Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] The numbers told the story, they always do. So, all those idiots who believe in analytics- This is a numbers game with Gil Alexander on VSiN. Good Friday morning to you. 0:10 There's a numbers game at VSiN, the sports betting network, vsin.com, Game Plus, iHeartRadio, YouTube TV, and of course Sirius XM channel 158. It's great to be alive. It's great to be American and alive. 0:20 What a time of year. That's right. Sweet 16, Major League Baseball. Rock Flag Eagle. What a country. It's Gil Alexander. It's Kelly Bidlin. I didn't really plan on going patriotic at the start there. No, I, I liked it. 0:30 I enjoyed it. It just came out of my soul. I tapped my soul and that's what came out. Uh, what a show on Friday. Do I even have to, do I even have to say it at the top as to what a great show we have on Friday? Um, Dr. 0:41 Bob will join us with his college basketball plays tonight, Sweet 16, the pioneer of, uh, predictive modeling in sports betting. Dr. Bob will join us here this hour, as will Chris Felica, Steve Fezzik. 0:54 Fezzik has so many topics to talk about, uh, with us sports betting-wise that have got his goat. One of the many, uh, meanings of the word goat that we use. Mm. Mm-hmm. Got his goat. Do people still say that anymore? 1:04 No, no, no. No, nobody. Uh, and then heavy, uh, then we transition also, well, not only college basketball, but Adam Burke will go college basketball and baseball with us, VSiN managing editor. 1:13 And in moments, Jensen Lewis will stick around, right? He's taking, like, a bathroom break here. Yep. He will stick around and we will talk- And redo the makeup... [laughs] That's right. 1:22 [laughs] And, uh, and we will talk Major League Baseball. And you know how people are like, "Okay, you don't wanna overreact to day one"? I want Jensen to overreact to day one. [laughs] That's my whole point. Right. 1:33 Well, I already told you, we were sitting there watching the games last night, Marlins/White Sox, uh, World Series exact in the account. Let's go. Yep. Well- Playing, playing. Don't- I'll have-... don't bet that. 1:44 I'll have a question for him regarding that. Hey, uh, V- the, the, uh, VSiN bracket challenge, let me just start with this. Uh, Kelly, I'm, I'm trying to call up the, uh, the standings here, Kelly. 1:54 First of all, in the main standings, the one that actually counts for listeners, grand prize $3,000, [laughs] second prize 1,500, third $500. 2:04 Now, it's the middle of the Sweet 16, so, uh, we can't really square the standings yet because you get four picks over the two days, Thursday and Friday. 2:13 So some people have played four, some have played zero, some have played three, two, one. You get it. So the standings aren't square. But Brandon Sig right now, first three letters last name, in the lead 26-7-0. 2:26 But that'll, that'll change perhaps after today. Say the record again. 26-7-0. Jeez. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. 2:34 These are also, by the way, staggered scoring, right, so it's one point for the first round, two points for the second round, four points for the Sweet 16, and even still, 26-7-0, that kind of trumps all of that 'cause you're like, "You're still going 26-7-0 over all of it." 2:47 I, I love, I love when we do things like this, right, 'cause when you look at the top, right, and you say 26-7-0, you're like, "Man, I hope you're betting every one of these." Yep. 2:54 But then you look at the bottom and it's like, "I hope you're not betting any of these." [laughs] I hope you're not betting all these. 2:57 Now, the VSiN standings, which is the VSiN employees, hosts included all in there, right? Our buddy Miles Gwinn behind the scenes. What is Miles these days? Is he COO, emperor? What is he? What is his title? 3:08 I believe that's exactly it. I believe that's what it is. Yeah, I believe he nailed it. Miles, 21-11-1. Miles currently in the lead. Again, halfway through the Sweet 16, this is subject to change. 3:17 Kelly Bidlin tied for sixth. Plummeted after I didn't play the two late games yesterday. Well, yeah, that's just how it goes. I, I'd, I had risen to second. You had. Kelly Bidlin in sixth, yours truly in 17th. 3:31 Kelly Bidlin in sixth. Yours... If Duke had covered, you and me would've been probably, like, tied for fourth or something. Still got two alive in this round, though. All right. You're sixth, I'm 17th. 3:43 [laughs] Still at least 16-15-1, though. [laughs] I, dude- Well, I thought my record was better... I'm, you don't wanna know my record and I'm in 17th. 14-18-1. Yeah. 3:50 But I do that clever thing where I get better when, I got better as the tournament went on, so I'm the sneaky freaky brother- Right. Yeah... sneaking in from the rear kind of thing. That's all that matters. 3:58 We were just talking about it in the back- Oh, yeah... like, me and the crew. Like, it's, it's- I'm, I'm gaming the game. 4:02 It, it's a great contest 'cause even if you do forget a day or something like this, Gil, like, you can, if you, if you forgot a day early in, in the early rounds, you can still make up ground- I-... 4:12 because the points are worth so much... Kelly, I lost eight in a row. Yeah. I lost eight games in a row, and I'm still trying to win this thing. What'd I say last time? I go, "Clearly I'm the man to beat." 4:19 [laughs] Clearly. Clearly. Clearly. Clearly I'm the man to beat. We, uh... 4:22 There's also, there's also some, uh, rumoring going on amongst the crew of, you know, should members of management ownership, you know, really be able to be up there in the standings. Oh, sure they, sure they should. 4:33 Yeah. I, I think they should, too. Just so they can hold it over our heads also. Yeah. I like it. Yeah, yeah. Uh, as far as the basketball last night, I mean, we finally got our classic, that's for sure. 4:43 Uh, Arkansas, Texas Tech, what a ball game that turned out to be. We finally got just a truly awesome basketball game, and kind of out of nowhere, right? 4:51 Because Arkansas was winning this game as a 10 seed, the only remaining double-digit seed. They were winning it by 16 with the, uh, at the 10-minute mark of this game. 5:00 Winning by 16 at the 10-minute mark, then Texas Tech rallied, but Arkansas got it back up to 13, uh, with under five minutes to play. 5:09 Got it back up to 13, and then the run for Texas Tech down the stretch that ultimately forced overtime, and the Red Raiders win it in OT 85-83, which means [laughs] that my Elite Eight among, you know, mine among millions re- still remain intact. 5:24 It's amazing. I've never g- had an Elite Eight intact ever in my life. That's wild. This year it just keeps getting through. But I just wanna say this about the game. 5:30 Now, w- Kelly and I, along with, uh, Michael Montesano and Carl Sack, we were watching at a sportsbook, so you don't get the audio for every game, and I was mentioning this. Will had me on his podcast. 