USA Hockey Sweeps Gold & Duke and Arizona Surge in College Hoops

Nick (00:00)
You ready to this? That's like my intro. This is the Height Differential. We're back. I feel like we've been gone for a little bit, but it's just been seven, eight, nine, nine days. We are back for the Height Differential. That's the 660L IMD410. Nick, before we jump in, quick reminder, if you're watching live or catching this later, make sure to subscribe to the Height Differential wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you like the show, rate it and leave a review.

You can also follow us on social at the height, actually just at height differential. We'll talk Olympics. We'll talk college hoops. Scotty Scheffler finally didn't finish in the top 10 for the first time in years. Pimlico is not hosting the preakness and Laurel is going to host it with about less than five, like 5,000 fans. But before we get into everything, I don't know about you, but

Neil (00:53)
Y'all.

Nick (00:58)
I'm a little sad that the Olympics are over.

Neil (01:01)
Yeah, mean, what a nice little two weeks we had, you know, the US putting up some good numbers. It's their most successful Winter Olympics in a while. Most gold medals ever. Most overall medals on foreign soil for the Winter Olympics, but an absolute great two weeks for the US. And yeah, I'm a little sad as well.

Nick (01:23)
Yeah, I feel like it takes a couple days to kind of really get into it. And then once you're fully invested, like that's all I was doing is during the day was while I was work, make sure I had it on all the time and keeping up with going on the Thursday last week was awesome with the women's figure skating gold medal game and the women's figure skating going on the same exact time. So Thursday was really cool, both of them finishing with gold and then.

Obviously the the Olympics ending with the men winning gold on Sunday, but and then Mike Turrico man just ends it with just What a great tribute to the Olympics just firing everybody up getting everybody ready for for 20 30 20 34 20 38 20 42 get ready because everybody got fired up my tree

Neil (02:11)
No, you're already

you're already looking to the forward of the 2042 games, huh?

Nick (02:15)
I'm telling you the five and six year olds that are watching that they pumped they ready to go

Neil (02:20)
They are ready.

Nick (02:21)
But dude, how good is he at his job?

Neil (02:23)
He's very good. mean, that's why NBC paid the big bucks to lure him off of ESPN, and rightfully so. He's one of the best.

Nick (02:32)
You do the play-by-play for the Super Bowl and then immediately fly to Italy.

Neil (02:35)
Yeah, get on

a plane, get on a plane and go to the Olympics.

Nick (02:40)
And those are two very different jobs. Doing play by play and hosting are two very different jobs. And he might be the best of both of

Neil (02:46)
Yes.

Yeah, I I put him up there with the Bob Costas' of the world, maybe the Al Michaels action, but yeah. No, he's very good.

Nick (02:56)
Yeah.

Well, I think Bob Costas is probably the closest comparison because he did, he hosted and did play by play. kind of leaned away from play by play later in his, in his career. But yeah, I think that's probably the closest comparison. But what was the biggest story stuck out to you in the Olympics?

Neil (03:00)
Cause he could, yeah, classes does both. Yeah.

I mean, the female dominance of the US athletes. mean, like I said, it's the most gold medals that the US has won in a Winter Olympics. They won 12 and eight of them by either female teams or female individual athletes. like we mentioned, the women's hockey team with their overtime win over Canada to get the gold and Alyssa, when we say Alyssa Lu is her name, ⁓ the figure skater pulling out the gold medal in that sport. And just the overall just

Nick (03:39)
salute

Neil (03:46)
the greatness of the female ⁓ US Olympian athletes.

Nick (03:51)
Yeah, and just talking about Alyssa Lou, just, don't know how much you kept up with it during the over the last two weeks, but her attitude going into it was just kind of really carefree. And you can kind of see that in her figure skating. Her story is incredible. I mean, she was winning national championships when she was 13 years old, competes in the Olympics in 2022 at the age of 16, and then hangs her skates up. And she wasn't having fun with it, retires, says she's done and then...

She decides she wants to come back and of the three US figure skaters, I think she had the longest odds to win the gold. But she really did skate carefree, had a great short program skate that put her in contention. then really, it's just such a nerve wracking sport. we saw Amber Glenn, was probably the leading candidate from USA to win gold, had one little stumble in the short skate, which set her all the way back to 13th.

Neil (04:28)
Yeah, she was not the favorite, yeah.

Yeah, the short, Yeah. ⁓

Nick (04:51)
And she wasn't

able to overcome it. She was in first for a long time after having a really good free skate, ended up finishing fifth. But it's just such a nerve wracking sport. You make one mistake and it can eliminate you from contention. I really do think that the fact that she was retired, she'd already kind of been through it. She was just having fun with it. It played a role in the reason why she was able to skate so carefree and take home the gold. But it was great to see.

Neil (05:17)
Yeah, no, absolutely. And then you get into the hockey, both hockey's. mean, the men's hockey gold medal probably is the main story of the Olympics, what everybody's going to remember for years and years to come with their overtime victory over Canada. And what a great game that that was. ⁓ But the women's hockey team as well, both, like I said, overtime goals, little bit different fashion. The women had to pull the goalie, and they were down to their last minute before Hillary Knight scores that goal with what, a minute left in the.

the last period to send it to overtime. It was getting tight, three minutes. Yeah, the goalie was pulled. So they were in desperation mode and they got that goal and then they went on to win it in overtime. And with the men, was more of a, they took the lead and they hung on for dear life just to get it to overtime. And once overtime happened, you know, the magic happened with you. it's, think the hockey is probably, both hockey teams is probably the biggest story.

Nick (05:47)
Two minutes, but it was getting nerve wracking. Yeah.

Neil (06:16)
Um, and moving forward, know, like, uh, I don't know. do you think?

Nick (06:23)
Well, we talked about how much we love Olympic hockey. And I think a lot of that is because neither one of us really have hockey teams that we follow. this gives you like hockey so fun when you have a team to watch. And it makes me want to have an NHL team, but it's just so hard to force that. I've tried to have several teams, but yeah, hockey is going to be the standout for the Olympics. The women's game was, was incredible. Like we talked about it last week, how

There's no way that they were gonna lose. They were what 33 to one in all their games leading up to the championship. You're trying to do sit but saying Canada has no chance. And with two and a half minutes they're pulling the goalie because they're down one to nothing. And they're going empty net. They're going empty net. But yeah, you're right. The legend Hillary Knight comes through with the tying goal and then pretty quickly in three on three, Megan Keller gets the game winner.

Neil (06:57)
Yeah, dominated,

It was never a doubt. It was never a doubt. Never a doubt.

Nick (07:20)
They needed to win that the way they had dominated the entire tournament. They deserve to win it. It would have been an absolute travesty if they didn't. So was really happy to see them win. then the men's game, they get that early goal, which you want to be up. But a lot of the guys talked about after the game that might have been one of the worst things that could happen because they kind of felt like they were on their heels a little bit the rest of the way. Playing maybe not to lose. And then once Canada tied it,

Neil (07:44)
Yes.

Nick (07:49)
They said it on the broadcast, Eddie Olchek said it several times. They were lucky to get to overtime because they were, it just.

Neil (07:55)
⁓

Canada had so many chances. mean, we had the save by ⁓ Hellebock with the stick of his handle, like the handle, yeah, barely gets a piece of it, shoots that thing wide, and then Canada had a wide open net and the dude just pushed it left. I mean, multiple chances. mean, Canada outshot the US 42 to 28. Like, they're getting 16 more chances on goal, or 14 more chances on goal, and we're just lucky that...

Nick (08:03)
Incredible.

that.

Neil (08:24)
One of them didn't go in.

Nick (08:26)
And I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm a hockey. I don't know that much about hockey. I don't watch a lot of hockey. But I mean, the USA also had a shot where it hit both posts, which I've never seen in a hockey game. It hit the right post, ricocheted off at the left post, didn't go in. But the overtime goal by Jack Hughes, they say he's back in the game, but his teeth didn't come with him. And then he gets the game winning goal. I he took it to the mouth with a stick. And then-

Neil (08:55)
Yeah,

I mean, just watching the pictures and then the interviews after the game, blood coming out of his mouth, American flag draped around his shoulders, gold medal on, like, that's just the, like, is just a perfect hockey picture, like, all of it, like all of it. Like, he's just a hockey dude. Just a hockey dude.

Nick (09:05)
Yes.

How many people are gonna have

that picture in their basements forever?

Neil (09:20)
Yes. in their basements,

on t-shirts, all of it. Yeah. But also like how cool is it for the Hughes brothers? You know, like we mentioned like Jack gets the game winner to win the gold medal, which is obviously the big one, but the U S in the quarter finals, they went to overtime against Sweden. So they were on the brink of elimination in the quarter final and his brother Quinn scored the overtime winner. So like just to like celebrate with your brother, both of you score overtime goals in the knockout rounds. ⁓ But like what a cool.

cool family moment that is.

Nick (09:51)
and two sets of brothers on the team. Chucks too. And look, I'll be honest with you. I didn't know these guys before the Olympics. Did you? Did you know who any of them were?

Neil (09:54)
Yeah. The Kachats, yeah.

