Pressure Points

Episode 59 is all about the pressure points.

The Yankees are off to a blazing start and look like the hottest team in New York, while the Mets already feel tense, messy, and impossible to ignore for all the wrong reasons. Ian gets into why the Yankees deserve real flowers, why the Mets’ issues go beyond cold bats, and why the vibe around Lindor and Soto is becoming a real conversation.

From there, it’s on to the Knicks, who somehow continue to be both dangerous and nerve-racking at the same time, plus a quick Final Four breakdown after one of the wildest March Madness shots you’ll ever see. Then it’s over to the NFL, where Aaron Glenn’s Geno Smith comments sparked a firestorm, Ty Simpson draft smoke is heating up, and the Giants may be staring at a franchise-defining decision at No. 5.

Pressure reveals a lot. This week in sports, it’s revealing everything.

Transcript

Pressure Points Across The Sports Calendar

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I guess he's only when we define it because it's good. You know, the funny thing about this time of the year in sports is everybody wants the answer before the test is even over. A week into baseball, people already want to crown teams, bury teams, pick fights in the clubhouse, hand out division titles, start asking who's watched, who's back. Yeah, football does the same thing, but only louder. One coach says something about his quarterback and suddenly it becomes a week-long trial on every app, every radio station, every group chat you got. One prospect throws well in shorts, and all of a sudden he's getting polished up like the trophy in the window. And basketball is no different either. One good win settles people down for about five minutes, one bad loss sends everybody reaching for the panic button. It's kind of where my head's been at this week while I've been trying to figure out the theme for the episode. And I landed on pressure points. Not panic, not overreaction just for the thrill of it. The real pressure points, the spots where something starts to show. The contender that clearly has the talent, but you're still not fully buying into it. The franchise that wants you to trust the plan, but you still need to see what they do when it's their time to make a pick and that card gets handed in. That's the episode. The Yankees are the hot team in New York right now, and they deserve some love and their flowers. But the Mets are a totally different conversation. Cold bats are one thing, weird energy is another. And it's starting to become a thing that's getting impossible to ignore. The Knicks, the Knicks are sitting in that very dangerous place where the ceiling is obvious and the flaws are obvious, and both of those things can be true at the exact same time. As for the Jets, the Jets have real reason for hope. Even if people rolled their eyes the second that Aaron Glenn opened his mouth. We've got one of the nastiest March Madness shots you'll ever see. And we got some real matchup stuff worth breaking down, worth getting into before Monday decides this whole thing. Straight up. No fake humility, no, eh it's it's only a week nonsense. None of that. Yeah, it is only a week, sure. That part is true. The other part, the other part that's true is that they look really, really good, man. And the funniest part of all this is that this start, it's kind of backwards from how people drew it up all off season. You know, the worry coming into the year was it was pretty simple. It was can this rotation just hold it together long enough and enough for the bats to carry this thing through while Cole gets back, while Rodon gets back, while Luis Hill gets back, and then everybody will settle in and then you go from there. Instead, the pitching staff came out and said, No, no, no, no, we got this. Don't worry about it. Through seven games, they're six and one, and they've allowed only eight runs. No matter how you slice it, that is absurd. I mean, this is not a nice little start. This is how you walk into April and immediately start setting the tone and letting everybody around you know, and everybody in your division, I came to play. That's why the Yankees poll result made so much sense to me. Uh, if you're new here, thanks for listening, every Wednesday on Instagram, that's at Rice on the Radio, I put out polls for you good listening folks to vote on and you know help drive the show, feel a little pulse of the people, see where you guys are at. But the poll that I put out for the Yankees this week, 68% said the biggest thing standing out right now is the lights out pitching, while only 32% said judge being judge. Look, judge is always gonna be judge, right? That part is understood. The real story is that this staff showed up first, showed up big. That makes the whole thing feel sturdier. That makes this whole start feel like it has some bones to it. And that's not to say that Aaron Judge doesn't deserve his own little lap around the block here either. I mean, got booed in spring training, got booed in the Netflix opener, shakes it off with a couple home runs in his hometown. And then when it was time to come home, the captain understood the moment, understood the assignment, and showed captain behavior all the way through. Ends up sending a text out the night before the game, tells everybody two words, suits tomorrow. Guess what? Everybody comes in dressed sharp, and a few hours later, he sets the tone himself with a two-run homer in the first inning. And the Yankees never look back. Eight to two win over Miami, who quietly also six and one. That's not just the best player doing best player stuff. That's the captain deciding what the day is going to feel like before the first pitch even gets thrown. You know, Ben Rice, shout out Rice on the mics, deserves some love here too. And it's not just like a lazy, oh yeah, nice little start, kid, good job. No, no, no, no, no. He's played his way onto one of those weird old black and white Yankee lists that you only end up on if you're doing something ridiculous, which he has. Through his first six games, he has had at least six extra base hits, eight ribbies, and four walks. You know who he lands on that list with? Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Paul One, and Bernie Williams. So no. This isn't just me saying, hey, Ben Rice, he's been solid. Yeah, good job, guys. Whatever. No, no, no. He's been one of the biggest reasons why this stardust had some real punch to it. Will Warren, for that matter, you know, gave them a good one in the home opener, too. Everybody kind of wanted Cam. Everybody kind of wanted maybe Max Fried somehow to work the rotation so they could get that at the home opener. Oh, Will Warren at the home opener. You know, he did alright. He's done alright. That's the thing. It hasn't just been one guy carrying this whole thing while everybody else quarter stands around clapping, looking around. The staff and the bullpen have looked like a whole group. I mean, Freed's looked nasty earning every dollar of that huge contract. Schlitler looks like, dare I say it, a young Garrett Cole and someone who not only belongs, but kind of gets it and kind of enjoys the whole, yeah, everybody hates us part of being a Yankee, which are his words, not mine, by the way. And like I said, you know, Will Warren has held up his end on the deal. That's how you build a six-in-one start that actually means something and gets the fan base from, oh, we ran it back. Yeah, we're a force to be reckoned with. And, you know, the Rodan hamstring thing sounds more like a little bit of an annoyance than a derailment, which is important. You know, you obviously rather not deal with anything at all this early, but if you're a Yankees fan, that's kind of one of those updates that you hear and go, all right, you know, rotation's looking alright, we'll be fine. Just come back when you're healthy. Don't let it become something bigger than it is. And as far as Garrett Cole, Garrett Cole is on track and he's checking off all his rehab boxes. So, look, where I land on them right now is is simple. You don't want to get drunk on seven games, right? There's no need to be ridiculous about it just yet. You know, a month from now, you might feel differently for any number of reasons. Baseball's cruel like that. The baseball gods give it and they take it away. But still, for right now, the Yankees, the Yankees are the hot team in New York, and they look like a real problem. And they've earned the right to have people talk about them like one. Now, now there's the Mets, which is a totally different conversation. Completely different energy going on in the my favorite team in Queens right now. You know, look, cold bats are one thing, right? Baseball is long, guys get going late all the time, and the weather warms up, timing comes around. Hell, one good weekend can reset the whole mood how you feel. I understand all that. I also think people can hide behind that way too quickly when the thing that you're watching looks off in a way that just goes beyond the eh, they're not hitting yet, they'll figure it out. The chemistry just feels off with these guys. It looks off. Look, they reset the whole team, they got a bunch of new faces, I get it. But you can tell something just isn't clicking for whatever reason, and that's a very different conversation than just saying the bats are cold right now. Give it some time. The problem is it isn't really with all the new faces that they've brought in. It seems to just be the two most important pieces of this team in Lindor and Soto. As I'm recording this, the Mets are still playing in a late game in San Francisco starting at 10.15. Thanks for keeping me up till two in the morning, guys. I appreciate it. But coming into this game, they're three and four, and they've dropped three straight. They got run over by the Giants 7-2 in their opener out there. And they got out hit 13-5. David Peterson got knocked around. The whole night had that flat, uneasy feeling that's just been hanging over them for the past couple days now. And over the last six games, they're hitting 107 with runners in scoring position. That is not a typo. That is six for fifty-six. Now I get it, they've played the most extra inning games, so they've started with some runners on base. But last Saturday, the Luis Robert game, they had bases loaded, no outs, with Lindor, Soto, and Bichette up, and they won, two, three, did not score a run, did not win the game. They went one for 29 with runners in scoring position in the Cardinals series. That's not just missing a couple big hits here and there. That is the offense putting itself in quicksand and not being able to dig itself out. And now the part that people are going to push back on is the Lindorah Soto stuff. Fine. I don't care. Push back. Look, I am not in the clubhouse, obviously. I don't have hidden camera footage from the back room. You know, I know I'm not in the trainer's room. I'm not pretending I know exactly what was said to who and why. But what I am saying is this anyone actually paying attention, watching the games and reading between the lines, can feel that the tone between the two of them is weird. You know, the handshakes or lack thereof on opening day, the body language, the coldness, the visible awkwardness. How about the way this story is now making the rounds in the media and on the radio and all over the place? You know, there is no chance those two have not heard it at all in this in this market. Not any chance. This kind of story doesn't just float around New York and somehow never reaches the players involved. It gets to them and it gets in them fast. And so if this was absolutely nothing at all, if this was just some totally made up media food fight that, I don't know, had no legs whatsoever, there are easy ways to get stuff cooled off in the public eye. You know, a picture, a quote, a little, a little praise here, a little laughter, an arm around the shoulder, one visible moment where everybody goes, uh, alright, maybe we were reaching a little bit, maybe everything's alright. Yeah, that has not happened. And it doesn't look like it's gonna happen anytime soon either. So, no, I'm not I'm not telling you, I know for a fact there's some full-blown civil war in the room. I am telling you, though, there is enough smoke here that acting like there's no fire at all feels naive. You know, and unfortunately, the only person who I think can get this solved is Uncle Stevie himself. You know, say what you want about Stearns, who knows? Do they really respect Mendoza? Look, if this continues to escalate or affect the play of the team at all, Cohen needs to call them both into his office, close the door, and say, listen to me, I am paying you a billion dollars combined. You two are who I think can bring us a World Series back to New York. And that door does not open until you two figure it out. End of story. You do not have to be lovey dovey with each other. But for the next six months, this is your brother, and you will treat each other as such. Hell, Arod and Jeter figured it