A Numbers Game | March 31, 2026 | Hour 1

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1:02The number is called the story. It's one of those idiots who believe in analytics. This is a numbers game with Kill I like Xander gone. Be said. Good Tuesday morning to you. There's a numbers game at beast in these sports betting network. Be said.com game plus I hard radio YouTube TV. And of course, series next on channel 158. Kill I like Xander. Kelly Bittling alongside on this lovely morning here. That's right. You good? I'm good, man. Good morning. I always check in with you, man. Make sure everything's alright. Yeah, I'm good. Make sure driving was okay. Any reason why it wouldn't be. No, I'm just curious. I just worried about your welfare. That's all right. Yeah, I feel a responsibility on the show today. Jake Khan on the national hockey league. I got to ask about this. The goings on here in Vegas. Among other things, you'll have his NHL plays for the night. Jim Root from three man. We've talking final four with us. Pardon me. And we will do that this hour as well. Drew Dinsick will join us. Of course, talk NBA. I don't know if he has any early clay court tennis at all. But we'll us. We're certainly asked about that.

2:03We have some. He's got some horse thoughts. He's got some Kentucky Derby thoughts. He's never forget about Drew Dinsick. He not only does his podcasts, but one of the podcasts is for NBC sports. The man does lots of horse racing for them. He does remember. He goes to the tracks themselves with the triple crown. Yeah, we have beautiful shots of Drew in front of race tracks. Well, one time we thought a horse was going to just plow him over. I will never forget that. He was what at the Derby. It was rainy. We were at the D. Yes. And any Drew, as most of our guests do, puts so much care into setting up his shot. He really does. That you couldn't see the rail that was next to him. So it just looked like he was out on the track. And this horse comes zooming up by him. It looked like he was going to hit him. There's got Derby thoughts. He's got NBA thoughts where both. J.J. Reddick has chimed in on behalf of Luca donches as MVP candidacy. That's Luca donches. MVP candidacy. And Joe Mizzou has thoughts on coach of the year, which are fascinating.

3:03Which I have, I have not heard, but I've heard about now. SGA SGA had comments on MVP too, but it was really more of a, I'm just going to let my play do the talking. That was basically the whole quote. We don't have to play his as it remains a lot tighter than it, uh, than it has been in the MVP race. As both SGA and, and when Bunyama go off last night, Mark Bortjard, Major League baseball will do all of that. Um, we'll actually talk race to 10 in Major League baseball a little later on. And I bring that up because last night, the five remaining undefeated, including our blue jays for those who tailed all lost. It's wild. All five lost. Now unlike with the, so by the way, it dead heats, it dead heats. And for those wondering, because with this had come up before, we won, if you recall, a couple of years ago, Panthers last win list in the NFL. We want to legit anyway, but we would have wanted at circa based on the time of the game anyway, right?

4:03Even if the Panthers had won later in the day, we would have wanted just based on chronological order of games. That's the national football league. And to some extent, that makes sense in the NFL, because we all are aware of scheduling in the NFL. And we know who's playing a prime time game in which week, that kind of thing. In baseball, it doesn't make sense to have that rule. And it should be a dead heat on the same day for two reasons. One, you shouldn't be expected as a handicap or to know the schedule of every baseball, you know, schedule day, no matter how far out into the season or how short out into the season, I should say. And secondly, the West Coast games are going to be later, no matter what. Right. On a day night kind of schedule. I didn't think I think it makes complete sense for baseball. I'm still a little surprise. Circa did that for the NFL little bit, because it's still sort of the same thing. West Coast East Coast. No, because no, because prime time games can be anywhere in the NFL. Primetime can be, but you have one clock kickoffs and you have four clock kickoffs. Right. But the prime time game can be anywhere. Right. So I'm just saying, and so in that case, there's not a,

5:05there's not a definite East Coast West Coast thing happening. So you could put the burden on the handicap or to know that information. And I think in football, you do. I'm with you though. Like it shot me at the time. I'm with you though. It's not completely out of bounds or I don't, you know, I get both sides of that one. So anyway, it's a, it becomes a, just know your rules, right? It really is. It's just a great reminder of those rules. Know your rules. Know your rules. So if, so the blue J lost to the Rockies. And I don't know if anybody saw this, but the blue J starting pitcher ponds. Oh, he fell off the mound on one pitch for a buck. Oh my God. He sort of laughed it off. And then like a minute later, he's trying to feel the ground ball. That went to the first space bag side of the infield. And he had to be carded off. So you, you just kind of knew this was not a night. The blue, the blue J's are going to win. But the Marlins lost. The Brewers lost by run. Once the Brewers lost, you were like, okay, well, all you need is a Dodgers and Yankees lost here.

