NCAA Disappointments (Hour 3)

Alright, he's at Kelp Show CBS Sports Radio. Adam Fisher, who's been an assistant at Miami and Penn State, was a big part of getting Isaiah Wong to Coral Gables. Now he's the new head basketball coach at my alma mater, Temple. He's going to be joining us coming up 20 minutes from now. But Hickey first, I was watching something during the break from Barstool Sports and they had Bruce Pearl on, who we absolutely love Bruce.

We always love when he joins us on this show. And they were talking to Bruce Pearl about the recruiting violations in the past. And Bruce Pearl goes, I lost something because I had a kid over for a hamburger. Now I could buy a kid a hamburger restaurant.

And I thought that was a really good line. But it does change the way now with NIL, how we look back at history. And I think we were aligned in this in that, you know, kids were getting paid anyway. So you may as well find a way to make it legal. So every school has the ability to get boosters involved and do this in a legal allowed manner. Because there would be some coaches that would just say, we're not going down that road.

And then there's a lot of other coaches and the majority of them that would find a way to just drop off bags of cash or slip money under the table, those types of things. But we've seen a lot of wins vacated in the past. And I always thought out of all the dumb things that the NCAA does, and there's a ton, the one that I always hated the most and I thought was the most inane was vacating wins. Trying to tell us whether it was legal or not during the rules that it didn't it didn't happen. That's a part of the NCAA that I never have understood. And the fact that Reggie Bush doesn't have his Heisman Trophy right now and Louisville, I think they made him take down the banner because they vacated the championship. That's a part of sports that I hate when it's like, okay, we watched what happened, but now the record books and now sports and the NCAA try to tell you, oh, it didn't happen because this kid got money or this coach did that.

It annoys the living crap out of me. And when you see a coach like Bruce Pearl and I was just like, now I can buy a kid a hamburger restaurant. I know there's rules about NAL and things like that. It kind of makes all those coaches that had infractions of the past and there's different levels and different degrees. And there's some coaches that do some really bad things, but if it's just giving a player money or making sure a player's family gets money, I never really thought that that was that big of an idea other than schools are on unlevel playing fields. But in terms of taking away a championship or taking away individual awards or wins, I never got that part.

It's the NCAA being absolutely powerless, absolutely clueless and trying to flex their muscles for whatever reason. There was a rule for how stupid this all is. There used to be a rule where you were allowed to serve your team bagels. What you were not allowed to do, the cream cheese, right? Serve your team bagels with either butter or cream cheese on them. That is considered a meal and you are not allowed to get allowed to get players meals. That is how stupid at one point, and this is not that reason, not that long ago, unfortunately, how stupid the NCAA was.

You cannot give your team a meal that consists of butter and a bagel, but a bagel is A-OK. So that is the stupidity, yes, when it comes to recruiting violations, when it comes to all that stuff. Personally, I've never really cared. And now you look back on it, you look back on it more about the silliness of the NCAA than the quote unquote villainess of a guy like Bruce Pearl, who at the time was portrayed by the NCAA, Kelvin Sampson as well, as villains of the sport and and against the children. So here's the thing.

I'm reading about this right now. This is back in 2012. First, spreads and toppings on bagels were prohibited. The reasoning was to prevent something intended as a snack or supplement from becoming a meal.

What's the difference? You couldn't give players meals like that. That's like you're paying the players to start, though. But it's saying something intended as a snack or supplement from becoming a meal. So you could give a snack, but not a meal. What is a bagel, a snack in the NCAA's mind? That's the dumbest thing I've ever bagels.

Nothing on it is considered a snack in their mind. Yes. Put cream cheese on it now. Boom. Slap the wrist violation.

Let's take down some banners. But have you ever said, oh, I'm going for a snack. I'm going to go get a bagel like a snack to me is chips, a cheese stick, a doughnut. Like that's a snack. A bagel is not a snack. A bagel is breakfast.

For athletes that are burning a lot of calories, maybe, but I would agree. But God forbid. Stupid. That's how stupid it is. God forbid you put cream cheese on the bagel.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Imagine if you were a coach, why'd you get 10 wins taken away? I had 10 bagel parties. Let the kids put butter on the bagel. Let them put locks and white fish on the bagel.