out, and and they both played the same position. You two can make it work. You know, you can tell there is something because Lindor's mental lapse the other day added to all of this. Forgetting the outs, getting picked off, looking like a guy whose head was just somewhere other than the game for a couple huge moments. That's not him. That's not the normal Francisco Lindor baseball. And he owned it, which I respect. And Mendoza didn't cover for him either, which I also respect. But then you got Jose Reyes jumping in publicly and saying, Everybody relax. You know, my guy's gonna be fine. And that's kind of where this starts to get interesting for me at least. If you read between the lines here, franchise guys like that don't usually feel the need to jump in and make some noise unless they know that the noise is getting loud. That's the punctuation mark on this whole thing. You know, once Mets royalty starts stepping in to calm the room down from the outside, especially a Spanish player who played the same position and was beloved by the fans the way that Lindor is, you can no longer really pretend that this is just some little fan-made internet story with no legs. This is this is a real thing. And look, Lindor can absolutely snap out of this on the field. One hot week changes the batting average, changes the conversation, changes all of it. He parks one in the Coca-Cola corner at home for a couple days in a row here. People are gonna think everything's alright. But the bigger question is whether winning cleans up the energy too. Or the weirdness is just still sitting there underneath all of it. You know, as far as the supporting cast goes, Bobichette has shown that he can handle the smoke early. He's been upfront about how different New York is and how he also handled the boos that he got in the opening day series. He handled it about as good as uh anybody could that's coming to New York for the first time. Basically said, Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't boo me earlier. My bats were trash. That's good. You love to see a guy be able to dispel it and handle, take the question and roll on with it. Marcus Simeon, same thing. Doing the veteran thing, saying there's no panic in him, that you know, my swing will come, just getting used to it. That all helps. It tells you that there are adults in the room. That is good. Still, adults in the room and weird energy can exist at the same time. Those things are not mutually exclusive. You know, the frustrating part with all this too is that it's the pitching, which is what most fans thought was going to be the bigger problem. It's not even the main problem. The rotation has shown you that it if the lineup would just act normal for five minutes, this team would be fine. That's what makes this more annoying than anything. You don't you don't feel like you're watching some dead-on arrival roster. You're watching a team with enough talent to be good, which means the messiness jumps off the screen even more. I mean, Mania reluctantly taking a backseat, but being able to give you some serious length in relief matters a lot. Nolan McLean is already getting looked at like a bit of a stopper, which is super important for him and his confidence. Freddie Peralta is settling in nicely. You know, his first start wasn't the best, but he bounced back nice and he's had two quality starts. And Sangha, Sangha's looked good. He's looked like the ace that he was originally supposed to be. But still, after all that being said, the main pressure point with this team right now is not just when do the bats warm up, it's it turns into what is this energy? And does it get fixed before this becomes a real thing that tanks the season? I mean, that's where I'm at with them right now. A little bit of bullshit can get solved. But a messy clubhouse where guys don't get along, that'll eat you alive. That'll eat your whole season alive. That'll tank a season faster than you even know it. Oh, God. Who would have thought coming into seven games of the season, this is where I'd be with the Mets already? Probably every Yankee fan. Anyway, that's where I'm at with them. Uh, we did get a couple nice write-ins for the mailbag this week. So let's let's kick those off right here. First off, Brad writes in, says, All these rookies popping early. Is that a no data thing, or is it just a new generation of young dogs? Well, honestly, it's probably both, if I'm being fair. I mean, guys are more prepared now. Development is way better in the minor leagues, training is better, confidence is better. Young players come up and they act like they've been here the whole time. They act like they belong right away. Confidence is key in baseball, right? Connor Griffin shows up at 19 and looks electric immediately. Daniel Susak gets his first big league start against the Mets and goes four for four. Looks like he's been hanging around for a while. You know, young guys are more ready than ever, and it's be partly because of the rules that get put in place in the minors. You know, they they test baseball tests tests, tests. Baseball tests everything out that they want to put in the majors in the minor leagues. So like ABS has been in the minor leagues for like three or four years now. So that's why when these young hitters get called up, you know, maybe like last year or so when ABS wasn't in, and they would get punched out on some strike that they knew wasn't a strike, well, it was because for the last four years, three years in the minors, they've had the ABS and they knew exactly where the strike zone was. These umpires, man, they're they're in for a rude awakening. CB Buckner, especially, you know. Kind of almost wish you kind of almost wish Angel Hernandez was still in the league. Just to just to humble him a little bit, you know? But hey man, look, pitchers and teams also adjust fast. So April can still lie to you a little bit, but moving forward, I gotta say, with all this young talent, the league is in good hands. Uh and our as for our second mailbag question, this actually pertains to the ABS system. Ray writes in, does ABS eventually replace umpires entirely? Uh no. I mean, maybe I I don't I don't think we're there yet. I don't think we're there for a little while. But I think what people want more than robot umpires throughout the whole game is just actual real accountability. You know, fans want the obviously wrong call to stop deciding innings and messing with pitchers' pitch counts and you know, a strike that wasn't a strike now leads to a first and second, and