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The State News sports reporters discuss all MSU sports.
(Madi) Take a seat at the table with us. My name is Madi Warden.
(Jayden) I'm Jayden Hewitt.
(DeShawn) I'm DeShawn Johnson.
(Luke) I'm Luke Joseph.
(Madi) Welcome back to the sports roundtable podcast. We've got a couple newbies with us here today. How you guys feeling coming on to the podcast for first time?
(Jayden and Luke) Pretty good. Honestly, I'm good excited.
(Madi) All right, well, let's jump right into it then. So we had some pretty good games going on this past week. We want to start off with basketball recently. We can go back so we can just get right into it. All right. Well, one of you guys wants to take it away. Go ahead.
(DeShawn) One of our newbies want to start?
(Jayden) Yeah, absolutely. So 5956, Minnesota, we kind of let that one slip at the end for sure. You know, it looked like we were in command, I believe it was 45 to 36, you know, seven or eight minutes left. Looks like we could have put them in the hole. We didn't, you know, came down to it. Turnover started to clean up in the second half a little bit. But we started to get out rebounded and a glaring stat we shot 41.2% from the free throw line. You just can't win games like that, especially down the stretch. If you're down. One or two, come into the end of the game, you cannot miss free throws. That's what we did AJ Hoegaarden, Mr. Game time free throw and then at the end of the day, that is really what cost us.
(Luke) I'll just said the bench didn't really help out much either only eight total points in the bench. Only two players in double figures that was Tyson Walker and Jane Aikens with 20 and 16. Lily Cole was having an amazing run of just being that second option. You know, in the last game against Maryland, he, you know, he played amazing. In the second half, he scored like 1314 points. When Tyson wasn't getting it going in the second half, Malik really stepped up and looked like he was going to be kind of that reliable second option. And then this game, he only shoots shoots the ball four times, you know, I made twice. But you know, what a six from the free throw line, you know, just can't be that second option and then just disappear.
(DeShawn) Yeah, I definitely kind of think that one of the things that's going on with the team that we've continuously seen this year is just the fact that they can't close games, like I mean, it's it's been a consistent thing. We've seen it multiple times throughout the year. And we talked about a little bit before the show just the different rotations that we have throughout the games and how they're not really that efficient. One of the ones specifically that like I think it's just kind of in the biggest buzz is obviously the Cooper and modding combination, playing them for multiple minutes together at a time and it's one of our most inefficient lineups that we had another one of the points, you know, we we could have done better as far as transporter goes and getting a center put where we are now we're obviously going to have to find a better rotation or better. Obviously, you can't go better roster at this point. But Tom has to find a way to get the get the best out of the players that we have and some of these new faces. Booker, we've we talked about that, although that he's a little bit out of position, and there's a lot to find out for him. And he's like, Oh, coming years, I mean, he's gonna have to get we know that experience is going to be the best thing for these players. I don't know what the end of the season is gonna look like for this team. I mean, you know, we obviously were top five rankings as far as preseason goals, and now we're sitting at 500 in the conference. So I mean, there's a couple of decisions that I think really had to be made as far as how we develop this team. Are we going to Thomas continue to talk about the veterans how they're going to be like one of the focal points of this team, but I mean, if we go and just look at some of the statistics from this game, you mentioned AJ, he only shoots the ball four times. You got Tyson who's finally shot oh, no, yeah, sorry. Malik shoots the ball four times, AJ, he goes one for six. And that has kind of been one of the more frustrating things of the season. So far to see that AJ just sometimes seems completely toned out in the second half. Right? Tom continuously says that, you know, we need more out of the veterans. So if that's not if that's not shaping the way it's supposed to be? Do we start giving more time to these younger faces? Where do we go next? Because I mean, I think this season far has been a disappointment, regardless of us having a couple better games in the last, you know, 510 Winning a couple in and out of conference games. But sitting at 500 this far into the season. It's not gonna cut it for us for sure.
(Madi) I agree. I was gonna say, honestly, at this point in the season, what do you guys think about them making the tournament?
(Jayden) I think, you know, we have a pretty favorable schedule coming up. I think we can make the tournament obviously that favorable schedule started with Minnesota. Dropping that game really, really hurts. You know, you go to the barn. That's a tough game to play every year all the time. Doesn't matter how good Minnesota is. But at the end of the day, you have to win those games when you're a better team. him, you know, we came into the season that looked like we were gonna be a better team than most of the teams in the big 10 and we're just really not. And you know, that comes we need a little bit better production out of our bench guards to a little bit. I think that comes into play when you said that AJ gets a little bit lackadaisical that happens and then you need somebody like Trey Holloman to kind of step up. Yeah, he played 22 minutes he shot three times, and that's not on him. You know, I don't like to harp on it too much. You know, he's led us to great things and you can't really say too much about it. But you also you know, basketball is come to a style of play now where you are living on the perimeter most of the time, and you gotta let guys that can get points from the perimeter get points from the perimeter. Trey Holloman is one Xavier Booker playing three minutes is you know, I don't want to say unacceptable, but it's tough to see because David Booker can score from the perimeter. And you know, I'd like to see a little bit of Xavier Booker and Jackson color together. And that's something I've really proposed you know, people talking about basketball this year. Colors great in the post colors got great footwork, you know, he may lack a little bit defensively. Booker as well. We've seen that but at the end of the day, we do we do play pretty well defensively on the perimeter with our guards. So the end of the day, we got to put pressure on guys and we got to be able to get scoring from two guys Carson Cooper and Maddie SOCO love them to death, but they are not going to score very often. That's just not their game, Maddie. So go shot the ball one time, Carson Cooper shot the ball three times, that's just you know, and most of these are dunks at the same time, you know, you got to get points on the perimeter.
(DeShawn) Yeah, I would like to agree the fact that like that we have a favorable schedule. And it's definitely more of a possibility for us to get into a tournament but kind of go off one of the things you said as far as like, the way the basketball game or the game of basketball is now and leaving out on the perimeter. That's it's kind of one of the differences I'm seeing from the way things panned out last year, and I mean, obviously the run that we had, but before the year, the Final Four talks to lead a talks, whatever, you know, we were hoping that we were going to have a better run than we would last year. But the one thing that we're missing is, I think you guys remember last year during the during the tournament. I mean, there was multiple times where MSE would be down a couple points, and we're laying the second half. And either Joey, or Jaden was there to make some of the most ridiculous shots. And I mean
(All the hosts) We just don't have that guy have Miss Janet Houser. Very definitely.
(Luke) Miss. I think he was definitely the probably arguably the biggest piece from our little run last year. Yeah, like he spaced the floor so well. And that's what we desperately desperately need right now. And even with the schedule, coming up on Saturday, we played number 10, Illinois at home. And then at Penn State at Michigan. At Purdue, I was gonna say at Indiana is our last game. I mean, I think I think it's just getting to a point where it's like, we just want to at least make the tournament, because I think so obviously, Mr. March, you know, he's had a hit, like amazing, amazing runs in the tournament. You know, obviously hasn't won me has won one championship, but it's like, so those runs were amazing to watch. So I think it's just gotten to a point where just make the tournament.
(DeShawn) And that's a crazy dynamic to think about. I mean, you know, we make a crazy run last year, this year, it's predicted that we're gonna go, you know, I mean, we have a top five roster, we have all these faces, we should make a better run. And we're now hoping that they make the tournament, right? It's a crazy dynamic to think about.