5:39 Will Hill was kind enough to have me on his podcast yesterday, the Shoulda Been More pod, and I mentioned this with him. So we had the audio for the Duke-Arizona game. 5:48 And by the way, Duke scores 100 points and doesn't cover against Arkansas. When you tell me they have 100 points- Yeah... all day long I'm telling you they're covered, but they didn't. 5:57 They couldn't stop Arizona, I'm sorry. So we're getting the audio of the Duke-Arizona game on the big screen as that game's winding down while Arkansas-Texas Tech is playing on, in the, uh, the smaller TV. 6:06 They eventually switch to it for overtime. But- It gets down, so they still, they bring the lead back up to 13, Arkansas does, under the five-minute mark. Texas Tech rallies. 6:16 They get it within three, and under the two-minute mark, Arkansas gets a three-pointer to push it back up to six. Texas Tech misses a shot, and Arkansas has the ball up six. 6:31 And so we don't have the audio on this, so I'm just asking the listeners, as I asked Will, and I'll tell you what Will's response was. I go, "But to me, the biggest moment of this game happened at this point." 6:40 Uh, t- Arkansas misses a shot. Johnell Davis gets the rebound for Arkansas, and a tie-up is called, right? He, he, the ball might've been tied up in his hands on the rebound for a split second. Yeah. 6:54 Usually they let it go a beat or two of a tie-up before they blow the whistle. These refs, it was such a quick whistle. They go to the possession arrow. It's Texas Tech's. 7:05 They s- they hit a three immediately, and you know the rest. They get a three eventually to tie it and force overtime, win the game. But I didn't, I didn't have the audio. We didn't have the audio. I said this to Will. 7:14 Will was nodding his head, and he was smiling. He goes, he goes, "You know what? Usually Stan Van Gundy notices or, or mentions something. He's usually good about all these little nuances, and he didn't say anything." 7:23 To me, just watching on a, on, you know, on the second screen, that was the biggest moment of the game because that was a awfully quick whistle, and that changed everything. Yeah. Changed everything at, down the stretch. 7:33 It was huge. Stan, Stan's probably like me watching some of these games where you're like, "I don't know wh- like, the NBA equivalent would not be the same as what, what happens with college basketball." 7:42 They'd let them ri- rip at it for a while before they'd call a jump ball. Also, why can't we just do a jump ball? I hate the possession arrow so much. Yeah, moves the game along. I know. Moves the game along. 7:51 Um, by the way, when I was a kid, they did the jump ball way, way, way back in the [laughs] day, before they, before they invented such a thing as a possession arrow. 7:58 Um, Alabama, y- you know, s- just absolutely 25 three-pointers made. They set the record in their game, the all-time, uh, tournament record for, for, for three-pointers made. 8:10 Uh, Montesano asked me, he goes, uh, "Guess who, whose record they sh- they've shattered?" And he... I said, "Give me one hint." He said, "The '90s." I go, "Oh, Loyola Marymount, had to be." 8:19 Loyola Marymount I think scored like 140 in one game, and Alabama just destroys that three-point record as they crush BYU, 113 to 88. 8:27 If, if you, if you throw in Duke having to stave off Arizona last night as something, Alabama's had actually the easiest road into the Elite Eight of the teams that have gotten there from last night. 8:37 Robert Morris gave them the toughest game. Um, so Alabama advances as well. And then the other one I, obviously- I'm, I'm still trying to figure out, Gil, what we saw in the beginning of that game, though. 8:46 Uh, uh, me, me and you were joking about the two feet, uh, two-foot passes BYU was getting right under the rim- Alabama kept-... that were so effective. Like- Alabama kept losing a defender underneath. Yeah, yeah. 8:56 I was like, "What are we doing?" That, that part's still a concern with them going forward. 8:59 It- But that, that offense, man, when it's on, it's on And no whistles, so they, it was just f- free flow, free gym, you know, as we, as they used to say in elementary school. Free gym, everybody, for Alabama. 9:09 Uh, but I do wanna talk about Maryland for a second also because I have a bunch of Maryland friends. Florida beating Maryland by 16. 9:16 Remember my whole handicap, and I think a lot of people's handicap, for those of us who had Florida- Mm-hmm... Florida minus the points yesterday, was, look, it's the Crab Five. 9:24 At some point you're gonna get worn out, and Florida's gonna pull away. That's exactly what happened yesterday, right? Maryland played with them in the first half. Florida b- blew it open in the second. 9:34 And it's so funny, 'cause all my Maryland fan friends, l- literally I could've gone four, three, two, one right after the game and predicted I was gonna get a Kevin Willard text. 9:42 And of course I did from, from my buddy, who's like, "Oh, Kevin Willard, they were totally unprepared." 9:46 Like, completely putting blame on Willard because of all this, you know, all this stuff about Willard going to Villanova, and Maryland fans justifiably in some cases, they, they hate him. I get it. 9:55 But this was not because Kevin Willard had them unprepared. You know, "Oh, well, they didn't come out in the second half." No. It's exactly what the handicap was. 10:03 Florida d- literally Maryland had three guys who scored their first 30 points, and their entire output of 71 was scored by four guys. That's Maryland. You're not gonna beat Florida in the end, uh, doing that. 10:13 So it, uh, I get it. You hate Kevin Willard, but you, the, the loss is not on Willard. 10:17 The other thing I wanna just say, and this is off, off the game itself, but it's driving me crazy in, in mainstream media and also just Maryland fans talking, or just general fans talking about Willard, 'cause it's easy to pile on Kevin Willard speculated to g- to go to Villanova to be their head coach. 10:32 Everybody's... You know, I keep trying to get at this. People give me the reason. Why, why is Villanova a better job than Maryland, right? Hmm. 10:40 It's a valid question that people should ask, but people should also try to get to the reason. Valid answers that do not cover the subject are, "Oh, well, Villanova has a more storied history." 10:50 Okay, that's not a reason to take the job. Willard, Willard being from that part of the country is a more valid reason than Villanova being a storied job. 10:57 My whole thing to my Maryland fans and to some of the mainstream medias that don't flesh it out is, is, okay, w- please explain again, wasn't Mary- Maryland's, first of all, is a Big Ten school. 