Final Four Preview, Tiger Woods Crashes Again, NFL Replacement Refs, Jaden Ivey Bounced By Bulls

0:00This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human Ready for a different take on Formula One, look no further than NoGrip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1. Including the astrology of the current grid, the story of the sports' most consequential driver's strike, and plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent, dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to NoGrip on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. It's Financial Literacy Month, and the podcast Eating While Broke is bringing real conversations about money, growth, and building your future. This month, here from Top Streamer, Zo Spencer, and Venture Capitalist, LaKisha, Landrum Pierre, as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up. There's an economic component to community striving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship happening in communities, they failed.

1:00Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Daniel Alarcon, and this is my friend who's much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far, but I'm John Green, co-host of the podcast The Away End, with my old friend Daniel. On our podcast The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football. All leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why of all the unimportant things football, soccer is the most important. Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcon and John Green on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Earners, what's up? Look, money is something we all deal with, but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth. On each episode of the podcast, Earn Elegia, we break down the conversations you need to understand money, investing, and entrepreneurship. Some stocks are real estate, to credit, business, and generational wealth. Our goal is simple. Make financial literacy accessible for everyone.

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3:07Alright, I feel like this is an emergency podcast, being that I live in Chicago and have bull season tickets and Danny Parkinson's loves the bulls. So here's what's here's what's interesting about the Jade Nivey story. And this happens infrequently, but occasionally you've been, I've been doing this 30 plus years. You've been doing it about 20 years, 15 years. So occasionally you get lucky. So it just so happens in the last week, I made a connection that I didn't know at the time I didn't care to somebody at Purdue, that over the course of Jaden Ivey's career was in the mix with J. Nivey at Purdue. I won't say, I'll just say he was in the mix. And so I called this person on the J. Nivey story and he said, um, injuries are tough for Jaden Ivey because he was a gym rat.

4:07And if you took the ball away and the gym away, he could get lost and he could, he struggled and that he didn't really mesh well with a lot of people at Purdue. And then I called an NBA source last night and he said, well, if the choice letting you go and you're a top five pick and they're desperate for guards to go with a kid cutting him, there's an issue. He said the bigger issue is that the bulls didn't do due diligence that the bulls should know better. Like it was well known at Purdue, well known in Detroit, that, and I, and I don't like when the media talks about, you know, mental illness, I'm not making that leap. That's not, that's not, I'm not in that space. I did say today though, Danny, um, because I heard a lot of Christians say, well, so you'll keep the criminals, but you'll fire him and I'm going to give you what I said on the air. I said, at the volume of 60 employees, if one of them ever committed a crime, misdemeanor

5:08DUI, something that's illegal, something that's serious, but they were tremendous workers can try to apologize or well liked. I would not fire them. However, if you said quite legally, uh, you started talking race, religion, politics at work and we're a bad hang, and it was not productive for the chemistry at the volume. I would fire you. And so this idea that, well, what about the criminals? What about, you know, Josh Gidey's story, which was allegations, nothing proven, where it's only allegations, nothing proven, but in small, I would guess conservative, okay, see, Sam Prestee's like, this isn't going to work. But big city Chicago's like, yeah, we think it is. And he's been terrific. So I guess my take was, it's easy to jump to, hey, this is, it's religion, it's freedom of speech. Well, we know that argument doesn't hold water.

6:08But my take is a lot of times, Danny, that if, if you are not good in the room, if you're a bad hang, politics, race, um, religion, they're tough topics in the workplace. Are they not? They listen, they're tough topics anywhere. Um, and then you certainly don't want them in the workplace. And you've experienced this in your career, I'm sure there are different rules for different people. Yes. Bill Balachek stories. Yeah. Like, we, I will treat all of you fairly, but I will not treat all of you the same. Right? That's like a tenant of coaching. That's a tenant of leadership. Not everyone needs to, not everyone gets treated the same. If J and Ivy was averaging 25 and 12, he could probably ask Joe Cowley, the beat reporter of the sun times, if he had consummated his marriage in the proper way in the eyes

7:11of the Bible, whatever. Like, that's a, I pulled it up because like for anyone who doesn't know the story, like, here's a paragraph from Joe Cowley's column on J and Ivy. And Joe Cowley again, beat writer for the Bulls for the sun times, a buddy of mine. Yeah. Yeah, he's good. Before Ivy even stepped foot in Chicago, there were rumblings from Detroit that he was a quote preacher and quote, those rumblings undersold it. His interviews became sermons in which he asked reporters whether they had been quote saved and whether they had quote fornicated before marriage and quote, my bad, I was just checking in on how your knee felt. That is odd workplace being here, but he wasn't performing and the bulls were bad. And so I think you just add all of this up. And then you add on the social media stuff. And I certainly was not watching all of his Instagram lives, but like, it's just if you become a distraction in the locker room and you are unprofessional in your dealings