Come on. That's that's so stupid. But now it's almost as if since you're allowing everything to happen, shouldn't they return all the wins, return all the championships and return the awards that they've taken away? I mean, it would make sense, but I'm sure they're going to say it was illegal then. So we're going to keep it in those days when it wasn't allowed. We're not going to allow you to get it now.

Well, Reggie Bush isn't getting his Heisman trophy back. I know it's stupid. That's so dumb.

Good first parents getting the house out of it, right? Like it's it's really stupid, but that's the NCAA. Anyway, it is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio.

Could you imagine getting punished, Tiki? You're doing something nice. Let's say for the for the staff here, if we were a college at CBS Sports Radio, let's just say we were athletic program.

And some people think they're like college athletes around here, which we all know they're like the farthest thing from actually being a college athlete. But let's say you were you were feeling good. You were the coach here, Hickey. And you go, I'm going to get everyone 20 bagels. You know, just get like actually get like four or five dozen bagels. Actually, let's have a bagel party more than just 20 bagels. You get the bagels, you bring them in and then you, God forbid, bringing cream cheese or butter. And it was the cream cheese or butter that made you get suspended, get fined or had to take away all the wins. Bruce Pearl's case, you have someone in your backyard at like a barbecue and you're fired. It's ridiculous. You're changing someone's life because they are feeding someone like that's just how stupid the like. And also so around is ridiculous. If you're trying to get a kid to come to your program. I get it.

Not that I agree with it, but. Just a burger? Just a burger? Not a steak? Not a little caviar? Caviar?

Some stone crab? What 17 year old is going to a backyard party with caviar? I'm talking about like actual like rich people food here, not just a hamburger. That that's a violation. Violation. I get if you treat him to a thousand dollar dinner or something like that at the time, that's different. But a bleeping burger? That's absurd.

Now, at least give him a few shrimp if you're gonna get popped or something like that. That's just crazy. Anyway, looking back at this NCAA tournament. If you had to look back, Hickey, at all the teams that didn't get here to the Final Four, who's the most disappointing? Purdue, easily. One seed, Lusif, FDU. You can't have that happen. I don't care if they were the shakiest one seed of the four and people were predicting them to lose two Memphis in round two.

Me? You cannot, cannot lose the first game as a one seed and not even basically get your wheels going in the tournament. So I think this conversation is down to two teams. It's Purdue and it's Alabama.

I do agree with you. It is Purdue because Purdue lost to a 16 seed. It's only happened before that one other time in the sport. You look at the you look at the road though for Alabama. And I know San Diego State ended up coming out of that region. I remember we had John Fanta on before the tourney started and I asked him the question, with Alabama, who do you think has the best shot of taking down Bama in that region of their bracket?

And John couldn't give an answer because he didn't see anyone taking them down. And you had Arizona who was disappointing lose to Princeton. So you had a two seed right out of the gate. And how many teams ended up going down where at the time it ended up being, wasn't it created an FAU? I think was the matchup where if Alabama, yeah, if Alabama would have defeated San Diego State, you would have got the winner I'm pretty sure of created an FAU. So it's like you get to that point and you can't beat San Diego State.

I know San Diego State and Dutch, they have a tremendous defense and who knows what the actual extent was of the Brandon Miller groin injury. But for Alabama, a team that could have won the national championship to be standing there with it being Crayton. Who was Crayton? I said FAU, it's not FAU, obviously, because FAU is in the final four. Who was it?

No, it wasn't. Who was the team that was playing Crayton? If you could just look up the bracket real quickly. But whoever it was, it's like you looked at Princeton. Oh yeah, Princeton, duh, because they were the 15.

It was Crayton, Princeton, and then it was Alabama and San Diego State. To not get to the final four when you have the best player and other great players on that roster, that's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for Alabama, but we've seen teams have the best player in the tourney and be perceived to be the best team in the tourney before, not get to the final four, not get to not get to the final four, not get to the elite eight. You are right though, Purdue losing to Fairleigh Dickinson.