6:06Yankees lose to the Mariners, which was close. Still sounds absurd. And the Dodgers got beat pretty good. I mean, they got beat four to two in the end, but they were down four to nothing heading to the night that gets the Guardians. So they all lose. And so it does dead heat. Now for those who are on this and you are, this is your new to dead heat math. Welcome. Welcome to the, to the joy and the disappointment of dead heat math. Instead of the 11 to one, which is what we got. What do you, what do you guess the payout was instead of 11 to one? Oh gosh. Um, I don't know. I'd have to sit there and do my math here. 11 to one was the bet. You have five chopping up. Yeah. Um, so what? I don't know paid like even money. Plus 140, baby. Plus 140. Yeah. Even better than even money. But that's all we got. If you think about dead heat math, essentially, if you split it five ways, it would be a little better than that. And because you got the 11 to one, you would think would be better than an equal share. Yeah. It doesn't work that way. Yeah. It doesn't work that way. Plus 140. Um, I give you the formula, but I don't want to, I don't want to grind the show to a screeching

7:07halt. Yeah. Have fun doing it. But essentially what you would do is you take your odds plus plus a hundred and divided by the number of teams that are in it and then multiply it by the stake. It's a whole thing. It's plus 140. So congratulations to those who got the plus 140 on the jays. Yay for us. Now, um, what does happen in that process also is with those five teams losing. Guess who's in a tie for first place for most wins March April. The reds three and one. Let's go. There we go. So we're off. We're off and running there. But let the record show nobody ended up undefeated even into April. It's insane. All it took was four games for everybody to lose one. And if you're asking yourself, by the way, here's the race to 10 wins, which we'll look at later. These are all the teams with three wins. There are the reds right in there. I don't even know if it's all I stopped at some point. They're 13 of them. You stopped at 10. 13 teams have three wins.

8:07But so all it took was four games. Four or five or four. Four games really for nodes four games for everybody to lose a game. And on the other side of your wonder, what about the win list side? Only the only, let's say Oakland only the athletics. Hmm. Our own four. Everybody else has won a game. So there you go. Baseball through four games. That's about as much parodies you want. It's a joy. While we can in the moment because they get a last. But there you go. That's, uh, that was a very deflating end to what we felt we were set up very well with the blue jays. But plus one 40s plus one 40. All right. Whatever. Short dog wins in baseball every night. Hey, man. That was one. I mean, that was one that was happening earlier, right? Like that. That was. I all I knew was it wasn't looking good. I was like, oh boy, this sucks. I had no idea the four other, the four other sides lost. That's pretty incredible. Actually, it's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. Especially when you start naming the teams, right? Dodgers and Yankees plus one 40 beats losing the steak. Mm-hmm.

9:08That's right. Absolutely. So there's that. The other thing I just want to say about baseball. And this is somewhat sports betting related. But really just baseball related with everything is. Once again, the automatic ball strike system yesterday. Do you see the Yankees game at all? So this was Mike Esterberg's night. Mike Esterberg's night to get publicly humiliated. I'm not sure, right? The umpires at any idea that it would result in this, right? They probably figured, oh, there's a challenge system. It's two. If you get one right, there'll be a third. No one expected teams challenges to go like five and oh, which is exactly what happened last night with the Yankees. It's, it's, there's a couple of things going on here. For first of all, the analogy I make is this. Do you remember when ride chair first started when Uber and Lyft first came into existence? Yeah. And I'm talking about a guy who lives in San Francisco and will come to Vegas all the time. San Francisco before ride chair. Like if you had, if you had to go to the airport in the middle of the night, you didn't want to park there. You'd have to call dispatch and like three, four in the morning.

10:08They couldn't have been more rude, right? It was like, uh, hang up the phone. In Las Vegas, they would literally take you for a ride, right? Try to charge you more. Try to cheat you out of money if they thought you didn't know the land land. Uh, I don't know. They'd pass gas in the, in the, in the car itself, the drivers themselves. That happened many times. Yeah, it smells good. Oh, and if you had the audacity to stay at the hard rock, the closest hotel to the airport, they verbally berated you. Why all of these things? Because there was no repercussions, right? There was no, they, they had complete authority on this segment of society. Until ride chair came in and then all of a sudden they want, the cabs wanted you to cry. Oh, we pay all this money for these placards. Maybe if you were nicer, right? About everything. We would have more sympathy for you. This to me is the umpire, right? They legislated into the game that you could not argue balls and strikes. And God forbid you questioned the authority of these umpires who had this uh, this dictatorship over what is correct and what is it?

11:11What is a correct pitch? What is an incorrect pitch? Well, now that we have this system, like I don't usually I would have sympathy for the public humiliation of anybody at their job. But in this case, I do not whatsoever. And it proves also that the batter and the catcher, but in this case with the yaggies, it was all on offense. The batter knows the strike zone so much better than the umpire does. Steve, as he puts it as, well, the catcher and the batter are in the front row. They should. Maybe it maybe we shouldn't expect it umpires to be able to call these correctly. But finally, after the fifth one yesterday, Aaron Boone, shouts at West at Esther Brook, he's like, you know, kind of get it together, man. And Esther book shows that's it. That's your warning. It's like bro, you're oh for five on these. I think it's fantastic. I love it. I think the game has gotten just so much better just from this alone. Yeah. And the real thing is, and by the way, it kind of the whole thing makes me angry too. Because think how many thousands of games yesterday alone,

12:13one of those, there were two strike three calls that got turned into a walk and a subsequent single of those five at best. Think how many thousands of baseball games that will never know have been altered by these horrible calls, let alone all of your bets. Remember how many times a bet came down to this one high leverage situation and you got some bogus strike call against you. So good for baseball. I have no sympathy for the humps. You know me, Gil? I'm here for the chaos. I hope it I hope it continues to be in back there for the next couple weeks. Captain chaos, Kelly Bidlin. Coming back on a numbers game. Oh, I got some tennis picks. Next. 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. People's win because they've got the tools, the data, and the discipline. And now so can you. Visa 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 with Visa and Pro.

