A Numbers Game | February 23, 2026 | Hour 1

0:00And that is how Sam Darnold won himself his first Super Bowl, exactly how it happened. Does not been airing the last two weeks. Let's stop talking about it. It is a Monday morning, good Monday morning to you. It is a numbers game. Ad visa. These sports betting network. Peace and calm game. Plus I hard radio. YouTube TV series. I don't know how many returns that aren't triumphant, but this one is pretty sure I said that the promo. Did you? Yeah. Kelly Biddle and everybody. Can we just shout out Matt, Matt Brown, right off the top. Matt Brown. Fantastic. The man is fantastic. Two weeks in with you. I imagine you guys had a gay old time when you were here last two weeks on the next and numbers game. Kill Alexander makes his triumphant return for vacation. There you go. I think I have a return. Good to be back. Matt is awesome. As always, thanks to him for being in this chair for the last two weeks and holding down

1:01the fort. What other cliches could I use on there? But he's awesome. Yeah. And I hope everybody recognizes. It gives him his, his proper on that today on the show. And I know you guys have probably, you two probably discussed this in some, at some level over the last two weeks, but we're going to talk tanky for, for a guy, no, I, no one loves tanking more than I do eight years ago. We had the whole NBA tankathon thing that went down, took incoming back then, Kelly. People are like, what is, what are you talking about? Teams tanking. Now people act like that didn't happen, but it was a very innovative sort of thought at that time. Now everybody in the leagues heads on fire over it. That's correct. Eight years later, we're going to talk about NBA tanking teams. I will give you my tears of the 11 worst teams in the NBA, where I think they are in terms of trustworthiness. And by trustworthiness, I'm talking about bizarro trustworthiness, meaning trustworthiness to lose because we want to start brain dead parlays, which we did eight years ago to much success. We're going to start doing that again here on the show, although there isn't really an

2:02opportunity with tonight's late. There's only three games and one of them involves two tanking teams against each other, but we will probably start that in earnest tomorrow, but we'll go through the tears. And by the way, these are just my, this is just my opinion, feel free to disagree on the tears as well. No, I'm looking forward to the conversation. I think it's a, it's like, it is such a thing. I don't think it's ever been more of a thing this year. I can't stop talking about it. Gill, I mean, you were out for two weeks. It was, it was two weeks of, of me basically in charge. You don't think we beat NBA to death, but yeah, this is, I want to hear your thoughts on it. And I think that there's, I think each team is a little bit individual. So I think that's where it's going to be very curious to go, go through each one of them. We'll do a little history on it. We'll do a whole thing. A championship formula by popular demand, our second iteration of the NCAA championship formula. We did one. Danny and I did one. I think when you were out, we did a, and see the NBA championship formula 1.0 in, I think it was the two, a couple of weeks before the Super Bowl. We did it. So this will be the second installment of that. I can tell you that six teams currently qualify.

3:04We will tell you about the seventh and eighth and the ninth, they're just on the outside looking in again, tried and true over multiple decades from which the champion ultimately comes in college basketball. So we're thinking, oh, this team has a chance. Maybe this team has a chance. This kind of eliminates a bunch of squads. We'll go through that here moment, terribly. Wes Reynolds would join us later with his college basketball place tonight. We got another Monday night game in Kansas tonight, get his thoughts on that and what of Darren Peterson? What do we make of Darren Peterson at this point? Okay. Did that, would you take him number one? That guilt is my favorite topic in all of sports. Really? Yes. It's not the NFL draft. Yeah. It's not NBA. Tanking teams. It's the NBA draft and Darren Peterson. It's, it's an interesting conundrum with that kid. Yep. Adam Burke as well. We'll join us. We will do that. We will have some tennis picks coming up on this show. I guess I can give away the tennis place. By the way, the week after the Super, I had a terrible tennis week right after the Super Bowl, sort of right in the ship a little this past week. But here we go. We got two, two plays today. This is later on.

4:05These are both on the lady side. These are not two names that we wouldn't, that you've probably been familiar with over the years. I haven't seen either one of these. Whitney, a sweet way is, is a, that's going to be an Austin, Texas. These plus 120 versus Elizabeth Mandelick, that's going out to the subscribers as well today on the show. These are all outdoor hards, outdoor hardcore, Whitney, a sweet way plus 120 versus Elizabeth Mandelick. And this next one is in Merida in Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. This is just west of Cancun. So hoping that both the men's side on Acapulco and the women's side in Merida can go unscathed with all that's going on in Mexico after yesterday. But I am on Emilia, Emilia, Arango, plus 290 versus Anastasia Potapova. Arango has not been playing well lately, but this is her tournament. She plays very well here. Got to the finals, I believe last year, plus 290 versus Anastasia Potapova. So a sweet way in Austin, Arango in, in Merida, in Mexico. Did you get up to the Delray Beach open at all?

