It is the JR Sport Brief 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 locked in all over North America. Happy Monday to you. It's a good Monday. It's Championship Monday. There's going to be a champion crowned in college basketball. Is it going to be Florida? Is it going to be the Gators? Or is it going to be the Cougars of Houston? I don't know. If you put a Gator and a Cougar in a cage, what would happen?
I have no idea, but we'll find out what they can do on a basketball court tonight. I already gave you my pick. I'm looking at Houston coming out on top.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm being joined by super producer and host Ryan Hickey. He also thinks that Houston is going to come out on top. I think it's going to be a close game.
We got to wait and see. Well, we got to wait about 90 minutes until the action gets started. The national championship game down in San Antonio, Texas. This show, it got started an hour ago.
Where you been? We get started six Eastern, three Pacific. We talked about the final four matchups over the weekend as Duke has been sent home and Auburn goes home as well. We got into UConn beating South Carolina on the women's side. And then we talked about Alexander Ovechkin.
895 has passed Wayne Gretzky for the most goals all time in the NHL. I want to talk more about that. Talk some Florida Gators in about 20 minutes. We're going to be joined by Matt Muehlbach, college basketball analyst on ESPN and Fox Sports. Let's get his thoughts on who's going to walk away with the national championship tonight in the Alamo Dome.
You want to be a part of the show? You can do that. The phone number here is 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We'll talk some more college basketball momentarily as we are just creeping closer and closer to tip off down in San Antonio. I want to just piggyback before we keep things moving on the conversation we just had surrounding Alexander Ovechkin.
We'll get to that in a second. Thank you for listening on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM. Show them 375 and a smart speaker. A smart speaker if you got one.
You can always ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. Now, Alexander Ovechkin has gotten to goal number 895. Wayne Gretzky was sitting there at 894 and here's the difference. Wayne Gretzky is retired. There are no more goals.
Alexander Ovechkin is 39. He is still going. He's not done. And to think if I'm sitting here and I'm pulling up on 900 goals, I'm like damn it I'm gonna play until I get to 1,000.
I'm gonna play until the wheels fall off. Like there's nothing. What is Alexander Ovechkin playing for? To just win another championship here? He has won? It's not like he has to check that off the list. And so you would imagine that unless he has some massive injury and he falls off of a cliff, he's gonna get to 1,000 goals.
And we talked about maybe who could who could maybe get there? Icky Connor McDavid, too many assists. The guy that people are looking at and even this just seems ridiculous to think about right now, realistically, is Austin Matthews from the Toronto Maple Leafs. So his current pace right now, he's 27 years old. He has almost 400 goals and 623 career games. There's 500 goals just about behind Ovechkin. And at his current goals per game pace, he would need another 778 games to reach 896. And that is only, Icky, listen to this, it's only one more game than Ovechkin's record. Or one more goal, I should say.
Yes, one more game. And so he's kind of on pace. But we don't know where Ovechkin is going to stop.
And that's where things get crazy. It's not like he's done, you know? Right. I mean, I think like Alex said, I think 1,000 is attainable. So now if we're saying, okay, basically, Matthews is going to basically need bare minimum to mirror Ovechkin's career. We're talking about playing until 41. Oh, man, he may have to go further than that.
I don't know. I'm not saying this game is going to get 40 goals this year. Ovechkin is at 39.
Yeah, it's crazy. In order to reach where Ovechkin is now, yet he's 27 years old, and based on an 82 game season where maybe he never gets hurt, maybe there is never an NHL labor dispute, it would translate to nine and a half more seasons, nine and a half more seasons just to reach where Ovechkin is right now at 895. So, you know, when you think about who breaks records and this and that, the guy who might do it is probably not even in the NHL right now.
Hickey, this kid is probably, I don't know, picking boogers somewhere, right? I don't know what he's doing. He ain't playing hockey full time. So you think he's on this earth right now?
He might be, maybe not. Let's think about this. Wayne Gretzky broke the record in 94. Alexander Ovechkin didn't even make it into the league until 11 years after, right? When the record was broken. That's a gap, man.