13:16The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are built to keep going. Blending rugged muscle with precision engineering all supported by Toyota's time-tested legacy of dependability. Step into a Tundra and feel the unyielding capability with the available iForce Max engine. Tundra puts out impressive power torque and towing performance and the roomy high-tech cabin keeps you connected on the go. Or take a look at Tacoma made for drivers who push past the path. Agile, tough and relentless with available features like crawl control, portable JBL speaker, a power lift gate, so gear goes in fast and the adventure keeps moving. The Tacoma and Tundra are engineered to endure season after season, mile after mile. So drive one home today, visit Toyota.com or stop by your local Toyota dealer to find out more Toyota. Let's go places. United Health Group is simplifying healthcare by investing in tools to help patients know more and pay less. These tools help patients find providers and compare costs and save hundreds of dollars annually.

14:17Learn more at unitedhealthgroup.com slash commitment. I'm fairly sure the only part of my taxi dump hires an algae that may not check out is the passing gas part, but I'll do some research. We don't know. We don't know. Numbers game brought you by profit x if you're not on profit x yet. Now's the time sign up by April six purchase at least $25 and get a free $25. Then jump into their King of March contest. You can win free trips. We're up to $5,000, even $10,000. Just use the code. Visa. Make your first purchase that'll learn about the contest on their homepage and start playing no entry fee required. Hit $1,000 in volume. You're under for the $5,000 trip in $10,000. You're in for the $10,000 trip. Win Ted Bix hit the volume and every additional 10 wins gets you another entry. Download profit x use code. Visa and M.M. Make your first purchase and take a shot at becoming the King of March. We get tweets at beat of the book. This is from Jason H 11 who says Gil, you should record a segment explaining dead heat mass.

15:20So anyone having trouble sleeping can go back and listen. Yeah. That's the point. GV and New Jersey, New York regarding dead heat bath as someone who works in the industry and understands why the dead heat formula and rule exists. It is easily by far the number one thing that I could perfectly explain to someone that will not change their opinion or whether or not it was applied correctly. I think that's true. That is so well said. That is so well said. Mike Rouse. I had the Marlins at 14 to one on draft. He's got paid out two to one due to dead heat. I think that's right. Yeah. Takes out. Michael Burns, nothing worse than an empire with an Napoleonic complex. He says, Blake, they deserve this. Torch D. The one to put the satin in your penny. So how long before umpires are no longer a thing seems like a huge waste replaced by AI. Torch D. If there was no such thing as an empire lobby, it would have been done a long time ago. Do you remember like the, I don't even know what it was six months ago, nine months ago. We had a really dumb moment on the show because I just kept asking you basic baseball. I was like, why do they need the umpires? I'm so confused.

16:20Like these guys are going to be out there. Do you remember this? Yes. You were like trying to be so nice about it. And I'm like, I don't think these dudes need to be out there anymore. That's what I'm getting. I think it was, I think I brought up some reporter in the Barcelona Olympics for the dream team as Carl Malone. Why do uh basket cost account two points? And Carl Malone was like, uh, this guy, I don't know how to answer that. Uh, this is from, uh, let's see from so Cal, so Cal fantasy goes the cab driver analysis is genius. I remember cabbie's bragging about their precious medallions like they were made men. Then rideshare came along and gave him a swift reality check. Absolutely. So Cal for sure. I got the old rope a dope by one like a week ago. I ordered an Uber. Yeah. Yeah. Order an Uber. I'm standing outside my place and this, and a cat pulls up. And I'm like, well, that's clearly not for me because I ordered an Uber. And the guy rolls down his window. He's like, Kelly. Oh my. Yeah. He was just, he was riding an Uber and a cat. He was doing Uber riding in a cab. Well, why do you think that's a good move? I don't know.

17:21I don't know if he was trying to do both at the same time. Is what I'm in a guess. And I don't know what that guy's angle is. Tim Bowers. This will segue us into what we want to talk about. He goes SGA 47 points hitting 21 of 25 free throws last night. Wembee 41 points hitting four of four free throws. Oh, yeah. Okay. See had only 17 team assists. Spurs had 31 team assists. One of these is not like the other. I'm thinking this is SGA's last shot at a regular season MVP for a while. That part may be so. That part may be so. Um, Well, let's just spell it out. Uh, Wembee last night 41 point 16 boards. Spurs win their ninth straight beating the bulls by 15. Spurs are still two and a half back of the thunder in terms of overall record. Despite going 26 and two. It's incredible. The last two months. There's still two and a half behind. Uh, but the other thing about Wemba Yama last night was the fastest double double. The, excuse me, the third fastest double double in history.

18:21It was less than nine minutes into the game. You already had 10 and 10. SGA as, uh, we just said 47 points on 25 free throws. Detroit had 23 as a team against the thunder. The old foul merchant doing his thing is doing his thing as the thunder. Beath a pistons 114 to 110 over time. If you have the under in that game, you are not happy. Um, So SGA, you said had something to say, which is sort of like, hey, I'll let my play do the talking. Yeah, yeah, all these are the first of all. This is. Can I just enjoy maybe not everybody else enjoys it, but can I just enjoy what an amazing MVP race? Yeah. What an amazing rookie in the race. And when do you ever see with the MVP? These guys, they're going for it. We've talked about these guys play. I mean, you've talked about the guys voiding load management playing these games. No matter what you want to say about minutes Wemba, at least he's still out there playing. And they're going for these big games in the final two weeks of the season. And then they're getting in front of microphones and talking about it.