And also, it's not only that, how confident Fairleigh Dickinson was when Tobin Anderson is basically guaranteeing the victory. And I know that we all kind of looked at Purdue after what happened in the, even though they won the big 10 championship, but how they almost just collapsed in just pathetic fashion when they couldn't find a way to break the press up against your Nittany Lions. That got me concerned about Purdue heading into this tourney. But to not even get out of the first round, even with how bad it was for Bama within their region having Crayton, Princeton, and San Diego State left, which you would have signed up for a second, a second before the tournament started to get to the final four, even as bad as that is, it's still not as bad as of a look as losing to a 16 seed when you're a one. Like if Purdue wins that game, and they get bounced to the next round by FAU, don't get me wrong, it's a bad look because of how many times, and I know FAU is a double digit seed, but how many times Painter has lost to double digit seeds.

But I don't think we're still talking about Purdue's incompetence during this tourney. But to see them lose to a 16, it changes you into a spot, Hickey, where you became the second team to ever do it. And I know it's supposed to be each year is different, but I think history does play into this because like you said, the last two losses now, St. Peter's in the sweet 16, but still that was gift wrapped right there to go to Elite 8 for you. And then you were probably using the first round to North Texas, a 13 seed. So at least you get to the Elite 8, you beat St. Peter's. Okay, you have your second Elite 8 appearance under Matt Painter.

You can't even get there. And then like I said, the year before that you lose to North Texas, a 13 seed in the first round. So I think also history kind of building up to this moment, and then now you're a one seed. You've been in the top three rankings-wise almost the entire season. You have the player of the year in Zach Eady, and the first game you go and lose. And like you said, after you went in there confident, in part because they knew Purdue was beatable, it's really bad.

And like I said, no one else can kind of top them embarrassment-wise this year. And not only that, Fairleigh Dickinson's guards were better. You watch that game, the guards are better. And Zach Eady, I know he had 20 something points in the game, but in the final 10 minutes, he did nothing. And I remember late in that game where it was Fairleigh Dickinson was up by three, and they were inbounding the ball. And I'm pretty sure they were trying to get a two and just lob it to extend the game and then hope that Fairleigh Dickinson would miss some free throws. They couldn't even lob it to Zach Eady because he was getting no space. And the next thing you know, they had to settle for that three in the corner, which ended up being an air ball. That sequence actually, Hickey, looking back at this tourney, where Arizona loses to Princeton. And I remember we were talking about it and I go, man, how a team just goes that flat in 10 minutes, in the final 10 minutes with that much more talent is inconceivable to me. But then it was the same thing the next night. Like that Fairleigh Dickinson defense gave them no space.

And once you couldn't get the ball to Eady, and anytime the ball hit his hands, he would drop it. They had no other way to go win the game. And that was a moment where we thought Princeton as a 15 would be the biggest story of the tourney. And I know Princeton went further in just one win.

That would be the opening weekend, the biggest story. You look after that first round, it ended up being Fairleigh Dickinson. So just crazy when you look back at it. So you're right, it is Purdue and then it's Alabama too. Who's been three?

If you had to take a guess. They had a lot of love with Duke. And then also Tennessee, how they beat Duke and then they lose the next round. Even though I didn't love that Tennessee team, I think Tennessee's up there as well.

If you want to talk about Houston, I know they were dealing with injuries. I would say the three most disappointing teams in this tourney though. I know it's tough to leave out Arizona, but I personally didn't love Arizona heading into this tourney. I would go Purdue one, Bama two, and then Duke with how hot they were playing and how they were supposed to go to the final four. That game against Tennessee, that one was a shocker to me. So those would be my three most disappointing teams of the tourney. I'd have to imagine you have to go Arizona because you picked them to win it all.

Have to, and to lose in the first round is a two seed. To the smart kids. And to the nerds. Ah stop, I don't like when people call them nerds. Thanks Arizona, thanks for nothing. Those kids on Prince that are cooler than you, let's be real. Cooler, smarter, everyone, sure, yeah, go for it. But you know what? Came to my bracket, they screwed it.

You and Pat Boyle both do that. Those nerds, those nerds. Well I think at this point now, nerd's like a, it's not a bad, bad word.

I don't know. Like it's, now being smart is cool. Like it, back in the day it wasn't. Maybe even like in seventh grade it was cool to be like the dumb cool kid and being the nerd was like a loser. Now I feel like nerd's like a term of endearment. You got it. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I would never be thrilled if someone called me a nerd.

