Pete, I love Burrys, um, but it was it felt like it was men against boys.

Yeah. No, being there, I mean, this is what has happened the last 2 years with Duke, where it's like you have Duke teams that are really, really good, but they are very reliant on freshmen and the freshmen get in a moment.

Yeah.

And can they, can they raise— is the muscle memory there for these big-time moments in the tournament? And yeah, I think that that definitely played a part where they just weren't comfortable and they got in that foul trouble. Where when Bradley goes out and then a lot of it goes on to Burries and he's a freshman.

And so he was chucking.

Yeah, it just— it was so impressive by Michigan. They are— that what we saw on Saturday night, that Michigan team is not losing to anyone. No. Yeah. Now, how are they underdogs?

What?

They're not against UConn.

You're favored by—

oh, I mean, yeah, they're, they're not losing anyone. They're not losing to a single team. They're that Now UConn does have the, the coach and the experience to match it. Also, Terrence Reid revenge game because he started his career at Michigan. So that's the interesting part to me. They're going to have to muck it up because you mentioned the two Michigan losses. The Wisconsin one, we just hit a million threes. The Duke one, they slowed it down and they made Michigan uncomfortable. UConn's going to have to probably go into a combo of both where slow it down and they're going to hit all their threes, right?

I guess the final score that you'd be looking at would be somewhere in the like 72 to 68 range.

Yeah. If you were to think that UConn could do it, Michigan scored 90-plus in every single tournament game. I think they're going for the record. Yeah. For points in a tournament. And it's just— yeah, it's insane. You got to see what they're doing.

Yes. You got to slow them down. You also have to hit your three. Yeah. Everything has to go perfectly. You have to hope that they have a terrible night shooting as well. And then Jaxel Lindbergh, he says that he's going to play.

Yeah.

He's like, yeah, no matter what, I'm going to be out there. You can't, you can't keep me off the court for the championship game. But his knee's fucked up and his ankle's fucked up. And I would imagine he's going to get shot up with the best drugs. Oh yeah. It's going to be vitamin T. Yeah.

And Solo balls in a boot.

And Solo balls in a boot.

Solo balls in a boot.

So again, like the fact that Jaxel Lindbergh, who's one of the top 5 players in the country. The fact that when he was out, they didn't miss a beat.

Yeah.

Just makes me think it's Michigan.

Yeah.

And you can pick your number.

They have so many. I mean, McKinney was so hot from 3, like Morris Johnson, like they just have so many answers. And when you are playing like that, Morris, not an offensive— it's not that he's bad at offense. He's not. That was the best offensive game he's played all year. And it was just— he was just made everything.

He looked smooth. Yeah, he looked like he was in control. He was just dominant. Yeah, I don't know. The only thing that I keep thinking about with UConn is they are—

it's the mystique.

They're the consistently luckiest team, which means that it's not luck.

Yeah, no, it's not luck. I do not think it's luck. I think—

but you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, they find themselves in the right place at the right time all the time, more so than any other college team. And It's great. It's really good coaching. It's really good players.

I think it's, it's, it's partial mystique. It's coaching. It's players knowing their roles. And it's the fact that they run an offense that you have to— they may— they run an offense that makes you think at all times. Like, you can't, you can't just take possessions off, whether it's like you're switching everything, you're not switching anything, you're going under screens, over screens. Like, they're running action constantly to get guys open and get good looks that you can't— guys get lost, your communication falls apart. That's what they can do. And it's going to be a hard, hard, you know, mountain for them to climb on Monday night. But there's something also about Danny Hurley being an underdog that, you know, he's just licking his chops about, that, you know, he loves being an underdog.

And he was talking about like the difference between his team and other teams. And he's like, well, our guys know that this is a life or death struggle.

Yeah.

Like, it's not a game. Our guys know that they're willing to die when they step on the court.

He called them the Monstars, the Michigan-Arizona. He's like, whoever we're going to play, it's the Monstars.

Yeah. And so, yes, I think, I think Dan Hurley loves this. I think his team actually does believe that they might die if they lose.

Yeah.

Or like the universe will get destroyed like the Monstars. But that's the only— like everything says Michigan is a better team.

Yeah.

And I think that they are a better team.

Yeah. I think they play the game. If there's a 7-game series, Michigan probably win 4-2, 4-1, but that doesn't matter.

Michigan's got 9 starters. Did you know that? They got 9. They always say that. 9 starters.

Well, you know, we were joking about it during the football season, the college football season. You know when a team is really, really good? When the complaints start piling up. For Indiana, it was they're, they're too old. And oh yeah, if you can get a team that's 25, everyone's 25, of course you're going to be the national title.

And also Mark Cuban is helping them cheat. Yeah. Artificial intelligence. This one is just everyone saying Michigan bought their whole team.

And it's not fair. It's like, all right, listen, do I love that? That yes, every team changes overnight in college basketball? No, but that's just what it is. Everyone has the same opportunities.

Yeah. So that's, that's what, that's what the game is. But yeah, we've got 9 starters. That's what they keep saying.

9 starters. I have, I have 2 other or a few other things I wanted to touch on real quick. One, shout out Arizona for a great season, probably Probably the worst way to go out on a team that had lost twice this season and looked like the best team in the country for big-time stretches. But the good news is Tommy Lloyd turned down UNC, and in his negotiations, he made it so he doesn't have a boss. So he's good.

That's pretty cool.

That's pretty awesome. Tommy Lloyd does not answer to the AD anymore.

That's the dream. So who does he answer to?

No one.

To God. To himself.

Yeah. How awesome is that?

The governor?

He probably—

what are you looking at? LSU?

He, he— Part of the reason why there was a lot of smoke Tommy Lloyd to UNC was not only because UNC, but that Tommy Lloyd and the AD maybe didn't have the best relationship. So they renegotiated. Tommy Lloyd got a big pay increase, and part of the, the new deal is he does not have to answer to the AD anymore.

He will now instead report to Arizona President Suresh Garamella. How else? Okay, so he still reports to someone.

Yeah, but that doesn't— you think, you think the president is gonna be like, hey, Tommy, like, how are we doing with our— I'm saying, like, what if they need— what, like, what if Arizona doesn't— what if he runs out of staples?

What if Arizona doesn't—

what if he runs out of post-it notes?

I'm just saying, like, he can get fired still.

Yes.

Okay. But he doesn't have to sit and talk to an AD and answer to him. He literally could— the AD comes by and he's just like, I don't have to talk to you, bro. I feel like most coaches should— that should be the rule. Yeah.

As part of the deal, he no longer reports to his athletic director, Desiree Reed-Francois. That's not a report I would not want to report to somebody named Desiree Reed-Francois. No, I think this is much stronger setup that they've got. So he's not going to UNC. Dusty May just said today he's also not going to UNC.

Although Dusty May said that he's not.

I think he informed the president of Michigan that he was no, I think no longer accepting outside bids or outside job offers.

I want to get the exact—

Schefter retweeted it. Because he was trying to take a victory lap.

I want to get the exact, the exact wording because I thought it was a little bit interesting. Max is looking up Desiree right now. Dusty May has informed Michigan officials that he's not pursuing any college basketball jobs. Hmm. That's the part that made it a little interesting to me.

Interesting.

He will not— why even clarify any college basketball jobs?

Yeah. Just so you guys know, I'm not talking to anybody that works at a college.

Are you looking for another job? No, not college basketball ones. Yeah, I will not be going anywhere, any other colleges. Michigan's my favorite college. If I'm coaching college basketball, I'm here. It's at Michigan.

Yep. There's nowhere else I'd rather be.

Yeah.

In college. So now, at the University of Michigan.

Now, now we'll see. And Dusty May again, he's, he's on an all-time heater because you just see that that Paramount Plus, they did like a behind the scenes of the Michigan season. And it's just unbelievable.

It's some dusty porn.

Yeah, it really is. He looks like he— it might, it might actually just be a green screen because it was so perfectly like fire, fire me up type of video. We also had— did you guys— so they, they do the Hall of Fame and we had some new Hall of Famers. Joey Crawford in the Hall of Fame.

Very cool.

Yeah, very cool. But then we also had—

that's a guy that loves rules.

You guys see the pairing that they showed on TV that they just always like, we should call the Uber now pairing. No, it was Jim Boeheim and Mark Fields.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. Get that Uber ready now. Give me the keys. But yeah, there was a— it was good. It was a good, good night of a lot of, a lot of basketball. Not the best games. So I had one other though. Smokes.

Smokes. The Chainsmokers were— the halftime show was, was incredible. I do think that— let's be honest, there were shitty games.

Yeah, they were.

The games were two shitty Final Four games.

The UConn game got close. I mean, Braylon Mullins' 3 with a minute left was like— that was— if they miss, if they don't get that rebound, it's a 4-1 game. You had to keep watching. Yeah. The Michigan game was over. It was just like the second half was just like, they'll just end the game. Yeah.

I'm just saying, like, I hope that we get a good, a good national championship game because people will make this mean something if we don't.

Yeah.

If it's a blowout that, that like if, if it's never close, Michigan wins by 20, get ready to hear takes for the next 2 weeks.

Yeah.

About how college basketball is broken.

I, my last thought was, do you guys ever have a moment where you agree with the take but you're just so sick of hearing?

Yes. Yes. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yep. We, we get it. I get it, guys. You won.

Oh no. Yeah, yeah, but I get it, guys. Okay, everyone online, I get it. We shouldn't play the Final Four in a football stadium. Oh yeah, we're never gonna stop playing the Final Four in a football stadium. Yeah, I think I saw that a thousand times. And guess what? I also think that— here's a crazy take— I think the iPhone camera, something about it makes it seem like you're way farther away. I watched the court the entire time. I was in a suite way up top. It's not the— like, everyone makes jokes. It really isn't that, that bad. Yeah, it's not ideal. And I would rather be in a college, in a regular arena. But it's just like every time we go to a Final Four, it was like, they got to fix this. They're never fixing it. You get 60,000 more people in the stadium. Yeah, they are never going to fix that.

It's never going back.

And so we just got to stop complaining about it and just be like— and actually, Indy Titus was telling me this. Lucas Oil, they built.

Yeah.

So that the shooting eye is better. Like, they built it with the shooting eye in, in their thought process. So it's not like a Houston or some of these other places that the shooting is terrible.

Yeah.

Also not a new thing, right? That's what I'm saying. But, but every year it's just, it's the complaints are just, how are we doing this again?

It's like, when was the last time it was in a college basketball or in a basketball arena?

I mean, the '80s, it can't be.

Maybe. No, they probably had it at some point in the '90s.

No, not in the 2000s. Never.

You don't think they ever did?

I don't think so. But the— in, in the '90s, I would say yes.

I don't think so.

National title. No, because I remember like Michigan-North Carolina, Chris Webber game. That was in the dome, right? I don't— yeah, I think the Duke championships were in domes.

All right. That was '91.

I'm looking it up right now. Here we go. I'm going to get to it right here. All right. '91 was Hoosier Dome. Metrodome '92. Superdome was— what's the Charlotte Coliseum? I guess that would be—

that was '96 is the last time according to Continental Airlines Arena.

Yeah, that's, that's in, in— that's where the Devils and the Nets played. So '96, that's the last time. So that's the last—

it's never going back.

It's never, ever going back.

Absolutely not. It also should be— and they'll never do this as well.

Well, so I know this is a stupid thing to say, but I'll just say it. The Final Four should always be in Indianapolis. It should just be forever home. It—

because of the walking?

No, because in Indiana, like, I know we joke, like everyone jokes about it in 49 other states, but they make it such a big event. They care about college basketball. They care about basketball to a level that it's the only thing that's going on. You can feel it. Maybe New Orleans. Maybe New Orleans and Indianapolis are the only two. But it just takes over the city in a way that when it's— when they give it to other cities, it just doesn't feel the same. You don't feel the same pop. Like, I remember, as I like Minneapolis, but when it was in Minneapolis, it didn't feel like it was taking over the whole city. Uh, I'm sure Vegas in a couple years won't feel the same because it's Vegas, you know what I mean? Phoenix, great weather, but it's spread out. It doesn't feel like, oh, this is all that's happening. When the Final Four's in Indianapolis, that is the thing. And it's like everyone's there for it and the streets are alive and it's just the perfect place for it.