(Madi) Well, even Thomas was talking last week on the podcast that every single game that we play for the rest of the season, we're favorite and except for Purdue, and that's because it's at Purdue and Purdue is just an
(All the hosts) The energy there is. Yeah, that's a tough one. When was the last time we want to add
Purdue? Oh, I don't remember he said it's been a while. It's been a really long time.
(Jayden) Purdue's proven to be I mean, not they're 21 Two, I believe. So I mean, they're not beatable by any sorts, I mean, but they have had lapses, where you have seen teams, I think Northwestern took them to the wire the other day. They can be beat. Maybe not at home and maybe if we're shooting the ball well, I always go back to the Baylor game and you know, it's an anomaly on the year. You can't harp on anomalies because at the end of the day, consistency is going to prove who you really are but a Baylor game we got out and transition a lot shot a lot of threes. We got early offense. I think that's something that I wish we would go back to more I think when you see us play well offensively, we are early on offensive and transitions shooting the ball. We've seen a lot from Aikens lately, getting the ball in the transition shooting it you know Tyson likes to push the pace he likes to push the pace. But I think you know, most of our guys just got to start hunting a shot when they can actually make shots. You know, Tyson Walker shooting 18 times that's acceptable. Jake naked shooting 11 times as acceptable. AJ Hogarth shooting six times, is that acceptable? I mean, I mean at that The day he can score the ball, whether it's consistently or not, you can score the ball and Malik Hall for shots, that's rough. Malik Hall has, you know, always proved to be semi inconsistent, but we love him for the fact that he can go off at anytime you can have a huge game at anytime. And that usually comes when he's shooting the ball more. So I think we need to start looking into early offense a lot more. And that might help us a little bit.
(DeShawn) I think I don't want to go on too much of a tangent on this. But I tend to think that one of the things I feel like that we've struggled with, like consistently, it's just an energy guy. Like I mean, like, Malik, AJ Tyson, they're all great players in their owns, but it seems like when they are in the students where they get down, or they're irritated, it's a bad game. I mean, you can visibly tell and it doesn't look on their face. Yes. Yeah. I mean, like, I'm not exactly sure that we had the energy guy last year, but we kind of had more consistent play and things just went a lot better. We've obviously had a lot of ups and downs this year. And it just seems like, you know, you look for in any of the veterans, whether it's going to be AJ Malik, Amin, any of them, you know, and even in Jaden, some of the times in the second half, it just seems like when their shots aren't falling. I mean, they're done like whether they're going to be on the court or not. So I guess I don't want to go too much of a tangent. There's not too much you can change about it now. But like, if they can just find someone, whether it's rotations find someone to like, take that role in the starting lineup. They gotta have an energy guy, I think for sure.
(Jayden) Oh, yeah, I think so. And I want to say at the end of the day, I trust Tom Izzo to do the right thing. Yeah, we got pieces, we definitely have the right pieces. And we have time as though, you know, we just got a lot of people talking about him, you know, retiring and this and that. I think, you know, the game is maybe past his style of play by but everybody can adapt. Yeah. TOM IZZO is not he's not 90 years old, he can adapt to the game of basketball. And I think he knows that. And I think we've seen that. I mean, we've done it before. And we'll we'll do it again. But you know, it seems, one we don't have guys that are gonna be able to close games. We also we, I mean, maybe the style of play is just a little bit too much to figure out right now with the guys that we have. And I know we have a pretty good recruiting class coming in next year as well. Good guards coming in. So I mean, maybe that's gonna help too. But yeah, like I said, we have time is off. So at the end of the day, if we can make the tournament then, you know, chalk it up for a competitive game one competitive game two, we make it so
(DeShawn) Yeah that's thing once we get in I mean, it's, it's anything goes at them. Exactly.
(Luke) Record. 0-0. Yeah, make the tournament. So
(Madi) um, so jumping across the street a little bit. We've got women's basketball also took on Minnesota this week. And the Shawn is covering the women's basketball game, if you want to talk about that a little bit.
(DeShawn) Yeah, so I mean, that game was a really rejuvenating game for the women's basketball team. It's kind of in a little bit of a funny buildup. So I mean, you go back to January, mid January, last last month, January 20, that things are when they played Minnesota the first time. And up at this point. I mean, I couldn't give you the exact number. But I'm sure that at this time, Michigan State was averaging just right around 90 points. I think like the exact number is like 89.3, or something like that. I mean, they were dominating our teams. And granted, there's only been so many big 10 matchup at this point. And they did lose one of them Nebraska. So right, I mean, you're still kind of filling out the big 10. And it's completely different compared to almost any other women's basketball league that we have basketball. So the they, I mean, they get held to 50 points, and it was an absolute stunner. It was a way so you know, like, I mean, like, as far as you know, we didn't really hear too much until everyone made it back. And I think that's one of the things that Fraley really talked about was just the team just didn't seem together like I mean like it same things that's going on with the men's basketball team. A lot of new faces there obviously yeah, like it's brand new. So I mean, they had it looked really good so far, but they were really battle tested against us Minnesota team and it just didn't seem like they were all there together. You fast forward a little bit you skipped through these next four, or the next three games they have after that and it's three straight wins in a row chemistry is through the roof. It seems like I mean, everyone's flowing. I wouldn't say four or five games straight. They had at least four to five different Spartans all scoring in double digits. Roll has been absolutely on fire. Didi. I mean, she started the year crazy. And she's although the scoring has gone down a little bit. She's been facilitating all right place. It seems like the veterans, it's a little bit different. And we talked about this earlier in the year. It's just how it's a little bit of the opposite of what's going on with the men's basketball team right now. The veterans are doing everything they can they're really stepping out a rose and then you got some of these younger faces like Abby Kimball coming and she's had right you transition from what you did last year, Julia, she stepped into playing Center as a guard, and she's shutting down different multiple different centers that we have in the big 10. Right. It's been crazy. So they went through straight games that come into the Minnesota game, and definitely one of the most like pepper like preparation games as far as like everyone looking out for really seeing how these teams changed, right in a matter of a month. So I mean, you have to give Minnesota a little bit of credit, or at least a little bit of notice they have they did lose one of their best players. I can't recall her name at this moment. But I know that I mean, she was number she she is number four in big 10 scoring right now and she's missed the last three games with a foot injury. They haven't won since their last one was against Michigan State and they have not won since. So you got to take a little bit of notice there but the final score on that game let me pull it up really quickly as seven days. 665 It was a, I can tell you that that game was a, it seemed a lot closer than it really was. Yeah, it's no disrespect to Minnesota, it's just MSU they kind of did fall apart in the second half. But the first half they had insane the first 12 points or three pointers. I mean, they just bang, bang, bang, they're knocking them down. It it, it was a complete change from what we've seen when they played administering the first time, right? I mean, just overall really talked about about how rejuvenating it was. And I think the biggest storyline that kind of come out of it, like just moving away from the game. That was there 17 to one of the season. They only won 16 games last year. They've gotten multiple graduate students on this team. And right now the focus is on not just getting into the tournament, it is like winning oh, we're talking about trying to win the big 10 championship or we're trying to trying to get to the Final Four. Like, if you start to ask around in that locker room, they are really locked in as far as getting deep into the tournament.
