Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen on Fox Sports Radio. You want a crystal ball? I got a crystal ball four and a half hours from now. It's John Wick four. Yeah, buddy, crystal ball that it's a beautiful thing. We've got NZ double a tournament action, so much going on, we have to cancel spring training forever and ever and ever and ever. I was watching a little Hamilton earlier this afternoon, so I'm all juiced up. So I hope that John Wick four is a musical boy. That would be interesting. If not, I'm making it one. That might be John Wick five that would be the musical with in the lead role. Of course. We're live for the ti Irac dot com Studios tirect dot com. Will up. You got there an unmatched election fast free shipping. Free Road has protection over ten thousand recommended installers ti irac dot com the way tire buying should be. Well, yes, tonight a bit. We have all kinds of crazy intrigue in the NFL surrounding Lamar Jackson, some nuttiness with Lebron James. And now there's sources and who's talking to me? No one's talking to me, intercircles breaking trust Smith. But I gotta tell you right now, smack Dad. In the middle of night one of the regionals of the NCAA tournament, We're about to tip off the game of the night, UCLA and Gonzaga. This feels like a national championship game, right Like, I know, we're in the sweet sixteen, they're two three, But Gonzaga and USLAG the last couple of years, how far they went, the games they've played, This feels like the national title game. I mean, yes, we had great games so far tonight we got Tennessee and Florida Atlantic right now, early in the first half. But the Zags and the brew it feels like the na turns, feels like the NSA Championship. Well, we got one terrific game tonight right one, one and one. So uh, the Connecticut Arkansas game was a disaster. It was fun. It was a deceptor for Arkansas. Yeah yeah, no, but I'm just saying, like, you know, it's one of those Hey check the score on that one. Do we need the second screen? Nope, Nope, because the other one you wanted to put it on a second and a third and surround yourself with all of the greatness that was going down the big plays, some of the curious decision making, uh down the stretch both sides. But uh, yeah, it is festive, no question about it. UCLA Gonzaga, Um, definitely a Gonzaga uh most most definitely actually feels like a little bit of juice. Right. Even last week it seemed, I don't want to say stayed, but it didn't have the same thrust that the beginning of March Madness normally does. I didn't hear a bunch of ads about vasectomese. I didn't have anybody doing long form that's filled my timelines with those ads and suggestions about which frozen vegetable you needed to buy and stock up on ahead of said procedure. Didn't see any of that this year it was lacking. Either that or everybody's already taking care of that business. But this one feels pretty huge and us being here in Los Angeles, Jason, I know you've been around folks all day. The guys already in the back. We're getting no work out of them. In about five minutes. When this thing tell you they're done, They're all, yeah, they's done. I got by. You said. They got their chests and faces painted for UCLA for this game. So again, this game is still a couple minutes away from starting. The two games we talked about it in the books. Look the one that was a blowout. It's time for one thing to happen now. It is time for Danny Hurley to get credit as one of the Sorry Dan, Danny. When I watched him play, he was Danny Hurley. So he's Danny Hurley. Does he have to be Dan? Now? Well? Yeah, you gradually way to Dan because he curse it guys. He's just uh who was it? Who was the football coach? Right? Um? Oh, Dion Sanders? You know? No, no, no, you just call him sir to avoid any problems. No, no, no, no no, it's NBA Michael Malone don't call me oh yeah, yeah, don't call me Mike. No. Well, when you have nick, when you have names like like like Danny or Billy, as you get older, it's okay. Normally okay, you use the more formal form of their name because they've gotten older. But you know, still Billy Donovan is still Billy Donnov. He's not William Donovan. You know, it's it's but but Dan William. Yeah, I mean he's now, but he's now. You know. Look Dan Hurley, and you know because because I remember him hoisting up threes for Seaton Hall when I was watching him, which which tells me how old I am. Uh. He's got to get credit as one of the top coach in Division one because he's someone that has succeeded at all three of his stops and he's done the same thing. He has taken a team that, hey, we need you to raise us, and that's what he's done. First, he started at Wagner College in the early twenty tens when Bobby Hurley was his assistant, and got Wagner up to the top of the Northeast Conference. He left for Rhode Island took him a couple of years after two years, they're winning twenty games yearly got to the NSA Tournament a couple of times. He jumped to Yukon I believe five years ago today, Dan Hurley got the gig as Yukon's head coach. In two years they were up to winning twenty games a year and boom, here they are now in the Elite eight. Twenty three wins. Last year they came in third in the Big East, twenty seven wins. This year, fourth in the Big East, and here they are in the Elite eight. He's done some kind of job. When you can succeed at every one of your stops, and every one of those stops is a step up from the one before it, that's the mark of a terrific head coach. And Dan Hurley has done a phenomenal job getting this team here in the Elite eight. They were trendy coming in and now I think a lot of attention is going to be spent on him depending on how the next game goes. But Dan Hurley could be a really big topic converence station coming up the next few days. Well, I mean the fact that he also got all of his extensions in right, So I mean that that's