Speaker 1: Check it down man, Now down there, it's the beating
Speaker 1: of the book podcast Kill Alex Days. Three great guests
Speaker 1: on today's show. First, Alan Aston, American original and originator
Speaker 1: in college basketball, handicapping with the final four in his
Speaker 1: list of the top twenty two college basketball coaching performances
Speaker 1: from this past season down to the final four once
Speaker 1: again through the lens of his unique ratings system. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that. Followed by Chris Felika, the Bear from
Speaker 1: ESPN's College Game Day Stanford, Stephen The Mary Podcast, and
Speaker 1: Daily Wager. Not talking about draft props so much as
Speaker 1: we are. What would be the craziest things from his
Speaker 1: perspective immersed in college football that any NFL teams could
Speaker 1: really do that an NFL team rather could really do
Speaker 1: in this draft. What's the move or moves that would
Speaker 1: be the absolute stupidest. We'll talk to Chris about that.
Speaker 1: And finally, Michael Lombardi responding to criticism levied against him
Speaker 1: by Boomer A. Siasin about some remarks that Lombardi first
Speaker 1: made on a numbers game at Visa. Got all that
Speaker 1: Lombardi's reaction to it as well coming up enjoy right
Speaker 1: here on the Beating the Book podcast. It's a numbers
Speaker 1: game with your host Jil Alexander to want comunis to
Speaker 1: believe in Adaly, It's good Tuesday morning to you. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: it is kill Alexander right here on a numbers game
Speaker 1: at Visa, the sports betting network, Serious XM Channel two four,
Speaker 1: Visa dot Com, the Visa app, phobost Len Game plus
Speaker 1: on down the line. Appreciate you tuning in. Good show today.
Speaker 1: Michael Lombardi at the very tail end of the show
Speaker 1: to talk NFL Draft with us and Boomer A. Siasin
Speaker 1: went after Michael Lombardi, will get Michael's reaction, will actually
Speaker 1: play with Boomer said, get Michael's reaction to it? Uh,
Speaker 1: Michael care, let me just spoiler alert so we might
Speaker 1: have a nice reaction with Michael coming up. Chris Felika,
Speaker 1: the bear from ESPNS College Game Day, will join us
Speaker 1: as well. Uh, not necessarily just to talk NFL Draft
Speaker 1: props with him, but I want to get a perspective
Speaker 1: from a guy who is just as immersed in college
Speaker 1: football as anybody who can just step us back for
Speaker 1: a second on this NFL draft, which is now less
Speaker 1: than seventy two hours away where he can just say, Okay,
Speaker 1: if a team does this, they are being ridiculous based
Speaker 1: on what I saw on a football field. So we
Speaker 1: want to get into that with the Bear. Will do
Speaker 1: so midway through the show and on the heels of
Speaker 1: a day when I talked about when I thought was
Speaker 1: the biggest omission in the Michael Jordan's The Last Dance
Speaker 1: thirty for thirty doc on ESPN, which I truly did enjoy.
Speaker 1: I hate being this guy fact checking parts one and two.
Speaker 1: You will not want to miss this kind of deflating
Speaker 1: for me. But first, uh, the end of our three
Speaker 1: part series, and it is the final four. We didn't
Speaker 1: get a legit final four this year in college basketball,
Speaker 1: obviously because of the pandemic and everything being shut down.
Speaker 1: But the final four the top four of Alan Boston's
Speaker 1: best college basketball coaching jobs from this past season. We
Speaker 1: welcome and once again our friend Alan Boston. Good morning, Allen,
Speaker 1: how are you man? Good morning? Uh? No more, it's
Speaker 1: a segue into this and to expedite matters. Uh. One
Speaker 1: final note on Joe Gallo. Didn't really get to finish him.
Speaker 1: One might wonder, and this is a good way to
Speaker 1: like review things too. If Merrimack only improved three points
Speaker 1: on power ratings with three and app points, I forget
Speaker 1: which one it was. How do I have him as
Speaker 1: the fifth best coach, fIF fifth best coaching job last
Speaker 1: year when others below him were plus six plus seven
Speaker 1: plus five and a half an improvement. The reason is
Speaker 1: is when I talked about what the what that program
Speaker 1: number is to start, and especially with Merrimack, where's their
Speaker 1: first year in Division one, we were out there completely
Speaker 1: guessing as to what their power rating is. We I give,
Speaker 1: I give Matt, Matt from a three man, we have
Speaker 1: the credit for this. He had read where Gallo was
Speaker 1: a terrific coach, and after we watched him play, UH
Speaker 1: was in total agreement. Now that the team played UH
Speaker 1: just a very cerebral Brandon basketball. But we inherently started
Speaker 1: the program higher than everyone else. So within the program
Speaker 1: number we had given already given the coach a lot
Speaker 1: of props. So when I'm evaluating who did the best
Speaker 1: coaching job, it's not fair to take that that piece
Speaker 1: of of the number that I included for the coach away.
Speaker 1: So most most all right, So let's do it another way.
Speaker 1: I started Merrimack at seventy three and a half. I
Speaker 1: think most people started him in the hight sixties, so
Speaker 1: I already started in three and a half, four points
Speaker 1: higher than most, So when they improved by plus three
Speaker 1: and a half, it doesn't include my analysis that this
Speaker 1: coach is fantastic all right and and inherently started him higher.
Speaker 1: So most most would have started him sixty nine and
Speaker 1: air four boast would have started post would have given
Speaker 1: him like plus seven for the year. Uh and in
Speaker 1: coaching points, in power rating points. I hope that makes
Speaker 1: sense sense. It does make sense that Joe Gallo, okay,
Speaker 1: who we mentioned started following yesterday. We should also just
Speaker 1: give context before you launch into this your final four Matt,
Speaker 1: Kai and Jim who were frequent guests of a numbers
Speaker 1: game on visa all year long, all season long, courtesy
Speaker 1: of you from three Man. We've the collaboration between you
Speaker 1: and them very fruitful as you see it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well we uh we had talked a little of the
Speaker 1: year before, but this year it was it was full
Speaker 1: steam and had mostly with Matt. He was the one
Speaker 1: that that Kai has a regular job which takes up
Speaker 1: a lot of his time, and Jim had other endeavors
Speaker 1: that took up some of this time. But Matt had
Speaker 1: the most interest in in uh in really getting inside
Speaker 1: of of of how I approach it, and uh, the
Speaker 1: others the other Believe me, the other kids did a
Speaker 1: great job too. It was not I'm not there's no
Speaker 1: knocking anyone here. Uh but yeah, we we crushed the
Speaker 1: first two weeks of the year, and it was it
Speaker 1: was it's something I haven't done for a long time,
Speaker 1: crushed the first two weeks. And the only difference I
Speaker 1: had this year was I went over every single team
Speaker 1: with them as to what we thought how good they'd be,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, so yeah, that just just the first
Speaker 1: two weeks a long wasn't enough, but the entire year
Speaker 1: played out very very well, so cool. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to give him a shout out. Problem Paramac, which only
Speaker 1: went up three, would typically have gone up six and
Speaker 1: a half or seven. So that's why uh uh Gallo
Speaker 1: gets gets way up there because I can't take away
Speaker 1: those points from him because I thought he was really
Speaker 1: good to start. Okay, I might have been, it might
Speaker 1: have been even higher. Other otherwise, you know, everyone else
Speaker 1: would have had him higher. And the reason I started
Speaker 1: him started the team higher was because of Gallow. So
Speaker 1: if he did a great job, and I already gave
Speaker 1: them four points for Gallow, I can't take them away
Speaker 1: when I'm gonna analyzing who did the best coaching job. Okay,
Speaker 1: cool makes sense. If that doesn't make any sense, I
Speaker 1: don't know how I still explain it. No, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: Number four. Uh Fran on Handling Lafayette Lafayette, and again
Speaker 1: I'll give a little history and on Handling uh he
Speaker 1: he Uh, actually so old. He played the A B
Speaker 1: A for a year. Wow, talking about the throwback. Uh.
Speaker 1: He coached overseas somewhat. He coached some ladies high school
Speaker 1: in Philly, kind of bounced around a little bit. And
Speaker 1: then when Fran Dunfy took over at Pen, the legendary
Speaker 1: Frand Dunfey, I think it's safe to say now, Uh,
Speaker 1: he hired Handling as his assistant. And oh, Handlon was
Speaker 1: with Dundee for six years and then Lafayette offen the job.
Speaker 1: He took it, and uh he just finished his twenty
Speaker 1: fifth year there and this was probably his best coaching job.
Speaker 1: The team, so Lafiette had always been up against it.
Speaker 1: The Patriot League didn't offer scholarships. When they did finally
Speaker 1: agree to offer athletics scholarships, Lafayette was the last of
Speaker 1: the Patriot League to give them out to players. So,
Speaker 1: oh Handlon has always been kind of behind the eight
Speaker 1: ball at at a school that it's very difficult to
Speaker 1: win with with very strict academics that did not offer
Speaker 1: scholarships until they were the last of the d ones
Speaker 1: actually besides the IDEs, which don't allow it at all.
Speaker 1: Uh So Lafia at the last four years prior to
Speaker 1: this year, their closing program members were seventy three, seventy
Speaker 1: seventy three and a half, seventy three and a half. Now,
Speaker 1: prior to that, they had also finished in the low
Speaker 1: seventies for many, many years. So it's safe to say
Speaker 1: that the program number for Lafayette is in the low
Speaker 1: seventy somewhere, and we've gone over what programed number being.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna start RT somewhere between seventy and seventy four. Probably, uh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna start him higher. But then Alex Petrie, arguably
Speaker 1: the best player, got hurt in the preseason. He was
Speaker 1: done for the year. So I started Lafayette at seventy
Speaker 1: one and a half. That's where we started. Uh. Their
Speaker 1: first game was against Columbia. I made Columbia three point favorite.
Speaker 1: The closing line of the game was picked. Lafiat won
Speaker 1: six sixty three. I chose not to change their rating
Speaker 1: based on that. The next game was at St. Francis,
Speaker 1: New York, and I'll be pretty quick here. Uh. St
Speaker 1: Francis closed five and a half. Uh a five and
Speaker 1: a half point favorite, and I closed. Uh. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: I had St. Francis, I get that wrong. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I won't. I won't have Cocco hell like I did Friday.
Speaker 1: This is fine, I I uh. I made Stan eight,
Speaker 1: five and half point favorite. The closing line in the
Speaker 1: game was one, and Lafayette lost by one. So the
Speaker 1: Linemaker once again had it right. They had it more
Speaker 1: right with Columbia the first game. They had it more
Speaker 1: right this game, so I chose to upgrade Lafayette a
Speaker 1: half a point to seventy two. Uh. The next game
Speaker 1: against Princeton, who was beat up and struggling at the time,
Speaker 1: I had Princeton actually thirteen, and the line closed five
Speaker 1: and a half and Lafayette went straight up. So once
Speaker 1: again I was very very wrong about Lafayette, So this
Speaker 1: time I chose to upgrade them a point and a half,
Speaker 1: and so on and so on and so on, and
Speaker 1: so finally, uh, when conference rolled around, this team was
Speaker 1: at seventy six and they overcame the loss of yet
Speaker 1: another really good player to injury for the year and
Speaker 1: finished at seventy seven. So with two key cogs out
Speaker 1: of the lineup, a program that's been struggling for years,
Speaker 1: that's been playing to the low seventies for years and
Speaker 1: years and years, oh Handlon got this team to a
Speaker 1: seventy seven, so five and a half points of bubble
Speaker 1: would estimated. But obviously just a fantastic job because from
Speaker 1: out of nowhere is twenty five year at the school
Speaker 1: he plays to the best number of the programs have
Speaker 1: I played too, So great job friend, all right, Francis
Speaker 1: O'Hanlon from Lafaye College, Patriot League number four. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make a overriding point on this momentarily, but I want
Speaker 1: you to get through a couple more here. So number
Speaker 1: three sair best coaching job, al right. So I wanted
Speaker 1: I just wanted to. I wanted to go over a
Speaker 1: little bit how I adjusted the numbers to start, just
Speaker 1: so people have an idea of what of what of
Speaker 1: what I was doing, how, how I how I changed numbers.
