JR SportBrief Hour 2

What's the first thing you do if you'd had more time in the day? Take a nap? Read a book?

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That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash grow. Hey, it's Jim Costa from Cash the Ticket. Turnie Time is here. Mike Valenti and I are going through every matchup of the big dance region by region, game by game.

However you want to digest it, it's there. Download Cash the Ticket today. It's on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And I am coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Super producer and host Rich Ryan Hickey is holding it down for us in New York City.

And thank you to you. Yeah, everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. March Madness has started. It's underway. It's here. Wagner and Howard are getting us started off in the first four.

Wagner currently leads 14 to 10 out in Dayton, Ohio. Anyway, I'm going to be hanging out with you for the next three hours. This is a four hour show. We have already been busy. It's like it started at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. So that means I'll say it again.

I've been here for an hour and we've already had a guest on. Thank you so much to head coach of the JMU Dukes, Mark Byington. He came through and joined us as we talked about JMU's journey here to the NCAA tournament, something that they haven't done since 2013. They won the Sunbelt Conference last week. They take on Wisconsin on Friday night. They started off their season hot by knocking off the Michigan State Spartans.

Nobody expected that. They won 14 straight games. And here they are looking Wisconsin in the face, ready to go dancing and ready to keep on marching through the NCAA tournament. Thank you again to head coach Mark Byington of the James Madison University Dukes.

We talked about the tournament being here. I'd mentioned to you Clemson suing the ACC, trying to get out, saying that y'all are charging too much money for us to leave, lower the fee so we can quit. I like that. You sign a contract and then go, oh, no, but it's too much. I can't pay it. It's too much.

So just lower it so I can leave. Forget the contract I signed. Anyway, we're going to get into the PGA Tour and Liv. They're still working on an agreement. We know the PGA Tour trying to get an investment in from Liv. I guess that was Liv's entire thought process from the get go. Let's start a competitor, utilize more money until they realize that they need our money and not to battle with us, especially when it comes to legal fees.

A lot of people do that. Anyway, college basketball underway. I just told you about Wagner and Howard. We got an expert joining us. He's coming through in about 20 minutes. John Fanta. This man is a reporter. He calls games on behalf of Fox. He keeps up in depth with the Big East.

And so we're going to talk to John about the schools that made it in, the schools that made it out, the schools that exist, where they can go, who are some sleepers. John Fanta coming through in about 20 minutes. We got plenty of football news as well. Looks like the New York Jets got their hands on wide receiver Mike Williams. Hopefully, he can stay healthy for the New York Jets. Brandon Aiyuk doesn't know how to put the phone down. Chase Young is a saint, but is already going to have a neck procedure. Netflix is working on a show involving wide receivers. There's just a lot going on.

Last night, Anthony Edwards probably had the dunk of the season, dislocated a finger in the process. Just busy stuff. You want to participate in the show? It's easy. It's 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. You can also find me online. I am everywhere at JR Sport Brief.

I want to let you know about some of the All-Americans here in the college basketball AP team. We'll do that in a second, but let's go to Illinois and talk to Brent. Hey, Brent, you're on CBS Sports Radio, the JR Sport Brief Show.

What's going on? Hello, JR. I was inspired by your argument and disagreement with RG3 and a week ago with Deion Sanders. To back up your argument, I could name two former players. One went to the Hall of Fame that played in the South and played in the West. They got drafted first round in Northern teams.

They finally loved their team that they played for when they got drafted in the first round. First, Darren Nelson, 1982 Minnesota Viking. He played on the West Coast of Stanford, got drafted number one in the first round by Bud Grant, but he did not want to leave the West Coast.

He thought Minnesota didn't have any discotheques, but he finally loved Minnesota. He was involved in the Herschel Walker trade for the Cowboys, but he refused to go. He played for the Vikings and he finished his career in Minnesota.

Okay, who was the other person? Jim Kelly. Remember, he got drafted by the Buffalo Bills. He played in Miami. He didn't want to play for a cold team. So he opted to go to the USFL, played for the Houston Gamblers. When the USFL folded, the bill kept his rights and he refused, but it was the general manager, I think it was Polian, who talked him into it. And now he loved playing for Buffalo Bills and makes Buffalo his home now. And they both succeeded. They both dug in and did what they had to do. So I backed up your argument. Yeah, I mean, it does.

