Transcript of March Madness With Jon Rothstein, We Talk Brackets And Storylines, USA Beats Dominican Republic Plus Who's Back Of The Week

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On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we have brackets. It is March Madness time. We have our good friend Jon Rothstein on the show breaking it all down. We just had an incredible weekend of college basketball. Ready to go. One of the best weeks of the year. We're also going to talk some WBC. We're actually watching the game live. Hank's Dominican Republic are down 2-1 in the game.

It's been an awesome game so far.

Yeah, it's top of the 8th, so we'll update as it goes on. We're gonna do who's back of the week, and it's all brought to you by our friends at Microsoft Copilot. Before we get into today's chaos, we got to tell you about something that helps people focus on what's most important: Microsoft 365 Copilot. The world moves fast, your workday even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data— Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work, built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear path to your best work. Learn more at microsoft.com/m365copilot. Learn more at microsoft.com/m365copilot today. Okay, let's go. Hey, football guy. Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, March 16th, and we've got brackets, boys. It is time. March Madness, hear that?

Oh, it's so nice.

You hear that right there?

It is so nice.

Beautiful, beautiful thing. The selection committee has done their job. By the way, credit to the selection committee. There was really no issues whatsoever. Maybe some seed lines that we can argue about, but the first two out were Oklahoma and Auburn, and they deserve to be out.

Yeah, the bubble, the bubble sucked this year. Maybe an all-time bad bubble. So that job wasn't that hard for him. I think the biggest controversy that you can have, and we can bleep this out maybe because I don't even want to say it out loud, Duke kind of got fucked a little bit. Nah, as the number one overall, they're the best. That's what I'm saying. Like, if the If the one knock that you have against the committee is that they kind of fucked over Duke, like, you did a great job.

Committee credit to me. There was a clip that I was— that I was— I saw on Saturday night. Someone gave John Shires, I think, like, 8-year-old daughter a press credential, and she was in the— she was in the scrum and asked him a question. I didn't comment. That's—

that's huge.

I think she asked, Dad, how do you win every game? And they've lost two. That's— but I'm not going to say anything more.

Also, we don't— we don't call coaches dad. We call them coach. Well, she—

in the post, his response was because I have the best daughter in the world. Imagine being Boozer, seeing that and being like, well, fuck me, dude. I guess I had nothing to do with this. Yeah, it was just because you have a daughter.

I do like that, though, because there's a lot of reporters that don't like it when other reporters refer to the coach as coach after— that's unprofessional. What did they say about dad?

Yeah.

Hey, keep that same energy for an 8-year-old girl as you have for a 45-year-old man.

Yeah. Um, so, so you guys, you guys were in, in, uh, perilous flight, uh, but the selection show, having to watch Bruce Pearl just squirm as Auburn stayed on the bubble and never got off the bubble was so, so great after his politicking last week. But again, I think that this, like, this bracket, and it also worked out kind of perfectly that you had natural seedings for like Arizona out west, Duke in, in the east, Michigan in Chicago. Like the only one, Florida got maybe a little bit screwed that they're playing in Houston and Houston is the 2 seed in their region. But yeah, besides a couple seed lines, the, the committee nailed it. They got Miami of Ohio in there and we're ready to roll. Yeah, and I told you, Hank, guarantee. Yeah, guarantee. I said guaranteed.

I, I actually think that I don't know. I think they can beat SMU.

Yeah, definitely.

I think that if there's one team that they could be an at-large, I feel like they could be. I've only watched, I think, 2 SMU games this year. I've watched 2 Miami of Ohio games. But just from what I know, it feels like that's one— that's a winnable game. Yeah, there's some other teams.

We're playing— well, it's in Dayton. It's very close to— it's gonna be a home crowd for Miami of Ohio.

There's another— there's a couple other teams where it's like too physical of a matchup, might not have worked out for them. I did get to watch the selection show on the plane. And yes, Bruce Pearl, like sweating. And every time, every time a different bubble team would get in, he'd just be like, that's bad. That's bad news for the rest of the bubble. And what he was really meaning to say was like, that's bad news for my son.

For my son. Yeah. Yeah. So good job, committee. Ready to roll. Let's, let's do a quick breakdown of each region and then we'll— like I said, we have John Rostein on who I'm excited to hear— I'm mostly excited for his East region because his East region, we'll start there, is so loaded with name brands and coaches. If you go through it, the— there are 7 coaches, I believe, that have all been to the Final Four. 22 Final Fours between them. Shire and Cronin have won, Hurley has 2, won 2 national titles both times he went, Self has 3, uh, Patino has 7, and Izzo has 8. And in, in, in that group, there's 7 national championships. And then if you want to even go further out, like in terms of just name programs, there's 30 national titles for programs in this, in this region. It's basically— and then the, the teams that don't have it are like Ohio State, which is a pretty big name brand in general. So it's, it's definitely the region that has the most blue bloods and name brands and coaches that are absolute killers. And if you wanted to argue about one seed that maybe got screwed, St.

John's got a little screwed, I think.

Yeah, St. John's, the argument could be made that they should have gotten a, a better seed than Kansas. Yeah, there's a couple, there's a couple 4-seeds I think that kind of stood out, and St. John's was thinking they were going to do before.

It was just more of a testament to the Big East being soft.

Big East was very soft this year. Uh, but looking at even the high seeds in that bracket, they've still got some history behind them. Yeah, like the high seeds, Northern Iowa Siena, like teams that are perennially like making some noise have provided us with some good storylines over the years. Yeah, I was trying to think what John was going to call that region like, but it's impossible to predict. Rothstein.

Yeah, I don't even want to— I don't even want to guess.

In years past, I would be like that. He's done like the, the region of coaches before has been like a name, but I'm sure he's got a new wrinkle for us.

The other thing in this region I immediately saw, we're doing the live bracket reveal show and I was just calling out all the unders that I would potentially take, which I'm not going to because I don't want to bet an under on in March Madness. But looking through it, 5 of the top 12 defenses in the tournament are in this region. So Duke is the 2nd best, Kansas is the 10th, UConn 11th, St. John's 12th, and Michigan State 13th. Cincinnati was also top 13, they didn't get, they didn't get into the tournament. And then TCU and Louisville are, are round out the the top 25. So you have 7 teams in the top 25 in terms of defensive efficiency in this bracket. It's going to be a slugfest, it's going to be a brawl, and I'm excited for it because I'm looking at it and like, even the Northern Iowa-St. John's game, that's a— Northern Iowa is a motherfucker in the fact that I don't think they're that good. They were the 6th seed in March Madness, but they were— they, they play so slow and they'll slow you down and make it such a low possession game that anything can happen.

And so what's the news with Patrick Gongba from Duke.

Uh, he should play.

He should play.

He should play. Okay, because Caleb Foster not going to play most likely.

Okay, that's—

and I actually, I actually don't know the answers to this because again, Shire's daughter like took away— I think the next reporter was going to ask that, but they were pressed for time, and so now we'll never know. Yeah, again, I'm not going to say anything.

He took a good step today is what I'm seeing.

Yeah, he took, he, he took a step.

He took a good step trending towards playing in the tournament.

We also have in this, in this region something I want to get in. I don't like to predict, you know, second rounds, but, and we'll see if, uh, if, uh, Bilodeau comes back for, uh, UCLA because he's very important and he got hurt on Friday night, I believe. It's all, it's all kind of one song here with, with everything that we watch. But, uh, if he doesn't come back and UCF wins and UConn wins, we got a civil conflict. We got the civil conflict in the second round. That's what I'm looking at.

Get the trophy out. A good old civil And if UCF doesn't win, you still have Mick Cronin and Danny Hurley second round. Yeah, which is pretty—

although Danny or Mick Cronin is once again screwed, has to go all the way to Philadelphia. He does not like playing in the Eastern time zone. Yeah, this has to piss him off beyond belief. Yeah, and he has to fly again.

I mean, I'm just thinking like Pitino, Bill Self in the second round. Yeah, no, that's gonna be absolutely incredible.

Yeah, and I, I listen, I, I kind of like Ohio State's played very, very hot. I think TCU is like a big game team. They've, they've stepped up in class a couple times this year, and I think they'll have Bruce Thornton not in hell, but they have a good answer for it. Ohio State and TCU are two teams that are kind of playing at the, at the point right now. If Duke is not healthy— nah, Duke's gonna win it all.

Duke's healthy. Duke's gonna do something. Can, can somebody tell me how many times Michigan State has been in the same bracket as Duke? I feel like that's every year, right? They just love having Izzo go up against the Blue Devils.

I don't know if you can look it up. We don't have the— the computer's not set up for— we're looking at a beautiful forest right now. It is a winter landscape, which looks great.

Zach, if you want to— if you want to look that up and just tell me, I'll trust you.

Yeah, I don't know. Zach and Max were talking, so I don't know if they heard us. OK, but Zach, you know what? Look up whatever you think we said. Let's just play that game.

That sounds good.

Look up as close to whatever you think we said and then we'll just go from that. This is going to be interesting to see what he looks up. Just as many words as you can remember that we said and then go there. Hank, how do you like Duke's draw? It's a bad draw.

It's a tough draw. But their odds on DraftKings have improved. We talked about that. You've said they're shooing to win. I think they were 330 in the last week. They're now plus 300.

Okay. So that's good.

That's good.

Zach has started with the word Izzo. He's stuck on it.

That's right. Yeah. We're good start. We're in the right ballpark.

Izzo versus Coach K in March. Oh, there we go. It's close enough.

I did this.

Oh, you just, you just looked that up.

Well, I, yes.

Oh, I thought Zach was controlling.

Izzo has a, no, I control.

Oh, well, I just went in there to change the TV going and Zach's looking up.

Something on his phone. What are you looking up on your phone, Zach?

I had typed out Izzo versus Coach K total.

Okay.

Okay. Just since 2019, 4 out of 6 tournaments where both participated, they were in the same region.

Love it.

They love doing that.

And that's just since 2019.

I mean, they are always in the tournament. Yeah. Those two teams.

I mean, when they're in, I'm sure they're always— they're always in that same bracket.

Yeah. Any other thoughts on the East region? Again, I'm so excited for whatever Rothstein is going to drop it on us. It's going to be fucking great. I kind of like the, the, the pull at the heartstrings story. South Florida, um, Brian Hodgson, who's the coach of South Florida, is really, really good coach, part of the Nate Oates, Rico Bosco coaching tree. He's from Buffalo, was an orphan. I think I saw that his dad has dementia, has never been able to see him coach live, and they're playing in Buffalo, so he's going to get to see him.

That's super cool.

So very, very cool. Um, we're also, by the way, we are going to do— we're going to run it back Uh, no, South Florida, not UCF. Yeah, Brian Hodgson. Yeah, he's from Buffalo. Um, we're going to run back what we did last year because I thought it was great where we're going to each pick, pick a region and do fun facts about each team. And I've also told, uh, Zach he's going to do Zach facts about every team, so he'll clean up behind us.

One fact about everything.

68-pack. Yes, Zach facts.

Quick 68-piece to round it off.

Yeah. It's going to be great. Okay. Uh, the West region, Arizona. Arizona is really good. That's all I— that was how I wanted to start that one. So fucking good. Arizona. I have a stat for you for Arizona. Arizona has 12 wins over ranked opponents this year. That's 38% of their wins. That's the most ever. And I also want to give a shout out to Arizona-Iowa State playing one of the best college basketball games I've seen in a long time on Friday night where there were 11 straight possessions to end the game with a shot made. And it was just peak, peak conference tournament, peak March Madness. The only thing that would have made it better is if they had played that on an LED TV. It was very slippery. Yeah. Other than that, it was the best game.

I am kind of worried that we're just like one snafu and one minor groin injury is going to scare us away from having LED TV basketball courts for forever.

Listen, all I know is that a lot of the losing teams were complaining, not the winning team.

It is a great excuse, I'll say that. Like, if you lose on the— on playing on the TV surface—

I saw Kansas State players complaining. They stink.

Yeah, you don't—

you should not complain, right?

They're just mad. They just want to blame anything.

So, uh, when this bracket came out, do you think that the first thing that Arizona fans thought was just ultimate PTSD of Wisconsin?

Not the first thing, because I think was— I think Arizona is just— I think Arizona might be the best team in the country right now, especially considering Duke and Michigan's injuries. It was probably like the second or third thing, though. They definitely— they definitely had it out there. I mean, Wisconsin's the— the back-to-back Final Fours.

