US Open With Shane Bacon, Best Of Kentucky Sports Radio Callers + HC Will Stein, Knicks Parade + FAQ’s

12:51PFT Commenter:we're gonna get back to the but this is I mean offseason it starts it I have one last thing do you think it elevates or decreases Jalen Brown's legacy that he is going to go to college with Zach elevates. Okay. I'm talking about Streamer University. Jalen Brown is applying, and so is Zach. Zach, where's your application at?

13:13Big Cat:Everything's in. I just got to finish the video portion. Okay. What are you going to do for the video? There's a compilation video that you have to put together. So I've been brainstorming that. I got to finish it. Yeah, I want explosions. A little bit of power techniques I think probably should throw in there. I want some explosions. So Jalen Brown is going to go to Kaisenat Streamer University? Yeah. He's trying to. And when is that taking place again? I think he applied. There's no official date yet. They're doing in-person and out-of-person applications right now. Are they going to teach him how to type left-handed too?

13:43Big Cat:I'm not sure what he would get into. I know there's a basketball program, so he'd probably be on the basketball team.

13:47PFT Commenter:Yeah. That'd be sick, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, that's an awesome – Imagine if you were on the same starting five as Jalen Brown. Show up for basketball practice. I'd probably go undrafted. He plays my position. Don't belittle yourself, Zach.

14:01Big Cat:Come on. Do we think he's a better basketball player or a Twitch streamer at this point? Oh, good question. The latest may have. How many people are going to get into Streamer U? I'm not quite sure in full transparency, but he would be a heavy favorite maybe. Yeah, because I feel like more people are in the NBA than there are at Streamer U.

14:25PFT Commenter:Right. Streamer University. 120 creators, so you're right.

14:29Big Cat:Yeah.

14:30PFT Commenter:It's harder to get into streamer U than it is to get in the NBA. It's fact. That's pretty crazy. Statistical fact.

14:36Big Cat:So he's a really, really good streamer. He's a multi-talented guy. I thought he was refreshingly honest this postseason when he was hopping on the live streams, which I appreciate. He's got step one down cold. Now, do you think that the Boston Celtics might see him going to streamer university and say, like, this is maybe not the guy that we want if he's, like, so committed to the streamer life? No, he's always been a different cat. Smart guy. Likes to do different stuff, especially in the offseason. I don't think they'll have any issue with it.

15:09PFT Commenter:Memes. James Dolan. There was a release of James Dolan's speech to the Knicks before the playoff run. What was said in that speech? Did he ask them to not fuck? He asked it in a certain way. I missed it watching the video, but I mean, it's like a Herb Brooks style speech. What did he say? He just was like, I'm not raising the NBA Cup banner. No, he essentially just called a shot. It was on April 3rd.

15:35Big Cat:He brought the entire team in. He said, you guys have what it takes and you just need to lock in for this next 10 weeks. And everyone, your loved ones will get a ring. Your friends will get a ring. Wow. Yeah. And he said no sex. He said a version of it. Yeah. Do you think anybody on the team said the owner's right? I bet you one guy. Who? No. No guys. Who are you going to say? Because I was going to say, Wimby could never. He's too French. I was thinking maybe Tyler Colick, but.

16:08PFT Commenter:No, Tyler Colick. Are you kidding me? Big time fucks. Tyler Colick, his name's going to be etched in history.

16:17Big Cat:Yeah, Tyler Colick fucks.

16:18PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah, I don't think. I think everybody on the team's still fucked. Oh, there they are. Oh, yeah. They're the Knicks. They were watching the World Cup. I actually think that the parade date was so perfect. I don't know why more teams don't do this, especially for the spring sports, spring-summer sports. Make the parade like a week later because you basically are saying to your team, you get to party for this entire week because once the parade happens, then everyone goes their separate ways, off-season starts. But yeah, if you make the game was Saturday, the parade's Thursday, they just get a stretch where they just get to just be the fucking man.

16:54PFT Commenter:I saw Mike Brown showing up to a restaurant. Everyone stood up and gave him a round of applause. That was cool. Like, you're just, it has to be, like, one of the coolest things to win a title in New York City.

17:07Big Cat:Yeah, especially the start of the summertime in New York City. Right. It's pretty cool. Do you think that they're going to track Tibbs down and make sure he gets a ring? Listen, I know people are, there's people who've been like, oh, yeah, Tibbs, like, biggest loser.

17:22PFT Commenter:They don't win this without Tibbs. I really believe that. Do you agree, memes? Yeah, 100%. Culture-wise, I do think there's probably, Tibbs might be watching this and be like, oh, shit, I did have a championship roster, and maybe if I had pulled some levers a little differently, that's probably got to be some tough self-scouting. But overall, Tibbs inherited a god-awful Knicks team and franchise and made them winners pretty quickly and made them competent. And then, yeah, Mike Brown obviously took him over the top. But the guy before the guy, I think, still has some importance. Yeah, he turned the team around for sure.

17:59Big Cat:That's what I'm wondering. I don't know what his relationship's like. And it's crazy to look back on where that team was like a year ago. You guys didn't have a coach. That was a crazy thing. Yeah, they tried to interview every coach in the league and got laughed at. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. Remember, they tried to interview. Who was it? Jason Kidd. Yeah. They asked Joe Mazzulla. That got turned down. I believe it was Doc Rivers Cleveland head coach There was a couple others There was one point in the season Three guys they asked all were fired And now Mike Brown Look at you now I do think this is just one of the greatest Underdog stories ever Especially with everybody on the team I know this kind of changes the subject But Mike Brown got swept by the Spurs Now he had LeBron Greatest player ever and then all he needed was Jalen Brunson and other guys who were slept on in the league to become a champion.

18:59Big Cat:It's just a really good story. Hank, would you have given up Joe Mazzulla to coach the Knicks if, knowing what we know now, he would not have won a championship with the Knicks this year or ever? I would never give up Joe Mazzulla for anything. Even if he kept memes off the winners podium for forever? No.

19:19PFT Commenter:So you wouldn't give Joe Missoula to the Knicks as a sleeper cell? No. Because his heart would still be in Boston. Right. He'd still watch the town every day. I don't worry about the Knicks. I'm worried about the Celtics. Yeah. I want Coach Missoula coaching the Celtics. What are you guys laughing about in the booth? Give it to us. I mean, there were three seed in the East. The greatest underdog story in the history of sports is a little far-fetched. Yeah. I mean, listen, I actually kind of followed it, though, for a little bit because I was thinking about it. Cat's the number one overall pick, but he was traded.

19:55PFT Commenter:And guys like Josh Hart, Josh Hart is an underdog story in the fact that he doesn't, you know, do much offensively and he's just an absolute dog. Jalen Brunson was a second round pick. The Mavs didn't re-sign him. Jokic, also a second round pick. Yeah, Mikael Bridges, probably not an underdog.

20:13Big Cat:Mikael was a scapegoat with the Suns. Don't forget that.

20:17PFT Commenter:Yeah. OG won a ring with the Raptors, but didn't play. So the little underdog there. I'm just saying that the greatest underdog story in the history of sports is a little. Yeah, I think memes is right. I think memes is right.

20:28Big Cat:I think to myself, I think of Leicester City in England. And there were 10 ,000 to one. Buster Douglas. The 1980 Olympics. Yeah, no, I think the Knicks are more of an underdog.

20:40PFT Commenter:The tie that happened yesterday. The tie. Yeah, the tie. It was a great tie. Yeah. All right. The Hurricanes, I had a couple things in the Hurricanes. One, did you guys see that Rod Brindamore had in the off-season program, he implemented a thing called blue-collar presses that after the workout, guys would have to press up a 35-pound cinder block, which is the weight of the Stanley Cup. That's awesome. So they basically were sneakily training to lift the Stanley Cup.

21:15Big Cat:I love that.

21:16PFT Commenter:Now, did he know that?

21:17Big Cat:I think he did. Did the players know it? I don't think the players know. Because that would be an ultimate reveal. Like right after the season, right before they hoist the cup up. He's like, hey, I planned this all along.

21:28PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah. And I think the biggest loser in the Stanley Cup final is the Portland Trailblazers. I think they're the biggest loser. I was thinking about it. because Tom Dundon owns the Hurricanes, has won a cup, doing it his way somewhat cheaply. I think Rob Brandenburg is not one of the highest paid coaches. He's one of the best coaches. And you just saw it because Tiago Splitter is now the Bulls head coach because Tom Dundon said he was going to pay his head coach$1.5 million, which is vastly underpaid. So I think the Trailblazers are going to have to learn. They're going to have to have this time where, like imagine if David Tepper won a world series while owning the Panthers his way and then he's like yeah that reaffirms that I know everything about everything in every sport in every sport yeah in hockey and basketball are not the same sport but Tom Dunn's gonna be like see guys I did it I'm gonna do it with the Blazers too yeah I you might be onto something there Tiago Splitter are you happy that are I am I I mean I listen players are it's it's a players league you gotta to we're going to actually talk to will stein kentucky uh head football coach who has a he basically has a mantra that's about that uh but i'm happy that michael reinsdorf went out and hired a gm that was not inside the bulls organization and then they hired a coach that was not in the bulls organization and tiago splitter is a you know pop tree came you know played for the spurs young guy the blazers it doesn't get talked enough about the fact that the blazers this season they made the playoffs and their head coach got arrested by the FBI after the first game.

23:11PFT Commenter:Tiago Splitter was basically handed a team where their head coach was just doing a perp walk out of nowhere after game one. And he did a pretty damn good job. So look, NBA coaches, I like outside of a few, a handful, and maybe Tiago Splitter becomes that. I don't know if there's like a big difference between the fifth best coach in the NBA and like the 25th.

23:34Big Cat:I think it depends on them. It's more about the personality blending in with the guys that you have on your team.

23:39PFT Commenter:And everything I've read, he is a good you know, I think players respect players. He's obviously played, won a championship with the Spurs and so, and young guy and he did good things with the Blazers for the time he was there. So yeah, I'm in. I'm in. I really would have been in anyway. No matter what. I'm in on it. They could have rehired Billy Donovan and be like, eh, maybe.

24:00Big Cat:I was going to say, the Blazers seem like they might be a fun team to coach now, though. Maybe, but... Nobody said Tiago split her down and say, Hey, I know it's a few million dollars less, but I think all the fun you might have coaching Klingen.

24:13PFT Commenter:I think it's a pretty big slap in your face if you're like, Hey, every coach is getting paid between$4 and$5 million, and I'm only going to pay you one. He wants guys that want to enjoy themselves. Yeah, that's a tough sell. Jalen Brunson took a pay cut. True, he did. Did he? Oh. Is that why you brought it up, Hank? Did he? Hmm. Huh. Did he?

24:34Big Cat:What do you mean, PFT? I didn't, but please do tell. I mean, I would hope that you would be all over this, Hank. I'm not, so please enlighten me. I feel like he did. You're not one of the conspiracy theorists out there with Jalen Brunson. Did he? I'm not. Okay. I think Hank should look into this. Can you inform me? Are you saying he didn't? I think every team in the league has creative people that work with him. Oh, interesting. PFT, go on. This is like a Clipper situation? I'm just thinking there's some... Every team... I'm not saying they're the only ones that do it. Every team does it. Every team should do it.

25:09Big Cat:What do you know, PFT? I don't know anything. What are you getting at? I wish that Hank was... He said earlier he's not locked in on the Knicks. I wish he was a little bit more locked in on the Knicks as an opponent.

25:20PFT Commenter:Hmm. What do you think, Hank? Do you think there's a chance? What is he talking about, memes? Is there a chance that there's some malfeasance going on?

25:29Big Cat:I disavow what's being said. Okay. We had Wendy on and said the Knicks have a cap expert. I think he said they have an agent. No. Who's the GM. No, cap expert. Oh, they have a cap expert, so that's why. Yes. Got it. And he was like, this is$114 million less than that, so we should do this one instead as a cap expert. Yeah, and then he's just going to get paid in his next contract. I just think that it's awesome that Jalen Brunson said, I'll take$100 million less. That's team first guy. That's team first guy. That is the kind of guy that you would want to win. And listen, I said the same thing about Tom Brady on the page.

26:06Big Cat:That's awesome that he's actually not getting paid all this money that they say that he's not getting paid.

26:12PFT Commenter:Team first guy. Team first guy. He was.

26:14Big Cat:Team first guy. Yeah, I know. That's what I just said. What are you talking about? I literally have no idea. Yeah, I know. I don't know either. I would like for him to spell it out. We're just asking questions. He's just asking questions. Is there like a report coming out that we have a Kawhi situation? No, there's no report coming out that we have a Kawhi situation. Not that I know of. But that would be fascinating if there was. Have you been talking to Torrey? I've not been talking to Torrey about it. So what you're saying is he took$100 million less and won a championship. Yeah. Which is awesome.

26:41Big Cat:To be the face of New York. Yeah. And now could probably get endless money in advertising. Yeah. I do think he's going to make more money long term. He is going to make a lot of money long term. I'm also just hoping that Hank can get back on his feet in terms of hatred. yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna look i i do some looking i don't really know what you're talking about unless it's a clipper situation i'm just gonna say well yeah i mean did his dad get paid 100 million dollars to be a coach when tom brady was taking all those pay cuts for the patriots his wife was his wife was rich yes when he was married he had a very very rich wife um he also had a great charity that did a lot of work.

27:20Big Cat:Oh. A really good charity. This is a hard news to me. I don't know.

27:26PFT Commenter:I've never heard that before either. Okay. All right. All right. PFT finds out. Yeah, it sounds like you're talking Torrey. I'm just. Oh, no. This is. Are you doing Torrey right now? The only thing I found so far is sports investigator Pablo Torrey says he's looking into Jalen Brunson's$113 million pay cut, but that was in September 4th, 2025.

27:45Big Cat:Oh, yeah. Yeah, listen. He's still looking into it. I just always thought it was interesting. That's all. I thought it was interesting. What is going on here? I just love interesting stuff, Max. He's a curious cat. I'm just trying to stir the pot. That's all. That's all. The pot needs to be stirred a little bit. It sounds like the pot is being stirred. Because right now, when I look at Hank, I see a stagnant pot. I see a bunch of liquid that's just not moving around at all, not boiling. And I want that. I mean, you can't take a championship away. I don't like. I agree. I'm worried about next year.

28:15I'm not worried about Jalen Brunson and where his money comes from.

28:19Big Cat:But I'm just saying, anytime your arch rival wins something, you have to be ready to tell them why actually it shouldn't count. Get in the fight. That's Nick's rivals. Yeah. Trae Young. That's right. I feel like I'm more of a rival than you are, Hank. You're just a loser. I am. You're just trying to, like, they won. They have a parade on Thursday. I agree. No conspiracy is going to change that. I agree.

28:45PFT Commenter:Imagine if they stopped a parade.

28:46Big Cat:But, Hank, you understand that this is what I did for decades with the Patriots. Yeah. Just find a reason why they actually shouldn't be as happy. That's what I want you to start doing.