11:08 You're leaving a Big Ten school to go to Villanova? Maryland's supposed to have all that Under Armour money, right? What happened to all that Under Armour money? 11:15 By the way, they say, "Oh, he's not, he's not happy with the way he's being treated at Maryland." They offered him one of the top 10 contracts in college basketball as a coach, so it's not that either. 11:24 The point that no one's making is, and this is a new thing with NIL that, that people have to seize on, there's going to be a salary cap at some point, and it could be as early as next year. 11:35 And the reason Villanova's a better job is 'cause Maryland, it's not about your program. It's about the athletic department. 11:41 And Maryland basketball has to deal with Maryland football and Maryland's women hoops, whereas at Villanova, men's basketball doesn't have to deal with any of that. 11:48 Coming back, Jensen Lewis on baseball, Numbers Game coming up. [upbeat music] A Numbers Game on VSiN, the sports betting network. Wanna bet smarter? Start with smarter insights. 12:03 Right now you can check out Friday's Sweet 16 game previews, Greg Peterson's best bets in college hoops and Major League Baseball, Tyler Shoemaker's women's Sweet 16 best bets, and later today, not to be outdone, Zachary Cohen's best bets in the NBA, Adam Burkes' MLB best bets, Steve Makinen's MLB analytics report. 12:19 All that, to get access to all the articles and betting guides on vsin.com, right now you can sign up for as little as 9.99. 12:25 Just head to vsin.com/subscribe to sign up Today, Skill Alexander, uh, Jensen Lewis kind enough to, uh, hang out and join us in studio. 12:35 He, of course, the co-host of By The Books, which precedes The Numbers Game every day here weekdays at, uh, at VSIN, your co-host being Dave Ross. Jensen Lewis, first time on the show. How you doing, man? I'm good, good. 12:45 It's, I was telling you before, uh, I usually have you guys on once we finish because that's my breakfast time on the East Coast. 12:52 [laughs] And so, uh, get to hear, uh, all your great stuff, and I, I am excited to start tailing you for tennis, uh- Uh, well-... as the guru, so. Well, let me tell you something. 13:00 You're glad you didn't tail me the last month. [laughs] Yeah, right. You, you picked a good month to avoid. Okay, good. Yeah. [laughs] All right. Let's put it that way. Um, okay, you reminded me of something. 13:09 I hope I, I hope you, you don't mind me, uh, stealing part of your thunder here- Sure... at the top, but you just reminded me of something. 13:14 So yesterday and this week on The Numbers Game, we've had a few baseball guys, of course, our, our regulars come on. Mark Borchardt had a black and orange MLB parlay yesterday, the Orioles and the Giants. 13:24 [laughs] That hit. Yes. Uh, with Giants magic in the ninth, everybody- Yes... by the way, um, as they start, uh, uh, with that kind of thing. Then, uh, we had Joe Peta come on yesterday. 13:34 First of all, oh, we had Jon Legasa hit a 15 to 1 Orioles most runs yesterday. Oh, wow. Yeah. 15 to 1 from Legasa. 13:41 And then Joe Peta, I mentioned, he wasn't on the show, but I mentioned his picks yesterday, uh, and he went three and 0. He's off the board. A cool three and 0. Yeah. Uh, would you like to hear Joe's plays today? 13:50 Well, I know one of them, uh, that he p- yesterday, 'cause he texted me. Yeah. [coughs] Excuse me. He DM'd me and he's like, "How do you like, uh, the Guardians even with Bye bye out?" 13:59 And I was like, "I was kind of on the Royals before. I might like it- [laughs]... a little better." I was like, "All right." So, uh, so he ended up, you know, pulling that one out, an extra innings. What's he got today? 14:06 He's got the Marlins today. Okay, I liked them. Yep. Um, Marlins trying to go 2 and 0. Yep. He's got the Padres against the Braves. Yep, I'm on them, minus one. Rangers plus 102. 14:15 By the way, Marlins plus 126, Padres minus 123, Rangers plus 102 against- Okay... the Red Sox. Uh, yeah, Tanner Howard could be a little dicey there. And then he's got the Metropolitans plus 107 against the, um, Astros. 14:27 Astros, yeah. Which for those of us who, uh, have raced to 10 and, uh, March, April, let's just start here, 'cause I, so here's, I wanna, you know, people are always like, "Let's not overreact to day one." Sure. 14:38 I want you to lean- Yeah... towards overreacting. Yeah, [laughs] okay. Uh, let, so let me tell you three things I actually heard, and you tell me about these. Are these overreactions or not? Okay. 14:46 One is, okay, the Dodgers, by the way, sorry- Mm... Tigers first five bettors also yesterday. [laughs] Stop, brutal beat. Just brutal, brutal. Dodgers are 3 and 0. 14:56 They appear to be as awesome as anyone ever speculated and, and reflective of their season win total of 103 and a half. Um, could they exceed that win total? Are they that good? And if so, by how much? 15:10 I, I wanted to go under, I think, at 10, was it 104 and a half- Yeah... 105 and a half, wherever it ended up. And they remind me of LeBron years ago with the Cavaliers, where they didn't care about getting the one seed. 15:21 They knew they were that good. It didn't matter what seed. They'd just get in, let's get healthy, and we're gonna run the table, and they did. 15:27 I could see a little bit of that if there is a, an attrition in the rotation or, or overall in the pitching staff. You remember the last couple years, I mean, they've gone through a boatload of starters. Um- Oh, yeah... 15:39 and I, and I think that they understand that, you know, the regular season is a warm-up, and that's how they've kind of treated it. So could they get there? Yes. 15:48 I do think they're gonna face resistance in the National League. I think within the division, Arizona's gonna play them tough. I think San Diego will as well. 15:54 Uh, the head-to-heads against, uh, Atlanta, when Atlanta's finally healthy, 'cause I think that from a scheduling standpoint they'll be okay there. 16:01 The, it's, it's just a matter of the motivation when you get to September. Like, do they wanna keep doing it, or is it that taper period where- Yeah... we know we're here for October? 16:10 So this is so great to hear it from you, a man who actually played the game. [laughs] Jensen played for, for the Cleveland Indians at the time. 16:15 But that's, you know, we speculate, as bettors, we speculate about stuff like that. Yeah. Well, do they really care at the end? We're doing it with the, with OKC in basketball now. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. 