Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / Hawkeye talk with Tom Kakert, Mike Palm from Circa Sports on the Super Bowl & Football Friday Picks presented by Circa Sports
Transcript
- 0:00I'm Mary Condon, hour number two.
- 0:01Welcome back, Iowa Sports Radio Network with you until 2O clock,
- 0:06bottom of the hour. Mike Palm, VP of operations at
- 0:09Circus Sports. He will join us.
- 0:11We'll get the latest behind the counter with Mike.
- 0:13Is seeing any big bets come in so far?
- 0:15It's kind of it's not the calm before the storm anymore.
- 0:18We're on the weekend after all. So we should start to see if
- 0:22some of that play make its way out to the desert or onto some
- 0:25apps. We'll talk to Mike Palm and then
- 0:27we'll make our picks about 10 minutes before 2 2:00 before
- 0:31handing things off to Lucas Strain and David Eichold In for
- 0:34Sean today. Let's talk some Hawks.
- 0:36Tom Caker joins us. Hi, every single Friday,
- 0:39hawkeyereport.com, part of on three Media.
- 0:41Hello, Tom Trenton, Ken, how are you?
- 0:43I'm good. And you know, listening to you
- 0:46guys play black back in black just made me think, boy, can't
- 0:50football get back again football.
- 0:52Yes, we do. In the worst way.
- 0:54It's a long offseason. It is a long offseason.
- 0:57It just really is, isn't it just kind of drags and goes so fast
- 1:00once it gets here. But anyways, Tom, it'll be back.
- 1:03We'll have spring football. You'll be able to talk about,
- 1:05write about and speculate etcetera on that coming up here.
- 1:09When do they start, Do you know, third week in March and then
- 1:12they'll be done at the end of April.
- 1:13When as I went put anything out yet or still a little too early.
- 1:17They haven't put anything out, but they usually, they always
- 1:20start their spring practice right when they get back from
- 1:24from spring break. So I think it's, yeah, that
- 1:26third week, that Wednesday of the third week of March is
- 1:29usually the first practice that they have and then wrap up
- 1:34sometime, you know, late April, I would think, yeah.
- 1:36And it'll be a quarterback battle perhaps to start
- 1:39speculating on at that point. Well, we'll get to that when we
- 1:43get to that. But let's talk here and now in
- 1:45basketball. And the women took the floor
- 1:47last night, having lost their last couple of games, both on
- 1:49the on the left coast. But Minnesota comes to town and
- 1:53winnable basketball games seemingly.
- 1:55But yet, Tom, it did not go their way.
- 1:57What's going on? Yeah, it is.
- 2:01And I think there's a little bit of panic right now among the the
- 2:04Iowa women's basketball fan base just because they've, you know,
- 2:10losing the UCLA is not a surprise.
- 2:13I mean, UCLA is one of the best teams in the country.
- 2:15So, you know, they're good. They're probably 1.
- 2:18You know, I'd say UConn is 1 and UCLA is 1A in terms of national
- 2:23title contenders this year. But in the USC team, you thought
- 2:28maybe that was a winnable game and they end up dropping that
- 2:31one. And then last night, not just
- 2:34losing to Minnesota, but the way they lost just that.
- 2:37I mean, they were down 20. They were lucky to make it a six
- 2:40point game really. I mean, the late run kind of put
- 2:45some, you know, just put put a, you know, just trying to make it
- 2:50a little bit better. But it was just they were just
- 2:53bad. I mean, it was just the
- 2:55three-point shooting for their opponents and just, you know,
- 2:59kind of sloppy for Iowa just not getting stopped.
- 3:03And is it all because Taylor McCabe is hurt?
- 3:07I don't know. It just that seems illogical to
- 3:10me, but it definitely hit a hit a wall right now.
- 3:14So we know McCabe, it's an ACL, she's out for the year.
- 3:17There's no hope of a comeback or anything like that.
- 3:20We've seen since she's been inserted in the starting lineup.
- 3:22Addie Deal has been bad, certainly for I think the
- 3:25anticipation of what she did in that Ohio State game that that
- 3:28she was starting to turn the corner and that hasn't been the
- 3:30case. You have the issues with
- 3:32Feuerbach on the offensive end of the floor.
- 3:34There's times it feels like they're playing four on five
- 3:36offensively when she's out there.
- 3:38What can be done? Is it more strem blow?
- 3:41Is it maybe trying to play Journey Houston at the three and
- 3:44go that direction? I mean, what can you do?
- 3:46Because it doesn't seem like there's an easy fix to what's
- 3:49going on right now. And you know what, what's
- 3:52interesting is, and I said this, you know, after, after the, the
- 3:59the West Coast trip was just basically, I wonder if Addie
- 4:04deal had just gotten it seemed like she had just gotten
- 4:07comfortable in that role off the bench and she was starting to
- 4:10really excel and get comfortable and play her best basketball.
- 4:14And now you're thrust into the starting line up and it seems
- 4:17like she's back to square 1. And maybe it is better for Jan
- 4:23to just bring her off the bench. And I think Strumlaw would be
- 4:27the option. Probably it gives you another
- 4:30ball handler too. I think that's that's probably
- 4:34helpful. So I would probably move to
- 4:38start Strumlo starting. You know, the good thing is
- 4:43they've got a break now so they can kind of regroup.
- 4:45It would. I think they'd be in a little
- 4:47bit of trouble because they seem kind of shell shocked right now.
- 4:51And now they've got a, you know, weak break where they can kind
- 4:54of figure things out before they have to play another game.