I think Vegas will probably feel pretty cool. Houston does not feel good when it's there. No, it doesn't feel like— yeah, I know what you're saying. Like, it was fun.

Yeah.

Dallas, when it was in Dallas, it did feel like it kind of took over.

You know, New Orleans is the other one. So I'll give you New Orleans as well. Dallas, I've been to a Final Four in Dallas. Does not, because Dallas and then the stadium are far apart from each other. You need— it's just Indianapolis is just— they do a great job with it and it just feels special when it's happening there.

Yeah.

So that was my last thing.

I was going to go along with that. There's a word. There's got to be a word that we can use when Jay Billis is factually correct about something, but he's so smug when he's saying it that it makes me not want to agree with him, even though I know that he's right.

Yeah.

And whatever it is, it's not disingenuous, but it's We get Jay, you won. We've been on that the side of paying the players for a very long time. But when he sat down, he had that conversation with Cal and Seth Greenberg and a few other guys, Reese. And it does feel like he's your— he walks around like he's a professor. Yeah. All the time. And like, yeah, he's smart. And the world is his lecture hall.

Yeah.

And is there to like take notes. On everything that Jay Billis has to say. But he's right. I just need— Jay, I need you to be like 20% less of a douchebag when you're going on these diatribes. And then I can— I'll be able to watch you and be at peace with the fact that you're correct about something.

But he's not right anymore because we already did it.

But in this one conversation, it's like it's already happened.

And now he just keeps hammering the thing that we knew was wrong that became right.

Well, so he was— he was having a debate and Seth Greenberg, probably not the best guy to have this debate with. Seth talking about like, well, what about players that make a lot of money and they're in college, then they go overseas and then they don't make a lot of money, then they come back and they don't have any skills to fall back on and they're not in the NBA. And then Jay Bilas was like, what are you saying, that you'd rather that guy not have gotten paid in college? And then Seth just doesn't know what to say.

Yeah. So it was like, put him up as a tomato.

Yeah. It was like, yeah, the Sean Salisbury, John Clayton.

Yeah.

And they were both kind of Claytons, but just be 20% less smug, Jay. That's all I need.

Yeah, okay, um, let's, uh, let's take a quick break. DraftKings. DraftKings Sportsbook, the number one sportsbook for live betting, is built for March. The tournament is unexpected, rewards are guaranteed. DraftKings Sportsbook is delivering the most generous rewards in the market no matter what happens on the court, because this isn't a tournament you bet and forget, it's one you react to. With DraftKings, the number one sportsbook for live betting, you're not betting what might happen, you're betting what's happening. Possession by possession, play-by-play, live lines, props, next play outcomes as the chaos unfolds. The bracket will break, so don't just watch the unexpected— bet it! New to DraftKings? Bet just $5, get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code TAKE— that's code TAKE— to turn $5 into $200 in bonus bets instantly. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPEN-Y or text HOPEN-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas. Wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire 7 days after issuance.

For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Limited time offer. Uh, shout out to UCLA women's team. Big Ten title. I love, uh, Hawkeyes and Betts. They dominated South Carolina.

Legendary Big Ten team.

Legendary Big Ten team. And Also maybe helped out with the bad PR that Geno Auriemma had on Friday night, because I don't think there's ever been a bigger baby ever. Oh, then, you know, you're right.

But I think that Dawn Staley actually gave Geno a run for his money after today's game. Yeah, because her quote after they lost today, this is an all-time quote from South Carolina. And Dawn Staley is a great coach. She says, I can swallow the loss because we lost to a really good human being and a good team and a good team that represents women's basketball well. She's still thinking about— yeah, about UConn. That's— that is maybe the biggest loser quote that I've ever heard. And she's a great coach.

Yeah, because she didn't have to do anything.

No, she didn't.

She won. She won versus Geno. Geno looked like a fucking baby. Yeah, like the biggest baby of all time.

And then she got her ass kicked. That was— that was maybe the ugliest championship game I've seen in any sport.

Yeah, absolute ass kick. And by the way, the real thing that killed Geno is the fact that everything he tried to say in the press conference was just immediately refuted to be false. When he was like, Don Staley didn't shake my hand at the beginning of the game. Yes, she did. Sarah Strong got her jersey ripped. No, she ripped it herself.

Don Staley was saying things to the refs that they would get mad at me if I said.

It's like the video from last time.

What?

Oh, yeah. When he's like, she's like, waiting. He's like, come here, come here, come here. When he knows he's got a better team. He— yeah, Geno, all-time baby, um, all-time just like loser move. And, uh, it was— yeah, I mean, he, he deserved to get dragged for that because he looked like a fucking clown the way he handled that. It's, it's also like, I don't know, this will never happen, but just once I want to see a coach have— because I don't think anything could change. Geno is gonna react that way no matter what because he was crashing out, right? But you have, have someone on your team, your PR team, whatever, your media team before you go to the podium, just be like, dude, just so you know, like, you kind of look like a bitch. You should just say like, hey, I'm a bitch and I really don't lose well. You know what I mean? Like, just go up there and be like, yeah, I'm a really bad loser and I crashed out.

Yeah.

I mean, just say that instead of trying to make up like this. What's the— when you, when you get up there and you say all this stuff about handshakes and jersey rips Does he think that people are going to say, oh yeah, actually, you know what, South Carolina was so wrong?

No, it's like great basketball coaches for the most part. I'd say more, more often than football coaches for some reason have that like little bit of crybaby.

Oh yeah.

Psychopath. Like they're psychopaths. They're all psychopaths. And if things don't go well, instead of like accountability, it must be everybody else's fault.

Correct.

Because they have Coach K. Yeah, like Coach K. But it's somebody else's fault. I need to redirect my anger. Because it can't be mine.

It is a very Coach K move that he pulled last night because it's like the Dylan Brooks when he tries to tell us one thing.

Yeah.

And then we find out it's the exact opposite. That's, that's what Geno was doing. He, he, he, he— that's— I think that's why I reacted instantly. I was like, this is the fucking biggest bitch move. It reminded me of Coach K. Yeah.

Well-adjusted people don't coach college basketball. They just don't think—

what? He's smiling. Yeah. Coach K. Yeah.

What do you think about Coach? What do you think about Dawn Staley though, after, after she loses the game afterwards, going back?

I think you're reading too far into it. I don't think she was talking about him at all.

Oh, you don't?

No. Oh really?

Yeah, she was just saying in general it's good, it's good to lose to a good human being.

Wouldn't you rather lose to a good human being than a bad one? Yeah, I'd rather not lose. Well, yeah, but if you have to lose—

so if you lose, yeah, your first thing that you should say is like, you know, at least the guy that won, that guy is all class.

It would rock though, don't you? You know what I'm saying? If Geno had just gotten to the podium, he's like, hey guys, just so you know, I'm I'm a really bad loser and I'm a baby about it. And that's why that— yeah, but that, that ruins the whole, his whole image. But he ended up saying that like after with his— he released a statement on Saturday. He was like, I was really unclassy of me. Just say it in the moment. Just be like, yeah guys, I'm a baby.

I wonder if he has a bet with, uh, with Hurley, like which team's gonna go further. Oh, that might be why he was so upset.

Yeah, that could have—

he might have lost a shitload of money.

But UCLA was awesome. They, they, they like— Geno and Dawn Staley made the whole Final Four about them, and then UCLA just silently just throttled everyone. Friday night they throttled the Longhorns.

Kind of crazy that they've never won a national championship in women's college basketball, like, for a team that's been as good as UCLA.

And how many points— I mean, what'd they give up? How many points did they give up in the Final Four? I think it was like 95 points or something. Their defense was just insane. They gave Yeah, they give up 95 points in the entire Final Four.

That's nuts.

Yeah, they were awesome. Okay, let's do some national sports podcasts. Okay, national sports podcast topics. I had a couple.

Okay.

Does anyone have anything on the top of their mind? I have— my big one is Giannis again. Giannis again.

All right. Are we going to do it with Giannis again?

All right.

So it's— it seems like it's the same story for the last 2 years.

Here's where I guess the only difference would be. Me is that for the last 5 years, 3 to 5 years, it has been a lot of Shams reporting.

Yeah.

And everyone's saying, oh, something's imminent. And I get it. If you're a Bucs fan, it's probably been the most annoying thing to have to deal with. Totally get it. Uh, Shams just been chasing that. And I do think Giannis is tight with Shams. I think there's a little bit of like, you know, they went and he wanted Dame and they got Dame, you know what I mean? Like trying to put guys around him, all this stuff. The difference this time is Giannis just outright said it, in that he says he's healthy enough to play. The Bucks don't want to play him. That's where they're disagreeing. And he said, um, like, I'm available to play and it's a slap in my face. He said, this is exact quote, you know who you're dealing with, so for somebody to come and tell me to not play or not to compete, it's like a slap in my face. So I don't know where the relationship goes from here. That's, that's his quote. So that's where it's a little different. He's basically saying, I don't know what, what's going to happen with me and the organization. They just need to break up.

Well, also, Doc Rivers, and let's put some Hall of Famer.

Yeah, he was there on Saturday night.

Doc Rivers said it's a grown man's game. It should be handled that way by everybody. I don't like it when it's he said, she said stuff. It's not good. The fact I have I have to sit up here and keep addressing it. It bothers me and we need to do something about it. I agree. It seems like both sides want to move along. Yeah, let's just— can we just do it? It seems like that's how you do something about it.

He's the best player, you know, the Bucs franchise. He's made the best— yeah, I obviously you could, you say, uh, you know, Kareem, but the— he has made the Bucs relevant, awesome championship It's been incredible for the organization. I think it's time. You got to just— you got to do it. He clearly— it's the like nice guy thing that he doesn't want to ruin his reputation. It's gone on so long that he kind of is, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Like he didn't ever want to ask for a trade. He wanted to be loyal to Milwaukee. I thought that was very admirable. There's just so much smoke. It's just him outright saying it here. Just do it, right? Get the draft picks. And move on.

They tried. It didn't work out with Dame. They took a swing and it didn't work. And then they fired a couple of coaches that may or may not have, you know, probably, probably a mistake, you would say, to fire at least one of those two. It's just not going to work out. It's— I think it's past the point of repairing anything. I don't think any either side wants it to be repaired. And there's a trend around the NBA of big men that are healthy enough to play and want to play And then their team's just saying you're not allowed to play.

Yeah.

And then that ruins everything. Max, do you have any comment about that? That's true. No, no comment.

No comment or not true?

No comment.

No comment.

No comment.

But yeah, I think it's just— it's time to separate.

Good. No comment.

We've done this.

And he's also 31 years old. Like, I'm not saying that he doesn't have good years left because he probably does, but at some point you just got to just trade him and try to, try to move on if you're a Bucks fan. Right. And if you're the Bucks organization, I know that also Jimmy Haslam has gotten involved in the Bucks. That sucks because he ruins literally everything, quite literally just ruins it all. But yeah, you— this was the first time I was like, oh, he's saying it like he doesn't know where the relationship is.

But he's basically— he's been— the last 2 years, especially when Shams put out that report about like the Bucks were interested in other teams for like talking to other teams about Giannis.

Yeah.

New York being one of those teams. It's like, okay, at this point it's not going to end well, right, for the Bucks and for Giannis together. Just, just move on. I'm sick of hearing this.

I am too. I do think that part of it is he wants to play with both his brothers this year because I think they're, they're both— I don't know if they're both— are they both on the roster? They had it. They had an oop to each other. Yeah. A non-Giannis. Yeah.

Antetokounmpo.

So I think he wants to kumpo alley-oop tonight.

Yeah, I'd say a box score origami. Yeah.

