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Get an expert now on TurboTax.com. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on the Roku Sports Channel from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast, so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part, our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show, and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Show. Show. Show. You don't stop.
You don't stop. With guest host, Bobby Bones. Rich Eisen.
He's calling me? That's cool. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. War Eagle. Duke is returning. And it's a great day to be a Florida Gator. H-Town are headed to the Final Four. Today's guests, host of Mostly Sports with Mark Titus and Brandon Walker, Mark Titus.
Plus, your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, sitting in the Super Ridge, it's Bobby Bones. My question is, one quick answer, because I want to get back to this segment.
Do you think they should pay Brod Purdy North or South of $50 million a year? South. Wow. Quick. Quick. Okay.
DJ, North or South? You know what's funny, man? We sit here a lot, and I was thinking about this, Chris, and it's just like, I hate that we sit here and nitpick and try to take money away from these athletes. I know.
I don't like being that guy. It's a billion dollar sport. But if you want to keep the team, you know, like know there's a cap and everything, you got to go under. But my response, because I know as humans, we're like, well, we're taking people's money out of their pockets, but it's all fiction to us.
Get all the money that you can. That's kind of my view. This is fictional. Like that kind of money for that kind of, for a game, that's all fictional. So as much as it is their real life, we watch it as we're watching superheroes on the screen. So, but you know, what's not fictional, like torn ACLs and career ending injuries.
That's why I'm always like, get whatever you can, man, because you're a second away from it all being gone. I'm going to go and say, I'm going to go North. I'll be the only one going North in a few minutes when we get into that. But Brock Purdy, we'll talk about what's happening in San Francisco and then how maybe Aaron Rogers is affected by that final four.
We finally have it. We'll talk to Mark Titus in a few minutes about the final four and just college basketball in general, a bit of his story as well. But Mark Titus is one of my favorites. He does almost mostly sports.
It's a, it's a barstool show. And so I don't know. You met him? Oh, I met him recently for the first time. So when Titus played at, he was a walk on Ohio state, that's kind of his story. And he started writing a blog back when, you know, blogs were just starting out and you could do a sports blog and kind of be like sports blog famous because he didn't play. He was at the block as he, as he was on the team. So he was at the end of the bench and he started this thing called the Trillion Club, Club Trillion. Whereas you played one minute, but you didn't accumulate any stats.
So when you looked at the box score, it was one and then all zeros, no points, no field goal attempts, no assistance, deals and triggers, no nothing. So then he made a shirt of it and through Homage, the company, and then they would donate the proceeds to charity. So the shirt was a Club Trillion and it was made to look like TJ, the old Run DMC shirt. Okay. Why would you not go to me and say, also Bobby, the old Run DMC shirt, why only to him?
Like what? I wanted to get TJ involved in the conversation. Okay. Just making sure.
Cause it felt like a little bit. Okay, go ahead. Cause he knows, he knows my hip hop history, so he knows that I once signed a hip hop record deal as an artist. Okay. Well, I know that. Okay. But you look at me like I interviewed this guy. Probably doesn't know anything about hip hop.
You look like Buddy Holly. Fair enough. Fair enough.
Fair enough. And so, uh, in 2010 I bought one of the original Club Trill shirts and I still wear it to this day and uh, he was friends with the friends of ours, his wedding we were at and I kind of like geeked out. I was like, Oh my God. I was like, there's Mark Titus. I was like, I got to go tell him I have an original Club Trill shirt. It's, it's really dorky and hokey, but maybe he'll appreciate it. And he did.
That's awesome. So I'm a massive fan and on my show we were talking about niche celebrities and that was not supposed to be offensive in any way, but it was if you're sitting with you, your wife, your dinner with some other friends, somebody that you really enjoy, that's a celebrity to you that other people wouldn't know unless they were specifically in that industry. And I mentioned Mark Titus and so I'm on my show and I'm like my favorite niche celebrity.
I mentioned Mark Titus and Brandon Walker. Well, some of the guys, some of the listeners had, it had gotten to them that I like had insulted Tim's calling him a niche. And so I didn't want any beef. And I was like, guys, I love you guys. And so we're all good now, but I wanted to have them on it.
I went on their show, the Yak, um, and invited him to come on. So we'll be on with this in a few minutes. That's my favorite. Like, like you, I love them. Oh, love them. So I have my top five favorite niche celebrities is going to be great.
And I would encourage you if you guys have them as well. I want to hear yours. I wrote some down before the show because you guys may know who my people are, but my wife for example, does not know my favorite. You Southern accent me there. No, that's, that's a thing that's Borat. It's Borat. It also sounded like where I come from in Arkansas. Whatever brings up Susie says my wife, but she hates it. I'm just sensitive to being from Arkansas and people really doing that to me. So I'll talk to you after the show disrespect you'd like that.
That will be not on the air anyway. Number five is former first baseman. Number 17 for the Chicago Cubs. Mark grace. That's a great one. My, my favorite like lifetime athlete is Mark grace. Uh, we're number 17.
I was left handed first baseman. He's like on my list of the only people that have not let me interview him. And I don't think he's been anti, but I can't get ahold of him. He's like, he's like Bill Murray, but you know, you have to like call a phone in a room somewhere.
So Mark grace number five on my list. Does he still do the diamond back? He does. Yeah. Yeah.
That's awesome. And number four, sting the wrestler, not the singer. I once bought an autograph sting ticket and it came and it turns out it was staying from the police and I was like, well, that's the wrong one to see where that could be confused. But so sting is at number four on my niche celebrity list. And look at that. You got a whole sting. Here's the thing. Who's your, who's your sting, blonde, sting, blonde, sting. Okay. Flat top singer. Yeah.
Blonde hair. Totally great. I got him here. Yeah.