Yeah.

In 2014 and '15, we had to go in the West region. We had to go through Arizona, and we did that both times. Wisconsin going up against High Point. I was initially nervous and I've calmed down because I looked— I did a deep dive into High Point, uh, not the school because we did that last year, which we'll do again this year, but they're just— they haven't played anyone. I know this is— I mean, anything could happen, but they have literally played not a— they didn't play a single Quad 1 team. They played 2 Quad 2 teams. They lost to both of them, and their defense isn't very good, and they're short. They could listen. One basketball game, offense could be electric. But I trust, I trust my guys. I trust our backcourt.

So do they get wet?

They know they're good offense, very good offense, but they don't— their defense is not there. They want to turn you over. And Nick Boyd and John Blackwell, I trust them. Again, this could look stupid, but I've calmed down because initially I was like, oh no. And everyone's going to try to pick a 12 over a 5. I get it.

So it is, it is the team of Chase Johnston. Yeah, then the new goalie that, that might be emerging that does not do anything but—

oh, I have a new, new goalie though. A newer goalie, new, newer goalie hit that we didn't know was going to be in the tournament because they had to win today. But the newer, newer goalie is from Penn and is TJ Power. TJ Power, I think he had like— what do you have today, Max? 40? And he, he hits like 44.

The one that got over—

yeah, he hits 44% from, from 3. And his name is TJ Power.

TJ Power is pretty sweet.

He's a fucking man. 44. He had 44. They also— Penn, we'll get to Penn. They also have a guy—

absolutely insane.

They also have a guy who shoots 41% from 3, and his name is Cam Thrower. So they— Penn's got the names. Penn's got names. So that's my new goalie. But I honestly, my first reaction other than High Point, my favorite player in the entire tournament is Darius Acuff and the Arkansas and the way he plays. I would be a bad NBA GM if they let me be an NBA GM. I'd take him 1-1. He fucking love him.

He is a fucking killer.

He makes every right decision all the time.

He is a stone cold psychopath. He is the best. When he played that game against Alabama that went to overtime. Yeah, he was like by far the best player on the court. Just absolutely dominant. And Cal, like, Cal has kind of had a second coming for the last couple of years. Like, there's something different about the way he's been coaching at Arkansas.

Well, yeah, he got— yeah, it's like getting in a new marriage. Yeah. Arkansas.

And it's been fun to watch. And Acuff is— I think he's the most— definitely the most fun player to watch in college basketball by far.

He— and we, we had a moment on Friday night where we laddered his threes to 6 in the cave. He ended up only hitting 5, but he hit 4 in the first half. And then he hit 5 again today. I'm retired, but we also laddered again today. But he just takes over games. And we were at the point where we would get— we'd get mad when he wouldn't take a 3. But every time he wouldn't take a 3, he was just doing it because he was making a perfect pass. Yeah, like a perfect alley-oop, a perfect— the defense collapses on him and he kicks it out. He just— he plays and he's got— you know what he's got that you just— you just know it when you see it. He's got that like incredible athlete, cool guy limp when he's walking in the tunnel before a game. It's a, it's a limp that's not an injury. It's just the I'm cooler than everyone limp, like a little bit of a gait to him that you're like, fuck, that guy is awesome.

You know, he's got that. Steph Curry has that. Yeah, he's got like, he walks a little off balance. I don't need to worry about matching my steps.

Correct. You can tell. So that one, that Arkansas is, like I said, Acuff is my favorite player to watch. It's also going to be very fascinating to watch. So they're going up against Hawaii, and Hawaii famously this year, or they've, they've been doing this, but they play no-help defense, which essentially is just, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna have everyone be in one-on-ones and not let, you know, the kickouts, the, the collapse of the defense to help. I don't know how you do that against Darius Acuff because he will I mean, he's just so good with the ball in his hands. So that's going to be a hell of a matchup. And then the other things I had in this region, I have a new bet that I'd like to maybe throw out to you guys. I already told Memes this.

A new bet.

A new bet.

Is it parlay?

No.

I saw somebody make a joke about this new bet. I don't want to say the joke that I saw. What our friend Clue Haywood said. Oh, is it one that wins? Oh, that was his.

Yeah, whatever. Haha.

The—

I mean, I lose. Yeah, good one, dude. I lose a lot. This is the rollover over though. Texas, NC State are playing in Dayton over. Whatever we win on that, BYU versus the winner of that game over the rollover. You take the winnings and you roll over. Yeah, to another over. There's no defense.

I like it. I'm a little shell-shocked from BYU watching that second— you remember that second half against Houston? Yeah, where they just could not score for the last 15 minutes of the game. That's the last thing I have in my mind.

Texas and NC State ain't—

they're not Houston.

They ain't Houston.

They're not Houston.

The rollover over, whoever wants to join with me, we're going to bet the over and then we're going to bet it again. We're going to take all of our winnings and bet the double it up on the next over.

I'm—

are you in for the rollover over?

Of course, I'm down. Okay, I'm down.

I appreciate you guys supporting me.

I'm interested to see what happens with, with Purdue going up against a school that's not going to exist in 6 months.

Yes. Queens. Queens, which is not in New York.

It's not a New York.

I asked Colin Koff that and he was like, I think it's in New York. He's like, no, it's actually in North Carolina.

It's North Carolina. It's about to be absorbed by Elon, like Starlink.

So they're just going to take them over.

So they're just going to combine schools.

Do they get any naming rights?

Uh, I don't know what the name of the school— I think it's just going to be like, remember the Titans?

Like, yeah, just Quilon.

I think they're going to be—

Quilon sounds kind of offensive.

Yeah, just did this to us, to a school.

You guys ate up school?

Yeah, we ate a school.

Cabrini.

Shout out Cabrini. D3 national champions lacrosse.

Oh, so you ate an entire school?

You get to claim that championship.

Are you full? Sure.

Yeah, I'm full. Needled.

That's what— that's what they should do. Like, if you—

Max is on the needle now and he just keeps saying that, asking what What for? Terry says, I already ate needle.

Have you been— did you shoot yourself?

No, my fiancée did it for me.

That's nice.

Yeah, I'm needled though.

Your boy's needled. I'm about to be looking in the butt. In the butt.

Yeah, in the butt.

I'm going to be the most proud GLP-1 guy of all time.

You're going to be— I was— you're going to be the chick in the yellow dress dancing around.

I was going around the bar yesterday telling everyone And people are like, I've never heard someone be this outright on, on the GLP.

Max is on the gear.

I asked Max, we were in the gambling game. I asked Max, don't you, don't you like shit a lot? And then Dana, who's been on the needle off and on, needle gang, he goes, he goes, no, do that again. What?

No, he just got back on.

He was off.

He was off.

Now he's back on.

He's beaten it. He's beaten it a few times. He's beaten Ozempic a few times. He's eaten his way through. He and Stu Fire are the only two people who've beaten Ozempic. But I was like, Max, aren't you going to just shit a lot? And Dana just goes, no, no, don't worry, dude, you don't shit. And then you shit a lot. I was like, what? Okay, that's some really good doctor.

He said it just builds up for a while and then once you shit, you shit a ton.

Oh, you mean Dana?

Have you pooped yet?

Disgusting.

No, I just took it this afternoon.

Okay, so you haven't gotten to that point yet.

Have you thought about chicken parm?

You got to do a poop review. Yeah.

I mean, did you eat any lunch first?

Yeah, I had GLP-1 poop.

Oh, this is my— this is— speaking of the rollover over, this is just my region of overs, just like the East is the region of unders. I'm just going to love every over in this region because a lot of teams don't play defense. I think so. I— the— there are, let's see, 1, 2, 6 teams in the top 20 efficiency in offensive efficiency in the country in this region. I think Purdue got a great draw. Yeah, I do. I really do. I mean, yes, I think Gonzaga and Purdue. I think it's— I think that's going to be a great— I think I'm going to have Sweet 16 Purdue and Gonzaga.

It's also got fans up.

Oh man, you got to let Max do it. Max, you do it.

I got to move the mic away from my face here.

Fans up.

Oh, hey, come on, get a little more into it. What's going on?

I know, I tried, I tried. I knew it was going to be loud.

I don't understand doing it for the non-Fins team.

It's just a vibes thing. Like, Max would just yell it from across the court and everyone would just be like— it's just vibes. Max just does it and we just do it.

Max, how do you feel about, about your boys, about your cats?

Uh, I, I can't say I've watched a ton of Utah State this year, but every, every person I've talked to is like, this is just the best team of all time. So we're probably gonna lose, uh, but I'm gonna have fun doing— I'm gonna have fun, you know, supporting my guys. I'm happy they're not a big team. We struggle with size. We just got to get hot from 3. We shoot a lot of 3s. Sometimes we make a lot of them. Sometimes we don't. We just need this to be a game where we make a lot of them.

The Utah State and Iowa are the two 9s that are favored over the 8s. So not an upset if Utah State beats Villanova.

Yeah, that means we should be able to get them for bracket busters.

But yeah, you're right. I agree with that. I agree with that. But it's, uh, yeah, that the— and Max got the best time window. I got, I got one of the worst. So Wisconsin plays 4th game of the tournament, the, the, the last game of the first window or slate. Max, you have what, Friday evening?

Friday at 3 o'clock Central.

So perfect.

It's the perfect—

I can enjoy all of Thursday.

You want that.

And then Friday I can like get myself a little appetizer and then, you know, just really lock in for probably a loss. And then, you know, it's fine. Friday night.

What about your pride? When do they play?

That's a good question. I don't know when they play Hofstra.

Please.

I'm going to have—

I think Thursday Thunderdome.

The—

yeah, no, the, the Thursday early first 4 games sucks. Yeah, because it's like you could just— the tournament, the tournament. Yeah. I could just be— I just be like, I'm going home.

Yeah.

I'm just— don't want to be here.

Oh, they're going to be playing at the same time.

What, Hofstra? Oh, no. Hofstra and Nova.

Yeah.

For Hofstra, that's Jersey. Yeah.

Can we do that? Cut it down the middle?

Yeah, I can maybe try and figure that out.

Yeah.

Well, you just take two jerseys and you cut them down the middle.

But then how do I put them back together?

So, so, dude, you have needles. You have needles. You're the needle guy.

You're the number one needle guy we got.

Use those needles.

Although I did. I—

Yeah, your needle. Just a different needle.

I shot my ass. Perfectly on Friday. It was, it was a beautiful shot right in the middle of the cheek, just right in, barely felt it. Wham, bam, thank you.

Needled, needled. Okay, next region. Before we do that, actually, real quick from DraftKings. Let's get excited for the tournament with 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 could— you bet and forget. It's one you react to. With DraftKings, 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 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. 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. South region, Vandy got screwed. If you want to say teams that got seeds screwed, Vandy got screwed because Vandy is a very good team. They had a couple blips when Duke Miles got hurt in, in the middle of the year, and they just won the SEC and got a 5 seed and potentially have to play Florida for a third time in the Sweet 16. I think Vandy got screwed.

Yeah, we were doing, we're doing blind resumes on Wake Up Barstool last week. I think we had 12 different schools with their blind resume that were like bubble adjacent. And out of those 12 schools, I think, I think 8 of them had as like a quality win that they had this year beating Vandy. Like Vandy is the king of like, if you beat them, you can, you can claim that's like right at the bubble of what you can claim as being a great win this season. Our old coach from JMU, Byington. Yeah, we were the— we had an era there when we had, we had Byington. And then obviously in football, yeah, JMU, great old coaches. But I do root for Vandy. And even that weird gym where they line up in the wrong spot.

So I mean, the 12th, 12th best team on, on Ken Palm. They started the season, they didn't lose their first game. They started season 16-0. And they just won the SEC with a beatdown of Florida, a pretty impressive win against Tennessee— or sorry, they didn't win the SEC. They lost to Arkansas today, but they went to the final and they did it in impressive fashion. I think they got screwed a little bit. You think that would be my take?

You think they're a 4?

I think they're probably a 4. And then again, they're the 12th best team analytically on Ken Palm.

Which of the 4 would you drop out?

Which of the 4? Probably Nebraska.

That's fair.