that pitcher gets pulled. You know, it's all just what? Because the ump had a bad day behind the plate. The challenge system scratches that itch better than a full robot zone does, at least for now. Again, Daniel Suzak, you saw him, he's a catcher for the Giants. You saw him win one of those challenges, and it turned a walk for Luise Robert Jr. into a strikeout. That's the kind of thing that changes the whole inning. You know how baseball works. Baseball is all momentum. Every sport is momentum, but baseball especially is momentum. Like I think we're headed towards more challenge-assisted correcting. Not a total umpire extinction event happening tomorrow or anything, but it it definitely, if you already have the technology in place, why not try to get everything exactly right anyway? And, you know, maybe five years from now, I wouldn't be surprised if the ump behind the plate was really only there to maybe call foul tips and the plays of the plate and stuff like that. So I don't know. It's not AI robot domination right away. It's still the game we love. But it's coming for sure. A few quick around the league baseball notes just before I close this segment. The Dodgers, well, the Dodgers, top four, one, two, three, four in the lineup, all homering in the same game is the most Dodgers thing imaginable, I guess. You know, Otani, Tucker, Betts, Freeman. Not all back-to-back, trust me, that would be ridiculous. But it's like, yeah, yeah, man, we get it. They spend a ton of money and buy themselves an all-star team. The annoying part is that it's it still works, and every now and then they remind you exactly how unfair it can look when all the expensive toys start clicking on the same night, you know. Kate Horton leaving with forearm discomfort is worth mentioning for the Cubs fans listening out there. It's just on the keep an eye on that immediately front. No need to overdo it, but no need to undersell it either. You know, forearm discomfort and young pitchers are words that you never really want to hear in the same sentence together. And one last thing on the business side here. The MLBPA, the Major League Baseball Players Association, kind of flexed their muscles a little bit and you know, showed their position, I think a little more than they should have, but they're puffing their chest out and letting the owners know if this thing gets ugly next time around, we are a lot more prepared for it than we were last time. You know, they have built up a massive reserve north of$400 million between cash, treasuries, and like liquid assets. The whole message there is pretty obvious. If there is a lockout coming when this thing expires, which we're all pretty much assuming is going to happen, they are not walking in empty-handed. They've even had players allow certain group licensing money to be withheld so it can be there if and when a work stoppage does happen. You know, that is not subtle. That is straight up the union telling ownership. We know exactly where this could be headed, and we're getting ready right now instead of panicking later. So, you know, while everybody's enjoying opening week and arguing about lineups and rotations and who looks good in the first seven games and this, that, and the other, eating their hot dogs in the sun, you know, the labor side is already keeping score, and it is something that is going to rear its head before you know it. But uh, yeah, that's the baseball side of town right now. You know, the Yankees look like they've got something cooking, and the Mets look like they've got something burning on the stove. Now, now we slide over to the garden where the Knicks are living in that same pressure point space. You know, you can see the good, you can see the bad. And depending on the night, one of them looks a whole lot louder than the other. Hard court up next. Keep it right. So here we are from the Bronx and Queens. Take the subway over to Manhattan. It's time to talk about a little bit of Knicks basketball. And the Knicks picked a pretty good time to remind people why they've been so hard to figure out all year. I mean, that's the real whole conversation with them right now. The talent is obvious, the ceiling is obvious. The problem is the flaws are obvious too. And all three of those things can live in the same room at the same time. You know, one night they look like a team that can make a real run and ruin somebody's spring. And then the next night, they look like a team that still hasn't fully figured itself out. And the season's pretty much over already. That's why the feeling around them isn't full-blown panic. It's more this uncomfortable calm but nervous feeling. That I know this team is good, but why do I still not totally trust what I'm looking at? Kind of feeling. And the poll this week nailed it too. 56% said the bigger concern is team chemistry, while 44% said bench scoring. Yeah, bench scoring matters, sure. But the chemistry thing is the one that hangs over everything. You know, fans can feel that, especially Knicks fans. You can see it. There are still too many nights where this team has all the parts and somehow still looks like it's trying to put the furniture together while the guests are still sitting in the living room. Now, to their credit, the last two games gave you the exact kind of response that you were looking for. You know, they go to Memphis after some shaky stuff, stop the bleeding, get the win. That was big. OG gave you 25 and 13, Cat gave you a triple-double, bridges drops 24. It looked like a team that remembered what it was supposed to be, who they were supposed to be. And then Friday night, they absolutely beat the brakes off Chicago. 