John Fanta Talks Hoops, The Boys Apologize to MJ + Hut Seat - Cool Throne

What this episode is about

Johnny Fanta discusses college basketball's March momentum, potential contenders, and Cinderella stories, while also previewing Olympic happenings and featuring segments like hot seat/cool throne and a scheduled apology. The episode teases an all-time Zach moment and is sponsored by Game Time for ticket deals.

Key takeaways

• March Madness is trending, but the pod doubles as a meta-action plan: weigh Cinderella stories and future brackets alike.
• Olympic hype fills gaps, yet the show’s strength is banter—apologies and 'all-time Zach' moments compound empathy and laughs.
• Game Time sponsorship delivers real-world value—$20 off tokens the moment fans crave affordable, authentic sports access.
• Colin Morikawa’s Pebble Beach saga shows sports drama thrives off delays, drops, and dramatic wind—pure golf theater.
• Slander to punchline: playful controversy (Jordan ice anecdote) becomes accountability via quick apologies, maintaining trust and humor.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Johnny Fanta (Guest) · 38 min speaking
• Max (Guest) · 21 min speaking
• Hank (Guest) · 16 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 15:00: Olympics, Bryce Harper, DraftKings, Game Time
2. 15:00 – 30:00: Olympics, DraftKings, Short Track Speed Skating, Bobsled
3. 30:00 – 45:00: Olympics, Bobsled, Ski Mountaineering, Figure Skating
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00: Game of Thrones, Wendy's, Olympics, United States (states)
5. 1:00:00 – 1:15:00: United States (states), Ian Brady, Super Bowl
6. 1:15:00 – 1:30:00: College Basketball, Johnny Fanta
7. 1:30:00 – 1:45:00: College Basketball, Johnny Fanta
8. 1:45:00 – 2:00:00: Johnny Fanta, College Basketball
9. 2:00:00 – 2:15:00: Olympics, Bobsled, Figure Skating, College Basketball
10. 2:15:00 – 2:17:25: Michael Jordan

Notable quotes from "John Fanta Talks Hoops, The Boys Apologize to MJ + Hut Seat - Cool Throne"

• Something that's happening on Wednesday, the day you're listening to this to get you excited for the Olympics. We're getting in the Olympic spirit.

  about Olympics · at 0:26

• Anything you want to say about Bryce Harper?

  about Bryce Harper · at 7:09

• We're also brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. DraftKings Sportsbook puts you right in the middle of basketball's biggest star driven moments. The moments when the ball finds a superstar and the game turns in a.

  about DraftKings · at 16:43

• The winter bathlon is a race that combines crosscountry skiing and rifle shooting.

  about Winter Biathlon · at 17:59

• All right. I'll do mine. I have short track speed skating which is absolutely electric because I watched a bunch of it last night like old clips and essentially you people probably remember.

  about Short Track Speed Skating · at 22:57

• Germany, all-time leader. Switzerland in second place. A lot of history though with bob sled. I got a question Hank real quick about like the fourman bobsled. You said.

  about Bobsled · at 29:17

• Also one of the only people in like all Olympic history to have feature a guy that has won a gold medal in Winter and Summer Olympics. Eddie Eaggan won a boxing gold medal.

  about Olympic Games · at 30:25

• I have ski mountaineering. Is this one of those sports that like the French or sorry the Italians added it?

  about Ski Mountaineering · at 34:18

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Maria Zach — Person · Show contributor (speaker) · 2 mentions · first at 0:48
  Participates in the Olympics preview (figure skating) and provides a long anecdote about an alarm clock incident with his apartment complex.
  We might have an all-time Zach moment.
• Bryce Harper — Person · Referenced athlete · 4 mentions · first at 6:54
  Used as a debate point about what makes a baseball player 'elite' and discussed in the context of Phillies GM comments and World Baseball Classic roster talk.
• Johnny Fanta — Person · Guest (announced) · 5 mentions · first at 0:02
  Introduced as a friend of the show appearing to talk college basketball and March Madness contenders, though the transcript segment is mostly Olympics-focused.
  On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we have our good friend Johnny Fanta on the show talking some college basketball turning the page.
• Michael Jordan — Person · Referenced athlete · 3 mentions · first at 2:39
  A comedic argument centers on whether a Michael Jordan story was 'weird,' prompting an on-air apology and a joke about being sued.
  This. Max specifically, possibly you. I don't think you would you guys like to say anything about Michael Jordan and your the slander you put on his name because I'm ready to sue.
• Tyreek Hill — Person · Referenced athlete · 2 mentions · first at 13:08
  Discussed as part of the Dolphins 'cleaning house' and speculation about where he might be traded/signed next.
  We'll get to our Olympics. The Dolphins are cleaning house, which they should have done a while ago. They gone with Tyreek Hill, gone with Bradley Chub, trying to trade Tua, which who's gonna trade for him?
• David Basabi — Person · Referenced athlete/prospect · 1 mention · first at 11:58
  Discussed as an 11-year-old Venezuelan shortstop with a reported pre-agreement with the Phillies, prompting jokes about ethics and scouting.
  It's crazy. Every year, yeah, the Philadelphia Phillies have reached a pre-aggreement with Venezuelan shortstop David Basabi, a member of the 2031 international class, okay, for a $1.8 million bonus. At just 11.
• Colin Morawa — Person · Referenced athlete · 2 mentions · first at 4:14
  Discussed for winning at Pebble Beach and for a humorous aside about announcing a baby in a post-round interview.
  Oh, yeah. Colin Morawa won a tournament, Pebble Beach tournament, and then he used the excuse of like the post-match interview, post round interview to be and also having a.
• Rabbi David Aaron — Person · Referenced athlete · 2 mentions · first at 7:03
  Appears in the Team USA WBC roster discussion and as a comparison point in a debate about baseball 'elite' status and World Series expectations.
  But I still like to I like to hold it over Aaron Judge.
• Quenton Smith — Person · Referenced athlete · 2 mentions · first at 38:21
  Named as an American competitor to root for in ski mountaineering (noted as from Rockford/Illinois, now in Colorado).
  Cameron Smith. That's who we're rooting for.
• Ian Brady — Person · Referenced athlete · 3 mentions · first at 2:57
  Used as an analogy about 'weird' behavior (announcing games while being a Raiders owner) and in a joke about a Raiders front office Ouija board.
  No, that's not weird. That was being a good friend. admit this is like when Hank wouldn't admit that Tom Brady was being weird announcing games even though he's an owner of the Raiders.
• Keith Yandel — Person · Referenced person · 1 mention · first at 3:29
  Mentioned as a connection to Michael Jordan via a golf club and as someone working at Barcel who allegedly hasn't been paid.
  I could contact someone who could contact Yeah. Keith Yandel is a member of his golf club. So there you go.
• Erin Eagan — Person · Referenced Olympian · 1 mention · first at 30:36
  Cited as a rare athlete who won gold in both Summer (boxing) and Winter (bobsled) Olympics, used as a bobsled trivia highlight.
  Yeah, he won a gold medal in his first and only bobsled race.
• Jason Chub — Person · Referenced athlete · 1 mention · first at 13:06
  Mentioned as part of the Dolphins 'cleaning house' roster moves.
  That was also And then the Dolphins, the other story, and then we'll get to our Olympics. The Dolphins are cleaning house, which they should have done a while ago. They gone…
• Matt Walker — Person · Referenced athlete · 1 mention · first at 32:44
  Brought up as someone who tried bobsled, reinforcing the idea of crossover athletes in the sport.
  Okay. didn't didn't Hershel Walker try to be a bobsled guy?

Companies & orgs

• Wendy's — Company · Hot seat topic · 3 mentions · first at 50:52
  Placed on 'hot seat' for announcing closures of hundreds of restaurants; hosts riff on it like a sports-team rebuild.
  It read like a team, like a sports team announcement. Said Wendy's is to close hundreds of restaurants in 2026 in what interim CEO Ken Cook calls a rebuilding year.
• Philadelphia Phillies — Organization · Referenced sports organization · 2 mentions · first at 9:15
  Central to Bryce Harper discussion and to the story about a reported pre-agreement with 11-year-old Venezuelan prospect David Basabi.
  Didn't win was because Bryce Harper is not elite anymore. Bryce Harper took offense to that as he should have. Bryce Harper has been nothing but good to the city of…
• Barcel — Company · Referenced company · 1 mention · first at 3:40
  Mentioned in a joke that Keith Yandle has been working there and hasn't been paid.
  Yans is for sure he's for sure going to follow up. Yans every like month Yans is Hey, how do I get paid? He's been working at Barcel for like a year and a half.

Concepts & topics

• Bobsled — Concept · Core topic (sport preview) · 9 mentions · first at 28:36
  One host previews bobsled, explaining team roles, history, notable medal facts, and national dominance (Germany).
• Short Track Speed Skating — Concept · Core topic (sport preview) · 4 mentions · first at 22:57
  Previewed as an 'electric' crash-prone event; includes a betting angle on an American skater and explanation of heats advancing by placement.
• Ski Mountaineering — Concept · Core topic (sport preview) · 3 mentions · first at 34:18
  Presented as a new Olympic sport; explained as climbing uphill on skis before descending, with discussion of formats and why it 'sucks' (in a respectful way).
• Winter Biathlon — Concept · Core topic (sport preview) · 2 mentions · first at 17:55
  Explained in detail (skiing + rifle shooting), including origins in Nordic military training and race formats like mass start and penalty loops.
• Figure Skating — Concept · Core topic (sport preview) · 5 mentions · first at 38:58
  Previewed via pairs free skate, including required elements, scoring, and a storyline about Germany being upset by Japan.
  And so the German team was supposed to be a lock and they got caught kind of playing defense instead of kind of like they went out there to skate to defend still being at first up by seven points. They.
• Nordic Combined — Concept · Core topic (sport preview) · 2 mentions · first at 43:50
  Explained as ski jumping plus cross-country skiing, with Norway dominance and a note that it lacks a women's event.
  Nordic is a winter Olympic sport that merges ski jumping and cross-country skiing and shooting.
• College Basketball — Concept · Secondary topic · 11 mentions · first at 0:05
  Introduced as the reason Johnny Fanta is on the show and referenced as a viewing priority over early-season golf.
  On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we have our good friend Johnny Fanta on the show talking some college basketball turning the page.
• curling — Concept · Referenced sport · 3 mentions · first at 48:16
  Mentioned in a trivia aside about all curling stones coming from one island and a joke about Canada cheating.
  I forget if you said this when you were talking about curling the other day. Did you cover the fact that all the stones come from the same island?
• Tug of War — Concept · Referenced historical sport · 1 mention · first at 31:16
  Brought up as a surprising former Olympic sport (1900–1920), used as trivia during the bobsled segment.
  Tug of war was an Olympic sport.
• NHL — Concept · Referenced league · 2 mentions · first at 27:29
  Mentioned in a hypothetical about putting an NHL player on speed skates and in a ticket-buying example (Blackhawks).
  What if you were to take like a NHL player and put him on speed skates like Conor McDavid?
• Olympic Spirit — Concept · Framing concept · 1 mention · first at 0:31
  Used as a framing phrase for the episode's Olympics-heavy content and enthusiasm.
  Something that's happening on Wednesday, the day you're listening to this to get you excited for the Olympics. We're getting in the Olympic spirit.
• Dog Racing — Concept · Referenced historical sport · 1 mention · first at 31:30
  Mentioned as a past Winter Olympics sport, with hosts saying it should return and that dogs should get medals.
  Three medals. Do you know what was an Olympic sport in the Winter Olympics? It was the dog racing. We should have had that dinner ride.
• Artificial Intelligence — Concept · Referenced concept · 1 mention · first at 57:24
  Briefly mentioned as a joke about using AI to finish George R. R. Martin's writing.
  Let AI take care of memes goes. Hey, yeah, he's a Jets fan.

Places & events

• Olympics — Event · Core topic · 19 mentions · first at 0:31
  The episode centers on an 'Olympic preview' where each host picks and explains a Winter Olympics sport and discusses medals, schedules, and national performance.
• Olympic Games — Event · Core topic (general reference) · 4 mentions · first at 19:06
  Used interchangeably with 'Olympics' and referenced in historical facts (e.g., first Black athlete to win bobsled gold; multi-season medalists).
• United States (states) — Place · Core reference location · 6 mentions · first at 6:43
  Referenced regarding Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and repeatedly in Olympic-medal expectations (e.g., biathlon, Nordic combined).
  But the 1994 same crew, they finished 14th overall. They finished ahead of like United States and France. So that Jamaican bobsled team was a wagon.
• U.S.A. — Place · Referenced country · 2 mentions · first at 6:43
  Referenced regarding Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and frustration about the U.S. not medaling in biathlon despite rifle culture.
  Projects, and doing the work that never stops. It's all part of their new campaign. see the USA in your Chevrolet cuz you just see the Silverado ZR2 put they put it on top of…
• Germany — Place · Referenced country · 3 mentions · first at 29:17
  Mentioned as historically dominant in bobsled and as a 'lock' in figure skating pairs before being upset by Japan.
  And so the German team was supposed to be a lock and they got caught kind of playing defense instead of kind of like they went out there to skate to defend still being at first up by seven points. They.
• World Baseball Classic — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions · first at 6:22
  Introduced as an upcoming event with roster talk, especially Team USA being 'stacked' and featuring star players.
  Did you guys also know that we have a World Baseball Classic this year? That's pretty cool.
• Philadelphia — Place · Referenced sports city · 4 mentions · first at 9:17
  Appears in Bryce Harper/Phillies discussion and in describing Andrew Ho's local roots (Bucks County / North Philadelphia).
  Not elite anymore. Bryce Harper took offense to that as he should have. Bryce Harper has been nothing but good to the city of Philadelphia. He was the first one really the…
• Lake Placid — Place · Referenced place · 3 mentions · first at 30:21
  Mentioned as a historic Winter Olympics site and as a place athletes may need to move/train for luge/bobsled.
  Also it was the first US Winter Olympic team gold in 1932 in Lake Placid.
• Venezuela — Place · Referenced country · 2 mentions · first at 11:38
  Referenced as the origin of 11-year-old shortstop David Basabi in the Phillies pre-agreement story.
  Let me just make sure. I'm pretty sure you signed an 11-year-old Venezuelan kid.
• Bucks County — Place · Referenced place · 2 mentions · first at 25:35
  Used to identify an American short track skater (Andrew Ho) as a local rooting interest.
  Eagles fan. Bucks. Bucks County.
• Russia — Place · Referenced Olympic nation · 1 mention · first at 39:57
  Mentioned in figure skating judging/corruption talk and that Russia is currently banned/exiled.
  Yeah. Russia is Russia exiled right now.
• Japan — Place · Referenced country · 1 mention · first at 40:45
  Mentioned as winning figure skating pairs with a world record after Germany 'played prevent defense.'
  They let the Korean or the They let the Japanese team sneak in and set a world record.
• Super Bowl — Event · Referenced event · 3 mentions · first at 15:17
  Mentioned in passing regarding a bet that depends on Olympic gold medals and a comment about a player 'jester maxing' at the Super Bowl.
  I need a shitload more gold medals for my bet for the Super Bowl. Okay, that's a good sport. I'm in. I respect this sport because it does I think if I tried to do this I would probably quit.
• North Philadelphia — Place · Referenced place · 1 mention · first at 25:39
  Used as a biographical detail about Andrew Ho's father owning an auto body shop there.
  Bucks County. Andrew Ho. His dad owns an auto body shop in North Philadelphia.
• Switzerland — Place · Referenced Olympic nation · 1 mention · first at 29:17
  Mentioned as second all-time in bobsled history behind Germany.
  Germany, all-time leader. Switzerland in second place. A lot of history though with bob sled. I got a question Hank real quick about like the fourman bobsled. You said.
• Italy — Place · Referenced country · 1 mention · first at 34:22
  Mentioned as a country associated with adding ski mountaineering (hosts speculate Italians/French influence).
  I have ski mountaineering. Is this one of those sports that like the French or sorry the Italians added it?
• Canada — Place · Referenced country · 1 mention · first at 48:47
  Mentioned in a curling aside accusing Canada of cheating ('finger on stone').
  Barrier to entry. I think there was more cheating for Canada. By the way, I saw finger on stone again.

Media & podcasts

• Game of Thrones — Media · Cool throne topic · 5 mentions · first at 52:30
  Discussed as being 'back' and used to situate other shows in the franchise; includes talk about episode length, battles, and George R. R. Martin not finishing books.
  How does this fit into the Game of Thrones universe? It happens after House of Dragon before Game of Thrones, but House of Dragon is still going on.
• Cool Runnings — Media · Referenced media · 2 mentions · first at 29:45
  Used as a cultural reference point while explaining bobsled mechanics and Jamaican bobsled history.
  And everyone talks about obviously Cool Running's 1988 Olympic Jamaican team, but the 1994 same crew, they finished 14th overall. They finished ahead of like United States and France. So.
• House of Dragon — Media · Referenced media · 2 mentions · first at 54:21
  Mentioned as part of the Game of Thrones universe and discussed as delayed/possibly declining in quality.
  I don't think so. I think you stopped after the Crab Feasters.
• House of the Dragon — Media · Referenced media · 1 mention · first at 54:28
  Used to situate timeline/quality discussion around the Game of Thrones universe and delays for season 3.
  I don't think so. I think you stopped after the Crab Feasters.

Sponsors

• DraftKings — Company · Sponsor · 5 mentions · first at 0:00
  Presented as the episode sponsor and discussed in an ad read about sportsbook betting and promotions.
• Game Time — Company · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at 0:54
  Advertised as a ticketing app with a 'ticket guarantee' and promo code; used as a transition into the show.
  And we also are going to get a big time apology from a couple people on this show. And it's all brought to you by our friends at Game Time. The Game Time app gives the…
• Chevy — Company · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at 15:46
  Featured in an ad read for the Chevy Silverado and the 'See the USA in your Chevrolet' campaign.
  We've caught we're we're hitting the sweet spot. Before we do that, Chevy, our wonderful sponsor, Chevy, go right now. Football season might be over, but you know how it goes.…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 On today's part of my take presented by DraftKings, we have our good friend Johnny Fanta on the show talking some college basketball turning the page. March is right there. We're all getting excited. He's going to give us who he thinks can win it all. Some of the Cinderellas and some fun just Johnny Fanta. He's the best. We also have uh our Olympic preview. We all said that we were going to pick a sport and preview something that's happening on Wednesday, the day you're listening to this to get you excited for the Olympics. We're getting in the Olympic spirit.

