This is covering the spread here are your hosts Jim Saunas and Dr. Ed Fang What is going on everybody? Welcome on into covering the spread That's right here on the fan dual podcast network in numberfire.com where today We're getting you set for the final four of the 2021 men's college basketball tournament Adam Stanko getting his thoughts on both games Championship outrides Gonzaga versus the field and also some NBA futures mixed in there as well Coming off of last week's trade deadline. My name is Jim Saunas I am a senior writer and analyst for numberfire.com joined here as always by Dr. Ed Fang You can find his work over at the power bank comm and Ed elite eight just wrapped up the final four is now set How you doing today? I'm doing pretty good a little bit tired staying up for these games Can't really watch him in the morning when you have to do a 9 a.m. Radio gig like I did this morning But yeah, it's been a lot of fun And you know last night the Michigan game was kind of interesting because the Thursday before the tournament tipped on Friday I I released an episode of bracket wisdom. It was my bracket analysis and I did everything based on Preseason AP poll, which is a surprising predictor So it turned out to be maybe the worst predictive episode. I've ever done Talked about Michigan State. I talked about how the North Carolina, Wisconsin winner was gonna give Baylor a game Talked about how there was no chance Illinois was gonna get the round of 32 I Don't know why I'm rehashing all these things anyways You know, it's kind of one of these things that happened, you know, right before the start of the tournament There were certainly less downloads on that episode just because of the timing of everything, but I did it anyways But last night So one of the things I did say was that you know Partially because of the AP talk 25 and partially because of some injury situations with the teams I thought the one region where you get a surprise final four was the east where you had Michigan as the one and Alabama as the two and clearly I was sad to actually see that actually happen last night With with all my friends here in Ann Arbor, but so I guess that result saved it from being a completely terrible Predictive episode for me. See but Ed. Here's the thing is it wasn't terrible because in a bracket pool When you're picking Michigan State to win you're picking Michigan State slash UCLA So technically if you pick Michigan State to go all the way effectively You could still be right like I know you can edit it after the play-in game So you could have said oh Michigan State loss I'll dump out of this but like you could have still hypothetically been right So you may have inadvertently led people to a good bracket just by talking about Michigan State Could have been could have been Intentional I mean it was kind of it was such a it was such an interesting region right because I had Michigan State UCLA and BYU all really close. Yeah, so it was kind of like considered toss-ups But you know UCLA it's been interesting. Their runs been great And I don't want to take anything away from what they've accomplished on the court but the free throw shooting their last two opponents has been dreadful and Then they're also allowing 25% from three Through the entire tournament, which is just kind of unsustainable. So, you know props them for making the final four, but I Think especially against Gonzaga.  Was this just situation where UCLA played well enough where it may not have mattered? Yeah, it may have made a difference. I felt like no one on Michigan's team played a good game and That happened sometimes and you know They were still within a basket of of tying that game pushing it to overtime. Maybe even winning you could definitely see You know towards the end of the game You can definitely see the loss of Livers because he's clearly their best shooter. I mean, it's not really even close So you want him taking that last shot as the best shooter. So that would have affected a little bit I mean, Michigan didn't play well. That's that's all that that's what it comes down to and especially on the offensive side of The ball, I thought they played fine defensively I know UCLA hit a bunch of jump shots and and look pretty good, but I thought their defense on Juzang was was good It could have been better, but it was good. He just made shots So they just you know, they had a bad game on the offensive side of the ball and that happens We've got UCLA versus Gonzaga Houston versus Baylor We're gonna break down both those games the futures the outright everything with Adam stanker You can find him on Twitter at nasmith linds He is the host of the rejecting the screen podcast also does NBA draft work for ESPN. So that's a little overlap there We can talk some college basketball with Adam But then also get his thoughts on the NBA because tread deadline was last week We can talk about which teams may be undervalued in the market still and also talk about NBA futures with LeBron James and the mellow ball both banged up potentially giving us some outlets to bet in some Voting some award voting as well in the NBA so a lot to discuss with Adam We'll still do here in just one second but first make sure you are subscribed to covering the spread wherever you get your podcast because it's a Pretty poppin part of the sports calendar. We got the final four now after that We got the masters coming up the next week NFL draft around the corner Kentucky Derby a lot of big stuff coming down the next couple of weeks So make sure you are subscribed to covering the spread to get these podcasts as they go live each and every week And if you like what you hear make sure you leave us a rating and review as well We'll get to the final four here in just second but first got to go back to last week recap What went on in the sweet 16 in the elite eight and see what takeaways we have from that covering the past In our sweet 16 and betting preview podcast We had Drew Martin on to talk about the men's sweet 16 You can find them on Twitter at Drew Martin bets and both you and drew were on a couple of different bets together The first one was Arkansas minus 11 and a half against or Roberts You also had the Arkansas money line at minus 6 20 or Roberts actually up seven at the half Arkansas I did storm back there. So you got the money line win Good thing you toss it in there, too But they couldn't quite cover as or Roberts lost that game by just two so awesome rum But or Roberts there but Ed the money line came through at least that helps. Yeah, so we need to go back and Understand how lucky I was to win that money line So or Roberts was down to they have the ball the best player gets a pretty clean look from three to win bounces off the rim Arkansas advances It was interesting. I mean that was you know, that was a It was a game in which I did not get closing line value I think I think it went from 11 and a half to 11 at the very end Kind of thinking about that in terms of maybe I didn't understand the Arkansas team as well as I should have I think I was you know, I mean or Roberts was was probably a little bit overrated They played well, you know, yeah take your hat to them, but I think I was maybe a little bit off on Arkansas You know, I I talked about I don't know if I talked about it But I have been talking about Moses Moody and he's there there their lottery type pick player He had a bad tournament. He was nearly invisible on that team. So might have been something I missed there On that game. Yeah, but they did get the win at least so you did get the money line luck or not You got it. So that definitely does count to the second one was Loyola, Chicago minus seven against Oregon State in there Loyola just got off to a really rough first half and couldn't quite make up for it They didn't score for the final six minutes in the first half Oregon State one by seven there So obviously no cover and it's tough to win a bet when a team goes six minutes without scoring like that's just that's bad That's tough. Yep. Yeah, you know, I mean Oregon State played well Did get some closing line value with that because I think I bet it at seven and a half then it got to eight I'm not mistaken. It closes seven and a half at Will Hill I think is where I pulled from for the final one. So you got a half line there potentially eight at yours as well Wait, seven and a half or did I bet it at six and a half? Anyway, I felt a little bit better about that one with the closing line Value didn't work out, but that's how it goes. Sometimes we had a good one by Drew because Drew was talking about the under for Syracuse Houston it was at 140 when we talked it actually closed at 140 I think I'm actually that have been 140 and a half, but didn't matter doesn't matter what number you got because the under hit Houston won that one 62 to 46. It's 108 points. So the under hit by 32 So a big one there for drew on that one for Syracuse versus Houston drew on a Gonzaga minus 13 against Creighton They were up by 10 at the half and did not let off the gas They went up winning by 18 there to help drew get the cover and Gonzaga 14 point favorites again this week. So And it's we talked a lot about in college football teams taking care of business and Winning big when they should win big and like Gonzaga kind of feels like the best representation of that that mindset Yeah, absolutely. I mean they're they're like Alabama in football, right? I mean you look at your numbers you give them a couple extra points in the point spread And that's a fair number and that's essentially what we're seeing with I mean, that's what we're seeing with Gonzaga I think my numbers have them by like 12 and a half 13 points But we're giving them an extra point because they're that good. They made a very good USC team look like the junior varsity Last night. I mean they they just straight embarrassed them. So You know and I think they are that good You were talking about how some of the bracket analysis may not have been like it may not have been your best year for That but I think the logic of it's hard to find an alternative to Gonzaga. Obviously, it's not done yet It's not done yet. There are still two games left But the analysis of finding a smaller bracket so you can allow yourself to pick the favorite in Gonzaga I think that that specific advice works seeing why that was the analysis for this year Absolutely, I mean so I want to be clear So some of my bracket advice that on my podcast was not so great My paid stuff spin was just fine this year. So still working out pretty well But yes, it was definitely a year where you know There was a pretty big favorite and that might have been hard to see just because they're not a not as brand name a program as You know the usual teams that that we see is the the favorite in the tournament, but they've lived up to it Right now they have yet to they've covered every single game. Yeah, I'm not mistaken So it's easy to cover when you win by 20 every week So yeah, so you know and I keep saying you know, there's someone's gonna give them a game Yeah, I don't know when that's gonna be. I really don't think it's gonna be UCI but I mean you never know obviously, right, but They're gonna have to play poorly and someone's gonna have to play really well and that could still happen We're gonna talk with Adam though about Gonzaga versus the field a fun bed available on Fandall Sports But get his thoughts on that But also last week I had NASCAR for the Bristol dirt race And it actually wound up being more predictable than I thought because the thought process was it'd be super high variance We wouldn't have a good arena who would do well if I look at my my model for the race It performed better than I thought so if I had played things more straight up might have done better I was on Tyler Redick at 20 to 1 close at 18 So a tiny bit of value there the problem that Redick had is that qualifying got rained out which meant that he started 27th and Because he's a good dirt racer I thought that he start further up because they were supposed to have qualifying on Saturday and the heat races didn't happen started 27th He took a long way to work his way forward and eventually got his way in the top 10 run the top 5 finish 7th Couldn't quite push hard enough to get the win. I think that the qualifying aspect there It just took him so long to work his way forward pick his way through traffic There are so many cautions there weren't a lot of you know green flag chances for him to work his way forward So some tough luck there still got closing line value It wasn't the worst bet by any means because the two favorites did crash out, but Either way, I think that's more predictive than I thought that's something that I'll be applying to next year I'm gonna go back to Bristol where I can actually have more faith in my numbers next year Then I thought I would which is an interesting takeaway and a bit counter to what I was expecting for that race We're gonna talk to Adam Stanko here in just one second But first hey baseball fans opening day finally here Thursday and I made this time for a daily fantasy baseball There is no better place