16:23 Do they care enough to get to 70 wins? But you, what you're suggesting is it actually is a thing. We're not imagining that. 16:28 If you're an over bettor there or you already have over in pocket, you're hoping that, uh, in Atlanta or a Philly or the Mets, you know, just thinking of those teams, uh, can push them for the number one overall seed or a first round bye. 16:42 Barring something unforeseen- Yeah... we would assume that the Dodgers get at least the two seed, if not the one. 16:48 Ballpl- ballplayers in organizations don't care, but like, like the Seattle Mariners, what was it, in 2000 was it? Yeah, 116 or- Uh, 116. Yeah. Mm-hmm. They wouldn't be interest- like we would say, right? Mm-hmm. 16:59 We'd have them more and be like, "I don't know, they'd get to 117- Right... and break that record." Yeah. [laughs] But w- that's kinda nonsense. Doesn't equate. Doesn't equate. Doesn't equate. 17:06 And, and honestly, for, for how analytically driven that front office is, Brandon Gomes and I go way back. We played to- together in the Cape Cod League. 17:13 And so I knew him then, and seeing what he's doing now, it's, you know, you put the genius of Andrew Friedman, you know, with that machine, and it's a literal machine- Yeah... uh, that they have. 17:24 Um, I, I think there's a lot of information with those guys now who are like, "Okay, we don't need to dial this in all the way through 160. Like, we're not expending ourselves to win the regular season. 17:36 We're here to win back-to-back World Series." And if they need to dial it back and shift down just to make- Yeah... sure everyone's healthy, they may do that. Our sense of history is not theirs. No, correct. Right. Yes. 17:45 [laughs] Yeah. By the way, do you m- we talked a little bit about this off air yesterday, but do you, do you get a pang yesterday when you watched opening day? 17:51 Yesterday was unique, Gil, because it's the first opening day I've had in probably 13 or 14 years where I was not at a stadium or in a studio- Okay... uh, d- covering the team. 18:02 Uh, and I loved it because sitting back here I'm like, "God, I have everything in front of me." It is so cool. So great. And it's so awesome from this time zone. 18:11 I, I lived in Scottsdale for four years when I transitioned from the Indians to the, uh, the Diamondbacks, uh, played with the Cubs, and that was my favorite part, was the off-seasons where football started at 10:00 AM. 18:21 [laughs] Yesterday, and, and again, I've said this, uh, we joke in the Lewis Ross administration, a day one executive order is you must have at least one 1:00 PM start Eastern Time- Oh... on opening day. It's a travesty. 18:34 That was, that was brutal. It's a travesty. So- Also today's kind of brutal too. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. 18:38 And, and I get it from the scheduling 'cause they do that for, uh, you know, potential rain, rain outs, so that everyone gets their home opener within a day or two. 18:45 But I, I honestly loved having- The atmosphere here, uh, Greg Maddux, a childhood hero of mine, so, um, unique setup, and it was a unique day. 18:56 So it was, it was fun to be able to take in all those games, not have to concentrate on just one of them, so I loved it. Good. I'm glad you, you- Yeah... 19:03 you're, you're far enough along now where you're not like, "Oh, I wish I was a-" Yeah. [laughs] Uh, Greg Maddux, a, a yearly tradition now it feels like here at Circa. Okay. A couple other things heard yesterday. 19:11 So both the White Sox and the Marlins win. Yep. 19:14 Obviously, lined as the worst two teams in baseball, but also perceived that way just beyond the betting markets, and yet they win their first game, and the White Sox crush the Angels. Mm-hmm. 19:24 And so the person next to me immediately goes, "Hey, what's the price on the Angels for the worst record?" [laughs] Is that a valid overreaction? 19:31 Oh, April, March and April I've always dubbed as overreaction, both in the best and worst ways. Yeah. So if your team won yesterday, oh, God, this is the year. Ah. We're doing it. Yeah. 19:41 Uh, and vice versa as, as you experienced. I, I actually looked at St. Louis for a super-duper long shot- Hmm... that if they were gonna be the most lost team. 19:49 I, I looked at them just from a, "If we're gonna scuttle the ship, if we get out to a horrendous start, then it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Arenado's gone. What do you do with Sonny Gray? 19:59 Like, y- you might as well just rip it down to the studs." So that was a super long shot if that were to come through. The Rockies I think will be better. 20:07 I, I've never seen as bad a team as the White Sox was last year, and, and Grady Sizemore's my teammate. God love him. Yeah. I asked him, I'm like, "What do you do?" He goes, "I w- it wasn't really incumbent upon me. 20:18 Yes, I was on the staff." [laughs] Yeah. "But it was more of, well, I can't worry about that. I gotta show you in a three-week span that I can do the job." Right. 20:26 "And I can get these guys motivated to play when this is still hanging over us." 20:30 So I think they'll be better, but Gil, man, I, I mean, you look at some of those, some of those lineups that potentially could be out there, and you mean- A gimmick... you got Mike Tauchman on the IL. Yeah. 20:40 You still don't have full-strength Chicago White Sox. Full bore. What does that look like? [laughs] That's right. I mean, that is ridiculous. So I think they'll be better. 20:49 I don't know if they can escape another 100-loss season. Um, okay, so I'm hearing not so much on the Angels then. Yeah. Okay. The, and the one other thing, Mackenzie Gore comes out for the Nationals yesterday. 20:58 Six innings, uh, no runs, one hit, 13 Ks, and I believe zero free passes if I'm not mistaken. He was a long shot Cy Young, uh, play for me. That, that was, so that was the next question. Loved it. 21:09 Is there a Cy Young play? Uh, you know, just again, you get that kind of value. 21:12 We're now starting to see the real fruits of the Juan Soto trade come to bear, and for him, he took such a big step last year at the end of the season, and now to have that kind of a start a- against that lineup, too. 21:25 And Philly traditionally has, you know, been very good against the Nationals. So to see that was, was very encouraging to say the least. Yeah. So you, you are in support of that kind of reaction? Yep. Mm-hmm. Okay. 21:34 By the way, two batters later, of course- [laughs]... Bryce Harper's like, "Oh, you're not in?" Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. Mackenzie Gore's out. Here we go. Uh, okay. 21:40 And what did y- I'm sorry to, uh, stole your thunder with all our, our other, uh, guest picks, uh, early. What did you land on today? Um, so far in pocket under in the, uh, Athletics and the Mariners under seven. 