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00:00So, Mike, of course, he's a legendary scribe from the Sporting News.
00:04You can catch him on Fox Sports with college basketball.
00:07Same thing with the Big Ten Network.
00:08He's on the take from the Indiana Hoosiers, even though he lives in Pittsburgh.
00:12And you cannot tell me that you're not, at some level, listen, this guy, Marenzi, I love
00:19him.
00:20I've known him for 30 years, but he's giving me the business about the Steelers don't matter
00:23and all this other.
00:24I'm like, they went to eight Super Bowls.
00:26They won six Super Bowls.
00:28I said, that doesn't matter.
00:30And I'm like, oh, like the Bills of 0 and 4 in the Super Bowl.
00:33They can't beat the Chiefs in the playoffs, but that doesn't matter either.
00:36The Steelers standard is Super Bowls.
00:38That's all there is to it.
00:39I know they're not that good now.
00:41I'm not stupid.
00:43But you wrote about Pickens this week, and he had the best play in that game for the
00:47Steelers.
00:48He's the best player on the team.
00:50And everyone still hates him because he's immature.
00:52Well, who isn't?
00:54And I'll tell you one thing.
00:55You cannot tell me that you're not disappointed in the Pittsburgh Steelers over the last month.
01:00And that playoff performance was absolute diarrhea.
01:02Well, I will.
01:04I love that you use the word disappointed because that's exactly the word.
01:08But unfortunately, in the modern sports fan lexicon, disappointment doesn't exist.
01:16There's only anger.
01:17You're cold blooded and you're a writer and you're evil and you write things.
01:24And then you never have feelings when you're a writer.
01:26Stop.
01:27No, I do.
01:28And I was disappointed on Saturday night.
01:30But I wasn't furious.
01:31I mean, I was kind of a little bit angry about the calling 11 run plays on 11 first downs
01:37against Cincinnati in the season finale that maybe got there.
01:42But for the most part, this season was ultimately disappointing.
01:47But as on the whole, I'm not sure that it really qualifies as that.
01:51I think that they could have done a little better.
01:54I would have liked to have seen what they would have done in Houston as as a wild card
01:59instead of against having to go to Baltimore again.
02:02I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if Russell Wilson didn't decide
02:06to be a hero on a play that is not in his hero arsenal.
02:12It's not who he is.
02:13But he runs through the middle of the Baltimore defense.
02:16He gets down to the two yard line and instead of saying, OK, I'll check out here.
02:20I'll take the slide.
02:21We'll score on the next couple of plays.
02:23He tries to take on a DB.
02:24He fumbles.
02:25And the Steelers whole season turns around.
02:28That's something that one of the reasons why this season collapsed, Scott, is because they
02:35were built to turn you over and to not turn it over.
02:39And the turnover stopped coming as the as the opposition increased in ability.
02:46And the turnover started coming as the Steelers took foolish chances like that, like the pitch
02:52out to Najee Harris.
02:54And that changed who they were in the final month of the season.
02:58So you wrote about Pickens.
03:00Do you feel as though they have a problem with this kid despite his talent?
03:06Oh, I do.
03:07Absolutely.
03:08And I think it was very well reflected.
03:10I'll be honest.
03:11I was working at the big net.
03:13Ten Networks could only pay casual attention to the Steelers for much of the game.
03:18But I saw the offensive pass interference against Pickens that was essentially the end
03:25of the Steelers' serious contention.
03:28They had a puncher's chance, I guess, in the fourth quarter when they were unable to complete
03:34their series down 28-14.
03:38But when he pushed off, they were still in the game.
03:42And he did not need to push off on that play.
03:45But that's who he is as a player.
03:48Take the easy way out.
03:50It's who he's been as a Steeler for his entire time there.
03:56It's ultimately a disappointment.
03:58I don't think they can afford to trade him unless they are able to sign an elite or significant
04:03wide receiver in the offseason as a free agent.
04:06I use T. Higgins as the best example of that because he plays in the division and I'm aware
04:11of it.
04:12But I don't think they can afford to let him go.
04:15But if they are able to sign someone like T., then I would trade him.
04:20Because you've waited three years now for him to stop this.
04:23And I think it's pretty clear it's not going to happen.
04:26Just as it became clear after they gave Deontay Johnson money and he stopped blocking that
04:32it really wasn't the way to go forward with him.
04:36He got cut again today.
04:38There you go.
04:40I mean, that's four teams in a calendar year, basically.