0:34 There's not a lot else going on, but we're going to we're going to we're going to make a great show. We have hot seat cool Throne. We have uh what was the what's the end of the show? Guys on Olympics.

0:42 Guys on Olympics Olympic takes. Yeah. I also heard that maybe that we might have an alltime Zach moment coming up.

0:48 We might have an all-time Zach moment. And we also are going to get a big time apology from a couple people on this show. And it's all brought to you by our friends at Game Time. The Game Time app gives the advantage back to fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use. The Game Time Tie Guarantee means you can trust you'll get 100% authentic tickets on time and at the best price. Plus, fees are always included. So, what you see is what you pay. We're looking at tickets for the NBA.

1:16 I was looking at tickets for the Blackhawks. Oh, okay. Zach, are you looking at tickets?

1:21 You could get in to see the Raptors Bulls for JUST 26 BUCKS. WOW. DUNKED on them. Dunked on them. So, go right now.

1:28 That's a hell of a deal. Take the guess of buying NBA tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use code PMT for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account. Redeem code PMT for $20 off. Okay, let's go.

1:52 Hey football and yeah and mighty. Yeah, might take. Yeah, my take. Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, February 18th, and we've got Olympic fever because we got nothing else to talk about.

2:28 Well, I mean, you you teased a massive apology. Oh, yeah. I I don't know where we're going with this. Uh, Max specifically, possibly you. I don't think you would you guys like to say anything about Michael Jordan and your the slander you put on his name because I'm ready to sue.

2:44 I think I my my entire point was it's it's weird. The I that he was getting ice out of a little kid's back.

2:52 Yeah, that's weird. No, that's not weird. That was being a good good friend. admit this is like when when Hank wouldn't admit that Tom Brady was being weird announcing games even though he's an owner of the Raiders.

3:04 I don't think weird. No, getting Ice. You made it weird. Actually, I think you are being more of a pedophile than to than Michael Jordan could be.

3:11 I just said it was weird. Yeah, it's pulling Ice out of his back. Max, would you like I'm going to We're going to sue. So, you could apologize. You could drop the lawsuit.

3:20 You can sue me for saying that. It's weird. Well, Michael Jordan's going to sue you.

3:23 It was weird. It was a weird You have no contact with Michael Jordan. I I I could contact someone who could contact Yeah. Keith Yandel is a member of his golf club. So there you go. Thought fast on my feet right there. Yans is for sure he's for sure going to follow up. Yans every like every like month Yans is like, "Hey, how do I get paid?" He's been working at Barcel for like a year and a half.

3:45 He hasn't got paid yet. I don't He doesn't check his email. He also is probably [ __ ] with me, but he he might not be getting paid. Uh, would you like to apologize, Max?

3:54 Sure. Thank you. They see that wasn't so hard. There we go. That was easy. That was so easy. Uh, all right. So, we're we're What else do we got besides Olympics? We got Olympics. That's what's going on.

4:06 There's a lot of Olympics going. We We did Olympics. We did miss one thing on Monday's show. Hank was too focused on the live golf because he's a live head.

4:13 Yeah. Colin Morawa. Oh, yeah. Colin Morawa won a tournament, Pebble Beach tournament, and then he used the excuse of like the uh post-match interview, post round interview to be like, and also having a baby,

4:25 which that's if you want to win a golf tournament, you have to get your wife pregnant and then sure enough, either right after you give birth or right after you conceive, you will get an interview right after you win something and you'll announce it.

4:38 Yep. He also I think he gained 10 pounds of uh muscle in the offseason, so he's just he's ready no fat. wrong. Yeah, he he said his his off season he added 10 pounds of fat and I watched swing videos on YouTube.

4:51 Love that. One of us just like us. So yeah, that was that was golf. Colin Moriawa back officially back.

5:00 Super back. Super back. Very back. Super super super back. Excellent striker of the ball. That was crazy on that last hole where he had to wait for like 45 minutes for this guy to get his bogey.

5:11 I missed that. No, I missed it. Uh he hit a shot down into onto the beach like underneath a rowboat with like ropes and [ __ ] He climbed down onto the beach. Not Morow but the other guy. What was his name? Hank

5:24 the I don't that guy. I don't know. Bridgetgerton. Something like that. Chris Bridgetgerton.

5:28 Bridgetgerton. So he go he goes down there, spends about like 20 minutes getting ready for his next shot. Hits off the seaw wall, bounces into the ocean, and then he's like, "Actually, Psych, I'm going to go take my drop from where I should have taken it originally. I got to go all the way back up like 200 yards out. Hit a great shot and then he had to wait on the green for another 10 minutes because the wind picked up and his ball wouldn't stop moving. So Morawa had to just sit there

5:53 waiting to hit his approach shot for it felt like 45 minutes like Jesus what what the hell is going on?

5:58 Jacob Bridgeman. Bridgeman. Bridgeman. Did you guys know um since we're talking about other I golf to me starts at at the Masters like I I'll if there's something close on a Sunday uh at this time of year I'll tune in but like you know in terms of my sports watching I'm more focused on college basketball on a Saturday than the golf but the Morawa I like him. Good guest. Did you guys also know that we have a World Baseball Classic this year? That's pretty cool.

6:25 Yeah. And Oh, Max, you're pumped about it. Yeah, we got Yeah, I like the World Baseball. There's some roster drama, too.

6:31 There was It was great last time. I just always think of the Francesca clip when he's like, "If it was in my backyard, I'd close the blinds.

6:37 They were playing the World Baseball Classic in my backyard." Yeah. Wasn't there some roster drama that was going down?

6:43 Team USA roster is stacked. We got to win it all. Stacked. Let's just Let's just read the roster.

6:49 We got to win. I got the roster right here. Okay, we got Bregman, Gold Schmidt, Bryce Harper, Bobby.

6:59 Oh, yeah. You want to get a take off on Bryce Harper because he's in the news not being elite?

7:03 PCA, Aaron Judge, Schwarber. Nice. Cal Raleigh. Anything you want to say about Bryce Harper?

7:11 No, I mean Bryce Harper, is he elite? That's I I think most real steam heads would say like 2,000 hits. If you get to 2,000 hits, you're probably elite. What's he at right now? He's you you say this like he's not going to get to 2,000.

7:25 What's What's he at now? I don't like am I supposed to just know this off the top of my head? Is it number of hits?

7:33 For me, it's like a couple things. One, if you get to 2,000, that's the big number in baseball everyone talks about.

7:37 You got to get to 2,000 or if you He has Looks like he had 1,800 hits. Yeah. If you win a World Series.

7:43 Mhm. So, he's gonna get to 2,000 hits most likely. And probably get to 2,000 hits

7:47 and will likely win a World Series at some point, too. He might not maybe. So, yeah,

7:53 baseball's a tough sport to to put it on individuals. Like the I if you're a quarterback, if you're an NBA player, if you're supposed to be an all-time great, I get it. Baseball is just tough. Barry Bond's never won a World Series.

8:07 His postseason numbers are also great. Yeah, it's just hard. There's so many guys. Such a one-on-one sport.

8:13 But I still like to I I like to hold it over Aaron Judge. Yeah, he Well, he hasn't earned his pinstripes. That's different. He could earn his pinstripes and not win a World Series,

8:21 right? And he hasn't done that. Oh, I think it's one and the same. No, you could you could he could still get his pinstripes like saving like a like a boy off the train who's about to get hit by the train, then go hit it three home runs

8:33 and Bronx is burning. Yeah, that's pinstripes. That's instant pinstripes. So, wait. So, so you don't think he's elite?

8:41 I I again I I am a man of the numbers. I think baseball is one of those sports that it's very easy to quantify. You can compare them across eras pretty cleanly. Uh the 2000 hit club, that's a big one for being elite.

8:53 How did this Oh, this was his uh this was Drowski, right? Didn't he was he the one who started this?

8:58 After after the se the postseason ended last year, Dave Drowski did a stupid stupid press conference where part of his excuse was that that of why the team didn't win was because Bryce Harper is not elite anymore. Bryce Harper took offense to that as he should have. Bryce Harper has been nothing but good to the city of Philadelphia. He was the first one really the first one to choose to sign there when it was really a mediocre part part of the team's you know history.

9:30 Uh he sparked like a good run of con competitive teams in Philadelphia. He hasn't won a World Series yet and fans are upset that he hasn't won a World Series yet as am I. But like you Bryce Harper's been nothing but good and Dave Deowski disrespecting him like that. Bryce has every right to be upset about that.

9:47 Yeah. I mean Bryce is he's always been a big- time umbrage taker. Like if if anything remotely negative is said about him, he will take umbrage. He'll find that umbrage.

9:55 He Yeah. He's like a real athlete and he like says what he feels and like that's what we like.

10:00 Yeah. and he has the right to be upset when his GM is like blaming the blaming the the postseason last year on him,

10:11 right? He had a bad he had a bad series against the Dodgers. He had a bad series. He had a bad year,

10:15 but Well, he's hurt, too. Yeah, I think he's going to be a be he's going to be a beast this year.

10:20 He's going to use he's going to return to being a beast. Yes. Get to crack the 2K barrier. You are just obsessed with like finding something with other people's favorite players on.

10:33 No, no, listen. I I I used to love Bryce Harper. I did. He was one of my favorite players when he was in the Nationals. There were things that you know, Max, when you watch Bryce Harper,

10:40 I hated him on the national. Yeah. And but you get annoyed with him even when he's like your favorite player sometimes.

10:46 He's like he's got a lot of passion, which is awesome, but he he does boneheaded things sometimes because he's so passionate. You are you Bryce Harper is a much more mature baseball player than when he was on the nationals. He is not the same guy. Like he he basically does everything right now. And when he was cuz when he was on the nationals he was like 19 years old. He acted like a teenager.

11:07 He was young. Yeah. So now he's like a real adult and he like plays like a real adult.

11:12 Good for him. Yeah. Speaking of real adults, did you see I have nothing but good things.

11:16 I like he play Now he plays like a real adult. He had a few good adult years when he was in Washington, too. Speaking of adults, did you see the Phillies signed an 11year-old?

11:24 Whoa. You going to answer for that? Didn't know about this. You know that we signed some guy with the last name Renteria who is not Edgar Renteras.

11:35 Let me just make sure. I'm pretty sure uh you signed an 11-year-old Venezuelan kid.

11:43 Phillies and 11-year-old stud. Is this Phillies and 11-year-old shortstop reportedly agree on historic 1.8 8 million deal.

11:51 How is this not human trafficking? It's crazy. Every year, uh, yeah, the the Philadelphia Phillies have reached a a pre-aggreement with Venezuelan shortstop David Basabi, a member of the 2031 international class,

12:04 okay, for a $1.8 million bonus. At just 11 years old, Basabi becomes the youngest player in history to secure a pre-aggreement with a major league organization. This kid is [ __ ] He's playing in the little league.

12:16 There's just no chance that that's in Does he have a good swing? Does he have a six swing?

12:19 Is this a kid that they had like squaring up at 95 mile per hour fast balls? Oh, he does have a good swing. He's a lefty.

12:25 I saw that and it was pretty it's pretty impressive. Max, speak. Next up. I don't know what you want me to say. Next up.

12:33 Yeah, he might be too immature though. You might need to wait for him to become like a grown man.

12:37 Adult. Yeah. Well, we got It's also making a little sense now. You were so like, you know, you were voicing your opinion and so boisterous on the MJ clip and meanwhile in the shadows, you're signing 11-year-old boys.

12:51 They're baseball players. What? I don't I don't understand how those relate at all.

12:55 Well, made me think the Lady Doth protest too much. All I said was by signing baseball players.

13:00 I stand by the weird. Uh, all right. So, that was that was also And then the Dolphins, the other story, and then we'll get to our Olympics. The Dolphins are cleaning house, which they should have done a while ago. They uh gone with Tyreek Hill, gone with Bradley Chub, trying to trade Tua, which who's gonna trade for him?

13:17 Good luck. Yeah, good luck. So, what do you what what do you think Tyreek Hill does now?

13:22 Uh he can still run. Uh yeah, he can confirmed. Not right this second probably.

13:26 But he will be confirmed fast. Event. Yeah, eventually he will be able to run again. I don't know. Chiefs.

13:32 Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Back to the Chiefs. Probably just the Chiefs. Yeah, Raiders. Raiders. the Antonio Brown arc. Just Raiders for like a month.

13:42 That'd be classic. There's a Ouija board in the front office right now and Tom's talking to to Al Davis and it's saying Tyreek.

13:49 Mhm. I don't know. I mean, he I'd take him on the Patriots. You would? Hey, man. Stefon, that's a lot of There's only one ball.

13:58 True. Mhm. There's only one ball. That would be it. That would be a lot of uh personality.

14:05 Free can handle it. He is on the wrong side of he's like 32. So, but he still is fast. He's still fast. Still fast. Still fast. So, I don't know where he'll end up, but someone will. It

14:16 It does feel like one of those a team that's going to trade for him has to have a pretty good locker room to be like, "Hey, Tyreek, we're happy to have you on the team knowing everything. The distractions that may come with you 32 now."

14:32 That's why I feel like the Chiefs Yeah, the Chiefs. They They've done it before. They they know the they know the plan.

14:37 They pro there might be a team that thinks that they can handle it that absolutely cannot handle it.

14:42 I you know what I I would kind of like to see him in Buffalo. I don't know about that.

14:48 He's fast. I don't think he would like Buffalo. I mean he would like Yeah, I would like to see him in Buffalo. I don't think he would like to see himself in Buffalo.

14:54 Yeah, he is. He is very fast. And then there was a report that the Seahawks aren't going to franchise tag Kenneth Walker.

15:02 No duh. Mhm. That was I I don't He's going to get paid. Yeah, he is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, relatively speaking, but yes, he is. They got to do another Zoom conference. All the running backs.

15:14 I feel like this is a this is a good opportunity for running backs, though. Like coming off a Super Bowl MVP.

15:20 Yeah. This should be a contract that every running back should be proud to be a part of.

15:23 Yes. It should actually say like instead of Kenneth Walker, it should say all running backs.

15:28 All running backs. Yeah. Lifetime achievement award for running backs. Yeah. Okay. We we do have our Olympic preview. I'm excited about this.

15:36 Perfect time to do our Olympic preview. Day 10 of 14 in the Olympics. Yep. We've caught we we're we're hitting the the sweet spot. Before we do that, uh Chevy, our wonderful sponsor, Chevy, go right now. Football season might be over, but you know how it goes. The minute the big game ends, we're already talking about what's next. Free agency, the draft, what's who's getting paid, who's grinding, because for football guys, there's no offseason. And that's exactly why they roll with the Chevy Silverado. Silverado is a truck that shows up every time. Built to haul, tow, and take a beating. But smartware counts with modern tech that makes life easier.

16:10 Big screens, available camera views that help with towing and parking in a cabin that feels right. Whether you're road tripping, heading to practice, or loading up for the weekend. During the season, it's MVP of the tailgate. After the season, it turns into a training camp, truck, hauling gear, tackling home projects, and doing the work that never stops. It's all part of their new campaign. see the USA in your Chevrolet cuz you just see the Silverado ZR2 uh put they put it on top of Castle Rock in the middle of the desert. So check out the current offers and build your own Chevy Silverado today at chevy.com.

16:43 We're also brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. DraftKings Sportsbook puts you right in the middle of basketball's biggest star driven moments. The moments when the ball finds a superstar and the game turns in a heartbeat. Stars heat up, stars take over. With DraftKings, you're ready to move when they do. Bet player props bet live from the opening tip to the final possession. Every bucket, every dime, every takeover matters in DraftKings Sportsbook keeps you connected as the action unfolds. And when a game turns fast, DraftKings has your back with early exit. If your player gets injured any time in the first half, your bet stays alive. And once it settles, you'll still get paid in cash. That's built-in protection for star driven bets backed by DraftKings. New customers bet just $5. If your bet wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code take

17:28 so you're ready for the moment. That's code take. Turn five bucks into 200 in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.

17:37 Okay, boys. Olympics time. Do we want Where who do we want to start with? I mean, there's just so much to go around.

17:43 There's so much. The pageantry. Who do we want to start with? The snow, the ice.

17:47 I I fell in love with my sport. I fell in love with my sport. I'm all in on my sport.

17:52 I'm in on my sport. Okay, so why don't you start Max? All right. I went with the winter bathlon.

17:59 Okay. The winter bathlon is a race that combines crosscountry skiing and rifle shooting.

18:05 Hell yeah. Is it? We should dominate at that sport. We do not. We have never meddled in this.

18:10 It's disgusting. It is absolutely disgusting that the You forgot about the cross country skiing part.

18:15 Yeah, but we can listen. We should shooting we got We should make up. We should We should

18:21 Yeah, people. Yeah. I I was I across my my research, I saw that people were upset that the US hasn't hasn't won anything that involves a rifle.

18:31 It's disgusting. I feel like you could take any extra from any of the Yellowstone series and they would dominate at this sport.

18:38 Agreed. Uh it comes from Nordic military training because in the 18th century a lot of the military

18:45 uh they needed to be on skis and to travel on skis and when you're traveling on skis you have to be at a moment's notice be able to have your gun ready

18:54 and you know take out take out the target. So they started doing this with their training and it became pretty competitive within the training and then they started to time it and be and and it first debuted in the 1924 Winter Olympics under the name Military Patrol.

19:11 Oh yeah. Okay. I all I got all this information from a guy on TikTok. I want to shout him out. His name is Great name is Untold Stories of History. I wanted to make sure I shouted out that guy. He did a good job.

19:27 That's crazy that that's his name and he got he got into telling history stories.

19:32 Um there's there's multiple different race types. Um my favorite one which will be happening I think the 20th and the 21st of February is mass start. So

19:43 yeah, all there's the top 30 competitors all start at the exact same time. It's not a like a There's other ones where it's like, okay, you have a time and if you miss your target, you get like penalties.

