Diamonds Are Forever

[00:00:00] Alabama Take Projection Welcome everybody to Takin' On Sports, IMTD, that is Greg. Greg, how you doing man? I am pretty good, how are you doing? I'm pretty good myself, sitting here, got the Alabama Regional Final on here in Tuscaloosa. Alabama just lost the lead here, two solo shots from Oklahoma State. Other than that, good weekend, you know?

[00:00:30] Alabama's good with it. Yeah, a lot of baseball, a lot of softball, basketball. We now have our NBA Finals set. We now have our Stanley Cup Finals set. We know who is the champions of Europe in soccer. All kinds of good stuff. We've had a lot of good stuff to watch this weekend. Let's start NBA Finals, we know. We got the Knicks and the Spurs, rematch of the 99 Finals.

[00:01:00] Spurs took down Oklahoma City in Game 7. And, you know, a team that's so young that was making some noise and now they've arrived early. Yeah, way ahead of schedule. So now, you know, it's about, you know, I guess, I don't know if you call it overachieving, but obviously I don't think anybody thought they'd get there quite this soon. But yet here they are.

[00:01:31] A lot of young guys, not a lot of overall playoff experience. And yet, you know, able to overcome the NBA champs in seven. You know, winning OKC is never easy. They did that. So now they face Knicks team, I would think they're, I don't know, a heavy favorite. But I'm sure, I mean, you expect the Spurs to probably win this series. But, you know, you never know. It is, yeah.

[00:01:59] I've been thinking about that and was going to ask you, of course, you know, we don't have a great history of predictions. But just which way you're leaning. Because, yeah, on paper, you're like, OK, this is Spurs. Like, there's no answer for Wimby, especially with Mitchell Robinson having an injury. And you got just all these young guys playing so well. They're such a well-coached team. You know, like they really haven't lost much since, you know, Greg Popovich retired.

[00:02:30] But then on the other side, man, the Knicks, they're red hot. They are playing so well. They almost got a team of destiny feel to them. They do. I just, yeah, it's so hard. Are you leaning? Yeah. How are you feeling about it? Which way are you leaning there? You know, being that I don't like them. But I'd be shocked if we go more than six. I just think the Spurs are just that good of a team.

[00:02:59] I mean, the Knicks, it's a great story. You know, first time since 99 in the finals. You know, it's going to be like we had talked about last week, man. That game three in the garden is going to be absolutely wild. I just don't think that they have enough for the Spurs. I mean, honestly, there's not really a team that has anything for Wimby. I mean, the man's 7-5 but can drain a three. I mean, it's ridiculous.

[00:03:27] And so, I mean, it kind of is what it is. I mean, obviously they're going to win the series. You know, hopefully you can get them in some type of foul trouble and then have other guys try to beat you. The problem, though, is that they have a plethora of guards. Maybe they don't talk about it as much there. But they got a ton of talented other people, you know. So, I mean, it's going to be tough. Yeah, absolutely. And we mentioned the Mitchell Robinson injury.

[00:03:56] You know, he's a big guy that Galees, you know, helped with the rebounding aspect that Wimby brings, you know. Which you mentioned so many talented guys on that roster. In New York, not quite as deep. Well, not quite as deep. I mean, obviously, you know. And the other thing, too, is, you know, of course, you know, Jalen Brunson is going to get his points. But who else? He's going to have to have consistent help throughout the series.

[00:04:28] So, you know that. The way the Spurs guard, I mean, we've seen, you know, of course, you know, with SGA, they kind of, you know, shut him down. At key moments, you know, he was out of sorts a lot. And then when he did get going, you know, game seven, you know, they had everybody else on lock. So, he was kind of on an island by himself where you're waiting for anybody else to help him out and nobody did. Ooh, Lordy. Man, Eric Hines from Alabama. Sorry.

[00:04:58] Eric Hines just annihilated. We were tied in Tuscaloosa in the top of the eighth. I mean, Eric Hines, I mean, good. He hit a ball a few weeks ago against Tennessee and Knoxville, maybe a couple months ago now. It was one of the hardest hits of the ball I've seen. It reminded me of Jorge Soler somewhere in 2021 World Series. I think I said that at the time. Oh, I mean, he absolutely.

[00:05:26] This almost went over the big-ass scoreboard in left field at Thomas Sewell Stadium. Let's see this replay here. Hit the very top of it. Good God. We are tied with authority. Sorry. I just, that, oof, that just took me right there. Yeah. I'm so mad because I can't even really watch it because it's on ESPN+. Oh, yeah. I kind of listened to it.

[00:05:56] But, man. It was cool last night because it was on Plus, but then it was also on the Whiparound, which was on U. So. Oh, nice. Yeah. I haven't got the Plus yet. So I'm actually watching. So I'm keeping up with it, watching this tech UCLA. That's the LA elimination of the softball game. That's a good one. Oh, the plus is just that, man, I just haven't never paid for an extra.

[00:06:24] And, you know, it was hoping they should at least give YouTube TV folks us that while we wait. You'd think we would get that. I know. It's ridiculous how long that's taken. I feel like they're just waiting for football, but I'm just like, dude, there's so much other stuff going on in the world. I know, right? I get the football aspect and, yeah, I mean, it's cool to drop it then, but, man, we're missing a lot of good stuff in between. I know, right? Especially, like, I don't, you know, WWE, right,

[00:06:54] and I'm not watching too much. I don't need every pay-per-view, but we get to, like, Money in the Bank or SummerSlam, you know, the big ones I want to see. Yeah. And then, yeah, like this. So I'm using, you know, I'm just using my mom's DirecTV info on it. But, yeah, it's ridiculous because, you know, I went in there the other night and tried to. I was like, oh, that's right. Yeah. What was it? Squeeze Play. Squeeze Play's called, yeah. Yeah, you would think, but at least we'd have ESPN Plus by now. The other thing, I don't know what you would think, like,

[00:07:23] ESPN Plus should just be an automatic thing at this point, right? Yeah. Yeah, I just, again, like. ESPN Plus is nothing new. So it's not like they have to, like, create something different. Well, and my thing is, too, it's been a thing, and I've had this complaint about AT&T for years. Like, their website is terrible. Like, terrible. And I'm like, you are the biggest telecom company in the world. Like, how do you have a bad website? Like, oh, man.