- 4:57Speaking of figure things out and I think Trent just hit a
- 4:59selling point when it comes to Jeremy Houston because she
- 5:01seemingly is playing in her best basketball of her in her first
- 5:05campaign as a freshman. I mean, I know it's cliche, but
- 5:08seemingly the lights going on, Tom fair to say yeah.
- 5:12And. By the way, you know, how they
- 5:14could really use right now, probably Emily Rodriguez.
- 5:17Yeah, that'd be nice. And the end of the bench, you
- 5:19know, and and seemingly looks like taking a red shirt.
- 5:24And who knows what that's going to entail at the end of the
- 5:27year, if she's even going to be back.
- 5:29But boy, that's just, you know, they, they have done such a good
- 5:33job in the portal overall. The women's team has, you know,
- 5:37getting players like Lucy Olsen and, and chitchat and, and
- 5:40stuff. But they boy, that was a that
- 5:43turned out to be a miss. This turned out to be a mess.
- 5:46Not a fit and hasn't gone very well.
- 5:48If they dig a little bit deeper into the bench and certainly
- 5:51looking maybe for more guard play.
- 5:53We've seen Callie Levin, she comes in, boy, she just grinds
- 5:56out there on the defensive end. You could see she she's a try
- 5:58hard player. Is there a chance maybe she
- 6:00could surpass Bellini and that extra guard or swing player, you
- 6:04know, 2-3 whatever in the lineup?
- 6:06Could you see Levin maybe starting to carve out at least a
- 6:09little bit of a niche as they're they're searching for answers?
- 6:12I think so. I've always thought Tegan's more
- 6:15of a, more of a four, like a stretch four and and she's not
- 6:21shy about putting up shots either, by the way.
- 6:23She just, she's coming in and she's chucking so.
- 6:26What a 14 from three this year from Blaney.
- 6:28Yeah, she is not. She's not hitting many.
- 6:31She's taking a lot. She's not shy about the volume
- 6:35shooting, but she is not. Callie can shoot it too.
- 6:38So I think she's going to be one of the players that kind of ends
- 6:43up getting more minutes, especially if they go with
- 6:45Tremolo, because they're just, I think they're going to need
- 6:48another guard out there eventually.
- 6:51To the men's game, TC good with that, the Northwestern comes to
- 6:55to Carver 2O clock on Sunday afternoon.
- 6:58I've seen him a couple of times and it seems like to me they
- 7:02don't have a lot of talent on this basketball team.
- 7:05Martinelli is a really nice player, but but after that, Tom
- 7:08what? What do they have?
- 7:09Who am I missing that might that might present I with some
- 7:12problems? Yeah, and you know what?
- 7:14I saw them earlier in the year and I think it was against when
- 7:19they were playing Virginia and they played really, really well
- 7:23against Virginia. And I thought maybe Collins has
- 7:25got a little bit of a team here. He got a little point guard that
- 7:29was pretty good that they transferred in from I think like
- 7:32UCF or something like that. And but they have just hit a
- 7:37wall. I mean, Illinois just throttle.
- 7:39Them beat them by 40. They just, and it wasn't even
- 7:43that close. It could have been 50.
- 7:45I mean, it was I tuned it over there and watched about 5
- 7:48minutes and I was like, boy, oh boy.
- 7:50They're just. But Illinois is just playing at
- 7:52another level right now. Maybe, maybe they're better off
- 7:56without Kylan Boswell is what I suggested doing with my Illini
- 7:59friends. And that might be the case.
- 8:02But yeah, they've, they're, they're reeling right now.
- 8:07I think Northwestern is. And they're they're not playing
- 8:11well. And all they've got is
- 8:15Martinelli. And I thought they had some
- 8:17younger guys that were coming along, but boy, they just don't.
- 8:20Not right now. So we anticipate at the
- 8:22beginning of the game, Tavion Banks, they'll get the
- 8:24assignment of Martinelli. Who else to get a throw at him?
- 8:27Maybe a little Isaiah Howard off the bench.
- 8:28What are you doing defensively to slow down which at least in
- 8:31the middle of the week, he was the Big 10's leading scorer?
- 8:34You know what, I, I actually, I got some Intel on that because I
- 8:38have Cooper Koch. Today we had a we had a media
- 8:41session with Coop and and I was talking to him about garden
- 8:46different players and then I asked him if he was getting
- 8:49Martinelli and he said, yeah, I've got I anticipate I'm going
- 8:52to be guarding him. So it's going to be Cooper
- 8:54crotch on him probably more than more than banks.
- 8:57So I thought that was interesting.
- 8:58What did they do different for this West Coast trip that maybe
- 9:01previous teams hadn't done, Tom? Because you know, you go out
- 9:04there you'd side with beforehand, I think everybody
- 9:07was assigned for one and one, right?
- 9:08Come back winning them both and in the fashion that they did
- 9:11that they do anything different than I would teams in the past
- 9:15have not done. That really I asked, I had asked
- 9:20McCollum about that before they went out on the trip.
- 9:22And he just like, he just does not put up with any like
- 9:27potential excuse making. He's like, you know, he just
- 9:30doesn't, he just, he's like, we're not even going to talk
- 9:33about it. We're just not even going to
- 9:36visit regarding any of this. We're just going to go out and I
- 9:40expected to go play basketball. And he's just all about that.
- 9:45And the big thing they did on that trip was make some
- 9:49adjustments in the second-half because their defense in the
- 9:51first half against Washington was not good.
- 9:53And they'll started guarding some of those gaps almost like a
- 9:56pack line kind of defense and helping a little bit and
- 10:01stopping Zoom Diallo from getting downhill every time.