21:50 Uh, minus one on the Padres. I'll ride with Joe, uh, on that. I may look at the Red Sox, uh, minus one again. Uh, jump on that. 21:58 Uh, we'll kind of see, uh, where it's at, but you know, again, you're just kind of remembering, all right, starters are still working into it, how quick's the hook, bad bullpens, Reds. Ugh. 22:07 You know, like, you, uh, uh, Braves still trying to figure it out. Rangers still trying to figure it out at the end. So, uh, those are the things I kind of hone in on the first couple of weeks. Okay. 22:15 Uh, you have carte blanche. Whatever you wanna come on the show, seriously, whenever you wanna come on the show, you just tell us, and we'll make room for you. Roger that. Sounds great, man. 22:22 We'd love to talk baseball with you, and anything else you wanna talk about. Sounds good. Doesn't have to be baseball. [laughs] A White Lotus, whatever it is. Yeah. Oh, God. I don't know. We gotta catch up. 22:29 We'll catch up on the plane. [laughs] Oh. Jensen Lewis, everybody, uh, co-host of By the Books, uh, which precedes A Numbers Game here every morning. Kicks off the day here at VSiN, V Sports Betting Network. 22:40 Uh, we'll come back. Dr. Bob and his Sweet 16 plays next right here at V Sports Betting Network. [upbeat rock music] A Numbers Game on VSiN, the Sports Betting Network. 22:56 Edge Boost is the first ever bank account built for bettors ensuring all gambling transactions are approved. No usage fees, no minimums. Earn cash back rewards. 100% approval for all betting deposits. 23:05 Sign up today at edgeboost.bet with promo code ANG. That's promo code ANG. As in A Numbers Game. That's what I thought you said. Deposit $25, and Edge Boost will match the deposit. That's edgeboost.bet. 23:20 It's Gil Alexander. Ladies and gentlemen, can we do a wide shot here of, uh, me and Kelly? This, this is, this is Kelly Bidlin now in the chair [laughs] after Jensen, after Jensen Lewis was sitting next to me. 23:31 This is what happens when former professional athletes, uh, come into the studio- They get you... and sit in your chair. 23:35 That's how I, that, that's the, uh, that's the seating embodiment of how I felt when, uh, Candace Parker was at the Aria. Yeah. Uh, did I tell this story on air ever? I can't, I don't know what I tell on air or off air. 23:44 I mean, you've told it to me 17 times, and it's a great story. Candace Parker was there, um, at the Aria. She's 6'4", right? And she's, you know, objectively a beautiful woman, right? 23:55 And but with 6'4", I just remember thinking to myself, I'm like, [laughs] "Oh, my God," like a person like this would, it was, it's like the Chris Rock. 24:02 Do you ever hear the Chris Rock story when he, uh, not, not that I was trying to talk to Candace Parker, by the way. Let me just explain that. 24:07 But Chris Rock tells this story about, um, how he, he was divorced, and he was talking to, he was trying to talk. He was at an event with Rihanna, and he was like, "Oh, I'm gonna go talk to Rihanna." Yeah. Right? 24:17 See what happens. And Chris Rock said afterwards, he goes, "Uh, not only d- was she not interested, she viewed me as asexual." [laughs] So this is the seating embe- This is the seating equivalent of that. 24:29 Do you feel emasculated right now? I f- I feel so beyond ridiculous. [laughs] The, the two shot is just, I mean, l- look at this. 24:36 It l- it looks like I'm purposely just, I don't know, like sitting, sitting cross-legged on the floor. That's so great. Which I basically am. You wanna prop that up, or you just gonna do the segment like that? 24:44 No, no, I was waiting for a good time. Oh, okay. But I guess there's not really a good time, so yeah. Uh, we get, I'll read tweets so that you can, um, handle that. We get tweets at Beating The Book. 24:51 Always appreciate the, uh, the feedback from everybody. This is from, let's see, Prime Time, Cowboys underscore, uh, Cubs one. "Hey, hey, hey, hey. Yo man, what's happening?" 25:03 It gets longer every time now Uh, he said, "Still having a tough time with thoughts of Bass Winter singing Uh-huh and Boom earlier this week. Disturbingly funny. 25:10 I've got a lot of problems with you people," he says to us, "and yet I still listen. Happy Festivus." Thank you, uh, Primetime. We appreciate it. "I got a lot of problems with you people." 25:18 Uh, this is from, let's see, Told You Fade You. "Happy Friday, gentlemen. Long time listener from Canada." He said he's got a tennis play today. "Mencik to beat Fritz. I can see him winning in three sets. 25:28 Keep up the good work. Hope to see you guys this summer when I come sign up for Survivor." Yes, please do say hello. Dan Abrams, author, Dr. Raz, uh, WSOP, World Series of Poker. 25:38 He says, uh, "Crackman and Gill agree it's shameful to take a- that they take away MLB dime lines. Well, based on their examples, the books were screwing themselves for years with those lines." 25:47 Um, anyway, he's chiming in on our conversation that we had yesterday, me and Crack, and, and Fez and I will have a conversation that will sort of play off of that a little later on as well. 25:56 Hoops by Hoots, "Alabama just scored again during the commercial break." Yes, they did. A Brown, "If there's time, can you have Fezzik run through hedging strategy at this point in the tourney? 26:05 Sitting on some monster futures, but of course none of them are Duke or Florida. Texas Tech 70 to 1 feels like it's time." Um, yeah, we'll get his thoughts on that. We have so much to talk about. 26:15 Um, I, I just wanna go back real quick to the point I was making about Kevin Willard, 'cause I, it sort of ran into the commercial with it. Um, 26:24 'cause everybody, again, the, the, with the, with the Maryland situation and Kevin Willard speculating, speculated to be on his way to Villanova. 26:31 Even some Maryland people were wanting to do the Beau Schembechler thing and say, "He's a Maryland man. Get him out of there before the game." 26:37 The reason that Villa- the, the biggest reason why Villanova ends up being a better job than Maryland, this is a, a macro thing we have to think about. 26:46 It's like a, it's a NIL thing that we haven't yet considered, is that when you are at a school where the program you're going to happens to be top dog, if a salary cap, some sort of regulation comes through, and even begins as early as next year, who knows, that Maryland basketball is at a disadvantage because they have Maryland football and even Maryland's women bask- Maryland women ba- women's basketball to have to divvy up their salary cap pie. 27:17 Whereas Villanova men's basketball trumps every other sport, including women's ba- uh, basketball, football, all that at that institution. 27:25 So you can get mad at Kevin Willard, and yes, he's handled it poorly, and you can express all the vitriol you want, but that's really the biggest reason beyond Villanova has a better basketball history than Maryland. 27:38 That's really the reason why he has eyes for Villanova, including that he's from that part of the country. I do think it's interesting just with the kinda tracking the, you know, following the money, right? 