Nebraska has not beaten a tournament. They beat Iowa in the last game of the season in overtime. Before that, the last tournament team they beat was January 5th. So Nebraska had a great start to the season. I guess they're kind of similar, Nebraska and Vandy, where they both were— if you looked at, you know, in this, you know, January 1st, both those teams were like, holy shit, they're incredible. Vandy just did a little bit more in the SEC tournament by beating Florida and Tennessee. Uh, but this, this entire region, yeah, I mean, it's— Florida got— that's a tough draw to play potentially in the Sweet 16 against a team that you just lost to in the SEC tournament. Um, and I think that Houston got a very nice draw, and I think Illinois too. Illinois is going to be in the Sweet 16. I don't, I don't think North Carolina is very good. I might pick VCU to beat North Carolina in the first round.

Yeah.

That's not a huge crazy upset because they're only a 2.5-point favorite. But I, I like, I like chalk in, uh, in, in the South outside of— I think Vandy's gonna go to— I think it's gonna be Vandy, Florida, Illinois, and Houston. That's my chalkiest region.

So with Penn, um, I'm sure Rothstein will bring this up, but I did see that he, he mentioned this is the 5th team that Fran McCaffrey has taken to the tournament. So he took Lehigh, UNCG, Siena, Iowa, and now Penn. The Quakers. The Quakers going to the NCAA tournament. Pretty impressive.

Yes.

That Fran's done that.

Yes. And I also think St. Mary's got a little bit screwed just with matchup-wise because they have to play— last year they went up against Vandy and Alabama. St. Mary's one of those schools like, just don't, don't make them play against a really fast-tempo SEC school. But they're going to have to do that. They're going to play Bucky Ball. With Texas A&M.

I—

yeah, the South is an interesting region because I don't think it's the strongest region outside of Florida and Houston. And Houston's playing great right now, and Houston also gets to play at home if they get to the Sweet 16.

So between— in that Illinois-Penn game, is that the matchup of the two guys who can get the hottest?

Uh, yeah.

I mean, TJ Power and Mom Silich.

Yeah. And I think, I think Illinois is— I think Illinois is significantly better. No duh, right? They did limp in a little bit. I mean, Wisconsin, we beat them on Friday.

Um, but we could have—

their offense is really, really good. They're the number one offense in the country.

We could have a dude-off in that game.

Yeah. Are you, are you discounting Wagler?

No, I'm not.

It could be—

okay, it could be a few dudes.

That would be the dude. Yeah. Yeah.

This—

yeah, we'll see. For— I, I like that with my future with Florida. I do like to draw on the fact that they're not going to be surprised by Vandy after what Vandy did to them yesterday.

No.

And again, I would probably lean Houston to go to the Final Four, especially with the fact that they're going to have home games if they get to the Sweet 16.

What do we do in a game like Clemson and Iowa? What should we do with that on TV?

Under, under, and don't watch.

I got to figure out a strategy for it because I do— I like to take occasional unders in these games, especially if I just lose like 3 overs in a row.

That's what I need.

I need a strategy for making it bearable to, to watch the games that I bet the unders on.

Under. They are the 2nd and 4th slowest teams in the tournament. And Ben McCollum, who came from Drake, he wants to— he wants to grind it out, just suck the air out of the ball. I'm also probably going to take Iowa in that game. Okay, last region, the Midwest region. Michigan, who just lost to Purdue. Purdue's playing hot. Michigan, I feel like they got a pretty decent draw because you have Texas Tech. Who without Toppin is a different team. And Alabama, I mean, they can get hot, but they also can look really not great defensively. And at the rim, they're a little soft. So I don't, I don't hate Michigan's draw here.

No, Michigan, I think you're happy if you're a Wolverine fan.

Yeah.

Um, Iowa State.

Iowa State got a great draw.

They got a great draw too.

Yeah, I like Iowa State's draw. And I like Virginia's the one team in that, in that group that would, uh, because I, I'm not scared of Kentucky.

I think Santa Clara's game, I think they're gonna beat them.

Oh, Hank, what was that?

Just put my hands up.

Sorry.

Oh, he put his hands up playing a song. Watch your—

watch above your head. That thing's about to fall.

You're about to get brained with a bear smug. Maybe Mount Rushmore. What if you died by getting brained by Mount Rushmore?

Hank, what's going through your head right now?

Mount Rushmore.

We're down, down to our last strike. It's 2-1 US.

This ump is clearly from America. Yeah, he's made some, some generous calls.

I think his name— I think it's Cam Young.

Got to dig deep. You dig deep here.

You have obviously— just because he's from America doesn't mean he's rooting for America.

Yeah, it's true.

Good point.

Really good point.

Based off of the calls that he has made the last couple innings.

Really good point.

I think he is.

Hank was being so annoying in the car on the ride over here. We were watching the World Baseball League and Hank was just like he was coming himself when J-Rod had that catch that robbed Aaron Judge of a home run. Hank was like, turn it up. Turn it up in your face.

Disgusting. Here it is. We go, Hank. Talk us through it. 2-2 team. You live and die.

Oh, he took it. 3-2, man on third.

Have you loved watching Austin Wells? You like— that's why— that would be me. Yeah. Speaking Spanish in the dugout, having fun.

3-2, 3-2 count, man on third, 2 outs.

Oh no.

I will say this.

Oh, you guys are—

Roman Anthony stepped up to the plate and Hank goes like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't hate it if this guy hit a home run.

Oh wow.

Yeah.

They're going to—

if the US is going to win, it's because of a Roman Anthony go-ahead home run. I can live with that.

Yeah.

That's like the best.

But if they win any other way, the worst case scenario down in the dumps.

Yeah.

Soggy sorrows. Dominican Republic lose.

I don't think so. Maybe if they lose the finals. It's only the semis.

This is a hell of a bat.

This is a hell of a bat. You guys are ahead.

I mean, you guys are ahead of me.

Miller.

It's how you compete.

Come on, Hank.

How far ahead are we?

We're about 10 seconds ahead.

So far ahead. Hank, just watch the TV behind you.

He's watching it. He's now taking out his phone and he's reversing the camera so you can watch it. So you could just turn around.

Actually, I think this is super smart for me.

Yeah, it's the best thing he's ever done.

And it looks like it's a lefty pitching.

Oh, there you go. Oh, got him!

Oh, see ya! No, that was a ball!

That was a ball! What they call it is a ball.

What they call it—

that was a ball.

That's how you get out. That's insane. That's USA baseball right there.

Sorry for your loss, Hank.

Not absolutely insane.

Not—

oh man, what a game that was.

And, and will you be rooting for the winner of Venezuela and Italy to beat The US in the final?

No.

Yeah, you can't refer. I mean, you don't, you can't, you don't like—

definitely not Italy.

Yeah, you don't like it.

Venezuela could be fun.

Big fan.

All you got to do is watch one Venezuela game and you'll, you'll be hooked instantly.

I will say that Dominican Republic, they, they like changed their entire mentality after getting thrown out at third base. It seemed like they were afraid on the base paths like 3 or 4 times. They just, they put the brakes on. They didn't want to get thrown out again. He's mentally dominated. I will also— I've, I've never seen Manny Machado run to first base in my life. And tonight he put his head down and was like a bat out of hell out of the batter's box tonight. If you're a Padres fan, you're watching this, you're like, where the fuck is this Manny?

That's— he just swept up in the DR.

But like, I would— it took my breath away watching Manny Machado hit a ground ball and immediately head down, taking off.

Yeah. Hank, what's going through your head? Just sad.

It's just a sad run.

It's just a sad run. Yeah. 3 more years.

Any regrets?

No, no, I regret nothing. I'm happy for Roman Anthony.

But you regret nothing in picking the wrong side, the losing side, the more fun side. Well, you know what's fun? Winning.

Yeah.

I mean, winning is a lot of fun.

Helps when the umpire's calling balls, strikes. That was a huge difference. Those last 2 innings. This was his Congrats to USA.

He's in the car.

I also—

Paul Skeens, I like— he's a true, true patriot.

Such a good— sounds like tomorrow part of my take picture right now.

By the way, Ken Rosenthal, get the fuck out of here, dude. I'm so sick of this guy ever since that Brewers thing last year. He's such a loser. Get him out. I mean, he had— I don't want him anywhere near me anymore.

He had maybe the quote of the century earlier tonight. He said Fernando Tatis said the Dominican Republic is like a bunch of superheroes. 9 Batmen, if you will. Paul Skeens is the closest thing we have to Superman. So he was saying, who wins, 9 Batmen or 1 Superman? That's a terrible comparison. Yeah, Batman would beat the shit out of 1 Superman.

I'm so sick of Ken Rosenthal, though. That should have been like a career ender, the way he reacted. Yeah, yeah, he's just a jerk. You like, you would just tell a guy is, you know, I'm all for second chance, but you could tell he's just a jerk. And so like, why, why do we, why do we let a jerk?

He didn't really, he didn't handle the second chance that well.

No, no, he, he tried to explain his way out of it.

I'm happy for Paul Skeens.

I am too. Okay, Midwest.

Yeah, I, uh, Hank was calling him Big Dom. That's what he was calling Dominican Republic, Big Dom.

You were?

Yeah.

Nice. Partner.

Big Dubs.

Yeah, yeah. I just love watching Max wince every time Big Dom gets brought up.

Uh, okay, do you want to take a shot at an early Final Four? Again, we're gonna do our full bracket breakdown with dumb facts about each team on Wednesday's show. We also have Mark Titus. Any— you want to—

yeah, my— this is my early share.

Their Final Four is my early, early Final Four. Everyone share it, go for it. Memes, you got one? Memes, I know you filled out a million brackets.

Uh, the first one I filled out, I had St. John's coming out.

I don't have my paper in front of me. St. John's, Houston, Arizona, and Iowa State.

Arizona win the whole thing.

Okay, okay. I'm gonna go with Duke, Arizona, Houston, Virginia, Duke obviously winning the whole thing. I mean, it's not even— again, why play?

Not close.

Why play?

Why play? I'm going to go with Michigan State. I'm going to go with Houston, Arkansas, and I think I'm just going to go Michigan.

Okay.

Out of the Midwest.

And who do you have winning it all?

I got Houston winning it all.

Okay.

I'm going to go—

fourth year in a row. Yep.

I'm going to go—

listen, you got to get it.

You got to get it eventually.

You can't stop.

Yeah, you got to get it eventually.

Duke, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin.

I knew you were going to do that with Duke beating Wisconsin in Indy.

So you got three of your Big Ten teams.

I knew you're going to do that.

Okay, Max, that will do. Okay, can we just say that honestly, that would probably be the most listened to podcast of Part of My Take if that happened, especially if Wisconsin had a halftime lead.

Yeah, and beating Michigan, it would be awesome.

Yeah, I mean, almost— I was— the Saturday Austin Rapp was insane. I think he hit 5— he hit 6 threes, but 5 in a row in possessions. And the whole time I was thinking, like, if the Badgers can pull this off, I might— I would obviously still be rooting for Wisconsin to win it all, but I might sneaky have to root for Michigan because then I would raise a banner in our office with an asterisk being like, but couldn't beat Wisconsin. Yeah, because it would have been 2 times that we beat them and had Dave here do a banner cutting day. Ribbon cutting day for the banner. All right, go ahead, Max.

St. John's, Florida, Arizona, Iowa State.

Okay, and winner— the Duke disrespect is disgusting, right, Hank?

Disgusting.

Disgusting. I will do Iowa State over— wow.

St. John's.

Okay, Zach, finish this off, then we'll do who's back of the week.

I'm going to go UConn, Florida, BYU, Akron.

Oh, Akron. Love that.

I'm going to take Akron to win.

Akron to win it all.

Just a kid.

Love that. You just love the, love the zips. Zip up.

Just keep—

I told Dom I'd zip up.

Let's get zipped.

Should I be worried about that, Zach, knowing that we're on Bracketbusters together?

No, some things won't transcend the busters. We'll bust together.

Memes and I were thinking about letting you just bust.

I think we got 3-man bust.

No, you just decide. You're in charge of busting. Yeah, you might be. Just— we're giving you the wheel.

We should bust together.

Okay.

Now you're Dave and Busters.

Okay. Before we get to who's back of the week, Twisted Tea. Twisted Tea is 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. The half and half, the original, the peach, it's all Twisted Tea. We're going to get— summer's coming oh so close and it's Twisted Tea season. As soon as it gets a little warm, crack open a Twisted Tea. You know what? Crack open a Twisted Tea for the first round of the tournament. Get that half and half. You will not regret it. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. OK, who's back of the week? Hank, by the way, I've looked at the pitch a little bit more.