No, no. I've

heard of the Kachucks from ⁓ the Four Nations thing last year when the two brothers were fighting all of Team Canada right when the puck dropped. You remember that last year? That was them. But other than that, and Austin Matthews I think is the only other one I really actually know because he's a superstar in the NHL. But yeah, a lot of these guys, no you're right, I don't watch a lot of hockey until it's Stanley Cup Finals or Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Nick (10:11)
Yeah, not really.

Neil (10:27)
Yeah, no, it was cool to get to know them for two weeks.

Nick (10:31)
Yeah, I knew two players, think. Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, both Canadians. Right? So you watch the early games, you get to know the teams, and then Sunday, the women played at noon at the KFC Yom Center. And I didn't, I wasn't leaving the house till that hockey game was over. So I got there right at it. But.

Neil (10:36)
On Canadians, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No, like you see,

you see, but just like the awesomeness of the moment, like you look around the country and bars were open at 7 a.m. On the West Coast, bars were open at 4 a.m. Like, you know, like packed, like people are packing into bars in the early morning hours, boozing, drinking the beers, having a good time, celebrating. Like all around the country, people were tuned into this thing. Like this was a huge deal.

Nick (10:59)
⁓ God.

It's only the third gold in the USA's history and the first since 1980, the miracle on ice. So they talk about how important that 1980 gold medal was to USA hockey. And maybe now this will propel it to even another level. just I'm just sitting there and they score and you raise your arms like it's just it was ⁓ it was fun to see them.

But Nike didn't even expect the USA to win. So they didn't create, they didn't even put in production all these hockey jerseys because they expected Canada to win the thing. So people are going to buy jerseys and I don't think people can find them anywhere. Can you imagine how many of those they would sell?

Neil (12:00)
You can't find

a Jack Hughes, you can't find a Jack Hughes jersey anywhere.

Nick (12:03)
They better

be putting those in production like now because people will still be buying them.

Neil (12:08)
Of course, yeah. So as you said, like you don't watch a lot of hockey. Like is this kind of like curling for you? Like you pay attention to it for two weeks and then see you later. We'll like wait till the next US team trots out there in four years or are gonna pay more attention to hockey?

Nick (12:10)
But yeah, that picture is going to be iconic.

⁓

I've tried this every single time that it pros be the the top level players being in Olympics makes it way more fun when they're not there it's not as exciting but every single time there's NHL players in the Olympics I try I'm like I'm gonna pick a team I'm gonna go so this year I've been saying I'm gonna follow the Tampa Bay Lightning so once once the NHL starts back

I'm gonna try, I'm gonna make a real effort to see if I can become a Tampa Bay Lightning fan.

Neil (12:58)
Weren't you on the Predators Bane Wagon for a year there, like a couple years ago when they were pretty good?

Nick (13:02)
I've been on them all.

I've been on them all. I've been an Avs fan. I've been a Preds fan. I've been a Blue Jackets. None of them have stuck. Let's see if the lightning can stick. Like what NHL team do you pretend to be? You a Red Wings guy? Is that what you pretend to be?

Neil (13:18)
Back

in the 90s, I actually did watch, yes, in the 90s I was a Red Wings guy when they had, you know, Steve Yizerman and Sergey Fedorov and Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan and you know, like they were good. They were winning some Stanley Cups. They had the huge rivalry with the Avalanche that they ended up making a 30 for 30 on. But like that team with Lindstrom and yeah, like Scottie Bowman was the coach. that was peak hockey for me was late 90s Detroit Red Wings.

Nick (13:45)
That was back when the Avs were good too. Right? they were down, yeah. So I remember kind of cheering for the Avs at that point. But I mean, nothing's ever.

Neil (13:47)
Yeah, that was a huge rivalry. Yeah.

Yeah, was like Forsberg and they

had Patrick Waugh and Gold for the avalanche. was a huge deal.

Nick (13:57)
Yeah,

but my goal is to get in on the lightning, fly down to Tampa Bay, go to Caddy's, go to Hat Tricks, and then hit up a lightning game.

Neil (14:10)
There you go. You're gonna hit the odds as well?

Nick (14:11)
Maybe even hit the undertow.

Eh, we don't know about that. We don't know about that. But that's the goal. It's direct flight, easy to get there. Good uniforms. They're a good team. They haven't won in the last couple of years. Let's jump on the Lightning. Are you going to reinvest in the Red Wings? Are you going to roll somebody else?

Neil (14:35)
I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm probably not gonna be watching hockey until the play. I'm gonna keep on keeping on with everything else, but I'll tune into hockey once it's playoff time. It's kinda like the NBA, I don't watch a lot of, like, now that the Pacers suck like they do this year, because of Halliburton's, I haven't watched that much NBA, but I'll tune in once April rolls around and the playoffs start. So, we'll give it another two months and then we'll be back.

Nick (14:37)
you

I'm just going to say, Tampa's a way better city to go to in the winter than Detroit. So if you are going to go, pick a different team. ⁓

Neil (15:04)
yeah, it's not even question. Not even a-

I might jump

on the, I'll go. When you go to Tampa to see the lightning, you take me with you.

Nick (15:14)
let's go jump on the wagon with us our our boy the dude that can go uphill on skis in six a six minute mile kleibo johannes kleibo norways own dude finishes with a record six gold medals in a single game the 50 kilometer the the four by seven and a half relay

Neil (15:26)
Yeah. Yeah.

That's insane.

Nick (15:44)
the 10 kilometer free, the men's sprint classic, the men's team sprint free and the skiathlon. Dude went six for six.

Neil (15:55)
He's a monster.

Nick (15:56)
He belongs in the greatest Olympian of all time. That's conversation.

Neil (16:03)
I mean for that particular sport, yeah, no, yeah, no, you're right. There's just, don't know much about these events that he's doing. Like I don't know what to compare it to, but yeah, I mean.

Nick (16:14)
US

speed skater, Eric Hayden had the record for five golds in a single win in a single game and dude just finishes with six. He he goes famous because he becomes a meme because he's doing a six minute mile uphill on skis and then he ends up winning six gold medals.

And then I think Elena Myers Taylor, think was another big story of the Olympics. When in her first moment, the age of 41 became the oldest individual gold medalist in Winter Games history in her fifth appearance. ⁓ And then gets to tell her kids she won. That was pretty cool.

Neil (16:38)
Yeah, yes. Another female athlete. ⁓

So I'm looking here at the final medal count, right? And Norway dominates the games because Clibo that you just mentioned wins six golds and they're just the skiing powerhouse over in Norway. But 41 total medals, they won the gold, the silver, and the bronze straight up on all three categories. The US finishes second in total medals with 33 and second in gold medals with 12. And then third was the Netherlands, Italy fourth. I'm looking at the top 10. Guess what country is noticeably missing?

from the top 10.

Nick (17:29)
Canada?

Neil (17:30)
The Cheatin' Canadians are not in the top 10. Bombs, bunch of bombs, cheaters, I don't know, but they're not in the top 10 of total medals or gold medals. Out, done.

Nick (17:34)
Ow!

Oof, they're going to have to do something about that.

Neil (17:47)
Here's the rundown, we

said Norway, US, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, and Japan.

Nick (17:58)
mean, how many of those countries

are just always code or code a lot? I don't know. I don't know anything about GR.

Neil (18:05)
Norway?

I don't know, they all have mountains. We got mountains.

Nick (18:08)
But I do

know that Canada is colder than all the states of the United States. And I've been up north in the United States and some of those states are very cold like South Dakota.

Neil (18:18)
I will say, should we congratulate the Cheating Finger Pokers? They did end up getting first place in men's curling ⁓ with their finger pokes. But outside of them, I don't know really what else they've done.

Nick (18:28)
So. ⁓

Neil (18:32)
finishing second behind us in hockey, but the finger poker's at least got their gold.

Nick (18:37)
cheating finger pokers.

Neil (18:41)
holes.

Nick (18:42)
Like we're the bald eagles. Should Canadian just change their mascot to the finger pointers?

Neil (18:49)
They should. They should.

Nick (18:52)
Just, I really am like, even on Sunday night, just sad that there was no Olympics to watch. It goes by fast, two weeks.

Neil (19:04)
Are you a, speaking of the Olympics, before we wrap it up, are you an opening and closing ceremony watcher?

Me neither. It's too long, too boring.

Nick (19:12)
Like, yeah,

like I'll flip it on just to maybe see US for like a second when they're coming in and leaving, but.

Neil (19:20)
How do you know when they're coming in though?

Nick (19:22)
That's why I just keep, you think it's alphabetical, but then it's like, they're all over the board and you, it's impossible to, so no, I'm not. ⁓ It's, it's cool seeing the flame lit and the flame, ⁓ turned off or whatever you, what do you call that? When you de lit it, what is that called? Extinguish, extinguish, extinguish, extinguished. It's, ⁓ it's cool to see that, but no, I'm not sitting through a three hour thing.

Neil (19:37)
Yeah.

enough snuff it out extinguish extinguish the flame yeah

Nick (19:52)
watching Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir break down everything that's happening. But I did turn it on because I can tell you that Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir break down everything that's happening, but there's no chance, no, that I'm not watching it. It's for a totally different audience. A totally different audience.

Neil (20:05)
Okay, I didn't think so. It is.

I agree.