That's what I'm just saying. Adam Fisher joins us next. To get 10% off any purchase of $3.99 or more, that's I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O dot com promo code podcast. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Alrighty Temple, my alma mater has a new head basketball coach. That's Adam Fisher who's done a sensational job at Penn State and also Miami and coach Adam Fisher's kind enough to join us right now. Coach, first off, congratulations.

Appreciate the time. How are you? Hey Zach, thanks for having me. I am doing great. I'm doing great. We're just so excited to be a part of the Temple family. It's been unbelievable these last couple days. Is that at all a weird adjustment now when people refer to you as the head coach?

Yes, I got to get used to it. You know, my wife is still the head coach of our household, so that won't change. But yeah, when people say that I'm down in Houston right now at the Final Four, people are like, whoa, yeah, it is different. But really excited, really excited. Well, smart man, happy life. You know what that means. You have to have a happy wife. There's no doubt about that.

How do you process it? Like when you have a few days to think about it, I know this has been a lifelong dream for you. When you're a head coach now of a university, especially like Temple with their rich basketball tradition, just what goes through your mind? Well, I mean, first as a kid growing up in Bucks County to become the head coach at Temple, it's like as I was driving there, I'm like pinching myself like this is unbelievable. You know, one of the winningest programs in all college basketball history, the tradition, the unbelievable coaches that have been before me, the players. And that's what it is for me.

It's a players program. I want all the former basketball players to come back, share their story and tell the current guys and future guys the pride it is to wear that jersey and what it means to them. I think that's how you continue the excellent tradition that's there. In terms of processing, I'm like hour by hour. I make sure my phone is charged a lot right now between talking to players, parents, recruits. It's been an unbelievable experience and just to have 700 texts one night was a little overwhelming for me. I didn't even know I knew that many people, but it's just great. The support has been unbelievable from the Philadelphia community and the Temple family. Was there one text over another that like was just a really special one that meant a lot to you or one conversation that you've had? You know, I've tried to avoid conversations actually.

I've been doing it around 1 to 3 a.m. so people don't respond. No, you know, I think Coach Lernaga, that's why we're here in Houston to support him. Between him and getting a text from Jay Wright, you know, I think those were those two are really special in the basketball world, but just even from all my families from Bucks County, just how happy, you know, my parents, my wife's families from there, the outpour and support from all our cousins and uncles, my brother, like that's been really special. Coach Adam Fisher here with us. Now when you take over a program, you have so many kids that are in a transfer portal, so I don't know what your first team meeting was like, but let's just I guess make this question easier for you. If I ask you, let's say I'm a player in a transfer portal or recruit, why should I commit to Temple? Why should I commit to playing for Coach Adam Fisher?

What do you say? You know, first off, the tradition just speaks for itself, like it's unbelievable. We have the city of Philadelphia. I mean, what a better place to be, you know, it's unbelievable there and, you know, I've had great success everywhere I've been and we're going to play, you know, I use the term, we're going to be locked in but we'll be loose. Our guys are going to have fun.

At Penn State this year, we set the Big Ten and Penn State record for most made threes. We're going to let it fly in the Leocora Center, so I want guys that are skilled, that want to be at Temple. That's the most important thing for me. I need guys that want to be there and that want to win and are going to be willing to do whatever it takes. It doesn't matter. No egos. We just want to win and the goal is to play meaningful games in March.

That's the key. Well, Coach, talking about March, I want to get back to March and make March mean something again rather quickly. How quick could we expect this turnaround to see the Owls back in the tourney? You know, I wish I'd give you a timeline exactly but we want it quicker, right?

Quicker rather than later. At Penn State, we had a very similar situation with transfer portal and roster and it took two years to get there. We were able to do some great pieces and build around so, you know, we're going to attack it strong.

We're going to go right away. I'd love for a lot of the guys on the roster to stay. I think there's so many great players right now on our team and then if we could add a few key pieces, I think we could do something really special and the transfer portal has been able to do that, you know, speeds up some things. If you get the right kids and we need the right kids, the kids that we want to represent the university, we want to be out in the community. So, I need the best people.

That's what I look for. When you have the best people, you can put together the best team. It's a critical time for a program that's had a lot of success.