And listen, I think we've all been consistent. Like, I think that Giannis wanting to do something like this, play with his two brothers on the same court, nepotism, like we're totally cool with it. We would never criticize something like that.

No, it's great.

Yeah.

Did you see LeBron get mad at Bronny, the bad pass tonight?

No, the Lakers have no guys left. Yeah, Luke Kennard had a triple-double.

I feel like Fat Perez might be next to get the call-up.

Yeah, the, the Mavs, the Mavs doctors' hot seat. Why? Austin Reeves had to get an MRI and they told him where they needed to scan for the MRI. They just scanned the wrong area.

Oh, they scanned the wrong leg?

The wrong area.

The wrong area entirely.

Yeah, Ginger Reddick was like, I don't, you know, I don't want to like snitch here, but we told them we needed to get an MRI on this part and they just— they gave us the wrong MRI.

Oh, that's hip. That's a hip of violence by JJ.

Can I say about the NBA, I'm— I am equal parts excited for the playoffs and think that the NBA has never been worse in terms of regular season. It's an absolute joke. I know that we had Wemby versus Jokic on Saturday and it was awesome. Like Friday, every single team was playing like a tanking team was playing a playoff team and none of the games were close. I think I saw something that was like said on Friday, it was like tonight the average margin of victory— I have the league. Yeah, yeah. Tim Reynolds said there have been 2 days in NBA history spanning 80 years where at least 9 games were played with an average margin of victory being at least 24 points. Only 2 such days in NBA history. One was Friday and the other was the Sunday before that.

Jeez.

It's just— but, but then you watch a game like Jokic and Wemby on Saturday, an overtime game, Like, I can't wait for this.

That's why the playoffs are going to be great.

Yeah, the regular season NBA is like the worst product. It just sucks.

And everyone keeps throwing out their idea to address tanking. Tanking is not getting addressed. They're going to figure out a different, a new, more fun way to tank.

Do you also see like the, the— if you take a look at the standings, it's so funny, the cliff that falls off between the play-in and the, and the 10th seed and the 11th seed. In the East, it's a 10-game difference. In the West, it's a 12-game difference. So it's essentially just the bottom 10 teams in the league are just all out saying, we just do not want to win any game, actively trying very hard to put out the worst product, very hard to lose. Yeah.

Are the Wizards in last place right now? Worst record?

Uh, worst record.

Yeah, let's go.

All right, do, do a quick, uh, yeah, take your time. I actually think the Bulls with their loss today and the Bucks win, they're now they have a 20% chance to get a top 4 pick, which is better than it's been in a long time. Go ahead, sim it. Sim lottery.

Golden State.

Okay, Golden State. Wow, that would be crazy.

That'd be nuts.

That'd be nuts. I do— do 5. 5. Okay, Washington. Oh, there we go. I take that. I sign up.

That's the second deal.

Wizards and Bulls. All right, Wizards won again.

I love this.

Who do you gonna— who are you gonna take?

I don't know. Boozer?

No.

I— if we're picking first overall, no, no.

Darren Peterson?

I think Darren Peterson, uh, Bansa.

Yeah. Boozer?

Not Boozer.

What about Boozer?

What are the others? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, he's actually crazy if the Wizards said, hey, we actually We were planning on getting Cam Boozer in 5 years in free agency.

It's a moot conversation because we're not— the Wizards are not being given the first overall pick.

I don't know.

I learned that lesson last year. And also, shout out Cooper Flagg. How many points did he have tonight? Like 40?

He's just keeping— he's broken the record for teenagers.

So is he now— is he the favorite to get Rookie of the Year, or is it Kneippel?

They've been bouncing back and forth.

And that team must have been awesome.

Yeah, those guys played together last year.

Yeah, they were really good.

Holy shit.

By far and away the two favorites for Rookie of the Year.

Conklin and Cooper Flagg are both same team. Oh my God. Yeah, they're one, two.

And then who's third? Edgecomb?

John Shire. Oh no. Edgecomb. Oh wow. Sorry, I can't read that.

Yeah, Max, what was that about? Because like the other day Embiid was reported as being out against that game, the game against the Wizards. And then he actually tweeted or he went to X.com, the everything app, and posted like, this is news to me, I'm playing tonight. And then the team, I guess in between that and tip-off, had a word with him. They said, dude, you're not playing. So what's going on? He was sick, but he thought that he was playing. He wanted to sweat it out. Yeah, because Big Cat did that to me Friday of March Madness. Sometimes you go, you're sick and you try and show up to work and the work says you actually shouldn't be around the team.

Fair point.

It just seems like he might be a little disgruntled. Yeah, he wanted to play, but yeah, he said he was sick.

He had to go. Max wanted to be in the cave with the boys and Harrell was playing the Wizards.

And so you don't think he's disgruntled at all?

He wanted to play.

Jokic did get another triple-double.

Yeah.

By the way.

Yeah. Same with Luka Dončić. I mentioned that, but Luka Dončić did get a triple-double. By the way, breaking news. Breaking news from Sean. Luka Dončić will seek specialized medical treatment in Europe on his grade 2 left hamstring. Huh. That's interesting. Huh.

What kind of specialized medical treatment we talking about here?

Luka, remember when LeBron went down to Miami for those 2 weeks?

Hmm.

He's on the Cavs. You can just go to Miami for 2 weeks.

Remember when Christian McCaffrey went over to Europe? Specialized medical treatment.

Europe. What's happening? Whatever Paul George is doing right now. What's happening in Europe? People are asking.

What's that, Zach? They're just taking stem cells, right? Yeah, it might be stem cells. Yeah, maybe that's what Kobe did.

We're just accusing them of like— I don't think that's what they did, but maybe it's what they did. We're accusing them of way worse. Not having the balls to actually accuse them. We're pussies about it. They're also doing way worse. Yeah, we're being pussies about it. They're like, hey, you're up. Oh, that makes you think. Oh, so that no matter how this plays out, we can be like, well, he cheated or didn't. You know, he sucks. That's a good place for huge cowards. Yeah.

What is it? What is the stem cell treatment that they do? How does that work?

They take their cells.

Yeah.

And someone else want to pick it up? Let's see. You know what he was explaining to us back here? They stem. They stem. They take some good cells. Yeah. Them your bad cells together.

Yeah.

And then he's right. You're good. The good cells absorb your bad cells. They eat them.

I thought it was like—

replace them.

I thought it was like the cells were really good and that— but like stem and seed cells, it's like bad versions of the cells. I thought they make you sick and cough.

I thought they took your blood out and then they, they put it in like a washing machine.

Yeah.

And then it like got your blood all dizzy and then they put it back in your body and your blood's like, whoa, where are we now?

Yeah. Because they get—

then they fight harder because they're like, we're not in our regular home.

They get it.

After a while they realize, oh yeah, we actually are at home.

They get the plasma out of the cell.

Yeah. Did you see that picture of Joe Rogan? Yeah. He had just like 2, 3 huge bags of orange juice. He's like, they took this out of my blood. Yeah.

Yeah. He looks sick. It's probably a pretty healthy thing.

Yeah. Memes, go ahead and explain stem cells to us.

It makes— it makes you 200% stronger. Fuck.

What? Yeah, I want that.

Based on something I heard on a podcast one time. Oh, okay.

Memes, good extra analysis.

Memes, do they have like Do they have like women give birth and then like the placenta has the stem cells in it? So are they just using like placentas? Do they have like a placenta bank that they go into and they're like, oh, Luka's here, let's put this placenta into his hamstring?

I believe it's an umbilical cord.

Ah, so there's the same thing. So there's like babies that are being born in Europe right now and you have the opportunity to donate your umbilical cord to the NBA.

Yeah, essentially. But that's also why it's illegal here.

What, babies? They can't— their body, their choice. They should be allowed to do that if they want.

Babies can't do stem cell.

No, babies can't donate their umbilical cords to stem cell.

Babies can't play in the NBA. We're stopping the right, you know, they can't earn a living. Babies. Yeah, they can't willingly offer their umbilical.

I need Jay Bilas on the case. Hmm.

I'm now—

sounds like people are denying babies a right to make money off their own bodies.

What about the thing that I said about making your blood dizzy?

I think that's correct.

All right. Cool, cool, cool.

This is a good talk.

All right.

Do we have any other— any other topics before we do? Who's back? Should we get to who's back? Who's back of the week is brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. Twisted Tea is the perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long, whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar. Or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. Love the half and half, the peach, the original Twisted Tea. Go get it today. Twisted Tea. Hank, your Who's Back of the Week? Who's Back of the Week is the Buffalo Sabers. Yeah.

Yeah. Happy for the first time in the history of New York. First time in the history of this podcast.

Yeah. First time in the history of this podcast, 14 years playoff drought. Whoa, that's long. Longest in pro sports. It's over there officially. They clinched the playoffs. Good for them. Good for New York. Yeah. You see the guy I retweeted the other night? Yeah. That he was going to eat Tate Thompson's height in chicken parm.

It's pretty good.

He said that like before the season. I need to see that guy eat the height in chicken parm. How tall is Tate Thompson? He's pretty tall. It's a lot of chicken parm. It's a shitload of chicken parm.

Their nightmare is over, though. I'm very happy for Sabers fans.

He's 6'6" in chicken parm. Zach, could you eat that much chicken parm? I think we could all take that down for sure. Yeah, actually, that's not that bad as a team. That's not that much.

Each chicken parm is what, like—

what are you talking about?

It depends if you're doing it like long ways.

No, I don't know. Oh, sub. Oh, Max, you were thinking about like, if you do that, like a lasagna.

Jesus.

Chicken. Oh my God.

Like, chill out.

Yeah, that's a lot of chicken parm. How long would it take you to— a week, easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Less. I think it's only like 7. I mean, a footlong sub of chicken parm.

Yeah.

Yeah. I thought you were saying like in one sitting or like one. No, one day, one challenge. Yeah, that'd be a lot.

So who has the longest streak now that the Sabres—

I don't think anyone's even close to this.

Sabers.

Hank, is that on people's track? I got to look.

Yeah, Hank, it's your— who's back? You can look up the result. Hank's never prepared for this. It's the New York Jets. What? That's crazy. Same state.

Damn, I thought New York's national nightmare was over. Memes, when was this on your radar?

Uh, it's been—

it's been on my radar. For how long? Months? A while.

No, the Sabres—

Sabers is a good hockey team.

Yeah, they are.

And so it was, it was like, oh God, this is, this is going to happen. Yeah, but that was a while ago. I'm glad it happened on Saturday, though. Yeah. Final Four.

Yeah.

What, um, who's close to you guys? The Angels. And how long have they been? 11 seasons. And you are what, 15?

Oh, can I tell you something, though? It's way more embarrassing that the Angels haven't made the playoffs 11 years.

It's Shohei and Mike Trout and Rendon. Yeah, anywhere.

It's a natural.

It's not in that same kind of—

that was insane.

That was that one postseason he was in.

That, that was literally the dragon meme. Yeah, all fucked up. Show it. Trout and Rendon. Damn. Sorry, memes. That was mean of you. Yeah. How are the Red Sox doing? It could have been meaner. It was mean. How? Make it meaner. Mike, who's back of the week is the great state of New York. Oh, why? They're— their nightmare's over.

You were celebrating this on X.com. Yeah, but the way Hank says it.

Yeah, it really makes you— yeah, it's different.

Yeah, I mean, Mims is right.

He is right.

Yeah.

Hank could— a regular person could say something, then Hank says it, it just feels different. It's 100%. It's different. Yeah. Hit different. Hank hits different. Hank always— Hank makes Hank gets you aggro. It's like angel dust. You want to run through a wall and punch, punch a cop in the face. I should coach. Yeah. You want to be on Johnny Phantoms staff? We're not there yet. No, I would tank his staff. Oh, what? Why do you hate all of our guests?

If he was at North Carolina. Oh, yeah, that's fair.

That's fair.

I forgot about you being a giant Duke fan.

