It is the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I hope you're great. I hope you're well.
I hope you're amazing. I hope you had a good weekend. I hope you watched all the basketball. I hope you enjoyed all the basketball. I mean, if you had Houston taking on Florida, congratulations to you.
That is not what I saw coming. We're going to get into it. We're going to take a look at what happened on Saturday, what we can expect to happen in the championship game tonight in about two and a half hours. We're going to talk about what we might see come June now that Duke has lost specifically for Cooper Flagg.
Of course, the big news is the national championship game tonight overnight. Vladimir Guerrero Junior. This man got himself a new contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. Good for him.
Must be nice to know you'll make five hundred million dollars, a half billion dollars over the next 14 years. We had a women's tournament as well. Can't forget about the ladies. UConn finally won again.
And it's tough to say finally when Gino Ariemma is now at these guys at 12 championships. We'll get into that. Matter of fact, to talk more college basketball. Matt Muehlbach will join us.
Covers all things college basketball for ESPN and Fox Sports. Rob Manfred has some words on those torpedo bats. Apparently, we also might have some words when it comes down to, unfortunately, a potential strike next year or maybe even a lockout when it comes to Major League Baseball. So we got a lot to get into. Shador Sanders. The story continues on. And Travis Hunter, where these guys end up, we'll figure it out sooner than later. Packers still complaining about.
Tush pushes. So we got a lot to do. If you want to be a part of the show, you can. The phone number here is 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN.
I am in Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to our super producer and host, Ryan Hickey, in New York City. You can always listen to the show on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 375.
And if you've got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. Hickey, how are you, man? Welcome back.
Thank you, J.R. I missed it, man. It's going to be back here after two days off.
No doubt about it. Did you get a chance to see the basketball and such? I did.
I did. It worked out that the pool party I was at for one of my friend's bachelor parties had a nice TV kind of in the back. Nice. So posted up in like a little corner couch spot. Two eyes on the game. It actually worked out well.
The second gate back of the house. That's the only good news. Well, I think there's a lot of good news about Scottsdale was a good place, but the time change worked out to where it's not like too early. Right. It's nice. Nice. So, yes, able to watch both.
Two great games, especially the second one. Right. Good time. Good time for sure. That's good. Yeah, I had the benefit of watching the New York Knicks smash the Atlanta Hawks.
A little bit of sarcasm there. And then immediately after that game, I basically came back to here. I came back to the office. I came to work.
There's this big TV that they have downstairs where the studio is at a big public space. And they played they played both games. And so I just I just all I did was watch basketball on Saturday. And I'm a little shocked that what we saw specifically by Duke. I mean, we had David Lee on the show last week and David Lee is like, hey, I see Duke and I see Florida. I took a look at what happened and I said, man, I see Duke, I see Florida.
That did not happen. Duke choked a massive choke job. I mean, Duke went out there. They were up 14 points with about eight minutes left. And they just they fell apart. They took their foot off the gas.
They couldn't buy a shot. They had one field goal in the last 10 minutes. Houston suffocated them. They went on the best defensive run you could imagine. And they came back and they won. And so now we got Houston here in the national championship against the Florida Gators, because that first game between Florida and Auburn, that was a real good one. We saw Auburn with the lead at the half and then Florida got hot. I mean, we had 15 lead changes in that game.
Walter Clayton Junior said, here's another 30 piece for you. He ended up dropping 34 points. And so here we have it tonight. Another solid matchup where we got the high powered offense of the Florida Gators.
And then we have the defensive minded. Let's shoot threes. University of Houston. What we get tonight will be a lot of fun, knowing that this championship game is set.
There's a lot of question marks out. I'll ultimately give you my prediction. But one of the things that we might see tonight is Houston's first championship ever. They came back against Duke to earn this spot.
OK. They held Duke to 37 percent shooting in the second half, beating them 70 to 67. L.J. Cry, this man already has a national championship with Baylor, the Bears.
Nice trying to do the same thing with Houston. And then you got a head coach in Kelvin Sampson, who is 69 years old in 36 years. He has seen it all. He has done it all. What he does not have is a national championship. And that could be coming his way today.
When he spoke to CBS, he said, you know what? I don't care if we played against Duke. I don't care if we played against, you know, Duke from 30 years ago. I don't care if we played an NBA team.
Maybe that much. He said nobody, nobody should have underestimated him. Listen to Kelvin Sampson. I hear what people say. You know, that's great.
