Latest / Brodie Pod / Ep. 26 Sweet 16 NCAA, Luka for MVP?, Travis Kelce Returns, & Team USA

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Ep. 26 Sweet 16 NCAA, Luka for MVP?, Travis Kelce Returns, & Team USA · Brodie Pod

• Brodie Pod: Welcome back everyone to Brody pod episode 26. Be sure to like subscribe on the YouTube, turn on the notifications, follow us on Spotify, rate the show five stars. You want to stay up to date on the show, follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter slash X and Facebook at Brody pod. Matt, how are we doing? We're doing well, Ben. Yeah. How are we we got to update the people. You played some golf. How'd it go? The people don't care. They always care. Three pars on the front nine. Three pars on the front nine. Back nine, different story. Different story. That's usually how it goes, huh? I'm starting to see some similarities in the golf game. Front nine, I should just stop there, I guess. No. Well, sorry, you got all summer, dude. We're to get you down to... You're going get me dialed in? 90. We'll get you down to 90. 90. That's, yeah. Yeah, We've been doing work in the lab. We went to the range, uh, was that last weekend? Last week we went... And yeah, went into a little practice. So I played at Bear Creek, which is right next to DFW, not DFW, Love Field. Okay. The airport, right? I've never played there. I think it's DFW. I think it's I think it's Love Field. It's either one, it's one of the two, right? It's a 50-80 shot. Nice course though? Yeah, nice course. mean, you got airplanes flying above your head the whole time, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse. That's a great way to get back in the swing of the week. feel like I've been fighting this March Madness hangover from all the basketball that's just been played. Like I'm kind of upset. Like, yeah, we got the rest of the tournament now, March Madness and all that, but now we got 364 days till we get back to the tournament, back to those chaotic four days of basketball. hopefully everyone else enjoyed the tournament so far. Little chalky we're gonna talk about that a little bit later on the show But first we're gonna get into ⁓ Brody's of the week and I'll start us off this week My first Brody of the week like you think charge this happened this happened this past weekend happened on Sunday I believe team USA flag football. That's my Brody of the week if you didn't know there was a flag football competition between some NFL players and team USA and ⁓ I'll tell you what, those team USA boys, stood on business. They absolutely went out there and made the NFL players look silly. ⁓ trying to play the game of flag football. ⁓ if you want to know what NFL players were out there, I'll start off with Tom Brady. How about that name? Huh? Not currently in the NFL, but you know, still a couple of years removed. Still really good. How about Joe burrow? Huh? You Joe burrow? Well, Jayden Daniels. I I like him as well. How about Jaylen hurts ⁓ Devante Adams? DeAndre Hopkins, Devonta Smith, Stephon Diggs, Odell Beckham, Saquon Barkley, Alvin Kamara, big Alvin Kamara guy. Jalen Ramsey, Harrison Smith. And also there was Logan Paul and I show speed, but those guys aren't NFL guys. the, ⁓ the, ⁓ the NFL players looked ridiculous trying to play flight football. ⁓ team USA, ⁓ if anyone doesn't know, ⁓ about a couple of years ago, 2023. their quarterback, Hoosh, we learned the name here a little bit, Hoosh Dissette, the third, said some things saying, you know, when the Olympics come, for anyone that doesn't know, the Olympics is including flag football in 2028 when it comes here to the U.S. And the NFL players were like, you know what, we can't wait to represent for our country just the way like hockey did, the way the MLB players did. We can't wait to represent the U.S. And the flag football players came out and said, excuse me, we would actually like to, ⁓ Let you guys know we're going to be doing it. We're going to be the ones running it. And it went about, I think everyone was expecting the NFL players to show up and run this event and absolutely run these guys out of the arena, out of the stadium. That was absolutely not the case. The USA flag football team won the whole thing. They won three games in row against the ⁓ NFL players. They outscored them by a combined 106 to 44 in all three games. Five on five flag football. They didn't score on only one drive. They had 15 drives all day and they scored on 14 of them. The one that they didn't drive on was because they were knee in the ball. They took a knee. An absolute dominant performance. They proved that they're the people that they're, they proved that they're the team that needs to be the one that represents the U S and the Olympics in 2028. And, I can see it. It's a whole different game. It'll five on five. The field was actually shorter, like NFL fields, I believe are 50 yards. ⁓ this flag football field is only 25 yards wide. So five on five, it's a lot tougher. ⁓ there's not as much space out there, but I'll tell you what, those, the team USA flag football. I think that's what we're calling them. Team USA flag football. ⁓ feel like, I don't know if maybe if it, they were higher stakes, maybe the, the NFL guys would have played better. Yeah, dude. Yeah. I'm an, right. mean, it's not like those guys were, are better athletes, right? So if you took those, if you took the flag football guys and put them in the NFL, yeah, they wouldn't do well with pads. But the way that flag football works, it's basically like basketball. It's a non-contact sport and it's basically like basketball with cleats. And these guys, they are some of the shiftiest guys I've ever seen. They were, they joked Alvin Kamara. They put Alvin Kamara like they made him look like a statue out there. Like dude, I'm not, I'm not joking with you. Some of the highlights are insane. Yeah. He's like. Elder. It's like 30. The one, the one NFL player I think that could actually, actually there's two, ⁓ was Joe Burrow and Tom Brady. Those are the two best guys that are the NFL players. Everyone else. kind of was tough. It was, it was, I felt bad for him. Luke Keakley was out there. Luke Keakley was absolutely in hell. I'm trying to rush. just, and they kept getting flags because they kept pushing the guys to the ground, but they don't realize like you, if you do that to fly, it's immediately resets. There's just different rules. It's a different game. And, ⁓ I got here from Hoosh, his statement. I made some remarks back in 2023. It was totally misconstrued and misunderstood. All I was speaking on is give my brothers a fair chance to make the 2028 Olympic roster. We came out this weekend with that on our mind to say, Hey, let's show these guys, ⁓ that we are talented and that we are flag football and not to be overlooked by anyone in the world. Absolutely dominance. And I'll say, I'll say some other standouts I saw from the team USA flag football. Belton Brown Jr. Dude is a video game. How shifty that guy is, is insane. I'm honestly surprised he's not in the NFL, but maybe it's just like a size thing. But as far as like start-stop speed, probably one of the best athletes in the world at it. Pablo Smith, another wide receiver slash DB for flag football USA. They're just insane. I didn't realize how dominant our flag football team is. They apparently just don't lose often. They play tournaments like all the All the time, these guys have actual jobs. actually had to get PTO to go do this event and play against NFL superstars. But they've won a combined or they won a, they won five consecutive flag football world championships. Just on the men's side. And then the women's have won three straight. So I think it's safe to say for 2028, it's going to be represented by the flag football team. Also, Logan Paul was there having a beef with Tom Brady. think that's what most people have been talking about. It's all the clips I've seen going around. Yeah. I'm sure the beers have like seen a snippet of that. Yeah. Hopefully we can all agree that he's got to get some sanity back. Yeah. But I think that was, hopefully that doesn't overshadow like how good of athletes these guys were and how much Like they made the NFL players look absolutely silly trying to get flags. You just don't realize it's a whole different thing. Like these NFL players are trying to run through them. They're not setting their feet. They're trying to jump over them. Flag football, you can't leave your feet like that. ⁓ You can't like go seeking out contact. And it was just a whole different game. There's the quarterback can get it, pass it around, pass it backwards, pass it back and forth. Someone has to rush if they rush it from seven yards. It was just. There's so many rules out there and it's a little bit different of a game. It's not like NFL football. Once again, I'm not saying these guys, if they went to the NFL, they would dominate the NFL. I'm just saying in flag football, they dominate flag football. I don't know if you, did you see any of the clips, Matt? I did not. I saw, actually I saw one clip. It was a, I saw speed guarding Devontae Smith. Okay. I'm like at like a streak route. So that's. So that was the NFL players. was two NFL teams and then the