(Madi) Yeah, I mean, as they should be. I mean, they only lost to Iowa was number one in the big 10. They only lost because of Caitlin Clark's three. Yes. And that was a really close game like that really shows the what word am I looking for? Like the strength of the team?
(DeShawn) Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, they just add on to that the game they had against Ohio State, they only lost by five points. And if you look at top 25 And big 10 comparisons, there's one, two and three, Iowa, Ohio State and Indiana are all top 25 at I believe it's two, five and 14 right now. Michigan State is right there at number four, and they've been snug. You can say they've been snubbed. I mean, like that's a whole different debate in itself. But that is the only real losses that I mean, they had some like I said some early stumbles in the beginning of the season. So scoring games, but since they've really gotten serious Indiana as they get ready to face another like I said, number ranked 14, right. They only have two losses in Ohio State and Iowa. So I mean, like, as far as like what you can take away from what they've been doing this year. It's outstanding, especially when you compare what happened last year of the last couple years of non tournament Robin Felix brand new here you got she's been great. She's been outstanding. And just a way like I said, Omar away from the game. She's an awesome human beings
(Madi) She just seems like it, she seems like it. So they play they play Ohio State Sunday?
(DeShawn) Yeah, so Indiana tomorrow and then Ohio State so to top 25 opponents this upcoming
weekend, starting Thursday.
(Madi) So here's my question to you. Do you think they're both at Breslin?
(DeShawn) No, this first the tomorrow there'll be in Indiana, and we'll be away and then they come back Sunday to play. Okay, super cool.
(Madi) So my question is, is do you think if they win these next two games, they get into the rankings?
(DeShawn) So, I mean, I think that a win over either these teams will like spot them a decent spot in the rankings right now. I mean, if you guys, we kind of talked about this earlier, as far as like the NCAA rankings, you know, it's not just college rankings have a little bit of skill points when you start to look at them. And right, so if you can add in either one of these games right now with a confident win, like, even down to the wire match, but you can see that MSUs played a really strong game, like against Iowa is gonna get to Ohio State where they can keep up and keep it close. A win in either one of these matches, I think it totally net them in the top 25 I think is a winning both Well, I mean, it really gets some, what's the word I'm looking for here some exposure going to what's really going on because like, like I said, Ohio State Iowa, they're both top five and top 25 in Michigan State's been right there with him all the way up, leading to his point right.
(Luke) after Ohio State, we go into play at Michigan and then at Purdue, and then back home against Rutgers in Illinois. And then at Wisconsin. It's definitely going to be really fun to watch.
(DeShawn) Just, just like if we're ever gonna add on to the math, I want to say that they only need three more games to knit a spot into the tournament. So you can you can almost book it with the way this team has been playing. So they are really excited about being able to make it after what's been going on in the-
(Madi) And they shouldn't be. So here's a question off the top of my head. I don't know if you know this, but when was the last time that our women's basketball team beat Michigan at Chrysler? Do you know
(DeShawn) No, I do not know the last time they beat them at Christ. So I can say that. At least as far as season sweeps go with Michigan none of our graduate students have swept besides I think Julia Mo has in these only a junior but she has another basically now the roster that we have right now is how to season sweep on Michigan. So it's also kind of been a little fun cute that they've been talking about a little bit just like trying to get that office or something. You know, like most specifically Julia they're about to be you know, this is going to be their final year Tori, this is going to be all year so it's going to be I mean, I guess I'd have to find that for you. But I'm not exactly sure but like I said, I do know that they haven't slept in at least four years.
(Luke) I would I would say this would definitely be the year to do it. I mean, Michigan has been a little inconsistent their last five games. You know the on the 24th of January they beat Maryland and overtime then they lost MSU and then Illinois the loss at home and then they finally got back in the win column but beating I'd say only by five. And then the last Nebraska home. So I think I think this is definitely the year to actually sweet. Oh, yeah, for sure.
(DeShawn) The first game, if I remember correctly, the first game against Michigan, I mean, like that game, and you're turning around and saying because Michigan has, I believe the number one defense in the big 10. Right now, Minnesota is right behind them. So they've like kind of been battle tested with those games. But Michigan State got out to I mean, in early offensive flow, and it was really odd to see that expecting that you know, that you kind of expected them to come out a little slow. And not only that, their defense. I mean, I think they were like a sixth or seventh rank in the defense right now Michigan State is but it's been through the roof these past couple of games. Look at that Michigan game. They shut them down in the first half. I mean, I think they only allowed less than double digit points in the second. Oh, yeah. I think they only had like, seven point. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was for sure. Under 10. And like, I mean, like, that was a huge showing for them. And absolutely. Robin talked about, like, you know, her first time and that in that rivalry and how I mean, like she could, she knew, I mean, she's grew up around here, but the energy is completely different. And all of them believe that, you know, you never want to, like, get too big of a head about these things, especially with something like an inner rival competition. But right. Like, like you said, I mean, it's really the year if it's ever been the year for them to try and get this over Michigan.
(Jayden) One shot, I actually want to point out too, and this is going to go back to the tournament run and they can make the shooting 36% from three this year. Yeah. That is a recipe for a tournament wins tournament competitiveness right there. If you were that high, I mean, anything within 4% of 40% as a team is unreal. I mean, that is unreal. I think that is kind of a recipe for like I said, winning a tournament game, making it a deeper run into a tournament. And like we've seen with Iowa, too. I mean, we've, we've taken it to the wire with Iowa. And that's kind of their same, sort of their same strategy. So we see that it does work. But we have to obviously, match that in all facets of the game. We have the rest of the other, you know, the remainder of the year, but yeah, I think that's really going to be important going on.
(DeShawn) Yeah, definitely. I got to start the season. They were I mean, they're shooting was unbelievable. Like, I mean, like the numbers were like, it almost seemed like you couldn't trust their numbers, the beginning. And obviously things have cooled down a little bit. But I mean, like the consistency they've had from the three point line has been pretty outstanding. It's it was kind of a funny keynote, but the worst three point shooting night they've had was that net against Minnesota fencing to the Yeah, only being held to 50. I mean, they shot less than 18% from three and shot 32 less than 3% from three or from just from the field that game. So shoot, just being able to make consistent shots and find their shots is obviously a big part of their offense. Like I mean, like, like I said, BT has been facilitating, but a lot of these girls have gotten really comfortable with just where they want to shoot the ball at. So it's, it's it's definitely been a consistent part of their game so far. And they just had to keep to that. That's another thing Felix talked about just keeping consistent, you know, talking about like, kind of dynamics that we were talking about, you know, the men's basketball team as far as like what were expected to where they are now. It's another opposite thing. I mean, like, right, which is kind of expected for this team coming in and friendly talks about all the time. I mean, you didn't know really exactly. Couldn't really take any serious faces because of what's what's gone on the last couple years. What happened with merchant in the car accident last year. So like, you kind of like you got to do that math. You had coach all these things, and they're just crushing it right. Another one was crazy dynamics. And it's just been so fun to be a part of for sure.