- 10:04And and then and Washington also regressing to the mean, which is
- 10:09what's going to happen when you make 11 straight shots.
- 10:12You're going to you're going to have some regression eventually.
- 10:15Everybody does. And except for Minnesota last
- 10:20night, I guess. But but they just, you know, and
- 10:24then they and then Bennett Sturtz just asserts himself.
- 10:27And that's, that's the recipe to get out, get out of Washington
- 10:31with a with a 10 point win. It's just watching on
- 10:35television, but in a way it felt like Tavian Banks missing that
- 10:38first free throw. It's pretty big weight off his
- 10:40shoulder. You could almost see the relief.
- 10:42I know there's a little smirk you can kind of see on his face.
- 10:45Don't have to worry about it. Don't think about in game.
- 10:47What if I go here? What if it's in a tight game?
- 10:50What if it's in the first half, like all of the that goes along
- 10:53with a free throw record and the historic nature of it being
- 10:57Chris St. You think that maybe in a way
- 10:58he's going to help out Tavion Banks a little bit?
- 11:00And secondly, with Tavion, what's the latest on the health
- 11:03front with him? Yeah, I think he's fine that
- 11:05health wise, I think whatever was dealing with his foot, I
- 11:11think it's a foot issue, but I'm not positive.
- 11:13And just because I'd seen him getting it worked on earlier in
- 11:16the year during timeouts, he would be over rolling a ball on
- 11:19the bottom of his foot. Makes me think maybe he's got a
- 11:22little plant of fascist stuff, which is not much fun, having
- 11:26dealt with that in the past. Not much fun.
- 11:30But I think he's doing OK now. And yeah, I think there was a
- 11:36weight lifted off. Not that he was like this Chris
- 11:38St. expert or Iowa fan growing up who just knows about the,
- 11:43the, the legend of Chris St. but just you're hearing about it and
- 11:48it just sort of like gets in your head a little bit.
- 11:51And, and now that's in the in the rear view.
- 11:54And he can go out, back out and just play ball and, and enjoy
- 11:58himself and, and I think he's going to be fine.
- 12:01Yeah, I'm I'm with you. And then the fact that you, you
- 12:03know, wasn't an eye when I I thought that that would lead him
- 12:05if he had the opportunity to break it just because he didn't
- 12:08know all about that time. Well, hell, he wasn't born at
- 12:11the time, but his coach was and his coach grew up in Iowa City.
- 12:14His coach loved the Hawks as kid.
- 12:16What? What did he say about it?
- 12:18As as the record geared was? Was he asked about it at all?
- 12:21Tom. Not really.
- 12:23He didn't, he didn't really say a whole lot about it.
- 12:26So but I think he would just I think Ben's mentality would be
- 12:31like, hey, let's just go out and sure, compete, compete.
- 12:34That's the big thing with with Ben is he is about the
- 12:37competition. I was asking, it's funny, I was
- 12:39asking Isaiah Howard because he kind of kind of called almost
- 12:45called McCollum like a psychopath or something like a
- 12:47psycho. And I, because I just, I'm like,
- 12:51because the coaches kind of say that about Isaiah Howard too.
- 12:54They're like, yeah, he's just, he's a psycho.
- 12:57And so I asked him, I go, what? It's because we, the, the
- 13:00McCollum that we get exposed to is the guy and he's press
- 13:04conference and he's pretty engaging, pretty fun and pretty
- 13:07introspective with his comments. And then see him on the
- 13:09sidelines and he's got some intensity to him, but he's like,
- 13:13he's like when he gets in between the lines, it is
- 13:16intensity. He is just so driven and so
- 13:20competitive and that's what drives his success.
- 13:23This is his competitiveness. You want to go to Bennett Sturtz
- 13:27and we have big expectations coming into the year when you're
- 13:30pre season All American, that's going to come along with it.
- 13:33He has taken his game though here recently to another level.
- 13:36He's out there playing a ton again outside of the Rutgers
- 13:39game. The offensive numbers have been
- 13:41incredible. That step back feels like it's
- 13:43really going. But really the last two games,
- 13:45those games at Oregon and Washington, he's been going to
- 13:48the tin a lot more, coming off the bound, doing those and and
- 13:51being more aggressive. Is it just the feeling out
- 13:54process being understanding more kind of what the big 10 riggers
- 13:57are about? Because it does feel like we've
- 13:59seen a different type of offensive skill set out of
- 14:02stirts here recently. And you know what he does, those
- 14:07bank shots that he hits where he throws it really high off the
- 14:10glass. Ted loves that.
- 14:11That is, that is something that I mean, you just don't see, no,
- 14:16you don't see guys above the square rolling bank shots in.
- 14:21And he just, he does it with ease.
- 14:23He's just got such a soft touch on his shot.
- 14:27It just just looks so smooth. And even when he's going to the
- 14:32bucket and you know, there was that stretch where it felt like
- 14:37maybe the Big 10 teams were getting in his, his kitchen a
- 14:39little bit more and causing him problems and he was struggling
- 14:43around the rim. And you know, Washington's got
- 14:46some, the cabinet kid is a good shot blocker.
- 14:49He's two 2.5 blocks per game and he just looked totally
- 14:55comfortable going to the rim the last couple games and I his it
- 15:00looks like he's got a little bit of his swagger back now that
- 15:03maybe I wouldn't say it was it was waning, but he was saddled
- 15:07in the foul troubles with 3-4 games in a row and the Minnesota
- 15:11game, he was in foul trouble and he just kind of I think he's
- 15:14gotten past all that now and he's back to playing the kind of
- 15:19ball that that I think Bennett Sturtz can play.