[00:07:53] Like, it's just so messy. And then same thing, ESPN, you're owned by Disney. Like, you guys have all the money in the world. Like, how can you not? This should be smooth. There's this big, grandiose, so you can access everything on your TV. Yeah. But in the meantime, what are we doing? Yeah. Yeah, and like we said, it's cool that they're going to integrate it

[00:08:20] into the actual YouTube TV platform so you don't have to switch apps. But, yeah, like you said, in the meantime, give us a damn code. Give us access. Like, just give us something. It's crazy. It doesn't make sense, yeah. But we've complained about that enough, I'm sure, on this show. We've complained about that enough. Not for that. But, yeah, I mean, for this time of year especially, I mean, because, you know, obviously, you know, you try to catch as much baseball as you can, but when they run it on that plush, you're like, God damn. I'm in this song. I'm in this song. I know.

[00:08:50] I mean, there's been a lot of – what are we talking about? The Knicks and the – Yeah, Knicks and Spurs. I'm same as you. Like, it's just there's so much talent. San Antonio is such a discipline. They play so well. But, man, like my heart. I know you – I mean, the Knicks are the much better story just because of – it's been since 73. I mean, you have to be pretty old at this point to have seen the Knicks win a title.

[00:09:21] And the part that you actually remember it, I mean, you're pushing what, 6, 65, 60 something. Yeah. You can remember – if you remember the Knicks thing, you're definitely – I'd about to say, yeah, so it was 53 years ago. Yeah. So, yeah, like my first – I first – like my first real sports memories, I was probably about five years old. Right. So you're pushing 60 something. Yeah. You're pushing – Yeah, you're pushing like 60, 70.

[00:09:50] You're around 70 years. In a way, it seems like from just hearing about how the NBA worked at times in the past, it sounded like it was hard to see stuff. Mm-hmm. Like regional or – I've even heard where they did like replays of final games late at night and it wasn't even like a live thing. And I'm just like – Oh, yeah. It's crazy, yeah. Hearing some of those old stories about how, yeah, like – or like college football only had like two games a week on basically. I was like, oh, man, that's like – that's a terrible world.

[00:10:20] Like I don't – like we've gone too far the other way now with all the streaming and stuff like that. But like, man, it's like we grew up – I mean, even in the pay-per-view days, we still – you could still watch games, you know, in the morning and mid-afternoon and early evening and late night and then, you know, maybe a Hawaii game on. But – Absolutely. I mean, you could watch something.

[00:10:43] But now, I couldn't even – like you got to think like how many – I mean, now you can pretty much see anybody you want to. But think – I mean, you could go decades without seeing that you could – you might hear so-and-so is a great team and you might not see them for 10 years back in the day. Like think about it. I mean, if you lived in like Alabama, for example, I mean, how much would you see USC in – you know what I'm saying? Yeah, right. Yeah.

[00:11:12] Or how much – you know, a Washington team that was good. You know, you hear it. You might read about them. But the chances of you seeing them are slim to none. You know what I'm saying? Same for them out there. You know, like you hear about an SEC team that's great and be like, well, I don't care. I'm not going to see them anyway. Yeah, it's part of, you know, what gave the sport its identity really was regional. But, yeah, it's crazy, yeah, thinking about pros being that way. And, yeah, like you said, they – what do they call it?

[00:11:42] Like tape delay, basically. You know, showing the game later. It was just that – people just weren't that interested. I guess they just – I don't know. Yeah, it's just crazy. It's just crazy. Or were they just – bad people who didn't rather watch what was on regular NBC TV over that? Yeah, right, yeah. It's crazy. But, yeah. Like, yikes. It's crazy. No.

[00:12:09] But as to the – yeah, the actual finals themselves, it's like my head says San Antonio. My heart says the Knicks. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people would love to see the Knicks. Yeah. Just because unless you – of course, unless you're a rival or, you know, Boston or Philly or something like that, you're probably not for the Knicks. But, yeah, I mean, I think most people would like to see the Knicks. But I think, you know, the NBA got the finals they kind of wanted.

[00:12:39] You know, they got the national brand with the Knicks. They got the international superstar and Wimby that, you know, a lot of people are gravitating to as far as being kind of the Knicks guy up as far as popularity, whether you're a Spurs fan or not. So, I mean, I think it's what the NBA kind of wanted in the long run. Yeah. Actually, I do think it's like – I mean, it's probably with the Knicks. They wanted the Knicks either way. But, you know, your story could have either been the Knicks versus the defending champs

[00:13:08] or the Knicks versus, you know, the rising star of the league, Wimby and this young franchise and, you know, the rematch element and all that. I think most people are happy with this just because – I don't know. It seems like there's a lot of animosity toward the Thunder, I guess, you know, kind of the way they're playing. You know, people say they flop or whatever the case may be there. But I think I get a sense of this is what a lot – most people kind of wanted to see with this Spurs-Knicks.

[00:13:39] I think it should be the more fun matchup, yeah. But speaking of – oh, go ahead. Go ahead. No, I was going to say, you know, my biggest thing is just to see what that Game 3 atmosphere looks like because I think it's going to be wild, raucous. And, you know, it's going to be – I just want to see how that looks more than anything. But, yeah, I don't see the Spurs losing the series.

[00:14:07] You know, it may go six, but I don't see it going past that really, honestly. Interesting, yeah. Like I said, I just don't know which way to go. But we'll see. It should be fun. I was going to say, moving on to OKC, I'm sure you've seen these stories out there, but some stories going out, not really predicting, just kind of putting it out there. Like, hey, like, should OKC go after Giannis?

