A Numbers Game | January 13, 2026 | Hour 1

0:00The number is called the story. Now it's one of those idiots who believe in analytics. This is a numbers game with Gil Alexander. He's gone. He said good Tuesday morning. Two is a numbers game. And recently sports betting network. Fixin.com came plus I hard radio YouTube TV. Of course, serious XM channel 158 skill Alexander. It's Kelly Midland in the his on this Tuesday. Patent. Now much man. Good morning. How are we doing? Good morning to you. The five day football cavalcade has come to a conclusion. Exhausted. I was more exhausted yesterday, but yes. I was in the best of way. Yes, exactly. In the best of ways. We will get into the Texans and the Steelers here momentarily. I just reminded today on the show we'll talk a little hockey with Jake Han. Matt Cox from three man weave on college hoops through Dinsick in his typical spot. Talk at NFL and NBA with us. Maybe we can coax some Olympics out of him yet. I don't know if he's ready yet. We'll have to ask. No, but we got to keep asking. We'll ask. What I need. What I need in my life is some degenerate Olympics.

1:00Best of big. A little loose. Little two male loose. I will. I could bet the Olympics for the next three times four times. Gil and it still wouldn't make up for the random marathon runner. He gave out to me when I was in Key West. Last. What was that two summers ago? Yeah. That was that was one of my favorite. Drew Dinsick betting. Sorry. I love his winter Olympics. Remember John Stewart's line. Less sports than it is. Drunken dares. Jeff Erickson for Roto wire talking vision round with us in the NFL playoffs. Now that those are all set to go. All four games this weekend as they make the Bears game in Chicago. The late one on Sunday. Well, the mid afternoon game. Well, it's one of five 30 p.m. Chicago time. I guess. Highs expected. In the low teens. Maybe not even getting to the teens. NFL power rankings. A little later on. Yes. The final eight. And looking forward to this. I know you are too, Kelly. Rick Gabeen will join us. Golf data analyst over at rickrungood.com. You can follow him on Twitter at rickrungood. Want to get into golfers to watch in the 2026 golf season.

2:02As we're about to get underway here with the Sony open. And also a huge contest he's running. The old prime time action. One and done. That's right. That's right, man. I'm pumped. I'm already in it. You and I will have to get one going for the season this year. I think we got to get back to that. Got to get one. I can fall into the golf one and done. But he's got to do it last year. We didn't do it last year. I love the one and done. But yeah. Rick, Rick. Looking forward to it. Because not only we got Sony open starting this week. Season long thoughts. We got Brooks Capka coming back to the PGA tour. So all that to hit with him. And yeah, what one and done. He always does this with survivor and one and done. A lot of strategy. A lot of kind of game theory stuff. We'll talk through with him. Can't wait for that. Yep. Looking forward to that. As we go country club with golf in earnest. Finally, by the way. First great night and tennis last night. For a recent subscribers, visa.com slash picks 4 and 0. Nice. There's show tennis. Been flipping coins for the first week and a half. Yeah. And then a big 4 and 0. Well, the data has to manifest. I guess there's some degree. So again, don't have them on the show.

3:02Because of the way the time zones are. I'll handicap those after the show. We'll put them up on the website. Again, pays to be a subscriber. As far as football last night. The Texans and the stillers. 30 to 6 is your final score. And honestly, maybe not reflective of just how bad it was. Yeah. For those of us that second time that the Steelers had the ball. Fourth and three at the Houston 14. They decide to kick a field goal. Fourth and three at the Houston 14. Boswell 32 yard field goal. Three to nothing. Steelers. 602. Left in the first quarter. Houston then. First instead of the Pittsburgh 40. Flea flicker Kelly. What's with the plus territory? Flea flicker. Yeah. I have no idea. Cause you are. You've brought it up multiple times. I haven't really commented on it. It is. It is silly. It is silly when you're that far now. The other side of the field. Stroud hit as he throws by Jack Sawyer. Fumbles. Yaya black recovers. Pittsburgh from their own 44 after DK. Meckhaft straight drops. A second down passed down field.

4:03Three now. Houston then goes 14 plays 92 yards and 701 on a drive. Whose second play featured Stroud whipping on a shotgun snap. That drive ends up in a gash fest. Marks for 6127 on the drive. Chubb for nine and six in between 49 yards on the ground. Right up the gut. Most of it. Stroud to Kirk from six out. Seven to three Houston with 828 left in the second quarter. Ladies and gentlemen. That would prove to be an insurmountable lead. Yeah. I mean, we're getting into this afterward. Houston. Like I still have a lot of question. Marks about the like, well, that drive looked so easy and clean. Why did they keep going away? It's like, what are we watching? Um, another Pittsburgh three and out after an attentional granted by Roger Houston. Second play subsequent driving. This is what we're talking about. Second and six of the Houston 23 Stroud hit by Keanu Benton. Fumbles recovered by TJ what? Pittsburgh set up at the Houston 21. Your everyday garden variety. Seven play for yard drive against this Houston defense.

