Sweet & Elite, Torpedo Season in MLB, Grizzlies Dunk Jenkins, Red Bull Has New Wings

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome back. You're listening to the sources from the Sofa Sports podcast. We have a lot to unpack in this episode for you. First, we recap the last two rounds in college basketball for men's and Women's the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight. And we don't get into depth in the Final Four. We're going to do that later in the week. But before we talk more basketball, we talk a little mlb. The season did start. We're a little behind schedule. We're going to get you guys a preview at least. Our predictions over and unders on every team coming up in the next week or two. We just figured it's a long season. We got, we got a little leeway here. But we do talk about the torpedo bat and Aaron's way too early. NL MVP pick. Yeah, he's already prepared to give that out. Four or five games in, so go figure. Man, this guy's full of surprises. Then we talk more basketball with the NBA with Memphis firing their head coach out of nowhere. Well, maybe it wasn't out of nowhere. If you're a Memphis fan, you're probably following the situation closely. It's a lot to unpack and we're and we'll still unpack it in the weeks coming up. We kind of talk who else can potentially be on the hot seat. Does Popovich come back to the Spurs? And we talk a little F1 since we have a driver change with the Red Bull racing team. Don't go anywhere. We're recording Monday night earlier than usual, about 9:20, which is kind of nice change of pace for the times we've been recording for the past month or so, I want to say. But we got lots of COVID March Madness, one of the some of the games were here in San Francisco. Got to talk to a lot of fans from a lot of teams, some bummed down Texas, Tex teams, Texas Tech teams. Met some fans of Maryland as well. One guy pulled out his cell phone to show that who gives a whether I was a traveler or not because they missed a double dribble on the play prior. I was like, oh, did they pull out his phone, show him the replay? I'm like, oh yeah. It led to a three. He's like, so it kind of canceled each other out. And I was just laughing. He tipped really well. Like we were just talking ball the whole time. And those guys drank, drank three or four rounds. [00:02:23] Speaker B: Were they from Maryland, Baltimore area or what? [00:02:26] Speaker A: One guy was a college coach, but I didn't get a chance to catch from where and it was just his buddies that lived in like Santa Cruz, the Monterey area. So they were just in town for the, for, you know, for the games. And the way that with the transfer. [00:02:43] Speaker B: Portal being open, a lot of coaches are drinking right now, that's for sure. It's a lot of stress, man, A lot of stress. [00:02:49] Speaker A: The coach, he had, I think three dirty martinis, just pretty simple olives. He didn't care. Well, it was gin or vodka. But all the guys though, they had four rounds of Fortaleza reposado, that's including two bottles of wine, and then whatever individual cartels that they all got. So it was, it was a fun group this weekend in San Francisco. But is it? Yeah, that's weak. [00:03:11] Speaker C: Is it? Congrats. You made it to the elite eight. Your entire team is now in the portal, ready to leave your school. [00:03:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it's weird, man. With football now, basketball just. I really don't know why they time it at, at this point of the, of the season. It's just not fair. Just not a good look. They gotta change it, reform it. [00:03:34] Speaker B: At least wait a week. With the season ending, what month? Next Monday, Right? Because that'll be championship. [00:03:40] Speaker A: After the championship. [00:03:41] Speaker B: Open it, open it up like Wednesday, a week, like a week from Wednesday. Like, give it like a 48 hour window notice and then boom, go in. [00:03:49] Speaker A: There's already signings of like, who St. John's got. [00:03:52] Speaker B: John's loading up, man. [00:03:54] Speaker A: Who, who, who they get today? It was announced they got somebody from Providence. Providence. One of the starters, they got another. [00:04:01] Speaker B: Guy coming in from Arizona State. [00:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:03] Speaker B: But then that guy that they benched, he's putting his name in the draft, but rumors are he'll come back to college, but we'll go somewhere else because St. John's now won't have any money to spend on them. Because right now, minimum, they're looking at one and a half, two million to get them. So St. John's really can't wait. And Patino said go pro so he could spend his budget somewhere else. [00:04:25] Speaker A: That's crazy, man. Playing college basketball for a mill. Not bad. Not bad at all. We do have a minor league system now. Two tiers. [00:04:38] Speaker B: Well, now, it's funny. [00:04:39] Speaker C: It's always been there. We're just, we're just saying it out loud now. [00:04:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:42] Speaker B: What's always funny is now I see players entering transfer portal. And then it says, like, represented by CDA. It's like, now all these guys got agents, 18, 19 years old. I want to know who's gonna be represented by Sources from the sofa. That's what I want to know. [00:04:58] Speaker A: It's. I was kind of doing some thinking, like when I was trying to turn to an A agency and I wrapped a few like, dude, you know, you. [00:05:05] Speaker B: Had all those players up in San Francisco. You should have just been like, hey, you guys need an agent? I got a pot, I got a pawn. I'll promote you guys. [00:05:13] Speaker A: I could probably just knock out law school in a year and just do it. Let's do it. [00:05:17] Speaker C: Just let him know we're, we're huge in England. [00:05:20] Speaker A: We're huge in England now. I haven't even checked the, the stats, but yeah, we definitely got a big boost. [00:05:26] Speaker B: We play dollars and pounds. Whatever you like. Whatever. [00:05:32] Speaker A: Dollars and pounds. Yeah. Let's start, let's start with Friday then or. No, everything started Thursday. My bad. Thursday. Arkansas against Texas Tech. Close. And as Lisa, that's what the final score indicates, 85 to 83. Texas Tech ended up losing to Florida, who definitely looks like a number one this past Saturday. And then Florida got there by beating Maryland. That game wasn't even close. That was, I think after the first half, like that was just pretty much done. You guys got any feedback from those games? [00:06:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I would say go ahead. [00:06:15] Speaker C: No, go ahead, Aaron. No, you go ahead, Aaron. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, touching up on Maryland. I mean Florida. Yeah, Florida jumped on them early. Maryland, not really deep team. I mean, talented, but what do they call their starting five? The Crab Five. That's. [00:06:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, really great five. But they just have no depth. [00:06:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think. And that's one of the reasons why their coach, you know, know, left basically 24 hours after that loss and took the head coaching job at Villanova. There was a big article on CBS today where one of the big boosters for Maryland said we got, we, we got played like, like the drum, like some fools by the coach there. Yeah, it was a pretty good read. About a 10 minute read, but kind of going into how the coach was complaining about, you know, nil money and funding and you know, the numbers and stories kind of don't add up. I mean Maryland has been a traditional basketball school rate going back to when we were teenagers. They last won the national championship back in 22,002. But this was like, you know, they haven't really been first sweet 16 appearance and I think about six to eight years. But Florida, I mean, give them a lot of credit. One seed got the victory there and then Rome, you touched on Arkansas. Arkansas gave that game away. They had Texas Tech down, had the game one missed some key plays there. And Texas Tech went on like a 16 to three run there in the final four minutes. Got to the lead eight. And then ironically, Texas Tech choked that game away against Florida, missing two front ends of one on ones. And then Florida hit four straight possessions and three pointers and snakes into the final four. [00:07:57] Speaker A: I had a couple group of Texas Tech fans come in right after the game, and they were pretty bummed. They are. They were also really trashed, those guys from Lubbock, Texas. [00:08:10] Speaker C: Well, you know, down there a lot. What's. What's sort of doing down in Lubbock sometimes, you know, just, you know, drink. [00:08:16] Speaker A: You know what I meant to text you, Aaron. A lot of them look like you. You look like, like, like. I. I don't know. I was gonna ask you, like, are you from. Like, is your family from Lubbock, Texas? [00:08:28] Speaker B: You know, a lot of people growing up thought I was Texan from Texas. [00:08:32] Speaker A: So you would have like a. Like the way you speak. It's just very unique. Like a sore thumb. [00:08:37] Speaker B: Like, I get that a lot from the Texas people. [00:08:39] Speaker A: The guys from Lubbock, Texas. Same look, man, same mannerisms. It was pretty wild. I was like, what the hell's going on here? [00:08:47] Speaker B: I like. I like Lubbock, Texas. Never been, but I do. I am a fan of Texas Tech. [00:08:52] Speaker A: I even met a lady, you know, she had her makeup and her gear on. She had a screechy voice just like her mom, dude. And she was really hilarious. But a mouth on her. She was cussing left and right, having a good time. She had a couple glasses of Stags Merlot, I think. [00:09:07] Speaker B: Well, I think if you do remember Rome from my mom's. Our younger days, my mom could throw them down. And she used to get a little loud back in the day. [00:09:14] Speaker A: Very loud. [00:09:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:16] Speaker B: She was the life of the party back in the day. [00:09:18] Speaker A: Most definitely. [00:09:21] Speaker C: She was always ready to throw down, you know, at the Chargers games, whether it was a drink or just against the Raiders fans. [00:09:28] Speaker A: No, it was. It was really crazy. I. I met the text and I just forgot and I just remember right now. [00:09:34] Speaker C: So what does Aaron look like? He looks like Lubbock, Texas. All right. Got it. [00:09:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:09:40] Speaker B: That's good to know. [00:09:41] Speaker A: Good to find some family out there, Chase. And you're about to talk about the two games. [00:09:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I think mostly, you know, while they did lose. Speaking about Arkansas, first year for Calipari, at which I've never associated as a basketball school with Arkansas. [00:10:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:00] Speaker C: Beating Kansas and then beating St. John's who, you know, St. John's had a ton of hype with Rick Patino this year. You know, a lot of people pick them to go to the, potentially the Final Four or at least the elite 8. So while they did kind of choke that game away against Texas Tech, I think an impressive first year, you know, for Arkansas and really what the SEC this year was able to do in basketball. And we talked about this in the last pod for, you know, how many teams the SEC's got in this tournament and really deep teams kind of coming down to it, when you looked at, you know, what Florida was able to do, you know, you got Auburn, that was there. Ole Miss made a little bit of a run. Bama, who else was up there? Tennessee, you know, was going in the elite 82. So just overall, the SEC, what they're becoming in a basketball school to really add to kind of their football prestige. But just what Calipari did in that game was interesting. But yeah, Florida, as you said, looking like a one seed. Aaron and I a couple weeks ago, really talking about the boringness of our bracket and being a bunch of chalk. And then you look into the, what the Final Four turns into, it turns into basically a chalk Final Four of one seeds. And I think you got the, the impressive, the oppressive side for Auburn in Florida. But you know, Florida does look like a one seed and probably the best Florida team since that, you know, Joe Kim, Noah, yeah, Horford, Billy Donovan run that they had. So exciting, exciting to see. And that Auburn, Florida matchup is going to be pretty good this coming up weekend. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I kind of, I completely forgot that Arkansas, what had like a 15 or 16 point lead in the first half. They just blew that and kind of fumbled the end of the game. Really disappointing. [00:11:40] Speaker C: They're there, Aaron, talking about 2002 Maryland basketball, man. You know, I'm just thinking just the Juan Dixon run there. I mean that's, that's, that's what I was thinking. [00:11:49] Speaker B: I was like, Dixon, Steve Blake, you remember Steve Blake. Yeah, Steve Blake. I mean, wider than White, Lonnie Baxter, Gary Williams, the head coach there. I mean, yeah, Maryland, man, those are the good days at Maryland. [00:12:03] Speaker A: The other games on Thursday, Duke took out Arizona and Alabama, manhandled byu. End of their run there, Alabama. I was kind of surprised that they ended up losing to Duke. I know Duke's really good, but duke just dominated one by 20 points. I didn't really see that one coming by that kind of margin, you guys. [00:12:25] Speaker C: I mean, I picked Duke to win the national title. I Feel like they're the best team in the tournament. They have the best player with Cooper Flag, but I think overall they're, I think just a really deep, talented team. And when you start talking, people are talking about Cooper Fly going to the draft, potentially not going to the draft. You know, this is a team that could potentially win the national title this year. And if they get some people to come back, you know, it's one of those kind of like dream scenarios for Duke potentially where they get a lot of good players to do a little bit of a run, Maybe similar to UConn here this last year. But yeah, I'm not surprised. I mean I'm not surprised Duke won dominating fashion. But I still think easy get to this final four. They're to me, they're the team to beat. Maybe the odds don't say that, but I still think Duke's a team to be. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah, Duke is the team to beat. I mean I have Duke getting to the final and losing, but if I had to say Duke right now is the team to beat in this tournament. I mean I'm not shocked to beat Bama. I am a bit shocked that Bama didn't play as well. Yeah, Rome, I mean they beat up on BYU, hit a record, NCAA tournament record 25, three pointers. They really struggle against a three point line against Duke. But I mean that they beat a previous record held held by lawyer marymount back in 91, 92, 93. So a held up 21 three point field goals in the game for 30 plus years. Bama beat that with 25. Just ran through BYU and what, they scored like 110 points in that game? Something like that. Crazy number Duke, Cooper flag they balled out. Jason noted that, you know, maybe Cooper flag doesn't go pro. I'd be a shame if he doesn't. I mean they've got, they've got, they've got boozers kids coming in next year. I mean if Cooper stays around those guys coming in Duke, they'll run the table and go undefeated. They'll be the first team since what I think Indiana and Bob Knight. They'll run the table. They're going to feed it next year. Nobody will be able to beat them if that's the case. I know we haven't touched on it yet, but yeah, I mean BYU give them some credit. Good run. They've got a good coach there. He's kind of running an NBA style team there. Now they've got the number one high school recruit coming in. So byu, a team we don't think about much often, but nil wise, you know, they had a pretty good college football run. Now a good college basketball. They're in a power conference. So BYU is a program to keep an eye on going forward. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Basketball wise, all that Mormon money, I guess. [00:14:45] Speaker B: Danny, man, Danny Ainge, man, he's a big booster. [00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Cooper dominated against Arizona. He had like a 30 point game there. Just brought out all the stops and brought comparisons to Tatum and. I don't know. He has a lot of game, man. A lot of game, a lot of potential. [00:15:03] Speaker B: He. He kind of reminds me, and I think he's got more game. Just his length and size and movement of Siakam with the Pacers. Oh, but he's better. He's better than that. What? And he's. And he's gonna be better. [00:15:16] Speaker A: And he's gonna be better. [00:15:17] Speaker B: He just turned 18 in December, too, which is crazy. Yeah, he should be a senior in high school right now. He actually graduated, moved up a year. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Early and saying he came up early. Yeah. Dominating this young, that's crazy. Other games, Tennessee took out Kentucky on Friday. Houston escaped Purdue. Then Houston took care of business against Tennessee. Tennessee did not look like they belonged in that game at all. On the other side, or. Let's talk about those teams before we go back to the other side. [00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Tennessee, Rome, big win over Kentucky. They were actually. I think they lost the first two games of the season in the. In the SEC against Kentucky. Third time's the charm. They got the win there. Houston, Purdue, good win for Houston. But the officiating. That game was terrible, man. I mean, that was the worst officiated game I'd seen all tournament. Purdue just got jobbed on that one. But give credit to Houston. They held on. I mean, the final five minutes. The officials missed three easy calls. [00:16:16] Speaker A: I mean, really. [00:16:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was bad, really bad there. But I don't know, man. [00:16:24] Speaker A: I mean, you want to stop there, Stop short. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, even. Even a blind man could have gotten those calls, right? I mean, so. And then Tennessee against Houston. I did not see that. I mean, we've talked about Duke being the best team in this tournament. I agree with Jason, but I thought the second best team coming into the Elite Eight was, honestly, Tennessee. They had been playing really, really well. They whipped up on ucla, whipped up on Kentucky, and they laid an egg. Houston with that defense, was all over them. Tennessee couldn't buy a bucket. Would they have 12 points at halftime? I mean, I mean, I know there's. [00:16:58] Speaker C: Been some Big blowouts in the tournament. But as you got into these, you know, more top tier programs from a matchup perspective, that was probably the most dominating defensive performance we've seen the entire tournament so far with Houston. [00:17:10] Speaker B: And I think that's given Houston Duke there's a matchup in that semifinal Final Four game. I mean, Houston's always been a good defensive team under Calvin Sampson. That's, that's been their bread and butter. The problem of them in the tournament has always been can they score? They've got some perimeter guys that can score. Will they be able to knock down shots and will their defense be able to stop Cooper flag and give this young Duke team that's really led by freshmen versus a senior group trouble? I mean, I don't believe we've had a freshman group led team win a college national championship since Carmelo. And I can't think of the other guy, the white guard there won the championship for Syracuse back. McNamara, McNamara. Yeah. So I mean that's probably the last big error and I mean Cooper flags probably the best freshman player since Carmelo. Really to dominate the college game like this. [00:18:06] Speaker A: Yeah, valid points. On the other side, we had Michigan State by Ole Miss and Auburn defeat Michigan and then Auburn took care of business. So we have all one seeds in the Final Four. Did you guys catch those games? [00:18:30] Speaker C: I didn't catch all of them, so can't really give you on that. But I mean from the Auburn, you look at the Auburn game, I think specifically like that was one I felt Michigan State, I don't know, it always seems like Michigan State. I don't even know who's on their team from year to year. When you look at Michigan State and somehow they end up pulling up and they get a final forks Final Four appearance. That was like one game that I was kind of looking at. I was like, okay, is this going to be an upset right here from, from Michigan State? Because they always seem to wind up at the Final four for like 25 years. [00:19:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Michigan State, Tom izzo's been a six Final Fours, I think this was like his eighth or 10th Elite Eight. Bruce Pearl getting Auburn back to the Final Four. His second time there, getting in there. But yeah, I mean, Michigan State, it's ironic that we talk about Big Ten basketball, but since 2000, that's the last Big Ten team, Michigan State, to win the collegiate national championship, which was Tom is though, which is kind of crazy considering that the Big Ten has been pretty good and had some teams, Wisconsin and Purdue and other teams go on runs in these tournament. But Auburn had been really probably the shakiest of all the 1 seeds. They, Michigan had them on the ropes. They rallied, got that game back, and then really controlled Michigan State. Michigan State overachieved. Like Jason said, like you don't. They were a 2 seed, but they didn't feel like a 2C. They didn't feel like a final 14. But they're always like right there a game away. Yeah, always find a way to win in the tournament. I mean, Tom Izzo never loses like in the first round. He's like the, he's like the Andy Reid of like basketball. Like, you give him a first round tournament game, like he's going to win that thing like 90 of the time. That's like the surest bet in the tournament. [00:20:25] Speaker A: I caught the second half of that game. It was, it was pretty fun. They're, they're tugging back and forth and you think like right when you thought Michigan State was going to, you know, start catching up and going on, it was just a series of lots of mini runs and Auburn just stopped him. Every stop was at the perfect time. You know, right When Michigan got 6, 8 points, Auburn answered back. And it was really good. This is some pretty good basketball here. [00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah, Auburn's one of those teams. Like I said, they can be a bit