19:56 Everyone starts at the exact same time and the first person to finish wins the race. Um, you they're all in loops,

20:05 so it it depends which race. Some of them are like 5 kmter loops, some of them are 7 km loops. Um, but you do a loop and then you shoot five targets and you have eight bullets to shoot five targets. If you don't finish, if you don't hit all five targets within those eight bullets, yeah, you got a penalty loop. So, let's say you you run out of bullets, you have to do another loop around

20:26 and then you have to go back to that target. You just got to hit the target once.

20:29 No, no, no. So, there's there's five targets and you have eight bullets. So, if you run out of bullets to hit all five targets, you have to do a penalty loop.

20:38 That's a lonely loop. Yeah, penalty loop would penalty. So, I was actually watching it this morning. It's pretty electric. It's kind of like darts in the fact of like once they get to the shooting aspect of it,

20:49 people are real like the crowd is fired up every time you hit a target. I imagine

20:54 you miss a target, it's like a big like like you could hear the crowd really react to missing the target because it's it's night and day. Watching the like the cross country skiing is kind of boring because it's like it I mean it's incredibly impressive how fast they are able to like go uphill with these skis, but then once they get to the the the gun portion of it, it's make or break. Like if you're quick with the gun, you can make up so much time and if you [ __ ] up the gun, you're done. You can go from like first to last in a second.

21:25 Mhm. I can tell how how into the sport you had the same thing happen to me. I was like, I think I'm in. So what you're saying is they they have the five targets and it was initially done like you would be hunting. Was it a hunting thing?

21:39 No, it was a military thing. So I because I was thinking that if you actually just made it like if you combined hunting with the skiing so you have to like bring back the most amount of meat while also doing the skiing.

21:52 That would be cool as well. That would rock. That would be cool. Like almost like competitive fishing.

21:56 Like they're doing all of this skiing with just a like a huge rifle on their back. When is it?

22:01 Uh, the mass the mass start I believe is February 20th and 21st. Let me So that's tomorrow. No,

22:11 no, no. Friday. Friday. Yeah, Friday, Saturday. Okay, cool. We're excited. Very excited.

22:18 US has never meddled. We got to We got to hit it. We got to We got to This was also I I was go going into this year. This was our best chance to meddal in in like forever and we still haven't meddled. So,

22:30 well, we got one dude who's like who's nasty with it. Um, I don't know. I just saw one thing that the guy said that.

22:36 Okay. The women's relay is will be 7:45 a.m. Central time. So, if you're listening to this early in the morning, you can still catch the women's relay and then the mass the mass starting the mass thing.

22:50 Yeah. Mass start I believe is Keep going. I'll I'll make sure I get a final on.

22:57 All right. I'll do mine. I have uh short track speed skating which is absolutely electric because I watched a bunch of it last night um like old clips and essentially you people probably remember Apollo Ant Antono who was awesome won our only gold in the 500 meter for uh men's I think he won gold in 1500 as well

23:18 all time soul patch guy yeah this sport is just a car crash every single time it's just who who's like when is the crash going to happen and can you avoid the crash. It's so fast. And so, Wednesday around 1:00, they have the quarterfinals, semi-finals, and finals for the men's 500 meter. I also learned obviously I I think I knew this, but I didn't really the the the long track speed skating that's just dominated by the Dutch.

23:48 Yeah. Also very attractive women uh and men. Good. And we actually have a guy from uh Wisconsin who who won the 500 meter in uh he won the gold.

23:58 So the one that's the long track that's like the long strides. Yeah. It's almost like you glide. The short track is like you just you're always turning.

24:06 You're just [ __ ] going as fast as you can and you're and you're and and every turn you're just you wipe people out. Jordan Stoulz is the is the kid from Wisconsin who won the gold in the 500 meter long track which was a big deal because the Dutch just like dominate.

24:22 I remember the dude that won I think it was one of the years that Ono crashed out on that last turn. The guy that ended up winning he like a year before had this gash in his leg from a crash where I think he needed like 120 stitches in his leg to close. Like you can almost die from these crashes.

24:38 Crazy. Have you seen the clip? It goes viral a lot of the woman that she sprinted ahead in the very beginning. I think it was

24:47 it could have been a guy, but he sprints ahead in the very beginning. So, he's in the back and then the people just forgot that he had got a lead and he just cruised.

24:55 Yeah, he cruised to a victory. So, that was uh I think a 1500 meter race, which is a little longer. The one we're going to watch on when uh when you're listening to this today, the one we're going to watch this afternoon is 500 meters. It's four and a half laps. It is so fast. It is bang bang. It's also interesting because the quarterfinal, the way the quarterfinals and semi-finals work is it's not uh time. So, it's not the fastest time like goes to the semi-finals. It's just the top two.

25:22 Okay? So, you could have a bad like there could be a crash and you finish top two and you're heat, you're in the semis.

25:27 You're good. Now, here's where we got to here's where we're going to maybe get a little spicy. We got one American left in the competition. Eagles fan. Bucks. Bucks County.

25:39 Yep. Bucks County. Andrew uh Ho. His dad owns an auto body shop in North Philadelphia. We're going to be rooting for Andrew Ho. Uh he's 18 to1. So he did win the gold medal in the world tournament like two months ago. So he could do it. He could do it. We might need a crash or two or three, but we're going to root for him 18 to1. If you can just survive the crashes, that's that's the key to winning.

26:08 Top two, survive the crashes. But yeah, this sport is awesome because they just wipe out so hard. So so hard.

26:15 So I'm I'm in on short track speed skating and the long track is cool, too. I I also learned I I uh I listened to a podcast about about speed skating today, which I I don't know. Kind of weird.

26:28 We just came in second in the team speed skating. Okay. I I know. I know somebody's brother that that that was competing that came in second.

26:37 Nice. There's a podcast about speed skating. There was a I just s I just searched speed skating and then I listened to two British guys interview a a Dutch lady

26:45 talking about speed skating. The really it wasn't that interesting other than the fact

26:50 that there is a race in the Netherlands called the tour of the or 11 cities. The tour of the 11 cities.

26:59 Mhm. And it's a 200 kometer 125 mile race, speed sk or sk ice ice skating race. And the race only happens when all these 11 cities, it's cold enough that they're all connected via ice. So it hasn't happened since 1997. So it's like a big [ __ ] deal. I'm excited for the next time that race happens.

27:20 That's pretty cool. That is cool. I like that. So yeah, it's been it's been 20 it's been almost 30 years they've had this race because they just haven't been able to do it. So next time they do it, it's gonna be so sick.

27:29 What if What if you were to take like a NHL player and put him on speed skates like Conor McDavid?

27:37 I I I don't know. This the the skates are definitely different. They're not as bulky. I don't know. These guys train. So

27:46 Do you think Conor McDavid would be more competitive at speed skating or the best speed skater in the world competitive at hockey?

27:53 Conor McDavid speed skating for sure. Yeah. But I think it's one of those situations where it's like why? Yeah. I mean, it would be like putting a uh sprinter to return a punt. I don't think the the speed skaters could do much more than just be faster than everyone.

28:10 But yeah, this sport is awesome. So 1:00 uh I believe Eastern time on Wednesday is we're going to start the quarterfinals. If you want to bet Andrew Ho with me, 18 to1 again, long shot, get it. But he did win the gold in the world in the world uh competition a few months ago. And you could just get crashes. We just need crashes. The big ones.

28:31 Just hang back. Let other people wipe out. Yeah. Okay. Hank, what do you got? I did bob sled.

28:37 Nice. Some people say, you know, we can't believe Jamaica. We got a bob sled team.

28:44 Yeah. Uh remind me of that, you know, the the tan you had. We got to wonder. Yeah. Uh, so there's two man, fourman. Turns out, so the fourman is a driver, two pushers, and a breakman. Obviously, the twoman is just a driver and the brake man. The brakeman, they don't use the brake for most of the ride. They only break after they finish.

29:06 So, he's just there. So, it's basically just all about the guy in the front. Like, your job could be a parachute.

29:11 Yeah. Like, you're it's it's that and then it's just kind of making sure you turn so that you know you get the aerodynamics.

29:17 Germany, all-time leader. Switzerland uh in second place. A lot of history though with bob sled. Uh

29:24 I got I got a question Hank real quick about like the fourman bobsled. You said the guy up front steers

29:29 two pushers. Two pushers in the middle. So So those are the guys that got to be fast,

29:33 right? So So you you push you do your little run at the start pushing it and then everybody jumps into the bob sled and then those two guys in the middle they just put their heads down and just they just don't do [ __ ] the entire time.

29:44 Well, no. You got to turn. Remember remember the remember the scene in uh Cool Runnings when they were like practicing in the bathtub.

29:49 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they all the bathtub. Yeah. So they Yeah. So they just got to make sure that they're

29:56 turning at the right time so that you turn together. Yeah. Aerodynamics. Cool. Uh 2002 is the first year they did female bobsighting. USA uh two twoman team, two women team. Jill Back and Vanetta Flowers won which was the first black athlete to win gold at the Olympic Games.

30:17 Little bit of history. Uh also it was the first US Winter Olympic team gold in 1932 in Lake Placid.

30:25 Nice. Also one of the only people in like all Olympic history to have uh feature a guy that has won a gold medal in Winter and Summer Olympics. Eddie Eaggan won a boxing gold medal

30:41 12 years later. Yeah, he won a gold medal in his first and only bobsled race. That rocks.

30:46 That's awesome. So, it doesn't really help that like, you know, anyone could probably do this considering he ran one bobsled race in his life and won gold.

30:54 I think Lo Jones was trying to do that a couple years ago, right? She didn't win [ __ ]

30:57 Yeah. No, in either summer or winter. But I was looking. So then that got me thinking of or I was looking researching like how many other people have won gold medals in in different sports Olympics because obviously some people have done you know variations of skiing or variations of of speed skating or whatever.

31:16 Tug of war was an Olympic sport. Love that. From 1900 to 1920. Love that. US uh and and you could have multiple like in in 1904 the US just won all three medals. Do you know what was an Olympic sport in the in the Winter Olympics? It was uh the dog racing. We should have had that dinner ride.

31:34 That should still be there. I agree. Those are cool. But yeah, tug of wars. That's a cool That's a That's a cool [ __ ]

31:41 And the dog should get the medals. Yeah, absolutely. And everyone talks about obviously Cool Running's 1988 Olympic Jamaican team, but the 1994 same crew, they finished 14th overall. They they finished ahead of like United States and France. So that Jamaican bobsled team was was a wagon.

32:00 By the way, I I had a AW reach out to me, knuckle pucker, uh said that luge athletes and I assume bobsled athletes as well are found in like crazy ways. Like he knew someone who was just approached at the mall like they had a kiosk at the mall and they were like you have the size to be a loser and signed up the like two siblings that he knew.

32:24 Like you've got great balance. They have like baseline metrics. What are Yeah. What What is the ideal prototype? Like if you're looking for a quarterback, you're looking at a guy that's 6'3.

32:33 I think it's like strength and then and then you also have to be willing to move to Lake Placid

32:38 and and have like a tutor. Like living in upstate New York is probably a pretty big benefit.

32:43 That's a huge one. Yeah. Okay. Um didn't didn't Hershel Walker try to be a bobsled guy?

32:48 Oh yeah. I don't think not Olympically. I think he tried competed in the Olympics. What do you

32:55 That's That's what I was trying to tell memes the other day is like the University of Georgia has some guys that would be great at just being fast and then just going really fast behind the wheel of something.

33:05 What do we have bob sled today? I don't know when the bobsled actually is. Okay, that's find out because I want people we want to tune in. All right. What What do you got PFT?

33:15 Uh I I was it's it Oh, it already happened. Got it. Who won? It's happening today at 2 o'clock. Okay. Did we win?

33:26 Did we win? I'm finding out who's in it. I'm going to guess no, we didn't. Did we win?

33:31 I think the Germans won. There's a lot of German teams in here. We got one. We got one. We got two guys.

33:37 Okay, so we would have won. We won by the And the Bathlon is February 20th and 21st actually. So I was wrong about 19th 20th 20th 21st.

33:45 And my short track is today. That's why I picked it because I wanted I wanted everyone to tune in. Andrew Heel 18 to1. All right, PFT, what do you have?

33:53 All right, so I have the only new sport for this Olympics. Every year they like add a new one. This year it's called

34:00 won gold in women's yesterday. Hell yes. Oh, and bob sled. Breaking news. Women's monob.

34:05 Monob. So that's just that's like when you just have one person. Yeah. Right. It's when a guy named Bob talks like this.

34:15 Monob. Okay. What do you have? Uh, I have ski mountaineering. Is this one of those sports that like the French or sorry the Italians added it?

34:23 Yeah, exactly. This is a de basically when you look at the Olympics, most of the sports are like DEI for Scandinavia. They're like, "Oh, we need to have more more uh representation in our sports. So, we're going to combine sports that kind of already exist." But the cool thing about ski mountaineering is that for uh for centuries, people have only gone downhill on skis

34:46 and then they've taken the lazy way up via ski lift or some sort of mechanized means of getting them to the top of the mountain. In ski mountaineering, you actually you have to climb up the mountain before you earn the right to go down the mountain.

35:01 So this one I respect just because it sucks so much. It sucks. It is the It is the suckiest sport to do

35:07 that. You get my respect if it's like, "Holy [ __ ] who would ever want to do this?"

35:10 Yeah. So, it combines hiking and downhill skiing. And uh when people watch like the skiers go downhill after they climb up to the top, a lot of people be watching this and be like, "Wow, these guys really suck at skiing. They're not that fast." It's cuz they're exhausted because they just sprinted to the top.

35:26 All their skill is used going up. All their skill is used going up and then they just kind of let gravity take them down because they're so tired. But if you watch some of the clips of these guys sprinting up the hill, they look like the Boston Dynamic robot dogs like running up these giant giant ice and snow covered mountains.

35:42 Wait, are they using what kind of ski do they switch skis? So yeah, what you do is you have skis, but then your skis are inside of a sheath that gives you more traction when you're going up,

35:52 cross country skis versus downhill. So you go up the mountain and then you have to like very quickly rip those off, like rip the covers off your skis. then you go down the hill. So, there's a couple different ways that you can do this. There's um there's the type that's just like mixed relay, which is uh going to be on February 21st, which is going to be guy, girl, guy, girl, I think, competing. And then

36:17 they just keep going up, down, up, down, up, down. So my idea to actually make this a a better sport just like last person going like there's no there's no finish line, there's no time. It's just the last person who's still moving.

36:32 Oh, okay. So it's just a it's like a actual death sport. It's like a death sport. It's like, you know, you you can stop. You can stop without dying. Like if you're just like,

36:40 "This sucks. I'm tired. I'd like to I'd like to go home now." You can do that. But then it's just like the the epitome of endurance. Yeah. Just have the last person moving wins the gold medal. I think that's a good idea.

36:52 Okay. Also, I learned a fun fact. Did you know that skis predate the wheel? I did not.

36:59 Yeah. How crazy is that? That is crazy. That seems pretty stupid, actually. Skis predate the wheel?

37:04 Yeah. How much? People invented skis before they invented the wheel. This could also just be like skier propaganda that they've put out there.

37:11 That could also Yeah. Or just be a random guy slipped on a couple logs on the ice,

37:17 right? like, "Oh, I got skis." Like my my drunk uncle, he was uh he was preparing for the harvest and he fell down,

37:26 tumbled down the mountain. Yeah. Yeah. Um we also have some Americans that are competing in the finals. Uh there's this one dude who's like a beast. I think he's from Illinois

37:36 as well. Uh so he might root for him. We got to root for this Illinois guy. Give me one second. I'll tell you what his name is.

37:44 Where does he train around here? Yeah. Not a lot. Not a lot. He may not currently live in Illinois.

37:52 Yeah. Where's this guy at? There's a There's a trash heap. Wilmont. It's This does look fun. It looks

38:01 10 seconds. So hard watching these guys run up this hill. It looks like Yeah, it looks like the most annoying sport to participate in.

38:09 Mhm. That was just porn. Oh, just watching porn. Yeah, that was just porn. I looked up skio

38:16 and now I guess some things aren't some things aren't. Use your imagination of what Max just found.

38:21 Cameron Smith. Cameron Smith. Cameron Smith. That's 99% skiing. Cameron Smith. Cameron Smith. That's who we're rooting for.

38:28 All right, we need to win this. I I still need like 15 more. I need a shitload more uh gold medals for my bet for the Super Bowl. Okay, that's a good sport. I'm in. I I respect this sport because it does I think if I tried to do this I would probably quit within maybe maybe 10 seconds.

38:46 Yeah. This guy currently lives in Colorado. Yeah. He's from Rockford and he moved to to Colorado to to go up and down mountains.

38:54 Okay. Zach, what do you have? What sport do you have for us? So I had figure skating pairs to free skate. Are you guys familiar with the the pairs figure skating?

39:05 Uh yeah, I think so. So, they uh the way they break it down is there's 16 teams who qualify through the the short program the day before. So, it's like a two-minute program. Then, they qualify to go into like the long form freekate, which is about four minutes.

39:19 Mhm. And there's like there's like eight or nine uh elements that have to be incorporated in the program or in their sequence which are you got to have three lifts, one twist, two throws, one side by side solo jump, a sidebyside jump combination, one pair spin, a choreographed sequence, and of course the death spin all go into one routine.

39:41 Of course, the death spin. Yes, it's a mandatory element in the pairs. You have to do the death spin. You got to do the death spin.

39:47 Everybody's got a death spin. Okay. Okay. And the way they do the points is like there's a base point system and then your score is based higher or lower on those base points via like the execution of each element.

39:57 And then the Russian judge is always like the US sucks. France wins. Yeah. Russia is Russia exiled right now. They're banned.

40:05 That's right. Yeah. Yeah. They got some stuff going on. What uh are we going to win this or No,

40:10 we did not win pairs yesterday, but we have some promising skaters coming up. They're doing the single women's uh short program today to qualify for freekate tomorrow.

40:21 Okay. But there was a little bit of drama in the pairs freekate yesterday. And so the German team was supposed to be a lock and they got caught kind of playing defense instead of uh kind of like they went out there to skate to defend still being at first up by seven points. They got kind of got caught sleeping.