But why do you hate all of our guests? I love our guests.

That's not true. You left Julian Edelman off the Mount Rushmore.

I left a lot of people off the Mount Rushmore.

So did you, including Jules. So did you. But you know, you're the Jules guy.

Run the Jules. That's what you always say. What, by the way, speaking of playoffs, excited hockey playoffs are starting in like a week. Yeah, I think the last game is— did the Caps come back?

No, they lost 8-1. Oh, no. Hank hits different when Hank— we were out there watching the game and, and the Rangers scored and Hank just goes, goal. And they looked over me, goes, sorry, PFD.

No, he didn't. No, he didn't say it like that. That would have been fine. He said, oh, sorry, PFD. Yeah, he was chipper about it.

Yeah, he was chipper about it. And in his mind, I know that Hank was not trying to be a dick in his mind, but it 100% came across that way.

You knew the score.

Yeah, that's really— listen, that's really— you know what this is? This is RIP to the— to Ovi. This is going to be Alex Ovechkin's last week playing professional hockey in the NHL, I think. And he's got 4 more games left. We had to beat the Rangers. We lost the Rangers. It's fine. Historically, we've, we've dismantled the Rangers in these types of games to the point where they have to break their entire franchise and issue apology letters and fire everybody in their front office. So sometimes you're the bear and sometimes the bear gets you.

By the way, speaking of—

thanks, Hank.

I know that you really mean it. Speaking of playoff hockey, though, are you— you're still fighting memes. You could get in. Oh, no, he can't. Yeah, they can. What was that?

They're in right now.

No, they're not in right now. They're on the outside looking in. They're one point out.

Here's the thing about the Islanders.

They lost their last 4 and they also just fired their coach. Yeah.

Flyers fired up. So fired up.

I'm so fired up. I'm not allowed to tweet about the Flyers.

They went—

They won like 8, 8 games in a row.

And then I tweeted like, I think I'm about to hop in on the Flyers.

And they lost 2 straight.

And I said, I'm retired from the Flyers.

And then they won 2 straight. Problem is you guys are fighting for the same spot. Could be.

Could be.

Flyers beat them Islanders on Friday.

Fired up. Yeah.

Max Porter. Porter Martone.

My guy was—

that means Max found out about that 5 minutes before the show.

That is also correct. That I watched that period in overtime today of the Flyers.

You got, you got fired up.

They beat the Bruins.

Even when they're not playing, you get fired up because you get to find out about wins that they had 2 days ago.

And saying getting fired up rocks. Yeah. Okay, so that's our hockey talk. I'm fired up.

A lot more.

That's a good season preview, but I won't be tweeting about them.

We also all need to— I just want to put out a PSA to all AWLs. We really need to get all of our focus on, uh, the 76ers getting falling back into the play. Yes. Yeah, because right now they're 6.

I know, I know. We need that. We need that. A lot of 76ers.

Celtics-76ers, then 76ers or Celtics versus Knicks second round would be incredible.

Watching the Flyers just passed—

makes me hungry. No, because—

no, I'm, I'm wrapping it back around because it's like, what's it called?

Yeah, you're in Gretzky's office.

Yeah, wrap around.

Um, Max's Wraparound is a great segment.

Because I don't really care, and it's fun to like root for—

it's fun to root for something that can't hurt, not like absolutely destroy me when it loses.

And like, the Sixers losing to the Celtics, I know is going to happen, and it's gonna suck because I'm gonna have this piece of shit in my face.

Zach?

No, yeah, Zach.

Yeah, no, it's gonna suck. It's gonna be Sixers. It's gonna be Sixers. Is going to suck. I can't wait.

Okay, good. Who's back?

Are they going to let—

what it was—

are they going to let Joel Embiid play?

You're so funny.

You think in the playoffs?

Your one-liners that you do are so funny.

It's a question.

We're so funny right now.

We're asking questions, Max.

That's a— that's a joke just for Big Cat and I. Yeah, it makes no sense. It makes you laugh every time. Um, wait, wait, what was your who's back?

And that was Hank's.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You got your hockey. Yeah.

My Who's Back of the Week is turtles. Oh, Milwaukee Brewers have a rally turtle. Have you seen this turtle?

No.

Bobby Jr.

This bothers me though.

They keep in their pockets. Why would you ever keep a turtle as a good luck charm?

No, I'm saying it bothers me because I'm a big believer in these type of things working. So Bobby, they do work.

Bobby Jr. is the best. They have him on a leash. They take him for walks.

Dude, what if that was Mr. Pear?

Yeah, it could be Mr. Pear. What is it? Mr. Pear memes?

Could be Mr. Pear.

Where'd he go?

Missouri. Hank called Mr. Pear junk. You— this is turning into the defamation of our turtle junk. No, prove it. I don't even know what you're talking about.

Yeah, that's what I say when I'm innocent. I just say, prove it.

He was just lashing out. It was just like—

doesn't seem like a quote that you'd make up. Like a very specific accusation.

You know, this bothers me because this— this means— bothers me.

When did I say I'll call it junk?

They was giving an office tour.

They were like, yeah, we used to have some junk here. I like this turtle, though.

Yeah, no, it's a bad sign because I think this is— these things work.

Yeah, they do.

Always work. We did have junk in that area and the turtle. And I said there was junk over there and you took it as me talking about the turtle. But I was not talking about the turtle.

Well, now it turns out it was a good thing that we let Mr. Perry go because he's up in Milwaukee. Yeah, he's bringing joy to several dozen Brewers fans.

Okay, I'm worried about that.

Yeah.

All right. My Who's Back of the Week is not the Cubs because they are in the last place in the NL Central. But more importantly, Craig Counsell can't dip. Did you guys see this clip?

I did not.

Oh, it's a tough one. It's relatable. It's a tough one. It really is. It's just I said it. The only way you can get out of this is like they had a sale for, for wintergreen Grizzly long cut. Look at him. Oh, go back. This is just— this is what it's hard to be like. I'm not a nerd. I'm not a nerd. He's coughing up a lung. Oh, top of the dugout. Not a great start.

Did they make him do that?

I don't know.

Is that like a— did they win like before? If you guys get a hit in the first inning, I'll do it.

Oh, man. Yeah, that's something like I know that this is probably— I actually think you have to address that in the press conference. Like, you have to talk about that. You'd be like, I saw the clip circulating. Yeah, bro, I get it. But I'm not normally like that. Like, just went down the wrong pipe. Yeah, I'm a little hungover.

You got to— you got to dip in your press conference.

Yeah, I'm a little hungover. I don't know what happened. Just so you know, I'm a fucking dude who can chill.

Yeah.

You got to worry about me.

Bring out a whole wad of just Copenhagen long cut for your next interview.

I'm not going to get dizzy when I'm trying to do the lineup card.

Don't even bring out the puke button. Like, I know. Swear to God, I know that you've got like a little wastebasket.

Yeah.

In the, in the dugout that you can puke into. Just say, fuck that, I'm going raw dog.

Yeah.

And I swear, watch me do the horseshit.

If you give me a fuck, if you give me a cigarette right now, I will inhale. Yeah, I swear to God, I can fucking hang with you guys. He's got to do something.

It's a bad look.

It's a bad, bad look. All right, Zach, my Who's Back of the Week this week is going to be Angels right fielder Joe Adell.

Yes. Yeah.

He's going 3 for 3 on absolute robbery. Although I don't— don't do this.

Don't do this.

Okay. I hate—

I hate people that are having this take.

I I kind of understand. I think you have to— I don't think you can land.

Oh, in the stands.

I think you have to land in the— it's so much for a home run.

It's awesome.

I agree. I agree. But it also would be kind of sick if they're like, home run, you landed in the fucking stands.

There is a possibility that he caught the ball and then he fell down on the ground and like the ball trickled out and then picked it up, put it back in his glove.

Right.

But that was awesome.

You know, I mean, they were all so sick to have 3 in 1 game was insane. I just— when did he catch the last one? Was he still— was his— were his feet still—

they were in the air.

Okay. Yeah, that was fine.

It was awesome.

Yeah.

You know what? Fuck it. That's— you're right, Max. Now I'm watching it again. I saw the picture. That's when I thought about it. When I saw the picture from behind, I was like, how is this—

the picture also?

I know, but I was like, great picture. Makes no sense. But now that I'm watching it again, I retract my take. That was awesome. You actually should be encouraged to jump into the stands.

And the fact that the Angels did this and they, they were winning the game 1-nothing.

Like, this looks like a guy that actually is, is just dressed like a major league baseball player.

Like, without these 3 plays that he made, they were getting their ass kicked.

It was incredible. Incredible.

And I think the lead or the league leader last year had 4.

Yeah.

4 robbers. He had 3 in a game.

Yeah. He's, I mean, Adele just won the Gold Glove. Just get ready. Get excited. You're going to be announced Gold Glove winner right after Super Bowl Sunday.

Maybe during Super Bowl Sunday.

During the Super Bowl halftime. Yeah, it was sick. It was sick. Good job, Zach. What else you got? Empty the clip. I got one more quick pivot. You guys been beasting at all recently? No, because Beast Games are done.

Mr.

Beast. 50 streamers, 1v1 through 50 for $1 million donated to the community. YourRage won. $1 million giveaway to his— what?

So it was, uh, 50 streamers compete for $1 million to donate to their, uh, respective communities, and YourRage came in competing.

What are you saying? What's that last part? Competing?

What was the last part?

What's the last part you're saying? YourRage is the gentleman who won. Okay, yeah, I thought you're saying— I thought you're It's like, never ask a lady. I'm 41. I don't know your age. I can see the mix-up there.

My bad.

I should have prefaced with your— your rage is his name.

Your rage?

Yes. Double R rage.

All one word.

Y-O-U-R-R-A-G-E.

Okay.

Your rage. Got it. Your rage.

What's his age?

Which— you just spoiled it for us. Is your age—

well, it was— it was more so celebrating the fact that he won, but you spoiled it.

I now can no longer— I can't— Beast.

Well, didn't Beast also just lay off a bunch of people?

Did he?

You were telling me this.

They did have a round of layoffs. How many people?

Like, for a video, that'd be electric.

That would be awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah. Remember when Spotify—

I'm going to make you compete for severance. You get 2 weeks of health care or flip a coin and you get 4. Oh, well, I wanted to watch this. Now I can't. I like to be— what did they compete in?

They just— you ever play like a—

it's like almost like Mario Party games.

They put them in this big glass sphere.

If you walk out of the sphere or out of the circle, you do get eliminated. And they do the party games in the circle, different, different competitions.

You know, there was some slingshot elements. There were some penalty kicks they were shooting. It was co-hosted by also no other than a global superstar. I should speak compete. Oh, there we go, there we go.

And there lies the rub.

Wait, so Zach, who do you think would be more famous, the guy that's putting on the event or the guy that they—

is a guest—

that they hired to be a guest in the event?

My thought process was like, they're in this board meeting thinking, well, Speed is a streamer, but he transcends streaming, so he clearly can't compete in this competition, so let's bring him in.

Okay, that's just how some are thinking.

Google alerts on for IShowSpeed. No, no, I just—

this is a fun competition.

A lot of notable names in there.

They got like the 50 biggest streamers in the world come together and compete.

Yeah. Okay. Good job, Zach. All right, let's get ready for Johnny Fanta. Great interview with him getting you ready for the national championship game and also talking maybe being the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

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Okay. For the last time of the tournament, because we are here at the national championship, it is our very, very, very, very, very good friend and very special guest, Jonny Fanta from NBC Sports. You could see him doing NBA, college basketball, everything. He's also going to have spaces on his Twitter pre and post game on Monday night. So tune in. Johnny, we got 2 teams left. Uh, before you sell us on the national championship, what was your vibe? What was your takeaway from Saturday night in the Final Four?