Nick (20:11)
And now we're on to LA in the summer of 28, which you won't have to wait or be watching it two o'clock in the afternoon. Everything will be live in prime time and it's going to be awesome. It's going to be absolutely awesome.

Neil (20:24)
That's awesome. I can't wait for that.

Yes.

Nick (20:31)
This weekend, we had two of the biggest Collar Troops games of the year.

Neil (20:38)
Yeah.

Nick (20:39)
We can start with Duke Michigan.

And what was cool about Duke Michigan is the fact that we get a non-con game at a neutral site in mid-February.

Neil (20:57)
It's like

a NCAA Final Four appetizer, if you will.

Nick (21:01)
It's and that's what it's designed for. It's designed to give these teams some experience with that. I think they had open shoot arounds in DC prior to the game. It's to give you that feel. Do we need more of these in conference play? Does it get too mundane where it's you all the conferences just playing each other? Do we need more of these where?

teams are going outside of conference. Do you like it on neutral side or would you rather it be on a home court?

Neil (21:37)
⁓ I'm fine either way. I'm fine with the neutral site. You know I I think we do need more of these because like you said like it just kind of gets a little unless you get that you know like the Like the Arizona at Kansas like you know like that top five matchup of that are actual conference teams like you don't get a lot of that you get like Michigan versus Rutgers or a Michigan versus Northwestern a couple times and it's just kind of like ⁓ It's just kind of stale like this this brings a little spice to it a little a little you know a little excitement

I like the neutral side is fine because that's what the tournament is going to be here in a couple weeks so you know it's good enough but no I do think we need more of this because it kind of breaks up that staleness that kind of lull in the basketball season where you like you said like it's just conference play conference play.

Nick (22:25)
No, I love it. I love it. Look, the other thing is you don't always know if these teams are going to live up to their height. Right? If we talked about how odd kind of the Baylor Louisville game was a couple of weeks ago because Baylor's had so many injuries and aren't in the top 25 and they got less than what, 4,000 people at that game. So, but it's also a way, it's pretty far away from Louisville. Like it's basically a Baylor home game and they've struggled and that's why it was kind of odd. This game,

Neil (22:51)
It was. Yes.

Nick (22:54)
I think upper deck seats were going for $600. So the height for this game was awesome. I do absolutely think we need more of these. It also makes me think, do you move one of those conference showdowns instead of having it in the preseason? Do you move it to where it is kind of in conference play to kind of force this a little bit? But you get number one and number three.

on in the middle of February and the beginning of the game they're going up and down the court and then the second half it really changed and Duke ends up winning 68 to 63. John Shire is, mean, what is in his fourth year now at Duke and has really, it's just incredible how he's just been able to pick up where Coach K left off. Whenever you lose a legend you,

You think you're gonna see a drop off and we really have not seen it with Duke, which is really a credit to him.

Neil (24:00)
No, yeah, he's one of the quickly, one of the best coaches in the country after just four years. Took the Duke to the Final Four last year. They're well on the way again this year. ⁓ So every year he's been coaching, it's gotten better and better. And you just look at some of the in-game stuff that he does, the sets that Duke runs. And they have the number one defense in the country. Offensively, they're running great sets. In-game adjustments. When Duke's down, when they were down nine to Louisville at halftime, they came out.

in the second half and just actually took it to us. And similar to their place, you know, was somewhat of a close game at halftime at Duke. In second half, he came out adjusted and took it to us again. So, I mean, he's a really good coach. There's no doubt about it. One of the best in the country.

Nick (24:44)
Cameron Boozer almost has a triple double in that game, 18, 10, and 7. And Elliott Caddell really struggled for Michigan, only shot one of eight from the field. was one of six from three. And then you get Duke, who comes off of that and beats Notre Dame by 40 on Tuesday night at Notre Dame. Shire is already the first coach in AF-

ACC history to have 240 plus wins on the road by more than 40 240 plus wins on the all time not in one year to ever do it they also beat Georgia Tech by 40 something in 2023 they scored 100 points in the win over Notre Dame they have now scored 100 points in back-to-back ACC games

Neil (25:26)
All time.

Nick (25:40)
That's the first time they've done it since 1998, 1999. I felt like we talked about the 98, 99 Duke team last week. And here's another one for you, a Boozer stat. Every single game this year, Boozer has had 14 points, five rebounds, and two assists. I know, like that sounds just, it doesn't sound amazing, right? But it's consistent.

Neil (25:49)
Yeah.

It sounds

pretty good, maybe it sounds pretty good, but I'm willing to bet there's not many people that have done that.

Nick (26:09)
No one has ever done it in the first 28 games. No one has ever done it. No one has never had at least 14 points, five rebounds, and two assists in their first 28 games in college basketball history.

Neil (26:13)
Yeah.

special. That's why he's probably going, I mean that's why, that's why he's, yes I think he's a lot, he's a lot to win player of the year.

Nick (26:26)
Is he a lot? Is he a lot?

Neil (26:35)
back to back Duke players of the year.

Nick (26:38)
Yeah, no, and that's a that do know the last two Duke back to backs?

Neil (26:47)
player of the years.

Nick (26:48)
Yeah, I was going to go into it, but we'll go ahead and do it now.

Neil (26:50)
Give it a look at a Jason Williams and Shane Battier.

Nick (26:57)
Jason Willis was the second one.

Boozer. Carlos Boozer.

Neil (27:01)
Tracy Langdon? Bill,

loser. Loser. OK.

Nick (27:05)
So that same 1998, 1999 era. But yeah, and once again, this is a rare feat really early in John Chiers tenure as a head coach. It's just, it's kind of scary how successful he's been this early.

Arizona in the other big game on Saturday. And we won't go into these too much because they happened a couple days ago, they beat Houston 73 to 66 without Co-Opete.

Arizona now has three top three wins.

They beat Florida in Vegas when they were in the top three. They won at UConn, and now they've won at Houston.

Neil (27:53)
Yup. Yup.

Yes.

Nick (27:58)
We've talked about how the thing that might hold Arizona back is the fact that they don't make a lot of threes.

In all three of those wins, they hit three or fewer three-point field goals.

Neil (28:14)
Yeah, they didn't take very many in that Houston game. They three of 12. I mean, 25 % in good, but only 12 attempts. So they were pounding in, guess, inside.

Nick (28:24)
And this stats from Matt Norlander. The past five years when teams play top three teams and hit three or fewer threes. Do you want to guess what their record is? Arizona's three and this year.

Neil (28:39)
Are we counting Arizona or are we counting all the others?

Nick (28:41)
Not accounting all the others.

Neil (28:44)
I'm gonna say like one in whatever, however many games it is. One time. Two. Two and 72, okay.

Nick (28:48)
two and 72 and 72.

⁓ You still do wonder ⁓ if that is going to be what eventually bites them, the fact that they just don't shoot a lot of threes. Houston has now lost three in a row as they lose to Kansas on Big Monday. What were the stats I was telling you before the game? Bill Self and

Neil (28:56)
mean, that's... yeah.

41 and 0 on Big Monday. 41 and 0 at

home on Big Monday.

Nick (29:25)
is now after that wind is 41 and 0 all time on Big Monday.

Neil (29:30)
Jeff. At home.

Nick (29:33)
Yeah, at home. And they haven't lost two straight at the Fox since 1988-89. And obviously they were coming off a loss as they lost by 20 points to Kansas. Who saw that one come?

Neil (29:49)
Cincinnati lost by 16 to Cincinnati

Nick (29:51)
yeah, they can't lose themselves.

Neil (29:55)
Yes. No, mean,

some believe like they beat Arizona at home. You know, so they got some good wins. They beat Houston at home and then they lose to Cincinnati. It doesn't make sense. Not only lose to Cincinnati, but one of their worst home losses of all time.

Nick (30:10)
Darren Peterson played... No, they got it. They...

Get... Get worked. It... I've got... What was the... Yeah, I got... I got...

Neil (30:17)
I think was their worst, wasn't their worst

loss versus a non-ranked team.

Nick (30:22)
Yeah, I pulled it for you. Via ESPN Research, since tonight's 16 point win is the largest by an unranked team at Kansas since Iowa State won by 24 in 1973. The loss also snapped Kansas' 425 game run of not losing by double digits at home against an unranked opponent.

Neil (30:44)
That's gracious. Crazy.

Nick (30:46)
So just,

yeah, I was at the Yom Center watching the cars and you look up on the board and you're like, what is happening?

What the hell is Cincinnati beating Kansas?

Neil (31:00)
And that's with Peterson playing 32 minutes. He actually played a full game. Played full game. No. But he played.

Nick (31:03)
Yeah, and look, he didn't have the greatest game. He didn't have the greatest game. On Monday night, that belonged

to Trey White, who was just incredible.

Neil (31:14)
Yeah.

Nick (31:16)
But the fact that he played 32 minutes and looked happy and looked into it and looked invested I think is what people were watching. They didn't even care that he didn't have the greatest game. He looked like he was having fun and ready to play.

Neil (31:21)
Yeah.

Nick (31:34)
elsewhere in college basketball, BYU beats Iowa state who's number four and then goes and loses to, to UTF at home.