5:06Fourth and two at the Houston 13. This time they decided to go for it. Roger to feel in for four. But as I mentioned, it was a seven play for yard drive. So after Rogers was sacked on a subsequent third down, they got a settle for the Boswell 35 yard field. Well, seven to six. And then on with 157 left in the in the half, then Stroud missed a wide open Nico Collins that for many determined the first half spread brutal pass. Stroud was just awful. They end up funny. That's the end of the half seven to six Texans. It was 198 to 94 in total yards 86 to 24 rushing minus two and turnovers though for the Texans. The Texas zero old Eddie Murphy sketch again a Saturday live, where he's like, he's doing the conceit about what it would be like to walk around town as a Caucasian. Like, here, take the newspaper. This was this was what the Texans were trying to do. And the Steelers refused to take the news. I mean, we say yesterday I'm bashing Justin Herbert. It's usually Stroud said hold my beer like I mean, it was terrible. Now five fumbles. So this was the point.

6:06I remember all week long. I was saying, I just haven't made a bet on the Texans yet. I feel like the reason Rogers was great against the Ravens because the Ravens generated no pass rush in a 42 year old Rogers can really turn back the clock, but the Texans generate the most pass rush without even having to blitz. I love Houston, but because Dr. Bob and Rufus respected names love Pittsburgh so much. I didn't make a pre-flop bet on this. But I'll tell you what I did do. I made a bet at halftime on the Texans because it was minus three and a half at that point. I had seen a half a football. And to me, if there was ever a game that was so obvious what you were watching, like for all the unpredictability of what we were watching earlier in the week in the NFL. This played out exactly how the handicap should have been. Third quarter. Houston was getting the ball first, right? Two so it was angry at myself for not making a play. Trusting you were deciding I was going to trust my instincts and the fact that everything I had seen corroborated that

7:06and Houston was getting the ball first in the second half. But guess what happened? Houston matriculates for the 025 third and four of the Pittsburgh 14 and maybe struts worst moment of the night. Instead of running where he had a complete lane to get the first down or throwing it away or eating it, all of which would have been a better decision to what he did do. He forced it into the coverage, throws it behind the receiver, Brandon Eccles picks it off. At this point, this is brutality. Like CJ Stroud could not be worth, could not play any worse than this. Pittsburgh from their own four, they do get their first third down conversion of the game at that point. But they still have to pond. Anyway, Pittsburgh gets the ball back again. They pond after Rogers is sacked by Daniel Hunter. By the way, he fumbled it. It was recovered by his teammate offensive lineman Mason McCormick. So it could have gotten bad then it didn't. We're still talking about a seven to six game at this point. Into the fourth quarter, Houston, by the way, first down on this next sequence. Collins, Niko Collins headbashes into the ground. He has to be carded back. He never returns. Second down Stroud and his handles yet another snap recovers it though.

8:06Third and 15 at their own 18 Stroud to Kirk for 49. This time they do settle for a fair bearing 51 yard field goal which he drilled to make a 10 to 6. And in my notes, with 1307 left in the game, in my notes at that point, I do write insurmountable lead 10 to 6. Even though it turned out 7 to 6 turned out to be the insurmountable lead. Pittsburgh then third and 12 at their own 43. And this is where a game that was still in the balance. In reality, though, I thought it was insurmountable. Really did become insurmountable. Will Anderson sacks Rogers. He fumbles. It's picked up by Sheldon Rankins 33 yards of the house. 17 to 6 Texans with 11 23 left. Now the texts are flying around. Hey, you know, in the last time Mike Tomlin won a playoff game. Obama was in office. That kind of that kind of text flew around. I think Wilson. That one. Pittsburgh punts. Fourth and 13 at the Houston 48 with 936 left. Can we just talk about this? I was watching with my brother at a restaurant with TV.

9:06So I did not have the audio. Yeah. Did Troy Ackmann or Joe Bucks say anything about this? Oh, I'm not that I remember. Okay. This is. I was punched back and forth between NBA. It's a 17 to 6 game. They're in plus territory. The Houston 48 fourth and 13 with 936 left. And Mike Tomlin punts the football. Now the only counter argument that you one can possibly make to this is. They were so inept on offense. That they had a better chance of Houston doing something dumb offense. Sure. That maybe the punt wasn't the most ridiculous thing in the world in this particular matchup on this night. I still think it was Tomlin. I mean, Tomlin and waving the white flag. How do you not go for? Houston then goes 11 plays 97 yards. 551st route to Kirk for 33. The big one. Six plays later. Markson from 13 24 to six. And then it goes to farcical Pittsburgh fourth play. Fourth and five at the room. 34 Rogers picked by Caleb Bullock. 50 yards of the house. 30 to six after Fairburn completely divoted on the extra point.

10:0830 to six. That's how it would end. And if that is the last game of Aaron Rogers career. Let the record show. It's a pick six. And Aaron Rogers was being coy after the game. We don't know what he's going to do. We don't know if he's going to try to play some more football, not under contract anymore. Or we go home and, uh, you know, be more introspective and do some more of his own research. Does that we like to do? Yeah. Sure. He likes to do his own research, Kelly. What is the next step when Aaron Rogers retired? So what is the next step in the Aaron Rogers career? He's going to do more research. Yeah. The Texas. We see him ever again. Yeah. To my point, Hayden Wiggs here. The Texans blitz just blitz just four times in this game. The Steelers had 101 net yards on the 34 non blitz dropbacks. Good for a 2.97 yard average for those bad and math plus a pick. That's how dominant that Texans D was against Pittsburgh. That was incredible. I mean, I know there'd be a lot of conversation about the Steelers after this game. But like the Texans, I find this so fascinating heading into the next round,

11:11right? Because there's a lot of confirmation bias after that game last night, right? Either you were very high on this Texans defense and they could have not looked better than last night. And you think that's going to carry them along or you were likely one of those people doubting the offense. And oh, boy, the offense did absolutely nothing to convince you that this is really a team to be scared of. Well, you can guess where I fall on that. I'm on the former. Yep. I love that Texans defense against the Patriots. I grabbed the Texans plus three. That was split, then. I laid two and a half of the patch. Give him to me. Niners plus seven and a half. Texans plus three. I'm in. Coming back on a numbers game. 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 bet's home pros win because they've got the tools, the data, and the discipline. And now so can you be some programs 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.