John Shire is awesome. But don't sleep on Houston. Don't don't sleep on Houston. We weren't 34 and four playing, playing in the Toy Poodle League. We were 19 and one in the Big 12.
That in the Big 12 helped us. Oh, OK. A little fiery, a little test. That's Hickey. Who else plays in the Toy Poodle League?
Do you know who's in that that conference with Lipscomb being in the Toy Poodle League? Oh, come on, Hickey. Damn, bro.
You just you just went right for the jugular. I'm sorry. Oh, my God. Sound like a team that would be in the Toy Poodle League. All right.
I'm not going to go. I can tag a bulldogs. Oh, yeah. Zags. You know, they got they got a good mascot. That's like the Georgia Bulldog. That's another tough bulldog mascot. They can't play in the Toy Poodle League.
No, no, no. The Terriers, UMBC. There we go. Terriers. Definitely the Toy Poodle. And that stupid JMU dog with the crown on it.
OK, then you guys. Yeah. What's the what's the dog's name? What's the dog's name? Deuce? Well, they call themselves the Dukes.
I think it's technically a bulldog. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dukes. Oh, I heard deuce. And I was like, yeah, that's right. Crap. Yeah, I heard. But yeah, yeah, you're right. They are the Dukes.
Yeah. I need I need my ears. My ears clean. Kelvin Sampson.
He doesn't need his ears clean. Kelvin Sampson is like, everybody's Duke this and Duke that and Duke this and Duke that. John Shire from Duke. He basically said, you got to give Houston a round of applause. I thought our guys did it, followed the game plan, controlled the game. We had the lead for thirty five minutes. We're winning by six with a minute fifteen to go. And they made plays.
And you got to give them a ton of credit. We didn't make those plays. And you go from some of the most special moments in the tournament to the most heartbreaking loss. Yeah, that's that's how it goes.
He talked about this last week, a couple of weeks ago. It's like this is the beauty of college basketball. You go on these runs. These teams have their ups, they have their downs, their hears, their theirs.
It's unpredictable what you might see. You think about all the talent on the Duke Blue Devils, led by no one other than Cooper Flagg, who just does everything out on the basketball court. And you just say they're up 14. Let me just go get something to eat. Let me just go ahead and call it a wrap on this game.
No, not not so fast. We saw them come back. We saw Houston fight back. We saw L.J. Cryer knocks down some big threes.
He finished with 26 points. And, you know, I feel good about him. He's he's been here. He is their best player, especially at the guard position. He has experience. If you're a Houston Cougar, you got to be feeling good about what this is. And L.J. Cryer, he explained why nobody stopped believing that they could win.
None of them. We've been in positions like that before. Kansas. I don't remember how much we was down, but it was late in the game and that game looked like it was pretty much over two. But somehow we ended up winning it. So, you know, we just had to keep that belief and keep faith.
And we got it done. Hey, I think was it Yogi? Yogi Berra said it's not over to the fat ladies things, right? That's what he said. I think so. Yes. OK. That's what he said.
Not me. That's what Yogi Berra said. And I think that holds true. Just the fact that a matter until you got zeros on the clock. It ain't over.
It's not. And so I fully expected to see Duke on the basketball court tonight. Against Florida. And I got to be honest, I'm disappointed that that's not what we're seeing. But this is why they go out there and they play the games. This is why we have sports. This is why you can play the simulations and you can bet and put money down. You could do all of the things.
You actually got to go out there and play. Now, what do I expect to see tonight? We've seen the heater that Walter Clayton Junior has been on. Are we going to have other dudes step up?
Will Richard? He saw him flying around, slam dunking the ball all over the place. Who else is going to step up? Because Houston, they have allowed the the opposition to score 10 fewer points than their average. And every single one of these March Madness NCAA tournament matchups, every single matchup, every team that they've won up against has averaged 10 fewer points. What are we going to see? Florida had to go and bounce back against Auburn.
Are they going to be able to do the same thing against Houston? I'm not expecting it. And what are we getting outside of Walter Clayton? I mean, I don't even want to say he's a sure thing. Is he automatically just going to say he is another 30 piece? Is this guy Kemba Walker? Is he the college version of Damian Lillard? And, you know, I asked David Lee this last week. Of course, ain't nobody Steph Curry. But for a college version, he's not even college Steph Curry. Can he carry this team?