I saw that is incredible. TJ and number three down there, writer and also, um, sports, aficionado, Chuck Klosterman. Good one. Okay. Because I love, yeah. I love books. His books. I love when he goes on like Simmons. I love to watch them talk on YouTube, putting Chuck Klosterman and that's a really, really good one.
That's a deep dive there. Number two, and for some people, this would not be niche, but if I just say his name, unless I say his character, they're not going to know who it is, but I would say Greg Goldstein, who played Ken Ted Lasso, whose whole story was, he was a writer who was going to write for the show and then send a video of himself. Like, I don't know if you think I'm right for this role and like, God, like the hard way, but I think his whole story is amazing. And then at number one, I had Titus and Brandon Walker, you know, from Barstool and which is, you know, Titus is going to be on here, up here in a little bit.
Great flow on those two guys too. So do you have a really good one? Okay. So I have one from this weekend.
Okay. So I was in, so I was in Dallas over the weekend playing in a birthday Ryder cup, 12 dude, you know, if you haven't been down to PGA Frisco, it is like bro golf Disneyland. Do you have to know somebody though? Cause I don't know people.
You don't have to know anybody. You can literally just book a book a room and play the courses, but it's intense. And so it's kind of overwhelming about how big and vast like this, this land area is and they're developing it up and like people are telling us like Scotty Sheffler's building five houses on the ground. It's nuts.
So we're walking around on the first day. And if you're into YouTube golf, you would know this person, Fat Perez. Does that ring a bell to any of you guys?
It does not. He is part of the Bob Does Sports guys with YouTube golf. They're massive.
They just got, you know, they just got Omaha productions just kind of bought into them. He looks like the golfer, Pat Perez, except he's fat and he, and he buys into it. He has the mullet and he's got the golfer's sock tan line and he's a large man.
He's not very big, but he hits the snot out of the ball. He's a scratch golfer and he's playing in this new, like you do, anyway, Fat Perez was just walking around with his boys and every dude was taking a picture with him and it was hilarious. That would be a confusion for everybody who did not know exactly who Fat Perez was.
I can totally understand why. Yeah. Like I'm not making fun of him by calling him Fat Perez. No, that's his name. That's where he goes by. Yeah. I got it. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Who else? The other one I had, and this is a, again, this is a football thing, TJ, but he's also our friend, which is cool. I think Tom Pellicero is a niche celebrity.
Like the insider world in sports and football in general is such a high profile like position. But if like, you know, my mom doesn't know his name. She knows him as hair guy. And so it's like, Oh yeah. You know, Tom Pellicero? Yeah. Yeah.
The guy with the hair who breaks all the news. Got it. Yeah. I know him.
The other one I got is White Mamba. You know who the White Mamba is, right? I do.
Because he, first of all, I know who he is anyway, but he just went and played the guy in New York. George. George. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brian Scalabrini, NBA champion, Brian Scalabrini. He's a great niche celebrity. Does the Celtics color now and he likes to play people on YouTube one-on-one who think they could take him. Not even close.
Yeah. And it's, I think why I know him at all is that he's like, guys, the worst NBA player is better than whatever you're thinking you are. His line is I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me, which is a crazy, which is a crazy way to think about how good NBA players are. And the last one I had TJ, maybe you know this, maybe this comes up in your Instagram for you, but do you know who Tim Gnocchi is? He's the guy, a New Zealand dude who wears like a weird hat who does one hand of blackjack every day and he bets like a dollar for every follower he has or 10 cents for every follower. And then he plays one hand of blackjack. He belittles the dealer and then he moves on to the next day. Sometimes he wins 80,000 on a hand and sometimes he loses that much. It's like kind of funny, but he's, he's kind of a funny guy and he, but he's got a cool New Zealand accent.
His name is Tim Gnocchi. What part of your algorithm fed him to you? Was it your New Zealand fetish? Was it your blackjack gambling? Probably the gambling. We really don't know. Unclear.
Okay. TJ, you? I got one and Chris, you know, he solidified this this morning. When I first got to LA in 99, didn't like the Lakers. I started going to clipper games, right? So I'm sitting up in my nosebleed clipper seats and I'm looking down on the baseline and I'd always see this guy and I've thought, wow, man, that's pretty dope that Tom Petty is a, as a clipper fan, I see him all the time and then I started noticing him at like Lakers games as well. And then the playoffs came and he was on the West coast on a Monday.
Then on a Wednesday he was in the Midwest and on a Thursday game he was on the West coast. And I'm like, who the heck is this guy? And this guy, if you are an NBA fan, you've seen him because he has the most outrageous flamboyant wardrobe of all time. And he's usually with a dime on his arm and I don't mean 10 pennies.
Okay. I'm talking about a dime. And that's James Goldstein, NBA legend. If you've ever been to a game at some point in your life, you've seen Jimmy Goldstein sit in courtside in like a Python, a pair of pants and a hat with a rare ostrich feather in it, you know, and a leather shirt and looking very tan. I can't say I'm familiar, but I always sit in courtside either under the basket or like right at mid court. He's an older guy. I don't know if he's 80 yet, but he's like I said, he's got the leathery George Hamilton tan and an outrageous outfit.
But he is so famous in NBA circles years ago at a Celtics-Laker game. He walked by me on the concourse and I was like, oh, and I like stopped him for a picture and I'm making the dumbest face of all time. I should have sent it to these guys. I'm making the dumbest face ever, but I was like, hey, Mr. Goldstein, can I get a good picture? And he's like, yeah. He knows the deal. Yeah. And I'm just like, hey. The hard thing about being known for your wardrobe is you always have to like, you have to, if you go out, you've got to like live it. Gotta keep it up.
It's expensive unless you can find a way to make it look expensive and buy it really cheap, which eBay is pretty solid for that. Let's spend a few minutes on Brock Purdy. You said below 50 million.
