Welcome in What's Drive with the great Episode three thirteen. Programming note demonse for I think the first time in the history of the pod out sick today. I talked to him this morning. He was gonna fight through and come in. I said, take your day. So wish the best to Demons, but a hell of an iron man streak for him of not missing any time, and so he's out today, So it will be just me, which you know should definitely, as always promised, lead to a quicker show because he's the one that always does the over talking and explaining and non sequiturs and different various rants you where you interrupt yourself. I've told him he's got to stop talking so much, so we'll get right to it. Here is what missed the cut in today's show, and the first thing that missed the cut didn't miss the cut is all at all? Uh. Bronnie James thirty nine, seven, four and four for the South Bay Lakers last night against Sam Cruz. He was a plus nineteen in his thirty eight minutes. It was far and away his best game at the professional level. And this is where I will as I have remind everyone that twenty months ago July twenty fifth or twenty fourth of twenty twenty three, this kid suffered cardiac arrest. It totally derailed his collegiate season, and that is evidenced by the fact that he has now had ten professional games, one at the NBA level and nine at the G League level that are better than anything he ever did in college. And so when people pointed out, like, oh my god, look at his college statline and that's a player that you're drafting, it, there had to be some math done on. Yes, his collegiate numbers were that of a player that typically would not be drafted, even late in the second round. But if you throw the season away and say those numbers were due to the fact that he never got his legs or his wind underneath them because of the months he had to stay away from the court because they thought he might not be able to play basketball ever again due to a congenital heart defect, then maybe, just maybe you saw some traits that could be a successful player. And Kevin O'Connor, who knows a hell of a lot more about the draft and about college basketball than I do, tweeted to me this morning that if they did a redraft today he thought Bronni would be a first round pick, and that if Bronnie can keep up this shooting, then he's a legitimate NBA player. And again, I am not trying to make too much of the G League, which is something we never talked about previously. However, because Brownie is a star and because he has been the subject of scrutiny, we have to be fair in that the expectation was that in the G League, with grown men, with a lot of guys who were former first round picks trying to make a career for themselves, with a lot of guys who had a lot more experience than him, with a lot of guys who were much more highly drafted than him, that he was going to it certainly in his first year in the G League. Really have his work cutout for him now, and more than his work cutout for him, potentially really struggle. And instead he now after not playing well in Summer League and not playing well in the G League's kind of preseason I don't tip off tournament or whatever they call it, in the G League regular season, he is now averaging twenty two five and five on forty six thirty eight eighty splits that is a great value for your fifty fifth overall pick and shout out and credit to Brownie. And so we're not gonna spend more time on that. But that was in what missed the Cup, But he didn't actually miss the cut. We did a nice few minutes on it. Also, SVP my guy after Maryland finally gets on the right side of a buzzer beater, tweets you know he's a Dieyard Terrapin fan, and he tweets out never a doubt, as a wise man, says shut out, Scott Van Pelt, Ernie Johnson, Kevin Wilds the only three people in sports media with one hundred percent approval ratings. And very nice of Scott to include. You know, obviously my trademark tattooed came up with first person ever use it phrase never a doubt. Very nice of him to use that in celebrating an all time Marilynd moment. More on the tournament in a second, and I guess that is one way to put it. I did invite myself on the Kelsey's pod. The Kelsey's tweeted, should we have an NFL salary cap expert on the show? And I just responded, I got you. I mean, you know that way it could be said, because obviously I'm a salary cap expert, but also we could talk other things and it would be interesting because you know, Eagles fans tend not to like me that much, but Jason, I would imagine does I don't know, but if we could get a What's Right with Nick Wright New Heights crossover, that would have to be good for the burgeoning What's Right brand, which, by the way, YouTube's like rate, subscribe review on all platforms YouTube just crossed one hundred and ninety thousand, so we appreciate you guys for that. We're the slow climb towards two hundred thousand continues. But also we'd really like you guys to subscribe on either iTunes or Spotify wherever you guys get your podcasts. All right, so we have to lead this morning with just a huge bummer, which is a young woman who I truly and I said this last year. I think, well, and I'm not going to use past tense, but I had said this in the past, and I still believe it has a chance to be the greatest women's basketball player ever. I truly believe that. I believe that I when everyone was talking about, and I obviously was a huge part of the talk as well about the phenomenon that is Caitlin Clark. I think you guys heard me say a couple times on the show that I thought Juju Watkins at USC might end up being even better better than Caitlin and even better than everybody her size, her athleticism, her basketball IQ. It is elite of the elite, and a player that can do everything, a player that recently put up a stat line that had not been put up in men's or women's professional or college basketball this century. When I think she had thirty eight points, eleven rebounds, five assists, eight blocks, and again a forty minute college game, she tore acl last night, and it's just devastating for a bunch of reasons. It puts it. I would imagine on the board that she doesn't play college basketball again. Now I would think she does. I would think that the playing is for her to miss all of next season and then come back for what would be her senior year. I guess red shirt junior year and continue to play. And with nil and the WNBA salary structure, I would have to imagine Juju can potentially make far more money at USC than she would at the beginning of her WNBA career, unless something drastically changes with the rookie salary scale there. But this is just an ultimate bummer because getting we got in the final four last year Page versus Caitlin, and we were basically assured that we were going to get Page versus Juju in the Elite eight, and it was I talked about how I didn't love that they put USC in Yukon in the same region because that felt like it should be a final four inter national championship potential matchup, and it ends up that it's going to be, and USC should still get they should be able to win next round without Juju, but not past that. They absolutely can't beat Yukon without Juju. And you just feel sick for this young lady who is has the real potential to be a true superstar, a true crossovers not just great player. She's obviously going to be well, she already is a great player, and she and a torn acl you know, is not career altering the way it once was. But she needs a great NCAA tournament run just to catapult her celebrity the way Caitlin had and the way honestly Angel Reese, who no disrespect to Angel Reese, but Angel Reese is not nearly the caliber of player of Caitlin, or of Juju, or of Page for that matter, and they have all had these great tournament runs. Juju, this was going to be that this year, and if not this year, next year, and now out for I would imagine all of next season, which is just such an absolute bummer. And here is the thing about acls the way I have seen them over the last decade. Acls are different in that they used to truly be career altering and these days they are not. Meaning people typically come back one hundred percent to their pre ACL tear ability, strength, speed, quickness, all of that, but they are not quick injuries. It usually is a minimum of the calendar year that you are out, and usually a little more than that until you look like your old self. So a huge bummer. Not really, this is put this in the huge story not a great topic category, and I mean that's kind of what it is. There's not much to say. It's massive news, but it just sucks. There's no real take to have. And so Juju Watkins out and I have to you know, Yukon's now, I'm gonna look it up on DraftKings. I just can't. Maybe you guys can put in the dock for me. I mean, I know they're the favorite, but I just wonder what they are now? Is Yukon women to win that region? To win the region, I have to imagine they are minus huge money. I'm not able to pull it up right now. If you guys can throw it in the dock whenever you can find it, just put what they are to win the championship and what they are to win the region, because I do not see who possibly could stop them. Certainly now listen UCLA South Carolina. Those are legitimate championship level teams. But I Yukon's in the final four and they're now plus one sixty to win the whole thing. We can't find them to win the region. But it's not gonna be I mean they it's not gonna be much of a question. I saw. I got the I had the privilege of watching the Yukon women in person from court side seats thanks to Fox. The game was on Fox beginning of the year, and I left that game saying I don't know how anyone's beating them. Now, Ucla and South Carolina is obviously a juggernaut, and USC had shown, oh no, they're of that caliber, and Yukon lost a few times. But I feel like you can put probably in pen A, Yukon Ucla final four on your left side of the bracket, and you know, thoughts with Juju, it absolutely sucks, just absolutely sucks that she's done for the year and potentially done for next year. One note, and I'm sure this will happen because Page is such an awesome athlete and awesome person. From all accounts, Page dealt with an ACL and missed a year, and so I would imagine if she has not already, Paige is going to reach out to Juju and try to help her through it. But really really sucks for basketball fans, for USC fans, for Juju, all right to the men's side of the tournament. So there's a lot of different things I want to hit here before we get to the Lakers losing streak, the Rogers stuff. We'll get all of that later. But our college basketball coverage on this show burns hot, bright and fast. Like the rest of the country. We have somewhat of a tepid interest in it. I shouldn't say everyone's like this, but at least for me, a tepid interest in it throughout its regular season and then are living and dying with the tournament and the storylines come March. So I am not going to act like I am Mark Titus or Big Cat or John Fanta or John Rothstein. The people who are, you know, who know all of these teams in and out. I do not. However, I do watch the tournament non stop for you know, twelve consecutive hours, four consecutive days, and you feel like that, plus a passive interest throughout the year, you have a good feel on things. And the people who had been watching all year who said Duke's way better than everybody, they appear to obviously be correct. Now you might be like, Nick, didn't you pick Tennessee to win it all? I did because upsets happened, and that's a fun one and I think Tennessee is really really good. But right now there are seven guys left in the tournament. Seven left in the entire tournament that are consensus first round picks, meaning guys that are high enough picks that they are included in every mock draft, you find out there these seven guys are in all of them, Duke's got three. The rest of the tournament has four. Now, again, there's three or four other guys in the tournament that might end up being first round picks, maybe even four or five others. But there's seven players right now in the NCAA tournament that are what you would consider minus huge money to be first round picks, and Duke has three. There are five guys that are currently projected lottery picks left in the tournament, and Duke has three. Now, that doesn't guarantee you anything, but it does give you an idea of what a talent edge this team currently has and why it would be absolutely, at least to me, shocking if they do not make the final four. Now, in the final four coming out of the region, beneath them on your bracket will either be Houston, Kentucky, or Tennessee, and any of those three teams could beat them. And you guys know, I'm picking Tennessee. I like the odds on it, and I think they have a I really part of that, if I'm being totally honest, probably has to be that a disproportionate amount of the college basketball regular season and conference tournaments. Games that I watched involved Tennessee because we have a close friend that's a big Tennise Tennessee volunteer fan, so we watch some games with her, and so I thought this team had high upside. But I so, you know, bake that in to my analysis of this. But Duke is obviously the most talented team in the country and Cooper flag is as advertised. Now, I do find the Cooper flag hype is the wrong word, but because hype almost sounds like unwarranted. But I I am curious, like a take the temperature of what are fair Cooper flag expectations when it comes to how he stacks up amongst number one picks. So if we just go the last decade, right, I think that So the number one picks the last decade are Karl, Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Markel Foltz, DeAndre Ayton, Zion, Anthony Edwards, Cade, Paolo Wimby, reesa Chet. If you were to rank them based on NBA, you can't really rank based on NBA career because there's you know, Carl's played a decade, Wimby's played a year. But I think you would probably slot them. Like if you did a draft of number one picks, Wimby would go one again the last decade, Aunt would go to Towns three, Kaid four, and then Zion Polo five six. When I watched Cooper Flag, I put him right ahead of Powlow and right behind Zion. When Zion when it comes to like potential coming out of school. Now again, if you were re redrafting based on hype or expectation, it would have been Wimby one, Zion two, Karl Anthony Towns three, But we've now seen Zion didn't quite live up to it. When I hear some of the draft experts talk, they they go further back and they say, basically number one picks the last two twenty years, basically number one picks post Lebron, that they have Cooper. They that it's Wimby one, Anthony Davis two, and they would have Cooper Flag three. I had a ky ahead of everyone I just mentioned, plus Kyrie and Dwight and Blake d Rose, all those guys that strikes me as ambitious. Now again, as I've said now for the sixth time on this show, I am not a college basketball expert. The way some are, but I it felt to me like the absolute Anthony Davis was such a overwhelming, obvious numbernumber one pick, franchise changer, the likes of which, again Lebron's in his own category, we hadn't seen in you know, the four or five years prior to him or after him. Wimby took that up to another level because of just the absolute kind of freak nature of what his upside potential could be or would be. And so set those two guys aside. I don't I don't think Flag is a better prospect than Zion was now. Zion, it turned out, had his own things. He had to deal with, injury issues, some weight issues, so maybe some personal kind of off the court stuff that has derailed him a bit. I was wrong about how good Ant and Caid would be. I thought Ant was a good but not gonna be a superstar. And Ant is a superstar, and so I am very interested to see how Flag looks over these next He's gonna play at least two more games, and the odds are he's gonna play four more games. How he looks, and if he has a dominant tournament moment the way Zion did the way Anthony Davis did, the way a lot of these guys who were number now Anthony Edwards obviously didn't. The guy didn't make the tournament, but a lot of the number one picks who went to college Paolo had won, a lot of those number one picks who went to college had those kind of signature tournament moments. Cooper hasn't needed one yet. Andy's coming off the injury, but I I'm very excited to see him