[00:14:38] They certainly have the pick cachet to do it, and I know that's what Milwaukee wants. They have a picker move, Chet, but I don't – especially when a guy, you know, Chet Holmgren has a game seven he did. I mean, man, talk about just a rough game. But I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting to see what OKC does now to tackle the Spurs problem because, you know, they – You know, this dig – yeah, it's a problem.

[00:15:07] It's a problem, and it's a problem that's not going away anytime soon. No, yeah. You know you just got to be pissed off your OKC fan, though, because you won that title. You're the up-and-coming team. You're like, hell yeah, like, we are set for the next, like, decade. And the rules are. I mean, outside the Spurs, I mean, no one's touching them in the West. Yeah, for real. I mean – Well, and they didn't even expect the Spurs to touch them yet. You know, they're like –

[00:15:36] They thought they at least had a few years before a real challenger emerged, and then the Spurs just dominate them in the regular season and then come in, win a game seven in Oklahoma City. Like – They won two games, OKC. I mean, they won a game one. They did, yeah. A game seven. I mean, that's something. That's huge, yeah. Ways to win it. I mean, they have a great atmosphere. So – Oh. Here we go. UCLA down to their last out. Oh.

[00:16:05] Bottom of the Mary. Yeah. Speaking of UCLA, let's jump over to the NCAA baseball tournament real quick because you're talking about softball. Well, actually, let's talk about softball real quick. Talk about the College World Series softball UCLA-Texas Tech elimination game right now. UCLA down to their last drop. Yeah. Yeah, winner plays Alabama who has continued to just roll. Got a little scared of UCLA.

[00:16:35] In that first game. But, you know, the fifth and sixth inning. The two-run shots are tied. And the three-run blast. And the six there to put it away. Six to three. And, you know, the Nebraska game a little easier than I thought it was going to be. I mean, we got after their start. We were kind of early. Ruffed her up a little bit. They made some errors. And we took advantage of it. We didn't have our cleanest game in the field there either. But Briskey was pitching her ass off.

[00:17:03] Like, she was dealing against the Huskers. They couldn't hit anything. So, and she just keeps on. Like, man. She just had the game after game. I mean, you know, even outside of that third inning when she gave up the two home runs. I mean, she was the lead against UCLA. I mean, in the first game, she's just pitching her lights out. And, you know, just amazing what she's done and gotten so much better this year.

[00:17:33] Worked harder than that offseason. And, you know, I love what we're doing. And, you know, possibly we're maybe one pitch away from seeing any of Texas Tech. Or maybe UCLA again, depending on how this bag goes here. Full count. Bottom of the night. Two outs. Try three and that's it. Oh, Texas Tech. All right.

[00:18:02] That's going to be an interesting game. All right. Yeah. So, tomorrow you got your semifinals start at 11 Central. You got Tennessee and Texas. That's a rematch of a first-round game. Tennessee got the better of Texas in that one. And then at 6 Central, you got Alabama and Texas Tech. They have not played yet. Alabama just needs one win. Same thing for Tennessee. They both just need one win.

[00:18:31] And they're in the championship series. Oh, I just hope we can get it done tomorrow night. Yeah, right. You don't. That's, you know, same thing watching this region. Yeah, you don't want to go to that winner-take-all game. No. You don't because anything can happen. Especially in baseball and softball, there's so many variables. As we've seen, I mean, you were talking about the UCLA men's team. I mean, you know, there's so many different variables in baseball that you don't see in other sports.

[00:18:58] Because, I mean, you could – I mean, you're hot and cold in baseball can change so dramatically. Mm-hmm. And when it does, it's crazy. Like, as we saw, I mean, the UCLA men, best team by far on the men's side, don't even make it out their own region this weekend. Yeah, a runaway top seed, Big Ten regular season and tournament champions.

[00:19:26] Barely lost like five games or something all year. Lose their first game to St. Mary's. Have to walk off Virginia Tech in an elimination game. Play another elimination game at St. Mary's again. And St. Mary's walks them off. And that's it. UCLA's done. Three games in the regional. And they're done. The number one overall seed. And right now St. Mary's is up 2-1 in the sixth inning over Cal Poly.

[00:19:53] St. Mary's needs to win that one to force a winner-take-all game tomorrow. Wow. But we've seen a couple seeds go down. Mm-hmm. Southern Miss, your nine national seed. They're eliminated. Second year in a row, they didn't get out their region. Yeah. Nebraska, 13 overall seed. They're eliminated. We've seen a lot of them struggle, too. I mean, Florida State's on the brink. We saw Auburn. They got dog-walked their first game by Milwaukee.

[00:20:23] And they had to scrape by. Outscored NC State 17-13 like a football game in their elimination game. Took care of UCF today. They're a little delayed because of some weather over there on the plains. So, they will play tomorrow. I don't know. I believe tomorrow night or tomorrow during the day. I think a doubleheader is going on. They get a rematch with Milwaukee. Of course, the Tigers got to win two in a row there to get out of their region. Wild. Wild. Yeah.

[00:20:54] So far, clinched super regional spot so far. You got Kansas. They're the 15 overall seed. You got UNC, five overall seed. Texas, six overall seed. Georgia, SEC regular season tournament champs. They cruised through their region. Right now, we mentioned Alabama. They had a couple great games. Won 21-3 Friday night. That was the home runs. They're the Duke.

[00:21:24] The ball is flying in Tuscaloosa this week, and they just popped a graph. Home run so far in this regional. Oklahoma State has 13. Did it seem like on that Alabama State team, everybody looks like they're like 35? They do, man. That was an old look. Those mustaches, they're rocking crazy. Everybody looks 35 like they have the kids and the job to go to in the morning.

