Speaker 1: Welcome in What's Drive with the great Episode three thirteen.
Speaker 1: Programming note demonse for I think the first time in
Speaker 1: the history of the pod out sick today. I talked
Speaker 1: to him this morning. He was gonna fight through and
Speaker 1: come in. I said, take your day. So wish the
Speaker 1: best to Demons, but a hell of an iron man
Speaker 1: streak for him of not missing any time, and so
Speaker 1: he's out today, So it will be just me, which
Speaker 1: you know should definitely, as always promised, lead to a
Speaker 1: quicker show because he's the one that always does the
Speaker 1: over talking and explaining and non sequiturs and different various
Speaker 1: rants you where you interrupt yourself. I've told him he's
Speaker 1: got to stop talking so much, so we'll get right
Speaker 1: to it. Here is what missed the cut in today's show,
Speaker 1: and the first thing that missed the cut didn't miss
Speaker 1: the cut is all at all? Uh. Bronnie James thirty nine, seven,
Speaker 1: four and four for the South Bay Lakers last night
Speaker 1: against Sam Cruz. He was a plus nineteen in his
Speaker 1: thirty eight minutes. It was far and away his best
Speaker 1: game at the professional level. And this is where I
Speaker 1: will as I have remind everyone that twenty months ago
Speaker 1: July twenty fifth or twenty fourth of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: this kid suffered cardiac arrest. It totally derailed his collegiate season,
Speaker 1: and that is evidenced by the fact that he has
Speaker 1: now had ten professional games, one at the NBA level
Speaker 1: and nine at the G League level that are better
Speaker 1: than anything he ever did in college. And so when
Speaker 1: people pointed out, like, oh my god, look at his
Speaker 1: college statline and that's a player that you're drafting, it,
Speaker 1: there had to be some math done on. Yes, his
Speaker 1: collegiate numbers were that of a player that typically would
Speaker 1: not be drafted, even late in the second round. But
Speaker 1: if you throw the season away and say those numbers
Speaker 1: were due to the fact that he never got his
Speaker 1: legs or his wind underneath them because of the months
Speaker 1: he had to stay away from the court because they
Speaker 1: thought he might not be able to play basketball ever
Speaker 1: again due to a congenital heart defect, then maybe, just
Speaker 1: maybe you saw some traits that could be a successful player.
Speaker 1: And Kevin O'Connor, who knows a hell of a lot
Speaker 1: more about the draft and about college basketball than I do,
Speaker 1: tweeted to me this morning that if they did a
Speaker 1: redraft today he thought Bronni would be a first round pick,
Speaker 1: and that if Bronnie can keep up this shooting, then
Speaker 1: he's a legitimate NBA player. And again, I am not
Speaker 1: trying to make too much of the G League, which
Speaker 1: is something we never talked about previously. However, because Brownie
Speaker 1: is a star and because he has been the subject
Speaker 1: of scrutiny, we have to be fair in that the
Speaker 1: expectation was that in the G League, with grown men,
Speaker 1: with a lot of guys who were former first round
Speaker 1: picks trying to make a career for themselves, with a
Speaker 1: lot of guys who had a lot more experience than him,
Speaker 1: with a lot of guys who were much more highly
Speaker 1: drafted than him, that he was going to it certainly
Speaker 1: in his first year in the G League. Really have
Speaker 1: his work cutout for him now, and more than his
Speaker 1: work cutout for him, potentially really struggle. And instead he
Speaker 1: now after not playing well in Summer League and not
Speaker 1: playing well in the G League's kind of preseason I
Speaker 1: don't tip off tournament or whatever they call it, in
Speaker 1: the G League regular season, he is now averaging twenty
Speaker 1: two five and five on forty six thirty eight eighty
Speaker 1: splits that is a great value for your fifty fifth
Speaker 1: overall pick and shout out and credit to Brownie. And
Speaker 1: so we're not gonna spend more time on that. But
Speaker 1: that was in what missed the Cup, But he didn't
Speaker 1: actually miss the cut. We did a nice few minutes
Speaker 1: on it. Also, SVP my guy after Maryland finally gets
Speaker 1: on the right side of a buzzer beater, tweets you
Speaker 1: know he's a Dieyard Terrapin fan, and he tweets out
Speaker 1: never a doubt, as a wise man, says shut out,
Speaker 1: Scott Van Pelt, Ernie Johnson, Kevin Wilds the only three
Speaker 1: people in sports media with one hundred percent approval ratings.
Speaker 1: And very nice of Scott to include. You know, obviously
Speaker 1: my trademark tattooed came up with first person ever use
Speaker 1: it phrase never a doubt. Very nice of him to
Speaker 1: use that in celebrating an all time Marilynd moment. More
Speaker 1: on the tournament in a second, and I guess that
Speaker 1: is one way to put it. I did invite myself
Speaker 1: on the Kelsey's pod. The Kelsey's tweeted, should we have
Speaker 1: an NFL salary cap expert on the show? And I
Speaker 1: just responded, I got you. I mean, you know that
Speaker 1: way it could be said, because obviously I'm a salary
Speaker 1: cap expert, but also we could talk other things and
Speaker 1: it would be interesting because you know, Eagles fans tend
Speaker 1: not to like me that much, but Jason, I would
Speaker 1: imagine does I don't know, but if we could get
Speaker 1: a What's Right with Nick Wright New Heights crossover, that
Speaker 1: would have to be good for the burgeoning What's Right brand, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, YouTube's like rate, subscribe review on all
Speaker 1: platforms YouTube just crossed one hundred and ninety thousand, so
Speaker 1: we appreciate you guys for that. We're the slow climb
Speaker 1: towards two hundred thousand continues. But also we'd really like
Speaker 1: you guys to subscribe on either iTunes or Spotify wherever
Speaker 1: you guys get your podcasts. All right, so we have
Speaker 1: to lead this morning with just a huge bummer, which
Speaker 1: is a young woman who I truly and I said
Speaker 1: this last year. I think, well, and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to use past tense, but I had said this in
Speaker 1: the past, and I still believe it has a chance
Speaker 1: to be the greatest women's basketball player ever. I truly
Speaker 1: believe that. I believe that I when everyone was talking about,
Speaker 1: and I obviously was a huge part of the talk
Speaker 1: as well about the phenomenon that is Caitlin Clark. I
Speaker 1: think you guys heard me say a couple times on
Speaker 1: the show that I thought Juju Watkins at USC might
Speaker 1: end up being even better better than Caitlin and even
Speaker 1: better than everybody her size, her athleticism, her basketball IQ.