Thank you. Thank you for bringing that up in the case of Jim Kelly. We know that that man is legendary in Buffalo. I just think it's it's a little bit different now when you think about the money that the players are making, when you think about the fact that this pretty much predates or the two examples you have predates a free agency, predates social media, the athletes now are different. And so I can certainly understand anyone who wants to make the point of RG3 about how Caleb Williams needs to control his destiny and just tell the Chicago Bears, I don't want to go. I understand the thought process, but I appreciate you understanding my perspective and that I find it to be soft.

I find it to be weak minded just to go, oh, well, I'm I don't have it because to me, it screams I don't have enough confidence in my own abilities that I need to rely on an ideal situation to to go ahead and be the best look from the day he's drafted. He's going to be guaranteed money. OK. And if you think you're the you know what, you don't participate in the combine and that's all your business, man, make it make it show up on film later on this season.

And we're going to find out soon enough. Hey, Brent, thank you for calling from Illinois. You're welcome. Thank you. No doubt about it.

Hey, Hickey, what are your thoughts on that, man? What about what RG3 said? I mean, I took them from like the literal aspect of looking at the Bears and I'm totally lost to what he's seen versus what I'm seeing. I mean, you look at this team, their offensive line is getting better. He's not going to the Carolina Panthers where they can't give Bryce Young even a second to breathe, let alone drop back in the pocket and try to look, you know, stare down a defense. You just treat your just and I should say Keenan Allen along with DJ Moore.

That's a really good one to combo. You have good tight ends. You got DeAndre Swift. You got a young defense that was getting a lot better and was, you know, towards the end of the year, really damn good.

The only thing I would agree with with RG3 is the fact that Matt Eberfluss is to me, like I think he's on a short leash. I don't think he's there long term. So I do think Caleb Williams relatively early, maybe the first or second year we'll have a new head coach outside of that though, like, and there's a real conversation, Jr. Is this like the best landing spot for a number one overall pick to go to?

Because there's not many opportunities for a quarterback to go number one and he's going to a situation right now as good as Chicago is, all things considered. Yeah. I mean, the teams at the top suck. And I know Washington is in its own space. They have a new owner in Josh Harris who's come on board.

You got Magic Johnson who's a phase. So things look like they're on the up and up for Washington. Like there's nowhere in hell if I got to think about the past 20 odd, 20 plus years that they had in regards to dealing with Dan Snyder, that it's going to be the same. Eventually, they're going to be playing in a new stadium and everything is going to be top of the line. And they're going to be one of the best franchises, I think, from an organizational standpoint in the entire NFL, because I think that Josh Harris is smart enough to stay the hell up on out the way and just provide the resources. Now, having said that, that doesn't necessarily mean a hill of beans like right out the gate.

Yeah. Dan Quinn will go out there and he'll be the coach and he'll coach defense as well. And Cliff Kingsbury will probably have the the go ahead to do what he wants with the reigns of the offense. And yeah, it's ideal.

But let's be real. There's no guarantees going anywhere in the NFL. And if I got to think about a team like Chicago, like I'd be starving.

I'd be starving to go to Chicago. Yeah. You got to think about things from a football perspective. Let's also keep this in mind. Who the hell said that Caleb Williams wants to go home? Who said he wants to? We don't know what he wants to do.

We've only heard what he said about potentially going to Chicago. He's not exiting out any opportunity. And for his position, why would you? You don't want to lose or chop a perspective team off.

You want to have as many options or as many perceived options as possible. You don't shop anybody off. You don't do that. We did hear Justin Fields about a month ago talk about the prospect of coming back to Atlanta and going back to Georgia. Oh, yeah, it'd be nice. It'd be great.

But. People are going to be blowing my phone up. People are going to be asking for tickets. People want to go here. People want to go there.

It's going to be a pain in the behind. Somebody has to manage that for like not everybody in professional sports wants to play at home because they just want to focus in on a sport. They want to make their money. They want to get to the off season. They want to spend their money and they want to get back to playing ball with no distractions.

