The Jason Smith Show with Mike HarmonOn tonight's edition of The Best of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Arnie Spanier is filling in for Jason! The guys discuss LeBron Colossal mistake late in the 4th quarter of the Lakers @ Bulls. Next, they react to the College Basketball Tourney, NCAA NIL, and look into the major headlines while Arnie tries to get over the Arizona Wildcats loss to the Duke Blue Devils. Finally, they react to NBA Commissioner Adam Silvers comments on the stigma around the league and that he gets jealous of the kind of coverage other sports and leagues get. Tune in for all this and more on The Best of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon!
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If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio, greetings and welcome in a big Friday Night on tap here Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with Me Mike Harmon. No Jason Smith and I'll be back on Monday, and our cavalcade of stars we end the week is only well, it's the only way we can. It's the stinking genius himself, Arnie Spaniard. Now, the only thing that's missing for this one, Arnie, is it would have been better if the Arizona Wildcats were playing during this window.
That was killing me. You know what I was when I was on the air doing the air on an Oregon game. I wouldn't let plane talk to me. I just don't talk to me.
For the home I took the hour off.
I took the hour, hour and fifteen minutes off. I just sat here watch You don't tell the boss. I was just watching the game.
A lot of folks let other people do the talking for an hour. I thought we were going to say at a time on their show, so that, I mean, that wouldn't be anything.
Woah. I thought we were going to come back and win that. I'm very disappointed, man. It was okay, you know, the right before the half, the the two three pointers and they're up by six. She didn't feel good going into the half. And then it got up to what it was eighteen or twenty or whatever it was, and then they fought back and oh, they just didn't get the right break. Duke was the better team. They took care of us in Tucson. So right, best to look to the Cooper flagman, some damn good man. Someone hit him.
Man hit him.
You're gonna shove get him off his.
Market, that guy and keep him away from the big shots. You did refer to the end of half shot Cooper Flag. We were on air Dan Byer and I and watching that game, and it's in the final minutes, right. We always talk about the final four and a half beginning for the next in football, and certainly we saw that here. Let's hear that Cooper Flag half court shots.
You just want to hear it again.
I do want about it.
They've got three seconds, flag deep, three balls.
Absolutely had a show of emotion for the best player in America.
Cooper Flag just hit from the long range right before hand. Time. That never should have happened was Arizona shot the ball? Farks up, Arnie marks up?
Oh sarks up?
Barney, come on, so what does that even mean? I didn't even know what that You know what it means. They didn't even make the tournaments.
Up doesn't mean he's not going to come over the top on you. We've got Mary Mack, who's cackling, Nyaclee, Uh yeah, you'r your best friend, and then Shay as our executive producer. Really you're doing the who come on? That ends badly?
You remember the story football. I'm just I'm just very crabby, very crabby about that one.
Yeah, twenty four hours, like if you were like I debated calling you while we were on air.
Mike, you know, I have to say this a million times. I tell you, tell Pank, I'm a bigger sports fan than you guys are, Okay, and it takes me a little bit longer to get over my Arizona losses. You you went to what a JC junior college? You went to Northwestern, so you know you get over those losses real easy. You know that, just you just shrug it off, just like Plank does.
You know, Well, part of it is being a grown up and being an adult and getting business. And I'm not saying that they don't sting like it's talked about it on air a lot. My guy Jason Smith that you know, is normally in this slot with me. He lives and dies with each of bat so us. Getting to play that out for Soto yesterday it was kind of fun. It was everything came up harmon yesterday except for the Cubs win at the end of the night. But the White Sox win the opener against the Angels in resounding fashion.
That probably won't happened for a long time now.
Over at Rate Field, Well, I mean, look, I got a couple of nice friendly bets with some Angel fans on that the season record because they're both not going to be very good. But I'll take the opening day win and go. I'm surrounded by Lakers fans being here in the Fox Sports Radio studios, the Tirax Studios in Los Angeles, which meant the Josh Giddy shot was insane.
How could nobody's bringing up the lebron in was a lebron.
I mean nobody did.
We did it live on air and hammered him for what was probably the worst fifteen twenty seconds of basketball in his adult life. No, but it was the inbound past that sh was terrible, and he immediately started pointing and trying to blame other people for not cutting after playing horrible defense where he drifted into no man's land allowing the three point shot before said Inbot, I.
Just didn't see a lot of people criticizing him over that. I'm just like, my goodness, man, what kind of half passes that now? Are?
Barney? Now, remember as much as we've enjoyed the soap opera acting of the urnal list, and he's earned one hundred million dollars plus Steven A. Smith because that jade dropped off a long time ago, right of course, right it's now the journalism part of things has gone away, and good for them. We're still talking about it. Get your clicks, get your ratings and whatever else, and keep the slap fight going.
Forever.
But there's a lot of people and even Lebron in that McAfee interview, you know, kind of started going at folks who've made a cottage industry of covering Lebron James, which means the sycophantic part of things, and you want the good being, the good graces of clutch sports and all of their their tentacles. Mean you're only getting criticized so far, which means the heroics become a Hey, look at the shot from Giddy. Look at the shot from Kobe White right as oppose you don't look over here where guys are getting lost on defense. Lebron makes a half ass inbound pass, and then you don't bother to try to cover up the shooter. Not that a half court shot is anything. That's just easy as can be. But you know, Giddy got to take what two dribbles and got a clean looks dead center.
Yeah, no, I mean, look at he'll make that one out of a hundred times. It just happened to be that one time. And by the way, when when you brought up all that stuff about the players, you know where the problem is is, it's for the first time in a long time we have a big disconnect between the players and the fans and between the media and the players, and it's getting to be real bad. It's getting to be very toxic, as you see with Lebron and him calling out Windhorst and him called out Steven A. Smith and him calling out everybody. It seems like so it's gonna to be real toxic out there. I've never seen it this bad before in my life.