29:01PFT Commenter:He's trying to steal some joy. Hop in with him. He's being a thief. I'll look into it. Yeah. I mean, we're going to have to talk after this and do some FOIAs, maybe. I can't wait to see Hank looking into this. Yeah, Hank finds out. Yeah. That's what I want. The other last two things, Torts out for the Knights. So he's not coming back.

29:21Big Cat:He needs to be in a remote. Yeah. It's like if your season goes bad, smash the Torts button. And I don't really blame the Golden Knights for not resigning him, even though he was the perfect coach for them this year. Yep. Just whatever team has great players that underachieves halfway through next season, smash the torch button. Because he's the perfect guy to get in there for a few months at a time, fire you up, and then, yeah, he might grind your gears for a little bit and you'll have to get him out. But he's the guy that you want to bring in if you think you've got a team that's good enough to make some noise.

29:53PFT Commenter:Yeah. And then here's a crazy stat I saw from Dan Maraza. He said that there is not one active NHL arena that's had the Stanley Cup presented on its ice surface more times than T-Mobile Arena in Vegas. Isn't that pretty nuts?

30:09Big Cat:Yeah, I mean, in order to do that, you would have to be good enough to make the Stanley Cup.

30:13PFT Commenter:And they've only been a franchise for nine years. They've had it presented three times on their ice. That's tough. I think there's a couple that are tied, but still crazy.

30:21Big Cat:It's also the best place to win a Stanley Cup.

30:23PFT Commenter:Yeah, it has to be, easily. I mean, it's 1-1.

30:27Big Cat:Not even close. Which is probably why teams have won it there three times. Yeah, or two times. Miami.

30:33PFT Commenter:Miami would be sick. 11 would be sick. Yeah. I remember the Team USA Miami celebrations looked pretty sick. Yeah, they did. But they just went to Miami. That's fair. But imagine if they won it in Miami. The Celtics went to Miami, too. Be sick, though. But that's what I'm saying. If you won it in Miami. Jet lag. They don't have a team in Miami. How? If you guys. Let's say. It's not far. If part of my take won a championship. How many... Our parade was four days away. How many hours of sleep do you think you could actually do? Because I'm always amazed by these guys who are like, yeah, I've slept two hours in the last four days.

31:11PFT Commenter:Just take naps.

31:12Big Cat:Yeah, just naps. I think it's adrenaline. It's also them being younger in much better shape. Yeah, that definitely helps. Also, they don't really drink that much all the time, so their bodies are just... Well, that would make it harder. Yeah, true.

31:25PFT Commenter:Well, you get drunk faster.

31:27Big Cat:That's what I'm saying. But then you get drunk faster, so you don't have as much alcohol to burn through. Yeah. You're just a lightweight. Yeah, it'd be fun to just get drunk. So the hangovers probably aren't that bad if you're lightweight, because you don't have to drink that much to get drunk. You can drink for so much longer when you're not a lightweight.

31:44PFT Commenter:This is the time when I need the whoop stats. I want to whoop on Jose Alvarado right now. I'd pour over that data. See how much sleep he's getting. Yeah, he's at 1 % for the last five days.

31:58Big Cat:Oh, the recovery. Looking up, waking up in the morning and looking at that recovery, and you're like, I thought I felt good until it told me 1%. It would be sick. I actually feel terrible now.

32:06PFT Commenter:Okay, let's talk a little World Cup before we do that. DraftKings. DraftKings this summer, the Cup is taking over the U.S., and only DraftKings has you covered every step of the way. The DraftKings Sportsbook app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are, from Florida to Texas to California. you're in on the excitement at the speed of sports follow every group stage upset every knockout round thriller every stoppage time moment that flips the whole tournament sweat all the matches you love in real time with a seamless experience built for the world's biggest stage no matter where you're watching you're always connected and in the game with one app new DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE spend 5 bucks to get 200 rewards within 21 days that's code TAKE in partnership with DraftKings the crown is yours Bet with DK Sportsbook.

32:56Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777. Or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, bet text pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Ontario. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss. Sportsbook bonus bets expire in seven days. $50 in predictions dollars issued weekly for three weeks expire in one year. Redeem one non-withdrawable reward. Availability varies. Predictions offer void in New York. Ends June 28th.

33:24PFT Commenter:Terms at dkng.co slash audio. Monday, we had the day of draws. It was electric. Absolutely electric. Because we obviously, we did the round robin that Quiggs and PFT put together every game to end in a draw.

33:42Big Cat:Yeah, it was incredible. Four draws, four games, Cape Verde, having a tie with Spain. That's the tie of the decade, I think. It was unreal. Yeah. It was unreal. They just didn't really feel like playing much offense at all. They said, we're all going to stay inside our penalty box and just make Spain take long-ass shots and hope that our goalie stands on his head. And it worked out. And then their goalie went from having 50 ,000 followers on Instagram to after the game was over, I think he had like 5 million. And he might be up to like 8 million followers on Instagram right now. That was incredible.

34:17Big Cat:That's why the World Cup is the best tournament in the world. Because you get shit like that. Cape Verde has, I think I only knew them as being the islands where like hurricanes start.

34:27PFT Commenter:Yeah.

34:27Big Cat:In the Atlantic Ocean. They're so small. I think like the third smallest country to ever play in a World Cup. And then to tie the Spaniards was pretty unreal. And then.

34:37PFT Commenter:Did you hear that the goalie that you talked about who got all those? Oh, he's 9.6 million followers. Yeah. I guess apparently on the broadcast. He's 40. On the, he's 40? I believe he's 40 years old. Yeah. Fuck yeah. On the broadcast, the announcers were just shouting him out. Not the Spanish broadcast, not the American broadcast, the English broadcast. He's got more than Wemby. The announcers were just shouting out his Instagram handle the entire game. I love that. Yeah, so that was a big part of it. Good for him. Yeah. It was fun.

35:08Big Cat:I'm getting swept up. The ties were excellent. That was honestly the craziest tie, given the talent difference between the two teams. But that's why soccer is a cool sport, because you can just commit to just playing nothing but defense and praying for the entirety of the game. And every now and again, you'll come out with a point. And then Saudi Arabia's goalkeeper was amazing yesterday too. That was a great draw. That was another great tie. Great draw. I love every tie. Yeah. I was going to say equally, probably not equally, which is kind of ironic for a tie. But I think they're all special in their own beautiful ways.

35:41Big Cat:That's Spain, Cape Verde. They'll be talking about that for decades in Cape Verde.

35:45PFT Commenter:It was the first time, or sorry, yeah, I think it was the first time since like 1956 that there was a World Cup day where there was four ties. Yeah. So we timed it pretty good. We timed it perfectly. It was also a moment that I was like, hey, just chill out because you think that you figured it out. And they're basically saying that it's something that happens once a century.

36:04Big Cat:Yeah, it's probably as good as it's going to get for us. And we're going to continue to bet this every World Cup from now on. And we'll never have a day like this. Oh, we're doing round two. The second group stage. Oh, for sure. Yeah, I'm going to keep rolling with that. I thought New Zealand and Iran was a great game too last night. Yep. Shout out Just. Just had two goals for them. And then the Iranian team, they're getting the runaround. They had to leave after the game and get their ass back to Mexico. And they didn't say who was kicking them out. If it was FIFA, if it was like a U.S. official, if it was an Iranian official that was saying, get the fuck out of the United States after the game.

36:41PFT Commenter:Okay.

36:41Big Cat:So the Iranian team is going to play back in the United States. They were supposed to start training in Arizona, but then they had to move to Tijuana because the whole war thing that's going on. So now they had to get out of Los Angeles right after the game. Then they're going to have to come back to the U.S. and play and then probably leave directly after. I don't know. That whole situation is fucked up for them. That's going to be pretty tough on their players.

37:04PFT Commenter:So let's talk about Friday's game real quick. U.S., we're going to do a pick. PFT, I'm going to defer to you. on we're going to need some help on the pick you know what we can come up with a part yeah we can do one we're playing the aussies apparently they're fast the soccer ruse are they fast i did

37:23Big Cat:some advanced scouting on on the aussie i also watched the game are you the one who told me they were fast i've been telling people that they're fast okay so we're just that is that

37:30PFT Commenter:have you been telling people they're fast and they're actually fast you've just been telling

37:33Big Cat:people they're fast they're fast okay they're fast cunts down there okay yeah so i looked it up and they've got two guys up front that are fat that are both faster than anybody on paraguay that we played.

37:43PFT Commenter:Okay.

37:43Big Cat:And then we've got some defenders who might not be the speediest guys necessarily. But speed isn't everything, but it can make a big difference because I think our strategy is going to be pretty similar to what we saw against Paraguay, which is just like fuck them up and press and attack and press, which also would make us susceptible to a good counterattack. Yeah. Which Paraguay didn't have, but Australia might have.

38:04PFT Commenter:Hank, are you getting into the soccer? I was into the Cape Verde. One of my best friends growing up with Cape Verde and grew up with a lot, you know, Big Cape Verdean community in my hometown, so I was very happy for them. I'm getting a little bit. A little bit. Okay. A little bit's good. The fan stuff is great. The fan stuff is great. We talked about it the last week, but that stuff makes me laugh. The Scottish people in Boston is very, very funny. Do you see the Scottish guys going down the slide? Yep. That was good. With the bagpipes. That was very good. They outdrank. Boston said they're running out of beer, and it was three times more alcohol drink than St.

38:40Patrick's Day. Yeah. Which is like, that's insane.

38:42PFT Commenter:That is insane. By the way, I saw a stat because we love dumb stats. This was as of Sunday. So I don't know if it's still the case. But as of Sunday, Ivory Coast's win over Ecuador was the first team in this World Cup to win while having less bird species in their opposition. Oh, fuck.

39:00Big Cat:Yeah. That's pretty big.

39:01PFT Commenter:No, that's true. Yeah. I was thinking about that when I was watching. And when I say less, they have like 1 ,100 less bird species in Ecuador.

39:11Big Cat:Yeah. So I was thinking about that. But then the Galapagos Islands are doing a lot of lifting for those Ecuadorian species. That's probably like all the finches.

39:18PFT Commenter:Yeah. Darwin knew. Good for us. We have a lot of bird species. We got a ton. So we have 1 ,167 bird species.

39:29Big Cat:Hell yeah. I did see that we're absolutely dominating South America. It's been a tough World Cup for South America. Yeah. So far, the United States, we won our game, so we got three points. The entire continent, as of right now, of South America only has two points in the World Cup.

39:47PFT Commenter:That's bad.

39:48Big Cat:And everybody was saying, like, this might be a good World Cup for the South Americans because they're used to the heat.

39:53PFT Commenter:This France game, by the way, went crazy. Two goals in extra time. 3-1 France. Yeah. Fun game. Mbappe still got it. Still 19, still got it. I don't know if that was him. Yeah, it was. What a fucking world-class goal. World-class. Top shelf. World-class. Straight out the top. Top chatter. Okay. DraftKings. Let's do our parlay. This summer, the cup is taking over the U.S. and only DraftKings has you covered every step of the way. The DraftKings Sports app is now available in all 50 states and includes all markets, bringing the game straight to your fingertips. Wherever you are, from Florida to Texas to California, you're in on the excitement at the speed of sports.

40:29PFT Commenter:Follow every group stage. Upset. Every knockout round thriller. every stoppage time moment that flips the whole tournament. Sweat all the matches you love in real time with a seamless experience. Built for the world's biggest stage. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app. New DraftKings customers sign up with code TAKE. Spend five bucks to get 200 rewards within 21 days. That's code TAKE. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. What are we doing? Bet with DK Sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y.

41:02Connecticut call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, that text pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Ontario. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss. Sportsbook bonus bets expire in seven days. $50 in predictions dollars issued weekly for three weeks expire in one year. Redeem one non-withdrawable reward. Availability varies. Predictions offer void in New York. Ends June 28th. Terms at dkng.co slash audio. What do we got?

41:29Big Cat:I'm kind of addicted to ties right now. Okay. I can't do it. I'm just saying. I'm being honest. I'm being honest. Hi, my name is PFT. I'm addicted to ties. That's fair. Hi, PFT. But they're so good.

41:41PFT Commenter:They're so good. They're so fun.

41:43Big Cat:I got a goal scorer. Okay. And he's kind of a juicy goal scorer.

41:47PFT Commenter:Okay. I'll just say mine real quick. Over eight and a half corners. Okay. I like that. Corners are fun to bet.

41:54Big Cat:They are.

41:54PFT Commenter:I know that people are like, oh, that's so lame. No, they're fun. You can get no goals, but a lot of corners.

41:59Big Cat:I like Tillman to score. Okay. Malik Tillman. He had a bunch of chances, and he should have had at least one, if not two, in the first game. And you have to win. And you have to win? All right. So Tillman is plus 390 to score.

42:13PFT Commenter:Okay. Okay.

42:14Big Cat:I think that sounds good.

42:16PFT Commenter:I love that. All right. We'll go bet it on the DraftKings app. And all right. Should we do hot?

42:22Big Cat:I'm going to be like Wesley Snipes in New Jack City when I wake up on Friday thinking about Delhi. Like, going to have to kill you now. Yeah. Sorry, buddy.

42:30PFT Commenter:It's not personal. It's just business. Yep. Hot seat, cool throne. Reese's, by the way, the greatest candy ever. We have the new Reese's lounge here. Unbelievable. What have you guys been doing with the Reese's lounge? What have you been getting into? I love, I mean, the Reese's sticks, I think, are the greatest candy ever made. And the OG Reese's, like, I love them. The Reese's. Those are the options. I'm taking that. The new Reese's Oreo are so good. The Reese's Animal Crackers are the best thing I've ever had. I've recently come across them. It's impossible to put the bag down. Yep. Yep.

43:08Big Cat:What have you been getting into, PFT? I like the marshmallow one. And also, yeah, the Animal Crackers are incredible. They're so good.

43:13PFT Commenter:They're so good. Reese's is the absolute goat. Listen, Reese's with their peanut butter and chocolate combo, they're like the Hurricanes. Everyone else is like the Knights. Reese's with their chocolate and peanut butter combo, they're like the Knicks. Everyone else is the Spurs right now Can we all agree on that? That's just a fact So go right now Reese's the official candy partner Of Barstool Sports Go get Reese's wherever you shop We love Reese's It's a dream come true that we have a candy partner I mean if you told us When you were 10 years old Hey someday you're going to be in a job Where you have an official candy partnership Okay sign me up Jobs are awesome And it's going to be Reese's the goat candy Yeah, I'm in.