And this is not a Brock Purdy thing. This is just a principle thing that I don't think teams need to pay these quarterbacks. All this outrageous money, like markets resetting salaries because it's their turn. Rich's whole thing is it's their turn. And because it is like, it's, it's their turn to get paid.
Yes. But do they deserve it? Like just because you're, you're born at the right time and you enter the league at the right time, you deserve $60 million per year. I didn't expect your Socratic take.
I'll be honest with you. That is, that is much deeper than yours is the system. You're mad at the system. I am mad at the system that's been generated for these quarterbacks and because what team that has paid their quarterback this outrageous amount, have they gone on to win the Super Bowl yet?
I think we're still waiting for the first. Would you have paid Dak his? Absolutely not. Same reason or? Same reason. Where do you value Brock next to Dak? Who?
They're about the same. I think if Dak Prescott was the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, they probably would have gotten to a Super Bowl by now also. Maybe they would have won it.
I'm not sure. I don't think that that winner loss is on Brock Purdy per se. But if Brock Purdy was the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, probably be in the same situation.
If they flipped roles, they'd have the exact same careers. The reason that I say over is because we have seen that if you don't have a quarterback, you just don't have a quarterback. There's almost not that, we'll call it that purgatorious land of you have a pretty good quarterback that can kind of make it happen.
If you don't have a quarterback, you're not going to win. And so Dak, Kirk Cousins, these guys are at the bottom of the, we'll call them, I don't want to say elite, but really good quarterbacks. It's so hard to get a really good quarterback that if you get to a bottom of tier two, basically, I would say, man, I don't know.
Sure. We can call it bottom of tier two, but like Tua, you had to pay him because if you don't have a quarterback, you have nothing. And so if you get one of those guys, even with a Brock Purdy, I think there's the ceiling.
He has not hit a ceiling yet. And you can say he's a system guy. But is he the reason they win or does he have all the pieces around him and he just is like, you know, kind of like a point guard, but same thing with a Joe Montana or a Steve Young or Troy Aikman. Right.
Let's see. That's a hot take because it's, is it because Troy Aikman's offensive line was awesome. And Emmitt Smith was a fantastic running back and Michael Irvin and yes. So yes, system, all these guys that are elite for a long time are quote system guys. So I think he's only played with superstars.
Michael Jordan had a below 500 record until Scottie Pippen came along and Phil Jackson became the coach. Sure. System, right. The system comes up.
So I don't think it should be a negative that you're part of a system that works. I also think we've seen the 49ers make bad quarterback decisions and that was after COVID sure. When they drafted Trey Lance and that was a terror same year they drafted Brock Purdy.
Yeah. So I think the fact that you have a quarterback, I think you pay the quarterback, but if you could pay them 40 million instead of 55, you can get three other players there that could help your team win. It's like you're paying 10 million, but who are you going to find for 40 million though that's going to be a quarterback that you can spend the next 30, 40 million. All these guys should say yes to 40 million. You have a systematic issue with it more than Brock Purdy shouldn't make the standard issue. Tom Brady never made more than 25 million in a season. Okay. But Babe Ruth never made more than a buck 50 and a Laffy Taffy, you know. Yeah, but Tom Brady didn't play in the thirties. Close enough. I hear you.
I hear you. I'm not comparing the systems. I'm just saying compared to the quarterbacks today, do you think Brock Purdy should make what the high quarterbacks make?
He shouldn't reset the market, but should he make 50 million? You're asking me, is he better than Tua? Is he better than Justin Herbert? Is he better than Trevor Lawrence? Where do you put him in that class?
Yeah. Would you pay him 50 million bucks? I don't think he's better than Trevor Lawrence. So you would possibly let him go or tag him and then- I would make him prove it. I would make him play this out.
He's got to prove it this year because I mean, what's McCaffrey going to do? Then you Kirk Cousins him for a year and then make him- And you're going to end up paying him more than he would have anyway though. Well, make him, well, he's only making like a million dollars this year.
I meant like if you just gave him the money now. Well, you could tag him the 42, whatever, and then make him prove it and then give him a big deal. Well, that make him prove it almost never works though, does it? Works for whom?
For anybody. Works for the team. Kirk Cousins has made a lot of money on you can prove it. But never won.
I'm talking- Right. Never won. Like Dak was going to, they were going to make Dak prove it and he didn't and they still paid him. He had them over a barrel.
He did. We're going to come back with Mark Titus in just a second. We'll talk college basketball. I'm Bobby Bones. I'm in for Rich Eisen. I'm sorry.
Those are the three. I'm Bobby Bones. And I'm sorry. All right. Thank you guys.
Hey, Rich Eisen here. I hear from a lot of business owners like you about the work it takes to pursue your passions. So I know how important it is to have the tools that can help keep you moving forward. And with access to world-class business and travel benefits, the American Express Business Platinum Card helps you take your business to the next level. It offers a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business.
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These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. I cannot believe you watched Charles Oakley get dragged out of Madison Square Garden with your own tool. I mean, I could not. Spike Lee was there. You couldn't believe it.
Did everyone just like during the time I was like, boo, boo, boo. That's the next thing you're going to tell me Jack Nicholson was at the Lakers game. McEnroe was there. I know he was right there. He was like practically in Oakley's lap.
Yeah. Was Woody Allen there? He was not.
I don't know why that's funny. John Lithgow. Was John there? Steve Earl was there. So Steve Earl.
This is the new Madison Square Garden. Leon was there. Jack. Oh, sure. Yeah.
What about? Bob Costas. Told you.