That seems like the easiest pathway and the easiest route, if you ask me. And for Caleb Williams. Hey, we can have all the conversations in the world as to what he should do. Unless there's a massive change.

He's going to end up in Chicago. Like, what else are we thinking here? So let's just let's pump the brakes on that one. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS is 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS.

You know, speaking of pumping the brakes. These lists that come out now, the All-America teams and the lists are nice. I used to look at these lists and go, oh, man, these are the next big names at the professional level.

But then I got to go. It's not even true anymore. Let me tell you about the college basketball All-Americans this year. The first team, the giant Zach Edie from Purdue at 7 4. Of course, he's on the team and the man has decided to stay. Well, he stayed another year this past season just so he could improve his NBA draft stock, just so he could lose some weight, prove to everybody that he could move laterally at 7 foot 4.

Hey, Hickey, at the same day. Well, how many more inches is Victor when Benyama going to grow? We don't end up being like 7 5 7 6. He's what, 19 years old and he's 7 4 already.

I mean, it's crazy thing. I guess he I guess you're right and think about that. He could grow 7 5 and a half. Or see, I think he or is he 7 5 and shoes already, right? I think he's 7 5 and distinction with shoes.

Yeah, whatever he is, that dude. The man had like, yeah, did you see the numbers that that when Benyamas and putting up recently crazy? He's like, here's 30 points.

I don't know. Double digit rebounds. You know, I got seven blocks, seven assists. He's going to get himself one of these quadruple doubles. Wait for it.

Just go out there. He blocked the shot the other day. I swear he didn't even jump.

There's a lot of lot of fun watching Victor when Benyama. Either way, Zach Edie is an All-American. Shout outs to Zach coming from Purdue. Dalton Neck from Tennessee. He made it. RJ Davis, North Carolina.

No shock there. Jamal Sheed from the Houston Cougars. And then you also have Tristan Newton from UConn. He is. He's also an All-American. Now, let's be honest.

Are any of these names screaming out to you? NBA. There used to be a point in time where I could look at all the All-Americans and just say to myself, this is the next crop of talent that is going to dominate and take over the NBA. But we have so many NBA prospects all over the world. In the NBA system of the G League.

Overseas playing in international leagues domestically, wherever they might be. But I can't even look at this list and just go, this guy's the next big thing. Zach Edie might be a backup center in the league.

They might throw him out there at the end of games. I'm just being honest. He would have been in the NBA already if he was actually mobile. He had the ability to move left to right and move laterally. He had to lose weight to try to get there.

Man, I would have loved to have been 7'4 in college. I'd be jamming on everybody. Easy. In the NBA. I think if we put Victor Wenbanyama and Zach Edie on the same court right now, I think Victor Wenbanyama would be out there busting his ass. You know what? We're going to talk more about this later on in the show. Because college basketball has changed so much that you can look at the tournament right now and you can pick out players here and there that are going to have a major impact. Or let me rephrase that.

You used to be able to do that. Now, some of these top guys, they might end up being role players, while players overseas just destroy the league at the professional level. Things are changing all over the place. We're going to get into this later on in the show. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. We've got a college basketball expert joining us in the next break. John Fanta, he covers, he reports, he broadcasts, knows all things college basketball on behalf of Fox Sports. He's joining us on the other side of the break.

You're listening to the JR Sportbrief show, CBS Sports Radio. What's the first thing you do if you'd had more time in the day? Take a nap? Read a book?

Talk with a friend? When you know what's important to you, it's easier to fit it into your schedule. Therapy can help you figure that out. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy that comes to you. Start the process in minutes and switch therapists anytime. Make time for what makes you happy with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash grow today to get 10% off your first month.

That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash grow. Hey, it's Jim Costa from Cash the Ticket. Turnie Time is here. Mike Valenti and I are going through every matchup of the big dance region by region, game by game.

However you want to digest it, it's there. Download Cash the Ticket today. It's on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, the tournament is underway. Thank you so much to Wagner and also Howard for getting us started with the first four. I guess the first four counts, but to talk about the entire tournament, we got an expert here.