136-96. They lit by as much as 47 at one point. OG drops 31, hits seven threes, ties his career high. Mitch Robson goes seven for seven with 17 and 11. Brunson gives you a solid 17-10. And they lock up the third straight 50-win season, which this franchise hasn't done since the early 90s. That's Patrick Ewing. That's not one of those fake good bounce back wins where you, you know, win by six and it was up and down the whole game. They scored 42 points in the first quarter. That was grown man basketball. Urgency right away, foot on the gas, no weird bullshit, no playing with your food. That game was over early and everybody in the building knew it. That's what makes this Knicks such a frustrating team to talk about right now. Just when you're really ready to lean into the concern and be worried, they turn around and remind you why the expectations were this high in the first place. I mean, OJ, OG has to get some real love here. He is one of the biggest pressure points on this team in the best way possible. When he is assertive, when he's hunting shots, when he's not just floating around waiting for the ball to find him, the whole thing looks different. I mean, there's a version of this Knicks team where OG is aggressive, Brunson is steering the ship, Mitch is wrecking the glass, and suddenly you remember why people talk themselves into this being a dangerous playoff group. And Mitch matters a lot too. That stat line Friday was great, but more than that, he changes the feel of the team when he's active and healthy. Extra possessions, offensive boards, second chance buckets, cleaning up the mistakes around the rim, just that general chaos, you know? The problem is the catch is the same as it always was with him. You know, you trust the impact always. You don't always trust the availability. And he's been good this year. He's been healthy, they've managed him well, they've, you know, no back to backs, all that. But every good Mitch game comes with that little voice in the back of your head going, all right, can I count on him to still be here in two weeks? And Brunson is still the biggest reason I'm not burying them at all. I mean, he is still the guy on this team that I trust most when the game gets ugly and possessions start to feel heavy. He is Captain Clutch. He is the one that makes me say they should get out of the first round. They better get out of the first round. I mean, anything less than that is a catastrophic failure. No dancing around it. That's the line that I keep landing on that keep landing on with them. I mean, they should survive the first round. They're good enough to survive the first round. There are not many teams in the East better than them on paper. The only thing that makes people nervous is that the playoffs are never only about paper. You know? One of those top four teams is probably going to get clipped in the East. I mean, it happens every year. NBA playoffs are not always chalked, no matter how badly people want you to treat them like they are. Somebody always ends up getting dragged into a weird series or tightening up, and all of a sudden the season's over before you know it. I mean, Boston doesn't really feel like they're the team right now. They deserve their flowers. Everybody spent a ton of this year acting like the Selskies were just gonna go through this year with no Tatum coasting as a gap year, and they'll figure it out, and maybe they'll even tank and try and get a top pick. Yeah, Jalen Brown has been playing like an MVP, and they just locked into the two seed. I mean, 53 points in the first quarter against Miami is stupid. Brown went for 43, Tatum got a triple-double, Missoula is a psychopath and just runs that machine hot. So Cleveland's, excuse me, Celtics aren't going anywhere. Cleveland, well, they deserve a little bit of mention too. You know? Theirs is a little bit different. They're still really good. They've still got enough talent to be a problem. I just don't know if they'll they'll fully take advantage of the situation here. You know, we'll see how Harden looks in the playoffs, but Cleveland, I don't know if they're gonna go anywhere. I don't know if they're gonna get bounced. And Detroit, the one seed the whole year, they deserve some love too, which sounds strange if you haven't really been paying attention, but they do. I mean, Cade is still out and he's probably going to be out. He's probably not gonna come back until maybe the second round of the playoffs. And they keep winning anyway. So that's a team with an identity. Those teams are dangerous in April. They know exactly what they are, and they don't spend a whole lot of time arguing with themselves about it. That matters in a playoff series when it gets ugly. And the Knicks They scare me with that, man. They either hit the three or they don't. Kat doesn't know where he's supposed to be. He what's my role? Yada yada yada. It's it's not great, man. I mean, the cleanest way that I can put the Knicks right now is I definitely feel better after the last two wins, but I definitely do not feel relaxed either. I mean, the Bulls game doesn't erase the chemistry questions. It doesn't magically solve every role issue that's been coming up. It also it also doesn't suddenly mean that Kat's fit questions are gone either. You know, I know it's probably just a maintenance day, but if it's an elbow problem, you know, it's a shooting elbow. This team to win needs Kat to be good. These Passover games, they remind you that the switch is still there, which is good. But now the real question becomes whether that they can stay in that version of themselves long enough for it to mean something. Now, while I'm still on hoops, college basketball gave us one of those moments that goes straight to the museum, right to the Pantheon, right to the Mount Rushmore of shots. That Yukon buzzer beater, immediately, no waiting period, top of the list. Some March moments just skip the line, you know, and that one did. That shot is gonna live forever. Duke tries to inbound it, they get it bounced off, the kid hits it from 45 feet. And the slider reaction poll that I put out this week basically saying the same thing without saying anything. It was just pure, yeah, that was insane. That was one of those shots where the second it leaves his hand, the whole world knew it was going in. And the whole sport freezes for a second, and then when it drops, the nation collectively went, oh shit. But anyway, here we are. So that brings us to the final four. And you know, I don't really want to overcook this part. You know, I'm not giving out any picks, no long dramatic features or anything, just the X's and O's, the matchups, what each team would need to do to win. So we stay on Yukon and we stay with Illinois. And this one kind of feels like a classic style fight game. You know, Illinois has way more ways to get downhill, more ways to stress you with spacing, more ways to hunt specific matchups. I mean, Keaton Waggler is a huge part of that. He is the engine of that team. He's a big guard, he can score it, can settle them down when he needs to, can put pressure on the point of attack. And then you bring in the front court stuff with Mirkovich and the Ivislav brothers. All of a sudden, Illinois can hurt you in a bunch of different ways. Pick and pop, a little post touch, second chance, kick out threes, all of it. Yukon's path, well, Yukon's path is more about structure and shot