(Madi) So we talked a little bit about that. Michigan, Michigan State rivalry and now we've got a really big one coming up this weekend that I've just been itching to talking about. We've got the Michigan State hockey team is taking on Michigan for the second time this season. They at the beginning of the year, or no it wasn't even at the beginning of the year. They split last month. So we lost is devastating. We lost 71 at home against Michigan and it was it was atrocious. It was rough to watch. And then night two went to Yoast, we were down for one in the second scored four unanswered goals ended up winning the game seven to five. So we've got a big weekend coming up. They play at Yoast on Friday and then they play at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday which is going to be a really good one and I was even talking before this like this is this is a really big weekend for them like this is gonna help them especially like clinch the number one spot in the big 10 like so they can get ahead more of Wisconsin and we've got a bye week coming up so we really need those six points. But last year, we played at mn for the second night or for the second series and then we played in Detroit so night one I think we got swept that weekend we lost to Michigan night one because they had their guys back from the World Juniors and one of those guys includes Adam Santilli who's a great well rounded player and then night to Luke you scored with point six seconds left in overtime. So it was it was a heartbreaker, but now like seeing how far this team has come this year. It's like, you split the first weekend. You're heading to Yoast. And then you just you want the revenge for what happened last year. But yeah, it's it's gonna be a big one for them. And obviously, like last weekend against Notre Dame, Trey Augustine had his third shot out of the year. So that puts him in first place out of any big 10 goalie behind them as Ryan Mitchell from Notre Dame and Justin close from Minnesota. And those are both grad students. Trey Augustine is a 19 year old freshman who is blowing everybody out of the water, and he's insane. But last weekend, they played Notre Dame kind of split. So they last night 141 They were tied for most of the game. And then their big talk this year is player whole 60 minutes. And then in that third, they kind of just lost it a little bit. I think they had two goals on tray. So it went to three to one and then an empty netter. So they want for one. And the night two, they just came out and flipped a switch for Oldham. I don't know. And we've seen that like the past three weekends. And obviously they're, they're scratching for a sweep. They've split the last three weekends against Minnesota, Michigan, and Notre Dame, and they were away at Notre Dame. So even like getting those three points on the road is still a big deal. Yeah. Getting three points on the road during a series is a hard thing to do. We did it in Minnesota. Two months ago, I think. But yeah, it's, it's gonna be a big one.
(DeShawn) Yeah, no, I'm actually like I like, you know, you've kind of been there for me throughout the first couple of like me getting into the hockey. Yeah, especially over at the State News. And I think that like, I've really gotten tuned in the last couple of weeks to just like learning about the different lines that we have in the way that we like as far as rotation. And we're gonna talk about men's basketball, like we have a really good like set rotation for the way that our hockey team, I love it. And I've really gotten into this. And so one of the things that I kind of wanted to ask you, just looking at these last three weeks, you know, you're talking about the Michigan series, the Notre Dame series in the Minnesota I'm sorry, that's four weeks. Yeah, Minnesota and then coming into this Michigan series. I don't know if it's the play that 60 minutes that you mentioned, or but what is it that as far as this team that makes them like, still so resilient in some of the second matchups that they have? I mean, like you mentioned the Michigan series, how bad I was, and then you come back the next day, you're at Yost, and you're down one to four, and you make a crazy comeback. So what have you seen that's been like displayed from this team that just makes them so scratchy? I mean, I understand losing the first game makes you want to win the second game? Oh, yeah. It's gotta be something more than that.
(Madi) It's Adam Knight and Gil. Okay. He's outstanding. Like you you see a team from the former coach. I don't remember what his name is. But this is Nightingale second year coaching. He has led them to a I think they're 12 foreign to in the big 10. Right now. 12 wins is a new program. Hi there last time that they won that many games last year, they want to Leben. And that was that's it. That's the most games that they've won in the big 10 in a conference. But Adam Nightingale has just come in and just completely flipped the script. Like he's got Jared and Michael on staff, Brad fast Mike towns like he's got a really good group of guys that are backing him up. But Adam Nightingale was just like he's never like he always says frustration is a wasted emotion. Like you cannot get down on yourself. Like that's always what I've noticed about him is he's never negative. And he's always said like, you can go in, shot out a team three nothing. And I'm gonna tell you that that probably wasn't the greatest game that we've had, but at least you want. We can go in and lose five to one and I'm gonna go into the locker room and be like, You guys played a great game. tough loss, but a great game. Adam Nightingale just always like keeps his head up. Like he has completely turned this program around and it's what they needed. Like they just they've they're scouting really good right now like obviously Artem legend off is a freshman. He's a true freshman. He was born in oh, five like, He's young. He's supposed to go top five in the draft next year. He's a defenseman. He's, I think he's just behind Seamus Casey from Michigan and leading the big 10 in points as defenseman. He's crazy. And then you've got all these transfer guys. So you've got Joey Larson from Northern Michigan who transferred and he's already beat his season high from last year at Northern. You've got red Savage, who's a junior and he's Iowa's He's awesome. He's done. Great. You've got Red Lobster as a transfer student. He won a national championship at UMass with Jared to Michael. So that was a big help having to Michael on staff now and bringing in Reid gotten Nico Muller, who came back for a fifth year. You've got nationally in houses, just an outstanding captain. And then, like every single line on that team There's no such thing as a third, fourth second line. Like they're all completely equal lines. It just depends on who they match up with the most. So you've got my favorite line on the team is red Savage, Kevin O'Connell enjoy Larson, their their chemistry together is awesome. And on the sheet, it says there on the third line there not a third line, you could go anywhere else. And they probably be a first line, but it's just how the roster is set up and how they've been placed. But I honestly I will forever give credit to Adam Knight and Gil for what he's done for this program.
(DeShawn) Yeah, I think that my first occurrence or like, my first little thing with Nightingale was amazing. Like, I mean, like he was, I mean, just the energy that he was giving off. Absolutely. And this was this after this series, was the first series I covered. Do you remember that? It was Notre Dame? Yeah, that Notre Dame series. And when they when they when they won their second match of that series. I mean, he was just I mean, his energy was through the roof. And I mean, like, like, obviously, when I went into their how to ask them questions, I feel like maybe some of them weren't exactly worded the right way, or like maybe set up. And he was, I mean, he worked with me, he was just the whole time. He was an awesome guy as far as like media relations go. And then the other thing I kind of wanted to ask you about, I mean, obviously, he gets a standing ovation every time for the game straight August. And I mean, like, what have you like, Oh, can you talk about him a little bit, man. I mean, like the stuff that's going on with him this year. I mean, he, like you said 19 years old, and he's coming here. And he's just embraced all the love and support that the school has given him so far.
(Madi) So I think what helps him the most is he's a Michigan kid. He's from South Lyon. So he's like, embrace the fact that this is where he's from. He's a freshman. He's I think he's 19 Starting goalie. He's had three shutouts this year, he was the goalie for the national team development program played at the World Juniors helped them to gold. He was drafted second round 30/41 overall pick from other Red Wings, which his hometown. And how awesome is he's just, he sees the puck so well, like he's always just on his feet. Like he's always ready for something to happen. And obviously, every team has their off days. So yeah, there's been times where you're like, how did he let him that goal? It happens to the best of us like it. It's okay. He's having an off day. And that's, it happens. But he just he has so much passion for the team. He loves everybody on the team, everybody adores him. And it's just because he's, he's great. Like, he just he has been a really big part of the reason why this program has turned around. Like, obviously, you get Nightingale, you get all the guys from the transfer portal, you've got 10 Freshmen on the team. And one of them's Trey Augustine, and he's just been outstanding.