- 15:23One other thing, Iowa 11 and O now when Alvaro Fogaris, it's
- 15:27the double figures and he's playing his best.
- 15:30He really is. He yeah, he really is.
- 15:33That's an interesting stat. All right, boys, let me run this
- 15:35by you. There are 9 left.
- 15:37They've got 7 Big Ten wins right now.
- 15:41I'm going to give them three that they should put in the win
- 15:43column and then I'll give you one that could go either way.
- 15:45One of two Northwestern They should win right at Maryland and
- 15:50then home to NO at Penn State. Yeah, three wins.
- 15:56That's been tricky before. Yep, I agree. 11 AM, 11 AM game
- 16:01or noon game I guess since. Noon Eastern, Yeah.
- 16:03And nobody will be there. It'll be an empty gym.
- 16:06It's just there's just no feel for that game.
- 16:10Tricky. Yeah, very tricky spot that they
- 16:12should win. Should win, all right.
- 16:13And then if they win one of these two and they make like,
- 16:16obviously win or lose them both at Wisconsin and they've got a
- 16:19marquee win, obviously, and then home to Ohio State and they're
- 16:23back-to-back, if they split that, yeah, that gets them to 11
- 16:26wins in the Big 10. Are we starting to flirt with
- 16:28that sixth line in the big Dance?
- 16:31I think so. In fact, our our guy that does
- 16:35the bracketology for on three James Fletcher has him at the
- 16:386th now. So he moved him up to the 6th
- 16:42line already. And I think that's very simple.
- 16:46And and what if, you know, what if they beat Purdue in Iowa
- 16:49City, which is possible, or Nebraska in Iowa City and they
- 16:53get Michigan, you know, they've got Michigan coming to Iowa City
- 16:57too. I mean, I think they're going to
- 16:58get one of those three teams. I don't know which one it's
- 17:01going to be, but but produce just kind of a mess right now.
- 17:04And and that'll be a sellout crowd.
- 17:08You know, I know Ben's going to be pretty excited about this
- 17:10playing in front of a sellout crowd.
- 17:12And you know, if they got Purdue, then boy, then you're
- 17:18talking about potentially 12 wins and in the Big 10 and and
- 17:23that's got to mean something. I I think that's what the I did
- 17:28The Trent will enjoy this. I did.
- 17:30I looked at the M red site yesterday where you do.
- 17:33It's that time of year. They had Iowa at 12:00 and 8:00
- 17:36and it's 6 in the Big 10 and you want to keep above that like
- 17:42that 8-9 game. Thanks for Sarah, you know, so
- 17:46you don't have to play till Thursday if you're in that sixth
- 17:49spot. I think that's, I think that's
- 17:51the goal, you know, other than maybe you know, the top 4, but
- 17:54boy, top four are going to be hard to.
- 17:56Get there. Yeah, it's probably
- 17:57unachievable. That's going to take certainly a
- 17:59lot. Hey, one final thing for me,
- 18:00Tom, over on the football side of things, Jay Norvell making
- 18:03his way back to Iowa City. He was an honorary captain and
- 18:06now coming back in an analyst role and he kind of look at Jay
- 18:09and of course think of him as a defensive player and seven
- 18:12interceptions in 1985. However, as an offensive coach,
- 18:16his teams tend to air it out a little bit more.
- 18:18You think his analyst role might be replacing Warren Ruggiero and
- 18:22helping out the passing offense? Yeah, I think that's what it's
- 18:26going to be. And I think the one of the areas
- 18:28that he coached and coached very well over the years was the wide
- 18:32receiver position. And I think that is where you're
- 18:36going to see the growth. I think Tim Lester's got a
- 18:40pretty good grasp on the on the quarterback position and coached
- 18:43quarterbacks. He's a former quarterback
- 18:45himself, but I think where you're going to see the growth
- 18:48is Jane O'vell can coach wide receivers and he's going to help
- 18:53coach butt out. And I think they'll that you're
- 18:56going to see a lot of growth from the new guys and from the
- 19:00veterans with Jay coaching that wide receiver position.
- 19:05Let's bring football back, shall we?
- 19:08We do miss it. Don't.
- 19:09Please, please. I need it back.
- 19:11Yeah. Good stuff Tom, enjoy the
- 19:13weekend. Who do you got Sunday?
- 19:15Not in football. Who wins football game?
- 19:17In in football, I'm in I'm I'm on the Seahawks side.
- 19:21I got a really good friend of mine who's a big Seahawks fan
- 19:24and I kind of think Seahawks got a chance to blow them out.
- 19:27I do too. I mean, I'm going to be betting
- 19:29a few outline Attaboy the Seahawks.
- 19:32There you go. Tom, thanks, buddy.
- 19:34Appreciate it. Talk to you next week.
- 19:35OK. Thanks guys.
- 19:36Yep, Tom Caker, hawkeyereport.com on Three
- 19:39Media. All right, let's give you an
- 19:41opportunity. Our last one this week is this.
- 19:43We got one more week of this contest, TC.
- 19:45I'm not sure. The answer is yes.
- 19:48You don't have to worry about it.
- 19:49I don't. Yeah, I'm on vacation.
- 19:50Vacation boy. So let's send me out with a
- 19:54winning contestant on Miller and Condon, shall we?
- 19:57Head to kxno.com right now. The pop up box will appear.
- 20:00Type the keyword credit Credit at kxno.com.
- 20:04Your chance to win one. $1000 in this nationwide contest.
- 20:08Vegas. We shall go when we will run
- 20:10down Mike Palm, VP of operations at Circus Sports.