to play than on Fandall for only $4 You can have a chance to compete for part of the $500,000 prize pool with first place taking home $100,000 set you line up by Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern to compete in daily fantasy baseball Head over to Fandall and start the season off right for more details as a fandal.com or download the fandall app today Eligibility restrictions apply. Let's talk about the men's final for now with Adam Stanko Once again follow him on Twitter at Naismith lives checking out on the rejecting the screen podcast and check out his NBA draft work on ESPN is what we're talking about the final four and a little bit about the NBA futures market to coming off of last week's trade deadline Covering the present Let's welcome Adam Stanko back into covering the spread to get you set for the men's final four coming up on Saturday Adam I appreciate the time. How you doing today? I'm great It's always great to talk to you and to talk to my old high school buddy whenever I get the chance Yeah, we got the we got the the inside dish on it last time because I think that that's just required Having high school buddies on the air here for sure. So that's that's definitely a good thing But I also want to talk to you Adam about like how the tournament's gone for you because you got brackets You know, you're giving analysis or recent and stuff like that How have things been for you with this tournament? Have you found it to be? More mixed for you than usual or do you feel like you've had a pretty good grasp on things despite the volatility with this weird year? I don't think that I've had a good grip on Lay it out You know, it's weird because the evaluations that that I do are typically based upon well They are they're always based upon, you know What's happened in past tournaments and so we sort of have well the tournament itself becomes this tiny sample size over time You can figure out especially from a psychological perspective sort of how teams are playing what what will Breed success in the tournament. I always point to my five factors. You need an NBA level point guard multiple NBA players Multiple three-point shooters a rim protector and a go-to score and those things still apply And they're still a part of having success but I think now you factor in no fans or at least very limited fans and now all of a sudden role players can Step up in different ways that we wouldn't have seen in tournaments past where they would have been a little bit too nervous to play and Also, there's no momentum swings that I think we felt like we would see typically because of a crowd and What I'm really seeing is teams that close out the first half really strongly and end up building these big leads are sustaining those and I think I think I think opponents are also allowing for sort of this late rush at the end of a Half because again, you don't feel like it's as big at least the players on the court don't for the moment at hand Yeah, and I just want to bring up, you know watching the Michigan UCLA game last night we you know Adam you talked about this on my podcast about Michigan's weakness like they don't have an NBA level point card and They didn't really have a go-to score last night. I mean they thought that I guess maybe they thought they had a go-to score but it didn't really work out and that and that's the type of analysis that you know, you definitely provide and It really kind of reared its head last night in any game that Michigan should have won but just couldn't Yeah, absolutely. I mean that was the thing for me I mean Isaiah Livers you look at in this tournament We're sort of waiting for when would it hit them that they didn't have a go-to score And what I always point out with that is it's not just about Five seconds left who are you going to to break his guy down and score but more so? Hey, there's four minutes left There's eight minutes left or momentum has started to shift a little bit Where are we going out of our structured offense to just go to someone? Who can find a way to score whether they reject a ball screen or whether we run a play for them or what have you? We just need to get the ball in someone's hands to go get us a bucket to calm things down and obviously you saw last night I don't know what it was at. I think the last eight shots Michigan miss, but they were looking for someone who is going to be that guy And you know it certainly wasn't Wagner on that three-point attempt I can tell you that much no it wasn't to an 100 Dickinson's their best player And he had a really good stretch at the beginning of the second half where you got a bunch of buckets And then he missed one and they kind of went away from him and You know that's where I was kind of like no stop You know he's your best player at least at least work it into him And he got a little bit predictable with how he was shooting it But you know at least get it into him and he's he's a really good pastor getting it out of there They kind of got away from that and then you know things just got away from them. They just they did not have a good game on offense Yeah, absolutely I think that we saw that and I to me the number was the magic number was 80 if UCLA could hold Michigan under 80 points They were gonna have a chance to win that game and to do the job defensively that they did and I thought that I Thought you on Howard drew up some good stuff I like the offense that they kind of ran for the most part I mean you point out about about how much they were going to Dickinson, but just in general terms It just seemed to be that when and they needed something late It's just that collection of guys that was good in terms of everyone contributing Had served them well the first couple rounds, but it just you know They needed just a go-to score and they didn't have it now You were talking about the differences with the tournament this year with no fans and the impact that has but also with you we're doing NBA draft stuff and COVID can impact that too. So how have things been different for you from the NBA draft prep perspective? With potentially decreased availability and stuff like that How has it impacted your analysis and your ability to do your research given that there may be just some extra obstacles this year? Well, it's interesting from a draft perspective because this whole thing started at the beginning of COVID where it was really difficult to analyze players because you know people think that it's all about the on-court performance and productivity and that's what NBA prospects are evaluated on but interviews are absolutely critical In-person interviews which obviously didn't happen. They happened over Zoom. So that still took place You still got to know the kids on some level But typically the interview portion has become the most important part of the combine actually for the for the NBA draft A lot of people don't don't realize that And then and then individual workouts with teams is the other main component of draft Research and and data and again that was missing from the process last year where teams weren't able to individually work out guys They are going to be able to do it this year. There were some instances where they did some of that but really it wasn't on a grand ski grand level and and for me personally I Go down to LA every summer Don McLean works out People may remember him as NBA's most improved player UCLA Pac-12's all-time leading scorer But Don has become like the pre-eminent workout guru and has had everybody Donovan Mitchell Carl Anthony Towns Paul George even back in the day Adam Morrison He's worked out so many different players and really just preparing them for How the NBA game is different than the college game? And I think that's a that's something a lot of people don't realize You know how valued three-point shooting is the role that you'll play at the next level and those are the skills He works on and so that's the part of the process this year that we'll we'll get to evaluate but in terms of this year and being limited During the college season. I think we've just seen sort of without fans It's we've seen role-players of what their maximum capability is. I think that's the difference really It's and so the elite guys are always going to perform well regardless of what the situation is But for the role guys, that's what's what's really changed is all of a sudden you see some role-players gain confidence And you say oh, I didn't realize his ceiling was there. Oh now we have to start looking at him in a different way Excellent. Let's talk about some of the final four games. We have Houston versus Baylor Baylor is a five-point favorite with a total of 135 I think these are these are two really interesting teams Houston and Calvin Samson and Baylor and Scott Drew How do you think this one evolves? Well, obviously Houston has had an interesting path to get to the final four. I mean without playing right a single-digit seed Really hasn't played much competition in general all year. I mean just a couple tournament teams and you think about Wichita State and then there was one other earlier in the year There's the only other team that that they faced it's actually in this field But I will say I love what Calvin Samson does defensively and you and I have talked about what I think I think the world of him as a head coach. I think he's one of the best coaches in all of college basketball If not the best right now just because I believe it's all about buying and how he gets his kids to play at such a High level on the defensive and the effort the fact that they play for each other Which is huge the fact that they understand their specific roles in in a in the team structure and so the thing with Houston is Defensively, they're gonna cause you nightmares. They're gonna take away your best player They're gonna take away your abilities to score different capacities, but you know, we saw what they did to Buddy Bay. I'm And you'll just see that with this Houston team They are not going to allow your best player to to beat them. The problem is they really don't have that many scores They they essentially You know Quentin Grimes the Kansas transfer is an unbelievable high-level score He's gonna get his and they're look gonna look to get him at all three levels of the offense But but it's the other guys that they really need to step up Jiro who is more of a distributor at this point But also contributes points wise and then sassar and those three guys all have to play a role and in Houston's rare losses or even in their close games as you see with when they eat one out to Rutgers One of those big three shot poorly from three So they sort of need all three of those guys because they don't score enough and it's against the Baylor team That has so many weapons, especially on the perimeter and you think about T and Mitchell and Butler and then you know Mayor and that these they have so many offensive weapons. They want to get out and run with you I think Houston will stop them from running But Houston's gonna have to just make shots in order to keep Baylor from from pushing the pace So I think Houston hangs around And I think if this game gets close late I actually like Houston's execution late in games better than I do Baylor So I think Houston upsets Baylor And I think they keep the scoring low But on the flip side, I would not be shocked if all of a sudden Baylor hit some early shots Houston falls behind and has no chance to get back in it does that worry you with Houston the The idea where they could be out of things early because you kind of want teams that can win in multiple ways And it seems like they may be more one-dimensional where you can't have the come-from-behind type win Does that concern you with if you were you know thinking about a pregame bet on Houston Does that worry you knowing that they may not be positioned to make a comeback? It doesn't worry me for the fact that it's really hard to get a big lead on them in general because I mean Look any team at any point in time can make tough shots. So and that's what has to happen But you but I know going into this game. They're going to make it extremely tough for Baylor To get the shots that that Baylor wants and so because of that now all of a sudden You Baylor does have a bunch of weapons, but because of that it's going to be really difficult for Baylor to score I don't expect them to run up and down. It's just that if they were to hit some tough shots They can do that but the other thing Houston really does is a great job on the boards too and they're going to get offensive rebound So even if when Houston's not making shots, they're sort of aware that they're not a very good offensive team and having that identity actually helps It's not like they think they're a great offensive team and then they hit struggles and say oh, no We're in trouble. What do we do and there's a state of panic? It's more goes the other way where they sort of expect that they're going to miss shots They sort of expect that they're going to have some struggles offensively. They know that the games are going to be tight They know that it's going to be a rock fight