27:47 Where is this money coming from? Yeah. And it is, you know, like we were talking about yesterday with Maryland and the Under Armour stuff, like things that were, were st- uh, were a story 10 years ago or 15 years ago. 27:57 Um, you like, remember A&M, right? When Jimbo went to A&M and it was the big like, well, A&M's got all these big time financial backers, like they're always gonna be able to outspend nearly everybody. Right. 28:10 That's why they get... And like, my point though is these stories change over time, right? We were talking about like BYU yesterday sitting in the pub. BYU. BYU, sneaky. 28:19 Like, they're getting, you know, allegedly getting a lot of money from the owner of the Utah Jazz who owns multiple, you know, professional fr- sports franchises in Salt Lake City. 28:28 Like, it's just- And are allegedly about to pay the best high school basketball player in the country 7 million a year. Yeah. Depending on what you believe. 28:36 It's just, it, it, you don't know when someone's gonna have the money that they wanna spend on one of these programs- Yeah... and what the tie might be. 28:44 And I c- and I, I'll say it again, I can't tell you how many years I had to hear people from Maryland, 'cause I, you know, I'm from that part of the country, talk about, "We got the Under Armour money. 28:53 We're gonna outspend everybody." Yeah, yeah. And remember all those great football uniforms, it was all Under Armour money- Right... that Maryland had and all that. 28:59 And then in the end, if you get a, if you get a, uh, if you get a, a cap, all of a sudden that even playing field, right, erases a lot of what we initially thought is the driving force behind all this. 29:10 So it's, it's all about the economics of it. And, um, I just, I was just laughing. I, I could have counted down my Maryland fan friends texting in that, "Oh, Willard had them unprepared." No, dude, Florida's better. 29:21 And you got four dudes scoring. Yeah. Stop it. 29:25 I know some of this stuff is frustrating, confusing and everything, but man, I don't, there, there's still a part of me, Gil, that's just happy to see the, this kind of money involved in college sport [laughs]. 29:34 At the end of the day, the kids are getting paid, and that's all I c- that's all I really care about. Yeah. 29:38 We, we have been benefiting off of, uh, off of their entertainment value for years without them seeing a dime, and they're finally getting some money. 29:45 So I, I know it's all crazy up in the air right now with some of these schools, but at the end of the day, I'm still happy about that. All right, we get texts as well. I love it. 29:53 People who are on our show actually listen to the show as well. Joe Pita texting in after he gave out his, uh, four picks. Or I just gave out his four picks after a 3-0 sweep from Pita yesterday. 30:02 He says, "Three thoughts. One, overreaction to day one? Pfft," he says. 30:06 "I have a whiteboard hanging over the master bedroom with the Phillies magic number already dropping like [both laughing] already dropping- That's awesome... like a pinball counter." 30:14 He said, "Two, the Rockies are gonna have the worst record in baseball." He says, "That lineup, oof. And three, love Jensen. Used to be on his, uh, show a decade ago in Cleveland," he says. 30:23 And then, uh, Steve Fezzik, "The alt total under 111 and a half on the Dodgers minus 270 was really good." Minus t- I, I agree with that. Like, 111 and a half under, I'd lay minus 270. 30:37 I'd, I'd laid the under on Cleveland, which was my biggest convection but, conviction, but absolutely I would have loved that too. It's just, I think Jensen added a lot of insight there too. 30:45 Yeah, these teams don't care sometimes about the things we think they care about. Mm-hmm. 'Cause we're fans, right? Before we were bettors, most of us, we all started out as fans. 30:56 And I, I'm the first to admit, I love historical stuff, right? And, but I'm aware that sometimes we, from a betting standpoint, it doesn't apply. 31:05 So that whole thing with the Oklahoma City Thunder, I said this the other day, I have Dagnall to be Coach of the Year... 31:11 thinking that Oklahoma City might get to 70 wins, but I said the other day, I said, but the fly in the ointment is if Oklahoma City clinches home court for a potential NBA finals, meaning if they clear the Cavaliers by, let's say, more than two games with two games left, they're not running out their players, one wouldn't think. 31:29 So my whole thing with this is Cleveland, please keep winning. Please keep staying right next to OKC so that it pushes OKC to win 70. That make sense? Yeah. Or you're nodding like- No, it makes sense... 31:40 you're like, "I have no idea what he's talking about." No, no, no, no. No? All right. Yeah. No, no, no. I- M- I- It makes sense. I, I just, I, I don't know how much of that... 31:47 I th- I think you're worried about the, the margins a little bit. I don't know. I think overall, if they just keep winning, that, that's all you gotta care about. No, no, no. 31:54 But, but I, I think I am worried about the right thing, which is w- we were talking about with Jensen, which is at, at some point they don't care about the things we do. Like, we, "Oh my God, you can win- Yeah, yeah. 32:02 Right... 70 games and be the third greatest team in the history of the NBA." They're like, "I don't care. I just wanna win." No, they want home court. Yeah. They want home court. 32:07 I want home court and I want my players rested. We can do both, great. I did make a bet. Yeah. I did make an NBA futures bet this morning. Oh, what'd you do? Thought I'd get a little better number. 32:15 I'm a little disappointed. Clippers, uh, the, the new, uh, sliding scale. 32:20 I, are we g- we might start this next week of, uh, of m- Kelly's power rankings in the, uh, NBA Western Conference, 'cause they change every single day basically. 32:28 Oh, I'm sup- I'm supposed to ask you this every week, right? Yeah, of the confidence rankings of like, you know, long-term confidence rankings. 32:34 The, the question I'm supposed to ask you every week, which I have a few weeks is- Yeah... okay, if OKC doesn't win the West, who's the team that's going to win it? And it changes every answer. It changes all the time. 32:42 And look, I think that the Clippers are a really good team. I, I- All right... I'm gonna do it for JVT this year, Bob. You're back to that. Like, this is... I'm back to it. 32:50 Yes, I have circled back, and I'm not gonna say... Like, I think the Nuggets and Warriors are probably the most likely second-best teams in the Western Conference. 