43:57PFT Commenter:So go get Reese's today. All right, Hank. My hot seat is Texas Tech. Yeah. And their credibility. We got to talk about it. They did a whole, the press conference that they did explaining themselves after the Brendan Soresby verdict came out that he was going to be able to play was a crazy watch. Like, it was weirdly set up. They had the most powerful people at the school. It was set up like, you know, how we would set up like a quick press conference. Very funny. and after all that all the all the heat they took all the the hoops they went through to get this guy to be able to play he uh announced that he's planning on entering the nfl supplemental draft i so i actually had it reversed i had in my cool throne was the ncaa because we finally like there when we talked about this last week there are no rules in the in the ncaa anymore there are no rules but if there should be one rule it's that you can't bet on your own team yeah like that's the one rule we should all agree like hey if if the sport is going to ever survive we can't have that so i'm happy that brendan soresby was like you know what i should probably just recuse myself from this situation it is a tough look for texas tech though well it's crazy that texas tech and brendan soresby i don't know because they were they were okay with it right i don't know who they talked to leading up to it but it was almost like they were shocked that it was a universal opinion that this is very bad and shouldn't happen and they're like whoa we we thought like

45:21Big Cat:everyone would be cool with this i i think it's funny that it was like the uh the entire sport of college football has a big dial that says like this is fucked up and then they keep turning it and then they finally took it to a place where everybody in the crowd was like boo they're like okay we'll bring it back just a little bit yeah and that's that's the players can't bet on their own teams and still playing games that was the one that was like okay we can And we can't go that far, but it's good to know that that's where the line is. We don't cross it again. Again, there are no rules, really.

45:51Big Cat:And we shouldn't confuse that because it's not like the NCAA or any sort of governing body is making Brent Sorsby go to the NFL. Right. Like that's Sorsby's choice.

46:03PFT Commenter:Yeah.

46:03Big Cat:So somebody's going to try to do it again.

46:05PFT Commenter:Yeah.

46:05Big Cat:At some point. But I think the next person that does it will be like, maybe their school will say to them, hey, maybe let's not do this because everyone's going to hate us and not schedule against us. It'll be a big, big thing that we'll have to spend a ton of money on lawyers. Yeah.

46:22PFT Commenter:Sourceby Jets. The news broke and I did see a guy riding a bike wearing a Jets shirt like immediately. who's so so the rules for the supplemental draft is that it's basically you have to submit it's a bidding war where you have to submit what you would give up next next year's draft and whoever has the highest pit highest pick that they give up would then get up so you're yep so like it would suck if you said oh yeah we'll give up a second round pick for him and then the next highest was a fifth you could have gotten him for a fourth it's fascinating you should televise like a big game of poker they should do like a yeah they should televise it with what was the briefcase game deal or no deal deal or no deal memes it's uh it's interesting to think about though

47:07Big Cat:listen he's but the only problem is what if what if he gets sorsby and what if he shows you like just enough in year one yeah where you're like i don't know should we should we use the first round pick on a quarterback if he had a good year this year at texas tech he was going to be a first

47:22PFT Commenter:rounder so you could maybe get him at a very significant discount now was he really going to be like top of the line next year i if he if he had a good year yeah i think i think this year he would have been probably people were saying that he would have been in that ty simpson like zone of you know mid to late first maybe slip to the second um i don't know with all the other stuff now involved in it and teams having to... If you believe in his arm and you believe in his talent, again, you could potentially get the deal of the century by getting him for a fifth-round pick. Yeah. Memes?

48:08Big Cat:I think... I would do it for a fourth, maybe a third, but I think the Jets believe in

48:14PFT Commenter:Kate Kolomnik. At least a backup. If you're drafting Brent Sorsby, you're drafting him as a backup. And that right there, folks, is exactly when the Knicks championship parade ended. What do you mean? That sentence. You believe in Cade Clubnick. And that was back to reality. Cade Clubnick's a stud. Okay. What? We got to have a combo. At what? Running out for practice. Okay. There's a lot of slow motion videos. Yeah. It was a tough watch at Clemson the last couple of years. okay good job hot seat cool throne my cool throne is me max really all the awls mr bing bong has retired finally probably three years too late ran the bit into the ground and then he decided after Sunday show to retire

49:06Big Cat:shut the fuck up he retired because he's a winner either way it doesn't matter why he retired I'm just

49:12PFT Commenter:happy that he did I that's what team said about Michael Jordan too we've told Jerry this many and I love Jerry and I disagree adamantly with your characterization of Mr. Bing Bong. We do how many shows we do a year? 150 how many times Mr. Bing Bong on a year? Yeah probably like twice three times Jerry has a problem and we've PFT and I've talked to him about this. He's addicted to reading the comments and you can't read the comments because I if you read the comments you have one person say they speak for all AWLs that Mr. Bing Bong sucks, not realizing that 99.9 % of our audience never comments on anything.

49:57PFT Commenter:They're not on Twitter. They're not Reddit. They're on Instagram. They're not in the YouTube comment. They're nowhere. They just enjoy it, and they go on with their life. Jerry hasn't figured that out yet. So I hate that you killed Mr. Bing Bong.

50:08Big Cat:I didn't kill him. He did himself. Yeah, no, you didn't. Jerry got into his feelings a little bit.

50:11PFT Commenter:You did.

50:12Big Cat:It's a shame.

50:13PFT Commenter:You did.

50:13Big Cat:You killed Mr. Bing Bong. I didn't. Do you really think that if the Knicks, if they beat the Celtics in the playoffs next year, do you think that Jerry's just going to sit that one out? He's going to be back.

50:22PFT Commenter:We'll get Mr. Bing Bong back. We just got to, like, whisper in his ear. Bing Bong. No, that's going to be an even worse look for him. And it was funny, and it was also funny you going back at him was funny. Max, do you agree that you want Mr. Bing Bong retired? Mr. Bing Bong is funny. Yes. Mr. Bing Bong is very funny. And he's also Tiffany Gomez's number one fan.

50:46Big Cat:What is she going to do? He's going to see one picture on Instagram, and Mr. Bing Bong's going to be back. It's in his blood.

50:52PFT Commenter:You think he's just scrolling on Instagram, and he sees her, and he goes, Oh, Tiffany Gomez. The Tootsies. If he sees the Tootsies, he's back immediately.

51:00Big Cat:It's going to be the shortest retirement you've ever seen.

51:03PFT Commenter:I'm hoping that Mr. Bing Bong's retirement is similar to a Brett Favre retirement, where he's just back. There's no shot that Mr. Bing Bong is retired. But the haters like Hank are just so happy. Sad. There's no shot. I didn't do anything. Yeah, you did. How? The look on Hank's face when you heard the door. I was scared. Knocking on the door. He was banging on the door so loud. It was so perfect. I was like a safety thing. What do you mean a safety thing? Like I didn't. You were scared? Yeah. Of Mr. Bing Bong? I didn't know it was Mr. Bing Bong. I didn't know who it was. And I was like, is someone going to come in this office?

51:44And it was Sunday night. No one else was here. Yeah. I was a little scared.

51:49Big Cat:Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. Jerry, he's going to be ashamed for a little bit because he got bullied by Hank.

51:54PFT Commenter:And again, he got bullied by the smallest, smallest, tiniest fraction of our fans. He's going to be back. And they all just get into a hive where they just, they're like, yeah, we do speak for everyone. No, you don't. A million people listen to the show.

52:07Big Cat:He read like three comments.

52:09PFT Commenter:He's going to be saying under his breath, bing-pong, to his wife and to his daughters.

52:13Big Cat:And they're going to be like, Dad, you have to stop. You're driving us insane. They're like, okay, I better call the boys again.

52:18PFT Commenter:Yeah. He'll be back. He'll send us a voice message. That's when we'll know it's back. All right, Pitty, your hot seat, Coltrone?

52:25Big Cat:Yeah, hot seat. I was actually going to talk about just having sex during the playoffs because of what James Dolan did for his team. That was a great speech that he gave. Very, very proud of him. So I'll just say Hot Seat is going to be Thursday Night Plans. If you've got any Thursday Night Plans, watch The Dozen live. We're doing our live show here in Chicago. There might be a couple tickets. It might be sold out by now. But there's going to be a good Final Four there. And, yeah, Brandon really, really wants everybody to watch him go for the repeat in The Dozen, which has never been done. It's going to mean a lot to Brandon.

53:00Big Cat:It's really Brandon's tournament.

53:02PFT Commenter:Yeah.

53:02Big Cat:So if you like Brandon Walker, tune in.

53:04PFT Commenter:It's all he has.

53:04Big Cat:He's also, Brandon's been in the zone. He's been in by the zone. I mean, he's been like extremely nervous and anxious and walking around with a lot of gas. And, but that makes for a good trivia. Yeah. Because when he's, if it makes sense when Brandon's the most nervous, that's actually when he's the least nervous.

53:21PFT Commenter:Yeah. Okay. Good hot seat.

53:23Big Cat:And then my cool throne is going to be, you know what? Fuck it. Let's talk football. Brandon Ayuk. Yeah. Did you see what Brandon Ayuk's been posting online recently? I've seen a little bit of it. He's like dropping the Google Maps drop a pin location of where he's at. He's in Northern Virginia right now.

53:43PFT Commenter:Okay.

53:43Big Cat:There's some speculation that the videos that he's dropping recently that have been weird videos have been from somebody on the commander's house. Whoa. That he might be staying with. I don't know that this is necessarily the best way for him to get released from the 49ers. I think it's just one giant game of chicken where he's like, I'm just going to make your life hell. And I'm going to keep talking about how I'm going to get released from the team until you actually release me from the team. And the Niners are like, well, we don't have to until we have to. And we're hoping that somebody offers us at least like a late round pick for you.

54:19Big Cat:Yeah. I don't know that they're going to get anything for him because he is acting really strange. But I would be concerned. It seems like he's trying to force his way into the commanders. That's what it looks like. if you're going to have one position that acts like this, having a wide receiver to it is the one that you're going to have.

54:34PFT Commenter:Yeah.

54:34Big Cat:So I'm okay with it.

54:35PFT Commenter:Yeah. Agreed. Okay. My hot seat is Elmo. Did you guys see that Elmo's head was put on a spike at a parade in New York with the words trader under it? Watch your back, Elmo. So Elmo before the series said, Elmo hopes both teams have fun and New York has turned on Elmo. because Elmo's he's I think he lives in or does he live in the upper west side or Brooklyn? I don't know where he where where is Sesame Street? It's somewhere around there. I didn't know that it was a real street. Yeah, I don't know if it's Sesame Street is actually a real street, but it's clearly set in New York. He's a New Yorker.

55:12PFT Commenter:He also let's just listen. Elmo is also three and a half years old. So let's not pick on him too much. West 63rd. Okay, so yeah, he's yeah. Elmo, you fucked up. You picked the wrong side. Cookie Monster, by the way, came out and said, I'm always a Knicks fan. Okay. I love that. Good for Cookie Monster.

55:27Big Cat:What about Big Bird?

55:28PFT Commenter:I haven't heard from Big Bird. He's probably a Jokic fan.

55:31Big Cat:Yeah. I think Elmo would have something to say about the hypothetical that we get on KSR today. Just tune in for that one. Yeah, dude. I'm telling you.

55:40PFT Commenter:The call that we got is must listen. Must listen tag on the call that we got from Andy, Kentucky Sports Radio.

55:47Big Cat:I'd like to also apologize to any members of the blind community for some of my remarks on Kentucky Sports Radio today. Yeah. I want to get ahead of that one.

55:54PFT Commenter:We just became fast friends with the guy and we forgot some key details about him. Yeah. He shared with us. My cool throne is PCA because he hit for the cycle and it was fucking awesome. He hit reverse cycle, home run, triple, double, single. And then in perfect PCA fashion. And I love PCA. He's my favorite cub. He's a superstar in the making. Just so good at everything. And he's been on a tear. But in perfect PCA fashion because he is a little bit of a lightning rod. and people who do not root for the Cubs tend to hate PCA, which I love because I think it makes sports more fun. But he hit his single to hit for the cycle and then got picked off the very, not even the next pitch, just the next throw.

56:35PFT Commenter:And everyone's like, oh, that doesn't count. It's the first time it's ever been done. So it was both the perfect PCA moment because he gives just enough red meat for the haters after hitting for a cycle, which is so fucking hard to do. And then also the perfect encapsulation of the 2026 Cubs, because there was a moment during the game, too, where his run could have been very, very consequential in a one-run late game. But the Cubs ended up winning in a walk-off walk, which is always electric.

57:03Big Cat:Walk-off walks are great. Yeah.

57:05PFT Commenter:Yeah. But it was just so funny that this happened. But he's awesome. He's been playing incredible baseball. Zach, finish us off.

57:12Big Cat:My hot seat this week is going to be the Ten Bay Buccaneers, because today we did hear back again from Baker update when it comes to the contract situation, that they really haven't made any progress there. I know he's on the last year of the three-year deal. I would just like to see him get signed. I'd like to see the team come together, Baker come together and get done. I know he said that once everything gets moving and shaken, no more negotiations, they're not going into the season talking about it. Bless you. I don't know. I heard maybe. Bless you. Okay. What do you think about Baker saying that he wants to do the quarterback show?

57:47they've got the quarterback show this year. So it's going to be Baker. Was it Baker, Joe Flacco, Jane Daniels, and...

57:56Big Cat:I forget who the last one's going to be, but they've asked him to do it before, and he said no. And then he changed his mind this year with the contracting. What do you think about that? I think maybe part of it could be there's a lot of exciting stuff that was going on in his life that you might want to document to, you know, coming together, having a baby and everything like that. Maybe it could be bigger than football too.

58:12PFT Commenter:By the way, tune in to that quarterback show, because I'll just say right now, you might see these faces on it. Nothing really special. They just asked permission to use a couple clips from the podcast. We weren't interviewed or anything. It's just very funny because I saw one of them and it was just like us just sitting, knowing exactly where we're at, like late on a Sunday night, just being like, Joe Flacco still elite. I love that. That's top analysis. Yeah. Okay, your cool throne? My cool throne this week He's just going to be Jameis Winston for his World Cup coverage as a correspondent with that Dutch and Japan game because he fully immersed in the culture on both sides, and it was just awesome to see.

58:52PFT Commenter:Yeah. He was absolutely just fully immersed. He's kind of the man. Anything he touches just brings that much more energy, that much more excitement. Yep, I agree. He's the man. Okay, good job, Zach. We have Shane Bacon talking U.S. Open. Then we have Kentucky Sports Radio, like I said, some incredible callers, and also an interview with Will Stein, head coach of the Kentucky football team, who is an AWL, which we immediately liked him. Before we do that, PFT?

59:19Big Cat:Yeah, before we get into all that, including Shane Bacon, coming up next, he's brought to you by our great friends over at NASCAR. NASCAR is taking over San Diego this Sunday. Palm trees, Pacific Ocean, all set to the soundtrack of fighter jets and stock car engines. The biggest stars of the sport are going to push limits never challenged before and make history that's never been previously imagined. This isn't just an erase weekend. It's full throttle, edge of your seat, waking the hell up kind of spectacle. Every second matters. Every moment's filled with electricity. When the green flag drops, anything can happen.

59:52Big Cat:So grab your friends, get the snacks, lock in those picks. We're going to get ready for a Sunday that delivers exactly what the NASCAR fans live for at 4 p.m. Eastern, only on Prime. Don't miss out. Check it out. NASCAR this weekend coming up. And now here's Shane Bacon.

