Michigan beats UConn to win 2nd Title, Wemby concerns, Bills & Ravens new HCs, King of the Hill

Getting instant insights is amazing, but if there are too many data points, it can be hard to see what works. So I'll ask my AI assistant for recommendations. And with PDF Spaces in Acrobat Studio, it's easy to remix documents and transform insights into standout content so you can go from idea to creation in record time, all within an AI-powered workflow. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more and try it out on Adobe.com Now, all the treatise present, let's get started, shall we? From rags to riches. I'm so sick of this. Working like a dog and being treated worse. Yorkshire to New York. Or climbers, you and me. A life dedicated to revenge. Let's make this an occasion to remember. A Woman of Substance on Channel 4, stream now. Live from New York, it's the show that always was a little bit worried about the Yukon Huskies despite being on them for decades. Shooting was an issue, and I'll get into why. But congratulations to Michigan and your Wolverines. I always was rocking with my Wolverines. Honest question, you said you would know who the heart wanted. Who did the heart want? I wasn't really overly invested in either team, but honestly, I was slightly pulling for Danny Hurley. I feel like I would have been, but the tiebreaker was, Wilds being in pain. I'm not really in pain. We overachieved. Well, I mean, barely. You're a two seed, but really, that was really... This is showing though, that you never really... Really, you never... Yeah, the fact that you are fine after losing a champion, you weren't like this after the Patriots. Right, exactly. You weren't. You actually, that team overachieved. That team wasn't two seed. Yeah. MVP at quarterback. If you kind of had one, you'd be going crazy. But it would be like, you would be stealing all about championship. Today, Wolverines are champions. How'd they do it? And what does this mean for college basketball? Meanwhile, Wemby hurt. What's the proper level of concern coming from Chris Brassard over the Spurs? Supercharged Paul George run. And finally... Special April edition of King of the Hill. First April edition. The butterflies will be in full effect. Alongside Nick Wright and Chris Brassard. I'm Kevin Wilde. Any surprises on the Hill? I have one. Yes. Listen, the bottom little bit of the Hill, we took some journalistic liberties. Well, we had kind of had a prohibition on team players on tankers. We made an exception. Okay. There's also a guy who's probably not one of the 28 best, but I'm so impressed. Definitely not. So impressed with what he's done with his team losing a superstar that I put him on there. You'll see. Oh, it was an interesting guy. Yeah, I like when it has a little work. Yeah, it has a little... One guy was at the top a little while ago, and now he's not even going. He scored 83 points. I mean, he goes from the top of the Hill, and now he's not even making any points. My goodness. We started in Indianapolis. Wolverines win their first title in 37 years. Cadone named most outstanding player of the tournament. Here's coach Dusty May on Michigan players sacrificing for each other. Take a listen. When you bring a group this talented together and they decide from the beginning that they're going to do it this way and they never waver and they never change, that's probably the most uncommon thing in athletics now. And it's a tribute to their character, but also those and their circles around them, their coaches, their parents, their mentors. They allowed these guys to give themselves up for the group, and it's never guaranteed, but for these guys to cut down the nets after all, they sacrifice is pretty special. Okay, speaking of sacrifice, everybody scored over 12 points a game. Not everybody, five players. Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, 1970 UCLA, 1964 UCLA. Only Arizona did not win the title. So a very egalitarian scoring attack. What's the number one reason Michigan won? Well, I think their size was a huge factor. Their size and their defense, which kind of went together. Now I said yesterday Illinois was big, but their size wasn't as good as Michigan's was. 73, 6'9", 6'9". That's their front line. I mean, most NBA teams don't have that type of front line. And the 73 had like an official measurement on that. You think he's taller? Yeah, it's like. Really? He towered over. He towered over Teres Reed. And I thought going in, Teres Reed would be able to kind of nullify that size and have a great game. Now his numbers look okay. 13 points, 14 boards, I think are reversed. But I thought he was not a factor. He was not able to be a factor at all. I thought Mar did a great job and just took him out of his game. Kado, who you know, I talked to you about, I really like him. I'm thinking Nick, maybe he's like a nice backup point guard in the NBA, but he, you know, he played well, made some big plays. And when I said the size and the defense, look at this, 61 of their 69 points for Michigan came in the paint. They only hit two threes in the paint or at the free throw line. They outscored UConn 61 to 34 in the paint. Yeah. And then UConn would have had to hit a ton of threes. They hit nine, I think. 61 to 34 in the paint plus free throws. Yeah, plus free throws. Paint and free throws, I'm sorry. And then they had six block shots. So they really intimidated them. But, and I was thinking this is the game was going on. UConn kept it close. And so you're thinking, is Michigan going to panic? Like you were saying they've been blowing teams out and with Hurley could they pull some magic? This, now I don't think they would have won. I wonder if you're pulling it. Well, it's probably it, right? They could have cut it to four here with two minutes left. They missed that. Yeah. And then they come down and hit a three. Which by the way, they had hit one. And only their second right. Right, they had hit one three on game and then he makes the shot. And that kid is a freshman. Yep. So that, that was the game, right? It was over once that happened, but they had, I don't think they would have won anyway. No, but who knows, maybe I'm not going to shoot. The second half played out how at the end of yesterday's show. And again, I do not fancy myself a college basketball expert. And I got, you know, I finished close to last in our bracket competition. So I'm not patting myself on the back, but this game played out how I said I thought it would, which was that Michigan had, I think I said Michigan up nine, like the whole second half. And that's, they were never blowing them out, but they're also after the 17 minute mark of the second half, 17 minutes left in the second half. Yukon never had the ball with the chance to take the lead. You know what I mean? It was consistent, which is why that one sequence at the end that you're talking about is the one spot where it would have felt like a theft of a victory along the lines of the Duke victory. But at least the Duke victory, they were walking them down as opposed to just, it was, They were outplayed the whole game. Listen, credit to Danny because he called it and he said it for the reasons brew outlined. They were the best team all year. Michigan, Arizona and Duke were record wise, kin, palm rating wise. All those things had separated themselves from everyone else. And when you look, listen, Duke for the second straight year blew it in a huge spot and Michigan and Arizona played each other. And I thought, you know, I said, I thought that was the title game. Now this game was closer than that game. So that's probably unfair, but they were too big. They were too tough. And the fact that Michigan and may set it after the game loses the rebounding battle and makes two threes and their best player was clearly hampered by the injury that we knew he had. All of that. And they still controlled the game. And I don't want to say one easily, but one oddly, I think you can say one easily. It's pulling for Yukon. I texted Danny during the game. I was like, this is the largest five point lead of all time to fight. Well, look, we cannot cut this lead down. I have a video of where I think the game turned. We were in the lead for a while. So I was starting to feel good. This hook that turned into a four point play was called flagrant foul. So they made two free throws all of a sudden the Wolverines got the ball back. They hit another two. So we went from being at the last time we're up. It took a long time to there's a bit of a momentum killer. So that's where I think the game changed. So when you say the game changed, you think without that, I felt like we could we were scratching out of victory. The path was not outplay Michigan. It was just a sort of like scratch and get in the mud and and steel buckets and get a fast break here or there. So but this is the issue that this Yukon team was not a powerhouse like Michigan was the last two Yukon teams that won the championship combined spent 37 minutes trailing. Oh, yeah. This team spent 88 minutes trailing. Obviously the Duke game. The game was down often. This is big. Now we'll zoom out big picture. There was a point when Yukon just needed a bucket like who can get us a bucket really nobody. And then on my social media feed that I follow Huskies in the NBA, Liam McNeely, who declared it was freshman of the year in the Big East last year, declared for the draft and like, man, this guy should really stay. But he was on. He played high school with Cooper flag and feels like it was time for everybody to go. I think Derek Queen was on the team time for everybody to go to the NBA. So now he's in the G League and he's tearing up the G League. He's playing for the Hornets and making buckets. And I wonder if maybe this is a super macro. If he didn't go, would Yukon would have won? Would it be better for him? And would it be better for like college basketball if you have a little bit of a continuity for a Yukon team where one of the story lines is caribans been there for so long? That's fair. But I mean, listen, the best player or second best player on Yukon read spent his first two years in Michigan. And so if he is that you and and so the so here's the other piece if we're going to talk the Yukon side of it just before we get to the bigger picture stuff. I believe Dan listen, I have an affinity for Rick Petino, but the results matter, you know, it just positively. I think Danny Hurley is the best active college basketball coach. I don't think it's even correct. I don't I think right now with Coach K having retired. It's, you know, a couple of years ago now. But Petino has got a strong. Petino has an argument for that he ranks higher than him historically, but the best cook just had he cooked him this right. The best contemporary coach. Okay, because fine. I think Hurley's got a great argument for it. I also think he is at the moment closer to J. Wright at Villanova. Oh my God. Look at what he's done. This is amazing. Hall of Fame caliber. Then John Wooden. No, John Wooden. And no, no, but okay. John Wooden coach K, Adolf Bob Knight, the guys who you don't think he could become a coach. No, I think that had they won, he would have been in that three title tier. And I think that probably would have been too fast. I don't think he is. I think he's Billy Donovan at Florida got their very in short order, got into the final four. They didn't have the history that Yukon did. Won a couple titles. J. Wright at Villanova. You know what I mean? And turned them into a powerhouse. That's the same team. Say it again. Florida is just the same team. They just ran it back. The same with Yukon's back to back. When Yukon won it again, like when Yukon won back to back, it's a lot of the same guys. Well, they didn't have Castle. No, I'm not saying it's the same. I mean, if you look, see, I disagree because Wright was similar. Like those guys would stay three and four years at Villanova. So he had the same guys. The thing that's impressive with Hurley, first of all, two guys from his championship teams. Donovan Klingon, who's looking like, okay, he's going to be a nice solid role player in NBA. And starting center, maybe he's like 12 and 11 this year. And Stefan Castle, who's going to be a superstar, but was just a freshman there and played. He wasn't like some freshman of the year player. That's it. Everybody, nobody else he has included this year. Looks like they're going to make any type of noise in the NBA. But doesn't that feel like the modern college basketball? Like, does Michigan have guys that you're like, man, that guy's going to be a star? No, no, they just got older. You're right. That is college basketball day. But I just think with NIL, with one and dunes, with the portal, for him to run, and he didn't run off three and four. That would have been a whole different thing. And that's where the results come in. That's the point that I'm making. I mean, if he doesn't win another one for the next seven years, which is probably more likely than not, then he's still a great college. Still in all time, great. It just felt like being a game away from it's like, hey, the list of coaches with three, it's Denny Krum, Coach K, Wooden, Rupp, Knight, and Hurley. Or does Krum only have two? Maybe I've done. But it's only a handful. I could dream Abdul. And then I have Luhal Sindar. No, I, but yeah, it was such a different. Michigan win their second title in school history, Dusty May's second year, three seasons. Oh, boy, Wooden. I left out. Since the team went eight and 24, the tail ended, Juan Howard's tenure. How will you remember this Michigan squad? We got into it a little bit just now, but they are, you know, I remember them like, I remember this Indiana football team that just won the national championship. Now I give signetty more credit. I mean, that's a, they were the worst program in division one. And in two years, he won a championship. But this team, now obviously Michigan had a strong program, but two years ago before Dusty May got there, they won eight games. Now two years later, they have a championship and the connection is not just big 10, not just quick run to the title. But the portal, I mean, that's how signetty did it. And you, there's a talent to that, that you have to be able to look at guys at other teams that may not have fulfilled their potential or whatever. Like Elliot Caddow, he was almost run out of North Carolina and he comes here and he's the most outstanding player and winning a championship. So there's a talent there, but I just think their, their five starters were all transfers. So they are representative and emblematic of the new modern NCAA basketball. So quickly here's the top four scores, incoming transfers. Yaxwell, obviously UAB Johnson was from Illinois, Mar from UCLA and Caddow, as you mentioned, at UNC. So listen, they had a great free agency up this off season. Yeah, this is where, as the shows, grandfather, grandfather. I am going to, you know, talk about how it was in the good old days. Because here is, those players, this is a accomplishment that resonates for the rest of their lives. What Dusty May did, it feels like Michigan should have had more success at the top level of college basketball. You know what I mean? The fact that they hadn't won since 89 and most people, when you, if you say, right, they assume the Fab Five was the team that won, but they're not like that. So I'm taking nothing away from those young men in that coach. But I will not remember this Michigan team. I won't. And in the last decade, the only national champion that I vividly remember, the only national champion since Chris Jenkins at the buzzer beater against North Carolina that I vividly remember is Yukon's back to back. Because the back to back, the second team felt so great and inevitable and just dominating people. Do