We all know what John Chaney did and what Fran Dumphy did as well. Why are you ready for this moment? Why are you the right guy for the job? You know, I have such great respect for those two names you just mentioned and I also want to add Aaron McKee. I think he brought in some unbelievable players. He's a legend to me. Great respect for him and his staff.

I think I'm the right guy because I'm ready for this. I've done every position in college basketball from being a manager to an assistant coach, video coordinator, you name it. So, I think knowing every aspect of the program by doing each role has helped me and this place means something to me. I joked when I was at the University of Miami. I'm from Philly and people are like, oh yeah, cool, cool. Then I went to a state college and I'm like, I'm from Philly.

They're like, no, you're from the suburbs. It's a little different. I get it, but this place means something to me. I got married in Philadelphia.

There's great meaning for me. I want to bring the pride to the city and have our guys see it and have the community proud of our team. Now, you never know how people transition from going from being assistant to being a head coach.

How do you kind of smooth that transition? You know, I think it starts with hiring a great staff. I got to have great people around me that I trust, that I know are going to be great for our student athletes. They have to have the best experience. This is about the players. You need great players in your program.

I think it starts by having a great staff that helps with the transition, people you trust. I want to thank Arthur. Arthur has been absolutely phenomenal, our athletic director at Temple. He's been so helpful in these two days.

I want to do this with him. He's going to help us build that together. I want to make sure I give a great thanks to him and the whole search committee as I went through this process. You could hear the passion they had for Temple. After each person I spoke to, I got more excited, more excited that this is the job I want.

This is where I want to be. What was Wednesday like for you? Because as a fan, as a talk show host, you see that it's going to Charlton Young. Then maybe he got it off or maybe he didn't. Maybe turned it down.

Maybe never got it. And the next thing you see these tweets. And I was someone, coach, I'm not just saying this because you're on the line. I was advocating for you to get the job. And the next thing you know, it's Adam Fisher's on campus.

And then Adam Fisher is the basketball coach. So what was the truth on what the heck happened on Wednesday? I received a call Wednesday morning to come to campus. My wife and I got there probably a little bit before 11 o'clock in the morning at 10 30. We met with Arthur. We had a great conversation. I stayed on campus all day until we could get the players together for a team meeting.

So I was in a room from about 10 30 until about 5 15. So while I was there, I saw all the same tweets that everybody else saw. And I'm writing the notes for my first team meeting. And I'm seeing the tweets. And I kept going because I knew what was really going on.

And I knew what was happening. And it's for the players. We didn't want anything to leak out because I wanted the players on the team to hear it from us first. That's who we do this for.

We don't have jobs without those guys as student athletes. And so for me, it was a crazy day. And I was so excited and then got back in the car. We were we left and realized that we didn't have any temple gear to wear to the Final Four. So my wife and I stopped at Rally House. We bought a bunch of temple gear. We stopped at Wawa and we drove back to Bucks County with meet my family there and kissed our little daughter, Libby. And then we went back to the airport at 7 a.m. to fly to Houston the next morning. So it was a whirlwind of a day.

But we were just so happy to be a part of the Temple family. Did you go snacks? Did you go a hoagie at Wawa?

What was the order? No, you got to go hoagie. You got to go hoagie. So we had to go hoagie. My wife had to get the mac and cheese.

You got to get a pretzel even though you probably don't need it at that time. But we are thrilled that Wawa is back right near us. So hopefully we can talk to them about NIL deal too.

That'd be great. Wawa for our program. When did you know that you were getting the job? I knew I was getting the job Wednesday morning.

Gotcha. Wrapping up with Adam Fisher, before we let you run, you play a role in this Final Four because of the job that you did at Miami. You got to learn under Jim Lyre and Egg. I remember when your cousins, Josh Fisher and then Max Wachman, as I was a fraternity brother there, they were like, oh, our cousin is going to be a big coach.

And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure, whatever. And then I see on the staff of Lara Nega. So what did you learn from Coach L?

I learned everything. He is the greatest teacher, the greatest mentor to learn under a whole thing. Coach like him is just unbelievable. So when they won, I was not planning to come to the Final Four, especially with everything that happened this week. But we wanted to be here to support him, his wife, Mrs. Lara Nega, and that family. That's family for us.