But this is also performative. It's not even funny, aren't he from the Hey, let me address this on the court. You could have done that a million different times. You wanted to do it for show, so he did it on the But.
The fans are having a disconnect also with the with the players too, I believe.
Well. But part of it is you own your own narrative once upon a time, and folks can be critical of it. It was a simpler time in that you only got what players and teams wanted you to get. Because guys were traveling with the team, they might have been paid by the team. There were few of them. Not everybody was a would be journalist with a camera on their phone that would catch things being done during timeouts or you know how a guy's given the coach side eye, or what's going on during during the timeouts on the side, or or maybe in game action where we'd get we get more of that because you've got so many people that want to be the one to catch the guy in the awkward moment. And for Lebron and company, look, player agency goes both ways. Right, They're they're going to have access to the fans and be able to get their message out. But when they're a little salty, they can come back over the top because, let's face it, they have the power and Adam Silver and the and the NBA have allowed that to go on for a long time. And I'm not saying it's it's a wrong thing of just saying we've hit kind of a tipping point.
No, not yet. I was about to say we were gonna did we hit the boiling point? I don't think so yet. It's only it's only going to get worse. And that's Stephen A Smith encounter with Lebron. That's that's just the start of things.
Don't get worse, that's that's just comedy. Like if like if one of them actually thrown a hand or took a real.
Stephen he said, he you'll throw it out next time.
If he had his chance? What did he do right? If he It's all just great talking points, right, It's been great theater for this last week and a half or however long it's been the far too long, in my opinion, we're talking about it now. This is the most we've really breathed air into it. I've made my jokes about the performative nature of it, you know, in passing as we've talked about things. But you know, folks have given it a lot of life. And for Steven A, he's cackling all the way to his one hundred million dollars for Lebron James. We're talking about Lebron and the more there's there's life in this. When he has the lapses as he did at the end of the game against the Bulls, it's not nearly as sialacious because we expect that from a forty year old guy in the in the final seconds of a game.
And also, a regular season doesn't mean as much now as it used to be. For some reason. It's just like, okay, it's just another game, well wait till the playoffs. Doesn't mean but some.
Of it it also, it really never did, but we focused on it perhaps a bit more. Maybe we're a little more distracted so we don't hunker down. It's part of the reason when we talk about the NCAA tournament and you're bringing up the heroics of Cooper Flag. It's something that Dan Byer and I talked about when he was in the chair with me yesterday. Is he's done his job. He's been sensational, but there's so much else going on in the sporting universe. He's doing what we expected him to do, so there's not the same level of build up, right, it's no cries.
It's funny you said, because I was gonna say that the build up on Cooper Flag, not even a tenth of him, was for like what was with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and just taking all the superstars all the way up till now. He's like a tenth of the of the coverage or of the talk going on. And he's supposed to be the number one pick. He is going to be the number one pick. He's the best guy by far. He's a great player. How good is he going to be? I don't know. I mean, is he going to be a Hall of Famer run off the bat. I can't tell you, but he just looks so awesome. But yet he doesn't get any of the press, any of the accolades, any of the I mean, he was the first guy, and how long to get the acc what Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year, and my goodness, man, just look what he's done. He's just tremendous.
Well, let me let me say this to Yarnie and we'll get back to Lebron. James here in the second is perhaps finally as a media, as much as we're blowing up this stupid ass Steven a Lebron nonsense, right, right, Maybe we got.
The Cooper flag right.
We didn't deify him and put him up on Mount Rushmore, build statues and bow and genuflect to him. And it's the first time we've done that with the top prospect in a long time. Maybe we actually got one right because we were too distracted with his other nonsense.
Look at the difference between a top player. Let's say Kago Williams, the quarterback for the Bears, right and before he even came in all favor.
Well, but football is a different animal. Like football fills all the auction, Like right now, we can do four hours standing on our heads about the nonsense of Russell Wilson's signing with the Giants, or what's Aaron Rodger going to do on the large scale. Yeah, we'll see what happens right as we go through it. But you know, for the college buckets, it's been reduced to all unless you're really in, Like you're really into it, right and you're into your conference, you're into your team. You live and die with your Wildcats. That was the point I was making with Smith earlier, is I envy that it's still so hard for him game to game, And then you were.
You you weren't enjoying I was. I'm the same way as you. I'm like, all great, Mike's Mike's not enjoying the tournament. I wasn't enjoying the.
It's not that I'm not enjoying it. Like Cinderella. The specialness, and I've said this all week, is is that she only showed up once in a while, like in terms of a real run, right right, the winning one game. That's not Cinderella, but that's an anomaly. That's a one game.
Like I don't get need her to go far. Just give me the one, the one win, give me give me a buzz buzzer beaters, right, But then all.
It does is screw up the next round. So everybody that was always happy and is like, well, then these guys had an easy path and you dismiss it because they played a twelve or a fourteen or or whatever the case was, Like, we're just so fickle and just so disingenuous with a lot of arguments that we make. And that's part of the conflict I have turning on a microphone every day. You try to be straight lined, you try to be consistent, but you watch everything around you. It's like, no, you can't have it both ways. Either want every number one and number two to fall or you want what we.
Have this right, You're right, you want to, but I just forget about that. What about the buzzer beaters? I mean, you're not gonna give me any buzzer beaters? Like you gave me one game. You may what one time? I'm back in Texas to that guy, okase, I mean that nothing nothing in the first two rounds.
No, we had that Maryland was it was the dress black or blue? By Walker? Didn't he I mean, you can't tell me. You guys didn't waste a lot of time arguing about that on Sunday night.
No, but you invited me over for dinner and you said, here, I got some appetizers, and you put out ten potato chips. I mean, what kind of appetizer is that. You didn't give me nothing in the tournament. You didn't give me anything for me to get all geeked up for me, Like, did you just see that game? Did you see that shot? Yeah, we we had the one. As you mentioned that, Just need a hug.