There's, there's a bunch of pitches.

Well, I mean, the last one, if I could change it, I would for your beloved Dominican Republic. But unfortunately, we can't.

Well, the thing is, nobody's more upset about that than I am. Yeah, I want to see the better team win. Because I'm most— first and foremost, I'm a fan of fairness in sports. And that, to me, it doesn't pass that test. But you can't take it back. I mean, the game's over. You can't send the guys back on the field now, I guess.

And are you making excuses?

No.

Okay. No excuses.

No excuses. But it's bullshit.

Okay.

And I thought, you know, whatever.

What?

They obviously aren't doing the new umpire rules that they're implementing.

ABS.

Why not? Wouldn't this be a perfect time to implement it?

You'd think so. You would think so.

But no excuses.

But no excuses.

Again, if we could change that.

Yeah.

Like, I would love if I had a magic wand. My first wish would be go back and put the robot umpires into this game so that, so that we can get with— so that the U.S. might not win. Yeah, that's what I would love to see.

So that Hank could continue his wonderful ride with Dominican It was a great ride.

Magic. Magic's over.

Over 2 games watched. No, 2 games watched.

Yeah.

2 games and some highlights.

Yeah.

What a ride.

Magic Wand would be a great nickname.

We were listening. We were listening on the drive tonight. The sound was cutting in and out. PFT was just doing play-by-play at one point. Yeah, it's painful.

Great. No, great play-by-play.

Okay. Who's back?

Who's back? Speaking of, you know, not winning is just not being able to win the big one.

Yeah, few.

Dominican came in the big one. Timothy Chalamet.

Yeah.

Did not win.

Did you hear there might have been someone part of the PMT team who made a guarantee on Timothy Chalamet winning that?

Who would?

It's Shane.

Yeah. Our number one movie guy, Shane, guaranteed it. Corn dog.

That's all he does is watch movies.

I know. And he said he can't really just—

we That's all he does.

We were watching in the cave and he's just like, what? Michael B. Jordan? How could that happen? Like, Shane, that was a guarantee.

Hold up, Shane.

Ah, brutal.

That's tough.

Chalamet, he'll win one. Yeah, yeah.

But he's, he's now in that like, can he win the big one? It's, it's, I think it's his third time. Nothing. Can't win nothing to show.

As a guy named Kaitlyn Clark. Yeah. Can't win the big one.

As a guy that didn't see either of the movies, Sinners or Marty Supreme, he got hosed. I saw Marty's year.

I disagree. I don't think he got—

oh, come on.

It was fine. It was a good movie. I didn't think it was as good as— I don't think it was like the greatest movie. No, I liked One Battle more. One battle.

You see Sinners?

I did not see Sinners.

You were about to say Sinners and then I—

no, I didn't see Sinners. I saw half of the the debate we're having here and the half that I saw don't think she deserved to win. Can't speak for the other half.

It was very good too.

I'm sure it is. I probably watched at some point. I liked one battle more than Marty Supreme, but it's best actor. I understand. Should have been Benicio.

I think he's supporting. I don't know if he won.

He should have been lead.

I think he did win.

I think they should just make it lead actor even for the supporting guys. Like, if you're the— if you're the— if you're the funniest guy in a movie.

No, I think Sean Penn won supporting. For One Battle.

That would make sense. Yeah, that would make a lot of walks.

He kind of had that little limp walk.

Yeah.

In that movie.

Yeah. They should just have like a chillest dude award. Benicio would win that one. Okay, so Chalamet, both of them, Dominican Republic.

Now I just saw Mars Supreme. I saw One Battle too.

Okay. Did anyone see Sinners? You saw Sinners, Max?

I saw Sinners.

Finish this debate for us. Was Michael B. Jordan more worthy of winning than Timothée Chalamet? This is great. As a collective podcast, we saw both these movies.

One Battle won Best Picture.

I understand.

Good. Yeah, that's all. Should have.

That's the one movie you're arguing.

No, we're arguing Timothy Shattuck. We're basically not arguing.

You're not arguing Timothy Shattuck. You're just arguing that you liked One Battle better.

Correct.

That is what you said.

And also won. Well, but no, but he said can't win the big one. And I'm saying didn't really deserve it. Didn't think Marty—

but you're— You're just going off of the movie.

Correct.

But as an individual, the big one is best actor, right? Everybody knows that.

Correct. Right.

It's MVP debate. The MVP just go to the best quarterback on the best team every year.

Marty Supreme shouldn't have— wasn't good enough to— as a movie for him to win the big one.

Well, let's just say, like, if you took— if you took Chalamet out of Marty Supreme and you replace him with, say, McConaughey, How's the movie do?

Probably fine.

Is it as good?

I like Chalamet a lot. I didn't really love that movie. Again, this has nothing to do with Best Actor. I'm more clowning on Shane for having a guarantee that didn't come through. But Max, who was better, Michael B. Jordan or Chalamet?

I like Chalamet.

Okay, all right.

But I thought I liked Sinners as a movie better.

I like Chalamet. Chalamet got robbed.

I liked Marty Supreme as a movie better than Sinners, but I liked Michael B. Jordan You didn't watch Sinners, Zach? Well, yeah, that's so— Zach, did you watch both these?

I haven't seen either of those movies, but I'm going to take Chalamet.

Memes, did you watch both these?

I like Frankenstein.

Okay, nice. Nice.

If you only go to see one movie in theaters all year and that movie ends up winning Best Picture, that's a hell of a year.

Yeah. Job well done.

That's a hell of a year. I'm pumped.

I watched Begonia.

I know.

Oh, I did see that, but it was in my house. Begonia is awesome.

Yeah.

The only one I saw in theaters was Marty. I didn't see— I saw one battle in my house as well.

Oh, wow.

You got— you got a fucking— you live in a movie theater, bro.

What?

Sick.

You heard him?

I saw it on my couch.

You live in a movie theater?

Shout out, Stav.

You sleep with onion?

Do we have a comment from Shane? How did he—

we'll get him for lottery ball.

Okay.

But Shawn Lake came in the big one. Ludwig. Abe Bear can't win the big one.

Yeah, big time. Can't.

Another choke. Choked in the Masters.

He hit some water.

Choked today.

Huge choke. He had a dominant home course going into Sunday.

Choke.

And I put him on my list of guys I will never bet again after he choked in the Masters. And then I forgot about putting him on the list. Bet him again this week. And yeah, it was, it was a nightmare choke job.

Damn.

Can't win the big one.

Can't do it.

Was that the big one?

It's a big one.

Fifth major.

It's a big one, but not the big one. Can't be a big one. And the big one is different than a big one.

In golf, there's like 5 big ones, 6 big ones.

Okay, but what's the big one?

Depends. Depends who you ask.

Okay. I feel like there's—

he couldn't win the Masters and then he had another chance to win a big one.

But there is no— A big one is different than the big one.

Okay. Apologies.

Well, no, I'm just saying the big one.

He can't win a big one.

The big one is Chalamet not winning the Oscars.

He can't really win a one.

Yeah. Has he won a one?

You can't win a mid one.

I think he's won a tournament.

He's won one. Okay.

But not a big one.

It was disgusting.

But I guess maybe not. There's only one big one. So I guess I was wrong there.

A testy Hank.

I'm just saying, what would the big one be?

The Masters, which he didn't win. Yeah. So you can't win that one either. Yeah.

He stinks. He stinks on Sundays. I don't know what it is about him. He just— for being a robot, because he feels like he does have like the personality of a drone. Just when he gets under pressure, he just melts down. And most guys that that have that like robotic personality. They don't have the choke gene.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, he's water multiple times, right?

Yeah.

Okay. PFT, your Who's Back of the Week?

My Who's Back of the Week is taking medical advice from strangers on the internet.

Nice.

So I don't know if you got anybody that sent this to you, Big Cat. I had a couple of people that sent it my way out of concern for a friend, Hank. On Thursday, we were watching the We're watching some college basketball on TV and Hank had his foot up for most of the night, put his foot down, took a step and just completely crashed out onto the ground. He had a case of the old numb leg, fell onto the ground. I was glad that you were okay.

Yeah.

The first question I asked was, can I get that clip? And then I immediately said, wait, Hank, are you okay? And they said, yeah, I'm fine. I'm like, okay, good. Now can I please get that clip? And there's some guy on the internet that's telling Hank that he's 99% sure that Hank has pancreatitis. Oh, because the numb leg. But the guy—

shout out to this guy because he's not just a fan of the show that wants to get talked about.

Well, mission accomplished. He's in medical danger.

His name is Big Pancreas.

Okay.

Which he only changed after this clip.

Yeah. So, yeah, he says—

but I've had lots of people reach out to me being like, hey, is Hank all right? In reality, Hank's— he was just sitting with his leg numb. But now everybody's hitting me up being like, hey, is Hank going to die?

I hope not.

No, you're fine.

You have pancreatitis?

I might. 99% sure.

Shit, dude, that's not good.

I have to go get checked out.

I don't know. How do you get that checked out?

Make you shit in a cup?

Or a doctor?

I don't know.

We did look up the symptoms, and one of the first symptoms was just like, your shit smells like extra shit, like, oh, we're smelling shits that you can possibly have.

I don't think that's true for me.

Okay. This is good.

Your shit smell normal.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. My Who's Back of the Week is Joel Embiid because he has officially reached the perfect level.

I have something to say about this.

485 games played. 400.

I have something to say about this. Is Joel Embiid the only athlete in the history of sports that like gets clowned for being—

That's a crazy stat.

That's a great—

I just— do you know, I just hear PFTs.

He just— he clowned Hank.

Well, I wasn't clowning.

Are you in sports?

Yeah, he's in sports media.

I'm an athlete.

You're not an athlete.

That's Derek Rose.

Derek Rose. And everyone is like, oh my God, that's, that's a, that's a horrible Horrible shame what happened to Derrick Rose's career gets hurt to. Horrible shame what happened to Greg Odin's career. For some reason Joel Embiid always gets hurt and it's like hahaha. What a great athlete that can't stay healthy. Let's laugh in his face. He's the only athlete ever that anyone does. Name somebody else. Name somebody else.

Michael Irvin being concussed at Veteran Stadium comes to mind.

That is not the same thing at all because it's like not like a legacy thing.

Well, in his career, right?

What do you mean?

No, but that was like one time that, that like Philly fans were assholes about. Yeah, it was one time.

I can't—

yeah, Boston racist Boston fans over here being like, oh yeah, let's talk about Philly fans.

I think this is going to go like this.

I can't think.

I know because it's bullshit. But because so many people tagged me in that and it's like What?

It's the—

he's the only guy ever. Everyone is— everyone is always, oh, what a shame that this career wasn't the same thing because of injuries. Except for Joel Embiid.

For some reason you bring up fair points. I just— that's a crazy stat.

It happens. How everyone happens. But for some reason, for Joel Embiid, it's funny.

I haven't laughed.

What? What injuries? And now he's—

whatever.

I don't even know.

I just want to know. Some injuries are funny. Admit it, some injuries are funny, Max.

You're—

you get hit in the nuts. You guys, you guys are—

oh no, Max, nobody would ever— no, I can't think of anyone else that gets made fun of for being injured. It happens.

What?

Athletes get made fun of for being injured.

You're not an athlete.

I'm not talking about me.

But if we— I mean, I do consider him an athlete, and it is funny when he gets injured sometimes.

That's true.

Yeah.

I wasn't talking about me, Max.

But if you want to talk about PFT, we have laughed.

Yeah.

Before.

Yeah, we laugh at injuries.

Paul George.

He has an oblique injury.

People make fun of him. He can't stay healthy.

Yeah, playoff P. Anthony Davis.

Nope.

Yeah, I laugh. He gets injured like every game.

Big Ben.

And then he comes back in.

Big Ben. Checkmate.

Big Ben.

Checkmate.

The whole thing about the walking boot.

Checkmate.

Big Ben is funny because he says that he has injuries and he plays.

Okay, good counterpoint. You listen, you're making a lot of good points that I'm going to— I'm going to take into account. You changed your mind today.

Great.

485, 45. But that's—

and a lot of those games also were before he even started his NBA career, which shouldn't even count.

I'd agree with that. That's a good counterpoint.