- 20:13Mike Palm is next. Miller and Condon on the Iowa
- 20:15Sports Radio Network by 1:30. Welcome back Miller and Condon.
- 20:19Couple of segments to go. Our final picks of the year,
- 20:21Circus sports, a sponsor of them all season long.
- 20:24We'll make our Super Bowl kept pick coming up here in about 20
- 20:27minutes. Speaking of circus sports, let's
- 20:29head there. Shelby's the vice president of
- 20:31operations at Circus sports and Mike Palm joins us.
- 20:34Mike Trenton, Ken, thanks for coming on.
- 20:36How are you still the calm before the storm?
- 20:38Is it starting to heat up? There's absolutely, there's
- 20:42absolutely no storm. It's sunny and 75 out here and
- 20:46we're waiting for somebody to show up at the Super Bowl.
- 20:48Is that right? So this is going to be a very,
- 20:51not a very popular Super Bowl. I mean, it's the Super Bowl,
- 20:54right? So we're going to watch,
- 20:55obviously. But where if it is a bad quote,
- 20:59bad matchup, does that affect the handle Mike?
- 21:03I don't know that it will affect the handle that much because
- 21:06it's the Super Bowl, but there's really no buzz around this game
- 21:10at all. If ever you wanted to not have
- 21:12the two weeks off in between, I think this year was the year.
- 21:15It's a good point. It really is.
- 21:17And why do you think that is? You know, we were kind of trying
- 21:20to wrap our minds around that earlier, Mike.
- 21:22There are organizations that we know this is not Carolina and
- 21:25Jacksonville, right? It's two at least somewhat
- 21:28brands and the Patriots, a bigger brand out there though
- 21:31with a lot of new faces. Any idea why you can wrap your
- 21:33mind around? Isn't because nobody was talking
- 21:36about them coming into the air and they were just that far off
- 21:38the page that it's taken a while for people to get to know these
- 21:41squads. Well, I mean, I know they were
- 21:45the one seat and the 2 seeds and their respective conferences and
- 21:48and Seattle did grow a brand during the Legion of Boom days.
- 21:53It's not like you don't see anybody in Seahawks jerseys here
- 21:55every weekend. So I don't know what depended
- 21:59on, you know, it's partly Las Vegas falls because when we had
- 22:03the Super Bowl here a few years ago, prices were so high to get
- 22:06in and people that had been coming for 1520 years were
- 22:09priced out. You know, so many hotel rooms
- 22:12and that were all corporate. And I think some that people
- 22:15weren't able to come that year and they found something else to
- 22:18do. And maybe they just, they just
- 22:20kept doing what that alternative was.
- 22:22But we'll see what I mean. We're still going to have 15,000
- 22:25people here between all our parties on on Sunday.
- 22:28And, and by tomorrow afternoon, the place will be a buzz.
- 22:31And you know, Championship Sunday was great.
- 22:33So it's just I'm used to, this is my 20th Super Bowl in Las
- 22:37Vegas and I'm used to Friday at this time at noon being being
- 22:41buzzing already. Yeah, when you when you compare
- 22:43to the others, Mike, season to season, NFL season, NFL season
- 22:48was a busier NFL and college football was it which had been
- 22:52growing? Did they continue that growth
- 22:54pattern? What have you guys seen during
- 22:56the football seasons this year? NFL and college?
- 23:00NFL grew, college was in terms of betting was down about 2 1/2%
- 23:06and in terms of just when we look at when we look at the the
- 23:12food and beverage revenue from sports book and from stadium
- 23:16swim, college was down about 889 percent this year and NFL
- 23:20remained steady. So I think bad early season
- 23:25matchups, we had a really bad September Saturdays where where
- 23:31we fell behind with college. And then by the time really the
- 23:34conference schedules picked up in, in, you know, late September
- 23:37and into October, we were on par.
- 23:39But we fell behind early and never really caught up and.
- 23:42Bad news for Week 1 of college football next season because if
- 23:44you look at 2026, week 1 stinks. There is no Ohio State, Texas
- 23:48like there was a year ago. It's it's going to be ugly there
- 23:52in week #1 Speaking of college football, the odds are out there
- 23:55for next season. Anything that you guys have seen
- 23:58a circle or anything that caught maybe your attention and your
- 24:01own betting profile when you look forward to college football
- 24:03for next year? No, I mean, it's just the usual
- 24:07suspects. I guess The thing is
- 24:09handicapping Indiana and yeah, I think you have to start there,
- 24:13right. You think that he's going to be
- 24:15able to, it's hard to say reload because he never loaded to begin
- 24:19with. I mean, he took a lot of two
- 24:20star guys and made him into a great team.
- 24:23Can he do that again? That's an interesting handicap
- 24:26and I think you have to really start there and then figure out
- 24:29who's the best team in the Big 10 and then go from there.
- 24:31We haven't. We haven't taken any any big
- 24:33bets so far on college yet. Mike Pom, VP of operations at
- 24:38Circus Sports, is joining us. How about big bets on Sunday,
- 24:41Mike? You've said we saw one very
- 24:42early, I think the day, day after, maybe Monday, not this
- 24:47previous Monday, the previous one to that.
- 24:49What have you seen? Any $1,000,000 bets?
- 24:51Any seven figures coming in? No, we haven't we haven't even
- 24:54seen any half million, any half million since then.
- 24:57And I wonder, I mean, I would have told you last week that we
- 25:00would have taken over under three and a half million dollar
- 25:03bets this year. A couple of years ago we took
- 25:06five. I don't know if we're going to
- 25:08take a second one. I I really don't know.