The record has stood for the better part of 30 years right now. That's crazy. So is Austin Matthews going to be the guy to do it?
I don't know. And so this was actually brought up to Austin Matthews and he's just like, it's, it's crazy. He says, I don't even think it's worth even thinking about right now. It's so far away. Yeah, this is quote unquote, that's such a long way away. It's such a long way to go. And you know, I don't even think I should be in that conversation. I mean, this guy just broke the record.
I'm so far away from that. And I don't think that should be a focus on myself. I mean, it should be on Ovechkin and rightfully so. It should definitely be on Ovechkin and what he's been able to accomplish in his career. And obviously this record being one of them. Well, they always say records are made to be broken. Now, Hickey, this is the fun part about history. I don't know if it's fun or bad, but let's stick to sports.
That's, let's stick to that part of it. There are some records in sports where you just go, that's crazy. And you like the sport would have to go through a generational change for something to move it. You know, we had this conversation on, on Friday when Ovechkin put up two goals. We got a lot of callers in about records in sports that would never be broken. And we got numbers like, you know, Nolan Ryan when it comes to strikeouts or when it comes to wins and what have you, and no hitters. And when you think about how the game has changed that, that might be true. There's nothing to say, maybe Ovechkin just keeps going and going. And then the record doesn't get touched for generations on end. That's a possibility as well.
It definitely is. Yeah, no, I mean, I think there are certain records like, I think LeBron 50K and counting points, one of those records that will never be touched just because of the longevity. You think the way these guys shoot these threes that, you know, nobody will catch wherever the hell LeBron ends up? The reason why I don't as well, he's not, right, he's not a prolific three-point shooter for most of his career. Like you still, even if you just primarily shoot threes, I mean, you have to basically be playing at a high elite level for 20 years.
25, I put, I don't even know, right? And when you count LeBron's playoff totals, like, it's what, an extra four or five seasons worth of games he's played in? Like, that, to just be that consistent every, like, look at Steph Curry.
Steph Curry's nowhere close to LeBron points wise. Like, yeah, it's, it's so tough. Yeah. You know what?
You're right. Nobody, it's going to be fun to see. I'm glad that both of these are taking place in the same era, because let's be real, like somebody has to, Hickey, let's think about it this way. In my lifetime, in your lifetime, we will be old by the time anybody gets close to either these records. Old.
Old. And then we can be the people that said, back in our day, when this record was first broken, we thought no one would touch this. Right. No one would, would pass Ovi.
No one would pass LeBron. We could be sitting in our rocking chairs, like 85 years old saying, I can't believe it. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy, man.
That's nuts. Now, you know, I never thought that somebody would pass Kareem and here we have it. You know, it wasn't a thought in my brain that somebody would pass Wayne Gretzky and here we have it. And I can, 2005 feels like yesterday to me.
It sure as hell does. And here we are 20 years later. But what a world. Anyway, let's see if we have some history made tonight, speaking of accomplishments. And in about 10 minutes from now, we'll have a chat with Matt Muehlbach, a college basketball analyst on ESPN and Fox Sports.
And then also, you know, I want to see what the ratings look like for tonight's game, because there's nothing better than turning on anything. And then people, this is why folks watch television and shows. They got to be a bad guy. There has to be a hero.
There has to be an anti-hero. There has to be somebody that gets on people's nerves enough where you go, I want to see them win or I want to see them lose. And with no Duke in the national championship game tonight, thank you very much, Houston. The ratings are definitely going to be lower than what they would have been if Duke was out there. And so we saw what happened. Duke fell apart against Houston, just a historic collapse. They couldn't buy a shot at the end of the game, the last 10 minutes to basically save their lives. And so that game this past Saturday, or matter of fact, both games, it was the most watched final four since 2017.
That is almost a decade. And that Duke and Houston game, it was the most watched game of the entire tournament. And then you have Auburn and Florida. It was the most watched early Final Four game since 2017. And so I don't know what the game is going to look like tonight, but you're going to have a lot of Duke fans that have absolutely zero interest in paying attention.