He broadcasts, he reports, he's in front of the game, he's getting the news from the game, he's writing about the game. All on behalf of Fox, joining us right now, it's John Fanta. John, thank you for taking the time with Madness Upon Us. JR, Madness is Upon Us.

Yes, it's here. We get a taste of it tonight with the other first four games featuring Colorado State and Virginia. Isaiah Stevens of the Rams.

If you've never seen him play, folks, give him a watch. But I can't wait, man. It's so exciting. This is what it's all about. The Madness is here.

The Madness is here. And I want to say, we'll give you a big thank you. Last hour, we had Coach Mark Byington of JMU join us. And one of the first stories that he was able to tell was how things got connected between his school, JMU, and the Spartans a couple of months ago to kick the season off.

And you had an amazing article that you had also shared on Fox about this situation. What are your thoughts on JMU and what they've been able to do up until now? Yeah, a heck of a story, JR. You know, you're talking about a program that Byington, when Mark Byington took over James Madison, they were coming off a really bad year.

They were in a dark place. And Byington, as he explained to you, as you had him on, like, this is a guy who's just been a grinder, only 47 years of age, you know, was an assistant at Virginia Tech, started Charleston in Virginia, and, you know, took a Georgia Southern program and really made them into a 20-win team for three consecutive years. And that's how we got the James Madison job.

And when I talked with Jeff Boren, the outgoing James Madison AD, he said, we knew right away that Mark would be able to build something. Even in NIL, even in the transfer age, you still have to know who you're going to get, especially at that level, where you can't just simply pay for guys. And what he's done is he's got a couple of guys who are fourth and fifth year players, and it speaks to me why they're here.

You know why? They stayed together. They haven't been incoming transfers. Terrence Edwards Jr. is a guy who could have portaled, but he's been with the program four years. He's never thought about leaving. And he said, I never thought about leaving because I knew this was the best place for me because I've got a coach who cares. 17 points per game, five rebounds per game, four assists per game. Remember the name Terrence Edwards.

But he also did a great job of identifying in the portal guys who might have been at the high major level, who weren't getting a look, who now can go to a mid-major. This is the difference between college football and basketball. TJ Bickersteth said, I'm part of a losing Boston College program.

Think about this. Boston College is playing in the NIT right now. How many eyeballs are on it?

Not many. TJ Bickersteth said, I'm going to level down in school and in conference, theoretically. But it enhances my chance to make the big dance. While his former school is playing in the NIT, TJ Bickersteth, who didn't get much of a shot at that former school, got his shot at James Madison. And now he could be wearing Cinderella's slipper on national TV on big CBS Friday night. Box broadcaster John Fancis joining us here. The JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. Everything with JMU is looking all roses right now as they get ready to take on Wisconsin. We know that you also keep up with the Big East. There's a lot of controversy about who went in representing the Big East, who did not go in.

We hear Rick Pitino making a fuss. What are your thoughts about the Big East standing as it relates to this tournament? Well, the Big East only got the three bids to the NCAA tournament, and it's unbelievable to think that because they were college basketball's second ranked conference.

Second strongest conference, according to the analytics, not some ranking, according to Ken Pomeroy. This is a league that had close to five quadrant one wins per team. Many of the teams that are on the bubble had five or six quad one wins. You had five teams, meaning close to half your league, with five or more Q1 wins. You averaged out nine quality wins on the resume. That was second most in all of college basketball. Now, you could say, well, how much of that average is enhanced by UConn, Marquette, and Creighton, who are a one, two, and three seed respectively? Of course.

But when you have that strong of a top, you would think the middle would benefit a little bit. No, it didn't. And as a result, Seton Hall, part of the first four out, St. John's didn't end up even being close despite winning six in a row and beating Creighton at home. Creighton, who's a three seed, St. John's beats them.

They add some quality to their resume, and it didn't end up amounting to much. Providence got six Q1 wins. They beat Wisconsin, who's a five seed. Providence beat Marquette. They beat Creighton twice.