40:40 They did prevent defense. Yeah. They went prevent. They should have went all out to secure the win.

40:44 Yeah. Got it. They let the Korean or the They let the Japanese team sneak in and set a world record.

40:49 Wow. You can't let the Japanese hang around. They they they hung around so quick.

40:53 Mhm. Wow. So, they won. They did. The Japanese won. Feel like maybe some sort of alliance between the Germans and the Japanese to just let them go ahead and do that.

41:03 Raiku and Rayuchi had no business and then they had had all the business with a world record.

41:08 Are the all the pairs they're dating, right? Uh there's some chemistry out on the ice. Yeah, cuz like I feel like that's it's a very sensual sport to be like you have you have the other person their lives are in your hands. You're twirling them. You're spinning them. You're dipping them.

41:24 I think even if you don't like align sexually uh with the interest of your partner, you got you have to try it at least once, right?

41:32 Yeah. There was like a lot of chemistry between the Japanese team and the team from Hungary. The German team kind of skates kind of more clinical like they're very uh precise and but it's there's no like there's no like emotion evoking from the Germans skating. It's just like cut and dry

41:48 with like solid execution. Got it. Isn't there a lot of corrupt judges in the sport?

41:52 Yeah, good question. This is gone. Good question, Hank. We start, by the way, we start we stopped recording earlier today. That's why PFT has a costume change and Hank just lost his shirt.

42:02 It's not costume. It's a different shirt. No, I know. Well, you call it a costume change.

42:06 I guess it's a costume change. Yeah. What? I just wish we had full full body pick of BFT right now.

42:12 Hey, fine. Hey, get your get your jokes in now. NO, HE'S DOING HIS OLYMPICS. Those are Olympic pants. Jokes now. They're called flags.

42:18 Computer's Your computer's blocking it anyway. Those are Olympic pants. Yeah, I know. It looks good. That's what I was saying. The people should be able to see the

42:25 That's a costume change. Great costume change. What What does that look good for?

42:29 Costume change for PFT. Yeah, it looks great. All right. So, I I worked out a little bit on the lunch break. I thought that I had a normal pair of pants to put on. I went into my gym bag. Turns out I did not have a normal pair of pants to change into. All I had was my Flags of the World pajama pants,

42:44 which is great. And uh perfect for this episode. I don't know why you're defending yourself.

42:48 You know, it's the Olympic preview. Well, because I can see I'm I'm looking at Hank's dead eyes right now being like, "What? It looks great. It's like RFK Jr. I did cocaine off a toilet seat when I was young." But I kind of listen, I caught a glimpse of myself and I thought it's a little bit much even for me. Like this is a accidental four-year-old kind of day that I pulled off. Four-year-old who got dressed in the dark. It's fine. It happens.

43:13 A day that ends in Y. Yes. Yes. I I like the the pants are are sick for the Olympic preview.

43:19 Yeah, that's why I wore them. They're they're perfect. All right, so uh do we have any more pairs? So, we we uh another fun fact though, yesterday the team that came in second, Georgia, they had never meddled in any Winter Olympic sport until yesterday with that silver.

43:34 Oh, good for them. And they were hitting speed. They're a fast team. And they're married.

43:37 They are together. Yeah. And that guy's name is Gleb Smoking. Mhm. They're hitting speed 16 mph on the on the ice yesterday.

43:44 Oh, they're a good looking couple. Yeah. Okay. All right. Memes, you got your last the last sport. What did you do?

43:50 I'll keep mine tight. Uh I did Nordic combined ski jumping. Yeah. What? Uh, Nordic is a winter Olympic sport that merges ski jumping and cross-country skiing

44:00 and shooting. No, no shooting. That's a bath. Oh, this is like steeple chase. No, it's a ski jump. So, they do the jump and then they whoever has the longest jump gets put in first for the cross country skiing.

44:17 Okay. And then they go out one at a time and you're essentially just chasing the guy in front of you. So, it's steeplechase if they did uh long jump first.

44:24 Yes. And then then there's guns. There's no guns. [ __ ] And And are we I'd have to imagine we suck at this.

44:33 Norway just dominates. Yeah, we do suck at this. Uh this was the only time the US has meddled in this was 2010 where they won four medals. They won one gold, one silver, and no, four silvers.

44:45 Okay. And that was just one time. Sports been around for a hundred years. This is definitely it's it's uh it's slanted against the United States.

44:53 Yeah. This is how they get around there. Yeah. Norway. This is how they commute to work.

44:57 That's I mean the the the Dutch the the speed skating sport I talked about that Dutch that's just what they did.

45:04 Yeah. Yeah. But similar to Max's, this was developed in Norway to train soldiers in both endurance and explosive technical power. And it was developed to forge super soldiers.

45:14 Oh. Oh, that sounds that's badass. capable of navigating steep terrain and traversing snowy landscapes to uh it remains a premier high-intensity test of athleticism.

45:24 See, this is why we always tell people like don't make your kids specialize in one thing. Have them be athletes all around, which is why we keep getting blown out at the combine at the uh the Nordic com or at the bathlon.

45:36 Yeah, we spe we got kids growing up specializing in guns. They need to be more well-rounded with skis, too.

45:42 Mhm. This is also the only uh winter Olympic sport that doesn't have women in it.

45:49 Oh, guys only. Guys only. Hell yeah. Sport for guys. Why not? They just jump and then they

45:59 So it's like a split event. They'll do that. It's like the bathlon or whatever.

46:02 Yeah. They do the jump at 3:00 a.m. So this is on the 19th. They'll do the jump at 3:00 a.m. and then they do the cross country at

46:10 7 a.m. that day. But if you're good at the long jump, you can get a nice head start.

46:16 You get a nice head start. But most of the time, if you're good at the long jump, you're not good at the cross country skiing.

46:20 This sounds like the dudes just wanted to make up an event just to kind of get away and just have like dudes only time.

46:25 Yeah. And it also seems like a a madeup event for like the the good cross country skiers just want to win a different event, right? Because it seems like that's it's slanted towards the cross country skiing portion. How long do they uh ski for? 10 minutes.

46:43 Oh, I I put this as a That's a I think that's an official Olympic distance. 10 minutes.

46:49 Yeah. I I I wouldn't recommend watching go out for 10 minutes. We'll see where you end up. Looks like 10k. 10k. You wouldn't recommend watching?

47:00 Wouldn't recommend watching. Just catch the highlights. Okay. There's no ski jump is pretty cool.

47:04 It's awesome. I'm in on that. I'm definitely in on ski jump. It's terrifying, but it looks awesome. Yeah, those guys.

47:11 Who was that guy that was I think his name was Eddie the Eagle, right? He was from the United States and he sucked at ski jumping, but he represented us in the Olympics.

47:19 I'm not familiar with this story. That dude kind of rocked. If I remember, he was just not very good, but for whatever reason, he got an automatic bid. Maybe when it was in Lake Placid.

47:28 Yeah. And so, yeah, they're like, "Go Eddie the Eagle." And we all cheered for him. He jumped like 10 feet and he was a hero.

47:33 Dude, the endurance that it takes for these crosscountry skiers has got to be insane. Like when you go skiing for like a little bit and you run out of speed and you just have to go from like one side of the lodge to the other side of the lodge, it takes up everything I have.

47:47 They do have better skis for it, but still. But doesn't matter. Yeah, they have skinny skis. But yeah, it's it's insane how how these guys are just insane athletes.

47:56 Never been skiing. That's right. Never been snowboarding. You should just cross country ski. So when people ask

48:02 You look like you're going skiing today. Yeah, you should ask. You should you should do some cross country skiing. So when people are like, "Do you ski?" Be like "Yeah

48:09 cross country. Cross country. I'm at schemo." Yeah. Mountaineer ski. Okay. Good job, boys. Good Olympic preview.

48:15 I forget if you said this when you were talking about curling the other day. Did you Did you cover the fact that all the stones come from the same island?

48:21 I did not. So if you have if you have a curling stone, they're all taken from granite from this one tiny island.

48:28 I like that because that's like where the granite grows the specific way to be the right density. It's like the one the one family that makes all the footballs.

48:36 Yeah, exactly. Or the the family that gets the mud to rub down a baseball. Yeah, I know. It's like I want to say $5,000 for a set of curling stones because you have to get them from this one place.

48:44 Damn, that seems ridiculous. Yeah. Barrier to entry. I think there was more cheating for Canada. By the way,

48:50 I saw finger on stone again. Finger on stone. They just can't stop cheating. Mhm.

48:54 Absolute [ __ ] Okay, good good Olympics preview. Andrew Hugh, let's let's root for him. 18 to1. Bucks County Philadelphia.

49:04 Bucks County. He's ready to go. Bucks County. Yeah. Okay. Uh before we get to Hotse Cool Throne, we're brought to you by Venmo. Get in the game with college branded Venmo debit cards and earn up to 5% cash back at some of your favorite brands with Venmo Stash Rewards. You can add your Venmo debit card to your mobile wallet as soon as you sign up and pay online and in store right from your phone. And the best part, the card is tied right to your Venmo account. got paid back for dinner. Immediately access the money in your Venmo balance and spend it on what you want. Game day snacks, tickets, new merch. You can easily split purchases in the app and there's no monthly fee or minimum balance. Uh listen, I I use my Venmo stash. Maybe maybe throw some some cash around. You know, you bought you bought dinner, you bought lunch. All right, here pay you back. It's easy to do.

49:52 Venmo's there for you. Score more with college branded Venmo debit card and get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash. Sign up at vmo.com/colcard. The Venmo Mastercard is issued by the Bank Corp NA. Select schools available. Venmo Stash bundle. Terms and exclusions apply at venmo.me/stashterms max $100 cash back per month. Hut Cool Throne is brought to you by Pizza Hut. Have you heard about Pizza Hut's Big New Yorker? It's Pizza Hut's biggest pizza. Massive 16-in slices. So big you have to fold them for just $10. $10 doesn't go as far as it used to. But the Big New Yorker, it's an XL pizza with fluffy New York style crust and parmesan oregano seasoning. That's a lot for $10. What more could you want? The $10 Big New Yorker is a big deal. You can't argue with the math. For a limited time only, order a $10 Big New Yorker and solve dinner with six XL slices on New York style crust. All right, hot seat cool.

50:49 What's your hut seat from Pizza Hut, Hank? My hut seat is Wendy's. Oh, yeah. They uh put out an announcement today. It read like a a team, like a sports team announcement. Said Wendy's is to close hundreds of restaurants in 2026 in what interim CEO Ken Cook calls a rebuilding year.

51:08 Oh, I love that. I They're tanking for draft picks. Yep. Yeah. Trust the process. I do like that. Yeah, it's tough, you know, tough tough to hear for Wendy's, but I guess they'll they're going to be back better than ever. Maybe

51:19 they've got a plan. They right now they're in cap health. Also interm fact that it's an interimm CEO.

51:24 Yeah, sounds like an interimm coach. Yeah, that's not great. We're McDonald's guys anyway.

51:29 We are. Yeah. Can I can I take Wendy's maybe off the hot seat real quick? Sure.

51:33 Like in an effort to maybe try to rescue Wendy because I think iron sharpens iron in the fast food game, right?

51:38 Yeah. Right. So, here's the thing. I read an article the other day about this dude that made a bet and because he lost his bet, he had to eat chili's or Wendy's chili for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for 30 days.

51:54 Okay, he did it. He got through 17 days. At the time this article was written, he lost 17 pounds.

52:00 Oh, so it might just be a great diet. Maybe it's just Wendy's for health or he's just [ __ ] every time he eats. That is probably a more likely explanation, but we're trying to look on the bright side here.

52:11 What could be the downside of having someone become a celebrity endorser uh for a fast food restaurant, saying they lost a ton of weight?

52:18 I don't I don't see a problem with that. No problem here. That's never gone wrong.

52:23 It worked for you when you did uh Gumbo every day, too. Yeah. Yeah. Kidney stones.

52:28 Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Good seat. Uh my Cool Thrones Game of Thrones. Isn't Jared getting out of prison soon?

52:33 I think so. I think Well, no. We looked it up. It was like maybe 5 years from now.

52:36 Oh, I thought the superersized guy me was also super problematic. Well, the superersized guy meet uh Morgan Spurlock.

52:43 Yeah. Yeah. He also wasn't he canceled himself. No, but wasn't he an alcoholic?

52:49 A severe alcoholic. And he went and did the superers size me and the doctor was like, "You have liver failure cuz you've been eating McDonald's." He was like, "No, dude. It's because you stopped drinking."

52:57 No. He's like, "I have the shakes." Like, "Yeah, dude. You stopped drinking vodka every day."

53:00 He's like, "It's probably that Arch Deluxe that I had." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was that was

53:04 that gave me hepatitis. When is he getting out? I think Jared a little too soon.

53:08 He's got to do the gauntlet when he gets out. He does. 2029. 2029. All right. Okay. Five years.

53:16 He's got to do it. Three years. Holy [ __ ] Should Okay. It's 2026. There's no such press as bad press.

53:25 No. Jared's got bad press. Okay. All right. Then I won't say it. Bad guy. I just had a marketing idea. Just had I just had a marketing idea. I don't want to get in business with Jared.

53:34 Part of my cheese steak. Nope. Nope. Nope. But what if he gets fat? What if the whole thing is like now I got so disgustingly fat

53:42 and then he dies? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. If it kills him. Yeah. If he eats himself to death.

53:46 Yeah, that could work. That's good press. Yeah. Yeah. We could poison him. Yeah, we could

53:51 be heroes. Yeah, we would be heroes. All right. That was your cool turn. Uh my cool is Game of Thrones.

53:56 Oh, Game of Thrones. Yeah. Back all the way back. How many episodes are we into this? cuz I I was not familiar. It was back.

54:03 I believe the fifth or sixth episode. They're short episodes. All right. So, I can get into it.

54:07 It's like 20 25 40 minutes. Okay, I'm in. It's It's slower at first, but I I I liked it from the beginning and it's it the season has I don't know if it's over now, but it's it's gotten very very very good.

54:19 How does this fit into the Game of Thrones universe? It happens after House of Dragon before Game of Thrones,

54:28 but House of Dragon is still going on. House of Dragon is season 3 is coming out. Maybe never. It's gotten delayed. It seems like it's going to be bad.

54:36 Did I watch season two of that? I don't think so. I think you stopped after the Crab Feasters.

54:41 I did the same. Yeah. Yeah, the Crab Feasters. I have a question, Hank. Can I ask a question please?

54:45 Uh, do I need to know anything about Game of Thrones to watch this? Like, do I need

54:49 No, they it's it's similar houses. There's Targaryenss, Baratheonss, Stark. Uh, not Starks in the show, but

54:58 is there a billion different characters that are going to make it hard for me to

55:01 No, it's two two main. It's a It's a Game of Thrones. It's great. And Night King,

55:08 the kid, remember? Uh, wait. Big tall guy and little kid. Yeah. On tomorrow's part of my hope, he doesn't get any ice in his

55:14 It is on the whole show is on tomorrow's part of my uh no ice in his the back of his shirt, right? Remember Master Aean when he's when he's like croaking and he he's like egg.

55:26 Yeah. Yeah. You could say any name, any scene. I remember croaking. No, that's why I stopped watching

55:32 the egg that he's No, but this is Game of Thrones. The egg that he's talking about was his brother. So it's like remember how old Master Aiman was?

55:40 Mhm. No. Yeah. He was like 100 years old. So whatever. It's good. It's really good.

55:44 All right. I'm in. And they croked. It sounds like you're not. Are you fully You said You said it's short episodes. I'm in. You're fully caught up.

55:50 How are the dragons? No dragons. Dragons. I'm out. I'm out. See you. Are you fully caught up, Hank?

55:55 Yeah, I'm out. They said the last the most recent episode was like the second best episode of television ever.

56:00 It it was I was And you're telling me these are two minute episodes? There's no way.

56:04 The last one was a little longer. The but it it set up like it was it was a the whole episode before was a setup. So it like set I'm not going to spoil it, but it's set up for a big, you know, battle, if you will, and then the whole episode was just that battle.

56:15 What's the name of the show again? Knights of the Seven Kingdoms. Uh, a night of

56:19 one night in Paris. I think it's has just accidentally been watching Paris Hilton sex.

56:29 A night of the seven kingdoms. Yeah, sure. No dragons, but it's fine. Uh, yeah.

56:34 It's just the same episode over over. Is there a possibility? Night of the Seven Kingdoms

56:39 that the dragons are are off somewhere offcreen together and they're going to make an appearance later on this season. No spoilers because the show hasn't season 3 hasn't come out, but the dragons all die at the end of House of Dragon.

56:52 Wait, season three. Yeah, the dragons all die and then but it hasn't happened yet.

56:58 Daenerys brings him back. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we knew that. Also, George RR Martin's just like, "Yeah, I don't really feel like finishing this."

57:07 Yeah, that's I saw that. He's like, "I'm just kind of like it takes too long." I mean, dude, how could you do that? I think everybody everybody knew this is what he was doing like eight years ago. But he finally finally said, "Yeah, I don't really feel like running."

57:21 Yeah. Just halfass it. Yeah. Chat GBT. Let AI take care of memes goes. Hey, yeah, he's a Jets fan. He's probably down in the dumps.

57:30 So, we got to get the Jets. Actually, reach out to George R. Martin just just to talk about the Jets.

57:36 Cool. Yeah, reach out to him. Memes. Yeah. Done. Okay. Your hot seat, Colon. Uh my hot seat is all girls.

57:44 All of our girls. Just just girls. Like if you got a girl, hot seat. Okay. Because uh I've I've fallen deep into the well of the clavvicular cinematic universe and the uh the mogging that's been going on, the ASU frat leader getting all absolutely alpha mogged,

58:03 goes along with it. It is. It's become like a WWE storyline where now you've got like a a twin tall brother 6'5 gigachad from Australia who came over to the United States to avenge the mogging of his brother clavvicular by the ASU frat king who might not even be a a frat king.

58:22 He might be a fake frat king involved in all this. And I I can't get enough of the recaps of it. It's every time I see one, it makes me laugh so hard.