Now, God bless Walter Clayton, you got a lot of people who want to see if you can just go up there and jack up shots and get past 30. You know, we got all Houston is a huge media market. Florida is a big old state. I don't care if you look at North Florida all the way down to Central, there's a lot of Gator fans all over the place.
There's going to be massive interest, but there's no way that it's going to catch up to Duke. Walter Clayton Jr. He spoke yesterday. And he says, you know what, it's good to have Florida back in the spot potentially winning a championship, something they haven't done since 06-07. I'm just thankful, man. You know, obviously Florida basketball has a great history.
I grew up watching it. You know, obviously we got T. Green on the staff to tell us about the experiences. So just a great feeling, you know, to go out there and win games and have Gator Nation supporting us. You think about Todd Golden. This is his first chance to win a national championship. He's been through his own personal trials.
He was investigated for, well, talking to a young woman he allegedly had no business talking to, but he's been cleared of that. Now, Todd Golden, he did speak yesterday and he said, yes, we know we have to take on Houston. Yes, we know their defense is crazy, but no, we're not afraid of them guys. Obviously, we respect everyone that we're playing against.
We don't fear people. We respect them. And that goes for the coaches as well. You know, all these guys that we're competing against at this point are, you know, either Hall of Fame coaches are potentially on their way to being Hall of Fame coaches or really, really successful head coaches. Yeah, here we have a case of the old guy in Kelvin Sampson versus the young guy in Todd Golden. Todd Golden is 39 years old. Kelvin Sampson is 69 years old. And so is his, I don't want to say his age, is his wisdom going to come in handy, his experience?
I think so. And this is his last chance, his last opportunity. We'll have a chat with Matt Muehlbach in a second and get his thoughts. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. We got Rob calling from Connecticut. Rob, you're on the JR Sport Reshow.
Go ahead quickly. Give me your thoughts. No problem, JR. Just wanted to catch up with you and say it was a great day for Ovechkin yesterday.
I actually had on the TV with witnessed it live. Couldn't happen to a better man. Great hockey player. Number two, it's a great place to live in Connecticut, especially when you got the UConn Women's Women in National Championship. Second off, I wanted your opinion, or third, I should say. Exactly.
Thanks for correcting me. Tonight, what's your opinion? Who do you like in the game tonight, Houston or Florida? Well, I'm going to give you a quick recap. We discussed it, and we're going to go ahead and get to our guests, Rob.
Thank you for calling from Connecticut. Both Hickey and I are leaning towards Houston to walk away with the victory. I mean, Walter Clayton Jr., it really depends on how much help he's going to go out there and get. And what are the odds? I mean, is he going to need a 30 spot for them to win and win again?
I don't know. It just seems like the Gators and, yeah, Walter Clayton Jr., he's going to make his way to the NBA. But all things considered, I think Houston, just based on what they've done, they don't stop. They didn't stop against Duke.
They didn't slow down, not one bit. You know what? So we're going to take a break. And when we come back on the other side, I'm going to ask this question to someone who knows a whole hell of a lot more and has covered a whole hell of a lot more than me. Matt Muehlbach is going to join us, who covers all things college basketball on ESPN and Fox Sports. So we will get his thoughts and his perspective on the other side of the break. I need you to know that this portion of the show is brought to you by Ethos Life, the easy way to get life insurance in 10 minutes, up to two million dollars in coverage with no medical exam.
Just a few health questions. Get your free quote at checkethos.com. Not available in all states. It is the JR Sport Brief Show. We'll talk with an expert. Get Matt Muehlbach's opinion. Is he going with Florida or is he going with Houston?
Have that conversation with him on the other side. It's the JR Sport Brief Show, the Infinity Sports Network. You are listening to the JR Sport Brief.
It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're a little more than an hour away from tip off tonight, crowning a national champion on the men's side down in San Antonio, Texas, the Alamo Dome. Is it going to be the Florida Gators? Are we looking at the Houston Cougars? Is Kelvin Sampson, is that program going to walk away with this first championship to talk all things college basketball, what we've seen, what we might see tonight, what we might see over the next several weeks and maybe even months.