5:07I did not. I would talk about it many times. Did you actually, did you actually get semi close? No. Okay. I forgot to the point of, but then I did get it in coming. You didn't tell me Lurcien was playing. I got that from Debra Songfages, Tyler. So that's it. I didn't know Lurcien was that big of a draw, apparently he's big in the house. Let's put it that way. It's very big. Miami was awesome as usual. I'm guessing. Yeah. Get me started. So as soon as you were gone too, it just got cold like a week ago. And you're like, oh great. I do that on purpose. I'm like, okay, now turn on the jets. And then I bounce. What do I do? Okay, the biggest story. By the way, we'll get to all that. Adam Burke, as I mentioned, is coming up. Later as well. We'll talk some MLB awards, just a couple, little shot MVP and say young, I have a couple thoughts on MVP that I want to share. The Winter Olympics. And I didn't watch much of the Winter Olympics, but I like every other human being certainly watched the United States win the gold medal and hockey yesterday on the men's side. With an overtime, a golden goal winner over Canada, the US arch rivals, US winning the

6:08gold for the first time in 46 years famously for the first time since the miracle. On ice in 1980, the third period is all, in case you missed, the third period was just the electric, a one one game and Connor Hellebuk with just the Connor Hellebuk with two just amazing saves early one on Devon Taves, which reminded those of us who are Washington capitals fans very much of Braden Holtby's stick save in game two of the 2018 Stanley Cup finals when the caps were down, one game to nothing against the golden nights, but they were nursing a one goal lead with two minutes left and Holtby made the greatest save in capitals history. And that saved by Hellebuk yesterday was just like that one on Taves and that was that was awesome. Then McLean Celebrini had a point blank range shot, which Hellebuk turned away as well. And it goes to, it goes to, by the way, that was Alex Tuck, I believe for the golden night to have that shot on Braden Holtby just to be thorough about it. And then OT happens and Kelly, I just want to, you know, I'm getting, I'm hearing a lot

7:11of this, you know, since the game yesterday, because Canada was complaining about the format of it. And I think we can hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time that two things can be true. One, he's kind of right, right? You go, the reason, so the NHL 10 years ago went to a three on three over time during the regular season. It was that long ago at this point, like 2016, because they wanted to, I would have guessed four years ago. In the same way that baseball didn't want to go 18 innings in a game, right? They're like, okay, let's end this quick. So we don't have to play these long hockey games. We don't want as many ties and we don't want as many shootouts. We don't have as many penalty shots. So they went to the three on three and that's great for an NHL game in December in January. But when it comes to the playoffs, it was standing up finals. Yeah. They don't do that. Right? So, yeah, to determine the gold medal on such a thing is kind of lame on the one hand. And on the other hand, he is true. Everybody knows the rules, those are the rules. And so there you go. But I do, I do allow for complaining on that.

8:11Like I think people who push back, you know the rules you're going to do. And we want it to fair and square. It is kind of a lame way to win it. Uh, so I actually have strong feelings about this. Which I never really thought I would be right with the Olympic hockey. We had to steal the attention, especially the past week. Right? How many overtime games involving the men's and women's team? It was crazy. Uh, 12 golds final for the United States. Let me just check that is under 12 and a half. Just under 12 and a half. Someone give me a list of who's most blame. I heard curling was on there. Somebody, you know, I will figure that one out. I think Chris Vellico on tech said, we lost a lot of ones. We should have won that's what was, you know, drew. We finally had back on last week and he was like, this is dead. There's no way. And then they picked up some steam winning a couple and then yes, drop some. But the hockey person, I don't think it need to be a hockey expert to watch. Like I watched almost all that game. I set my alarm for 530 and then I was like, dude, snooze. And I heard my neighbors screaming so loud at 530 in the morning. You are so, you're like, I guess I'm up.

9:13Uh, never heard from the guy like six years, never heard a peep out of that place. He was screaming USA. So that was fun. It was great watching this game. Uh, felt like Canada was the better team for 90% of the game to me. But uh, it is what it is. You got to get pucks in the net, go to overtime. People that scream about this over as I believe who said it. Uh, I think Nathan McKinnon said that after the game. He said you determined who the better team was. Which kind of a weird thing to say when he lost, but whatever. Uh, the overtime thing, kill the two thoughts, two thoughts, right? I know I'm going to get some income on these two thoughts. If we're going to decide the biggest games, we should decide it with the same format that you use for the regular game. Right. So therefore the over time should be five on five. Three on three hockey is way more entertaining. Way more entertaining. All it took was Kale McCart to try to steal the puck for a two on, on nothing, right? He misses that. And then it's a three on one and Jack Hughes. You're on the leaflet forever, baby. Do you just get like the individual skill gets showed off so much more?

10:16There's not like wacky clunky rebound goals and like ricochets. Let's determine the Super Bowl on a seven on seven. You know, if we go to overtime and just go seven on two on two and NBA, though, for a regular season, put it this way. Let's say the miracle on ice in 1980 was one on a golden goal three on three. How would we feel? Would we feel as patriotic? Would we? I guess we would have at the time. We probably like to be like those are the rules. But the memory of it would be a little solid, right? We'd be like, okay, this is the two thoughts thing, though, right? I think it's absurd to go to overtime out of a normal format and decide to game that big that way. But it's, it's just fun. It is fun. It is fun. Gold medal. We don't care. USA, baby. Yeah. That's all we, and just again, Jack Hughes with the golden goal yesterday, his brother Quinn Hughes with the same and the quarterfinals was just tremendous. Johnny Goodrow being memorialized with his jersey being skater. That was fair. He's daughter Noah there. That was just it was a beautiful thing. Mike Toreco could get Mike Toreco shout out how unbelievable he was.