one team USA flag football team. And everyone seems to be caught up in the whole Logan Paul versus Tom Brady. I show speed. That was like one of the two NFL teams played. It was just like regular, like seven on, or five on five flag football with those guys. then those, both those teams got dominated by team USA and flag football. I can't even be. No one watched that as much. feel like I want to get offended because you know, NFL. versus whatever, like it's team USA. You know, I'm, we're all the same. We're all the same. And we want the best team to represent us in the Olympics. And think those guys clearly proved that they were the better team. Like I said, they scored every drive. The only drive they didn't is when they were just running the clock out and took a knee. Very impressive. Absolutely insane stuff. And it was almost just like, you knew it was coming. You knew like, I think at the beginning of the game, Odell Beckham made a crazy catch. DeAndre Hopkins had a crazy catch. People were like, oh yeah, NFL is about to for these guys. then all of a sudden there was a pick six. Like it was like 40 to 12. It was just a, it was an absolute beat down by team USA. It was like if your men's softball team and the MLB players showed up and they were like, yeah, we're going to dominate softball. It's just a whole different game. And, uh, you know, maybe it's not the best representation. think MLB players would dominate a softball league. But I've played flag football before. There are just different rules that they have. Like I said, it's a non-contact sport and that's something that people don't really realize all the time is like if there's any contact, there's a flag. They call the game pretty tight. You can't flag guard. You have to keep your hands up. It was just something crazy athleticism I saw from Team USA. I'm just saying I think Jameer Gibbs would do Jameer Gibbs might be a good one to add, but like... They haven't figured out man. Hey, we want to win gold in the Olympics We need to send this team USA flag football team not not the NFL players. I think we could send out anybody I would like to know what the world competition levels like I just seen like memes of like you know some shoemaker and Bulgaria lining up against you Justin Jefferson. Yeah Like I want to see. Yeah. I'm just saying like we have such an advantage on it already. And I'm not saying there's not good, like there's NFL players that you could move them to the team USA flag football team. They'd probably be good fit like Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, the guys that are very shifty. But as far as like, there's just a certain build. It's honestly like, it's like you were saying, like it's almost like a completely different sport. Yeah. And also like I felt bad. There was some memes that came out of Joe Burrow diving. ⁓ and people were like, if you're a bangles fan watching this, watching Joe burrow risk, yeah. And a flag football game. Like, we just saw that with the, with the MLB and the world baseball classic, like certain MLB players couldn't play like Mike trout, ⁓ because their contracts, they're just not in shirt. if they get hurt playing flag football or a world baseball classic, yeah. And like the MLB teams are saying like Paul skeins can't pitch that much or Terrix Hubel can't pitch that much. Like these flag football guys, they got. jobs outside of this. They just do this for fun. They're willing to go all out for it. So yeah, fair. But to be say like, if you say like the competition level, like the NFL players weren't trying, they were trying, they were talking shit. They were trying, but they just couldn't. would do. was, it was insane. It's almost like, can these guys not grab this flag? ⁓ because this guy is the shiftiest guy we've ever seen. I'm telling you, Velton Brown. ⁓ If I'm an NFL team, I always give him a contract for a day or something. Have him come out there, run a couple of plays with them. Just get them out. Yeah. At least put them out there for, you know, get a package for them. That dude is absolutely game breaking. Although I'd like to see him with pads on what, what, what he could do, but it's just a different sport. Well, mean, yeah, he might. How big is he? No, dude, they're, they're, they're skinny guys. I mean, yeah, well, that, there you go. It looked like kids going up against the NFL players, but the kids were like way more experienced and just some of the plays that they had, was just, I mean, there was at one point there were seven seconds on the clock. got the ball back and they scored in seven seconds on the NFL players. Yeah. Like it seemed very easy for them. Like they weren't in a rush at all. Who's their quarterback? So interesting. Interesting. say that the, ⁓ I gotta look up what the other quarterback is, but Pouche is one of the quarterbacks and then the other one is Nico Casares who in one of the games only had one in completion. I he went like nine for 10 or something. ⁓ And they'll run dual quarterback packages. So they'll have three receivers, have two quarterbacks back and those pass the ball back and forth until someone gets open. it's just, it's a whole different game. it was very, shout out to Fanatics. I know everyone likes to hate on Fanatics because of the. the jerseys and stuff and what they do. Over the pricing, but it was a cool event they put on. I'm, I'm glad this turned into something because normally it's like, Oh, they just thought everyone will just talk online of like, Oh, these guys couldn't stop NFL players if they wanted to. And then you actually see it. You're like, okay, I understand. This is just a different sport. I was one those people that thought the NFL players would just dominate this too. And I'm going to give respect to these flag football guys. They know what they're doing. Let them go represent team USA. Uh, my next Brody of the week. Goes to Dallas native Bryson DeChambeau. I was watching the highlights. didn't get to watch this one live, but he just won live South Africa and he beat out John Rahm and the first playoff hole. They're just going all over the globe. Yeah. I'm upset they're not coming to Dallas this year. Uh, but yeah, they do play all over the place. Um, Bryson won with a score of 26 under on the day and, Well, I guess he tied John Rahm and then he went to the first playoff hole. Bryson had a crazy second shot. It was like raining. There was a lot of mud. His ball was in the mud. ⁓ and then he hits a, he got like a lateral drop from like the big mud pit, but it was still in mud. It was on a par five. Absolutely smokes a wood up there and ends up making birdie on the hole. John Rahm was short, ended up in the sand, ended up making a par. ⁓ but you know what? I like to see the level of competition. And the reason it's my Brody of the Week is. He won this week, but he also won last week. ⁓ he won Singapore also in a playoff. So Bryson DeChambeau, probably someone to look out for the Masters. looks like he's playing really good golf leading into Augusta. think we're two weeks away from Augusta now. I will say perspective. ⁓ he won Singapore because the guy missed ⁓ on 18. The fella, I forgot his name escapes me. Yeah. But I mean, it's no knock on DeChambeau. He's been up there. He's been playing really good golf. He's so good. He's so good. Yeah. He was eight under on the first day and I just watched like the highlight of the whole tournament where they did all, it was like a big mega clip where they put all the rounds together. And it just seemed like he was in control the whole way. It didn't seem like he was ever out of, out of a bad spot right there. ⁓ on the course he did have a dunk. I believe it was like in the second or third round, he dunked it from off the green, like didn't even touch the green. That was like a was like me on 13 today actually. did you dunk one? I had a dunk, yeah. No, you didn't. No, I didn't. But... Good for Nishan, I was about to say, did you really have a dunk, dude? You would have known that. You would have known that. I would have got a text immediately. You would have gotten a FaceTime, actually. DeChambeau and Rahm, I think they... I like they both have just so... unique swings. You like DeChambeau is kind of just straight up and down. And then Rahm is like kind of the... You know, half, taking it like kind of halfway back. Yeah. And then just still gets that, is able to get that power. But I, I like both her swings. And I believe that's the last live event until Augusta. So Bryson's just going to now be practicing getting ready. Um, just kind of looking at the odds. just looked it up real quick. Um, Scotty Scheffler's the favorite right now. Um, plus 480 to win. Then it's Rory McElroy at plus 1000. Um, and then it gets into Bryson DeChambeau at plus 1600, John Rahm plus 1300, Xander Shofley plus 1600. And Tiger Woods is there too. He's at plus 25,000. Where's Matt Fitzpatrick? He's kind of heating up now. Let me see if Matt Fitzpatrick, he's not on the immediate list. Cause he just won the, uh, Al Spar. Yeah. And he was second in the, ⁓ the players. So, Matt's Patrick is plus 3000. ⁓ sorry. Actually Bryson DeChambeau is plus a thousand now he's moved up since he won. This is coming from DraftKings. Shout out