good, So that that works out nicely and the celebration thereof what is he? All the way through twenty twenty seven. Now yeah, you know, up to about three million dollars a year. But remember how powerful this team and this school was years ago. You go through a bit of a lull and a transition and to build it back. But we watched this in every sport, you know, where you have to go through the ranks and show your chops and adapt to the level of athlete you can recruit and try to get some kind of continuity and system in place, and then you hope it all works out right, that the guys that you invest in all that time, effort hours on the practice court when it comes to March madness and these type of things, because we still are in the phase and it's one that I had a little debate with the guy that I do the Baltimore hit with earlier today, you know, talking about the Big Ten which is now all eliminated with Michigan State going down a bit earlier today that you know, what are you recruiting for trying to win your conference and then you go and play a completely different style of squad, perhaps six different times right to go through the bracket. So what's the level of success that you know, what's the measure by your bosses and the bosses uh, whoever you decide to give the power, whether it's institutionally or the fan base at times starts to rise up the journalists in town unless they can get fired because the coach has clout on his way out the door, beheim uh. And and then you you try to, you know, figure that out. And each school, each conference, et cetera, has to decide for themselves. But he's not a hell of a job. And it's it's fun to watch, you know, a team rise back up because now we get to go back and talk about those great Yukon teams of the past. Yeah, now, now suddenly it's gonna be oh and Kemba Walker would have this big run in the NCAA turn all this time. Now. Look, it's it's great to see Yukon back on the map and back being a college. Look. But whenever the heritage teams are good in college basketball, it's good for college basketball. It's great. Then you know the new issue that I would say a team like Houston is a newish team because look from the nineteen Look, yarn, you're going back from nineteen eighty two, nineteen eighty three for them, right, Like it's great for them to be to be to be good again. But when the heritage teams that are the conference tournament teams, teams you see on TV all the time, when they're good, the sport is always better. And you know for a year that we didn't have um North Carolina or or Duke or Kansas or Kentucky, you know, getting far in the tournament. To have a school like Yukon getting okay, because it's yes, it's not too it's still not too long ago from the Jim Calhoun days, not cold Ella mean days and Rip M Hamlet maybe so yeah, I mean it's it's it's great to see that back. And Yukon has had one heck of running. Look like I said, trendy team uh in the NCAA tourna, I wish I had the guts to pick them in my bracket, but I fought, you know, boy, are they just too trendy? Are they really this good? And I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, they're they're really this good? Now UCLA is holding my bracket up all by themselves like they're the owner. I'm like, I wish you said that the only look, but I got UCLA winning it all. They're the only ones holding up my bracket. Well, Michigan State was one of those where I was like, all right, I had them against Duke and I thought they could beat Duke. Well now they're both gone, so they can both beat it. I'll see them both in Hell. I had eight of the sixteen coming in. Down they go, and then well, I'm gonna lose one of the teams here. I picked Gonzaga, so we'll see what happens there. But it is, um, I don't know, it's a big night. You know. You mentioned Rip Hamilton and Lamine and I just started thinking about that squad. We were still living up in the Bay Area when they were at their peak, and they came up to play Stanford and that bus rolled in and they were tough. It was raining, like it's been raining here, and you know the weather people have had all across the country, and yet there were still like a hundred people waiting to meet those guys. That's just just yeah, I'm telling you. The bus rolled up and you got all these folks standing around and they did their best, you know, taking pictures, signing autographs, all that kind of thing, you know, because back then you still had to have the uh instant cameras, you know that, or you had the Hey, I might get this developed, I might not. There might be a lot of shots from that day that are still sitting in someone's drawer undeveloped. Now my one hope now with the NCAA tournament now for for Ukon here because we'll look, we'll get to Marquis Nooel coming up in a few minutes. My one hope for Yukon is that to celebrate Yukon going to the Elite eight, people start posting the Jim Calhoun get some facts and come back and see me, because that's one of my That was the favorite underrated press conference meltdowns of all time, is it gets some fact acts and come back and see me. Get some facts and come back and see me, because you know there's a oh yeah, all the moneys. Yeah, when he what was it take tonight? Like all the money? Geat, what was it take tonight? The gate? Then he gets really mad at the guy. Get some facts and come back and see me. I really want that to live again, because that was just so unbelievably entertaining, and that's like the biggest you know, I want that. Hey, if I can ask for one thing. Hey, we talked about d Dan Hurley. We talked about Dan Hurley, and let let let's give Jim Calhoun credit because that was one of the best postgame press conference meltdowns ever. I hope that. No, he was really good because because he always had the furrow and brow and you knew he was pissed at you, but he didn't usually go over the top and and and really go after you like Behaim made it a science. Shovski would get whiny, right, and then he'd give you that look and start leaning in into his chair and then you'd see everybody cour and then they were bowing down at the altar for the rest of those press appearances. Sorry Duke fans, storry, Sorry do all the coach k stands. Look, I'm a Chicago kid. I love the career he had, uh southside Polish guy, all that stuff that he he wore out his sleep, but he'd go back and look at it and go, Yeah, probably wore guys out a little more than I should have at times. But Calhoun didn't didn't do it regularly. But when he went in, oh he fully went in. Not one time, not one time. Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio AP Happy john Wicknight. A lot of people, a lot of people at john wickfour will be They're all gonna be. Oh, it's gonna be beautiful. It's got the bulletproof suit. Oh, I can't wait. I wrote a sign for the three hundred kill. Yeah really now three hundred club. Yeah, let's got He's got two hundred and ninety nine kills through three movies. Now I'm being serious. When he kills that first person in john Wick four tonight, uh yeah, do they stop the movie and we celebrate it like Lebron passing Kareem Abdul Jabbard and then we get back to the movie. I think we should. I think we should. Little bit, Yeah, that's number three hundred. He get Kenna Reeves gets to talk. It'll be a short speech, you know, because John Wick's character doesn't talk all that much. He would say like, I'd like to thank everybody who died in the movie. Okay, great, thank you, all right, great everybody. It's like all the times that we monitor movies for how many curse words? Right, how many times the F bomb gets dropped in a movie? The same thing here, Yeah, Adam Silver comes out, congratulates John Wick on the three hund and here's the three hundred more John all right, great, I got the back end. I got the rest of this movie. I might get three hundred more by the end of this film itself. But will the presenter look more like Rob Manford did the other night at the end of the World Baseball clients, I mean, who are we kidding guys, We're gonna be in the process of literally stand up and the second kill is gonna happen. We'd have to sit right back down. Yeah, that's yeah, you're right, you're right, yeah, yeah, sure, Now that they would be looking like we're doing the wave or we call a time out and have them turn the lights on. Well, I think that's what has to happen, is like it has to be very organic where the kill happens and then boom right to everybody stops, someone comes in, confetti goes off, and you know, okay, we have to stop right now. Well, Jason or what could happen is right after he hits three hundred, he does what Lebron did and fakes an injury and sits out for a while. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah yeah, and he'll get his three hundredth kill and Anthony Davis won't celebrate. I'm rooting for the bad guys. I'm not standing up for you at three hundred. Butler comes out, oh oh oh, that's nicely done. But right now NCAA Tournament Florida Atlantic look Out could be headed to the Elite eight. They lead Tennessee forty eight forty one. It's been a big second half for them. Meanwhile, UCLA up ten over Gonzaga fifty four forty four. Drew Timmy's got twenty five and nine boards, and UCLA is still up ten. We'll have more on this game as it continues to unfold. Against a lot of time left here with fifteen minutes. But we had a couple of big results early tonight. Ukon with a big blowout win over Arkansas. Kansas State out last Michigan State in overtime ninety eight ninety three. Marquise Noel with an unbelievable night there. So the big question is, how would Chris Berman announce these results? Oh? Boy? Howd announced these results? And here we go? What do you want? First? You want how how Yukon uh moves on? Or do you want to Kansas State? What do you want? First? Let's go k State. Let's get the Wildcats in because first ubiquitous uh simple name that they stole from us uh t J today feeling like Christmas for Noel and the Wildcats. That's not bad? J good, that's good. I can I can get with that. The first Noel to take Kansas State to the Elite eight since twenty eighteen. TJ okay gool for Noel Born is the king of the Sweet sixteen. See that one. You can put on a T shirt. Noel certainly no coward against Michigan State today, DJ, Look, I get literary on you. Now, Hey, I'm not just a John Wick shoot him up, guy. I'll get literary on you with Noel Coward. Yeah, you want to explain to um well, folks that don't read a lot who he was? Right? Read a lot? You? Um am? I raw no, no, no, I think during your course of your career. You get a little bit of Noel Coward, don't you. I mean I would, I would think, no, can you go to school and stuff? When you go to school and stuff, I'll take English playwrights for well. I didn't get get any of him when I was in school. I mean that came later. But yeah, okay, okay, all right, and maybe now we're an audience of two. Okay, alright, alright, very good, very good. T J. Lizzo normally puts the L in Iszo, but today it was Kansas State. Whoa how he's gonna come in? John Wicky TJ. The Michigan State lost. Today was about damn time for Iszo. Who's gonna Who's gonna go after m Harder? Is it gonna be Iszo or John Smoltz? Oh oh no, No, it's gonna be Steve Garvey. Absolutely is gonna be Steve Garve should be Hall of Famer Steve Garvey. Uh so uh Now, Yukon Yukon congratulates Yukon and Dan Hurley. You know, hey, look, big day for Hawkins as well, leading Yukon and scoring TJ. Yukon were the winners. When all the hurly burly was done and the battle was lost in one YEA, Well, I come on, everybody's tay, Come on, you know everybody taking that Shakespeare and knows early Burley in the Battle loss Shakespeare, I know. But people people go to high school, no Shakespeare, you do, Sure they do. So you're saying Burman didn't go to high school. No