58:32 What are the recaps? The recaps are the recaps are just like talking about how this guy got mugged by frat king and then somebody else stole his phone and then this guy this kid is now uh jester maxing but then there's a goblin Chad that got into a fight with clavvicular and then the goblin Chad stole the phone and then mugged the phone too. So like everybody's getting [ __ ] up.

58:57 I don't I didn't understand like any of those words you just Yeah, I don't understand them either.

59:01 Yeah, you obviously do. No, I don't. No, it's okay. You What is gesture maxing?

59:06 Gesture maxing. Gesture maxing is when you do something unproductive. So, you do understand the words.

59:10 I know that. I know that one. Yeah. When you do something unproductive. What's mogging?

59:14 Mo I don't know what mogging is. But I think I think mogging is No, I think I know.

59:20 Alpha being alpha. No. No. Mogging is like like if I was standing next to Arnold Schwarzenegger Schwarzenegger, he would be body mogging me.

59:31 Got it. I think that's right. Yeah, because he like next to his body looks better than my body. Some may say so he would be mogging me

59:40 some. Yeah. So Zach is eye mogging you right now. Correct. Zach would be eye. I think I have very little knowledge.

59:47 But you're also you're maxing right now. That I don't that I don't get cuz Zach is Zach is IMAXing.

59:55 I would be maxing. You're maxing just because my name is Max like the movie theater.

59:59 Yeah. Yeah. Like maxing is you could do anything if you're just doing anything. Like Hank is nap maxing right now.

1:00:07 No, he's no naps. No naps. No no no naps. But you can max anything. It's just like whatever you happen to be doing at that given time.

1:00:16 So you guys are like voice mogging Hank right now. Oh, big time. Hank just got voice modded.

1:00:21 Yeah. See? Yeah. Yeah. Hank got mogged by Sam Darnold. No. Oh, Sam Darnold. Brady Max.

1:00:32 No, but Sam Darnold mogged Drake May. God was jester maxing at the Super Bowl. Yeah. What's the Goblin?

1:00:41 Well, no. So, Drake May No, Goblin's part of the the show that Hank was talking about.

1:00:46 No Goblins. Drake May at the Super Bowl. Drake May nine maxed nine. He nine maxed at

1:00:53 like nine like JJ McCarthy. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. the whole playoffs. You could say Pennix Max.

1:00:59 Got it. Pen Max. Yeah, Pennis. Okay. But yeah, you can just you just say whatever you want. But it is like a WWE storyline that these guys have somehow con concocted for each other. I don't think they're doing any of it on purpose, but it's just it's a very funny weird part of the internet that I don't I don't fully understand, but it makes me laugh whenever I look at it.

1:01:21 Well, let's get into the maxing. Well, yeah. I think we are maxing right now. Yeah, max maxing. Well, they look m they looks max, too, which is when you like smash your bones to give yourself a better structure.

1:01:32 Yeah. So, like you can pound your your your cheekbones with like a little hammer and it's supposed to overcalify. Now, these guys end up just looking like vampires.

1:01:40 Yeah. None of it's healthy. Um, but yeah, I'm surprised you haven't paid attention to it.

1:01:47 I saw I've seen it. I've not opted in. Well, it was it was a lot of it was on vacation. I was trying not to be online too much and I just like it's one of those ones I was just like I'll let it pass.

1:01:57 Yeah. No, you can't let this pass this because this kid's going to be president one day.

1:02:01 So I have to I have to pay attention. Yeah, he he will be president of the United States at some point.

1:02:05 Okay. And I think all our future Oh, the New York Times wrote about Yeah. Yeah. All our future.

1:02:08 All right. I'll read the New York Times. I'll do it. Looks aren't everything. Clavvicular begs like freebase ketamine.

1:02:15 I'm going to read this article and do it like the real boomer way of being like I saw this clvicular guy on New York Times. Yeah, I have a take about clvicular.

1:02:24 I don't think he's that hot. Yeah. I mean, he looks like a regular dude. He's a normal looking guy.

1:02:29 Yeah. No, he's not like stopping. Like, if this if this guy spends 100% of his time trying to look his absolute best, that's very sad for him.

1:02:39 This guy or the Bears tailgate guy? Bears tailgate guy. He's naturally beautiful. People that don't know, I saw a really hot guy at the Bears Packers playoff game and then invited him and his friends to the office the next week to judge how hot he was and he was hot.

1:02:53 I think we got nine guys walk around the office that look better than clicular.

1:02:57 Yeah, Blake for sure. Yeah, Blake. Yeah, Mincy Once the hair grows back. Yeah. Do you think Blake gets bothered by the fact that every time a hot guy comes up, I'm like, "But we got Blake."

1:03:09 That's a compliment. Yeah. I mean, he's a good-look toot. Yeah, but it feels a little like Michael Scott uh uh Ryan uh Howardish.

1:03:19 Yeah, but that's a funny show. Like, man, you're hot. But that's a funny story line. Can you bring up the uh the Goblin Chad dance?

1:03:26 You got to see the Goblin Chad. The Goblin Chad Chad is mesmerizing. I don't know if I want to see the Goblin Chad me dance.

1:03:33 Clovicular gets absolutely mogged. What's going through your head right now? Hey, what's going through your head?

1:03:40 This is tough. It's tough. It's tough listen. Tough listen, Max. This is This is We're We're basically doing fantasy [ __ ] boys right now.

1:03:49 I can't find anything about the goblin chat. It's worse than fantasy [ __ ] boys.

1:03:54 No, we're currently pod maxing. Yeah, we're pod maxing. Zack gets it. I'm having fun.

1:04:00 What platform should I be searching? Goblin chat. I actually own I did Twitter. It was nothing. I did Google. Nothing. Was that your hot seat or cool throat?

1:04:10 I don't know. I think both. Okay. I think it was everything. Um, yeah, that's everything. That's because really that's what I've been paying attention to.

1:04:16 That's all you got? Is Goblin Chad. I found the Goblin Chad video. Bald Max and Goblin Chad. It's crazy. That's what they're saying. This is how I talk now.

1:04:27 Oh, all right. Look at this guy. Big cat. Look at this guy. So, there he is. He gets jacked up and then somebody takes his phone and then look at this like a scuff. Look at this memerizing guy though, right? Coming in screen,

1:04:41 he turns the phone around. This guy. Yeah, he's ugly looking. Creepy as [ __ ] right?

1:04:48 Yeah. I love that guy. Okay. All right. So, that's my brain melting out of my ear.

1:04:53 Mhm. Yeah, that's true. Brain rot. But okay, we're in it. Now that I've gotten a little familiar, I'll have to pay attention. That's I I do that whenever I see something where it's like it's it's like a foreign language. If you never learn what the lang what they're talking about, then you won't see it everywhere. Once you learn what they're talking about, you're you're hooked. You're done.

1:05:12 I opt out of a lot of those things. For whatever reason, this caught me at the right time. I I had time.

1:05:18 This one got you. Okay. My hot seat is I have uh two. One is us because Bleacher Report did a top 99 QBs of all time ranking and Dak Prescott is on there. So, he's at 59.

1:05:37 59. 59. I went through it. I wasn't really going to get that mad about a a list. The only the only issue I had was they had Marino at 10. I feel like he should be higher. He was Marino was behind Steve Young and uh Drew Brees. I feel like Marino deserves more respect.

1:05:53 I don't understand how you can put Dak at 59. He's at 59. So if you want to get mad about a QB rankings, he's at 59.

1:06:00 I'm a little mad. Ryan Tanahill 99. Ryan Tanhill's 99. Matthew Stafford's 20. Patrick Mahomes is four. Uh Russell Wilson was ahead of Lamar Jackson.

1:06:12 Okay. Well, I guess that makes sense. I mean, if there Yeah, if you're just going offer

1:06:16 Super Bowls, but yeah, but you'd rather I mean, Lamar Jackson's been the better quarterback. He's won two MVPs.

1:06:22 Yeah, but I would say if you're doing a list of the great Is this the greatest quarterbacks?

1:06:27 I think that's what it is. Top 99 quarterbacks NFL history. I think I would like total career. I think I would put Russell Wilson above Lamar. I Lamar's been the best quarterback in league twice.

1:06:38 77 Derek Carr. Okay. Future Jet. Future Jet. Alex Smith. Oh, Jaylen Herz is on there. Let's go. There you go, Max.

1:06:47 Alex Smith is on there. Yeah. Well, they had to get 99. It's a lot of quarterbacks.

1:06:53 Kirk Cousins is 71. Yeah. Get mad about it. Kirk Cousins I would put above Dak Prescott.

1:07:00 Yeah. My other hot seat is uh the MLBPA executive director Tony Clark who resigned today

1:07:08 and then it came out his resigning his resignation was after an internal investigation revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law. who had been hired by the union in 2023.

1:07:21 Dog. Sister-in-law. Dog. Sister-in-law. He hired his sister-in-law and then and then dogged.

1:07:29 Dogged. This is This might be the kind of guy you want running your union. It's a dog move.

1:07:34 This is a guy that like keep your friends close and your relatives closer. Yeah.

1:07:40 I feel like I'm going to wait for all the facts to come out. I'll put it that way. Let's wait for gonna wait for all the facts. Yeah, it could. This could be way worse. It sounds bad, but it also could be way worse.

1:07:51 My cool throne is Tiger Woods in the Masters because he has said that he has not ruled out playing in the Masters this year.

1:07:59 This year? Wow. This year. It's got to be awesome that Tiger He just can play in the Masters forever.

1:08:04 Whenever he wants. Yeah. Yeah. He should. Why not? It'd be fun. Be fun to have Tiger in the Masters.

1:08:10 The way that he said it makes me think it's on. He's loading. Yeah. We also had LeBron James. Uh remember there was a story that he stopped drinking wine because he missed the beginning of the season. He also stopped eating chocolate chip cookies. So just so we're updating on LeBron's diet. We're getting little pieces that just come out every now and then.

1:08:29 Did somebody take away He cares so much that he's stopped eating cookies. Did someone take away his cookies?

1:08:34 Someone didn't. I don't know if someone took away his cookies. I think he took away his cookies himself.

1:08:38 He took his own cookies away this. And then my other cool throne is uh is the Chicago Cubs because I don't know if you guys are ready for this, but they have uh the the team slogan hashtag. The Cubs are going to win the World Series this year. Do you guys want to guess what their team slogan is?

1:08:52 Uh cub up. Nope. W up. Nope. It's the W. Fly the cub. This cubby hole. I said it.

1:09:04 This is this I don't [ __ ] know, dude. It's the weirdest thing ever. This This What is that?

1:09:14 No, it's this. Yeah. This. It's a It's a who's on first sketch. I I guess it gets people talking. This

1:09:24 this Cubs. This This I mean Oh, that was mean. The person said this team is missing the playoffs. This what a How do you run out of slogans that bad that it's just this?

1:09:38 What is that? This like an acronym? No, I don't think so. I think it's just this. What are you so excited about this?

1:09:50 Why is the uh why is the avatar for the Cubs a different color? Uh probably Oh, no. It's probably for spring training.

1:09:58 That's probably their spring training hats. This they're doing spring training right now.

1:10:02 This cuz they're in the desert. This Yeah. I don't know this. All right, Zach. We're very excited for this.

1:10:12 Oh, nice. Just I uh this my hood seat this week. I'm going have to probably put myself in the HUD seat. I've uh accidentally uh kind of alarm clocked too close to the sun recently. We uh you know, we all went on vacation this last week. Y that was a great time. It was nice. You know, I got home, got to see the parents. I uh I thought we we left on Tuesday t or I left on Tuesday. We recorded that Tuesday. I thought I was going to miss my flight. So I was like frantically trying to like hustle out the house, get packed, and like just get out of there.

1:10:39 I didn't do like the checklist of things you would do to leave for a couple of days. That's all me and I I had left my alarm clock plugged in, unbeknownst to me.

1:10:48 OH NO. OH NO. YOU LEFT THE BOMB. YOU left the bomb in. You left the bomb in for five days.

1:10:55 You left the bomb unattended. Nope. So, what happened is like I'm at home. I I was at home. I was out walking the lake trying to get some steps in. You know, we're on the diet challenge, trying to stay active. I got a phone call. I was like, "Okay, who's calling me from my apartment complex?" So, I pick it up and it's a gentleman's voice I never heard before. I was like, "What's going on? How are we, man?" He's like, "You've got uh have you seen any of our emails?" And I was like, "No, I haven't seen any emails, but like what can I I'm h what can I do?"

1:11:20 That guy hit you with a per my email in real life. Oh, no, Zach. And he was basically like, "Hey, I need you to respond to this email that we sent out about alarm clocks because you've been getting noise complaints."

1:11:30 And I was like, "Well, I'm not home. How am I getting a noise complaint?" Cuz the last noise complaint I got was for playing Xbox too loud. I was like, "Well, I haven't been on a noise complaint for

1:11:40 That was tough. That Aren't you plugged in?" Yeah, but I'm on the mic. So, I guess I was like I could have been getting a little too excited.

1:11:47 Got it. So, I was confused at She was like, "No, your alarm clock is going off like today and yesterday. We're going to have to take like a meeting here, but before then I need you to respond to this email." I was like, "Okay, I can do that. I'll respond right now." And I was like kind of freaking out. So then I accidentally replied all to all my neighbors and was like,

1:12:05 "Oh no." Yeah, sure. You can go into my apartment and unplug the alarm clock. So now they all know it was me.

1:12:12 Uh and Wednesday 1:00 we're going to get together. Uh hopefully just like have a talk. There's like two guys who one dude messed up, one guy hopefully is understanding.

1:12:24 So, there's a chance that this alarm clock was going off for two days. There's a world where it was going I don't think it was, but there is a world where like I'm the worst neighbor of all time and I just left my irrationally loud alarm clock going.

1:12:38 So, has have you been given any inkling to like what this meeting what did he say about the meeting?

1:12:42 Oh, it's all about the alarm clock. But he was like, we're going to have to have a sit down. We're going to formally talk about this in person was the quote.

1:12:48 Yeah. Bring bring your playbook. I don't know what I'm going to There's a chance the eword gets thrown. We're not going to say the eword, but

1:12:57 I think Hank should go with you. You You go to meetings. I wear I'll wear a suit.

1:13:05 Yeah. You probably look good in power suit. Hank should go with you. And you should ask if you can you can

1:13:10 bring a video. Yeah, let's see if we can bring a video. Let's do PMTV your meeting. This is my narcoleptic cousin and he needs a medical grade alarm clock to wake up every day.

1:13:20 Let's get some Let's get some behind the scenes. We can't We can't get He's He's actually going to get e- worded if we go in.

1:13:26 But let's just ask. Let's ask. What's the worst they can say? No. And you're evicted.

1:13:31 That's a That's a word. That's what we're not trying to do. That is the worst. Pretty bad.

1:13:35 Max was like like preemptively evicting me earlier. I was searching apartments.

1:13:40 I was looking for alternative apartments for him. I was trying to help him in case something happened. Zach, you can stay at my house if you get evicted.

1:13:47 I for three nights. I would hate to be a burden for three days. Hopefully, we don't get evicted, but it's very kind of you, big cat.

1:13:52 Yes, I got you. Maybe we all just chip in three days. I Yeah, you got you got I'll do I'll give you five.

1:13:59 All right. So, you got you got you got over two weeks. I can give you three days.

1:14:03 Yeah. Well, you got over two weeks here if you get evicted. But you got to you got to Yeah.

1:14:07 No alarm clocks in my house. No alarm clocks. I'll wake you up. Won't happen. Just poor Oh, dude.

1:14:13 You know what's that? Hank, can Hank go though? Like, you don't have to video it, but I want I want Hank or Max or memes so that that way we have just say it's your lawyer.

1:14:24 I would I I'm down for some rep. Okay. Because then we can have a dual, you know, when we when we follow up on this on Firefest, we can have a secondary source of information.

1:14:34 Yeah, it was bad. I I'm going to have to I'm going to moving forward, I'm going to make a checklist on like things to do before you leave the home. I was in a rush. I was trying to get out of there pretty quick and it just now I'm in a bit of a spot.

1:14:43 It all depends on what kind of alarm clock we're talking about here. Like the alarm clock, most of them, they don't just keep going on and on like they'll stop eventually, right?

1:14:52 I think it I there's no way for me to know. I think it stopped like at some point in each morning, but there's also a world where it didn't. And if it didn't, I'm just like I feel I'm a bad guy if it just kept going.

1:15:05 Yeah. Uh so you you were fine making the flight, right? I did make the flight. I did make the flight. I had I had more time than I thought I had.

1:15:12 Yeah. Anyone Anyone help you out, Hank? All time. Help me out. We should We should tell this part of the story because it is very funny.

1:15:20 The Sonic Bomb alarm clock will stop but not immediately. Features adjustable. Okay. Last between 1 and 59 minutes. Oh man, I would be so pissed off if I were your neighbor.

1:15:32 Oh yeah. It's not a good accident. It's on me. Okay, so yeah, Hank, tell us what happened. So, we did the show Tuesday. Hold on. You got this, Hank. Your voice was doing better.

1:15:44 This happened every day. It's fine when I wake up. And then it just you lose it. Withers away.

1:15:49 All right. So, we record the show Tuesday. We all had flights. I didn't Zach. I asked him. I'm like, "Do you want to go to the airport together?" He's like, "No, I got to go home and pack." Cuz he said his flight was at a similar time. I leave from the office. I get to the airport. I see Zach finishing checking his bag in at the at the bag check. and I walk up to him and like I'll do this when we randomly like it doesn't happen that much but if I see you guys out and we're not together like oh like big guy like how much money do you make and then just to see like see you around or like

1:16:18 what's up babe and then PFT turns around it's like oh that's a dude uh Hank's on one right now this is good

1:16:24 I'm like Zack like bush back the bush Zack and I was basically as close as we are right now like five feet and I did it twice didn't respond at all and I was like Zack Zack Bush turns around in a panic. Like the the videos we have of Zach coming in when he was late, when he's like shaking and he's like, "Oh, what's up, Hank?" And then I was like, "Oh my god, like you're late. Like, you got to go."

1:16:50 So he sprints past me and he goes through clear and to go through clear there's a checkpoint one and then you walk like 20 more feet and then there's a checkpoint two in between. That is where the regular people for security go through. Zach sprints through clear checkpoint one then takes a right back into the regular security line

1:17:09 sprinting and I'm just laughing. I'm like he was already like 20 feet ahead of me. I'm laughing very hard cuz I'm like he did not go in the right lane.