I have a lot of memories about Florida's team last year? No. Do I have any memories about Baylor's team? No. Like they, and that is, that is the tax of the modern college basketball paradigm. We don't watch these teams grow together, fail together, try again. There isn't the continuity of it. The NBA star power guys very often are popped early. You know what I mean? The Bantz is gone early. Peterson's gone early. A buzzer wasn't gone early, but then so it just, it does feel like this is something that forget 40, like the housey on days of college basketball over for my era. Like the, yeah. You would see guys grow. Like, oh, last year they came close this year. They're going to be great. But so like, so I'm not even talking about the 80s college basketball. I just mean something as simple as all use my school. Syracuse wins the title in 03 based on the power of a superstar freshman in Carmelo Anthony who was never going to stay the rest of the way. And then Jerry McNamara is there for three more years and now he's the head coach. And Keem works there for a couple more years and like you, those guys, you remember them in the title game. Their teammates, you see them, you know, they get their heart tripped out by Vermont in the first round. You're like, oh, they had just won the title. That element of college basketball is gone. And what I was promised on the back end of it, Brew was, yeah, Cinderella's are gone. The continuity is gone. What you're going to get though is unbelievable basketball. I didn't get that either. I got a tournament full of blowouts. I had a few, but Duke Yukon will show the graphic dust since the tournament began. The biggest blowouts in the elite eight or after two of the last three years. So we are the Cinderella's are gone. And we're not it's not like we're getting again. Duke Yukon was a memorable, unbelievable game. Yeah. But the other elite eight games and final four games and national championship game were not. But it didn't feel like a heavyweight, you know, but that's just a bummer. I think it goes beyond that. I mean, obviously some people still watch a lot of college basketball, but the tournament is not big. This year you had some great freshmen. So you thought, oh, but they all were gone pretty early. The tournament is no longer big because I want to see this great player, that great player, these great teams meet each other. It's big because it's a one and done spectacle. Everybody's betting on it and everything. That's why it's big. You people that don't even follow college basketball through the year are into the tournament because of just the format of it. Period. You might not know any of the players, but the format of it and then you got some big names are Duke. Oh, and North Carolina. That's what makes it exciting. It's not like it used to be where you follow certain players for a few years and all that. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is. One final graphic to shout out Michigan. Winning the national title in football and basketball in a span of three years. Just Michigan, Florida and Ohio State. So things are going well in Harvard. Florida did it the same year. Yes, that's correct. Yeah, Florida, one of Florida's was the same. It's kind of cool for Michigan. No, it is great. I don't want to end it on a negative note. No, and again, everything changes and it's fine that everything changes. I feel like college basketball, right? College football has a lot of the same changes, but what I have found is the games actually do feel more awesome. Like we're getting these sick matchups and the high and the level of play, I think has increased actually because guys like the best players at James Madison now going to bigger college. Like I think college basketball is in a transitional period where they're figuring out how to best handle the repair. We saw the number one pick of the NFL do amazing stuff in the national championship. Wherever Banes gets what's being going to go top 10, he was doing great stuff. So you got some 23, 24 year olds, maybe a little older who aren't good enough to be in the NBA, but they can be great in college. All right, we're going to head to the NBA. Head to Philadelphia where the Spurs beat the Sixers, but Wemby was injured when he collided with Paul George in the second quarter. Maybe exacerbated a little bit later on in the quarter. He didn't play in the second half under 16 minutes total, but it does count to the wretched 65 game rule. Now, Shams reporting while we were talking in the block earlier that the Spurs are not worried about anything major. So that's good. So the kind of answers the questions are you worried about when? I was and we'll see, right? But if it's something that will affect him going into the playoffs, then they will not be the threat we thought in the Western Conference. It's simplest. Like he has to be basically 100% and playing his best for them to have a chance to beat a Denver and to beat an OKC. If he's not, they can't. And I mean, obviously we'll throw in the 65 game. You hope he can play one of these last three games with him. He's got to play 20 minutes. Now, if it came down that he's just not ready, we don't want to put him out there and risk it. You sit him because the playoffs are more important. I'm not saying it's weak from the Spurs. I'm saying this rule just contains disaster. So that's the... But if he's out for the year, they're cooked. So then I guess they were for all toll. I just did that to irritate Wilde. But I'm like... Let me say this quickly if you don't mind. I think Nick Longter, and I get this injury was not related to him playing out on the perimeter and stuff, but he's played three years. The one year he's played 30 minutes or more, he got hurt, only played 46 games. His first year he played 71, played 29 minutes a game. This year he's played most of the year. You hear trainers and doctors talk at nauseam about how even LeBron brought up, playing the day is so grueling because you got to guard out to the three-point line. You got to do a lot more moving on defense and offense is so spread out. The Spurs who are with OKC, the best-run organizations in the league, but their doctors have got to figure out, if this is really more grueling for everybody, how grueling is it for a 7-5 guy? Because he plays like a guard to a large degree. Do they have to bring him closer to the basket for most of the game, which wouldn't be bad strategically either, but he's out there playing on the perimeter like all the other players on the team, like Castle and Kelden Johnson and him. I just wonder, the calf strain earlier in the year, does he need to make him play closer to the basket so he's not out chasing? In other words, my scoot takes not dead yet. They just got to figure it out. This didn't feel like you were saying that. This wasn't because of that. Also, I'm always anxious about injuries that when I see them look like nothing. Certainly the second, so this is a real collision, but it didn't look like... He looked like he was holding his shoulder. Yeah, and he's holding his shoulder, but they call it a rib. But that didn't, to me, look like something that we'd be talking about a guy being knocked out for. And certainly the re-aggravation play really looked like... Well, I think he was banged. Because even now he's not moving. He's like lethargic. Yeah, and so that, you know, my just general simmering concern about giant athletes. And so that's going to exist with Wimby forever, and you just hope that it doesn't rear its head. As far as the 65 game thing goes, because it is, if he misses their next game, it's on the board that by the time they play again, the spurs are locked into the two-seed. You know what I mean? The Thunder's magic number is two, and the Thunder are 17.5 point favorites tonight against the corpse of the Lakers. So it's about to be one. And if the spurs are locked into the two-seed, then obviously the smart thing for them to do in game 82 of the season is to not play even a slightly banged up Wimby at maximum recovery. But the fact that, now he's not going to win MVP either way, but he is going to win defensive player of the year. He is going to make his first all-NBA team, and the fact that the spurs have to do as part of their math, man. Well, it's defensive. We've spent so much time on MVP. Defensive player of the year is out. All awards. That hasn't even crossed my mind. All awards. Chets sitting there like, oh, this is, no, it's ridiculous. And so like, and it really frustrates. And also he is one of those guys who hasn't yet gotten his max deal. Oh, that's a great point. Super max. Yeah, he needs the DPOY to be eligible for it. Or the all-NBA. Or all-NBA. Or all-NBA. So it's just crazy. Like the spurs, listen, if they're alive for the one seed, then they might bring him back at less than 100% on their own because like, hey, it's worth it. I don't know if they were not. I think, but. Don't you think they have, they're not going to win. They've shown they would be conservative and they're not getting the one. They would need OKC to collapse on the stretch. But it is wild, KW, that this is, it's, it might be one of the worst current rules in sports. Yeah. It's flying up the charts. 10 teams hit the field today. Next on FS1 in the Fox Sports Channel right here on Serious XM. A lot of just parking lot shots there. Yeah. Hear that. That's a McVitie's moment starting. Whether it's a work catch up. Oh, don't mind if I do. Or five minutes in the work van. Go on. Help yourself. Grab the digestives today and make it a McVitie's moment. Podcast is rolling and check out our YouTube page where there's all sorts of original content featuring me and a Yankees uniform. It's just you. You do. You do. You do. You do. Welcome back to First Things First. Coach Mangini back in action along with 10 NFL teams. The rule, if you got a new coach, you can start the offseason a little bit early. That's good. Focus on two powerhouses, Ravens and Bills to start. Do we trust the Bills or the Ravens more under their new leadership? Well, I know coach has got to agree with me now on this one, the Ravens. No, look, I'm looking at it this way. I think the Bills are going to be great with Joe Brady offensively. I think both teams will be contenders, but I have some question, I guess, I'll put it on the board about the Bills defense. Because I think Sean McDermott was obviously a very good defensive coach and they had a ton of injuries, old players, and he always had them as like a top 10-ish defense. So I do question what the defense is going to look like. For the Ravens, I feel like, I know they came on last year, they came on the year before, but it hasn't been that typical Ravens defense we were used to. Mentor was there doing some of the glory years as, you know, and the staff with the Ravens. He went to the Chargers, took them from 24th to 1st defensively as their coordinator a couple years ago. So I think defensively he's going to shore things up. Offensively, I just think they got Lamar, Jackson, and Derek Henry, they're going to be good. Lamar last year had a bad year for him. He's still at a 103 pass rating, second in the league in touchdown percentage. Like he still put up numbers and we know he wasn't typical Lamar, but they're going to be fine, I think, offensively. And my biggest concern about them has been the lack of discipline, the not being mentally tough in big games, particularly in the playoffs. And I don't know that Mentor can change that, but I'm hopeful and maybe, you know, he will. So I feel like the Ravens have a little more, I guess, upside with the new leadership. And Lamar had those numbers without going to the offseason program. So this guy has a limin hour, day two. And it's the rocket ship at this point. So Buffalo should have an advantage because of the continuity offensively. And Brady kept 12 coaches from the previous staff. So that should give him the edge. He's not learning a new playbook. There's not going to be that adjustment for your best player. So that's a real positive for them. But when you look at how this all took place and the decision in the locker room at the end of the season, the obvious impact and influence that ownership has on the organization and the questionable impact that they've had over other organizations that they've owned historically. So to me, that's a problem and that's not going away. So as a new head coach, how is he going to navigate through all of that? Where with Baltimore, it's always been a personal driven organization. And since the day one of the organization, I was there the first year and that group, a lot of those people who were there when we transitioned from the Browns, the Ravens are still there. And a new head coach coming in, it's a little bit of plug and play because things are taken care of and they're going to be able to just focus on coaching. He's going to be able to focus on coaching. He's been there before. That's a real advantage of well. And I think Steve Bishadi is an excellent owner. He demands accountability and he meets with them weekly, but he's not the type of guy that's going to force them to do things because his barber thinks it's a good idea. Or some guy he met at the golf club says, hey, you should try this. Or the Madden rating says, you know, take this guy and not this guy. So I don't trust the bill's leadership at all. I trust the quarterback intensely. So I, I, Does that include Brady? You don't trust Brady either? I don't know why I'm supposed to trust Joe Brady as an NFL head coach. He was an coordinator for Josh Allen, every coordinator for Josh Allen since he's been Josh Allen, except for the guy who I always forget his name, who lost his mind breaking stuff in the law. Ken Dorsey. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like there is a floor and even Dorsey had success. Like there's a floor there. I, I, the only part you didn't mention about the hiring cycle was and then they also like really let Josh have a hand in it, which I think is always a little tenuous. And I trust the Ravens organizationally, intensely, intensely. You mentioned ownership. I think they have a great GM. Jesse Minter made, was a guy, a lot of people I think were going to hire or wanted to potentially hire as a head coach as opposed to the internal, you know, promotion for Joe Brady. The flip side is the bills are coming off a good season and the Ravens are not. Josh Allen had a really good regular season. I, I view Lamar's season not quite as possibly as brutal as I get it was a little bit of. And so the numbers were, somehow. His passer rating and efficiency numbers were good. I felt week to week game to game. It was the worst season of his career. And so it's a, I don't really trust the bills organization, but I've never seen him be bad when Josh Allen's, you know, after his rookie season. Nice. There's four sort of Mount Rushmore QB's in the AFC, if not the whole NFL. Mahomes, Burrow, Lamar, Josh. I saw Joe Burrow miss the playoffs often. Yeah. I saw Lamar miss the playoffs. I saw Patrick Mahomes miss the playoffs. We believe in due dates. Do we think that Josh Allen's just going to be in the playoffs exclusively for his whole career? I just saw, I, and I know, like, I would not think Lamar would miss the playoffs. I would not think that Mahomes would miss the playoffs. And it just happened. So I would think it happened to a lot of the greats. Oh, yeah. Almost all of them. Let's see, I think it's all of the greats. And I know we've got the Dolphins in the Jets, but, so maybe those are easy dubs, but the Patriots are, it's, it's set off from... No, I could see, listen, what certainly the bills can't handle is Josh missing a, even a small stretch of time. Like Lamar, listen, Lamar missed time last year and that is what the Ravens already were. They had started the season poorly. It seemed like it was always going to maybe be a bad year. But Josh also does seem pretty indestructible. Buffalo had a huge drought before McDermott got there and people criticize him as being micromanaging and maybe too much of a disciplinarian, but you can go the other way pretty quickly too. And who knows how Josh Allen's going to, going to respond with all this sort of new authority that he has in the organization. Also, let's sleep. Congrats to Josh. It's huge. His wife just had the baby. Oh. That's like, that's, I, I'm not, like, that is awesome and I'm very happy for them. I think that's a real thing that we always disregard when it comes to the human element, the human element of especially first time father, like new, new parent. I think it hit my homes when he first had his, like, I think there is just a real element of that, the amount of time hours and energy of work it takes to be one of those quarterbacks combined with no matter what your job is, the element of having an infant newborn in the house. Like, I think that's a real thing. Your EQ though, those awful charts. Yeah, I would imagine. Take a look at all the teams with new coaches, 10 new coaches and all we talked about, Bills and Ravens, but also Browns, Cardinals, Dolphins, Falcons, Giants, of course, Raiders, Ravens we just talked about, Mike McCarthy's back. What a diverse group. And Titans with Robert Salas. So which new team, or excuse me, which team with a new coach is most likely to surprise the league, twist Good Or Bad. Oh, Good Or Bad. Yeah, I love talking about it. I twisted it up. Well, these are higher than the others, so that's a positive thing. I'm going to go with Kevin Sifanski and with the Atlanta Falcons, so they finished 8-9. The whole division, the top three teams in the division were 8-9, so they're not devoid of talent. They were competitive in that division last year, even though they ended up missing the playoffs. Actually, I would say the flip side, they've got a lot of talent. And in terms of Tua coming into the mix, all the guys that kind of transitioned to new places, I think Tua's got the best chance to actually impact an organization of all these quarterbacks that have kind of shifted homes in the off-season. And I would say that, you know, two-time coach of the year in Cleveland in that division is a significant accomplishment and shouldn't be taken lightly. So plus I've got Bill Callahan, who knows one of my favorites. Oh, God. How could it go wrong? You know, I couldn't miss an opportunity there. So when you add all those things in the mix, I think they have a real chance to win the division and surprise a lot of people. I do think Sifanski's a good coach. The question is, does he have a quarterback? And he might, but does he? I think that's the question there. I'm going to go with the Giants, because look, even though I think it was time to move on from Harbaugh and Baltimore, for the Giants, I think he's just what they need. He'll bring stability, he'll bring a winning culture, all of that, and they got talent. Do you think that would be a surprise though, Brew? You know what I mean? Oh, because I think a lot, obviously, people are looking at Philadelphia. Oh, but are you talking about them making the playoffs? I'm saying I think they will have a chance. I think they'll be in the playoffs. That would be a surprise. And I mean, Philly takes, which could take a step back, Dallas will see. I mean, that division, I think the Giants are in play for that division. And then they're going to get, you know, we'll see how they strengthen. The offensive line is pretty good. We'll see if he, Dart, he's not Lamar Jackson, but you know, there are some, he's a runner, he's athletic, there are some similarities there, and he's got a receiver too. It seems like that is there. And he brought in some, like Isaiah likely, you know, some of his guys. Listen, and he brings credibility. Like Harbaugh is obviously a very good NFL head coach and brings stability and credibility to the organization. It is very interesting going to be see how the Dexter Lawrence trade request lands, where, you know, the, who handles that to Shane or Harbaugh handle it and how do they handle it. But like there, I think they're projected win totals seven and a half. So like people are eight and a half, like eight and a half would be wild. Check, no, check for me real quick. I remember seeing it doing it on, doing it on my podcast and I was seven and a half is the number. I'm taking over. So that's what I'm saying. It seems like that's a trendy pick for the team. This is maybe going to sound like a, I don't want to say a contradiction, but it goes in the face of what I said in the last segment. Because I think most of these teams are going to do about how people expect. Like I think, I don't think there's going to be a huge surprise. But if one of these teams has a huge surprise and it's due to coaching change, I think it would be a negative surprise. And I think it would be the bills. I think that again, I think Josh Allen gives you a floor and I think the Patriots are in for a bit of regression to the schedule mean and a few things next year. Sorry, KW better team, but worse record. There you go. Yeah. Tale as old as time. And so I think the bills, you can just almost pencil them in every year for at least 11 wins. But I do see a scenario where that defense, which I don't think has had a ton of talent the last few years falls off a cliff. Agreed. If, you know, if Josh isn't awesome from the very beginning, new head coach and a new head coach who seems to be on a very different timeline than the GM. The GM seat is warming even though he's got a promotion. The head coach is like, this isn't year 10. This is year one of the Joe Brady year. Like that I could, but if they have a bad year that I would think Brady could be in trouble. Well, it starts, starts his job. Quarterback picture. You've got a draw quarterback picture. I think it depends on if anybody's crying in the locker room. That's right. Quickly before we go last year, Vrabel, Ben Johnson, sophomore QBs over a chief. We know you're a day ball guy. Robert Salah on his second team. Cam Ward, any, any heartbeat for the, my Titans. New logo. It's faint. But that same thing would apply though to Jackson Dart probably more accurately. Sophomore quarterback would then establish that coach. Yeah. The Giants. But I like, I like day ball though. Titans, probably the Titans is the lack of talent. Well, it's going to be interesting to see how much of a leap that quarterback. And how much they miss Bill Callahan. Yeah. They didn't miss Bill Callahan. I got tricked last year. Got to be alive. Lakers host the Thunder tonight. That's going to be ugly. LeBron off of a 39, 15 point performance in a loss to the Mavs. He reminded a court side fan that he still got it. Take a listen. Okay. Don't let him out. Your reaction. The, I mean, and if you couldn't see it, it was almost better viewed on your phone. He's laughing at the end when he says they put me on the shelf. But I mean it is both things are true. I can still do it and they changed his role. Now he accepted it and it's what they needed to do. Did they talk to him? No, that's the big question. Did he just decide? Oh, that's the best way for me to play. I don't know that JJ. I don't know, but I don't know that JJ Redick went to and say, you know, LeBron, we need you to be the third. I think LeBron just deferred on his own. Maybe. And so, but it is, I don't know if we have this graphic or not. Like it. And so, I think it's a great point. Bru was one of the only people on TV yesterday that made a point to say how good LeBron's game was in that. And I listen, I thought it was an awesome game. I didn't realize how rare it was 30.15 assists games in the NBA this year. That's the list LeBron and his first game back from, you know, exile. Me and put on the show. Yeah. Joker twice and Shay once. And so it just, which just speaks to, and again, they lost to the Mavs. They, it wasn't a good game for the team, but he can still as an offensive engine get to a level. A lot of guys in this league can't even in the year 23 and at age 41. And so my reaction was similar to yesterday's, which is I just keep thinking about teams next year where he could have that role. And they would really compete. And it's all let you go because there's one team that is moving to the top of my list. Oh, wow. And he even showed a little handle that he doesn't often show. I don't know if you guys saw that in that game. He was, he was a little nice with his hand. Show it again. Do it again. But no, he can't do this. Nobody does 30.15 regularly, but he can't do this regularly. And here's the deal. He knows it. Because if he didn't know it, he wouldn't defer to Luca Doncic, let alone Austin or Austin Reeves, let alone Luca Doncic. He would not, they would have to defer to him. If he felt he was still kind of the same LeBron James. So I think he's joking, having fun. Now you can do it occasionally, obviously, but 82 games, he knows he's, you know, he's not that same guy. But I think he was having fun. I think he can do more than, you know, he's was doing for the Lakers over the past month and a half. But again, that that's part of my, and Nick knows how much I love and respect Luca's game. But that's part of it is that you do when somebody's that ball dominant, other guys have to back up and can't be loving respect. Well, he was, I think respect more than love. Well, his, his ability is a bit. He is like I said, he's a Nick specific thing. No, the audience don't. Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, we're on Nick knows I nicknamed him Luca legend. Yeah, you're the only one. And I do think I have, I mean, he's a phenomenal player. But I don't like his style of play. But I think he can should adjust it. I just don't think that's going to win championships. Okay. And I think it takes away from your teammates as his evidence by LeBron James and Jaylon Brunson. I told you. Yeah, I'm just saying. But you know, you're not saying it, but he's a phenomenal player. He respects his talent and his spot as a player. And production. He doesn't necessarily like his style. I think that way. Can you win like that? I think it's the best way. I think they can. I mean, you can win to a certain level, but no, we haven't seen people win championship. Yeah. And I think Luca will be the first. I think Luca will win a championship that way. I couldn't resist. But teams. Listen, I went and reread. The McMenamin-Bontemps article from eight days ago. And I think it's really noteworthy how they included in the details they gave on Denver. I love about his relationship with the owner, Josh Cronkey, that I had forgotten. And then I realized it actually Saturday watching Spurs Nuggets. Jared Dudley is on that coaching staff. And as far as a team's ability to acquire LeBron and not ask him to play for the minimum, have to be assigned in trade situation, the fact that the Nuggets are anticipating losing Peyton Watson, who is a perfect fit for the Lakers as far as defensive wing. You know what I mean? That if both teams feel like we're going to lose LeBron for nothing, lose Peyton Watson for nothing, trade with each other, both guys get paid. All of that, where LeBron, I think would be, listen, Yokic is their offense, but it's weird because he's a center. I know people call him a point center, but he's not regularly, he touches it every possession, but he's not like bringing it up the court. And he moves it. He's not dribbling like that. And I just think that is, I don't think they could win a title in Golden State. I think New York, it would take a great LeBron season. And I don't know at age 24, age 42 in your 24, for great LeBron season. Do you think it would have to take a great, well, let's just say because they wouldn't be the favorites against the Western team. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. I just think it would be, I think it would, let me put it like this. I think it would take a great LeBron James finals. I think that they could get to the ease, they could get to the finals without, without, it just, it's a big ask. Denver to me is increasingly fascinating. I love this with all of my heart. And it's also close to LA. Oh yeah. It's, but I do think the geographic difference of like, my house is in LA, my business in LA, New York to LA is... It'd be interesting. It'd be really interesting. I love that. 40 pounds a gift card applies for new home essentials policies purchased direct between the 5th of March and the 28th of April, 2026. Seat times and conditions at www.sheelerswills.com Live from New York, it's a show that's done with the 65 game rule. And I don't think I'm going to start, stop talking about it. Totally done with it. Totally done with it. Every day I say this, today Adam should end that week. Make a unilateral... I don't... It's very odd to me that he won't just do that. Well, he doubled down, remember, a couple of weeks ago. Maybe he's waiting to the end of the season. That's where I'm holding out hope. I don't think, I don't think, just be like, guys, sorry, transposition error. That five is supposed to be a six of two. It's a six of two game rule. Oh yeah. All the K, Luca, Wimby, all these guys are fine. I just think they should have eliminated period. And trust the voters. I like that too. Trust the voters. Second hour first things first today, more Yannis drama. New article by Shams outlines more frustrations between the Bucks and Yannis. Meanwhile Mendoza in Vegas. Is he a no doubt franchise quarterback, coachman, genius here to discuss? But right now it's time for the friendliest segment in all of sports. Our first April edition of King of the Hill. And I heard you took some creative liberties with the Hill. I did. So again, we haven't done one in a couple of weeks because last week we were off on Tuesday for soccer. This Tuesday I was supposed to be off because remember I was invited to watch that master's practice round at Augusta that we talked about. You didn't win that or you were just randomly invited? No, a listener, a viewer, a listener invited me and I was going to go. However Wilde has bullied me so much about missing a day here and there. You're here. I had to turn it down. You played cards here. And so because of that. I thought it was going to be a charity event or something. No, it was the master's practice round. Go to the master's practice. I mean it wants to be a bucket life, bucket list thing. Can I say that? It's going to be good for the show. No. I'm here. I'm here. Going to the practice round is not on your bucket list. It's a small bucket. No. Dropping the bucket. It doesn't matter. But it went to the master's. It's better for the show if you're here. Exactly. Doing king of the hill. All right. Let's show who fell off the hill. Bam. The guy scored 100 points. 