I didn't. I didn't say. I said. People, that's what I put together. They get No, I'm sure he went to high school. He went. They went to Brown, right, I think it to Brown? He was not a high school nobody. Well, I think you I don't think you can jump right from middle school to Brown. I think you have can. Actually, I don't know that you can. Brown's a pretty good school. I don't know that you can do that. You don't think you could have been homeschooled and gone to Doogie House or Route. I don't know, man, I have to think that if there was some kind of crazy way to be homeschooled through high school and get to great schools like on a regular basis, more people would do that. Yeah, my child's best child in class, graduate, highest average really, yes, top one percent? Yes, got an A and every class right? What school was it? Um, it was in the living room. It was University of Phoenix. What's that? What's that? I was home schooled? Oh okay, I gotta think more people would have done that, Star pupil. Well, you still have to pass a bunch of proficiency tests and go in and proved yourself to a bunch of guys and women suited up and ready to excoriate what you've worked so hard to attain. Well, what if you're homeschooled and your parents still are grading your test? Well, boy, you only got six out of ten? Right, So what did I get? A hundred? Congratulations? Nice job? But wait I got four wrong? Nope, I don't see any I don't see any red marks on that paper. You had everything right, Brown University, get ready. I can understand your rationale for choosing that answer, and I applaud you for doing it. TJ. Yukon's in the Elite eight. You can't be serious. I am serious, and don't call me Hurly. Oh no, Mike too far. I don't know about Larry and Moe, but it was a big night for Hurley and you can numbskulls. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yukon's in the Elite eight extra extra. Read all about it in the early edition of the newspaper. All right, that's it. You got Kyle Chandler in again. You're done, t J. There's no more stranger things than Hawkins and Yukon in the Elite eights. TJ. Turn my cof out. You're done. Usually with Hawkins we talk about eleven, but this is the Elite eight for Yukon too far. Oh and that's pretty good. There's no going back now, TJ. The new Sheriff of Hawkins is Hawkins and Yukon as they advanced to the Elite eight. TJ. Even TJ's left, David is seeking safe harbor and Hawkins Hawkins is the new sheriff. He just gets up at least all right, I'm done, I'm done. He just stuff like Bernie at weekends. Thinks he's still around, but he isn't. Oh hey, do you want a hot lebron take. Well that's coming up in ninety seconds, but first let's check in with Steve to Sager to find out what's trending in the wide world of sports. So between the Connecticut head coach and the big man Sinogo, there you got your hurly burly. Yeah, we got sure. If only we had at the same time in college basketball, Marquise Noel and Rickie Christmas and Drew Holiday. Oh oh, that would have been fantastic. Got Holiday and Christmas and Noel. Now, yeah, you're Sweet sixteen, every right, You're absolutely right. Marquise Noel, five foot eight guard from New York at Madison Square Garden tonight was the star nineteen assists in an overtime win against Michigan State ninety eight ninety three in the round of Sweet sixteen. This was the first overtime game we'd had since two years ago when UCLA eliminated Alabama. But this tournament hadn't had any overtime games at all. Last week. We got one tonight and Michigan State is eliminated. It finishes the season twenty one and thirteen. By the way, the last NCAA tournament to be played without a single overtime game is still nineteen seventy. I saw this stat on the Big Ten now the Spartans are out that the last two years that conference has sent seventeen teams to the NCAA Tournament, not one has advanced to the Elite eight. So most teams any league has sent over a two year span without any of them reaching a regional final. In the history of the tournament. Noel was sensational, including the steal and layup at the end for the ninety eight ninety three overtime final. He only had two turnovers twenty points five steals as well. You add up his three tournament games so far, it's over sixty points, over forty assists, it's eleven steals. According to the folks at stats Inc. Any Division one or NBA player in the last fifteen years, nobody's had those numbers. You'd have to go back to Alan Iverson in any three game span in two thousand and five. He has been sensational and certainly was tonight. The winner k State is awaiting either Tennessee or Florida Atlantic FAU, a three point gunner team, has made a few threes in the second half and leads the Tennessee balls with three minutes to go fifty five to fifty. As for the two games in Vegas in the West region of the Sweet sixteen, Connecticut easily beat Arkansas eighty eight sixty five Ukon with a fourteen oh run in the first half, so Yukon will get the winner of Ucla and Zaga. Zaggs had made a run Ucla still twelve minutes to go, Ucla up fifty nine fifty four, and you mentioned Drew Timmy earlier dominating in this game. Timmy is fifteen of twenty two shooting from the floor. The rest of his team combined has about twenty two shots in this one, but the Bruins are holding onto an advantage. Four more games in the tournament's Sweet sixteen tomorrow, including number one Alabama against San Diego State. Just four NBA games tonight. Late games in LA late first half Clippers have had forty nine forty eight over Oklahoma City Kawhi Leonards seven of seven shooting in the first quarter, fifteen points. Paul George out at least two to three weeks with a spring knee. New Orleans got a triple double from Brandon Ingraman beat Charlotte. Orlando upset New York and Cleveland on a last second three one at Brooklyn. The Nets have lost five straight. There is still no