and it's just how prepared is their opponent for that situation And when you play like that the whole season you are in your comfort zone when you're like that I think that's reassuring for sure Let's move now to UCLA in Gonzaga Gonzaga 14 point favorite here total is 145 that fan dual sportsbook in you were on visa last week and you said you see LA was live as a dog as a team to Potentially win that game and they did now they're playing Gonzaga though Gonzaga is a different beast So do you see UCLA hanging around here or is this just another blowout waiting to happen for Gonzaga? I think Gonzaga wins by about 15 I think I think UCLA has been awesome under Micron and and and What they've done when you consider the fact that Chris Smith was supposed to be a first-round pick early in the season They lose him to a season-ending injury late in the season they lose Jalen Hill They then collapse in their last four games three of which were in the regular season and then their Pac-12 tournament game They had big leads in all four of those games if they keep if they keep those leads We look at UCLA as a completely different team coming into the tournament certainly not where they were seated Part of the issue might have been Micron and said to them They didn't want to play in the conference tournament. He wanted to get straight to the NCAA tournament He was preparing his guys he knew and their defense has gone up a notch I mean this is a defense that gave up 68 points a game This season that's higher than Cronin's teams ever gave up at Cincinnati But they have this weird Interesting mix where they have a really steady point guard and Tiger Campbell They have these two wing scores who are excellent in Jaime Hock as and Johnny Juzang who went off Obviously in their elite eight matchup They're kind of an offensive team. They're sort of built where they're good on offense But yet now they've got some of Micron and his identity as a defensive team It's interesting because sometimes you bring a coach with a new identity the first couple years They're going with the old coaches players But yet the new coaches mindset it sort of becomes best of both worlds as opposed to three four years from now The UCLA teams are gonna be way more grinded out may way more Houston like than this UCLA team is So it's a good mix but all that being said Gonzaga causes a bunch of problems for you because they can score in so many different ways And what's really fascinating and they did this against USC if any team was gonna have a shot It would be USC to slow them down Because of the defensive issues that Mowgli presents But what you have to do against Gonzaga is you have to limit your live ball turn over so they don't get out and run And you also have to make shots so they don't go out and run same issue that Houston's going to have with Baylor Except UCLA is not on the same defensive level that that that Houston is UCLA has played well defensively, but I don't think that we're gonna see the same effort from Johnny Juzang I don't think he's gonna be just lights out shooting the ball And then also I just think the Gonzaga has so many more weapons are really even score easier on UCLA Then they did even against USC I mean Drew Timmy was taken Evan Mowgli the best defensive player in all college basketball to school like it It was incredible what he was able to do and the big thing to watch is Off misses or off turnovers Jalen Suggs gets it and pushes it and even if it's a secondary break where not everybody's back yet It's just the fact that as soon as they see there's numbers there They look at that as a disadvantage and they're willing to share the ball their perimeter I mean the guys on the perimeter are great. They just have so many weapons And so I just see them winning by about 15 points great effort from UCLA in this tournament I'd be stunned if they beat Gonzaga I would agree Fand will sportsbook does a pretty interesting bet you can either bet Gonzaga minus 190 or The other three teams to to win the national championship. Do you see any value on either side of that? I really like Gonzaga.  I'm all over it. I Again, the idea that these guys have so many weapons Jalen Suggs is gonna be a top three pick They have Joel Iie who is an NBA player in the back court Andrew Nevehard Who's the Florida transfer another superstar Corey Kispert might be the best shooter in college basketball? Antoine Watson who's Sort of their jackknife glue guy in the front court. He's great defensively And get some garbage points for them really high-energy guy and then drew Timmy is you know Just like with Hunter Dickinson in Michigan and just like we see with Luga Garza like Guys that can really exploit defenses in college who are post-up players They don't get to do that in the NBA because they don't run many post-ups But drew Timmy knows exactly who he is. He's got unbelievable footwork drop steps He can also shoot it till about 15 feet doesn't shoot a lot of threes because he doesn't need to do that knows Exactly who he is runs the floor and so they just have so many weapons and ways to beat you And if all else is lost, I mean Jalen Suggs the moment that the help defense doesn't come over He's gonna just blow by his guy and get a bucket himself and he's also a wonderful distributor with great vision So I just think they have so many offensively They're playing a really high-level defensively and it'd be a great game for them against Baylor or Houston But I just think that they just have way too much I love Gonzaga in this tournament especially at this point in the tournament So Adam is on Gonzaga minus 190 versus the field to win at the NCAA championship Let's go to the NBA side of things as mentioned here You're kind of well positioned to talk about both sides of things here given the analysis that you do and we just had The trade deadline last week and there was a lot of movement there and markets have had time to catch up But there could still be some lingering value out there So are there any teams you're seeing as being either undervalued or overvalued in the futures market right now based on what we Saw last week Well, you know, it's interesting I think that the weird thing that I will say that sort of happened throughout the league and this is almost away from even The trade deadline, but it more well It only speaks about it because players wanted to go there the Brooklyn Nets right now around the NBA Other teams really feel like the Nets are way ahead of everyone else Nets are winning it this year Like they've almost in a weird way conceded it So it's not so much the idea that you add, you know, Blake Griffin to this roster or Lamarcus Aldridge Like their impact in the playoffs. I mean that certainly we could see in a game or two So I don't I don't know if we saw the last few months this this idea that the rest of the team sort of the rest The teams in the NBA and they would never admit this publicly We're conceding to the Nets, but I would just say the idea that the Nets It's not been necessarily pieces that they brought in but how they're playing right now the fact that Kyrie Irving basically Told James Harden publicly. Hey, you're our point guard now. That was huge for that team So instead of having some, you know, rock group famous breakup This team is able to be more cohesive as the year went on and and I think everyone else in the league is Terrified of them. So, I mean, is it really that much? I mean if LeBron comes back from the Lakers or Some of the teams in the west you you still think it's it's really the Nets right now Yeah, I do. I think it's the Nets right. I mean, there are obviously teams in the west who could Could compete with them. There's no question. You look at what a fully healthy Lakers team is and and certainly And you know and even dropping down in the standings We don't think home court's gonna matter that much, right? We talk about that the factor fans would typically play as we mentioned in college and now of course same thing Holds true in the NBA. So home court advantage has sort of been nullified Uh, the jazz have had a wonderful year. There are teams that that could challenge them coming out Certainly joel mb and and company and uh in philly the heat I think would be the other team that I would I would point to and say now all of a sudden you're looking at A roster that really could do damage. You saw what they did in the bubble last year in the mba finals And that was you know without their star players I mean the fact that goren draguage and bam got hurt this team could be Excellent and they are They have the defense to compete. There's no question about it and now having some some extra weapons But I I still feel like the the nets are so far in a way better than than everyone else I'd be I'd be shocked if the nets don't win win the mba title this year Alrighty, so we are on the nets here as an interesting team. They're plus 260 of angelo sports books So definitely a team that the sports book has our island and well, but clearly the rest of the mba Does too now adam as far as the futures market It's also pretty interesting right now because we talked with arial ebstein a couple weeks ago about the the futures market from an awards perspective And it was like, okay Can anyone beat lebron can anyone beat lamello for rookie of the year and since then unfortunately They both gotten hurt which stinks like that that that sucks, you know, we don't want that but it opens up a lot of Interesting stuff within those markets right now. Nikola Joakic is a favorite to win MVP We've got anthony edwards a slight favorite to win rookie of the year but that one's pretty wide open as well Are you seeing any value in those markets given the injuries or is it one you're staying away from right now? Yeah, well, it's a really interesting point. I mean I I it was funny because coming into the year I thought We might see yannis win another mvp and then he puts up the numbers where you could make a case for Yannis, but it's it's so much about traction and perception and what guys are doing and some highly profile games and all those things So so go through and say right now Joker is the the favorite I don't think there's there's any question about him being the favorite right now And I'd be I'd be surprised if he doesn't come come back with with the mvp award I mean for a guy to be average and essentially, I mean, I think it's 26 11 and 8 We we just have not seen numbers like that from a big We've seen you know team success for them and obviously joel mb Is the other guy who is going to make a major push for for the mvp race But the one to me that I think is going to be really hard to deny here And I would I didn't think it was possible when I first brought it up to mention in our podcast I think about a month and a half ago it's james harden and You know people look at what happened early on in the season as part of the rockets and was almost failing on his team but He has been the most valuable player in the mba this year I mean talk about the net success But also just what he's doing on a nightly basis To get everybody else involved in talking about just individual contributions And it's now being appreciated by the national media and that's the change that I didn't see happening before So if there's someone who isn't Yoke it's to win it and especially if the nets end the season as the number one seed And people like to go in that direction I think there there's a very good chance that we could see harden as as the mvp and then The interesting one for me is yes, anthony edwards brings up a good case and you know Sadiq bay might be a crazy long shot Let's say for the pistons tyrese halliburton for the kings But I think what lamella ball has done and he's gonna try to get back on the court Right now is where I'd be placing my money. I mean lamella ball Even if he doesn't play again, you're talking about a guy essentially 15 6 and 6 Those numbers unheard of for a rookie a 19 year old rookie at that has has not happened So a spectacular season with just some spectacular games that he's had he had a 30.8 It says zero turnover game earlier in the season, which again, we had never seen from someone his age So what he's been able to do and how he changed the culture somewhat with that hornet's team I think you factor all those things in and even in spite of the injury I also don't think anthony edwards going to have a strong enough last push at the end of the season in order to bump him So I think lamella and even if he comes back. I mean, then it's a wrap But I think lamella. I think is going to win even in spite of the injury Yeah, if no one could take advantage of lamella being out then it could just default to him He doesn't come back. He's plus 2 10 right now at vandal sportsbook james harden 5 to 1 couple interesting ones there for sure That is adam stanko. Make sure you follow him on twitter at naysmith lives adam We appreciate the time. Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of the tournament enjoy the nba draft process And hopefully we'll have you on back again soon Jim edd it's it's awesome. I appreciate it. I'm sorry. This was after a michigan loss So it runs a little down, but uh, you know, I was hoping I'll get we'd see the other direction But always good being all with you guys. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate it Covering the future Big thank you once again to adam stanko for swinging by and breaking down the men's vandal 4 and the nba futures market ned It's nice to have someone who has his his hands in both buckets there talking nba talking Men's college basketball and has that that well rounded knowledge, which is nice with drafty books They kind of have a good handle on both aspects Absolutely, uh, I've known adam since high school and we talk a lot every year before the tournament and you know his input It definitely fuels my analysis You know the non-quantitative side of things where I'm trying to get us a sense for a team ceiling a teams floor I use a lot of his input. So it's always great talking to him about basketball and and today was no different Absolutely. So make sure you follow adam on twitter at Naysmith liz let's move now into covering the future and ed you want to go back to the final four Houston against baler the first game coming up on saturday. What are you seeing in the betting markets there? Yeah, before we talk about the markets, let's talk about the unique brand of basketball that houston plays So I was watching a video by hoop vision this week and they were talking about how kelvin samson understands that His team doesn't shoot that well So what do they do to make up for it? Well, they absolutely excel at offensive rebounding and taking care of the basketball. So two of the other four factors Um, their second when I look at offensive rebounding rate You that was very clear that they could do that against orient state over the weekend They're third and turnover rate. So very good at not turning over the ball And what this means is they get a lot of field goal attempts on offense Now in defense, they they play incredibly tough defense. They're they're really good at uh, defense in general And they are in a very aggressive team. I like to think of them as a pitball that bites your leg and and never lets go But one of the consequences of that is that they do foul So when I look at free throw rate or free throw attempts divided by field goal attempts And then I make my schedule adjustments. They're three hundred and twenty-third. Okay, so they follow a lot Um, and so basically they're happy to follow you and not give you that field goal attempt on on average, right? So when you put this together, they get more shots than average on offense They allow fewer shots on average on defense When I looked into it, they get almost 10 more field goal attempts than their opponents this season per game Think about that you get to you get a shot at the basket 10 more times With the way they play and so even though you're not a great shooting team You just you get a rebound.  You get you get another shot So, uh, it's really interesting. Uh, just the style that what they play Um, so I I'm kind of infatuated with this Houston team. I think they're really tough and and I You know, um, and let's look at Baylor. So they played Baylor They came into questions about their defense, uh, since their return from their COVID pause And their defense has definitely been better during the tournament They held Wisconsin and Villanova below a point per possession, which is good Arkansas was just over at 1.05 points per possession. You the college basketball average is roughly one So, you know, Baylor is obviously a great team. They're favored. They're favored by my numbers I feel like this game is going to come down to three point shooting As I mentioned before, Houston doesn't really shoot that well, but that doesn't really stop them from firing it up They take 42 of their field goal attempts from three And Baylor has been a great three point shooting team this year But their current rate of 41 percent on making threes has already regressed from higher rates earlier this season You know, and they've made 36 of their three point shots in the tournament So, you know, which team can shoot better? Uh, I don't know Three point shooting is, you know, the most impossible thing to predict But what I do know is that my numbers like Baylor by about four points Uh, I from watching these two teams play. I definitely like Houston. I think they're going to give Baylor all they can handle I like Houston to cover the the plus five. Uh, there's reduced juice right now over on fan duel, um, and uh, I wouldn't wait too long If you wanted bad, Houston Yeah, plus five is minus 106 right now over at vandal sports books If you want to get Houston, uh, like Ed said, that number may be moving based on the juice there And I think Ed, it's nice as numbers people to see a coach who recognizes weaknesses and strengths and adjust to account for those And it's kind of like it's a math problem You know, when you take that many threes and also when you give yourself that many opportunities You're just giving yourself more chances at points So, you know, if Houston has deficiencies, but it's nice to see a team That can self scout enough to know how they can make up for those deficiencies Yeah, no, it's good to know your strengths and weaknesses and and I wouldn't be surprised if kelvin samson actually recruits to this Right. He recruits two guys that are tough that are physical and athletic And and that's what you see on that team Now, I mean that that that also describes Baylor as well Um, maybe the toughness a little bit less since their their covid pause, but you know, Baylor is also a very athletic team I mean, I think these are I think these are two reasonably matched teams. I think it's going to be a great game I think it goes down to the wire Yeah, so we'll see what happens And you said your numbers have Gonzaga by 12 or 13 Is that enough where you're going to actually bet ucla or is it more so saying you're not going to bet Gonzaga? Uh, my numbers have, uh, Gonzaga by about 13. Yeah, I have no interest in betting ucla Good, so it's good to know when you want to stay away and stuff like that And that's a worthwhile knowledge, uh for this weekend So it should be a fun one ed likes houston plus five against Baylor My cover in the future for this weekend is talking baseball because we're not going to get a lot of chances this year to do Individual mlb games because we record who want these episodes to be more evergreen longer shelf life But hey, we're talking opening day. It's tomorrow. So i'm going to dive into one here and my favorite bet for opening day Is the Orioles money line at plus 146 against the red Sox and this game is in fenway. So that is an edge for boston, but I really like the Orioles starter here. John means he had a big velocity jump last year And initially it didn't really lead too much got off to a really rough start and velocity in the vacuum Doesn't really matter But when you do something with it it does and he did that something down the stretch something really changed for him And his final four starts and specifically means leading more on his curve ball and the big issue he had had previously is that he would get to two strikes Couldn't get that third strike couldn't get that out pitch. But that curve ball Once has put out pitch last year. He had a 38 strike out rate on that curve ball according to baseball savants So Featuring that pitch more Should lead to good things and it definitely did because in that four start stretch means had a 2.74 skill interactive ERA that is a tremendous number and You're not going to project it at that number for the full year. It's a four start sample Which I can buy into not going to project it to be exactly that though I can expect to be pretty good and potentially undervalued by the market So which I think is what we're seeing here with this number if means can add strike outs He could be a really good pitcher always been a guy who's been good at suppressing hard contact So if he can add one more thing to his repertoire That could be a new level for him. I also don't think the Orioles offense is that bad They had a 108 w RC plus against righties last year based on the current active roster and that number Doesn't include trey mancini. He is back this year for this Orioles offense missed all of last year So I think means will pitch well and I think this offense Might be able to do something against uh, Nathan the Evaldi on the other side too. So The money line is plus 146 in favor of the Orioles. I do like that I also expect this to be pretty low scoring. Uh, temperature there is in the low 50s at Fenway That's better for pitching than offense. So, uh, the total there is nine runs I'll take the under there at minus 102 at fan dual sportsbook So the Orioles money line plus 146 in the under nine runs minus 102 at fan dual sportsbook And you grew up in the Philly area. So are you a Philly's fan then or no baseball ties for you? Oh, no, I was a Philly's fan. I still remember Mitch Williams giving up the home run to Joe Carter in the 1990 Something world series. It still hurts Yep But they could be fun this year. You get to watch Aaron Nola. You get to watch Bryce Harper Like those are two of my favorite players in all baseball. That helps at least right? Yeah, for sure I need to I need to be working on some baseball numbers after we get off here. So Oh, so you're actually gonna do before before the final four starts. You're not gonna wait till after the tournament Uh, I don't know. I've gotten some I've gotten some emails asking me about it So we'll see we'll see what I get to after the show today The people want what they want Ed We'll let Ed go and get working on his numbers But once again a big thank you to Adam stanko for swinging by and breaking down the men's final four And the NBA futures market follow Adam on twitter at nasmith lives big. Thank you to him as always Ed outside of updating your baseball numbers. What's going on for you over at the powering? I'm still offering sample of my best predictions over at my free email newsletter and check it that out at thepowerank.com You can also check out Ed on twitter at the power rank. I am at Jim Sonnis J I M S A N N ES You can also follow the fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast big Thank you to Calvin Theobald our video producer for running the video side of things here today Thank you Cal as always and thank you to everyone for tuning in Good luck to you with your final four bets your opening day bets We'll talk to you once again next week. This has been covering the spread right here on the fan dual podcast network


Dark matter, cosmic rays, otherworldly lightning and meteors. Not bad for a day's work. That's the ambitious workload researchers have charged to Mini USO, a revolutionary new telescope peering back at Earth from aboard the International Space Station. Hitching a ride on a Russian, so-used rocket, Mini USO docked with the ISS just this past August. Fitted with state-of-the-art optics, its goal is to carry out the first-ever nighttime observations of the Earth's atmosphere at near ultraviolet wavelengths. This special UVI will turn the atmosphere into a gigantic laboratory for exploring fascinating scientific phenomena. Some bound to teach us more about the Earth, some that could teach us more about the entire universe. One of Mini USO's tasks will be to search for traces of a substance known as strange quark matter. This matter is generally believed to make up the super-dense core of neutron stars, but it might also be scattered as droplets both big and small across the universe. These so-called strange-lits are one candidate for dark matter, and if found in our atmosphere, they can help explain how the Big Bang unfolded. Mini USO will also be on the hunt for new records in high-energy physics. From the ISS, it'll look out for cosmic rays, far-flung particles from outer space that arrive to Earth with energies millions of times higher than scientists can observe using giant atom-smashers. Cosmic rays with energies just below that mark have been discovered by Earth-based detectors. Detecting higher-energy rays would suggest that somewhere in the universe lies a source powerful enough to spew those rays in the cosmos all the way into our atmosphere. Shifting to work that hits closer to home but is no less bizarre, Mini USO will look at rare forms of lightning known as sprites and elves. While researchers have caught glimpses of these haunting displays high in our atmosphere, Mini USO will help them view these spectacles like never before in UV. The same will go for meteors and other space debris that enters our atmosphere. Finally, Mini USO will track the shimmer of bioluminescent plankton in the ocean to help researchers better understand sea life and monitor pollution. Much like the lofty sights set for Mini USO, the team behind the telescope is a diverse group. Researchers hail from France, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Italy and are led by Japan's Rikin National Laboratory. Together they hope that Mini USO will spark further understanding of our planet and its place in the cosmos.