They took no bad losses, no quad three, no quad four losses, and Providence is sitting at home. But for me, Seton Hall, JR, Seton Hall beat UConn, won 20 games, didn't have any terrible loss. They're the first team in the history of the Big East.

People know the days of Ewing, and Mullen, and Pearl, and all the legends of the Big East. In the 45-year history of the Big East, we have never seen a team go over five games over.500 in the conference and miss the tournament. Seton Hall went 13-7 in the league and did not get included in the NCAA tournament. That's a slap in the face of the Big East. It's a rough occurrence for the conference. Fortunately for the league, they've got a really strong top three in UConn.

If UConn wins a national championship, that's all anybody's going to remember. And so the Big East can redeem itself here, but to only have three, it just doesn't feel like that that does this league, which was strong analytically, full justice. They deserved at least a fourth team. Well, John, we heard Providence and St. John's, they certainly railed against the net rating system. How can this be adjusted in future years outside of, oh, let's just add more teams into the tournament? How can something like this be corrected or is there no correcting it? Well, the NCAA has to come out and say that the net is not the end all be all tool.

They have not done a good job messaging the net. Coaches are talking to me in the last 40 hours saying, I don't know what to look for. I don't know how I should schedule. Should I schedule cupcakes and win by 45, 50 points? And does that help me because I scheduled those cupcakes? How should I do this?

How should I approach it? The net has not been rolled out properly. We open it up every day. The college hoops junkies are all over it, but that doesn't mean that it's a successful metric. And to me, I just don't understand, you know, with, with what they preach about the net and how much it matters. Don't quality wins. Doesn't the committee ask, who did you beat?

Who did you beat? And tonight Virginia's playing and you know what? They could be Colorado state, but whether or not Virginia wins the game doesn't change my stance on this. Virginia played nine quadrant one game nine Jr.

They won two of them and they're in the field. Their net is not 25. It's not 30. It's 54. It's 54. St. John's had two more quadrant one wins as the net of 32.

And they're the highest high major, a power conference team that didn't get included in the field. Make it make sense. So what do you have to do? You've got to explain what you do look for and say, you know what the net is and everything does. Charles McClellan, the committee chair and the committee works hard.

I'm not, I'm not at all tearing them down, but I am going to be critical here. Charles McClellan, the committee chair said that Michigan state made the field because of their quadrant one wins Jr. Michigan state wins three and nine against quad one. Make it make sense. Yeah.

Well, this is what happens when you have human, what is it? 12, 12 folks there making a decision. Yeah, exactly.

You're going to get subjectivity in the room. You know, I don't know if I want to, I'm not saying I want a computer tournament. I'm not saying that at all, but we got to revise the protocol here.

We have to revise the protocol. Fox college basketball reporter, analyst, broadcaster, John Fancis joining us here on CBS sports radio. You know, one team, and we were asked about this earlier on the show. They, they just won the big 12. They knocked off Houston, Iowa state. We had a caller who railed against their standings in a tournament. What are your thoughts on where they stand and sitting in that same bracket as Yukon talking about Iowa state?

Yes. Here's the thing. A great year, heck of a season. The cyclones to me, Jr. Nobody saw this coming, except them. That's defensive team in the country. Best number one in Ken Palm. Obviously you see yourself come up, you win the big 12 tournament and you weren't even close to the one line again. Make it make sense. 27 and seven in college basketball's best conference.

It's just curious. It begs curiosity on why they're stuck here in the East. They weren't even close to the one seed line. Keishon Gilbert has been terrific for this team. You know, he's a junior guard who transferred in from UNLV and has just totally taken his game to a different level. Taman Lipsie was the guy that TJ Alsberger pinpointed at the start of the season and said, he's got to take a leap from me. And Alsberger, the head coach of this program, deserves an immense amount of credit. You know, he took over this job in 2021 and Iowa state has a standard, but it's hard in the big 12. It really is.

And he comes in, goes to a sweet 16 in year one. Year two found a way in the tournament and now year three, they could be a final four dark horse. I'm so impressed with them. I like their draw. I've got them in the elite eight. I do think we're going to get a one versus a two and we don't get that often, but I do think we're going to get there. And for the Cyclones, the last time they made an elite eight was in 2000.