Joining us right now is Matt Muehlbach, covers all things college basketball for ESPN as well as Fox Sports. Matt, how are you? Fantastic, JR. How are you doing, man?
Very well. Good to have you back on. I mean, we're down to the final two now. Before we get into what we'll see in about an hour from now, what are your thoughts on those two games on Saturday, the highest rated final four in about a decade, almost?
Yeah. You know, I had an interesting weekend. I was in San Francisco and my former team, the 88 Wildcats from Tucson, we had a reunion of our final four back in 88, our first Arizona final four of all time. Our point guard from that team, Steve Kerr, hosted us in San Francisco, obviously now the coach for the Warriors. And we all watched it together and had a great time.
It was fun reminiscing. And now we lost our first game. So we didn't.
That was not fun. But yeah, we watched. We felt we were the best team that year. And I feel like Duke is still the best team.
But Duke did not win Saturday, as we all know. And I got to get a shout out to Kelvin Sampson, man. He just I played against him when I was at Arizona. He was at Washington State. He's a phenomenal coach. He's a phenomenal human being.
I love the culture he's created in Houston. And I think the difference between them and we saw it on Saturday, you know, they never give up. They never give up. We know they're a great defense or the number one skin palm defense in the entire country right now as we sit here. But I think the difference between this Houston team and what we've seen in the past has been the three point shooting.
And, you know, crazy enough, people don't get it. They're number one in the nation, three point shooting. And they showed out on Saturday. They hit, I think, like 10 of 10 of 21 or something like that. And that was one of the keys, aside from their relentlessness, their ability not to give up. And it's such an incredible quality. I just really, really sat there Saturday watching that.
J.R. was just super got a big smile on my face. Now, having having said that, people don't necessarily associate Houston with shooting. The first thing that comes to mind is defense. Meanwhile, we see Walter Clayton Jr. He's out there just lighting it up. Here's a 30 game. Here's a 30 point game. We're going to we're going to see one of these offenses, great offense versus great defense.
How do you think this evens out tonight? Well, it's interesting, you know, Houston has a has a really pretty slow tempo. And as Florida's much quicker, Florida's a top 60 tempo team.
Houston's like 360 in the country. They want to play slower. They want to grind it out. They want to make it half court. I think to some degree, J.R., you know, who wins that battle, who can kind of dictate their will from a tempo standpoint has a lot to do with it. If Florida can really get up and run, if they can get some steals, if they can get, you know, easy buckets in transition, I think it's going to favor them.
With that said, I've always felt that it's easier to dictate tempo on defense. So, you know, Houston's going to dictate they're going to they're going to fight like heck for every possession on that defense. And look, Florida can too. Florida's number nine in defense in the country.
It's not like they can't play D, but their offense is number two, you know, right behind Duke. And I think it's going to be a pick them. I think it's going to come down in the last couple of minutes. You mentioned great. And what I mean, he's been the MVP of the tournament so far.
He's been spectacular. And, you know, but that defense is going to not it's going to be as easy. If you watch them tonight, what Houston does, they blitz a lot of screen and rolls. So they jump out, they'll blitz them and they'll try to get the passer to get rid of the ball or the dribbler to get rid of the ball. And then they recover so well.
They just it's amazing how they recover. And it's going to be interesting to see how how does Florida attack that blitzing ball screen defense? Matt Muehlbach is here with us the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, you used to knock down those threes. A lot of people are looking at Walter Clayton Jr. You don't hear as much about L.J. Cryer on the other side, who's actually won a championship with Baylor. Like what can we expect from the Houston squad with him leading the charge? Well, again, you know, I look at that that that shooting percentage, right? And you just you just think about how much better they are shooting the ball. You know, he really shot it well in that game the other night. You know, he was he was really the key from a shooting standpoint. He was I think he was six for nine from three point range. And actually their best shooter, in my opinion, is Emmanuel Sharp. He was only one for six.