19:23Nobody talked about talks about this stuff, man. And everybody, you know what else? There's another layer to this girl that me and you have talked a lot about. I don't really know that like I believe we're at a point. We always ask the question, how much do bedding odds work their way into these conversations into the, I don't know that I think I believe that these guys are seeing the bedding odds movements and see what a Victor Wemba Niyama does when he gets in front of a microphone and see how these odds shift his way. And everybody feels like now they got to go out there, not only make a case on the court, but say something afterward too. You might be right. Here are the latest, by the way, these are the best numbers at draft Kings and Fandals. So the best number on Shea is minus 300. That's at draft Kings. Wemba Niyama 3 to 1 at Fandal plus 300. Lucas 30 to 1. Yo, Kitch is 100 to 1. And Gill, I should finish that off with what you always say. We don't necessarily know that these mean anything. We have no idea if this reflects reality, reality being what the voters are actually thinking.

20:25But to your, we said earlier though, J.J. Reddick wanted to say something on behalf of Luca Donchitz, who right now is the RC Cola of this race. Here's what he had to say. Okay, okay, we'll get back to that. Yeah, you did not much to say apparently. I'm speechless. So there's that. There's that. So do we have that guys? Do we have the J.J. or the or the other one? No, nothing, nothing on that. Joe Mazula. Well, here's J.J. Here's J.J. Reddick on Luca. If we continue to finish the season, the way we're playing right now, then he continues to play that way. To me, he is the VP. Okay, short and sweet. All right. So I don't know. It was also the audio was a little chunky, but he's essentially saying he's the MVP in his eyes. But of course, you know, he's the coach, so I get it. I don't think it's Luca in the end to be quite honest with you. Yeah, he had a lengthy statement. He kind of talked about how if everybody's making a big deal about him being hot right now,

21:29and he's like, if you break the season into thirds, he was really hot at the beginning at the end. So he's had two thirds where he's been the guy. So that's that. And then the coach of the year, do we have the coach of the year odds? The coach, because we've thrown this around. Remember last week we were talking about how I felt from a season wins perspective that really it should come down to Charlotte and Phoenix. Right? That those head coaches talking about Charles Lee and Jordan, not who are 60 to one and 71 respectively in terms of pre-flop season win totals numbers. Along with Mitch Johnson of the Spurs, but with Mitch Johnson, we throw him out because he has Wembee. So with Charles Lee and Jordan, not Mitch Johnson included in this group, though, they have exceeded their season win total by the most. JB Bickerstaff and Joe Mazula, who have been at the top of this category for really the better JB Bickerstaff for most of the year, Joe Mazula here the second half of the year. While those records are the best in the East, the pistons and the Celtics, it's not like they've exceeded their season win totals by the most.

22:31Joe Mazula, who write it by the way, Bickerstaff is minus 300. Mazula, four to one at draftings. Joe Mazula, who is a very odd guy. I think I've said this on the show before, had this to say about his candidacy for coach of the year. I think it's a stupid award. I really shouldn't have it. And it's more about the players and it's more about the work. That was it. It's just an important or ever want to be asked or talked about it again. It's just that. So players play about them. Okay, so in case you missed that because our audio came from outer space on that. He said he thinks it's a stupid award. What doesn't want to be asked about it again. Yeah. It's all about the players. Doesn't want to win it, apparently. Yeah. Combine that with a lost last night, Gilm. And how do you feel about having a Joe Mazula ticket? Not great. Not great, Bob. You can buy that with an L last night. I had a Joe Mazula. We wake up and he's four to one. Yep. A way to talk yourself.

23:31That's the opposite of what the MVP players and coaches are doing. Or coaches stumping on behalf of the MVP players are doing. Joe Mazula effectively try to take himself out of the coach of the year race. The problem is that I don't think everybody's not sick of Mazula yet. So this could go two ways. I see a split on this skill. I see the guy, the guy who's already a little irked by Mazula's attitude. Like, well, okay. Fine. Cross off that, right? And then the other ones will be like, well, that's the way that's the way a coach can talk about his team. Give all the credit to the assistants and the players and do a cares about awards. It only matters about wins. I could see some voters doing that too. Yeah, but as always with Mazula, he doesn't in such a aggressively strange way. It's, I don't know. I don't know why I always combine these three, but it's hit. It's like him, reddick and Rogers. Aaron Rogers. Like, yeah. It works as long as you're winning. That's right. But you're a better win. Because it gets real old, real quick. Otherwise, it was you got Mazula Rogers. And who was the guy? Reddick. JJ Reddick too. Yeah. Reddick without having won anything. Yeah. Good point. Yeah.

24:31I agree with all three of those. Anyway, so there you go. There's your, there's your, there's your coach of the year landscape. Now, and your MVP landscape of the coach of the year won. Even more interesting. I mean, I don't know. After those comments from Joe Mazula. Yeah. By the way, are we taking audio from cell phones out? What are we doing? Hey, man, NBA post-K body was always freaking. If you don't get it from the TV network. Oh. Rookie of the year. Cooper flag. He went out there and tried once again. Put up a million shots. Didn't work out too well, though. This time, Gil. 12 points. Sorry, Cooper. All right. We'll sweat this every night, man. A cavalcade of guests beginning with Jake Han on the NHL. Next on the numbers game in vistas sports, many network. Uh, celerian. All right. Sway, this is every night, man. A cavalcade of guests beginning with Jake Han on the NHL. Next on the numbers game in vistas, these sports, many network. The numbers game on V Itson. The sports. More of that smarts startup smarter and size right now you can check