DraftKings. Draft, DraftKings? Shout out DraftKings. Not sponsored. Not sponsored. Don't gamble if you don't have it, please. All right. That's my Brodies of Week. Matt, what's your Brodies of Week? ⁓ I got two that might be more. ⁓ Relatable at this point March Madness related you Correct March Madness related. I got one for each side men and women's I'll start with I throw the women's this is just more so like a team oriented deal What what's the grown about? I what are we getting this upset about go ahead get into it. You what it you don't know who it is Yes, I do you have no idea I know who it is LSU women's basketball. Yeah. Most 100 point games in a D1 season at 16 after their win against the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Yeah. The Lady Raiders. tournament. The Lady Raiders. Okay. They held the Lady Raiders to 25.4 % shooting, which is the third lowest in NCAA tournament history. ⁓ through the two march badens games that they've played, they've given up 101 points total and they forced 47 turnovers, which is like, think that's one of the craziest stats that I've ever heard in my life. I know their first round, the first round they direct, but I mean the first round they played, you know, Jacksonville, know, obviously it's a three versus a two versus a 15. Oh, they are two. are two. Two versus 15. Obviously, know, crazy lopsided, but... And then, you know, they played tech, which was a seventh seed. But so, 47 turnovers in two games, only 101 points given up. And they've scored, I think, what, 217, I guess, in those two games? That was suited, but, you know, crazy first two games. Really good for them. Actually, a stat that I saw while I was, you know, kind of looking up their stats earlier. They had a game against Missouri earlier this season where they had 72 rebounds which is also an NCAA record for women's. I mean, they're just setting records. Yeah. All right. Yeah, they beat my Texas Tech Lady Raiders. ⁓ They were a seven seed going against a two seed. I had hope through the first, I think it was just about tied at half and then after halftime it kind of became a a track meet in LSU. They were a really solid team. proved it. They pulled away in the third and the fourth and were able to put it away pretty early. I'll just say overall, the Sunday for Texas Tech basketball, it was a tough one. The Texas Tech men also lost to Alabama. So this one hurts just because. Both, both of them I had really high hopes for. Obviously the Lady Raiders going to go, against LSU. was like, that's a tough matchup, but maybe there's a shot. You know, March Madness is all about Cinderella runs. I really hoping they'd be able to pull it out. They had such an incredible season. But LSU is just an absolute buzzsaw. Like you said, Matt, they've scored a hundred points in both of their first NCAA tournament games this season. So they're probably going to keep it going too. mean, the way that they were scoring with that ease and. And the way that they just have athletes all over the court, it really seems like they're a team that's going to give some people some trouble, especially once they get into later rounds and play some good teams. possibly, uh, you con I saw you con with dude, you con was smoking Syracuse earlier. Um, just today they were up like 63 to eight at halftime. Yeah. 63 to eight. That's insane. So she three to eight. Yeah. It was like, 60 maybe 65 day. It was something crazy. I was like, all right, this game's over. Well, I checked, uh, I was at work during the LSU tech game, but I checked the score. It was like, uh, it was, I think it was really close at half. I don't think it was tied, it was, it was pretty close at half. I checked back and it was, uh, it was 30 to it was, it I think LSU was up like 12 maybe. Yeah. or something. It was like 40 whatever to 32 maybe for tech at check back and LSU had like 60. Yeah. They went on still had like 34. yeah. Shout out Flau'jae Johnson. LSU's best player. Um, my second one? Yeah, get your second one. All right. Second one. Braden Smith, point guard. Purdue, Boilermakers. Like the name. That you do. Just broke the NCAA all time assist record. There's a thousand 91 as of two days ago. He is, I guess it was a 33, 33 year old record that he broke. thought he was, I thought you got on here. was 33 years old. That's crazy. Yeah. He's been in college for a minute. He's not, I think he's actually, I think he's 23 or 22, but you know, honestly, insane record. Like he's, dishes it out. Also he can score, but he didn't really do that well in their last game, but I think it was 0 for 9 from three, which is tough. is a solid, solid player. saw the meme going around where, uh, people were comparing him to LeBron. LeBron has zero assists in college. Yeah. Braden Smith now has the record. So. Hey Charlotte, that's funny. Better player than LeBron, possibly Braden Smith. Dude, I mean that's. I would say like assists might be one of the toughest. It probably is the toughest, you know, stat to get. Cause you're kind of relying on someone else. Yeah. Points. You can get points yourself. You can get revans yourself. You get block steals yourself. Assist, you know, you have to dish it out and help the other guy, you know. Makes a shot. Cashes out. Yeah. So very impressive. Yeah. And ⁓ Purdue's looking really good. We're about to get into some March Madness talk here in a little bit. Do a little bit of the second chance brackets. We'll get into that. ⁓ Don't want to give away too much of what we're doing, but Braden Smith absolutely balling out and Purdue's looking to make a solid run and we'll get into a little bit more about what Purdue's going to be facing in their next game. Possibly a Cinderella, we'll see. ⁓ But with that, we'll come back and we'll do some March Madness. Sweet 16 talk. All right, we're back and now we're gonna do some March Madness Sweet 16 talk going on. We got the second chance brackets up, like I said. Actually, I don't know if I said this before, but there's no more perfect brackets left in March Madness. are officially, everyone's been busted. Shout out to the guy that made a trillion brackets. busted. Unlucky for that guy, but it's just, I don't know if there's a chance it's ever gonna happen. But now we got the Sweet 16. Sweet 16 is set. And we're going to go through and build the second chance bracket. Hopefully it all shows up well in the recording. have no clue, uh, until we get into post, but we're go through, talk about each matchup and build this bracket out as we go. So Matt, starting off first in the East, got. We got Duke versus St. John's, uh, see a little bit of Duke, seen them, you know, they've been able to kind of run through the tournament so far. had a little scare with Sienna. St. John's was then able to take down Kansas and handle to take care of business there St. John's strikes me as a very defensive team Rick Patino is absolutely Got those boys in lockstep. There was a they had a buzzer beater to beat Kansas from I believe it was Darlington Crazy name. They might be the darlings of the tournament Okay, so I Like st. John's in this I think when it comes down to it, I like the defense And, ⁓ I just, you know, give me a little madness, dude. Let me see a, let me see a, a five upset a one. Yeah. Did I also saw a little clip? think it was, ⁓ the guy who talking about Darlington came to the coach and was like, ⁓ let's run this play, which was for Darlington. And like, he hadn't scored all game and the coach, you know, still agreed to it. Apparently it paid off. Yeah. But I will say, ⁓ Did you watch the end of that game? Yeah. Okay, so the Kansas... Handbounce? Yeah, whoever... The Kansas guy, whoever that was... Let's go up. Let's put a shot up next time. Instead of driving down half the court and then trying to kick it out when you only have four seconds left. Yeah. Let's go up. Let's try to get a foul or something. Let's get three throws. Let's, you know... At least put a shot up. Yeah. Hopefully if Duke was watching that game, they've been practicing their inbound plays and possible buzzer beater situations. That seems what it's going to come down to. I will give you this stat that I saw. Um, this is a crazy, but true stat, but Duke has never won a national championship without beating St. John's. They did it in 1990. They did it in 1991. They did it in 2000, 2009, 2014, and now they play them in 2025 in the sweet 16. If Duke gets through this game, Duke could win the national championship just based on historical data. But I like St. John's. like St. John's? I like Duke though, but we'll go St. John's here. Okay. Next game here, Michigan State and Yukon. Another crazy stat here. Yukon has either exited in the round of 32 or they've won the national championship. They're now in the sweet 16. Another great, you know, blue blood matchup here. It was a very chalky other than St. John's beating Kansas. Yeah. We got the three versus two. like UConn just based off that stat. ⁓ UConn is an established team as of late, obviously Michigan state, another great basketball school. But it seems like as of late in recent years, UConn has been the team to get it done. They also got this guy that was getting some, who was it? I can't remember his name. I got