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00:00Actually, we start off with the field of 68. Let's get it started. The number one seeds of
00:04the NCAA tournament, in case you missed it late yesterday, we've got Duke, Auburn, Houston,
00:10and Florida. Those are the number one seeds as it all begins tomorrow night. Now, naturally,
00:16of course, everyone talks about the snubs, who's in, who's out. The last four in, Texas,
00:21North Carolina, Xavier, and San Diego State. Those are the last four in, the first four out,
00:28West Virginia. Seemed like that was a team that should have made it. Indiana, Ohio State,
00:31and Boise State. Now, the tournament, of course, begins on Tuesday night and Wednesday with the
00:36first four. They'll play those games in Dayton, Ohio. North Carolina, a controversial entry into
00:41the tournament. They will take on San Diego State, where UNC is three and a half point favorites.
00:46Alabama State, three and a half point favorites against St. Francis. And then on Wednesday,
00:50we've got Xavier taking on Texas and American taking on Mount St. Mary's. In terms of winning
00:54the national championship, Duke is hoping to have, of course, Cooper Flag 100% healthy for
00:59that tournament. They are three to one to win the NCAA tournament. The Gators are four to one,
01:03followed by Auburn at five to one, Houston, seven to one, and Alabama at 19 to one. Everybody else
01:09is 20 to one or more. In the National Football League, we had a huge signing yesterday. Jamar
01:15Chase signs a four-year contract worth $161 million, with $112 million guaranteed, making
01:24him the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history. Tee Higgins also got a new contract,
01:31four years, $115 million. So both of them are returning to Cincinnati next season.
01:39At the Players' Championship, three extra holes were needed this morning to determine a winner.
01:44I know a lot going on. Rory McIlroy wins the Players' Championship. He defeated J.J. Spahn
01:48in a three-hole aggregate playoff this morning. The conditions were rough, but he picks up his
01:5428th PGA TOUR victory, also the fourth player ever with multiple wins at the Players' winning
02:01multiple majors titles. Now, as far as the NCAA tournament is concerned, it's not all about the
02:05one seeds. We know they lose sometimes, not often in the first round. We'll see. But guess who's the
02:10number two seed in the NCAA tournament? That would be St. John's. After winning the Big East
02:14tournament, Rick Pitino becomes the first coach in NCAA history to win a conference tournament
02:18with five different schools. They, along with Alabama, Michigan State, and Tennessee, will be
02:25the number two seeds in the NCAA tournament. And St. John's will take on Omaha on Thursday.
02:31They are 18.5-point favorites. We mentioned North Carolina. They eke in the NCAA tournament
02:36as an 11th seed, lowest placement they've had since 1979 in the Big Dance. They'll play at
02:42nine o'clock Eastern in Dayton, Ohio, against San Diego State. There were some coaching news and
02:47notes yesterday, by the way, after some of the ramifications from the tournament in terms of
02:52the conference. Iowa has decided to move on from their head coach, Fran McCaffrey. He coached there
02:56for 15 seasons, 297 wins, most in Iowa history. Also, Villanova parts ways with Kyle Neptune.
03:04The Wildcats went 54-47 during Neptune's three seasons there. SEC's 14 is a new NCAA record,
03:12previous most Big East was 11 in 2011. SEC had 14, Big Ten 8, Big 12 7, Big East 5, ACC 4,
03:20Mountain West 4, and yeah, the WCC. You know those teams, St. Mary's, Gonzaga. They get in the NCAA
03:26tournament as well. As far as the women's tournament is concerned, 68 teams getting ready for their Big
03:30Dance coming up this week. UCLA, South Carolina, Texas, and USC are all the number one seeds.
03:36Stanford, by the way, missed the Big Dance for the first time since 1987. UConn and South Carolina
03:41are the favorites to win the women's tournament. Now, over in the National Football League,
03:46we also had a signing this morning. The top free agent is off the defensive back market.
03:52Derrick Stingley Jr. is now the highest paid defensive back in the NFL. Three years,
03:57$90 million, and he is one of the very best in the defensive backfield for the Houston Texans.