making. It's more about that hurly mentality. I mean, they can still absolutely beat you with off-ball action, shooting, that layered half-court stuff they run better than almost anybody. Solo ball, caravan, mullins, those guys can those guys can make you pay in a hurry. The issue is if Yukon can't clean up the point of attack defense and keep Illinois out of the paint, they're gonna be under real stress all night. I mean, that's the matchup to me. Can can Illinois keep generating those paint touches and force Yukon to start helping more than it probably wants to? If the answer is yes, then that game starts tilting fast. Excuse me. Now we move on to Arizona and Michigan. And this one, well, this one feels like the championship to everybody, right? This one feels like a more of a war. Rebounding, foul trouble, half-court execution, grown man basketball. If Michigan keeps Arizona off the glass, Arizona's life gets a lot harder. That's really the simplest version of it. I mean, Arizona wants to be physical, wants to create extra chances, wants to grind on you. Michigan wants to make it more of a half-court game where it's passing and front court, and that kind of skill can take over. Lindenborg is the big pressure point there. He has to be the best player on the floor, or at least look like one of the two best players on the floor for the most of the night. He's been on a tear, and when he's dictating the game, Michigan looks like a team that can beat anybody. Arizona's got the bodies to fight with them now. But Michigan feels like the team with a little more offensive flexibility if the game gets dragged into the mud. The front court battle is nasty, the rebounding battle is nasty. Foul trouble could flip the whole thing. That one feels like whoever controls the ugly parts of the game probably controls the game itself. So, with all that being said, the college hoops pocket for me is pretty simple. Yukon gave us a March Madness moment that already belongs in a sports history book. The Illinois Yukon game is gonna be all about pressure in the paint and whether or not the Husky can Huskies can survive it. And as far as Michigan, Arizona, man, it's it's gonna be about the glass. It's gonna be about foul trouble. It's gonna be about who can seize the moment. But yeah, that's that's all the hoops right now. The Knicks still have you feeling two things at once. And come Monday, we will have a new college basketball champion. But it's time to get to football now. And the smoke is everywhere, and the draft takes are everywhere. It's only gonna get hotter because we got three more weeks, though. Somebody's gonna move up the board, somebody's gonna jump around. It's just always how it goes. Great Iron Talk next, NFL next. Keep it right here. It's April, and the smoke machine is on full blast, and every quote is getting treated like a courtroom evidence at this point. We'll start with the Jets since that's where the loudest conversation is right now. Aaron Glenn says one thing about Gino Smith, and all of a sudden people act like he's guaranteed a Lombardi trophy on the steps of City Hall. That's not what happened. That comment got taken and run with the way Jets things always get taken and run with. Look, New York media sees the Jets, they see a juicy quote or spicy comment, sees a fan base that's been through enough nonsense to be instantly defensive about everything. And now everybody's off to the races. Personally, I think Glenn's comment got taken a little bit out of context, and the bigger reason it got legs is one word. Jets. That's it. If another coach says something optimistic about his quarterback, people call it coach speak and move on and maybe roll their eyes a little bit. The Jets say it and suddenly it's open season. How could you say this? That you know he's lost. I I don't know, man. Here's the part that matters. Gino Smith isn't exactly here to be some franchise saving superhero for that comment to still make sense. I mean, he's grown up, he's played football, he's seen enough of it, he's been humbled plenty of times, he's been counted out, and he's also gone elsewhere and learned how to be an adult quarterback. Is he elite? No. Is he some Sam Darnold type late career resurrection where now suddenly walking into the building as a top five guy and he's gonna bring in a trophy? No. That's not what this is, though. Still, he can absolutely show a little more life in a better situation than he was in with the Raiders. That's where I think people are either being lazy or just pretending not to see the context of things. Did he lead the league in interceptions last year? Yes. Did he was he tied for the most sacks last year? Yes. Also true. But what else is true? Well, he was playing football behind the worst offensive line in the league, ranked number 32. And if you really want to dive into the metrics of it all, the gap between 32 and 31 was large. Brock Bowers, monster, no argument, but he only played 12 games. And honestly, half the time felt like he was staying in to save the protection anyway. So with a hurt Brock Bowers, no real wide receivers to speak of, a rookie running back playing behind the worst offensive line in the league, yeah, it's not exactly a recipe for success. So now let's move him to the Jets. The Jets, even through all the mess, they have the better line. They have two linchpin tackles and two guards up the middle. They've got Garrett Wilson, who has been begging for a grown-up to get him the ball and still somehow has found a way to post thousand-yard seasons with guys like Zach Wilson, Trevor Simeon, and Mike White cycling through the room. Brees Hall is still there, still talented, still trying to remind people he didn't disappear just because the offense around him was a clown show. Plus, on a one-year franchise tag make or break deal, he's gonna want to prove himself. Mason Taylor is a young tight end with a real bit of juice, looking to take that next step forward in his second year. And the odds are pretty good that they draft another receiver in this year's draft. So, no, is it the promised land in the old school confetti falling sense? No. For the Jets, though, Promised Land might just be a functional offense. It might be six wins and games that don't feel over in the first quarter. It might be playing meaningful football in December. Hell, maybe even November. That's why I didn't hate what Glenn said. I understood what he meant. The problem is the Jets don't get the benefit of the doubt. Not from the media, not from the fans, not from