Speaker 1: It is elite of the elite, and a player that
Speaker 1: can do everything, a player that recently put up a
Speaker 1: stat line that had not been put up in men's
Speaker 1: or women's professional or college basketball this century. When I
Speaker 1: think she had thirty eight points, eleven rebounds, five assists,
Speaker 1: eight blocks, and again a forty minute college game, she
Speaker 1: tore acl last night, and it's just devastating for a
Speaker 1: bunch of reasons. It puts it. I would imagine on
Speaker 1: the board that she doesn't play college basketball again. Now
Speaker 1: I would think she does. I would think that the
Speaker 1: playing is for her to miss all of next season
Speaker 1: and then come back for what would be her senior year.
Speaker 1: I guess red shirt junior year and continue to play.
Speaker 1: And with nil and the WNBA salary structure, I would
Speaker 1: have to imagine Juju can potentially make far more money
Speaker 1: at USC than she would at the beginning of her
Speaker 1: WNBA career, unless something drastically changes with the rookie salary
Speaker 1: scale there. But this is just an ultimate bummer because
Speaker 1: getting we got in the final four last year Page
Speaker 1: versus Caitlin, and we were basically assured that we were
Speaker 1: going to get Page versus Juju in the Elite eight,
Speaker 1: and it was I talked about how I didn't love
Speaker 1: that they put USC in Yukon in the same region
Speaker 1: because that felt like it should be a final four
Speaker 1: inter national championship potential matchup, and it ends up that
Speaker 1: it's going to be, and USC should still get they
Speaker 1: should be able to win next round without Juju, but
Speaker 1: not past that. They absolutely can't beat Yukon without Juju.
Speaker 1: And you just feel sick for this young lady who
Speaker 1: is has the real potential to be a true superstar,
Speaker 1: a true crossovers not just great player. She's obviously going
Speaker 1: to be well, she already is a great player, and
Speaker 1: she and a torn acl you know, is not career
Speaker 1: altering the way it once was. But she needs a
Speaker 1: great NCAA tournament run just to catapult her celebrity the
Speaker 1: way Caitlin had and the way honestly Angel Reese, who
Speaker 1: no disrespect to Angel Reese, but Angel Reese is not
Speaker 1: nearly the caliber of player of Caitlin, or of Juju,
Speaker 1: or of Page for that matter, and they have all
Speaker 1: had these great tournament runs. Juju, this was going to
Speaker 1: be that this year, and if not this year, next year,
Speaker 1: and now out for I would imagine all of next season,
Speaker 1: which is just such an absolute bummer. And here is
Speaker 1: the thing about acls the way I have seen them
Speaker 1: over the last decade. Acls are different in that they
Speaker 1: used to truly be career altering and these days they
Speaker 1: are not. Meaning people typically come back one hundred percent
Speaker 1: to their pre ACL tear ability, strength, speed, quickness, all
Speaker 1: of that, but they are not quick injuries. It usually
Speaker 1: is a minimum of the calendar year that you are out,
Speaker 1: and usually a little more than that until you look
Speaker 1: like your old self. So a huge bummer. Not really,
Speaker 1: this is put this in the huge story not a
Speaker 1: great topic category, and I mean that's kind of what
Speaker 1: it is. There's not much to say. It's massive news,
Speaker 1: but it just sucks. There's no real take to have.
Speaker 1: And so Juju Watkins out and I have to you know,
Speaker 1: Yukon's now, I'm gonna look it up on DraftKings. I
Speaker 1: just can't. Maybe you guys can put in the dock
Speaker 1: for me. I mean, I know they're the favorite, but
Speaker 1: I just wonder what they are now? Is Yukon women
Speaker 1: to win that region? To win the region, I have
Speaker 1: to imagine they are minus huge money. I'm not able
Speaker 1: to pull it up right now. If you guys can
Speaker 1: throw it in the dock whenever you can find it,
Speaker 1: just put what they are to win the championship and
Speaker 1: what they are to win the region, because I do
Speaker 1: not see who possibly could stop them. Certainly now listen
Speaker 1: UCLA South Carolina. Those are legitimate championship level teams. But
Speaker 1: I Yukon's in the final four and they're now plus
Speaker 1: one sixty to win the whole thing. We can't find
Speaker 1: them to win the region. But it's not gonna be
Speaker 1: I mean they it's not gonna be much of a question.