04:03Meanwhile, Cooper Cuff signs a three-year, $45 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks.
04:09He leaves the Rams and gets the multi-year deal that he was asking for. The Dallas Cowboys are
04:13looking for a new backup quarterback. Cooper Rush is going to be the backup to Lamar Jackson this
04:18coming season. He signs a two-year deal there. Jordan Mason was traded by the 49ers to the
04:25Vikings for a six-round pick. Mason immediately got a new contract extension. So the 49ers are
04:30looking for a backup to Christian McCaffrey, and the 49ers have also decided to bring back Kyle
04:34Juszczyk on a two-year contract, $8 million. Meanwhile, Kirk Cousins looks like he's staying
04:39with the Atlanta Falcons, at least for the time being. Looks like Michael Penix will start. Maybe
04:43Cousins will be the backup. At least that's for now. Draft is coming up next month. In the NBA
04:47last night, the Magic beat the Cavaliers 108-103, the final. Big win for them. Cleveland's 16-game
04:52winning streak officially is over. Pablo Bencaro, 24 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists. Cavs, by the
04:57way, still hold a very big lead, 7.5 games for the number one seed with the season coming to an end.
05:02The Lakers snap a four-game skid with a 107-96 win over the Suns. Luka had 33 points, 11 rebounds,
05:108 assists. The Lakers are 17-1 to win the NBA Finals, and the Suns are now in 11th place out
05:16of 14, with 14 games remaining. J.J. Reddick really happy with the performance, considering
05:21how poorly they played on the road. It was good for them to get a win at home. It is very abnormal
05:27for a team to come back from an East Coast trip and that next game, a day after the trip,
05:36come out with more energy than the other team and play harder than the other team. On top of that,
05:45we had a back-to-back, and we lost a crushing game on Friday night. Our locker room,
05:53it was dispiriting to lose that game. It was disheartening. For our guys to come back
06:00with an early start and be the harder-playing team from the beginning, that, to me, says everything
06:05about our group. Meanwhile, James Harden had 31 points. The Clippers dominated the Hornets. Final
06:12score, 123-88. Harden, 31 points, 10 rebounds. Kawhi Leonard had 23. Hey, the Thunder win without
06:19Shea Gildress Alexander getting 40 points. Seems like that's been a regularity. He went 0-5 from
06:243. Still had 31 points and 8 assists. Huge favorite to win the NBA's MVP, the Thunder beat
06:29the Bucs 121-105. Mark Dagno, the head coach, talking about SGA's performance. Despite not
06:34having a big one, they still pick up the win. Yeah, he shot the 3 well this season. He couldn't
06:40really find that tonight. He got a great look at the end of the half. I know he was mad about
06:45that not going down. He just has a great blend and found his stuff in the flow of the game.
06:52He didn't, I think, play his best offensive game tonight, but still had a very steady hand.
06:58We gutted this one out physically. That game last night, we've been on the road
07:02really since All-Star break, and then the game last night was a ball.
07:08Caruso's getting over his sickness. Wiggins is getting over his sickness.
07:11Guys are banged up. We played hard minutes last night, including Shea. To drum it up
07:18against a team like this on the road is really impressive. All right, now let's get to the latest
07:24with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Utah Jazz. Anthony Edwards 41 points, 19 points in the first
07:298 minutes of the game. Minnesota still the No. 7 seed in the West. Also, good news for the New
07:35York Knicks. If you consider 1-2 weeks a good news situation for Jalen Brunson, that's the
07:40situation with the ankle sprain. Initially, they said three to four weeks. This sort of fits
07:45within the timeline there. Major League Baseball is getting set for opening day
07:50overseas, but the Dodgers will not have Mookie Betts for that series against the Chicago Cubs.
07:56He's not going to play due to an illness, and L.A. is considering sending him home early and
08:03not playing at all in this series as they get ready there. Opening day, by the way,
08:07for Major League Baseball is coming up a week from Thursday. All right, welcome back to Newswire.