inconsistent, but when they get rolling, like, they'll roll you. Like Michigan in the Sweet 16 game was up 10 with like nine minutes ago. And I think Auburn outscored him like 38 to nine. Like, just went on a barrage and blew him out. And that's what, that's what good teams do. Like, you're like, okay, like, once these guys get going, you see why they're number one seed. Like, they can just run you off the court. They're long, they're lanky, you know, their big guys are both 610, 611. Their wing guys are 6, 7, 6, 8. And then they got an all American freshman point guard that jacks up threes and can drive to the lane and throw lobs. That Florida Auburn game, rematch back they played earlier in the year. Florida beat them at Auburn about two months ago, so that'll be a good matchup too. [00:21:41] Speaker A: We'll preview the final four later on the week. I'll just quickly recap the women's bracket. There was two games on today. They were pretty good, actually. Juju, unfortunately, out with her injury. USC still put on a pretty good fight. And then Paige Becker's, you know, shot back to back three pointers at the end of the first half of that game and gave him a cushion to go into the second. And then they just kind of put the ass whooping. Winning 78 to 64. UConn looks really good. A lot of people think USU with Juju, they'd be winning that. But UConn's been a great team all year long. And I really like Paige. She's really awesome, can dribble, drive the ball. She's lanky. They have. They have a really good freshman their team as well. That was ballin. UCLA caught that game yesterday against LSU that was pretty tight in the first half. But UCLA is deep. Even when their star players weren't doing well. Their bench, they had two girls. Can't recall their names, but they were shooting lights out. Man, it's so weird seeing everyone just shooting so many threes all of a sudden. Every facet of the game, pros and college. But now you got women. These girls are shooting pretty good from. From three point land. So very much the same. In the women's, we got three number ones and then Yukon is the. Is the low number two for the Final Four. But LSU took care of NC State. That was fun. USC close game against Kansas State. That's how they ended up getting there. UCLA recall too much from the Ole Miss game. But Carolina, they were really good. They're really good. Took care of Duke and then you got taxes beating out tco. I watched part of that game because I'm a big fan of Haley. She's kind of been on Louisville and she was on LSU last year and she's really popular on Instagram and stuff like that, but falls short back to back Elite eights. TCU beat up on Notre Dame on Saturday, but the women's basketball is kind of crazy. We were talking about how it's all top heavy for women's especially. But this year the men's did the same thing. So we'll see. Did you guys miss having any Cinderellas in the Elite Eight? Or you. You didn't care? You kind of like you dug the matchups and all that stuff. [00:24:13] Speaker C: On the women's bracket, specifically both. [00:24:17] Speaker A: I don't think there's ever really been a Cinderella on the women's, to be honest with you. Oddly enough, yeah. [00:24:22] Speaker C: I have to think back. But I mean I, I would say overall, yeah, the women's. The women's tournament definitely doesn't get the Cinderella runs. It is generally always more top heavy. But I will say, like I think the second round, the sweet 16 are. If you look back like 20 years ago or something like, these rounds are much more competitive. It's not always a default to go to the finals. I know the seating doesn't look, you know, doesn't look like that right now, too. But you've had some more competitive, like, you know, three, four, five seeds in women's B. In the women's side than it usually was on the men's side. I, I don't. I didn't really miss any of the Cinderella stuff. I. Because I think the. The one thing with NIL and everyone can like it or hate it, but is made a lot more of the big programs deeper. So when you're able to run, you know, we're talking about the SEC running. I forgot how many SEC teams were in it. But, like, all of these big conferences got, you know, deeper rosters and stuff like that. So you get more of the prestige, you know, big name big conference programs in there, and you're going to have, like, more talent, a little more spread out. Don't have as much of a dominant team. And I think the same thing on the women's side where it was, usually it was just two teams. It was UConn and Tennessee forever. But you've had the emergence of South Carolina and, you know, some of these other schools that have been able to, you know, get a few star players here and there and kind of level up the playing field a little bit. So I was going back to your recap. I think if Juju was playing versus UConn, I think that was probably the matchup everyone probably wanted to see. And then, yeah, if she's playing for USC, it probably is all 41 seeds in there potentially, too. I'm not. No, I'm not sure if UConn gets past that game. If they had to, had. If USC had juju in the game. So which would been probably a more intriguing Final Four matchup for the Southern California contingent over here with usc, UCLA in that Final Four. I mean, it's a classic Big Ten matchup, you know, usc, ucla. [00:26:23] Speaker A: So it's very classic. No. Yeah, I would like that because both losses for UCLA have been to usc. Like, they just got. They just know how to beat them that have been really tough. But. [00:26:34] Speaker B: But UCLA did beat him in the women's Big Ten tournament final, right? [00:26:38] Speaker A: Yes. [00:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, yeah, I mean, the women's game's always been, as you guys mentioned, pretty much top seeds one and two getting in. I. I think I saw South Carolina's in their fifth straight Final Four. [00:26:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So they're on a really good run right now. [00:26:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, UConn is always dominated, but Yukon's been beat the last few years, and it would have been great to see juju play. I mean, that would have been a good game. Still turned out to be an entertaining game, but UConn seems to be rolling right now. UCLA is playing well. Then you've got Texas, Rome, you mentioned getting in, and then South Carolina. So who's Yukon playing in the final? Is it ucla? Ucla? So I think it's gonna be South Carolina, Yukon, women's final. That's. That's what I think is going to shape up to be. But I am rooting for the UCLA women's team. And then as far as men's, I mean, there's always. We see it. I mean, if there was, quote unquote, a Cinderella team that probably could have kept going on, it would have been Arkansas. [00:27:34] Speaker A: It was Arkansas. Yeah. [00:27:36] Speaker B: I mean, I mean, yeah, we don't really look at John Caliprari as a Cinderella coach given what he's done at previous programs. But Arkansas was a 10 seed. [00:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:44] Speaker B: They started out 0 and 5 in the SEC conference only I think. I think they're the only second team ever in the tournament era to start a power conference.015 and reach the Sweet 16. So, you know, Calipari said this is one of the greatest jobs and one of the most fulfilling jobs he's done as a coach. I would agree with that. Tough, tough way to go out and lose. I mean, they. They went against St. John's you know, his rival in Patino. Obviously, these two are very competitive. Respect there. [00:28:15] Speaker A: I still don't get Petito's decision making at the end of that game. That's Patina, though. [00:28:20] Speaker B: I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna count between Patino's the greatest. I think the greatest college basketball coach of all time. [00:28:26] Speaker A: Wow. [00:28:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes. [00:28:29] Speaker A: I'm gonna pin him up that down. That's a clip and a half. [00:28:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:33] Speaker A: The greatest. [00:28:34] Speaker B: The greatest college basketball coach of all time is Rick Patino. [00:28:38] Speaker A: Jason, you're the same. Look that I did. [00:28:42] Speaker C: Well, I was. I was trying to remember were there national titles that this guy won recently that I. I want to remember for him being the great. I mean, what's he got? Two national titles. [00:28:53] Speaker B: He's got two national titles. [00:28:55] Speaker A: All right, Coach K. I mean, he's. [00:28:58] Speaker B: Better than Coach K. No, better than Coach K, man. [00:29:02] Speaker A: All right, guys, that's actually. We're gonna wrap this up here. [00:29:05] Speaker C: Your guy you know, Hurley from UConn won two national titles the last two years. [00:29:10] Speaker B: Yeah, and Hurley's a good guy, too. But no, I look it. I think Rome's. [00:29:15] Speaker C: Rome's guy wouldn't. Bro. Like, you know, just. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, wouldn't. I mean, that's a different era. There's only like, what, eight teams back in the tournament, back in that era. [00:29:25] Speaker C: But better than Coach K. That's. That's. That's a bold statement. [00:29:29] Speaker B: I think he's better than Coach K. I think of Patino. Coach K obviously was, what, 40 years at Duke. If Patino had never left Kentucky, he would have won six to eight national titles. [00:29:40] Speaker A: You know, Coach K almost got fired from Duke after two years. I can't remember the story of how he end up staying on, but it's like one of those things like, oh, don't rush to fire your coach. [00:29:51] Speaker B: And let's. And I mean, I, I know it's tournament times. We bring it up all the time, but, you know, obviously Letner's famous shot was against Patino in Kentucky during that game in reference to a Jason show paradise that I'm watching right now. So thanks for that lead. Wildcat is down. Wildcat is down. [00:30:10] Speaker C: So, yeah, you like. You like in Paradise? [00:30:14] Speaker B: I am liking it, man. I'm liking the March Madness and Die Hard references. I'm all locked in. [00:30:19] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Locked in on the dialogue references in that one. [00:30:21] Speaker B: But, yeah, Patino is the. It's the best. Greatest college basketball coach all time. Outside of, obviously, Wooden. What he did at ucla, I would pin him number two. But in the modern error, I would take Patino over Coach K and Dean Smith and all those guys. [00:30:34] Speaker A: I would. I forgot about Dean Smith. Jesus Christ. [00:30:37] Speaker B: And Roy Williams. [00:30:38] Speaker A: And I loved Roy. [00:30:41] Speaker B: Kansas didn't so much, but yeah. [00:30:46] Speaker A: All right, let's take a quick break. That was a lot to take in. Then we'll come back and talk some NBA or maybe let's talk a little baseball then. NBA. We'll be back. All right, we're going to switch things up, take a break from basketball, talk a little baseball first. We haven't done our preview for the season for baseball yet. We're going to do that very soon. Jason's rocking his White Sox gear right now, along with the McLaren hat. Jason, let's start with your team first because you posted something on Instagram. The three hottest teams in baseball and the three shittiest teams in baseball. So first share with us. Who are the three shittiest teams