Speaker 1: I saw. I got the I had the privilege of
Speaker 1: watching the Yukon women in person from court side seats
Speaker 1: thanks to Fox. The game was on Fox beginning of
Speaker 1: the year, and I left that game saying I don't
Speaker 1: know how anyone's beating them. Now, Ucla and South Carolina
Speaker 1: is obviously a juggernaut, and USC had shown, oh no,
Speaker 1: they're of that caliber, and Yukon lost a few times.
Speaker 1: But I feel like you can put probably in pen A,
Speaker 1: Yukon Ucla final four on your left side of the bracket,
Speaker 1: and you know, thoughts with Juju, it absolutely sucks, just
Speaker 1: absolutely sucks that she's done for the year and potentially
Speaker 1: done for next year. One note, and I'm sure this
Speaker 1: will happen because Page is such an awesome athlete and
Speaker 1: awesome person. From all accounts, Page dealt with an ACL
Speaker 1: and missed a year, and so I would imagine if
Speaker 1: she has not already, Paige is going to reach out
Speaker 1: to Juju and try to help her through it. But
Speaker 1: really really sucks for basketball fans, for USC fans, for Juju,
Speaker 1: all right to the men's side of the tournament. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different things I want to hit
Speaker 1: here before we get to the Lakers losing streak, the
Speaker 1: Rogers stuff. We'll get all of that later. But our
Speaker 1: college basketball coverage on this show burns hot, bright and fast.
Speaker 1: Like the rest of the country. We have somewhat of
Speaker 1: a tepid interest in it. I shouldn't say everyone's like this,
Speaker 1: but at least for me, a tepid interest in it
Speaker 1: throughout its regular season and then are living and dying
Speaker 1: with the tournament and the storylines come March. So I
Speaker 1: am not going to act like I am Mark Titus
Speaker 1: or Big Cat or John Fanta or John Rothstein. The
Speaker 1: people who are, you know, who know all of these
Speaker 1: teams in and out. I do not. However, I do
Speaker 1: watch the tournament non stop for you know, twelve consecutive hours,
Speaker 1: four consecutive days, and you feel like that, plus a
Speaker 1: passive interest throughout the year, you have a good feel
Speaker 1: on things. And the people who had been watching all
Speaker 1: year who said Duke's way better than everybody, they appear
Speaker 1: to obviously be correct. Now you might be like, Nick,
Speaker 1: didn't you pick Tennessee to win it all? I did
Speaker 1: because upsets happened, and that's a fun one and I
Speaker 1: think Tennessee is really really good. But right now there
Speaker 1: are seven guys left in the tournament. Seven left in
Speaker 1: the entire tournament that are consensus first round picks, meaning
Speaker 1: guys that are high enough picks that they are included
Speaker 1: in every mock draft, you find out there these seven
Speaker 1: guys are in all of them, Duke's got three. The
Speaker 1: rest of the tournament has four. Now, again, there's three
Speaker 1: or four other guys in the tournament that might end
Speaker 1: up being first round picks, maybe even four or five others.
Speaker 1: But there's seven players right now in the NCAA tournament
Speaker 1: that are what you would consider minus huge money to
Speaker 1: be first round picks, and Duke has three. There are
Speaker 1: five guys that are currently projected lottery picks left in
Speaker 1: the tournament, and Duke has three. Now, that doesn't guarantee
Speaker 1: you anything, but it does give you an idea of
Speaker 1: what a talent edge this team currently has and why
Speaker 1: it would be absolutely, at least to me, shocking if
Speaker 1: they do not make the final four. Now, in the
Speaker 1: final four coming out of the region, beneath them on
Speaker 1: your bracket will either be Houston, Kentucky, or Tennessee, and
Speaker 1: any of those three teams could beat them. And you
Speaker 1: guys know, I'm picking Tennessee. I like the odds on it,
Speaker 1: and I think they have a I really part of that,
Speaker 1: if I'm being totally honest, probably has to be that
Speaker 1: a disproportionate amount of the college basketball regular season and
Speaker 1: conference tournaments. Games that I watched involved Tennessee because we
Speaker 1: have a close friend that's a big Tennise Tennessee volunteer fan,
Speaker 1: so we watch some games with her, and so I
Speaker 1: thought this team had high upside. But I so, you know,
Speaker 1: bake that in to my analysis of this. But Duke
Speaker 1: is obviously the most talented team in the country and
Speaker 1: Cooper flag is as advertised. Now, I do find the
Speaker 1: Cooper flag hype is the wrong word, but because hype
Speaker 1: almost sounds like unwarranted. But I I am curious, like
Speaker 1: a take the temperature of what are fair Cooper flag
Speaker 1: expectations when it comes to how he stacks up amongst
Speaker 1: number one picks. So if we just go the last decade, right,
Speaker 1: I think that So the number one picks the last
Speaker 1: decade are Karl, Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Markel Foltz, DeAndre Ayton, Zion,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards, Cade, Paolo Wimby, reesa Chet. If you were
Speaker 1: to rank them based on NBA, you can't really rank
Speaker 1: based on NBA career because there's you know, Carl's played
Speaker 1: a decade, Wimby's played a year. But I think you
Speaker 1: would probably slot them. Like if you did a draft
Speaker 1: of number one picks, Wimby would go one again the
Speaker 1: last decade, Aunt would go to Towns three, Kaid four,
Speaker 1: and then Zion Polo five six. When I watched Cooper Flag,
Speaker 1: I put him right ahead of Powlow and right behind Zion.