08:12Pat Evans is with us from Legal Sports Report. You're not going to be able to find Pat anywhere
08:15except for watching the NCAA tournament. It's his time of the year for Michigan State, coming up a
08:20little short in the conference, but again, No. 2 seed in the NCAA. We'll save all this for next
08:25week. We'll see how it goes. Pat, thanks for coming on the show. Appreciate it. Yeah, thanks
08:29as always, Craig. Yeah, I'm not too mad about the Spartans losing there in the Big Ten semifinals.
08:33That's an extra day arrest. That didn't mean anything. It didn't affect the scene at all.
08:37I don't think so. You know what? I'm okay. Heading into Friday with very, very high hopes. Yeah, I
08:43would agree. The Spartans were great up until that very last game there. All right, so let's
08:47get to the latest in Missouri. They legalized sports betting. Still not live. Still waiting
08:52for this to pop. Is it possible this happens for football season? Yeah, so I mean, just to catch
08:57everyone up, if you haven't been paying attention to this show when I'm on for the last, what,
09:01three years now? Missouri took forever to legalize. It went to the ballot. It was on the
09:06ballot in November. The voters said yes, barely. It was 50.05% in favor of sports betting. Verified
09:14in December, and now it's started getting going. And earlier this year, the rules were sent to the
09:21executive branch, the Secretary of State, and the governor, and the likes. Secretary of State
09:25Denny Hoskins, a foe of sports betting in Missouri, if we've followed that storyline at all,
09:32said, hey, you can't have emergency rules. This is not okay. So that put a damper on the hopes
09:38that it could launch in time for, or at least during baseball season, or the start of baseball
09:42season. And it pushes the timeline to the rules being enacted in August, August 30th, which is
09:49just a few days before the NFL season starts. And this week, we got news from the Missouri Gaming
09:56Commission that posted on their website that they're going to begin taking applications
10:02next month, that they're working with the stakeholders in the industry to say, hey,
10:07let's get this done. And I mean, we've seen a lot of states go from that timeframe of April or May
10:14to launching in time for the football season. Of course, those licenses aren't really
10:19doled out until the rules are in effect, which again is August 30th. So it is going to be an
10:26interesting timeline. If it's super efficient, if they get everything in order, I could see them
10:33launching in that first weekend of the NFL season, which of course would be great for bettors, it'd
10:37be great for the industry, it'd be great for the state of Missouri for their tax purposes.
10:42You know, the Missouri Gaming Commission does want to be careful. They're saying they're going
10:47to be live by the December 1 deadline that is in the ballot question. They don't want to make any
10:53promises that they will be live for the NFL season. So they're trying to be very careful with
10:57the wording that they're putting out there. But again, from watching dozens of states launch,
11:03this seems like a familiar timeline that, you know, it would not surprise me if they're up
11:08and running, you know, if not the first week of the NFL season, a couple weeks in.
11:13All right. So now that would be good news. The other good news for people who are betting
11:17on sports in the state of Ohio is it looks like this tax rate that they're trying to hike, like,
11:23you know, New York and get this a little bit higher, may not happen. So, you know,
11:26the other thing, Pat, too, is that I wonder how the sports book operators pivot from this when
11:31they don't get, you know, the tax rate that they want. They're sort of stabilized here,
11:36but how will sort of the state react to all of this? Yeah, this is an interesting kind of thing
11:41because Mike DeWine, Governor Mike DeWine in Ohio, has doubled sports betting tax rates before. I
11:46mean, back in 2023, he put it from 10 percent to 20 percent in his budget, and that was just months
11:52after the sports books launched there in the Buckeye State. And again, he comes out again
11:57this year saying, let's double it again in the budget. We need tax revenue. Let's go ahead and
12:02raise it from 20 to 40 percent, which, to your point, is still below that New York 51 percent.
12:08But you can tell the industry does not. They always put out statements when there's proposed
12:14tax rate increases, and that's no different here. This was this proposed rate would go towards
12:19funding new stadium upgrades and new stadiums in Ohio, so it's pretty interesting. But this week,
12:25or last week, I guess it's Monday, wow, said, you know, one of the lead lawmakers in the budget
12:30discussions in the committees, he said, you know, basically there will not be any tax rate increases
12:36in this budget. He's a Republican, so is Governor DeWine, but as we know, Republicans do not like
12:41tax increases generally. And, you know, it was this. It was marijuana taxes and also cigarette taxes.