I think Houston, I think they might go out there and suffocate him tonight. Like it's not rocket science. I mean, this is one of the reasons I thought it was very simple as to why Florida would have gone out there and beat Auburn. You know, did I expect them to have this massive comeback? You know, with all the lead changes?
No. But you look at the guy who's putting the ball in the basket, who's been the best scorer, who's been leading his team. And it's him. He was the deciding factor. 34 points, five threes, first consecutive 30 point games in the tourney since some guy named Larry Bird. Come on.
That's a long time ago, 1979. And so because of Walter Clayton Junior, the Gators are back in the postseason. Excuse me, they're back in the championship game for the first time since they won it back to back in 06 and 07. I think. I think Houston is going to get them. I think we're going to see a close game, but I'm going to give it to the defense on this side.
I believe. I believe Houston would experience Kelvin Sampson. I think with L.J.
Cry. I think with everybody or somebody else having to really step up and have a big game outside of Walter Clayton. I'm going to give Houston the edge. This is a coin flip game. This is a pick them game. This is impossible.
Anybody who runs around with pure certainty, they're lying through their teeth. There's nothing easy. There's nothing easy about picking this one.
But I'm going to go ahead and pick Houston. As simple as that. 8 8 8 7 10 for ISN.
That's 8 8 8 7 10 for ISN. I know Disney. I don't know what their stories look like nowadays. I have no idea. I feel like all they redo is or remake Lion Kings and Cinderella's. I don't know what Disney movie is out. Moana?
I don't know. But this is as close to a Disney movie that we could get. You got Kelvin Sampson. Thirty six years has done everything except for win a national championship.
You got Todd Golden. I don't even think the guy is 40 yet. This is Kelvin Sampson's time.
It'd be disappointing if it wasn't. You got a son on staff with him. I think his daughter is a part of running the program, too. What a way to punctuate a career. Kelvin Sampson wins a national championship with the Cougars, who didn't even win one when they had Hakeem and Clyde on the team in 84. We remember what happened then. North Carolina State came and said, gotcha. Houston is due. And I know the Gators they're looking to. It's been almost 20 years.
Time flies, I guess, when you're having fun. I'm picking Houston to walk away here. It's the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, I'm going to get Ryan Hickey's thoughts on who he believes is going to walk away with the national championship. Next hour, we're going to have a chat.
A good one. Matt Muehlbach, he's going to join us. College basketball analyst for ESPN and Fox Sports will get his expert opinion on what we can look out for in this upcoming game.
The national champions will be crowned tonight down in San Antonio, Texas, at the Alamo Dome. We got so much more to get into. We'll get Rob Manfred's thoughts on these torpedo bats. We'll talk about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his new contract. We'll talk more about Duke because please believe this isn't the last that you're going to hear about Cooper Flagg. This man is still expected to go number one in the draft without a shadow of a doubt.
The ratings were great for that game on Saturday between Houston and Duke. We'll get into some NFL drafts. Speaking of drafts, we got a couple of news. There's always rumors. Shador and Travis Hunter, Mark Murphy complaining, Geno Smith having his introductory press conference with the Raiders.
They actually had one, unlike the Giants. So we got a lot to do. A lot to get into. Congratulations. Happy Monday. It's a championship Monday. You tuned in to the J.R. Sportbrief show coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief.
It is the J.R. Sportbrief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Amongst everything that we saw take place over the weekend. It's not just the men's side.
It's not just Houston. It's not just Florida tonight. We had the women.
Women held their championship game yesterday. And then we'll get into this. Alexander Ovechkin didn't waste any time. You want to talk about a guy like Walter Clayton Jr. being on a heater.
Alexander Ovechkin now has more goals than any human being ever in NHL history. That's a big deal. But we'll get into that in the next break. You got to show love to the women. Got to show love to the ladies.
Because UConn won again. And we'll get into that. Let's finish up with the guys. Hickey, I'm giving a slight edge to Houston tonight. What are your thoughts on what we'll see?
I am with you. I think the Cougs get it done here and they do win their first championship. Just because, going back to what you said, I trust Houston's defense absolutely to show up tonight no matter what. And Florida, Walter Clayton Jr. has been outstanding.
No doubt about it. The worrisome part is Florida really needed his heroic here the last two games especially in order for them to keep their season alive. And if that happens again, I, number one, trust Houston to have a much better game plan than Texas Tech and Auburn to at least try to prevent him from getting 30.