The other kid that I thought had such a great year, J.R., is that is that Milos Yuzan Yuzan. And, you know, he what Kelvin Samson does a lot is he finds matchups that he likes almost like a pro coach. And he'll exploit those matchups. And actually, to the point, I don't see a lot of college coaches where they just go one for and they just tell, hey, look, I got my guy. I'm going to beat you one on one.
I don't even need a screen. I'm just going to do it one on one. And they'll go. They'll go at you, especially late in games. And Yuzan is the guy that typically is that prior became that guy the other night.
Like he was he obviously had the big game with the 26 points and and was there was their leader on that end. So I think that's going to be interesting. You know how they go at at Florida. I think the other thing we just talked about it, you know, just how does out of the Florida guards, you know, what how does Houston guard them? What do they do with Clayton? He's had such a good tournament. You know, I think, like I said, I think they'll blitz him on any screening roles.
Maybe Florida does the same thing. Houston does a little bit of their own medicine and puts Clayton in just one on one matchups and says, go to work, fella. Matt, when you talk about the strategy of of both sides, we discussed the age discrepancy when it comes down to both coaches. You have Golden, who's 39 years old. You have Samson, who's 69 years old. Could we see Kelvin Samson?
He's done everything except for win this big one. Could we see him, you know, kind of walk away tonight if he comes out on top? He might. That would actually be a big, pretty storybook, wouldn't it? I would.
I would. I'd love it if he did. If he didn't, you know, these coaches, though, as you know, J.R., man, they they love to coach there. You know, some of the guy like Samsung, I could see him almost doing it forever. He just loves to coach.
He loves, you know, being affecting these young men and and the culture he he he puts together. I would I mean, if I if I were an employer, I would hire guys that went to Houston because of Coach Sampson. That's how much I respect him. And but if he did, man, if he walked away, that would that would be I'd be I'd be right there to watch the 30 for 30 afterward. Matt, we discussed this a little bit the last time you were here. Kelvin Sampson, he would really be last of a dying breed when it comes to coaches and programs.
You know exactly what you're going to get is it does this. There's much more stability, even in a wild world of college basketball where things have kind of been upended. Yeah, he's done such a great job, you know, continuity wise and keeping players. He's certainly gotten players in the portal like everybody does. But he I don't know.
I mean, I would. The first question I'd ask him is, how do you how do you create such a great culture? And I know one of his answers, and he said, this before that, he goes, I don't I don't recruit guys that don't fit our culture, that won't be accountable, that don't play the way we want them to play. He he he does such a great job. And I was I mentioned that reunion our team had in 88. And our coach was Luke Olsen. Everyone used to say what a great developer of talent he was.
And he was. But I think what he did was he recruited winners and he recruited good people and really high character guys. And because of that, you know, there's an old saying that, in fact, Luke used to say this all the time that, you know, if you got good kids, they're going to figure out a way to to get it done.
If you got if you don't, sometimes they figure out a way not to get it done. And and we know, too, at the highest level, all these teams have good kids and and so forth. You wouldn't be at this level, you know, final fours and championships if you didn't have them.
And and look, I still say, like I said, you know, you started all over tomorrow. I still would put Duke as the best team. It's just is why we love the tournament, because the best team doesn't win every year.
He's certainly correct on that one. College basketball analyst and former Arizona Wildcat Matt Muehlbach is here with us on the J.R. Sport Brief Show. You talk about Duke. I expected them to be right here playing tonight against Florida.
That's not the case. What do you think is that this program is going to look like? It's been a while since Duke has been national champs. And now Shire is here, had a good chance and opportunity. Duke is always going to have a chance to be competitive, right? Oh, yeah.
Yeah. They're going to they've got three lottery picks and refreshments. So I expect they're going to lose them. But it's going to they'll just keep rebuilding. They'll reload their Duke.
And I I really enjoyed watching Shire. I think what his third year, I believe. Correct. And, you know, you just you were always wondering who was going to replace Coach K and such a legend. And we've seen how difficult it is to replace legends at different programs, especially the elite programs. You know, UCLA had had trouble replacing John Wooden in his legendary status.
