Masters Preview with Shane Bacon, Max Homa, and Michigan’s Title
We have reached the best week in golf, but before we could get to the azaleas, we had to crown a king of the court. Michigan is back on top of the mountain after a dominant performance against UConn that felt even more lopsided than the final score indicated. Big Cat and PFT are convinced the Big 10 was the only conference that actually mattered this season, even if the national title game wasn't exactly a shooting clinic.
Michigan was definitively the better team in the National Championship and it never felt like UConn was in danger of winning.
Michigan was the better team. We all saw it. It never felt like [the game] was in danger. Like the only moment that I was like, oh, UConn might have a chance, was when there was like maybe five and a half minutes left and Mullens missed that three to cut it to four.
While the Wolverines are celebrating, PFT is already looking toward the future of the sport. Between the transfer portal and the NIL era, the landscape of college hoops is shifting faster than a Tiger Woods leaderboard move, and PFT is sounding the alarm on the sustainability of the current model.
Michigan is already the favorite to win the National Championship again next season.
Michigan I think is right now the favorites to win next season. Tough to win back to back, but he has to hit the portal. He has to be active... which he already is.
College basketball is now 'pay to win' and that's unsustainable
It's a pay to win tournament. Like basketball is ruined. Unsustainable. Yeah, that's the new word that I keep hearing.
Breaking News and Bulls Bloodshed
In a classic PMT emergency segment, the crew addressed the Sedona hotel photos of Diana Russini and Mike Vrabel. While the internet was losing its mind, Memes had a very specific theory about why those photos surfaced in the first place, suggesting it might be a coordinated strike against a certain team in North Jersey.
Diana Russini likely leaked the Sedona hotel photos herself to publicly announce her hatred for the New York Jets.
I also kind of think she leaked this article. Like who gives a fuck about Mike Vrabel going out in the middle of the desert? Who leaks that? And then what better way to announce your hate for the Jets than being like, I'm hanging out with Mike Vrabel pants on a rooftop.
Back in the Windy City, Big Cat is finally breathing a sigh of relief as the Bulls front office was cleaned out. After years of mediocrity and confusing trades, Arturas Karnisovas and Mark Eversley are gone. Big Cat isn't ready to give ownership a total pass yet, but he has a very expensive suggestion for who should be the next person to run the show in Chicago.
Arturas Karnisovas was definitively the worst General Manager in the NBA during his Bulls tenure.
AK [Arturas Karnisovas] was one of, if not no, he was definitely the worst GM right now in the NBA. That's, I think that's actually, you can't dispute that fact. The moves that were made... absolute disaster of a front office. Terrible at scouting, terrible at trades, terrible at timing.
The Chicago Bulls should offer Sam Presti ownership stakes to get him to run the team.
The Bulls should go out and try to say, Sam Presti, here's any amount of money. You name the number. Give him ownership. Just spend it and make a team good. I just cannot understand if I owned a team, I would spend all my money in hiring the smartest guys to do everything.
Masters Preview with Shane Bacon
Shane Bacon joined the show to provide the definitive guide to Augusta. He broke down why Tiger Woods might be dodging the Ryder Cup captaincy and what it would mean for his legacy to chase the one USGA trophy he doesn't have in his cabinet. Shane also provided some incredible insight into Scotty Scheffler's uncharacteristic struggles with his irons heading into the week.
Tiger Woods will likely not be the Ryder Cup captain because he doesn't want the life-consuming media commitments.
I'd heard Tiger didn't really want to do it. I mean there's a lot of commitments. You see how involved Luke Donald is on the European side. It's basically become his life. I don't think Tiger wanted to do a lot of the background media stuff, things like that. So I don't necessarily think he was gonna do that anyway.
Scotty Scheffler's iron play has been average and inconsistent for a pro golfer this season.
I'd say bad for a pro golfer. He's 82nd right now [in strokes gained]. He's average on the PGA tour this season with his irons. This is a stat that he's led each of the last three seasons. If Steph Curry started to miss free throws, you'd be looking around going, what's going on here?
When it came time to pick a winner, Shane is looking at a guy who has been knocking on the door and finally feels ready to exercise some demons at Augusta. He also highlighted Gary Woodland as the emotional favorite for everyone watching.
Gary Woodland winning the Masters would be the best emotional story in golf following his brain surgery.
Number three I got Gary Woodland winning. Obviously I think this is the one that would be the most emotional. I'm sure you guys followed the whole journey... with the brain surgery and PTSD. He's second on the PGA tour in driving distance this year at the age of 41... I feel good story in my list.
Bryson DeChambeau is the pick to win the 2026 Masters
I mentioned Bryson, he's gonna be my pick this week. I was kind of leaning heavily on Patrick Reed for a long time with the way he got out of the gate. But I'm just gonna go Bryson. I think this is his year. He's one of those guys that seems to get better as he understands golf courses. And I think there's added incentive to go out there and do it considering what happened last season, to exercise the demons, if you will.
Max Homa Returns
Friend of the program Max Homa checked in from Augusta, looking potentially "too tan" according to Big Cat. Max talked about the new Masters app feature that allows fans to watch every single range ball, which he admits makes the players feel a little more self-conscious than usual. He also broke down his mental shift on the 12th hole and why he's not letting the course intimidate him this year.
The Masters' new range tracking app feature makes players feel self-conscious about their practice sessions.
It does [feel like an invasion of privacy] a little now that we know that it happens. You start to worry a bit about your spreads. Like if you just hit like one stinker, you're like ah, that's gonna look like an outlier. Some people are gonna think I'm sucking pretty bad. I am even more self-conscious now that someone was seeing all that.
Golfers overthink the 12th hole at Augusta National way too much and should just attack the pin if the shot fits them.
I a hundred percent agree [people overthink it]. Last year I got to that hole... I just remember I was like, what am I so afraid of? Like, if anything fits me, it's this. So I was like, just aim a couple steps left of it and hit the fucking nine iron and I did it... Unless I got a five shot lead, I'm playing it like that. Because it is like you're sometimes too passive.
Max is coming in with a lot of confidence after proving to himself last year that he could grind out a result even when his swing felt like "dog nuts." He's ready to put it all together and give the PMT listeners something to celebrate on Sunday night.
I'm going to 'shock the world' and win the Masters this week.
I say we shock the world to win the thing. I've been thinking a lot about it. I feel like not winning's less fun than winning. So I'm kind of just gonna go for it.
My 12th place finish last year was more impressive than my 3rd place finish because I was playing terribly coming in
My third was awesome but last year I was playing like dog nuts coming into it and I played awful here. But I like definitely to answer your question, think I like learned where to leave it and learned certain golf shots. Last year's 12th was significantly more shocking than the year before's third.
If Max wins the green jacket, expect a lot of crying and at least one questionable tattoo from PFT.