1:00:08PFT Commenter:Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. ST is our good friend, our golf expert. It is Shane Bacon. You can check him out, CBS Scorecard Show, after every single round of the U.S. Open. We have the U.S. Open this week at Shinnecock. Shane, I love this course. Let's start with the course. It is such a gnarly, gnarly place. What do you think the winning score is going to be this week at the U.S. Open? Well, Big Cat, let me ask you a question. Why are you asking me questions about a golf course that you've shot even par at? Shouldn't you be the one that's giving us nuggets about Shinnecock?

1:00:47PFT Commenter:Listen, I was lucky enough to play it once. It is the hardest place that I've ever seen, and I don't really understand how these guys do it. It's like, you know, I think people know that the 72, listen, you can get whatever you want on the scorecard. There were just so many times off the tee box where I would just be like, all right, I'm done with this hole. like I'm not going to go find this ball this is impossible and it's just the wind that's the biggest thing the wind to me is always the story of Shinnecock because for people who don't know the course and don't know the area there is nothing stopping the wind coming off the ocean there it is there are no trees it's just absolutely howling basically at all times like a 15 20 mile an hour wind is like a non windy day at Shinnecock it's listen people aren't going to love this but shinnecock is what oakmont thinks it is in terms of a golf course i mean it is this is the best host of the u.s open i mean this is a pinnacle of it um obviously augusta in the masters is the biggest event in golf every year i think a shinnecock u.s open is like 1b in my opinion i mean it's crazy the usga went so long between u.s opens out there kind of returning to shinnecock in the 80s and then reminding itself how good this place is and how tough it is.

1:02:07And Big Cat, it's an interesting golf course because I think average golfers think about difficulty and they think about water or out of bounds, things like that. I mean, that's not really Shinnecock. Sure, the rough is really high and the hay is going to be high. It's a golf course that you theoretically could not lose a golf ball on and shoot your highest score. The fairways are bigger this year than it was back in 2018 when Koepka won. But all those fairways are minimized because of the angles off the tees and really where You want to hit those tee shots. You want to be on the left side of the fairway to a right hole location, things like that.

1:02:40But really, it's just everything. It's the triangular shapes of kind of these conceptual small courses, if you will, like three, four-hole stretches within Shinnecock where you're playing all different types of wind directions within the three-hole stretch. It's just the perfect golf course for championship golf, and I think people are going to walk away this week considering the forecast, understanding that this is as tough as it gets in terms of pro golf.

1:03:03Big Cat:Yeah, the wind that howls there not only affects the ball in the air, it's been affecting the balls on the green, too. So can you tell us about that? Like, how real is that, that the putting is affected by the wind? Yeah, I mean, the interesting thing about that, PFT, is the fact that there are rumors that the greens aren't going to be as fast this week than what we typically see at a U.S. Open because of those expected winds. I'll get into that in a bit when I do my five things to focus on at Shinnecock. I mean, the wind, when you play really fast greens, BFT, you have to hit putts softly that the winds end up taking those balls.

1:03:37So you've got an eight-footer that's a cup and a half out left, and the wind's blowing left to right. Now, all of a sudden, you're playing at three cups out because as it's dying, the wind is affecting the golf ball. I mean, you're going to see guys miss putts by a wide margin. You're going to see guys putt off greens this week. Like all of those things are in play because when it's blowing 25, 30 miles per hour on these greens and to Big Cat's point, there's no defense out there. It's basically like being on a boat in the Long Island Sound right now. That's kind of how remote, if you will, this golf course is.

1:04:07A lot of the greens are perched up. A lot of the tee boxes on the back nine are perched up. Like all of these things are factored into this golf course playing as tough as it plays. But yeah, I mean, the wind's going to affect golf shots, sure. But you'll see just as much of it being a factor when guys have six, seven footers that move a lot.

1:04:22PFT Commenter:The quintessential Shinnecock that's burned in my brain is Phil Mickelson being so frustrated that he hit a moving ball, which I think we can all agree was the worst thing that Phil Mickelson has ever done. But that's it. The Greens will frustrate a guy like Phil Mickelson to the point where he's just so mad that he essentially just morphs into an average or bad golfer who gets frustrated at the end of a hole. It's like, you know what, just give me an eight. I don't care. First line of his Wikipedia, Big Cat, you think? Is that it? The hitting the ball? That's going to be the one. I agree with you on that.

1:04:59Big Cat:They're going to have to develop a controversy section for his Wikipedia page after that one. Yeah, probably on there. Probably a few graphs long at this point. I remember we were doing that 2018 U.S. Open. I was with Fox at the time, and that was the first time that we'd kind of split the booths. and it was me and Brad Faxon, and it was Buck with Zinger. And I think that was a Joe hole. And Zinger's reaction, like the whole thing was crazy. Curtis didn't know what to say. Nobody had really seen that before, basically that mental meltdown. But again, that's what golf courses do. I think something else to remember about 2018 is that the golf course, if the winds are down, is scorable.

1:05:36I mean, we've seen players go out there and post scores. Tommy Fleetwood famously in 2018 shoots that 63 with a putt on the last for 62. But if you remember on that Saturday, it was Daniel Berger and Tony Finau that went out early, finished like four hours before the leaders finished. And they both shoot 66 and vault to the top of the leaderboard. If the wins are down, you can make birdies. I mean, you can even make eagles on the par fives. And once those wins pick up, it is a, you know, two, three, four over is a good score type of golf course.

1:06:04PFT Commenter:So, Shane, last time we talked to you, you were trying to qualify for this U.S. Open. You had a tough, a tough go on golf's longest day. I love that you got to the break of your 36 holes. You're like, I just got to shoot a 59. Like, no big deal. I got this. But if you – so you're obviously a very good golfer to even get to that point, but then the levels of it to get all the way to pro are just another leap and bound. What would you shoot if you were playing in the U.S. Open this week? I told my wife this morning when I was seeing videos that I said, I'm happy I didn't make it. That's basically what I said.

1:06:41I mean, again, I think it would have been awesome to be a part of it. But I'm looking at some of these videos. I'm happy I didn't make it, too. Yeah, I am, too. Like, I think I would have had a really difficult time if it's blowing 25 to break 85. Like, I think I would have been grinding my ass off to shoot in the mid-80s. I mean, I remember playing Aaron Hills years ago from all the way back. So my buddy Brady, who's a bit of a psycho, was like, let's play it as far back as we can play it. A step off the back tees. And it was blowing 20-30 with the high hay up at Aaron. and I remember we were all struggling to break 90 and I mean the guys are good players as well um I mean this championship golf there there's there's no easy hole there's no let up there's no I can take a break here uh mentioning the par fives maybe the only one is a downhill downwind par five if you get one of those either on the front or the back but yeah I mean a good player you're gonna see high numbers this week from some of the amateurs that qualified I mean I think there five Jacksons that qualified so we'll throw one of the Jacksons out like an 87.5 over under for a Jackson.

1:07:42PFT Commenter:I like that bet. So talk about the golfers. Are we worried at all about Scotty? Because he won at the beginning of the season in the Amex. He hasn't won since and this is all relatively speaking because he's been in a lot of tournaments, finished top five but when Scotty has raised the bar on himself where we expect him to win majors every year and where's his game at and is this a course that works for him? So two answers to that, Big Cat. One is, am I worried about Scottie? I'd say a little bit. I think it's very easy to get to a U.S. Open venue like this that's tough and test every part of your game, and I think it's easy to go, well, that plays into Scottie's hands.

1:08:25Scottie hasn't had that complete game this year. A couple of weeks ago on our scorecard show, I compared him to Jordan Speed and got a lot of pushback on that. The comparison was Jordan Spieth this season has had a lot of weeks where he's driven it well and the iron play has been great, but the putter was off. And the next week, the putter's there and the iron play is there, but he drives it terrible. That's been what Scottie's run into this season. After three straight years of everything working and then finding the putter last year, this has been the year where we have started to see slide holes in the game that don't show up and everything else shows up.

1:08:58So, yeah, I'm a little bit worried about Scottie this week. I think you're going to get a lot of guys pick Scotty because the golf course is demanding and the wins are going to make this place difficult. I look at it the other way. I think that's going to expose the parts of Scotty's game that haven't quite been at that peak level that we've seen over the last three years. I don't like Scotty this week at Shinnecock. I just, again, I think we've seen him more frustrated this year. I think it's getting to him a little bit. And I think it's a golf course where if you're not driving to get great, you're going to get yourself in trouble.

1:09:26If the iron play isn't dialed in, you're going to make bogeys. And if you're struggling inside of five feet, like we've seen from Scotty this year, you're inevitably going to start to lose strokes on these greens with the Gus. So I don't like Scotty this week. I don't think this is the U.S. Open that Scotty wins.

1:09:41Big Cat:Even though that Sunday is going to be Scotty's 30th birthday for the career Grand Slam. And Father's Day. And Father's Day. New Father's Day. That is, what do they call that when the planets, the syzygy? Yeah. It's like the universe is set up for Scotty Scheffler to win, but you're not much of a vibes guy. That's okay. I think you might be the only podcaster in the world that, what was the word? Scissor G? It's like, I think it's S-Y-Z-Y-G-Y. When every planet's in a line with each other. I'm a big horoscope guy. Yeah, yeah. Sounds like something you propose to your significant other and they say, no, thank you.

1:10:17I'm good on that. Again, I think, listen, Scotty could win any golf tournament. It'd be silly to say he can't do that. but I just don't see kind of those planets aligning, if you will, with Scotty Scheffler this week. I look at some grinders. I look at some guys that don't mind making bogeys. I look at some guys that understand going in that it's going to be brutally tough. I mean, if Kapka wasn't dealing with this hand thing, I think Brooks is a perfect example of that, a guy that embraces the elements versus getting frustrated by them. So I kind of look at that level of player and maybe a little less at a Scotty Scheffler who does seem to get frustrated when things aren't going his way on the golf course.

1:10:54Big Cat:How concerned are you with Brooks' hand? I'm moderately concerned. I'm maybe a little higher than moderately. Again, he was playing really good golf in Canada and then had to pull out. The bummer for Brooks is the thing he struggled with this year is the putter, and he was leading the field in Canada through two rounds with the putter, and all of a sudden he has his hand issue. He's obviously going to play this week, but you're 90%. I just don't think that works at Shinnecock. You're 92%. I think everything's got to be clicking. and everything's got to be working. Anybody battling or struggling with something is going to be exposed.

1:11:27I was ready to pick Koepka. I was excited about picking Koepka as my winner, and then the hand thing happens in Canada, and I've had to kind of reassess and rethink of where I think he falls if you've got to play 72 holes, grinding every shot out and hitting out of the hay occasionally.

1:11:42Big Cat:So who are you looking at this weekend? Who are the guys that you think can handle the setbacks, the frustrations, and use that to their advantage? Well, let me roll through my five things to focus on. I kind of like to put these together. I know the boys in the booth have had a really good last few days. The question is, number five, does the summer of New York continue? We're obviously seeing it already. This is a Long Island U.S. Open. Vibes are going to be really high from the Knicks fans. I mean, everybody's going to be out there ready to rock, excited about what's going on. Weather this week, by the way, really nice if you're watching, maybe not as nice if you're playing.

1:12:15You know, mid-70s, a little bit of breeze. I look at Cameron Young and Chris Goddorup as a couple of players kind of in that local area that would be popular picks to kind of keep the vibes rolling for the New York fellas. So look into that. Number four on my five things to focus on is traffic. You're just going to get a lot of traffic tweets, guys. Yeah, pair already happening. You know, Michael Kim was tweeting today, almost missed his practice around tea time. It's just going to be a thing that we're going to see a lot of. and I think it will roll into the weekend as people talking about the traffic and how long it's taken, Uber lines, things like that.

1:12:51Big part of any Long Island major championship or golf event.

1:12:54PFT Commenter:Yeah, it sucks. I remember when I went to the U.S. Open in 2018, we just gave up and we started walking to the course because we were staying at Airbnb, like, you know, 25-minute walk away. And I saw Jon Rahm just, like, stuck in his little tiny car trying to get through traffic. And I was like, this is brutal. This guy's about to play in the U.S. Open, and he's got to deal with this traffic. Yeah, good news is stopped traffic at majors over the last few years has not been an issue for golfers, so hopefully everything will go according to plan. Number three is how windy will it really get. I mean, they're talking throughout the week.

1:13:31It was originally Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Now they're talking into Sunday 25 to 30 mile-per-hour gusts. Now, I mean, we talked about the golf course earlier. Almost unplayable. Greens are going to be slower. You're going to see some enormous numbers. Anything, you know, two, three over is going to be potentially low score of the day. You might see somebody go out there and blackout and shoot two or three under par. But if those are the conditions, this is going to be an over par U.S. Open. You're going to see three, four, five over win come Sunday. And if the forecast holds up, that will be the case.

1:14:01It's just going to be demanding across the board. Not a lot of birdies, not a lot of good things. A lot of negative things are going to happen. Number two is, will the first time major winner at the U.S. Open trend continue? five of the last seven U.S. Open winners made it their first major win. Gary Woodland did in 2019. Bryson at Wingfoot, Rom, Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, and J.J. Spahn last year. Some of the names I'm kind of looking at to kind of fit that mold. Ludwig's been playing really good golf, not able to close out golf tournaments as of late. The question is, who is Ludwig at this point?

1:14:33Is he going to be the guy that looks like the pro golfer? Is he going to be the guy that collects the trophies? I'm kind of almost leaning form or not ladder right now with Ludwig. I like him a lot, but trending in the other direction. Cam Young, Fleetwood, Henley, Burns. I like Joaquin Neiman a lot this week with trajectory, just hitting it under the wind. I think this could be his major championship that he actually bucks at. And the number one we talked about at the Scottie Slam, going to be the biggest storyline. What happens on your birthday? What happens on Father's Day? So much perspective.

1:15:02Too much perspective, some would say, come Sunday for Scottie.

1:15:05Big Cat:That's actually a good way to look at it. What about our guy Siwoo Kim? How does this course shape up for him? So Siwoo is a guy, PFT, that likes to get aggressive. He wants to play aggressive golf and make a ton of birdies. As you've heard me say already, not necessarily that week at Shinnecock. Don't love Siwoo because of that. I don't know if Siwoo yet to this point in his career is the definitive grinder on the golf course. So I don't love Siwoo. One trend I do like, I saw this floating around on social today. By the way, this is why golf is a bit ridiculous is you spend four days talking about it, then you get into the tournament, and none of it matters.

1:15:43But the last three champions at Shinnecock for U.S. Open, all three were ranked ninth in the world. Corey Pavin, Ratif Goose, and Koepka in 2018. J.J. Spahn currently ranked ninth in the world and playing good golf and coming off obviously a win at Oakmont last year. So if you like dumb, inconsequential, makes no sense stats, you got them.