83. He was atop the hill a few weeks ago. He wasn't. He was too high a few weeks ago. Now he's too low. Wow. I don't think he ever made it to the top. No, I think he deserved to be atop. He was so close. No, he's on the fourth row. He was so rough. Fox had some rough crunch time stuff. Nothing inside the mobile. We had to make room. Some sad additions to injured and eligible. Luka, Austin Reeves and Cade all on injured and eligible. Hopefully, you know, we know Cade will be back. I, you know, I'm still holding out hope. Luka comes back. Seems like Austin's the longest shot. Yon is Halliburton 80 butler. Harry, not coming back. But that does open up. And by the way, you'll notice someone who was on that list for the last month. No longer. Steph Curry. Where will he be? Excellent. On the hill now that he's back. Bottom row of the hill. Cat drops a bit. Paolo, Chet and Denny Obvious stay where they are. Some new additions. It's time to start talking Hawks. Nikhil Alexander Walker. When you win, what did the Hawks one? 23 of 27, something insane. He's the second best player. He's been balling. He gets on there. Dennis Jenkins. Wait, what? Dennis Jenkins. Love it. Listen, he, bro. The Pestens are staying afloat. They have found a second ball or a second initiator with Cade out. He's going to matter in the playoffs now. It feels like, oh, Cade maybe doesn't have to play coming off a collapse. So hold on. You're saying if you lose your best player, you can still stay afloat. As long as you don't lose your best player and another top three player. Yeah. What about Zayn Astur? Is he totally healthy? The? Did they lose Cade and Jamel Duren? You find me on any team with KW. It's so funny because I was going to, when we got to something on here, I was going to apologize for what I said yesterday, but I take back my apology because I thought I saw yesterday's show off on a bad note. I took a shot at KW for something that said Koopy Walk-In video. However, I now retract. Video is not on the record. Oh, it's not on the record. Oh, tell Gianna her job doesn't matter. But now I take it all back. You find any team that can lose their top two leading scorers going into the playoffs would be fine. And I guess those 2019 Warriors were frauds too. They lost the Raptors without Cade and Steph, where they have a real conditon. Stan Scheng is on the hill and Cooper Flagg. The team stinks. He's going to win. He scored 96 points in the last two games. I'm putting him on the hill. I think that's okay, right? It's fair. Sixth throw. So here's the deal. Ant was out. Then he came back. Didn't look like himself. He's out again. Now I'm reading things about runner's knee. That can't be good. I don't like that. They're talking about it. It's like, oh, it's the same thing that was, Steph was the only step was out for more than a month. I don't like this at all. I don't like it at all. So do you. Couple sixers. Man, don't let the sixers get hot now. True. Tyrese Maxie, Joe LMB. Stefan Castle, Brew. He might make one of your all NBA teams. Well, with the way guys become ineligible. Stefan Castle, he's their second best defender and arguably their second best offense player, maybe third best offensive player. He leaves them in assists. Yeah. And so he's a legitimate blue chipper, you know, coming out of college and he's living up to that. When he won rookie of the year was kind of like, ah, down rookie class to find Castle on by default. He's more than that. He's Lamello ball. Let's go. Shout out James Harden drops a bit. Top 15. Shout out the old guys. Steph came back, scored 29, almost hit the game winner. 26 minutes. Right. And looked awesome. We just talked about LeBron having being one of three guys now this year with 30 and 15. He had dropped because there wasn't the statistical, even though they were winning, his numbers were not. And then the moment it's all on him again, he puts up those numbers, granted him a loss, he moves up. Devin Booker, no fault of his own, drops just tiny bit. Brunson stays where he is. Jalen Johnson, he's got to be on all in VA. He's got to be. And I mean, the Hawks are, while it's not time to talk about them, they're the five seed. You got two Hawks on here. Yeah. Nick likes the Hawks. I'm going to start talking about the Hawks. No. Top 10. It is. This is not just like a patronizing good job coming back. Jason Tatum, ranking. Jason Tatum over the last two weeks, 25, 12 and eight. The rebounds are crazy. 25 a game, 12 rebounds, eight assists, while all of a sudden shooting 39% from three. Remember right when he came back, that was the biggest problem. Tatum's been awesome. And again, he's not 100% Jason Tatum yet, but if they get that level of production in the playoffs, they can beat anybody. Jamal Murray, I think, grew this is the best season of his career. Yeah. And he's been. Not the best run, but the best season. Correct. The best start to finish season of his career. He moves up. Donovan moves up just a bit. Jalen Duren stays where he is. Again, I think the Pistons being in trouble for the Los Cade and Jalen Duren. He's in the top six. Kauai, who if Luca doesn't win his appeal, might end up being first team all NBA. Certainly is going to be second team all NBA. Jalen Brown, you know, he missed a game, but since we did the Hill Last, he's averaging 31 a game, which is not far off his season long numbers. And Katie, Rockets one six in a row, banged on Katie. You were in the locker room by telling all your teammates. Maybe they had a meeting. Who knows what happened. Katie of all the super old guys in the league, Steph LeBron Durant, he has, you know, he's the lowest of those guys historically. He's also the youngest of them. He's also having the best season of those three guys. Shout out Katie. Top three. No change. Shay and Wimby. I'm assuming Wimby is obviously not injured and eligible. I'm assuming he's going to be fine. Wimby, you know, is having the best prior to last night offensive run of his career over the last since he started, you know, really talking about how often it's, you know, it was more than points. It's like I just got a score more points. And still, I think one of the more underrated Wimby things, the only thing we don't know about is what a dominating rebounder he is. And lately, yeah, it's just certainly as of late. Shay is Shay. And then back atop the hill, the best player in the league. I think it's pretty obvious he's the best player in the league. And I think he is reminding everybody there are big portions of NBA history where the math on, hey, who's going to win the title came down to who's the best player in the league. Joker's at least trying to make the argument. Don't forget about my team, which at this point nobody is there. And I think he's going to be back in the three spot for the first time in months. The Denver Nuggets and Niko Leokit. Joker last night's as quickly 13 assists, five steals, two blocks. Go ahead. What? What? 20 Aston. Wow. 20 Aston. He's high on Aston. He's just crush. Because he leaves the league assists. He's going to be high on Aston. Yeah. All right. Good one. Interesting, Nick. Thanks. I think Durant's too high. Okay. What's interesting about this NBA now? These old guys, LeBron, Steph, Durant, they still are basically putting up their same career number. Right. They don't, they're not in, yeah, and I think he could if he, but they're not really affecting winning like that. But they can still put up their season, their career numbers, if not better in some case. So it's kind of odd. But I'm moving to Randa. If Anthony Edwards is eligible, I would, I was thinking maybe he wouldn't even be eligible. If he's eligible, I think he's at least fourth row, fourth row or, or no lower than that. And I put him ahead of Durant for sure. I put down of him Mitchell ahead of Durant. So I think Durant is definitely too high. And then little bonus take. I love what the kid is doing. He made, he's made himself some money. Don't do it. Oh, don't. It's nice. This is the, this is not charity. Oh, it's the best 28 guys in the league. And I'm sorry. Dennis Jenkins is not one of the best. It's not the best 28 guys in the league. What is it? It moves around. It's just a lot of fun. Let's just throw out a bunch of names. Where in where there's a bunch of grass and ground. I want to give that guy a little love. Otherwise it doesn't move. I would put the other two guys from your Charlotte Hornets, Brandon Miller, their leading scorer and Kyle Kinnipple ahead of Dennis Jenkins. Well, he does make some good points. I mean, I'm just saying, what is the hill? What is it? It is a combination of the best players alive plus the best seasons plus the most impactful last two weeks or weeks since we last did the hill. It's a little bit of that. USA Today, it's got hot. It's a little bit of that. It has flames. And Dennis Jenkins, all of a sudden bursting onto the scene and keeping the pistons locked into that one seed, making other teams feel like, oh man, when we play the pistons in the playoffs, when Cade goes and takes a rest, we're going to have to deal with somebody. It's a cute story. That's all noteworthy. It's a cute story. But it's bottom row. And then as far as Anthony Edwards goes, here's the problem. He just came back from his injury and then he got, you know, he missed another game. But because of that, he's not injured and eligible. But what's also true is Anthony Edwards, since the last hill two weeks ago, has played two games and in those two games has averaged 12 and a half points on 35% from the field because he's not himself. So listen, do I think Anthony Edwards is obviously a top 10 player in the league? Obviously. But do I think this current version of Anthony Edwards is better right now than Jalen Brunson or those guys ahead of him? I don't. It's just because he's not himself. So I don't, that it is, I will admit the aunt ranking in a snapshot of it. It's like, no, I don't think he's outside of the top 13. But he's not, he's not himself. They're in trouble. Oh yeah. They're in trouble. One of the many teams that have been in trouble period because he, it's weird how the NBA's changed. It's almost like if your best player is not around, you could be in trouble. Okay. W. You know what? Rockets. Okay. Six in a row. Uh-huh. I guess he's playing great. Guess who else is playing great? Shingoon. Shingoon is back. You won the game. You know what? I was going to say, call me crazy. I think he's better than Dan. He is. Call me crazy. Had this kind of ugly game winner, but it counts. During their six game win streak, you know, defense's E-Mays really calling card, but their offense has gotten even better. Was 115 before this win streak right now. It's 128, it's 156, 3.0%. I know it. Nuts. Nuts too much. So that should come back down. So that's when Katie and Shingoon are together. Yes. Yes, just went, but still that's a lot for it. It should be that. And then Shingoon's highest field goal percentage since the start of March. I usually just do April. So you're saying he's gearing up for the playoff? He's, you know, getting a little bit closer to the basket. E-Mays doesn't want him shooting threes. So he's getting some easy buckets. So hopefully in the playoffs he can shine. Shingoon. And maybe we're sleeping on the Rockets a little bit. Maybe the Rockets pendulum needs to swing back to where it belongs, where we, because the team had each other maybe. Listen, all of a sudden the Rockets went from the team everyone wants to play in the West to the team that is probably going to get to play the team everyone wants to play in the West, the Lakers. Here's what I mean. Yep. Like the, the Rockets went from the team. It's going to be Denver, Minnesota. That's what it looks like. 3.6. Yeah. And the Houston, LA 4.5. And I think also if you're Denver, you're a little bummed. About Minnesota? It adds back. It's like, come on. Like we moved all the way to the three and now we're playing one of the only teams that's beating us in the playoffs. But yeah, I mean, I do think the Rockets were the team everyone wanted and now they're going to get the team everyone wants in the Lakers. So Shingoon is making a strong case to be on the final regular season. Wow. Next week. And the final regular season. We're done with the Hill already. Regular season. The final regular season Hillbrew is a look at the regular season in its, as a whole. Yeah. In its whole. It's not about. Shingoon has got to be on it. Especially with all the injury exceptions. Guys, that's nice. Does the Hill operate on the 65 game rule? It shouldn't. It will be a very upset. Thank goodness. The Hill does not operate on the 65 game rule. And in the final regular season Hill, even if you are currently injured, you are eligible. Really? Well, yeah. So like Kate Cunningham will be on there. Okay. Luca will be on there for the final regular. Alibar is going to be on the calendar. No, no, no. You have to have played this year. You're all NBA team plus. See, there you go. Since I don't have a vote, I have to do it in Hill 4. Yannis. This is exactly right. Might be done with the box, believe it or not. That's next up. First things first. So Yannis will be eligible. Where will he be on it? That's going to be interesting. Saturday night is baseball night in America on Fox. Red Sox, literally. Wow. Put a helmet on. I hope you're getting giant orials. No, you're getting Red Sox cardinals. And Roman Anthony has the Red Sox. Look, it's early. Is it the worst record in Red Sox history at 2 and 8? Yes. But it's getting later out. Yes, literally. I can't believe it. You know what? They were your world series. We're supposed to have great pitching. We don't. Shams outlining months of frustration around Yannis' future in a new article headlined Inside the Fractured Relationship Between Yannis and the Bucks. Highlights. Wolves Heat Warriors leading suitors didn't happen. Bucks weren't happy with any deal. Other teams were upset. Now we're in the midst of shutting Yannis down and the controversy there, which we learned cost Yannis a Nike bonus for not playing enough games. The article ends with a source close to the team saying, quote, this is as toxic of a team situation as any in the league. Your reaction, bro. It's just ridiculous. I mean, look, at this point, Yannis, he's worried about the public response to him demanding a trade. Nobody at this point, everybody would be like, yeah, you should demand a trade. So just come out and it's best for the organization to. The organization could come out and say, we have mutually agreed with Yannis that it's time to trade him or he could come out and say, and it doesn't have to be acrimonious. Say, look, I've loved my time here. I was grateful that I could bring a championship to the fans of Milwaukee. I love these fans. This has been home to me. It's just time to move on. My goodness. Like this is ridiculous. And look, I think the trade, and I've said this before, the trade is to Houston, assuming they don't go on some deep run to the finals or whatever. Trade is to Houston. If I could get shingoon and read Shepherd and some picks for Yannis, man, I think that can grow into something pretty good in the Eastern Conference. And then if I'm Houston, I got to win now because it kept me to rant. I got Yannis. I still have would have Jabari Smith. I'm in Thompson. Fred Van Vliet will be back next year. Like that's a team that could contend in the West. I like that. It's simple. That should be. I'd love to see him go to Golden State. I just don't know if that's possible. And I don't think Golden State would contend for a championship. Really? Yeah. I mean, I guess you don't know if Steph will be healthy. Well, and eat because you're going to have to give up something for Yannis. So it would be Steph and Yannis against Evergreens. Jimmy Butler, I guess you had to throw him. I mean, I don't know if you'd be trading Jimmy Butler or Dreymond. I also think that Jimmy Butler at 36 coming off a bad knee. Like you know, those I'm already worried about that to begin with. And so. Two, two takeaways, one minor takeaway. I about Yannis's frustration about not playing down the stretch. It's millions of dollars from Nike and one of his brothers threw an alley up to the other one last night. And he was, you know, I do think that there is that element of man, I, you know, this is the family. If this is how my time in Milwaukee is ending, I'd like it to end on the court. With my brothers like that. And they signed his again, no disrespect to his brothers. His brothers are writing the the Anacubo family wave there, which is like that. There's a long history of that in the NBA. So that's fine. So I understand his frustration, the financially and personally in that regard. But my other