1:17:16 But he was too he was so far ahead of me I couldn't even yell at him. I go into the clear lane. Zach comes sprinting back like a couple minutes later cuz he realized his mistake. I let him go in front of me cuz I'm like he's clearly rushed. And I've been in his shoes many times where you're like, get to the airport, the plane's boarding, you're like, I'm already going to miss this plane, but I have to just sprint and give it everything I have to hopefully make this flight,

1:17:38 right? Sprints ahead of me again. Sprints through security. By the time I even got to like putting my stuff in the bins, he was gone. And I was 30 minutes before my flight even started boarding. So I go to the bar. I think I had two beers and a pizza. go to the bathroom, wash my hands, stroll up to the gate as the plane is about to board, and Zach is just standing there.

1:18:03 You're on the same flight. I was like, "Zack, we like we were you we were you showed up 40 minutes before the plane boarded and he was in group five."

1:18:13 He was like, "You never know. I I thought the plane like what if it came early?"

1:18:17 I'm relatively new to travel. They say get there several hours beforehand. Yeah. And and also as far as the clear line goes, Hank did save me. He let me skip them. That was huge. But there's way too many ropes. Why are there so many ropes?

1:18:30 It gets confusing. And there there's you got the clear, you got TSA pre-check, you've got TSA pre-check plus clear, and then if you go into the wrong sometimes they judge you and they're like, "Oh, why don't you want to go into the pre-check one?" Well, look, I I think the clear one's f. It gets confusing. And also, if you're going to be taking advice on how early to get to flights, Hank is not the best person to take that advice from. For sure not.

1:18:51 Yeah. So, you're good, Zach. It is. I I do forget, Zach, that up until like 9 months ago, you had never been on a plane past the age of three.

1:19:00 Yeah. 99% of my travel has been with you guys. Yeah. But I will also say the the clear thing is a new experience. It changes the airport.

1:19:08 Yeah. It's completely different. It's so easy. So, I'm factoring that in. I factored that in on the way home. You just need like 30 minutes.

1:19:15 Just get in. You're good. But I thought for sure I was getting to the gate. I'd already text my mom like, "Hey, don't drive to the airport yet cuz I'm not there's no way I'm getting on the plane."

1:19:22 Yeah. Hank had two two beers and a pizza. And he boarded way he boarded way before me.

1:19:31 But I I texted like after I saw him run away again cuz I didn't know we were on the same flight. I was like, "Once you get settled, I need to know if you made your flight or not."

1:19:39 Yeah. And he responded like, "Didn't think I was going to make it, but we're good." Again, this was 30 minutes before the flight even started to like pre-board.

1:19:50 You gota learn was like texting us updates as this was missing like Max was talking about. I was like I just saw Zach sprinting through the airport.

1:20:00 Yeah. Well, I my flight was much earlier than your guys' flight and we left at the same time. So, I actually got there like three I got to mine like 3 minutes before boarding. So, I was like actually I was pressing a little bit.

1:20:11 And your flight was 45 minutes before. My flight was 45 minutes before. But so Hank was like texting me updates. He's like, "I think Zach's he's freaking out. He's freaking out." And then when I saw the picture of Zack on Hank's flight, it was just the complete opposite of how two people go about going going on a flight.

1:20:28 That's amazing. All right. Your cool throne Zach. Uh my cool throne recruit was just a professional powerlter Larry Wheels. You guys know Larry Wheels? Big strong guy. He's a professional power. Yeah. Super strong guy. He uh he had an all-time move defending his wife yesterday. Uh and uh like influencer boxer Twitch streamer. They were out having a good time with uh Rampage Jackson. You guys know Rampage?

1:20:50 Yeah. They're all hanging out. This guy Dean starts starts chatting to Larry Wheels's wife and in the most effortless wayly way possible, someone could defend their wife. He gives like a 3% smack to this guy and he smacked the absolute fire out of him.

1:21:06 Oh, I love that. I he could make a thousand more mistakes in his marriage and with the power of the smack, I think they'll stay together forever.

1:21:13 Yeah, cuz he he defended her to no ends with one quick swift wrist move. Larry Wheels slaps Dean the Great during kick live stream.

1:21:23 They were live cuz Rampage like to go live on kick a lot. I think what happened was he was he was intoxicated.

1:21:29 Wait, wait, the second I searched Larry Wheels on on news. The second one is Larry Wheels claims wife uses n-word daily at home. Larry Wheels claims his wife model Sheila Williams has permission to throw racial slur at him in private.

1:21:47 Daily like like it's showering for her. I don't [ __ ] know. All right, brush your teeth. Drop the inbomb. All right, go to bed.

1:21:54 Oh my gosh. All right, Larry Wheels was not familiar with Larry Wheels. I was not familiar with their home game, their home life, but the smack was good.

1:22:01 Larry Wheels just smacked the [ __ ] out of Dean the Great. I think getting like really solidly slapped is worse than getting knocked out.

1:22:07 Oh, definitely. Slapped to the point where you're like, I don't want this anymore. That's That's as embarrassing as it gets.

1:22:13 Yeah. Okay, we've got all the brain rock covered. It's absolutely facemaxed right there.

1:22:18 Yeah, he mobbed him with his hand. CTE maxing. Okay, let's get to our interview. We've got Johnny Fanta talking some college basketball. Before we get to Johnny Fanta, he's brought to you by our great friends over at Twisted Tea. It's time to twee up. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea. 5% alcohol. Twisted Tea is the perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long. Whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar, or if you're day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. Check it out. Twisted Tea and John Fanta. Also brought to you by our great friends over at Planet Fitness.

1:23:00 Planet Fitness is here to support you. Whatever your fitness journey might include. It's 2026. We're getting strong. We've got the Planet Fitness gym right here in the bar stool office. I'm about to go do some free weights. Going to be doing some barbells. Going to be doing some shoulders, boulders for shoulders. And you can find Planet Fitness anywhere. They've got over 2800 club locations. Any fitness journey is doable. Planet Fitness as low as 15 bucks a month. Everyone can get strong at Planet Fitness. I like the Smith machine. I got to strengthen up my calves, too. So, probably going to be hitting the uh the hack squat. Probably working on the solius muscles. Getting strong. We're all strong on this planet. Join today in club online or in the free Planet Fitness app. Hours, amenities, and offers vary by club. Visit planetfitness.com or stop by your local club for more information. Must be 18

1:23:48 years old to enroll. Are 13 to 17 parent and or guardian. And now, here's Johnny Fanta.

1:23:54 Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very special guest. It is our guy Johnny Fanta. You can hear him on the call for Michigan State UCLA tonight as you're listening to this. Uh some people have been calling him NBA Johnny. That's what Rico says. But he he is college basketball Johnny in my eyes. He's been dominating college basketball this year. You've been so good on the calls. It's been an incredible season. We wanted to have you on because, you know, football's over. We're gearing up for March. We're going to have brackets in what, four weeks? Is it four weeks from now?

1:24:28 Not even. Not even. It's great. It's a great time. So, let's start with this. Uh, Johnny, let's let's start with national title because I think I made the argument the other night. I think there's 10 teams that could win the title and I don't remember a year where it it feels like it is so loaded at the top right now. If you had to say, what's the actual number? Where's the cuto off for teams that you think can win the national title? Yeah, I I really think 10 to 12. AND BY THE WAY, it's great to be with you guys and buckle up because this could be an alltime march.

1:25:06 Yeah, it really could be. Yeah, we've got unbelievable freshman class. We've got coaches who have lost their minds in the wildest of ways, which means you've got some tempers, you've got high emotions, you've got crazy finishes to come. And I do think Cinderella's slipper will return. But the top of the country, Big Cat, you're right. I don't think it's ever been better. And I don't think it's ever been deeper.

1:25:30 Yeah. Because when I look at it, I I just open up the analytics. Okay. Whether you follow the numbers or not, Michigan can win it all. Duke can win it all. Arizona can certainly win it all. Houston, just because they lost to Iowa State doesn't mean they can't win it all. They were up by 10 with seven minutes to go in as that was Hilton Magic.

1:25:49 Florida against them. Have you guys seen Illinois? Yep. And they're chilling on their best day. I'm not going to count Braden Smith and Purdue out. You going to count Dan Hurley out?

1:25:59 Nope. Okay. Uh Texas Tech, I haven't even brought up. They've beaten Arizona. They've beaten Duke. That's nine right there. Y if Darren PETERSON WERE TO PLAY and who knows, you know, could could Mark F could could he put something up? And we haven't even brought up like a darkhorse random team that goes on a run. Oh, we didn't even bring up Tom Mizo and Rick Patino who are two Hall of Fame COACHES AND COULD THEY find a pathway to Indianapolis? I'm not going to say no. Yeah.

1:26:28 The point is your bracket is going to be hard to fill out. So, bring that pencil sharpen and get ready because this is going to be fun. The top of the country is absolutely ridiculous.

1:26:41 Yeah. Get ready for an alltime march. And you said it like some coaches are losing their minds. Which coaches are the most insane right now?

1:26:50 Well, you know, I I have Michigan State and UCLA and some people might look at a Mick Cronin and just think every week there's a new video, but I would also say this, he knows exactly what he's doing. All right? Like in the world of uh you know, any news is good news. Mick's getting noticed, UCLA's getting noticed. You might now be watching them. They're right on the bubble. They're right on that bubble. You might not be watching them a little bit more than you otherwise would have. Uh that that would be one. Guys, as I come on with you in terms of the personality of the game, we are one week away one week away from the rematch

1:27:34 between Dan Hurley and Rick Patino. Yeah. And you can sense, you know, old school sports when you could sense the vitriol and the hatred when the first foot steps on the floor or field. That is what this is. That is what this is. And those two are going to only make more headlines with what they say and and how they say it. And I think that you're only going to see things increase in terms of the intensity of that. It's going to go up 10 times next week. If you look at the Wednesday slate next Wednesday, that game is really the biggest game and it there's not much else there. That's only going to increase the attention. Those two don't like each other and the emotion's going to be high.

1:28:16 Yeah. Yeah. And and if you're talking about the f like if you're someone who just getting into the college basketball season, just catching up to it, this upcoming weekend is essentially a final four. Like there we have Michigan and Duke playing against each other and then we have Arizona and Houston. That is the top four teams in the country as of right now playing against each other on Saturday. It's going to be phenomenal. And that's just feels like every single week and not like even last Saturday when it was, you know, Texas Tech beats Arizona. That was a great game. But it like we had that game, we didn't have much else. It was like what just happened? Like what I'm used to having like four or five incredible games every single Saturday. That's how this season has gone.

1:28:58 That's how this season's gone. And credit to the coaches for hearing what we've all been clamoring for. Make marquee games happen. Now, they don't control their conference schedules, but big cat, as much as it might be difficult to uh to give some credit to Duke.

1:29:15 Uh I got a question about that, but go ahead. I got a I got a follow-up question. Go ahead. Michigan and Duke playing this game is really, really good for the sport because you're talking about a Blue Devils team that comes in 24-2. You a Michigan team that we'll see as we're recording what'll happen at Mackie Arena. Regardless, everybody thinks or the majority of people think, yeah, they look like on their best day, Michigan's the best team in the country.

1:29:41 Yeah. And this is the year for the Big 10. I know the Big 12's stacked, but if the Big 10's going to snap this drought of 26 long years without national championship, if Michigan plays their agame guys

1:29:54 they're going to be no worse. They're going to be no worse than in in Indianapolis. So, the sport is in great hands.

1:30:00 Yes, there's chaos. Yes, there's the Charles Byako thing, and there's the James Naji thing, and there's these players that are trying to make it, you know, guys that that left college and now trying to go back. And we could talk all day about that, but I prefer us talking about the product on the court, which is fun and the the viewership is strong and college basketball needed this.

1:30:21 I think it had gone through a bit of a lull. I think it needed this and I think I I would keep

1:30:27 the February non-conference flavor because remember you I just said it, football's done.

1:30:32 Give us some big time matchups in the month of February, even if it's five or six, that put the very best against the very best. Yeah, I agree. All right, so my followup is do we have an update on um do we have an arrest on who got, you know, punched the Duke staffer that John Shy has told us about? Because I saw a clip from, you know, they they wasted away uh Syracuse on Monday night. Poor Syracuse. I don't know what's happened to that program. It sucks because I I you know, Syracuse being good was is is a good thing for the sport. But either way, John Shy said he would like to just talk about Syracuse and uh he knows what he saw and he knows what he his staffers felt. But yeah, there has not been any update on uh who, you know, a suspect for who punched a Duke staffer after the UNCC game. So, what's going on with that Johnny?

1:31:20 Well, I'm I'm not really in the investigative space. I haven't I haven't dove into the, you know, the dine uh team uh quite yet uh to to look into to what exactly went down. uh down there in Chapel Hill. But John Shier is a man of honor and faith. And I think I I believe that something happened to one of his staff members. I don't know what it was. I'm going to say that that whatever he said, you know, something did happen, but the search continues for whatever happened.

1:31:53 Okay. But it's also Duke Carolina. Like what what did we all expect? Right. But I well I I expected I expected chaos, but when when when a team is accused of of uh you know punching an the the opponent in in a court

1:32:09 like a mob a mob land style beatd down. Yeah. What? We got to find the guy. I think we should suspend the college basketball season till we find the guy. Like we got to find this guy.

1:32:20 We're going to do a search down in the Chapel Hill area and surrounding it to find who did this is what you're saying.

1:32:26 Yeah. I mean, imagine if you're playing UNCC and you're like, "This rogue puncher is out on the loose and I could be sucker punched at any point." That's I I agree with you. John Shy, we have to believe him. So, we have to to do everything we can. An international manhunt to find the person who punched the Duke staffer that totally for real happened and uh wasn't just an embellishment after a bad Duke loss uh trying to basically get everyone to stop talking about the loss and talk about something else. It wasn't that at all.

1:32:57 Would you believe Coach Kay if he had said this? Oh, 100%. Yes. Of course. Coach Kay is a man of honor. He's a man of faith. I see no reason why he would lie about either of those things.

1:33:07 Yeah. I mean, listen, this is the this is the brilliance of Duke there. It's a very smart, you know, university or or college. Is Duke University? No, it's a university.

1:33:14 Yeah, it's a university. It's a very smart university. Community college at Duke. Yeah. University.

1:33:19 It's very smart. S smart university. They understand what's at stake. They understand that when you win games, it's cuz you're great. And when you lose games, let's talk about anything else besides the loss.

1:33:32 I mean, hey, that that worked. Something happened. SOMEONE GOT PUNCHED. NO ONE GOT PUNCHED, JOHNNY. NO ONE GOT PUNCHED.

1:33:40 NO, BUT BUT WAIT A MINUTE. WAIT A MINUTE. Let me let me I was thinking about this here. So, do you remember, you know, you we've all been in, you know, seventh day of ninth grade when we would just, you know, go to our buddy's house and then all of a sudden just a brawl breaks out or something, but all in good fun. All in good. But,

1:33:59 you know, if you're in if if you're in the middle of something and all of a sudden you get this

1:34:07 Yeah. You don't know who I don't know who threw it. I WAS TURNED AROUND THE OTHER WAY.

1:34:11 THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE THERE. I WE'VE ALL BEEN ON the receiving end of a of an unmarked punch.

1:34:16 Wait, so you're saying but with all the cameras and everything that we have, all the technology, we just that unmarked punch just never made it on video.

1:34:25 Not sure. I don't know. Okay. It's one It's now one of the mysteries of the world of of who landed that.

1:34:31 Yeah, it is. And I think that I mean, you have a great name for a private investigator. Let's be honest. Like Johnny Fanta PI.

1:34:38 I could see you getting to the bottom of this case. coming up tonight at 11 Hill.

1:34:43 If you're Clemson, if you're uh who else does does uh UNCC have if you're Louisville, if you're Virginia Tech, if you're Clemson, I I would not feel safe traveling to Chapel Hill until this mad man is arrested,

1:34:55 right? So, I'd like to see you get on on the case Johnny. Yeah, figure it out, Johnny.

1:35:00 Get on the case. I I got a question for you though. The rain is at Cameron andor what if he found his way in there?

1:35:05 Oh my god. Can you imagine? Oh god. Yeah, that's actually probably the most likely spot for him.

1:35:10 Yeah. And he'll probably be dressed up as a as a Duke fan to make it look like it was a Duke fan that did it, not a UNCC.

1:35:16 Mhm. The plot thickens. Um Johnny, I got a question for you. Uh cuz like so many others, watched a little basketball last night, watched the Cougars. I was I came away impressed with Houston. Um but my question for you is when should I get in bed with the Cougars? because I feel like

1:35:35 after a loss after a loss not the worst time to maybe take a look at that future line. What are they like 8 to1 something like that

1:35:43 somewhere around there. Yeah. Um they do play Arizona on Saturday. Uh which is you know that's going to be a tough game and then after that on Monday they have to go to Kansas. So it's like this is this is a a crazy stretch for the Cougars. Should I now get in bed with the Cougars thinking that they're about to beat Arizona or should I wait until after this stretch is over and then bet on them?

1:36:08 I'm already in bed. Nice. I'm all I'm all over them. I I I believe that Houston can win it all. I believe that one of these three teams will win it all here.

1:36:21 Ready? Okay. Michigan. Yeah. Florida. Florida. That's my Listen, I took Florida 19 to1 because I I honestly think Florida is is in that spot where if they can just if they can find a way to hit a little bit more consistently three point, you know, get more consistent from three three in the tournament, they are the scariest team in the tournament. Yes, but Houston is right there in terms of scariness because and and I thought Hilton Magic really did play a role and Iowa State hit some incredible shot. The the corner three by Nate Heisy was just just phenomenal. Baitman hit a huge shot for them. I mean, those are Lipy missed free throws. Iowa State was dreadful from the free throw line and still found a way to win that game. That building is good for you're up 10 nothing

1:37:15 as the home team in that building. The open coliseum is real. I am still very much in on Houston. So PFT, I would say you should be in the bed with the Cougars and you shouldn't look back because this team is tough as hell. Kingston Flemings is a top 10, if not top five. He might be a top five pick in the draft. Five or six.