8:15with professional media. And then you bring it out publicly so it's not even a story that can be contained because you're doing it on, you know, IG live broadcasting into thousands and thousands of people, it was a pretty obvious decision for the Bulls, though they have a ton of egg on their face because again, according to Cowley's reporting, at least some of this was known from Detroit. And this is a front office that has really, really struggled and also no players apparently are sad to see him go again based on Cowley's reporting. So it's like you traded for a guy who wasn't good, was a distraction, was unprofessional and wasn't liked. That's not doing due diligence. That's just a terrible look for the front office. Well, and the other thing is, listen, I do think Christians sometimes get marginalized. The media, I think we would both admit, can be snarky and dismissive. There are also Christians who love to play the victim and they always feel persecuted. And it's like, guys, you can talk about the Christian thing all you want, replace his

9:20opinions on religion and make them about politics. Now people will say, well, what about Steve Kerr? Steve Kerr's got multiple trophies. Well, what about Brad? Not the same rule for every person. That's right. What about pot of it? Pop of it. He's a top three coach in the history of the league. Jaden Ivey is a disappointing weird player that is injured. And when he goes into rehab, even at Purdue, I made one call. That's, that's my discipline with the bulls, the diligence. I made one call. I had one interaction with a Purdue person and they're like, yeah, he wasn't well like there. He once he, I think he got hurt his freshman year. He didn't get to go to the gym and they're like, he went sideways. He, he, he was a guy that now I do, I think the media should be talking about mental health issues. We don't know shit about that. I mean, let's get out of that space completely. But and I, and I've said this before, I, Danny, I'm sure you've done this. Well, I've worked at four or five radio stations, two networks, multiple TV stations in, you

10:25know, in Tampa, I worked with a weirdo. And it was a reporter and he got sent out the door and he was very, very capable. He was weird. And it's like he didn't do anything illegal. He just made people uncomfortable. And it's like, bye, bye. And companies have a right to do that. And so, you know, again, that this, this kind of perpetual victim mode, the Christians are being attacked. If it doesn't, listen, it could be, he could have just gotten into politics. And you know, I know people do say, well, the NBA is very anti-Trump. All right. Well, it's a very, you know, they are. But again, current pop of itch have sort of led the brigade on sort of anti-Trump politics, but they're also not players. They're long-term contract management position. So that's the way the world works. Yeah. Listen, and I'm sure that there's plenty of owners in the NBA that are pro Trump, that are pro Trump, right?

11:26Like in the, in the billionaire class. So I do not look at the jade and ivy situation as a freedom of speech issue. No, it's not a free, you know, like, but so if that, if that, if that is being taken up as his cause or his plate, and he's good, well, then 20 teams should be in line to sign up. But my guess is that's not going to be the case. You know, like, if he, if he is good enough to get the job he will sports or a meritocracy ultimately, right? It's the ultimate meritocracy, more so than politics, more, more so than any other form of life. It is the ultimate meritocracy. So if jade and ivy has gotten to the point where the juice isn't worth the squeeze, we've seen that time and time and time again in every industry. Exactly. Exactly.

12:27So I, I don't, I don't feel sorry for him. I looked at it more through the prism of just another sign of incompetence by the front office of the team that I rude for and to continue to miss the playoffs in the NBA colon. Most teams make it. Yeah. Well, you know, another, I mean, I work for Fox. They got rid of Tucker Carlson and Bill O'Reilly because Bill O'Reilly was so inappropriate, you know, people were getting sued. Now, so what there are lines in terms of inappropriate behavior, you know, and, and Fox got rid of people that they thought were entirely inappropriate. So in what, in what Tucker Carlson did, I don't know if it rises to illegal, but it was certainly inappropriate, his emails in the workplace. So this idea, he should sue the NBA. He had seven games left and was going to be a free agent and they were not going to reassign him every company in any industry, public or private can say we're going to give you a $10 million check, which the bulls did.