Costas now. Oh yeah. Can you tell this story? You got to tell the story. When I was like 21 years old, I went to the, um, I went to the, uh, what was it? The Heisman trophy at the downtown athletic club. I managed to get invited to like, I had an extra ticket or somebody gave me a ticket and I went through the thing and I went to the bathroom and, uh, Bob Costas was in the next urinal and I was like 21.
So this was 1990, 91. And I said, and I was peeing and I went, I just wanted to say, I'm a big fan of yours. And he told him, and he went, don't you know the rule? You're not supposed to talk when you're in the urinal. And I was like, Oh God, I didn't. That's how I learned the rule. Anyway, so I'm at the Knicks game and I was, I never met him before, but since then, and I said to him, Hey, Costas, Bobby Cannavale, I just wanted to introduce myself and say, uh, when I was 21, I told him the story and he went, it doesn't sound like something I'd say. Shot me down. Just complete shoot down twice.
He was also sitting on the toilet when you told him the second time he was, he was, yeah. And shut the door, dude, I don't care that you have two Emmys, shut the door, Chip. 844-204-RICH, that's our number if you want to call us, we're going to talk college basketball in a second one, Mark Titus, which I'm very excited about, uh, all number one seeds.
First time in 150 years this has happened or in the common era. Uh, so 844-204-RICH, if you guys want to call us. Let's do it. All right, so I'm sitting at this excellent desk and this is Bobby bones in for Rich Eisen.
And this is the Rich Eisen show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry Grainger has the right product for you call click Grainger.com or just stop by. And so let's talk college basketball, uh, with one of my favorite analysts, opinion havers, basketball players, uh, ball knowers, uh, on with us from Almost Sports is Mark Titus. Titus. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. The shark.
Yes. What's up, Bobby. Hey, you don't, you don't have to lie and call me one of your favorite players. Like that was no, because you know, looking back, I would say that Ernie banks, one of my favorite players of all time, didn't get to see him. I didn't see you get to walk on at Ohio state, but still here's the thing, Bobby.
Here's the thing, Bobby. Nobody saw my playing career. Which one of my nine career points were your favorite? Uh, the third one, I still think about it nightly.
Titus, were they all threes? You have nine points on three threes. I had two threes and then free throws. I think, I think it was free throws. You played enough minutes to get fouled. Think about that. Yeah. Yeah. I think my first points were free throws.
I got like clothesline playing VMI. Um, yeah, we were, we were glazing you pretty good before you came on. So I'll save that. And you can go and listen to that. Um, so I don't have to be so embarrassed before you come on. But my question, first of all, and I do want to get to the final four is when you're coming off the bench, how do you stretch? Cause there's, I see guys, even guys that are like eighth and ninth man, like they're not over there doing feet together down, you know, things that I would do. And then all of a sudden six minutes into the game or in your case, all right, Titus, you're in like, how do you stretch?
You don't, you, you, I mean like the smart guys, by the time I was a senior, I kind of got a read for when I was maybe going to go in to where, you know, if we're up 20 and it's the under four time out, maybe you steal some stretch there while the rest of the team is in the huddle. You're off to the side, stretching the hammies a little bit, but no, for the most part, it's, it's terrible. And it's awful. And you're getting thrown in ice cold and the whole crowd wants you to make a play. And you're already not as good as everybody else on the court to begin with. That's the whole point.
That's why you're just now getting into the game. And then now on top of it, you're ice cold and you're nervous and it's, it's a nightmare, but that's why when the, when, when you guys like me do score, the place goes crazy. Cause I mean the, the odds of, of a guy as untalented as me putting the ball in the basket is, is, is insurmountable almost. I would think secondary to the stretching. It's the shooting as again, you're cold, just like your hamstrings.
You're cold. Now you have a ball in your hand and you have to shoot because they want you to shoot because you're in the last 53 seconds of a game. Like how do you mentally get warm shooting?
You don't. It's just, you let it fly. It's you throw it up and you cross your fingers that at least it's rim and maybe you're lucky it goes in. No, it's exhilarating. It's it's super stressful, but you know, generally like you're not getting in the game unless your team's up big.
So I think that's the, that's the nice part is at least even if you screw up, the team's going to win and there's going to be good vibes in the locker room, no matter what. So let's talk about Cooper flag for a second, when you see Cooper flag, what do you see now if you were to comp him to an extremely successful college player, and then what do you compliment as an NBA player in the future? I've been seeing a lot of like Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Pippen type comparisons.
And I honestly, I don't hate that. I think the thing with Cooper, first of all, I'm as big of a Cooper flag fan as exists out there. I've loved the kid from, from the second I first ever saw him play. And he's just gotten better and better for Duke this year. And even a game, like we, we last saw him play against Alabama and Duke handled Alabama pretty easily. He didn't really play that well offensively. Like he was, it was by his standards, a pretty bad game really.
And he still had such an immense impact on the game. And I think the, the reason you get excited about a guy like Cooper flag at the next level is less about his ceiling. Cause I don't know, I don't know if he'll ever be as good as a Kawhi Leonard in the sense that he's finals MVP, you know, and leading a team to championships and stuff like that. But he is about as, I want to say this without, without a double entendre bust proof as, as he says, how do I say this without he, he is not going to be a bust. Yeah, there it is. He, he, I'm, I'm as, I'm as certain that he will not be a bust as any prospect I've ever seen. Cause he's just good at everything. Like there there's, there, there will be a role for him in the league.
He'll be a starter for a decade plus. And this Duke team is, is unfortunately very likable and very good. And I think for a lot of people, for men of a certain age, it is very confusing watching a Duke team and they're fun to cheer for and they play great basketball and it's a, there's a, there's a little bit of an identity crisis going on with this Duke team.
I think Same for me. Cause I grew up hating Duke and it was easy to hate one because they wanted to cause it's easy to hate coach, coach K, but now they have a coach. Like if you just spend any time looking at his story, like playing high school ball, how he come up and got poked in the eye and his NBA career, like what an assassin he was like you even like the Duke coach now, which is completely different than the rest of our life. Yeah. It's, it's confusing.