12:14With Vsimpro. Number's game on Vsim. Vs Force Betty Network. What a bet smarter start with smarter insights. Right now you can check out Greg Peterson's college basketball. The best bet Steve McAnon has his traits of college basketball champions. That sounds interesting. And parks racing picks from daily racing form. Later today you can check out Zach Cohen's NBA best bets. Jonathan Davis's NHL picks and props. West Reynolds Sony Open preview West Reynolds. Ready to give out his first futures or at least his first tournament futures of the year. Right now use promo code ANG to save $60 off a Vsimpro annual subscription at Vsim.com slash subscribe. That's promo code ANG Kelly. ANG is in the numbers game. Thank you very much. We get to eat speed in the book. T-Pars 2. 3 and 0 on the courts last night. Let's go. You the man, Gilly. Actually, 4 and 0.

13:154 and 0. Oh, and then let the let the calls for CJ Stroud to be benched or not renewed. Begin Ray in Texas. Cannot pay CJ Stroud big money. Foo's point out he's running for his life has never had no line the top third. Let's see how the Texans address that in the offseason before shipping him off. You said you even saw texts where people wanted to bench him now for a day. I did just say see a tweet from a better that was they better. They better make a quarterback change before they was bow out. There was a text in our group text last night from I can't remember whom. I want to say for League maybe. Maybe it was will. I don't know who said we shared Davis bills. It's better than CJ. I mean, after that game. it's fair to ask, I guess this is from a fire Jerry Jones at WNBA expert. He says, is it possible that one or two mines, Rufus, Dr. Bob are shaping the entire market these days. Unscientifically, it was clear as day that game would play out that way 10 out of 10 times, even with Stroud playing that way in the first half. This was my point, man. Not the part about

14:19them shaping the market, but this was my point about how predictable this game was based on the handicap. Oh, my, if only sports worked out this way all the time. Right. Like here's the handicap. They're going to generate past rush on the 42 year old quarterback without even having to blitz. They're going to become an epitone offense and and Houston did everything possible to give them that game is amazing. This is from as far as one or two guys shaping the market and football. No, no. Yeah, I mean, that was that we still closed three on that game, right? Yeah, so that's shaping right. I don't know if I saw that move off three the whole week, right? Opened there, stayed there the whole time. There was some, I know lighter, lighter juice heading into it that last night. Bond to plate. Thanks for the extra money, Gil, your tennis picks are the number one reason I subscribe. Thank you, Bond plate for that fairway Fred. I wake up to a 4 and 0 this morning. Bravo down under my favorite place. I've ever been, by the way, being Wednesday, what have you done for me lately? Like I said, I will, I will handicap tonight's from all those spots, including Adelaide, they're probably at 500 and Adelaide, Kelly on the other side. Good.

15:23It's officially here. Season's officially here now when Adelaide is. Adelaide. Shrek McFeed the entire game changed with that DK drop. You mentioned Aaron completely went away from him. Whole mood changed. Houston beats New England, even without Nico. I, I'm with you. I really have Bob C dash 137 Rogers will cover sports for truth. Social. Jesus. That's what you'll do to answer your question. Nash, last name, Nash. Tomlin deciding to punt in the fourth with nine minutes remaining shows the game has passed the binary wave the white flag. With that amount of time, the Steelers punting wouldn't give them enough possessions to make a comeback. Ridiculous decision. Well, that's what I thought in the moment to last name, Nash. That was the quintessential Mike Tomlin moment of all Mike Tomlin. I'd hate to say it, but I kind of, I really took it as this, this keeps over. The white flag just it was like, I know you can't, I know you can't. Eddie Prunella Peyton was feeling physical pain when the Steelers punted in the fourth. Which pay, Oh, Peyton Manning was on the bra on the alternate broadcast. Oh, I didn't know that I, I was to Brian Schaefer. What's Dave Ross's problem taking shots at you and Tim Murray's

16:26commanders on a show earlier? Well, Kelly, you want a little commanders versus cowboys or ADL? No, no more ever again. Shut up. Goddard. Ever these motivator coaches are not future, are not future for the NFL Campbell lost all those good coordinators. Harbaugh was stuck with Roman. Tomlin got to deal with Arthur. This leads me to believe John Harbaugh may not be employed in 2026 as a head coach at least. Oh, I was taking it even further. I just will say this about the whole Tomlin thing. Um, because people are like, Oh, he's got to go or he's, he's, they're not going to bring him back. The Rooney family is not going to fire. Let's just get that a step. There is nothing about the history. It's Chuck Nolan. It's Bill Coward. It's Mike Tomlin. They're not firing him. If Mike Tomlin wants to leave on his own volition, right? And go take a TV job. That's another story. But they're not firing him. I just don't do that. What's the wording? Mutually agree to move on. That's like minus 130 right now. Yeah. To me, I don't, I don't know if that's the favorite or not. Do you think he's in back? I don't know. I mean, there's no evidence. He hasn't