Neil (31:44)
Yeah, but 13 give up 97 points UCF, but they all spent 13

Nick (31:46)
I know

I know you don't have Richie Saunders anymore, but you figure out a way to beat a really good Iowa State team. It's your first really good win of the year. And then you just absolutely lay an egg. ⁓ It's just, we are a week away from March. And I think pretty much Duke, Arizona and Michigan.

Neil (31:55)
Yeah.

I... I...

Nick (32:16)
have locked up number one seeds in the NCAA tournament for the most part.

Neil (32:21)
Yeah.

Nick (32:22)
I don't want to hear who you think the fourth number one is right now. I want you to predict who you think the fourth number one seed will be.

Neil (32:27)
Okay.

Yukon.

Nick (32:35)
Are they?

Neil (32:35)
I think Yukon will end up, I don't think they're gonna lose the rest of the way. They'll win the Big East title. They beat St. John's tonight. St. John's was hot. They beat them by 32. I mean, just destroyed them. I think Yukon, yeah. I mean, they gave up 40 points. 40 points is... 72 to 40 was the final. 40 points for the Johnnys. That's bad. But I think Yukon probably wins. The Big East is down, so that's gonna hurt them a little bit.

Nick (32:47)
From the jump. Absolutely from the jump. They were up 32 to 11.

Neil (33:04)
⁓ But I think ultimately they're gonna win out, win that conference championship. And I think they'll probably sneak in and get that last one spot.

Nick (33:12)
Yeah, you look at the AP poll right now and it's those three that are one, two, three, Duke, Arizona, Michigan. Iowa State and Houston are four and five. I don't think either one of those are going to sneak in and be in one, especially with the big 12, just everybody kind of beating up on each other. I'm leaning Florida. I think Florida is going to end up being that fourth number one. They're scheduled the rest of the way. They've got Arkansas left, but that's the only ranked team.

that they have left that they're playing really good basketball. They've won seven in a row. They're gonna get.

Neil (33:45)
Yeah.

You don't think all those

early season losses are gonna hurt them?

Nick (33:52)
I think they could, they're gonna give them the fact that they're playing as good as anybody right now. I think even if they win, they probably need to win out the rest of way, win the rest of regular season games and then win the SEC tournament. But I think they're gonna do that. And if they do, I think they'll be the fourth number one. I think you-

Neil (33:58)
Yeah.

Which, I think, didn't

Yukon beat Florida early in the- Like, if they were to compare them head to head, didn't Yukon beat Florida back in- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (34:15)
Yeah, they beat him in Vegas. They beat him in Vegas.

I don't have their strengths and schedules in front of me, but pretty sure Florida's ranks higher, which I don't know if that'll make up for that.

Neil (34:28)
UConn

played a... I mean, yes, only because of the conference, but UConn played a heck of a non-conference schedule. I mean, like you said, they played BYU, Arizona, Illinois, all top 20, at the time, top 10 teams. They played at Kansas, Texas, I mean, Florida. Like, they loaded up in the non-con with some really, really good teams. So, you're right, maybe Florida's is better because, you know, they played at Duke and they've...

Played a tough, you know, SEC schedule and some good non-cons when they played in whatever that biggest tournament was, but the.

Nick (35:04)
Yeah, they lost Arizona,

they lost to Duke, they lost to UConn. So they played a lot of teams, didn't win them. You wonder if that loss to TCU will hurt them. But I think the fourth number one will come between either UConn or Florida. And did you pick UConn? So I'll pick Florida.

All the next week, women's basketball conference tournaments start. So March is here. It's it's here. And this is going to be one of the best tournaments. They're all great.

Neil (35:32)
Yup.

Yeah, I'm excited. mean, yeah, lot of great teams. Excited to see these freshmen all play because this will be the last time we get to see them here down the stretch before they go to the NBA and how a bunch of them are having great seasons and what a special freshman class this has been. So, you know, excited to see all of them submit their one-year college legacies before they head on out. But, yeah, it's going to be exciting.

Nick (36:06)
Miami, Ohio stays undefeated yesterday with a 74 to 64 win at Eastern Michigan. I watched a little bit of this game.

Neil (36:17)
Yeah

Nick (36:21)
So it's an ESPN plus feed. So you're getting Eastern Michigan's announcers.

Neil (36:27)
boy.

Nick (36:29)
Dude, I'm telling you, they hit a three early in the first half to trim the lead to 14 to nine. And this dude just goes absolutely bonkers.

Neil (36:45)
He he.

Nick (36:46)
And like 10 minutes later, they get like a dunk to trim the lead to like 25 to 11 and he goes nuts. But just watching these home feeds, it can be really entertaining. ⁓ They did make a run in the second half. It wasn't enough, but the Redhawks are now 28. No.

Neil (37:12)
We're still on Speedo Watch, right?

Nick (37:14)
Yeah, they're 28 and 0. We better be honest. We don't watch. They are the seventh team since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 to reach 28 and 0. Do you want to try to guess them? Or do you think it's too tough?

Neil (37:16)
So what's up? We're still on Speedo Watch.

since what year?

Nick (37:36)
They are the seventh team since 1985 to reach 28-0. So there are six other teams on there. I will say it's since 1985, but the first one on here is 1990-91.

Neil (37:43)
One

UNLV.

Nick (37:57)
That is correct.

Neil (37:59)
We know the 2015 Kentucky team infasmously lost their own the game in the championship. So that was one. ⁓

Nick (38:03)
That's two.

Neil (38:10)
Assuming there's a Duke team in there. No Duke team, okay. Okay.

Nick (38:12)
or is not.

Neil (38:17)
Yukon.

Nick (38:19)
No, one of them was the year before Kentucky.

Neil (38:23)
2014.

Nick (38:25)
And Kentucky had something to do with ending their undefeated streak.

Neil (38:25)
that was a bad.

Wisconsin?

Wisconsin?

So that was 2014, that final four was...

Nick (38:35)
It was mid-major,

mid-major.

Neil (38:39)
Wichita. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. As a one seed, yeah, they played the eight seed Kentucky in the second round. What a brutal draw that was. Yeah, clearly Anthony Early. Yeah, that's right.

Nick (38:40)
Which does say?

Yes. the only, the other three

you're missing are one team lost in the national championship in 2005.

Neil (38:57)
Illinois? They were undefeated? They were undefeated in 28 games? yeah, yeah, Interesting. Okay.

Nick (38:58)
Yep. then get through 28 games, 28 games. And then

Gonzaga has done it twice. Gonzaga did it in 2021 and 16-17.

Neil (39:12)
Yeah, Gonzaga makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Okay.

Nick (39:16)
But yeah, the fact that Miami O's Ohio is in with those teams is incredible. Have you changed your tune? Do they still have to win the Mac to get in?

Neil (39:26)
No. Yes.

I mean, if was up to me, yes. I was just about to ask you that same question with their strength of schedule being so bad. Yes, like you can't just get them a spot. Like they have to earn that spot and they haven't earned it by playing a bunch of bombs.

Nick (39:43)
Here's what I say, if it is

just up to me, if they finish the regular season undefeated and get to the championship game and lose, you're gonna lose.

Neil (39:51)
Alright, put him in Dayton.

I'll put him in Dayton.

Nick (39:55)
I'm putting them in the dance.

Neil (39:56)
Alright, would you put him in Dayton?

I would make them earn it. would put them in the playing game to make them earn their right to play with the big boys. You know what?

Nick (40:05)
Just cause their schedule is so trash.

Just cause their schedule is so trash.

Neil (40:10)
It's bad. Like they need to play a quality team. Put them in Dayton against, match them up with one of those, you know, powerful teams that are mediocre, that are just barely sliding in and let's see who's better.

Nick (40:22)
I don't know if they have to win two or three games to win their tournament. If they finish the regular season and then lose in the semis, does that change anything? Some of these smaller tournaments, you only have to win two. My guess is it's probably three. But I'll look into it, we'll have it next week.

Neil (40:30)
I'm guessing they probably have to win three.

At the end of the year, I will

say, no, at the end of the year, if they have one loss, I would put them in Dayton and make them earn their way into the tournament.

Nick (40:47)
So they got to finish regular season undefeated for sure

Neil (40:51)
Yes, for sure. Yes. And they should. play all the rest of their games with losing records. But it's like mostly schedule.

Nick (40:53)
And then.

But look, dude,

like you're on the feet of regular season and then you do have to play in the quarters and you're playing the eighth or ninth seeded team in the Mac tournament and you lose that game. Are you still putting them in? Cuz that's when to me it kind of changes a little bit.

Neil (41:12)
Yes, tough.

Nick (41:14)
I think if you finish undefeated and then you win that quarter, you get to the semis, I think regardless of what you do, you should get in the tournament.

Neil (41:23)
But where are you, are you gonna require them to play in Dayton? Or are you just gonna put them straight in?

Nick (41:28)
I think I'd put them straight in.

Neil (41:30)
Alright, I don't know about that.

Nick (41:34)
I'll let some of those Power Four teams that are finishing around 500 in their leagues play in Dayton.

Neil (41:40)
But that's where Miami would finish in a Power 4 5 league. They would finish right where those teams are.

Nick (41:43)
I know, but they also were undefeated.