(Jayden) I have another question for you as well, too. We get to February. And it's not often that in February, especially around here that we're talking a little bit more about hockey than we are about basketball, at least in a positive light. You know, I'm not super familiar with hockey. I'm not sure what our track record is. But I you know, I will after the last few years, I know that we're exceeding expectations in relation to recent performance. Can you speak to that, you know, Michigan being more of a basketball state more of a football state before it goes to hockey. You're a big hockey fan, I want to kind of hear what that means to you means to hockey fans, you know, on campus, you know how that kind of came about, you know, knowing that we have such a big basketball program.
(Madi) So, in years past, obviously, the state of Michigan is a hockey state, like we've got hockey town, the Red Wings are on their high right now. Like they're, they're playing great. They're in the second wildcard seed. Michigan has just blown everybody out of the water the past few years. They were back to back big 10 champions for hockey. They had a really, really good group of draft guys. They had map in New Year's oh and power, Luke Hughes, Thomas bordeleau. Erik Portillo was their goal. He was great. And obviously all of these guys leave Mackey Miscavige included to like all of these guys are leaving the program. They get a new coach, things have changed, but on the other side of it, so as Michigan State like we had, I think six guys leave last year six or seven that were seniors that left last year. We've got a new goalie, we've got a new coach, but it just seems like things have completely just flipped flopped, like Michigan was this huge talked about team and now it's completely opposite in the state of Michigan, Likud's it's all about Michigan State's hockey team. And obviously, yeah, we've been known for being a basketball school. We've got one of the best coaches. We've got a Hall of Fame coach for basketball. He's great. TOM IZZO is, in my opinion, one of the states he's Michigan State, he's that guy. But you see what, obviously the basketball team has been doing this season and you look and see what the hockey team has been doing this season. People want to buy season tickets. There's every single game that We've had at home has basically been a sellout crowd, when people want to go watch a team win and no offense to basketball. But if you go to a hockey game, there's probably a little bit higher probability chances that our hockey team is going to win over a basketball team. But they've just Yeah, I mean, we're known as a basketball school. But now everything you see on Twitter of people posting jokes is like, maybe we're a hockey school like, they've just, they've been great.
(DeShawn) Yeah, I know that I started out as a joke and yeah, slowly gotten more serious.
(Madi) Yeah. But no, it's just like, it's, it's nice to see a program come from what it wasn't to what it is now. It's just great. But yeah, now we've got the Michigan series coming up, and that's gonna be a big.
(DeShawn and Madi) He's always a crazy winners. Yeah, I'm excited. Have you been to one of them before? Have you been doing I went last year, but it was as a spectator. So I was allowed to be in there like to go green. And now it's gonna be different, but I'm excited to like, have the experience of sitting in the pressbox a little caesars arena. It's gonna be awesome. Cool.
(Madi) Okay, so I want to touch base a little bit on our tennis team. In all honesty, I? Oh, my gosh, yeah. Yeah, you did do a story about it today. You want to talk about a little bit?
(Jayden) Yeah, absolutely. So um, well, one, we can speak to the success of our tennis team, which, again, we kind of go back to the whole basketball student school thing. Yeah. Now we're talking about our tennis team, which is unbelievable. A lot of schools don't get to do that. We don't get to go back and forth. So today I did a story actually just today about Max Sheldon and Ozon Baris. I'm Boris, I might be pronouncing that wrong. I haven't been super familiar with that yet. ranked as the number one doubles pair in the country by the ITA as the intercollegiate Tennis Association. That's the major ranking factor. So that's, I mean, essentially what you know, the NCAA is right to football and stuff like that. So yeah, I mean, they had amazing years last year I was looking into it. bars is now the sixth ranked singles player in the country on top of being part of the pair that's the number one doubles you know, they went pretty far last year in the in, you know, in the tournament, beat the number one ranked team as a doubles pair of Shelton in bars. So it's really cool to see that I've seen I think we have four guys in the top 100 right now. Yeah. Um, in singles, I wasn't able to look at you know, all the doubles pairs, but you know, that's exciting. Absolutely. Really get to you don't really see that a lot. You know, bars being from Oakland, this is really cool, too. Yeah. story's awesome. This is you know, is a pretty good tennis school, but to have somebody come translate that to Michigan State. And, you know, this big, I mean, almost, I'm pretty much I would, I would label my superstar Michigan State right now. Juniors series. Unreal. Yeah. He, I mean, he was first team all big 10 As a freshman, you know, he's an All American academic, all American, I believe as well. So yeah, I mean, he kind of does it all St. Louis Sheldon. But, you know, ours is like, I mean, that's big time, you know, more to be at that high of a level right now. You know, we might see him come out, come out of Michigan State and, you know, performing on a world level sometime soon. Yeah, he's already done it.
(DeShawn) Yeah I mean, yeah, I'd say he's done a freshman. And that's just insane. I only have a quick tidbit on the tennis team. I mean, like, I haven't got to be super involved in this year. I just started this year. But I did do a lot of stuff with them at the end of last year, and I just want to say that, like, before last year, I had nothing about tennis, besides, you know, just like watching like major tennis series and stuff like that. The competitiveness and the intensity that the guys have. Matches Raizy like, it's like they're literally gonna fight on the tennis court. Right? They just translated hockey to me mean like, it's like, they are like, whoever serving they're going at it the whole time. And, you know, tennis courts. I mean, they're they're big, but they're not that big. So I mean, you can hear everything the spectator scene isn't like crazy there. Besides after sets have been done. I mean, the way that specifically and like I watched a lot of maximum of bearish matches last year, and I just really like, specifically, like a lot of O's on last year. And I mean, just the way that he plays his matches, he completely tries to keep everything to his pace as much as you can in tennis. And he just placed his strong suits so well. So like, I mean, like, like I said, it's only a quick tidbit, but I just wanted to say that I like the way that they started off this year at six o on Bing. I believe
(All the hosts) they are I'm pretty sure they're right. Yeah, no, no, no. So I mean, that's, it's crazy.
(DeShawn) I mean, like, like you'd like you said, I mean, we don't get the opportunity to do things like this that often so it's really fun to see so far, and I definitely gotta get more connected as we go. Oh, yeah, for sure.
(Luke) Kind of seeing like the final scores of the games twos 62170522524 No. 5225252 to them out of the water, water. It's crazy. It's been insane. Yeah, I mean, and then their next game is a Friday against against Clemson and then at Vanderbilt it's it's going to be an amazing season and it's it's really funny watching you know, the tennis team women's basketball, hockey, it's like all these teams. And then we have the football team. And then men's basketball. The two biggest sports on campus aren't really doing
(Madi and Luke) performing as well as we thought that they were Yeah, all these other all these other sports. It's like we're doing in tennis we're doing we're like first place in hockey. About to be first placement hockey at least. And then we're doing amazing. Women's Basketball like, it's just It's nuts.
(DeShawn and Madi) I don't have the statistics. But I've heard the woman's golf team has had an insane start to the year because Katie Lou will last with Katie she's really Yeah, I haven't during class with her. And she but no, I mean, like they're like, I've heard they've had a crazy start to the year and unfortunately, the men's golf team, on the other side of things has not had to be here. So we those dynamics happening on campus is serious.
(Madi) Oh, yeah. I mean, it is it's like you think that you come to a big 10 school and you're like, yeah.
(Luke) And then he goes, Let's watch. Well, you gotta go women's basketball.