in baseball right now? And Then break it. Break it out to us on who are the three hottest teams in baseball? [00:31:37] Speaker C: Well, the, The. The exact thing. Well, number one to the listening audience, I just want to tell you, Rome doesn't want to do a baseball preview because the Dodgers already purchased the World Series. So that he does. Just doesn't think. [00:31:50] Speaker B: He doesn't. [00:31:51] Speaker C: He doesn't think we need to do a World Series. I had a different friend text me, asked our group of like, hey, when's Ohtani get a pitch? And they're like, like, July. Like, yeah. Because there don't need to have him pitch because Dustin May's their fifth starter right now. So they are loaded. [00:32:06] Speaker A: They're so loaded. [00:32:08] Speaker B: Dustin May, Carrot Top, man. It's just a matter of time before his arm falls off. I've had him on my fantasy teams, and it's always like two good starts and elbow. See you in, like, seven months. [00:32:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess. All right, well, Rome, I'll get to. I'll get to your question. It wasn't about. We're only, you know, a couple, you know, a couple days into the season, so. Still, still, still very. Still very early and fresh. But at the moment that this was posted, I, I believe it's no longer true because the Padres, like Aaron, set it up. But as of this afternoon, when the White Sox and Twins game was over, the three teams with the worst run differential so far were the Cubs, the Twins, and the Brewers. But the three teams with the best run differential, Rome's Dodgers, the New York Yankees, and the Chicago White Sox. My friends. [00:33:02] Speaker A: This guy is so happy. [00:33:04] Speaker B: Hey, man. I was gonna text when the White Sox won the first game, like, on pace for 162 wins, but I, I just couldn't bear myself to do it. [00:33:14] Speaker C: Well, it's probably better you didn't because they lost the next day. But I'll tell you this, you know, it's. It's a team that's going to be terrible. They're probably still going to lose 100 games. But you go first. Four pitchers so far have not given up an earned run yet. Six innings out of three of the pitchers, five out of the. The second starter. So, you know, the pitching's there for the White Sox. They got incredible depth in the minor leagues. It's really. Can they score some runs? They did on opening day versus the Angels win an 81 today. They crushed the Twins 9. Nothing or whatever ended up to be. So, I mean, if they could turn some bats, you know, you never know. Baseball is a weird sport. I'm still not getting my hopes up. But, but while the White Sox are at.500 at 2 and 2 right now, I'm gonna talk a lot of crap and people are gonna get annoyed with me, but we'll see where it goes. [00:34:04] Speaker B: I mean, I like, I like the White Sox, and they're not going to lose 100 games this year. They're going to lose less. They're going to lose less than 100 games. I'm going to go out on that limb right now. [00:34:12] Speaker A: I wouldn't mind if my team suck. I just want to know, like, I'm rooting for something of promise, you know, like, can I root for something? Like, are, are we building anything? Are the White Sox building something now? [00:34:24] Speaker C: I think they are the pro. I think the problem is less. Are they building something before is like, we did this six, seven years ago when, yeah, they, when they, they almost did the exact same thing. They traded Chris Sale to the Red Sox for Johan Moncada and Michael Kopeck and some other guys, and that was, that was the start. This offseason they trade another flamethrowing left hander, Garrett Crochet, to the Red Sox, who just signed, you know, a seven year extension with the Red Sox today for some prospects and stuff in return. So we're doing this in a cycle again, you know, for a White Sox fan. Do they have the infrastructure to actually develop these guys? That's the biggest question because all of the, all of the guys the White Sox got in trades in, in the, in the original seven years ago rebuild. So Johan Moncada in that trade, you know, he's, you know, batting.200 for the Angels right now. You know, Tim Anderson was, you know, their first round pick, you know, has already gone to the New Orleans Asher, and he's in the Angels. Eloy Jimenez, who they got in a trade with Dylan Cease for Jose Quintana, you know, Eloy is in a minor league deal with the Rays and this guy was supposed to be a superstar and there's tons of more examples in that rebuild. So the question of the White Sox is going to be for all the prospects they got, they got like a top. And they may be a top five, top seven minor league system right now from the prospects they got, can these guys develop? Can they get to the big leagues and then be a competitive team? So I feel like they can. From a pitching perspective, it's going to be about the hitting. Do I feel like they're building something? I think maybe the whole problem with the White Sox is Going to be okay. How many years do these develop? Are these guys all on the same developmental track? Because free agency will always be the time for the White Sox because they aren't like the Dodgers who are going to pay. But they're also not like the Dodgers where they always got another, you know, prospect behind them that they don't have to pay. So as much as I give Rome crap on all the players you do buy, they've let tons of players go. The Dodgers have, you know, Seager and, you know, all these other guys they've developed and let go because, hey, there's been somebody behind them that they've able to replace. That's not always the case with the White Sox. So are they building something? Maybe. I like all some of the young talent they got in the minors. We'll see what they have in the pros. I'm still holding out. They need. They need Ishbia to buy this team. Reinsdorf needs to sell. That's got to be the biggest thing for this team because it's not always about spending money on payroll. It's spending money on infrastructure and scouting and analytics. It's those other things that you don't see on the field that the Dodgers do invest in that other teams do invest in. And that's where the cheap skate owners like Reinsdorf and the guy Fisher up with the A's and you know, do dude over at the Marlins, like, these guys don't put any money into those other things that make a difference. Or hey, or your guys in the Yankees, that gets like an astrophysicist to make a new bat that no one thought of in 130 years of baseball. [00:37:12] Speaker B: Supposedly, supposedly the. The Marlins aren't spending money on payroll, but they are having the best upgraded facilities as far as weight room, whatever that's going to do for them going forward. So that's where they say, because quote unquote, like you have to spend certain amount of budget money. Even though their payroll for the Marlins does not make that. They say that their infrastructure, scouting department and facilities do make up the difference there for the mandatory 150 million, like payroll, they have to have per baseball rules. [00:37:43] Speaker A: The guy that developed the torpedo bat, I think he's employed by the Marlins now. It's his first season there, so he's going to be changing some things and that. Let's segue into that. [00:37:53] Speaker C: You mean the Yankees? [00:37:54] Speaker B: No, he's with the Marlins now. [00:37:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Oh, so he was with the Yankees. He was with the Yankees and now he's. He Is position of the Marlins. Yeah. [00:38:03] Speaker A: So from like, because it's still new, I'm just seeing a headline that Ellie De La Cruz just had 7 RBIS for the Reds using the torpedo bat. I thought this was just the thing that only the Yankees had and how like a bunch of teams now, like, want to put their, you know, their own bat into like, production. So how are these other teams getting the torpedo bat now? Like, it's. [00:38:23] Speaker B: It's been something that's been going around, I guess. Like, I know. I think it was Jean Carlos Stanton was using it last year or was using in the playoffs when he hit what, seven home runs in like 14 games. [00:38:34] Speaker A: Really? [00:38:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So I guess I was reading up on it. There's like 40, I want to say, like, I don't want to get the number wrong, but like 46 manufacturers of baseball bats and all of them have kind of been like, working on tweaks and stuff for like, for like, kind of like a decade or two. But this guy with the Yankees or MIT guy basically came up. You okay over there, Rome? I think a lot is hitting you. Yeah. So, yeah, supposedly, like this MIT guy, he basically. Because obviously based on the rule, your bat has to wait certain much can only be a certain length and it can't be over any one part. Can't be over what, 2.61 ounces, I believe it is. And 42 inches long, whatever is. So each one of these bats, from what I was reading, is not. They're all. They're not all the same bat. They are custom made per player based off a number of analytics and swings and data on where their. The bat hits the ball for each hitter. So each one is designed for. Okay, like you. The barrel, the bat, it's going to be fat, whatever, maybe, you know, an eighth of an inch, a quarter an inch, whatever. More this way because that's where the bottom hits your ball. Ball hits the bat more times for each guy. But yeah, supposedly during spring training, a lot of these bats were out and guys were using them. But I guess the big issue is with guys is they're worried about losing speed, velocity of their bat because if the bat is too heavy and you're too slow getting it through the zone, doesn't matter if you have a torpedo bat or cork bat or whatever, you can't. If you can't hit the ball, whites in the zone, no matter what battle you're using. So that's been kind of where players are trying to adjust to it from what I read. [00:40:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it's Been making news since the Yankees. They kind of just. Bombs away. Just a couple games ago. Aaron Leonhardt, I hope I'm pronouncing his name. He's the former physics professor at the University of Michigan who is being credited with the design choice of Michigan. [00:40:36] Speaker B: Guys, man, I'm telling you, man, they're always doing that extra. [00:40:39] Speaker A: Like they're, they're learning for competitive advantages. That's what they teach in business school, if you want to put it, like, lightly. But if it's poppy numbers like this, though, and there's like a quote from Terry Francona, you know, he's saying that, you know, it's all about the batter, not the bat. I want people to go back and apologize to Barry Bonds and say it's all about the batter. [00:41:06] Speaker B: Rome. I've been using that line on ladies for years, and it hasn't got me anywhere. So, I mean, it's not always all about the bat or the battery. [00:41:13] Speaker C: I. Well, I mean, I think there's, there's. I mean, because you can parse whatever you want about Barry Bonds, like, but I mean, it, it is, it is the same, like, weights and everything like that about the bat. It's just putting it, like, scientifically in a different spot to really match the hitter a little more. So if you're having something that is in more, you know, of a different portion of the back that hits it in the right sweet spot, and you're getting the hardest portion of