anybody. Their own history has stripped that away from them years ago. And that's also why the poll result this week made sense. You know, most people said Glenn got lost in the sauce, and some said that it was taken out of context. I'm a lot closer to the second group. The wording was loud, sure. But the idea underneath it all is not crazy. Gino is not the franchise. Gino is the adult in the room. And right now for this team, that is a massive upgrade. The bigger Jets problem is actually not Gino. The bigger Jets problem is the cycle that they've been trapped in forever. They trade good players, they stack picks, miss on the quarterback, start over, convince yourself this is this version is different, and then miss again, tear it down again, and do the same thing over and over. That's the disease. That's the problem with the Jets. You know, they turn good players into draft capital, then they can't find what they need, then turn that group into more picks, then do it again. That's a pressure point that gets pressed on constantly for the Jets. Gino doesn't solve that forever, obviously. But Gino just gives them a chance to act like a normal football team while they try and figure it out for real this time. Make sure they don't trip over the wire. And that leads us right into the draft. This is that time of the year where it gets fun and stupid, and you hear some of the craziest takes from some of the smartest people in the league, right? Ty Simpson is starting to work his way up the draft board. Makes perfect sense. You know, this is that this is when quarterbacks get prop polished up and propped up. But, you know, one good workout, one clean pro day, one article about footwork and processing, and all of a sudden people are acting like they discovered the next guy. In a cave. Look, could Ty Simpson be good? Sure. There are things to like. He's got a great feel in the pocket, mechanics. He's a coach's kid. He plays hurt. He's got decent rhythm. There's you know, there's enough stuff there that you can talk yourself into him. All that is fair. The problem is this is how teams talk themselves into a quarterback just to talk themselves into a quarterback. And that's where I keep landing on him. He's an interesting prospect, but he's a dangerous conversation. Jets fans of all people should understand the difference between liking a quarterback and falling in love with the idea of a quarterback. There's a reason the Zach Wilson wound still feels fresh. You know, one crazy throw across his body in shorts, one shiny pre-draft rise and an owner who maybe had a little too much influence. Now you're paying for it years and years later. Again, it doesn't mean Ty Simpson is Zach Wilson. It means I'm not falling for the same movie trailer twice. If the Jets absolutely love him, there is a version of this that I can understand. Maybe you trade back up into the late first round, trade with Seattle at 32 so you can keep that fifty year option of him in the first round. Let Gino be the bridge. I don't know. See if you can develop something in a calm environment. That version at least makes a little structural sense. But reaching early just to say that you took a quarterback, I'm out on that. Realistically, if if I'm GM, if I'm turning in the cards this year, and I'm probably drafting a quarterback next year anyway, I'd rather just keep building the roster and take a swing on a guy like Nussmeyer or Drew Aller later, fourth round, third round, something like that. That feels more honest than forcing yourself into a wrong lane at the wrong price. And you'll have a young kid on the roster. I mean, Gino's gonna start. Gino's gonna get the job. It's he'll be fine. But you know, if all of a sudden you look up and you got ten losses, this might be worth to see if the kid's got anything. So at least you have a kid on the roster. The cleaner draft philosophy for the Jets, really for any team, is trust your board. Not the internet's board, not the TV's board, not the mock draft industrial complex board. Your board. Your scouts, your guys. That's why the names at the top are interesting for the Jets at number two. They're gonna have their pick of the litter. I mean, it's all but decided that Mendoza's going number one. So Arvell Reese, Ruben Bain Jr., Sonny Styles. Look, Reese gives you the hybrid, do everything, weaponized athlete feel, whereas Bain gives you that more direct, violent, edge rushing presence. And Styles, look, Styles gives you the converted defensive end linebacker kind of job. I can see the argument for all of them. And we'll go over it in the draft episode in a couple weeks, but for this show, the point is way simpler. Don't draft scared. Don't draft out of embarrassment. Don't let the room pressure you into a cornerback and panic. And at 16, I think the Jets go receiver, and I personally I'd really like Makai Lemon. He's quick, he's polished, slippery, can play inside, he can play outside, gives you some real life next to Garrett Wilson. And most importantly, he gives the receiver room another guy who can actually separate and help the quarterback. So again, not getting super deep into the receiver board here, that's for the draft preview episode. But I like Lemon at 16 for the Jets. Now we flip over to the Giants, and this is where I get even stronger with the best player available thing. If the Giants are sitting there at five and Jeremiah Love is on the board, I'm taking Jeremiah Love. Pretty simple. The poll results were interesting. More people said best player, make it work, then here we go again, Saquon all over. So that kind of tells me that fans are split, but not in a way that you'd expect. There is a scar there, obviously. Barkley's whole Giants arc left a bruise on this fan base. I get it. Then you had to go watch and win a Super Bowl in Philly. Nobody wants to feel like they learned nothing. Still, this is where I get stubborn with it. You do not pass on a special player just because the last time your franchise had a special player, it screwed up the rest of the plan. That's not the prospect's fault. That is not a reason to get cute. Football drafting to me has always been simple in theory and hard in practice. Take the best player on your board and figure it out later. Drafting for needs gets people fired. That's how you end up three years later staring at somebody else's star, going, man, we could have had him, but we we really thought we needed a safety or a guard or whatever that year. Love to me feels like the kind of player who changes the way an offense breathes. The