it. rebounds. Insane. Cause he was. Who's going to be my bro to you? Terrence Reed? No. Yes. Okay. Because he had 30 something points and 27 rebounds at UConn's first game. Yeah. Yes. Against Furman? Yes. Yeah. Okay. I like UConn here, so I'm rocking with the Huskies. Matt, what about you? Are we making the same bracket or are doing our own thing? You can kind I figured you were just making your own on the Okay. Okay, cool. like, ⁓ give me Michigan State. Give me Jeremy Fears. We're two for two on not picking the same team. Give me Jeremy Fears. He's dishing that rock. They also have a guy that is a future NBA dunk contest participant. State? Yeah. Let me find his name. Colin Carr. Michigan State. Incredible dunker. Jeremy Feers also incredible pastor. They have a lot of NBA talent on that roster. like Michigan state. All right. Rocking, rocking with Michigan state. Do we want to go ahead and do the elite eight or we'll just go through the rest of the sweet 16 batch ups. Yeah. All right. Moving on to the south here. Battle of the Midwest. got Iowa taking on Nebraska. I saw people saying that this game needs to start off with a, a ceremonial punt at half court. ⁓ would be absolutely amazing. Nebraska had never won in March before, and now they have now two wins in the month of March. ⁓ they're taking on Iowa who just had a crazy upset against Florida, a nine beating a one seed. There's a little madness for you. Probably some would consider the real Cinderella left and the, sweet 16. However, I'm rocking with big red. All right. I'm taking them. Really? I got the Nebraska shirt on. Give me, give me the big red corn Huskers going to be able to travel. Well, um, I think I was just going to be fighting a little bit of a hangover after taking off the, one seed, uh, defending champions, Florida Gators. I think they have hangover. I think they were in the one seed. You don't think they're going to be pumped up. know they're there like statistically speaking, they're like the slowest team in college basketball, offensively. They take up the entire shot clock, but, Dude, I'm going to Iowa. I don't hate the Iowa pick. The buzzer beater against Florida was absolutely amazing. That was like true March band is cinema there. Yeah. So I'm rocked with Nebraska just cause I think I'm rocking the Nebraska shirt. I'll have an Iowa shirt. And I would say like a nine for four, making a nine might, you would think that's like a crazy upset, but Nebraska is, know, They're not an established March team. Right. So I mean, I think these teams are fairly even. It's just a crazy matchup. See Iowa versus Nebraska in the Sweet 16. I'm just, know Nebraska can shoot the lights out, but I'm going to go experience point guard and starts. Give me Iowa. Also real quick, just these two teams did meet in the season. Yeah, they met twice. Um, they split the series Nebraska one, the most recent one, um, on March 8th. So that's something where it's, it's tough to be in a team twice in a row. So I could see Iowa pulling it out, but I'm just rocking with big red nation. Illinois versus Houston, three versus a two. I will keep this one pretty short just cause I haven't been high on Illinois, but they've obviously been proving me wrong. I think they got lucky with a matchup against VCU. Um, Houston handled A &M pretty well. Lucky. Yeah, they didn't have to play North Carolina out of that. They played the team, the better team, the team that won. They did play the better team, but I just think Houston's more tested. think Houston's more of a, you know, they're going to show up. were in the national championship last year. They're, they're tested. I'm going to rock with Houston. Just cause once again, I've been, I've been high on Houston, low on Illinois. So I'm going to stick with that. Give me Pejas to Yakovitch's son. Did our brackets. I've been high in Illinois. We're, we're completely opposite. I've been high in Illinois for no other reason other than Keaton Wagler, who's going to be a lottery pick. And then Pesach Stojackiewicz, his son. I don't even know his first name, but I just see Stojackiewicz. know he's a shooter. Yeah. So I'm going to Iowa. I always like the stats they do here at the bottom. I went, you got battle of the eyes. I'm going both. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in, I'm a Midwest kind of guy. All right. Next one here, Arizona versus Arkansas, one versus a four. Arizona's looked a lot very fun. They did take down high point who was some considered the Cinderella of the tournament. ⁓ Arizona on the other hand, been handling business. Everyone's been taking them to win and all their brackets. I think that stays true. think we got battle of the A's here. I think I'm going Arizona just because of my big 12 ⁓ allegiance. But ⁓ I would not be surprised if Arkansas pulls this out. They've been absolutely ballin'. Calipari's got the boys fired up. you know, ACUF, absolute baller. You know what? I could switch this just because of ACUF. ⁓ I just think Arizona, they got talent at all the positions. Don't get me wrong, Arkansas does too, but I Arizona just has the edge. think they're edging. I think they're edging. Matt, go ahead and take Arkansas. Cause I know you're going to just try and pick opposite. I was, was because, ⁓ Calipari. Calipari. Yep. Calipari. The drip, crazy drip. Probably the best head coach strip in college basketball. I'm going say that for certain. Derris Aikoff Jr. A hopeful future Dallas Maverick. We'll see, but I'm going go Arizona. Okay. I'm not going to bet on, you know, one guy, even though he's like the guy right now, he's arguably the best player in college basketball at the current moment and the, and the tournament, but can't just put all your chips in one basket on one guy. I'm going go Arizona. Oh, that's one with you. I love the match in Arizona, Arkansas. think a lot of people had this as the. The penciled in sweet 16 and we were going to get rewarded. This is like, know, the first couple of days you're hoping for a Cinderella, but then you're hoping that these, these solid teams meet later in the bracket. And that's what we're getting in this one. It'd be high scoring this for sure. Speaking of a Cinderella, the next game here, Cinderella that maybe people didn't really think about as a Cinderella. Number 11, Texas taken on number two Purdue. Texas is a double digit seed. It's weird seeing them as an 11 seed. Maybe it's not weird. The Texas Longhorns have gotten their 11th win as a double digit seed in the men's NCAA tournaments, the most by any program since seeding began in 1979. So been here, done that. Texas is absolutely rolling. the, not the 11's everyone wanted to see. We wanted to see the VCUs. We wanted to see the USF. We wanted to see Miami, Ohio. But instead we get Texas taking on Purdue. doesn't feel like Texas is much of an underdog in this game. Matt, what do you think? Not with their, ⁓ their trillion dollar NIL deals they give out. No. But still, I mean, they're not really known as basketball school. I would say more football, but 11 seed is an 11 seed, right? It's technically an underdog. So who are you going with? I think. I was laying Purdue at the start of this day, at start of the day. But the more I see Texas sitting here, I'm like, they could go on a run. I think a Texas Arizona matchup would be really fun. So I, I'm going to go Texas, even though I don't want to, even though the bias in me of the, of the, being a tech guy. But I, what? Texas plays a weird style of basketball. It's not pretty by any means, but they're getting the job done. beat Gonzaga. They beat BYU. Yeah. I'm right there with you, NC State, BYU, Gonzaga. They're hot. Probably the hottest team in college basketball right now. I would argue. Those are incredibly tough teams to beat. I think they can, I think can best Purdue. If there's a team that's going to stop them, I think it could be Purdue. Purdue is very veteran team, got some senior guards on the team, be able to handle it. Texas just, they keep, they feel like the longer they hang around this tournament, the more dangerous they get. And like you said, they've played three games versus everyone else has played two. think either it's going to be weighing on them or it's made them a hotter team because of it. obviously they're, mean, I didn't realize they were, these teams are traveling all over the entire country playing these games. mean, it's, so they're already kind of one week ahead. They're kind of getting used to the travel. All that type of stuff. Also, I just want to see after my, you know, bracket got busted after the fourth game, right? I just want to see some chaos. I want to see chaos. want to the underdogs going. Even though I hate Texas, they're the underdog. want underdog to win. Yup. All right. Next one here. This is going to be a fun game. Michigan versus Alabama, one versus a four. Alabama just took down my red Raiders. Michigan has been looking pretty good. mean, considering the level of competition they've played, they've looked the part. ⁓ I felt, I was saying whoever won out of the Texas, ⁓ the Texas tech Alabama game, they're going to run into the bus. All that is Michigan. ⁓ I think Michigan's right up there with Arizona. think they're, you know, some