That's what you need. You need a hug. You saw the teams come out play good basketball.
You know what it's about. You know what it's about. It's about the brackets.
It's about but not every the good old days weren't always good. It's another Billy Joel Mayor who's been with me all week. It's been Billy Joel all all week long. Once one day after another, I've got a Billy Joel song for it. Good old day wasn't always good. Tomorrow is not as bad as it seemed. Everybody crying about the change in basketball and no buzzer beaters and everything else, like just calm down, go for a walk, you know, pet your dog, shovel st high.
But that has nothing. But that has nothing to do with the buzzer beaters, because when you're watching the game, you have no idea to is going to be a buzzer beater or not.
Right, But that's the point is you're in. You're either in or you're out right right right, and and the buzzer beater in, whether it exists or not, isn't going to affect you that game. Right.
You want to do accounts receivable. You want to watch the game come.
I want I want. I want the game to be exciting. And you know what, if there's blowouts, that's part of the price of admission. That means the good teams are doing what they're supposed to do.
I want you to know there's two happy people about that are happy about the NCAA tournament right now. That's you and me. And you don't want to know why. I don't think if you ask ninety nine percent of the people out there, they're like, ten o'clock PM Eastern tip off, ten twenty tip off, what is up with these games? We're happy because we're on the air, but this is ridiculous having this this late at night, tipping off these games. That's just I've never realized. I don't think you've ever had it this late at night, Mike. It's it's crazy again.
You're either in or you're out. Oh, staking an extra twenty minutes is not It's more.
Than twenty minutes. It's after ten o'clock.
And I'm sorry. You've got to go to bedtime, you know, I'm sorry. That's the way life works. It's not fair to stay up a little later on a Friday night.
You want to stay your weeks from the people on the East Coast to.
Bring them on in if they care about this product. The time of day doesn't matter. You rally the next day, so you put an extra shot. Oh, you know in your cup.
We complain about Sunday night football and Monday night football all the time.
It's fine, so continue to complain.
Move if it's that bad, let's move.
Move to the Central time zone, move to the Mountain time zone. Come out here to California. They keep telling me that everybody's leaving, yet it takes me two hours to get here every night. So all of that to say, if it's too late for you, you know what, pick up another damn hobby.
Yeah, go out. I'll just move back out the Los Ange. Why not get to get the West Coast Times, the Pacific Coast Times.
That's all I'm saying, Like whenever we get into these things, like it's the price price of admission, Right, you've decided what your your heart it is, but what you're going to buy into and and and for a couple of weeks, guess what. You go to bed a little bit later on the Thursday and Friday nights.
You know, I just got to get up early in the morning. Gotta you know, you gotta.
Do some sweet we all do. I'm up five hours after I turn off my microphone each day. Do I come in and complain about it? No, I take it off. Coffee that and I go back to work. And then I wait for you and your yellow notepad three hours after I've gone and tried to take a nap. So like all of that to say, like, there's the price of admission to this. And if you're on the East Coast and you want to be a fan of college buckets, guess what You're gonna have to stay up a little late.
Well, they don't care about the ratings on the East Coast. That's why they started.
Oh yeah, no, they absolutely just ignore everybody on the East Coast. Get out of here.
Well no, but it's true because if they're worried about it, they'd move the times. It's all about accommodating the West and the Central.
Well, you want you want to have more of those folks available to you, and the East Coast folks. Guess what they've proven time and time and again that they'll be there if they really needed to shift things. You don't tell me that the metric wouldn't have already told them to do that.
Okay, Well, I just want to say this. I'm sure we'll get into this later on talking about times. What genius said, Hey, why don't we have opening Day on the Thursday of the NCAA tournament in baseball and put like eight games all at four or five Eastern? What genius came up with that idea? I got to figure that out.
Well, we do have a super genius working with us tonight on Friday. I love you Mary, I love you Shay. But Steve Desager is over at the news desk. I'm sure, hey, don't do that. He'll come and find you because I mean, look, he's Sunday night. I mean, he can help control how how often your microphone is on or off. But he likes to do stuff about ratings. I'm sure he'll find some nuggets about baseball again if they were worried about it. Now what they need to do is figure out all their damn problems with the MLB TV package. I've been frozen out for two days, and as a guy who has a very powerful blow torch of nearly five hundred stations here on Fox Sports Radio, probably not a wise thing to piss me off, because we'll rally some folks around and when I've got you, I mean you've got your army as well. At stick a genius one is where you find him find me over at Swollen Dome. We have argued quite a long while right on this one. Yeah, right off the jump, we'll talk some nil transfer portal and all of that fun. Coming up next. We got some great quotes from a legend of the now Big Ten. We'll get to that. Arnie Spander in for Jason Smith al Mike Carmon. Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon rolls on here on Fox Sports Radio. You know the average time to hire for most organized ations thirty to forty five days. You tired of a costly and lengthy hiring process, well, simply and speed up your recruitment by using the experts at Express Employment Professionals. Reduce time to hire, cut down on multiple interviews, and lower your recruitment costs. Whether you're looking for contract workers or a new team member, our streamline job posting, candidate screening and hiring process is even more efficient and always more efficient than hiring on your own. Visit expresspros dot com today. If you haven't used a staffing company before, welcome, This is the year to do things differently. Businesses are navigating a hiring landscape never been more expensive or regulated. So draft the experts and get the next pro for your team. Start at expresspros dot com to find the location near you for all types of jobs and a variety of reasons, choose Express Employment Professionals and that's the move, to make no question about it. With more than eight hundred locally owned offices, you'll get the hiring sport you need at expresspros dot com. That's expresspros dot com.
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Gratings and welcome in an hour or two of the program The Jason Smith Show with Me Mike Carmon live from the tirac dot com studios. Jason out tonight. He'll be back on Monday. In instead, it's the Stinking Genie.