Pack and play squad! What's good you guys? A quick refresher on the rules. Rule number one, I cannot use the auction house. Every single player on this team must come from a pack or a set. Number two, every game that I win adds $75 to the bank and every playoff game that I win adds 100. Also, once again, I recently got lay six so I'm trying to protect the eyeballs still, so get over it. I'm wearing some shades. First and foremost, the pack and play squad is absurdly good. And a ton of these guys I haven't used yet because I didn't play a game at the end of the last episode. Golden Ticket Colin Johnson, Gold 99 Dickerson, 99 Kenny Pickett, 99 Alec Ingold, George Kittle, Luke Keekley, and James Smith Williams. And for this week's episode, there is a brand new wave of golden tickets. J-Ron Curse, quarterback Lamar Jackson, who's incredible. There's wide receiver Sauce Garden, there's a Micah Parsons, and there's Israel Mukamu. I don't know, I don't know. And last, there's Titan Gregg Olson. Up to now, this is the best golden ticket release because Lamar and Micah are both absurdly good. However, none of this matters because I have $0 in the bank right now. So we're gonna start out today's pack and play with a quick dub. I really, really like my team though, I'm excited to use them. And our record is four and one. So if I actually get a win right here, we're into the playoffs, which means all of our wins will be worth $100 each as opposed to 75.  And starting that game on old gen and switching over to next gen, just reset my season.  Whatever, let's go get a dub. Kenny Pickett on the top three. Luke Keekley, that is a brand new, completely different top three. And he's got a Saints theme team. I believe that was Saints theme team. He throws over the middle to taste some hill and connects. He had the check down, he doesn't take it and Elway's gonna go down.  Oh, I like that, I like that Larry Fitz. Oh, Larry Fitz could have had it, 3rd and 27. He is in a very rough spot here. 4th and 27, look at the defense man. We got a real deal God squad here. Honestly, kinda shocked he's not putting this ball away. He's trying to take one down the middle, it ain't there. And I take over, I'm literally the seven yard line. All right, let's cut this back up the middle, run through. Somebody I was hoping Dickerson will take second to goal. I'm gonna go same thing left side, cut it back up the middle. Make it too easy for Dickerson. Dickerson is huge, dude. No, what the fuck? One more time, I'm going the same play. Eight to zero. Wow, it was easy. Shark start for the boys. I think he's gonna run the ball now. Passing was not going for him, but neither is running right now. Second and 13, he heaves a great pass. Down to, I think, Collin Johnson. No, that's Calvin Johnson.  Oh yeah, it gets, oh darn it. Keekley doesn't get the tackle but that's okay. We got it right after big TFL, 3rd and 10. Get there, get there, get there. Oh, I'm just behind it. Oh, a good move from Tessam Hill. Palomalu misses the tackle. And you're gonna showboat. You've chosen a loss then, sir. Shouldn't have done that. This is nice though, he takes the PAT, so if I can score and get a two point conversion again, it's actually a two possession game. That's big. Look at that cut back from Dickerson and we'll take five yards. Can I win today without passing the football? Do we think it's possible? It's not possible. That was quite the loss right there. 3rd and 7. I'm gonna hit him, ooh, good, good right for the Kittle. And the stiff arm, we just barely get across the first. That was all Kittle right there. Look who's wide open, Chris Godwin. Almost a touchdown but not quite. Two for two, Kenny Pickett. He adjusts to man coverage. I think Godwin can still take his man. No, but George Kittle burnt his guy, great round, Kittle. 2nd and 4, I'm gonna stay in this formation here. Not gonna mess with it. Oh, step up, I had a few people open but I whiffed on all of them. Ooh, Dickerson with the little hitch route, breaks one. Gets lit up on the next one, first and 10. He can't handle five wide right now. 2nd and 10, I think he's just gonna go man coverage. Now let's see if we can run against this. Try the inside zone. Ooh, damn, there's actually a really good lane if I got past him. Okay, so he's just man coverage now, huh? All right, you can do man coverage because George Kittle is gonna, George Kittle's gonna make you pay for that decision.  First and 10, no way, that's crazy. Dude, George Kittle literally fell down, got back up, still made the play. Let's go Dickerson, ooh, good cut, good hit. Dickerson's carrying the squad 2nd and 2nd and guess what?  He's not gonna be able to score again. Gonna go left side and somehow he gets right through the middle. Let's see if we can score with no clock left. Gonna try the play action. Oh, X over the middle, Larry Fitz. Hey, if we get this go for two, it's a two possession game and we get ball to half. It's basically game over. I'm gonna go right at the user. I'm gonna go to his side. Oh, Dickerson, darn it. Unable to get the two point but we still got a seven point lead in ball to half. All right, beautiful start to this game. The best case scenario actually is a rage quit. So if we get a rage quit, I'll get that extra pack from the store. Let's see if we can pull that off. All right, first in 10. I like that play action. I'm gonna hit it again.  Nobody was home there. 2nd and 10, probably the same thing here. Oh, it's not, this is his own coverage. Well, hey, Larry Fitz, get inside. I'm gonna block Kittle. I want a little bit of time here. Ooh, look who's wide. Open the golden ticket, Collin Johnson. Get a little momentum on our side now. Now he's man coverage. Oh yeah, that's man coverage. Collin Johnson with one hell of a route but I caught him late. Can he pick it? Deceptively fast. And not just because he's white but just cause, you know, it's just can he pick it? Okay, yeah, it's cause he's white. Hold up, wait a minute. Certain two. Oh, I don't think we got there. We did. Dude, I don't know. I might have paid the ref. That did not feel like he got home. I'm gonna try and roll out right and get over to Kittle. Yikes. Oh, take her sin, what a route. But it's not quite a first down, third one. Dude, I tell you what though, we are fighting this man coverage. We're fighting it well. I'm gonna go head back dive left side again. Oh yeah, that's a first down. Big time baby, good work. First and 10, reset this clock. He's gonna quit. He's gone, I knew it. Dude, he was in a really tough spot there though. I was up by a touchdown. I was about to get a field goal making a two possession lead and he's only got the fourth quarter left. Yes. All right, so $75 in the bank and we get one pack of our choice from the store. It can't be these bundles obviously, but we get one pack. Of course I'm going with the pro end game. A lead pack of the best pack in this game. See, we can snag out of this one. A remix player, it's Steve Smith. We get a redux 95 Marvin Harrison. We get Chris Jones and 95 Pete Metzlars. Now I'm gonna quick sell all these guys since I can't really use them. Get a good amount of training, $276,000. Now the good thing about training right now is there's this 97 plus theme team remix player pack and it's probably the best value for training. It's a guaranteed really good player. I've got 276, so we'll take a week and get in this pack. Looks like our first is gonna be, we get 97 Trey McBride. I can't actually use that, but I can sell them for the remix coins and the remix coins can get me more gold 99. So I'm chilling. This is good news. Now I'm gonna use that full $75 right now. So that gives me 8,900 Madden Cash, which adds to the 700 I already have on the account. So we've got 9,600 in total. Now there's an interesting bundle in the store right now. The Pearl Platinum Elite Bundle. You get 592 overall or better players and 1080 plus Platinum Elite players, which would be coins to use on packs. But honestly, the first thing we gotta do is figure out what this team needs. We need another center because Scott Questonberry is not cutting it. Other than that, the offense is pretty much all 99s. I guess I'd take a right guard, but Russ Krim is really good, so. Really, we just need a center. Now on defense, we can't say the same. All of my linebackers can get an upgrade. Kyle Pitts, Boyd, and Bosa are all outdated. Luke Keekle is really good. My DBs are great. Free safety layer fits, it's actually been a dog. I don't really want to replace him.   So those can be upgraded as well.  I can't really mess with that. The Theme Team Remix Champion Bundle gives me 399 overalls and I get to choose. So this just has to be the best choice. I just have to do this, three guaranteed 99s. He does use all my cash though, so I can't get that platinum bundle. Now I don't actually know what the options are in here. I probably sure thought about that first. So there's a Chad Johnson, ooh, DeMarcus wear guaranteed, that's a linebacker. Jenkins and Hinton, I already have. Engold, I already have. Smith Williams, I already have. So I get a gold 99 punter and Ocho Syncom? No, you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna keep DeMarcus wear, but I'm gonna sell the other two. I'll sell Chad Johnson and Thomas Morstedt. Get the remix coins and use those to get the positions I actually need. So we'll sell these two for 10,000 remix coins. With DeMarcus wear, welcome to the team. DeMarcus wear is 6'4 with 95 speed, 99, Jesus. That's a really, really, really good card. And we still have 396 plus reduxes, 392 pluses and then one fantasy pack from week three. I haven't even seen what week three of theme team remix is. So I'm excited to see that. We start out with Rodney Harrison, who cannot help this squad. So I'll take the 160,000 training. This team is like too good, dude. I gotta lose and reset.  