- 25:11So we'll see. Obviously it isn't going to be
- 25:14enough. They don't come in on Sunday.
- 25:15We don't take them that close to kick.
- 25:17So they've they've got to come tonight or tomorrow if we're
- 25:19going to take them. We talked earlier in the week
- 25:22about Mattress Mack. I know you guys have had some
- 25:25dealings with him in the past. What is that like?
- 25:27And not just him, but just in general, when one of those
- 25:30whales wants to make a big bet, they want to have something and
- 25:33maybe they want to dictate a little bit or looking for the
- 25:35best price that they can do. We always tell, as you guys do,
- 25:38shop around for that best price. What is it like, though, when
- 25:41you guys are dealing with the whale, Somebody that wants to
- 25:43put together that significant wager?
- 25:46Well, for for Mac, he has two guys out here that do all his
- 25:49negotiating for Frank and Tony. So we're used to dealing with
- 25:54them and they're working with all the other books and he's
- 25:56trying to get the best number on whatever he wants to bed and the
- 25:59most amount is the best number. And so it becomes a negotiation.
- 26:03And you know, there's given give and take and they say, OK, we'll
- 26:06get back to you. And and you know, sometimes he
- 26:08bets with you. I mean, it just with us, the
- 26:11great majority of what he was the year that the Astros lost to
- 26:16the Nationals in the World Series, when he was betting the
- 26:18Astros from September on almost every game he must have had must
- 26:23have close to $30 million in volume with us that year.
- 26:26And he's made a couple other $1,000,000 wagers.
- 26:31He did make a few wagers on college football futures this
- 26:35year with us that were like quarter $1,000,000 wagers that
- 26:39that that didn't get there. He was pretty heavily invested
- 26:43on Texas futures, so that worked out.
- 26:46But yeah, we still hear from him.
- 26:48And I just ran into Brett Musburger coming out of the
- 26:50studio with Jeremy and he's here.
- 26:52He's here for the weekend and was about to go tell the
- 26:54Mattress Max story on with her and JBT.
- 26:56That's. Good stuff.
- 26:58Mike. How about you personally?
- 26:59Did you find any props that you've that you like more than
- 27:02the others from a personal perspective?
- 27:05Well, so I'll give you the back story to explain each of them.
- 27:09I think this is going to be a lower scoring game.
- 27:12You know, I, I, I talked to my source up there with the
- 27:18Vikings, who had several conversations with the Minnesota
- 27:21defensive staff, including Flores, about how they would
- 27:25defend the other team if they were running the defense for the
- 27:27Patriots and the Seahawks. And they said if they were the
- 27:30Seahawks, they try to take away everything deep and really make
- 27:33May go through his progressions and beat them with short passes
- 27:36and make New England try to have 14-16 play drives.
- 27:40And they would do the opposite if they were New England.
- 27:42They would take away everything easy for Darnold, try to make
- 27:45him beat them over the top and try to create turnovers.
- 27:49I think both defenses will be fine.
- 27:51I also think these two coaches take points.
- 27:53We've seen that throughout the year.
- 27:54They don't go for it. If they have makeable field
- 27:57goals, you know, when they're, you know, outside of the five
- 28:01yard line, they take points. And so I think there'll be a lot
- 28:06of field goals. My write up for Beeson was 1917
- 28:08Seahawks. So that leads me to over 3 1/2
- 28:13field goals made in the game. My favorite profit I bet is
- 28:17which will be longer, the distance of the longest field
- 28:19goal made or the total number of points in the game?
- 28:22I took the longest field goal made -120 I took Jason Myers,
- 28:26the Seattle kicker at MVP for 150 to 1.
- 28:28I took a shot on that. Also with the Vikings defensive
- 28:32theories I took I took in Jig Bus longest reception over 29
- 28:401/2 yards and I took Stephane Diggs over 4 1/2 reception.
- 28:46I like the theory, I like the and I love the 150 to one.
- 28:48Yes, that gets your attention. So 97, I'm thinking about circus
- 28:54squares there. That'd be a pretty big hit at
- 28:56the end of the game. What are you guys seeing with
- 28:58circus squares? Of course, available also right
- 29:00here in the state of Iowa. You know, this will be very
- 29:03interesting as far as the trend for a game because we've we've
- 29:06grown this from the first year we introduced it, what was it
- 29:08five years ago from like 40,000 up to over half a million last
- 29:13year. And our goal was to I think 6:50
- 29:15this year. I'll be very interested to see
- 29:17where that number lands because I think that will be a pretty
- 29:21good barometer of the overall interest in the game.
- 29:25That being said, we were the only ones doing it for a couple
- 29:27years and now we've, you know, we've licensed it to several
- 29:30other places. I mean, there's, there's a
- 29:31couple books in town that have squares on every single NBA game
- 29:34throughout the whole season. So it's, it's become an option
- 29:37for everybody else. And I think people are more
- 29:39familiar with them. But you know our, our pricing
- 29:42is, is, is better here as well as our most.
- 29:44Things and everybody at those places, a little royalty comes
- 29:47circus way. Good stuff.
- 29:49Let's talk Olympics. Mike, I'm on vacation next
- 29:51couple of weeks and I won't be here to talk hockey with you,
- 29:54you sadly during this run. The American women, I think
- 29:58they're an absolute cinch to win the the gold medal.
- 30:00The men, of course I'm going to lead Canada, but I would, I
- 30:03think I would like to believe that.
- 30:05I would see it clearly whether I was a Canadian or not.
- 30:08I like Canada, I like the US and in the women.