Speaker 1: I I threw a little bit of that out out
Speaker 1: of them there. So yeah, no, no, I love it. Well,
Speaker 1: let me let me make you know, yeah, go ahead,
Speaker 1: go ahead, James James Jones from Ye. Well, here's the point,
Speaker 1: because I think this will relate directly it. You know,
Speaker 1: yesterday I was talking about regular season records in the
Speaker 1: day before, and we talked about that off offline. But
Speaker 1: one of the things that I think, and I think
Speaker 1: the main into all this for people who are like,
Speaker 1: well why are we you know, I get it's Allen's
Speaker 1: process for rankings. You know early in the season too
Speaker 1: late in the season. This correlates very nicely when you
Speaker 1: get it right as you do Allen with what a
Speaker 1: team's a T S record pre flop a TS record
Speaker 1: ends up being at the end of the season. I mean,
Speaker 1: on your top twenty two, UM North Florida, we have
Speaker 1: Matt Driscoll. They were the number one team against the
Speaker 1: spreading the country. Last year twenty two and seven, you
Speaker 1: had Hofstra on the list. Uh, they were the second
Speaker 1: best a T S team in the country with Joe Mohollick.
Speaker 1: South Dakota State was number three with Eric Henderson on
Speaker 1: and on. By the way, Lafayette just mentioned, Yeah, Lafayette
Speaker 1: was twenty nine. Yale, who you're about to mention with
Speaker 1: James Jones, James Jones sevent So it's that's where that's
Speaker 1: why this matters so much for people who you know
Speaker 1: missed that overriding point, but number three, James Jones Yale.
Speaker 1: Just wanted to point that. I thought, Madam just as
Speaker 1: an interesting because so very few people do their own work.
Speaker 1: What the hell one second point, just very few people
Speaker 1: do their own work in college basketball, So I thought
Speaker 1: it would be interesting to hear the actual part of
Speaker 1: the process of what I'm doing. And also you're hearing
Speaker 1: all these Coaches of the Year honors. I wanted to
Speaker 1: get at who truly did the best jobs. Absolutely, that's
Speaker 1: why we still having my opening number verseus. My closing
Speaker 1: number is a very accurate indicator for reasons I've said
Speaker 1: several times, So I thought that would be part of
Speaker 1: the interest to it it. It is, uh, it is
Speaker 1: kind of intriguing that, uh, they match up with the
Speaker 1: teams did well against the points. I guess the point spread.
Speaker 1: It probably means I got someb right anyway. As far
Speaker 1: as you're pretty good means you're pretty good anyway. So
Speaker 1: James Jones at Yale. A little history of Mr Jones.
Speaker 1: He played at Albany, he coached it all but as assistant. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he too, like this has been a pretty consistent
Speaker 1: theme here with these coaches, has a great foundation for
Speaker 1: his future coaching prowess. Again, an assistant to Dick Couchin,
Speaker 1: a legendary coach at Yale for for years and years
Speaker 1: and years. And he also assisted for the great Larry
Speaker 1: Hunter at Ohio, you who retired a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago from Western Carolina. Uh. Just just a terrific basketball mind.
Speaker 1: And uh, those were his two assistant jobs before he
Speaker 1: got the Yale job. Uh. And what he's done to
Speaker 1: Yale is just extraordinary. Like I said before, the Ivys
Speaker 1: do not offer athletic scholarships. To get into Yale is
Speaker 1: virtually impossible. I do some alumni interviews for Penn, and
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that Yale is harder to get into
Speaker 1: a pen. And there were these are rough estimate out
Speaker 1: against the pen and got in Uh. Yeah, like I
Speaker 1: said to somebody, I don't have to be a math
Speaker 1: I wasn't a math major Penn. But I don't have
Speaker 1: to tell you that there's probably gonna be more than
Speaker 1: one unhappy person when the acceptance of rejection letters come out. Yes,
Speaker 1: very very difficult to get in, to get into an IVY,
Speaker 1: to get into a lot of schools. It's it's it's hard.
Speaker 1: Uh So already James Jones is up against it. Where
Speaker 1: you know you can, you can, you can, the ibis
Speaker 1: can let in whoever they want there there's no rules.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he doesn't have to be in Einstein to
Speaker 1: be in the basketball team. But he's sure, he's sure
Speaker 1: a ship is not gonna be stupid and be on
Speaker 1: that basketball team. So he already has a limited number
Speaker 1: of people that he could recruit given how difficult it
Speaker 1: is to get into school. Yet year in and year out, uh,
Speaker 1: Yale has just been just spectacular. Uh. This year after
Speaker 1: he lost a guy to the pros uh and made
Speaker 1: the first round of the NSCA tournament. They made, they made,
Speaker 1: they were way way behind. I think it was against
Speaker 1: the l s u. Uh. They're like over the first
Speaker 1: seventeen and threes and made that big, big run to
Speaker 1: back door the game. But arguably one could I say
Speaker 1: they were the right side anyway, because they got whatever
Speaker 1: they wanted every time down the floor and just didn't
Speaker 1: make any shots. Uh So that's the team that James
Speaker 1: Jones had the last year. Only one started return from
Speaker 1: that team. So we had a team that was five
Speaker 1: minutes away from beating L. S U in the first
Speaker 1: round the NSA tournament. And he only has one player
Speaker 1: back from that team. So and and again, I can't
Speaker 1: stress how hard it is to replace players at an
Speaker 1: IVY school. Uh So he has his home run team,
Speaker 1: which by the way, it was like the fourth straight
Speaker 1: year he's had some home run team. Uh So that
Speaker 1: team ended at eight. And again I like to say
Speaker 1: mentioned Indiana's Indiana is an eighty nine and a half
Speaker 1: just to give you some idea of what an eight means.
Speaker 1: Just extraordinary. This is an IVY school, was about coming
Speaker 1: out of the IVY League the year before, and he
Speaker 1: lost his point guard when he was his team was
Speaker 1: completely crippled. Uh he ended in an eighty. But the
Speaker 1: year part of that when they beat uh, all right,
Speaker 1: you're at break yep. James Jones Yale number three, third
Speaker 1: best cojy job in America last season courtesy or Perr.
Speaker 1: I should say Alan Bawson coming back two and one,
Speaker 1: Chris fa Laka, Michael Lombardi as well on a Numbers
Speaker 1: Game and Visa the Sports Betty Network. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: a Numbers Game with Jill Alexander. Numbers Game proudly brought
Speaker 1: you by man Escaped, man Escaped dot Com as the
Speaker 1: tools for your family jewels. You get off Let's free
Speaker 1: shipping with the code Visa at man Escaped dot Com.
Speaker 1: That's off at man Escaped dot Com with promo code
Speaker 1: v S I and Chris Flenkol Michael Lombardi still to
Speaker 1: come on the show today. It's Gill Alexander live in
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Allen Boston on his way to the top
Speaker 1: college basketball coaching job. For his rankings, for his ratings
Speaker 1: this past season, you wanted to say one final word
Speaker 1: on number three James Jones from Yale. I know we
Speaker 1: talked about how difficult it is to get into Yale
Speaker 1: and that his that the the market that he has
Speaker 1: to recruit from is limited. And in spite of that
Speaker 1: limited market, he just has these teams playing the numbers
Speaker 1: that are just insane. So coming off a year of eight,
Speaker 1: he had one player coming back. Uh. Now, typically Yale
Speaker 1: is the wa waiti loa waities type program. Okay, I
Speaker 1: didn't throw that out there. By the way, my owney
Speaker 1: was a guy who was drafted. Uh yeah, I was
Speaker 1: talking off yeah yeah. So he once started coming back
Speaker 1: last year. So I started him at eight two, which
Speaker 1: is very reasonable. It's and I to the school, Uh,
Speaker 1: eight two is a good team. Eighty two is like
Speaker 1: a good Missouri Valley team. Uh. Just as an idea,
Speaker 1: and once again his team to steadily rose up the rankings,
Speaker 1: finally ending at eight eight and a half. They were
Speaker 1: the favorite to win the IVY League tournament. Even though
Speaker 1: the idly tournam was was at Harvard this year, Yale
Speaker 1: was the favorite to make it. Now, in case you
Speaker 1: didn't hear what I said, I said, any eight and
Speaker 1: a half. Now, ye all lost a player to the pros,
Speaker 1: all right, a pro player at Yale, and yet they
Speaker 1: got to eighty eight and a half. They closed at
Speaker 1: eighty eight last year with the pro player. This year,
Speaker 1: any eight and a half, I can't convey you said.
Speaker 1: You said Indian What you said Indiana, Indiana was what
Speaker 1: by comparations, Indiana ended an eighty nine and a half.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, really, is right. Had you point out five
Speaker 1: star recruits you know you know, well, yeah born five
Speaker 1: star recruits. Yeah, just uh just uh, I mean pick
Speaker 1: a team and and and like you uh U c
Speaker 1: l A is A is A ended ended an eight
Speaker 1: and a half. Exact same number. Okay, so there you go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: y U c l A ended at the same power
Speaker 1: rating by my numbers. I don't have to say much
Speaker 1: more than that. Say just how good this guy. This
Speaker 1: guy is arguably the best coach in the country. Year
Speaker 1: in and year out. His team has improved every single
Speaker 1: year I've done this. His teams have gotten better except
Speaker 1: for the team they except when I lost all his
Speaker 1: players to injury. And even when he got beat up
Speaker 1: he lost his point guard and ended up at Taylor
Speaker 1: and and uh his second as other really good player
Speaker 1: get hurt that year too. That team also improved as
Speaker 1: the year went on. It's just incredible what he does there.
Speaker 1: Uh number two and we had a big battle here
Speaker 1: for the top two spots. Both these guys, their teams
Speaker 1: improved eight points from start to finish. So since I
Speaker 1: wanted to give relevance to my starting number of closing number,
Speaker 1: these two guys had the top two places as far
Speaker 1: as Net game empower rating points. So then I had
Speaker 1: to determine the winner, and I was bouncing back and forth,
Speaker 1: and finally number two is uh Mike mcconnothy at Northwestern State.
Speaker 1: A little history on him. He played at Louisiana Tech,
Speaker 1: which at the time was in the South Play Conference.
Speaker 1: By the way, Uh he coaches some community college down
Speaker 1: there for a long long time and then took the
Speaker 1: Northwestern State job way back in the I think it
Speaker 1: was his second year there. They were in a playing game.