13:28Here's your guaranteed money. Good luck in free agency. There's no lawsuit to be had. He's not a lawyer who got disbarred. He didn't get sent. He wasn't in. He's not being sent to a jail. It's like, dude, here's a check, best of luck on the market. Yeah, it's not, it's not the exact same situation, but you're right in terms of how quickly he was going to be gone from the bulls anyway. When I got my job in Kansas City, the guy before me who I was replacing had gotten a job in Dallas. So classic, just like moving to a bigger market story. And I'm driving to Kansas City and I got the U-Haul and they're like, you know, I'm arriving on a Monday or a Tuesday and you're going to start the following Monday, but come in, do your paperwork, meet everybody, we'll bring you into the radio station and I'm driving into the radio station during the timeslot of the guy that I'm replacing. And he was a bit of a shock, Jack is still working, actually. And he goes, the topic was, would it be better if the royals this year won 90 games or

14:36the owner died? And we're on the home of the royals and I was like, oh my God, like, what are you doing? They, they, but I got an office there like, can you start tomorrow? I was like, yeah, sure. So this guy just, you know, went out in a blaze of glory, trying to make headlines and be crazy. It's like, that's a, that's a thing you could maybe do on like rock radio back in the day if you weren't affiliated with the team and it would be in poor taste, but okay. But you know, there's just, there's some things that some companies are and are not willing to tolerate. And if they only have to give you a pay for four days of not working, they're going to send you going. That's the radio equivalent. It's, it's amazing. It's so, it's amazing to me how naive a lot of people are on this. If I had to read one more, so you'll keep criminals, but let him go for free speech. It's like, people, this is not complicated. I said this today, there are tens of thousands in Americans, tens of thousands of Americans

15:39have been arrested. Some seriously, and they are working and highly productive today in corporations or private companies. And there are tens of thousands of people. What there aren't is tens of thousands of people who are viewed as bad for the room and weird and odd and preachy that remain employed for years in a company. That doesn't happen because I've been in environments where that person is shown the door. I've also worked at companies where people have done really dumb things, DUI. They apologize. They're contrite and they remain employed like it's just not people are so naive. This whole NBA NFL, we know the NFL NFL's got some bad guys in every locker rooms. But if they are productive and, and again, and people make mistakes and, and you know, they have, they've come to have gotten therapy or rehab. Or willing to give you second chance, America is all about the second chance. Yeah. And listen, there are clearly, and you reference some of them with the Fox employees earlier.

16:43Like there are clearly some like where it doesn't matter what your ratings are. And if you cross a line that is untenable for a company because of morality or illegality, then you're gone. But if they're like, this is a different topic. I don't know if you want to talk Tiger Woods or not, but like, oh, I do, I do. I have it on the list. Go ahead. Okay. Okay. I mean, but like, people, there's there's seemingly some sentiment of like the PG A tour is should like cut ties with Tiger Woods. I will be floored if that happens. Right. We've got plenty of tiger thoughts that we can get to. But like, he is so valuable to them on so many levels. Forget captaining the writer cup or if he plays on the senior to her. Like, they are trying to modernize the turning over a million people watch. golf league for it's, it's guys playing golf on a simulator, but they over a million people watch it when Tiger Woods plays like he is like a singular force of nature that

17:43I do not believe that Augusta or the PGA tour or his sponsors are all of a sudden going to turn their back on Tiger Woods because of this latest incident. He's two, he's too valuable to the entity. Now that might also be part of the problem that enables him to not change his behavior, but these companies are not going to take up a moral stand against their bottom line with Tiger Woods. Well, my take on him was people always say when, when, you know, rich men and rich successful men often athletes get into car wrecks or DUIs. How stupid, how do you not have a driver? Number one, I get in my car five times a day. You know, it's not like Tiger's got a nine to five job. Drop me off at work and pick me up. So Tiger doesn't want to pay a million dollars, a half a million dollars a year for a guy to park outside his Jupiter floor to home and take him to Vaughan's or Safeway. Okay. Secondly, a lot of successful men and athletes are adrenaline junkies.