17:28sent anything. So there's no evidence to suggest that this will happen because it's not going to come from the other side is what I'm saying. I'll say this. It is, it is wild. Like I don't, I mean, season after season, right? This is incredible. The win total going over the win totals, not having a right losing regular season and then just falling flat right away. Is it 19 years in a row? No, they flash up 19 years in a row. So I think it's 19 years in a row without a losing record. All of his entire tenure in Pittsburgh. However, Duke Kelly's point, Steelers lose their seventh playoff game in a row. They now become the first team in NFL history to lose five consecutive playoff games by ten or more points. Is that good? What? Yeah. Wow. So seven in a row. The last five of which have all been by double digits. Yeah, it's bad. That is suboptimal. What we like to say about that. And then, you know, Rodgers will see. They were all I saw. I was like following him through the tunnel and through the hallway and all that issue. I was like, okay, leave it alone. We'll Rodgers not allow himself to leave on a pick

18:30six. Is this the other question? I know. I would hope that's the I would hope that's the game that says, all right, like this is why why do you even got to put yourself through this anymore, right? Like this is it's tough out there. There are some good defenses and you looked real bad because of one of them in your in a game that I would think should be your last. All right. So let's push us forward to next week. We have the chronology of events now. Bill's at Broncos starts it off Saturday. So Bill's Broncos nine or C Hawks back to back on Saturday. Remember the games are staggered later on Saturday and earlier on Sunday. So it's a 130, excuse me, 430 Eastern and 8 PM Eastern kickoff for the two games on Saturday. And that's a 3 PM Eastern and a 630 PM kickoff pair of kickoff on Sunday. So Bill's at Broncos. I did not make it. So it's Broncos. Is this Broncos of favorite by one and a half now? Yeah, over a draft. Come in my way. So I couldn't believe. I mean, listen, I'm not a Broncos guy, but I couldn't believe the bills were favorite in this. It's one of those you can find. I think it's going to, I think it's going to be a lot like the

19:33Jags bills game last week. It's back and forth. There's pickups on the board. There's bills one. I don't have any. I don't have anything in this game. So me neither except for I did. I did make a bet last night on what we were discussing yesterday. I had nothing big. I took the bills to win the AFC though. I am not sitting. I am not sitting. I will be watching my guy Josh Allen have the playoff run of a lifetime. I'm not going to have a ticket on it. So I did take a little plus to 50. The football equivalent for you of betting a golf for every week and then one week and playing. Exactly. Thank you, Gil. That's exactly what it is. Yes. Or the lottery equivalent of playing the same numbers every day and then one day not playing them in the wins. I do legit feel though. Like we, you know, you and I were both on the Jags last week. I kind of thought that was the, you know, not only to say the Factor AFC Championship game, but man, whoever was going to win that game. Well, I think it was going to be impressed by going forward. If you can go, I think if you can roll into Jacksonville and win that game, yes, the defense is tougher here in Denver, but I'm not as worried about the offense as much as I was with the Jacksonville

20:35Jaguars. Niners at Seahawks. I grabbed the Niners yesterday plus seven and a half as they come down at all. So, okay, so funny. So you, you grabbed the seven and a half. I laid six during the show yesterday. I laid six on open. I just saw for it is seven. It was seven and a half everywhere. Because I kept bringing it up. I am going to buy it on some of the Niners. Just wait. There's no rush. If it's seven and a half everywhere, right? Five minutes ago, a fan dual boy just ticked down to seven. Yeah. Um, which I kind of would expect that I think this is seven to seven and a half most of the week. Don't you? I think that keeps bouncing. I don't, I don't think we see it at more than seven and a half. No, I don't think we'll see more than seven and a half. The question is as a go below seven is my only question on that. Um, if, if I had to say it goes one way, I would agree with you. I think it'd go a better chance of six and a half than, you know, eight. George Kittle, out for the year with the Achilles now, Jaiier Brown, Niners safety, sustained a hamstring injury. He's unlikely to be available. Um, Fred Warner. For weeks, there's been, I'll just read it here. For weeks, there's been speculation that he could

21:37return. They made a depot season run. Um, with the Niners advancing the divisional round, Mike Shanahan saying, still not very likely. Yeah, well, he's still not very high because remember originally it was he'll be back for the championship. They get that they sort of moved it up to division round. But I mean, that's aggressive. He completely destroyed his ankle earlier in the year. Um, I thought I saw a quote yesterday from him, but basically saying he's ready to go whatever they want him to go. Which I thought was a little odd. Well, he's doing, he's running on the sideline, doing some light running on the side during Thursday's practice this past week. I think the one, though, where you know, you and I are split right now in these games. I like, I think the injuries are massive. I do. Like I think Kittle is going to be huge for the Niners. I think Nico Collins is going to be huge for the Texans being out. Which Brock Perty are we getting? Which Sam Darnel are we getting? Right. Yeah. And I just think seven and a half is too many. 45 and a half the total there. Sunday Texans Patriots told you already got, I took the Texans plus three. I think that defense is going to rule the roost in that game.