That Michigan is absolutely insane, and that performance against Arizona is not supposed to happen. Yeah, it defied the basketball gods. It was just— it defied the, the laws of the sport. Arizona comes into the game number 1 in all the analytics. Throw them out. Daimara and Marez Johnson just said, we are going to punk you tonight. It didn't matter who they were playing and what they did to the Wildcats, coupled with 12 threes. Like, it was just— it was incredible shot making from the Wolverines. And if they make shots like that, we're talking about a team that enters into a very special echelon in the sport. I'll tell you my other takeaway. It's that experience and composure and all those things, those buzzwords, they matter in this thing. And because of that, the one-game nature is what makes Monday intriguing. Because on Saturday night, I saw an Illinois team that the Final Four stage was new for them. And I saw a UConn team that knew what to do to get it done. And you know what, guys? As somebody from the west side of Cleveland, Ohio, that can appreciate people who find, find ways to win, because for a large majority of my sports life, I've seen teams not find ways to win, find ways to do it the other way.

UConn, as the season gets deeper, they thrive in situations. They don't make mistakes. You have to beat them.

Yeah. Yeah. Johnny, Big Cat, he mentioned it. You talked about it before we got, got recording with you. You do two Twitter Spaces tonight on Monday, pre- and postgame for the national championship. Can you walk us back? Like, what is the origin of the Jon Fanta Twitter Space? Because it's become synonymous with college hoops, and I didn't know if that was something that your employer asked you to do or if you just started doing it. How'd that work out?

You know what, fellas, it was just, uh, it was a weeknight in 2022. I think I was driving up and down the Northeast Corridor. We've all been there, I-95 or whatever turnpike it might be. And I had started to see— I had done Periscopes. Remember Periscope back like pre-COVID? Oh yeah, those are popular. Those could be a lot of fun. It was a way to engage with people. And I, and I started to see these Spaces come about, and I was thinking to myself, why not try one and see if there's any interest? Well, there was more than just interest. It was, it was a haven for college hoops fans in that moment to call in. It started out with Big East fans who still control much of the spaces, and, and people from Tony on the Boat to St. John Shirt Guy to the Ghost of Luke Carneseca are the OG callers. Uh, the Ghost of Luke Carneseca literally, uh, sounds like— is it Is Toy Story— is it, um, Zurg?

Or—

yeah, well, yes, sounds like, sounds like that guy, uh, is calling into the show, who I had, who I had not thought about since I was like 12 years old. Uh, but he— so that's what it sounds like when that person calls in, and it's an open forum. It's an open forum. But to answer your question, it was not a boss mandate. It was not a company mandate, honestly. Um, there's nobody that's saying to me, hey, you have to do this, you have to do a certain amount of spaces per season. It's, it's kind of when I want to do them, but it's for the fans.

I love them.

It's the best.

Spaces are for the fans. I love it.

It's a good mixture of, uh, of information, good analysis, and then some absolutely crazy people. And then you get, you get your reaction to the crazy people, which is when you ban guys, when you kick them out, when guys steal Reese's from their kids, when they take a Reese's from, from a child.

Yeah.

Yeah, then we got Judge Johnny weighing in true on them.

Um, well, we have to tell the truth about what somebody said about a certain coach. Yeah, you know, over the years.

Yeah, it's almost like a confessional. It's a just like, let the takes flow, this is a free space for it.

It kind of— honestly, PFT, think about this. The old— in the spirit of the Easter season, the old school confessions, which I mean, however you've gone to confession is your choice, but for those you know, old schoolers, the original confession was behind the screen.

Yeah, yeah.

So Spaces, yes, you can call in from your burner account and we have no idea. It's kind of like your chance to sit down in the room and lay it all out there. Now what you don't control is how my reaction is going to be. It also is the very first area that I ever learned about gesture maxing or frame bogging. Yeah, like those words first came up on those sequences.

Yeah.

And Johnny, I also saw from your time in Indy this weekend, you were, you were hurleying, you were hurley maxing. So like when you were—

is that what the term is now?

Whatever it is that you were doing, you did it to Big Cat, to Dave, where you just go in, you just snuggle with your forehead. How many people did you hurley max on this week?

Anywhere from 30 to 40.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like it was an active, it was an active thing in downtown Indianapolis. Pump party activities. You know, while, while, while some, some folks were trying to network and whatnot, was trying to bring the college basketball world together.

Yeah, I love it.

Because to me, a nice head hug or a nuzzle— did you call it another term?

Yeah, we were calling it nuzzle with Hurley.

Yeah, kind of just kind of like a snuggle.

Yeah.

Or like a snuggle, if you will.

Yeah.

You're head snuggling.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's not a big deal.

Yeah, exactly. It's a very normal activity. And my whole goal with that was because— did he not make it seem like it's something that is done in, in our— like, he made it seem like it's an everyday type of thing with the reindeer.

He's trying to listen. Yeah, you're just getting a little bit closer to listen. That's all it is.

That's all you need to do. And that's what, that's what led to that.

Yeah. Uh, Johnny, I had a take before you came on, and I want, want you to, to set the record straight. I'm, I'm tired of people complaining about college basketball playing the Final Four in football stadiums because it's never changing. And it's actually, it's not as bad as people— I think the iPhone fucks it up. I honestly do. I think that when you send a picture from your seats, I was way up in the heavens last night. I was watching the court. I wasn't watching the Jumbotron. It was still a great experience to be there. It's not perfect. I would rather be in a 20,000-person arena, but it's never going to happen. So why are we complaining about it every year?

Also, it's like, okay, so this is the people who complain about this. The moment that this doesn't sell out is the moment that your argument can become even remotely valid. And that's never going— that's never going to not happen, right? Like, they get 70,000-plus easily. And one of my favorite moments of the sports year, whether you like college basketball or not, I guarantee you, because Big Cat, you were there— is when they bring up 4 kids from each school. Yeah, they're student athletes, uh, from different sports, and they join together and sing the national anthem before the 2 games start, and the place is just bonkers good. I mean, it is, it is on another level. I don't want to hear it. We are in a world of complaining and whining way too often. Like, the other thing, people on Saturday night who are like, why isn't this on main network television? And it's nothing against CBS, it's more about the fact that TBS has, has had a share of the Final Four for like the last decade plus, right? This is nothing new. Yeah, we need, we need more. Like, if you want to complain sometimes about certain things that shouldn't be messed with, that, that, that's fine.

But on the Final Four front, they fill that football stadium to the brim. It is a cool scene when you're inside that building. And I do think the majority of seats are still very good seats. And that stage of the elevated court.

Yeah.

And the aura of that situation, like sports can be unique and can be fun for the right reasons. And the Final Four has produced great moments. I am so against the people who just come out of the woodwork just to say, I don't like it.

You're right about the aura. It does— again, it's not perfect for basketball. I get that argument. The actual play of the game, I get it. But, you know, I think the players have adjusted just fine. The aura is there in when you're playing on that stage in front of, you know, 70,000 people. Now, along those same lines, why are we expanding the tournament?

It— there's no place for it.

So you agree?

Yeah, we don't need to expand it.

All right, so here's my— here's my only— so what's the, uh, what's the proposal? 76?

It's gonna be 76. It's gonna be, uh, 24 teams in the opening round. Okay, before the main bracket.

Okay, so it's just another day that I could lose money.

Um, I would gain— or gain— and can I say this? I'm— I was— before you continue to explain, I will say this. I also can be reasoned with. Like, I am not one of those— I think there's some people in my world who are my friends who are like, this is what I believe in and this is what I'm staying to. Like, I'm also willing to give it a whirl, but like, I don't think that college— I don't think that the field of 68 needs to be messed with.

I agree with you there. The only way I would be okay with it, and this is never going to happen, so it's a stupid thing to say, but I'm going to say it. I would be okay with an expansion if it was just for the mid-majors. That's it. I don't want to see— if they were like, hey, we are losing somewhat of Cinderella. We want to see these smaller schools get some shine. We're expanding it to 76. You're going to get 8 more teams in, but they have to be the team— they have to be, you know, the year that Indiana State didn't get in, you know, like a Drake or some of these teams, right? Get these teams in.

I'm all for it.

It. If they expand it, and we know what's going to happen, I did not need to see a 500 Indiana team play a 500 Auburn team. I didn't. I know I don't need to see that. So that's where I'm, I'm like, this is what's going to happen. They're going to just get more Power Five conferences, Power Four conferences into this thing, and it's gonna stink.

Yeah, you, you want to see a Belmont or like a UNC Wilmington, the, the top-tier mid-major that didn't win their conference tournament, right? You know, like when the Big West, they had, uh, I think they had UC San Diego and UC Irvine, like if both have had a sensational season where they're both a combined 60-5, that they— but I will say this, and I believe this to be true, and if you, and if you, if you don't, you can push back on it. We are in a world where the committee— do not tell me that they don't read stuff and read social media and get peer pressure. I believe, like I believed it with Miami, Miami, and they gave in. They did. And then Miami, that was sick when they beat SMU. Yeah, that was so much fun to watch. I do believe that of those 8, I, I, my, my heart says we will see at least 2 of the 8 be from a non-high major because of you have to put this team in if you're going to expand the field. This is why, like, I don't think Miami University's case is going to be a, a one-off when we're selecting the field.

So I don't think all hope is lost. I just don't think you're going to get— like, I want 4 and 4. Yeah, I want 4 non-high major and 4 high major.

See, what you just said though, I— what they should actually do is they should make, like, depending on how the season rolls around, and maybe you could do it like 2 weeks before, where, uh, they, they say, hey, here are the 6 conferences that get 2 bids, and these 6, like, so So like the Missouri Valley, because, you know, Northern Iowa wins as a 6 seed. Northern Iowa goes to March Madness, but so does Belmont because they won the regular season. So there's 6 mid-majors there. Their regular season winner and their conference winner, conference tournament winner goes to March Madness. And if it's the same team, then you let an Auburn in. Then the bubble gets bigger.

How about this idea? You're, you're a television partner right now. And you call up the top 5 or 6 non-high-major leagues. Okay. And I'm excluding— like, I'm excluding the— well, if you want to include the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West like that, that's fine. Well, the Mountain West is going through some change now with the new Pac-12, which I think will be a feisty league because Gonzaga and San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State. Remember I said this?

Yeah.

The new Pac-12 in basketball Next year will be a fun late-night league for all involved. That being said, you call up your television partner, you call up the 6 best non-high-major leagues, and you say you are going to hold the 3rd Saturday in February. Your top 5 or 6— your top 4 or 5 teams from the last 2 or 3 years, you're holding it, and we're renewing Bracket Busters, and there is incentive in mid-February for— we are going to set up matchups. We don't know what they'll be.

Yeah.

But when there's a— let's just say there's a Miami and a UC San Diego and both are combined 52-5. You're telling me you wouldn't watch that with 2 weeks to go before Selection Sunday? Yeah. That's their chance on national TV to say we belong then in the field.

Yeah.

I love that. Bracket busters. Bring them back.

I love it.

Yeah. It's not a bad idea. I just look at the number and I I just think I don't want it. Maybe it's because I'm resistant to change, Johnny. Maybe it's just because I like March. I like— I like— honestly, I like 64 teams, but I, I adjusted to the 68. I've learned to appreciate the playing games, especially since we've had some winners that end up making little Cinderella runs. I like that. But this to me seems like, uh, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered.

Yeah, I, I am not in favor of it, right? Um, this is, you know, I think we're talking in a town hall meeting right now where, okay, well, if you're going to change the structure of the— I don't know, the structure of the recreational athletic board, can we at least serve steaks at the, at the meet, you know, at the barbecue this summer and upgrade from Costco hot dogs and hamburgers? Nothing against Costco hot dogs and hamburgers, but can we at least like, let's go to the next level. On the menu. So my— if we're going to change it, I don't want to change it, but if we are going to change it, there are some parameters that America wants to see in there. And the committee, the committee, you need to listen. And also you need to— you, you've, you've got to be open to the idea that if the little guy still has that type of a season, give them an invitation to the ball. Because to me, the NCAA tournament is the ball. It's, it's the castle. And your carriage pulls up, whether you're the heavyweight like Michigan or you're High Point, and you've got this flair, you've got a dance move that nobody knows about.