- 30:11How do you see the hockey? Sweden women to win Group B is a
- 30:16lock. I gave this out at -230 Of
- 30:18course, they beat Germany their first game, so now it's -370 but
- 30:21they're going to win every game by three or more goals. the US
- 30:25women tower above this field. They beat the Canadian women all
- 30:28four times. And that series leading up, the
- 30:30average score was six to two. You can still get them at minus.
- 30:33Yes, you can still get the 20. Yeah, 24 to 7 with the
- 30:37cumulative score of the four. Nothing was close.
- 30:40Remember in 2002 in Salt Lake, the Cassie Campbell Pascal first
- 30:43gold medal, the USA women had beaten the Canadian women eight
- 30:46straight times, and the Canadian women won the gold medal game
- 30:4932. Those eight games, every game
- 30:51was one or two goals. Six of them went to OT.
- 30:54It's totally different. the US is way better.
- 30:56That's a lot on the men's side. On the men's side, I believe
- 31:03that however they say this now, checks here or whatever, the
- 31:06Czech Republic, they're good danger.
- 31:08They're the most dangerous team outside of the US and Canada.
- 31:11I bet them plus 750 for bronze plus $8 for silver.
- 31:18You could bet any medal in case they won gold at 3:00 to 1:00.
- 31:21I think they're really pesky and I'd love to see Lucas Dostal
- 31:24with the team that's defense first, which is not with the
- 31:26Duck. Here's here's a really
- 31:29interesting market. Which Canadian goalie will have
- 31:32the most minutes in net during the course of the Olympics?
- 31:37So Bennington is the second choice you get.
- 31:40Logan Thompson is plus 160, Bennington is plus 240 and Darcy
- 31:44Kemper's 8 to 1. I think I got to take a shot
- 31:46with Darcy Kemper. Here, that's not crazy.
- 31:49That's not crazy. Wow, that's a that's a big
- 31:51price. I didn't realize that.
- 31:53And there's a chest. They've won the the junior
- 31:57tournament that gets played at Christmas the last couple of
- 31:59years and they beat Canada convincingly, so that country's
- 32:02certainly coming. That's a good ticket.
- 32:04Mike Bronze was how much? Bras is plus 750 silver's plus
- 32:10$8, or if you bet them any medal, it's 3:00 to 1:00 because
- 32:13you could win Gold 2 and still win.
- 32:15You don't, you think? Well, the Canadian men win.
- 32:19Yes, because I used to think the US has a big advantage in net,
- 32:22but I I have to tell you, hella Bucks playing terrible.
- 32:26I'm sure as you know, the fake ace.
- 32:27I think both those guys have mental problems.
- 32:29Swayman. Swayman had a good run last
- 32:31year. I don't think he's the top level
- 32:33goalie so I don't think the difference in net is as much.
- 32:35And the Canadian skaters are better than the American.
- 32:37Skaters, is there an MVP market in this?
- 32:40Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sid the kid is 35 to one.
- 32:44Mcdavid's the favorite at plus 7:50.
- 32:46I might take a shot with Crosby because I think if things are
- 32:50relatively even, he will get the like lifetime achievement nod in
- 32:53that boating. It's his last Olympics, of
- 32:54course he will. I couldn't agree with you more.
- 32:5635 to 1. Yeah.
- 33:00Good stuff. Speaking, Speaking of the
- 33:02Olympics, I mean, downhill skiing, bobsled, those kind of
- 33:05things. Do you guys put up numbers for
- 33:07them and how do you put together a number for something like
- 33:10that? Now all we're booking is hockey.
- 33:13OK. Nothing else.
- 33:14Nothing else. Yeah, that's the way to do it.
- 33:17Yeah. Good stuff, Mike Palm, VP of
- 33:19operations at Circa Sports. Mike, I hope it gets busy.
- 33:23I believe it will. I believe it will.
- 33:25It's the Super Bowl after all. Good stuff, Mike.
- 33:28Thank you for popping on. Appreciate it.
- 33:30Enjoy your weekend. Thank you, Mike Palm.
- 33:32Thanks Dad, I hope all the listeners enjoy their weekend as
- 33:34well. Good to talk to you.
- 33:35Thank you, Mike Pom, VP of Operations, Circa Sports, circa
- 33:38Illinois, circa Missouri, circa Iowa, for every year wherever
- 33:41you are listening, circa Squares, it's easy to do.
- 33:45You get, you get to pick your square and you get to pick your
- 33:48price prior to doing that and the minimum bet is a buck.
- 33:52Is the Czech Republic the same as Czech now?
- 33:54I think it is OK then. I'm just looking for that price
- 33:58to get a medal. Yeah, I think it is.
- 34:00OK. Is it 7 1/2 to one there?
- 34:02To win a medal, well, that was 3.
- 34:04To 1 to win a medal. Yeah, and it's 4 to 1 actually
- 34:07currently at DraftKings. OK, but Canada to win a medal
- 34:11-570. Five.
- 34:12Yeah, they're gonna. They're gonna win a medal.
- 34:13America -400. What are the women?
- 34:16All right, let's jump back over to the women's side just to
- 34:19meddle. I'll be stunned if they're not
- 34:21playing the Star Spangled Banner with this when the women's
- 34:24hockey wraps up. And we got group winners here.
- 34:27And Mike has Sweden is Ascension Group B.
- 34:29Since they're already started, though, they just have group
- 34:32winners right now. They don't have to meddle
- 34:33anymore. OK.
- 34:34So just available in the men's market?
- 34:36All right, we'll let you know who we're picking, what we've
- 34:39let you know for the last couple weeks.