22:42And I think CJ Straub can't be any worse, right? Can't be any worse, right? He says question. You would think right. I laid to it out of the pads. I don't, it's not a huge bet for me, though. This is, I thought this would be solid three. I was a little shocked. There were two and a half and I got nothing on the Rams bear so far. You mean he threw me to I actually think that is the game most likely that I will not bet anything on the chance of snow 30% right now during the ball game. 15 to 14 degree high. High. 14 degree. Winshield. Factored in as well. Numbers game on FESEN. These sports betting network. Profit X is the number one place for college basketball college football player props. They offer all players at all schools and every state. Profit X is available. As we get closer to March Madness and then the college football playoffs take advantage of Profit X's 20% purchase match. Download Profit X now and experience the future of winning. Use promo code V SIN to get started. We get Tweet Speed to the book R-A-E

23:46network. I always gentleman who introduced himself over at the win to be the other day works over at the win. He says I was just looking at Super Bowl futures on stations are the Niners at 15 to 1 to win it. Possibly a consideration. I know they're seven plus seven and a half this weekend, but it feels like they could beat Seattle that wouldn't be more than a field goal dog to the Bears or Rams. Well, as far as mathematical value, you'd have to try to put it in the old parlay calculator, right? This week's money line what you project next week's money line would be against either opponent. And then what it would be or what it might be in a Super Bowl. So it's a little bit of dirty math because you don't know exactly what it is mathematically, but do I in my heart of hearts? Do I think the Niners won the Super Bowl? I do not. I do not feel late when the Super Bowl. Yeah, I do not think I win this week. I do, but I don't think they get to the promised land. I think you're probably better off just playing the money lines, right? Whatever the money line this week is Chris, Chris Hartman, Gil with contract extensions coming after year three Houston must be ecstatic after last night's game straddle want a quarter of a billion dollar

24:48deal. And they'll be able to show them highlights from that gem. Here you go, CJ. Take a look at this. Well, CJ talking smack to the Steelers fans after the game too. It's like, hey man, maybe pipe it down a little. I owe you a six nine. I'm sure earlier in the year, we'll put out this bed. Steelers make the wild card, but lose in the first round, which I wish I had that market Detroit Lions make Mike McDaniel. He can't refuse to become their OC. Okay, that was a bunch of run-ons, but I get what you're saying. You want Mike McDaniel to be the Lions OC. I didn't will have the the Steelers to get knocked out in the wild. It was like plus three 20 or something like that. So the way you would do that. I was kind of joking when I brought it up, but I think like if you're at it, draft Kings, because we've looked at these markets, the I guess draft Kings preseason, I don't know if they'll let you parlay it, but you could theoretically go over their wind total and then stage of elimination to lose the wild card around. Rich PSM, the great phasic also picked the Steelers plus three on your Friday show made me hedge my playoff survivor play, which also lost that was his aggregate. That was that was an aggregate play. Why don't you

25:51I'm going to assume so. Yeah, I'm going to assume so. I'm good. You know, they say about assuming, but in this case, I feel like we're on solid ground. Oh, let's talk some. He referenced pop, right? I think he referenced. He did. I think I. Oh, did you? Okay. Sort of nudged it that way. Ladies and gentlemen, let's talk some hockey. Jake Han joins us now courtesy of the progressive guest line. Jake the coast of the point Monday through Friday, one of three PM Eastern and the fantasy hockey show Fridays at two PM Eastern on series XM NHL. He joins us now courtesy of the progressive guest line. Jake was having it. Not too much guys. I enjoyed the little football chatter there, even though it was not a great weekend for yours truly in terms of cheering for his football team. Tough one for my Packers on Saturday night. I kind of felt like Leonardo DiCaprio and the Revenant getting ripped around by that there. Basically, that was the entire second half for me in on Saturday night. So hey, it happens being a sports fan. I just experienced it months ago with the Jays. Now that was a different scenario being so close to a championship. So hey, my team's out, but it was a great weekend to football. And I'm excited for this week.

26:53Can we just since you bring it up? Can we just take five seconds to think about that game seven again? Oh, I thought you were going to the Revenant of the Jays. Oh my god. Please no. Geez. That's one of the great sporting events we'll we'll ever see. All right, let me just let me just ask you this is our great North American Nightmare over or great hockey global nightmare over Olympic test events, which usually occur months. If not years before the Olympic Games begin, the men's hockey tournament begins February 11th. The women's on February 5th. They are saying now the NHL is we like what we're seeing with the ice. This is a go. Yes, yes, some finally some positive news here, guys. It's been it's been rough. It's every update we get is not a great update and you see the ice. Oh, there's a hole in the ice now. They got to fix that. And I think some of it. Okay, you see a report on social media. Maybe it's out there for clicks a little bit. And you know, you hear people who actually know talk about it and say, hey, this is a normal process. You're working out the kinks with the ice. Nothing to worry about. They got plenty of time. See pictures of the locker rooms that they're unfinished. So there's been

27:55some some problems. But I think we can all take a little bit of a little bit of a sigh of relief now at this point. No. Okay, at least we got something to play on. Is it going to be, you know, up to standard is going to be maybe a little bit shorter in some spots? Yes. But these guys will play on anything. They've made that very clear. I don't think the players care. I think they're just excited to go over there and represent their countries for the first time in a very long time. Okay. I know we usually have a bevy of picks for us. And I and I run you into the wall. So why don't we start with them now? What do you have in terms of sides? I'm going to start with a money line play here, guys. And I'm going to just ride the hottest team in the national hockey league right now. And it is the Tampa Bay Lightning who are up to 10 wins in a row after dominating the flyers in their last two games. At a bit of a scheduling quirk, they played in Philly on Saturday. They played in Philly on Monday. So they actually played the same team in the same place twice. They beat them going away both times and Philly's actually had a pretty good season this year. And then they stayed in Pennsylvania here. It will be their third road game in four nights, guys, which I don't always love as a spot. But I just love riding a team like this that