the bat, you know, in the right spots, I mean, you're looking at. Ellie De LA Cruz had seven RBIs today, you know, with, with the bat. And so like it. Because I think they're saying Judge is not using it. [00:41:51] Speaker B: No, Judge is not. [00:41:52] Speaker C: Judge isn't. And he's just as hot as any of these guys on it, too. Yeah, you're. You're getting, you're getting. You're getting lost in kind of new two narratives together. But. Because, yeah, maybe. But I think understanding with these guys are willing to use it because of, okay, is there swing behind? Is it at a certain angle that they're not getting the bat through the zone at the proper thing. So, hey, you need that pop in the right spot of the bat. I think that's more of what kind of tying with Francona is talking about, because, you know, the best hitter is going to adjust and the best center might know themselves, too. [00:42:23] Speaker B: So, speaking of Ellie De La Cruz, I'm going to go on the record right now and tell you he's going to win the NL mvp. This year. [00:42:34] Speaker A: Wow. Why? What makes you say that? [00:42:37] Speaker B: He, he's basically. I mean, he's Gonna probably still 70, 75 bases. I think he's gonna hit for a higher average than he has normally before. And the power in the bat is going to be there. He's gonna put up ridiculous numbers and he's gonna, he's gonna win the MVP. He's gonna get more votes than Otani this year. [00:42:54] Speaker A: 75 bases. That's how many bases he's gonna steal. [00:42:57] Speaker B: I think you can. [00:42:58] Speaker A: This shitload. [00:42:59] Speaker B: This dude is quick as hell. [00:43:00] Speaker A: That's a shitload, dude. [00:43:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:04] Speaker A: Okay. That's a hell of a prediction. [00:43:06] Speaker B: Four games in, even about the seven RBI night tonight. I mean, he, he was like my. We've talked about fantasy baseball for. He was like my top prodigy like three years ago in the minor league draft. Obviously I didn't have the first pick, but he was the first guy to go. Yeah, I've been trying. I've been trying to trade for him for years. [00:43:24] Speaker A: Yeah. We'll pivot to Aaron's Braves. Rough start to the season so far. Pretty rough. [00:43:34] Speaker B: And then, I mean, we didn't hear Jason's bottom. Well, I guess we did hear his bottom three teams, but I think the Braves and Brewers got to be in that mix for sure. [00:43:42] Speaker A: He did say the brewers, right? [00:43:44] Speaker C: I did say the Brewers. The Cubs were on that, but I think they're going to take themselves off because of today's game from a run differential standpoint. But yeah, the brewers are on that list. The Braves weren't, but probably are now. The Twins or the other one on that list who lost. I mean, they're, they're owing for Braves. [00:44:02] Speaker B: Brewers and Twins, I believe, are the only teams I've not won yet. [00:44:05] Speaker C: Yeah. And they're the worst in run differential. Now the Cubs were on that list before tonight. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Well, Aaron's profile got suspended, I think just today it was announced. Right. 80 games for PEDs. Pretty tough. I think he was like on a one year contract last year. [00:44:23] Speaker B: He's got a. Well, he's got a three year deal. He signed a three deal with the Atlanta. [00:44:26] Speaker A: Yeah, well, now he does. He finally signed for a big contract in the off season. And then this takes a hit. He was supposed to be like one of their leading men. So you want to give us your two cents on that? [00:44:37] Speaker B: Well, not only is he out 80 games, but I didn't know this rule took place. But you cannot play in the postseason. [00:44:42] Speaker A: You can't play the postseason. [00:44:43] Speaker B: I've read about that. Well, given that The Braves are 0 and 5, they might not have to worry about that right now. [00:44:48] Speaker A: It's too early. [00:44:49] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean it's early in the year. I mean they're going to get Auna Jr back. Spencer Strider. But they did sign your ex Dodger and Red Sok Yankee Alex Verdugo a couple weeks ago. He's kind of since he got started late in spring training. He's in the minor so they can bring him up. They got some good other pieces. I mean proar. I've never been a huge proar guy. He had one of his best years last year of the Padres and then the Braves signed him. The Braves got plenty of depth there. But you know, for the braves right now at 05, that team just right now is really lacking a true leader. They just don't have a true leader right now in the clubhouse for that team. I think the Dodgers are going to sweep them. They're going to go back home to 0 and 7 wherever. Wherever they go next. [00:45:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So you didn't get a cat a chance to catch them in and Petco, huh? [00:45:37] Speaker B: I'm glad I didn't, man. I'm glad I didn't since they got work there. [00:45:43] Speaker A: Cool. I don't got anything to talk about. For baseball really. I saw the daughters championship rings. Really beautiful. Not as gaudy as other championship rings and it was like kind of like a nice surprise. I don't know if you guys seen them. Like they've been getting pretty ridiculous for every sport. But it's tastefully done. It's like a really nice ring. Not too much, not over the top. It's a really beautiful gym. [00:46:06] Speaker B: Sharing it seemed like it was a lot going on, man. They got some like palm trees in that thing. [00:46:11] Speaker A: It's a beautiful ring. Whereas like you have like these recent super bowl rings that you open up the top with more diamonds and there's like a football field made of diamonds. It's getting pretty crazy. It's like a little polly pocket you're carrying around, you know, it's a nice ring. And of course, you know, Dodgers are playing pretty well and just don't. [00:46:32] Speaker B: Just don't. If you for Dodger players, just don't leave it at your house. Man. Of all these athletes get robbed. I'd hate for you to see your ring get stolen. Just go put in a little safety deposit box somewhere in the bank. [00:46:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it came out. Richard Sherman's house was held at gunpoint. His family. [00:46:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw the video. Some of the video on that, pretty scary, man. [00:46:49] Speaker A: It's wild. Like, what's up? [00:46:54] Speaker C: I mean, that. To think the modern times we are in where it's. I think it's accessible to know where unfortunately, probably a lot of these people live. And then knowing from an athlete's perspective, they're not home a lot. And, you know, it's. It's crazy times, man. But like, I. I don't know if the. You know, Richard Sherman's one guy posting a lot of stuff out on social media and stuff like that, but, you know, it's. It's kind of crazy to be putting some of your stuff out there, but then knowing people aren't home to get this stuff taken. [00:47:24] Speaker B: But his family was home, which is the scary thing. Yeah, yeah, his family was. [00:47:28] Speaker A: You can see the guns on the photos from the. [00:47:31] Speaker B: Like I said, the video where they, like. Because there's like, they have like, cam footage in the house. So, like, you see him like breaking in through. [00:47:37] Speaker A: The kids are home, Wife was home. [00:47:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And I guess it's Sherman's birthday tomorrow. [00:47:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:42] Speaker B: So he's like, yeah, some birthday present. But yeah, I mean, I think we might begin to the time now with athletes gonna have just like armed guards is sitting there 24 7. Get yourself some attack dogs. And that might be your new security going forward for a lot of these guys. [00:47:57] Speaker A: Yeah. By the way, geese are really good animal to have in your yard. If anyone has like a big acreage, they. They attack anything on site. We'll take a quick break, come back and talk some NBA. All right. Time for a little NBA action. Season is winding down. Lakers pull off a pretty big victory tonight against the Houston Rockets. Pretty good game, pretty close throughout. Highly contested. Lakers have been seesawing on around.500 for the last couple. Couple weeks. So I'm really happy that they got the wind. As things are starting to tighten up for the playoff race, everyone's trying to get healthy. News came out. Zion, Williamson, C.J. mcCollum, they're done. They're being shut down. A lot of players are starting being shut down now. What has there been a season that Zion has not been shut down, though, since he's been in the league like one good Duke year or not even a good year was like five games comes in. [00:48:58] Speaker B: I'd be curious to know what Zion's average gameplay is per season. I'm going to say definitely I would take the under 50 games that he averages, that he averages per season playing since he's been in the league. [00:49:12] Speaker A: Jason's stat Lookup. I'm pretty sure he's on it. [00:49:16] Speaker C: He knew me too well. [00:49:23] Speaker A: So we'll come back to that whenever you come up with it. Oh, I got this right here. This is from ESPN.com Among NBA players who have debuted since the 97, 98 season, Williams ranks as the only one to average at least 15 points in the paint, washing 55% in each of his first five seasons. But he's also missed more games than he has played. He's missed 258. [00:49:52] Speaker B: There you go. [00:49:53] Speaker A: He's only played in 214. [00:49:56] Speaker B: There you go. [00:49:56] Speaker A: Across six seasons. [00:49:58] Speaker C: I was gonna say he's averaged 42.8 games per year. [00:50:02] Speaker A: Dude, you're. That was nice. That was good, Aaron. [00:50:06] Speaker B: Honestly, I was. How many games does he has he played? [00:50:10] Speaker C: 214. [00:50:12] Speaker B: What's the average? [00:50:13] Speaker C: 42.8. [00:50:15] Speaker B: I was gonna even go as low as 44 or 45, but I knew 50 was a safe number. [00:50:19] Speaker A: I was like a stat of the day there. [00:50:21] Speaker C: I will say the trend, if you're looking at his five seasons, every other year it's a 30 game or less season. So his rookie season, 24, then he played 61. Third season 29, then he played 70. This year he played 30. So if you're a betting man, next year he's going 60 or more based on. Based on this five year trend. [00:50:48] Speaker B: I can't. I'm not comfortable doing that. [00:50:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Aren't they gonna trade him though? [00:50:53] Speaker B: Is he still under contract with the Pelicans going into next season? [00:50:57] Speaker A: I feel like it's time for the job. [00:50:58] Speaker B: I mean, it's just been talked about trading him for a while because there's always. Yeah, it's always been his weight, right? I mean, since big dude. He's a big dude. I mean, I. I always thought he'd be a good tight end for football, man. I mean that dude is wide, quick and strong. [00:51:13] Speaker C: Maybe it should have played. Maybe it's a Lakers trade, man. They just force everyone to the Lakers. You know, they did wonders for Lucas diet, you know, so, you know, maybe, maybe he'll. [00:51:22] Speaker A: He's thinner. [00:51:23] Speaker B: I don't know. He's thinner, man. Yes. I'm not. I'm not ready to go. [00:51:27] Speaker A: There's a Luca hater. We already know that one. [00:51:32] Speaker B: I'm not a Lake Luca hater, man. I'm just saying I'm not ready to go there, man. [00:51:43] Speaker A: All right. Let's talk about the Grizzlies, man. What the. Like when it came out, they've. They let Homeboy drive the office, call him to the office fired him. Like I'd be so pissed if I had to go to work. He'd just get fired. They get you know, drive drive back home Memphis fighting for a 2C which it seems like they've been in this position for like three out of the last four years. Really competitive. I know we've all been kind of anticipating at least many that you know they, they might be a dog a player for quite some time. That was before all the job Morant you know shooting or like punking 17 year old kids happened than him being out for half the season. But I guess I was kind of cough I was caught off guard that it just happened now they're a really good team he had Jenkins had a really good record with them only 40. I think it was like close to 550 record over six seasons. And I don't know what was your guys initial reactions from the firing. [00:53:01] Speaker C: I think I texted you Rome. I don't know if you were Aaron sentence to. To the group chat that we had. I. I just didn't understand it. It seemed like the move like something else is going on behind the scenes whether it comes out or not. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. But when you, when you're the 5 seed in the west right now, you know you got the potential. You said fighting for the two. I don't think that's realistic now. But hey you, you're. You're playing in the four or five matchup outside chance at a three but hey you're in the top six. You're not playing in the play in tournament. You're in danger of potentially losing that now that you have you know Minnesota and the Clippers kind of right behind you again gave and behalf game. Gave and a half behind. I know they're three and seven in their last ten. They're always on a three game skid now. But I the we have this long conversation about firing coaches mid season as we talked about my Bears and then even the Jets. I think the jets are probably the biggest cautionary tale as far as like firing a coach and expecting to get something out of it where it just. It's not going to do anything because most of the time like what are you. What are you going to change right now because there's a different direction, different leader. I know basketball is different than football because you know it's not in depth from a play calling. You know. I don't know. I always make fun of my basketball friends you guys got one play. It's the pick and roll. That's the only thing anyone knows how to run. I was like, it's. But, but, but, but there is, there, there is some cohesion and stuff. The way that coaches are doing so like, hey, the guy's stepping in like what, what's, what's going to set him apart? That's going to really set this team, you know, to really go on a run. The, the. I mean, I don't know Aaron, what's the example of firing a coach at some point mid season and going on a run? Like I. [00:54:40] Speaker A: There's not even seasons. [00:54:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Worthy. [00:54:44] Speaker C: Nine games left. Yeah. I mean you're, you're on the cusp of the playoff. So I, again, I, there's got to be something behind the scenes. You know, I know in my, in my day job you think is there an HR investigation or something going on that, or something that we're hiring, you know. [00:54:57] Speaker A: Right. [00:54:58] Speaker C: That we're looking into this because it, it just seems like such a weird timing, you know, that to do this at the moment and that this could, this could have waited. And I, no one's really to me considering Memphis for like the super deep run. You got the Thunder head and above everyone in the Western Conference right now. I know there's a lot of hype on the Lakers. I'm not completely sold on that. And then I think but you got, and you got like Denver because just because you got Joker and he's just going to just, you know, best player in the world arguably for the past three, three, four seasons. So I don't, I don't know what you're expecting to get out of this team and what you get out of this firing. [00:55:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean what fired him over nine games remaining now. They've lost since the two. Since he's got fired. I mean it's crazy. I get you're not in the, if you're not in the playoffs, you make the move. You know, Jason talked about football. I mean the Bears, those teams, they weren't, you know, Saints, all those teams, they weren't going anywhere. The Jet, the Jets, that was way, way early. But ultimately I think more is going to come out with the Taylor Jenkins getting fired. Like was it, you know, was management, was there an issue there? Was there players? I mean, Jason just said they lost what, seven of their last ten but John Morant missed six of those games. Ironically, ironically, the coach is fired. He returns against the Lakers. They've lost Lakers and Celtics here. I mean he's the winningest coach I believe all time in that franchise history. Yeah, he's done. He, he's to me that team and has overachieved since he got there. I mean they had that one year where they were the 2 seed and then obviously a bad matchup. LeBron AD beat him and the Lakers got to the Western Conference final, eventually lost at Denver. The Nuggets won. And then last year the whole, you know, John Morant suspended, injured, they had some other guys go out injured. They didn't make the playoffs this year. Kind of between the two 4C bag, you know, what's his name, Jackson Jr gets that ankle injury. He misses like six games. John Morant's been in and out of a shoulder injury. I mean firing him at this point, like Jason said, like what are you going to accomplish here? From talking to some people, like they really, really like the assistant coach. They got there and wanted to give him some run. I mean from what I heard Jenkins was going to get fired at the end of the year, which is fine. Maybe you win a playoff series, maybe you don't. You fire them at the end. To me they don't really achieve anything new here. But from what I'm hearing they wanted to give this coach assistant who's supposed to be a good offensive guy some run. Let him see if he's the future coach for this team. Jenkins is a defensive coach. Their defense has slipped up over the, over the remaining of the season. So that, that's the reasons I'm hearing they got rid of them. Maybe you know, John Morant, maybe how they've handled his injury, maybe more stuff comes out. I'm sure there will be but I, I believe Taylor Jenkins is going to get a head coaching gig somewhere else if he wants one. Oh yeah, there's gonna be a lot of teams looking for coaches. Obviously the Kings up, up by you are going to be looking for a coach and other places. [00:58:05] Speaker A: So yeah, that'd be kind of interesting. I kind of like that idea. No, I, I thought he did a phenomenal job in Memphis. Firing now is kind of weird. I haven't had a chance like dig into like Reddit yet, you know, all too much clicked a few links on threads and on X and I don't know if you guys recall but in the off season management fired some of his assistant coaches and picked his assistant coaches trying to implement a differences than what he was running. So like yeah, I can't wait to hear more information. But it seems like what Kleiman is as A GM sounds like he didn't want. Despite the success, he didn't want Jenkins to be the coach anymore. But why? Really weird. [00:58:56] Speaker B: I mean, this could be just a GM that has expectations that are unrealistic. I mean, I know Rome, you have the NBA preview season. I mean, we weren't high on Memphis. We all thought they could bounce back and get into the playoffs. To me, they've. To me, they've overachieved this season already. I mean, they're. They're a five seed. They're going to play the Lakers and they're going to beat in five games by the Lakers, if that's what the first round matchup is. [00:59:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:21] Speaker B: And in fact, the Lakers just beat him the other night. Boston just beat them tonight. So they're 0 and 2 of this new guy. Defensively, they don't look good. Offensively, obviously, from an X and O standpoint, a lot of people, maybe the GM included, weren't very happy with Taylor Jenkins, but I mean, yeah, I would have let him finish coaching out the season. Get into the playoffs, you get run, you get eliminated, you fire the guy. No one's kind of really going to turn heads and be like, what are you doing? But with nine games left in the season, you make the switch, you've now lost these two games. You're. Unless you really, really tank, they may get into the playing game. I mean, Minnesota and the warriors are only like two games behind them right now in the standings. And I know they play the warriors down the stretch here and I think the T Wolves. So if they're not careful, if they're. [01:00:13] Speaker A: Not careful, they're just tiny up. I just. [01:00:15] Speaker B: They could drop to seven. [01:00:17] Speaker A: That's changed in the past. We haven't really looked at it, but yeah, now it's five through eight. It wasn't like that. Dallas has moved up. [01:00:27] Speaker B: Well, AD's back. They got beat by Brooklyn tonight. Brooklyn beats up on all the good teams. [01:00:31] Speaker A: Man, Brooklyn's so weird. Dude. I. I do like some of the guys on that team, but. [01:00:38] Speaker B: They'Re just. [01:00:38] Speaker A: Ruining people's playoff hopes right now. I love it. So big shocker, man. And I was trying to think, like, is there any other NBA coaches that we should be. Do we think anyone else might get fired at the end of season? [01:00:56] Speaker B: Oh, there's gonna be plenty of guys getting canned. [01:01:00] Speaker A: Who do you think? [01:01:04] Speaker B: Well, I mean, obviously I don't think the Suns are going to move off of Boon Houser. I don't think they can go to their fourth coach. [01:01:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a bad move. [01:01:16] Speaker C: You think Popovich comes back? [01:01:18] Speaker A: I don't think so. [01:01:22] Speaker B: I don't think so either. [01:01:23] Speaker A: They said he had a minor stroke. He has yet to show up in public. It's a pretty big deal. He's older. [01:01:30] Speaker B: I think he's just going to take like a consultant role with the organization and that, that'd be my best guess. I, I, I don't see him going if like Rome. You said if he's not showing his face now, going to be a year older. Of the stress and grind of a season. Hard for me to believe him on the sidelines. [01:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel bad for him. But he's had hell of a career. Maybe that's a tough question. Maybe we can revisit at the end of the season. Do like a little coach's hot seat for the NBA. But yeah, wild firing. Did not see that coming. Big shocker. I'm pretty sure there's some drama just like we've been hearing. [01:02:04] Speaker B: Well, obviously the Kings. The Kings are going to go after a big name from what I've heard. So they're gonna go after a big name coach. Sounds like pelicans. [01:02:13] Speaker A: They just had a big name coach at Brown. [01:02:18] Speaker B: I'm hearing rumblings of a bigger name