In the modern era, they've never made a final four. TJ Alsberger deserves national coach of the year consideration. But the funny thing is there's a guy in his same region, Dan Hurley, who's likely going to get it. Oh yeah.

He's trying to go back to back. John, when you think about all of the teams that are in the tournament, who are some other schools that could potentially make a run that aren't getting the same attention as like, let's say, obviously a Yukon? Well, we've got breaking news as I'm talking with you, which is great. It's fitting. Kevin McCullar, Bill Selt, the head coach of Kansas, just announced that Kevin McCullar, his most impactful player this season, averaging 18 points. He filled it up in the assist column as well. Dynamic fifth year senior wing will miss the NCAA tournament with me, Bruce. McCullar's been out. He's missed six games in the last seven weeks, and he is going to be shut down here and not appear in the NCAA tournament.

That changes that whole pod. It really does because you're now talking about a situation where Kansas, I don't like their chances here to make it out of this 14 pod and get to the sweet 16. They've got Sanford.

Watch out for Sanford. Top 15 in tempo, really good offensively. Akora core, a core, a core, A-C-H-O-R, twice.

Akora core is the guy that people are going to get behind here. They can really score it. They're top five in the country in bench points. McNeese, remember Will Wade?

He's back. Pass the demons, pass the firing at LSU, pass the NCAA investigation. He's got a kid named Shahada Wells and a balanced offense that can give Gonzaga some trouble.

I think we'll see drama there. I don't think Purdue's going to face Gonzaga or Kansas in the sweet 16. I think they're going to face one of those other two mid-majors.

That's just my gut. Who else could go on a run? Well, I'm going to give you a couple upset predictions to give people a chance to maybe win some cash. I like New Mexico, even though I don't think it's an upset. 11 seed New Mexico I think can make the sweet 16, if not the elite eight.

I go up to the east. I think Drake, the 10 seed. They only have to travel an hour and a half to Omaha. They will meet Washington state in the first round. Give me Drake, the 10 seed. Don't sleep on Yale out of the Ivy. Top 10 in fewest turnovers per game. They can give Auburn trouble. Auburn's tough. Auburn won the SEC tournament. I want to urge people filling out a bracket. Don't look at everything that happened in championship week and now dictate your picks around that.

It's not everything. Sometimes teams win their conference championship, but it took a lot out of them and they show up to the NCAA and they really struggle. And I like James Madison. I'm calling my shot. I think the Dukes will beat Wisconsin in Brooklyn Friday night. Wow.

Okay. There's a, there's a lot of a fire behind James Madison right now. John Fanta, final question for you. Who are we looking at in Phoenix? And when we get down to Monday night, who's going to have tears in their eyes? Who's cutting down the nets? My final four, Yukon, Arizona with Caleb Love leading the Wildcats there.

Kylan Boswell, Umar Ballo and company. I think Arizona plays a home state final four. Houston. I just, they're just too good.

They're too tough. I like the way things could play out in their region. I'm going to go with Houston, although I was tempted to pick Kentucky. Watch out for Cal to make the final four.

I love the upside, but I'm going to go Houston and I'm going to go with Tennessee. Yukon and Tennessee meeting the national title game. Folks, if you, if you haven't watched enough of Dalton connect to Tennessee, you will love him. He's like Jimmer for debt.

He's like Doug McDermott. Yukon versus Tennessee in the final. The Huskies become the first in Florida in 0 6 0 7 to repeat as national champs. Hey John, is somebody going to come out with a Joe Kim Noah dance at the end?

Can we ignore that? If somebody doesn't, I will. I mean, come on, let's go here.

I want to see it. That's what this time of year is about. There's nothing better than it.

Hey listen, I feel you. Hey John, and if anybody wins based off your advice, I need to cut you a piece of the pie, okay? I love it.

That, that's what I like to hear. Hey John, where can people follow you in all your great work with Fox? At John underscore Fanta, J-O-H-N underscore Fanta, F-A-N-T-A, foxsports.com.

You can follow me there as well, but all my stuff is there at John underscore Fanta, X, Instagram, even TikTok. Hey John, appreciate you lending your expertise as we are now underway in March Madness. Look forward to catching you down the line, okay? Enjoy the games.