takeaway is I now no longer think Milwaukee is going to care a ton about where he wants to go. Oh, I don't. Because of this audience. It just, yeah, it seems, first of all, ever since Haslam bought into the box, it seems like there's, you know, not necessarily a defined captain of the ship. That's a different article people can read from a couple months back. And I think that they, it seems like the two sides are at enough odds that it will truly be best deal available. Now I think a team would only be willing to give Milwaukee the best deal if Yanis was okay with going there because right, because you only want to sign in your trade for is going to sign the extension. But those are my takeaways. And the other takeaway is newly minted Hall of Famer, Doc Rivers is going to be a broadcaster again in short. I'm not trying to be a jerk. It seems like his time in Milwaukee was a disaster from day one. Adrian Griffin, they were actually, what were they, 14, 13 or something? It was 35 and 13. Something great. Yeah. They had a good record. They fired him and Doc's under 500. And you had one of the telling things about the article and then go was Doc gave some impassioned team speech that did not go over well. And they write in the article, according to six people in the room. I don't know how many people were in the room, but it would sound like about half of them that told people this ain't gonna, this does not work. But he was saying like, check my, check my resume. Yeah. He's like, listen. Check my stats. Yeah. I'm in the Hall of Fame and I do it. I did win. I'm one of the top 15 coaches ever. Yeah. I mean, he is. I'll throw this in too. Cause I've even seen X players, X players criticize Yanis for wanting to play. You understand what they're doing. They don't want to get you hurt for the trade or, you know, get the best lottery pick. I'm not going to kill a guy who wants in this day and age where they had to put in a 65 game. Oh, I agree with you. Low management. Right. I'm not going to kill a guy for wanting to play because here's the thing. I miss me with all that. Oh, we're, we're trying to get the best lottery pick or the game. We're out of it. So we don't want to get him hurt. Are you giving refunds to your fans? Yeah. Are you, are you even making that an option? No. So then you send out your best, if your best player wants to play, unless you're giving the fans refunds, I told you what I think. What he should put on his uniform and start warming up and what is going to happen. Let's just tell me what's going to happen. I'm Yanis. That would, it would be interesting to see what I'm going to start. I'm going to start warming up on the court and the fans are going to be there. I'm going to sign autographs. And then when it's time for the starting five to go out, I will be standing on the court. But if they don't list you, I can't remember all the rules, but they have to list you as an, as an eligible to play. Yes. Well, then I'm going to be, if they don't list you, then when they were doing, security is going to pull Yanis out. That's, I would take it to the like, let's see it play out. What I'm not, what I'm not going to do is sit there and street clothes and complain. Yeah. And just like, this is not fair. You're the most powerful person in the organization. Here's the thing though, but he's clearly not, but he is. The power is with the fans and the organization. So you can flip the leverage back on management by showing up in your uniform. I thought I was the guy with the union leader father. Look at, but he should do it. Otherwise, I'm, I just think it's unfair for everything he's given to the Milwaukee, to the organization. The fact that his brothers are there, suit up, man, suit up and check yourself into the game. Now you don't even have to start again. They'd have to put him on the active, put me on the active list. But if they don't, it's going to be embarrassing for you. If I will be in a full sweat warming up and people are going crazy, then I'm going to sit there and what do you think people are going to be chair? They were a chamber taco fallen boss. You think you're going to chair for Yanis? Do we have a little more time here or do we have to move on? The January. Okay. Just real quick. If not Houston, brew, there's not a ton of teams that make a ton of sense and have, have this stuff, have a good act, good trades because we talked a year ago, San Antonio, maybe, but now San Antonio was like, no, we are not, we're not, we're keeping our assets, keeping our young players, keeping our flexibility. I remember right before the trade deadline when it looked like okay, see all of a sudden was on a shaky ground. Now if okay, see gets, gets just flipped right in, it had to probably be before the conference finals, which Denver probably wouldn't play him there. But like if somehow okay, see as a disastrous playoff run, maybe they're like, why not? Um, but if okay, see and San Antonio are out, the Lakers don't have good assets. The Warriors, I don't feel have good assets. Right. Minnesota and then like Cleveland's in this like second apron hell. The Knicks traded their picks. My Miami trades for them, they're just Milwaukee's South Beach. Like the team won't be any good. Like you sixers offered VJ edge home. It's the teams that I like, I mentioned Atlanta, Atlanta would work and Atlanta always would work particularly depending on what that Pelicans pick turns into. But I don't know if that's where he wants to go. It's not as, and they're because of his age and now his injury history, there's not as many teams that are willing to give up everything. Denver has won nine games in a row, back to back games and overtime. Joe got 35, 14, 13, five steals, two blocks. Aaron Gordon hits a corner three to seal the win. Western conference standings, a little bit of a shake up. Thunder spurs a one and two. Then Denver, then the Lakers who could fall behind the Rockets after they lose the Thunder tonight. They couldn't fall behind tonight, but they could eventually fall. Got you. So, should spurs be worried about Denver? Yeah. I mean, that'll be a great series. I said after the game Sunday, I want to see seven of these. I mean, Yolkich and Wimby going at it would be phenomenal. I would rather, even if the Lakers, let's say they survive round one and get healthy. If I'm, I guess I can put it, I can expand that. If I'm the spurs, Denver's the last team I want to see. They're not going to see OKC in the second round. Denver's the last team I want to see in the second round. I'd rather see the Lakers. I'd rather see Minnesota or Houston. Yes. Any of them. Now, I do think the spurs could win that series. I think it depends on how much as Wimby said, we learned from this game. He's young. He's saying that. But that's what it would depend on because I think it'd be a hard fall series. I think it probably would go seven. It certainly six. I think it'd be tight. But that experience of the Nuggets, I think would be tough. And you brought up the stats and Yolkich has put up huge numbers against Wimby. Wimby's put up big numbers too. He's 25, 15 boards and four blocks against the Nuggets in his career. So I think it'd be a, it'd be a historic matchup. Some people call it Godzilla vs. Mothra. Some people are. It'd be tough though. It'd be a great match. So, and I just add the wrinkle of my small concern. Wimby, 29 minutes a game, never played in the playoffs. 35 minutes a game, playoff intensity, oh yeah, and altitude for half the series. Like that, that's so, if the Nuggets are as presently constituted, meaning I don't even need Peyton Watson back. I think that he'd be a great dad back. I don't want to sound disrespectful. But I'm saying, I'm not even incorporating him coming back. But as long as the guys, they're starting five as of now, as healthy as they are right now going into that series, I would pick the Nuggets. And I think that the, now the biggest winner of the Nuggets getting to the three line, I believe actually is OKC. I believe OKC is like, OK, so we're only going to have to beat one of Denver or San Antonio to get to the finals. And we're going to have, you know, and it's so funny. Denver also is probably like, and our big reward for getting to the three line is Minnesota. Which is not a great reward for them. But I think Denver is, now that Gordon is back and Gordon. I don't believe they have a top 10 defense with Aaron Gordon. But I think the defense is stable enough that the offense is just, Joker's so good and Jamal Murray is playing so well, I would pick them over the baby's. It's a little bit like Lakers light storyline. What do you mean? Great offense. OK, defense might carry you. Yeah, that's correct. But then all time great offensive player, obviously very different styles and Joker and Luca. Yeah, I believe that absolutely can. Gordon changes everything for them. And he's become like this great three point shooter that no dip three just catch and just fire. No, he changes everything. Mendoza working out in Vegas. Kirk Cousins already there. How many games are we going to see? Is he a lock to be the quarterback? Scott the Raiders. Oh my gosh. You know what guys, I'm never making a bold prediction again. I like the Raiders. Another morning, another reminder there's a gap to be careful of. But maybe it's time to bridge the one between your nine to five and your dream of living life on your own terms. At HSBC, we know ambition looks different to everyone. Whether it's retiring early or leaving more for your family, we can help because when it comes to unlocking your money's potential, we know wealth. HHSBC wealth today. HSBC UK opening up a world of opportunity. HSBC UK current account holders only. Hey, UFL is back. This is a week two final game of week two. St. Louis against the Dallas Renegades. My squad tonight. A. Eastern. Great to be on FS1. Welcome back coach Van Genie. Welcome back football. Raiders hosting expected number one. Kurt Fernando Mendoza today. Kirk Cousins already on the Raiders squad. Reunited with Kubiak, who is a Kubi coach and OC with the Vikings. So we're not sure who's going to be the week one starter. But are we sure that Fernando Mendoza will be the Raiders franchise quarterback coach? Thinking about this, it just depends on how we're defining franchise quarterback. Are we looking at it sort of as that first tier where it's the Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burroughs, the Lamar, like that level of franchise quarterback or then there's the next level? Ten year starter. Trevor Lawrence. Well, yeah. Trevor's in the league. No, but nobody got a contract and they're happy. But that's exactly what I'm talking about. It's that other level of quarterback. Is Dak Prescott, Trevor Lawrence, would you be happy with Trevor Lawrence? Yeah, thrilled. I don't know. I don't know if you'd be thrilled with it. If you get into that second contract with a guy, you think that he's going to give you a chance to lead you to a championship. And we're going to have to see with Trevor Lawrence. But that's where I see him landing more so than that top tier guy. And he, as a player comparison, he kind of reminds me of Chad Penitin. So I had Chad in New York and Chad, the year that he was drafted, he was the first quarterback drafted in that class. Now Brady was drafted a little bit later in that class. But Chad was drafted as the first guy. He was 13-known in college, a little bit different conference. I get all that. But really good processor, really accurate passer, catchable ball, excellent leader, smart, all those things that you see in Mendoza. And he did give you a chance to compete for it. He just wasn't necessarily in that next tier of guys. So I think that he could be there for a long time. He could make them very competitive. But I don't necessarily see him being in that elite category. Penitin's an interesting comp that I think makes sense. He's bigger, though, than Penitin, right? He's two inches bigger than Chad is. Because look, I'd be hesitant to say this about any quarterback coming out of college. Because we've just seen so many ballyhoot, Heisman winners, top picks. Right, right. Not paying. I mean, Trevor Lawrence has come along. Undefeated in high school. But he's not what we thought, at least to this point. Playoff game pretty early in the big contract. He's not what we thought he'd be. Top 5 MVP this year. But then Brock Purdy is a good quarterback. So it's just so hard to predict. I do, though, think they're setting him up. I think, like you said, you named all his qualities. I think he does have qualities that you like. And then I like the fact that he's going to go in there and be behind Kirk Cousins for at least half the season. If not most of the season or all of it, I like that. So I think they're putting him in a good position to be a franchise quarterback. And if he's got the goods, I think they're setting him up well. You know I like him. That's right. I think that winning is underrated in college. I like that Joe Burrow won at LSU. I like that he won with Indiana. JJ McCarthy won and I didn't see him throw the ball. So that's what I like. He didn't win. You gotta win a national championship. No, look, if the measurables work, great. And if the pro days, all the pro days are the same. But if the measurables are good, that's one great thing. If the characters are great, like he's leadership and all that is good, good. And then if he actually wins, I like that. So I mean, so I, listen, winning at Indiana does matter to me. And winning the way he won. In a big game. Right. And playing big in big games. I actually think, you know, Fernando Mendoza won some big games. I know that's like controversial. But I, and I like his disposition. I think that, and you guys know, I like, I don't like small quarterbacks. I like big quarterbacks. He's a big kid. And unlike where the other difference in Chad is even at Marshall in college, Chad wasn't putting his body on the line quite as much. Tell me if you think I'm wrong, but he wasn't. To me, Mendoza, I don't know if he'll do it in the pros, but has a toughness of his running style that just shows a level of athleticism that is somewhat unique for the position. Not all that unique. But you'd agree his level of athleticism and like the other guys that we talk about where he can really move a lot of plays with his feet. He can do enough to kind of do escape, but he's really going to have to step up into the pocket and move around the pocket. No, I don't think you will have like plus athleticism for athletic NFL quarterbacks. I agree with that. I also though, so because other winners in college are Bryce Young and Matt Jones, who were first round picks and I like both those guys. I know you do, but I think measureables aren't there for Bryce. Measureables aren't there for Bryce. I don't know if they're quite and I feel like the intangibles weren't quite there for Mack the way they are for this little bit silly. And I don't know how beloved he's been, but that's again, I'm trying to pick on your guy. I look at the quarterbacks. I think we make a mistake when we're projecting the quarterbacks and look at them just within the class rather than in buckets of classes like quarter prospects over the last five years of quarterback drafts. And that's where my hesitation on Mendoza comes in that I and it's one of my honestly one of my concerns about Cam Ward was were these guys the best quarterback that came out this year? They're concerned, but if we take the last 10 first round quarterbacks, they have been seventh and ninth, you know, and so like that every year, like there's a straight right there's there's not always a great quarterback. And did we get over served in excellent quarterbacks in the Caleb Drake class? Yeah, because I think Caleb's going to be excellent. Drake almost won