28:57is just having a great time coming to the arena. They want to be there. They probably play every night if they can at this point. And they save their best goal tender for this match up. They're back up played last night. We get Vasilevsky tonight against the penguins team that's still very leaky defensively. So I'd even maybe take a look at the Tampa on the puck line because they've just been running away with some of these games. But the minus one 30 money line, if you could shop it down to minus 125, that's a play for me to just ride the hottest team in the NHL. And finally, Jake, because we've been monitoring this all season, a full 15 points between the top and the bottom of the Eastern Conference. That's that I think that's the most breathing room we've had in an otherwise pancake conference all season long 15. That's right. We've finally seen some team step up and actually play some good hockey. And I've referenced this on my shows a few times January is moving month to steal a golf term that I know Kelly will appreciate with the Sony Open coming up this week. This is like the Saturday. This is moving day because we're not going to play hockey for the most part in February NHL hockey at least. I think teams want to put themselves in a very good position before that. And then the trade deadline is going to happen

30:00after. So I think it's going to create some great hockey it already has. And we're kind of starting to see that cream rise to the top. All right. Some more sides. It's told me 15 points. It's incredible. It's incredible. Yeah. It's amazing. And we're talking about that as separation, which is just kind of speaks to what the season's gone to. I got one total for you guys here as well. Okay. And over over six in the Ottawa and Vancouver game tonight. These are two teams with dealing with a lot of issues right now. Ottawa on and off the ice if you know the story that's going on there. But they want to figure it out on the ice. I think Ottawa can score on Vancouver, Vancouver has had a horrible time keeping it out of their net. Goaltending issues now with Demko hurt. They played last night. I think Ottawa is going to have really no trouble scoring on the conucks tonight. And I think the conucks can score in the sense. I don't trust the sense coaltending situation either at all right now. I think they could at least get a couple past them. So I played the over six at minus 120. If you have to play the over six and a half to get the plus money on this one. But I like goals tonight in Ottawa. All right. Proposition bets. Jake

31:02would like to interest you in a proposition or two. What do you got here on props? Let's go back to Tampa. I can sort of tie this into everything that I said about the lightning. But this is a play. I've been making any time the lightning play. And it's it's basically cashing every game. It's the key to Couture off for two points. It's plus money. I played it at plus 110. And I see that number maybe going up a little bit before we get to game time here. You can also play them for over two and a half shots at minus one 15. I believe that's a pretty good price as well. Hasn't been shooting as much as he usually does. He did have six shots last night against the flyers though. And but a guy if he's priced at that range. I think now you kind of buy the dip on the Couture off shots. So Couture off shots. Couture off points to angles. I'm going to be looking at Conor McDavid for two points as well. Just feels like an auto bet. Just play the best players in the world. And a lot of times you play these guys for two points. And it's it's cash in the first period. If they have a really good night and the offense gets clicking early. Edmonton owns the Nashville Predators, particularly Leon dry settle. But we're just going to stick with McDavid here. Minus one 10 for two points in this hockey game. I also

32:05like Nick Elers over two and a half shots for the Carolina Hurricanes in St. Louis tonight. Carolina likes to fire it. He's up on that top line right now. You can get plus money for him over two and a half shots. So take your pick on some canes. Gossip spares another one. I wouldn't mind looking at in this game in the prop market. And finally, Boon Jenner, the Columbus Blue Jackets against the the Calvary flames. He's been firing it a lot lately. I was looking for a jacket to attack tonight because I think Cal agrees in a pretty tricky spot. I feel like Columbus should be firing. And I settled on Boon Jenner plus one 35 for over two and a half shots. I think that's a a good number for where he is in this offense right now. Blue Jackets just fired their coach. If I'm not mistaken, did I hear that? They did. I'm glad I'm glad you mentioned that gill. This is our this is the first time we get to talk about that all season. We have not had a coach firing, which is amazing for the NHL. We usually have like six by now. So this is our this is the first first chance to play that coaching bump that people love to play. So I know there's going to be a lot of people blindly playing the jackets. I don't hate that angle. It is an angle I've played many times in the past. I just don't really love laying minus 140 with the jackets right now.

33:09And Cal agrees. Cal agrees been a little bit feisty. They had a really bad start to the season, but they'll give you a decent game. So personally, it's not going to be a play for me on the jackets tonight. But I understand there's a lot of people out there that just blindly play the the coaching bump angle and it does tend to work. I feel like teams do get a boost from it most of the time. And last thing, last 30 seconds, because I, you know, I grew up at DC. Ovechkin has 917 goals. I think Tom Wilson has a couple more goals than he does. Otherwise, he's leading the caps in goal scoring this year. He's really going to play to get to 1000, isn't he? He's doing this. I hope I hope so. I hope so. He seems to be having a lot of fun. And I think I think the one thing that makes me think he might do so is that the caps have actually built a pretty legitimate team around him now. It ties him to hang right. He wants to play important games. He wants to play in the playoffs as well. Maybe compete for another Stanley Cup. So that might keep him hanging around for an extra year. And I feel I'd love to see him chase 1000. That would be cool. That would be as unbreakable as it gets one would think. Thank you, Jake. Appreciate it so much, man. Thanks, boys. Have yourself a great week. You too, Jake Khan, everybody. College hoops with Maddie Cox.