of the better teams left, ⁓ after we've seen some get eliminated. So I'm, I'm rocking with Michigan, even though I would love to see Alabama upset them. Steph blurry might have a chance to upset Michigan. Yeah. Robbie Avila. I mean, Michigan just showed who they were. Right. Those first two games, especially against St. Louis. heard talks that Georgia might go on a run and they might beat St. Louis. They might be Michigan. That might be like a dark horse. Three 16 team. Obviously that didn't pan out. Obviously Michigan showed who they are. Like if, if Alabama isn't hitting those threes, if they were against tech, if they're not, obviously they'll love to throw up those threes. think they shot 45 % three against tech with over 40. It was really 50%, but they were just throwing up shots at the end. really over shot well over 40 attempts, which is insane. But I don't think they're not, that's not going to fly against Michigan. No, and I will say the big guys that they have the reason Alabama looks so good against tech. Um, the rebounds that they were getting tech was missing JT Toppin, a very big paint presence. Uh, Michigan doesn't have that problem. Michigan has, you know, they got their stars and I think they're going be able to shut down Alabama, especially on the rebounding side of things. And like you said, Alabama would then have to then shoot lights out like they did against tech. And it's hard to do that for two games in a row. They were in agreement there. All right. Tennessee and Iowa state number six and a number two. I'm going to keep this one pretty blunt. We talked a lot of crap on Iowa state. You didn't Matt. You've been picking on. did not damn right I did. I think I'm going have to eat my words here. I think I'm going have to go with Iowa state. Need something. I think that they can, I think they can take down Tennessee, but I don't know Tennessee. was looking solid too, a little bit. I, you know what? I'm going to go Iowa state and say, good job, Matt. We were wrong. Yeah. I'm going to Iowa state as well. It's not, know, Tennessee had a good run. I didn't think they were going to be that good. Obviously they have Nate. I meant they got jealous be there. sec tested, tough draw in Iowa state. I don't think they're gonna make it sit going to be sent packing. All right, back up to the top here, Matt, we have different picks. So I'm just going to pick mine and keep it going the rest of the way. I'm taking St. John's over Yukon. ⁓ we do have different picks. Okay. Yeah. So I'm just going to be a little different here. I'm going to take St. John's over Yukon. I'm going to keep it pretty short on these. I'm going to go Houston over Nebraska. I'm going to go Arizona over Texas. I'm going to go Michigan over Iowa state. Back to the Final Four, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go St. John's over Houston. I'm gonna go Arizona over Michigan. And then finally, my national champion I'm gonna roll with is gonna be different than the champion I originally chose. I'm going St. John's. I know we're getting crazy here. I think St. John's is able to get it done. I think Rick Pitino gets his third. national championship in the month of March and carry St. John's over the way. Give me that as my Cinderella. I guess it's not much of a Cinderella, but give me some madness. that might be pretty much a Cinderella run at this point. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ So for mine, obviously much different from yours. I got Duke versus Michigan state. Got to be, got to be quick. Okay. Give me Duke. Over Michigan State. Give me, I got Iowa, Illinois. Give me Illinois. Good run for Iowa. Congrats. Michigan, Iowa State. Give me Michigan. Tough team to beat. Big 10. Arizona, Texas. Good run for the Longhorns. Give me the Wildcats. We got Duke, Illinois. Final four. I'm gonna go Illinois. Ooh. Give me a little bit of the You straight get stopped. Give me a little bit of the upset. They're missing some guys. Illinois. Might be getting hot. Who knows? cares? Arizona, Michigan, battle of the one seeds. The Wildcats. And I'm, I'm going to stay true. I'm going to stay Pat. I'm going to stand Pat. I'm going to go Arizona Wildcats. Okay. Over the Illinois fighting Illini. I just think they're too good, man. I understand. Illinois might be, they might get there. They might not. Who knows? ⁓ cool. Well, so we can wrap up the rest of the way with March Madness. got our champions. We got Illinois, got St. John's. Probably won't happen, but you know what? We're going to make it some madness. Arizona St. John's. ⁓ Arizona St. John's. yeah. Yeah. Thank you for correcting me. I just want to shout out real quick. Thought about making this my Brody of the Week. ⁓ But the Midwest is absolutely up right now. And the round of 16, we're going to have Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan state, Iowa state, Illinois, Purdue. Um, so absolutely showing out for the Midwest. That's where basketball lies, you know, making it happen. And, uh, what else did I have here? Shout out to the Midwest. Shout out to the Midwest. The NCAA tournament winner odds are out. Um, also from DraftKings. So Arizona is plus three 30. That's your champion, Matt. My, my champion St. John's is all the way down at 3,500. Texas is all the way down at 30,000. So a real long shot there for the Longhorns, but who knows? Maybe they can make it happen with the Cinderella run. also do- oh, sorry. No, go ahead. I was gonna ask how many second chance brackets off the top of head do you know? How many did we get? Is it 25? Yeah, you 25 as well. Are you sure? Yep. Okay. And how many of those will be perfect? I don't know. I don't know what, I don't know if I've- done too many of the second chance brackets for me. I'm so upset about my first bracket. My goal is always to try and get out of the first weekend and normally I can't get out of the first day. So, tough there. But there was a conversation that kind of got raised. People are saying that this is chalk madness going on is what they've deemed it. So 1996, 2025 and 2026 are the only years without a mid major reaching the sweet 16. And some people are saying, you know, this is because of the NIL era that we're in. I would say, well, this happened in 1996. I think we just were so spoiled with the last 10 years of March Madness that some years you're just not going to have any crazy upsets or any mid-majors make a Cinderella run. High Point was fun, but like, like what you're talking about, they kind of ran into the buzzsaw that was there, Arkansas. ⁓ So I think this is just par for the course. Sometimes you have a year where you're doing really well and sometimes it's, you know, crazy upsets all the way and, and NC State's making a run or. ⁓ some of the other ones, ⁓ St. Peter's or, know, whatever run you want to talk about. Dude, I would have thought that NIL would have spread the wealth. Yeah. I think that's what I brought up last podcast. I thought that, you know, lesser teams would have got, would have had a chance at better players. I thought it would have been more even. Yeah. Maybe that'll be more prevalent next season. Yeah. And people want to say, I mean, Highpoint spent a lot of money on their roster. The dude, saw a TikTok of some high point, like people that go there. That's a crazy ass risk place, dude. Yeah. Holy. What state is it located in? Couldn't tell you. Yeah. I looked it up. Couldn't tell you. Some rich state. North Carolina. Is it really? ⁓ That would have been my last guess. Yeah. So I actually. They got money. They got money. Yeah, I think it's North Carolina. It's either North Carolina or Georgia. There's another school that was from Georgia. So I like to look up the smaller schools, see where they're from. Yeah, I think it's North Carolina. Don't fact check me. I got it. But with that, we'll come back and do some NFL headlines. Hopefully everyone's second chance bracket makes it. And then we'll wrap up the show. So, all right, we're back to do a little NFL and NBA headlines, kind of going around right now. So starting off the NFL. Jackson Smith Najibba has officially been extended by the Seahawks. Four years, $168.6 million, $120 million of that guaranteed. He's now the highest paid wide receiver making $42.15 million a ⁓ year. Highest paid receiver ever. Yeah, highest paid receiver ever. Funny you bring that up, Matt. JSN's new contract over four years is worth more than Jerry Rice made his whole career, 20 seasons in the NFL. That's crazy. Jerry Rice made $42.4 million. I was talking with a friend earlier today about this. Actually, I told him about this and we were talking like, and I was explaining to him that, you know, he was, was kind of complaining when Dak got his, his big deal. And, uh, I was saying, that's just, you know, that's just the market. That's what the market was at that time for quarterbacks. And right now this is what the market is for like top tier, you know, receivers. And at that time, like Dak was slash is top tier quarterback, whether you want to admit it or not. You know, top 10, he's a starting quarterback in the league. He's going to get started in quarterback money. And Jason is a top five wide streaming league, top five wide streaming league at least, right. He's