18:47They got six cars, maybe 12. They like to drive them and they think they're bulletproof. So if they got a cocktail or four, if they smoke a blunt or two, they like to get into the car and they, hey, man, I'm bulletproof. So when I look at that, do I feel bad for Tiger? Absolutely. I think his job now is to be a better dad, right? The golf thing is secondary. But I, when I hear people just jump to the, how can he not have a driver? Guys, athletes, you know, it's, it's an outlier to find a wealthy athlete with fewer than a half dozen cars, guys and cars. I mean, it's an alpha quality. It is a testosterone quality, fast cars, fast driving. And so, you know, I just, I'm not defending the actions of Tiger, but he's clearly got a major problem. There was a story

19:48about opioids found in his body. It's awful. Well, that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Listen, the half a million or a million dollars a year Tiger could afford it, choose not to because of what you were talking about most likely. He likes, he likes either driving his cool cars. I mean, that car that he flipped was $250,000 car. And he probably has a lot of them. And also, this is pure speculation, but we have reason to believe it. I mean, Tiger Woods has done some shady things with relationships and he might not want a witness to where he's going at all times to see who he might want to see. But the thing that is just so obvious, you talk about having a few drinks or smoking the, smoking a blunt, you know, he blew a 0.0. He had no booze in his system, but they found two hydrocodone in his pocket. Like, he's had a ton of surgeries. He clearly is,

20:54listen, I can't diagnose addiction, right? It is fair to speculate that he is addicted to pain pills or at the very least dependent on them and is clearly and has just from the last DUI in the toxicology report that came out. There was a bunch of it in his system. He represents a lot of the symptoms of it, glassy eye, puffy face, with thargic, you know, pill. Opioids are scary because they work. Like, you know, they're, they're, it's big business. Someone very close to me, has a serious problem with it. We've tried many different things to get done. It's a scary thing, but if you deal with chronic pain and the little white pill is the only thing that gives you relief, it's hard to say no to it because dealing with chronic pain is awful, but the thing that you can't do, you have to have better judgment than to get behind the wheel of a car if you're taking opioids every day. You just, it's dangerous. You are a danger to yourself and society. And if he

22:01had pills in his system, which we again assume that he did based on his previous history and based on the reports of the officers at the scene and the physical evidence of he hadn't more in his pocket, it's just dangerous, man. It's just straight up dangerous to like even if he's not behind the wheel of a car, taking that being that dependent on that quantity of opioids is just a very dangerous thing. And when he's had a couple dozen surgeries at this point, it's no surprise that that's the situation that he's got himself into. So you're right about men and cars and adrenaline junkie and all that. But if he's taken a high dose of pain medicine every day for chronic pain, he's probably never in condition to drive. If we're being totally honest, like he probably gets, it's a hard thing to manage. So I, I do feel badly for him, but he's got to, he's got to stop driving somehow because or he's got to get the pain situation under control,

23:04because it's dangerous, man. It's those things are, they are scary with how much they work. I don't know if you've ever had a big surgery, but like I've had final fusion surgery, which is what Tiger has had. Yeah. And it's like you can be in the most pain ever. And then you take one of those pills and you feel like you're floating. You know, this is the greatest thing in the world. So yeah, he's got a serious, serious problem on his hands. Listen, I take a three millimeter cannabis gummy about a month ago. And I felt like teaching Chong, you know, at a Hollywood party in the 70s. It's like I was so tingly and high. Yeah, I woke up the next morning and I told my wife, I'm like, yeah, I'm done with cannabis gum. He's like, how many did you take? And I'm like half of one. I'm just, I have thin blood. I'm like, I walk by therapy. I just walk by it. I knocked out like I can't take anything. Today's show brought to you by a presenting sponsor

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26:05and plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 10 days, shots fired, city hall building. A silver 40 caliber handgun was recovered at the scene. From iHeart Podcasts, in best case studios, this is Worshack, Murder at City Hall. How could this have happened in city hall? Somebody tell me that! July 2003, Councilman James E. Davis arrives at New York City Hall with a guest, both men are carrying concealed weapons, and in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead. Everybody in the chamber's a dog. A shocking public murder. A scream, get down, get down, those are shots, those are shots, get down. A charismatic politician, you know, he just bent

27:09the rules all the time, man. I still have a weapon, and I could shoot you. And an outsider with a secret. He alleged he was infected of flat-down. That may have been not have been political, that may have been about sex. Listen to Worshack, Murder at City Hall on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of The On purpose Podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Conn, the singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global hit, Stick Season, and one of the biggest voices in music today. Noah opens up about the pressure that followed his rapid success, his struggles with mental health and body image, and the fear of starting again after such a defining moment in his career. It's easy to look at somebody and be like, your life must be so sick. Man, you have no f***ing clue. Talking about the mental illness stuff, it used to be this thing that I was ashamed of. I'm just now trying to unwind this idea that I have