in the final four against Houston, Tennessee or Kentucky and what that looks like. Now. The other story of this tournament so far has been that, you know, no Cinderella, Nils, you know, nil is the death of college basketball. Let's all please pump the brakes just a bit, just a tiny bit, if we could. Okay, on first of all, one year is not a trend. This is one year where we've had no mid majors in the sweet sixteen. Second of all, would we are we saying we would feel drastically different if the queen kid from Maryland hadn't made his buzzer beater and all of a sudden there were there was a there was a Cinderella or a mid major in the Sweet sixteen that would make us feel like, oh okay, everything's fine. No, probably not right, And so I don't really subscribe to the idea that because it happened this year, this is what every tournament's going to look like from here on out, especially because it literally almost didn't happen this year in that Maryland needed the first buzzer beater of the tournament to keep a mid major out of the Sweet sixteen. Now, I'm not a fool, and I do understand that the transfer portal and guys who are really good at smaller schools than transferring two bigger schools, and one of the things mid majors had going for them was guys sticking around together for three or even four seasons and growing together. That gave them a chance against the more talented teams. You are going to see less of that. But what I think that could lead to, and maybe I'll be proven wrong, is more of the true deep cinderellas, guys that are from single bid conferences. You're fourteen or fifteen seeds who are not going to get poached because of nil stuff coming in and having real Cinderella runs. But even if we have less Cinderella stories in the NCAA Tournament. The upside is having a bracket as it stands now where the games are as follows two versus six, four versus one, four versus one, three versus ten, but the ten is Arkansas coached by John Calipari. Two versus six, two versus three, one versus five, and one verses four. What that creates, what it should create is an unbelievable weekend of college basketball. On Friday, the spreads are three and a half, four and a half, seven and a half, eight and a half. On Thursday, the spreads are five and a half, five and a half, six and a half, nine and a half. And we should have eight games where six are super competitive. And I'm good with that because people don't you like the story of the Cinderella. But the actual games, especially once we get Sweet sixteen and certainly to the Elite eight, are usually not always. Sometimes Butler makes back to back national finals, the games are usually not as good as one would have hoped for because that team is just so outmatched. I don't look at any team this weekend as insanely outmatched. I mean, the biggest underdog is an excellent Arizona team, and that's because they're playing Duke on Sunday. I'm sorry. On Friday, the biggest underdog is a Michigan team that absolutely can beat Auburn. And so I I think it was a little too fatalistic saying that college basketball is just in terrible, terrible shape because we're not having Cinderellas when A it's one year and b it is probably going to lead to a more compelling Elite eight in Sweet sixteen than we've had in recent history. And my last NCAA tournament take before we get to the lakers losing streak in the Western Commends playoff race some other things is you can't ever get everything in life. And this is about Dan Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies. So Dan Hurley is a great coach. I don't think there is a single person in the sports world that thinks anything other than that. Danny Hurley also is intentionally I think provocative and kind of wants to play the villain role a bit or he thinks it either helps him or or helps his team, whatever it is, that's fine. What I don't love and I gave credit to Mark Titus for this yesterday on the TV show, and I will do it again because I think he put it absolutely perfectly, which is he compared Dan Hurley to the wrestler that takes the stage at a show in Wichita and then makes fun of Wichita. It's like, oh, you're a bunch of rednecks, or and makes fun of the local teams and does all this stuff in order to catch heat and get booze, except that wrestler then does not act wounded or like he is being unfairly maligned when he catches heat or gets boot. It's what he's going for. And so having Danny Hurley walk off the court their first time they lose an NCAA tournament game in more than two years and blame the refs and then say to the local media after his press conference, thanks to you guys for being fair. The national media skip Bayless wannabes were not is to me trying to have it both ways to a degree. You cannot try to play the villain and then get upset when you get treated like a villain. And I also would like to know who are the national media folks that were unf What was said that was unfair? Was it that the way you acted in Maui or was it Maui. I don't even know if it was Maui, the court, Bahamas, whatever, it was the preseason tournament where you were a game into the year absolutely losing your mind with the officials, and then your final game of the year blamed the officials when Baylor's trying to take the court was criticizing that unfair? Was it the people? And I don't know who these people would be. The people in the national media who do talk college basketball all season said, ah, this Yukon team is not as good as their ranking early in the year, or this Yukon team is not a real contender. Those people who were proven one hundred percent correct. Was that unfair? What was unfair about it? And I said this on the show, and Wilde seemed to not only disagree, but to think I was crazy for saying it. But when you then hear that the Yukon sports information director confronts a local journalist who got the video of Danny Hurley yelling, I hope they don't f you like the f dos Baylor. I hope they don't f you like the fd us. The Yukon sports information director going to that journalist and saying, if you don't take that down all quote ruin your life. I do think that that is because of some of the culture that is set by the head coach. I absolutely think that, and I think that is not great. And so we can hold multiple thoughts in our head at once. He is a great coach, they are an unbelievable program, and he also runs so hot and is so brash in their success and does not seem to handle the little bit of on the court adversity that they've had this latest bit that well at all. That that typically is a cocktail of a lack of likability, and he might not care at all how well liked he is. But Yukon fans acting like people are unfair to their coach, or him acting like the media is unfair to him, I think is a little much. And so listen, unbelievable run by Yukon the last two year or the previous two years. And man, they sure help with a scare into Florida. But they did not lose that game because the officials. They lost that game because from the seven minute mark to thirty seconds left in the game, they made one basket they could have won. They stopped hitting shots, and that's not only officials. When it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing is for sure. Nothing's for sure. Upsets, buzzer beater, Cinderella is advancing, top seeds going home early. It all could happen, as it happened in this tournament. Not a lot of Cinderella's advancing and not a lot of top seeds going home early, which should make the next few rounds great. But we did get an unbelievable buzzer beater in one of the last games of the round of thirty two for Maryland. It all could happen. Bet the unexpected, every upset, every day with DraftKings sports books with live betting, exclusive content, promos, and parlays. DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready to make your first bet, check out the matchups. Pick a team to win. It's that simple. You guys know I've been writing with Tennessee, so I'm gonna give you a couple more Tennessee picks. Tennessee laying four and a half versus Kentucky on Friday is something I'm is something I like. And Tennessee at plus twoin fifteen to win their region the Midwest. That is something that I like as well. Lines and odds are subject to change first time. Here's something special just for you. New DraftKings customers bet five dollars, get two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Instantly bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbooks. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code right that's co right for new customers to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Code wrighd to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem call one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight hope in why, or text hope in Why, which is four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and resort in Kansas twenty one plus age in eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources see DKNG, dot co slash b ball. All right, so now to the NBA. The Lakers lost again, and it was when you were looking at this schedule for the Lakers you probably had penciled in even before you knew Lebron was coming back, but certainly once you heard Lebron was coming back. Wins against the Bulls, the suddenly red hot Bulls, by the way, who won again last night, and the Magic, whose offense is just impossibly bad. The Bulls instead scored one forty six and the Magic scored one eighteen. And so what I am concerned about, what I'm not concerned about, what I'm not concerned about is this, It always takes guys. I think one of the things we in the media do a very poor job, even though we see it time and time again. But one of the things we do a very poor job of recognizing or accounting for is when athletes tell us, man, there is nothing to prepare you to play professional basketball. Like playing professional basketball, we should believe them. And by that I mean every single one of these great players when they are coming from an extended layoff, take two or three games to look like themselves. Luca his first few games with the Lakers after the being out for a while with injury before and then during the trade, was so rusty. There was a brief oh, maybe Nico was onto something renaissance, and then of course it went away. Luca got to being Luca again, sticking with the Lakers. Austin reeves, he's not a great player, but a good player. His first few games back from his injury, he didn't look anything like himself. Then he immediately ripped off the best basketball, the best stretch of his career. So Lebron not playing quite up to Lebron's standards last couple games is not something to panic about. And here's the other piece of it. We'll get into this more in a bit. The entire Western Conference, except for Oklahoma City, is on a losing streak. Spots one through nine or two through nine in the standings have lost. The Rocket against streak is too much, but had lost their most recent games. The Rockets lost their last game, The Nuggets lost their last game. The Lakers lost three in a row, the Grizzlies lost three in a row. The Warriors, Clippers, Timberwolves all lost their last game, and the Kings lost three in a row. Of those teams, obviously, Houston had one nine in row. They were playing great. Golden State had won eight of nine. They were playing great, and the Clippers had one eight of nine. They were playing great. And the timberlves had won seven of nine. They were playing really well. But the teams the Lakers are really jocking for in positioning Denver and the Grizzlies. They've lost six out of ten. The Grizzlies have lost five out of ten, which is why the Lakers losing seven out of ten has not killed them, And so it has opened up the window potentially for one of those teams, Denver, the Lakers or the Grizzlies to drop to the six if the Warriors keep winning. But that the Warriors, you know, Steph dealing with his injury, and the Warriors just took a loss, so they you know that they cooled off a bit. We'll see how they look and Jimmy's return to Miami. But so standings, Wises hasn't killed So those things I'm not worried about. Here is what is a legitimate concern and what has to be said, And I think JJ has alluded to it, and he's correct. This Lakers team is not good enough defensively to hold anyone under one point fifteen if they are not locked in, dialed and connected on that end of the court. In the last few games, they have not been there, and so I do not think it is the sky is falling for the Lakers. I do think that I said yesterday on the show that over their next five they should expect to go four and one. The next five were Orlando, Indiana, Chicago, Memphis home Houston. That was the five. Well, they just lost the first one, and so four and oh with one back to back at Indiana at Chicago might be a tall ask, but it's what the expectation should be. At Indiana after back to back bad losses, you must win that game at Chicago after even though Chicago again, what is Chicago won. I'm looking at it right now. Eight of ten I think that is. Yeah, they've won eight of their last ten. In one of those losses was a heartbreaker to the Rockets at Chicago. After you just let Chicago and Kobe White embarrass you, you must bounce back and win at Memphis. With Memphis, we'll see if they're still dealing with all those injuries, a game that I'll be at. Actually, that's a game that you absolutely gotta find a way to win. And then home for Houston in a game that, if you have any chance of catching Houston in the standings, you must win. That'll be the kind of pivot game. But these next two games for the Lakers at Indiana and at Chicago there and Indiana's good. I'm not trying to downplay Indiana, and Indiana is hot right now. I think they've won five in a row. Those are games you absolutely, unequivocally must win. And I'm really interested to see how the Lakers are able to guard Halliburton because obviously Kobe White had that monster game against them. It's forty six or something and Orlando scoring one eighteen when Orlando cannot score, and Franz and Paolo combining for sixty two. It's problematic. So not panicking. Those are a couple bad losses. One of the reasons you don't panic is, again, if we talk about the Western Conference playoff situation, and I alluded to it, a lot of these teams are in again, Houston is not, and the Warriors are not. But Nuggets, Lakers, Grizzlies, some because of injuries and some just because of like a march malaise, just don't seem to have it all together. On the other hand, the Thunder just keep handling their business. They win basically nine out of every ten games they play for almost any sample of the season, that's really like eight and a half out of every ten games they play. They're on another ho hum six game winning streak with a point differential for the season of thirteen. That team is excellent. I know, breaking news the Thunder or excellent, but that team is really something, and it might you might be like, well, then, Nick, why aren't you picking them to win the championship. I'm very interested to see how they can deal with Luca and Lebron in a playoff series, But if the Lakers defense doesn't tighten up, they're not gonna get the opportunity to go against them in a playoff series. This episode of What's Right is brought to you by Daya Pizza featuring dairy free cheese made with their new Daya oat cream blend. Dairy free cheese come a long way and Daya's leading the charge. Their pizza's off for the Melton stretch of traditional cheese without any dairy. Each day of Pizza starts with a perfectly crisp crust, layered with savory, satisfying toppings, and finished with cheese that melts and stretches beautifully. The DAYA oat cream blend delivers a creamy cheese texture that's indistinguishable from dairy based options. Every pizza is crafted to be dairy free, making it a great choice for anyone seeking more inclusive meal options without compromising on taste. 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Florio floated the idea because evidently I didn't know this, but McAfee is hosting a live show in Pittsburgh April eighth or ninth, and Florio floated the idea that Rogers is holding off on signing with the Steelers so he can announce it at McAfee's live show, which would be so perfectly on brand and also just so perfectly outrageous that I almost think it's gonna happen. No one has explained to me, because no one can explain.