[00:21:53] But, yeah, we know the Cowboys can hit home runs. They're second in the country this year in numbering home runs. They lost their first game to USC Upstate, had to beat Alabama State in a close one, and then took care of USC Upstate in the rematch. They slaughtered Upstate their second time. Yeah. And right now it's bottom eight, two out, and they have the bases loaded here.

[00:22:21] In Tuscaloosa, Alabama needs it out to get out of this and go to the ninth with a chance to take the lead. I was like, we're talking about you don't want to go to that one-and-take-all game. If you're Alabama, you had the advantage here and you had the lead. You blew that, and then now you tied it back up, but you're in a dangerous spot here. They had two outs, and now they've got the bases loaded on a little dribbler the pitcher couldn't make a play on, a little blooper, and then now a hit batsman. And so...

[00:22:48] You just want to get it as fast as you can because... Yeah. But, yeah, elsewhere around the country, Atlanta Regional with 2C Georgia Tech. Oklahoma won the first one, so there's a winner-take-all game tomorrow. We mentioned Kansas advance in Morgantown, West Virginia's 16 overall seed. They won a regional game tonight, so they forced a winner-take-all with Kentucky. That would be the third game these two have played.

[00:23:15] Kentucky, they've split the first two, obviously. Let's see, in Hattiesburg, we mentioned Southern Miss is out. Little Rock and Jacksonville State are in the final right now. If Little Rock wins, they advance to the Super. They're up 3-2 in the fifth. Gainesville, Florida, has been on their heels a couple of times so far.

[00:23:40] And they will have to play in a winner-take-all game against Troy tomorrow. The Trojans put up 16 on them. Troy put out Miami earlier today. They did. In Tallahassee, they've also had some weather delays, so they tomorrow will play game one of the regional finals. St. John's is actually in the driver's position there. They beat Florida State in the opener.

[00:24:09] Florida State's had to scrape by Coastal Carolina and NIU. They had a tough one there against Northeastern. They had to come back. But yeah, St. John's there. We talked about what's going on here in Tuscaloosa. Got a 1-2 count right now. Let's see. Austin, Texas cruised through that regional. Their bats are on fire. They scored 19-16-6. 1-1.

[00:24:40] UNC didn't cruise as much. A couple close. One close home with East Carolina, then took care of business in the final. So they're on. They're on. Right now, it looks like College Station Regional. A&M, USC. But the Trojans are up 9-1 right now in the fifth. Oh, yeah. So it looks like they'll force a winner-take-all tomorrow there. In Eugene, we got Civil War right now in the regional final.

[00:25:10] 1-1, bottom six. Yeah. Oregon has a good position there. They just need the one win. Oregon State needs the win to fix up. Ground ball here in Tuscaloosa. They get out of the jam. We're going to the ninth. Tied. Huge, huge pitch there. Let's see. And Lincoln, Nebraska. There's another Nebraska we mentioned. Eliminated by Ole Miss.

[00:25:39] Ole Miss right now scrapping with Arizona State. They're down 4-3 in the seventh. Arizona State needs to win the fourth of game seven. We might get another win-and-take-all. They had a wild game the other night. Arizona State-Ole Miss went with, I think, 14. Yeah, 7-6 Ole Miss win. Yeah.

[00:26:06] That's been a mostly good regional except for the first elimination game. Arizona State slaughtered South Dakota State. Crazy thing. Bad thing is Nebraska lost all their teams on the same day. Oh, yeah. They lost a lot of baseball. Rough weekend for Nebraska fans. And then the last one, Starkville Regional. Mississippi State looking good. Looking like they'll advance the Supers right now.

[00:26:33] They're up 13-4 over Louisiana in the seventh. They have cruised. They scored 10 in their first two games and now 13. So they would match up and they would go to Athens for a Super Regional. The Bulldogs versus the Bulldogs. Mm-hmm. Yeah, good little SEC Bulldog fight there. That would be a good one. Yeah, so a lot of good performances by some lower seeds here.

[00:27:02] Of course, the big shocker, UCLA, that is. That's the big part of college baseball. I think it's really the one sport where seeding doesn't matter nearly anywhere as much as other sports. Mm-hmm. Just because you can get – I mean, in some instances you see a definite talent difference, but I mean, it's other – you know, it's really not that big of a difference when the game is going. I mean – Yeah, it's these –

[00:27:29] The regional format, yeah, lends itself to just being able to – for, you know, one team to get hot and it doesn't matter. If you just don't have it, if your bats go cold, if your pitchers don't have it, you know, they're not locating right. And you're hanging pitches, man, like this is – you know, it's dangerous here. Alabama is now at batting the bottom of the ninth. Ooh. Big swing and miss there. You're looking for it. Baseball is such a mental sport more so maybe than others.

[00:27:55] Just because, I mean, your pitcher, I mean, he gets off quick and it could go bad real quick if he gets out of his groove or, you know, someone's not hitting well. I mean, they could go 0 for 12 in the region and, you know, or they get hot, you know, get that one hitting and they, you know, get on a little high streak. You just never know. It's crazy. I mean, little teams where they go on the road. Oh, what a play.

[00:28:27] Nice jump and grab by the third baseman for Oklahoma State here. That was a surefire double for – that would have been a leadoff double for Alabama there. But he leapt up there and got it. I mean, it was a rope. Oops. Snow-coned it. Yeah, that was – let's see. Yeah, that saved a leadoff double right there. It's a huge play there. One good thing, at least he won't have a Big Ten team win this softball. Get rid of that.

[00:28:57] But, you know, but this baseball, it's just – so many teams as you – I know I haven't watched all year and I've been watching teams I haven't watched all season. You just get stuck there, go watch it all day. Yeah. Regional. It's been fun. Yeah, like I said, I used my mom's password. But just put a squeeze play. I know I probably called it out last year. I think I gave it a donut real good. But, yeah.