We were there eight years. Several of the players, we have great ties and their families. So a chance to be here to support them was what my wife and I wanted to do.

But Coach L prepares you to become a head coach. He gives you so much responsibility. He's family to me.

So it was when I was able to tell somebody, he was, after we told our family, he was the first person my wife and I told. That's how important he is to us. And then there's some of the national media that were baffled by your hire. And I was like, how could you be baffled by this hire? The guy is exactly what Temple needed. And a big reason because of that is the recruiting you did to get Isaiah Wong to Miami.

Take me through that process. You know, Isaiah Wong is just a phenomenal young man. His mother was just great people. We identified early. We thought he was somebody that was going to be really special. You know, here he is, ACC Player of the Year, leading his team to a Final Four. We couldn't be happier for him. We had a vision for him. He trusted Coach Laronegan, myself and his staff. And to see him, I saw him last night at the hotel. He gave me about the biggest hug, almost knocked me over.

And that meant the world to us. I'll ask you a few more, Adam Fisher, before we let you run. Michael Shrewsbury, we all saw the job he did at Penn State. Remarkable what you guys accomplished this year. What does Notre Dame get in a Michael Shrewsbury?

A home run hire. Probably the best I've seen up close, X's and O's, but an even better person. Him and his wife, Molly, and therefore kids, are just unbelievable. And he helped prepare me to become a head coach. I really believe my two years with him, I learned so much. We are so happy for them. You know, the end of the day, the NBA background that he has, everything he does is first class.

Everything. And we are so grateful for our two years. I told him to keep my number in his favorites. I'll probably be calling him daily for questions and different things. And he's the best. Just a great, great coach, but even better person. What did you take away from your time at NOVA with Jay Wright?

You know, I was just a sponge then. You know, you're watching Coach Wright, who again, to me is one of the greatest of all time in our profession. I just became a sponge and watched him build a program, the way he motivates guys, and he just gets the best out of everybody in his program. And the way he coaches, the energy he brings, the pride he had in representing his school, that's what I want to do at Temple. Well, Coach, I can't be happy enough for you to be here. I can't be happy enough for you. Once again, congratulations.

Really appreciate you doing this. And all I got to say, Coach, bring us back. We need us back in the tourney, all right? Let's go. I expect you have some games, though, Zach, so be ready. I want you there, so let's go. 100 percent. I'll be there.

I get a courtside seat, you know, a little trip to the buffet before the game. Exactly. We'll make it happen. I don't know the right people yet, but we will. Thank you so much for having me on tonight. You got it.

Thanks so much. There he is. The new head of Temple Owls, Adam Fisher, joining us on CBS Sports Radio. Really did a great job for Jim Laranaga. It was a big part in getting Isaiah Wong to Miami.

You'll see Isaiah Wong coming up tomorrow night in the Final Four up against UConn. Real quickly, El Capitan Marco Belletti is here. So I don't know if you're aware of this yet, but there was a big issue today in the newsroom. OK. Our boss or one of our bosses, David Mayernik, I walk in and I just hear David let out an expletive.

He's like, I can't believe this bleeping happened. So I thought something was wrong. OK. So I walk up to boss man. I'm like, hey, how are you doing? You all right?

Everything OK? Like I was just like when I walk in through the door, he goes, someone took my chicken salad. He had like a Caesar chicken salad out of the fridge. Did you take the salad? I didn't even know about this. Hey, did you take the salad?

Absolutely not. Wait, which fridge? The little one that's in our little. So not the big cafeteria. The Steve Summers cafeteria. The Steve Summers little fridge. Was it in the Dunkin fridge? No, they did put more of the iced coffee.

So maybe they took it out for that. No, it was not in the Dunkin fridge. It was in those two little small fridge. Yeah, I got to tell you that on the floor.

That's the right word. I got to tell you, I've opened that fridge once in the 10 plus years that I've been here one time and also and that was just because I wanted to see what was in it and that was it. And I closed it right away. Even though I love salad, no one's ever accusing the two big guys here, myself and you, of stealing the chicken Caesar. Yeah.

And although I did have a salad for dinner. Oh, did you? Yeah. Oh, look at you. But no, I didn't even hear David with that.