I don't know what to do. And then the thing that really broke my brain was when they were playing in a Chapel Hill, they're playing Carolina and North Carolina already played them once, once earlier in the season and got smoked. And this was like a huge game for Carolina at the time they're, they're playing for their tournament lives and North Carolina got, I think they drew like two or three fouls on Cooper flag pretty early and like all of them were flops. And I'm watching that game, just like, it was like, I was in a bizarro world cause I grew up with North Carolina having all the cool future NBA players and Duke had the guys that that weren't that good, but they would just like flop and, and, and try to draw dumb fouls.
And it was like an identity reversal and yeah, I don't, I don't know what to, I didn't know how to process it. And here we are Duke's on the doorstep of winning the national championship. And honestly, if they do win, I won't even be that upset. I will kind of, I'll almost be happy for them because they are in my estimation, they are the best team by, by I don't want to be disrespectful to the others, but it is, it is a pretty obvious margin to me that Duke is the best team left in this thing. So if they finish the job for the first time in my life, I will watch Duke win a national championship and actually like tip my cap and be like, you guys were fun to watch all year, instead of, you know, sitting off in the corner and crying about it and figuring out a way to, you know, spin this is not that bad of a thing. Like it's like, they're, they're like a completely different program now.
It's crazy. If you're listening and you have a few minutes later today, go on like a dive of like John Shire and like his high school career in college and MBA and like listen to Pat Bev talk about him. And like, for me, that was where that respect came from. I'm like, I didn't know he was such a dog.
Like I knew his story roughly, but I didn't know like how dominant he was. So yeah, I'm not rooting against Duke, but if I were to ask you with four teams left, they're all number one seeds. If you could provide a reason that each of them will win the national championship and let's start with Duke and go with Duke first. Yeah.
Yeah. Duke's the easiest one. They have the most NBA, future NBA players. They have the best player in the country.
The best, the best draft prospect, obviously Cooper flag. But even we saw, we saw them win the ACC tournament when he got hurt early in the first game. And that's because they have so many other talented guys around him. They got, they're going to have three lottery picks probably. They got like everybody that sees the floor is six, five or taller.
They have an insane length. I think they, they, they might have the best offense and the best defense in the country. And I think that's pretty much all there is to do on a basketball court. I don't know if there is special teams in basketball, but if there was, they would probably have the best at that.
Yeah. They're just the most talented team and they're, they're playing incredibly well right now. I would say with Houston, the case for Houston would be that, that they play the best defense in terms of like the most cohesive unit. They, they, they don't have the top end NBA talent to Duke has, but Houston has the culture. I think they have the best coach in this final four. I think they have a great roster continuity in the sense that like, you know, a lot of these guys were in their core. They have brought in transfers, what team in college basketball doesn't, but it is a lot of guys that came up through the system and know Kelvin Sampson's defense really, really well.
They have, they have great length, even though they're not exactly a bunch of tall guys, they have really long arms and they're really good at getting teams to play on their terms. So the path for Houston to win, which they don't need a miracle to beat Duke, but if they can get Duke to play their version of basketball, which they're really, really good at getting teams to play, Houston, that that's the case for them. And they've lost, they've lost one game in regulation this year, and it was against Auburn who's on the other side of the bracket and it was a very close game. So Houston has a case to, to, you know, I think Houston's going into this thing saying we're the best team here.
We should be expected to win this thing. Auburn has the best resume has been the best team throughout the course of the season. They've, they've beaten basically everybody in the country, funny enough, they played all three of these other teams that are left in the final four. They did lose the Florida and Duke, but they beat Houston, but they have shooters surrounded by maybe the best big man, or they're the best big man in the country, but maybe the best player in the country and Janai Broome, it's him and Cooper flag at one, a one B. So Auburn is, has been dominant and put forth an NCAA tournament resume that we really haven't seen in the sport before. And then Florida is just like, they're there, they have the, the combination of one they're led by a guy who is just the most clutch player, but we've seen since like Kimball Walker and Walter Clayton, who just finds a way to, to, to win these games late when it seems like Florida is done for.
He's not alone though. They get, they got other guards that can score in bunches. They have big guys that they bring off the bench that are productive. They have an absolutely complete roster. And I, and I think Florida's firepower, you get really, really excited about, plus you throw that in with like the idea that there's like some sort of mystique, magical element at play with the, with the NCAA tournament.
And they have the one guy who has channeled that more than anyone else in this tournament, which is Walter Clayton. So yeah, I do think all four of these teams, you know, obviously they're one seeds, but I also think all four of them are like very, very strong one seeds. And in any other year, they might've been the number one overall seed in a given tournament. So all four of them are entering this thing saying, we should be the favorite. We expect to win anything less than winning will be a disappointment. And that sets up for a really fun Final Four.
Mark Titus on with us from Mostly Sports, a podcast I listen to constantly also at Club Trillion. A question, your mom, a basketball legend in Indiana. What do you think the score would have been if you played one-on-one with both of you in your prime? Well, I know what the score is when we played, like when I was in my prime and she was well past her prime and she smoked, she has a, she has a turnaround jump shot. So my mom, my mom growing up, my mom grew up like before title nine and there was like no women's basketball. So she had to play against all boys and she learned how to shoot from like throwing it behind her head because she said she'd get her shot blocks. So she's playing like taller guys and she would just like throw it from behind her head and it was unblockable. And it would drive me crazy player when I was growing up. Cause I was, I had the height advantage, but she just posts me up, hit me with a little dream shake and then throw it behind like a soccer throw.