Speaker 1: I think it may have been the first year that
Speaker 1: the playing game. Don't quote me on that, but uh,
Speaker 1: he was in the playing game and he played. Uh
Speaker 1: he played Winthrop coach by Greg Marshall. Uh So, a
Speaker 1: little little history there. Uh. In two thousands six, Northwestern
Speaker 1: State is a fourteen state beat Iowa in the first round,
Speaker 1: who was coached by Steve Alford. Uh. Two thousands six
Speaker 1: was that wild year. I won't rehash it, but that
Speaker 1: was the year of the upsets. That the year that
Speaker 1: George Mason made the final four. Bradley beat Kansas thirteen
Speaker 1: seed Verse five. Uh, Wisconsin Milwaukee. I think Bruce Prole
Speaker 1: was the coach there, another double digit first round upset. Uh.
Speaker 1: There were two twelves other two other twolves seas that won. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it was a whild year for the n c A tournament.
Speaker 1: And then he made it again one other time two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen. Up top of my head. I might be
Speaker 1: wrong about that. Uh, but it's been a while since
Speaker 1: they've had any run of success. The last two years
Speaker 1: the team has been completely crippled by injuries and transfers.
Speaker 1: They've had the worst run of arguably the worst runt
Speaker 1: of block of top five, worst runt of luck in
Speaker 1: the country. Uh So this year the talent was lacking,
Speaker 1: to say the least. The program was certainly headed the
Speaker 1: wrong way, and uh, it wouldn't have been hard to
Speaker 1: envision that maybe, uh, it was time for him to go.
Speaker 1: It wasn't his fault that players got hurt and players
Speaker 1: got coached, But WHOA all right? Michael mcconothy from Northwestern State,
Speaker 1: the Demons of Northwestern State of the South won conference
Speaker 1: number two. We get to number one on Allen's list
Speaker 1: next on a numbers game in Visa the betting number.
Speaker 1: Hopefully welcome back to a numbers game with Gil Alexander.
Speaker 1: As the man said, it is a numbers game right
Speaker 1: here on VISA and V Sports Betting Network, All Alexander
Speaker 1: sirius XM Channel two oh four. Uh getting to the
Speaker 1: top here of Alan Boston's list, and once again, um,
Speaker 1: and I know Allen wasn't thinking about this, but there
Speaker 1: is correlation between the best A T S teams in
Speaker 1: the country and the coaches of these teams, Northwestern State
Speaker 1: and Michael McConaughey, which came in at number two here
Speaker 1: twenty third best in the nation A T S seventeen
Speaker 1: and nine, Yale James Jones just before that, seventeenth best
Speaker 1: in the nation A T S UH at eighteen and ten.
Speaker 1: By the way, there will be exceptions at number one,
Speaker 1: just spoiler alert. Number one maybe an exception to that correlation,
Speaker 1: but that's not exactly what we're talking about here. So
Speaker 1: number two, Alan, as we bring back that. So yeah,
Speaker 1: back to mcconnothy. So uh, I had a little note
Speaker 1: on him. Uh so he he he got there. So
Speaker 1: the top two guys actually got there by different ways.
Speaker 1: So the players that kind of came on at the
Speaker 1: end of the year. Uh. The reason I'm giving McConaughey
Speaker 1: a lot of credit is Jared's Robinson. Jarvis Roberson, Uh,
Speaker 1: one of his key players down the stretch. He only
Speaker 1: started the last four games. So mcconnothy got him in
Speaker 1: there as a starter only near the end of the year.
Speaker 1: His minutes increases the year went on. Uh. This Trenton Master,
Speaker 1: he had an offseason injury that when it healed, mcconnothy
Speaker 1: got him in there and he gave them a ton
Speaker 1: of quality minutes. He started the last one to two games. Uh.
Speaker 1: There was another guy, uh, Jamir greg started the last
Speaker 1: five games. So a lot of what a lot of
Speaker 1: mcconnothys changes in lineups allowed them to explode in power ratings.
Speaker 1: I started them. The program has been just bludgeoned. So
Speaker 1: they typically a low seventies program, Uh, but the last
Speaker 1: bunch of years they've been in the low sixties to
Speaker 1: high sixties. That's their range. The low sixties is because
Speaker 1: they had so many injuries. The high sixties is kind
Speaker 1: of where they've settled into. Years before that, there were
Speaker 1: a low seventies programs, so most recently they're uh amid
Speaker 1: to high sixties program So I started them at sixty
Speaker 1: eight and next to that six I had a little
Speaker 1: plus sign meaning I think this team could improve because
Speaker 1: the program has taken typically better. And by the way,
Speaker 1: mcconothy is is a is a very very good coach.
Speaker 1: Oh one one note, I saw Northwestern State play. So
Speaker 1: back in the dark ages, you could not bet on
Speaker 1: UNLB basketball and you also the the casinos could not
Speaker 1: host games. So when un I'll be, when not un
Speaker 1: will be? When Vegas had a tournament out here, the
Speaker 1: games were played at various high school gyms. So I
Speaker 1: recall going to watch Northwestern State play TCU TCU at
Speaker 1: the time coach by Billy Tubbs. By the way, another legend,
Speaker 1: uh I watched north Western State TCU game. I think
Speaker 1: it was at Clark High School, and there were like
Speaker 1: three games going on at the same time at various
Speaker 1: high schools around Vegas. So that's how it used to be.
Speaker 1: And I remember Billy Tubbs said, so it's okay for
Speaker 1: us to walk through a casino and state at casino,
Speaker 1: but we can't play a game there. Seriously, and of
Speaker 1: course it was so I did I did see uh,
Speaker 1: I did see it with Western State play at a
Speaker 1: high school in Las Vegas and mcconnothy was the coach.
Speaker 1: That's how far back he goes, he's been there. Uh
Speaker 1: that just finished his twenty first year. Uh. So we
Speaker 1: started him at sixty eight and they were still going
Speaker 1: by the way. Uh, they had won their first round
Speaker 1: game seventy two of a Texas and m community uh
Speaker 1: Corpus Christie. Uh A winner for me, by the way,
Speaker 1: in the gambling world. In fact, I had a lot
Speaker 1: of luck with north Weston State. I had this team
Speaker 1: uh tett tet with having good ratings by the way,
Speaker 1: it gives you winners. And uh, I want a lot
Speaker 1: of bets on Northwestern State this year. So my adjusting
Speaker 1: upward uh was good with them verse versus the point spread. Uh.
Speaker 1: They ended at seventy six. They ended up plus eight
Speaker 1: and a lot of it. So as of let's see
Speaker 1: here pick a day. As of January eight, the team
Speaker 1: was at seventy one. Still, so they started sixty right
Speaker 1: and and and that's that's coaching, right, that's that's they
Speaker 1: didn't have any injured players come back. He maybe maybe
Speaker 1: he did a poor job. It just didn't have the
Speaker 1: right guys in there. But that that's not You can't
Speaker 1: argue that because the program never played to a number
Speaker 1: this high ever, not even in the heyday. Or maybe
Speaker 1: in the hey day, I shouldn't say that, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe back nearly two thousand's when they had that when
Speaker 1: they beat Iowa, they might have been somewhere around here.
Speaker 1: But I don't think so this is as close as
Speaker 1: good as helen. Let me step in and get the
Speaker 1: number one. Yep, and finally number one, a team that
Speaker 1: also rum roll finished at plus eight. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give him a little more credit. Danirol at b M. I, Uh,
Speaker 1: strangely enough. Strangely enough, I bet against this team a lot.
Speaker 1: So that's that's kind of ironic that he is a
Speaker 1: team I raised. I raised the most that I was
Speaker 1: betting against a lot. Uh. It took me a while
Speaker 1: to catch up to their rating, and uh when I did,
Speaker 1: Uh again, what he did was mind bowing. Uh. This
Speaker 1: team is a high sixties program. Uh two years ago, uh,
Speaker 1: three years ago, sixty six. Last year they ended a seventy.
Speaker 1: But from that team that ended a seventy Bubba Pa
Speaker 1: transferred to Georgia Tech. Uh, and they had I think
Speaker 1: three other players transfer. So again, as has happened in
Speaker 1: many other years under Dan Earle, the team had players post.
Speaker 1: So here he is once again with a young team.
Speaker 1: I think he had two or three starters returning let's
Speaker 1: call it two and a half. But what ultimately happened
Speaker 1: was he played a freshman. Oh by the way, little
Speaker 1: history and Daniarl he played at Penn State underhead the Cellis,
Speaker 1: and he did his assistant coaching at Penn State under
Speaker 1: the Cellis and then under the Cellis at Navy. Kind
Speaker 1: of ironic because the Cellis places grinded out half court
Speaker 1: game uh, and Dan Role plays fast and shoots a
Speaker 1: lot of threes. In fact, b m I was the
Speaker 1: number two in the country and three points made last year.
Speaker 1: Little side note, and again that probably has something to
Speaker 1: do with this success. But back to the point the
Speaker 1: Northwestern State used duco's to get to their rating. Darn
Speaker 1: Role decided to use freshman. Uh. It's kind of strange
Speaker 1: that players get poached form v m I, right, Uh.
Speaker 1: Matt and I talked about this that if you go
Speaker 1: to b m I, you figure you're gonna stay there, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're going there for a reason, and
Speaker 1: and it's usually not basketball. Uh it shows you how
Speaker 1: evil this is anyway. Uh. He ended up with the
Speaker 1: Freshman of the year, Travis Evie. Uh. He made his
Speaker 1: first start December twenty one against Virginia Tech another freshman, uh,
Speaker 1: Camden Kurfman. He started the opener and then I think
Speaker 1: it's Sean Conway and he had a sophomore Jake Stevens
Speaker 1: that that also contributed a lot. But a very very
Speaker 1: very young team that got better as the year went on.
Speaker 1: I started them at sixty six and it took me
Speaker 1: a while to catch up to them, so it's not
Speaker 1: quite fair. But at the end of December they were
Speaker 1: seventy two, at the end of January they were seventy
Speaker 1: one and a half, and they ended at seventy. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm in a step in because we we've
Speaker 1: run out of time. But Dan Earl from v M
Speaker 1: I your number one. I want to just thank you
Speaker 1: on behalf of everybody, because it's we never get glimpse
Speaker 1: into this from someone as legit as you, So thank you, man.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of this. You're welcome the legend, but
Speaker 1: we did at Boston Rade eight eight on Twitter. Coming
Speaker 1: back Chris fleiknext on a numbers game at Visa b
Speaker 1: Sports Betting Network. Welcome back to a numbers game with
Speaker 1: Gil Alexander. A little more than forty eight hours away
Speaker 1: now from the night or from the NFL Draft. Sorry,
Speaker 1: wires crossed. Join us for the Visa Draft Special, of
Speaker 1: course Thursday night a p m. Eastern five pm Pacific.
Speaker 1: Our draft bet casters Matt Humans, Michael Lombardi, Brent Musburger,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Vonduble other special guests. I'll all analyze the draft
Speaker 1: from our unique betting perspective, of course, and they'll track
Speaker 1: all the available props. Let you know when each cashes,
Speaker 1: how they go either way. Check out the Visa Draft
Speaker 1: Special Live Thursday, April two nights from now a p m.