probably higher. I'm not going to put him there, but he's higher. Um, and so that's just, that's just the market. And that's ⁓ people complain about all these players getting paid this insane money, but they got to remember that it scales every year or every like contract cycle. I guess in, know, four years down the line, there's going to be, know, Jeremiah Smith. It was a highly coveted generational talent, whatever, going out of Ohio state receiver, know, four years online, he might be getting paid 50, right? It's it's there. It's gonna keep it's gonna contracts to go up. It's gonna keep getting higher You know, yeah, and it's just based on the league. It's gonna keep getting higher, but he is worth this He's worth this money. if the seat if the CX we're gonna pay him somebody else is gonna pay him that much That's what it's worth it. I like that point you bring up I'm never gonna hate on a guy for getting paid Get the money like get that bag for you this much money You would also take it as well whether you thought you were worth it or not Obviously great receiver just had a fantastic season. you also say like, it's really not on him. The Seahawks were willing to pay this money. And if they didn't, someone else would be willing to pay it. That's what the league thinks of him and Jason got what he deserved. He's also the second receiver ever to win offensive player of the year and the Superbowl in the same season. know somebody else who won offensive player of year and was a receiver. And was a receiver? Michael Thomas. ⁓ yeah. Did he win the Superbowl? No. So he's not the one that left. I did see earlier the, I guess a couple of weeks ago, maybe last week, the Seahawks picked up the fifth year option on them and then decided to extend them. So that will, that'll benefit. So will that year, that fifth year option is going to happen and then he'll start getting this money? Correct. Okay. So that'll, I didn't know they could, I mean, I Well, they probably told him like, we're going to pick up your fifth year option, but we're also going to give you this massive contract. It's probably why there's 120 million guaranteed. JSN had 119 receptions last year. It's tied for the third most NFL history among players to average at least 15 yards per reception in a season. He's behind only 2012 Megatron, Calvin Johnson, and 1995 Jerry Rice. So rare air to be there. Those are obviously two elite receivers in two elite seasons. So ShadowJSN absolutely getting his bag. will say like, I'm just, let say this. This is my little tangent on Jason. It's one good year. It's, it's an elite year, but he had one of it. Obviously you're going to assume he's going to continue to produce at this level. And it's sent. Right. Like he could get better. Yeah. But I mean, the most money because you think he's going to be the best receiver in the league. Exactly. Yeah. That's what I was going to get to. He's they're, paying him based on the, the, uh, the projected, uh, projected evolution. you, if you will have him as a player. And I think he will get better. He's not going to get worse. And if this is his down, this is his like, you know, average year. Yeah. If they continue to win super bowls and he continues to get offense or yeah. Offensive rookie of the year or not offensive rookie, the offensive player of the year. Not offensive rookie of the year. I this isn't like that every year then. Yeah. Yeah. I was saying like, this isn't like a crazy record break in a year, but this is like top tier. So he is their offense. mean, what was it like? He was 40 % of their wide receiver production. Yeah. He was their entire passing. Yeah. Game. Pretty much. ⁓ And I know people are saying like, what he did in the Super Bowl wasn't impressive. Like, what was it? Like three receptions or something like that. It wasn't anything good. But the Seahawks don't make the Super Bowl without JSA. Correct. So yeah, obviously the Patriots did some things to take away him in the big game, but like the Seahawks wouldn't even been in the big game without him. And once again, you're never going to see me hate on a guy for getting money. ⁓ Even Dak Prescott, I understand. You know, you got to take the money. And if you're the player, like if someone's going to pay you that, why would you not take it? It's just sometimes I look more at the teams with like, okay, if someone's willing to pay that much money, then you're worth that much money. So tough one there, but good for him. On to the next signing. Probably not as highly coveted of a signing, but maybe for the Swifties to listen to the podcast. Travis Kelsey signs a new three year deal with the Chiefs. $54.7 million making $18.2 million per year. Travis Kelsey is currently 36 and people had, know, were thinking, ⁓ is he going to retire? His contract's up after this year. Well, now his new contract goes through his age of 39 years old. So he will at least be around for three more seasons. Matt, how do you feel about that? That come out today? Yep. Came out a couple hours ago. We've got the fastest breaking news on the podcast. We got Adam Schefter on speed dial. Actually is from Adam Schefter. You have Adam Schefter on speed dial because I didn't know about it. yeah. Crazy. Uh, I knew he said he was, I actually, I don't know if he had ever said if he was coming back for a year yet, like he hadn't announced if he was retiring or not, then he comes out with this brand new deal. So he Swift has got to be pissed. She's got to be furious. You got to pay for that wedding somehow. She's a billionaire. His money I Mean he's yeah the house He saw the the Kenneth Walker signing and he was like we're back. Yeah, we're getting we're getting some money Which might be fair, but he's gonna have to wait till next season. Yeah, which is why they also your deal. He also just signed a Actually didn't talk about it. Yeah, we ever talk about what the chiefs Yeah, they're just in fields the trade yeah traded from the Jets to the chiefs Seventh round. I don't know what the pigs were. just know Justin is on the chiefs now. There's six or seven. So Justin Phil would probably start a game for the chiefs this year. He will be starting at least six or seven. I mean, bringing Travis Kelsey in with him, maybe that's going to help, you know, open Justin's blanket. You're going to have a veteran presence on the offense that just lost Patrick Mahomes. Not to get into fantasy football already, but Maybe Travis Kelsey might be a sneaky little tight end pickup. You know, he's got Rashi and Travis Kelsey now again. I mean like Travis Kelsey's production didn't fall off crazy last season. People were just thinking, oh, he's getting up there. His contract was coming out to an end. They were like, we don't know if he's going to want to keep doing it. And, uh, turns out he's got at least three more years in him. He was with three years injury as well. The Chiefs won't trade him though. You think he's the uh, I he'll end up being the best Chief's tight end. Oh, cause Tony Gonzalez is also there? he's, if he's going to play in the three years, obviously, I mean, he's found the three. Yeah, I think he'd put a move of Tony Gonzalez. After the three years or right now? I'd put him there right now. Right? Is that a, is that a crazy take for the production that he's been able to do? No, I don't think it's crazy. I think. Career wise, could put him above. Athletically. wise, Accolade wise, could put him above. Tony Goodloss didn't have my homes. Yeah. I mean, was. Tony G was Tony G. Yeah, he was good, but. But also like. kind of reinvented the tight end position. Yeah, like I just. Like all time, I would, you know, I'd put Tony G up there just. But that's just like not nostalgia, but like respect. No, because I didn't watch like Tony G's entire career. Like I wasn't watching the chiefs like that when he was there. Like I saw him like as a Falcon. Right. Yeah. But then when it's all said and done, that was Kelsey. Probably where I remember him watch growing up was was Tony G with the Falcons. But yeah. But when it's all said and done, Kelsey probably will be the best Titan chiefs history. He's easily top 10. career there. Yeah. He's easily top 10. probably higher. So he can all of have a Patrick Mahomes or Andy Reid call the plays. Or it's a whole different era of the NFL. The way that Travis Kelsey is kind of re. I want to say, I guess I said reinvented. I more mean like he's reestablished the tight end as a pass catcher in the NFL. Like now you see the Brock Bowers come out of college. see. Who's another one? ⁓ mean, Kyle Pitch has asserted himself as. Oh, who's the Arizona guy? I'm like, Trey McBride. Yeah. Like you see these other guys coming out and they're kind of, you know, becoming like the next era of Travis Kelsey. Not to say eras, but kind of in the tight end era. Seen come out recently. That makes sense. Yeah. Good for Travis Kelsey. Glad to see him back in the league. The new Heights podcast is going to go crazy probably whenever he, They're getting some upgrades for sure. Getting some upgrades. Next one here, we're going get into the NBA a little bit. Some headlines going around. Kevin Durant, we've talked about him before when he passed Dirk. He's now surpassed Michael