11:19He's awesome. In synopsizing everything and not an overbearing way, but just with a perfect touch on everything. And then the, uh, the dumbest thing that continues to happen, the Olympics, uh, Gill, here's your gold medal. Congratulations. Here's the stuffed animal from this year's Olympics. Congratulations. Well, Jack Hughes, if only are, if only are people were dentists. Maybe someone could help you out with that. Yeah, you don't care. You didn't care. He don't care. College basketball formula, 2.0. Next, numbers game feast in the sports betting network. You're here because you want an edge. That's what separates listeners from winners, but let's be real mindset alone. Doesn't get bets home pros win because they've got the tools, the data and the discipline. And now so can you. Veece and Pro gives you access to the same real time insights, the sharps use, no secrets, no fluff, just actionable info that moves markets. Tap the link and see why serious bettors are turning knowledge into profit with Veece and Pro. A numbers game on Veece and Vee sports betting network.

12:24Get ready to win a large in the live world soccer championship experience only at Circa Resorting Casino in Las Vegas, the one lucky winner scores a two-night stay at Circa. VIP Cabana for the games to stadium swim with $500 in credit plus $250 in food and beverage. Arriving style with limo transportation and celebrate with cocktails at the legacy club. And now kick off the world soccer championship at Circa Resort Casino for giveaway details visit Circa Las Vegas dot com. You said stormy agrees with me off here. So what you said? Yeah, I don't think she was very happy about me saying I liked the three on three hockey last week. Yeah, I did too though. So it was least both of us. No. Enjoy it. No, you can't imagine, you know, again, you want ghost runners to determine the world series? No, I said that though. I said they shouldn't do it to determine these big games. I like it though. Just like I like watching too. I do basketball. Oh, I got more to talk about later on the show. I shouldn't mention. I have to talk about love is blind, but I want to cast the net. What? How many seasons are we into that one? 10, I want to say 10 something like that.

13:25Wait, is this the one that they were like they don't take a break? They just keep going. They do it every night or whatever? No, no, no, that's love Island. That's love Island. Come on, Kelly. Know your love. Sure. Love is blind. I must talk about it because it is bettable at Calche. I don't have any bets. I just think it's worth talking about. My review of America's next top model, documentary. That's pretty big, which I used to bet on. We used to bet on the most heavily attended meeting at Clear Channel San Francisco in the mid-Auts was our America's next top model betting pool. I might have had something to do with organizing. That's awesome. I did get absolutely addicted with a survivor bachelor survivor pool one year that was like phenomenal. Yeah. By the next year, I wasn't even like with the same girl. Like, hey, guys, we still doing this? Like, could I get in on this? Like, come on. We did it. We did multiple cycles on America's next top model. We get, oh, sorry. Go ahead. Do you want me to finish when I was telling you in the break? Yes, please. The biggest story in the MPA for me and you, Danny Ofty up, bro.

14:26This is like, this is, we had, we had yellow flags up. It was a big time red flags now. This is Danny played one minute last night before he had eggs at the game with the back injury that he's now missed 10 of the last 17 games for. He can miss six more games before he qualified for qualified for awards. Most improved player just flipped on its head last night. We're not allowed to have good things. Jack Hughes, everybody's happy. And then Danny Ofty. We're back to where we were. Dude. Do you know what I mean? I know. Boom. Can I just say this? The best I did. So most improved player, by the way, the NBA, Jalen Johnson, now the favorite, Danny Ofty up. Falling. And look, he's going to get the back checked out. Nothing's, nothing's determined with that yet. But this has been, I mean, we were talking about before you left, right? We're going to be in and out, in and out with the back. It's just going to be a thing. And then you kind of look at where they are in the standings. They're not really going to move much from their play in spot. I wouldn't be surprised if he misses too much time. Most innovative, politically incorrect idea I heard over vacation. This is before the NBA All-Star game was played before the innovative, politically incorrect

15:28idea. I'm not. It's not my idea. I'm just passing it on because I thought I was very clever from Nick Wright at Fox Sports. Oh, I heard it. You heard it. Do you guys talk about it at all? They don't have the onions. I do to bring it up, but they, uh, the, uh, see, said, and I love the way he couched at the beginning. He goes, if Khan Kineppel gets better, if Khan Kineppel continues to improve, he's like, why guys versus black? As I said, because you figure out you get yokich, donchich, ovedia, flag, Knepp, all of a sudden you got a ball game. I don't really know. Like, if we're doing that though, I still think the international versus USA thing works. It's just like everybody in the international team was hurt at the same damn time. Come on, Nick, right? It was pretty fun. It was pretty fun. We had tweets meeting the book James at Kanaq 37 would love your opinion on this market. I apologize if you haven't. I missed it. Oh, this is about, um, first, so this is the, they're putting up regular season race to 10 home runs, Aaron Judge, the short shot at plus 575, Nick Kurtz, 10 to one.