28:10to be unhealthy physically or in pain in some emotional way in my life to create good music. If someone says that I did a good job, I'm like, yeah, I'm good. If someone says that I suck, I'm like, f*** I suck. Getting to talk about this is not common for me, and right now I need it more than ever. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the IHAR radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I feel like it was a little bit unbelievable until I really start making money. It's financial literacy month, and the podcast eating while broke is bringing real conversations about money, growth, and building your future. This month, here from top streamer Zoe Spencer, and venture capitalist LaKisha Landrum Pierre, as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up. If I'm outside with my parents and they see all these people come up to me for pictures, it's like, what? Today now, obviously, it's like 100% they believe everything, but at first it was just like, you got to go get a real job. There's an economic component to

29:13community striving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship happening in communities, they fail. And what I mean by falls, they don't have money to pay for food, they cannot feed their kids, they do not have homes. Communities don't work unless there's money flowing through them. Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHART Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Pivot to this. I am on an island, but I think most officials are great. The NFL, according to NFL ops, over 99% of calls are right. Now, now that's NFL ops, but I think that's a fairly reasonable number. We are watching the ABS system and what we're finding is home plate umpiring is difficult, but again, half the time the umpires are right. And there's just not that many challenges, which is pretty amazing considering

30:16batters are different sizes. The zone is different. The ball's going 98 with movement. And even when you pat your head, it's a silimeter. It's just outside. So officials are good. So there's this sense that you can't go with replacement refs. And in most instances, I think there's very few great of anything. And I'm sure you can find replacement refs. But if I'm the NFL, here's my take. All you people do is complain about baseball umpires and NBA refs. And they're full time. And our guys get 99% hit rate. Our league is growing faster than any other league. So it's clearly tolerable for television and radio and and screaming consumption. Well, it's working. Well, why do we have to go full to the other sports? I mean, you can't win an NBA series without 75% of the fans claiming it's rigged. It's just an automatic. It's rigged.

31:23So my take is the NFL's like folks, we got part time guys. 99% right. Our games don't take 30 minutes for the last two and a half like the NBA. We don't need an ABS system necessarily at the you know, for our calls. And it's working. So so what's the point of us going full time? Yeah, the the argument for going full time is they have the money. That's that's probably the only argument. I don't know if 99% figure is correct. I think that officiating has been damaged like the public perception of officiating has been damaged by HD television. Like we have this ability to microscopic slow down NBC it's zoom in. They can show us three replays immediately before the next snap is done. And it's just total and we're debating it for 45 seconds for a minute

32:23for a minute and a half on these replays. And then the rules analyst will come on TV and be like, that should be overturned. And then the rep on the field is like call stands and we're like, what the hell's going on? You know, it's like, I think that's why public opinion on refs is so much is so out of skewed with out of skew with the reality of like, of course, they're very, very good. And umpiring is virtually impossible. I had a hard time doing it for like college age beer league baseball when guys are hung over puking in right field. I was an umpire for a couple of summers and I'm like, this is ridiculous. Like I am straight up guessing as to what is a ball and a strike. So I can't imagine doing it at that level. But I just think that the the NFL is in such a position where they're tough one, whether they do it or don't replacement refs or not. And they know that they know exactly exactly. And they and and they know it. And so

33:27I think that you I think you are probably right with the direction that goes. They went they tend to win labor standoffs with players. The win this one with the refs like that they are totally tough one. And I agree by and large refs are better than we give them credit for. But I love that ABS exists in baseball now. Oh yeah, it's great. I do. It's a game. It's a game show. I get a reveal and a studio audience. It's great. And it goes fast. Like it it's it might be the best use of replay since tennis where like tennis, you know, tennis is just like in out in its incident and it's binary. Like that's never going to be topped. But just like the speed of it, how infrequent it's used, the strategy behind like you save this one or do you use it? Should it be the pitcher, the catcher, the batter, like it's the dugout can't call for it. It's great. It's a great ad for baseball. All right. Let's let's wrap it up by going hard rock bet. Yukon plus two and a half against

34:32Illinois, Michigan minus one and a half against Arizona. Illinois is fascinating. They went heavy into the European market and Brad Underwood has built a team that is intentional, that is efficient, that's got size, page of Stoyokovich's son. They got twins from Croatia and an under recruited guard Wogler who is just unbelievable six six impossible to defend at the college level. I think they're a handful for Yukon. It's impossible to me to not take the two and a half points because Yukon is so good in the second half and they're just so built because they're so physical. They wear teams down. I think Illinois is better. I've watched them now play four times. I watched them twice in the regular season. I've watched them twice in the tournament. I think Illinois is better offensively. I think they have more weapons. I think they're going to be really hard to defend. I