Sammy Knight, I can't use you. Our third and final redox. Hey, that's exactly what we need. We got a right and outside linebacker. Damn, so now we got Vrable and DeMarcus. Those are huge upgrades to this team. That's crazy. I can't believe we just pulled them. Dude, now if the 92 plus lead players just want to be golden tickets, Christian Watson, you don't help, not gonna lie. After that is an ultimate legend player. It's 95 QB bow. Be nice for the training. I can't really use it. And our final 92 plus is a sumo, probably 94. Ooh, 97 Edelman. Can't use you, but I will take your training. And finally, this is the week three theme team remix players. So let's see what they are. Wait, no, this is not, this is not week three. Oh, round one of three. Wait a minute, it's gonna give me one player from each week. Wait a second, is there a center? There's gotta be one center, right? Yes, Brian Allen. All right, so first things first, let's pick up Brian Allen and we'll upgrade Brian Allen into a gold 99. Week two, let's get a gold 99D tackle Vita Veja. Our final player will be Aiden Hutchinson, who I can make a gold 99. I'd love to have Hutch. Oh, I lied.  There's Julius Peppers. Julius Peppers would be sick. Mike Hilton, there's a Josh Allen. Dude, I think my entire team is gold 99s at this point. Like, I don't think, I don't even think any of these guys are upgrades. I guess I could go gold 99 Jalen Ramsey, but my team is so good that I, that's crazy. How good my team is. To be totally honest, we should get a quarterback better than Kenny Pickett eventually. I'm actually gonna go Josh Allen here and Jalen Ramsey in case, wow.  Okay, let's start with Brian Allen. Brian Allen, now a gold 99, he gets secure protector for free. Whoa. Aiden Hutchinson gets edge threat elite for one and double or nothing for zero. There's our six foot seven gold 99 left end. And we don't have enough remix coins to get one more player. But I think it should be Vita Vaya. So I'll get him started. So we're a few thousand short of finishing Vita Vaya. We do, however, have 550,000 training. And since I can get these 97 plus guaranteed, we will have more than enough to do Vita Vaya. And if I get a gold 99, I could probably do two players. Jojo Doman. I don't know who that is, but cool. So that's enough for Vita Vaya to go gold 99. Can I pull a gold 99 right now though? That'd be sick. That would be very helpful. Train me bright again. That's okay. We'll take the coins. I'm gonna generate the best lineup. I wanna see what this does. We are a 98 overall lineups. Get to Marcus Ware, Keekley, Devonte Adams, Vrable, Palamalu Fitz. And the D-Line now has James Smith-Williams at right end and then Hutch obviously at left. Vita Vaya in there. Justin Jones. And let's finish off Vita Vaya. We're almost at gold 99 all around. Just insane. Gets inside stuff for free, which is incredible. So there's your defense, ladies and gentlemen. And offense gets one minor, but pretty awesome upgrade in gold 99, Brian Allen. And I do apologize if you guys are Kenny Pickett elitists, but Kenny Pickett is not gonna be my end game quarterback.  I'll probably end up getting gold 99 Josh Allen in there, but Kenny Pickett was pretty solid in his debut. So I can't complain. All right, we're 98 overall. Dude, this team can literally hardly get better. I'm gonna go play another game, but low key. I can probably only squeeze in one more episode with this team. I've almost maxed this team. I have to reset if I wanna keep doing back and play. By the way, I know back and play, I kinda just rushed it in here at the end of Madden. But if you guys are really enjoying this, I will continue it. If not, I'll just do the rest of Wheel of 2K. It's all good. Either way, this game right here, he's got Frauders, Singletary and AJ Brown. I think this is a Titan's team team except he just put Aaron Rodgers at quarterback because he didn't wanna use Malik Willis. I mean, you're not wrong, but you didn't have to say it. No, he does. He has Malik Willis kicker. This is, this is totally a Titan's team. All right, first in 10, I have no idea what this defense is, probably man coverage. Oh, it's not. Wait a minute. Ooh, a little bit of lag, but that's okay. George Kittle still comes down with it. This is a zone I'm going no huddle until he switches because this is going to get lit up. Oh, he switched. Oh, he big time switched. Ooh, George Kittle, that was supposed to be a rat catch, Matt. What are we doing? Is he still in a zone? I'd be shocked. He's still in a zone.  This is not gonna work. Come on, this is pack and play. I have no pride. Yeah, this is a Wheel of Mut. I will no huddle spam you until you lose. If you don't switch out of this, my guy. All right, let's try a little run play, yeah? Let's have a little fun.  He kind of got stuck. What do you mean by that? I'm looking for a high ball, George Kittle. Third and seven high ball, Kittle, yep. User can't get to it if you high ball it.  All right, let's try the stretch again. I'm not giving up on this. Oh, great blocks. Great blocks, boys.  Second and sixth, you get four yards out of run play. You're smooth sailing, man. Let's try the jet sweep.  Let's see which one it is today.  I figured it out. Third and eight, though. I'm gonna go no huddle. I'm gonna go George Kittle corner route. And you're gonna watch the magic, baby. Oh, I had him, but I'm gonna go Kenny Pickett. It's magic regardless. I had Kittle. I don't know why. I don't know why I made that more stressful than it needed to be. Six-oh, I'm going right at the middle. I am going right at him. Let's go. Oh, geez, he committed. He ran commit. All right, good defense. Good stop by him. But hey, a six-oh to start the game. No complaints from me. He is cooking something up. PA shot seams. He wants to hit Gronk. Okay. Okay, big hit. Damn. He needed a bigger hit. Oh, he almost made a big mistake.  Oh, hey, Luke Keekley with the Superman tackle. He's gonna fake the handoff. He's gonna throw right at me, but he overthrew it. Third and five. Does he go half back? No. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That was way too open. Why did you just dive like that? What was that dive? That was so poverty. And darn it, I'm down by a point now. All right, we gotta score with no time left because he gets ball at half. And I'm already losing. So we gotta play this really well to win it. No way.  There it fits. He's gonna walk it in. Dude, Malik Willis kicker is not the move, I guess. But hey, I can try to get my two-point conversion here. This will be really important if we can get it. I'm gonna rifle it. Ooh, that was a wobbler. That ball was going end over end, but it worked. 14 to seven, just like that. Montana with a deep bomb. Does he take this out? Oh, he does. Ooh, Devonte Adams taking a couple of big hits. All right, he takes over from the 15. Oh, get home. Look at that, Mad Max Crosby. Putting him in a tough position. Palamalu, through the middle. Just do it in my face. That's gotta be an INT, sir. Mine. Ooh, and he caught it. Fourth and three. We got a clamp here. We can win the ball game. Yup, yup, yup, let's go. That goes that he just break. How many? Two-point conversion. It's a big one. Pick it. 22 to seven, just like that. I was talking about upgrading my corners and then Mel Blunt goes ahead and does that. There's a lot of football left to be played on.  Cause he gets a ball at half. So like technically he could score a touchdown here with no time left. And then he could score after half and all of a sudden the game's tied up. Oh, it should be game over. DeMarcus Ware should have picked that. It should be game over right now. Ooh. First and 10, he's got the two-minute warning there. Oh, great tackle from Palamalu open field. First and 10, he gets a real nice one right there. He's not calling any timeouts. Doesn't seem in any huge hurry. Okay, that's good. Keep him in bounds. Hey, that's a huge tackle. Keep him in bounds right there. That's what we love. There. Ooh, almost an INT. Third and three, the incomplete pass stops the clock though. Still doesn't have to use any timeouts. He has yet to run the ball a single time. Oh, nice catch. We'll probably use a timeout there. Yup, he does. Just can't let him get in the end zone, that's all. That's all it comes down to. I see it. Ooh, Rodgers throws a mallard. I don't really know how he missed that throw so poorly. Honestly, fine, because he's in bounds and he got lit up. Third and six, gotta use another timeout there. That works for me. He did not see the Tampa two coming. That was my first time running it. I'm gonna go cover three buzz. Oh, he's got Grunk, he missed it. Oh, but he's got that two. Great pass. Oh, that's so unlucky. I don't even feel good about that. That is so unlucky.  I'm not supposed to be on Vita Vaya right now. I fumbled the bag. Wasn't not supposed to be on Vita Vaya there. I'm interested to see what he tries here. Great conversion, it's 22 to 15. This is kind of what I was worried about. Him score with no time left, but he leaves me with three timeouts in 26 seconds. So I could get a field goal up here, especially because he kicked that through the end zone. That's really good. I just gotta come out and get a field goal range. There's just no way you'd go zone here. God, what are you doing? Kenny Pickett's gonna take off with so much room. There's another timeout. We might already be in field goal range. We are. I shouldn't even throw this football, to be honest. But that is so open. I might be able to go touchdown. 10 seconds on the clock. I technically could go to the end zone a few times. Now I'm gonna take the field goal. No balls, no balls. You wanna see balls. This is too important of points. I'm just gonna take him. I don't know why he's in his own. He has to man up there. 25 to 15. So a 10 point lead, but he gets the ball here. Keekley through the middle. Oh, he throws half back. Nice play. Ooh, that's the golden ticket. Haskins.  