16:30That's my guy. There's my, there's my answer to that question because you're going to have a few games in Sacramento at Sutter Park was at Sutter Health Park, pardon me, which is a launching pad. It's not really a launching pad. It's a fact that it's no foul ground and then the wind isn't blocked by two tiers of stands. So the ball just goes and then he's, and then he plays at Yankee Stadium. He plays in Atlanta. Those are big home run parks as well. Stu McGoo. Actually, not Atlanta Toronto pardon me, so I would go to Nick Kurtz on that. Stu McGoo has a bet here. I'm not really sure what he has here. So I'll skip on that one. Sorry. Couldn't really see that one. This is from, oh, Norman Vegas talking about people are now gambling millions on the snowstorms using prediction markets to bet exactly how much snow will fall. That's why I want to talk about love is blind little later on the show. Reed Wilson. Welcome back. Kill now on to the tennis picks. There you go. John Balduce. Hope you got those. John Balduce. We all thought skipping bowl games get ready for NFL draft was a crazy concept a decade ago. Actually, did we though? I never did.

17:31He said his Peterson, just the first college hoops player showing us that load management will be commonplace in college hoops soon. Boy, I hope not. Not during a regular season. I hope not. No, I mean, I don't think you could call it load management. What's going on? He's kind of self load management. It feels like like that self load load management comes from the team. Right. Not from the plot. Not from this guy being like, here's 20 in the first half coach, I'm sitting out the rest of the time. Dave Sager. Not happy about the rampant use of the word of the phrase Twitter machine while I was going. Jason H 11 Dave, I'll crack down on that usage. Jason H 11. I used to not say these things. I don't even think about it. Jason H 11 10 minutes in an epic fail not having Kelly tried to pronounce those tennis plays. Oh, by the way, welcome back. Gilly. Yeah. No, you're right. I blew it all right. I'd get to more of these, but we got to do the formula. Let's do it. Formula college basketball formula 2.0. Here once again, tried and true over the decades of the six criteria. Is the is the plural criteria criterion, right?

18:32Yeah. Last 35 champs had more assists than turnovers. Okay. That makes sense. Three and a half decades more assists than turnovers. 32 of the last 35 had a head coach with sweet 16 experience. Now, this is the one that has taken a knock over the last few years because before, the only exception was Kevin Oli of the Yukon Huskies 2014. But remember, Danny Hurley with Duke, excuse me, Danny Hurley with Duke. That's his brother playing basketball. Danny Hurley with Yukon three years, three seasons ago, right? And then last season, Todd Golden. Todd Golden of Florida. So that's the one that's sort of on life support a little bit. That stipulation right that 2023 Yukon 2025, Florida, 29 of the last 30 champs went to the tournament with at least three wins versus teams of the top 10% of RPI, the only exception there being, of course, the 2014 Yukon Huskies, the exception, everything. Last 30 champs had a top 75 strength of schedule. And then the last two are the Ken Palm stipulations, Kelly, 22 of the last 23 champs, top 20 adjusted

19:37offensive efficiency at Ken Palm, the only exception of that, the 2014 Yukon Huskies. And then the 22 of the last 23 champs were top 20 adjusted defensive efficiency. The only exception of that was actually the only exception to the exception, not the Yukon Huskies of 2014, but the Baylor Bears in 2021. I like that we do that one last time. I always forget it's Baylor Baylor. We had a little little thing in there. That's an interesting criterion for the criteria. We had it the opposite. Oh, you were right. I was correct the first time. Okay. That was right. Okay. I didn't want to do this. You want to do the teams that are, well, we can put them all in the board at the same time. All right. Vanderbilt is in its own category. We've added a category because of the, because of the Danny Hurley slash Todd Golden sweet 16 busting results two out of the last three years. Vanderbilt would be in. They would be in were it not for the fact that Mark Buington has never coached the sweet 16 no sweet 16 at the College of Charleston, none at Georgia Southern, none at James Madison, none in his one season to Vandy.

20:38So the only thing eliminating Vandy from currently qualifying is again that Mark Buington has not coached the sweet 16 before and again, you may choose to overlook that given what's happened two out of the last three years. Now on the outside looking in and these are actually done sort of in order. Gonzaga is the closest. Gonzaga is the closest. They're 22nd in adjusted offensive efficiency over at Ken Palm. That's the only thing keeping them out 11th and adjusted defensive viciously. So only can Gonzaga, by the way, they're always teeter and strength of schedule because of the West Coast Conference, but that's the only thing keeping them out. Yukon is right behind them. Yukon is 23rd in adjusted offensive efficiency at Ken Palm. That's the only thing keeping them out. Purdue 25th and adjusted defensive efficiency Illinois. First and offensive adjusted offensive efficiency in the nation, but 30th on the defensive side and Texas tech 27th on the defensive side 14th offense. So those those five clubs, those five squads, just on the outside looking in Gonzaga and

21:39Yukon being the closest. The six that currently and by the way, the first time we did this Kelly seven qualified Gonzaga was the seventh. The six that qualified in February when Danny and I did this and that currently qualify again. And this won't surprise anybody. Well, one of them or two of them might at the bottom, Michigan, no surprise. Fifth and first, adjusted offensive defensive camp on Arizona 9th and second, although there is the Tommy Lloyd factor as some will be screaming at the radios right now. Duke 7th and 3rd adjusted offensive defense. Iowa State don't sleep on the cyclones 17th and 8th 17th and 8th adjusted offensive defense at Ken Palm. They qualify for everything else. And then these last two is interesting Houston. A lot of people are going to are going to smell a rat here with Houston. A lot of people don't buy into this version of of the Houston Cougars. They are 10th and 7th, though, respectively, adjusted offensive defense at Ken Palm. They do qualify, but I can hear Todd wish and voice in my ear going like, no way, no chance for Houston. And then there's Florida Florida qualifies again, the defending national champions 16th adjusted