(Jayden) Yeah, baseball last year was 33 and 22. I'm doing a preview on them for this year. And, I mean, I I'm gonna have to, you know, kind of do a little bit more research to see what the expectations are gonna be. I'm gonna talk to, you know, Coach boss and everything like that, but 33 of 22 last year, that's the highest win total they've had since 2016. I believe so I mean, wow, you have a lot of you have a lot of different sports that are not really known for I mean, the big 10 is not really known for baseball anyway. Yeah. And then you know, you lose Mitch, Jeb, you lose Brock. Ladenburg you know, you lose some pretty big guy. Oh, yeah. MLB draft. I mean, you can't do much about that. But oh, my gosh, all of our other sports. I mean, yeah, you don't want to call them other sports anymore. You know, you want to call them they are sports.
(Madi and DeShawn) Oh my gosh, that's what I was gonna talk about many different things. Gymnastics against Michigan was just, oh my gosh, they're amazing. They have been great. We've been having some runs. And I like it. Because I remember the end of gymnastics last year. I mean, how often our over the top everything was I didn't take those a big 10 championship. Did they win? I should I if I remember correctly, it was last year, the year before? I know, it was really fairly.
(All the hosts) Was it the year before? I think it was last year. I want to say that it was. I think so too, just because I remember the excitement around that. So like, I don't know how deep you guys want to get into that. But I mean, just do adding on to the fact that we have all these other sports now turning into other sports, quote, unquote, you gotta make sure you throw that on there.
(DeShawn) Because I mean, seriously. I mean, it's been outstanding. Exactly. I think it's fun to like, don't get me wrong, there's nothing that beats a great football game, football game. But I mean, hockey is getting up there. Now as far as how fun those games go. And just seeing more and more people coming to this games, like women's basketball are starting to get more and more fandom around it. Yeah, it's a basketball game. And it can be just as fun you know. And now we're starting to see more people come and it's just the, the experiences that Michigan State sports fans can have trying to get into some of the games I think can be awesome. Right now.
(Jayden) It's awesome. You know, as a baseball fan, growing up playing baseball, everything like that, too. It was really cool to see last year, you know, all these sports. But for me as a baseball fan, it was really cool. To see a successful Michigan State baseball team because you don't see that very often. You don't see a lot of success in the big 10. Anyway, Michigan has been pretty successful as of late schools like that. So I think that's really exciting. You know, we're rolling into spring sports and we have something to look forward to spring sports as you know, the winter ends you know, with the weather lately, we we could maybe say it's spring, but I don't know that might be too premature. Probably but yeah, I think that's so cool. And you know, really, really interesting. You know, baseball is coming up 16th Is their first game. Wow. I want to throw a shout out to that because, you know, keep an eye out for that and softballs coming up really soon as well. Same season. We're going to be away for a while. I believe in baseball. You know where it's too cold up here to play baseball.. Yeah. Going towards mid mid March. I believe March 23 is the first home game if I'm if I'm not mistaken. So what the what to get out there and watch the baseball this spring sports start but yeah, just want to throw a shout out to that because you know, I'm a baseball guy through and through. And I can't talk about the Tigers right now.
(DeShawn) I will say that I you know, I played baseball for a long time and I feel that TV does the sport no justice, but I watched a lot of the baseball games that we had last year just for working with big 10 Yeah, and I think there's gonna be a lot to see especially what's going to happen because you mentioned last year I mean, watching Brock Vandenberg was just I mean, yeah, he was 30 Yes. I mean, the bombs that he would hit over over their head, dude. I mean, like, they were at second. They were crazy. He was so, you know, obviously, he got drafted. And so, you know, like, you have to take a step forward as far as what the team's gonna do with that. And when Jake Boss, he's an awesome coach. I mean, he's, he's a great guy, most successful baseball
(Jayden) Yeah. So I mean, that's that's saying a lot because we haven't, you know, yeah. Had a lot of success in baseball. So yeah
(DeShawn) So yeah know, I'm definitely excited to see what's gonna come from that. And I do enjoy just the fact that you mentioned spring sports are about to get ready to go get full kick. Oh, yeah. I'm excited. Man. I'm so excited to
(Jayden) Sit down watch the baseball game.
(All hosts talk) These games now they've decided with baseball, that I'm totally
(Madi) Well, if we're shouting out the baseball team, I just want to give a quick shout out because today's national women and girls in awesome. Stay. So round of applause all the women in sports, whether it be like journalists, or communications, or any of the business side or the athletes like
(DeShawn) No, it's definitely been awesome to see the growth and obviously seeing more and more women in sports broadcasting because I think you guys are able to add so much more of a dynamic that just like that, as a whole brings journalism up to a whole new degree. So it's been so many I mean, I love working with you guys. I mean, I've had as far as just like, when it comes down to the chemistry that I'm able to make with a guy a female, it does not matter. It's the one thing that we have up here in Michigan stays at sport, whether it's sports, writing, environmental writing, you guys share a common we share we all share a common goal I'm so fun to work with. So I shout out to all the women.
(Jayden) Yeah, shout out to you. I want to say on the women bat, a women's basketball front two huge shout out to Caitlin Clark. raining a lot of basketballs. I think that kind of gets people drawn into women's basketball Michigan State too. I mean, yeah, from having a really good team right now. I mean, who doesn't want to go watch Caitlinn Clark right now.. that's brought so much attention. As for Angel Reese, I mean, amazing player, feeling clerk and phenomenal player. And I can't think of her name off the top my head right now. But there is a girl that she goes to. I think it's USC. I think her name is Judy Watkins. Yes, yes, she she is unreal. I mean, I could throw shots everywhere. But I mean, there is a new crop of basketball.
(Luke) She's the best freshman women's basketball player in the country. No doubt. Yeah. She's gonna she's gonna be the next superstar. Yeah. She's a sophomore,
(DeShawn) at least some wish to be heard as far as what we can see as far as the future of the WNBA. And what happens there. college basketball is kind of like where everyone's right now like women's college basketball, but obviously, they're gonna have to make transition that simply and I think that that can totally change what we see what we've seen so far from the WNBA.
(Luke) Juju drop 50 points on Stanford? Oh, my gosh, and I think Stanford's like, I think they're number five and number six in the country just to drop in. Yeah. I just keep getting back. She's just a freshman.
(All hosts become speechless) Yeah. Like, just crazy. Like, I she leaves me open, leaving me speechless.
(Madi) Alright, well, do we want to jump to the NFL real quick. It's Super Bowl, you can do subject lines. Yeah, it's a little bit of a sore subject. But I mean, I guess I can talk about it. I haven't had enough time to process it.