MVP. Bonix, even if Jaden, I shoot, I left out Jaden and then my my apologies and Bonix obviously has really won a lot and just played great in a playoff game. So if those guys were just dropped in the quarterback classes after theirs and then Cam Ward was the second quarterback taken in the 17th pick and Mendoza was the second quarterback taken now which probably would go to the jet to be the second pick anyway. Would the expectations be a little different because we joke about Trevor, but teams don't think it when they take a quarterback number one. Trevor Lawrence has had an above average number one overall pick start to a career like there's far as because it is really hard to get like the doesn't have the same resume as Trevor Lawrence. The big I don't think he was in a truck forever and Trevor was far better throughout the entirety of his college career, even though his best year and Trevor's best year are similar. And he was the Gatorade High School of the Merit. Yeah, player of the year. I felt better watching Mendoza's tape than I felt watching Cam Ward's tape last year. But to your point, it does depend on who you're working against in terms of the class of quarterbacks. So he benefits from that aspect of it. And I do think there's some value. Now, Indiana had a good season before he got there. And so that the foundation was laid. But the fact that he was able to come in and actually get them to the national championship, win the national championship, have the undefeated season, that that does matter. And and he essentially changed that franchise. Yeah. Indiana was irrelevant for some. The other thing that I like Kubiak and I don't think he's going anywhere. We saw him do great with Sam Darnold. We saw him do great with cousins, obviously in Minnesota. The other number one picks Cam Ward's coach, gone. So he's got a new regime. Caleb's coach, gone, has a new regime. Why do you say you don't think Kubiak's going anywhere? I just I would just be shocked if he got shot. If guys get fired. I mean, a lot of these guys, a lot of guys, I mean, I mean, I'm not saying it'd be one and done, but I would take. I would say the odds are in the history is that the Raiders have a new head coach before the end of the end of the endosis is firing. But do you think it's a Titans and Bear situation that he's walking into? I don't think so. No, but I also thought I thought Trevor was walking into. I didn't think Urban Meyer was going to make 13 games. I mean, yeah, I mean, he's never coached in the NFL. First things first, overtime today, Michigan's dominance. Did it change the state of college basketball? We discussed meanwhile, Jeremiah Love is talking about going to Canton, not on a trip to like visit the museum about being in. He's talking about that. Yep. One person here absolutely loves it. And finally, it's top 10 Tuesday. Yeah. Few additions to top 10 Tuesday. This will be great. Out of the 10 teams that are practicing today, who is it? Who's the best Danny or who you most optimistic of the 10 teams that have a new head coach? Who's going to have the best season? So for this season, not the next five years, not the next 10 years, not predictions week. Yeah, a pencil. I have a confession. Because this, like you said, there were a few top teams. One of them that Danny up not doing was about like must be at sporting events. And the reason that's not happening is not because of the reason Danny thought Danny thought that's too hard to can understand. This is more topical is because I saw that he had in the top five a Friday afternoon game at Wrigley's field. And I was like, we can't put that on TV. I was like, you know what? I was like, you know what? He had that above the Wimbledon final in the Super Bowl. Friday 120 Cubs game was better than game seven NBA finals. You didn't say that. And I said, okay. And I said, you know what? Nick saved you. I never, I never pull seniority, but I was like blaming on one of the bosses or something. We can't be fair. Nick wanted to put like an eight hour final table at the World Series of Polka. Friday 120 at Richard's or at Lyft's experience. With sunglasses. Still four in the morning. Friday 120 Cubs game. I don't like to do that. You wouldn't like to do it. You're not working. And if you were in Chicago for a long weekend, you might do it. But if you were in top five, but it would not stop them from going into the ground without doing it. Well, that's a mistake. I feel sorry for you. Well, it's all good. Show out it. Friday one point. You can bring your computers. Yeah. Michigan other champions, Parkins, Picks right again. Just found a heater. Danny grinded the tape, studied the analytics and talked to people in the know. And in the end, his professional analysis spot on Michigan. Too tall. Danny Hurley was actually happy. It was just a close game. Take a listen. To be able to keep that team under 40% from the field, 38%, this team has destroyed everyone they faced in this tournament. The growth, the way they played in March. I mean, I like to just a whole experience that this team has given the coaches, the fan base, to play to the last, to be one of the last two teams standing. Danny, what was the number one reason your Wolverines won? I mean, you could mock too tall while you won. Too tall was right. They jumped off the screen. They were too tall. You got it. It's like doing hook shots and working for their baskets. Michigan layup. It's a lot easier. I got cut from the high school basketball team. My mom said height is might. I wasn't tall enough. Height is might. Yeah. It made me feel better. You're pretty tall for a high school. My high school was pretty good. But also, I think the trend that this continued is something that we should just pay attention to as a show and like a sports community. We have a graphic here for it. I think it's a trend that. Yeah. I just keep winning. That actually tricked me. Yeah. It just keep winning. You know, winning the playoffs, winning matters, most NFL picks, and I got it right. That playoff record. Yeah. Playoff record is spectacular. Finnish strong. Told you guys who was going to win the tournament. That's a barnier route. It's just something the same turning winner as me. We both had Houston. But I'm not a professional rivalry with Bruin anyway. So listen, I think Michigan was clearly the best. So listen, I think Michigan was clearly the overwhelming team in college basketball this year. They are and we'll get into the bigger picture stuff just like all transfers and you know, Hot Fetch like they are where the sport is going. But when you watch them over the course of the year and any style of play, putting up 90 points in every game, everything went right for UConn yesterday. Michigan shot poorly. Their best player was clearly hobbled and admitting at a halftime interview that he couldn't take advantage of players and that he was hurt. They out rebounded them. They out rebounded. Everything was going UConn's way and they basically never led. So they are just an overwhelming team and a deserving champion one. Well, look, and to your point, just looking at Hurley's reaction, even before the game, like when he said, you don't have to be the best team this season to win. When you look at a lot of his comments and then afterwards, it's like he knew they were the better team. Now, I'm sure he believed we can concoct something and we can win this game, but he knew, you know, going in and after the game. But yeah, the size was huge. They dominated them in the paint. They got to the fowl line, you know, made their free throws twice as much. Yeah, and made their free throws and they blocked a ton of shots like they were their size and defense is was the difference in this game. And then they made the big place. Now, Danny, I will say this and I said it earlier. When that game that game was still close. I mean, it was within striking distance. And while Michigan was clearly the better team, you were thinking maybe Hurley look, this is how they win this, how they beat Duke. And I thought maybe they had a shot. It does the out. I think if we still have the video, but there was two minutes left down six, they got to steal their down six. Now this should have now again, they contested the rim. So that's a good defensive play. But had they hit that, they cut it to four. They don't they come down. Michigan, even if they just get a stop here. Yeah, maybe you're in play. Now again, I'm not saying they definitely won that if they hit that, but that that's when it was definitely over after they didn't convert this and then Michigan hit the three. Yeah, I'm really curious because I'm going to echo what these guys said. I think Michigan was better. And while I didn't get much about this tournament right at all, yesterday's game went about how I thought, which is Michigan controlled the second half in college basketball in a million ways. It's very different than the NBA and that the NBA and 11 point lead sometimes can feel like nothing. And in college basketball, a seven point lead can feel like, oh, I don't know what they're going to do. And part of that is just like the percentage of points scored. Like when I was watching the Women's National Championship game, I said to it was Easter Sunday, I said to my mom and daughter, I said, well, this game's over. And my mom said they're only down, I think 17. I was like, yeah, but down 17 when you only have 28 is like a huge number. And so like every NBA team's got really good offensive players. Right guys, you can just easily score. And so I didn't feel though, KW that Yukon like if Yukon doesn't get blasted by St. John's in the Big East title game, they're the final one seed. Like this wasn't I didn't. This wasn't like a wow. How did they get here to the like they I understand they were a two not a one. But I think going into that Sunday, the day that the weekend that the selection committee is on, they could have taken Florida, the one seed that Florida ended up getting they they were, you know, an excellent team throughout the year. But Michigan, Arizona and Duke had the three best seasons pretty clearly. They were the three definitive one seeds. Duke for second straight year kind of blew its tournament game a game they controlled the game against Houston. They're up five with the ball with less than a minute left against Houston and lost. We know how they lost to Yukon in historic fashion. And so then Michigan, Arizona, it probably was unfair for us to call it the championship game because this game was closer than Michigan, Arizona. But it felt like those were the two best teams in the final four and the winner of that game was going to win the title. Let me show you a headline from the athletic. Michigan's greatness can't save March Madness from something that was much less than that. What does the tournament say about college basketball? It's a different sport. Like we're watching just something that is entirely different than it was even five years ago. And we have to adjust in real time our expectations for this sporting. I did adjust them. You told me because there were no upsets we'd get this epic elite eight in final four. I said we needed to. Honestly, because that was similar. Is that what you think? Yeah, we can check the table. And by the way, like on paper, we did. The games didn't deliver. But like the advanced analytic even more hardcore college basketball fans than I am said that Arizona, Michigan was like statistically the two best teams to ever meet in the final four. Now, Michigan happened to blow them out and you could roll your eyes at the analytics. But that is what the numbers. Yeah, that's ridiculous. I understand. But that is what the numbers said about that we got. I mean, no one thinks that. No, hold on. And it's not even like you. Do you even follow me translate what I think the advanced analytics are saying because what they are not saying is that Michigan or Arizona was as good as the Georgetown teams of the 80s or UNLV or Duke. What they're saying is in their their success against this year's college basketball field. Sure. You understand what I mean made them the gap between them and the other teams in college basketball. They were the highest teams to meet. Right. They were the most dominant with the season. But it didn't deliver. But right. No, it definitely didn't deliver. No question. Ultimate the Yukon Duke game was excellent because of the comeback and the shot and then the other games at the end. They were between Titan programs and this was a huge I mean Michigan going for a dominant season against Dan Hurley and Yukon going for a dynasty. That is a matchup that we would all take in a national championship game in terms of storylines going in. It's just I think the sport needs to have a reckoning on what it wants to do. Like is this going to work? Is it going to work with after the game last night when one shining moment is playing on our television. They've got Michigan assistant coaches contacting kids in the transfer portal. Like does that does that make sense fundamentally to the sport or do we need to figure out and we're not going to do it here in a podcast topic or whatever. But like do the players need to unionize have a players union and sign contracts with these schools that can maybe be more than a year so we can have some degree of continuity between the teams because I don't know that this is sustainable for what we all loved about the sport. Well look the only reason it's working in my opinion is the tournament the format of the tournament. And I agree the games were didn't deliver last night's game. God bless Michigan. But it was just it wasn't an exciting game. All right. But it's work the tournament works the regular season. I don't is not nearly as popular as it used to be. Yep. But the tournament just because of the format everybody loves that. So and look these are a lot of these teams are old much older now. Right. They're 24 year olds 24 year olds 20 some 25 year olds. They're guys that aren't good enough to be in the NBA but they can go to like a lot of the and I'm not trying to 50 or guys or any of these guys. If somebody's looking at some of these guys that were great in the tournament and thinking they're going to go to the NBA and be great. They're mistaken. You have to gauge that they're playing against teenagers and even sophomores who if they were really great would be in the NBA. So it's just it's a minor league. And to your point unionize all that. But it is. So it's minor league basketball. So that's and that's and that is where and I feel passionately about this college sports should not be a minor league. Professional sport. They lose all of their charm and importance is the lack of word. I don't say I don't know what it's called. But the thing is right. That makes it special. We are not interested in just a the G League. That's not what college basketball. And so one of the reasons I firmly believe women's college basketball has gained momentum over the years is that is the place we we teams we grow with them. Oh, I remember Caitlin and Angel had a thing a year ago. Now they have a thing again. Oh, wait. Caitlin's back in the final four. Oh, Haley Van Lith. Now she did transfer. But I remember her. She was with them like the Yukon women. Holy crap. Are they ever going to lose like UCLA or are they going to get over the hump? And that is so I we went from a wildly unfair and I feel exploitive system where it's like if you sign autographs, you're going to get in trouble to no rules or regulations whatsoever. And neither to me is the correct one because it is I think imperative for the health of the sport that we get because the tournament is where it draws in all the casuals that you develop an emotional attachment with a team in the tournament that then the next year you care about. Yeah. And