Where did he go up north?
I think, uh, I think a couple of college visits and just kind of hanging out and you know, on the open road.
Yeah, well he might not be back in time.
Maybe.
I mean, I'll tell you why, because we are having I'm in Vermont, we are having a forty eight hour snowstorm up here in the north, in the Northeast.
So is Beth already stretching your way?
Ha?
Does I know you're gonna send her out to do the shoveling.
You're somebody's gotta do it. We're what boy could get almost an inch an hour, So we're we're it's supposed.
Yeah, he just drove up the coast here in California. He's not on by.
I didn't do that Pittsburgh trip like I did a core.
No, I thought he was in zero.
No.
No, looking at a couple of schools is the best I could tell here in northern California. Here's here's one of the things. We work together a lot. Yeah, we don't tell each other every detail of what we're doing with our time off. Oh it's like did you go and refresh? Did you get some time? Cool? If you saw a movie you liked?
Cli and I tell everything.
Yeah, I know. When you come back, maybe we get a little bit more filled in, But generally it's like you go your way, I'll go mine. I'll see you in a week.
Wow, I thought you guys were best friends.
Well we are, okay, but I you know, sometimes you need everybody needs a little time away, just like Chicago saying all those years ago, right, get a little Peter, Satara, and you're like Evan, Maddy needs a little time away. You wait, I get seeing Maybe yeah we can do this, let's get after it. But yeah, we're watching Houston and Purdue seventeen sixteen, seven minutes left in the first half. Yeah, big barn burner. There.
You told me you weren't excited about this tournament before. When I when I was texting you. You didn't you didn't have that warm, fuzzy feeling for the NCAA Tournament this year.
It's just one of those events on the calendar that we as a as a nation, as a sports loving nation, we don't care. We don't care, we don't care, And now it's supposed to be the most important thing in the world. That just doesn't resonate with me. And it's not because Northwestern isn't there, because I know that's your next joke, right, it's more just the I'm into it, like it was part of what we were talking about last hour, Right, Jason still lives and dies with everything his teams do.
Yeah, but we don't even care about Opening Day of baseball anymore. When I was younger, I knew that the Reds were going to play Opening Day by themselves. They had the day to themselves. Who were theyre going to play? When it was going to start? I think it was like the Sunday night before everybody started on Monday. I can't even tell you how many times Chris and I on so then I going, well, how many weeks left out? Three weeks before the start of the season, two weeks even when baseball got here, I go, when does it start now? Thursday? Are we sure? On the day? Veets tournaments going into the sweet six team? So you know those days are over.
But the sanctity of the singular we own a day is long gone side if you can find eyeballs and on the calendar, and when you talk about some of the scheduling, that has to happen because at this point we're looking at Thanksgiving Day games for Major League Baseball to close out a World series. If you don't move some of this stuff up here, Arnie.
And I know ratings were through the roof the first week. I know I heard the SEGA or I was reading them. Actually they were just a tad under two million, like one point nine or something, so good for them, a good way to start things off. I thought baseball was on the decline a little bit, but they it seems like when they added the the clock, the pitch clock, and sped things up, the games are good two and a half hours or less. I think a lot of people have come around and says, I'm okay with it. Now I'm gonna watch some baseball. So I think that's kind of examinated.
Windows they sold a lot of tickets. I mean, you basically have the Dodgers or the Traveling road Show, so they're always going to bring an audience, whether it's in Japan or any town near you, they're gonna sell out. The big brands. Winning certainly is not gonna hurt things.
Adding the playoff teams too, like I'm always.
Play on teams, right, got to do that so September.
It's only a matter of time. It's only a matter of time. And I've been on this island by myself for years, but it's only a matter of time before we go to the split season. That way, you could have two opening days, two you know, Pennant races, two of everything when your team's twenty three and a half games out of first place, renewed life in the second season, help with ticket sales, help people go with games, help with the TV ratings. So it's only a matter of time before it's a win win situation.
Yeah, I think it's it's nice in theory. We'll poke holes in it as we continue.
Nothing to poke holes that is would be the if.
You are for the eight teams that have qualified, then you're done.
No what you could do that sixteen sorry, well whatever, whatever it is. So that means if you win both halves, maybe you get a buye, you.
Get super Bonus and you get the money Ball and every home runs worth two.
Mean you don't have to tire out your your your pitching staff. Maybe you pitch them once every six days instead of five days. Maybe you bring some youngsters up. Maybe you do some of that.
See now you're going NBA load management. Look what you did there. You just went full loan man load management.
Hundred shutsdown games, one hundred and sixty two games. You're gonna have that? I mean, please, nobody.
Hey, you don't get to sit down for the six games in eight days, posting it on social media and then keep saying I'm hurt high lebron So you have that process and then back for an absolute whooping at the hands of the Bulls before losing them for a second time in the week on that Josh Giddy buzzer beater last night. As we sit here at the tyrac dot com studios, tyrac dot com will help you get there an unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tyreract dot com the way tire buying should be watching these NCAA games. And earlier I was driving around picking up some food for the younger kid, and flipped on the radio, and there's a five to seventy LA sports and my guy's Petrosien Money doing their thing. A lot of jackassery and tom foolery, which is why I love it. Right, they chronicle all car chases and whatever else. But in the middle of one of those, they had a visit with Don McClain. You remember Don McClain, an all time leading scorer right in Pac twelve history. Now he part of the Big Ten, and he's part of the coverage of the Clippers right long NBA career and certainly still working doing Bruins broadcasts and stuff for the Big Ten. He was on with Petroson Money and to set it up, you know, long conversation. He's got a kid playing some college basketball right now, and so Petros set it up with what seemed like a hey, let's get your thoughts on this and go. And well, Don McLean's answer gives us some very interesting tales of where we're at in the portal and transfer process.