Welcome in What's Drive with the great Episode three thirteen. Programming note demonse for I think the first time in the history of the pod out sick today. I talked to him this morning. He was gonna fight through and come in. I said, take your day. So wish the best to Demons, but a hell of an iron man streak for him of not missing any time, and so he's out today, So it will be just me, which you know should definitely, as always promised, lead to a quicker show because he's the one that always does the over talking and explaining and non sequiturs and different various rants you where you interrupt yourself. I've told him he's got to stop talking so much, so we'll get right to it. Here is what missed the cut in today's show, and the first thing that missed the cut didn't miss the cut is all at all? Uh. Bronnie James thirty nine, seven, four and four for the South Bay Lakers last night against Sam Cruz. He was a plus nineteen in his thirty eight minutes. It was far and away his best game at the professional level. And this is where I will as I have remind everyone that twenty months ago July twenty fifth or twenty fourth of twenty twenty three, this kid suffered cardiac arrest. It totally derailed his collegiate season, and that is evidenced by the fact that he has now had ten professional games, one at the NBA level and nine at the G League level that are better than anything he ever did in college. And so when people pointed out, like, oh my god, look at his college statline and that's a player that you're drafting, it, there had to be some math done on. Yes, his collegiate numbers were that of a player that typically would not be drafted, even late in the second round. But if you throw the season away and say those numbers were due to the fact that he never got his legs or his wind underneath them because of the months he had to stay away from the court because they thought he might not be able to play basketball ever again due to a congenital heart defect, then maybe, just maybe you saw some traits that could be a successful player. And Kevin O'Connor, who knows a hell of a lot more about the draft and about college basketball than I do, tweeted to me this morning that if they did a redraft today he thought Bronni would be a first round pick, and that if Bronnie can keep up this shooting, then he's a legitimate NBA player. And again, I am not trying to make too much of the G League, which is something we never talked about previously. However, because Brownie is a star and because he has been the subject of scrutiny, we have to be fair in that the expectation was that in the G League, with grown men, with a lot of guys who were former first round picks trying to make a career for themselves, with a lot of guys who had a lot more experience than him, with a lot of guys who were much more highly drafted than him, that he was going to it certainly in his first year in the G League. Really have his work cutout for him now, and more than his work cutout for him, potentially really struggle. And instead he now after not playing well in Summer League and not playing well in the G League's kind of preseason I don't tip off tournament or whatever they call it, in the G League regular season, he is now averaging twenty two five and five on forty six thirty eight eighty splits that is a great value for your fifty fifth overall pick and shout out and credit to Brownie. And so we're not gonna spend more time on that. But that was in what missed the Cup, But he didn't actually miss the cut. We did a nice few minutes on it. Also, SVP my guy after Maryland finally gets on the right side of a buzzer beater, tweets you know he's a Dieyard Terrapin fan, and he tweets out never a doubt, as a wise man, says shut out, Scott Van Pelt, Ernie Johnson, Kevin Wilds the only three people in sports media with one hundred percent approval ratings. And very nice of Scott to include. You know, obviously my trademark tattooed came up with first person ever use it phrase never a doubt. Very nice of him to use that in celebrating an all time Marilynd moment. More on the tournament in a second, and I guess that is one way to put it. I did invite myself on the Kelsey's pod. The Kelsey's tweeted, should we have an NFL salary cap expert on the show? And I just responded, I got you. I mean, you know that way it could be said, because obviously I'm a salary cap expert, but also we could talk other things and it would be interesting because you know, Eagles fans tend not to like me that much, but Jason, I would imagine does I don't know, but if we could get a What's Right with Nick Wright New Heights crossover, that would have to be good for the burgeoning What's Right brand, which, by the way, YouTube's like rate, subscribe review on all platforms YouTube just crossed one hundred and ninety thousand, so we appreciate you guys for that. We're the slow climb towards two hundred thousand continues. But also we'd really like you guys to subscribe on either iTunes or Spotify wherever you guys get your podcasts. All right, so we have to lead this morning with just a huge bummer, which is a young woman who I truly and I said this last year. I think, well, and I'm not going to use past tense, but I had said this in the past, and I still believe it has a chance to be the greatest women's basketball player ever. I truly believe that. I believe that I when everyone was talking about, and I obviously was a huge part of the talk as well about the phenomenon that is Caitlin Clark. I think you guys heard me say a couple times on the show that I thought Juju Watkins at USC might end up being even better better than Caitlin and even better than everybody her size, her athleticism, her basketball IQ. It is elite of the elite, and a player that can do everything, a player that recently put up a stat line that had not been put up in men's or women's professional or college basketball this century. When I think she had thirty eight points, eleven rebounds, five assists, eight blocks, and again a forty minute college game, she tore acl last night, and it's just devastating for a bunch of reasons. It puts it. I would imagine on the board that she doesn't play college basketball again. Now I would think she does. I would think that the playing is for her to miss all of next season and then come back for what would be her senior year. I guess red shirt junior year and continue to play. And with nil and the WNBA salary structure, I would have to imagine Juju can potentially make far more money at USC than she would at the beginning of her WNBA career, unless something drastically changes with the rookie salary scale there. But this is just an ultimate bummer because getting we got in the final four last year Page versus Caitlin, and we were basically assured that we were going to get Page versus Juju in the Elite eight, and it was I talked about how I didn't love that they put USC in Yukon in the same region because that felt like it should be a final four inter national championship potential matchup, and it ends up that it's going to be, and USC should still get they should be able to win next round without Juju, but not past that. They absolutely can't beat Yukon without Juju. And you just feel sick for this young lady who is has the real potential to be a true superstar, a true crossovers not just great player. She's obviously going to be well, she already is a great player, and she and a torn acl you know, is not career altering the way it once was. But she needs a great NCAA tournament run just to catapult her celebrity the way Caitlin had and the way honestly Angel Reese, who no disrespect to Angel Reese, but Angel Reese is not nearly the caliber of player of Caitlin, or of Juju, or of Page for that matter, and they have all had these great tournament runs. Juju, this was going to be that this year, and if not this year, next year, and now out for I would imagine all of next season, which is just such an absolute bummer. And here is the thing about acls the way I have seen them over the last decade. Acls are different in that they used to truly be career altering and these days they are not. Meaning people typically come back one hundred percent to their pre ACL tear ability, strength, speed, quickness, all of that, but they are not quick injuries. It usually is a minimum of the calendar year that you are out, and usually a little more than that until you look like your old self. So a huge bummer. Not really, this is put this in the huge story not a great topic category, and I mean that's kind of what it is. There's not much to say. It's massive news, but it just sucks. There's no real take to have. And so Juju Watkins out and I have to you know, Yukon's now, I'm gonna look it up on DraftKings. I just can't. Maybe you guys can put in the dock for me. I mean, I know they're the favorite, but I just wonder what they are now? Is Yukon women to win that region? To win the region, I have to imagine they are minus huge money. I'm not able to pull it up right now. If you guys can throw it in the dock whenever you can find it, just put what they are to win the championship and what they are to win the region, because I do not see who possibly could stop them. Certainly now listen UCLA South Carolina. Those are legitimate championship level teams. But I Yukon's in the final four and they're now plus one sixty to win the whole thing. We can't find them to win the region. But it's not gonna be I mean they it's not gonna be much of a question. I saw. I got the I had the privilege of watching the Yukon women in person from court side seats thanks to Fox. The game was on Fox beginning of the year, and I left that game saying I don't know how anyone's beating them. Now, Ucla and South Carolina is obviously a juggernaut, and USC had shown, oh no, they're of that caliber, and Yukon lost a few times. But I feel like you can put probably in pen A, Yukon Ucla final four on your left side of the bracket, and you know, thoughts with Juju, it absolutely sucks, just absolutely sucks that she's done for the year and potentially done for next year. One note, and I'm sure this will happen because Page is such an awesome athlete and awesome person. From all accounts, Page dealt with an ACL and missed a year, and so I would imagine if she has not already, Paige is going to reach out to Juju and try to help her through it. But really really sucks for basketball fans, for USC fans, for Juju, all right to the men's side of the tournament. So there's a lot of different things I want to hit here before we get to the Lakers losing streak, the Rogers stuff. We'll get all of that later. But our college basketball coverage on this show burns hot, bright and fast. Like the rest of the country. We have somewhat of a tepid interest in it. I shouldn't say everyone's like this, but at least for me, a tepid interest in it throughout its regular season and then are living and dying with the tournament and the storylines come March. So I am not