34:13Next on a numbers game. We have our guys behind the glass who we love. We couldn't do this without them. From Chris, to Rob Marano, to Darnell, um, to Larry, Larry Mayor to everybody else besides those four core guys, Danny Higgins, of course, um, but sometimes they're in the studio. And there's like three of them and they had to like scurry like rats out of here before the we got back on. Well, well, I will Chris Foster had to give us the countdown. I believe that was Chris. I've never heard Chris give the count, uh, the count back before. So yeah, the crew's scrambled today. There are times. There are times, Gil, you know, we've had me and you have done this show for what five years together over five years together now in three different setups. There are times when I'm sitting

35:16out here with you and I know something chaotic's going on behind there and my just the years of producing this, this, this, this, this, this, itch on my brain begins to hurt when I want to know what's going on. This is not one of those days because we just have lights on cameras that are down and it's like four people out here trying to fix them. I'm just doing a radio show. Whatever else has happened, I have no idea. By the way, one clarification on the Fred Warner thing. I just, because I want to point this out just to be thorough. Fred Warner on Fred Warner is a different matter. Right. Fred Warner said on Resilio. Ryan Resilio does a great job, by the way. He said on a possible return to the playoffs, I'm ready, whatever they're ready. Okay. So I was, I'm glad I didn't just make that up or I'm ready whenever they're ready. There's some teas that got to be crossed, eyes that got to be dotted. If it were just up to me, I'd be out there this weekend against the Eagles is what he said last week, but it's unfortunately not that way. So he's ready to go. He says, I guess that's, that's a, I only caught the first part of that statement. The whole cross the T's dot the eyes things makes it sound like there's still some

36:16like tests. He's got to pass or something. He always got to cross your T's and dot your eyes. You do, because otherwise people will not recognize those letters. Yeah. It's very true. I'll let's talk some college hoops. He is one third, though perhaps more than 33.3%. Maybe a little more than that of the three man weave trio, Kai, Jim and Matt, Matty Cox joins us now. You could follow him on Twitter at Matty with a Y underscore COX and you can follow three man weave at three MW underscore CBB. Talk some college hoops right now courtesy of the progressive guest line. Hey, don't, Matt. Tell us, I don't have privilege. How are you? On a Tuesday, honor in a privilege is ours. Come on, man. Obviously. I want to, I just want to follow up on the big themes here in college basketball, because Jim James Patrick Aroute, uh, your colleague was on with us last week. And I just started gushing over Michigan, right? I'm like, oh my god. Uh, they're the third team ever to beat three ranked teams by 30 plus points or more. Obviously crushing Gonzaga for their only loss by 40 plus just rolling through teams. And then they just get by Penn State. Like they,

37:23they had a double digit lead against the Nettany Lions. They had a brush with a loss. They get by Penn State. And then while we were all watching football on Saturday, Michigan, Michigan is at home. They're beating Wisconsin by 14 and lose to the badgers is the badgers who were 240 second nationally and three point percentage going in shot 15 of 33 from behind the arc of Wisconsin gets it done a blip on the radar for Michigan or a something to be worried about. I'll split the difference. I look at the look at the Yukon team from 2023. This was the first of their back-to-back dominance. We, we all forget they lost seven conference games. I think when you get into conference play, especially in league like the big time is a lot of good coaches, you start to find, um, you know, schematical, um, issues or areas to exploit. I think Michigan, they watch those two bigs that drop coverage with, um, Mara, who's like seven foot 10. It looks like on the floor. I think

38:23there have been some, um, you've seen the last two games, Penn State did it, but then also was Thompson with Nick Boyd, Dusty Mase for a point card actually at FAU. Uh, they really kind of found a way to attack that defense with all the length that they've been playing that jumbo lineup. So I think Michigan will have to make some adjustments. It's just kind of like the, the evolving chess match of college basketball, especially in conference play when I think the tape in the scouting gets really, really good, uh, especially in the big time, which I think has a lot of great coaches schematically. So I think they're going to drop water to more at least in conference. But in terms of what, what do I think they are in the national total play? I still think they're top three easy. Yeah. This is not like a long term concern for me by any stretch. All right. Well, let me ask you about something else then, uh, about a couple teams that we talked about maybe a month ago. When I asked this question in December, it's always like, uh, yeah, that's cute because they're going to lose eventually. We're now as close to March madness as we, as we are from, to the beginning of college basketball season, right, chronologically, we're right in the middle here. Nebraska is still undefeated. A thrank team in the country. Vanderbilt is still undefeated. The 10th ranked team in the country. How legit. I'll ask the heat check again. Like how legit are