coming in. [01:02:20] Speaker A: Of a bigger name. [01:02:21] Speaker B: A bigger name. [01:02:22] Speaker A: Do you have anybody in mind? [01:02:24] Speaker B: I do. [01:02:26] Speaker A: Do you want to say it now? [01:02:27] Speaker B: He, he used to, he used to be on the ESPN broadcast team. Gundy Van Gundy. Jeff Van Gundy. [01:02:40] Speaker A: I was gonna say which one I would rather have Jeff. Interesting. [01:02:49] Speaker B: And Rome. I told you the Knicks. Thibodeau could be in trouble in New York. [01:02:55] Speaker A: I think he's out actually. I'm hearing too much stuff. The players are starting to in, in public interviews. [01:03:01] Speaker B: I'm like so I think Thibodeau is a big name. [01:03:04] Speaker A: He's been grinding stars too much. [01:03:08] Speaker B: So that's one to keep an eye on. I like this guy as a coach, but I don't really pit the blame on him. But it seems like Billy Donovan's just been. Obviously the Bulls have kind of turned the corner. They got blown out by the Thunder, but they've been the hottest team in the NBA up there beating up on Rome's Lakers of that half court giddy shot. [01:03:30] Speaker C: I don't know how we're this far. [01:03:32] Speaker A: And through that game away this far. [01:03:35] Speaker C: Into the NBA segment and haven't talked about the balls. I'll be honest. Aaron got me a little bit energized on, on our Bulls here last week and then they Beat the Lakers twice. [01:03:45] Speaker A: Twice. One of. [01:03:45] Speaker C: One of. One of them on just like a historic, like historic. I mean, come on Twitter, Twitter was just like, there was. [01:03:54] Speaker A: Loving it. Dude, I was so pissed. [01:03:56] Speaker C: There was the shot of giddy with LeBron behind him, just looking all pissed and everything like that. Like, like hang that in the Louvre, man. That was. There was, there was a great, there was great photo moments for that. And then they got blown out the last two games. [01:04:10] Speaker B: Well, no, I mean they came back and lost to Dallas by one point after beating the Lakers. And then they got blown out tonight. But it's, it's funny because obviously LeBron with that literally quarter of a second tip in to beat the Pacers, where the Lakers are all jubilant and celebrate and then, and then 24 hours later it happens to you on a half court shot. [01:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah, Pacer should have probably won that game. Lakers didn't play that good. [01:04:40] Speaker B: But that's just, that's just the rule, man. I mean, Lakers probably should have lost that game and then should have won a game against the Bulls. So the law of average kind of. [01:04:47] Speaker C: Worked itself out well at 33 and 42, the Bulls are locked in, in the 10 seed in the East. I'm pretty sure that's what Aaron and I predicted at the beginning. [01:04:56] Speaker A: You guys did. You guys did. Congrats. Yeah, I mean, I was a lock. [01:05:05] Speaker B: I want to say the only team we did not get right in the east would be Detroit. I think everybody else we probably knocked and nailed. I think Detroit's the only team we didn't. We probably had Philadelphia in there that I'm looking at the standings. [01:05:16] Speaker C: It was Philly. I think the swap with Detroit. [01:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah, you guys talked to me out of Detroit. You guys talked to me out of Buffalo. [01:05:24] Speaker C: That's true. [01:05:25] Speaker A: No regrets. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna stick to my guns next year. [01:05:28] Speaker B: Well, make sure you get that Detroit style pizza with the Buffalo Wild Wings next time, man. [01:05:32] Speaker A: Oh, dude, I love Detroit style pizza. I got. We're not going to break. [01:05:36] Speaker C: We're going to Wood Ranch next time, right? [01:05:38] Speaker B: Oh, man, Wood Ranch, man. I'm craving it, man. I'm craving it. [01:05:42] Speaker A: Wood Ranch. Yeah, Wood Ranch sounds good. Some barbecue sounds good. All right, we'll wrap up NBA talk some other time, but just want to touch on those things real quick. Do you guys want to talk about this Stephen A. LeBron stuff? LeBron showed up the Pat McAfee show for an hour and a half, which he never does. He was acting kind of weird. I Gotta be honest, man, like I just never, he's never really done like an interview like this and kind of talking on everybody. Stephen A. And Stephen A is coming back and saying how he's gonna put hands on LeBron next time. He's like. And then LeBron makes fun of him on Instagram and people are making fun of Stephen A. And I love Michael Bond. He's like, I don't give a. About either of these things now. They're, they're two girl men. Just shut the up, you know, so he's not gonna talk about it. [01:06:38] Speaker C: I love, I love when Wilbon just goes full like old man stuff. Just. [01:06:42] Speaker A: I love it. [01:06:43] Speaker C: I don't, this is, this is the thing I do. Yeah. I mean he's, and he's not wrong in this instance. What you said with LeBron, it was weird because you don't see him do stuff like this. You don't hear him do really like interviews at all in such, such a long form. Sitting in, in this. Because generally everything LeBron does is carefully like curated. When he had that, does he still have that shop show or whatever like that he had the barbershop type thing he used to do on HBO and everything, everything about that just felt like super orchestrated. Yeah. Like it wasn't, it wasn't like real. You know, these guys like this don't really do like hard hitting interviews and stuff. But he was, I think he was probably, maybe, I don't want to say he's his authentic self out of this, but probably a little more true to kind of the goofiness that LeBron probably naturally is. Where you see him on Instagram back in the day, on Taco Tuesday and everything like that. I think there's a certain level of like, you know, uniqueness to LeBron. But I, I, I think this is something definitely he's geared up for. At the end of the day, you know me, I'm a big professional wrestling guy. Stephen A. Smith is just a professional wrestler that doesn't do the wrestling aspect. He is up there. He's got a gimmick. He knows what draws ratings. He knows what he can say out there. He knows anything he does with LeBron is going to get likes or clicks. Like whether he believes any of this stuff, I don't even know. Evoking Bronnie. Like we've talked about it here, but like, and we mentioned this, any other late second round pick we're not talking about. ESPN's not talking about it. No one's talking about it. Whether you Think Bronnie should have been drafted or not? The only reason you had that conversation is because you know who the kid is. If some other first round pick, that or second round pick that was scoring five, six points a game in college got drafted, you guys wouldn't even, like, no one would even know or care. And so there's an, there's an element of both sides here where like, yeah, LeBron has done indicate any favors because while he was in high school, he was talking about how he was already better than a bunch of guys in the league, which he's obviously wrong about. But then like, why is Stephen A. Even bringing it up? He's bringing it up because it's, it's. He got what he wanted. He got a reaction out of LeBron because he's a dad. And you know, if someone's talking crap about your kid, you know, Rome, I assume he's the same thing. Someone talking, you know, crap about your daughter. That's not really anything with the profession. You're getting like some personal stuff. That's where it's going to go. But Stephen A's carving out a new lane for himself. The man's making pro sports like numbers when it comes to actually being a player, was he got five years, 100 million dollar contract and that's just at ESPN. And he's in political, he's on political shows, going on Fox News. He's going like all these different other venues and stuff. So he's carving out a media lane for himself to be like the number one name in all of media where he wants to. And he's only going to solicit takes. They're going to judge stuff like this. And LeBron's a lightning rod, for better or for worse. Like, I'm a Jordan guy. I think Aaron's a Jordan guy too. That's what we grew up with, you know. But there's no arguing the greatness of LeBron, his career and kind of where, you know, he's at. And I think, you know, when you look 20 years from now, the argument always rings true of like all the criticism the skip Bayless is and maybe Stephen A. And some of these have had a lot about LeBron. We're gonna miss how critical we were in the moment of this guy's greatness for my entire adult life at this point. But for better, for worse, he's a lightning rod of topics and that's what Stephen A. Is getting at it. So it's a giant joke. We shouldn't be talking about this you know, I'd rather be old school. Espn, we're throwing some highlights. Get on Baseball Tonight. Let me talk about the White Sox. Let me talk about this torpedo bat. And we're getting some. Get some booyah from Stuart Scott. [01:10:27] Speaker B: Baseball's dead on ESPN after this year, man. That's it, man. [01:10:30] Speaker C: This is the last. [01:10:31] Speaker B: Baseball Tonight was great, man. Sports sitter with Baseball Tonight was like, classic, man. That was great. I loved it. [01:10:38] Speaker C: Like, I just want to hear Carl Ravich, you know, how do I get Carl Ravage with. With a few guys up there talking some baseball. [01:10:44] Speaker B: Where's Peter Gammons at? Where's Peter Gammon? [01:10:47] Speaker C: But. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's just a big joke. And. And. But I will say I. You give Stephen a credit because these are the things you remember. Like, you remember him talking crap to K. Kd. You don't want to make an enemy out of me. [01:11:00] Speaker A: Don't you dare. [01:11:01] Speaker C: You make an enemy out of me. Just like. And it just get. It gets traction when you do stuff like that. And, like, what, are these grown men gonna get into a fist fight? No, but cool. We can talk about it. [01:11:13] Speaker A: There's no fist fight when you're worth over $100 million. [01:11:16] Speaker C: 100%. [01:11:17] Speaker A: I'll talk. Talk kind of weird. [01:11:21] Speaker B: And that's what Stephen A. Does, man. He talks. I mean, Jason nailed it, man. He's all about clickbait ratings. I mean, he doesn't really bring much analyst to it. He just basically runs his mouth and calls players out, and that's what he does. I mean, I don't. I don't know the exact quote. Maybe you do Rome. That kind of got this thing going. Is there any, like, particular thing he said about Bronnie that really got this thing going? [01:11:44] Speaker A: I do know. Yeah, I. It's. I don't watch first take a lot, but I'll have it in the background once in a while. And it was when he pleaded with LeBron, LeBron, don't do this. Like, be a good father, you know, like, like, like, like, as if. Like LeBron's forcing his kid to be in the NBA. It was just a weird. It was a weird take. It was like him. I don't know. It was a little much. That was probably it. That was probably it. [01:12:13] Speaker B: So, I mean. Yeah, I mean, Jason said it best. I mean, if this wasn't Bronnie and LeBron's kid, like, Bronnie's not getting drafted. I mean, he's been kind of. He was a McDonald's All American, which he really wasn't. He wasn't one of the best 25 high school basketball players. I think that's evident by what his numbers were in college. I mean, if anything, he would be, like we said in the transfer portal, going somewhere. He only averaged what, three and a half, four points a game. I only played like 12, 15 minutes. In fact, he wasn't even like one of the top three players at USC on their roster at the time. They had another player I think got drafted. He's playing for the Utah Jazz right now, but he's putting up good numbers, like you said, in the G League, Rome, which is great. I mean, that's, you know, a continuation of like, you know, college guys that are right there on the verge of, you know, being in the NBA. So that. That's good for him to be in, but, you know, 55th pick in the second round. If he. If he isn't LeBron's kid, is he getting drafted? No, he's still in college. So, I mean, Stephen a. You know, basically saying he would put hands on LeBron if he touched him. I mean, let's. Let's not kid ourselves here. LeBron would basically pick him up like the undertaker and choke slam him. Like a WWE reference here that Jason brings up. But, you know, Stephen, a. Five years, 100 million. He's on other stuff. He's basically becoming a mogul. Basically becoming a big media head. He's got aspirations. Good for him, man. I mean, it's. I think Rome, we talked about this off air, but all these media guys getting big payday money is. It's good for guys like us podcasters and stuff because it just brings more attention to this beer and it allows us the opportunity and platform to grow and see where it goes from there. [01:14:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd be really happy if I got, you know, hell, just 20 million. Five years. 