(DeShawn) So I mean, if we're just going out right with this, dude, I'm a big cheese guy in this matchup dude, I am. It's, it's a little bit of a fandom of Patrick mahomes. And what he's been able to do as far as like, making his mark in the NFL. Um, you know, regardless of I know, we can just, you know, we get out the way right now the somewhat fatigue of seeing the chiefs, you know, getting to the I got it though, because of the organizations that represented but yeah, just like I mean, the so far I think that like, the reason that I'm so like into thinking the cheese can really take this home and to see me and again, I'm standing here for them. If you really like downplay it a couple of weeks ago, I felt like everybody was down on the Chiefs like, the whole year. Yeah. Everybody's like they're done this year, like this is going to be one of the year they're they're out of it. No, I don't think anybody was like completely eliminating them. But if anybody would, if there was any time to be doubtful about the chiefs, it was then, but we are now here at the Super Bowl. Once again. Patrick mahomes has had probably, I mean, it's statistically the worst offense And he's ever been a part of yeah and they're in the Super Bowl okay so you have to give a lot of credit to the defense that events has been amazing and then if you kind of look in this is where I kind of start doing of why they're a little bit better than the 40 Niners and this chance of before and unders defense has been atrocious the last couple of weeks it has not been great at all so I don't know like I think over the last couple of weeks I've really started to realize that like obviously the the roster of the 40 Niners is impeccable I mean that shouldn't like I didn't realize that that's what the roster is impeccable. So I mean really, I mean, I'm really holding this down to like a defense wins championships for the Kansas City game they're gonna have to hold them off for a while and if they can. Brock Purdy he's obviously showing these more than a game manager but if they're going to have to make him the reason that he's a bit the fortnight is their willingness... of his entire game of his as far as Mr. Ravenna go mister really? This is gonna be the most relevant moment
(Madi) Absolutely see I'm gonna go opposite I think that like obviously it hurts the 40 Niners beat the lions but I feel like if I don't see the 40 Niners beat the Chiefs then I'm just gonna be upset. It's like we were right there like we almost had the lions but I mean, if you look at the 40 Niners roster like obviously their defense has been struggling a little bit but who knows what could happen. If you got debo Samuel Brandon I uke Christian McCaffrey, George Kittel Brock Purdy, like those are weapons right there. Players They're insane. So what does that add up to against guys like Patrick mahomes and Travis Kelce. And I say Pacheco, like what is? What's the comparison there?
(Luke) I just think they're like, Well, I mean, now you kind of tend to experience you know, as far as getting started talking, like I mean, like, don't be wrong. I mean, this Brock Purdy I mean, this is crazy to say that he's in the Super Bowl. And it's a second year.
(Madi) Oh, absolutely. And he was like, picked in the seventh round like he was one of the quarterback
(Luke) and then that same year, they drafted a trade trans Yeah. To be their God. They had that nobody had any expectations for property whatsoever. And then he became their guy.
(DeShawn) Yeah, no, yeah. And I you know, that's a that's an awesome story. I story and everything. I'm telling you, it's got it. Got it. And here, it's just, it's going.
(Jayden) I'm going I'm going Chiefs
(Luke) So unfortunately for everybody in here. I'm an Eagles fan.
(DeShawn) Oh, boy. Oh, wow.
(Luke) Whichever team wins. I lose.
(Madi) imagine a Lions fans feel.
(Luke) We were in the Super Bowl last year, and also the chiefs. And then we have like this little where I when we with the 40 Niners? Yeah. Especially with debo Samuel because he just won't stop talking. I mean, he's talking trash, but I mean, it's hard to bet against Patrick. I mean, this conversation is about him being the greatest football player that ever lived. Yeah. I mean, and I'm, I'm starting to be like, I can, I can put them up there, as we've... He's the greatest talent at quarterback we've ever seen in our lives. But yeah, Aaron Rodgers. Better than Tom Brady. Better than Dan Marino. Yeah. Like it? What can he do? It
(DeShawn and Luke) is all Yeah, accolades at this point. That is the only SampleRate is literally shakes. And he's only in like, what is seven year? Yeah. And he's accomplished this. He's already had a whole thing career. In his first five years.
(Madi) He's in his seventh year, and he's about to go for super boring. Number three
(Jayden) and let's point out to that seven year and he sat out a year behind Alex Smith, too. So I mean, yeah, he's really a six year starter. So yeah, I have the Chiefs for sure. And I think there's a couple reasons why the Chiefs defense shout out to Steve spagnolo. He's been awesome this year. Yeah, that's a total transformation. We've been harping on the Chiefs defense for years. And that's changed, and it's really not changed with a lot of personnel changes, just, I mean, they've gotten a lot better they progressed, you know, you know, good corners now, which has been a problem before. Their linebackers are really good. I mean, really gauge or tranquil. You know, you have some really good guys out there. I think the lions did something really good for the chiefs, and I think you're gonna kind of fate this. They gave a little bit of a game plan on how to score on the 40 Niners and I know that it didn't really come to fruition in the second half very often, but statistically, I think that the 40 Niners were the 31st ranked defense when it came to defending the outside run. Just going outside the tackles. I do want to say that there's a very good running back that the Chiefs have that has a lot of speed and get outside of the tackles, you know, not quite as much as Jameer Gibbs But Isaiah Pacheco is really, he's, he's, he's that guy to get outside of the tackles.
(DeShawn) Yeah, I think I heard some arbitrary comparison on Twitter this week that he's like some off brain version of like a Marshawn. Lynch. I was like, that's crazy. But I kind of understand what they're trying to say it like, they're trying to say like just the beast. I think Pacheco really showed I mean, in that ravens game. I mean, like the he was, I took it over. I don't want to I don't know exactly how you like break it down into percentages that what he did for that offense. But I mean, the Chase has obviously struggled as a passing offense. They they've been doing good on their on these, it's strange to see that all their first drives in this. And since the players are starting to have all been passing touchdowns, and they, they throw the ball down the field. But after that they I mean, they really start getting into Pacheco and treat him like a real Bell callback.
(Jayden) really what's changed their offense. And I think that's going to help them the most in the Superbowl is the fact that they are going to be multi dimensional in their offense now. You know, chiefs the years past, they've relied on the passing offense heavily. They've relied on having pretty good receivers. And then he also Travis Kelce. Are all Yeah, arguably the greatest tight end of all time. You know, I think somebody actually threw that out there today. I don't know if I agree with it yet... I agree with the Patrick mahomes most talented player of all time. And I think the end of the day, you know, we we made of all I don't know if you guys didn't like Tom Brady, I wasn't a big Tom Brady guy myself, because he won all the time. And but you knew at the end of the day, they had Tom Brady on the other side. So that really puts you at a disadvantage. And then when Patrick mahomes is on the other side, you got a severe disadvantage. So the 40 Niners pass rushers really good. But you see Chase young takes plays off every once in a while, Nick Bosa was kind of non existent against good tackles. You know, that's not to say that they're not really good players. But you know, they weren't really as impactful as they should have been against the lions, and that if they chiefs can neutralize people like that, they're going to have a really, really good time. I don't know if it's going to be a blowout say, I think it's going to be a close game throughout. But I think the 40 Niners they might be riding on a high horse right now after the game that they just had, you know, they I mean, I don't know, I honestly couldn't tell you how many unanswered points that was now that I've kind of put that out of my memory at this point. But few too many, but I mean, that show that they can do it. But also, I think the chiefs are going to take a little bit of that confidence, confidence down in the first couple of quarters. You might see by the first half, they're like, oh, wow, the chiefs are running the ball on us in the game. 10 Nothing. And we might have a little bit of a problem here.
(DeShawn) Yeah, I don't know if I exactly think that it would be a blow out either. I kind of think that is the way the game is gonna play out like the my rule base is buying the pig. I think that the cheese defense, I hope I'm like, I'm kind of thinking that they're gonna have an outstanding performance and that Patrick mahomes is just going to do what it takes to win the game. I don't, I don't think this is going to be like any Super Bowl or season's pass where like, it's going to be all him. I think this is kind of like one of those Super Bowls that Brady won, where it was just like, he basically gained manage the game and was defense take care of it. Obviously, having a Bill Belichick defense, this is the first time that mahomes has done that. And I'm perfectly fine with the way it's played out. I mean, like, obviously, there's only so many things you can do your wide receivers. I mean, you're dependent on your wide receivers catching the ball, if you're making right passes, you know, like, that's not always the same case, like you got to be a good quarterback when you know, he's making the passes that need to be made. There's only so much you can do in these situations. So I think that it's just going to be the defense is going to be like kind of like, like wearing the storm on this one as far as like just holding the offense that are holding the fort another offense down and Patrick mahomes would do just enough to get this game done.