1:37:36 Yeah, he's fun. Yeah, Sharp and Yuzan are are supplemental shot makers. Jojo Tugler. Like if there's a tougher guy in college basketball, I mean, it might be the guy in Chapel Hill and that's about it. Uh, you know, it's Jojo Tugler is mean. He's a mean machine. He gets after you defensively every possession. And Chris Sak is now finding his way and only getting better. Kelvin is so due. I And the only thing is that I have one concern. when there's five or six minutes left to go in a close tournament game, I don't want what happened last night recording to happen in that game where what were they doing in the half court? What were they doing offensively? Like you got to run, you got to get better looks.

1:38:18 That that is the the one if I if I because I think Houston's phenomenal, but they're not a traditional best defense by far in the country, Houston. like their defense is obviously very elite, but it's not at that Houston level that we've we've come to expect where they just suffocate you and their offense can be inefficient where they're not getting, you know, a ton of you they're not a great three-point shooting team and then they're not getting a ton of rim looks. But you're right, like I I think Houston is definitely in that category of battle tested teams that could win it all.

1:38:51 Everyone's got at least one wart. Everyone's got I just mentioned with Florida. Florida can't shoot the three. Like I hope they can because I bet on them, but they can't shoot the three. every every team has something. Maybe the only team that doesn't is Michigan. Um

1:39:03 and that Yeah, that I mean they've just been that good all year. Well, they're they're wart. Michigan doesn't really have a wart, but the way that you compete with them and hang in with them is if you have mobile bigs who can shoot it

1:39:15 because Morz Johnson and Adai Mara are down there and they're just going to funnel everything to them. And they have the best two-point defense in America. So that whoever plays Michigan has got to have a stretch four or a stretch five.

1:39:29 Yeah. And and if you do, you know, that's the unique thing, guys. Like Arizona doesn't really possess that.

1:39:36 Houston, Florida plays huge themselves. You're right on THREE-POINT SHOOTING. THAT'S KIND OF WHERE DAN Hurley comes into this equation because Cariban can Brilan Mullen solo ball can bury threes. Like that that's that would be your argument there with the Huskies. But like, yeah, it's it's here's the thing. You could say that somebody doesn't have warts or somebody does this time of year, but in three and a half weeks, it's not going to matter. The ball's going to be tipped. And we also could see a world where I as good as the 10 to 12 are guys with with with national championship chances. I do think I alluded to it earlier. I do think we're going to see the return of Cinderella's carriage.

1:40:24 Oh, I think the four, five, and six seeds are all all have more warts than than last year's four, five, and 16. I think you're going to see Cinderella's carriage step up and we're going to get two at least two 12 13 14s who win a game

1:40:38 because I was just say that that that is the one downside I thought of going into this tournament is that there are so many good teams at the top and it's so deep at the top that it could be another situation like last year where we don't see a lot of upsets. But you're saying it's actually going to be reversed where that that middle pack is very susceptible because that would be the perfect tournament. I think we all agree the the a couple good Cinderella stories, a few upsets in the first round and then really quality great teams in the Sweet 16 and on.

1:41:08 Yeah, I I I really do think and and I'll put that slipper on because I think a lot of people are wondering like who who could it be? Uh I like the Liberty Flames as a potential 12 seed that could do something. I like Stephen F. Austin. I think that they're an interesting team that could pull something off in the NCAA tournament. Don't sleep on the Ivy League champion. like never go to sleep. If you're going to go into bed with the Houston Cougars, BFT, Y,

1:41:32 make sure that you don't fall asleep when the Ivy League champion gets a a 13 seed. And that could be Yale again. Remember Yale a couple years ago beating Auburn? Yeah.

1:41:41 In the tournament, shocking everybody. UNCC Wilmington's another really feel-good story. And Big Cat and PFT, I know you're going to get behind this. You know who's got a good ball club.

1:41:50 Let's go P. Austin P could 13 or 14 and pull something off in the big dance. I like it. So, whi which of these uh which of these teams would you put on upset alerts? It's obviously way too early to talk about what the bracket looks like. Um but if you were to say, you know, a team that's somewhere in the 12 to 20 ranked area, which team would you circle right now and say, I don't really trust what they've been selling? Well, I'm gonna get some heat for this. Uh, but but I I really want to see them win because they've never won a tournament game.

1:42:31 Fred Hoyberg in Nebraska, the pressure riding on that singular game. Now, I love their team.

1:42:37 Uh, I think they're incredibly balanced. I I I've thought the world of Rinkmast and and Sanford and Jammarcus Lawrence who provides like he's gonna have to be important in that game because he just makes things happen for them offensively. But it's the sweat of that game. It's the prep when you've never won a tournament game as a program. Everything's riding on that. The fan base is going to travel big time. So if they go up against one of these frisky teams that I've just mentioned, a Yale, a UNCW, you you never know what can happen in a 40minute game if if there's a surprise. So that would be one team, you know, that I look at and say, "Okay, I get a little bit concerned there."

1:43:14 Look, Carolina could be a five or a six. Carolina's best looks damn good. Uh but there's times when they get a little out of control. they fall into some turnovers and you don't know what could happen if you're on the other end and you're facing a Santa Clara,

1:43:29 you know, a team that's balanced, efficient, doesn't turn the ball over. I trust for the most part Vanderbilt, but

1:43:37 their best came early. Yeah. So, you want are they going to start peing again or how's that going to go down? I'm very curious to see what happens there. So, those would be three teams that I I look at like Tom Miso is probably going to get a four seed. He's not losing a first round game and he's probably not losing a second round game. But, uh, those would be three teams I look at, I say, "All right, like you got to be careful here with how you go about things or else you could get picked off in the dance."

1:44:02 What about a uh a team like Alabama and Nate Oats? Great question. And and and they were a team that I looked at when you asked this question, but I just trust Learon Phylon too much. I know their defense is susceptible, but they just have so much offensive pop that it gets very hard for a, you know, a mid- major to be able to score. I But here's here's where your point gets amplified. They are not a very good defensive team.

1:44:31 And so, you've got to slow the game down against them, and that's really hard to do. Like, they're they're number one in the country in adjusted tempo. So, you guys got to think about it. when you are a mid- major and you don't have the speed or the athletes, I that's the only thing I would say about facing Alabama is would a team be able to get Alabama into the the quicksand. Can I say one thing to you both though?

1:44:53 Sure. And you always say yes, so I appreciate that. Miami Ohio Yeah. better get into the NCA tournament even if they have one loss.

1:45:04 I agree. We said this. We said this on Monday. I was like, there's a scenario that's brewing that if they lose a game and then they don't win the tournament, it's going to be [ __ ] but that that that could potentially happen.

1:45:15 Love and honor, Johnny committee. They're meeting this week in Indianapolis. Let me give you a message. Selection committee.

1:45:23 Yep. the optics of keeping a team that has started the season with this mark and that plays the right way with leadership, efficiency, and everything in between. They are a tournament team that can win a game if not two. IF THEY HAVE ONE BAD DAY, even in the regular season, EVEN IN THE REGULAR SEASON, IF THEY HAVE ONE BAD DAY, COMMITTEE,

1:45:46 why would you keep a team like this out? You've got to you've got to put them in to the dance. PUT THE RED HAWKS IN. LET THEM FLY.

1:45:55 YEAH. Love that, Johnny. We took our guns out and put it to their head. Don't worry about it. We got you. We're standing behind you. It's finger guns. Don't worry. I got the safety on, too. Don't It's It's cool.

1:46:05 They They practice finger gun safety here. They absolutely should be in. They should be in, Johnny. I I I'm a little bit worried. The more I hear people talk about it, saying like, "Don't you dare do it."

1:46:15 They're going to do it. They're going to do it. Like, it's almost like the more we tell them, "You better [ __ ] not do this,

1:46:20 it it just might happen. Just win the MAC tournament. Just win the MAC. Yeah, just win the MAC. Johnny, can we talk about my Badgers?

1:46:27 I saw you two doing that. I thought Rico had walked into the Oh, no. No. We We were just backing you up. We're standing behind you looking tough.

1:46:34 This episode of Part of My Take is brought to you by McDonald's and their hot honey sauce. The hot honey sauce is at McDonald's for a limited time. Your favorite orders just got better with this hot honey sauce. Try the hot honey snack wrap. It'll beat what you thought was your favorite. I like putting the hot honey on some of the breakfast stuff. You put a little hot honey maybe on a McGriddle. Put a little hot honey on a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. That's good eating. I love hot honey. Hot honey is a delicious condiment. I'm so glad that McDonald's is now officially in the hot honey game. I'm going to put on the snack wrap right here. Make it delicious. New hot honey sauce now at McDonald's for a limited time only.

1:47:12 Johnny, can we talk about my Badgers real quick? Uh they're they're in the tournament, right? I don't have to worry about that because they do have two of the best wins in the country. I think that's fair to say even though I'm very biased.

1:47:26 Uh they do and they have two wins away from home that if you stack them with any other team that has two wins away from home, uh it would be their wins are better than that. Yeah.

1:47:38 So, they're in. And not only are they in, but now they're comfortably into a point that I'd give them a single digit seed. you can't collect. But not to mention, what do you do on on Friday night? You take Michigan State out back and beat the hell out of them.

1:47:55 Yeah. I mean, Wisconsin, they are a team that if you get stuck in a 710 or 89 game with them, oh boy, because and I don't want to be the one. Like, think about it. Michigan will tell you, and it wouldn't be Michigan, Wisconsin in the second round, but Michigan would tell the other one seed, "Hey man, we lost to them. We lost to them. Nice gift in the second round. Wouldn't be the first time the Badgers have pulled something off, you know, an upset in the first weekend, right? Over the years when we've seen their teams pull something off. Uh what you know, what was it? Villanova the one year.

1:48:29 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Xavier the one year, right? Yeah. You know, but they they've been able to to do it in different ways. So I

1:48:37 Wisconsin is frisky. You can't when you have players the caliber of John Blackwell and Nick Boyd.

1:48:45 Yeah. The guard play. They This is a duo that they're one of only three high major duos scoring at least 18 points per game. The other two were Richie Saunders and Debons at BYU. So now Saunders is done. And the other one is JT Toppen and Christian Anderson over at Texas Tech. But Boyd and Blackwell, like Wisconsin hasn't had a a score at the rate that Boyd is scoring at since Michael Finley, statistically. That was over 30 years ago. So, the Badgers offense is really tough. When Rap knocks down some shots for them, he's a X factor for them.

1:49:19 And I think Nolan Winter, like Greg Guard SAID LAST WEEK, NOLAN WINTER DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HOW GOOD HE could be. Nolan, if you keep rising, this Wisconsin team's going to be in the second weekend of the NCA tournament. They're not just going to make it. They're gonna make a run in the NCA tournament. They're dangerous, man.

1:49:33 I I'm officially in that like I'm ready to get hurt mo mode because I was going into the week uh you know, with Indiana, Illinois, Michigan State coming up, I was like, if we can win one game, I'll be happy. We end up winning two and probably should have won the third if we didn't get screwed. But now I'm in like, hey, I think they can make a run, which we know always ends up in in disaster for me. What about the other team that we're worried about getting in, uh, Villanova? Are they a lock in?

1:49:59 They're a lock in. All right, good. Yeah, Max, you can breathe easily. You know, you you might have been a little off on Alex Cariban a few years back, but but you are so you were so on here. Kevin Willer was the right hireer. The the Cats are back. I mean, they are they've got Yukon this weekend.

1:50:17 Wait. And if you want to fully show you're back, you you come out and win that game. But they're top they're top 35 in offense and defense. They play balance basketball. Tyler Perkins is a he is a stud of a player who has stepped up. Aaden Lewis averages over five assists per game. Villanova is a is a tough out guys because they can bury threes. They've got a a stretch guy in Matt Hodgej and Duke Brennan's the double double machine. The Wildcats have a white out Saturday. Time to announce your fully back. If you're going to do that, you got to seize the opportunity against Yukon.

1:50:50 They almost beat Yukon the first time. They kind of got screwed. I thought there was a foul at the end of that uh regulation. Um, but the we should just say Kevin Willard uh, right hire also attended your wedding.

1:51:02 Yes, he did attend. Okay. All right. Just we just Listen, WE'RE JOURNALIST RIGHT. DON'T TRY AND TAKE take away from that.

1:51:08 You have to put that in there just so that WE KNOW. NO, YOU DON'T. YEAH, YOU DO. WAIT, DID YOU ATTEND DID YOU ATTEND HIS WEDDING AS WELL?

1:51:17 NO. GOT MARRIED YEARS AGO. OKAY. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. I MEAN, IF we did this every time Shreger was on, that's all we'd be It would just be an episode of disclaimers. So you would just be shuffling a deck of wedding invites.

1:51:28 Yeah. Like a blackjack dealer. Also, Fanta, you are invited on Max's bachelor party. So you need to discla You need to have a disclaimer for that, too.

1:51:36 Yes, you're invited on the bachelor party. Where is it at? Uh Vegas. So right now we have Friday night, we're going we have a suite for for fish at the sphere. Uh you have to eat mushrooms with us. Saturday, uh, Cabana, Kentucky Derby Day, Sunday golf, everything's paid for. Uh, all you need to do is is buy a flight and you're you're more than welcome.

1:51:59 Yeah. So, the is the is the fish thing with the the mushrooms? Yeah. Is that a mandatory thing?

1:52:06 If you don't want to finish your mushrooms, I I can I can take care of that for you. Also, if you don't want to willingly take the mushrooms, we could do a wink wink and we'll just we'll just slip them into some food for you.

1:52:20 I just, you know, like Max, every time Max, you can hear me, right? At the sphere would be electric.

1:52:29 Yeah. Not gonna put that vis. I actually think you could do your own show at the sphere on shrooms. Like just phanto ranting.

1:52:36 Tell you something. I took the DARE program in grade school. I was locked in. They had that duck mascot.

1:52:43 Yeah. And I was not I was not going down that p. But man, it would probably be an interesting visual. But Max, why does there have to be an asterisk next to Kevin Willard every time we talk about him.

1:52:57 That's I mean that's big cat. He's he's a bad guy. Every time we say something good about Kevin Willard, he just

1:53:03 Kevin Willard in the way that he treated University of Maryland. We had a lot of T we got a lot of Turp fans out there. and turn him back. Year one. Year one.

1:53:11 Yeah. But he also like spur the way he left Maryland was disgusting. And and and Johnny Fanta would be like I would never say anything because he he gave me a nice card at my wedding and you know

1:53:22 incorrect. I said I would have probably handled that differently, but he was dancing to McFaden and Whitehead. Ain't no stopping us now.

1:53:32 Yeah. You said you he would you probably have handled it differently. you would have been even more ruthless to Maryland, I think was your exact quote. Yeah.

1:53:39 People of College Park, they they have great fans, passionate fans. They're into it. No, I have no enemies in College Park.

1:53:46 This guy goes to so many weddings. He should He should probably read more Corinthians and and figure out how to handle things like this. You're a man of faith, Johnny. You understand?

1:53:54 Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Johnny, listen. I want to I want to go back to the bachelor party. You do not have to do the mushrooms. You are invited, though. Officially invited.

1:54:02 Bos will be in attendance. Oh, forgot. I don't know how that relationship is right now,

1:54:08 but Well, actually, it always heats up this time of year. It always heats up this time of year, but you know, I don't know. Is he on the lawyer team, you know, over at at uh with with Coach Tang and everything? By the way,

1:54:20 Kansas State, pay him his money. You you fired him because he lost games. Get out of here with that rationale of, you know, that he made a comment about his team. What? He's not allowed to talk about his players and his team. You know, are you watching coach's press conferences weekly? Kansas State, it's more you're going to spend more money, Kansas State by going through this process than you would by just paying him his money and give Bos some cash as well. Rico, the Bosow Search firm is fired up right now. I haven't heard from Rico in a while. Uh, but this time of year now,

1:54:53 it all starts to to get the flames start going. You You're gassing up Phylon enough. I think he's going to be happy about that. So, we're now on good terms. Yeah, now we're on good terms with that. Uh, but I don't know like Tang, he got fired for cause, right?

1:55:10 Can you name a single Can you name a time that uh one of the greats, Rick Patino? Has he ever said anything bad about his team to the press, to the media, to fire them up? It does seem ridiculous. If this is the reason why they're trying to claw back the money that they owe him, I feel like that's going to lose on its face. it's going to lose on its face and they're going to owe 25 million combined in legal fees and all that. Get out of here, man. Like, it's just and I think Kansas State is a is actually a solid job. Could be a top half of the Big 12 job with the NIL that they have and the fans that they have, but you draw more negative attention to yourself when you now go through this process. What they don't realize is they're hurting themselves for their next search.

1:55:54 Yeah, 100%. Um, I have a question for you about uh about Arizona. So, is Arizona are they going to start shooting threes ever? They don't really They don't really have to, right? They're dominant.

1:56:07 They took 16. They took 16 against Texas Tech, but they only made four of them. So, it's a problem. Like, DFT, your your question there is exactly why they could get tripped up in the dance

1:56:20 and why ultimately why I didn't put them in that group of three that I think could win. I love that. I love their players because like Braden Burries and COA Pete guys watching them at Peach Jam and at high school at the at the you know lower levels they would own games. So those winning instincts have have carried over. It's kind of why I'm like genuinely why I'm afraid to go against Duke when I'm picking my three teams because all Cam Boozer's ever done in any tournament is win. like the guy's never

1:56:54 he's never lost a postseason event in his life. Arizona Pete and Burries are winners. Uh Kchenkov does a lot of good things for them. And Jaden Bradley, Bradley is as good of a point guard as you're going to find. He sets people up. He makes the right plays. But I get concerned. You're exactly right. They don't have if they're down three. Who is taking and making the shot consistently? It is a it is one big question mark. And when in this day and age of college basketball, if you're on the receiving end of a team sh hot shooting day, Yeah.

1:57:31 like Iowa State got hot in the last seven minutes and just they found a way to to beat Houston as a result at some point you can only defend, rebound, and attack the rim so well. You've got to be able to knock down the perimeter shot or you're going to get bounced early. Ask last year's St. John's team about that. they couldn't shoot and it doomed them.