Okay. We all once showed up to that dance in 7th or 8th grade where we said, I'm going to make this move tonight. Yeah, that's what I— if you're going to change the structure of the tournament, you're going to invite some more, you know, you're going to welcome 6th grade in now because you want, you want them to join 7th and 8th because you got to sell more pizza at the dance hall. Please, please don't totally ruin a good thing.

I love it.

I appreciate that, Johnny. Well said. Now for the actual game on Monday night, you said it earlier, like Michigan, if they play like they played in the semifinal, there's no chance that they lose. I think they beat anybody in the country easily if they play that game. Um, but you could also say like maybe they already played their best game. Maybe that's the peak that Michigan will ever will ever accomplish with that team. And if there's one team that could stop them, it's just UConn and whatever weird wizard luck that, uh, that Coach Hurley and that— honestly, the school of UConn, the University of Connecticut, has had crazy luck, uh, going back since what, 1999? '99, yeah, when they first started.

Yeah, right.

So like, if there's one team that can interrupt what seems to be the best team in college basketball, it could be UConn. But what chances do you give the Huskies on Monday night?

You ever see the movie The Shining?

Yep.

Yeah. The opponent for Jack Nicholson, which in that case it's what Shelley Duvall and her son running around the hotel and he's biking around, that's what it's like playing UConn.

I like that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Here's Danny.

Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Like, that's, that's basically— and he's running around in the snow. Like, Michigan is hoping for a freeze to death. Okay. But, but if things start cooking in the hotel, anything could happen. And, and that ax gets going like UConn chops wood. This is who they are. They don't, they don't care what the score is. They don't care what the circumstances are. They don't care that they're outmatched. Now, if Michigan and Connecticut play 10 times, I think Michigan wins the game 8 out of the 10 times. The question on Monday night is, is tomorrow one of the two?

Yeah.

And I think Hurley's like good for one of those. And the other is Michigan has a horrid shooting night and but they're coming off a 12 made threes performance on Saturday. So either we're going to see more of the same. If we see more of that, I just can't— the reason why I can't see UConn winning if Michigan's hitting 12 threes is because UConn's ability to win the game is from the 3-point line. And how does Terrance Reid— nobody's been able to really break Terrance Reid. He's been the big bear for UConn. They've got Adymara and Marez Johnson waiting for him in the paint.

Yeah, that's a decent point because it's like I actually thought Illinois' length bothered him a little bit on Saturday night, and it was like a little bit of, oh, this isn't as smooth as it, as it has been in the tournament so far. And then you look up, he's got 17 and 11. Like, wait, what the fuck? Oh, he's fine. Like, he's, he's having a pretty, pretty efficient night and doing what he wants to do. So that's how good he has been. I do, I do think if they can get Maura in any type of foul trouble, that, that would be big. And I, I don't want that— like, I don't want fouls to decide the game. I hate when that happens, especially in college basketball, especially in a national championship. Um, yeah, it's gonna be—

it, it's—

it— I keep going back to the fact that UConn just non-conference is such a different animal, and that's, that's kind of what you got to hope on. But I, I also think that Michigan is just— if Michigan plays a B+ game I think they win. Like, that, that's how good Michigan is, you know.

Well, we, we know the officials, okay? So it's James Breeding, uh, it's gonna be Jeff Anderson and Kip Kissinger. Well, the, the one thing to, to consider there, uh, as much as Breeding and Hurley have a bit of a history, I think that Hurley would tell you he likes Breeding, okay? And his record's actually pretty good with him. But Hurley did not have a Big East official in the national semifinal. I thought it could hurt. It really didn't. Illinois— Illinois' offense was not good. You guys would— we would all admit they just didn't have a very strong showing. Mirkovic and Stojakovic kind of disappeared in the game. The fact that he's got people he knows is very important because Michigan, they— you guys know how they defend. They don't jump. Yeah, it's It's— there are trees inside. The other thing is, can Demery rattle Cadeau? Demery got Wagner. Like, Wagner was really good, but Wagner still took a couple of off-kilter threes. He wasn't his full rhythm self. He was searching for it late in the game. Demery— Silas Demery is the head of the snake defensively. Can Demery force Cadeau? Because the one thing about Elliott Cadeau is he does fall into some bad turnovers at times.

At times. But Jaxel Lundeberg is on another level. Like, this guy is playing— this guy is playing insane basketball. On paper, Michigan by 8 to 12 points. But the game's not decided on paper. And like I said, like, I just keep thinking of this, of this character. The author's name is Jack in The Shining, and he's just sitting and he's just sitting at the bar and he's looking at the bartender who doesn't even exist because he's having a vision. And he's like, pour me another one. And that's Hurley in that hotel. And you have got to— you have to kill them off. Like, they— he doesn't stop. They don't stop. And if you think that they're going to be afraid of Michigan because Michigan's bigger than them, they're UConn. Remember about UConn? You want to know about UConn's toughness? They went into Allen Fieldhouse and won. Okay, Arizona didn't do that this year. And they lost 2 games heading into Saturday. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, you're right. You're right.

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And now here is John Fanta.

Hey, uh, non-national championship Uh, who's going to coach North Carolina? Billy Donovan.

But the longer this goes, the more you have to think about Billy Dean. Yeah, the longer this goes, because it feels like in Chicago, what direction are the Bulls going in?

Nowhere.

Just kind of floating around.

Nowhere.

Yeah, they're purgatory.

Actually, we actually are tanking. We just tanked too late this year, but we are officially officially tanking.

It's just a random collection of guards. And like, even, even the guys that you're like, like with Boozellis, do we really know what he is? The answer is no. Yeah, you know, we, we really don't. So the certainties on that roster are, are none. And if you're Billy, do you want to— do you want to— you, you've had a Hall of Fame career. You are quite literally in the Hall of Fame. What would it do to college basketball If you walk into Chapel Hill and now you're playing John Shire and now you're at Carolina and they're going to fund him, like if you're a Carolina donor.

Yeah.

Think about, think about this. Think about the Carolina donor who in the last 2 years was like Belichick, Belichick, Belichick. I think you watched enough to say if Billy Donovan gets hired at Carolina, whatever pennies you were giving over to football, you're just going to be like, Well, we went— we, we are a basketball school and we just hired a guy who literally, like, he has an NCAA tournament win percentage of like 83, 84, close to 85% of the games he's coaching. And he's coached a lot of games and he's got rings, multiple rings to prove it. So I am on the Donovan hype train. If it's not Billy Donovan, the guy that I think is going to crush it wherever he lands. I hope he stays at Vanderbilt forever. But I think Mark Byington is a stud. Like, this guy, this guy crushed it. He didn't win. He crushed it at James Madison. Now he's crushing it at Vandy. It's not like Vandy had— like, when he took over, it's not like he was taking over a wagon. No, he's gotten it back to being that. They're really, really good.

What's, what's the higher— if you're a North Carolina fan, you're like, oh, please don't do that that's realistically on the table? Jerry Stackhouse. I'm just saying, like, what is that hire?

There's got to be Rashid Wallace.

Yeah, like, there's got to be a guy.

Actually, I would love that. Yeah, that'd be the most entertaining hire.

Yeah, Stackhouse was a coach at Vanderbilt, obviously. Like, that— it's, you know, I'm just saying, like, what's the guy where if you're a UNC fan, you gotta be like, oh shit, we're gonna freak out here. Um, Kim English.

I don't want to put that— he's not in the running there, you know.

Well, no, I mean, people are talking about him. No, we literally just— right now, I literally just said his name.

We're talking about him.

John Fanta. John Fanta for the North Carolina job. Oh, people are talking about it.

Yeah, yeah, me for the North Carolina.

He's not gonna do it because the NBA Johnny. Yeah.

Rico Penny Hardaway. Penny Hardaway, who will be back in Memphis as far as we know.

Yeah, that's nuts.

Yeah.

Create some leverage. Yeah. Hey, I'm up for care. See, that's the thing in the coaches' agents' world. You could say whatever you want. Like, there's no agents leverage it all the time. Like the Syracuse search, the Syracuse search, there was so much untrue stuff coming out of that. I mean, I, you know, you call up like, I don't know, I got a name for you, Johnny, at UNC.

Will Wade.

Yeah, right.

I was going to say, well, bring him back.

Yeah, I was going to say Will Wade. Yeah, you know, they could do— they won't do it, but like, I know that he's got a past, um, on stuff, but like Chris Beard would do a heck of a job there. Yeah, but he's got, you know, uh, Nate Oats, you do a lot worse, but that would be—

he just signed a new deal, right?

Just signed a new deal, so that's not gonna happen.

Do we— do we— by speaking of, uh, uh, new deals and everything's going around, do we believe— we're just talking about this as well Dusty May, in his, uh, what he said, he's not looking for any other college basketball jobs. Do you think that that was a, hmm, that's interesting, why didn't he say all coaching jobs?

Because he's going— I think he will be an NBA coach someday, and I think that he wants to be an NBA coach someday. Yeah, he's a mastermind. He's got great demeanor for it. Um, he's got a really, really good way about him, good attitude about like his, his whole philosophy fits the NBA the way that I like. I've seen their shootarounds. This guy, he— it looks like that type of operation. It's not your typical college operation. That was very strategic from his agency. That was the messaging of that was at some point, and I don't think it'll be now. I don't think it'll be. And maybe it won't, won't happen. But I do think 10 years from now, Dusty May is going to be an NBA head coach.

Yep.

Yeah.

Makes sense.

So the shortlist would be Byington and Stackhouse, Fanta, Donovan, Jim English. And you have to make Brad Stevens say no.

Yeah.

Has Brad Stevens said no?

We're going to put this on a sheet. We're going to put this on a sheet. John Fanta's North Carolina shortlist.

Has Brad Stevens said no yet?

I think he did. He quite literally did.

Okay.

Yeah.

Do you like go back and ask him again? Just, hey, just making sure.

Yeah. What if, what if no doesn't mean no with Brad Stevens all this time?

I feel like I made you say no, but I don't feel like you wanted to say no.

Vibes that it's not actually a no.

Could you see like, like, you know, we've all been in the Brad dot dot dot. Yeah. One more from Bubba Cunningham.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, hey, listen, I know you said no, but I feel like you wanted me to ask again to really feel that we wanted you.

Right, right. Um, you— it's a complicated search because like they're, they've been, they're getting a lot of heat, a lot of heat for where they are at as a program. And there's questions about money, there's questions about can they compete with the likes of others and whatnot. Like, I, I— they're not going to get TJ Altshulberger. I think he's, he's committed to Iowa State. And by the way, anybody who says right now that Ben McCollum is, is going to move on— Ben McCollum's an Iowa City guy. You two will like this. I think he's going to be the Iowa head coach for years to come.

I agree.

Great.

I've been saying that.

Yeah, he's not, he's not going jump seat route.

Nope, I agree with that.

Now he, he's gonna be around. We'll see if Scott Drew gets in the picture.

Hmm.

What about, um, he wants it. I think he wants I think he, I think Scott Drew would take it if offered.

Okay.

So, okay. So do you think that they would offer Scott Drew?

They're waiting on Billy Donovan.

Yeah. Now what about any vibe going into this offseason for the University of Kentucky? Is it heating up? Is Pope on the hot seat?

Well, from my understanding, can't say that on Easter.

I can rephrase. Are they focusing on Pope's performance next year, determining his job status?

When you're coming off the season that you just had, and yeah, you beat Santa Clara, but then you got— you really got your doors blown off in the ensuing game by Iowa State. Yeah, it's, it's, um, this is a very critical year 3 for Mark Pope, uh, where if it's a one and done or if they're right on the bubble. That's not the standard in Lexington. It's not. It's also a reflection of where we're at in the sport right now, guys. Like Michigan, Illinois, Arizona, they can all say that right now they feel better about where they stand than Kansas, Kentucky, and Carolina. Yeah, because of their coaching situations and the rev sharing has thrown off the blue bloods. It's kind of why what UConn does is amazing. Because they're not in a football conference, but they just keep winning. They did again. They're the shining in college basketball or Michael Myers. But like for Kentucky, if they don't make the second weekend in the NCAA tournament next year, yeah, things are, things are hot. They're not going to spend $22 million again. And oh, by the way, I've seen people tweet this and now I am going to say get off the lawn.