(Jayden) I think I'll make the right throws, but it's, it's up to the receivers, right. I mean
(DeShawn) they've been doing great in the playoffs so far, like they've had I don't know, I don't know what they said to them or what they did, but they've been doing a lot better in the playoffs.
(Jayden) Yeah, and I think that comes crucial, you know, 49 or secondary is good, but it was a little bit suspect last, you know, when they played the lions, and that comes from us having a really good passing offense in general. Yeah. But you see the char various Ward out there. He's, you know, he's the number one quarterback for them. You know, he's a lockdown guy. And you have Raschi rice, who's really the number one wide receiver for the chiefs. That's an interesting matchup I'm excited to watch. I'm excited to see who's going to separate themselves. If that is not going well for Rashi rice, or if they can move them around the field. Obviously Andy Reid's gonna motion people all over the field, right. There's nobody going to nobody's gonna be on somebody all the time. But while the scantling is going to have to step up big time, and Travis Kelce step up big time. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. And you know, that's gonna be an interesting matchup with him and their linebackers. Yeah, Greenlawn front. That's Fred Warner. Sorry. That's a really, really intriguing matchup, but I think at the end of the day, Kelsey kind of takes the cake there.
(Luke) How much do you guys want to bet that the camera pans at Taylor Swift over 100 times?
(All Shades of Chocolate poster falls)
(All hosts) last posted you're talking about Buddha with the university not happy no but I mean I don't know I did the Taylor Swift conspiracy that the NFL is trying to break game yeah, I think that was so far fetched it's dude it is it's so ridiculous man it's she she draws a lot of money like the NFL isn't it a team and business as far as like trying to make money off of things like that
(DeShawn) and and then as far as her being shown on TV man you can blame NBC for that are Yeah. Dude, like just to play off one of these things and I understand and I'm I'm a huge lions fan myself. I think I just had a little bit more objectivity when seeing this. I think that obviously after the things happened with the lions in the 40 Niners game everybody was a little bit bitter around here saying that they don't want to see either these teams if I totally get it but I just have to remind you man, I like this stuff. Not even just you but the people that we're talking about. Like chiefs are all over the media. There's Taylor Swift discuss dude, you guys are mad at somebody a human being to human beings for relationship that they're having and then connecting that to the success and rigged gains for football team.
(All the hosts) Yeah. Well then when you pair the greatest tight end of all time with the most popular singer in the world or one our not a fault. It's not her fault.
(Madi) Like people are blaming her for how much she's been shown on TV and how she's huge chiefs fan. It's like well, one she's dating the tight end and it's she's watching him play football. Like it's not a big deal. Just ignore it not
(All the hosts discuss Taylor being at the games) for him when she can be there for him like it better for anything. You got the money to do it, then do it. She is an Eagles fan. And it was a little bit of a why? Come on? That's because I yeah, it's just random people just looking for something to hate on it. Yeah. Yes. Grow up. Yeah. No, I mean, at the end of day, it truly is sad because we have we're like literally putting all these hypotheticals into someone's life and relationship. Yeah. And it's it's an it's it's kind of disgusting. It is disgusting. Just leave it alone. It doesn't. It doesn't concern you. It doesn't concern you then just ignore it. I don't think that's like, true sports fans that are really getting into those debates like Twitter finger. Yes, yes. I think true. Sports fans are like, Dude, I couldn't care less about what's going on. I'm happy. I'm happy for Gozi if you're a fan, I don't care if you're not a fan and you move on. It's not a big deal. Just yeah. And we live in his life. We're living our media here. And I think at the end of the day, we know too, I mean, we can hate on the people that are running the broadcast, but I mean, that's their job. So writing about it, like you can't get mad at the ratings. When you figure out all these people didn't tune in whether you've literally watched to see Taylor on screen once whether you watch it to see it and rant about it. You still watched it. Yeah, yeah. So I don't know. Did that that whole? I'm so done. Yeah, I am, too. I'm done with it. I'm just I'm a little sick of hearing about it anymore. It's a shame that the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. And that's all you're gonna hear, Oh, they're gonna some big picture. Taylor's gonna go down to the field and take a picture with Kelsey and they're gonna get bashed, just turnm off every single social media that you use when it's just like, you just don't want to look at it. Yeah, because if you don't want to watch that bashing all over the next day, right.
(Madi) I do want to give one final shout out to Kirk Cousins because he was at the football game last or not the football he was at the Michigan State Minnesota basketball game last night. It was so cool. Like seeing his pictures on our Instagram. Like, that's awesome. Like kerkia He's a Spartan for life. So just know he supports from anywhere. It's awesome.
(DeShawn) Yeah, I love Kirk for that for sure. Yeah.
(Madi) I thought that was awesome. You watched I was gonna say because you and I were talking recently about the quarterback. Yeah, the show he was in that wasn't it?
(DeShawn) they um you know like, I feel like they made Kirk look like such a dad in the documentary but it was so so how like so interesting, right? He'd be in the field and I'm like make Curtis's a regular guy. Like they literally made it seem like like in that documentary. Like any of those quarterbacks. Maybe besides Marcus. You could see them out in public and be like, Oh my God, but then have you seen Kirk in public? Yeah. Whose dad he was that? What is he wearing? Like when his wife was talking about picking out his clothes I love Clark man. He's always gonna be awesome
(All the hosts) He has a special spot and East Lansing for many other quarterbacks but Kirk Cousins. He's that guy. Yeah, go change, man.
(Madi and Jayden) All right, you guys. I think that's you guys have anything else you want to talk about? We can sit here for hours. We could probably too early for football, so we can't really get
Yeah, no more football except for the Super Bowl.
(All the hosts) What's? What's the spring game coming out for? April 20? Oh, yeah, not too far away. It's exciting time with the new head coach. Yeah, I'm excited. That's gonna be fun. He's awesome. He's mentioned face all over campus. He's been great.
(Madi) Just seeing like, how involved he wants to be with everything. Like, he's just so supportive. And it, it shows it's awesome. It's awesome to see
(Jayden) the players talk very highly of Jonathan Smith. I've talked to a few and they they loved
(Luke) a little surprising. You know, when seeing how many guys returned from the transfer premium or just, you know, just returning back to the team? Yeah. You know, I thought that was that was really cool to see. For sure. I think Jonathan Smith, I think he can be the guy
(Jayden) it's some Johnson Smith. I think I mean, this is going to go down a wormhole but I think a little bit and I owe money to... I'm a Miami Hurricanes. So we'll get to Florida, Michigan State football. I do sport. You know, I grew up around here. But yeah, we'll leave it at that one.
(Madi) Sounds good. All right. Well, this is today's episode of the Roundtable. I'm glad that we all could make it. Yeah, absolutely. I'm Madi Warden
(Jayden) I'm Jayden
(DeShawn) I'm Deshawn.
(Luke) I'm Luke Joseph.
(Madi) We'll see you guys next week.