Speaker 1: When Zion when it comes to like potential coming out
Speaker 1: of school. Now again, if you were re redrafting based
Speaker 1: on hype or expectation, it would have been Wimby one,
Speaker 1: Zion two, Karl Anthony Towns three, But we've now seen
Speaker 1: Zion didn't quite live up to it. When I hear
Speaker 1: some of the draft experts talk, they they go further
Speaker 1: back and they say, basically number one picks the last
Speaker 1: two twenty years, basically number one picks post Lebron, that
Speaker 1: they have Cooper. They that it's Wimby one, Anthony Davis two,
Speaker 1: and they would have Cooper Flag three. I had a
Speaker 1: ky ahead of everyone I just mentioned, plus Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Dwight and Blake d Rose, all those guys that strikes
Speaker 1: me as ambitious. Now again, as I've said now for
Speaker 1: the sixth time on this show, I am not a
Speaker 1: college basketball expert. The way some are, but I it
Speaker 1: felt to me like the absolute Anthony Davis was such
Speaker 1: a overwhelming, obvious numbernumber one pick, franchise changer, the likes
Speaker 1: of which, again Lebron's in his own category, we hadn't
Speaker 1: seen in you know, the four or five years prior
Speaker 1: to him or after him. Wimby took that up to
Speaker 1: another level because of just the absolute kind of freak
Speaker 1: nature of what his upside potential could be or would be.
Speaker 1: And so set those two guys aside. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't think Flag is a better prospect than Zion was now. Zion,
Speaker 1: it turned out, had his own things. He had to
Speaker 1: deal with, injury issues, some weight issues, so maybe some
Speaker 1: personal kind of off the court stuff that has derailed
Speaker 1: him a bit. I was wrong about how good Ant
Speaker 1: and Caid would be. I thought Ant was a good
Speaker 1: but not gonna be a superstar. And Ant is a superstar,
Speaker 1: and so I am very interested to see how Flag
Speaker 1: looks over these next He's gonna play at least two
Speaker 1: more games, and the odds are he's gonna play four
Speaker 1: more games. How he looks, and if he has a
Speaker 1: dominant tournament moment the way Zion did the way Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis did, the way a lot of these guys who
Speaker 1: were number now Anthony Edwards obviously didn't. The guy didn't
Speaker 1: make the tournament, but a lot of the number one
Speaker 1: picks who went to college Paolo had won, a lot
Speaker 1: of those number one picks who went to college had
Speaker 1: those kind of signature tournament moments. Cooper hasn't needed one yet.
Speaker 1: Andy's coming off the injury, but I I'm very excited
Speaker 1: to see him in the final four against Houston, Tennessee
Speaker 1: or Kentucky and what that looks like. Now. The other
Speaker 1: story of this tournament so far has been that, you know,
Speaker 1: no Cinderella, Nils, you know, nil is the death of
Speaker 1: college basketball. Let's all please pump the brakes just a bit,
Speaker 1: just a tiny bit, if we could. Okay, on first
Speaker 1: of all, one year is not a trend. This is
Speaker 1: one year where we've had no mid majors in the
Speaker 1: sweet sixteen. Second of all, would we are we saying
Speaker 1: we would feel drastically different if the queen kid from
Speaker 1: Maryland hadn't made his buzzer beater and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden there were there was a there was a Cinderella
Speaker 1: or a mid major in the Sweet sixteen that would
Speaker 1: make us feel like, oh okay, everything's fine. No, probably
Speaker 1: not right, And so I don't really subscribe to the
Speaker 1: idea that because it happened this year, this is what
Speaker 1: every tournament's going to look like from here on out,
Speaker 1: especially because it literally almost didn't happen this year in
Speaker 1: that Maryland needed the first buzzer beater of the tournament
Speaker 1: to keep a mid major out of the Sweet sixteen. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not a fool, and I do understand that the
Speaker 1: transfer portal and guys who are really good at smaller
Speaker 1: schools than transferring two bigger schools, and one of the
Speaker 1: things mid majors had going for them was guys sticking
Speaker 1: around together for three or even four seasons and growing together.
Speaker 1: That gave them a chance against the more talented teams.
Speaker 1: You are going to see less of that. But what
Speaker 1: I think that could lead to, and maybe I'll be
Speaker 1: proven wrong, is more of the true deep cinderellas, guys
Speaker 1: that are from single bid conferences. You're fourteen or fifteen
Speaker 1: seeds who are not going to get poached because of
Speaker 1: nil stuff coming in and having real Cinderella runs. But
Speaker 1: even if we have less Cinderella stories in the NCAA Tournament.
Speaker 1: The upside is having a bracket as it stands now
Speaker 1: where the games are as follows two versus six, four
Speaker 1: versus one, four versus one, three versus ten, but the
Speaker 1: ten is Arkansas coached by John Calipari. Two versus six,
Speaker 1: two versus three, one versus five, and one verses four.
Speaker 1: What that creates, what it should create is an unbelievable
Speaker 1: weekend of college basketball. On Friday, the spreads are three
Speaker 1: and a half, four and a half, seven and a half,
Speaker 1: eight and a half. On Thursday, the spreads are five
Speaker 1: and a half, five and a half, six and a half,
Speaker 1: nine and a half. And we should have eight games
Speaker 1: where six are super competitive. And I'm good with that
Speaker 1: because people don't you like the story of the Cinderella.
Speaker 1: But the actual games, especially once we get Sweet sixteen
Speaker 1: and certainly to the Elite eight, are usually not always.