going to act like I am Mark Titus or Big Cat or John Fanta or John Rothstein. The people who are, you know, who know all of these teams in and out. I do not. However, I do watch the tournament non stop for you know, twelve consecutive hours, four consecutive days, and you feel like that, plus a passive interest throughout the year, you have a good feel on things. And the people who had been watching all year who said Duke's way better than everybody, they appear to obviously be correct. Now you might be like, Nick, didn't you pick Tennessee to win it all? I did because upsets happened, and that's a fun one and I think Tennessee is really really good. But right now there are seven guys left in the tournament. Seven left in the entire tournament that are consensus first round picks, meaning guys that are high enough picks that they are included in every mock draft, you find out there these seven guys are in all of them, Duke's got three. The rest of the tournament has four. Now, again, there's three or four other guys in the tournament that might end up being first round picks, maybe even four or five others. But there's seven players right now in the NCAA tournament that are what you would consider minus huge money to be first round picks, and Duke has three. There are five guys that are currently projected lottery picks left in the tournament, and Duke has three. Now, that doesn't guarantee you anything, but it does give you an idea of what a talent edge this team currently has and why it would be absolutely, at least to me, shocking if they do not make the final four. Now, in the final four coming out of the region, beneath them on your bracket will either be Houston, Kentucky, or Tennessee, and any of those three teams could beat them. And you guys know, I'm picking Tennessee. I like the odds on it, and I think they have a I really part of that, if I'm being totally honest, probably has to be that a disproportionate amount of the college basketball regular season and conference tournaments. Games that I watched involved Tennessee because we have a close friend that's a big Tennise Tennessee volunteer fan, so we watch some games with her, and so I thought this team had high upside. But I so, you know, bake that in to my analysis of this. But Duke is obviously the most talented team in the country and Cooper flag is as advertised. Now, I do find the Cooper flag hype is the wrong word, but because hype almost sounds like unwarranted. But I I am curious, like a take the temperature of what are fair Cooper flag expectations when it comes to how he stacks up amongst number one picks. So if we just go the last decade, right, I think that So the number one picks the last decade are Karl, Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Markel Foltz, DeAndre Ayton, Zion, Anthony Edwards, Cade, Paolo Wimby, reesa Chet. If you were to rank them based on NBA, you can't really rank based on NBA career because there's you know, Carl's played a decade, Wimby's played a year. But I think you would probably slot them. Like if you did a draft of number one picks, Wimby would go one again the last decade, Aunt would go to Towns three, Kaid four, and then Zion Polo five six. When I watched Cooper Flag, I put him right ahead of Powlow and right behind Zion. When Zion when it comes to like potential coming out of school. Now again, if you were re redrafting based on hype or expectation, it would have been Wimby one, Zion two, Karl Anthony Towns three, But we've now seen Zion didn't quite live up to it. When I hear some of the draft experts talk, they they go further back and they say, basically number one picks the last two twenty years, basically number one picks post Lebron, that they have Cooper. They that it's Wimby one, Anthony Davis two, and they would have Cooper Flag three. I had a ky ahead of everyone I just mentioned, plus Kyrie and Dwight and Blake d Rose, all those guys that strikes me as ambitious. Now again, as I've said now for the sixth time on this show, I am not a college basketball expert. The way some are, but I it felt to me like the absolute Anthony Davis was such a overwhelming, obvious numbernumber one pick, franchise changer, the likes of which, again Lebron's in his own category, we hadn't seen in you know, the four or five years prior to him or after him. Wimby took that up to another level because of just the absolute kind of freak nature of what his upside potential could be or would be. And so set those two guys aside. I don't I don't think Flag is a better prospect than Zion was now. Zion, it turned out, had his own things. He had to deal with, injury issues, some weight issues, so maybe some personal kind of off the court stuff that has derailed him a bit. I was wrong about how good Ant and Caid would be. I thought Ant was a good but not gonna be a superstar. And Ant is a superstar, and so I am very interested to see how Flag looks over these next He's gonna play at least two more games, and the odds are he's gonna play four more games. How he looks, and if he has a dominant tournament moment the way Zion did the way Anthony Davis did, the way a lot of these guys who were number now Anthony Edwards obviously didn't. The guy didn't make the tournament, but a lot of the number one picks who went to college Paolo had won, a lot of those number one picks who went to college had those kind of signature tournament moments. Cooper hasn't needed one yet. Andy's coming off the injury, but I I'm very excited to see him in the final four against Houston, Tennessee or Kentucky and what that looks like. Now. The other story of this tournament so far has been that, you know, no Cinderella, Nils, you know, nil is the death of college basketball. Let's all please pump the brakes just a bit, just a tiny bit, if we could. Okay, on first of all, one year is not a trend. This is one year where we've had no mid majors in the sweet sixteen. Second of all, would we are we saying we would feel drastically different if the queen kid from Maryland hadn't made his buzzer beater and all of a sudden there were there was a there was a Cinderella or a mid major in the Sweet sixteen that would make us feel like, oh okay, everything's fine. No, probably not right, And so I don't really subscribe to the idea that because it happened this year, this is what every tournament's going to look like from here on out, especially because it literally almost didn't happen this year in that Maryland needed the first buzzer beater of the tournament to keep a mid major out of the Sweet sixteen. Now, I'm not a fool, and I do understand that the transfer portal and guys who are really good at smaller schools than transferring two bigger schools, and one of the things mid majors had going for them was guys sticking around together for three or even four seasons and growing together. That gave them a chance against the more talented teams. You are going to see less of that. But what I think that could lead to, and maybe I'll be proven wrong, is more of the true deep cinderellas, guys that are from single bid conferences. You're fourteen or fifteen seeds who are not going to get poached because of nil stuff coming in and having real Cinderella runs. But even if we have less Cinderella stories in the NCAA Tournament. The upside is having a bracket as it stands now where the games are as follows two versus six, four versus one, four versus one, three versus ten, but the ten is Arkansas coached by John Calipari. Two versus six, two versus three, one versus five, and one verses four. What that creates, what it should create is an unbelievable weekend of college basketball. On Friday, the spreads are three and a half, four and a half, seven and a half, eight and a half. On Thursday, the spreads are five and a half, five and a half, six and a half, nine and a half. And we should have eight games where six are super competitive. And I'm good with that because people don't you like the story of the Cinderella. But the actual games, especially once we get Sweet sixteen and certainly to the Elite eight, are usually not always. Sometimes Butler makes back to back national finals, the games are usually not as good as one would have hoped for because that team is just so outmatched. I don't look at any team this weekend as insanely outmatched. I mean, the biggest underdog is an excellent Arizona team, and that's because they're playing Duke on Sunday. I'm sorry. On Friday, the biggest underdog is a Michigan team that absolutely can beat Auburn. And so I I think it was a little too fatalistic saying that college basketball is just in terrible, terrible shape because we're not having Cinderellas when A it's one year and b it is probably going to lead to a more compelling Elite eight in Sweet sixteen than we've had in recent history. And my last NCAA tournament take before we get to the lakers losing streak in the Western Commends playoff race some other things is you can't ever get everything in life. And this is about Dan Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies. So Dan Hurley is a great coach. I don't think there is a single person in the sports world that thinks anything other than that. Danny Hurley also is intentionally I think provocative and kind of wants to play the villain role a bit or he thinks it either helps him or or helps his team, whatever it is, that's fine. What I don't love and I gave credit to Mark Titus for this yesterday on the TV show, and I will do it again because I think he put it absolutely perfectly, which is he compared Dan Hurley to the wrestler that takes the stage at a show in Wichita and then makes fun of Wichita. It's like, oh, you're a bunch of rednecks, or and makes fun of the local teams and does all this stuff in order to catch heat and get booze, except that wrestler then does not act wounded or like he is being unfairly maligned when he catches heat or gets boot. It's what he's going for. And so having Danny Hurley walk off the court their first time they lose an NCAA tournament game in more than two years and blame the refs and then say to the local media after his press conference, thanks to you guys for being fair. The national media skip Bayless wannabes were not is to me trying to have it both ways to a degree. You cannot try to play the villain and then get upset when you get treated like a villain. And I also would like to know who are the national media folks that were unf What was said that was unfair? Was it that the way you acted in Maui or was it Maui. I don't even know if it was Maui, the court, Bahamas, whatever, it was the preseason tournament where you were a game into the year absolutely losing your mind with the officials, and then your final game of the year blamed the officials when Baylor's trying to take the court was criticizing that unfair? Was it the people? And I don't know who these people would be. The people in the national media who do talk college basketball all season said, ah, this Yukon team is not as good