1:16:04Big Cat:Yeah, that's the entire premise of the show. Yep, that's exactly what we like. So perfect. Now, are there any pin placements that you're going to be looking out for? What should we expect in terms of a signature hole on this course with a tough pin location? I mean, 11 is probably the signature hole, short par 3. If you remember in 2018, Koepka hit it over the green. That was one of my holes in 2018. And Reid hit it over the green before him and then hit the flagstick to keep it in play. and Koepka, if you remember, chipped it into the bunker to get it up and down and make bogey. I think 11 is probably the signature Shinnecock hole because it's a wedge or nine iron, and it's probably the scariest shot on the golf course.

1:16:4417 as well. I mean, you think about the par threes on this golf course, 17 will be pivotal, not really anywhere to get close to, but coming down the stretch, you might have to make a birdie. 16 is a par five that if the wind helps, you can get two and two easily. That's your opportunity to make up a little bit of ground late. I remember the whole location at 14 on that Saturday when everybody was shooting a million was almost unplayable. I mean, that's the thing the USJ's got to think about is, do you want to embarrass everybody or do you want people to have a chance at potentially making a birdie or a par?

1:17:13And so I think the whole locations with the prediction with the wind probably not going to be as on the edge, at least early in the week, as what we typically see at a US Open.

1:17:22Big Cat:And what about the rough and the fescue? I know it does take a backseat to the wind and the other elements, But how are we looking in terms of the high stuff? I mean, nasty, gnarly, thick, chip out kind of stuff. Like, I mean, always kind of the case here. Again, these fairways PFT are pretty wide. Like these are, if you're a great golfer and control your golf ball, you are going to hit nine fairways, ten fairways around at Shinnecock, right? You shouldn't miss it massively big around this golf course considering what the golf course allows you, especially this season at this Shinnecock U.S. Open.

1:18:00So the rough will be a factor around the green specifically, but driving the golf ball I think will be important in terms of length. I think long guys can have an advantage here, but I don't think the rough is going to be as much of a talking point as maybe what you saw at Wingfoot in 2020.

1:18:15PFT Commenter:What about Tommy Fleetwood, who has been playing good golf? He actually has the course record here, does he not? I think 63. Yeah, how was that possible when everyone else was over par and he shot a 63 on this course? Yeah, Sunday. I mean, he just, again, wind was down. He put it in the right spots, made a boatload of birdies, had a lot of good looks. I mean, Tommy Fleetwood is one of those guys that can't get on a heater. I think I said after that U.S. Open, I'd pick him in 2026. It's nice that he's played good the last couple of weeks so that can at least lean a little bit deeper into that. I think Tommy Fleetwood, if he ever gets a major, it's going to be a U.S.

1:18:48Open just with the way he plays. So I love Tommy this week. I think Tommy is near the top of my board in terms of who I think is going to win this thing. He didn't play great on Sunday in Canada. I don't think that matters. I think he's found something with the ball striking. The putter is still kind of hot or cold, but when it gets hot, Tommy puts himself in contention. So I like Tommy. I mean, I've seen Tommy put it together on this golf course in the past, and I think Tommy has been circling this one on the calendar after basically last year at the Tour Championship. That might be my bet.

1:19:16Big Cat:Hank, what do you got? I know that you've got your eye on a few things. Yeah. Per usual, the two main things I'm thinking about are the lefties. I got two in mind. And then the live golfers. I got two in mind. So I'm going to throw out the four names. Let me hear, Hank.

1:19:32PFT Commenter:The twin Thomases? No. Oh. You mentioned one of them, Joaquin Neiman. Love him. And then Cam Smith. Please, please, please give me some positives for Cam Smith because he's my favorite golfer to root for, to bet on. He played well at the PGA Championship. He's been playing well since he changed his coach. Could this be his week? Hank, I feel like your favorite golfer should be more of a heel. Cam's like the chillest dude in the world. Cam should be Zach's favorite golfer. You need Tyrell Hatton as your favorite golfer. But I like Cam a little bit. Again, driving is the least essential part of this golf course.

1:20:07If Cam can find fairways, he's going to have a chance. The way he putted a few weeks ago was really impressive. The fact that he showed life at a major championship was good. I think Cam could come into this thing. And if there's ever a grinder, it's that guy, right? The fact that he can grind out rounds and play great or play even par golf. I think he's happy to do both ways. I think Cam has found some level of interest in the game once again after kind of a lull the last couple of years in the majors. And so, yeah, I think Cam, I don't think he's going to win necessarily, but I do see Cam finish in top 25.

1:20:38And then lefty-wise, Bobby Mack, and then my new favorite lefty to watch, Sudarshan. oh man dude yellow mirage you drives it great i'm a i'm a big you know we had him on kft last year hank and he wins he wins our second event of the year on tv and james nitty's who i do corn fairy with they're like all right that's a cool story we'll never see this guy again and i mean he's just been very very consistent gets to the pga tour and then he's been probably the best player from that corn fairy tour graduating class this year i think it's a really good sadarshan golf course that when he won on the KFT last year, it blew 25 the whole week of the Bahamas.

1:21:17And he was exceptional hit every fairway in that final round. So I think Sadarshan, if he gets out of his own way, which is obviously tough to do with these big events, these, you know, escalated championships, I think it's easy to let that intimidate you, but he doesn't seem like the type of player that gets massively intimidated by the circumstance. So I think Sadarshan, I like the fact that you're into him. I think Sadarshan can have a good week. Love that. Love that.

1:21:40Big Cat:Good questions, Hank. Which one is the 265-yard par three? Oh, that's two. Well, two can play up to 260, 270. Scotty hit three wood in the practice round today. That's crazy. How long do you think they're going to make it during the actual tournament? They'll push it back probably one or two days. They'll probably move it up at T one or two days. But you'll see head covers. I mean, you'll see three woods, five woods, seven woods on the hole for sure. That's absolutely crazy. And then I noticed in the layout of the golf course, hole, that's like one of the only holes that goes east to west. Right?

1:22:17Yeah, so Ari, you'll like this PFT because I think you're a bit of a guy that likes design and history stuff. The way they put this golf course together, the old way of routing was out and in. The front nine went out like St. Andrews and the back nine came in. Then there was designers that did a bit of a loop where you play around the golf course then maybe come into the golf course. This place has it's a very interesting design they're like triangular sections of this golf course where you play three holes in all different wind directions so you'll play one to your point one shoots you out west and then you kind of go up the fairway up into the wind potentially in the prevailing wind two goes a little bit of a similar direction but the three comes the complete opposite way so you really face like you've got to kind of control the ball moving both directions with all of the golf shots.

1:23:07I think when you look historically at who's won here, great ball strikers that aren't scared to hit draws and fades. Dustin played awesome in 2018. If you remember the first couple of rounds, Dustin was in very much control of his ball around that time. So, yeah, like one's a pretty friendly handshake at this golf course. I know Tiger didn't have – wouldn't say that after the opening in 2018. I think he made triple on one. But you can hit a three-wood or a driving iron on one, get in the fairway and have a wedge in. but then obviously as we mentioned with two that's when Shinnecock really begins

1:23:37PFT Commenter:it is so funny looking back at the scores because you know Tommy Fleetwood finished second in 2018 but like top 10 was 7 over par it's insane to look at and Brooks won it 1 over par for the whole tournament Shane alright do you have a long shot for us do you have someone that like hey look this guy probably isn't going to win but maybe sprinkle something on him because he could have the rounds of his life? Yeah, you know, I mean, I'll be honest with you. I really like J.J. Spahn. I don't think he's necessarily the longest of shots, but I like J.J. Spahn a little bit. Ryan Gerrard, I think, is a name you could float out there to potentially grind out some solid rounds and have a good finish, maybe something in the top 10.

1:24:21Harry Hall's another name. He's a player that I just like in these conditions. I think he's excited about it. Rory talked about it earlier. He said this U.S. Open feels more European than it does a United States championship because of the win and the way the golf course reacts to those conditions. So he was kind of mentioned in some of those European players that maybe are a little bit more comfortable in very windy, you know, even parry type of scoring conditions. Henley is the name I like. As I mentioned, Joaquin Neiman, Sam Burns, I think, again, is the name. He's been playing some excellent golf, played well at the U.S.

1:24:52Open last year. Those are kind of the names I'm looking at. I like Patrick Reed. I think I say him every time I come on the show. But I just feel like Patrick Reed's one of those guys that, you know, when it gets tough and everybody else is falling apart, he gets kind of excited. So those are kind of some of the maybe not superstar-y type of names I'm looking at.

1:25:10Big Cat:Yeah, and Patrick Reed finished fourth last time I was at Shinnecock, too. He played pretty well. He was right there, man. He was right in it. So, I mean, we might have an all-live podium for Hank. That'd be special. What's the latest on the blueprint of the foundation of the acceptance of the memorandum of understanding of the plan between the live and the PGA? Any day now. Oh, it's just, I mean, it's just, it's any day now. Like, you know, it's coming. I mean, it's been, it's been three years of, of potentially happening the next day, which in theory, like the rapture could happen tomorrow. Yeah.

1:25:45You know, Revelations tells us that like it could be tomorrow that they shake hands and everybody's together. there again. Yeah, you never know.

1:25:52Big Cat:And then do we have any more insight actually as to like, what is live still going to go through the end of the year this year? What, what is the, what are you hearing? That's the, that's the latest. It does feel like that's going to happen. It feels like a lot of the reports of this being there last week and there's no tournament next week. It seems like they're really going to try to run this thing through the end of the year. I think the hope there is just to catch the eyeballs of somebody that might have an interest in investing, whether it be a sponsor or a corporation, whatever the case may be, At least they can prove that they are going to finish out the year.

1:26:22I don't think they're going to cut it short. I think at least from what I've heard, the end of the year is the most likely scenario.

1:26:28PFT Commenter:Okay. Okay. Shane, by the way, everyone watched the scorecard. Like I said, also last second, Father's Day gift. If you are listening to this and either you're if you're a woman listening and your husband needs a Father's Day gift, if you're a kid and you're well, no, you have to be a small kid. Right. you go to Amazon and buy Shane's book it's a children's book yeah you know it's a good children's book I have it in my house I read it with my kids my youngest is starting to he notices when I have golf on TV he's just like oh golf usually get about three minutes where he watches with me and then he's on to something else but yeah go buy the book last question rowback question rhoback.com promo code take 20 % off your first purchase Q-Zips, polos, hoodies joggers shorts roback.com promo code take zach you got some questions about us open hello shane how you doing today man hey zach did you move yet or no uh i'm moved yet but moving soon like okay let me know when you let me know when you're locked in i got a friend of mine working on something for you so let me know when you're done i might actually might be for all the boys but you're gonna get the first one well you i don't know if you know the latest with with zach's moving but he uh he's he got a one-bedroom apartment and he's thinking about keeping the studio life putting his bed in the living room and having the one bedroom become his office gaming place okay can i can i say this because i mean obviously i'm a i'm a big fan of zach and have been since he joined the show it's your place do whatever you want with it man you want to have the bed in the kitchen do it you don't even need a bed you can sleep on the floor for goodness sake i appreciate that vote of confidence shane means more you know a lot of guys saying a lot of square footage comments on on setups but that was huge your life okay go ahead zach i was curious i did have a quick golf question as a man who is you know alumni of golf's biggest day you're quite nice on from the t-box if there was a glitch in your game tomorrow and you could no longer hit the driver where are we going like what club are we going yeah like if you woke up and it's like the driver's not an option anymore you can't hit that the glitch is confirmed where yeah what what club are we reaching for i mean a lot of people say three wood i'd probably go my my Driving Iron to Iron is like my favorite club right now.

1:28:40I'm obsessed with it. I hit it a whole bunch. So I'd say probably that club like for the rest of my life. If it was like Mary F kill the clubs in your bag, that's not a driver. That'd probably be the Mary one.

1:28:52PFT Commenter:Yeah. Now, Zach, is this question specifically because we actually were lucky enough for a charity golf outing to go play Shore Acres, which I think is a top 100 course in America. Awesome. Awesome place. Zach showed up. He had four clubs. What were your four clubs? I had a four or five, a putter, and like an approach. Yeah, so he didn't have a driver. So, wait, you had a four iron, a five iron, a sand wedge, and a putter? Yes, sir, which feels like some mainstays of any golfer's bag. Man, I got to be honest. You got to be the only guy that's ever played. You know, like the Scorigami shit? You got to be the only guy that's ever played a golf course with that combination.

1:29:33Yeah. Like nobody's ever played with a 4-5 sandwich putter ever. That's disheartening. I thought I kind of had a solid – as far as a full set goes, I thought I was kind of in a decent spot.

1:29:42PFT Commenter:Yeah, the backbone to a good spot. It's the same club. One of your clubs are the same club. I know, but if one of the two doesn't do what you need to do, you can just forget about it and go to the other one, which kind of thought – like start fresh, you know? Now let me ask a follow-up here. Sorry to ask you the questions, but do you have a full set of clubs? Yeah, not on paper, not on paper. Hypothetically, we have a million clubs. Wait, wait, wait.

1:30:09Big Cat:What does not on paper mean? Like I haven't fully assembled the bag. I've heard people say like on paper, I have a full set. But you said not. You don't. You don't have one? No, not currently. Like hypothetically, yes. My bag will get to. No, no, no. That's the same thing you just said. Hypothetically, it's the same thing as on paper.

1:30:27PFT Commenter:But both of these things don't make any sense. Shane, what he's trying to say is that he has access to so many golf clubs. Not only do we have full sets here in the office by the simulator, but I have an old, my old set is sitting in my garage, which is a nice set because I got a new one from TaylorMade. Hank has offered his old set. I think PFT might have a couple sets. I've got an old set that Colton has right here. He could snap his fingers and have a full set of very, very nice golf clubs in a matter of less than an hour. So on paper, he's got too many clubs. Zach, do you have another question?

1:31:06Big Cat:Yeah, I guess I can follow that up. With this tournament coming up this weekend, is there a guy that you know isn't going to do it that I should stay far away from? Like a guy who's predicted maybe could, but you're like, no, he's not. Guaranteed loser. Yeah, I'll give you Colin Morikawa. I don't think he's going to do it. He's been battling it since the injury at the players, has not been the same golfers. Popped up a couple times with some solid finishes, But going back to that needing to be 100%, I don't think he's 100 % right now. And if you're not 100 % around this place, it's just going to eat your dinner.

1:31:39So I don't – I'd say Colin is the guy in terms of that maybe top 15 ranking that I don't think has a real chance of winning.

1:31:48Big Cat:It's a great answer. I appreciate that, Shane. Shane, I got a question for you. As a guy that plays a decent amount of golf, I have a real problem. And it's time for me to admit it. I've got a big problem with losing clubs on the golf course, and it's always a wedge. I lost one at Hank's Club the other week. That course swallowed up my pitching wedge. I left one greenside like two weeks ago, my 60-degree, so I've just been hitting the 54 instead of that. Is there a tip that you have? How do I stop forgetting my clubs? I got to be honest. The fellas are struggling with just golf club intake. I mean, Zass got four clubs.