Yeah. Fake stat.

So you got to wait a couple more months for it to be real stat.

No, that's, that's 82 games, right?

82 games. Yeah. 82 games. You got it. You got it.

You got to trust myself.

83 if you play in tournament.

Well, actually, no, those games don't count for any stats.

Yeah, they exist outside the realm.

So going to play them reality.

Yeah, but they don't count.

Count for your body.

No one knows your body.

Your body.

Yeah, for sure.

If you get a torn ACL in a play-in game, I don't think it does.

No, it doesn't count.

Respawn the next day.

NBA Cup.

Is this a real stat that games played since February 1st, 2024? Ben Simmons, 59. Joel Embiid, 52. That's not real. I think I just keep going. I think I just got to keep going.

You keep doing— keep doing this.

Also, who's back? Jared McCain. Yeah.

Playing well.

Yeah.

Killing it.

Yeah.

And all the Thunder— you see the Thunder, they all start doing a celebration. It's—

It is college basketball season. It's college hoops. We do not talk about the NBA this week ever. What are you fucking laughing at over here? You haven't won shit ever. Ever.

It was funny. NBA Cup. It is funny. I was watching the Canadians, by the way. Us beating Canada on Friday night was awesome, although it really didn't really like move the meter. It's like we have to beat them. That was one of those wins that's like You can't really flex. It's just if a loss happens, it's really bad. But Memes went on a little tweet storm on, on PMT about Canada and just all the replies like, this is from the loser Jets fan Memes. He's never won anything. It was just going after Memes hard. I just do your job.

To those people, I'd say suck my dick.

Yeah, just doing your job, bro. Just doing your job.

Okay, Zach, my Who's Back of the Week this week is the Paris Gentlemates, a professional Call of Duty team. Yep, they've got the 4th major of the year coming up.

They say that—

Gentlemates? Gentlemates, yes sir. They're out in Europe. They secured the venue for the Major 4. It's the Paris La Défense Arena, so it's got 45,000 seats. So they're— it's gonna be the biggest event in Call of Duty history.

45,000 seats for video game tournament?

Yes sir. The most, some of the more notable stuff that recently happened in the same arena, Taylor Swift Eras Tour and Olympic swimming. The last time they had the Olympic swimming.

That's pretty incredible.

So it's going to be just 8 dudes on PCs, main stage, 45,000 seats.

I got a pretty cool—

I got a dumb question. How big is the screen? Like, I would imagine that would be a very important part of going to see a video game tournament live, like the Jumbotron that everybody could watch.

I don't have the square footage of Jumbotron on hand, but we can find it really quick.

I think it's big.

I mean, it's got—

what's the stadium?

I also love Paris Defense Stadium.

Pretty solid chance. It's kind of like, you know, MSG has the Side where we went to darts.

I'm thinking it wasn't, but it's like an MSG, but it's—

yeah, the theater, 5,000 person.

Yeah, yeah.

My gut tells me that this is—

oh yeah, that thing's huge.

That's a big screen. Now, if they're in the market for a bigger screen, I know a guy that makes basketball court size screens that has one, probably looking for a good home.

Oh, Max, do you ever follow up with that guy?

You guys never answered me.

Do it.

I said, do you want me to follow up?

Yeah, do it. Do it. I forgot. Do it. I would definitely make this court an LED screen. It would be so sick.

Yeah.

There was some slippage though.

Can we get— can we get Oldie in here? Uh, let's get to our interview with Jon Rothstein, and then after Jon Rothstein, we'll get some quick thoughts from a Canadian on March Madness bracket because Oldie was watching college basketball all weekend with us.

NCAA.

NCAA. All right, let's get Jon Rothstein. Okay, before we get to Jon Rothstein, Reese's is teaming up with Basketball Titans to build their brackets. Brackets that will inevitably bust, but this year those busts can score you a Reese's So pick along with the pros and just know whenever you bust, at least you can win Reese's. Will your bracket survive or will it bust for Reese's? Get your brackets in early and let's see who has the last one standing and the first to get a Reese's because even busted brackets happen for Reese's. I have it right here. I'm going to have a Reese's peanut butter cup right here on air because I love them so much. Turn your busted bracket into your shot at Reese's and more. Post your, post your Busted Bracket, tag @Reeses, @Reeses on Instagram, X, or TikTok, and use hashtag #ForReesesSweeps for a chance to score free Reese's and a shot to enjoy those Reese's at the men's or women's Final Four and championship games. No purchase necessary. Open only to legal residents of the 48 US and DC, 18 years or older. Void in Alaska, Hawaii, and where prohibited by law.

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Because the grind doesn't take breaks, and neither does Silverado. Check out the current offers and build your own Chevy Silverado at chevy.com. Okay, here he is. Jon Rothstein. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very special guest, recurring guest, as is tradition. It is the one, the only Jon Rothstein. You can hear him hosting Inside College Basketball now. Get it wherever you get your podcasts. He will be on our TV screens in St. Louis for Friday-Sunday action. He will then be in studio for the rest of the tournament. John, we've made it, we have a bracket. How are you feeling?

Outstanding, Cat. PFT, always a pleasure. One of the best days of the year, Selection Sunday. Kind of feels like the first night of Hanukkah, but you know, for all intents and purposes right now, all we have is a bracket and we know that there's 67 games ahead, but we don't know what's going to happen between now and April 6th. Yes, we know this is March.

Yes, this is March. All right, so before we break it down, we actually— we, we, we've done some of our show and we said we cannot wait to hear specifically what Jon has dubbed the East region. But before we do that, I have one simple question for you, because on Saturday, or maybe it was Friday, uh, CBS Sports, your, your colleagues were trying to do a pajama party on air.

Yes.

And you said no to the pajamas. Was that even— did you even have like a second thought about it? Because that was like such a— listen, we sleep in May. What are we doing? We're not putting on pajamas. Did you have like a moment where like, maybe I'll play along? Or were you just like, no, absolutely not. I don't— I'm Jon Rothstein. I don't put on pajamas in March.

I'm not a pajama guy to begin with, but like when you have business to tend to, it's not a time to get cozy and feel comfortable. Like we were dealing at that time, I believe, with the San Diego State-New Mexico game, which is like a loser leaves town match. That we grew up with, with professional wrestling, where obviously the guy had to leave the WWF. But this was just, you know, you have to leave college basketball and obviously not be able to play in the NCAA tournament. So I wasn't interested in pajamas.

Okay. I love that. I knew it. I knew when I saw the picture, I was like, of course, John Rossi is not going to do this. Come on. Be serious, people.

We don't need gimmicks this time of year.

It's March.

Yeah, it's March. We lock in.

Dress for the month you want, not the month you have.

Yeah.

Listen, I will say this. I know, I know what you're saying about dress for the month, you know, you want for the way you are, but I am somebody who regardless of what month it is, if I am going on a college campus or I'm going on the air, I am always wearing a suit and tie unless it's in a podcast situation that I'm hosting because I have been instructed in those situations not to wear a tie because they want to be more casual. But I am somebody who has always believed that it's really important to wear a shirt and tie. I remember, guys, Early in my career, I was working at the ESPN radio affiliate in New York, and I remember I was like a fill-in talk show host, but I also did updates on the Michael K show. So I remember as like somebody who dreamed about living and working in New York, I mean, I was somebody in college who would watch like 3 movies in the rotation. It was Cocktail, Wall Street, and like The Secret of My Success. I was like determined to be in broadcasting and like live and work in New York.

And when I would drive into Manhattan, there was this big billboard on the Upper West Side Highway and it said, Reporting America's Story. And that's when Brian Williams was hosting NBC Nightly News. So I remember I was doing updates at ESPN Radio. This is probably now close to 20 years ago. And Michael Kay, who was the voice of the Yankees, was the afternoon drive host. And he said to me, he goes, just a heads up, Brian Williams is going to come in to sit in on the show tomorrow. With his son. And I said, well, if Brian Williams is coming, then I need to make sure that I wear a suit and tie. So I, with a suit and tie, was like doing updates, doing my job, and I could tell that it made an impression on him. And then years later, I bump into the guy in Rockefeller Center— this is the anchor of NBC Nightly News at the time— and he said to me— I was like meeting somebody for a beer in like a button-down— he said to me, I didn't recognize you without your suit. So I will never not obviously wear a suit when I go to a college campus or be in a work setting again.

Okay, I, I like that. I got you, John. It does become like, you know, if you, if you came on the show and you were wearing a t-shirt and shorts, I would feel like the month of March wouldn't feel the same to me, right? It would affect my calendar. Like, March is John Rothstein wearing a suit and a tie and speaking very authoritatively about what he wants to call these brackets, because something has occurred to him when he looked at the coaches, he looked at the teams. And so we got to ask you about, about the East, because it's just, it's, it's a lot of brands, it's a lot of coaches. We want to know where your brain went.

The region of blue bloods is the East region because as you mentioned, we have brands on top of brands. The number 1 overall seed is the Duke Blue Devils. Obviously that's an easy one, but also you have a great brand in Ohio State in the 8 spot. St. John's is your 5, Kansas is your 4, Louisville is 6, Michigan State a 3, and then UCLA and UConn. Guys, how about this? 6 of the 16 coaches in the East region have coached in the Final Four. John Shire, Rick Pitino, Bill Self, Michigan State, Tom Izzo, and also UCLA's Mick Cronin and UConn's Dan Hurley. Therefore, the region of blue bloods. I love it.

I love it. Yeah, we went through it. It's, uh, 7 national titles between those guys. Bill Self with, with 2, Patino with 2, Izzo with 1, Hurley with 2. The, the teams themselves have 30 national titles. It's pretty crazy. Like, they, they just stacked this region with some of these teams. It's like you, you grew up on this in college basketball. Also an incredible region for defense because there's some tenacious defenses in this region.

Tenacious defenses in this region. And I think honestly, a team that a lot of people are sleeping on in the East region, the region of blue bloods, is Jamie Dixon's team at TCU. I think a lot of people looked at their bracket and they said, oh, we're going to get a Duke-Ohio State brand-on-brand game in the round of 32. I am taking Jamie Dixon and company to beat TCU. I think they could push Duke. I don't think they'll beat Duke, obviously, in the round of 32. But people obviously follow Jamie Dixon at the University of Pittsburgh. You obviously became familiar with his player development, his obviously ability to retain players. David Punch is a player on TCU that people will become familiar with later this week. And he also did a really, really good job recalibrating his perimeter last offseason via the transfer portal. Brock Harding, Jayden Pierre, Latorre, Lelovicius. I like TCU to beat Ohio State and put a little game pressure on Duke.

Yeah, I was mentioning it, like TCU is a big game team. They beat Florida, they beat Wisconsin, they beat Iowa State. They, uh, took Michigan, um, you know, to the limit. So like, they have, they have played up in level and gone toe-to-toe with some of these teams and asserted themselves like, we can hang. So yeah, that— it's a— I think that's the best 8-9 matchup. Those two teams are both playing great. I mean, Ohio State's playing some great ball recently, really good ball.

But I think if you look at storylines, and this is obviously a couple of rounds down the line, But it's something that I think I've looked at, you know, right now for, you know, since last summer coming into this season, you know, I really felt that the burgeoning rivalry in college basketball was UConn and St. John's. Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley, Dan Hurley and Rick Pitino, two of the three active coaches that have won multiple national championships. Bill Self is obviously the other one. And I think if you look at this region right now, If St. John's can get by Kansas and get to the second weekend and get back to the East Coast in Washington, D.C., St. John's could be the team in the Sweet 16 that would match up with Duke without Caleb Foster. If we saw St. John's distort this region and beat Duke in the Sweet 16, it could set up a regional final of epic proportions. I'm talking Ali Frazier type of stuff. I am talking about stuff that they will be doing 30 for 30s on because I felt there was a real chance before the season that UConn and St.

John's could meet 4 times this year. They've already met 3, but if they meet for a 4th time in 2026, it will not be for a Big East tournament title. It will not be for a Big East regular season title, which obviously was decided in the last days of the regular season, it would be in the Elite Eight for a chance to go to the Final Four. So there's a lot that has to happen for that to come to fruition, but can you imagine in our nation's capital if we have Rick Pitino on one side and Dan Hurley on the other for the right to go to the Final Four? I mean, I may need a tranquilizer.

That'd be great.