I'm surprised. And he started going around the newsroom because then maybe he knows, don't ask the fat ass in the closet. He didn't take it. He didn't even bother coming to me with that because then he walks up to Manny and Carlos, who were running Maggie and pro off show today. And he's like, guys, I don't want anyone to rat anyone, but then he would see you took my salad. So he never got an answer out of this or we have no idea who took it.

No, he never found out. And even though I love Denny who works here, I don't think Denny's going into the fridge and throwing out people's salads. That's just my, my take on that.

Now there was. That's I'm assuming that's not for the little fridges that we have, but there was a notice on the big fridge in the cafeteria about certain Fridays that they clean it out no matter what. Oh, maybe he was a victim of that.

So that's possible. If he put it in that big fridge, that's why I go to you for this stuff. Now, I don't know about this one here in the little newsroom, whatever that, whatever that thing is called. That's like a mini fridge in the hotel. Yeah. That kind of stuff. I don't know if that ever gets cleaned out because I feel like there's stuff from there from, you know, 2006, but the big fridge in the cafeteria, there was a big notice that says every certain Friday, it's once a month or once every six weeks or whatever, they're cleaning it out. And they had like the dates, almost like the recycling. You got to know when to put the stuff out. They put that on the front, on the fridge in that big cafeteria. So maybe David was a victim of us trying to be clean around here. Possible.

Now I don't know who the hell actually cleans it. By the way, when I came back from after working from home and I was like one of the first hosts to come back into the office. So I was back early. Like we all went home in March of 2020.

I was back by August of 2020. I remember going into that little cafeteria and I went to the microwave and the plate that spins around in the microwave was broken. There was just food splattered all over the place. I was like, I've only been gone, I think for like four months ago.

What the heck happened back there? It wouldn't shock me if it was like that for the whole four months. I mean, honestly, that's why I don't really look, I don't, I bring food, but I eat it and I, you know, rinse it out. But I don't leave stuff in the fridges.

I don't know. It's just, and it's, and I'm not a guy that's like, Oh, it's just, it's, it's nasty. I'm not, I'm not touching any of that stuff.

I'm not, I'm not dealing with it. And if I think it's like that, then we got a serious problem. But also I just think there's a lot of times there's a lot of food that gets brought into this office and it's a free for all take what you want. Right.

But that's when it's either out on the counter or by the printer. If there is something in the fridge and you were someone that went in and took it out and started to just eat someone else's salad, that is just ridiculous. Yeah. No, no, no. You're, you're, you're a scumbag. I mean, sorry. That's, that's basically what it comes down to. You can't be doing that.

You can't just steal people's food. Now, Spike, if you're listening, I did not say that. Marco said that. I mean, honestly, we were in a meeting and Spike heard me say that word and he's like, yeah, you probably shouldn't say that word. All right. Well, pick a different word. You're not a good person. All right.

Don't go to hickey because he's a potty mouth. You want to leave it on scummy? How about that scummy thing to do? How about that?

Scrummy was a little scummy. I mean, come on. I'm going to somebody's house, open up their fridge and start eating their food. I mean, you don't come to work and open up a fridge and start taking it out to people's food.

It doesn't say on it, please eat me. So don't do that. So I think you're actually right. I think probably it's probably that I would like to think I would like to think. And also too, and I've been here. Not a lot of people are in this Friday.

Yeah. I was going to say, I've been here basically all day. I haven't seen more than like seven faces. So I don't think that in the seven people that I saw, none of them strike me as somebody that would go in and grab a, you know, chicken Caesar salad. I had a great salad for lunch today. And there you go.

You know, I just was on the floor right next to the fridge. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. You can think of the auto parts where your car care needs guaranteed low prices at excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly auto parts. So I was telling a story right after coach Adam Fisher joined us. His new head coach at temple was an assistant at Penn state. Worked very closely with Jim Lyrenaga as well at Miami for all those years, but a big role in getting Isaiah Wong to Miami. And right after coach Fisher joined us, I told the story today. I, when I got into the office, our boss was freaking out because someone went into the fridge and took his lunch.

Now Dalton and Topeka's on the line. Hickey is this right? He was someone that he didn't eat our boss's lunch because he's not an employee here, nor does he live in the New York city area, but he's claiming Dalton that he once ate someone's lunch in the office. Is that right? That is what he is claiming. And he claims that it was justified. Okay, let's listen up. Dalton, what do you got for us?