[00:29:27] Squeeze play is awesome. Just red zone for this regional. But in such a fast-paced thing with so many games going on all the time. You both will do it. Yeah, it really is awesome. Yeah, unless there's one – like your team's on like right now. I just got the Alabama game on. But – and the guys are knowledgeable in there that, you know, you learn a lot about who – Who these players are. Yeah, who this – You wouldn't know if you're on the way.

[00:29:52] I mean – because, I mean, I'm somewhat versed, you know, of course, the SEC, some ACC. But outside of that, like, honestly, when it comes to like West Coast teams and stuff, I mean, I know who's good, but I couldn't tell you a whole bunch, you know. I know Oregon is good, but I couldn't tell you a lot about them. Or, you know, Oregon State is always good. But, you know, I couldn't tell you who the sharp players are right now, honestly.

[00:30:23] Speaking of sharp star players, Justin LeBron up for Alabama right now. Two outs, top nine. Ooh, big swing and a miss on that first pitch. Dude, he strikes out a lot. He does strike. He does, yeah. He's not – average, not the best. This is one of the – yeah. Probably the biggest issue I see with him is he strikes out more than you would like to see. Even against Alabama State when everybody else was on, he had the big two-run shot. But outside of that, he struck out, what, three times even then.

[00:30:55] He's fouled one off there down 0-2 right now. This is where you want your star guy to come through, though. I'm going for you. Absolutely. Yeah. You don't want to give these Oklahoma City bats a chance to walk off, you know. I don't want anything else from them. Oh, high fly ball, but did not get enough of it. That was going to die in left field. We go bottom nine here at OKC. Chance to walk it off. They have the 2-3-4 hitters coming up, too.

[00:31:23] So, Bama Bullpen going to be on their game here to force extras. Let's see elsewhere. Soccer World, PSG, or your European champions, beat Arsenal in a penalty shootout yesterday. Oh, it was tough. Yeah, it was tough. It's a tough way to lose, especially the guy, Gabriel, one of Arsenal's defenders who skyed his last penalty kick to lose. It's always tough to lose like that.

[00:31:53] Penalties are such a crap shoot, man. It's just a thing that happened. It doesn't take away. Absolutely great season for Arsenal and English champs. Yeah, it happens. And then they're a young team. So, you know, they'll be back. This is, you know, not the end. It's the start. Elsewhere, U.S. men's team won a friendly today over Senegal. Christian Pulisic scores.

[00:32:22] So, we'll see if this team can, you know, figure it out for the World Cup here. Of course, the big news with them, they named the roster this week, too. And then rumors. Coach, you know, Pochettino might be taking over for AC Milan after that. Of course, his contract's up after the World Cup is all national team coaches. They always find it, you know, reset after that.

[00:32:52] But, yeah, so that's the big news now. We'll see what happens. Of course, it's all about, you know, if they perform well and he wants to go, that's fine. It is what it is. You just right now, you want to see consistent performance. You want to see attacking like today. He's definitely, they're in a winnable group. But we'll talk more about World Cup when it comes time there. I mean, the U.S., I mean, I don't know.

[00:33:20] It's just, you know, you have those. You know, obviously, we get excited when we get to that knockout state. But it just feels like we can never get past that knockout. Yeah, it's been, let's see, did we make it? Did we win a knockout? No, we didn't win the knockout 22, right? We lost to the Netherlands. Yeah.

[00:33:49] Let's see, yeah, it's been since, I guess, 02, since we made a run to the quarterfinals in. I'm excited to keep you with Germany. Yeah, a game we should have won, that goddamn handball. But yeah. Also make sure my current home status. That's why we work with matters. Together with home life, we've helped play. I'm sorry, I'm trying to look this up. Yeah, that's right, that 3-1 loss in Netherlands, yeah.

[00:34:21] It was a weird World Cup being in November, and then my kid was born then, so I was in the, I watched a lot of those games in the hospital too. But yeah, here we go. Let's see, what else in the world of sports? Anything else you want to talk about this week? No, I don't think. Yeah.

[00:34:49] Oh, I mean, I guess for Kyle Kuhl-Bow-Way, the NCAA ruled against Texas Tech quarterbacks. Where's these? They're going to be for a quarterback now. Yeah, that's a huge blow to the Tech offense there. You know, you feel bad for the kid, but also at the same time, man, just the more and more you learn about it, I think he was placing bets on Indiana while he was on the team. It's like, ah, yeah, come on, man.

[00:35:18] I mean, if people look at it badly in 2026, it's bad, you know, just where we're at in the world. Like, I guess still certain things you can't quite do there that's going to get over. I mean, obviously, you know, was he even playing at Indiana? I don't remember, yeah. It was before Signetti's time, yeah. It's not a good look. You know, you're not going to win there.

[00:35:48] Search for Texas Tech. But did you see also where Texas Tech, where Texas called, where Sarkeesian said, you know, there's a certain conference champions that don't play anybody, and then we go undefeated with that schedule, and Tech offered to buy out their first conference game and the Texas game as well to get that game week one. And so they put it all on the line. I don't think Texas is going to take that bait, but Texas. No, yeah. Texas, come on. We're ready. Let's go.

[00:36:18] Let's say we'll do it right now. Let's go. They said we'll pay both. The oil guy said I'll pay both the buyouts. Let's go. Yeah. Was it Cody Campbell? Yeah. We'll pay both buyouts. Yeah, that was funny to see, man. Sarke, Sarke, you're doing a lot of chopping this spring. Chill out, Sarke. That's not even our conference rival. I was about to say, I was about to say, no longer in the same conference, but still a lot of animosity there between those two schools.