12:48So kind of a lot of potential tax increases in Ohio, but again, a lead lawmaker in the discussion
12:54said, nope, that's not going to happen. A few other legislative leaders kind of took back and
13:00said, well, we got to discuss this a little bit and see what happens and where things shake out.
13:04And, you know, these have to be right for the Ohio citizens. So, yeah, it's again going to be a
13:10process, but it's certainly not the only state we've seen. You know, Governor Wes Moore in Maryland
13:14also proposed doubling from 15 to 30 percent. That's still in negotiations, and we'll see what
13:21happens there. A few other states had, you know, proposed tax rate increases that didn't really go
13:26anywhere. So certainly plenty of discussion around tax increases. Again, this is one that we're going
13:32to have to watch the committees and see what happens. But, you know, when a lead lawmaker
13:37in a negotiation says something's not going to make it to the final, you know, proposal or final
13:43package, you kind of got to listen at least a little bit. And finally, Pat, I wish we had better
13:48news for our friends in Texas, but it does not appear we're getting sports betting anytime soon
13:53in the Lone Star State. Yeah, I think when this session started up, or even before the session,
13:58we kept, you know, I was coming on talking about all the good positive news for those hopeful for
14:03sports betting legalization in Texas. And I think we all took that with a grain of salt, even though
14:07it was a giant snowball. It felt like, you know, you had Governor Greg Abbott come out, say there
14:12was no, you know, he's no objection to it. You've had millions of dollars poured in from the likes
14:18of the Adelson's. So there was plenty of movement there. In recent weeks, it's kind of snowballing
14:24the other way. Of course, the whole time Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's been presiding over the
14:30Senate, we've all known all along that it wasn't, he's not going to call it up for a vote unless
14:36there's a majority of Republicans in the Senate who support it. And the GOP platform in Texas
14:41is anti gambling. So Dan Patrick was an immovable object to begin with. But then you look back at
14:472023, there was a sports betting bill that passed the house. And so there was hope that you could at
14:53least make it that step again in 2025. But you know, we had one representative a couple weeks
15:00ago, come out and say, No, this is dead. It's six feet under, we're going to make sure it doesn't
15:04pass the house. Well, last week, a group of new freshman Republican representatives came out,
15:12sent a letter to the committee that it would likely start in then there is a bill of course,
15:15working it hasn't been assigned to a committee, but the committee it would likely start in,
15:21sent the chairman a note that just said, Hey, we oppose this. We're, you know, a dozen new
15:26lawmakers who replaced lawmakers who voted for it in 2023. And we're against it. So it's dead.
15:33And that was essentially what it came out to. Again, that's 12 lawmakers that voted for it in
15:402023 were replaced with these lawmakers. And it barely just by one vote surpassed the two thirds
15:47majority that it needed to pass the house in 2023. So if you're doing the math there, unless there's
15:52a bunch of new votes that just came out of thin air, it doesn't seem like the votes are there in
15:57the house again. So Texas, yeah, for those who are hopeful, it doesn't seem great news in the
16:04Lone Star State coming out of their house of representatives. If you're looking to even get
16:09back to where you were in 2023. Is that terrible in the long run? No, again, because Dan Patrick's
16:15still there. And we didn't expect it to go through the Senate anyway. So it's going to be waiting
16:20till 2027, at least in Texas, it seems like, because of course, the legislator only meets
16:25every other year. So that's there. But I should note last week in Hawaii, a kind of a surprising
16:33state, you know, it passed sports betting, passed the house, and it's now passed two
16:38Senate committees. And so who knows, Hawaii could be just under the radar and surprise everybody out
16:45there. Yep, I would agree. And it could be interesting to see if anybody out West gets
16:49something done as far as sports betting is concerned. Pat, great stuff as always. Enjoy
16:53the hoops this week. Maybe I'll catch up with you soon. Thanks again for coming on.
16:57Yeah, thanks as always, Craig.