That'd be awesome. Can you just talk real quick more about the potential second-round matchup of St. John's and Kansas? Because to me, that sounds like a very, very intriguing game.

Really intriguing game, PFT. We have to also remember that Zoubi Ejiofor, who has emerged as one of the best players in college basketball— I had him as an All-American— started his career at Kansas under Bill Self and then transferred to play for Rick Pitino at St. John's. Look, obviously Kansas coming into the season had a great deal of attention because of Darrin Peterson, who obviously when active and healthy has the highest long-term ceiling individually as a prospect in college basketball. But guys, I have said this ad nauseam here, just because you are obviously a great long-term prospect at the next level, that doesn't mean by any way, shape, or form that you are going to have team success in the NBA. In the, in the NCAA tournament. Remember this, the last 9 years we have seen 3 first-round picks, Markelle Fultz, Ben Simmons, and Anthony Edwards play on teams that didn't make the NCAA tournament. Darren Peterson's team obviously made the NCAA tournament, but Bill Self has had to coach 2 teams this season, one with Darren Peterson, one without Darren Peterson. I think the round of 32, guys, is always the juiciest round of the NCAA tournament because you get matchups like this and because you have one team that's obviously going to be euphoric going to the Sweet 16 and the other is obviously going to go home for the season.

And I look at this dynamic between Bill Self and Rick Pitino. It's interesting, as power conference head coaches, Rick Pitino and Bill Self have never coached head-to-head. The only time that Rick Pitino and Bill Self have coached head-to-head was when Kansas played Iona a couple of years ago at an early season tournament. In Orlando.

Wow, that is crazy. You would think that they would, they would run into each other at some point over the years. I like watching Kansas because I feel like, uh, Badunga, Fiore Badunga, the big man, you may remember watching if you watched the tournament last year, not great offensively. This year he's become like maybe the, the most fun interior player in college basketball to watch, just the way that he, he affects games with his defense and he can just dominate you offensively. Now I feel like that's— it's a guy that if all goes well for him, he will be able to take over a game and wreck it himself.

Yeah, well, that would be the matchup inside, right? How would Badunga, with his defensive prowess, deal with the size and the physicality, not just of Zoubi Ejiofor but of Bryce Hopkins? And guys, I really think the guy that's been the game changer for St. John's— and I thought this when I went to a St. John's practice in the preseason The guy that has made St. John's the team that it is is Dylan Mitchell. Now, when you look at the way this roster was constructed, it was obviously constructed with high-level talent. Joe Zansin and Ian Jackson were guys who were really offensive-minded players, but obviously were not part of high-level winning situations. North Carolina went to the tournament last year, but, you know, was in the first four, probably shouldn't have been in the bracket. Jose Ansanam was at Arizona State at a team that didn't make the tournament. Now all of a sudden, Rick Pitino, especially without a traditional table-setting point guard at the high level— Dylan Darling's done a nice job, but obviously it wasn't like having Kadari Richmond or Davon Smith like they had a year ago. I watched practice in Queens and I said to myself, Dylan Mitchell's a guy that needs to be on the floor a lot for St.

John's because he can have a great impact on a team by not demanding shots. And I think if you look at it from a coaching perspective, the number one thing you think about is shot distribution and whose hands the ball's in. You never have to worry about that with Dylan Mitchell. I felt he was the best glue guy in the Big East. He's definitely one of the best glue guys in the sport. But I'll say this, things have aligned perfectly for St. John's the last couple of years.

Mm-hmm.

Rick Pitino was out of college basketball. He came back from Greece and he started to coach at Iona because he wanted to obviously take a job in his native New York. It so happened that St. John's was open when Iona was having success, and that coincided with the transfer portal, name, image, and likeness, and a billionaire booster in Mike Rapoli, who obviously has a major hand in St. John's resurgence. All of these things aligned. So, yes, it's been incredible to see St. John's last year win an NCAA tournament game for the first time since 2000. Yes, it's been incredible. For St. John's is to win back-to-back Big East regular season titles outright and back-to-back Big East tournament titles back-to-back for obviously the first time in program history. But when you have Rick Pitino as your head coach and look, he could coach another 20 years, you have to wring out the sponge. And that's why I think if you don't get to the second weekend this year, you're going to feel like something was left on the table.

I'd agree with that. All right. Before we go to the next region, do you have an upset pick? And we'll do all your picks at the end. But do you have an upset pick that you like in this or a team we should look out for?

I think if you're looking at the round of 32 game that could be interesting, it's obviously— and it's another great made-for-TV game if it comes to fruition— it's UConn-UCLA. I will say this though, UCLA has not played well out of the Pacific time zone.

Yep.

UCLA. And now again, UCLA, we have to remember is the only team in the Big Ten out of the old Pac-12 teams that has had real success since they joined the league. USC, Washington, and Oregon have all struggled when you look at it, especially this season. UCLA has been banged up with Bilodeau and Dent. Mick Cronin has told me he expects them 100% to play in the first NCAA tournament game against UCF, which will be on Friday. But I do think that UCLA has been such a poor rebounding team and has had such a hole in the middle that Taris Weed would be a tough matchup. So that to me is the most appetizing. I think if you look, guys, I mean, if seeds hold and that happens sometimes, but if seeds hold and we had Duke against Ohio State or TCU, St. John's against Kansas, Louisville against Michigan State, UCLA against UConn, in certain years, those half of the brackets could be the Final Four and we wouldn't be complaining.

Yeah.

No, you're right. You're right. That's, that's why it's the region of blue bloods. Quick break from Jon Rothstein. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. It can be challenging to make time for therapy. BetterHelp makes scheduling and attending your weekly sessions easy because it's all online. You can do phone, video, or message chat according to your schedule. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 6 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. If your therapist isn't the right fit, you can switch anytime easily and no extra cost. Prioritize your well-being with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/pmt to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com/pmt. I see a therapist. Let's take care of ourselves. Let's take care of our mentals, guys. It's okay. Let's get some help. Go to BetterHelp. BetterHelp.com right now. PMT, 10% off your first month. Okay, back to Jon Rothstein. All right, what about the South? Let's go to the South next.

This is the region of pressure. Now, why is this the region of pressure? There's pressure on Florida to win a national championship again because Florida has a team good enough to win a national championship again, and Florida is a number one seed in the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time ever. So get this, guys, for as great as the teams were under Billy Donovan in '06 and '07, that went back-to-back. Todd Golden has led Florida to better seeds in the NCAA tournament this year and last than Donovan did in '06 and '07. Florida has been a 1 seed in back-to-back years for the first time ever. There's pressure on Nebraska to win an NCAA tournament game for the first time ever. And I am on record in saying this, I said early in the season that if Nebraska were to win an NCAA tournament game for the first time ever before the start of next season, I would fly to Lincoln, I would put my credit card down in the Haymarket District for 1 hour, and I would give Nebraska fans a happy hour on me. Nebraska right now has a lot on the line coming up against Troy later this week.

Nebraska has tied its record for program wins, the most in program history with 26. So Nebraska has to win an NCAA tournament game for the first time ever to break the program record for wins. But this is a really, really difficult game, guys, against Troy, a team that won earlier this season at San Diego State. You're looking for a name to keep an eye on. Thomas Dowd is the guy for Troy, 25-19 in that win over San Diego State earlier this year. I'm taking Troy to break the hearts. Oh, everybody at Pinnacle Bank Arena and move on to the round of 32.

You're a mean guy, John. Wow, you're a mean guy. That's a mean thing you're doing.

Okay, spicing things up. I am fully prepared to pay for that happy hour. There's pressure on North Carolina without Caleb Wilson to win a game or two in this NCAA tournament. My heart breaks for him. It breaks for JT Toppin. Two of the 5 or 6 best players in college basketball, both of them went down. With season-ending injuries. Now remember this, North Carolina's playing VCU, who's an 11 seed. What seed was VCU in 2007 when it beat Duke in Buffalo and Eric Maynard made that shot? 11. What seed was VCU in 2011 when it went to the Final Four under Shaka Smart? It was an 11. VCU that year averaged 8.3 made 3-point shots during the season, averaged 12 in the NCAA tournament. And there's pressure on Houston to get to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament because Houston, after playing Purdue last year at Lucas Oil Stadium in the Sweet 16, relinquished their right— a genius move by A.D. Annie Nunez— relinquished their right to be the host school in the South region because Houston then would be eligible to play Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games at the Toyota Center in downtown Houston.

So this is the region of pressure. But get this, guys, Houston wins 2 games, in my opinion, in convincing fashion, because they're going to beat Idaho and I think they'll beat the St. Mary's-Texas A&M winner. That would put Kelvin Sampson in a situation where the basketball gods, 23 years later, would hit him back. What do I mean by that? If it's a Houston-Florida game to go to the Final Four at the Toyota Center in downtown Houston, a rematch of last year's national title game. It wouldn't just be a rematch of last year's national title game, it would put Kelvin Sampson into the opposite position he was in 23 years ago. Because 23 years ago, when Kelvin Sampson was at Oklahoma in 2003, he was a 1 seed. He was 1 year removed from a Final Four appearance, and he had to go to Albany to take on Jim Boeheim and Syracuse when Syracuse won the national title. So this would be obviously a major geographic advantage for Kelvin Sampson. He also had to go to Indianapolis to play Purdue last year. So there could be a geographic advantage looming there right there for Houston in the South region, which is also known as the region of pressure.

I love that. John, I want to clear something up real quick with you. Uh, the, the rules for the happy hour, you're going to march in, you're going to put your credit card down. Are there limitations on, on what you can order? Like fancy margaritas?

No, no. Yeah, no, it's not just going to be— this isn't like, you know, when you go to those weddings and all they have is wine and beer because they're cheap. Yeah, this is not going to be one of those situations. No, for 1 hour I'm going to do it, you know, for Nebraska fans if they can beat Troy coming up later in the week. I did it a couple of years ago. How about this, guys? A couple of years ago, and this is Chicago related, you guys weren't in Chicago at the time, but you know, I would have invited you at the time. I really felt that Chris Collins had an NCAA tournament team at Northwestern and they lost a bunch of close games. And I told Northwestern fans that I would take them to a happy hour if they didn't make the NCAA tournament. Then after that season, Northwestern lost Pete Nance to North Carolina as a transfer and they lost Ryan Young to Duke as a transfer. And then they went to the NCAA tournament. But it's, you know me, I'm a people person. I enjoy engaging with the people of America.

That's fact.

I don't waste calories on alcohol outside the East time zone though.

Yeah. You know me. You are a people person.

Pizza.

Pizza.

Pizza.

All right, uh, West.

The West region is the region of floor generals, and look at the point guards in this region. Jaden Bradley at Arizona, John Blackwell and Nick Boyd, the Killer Bees, at your alma mater Wisconsin. I love Darius Acuff at Arkansas, the best freshman point guard that has ever played for John Calipari. And then you have Rob Wright at BYU, you have Trey Donaldson at Miami, and of course Braden Smith at Purdue. This is the regional floor generals. Now I will say this, Arizona has not been to a Final Four since 2001 under Lute Olsen. This might be their best chance to go back since. It's going to be through San Diego and San Jose. Arizona fans always travel. At a high, high level. But Arizona, I don't think will be tested in its first two games because I don't think the Villanova-Utah State winner will push them in the round of 32. But that Wisconsin-Arkansas game— and I'm not trying to, you know, force you to grab a nitroglycerin pill here, Cat— but that Wisconsin-Arkansas game has all sorts of intrigue and juice and spice. But I'll say this, if Nolan Winter is able to be healthy and functioning, I got the Badgers going on to take on Arizona, which would be a rematch of the Elite Eights in '14 and also in '15.

Where were those Elite Eight games played? The state of California. Yep. So I think if you're looking at things, if you're Wisconsin, if you can get by Arkansas there might be a little bit of feeling right now that this Wisconsin team with the Killer Bees, if you get Nolan Winter back, could be the team to maybe break open the bracket. I think the bottom part of this region is fascinating. I'm obviously going to be at the games in St. Louis. BYU against Texas or NC State, whoever wins in Dayton, obviously is a brand name matchup. Gonzaga against Kennesaw State. Guys, an update for you guys. I tweeted this the other day. Mark Few told me that Braden Huff, who was playing like an All-American before suffering a knee injury about 8 weeks ago, is shooting and jogging, but he's doubtful for the first weekend. So Gonzaga is not expected to have him according to Mark Few. But a Gonzaga-BYU or Gonzaga-Texas round of 32 matchup would be incredible. The Miami-Missouri thing is interesting. You know, I looked up the mileage. This game's in St. Louis. Miami has to go over 1,000 miles to play. Missouri has to go just over 100 miles, and Missouri is the 10 seed.