Speaker 1: Eastern five Pacific, right here on Visa and the Sports
Speaker 1: Betting Network. Still to come, the aforementioned Michael Lombardi. I
Speaker 1: got some things to talk to him about, including Boomer
Speaker 1: a Sciasin going after him. Lombardi will have some stuff
Speaker 1: to say. It all gets back to what Michael first
Speaker 1: said on this show, his comments about two a Tago
Speaker 1: Tago by Loa and two teams um failing him on
Speaker 1: a physical Uh, he broke that on this show. And
Speaker 1: then it's sort of what like wildfire viral after that,
Speaker 1: and then Boomer has taken him to test. So Michael's
Speaker 1: got some stuff to say. But first from ESPN, ESPNS
Speaker 1: College Game Day, Stanford, Stephen the Bear podcast, and of
Speaker 1: course Daily Wager, it's our buddy the Bear, Chris Felika,
Speaker 1: How you doing, Chris, I'm doing well, and I enjoyed
Speaker 1: that on something and then there with one uh, with
Speaker 1: one thing that I immediately caught on too, But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna not revealing. I'm gonna see if you
Speaker 1: called on to it and uh, and I'll send you
Speaker 1: catch later about it. Oh. Okay, yesterday I was saying,
Speaker 1: I'm not that was a great that I did not
Speaker 1: realized that. Obviously you're being a Bolt fan and probably
Speaker 1: watching that game, but I did not realize that his
Speaker 1: first game and that and I checked uh uh take
Speaker 1: down there that that was something and imagine that that
Speaker 1: does seem like a I look, there are eight other
Speaker 1: episodes coming up in the series. Maybe yeah, that will
Speaker 1: be addressed some of But but you're right, I like
Speaker 1: that beats like something that I probably should have been
Speaker 1: brought up. Yeah, I mean I didn't want to make
Speaker 1: it too big of a deal out of it. For
Speaker 1: those who missed yesterday, I was talking about Jordan's first game,
Speaker 1: first half of the first game, first slam dunk attempt,
Speaker 1: he actually traveled, so it was after the whistle he
Speaker 1: almost you know, died on the court. Basically maybe his
Speaker 1: career was almost ended right there. He's down on the
Speaker 1: floor for thirty seconds. But what I what I have
Speaker 1: to say later on the show is actually a little
Speaker 1: more disappointing, uh, because I fact checked this thing and
Speaker 1: it was like a big part of the first two episodes.
Speaker 1: So it has to do with a detail in that documentary. Yes,
Speaker 1: so we'll get into that after after your appearance. But Chris,
Speaker 1: the reason I want you want here today because you
Speaker 1: you and I and E are buddy. Uh. We text
Speaker 1: back and forth because people know on this show, and
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that it occurred to
Speaker 1: me yesterday because I was like, well, you know, God,
Speaker 1: I've we've just beaten up this NFL draft. I've given
Speaker 1: all my bets. Uh, we're nearing it. We've said all
Speaker 1: there is to say, maybe, but you know it's always
Speaker 1: changing from you. I think that the beauty of having
Speaker 1: someone like you no one is more immersed in college
Speaker 1: football than you are, and you're sort of my BS
Speaker 1: detector on all this, meaning that beyond the props, if
Speaker 1: we step back for a second, just as college football fans,
Speaker 1: pro football fans and observers, you're a guy who could
Speaker 1: sort of poke holes in a lot of this. What
Speaker 1: is the single biggest draft rumor you've heard. Let's start
Speaker 1: at the top where you're like, man, if this happens,
Speaker 1: these teams are crazy. We'll be talking about teams potentially
Speaker 1: Kicky Jailer back in the first round of your kidding
Speaker 1: any like, he had a great college career, but he
Speaker 1: was benched at Alabama because he couldn't throw the ball.
Speaker 1: That's not to say that he hasn't improved, because he has.
Speaker 1: He improved a much to be a first round and
Speaker 1: it's all picked. Two teams think that that they're gonna
Speaker 1: get the second coming of Lamar Jackson is dual threat
Speaker 1: guy who who let the league know that completely different player,
Speaker 1: person's a completely different type of runner. Lamar has a
Speaker 1: has a much better on the jailer like in the
Speaker 1: in the first round or even the second round. Don't
Speaker 1: you need to take either an immediate starter, an immediate contributor,
Speaker 1: or someone who do you think present a year or
Speaker 1: two is going to be that he's not that he's neither.
Speaker 1: Like I didn't need to take him in the second round.
Speaker 1: I could see him going in the third round certainly
Speaker 1: with at some point in there. If you if you
Speaker 1: think that that that he can be a change of
Speaker 1: peace guy in a shirt yardage player. Uh, he he
Speaker 1: can be what Kyson Hill is because Sean Payton's et.
Speaker 1: But just talk about jailing hurts going to the back
Speaker 1: of the first rang and yet like if it happened,
Speaker 1: would you be flabbergasted? I guess maybe first round still
Speaker 1: you would be right, But I mean these teams go crazy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: first round, I still want that's just insane? Yeah? Um,
Speaker 1: all right, what's another one where you're like, Okay, how
Speaker 1: does this make any sense? Because it's one of my
Speaker 1: biggest points through the years. It's like, do we lose
Speaker 1: our minds between what we saw in you know, December
Speaker 1: and November and October and by the time the draft.
Speaker 1: You know, there's so many of these examples. Literally, Like
Speaker 1: I remember when Michael Crabtree is just one example that
Speaker 1: comes to mind. When Michael Crabtree caught that touchdown past
Speaker 1: for Texas Tech to be Texas. I remember thinking at
Speaker 1: that very moment, and perhaps there was exaggeration in my
Speaker 1: head at that moment, I was like, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: this dude, you gotta drive. And then he would fall,
Speaker 1: and he falls, you know, and that that the sentiment
Speaker 1: just change. That's just one example, probably not a great one,
Speaker 1: but there's so many, so many players through the years
Speaker 1: where perception is it just for whatever reason we get
Speaker 1: into this frame of mind we're it just completely alters.
Speaker 1: What's another one besides Jalen Hurts going first round or
Speaker 1: second And I think that the talk with with the
Speaker 1: Giants like like there's some potential drama there, Oh, we're
Speaker 1: gonna take ja Se. So you're gonna take a guy
Speaker 1: who you really don't know what position he's going to
Speaker 1: play on your defensive unit that he's probably gonna need
Speaker 1: a very specific defensive unit in order to get to
Speaker 1: maximize his ability. And on the other side of the football,
Speaker 1: you've got in hearing your quarterback in the future, and
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones. You've got s Kwen Barkley in his prime
Speaker 1: right now, and you're not gonna get someone to help
Speaker 1: on the offensive line to help Locker partly helped protect
Speaker 1: Jones blindside or in pat row uh either either side
Speaker 1: on the ball. You would think that he probably you
Speaker 1: played a lot of right tackle for I mean, you
Speaker 1: would think he eventually would move over to left talker
Speaker 1: like them, but they had a tomb problems on the
Speaker 1: offensive line right now. Actually, so you're telling me that
Speaker 1: the Giants are gonna pass either on Works or Wills
Speaker 1: in take Isaiah Simmons. I just don't see that at all.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because you can look at a lot of
Speaker 1: the draft picks and the people always like to see
Speaker 1: what what's the safe pick? What what what's the value pick?
Speaker 1: What's got a low pluff factor that you know, what's
Speaker 1: got a low bus factor is better safe the possible
Speaker 1: pick you can make an offensive lineman from the University
Speaker 1: of le Seriously, the Iowa. The Iowa tackles that have
Speaker 1: been taken in the first round, Brandon Sheriff, Relly Rice,
Speaker 1: Brian Ballaga, Robert Gallery, Ross, Berba and John. I won't
Speaker 1: think one of those guys had had a pretty darn good,
Speaker 1: weighty career. Uh, I don't. I don't know what Wills
Speaker 1: want where it will be one of the I can't
Speaker 1: see them passing up on one of those two tackles
Speaker 1: to take. And and Sheriff is a great example. You know,
Speaker 1: the Redskins just plug him in and it's like they're
Speaker 1: ten years of Brandon Shriff. As soon as you pick him,
Speaker 1: you're like, that's fine, we got ten years of this guy.
Speaker 1: And sure enough he's on his way to doing just
Speaker 1: that with the Redskins. Um about the offensive Lineman. Then
Speaker 1: it follows which of the combinations because we're talking about
Speaker 1: Wills and we're talking about Beckton and we're talking about
Speaker 1: worths um which is the order of that Getting back
Speaker 1: to our premise, which is what you find would be
Speaker 1: ultimately ridiculous if it happened, like what's the who's the
Speaker 1: guy that would go first? Where you'd be like, how
Speaker 1: does this guy going before the others? It would be Beckton.
Speaker 1: I mean, everyone loves the outside and the potential, but
Speaker 1: we've never thing has come out in the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks of affected in the in the potential drug
Speaker 1: test and and the word that people worry about his
Speaker 1: weight issues. Like I think anyone who take Beckton ahead
Speaker 1: of either of those two guys, I again, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not rooting against any of these kids. I don't
Speaker 1: want to see any other I hope they all get
Speaker 1: drafted high. I hope they all make a ton of
Speaker 1: money or they all have a lathy career. But we
Speaker 1: all know that's not the case. Uh. You say, you
Speaker 1: just need to do your due diligence and figure out
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. A major financial investment from your organization,
Speaker 1: And I think if you go into something knowing that
Speaker 1: there is a better potential for an issue to arise
Speaker 1: with player A over a Player A B or C,
Speaker 1: that you want to air on the side of player
Speaker 1: B or C, and with with with Worse than Wills,
Speaker 1: I don't think they have the same question marks and
Speaker 1: concerns that have arisen about Beckton in the in the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks. I if it were my team
Speaker 1: and I'll really need to pick, I certainly wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to take Beckton ahead Wills or Worse. And I know
Speaker 1: that there is a prop out there at Jesus, and
Speaker 1: I think it's Christ pretty significantly now, like who will
Speaker 1: be taken the first though, Gentric Wills or Beckton? And
Speaker 1: you would take back in ahead of Wills, I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: We're flashing up on the screen right now at Visa
Speaker 1: dot Com and the Visa app. It is courtesy of
Speaker 1: Caesar's generic Wills Jr. From Bama minus three sixty Mackay
Speaker 1: Beckton from Louisville at plus two eighty? Would you lay
Speaker 1: the minus three sixty on that? Are you that confident
Speaker 1: on that? Ye? Yes, I would like I totally what
Speaker 1: I mean. I think there's a really good chance that
Speaker 1: that that Wills could go to the Giant ship. And again,
Speaker 1: this is something being a college football guy and you
Speaker 1: hit on there are a little text chain with with
Speaker 1: with E and you and myself and and I. I
Speaker 1: had had it in the back of my head and
Speaker 1: he brought it up, and he's exactly right. You can
Speaker 1: potentially see a relationship between Joe Joe and his highs
Speaker 1: to Alabama and the information you get from Alabama on Wills,
Speaker 1: and you can make a very very strong taste of
Speaker 1: the Giants and Judge would make Wills there pick it for.
Speaker 1: And I know that there were some some offshore books
Speaker 1: that that had a some pretty healthy prices on wills
Speaker 1: to be the second offensive player taking the draft. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so many ways to play is that was the biggest
Speaker 1: thing that Drew Dinsick and I when I had him
Speaker 1: on earlier in the week talking the draft. Biggest thing
Speaker 1: about betting the draft. There are so many ways to
Speaker 1: slice the you know, any individual pick, first offensive lineman taking,
Speaker 1: will this guy go exactly to that team prop that
Speaker 1: we just showed one on one head to head prop
Speaker 1: like that. Uh So, even if you're limited on any
Speaker 1: one of those, you can actually get some significant money down.