as their ranking early in the year, or this Yukon team is not a real contender. Those people who were proven one hundred percent correct. Was that unfair? What was unfair about it? And I said this on the show, and Wilde seemed to not only disagree, but to think I was crazy for saying it. But when you then hear that the Yukon sports information director confronts a local journalist who got the video of Danny Hurley yelling, I hope they don't f you like the f dos Baylor. I hope they don't f you like the fd us. The Yukon sports information director going to that journalist and saying, if you don't take that down all quote ruin your life. I do think that that is because of some of the culture that is set by the head coach. I absolutely think that, and I think that is not great. And so we can hold multiple thoughts in our head at once. He is a great coach, they are an unbelievable program, and he also runs so hot and is so brash in their success and does not seem to handle the little bit of on the court adversity that they've had this latest bit that well at all. That that typically is a cocktail of a lack of likability, and he might not care at all how well liked he is. But Yukon fans acting like people are unfair to their coach, or him acting like the media is unfair to him, I think is a little much. And so listen, unbelievable run by Yukon the last two year or the previous two years. And man, they sure help with a scare into Florida. But they did not lose that game because the officials. They lost that game because from the seven minute mark to thirty seconds left in the game, they made one basket they could have won. They stopped hitting shots, and that's not only officials. When it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing is for sure. Nothing's for sure. Upsets, buzzer beater, Cinderella is advancing, top seeds going home early. It all could happen, as it happened in this tournament. Not a lot of Cinderella's advancing and not a lot of top seeds going home early, which should make the next few rounds great. But we did get an unbelievable buzzer beater in one of the last games of the round of thirty two for Maryland. It all could happen. Bet the unexpected, every upset, every day with DraftKings sports books with live betting, exclusive content, promos, and parlays. DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready to make your first bet, check out the matchups. Pick a team to win. It's that simple. You guys know I've been writing with Tennessee, so I'm gonna give you a couple more Tennessee picks. Tennessee laying four and a half versus Kentucky on Friday is something I'm is something I like. And Tennessee at plus twoin fifteen to win their region the Midwest. That is something that I like as well. Lines and odds are subject to change first time. Here's something special just for you. New DraftKings customers bet five dollars, get two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Instantly bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbooks. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code right that's co right for new customers to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Code wrighd to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem call one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight hope in why, or text hope in Why, which is four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and resort in Kansas twenty one plus age in eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources see DKNG, dot co slash b ball. All right, so now to the NBA. The Lakers lost again, and it was when you were looking at this schedule for the Lakers you probably had penciled in even before you knew Lebron was coming back, but certainly once you heard Lebron was coming back. Wins against the Bulls, the suddenly red hot Bulls, by the way, who won again last night, and the Magic, whose offense is just impossibly bad. The Bulls instead scored one forty six and the Magic scored one eighteen. And so what I am concerned about, what I'm not concerned about, what I'm not concerned about is this, It always takes guys. I think one of the things we in the media do a very poor job, even though we see it time and time again. But one of the things we do a very poor job of recognizing or accounting for is when athletes tell us, man, there is nothing to prepare you to play professional basketball. Like playing professional basketball, we should believe them. And by that I mean every single one of these great players when they are coming from an extended layoff, take two or three games to look like themselves. Luca his first few games with the Lakers after the being out for a while with injury before and then during the trade, was so rusty. There was a brief oh, maybe Nico was onto something renaissance, and then of course it went away. Luca got to being Luca again, sticking with the Lakers. Austin reeves, he's not a great player, but a good player. His first few games back from his injury, he didn't look anything like himself. Then he immediately ripped off the best basketball, the best stretch of his career. So Lebron not playing quite up to Lebron's standards last couple games is not something to panic about. And here's the other piece of it. We'll get into this more in a bit. The entire Western Conference, except for Oklahoma City, is on a losing streak. Spots one through nine or two through nine in the standings have lost. The Rocket against streak is too much, but had lost their most recent games. The Rockets lost their last game, The Nuggets lost their last game. The Lakers lost three in a row, the Grizzlies lost three in a row. The Warriors, Clippers, Timberwolves all lost their last game, and the Kings lost three in a row. Of those teams, obviously, Houston had one nine in row. They were playing great. Golden State had won eight of nine. They were playing great, and the Clippers had one eight of nine. They were playing great. And the timberlves had won seven of nine. They were playing really well. But the teams the Lakers are really jocking for in positioning Denver and the Grizzlies. They've lost six out of ten. The Grizzlies have lost five out of ten, which is why the Lakers losing seven out of ten has not killed them, And so it has opened up the window potentially for one of those teams, Denver, the Lakers or the Grizzlies to drop to the six if the Warriors keep winning. But that the Warriors, you know, Steph dealing with his injury, and the Warriors just took a loss, so they you know that they cooled off a bit. We'll see how they look and Jimmy's return to Miami. But so standings, Wises hasn't killed So those things I'm not worried about. Here is what is a legitimate concern and what has to be said, And I think JJ has alluded to it, and he's correct. This Lakers team is not good enough defensively to hold anyone under one point fifteen if they are not locked in, dialed and connected on that end of the court. In the last few games, they have not been there, and so I do not think it is the sky is falling for the Lakers. I do think that I said yesterday on the show that over their next five they should expect to go four and one. The next five were Orlando, Indiana, Chicago, Memphis home Houston. That was the five. Well, they just lost the first one, and so four and oh with one back to back at Indiana at Chicago might be a tall ask, but it's what the expectation should be. At Indiana after back to back bad losses, you must win that game at Chicago after even though Chicago again, what is Chicago won. I'm looking at it right now. Eight of ten I think that is. Yeah, they've won eight of their last ten. In one of those losses was a heartbreaker to the Rockets at Chicago. After you just let Chicago and Kobe White embarrass you, you must bounce back and win at Memphis. With Memphis, we'll see if they're still dealing with all those injuries, a game that I'll be at. Actually, that's a game that you absolutely gotta find a way to win. And then home for Houston in a game that, if you have any chance of catching Houston in the standings, you must win. That'll be the kind of pivot game. But these next two games for the Lakers at Indiana and at Chicago there and Indiana's good. I'm not trying to downplay Indiana, and Indiana is hot right now. I think they've won five in a row. Those are games you absolutely, unequivocally must win. And I'm really interested to see how the Lakers are able to guard Halliburton because obviously Kobe White had that monster game against them. It's forty six or something and Orlando scoring one eighteen when Orlando cannot score, and Franz and Paolo combining for sixty two. It's problematic. So not panicking. Those are a couple bad losses. One of the reasons you don't panic is, again, if we talk about the Western Conference playoff situation, and I alluded to it, a lot of these teams are in again, Houston is not, and the Warriors are not. But Nuggets, Lakers, Grizzlies, some because of injuries and some just because of like a march malaise, just don't seem to have it all together. On the other hand, the Thunder just keep handling their business. They win basically nine out of every ten games they play for almost any sample of the season, that's really like eight and a half out of every ten games they play. They're on another ho hum six game winning streak with a point differential for the season of thirteen. That team is excellent. I know, breaking news the Thunder or excellent, but that team is really something, and it might you might be like, well, then, Nick, why aren't you picking them to win the championship. I'm very interested to see how they can deal with Luca and Lebron in a playoff series, But if the Lakers defense doesn't tighten up, they're not gonna get the opportunity to go against them in a playoff series. This episode of What's Right is brought to you by Daya Pizza featuring dairy free cheese made with their new Daya oat cream blend. Dairy free cheese come a long way and Daya's leading the charge. Their pizza's off for the Melton stretch of traditional cheese without any dairy. Each day of Pizza starts with a perfectly crisp crust, layered with savory, satisfying toppings, and finished with cheese that melts and stretches beautifully. The DAYA oat cream blend delivers a creamy cheese texture that's indistinguishable from dairy based options. Every pizza is crafted to be dairy free, making it a great choice for anyone seeking more inclusive meal options without compromising on taste. 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Florio floated the idea because evidently I didn't know this, but McAfee is hosting a live show in Pittsburgh April eighth or ninth, and Florio floated the idea that Rogers is holding off on signing with the Steelers so he can announce it at McAfee's live show, which would be so perfectly on brand and also just so perfectly outrageous that I almost think it's gonna happen. No one has explained to me, because no one can explain.