And then we got Purdue at the bottom of the bracket, a team that reminds me a lot, guys, of the 2004 UConn team with Gordon, Okafor, Charlie Villanueva. Reminds me a little bit of the Florida team in 2007. And I really believe this in all my years covering the sport. When you bring back a large nucleus of players from a team that went far in the NCAA tournament the year before, and they know that the goal is to go as far in March Madness as you can, and that's how the season is going to be defined, you obviously are in a situation where you know that those players know what's at stake at the end of the race. So you might have lulls during the regular season to keep them occupied and engaged. We've seen Purdue turn it on here the last couple of days at the Big Ten tournament, beat Michigan today, looked like the Purdue team we thought. So I've got Arizona, Wisconsin at the top of the region of floor generals in the Sweet 16. And I got Purdue, Gonzaga. I have Purdue taking on Arizona in a West regional final. And Arizona's playing great basketball right now.

And Arizona looks like a team obviously that can win a national championship. I'm a sentimental person. I believe obviously in the great story. I believe obviously in circles becoming complete. I believe still in people who have calluses from life. And when I think about people that have calluses from life and life experience, I think of Purdue senior class. Braden Smith, Fletcher Lawyer, Trey Kaufman Wren. I look at what they went through as freshmen. Big Ten regular season champion, Big Ten tournament champion, and then on the wrong side of the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament when Fairleigh Dickinson beat Purdue after Fairleigh Dickinson was not good enough to win the Northeast Conference tournament. Merrimack won the Northeast Conference tournament, wasn't good enough to go to the NCAA tournament or wasn't allowed to go to the NCAA tournament because of the transition rule. Then as sophomores, it was the ultimate bounce back, exercising the demons, getting Purdue to the Final Four with Zach Eadie for the first time since 1980, and losing in the national title game to UConn. Then last year, it was something in between. You make the Sweet 16, you go to Lucas Oil Stadium and play Houston in a war.

You lose a close game. It's Purdue's best chance to win a national title. Yeah, it's a Final Four season. I believe in Purdue. I'm taking Purdue to go to the Final Four. Fantastic.

Yeah, yeah, in Indy to go to the circle complete. It'd be perfect.

Now, do you think that this is a better team than the team that went to the Final Four?

No, because you don't have Zach Eadie. Right. You don't have Zach Eaddy. But I think, you know, the X factor is Oscar Clough. The record with Oscar Clough is incredible. They've only lost 3 games all season when he scored in double figures. So to me, that's the guy that's got to be really, really good.

You got an upset coming out of this region?

I'm a little chalky in this region. Okay. I mean, I don't think Utah State or Villanova is a huge upset., and I have too much confidence in Wisconsin and Arkansas. I could see the Texas-NC State winner beating BYU, but I don't think that's a huge upset.

Yeah.

Okay, last region, the Midwest, the region of innovation. Oh, coaches in this region, and I think about how things are evolving in the modern era of college basketball. You have to have great roster composition. You have to be able to put together a roster. Dusty May's done that. Ryan Odom has done that at Virginia, the 3 seed. Nate Oates has done that with the style of play that he's instituted at Alabama. And Josh Shirts has done that at St. Louis as well. This is the region of innovation. I've got Michigan playing Georgia. I like Georgia over St. Louis. I have Akron and John Gross picking off Texas A&M in a 12-5. I've got a Michigan-Alabama Sweet 16, and then I'm going to take Tennessee to beat SMU, who I think is primed to show Miami, Ohio a different weight class than it's seen all season. If you're not familiar with SMU, you are not familiar with the team I think that has one of the more underrated perimeters in college basketball. Now somebody can say, well, why are they underrated? They just backed into the tournament. BJ Edwards, who had multiple triple-doubles this season for SMU, hadn't played since late February.

He was a starter and a key player. He, Jerron Pierre, and Boopy Miller are 3 dynamic guards. This is SMU's guys' first at-large berth to the NCAA tournament. Since 1993. I've got them losing to Tennessee. I've got Kentucky, Iowa State at the bottom. Then I've got Tennessee as a 6 seed, a little bit of an upset, beating Virginia.

Okay.

I'm going to take Michigan over Iowa State. So I've got Purdue, Michigan in the rubber match in the Final Four. Mm-hmm. And I got UConn against Houston on the other side.

We can't lose you right now, John. This March, it's March, John. Get yourself together. Just a little water. Yeah, I know, John, you've been, you've been working, you know, all day, all night for the last week especially.

I need you to take a big sip of water and grab a nitroglycerin pill.

I got it. That's right, I'm rallying. So I got in the East region, the left side of the bracket is filled with drama. Like, I get— we've got the St. John's-UConn Phase 4 possibility. We've got Florida-Houston. I'm gonna take Houston and UConn. I've got UConn winning that game, and then I've got a rubber match between Purdue and Michigan. I'm taking Purdue. So for the second time in 3 years, it's Purdue and UConn for a national championship. Dan Hurley against Matt Painter. And this time we complete the circle for the Boilers. Wow.

Okay.

That started the year number 1 in the country, wins a national championship.

Wow, that's something.

That's a spicy meatball, John.

That's a take, John. That is a take.

That is a big time.

Hey, John, do you, uh, do you spread any money on these games? You ever, you ever put down a couple, couple bucks?

No, man, I, I'm working the tournament. Objective.

Yeah, objective. Fair and easy. But I mean, Purdue, if you're looking to, to sprinkle a future on Purdue, that pays off pretty nicely.

So that might be—

it might be a great tip. Nah, man, that's not my beat.

John, how much college basketball have you had your, uh, have you had your daughter watch?

You know, we're right now, um, obviously in an interesting stage of parenthood. I'm sure you've been in it. We're in the potty training stage. Yeah. So, you know, now it is literally every day is like its own bye game. It's like literally like we are in the stage right now where you just have this 2-and-a-half-year-old running around naked because we're trying to potty train her. Yeah. And there's just hands and all stuff and she's drawing on the floor. But it's literally like you feel like you're in a situation where you've like bought Matt Lengel and Colgate and you're down by 12 at the under 12 of the second half.

Perfectly said. Can I, can I give you a tip on potty training? Just, just wait till they're— wait till they're old enough where they're just like, yeah, this is crazy, I'm still using a diaper. All my kids were potty trained at like 3 and a half, to like an uncomfortable level where it's like, all right, enough is enough. And they picked it up in like a day.

Yeah, no, it's, it's amazing. Like, before you have kids, you have no idea, I think, about how meaningless some of the other stuff you worried about before you have kids are, because You know, it used to be like, I used to love how people like, oh, like, yeah, like, what are you leaving work? You're going home to unwind. It's like, unwind? This is like buying Shaka Smart at VCU.

By the way, are we— Shaka Smart has not been good for a very long time. Do any of your— do any of your, like, sayings— you have to be like, all right, we got to retire this one, like, it's over?

Well, timeout, timeout. He's went to the NCAA tournament every year at Marquette except for this year, but he hasn't done anything in the NCAA tournament for a long time. Well, he went to the Sweet 16 2 years ago.

Okay, but like, he— his teams have— he's had high seeds. I'm saying like, Shaka's— look, it hasn't been great.

Well, I mean, I think how you're looking at it, like, should Marquette be expected to get to a Final Four? I think Marquette every year should be in the NCAA tournament. He's 4 out of 5. Like, I mean, let's think about this. Marquette, since we've all been following college sports has been to one Final Four, correct? And they went to one Final Four because who was the player on the team?

Tom Crean was the coach. That's Dwyane Wade.

I know, but Tom— 29, 11, and 11, a triple-double against Kentucky in Minnesota against Marquise Estill, Gerald Fitch, and Keith Bogans in 2003. And who else was on that team? Steve Novak, Travis Diener, Scott Merritt, Robert Jackson, I mean, great players. And that was obviously in Conference USA. So great players, great coaches like this without great players.

I'm just saying, Shaka Smart is kind of a perfect example of like, don't overachieve early on in your career. He went to a Final Four in his second year as a head coach, and he's gone to one Sweet 16 since. Like, you just— he set the bar too high on himself.

No, I get it. But I mean, that's what happens. I mean, that sometimes is what happens in March Madness. I don't want to say It's the dark side of March because that's a different reference that I use. But I will say this, I will quote Mike Tyson, the brighter the lights, the darker the shadows.

Yeah, good point.

That is very, very true. And in the pressure region, pressure makes diamonds.

That's another one.

That's what I'm saying.

Now, that's what I'm saying, Cat. Yeah, John, the head coach of Florida is the number one seed pressure region. His last name is Golden.

Yeah, how about that? Um, have you had any new John Rothsteinisms that maybe the uninitiated should pay attention to?

When—

who was the last coach to get a nickname or a catchphrase?

You know, it's, it's not, it's not one for Bill Self, but I was just marveling this year at how, like— and we've said this for years— but you know how, like, you're watching Kansas play at Allen Fieldhouse and some of the games that they win there are just so ridiculous, like you can't believe it? It's like the plot of Godfather 3. It's like, how does this this happen? How does this, you know, come to fruition? So I just— when this year, when they played Arizona at home without Darren Peterson and they beat them, I just couldn't believe it. And I could feel the crowd through the TV, and I just tweeted, 'And on the 8th day, God created Allen Fieldhouse.' Yeah, that's good.

That's good. I like that one a lot. Also, I don't know what movie were you referencing there?

The plot of—

talk about the plot of what movie? I've never heard of that movie before.

We're not supposed to talk about the Godfather. You just did.

My own rule.

You just—

yeah, I just broke No, I, I said, I said never acknowledge The Godfather Part III as part of the original trilogy, so I touched on something.

Uh, okay, John, this has been great. We love having you on. I have one last question for you. It's a Roback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com, promo code TAKE. One thing I love about you, John, is that, uh, you're tweeting college basketball no matter what. Whatever could be happening in the world, you're tweeting about it. I had a couple that I wanted to just bring up and see if you remember what maybe you tweeted when these things were happening, because again, it's like the world could be falling apart and Jon Rothstein's got, uh, an update about, you know, Merrimack playing Stanford, uh, in their non-conference. Do you remember what you, uh, tweeted on the day that, uh, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married? I don't. May, May 2018. You just— this is not during college basketball season. You just tweeted during their wedding, most underappreciated aspect of Villanova's run the last 5 years, going 32-4 and earning a 1 seed in '16-'17 when Amari Spellman was ineligible and Phil Booth was injured. Perfect, perfect timing on that one. Do you remember what about, um, the Notre Dame, uh, cathedral fire, April 2019?

No, uh, you said source Fordham will host Bryant as part of its 19-20 non-conference schedule.

And I went to that game. Bryant won in a bye game.

Do you have these ready to go at all times? You have a file?

Seriously, in all seriousness, guys, this is what has happened. I, as you know, am always laser-focused on my job, and I don't follow other sports, so I'm just focused on the task at hand. So like there have been times, and I felt bad about this, but like I hadn't watched the Monday Night Football game since probably like Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith were on the Dallas Cowboys. So a couple years ago, Rutgers is playing Purdue, and Cam Spencer, before he transferred to UConn, makes a crazy 3. And, you know, they go and they win the game at Mackey Arena, and I pound, you know, on Twitter, grab their nitroglycerin pills. That coincided with that incident with the Bills game when, uh, Damar Hamlin went down. Yeah, thank God he's all right. And like, you know, people were coming at me, it's like, how can you not know that? It's like, well, I haven't watched like a Monday Night Football game since '95. Yeah, but I know it. Yeah, yeah. So then I think what's happened is this, there's been like other instances. Like, I remember like I was with a friend of mine, we were actually, we were living life in our 40s, and he like fell when we were playing like touch football with our kids and like he had to go to the hospital.

So I'm like waiting with him in the hospital. He's getting like an X-ray and like I just got a heads up. It's like, hey, John, like, you know, just a heads up, you know, Iona starting a home and home with Fordham. So I like tweeted in the emergency room and I have no idea like there's this big like political issue going on. So what has happened is this because of that, which has all happened organically, whenever big world events happen, I now get flooded on my phone with like little scoops.