Speaker 1: I slicing it up more with Chris Felika because I
Speaker 1: want to ask him about the third pick. Will the
Speaker 1: Lions really be drafting a corner at three? Uh? And
Speaker 1: this whole Jordan's love stuff. Really we'll get Chris Flakes
Speaker 1: take on that. Coming back a numbers game right here
Speaker 1: at Visa the Sports Betting Network. It's a numbers game
Speaker 1: with your host Gil Alexander Believe in Analytics. Our number
Speaker 1: two of the numbers game right here at Visa and
Speaker 1: the Sports Betting Network Series X of Channel two four
Speaker 1: Visa dot Com, the Visa app Foo boastling at Game Plus.
Speaker 1: It is Gil Alexander Live in San Francisco. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Allen Boston for being on the show today and the
Speaker 1: last couple of shows as well. True originator and original
Speaker 1: Alan Boston, Uh for being on the show. Michael Lombardi
Speaker 1: later Chris Felika on with us. Now. It doesn't get
Speaker 1: better than Boston, Felika and Lombardi. I am very blessed,
Speaker 1: and we will talk about the thirty for thirty doc
Speaker 1: little fact check coming up as well. Chris um back
Speaker 1: on the show. You can follow Chris at Chris Felika
Speaker 1: f A L L I c A on Twitter. Of
Speaker 1: course from ESPNS College game Day. The glue he wouldn't
Speaker 1: say this, but I'll say it for him, the glue
Speaker 1: that holds game day together. Uh, daily wager and even
Speaker 1: getting back to what to what Allen was talking about
Speaker 1: with those coaching rankings, I think what that just did
Speaker 1: and and you said it for al and Uh and
Speaker 1: it was kind of a bioproduct of it. But we
Speaker 1: we often talked about and he is definitely an advocate
Speaker 1: and a strong believer in coaching and correlation to a
Speaker 1: T S numbers and the exercise, and Allen just went
Speaker 1: through as a pretty darn good indicator that that that
Speaker 1: coaching does matter, especially in college football, and there is
Speaker 1: a correlation between between head coaching ability and at success.
Speaker 1: Though that was a really uh informative, fascinating society. It
Speaker 1: was good too because it was a lot of the coaches.
Speaker 1: Unless you're a hardcore college basketball fan, a lot of
Speaker 1: people probably wouldn't know that the head coach of the
Speaker 1: m I was. It's things like that, and it was
Speaker 1: good to get that information. I you listen to that
Speaker 1: over the last two days, I appreciate it. Uh. Gallow
Speaker 1: even even started following us because he wanted he wanted
Speaker 1: to find out where he ended up. I ended up
Speaker 1: at number five out of Merrimack. Marymaco of course, was
Speaker 1: ineligible for postseason tournaments anyway. This year on a rise
Speaker 1: up to a D one, still in that window. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it can't be repeated enough, right. We
Speaker 1: talked about it in the NFL more than anything, where
Speaker 1: it's like god these code like obviously Bill Belichick being
Speaker 1: the greatest example, but if you could only have one
Speaker 1: item at your disposal to handicap. Let's take the NFL
Speaker 1: and NFL football game. And I'm not talking about having
Speaker 1: the benefit of a box score retroactively, because if you
Speaker 1: have that, turnovers would obviously be the top thing. But
Speaker 1: if you could only power rank coaches, you'd probably do okay,
Speaker 1: you know, if that was the only thing that you're
Speaker 1: you know, in your it's your in your quiver, because
Speaker 1: that just means so much in college basketball such a
Speaker 1: coaches medium, as Alan was pointing out, and yeah, the
Speaker 1: A T S correlation, Uh, he didn't and he wasn't
Speaker 1: even aware of that, he said, So you know, by
Speaker 1: the way number one v M I did you know
Speaker 1: they were kind of middling A T S. So that
Speaker 1: was an interesting pick to have at the top there. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, let's go with this, Chris, And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to step in here and and maybe interrupt you
Speaker 1: in in the middle of this just to identify the station.
Speaker 1: But one of the things also NFL Draft related, and
Speaker 1: again the premise of this segment is stuff that could
Speaker 1: happen that forget about your props necessarily, but as just
Speaker 1: a college football fan and keen observer, you'd be like,
Speaker 1: what are they doing? Number three Detroit Lions. You know,
Speaker 1: they're kind of screwed because I'm not sure any team
Speaker 1: really does want to trade up for Tua or Justin Herbert.
Speaker 1: And yet they're in this position where, when it comes
Speaker 1: to need, do you really draft a cornerback at number three? Like,
Speaker 1: that's the biggest thing that I've talked about with Okuda
Speaker 1: early on is they could probably get him six or
Speaker 1: seven a little further down. Will a team give them
Speaker 1: that opportunity or will they have to draft Okuda if
Speaker 1: that's who they want to replace Darius Slay ostensibly at
Speaker 1: number three, a defensive tackle. All of a sudden, Uh,
Speaker 1: Derek Brown from all Burn, He's really moved up in
Speaker 1: some of these mock drafts. I just had Evan Sylvan yesterday.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, a lot of mockers are like, no,
Speaker 1: they could go with Derek Brown at number three. Again,
Speaker 1: another guy really really good. And again, as you point out,
Speaker 1: very very keenly, everybody wants all these guys to be
Speaker 1: drafted high and to make tons of money. Uh, but
Speaker 1: he's probably a guy they could get further down. But
Speaker 1: the Lions might just be trapped at number three drafting
Speaker 1: either of these two guys, and so the question to you,
Speaker 1: uh is, Wow, what do they do at number three?
Speaker 1: Is is it is it worth the draft capital to
Speaker 1: actually pick one of those players? It's Chris Felika, it's
Speaker 1: Gill Alexander. Uh, it is a numbers game right here
Speaker 1: at Visa V Sports Betting Network. What's the answer, Chris.
Speaker 1: He kind of hit on it there because everyone is
Speaker 1: just under the assumption that's Rock begins. Uh, three, Dee
Speaker 1: the borrow go one, Chase Young would go to and
Speaker 1: three is the Star Wars it's gonna be. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Lions are kind of in Noman's land right here
Speaker 1: because I've told her that in the Dolfins and Chargers,
Speaker 1: neither of them are are itched to jump up. A
Speaker 1: couple of spots didn't know what the Giants are taking
Speaker 1: a quarterback at four, So it's like, okay, Dolphin durt five. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll we'll take our pickage or Tour or Herbert and
Speaker 1: we'll move on. And what charges to take Remembers of
Speaker 1: last connects teemed to be a function that But again,
Speaker 1: Team you accept. Walter hit on a little this as
Speaker 1: well on your show even last week or two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: About uh, did you just wipe the bullet and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, we've got Matthew Stafford. We're gonna take
Speaker 1: one of the quarterbacks on at least we have either
Speaker 1: a backup or a successor or trade capital. Because if
Speaker 1: you look at the defensive backs that have been taken
Speaker 1: in the top three, it Sean Springs, Eric Turner, Goose Pickens,
Speaker 1: and Benny Blades. That's it. It's like unprecedented to take
Speaker 1: a cornerback at the hinds to back that that high.
Speaker 1: Now the reason why and in theory you want to
Speaker 1: trade back, you can more than you can more so
Speaker 1: justify taking a dB at five. It's going to get
Speaker 1: to five. Now you're talking about guys like Patrick Peterson, Berry,
Speaker 1: Sean Taylor, Dion. My teams, these are all these are
Speaker 1: all players that were taking bill overall. So you're able
Speaker 1: to still get that player in need. That's a couple
Speaker 1: of picks, gain a pick later on in the draft,
Speaker 1: and that's the ideal situation. But again, I don't know
Speaker 1: if they're coming up. So what you ultimately shock me
Speaker 1: if they just said, you know what, in bring it on,
Speaker 1: there's like, do you just take the quarterback? I don't
Speaker 1: know if go do that. I think the lines in
Speaker 1: a position where they totally need to take someone that's
Speaker 1: gonna help them this year. One coaching staff is gonna
Speaker 1: be gone. So it seems to me like a player
Speaker 1: like Derek Brown or Kid Law or someone like that
Speaker 1: would have a bigger impact on your team. Uh get
Speaker 1: it would having a defensive back that that just me,
Speaker 1: but partaking the three, it's just so unpressure after that,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you do that, Like Jeffic Cooda
Speaker 1: considered to be in a class like Sean springs Wood,
Speaker 1: Earl Turner or Peterson or se um all Right, then,
Speaker 1: speaking of towards the top of the draft, let me
Speaker 1: just take a guy like Justin Herbert, because as we
Speaker 1: get immersed in all of this pre draft talk, there's
Speaker 1: this notion now, okay, well, you know, too, was the
Speaker 1: favorite to go before Justin Herbert for so many weeks,
Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden, it's Justin Herbert. And
Speaker 1: I guess my question to you would be like, and
Speaker 1: I hate to be so blunt about it, Chris, but
Speaker 1: when you watched Justin Herbert at Oregon, was there any
Speaker 1: part of you that was like, oh, I've got to
Speaker 1: have this guy, maybe maybe part of a couple of games,
Speaker 1: but that's what I'm saying. The heating any great game
Speaker 1: as a freshman, it was like, Wow, you can see
Speaker 1: this kid or a soft bar salt Barado really making
Speaker 1: it improvement. His qbr numbers actually declined from sophomore junior
Speaker 1: in the last three years, actually got worse. And if
Speaker 1: you look at like his quarterback radio. Again, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying qb R is an end all metric. Uh, that
Speaker 1: is a surefire indicator of anf all success. But if
Speaker 1: you look at Justin Herbert qbr um this year against
Speaker 1: Power five teams, it's worse than what Tyler Huntly had.
Speaker 1: It's worse than what Jack colinor Wisconsin had. It's worse
Speaker 1: than what Shade Patterson and Michigan ad. It's worse than
Speaker 1: Bright Price Purpet of Virginia, and it's worse than Jakes Throng.
Speaker 1: So it's like the numbers don't like match the perception
Speaker 1: of what this kid is. And and watching the being
Speaker 1: in mt and that Arizona State team watching that game,
Speaker 1: it watching being an attendance of the Patrol Championship game,
Speaker 1: wa watching that team being an attendiates at the Rose
Speaker 1: Ball and watching me work in that game, it was
Speaker 1: like the tongues that it appeared at the Oregon and
Speaker 1: a Royal and or Crystal ball. Whoever is making the
Speaker 1: new seasons, it don't looks like that even trusted to
Speaker 1: throw the ball. I mean the MVP of the Rose
Speaker 1: Bowl when your legs, but it was like watching him
Speaker 1: slowly was it was an exercise and like ringing, right,
Speaker 1: where is the ball gonna go? So look, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's going to be a team. I'm sure. I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's a team out there that's going to think that
Speaker 1: they can correct this and put it in a system
Speaker 1: and make this better. But I sure as I couldn't
Speaker 1: take him in the top five. So so to the
Speaker 1: and I don't want to use the word apologists because
Speaker 1: that seems loaded. But to the people that would counter
Speaker 1: that and say, well about that coaching, that coaching really
Speaker 1: did hold him down. He could be much better. You
Speaker 1: don't fully or even maybe even go halfway and accepting
Speaker 1: that is what I'm getting. No, I would I would
Speaker 1: buy a little bit of that. And again I don't sure.