then at the next year you're like, oh, I want to see how that team is going to do like, oh, you know, but that in this sport is gone now. And the only way that it would have offset it's like, yes, that's true. But man, the final two weeks of the tournament are the best amateur games you've ever seen in your life. And that's where it's given you a hard time. Yeah. It wasn't that they were they were they were blowouts and they do you con was awesome. Everything else was. Now here's the thing and I agree with you like you use the perfect word I think charm like everybody has their colleges they really before growing up or that they're connected to or whatever. But if you have essentially minor league players getting paid, I'm paid now to play for the University of Michigan. Don't you don't think that that could those Michigan fans those alums and all that will still be. Oh, I think that's fine. I think our view is like no, no, no, no, I think that's fine as long as it's multi year as long as we can get to know them. You know what I mean? Like the like in again, I don't mean to bring up there's a fairness like like if I'm a freshman and I I'm dominating and I want to go to the league. Oh, I think they'll always be allowed to go pro. I think it's that you bounce from school to school to school. You know what I mean? I don't think I signed signed contracts incentives for a few outperform it. You can make more money. Like it's complicated, but this system clearly isn't. Yeah, it's not right. Yeah. All right. Time now for top 10 Tuesday. If you've got a new coach, you get to start practice a little earlier. So here's Danny's top 10 teams with new head coaches. Who's the best and who's the 10th best, which is the worst. The worst. Yeah. And this is for this upcoming season and it worked out because there are 10 teams with new head coaches. And number 10, I think was pretty simple, the Miami Dolphins. And this is not it has nothing to do with Jeff Haffley, who I think did a really nice job in Green Bay and might eventually do a very good job in Miami. It's just this is as close to a tank in the NFL as we've ever seen. The salary cap we can show it is just over 300 million and over half of their money is spent on players who are not on the roster. That's unprecedented by a lot. Correct. It is an NFL record for a team. They are not going to be able to be competitive. It's going to be very interesting to see how the judgment will equal us this year. I now think this next grouping of teams kind of comes in. There's like a four team group, but this is how I put them in order. Coming in at number nine, the Arizona Cardinals. I do like Michael Floor's profile though. Brother of Matt LaFleur, Sean McVeigh's offensive coordinator, worked for Kyle Shanahan for a number of years. He's young, probably has cool plays. So I do. I like young guys with cool plays, but real tough division to break through in. Coming in at number eight, Tennessee Titans. It's the opposite of that. Robert Sala, Brian Dable, they know what they're doing. I love the John Franklin Myers edition with Jeffrey Simmons on the defensive line. That can be a real strength for them. We'll see what they do with the fourth overall pick. A division where you can ultimately, you know, make some headway. They only play the AFC North and the NFC East this year. Not a terribly difficult schedule on paper for the Titans. Number seven, the Browns. I think their offseason plan is very simple. We hired Todd Munkin. We have three new offensive linemen, one via trade and a big extension, a couple of signings, infre agency. They're going to try to run the ball and play defense. Higher floor, try to have some credibility, including they also have two first round picks. Then at number six, the Boomerbust Raiders. New coach, new center, new receiver, three new players on defense. And then obviously a new number one pick at quarterback. Very tough division, but there's so much new there at positions that matter. Some upside for the Vegas Raiders. History though, working against them. At the average number of wins for a first time head coach and a number one overall pick. The only ones to make the playoffs in their first year and outlier Chuck Pagano and Andrew Luck. The next three teams I think are pretty interchangeable. You could debate the order here, but I have the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike McCarthy coming in at number five. Assuming Aaron Rodgers is there and obviously McCarthy is there, that presents a high floor. But how high or low is the ceiling? And I think that they are an all. When you say high floor, I'm sorry to interrupt. What do you think the floor is? If Rodgers is helping. Seven wins. Okay. Because they won what? Six or seven his last year. Yeah, I mean they were, they made the playoffs last year, right? No, but I'm saying last year with McCarthy and Greenbeck. I think they were six, nine and one. Yes, no, that is absolutely true. But that relationship at that point, Fred, Matt LaFleur got a new version of Aaron Rodgers. He embraced more modern things that I assume he will bring over from his time in Dallas. But I do think competent coach, competent quarterback, bold roster. I have them at number five. Coming in at number four, I'm a Jackson Dart believer. Really? Yeah, he is boomer bust. He is a reckless football player, but he makes plays. High end stuff, if he can harness it, is just screams elite playmaker to me. And I'm very interested in what, now they have competency at coach. And the problem for them this upcoming year, and I know schedules change, just look at the teams they play on the road outside of their division. At Detroit, at the best defense in football, the Colts, and then probably the two best teams in the NFL last year, in the Rams and Seahawks. It's a very tough road schedule this year for the Giants. You'd like to maybe get one of those at home where you can kind of sneak a win. Coming in at number three, the Falcons. They have a lot of questions. James Pierce has a really serious legal situation. Obviously, we'll see what that impact is. Probably significant. He was a huge piece of their pass rush. They play the Niners and the Chiefs as part of their third place schedule. That's very, very difficult. But Kevin Stafansky in a dome with weapons. He did in Cleveland was pretty impressive. Now you give him Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Bijan Robinson. And you got two of them starting? I think it's a straight quarterback competition. 50-50 shot. I'd give the slight edge to the Penex. I've got to get Kevin Stafansky's PR guy. Everybody loves what Kevin Stafansky did. I got a library like, wow, he made the playoffs with Baker Mayfield. Yeah, Baker Mayfield's good. Two-time coach of the year in Cleveland. Yeah, but that's my point. Because the media votes on coach of the year, and I need his PR guy. I just don't, I don't, I don't get it. I do get it. Go ahead, sir. I think he's better than what they've had, and it's definitely better talent than he's ever had on offense. Coming in at number two, Bruce Ravens. I love what Jesse Minner did with the talent for the Chargers defense. He bring in even more talent in Baltimore. And the reason that I separated it out here between two and one, it's pretty simple. The Ravens won eight games and Buffalo won 12. We had questions about both coaches. Joe Brady promoted internally. Jesse Minner from the outside. But I do think that the floor for the Ravens is lower than it is for the Bills, who just never seem to fall below double-digit weights. Yeah, look, I get why you might put the Bills ahead. I would switch the Ravens and the Bills, because I do, I think it's at least on the board that the Bills have a decline defensively without McDermott there. I think the Ravens mentor, I think they're going to be very good defensively and offensively. I just think they're going to be really good because of their personnel. So I would switch those. I think that those two are, we're going to compare them all year. They're on your SBOP list for a reason. Before I go, look at KW, were you going to say something? Everybody did something brand new, right? Jesse Minter came up from the Chargers and the Browns and the Ravens. Oh, the Giants and Mike McCarthy's back. Except the Bills. Well, because all the other teams had disaster years. I mean, that would be one of the reasons. I don't understand a playoff game. Yeah, I know, but I listen, I don't almost like it's a reason to be number one. I totally get it. But if it wasn't broke, I just don't, I was crying. Tears in the lock. I mean, for real. The, are they going to be different? Yes, but it's, I don't, they're not, everything else is additive. Like you can't tell me what is additive to having Joe Brady. Listen, all, to be fair, I, I didn't love the higher. I agree with a lot of what you're saying. To be fair, we don't know that Jesse Minters added to Bover John Harbaugh. That's a big swing to big swing because the coach in the quarterback seem to have falling out. Well, this is something. When I gave Christina my headline, I didn't know Danny was going to take a gratuitous shot at me and pick the national championship game. He also set up a bracket competition for the office. It settled today and our winner, Gianna, got no prize. It's coming. Well, it should have come today. Let's go. But go ahead and pop the bar, Christina, if you want. Hey. I agree with the list. Yet another win. I, I, I. Wow. You'll pick a winner again. I agree. I sadly agree with the list. I think it's right. What a weak target. I tried to find a reason to argue. And then I thought, I think I might slot these in the exact same order. Wow. Because a lot of it's based on like talent of the roster combined with do you think so? Yeah. You're learning. I'm getting all these things right on show. All of a sudden you're going to start taking these takes. Coming up next, Jeremiah Love talking about Canton. I like that. I know. I love it. And as Fernanda Mendoza sit the entire year. That's next on First Things First Overtime. Welcome back to First Things First. We have Coach Mangini and Willie Cologne out here. Let's go to Vegas. I love going to Vegas. The Raider. I did it too much in my 20s. They got the number one pick in the draft. They had Fernando Mendoza in on their top 30 visit. And yesterday the same Raiders officially signed Kirk Cousins. So here is Kirk on why he chose the Raiders and how much he's looking forward to the upcoming season. Take a listen. I think it starts with the coaching staff. I was really excited about being able to work with coaches I worked with before and Clint Kubiak, Rick Denison, Andrew Junoko. I had some of my best years playing with them and coaching is a big deal in this league. So getting around them excited me. And I think it's a team that has a lot of young talent and that they're building something special and I want to be a part of that. As always Kirk Cousins saying all of the right things. Do you think there is any chance Mendoza doesn't see the field this season? Well, listen, I think right now it comes down to his ability to process and look efficient and competent. I think I trust Clint Kubiak's decision making. But I think you break Kirk Cousins in there because he raises the floor, right? He allows his team to be on time. He's stable. He's competent. And I think right now you also, I think we don't talk about enough because this time we're talking about the physical attributes. But there's a part of this where you also have to protect the kid's mental state, meaning his confidence, right? If you throw him out there because the fans want him or because there's a need to see him go and he's not there, you can set him back. So I think there's probably some point where you say, hey, in the middle of the season, because I do see Kirk Cousins playing in October, in November, you know? And if things go bad, then you say, well, let's see what the kid got. But nevertheless, man, I think it's a fair bet. We will see him at some point this season. Yeah, this is such an interesting situation because when Kirk Cousins got brought to Atlanta, he thought he was going to be the guy, and then they draft a quarterback high. And suddenly that dynamic changes and there's a lot more controversy. We're here. He's coming in understanding that he's a placeholder and part of his responsibility is to help nurture and bring Mendoza along. That being said, when you draft a quarterback number one overall, at some point he's going to play during that season. And unless Kirk goes in and it just lights out and they're doing extremely well, to me the first amount of turbulence they had, there's going to be a lot of clamoring to put Mendoza. Quickly, D.P., I want to say that about Coach, too. That's a good point because I do think right now, if there is turbulence to your point, I want to see how Clint Kubiak handles that turbulence because the meter is going to be on. Like get him out there. And it's hard for a team that's really trying to buy hope with a young quarterback. So this drives me crazy. Kirk Cousins being in Vegas can be additive for Fernando Mendoza, how to game plan, how to carry yourself as a professional, a player coach. I'm on board with all of that stuff. But like if Kirk Cousins starts 4-0 and has 300 yards in every game, you let him run. But if Fernando Mendoza, to me you play Fernando Mendoza when he is ready. Irregardless of wins and losses, performance, media pressure, Collins to talk radio, like if Fernando Mendoza is not ready and Kirk Cousins sprains his knee in week two, then don't play Fernando Mendoza. Play him when he is ready. And if that is week one, great. If it's week five, great. If it's week 15, great. But he is the future. He is the number one pick. And I think, I saw it in Chicago, we're going to sit Mitch Drabisky and we're going to play Mike Glennon. And then Mike Glennon led the league in turnovers after four weeks and they caved to the pressure and they played Mitch Drabisky before he was ready. And it set him back. Like to me Mendoza set Drabisky back. It set Drabisky back. Did it though? Did it? Maybe it would have never worked. It doesn't look like he's ever really been ready. Now look, he has... They changed coaches after that. I don't even mean to make it... My point is Mendoza's timeline should be his own. Well, let me say this. If he looks ready in training camp, I still wouldn't throw him out. I see that and I would. That's where I disagree. And I would. And look, everybody has different opinions as to what you should do with that high pick because we've seen plenty of examples where a guy goes number one overall and they play him right away. And the thought process says get him as much experience as possible. And then we've seen the other school thought where sit him as long as you can so he can get as much experience. So when he does get a chance to play, he's in the best position to be successful. Now there are... You could get people to argue both those points. There are success stories for both. Sure. And feel very strongly about why they have the position they have. So let's get into the voluntary program of this off season. Some guys are attending. Some guys are not. But 10 teams underway with new leadership. Lamar Jackson showed up for the Ravens workout. Josh Allen and DJ Moore made appearances for the Bills. This off season head coach Joe Brady got promoted after being the offensive coordinator. Coach here, I will start with you. Do you think the Joe Brady, Josh Allen pairing will pay off in Buffalo? Well, their pairing is going to be fine because it's already been fine. They have a relationship and a big part of why he's the head coach of the Bills right now is because of that existing relationship. So from an offensive perspective, yeah, that