And we've seen it happen in other places. I think they picked the perfect guy. I mean, his demeanor, his X's and O's, how he treats people, you know, how he's already shown he can recruit. They're going to they're just going to keep reloading every year. And I don't I don't expect to see him go too long without another Final Four and possibly a championship. Well, we know the immediate future for Cooper Flag.
It doesn't matter how that game ended on Saturday. This man is going to be the number one overall selection. How do you think his game will translate over to the NBA side? 100 percent, he's going to he'll be fantastic. I saw him, J.R., I was I happened to be in Vegas when the United States Olympic team gathered and I saw him scrimmage. You know, I think it was the second day there. And I'll never forget, like, I didn't realize I didn't know who it was.
And then someone told me who it was. And he plays with a with a pace that's all his. He's aggressive. He has every skill. But the way he just his IQ, his his competitive fire, like he's he's kind of a he's sort of I played with a guy, Sean Elliott, and he's sort of like a little bit reminded me of Sean in a way, but just taller, bigger and even more advanced than Sean. And Sean was, you know, the wooden player of the year, you know, all star three or four times.
And so I just he's he's and I think of today's modern guy. He's he's a little bit like Katie. He's not as long as Katie. Probably doesn't know Katie shot at such an elite level. But the type of handles is playmaking at that size and ability to finish block shots, play defenses. He can do it all. And and by the way, I'm not mistaken. I think he could be was originally supposed to be a senior in high school. Right.
I mean, it's pretty silly. I mean, what he's done and where he can go with it and just he looks the part to like, I just I like his demeanor. He shows he shows emotion. But, you know, but a big part of the time, he's pretty stoked to just plays hard, does his job. And it's going to be just it's going to be a blast to watch him absolutely succeed in the NBA. Well, let's see what sad sack of NBA franchise he ends up on.
And if you could go out there and turn them around. That's right. We got to wait on that one.
Matt, you're back here with us. Well, now I got I got to put you on the spot. We know tonight's game is a pick them. I'm giving the edge to Houston, a slight edge.
You giving them that slight edge as well? I am. I am. I'm riding with riding with Kelvin. I'm riding with Houston. You know, they they just their will right now and their experience. Kelvin's experience.
I'm riding with them. You know, I think they I do think Florida played in a better conference. I think the SEC was slightly better than the Big 12 this year. Big 12 has been the best conference the last five, six, seven years. But I think the Big 12 also their depth in playing those close games.
Houston reminds me a little bit. I was originally from Kansas City, and they remind me a little bit of the Chiefs in that they just kind of find a way to win. They don't always do it, you know, in a way that's that's like, you know, the prettiest game and beat everybody by twenty five and do it with, you know, flash. But they just find ways to win at the end.
And that reminded me that Chiefs team this year until, of course, they got smacked in the Super Bowl. But yeah, I just it feels like they're and the fate maybe because of what happened Saturday, maybe that fate for them carries over. Yeah, we'll see. Certainly looking forward to this one. Hopefully it's going to be a close game. I think that's exactly what we have in store. Matt, thank you so much again for your time, your expertise, whether it's from playing on the courts or your analysis. Now, where can people follow you and keep up with you and your work?
Yeah, Matt Muehlbach at Twitter and Matt Muehlbach at Instagram. So and then I'll be back doing games in the fall. Can't wait. That'll be fun.
Hey, basketball season never stops. I know you don't either, Matt. Thank you for the time. Thanks, JR. Have a great one. Going to be a fun one tonight. Absolutely. That Matt Muehlbach covers all things college basketball for ESPN as well as Fox Sports. And that's when he wasn't knocking down threes for the Arizona Wildcats. Thank you to Matt Muehlbach here on the JR Sport Brief Show.
That's that's three for three. Let's see. We got Rich Ackerman here. Hey, Rich, are you leaning Houston or you leaning Florida?
I am. I just think that they've come close the last couple of years. It's a nucleus. And this, you don't see that often now in college basketball, but a nucleus that has stayed around a couple of years together. I like both teams and I think it'd go either way. But there's just something, you know, they had that big win to have that big win and not build on it. I think that would really hurt them. You know, it's it's like it's like when Herb Brooks said, you know, to the to the 80 hockey team after beating the Soviets, you know, you don't win this one, you'll take it to your grave.