Speaker 1: I mean I am at a and on the field exceno,
Speaker 1: football savold or being able to pick up on little
Speaker 1: things that really good coaches, really good executives, really good
Speaker 1: draft evaluation is not the other saying, hey, this is
Speaker 1: this is something? Clearly, how did how did the Royal?
Speaker 1: When Christo Ball missed? This is an easy STI I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that I could be able to pick that out,
Speaker 1: but I certainly if if someone obviously it's going to
Speaker 1: think that they are I just don't know. You look
Speaker 1: at his mesables and the kid is a great kid,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. Man, I have a hard time
Speaker 1: taking him for me too, Man, me too. Jordan's Love
Speaker 1: obviously predicted to be the fourth quarterback taken after Burrow
Speaker 1: two and Herbert in whatever order uh to a tuck
Speaker 1: offy loa that is, or just in Herbert in any order.
Speaker 1: Jordan's Love from Utah State, Uh the arm is awesome.
Speaker 1: UM accuracy maybe not his greatest trait. And Tim Hasselbeck
Speaker 1: on Your Air did a great piece on Jordan's love
Speaker 1: that oftentimes he just kind of misses the gimme passes
Speaker 1: um this first round talk and I get it. NFL
Speaker 1: gms and NFL front offices, go quarterback. Gaga, maybe justifiably.
Speaker 1: So it's a quarterback league. U when wanting to uh
Speaker 1: to get a rookie quarterback that will turn out to
Speaker 1: be a Hall of Famer or a perennial All Pro
Speaker 1: Jordan's Love top twenty pick, let's couch it that way
Speaker 1: or in the first round pick, however you want to
Speaker 1: answer it. Um, was there anything you saw with him
Speaker 1: where you're like, oh, this dude's a first rounder? No,
Speaker 1: and and and and over. The piece of you ad
Speaker 1: mentioned like if you look at catchable ball rate, which
Speaker 1: kind of hits on a little bit of great arm,
Speaker 1: but you kind of don't know where it's going. His
Speaker 1: catchable ball rate was seventies three percent, nearly nearly thirty
Speaker 1: percent of his pastores where it will be deemed to
Speaker 1: be uncatchable, I think with a catchable ball rate, So
Speaker 1: Burrows catching the ball rate was eighty seven percent. Two
Speaker 1: is was eighty two even justin Herbert, and we just
Speaker 1: protect it with seventy seven, which isn't much better to
Speaker 1: so much indent, but but it's still better than that.
Speaker 1: It seems like the Love would be a guy that
Speaker 1: a few years ago, like if you wanted to get
Speaker 1: a Russian Wilson with a picked where he was a
Speaker 1: people who are looking for those types of players and
Speaker 1: like willing to jump the gun a little bit and
Speaker 1: take them much higher than I should be. Like if
Speaker 1: you were taking loves you like in the second round,
Speaker 1: you know what you could see maybe a developmental pick.
Speaker 1: If you've got a quarterback who's gonna be there for
Speaker 1: a while, you can groom him. You could justify that,
Speaker 1: I think, But first round, I don't know. Again, the
Speaker 1: Utah State does not have the resources and the players
Speaker 1: that a lot of these Power five teams too, And
Speaker 1: his numbers obviously took a big step back when he
Speaker 1: left a lot of his production from two bags in
Speaker 1: the eight team. But if you look at the games
Speaker 1: against the three Power five teams that he played LFC
Speaker 1: this year wait in Michigan State, he had three touchdown
Speaker 1: passes eight interceptions as Qbright. Now, again, he doesn't have
Speaker 1: an offensive line that could compete every day and against
Speaker 1: some of the inns of players that they have been
Speaker 1: But that would worry me that against the better d
Speaker 1: fencers that he faced, he really really struggled. So in
Speaker 1: college in the Mountain West, you could probably get away
Speaker 1: with some of those untouchable balls, and they aren't always
Speaker 1: going to be intercepted against NFLB fencers in completions that
Speaker 1: are off target, is it. There's a much better chance
Speaker 1: that they're gonna turn to interceptions and you can't turn
Speaker 1: the ball into that level. And there a good just
Speaker 1: tactle with James mentioned all the insubstances that he had
Speaker 1: despite it in a leagal pastor to use game expendable.
Speaker 1: So I don't know top twenty pitch and send Way's
Speaker 1: gonna take him. But as you take a step back
Speaker 1: and you look at it, it's like, really, you're gonna
Speaker 1: take take a toy pick on this guy. And people
Speaker 1: people think that they can here. It's here people big,
Speaker 1: they're big things. Here all the problems and they have
Speaker 1: all the answers met great bad, a tend of confidence
Speaker 1: in their ability, but there's a lot of times it's
Speaker 1: not gonna it's not gonna work out. Yeah, and again
Speaker 1: we are so much more concerned from our corner of
Speaker 1: the world with with our bets and with our draft prows.
Speaker 1: I do think it's worthwhile just back and you're the
Speaker 1: perfect guy to deal with and just be like, what
Speaker 1: are we doing, like seriously after our props cash or don't?
Speaker 1: What are the what are these teams done? You know?
Speaker 1: And there's there's an endless and number of of subjects
Speaker 1: or positions. We can do this for in college football
Speaker 1: and for the NFL Draft in a couple of nights, Chris,
Speaker 1: One of which is the often not talked about running
Speaker 1: back position, which obviously through the evolution of the game
Speaker 1: has UH in the NFL. You know, to say it's
Speaker 1: been de emphasized and doesn't mean as much would be
Speaker 1: the understatement of the world from our childhood until now. Um,
Speaker 1: so you know, most projections have maybe DeAndre Swift from
Speaker 1: Georgia goes in the first round, maybe he doesn't A
Speaker 1: is he the best back? Uh? And then more interestingly
Speaker 1: for me, after Swift, if you think he's the best
Speaker 1: projecting to the to the top level, maybe you do,
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't. What's your pecking order with these guys?
Speaker 1: Because I'm hearing a lot of Jonathan Taylor talk. Now,
Speaker 1: what's your thoughts there are? I think Swift probably is
Speaker 1: the best out, but I don't think it is like
Speaker 1: night and day. I gotta get you take DeAndre and
Speaker 1: if you take j j. Dobbins is not considered that
Speaker 1: much of a fall off from DeAndre Swift. If you
Speaker 1: can't Clyde Edwards Hilaire, is that much much of a
Speaker 1: drop off from John I don't think so. But but
Speaker 1: if you like again college football, there wasn't a kid
Speaker 1: out there who you who you're rooted for, would appreciated,
Speaker 1: uh with Jonathans had a great kid. But and it's
Speaker 1: always about would be Mr contrary and Mr negative that
Speaker 1: there's always about you're gonna take this guy back into
Speaker 1: the first round and pay in first round money. The
Speaker 1: last three years, nine hundred sixty eight touches and eighteen bumbles.
Speaker 1: That's why had you been sixty That is a ton
Speaker 1: of of workload on that body. Did you look at
Speaker 1: you if you look at Dobbins and that's same time fan,
Speaker 1: he had two points in a fewer touches. If you
Speaker 1: look at any only have pot bumbles. If you look
Speaker 1: at Tyed Edward de Laire, you had five hundred fewer
Speaker 1: touches and have tuts man and only two fumbles. That
Speaker 1: that could be like an extra cheating tight uh. Number
Speaker 1: of workload for food Taylor and a lunger's intensity to
Speaker 1: put the door on the ground. You're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 1: get that guy a first round construct where UH you
Speaker 1: might not be getting much out of him in like
Speaker 1: years three. I don't know, I'm gonna get him in
Speaker 1: the checking around less money. You could put him in
Speaker 1: situations in the offerings, fine, but for him to be
Speaker 1: UH every day and type back in the first round
Speaker 1: contract I had it, and I would actually rather take
Speaker 1: dabbing joy Hilaire UH in the second round and had
Speaker 1: to checking around, and I would UH packing a first
Speaker 1: round pick on that I hadn't realized eighteen fumbles for
Speaker 1: Jonathan Taylor. I had not realized that. All right, Chris,
Speaker 1: I let you go with this, and it is the
Speaker 1: contractual obligation question, which is to uh and listen. We
Speaker 1: can we can slicen dise this draft any which way,
Speaker 1: but really the most compelling player here and the player
Speaker 1: that might have the most variants and where he could
Speaker 1: get picked, is Alabama's to a tago by lower. There
Speaker 1: certainly hasn't been a player in college football that we've
Speaker 1: talked about more in his brief college football career. UH
Speaker 1: started with the bang and then ended in UH what
Speaker 1: could have been tragedy really with his injury. Um, and
Speaker 1: when I say a bang, I mean a national championship
Speaker 1: doesn't get a bigger bang than that. What do you do?
Speaker 1: I mean where where do you think if you were
Speaker 1: in NFL GM, how much do you covet to a
Speaker 1: given the injuries? How cautious are you? What's your overall
Speaker 1: opinion on it? Unfortunately, I would have to be super pacious. Um,
Speaker 1: it attains me to stay it out because again watching
Speaker 1: him at Alabama and just the type of kid, in
Speaker 1: the type of family late he comes from. You, I
Speaker 1: would love to see you and have a lengthy, healthy
Speaker 1: NFL career. But you just look at the two years
Speaker 1: and it's always seemed like there was some type of
Speaker 1: little Maggie injury that he had. I having said that,
Speaker 1: I mean there are times you look back in draft histories. Uh,
Speaker 1: there a guy that got keep Scofford coming out at all.
Speaker 1: He's always heard and then he was pretty healthy and
Speaker 1: his NFL careerans was very recently. Here are you look
Speaker 1: at it? Guy like Deshaun Watson was at Oh he
Speaker 1: played Krippie whatever it was Scott to Compson there and
Speaker 1: then he cook Kurt Cart and injury. We talked about
Speaker 1: this before a baseball adults about earlier you're only topic
Speaker 1: injury and they really can't do it. Yeah, you really
Speaker 1: can't do it. But at the same time, in football,
Speaker 1: with the starting quarterback, you kind of can. And I
Speaker 1: wonder if at times, like there's this perception that because
Speaker 1: who will replace shail and Hurt from that Alabama offense,
Speaker 1: that maybe there was a perception that he was more
Speaker 1: mobile or more of a runner than he actually is,
Speaker 1: or maybe he was trying to show that he was
Speaker 1: more of a runner or more mobile than he actually
Speaker 1: it's when he's really not. He's he's a pocket quarterback.
Speaker 1: And I think at times some of the injuries that
Speaker 1: he had, uh was was him just trying to a
Speaker 1: bood pressure and maybe just not throw the ball away
Speaker 1: or maybe not just just take a sack and it
Speaker 1: con seach him to do that, and you're confident in
Speaker 1: your ability to do that. But you might take them
Speaker 1: a little behind the usual. But yeah, I think someone
Speaker 1: will will will take him in the top ten. But
Speaker 1: I would, I would. I would, unfortunately, have some some
Speaker 1: reservations about the look for surgeries in Alabama allegedly were
Speaker 1: to make the ankle tighter and stronger and help them
Speaker 1: long him. So so we'll see, like, is this something
Speaker 1: that you're talking about. Maybe what we'send that he had
Speaker 1: till eight years down the way, ten years down the road.