They're also undefeated. Also, here's my

Neil (41:47)
They even

played, we talked about the schedule they played. It's duty.

Nick (41:50)
But here's,

it is so duty. But here's another one of my things. I am not making the 16 seeds playing Dayton. Like if I was in charge of this tournament.

Neil (42:04)
No, I agree with that. I've always been against that. I 100 % agree with you on that.

Nick (42:07)
I would have all the 12s.

All the 12s were playing D8.

Neil (42:12)
Yeah, I would actually, I think you're right on that. There's no doubt. I hate that they make the 16 C's play. Like let them experience the big time where you have the open practice. We talked about this. You have the open practice and you get to go to a press conference and you're seeing Bill Self and some legends of the game and some of the coaches of the game. Yeah, I agree with you on that. Here, hold on. I've got Miami of Ohio right now. They're undefeated. They're 48th in the net.

Nick (42:15)
Because I think.

Yeah. Well, you still get that,

Neil (42:42)
What do you think their Quad 1 record is? no, obviously. Quad 2. What do think their Quad 2 is?

Nick (42:47)
⁓

They have two quad two wins.

Neil (42:55)
No. 1-0. They have one. They are 1-0. They played one Quad 1 slash Quad 2 game. They are 10-0 in Quad 3 and 14-0 ⁓ in Quad 4. So 24 of their games are Quad 3, Quad 4s, and only one of them is above a Quad 3. I don't know how you just put them in. It's... They're so undefeated, but...

Nick (42:57)
Do they have one quad, two in? Do you know who it

Do they say who it is?

Amen.

I know, it's tough.

Because they're undefeated. I know, I know,

it's tough, it's tough.

Neil (43:26)
There's a lot of

teams that would go undefeated playing their schedule. A lot of teams.

Nick (43:30)
I know and like

you'll do all these lists and you'll have all these lists and they'll be so far down on a team that should be in. And just to jump everybody because they're undefeated, I admit doesn't make a lot of sense. But.

Neil (43:44)
But I'm surprised, like why did they schedule the way they did? Because a lot of times you'll see a Mac team like Eastern Michigan and Ohio, just for an example, came in and they played it at Louisville this year. Like a lot of Mac teams in the non-conference will go and play at a bigger school. They'll go play at Michigan State or they'll go play Kentucky or they'll go play at North Carolina or Duke. Why is Miami or Ohio, they're skating because they didn't do that? I'd punish them for that. Schedule better.

Nick (44:05)
I don't know. I don't know.

So now you're out. Now you changed your mind?

Neil (44:10)
I'm out. Yeah, I'm back to being

out. Yeah, like, just looking at this is just trash. I'm out. Red Hawks are bums. Get them out.

Nick (44:19)
So they're

Neil (44:22)
You don't just get

a free pass because you're scheduled like a bum.

Nick (44:25)
It's hard for me, but I'm putting them in.

Neil (44:29)
You would.

Nick (44:30)
⁓ NFL combines this week used to be the only time that Duke Tobin, the Cincinnati Bengals pseudo general manager, whatever they call him, speaks. He did speak after the season because he just had to because you haven't made the playoffs in what three years. ⁓ He spoke to the media today.

Neil (44:34)
Yup.

got a couple.

Yeah. What'll do, Captain C?

Nick (44:58)
Talks about how they were always all in and dude, you can't look at the moves you made last year and say they're all in. I've got three quotes that I'm gonna read from Duke Tobin. I want you to translate them into what they actually mean and not what Duke Tobin is saying. The first quote, we're always looking if there's an opportunity that we feel warrants it. You have to give up things and when you take a big swing, there's a chance you miss.

and it can stay with you for a long time and keep you in the dugout. If we're staying with baseball, we don't want to stay in the dugout. That's not a place we want to be. You don't get to take a big swing for free. Big swings take big compensation. And this quote was when he was asked about potentially trading for Max Crosby or making a move like that. What is that? What is he really saying?

Neil (45:51)
That means he's not spending any money. That means we're not going to spend any money. Even though we have the money to spend, we're not going to spend the money.

We're gonna just go out, we're gonna either run back the same crew we had, or we're gonna go out and we're gonna get another Gino stone for cheap, and we're gonna suck.

Nick (46:08)
And also, we're scared. We're scared to make big moves. Because we don't want to sit in the dugout.

Neil (46:13)
Yeah, he is gay.

Yeah, like that doesn't make sense. Like, come on. I hate it.

Nick (46:20)
He

was asked about potentially restructuring Burroughs' We look at all areas to increase our competitiveness if we have to. Cap dollars have to be counted. So if we can accomplish what we want to accomplish without pushing things into future problems, we'll do that. If we need that, we'll consider that as well. Like I said, we're open to doing anything we need to do to improve our team where we're satisfied, we're going.

Neil (46:24)
Yep.

Nick (46:45)
We're gonna win a championship. That's our mindset and that's the way we're going into the off season. But we have resources right now and we'll see what we can get done.

Neil (46:56)
Yeah, that means he's not going to restructure Joe Burroughs' he's just... Yeah, like, that's not happening. That's not happening. He's going to say that we're looking at it. that's just, that's fake talk. It's fake talk. Like, no, he's not even considering redoing Joe Burroughs' contract. Zero percent chance.

Nick (47:13)
And the reason is they don't want to spend all that money.

Neil (47:16)
Right, correct. They have money to spend. Well, they have money to spend now that they don't want to spend, and then they don't want to have to spend even more money. No.

Nick (47:18)
Because if they read structure, that's... Right.

Because if you

restructure that opens the cap up even more and then you've got more money that you potentially spend. They like the fact that his number brings the cap down.

Neil (47:32)
And then your fans see that.

Yeah, your fans see the amount of cap space that you have and expect you to spend it and then they don't want to. So no, yeah, you're right. There's no chance they'd restructure Joe Burr. None.

Nick (47:44)
Final one on a tray, tag and trade. I don't throw anything on or off the table with Trey. And we're excited about attacking this off season. We have resources to attack the off season in a big way. And we want to do that in terms of how we're going to do that, how we're going to allocate our resources, you know, who is it going to be on our own free agents? What's our intentions there? I'm not going to get in that right here. It's just not the time to announce that to the rest of the league.

So that's the best way I can answer that. What does that mean?

Neil (48:17)
That means Trey Henderson is going to walk as a free agent. He's not going to be tagged. He is not going to be traded. He is not coming back to Cincinnati. Trey's gone.

Nick (48:27)
which I'm fine with. And look, if I'm the GM of the Cincinnati Bengals, I am going to try my hardest to tag and trade Trey. But I don't trust them to do it at all. And I don't want the $35 billion on the books with Trey. But also, if they're not going to spend it anyway, then just go ahead and put it on there.

Neil (48:28)
Yeah, no, I agree.

Yes.

I also don't know what you're gonna get back now.

I don't know what you're gonna get back for him now. do you, like what, like the return is gonna be smaller than what it was gonna be last year if you would have tagged and traded him.

Nick (48:59)
It's one year rental, you're getting him for 30 something million dollars. I think maybe you get a third round draft.

Neil (49:05)
I just think teams aren't gonna play the game. They're gonna call the Bengals bluff, just wait for Trey to be hit the free agent market and those that are interested will just go sign them from there.

Nick (49:14)
I watch it and I'm just like, dude, this is Mike Brown. He has been around Mike Brown for 24 years. He has turned into Mike.

Neil (49:19)
yeah.

Yes,

he's Mike Brown. There's the absolutely, which is not what we need. We don't need that. We don't need a Mike Brown. We have enough of Mike Brown. We don't want Mike Brown as he is. We don't need two Mike Browns.

Nick (49:27)
He's-

But don't tell me how you're all in. That's not even something you should have to say. In no job in the world should you have to tell me I'm all in. That should come without ever saying anything. It should be automatic. Right?

Neil (49:53)
What if,

I'm trying to think of an analogy like at your job in the alumni office over there, the alumni department. Like, no, I just want the alumni office to just be mediocre. Like, I don't know, like, how do you equate that to like an everyday job?

Nick (50:08)
Well, I can, just look at it as like if I've, when I was working for coach walls, like if I told coach, I'm all in coach, well, no shit, you better be, or you're going to be walking, right? Like that's what a normal person would say to that. And dude, in 24 years, he's produced a 482 winning percentage. They're 185 and 199 with four ties, 11 winning seasons out of 24 years and

Neil (50:19)
Yeah?

Yeah.

Nick (50:36)
Two playoff appearances in this decade, in the last decade, the last ten years, not just the 2020s. It's the biggest off season that this franchise may have ever had in their history.

Neil (50:50)
What is your prediction that the Bengals

do? What is your predict- do you- give me your prediction of what they do in the offseason. Do they A. actually go make some big moves B. make mediocre moves like the Gino stones of the worlds and stuff like that or C. just run everything back.

Nick (51:08)
Well, they're not gonna run everything back and they're also not going to do the first one. They're not gonna go sign. They're not gonna go trade for Max Crosby. It's gonna be a bunch of mid-tier moves, maybe upper mid-tier moves, trying to hit on guys that not a lot of, teams are trying to sign, but that you're hoping they outperform their last contracts is what they're going to do. It's gonna be a lot like what they did when Joe Burrow was in his rookie deal.

when they went and signed Trey the first time, when they signed DJ Reader, when they signed Mike Hilton, when they signed Chidubi Owuzie. That's what they're gonna do. I do think they're gonna go sign four or five guys to fix this defense. And yeah, they do. They're gonna go sign four or five, maybe six guys. And then, and dude, another thing.