- 34:40Not a lot of drama here, but our final, our Super Bowl pick
- 34:43coming up next, Miller in Condon on the Iowa Sports Radio
- 34:47Network. Anden off the bench.
- 34:50Who knows football better. The war wages on.
- 34:54It's time for the afternoon pickup sponsored by Circa Sports
- 34:58on one O 6.3 KX&O and the Iowa Sports Radio Network.
- 35:04Hi Marie Coggan, welcome back. Iowa Sports Radio Network.
- 35:09By the way, Super Bowl coverage courtesy of Westwood One.
- 35:12If you're driving around or whatever, our coverage starts at
- 35:1511 O clock in the morning Super Bowl preview, then Super Bowl
- 35:18Insider, then the Super Bowl tailgate show, then the pre game
- 35:23show. All right.
- 35:24And then finally, the game itself, Unbelievable, all right,
- 35:27trends, our year long contest, it's over.
- 35:29We have beaten, we have dispatched the boys in the
- 35:32afternoon, the good guys take Year 1 prevail.
- 35:37In a resounding fashion, that's pretty tight, no?
- 35:39It was yeah, they they closed. That mean Sean got in a roll
- 35:42there. He did.
- 35:43Was he did he close eight and one or something like?
- 35:45That, but the AFC and NFC Championship game, we were both
- 35:48on the same side. They decided to fade the other
- 35:50way. Tried to cheat and it backfired
- 35:52on. Them.
- 35:53Nope. I was on vacation.
- 35:54I just got my pics. Didn't know what you were doing.
- 35:56No chicanery here. Nope.
- 35:57Not like Darryl and Gary. No losers.
- 35:59A lot of that you do Big L2 to five.
- 36:03You're right. Lot of chicanery.
- 36:05Well, good stuff. Look, I'm picking Seattle.
- 36:09Yeah, I think it could get out of hand.
- 36:11I hope it's a good game. But I'm taking the Seahawks.
- 36:14I'll take them to cover the four and a half.
- 36:15I'm on the other side. I will take New England.
- 36:17We do have something extra. You have a two game lead, so if
- 36:20you're wondering the numbers, you are 5549 and two.
- 36:24That is not bad. Let's say 529 win percentage.
- 36:29Remember the break even number it's with the VIG it's right
- 36:33around there 52.4%. If you lose this one you will
- 36:38hit exactly at the VIG price 52.38% that will be your win
- 36:45percentage. So if somebody asks me, well,
- 36:46how'd you do this, you're not broke about even normally when
- 36:49you say that you're BS. Right, absolutely did a win
- 36:52though. You were over the vig on the
- 36:55season. I can't quite get there.
- 36:56I'd be a tick behind it. Still over 500 for both of us
- 37:00this year. That's a rarity.
- 37:02Yeah, that both of us are over 500.
- 37:04You've taken the last two years now, though.
- 37:05I have and are head to head. Going out on top.
- 37:07That's right, dominating style. Although Lucas did win the
- 37:11individual. I didn't even know it was a
- 37:13thing to be honest. With you, it's not.
- 37:15We have our own head to head right.
- 37:16He won the 2:00 to 5:00. Head the two to five.
- 37:19Yes, the team title goes to the good guys from noon to two.
- 37:23That's right. Good stuff.
- 37:25You're having a Super Bowl get together.
- 37:27We are, Yep, we working on the squares.
- 37:30Jack is excited. We were talking about he's going
- 37:32to decorate, so he's going to draw some footballs on there,
- 37:35make a little football field on the poster.
- 37:37He's he's got some plans that he's going to be doing it.
- 37:40We're just, you know, nudging him forward a little bit.
- 37:43He loves rolling dice. He loves playing cards.
- 37:46That's excellent. Parenting, right?
- 37:47He does that all the time. He gets it, he understands it a
- 37:50little man is understanding the way the world goes.
- 37:53So I'm having some fun with that and we'll see.
- 37:55And he's already asking how much money he can make on these
- 37:57squares and. A boy comes by it honestly.
- 38:02It reminds me very much of myself the first time I went to
- 38:05the the dog track with my dad having to borrow a little money
- 38:08on the way back for gas. Yeah.
- 38:11Had some good times. Absolutely.
- 38:14I'm with you. I had a bunch of good times at
- 38:16the track. Well, that's going to do it.
- 38:18You're going to take it the next couple of weeks.
- 38:20I'm going to head South to South Carolina for a couple of weeks.
- 38:24Never been there. Looking forward to it.
- 38:27You gonna move around it all or just one spot?
- 38:28I'm gonna stay in Folly Beach and then Charleston's like, I
- 38:33don't know, 5 miles away. So we're gonna see that and
- 38:36that, that part of the country. But I've always wanted to go
- 38:38there. Don't know why I've always
- 38:39wanted to go there, but I always have.
- 38:41And so instead of going to California, we're going
- 38:43southeast. Cross it off the bucket.
- 38:45List. Cross it off the bucket list.
- 38:46Hope you have good. Weather, it's gonna be colder
- 38:49there than we'll be here next week, which is typical for the
- 38:51Millers. Anyways, I'll talk to you in a
- 38:53couple of weeks. You man the ship and hopefully
- 38:57there's a lot of Cyclone and Hawkeye wins in that couple of
- 39:00weeks that I'm gone. Enjoy the Super Bowl, whatever
- 39:03team you are backing. It's the final football game of
- 39:06the year after all. All right, the boys coming up
- 39:08next, David Ickel, Lucas Strain, they will take you until 5:00.
- 39:11Miller Condon talk sports with you every Monday through Friday
- 39:14from noon to two on the Iowa Sports Radio Network.