20. I'll do 10 years. 20 million. I'll do anything for a million. I gotta be careful with you guys. You guys are. You guys are really slick, dude. [01:14:19] Speaker B: Hey, I. I didn't want to get to a controversy segment this late at night, but you're just opening up a can of worms with that one. [01:14:25] Speaker A: Honestly, a million dollars, I don't give a. Yeah, you guys are. You guys are bad, dude. All right, I think that's it. Celtics are on fire. Okay's on fire. [01:14:41] Speaker B: Chicago Bulls were on fire. Still hot. Still hot. [01:14:45] Speaker C: I don't know. We're a little lukewarm out here. We're six and four in our last 10, I think six and four. [01:14:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm thrilled. Six and four. [01:14:54] Speaker C: Well, I'm a little worried. The Heat have won five straight and now are ahead of the Bulls. You know, they got up to the nine seed. So you know this. The jockeying really matters here in the the 8, 9, 10 range in the Eastern Conference. [01:15:05] Speaker B: You know what? The Bulls didn't they just beat the Heat like two weeks ago? [01:15:08] Speaker C: They did. [01:15:09] Speaker B: They just, they want the Heat. [01:15:11] Speaker A: I just go to Miami getting the ninth seat. Actually. [01:15:14] Speaker B: I think the Heat are going to get the nine. The Bulls. The Bulls kind of already blew their waddle. [01:15:20] Speaker C: That really was. It really was that shot giddy. This reaction like that was the most hyped United Center's been since like the Eastern Conference versus Finals. [01:15:30] Speaker B: I wish we had like an IT AI guy, but when they showed that Lakers fan, I wish I could just pit. I just picture Roman's face on that Laker fan. That's like in the middle just like an all shocking off on the Twitter feed. I'm like, oh man. I just want to that just. Just pit Roman's face right there. [01:15:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I bet you would. That was crazy. That was crazy. Anything else? [01:15:56] Speaker C: NBA? No. But you know, we got to do justice to Formula one because when we were getting off the last pod. [01:16:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:16:05] Speaker C: We were talking about potentially Red Bull making a change for their number two slot behind Verstappen and they. [01:16:14] Speaker A: Did that happen after our last pod? [01:16:15] Speaker C: Yeah, literally happened right after the last pod. Aaron and I were talking about it. The sources knew here, you know what was going on. So Yuki Tsunoda gets brought up from the. The Racing Bulls team, you know, the number two Red Bull team at his home Grand Prix in Japan for the champion Japanese Grand Prix going to get the number two Red Bull seat beat with Verstappen, him and Liam Lawson doing the switch. So Lawson, who spent half of last year on the Racing Bulls teams, goes back to them. Very, very interesting. Not that we didn't call it. Want to talk about a team with some questionable management decisions. I think a lot has to be said about Red Bull in the past couple years and kind of what they done two races in already making driver changes speaks to kind of the panic within their organization. But at the same time also like really like a poor decision in the off season to put Liam Lawson in that position and now really what you've done from his confidence moving forward and. And now like after the off season of preparation, having Yuki Sonoda go into this spot. But I think it shows what they're really feeling right now is that Red Bull's looking like the fourth best team and they really need, they really need points to support Verstappen because Verstappen is not going to be able to go against both Ferraris, both Mercedes and both McLarens to do better than four. [01:17:41] Speaker A: So it's tall order. When they announced it, a bunch of women on Instagram that I'm friends with posted pictures of Yuki. Like this guy has a lot of fans and I didn't even know they know anything about F1. I don't think they do. But apparently this guy has a big draw of a lot of young women and so that's gonna probably bring in a lot of new fans for F1 as well. It. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. It was like at least 50 plus post I saw Yuki. [01:18:08] Speaker C: He's got, he's got a big following like, you know, a lot of us to drive to survive, you know and we talked about it when we had our guests on a little bit for what that's done. But he's had a pretty significant following. He's had kind of a, you know, a little bit of an up and down career. He's got a ton of skill. For him it's always been some discipline stuff, you know, preparation for race. I mean some of the times, you know, the drive to survive kind of over does that but like, but he's a pretty aggressive on the track at the same time too. But he's had a lot of skills. A lot of questions I think with him. Just he's got backing from Honda and this is Honda's last year with Red Bull. So like what was his future of the team going to be without Honda's backing as they're going to be moving on. But I think Red Bull needed to know what they've had because it was kind of weird that they didn't put him into this position being though he's on the last year of his contract and I think Yugi is going to be a hot property in free agency. There's a lot of talk of him potentially going to, to Cadillac, you know, when they, when they go into the sport next year because they're going to need two drivers and if he's one that you know, pops ratings in the US even though he's a Japanese driver, you know that that could have been a possibility for them. So I, and then even some Formula one pods have really been waiting for him to get this opportunity on the main team because you know, there's just A difference between the Red Bull car and the Racing Bulls car and the fact that there hasn't been much and you've had so terrible production out of Lawson. Like, this is kind of Yuki's time to prove himself. This is kind of like that. This is that free. That free agency year, man. When you're on the contract and kind of what you're going to get. Can you prove to Red Bull you deserve to be on the number two team or you put up a. You put up something and another team comes calling with a bigger check to be the number one driver for a startup team like Cadillac. That could be interesting as well too. [01:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah, contract year, contract year makes a lot of sense. [01:19:55] Speaker B: Liam Lawson's like the coaches. You're. He's like the Rob Saul here. Just getting fired early, man. [01:20:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean that. That's the biggest thing. Like Lawson was he. Two seasons ago, he came in as really kind of the third driver. Daniel Ricardo replaced Nick DeVries two years ago, halfway through the season. And then Ricardo got hurt in a practice in Zander Fort and Lawson came in as a backup and replaced Ricardo for a few races and. And did pretty solid. Showed the promise of where he was at. And then last year he was the reserve driver, then eventually replaced Ricardo and had some pretty like respectable races. But then he never had the full season in the Racing Bulls. He had just two spots, you know, some spots, spot starts over two years and you put him in this position behind Verstappen. And I mentioned you guys in last Potter Pot before Red Bull did this a couple years ago, before they had Sergio Perez, it did it with Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly. They threw them in the car. Pierre Gasly, he wasn't performing. They kicked him out. They had Albon. Albon got a little bit of a run and then they eventually got rid of them both. And that's what led them to size. Sergio Perez with a little more experience. And there's a lot to be said about the Red Bull car that it is so hard to drive. For some drivers, Verstappen's kind of the ones that mastered it. When you do it right, it's great. But when. If you don't know how to manage his car, you're just not good with it and that's what you're seeing. Liam Lawson, I just. And Alex Albon's done some. Some talking about that in some interviews at the way the car is. They almost described it as like if you play a racing game, you put the sensitivity all the way up to 100. And it's just so touchy for the way it drives and it suits Verstappen style, but it doesn't search some of these other guys the way they may like to drive the car. So it takes a certain type of driver and Red Bull not getting that right just seems like a waste. And here's a lot of. We can get into some of the politics and stuff behind Red Bull at another time. But like they have kind of. Red Bull's got kind of a driver academy. And I think this really questions a lot of like the fact that they can't get this second Red Bull seat right of the driver academy. And they're so critical and so quick to get rid of drivers. Like cool. Like what are you actually doing to produce the drivers for your team? Because you're just going through them like crazy and none of them are succeeding. [01:22:15] Speaker A: Next race is coming up, right? [01:22:17] Speaker C: Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. It's a nice. Another Saturday night race for you guys. I think it's 10pM Man. [01:22:23] Speaker B: Perfect. [01:22:23] Speaker C: P. M. So love it, man. [01:22:26] Speaker A: That's actually a lot better than midnight because I'll be with my daughter again. And we both knocked out halfway in the last race. [01:22:34] Speaker C: Well, after we can do a little. Maybe a little more preview on the. The Thursday night episode. But. But looking forward to the weekend. [01:22:40] Speaker A: Nice. [01:22:42] Speaker C: We'll catch.