Hey guys, I'm not necessarily saying it was justified. I just paid my rent. I was broke. It, I worked the night shift. It was the last lunch of the last dinner of the evening, whatever you want to call it. And I waited until the last 10 minutes of lunch and nobody had ate and that stuff. So I was hungry. I was really hungry.

I was in a bad spot. And I thought that, you know, this food got left, so it's going to get thrown away at 6 AM the next morning. What time just wondering like what time in the evening did you consume that dinner?

It was like 7 45. That's what, and what do you, and what did you do for the, for the time at work? I was working at a call center and if my boss kind of didn't like me anyway, he was a bit of a jerk.

He got caught in a custodial bathroom with a female employee doing things he shouldn't do. Wait, wait, wait. So you got fired because you ate your boss's dinner. Is that what you're saying?

Yeah. And the guy had the nerve to come up to me and ask me if it was good while I was eating it, not knowing that it was his. What was the dinner? It was, it was just a little like microwave, a Bistro sandwich. And like, man, I didn't know that it was anybody's. I really honestly thought that it was going to be thrown away.

I wouldn't eat somebody's food intentionally. And you got fired because of that? Yeah, I got fired on the spot. They walked me out.

Wait, they just, wait, you, you go into the fridge, you eat someone's dinner at like 7 45 PM and they go, Hey Dalton, that's it. You're like, did you think it was a joke when you were getting fired? I was no, because the guy that did it, like I told you, he was not the best of boss. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. We don't need to go too much into details with him, but that's a wild story.

I appreciate you calling and hope everything's working out. Oh, okay. For you right now, Dalton Hickey, imagine getting fired from a job because you ate your boss's dinner. Like don't get me wrong.

And I understand Dalton said he was in a tough spot. That's not the right thing to do to just go into a fridge. But if you see the meal, just sitting there and sitting there and sitting there and sitting there throughout the day, and then it's 7 45 PM at night and you're like, okay, that's just going to get tossed the next day at 6 AM you eat it, but that something doesn't line up to me there where you get fired just because of that Hickey.

Yes. Going back to the eating the sandwich, I would agree with Marco's take that you are a very bad person. If you intentionally go in there and just go eat someone's lunch knowingly and just not given a, you know what, in Dalton's case, I get where he's coming from. It's tough to actually, because there's a lot of food that gets wasted.

Right. And if you are, if every Friday has he claimed at 6 AM, basically they clean out the fridge and it's whatever's left in there. You're understanding it's gone.

And you're sitting there at 7 45 at night in an office job. Most people are gone by that point. Something doesn't add up to me in this story. Well, I mean, I would agree. I think it's, you know, remember when we were totally different circumstances. Remember we were talking about Willie McGinnis with that video that went viral of him beating the snot out of someone in some restaurant.

Yes. I read today it was via TMZ. They, I guess they got a copy of the lawsuit that the guy that got the crap beat out of him. Cause we both said, what the heck did he say to have William or what did he do to have William McGinnis just go off on him? Supposedly he was like after the PAC 12 championship game where USC lost to Utah Lake. Hey, how about the Trojans?

Like what happened to the Trojans? And then allegedly in this lawsuit, like Willie McGinnis walked away. He came back and he's like, what did you say?

You bitch ass. And then a word that I can't say on the radio or can never say ever. And the next thing, you know, Willie McGinnis started just beating the crap out of him.

Like something doesn't add up to me. I don't care how banged up you are. Like if Willie McGinnis was banged up, someone just goes, Hey, well how about USC? And then the guy was like, Oh, I'm actually like a fan. And then you beat the crap out of him. I thought when that originally happened, he said something really offensive to Willie or did something with like a significant other or something.

Not just say what up with them Trojans. So something doesn't happen with that story and Dalton, I want to take you kind of for your word, but I don't know. It may be just inconceivable to me that you get fired for just eating a sandwich, but maybe his boss was as big of a jerk as he claims. Hopefully Dave is not listening. If so, that employee took a salad. Not as bad as the time is when one intern ate Mike Francis's egg roll. That's a legendary story, but we don't have time for that.

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