Speaker 1: But I guess you look at what type of window
Speaker 1: do you have to get the best out of your
Speaker 1: kid and hopefully step if you want to take the
Speaker 1: risk that you're gonna get great years out of the guy,
Speaker 1: and maybe you make the plans or maybe you're turning
Speaker 1: your French tack around you're taking. But but if you're
Speaker 1: looking at someone you really a long term deal, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, and we love to it needs to
Speaker 1: be stressed. We all love the kid. Chris Felika, Chris,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, man, I appreciate it. Chris Felika,
Speaker 1: ESPNS College Game Day coming Back, Welcome back to a
Speaker 1: numbers game with Jill Alexander. What better time than Draft
Speaker 1: week to play Quick Picks. Quick Picks as a new
Speaker 1: betting game featuring all top grades from the NFL. If
Speaker 1: you're looking for action during the shutdown, how about Quick
Speaker 1: Picks Classic and matches superstars from then and now using
Speaker 1: historical stats to determine winners who was better in their
Speaker 1: prime Aaron or Peyton, Julio or DeAndre Zeke or a
Speaker 1: p Now with Quick Picks Classic, you can play these
Speaker 1: matchups takes less in a minute's creator ticket spent as
Speaker 1: little as ten cents when as much as fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars and for a limited time, Visa customers get this
Speaker 1: special offer get a dollar for dollar match up to
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars when you sign up for a new
Speaker 1: Quick Picks account. Go to quick picks dot Com slash
Speaker 1: Visa and bonus. Gotta be twenty one and a resident
Speaker 1: where Quick Picks is offered. That's Visa dot Com slash
Speaker 1: Visa Bonus. Start playing Quick Picks Classic Now Skill Alexander
Speaker 1: live from San Francisco. Danny Burke in the studio before
Speaker 1: before we get back into football. Here for a second, Danny,
Speaker 1: I'm sort of like, um, um, almost apologetic about this,
Speaker 1: because I want to stress how much I love the
Speaker 1: thirty for thirty franchise and how much I still enjoyed
Speaker 1: the doc despite the fact the thirty last dance Dock,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that yesterday I came on and said,
Speaker 1: oh I wish they had shown this. Uh Jeff ruland uh,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's spill in game one of his career and
Speaker 1: then today much broader than that, Like one of the
Speaker 1: key theme of a part two of that was this
Speaker 1: Jerry Krause Michael Jordan's conflict about limiting him on minutes
Speaker 1: a minutes restriction. And that's not even close to being
Speaker 1: the impression that the facts show that, it's not even
Speaker 1: close to being the anywhere near the impression they were given.
Speaker 1: So it's it. Then it makes me wonder, like, how
Speaker 1: many other things in there might I need to question?
Speaker 1: And by the way, you know, maybe did Scottie Pippett
Speaker 1: really was he really a manager at first and Central Hard?
Speaker 1: I'm just throwing out some stuff. There's other stuff in there,
Speaker 1: uh that I didn't find on my own. There's there's
Speaker 1: one other detail that we just found about out about
Speaker 1: that is clearly not right either. Um, maybe I'll bring
Speaker 1: it up on a subsequent show. So it's not like,
Speaker 1: but this is a big thing for me. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I sheepishly pointed out. I don't know how you feel
Speaker 1: about me pointing pointing it out, Danny, but I feel
Speaker 1: like I had to. It's kind of one of those
Speaker 1: things where it's like, no, don't only don't tell me,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you need to know because
Speaker 1: when you're watching these documentaries, whatever it may be, you
Speaker 1: assume that everything is factual considering they're studying just you know,
Speaker 1: this one subject, So uh, it makes sense that it
Speaker 1: would be something that you would really want to search
Speaker 1: and find out about and more stuff continuing on, considering
Speaker 1: we have eight more episodes. So uh, it's not enough
Speaker 1: to where me personally you pointing it out. It doesn't
Speaker 1: really ruin anything for me. It's just kind of something
Speaker 1: where it's like, oh, I'm surprised it went that direction.
Speaker 1: If anything, it's not more that it, you know, ruined
Speaker 1: its character or something. It didn't really alter anything I
Speaker 1: assume in anybody's minds. But like I said, it's interesting
Speaker 1: to note and it deserves to be factual. So well, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's let's put it this way. Am I still gonna
Speaker 1: watch parts three through ten? Of course I am. I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the hell out of it, and I'm an m J.
Speaker 1: I mean, is the thing and it needs to be stressed.
Speaker 1: No one was more of an m J freak than
Speaker 1: I was in junior high and high school and beyond, Um,
Speaker 1: nothing was as big as college hoops. I mean, really,
Speaker 1: when you grow up in the DC area, it's the
Speaker 1: Redskins during the fall, and then it's basketball. It's college basketball,
Speaker 1: it's high school basketball. I went to basketball camp with
Speaker 1: all the DC greats who were like my coaches and
Speaker 1: went out to college basketball fame, so like, no one
Speaker 1: was more Jordan than a CC obsessed that we were
Speaker 1: so anyway, uh, and then into his NBA career, so
Speaker 1: I just felt the need to point out. But yeah,
Speaker 1: is it gonna take me away from watching it? Of
Speaker 1: course not. But you know, um, just to set the
Speaker 1: record straight back to football, Danny. Uh. We have Michael
Speaker 1: Lombardi coming up, and on his podcast this week, the
Speaker 1: GM Shuffle, he responded to Boomer A. Siasin taking shots
Speaker 1: at him former Cincinnati Bengal University of Maryland great Boomer Assiason,
Speaker 1: who now does so many things in the media, national
Speaker 1: and local at w f and in New York. Um,
Speaker 1: Boomer was taking some shots at Michael Lombardi for uh,
Speaker 1: something that Michael Lombardi has been talking about for the
Speaker 1: last two weeks, but actually talked about first here specifically,
Speaker 1: not on the network, but specifically on a numbers game
Speaker 1: at Visa exactly two weeks ago. Let's roll that clip
Speaker 1: of what Michael had to say that can you give
Speaker 1: us some sense of the inside scoop of all of
Speaker 1: that or and of how all this really goes down?
Speaker 1: Or maybe there's a crazy story or two that you
Speaker 1: that you have or have not shared before about this
Speaker 1: time of year that just would blow our minds. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean this time of the year is really misinformation time, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it's really about you know, what data do
Speaker 1: you believe? Where are you getting your data from. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit like the CIA. You've got to trust
Speaker 1: you know, who is your who is your contact, who
Speaker 1: are you working, where are you trying to find information out?
Speaker 1: And how are you not giving information out? And there's
Speaker 1: so many tales of this time of the year where
Speaker 1: the agents stir the pot. You know, the agents create
Speaker 1: this illusion, which is what their job is to do.
Speaker 1: And I don't ultimate all Ford, I think they're very
Speaker 1: good at doing it, is to create this illusion like
Speaker 1: like two is healthy, right, Like that's an illusion. Okay
Speaker 1: that was reported in the day of the coronavirus. We
Speaker 1: read the two is healthy and most people living in
Speaker 1: America accepted that, Yes, he teams. Meanwhile, I've had two
Speaker 1: teams in the past ten days told me he's failed
Speaker 1: their physical and I said what, And they said for
Speaker 1: a host of things. You know, he broke his wrist
Speaker 1: the first day of spring ball, I think two years
Speaker 1: ago when he came back, he broke it again. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've never talked about a broken wrist with him, right,
Speaker 1: We just talked about his hip. His hip is fine.
Speaker 1: It's really about understanding that you've got to be able
Speaker 1: to separate the noise from what you're really trying to
Speaker 1: focus on. And I think it happens all the time,
Speaker 1: and I think the one good thing about this draft
Speaker 1: is there's less noise. So that was what Lombardi had
Speaker 1: to say on our air two weeks ago on this show,
Speaker 1: and I didn't let it slide. I actually we didn't
Speaker 1: have this on the tape right there, but I didn't
Speaker 1: let it slide. I followed that up immediately with I
Speaker 1: don't want to gloss over that. This is I'm quoting
Speaker 1: myself an out from the show. I don't want to
Speaker 1: gloss over that. Can you repeat that? How many physicals
Speaker 1: has he failed? To which Lombardi further replied, Uh, well,
Speaker 1: I've spoken to a lot of teams. I've talked to
Speaker 1: two teams in the last ten days. I've spoken to
Speaker 1: two teams who have him failed on their board as
Speaker 1: physicals unquote. So then Lombardi went on to say it
Speaker 1: on his own podcast and it got picked up all
Speaker 1: kinds of different ways. Um, but he's been taking a
Speaker 1: test and specifically Boomer Sizen did that, So I wanna
Speaker 1: I wanna play Boomer back to Michael, get his response
Speaker 1: to it. Uh. And then of course ask him a
Speaker 1: whole series of questions as well, uh, Danny, because of
Speaker 1: course uh um, I have those too, share with him
Speaker 1: as well. By the way, you feel free to jump
Speaker 1: in with any questions of your own, Danny as well.
Speaker 1: For Michael Lombardi, who of course is the host of
Speaker 1: the Lamarti Line here at Visa. UM, and we'll have
Speaker 1: his show coming up at the top of the hour
Speaker 1: right after I talked to him, because I don't know
Speaker 1: if he's gonna talk about Boomer when he comes on
Speaker 1: the air, So we'll do it next right here on
Speaker 1: a numbers game at Visa. The Sports Betting new Welcome
Speaker 1: back to a numbers game with you. Alexander oh Man
Speaker 1: getting excited for the NFL Draft. Let's do this already,
Speaker 1: Let's draft some players for goodness sake. Visa of course
Speaker 1: a draft special that will take place during the draft.
Speaker 1: It's our vis Draft Special Live Thursday night, UH eight
Speaker 1: p m Eastern five pm Pacific. Our draft bet casters
Speaker 1: will include Matt Humans, Brett Musburger, Jonathan von Tuble, and
Speaker 1: of course the esteemed Michael Lombardi who's about to join us.
Speaker 1: Other special guests as well to UH analyze the draft
Speaker 1: from our unique betting perspective. Track all the props they'll
Speaker 1: tell you when they cash. It's the Draft Special Live Thursday,
Speaker 1: eight pm Eastern, five pm Pacific, right here on Visa,
Speaker 1: the Sports Betting Network. And now, ladies and gentlemen, his
Speaker 1: show is coming up at the top of the hour.
Speaker 1: It's called the Lombardi Line, exclusively on Visa. He's got
Speaker 1: a dynamite do we still use the word dynamite? Dynamite
Speaker 1: podcast GM Shuffle. The book is Gridiron Genius, and of
Speaker 1: course he writes for the Athletic. He will also make
Speaker 1: you some great Italian food and then oh, you won't
Speaker 1: do yeah, No, I am not the original. This coronavirus
Speaker 1: is killing me in terms of the car. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's too much cooking going on in there. It's Michael Lombardi.
Speaker 1: Everybody at m Lombardi NFL. Alright, Michael, let's start with this,
Speaker 1: because of course I have a couple of questions for you,
Speaker 1: but let's start with this. This is I just played
Speaker 1: the clip the last segment of you on this show
Speaker 1: talking about TOA and a couple failed physicals. This uh
Speaker 1: is boomer A Siasin on his show on w f
Speaker 1: A n UH talking about you and the the other thing.