Neil (51:52)
any more than.

Spend some money, just go spend

some money. Spend some money. I'm just tired of being cheap.

Nick (52:07)
another thing you...

Well, that's never gonna change.

ever going to change. Dude, my nephew today, had wear 90s stuff at Carter Elementary. So my sister sends a picture and he's, don't know, I know he's wearing just a bingo shirt. And I am like, do you even understand how bad the Cincinnati Bengals were in the 1990s? Like that is the worst possible thing that you can wear.

Neil (52:22)
See you when it's started Jackie.

Nick (52:40)
If you want to represent the 90s, figure out your kindergarten class.

Neil (52:41)
Was it at least the throwback? like,

so it's wear 90s and was the bangle shirt like an old school logo or anything? So she just threw a bangle shirt on her kid. So your sister, so your sister just threw him in a modern day bangle shirt and sent him to school for 90s. That's not 90s. That's not even 90s.

Nick (52:51)
⁓ It was just the B logo. I didn't even have the B logo in the 90s.

What he wanted to wear dude, hey you can't tell this kid what to wear It's what he wanted to wear.

You can't tell him what to wear but yeah ⁓

Neil (53:09)
What do mean you can't

tell him what to wear? Yes, you can tell him what to wear. be like, you're not wearing this shirt to school. It's 90s day. You're either wearing your normal school clothes.

Nick (53:14)
You are the most non-listened

are the most non-listened to anybody trying to tell you what to do person I've ever met and this the five-year-old kid like you don't mess with his clothes, dude He's wearing it first basketball games. He's wearing his wristband up on his bicep and I'm like Jonah, dude That's that's a wristband, bro. You've got to wear it down on your wrist and he just looks at he's like nah This is the new style. I'm wearing the wristband up on the bicep

But he wears Bengals for a 90s day. You want to talk about the Bengals being terrible? In the 90s, they were 52 and 108 and had one winning season. And that came in 1990.

Neil (53:49)
Yes.

Yeah, that's bad. Yeah.

Nick (53:59)
Yeah, but nothing good from from Duke Tobin today.

Neil (54:04)
Not surprising.

Nick (54:05)
⁓ What else?

Neil (54:09)
But I hope he's paying attention to all the measurables of all the defenders out there so we can go draft a guy that has one career college sack because he can jump high and run fast.

Nick (54:17)
Well, that's something he talked about too. Is he a numbers guy or is he a traits guy? Are you a numbers guy or are you a traits guy? What are you?

Neil (54:20)
I don't want to hear that. Don't even want to hear that.

Numbers, numbers.

Nick (54:27)
I mean, I see both sides of it. Amarius Mims was strictly a traits guy. So was Shamar Stewart was a traits guy. One of them worked, one of them didn't.

Miami, Ohio's got some players that are putting up numbers, but do they have the traits to be in the NBA?

Neil (54:47)
They haven't played anybody.

Nick (54:49)
But that's why I could see the argument for being a trades guy.

Neil (54:52)
these guys, but like these

dudes, like Shemar Stewart out of Texas A played against guys that are NFL quality talent in college and put up one sack, or two sacks, one sack. Like, no. If you're putting up one sack against these guys now, what makes you think that you're gonna put up sacks against them in the NFL, where there's other guys that are just as good or better than them? No, numbers guys.

Nick (55:06)
Yeah, I know.

a combination of

a combination of numbers and traits.

Neil (55:22)
Nope. I don't care. I don't care if you're slow. I don't care if you can't jump. If you can just go get me tackles and sacks. I don't care. You can be small. I don't care. They said Ruben Bane's got small arms now. Like I would take Ruben Bane tomorrow. Do what? Yes. Yes. I'd turn in the pick myself. Yeah, it's like he's small arms. Like no, you drafted Ruben Bane because he's a monster and you can get to the quarterback.

Nick (55:22)
We need to get off of this topic.

If he's available at 10, if he's available at 10, you run into the podium.

Neil (55:51)
Small arms is the knock against him. Like, are you kidding me? Joke. It's a joke. Lamar had small hands. What was it? Lamar had small hands?

Nick (55:56)
Well, maybe that'll help him fall to 10.

Well, nobody thought Lamar could be a quarterback in the NFL. Like Marvin Lewis is making jokes about it. ⁓ He can't be a whoo-hoo-hoo like he did in that Hard Knocks episode where he ran over the curb. And then we drive and then they're like, you know what? We don't need Lamar Jackson. Give me Billy Price who will play for two years in the Avali.

Neil (56:05)
Stupid. Stupid.

Yeah, I remember. Yeah, I remember.

Billy Price. Give

me Billy Price. What a joke. Probably because he convinced-

Nick (56:27)
⁓ scottie shufflers

what

Neil (56:32)
Probably because Billy Price could bench press 400 pounds 30 times. I know he did, but Duke Tobin loves him because he could bench press a bunch of weight. Joke. No. I'm not buying into all that. Get this combine crap out of here. The combine sucks.

Nick (56:36)
I don't care what Billy practice.

I joke. I agree. I don't. But.

But it's an opportunity to hear Duke Tobin speak. It used to be the only time. Now it's twice.

Neil (56:55)
you

know who another Combine guy was? First round pick of the Bengals that sucked? John Ross. John Ross. Ran the fastest 40 of any wide receiver of all time. Let's draft him, he's gonna be a Bengal. And he sucked. He was absolutely terrible. I'm tired of the Combine. I'm tired of Duke Tobin, I'm tired of the Combine, I'm tired of all this crap. I'm not even gonna watch the Combine, I'm not gonna pay attention to the Combine, I'm not doing anything with the Combine. Get it out of here.

Nick (57:09)
was all.

Anything

else? Anything else? Anything else in the combine? I want Ty Simpson to go top ten though because makes it another quarterback to where he could potentially get a better player at ten.

Neil (57:24)
just hate the combo.

Nick (57:32)
Scotty Scheffler finally didn't finish in the top 10. He had strung together 18 straight top 10s, which is a record. He tied for 12th at Genesis. Dude was 5 over through 10 holes on Thursday. And then he got saved by the darkness and didn't finish his round and ended up finishing 12th. First off, what's going on with Scotty on Thursdays? Because that's three tournaments in a row he's been awful.

Neil (57:36)
He's not a machine.

multiple.

What's?

Yeah, I'm saying.

Yeah, like these multiple tournaments where he's not come out ready to play. I don't know.

Nick (58:07)
Is he getting hammered on

his nose? Is he coming in hungover? Like, what is he doing?

Neil (58:12)
He might be, he might be. I mean, he's a dad, so maybe he's on dad duty Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. And by the time Thursday rolls around, he's like, I got a golf tournament this morning. I don't know. But he figures it out midway. He figures it out after Thursday.

Nick (58:27)
Well, yeah, he finished T3 and T4 and the other two, despite almost being last on Thursday. Here's to put his streak of 18 in perspective.

Neil (58:35)
That's insane.

Nick (58:41)
The longest prior streak was Vijay Singh, who had 12 straight in 1983, and then Tiger had 11 straight. And Scotty was at 18.

And I mean, he still finished Todd for 12th after starting the tournament five over through 10 holes.

Neil (59:01)
Yeah, I mean, if you come out more mentally prepared, you'll be winning these things.

Nick (59:07)
Jacob Bridgman was competing last week and then found the ocean, to hit it off the sand and ended up having to go back to where his original shot was, which kept him from having any chance to win. Went in the Sunday with the six stroke league, was like, this is gonna be easy. And ends up winning by one. And admittedly after is like, yeah, it wasn't as easy as I thought it was gonna be. Well, no kidding, bro, you're playing on the PGA Tour.

kind of conceded a little bit that you think it's gonna be that easy. And they got on him pretty good on the broadcast too.

Neil (59:42)
Where was your boy Rick at?

Nick (59:45)
He finished time for 28th. His first nine top 20 of the year. ⁓ He had a really bad Thursday and a bad Saturday. Played pretty well on Friday and Sunday.

Neil (59:48)
Okay, made the cut though.

Nick (1:00:04)
but he's got to get his act together if he wants to play in Augusta.

Gotta get the top 50 world rankings by then. So it's gonna take probably a top five in one of these next three tournaments.

Neil (1:00:12)
Where's the Vietnam?

Where's he at right now?

Nick (1:00:17)
In the world rankings, he's like 60 something.

The preakness this year is going to be at Laurel Park Which is kind of a trend as we've seen the Belmont the Belmont stakes being raised at Saratoga the last two years all these tracks are getting Renovations they're doing a for 400 500 million dollar renovation at Pimlico But normally attendance at Pimlico is 60 is estimated around 63,000 Laurel Park says that the

They're capping the attendance at 4,800.

Can we not find somewhere else to have this race?