And that's how she shoots a basketball. It's crazy. So there's behind you, there's a Harlem Globetrotter Jersey, and I'm not sure who knows what story. It's one of my favorite Mark Titus stories. Would you mind telling these guys the Globetrotters story of you getting drafted?
Yeah. Uh, I was, I was drafted by the Globetrotters after my senior year at Ohio state. Um, they, I didn't know they had a draft, which I'm sure most of the audience watching is, is listening is like, why didn't realize the Globetrotters had a draft?
I didn't either. I, I was like working out at our, at the Ohio state gym. And then I walked into the locker room and my phone was blown up and, uh, I'd been called by the GM of the Globetrotters a bunch. And he was like, call me back. We just drafted you. I was like, well, this has to be a prank. Um, so I call him back and sure enough, they're like, yeah, we, we, this is real. We want you to come, uh, you know, to our, we want you to come do our training camp and, and, and be on the Globetrotters. Um, and then once I got there, I think they, they realized quickly that like, it wasn't a good fit, uh, that I'm, I'm just kind of a professional jackass. And, uh, and, uh, I didn't exactly, I wasn't at Harlem Globetrotter material. Um, what I, I was calling their bluff and I could tell like, as soon as I got there that they were like, all right, this isn't going to work out.
You can go home now. And I just kind of like waited for them to kick me out of the, of the practice and everything. But I made sure they sent me a Jersey. I made sure it was like all official. I did like a photo op where I, my name was shark, you know, let me show you the Jersey. They put a, they sent me this Jersey with shark on the back. That's my, that was my Globetrotter name. Did you pick the name?
Uh, I think so. They asked me to, they asked me to come up with something and I, I, you know, my name is Mark and that's how creative I am. What is your biggest issue now with the transfer portal? Cause I mean, it's happening now during the freaking, this season still happening. Like what needs to change here? Um, I mean, first of all, it's that like, we gotta, we gotta move it till after the season. That's, that's step number one. Step two, I would say like, I, it's hard cause anytime you, you offer a solution, everybody, you know, takes it as though you're not, you're, you're, you're not a proponent of like players having agency over their own lives and own careers, which you obviously want that, but there needs to be a middle ground of some sort.
And uh, yeah, I don't know. I would, I would maybe like to see like a one-time transfer thing, uh, with, you know, like you can transfer one school one time and then after that, there need to be certain circumstances. Like if your coach leaves or, or, you know, like some sort of hardship waiver or stuff like that. Like, which is how it was for forever. Um, I do think the old system of a guy transferring and then having to sit out a year, uh, just cause you transferred that's, that's insane. And I don't, I don't want that to come back, but yeah, it is, it is the wild West and it's interesting cause I don't think there's a single person in the sport that, that enjoys it. I don't even know if the players enjoy it to be completely honest. I mean, they enjoy the paychecks and they enjoy, uh, you know, having their value driven up by having all these teams compete or, or, or vie for their services or whatever, but it doesn't feel like that.
There's a lot of uncertainty with the players too. And a lot of these guys are entering the portal and the ones that get all the attention are the ones that are going to get, you know, $2 million a year or whatever it is, whatever number is being thrown out there. But there are just as many guys that enter the portal, don't, don't end up on a team next year. And, uh, those stories don't get talked about, but like that is an issue.
And I think it's because like, that's become, that's just become the norm. The season ends, you end the portal, you see who wants you, who doesn't. And you know, in the game of musical chairs, there's going to be a lot of guys left out. So I would like to see maybe everybody can transfer once. Cause of course, you know, like we don't expect 17 year olds to make decisions that are going to, that they have to stick with for the rest of their lives. You get to campus, it's not what you thought it'd be, go transfer somewhere else.
But then when you transfer, let's be sure you know where you're going and like what the setup is and all that. And maybe that would, that would help a little bit, but I just don't see how they're ever going to be able to enforce that. And I think that's the problem is the NCAA is just toothless at this point.
There's no, there's no, nobody in control. Everybody says this is a bad idea, but there's nobody that's stepping up, like taking the wheel and making these decisions really. If you were the commissioner of college, just say all college sports in general, but then we'll move from portal to NIL, like what needs to happen because it is the wild west and I've done a lot of NIL deals with Arkansas players and all completely legal, but I mean the regulations have those regulations that at the beginning of NIL that were in place aren't even in place now.
So it's even wilder than it was. What would you do now as commissioner of college? We got to have some sort of contracts, which is a slippery slope because you know, they're there the idea that these are student athletes and that they're doing this as like an extra career, the NCAA still exists to frame these basketball players as though they're college students who happen to in their free time play basketball. We all know that that's not the case, that's insane, but I don't know, if you make them sign contracts, you're basically, you've just turned college basketball into the NBA, which is fine in some aspects, but in other aspects it's like, then what's, if you're directly competing with the NBA, then what is the point of college basketball and it becomes, that becomes a little hazy.
I honestly, Bobby, I don't know what the fix is and that's what makes it so confusing is that like, I think the cat is out of the bag. I think the NCAA would have been well-served to anticipate this coming for years. They didn't.
They sat on their hands. They tried to protect the amateur model for as long as they could. Congress stepped in and then now it's just, it's a free for all and I have no idea how this is ever going to be solved because like you said, like these NIL deals, nobody really knows what they are. Nobody, there's a lot of numbers being floated out there.
No one knows if they're accurate or not accurate. Nobody knows what the stipulations are. Like you signed the NIL deal. It's like technically not supposed to be for basketball. It's supposed to be for like stuff outside of basketball, but we all know it's for the basketball. So what happens when a guy signs a deal and it doesn't really play and says, I'm quote unquote hurt or whatever, and doesn't want to, you know, get out there and it just becomes like this, this foggy mess and I think we're headed towards eventually just full blown professional basketball at the college level.