1:57:52 Cuz I ju and maybe this is just me having watched really paid attention to the sport for the last like two and a half weeks, but I I've watched a lot of Arizona. I dove a little bit into numbers. So maybe you tell me if I'm wrong about this because it doesn't seem like they're a terrible three-point shooting team. They just don't take them

1:58:11 there. It's not a part of their DNA. uh that they're one of the lower volume teams in the country if you if you look at the the numbers in terms of three-point attempts,

1:58:20 right? So, it's it's a it is a big problem for them. Now, like we we look at it and we also have to look at the the percentages like Bradley

1:58:30 shoots it 40% from deep. Okay. But he's also being relied upon to initiate the offense. And he's also a guy that when you when you look at him, he's he's barely averaging a made three a game,

1:58:43 right? Yeah. So, he's shooting it at a high percentage, but it's not in volume. Burries,

1:58:50 you know, there's there's Yeah. Yeah. He could shoot it. He's made 41 on the year.

1:58:56 I feel like I'm a hockey fan at the game just being like, "Shoot the three. Just take just take more threes."

1:59:01 Right. But but but when it's not part of who you are. Yeah. And it's not in your DNA. You could take more, but based on what their personnel looks like, I don't know if they're I don't think that they're making them necessarily. So Bur has to continue to to get better in that column. And then they they've got to figure it out here because you're exactly right. Like it doomed them ultimately against Texas Tech. Now they only lost the game by three, but it opens you up to to losing regardless of where it is. It is very difficult. Yeah,

1:59:32 to do what they did against Texas Tech, they got outscored by 21 from beyond the arc

1:59:37 against a team that good, you're going to lose the game. So, you're right. It is Arizona's concern is not being able to to knock down that shot. I'm not concerned as much as they're, you know. Okay. So, they don't take as many, but when you don't have the shooters, I don't blame you for not taking as many,

1:59:52 right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they also have an like absolutely dominant interior offense. So, like why, you know, that's that that is the the DNA of their team and they dominate teams.

2:00:05 Yeah, they're a really really good team. It's just that one thing they are, but but but the three-point shot changes everything. The

2:00:11 as long as basketball's been around, it is the great equalizer and it's no different here.

2:00:15 That's why that's why I like I'm higher on Florida just because I do think Florida can start making threes. Like I think it's going to start happening.

2:00:23 Yeah, they can. and and Boogie Fland, he still has even better like he's a great player and I I think he could he could be the guy that authors a terrific march run. Like the Xavian Lee thing has worked out. It hasn't worked out but but you could twist it and say look how good they've been in spite of that.

2:00:43 Correct. Correct. And there's just so Thomas Hal is just a winner, guys. He plays so hard. He gets after it on both ends. He rebounds the hell out of the ball. So you have him, you have Chinu, and you have Condan, and they're just going to say, "Get in the boxing ring, and and we're just going to chomp. We're going to chomp, chomp, and chomp." And that's what Florida does. They have m Dusty May told me a story about a month ago.

2:01:11 Oh, I like that. And he said that when he was working with Mike White that they determined going big was going to win in college basketball. You know, the NBA is is about three-point shooting. And we're seeing we're seeing more traditional bigs now because it's es and flows of a sport, but in the college game, which has inconsistencies in the shot making department, it's gotten a lot better. The offense has never been better in college basketball than it is now. It's great to watch, but the bigger teams are the ones who can win it all. Michigan, Florida. You know, you you ask ask a Yukon right now what their concern is.

2:01:50 It's that they don't have a Donovan Klingan Adamos type duo. The big teams get it done.

2:01:57 Yeah. I mean, we saw Klingan vers Edy, you know, that was a that was a real thing. Yeah. Uh all right, Johnny, I got one last question for you. It's a robot question. Rhoback.com, promo code take 20% off your first purchase. QZips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com, promo code take. One of my favorite things you do is the big east spaces. And I have a question off of that. What's going on with Providence right now? Because I think you and I both agree. We love Providence Twitter. They're very passionate fan base. It's been a little embarrassing. Not not the fans, but the play. Kim English, it's it seems like it's it's kind of ending here, but the fact that they've had these moments where it's like all been all about revenge and it's not been about winning basketball games. It's been tough for them. And I want Providence to be good.

2:02:44 I want that fan base to have a good product on the court. And that scene on Saturday was kind of a joke. That scene on Saturday was embarrassing and it was a a moment there where Duncan Pal does something that's egregious. And you know, for as mad as people can be uh about about Bryce Hopkins, and I'm not saying that you can't be angry, what you never want your emotion to do is keep you from fighting to win a game. Mhm.

2:03:15 And I think what was hardest about that was Providence was winning at the time.

2:03:21 And it's almost like that became more important than winning. And that's not the Frier Town that that that I know because the Frier Town I know is is passionate a fan base. They have terrific resources, awesome facility, and what they need right now is they need some leadership and accountability for what they're putting on the court. Like the Hopkins thing aside, they're not winning that that that is at its core. You're you are asked to win basketball games and for what they spent on their roster, which is at least $9 million that that the product has not been good enough and defensively they haven't been been there. Saturday though was was sort of the culmination of where they're at right now emotionally. And here's here's my thing, guys. Duncan Pal never played a game with Bryce Hopkins,

2:04:13 right? He never played a game with him. He I don't even know if he knows the guy.

2:04:18 Yeah. But where does the vitriol and the hatred, how does that start? And how does that come into what happened on Saturday? Well, that starts with leadership. So clearly, he's being told about how much he's supposed to dislike this guy and then he does something that ruined their chances of of winning the game. If you don't like what a player did, good. Glad you don't like it. Sports is better when there's dislike. Not saying you should like it.

2:04:47 But you know how you you know how you answer him? You win the freaking game. Yeah, I agree. They were up. It's crazy. It's it the like having a good team on the court should matter more than anything else. And you know what, Big Cat? It's not like like you guys, we all get into this doomsday. You know, death, you know, it's everything's done. Everything's over. Guys, in this day and age of college basketball, even for a Kansas State, you make a change, you got the right amount of money, you're gonna be fine. Yeah, you you get you get off the mat if you hire the right person.

2:05:22 You know, for Providence, they have some very difficult decisions to make here in the coming weeks, but those difficult decisions got made a lot easier with a scene like Saturday.

2:05:33 Agreed. Facts. Uh, all right, Johnny, my last last question for you. If I were to ask you, gun to your head,

2:05:39 double double barrel at your head, make sure finger off the trigger. The safety is off, but my finger is not on the trigger.

2:05:45 Yep. What conference is the national championship coming from this year? It's tough.

2:05:59 The Big 10. Okay. Okay. All right. Finally going to happen. Badgers 150 to one.

2:06:06 You didn't ask me who. Nebraska. I love I think I'm gonna predict a a Big 10 Big 12 title game would be a cinema because those two leagues have the most candidates for it.

2:06:21 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What if what if Nebraska went from never winning a game to just winning the championship this year

2:06:27 and Signetti or Hoyberg? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Exactly. All right. Well, Johnny, you're the best. We love you. Uh have fun on the call. Everyone should tune in. UCLA verse Michigan State. And uh we'll talk to you come in a couple weeks when we get brackets.

2:06:43 See you guys real soon and get ready because we're in for a hell of a ride. Love it.

2:06:49 Love it. And you're coming to Max's uh bachelor party. And I will be at the sphere rocking the fish.

2:06:56 Yeah. And Kevin Willard was at your wedding and he's coming to the bachelor party.

2:07:01 Yeah, he's invited. ACTUALLY, THAT WOULD BE HOW YOU GET US, TOO. YEAH, because now we're complicit. Every time we compliment him, we have to say, "Yeah, he went to Max's bachelor party."

2:07:09 Asterisk. We were with him at the same batch party. Done. All right, let's do it. All right, thanks, Johnny. Before we get back into today's chaos, we got to tell you about something that helps people focus on what's most important. That's Microsoft 365 Copilot. The world moves fast. Your workday moves even faster. You're pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work. Built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps that you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear path to all your best work.

2:07:43 Learn more at microsoft.com/m365 copilot. That's microsoft.com/m365 Copilot. Okay, let's finish up the show. We got guys on Olympics. Hank, get us through this with your voice. You got this

2:07:58 [ __ ] short one. You're so long. What sport would become the most watched if they allowed trash talk during competition? Instant thought would be bathlon, maybe a physical aspect as well.

2:08:16 Figure skating would be sick if you let the other teams basically stand on the boards and talk [ __ ] during their routine. or they were on the ice at the same time.

2:08:24 Yeah. Like dancing at the same time. Yeah. And you could fight doing euros on them.

2:08:29 And Tom Wilson was on one of the teams. I do love the curling like [ __ ] talk cuz you could tell it's not supposed to happen. But I I would I think it would be awesome if curling cuz you're right next to each other and they're not out of breath. So it's like the perfect

2:08:43 Yeah. spot for some true [ __ ] talk. All right. So this would be awesome if you had luj but you win at the same time.

2:08:51 Yes. Like race cars. Like race cars. Yeah. Yeah, that would be. Or like bob sled, you go out at the same time. Tokyo drift, you do the pit maneuver, send somebody over the edge.

2:09:01 It also I'd also like to see, you know, the uh step off challenge in like the golf tea boxes. Having that for the ski jump would be good. Yeah.

2:09:10 Like as he's standing there ready to just go down the hill. Yeah. Just a bunch of dudes just busting them up bad. You would rock if they did ski jumping like the dunk contest where you had like Shaq standing like 90 yards down the hill.

2:09:24 You had to clear and you had to just clear Shaq's head just barely. Yeah. Over Shaq.

2:09:28 Yeah. Just or just a bunch of cars. Yeah. Cars. 100 cars. Cars would be awesome.

2:09:33 Yeah. Here's a short one. Hank couldn't meddle in a single woman's event. I agree with that.

2:09:41 What What could you meddle in? Slalom. Ski slalom. No chance. You went with the last one. Not in men's, but women's.

2:09:49 No way. Like the the only thing you you you'd have a chance in is you'd have to do like a luge or a bobsled where your weight is an advantage. Slum your knees would explode.

2:10:01 No, I think hand men slum. Yeah, men's slum. Oh, okay. Men slum you'd have no shot competing against men, but competing against women and their their little knees like you got man knees. I wonder if lose you would be competitive just purely weight.

2:10:16 Yeah, the skeleton I could do. Yeah. No, but yeah. No. No. Although I'm not that fast.

2:10:22 Well, you're not running. You're start. You be laying down. You're Isn't the whole thing the push? Did you not listen to

2:10:32 Yeah, I guess you do some push. You do some push. Push is like everything. What about most?

2:10:36 Were you about to say did you not listen to yourself? You're the one who said, "How could you possibly think that you could?"

2:10:41 Yeah. No. Slom you would slom. How could you? Are you like a good skier? Yeah, Hank's got pretty good skier.

2:10:45 No, he's not. Max, you're not understand. It's not men's slum. Yeah, it's women's slom. Hank would dominate.

2:10:54 There's just no there's just no possible way. You don't get it, man. I would love to see this,

2:10:59 dude. Show Show That looks like men's slum that you're showing right now. Yeah, you don't even have to go around the polls.

2:11:05 Show a woman. Show this is men's slum. Bring up a video of a woman, Max. Hank Hank conceds that men into the polls and you're good.

2:11:17 Oh, the Olympics sucks. So, they just don't give any highlights for anything. It's so stupid.

2:11:22 So hard. Why do they do that? Why not make it something that people want to watch and go, "Oh, I saw that event. Like, let me go check it out."

2:11:30 Oh man. Here we go. The men's Wait, the women's giant slalom hank. Oh, I wonder if you could win uh women's ski jump. You probably dominate that too

2:11:40 because you go so fast. I actually think Hank could be like the Jesse Owens of women's Olympic sports.

2:11:45 Yeah. I feel like he would. There's probably like 12 or 13 events. Women slow. Yeah.

2:11:54 Slow. Yeah. Women. How did you go to this first? This is women's. Dude, look how slow they're going.

2:12:01 Max, these are chicks. Okay. I don't think you get it. Max Hank would dominate.

2:12:05 Dude, you just turn. It's a little left, a little right. Yeah. Oh man. You ever seen a woman try to drive, Max?

2:12:14 Hank Hank would dominate. Oh, Hank would cut those corners so much better. Again, and I'm not like being cocky. Men have no

2:12:21 men saw him, you could do wasted. But women saw him, the turns are not that hard.

2:12:27 That's nice and easy. Yep. You would eat so much [ __ ] I would I kind of want to see you slob. Oh, Lindsy Vaughn with

2:12:36 I want to see you slow. Yeah, Lindsay Vaughn did it with no ACL. What about mogul? Could you dominate mogul?

2:12:42 No, she didn't. She crashed. She her her leg bone broke through the side of her knee.

2:12:48 Do you Could you Could you do mogul? Yeah. Yeah. Easy, dude. Hank is a women's mogul.

2:12:53 You kidding me? You just show up. You don't have to compete. They're like, "Oh,

2:12:56 mogul. Mogul's here." Okay. The Winter Olympics suck because the there are very few head-to-head sports. Everything is a time trial. I agree with you. Yeah,

2:13:05 if you had downhill skiing with eight people lined up, it would be one of the top events. Similarly, if you had sprinting or swimming in the summer as time trials instead of headtohead, no one would watch.

2:13:14 That's why lu you go headtohead in luge. You go headtohead in bobsled. That's correct. That's a great take.

2:13:21 I've been thinking more about it. Basketball should be a winter Olympic sport. Yeah. I guess it's technically all the events have to have snow or ice.

2:13:30 That's why it's not. And the woke NBA won't go for that. Got it. Mhm. Uh, my Olympic take. Everyone always brings up putting an average Joe in an event to see how good the athletes really are. Instead, I propose putting athletes in a different sport in the same discipline. I want to see the Tchuck brothers figure skating pairs. Throw McDavid on some short track speed skating. Let's see if I Melinan can rip a slapshot. Give Michaela Shiffron some crosscountry skis and a gun. I don't know what the curlers could do. Maybe chuck him in a bob sled.

2:14:04 I like this. Okay. I like that, too. I also think that they should take one every team, every hockey team should have to have one figure skater

2:14:13 on their squad and they have to play like six minutes or speed skater. I know. I think figure just to see guys get like jacked up.

2:14:21 Yeah. Just like the most brutal collisions you've ever seen. Or they triple Lindy or triple luts.

2:14:26 Oh, they do something crazy. Yeah, I like that rule. All right, last one. Uh part of my Olympic take, they should actually remove the condoms as a whole to encourage the athletes to continue to create worldclass athletes.

2:14:40 Great. This way ensuring another generation of incredible sports entertainment.

2:14:43 Yeah. A little little lightweight eugenics. I like it. Yeah. I mean, just get some some really athletic babies that when I was looking up the speed skating,

2:14:56 the Dutch women are are attractive. I'll just say that. And there are great athletes. Great athletes first, attractive second.

2:15:02 Shout out Jake Paul. Shout out Jake Paul who's Jake Paul who's dating or married to one of them.

2:15:07 Also, something weird happened to his Twitter. He wanted to apologize to that. Mhm.

2:15:12 Yeah. He has no idea what happened. He loves Bat Bunny. Loves him. Yep. Okay. Good show, boys.

2:15:20 Also, looks like we're gonna play Sweden. Sweden's up 3-1 right now. Okay. What's that game? Thursday.

2:15:27 Uh, Wednesday. Wednesday. Bring it. Wednesday. It's Wednesday. Wait, tomorrow? Wait.

2:15:33 Oh, nice. Right. Yeah. Wednesday. Yeah, it's Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. They got back tobacks.

2:15:38 All right. So, we're gonna we're gonna probably have a hopefully have a preview of the final four if uh from Biz or Wit uh on Friday's show.

2:15:48 Oh, the women's gold medal games Thursday. Women haven't let up a goal. That one that one's uh I saw the graphic that WMadison posted. It was uh there's 11 Badgers on both s like combined on both sides. Going to win no matter what. There's like six and five.

2:16:06 Hank would dominate women's hockey. Oh yeah, they don't check. No, I'm not a great sk uh skater.

2:16:13 That's really humble. You are numbers. Two 23. Uh go quick. Go quick. 696 71 17 86 72 86 for Shane. 72 for Jack.

2:16:26 Boom. 10 for Bolton. 26. 26. Close to 56. Close to 56. Love you guys. Not even close. Shane's looking like he got it. He didn't get [ __ ]

2:16:40 Any birthdays? People. Any birthdays? At the at the women's. Birthday. Any birthdays?

2:16:44 Any birthdays? They're asking. Birthdays? Oh, any birthdays? Uh, no. Nobody was born.

2:16:48 Happy birthday, Michael Jordan. Today, nobody was born today. Nobody was born today.

2:16:52 Today's his birthday. Michael Jordan was born today. Jerry Oonnell. Yeah. And Jerry Oonnell. It was also his birthday today.

2:16:58 Yeah. But we already wish Jerry a happy birthday. Jerry, your birthday present is in the mail. I got the last one sent back to me.

2:17:05 Love you guys.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "John Fanta Talks Hoops, The Boys Apologize to MJ + Hut Seat - Cool Throne"?

Johnny Fanta (Guest), Max (Guest), Hank (Guest).

What is "John Fanta Talks Hoops, The Boys Apologize to MJ + Hut Seat - Cool Throne" about?

Johnny Fanta discusses college basketball's March momentum, potential contenders, and Cinderella stories, while also previewing Olympic happenings and featuring segments like hot seat/cool throne and a scheduled apology. The episode teases an all-time Zach moment and is sponsored by Game Time for ticket deals.

What is mentioned in this Pardon My Take episode?

54 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Olympics, Olympic Games, Maria Zach, Bobsled, Bryce Harper, Short Track Speed Skating. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "John Fanta Talks Hoops, The Boys Apologize to MJ + Hut Seat - Cool Throne"?

The episode runs 2 h 17 min; the transcript is about 28,435 words in 735 timestamped sections.

More from Pardon My Take

• All analyzed episodes
• Books mentioned on Pardon My Take
• People mentioned on Pardon My Take
• Sponsors mentioned on Pardon My Take
• Topics mentioned on Pardon My Take