The people who tweet Monday night If Michigan is to win the national championship, money just bought that championship. Okay. Why don't you ask Kentucky, Kansas State, hell, even Kansas and Cal, Duke. They got a lot of money. Why don't you ask them how the money that they spent, what it ended up doing for them ultimately? You could spend money. Okay. And Kentucky spent over $20 million on their roster and didn't make it out of the first week of the NCAA tournament.

Yeah.

Do not take credit away from a team that came together and won a championship. If I see those takes, the— I will be— the siren's going to go off like I'm coming after you.

I like that. I like that. Yeah. It is funny that it's now become like exhausting for anyone to even— the people who are like, is UConn a blue blood? It's like, why are you even saying this anymore? They're the best program in the last— I actually saw a really good take today that I might have to co-op. Shout out whoever put this out there. I don't have it right in front of me. They actually said that Duke's not a blue blood because blue— a true blue blood is winning championships with multiple coaches. Duke just had one coach.

They're a system university.

Correct. Kentucky's won with multiple— like, that's— that's the definition of a blue blood is it's the— or it's the— it's the school. It's the organization that carries it, not just the coach. So I like that one and I'm gonna go with it.

Well, I know why you like it and I know that you're going with that one. I hate to let you down and you're gonna hate me for saying this, but I do think John Shire will win a national championship the next 3 years.

Okay.

I think John Fana is in the running for the North Carolina job if we're just doing hypotheticals.

I think that John Shire has had 2 really good teams the last couple of years.

I'm just picturing like a baby blue tie in Carolina.

Oh, you'd look so good. Oh my God. John Fanta just walking out to center court in the Dean Dome.

Oh, I want to tell you right now, UNC Nation, I think of Dean Smith. I think of Roy Williams. I think of what's been built here. But I'm going to tell you, we're going to take it to a level that it's never seen before. Yes. We're gonna do something here. Duke, Duke down the road. NC State, little brother down the road. It's our time. Yeah, and we're about to show it. We are North Carolina. We are the Tar Heels.

Tar Heels!

I'd have John Henson and Tyler Hansbrough, my boys. Let's bring up the heavyweights. Yeah, let's bring up the heavyweights. Coach Belichick's in the crowd. Coach, I wish my Browns kept you forever. Jordan, we'll talk.

Nice, John. That good? Everyone's like, what the fuck did that guy just say? He's a new coach at USC. He's talking about the Browns. Would you— since we're now like, it's now out there that John Fana is in the running for the North Carolina head coaching job.

Very much am not. Just want to make that clear.

Are you, are you, have you prepped your wife that she's going to have to be best friends with Jordoc?

Jordan.

Like, that is— this is gonna— like, that's just the wives hang out together. Like, that's gonna happen.

Have not prepped the wife.

Okay. All right, you might want to do that.

Jordan's very friendly.

Very friendly.

Yeah, they'll get along.

She's sleeping right now.

Okay, maybe wake her up and be like, hey honey, what are your thoughts on Jordan? She just wants to report my take. Want to know?

I don't know if you saw that, Johnny. Jordan won a ring last—

go wake her up. Go ask her.

Yeah. And the sheer response of that would just, would just be an incredible type of, type of reaction that I really can't fully sum up.

Yeah, look good in the argyle. It'd be a nice pattern on you.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, hand in hand with Roy.

You look really good, Johnny. Oh, that Carolina.

Not happening.

We need the Photoshop. Shane's listening right now.

We need the Photoshop of Johnny Fan Atlanta in the Carolina blue, hanging out with MJ.

Yeah, listen, there's just— out of— you've mentioned your Browns, which, that was weird for if you're a Carolina fan sitting in the stands and the guy just going on a rant about the Browns. BFT's favorite story of all time, Condoleezza Rice. Like, there's out of the box hires that should happen.

She would have been a hell of a coach, Johnny.

Yeah.

Oh yeah. How many other basketball-themed things do you have in your office? Oh, I love it.

I can't. Like, I can't. How does that get out?

Like, how?

Also—

No, please.

Okay.

Please. Like, there's two things. There's two— that and then the last 10 days. Have you seen what they think? Like, what?

Deshaun. He might be ready to learn Deshaun again.

Yeah, he might take what looked like a swing and a miss and turn turn into a Grand Slam.

Yeah. What else you got? Oh, there we go.

Okay, that's good.

This looks like third grade.

Yeah, that's crazy. That's got soccer balls on it too. The trash can is elite. Oh my God. I also didn't notice that you're like, look, I have this. What is that? Oh, there's a brownie.

Yeah, like, I don't know, I have all the gear.

How many little basketballs you go— oh, there we go.

This is, uh, Is it a CD or a coaster?

Little basketballs.

I just, I don't understand how the discourse on that could be. But it, but again, this is, this is my football team. Yeah, this is what— and I can't, I won't ever leave them, guys. No, I'm just—

of course.

But man, it's— how about the haircut thing? Like, oh yeah, I said to my buddy, like, look, a winner-tie Coach Monken Cleveland's with you wintertime. But like, there are some stories, like when the mascot fell off the barge and then we all found out that it was staged. Like, let's, let's try to be a little professional, right? You know, like, I'm rooting for them. I want them to win. I'm friends with people over there.

I'm—

we, we— Cleveland so badly wants it. But the Condi Rice, like, the fact that that was in the ether— and I don't know Condi, that'd be an amazing interview. I mean, I would love to to get a chance to sit down and talk. I want you— like, that's got to be— you guys have to lock up that interview and just say, okay, what questions? Like, how did that interview go?

Yeah, John, if you ever get a chance to interview Condoleezza Rice, just— can I, can I write some questions for you?

Absolutely.

I would love to.

That was a mistake.

You can come to the interview, PFT. Oh, oh yes.

Oh, so really? Yes, I am in. PFT will write some interview questions.

Yeah, you will come to the interview, and I will be at Max's bachelor party.

Okay, okay, perfect.

And you're gonna be— and you're in the running for the UNC job.

Oh hey, how about this? UNC, hire Jon Fanta, it's a slam dunk. And then Johnny, you do the dunk.

Yeah, yeah, say that, say that. Hey, hey, North Carolina, make the right decision. I'm Jon Fanta, I'm your next head coach. And then slam dunk.

And this is a— you talk about a slam dunk.

Duke, more like puke. Watch this slam dunk.

Again, for the record, there's— I have no interest in this.

Well, yeah, you put together a hell of a staff.

Just say great day to be a Tar Heel.

Johnny, I actually think— listen, you obviously have not coached basketball to that level. Uh, no, it's— I think you're— no, no, no, hold on. I'm gonna give you a comment here. I think you're a smart enough guy very smart guy, knows basketball well enough. I think you put together a staff and a portal haul, I think this is— I think this would work for UNC. I think we've got to call Greg.

I would call Greg Campy at Oakland. I don't even know Greg, we've never even talked, but I just love his personality. I love his swagger. I love his work. And I would hate to do this to Oakland, but I'd be like, Greg, you say the number. Yeah, you're gonna come in here, you're gonna handle this.

Yeah.

And then you're just— you're the face of the program. And I—

then I get back on the phone.

Yeah.

And I'm like, I may not attend every coach's breakfast.

Yeah.

Or every coach's convention out of the Final Four. But I've got my different connects and we would, we would find a way to assemble a coaching staff. No, this is happening.

I also think for NIL purposes, like how many people are listening to this interview right now? I'm pretty sure we could get everybody to donate. Everyone that's listening would donate a dollar towards your NIL.

Okay, let me tell you something right now. I coached, I've coached one season in my lifetime. Time in basketball, maybe two.

How'd you do?

Uh, we, we made the city playoffs.

Great.

We made the CYO city playoffs with a team that was not, not very talented.

Okay, great.

My brother's— I coached my brother's team. Um, you know how you at that level, like, you had to go through Virtues training and whatnot? Totally did not do that.

Okay.

Don't know how I slid through the cracks for the whole two seasons that I was able to do it, but figured out a way. Volunteered the, the concession stand up at St. Bernadette in West There was a holiday tournament one year. Okay. I was on the bench with, with my dad and one of, one of his best friends. Okay. And I would handle a lot of the ins and outs of the team. 1-3-1.

Of course, you're the coach.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know, a little stack, a little, a little trap, half-court trap into a man-to-man, you know, three-quarter court pressure, then dropping, dropping back like different coverages, different things. Okay. And I got to tell you, one time we were playing St. Mark's in this Christmas tournament and we grinded out a win and I almost ended up like the Friday night UConn-South Carolina women's deal. Okay. The coach at St. Mark's was a guy by the name of Pete who does a hell of a job running a liquor store in Cleveland. He runs a bunch of liquor businesses in Cleveland, but Pete was a dad. Okay. And he knew that I was not— that I should not have been like a Virtues-trained coach. I was in 8th grade coaching this team. So this guy is— he's very much older than me, by the way, runs a great business in Cleveland. I'm not going to give the last name. He runs a great business in Cleveland. I like— no ill will, but I will say this. We won the game. And in the handshake line, he said to me, I'm going to get you. You're not Virtues-trained.

You're practically tampering. This is CYO Cleveland basketball. And it was and it was December 23rd. It was the Christmas tournament.

Oh wow.

And I'm in 8th grade and I turned back and I said, Pete, if I were you, I'd get back to the holiday beer sales.

Oh, let's go, Johnny!

I love it, Johnny.

God, that's what you're getting in North Carolina.

That's the attitude that we need at Chapel Hill.

That's what you're getting at Chapel Hill.

I'll also throw this in there. If UNC hires John Fana Most random thing, and I will become mega boosters. We're not going to put a— I'm not going to put a dollar on it because I don't want to put a cap on it. We will become mega boosters of the North Carolina basketball.

I don't want to say a number. I'm afraid of the number I'm about to say to you right now.

We're talking Saudi money, buddy. Yeah, we're talking oil shit.

I am wholly committed. I want to make it very clear, this interview is taking a turn. I love I am wholly committed to NBC Sports and fully, fully dedicated to NBC Sports and everything, all the great things that I'm doing at NBC Sports.

20 minutes on Jon Fanta possibly taking the U.S.

That's the only, that's the only journalism job you want right now. Yeah, Johnny.

Yeah.

What are you gonna say, Max? The campaign that we're gonna put on social media for Fanta, it's gonna be the—

oh, it's gonna be crazy.

Yeah. Hey, hey, hey, hey, Chapel Hill, don't you want a Fanta?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is the most— but it does sum up the carousel.

Hey, I want, I want, I want Zach, I want, uh, the, the vanilla to be Carolina blue tomorrow. Let's get some food dye in it. We can do that for Johnny Fanta, the ice cream machine.

I am not interested in the job, right?

Wink. He's winking for you. For the, for the audio listeners, he's winking at us right now. These guys, Carolina Blue.

You could win at UNC.

Wow. I have an Afghan in my office.

Oh, man. Just so you know, Johnny, if we don't beat Duke, I'm going to fucking come for your neck. I will be waiting in your office for you as a mega booster. I got keys to your office. Holy shit.

How soon into this am I sending out jumpsuits?

Oh, immediately. Yeah, I'd say act number one. That's the first question you ask in the interview, actually. Where do you guys keep the jumpsuits?

Hey, what size you got in the jumpsuits? I need all of them.

Shipment.

Yeah. Uh, all right, Johnny, I got one last question for you. Rowback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Excuse this. Polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rowback.com promo code TAKE. Um, can't wait to get this campaign going. It's going to be a blissful—

No, it's not happening.