32:57 I think once we get in the playoffs, that is how it's likely gonna play out. But this Clippers team is built offensively and defensively to give any of these teams a run. 33:07 So the way I played this, 'cause you know I'm very, I've got a lot of bets on the Thunder to win the West. So how I did this was I did a little Exacta. NBA finals Exacta, Celtics to beat the Clippers 100 to 1. 33:17 [upbeat music] Celtics to beat the Clippers 100 to 1. 100 to 1. All right. Bob overslept. You want me to give you Bob's plays today? [laughs] Yeah, let's... Yeah, what he got? 33:25 [laughs] He's, he's on Auburn minus the points against Michigan, so we're Auburn. Oh, that's not good. And he's on Tennessee laying the points against Kentucky. 33:33 So Tennessee minus four over Kentucky, and he had Michigan, uh, he had, excuse me, he had Auburn minus eight over Michigan when he, uh, first put that out. Coming back with Chris Fallica next on The Numbers Game. 33:45 [upbeat music] A Numbers Game on VSiN, the sports betting network. Back on The Numbers Game live from Circa. Horse racing fans, get ready. 34:00 VSiN at the Track: The Road to the Kentucky Derby is live today and every Friday leading up to the Triple Crown. 34:05 With key derby prep races this weekend, we're breaking down the top contenders for this year's Run for the Roses. 34:10 Join experts Patrick Maher and Aaron Halterman today at 2:15 PM Eastern on the VSiN YouTube channel @VSinLive for expert analysis and insights. 34:18 Don't miss it, VSiN at the Track streaming live, 2:15 PM Eastern as we count down to the Triple Crown. Yeah. And if o- if only we had someone to talk horses with us. If only. New horse racing show at VSiN, though. 34:30 Check it out. Yeah, man. This is Mike Salmons, usually regularly part of it going forward. I believe he's somewhere on a beach, uh, in the Caribbean this, uh, this week, so good for him. But, uh, yeah. 34:40 [laughs] Before we get to Chris Fallica, talk horses. By the way, we talked about this last week too with, on the new horse racing show. Uh, David Shallof. 34:47 First of all, Jamie Leyva has a picture of you in that, needing a booster seat. He says, "Nice power move, Gil. Can someone get Kelly a booster seat?" 34:53 [laughs] David Shallofor, "Yo, why do I think Chris Fallica would never sleep in? Let's go." He wouldn't. Fallica's with us. 35:00 But Kevin Ryan goes, "Gil, did Bob really s- did Bob really oversleep or did his face melt off?" [laughs] His face melt off. You know, I can't feel my face when I'm with you. You know that story. 35:10 Jack Larkin from Sport Trade, he goes- Yeah... "Bob, pioneer, legend, now sleeper." You'll enjoy it, Bob sleeping in. [laughs] Uh, Chris Fallica, you're right. Chris Fallica would never sleep in. 35:19 He joins us now courtesy of the Progressive Guest Line. You can follow him on Twitter very cleverly @ChrisFallica, F-A-L-L-I-C-A. What's happening, man? Oh, not, not a heck of a lot. 35:28 I, I would never, like, sleep in and miss a segment or a hit or anything like that, but I, I've, I've had a tendency to, uh, to sleep in. A- actually yesterday, as a matter of fact. 35:39 See, our, our cats, one of them likes to, like, wake you up in the middle of the night and, like, walk on your chest or back as you're sleeping. [laughs] And so I, like, then you're up for a while. 35:49 So yeah, I literally woke up, I, I woke up yesterday morning, like, at, at 7:00, and then I went back to bed. I actually woke up, like, 10:30, so I missed the start of your show yesterday. 35:57 But, uh- Oh, that's not, not allowed... yeah, I'll, I'll sleep in every now and then if I got nothing going on. But yeah, I would never oversleep and miss a fine, uh, experience here on The Numbers Game. 36:07 I feel like- Unacceptable, but we'll allow it this once. I feel like the mandatory follow-up question whenever I hear someone say cats is how many cats? Mm-hmm. Two. We have two. How many does Fallica... Okay. 36:15 We have two, but only, only one of them is, like, the, the, the nocturnal, "Oh, I, I brought you a toy. We're gonna, I'm gonna walk on you right now." [laughs] And one- Well, Fallica and Do- He's fine... Fallica and Dr. 36:25 Bob, both cats guys. Really? Two, two cats per guy. Interesting. Okay. Yeah, I'm, I'm a pro-animal. I, I'm cat, dog, you, you name it. I like animals more than I do people. They're better. Yeah. Yeah. They're better. 36:36 They're better. Better species. Um, okay. We have a lot to get to, and we just talked about horse racing. This is a monster horse racing weekend. It is. 36:43 Uh, that includes, which you'll, you'll run up to here, but you have a few bets, one of which involves a derby favorite of yours, too. Let's start with, uh, what you got here. Yeah. 36:54 It was the horse that we were talking about, uh, weeks ago before he'd even run, Cornucopian, uh, the Bob Baffert three-year-old colt who, uh, broke his maiden, uh, in his first race at Oaklawn last February or a month, about a month, literally a little over a month ago. 37:08 But, uh, his figures sheet-wise In his debut was better than Curlin, better than Justify, and, uh, we, we know the types of horses that those two went on to be. 37:19 He is the 7 to 5 morning line favorite, uh, in the Arkansas Derby. He drew an outside post. He should be able to r- kind of, uh, break as he wants, either on top or just off of any other potential speed in the race. 37:33 But, uh, I think he's the fastest horse in the race. I think he goes on. Uh, if you can bet him at 7 to 5 pick odds, uh, in the Arkansas Derby tomorrow, I would do that. Uh, the- That-... 37:44 50s and 60 to 1s that we were talking about w- weeks ago are now gone, obviously, in the Derby pool. I believe he is still around 12 to 1 or so, uh, at William Hill Caesars. 37:56 So I would suggest a bet on that, uh, only because if he does win tomorrow and he makes the gate in the Derby, he's gonna be 9 to 2- Right... somewhere around there. 38:06 May- may- maybe he won't win the Derby, but, uh, but, but again, you're gonna give yourself a position to be able to play some other horses in the race and knowing that you've got a hell of a better price on Cornucopian. 38:16 Let me just repeat that. So his, uh, Chris loves Cornucopia to, Co- Cornucopian to win the Kentucky Derby. 12 to 1 now, not as good as what he had, but 12 to 1 now, but he races in the Arkansas Derby tomorrow. Right. 38:27 And in the event that Cornucopian wins the Arkansas Derby, you ain't gonna get near that price. So if you want to bet Cornucopian- Right... for the Kentucky Derby, bet him now. Bet him before this race tomorrow. Yeah. 38:37 Okay. Correct. What are the other two you got? Uh, the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn, which is the Philly, the big, the three-year-old Philly's race, uh, at, at Oaklawn tomorrow before the Kentucky Oaks. 38:47 Uh, I think the number one horse, Take Charge Mulady, uh, for Kenny McPeek, is interesting. Uh, jockey change going from Julian Laprida to Brian Hernandez. 