[00:36:47] I don't know about the team tech in Texas and some of the things that happened in just their history. Most recently, you know, after Beard left Tech to go to Texas, that's a little dicey there a little bit before he left. Yeah. That's why I still say, like, man, bring back that old Southwest Conference lineup, man. But those schools are held. I mean, there's a lot of animosity,

[00:37:17] a lot of pettiness that you don't get to see as much anymore because they don't play. I know that. Or I would love, just throw every Texas team in the same conference, man. Like, even the small ones. Like, they'll be fine. They'll get that money, and then they'll just sneak around, man. Those Texas teams, it's just fun watching them, like, jaw at each other, how much those fans don't like each other. There's a lot of them. Even, I mean, there's a lot of animosity here. I mean, even, like, for example, you know, teams like,

[00:37:46] you know, SMU and TCU, of course, they don't have, like, the rivalry with Texas, but, you know, they kind of, there's, you know, SMU always felt in the 80s it was Texas. It was telling on them. Mm-hmm. And the death penalty, and, you know, for majority of that time of the Big 12, at the end, they spent, once TCU joined, I mean, they were taking the two Texas in football. Yeah. You know? I mean, so, I mean, it's a lot of animosity in the state of Texas amongst the teams.

[00:38:17] You know, there's a, the beauty of the Southwest Conference, there's a, unfortunately, a lot of people don't know it anymore. Mm-hmm. Yeah, man. It was, you know, You could even leave, you could even bring back Arkansas into it, because, I mean, they were there for so long. I mean, I have said, I've been saying for years on years, from a competitive standpoint, Arkansas would be so much better off in the Big 12. Oh, And especially, you know, how, I mean, now that, you know,

[00:38:47] They don't even really have, football-wise, I mean, they don't really even have a rival in the SEC. Yeah, I guess LSU, yeah, but. I mean, they've had some interesting things with LSU at times. I mean, that's turned into a cool game, but it's not even on the Friday after Thanksgiving anymore, so it's kind of lost its list. It was cool when it was in that spot. We're kind of at 2.33 o'clock, Friday afternoon, you know, you're, you know, looking for something to do. You're probably having your fifth turkey sandwich,

[00:39:16] and, you know, at times, that game was wild for the Golden Boot. It's been so hard years. I remember watching that Darren McFadden, Felix Jones team, take it to him. Yeah. I mean, I think I was at a bar in Auburn watching that one. Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's been some cool, but overall, I mean, Arkansas really doesn't have a definite rival. I mean, of course,

[00:39:45] they tried to force this Missouri rivalry just because they're next door to each other, but that's not real. That's not real. We know Kansas and Missouri is a real rivalry there. I mean, there's really not a lot of animals between Arkansas and Missouri, other than maybe because they're next to each other, but I don't know. I mean, at times, I guess on the basketball side, they've had rivalry with Kentucky at times. I don't know. Yeah, it's one of those things that they do have some, like,

[00:40:14] geographical rivals, but, you know, when I play around with it, like, on the college football game, I stick them in the Big 12 a lot because they got a lot of, I also stick, like, you know, Texas, Oklahoma, A&M back in there, too. So, like, if you actually look at a map, yeah, if you look at a map, Fayetteville is not far from Norman or Oklahoma or Stillwater. Right. Like you mentioned, close to Missouri, not far from those Kansas teams. Of course. And then, of course, the old traditional rivals with all the Texas teams. Yeah.

[00:40:45] Right. I mean, at least we can still now see, you know, Texas and Arkansas again. I mean, that, you know, older rivalry doesn't get played nearly as much, but, you know, some of that, I mean, I guess we've seen a lot of A&M in Arkansas and the, in Jerry world over the last decade. But, yeah, I mean, I think you're right. The big 12 probably is a better spot for them, but it is what it is. Yeah.

[00:41:13] The money is too good to ever give up. That'll never happen. For a different, for a different timeline. Different timeline. Yeah. Let's see. Elsewhere. I didn't, like I said, I didn't watch the WWE pay-per-view this weekend. I, I watched the first free hour just cause it was on before. Oh yeah. That's why Rhea Ripley went, retained. I mean, it was a decent match, but I mean, obviously you knew Rhea wasn't going to lose in Italy, the title in Italy.

[00:41:44] I guess the biggest shocker, I was maybe a little shocked to saw Ruka won intercontinental title. I didn't think it was going to happen in, in Italy, but I guess she's the IC champ. Women's IC champion, which is interesting. I guess. I'm sure, you know, let's then put her over. Becky put her over a little bit. China. Yeah. Look up some results here. It looks like, uh, Roman reigns one hit. Yeah. Roman reigns one tribal combat. Uh, I mean, you kind of expected it.

[00:42:14] I mean, you do. Yeah. I'm sure it was a very, I mean, I'm sure Batu kicked his ass most of the match just cause that's, but obviously that wasn't going to go like that. Um, but Brock Lesnar did beat over Femi, but that's kind of sent up that final match in Minneapolis. Um, you know, kind of his return to SummerSlam. I guess he hit him with seven F5s or something. I was about to say,

[00:42:41] you kind of figured when he came back that that's the direction they were going to go. He was going to get back his win and then they'll go, I guess, I don't know if he'll actually retire. Who the hell knows now what's going on? Um, yeah. Do you think though, Minneapolis, your home, do you think if there was a spot to go out specifically, that was it. And that's why it's kind of shocking that he called it a WrestleMania, unless that was all part of the, I don't know, storyline.

[00:43:11] We kind of already got suckered into it. I don't know. But he had, I guess with seven, seven F5s. Jesus. That's a lot. Yeah. Uh, like you said, Rhea Ripley retained, Cody Rhodes retained, uh, let's see. I'm not sure. Like you said, Sol Ruko won intercontinental title. Um, and then I guess we have King of the ring brackets. Um,

[00:43:42] people wonder why on the women's side, why live was in the King of the ring tournament. Cause she's a champ. It's kind of weird. It's weird. She hasn't really defended her title since, since, uh, WrestleMania either. Which is weird. Yeah. It's been a weird, uh, you know, like I said, I really don't watch much weekly anymore. I do kind of read just to kind of know what's going on a little bit, but I've seen that complaint a lot that just, she hasn't really done anything with her title since the win.