Darn it. Nice play. No pressure on that. We gotta get home on the QB. We're not gonna get anything. First and 10, will he run the ball? Oh, he could throw half back though. Big hit. Come on, Haskins. He's getting everything he wants right now. Okay, that's decent defense. Second and five. Risky pass, but he got it to go. Keekley! He's got a high ball, man. He tried to put it over my head and Luke Keekley soars in the air for it. Monster play. Think he's gonna leave the same thing open, which is Collin Johnson. Yep. I can't understand why he's playing defense like this. It's never gonna work, and he won't come out of it. Time to burn a little clock, boys. All right, first and 10, I'll pick up what we can. Great blocks, great blocks. Damn. I'll take this into the fourth quarter. Maintaining that 10 point lead. There were 40 points scored in the first half and so far zero in the second half and the third quarters in the books. I like that his name is too good, but not good enough, man. Not good enough to best the woman haters. Beautiful. Ooh, Dickerson. Clock is winding down. Goes with the run commit there. I think I still picked up a yard. Yeah, we'll still take a yard on the run commit. Not bad. Switch formations, make them think we're passing and we'll continue to run the ball. Man, this is the safest way to guarantee the win is kind of just run it out, kick field goal. I'm gonna bring this back left side. Damn. Damn, John Madden. Rest in peace, man. What a play, third and 13. This'll take me to the two minute warning. Did not even get the ball off. Can I hit a 59? Montana can hit a 59 yard field goal, which is nice. We'll let this take us right through the two minute warning, although my power's not very good. I actually could miss this. Did I? No, Montana got it. What a stud. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It said 25 to 15 there. I thought somehow I didn't count it. 28 to 15 and we're kicking off. Things are looking really good right now. It'd be very difficult to lose this game. Up 13 with a minute 58. We arrived at 28 points in a very bizarre fashion. Okay, he makes a nice throw to Gronk. Ball's in play. Clock is ticking. So that works for me. As long as he's not chunking me for crazy yards every play, we're gonna be all right. That was a pretty big chunk though, not gonna lie. Close his first time out there. He wants this. I respect it. He's not giving up. Dude, the fact that he hasn't ran the ball a single time though, I can literally guess pass every single play. When it puts him at such a disadvantage, I get crazy good pass rush. Like dude, just one hand off, one inside zone and you'll go for 40 yards. Vrable around the edge, can't get home.  Let's go. Third and three, he is in bounds. He might throw the same thing. I'm gonna try and jump it. Oh, through the same thing, other side. He gets out of bounds this time. Minus six on the clock. He's already used almost a minute. If he goes touchdown here, I'd be in trouble, but that's about it. That's fine, get there, get there, get there, get there. Shit, good play, good play. I gotta get him to make a mistake. He's gotta take a shot. That's a shot. Night train lame. That's ball game. And it's all she wrote. That was defense right there. Kenny Pickett did not throw a single touchdown. We had 28 points and we locked up the dub. Let's get it boys. I can't count that as a ridge quit. He just get to dashboard faster. He played the entire game out for the most part, but a great game for us, big win. Now we got two wins on the board, dude, I don't know what to do though. All right, listen, listen, listen. We got 75 back in the bank. I'm gonna use it right now, but honestly, we might have to hang up the towel for this season of pack and play because my team is too good. I can't, it's like I can't upgrade this team anymore. All right, I'm gonna open the Pearl Platinum Elite Bundle. Potentially I could get a golden ticket in these 92 plus player packs. So it's kind of what I'm looking for. Start out with a remix to 92.  And it was, we get a redux, which is a 93. Okay, we're going up 92, 93, now 94. Legend player, 95. We skipped the rung. Now take me to 96. Now take me to 96. Wait a minute, this actually could be. Okay, we're back on par. Now this should be 96. 97. Hey, where's your meme? Pretty much gonna quick sell all those guys. Can't really use them. Jesus, starting our Platinum player with 200,000 coins. I gotta keep track of how many coins we get here. Actually, I just won't look at any of them. And then I'll go in my item binder and we'll sell all of them at once. So we got 200,000 from Byrd plus. Got Hughes, Pittman, Trash, Trash. Rashan Gary's okay, okay, it was pretty much all Trash. We'll quick sell all these guys. 375,000 coins is definitely one pro end game elite pack. Jamal Adams. He's got base 99 speed. Gold! Who's gonna start over Larry Fitzgerald?  Kwan Alexander, Boson, Jamal Adams who we can quick sell. They get us up to 500,000. This team is too good. I've confirmed it. It is official. My team is too good. This pack of play team is too good. I can't keep doing this account. Now it's a bummer that I got screwed out of the playoffs because I accidentally started a game on old gen there. So it would be nice to know if this team could take it all the way, but dude, I can't keep going with this team.  This is one of the nastiest teams I've literally ever assembled. And I'm not even done. Like I couldn't make it better. I could put in Josh Allen. All right, boys, I'm making the executive decision right now. I'm pulling the plug on this pack and play team. And next pack and play episode, if I decide to do another one, will be a brand new completely wiped team. But can we just give it up to this squad? I mean, just superstar players at every single position. Gold 99 is almost everywhere on the field. Every single player is exclusively from packs or sets. Mostly just packs. I don't even think I really did any of these guys in a set. In fact, I can almost confidently say these are all pack players. They are. These are all pack players. We even got Joe Montana kicker. An unbelievable team. Hey, I hope you guys enjoyed this season of Pack and Play because we built an absurdly dominant team and got two huge wins today. It's too good. It's too good of a team. All right, boys, I love you. Thanks for watching. As always, I'll see you in the next one. Peace.


Some health clubs offer a kind of exercise called anti-gravity yoga. When I first saw people hanging upside down from hammocks and calling it yoga, I kind of thought they were crazy. But it ended up being a lot of fun and just the swinging and it felt very playful. Yoga student Marie Bice says anti-gravity yoga has been good for her. But I don't have a lot of flexibility in my back and doing this work has really helped with that. Heather Blair is an anti-gravity yoga trainer. You actually have spinal decompression so when you're upside down your vertebrae actually open up so that the space in between the vertebrae opens naturally and gently. This is Chris Meyerhan's first class in anti-gravity yoga. I would like increased flexibility of course. I'm a guy, a runner, so my hamstrings are very tight. Instructor Heather Blair says a lot goes into the workout. Anti-gravity yoga is a combination of Pilates, a little bit of yoga, aerial arts and suspension training. So it's not just yoga. You literally could be of any fitness level. You can have injuries. It doesn't matter how old you are, anyone can take the class. Christopher Harrison is a dancer, choreographer and gymnast. He created anti-gravity yoga. I created it so even my mother can do it. Chris Meyerhan's was surprised at the effort required to do it. I had no idea that it was that much work. Christopher Harrison says yoga philosophy is still at the center of anti-gravity yoga. You can expect still to be studying yoga because it is a practice of awareness of body, mind and spirit. As with traditional yoga, classes end with meditation. I'm Christopher Cruz.


As-salamu alaykum everyone, may peace and blessings be upon all of you. As mosques, synagogues and churches and schools and other sanctuaries are gunned down, like I, like many others, fall into the state of despair, waiting for the hope to kick in. Like you all, I sat there looking at headline after headline, 49 dead, 50 dead, 51 dead. I became stuck on that word. Everywhere I turned that word echoed, that's when I came across a very timely quote that's in the Quran that I'd like to share with all of you. This quote goes, I never think those that have been killed in the cause of God as dead rather they are alive with their Lord receiving provisions. They are alive, they are alive through each and every one of us here today. They are alive, they remind us of how far we've come and how far we have to go. They are alive when we hold each other's hands in solidarity, they are alive as a reminder, they are with each one of us here today, right now, when we hold each other in a loving embrace with every tear and I would like to thank everyone for coming out today and to think of them as your own, as your brothers, as your siblings, as your family. Not just that, not just those who passed away this past, this week, but those that have passed away before, way before that, sorry. I have no words anymore. On my way here, I was thinking of what I could say. What I could say to make this pain a little bit easier, what I could say to leave that pain, to be able to walk, to be able to wake up and have hope in my heart. But to be honest, I don't have any more words. The hope that I get is from all of you here. The hope that I get is by looking at you right now. I have no more hope to offer. The only hope that I have is when I hold your hand, when I embrace you and I thank you for everyone. I generally thank everyone for being here today. Thank you so much.