Speaker 1: Sometimes Butler makes back to back national finals, the games
Speaker 1: are usually not as good as one would have hoped
Speaker 1: for because that team is just so outmatched. I don't
Speaker 1: look at any team this weekend as insanely outmatched. I mean,
Speaker 1: the biggest underdog is an excellent Arizona team, and that's
Speaker 1: because they're playing Duke on Sunday. I'm sorry. On Friday,
Speaker 1: the biggest underdog is a Michigan team that absolutely can
Speaker 1: beat Auburn. And so I I think it was a
Speaker 1: little too fatalistic saying that college basketball is just in terrible,
Speaker 1: terrible shape because we're not having Cinderellas when A it's
Speaker 1: one year and b it is probably going to lead
Speaker 1: to a more compelling Elite eight in Sweet sixteen than
Speaker 1: we've had in recent history. And my last NCAA tournament
Speaker 1: take before we get to the lakers losing streak in
Speaker 1: the Western Commends playoff race some other things is you
Speaker 1: can't ever get everything in life. And this is about
Speaker 1: Dan Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies. So Dan Hurley is
Speaker 1: a great coach. I don't think there is a single
Speaker 1: person in the sports world that thinks anything other than that.
Speaker 1: Danny Hurley also is intentionally I think provocative and kind
Speaker 1: of wants to play the villain role a bit or
Speaker 1: he thinks it either helps him or or helps his team,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, that's fine. What I don't love and
Speaker 1: I gave credit to Mark Titus for this yesterday on
Speaker 1: the TV show, and I will do it again because
Speaker 1: I think he put it absolutely perfectly, which is he
Speaker 1: compared Dan Hurley to the wrestler that takes the stage
Speaker 1: at a show in Wichita and then makes fun of Wichita.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, you're a bunch of rednecks, or and
Speaker 1: makes fun of the local teams and does all this
Speaker 1: stuff in order to catch heat and get booze, except
Speaker 1: that wrestler then does not act wounded or like he
Speaker 1: is being unfairly maligned when he catches heat or gets boot.
Speaker 1: It's what he's going for. And so having Danny Hurley
Speaker 1: walk off the court their first time they lose an
Speaker 1: NCAA tournament game in more than two years and blame
Speaker 1: the refs and then say to the local media after
Speaker 1: his press conference, thanks to you guys for being fair.
Speaker 1: The national media skip Bayless wannabes were not is to
Speaker 1: me trying to have it both ways to a degree.
Speaker 1: You cannot try to play the villain and then get
Speaker 1: upset when you get treated like a villain. And I
Speaker 1: also would like to know who are the national media
Speaker 1: folks that were unf What was said that was unfair?
Speaker 1: Was it that the way you acted in Maui or
Speaker 1: was it Maui. I don't even know if it was Maui,
Speaker 1: the court, Bahamas, whatever, it was the preseason tournament where
Speaker 1: you were a game into the year absolutely losing your
Speaker 1: mind with the officials, and then your final game of
Speaker 1: the year blamed the officials when Baylor's trying to take
Speaker 1: the court was criticizing that unfair? Was it the people?
Speaker 1: And I don't know who these people would be. The
Speaker 1: people in the national media who do talk college basketball
Speaker 1: all season said, ah, this Yukon team is not as
Speaker 1: good as their ranking early in the year, or this
Speaker 1: Yukon team is not a real contender. Those people who
Speaker 1: were proven one hundred percent correct. Was that unfair? What
Speaker 1: was unfair about it? And I said this on the show,
Speaker 1: and Wilde seemed to not only disagree, but to think
Speaker 1: I was crazy for saying it. But when you then
Speaker 1: hear that the Yukon sports information director confronts a local
Speaker 1: journalist who got the video of Danny Hurley yelling, I
Speaker 1: hope they don't f you like the f dos Baylor.
Speaker 1: I hope they don't f you like the fd us.
Speaker 1: The Yukon sports information director going to that journalist and saying,
Speaker 1: if you don't take that down all quote ruin your life.
Speaker 1: I do think that that is because of some of
Speaker 1: the culture that is set by the head coach. I
Speaker 1: absolutely think that, and I think that is not great.
Speaker 1: And so we can hold multiple thoughts in our head
Speaker 1: at once. He is a great coach, they are an
Speaker 1: unbelievable program, and he also runs so hot and is
Speaker 1: so brash in their success and does not seem to
Speaker 1: handle the little bit of on the court adversity that
Speaker 1: they've had this latest bit that well at all. That
Speaker 1: that typically is a cocktail of a lack of likability,
Speaker 1: and he might not care at all how well liked
Speaker 1: he is. But Yukon fans acting like people are unfair
Speaker 1: to their coach, or him acting like the media is
Speaker 1: unfair to him, I think is a little much. And
Speaker 1: so listen, unbelievable run by Yukon the last two year
Speaker 1: or the previous two years. And man, they sure help
Speaker 1: with a scare into Florida. But they did not lose
Speaker 1: that game because the officials. They lost that game because
Speaker 1: from the seven minute mark to thirty seconds left in
Speaker 1: the game, they made one basket they could have won.
Speaker 1: They stopped hitting shots, and that's not only officials. When
Speaker 1: it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing
Speaker 1: is for sure. Nothing's for sure. Upsets, buzzer beater, Cinderella
Speaker 1: is advancing, top seeds going home early. It all could happen,
Speaker 1: as it happened in this tournament. Not a lot of
Speaker 1: Cinderella's advancing and not a lot of top seeds going
Speaker 1: home early, which should make the next few rounds great.
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Speaker 1: co slash b ball. All right, so now to the NBA.