And if he can't, right now, I just want to have confidence on anyone else on Florida stepping up to be a hero to get them over the finish line and score probably 70 points-ish to win the game. I think Houston's defense and their consistency, their tenacity to get it done. I don't want to say it's a one-man team because it's not. They are a deep team. They got plenty of guards. They run a tight rotation that we've seen over the past several rounds.
But the guy who's been, he's been the engine without a shadow of a doubt is the man who might have worked himself into being drafted in the NBA lottery and that's Walter Clayton Jr. So you think about the comeback that they just had and what it took for them to get here. If anything, they may just, they may put the clamps on everybody else and say, hey, let him go out there and get his. I doubt it. I think they're going to suffocate everybody, but I don't know.
I don't think there's anybody else capable on the team of doing what he does. And so we'll see. I think Houston will keep it tight, keep it close. And I think in crunch time, I think they might, they might pull it out. I'm hoping.
You know what? I'm not even hoping. I feel good about the fact that this won't be one of those, those blowouts. Every now and then we get one of them whoopings and blowouts and this is like highly anticipated game, want to see the game, wait all day for the game. The game comes.
And it's garbage. I hate those games. I don't care if it's a Super Bowl. I don't care if it's a basketball national championship. I feel when you get to the single elimination, those are the worst because look, you get the World Series. I know we can we can get a couple of games, you know, and it'll be interesting all the way through the tension. Every game is a new game. NBA Finals, unless we got one team that you look at and go, oh, my God, this team's going to kick the other team's ass.
You can stomach it. I know we're going to get four games, but single elimination championship games, when they are blowouts, man, they are the worst. And that's what UConn has been doing the last few years, at least that's the good news going to this national title game compared to the last at least two. There's no UConn.
And I guess even before that Baylor, too, they've you know, they took the they give it a Gonzaga. So the last few looking back, actually, wow, the last two national title games we've had, they have been blowouts. They've not been pretty. I'm with you, though. I think this is set up here to be a good, tight, hotly contested game all the way through. If that's what you're rooting for, you should be a winner. Man, you talk and you talk about blowouts on a women's side. I know you were referring to the UConn men and good. I'm sick of Dan Hurley.
I mean, the less of him we have, the better. He did all that yapping and chatting about potentially being humbled at the end. And I hope so. That guy did not shut up. And then meanwhile, on the UConn women's side.
Good for them. First title. 20, 16, 12th National Championship.
You think about Gino Ariemma. This guy won his first title back in 1995. And speaking of blowouts, for a minute, I was going to tune in and then I saw the score.
I said, no, thank you. UConn beat South Carolina 82 to 59. They smoked them. And so South Carolina, the Gamecocks, the Lady Gamecocks, they missed out on their third title in four years. And so what does Gino Ariemma do? He just adds another one to the list of which he was already at the top. Most titles ever. He now has 12. Pat Summitt, God rest her soul. She had eight.
Gino Ariemma, after the game yesterday, he was having a chat right here, Westwood One, NCA Radio Network. And he talked about what winning another title means for UConn. Well, I think for the program, I think it means that, you know, all those people that five years ago said it was somebody else's time. We're done. You know, we were ancient history. I mean, things change, right?
I mean, you can't say we want parity and then then be pissed when we don't win it every year or every other year. So I get that. And I, I, I don't know that for me, it means as much as it does to Paige or to KK, you know, or to Sarah or AZ or any of the other kids on the team.
This is life changing for them. Well, Big AZ Fudd went out there and had 24 points and 15 rebounds. And you heard the first name that Gino Ariemma mentioned was Paige Becker's. She had 17 points. And there's always been a lot of talk about her just for the fact that she tore her ACL. And how is she going to come back?
Lisa Leslie came here and joined us. And, you know, we talked about somebody else who unfortunately tore her ACL recently in Juju Watkins. And Paige Becker's was one of the examples that Lisa Leslie used about how you can bounce back. And now it's fully expected that Paige Becker's is going to be on her way in a shoot now about less than a month and being the WNBA's first pick in the draft. Hey, let's listen to Paige Becker's talk about how she was able to bounce back from the ups, the downs, the here's, the there's, the falls.
That's what she said to ESPN. If I could say one thing, it would be to stand firm and who you are. There's a lot of people who write you off.