You know, there's a lot of lamentation about Cinderella being dead. But a lot of the people that are lamenting Cinderella being dead in college basketball are the ones that celebrated the NIL it came out, So you know, I mean, there's all kinds of different results, good and bad, from all the different changes in college sports.
Have you enjoyed the tournament so far?
The answer to that question is yes. I was just going to ask you if I can come on for the next five segments to go over how I feel about college basketball right now in the portal in NIL and everything else. We're now going through it again with Trent. He decommitted from West Virginia because a coach went to Indiana. But now we're waiting on the portal. How about this? You know what a guy told me yesterday, a really well connected guy told me yesterday. What's that that? Of the Power four conferences? Okay, Big ten, ACC Big twelve, and what's the other one the sec SEC? Sorry that if you're a rotation player in one of those four leagues, meaning top eight players, of what you are now getting in the portal half a million dollars?
What wow?
Every single player half a million dollars is to go and rate not even start. That's where we That's yeah, that's where we are now in college basketball. Now it's going to change with the rev sharing thing and Pee, I don't know what you've heard on the football side, but it sounds like the rev sharing thing that's getting voted on April seventh is going to change this where it's not going to be as much money all the way around. If you have real true nil deals, meaning with Gatorade or Nike or whatever, you still get that nil money. But just this free flowing money of we'll give you one hundred and fifty grand to go to the car dealership and sign autographs for half an hour. That stuff, for my understanding, is going to kind of go away, So that will slow this down a little bit.
But it's just.
Wrong and maybe I'm a little biased right now because of the situation trends in But how is it that a kid that can play and play high major Division one basketball has to wait for the portal that has twelve hundred kids in it because for the most part, they're in there to get paid. They're not there because they didn't like where they were at. For most of them, they're in there because they had a good year and now they're cashing in and that's where we're at in college basketball. To me, Look, I've always been for players to get paid, but this is ridiculous, Like it's it's out of control. And hopefully with this rev sharing thing on the horizon that it will change.
Think about that five hundred k to start rotational player that Don mcclayan on earlier today. Thanks to Tim Kates, the producer the Pettersen Money Show there on a five seventy LA Sports, for getting us the audio to Shay and for him pushing that to get that into the system for us already, think about that rotational players. We're not even talking about the stars right right, we're talking you're part of the and if one.
Of them goes down, then now you only got nine and eight if front of them's injured there, But that's beside the point. I never knew it was that much money. I'm shocked. Maybe I was naive, Mike when I thought we were when we started nil it was gonna be like come on down the gym's the auto dealership, and you're gonna meet so and so he's gonna sign some autographs, shake some shake some hands. Uh, you know, we're gonna pay him like five thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars, and he was gonna get a bunch of commercials, maybe a free car to drive around campus. And that's what these kids were gonna get. Not in my wildest dreams did I think it was going to be something like this and that kids were gonna be entering the portal just to get their money and transferred to to another school. The portal's out of control. I agree with Don, this is crazy that the each kid's getting a half million dollar hours if you're in the top eight rotation out there, where's all this money coming from?
Are these boots? That's the thing, right, what the market will bear? I mean, we're talking about it last week, aren't even what's one of the biggest fascinations with the NCAA tournament. People fill it out brackets or placing some wagers because you get a lot of day to day action, right day trading for lack of a better term. They were estimating legally three point one billion dollars right legally, So think about the remaining shadow markets and stuff that you're not necessarily able to trace, right.
Yeah, but that doesn't go back to the end.
No, no, no, but it's just the large s, which means those folks have vested interest in some of the schools and the players. Some percentage right of that three point one billion is people that are really interested in the individual programs, conferences, et cetera.
But then you get back in that give that money.
Well, but that's just it, right, you only need one right, how many schools or again and others where it's primarily you've got one major benefactor doesn't mean there's not a lot of funny tribute.
We were talking about this on Sunday, I say, where does b YU get their money?
Right?
They're talking about the nil portal and all that, and then a bunch of people tweeted us Marriott, they give the money.
No, but that's just it. If you run, if you want to go do the due diligence for every school, you're gonna find a couple of major corporations that have alumni at exactly of their executive boards and that it's good business to be part of it, to make your school that much better and look quid proq. Well, right, where you got to go? Stay somewhere where you're on the road, right, so you talk about hotels, you talk about cars, you talk about all, like all of it like this begets begetst, that begainst the other. Isn't this what we want all?
You wanted the kids to make money, You wanted them to get their share. You kept saying, how uh NCAA football and basketball is making money, hands over fist. So finally the kids have a chance to make money back and now everybody's getting bent out of shape.
Well, but that's just it. Right between timing, we'll hear from Bruce Pearl, you mentioned him earlier. We'll talk about him and his comments about the portal and the timing. Spoiler alert. He agrees with me, it's like, too damn bad because coaches can just pick up and leave. And don't tell me that all the hard conversations long before the tournament hadn't already been.
Had, Oh with you guys early right exact.
Where kids already know they're leaving or they're on the edge because of playing time or what the coach is going to do right. Don owed to the fact that his son is trying to figure out what to do right, he was committed coach left.
The manager knew from McNee State. McNeese, excuse me that he was going to go to NC State with the coach out of mere conkid, right, he knew he was going.
You want to talk about cashing in good good on. I wish I was eighteen to twenty one. Again, that's all I can say. The opportunities based on the jack ascery and fandom that we had back in the.
Day, something special that I miss.