Jordan to become fifth all time on the NBA scoring list. All the MJ fan boys are going to hate me on this one, but MJ is no longer top five in scoring in the NBA. Is he really the GOAT? This kind of reminds me of when Tom Brady passed Drew Brees for passing guards and touchdowns just because they're retired. Yeah. Even though like, NJ has been retired for a while. But Katie is a generational scorer. Yeah. One of the purest scorers ever. Not according to Bleacher report. ⁓ yeah. That was a different list that we went through. We should start going through like reports. should react to that. Yeah, we should react to that. Well, maybe that's coming. We get our initial thoughts on it when we don't just like talk about it. I did see here Kevin Durant. He's okay. He's not going to catch LeBron. LeBron's like 11,000 points ahead of him, but he is 5,000 back of Karima Dujabar, who is second all time. Where do you think Kevin Durant kind of finishes on the list in his career, Matt? I think he gets to that number two spot. I'd have to run the numbers. I mean, he's averaging 25 this season. I don't know how many games he's played. I assume most of them this season. Because he really doesn't, for a big guy doing that much, he really doesn't get injured that often. Yeah. But I assume he's going to be higher. He's certainly going to be higher than five. I guess let me ask you this. It's probably the better question to figure out. How many more seasons do you think Kevin Durant plays? I think he's like 36. I he's 37. Let me see here. Maybe it's Steph that's 37. Because we were talking about this the other day. Okay, he is 37. So maybe he doesn't get to two. Because right now he's past Dirk and now Michael Jordan. That was about thousand points away. So you'd have to keep that up for five more seasons to get to number two. I think he finishes. I'd say he gets above Kobe. Yeah. Maybe Kobe's only a thousand. That's one more season to catch him. But Carl will go to 36,000. And maybe it depends on how well the Rockets do. Yeah. This season and next. But I mean, if they're like competent, I don't know his contract details also. Yeah. I say it gets to number three, number four in the list. He's still averaging 25 as a 37 year old, which is insane. Yeah. So I believe that game that he passed Michael Jordan, they had a buzzer beater for the win. So Rockets are looking frisky. good. Very good team. I fourth seed in the West. Speaking of another team that's frisky, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Luka Dachich. Let's talk about them. We haven't talked, when was the last time we talked about them? It's been a minute since we talked about Luca, but we got to people know I'm an LFFL, right? Luca fan for life. Dude, so, so am I, which, and you've given me slack. You give me flack for watching them ads. You give me flack for being, for watching them ads being a, you know, a Mavs fan, even though Luca's gone. I mean, they, I can't Not to make this like a soapbox. Not to get on my soapbox. ⁓ he's getting on his soapbox. I'm not getting on it. I'm not getting on it. But, you know, it's not Keeper Flag's fault. It's not his We have him because Luka gets retained Luka. That's not his fault. Even though he's fantastic in and of himself. Incredible player. He's not Luka. Right? And I'll let you. Okay. I'll you take away a little bit. So the Lakers have been on a winning streak. say they have been. They are no longer on a winning streak as of recording this podcast. Matt, what was the final score of the game? Actually, I'll read this out real quick. So the Lakers were on a nine game winning streak. They had a chance to get a 10 game winning streak for the first time since 2019. And over that nine game winning streak, Luca was the first player in NBA history to score at least 30 points or more and win nine straight games in NBA history. And he also, Matt, your stat here, he's the only, he joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players to average 40 plus over the nine game winning streak. Luca averaged 40 points per game, 8.4 rebounds per game, 7.4 assist port per game. So Matt, how did the game go tonight? They lost by three to the, to the one seeded Pistons in the East. Um, Lucas still had 32, seven and six. So Lucas still averaging the 30 over the 10 grand span or he's had it scored over 30. Probably brings his average points per game down under 40. Cause he was just at 40 point flat. Right. It's crazy to say that 32 is going to bring his average down, but yes, it will. Unlucky there, but Luke has been absolutely balling out. Matt, you texted me. He said, I need to get on the podcast. Emergency podcast. need to talk about Luca is the MVP of the league. I'll leave you to it. ⁓ get on the soap box once again. I'm gonna get on it. Okay. So I guess top three MVP candidates right now. SCA Jokic. Okay. Top four. SCA Jokic, Wimby, Luca. think Luca has is actually a, is up to two now, but. Is SGA one. She's one which I will say ⁓ Speaking strictly on I mean the ward is most valuable player If the guy's not on the court, what is the team doing when they say is not on the court the funder still winning? When he don't kids is not was around the court when he was missing that time the nuggets were still float. They still have Jamal Murray Who is arguably like all ⁓ NBA player this year third team second team maybe ⁓ they're still winning without them. ⁓ even the Spurs without Wemby, they're still winning, right? The Stefan Kassel kind of, you know, roast to the occasion. ⁓ the Lakers without Luca, they lose. They lose badly. And there's a much worse team offensively and defensively. As much as you want to say, Luca is not a defensive guy. They're worse defensively without Luca on the court. Obviously they're much worse offensively. Yeah. ⁓ cause he's, I mean, he's averaging 33. Yeah. Right. So, I mean, if you want to talk about most valuable player, when Lucas not out there, the Lakers are so much worse. And with them on the court, they're, they're a third seed in the West, which is a much more, competitive, way more competitive than the East. You got the thunder, you got the spurs and they got the Lakers who, ⁓ we should, and they've beaten the rockets thing a couple of times to give them a little bit of a comfort third seed. ⁓ mean, for what he's done, mean, this the most important month. It's most important month. It's crazy. All the MVP candidates are from the West. That's true. I will say Jaylen. Yeah. Well, I would put Jaylen Brown in there above. Wemby and Jokic. Jalen Brown? Yeah. He's been balling out this season? He's been, dude, he's averaging like almost 30. He kept the, I mean, the South Exeter two-seed in the East. Wow. know, Jalen, I mean, Jason Tatum just came back. I you gonna say Jalen Brunson, but then you went Brown. said, really? Is that what you meant? Jalen Brown are, I mean, they kept them, not only kept them afloat, but they're the two-seed. Wow. They're almost like 20 games above. They're almost 20 games above 500, but Luca, he's the most valuable player, man. Like they're worse with him off the court. And when he's on the court, he's just dropped 60, an ethical 60. out, shout out Bam out of bio. Yeah. Bam 83. just, yeah. I will say it seems like the Lakers. We're now over a year removed from the Luka trade. seems like the Lakers are finally finding their identity with Luka and how to play around him. Kind of like how the Mavs were in 2023 when they made their finals run. It's kind of something you kind of have to figure out as you go. And Lucas, we just ran through the numbers. He's absolutely balling. He did get, he keeps getting technical fouls and there was possibility that he wasn't going be able to even play. Was it Monday night? it ended up getting rescinded. Oh, was it tonight? ⁓ so he was going to get, wait, yeah, tonight is Monday night. Forget I'm, I'm, I'm already ahead on the, on the podcast this week. ⁓ but he got rescinded. ⁓ and there's been the, there's been like the kind of off the court stuff going on with, ⁓ his family and kids and stuff. And still through all of that, he's been able to show up and, all out for his team. ⁓ takes a, you know, pretty strong person to be able to do all that handle everything that he's got going on and still being able to. to put the numbers up that he's putting up every night. I think Luca, once again, LFFL here, I want Luca to get an MVP, even if it's with the Lakers. I wish he would have got one with the Mavs. I think he definitely deserved one with the Mavs back a couple years ago. I think the Lakers, like you said, they are a better team with him. They're even starting to play well with LeBron. LeBron's taken on a new role with Luca, where he's kind of being more of the Power forward, not so much as controlling the ball, bringing it up. He's kind of, you know, bringing some life back into LeBron. Luke. It's also an, ⁓ an interesting question. Do you think Lucas the top dog? I've heard this like talk. Yeah. A of days ago, like I was watching a video. Do you think, ⁓ Luke is the top dog in LA or do you think LeBron is still, is still that guy or has he kind of shifted? As you shifted his, you know, his play style, not his play style, but his like, ⁓ seniority and his. For lack