It is. It is. The campaign is out of your hands, just so you know.

Uh, anytime I'm wearing baby blue, this is not—

Oh, you gotta wear baby blue this week. Give us a little wink and a nod. You're calling what game on Wednesday? Tuesday?

Tuesday. I've got Rockets and Suns from—

Give us just a little touch of baby blue.

Wait, hold on. Hold on.

Give us a touch.

Oh, I love everything he's got in his office here.

No, he's got Fanta.

He's got the— everything looks like a basket.

Yeah.

He had— he just said he's— he has an Afghan in his office like Condoleezza Rice.

He's got— he's got a gamer chair. I don't think he games.

No, I don't.

Okay. Oh, there we go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it looks beautiful.

That's it, that's it. Maybe a little—

I'll suck for the charter plane ride. Does this have Stroopwafels on it?

Yeah, yeah. Go, go, little, uh, uh, Digger Phelps with a, with a highlighter. Maybe a baby blue highlighter on, on Tuesday night.

That's what I'm talking about.

It'd be nice.

All right, so you just say just one time, can you say Go to hell, Duke.

No, I will— I can't.

Come on, just say I'm Jon Fanta and I endorse myself as North Carolina head basketball coach.

This is the car stops. Ask your rollback question.

All right, the rollback question. Uh, get us pumped up for Monday night. Get us ready for the national title game. There's a lot of naysayers out there say, hey, Michigan, they look like the best team in the world, they're gonna kill them, it's gonna be a snooze of a watch. Get us ready to go for Monday night.

It's the monster of a machine that is the Michigan Wolverines taking on the Michael Myers of March Madness, a dynasty of sorts out of Storrs, a land of championships, the UConn Huskies. Big Ten versus Big East. And speaking of the Big Ten, 26 long years, 26 long years since a prime rival of the Michigan Wolverines, those Michigan State Spartans, last gave the conference a national championship. A drought that has been thought to be unfathomable, but it still exists. And on Monday night, the Wolverines have a chance to end it. Behind Mara, Johnson, Cadeau, Lendeborg, they have been A wagon. Just 3 losses on their season. And on the other side, it's UConn. Dan Hurley, is he loved by everyone? The answer to that question is no. And guess what? He doesn't give a damn. His Huskies keep on sledding, and they're sledding all the way to college basketball's grandest stage. Who do they have that Michigan does not? Alex Karaban. 18-1 in the NCAA tournament. That's tied for second for wins in the big dance as a starter, second with one Bobby Hurley. Bobby's bro Danny leading the Huskies with Silas Demery, Terris Reid, Solo Ball, who's banged up and all and he's gonna play through it.

UConn, just when you think they're done, just when you think you can't As the great Jim Nantz— happy Masters Week, everybody— once said, UConn, Huskies, Wolverines, for all the marbles in college basketball, Monday night in Indy.

That's awesome. That's awesome, Johnny.

I love it, Johnny.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us.

As the next call is the next head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

I'm gonna miss you on the air.

Yeah, will you still come on the show again? Promise us you'll still come on the show.

I can't wait to be back on your show as an NBC Sports broadcaster.

Okay.

I'm sure they let you do both.

We can get Quigs to change the NBC to UNC. Yeah, easy. That's easy.

I mean, it's got 2 of the 3 letters, Johnny.

Yeah, you're right there.

You're so close to being UNC.

You're right there.

You're really close.

Our Tar Heels. This is where we turn it around.

There are some good biscuits down there.

There are some very good biscuits.

You're selling yourself.

Tobacco Road Johnny. I like it. I like it, Johnny.

Just maybe cut the line about the Browns and Belichick in the press conference.

Yeah, we'll bring that up later.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, honey, we've got a breakfast with Jordyn.

Yeah. Yeah. Every day. Standing.

Should that be the wake-up call tomorrow? Like, should that be my wake— when I charge my iPhone? Yes.

Let her know. Let her know.

You got a new best friend.

Yeah. Her name's Jordyn.

And she is fantastic.

All right, Johnny, you're the best. Love you. We'll see you later.

Love you back. Thanks for having me, Max. Have a great bachelor party.

Coach John Fanta was brought to you by State Farm. In basketball, the great players don't just go it alone. They have teammates, they've got great coaches and a solid support system behind them. It's kind of like insurance because let's face it, a lot of us probably aren't doing that alone either. That's where State Farm comes in. State Farm is a teammate always ready to assist. Always ready to help you find the coverage that you need and help you recover from the unexpected. From fender benders to storm damage, or even just a question about your policy, State Farm is there to help provide an assist when you need it. Through the State Farm mobile app, a network of 19,000 local agents, and online at statefarm.com. So don't just go it alone. When you need help protecting what matters most, State Farm is there. State Farm with the Assist coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state. 8.

Okay, good show, boys. Masters Week, Hank. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Also Barstow Mini Golf Week. Yeah, so tune in. We got a great mini golf tournament set up, old versus young, Ryder Cup style. You guys are stacked. Hank's already making excuses. You guys know I'm just saying, it's like, it would be— you guys are probably more favored than Michigan tonight.

That's just not true at all.

Such a— why are you saying that? That's not true at I suck at mini golf. Every year I collapse. Your team is good. No, your team's good. Or we don't even know who our teams are, right? So if it's just you, you're, you're the best golfer in the office. So not the best putter. You're the best.

You practice the most at putting on the mini golf.

And you can bounce left and right.

Who practices putting more than you?

I don't really practice putting. That's the problem. I should practice more putting.

You do though.

Yeah, you do. I really don't. But you're also ambidextrous. That could be a huge— I'm just so bad with my right that I switched to left.

Are you putting left-handed?

No. You have to declare before.

This is some bullshit.

I might not even be on the team. What do you mean? I have to qualify. No, you don't. You're the captain.

Hank, your whole thing is becoming left-handed and you're not going to putt left-handed?

I'm never putting left-handed. I'm doing reverse lefty. I don't think so. What if I, what if I break your right-handed putter before a round at Augusta that we have? I'll hit up our friends at TaylorMade and get it. No, no, we're literally walking in and I snap your right-handed putter over my knee and then I hand you a left-handed putter. I chip old school way. Steiner at Augusta. No, they're not going to let you chip on the green. Yeah, they would know that at Augusta. I got the hands at Augusta. So you wouldn't, you wouldn't putt last.

Left.

If I had to, I mean, I putted lefty at Spidey last night.

Why are you not putting left-handed? Because you had one bad day putting left-handed. It just doesn't feel—

doesn't feel— doesn't feel natural.

I feel like if I'm making my entire thing, my entire brand— like, you're having like cases of Twisted Tea made and named after you left-handed, and you're not gonna putt left-handed? And—

all right, so when you make your—

I think people are going to want to figure it out. People are going to want to tune in and see Lefty fuck with.

Yeah.

And they're gonna be like, why is this lefty?

Tell my kids. You guys are scared. No, you're literally just walking around saying that we're so stacked.

You're so— yeah, I'm just looking after your brand.

So fucking stacked. You gotta make your partner.

What's— what is, uh, your master's— what's your, uh, champion's dinner gonna be like, Hank?

I don't know. I haven't thought about that. Yeah, chicken palm.

Yeah, I did see Thompson. I did see a very funny recap recap of the worst Masters dinner of all time.

What was it?

Bubba Watson. Oh yeah, when he won it twice. Yeah, it was the same, same menu each time. And it was like confetti cake. Yeah, it was a regular Caesar salad.

Rocks.

Yeah, it does. I, I stand with him on that. It was Funfetti cake.

Oh, so good.

Um, so it was, uh, Caesar salad, just like a regular Caesar salad, and then a grilled chicken breast. And that was his meal.

Why is this thing so loud? That's awesome. Awesome. Wait, except for the grilled chicken breast. No, that sucks.

The grilled chicken breast, I think, had Funfetti sauce. But then the Funfetti cake.

Yeah, I might just do Funfetti the whole menu.

Just do it honestly.

Just like another round of Funfetti for the sir.

Just serve some really spicy shit and fuck up everybody's stomach.

Imagine if, if you're just— if you're— if you won the Masters and your entire menu was just cupcakes. Yeah, just, you know, it would be sick because like Masters is obviously hoity-toity. If it was just like a, a Russian nesting doll of cupcakes, you start actually the smallest tiny cupcake, then you just get larger and larger, and then finally they're like, all right, oh, whoa, the machine—

the lottery turned off.

It doesn't do that noise right now. And then eventually you just get a full, like, supersized cupcake. Like, that's all we're having for dinner.

That sounds just delicious.

Cupcakes are awesome.

Or tiramisu.

Tiramisu.

Thank you.

Probably a little too hoity-toity. My son doesn't like cupcakes, but he likes cake. Tried to explain to him it's the same thing.

He likes the frosting, probably.

He just is like, I don't eat cupcakes. I'm like, but you eat cake. Like, just adamant. Maybe he's eating the wrapper. What? Maybe he's eating the wrapper. He doesn't know. It's a good point. I didn't think about that. He's probably eating a lot of wrappers. You're right. He's like, I'm no more wrappers. I'm all wrappered out. Not again. Another wrap. What I gotta do is give them a key. People like these things. Yeah, why the— it's always, it's always hard to get down. Okay, good show, boys. Masters, though. Shane Bacon, uh, hopefully Max, maybe Brooks Wednesday. Get ready, Masters, baby, and mini All right, numbers. 8, 3, 15, 12, 6, 13, 24, 42. We gotta get it. 66. Anybody?

66.

Anyone? One more, one more. 15. 12. 8.

75.

Wow. Nothing here. This is hard, man. We have a 1 in 10 chance, 1 in 9 chance, 9 people guessing.

I guess you're right. One time.

Wait, go ahead, PFT. Who you got?

Happy birthday to Paul Rudd and Merle Haggard and kind of Jesus too. Did you like second birthday?

Forget anyone?

It was Frank Kaminsky's birthday on Saturday.

Who do you forget?

Michael Rapaport.

Who do you—

hahaha, you sick fuck. You sick fuck.

Who do you forget? Probably top 3 side character subplot of the show in the last— no— football season.

Stingray Steve.

Chuck?

Nope. Big Dom? Nope. Bigger, more of a partner, real partner. Oh, big time.

I have no idea.

Wait, wait. John Fanta. If John Fanta got the job that he— you guys want him to get. Belichick. Jordan.

Oh no.

PFC. You forgot Jordan's birthday.

Did I?

How?

This is my favorite part of the show.

He's so bad at it.

Well, we do get to birthdays and we get to the person that you forgot. It's my favorite part of the show.

I saw you got it. You got it. PFT, if you ever get good at this, please make sure that you still— someone, someone needs to make a list of birthdays you forgot. No, because yes, yes, every day it's like I was thinking the same thing. Massive. Blake Griffin, Jordan.

I try, I try every day. I got Frank Kaminsky even early. PFT, I nailed Paul Rudd today.

If you ever—

I got Jesus.

Please, you're my brother. Please intentionally leave like a big one out every now and then so we can continue this because it's insane that you're this.

You don't need to tell me. When was Jordan's birthday?

April 3rd. No, because he might like drop everything and just be like, I have to get birthdays right.

It was her birthday on Saturday.

Did you see that? But there was Friday, the NBA Finals game last night.

I'm just sad. I think that's what the problem is. I have no idea what dates are.

You forgot Sebastian Eugene Hansen.

I have no idea who that is. I don't either. When is— when is Mr. Wins? I saw— I saw Speed.

Sebastian Eugene Hanson.

I'm going to give— let's see. Oh, don't have to worry about that.

Who the fuck is this kid?

Sebastian Eugene Hanson.

How could you forget?

Happy birthday, little guy.

Oh, he's old. He's not little anymore.

How old is he? He was in the Minecraft movie.

Ah, I actually seen that movie.

Fuck.

Not— how could I forget Sebastian Eugene Hansen?

I could beat him up. All right, love you guys, and happy birthday to Paul Rudd, Merle Haggard, and kind of Jesus.