22:44offensive 4th adjusted defense when I first did the one week when Danny and I first did the first iteration of this about a month ago. And then I went and played tennis with parls. He was like, no way Florida. But here they are. It has been the hottest national championship bet pick. I've heard in the past three or four weeks trying to go back to back like they did almost two decades ago. I'm coming back, taking, let's talk about it. Oh, I love it. Death. A numbers game on FESEN, these sports betting network. College hoop season, eating up, best betting stretch of the year right around the corner right now. FESEN is offering our hoops. Maidia Special. Get FESEN pro access from now through May 1st for just $29.99. With FESEN pro, you'll get daily best bets from FESEN hosts and guests. Real time draft Kings is a circle of betting splits, AI powered proffos and matchup analysis. 24-7 video and full show replays on the BESEN watch at plus. Our March, Maidia betting guide, including team profiles for every tournament team, key trends for each round, expert bracket and future strategies, and best bets from VESEN's

23:45top analysts. If you're betting the tournament, it's a must sign up today at VESEN.com slash subscribe that's V-S-I-N dot com slash subscribe. By the way, some other college basketball teams I just wanted to mention that did not qualify for those who are wondering, hey, what about this team, what about that team? Virginia, also, by the way, doesn't have a coach that is coach in the sweet 16, not that they qualify on the other stuff either, but Ryan Odom hasn't coached in a sweet six. What is the offense falling behind again, you know, the offense is fallen to his fallen short of the top 20, yes, Louisville, another one, Pat Kelsey never coached sweet 16, Ryan Odom never did it, Virginia, but Louisville has fallen behind the defense anyway. And then other teams like the BYU's and the Michigan looks a BYU terrible on D, not terrible, like not good enough on D Michigan state, not nearly good enough on offense, Nebraska, not nearly good enough on offense, Kansas, not nearly good enough on offense, I bet them BAM. Kelly, bet them BAM, traditionally keeping their brand alive, not nearly as good on defense

24:50as they need to be in St. John's not good enough on offense. We get tweets beating the book. I always appreciate the feedback from everybody. This is from Montess, Stanky, Avicius. The boys are back. No shame to met. We love met. That's my guy. Maybe we should just do all three. One is once in a while. Jason, age 11, the quad guy figure skater totally choked and cost us to give me gold as did the American trader snowboarder that participated for China on one gold. Hey, Jason, relax with the politics. See, guys, I'm a little surprised at the kind of like you said top of the show. Yeah. Limpics come around, going to see what dynsics betting. I might get locked into some random things, right? Like the aerials are crazy and some of these events are just nuts as, you know, as you say, the drunken dares, right? They're fun to watch the some of this, though, the island, island, who like this happened last Olympics. This is an old story. I don't really get that one. The quad god, Jason figured it out. The quad god. How much did we hear about this guy coming into the open is right about I lean though.

25:54She wasn't very likable. I mean, interviews. That's for sure. Colin Murphy. Welcome back. Agreed. Yo, Eddie. Oh, yes. Eddie. Oh, Chico. Oh, Chico is so good. Best color commentator, regardless of sport in my eyes. He's fabulous. He really is. Really great. Quad god. He's doing backflips. So when it doesn't even matter, yo, I'm glad you're getting over it. Got fourth place. First dope. Big and jumped on Canada to win in regulation when it was won to nothing after one period plus 430. That and Rory playing with his food in L.A. made it a sad sweat. John Massey. Criterion is the singular criteria. Plural. And Jenna Connor just wait until Darren Peterson plays 36 minutes in all the big 12 tournament in the NCAA tournament, every game, then all the big media talking heads will call him a genius. Yeah. You might be right about that, man. You might be right. Oh, man. I don't know. I hope so. Let's talk about tanking. Oh, man. Do I love this? So again, eight years ago, uh, this was 2018 on a numbers game for those who remember we have big opens, big graphics about tankathon 2018.

26:56That was the old NBA lottery rules. If you were the worst team in the NBA, you ended up with 25% of the ping pong balls. A one in four chance of getting the number one pick in the draft and the phoenix sons and we tracked every team. The phoenix sons lost their last 27 games that year against non-tanking teams. A Devon Booker would have a mysterious hand injury. That kind of thing. It was just all shady. Anyway, they ended up drafting Deandre. They ended up getting the number one pick. They ended up drafting Deandre. Eighten, they got to the NBA finals with eight and didn't, didn't win it, but you get the idea. It was the big last tank under those rules. Now at David Stern, bin commissioner back then, right? He a living breathing commissioner and the greatest commissioner, some would say of all time. He would have said something like, um, with his smile, you know, how he'd do with things. He'd be like, well, uh, we'll deal with the teams properly and we'll put in some rules that will change this. I promise you. But not without him, silver. Hey, he couldn't care less. He didn't do a darn thing all this time, except for then, right?