They are. Thank you so much. Enjoy the Madness, everybody.

No doubt about it. That John Fanta, you just heard him. Broadcaster, writer, reporter, doing it all. College basketball on behalf of Fox Sports. He got UConn going back to back, and if they do happen to go back to back, they will have been the first school to do it since you just heard them. Since those Gators did it, and Joe Kim Noah decided to go out there and provide us with a back to back dance.

I don't know. Maybe Coach Hurley, for all the vitriol that he's pretty much thrown at some of the fans more recently, maybe he'll provide a little bit of positivity with a dance. It's the big dance.

It's the J.R. Sportbree Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. When we come back, we're going to take a break. Well, we're going to take a break, and then we're going to come back.

That makes a little bit more sense. I want to talk to you about a couple of individuals. They might be dancing if they move on. They happen to be professional athletes in the NFL. Brandon Iyuk and Chase Young. One of them has moved and is already hurt, and another guy seemingly wants to move.

I'll explain on the other side. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbree on CBS Sports Radio. Dammit, when I go home, I wish I could call it The Palace. That sounds opulent. Wherever the hell he lives, I want to go. Hickey, doesn't it sound like wherever the hell he lives is cool? That sounds like, yeah.

Sounds pretty freaking cool. Hickey, J.R., where you going after the show? You know what I'm going to say? Where we going? Home. The slums? Well, damn.

Not that bad, Hickey. No, not the slums. The opposite of The Palace? That's exactly what it is, right? No.

Well, no, not necessarily. What would you say, Hickey, if you asked me, hey, you said, J.R., where you going after the show? And I said, back to The Palace. What would you be saying in your head? Big man.

Radio pays good. I'm going home to get waved with leaves and get fed grapes, right? That, oh, that would be the life. The Palace. Wearing a robe. Rick Ross has a house. It's Evander Holyfield's old house. I forgot what Rick Ross calls this place.

He calls this, it's basically, it's ridiculous. I don't understand how people live there. He really doesn't live there.

Hosts his car show, lives there on occasion, rents it out to movie studios. It's just acres of land of like acres of farmland. And it's just one giant house in the middle of it. And he calls it the promised land.

And so he has gotten horses and does a car show there. And it's just I wouldn't even call that a palace. I would call that house a waste of time.

But hey, God bless Rick Ross. He can afford it. You know, do what you want, right?

I say we got the money, you know, use it as you wish. If you want to have horses and a house in the middle of in the middle of a massive plot of land, do you, man, do you? It just seems a little and it's not all that it's not like the house is off the beaten path. It's it's in like it's in a populated area. You know, he holds the car show in the county, got mad at him for clogging up traffic.

It's just anyway, just wild thing. Speaking of traffic, Hickey, right outside the studio here, I looked out the window. We're in midtown Georgia.

That's where we have our studios. There's a big screen. They are playing March Madness.

They're playing a tournament right outside the window. Don't tell me, look, no disrespect to Howard and Wagner. No disrespect. Please tell me there's no one watching that game right now. Hold on. Give me two seconds. Bill Tom, I'm gonna look out the window. Say something. Hold on a second.

Again, you live life, as Sheriff says, you have money spent how you will live life as you will. But if you have nothing better to do on a Tuesday night at 745 Eastern than to sit outside on a busy street watching Howard and Wagner in the first four. There's five people outside. And it's nice. It's nice. It's a nice grassy area. And, you know, it's nice.

The area is nice. It's Thursday at three o'clock. That place should be bumping now for a halftime of the first four. Come on. It is. But there's five people outside. Sheesh.

Five. It's kind of chilly outside today here in Atlanta, too, by the way. So there was a Thursday shows going to be interesting for you, then just realizing you'll be right in the middle of the madness itself, which is tough to keep an eye on.

But you have almost a live studio audience anyway. Can they see you? Is it a two way or one way mirror? No, I'm on like the 20th floor. Oh, wow. You're all the way up. No, no, no, I'm not on the no, I'm not on the ground. I'm looking down at them. That's what I was envisioning ground for.