25:32out the website break Peterson's MLB best best save makin' in back in in Spinal 4 ratings and projections and parks, horse racing picks from the daily racing form. And later today you can check out Zach Cohen's NBA picks and props at Emberks MLB Best Bets. And West Reynolds is Valero Texas Open Preview. It's all the website. Get Veecent Profer as little as $9.99 for your first 30 days to save 50% off with an annual subscription. Find all of our subscription options at Veecent.com slash subscribe. We get tweets beating a book. This is from Jason Mancini. It's time for books to start offering ABS over under challenges by game. Take the over on CB Buckner all day long. CB Buckner is absolutely one of the prime candidates to have like multiples every time he's behind. He's behind. And these are our kids. We can get this up and running. Oh, for sure. Peter Watchry. By the way, we're very geocentric when it comes to our sports when it comes to lots of things in this country. But Peter Watchry is pointing out maybe the biggest global thing happening in sports there. Last day to qualify for the World Cup Italy must win today after missing the last two

26:34cups deep in a dark Bosnian forest on a rainy night. He says the hopes of a nation that is struggling economically and low morale rides on the team. 300 million viewers. Pressure. Wow. I just got goosebumps from the tweet. Wow. Well said, Peter. Also didn't ask Paul about today. Sorry. I gave Paul the poll card last week off. Oh, okay. We allowed Paul to have a vacation. Get him back for premen champion Kelly dispenses vacation to the I mean, how many hits a year does he do? Oh, it's insane. Yeah. So many. Mikey P Mike Provides says the notion that you suggest this Kelly says the notion that baseball doesn't need umpires on the field is assinine and incredibly short-sighted. Yes. It's way too much that happens on the field that needs a human to adjudicate the play in real time. I'm sure you're right. That's his response. Sure you're right. Jesse Welch incredible breakdown on the effects of the ABS system. The analogy was spot on and I have zero sympathy for the CB Bukters out there. And Johnny millionaire Gilken yes, Kelly of Thor Bjornsson at even odds in a matchup

27:36versus Ricky Fowler's solid wager this week at Valero or will Michael playing nervously as his master's chances Fritter away. Man, that's a great question. I would still high on Thor Bjornsson. I don't think that this course does not set up as well for him. Yes. Lasting off of a good result last week sandwiched in between possible the masters. What do you get out of him? I would not be going against Ricky Fowler though. Okay. He's trailed off a little bit here recently. But Ricky's still playing good golf. Always a pleasure with this gentleman joins us on a weekly basis to talk hockey with us and other things because he's betting other sports as well. It's Jake Khan. Everybody co-host of the point and the fantasy hockey show on series XM NHL co-host of NHL fantasy on ice podcasts on NHL fantasy. You can follow him on Twitter at J. Han for that's H.A.H.N. The number four. Jake joins us now courtesy of progressive guest line. Jake, good morning, sir. Good to be with you guys as always. And I look, I want to bet on this Italian soccer game now after hearing that tweet. That was deep in the Bosnian forest. That was a, that was a, like I fired me up.

28:38I'm, I'm not a big soccer guy, but I will certainly get into the world cup. And I'll, I'll jump on the Canadian bandwagon here as well. I know a couple of games are going to be here. So I might even try to get to one if I can, but yeah, I'm not enough to turn that one on. That's right at the end of my show too. So I'll, I mean, if you maybe make some time for Italy Bosnian later, I'm with you. Beautiful tweet. Best of the centers in the game. No question on this show. Best of the centers. That was a wonderful tweet. Well, real quick before we get to hockey, you are a Toronto Blue J's fan. I was talking earlier on the show because we, we dead heated our last regular season bet here on the show. You were watching, you were watching last night. I described Punt, the, the Blue J starter last night, having fallen off the mound, getting a buck and then he heard himself, what was your, what was your comparison? What did you say he was? He looked, he looked like, either me or one of my drunk softball teammates on a Friday night that have maybe had a few too many. You get the late game where you've had, you know, I've had time to drink before and because he fell off the mound on the, on the one pitch and the two pitches later, he goes to feel the ground ball and he's kind of stumbling and bumbling and I'm like, oh man, it's okay.

29:39What, what did he do between innings and unfortunately it does look like a pretty bad injury for him. You see him get carted off and it looks like he's in a lot of pain is J's, J's debut. There was a lot of excitement for the potential of him. So I hope it's nothing too long term, but you do always fear the worst in situations like that. I had no idea about the George Kittle connection as well. George Kittle is brother-in-law, who is there with the J's jersey on and all those sorts of things. So I felt for him and there was a lot of excitement in that building last night. But yeah, I would say drunk softball player was probably my best comparison to, to what I watched last night, Cody Ponds get better soon. And you're going to try to go to the blue J's Dodgers, the rematch, the revenge games next week. I was there Saturday for what was a crazy game against the athletics, 11 innings back and forth. They came back from six to the, the building was just rocking. It's going to be a lot of fun this summer assuming that they keep winning and, you know, they stay in that American league East race, which I would assume that they do. They certainly have the team to do it. I'm going to do my best to get to that Dodgers series. Obviously, any chance to see, I know there's history now with the World Series. Right?