target day for Lebron James return to the Lakers. He's been out since late February with his foot injury. Just over two weeks left in the NBA's regular season NHL wins for the Rangers in Boston and Phillies. First baseman Reese Hoskins suffered a torn ACL today. ACL reconstruction surgery is recommended after the non contact injury in a spring training game. Back to you, thanks a bunch, Steve the Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon live from the ti iraq dot com studios. And today was a day you just heard Steve talk about the situation with Lebron James. Where early in the day we got the report that Lebron James progressing in his comeback from his right foot injury. There's optimism he could come back in the final week of the regular season. Look, he's been out since the end of February with a tendon injury when he got hurt in Dallas. He's back on the court a little bit and is on a gradual basketball movement progression. This is what the Lakers announced on Thursday, and then Lebron James put this statement out on social media. There wasn't an evaluation today and there hasn't been any target date for my return. I'm just working around the clock every day, three times a day to give myself the best chance of coming back full strength. Whenever that is God, bless y'all sources. I speak for myself. So here is the Here are the Lakers who are saying, hey, we're hopeful to get him back, maybe the last game regular season. Here's Lebron saying no evaluation, no target date. Now, this is a this is a pretty hot this is a pretty hot take, and it's it's but I want to say it now because this is what we're gonna find over the course of the coming days and months. Doesn't it feel like the Lakers are kind of done with Lebron? Yeah? Doesn't it feel like they're done? I mean, I know he's got the contract extension that that's gonna you know, kick in. He's got an estimated forty six million for next year with a player option. But this last this injury was such a big deal for them, you know, the fact that he gets hurt and now I'm not available. I feel like we talked about at the time where where you realize, Okay, you can't count on Lebron anymore. Right, we were past that point where you can't count him to be on the floor because he's just getting hurt way too much, and the Lakers can't count on him. It's whenever he plays as a bonus. But now I almost feel like the Lakers feel like they're done with him, Like all right, you pass cap and that's great, and you won everything, but now you got to get us in the playoffs here and now you're hurt again, and it feels like they're done. Just the feel with the team. Austin Reeves has the big night last night, you know, him and D'angela Russell combined for you know, fifty points, and Reeves is shooting the ball well, he gets into great rhythm. He takes a lot of shots, and it's crazy that we're talking about well Austin Reeves is pushing Lebron up, but it's like, wait, what, Just the fact these conversations and things are out there, it sort of feels like the Lakers are done with Lebron and I don't know what happens from here on out because it gets messy. But Lebron coming back and the fact that he's now at odds with the Lakers when he can come back when he can't. You have two reports, one says, yeah, he's progressing, and hopefully the end of the regular season, and Lebron feels need to put out a statement saying no evaluation, just mean no other sources are they They've gotten the point where I think they've gotten what they want to out of each other. And the Lakers got a championship and they wanted more, but that was it. And Lebron got the brand of Los Angeles and he got to pass Kareem Abdul Jabbar and break the all time record, and now it's like, Okay, we've each gotten as much as we're gonna get from the other, and now we're done. And I feel like like the Lakers are pushing that that they feel almost like the Packers and Aaron Rodgers, where Okay, we've gotten what we've wanted out of him. It's not been great, but we did what we could. The last couple of years. He won the MVP. That's awesome. Now he's not the MVP anymore. We want to move on. And it sounds shocking, but that's how it goes. And I kind of feel like it's the same point with the Lakers and Lebron, now where okay, we've gotten all really going to get out of you and now our team is not any better and we're not winning, and look at the way they play when you're not on the floor. And maybe there's a future here without you that we can make our team better somewhat sooner. Maybe there's some kind of trade or a situation where things work out, because it doesn't always end great, you know, for players, Just to ask Aaron Rodgers, you don't always get to ride off into the sunset whenever you want to. I feel like they're at that point now where they're done with Lebron and now from here on out it's just going to be messy. Yeah, just wondering in terms of the sourcing and and all of that fun stuff, you know, wild them off and you play along versus Bristling. Did you plant this if you're the Lakers to get make him the bad guy? Right? Could you still had enough people that'll carry water for him at every turn. Nobody's gonna go quite as blunt as tie shirt saying ah, he got his record, he quit, But yeah, I paraphrase it, But it's just that idea, right, Look how hard he worked those last couple of weeks, the extra minutes, the extra stress. When we knew he was already playing through an injury, right, Wasn't that the report we kept getting He's playing through the foot, an ankle and all of that stuff, and then he's going thirty eight a night and hustling and grabbing every opportunity to bolster his point total, and then he couldn't finish that game and they lose to Okasee and he's been unavailable since. And the frustration has to be huge because Davis had to wear it, and he's certainly, you know, has had to step in multiple times during his