Speaker 1: The Lakers lost again, and it was when you were
Speaker 1: looking at this schedule for the Lakers you probably had
Speaker 1: penciled in even before you knew Lebron was coming back,
Speaker 1: but certainly once you heard Lebron was coming back. Wins
Speaker 1: against the Bulls, the suddenly red hot Bulls, by the way,
Speaker 1: who won again last night, and the Magic, whose offense
Speaker 1: is just impossibly bad. The Bulls instead scored one forty
Speaker 1: six and the Magic scored one eighteen. And so what
Speaker 1: I am concerned about, what I'm not concerned about, what
Speaker 1: I'm not concerned about is this, It always takes guys.
Speaker 1: I think one of the things we in the media
Speaker 1: do a very poor job, even though we see it
Speaker 1: time and time again. But one of the things we
Speaker 1: do a very poor job of recognizing or accounting for
Speaker 1: is when athletes tell us, man, there is nothing to
Speaker 1: prepare you to play professional basketball. Like playing professional basketball,
Speaker 1: we should believe them. And by that I mean every
Speaker 1: single one of these great players when they are coming
Speaker 1: from an extended layoff, take two or three games to
Speaker 1: look like themselves. Luca his first few games with the
Speaker 1: Lakers after the being out for a while with injury
Speaker 1: before and then during the trade, was so rusty. There
Speaker 1: was a brief oh, maybe Nico was onto something renaissance,
Speaker 1: and then of course it went away. Luca got to
Speaker 1: being Luca again, sticking with the Lakers. Austin reeves, he's
Speaker 1: not a great player, but a good player. His first
Speaker 1: few games back from his injury, he didn't look anything
Speaker 1: like himself. Then he immediately ripped off the best basketball,
Speaker 1: the best stretch of his career. So Lebron not playing
Speaker 1: quite up to Lebron's standards last couple games is not
Speaker 1: something to panic about. And here's the other piece of it.
Speaker 1: We'll get into this more in a bit. The entire
Speaker 1: Western Conference, except for Oklahoma City, is on a losing streak.
Speaker 1: Spots one through nine or two through nine in the
Speaker 1: standings have lost. The Rocket against streak is too much,
Speaker 1: but had lost their most recent games. The Rockets lost
Speaker 1: their last game, The Nuggets lost their last game. The
Speaker 1: Lakers lost three in a row, the Grizzlies lost three
Speaker 1: in a row. The Warriors, Clippers, Timberwolves all lost their
Speaker 1: last game, and the Kings lost three in a row.
Speaker 1: Of those teams, obviously, Houston had one nine in row.
Speaker 1: They were playing great. Golden State had won eight of nine.
Speaker 1: They were playing great, and the Clippers had one eight
Speaker 1: of nine. They were playing great. And the timberlves had
Speaker 1: won seven of nine. They were playing really well. But
Speaker 1: the teams the Lakers are really jocking for in positioning
Speaker 1: Denver and the Grizzlies. They've lost six out of ten.
Speaker 1: The Grizzlies have lost five out of ten, which is
Speaker 1: why the Lakers losing seven out of ten has not
Speaker 1: killed them, And so it has opened up the window
Speaker 1: potentially for one of those teams, Denver, the Lakers or
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies to drop to the six if the Warriors
Speaker 1: keep winning. But that the Warriors, you know, Steph dealing
Speaker 1: with his injury, and the Warriors just took a loss,
Speaker 1: so they you know that they cooled off a bit.
Speaker 1: We'll see how they look and Jimmy's return to Miami.
Speaker 1: But so standings, Wises hasn't killed So those things I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about. Here is what is a legitimate concern
Speaker 1: and what has to be said, And I think JJ
Speaker 1: has alluded to it, and he's correct. This Lakers team
Speaker 1: is not good enough defensively to hold anyone under one
Speaker 1: point fifteen if they are not locked in, dialed and
Speaker 1: connected on that end of the court. In the last
Speaker 1: few games, they have not been there, and so I
Speaker 1: do not think it is the sky is falling for
Speaker 1: the Lakers. I do think that I said yesterday on
Speaker 1: the show that over their next five they should expect
Speaker 1: to go four and one. The next five were Orlando, Indiana, Chicago,
Speaker 1: Memphis home Houston. That was the five. Well, they just
Speaker 1: lost the first one, and so four and oh with
Speaker 1: one back to back at Indiana at Chicago might be
Speaker 1: a tall ask, but it's what the expectation should be.
Speaker 1: At Indiana after back to back bad losses, you must
Speaker 1: win that game at Chicago after even though Chicago again,
Speaker 1: what is Chicago won. I'm looking at it right now.
Speaker 1: Eight of ten I think that is. Yeah, they've won
Speaker 1: eight of their last ten. In one of those losses
Speaker 1: was a heartbreaker to the Rockets at Chicago. After you
Speaker 1: just let Chicago and Kobe White embarrass you, you must
Speaker 1: bounce back and win at Memphis. With Memphis, we'll see
Speaker 1: if they're still dealing with all those injuries, a game
Speaker 1: that I'll be at. Actually, that's a game that you
Speaker 1: absolutely gotta find a way to win. And then home
Speaker 1: for Houston in a game that, if you have any
Speaker 1: chance of catching Houston in the standings, you must win.
Speaker 1: That'll be the kind of pivot game. But these next
Speaker 1: two games for the Lakers at Indiana and at Chicago
Speaker 1: there and Indiana's good. I'm not trying to downplay Indiana,
Speaker 1: and Indiana is hot right now. I think they've won
Speaker 1: five in a row. Those are games you absolutely, unequivocally
Speaker 1: must win. And I'm really interested to see how the
Speaker 1: Lakers are able to guard Halliburton because obviously Kobe White
Speaker 1: had that monster game against them. It's forty six or
Speaker 1: something and Orlando scoring one eighteen when Orlando cannot score,
Speaker 1: and Franz and Paolo combining for sixty two. It's problematic.