He was just their guy and he had a rap or you know, is he well there was a video that eventually came out of him wrapping along to a song and the teammate, the whole team was just confused that he knew the words to it. But in terms of like he was a good student manager, and like maybe it shines a spotlight on what these kids and and people in the programs do behind the scenes. So maybe they get a little more run, even if they they're not flamboyant and embraced. Yeah, he was getting a big money, but that's the thing, right, But like I said, I hope other people get a little bit of run because he certainly got over in a big way. And and maybe he he kicks them back to the players because g yeah, they certainly helped out and they got fed literally in part of this process with all the NID deals he signed. But you know, the money is there, it's just now activated. And the unintended constant is that, yes, you're gonna have guys go, well, I can only get dollar X from the school i'm at. I can get X times two times four ten.
And it hurts the small schools. Now the mid majors that we like, the ones that pulled off the upsets, because you have one good year at these schools and you're looking to move up to it.
But you always, Arnie, you always did if you were a good player. You know, they always say talent will be found.
Well, but you couldn't transfer this quickly like you used to.
Well, but do you want to go back to where you got to sit out heat? You're not on ringing that bell.
No, no, no, that's.
But the way you're saying, like you can transfer so easily, well unless you put a rule in that you can't continue to transfer. Looking, you got guys that will play as grad gred transfers and grad assistance if they still have eligibility, because it's another payday right right, So I mean it increases the workforce. It does the job for the NBA because a lot of these guys may not commit where they you know, to the NBA draft where they might have otherwise. Because if you're not in the first round, you're not guaranteed any contract. So now, if you stay in school, you get some money, you might get a couple hundred grand, and.
Maybe you get a degree, who knows.
Who knows, maybe you actually fall into a classroom now because.
That whole class Hey, how about that is well?
I mean that's the next frontiers that we take away the the cloak of student athlete altogether, right, the student part of it.
Yeah, exactly right, job.
Right, and you're just a paid basketball player, volleyball player wherever the money's flowing.
Uh.
Then we'll talk about that as you do.
You think it's too much transferring though, I mean, how many people in the portal now in basketball it's insane.
Sounds like or something. That's how many actually transfer out and have offers somewhere else. Don't know, We'll see how it shakes out.
Indiana has like no people on their team, right, I think it's in the app But.
When you have coaching changes and for the mid majors, look, but.
They have nobody. I mean they cal Perry just did yes, right.
But he'd been doing that for twenty years anyway, so he had a first move or advantage because that's all he ever did was bring in new freshmen. Right, So what he did with Arkansas, yeah, it's great, but really he it's not a blueprint years ago. You hated him back then because it was all under the counter.
That's another thing that this is kind of eliminated, is the freshman coming in and being able to play. It's all about portal and transferring. And hey, this guy had eighteen points and Murray State. I'll take him over some guy that was a star in high school. Some guys don't even you know, bothered looking at high school kids anymore.
Here, Arnie, I want you to look up a freshman C double O peer space f l A double G. Reclassified his twin, who's his name is? Ace? Is still in high school? Reclassify freshman. I think he's doing just fine. Are still going to find their way to the corner.
All it's all about the portal, it's all about the transfer. A lot of programs don't even bother with high school students anymore. They don't even They're like, why should I I hear? I get to see what kids are actually achieving in college, not who's the big and sure there's some great high school players. Arizona just signed the top ten player. He announced that the pat back and feet show he's a good one. But you know he can't. There's only a few of those. They're not the few and far between compared to the transfer portal.
Well, but they always really were in terms of the standouts areny. I don't know that that's necessarily changed. Now we'll see what happens when people cut down the nets. How many are transfers, how many steak we talk about FAU, Dan and I yesterday the number of guys from FAU that are contributing in the sweet sixteen at other schools. So, you know, the Norfolk State coach had the big thing of hey, we're just a juco program and a feeder system. Well it's always been that way, due to a degree. Now it's just a bit exacerbated with the dollar sign attached to it. He's already spanier. I'm Mike Garmin. It's Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with me Mike Carmon coming up next, we turn our attention to the NBA. Adam Silver with some interesting comments. You want expansion in turn in the US. Eh, maybe uh put the brakes on that He's got bigger visions. We'll talk about that coming up next here on Fox.
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.
Welcome back in It's Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with Me, Mike Harmon, No Jason Tonight, our guy Arnie Spanier in his stead. Michigan up forty six thirty nine now on Auburn, and then we have the other game now gone to halftime as well, Arnie. So exciting Friday night shaping up here as we've got games that are in the balance, which is really hard, you can hope.
So it's a two point lead, thirty one to twenty nine over Houston. I love Kelvin Sampson. I think he's a great coach, so that'd be quite the upset. And I'm surprised Michigan with that seven point lead now over Auburn. Auburn not shooting the ball well, Michigan just getting a little bit more tougher, but still plenty of time of will like go over twelve minutes left day, I still think Auburn's gonna come back and win this week.
We got those big rim protectors, so you're getting after it as your role, as you said, shooting just thirty one percent from the field. Already fourteen turnovers for Auburn as well as we get down to twelve and a half left in that one. So we'll keep you aprized as we roll along. We've got Major League Baseball, you got NBA action, You've got the women's tournament. Had a couple of games.
We missed THELA only up. I wanted halftime last night checked.
We talked about the dismal North Carolina Duke game from earlier today that was just bad. USLA now up fourteen with a little less than five minutes.
Left, well they poured it on.
Then Wow, rough night for old miss Uh. Yes, this one rolls on. You take the three point loss to Michigan State on the men's side and now the women's side getting work. U c L a number one seed, thirty two and two on the year, So we'll keep it and keep it.
That was horrible what happened to Juju Watkins? Did you see that play?
That was?
That was just what time? Did it happen, Arnie.
I have no idea what he was on the air.
We would have been on air, So yeah, Juju Watkin gets hurt and then twenty minutes later, Jason Tatum lands on a foot and for the moment it was like, oh no.
Tatum looked like it was gonna be a lot worse than a sir.
Sir I thought there.
I was like that commercial, we're gonna have to up you take your careers over? Wow, you know what you saw that commercial where they go we'll just take a digital.