tenure here and answer questions about availability either for Lebron or well himself. On the A's feeling all right, but this was a scheduled thing from you know, like a month ago. So it's it's really the dumpster fire floating on the river gif right now, as as well as component parts of that team is are is playing. Depending which you want to conjugate with, there is the idea that um with Lebron James, they've just had enough of having to kick the can down the road. It's like, you know what, this this will snuff him out. He's got to say something if this report, if he wants to disagree with this report, and he did, and now it's it's on him because it's all all right, So how are you feeling? Give me more than that? Don't just push back on all the reporters that you and your team have been feeding reports too forever. Hey, guys, I'm gonna go against John this one. You gotta give me this. I need one to flex. Why are you where where you are? Well? Okay, so then where are you? Like? What's give suff nothing? I mean? I mean so you wonder how much does he want to come back? The same question is at the end of last year, Because what did I tell you was going to happen? Last year? When it looks like the Lakers weren't going to make the playoffs, Lebron was gonna somehow find a way to not play. What happened, He didn't play almost all the way down the stretch, right, I told you exactly how that's going on, the same thing was happening here. Lebron looks like the Lakers might not make the playoffs, and Lebron's not played for a long time. You wonder how much does he want to play? I don't even know. I didn't know what motivates him anymore as a player. But now I feel the injury that he had the Lakers that was like, okay, you know what, Now, now we're done. And they shouldn't have signed him to the extension. They should have let him go. They got what they were gonna get, and instead, no, we have to keep them. They felt the pressure. We got to keep them here. We gotta keep Lebron James, we have to have a big star. And now it's okay, now we're ready, We're done, ready to move on. And that's kind of where the Lakers are. And this whole thing. I can't say I blame them, because okay, so why are you Why are you and the team at odds with your health? If everybody's on the same page. That should never happen and you should never not be on the same page with your team as far as your health goes. And maybe it's just them saying maybe Lebron can come back at the end of the regular season as a as a like a carrot at the end of the stick for the for the Lakers, or you know, that's a that's a bad example, but just like a you know, it's something to point to look forward to. Hey, let's keep it afloat here. Maybe Lebron can get back and really help us. And now Lebron is saying, oh, hey, no, you know, no, no, that's not gonna. I don't know where I'm at. I don't know if I could play anymore. You know, it's weird like it could be just be as simple as the Lakers want to give people hope they could come back, and Lebron still just says, no, no, I don't even know if that's gonna. Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Wow. All I can say is wow, I wish I had trademark sentence. Are you blanking kid? Wow? Wow? Wow? Wow? Okay, Las's let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Ucla has just had a tremendous comeback. They were down nine with less than two minutes left to go in the game, a furious comeback. You had a couple of end ones by himI Hakez and then you had a three by Amri Bailey with thirteen seconds left to go to give UCLA the seventy six seventy five lead. Drew Timmy missed two free throws that could have really put the icing on the game, but instead a Marie Bailey hits a three with twelve and a half seconds left to go to give UCLA the lead. Ucla calls time out because z I got to inbound the ball from under their basket. They get the ball up the floor very quickly, and with seven seconds left on the clock, Julian Strother hits a three from about the edge of the Madness logo that gives Gonzaga a seventy eight seventy six lead. There was no we're looking for a bucket here, we only need two at seventy six seventy five. Straw ticks the ball seconds and hits a Damian Lillard three Like that's a that's the heroic shot of shots that give them the lead. Gonzaga gets the ball back because Tiger Campbell turns it over with a couple of seconds left. Ucla had the ball and everybody watching this game is thinking the same thing. I am right. Strawthor hits the three, and then what it's Tias Edney, right, It's Tias Edney and Tiger Campbell up the floor in the final seven seconds and it looked like he was getting set to pull up for a pull up to stop for a pull up jumper, and he lost the ball. Strawthor picks it up. He hits a free throw to make it seventy nine seventy six. Tiger Campbell gets a last second off balance three from justin side half court. It doesn't go. Gonzaga beats UCLA seventy nine seventy six. What an unbelievable thriller we just saw and drew. Timmy goes from Hero to Goat back to Hero because his great game, he missed those free throws. I tell you open the door for U and he missed two. Wow, and then had the opportunity right He goes to the foule line with two shots. He misses the first one, makes the second, making it a three point game, and then they did the hook and laugh. Yeah. And you know, here's the thing I want to say this right away is that the strath shot is just unbelievable. That that is uh. I don't even know how to your best describe that in terms of your analogy. I am I am going to say this. I'm gonna go out on a limb here, Mike Harmon, I'm gonna go out on a limit. I'm gonna say, I don't think that was the play that Mark you drew up in the in the huddle, I don't think that's what it means. I don't create the lead blocker and then he runs up he fires up at three with seven point five or main No, probably not. I don't think a