There's a lot of narratives that can be put, try to put you in a box. Tell you got to do this. You got to do that. You got to be more like this player.
You got to be more like that player. Stand firm in who you are. There's people that doubt you because they think you're doing it on your strength alone. We lean on God's strength here. And for through God's power, for God's purposes, we're not doing this alone. And we have a village that we lean on and just do it for the people who believe in you and always stick to who you are.
That sounds good. I mean, it sounds what else you're supposed to say, right? And also at the same time, if you're an athlete, you got to find and draw motivation somewhere. Michael Jordan and his Hall of Fame speech, this dude was he still sounded motivated by by getting cut in high school. It was like MJ.
That's like like 40, 50 years ago. Like get off of it already. You still finding something to be motivated about? And how about this? I said the WNBA draft was in in like a month.
It is next Monday. Wow. That turnaround flag, if you make it to the national title, we saw with Kaitlyn Clark last year as well, like there is no there's no break. You're basically playing basketball for a year straight. Man, I just looked at that. I said and I remember last year, I remember the turnaround from the tournament to the WNBA draft.
And then you blinked. And then it was like the Kaitlyn Clark even have three weeks off between training camp. I don't even think that was the case. It just. That's crazy. What a national championship on Sunday.
I guess it's a good memory. I don't know if it's good for the body, but I mean, damn, that's that's a hell of a turnaround. And so, yeah, Paige Becker is anybody else who's about to get drafted into the WNBA, especially winning the championship.
If you are Yukon, that's one hell of a journey. And Gino Ariemma, he talked about the journey of Paige Becker specifically, and he says, I've coached a lot of players. We talk about Rebecca Lobo, the Tarasis of the world, and he said that Paige Becker's journey is the best of any he's ever coached. This is what he told ESPN. We look at some of the other players that have played and won championships and they all had a tough journey.
Don't get me wrong. None of it was easy, but no one came, you know, played in the bubble, played in front of no fans. Half a season to a knee injury, a full season to a knee injury, teammates that can't play. So never showing up in the final four with enough people around her to be able to complement what she has. And so to hang in there with all that and stay positive and stay motivated. To me, her journey has been the most incredible of any kid I've had.
Wow. Good luck to her. Hickey, I hope she has her legs up for the next couple of weeks. OK, this is what the schedule looks like. So she wins the national championship yesterday. The WNBA draft is next Monday in New York on April 14th. Training camps open up for the WNBA on April 27th. And then the regular season starts less than a month later, like three weeks later.
Maybe almost two weeks later, two and a half weeks on May 16th. There you have it. There's Paige Becker's rest, Hickey. I remember talking last year when Kaitlyn Clark first started, she looked tired, a little slow. She's getting her ass beat by the physicality of the WNBA. At least Kaitlyn Clark, we saw a different player after the Olympic break, that two, two and a half week break they had. That there's not no break this year for Paige. So he's I mean, like you just outlined, she's basically playing a full year of basketball. That's going to be a tough first year. That's rough.
Yeah, there is. It ain't no Olympics, ain't no break. The regular season is going to end for the WNBA. It ends September 11th. And so the closest thing that the WNBA has for break is the WNBA All-Star break, which runs from July 17th to July 21st. And just by thinking about that, that probably aligns with the Major League Baseball All-Star break. That's the time where you have the SPs. There's nothing going on. I think NBA Summer League might be the week after that.
And so that might be the first break. Good luck to Paige Beckers. Congratulations on to UConn on winning another championship. Hickey, you saw the photo with Gino Ariemma wearing all his rings.
I did. Now what that I counted more than 12. What did they'll have to be like a conference rings to what was he wearing? I'm assuming, yeah, like you said, conference championship rings.
I don't know if you get a ring going to the Final Four, maybe. I'm like, what is all this jury he has? Yeah, I don't like 20 rings, like 20 rings. Three or four stacked on each finger. Yeah, I'm like, this is this is too much.
OK, tell me how you really feel. That's congratulations to Gino Ariemma. God only knows how much long he's going to do this, but he can keep pulling in the prospects. UConn is such a storied program, especially on the ladies side, not to take away from the men of what they've done over the past 25 years ish to now as well.
God only knows how much longer that. Yeah, I always wonder when Gino Ariemma leaves, what happens? We've seen the adjustment on the UConn men from Calhoun and it wasn't necessarily the smoothest ride. And now we have Hurley.