1:32:26PFT's losing left and right. you always lose them when you're around the green I'm assuming right? Yeah green side typically. I would say you want to leave it where the pen is and the cart leave it in that direction so when you're walking back to the cart you inevitably have to walk over it or buy it don't leave it right outside the bunker you just hit out of place it in your exit path if you will and also don't leave it in the rough like if you leave it in the rough it's got no chance You're not going to see it. Put it on the fringe or on the green or whatever. Hey, Big Cat, real quick, I got a question for you.

1:33:02Yeah. I sent you the version of that children's book. Do I get a version of y 'all's book? Yes. Because I want to read it.

1:33:09PFT Commenter:100 % signed version. When is it coming out? I'm excited to read this thing. It's coming out in mid-August. I'm excited about this. Yeah, you can pre-order now. But yeah, we'll send you one for sure. Absolutely. Okay. I'll Venmo your money for it, too. No, no, no. This one's on the house. This one's on the house. Okay. All right, I'm just making sure. I'm excited about that. Listen, I'll be transparent like a parent buying their kid's Girl Scout cookies so they can get the prize. I will be purchasing a bunch myself and just putting them in my basement. So I will have some extras. I did the same thing with mine, and I got to be honest, you give them away way faster.

1:33:47Because the last thing you're going to do is if somebody asks you about your book that's at your house, you're going to say, yeah, here's the Amazon link. You got to give them the free one. I mean, you can't be an asshole about it.

1:33:55PFT Commenter:Exactly. But yeah, anyone who comes to my house for the next five years is getting a book. That's going to be a fact. Do people come to your house? No. You got kids. No one comes to my house.

1:34:03Big Cat:Nobody comes to my house either. I think only Jerry O 'Connell. Jerry stopped by one time.

1:34:07PFT Commenter:Yeah, Jerry did stop by, and he had some language around my children that was not. He lets it fly. Listen, he's open to anything. He's open to the world. He's open to the universe. Hey, can I ask a sports question, too, before I go? Yeah. I've lived in the Northeast. I moved here in 21. one. My son has kind of grown up living here basically. He's like a Northeastern or whatever you call it. I want to be a Knicks fan but I feel like then I'm going to be labeled the bandwagoner because of the success. They just won. I feel like I've wanted to be one for the last couple years because we live up here and my son is kind of into Jalen Brunson.

1:34:45Is that okay to be a Knicks fan or no?

1:34:47PFT Commenter:I think it's whatever your son picks for players is like just let him just follow because kids are going to find their favorite players. Okay. And yeah, I mean, listen, this would be right. Just be like, hey, I wasn't rooting for them when they won the title, but now I am. Now you're getting in back at the bottom, right? Right. I mean, nobody has a win or a loss starting next season. Exactly. I don't recognize that. It's actually, you could just say that it's actually 54 years for you because you weren't around for last year.

1:35:17Big Cat:Yeah. And also, you can just celebrate the parade. You can be a fan of a parade this weekend. Parades can be awesome. Yeah, parades can be fun. Do love a good parade. I wonder how much this is going to affect this U.S. Open because obviously I think a lot of people will probably be a little bit more involved in the festivities and maybe a little less about the golf. Maybe, what is it, the parade Saturday?

1:35:35PFT Commenter:No, it's Thursday. But here's the thing about New York. There's a lot of people. It's a good point. They can go everywhere. People forget that. Yeah, there's a lot of people in New York. It's pretty nuts that they can pack multiple events at the same time.

1:35:49Big Cat:Memes, do you accept Shane into the fandom? Absolutely. Yeah. You're a winner now.

1:35:55PFT Commenter:Meem's a winner. Yeah. I mean, memes, memes just lightened up. He's, he's happy, man. He gets to celebrate. Life's good. It's, it's actually, we're all on pins and needles to see how long memes like sticks with a smile and a good affect because it's, it's not going to be, he says he's changed everything. There's no way. There's just no way. If the jets get killed in week one, he's going to want to kill all of us. Yeah. So it's coming. It's just, it's tough. It's like Arizona making the final four and they get smoked by Michigan and it's like, what do you, how do you leave that? You know, are you like about it that you made the final four?

1:36:27You bummed out that they lost. Can I say one more U.S. Open thing? I think Rory's got a chance to win as well. Yeah. I think the wind plays into Rory's hands. He was hitting this like bullet driver Riviera this year that we'd never really seen him hit this before. And I think that comes out to play a lot this week. I really think Rory is top two or three pick. If you're looking at like one of the favorites.

1:36:49PFT Commenter:Okay. Love it. Well, Shane, you're the best. We appreciate you having on. Everyone check out the scorecard and have fun out on Long Island. In Long Island. In. In Long Island.

1:36:57Big Cat:Inside Long Island. In Long Island. Thanks, fellas. Appreciate you. Shane Bacon is brought to you by Morgan & Morgan. You don't want to hire the wrong people to do an important job. Morgan & Morgan is America's largest injury law firm, and that's where they come in. You want to hire Morgan & Morgan for all of your personal injury needs. With over$30 billion recovered for over 500 ,000 clients, Morgan & Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation. In Florida, a client recently received$6.1 million after the insurance company's best offer is just$100 ,000. In Georgia, another client recently received$29.5 million.

1:37:34Big Cat:In Nashville, another client got$10.6 million. If you're injured by the negligence of another, you deserve to be paid. If you're ever injured, check out Morgan & Morgan. The fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to forthepeople.com slash PMT or dial pound law pound 529 from your cell phone. That's forthepeople.com slash PMT or pound law pound 529. This is a paid advertisement.

1:37:57PFT Commenter:Good morning, Kentucky. It is not Matt Jones. It is part of my take, the part of my takeover. Big cat here, PFT next to me. Good morning, Kentucky. All right, let's start with Andy. Go ahead, Andy. Andy, what's up? Hey, what's up, guys? Hey, Andy. I got a question for you. Mm-hmm. Okay. I had called in and asked Matt and the guys a little over a month ago a question, and it kind of took off, and everybody wanted to talk about it because it was so weird. But it would make you think. And Matt said something about you guys might have mentioned it on your show or whatever afterwards based on that.

1:38:39I'm not sure.

1:38:41PFT Commenter:Okay. But the question is, if someone broke into your house in the middle of the night, and the only thing they did was hold you down for five minutes and tickle you, they didn't steal nothing, they didn't assault you in any other way, didn't bother the pets, anything, they just left, would you report it? And if so, what would that conversation be like?

1:39:07Big Cat:Is this Graham Plattner? Who's this? I don't I don't know why I wouldn't report it I think I would be more freaked out by that Andy can I ask some questions

1:39:16PFT Commenter:Before we get to the hypothetical Go for it Where are you calling in from I'm calling in from here in Pulaski County in Bronson Kentucky So Andy is this your hypothetical or did you see it Somewhere else is the Andy original No no no I came up with this on my own Okay, so this is Andy original. Now, so I'm happy you answered that part. My follow-up to that is, has this happened to you, Andy? It has not. I sit around and think of hypothetical questions all the time when I have just idle time or whatever.

1:39:54Big Cat:Yeah. And I, you know, it kind of based it on books that I read and shows that I listen to on television because I'm blind. I just listen to them.

1:40:02PFT Commenter:I love that. Wait, wait, I have one other question, Andy, about the tickling thing. Are you very ticklish yourself? I was when I was a kid, not so much now.

1:40:13Big Cat:Okay. And, Andy, is this something that you – I just think – I was thinking of that question. Is this something that you want to happen to you?

1:40:22Well, no, not in that retrospect now. If it was a female, maybe.

1:40:26Big Cat:Yeah, true, true, true. That's going to be another question that I had. That's just guys rock. If a chick did it – That's a different situation.

1:40:31PFT Commenter:Yeah, we know, Andy, listen, there's three guys just talking here. Yeah. We'd like to get tickled by a hot chick, you know, big breasts maybe. Uh-huh.

1:40:40Big Cat:I think, Andy. Absolutely. I think that you might secretly want somebody to break into your house and tickle you deep down inside. Not in respect to that question, no. I'm just thinking I wouldn't report it myself because, first of all, the police are not going to believe that. They're going to tell you you're full of it.

1:41:02PFT Commenter:I think. And then you got to go to court. Then you got to go to court and testify against that person and just say, well, all they did was tickle me. Yeah. That would not be fun. Yeah. I think it also depends on if you at any point got aroused. Because if you got aroused while you're being tickled by another man in your house, I think then you just never talk about it again. Yeah. I'm not getting aroused. Well, you don't know. You haven't. Like, there's, you know, the middle of the night, the terror part of this. You're being surprised. Like, listen, Andy, I'm with you. Like, I'm a straight man.

1:41:38PFT Commenter:Like, I probably wouldn't get aroused, but you also have never been in this situation, and you don't know, like, what could happen here.

1:41:45Big Cat:And so, Andy, I have seen a lot of The Pit. I've watched a lot of ER in my day. There is something called a fear boner, and that's something that I would be actually very, very scared of achieving at that point. And if that happened, I would actually probably be more likely to call the cops. Right. Because then I'm like, well, that's assault now. Now it's become assault because now I'm questioning myself, and now I'm in a bad place mentally.

1:42:09PFT Commenter:Yeah, like, did you make me a little gay? Now is that assault?

1:42:11Big Cat:Yeah, because I wasn't before. Right. So it's like somebody's got an answer for that. It's not going to be me. Right. Yeah, well, it is assault with the legality part of it. Right. But it's just the whole embarrassment of all they did was tickle me. I got one more question about that. Are they tying you down? And are they using any instrument to tickle you, or are we just talking fingers? I hadn't gotten that deep in the hypothetical of it. I don't know. And are they saying Gucci, Gucci, goo while they do it, or is it silent?

1:42:45PFT Commenter:Oh, do they do a raspberry? Are they blowing on your tummy? And then also, what if you're not ticklish at all? Right. That'd be kind of weird, I think. That's probably where you get the boner. Yeah. All right. So, Andy, do you have other hypotheticals for us? Also, people online are now saying that you want to be tickled. We're just saying you do not want to be tickled, correct? I hope it's women and they're volunteering. All right. Okay. Tickled by no man. Okay. We'll make that clear. It did seem to me like it sounds like maybe you wouldn't hate it.

1:43:20Big Cat:Right. Maybe it'd be like, oh, no, I hope I don't get tickled. Oh, stop tickling me. Oh, there's somebody lurking outside the house. I really hope they don't come in. I'm all tied down and very ticklish. uh there's a feather maybe not for five minutes yeah yeah all right so what what else do you have for us andy okay so if you woke up tomorrow and for the next year you would only you could have your seven-year-old voice or your seven-year-old body but the other way you would have your seven year old voice and your original body now for the next year or you would have your seven-year-old body, but you would have your normal voice.

1:44:01Which would you pick?

1:44:03PFT Commenter:Oh, that's a tough one. And you're getting your same brain no matter what, right? Yes, yes.

1:44:11Big Cat:I don't know. I don't know about that one. I think I'd have to go with a seven-year-old voice. Oh, but think about how weird that would be. Yeah, think about how weird it would be if you had a seven-year-old voice. You walk in, maybe your wife's at home, you're stepping out of the shower, and it's like, oh, whoops.

1:44:27PFT Commenter:Yeah, but PFT, in terms of doing our jobs, we're podcasters. We would just have to do, I think I'd have to go body and be like, hey, guys, we're not doing video anymore. I got to just keep doing my job and get through this year.

1:44:40Big Cat:I'll put it this way. My body right now isn't that different from my seven-year-old body. I'm not a tall man. I'm not a large man. I'm kind of used to that frame. But I do think that there might be something in the marketplace for a seven-year-old doing sports podcasts. seven-year-old body seven-year-old like a seven-year-old voice a seven-year-old brain the dumbest kids ever yeah i can sit around a coffee table in the basement

1:45:05PFT Commenter:yeah but then you'd obviously never have anyone anyone see you on camera okay good one what else okay the other one is if there's three people you can hit a button and fix it to where three people of your choosing could never tell a lie again the rest of their life? Who would the three be? Ooh. Mmm. Good question. Hmm. I feel like you'd have to go with, uh...

1:45:38Big Cat:These are tough ones.

1:45:39PFT Commenter:Some type of politician or something, right?

1:45:42Big Cat:I guess so. But do we really want to know the horrible truth?

1:45:46PFT Commenter:Yeah, and also, yeah, like, this is tough because, like, would I pick, like, my spouse? No, because, like, Like, then when I say, oh, does this shirt make me look fat? And she's like, no, you look fine. I know. Deep down, she's thinking I'm looking fat. Hmm. Hmm. I think I would. I would. Oh, yep. LeBron. I mean, that's impossible. LeBron number one would be very funny because he'd have to tell us everything, like exactly how he feels and wouldn't be able to say he predicted everything.

1:46:18Big Cat:I take LeBron one. What do you think about your son's game, LeBron?

1:46:21PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

1:46:23Big Cat:Where do you think he ranks in the NBA? Yes. I would like to know. Yeah, I mean, I think our dear good friend, Richard Pitino.

1:46:33PFT Commenter:Yeah.

1:46:33Big Cat:Might be a good one. That'd be interesting. That we would have to know some cold, hard facts about. Yeah, I would like that as well.

1:46:42PFT Commenter:And then, hmm. You know, Rick Pitino, you guys had him on a couple years ago. I've met Rick Pitino. He's put my name in his book. Really? Side note there. When I was 11, I was Kay Wood's favorite caller when I was 11 years old. And I met Patino and went back to the locker room and met the guy. He put that book, Full Court Pressure, he wrote. I'm on page 18 because I tried to bet a beer with him when I was 11. That's awesome. That is pretty good. That's incredible. And then my last one would be Matt Jones, just so he could actually tell us where he's going on vacation for once. Andy You are a hypothetical master I love that you just sit around thinking of him We appreciate you calling in Any thoughts on Kentucky sports Basketball, football Overall, how you feel about J-Bat Just give it to us I feel pretty good about the guy I'm hearing good things Forward thinker I wanted someone in there that's younger than me He's a year younger than me He's good at fundraising and we definitely need to start doing things in the right direction based, you know, getting ahead of the curve.

1:47:53And as far as the basketball team, I was very pessimistic until we got Montilovich. And I think that moves them up a few pegs. And I'm not predicting the championship, but I would be happy with an Elite Eight this year.

1:48:11PFT Commenter:Yeah, okay. Montilovich is actually really, really good. I mean, that was a huge, huge ad for you guys, especially late in the transfer. I was calling for that guy in March. Yeah.

1:48:19Big Cat:He's an incredible shooter. Yeah. Is there somebody in Kentucky that you would like to see step up and maybe contribute towards some of the fundraising for NIL that you think has been sitting on the sidelines for too long? Who's the whale out there that we need to reach? Ooh, that's a good question. It's not me. But I bet you know somebody. I bet there's somebody out there that Kentucky fans are like, You know what? I have heard there's one thing that Kentucky can do, and that's bring back the old-school Wildcat logo.