three from the logo was the shot that he called up there. I'm thinking that was more let's get it into Timmy, who can either take it to the or find us find somebody because he's such a great passer. I don't think that was a play. That was one of those give me the ball, I'm gonna make this shot. Was that play right there? YEA cold yeah blooded? If you say what you know, hey, you know, help me out with this. I don't know what they mean when they say a cold blooded three. You just show him that video right there, because that's what that was. That was a cold blooded three. By Man had no conscience. It was like he knew he was facing John Wick and this is the only way he was going to survive for this movie. You know, shoot or shoot right, this is the guy he's you know, he averaging fifteen points a game, but he's four out of fourteen on the night. Doesn't matter. I'm gonna take this shot. He knew that was a that was a Lillard logo three for stra author and I again, I don't think that was That was one of those player where Mark he was like, no, no, no, what are you doing? Yes? Yes, yes, Right now, his family and friends are all scrawling things on napkins and every piece of paper they can find in the house to create some turn of phrase to nil the hell out of this thing. Gee, somebody get Timmy a trimmer, get off due. Yeah, but that's how Timmy's looked for years. Now, I mean that that's it, and he's got four more years of Eligibility's gonna be at eight. Yeah, he's gonna be Anza. He'll still be a Gonzago when the Mets are done paying Bobby Benia. Oh that's how long he's gonna be there for. Look at that. I mean, really, you see le Gonzag Get him together, right, and you get a game like this always. But you know, but the thing Tiger Campbell, it's like on the final drive after they get the ball, you know, he makes the shot, he's got time to get up the floor because he's fast, and they and Gonzago, you know, falls back. They allow them to inbound the basketball. And I think he felt like he got caught because he went to the right side. He had two defenders there, and rather than look for a pass because he had a couple of seconds, he panicked and he just lost the ball. I mean, he just lost the ball when it was either a pull up jumper or some kind of play because Campbell had a couple of seconds. But he's got it. It's he's got like three and a half seconds left, and he goes up and the defender just slaps the ball out of his hand and it goes to Gonzaga, and Gonzaga wins the game. Who unbelievable, brutal, what a game. Oh man, this is March. This is March. I'll tell you, this is absolutely Jason. Just the fact that UCLA was still in it and took it to the final one point four, It is amazing that. But that's it, right, They're down nine at two h five, can't score for nine minutes, getting outrebound him like fifty to twenty. Final second half numbers forty six thirty is the scoring. In the second half, they were down nine, they didn't have a bucket till a minute fourteen leven still grabbed the lead temporarily and then we see the shot of shots Man. This is just an incredible end. Wow, I really, I mean, Gonzaga survives. They eliminate UCLA seventy nine seventy six, a game that it looked like USLA had in the bag in the first half. They were up by thirteen. Then it looked like Gonzaga had it because useilated hit a shot for ten minutes and then getting back in it. And maybe maybe I'm overestimating this this a little bit because part of the drama at the end was the fact that USA looked like they were out of gas. Right they were out of gas, they were tired, they don't have a big bench, they're missing a couple of players. We've talked about that. And there was a little bit less than two minutes left to go and Gonzaga had the ball and they were facing a shot clock violation where it was the clock was ticking down. Gonzaga took a shot, it didn't draw iron. It looked like it was going out of bounds and Drew Timmy comes and tries to do the I'm gonna save it by throwing it off the UCLA player, and he throws it off us LA player and the ball bounces and it bounces out of bounds, but it bounces out of bounds right around the time the shot clock hit zero, which it doesn't go out of bounds, and they've had the ball. It's gonna be a shot clock violation. So they spent a good few minutes, I want to say at least four or five minutes. First they were looking at did the ball hit the rim, because it clearly went out of bounds off a UCLA player, But did the ball go off the rim? Did it not? And then if it didn't go off the rim, then did it go out of bounds before the shot clock hit zero? And that four if I mean, I kind of said it, but I was kind of only half serious. But I wonder if that amount of time just gave the UCLA players. We got time to just sit back and rest and gear up for the last minute and a half because they had they were done, and now suddenly they couldn't miss hawks is at the rim for end one and end one and then a big three and it's like all of a sudden, here comes you know, UCLA is back like they were, like they were never gone. I wonder if that four or five minute stretch of looking at that play let them just catch their breath for a couple of minutes and either clear their heads and reset and get them back or at least get them time to just not have to worry about running up and down the court and get some energy back. Yeah, just today, and look, we know the resiliency, right, get the back of the tank for you. And you're coaching your daughter's teams, here's some orange slices like Peyton Manning. I mean, you gotta follow the and emulate the best, right, and you can get rolled through. Look, they're highly conditioned, pressure packed tested athletes up and down the line. So you know you're at the finish line and that you had a moment to regroup. Somebody maybe said ted Lasso like inspirational quote or a grunt like your Roy Kent and you got back out there