35:32don't love Yukon's guards. You know, Taurus Reed obviously carried him in the first half against Duke. He's an old school big. I'd probably, I think Illinois is going to win it and I think it's a one or a two point game. I would probably hard rock bet take Yukon in the points. What say you? So, you know, it opened at a smaller number than that. And so I and I thought the sharp side was Illinois. And so I'd probably like if I had to bet it today, I'd I was like, well, if I was willing to bet it at one or one and a half and I had to bet it today, I'd bet it at two and a half. I have some Yukon futures that I'm just going to let ride. So I won't be placing a bet on the other side of it. The argument I think for Yukon is their coach is just much better. Like Brad Underwood has done a very nice job of recruiting, but he is not known for being a great like situational coach. They were winless all of their overtime games this year. He's not a good

36:33like, you know, play like out of bounds play coach. And so, you know, in the events that Illinois gets out of sorts, like is he going to be able to reign it in? I was at the game at the garden when Yukon played Illinois this year. Yukon destroyed them, but Wadler didn't play. The fact that Wadler could be is not going to be a top five pick in this draft. I mean, shows how insane the draft is. Like this. It's, I mean, Boos are at this point. And he played well against Yukon, but you question his athletic ability. Booser could drop to seven. I mean, seriously. Yeah, the draft is ridiculous. Um, and I think Illinois has the size where Terrace Reed should not yes, dominant. Terrace Reed is a hilarious college basketball player. He, he's huge. He's a pretty good athlete. He cannot go left. I like, I don't know. He can't, I, he passes a wide open left-handed

37:33let like, and they overguard his right shoulder and they, it just, it doesn't matter. He just, he can always get to a spot and hit that little right handed baby hook. I'm like, force him left. He can't do it, but it doesn't matter. He still gives you 20 and 10. Um, so yeah, I think that Yukon is a, is a dog. I don't even really think this Yukon team is that good. Uh, I've seen them because my nephew goes there. So I saw him twice in the Big East tournament and once in the regular season game in person off the garden against Illinois. Uh, but Braille and Mullins has been really good in the past. He's been terrible in March. And it is possible that that shot just unlocks him because he is an NBA prospect as a shooter. So maybe he can go off for Yukon, but yeah, I like, I like Illinois in that spot. And then Arizona Michigan to me feels like the NFC championship game. Yeah. Yeah. Where Ramsey Hawks was the real Super Bowl. Right. I will be, listen, it's single elimination college basketball. Anyone can win on any given day, but I would be pretty

38:33floored if the left side of the bracket, the Illinois Yukon winner beat the Arizona Michigan winner. Well, I think that Arizona Michigan game is going to be all time. Well, it's the Shaq Kobe team that beat the Blazers in seven at Staples and you're like, everybody knew the winner of that was going to be Indiana. Like it wasn't, you know, it was fixed. It was in big trouble. I'm going to say this. I went to the United Center because I wanted to see Michigan in person. Yeah, it's the best passing college team I've ever seen. Oh, wow. I think Mara, a die Mara was a defensive player at UCLA scored five points a game. Now he's up to about 12 points a game. And I asked Dusty May the coach off the air. We were talking before we went on the air for about two minutes. And I said, I didn't know a die Mara had an offensive game. And he said he was a really good passer even at UCLA. He just didn't score a lot because, you know, their guard play was really good. But he has

39:35he's got it. I mean, he is really hard to defend. First of all, he's a tremendous defensive player. So he eliminates just he eliminates a lot of your ideas. It's like Wembee. Like he's just eliminating even the pursuit of certain shots. But he's a tremendous passer and watching watching Michigan live. I mean, you can, there's no question. If you go to a game's live, it's just different. You see different things. Yeah. Like even in the NFL game, you don't even see the safeties when the ball is snapped. When you go and then you go to a game and you watch an ed read and you're like, Holy hell, he is everywhere. The Earl Thomas for Seattle or Nicki Manuara, if you're a C.O.K. fan, you're like, oh my God, he's so much better in person that he is on television. Michigan in person, it is wow. To do a 21, nothing run. I mean, in the elite eight on a neutral floor is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's playing that's playing like a low and like the 318th rated team at home on a Saturday night on homecoming or some, you know,