Neil (1:00:56)
Yeah,

what are we doing? what's the actual, like is that the capacity of Laurel Park? Are they scared that things are gonna get out of control? Do they have an infield? Like, can people not go to the infield and party like? Well, I don't know, that's what they, I mean that's what the Preakness is known for. You see the Preakness, like they, it's a huge party out there. They've got concerts and the whole shebang going. Like, if you're not gonna do it right, then don't do it at all. Like, gotta find somewhere else. Gotta find somewhere

Nick (1:01:05)
There's definitely not gonna be an intro. There's definitely not gonna be an intro.

There's

one thing to move from Belmont to Saratoga where some people are like this is an upgrade moving to Saratoga because Saratoga is such a nice track. Now obviously you lose the history of it but you're have less than 5,000 people at the pre-kness stakes and look I get it Derby winners the last two out of three years haven't gone to Pimlico so if you got less than 5,000 people and the Derby winner doesn't go is NBC gonna pull it?

Neil (1:01:27)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

mean, this isn't Kentucky Downs here.

Nick (1:01:48)
too? They don't even show it?

Neil (1:01:51)
should. mean, like, what are we, 4,000 people? Like, that's like, do you, like, would you go to like, Kentucky Downs or some nonsense like that? Like, no.

Nick (1:02:00)
I do want to go to contests

this fall.

Neil (1:02:06)
It's down there on the Tennessee border, right?

Nick (1:02:08)
Yeah, we can go to Nashville, go to the races at Kentucky Downs, hit up Nashville. They only race for one week of the whole year. There's the Mint Casinos right there. Hit up the horse track, hit up the casino, go to downtown Nashville. I want that on the schedule. We may be mixing some golf. Make a whole thing of it.

Neil (1:02:10)
Okay.

Now you're speaking. You're speaking my language.

Nick (1:02:29)
Dude, I'm playing on Friday.

Neil (1:02:32)
We're at the Oaks? We're at the Oaks? No, I cannot play Friday.

Nick (1:02:32)
You trying to play? Yeah. It's supposed to be...

It's finally going to be warm. It's like 60 something degrees.

Neil (1:02:41)
It was in the 70s last week, why didn't you play on Wednesday last week?

Nick (1:02:45)
I had work, bro.

Neil (1:02:47)
people have to work on Fridays too, bruh.

Nick (1:02:49)
I'm taking a half day on Friday.

Neil (1:02:53)
You don't ever work in the Alumni Office, you?

Nick (1:02:56)
work all the time. I work all the time. You said before the show, we got any funny stories? We got any funny stories?

Neil (1:02:58)
hard enough.

I it's funny stories.

Nick (1:03:06)
because you always come up with the funny stories. Here's a funny story.

Neil (1:03:10)
He he

he.

you got.

Nick (1:03:14)
The Breaking Bad House.

Neil (1:03:17)
Yeah.

Nick (1:03:18)
Evidently, the lady that lives there allowed them to use the house for filming.

Neil (1:03:24)
It's in New Mexico, right? Yeah.

Nick (1:03:25)
Yeah.

She gets so mad about people driving by all the time and trying to look at it. the city won't allow, whatever, her neighborhood or whatever, won't allow her to turn it into a tourist attraction. So she can't charge people to come in and look at it and make money off of it. She gets tired of people just always gawking at her house. That's the Walter White House. That's where the pizza was on the roof. So she's like, I'm gonna sell it for $4 million.

Neil (1:03:45)
Yeah.

Hehehe

Okay.

Nick (1:03:58)
It's got some prestige to it. It's a famous house.

Neil (1:04:02)
Yeah,

I can understand trying to sell it and make some some coin. Yeah

Nick (1:04:06)
She's lived there for 50 years. It's not like she just bought it and is trying to profit off of it. Do you know what she got?

Neil (1:04:15)
My guess is it's not gonna be 4 million.

Nick (1:04:19)
No, cut that by 10. She got 400 000 for it It was it was bought by some streamer Named adan these youtubers They all have way too much money And he says he's gonna do some cool breaking bad stuff with it I I don't know what he can possibly do if she couldn't do anything with it as far as Turning it into a like a tourist attraction

Neil (1:04:34)
I do. Yeah.

Nick (1:04:48)
Maybe you turn it into like a Airbnb where people can stay there. I think that would make sense. That wouldn't be a tourist attraction. Maybe that's what he's going to do with it.

But you've never even watched Breaking Bad.

Neil (1:04:59)
I understand.

All so let's break it down here. Like I understand her frustration in, you know, being, you know, tired of people just coming by and just looking at the house and 24 seven. I get that. But you did allow them to film the show there. Like when you get, you put your house on TV and it's a good show, you got to come to expect this. You got to come to expect this.

Nick (1:05:21)
I'm sure she got paid. I'm sure she

sure she made some money off of it.

Neil (1:05:30)
But my point is, I'd be even more mad if I was the neighbors. She's gotta have next door neighbors, right? They're not making anything off of it, and they still get all the traffic that are coming and gawking at the house. The neighbors are the ones really getting screwed here.

Nick (1:05:43)
Yeah,

the whole situation is not really the greatest. ⁓

Neil (1:05:50)
And then if you're living next door and now you got this 20 year old YouTuber or whoever this guy is that just bought the house, then you're like, ⁓ hell, what's he gonna do with it? And as you said, you turn it into some Airbnb where you just got a bunch of random weirdos running through there nonstop all year long. No, like I'm moving too. I'm getting out of there.

Nick (1:06:07)
⁓

Which is what he's gonna do, right?

Neil (1:06:12)
Probably. So if I'm the neighbors, I don't want that. Like I'm getting out of there. I'm selling my house too.

Nick (1:06:14)
That's all. You can't turn anything down. Yeah.

They're all gonna get out of there.

Neil (1:06:22)
Which, if you sold your house near the neighbor, I mean, you probably will make above market value because you are living right next to the Breaking Bad house. But yeah, I'm getting out of that neighborhood if I can.

Nick (1:06:32)
really know it

might take market value down.

Neil (1:06:34)
Unless you're breaking bad fame.

Nick (1:06:37)
Which also, how you never watch Breaking Bad.

Neil (1:06:41)
I watched Bits and Pieces. I probably watched more Better Calls. I watched a couple seasons of the Better Call Saul. I watched that and it a sping off. I saw enough of Breaking Bad. saw Bits and My wife watched all of it, but I would tune in every once in a while and catch Bits I understand the story and everything, so I saw enough of it.

Nick (1:06:44)
Like how do you not?

Why would you watch the medical salt without seeing breaking bad?

It

was my favorite show that I've ever watched.

was just hooked on it. And I started watching it before, like right at the end, like maybe the last season or the season before, but I finished it before it was done, like being week to week. Just ⁓ the Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, like it's one of the best shows. And then Saul, like it's such, and I've watched Better Call Saul too, another great show.

Neil (1:07:39)
I like salsa

lari.

Nick (1:07:41)
Like who watches Better Call Saul without watching the entire Breaking Bad? Makes zero sense. Makes zero sense.

Neil (1:07:46)
No, no.

I still haven't seen the last couple episodes of Friday Night Lights.

Nick (1:07:52)
Wait until it comes out on DVD or something. I don't know what your weight is.

Neil (1:07:57)
I'm sure it's already out on DVD, but watch every season, every episode until like there's like three left.

Nick (1:07:59)
I'm joking.

Yeah, I don't I can't remember the end of Friday Night Lights. ⁓ dude, have you ever like, you know how you bite your lip or you burn the roof of your mouth sometimes?

Neil (1:08:14)
Yeah.

Nick (1:08:15)
Have you ever been eating chips in queso? And the chip is perfectly diagonal to where it actually takes a chunk out of the roof of your mouth.

Neil (1:08:31)
Yeah, I feel like I've had that happen before, yeah. It's painful.

Nick (1:08:35)
It's happened to me, I have a chunk of the roof of my mouth that is just dangling right now. Like the skin, because I hit it so hard. I went to get my haircut, well, most. Yeah, they got the junior deal where you get the little burrito and chips and queso and a drink for like 10 bucks, right next to where I get my haircut. So I hit that up. And then,

Neil (1:08:41)
⁓

What kind of chips in queso will you eat? Yeah? Oh, you went over to Moe's? It's Moe's? Okay.

Nick (1:09:02)
I'm eating the chips dude I swear it's like I put a sword in the roof of my mouth and just straight up and I've literally haven't shrunk. Yeah. It's still there. yeah.

Neil (1:09:10)
This was on Monday though, right?

And it's still dangling? Okay.

Why don't you why don't you like pick it out? Cut it. Also, did you go to Moe's before or after you got your haircut?

Nick (1:09:20)
I guess I could but dude

What do you think?

Neil (1:09:27)
Probably after.

So you couldn't come to Beer Nose because you had to run straight home and shower to get all the hair off your neck even though when you get your hair cut they put a towel there to prevent that from happening. But you couldn't come watch the game with your friends because you had to go home and shower to get the small little loose hairs, which is probably like two or three of them, off of your neck that nobody can see. But you went to Moe's. But you could go to Moe's. But you go to Moe's.

Nick (1:09:49)
First off, think it's pretty, I mean, yeah, for a five

minute, a five minute pit stop to get food when I have to eat dinner, yes. Yeah, I can do that.