and you gave a hell of a show in that final minute fourteen seconds that you know, you got a lot of folks nervous man on all all fronts because as soon as it opens the door again, it's like, oh, we're gonna lose a heartbreaker again. And that shot mean that that's one that Cronin and all these guys are gonna be seeing for forever. Man, you're gonna know exactly where he was above the arc when he let that thing go unbelievable ending. This is March. This is March. I mean we've seen that play before, right, we talk about Star Street. We've seen the three where hey, I'm coming up and the trailer takes it. Oh it's good, it's a good, uh but liking move. But I can't believe at that moment that was in a game where Timmy's got thirty six points. And I mean, maybe they would get him, they would collapse on him, they would send him the free throw line. But ah, you only need you only need a bucket, you don't need a three. I really, I really wonder if that was the play that was called. As he pulled up and was getting ready to shoot. I stood up in the studio here like wait what And then it goes down like wow, I mean you talk about uh, clutch pressure, whatever terms you want to use on it, and I'm sure the phrase you'll come up with a few burminisms before we get out of here for it. But yeah, that lead blocker. I mean, you can't defend in front of him, right, No, unless you're chasing him down. So that's about as clean a look as you're gonna get, even if you drive to the basket at that point, because you're also moving the ball up quickly. Timmy's not back on the block at that point. So you know, the one thing I will tell you about this, watching it as many times as I have, is that it doesn't look like Timmy is moving for the ball at any right it like I'm watching because obviously that's where the ball's gonna go. It doesn't look like he is moving to get the ball at any point. And you want to get it to him because you're talking about a game in which you have less than ten seconds left to go at this point, right, you want it. You don't want to give it to him with like two seconds left. So maybe it was well, I mean you gotta get Look, the worst thing that can happen is trying to get cute and say, all right, we're going down on the block and you got seven seconds left right. But UCLA one of your better defending teams even without the He's like, you see Timmy is kind of walking up and then he starts to aggressively work towards a potential rebound situation frantically. Yeah, but he wasn't gonna get that if that, if that missed, he wasn't getting that ball. He was he was just standing there, he was, he got a hint a rope a dope, and then he spun back. But yeah, it's that's it. I mean, that's that's the call of calls and you know what, it's just like we drew it up. That's the that's the answer from few and everybody else. You know, we run that trailer play, you know, it's like the old uh Duyane Wade Lebron James play with the dunk and he's staring at the camera after he lobs it up. Yeah, that's it. That's what we did right there, except it's a three pointer from thirty feet away. Wow, unbelievable. Hey, how did it sound when it looked like UCLA was gonna win there up by a point and Gonzagas shot. That's gonna live in March Madness forever. Uh, here's how it sounded. Strawther, we'll get it in. Salas picks it up. Clock start's eleven seconds. Salas across the top on pitch it back straw the deep free from the top of the key got it. Scraller from the top seven seconds. We Cambel on the run out of the front court drives the right side, struck the Scraller's got it full with one point one to go, Ryan rad Key Westwood one on the call. There it was the straw, the three tiger. Campbell loses the ball and Gonzaga moves on unreal to the Elite eight, where their prize is. Oh a Yukon team that didn't break a sweat tonight against Arkansas. No, that was it was a nice rollover win there. He came in and took care of business. And again now and now my bracket has done and Gonzaga you did, you have a Gonzaga did nice. But so I at least have one of eight teams. Yeah that's good. Yeah, Yo, you can still win. You can still win, Yeah you have. But now you're talking about the games. Tonight we have a three and a four playing for the five four and a three and a nine playing for the final four? Who this is great? Maybe? Hey, can I still win if I don't have either team in the national Championship game? Can I still wink? Still do that? No, you can go through all the permutations. If you want to go and look at everybody's bracket that is in that contest, head at it. I might be able to. I'll leave that for you. I'm gonna get ready. Just know you beat one person's bracket that's in the studio tonight. Oh who did that beat tight shirt? Howd u CSB winning it? All? Oh? Better than tight shirt? Better than much better than tight shirt? Better than tight shirt? Who else in your final four besides USB? Oh? Gosh, I have to look, But I think I had them against Pittsburgh for the final. Okay, you CSB in Pittsburgh? Yeah, I was. I can do the same two Okay, all right? Yeah? Would that would be tough? You're right? Well, either way I win, then you know, Oh, no, that is true? That is true? There, you know? Or I would say maybe the old Nick Pacai push there are no winners here. Okay, if you had UCSB and PIT and it happened that way, you would be able to quit Fox Sports Radio because you would do interviews with people for the rest of your life. Millionaire, how did you have this? How did you have a fourteen and eleven? I just did. I just did. I don't really pay attention, and you work in sports, Yeah, but I don't really pay attention I do. I do anime stuff while the show was on the air, Yeah, and I do that stuff. Yeah, I do anime. But but how did you pick those? I don't know. I just did. What do you want to talk about? I'm a health food guy too. What do you want to know? I tho she looks good.