40:39I mean, like that doesn't even make sense. So I think Arizona's got good guards in between Michigan and Arizona. This is why the NILs great. We could have nine NBA players that didn't exist when when Duke and Butler played in the final, they shot under 40% when Duke and Yukon when when Butler and Yukon did the following year, they shot 31%. Well, I mean, that was worse games the whole time. I mean, Jeff, but the NIL was unwatchable. So the NIL, they did it to the Indiana Hoosiers and the Miami Hurricanes. It used to be you'd have to go to junior college to solve problems and those guys never academic issues. They weren't very good against the competition at the Juco. Now we got we need a corner and you go by Georgia's like, so you get these college teams like Indiana didn't have a weakness. They were literally good to great everywhere everywhere even Nick Sabin's team as you'd be like, they're not very good on the old line. They've got a bad

41:40right tackle. They, you know, they're safe. These are a little physical, but they can't run. So I mean, I look at Michigan and I'm like, I guess they don't have great guard play, but passing shooting threes, size, they may have the best player, the Axel Lindenborg, I'll take Michigan. Yeah, let's say I think it's very close. Arizona's depth is impressive. They just, they don't, they don't make mistakes. You mentioned the size for Michigan though, that's the thing that jumps off for me. They're all huge. Every player is gigantic. So every guard is six, five, every wing is six, nine. They've got multiple dudes. It's like six, eleven, seven, two, like they're just huge. And so that tends to be a fairly overwhelming thing in college basketball. They were my pick before the tournament. So I'm stick with them, but I do think it is a, I do think that game is a, is a legitimate coin flip. As someone who said after the opening

42:40weekend of the tournament, that Cinderella was dead and that they've taken some of the madness out of March, allow me this opportunity to say these games have delivered because that was my thing. I was like, listen, if you're going to give me 20 point blowouts and I can't get Cinderella, and which is what the tournament was built on in terms of its popularity, my whole thing was like, okay, but then elite eight final four title game, when it's like basically it's one game on at a time, I don't want to be watching blowouts because it's right. If you have a blowout early, but there's four games on it once, it doesn't matter. Oh, the game on TBS is a blowout. I'll lock in on true TV. True TV is a blowout. Let's go over to CBS. And like the beauty of the first four days is 64 down to 16, 48 single elimination games in a condensed period of time. It's just awesome TV. And I did think that the opening weekend was lacking because of the margin of victory and the lack of upsets.

43:45The end is now much better than the beginning. Correct. And it used to be a tournament that got worse as it went along because you would see us into Rella and then they would be in a standalone window and then they would get destroyed by North Carolina. And you'd be like, oh, well, that wasn't a very fun elite eight game or whatever. And so I was like, oh, it's still college basketball. So I was a little concerned that we were going to get blowouts, poor play, whatever the case may be. And we got one or two, but the the second weekend was so great. And this final four should be, I mean, Ken Pomeroy says that this is the greatest final format you've ever based on his rating between Arizona and Michigan to ice rated teams to meet in a final forever. And so it's like, okay, well, that I'm in on that. And then you got Dan Hurley, who's going for three titles in four years, first program to have to do that since John Wooden and UCLA, like, okay, I'm here for that. And then Illinois is a wildly talented high end offensive

44:52team that can score 90 points. Like it's, it's great. It's great. It's like if you ran a TV network and nobody was under contract, that's what college basketball is. And you're like, oh, we could really use Mike and Tony after your show with Nick Wright and Chris Brussard and Kevin Wilde. And you could just go buy them. The Murdoch's would go, let's just go right and check. All right, Mike and Tony's on our team. Well, that fills a hole. That's a really good half hour. And then you're like, uh, Stephen A Smith, you want to do an hour and a half, two hours in the morning? Well, I got no contract. Well, I will fill that hole. That's what it is. You, you, you, every programming network, you have holes. You're like, oh, we'd like to hire somebody, but they're under contract. That's the NBA college basketball now is like, if the NBA, you could trade anybody at any time in there were no contracts. I mean, Michigan's like, you know, we're really good, but we could use a rim protector. UCLA will take yours. And we could use a really dominant older physical player kind of, uh, you know, a six, nine, two, 40 runs the floor. Oh, let's go get Yaxal Lendenborg, who would have gone pro if not for an I L. So it's like Michigan is good. And it's just like, it's just remarkable