30:40Not good history on our side. But any chance to see Shohei and that Dodgers team, I got to take it because they don't come in very often. I might not see them again until a potential World Series rematch. So I'll see if I can get to one of those games next week. Shuddened by Shohei beaten by the Dodgers in dramatic fashion in the World Series. One hockey question, Jake, before we get to your plays. And you probably know where this is going because it's one of my favorite hockey topics because it's somebody who, who sort of follows other sports more closely. I'm always fascinated by this with hockey. So the Vegas Golden Knights, here's a brief 30 second history. I'll try to keep it within 30 seconds, which is they start out in 2017. It's Gerard Galaunt as their coach. They end up having this historic expansion season. They get all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. They lose to the caps in five. The next year they get bounced in the first round against the San Jose Sharks, bad, you know, what really controversial call a five minute major and it kind of trips them up. They lose to the sharks halfway through the next year. We're talking right before the pandemic. They fire Galaunt out of nowhere.

31:40And Peter DeBore takes over. They end up getting the conference finals. They end up getting the conference finals the next year under DeBore. And then the third year they missed the playoffs entirely. And because the Vegas Golden Knights have this proud tradition of just doing very well, no matter what the season is, they're like, you got to go. We don't miss the playoffs here in Las Vegas. And then they, and then by the way, DeBore's record was even better than the guys before but after him, 650 winning percentage. And then they go with, with, with Bruce Cassidy, they end up winning the cup, right? The first year with Cassidy, they end up winning the cup. Then they lose early rounds the next two years. And then here, just this, just over the week, a little two days ago, they're like, yeah, we don't see it anymore. You're gone. Torturella is in. Do you like the way the Vegas Golden Knights do this? Do you support this method of, of just, of discarding guys? So from an entertainment perspective, I do enjoy it from a hosting hockey show perspective. We were talking about it. It's kind of nice to have a, a bit of a villain in the league.

32:42And I'm not saying I, I dislike Vegas or I cheer against them, but I know a lot of people do and they don't like how they handle their business and that ruthless nature. You kind of reference, you know, discarding the, in this instance, it's coaches, but it's been players as well in the past. So they seem to say, hey, if we're not winning, if we're not, if not, we don't feel like we're going to win a cup and we want to make some changes. I can, I can respect that. I can appreciate that, but it does rub people the wrong way. And I think it has created this kind of villainous nature to the Vegas Golden Knights. But I think that's a good thing. I think sports needs villains. I think there's got to be one or two teams that are kind of the villains. We just talked about the Dodgers. They've kind of become that in baseball just because they've won so much and they spend so much money. So it's a little bit of a different villain. But I think it's important to have that being said, Gil, I was, I was shocked on Sunday. My season has not gone well for Vegas. They play in the Pacific, which really helps them out in terms of being a playoff team. But this late in the season, you just never expect a coaching change, especially for a team that is still sitting at a playoff spot. And I have tons of respect for Bruce Cassidy. You mentioned he's won a cup before.

33:42So I thought maybe coaching change, if they got bounced to the first round, sure. I was a little, I was very surprised on Sunday to get that news that John Torrella is all of a sudden back in the league. Just, just crazy stuff. And I don't think Golden Knights fans know that they're the villain. That's the thing that's most interesting from this perspective. What did you land on today in the NHL? So I'm looking to the East race, guys, it's, it's so, it's so much more fun than the West race. Someone's got to make that last West wild card spot and we're just talking about Vegas. They did beat Vancouver last night. I think any of us could coach the Vegas Gold Knights, no offense to Torrella, it was nice to see him back behind the bench and he gave some good answers. But I think any of us could coach the, the Knights to a win against Vancouver. So wait and see on Torrella's tenure with the Vegas Gold Knights. But I'm going to go to some underdogs in the East race here, guys. The Boston Bruins at home to the Dallas stars in a, in a big game now. Dallas is a great team, but they're kind of stuck in that two spot in the central division. Not much to play for. They can't move up. They can't move down. Boston, everything to play for trying to lock down a playoff spot right now, assuming Jeremy Swamins in that I do trust them in this game and I'll also go with the Red Hot, Philadelphia

34:46Flyers. This is, they might be the, the hottest team in the national hockey league right now. And they're really doing their best to try to push and make a miracle right now to post season spot. You're getting them a plus money in Washington tonight and you've got Washington coming back from the West Coast from Vegas, actually. They had a win over the weekend in a shootout. They're also playing for their playoff lives, but I just like the way that, I like the way that Philly's playing a little bit better right now and I'll wrap it up with another East underdog, the Columbus Blue Jackets at home against the Carolina Hurricanes and other motivation angle here, Columbus, everything to play for trying to lock down a playoff spot. I'm not saying they're not going to try in this game, but give me Jack Reeves and the Columbus Blue Jackets to take this one on home ice. All right. So recap those in reverse order Blue Jackets, Flyers and then what was the first one? Blue Jackets, Flyers and the Boston Bruins on home ice against the Dallas Stars. All three of them are plus money guys. So everyone with some plus money dogs tonight. I do like Winnipeg as well on the road. I don't love the price. They're about minus 140, minus 145.

35:48They're also pushing desperate trying to make the playoffs there in Chicago tonight. So maybe Winnipeg in regulation. That's something I might be looking at a little bit later. That golden night's thing's amazing. All three of those coaches before 600 winning percentages are better. All of them. Submerally dismissed. Shia. Shia. Thank you, Jake. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks, boys. Have a great week. Enjoy Italy Bosnia later. Yes. Absolutely. Go Italy. Go Italy. Go Italy. Go Italy. Final four next. Here's a shift worth noting. Better health care is care that meets patients where they are. United health group is bringing it directly to living rooms. This is a win for patients managing chronic conditions. And here's the interesting thing. By closing those care gaps, administering in-home exams, and identifying risks earlier, more diseases can be prevented, and patient outcomes can improve. In 2025 alone, United Health Group patients received over 19 million home visits. Learn more at unitedhealthgroup.com slash commitment.