It's just, I don't know the twists and turns it's going to have to take to get there. Final question for you with the four number one seeds, and this is the first time since setting 08 or so, do you think that's because of NIL and all the best players are just paid the most money and these teams are so stacked? I don't think so yet, but it's, it seems that way.
Yeah. I think the real issue is going to be like, I don't think the four teams being in the final four are because of that. I do think the, the lack of Cinderella's in this tournament because, cause like frankly these four were, they were the best all year and I don't think it's because they were paying the most for their players or anything, but I do think that the, the, the smaller schools pulling the upset, seeing like a 13 or 14 seed going to the sweet 16, that sort of thing that didn't happen in this tournament, I am worried that that's going to become the norm moving forward because of the Portland NIL, because I mean, you saw that like this year, like the, how many schools that, how many small schools that won one game in the tournament are bringing back their coach next year, it's basically, it's like St. Mary's and Gonzaga, if you want to count those as small schools, every other small school that won, like every coach, every player on the school is just immediately, as soon as their season was over, went somewhere else. So I think that's going to be an issue moving forward, but I do think like the, the four one seeds, I still think that's still going to be not exactly something that's going to happen every year, even though this year, I mean, these were the four best teams all year, like by far all year. So like, it's not exactly stunning that we ended up here. I think it's too early to say this is going to be the norm, but the, I am worried about the Cinderella's.
I think the Cinderella's stories are endangered for sure. We made the list before he came on, one of my top five favorite niche celebrities of all time with Mark Grace, Stine the wrestler, Brad Goldstein, who is, you know, and I explained the whole niche celebrity situation and I stand by it and now that no one's offended, I think we can be friends and I liked that Mark. Yes. We're absolutely friends. Thank you. Appreciate you having me on. This was fun, Bobby. Yes. Thank you, Mark.
Mostly sports. Check it out. And then also the Mark Titus show, my friend and Chris's friend who had the original club trail shirt. He was telling us about it before you came on. I stopped.
I stalked you have been at his wedding. I'm sorry. Yeah, no. Yeah. We were really going hard on it. Yeah. We had a good time.
What does that mean? That was a good time. It was a good time to collaborate. It was a really fun wedding up in Ojai. It was great.
Okay. Well, that feels like that was loaded. We had a good time. It was either. Well, you were there. You were there.
You weren't. You know what I mean? I felt that. Yeah.
It's basically a white Lotus. Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. There he is.
Mark Titus. We have to, we need to go because I'm going to get in trouble if I keep talking. Call us. 844-204-RICH.
844-204-RICH. Thank you guys for being here. I'm Bobby Bones, filling in for rich eyes and appreciate you. Roll ball or Lonzo ball for buzz balls, ready to go cocktails. Take 12. Buzz balls just dropped their biggest blue ball. Scoop says biggies blue balls, Lonzo. Take 13. Blue balls just dropped their biggest buzz balls.
Let's try a vocal exercise. Buzz balls, biggies, blue balls, buzz balls, biggies, blue balls. Big balls just dropped.
Biggies blue balls. This season with buzz ball is your responsibility. Buzz balls available in spirit.
One in malt, 50% alcohol by volume, buzz balls, LLC Carrollton, Texas. It's time for basketball and Uber eats is dropping deals on game day favorites to keep you locked in on the action. Like when you're craving a buzzer beater, but also Buffalo wings or when an upset makes you want to ugly cry into a pizza. And right now Uber eats has game day deals from McDonald's Popeyes pizza hut, Wendy's and hundreds more local favorites. So you can keep your eyes on the ball and your hands on a hamburger order.
Now only on Uber eats product availability varies by region. See after details. All right, I got a little bit of the butterflies right now.
I'm not going to lie because you Billy Bob Thornton were the inspiration of the rich eyes and show show open at the super bowl in Houston, where I channeled my inner Billy Bob Thornton as your character in Friday night lights, and I'd like to play the, the open right now and get your thoughts. Okay. Okay.
Let's check it out. Now. Most of you have been doing this for years, so it's real simple. We've got one week and that's it. Y'all know me for a while and while you've heard me talk about being perfect, I want you to understand something to me. Being perfect is not about our ratings, not about how often Del Tufo drops out by my cardio.
It's about you and your relationships to your family, friends, being perfect is about being able to look to the guy next to you in the eye and no, you didn't let them down because you're spitting the truth and that truth is you did everything you could to make this show. Look each other in the eyes, put each other in your scripts forever because forever is about to happen this week in Houston, boys, my heart is full, my post chair is full. Now let's go out there and broadcast.
You know what? That was thoroughly entertaining. Completely entertaining and I'm really shocked at how much we look alike. Let's take a look, I mean obviously I needed a little bit of help.
It's not bad. I think you did a really good job, I mean honestly the only thing, if you want to pursue this as a career, is you still had a little bit of the sportscaster voice, in other words it wasn't as human, it was more the, have you ever heard Hank Azaria or Harry Shur do the baseball guy? Sure, of course. I mean he did this thing for me one time and I can't do it very well but the first time I ever heard Hank do this and it was a long time ago and he said, you know Tom Needinger is allergic to shellfish and he's talking about how baseball announcers, it's like an aside you know, the game and things about the story and he said, so a few of the guys took him out to dinner the other night and they buried some shrimp up under his pasta and that's in there for strike two. And you know what I mean? It's like I needed a toupee to look just like Billy Bob Thornton, that's the whole two outside. But I've got something.
I think you got something going, yeah. Behind the scenes question, Bobby Bones here in for Rich Eyes and he was on vacation, behind the scenes Chris, what do you guys do like right when the show's over? We chat.
We have some post-show meetings, we kind of talk about the day, we map out social clips to put out, what the week guest-wise is going to look like and then we generally be friends with each other. Do you guys ever go group lunch? Group lunch was more in the pre-COVID days when the campus was much more hopping with people and the cafeteria used to be incredible.