27:57The one change they made is they decided, okay, let's go to the worst three teams get 14 percent of the ping pong balls. Well, Kelly, you would think, hey, maybe this would help things instead of, uh, in invited more teams to the party is what it basically did. And so you have all these teams tanking in a situation where again, this was Adam, you know, Adam silver last week, find the jazz $500,000. The Pacers $100,000 in attempt to crack down on those on, on, on, on tanking issues ahead of the All Star break. He said, overt behavior like this that prioritizes draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition will respond accordingly to any further actions that compromise the integrity of our games. This, of course, eight years later, Kelly, yeah, uh, he says, additionally, we're working with our competition committee and board of governors to implement further measures to root out this type of conduct. Of course, he can't do anything about any of it this year, but some of the proposed concepts to curb tanking, by the way, first round draft picks can be protected only for top four

28:59or top 14 selections, top 14 plus elections, lottery odds, freeze of the trade deadline or later date. Some said March first, right? Some say when you get eliminated, then all of a sudden, you're incentivized to win. They can do it that way no longer allowing a team to pick in the top four and consecutive years or consecutive bottom three finishes teams can't pick in the top four of the year after making the final sum of conference lottery, all odds allocated based on two year records, lottery extended include all playing teams, flat nods for all lottery teams, this, that, the other thing. By the way, some other ones by the gold plan of your about this one, which I mentioned after after record after you're eliminated, then you're incentivized to win the lottery wheel. There's this thing. Oh, yeah. I've heard a lot of you will. I suggest that eight years ago on the show, and I remember all this friend came into town to meet Brent. He was so excited to be Brent and Brent says, and we goes, tell your friend not to do that cockamamey idea of the lottery wheel anymore. Anyway, so there's all the lottery wheel meaning you get a, you just rotate, right? Third pick this year, second pick next year, first pick the next year, back to 30.

30:01Yeah. Anyway, none of this can happen for this year because in my opinion, Silver's been asleep at the wheel. Oh, even like the real quick ill, like even like the proposed concepts we just flashed out. And all of them. Some of them are just straight up Contra nature 100% 100% like the ones of the consecutive years, like, okay, lottery odds allocated based on two year records. Okay. Do you want that to figure out who the consistent bad teams are or do you want to go up to bullet points more and go no longer no longer allowing a team to pick the top four consecutive years? Yeah. And so I mean, by the way, in addition to changing that those rules back for the 2019 season, where it went to instead of one team getting 25% the worst three teams getting 14% each, the number 10 team in the draft lottery would have a measly 4% chance at a top four pick, but those odds more than tripled to as much as 14% of the new model and the odds of actually winning the lottery, if you were say the 10th team also tripled. So they might have solved it for the worst team, but they made it better for the teams

31:04that are a little lesser, if you will. Okay. And then there's the recency bias, right? So these are all the confluence of events that are having this perfect storm. The other, the other thing is we have the recency bias of two years ago. The hawks get the number one pick with the 11th worst record. They get recesses as it worked out so well, despite his good second half last year. Kind of met this year again. And then last year, of course, famously, the Mavericks with the 10th pick, they get the number one pick. They get Cooper flag big prize. And of course, the third thing of all this, where it's all, you know, the confluence into one thing is this draft is awesome. Yeah. Right? Cameron Booserts, Darren Peterson, it's AJ DeBonts, it's Caleb Wilson and a whole bunch of other folks at the top of this draft. And next year's draft and the one afterwards, there's no obvious top prospect doesn't look like it's worth tanking for next year. No obvious prospect in 2020. So this is, this is just everybody gun and for it. I mean, this year, it's the talent is clear, right? The next couple of years, the only thing like it, I feel like we've jumped too far with

32:07the, oh, two years out like it is, we don't know. We don't know. We don't know that much. It is amazing how people have thrown that out. Casually, I think it's worth mentioning. But to your point, this is a team by team basis sort of thing. So I'm just going to take the worst 11 teams will do the, and I just want to put them in four categories. One is of the worst 11 teams to mean not trustworthy at all. Trustworthy meaning to lose because what we want to do is do these brain dead parlays that were so successful eight years ago, we're going to track these. Maybe it will be a successful. Maybe it won't somewhat trustworthy trustworthy, though, not against other tanking teams and then extremely trustworthy to lose. Let's just take the not trustworthy at all before the break here Kelly. One is the pelicans. The reason the pelicans are not trustworthy is because they have no incentive, they have no incentive to lose period because their pick is conveyed to the Atlanta hawks. That was that happened last year. They traded their unprotected 2026 first round or two Atlanta to move up to select Derek Queen. That works out. Yeah. So the pelicans, they can play willy-nilly to win games because it doesn't matter for

33:10them. It's not their pick. Meanwhile, the hawks, by the way, side notes sitting pretty just like, yeah, keep losing pelicans. Yeah. Oh, that was the easiest, easiest trade of all time hornets who are 27 and 31 too good to take. They shouldn't be on this list at all 27 and 31 Kelly's race to 30 and full effect almost there. So to me, they're not trustworthy at all because they're actually good at basketball. And the other one that to me is not trustworthy at all is the box, the Milwaukee Bucks have won six of their last eight games without Yannis and and we have no idea how they're going to treat Yannis. And when Yannis gets back, there is no chance to me that Yannis is going to let them lose basketball games. He's going to be like, no, we tried to win, we tried to win champions. Hornets, Bucks could be second, third round playoff teams and the Eastern coffers. So I don't trust any of those three pelicans hornets and Bucks. We'll get to the ones that we somewhat trust and fully trust in NBA tankathon 2026. Let's do it next on a numbers game at Visa.