I'm gonna go out a lemon say no, no, it's not over. Or if I saw it, I didn't.
Yeah, like I want to.
I'm in the studio here, I get no sound.
He act like he was shot in the foot man.
He was like, oh that was pretty brutal. Yeah, pretty brutal to look to it and pretty already play when it's all said and done. For that one, No, I didn't like it. I think it was a half ass closeout effort towards like I'm an alter your shot, pay attention, and then you're in his landing path like there was there was no real effort on the ball or to defend it. It's more just a here I am and like flashing into your line of use as you go. Right. So Adam Silver had a lot to say the last couple of days here, Arnie. So let's break down a couple of them. First off, I loved his quote on the salacious lebron James Stephen a smith tail because it's more speaking to the larger point that's been made a lot with the NBA this year, and Adam Silver talking about it saying, you know, sometimes here's the quote. Sometimes it seems that in other sports that I'm a fan of, and when I watched the coverage, particularly around the games, it seems more celebratory often than it is with the NBA. And I accept it.
He's right about that. For look, we do get on players in the NFL, but yes, it's more celebratory, and in the NBA we're we're a lot more critical. I think a bunch of reasons. One, we enjoy the NFL more, we enjoy football more to the NBA with all this load management puts us in a bad situation to begin with. We're in a bad mood to begin with because of all this load management out there. And three, it just feels, you know, like they have a disconnect with the with the fans out there. That's why it seems like there's a lot of fighting going on with the NBA and then the and the media.
Well, I mean, part of it is if the people that are on your broadcast continually tell you how poor everything is, right, it becomes reinforced right, and it becomes the talking point that you go out repetition of the product is bad, this team is badest style of play is bad. Becomes the the echo chamber, and that's how people then.
What are we really missing? Though all this the NBA's bad? What are we missing? You're missing the mid range jumpers? Would you the what? Maybe defense? But nobody ever complains about missing defense? What exactly are we missing that we're ripping on the NBA that says it's not a fun product to watch.
I think some of it is the effort. Some of it is not necessarily missing the well, but even effort on the court right you to defense to a degree, and that gets people, you know, all prickly when you start talking about that, because trying to give you know, full effort. I understand it. Forty eight minutes a night or thirty eight or whatever you're playing in a night, right, you're gonna take some possessions a little less less less than and certainly intensity. Im in hell, go back to everybody had been clamoring about the defense of the Lakers. Then you watch that absolute collapse against Chicago yesterday. I'm like, okay, this is now becoming a trend. Right, you got to end line over the few games where the defense hasn't been all that versus you know that first juice.
We used have NBA games in the one seventeen, so there could have been good defense back then, and like the NBA when of the scores were seventy two seventy.
Well, but that's the thing, right, it's styles and taste change and who you're listening to. And this goes in all aspects. And I'm only taking this so far. So if you carry it over the line, you get whatever retribution comes from social media at stink and Genius one. But you know what I'm saying, like, folks are going to listen to some of the people they may agree with right the good old days, As I quoted Billy Joel earlier, it's like, wow, you know what, it's not like it was in the eighties, whereas Lebron and others do everything they can to tell you how they'd run up and down the floor on these other players, and it's it goes back into all right, if we're doing the time time machine thing, do they get to come along into twenty twenty five with all the technological advances, the ability to travel first class, the ability to sleep in a hyperbaric chamber, the ability to take whatever the hell supplements these guys will taking, the ability to go and train and not work a second job in the off season other than the film, a commercial, and all of these other things.
We don't get it both ways.
You don't get the body and everything you have in twenty twenty five to transport you back to the sixties and seventies. If it doesn't work the same way going.
Back, you're right about the one hundred.
So all of a sudden, you're Steve Rodgers, you know, looking like the scrawny little kid that can't get get stamped until Stanley Tucci says, hey, I got an idea, Yeah, yeah right, Tommy Lee Jones is you know, all grumpy and miserable, and then all of a sudden you get the super Serman Bam, we got ourselves to captain America.
You're never gonna win that argument, By the way, what do you.
Think, Well, that's the beauty of it, right, It just it's the little Lebron and Michael Jordan argument. All it does is waste time filled collumnses. And that's part of what Silver had to say is it's like, well, I guess they're talking about us, so I guess that's a win.
You know.
I gotta ask, isn't it tiring for Lebron? First of all, you're one of the most recognizable people on this planet. You're worried about playing for the Lakers. You got your teammates, you got your family, you're worried about Brodny. Do you really have to worry about the press and Steven A. Smith? I mean people want to hear what you say about basketball in China. I mean, don't you have enough to worry about it. It's got to be tiring to be guarded all the time, you know what I mean. It's got to be hard on him to have to worry about everything that comes out of his mouth.
Well, the old I'm gonna steal from Spider Man here, we're gonna stay in the MCU see you getting no pop culture stone unturned.
Here.
With great power comes great responsibility. And if you want to declare yourself king, which he's done right right, If you want to do that, that means everything you do is going to be scrutinized, right.
I understand it's.
The unfortunate you want to earn a billion as an entertainer, because at the end of the day, this is just an extension of Broadway in Hollywood, which is why I keep joking about the soap opera actor Steven A. Smith, which he actually is. He appears on General Hospital, so all of this is soap opera acting with his you know, low voice and all of that. And Lebron when he was with McAfee, does he really just want to drop f bombs all over I've watched enough interviews. Sometimes you know, you do it for effect, sometimes like hey, look I'm with the kids. You know, look at me. I can be cool. So you know, if you buy into it, and the more you pay attention and the rabbit years are up and you can't tell me that for the most popular and best players of each of their times, they didn't try to control things as best they can. Of course the day right, but that's just it. It was a lot easier then and here the hard part is, you know, you've got all your hangers on and sick of fans that are going to tell you what everybody's doing. Do I think Lebron is, you know, scroll Twitter endlessly? I hope not right, but maybe he is. Maybe he's like everybody else who's talking about me.