[00:44:09] And that seems to be something that happens a lot. And that's the problem when you have so many damn titles. Um, yeah, that's a, it's crazy too. Cause now, you know, everybody's complaining about Roman, but Roman has been busy. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I'm, I mean, I'm of the, I've always been up thing. There should be one heavyweight title for men and women. That's it. Just, and they can wrestle on both shows. That's fine. Uh, one, you know, one women's champ, you know, either, you know,

[00:44:38] one tag team champ for both shows. Yeah. It means something, you know, tag team champ, but yeah, they just have the multiple, uh, women and men's championships, which is, yeah. And then I would, you know, I would do those three and then I would keep, you know, you can keep the mid card. So keep the intercontinental and us title for, you know, both, I guess the men and women. And then, uh, you know, that's like, to me, that's all you need. I'd always bring back a cruiserweight title.

[00:45:07] I've always loved the cruiserweight division, but I'm our cruiserweight. If you're into it at all, man, if you haven't seen it, I would recommend going back and watching the triple a, the line from Mexico, Mexico match last night, uh, El Grande. Americano. Versus OG, El Grande Americano. Hell of a match. They put on. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Uh, That luchador style. Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:45:37] Hell of a match that they put on against each other. And El Grande Americano continues. The funniest thing though, is he's over in Mexico. So big. They love them. They do. They absolutely love them. Uh, and of course, uh, OG unmasked, right? And it was Chad Gable, which obviously, yeah, obviously we all, uh, uh, see Alabama in a little trouble here. Bases loaded two outs, bottom nine, uh, but the O2 count,

[00:46:06] let's see if they can squeeze out of another jam here. They do strikes them out. We go to extras in Tuscaloosa. Oh man. And then, Bama's got the three, four, five hitters coming up too. That's the, that's the batch you want to see coming up. Yeah. Let's move to the lineup. That's what you want to get. Uh, man. Ooh. Uh, you, you got to start putting runs on the board here if you're out of Alabama because Oklahoma city, the bats are, uh, they're hot.

[00:46:37] Yeah. Like I said, second, yeah. Second most home runs in the country this year. So that we know they can knock them out and that's a dangerous team to have to play in a winner, take all game. But yeah. Um, yeah. Elsewhere, uh, I'm trying to think. And that's, that's really, I'm trying to think of any off the court stories, anything like that. Um, and nothing like no big, nothing big going on NFL. Really? Um,

[00:47:06] I guess Josh Jacobs got it. Oh man. Yeah. Josh Jacobs arrested. Then were the charges dropped already or something weird? I don't know. I don't know. It didn't look good when it came out. It was even on the world news. I was like, Oh yeah. Um, and of course, you know, always discussion about NCAA expanding, you know, the CFP and all that. seems like, uh, 24 in the sec is max. And though 16.

[00:47:36] And, and then, uh, and then, 24, we're keeping it to 12. I think 12 is fine. I don't think it should ever go past 12, but that's just me. No, uh, I was, I would accept 16. Yeah. I thought eight was a perfect number. Honestly, I didn't think we should ever got, we should try that before we jumped up and four to 12, but yeah, eight, eight and no automatic qualifiers, just eight best teams. And like, that's it. Just pick her eight best. I mean,

[00:48:06] I guess the only thing I do like about the 12, I mean, it keeps, um, people interested. It may not stay interested after this. Yeah. You know, your big 12 champ, you know, they, in the past that they were, you know, 10 and two. I mean, they were, they were cooked, but now, you know, your BYU, your Texas tech, they go 10 and two. And there's, you know, they're still very much invested because they're probably in the playoff.

[00:48:36] Yeah, exactly. Um, and we talked about it before too, but the, the urge to expand, obviously it's purely for TV dollars. That's it. Don't let any AD or conference commissioner tell you otherwise. Uh, the reason they want to expand is to get more bigger TV money. That's it. That's the only reason there is no other reason. Um, cause you don't legit, you don't legitimately need 24 football teams in the playoff. And less, I mean, you look at it, FCS, they do, and it's fun. It's great.

[00:49:05] But you know why? Cause they have conference champions that get in and that would be the only, yeah, everybody gets, you do what you're supposed to do in sports, which is you earn your way into the post season. Like it's college football is the only sport that we don't do that. And it's so weird. Um, but yeah, it, the only way I would accept a 24 team college football playoff, you know, in the FBS level would be if every conference champ got in, uh, all of them, Sunbelt, Mac,

[00:49:35] all of them. I don't care. Cause that was still, I think, what are there? 11 conferences right now? 10. That was still so many at large. Yeah. You could still get your, you could still have all your, you could still get your three loss, Texas and you can still get your three loss of Michigan in. Yeah. Eight and four. I was going to get in that way. Uh, you can still have your middle, middle tier. They're never going to win championship team, but they're out in big conference. I'll let them in. They're going to get in. But then at some point,

[00:50:05] my biggest thing too, though, is, you know, even now, even at 12, it still seems like you've accomplished something when you make the playoff. Yeah. It's just kind of like, well, we, we breathe and we're in a big conference and we didn't completely crap out. So we're in the playoff, you know, 24. Just like, well, probably should make the playoff if you're anywhere near a decent team. Like, congrats, I guess. Like,

[00:50:35] I don't know. It's special about making the playoff for 24 teams. Yeah. Especially when the sport that so many times they talked about the sanctity of the regular season, the best regular season in sports. And then, uh, you know, you, you expand to 24 and you rip all that meaning away because yeah, there's going to be some, there's plain to simple. There's going to be bad teams in the playoff and their record might be good, but they're going to come in and get shellacked. I mean, you look at it now. We already have enough.

[00:51:04] We already have, I mean, we have blowout. I mean, people get pissed off about the boys that we have now. Exactly. Yeah. Um, so it's just, yeah. If you're going to expand and they probably will 16 size, I want to go. And I want to keep, I mean, even me like, but I'm crazy like that. I would still do every conference winner gets in. And then you only have like five. Yeah. You'd still have five at largest, but that would mean you'd have to earn it.