34:15A numbers game on Visa, these sports betting network back on a numbers game, live from Circus, or casino, downtown Las Vegas, Kill Alexander, Kelly Bidler. We had tweets meeting the book. This is from the razor. Hey guys, any tennis today? Nothing posted on the visa sheet yet. Just didn't want to miss out. Thanks as always. Yeah. Give away. Give out two picks earlier. Osigwe, Whitney, Osigwe in Austin, Texas at plus 120. And then in Merida in Mexico, go with Emilia, Emilia, Emilia, Arrango, plus two 90 versus Anastasia, Panapova. So Swigwe in Austin, Arrango in Merida, Mexico, where I hope everything's okay everywhere for all this. I saw Brett Haber from the tennis channel yesterday was like calling for the tours to get everybody out of both tournaments and have Larry Ellison fly. I'm early to Indian Wells. I don't know why I was doing the parls thing with my arm right there. But I shouldn't be laughing. I didn't even I wouldn't even picked up on it.

35:15You didn't say it. You know, it's one of those things also where it's like, you know, we hear in this country is that we, we just assume there's danger everywhere. There might not be. So hopefully everything's okay. It made me. Yeah. But if there's a 1% chance. I can't. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Great post game interview. Jack Hughes gave also just my country. Love the USA was just awesome. Larry Fresh welcome back. Thank you for talking about tankable lose a lot of time for betting back then. Oh, it was amazing. Well, it got free. Well, after watching the nets finish yesterday there are 99% trustworthy. Well, we'll have to get to the Brooklyn Nets momentarily. Michael Burn's welcome back. You need to work with Chrissy Emily's on that Greek accent. Well, this was a honest accent. It's not the, you know, wow.

36:15We need to go to, you know, and Miko Noosh, and that kind of Greek accent. This is the Yannis specific one, which I have to definitely work on. Absolutely. Which then you need to, you know, keep saying how you love the city of Milwaukee, you always wanted to be a Milwaukee buck. My family loves Milwaukee. I've never requested a trade. I don't know what you guys are talking about. Agent. Agent. I don't know about this. I don't know about this. That's right. He's still. They were still in the same Yannis place. We were two weeks. Incredible. All right. So we just did the not trustworthy at all teams in NBA taking Pelicans, Hornets, Bucks, don't trust them at all. Again, this is all for the purpose of I want to bet and bet one yesterday, by the way, to success a three team brain dead Parley against these teams. Nice. Yeah, but I've been adding them like money lines along the way with other stuff that I like. Yep. Yeah. And good for the most part. Pretty good for the most part. And you're going to listen to the one and when we did it in 2018, there was we only lost one night when Dennis Schrader. I think it was he was, yes, he was still playing then

37:16went off one night. I was like, you didn't get the memo Schrader. You're not supposed to score 41. Shooter on his like 17th team. Sure. Exactly. The other way there is like there is the the warning stories, right? Like the jazz getting fine. Right. And the jazz corrected the owner respond correctly. So you're going to find me. I just want they just want they accidentally won that game. Like that's good to happen. We'll talk about that. Yesterday's brain dead Parley, by the way, is the hawks, the hornets and the nicks. There is no there is nothing tonight because there's only two games that have all tanking teams and one of the games is two tanking teams against each other. So we're not playing. Did you catch the you catch the hawks? That's I know we're going to get to that. We're going to get to that. All right, next category. So not trustworthy at all. Pelicans hornets box. Next category, somewhat trustworthy Kelly. Pacers and wizards. Now the Pacers, a lot of folks 15 and 43, by the way, they're terrible at basketball this year. This is sort of the year, you know, Tyree's Halliburton with the Achilles and game seven. You kind of knew this was going to be that year. Obviously personnel moves as well for the Pacers. The gap here. Well, the gap here. Why are they somewhat trustworthy? Well, first of all, they've lost

38:20seven of their last nine, you know, it seems like they would be trustworthy except for a couple of things. One, they traded for zoo bots. And if they're they're pick doesn't end up one through four. If it ends up five through nine, they convey it to the clippers because of the zoo bots trade. So they got to lose pretty strongly to affect the ping pong ball percentage in a way that could try as best as they can to weigh it in their favor. But there's no guarantees with any of the ping pong ball stuff. So I sing, boy, the Pacers, that was a curious trade to not have five through nine come to them. The other thing about this is what you just alluded to, which is I can't remember it was on air off air, but Adam silver, right, finding the jazz 500,000 dollars in the Pacers 100,000 dollars. So the Pacers have already been fine. So the Pacers are on notice. So the Pacers can't go out there willy-nilly and lose every night now that they've already been fine or can they, right? So that's the only reason why I can't trust them fully. You used the word earlier, Gil, overtly or covertly, right? You can't do anything over or you could, but you might