36:51The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University helps you go from, I know the way, to I've arrived, with our top 10 ranked online MBA. Game skills you can learn today and apply tomorrow. Get ready to go from, make it happen, to made it happen, and keep striving. At Strayer.edu slash Jack Welch MBA to learn more. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Chevin as many campuses, including at 21, 21, 15th Street, North, and Arlington, Virginia. A numbers game on FESEN, these course-meddy network. A numbers game brought you by Profit X, if you're not all Profit X, yeah. What are you waiting for? That was the time. It's on April 6th. At least $25, get a free $25, then jump into their King of March contest, you can win free trips, worth up to $5,000, or even dare I say $10,000. Just use the code VCINMMMS in March Madness, make your first purchase.

37:51Then learn about the contest on their whole page and start playing. No entry fees required. In $1,000 in volume, you're entered for the $5,000 trip. Hit $10,000 in volume, you're entered for the $10,000 trip. Win 10 Bakes hit the volume and every additional 10 wins gets you another entry. Download Profit X, use code VCINMM, make your first purchase. And take your shot at becoming the King of March. Get around burgundy through some tweets, shall I? Oh, I just saw an epic one come down. Jay, touchdown, Jesus. So MLB Umpires instantly judge pitches, traveling 95 miles per hour, cutting across a 17-inch plate in a 22-inch doll window, and only get it right 95% of the time, back to hearing about gamblers who are pioneers in all the famous if they're hitting 59%. Yeah, I would argue there are certain Umpires, Jay, that are not hitting 90, that are not hitting 95%. Nobody said it was easy. Nobody said it was easy, but for God's sakes, you can see so clearly now how wrong so many of their calls are. Ryan Hyatt, looking forward to Drew hanging out with Gilly Kelly this morning on Veecin,

38:53in an alternate universe, Drew and Greg Peterson, host a weekly podcast featuring beer and wine pairings with foods as Greg walks his 12 miles and Drew prunes his bonsai trees. Have a day, fellas. Oh, my gosh, yes, no price on if Drew has a bonsai tree. That's a career. It's like, yes, I'll go dog, but like slight dog like plus one 15. If he doesn't have one now, he's absolutely had one. That's that's well said. Yep. You're right. Jack Larkin over at sports. Jack don't do this to us. Would love two minutes of sports talk radio from you and Kelly, greatest player team villains. I'm putting Patrick Reed near the top, he's up there. This is a how about this tweet from a rich demeanor real quick, Aaron Glenn on Gino Smith. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Grace for this quote. He's the guy that's going to lead us to the promised land. And by promised land, he means don't know a six and 11 record.

39:55I don't know. That's right. I think real quick, before we get the gym on the final four, I do have two tennis plays. We have shifted from hard courts now to clay, but it's not the real clay. It's not the red clay of Europe yet. It's the Fugaisie clay of quarries in Virginia that produce hard true clay. So I'm in Charleston. It's the only 500. There's five tournaments, three on the men's side, two on the lay side or three ladies, two men's. I can't remember. I think it's three men's two ladies. Well, you know, in the Charleston one, which is the 500, the rest are two fifties. I have two plays this morning. One of these starts in about 13 12, excuse me, 12 minutes. Dalma Galfi starts in 12 minutes. I have her at plus one 15 versus Bianca and Drescu on the hard true courts of Charleston, North Carolina. And then about an hour after that Katie McNally at minus one 13 versus Ashland Krueger. So Galfi really quickly here in about 12 minutes McNally, a little later on those are the only two plays dip in the old toe into clay here on the American side of things. I don't worry, Gil, the the quarry has been active for roughly 75 years and estimates.

41:01It has reserves to last another 50. That's it. That what reserves reserves. Okay. All right. Good to know. Kelly Bidlin for your quarry update. Mm hmm. Ladies and gentlemen, the final four is this weekend, a special numbers game investigation reveals and Jim Roof from three man wave is here to discuss Curtis deep aggressive gas line. You follow Jim on Twitter at second chance points. That's with the number two at the beginning, second chance points, two ND chance points, if you will. Three man weave stuff at three MW underscore CBB Jim. How are you, sir? I'm good. It's not quite as good to be sitting across from you at the desk out there in the circus sports book. But you know, back home here in my little humble about in Chicago and headed to Indianapolis on Friday. In person at that said before, is this your first final four in person or have you been before? I've been every year since 19, say for obviously 2021 when they weren't allowing fans. And then I went, uh, every year since 18, I guess. Yeah.

42:02Really? Oh, yeah. I'm kind of interested in this. So you buy, you just buy tickets, second, secondary market or directly or how do you do? Oh, I do. Media media. Media girls. Sneak in there for free. Oh, yeah. What are you? What are you just going to like, Hey, I'm three man weave. Can you hook it up? Just man. Hey, that's actually what's happened, basically. Yeah. They accept us as, uh, ambassadors of the sport, I think, I was the media spread at a final four. Jim, I've never been to one. Honestly, really good. They feed us well. I think the New Orleans one was the best and because, you know, that's New Orleans food for you in a nutshell. But I'm optimistic that they'll feed us well in India as well. This is amazing to me. I don't work for me. No, where I'm like, Hey, I know a guy from three man weave. Could you let me in? No. Sorry. Uh, the final four, Arizona, Michigan preceded by Illinois and Yukon after Yukon's epic dramatic, unbelievable, I still can't believe it two days later. Unbelievable finish against Duke.