UConn is a basketball school, but I can't imagine them having the same type of success with whoever comes after Gino Ariemma. It's wild, wild stuff. When we come back on the other side of the break, we're going to hear from, unfortunately, the loser. Somebody had to win. Somebody had to lose. And that was Dawn Staley.
She also then talked about some of the attention that her program did or did not get. And then we'll talk about somebody who garnered a whole hell of a lot of attention yesterday. His name is Alexander Ovechkin. This man has eight hundred and ninety five goals, more goals than Wayne Gretzky.
And this man, Ovechkin, is still going. We'll get into that on the other side of the break. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief.
It is the J.R. Sport Brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, we're talking about winners. We're talking about losers.
I mean, yesterday you got Alexander Ovechkin. This man is a winner. On the other hand, unfortunately, the South Carolina Gamecocks, the ladies, they lost to Yukon. The losers.
Tonight between Florida and then also Houston. Somebody is going to end up a winner. We just got to wait a few hours. We'll get there. Hickey, we just talked about Yukon winning and we got the championship tonight. We're going to talk about some winners and losers here. Do we want to start with the the loser or the winner? Which one are we doing here? Let's start the loser so we can end the hour on a high note with the winner. How about that?
OK. Unfortunately for Dawn Staley in the South Carolina Gamecocks, somebody had to be on the losing end of Yukon winning another championship. And it was them. You know, there is no fourth championship here for Dawn Staley. She won as the head coach here at South Carolina in twenty seventeen. She won in twenty twenty two.
She won in twenty twenty four. But not yesterday. As I mentioned, they got smashed eighty two to fifty nine. I had this game on for a second and I said, OK, no, thank you. It was a beat down. And even Dawn Staley says they whooped our ass. Listen to this. You know, our kids gave it all they had. And when you can understand why you lost and and when you've been on the other side of that three times, she you understand it like you can you can swallow it.
We lost to a very, very good basketball team that that, you know, they they beat our ass, but they didn't make us like it. There's a difference. Wow.
OK, OK. Hickey, is there a difference, right? They didn't. What does that mean? They didn't rub it in. There was no you can't see me. There was none of that, huh? I mean, I guess.
Have you ever had an ass beating or even watched an ass beating that you enjoyed? Well, I mean, it wasn't the point more so about how they didn't rub it in. Right. Or make us. She said make us enjoy it. Right. I don't. That's a good point. I don't know what the hell. What does she mean by that?
They didn't rub it in. I think that's what she meant. Right. Maybe. Then maybe just. Yeah.
The deliver is maybe not great. But if that's the case, then very fair. Yes. You can just kick their ass and just didn't say a word.
Yeah. There was no. No ridiculous activity. There was no hand gestures. There was no there was no nonsense.
It was straight through, which is good. You think about a lot of the I don't want to call it nonsense. A lot of the attention that we've gotten over the past couple of years when it comes to the championship games. It's been a lot of a lot of hype, a lot of anger. This was a quiet national championship, I guess, when there is no Kaitlyn Clark, when there's no Angel Reese. And to be honest, you know, I don't even think South Carolina had a huge star that people could look at and just go, hey, there she is.
Someone like an Aliyah Boston or what have you. So, yeah, it was it was quiet there. And one thing that Dawn Staley also did, she didn't just say that we got beat up. She she thanked the local media. She thanked the local media that covers the team in South Carolina for their coverage. This is a rarity on any level of sports.
Listen to this. You're pretty fair with how you assess our basketball teams. I really, really, really, really appreciate all the all just the coverage that you give us, the support that you give us through through the media. And if every program had this, I think we can we can push women's basketball forward, you know, on a local level across the country. So I really appreciate it.
That's good. That's what I will say, though, is. The program has to win like that, that's what it boils down to, like you got to have a good program. And throughout the course of the women's tournament, like we still know that they're they're only a handful of teams at the top. That are going to push through.
Is it going to be like this time next year, 2026? Am I looking at LSU? Am I looking at South Carolina again? Am I looking at USC? I mean, Juju Watkins, we don't know what what her career or year is going to look like next year, but like we can kind of count the teams on our fingers.
So I think it's difficult to have that coverage. You think about South Carolina. I mean, the closest thing in the Carolinas that they have to professional sports is the Panthers, Carolina Panthers.
And then there is that other bad hickey that other. Do they play basketball or do they try? What are they doing up there? I don't even know. I think maybe the right way to say it is try.