39:28have to be fine a lot. Also, I also heard from the, uh, who collective pod this week someone a front office member told Brian Winhorse that the first pick is worth a hundred million dollars this year. So they don't, these teams don't care about getting fined. Pacers accused of violating NBA's player participation policy and connection to its game versus the jazz February 3rd, the NBA investigation that included a review by an independent doctor found that star Pascal Cacum and two other starters, all of whom were held out could have played under policies medical standard. I think I think it's completely fair to have him in this category, Gil. I would say this is a complete failure of a season all the way around Indiana. If you chose at the beginning of the year to punt on the year, make this that kind of gap rebuilding year trade for zoo bots and then you don't finish in this top four. That would be brutal. Wizards, by the way, somewhat trustworthy. Why? Because they're six and six and their last 12, Kelly. Like, yeah, you know how to do this wizards? No, they don't. Now, three of those were against other tanking teams. I get it two wins versus the aforementioned Pacers, one versus the Kings, but six and six in your last 12. Like, you can't

40:32be fully trustworthy when you're doing that. They were 10 and 34 and other 16 and 40. Yeah. Now, here are two teams that are trustworthy, though not against other tanking teams as we just alluded to with the wizards, but the wizards just beating teams that aren't even tanking. I mean, like, you like want to say they're doing it right by shelving, you know, try young, anti Davis, you're not going to see those guys, but you're right. Stop winning games. Trustworthy, though, though not against other tanking teams, the Grizzlies and the nets. Now, the Grizzlies are 21 and 34. The Grizzlies you might say could be fully trustworthy, except the issue with the Grizz is the Grizzlies have so many picks coming up in future years. And I know we just said future years aren't supposed to be as good, draft wise in terms of the personnel that's coming out, but the Grizzlies like as much as any of these teams, they are going to have picks galore in years coming up. So it's the one kind of little note about the Grizzlies that doesn't make me fully trust them in terms of a loss here and there. Although, again, full of Jared Jackson junior gone, Desmond Bain, early, you know, before the season started gone. So they clearly want to, but, you know, they beat Utah, they beat Sacramento. So there are teams

41:37that when they play other tanking teams, I don't want any part of them. I think I think that's a good way to put, to put them because they had, they have some good young players that they're going to roll out this year, too, that I think, yeah, against some of the other tanking teams, give them a bit of an advantage still. The nets, trustworthy, they're not against other tanking teams. Listen, the Brooklyn nets have lost 22 of their last 27, but they won five of those, right? They'd be Washington, they beat Utah, they beat Chicago twice. So again, they're a team you can trust, although not against other tanking teams yesterday was just hilarity. Do you see this against the Hawks? Oh, yeah. The Pacers, oh, excuse me, the Hawks yesterday, what, the Hawks were up, what 11? What was it? They were down. No, the Hawks were down 11. Wait, eight minutes remaining, the Hawks were down 11, eight minutes left. They end up winning by 11. Come on. I mean, the net's excuse is like, hey, we've been, this is just a purely bad roster. They're bad roster. They probably had the worst roster in the NBA entering the season. Like, this was, we heard Joe Si say it in the offseason. Like, we're really young. Like, you could

42:40probably see what we're going to do this season. Like, they've been saying they were going to take since the offseason. Here are the four teams, Kelly, that I find extremely trustworthy in tech of the 20s, when he says, one, the Chicago bulls, and you may say to yourself, but they're 24 and 34. That's bad, but it's not horrifically bad. Okay, they've lost their last nine in a row. They've lost 12 of their last 13. And Kelly, if there was ever a team that the NBA, like, if you said to Adam Silver, which is the team among these teams that you actually wouldn't mind seeing sucking all the way through, he'd say the bulls, because the bulls have the fifth worst record in the NBA over like the last was it since 2000. I'll get the year. They love, I mean, whatever, at least seeing them lose consistent games is good because just teams lived in the play and turn it. If the worst cumulative record since the start of the 2017 2018 season, and yet they haven't had a top three picks since Derek Rosentt number one in 2008. And I got rid of Vousavitch and De Sunmue and Kobe White. I completely trust them again. They've lost nine in a row, 12 of their

43:43last 13 sacramental Kings. Kelly, I don't know if they're tagging or they just stink at basketball. But they lost their last 16 in a row. Now eventually, Demard to Rosen or Russell Westbrook is going to have a game and they're going to win one, but I completely trust them. They lose the other tagging. I don't think those vets are practicing very hard right now. The Mavs just broke their 10 game losing streak yesterday. The Mavs I completely trust as well. They've lost 10 of their last 11 and the thing with the Mavs is they don't control their pick till 2031 after this year. So they are completely incentivized to go for it again this year, even though they got lucky with Cooper flag. And then of course, King Tankers, the Utah Jazz, who have been fine $500,000, and you know what they said to that $500,000 final Friday night, they're like, watch this. And they said the the they sat. What was it? How many players was it in the end? It was like just a bevy of players and then marketing right before the game. They're like, he's sick. He's going to sit

44:43out. Yeah. The jazz have been doing the overtaking here. The jazz and the third and fourth quarter against Memphis on Friday night, lost by combined 21 points. And they lose that game. Bulls, Kings, Mavs, Jazz, trustworthy tankers coming back.