OK, it's a it's a great I need to relax. I was going to say it's a great view. They do. They they hold a lot of events outside. They just hold a lot of events, especially when it gets warm outside.

And so it's nice outside anyway. Right now, it's college basketball time and there are five people watching Wagner and Howard and good for them. I got options.

By the time we get to Thursday, I can decide to watch on the screen here in the studio or I could just look out the window at another big screen. So college basketball is really moving the needle here. And thank you so much to John Fanta, who's a broadcaster, reporter and writer for Fox Sports, for coming through and sharing his insight. He said he has Yukon winning it all.

He has Yukon going back to back. And speaking of the game that Hickey just mentioned, that I just mentioned, that people are watching all five of them outside, Wagner leads Howard at halftime, 38 to 27. A shout out to all my folks up in D.C. Howard represent for the HBCUs out there. I certainly looked as I was here on air and I said to myself, damn it is for a while there. Howard was sitting on 12 points and it was like 20 to 12, 24 to 12.

And it just kept growing. So Howard looking for a little bit of a bounce back here against Wagner. Also, later on this evening, a matter of fact, in about an hour and a half, we got another matchup. Colorado State is going to be taking on Virginia in another first four match up. And then when we move towards tomorrow, we got another HBCU on the block.

We got Grambling taking on Montana State and we have Colorado taking on Boise State. Hey, you think Deion Sanders is going to pop up, Hickey? You think?

I don't think so. Not big enough for him, right? No, maybe they make the final four. He'll definitely be there. I don't know if the first four in Dayton screams Deion being their front row. Deion has to be there if they make the final four in Phoenix. And then he has to make sure that he's the new head basketball coach, right? That could work, too. There's a lot of excitement around him.

Why not? Yeah, he's going to let everybody know. By the way, Deion was here in Atlanta over the weekend. I don't know if he's still in town. I don't keep track on the man. He has a new book out, Hickey. He got a book out.

Oh, really? Yeah, and he was doing a signing on, I want to say, Friday or Saturday. Signing his book at a, I want to say, a Barnes and Noble. Yeah, that's where they still sell books. A Barnes and Noble.

Deion Sanders was there. What was his book about? Well, I didn't even know he had a book out, which I'm kind of surprised about. Inspirational stuff, I think. Oh, it's not like about year one in Colorado, like, you know, some sort of catchy headline of turning a program around.

He's wearing his Colorado hat on the back, so I think he's taking advantage of what it is. Okay. Yeah, I know somebody who went to the signing. Guess how much FaceTime they got after they bought a book? I will say two seconds. Two seconds.

Take the picture. Nice to meet you. Thank you. Bye. Next person. Next. Move along. I'm sure the line is long. Yeah, I know it's long.

I just, I hate those interactions, man. Like, just to say you gotta, and I guess people don't care. People don't care.

It doesn't matter. I got a photo with Deion. You get to show your family and maybe you lie about it. You know, years down the line, I met Deion.

He signed my book and we talked about the weather and he gave advice to my kids for play. But you could tell whatever lie you want after you take a photo. But I just, I don't want to meet anybody with the experience, the human experience, just like, oh yeah, next. Like, I ain't here for that. Couldn't agree more.

Could not agree more. If they don't enjoy it, you won't enjoy it. They being like the talent, like Deion, the writer? I mean, he obviously, that's like a business. I'm selling the book.

I'm signing up, taking the picture, move along. I don't want to say he's not enjoying it, but it's like, he's not there to socialize. You know what I mean? So it's like, I would feel if I was a person buying the book, like this kind of sucks. Like you feel almost like in a way you're being used. Yeah. I mean, but you know what? It's a little bit more obvious in that regard. I think we get all used and abused for our financial power every day, whether we realize it or not.

It's just a little bit different when it's another human being directly in front of you. It's a wild stuff. Not my stuff. Hey, good luck with the book, Deion. Congratulations. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. When we come back, we'll talk more NCAA basketball, give you an update on Brandon Iuke and his contract, and Chase Young and his contract, and baseball is back in less than 12 hours. Yeah. The season gets underway. In Korea. Don't move.

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