should work out the way it's been and should be successful. And should actually give them a leg up over other head coaches. Now whether Joe Brady as a head coach is going to work out, that remains to be seen. And the difficulty of being the offensive coordinator and the head coaches, so many other things are pulling at you that you can't always give the attention that you need to or that you used to to the job that you're also assigned and doing. Organizationaly, it's hard for me to imagine that things are great there just because of the way they handled the whole transition to Joe Brady. And that's a real concern for me. Yeah, I think there's a lot of pressure on Joe Brady to get this team over to home. To me, I think that Buffalo Bills at this point where we can't judge them on a regular season because I do expect them to be 11 and 12 winning team. It's all about getting to January and getting to the Super Bowl. We've looked at this team year after year saying, oh, they have a Super Bowl roster, they have MVP quarterback, they have a good defense, they have all these things. Now they have DJ Moore. They've checked off a lot of boxes. If they don't win a Super Bowl with Joe Brady, there's a legit concern like, man, they may never win one, right? Because there's so much momentum over the years about this team arriving. They've gotten so close, nevertheless, they haven't finished the journey. And now it's on Joe Brady because of the relationship with Josh Allendet. He's opposed to say, all right, I know what we need to do. Let's get there. But I don't think that if they don't do it, man, I'm like, in the next two, three years, you may have to break this team up. Well, and to Willie's point, Joe Brady is starting at a different level of expectation than most of these other head coaches are starting at where they're expecting him to go deep into the playoffs. Or the Super Bowl. It's him and Jesse Minter and Baltimore, right? Those two guys are expecting, they're first time head coaches who are expected to win by the way. But I think it's harder for Brady for what the situation is in Baltimore. Really? Yeah. Because with Baltimore, you know there's some, listen, you lose likely. There's questions about Matt Beekway, who you paid a lot of money on the defensive side. You don't have a shoe number one receiver. Like there's Hoes in Baltimore. Buffalo, there's no Hoes. Well, Super Bowl or bust? Good luck, Joe Brady. Good luck. We are 16 days away from the 2026 NFL drafts. We want to bring you inside the OT War Room. Every day we're talking about the biggest storylines ahead of the draft. We have Super Bowl champion Eric Mangini, Super Bowl champion Willie Cologne, and I'm still here. So we are talking today with Jeremiah Love and really the concept of Jeremiah Love and a running back of being taken that high. Of course, the highly-tied prospect out of Notre Dame. A lot of people think he's the most talented player in the entire draft, regardless of position. Many believe he could go inside of the top five here in a couple of weeks. So not to anyone's surprise when asked at his pro day. He was very confident about his goals for his career in the upcoming season. Here's Jeremiah Love. I tell him that I want to be one of the best of all time. I want to be a Hall of Famer. I want to be a Pro Bowler in my very first year. I want to win offense and rookie league. I tell him all these goals that I have, but obviously these are goals. But you got to have a process for how you want to achieve those things. So I'll go every season and set out little goals per week, what I can do to make sure that I'm reaching the bigger goal that I have for myself. But I told all these teams this. And it's a lot of big talk, but I have a process and I have a plan for how I'm going to get there. It is big talk, Coach. Last running back. Coach knows the life of big talk, Mike. I know he does. That's why I'm going to start with him. I love the way he said little goals, follow my big goals. I want to go to the Hall of Fame. I want to be a Pro. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty big goals. I want to go to the Hall of Fame too. One day. I don't know which one. What is a ceiling for Jeremiah Love as a rookie in terms of a team taking him in the top five and the sub coming season? Yeah, that's an interesting question because it's going to depend a little bit on not just his ability, but also the ability of his offensive line and the group that he goes to in terms of protection. That part of it is important. But then also what type of quarterback do you have? Does that quarterback actually generate some kind of threat where they've got to play split safety defense? You look at Ashton Gentie last year, I thought his ceiling was going to be higher than what it was, but I didn't think it was necessarily as high as where he was drafted. And going through the course of season, I think he finished up with what was it, 3.7 per carry. It's a pretty disappointing rookie season for a back that was drafted that high. And I had concerns about him coming out because of his play against ranked opponents. So I went back and I just looked at the ranked opponents that Jeremiah Love's face. And the thing that's encouraging here is 12 games against ranked opponents, 12.8 or 12.8 rushes per game. I would like that to be higher. But the number there at 6.8, that's really encouraging. And production is there. Which lends itself to think, okay, as he goes to the next level against much higher caliber defenses, he's got a shot to be as effective as some of the other successful backs like that we've seen over time. Yeah, listen, I think he's the type of, and Coach Wright, he lands to a functional office aligned. He could be diddly. I think he's just super versatile. I think at the end of the day, he's one of those type of backs where, you know, if you're a defense, you prepare for him before you prepare for the quarterback. Just because he offers so much, he expands the playbook. And when you watch him on tape, man, he has the home run speed. He can catch the ball, especially if you put him out in motion in space. If so much he can do single handedly by himself, he excites you. I can see him being a pro bowler in his first year and having over 1500 yards. If, to your coach's point, he gets to an offense that really has a good office line and a playbook that complements his skill set. So much of this is a situation. There hasn't been an offensive rookie of the year running back since Saquon Barkley in 2018. It hasn't been very common recently as the league goes more passing. But before Saquon Barkley, Alvin Kamara the year before, Todd Gurley a couple of years before that. So maybe not completely unrealistic for Jeremiah Love. But Willie, you've got the comp here. You were drafted back in 2006, went on to win that Super Bowl ring, of course, during your tenure, your career. I love comps. Yes. Don't be shy. When you look at Jeremiah Love, best case scenario, what are you seeing? As you're saying, I can feel the heat from Coach. If it was Coach, like, who was he going to say? Listen, I grew up and actually seen Marshall Faulk play. When you turn on the tape, he reminds me a lot of the Great Hall of Fame of Marshall Faulk. You talk right now with his ability right now to be elusive. Look at the spin move right here by the Great Marshall Faulk. Finds daylight, gets home. He has home run speed. So does Jeremiah Love, man. Jeremiah Love at that size, six feet, 220 pounds, ran a 4-3. You see the home run speed right there. Gets home. He can carry an offense. He talk about the footwork, get running behind his pass, being elusive. But Jeremiah Love can do the same thing. Look at him right here. If we get to an ASAP, they go fulking into the end zone. But look at Jeremiah Love, right? Get behind the offense line, finds daylight, gets to the outside, up the numbers, gets his pass, north. Boom, out of there. Can't catch him. The speed alone with the size and everything he can do with the football hand is electric. Right here, when you turn on the tape, he has hands for days, man. Like, the kid has legit hands, very much like Marshall Faulk. Marshall Faulk scared a lot of people in the screen game. So does Jeremiah Love. Look at that one-hand snag. This kid is legit, man. Like, if you're a team right now who just needs somebody who can eat, you know, put in work between the 20s, this is your guy. So I think he's going to have a hell of a year's work a year. One of the greatest things about the first Super Bowl that we won is that they didn't run Marshall Faulk enough. There you go. Or else they would have won that Super Bowl. That's an interesting comparison. Marshall may have been a little bit more elusive side to side than Love is. The thing I really like about Love is if he gets that hole at that four, three, six speed, that's not just combine speed. You see that actually translate onto the field. So once there's daylight, it's hard to catch him. So, Coach, you know, in these war rooms, it's also like philosophical debates. It's debates about the player, but also about is this player or this position worthy of this pick? So Jeremiah Love, he's a consensus first-rounder. Everybody understands that. But taking a running back in the top five, if you look at the history, go back to 2019, these are the top running backs taken. You see Genty at sixth. Sometimes it doesn't go off the board till late first round because you get to control that fifth year option early in the second round. We've seen a lot of it. I will say this, even hearing the Marshall Faulk comp, I do not think it would be wise for a team in the top five or most of the teams in the top 10 to use a pick on a running back. It is still a luxury position. Saquon Barkley is an outlier and he was amazing for the Giants as a rookie, but he ended up winning when he went to a good situation in Philly. If you think about like the best running backs who have been drafted in the last couple of years, you saw Bijan Robinson on that list. Bijan Robinson, 1,400 plus rushing yards each the last two years. Falcons, eight wins each of those two years. I would even argue that Jameer Gibbs, who's the second running back taken in the Bijan Robinson class at 12. Would the Lions have been better off taking Jameer Gibbs and Jack Campbell, who they took at 12 and 18, or staying put and taking Jaylen Carter? Like a premium player at a premium position. Running backs at the peak will get 20 million a year. Receivers are getting 35 million a year. Left tackles can get 30, 40 million a year. It is a pick that I could see benefiting the Chiefs because they are established. I could even see myself talking into the Giants. We got our quarterback. We got our pass rusher. We've got our wide receiver one. I think if the Titans take Jeremiah Lovett for, that's a luxury. That's putting rims on a car that doesn't have an engine. Well, remember the Lions made a pretty significant transition organizationally. And Jameer was a big part of that. He's been amazing. His rookie season, the average 5.2 yards. A carry had 10 touchdowns rushing. He had another 6.1 yards per reception. And he had pretty impressive production in his rookie season. And when you look at rookie running backs, it has been a little bit of a mixed back. We could pull up the graphic of guys that were drafted in the top 10. So you go down. The most surprising on this list is McCaffrey at 3.7 yards a carry. Zeke had a really good offensive line. Veejhan we see. Seyquan we see. I understand what you're saying in terms of is it worth it to take a guy that high. It can be if it changes the way the teams have to play against you. And that's, again, the disappointing thing about Genty. Genty didn't change any way that people had to play against the Raiders. But if you have a back that forces you to play 8 in the box, that really helps a quarterback because it simplifies defense. But if Genty was in a better position, would he have changed the way that people play against them? I'm not sure. You look, again, we go back to McCaffrey's numbers. Didn't have a great rookie season, but we see how dynamic he's been. He's a great player. And he changes the way teams play against him. So could Genty follow that same progression? Maybe. But that to me is you better have a conviction that that player is going to change the way teams play against you. Otherwise, it's not worth it. And I think he is. I think he's a generational type talent. I do. And that's why if he's... He's talking about the generational type talent. He did the Marshall Falkon. I know that. And I also believe if you're the Chiefs though, you do take him, right? I agree the Chiefs take him. Because if you listen, you have Kenneth Walker, but the downside to Kenneth Walker, he doesn't have hands, right? He's a runner back that is extremely explosive between the tackles. You're looking at Jeremiah Love as probably one of the most versatile backs coming out of this draft. There's nothing he can't do in the football field. And once again, he elevates your offense. You have Patrick Holmes coming off of ACL. You need more production in the red zone. You need things on the offensive side where you can be more explosive, get back to being a light show like we'd like to talk about. He's a guy that's a plug-and-play in the incident offense once he puts his feet in cleats for you. And by the way, like I don't think he will be there for the Chiefs at nine because... And I think they signed Kenneth Walker with that intel that he's going. I just think Washington, New Orleans, Tennessee, the teams that he is most often mocked to, I don't know that those teams are ready to support Jeremiah Love and have him be productive on this rookie deal. That's the debates that they're having inside the War Room. We appreciate it. Tune in tomorrow, day three. We're talking Ohio State's dominance. We can see which one of those guys are going to be in the first round. Which one might end up being Bust. We'll be back tomorrow doing that on the OT. I want to talk to you that I absolutely love this story. I'm a Chicago guy. I love rivalries. I love a little bit of trash talk. And Ben Johnson sat down with my guy Herb Howard. Shout out to Herb. Herb. At the Biggs. Support independent local journalists, by the way. Got to do it. Ben was asked about how he feels regarding the criticism he faces as a rookie head coach last year. Very honest answer. Take a listen. I didn't come into this league or take this position to necessarily make friends. That's not the case. I love what I do. I love who I'm doing it with. That's the most important thing to me. And everything I do is with them in mind. Coach, I'm going to give you two options here. Do you like this or love this? I think it's a very healthy attitude. Oh, really? Well, it's look, you're going to get criticized no matter what you do. And the second you start listening to people's criticism and change the way you are and what you believe in, you're probably going to do the wrong thing for what you should be doing. I just thought he was going to take the approach. Don't make it about you. Make it about the team. I thought he was going to be on brand. Well, I think he's making it about the team in the sense that he's saying, I don't care what anybody else says. I'm all about my guys. And if my guys are happy with it, then I'm happy with it. Also, that's how I took it. How soft is everybody else? Oh, extremely soft. Oh my God. He said, F the Packers. He didn't give a proper handshake to Matt LaFleur. It's sports. It's a rivalry. And the guys are going to lock their feet off that body. Obviously. They rallied behind your coach. Obviously. Oh, won't someone please think of the children? And Johnson didn't handshake Matt LaFleur properly. Get out of here. Ridiculous.