Speaker 1: So not panicking. Those are a couple bad losses. One
Speaker 1: of the reasons you don't panic is, again, if we
Speaker 1: talk about the Western Conference playoff situation, and I alluded
Speaker 1: to it, a lot of these teams are in again,
Speaker 1: Houston is not, and the Warriors are not. But Nuggets, Lakers, Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: some because of injuries and some just because of like
Speaker 1: a march malaise, just don't seem to have it all together.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, the Thunder just keep handling their business.
Speaker 1: They win basically nine out of every ten games they
Speaker 1: play for almost any sample of the season, that's really
Speaker 1: like eight and a half out of every ten games
Speaker 1: they play. They're on another ho hum six game winning
Speaker 1: streak with a point differential for the season of thirteen.
Speaker 1: That team is excellent. I know, breaking news the Thunder
Speaker 1: or excellent, but that team is really something, and it
Speaker 1: might you might be like, well, then, Nick, why aren't
Speaker 1: you picking them to win the championship. I'm very interested
Speaker 1: to see how they can deal with Luca and Lebron
Speaker 1: in a playoff series, But if the Lakers defense doesn't
Speaker 1: tighten up, they're not gonna get the opportunity to go
Speaker 1: against them in a playoff series. This episode of What's
Speaker 1: Right is brought to you by Daya Pizza featuring dairy
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Speaker 1: updates and recipes. All right, before we get to the
Speaker 1: f one minute after an awesome race weekend. Here is
Speaker 1: the Aaron Rodgers. Florio floated the idea because evidently I
Speaker 1: didn't know this, but McAfee is hosting a live show
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh April eighth or ninth, and Florio floated the
Speaker 1: idea that Rogers is holding off on signing with the
Speaker 1: Steelers so he can announce it at McAfee's live show,
Speaker 1: which would be so perfectly on brand and also just
Speaker 1: so perfectly outrageous that I almost think it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: No one has explained to me, because no one can explain.
Speaker 2: To me.
Speaker 1: Anything positive as far as the Steelers' chances of breaking
Speaker 1: forget winning a championship, blake breaking their nearly decade long
Speaker 1: drought of not winning a playoff game. No one has
Speaker 1: explained to me how Rogers wait like this helps them,
Speaker 1: and the reason is because they can't. All it does
Speaker 1: is either feed rogers ego, help Rogers assert power within
Speaker 1: the organization, or give, if he really really drags this out,
Speaker 1: give Rogers the excuse to not be a part of
Speaker 1: an offseason program. Those are the only benefits that come
Speaker 1: from this, and none of that is good for Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: Which is why I I and there is no there
Speaker 1: is no quo like Rogers clearly wants to play, and
Speaker 1: the Steelers are clearly his only real option. So there's
Speaker 1: no reason for this to be going on except for
Speaker 1: the fact that the Steelers don't have the right now
Speaker 1: institutional courage to tell Rogers, hey man, we need to
Speaker 1: know by Friday if every other free agent in the
Speaker 1: league has been able to make their decision. You obviously
Speaker 1: want to play. The Vikings aren't interested that the Giants
Speaker 1: have finally, you know, begrudgingly turned to the page at
Speaker 1: least a bit. You want to come here anyway, Let's
Speaker 1: just get this done. But I I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think they're gonna do that, and I think Rogers is
Speaker 1: going to continue to drag this out, and I think
Speaker 1: we're all, myself included, kind of playing into it all.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Before we get to listener questions, a reminder like rate,
Speaker 1: subscribe and review, and also a reminder that it is
Speaker 1: now racing season, so time now live from Miami or
Speaker 1: plausibly live from Miami. The F one Minute was Sierra Fiddel.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to F one Minute. I'm cr Furdell and
Speaker 2: I'm be covering the biggest news following the Chinese GP
Speaker 2: and Shanghai. Now, Oscar Piastri started from pole position for
Speaker 2: the first time in Formula One history. George Russell was
Speaker 2: in P two and Lando Norris in P three. Now,
Speaker 2: on lap one we had some dicey action between the
Speaker 2: Ferrari boys. The clerk picked up some front wing damage
Speaker 2: and then around lap four Fernando Alonso dnf again, but
Speaker 2: not because he crashed into the wall, just because of
Speaker 2: break failure. But I feel kind of bad for him
Speaker 2: because he has yet to follow through an entire race,
Speaker 2: but in Japan were ruining for him. A major talking
Speaker 2: point of this GP was tire preservation, though a vast
Speaker 2: majority of the teams tried their best to maintain tire life,
Speaker 2: leading up to most of them only making one pit
Speaker 2: stop over fifty six laps, so it wasn't the most
Speaker 2: thrilling strategy race, but a strategy race nonetheless. In the
Speaker 2: end it was another McLaren won two, with Piastre taking
Speaker 2: the dubs, securing his third victory in his Formula One career.