Oh, that would be a good time to put this.

That's great. Like, I remember this. I remember like whenever like the new Pope had been picked. Yeah, I got like somebody at Northwestern hitting me up. It's like, yo, John, heads up, we're hosting Fairfield in a bye game on this date in November.

Feel free to put it out. I love it. I love it. I mean, my personal favorite, because when it happens when it's like not college basketball season, because DeMar Hamlin. That's during, uh, college basketball season. Uh, 2019, August 2019, Jeffrey Epstein found dead. John Rothstein tweeted, Joe Dooley will bring in 11 new players next season at East Carolina. Have never heard of a coach bringing in more than 8 or 9 in a single recruiting class. The epitome of flipping a roster. Perfect.

ECU basketball, baby. You had another one during the Super Bowl this year. Indiana will host Bellarmine on November 5th as part of its 2026 Non-conference schedule.

Right, Taylor DeBrees against Doug Davenport.

We look forward to it.

It's just great. It's just like, you just know, because, you know, the world's a cynical place, the world's an ugly place, but you know that Rossy's going to be there with some college basketball news for you at all times.

No, but like, that's the thing, like, there is no act.

There is—

I know, like, this is, this is who I am. This is who I am. That's the bottom line, you know.

I do love the fact that it's now become a chicken and egg situation where now you get, like, the minute something bad happens in the world, people just start hammering you with bye games.

I was, um, I was on vacation and I was hanging out with my wife and like, co— like, it coincided when like, I guess, uh, what's her name, uh, Taylor Swift was getting engaged to the guy from the, uh, was it the Chiefs?

Yeah, Travis Kelce.

Yeah, yeah, him. Like, right away I like got a heads up that Robert— I remember tweeting this, it was like Robert Morris against Drake, and I was like, oh my God, Andy Toole against Eric Henderson, money. It's perfect.

It's perfect. Oh man. Well, John, you're the best. Everyone, uh, get ready for March Madness. You will see him, like I said, in St. Louis on your TV screen. Then you'll see him in studio. You can listen to his podcast, uh, anywhere you want to get podcasts. And John Rothstein is the absolute best. We love it. This is March. You're— by the way, the Inside College Basketball Now is his podcast. Uh, John, we made it.

Brackets. This is March. This is March, fellas. Always a pleasure. Have a great tournament. Talk to you soon.

All right, thank you, John. John Rossini was brought to you by our friends at Planet Fitness. Everybody can get strong at Planet Fitness. High-value membership that supports any fitness journey, as low as $15 a month. Over 2,800 club locations. Most clubs open 24 hours. We're all strong on this planet. Look, we have the gym here. I've been doing my workouts, but I've also— what we don't show is I do my Chinese workout, then I get in the Planet Fitness gym, then I do some free weights, then I get on the stair climber, then I get on the treadmill. Let's all get better this year with Planet Fitness. We're all strong on this planet. Join today in club, online, or in the free PF app. Hours, amenities, and offers vary by club. Check out planetfitness.com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18 years old to enroll or 13 to 17 with a parent/guardian. Let's get it going, boys and girls, with Planet Fitness this year. Join today in club online or in the free PF app. We're also brought to you by some great footwear to work out in at your Planet Fitness.

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Uh, bad storm in Chicago. You guys want to talk about how you got back?

Yeah, yeah. Uh, hey, Oldie, how's it going? How are you? Good to see you. I love you, oldie. I'm sorry that I missed you.

I loved it too. I was a little bit sad when I was in the Uber and I was like, man, I get to say hi to PFT and Hank. I'm a little upset, but it worked out for the best, right, boys?

Yeah, that's why I'm back. It's good to see you. So, yeah, so today we were flying out of Jacksonville after the players and we were leaving at noon. Flight gets canceled. Hank pulls a genius move. And sprints to the other side of the airport to a different end of the terminal, books a standby on a different airline's flight that hasn't been canceled yet. That gets delayed like 4 times. We eventually get out of there on this flight. We think we're going to get into Chicago safe and sound. And as we're landing, I've never been more scared on an airplane in my entire life. We're going in for the landing and then The pilot just—

well, it was, it was, it was super foggy up in the air.

Yeah.

You can see nothing out the window. And then we just got— as we're descending, we just got to the point where you could see like you're getting close to landing. Like we could see the runway as we're pulling up to it.

You'd see the ground.

Yeah.

And we were flying in sideways and we started flying in sideways because the wind was 35 miles per hour, the pilot told us. And it switched at the last minute to like the opposite direction. So the plane like makes this huge shudder to the side. The pilot hits full throttle to take off and try to go around. So now we go from almost landing to nose pointing up and like going up through the clouds again. And the plane is like shaking and like creaking, hard turns, creaking. And people were screaming on the plane. This old lady was sitting next to me. I hope she's okay mentally now, but she just reached and she just grabbed my arm and she was crying like full tears coming down her face. There are people like crying on the plane. I think Hank thought that he was going to die.

And I had bet on Ludwig and Matt Fitzpatrick, and like those were also just going down in flames.

And I was just like, this is, this is it. The worst moment.

Yeah.

And this lady, she was like crying and like wailing in my ear. And I just, I looked, I was like, let's take some deep breaths together. What's your name? It's okay. We're going to, we're going to be fine. We're going to make it out of this. And then there was like a very long silent pause where everyone kind of caught their breath for a second. And then a guy that was like 2 rows in front of me turns around and the whole plane's quiet. He goes, this ever happened on your simulator, PFT? And then it like broke the ice a little bit. And I was like, yeah, it's okay. And then the lady was like, are you a pilot? And then I had to be like, not exactly a pilot, but no, But I was like trying to explain to her, we're going to be okay, we're going to be okay. Then we end up landing in Michigan. The bottom line is the pilot did an awesome job to get us out of there. But it was like, I've never been on a plane where I actually thought that there was a chance that we were going to crash.

Damn. And yeah, and it was, it was like that for a little bit. So we, we get to Grand Rapids, get off the airplane, and then Hank drives back through a, through a flood, which was an all-time move on his part. Good job.

Good showing.

Golf almost killed you guys.

Great showing today, Hank. The players. That's what you know. It's the things we do for our kids.

Right.

Right.

If you guys had missed the show tonight, I would have been so upset.

Yeah, that was never an option.

I mean, it's Selection Sunday.

There's never an option.

It's a big weekend.

We had a—

yeah, right, right. A great time on Friday after after we were done playing some golf with Bortles, Bortles was like, yeah, I'll come over for a drink. Ended up staying over at her place for like 6 hours. And then Homa stopped by and basically like Homa and Bortles got to hang out. And I think, I think Bortles went triple platinum with like 9 different one-liners that he dropped that night. Like funny story. It was just like an awesome night having Max and Blake like do their own podcast for us together. Yes.

Well, watch some—

two good guys watch some, some games and ate some pizza. So it was fun. And I'm just very, very glad that we're not dead.

Yeah.

Very glad you're not dead. That would have sucked a lot. Oldie, what do you got? Thoughts on March Madness?

You know, I got to give it up to my boys. Ohio State has been 4 years. Like to see that. Okay. Gonzaga or Gonzaga. They got some Canadian boys out there.

Yep.

And then I need Max's help here. We've got a lot of Canadians on the St.

Mary's.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. Hey, stop finding it funny.

There's a lot of Canadians on the team. That's why they are.

Yeah, there is.

Hell yeah.

5 of them.

5 of them.

Yeah.

I like Fins Up for Fins Up.

Okay.

Fins Up was electric. Yeah. Fins Up is the place. Like all the boys doing it together, being goofy together, I guess.

We're too serious for it. Was that— yeah, I enjoy it. I feel like— was that a secret until 2 months ago, month and a half ago? What? Who uncovered Fins Up and brought it to like a national conversation?

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the guys went on Ryan Hammer's podcast. They were— there are guys who are not affiliated with LA, who didn't go there. They live in New York and they wanted to find a team to root for. And then they started they like went to a game and then just started doing it. So it's awesome. It's now they're in the tourney.

It's like literally like synchronized swimming done to perfection.

Yeah.

And it's done when it's called out. The hands come together, boom, clap, done, over, crushed it.

You know what I love is the pictures of like the tiny gyms that some of these schools play in. Queens, look at Queens gym. It is a high school gym.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've been to the LIU. It's a great gym. You just walk in, free tickets, free tickets, general admission, walk.

Yeah.

Upper deck or lower deck or you're in.

There's not really an upper deck, but yeah. All right. So what other teams you like?

Gonzaga.

I don't know. I don't want to say Duke. Okay.

So I don't—

don't—

I got to ride Ohio State, I think, by their maybe second round. They got to play against Duke. So it's not looking good. So I got to ride LIU with the Cinderella story. And my boy who's on the team, Ryan Nemhardt. Yeah, Canadian. So that's a beaut. Yeah. Who else?

Houston, maybe Houston. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. But there could only be one. So we're going to go right to Houston.

We'll go Houston.

Okay. That was a weird— that was a very weird way to get to Houston. When you said only one, I was like, oh, shit.

I love their physical team.

Yeah. Grinders. Nembhard's not on Gonzaga anymore, by the way. He's not?

No. His brother's not there, Ryan?

Ryan, I think, is in the NBA, right? Definitely in the NBA. Yeah. But that's okay. They were there.

Yeah.

A little support still. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it stays on. You keep— keep riding with them. Keep riding with them. Okay. Well, it's great having you here, Oldie. By the way, Shane, can we— can you put Shane on real quick?

Of course. Love being here, boys.

Love you guys. Shane, what happened to the Chalamet guarantee?

I mean, it's tough. These, these movies, these movies, they go on, they go on these award circuits for months and months. So at a certain point, you can at least over the past few years and get pretty predictive of who would get the Oscars. And Chalamet swept everything except for like the BAFTAs. So I thought Chalamet was the the guy. And I'd like to think of myself as like the movie guy here. And I mean, this is a tough look for me.

Oh, very tough.

To the drawing board. Who did you—

you got to watch more movies.

Who did you think was better?

I think Xiaomei is better. I mean, my favorite performance of the year was, was Leo in One Battle. But the way that the campaigning went and Leo wasn't really showing up to anything, that was kind of out of the question.

What do you think about his mustache?

I think he looked great. The last couple of years, he's kind of just like look disheveled for this other movie, and he's looking pretty like well-kempt. He had the mustache rocking. He was looking slick.

So you think that it does matter if somebody shows up to like campaign for their movie?

Yeah, Oscar campaigning is a very big thing. Like if you look at the history of the Oscars, like it's a very big thing.

That's kind of stupid.

No, I mean, that's how elections work. That's how like so many directors, like they give them honorary ones later on in their career because I forget the one, the, uh, what was the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow? It was like, it's like Shallow Hal. Mhm. It was like the Shakespeare in Love. That was like a big one. I forget what that won over. That was like a big Oscar year. But that was just because I hate to bring it up, but like Harvey Weinstein was like the name. Okay. But he like campaigned very hard and he like—

Love you guys. This is a really long way of saying you got it wrong.

No, I got it wrong.

And yeah, I have to live with that.

Bad guy, good campaigner.

Memes is playing you off.

Yeah.

Yeah, you can do that. What?

You got it wrong. Yeah, got it wrong.

And then in your—

in your defense of yourself, you started talking about Harvey Weinstein and you didn't say numbers.

No, I know, but I was trying to bring an example.

Yeah, whatever.

Sorry.

He didn't say—

he didn't say numbers.

Don't say sorry.

Don't say sorry.

All right, numbers.

19. There you go. 23.

56.

86.

17. 46. Shane, if you want, you can also give us like a quick recap of everything else that the Chargers did in free agency. What's your favorite move that the Chargers had, Shane?

Favorite Chargers move of free agency?

Keaton Mitchell.

Okay. Did everyone say their numbers? Yep. Yo, oh, did you say one? 4.

4.

72. 72. Anyone? Anyone?

Nope. No. One more.

One more. Same numbers.

Same again.

Same numbers. 56. 17.

17.

Someone should have said 64 or 68.

41, 41, 41.

Love you guys, and happy birthday to Gaz, my good friend Gaz.

Wow. Wow.

Oh, huge. Yeah. Love Gaz. Everything about the guy. Go follow him online. He's got funny things to say all the time. So sales guy. Love you guys.