Speaker 1: And it goes back to the to a tongue of
Speaker 1: volois stuff with Mike Lombardi, like like, who the hell
Speaker 1: was Mike Lombardi to be reporting that uh to had
Speaker 1: broken a risk in spring practice and then rebroke it,
Speaker 1: Like how does he find out that information? Because he's
Speaker 1: close friends with Nick Saban and his Nick Saban given
Speaker 1: Mike Lombardi that information, So mich Lombardi can go running
Speaker 1: out there and just absolutely try to discredit a kid.
Speaker 1: Did you find so? I find something wrong with that,
Speaker 1: And I understand that Lombardi and Mike town I'm on both.
Speaker 1: You know, they're they're in the media now they were
Speaker 1: on the other side. Now they're on the dark side.
Speaker 1: And they get they have contacts, they have information, and
Speaker 1: they use that information. And I get all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: But I do think that there's a violation here somewhere
Speaker 1: along the line, that somebody is outing players and their
Speaker 1: health issues when those things should be kept private. I
Speaker 1: think Michael the Laura as yours there, well, he doesn't
Speaker 1: think that's the problem. He has no idea what he's
Speaker 1: talking about. I mean, the reality of it is, he
Speaker 1: knows nothing about the draft. I mean, he's just spouting
Speaker 1: off information. But he sits on his throne at w
Speaker 1: F A N and he thinks he's got Franz psychitis.
Speaker 1: You know, he can just say whatever he wants. And
Speaker 1: because he's on w F A N, he becomes this,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like make a point. Like make a point, Boomer,
Speaker 1: like tell me what I did wrong? Discredit the kid.
Speaker 1: The kid had the injuries. If you watched football on
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon, you saw the kid get injured. Nick Saban
Speaker 1: hasn't talked to me about it. I don't have to
Speaker 1: talk to Nick Sab but it's common knowledge. If you
Speaker 1: would do a little bit of work, just a little
Speaker 1: bit of work to prepare your audience, so you could
Speaker 1: educate your audience about what's going on in the National
Speaker 1: Football League, that might be a better show than taking
Speaker 1: a shot at me. I didn't discredit anybody. The fact remains,
Speaker 1: you discredited yourself by that idiotic statement you made Michael
Speaker 1: Lombardi addressing Boomer just to clarify and not me on
Speaker 1: on on that. Um. It really is the word discredit
Speaker 1: that got you a little round. Actually, no, I think
Speaker 1: it was that he put me in the same category
Speaker 1: as Mike Tanabat might have really irked me a little bit.
Speaker 1: But the discredit thing, you know, it's like like at
Speaker 1: some point, like seriously, like why are you saying this?
Speaker 1: Like where where's where is your story? Like if you
Speaker 1: study the draft doorability injuries are a huge critical component
Speaker 1: of it. I didn't make it up. I didn't say
Speaker 1: you know that he was did something as a child,
Speaker 1: or or you know had this problem. I didn't make
Speaker 1: anything up. I just said here's the reality. Now. If
Speaker 1: you want to be if you want to make no statements,
Speaker 1: if you want to be on f a n and
Speaker 1: just pontificate about subjects and you know, you want everybody
Speaker 1: to like you feel free, were as Sissin always invited
Speaker 1: on this show and coming on GM Shuffle, coming on,
Speaker 1: not coming on? You kidding me? I just wanted to
Speaker 1: point that out. I means, as they said about Pauli
Speaker 1: and the Godfield, that's the last we'll see him. That's
Speaker 1: the last we'll see him. Uh. Did you see this
Speaker 1: back and forth on Twitter yesterday between the Jags owner's
Speaker 1: son and their standout defensive end uh in Guake yesterday?
Speaker 1: He got real personal, It got real nasty. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: on the one hand, I thought the owner's son, uh
Speaker 1: con comported himself well. On the other hand, I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: why did you even engage them at all? But it's
Speaker 1: basically over a contract issue. You've been in in the room,
Speaker 1: so to speak again in NFL front offices. How did
Speaker 1: you view that? First of all, I think they should
Speaker 1: take Tony's Twitter account away from him. First of all.
Speaker 1: The second thing they should do is keep Tony. Tell
Speaker 1: Tony what the draft is on May the fifteenth, and
Speaker 1: keep him away from the draft because if you look
Speaker 1: at their drafting history, Tony if you look at their
Speaker 1: drafting history, it's been atrocious at the The organization has
Speaker 1: been a disaster. So here's the reality. The let's keep
Speaker 1: it out of out of this this this fight on Twitter.
Speaker 1: The Jacksonville Jaguars since two thousand and eleven have lost
Speaker 1: over ten games at every season except one, the year
Speaker 1: they finished up behind the Patriots in the conference championship game.
Speaker 1: They've had one winning season. Like, at some point you
Speaker 1: have you're the model of a horrendous franchise. You are
Speaker 1: the model of a horrendous franchise. You've kept a general
Speaker 1: manager who's been picking in the top ten since two
Speaker 1: thousand and thirteen all but one season and only has
Speaker 1: now two players on the team. They're gonna trade for
Speaker 1: net soon. So like, don't like, don't engage anybody, and
Speaker 1: then don't tell me you're working on the draft. Like, seriously,
Speaker 1: the problem with your organization is you have nobody that
Speaker 1: really understands what it takes to be a successful organization.
Speaker 1: And if you think you're working on the draft, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that watch tape. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people that watch tape. There's very few people
Speaker 1: that study tape and that's the problem. Well said, UM, look,
Speaker 1: we we've batted this draft around and how we think
Speaker 1: this order is gonna go every which way. Um, I'll
Speaker 1: try to ask something that I haven't asked of you before,
Speaker 1: which is just a sort of buzz lately. I had
Speaker 1: Evan Silva on a couple of days ago, and now
Speaker 1: I've seen sort of a a little bit of a
Speaker 1: wave of Derek Brown going number three. I want to
Speaker 1: say you were the first person I might have heard
Speaker 1: that from Michael. Derek Brown going to the Lions at
Speaker 1: number three? Um, do you think that could happen? And
Speaker 1: if it should happen, he's he should happen. They look,
Speaker 1: you don't win with corners in the NFL. You've win
Speaker 1: with defensive linement. The forty Niners proved that once the
Speaker 1: Forts defensive line got tired, you know, their secondary got exposed.
Speaker 1: Couldn't play man, can't play zone. So yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: Derek Brown can rush inside to get into the paint.
Speaker 1: I think if you read the athletic Bob McGinn, he
Speaker 1: was the former beat writer for the Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 1: wrote for the Green Bay Press Gazette. He's had done
Speaker 1: remarkable work on the draft for most of his career.
Speaker 1: In fact, when I was in the league, he was
Speaker 1: a new sense. He would constantly call you up about
Speaker 1: the draft. I just had to divorce myself from him.
Speaker 1: I love Bob. He's tremendous as a fan. I would
Speaker 1: urge people to read his column. He made a car.
Speaker 1: He wrote about how Isaiah Simmons is really viewed by
Speaker 1: differently in the league than by the perception outside of
Speaker 1: the league. And I've heard that by numerous people, by
Speaker 1: a lot of people that there's really no position that
Speaker 1: the scheme allowed him to be successful at Clemson, and
Speaker 1: his speed allowed him to be successful, but teams are
Speaker 1: having a hard time figuring out what to do with them.
Speaker 1: There's more of a mischance with Simmons that there is
Speaker 1: a hiss hiss chance. He's straight line speed, He's not
Speaker 1: overly athletic with ben and lateral quickness. I think McGinn's
Speaker 1: onto something. I think this guy is gonna slip. Every
Speaker 1: time you say scheme, Michael, a little part of me
Speaker 1: giggles and yeah, we gottap even Bleach. So if so,
Speaker 1: the follow up that is, if Derrick Brown goes number
Speaker 1: three to the lines, let's say that does happen. Would
Speaker 1: the Giants me let me choose my words carefully. Would
Speaker 1: the Giants be uh sort of lurd into not taking
Speaker 1: an offensive tackle and maybe taking Okuda at four because
Speaker 1: they never have good corners in New York. Now that
Speaker 1: the Giants, the Giants should stick to the theory of Look,
Speaker 1: we win games with offensive and defensive linement. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't care. I know it's not sexy, I know
Speaker 1: it's boring, but the game comes down to offensive and
Speaker 1: defensive lineman. How many ones you have when you travel.
Speaker 1: It really comes down to when you take those ten
Speaker 1: players at another pass rusher in the defensive line. If
Speaker 1: you could get seven, six or seven blue chip red
Speaker 1: chip players in that category, you're gonna be a hell
Speaker 1: of a football team. You're gonna be a hell of
Speaker 1: a football team. And that's the goal. And if I'm
Speaker 1: the Giants, I'm taking the best tackle. If Derek Brown
Speaker 1: made it to me at four, I would take Derek
Speaker 1: brownify with the New York Giants. I would reseend the
Speaker 1: tender on Leonard Williams, the most idiotic thing possible I've
Speaker 1: ever seen, and then have a real legitimate pass rushing
Speaker 1: defensive tackle. What's the thing? Like a broad question, I'll
Speaker 1: leave you with this, what's the one thing up at
Speaker 1: the top? And I've asked some other people, I don't
Speaker 1: think I've asked of you. That would just be the
Speaker 1: surprise that blows all of this up. What could you
Speaker 1: possibly see happening where you're like, this is the one
Speaker 1: thing that could blow all of our thoughts up on
Speaker 1: this draft. I think if if the Redskins trade too,
Speaker 1: I don't believe they will. If they trade out of two,
Speaker 1: I think it'll blow it up because somebody's coming up
Speaker 1: not to get Chase Shown, because the Redskins are gonna
Speaker 1: pick Chase Sean. If somebody gets into two, they want
Speaker 1: a quarterback, and that would be Herbert based on what
Speaker 1: I'm told, and that would lead the Lions with with
Speaker 1: Chase Young. And I think that would blow everything up. Jeez,
Speaker 1: I I still say, and I've never wavered on this,
Speaker 1: I think the Redskins do take Chase Young, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, that would totally blow it up. Michael. I
Speaker 1: leave you with a documentary recommendation, The Pharmacist on Netflix.
Speaker 1: Have you seen this? I have not. I've got to
Speaker 1: get to it. I've been too much into the singer
Speaker 1: songwriters from the seventy I've got to get moved out
Speaker 1: of that. I it was, It's fabulous. The other one
Speaker 1: I recommend strongly to you, Gill is Sinatra at Palm Springs.
Speaker 1: Just absolutely fabulous. So I'm always down for Sinatra. Michael,
Speaker 1: give me some time to prepare for your show. The
Speaker 1: Lombardi line coming up top of the hour. Thank you
Speaker 1: as always, Michael A preach. Thank you Michael Lombardi. Uh.
Speaker 1: And when I say the best in the biz, I
Speaker 1: often throw that out with some of my favorite guests
Speaker 1: because I love my guests, my regulars, but Michael Lombari
Speaker 1: is the best in the biss Uh. That dude tells
Speaker 1: it like it is, and it was. It was generous
Speaker 1: of him, and he wouldn't even use the word generous,
Speaker 1: but to respond to the boomer comments because as as
Speaker 1: Michael told me offline, you think I care, though he
Speaker 1: didn't really use the word care, if you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Thank you to Michael Lombardi. Thank you to
Speaker 1: Chris Felika. Thank you to Alan Boston for the third
Speaker 1: of three appearances on the show. Don't get better than
Speaker 1: that drive, But the