45:57in college sports now. It is pro sports with no contracts. You could just go get, I mean, can you imagine if, you know, you're a bear span and you're like, man, we could use an, we could really use an ed rusher. And it was, you could get any single player, not by trading, just go buy him. And if he liked the contract, he would come and play for the bears at, at rush and it would, it would, it would, it would be wild. It would be, it would be exciting. I don't think the leagues would go for it, but you don't think the billionaires would like that. Yeah, I don't think they would love it. I'm going to give you a $200 million contract that you can get out of whatever you want. I don't think they'd sign up for it. But yeah, listen, and it, it is a singular thing like college basketball is a, like, it was kind of the only place where VCU could beat Duke. And now that's impossible. And so I do have to mourn that a little bit because you're not going

46:59to see the equivalent of VCU doesn't exist in the NFL. In major league baseball, you know, the pirates can do it for a game, but they're not going to do it over 162 to get there. The inequality is too big. So like, it's gone. But if we keep getting final fours like this, I'm going to forget about Loyola and Florida Atlantic pretty damn quick. Danny Parkinson's Tiger Woods, NFL reps, the final four and the Jaden ivy story, which is, it's interesting. Whenever there's a controversial story, you know, I knew I did the story today. You know, you get feedback. I don't follow it, but I got so much feedback from friends and people around pro sports that reached out to me. But I want to, I want to end it with a story back in 1986. I got out of college and I got a job in Las Vegas doing one inning of play by play and then sales. And so my boss was Larry Kentop,

48:01who has passed away. He hired me at the baseball winter meetings. I was like eight credit shy of a degree. I went to the baseball winter meetings in my AMC pace, her, which eventually caught fire in a freeway in Vegas. And I left college eight credit shy because they offered me an inning of play by play and sales. And I was 22 and I thought, triple A baseball inning of play by play, trot, pot raise, triple A affiliate. My mom's like, you should probably go for it. This sounds like I'm listening to my son, you should probably go for it. So I drove down there to the job. So I'm there like a month and a half, two months. And the desert in was this really ritty old school Las Vegas casino with an amazing golf course. Now the win is there. So the desert in was swanky. And Larry Kentop was a great golfer and he had a membership there. So about a week into my job, he's like, Hey, let me take you to lunch and introduce you to some people. And it was like, I could see the money, you know, handkerchiefs and suits, necklaces, Rolexes, everybody was tan.

49:05It was just like the richest room I'd ever been in. I'm from rural Washington state. And as we're leaving after lunch, I even remember what I ordered. I ordered a tuna melt. I never had one. It sounded good. I mean, little I, you know, I just literally, I remember the day. I remember the moment. And as I'm leaving, Larry introduces me to a guy who just looks rich. And he says, Larry goes, Oh, this is my golfing partner, Bob, so and so. He said, Colin wants to be a sportscaster. And he goes, Oh, well, listen, I don't know much about it. But he said, don't talk politics or religion. And I'm like, yeah, that kind of, you know, to this day, that's kind of it in sports. You can, you can talk some, I guess. You can take stands. We've seen that historically, but it does hold mostly true politics and religion in sports. It can be dicey. It can be difficult. Now, there are different rules for status. LeBron can do it. Others can't, but I just remembered that moment when the jade and ivy came down. It's like

50:08even to some things, you know, treat others like you want to be treated. You know, every, that book, everything you learn, you learn in kindergarten. I remember that moment. Kid, don't talk politics or sports or politics. Kid, don't talk politics or religion in sports. You'll have a great career. And I thought, Jayden, you're not good enough to preach. And now your tan and have a nice watch. And now you know the rest of the story. Yeah. Yeah. And you followed Bob such and such after your tuna melt. And now here we are. All right, Danny, great stuff. Talk to you, Colin. Thank you. Shoot your shot. Get paid double only on hard rock band. Hard rock band is for us only legal way to bet the NBA teams, players, points, and more. Is it? He scores. And when you sign up for hard rock band, your bets pay double winners.

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52:09Landrum Pierre, as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up. There's an economic component to community striving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship happening in communities, they failed. Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Daniel Alarcon, and this is my friend who's much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far, but I'm John Green, co-host of the podcast The Away End, with my old friend Daniel. On our podcast The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why of all the unimportant things football, soccer is the most important. Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcon, and John Green on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ernest, what's up? Look, money is something we all deal with, but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth. On each episode of the podcast, Ernest, we break down the

53:10conversations you need to understand money, investing, and entrepreneurship. From stocks and real state to credit, business, and generational wealth, our goal is simple. Make financial literacy accessible for everyone, because when you understand the system, you can start to build within it. Open your free iHeart Radio app, search Earn Your Leisure, and listen now.