Like right behind you. Yeah, if you look through the 2250 behind you, the lunch was amazing, the cafeteria, the vibes, the energy, there was a lot going on and so yeah, we used to hang out a lot more for lunch-wise. A couple of the guys on my show, they've been with me for 15, 20 years, like most of my show have been with that long and people will be like, do you guys hang out? It's like, no, we've been together 20 years, why would we hang out? I just wondered, that's all I wondered. It's like, yeah, I mean we see each other every day.
Yeah, okay, just a little behind the scenes there. All right, I'm Bobby Bones, in for Rich Eisen. Don't let the urge to sing along to that catchy tune distract you from that truck drifting towards your lane or that lane splitting biker creeping up beside you. Fortunately, every Hyundai offers advanced safety features that can alert you to potential dangers around you and Hyundai has over 120 IIHS Top Safety Awards since 2006 because Hyundai is always working to ensure the road doesn't get you. Hyundai vehicles have won over 120 IIHS Top Safety Awards from 2006 to 2024 and you can watch us on the Roku channel, you can listen. I watch a lot on YouTube.
I think that you guys do an excellent job on the YouTube page, so I would encourage you to go over and follow the Rich Eisen Show YouTube page. I do want to talk for a second because I love whenever all of the managers and coaches get together because sometimes people will say stuff and the Browns and Haslam is now speaking a bit about the Deshaun Watson free agent signing and I'm going to read this tweet from Mary Kay Cabot. She says, and I'll quote this, from Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, we took a big swing and miss with Deshaun. We thought we had the quarterback. We didn't. And we gave up a lot of draft picks to get them. So we got to dig ourselves out of that hole. It was an entire organization decision and it ends with DNI.
So hold us accountable. That's the end of the quote. That's pretty solid to say, especially because his contract isn't really up yet, like yeah, the Achilles injury. I mean, he's not playing next year obviously, but he's not gone, gone. Isn't he still owed like 70 million?
Yeah. He's still owed a lot of money. I do like it though, that he's like, that's on me because it just takes it off of other people.
Cause even if it wasn't on him, like that's like a leadership thing to do, put it on me. Don't put it on the coaching staff. That's going to have to hear it.
Even though he's not there. They're still, they're trying to find a quarterback. They're going into the draft, possibly probably drafting a quarterback. The questions are going to be Deshaun, the money. So yeah, pretty solid Haslam quote there. I would say.
Any thoughts on that, Chris? I mean, yes, we can obviously see that this was a massive failure, you know, pretty much from the jump. The guy like took a whole season off and didn't play half the following season, his first year in Cleveland. And then when he finally got on the field, it was noticeable, very obviously noticeable that he was not as good as he was when he was at its peak in, in, in Houston, TJ. And it's just like, I mean, I guess cool for the owner to be like, yeah, we took a swing and missed.
Dude. How do you explain this to your fans? How do you explain this to Miles Garrett, Nick Chubb, all your other great players, Denzel Ward, like to those guys that you let them down to not just, so yeah, yeah, we get it, bro. You, you swung and you missed. I don't think you get much credit for being like my bad on this. But I will say, I think you should get a terrible decision by the way, in every way.
But I do think you get a little bit of credit for at least swinging really hard because so, so many people are afraid of swinging really hard because what happens is you miss sometimes. Right. That's what it is and I thought it was way too many people. Everything about it seemed wrong.
Everything about it was awful. The contract, like Jimmy Haslam should apologize to every other owner in the league for driving up the price of quarterbacks. I agree. Like guaranteed a fully guaranteed deal, everything, but I can at least go, man, they swung hard and I can respect that even though they swung the wrong direction with the wrong bat, the wrong sport and everything was wrong. I get it.
I kind of feel like you do get credit for owning up to your mistakes because just think about how many people don't, will never own up to the fact that they were wrong or got something wrong. And when you look at Deshaun, until that case happened, this guy was top three quarterback in this league. He was great. And then all of a sudden he did that proverbial, you know, Price is Right mountain climber. He fell off the freaking cliff, man. But I'm looking at his stats. That was a climber. Yeah.
Yeah. But yeah, you look at his stats. He was great. He did. He was, he was top tier.
He was elite. And then all his stuff happened and then the floor just fell out. Speaking of swinging, you got a bad story over there, Chris?
Oh man, this is awesome. So the Yankees have everybody in their feelings, you know, according to John Heyman, he said he talked to the head of Mariucci Sports, tons of requests coming in for torpedo bat. He, they're a supplier of the torpedo bat.
No surprise there. And then according to Ben Silver, Bryce Harper, Alec Baum, Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh have all placed orders for torpedo bats, torpedo bats with Victus, another bat maker. Can we buy them?
Like, are they just able to be bought? We need to get one in here. Right.
Yeah. I might go to Dick's at Sporting Goods after the show. I got a feeling it's not going to be, unless you're just going to Dick's or go to Dick's.
I don't think you're going to find a torpedo there though. You don't think so? Not today. Not today. Yeah. Next week? Next week maybe? I think the beauty of the torpedo bat and is it cheating?
Is it not cheating? Is it everybody's going to have access to it in six months or it's going to go away completely, but it shouldn't go away. Technology is always improving in these sports. Six months, six days. We're going to see these, this is going to be prevalent in the majors by the end of next week. I'd be like COVID.
We don't have the materials right now to make them. That's exactly what I want to be doing right now, building a pool during COVID. That's exactly what it is. Thank you. I'll be back tomorrow. Rich Eisen is amazing.
I am mediocre. Thanks to Chris and TJ. You're the best, Bobby.
Thank you, man. We will see you tomorrow. Goodbye everybody. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye!