I look for a guy that has it all, and I'm not saying he doesn't enjoy life. I'd like to see him be a little bit more happier. It doesn't seem like he's very happy during some times, and we are certainly unfair to him at times. I mean, what is exactly he's done that really should you know, facilitate all the bad press and all the things being said about him. And you know, sure, if you want to keep it the basketball, that's one thing. But he catches a lot of grief out there. He really does.
Well.
Again, you're the number one guy. Every once in a while, he's had some some statements that make you raise your eyebrows. We've had, we had the incident. Was there graffiti on his house or not? Folks went at that like there's there's a bunch of incidents of all right, what's true, what's imagined, what's myth building? And and just some part of the audience you're going to fight back on that. Some of it is he draws eyebrows no matter what you say. So if everything's going this direction, what's the normal move, Well, we're gonna go over here because that's going to get you attention as well. Right, So, I think a lot of it is just wwe k fabe. As We've talked about a lot in soap opera acting, and you've got a lot of disingenuous actors, you know, the earnal list journalist kind of thing that you don't believe ninety percent of what you're saying, but because people are clicking on it, you stay with it and.
You at the clicks.
Yeah, right, but you run it a little bit further looking For some it rungs into the millions and millions of dollars For others, man, maybe not so much. Hey for providing extra support during busy seasons to replacing vacant roles, you need Express employment professionals on your team. Express can handle everything from contract placements to finding the right full time member. So if your workforce challenges, when you draft Express to manage workers' compensation, payroll benefits and more, so you can concentrate on what really matters owing your business. So go to expresspros dot com. If you've never used a staffing company before, Here's how Express has helped businesses like yours. Eighty percent of businesses turned to staffing companies to fill temporary vacancies, seventy two percent use staffing for extra support during busy times, at sixty eight percent to staff special short term projects from all job to types of jobs in a variety of reasons. Choosing Express Employment professionals is the move to make. So visit expresspros dot com today. Haven't used a staffing company before, visit a year to do things differently. Businesses are navigating at hiring landscape that's never been more expensive or regulated. So draft the experts and get the next pro for your team. Start at expresspros dot com to find the location near you. Now we're getting towards winning time. Nobody better to announce its triumphant return than our guy, Steve de Sager at the News Desk.
One seed Auburn has taken the lead on Michigan under ten minutes to go.
It's forty nine forty eight.
The winner will face Michigan State Sunday, five pm Eastern Time in the South Region five in Atlanta. Michigan State advanced over Ole Miss seventy three seventy. In fact, coach Tom Izzo of the Spartans his record against SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament is now ten to oh that's the most wins without a loss by any coach against a single conference in the history of the men's tournament. Currently at Indianapolis, Yeah, Purdue gets to play there tonight. They're leading at the half against one seed Houston Boilermakers thirty one to twenty nine. Winner gets Tennessee Sunday. In the Midwest Region final, the Balls eliminated Kentucky seventy eight sixty five. Balls led by nineteen late in the first half. In the women's Sweet sixteen, number one UCLA again playing with its food in the first half, but now leading fifty five forty two over Old Miss late in the third quarter. Bruins did have just a one point halftime lead. Victories for Dukes South Carolina and LSU in the NBA the late game to Denver one, twenty nine to ninety three over the Utah Jazz, whoever record of sixteen and fifty nine. The Grizzlies fired coach Taylor Jenkins. The Baltimore Ravens gave coach John Harbaugh on extension through twenty twenty eight. Deon Sanders got a five year extension from Colorado. The UFL Spring League started tonight on Fox TV with Saint Louis winning at Houston thirty one to six.
That's my team.
Well, there's the Kiss of Death.
NASCAR's on FS one again the next three Sundays. American Alyssa lou won the figure skating World title tonight and to Major League Baseball. Ex Dodger Jack Flaherty and La Native is pitching at Dodgers Stadium tonight. He had a one hitter through five. The Dodgers Freddie Freeman has just tied the game with a two run homer. Yes it is, Dodgers, don't say that it is. Dodgers and Tigers tied two to two in the bottom of the six. Padres and Braves tied three to three in San Diego in the top of the seventh, The Mets got a solo homer from Juan Soto and won at Houston three to one. Tampa Bay on a walk off home run, edged Colorado three to two, and Pittsburgh with wins Texas for to one over Boston. Jonah him with a couple of solo homers at Arizona Diamondbacks a six' to one leader against The cubs bottom of the, seventh and The a's are shutting out The mariners In seattle five to nothing in the bottom of the. Seventh you referenced earlier in the hour the opening day BASEBALL tv, Ratings, yeah had a little bit of. Context THE nba games on NATIONAL tv this year are averaging about one point six million. Viewers Yankees brewers opener over one point nine million on cable, yesterday and that was A thursday day, game Not thursday, primetime just for the, record and then The tigers At dodgers got one point seventy five million right after.
That pick to, you know what helped That Brewers yankees. Game that was the only feed that was working because it was ON espn.
Plus that was like Noon eastern though that was the earlier or one o'clock, noon.
Right but it was it was a game and started as a standalone. Right then the other game started to come in and on, board but you couldn't watch the other games because the mL tv. Service so that was your free game of the. Day that was. It that is exactly What i'm. Saying Thanks, Steve steve de sag you're at the news. Desk thanks to To shay and To mary and The ian And brandon in the, back and of Course Arnie spaniers sitting in For Jason. SMITH i like the fact, that as you, said My dodgers And steve tried to shush. You it's only appropriate you're in The smith seat tonight because everything he touches and every team he predicts doing, well it goes to. Hell so he doesn't want your voodoo on His, dodgers, Right that's kind of What i'm saying. Here so just JUST i, mean watch your. Back there's a lot Of dodger fans, man a lot of. Expectation