And then he stopped and he turned around and he repeated it with an expletive in there. So I I'm going with Houston tonight. OK, well, how about that?
Four for four. And here's the thing. I think we all agree. I think everyone who's been here, including Matt, who we just had on the line, this this should be hopefully is a close game. Let's see what Houston does right now. This minute, this second, Akima Lajuan is joining College Game Day in full transparency.
Akima Lajuan is probably my favorite basketball player of all time. We'll see what they they do tonight. We're going to keep on on chatting. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
We're going to take a break when we come back. You know, speaking of of greatest of all time. The Toronto Blue Jays just gave a guy a half billion dollar contract. I hope he ends up being the greatest Blue Jay of all time. We're talking about Vladimir Guerrero Junior. Rob Manfred has some words on these torpedo bats. I want to talk more about Cooper Flag because people are looking at Duke and the fact that he lost. And it's just like. So what's the big deal? Why did they suck?
Why didn't Cooper Flag do more? And I think that's that's pretty ridiculous. We'll talk some NFL as well. A lot of draft rumors floating around. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief. It is the J.R. sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
Thank you. Oh, oh, oh, so much to Matt Muehlbach for joining us on the last break. Former Arizona Wildcat now analyst talking all things college basketball on both ESPN and Fox. He believes that Houston has the edge tonight against Florida. I believe Houston has the edge against Florida.
Rich Ackerman believes Houston has the edge against Florida. And we're about an hour away. From seeing what's actually going to take place.
The game is supposed to tip. At eight fifty Eastern time, that is almost an hour away. And so we'll see.
Hickey, by the time we got to shut up and leave. They'll be they'll be probably exactly at halftime, right? No, right. No, maybe. Yeah, I think so.
I think you nailed it. Yeah. That's in 10 minutes. Yeah, that's not bad. So if that'll be about 10 Eastern ish.
They'll be done by 11. No. Yeah, right. Kind of sort of close. Depends on the clock. Depends on the clock over time. Over it's over time.
Excuse me. Over time, you think it's going to be one of those games, huh? I think it'll be close.
I think we close, which means I don't think you can rule out over time. Yeah. Hickey, I don't want no damn overtime, bro. No. Let's get this one over with and regulation.
You don't need to put anything extra. Give us one of these, you know, you know, three point shots against North Carolina. You know, give me one of those. One of those. Oh, I mean, look, I'll take a buzzer beater.
That'd be exciting. Yeah, well, Hickey, I was I can't I don't I don't know if my memory is good or bad. Hickey, sometimes I feel like I got a good memory and sometimes I feel like I got a bad memory. I was there. I was there.
It was Kansas beat North Carolina in Houston. I was there and I don't I don't I don't remember the shot like I remember Michael Jordan walk by me, Hickey. I remember that more than anything else. And I remember people going crazy and I don't maybe I was working too hard. I think I was doing TV work for CNN at the time.
I don't know, man. I think I was I know I was there. I know I was, but. Everything starts blending together at a certain point in time. I guess that's a good problem to have in the sense of you had so many big events. You know, they stuck out more, maybe, I mean, you know, you go to less, so those moments stick out more because it's more of a rarity. You're a natural, not these big events. I don't know about that, man. I don't know. I try to I was like I was like Hickey, I was looking at the game and the notes and I was like, wait, I was there. I was like, I don't I don't I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, to be honest. It's just I remember the shot at the end and people losing their minds. Maybe I was focused on something else.
Anyway, I don't know, whatever. I'll be at my house tonight. I don't got to worry about focusing on anything. I don't have to worry about traffic. I don't have to worry about getting back to the hotel.
I don't have to worry about people trying to hang out after. I don't have to worry about the the airport in San Antonio after the game in the morning time. Shout out to everybody down in San Antonio, Texas. I should I should have a better rooting interest in this as well. I've been down to the wonderful people of Houston with the Cougars. I have, you know, been out in Gainesville, out in Gatorland.