of a better term, his top dogness. Has he shifted that? Yeah. Has he shifted that to Luca? Like is Luca that guy now? I know he's obviously the main score and stuff there, but are you talking like, are you talking like three seconds left? We need a shot who we go into. Yeah. Like who is the. Who is, who's the team? Even if it wasn't doing all this, just cause Luca's the better score. Like he can, you know, get you a bucket whenever you need one. score than the leading score in NBA? Well, so like. But like who's the team. Like looking to, not, not in just like a, uh, like a game winning scenario, just like in general, like they're down like eight or whatever. is, is LeBron. Are they still looking to like LeBron to, ⁓ kind of, you know, hype them up, you know, tell them, you know, we got this, whatever. they looking, you know, to Luca? Like who's the guy now? Who's the guy now? they're looking to Luca, he's probably, they're looking at him, argue with the refs. So LeBron's like, Hey guys, let's lock in here. ⁓ it's funny, you know, Luca always has this thing going on, the, the refs on the court. ⁓ but as far as like the top dog, I think LA. ⁓ It's gotta be Luca, right? It's, um, that's what they traded for him. They, he's the future of LA. They know that he's the one that's going to be it. But now, however, LeBron has played 20 plus seasons in the NBA. So he's still going to carry weight. He's almost like the elder, right? Given advice. if, you know, the wisdom comes from the elders a little bit. they're going to be like, Luca is going to be the one leading the team, but then people are going to look to LeBron for advice on like, Hey, what should we do here? You would say LeBron is the Jeff Green. They call him the Jeff Green roll. What's Jeff Green roll? Just the unk. LeBron's been the unk for like past like two seasons. But he's just, still so good though. He's an athletic unk. He's still so. Yeah, dude. Did you see, I don't know, the other game, he threw a, he threw down a mean dunk. had to go back and catch the ball. Yeah. Just slam it at 41 years old. been him some crazy oops. I think it was Marcus Smart that ooped him, but he's still, think LeBron definitely is. We're really going to piss off the people that like Jordan on this podcast. Yeah. They probably already turned it off. Yeah, he's. If they haven't turned it off yet, I'm going to make them really turn it off. got a fun LeBron stats here. Matt, was telling you a little bit, I wanted to just stick this in the show somewhere. So LeBron James is now the first in these following categories. Games played at the, passed Robert. Was it Robert Parrish? Yeah. South six legend. Parrish. Robert Ori. Yeah. No, it Robert Parrish. Okay. So he's now first in games played first and field goals made first and points all time. First in minutes played first and all star selections. First in all NBA selections, first team all NBA selections, first in seasons played, first in 30 point games, 20 point games, 10 point games, first in playoff points, first in playoff wins, first in playoff minutes played, first in playoff games played, playoff field goals made, playoff steals, playoff free throws made, playoff defensive rebounds, and finals triple doubles. Absolutely insane all the stead. I mean the NBA Record book is just gonna be LeBron James. I needed four hands to count all that by the way Yeah, I don't know if I need four hands to count what MJ did. No, don't do that You're gonna sort of I think that's enough. I think that's enough Laker talk I think we've we've pissed off NBA people enough with that one. I think that was good I think that was good Matt getting into one final question before we get to one final question Happy MLB opening day to everyone. ⁓ Opening day is this week. Podcast drops Wednesday. Tonight there's a game going March 25th. Yankees are taking on the Giants and then opening day is Thursday, March 26th. The start of the 162 game season. So with that, we can start doing some baseball talk. We'll sprinkle it in a little bit. ⁓ But Matt, let's get to one final question. You had a really good one that I really wanted to. I wanted to bring up on the podcast. Go ahead. Okay. So one final question was, do you think would be easier slash what do you think would happen first? was regular person, a regular, an average Joe, average Joe, if you will. Yeah. Are they hitting a home run off Paul skeins or are they getting a perfect March madness bracket first? So this is a great question because it fits in March Madness and opening day. Initial thoughts here. Initial thoughts. Paul Skeens, MLB pitcher, absolutely insane. We just saw what he did in the World Baseball Classic. Best pitcher on the planet. Best pitcher on the planet. March Madness, we just went through the odds of making a perfect bracket. We didn't even make it five games, Matt. All of our brackets are busted. was one in 9.2 quintillion odds of you ever getting a perfect bracket. Now, if I have unlimited, if, if Paul's arm doesn't get tired and I have unlimited yak, unlimited hits, I'm going to say there's a better chance of me hitting a home run off of him before I get a perfect bracket. ⁓ we've said there's more grains of sand on the earth. There's more stars in the universe than there is a chance of you picking the perfect bracket. I least believe I could maybe barrel up one ball out of like a million pitches from Paul Skeens and possibly get it over an MLB fence. Once again, both of these extremely hard things to do. I'm not saying I could do it. I'm just saying if I had a better chance, it's the Paul skeins hitting the home run off of them. Right. And so for you, athletic guy, you do play softball. Yeah, I do swing a bat often. mean, softball is way different than Paul skeins. I know, but you still do that. You're a fellow. But average guy, take him out of his cubicle. Give him a bat. Put him in the batter's box. 104 miles an hour. skeins on 104? Paul skeins. Yes. Okay. That's insane. I mean he's going be throwing more than just 104. He's going to have curve ball change up. Maybe a slider over the plate or something. I'm just saying like 102 the guy's like, has he thrown a pitch yet? Yeah. The balls in the. I still think there's better chance that that guy goes and trains for, you give him 10 years. He can train for 10 years. There's a better chance he does that. then, but I'm saying it'd take longer to get a perfect bracket. It'd take longer than 10 years. Well, I'm, I'm not, mean, you can't give him, I'm just saying unlimited pitches against Paul Skien's unlimited brackets, average, average fella for each. I mean, average. Even if an average guy is squaring up, you know, 102 mile an hour fastball, maybe at least where are we? Red Sox? we're playing at Minute Maid. We're having a short left field. I guess it's not Minute Maid anymore. Wherever the Astros play. I don't think it's called Minute Maid Park anymore. It's not Minute Maid. It's something. Whatever it is. But they got the short left field, the Crawford boxes. We can one over those. I I'd agree with you. Yeah. It's just so hard for, listen. The perfect bracket. The guy's not, whoever the guy is, he's not having Texas in his sweet 16. He's not gonna have, he's not gonna have high point going on a run. He might take a Paul Skeen circle change though. Yeah, maybe Paul Skeen hangs one over the plate and the guy just puts, barreled a bat. They actually say like the faster ball's thrown, if you barrel it up, it's easier to hit it farther. Which welcome to physics class, you know, we're making everyone smarter on this podcast. Right. Yeah. So you agree Paul Skeens? Once again, I want to, I want to specify for anyone that comes here from the TikTok that this is going to be, we're not saying we could do it. We're saying this. We're saying the better chance of it happening is the Paul Skeens hitting a home run off of them. Once again, both extremely hard things to do. Probably neither of them will happen. Oh, we're saying there's better chances on Paul Skeens hit a home run off of them. If Venezuela could do it, I could do it. If who? Oh, Venezuela? If Puerto Rico could do it, I could do it. Meanwhile, like only one of them was hit all last year off Paul Skeens MLB. He's going to hang one for me. I'm going to He's going to hang one out. He's going to take, he's going to underestimate you somewhere. All right. Cool. Well, that was a great final question. If anyone has any others, please feel free to send them in the podcast. Matt's super active on the Twitter. You can go there. Um, actually I'll just get into it. close out the show. Thank you everyone for listening. If you're over on the YouTube, like, subscribe, those notifications, drop a comment, let us know your one final question or your keep three cut five that you want us to do next. If you want to follow us on Spotify, rate the show five stars, helps out a lot. If you want to stay up to date on this show, follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter slash X and Facebook at Brody pod. And I think that's it. I think that's all the social plug we got, Matt. With that, we will see everyone next week. Take care. God bless Matt. Love you all. Good luck everyone on your second chance brackets. Please win.