PMTPMT DB

Coach Tom Crean And Rapoport Calls In To Tell His Side Of His Firing

Monday, February 19, 201811 takes

We started a Nascar drug scandal and NBA All Star Weekend bored us (-). Who's Back of the Week featuring penetration, Tiger Woods, and Tebow (-). Coach Tom Crean joins the show to talk about the wild weekend in College Basketball, how to properly prepare a team for a conference road game, what happens when the refs aren't calling fouls for your team, and which team he likes as his dark horse this March (-). Rapoport calls in to talk about his firing from Barstool (-). Segments include Mike Greenberg's Dumb Rules NBA playoff seeding (-), Respect the Biz for ESPN deleting an article because of advertisers,(-) Olympic Update (they're still going on), and the debut of "Top of the Charts" where we look at the podcasts above us in the rankings and try to figure out what they're doing to beat us (-).

Recap

Win
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018
#PMT-2018-0219-13104
Big CatBig Cat

Defense in the NBA All-Star game is not fun

they decided to play defense in the All-Star game, so that's not fun. Especially for those of us that had the over.

The 2018 All-Star Game was indeed more competitive than previous years, resulting in a 148-145 score, which was much lower than the 192-182 score of the previous year.

Who Is Back

Loss
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018·Who's Back
#PMT-2018-0219-13105
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Tim Tebow will play in the Major Leagues

Tim Tebow is back big time... their GM said that he thinks that Tim Tebow will play at the major league level. This is ridiculous. And you know what? Why not? If you're the Mets, I actually think it's borderline negligence that they haven't had Tim Tebow play in a major league game yet.

Tim Tebow reached Triple-A Syracuse in 2019 but retired in 2021 without ever appearing in a Major League game.
Void
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018·Who's Back
#PMT-2018-0219-13106
Big CatBig Cat

Tiger Woods getting a 'bad boy' warning from Trump is good for his street cred

Tiger Woods' bad boy status, when other men are saying, watch out for him, it's like Costanza putting on the Yankees jacket. It's like, you got to watch out... getting this back into circulation is good for his street cred. It's great.

Subjective opinion on public perception and 'street cred'.

Interview

Void
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018
#PMT-2018-0219-13107
Tom CreanTom Crean

Bob Huggins had a legitimate gripe regarding the free throw disparity against Kansas

with that last night, there's no question that he [Bob Huggins] had a legitimate concern because both teams are extremely aggressive... that amount of free throw difference, that was the most, that was the biggest margin of free throws Kansas has ever had in a Big 12 game. I mean, that's amazing stuff. So he had a legitimate gripe.

Crean is stating his professional opinion on a specific game's officiating balance.
Win
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018
#PMT-2018-0219-13108
Tom CreanTom Crean

Virginia is susceptible to in-game lulls because they don't get to the free throw line enough

Virginia because I really like them but they've got that reputation that they don't commit a lot of fouls well they don't get fouled very much either so like they're not shooting very many free throws and on those nights when you're not making your shots you've got to have something else that you can go to.

This was extremely accurate. Just weeks later, #1 overall seed Virginia lost to #16 seed UMBC in the first round of the NCAA tournament, partially because they went cold from the field and only shot 12 free throws.
Push
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018
#PMT-2018-0219-13109
Tom CreanTom Crean

Trae Young and Oklahoma are struggling with fatigue and spacing, not a lack of talent

I don't see him [Trae Young] playing as quick as the last week or so... I think the whole mental fatigue, physical fatigue, everybody's got that in February. Sometimes you just got to get back to playing quicker... if his team can stay committed to the spacing and they've got to start to string some stops together, I think they'll be just fine.

Oklahoma continued to struggle, losing in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament to Rhode Island. Young's efficiency never fully recovered to early-season levels.
Win
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018
#PMT-2018-0219-13111
Tom CreanTom Crean

Gonzaga is currently undervalued and capable of a deep tournament run

My initial reaction to that question [dark horse] would be Gonzaga. I think they are really good. I think they can go to the bench. I think Rui Hachimura is a potential breakout star... I really like their team.

Gonzaga entered the tournament as a #4 seed and reached the Sweet 16, where they lost narrowly to Florida State.
Loss
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018
#PMT-2018-0219-13110
Tom CreanTom Crean

Virginia Tech is a dark horse to make a deep run in March

You know who I like? Because I think they're deep enough. I like Virginia Tech... I like their team because they can beat you different ways. Now, they've got to defend better... I think they can do that. So that would be a team just off the top of my head in that realm that I would look at.

Virginia Tech was a #8 seed and lost in the first round to Alabama, 86-83.
Loss
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018
#PMT-2018-0219-13112
Ian RapoportIan Rapoport

A.J. McCarron will receive a contract similar to or better than Mike Glennon's

Someone is going to give A.J. McCarron some legitimate money. I would say my guess right now is he's looking at Mike Glennon plus. The Browns were interested enough to try to trade for him... The Vikings are going to be interested if they don't sign [Case] Keenum. A.J. McCarron's going to get some, some legit money.

McCarron signed a significantly smaller 2-year, $10M deal with the Bills in March 2018, far below the 'Mike Glennon plus' prediction.

Mike Greenbergs Dumb Rules

Loss
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018·Greenberg's Dumb Rules
#PMT-2018-0219-13113
Big CatBig Cat

NBA playoff seeding should be based on a team's record against the gambling spread

I like for playoff seeding, I think we should do instead of best record, it should be best record against the spread. Let everyone start actually playing for the spread. It would be unbelievable if teams are up by like seven and the spread's nine and they're just gunning.

The NBA has not adopted betting spreads as a seeding criterion.

Olympic Update

Win
Take Slip·Feb 19, 2018·Olympic Update
#PMT-2018-0219-13114
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

The Russian curler using performance-enhancing drugs proves curlers are taking it seriously

one of the Russian athletes got busted for using drugs and it was a curler... So curlers are now taking performance enhancing drugs. Well, it's Russia. Adderall... you have to dope if you're in Russia.

This was a real news story from the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics; Krushelnitckii tested positive and was stripped of his bronze medal.