04:42Four in one year.
04:43Yes.
04:45I think that he's indicated who he is as a player as well.
04:50And it's a shame because he's a talented guy.
04:53And it's just as it's a shame with Pickens.
04:55What I wrote last week before the Baltimore game was, look at the going rate for a receiver
05:02with that ability.
05:04You're talking north of $25 million a year.
05:06Scott, I know you have that much money.
05:09But I don't.
05:10And if I did, I think I'd be set for life.
05:13So I don't know why Pickens doesn't seize that and just put his head down and do the
05:19things that you do to win games.
05:21And if he did that, he'd be among the, I don't know the exact number, but he'd be among the
05:25top seven or eight receivers in the league.
05:29And that's a nine-figure payoff.
05:33And he's not going for it.
05:35I'm going to take all that money you say I have.
05:37And tonight I'm going to bet on Illinois against Indiana at Assembly Hall.
05:41I'm betting it all on Underwood's Illini tonight.
05:43Who do you like in that game?
05:45And there's a lot of great top 25 games tonight.
05:48A&M in Kentucky, Ole Miss in Bama, Mississippi State in Auburn.
05:52I mean, there's some good games tonight.
05:55Baylor in Arizona.
05:56I know you love college rack as much as I do.
05:58What do you think of tonight?
05:59And start with that Indiana game.
06:01Yeah.
06:02I think that the game that's interesting there in terms of how it plays out is Cerunas Iacoconis.
06:10Is he going to play for Illinois?
06:12Because you're going on the road after really struggling in a home game that should not
06:18have been difficult against Southern California.
06:21Now you're going on the road to play a team that should be desperate.
06:26Haven't seen a lot of desperation in the Hoosiers, but I have seen some efficiency at times.
06:31If they're able to beat Illinois, it would be by far the best opponent they've defeated
06:35this year.
06:36So I don't know exactly what we're going to see from Indiana or Illinois because both
06:42teams went out on Saturday in situations where wins were either possible in Indiana's case
06:48at Iowa or should have been not difficult for Illinois at home, and neither one came
06:57close really to winning.
06:59So I don't know what to expect from either.
07:02I mean, if you're asking me if I would wager on one of those two, I would not go near that
07:07game at all.
07:09It's a very fascinating night in college hoops, though, because that Baylor-Arizona game.
07:14Arizona has been absolutely surging, going on the road and taking West Virginia and Cincinnati
07:21right off the floor with barely any competition.
07:25It's the Arizona team that we expected to see at the start of the year, and we didn't
07:28see that until January.
07:30And now Baylor started a little slow as well, but not quite as slow as the Wildcats.
07:35They're a very talented team.
07:37Very excited to see how that plays out.
07:40V.J. Edgecombe, a freshman who's really gifted, I want to see what he's got, whether he's
07:47starting to make progress.
07:48Because you look in the mock draft, Scott, and you see him placed around number five
07:52or number six.
07:53He hasn't played like that yet, but if he does, Baylor's really dangerous.
07:56Yeah.
07:57How about Duke?
07:58I watched him play Notre Dame the other day.
08:00Super flag is unbelievable.
08:02Their defense is fantastic.
08:05They're a Final Four team to me, and I love Auburn.
08:07I've always felt they were the best team in the country.
08:10Well, I think that although I thought Auburn was the best team, I wasn't sure whether they
08:16were best built to win the championship.
08:18And Duke is at their best.
08:20Duke is the team that looks more like what past NCAA champions have looked in terms of
08:26how they're set up.
08:27And now let's see on James is starting to play point guard pretty consistently and is
08:31really good defensively against the ball.
08:34They have an established hierarchy in their offense, where they want the ball to go, who
08:39they want to be the guy, obviously Cooper flag.
08:42I'm a little bit worried still about late game situations.
08:46How do they handle it?
08:47They didn't handle him against Kansas or Kentucky, and now they're not in any because they're
08:51blowing everybody out and the ACC is so weak.
08:54Scott, are they going to get the challenges they need to get to refine that element of
08:59their game?
09:00That's a little bit worrisome for the Devils.
09:02There's no doubt about it.
09:04They play Miami tonight at Cameron Indoor and Miami season is over.
09:09They're four and 12.
09:10They're awful.
09:11Their coach ran out the door because of alleged NIL.
09:14My great stuff.
09:15I'm glad that you apparently have turned on the Steelers and played with Ticksocks.