1:48:52PFT Commenter:Yeah, they could do that.

1:48:54Big Cat:It's an amazing logo.

1:48:55PFT Commenter:PFT, you're telling this to a guy who's been blind since birth.

1:48:57Big Cat:That's a great point. That's a great point. Andy, I apologize for your friend PFT there. I forgot about that, Andy. I forgot. Hand up. That one's on me. It's fine. Andy, it's a really good logo. Has anyone ever described to you the logo change? I've heard about the logo. Have they described it to you being like, Andy, you would love this? Yeah, I heard it's kind of big.

1:49:19PFT Commenter:Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Andy, you're the best. Thank you so much for this call. This is like whenever we host this program, we always are hoping for calls like yours. So we really appreciate it. Well, I appreciate it. Yeah, if we host next year, call back in. We'd love to talk to you again. Hey, no problem. Absolutely. All right. Take care, Andy. Andy's the absolute man. He really screwed up. I did screw that one up. It's all right.

1:49:43Big Cat:But it's okay. That's fine. Andy seems like he's got a great sense of humor.

1:49:46PFT Commenter:He's just thinking of hypotheticals.

1:49:47Big Cat:I'm not treating Andy any differently than I would any other caller. That's facts. Yeah. That's facts. And I do think that Andy does want. He's got like a sign outside of his house that says like, hey. Tickles. I leave my door unlocked. Yeah. And my feather primed. Body ready to be tickled. Yeah.

1:50:01PFT Commenter:All right. We're back. It is part of my take. Takeover for KSR and Matt Jones on vacation. We now welcome on a very, very special guest and his head football coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, Will Stein. Coach, can you hear us? Big Cat, I got you, man. I am a longtime listener. I consider myself an AWL. Love you. Love PFT. Love Henry. I'm fired up to talk to you guys. I love that. I did not know that, but I love to hear that. So how, I mean, now I, like, that's the best thing you could have ever done. He completely disarmed us. We're just going to keep praise on you. Flattery will get you everywhere.

1:50:44PFT Commenter:Yeah, you have the best, easiest interview ever set up right now. Not that it was going to be hard before that, but how's everything going? You got the job at Kentucky a few months ago. You got spring ball done, training camp coming up. How are we feeling? Top 25 recruiting class, which is the first time in a long time or maybe ever at Kentucky football. Feels like things are going in the right direction, but how's everything going from your perspective? Yeah, so far so good. I thought we had a really good spring. We got 44 new people into our program in January, which was absolute craziness. I was the offensive coordinator at Oregon before and was going through the playoff run with them while also being the head coach of Kentucky, which is something I don't recommend any new head coach to do, but was fortunate enough to have three unbelievable seasons with Dan out there at Oregon and now coming back home to my home state in Kentucky where my dad played, which was really special to me, and building this thing, you know, in a different way, which has been really fun, really exciting.

1:51:48Our guys have bought in and have done a great job so far.

1:51:51Big Cat:Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting situation that you're in as a guy that did play quarterback at Louisville, and now you're at Kentucky. Now you've said that you wanted to play at Kentucky when you were growing up. That was a school that you wanted to play football for. just so that we can put Big Blue Nation at ease. Do you bleed blue or do you bleed red? I bleed blue for sure. We should get that checked out. One, we should prove that. And then two, we'll also get it checked out. Yeah, we should prove that. There's no doubt. Yeah, definitely got to prove that. Yeah, man, my dad played here in the early 80s, and I grew up coming to Commonwealth Stadium like every Saturday that the Cats played here and would go to Rupp Arena on those like Tuesday night, like 9 p.m.

1:52:34tips and uh yeah I grew up a diehard Kentucky fan and wanted to come here up until about three months before my senior year was done in high school and uh ended up going to Louisville which you know I can't say anything you know bad about my experience there it was obviously really good but it did feel so much at home to put the Kentucky colors back on uh in December so fired

1:52:57Big Cat:up about this opportunity so you mentioned like it's a unique way to build a team that you're have an opportunity to do what is what's going to be different about how you're going to build this Kentucky team than maybe what they've seen in the past yeah I mean I think we're just aggressive in recruiting you know like I think if you want to like get these great players like you just you got to wake them up in the morning you got to put them to bed at night like you got to constantly recruit it is truly the lifeblood of our program and the best teams I've been on whether that's little league or high school football or college football now had the best players and so how do you do that?

1:53:31You got to be ultra aggressive. You have to develop real relationships with these players and the, in the age of NIL and portal where money does matter, it still goes back to just building these relationships with the players, with their families, with their agents now, with their coaches, everybody in their circle to where, when they come on your campus two, three, four, five times, they feel at home. And then really the deal comes in after that. So we're, we're fishing with the big fish you know and uh and not sitting back and waiting yeah the so as you know

1:54:02PFT Commenter:coach and people are listening who maybe don't know our program we we judge acronyms we judge sayings you could tell a lot about a coach depending on what their sayings are you know this is the the matt eber i'm a bears fan matt eber flutes had had the hits uh which i knew right away so stupid because i'm pretty sure the t in it was was the ball which made no sense uh but you have a saying that I have to say I'm gonna tip my cap I believe in it it's feed the studs can you explain to us what feed the studs means on a day-to-day basis yeah for sure I mean ultimately it means like players win games you know we have great scheme I pride myself on having a great offense great defense great special teams now and everybody runs inside zone and four verticals but it looks a lot better when you got good players doing it so that's our job is to get our best players the ball as many times as possible so um it's not just like wide outs and running backs to me it's like we got a big left tackle named lance hurd i'm so fired up to have on our team and how do we get him out in space you know um how do we get our defense defense playing relentless uh on that side of the ball with great pressure packages and allowing the best rushers to rush the passer and not just clicking out and coverage every single time so it's really just a mantra with the mindset more than anything.

1:55:20Get our guys the ball. Get our players in positions to make plays.

1:55:24PFT Commenter:Yeah, because we do something similar here at Barstool HQ in Chicago where on Sundays we feed our studs, and that's just us getting probably about$1 ,000 worth of takeout and eat throughout all of NFL Sundays. So we're in on feed the studs.

1:55:41Big Cat:Ice cream machine. Do you have an ice cream machine in the facility? We don't. I just got a margarita machine at home, though, which is pretty legit. I definitely recommend that. Yeah. But no, I mean, what's the order for the guys? Is it like we're just going straight like Buffalo Wild Wings? No, no.

1:56:00PFT Commenter:It's basically, you know, if you are coaching a football game and you're talking about like leaning on them and the run game, wearing them down, that's what we do with our food game. So it's like somewhere around noon kickoff central time. 11.30, there'll probably be wings, just like 100 wings. Then around 1 o 'clock, there'll be some type of cheesesteak or something like that, sandwiches. Then we'll hit them with the pizza when they're not expecting it. That's about 2 o 'clock, 2.30. And then we'll come over the top around 5 o 'clock with some Chinese food. And that's pretty much every Sunday.

1:56:35Big Cat:There's also one important step. Before the fourth quarter, the opening games on NFL Sunday, you might put your fours up. I go to the ice cream machine. That's when I restock. That's when I get some dairy in me for health, for energy. And you burn that fat off in the fourth quarter. Feed the studs. Yeah, when everybody else is feeling down, I get an energy boost right there. Is there like a fourth quarter song? Is it like jump around? Do we have anything going on? No. I got two cranks.

1:56:59PFT Commenter:We just came in possession of two different cranks, one from MLS team and then one from the Bradley Braves, the sirens. So we're going to start doing sirens in the office. We're going to start cranking.

1:57:10Big Cat:Does Kentucky have anything like that before the game? Well, that's what I'm in the mix of working through with our marketing team is like, how do we get this thing like rocking? So I got I got a couple ideas for a walkout song, you know, you know, third down, I'm thinking like the purge siren. You guys know that one? Oh, yeah. I like that. Kind of creepy, you know, something different. So, you know, whenever people ask me that, I just like word vomit what I'm thinking. And then our marketing team is probably right now just like going crazy, like pissed off that I'm just putting all this stuff out there.

1:57:40It's kind of funny.

1:57:40Big Cat:Coach, we ask every guest that we have on our show and on Kentucky Sports Radio this question. If somebody broke into your house in the middle of the night and you were asleep and they held you down and tickled you for hours. No, five minutes. Five minutes. Five minutes. And then left. Would you call the police? Would you report it?

1:58:00PFT Commenter:Didn't do any harm or anything else. Just tickle. Just tickled you five minutes. Got up and left. Just walked away. Would you call the police? I mean, I don't know if it would be like an initial call. I think I'd have to report that person. It would be a little creepy. Listen, your first-time head coach, I just want to jump in

1:58:20Big Cat:and do some PR 101 for you here. Can you imagine the headlines that would come out the next day after you filed that police report? Kentucky head football coach held down and tickled in the middle of the night. No injuries. He called the cops. Yeah, that would be a little soft, wouldn't it? Yeah, I think you can't call. Okay, all right. Yeah, I can pivot. I can pivot. Yeah, you got it. I'll have a growth mindset right now, and I'll fix that thought. I love that. Just got to get tickled. No cops being called. I think your mentality should be like if somebody breaks in our – we don't feel pressure.

1:58:53Big Cat:We apply it. You got to tickle that guy first. Tickle back. Yeah, tickle back harder. Tickle back.

1:58:59PFT Commenter:Coach, are you going to continue the tradition, which I was just made aware of today, of Dan Lanning taking off his shirt before third down period every single week, every single practice that you guys did that? Are you going to start doing that? What is that? Why did he do that? You know, I think it just started when it was cold outside, and it was kind of his deal of like, hey, it doesn't matter. I'm taking my shirt off. You guys can act cold and have your hands in your pocket. I'm not. You know, I'm like, I'm not the guy that's like, how tough can I be and like brave the weather? I'm like, if it's cold, I'm gonna put a jacket on, you know, if it's raining, I can put a rain jacket on.

1:59:40I mean, you can call me soft, you can call me the tickle guy, whatever, but like, you know, I'll let Dan do that. I feel like if I do that and that goes on social media, I mean, that's, that's like, it's such like a copycat deal. Yeah. It was great because one of our managers, kind of a heavier set kid. He was awesome. Mitch, shout out Mitch. He'd rip off his shirt too. So it was like Dan versus Mitch in this like, shirt off contest on third down period. And it was a lot of fun.

2:00:06PFT Commenter:I do love that. Also, by the way, Coach, you don't have to tell us that, you know, you're a little soft. You literally just told us two minutes ago you'd call the cops if you got tickled for five minutes. Come on. That's crazy. That's right. I mean, what am I thinking? Golly.

2:00:20Big Cat:Also, shout out Mitch catching some strays on Kentucky Sports Radio this morning.

2:00:24PFT Commenter:No, I mean, but that actually you needed to say that part because it was obviously like part of the whole thing. But yeah, that's very funny that he would take off his shirt like that. I think he was just trying to show off his tattoos. Yeah, he does have a lot of tattoos. I mean, not just his wife's face, but he'd get some tattoos for recruits. They commit. He's like, I'm getting a tat of your name. So he's got names plastered all across his body of just like the Cory and Moore and all this stuff.

2:00:52Big Cat:It's hilarious. Coach, Kentucky, is it a football school or is it a basketball school? All right, I'm going to ask you this first. PFT JMU women's lacrosse school or football school, everything school. And you know that because you got to see it firsthand in the second half. I did. I did. I saw JMU. And then I'm going to ask you, big cat, Wisconsin women's hockey school or football school,

2:01:14PFT Commenter:women's hockey. We're, we have a dynasty going where the, we're the greatest ever do it. It's not even close. Yeah. Yeah. No, listen, I I'm, I'm in the mindset. Like I'm obviously the football coach. I want this to be the most elite program in the country. So that's my mindset. And I'm the biggest Kentucky basketball fan too. Like talking about growing up a UK basketball fan. I used to go to Tubby Smith basketball camp and play against like Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans and all these great players. And we come to UK football camp and see great players as well. Tim Cowell, Jared Lorenzen, just to name a few.

2:01:46So I'm in the mindset, especially with our new athletic director, Jay Bat. Like, why can't we be good at both? You know, so I'm fired up to watch Kentucky basketball play. But I know one thing we play our first game September 5th. I think it's like 79 days out if I'm right. So I'm fired up about Big Blue Nation being there and having an awesome season.

2:02:06Big Cat:Have you heard about the SEC coaches group chat that goes down? Yeah, I'm in it. You're in it?

2:02:12PFT Commenter:No, no, no. We're not talking about that one. We're talking about the one with Lane and Kirby. The one where things get a little loose. The special one. Oh, I have. Okay, different chat. Yeah. The one that you're in, you're talking about the one with the commissioner

2:02:27Big Cat:and it's like just a way to immediately let every coach know official SEC news. Yeah. We're talking about the one in the lane where there's GIFs and there's images and some questionable emojis that get tossed out every now and again. I've heard about some chats that are out there. I may have seen a few chats myself, but, yeah, I think there's some – you guys have a good time.

2:02:51PFT Commenter:Yeah, you're going to have to – Any group chats? I mean, it's like the group chats with my buddies back home. I mean, they can get a little bit outrageous. Yeah, you're going to have to earn your stripes, though, because we asked Lane when we were in Baton Rouge. He said he wouldn't let a first-year head coach. As far as we know right now, it's Sark, Kirby, Lane, and then Drinkwits?

2:03:10Big Cat:I think Drink is in it. Yeah, I think he confirmed that to us. Do you have to go do yoga with him first? Are you guys in a chat now? We are. We are in a group chat. It's a different group chat. Not to brag. But, yeah, I would actually highly recommend doing yoga early in the morning with Lane Kiffin. It's a great way to wake up. How was it? Was it like the intense cardio yoga? Or was it just like stretch?

2:03:31PFT Commenter:It was CrossFit. We had weights. Oh, damn. Yeah. And Lane looked at Zach and said he doesn't have any fast twitch muscle. I was like, you didn't have to have us come to yoga to figure that out, Wade. We could have just told you on the phone.

2:03:43Big Cat:Then they screamed at us when we left the room to get water. Isn't it amazing how like a five-pound weight feels like 45 pounds in your hand? Well, here's the trick. So they told us to get, like, I think they said get some 20-pound weights, and we went back to the weight rack, and the 15-pounders looked exactly like the 20-pounders. So we said, yeah, we'll just grab those.