To me.

To me.

Anything positive as far as the Steelers' chances of breaking forget winning a championship, blake breaking their nearly decade long drought of not winning a playoff game. No one has explained to me how Rogers wait like this helps them, and the reason is because they can't. All it does is either feed rogers ego, help Rogers assert power within the organization, or give, if he really really drags this out, give Rogers the excuse to not be a part of an offseason program. Those are the only benefits that come from this, and none of that is good for Pittsburgh. Which is why I I and there is no there is no quo like Rogers clearly wants to play, and the Steelers are clearly his only real option. So there's no reason for this to be going on except for the fact that the Steelers don't have the right now institutional courage to tell Rogers, hey man, we need to know by Friday if every other free agent in the league has been able to make their decision. You obviously want to play. The Vikings aren't interested that the Giants have finally, you know, begrudgingly turned to the page at least a bit. You want to come here anyway, Let's just get this done. But I I don't. I don't think they're gonna do that, and I think Rogers is going to continue to drag this out, and I think we're all, myself included, kind of playing into it all.

Anything positive as far as the Steelers' chances of breaking forget winning a championship, blake breaking their nearly decade long drought of not winning a playoff game. No one has explained to me how Rogers wait like this helps them, and the reason is because they can't. All it does is either feed rogers ego, help Rogers assert power within the organization, or give, if he really really drags this out, give Rogers the excuse to not be a part of an offseason program. Those are the only benefits that come from this, and none of that is good for Pittsburgh. Which is why I I and there is no there is no quo like Rogers clearly wants to play, and the Steelers are clearly his only real option. So there's no reason for this to be going on except for the fact that the Steelers don't have the right now institutional courage to tell Rogers, hey man, we need to know by Friday if every other free agent in the league has been able to make their decision. You obviously want to play. The Vikings aren't interested that the Giants have finally, you know, begrudgingly turned to the page at least a bit. You want to come here anyway, Let's just get this done. But I I don't. I don't think they're gonna do that, and I think Rogers is going to continue to drag this out, and I think we're all, myself included, kind of playing into it all.