38:55 Remember, Brian Hernandez is the jockey that McPeek used last year, uh, in the Kentucky Oaks to win that race with Torpedowana. Uh, he used Brian Hernandez Jr. in the Kentucky Derby, uh, to win that race as well. So, uh, 39:09 I think we're looking at a similar type situation here. He's got his main man on. The last race on the Honey Bee here at this track, total throw out. 39:17 Uh, never in it, steady at the start, never, traffic all the way around. It was 4 to 1 in that race. And, um, the winner in that race, Quiet Side, was like 10 or 11 to 1. 39:27 So, uh, Take Charge Mulady was higher thought of going into that race than the ultimate winner of that race was. Take Charge Mulady breaks from the rail. 39:34 Good price, I think that's a horse, uh, that you want to use there. And then, uh, the Florida Derby at Gulfstream tomorrow. Uh, th- they're obviously, their big race. I think there's a lot of speed in this race. 39:45 I think you're gonna see a horse like Disruptor go to the front. Uh, Neo Quadris is gonna go to the front. Uh, Madaket Road is probably gonna be near the front. Uh, Tappan Street maybe will be near the front. 39:55 But, uh, I think the number six horse, Jimmy's Daily's, is someone that you might want to take a look at at 12 to 1. 40:01 Uh, a broke maiden seven furlongs, uh, two starts back, sat off the pace, and ultimately drew off and beat a really nice horse, Disruptor, who's also in the Florida Derby here. 40:11 Uh, first race versus winners, there really wasn't much speed in the race, so they went to the front, didn't necessarily go well. Uh, finished a, a beaten second, but well clear of the third place, place horse. 40:22 Jimmy's Daily's not gonna have to go to the front here with Joal Rosario, uh, on, uh, on, on this horse's back. 40:28 I think this horse sits off the lead, and I think Jimmy's Daily's at 12 to 1 is a, a must use, at least, uh, the minimum in the exotics. Okay. Watch this transition, Kelly. Soccer, go. 40:39 [laughs] Um, yeah, I'm, I'm not gonna get too in the weeds here, because I know we probably wanna talk some hoop as well. 40:45 A- a- and look, I, I know betting parlays is, is not the, the way to go, but, uh, yeah, I, I threw together four, a four, a four-legged parlay here in soccer for tomorrow. 40:55 Um, under 1.5 team goals for each of these teams. 40:58 It's just a little of a, little insurance, uh, being that maybe you get a blowout in a couple of these games, because you got some, uh, le- uh, league leaders i- involved against bottom level teams that are gonna get relegated. 41:10 A lot of times maybe you get a late goal when teams kind of are up three or four to nil. So, uh, this is the, this is minus 145. You've got Swansea under 1.5 at Leeds. Uh, this is English championship. 41:22 Uh, Leeds is atop the table. Uh, Swansea's kind of r- in the middle there. Leeds is, Leeds does not allow a ton of goals at home. Uh, they need the three points. They should get by Swansea. Lincoln under 1.5 at Wycombe. 41:36 This is England League One. Wycombe we talked about last week, I believe. Um, they're in the midst of trying to get automatic promotion, uh, from League One to the championship. 41:45 Uh, Lincoln's kind of going nowhere this year. Uh, W- Wycombe will probably do a good job defensively at home as well. Back to the championship, Burnley, JJ Watts' team. 41:55 Again, they're there in the mix for, uh, automatic promotion in the championship to go up, back up to, uh, uh, the, the Prem. I would expect them to, this would be a lower scoring game as well. 42:04 So Bristol City under a goal and a half team total at Burnley. And then in La Liga, uh, Valladolid, the bottom level, the bottom team in the, uh, in La Liga right now. They're going, they're going down. 42:16 One of the worst teams in the league, Real Sociedad, a, a pretty good defensive team. They went through a, kind of a lull where they really struggled. 42:23 Um, th- they played a little bit better lately, but, uh, they're a team, I think they have allowed 10 goals all season at home. I wouldn't expect Valladolid to score two. So under, under 1.5 Valladolid. 42:33 Uh, Bristol City, Lincoln, Swansea, all under 1.5, all road teams, uh, minus 145. Wow, a massive parlay against human achievement- Exactly, I'm sorry... is what that is. 42:44 Uh, I, I, I, I felt a little dirty giving out a parlay- Yeah... but I, I think, you know what? A little, little, uh, little, uh, little entertainment value early on a Saturday morning. That's all right. 42:52 All right, Sweet 16 tonight, obviously, Michigan, Auburn, and Mississippi, Michigan State in the south region in Atlanta, and then Purdue, Houston, Kentucky, Tennessee in the Midwest in Indianapolis. 43:01 You have a play in the Michigan, Auburn game. How are you playing this? Yeah. I, uh, I played Auburn's team total over 81 and a half. Uh, I don't, I don't want to lay the nine, nor do I really want to take it. 43:13 Uh, we, we, we've seen for the most part the favorites ki- kind of covering, covering easily. I know Duke kind of got backdoored a little bit yesterday, and then Arkansas was the dog that covered easily as well. 43:23 But I played over 81 and a half for, for Auburn on their team total. I think, uh, Michigan is gonna have a little bit of trouble defending, uh, Auburn. I, I, I think Wolfe is a, a matchup problem on the defensive end. 43:34 Uh, I think Glad Golden is someone who can get into foul trouble. I think we're gonna see a parade to the free throw line. I think we're gonna see Michigan, uh, knock down a bunch of shots. 43:42 This game feels like it could be in that foul zone mode late, uh, which I would think would lead to Auburn, uh, ma- knocking down some free throws late as well. So yeah, over 81 and a half, Auburn team total. 43:53 All right, and speaking of that, uh, Midwest regional, you, you are making a bet on Houston to win it? Yeah, I, I, I, I'll [clears throat] I bet Houston before the tournament. 44:01 I've added more, uh, to win this region, minus 115 I think is the best price right now. At least the best price that I have access to in Connecticut. 44:09 Uh, I think they blow Purdue out, a- and I think they are just much better than Kentucky or Tennessee on, uh, Sunday. So Houston- Wow... to, uh, to win that regional. I share your confidence today against Purdue. 44:20 I'm not sure I share it as much on Sunday. The, to me they're- All right, well- Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. We still, we still could get one, one, one, one, right? All number one seats could still make it there- Yeah... 44:28 for the first time. We definitely could. It'd be, uh, second time ever. Yeah, first time since 2008. Second time ever. Thank you, Chris. Adam Burke with college hoops next