2:04:05PFT Commenter:I yelled to the boys. I was like, hey, don't grab 20s. No. No, absolutely not. And then how good it feels when you open up that door when it's all done. I mean. The best. The best. Sounds like you're a hot yoga guy. That is, like, one of the best feelings. Yeah. I've done it before. Like, I know, PFT, you lived in Austin, right? I lived in Austin. I did that core power yoga. my girlfriend at the time now wife like we would go i think we got like a month subscription or something or membership and i felt like i was literally just going to pass out every single time i even just started it yeah and then there's people to my left and the right doing like head stands and some crazy stuff i'm like how is this possible and then you walk outside into the austin

2:04:42Big Cat:heat and you get no relief whatsoever from the heat that you were just exactly a second ago i i was looking at your uh your resume it is kind of interesting because you went from texas you were there with Coach Strong and then you went to coach at Lake Travis High School. What was that like? Because some would say that Lake Travis is, you know, they kind of run their football program more like a college program than a lot of schools across the country. But what was it like coaching in high school then? It was awesome. You know, I'd been in college football for five years as like a quality control and just really wanted to get my hands on call and plays.

2:05:14And so the Lake Travis job opened up and I spent one year with Tom Herman in his first season at Texas. And then I I was like, you know what, let me go. I want to try this myself. So I interviewed for it and got the job. And a kid named Hudson Card was my quarterback. And then I had some receiver named Garrett Wilson. I don't know if you guys know him. He was my wide out. And so, I mean, it was like crazy, you know, designing plays and things for Garrett, who absolutely dominated high school competition. And we had a blast. You know, I learned a lot. I learned how to call plays. I learned how to, you know, be in a program like Lake Travis that had six state championships up to that point and really engrossed myself into their culture and tried to lead a group of men that had been in that program coaching for 15 years.

2:05:58So I enjoyed it. I loved it. It allowed me to stay in Austin for two more years and ended up getting married during that time. So I would never take it back being a high school coach in Texas. It was awesome.

2:06:09Big Cat:Yeah, I did not realize that you worked for Coach Herman when you were at Texas too. As a quality control guy, how instrumental were you in terms of hanging up the Longhorn football hydration charts above every urinal? I don't know if I was really responsible for those, but it's funny how that hydration chart got throughout all of college football. You could go in facilities across America, and they have these intense hydration charts and basically call you every name in the book as dehydrated as you become. It's funny, man. I think you guys should get one in your office. Oh, we had one. We did.

2:06:46Big Cat:We hung it up. It was just all, we were all bad guys. We were the last one on the list. And I remember the second to lowest was blatant disregard for your teammates. You were headed to Area 51. What was Area 51 for having dark urine? It was like the, you know, where the injured guys would go that were trying to get back on the field. And, you know, they made it to where it was like complete hell going to Area 51. Like if you had a sprained ankle, you'd go over there and do like a thousand bicep curls. You know, you couldn't even feel your arms anymore. So it was kind of the spot that would make you not want to be injured to get back on the field as fast as possible.

2:07:23PFT Commenter:Gotcha. Coach, we really appreciate you joining us. Now that we know that you're a listener, we'll have to have you on part of my take as well anytime you're in Chicago. But best of luck. We are rooting for you. That's literally all it takes is if you say that you like us, we are now going to be rooting for you forever. So thank you so much for joining us. And, you know, let's go win the SEC this year. let's do it. Why not? Why not us? I appreciate you, big cat. PFT. Thanks for having me on. All right. Go cats. Thanks so much. Coach Shannon, who do we have on? Let's go to Matt. Matt. Hey guys.

2:07:58It's an honor to be getting to talk to you guys. I'm a big fan. Love it. Huge fan.

2:08:03PFT Commenter:Thank you, Matt. I'm a barefooted out my garden. Just got done meditating in beautiful Hyman, Kentucky up in a holler. And I got two questions. Do you know why they call it a holler?

2:08:19Big Cat:I don't know. You can holler all you want. Nobody going to hear you. Oh, I like that. That's good. That's good. Okay. And? And the second one is, which before we got Milan, you know, we were unranked. Can you name the five teams that started the season off unranked and won a national championship?

2:08:46PFT Commenter:Oh, boy.

2:08:48Big Cat:Oh. I don't know that I could.

2:08:51PFT Commenter:Give me a couple of decades. There's probably going to be some in the 80s. Okay. Okay, yeah. Two in the 80s. You got Villanova. I'll give you one Villanova. Yep, Villanova. Yep. NC State. Kansas. Okay. No. Kansas. Okay. Syracuse. Okay. The Carmelo year? Yep. Yep. Florida, the first year when they did the back-to-back. Yep. You know, in 11. And UConn. Oh, Kevin Olley's UConn. Yep. Or was it Dan Hurley's UConn in 2023? No. No, it was at Olley's. Yeah, the Olley. All right, so, Matt, you said, is it Hindman or Hyman? Hyman, H-I-N-D-A-M, Hindman, Kentucky. Okay. Not County, Kentucky. What's going on there?

2:09:56PFT Commenter:So you're barefoot. Do you ever step on, like, a fire ants or anything? You worried about that? No. My garden is like my – it's my paradise. I take such good care of it. I can walk around in this thing barefoot. I till all day long barefooted. I love it. I love it. Have you ever just took your shoes off and just walk around in the grass?

2:10:24Big Cat:Yeah. It does feel good. It's the best. It gets you grounded to start the day. What do you grow out there? Yeah. Oh, I got sweet potatoes. I got Yukons. I got romaine lettuce. I've got onions. I just picked about eight heads of onions. I've got cabbage, green beans. I've got peas. I mean, I've got all kinds of tomatoes. I was raised to grow a garden.

2:10:54PFT Commenter:I love that. I love that. So, Heineman only has 700 people. Have you lived there your whole life? No, I grew up in Hazard, Kentucky. Okay. Okay. But we've always had this – this is like my parents' home place. Yep. And I built a house beside them, and it's just – it's secluded. I can just do whatever I want, and nobody bothers me, and I love it. I love it. I love it. I'm looking at it right now. I'm in right now, and it looks like a perfect little Appalachian town.

2:11:35Big Cat:Sounds beautiful. Tell me about the gingerbread festival you all got there. Yeah, well, you know, we had a couple floods here. We're getting back to normal now, but it really wiped us out there for a while. I was actually trapped up in my holler for seven days. Couldn't get out when we had that flood. But the gingerbread's awesome. gingerbread's out the blooming onions the gingerbread oh so good we usually have some good music the bluegrass music you know everybody's friendly it's nice love that love that well thank

2:12:19PFT Commenter:you so much matt for the call great talking to you and uh sounds like you got that garden it sounds like paradise like you said it does have fun in the holler all right thank y 'all

2:12:28Big Cat:kentucky sports radio is brought to you by better help this show is sponsored by better help For some, summer is their favorite season. Travel picks up, kids are out of school, and adventure is the focus. For others, juggling it all can be tough. It can lead to overwhelm. It can lead to counting down the minutes until the kids are back in school, and many worry that they're wasting the days of sunshine. With over 30 ,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 6 million people globally. And it works, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews.

2:13:01Big Cat:They've got quality therapists. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct. They're fully licensed in the United States. BetterHelp does the initial match work for you so you can focus on your therapy. You don't have to say yes to everything this summer. Find support in therapy. Sign up and get 10 % off at BetterHelp.com. That's BetterHelp.com.

2:13:23PFT Commenter:Okay, Hank, wrap us up. We've got FAQs. a couple weeks ago you laughed that it's hard for mcgregor to stay motivated to get his face punched in while getting a blowjob on his mega yacht with all the success of the podcast has had do you ever have times where it's hard to stay hungry and if so how do you deal with it

2:13:43Big Cat:i was gonna say um i'm always hungry the thing difference there's a lot of differences between this podcast and conor mcgregor i'll put it that way he also i would say there's also no end goal The podcast is just for fun. It's not like we were trying to. There's no championship or belt to be won.

2:14:00PFT Commenter:Yeah. He also has, I would say, a very large amount of money that's more than what we have, I would imagine. But, no, I think the big difference is, too, is that in the fight game, the training and everything that goes involved with it, and then you're fighting, what, once a year, maybe twice a year? with the podcast we podcast three times a week like i don't want to put out a bad product i want to i take personal pride in it so the the hunger comes from more like i don't want to be washed

2:14:34Big Cat:for us the training is the product yeah if that makes your practice is broad i i do think that um a big difference is like conan mcgregor he was the goat like in his division nobody was touching for a while he still has the opportunity to get back and become it yeah so so for us we know that we're never going to beat the tennis podcast so we don't we don't ever have that

2:14:54PFT Commenter:feeling like we've achieved everything i also will say that we have definitely done a better job overall like the first couple years it was not there was no breaks whatsoever we're doing we're mixing in a couple here yeah like we've done a good job of that wouldn't you agree hank definitely yeah uh what's up boys me my buddy are 10 episodes into starting our podcast not looking for a plug but was just curious if you guys have any tips about growing the pot. I'm 31, huge AWL. You boys inspire me to start this thing up. Any tips would be awesome. Just try to get sued. Yeah, I was going to say, I actually wrote a chapter in the part of my takebook, Go Buy It on Amazon.

2:15:32PFT Commenter:It's out in August. You can pre-order now. All pre-orders are very appreciated. I think the title of the chapter was Four Keys to Starting a Podcast, and one of them was Getting Sued.

2:15:45Big Cat:Getting sued is the best way. Yeah. All press is good press.

2:15:49PFT Commenter:The other was, I think one of the others, I'm not going to give away the whole book. The other, one of the other ones was have someone on who says Adam Morrison has an apocalypse bunker. That was a big help. That was a really big help.

2:15:59Big Cat:I said, be so smart that you get everything right or be so dumb that you get literally everything wrong. Those are the two best ways to go.

2:16:07PFT Commenter:When people ask me this, my answer is usually the same. And it's a boring answer, but I think it's also one that is not, I'm not going to say correct answer because it's not like I know everything about everything. But the key to it, in my eyes, is dependability. You have to say, if we're doing the podcast three times a week, we do it three times a week, every week, no days off. Like, you have to deliver for the fans. You can't be like, oh, well, you know, oh, there's no sports to talk about. Friday, we're not going to have a show. Or, oh, we're, you know, not feeling well. Like you just have to do it because to be successful in this world, you have to become part of people's routines and be dependable for people to be like, okay, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I open up my phone and part of my take is there.

2:16:55PFT Commenter:And the first time you stop doing that, people then break the routine and go find something else. So that would be my biggest, the easiest way to clear the smallest bar is to just be there and do it over and over. and even if you get discouraged right away, you got to keep going because that's what gets the audience. Good answer. All right, we'll end with this one. Hi, Big Cat, PMT, Hater Hank, and Married Max. Now that memes is a winner, who is the biggest loser on the pod now? I think that's a pretty easy answer. Who? Let's do playoff droughts. Have you made the playoffs this year? Yeah. in multiple sports.

2:17:40Max?

2:17:42PFT Commenter:Yes, in multiple sports. Zach? Yes. I have.

2:17:47Big Cat:Actually, my answer is yes in every sport. PFT? Oh, that's sick. That's sick that it's in every sport. Two out of four. Yes, Hank? Have you? If the season ends today, the Nats would be tied for the wild card. Okay, that's... Oh, yeah. It's such a good... PFT came up to me today, and he was like, Like, hey, Max, congrats on being tied in the wild card. And I'm like, I'm just not tied in the wild card. I'm firmly in the wild card. And I was like, but the Nationals are tied in the wild card with three other teams. And then he was like, well, if the playoffs ended today. We'd both be wild card. That's also not true.

2:18:27Yeah, we'd be wild card. No. He came over to me, tried to dunk on me that the Nats were tied with the Phillies. I was trying to congratulate you. They were a game and a half back of the Phillies, not tied with the Phillies.

2:18:37Big Cat:I came over to congratulate you on making the wild card. No, you tried to come over and dunk on me for the Nats having the same record as the Phillies, which they do not. Not true. I was trying to congratulate my friend on having a wild card team. That's the last time I'll do that. Noted. Got it. Message received, Max. Loud and clear. I've learned my lesson. I won't be so nice in the future. So I think is that the answer? Yeah, the answer you were looking for. You were just asking me if the season ended today. No, no. I said that. Have you made playoffs? When was the last time you made the playoffs?

2:19:08Big Cat:And the answer to that is yes. Made the playoffs. The Nats would be in the playoffs. Your answer was a hypothetical answer, which is the answer. I think the population wouldn't have the tiebreaker over the Nationals.

2:19:17PFT Commenter:The Cubs would also be tied for the wild card.

2:19:23Big Cat:So we're doing playoffs now.

2:19:24PFT Commenter:You're the one who said. That's what defines, yeah, winning. Making the playoffs, right? Well, it's a good indicator of who's the biggest loser. It means you lose the most. Our teams win enough to at least make the playoffs. Okay. You guys just lose in everything. Get your hits. If we did rings, then I would be the loser because I have the longest drought. When was your last? 2016. So, yeah.

2:19:49Big Cat:I would say losing on the biggest stages might make you more of a loser.

2:19:53PFT Commenter:Oh, the biggest loser. Yeah. Was the question biggest loser? Yeah. Yeah.

2:19:58Big Cat:Might be you. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. You lost Liv. Lost Liv. Not yet. Lost the Super Bowl. Listened to Daddy Yankee. Got good at golf, then switched.

2:20:08PFT Commenter:Lost that. I mean, if getting to the Super Bowl and losing makes me the biggest loser, I'm fine with that. You made us lose Mr. Bing Bong. I did not. He just quit. Quitter.

2:20:19Big Cat:That's fine, Hank. Get your hits in now. Get your little chuckles in now. Oh, you're going to Dan Hurley up? Yeah, get your chuckles in now. We'll see. We'll see. You don't see what I see. That's fine. All right, numbers. Shane was talking about getting sucked off. Three. Who was that? Memes always like to throw a dig at Shane right before lottery ball. 19. 50. 28. 39. 30.

2:20:47PFT Commenter:Hurry up. Hurry up. Hurry up. 95. 25. Jacob, 25. Five for Colton. Five for Colton. Five for Colton.

2:21:0358. Anyone? 58. Nope.

2:21:07PFT Commenter:All right, one more. Same number. Same again. 28. 50.

2:21:24Big Cat:Nope. Nope.

2:21:27PFT Commenter:Six.

2:21:29Big Cat:Six. That's close. This thing is humming. One more? One more. Let's do one more. Let's do one more. Why not? I feel like someone's going to get it right now. I'm rooting for PFT. Why? I don't know. Hank just said he needs a win.

2:21:50PFT Commenter:Hank, have you gotten this? Yeah. You did, right. It's just PFT memes. Not anymore. 37.

2:21:59Big Cat:Oh. That's close. Hey, Memes, I appreciate it. Yeah. You're a good guy, Memes. Thanks, man. I just want to see my boy succeed. Happy birthday to Amari. I hate that. Me and me. He's a little bro in me now. Yeah, he's just a little bro the fuck. Happy birthday to Cristiano Ronaldo Jr., Venus Williams, Kyle Bowler, and Brianna Chicken Fry. Also, happy birthday to Antonio Gates. happy birthday to Scooter Braun our goat love you guys

2:22:42We'll be right back.

2:23:04Thank you.

2:23:34Thank you.

2:24:04Thank you.

2:24:32you