OK. They try to play basketball. Did Lonzo Ball? He I think he had surgery on his on a wrist and an ankle, I think.
I know they shut him down. So, you know, more than I do in terms of what actions up. I mean, he's got a lot of things operated on.
So, yeah, this is like I feel like this is a end of season rights of passage for him. It's like let's let's pick an ankle and then cut it open. And I just I don't know. He's not even well. He's not even wearing big baller brand shoes. What does he wear? Nike's? I don't know. I think so.
I think he's a Nike guy. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So if you're in the Carolinas specifically south and then we also OK, we got the Gamecocks and we got the Tigers. The pro teams in the Carolinas think.
I mean, I could start getting into some of the others. I'm not going up into Raleigh and all of that stuff, but you get you get my drift, OK? Every team all over the country, especially in a women's hoop side, they're not going to have that. And yes, I can attest South Carolina does have a very hardcore fan base and they have a great they have great media members who cover the team. Good for them.
I'm sure the Gamecocks will be back here next year trying to punch people in the mouth. And unfortunately, they lost. Somebody has to win. Somebody has to lose. And somebody, as he mentioned, we want to end on a high note here in this segment, somebody who won and won big time. Alexander Ovechkin.
This guy has been on one. He has been numero uno. He's like on Friday.
He's like his two goals. And so yesterday on Long Island. The Capitals, they went out there and lost to the Islanders, four to one. But Alexander Ovechkin, he scored goal number eight ninety five. He now has more goals than anyone in NHL history. Of course, he jumped Wayne Gretzky and he is not done. He had the big speech. He took off his helmet. Game stopped for like 15 minutes. Ovechkin, he said after scoring, he just wanted to say thank you.
What else are you going to say? Thank you. Like I always said all the time, it's a team sport. Without my boys, the whole organization, the the fans, the trainers, coaches, I would never stand there.
And obviously I would never pass a great one. So fellas, thank you very much. Thank you very much. I love you so much.
And I know Nicholas Baskerman here, T.J. Oshie. Fellas, I love you. We did it, boys. We did it. Thank you. Thank you to let me score eight ninety five.
I love you, brother. A man went out there. He scored on a on a power play in Wayne Gretzky. He was in attendance the same way that he was in attendance on on Friday in Wayne Gretzky. He was going to follow this man until the record was broken because Wayne Gretzky is a classy individual. And Wayne Gretzky, he spoke as well. And he talked about why it was important to be witness to this and to be a part of this when his record was broken.
Listen, the integrity of the game. You know, when I was breaking Gordie Howe's record, he was there. And I said two years ago that if Alex gets close to my record, I'll be here.
That's the National Hockey League, right? From Bellavo to Howe or Lemieux, Messier, you pass it down. And I hope and you guys might not believe me if somebody breaks Alex's record. I hope Alex is there to shake his hand.
But right now, I hope Alex enjoys it. And he deserves all the credit and accolades he's getting. Man, this is crazy. The guy is 39 years old, Alexander Ovechkin is. He broke the record in exact...Hickey, this is freaky. He broke the record in the same amount of games, 1487. Like, what are the odds that he breaks the record in the same amount of time it took Gretzky to do it? One in a trillion. That's crazy. That's honestly even maybe crazier than just breaking the record in general. Same amount of games?
Wow. Same amount of games. He's 39 years old. He is not cooked. He's not done. This is his 20th season.
Crazy to think he's been around since 2005. And he's going to just add to the record. And so I don't know, maybe we move into a world over the next several generations where everything is high powered scoring. Like, what is he going to end at? Is this man going to go past 1,000 goals? No, mate, that's too many.
Hickey, no, well... I mean, look how he's playing. Three more seasons of 40, right? And he broke his leg this year.
Yeah, he did. Three more seasons of...he's going to play more than that, I think. He's going to pass 1,000 goals. He is. I would say...I think it's more likely than not.
And so what happens? We got to wait three more generations for some guy to play until he's 50? Is this where we're leading towards? I don't know, man. Conric David, can he get hot?
Or stay hot? We got...you know what? I'm going to check his pace the best that I can in the break and see what he's doing. It's some wild stuff. It's the JR Sportbree Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
I'm going to look into that. We'll talk more basketball action. We're going to be joined by Matt Muehlbach. Basketball analysts, we got a lot to do. The JR Sportbree Show, Infinity Sports Network.