43:03Do you have any futures plays on any of these still in pocket from, from whenever you got them? I do. I have 60 to one in Illinois. That's the one that actually feels good and was, was a good price. I got some Arizona 15 to one as the year went on. I remember I had a, uh, a free bet credit at an offshore book and I was deciding between Arizona and Michigan sometime in like January, picked Arizona, obviously couldn't have gone wrong with either of those two. But I have no Michigan right now. And that is terrifying to me because it kind of leaned their way against Arizona ever so slightly and I, they might be the best team in the country. So not having any exposure on Michigan is, uh, terrifying at this point. Did you say you had Yukon? Did I miss that? I do have a little Yukon. They're, they're like, uh, kind of a break even that I won't, I won't make any money if Yukon wins. Illinois and, and Arizona would be profitable and then Michigan would be, oh God, the portfolio got wiped out. If we, we lost it all this year. So I'm going to have to figure out a way around that to, to adjust. By the way, there's some of you that's like, how do I not have a Michigan like to?

44:05I never could, did it never occur to me to bet Michigan since you're the guy who has so many of these teams. Yeah. This, this reminds me a lot of 2024 when Yukon was so good and there are a couple of times they're in the year, even like in February, I was like, there's seven to one. Should I put something on them? I had that with Michigan a little bit this year, but they got to like five to one really, really fast. And I just never pulled the trigger. And now as you just, you know, I had up on the screen, there's plus one 75 plus one 80. And certainly wish I had five to one instead. That would be a much, much nicer price. Let's do these in the order that they will be played. Let's start with the 609 PM Eastern start between Illinois and Yukon. Illinois, favor by two and a half, the total is one thirty nine and a half. You were just saying you feel good about your Illinois. Would you lay the two and a half here? I probably wouldn't lay it. I think I'm maybe a little more intrigued by the over. I think I just recorded a podcast this morning with Will Warren. We do a show called Stats by Will and Jim and talk through this. And I think both teams really have routes to scoring points here. I think the Yukon defense has been excellent.

45:06But Illinois is an awesome shot volume team where they are dominating the rebound and turnover margins all through the tournament right now. And I think they're going to maybe not like continue to dominate. But I think they'll have an edge here against Yukon. And that would also tilt me towards the minus two and a half. But I think they'll produce enough open shots. They have a really strong shot selection. They take a lot of room in three type stuff. They get good shooters, good looks with their spacing. And so I think they'll score. And then the other end, Yukon, the big edge for them, the numbers I dig into is Illinois is very bad at defending off ball screens. 20th percentile nationally and points per possession, per synergy. And Yukon is 99th percentile in frequency of that action. They run so much of it in the half court running guys off screens. So that's caribbean, ball, braille and mullins. All those guys are going to be moving in their sets. I think they'll find ways to score there as well. So it's going to be fairly slow. The tempo is not going to be a huge asset here. But I think the efficiency can nudge over that one 39 and a half. By the way, there's a side note before we get to Michigan Arizona. But what the hell is Dan Hurley's problem getting in the face of the official at the end of that.

46:08And and just get it bizarre. It was so odd. He's for he is Michigan. We all we all kind of know that. But like it's really interesting because the official just didn't want to insert himself and call a tech. I guess in that most unbelievable of moments. But he technically could have no pun intended. He could have gotten injected. I think contact with a ref is like supposed to be auto ejection. Like I know he wasn't doing it to intimidate. But it was just so weird. Maybe the I mean, you won two championships. It's not the greatest moment of your coaching career, but arguably the third greatest. And you decide to do that. It's so strange. Michigan Arizona, you may have tipped your hand also. You like Michigan minus the one and a half? Yeah, I keep gravitating that way. And it's mostly because both these teams are such elite rim defenses. They're built fairly similarly from a sense of immense size, especially from positions three through five. And they want to dominate the rim on offense and defense. And I think Michigan's got a little bit more of a plan B. They can actually shoot a little bit. Elliot Codon ball screens is rock solid.

47:09Lendabore shooting the ball the way he has been. And this tournament makes them nearly unbeatable. I think they're at 44% from three in the tournament through four games. Michigan's just been outstanding from there. Arizona's played some good rim defenses. They beat Florida. They played Kansas twice to be Houston. I just I don't know if they're going to be able to get the same type of rim stuff against Ademara, such a massive room protector for Michigan. They're going to have to make some jump shots. And I don't know if that's their strength. I think Michigan's got a slight edge there. So I do lean towards Michigan. I think this will be very up tempo as well. Lean to the over again, which is scary on such a big stage in a football stadium. But yeah, definitely like Michigan minus one and a half there. Final two questions. Who's winning at all? Winter of Arizona, Michigan. So I guess I have to say Michigan. And would you surprise if anybody won at all? Any of the four? I think if it's not Arizona or Michigan, I'd be a little surprised. I think they've just been so clearly the best two teams. Okay. Jim Ru, Jim, enjoy the final four, Mr. Man. We'll do. Thank you for having me.

48:09Drew Dinsick on the other. At Stranger University, we help students like you go from will I to why not? For over 130 years, we've been innovating higher education to make it more affordable, accessible, and attainable. So you can reach your goals. Go from thinking, can I? To yes, I can. And keep striving. Visit Stranger.edu to learn more. Stranger University is certified to operate in Virginia by Chevin as many campuses, including at 21 21 15th straight north in Arlington, Virginia.