Speaker 2: Lando Norris finished at P two and then George Russell
Speaker 2: in P three. Now the biggest news from this GP
Speaker 2: came after it already ended, and that is that Lewis Hamilton,
Speaker 2: Charles Leclerk and p Air Ghastly were all disqualified from
Speaker 2: the Chinese GP for failing post race technical checks. Now,
Speaker 2: it was a fairly accomplished weekend for Ferrari. They had
Speaker 2: their first ever sprint win thanks to Lowis Hamilton, but
Speaker 2: they also had their first ever double disqualification in the
Speaker 2: same weekend. It's it's honestly crazy work. Thus, Leclerk and
Speaker 2: Hamilton have officially earned their place in this week's drsaka
Speaker 2: Disastrous Race Shenanigans, and that's the second time in a
Speaker 2: row for them. But Leclerk and Ghastly were both disqualified
Speaker 2: for their car being underweight, so basically, lighter car equals
Speaker 2: performers advantage. Hamilton, on the other hand, was disqualified because
Speaker 2: the thickness of his plank assembly was below the minimum requirement,
Speaker 2: So lower the cars equals performance advantage. So as you see,
Speaker 2: once the FIA finds a performance advantage, that means disqualification.
Speaker 2: So since they all lost their finishing positions, Olkon Antonelle
Speaker 2: albon Embarment, each moved to places and picked up some
Speaker 2: more points on the way. Ghastly disqualification from Pete eleven
Speaker 2: also meant that nixt guy Signs and Stroll snuck up
Speaker 2: into the top ten to grab some unexpected points for
Speaker 2: them as well.
Speaker 1: So that's all I have.
Speaker 2: For the Chinese GP. I'll see you next time for Japan.
Speaker 1: Great job as always, man, I I guess I'm a dope.
Speaker 1: I need to ask Sierra about this off the air,
Speaker 1: can ye not? Just do? I'm sure they do do
Speaker 1: a pre race inspection. This showing my own ignorance here.
Speaker 1: Why would a car pass the pre race inspection and
Speaker 1: not the post race And if they're not doing a
Speaker 1: pre race inspection, why are they not if you're gonna
Speaker 1: end up being disqualified? I don't know. I have to
Speaker 1: learn more about this. I'm gonna ask Sierra, all right,
Speaker 1: some quick listener questions. Noah says, do you see Dan
Speaker 1: Hurley as the rich Man's nick? Sirianni? Uh that listen.
Speaker 1: I think that's on the board. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: think that's a good uh, a good potential comp and
Speaker 1: Syriana's champion now too. Uh. But Syrian doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: think the media treats him unfairly. Oh, the our producers say,
Speaker 1: maybe they're changing parts and pit stops. That's maybe that's it.
Speaker 1: Maybe the cars are good pre race than during the race.
Speaker 1: There are some shenanigans. Taylor asks, why is achilles or
Speaker 1: an acl sometimes considered a two year injuries consistently, but
Speaker 1: a literal heart attack isn't taking the same understanding. That's
Speaker 1: about Bronni. I I think it's because we look at
Speaker 1: things that aren't like physical injuries. Is like binary, like
Speaker 1: is he okay? Is he allowed to play again? Okay?
Speaker 1: Then he should be the same, when in reality it's
Speaker 1: the time off that I think really hurts these guys
Speaker 1: at times. Sixness says, what would it take for you
Speaker 1: to get into hockey? How much skew would you need
Speaker 1: to see in the Vegas books for betting to be
Speaker 1: a thing for you during the NHL season? I for
Speaker 1: this of my marriage. I don't think I can pick
Speaker 1: up another sport that I'm into right now. Maybe at
Speaker 1: some point in life, but I just know so little
Speaker 1: about hockey. Can't sitydn't have a team. I've never been
Speaker 1: into it, So I nothing against the sport. I just
Speaker 1: I it's very very it'd be very, very tough for
Speaker 1: me to tell my wife now by the way, also
Speaker 1: watching hockey, especially because I've kind of refallen in love
Speaker 1: with baseball thanks to Bobby Witt Junior and the Royals
Speaker 1: being legit again. Uh all right, Alex, is there a
Speaker 1: single anything the Rockets can to do? Our lasting games
Speaker 1: make you believe that they can win a single round? Yeah,
Speaker 1: to win a single round? For sure? There is stuff
Speaker 1: they can do. So because the Rockets have a tough schedule,
Speaker 1: tough ish schedule, I should say, down the stretch, so
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Utah is their next two, but then it's
Speaker 1: Phoenix who's on a fourty winning streak, Lakers, Utah again,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, Golden State, Clippers, Lakers. The Rockets play well
Speaker 1: during that stretch and hold their positioning. I certainly could
Speaker 1: see them winning around. My fear for them is they're
Speaker 1: gonna drop from the two to like the four, and
Speaker 1: unless they are playing an injured Memphis team, I don't
Speaker 1: think they could. Again, I think the Rockets have had
Speaker 1: an unbelievable season as is. They're gonna win around fifty games,
Speaker 1: But for me to believe in them to win around
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, they have to show me more, and
Speaker 1: Scott says, what would it take for Tom en on
Speaker 1: the hot seat? They haven't been a true contender since
Speaker 1: they lost to Jacksonville in twenty seventeen. Listen, he's just
Speaker 1: got a contract sension. I think the Steelers have had
Speaker 1: three coaches in fifty years. I actually think what could
Speaker 1: be best for the Steelers and for Tomlin would be
Speaker 1: a fresh start for both of them. But it doesn't.
Speaker 1: He's obviously an excellent coach. I just don't know that
Speaker 1: you can. I think he if he could have gotten
Speaker 1: a job like the one Jim Harball got, where the
Speaker 1: quarterback is taken care of and you build the rest
Speaker 1: of it up, that might be the best. And he
Speaker 1: just hasn't been able to figure out the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball post Big Ben, or even with Big
Speaker 1: Ben near the end. All right, demands feel better. Thanks
Speaker 1: to our great friends at Blue Doc and DraftKings and
Speaker 1: Day and the Volume and everyone. I will see you
Speaker 1: guys on Thursday. What's right