Giants' defense is decent enough, the D line is strong enough, and they should take another step forward anyway. So if I'm choosing between adding another good defensive piece and grabbing the kind of offensive player that can tilt the field, I lean love every time. Now that does not mean Sonny Styles isn't good. He's really good. He's freaky, versatile, violent, everything you want on the football field. So I understand the argument. I just don't think he changes more for the Giants than Love does if they're both there. That's where I land. The other part of this that matters is what the pick says about the organization. You know, if they take love, they're telling you that they're not drafting scared. They're telling you that they trust their eyes. They're telling you they're willing to live with people screaming Barkley all over again if they believe the player is that caliber level. I respect that a lot more than just talking themselves into the safe answer to avoid the headlines. Lastly, a few quick NFL notebook things before I land this plane. The Raiders signing Kirk Cousins to a five-year deal is one of those funniest headline versus reality stories of the week. You know, the thing reads like five years in the headline, and really when you start getting into the fine print, it's one year deal. That's a bridge. That's a veteran babysitter. That's a nerdy veteran teaching another nerdy quarterback how to live in a building if Fernando Mendoza is still the plan. So in a weird way, it makes sense. You know, Cousins is exactly the kind of guy a rookie can watch every day and learn how to be boring and professional while still keeping the teammates fun around him. It could get annoying if they lose, no question. But winning covers a lot of weird. Winning is the best deodorant. Losing makes every sermon sound a little bit longer. Still, I get the move. It's a good, it's a good play. God bless Kirk Cousins, Asian. This man has wanted to retire in three different cities, three different teams. Can't wait to retire here. And all he's done is bounced around and made a gazillion dollars. The Ravens whining about the Max Crosby deal falling through, save it. Nobody wants to hear it. It's over. They tried to say there was a slow news cycle and that they got blamed for a lot of it, and that's why it hung around on them. So look, man, if you back out on a massive move and people talk about it, that's not the media being unfair. That's the consequences of doing business loudly and awkwardly. You gotta cope with it, you gotta deal with it. And lastly, the replacement refs being in the conversation again is funny and also a little scary. Only because it probably immediately drags your brain back to the fail Mary. I mean, every football fan of a certain age has a little PTSD from that one. So the second you hear replacement refs, it's like your body physically remembers what nonsense looks like, what a bad call looks like, what a weird flag looks like. But yeah, that's the that's the football side of the week, man. The Jets, the Jets have real reasons for hope. Even if nobody wants to hear that with a straight face. The biggest thing they can do is stop repeating the same mistakes forever. And Ty Simpson is easy to talk yourself into. He's easy to be have him become that mistake. So don't let it. The Giants should take love if he's there and trust themselves to make it work. And the rest of the draft smoke is only going to get louder from here, which is fine. Draft episodes coming up in a couple weeks. We're really gonna open the hood up on all of it, dive into each player. But until then, let's wrap things up and get you out of here with a little motivation for your week. Pressure points, man. I like that one. It feels right for where we're at at the sports calendar. And honestly, just where a lot of things tend to be in general. You know, everybody looks good when nothing's getting tested. Everybody's got a plan when the room is quiet. Everybody sounds confident when the questions are easy, and nothing is being really asked of them. Then the pressure shows up. That's when you find out what's real, what's surface level, what's fixable, what's being ignored, what's built right. And that's that's where the Yankees look so good right now. And it's where the Mets feel so weird. It's where the Knicks still have everybody doing that dance between belief and concern, and where the Jets are trying to become respectable without asking people to be stupid about. Pressure doesn't always mean something's broken. Sometimes it just shows you where the attention needs to go. That's really it. Nothing dramatic, nothing over the top. A team gets tested, and you find out what's sturdy and what still needs work. A player gets put under the lights, you find out what they're ready for and what they're not. Life's not all that different. Hell, most of the time, the hardest part isn't the pressure itself. It's being honest about what it's showing you. Something feels off, alright. Acknowledge it. Something needs more time, fine. Give it some more time. Something clearly needs to be addressed, then address it. The middle ground matters. Not ignoring it, but not turning it into the end of the world either. That's probably the best way to handle a lot of things. Pay attention. Trust what you're seeing. Don't be scared to call it what it is. You know, pressure points don't always mean collapse. Sometimes they're just the thing that helps you see clearly. And that is where my head has been all week in sports. Appreciate you guys for hanging out with me again, voting the polls, sending mailbag questions, listening, sharing the clips, being part of this little thing every single week. Little by little, episode by episode, brick by brick. It keeps growing. And I don't take that lightly. So thank you for that. Keep tapping in with me on Instagram, at Rice on the Radio, Twitter, Facebook, whatever your social media drug of choices. Keep sending the questions, keep sending the takes. Let me know what's on your mind. What teams you're worried about, what I'm too high on, too low on, all of it, man. The back and forth is what makes this thing feel alive. Take care of yourself this week. Spread some good energy where you can. Tell somebody you love them. Seriously, don't just assume that they know. Don't save it for later. Just say it. Have a happy Easter to those who celebrate too. I am Ian Rice, and this has been episode 59 of Rice on the Mics. And I'll catch you guys next week. Same time, same place. Cheers