[00:51:33] That would absolutely mean that the best teams have performed the best on the field. It would protect the sanctity of the regular season because all those matchups count still good hold. Now he didn't go. Ah, bullshit. Uh, Alabama got one on no out here in the top of the 10th here. Um, uh, but yeah, it's just, yeah, well, I'm sure we'll, we'll see that, but that's again, when we'll talk about that, when it happens, when it happens, but yeah, I was like,

[00:52:03] it sounds like it was not going anywhere for a while. Just cause the sec is kind of on their own ship. Yeah. They're both. We're going to put it. SEC holding out strong right now. I'm saying that has not big 12 and ACC. Be careful. Be careful with being so gung ho with holding hands with the big 10. You've seen what they've done. Other conferences, helping you out and cut you and take your team.

[00:52:32] So be very careful with the big 10, right? They, they, they're, they're, they're bad. They do stuff. I mean, that's the, that's the pack 12. Um, yeah. Uh, let's see a major league baseball. Uh, your Yanks one and a half games out in the East, uh, looking a little better lately. Not, um, Braves did lose today, but first team in the majors to hit 40 wins.

[00:53:02] Um, so their, their season keeps rolling on, um, Ronald, Ronald Acuna Jr. He must've ate his, Oh, Oh, no. Off the end of the bat. Uh, two straight fly outs and now Alabama two outs runner on first. Um, Ronald Acuna Jr. Must've ate his Wheaties this week. Cause he had not had a home run before Thursday, had not had a home run since April 24th, I believe.

[00:53:32] And hit five in the past four games, the last one in Boston. And then the three games in Cincinnati this weekend, five home runs. Every bottom line. It seems like. Yeah. And, uh, not just home runs. I mean, he is hitting the ever loving, just a tar out of the ball. Um, including the big grand slam. The other days and a couple of lead off home runs, um, Oklahoma state making pitch and change here.

[00:54:01] Eric Hines coming off the bat for Alabama. He is the one that tied the game with that monster shot in the eighth. So, uh, Alabama chance. That's two outs. Yeah. These might be our most clutch hitter. Yeah. He has hit some bombs this year, but, uh, all right, folks, that'll be it for us. Then we'll, we'll come back next week. We'll have some, uh, Oh, of course we, uh, should mention Stanley cup finals. We, we talked about, mentioned it earlier.

[00:54:30] Didn't really talk about it. Uh, Vegas completed the sweep of Colorado there in Vegas and Carolina. Uh, so Carolina's first cup in almost 20 years, I think, uh, consistent good team. Just haven't been able to get to the finals lately. Vegas is third. And since their inception, what eight, seven years ago, something like that. Um, it's crazy. I mean, um, yeah, it's crazy. I mean, Stanley cup. Why haven't they been here considering the lack of, yeah.

[00:55:00] Whether they've been in, like, is this our fourth? Uh, I think this is their third, uh, Stanley cup finals. They won in one. That's crazy. Yeah. 10 years in the league. They've been a right since they've come in for sure. Um, but yeah, so that, that should be a good series, Carolina. Uh, there are the other favorites over Vegas for another year. Yeah. Yep.

[00:55:30] Exactly. And no Canadian cup winner again. Um, well, yeah, that's, uh, we mentioned that, so that should do it. Like I said here right now, just Bama fans watching this regional final. Uh, I guess give one more quick update going around. Let's see what scores have updated here on these live games. Uh, Cal Poly leads St. Mary's five, two, two, and that regional final. That game's bottom seven. If Cal Poly wins, they advance, uh,

[00:56:00] in Hattiesburg, little rock up four, two in the top of the six. If they win, they advance. Um, that's one we got, I don't think they had on the, that's what they had on the bingo card. No. Yeah. Kent, Kansas, or it's cause a college stations. USC is up nine, two on a and M. That's six. Yeah. Eugene Oregon up for one in the bottom of the seventh, uh, Lincoln,

[00:56:30] Ole Miss and Arizona state are tied in the bottom of the eighth. Uh, Starkville state has pulled ahead. They're up 15 to five in the eighth. Now, they made that big manager change after last year, brought in the dude from Virginia and they really came back strong. Cause they kind of, they have maybe topped out a little bit. Yeah. Kind of got fell off a little bit. He has them right back where you expect the Bulldogs to be. I mean,

[00:57:04] you can think, I mean, really a program that's really, you know, they're, it's kind of their sport. I mean, you know, football, basketball, but baseball, I mean, they're, you know, it's kind of where they really found their niche. They got probably one of the best crowds and one of the best stadiums ever. Mm-hmm. Let's see. Heinz base hit here.

[00:57:34] So first and second, two outs, hit one through the hole between first and second there. They had them shift, hit them where they hit them, where they weren't had the shift on still legal in the college game. Uh, it looks like Auburn and Milwaukee are actually starting, just starting their game now. Um, yeah, they're going to play that first game of that regional final tonight. That's kind of crazy. I figured they'd just do a double header. Yeah.

[00:58:06] good pitch strike one here. I guess they figure these kids aren't in school. Like it. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Brendan Holt, Brendan Holt up to bat for the tide right now. Top 10, two on, two outs. Bama trying to take the lead here. Oh, swing fly ball. Drifting, drifting does not have the juice going to die. Just shy of the warning track. We go to the bottom of the 10th, still tied. Uh,

[00:58:37] man, give it a ride. Just got under it. Uh, eight, nine and one coming up for Oklahoma state. Uh, all right, folks, if you're a tide fan, pull them through. Yeah. Get it down tonight. Got to get done. All right. All right, buddy. I'll see you next time. Sir. Have a good one. Thank you once again for listening, folks. As always, subscribe, rate, like us,

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