They've always been always been fun. I don't I don't really care though. It doesn't matter to me who wins or loses.
I got no rooting interest anyway. Hickey, you had you had Duke winning it all. I had Duke winning it all myself. So when I did the initial bracket, I picked Houston a win.
Ah, okay. But once we did see the the play through the first two rounds or first two weekends, I would not lie. Going into the Final Four, I picked Duke to win it all. Yeah, this is no money for you today, huh? No, no money for you, boy.
Is there anybody, are you aware anybody that you know that that has this kind of filled out on a bracket that may want some cash? Two of my good friends actually are facing off against each other. Both have Houston, Florida in the national title, one has Houston, one has Florida, winner take all. Oh my god, whatever.
Talking crap all day yesterday, huh? I wish we could say we just watch them fight instead of actual game. I think it'd be more enjoyable. Well, you can, it's not too late. It's only an hour away, right?
That's true. A little FaceTime, I don't know, FaceTime fight. No, but they could, they can broadcast it online. It's not too late for a little pay-per-view. I'd pay. It could be entertaining.
How much would you pay? Well, I guess it maybe depends on what the score is. At halftime, we're sitting here, once you're up by 20, they get paid a little bit more.
Get a little late-night entertainment. Ah, okay. Oh, you're really trying to, trying to have them out here.
Okay, I get it. Well, right now these two teams are warming up on the court. Gonna get ready for all of the, I don't want to call it, the pregame festivities is what we're, nah. Is the Pledge of Allegiance? That's not a festivity, is it? The Pledge of Allegiance? No. The Pledge of Allegiance?
Has anyone done that since like graduating eighth grade? The national anthem? The national, oh. Yeah, that counts. I'm sure it'll be a big time, do you know who's singing it? I'm sure it'll be a big time celebrity. Hell no, I don't know. In San Antonio, I don't know. A big time, who's a big time celebrity out of San Antonio? Tim Duncan? Is he gonna do it from the Virgin Islands?
I don't know. Well, Beyonce is from Texas, right? From Houston, come on now. Well, she's from Houston, it's not that far away.
Houston's national title game. Beyonce is too big to do this. You think she's watching tonight?
No, no. Maybe if Jay-Z is in the bedroom or something, I don't know, right? How many bedrooms they got in their house?
Infinite. 20? Beyonce has 19 of them, right? I guess, right? She's like, maybe I'll walk by the bedroom once and Jay-Z is watching the game, but yeah, I don't think, Beyonce is Super Bowl World Cup or nothing. I think that's where Beyonce is. She did, yeah, all of this because of holiday. Remember she did the Christmas Day halftime show for the Texans Ravens? You, you are right.
Well, that's, that was the first, one of the first game ever on Netflix? Yes. That's Beyonce. He ain't gonna show up and do no measly college basketball championship game? In her home state?
No, bro. Would it have to be her hometown team playing? No, it'd have to be in Houston with the Houston Cougars and Beyonce's nephew would have to be on the basketball team. Yeah, Beyonce don't know.
Hickey. The Super Bowl World Cup. Aliens, aliens are visiting from planet XYZ. Beyonce's not showing up. That's like asking Beyonce to do halftime at the NBA All-Star. And I think Destiny's Child did it like 15 years ago, 20 years ago. So it's go big or go home for Beyonce?
Yeah, bro. Beyonce would be like, uh, like Rihanna couldn't even, Hickey, after you do the Super Bowl, everything after that is just like, yeah, whatever. Isn't Beyonce going on tour this summer? She's doing another stadium tour, yeah.
Cowboy Connor. Oh, I don't, I think every seat is sold out across the country already for her to do country for the pub. Yeah, I don't think Beyonce needs it for her to do country music.
That's true. God bless her. Hey, look, she's been around for like almost, I don't know, almost 30 years. Good for her. It's the JR Sport Pre-Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We come back and talk more college basketball and even some baseball, a half billion dollar player. You don't need money either. Don't move.