Right.

Right.

Before we get to listener questions, a reminder like rate, subscribe and review, and also a reminder that it is now racing season, so time now live from Miami or plausibly live from Miami. The F one Minute was Sierra Fiddel.

Before we get to listener questions, a reminder like rate, subscribe and review, and also a reminder that it is now racing season, so time now live from Miami or plausibly live from Miami. The F one Minute was Sierra Fiddel.

Welcome back to F one Minute. I'm cr Furdell and I'm be covering the biggest news following the Chinese GP and Shanghai. Now, Oscar Piastri started from pole position for the first time in Formula One history. George Russell was in P two and Lando Norris in P three. Now, on lap one we had some dicey action between the Ferrari boys. The clerk picked up some front wing damage and then around lap four Fernando Alonso dnf again, but not because he crashed into the wall, just because of break failure. But I feel kind of bad for him because he has yet to follow through an entire race, but in Japan were ruining for him. A major talking point of this GP was tire preservation, though a vast majority of the teams tried their best to maintain tire life, leading up to most of them only making one pit stop over fifty six laps, so it wasn't the most thrilling strategy race, but a strategy race nonetheless. In the end it was another McLaren won two, with Piastre taking the dubs, securing his third victory in his Formula One career. Lando Norris finished at P two and then George Russell in P three. Now the biggest news from this GP came after it already ended, and that is that Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerk and p Air Ghastly were all disqualified from the Chinese GP for failing post race technical checks. Now, it was a fairly accomplished weekend for Ferrari. They had their first ever sprint win thanks to Lowis Hamilton, but they also had their first ever double disqualification in the same weekend. It's it's honestly crazy work. Thus, Leclerk and Hamilton have officially earned their place in this week's drsaka Disastrous Race Shenanigans, and that's the second time in a row for them. But Leclerk and Ghastly were both disqualified for their car being underweight, so basically, lighter car equals performers advantage. Hamilton, on the other hand, was disqualified because the thickness of his plank assembly was below the minimum requirement, So lower the cars equals performance advantage. So as you see, once the FIA finds a performance advantage, that means disqualification. So since they all lost their finishing positions, Olkon Antonelle albon Embarment, each moved to places and picked up some more points on the way. Ghastly disqualification from Pete eleven also meant that nixt guy Signs and Stroll snuck up into the top ten to grab some unexpected points for them as well.