When the narcissist is forced to accept their fate When the narcissist is forced to accept what was inevitably going to happen While you are with the narcissist They want to display power They want to make you think that they have the ability to influence your behavior and direct the course of events Because that is how they maintain their influence and authority over you That is how they keep you under their control When in actuality They're just bluffing They're just trying to deceive you of their abilities and intentions They're putting on an act Their bark is worse than their bite They can seem much more unpleasant and hostile than they actually are They may say things that are frightening But their actions are not normally as severe Because they understand that there are forces outside of their control Which is why they depend so heavily on coercion Which is why they always have to persuade you to do something By using force or threats Because they don't really have any power They just try to manipulate you into giving your power to them Everything they do is an attempt to escape their fate It's an attempt to avoid acknowledging that unpleasant and threatening reality Which is why every narcissist will have some form of addiction They will often engage in escapism They will seek distraction or relief from the unpleasant reality Often by seeking entertainment to engage in a fantasy They would engage in purely imaginative activity or entertainment As an escape from their reality or routine Because reality is too much for them to deal with They cannot survive in anything less than a picture perfect world Where everything is catered to them and since that is an impossibility Their only hope is to pretend They deny any wrongdoing They present this fake image to the world and they just act as though everything is fine and dandy They act as though everything is going well When the reality is very different from what they have led you to believe When the narcissist leaves you They don't just ride off into the sunset The only reason why they left you is because they were trying to escape their fate They were trying to dodge their responsibility for their actions After everything they did to you After the situation that they had created Once they had run it into the ground They didn't want anything to do with it anymore So they tried to move on to the next situation In an attempt to escape their fate In an attempt to avoid the result of their actions And then they just left you to pick up the pieces They just left you to restore your life After the disaster that they had created When the narcissist leaves you They want to present this image as though they're doing great They want you to think they're so much happier without you They don't want to accept that they were the cause of anything that went wrong with you They want people to think that it was all your fault Narcissists are constantly in survival mode They're just trying to survive emotionally They don't have the capacity to even experience real happiness or fulfillment They're just trying to fulfill their basic needs They're just trying to survive They're just trying to get by with whatever they can find So although it may look like they have moved on And they're doing so much better with someone else In most cases It was just a decision they made out of desperation Maybe they didn't have any other options But at the time it seemed like a good opportunity Because anything is better than nothing for a narcissist After they have left you They don't want to be alone They don't want it to look like there's something wrong with them They don't want anyone to think that they have difficulty managing relationships So they will just get involved with whoever they think is willing to accommodate them It doesn't mean that they're happy with someone else It doesn't mean that they're happy with someone else It doesn't mean that they're doing good They've just found something that is distracting them for now It's just another form of escapism They use people as a means to escape from their unpleasant reality But that does not mean that they're doing good That does not mean that they're happy Just because an addict has managed to find more drugs It doesn't mean their experience in joy, pleasure or good fortune It's just a distraction from how they really feel It's a coping mechanism And it's the same thing with a narcissist All they're really trying to do is cope with their lives They're just trying to cope with how they really feel about themselves And that is what they use to make you think they're happy without you That is what they use to make you think they're doing good When really It's just a distraction from the miserable lives It's just a form of escapism The truth is The narcissist is never really going to accept their fate There might be small windows of reflection But it's not something that's going to last for long periods of time They could not deal with their pain and shame It's too painful for them to accept their fate They could not deal with their pain and shame It's too painful for them to deal with They would rather just mask it with their addictions They would rather try to distract themselves And that is why, even though you may look at their life And see no reason for them to be happy about anything They always find something to brag and boast about They always find a way to make it seem like it's more than what it actually is Because they just don't want to live in reality They can't exist in reality Without destroying someone Or destroying themselves They created an alternate reality to protect themselves They created a fake world Because reality was just too painful for them to deal with And in this reality Everything is reversed Everything is backwards And you're just supposed to accept their interpretations You're just supposed to accept their version of events You're supposed to accept their way of seeing things But when you display your own individuality You can no longer exist in their world It's like you become Neo from the Matrix It's like you've just taken the red pill And now all they can do from that point on Is try to make you think that you made the wrong decision By making you think that their reality is better Because they want you to feel regret They want you to feel like you messed up When the reality is That there's just so much more to life Than living in someone's distorted interpretation Of what the world is supposed to be You're supposed to decide that for yourself And you should be able to co-exist With people who have different opinions and beliefs It doesn't mean that you have to pull them into your world But that is something that narcissists cannot do If they left their alternate reality They would cease to exist Because their false self isn't even real It's just something they concocted a long time ago Because they couldn't deal with reality There are going to be small windows Where the narcissist does realise their fate When they see that you've moved on with someone else When they see that you're happy When they see that you've become successful When they see that you've become successful When they see that you're no longer thinking about them That will make the narcissist feel insignificant It will make them feel like they've missed out on something Even if it's only for a second But they have to fight against that They cannot entertain those ideas For long periods of time The narcissism is a coping and defence mechanism That means how they really feel about themselves So they have to constantly deny their wrongdoing They have to act like they're perfect And they're doing so much better without you Even though it isn't real They would rather live in their fantasy world Than to experience life as it actually is Than to accept themselves as they actually are Rather than how they wish things could be When that is actually the very thing that would set them free When you hold yourself accountable for your faults and mistakes When you accept your flaws and imperfections You are free But this is something the narcissist is never going to do They're never going to accept their wrongdoing They're never going to hold themselves accountable for their actions And that is why they will be imprisoned forever In a world of their own making Thanks for watching!


Hello and welcome back to another episode of physics partner. Today we are diving into the fascinating world of astronomy to explore Kepler's third law in relation to the outer planets. This law formulated by the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler provides us with a deeper understanding of the motion and orbits of celestial bodies. According to this law, the square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit. In simpler terms, it relates the time it takes for a planet to orbit the Sun to its average distance from the Sun. The fundamental principle allows astronomers to make precise calculations about the motion of planets in our solar system. When we apply Kepler's third law to the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, we can see how their orbital periods and distances from the Sun are interconnected. For example, Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has a relatively short orbital period due to its closer proximity to the Sun compared to the Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. This law not only helps us understand the dynamic of these outer planets but also provides valuable insight into their unique characteristics and behaviors. Beyond its theoretical significance, Kepler's third law has practical implications in the field of space exploration and satellite missions. By utilizing the principle of this law, scientists and engineers can accurately predict the tragic trees of a spacecraft and satellites orbit around their planets. This knowledge is crucial for planning and execution complex missions to study the outer planets and their moons contributing to our expanding knowledge of the cosmos. In conclusion, Kepler's third law plays a crucial role in our understanding of the outer planets in our solar system. The concept calculations derived from this law helps us unravel the mysteries of these distant worlds and guide us in our exploration of the universe. So I think it's enough for today. So thank you very much for listening and watching. I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope this video is useful for you. So take care of yourself and don't hesitate to write an email if you have any questions, queries, suggestions and even classes are required. Take care of yourself. Meanwhile, see you in the next video. Goodbye.


This is Ken Helivang, NDSU Extension Agricultural Engineer. When returning to a flooded building, be sure that it is structurally sound, the electricity is off, and the building is free of natural gas and hazardous chemicals. If the basement is flooded, pump out only two to three feet of water each day or the basement walls may collapse. Contact your NDSU Extension County office or search the web for NDSU Extension Flood Info for more resources.


Winter is the right time to be thinking about your home fire safety since we're all spending a bit more time indoors to keep out of the cold weather. If you haven't already, make sure your smoke alarms are maintained and working. Put smoke alarms in all hallways, bedrooms and living areas. Interconnected ones are best. Plan and practice your home fire escape plan with your household. Have your chimney and flue checked before firing it up and make sure your heaters are in good working order and never leave them on overnight. Find out more on keeping your home safe this winter by checking the CFA website.


Item Number- SCP-2158 Object Class-Safe Special Containment Procedures SCP-2158 is to be kept in a lockbox in Site-17. SCP-2158-1 is kept in the Site-47 morgue. Description- SCP-2158 is a Remington model 1875 revolver clasped in the disembodied hand of Joshua Graham who lived from 1868 to 1893. It is unmodified, safe for handmade grips of cowhorn. SCP-2158 fires 44-40 cartridges. Any bullet fired from this revolver will change course upon leaving the barrel. Taking the most direct route to SCP-2158-1, where it will lodge itself, passing through any obstacles, SCP-2158-1 is the embalmed body of Stanley Tuxbury who lived from 1871 to 1924, a rancher originally buried in Punkin Center, Arizona. It currently contains over 130 bullets, 80 of which were present before retrieval. SCP-2158 was found in an abandoned ranch house in Punkin Center held by the corpse of Joshua Graham, another rancher. MTF Psi-8 investigated to determine no lines of communication had been opened. Researchers were then allowed to access the body for study, while the autopsy showed death by hanging as cause of death. Most of the body was badly decomposed but the hand was mummified and could not be removed from the revolver. Notably, Stanley Tuxbury died of natural causes 30 years after Joshua Graham passed away.