Neil (1:09:57)
could

go out through a drive thru, nobody would even see you. But you can go to Moe's and walk into Moe's, walk into Moe's, get your queso, get your chips, get your burrito, with all, apparently all this hair all over your neck, but you can't come hang out and watch basketball with your friends when Louisville's playing. That says a lot. It says a lot about you.

Nick (1:10:14)
Does it? Does it?

Neil (1:10:16)
Actually,

the fact that you have to go home and shower right away says a lot about you. Because, A, it's not that bad. They put an apron on your neck so tight that it can't even squeeze through, and then they put a towel over it as well. So, probably didn't have that much here to begin with, but definitely not enough to where you have to shower within the hour.

Nick (1:10:21)
I think it's pretty normal. I think it's pretty normal.

Dude, I think it's absolutely normal for somebody to want to shower after getting a haircut. I don't think that's a weird thing. That's why at a lot of barber shops, you get your hair washed at the facility. Nobody likes.

Neil (1:10:39)
I don't think you have to shower within the hour. It's not like you have to go home and shower within an hour.

correct, but they also

put a towel and an apron so tight around your neck, the hair ain't gonna stay, it's not gonna be there. It's minimal hair.

Nick (1:10:55)
It's still- it's still loose

in your hair! It's still everywhere!

Neil (1:10:58)
So you can take a shower when you get home, but it doesn't have to be within 30 minutes of the haircut.

Nick (1:11:04)
For me it does.

Neil (1:11:05)
That's weird. That's weird.

Nick (1:11:07)
I mean, I'm not trying to sit here and say I'm a normal person.

Neil (1:11:10)
I can't even tell you got your hair cut. Your hair is still too long. You can go back and get trimmed up some more.

Nick (1:11:14)
It's first

on the sides, bro.

fresh on the sides. I'm not going to lie. It was a little longer this time, but I don't even look at it. I'm like, she's like, do you need to look at it? I'm like, nah, that's good. I think it actually is a little longer this time.

Neil (1:11:26)
It looks as

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You start looking at it, because it's long. But shout out to Tammy. Go see her at the great clips on ⁓ Inferne Creek. She'll get you cut up right. She'll make sure that there's no hair on your neck, even though Nick thinks there is, there's not. So don't worry about that part. But she'll get you done right.

Nick (1:11:52)
Yeah, you can follow her on Instagram too. Like she's the RoddyMom23. She has stories about on TikTok, not Instagram, on TikTok. Stories with all of her doggies. Her Rottweilers. Yeah. She's getting ready to breed them and she's trying to talk me into taking one.

Neil (1:12:02)
Mugs or dogs? Okay.

Nick (1:12:11)
No, no, that is not happening. No chance. No chance. Did y'all win bowling last night?

Neil (1:12:11)
boy.

Nope, lost in the playoffs. Season came doing in last night, but new season starts next week.

Nick (1:12:29)
Damn, that was a fast season.

That was a fast season.

Neil (1:12:33)
Started started January 6th. So how many weeks that is was that eight weeks nine weeks?

Nick (1:12:41)
Y'all need to get some better. ⁓

Neil (1:12:41)
But this season,

well, I don't want to talk too loudly, but my wife needs to pick a game up. She bowled a 79 last night, and that's just not acceptable. It's not acceptable.

Nick (1:12:49)
⁓ You also need

more y'all need more checks

Neil (1:12:57)
We do need more chicks. It's a co-ed league, eight on a team, have to keep five scores, two of must be female. But when you only have two females on the team and their scores have to count every time, that's a problem. But shout out to Brooke. No, out to Brooke Kemp. She bowled a 180. Career high 180 last night for Brooke. Yeah, that's getting it. Yeah, because Erica bowled a 79. Well, Erica bowled a 79, so.

Nick (1:13:04)
And you have to.

Yeah. Yeah.

Damn. Damn. And y'all still lost? And y'all still lost?

Come

on. Come on Eric.

Neil (1:13:26)
I bowled a 186

in game two and still didn't. I had a 186 in game two and it still didn't matter. We still lost. But new season next week.

Nick (1:13:35)
I would golf season is almost here. I propose. See what you say. Us to do some some golf videos with me and you against each other on some holes to try to promote the height differential.

Neil (1:13:51)
Alright, I'm in. Don't cry when I beat you. Yeah, don't cry when I beat you. Okay.

Nick (1:13:52)
New in? New in? Well, don't cry when I beat you. We're both going to get beat on holes.

Like, it's not going to be undefeated thing. One of us might win more holes than the other, but nobody's going to go undefeated.

Neil (1:14:01)
I like it like...

No,

I'm talking about like the totality of the match, if we're doing like a match. Yeah.

Nick (1:14:07)
Yeah, but

I say we can just record a bunch of holes and put them out there. Because nobody's going to watch us play an entire round. We just need to find somebody who wants to video it.

Neil (1:14:15)
That's true.

Nick (1:14:19)
Also, before we jump off, you finally did it.

Neil (1:14:26)
yeah, I don't know what I did, what I did.

Nick (1:14:28)
you bought Indiana National Championship gear.

Neil (1:14:32)
Yeah, we got it. Dude, shout out to Fnatic's, came within like two days. Look that, got a little hoodie on here. National Champions. Yeah. Got ourselves a hoodie, got ourselves this nice little Natty Champion hat right there. know, Natty Champs. Got the official locker room tee, the black t-shirt that says National Champions on it. Got the SI cover and framed that. Mendoza diving into the end zone. So the SI National Championship cover.

Nick (1:14:37)
Two days? So what all did we get?

Neil (1:15:02)
Also got some other thing to hang on the wall that has some commemorative something or other on it, National Champions. And the wife got some National Championship gear. yeah, a couple hundred dollars later, we're all set. We're all set. Yes, the official locker room tee was marked down to $19.99 down from $45 or whatever it was originally. that was the only sale item, but yes.

Nick (1:15:17)
was anything on sale since it's been a little bit or was everything still full price?

There you go.

Neil (1:15:31)
There was a few things.

Nick (1:15:33)
I'm glad you finally bought something. I was worried everything has to be gone and you won't be able to get anything ⁓

Neil (1:15:39)
No, we

ordered it last Wednesday and it was here by Friday. Some things came yesterday, but very, very quick, very efficient. Shout out, Fanatics did a great job.

Nick (1:15:49)
Last night, the Morehead State Eagles beat Southern Indiana by one to move to 14 and five in the OVC.

My boy Johnny Maddux is getting it done in Moorhead. See if they can win the OVC tournament and get back to the dance. Did you just put your hand on your head? Like that was a stupid thing to say?

Neil (1:16:10)
It was kind of stupid. This is the first time in how many episodes have we done on the height differential now? A lot? Once? Yeah, episode 30. It's the first time you've ever said you have an allegiance to Moorhead. It's out of nowhere.

Nick (1:16:12)
Dude, my boy, Johnny Maddox!

What am I supposed

to say it just in every random episode? Hey, I used to be the head meteorologist director at Warhead State.

Neil (1:16:32)
Yeah, well, it's kind of random when you just like, ⁓ it's

just it's just random when you just all of a sudden out of nowhere like shout out to the more head Eagles who won by one point last night like nobody cares

Nick (1:16:42)
Well, I was wearing the hoodie. I was wearing

the hoodie. I was wearing the hoodie. I didn't put the hoodie on. I was wearing the hoodie.

Neil (1:16:48)
Like if people

knew that you had a background affiliation to Morehead, maybe they would understand it. But that was just a random thing to do. That made no sense once it happened.

Nick (1:16:54)
Well, my

boy Johnny Maddox was a graduate assistant when I was the athletic media relations director there. Now the head coach. He's got him at 14 and five in the league. Chance to win the regular season. And then next week, OVC tournament. See if they get back.

He's my guy. We call him Johnny Basketball, Johnny B.

They're like the cardiac eagles, dude. Every game's like, huh? Do what?

Neil (1:17:18)
That's the Johnny B.

Nick (1:17:25)
What'd say?

Neil (1:17:25)
Said shout

out to Johnny B. I said good for Johnny B. Said shout out to Johnny B. That was the name of this, Johnny B.

Nick (1:17:29)
Yeah, you're kinda out there for a little bit.

Yup. So, go Eegs, go ahead. Glad you got your IU gear.

Next week is March. Remember to subscribe to The Hight Differential wherever you listen to podcasts, rate and leave a review. Follow us on social media. You can watch Neil be an idiot on all of our shorts.

You got nothing?

Neil (1:17:54)
pull some random shirt out of the closet next week and start promoting it.

Nick (1:17:57)
Do it. I will applaud it. You live your life.

Neil (1:18:00)
Shout out to Adidas. Shout out to...

Shout out to...

Nick (1:18:06)
Shout out shout out to Eddie Bauer

Neil (1:18:06)
Shout out to Eddie Bauer, my man Big Eddie. My

man Big Ed, I'm calling Big Ed. Big Eddie Bauer coming through with the t-shirt.

Nick (1:18:14)
Big A.

Whatever, dude. I'm just glad you finally got your gear. For the 6'6", Neil, I got it right. For the 4'10", Nick, you've been listening to the High Differential. We will catch you again next week. Yup.