Welcome back to F one Minute. I'm cr Furdell and I'm be covering the biggest news following the Chinese GP and Shanghai. Now, Oscar Piastri started from pole position for the first time in Formula One history. George Russell was in P two and Lando Norris in P three. Now, on lap one we had some dicey action between the Ferrari boys. The clerk picked up some front wing damage and then around lap four Fernando Alonso dnf again, but not because he crashed into the wall, just because of break failure. But I feel kind of bad for him because he has yet to follow through an entire race, but in Japan were ruining for him. A major talking point of this GP was tire preservation, though a vast majority of the teams tried their best to maintain tire life, leading up to most of them only making one pit stop over fifty six laps, so it wasn't the most thrilling strategy race, but a strategy race nonetheless. In the end it was another McLaren won two, with Piastre taking the dubs, securing his third victory in his Formula One career. Lando Norris finished at P two and then George Russell in P three. Now the biggest news from this GP came after it already ended, and that is that Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerk and p Air Ghastly were all disqualified from the Chinese GP for failing post race technical checks. Now, it was a fairly accomplished weekend for Ferrari. They had their first ever sprint win thanks to Lowis Hamilton, but they also had their first ever double disqualification in the same weekend. It's it's honestly crazy work. Thus, Leclerk and Hamilton have officially earned their place in this week's drsaka Disastrous Race Shenanigans, and that's the second time in a row for them. But Leclerk and Ghastly were both disqualified for their car being underweight, so basically, lighter car equals performers advantage. Hamilton, on the other hand, was disqualified because the thickness of his plank assembly was below the minimum requirement, So lower the cars equals performance advantage. So as you see, once the FIA finds a performance advantage, that means disqualification. So since they all lost their finishing positions, Olkon Antonelle albon Embarment, each moved to places and picked up some more points on the way. Ghastly disqualification from Pete eleven also meant that nixt guy Signs and Stroll snuck up into the top ten to grab some unexpected points for them as well.

So that's all I have.

So that's all I have.

For the Chinese GP. I'll see you next time for Japan.

For the Chinese GP. I'll see you next time for Japan.

Great job as always, man, I I guess I'm a dope. I need to ask Sierra about this off the air, can ye not? Just do? I'm sure they do do a pre race inspection. This showing my own ignorance here. Why would a car pass the pre race inspection and not the post race And if they're not doing a pre race inspection, why are they not if you're gonna end up being disqualified? I don't know. I have to learn more about this. I'm gonna ask Sierra, all right, some quick listener questions. Noah says, do you see Dan Hurley as the rich Man's nick? Sirianni? Uh that listen. I think that's on the board. Yeah, I mean I think that's a good uh, a good potential comp and Syriana's champion now too. Uh. But Syrian doesn't seem to think the media treats him unfairly. Oh, the our producers say, maybe they're changing parts and pit stops. That's maybe that's it. Maybe the cars are good pre race than during the race. There are some shenanigans. Taylor asks, why is achilles or an acl sometimes considered a two year injuries consistently, but a literal heart attack isn't taking the same understanding. That's about Bronni. I I think it's because we look at things that aren't like physical injuries. Is like binary, like is he okay? Is he allowed to play again? Okay? Then he should be the same, when in reality it's the time off that I think really hurts these guys at times. Sixness says, what would it take for you to get into hockey? How much skew would you need to see in the Vegas books for betting to be a thing for you during the NHL season? I for this of my marriage. I don't think I can pick up another sport that I'm into right now. Maybe at some point in life, but I just know so little about hockey. Can't sitydn't have a team. I've never been into it, So I nothing against the sport. I just I it's very very it'd be very, very tough for me to tell my wife now by the way, also watching hockey, especially because I've kind of refallen in love with baseball thanks to Bobby Witt Junior and the Royals being legit again. Uh all right, Alex, is there a single anything the Rockets can to do? Our lasting games make you believe that they can win a single round? Yeah, to win a single round? For sure? There is stuff they can do. So because the Rockets have a tough schedule, tough ish schedule, I should say, down the stretch, so the Atlanta Utah is their next two, but then it's Phoenix who's on a fourty winning streak, Lakers, Utah again, Oklahoma City, Golden State, Clippers, Lakers. The Rockets play well during that stretch and hold their positioning. I certainly could see them winning around. My fear for them is they're gonna drop from the two to like the four, and unless they are playing an injured Memphis team, I don't think they could. Again, I think the Rockets have had an unbelievable season as is. They're gonna win around fifty games, But for me to believe in them to win around in the playoffs, they have to show me more, and Scott says, what would it take for Tom en on the hot seat? They haven't been a true contender since they lost to Jacksonville in twenty seventeen. Listen, he's just got a contract sension. I think the Steelers have had three coaches in fifty years. I actually think what could be best for the Steelers and for Tomlin would be a fresh start for both of them. But it doesn't. He's obviously an excellent coach. I just don't know that you can. I think he if he could have gotten a job like the one Jim Harball got, where the quarterback is taken care of and you build the rest of it up, that might be the best. And he just hasn't been able to figure out the offensive side of the ball post Big Ben, or even with Big Ben near the end. All right, demands feel better. Thanks to our great friends at Blue Doc and DraftKings and Day and the Volume and everyone. I will see you guys on Thursday. What's right

Great job as always, man, I I guess I'm a dope. I need to ask Sierra about this off the air, can ye not? Just do? I'm sure they do do a pre race inspection. This showing my own ignorance here. Why would a car pass the pre race inspection and not the post race And if they're not doing a pre race inspection, why are they not if you're gonna end up being disqualified? I don't know. I have to learn more about this. I'm gonna ask Sierra, all right, some quick listener questions. Noah says, do you see Dan Hurley as the rich Man's nick? Sirianni? Uh that listen. I think that's on the board. Yeah, I mean I think that's a good uh, a good potential comp and Syriana's champion now too. Uh. But Syrian doesn't seem to think the media treats him unfairly. Oh, the our producers say, maybe they're changing parts and pit stops. That's maybe that's it. Maybe the cars are good pre race than during the race. There are some shenanigans. Taylor asks, why is achilles or an acl sometimes considered a two year injuries consistently, but a literal heart attack isn't taking the same understanding. That's about Bronni. I I think it's because we look at things that aren't like physical injuries. Is like binary, like is he okay? Is he allowed to play again? Okay? Then he should be the same, when in reality it's the time off that I think really hurts these guys at times. Sixness says, what would it take for you to get into hockey? How much skew would you need to see in the Vegas books for betting to be a thing for you during the NHL season? I for this of my marriage. I don't think I can pick up another sport that I'm into right now. Maybe at some point in life, but I just know so little about hockey. Can't sitydn't have a team. I've never been into it, So I nothing against the sport. I just I it's very very it'd be very, very tough for me to tell my wife now by the way, also watching hockey, especially because I've kind of refallen in love with baseball thanks to Bobby Witt Junior and the Royals being legit again. Uh all right, Alex, is there a single anything the Rockets can to do? Our lasting games make you believe that they can win a single round? Yeah, to win a single round? For sure? There is stuff they can do. So because the Rockets have a tough schedule, tough ish schedule, I should say, down the stretch, so the Atlanta Utah is their next two, but then it's Phoenix who's on a fourty winning streak, Lakers, Utah again, Oklahoma City, Golden State, Clippers, Lakers. The Rockets play well during that stretch and hold their positioning. I certainly could see them winning around. My fear for them is they're gonna drop from the two to like the four, and unless they are playing an injured Memphis team, I don't think they could. Again, I think the Rockets have had an unbelievable season as is. They're gonna win around fifty games, But for me to believe in them to win around in the playoffs, they have to show me more, and Scott says, what would it take for Tom en on the hot seat? They haven't been a true contender since they lost to Jacksonville in twenty seventeen. Listen, he's just got a contract sension. I think the Steelers have had three coaches in fifty years. I actually think what could be best for the Steelers and for Tomlin would be a fresh start for both of them. But it doesn't. He's obviously an excellent coach. I just don't know that you can. I think he if he could have gotten a job like the one Jim Harball got, where the quarterback is taken care of and you build the rest of it up, that might be the best. And he just hasn't been able to figure out the offensive side of the ball post Big Ben, or even with Big Ben near the end. All right, demands feel better. Thanks to our great friends at Blue Doc and DraftKings and Day and the Volume and everyone. I will see you guys on Thursday. What's right