39:29these two teams? Chances of actually getting to the final four and perhaps winning at all. I think Vandy has a more legit operation. Nebraska has more size. So you can argue that there may be not as matchup. I guess not as bad matchup. Prone as Vandy might be who doesn't have as much size, maybe a big physical team like Houston or even like an Arizona or Michigan plays Vandy. That could be a match of kryptonite to them where at least in Nebraska, you have big mass to a sort of a counter. The problem with Nebraska is they shoot so many threes and they allow you to shoot so many threes. So every game to them is just a wild variance ride. Very prone over a six game march to the title game. You're going to get, you know, you're going to play with fire. So I think Vandy and the thing with Vandy is they're so deep and you can argue they don't really have like a go to alpha dog, but I think that's what makes them so hard to scout and prepare for. I think that any given night they have sort of, um, they can remedy a cold shooting night or a cold night from one of their other key guys. I think Vandy's all the way legit. It was probably my best future ticket. I got them at 300 to one. Whoa. Uh, back in the summer. Um, I think they're

40:35real mark by into. I think is maybe the best coach doing it right now. Uh, what he's done in that time. Pretty crazy. 300 to one Kelly. I'm looking at 18 to one. So that means it was a good bet by Matt Cox. You have 18 to one. Oh, 18 to one. Oh, what is Kelly bet bet? Uh, okay. So the four undefeated number one Arizona, we just mentioned the two of the others Nebraska number eight and Nebraska number 10 Vandy. The other one is Iowa State number two Iowa State. By the way, Arizona, all the number one votes in the poll except for one vote that went to Iowa State. They're the number two team in the country. They are at Allen Field House tonight at Kansas. That place is going to be bananas. Kelly, it's going to be off the meat rack. Yeah. It's going to be tonight. Uh, three and a half point favorites for for what I say, the Hawkeyes. I didn't mean that I meant the cyclones three and a half point favorites. The cyclones are on the road. How do you see this tonight at Kansas? Man, this is, I mean, all time spot for Kansas, uh, I built self as a dog is a rare occurrence. And usually it goes very well. If you're back in KU and that spot, uh,

41:36I remember when they played, uh, Yukon, the national title Yukon team, I believe was two years ago that game closed pick. That was not a good Kansas team. And they still won that game. They just played like the A plus plus game. And you know, the reps are going to probably skew a few extra whistles for, uh, for the home team there. I, I stayed away here. I, I'm just not going to back Kansas here because I was saying, I mean, well, they've done nothing wrong basically today. I mean, they went to Purdue and took them to the wood shed. Now Darren Peterson back looks much better. I just think this Kansas team is a wild rollercoaster right now with him back. I think Peterson's awesome. But he kind of hijacked the offense sometimes. This is a good live backing for me, girl. I think there's going to be some crazy runs in this from half time or just at certain stoppages, um, just my hunch on now. He's just given how KU's offense has evolved with Peterson, kind of being a chucker, but a, you know, really good chucker when he's on. This feels like everything you've ever like processed about college basketball, it feels like a Kansas night. But man, if I was they can overcome this, that will be something. All right. Where did you land in college hoops tonight? I only have two tonight. I actually

42:40have a home dog in the SEC Oklahoma, uh, against Florida. Florida is off to really good games. And you can argue maybe they're starting to, uh, regain their mojo at the sort of the repeat, one of the repeat favorites people had come into the year. But I think Oklahoma's guards are just better. Frankly, in this matchup at home, just feels like a good home dog type spot, the home team shoots well. And I know Oklahoma's, uh, front court's going to have a tall task going against that size of Florida, but their defense has been pretty good up front. They got some athletes up front this year, a little different than most of the poor Moser teams in years past. They're off to tough losses. They really faltered against an M down the stretch. Kind of think that's part of why there's a little more of value of OU tonight. That game really played the like a pick them at an M. I think they come back tonight at home and, uh, maybe not went out right, but this is not going to be a blowout. I just don't see that happening. So I like OU OU plus six against a Florida team that has lost games with none really that poorly, right? I'm going to go a lot of close losses if I'm not mistaken for Florida. Correct. Yeah. They're not kind of had a lot of close, but no cigars. And I think they're starting to kind of hit their stride. But again, I don't trust their back court. They're not very

43:43consistent. So I'm sort of betting on a, a jackal hide, uh, reversion to true mean tonight from Boogie Flanagan saving Lee who have been good, but erratic. What was this year? Uh, sooners plus six for bat and number two was it last one. I got nice Virginia and I split this between money line and plus three and a half. Uh, they're on the road at Louisville. The kel Brown presumably out tonight. Uh, Louisville's been, you know, very, you know, they're jackal and hide speak of the devil. But the problem with, with this matchup is, is Virginia's defense. I think on the perimeter can really swallow up some of those guards, uh, for Louisville. Ryan Odom's team, they just have the, the more imposing front line in Louisville, just look at all their games. Not just this year, but last year when they play like a legit team with size up front, they just struggle to get easy shots at the rim. It becomes very jump shot reliance. I can kind of solve that against Duke in the second half and that really started to collapse. They, uh, try to see this year. And again, look at their games last year, right? I just think that this is kind of a recurring theme for Pat Kelsey. They got bigger up front this year, but they're still not big enough in the, the front court that Virginia

44:46boasts. It's just massive grillo and dredder are huge. I think Virginia's a better, a bad matchup tonight for the cardiac cards at home. That's at the KFC yum center, Kelly. Yeah. Yeah. We hope. Yeah. Thank you so much, Matt. Appreciate it. Thank you, fellas. Enjoy. Maddie Cox. Everybody talks about chupes with us. Drew Dinsick on the other side on the numbers game right here at the Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs Vs