Hey everybody, welcome to Fred and the Fantastics tonight. Fred and the Fantastic. We’re taping it Friday afternoon. Art Sorce and yours truly, Fred. You can email us at sportsfred@aol.com, sportsfred@aol.com, heard on PodClips and BLEAV. And we’ll talk about this, that and anything in the wonderful and wacky world of sports. I’m listening to L.A. Radio on Friday morning and they’re talking about a possible trade. De’Aaron Fox by way of the Sacramento Kings to the Lakers. Any comments? He’s a fine ballplayer. Any comments?

You know, the Lakers, it’s a sore subject with me right now because Anthony Davis is out again. Surprise, surprise, breaking news. And you know, I just I look at that whole Western division. And the teams that I think are the dominant teams in the NBA right now are not the Lakers and not the Golden State Warriors, and it’s not the Clippers. I mean, you know, you have to look at Dallas and Minnesota and Denver, and right now the East.

Cleveland.

What Cleveland is doing in the East is unbelievable.

Yeah, and you know, as we tape this, 26 and 4 for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They’re talking about De’Aaron Fox. Now, if you’re, okay, so what happened was after the game on Thursday night, Mike Brown, the coach, former Laker coach, really attacked De’Aaron Fox. I guess for not playing hard, like not wanting to be there, but if you’re a fan of Sacramento, you don’t care. I mean, you want to keep him, but if you can’t, you don’t want to trade him, of all the teams, you don’t want to trade him in your division. To the Lakers, and who would the Lakers give up?

Do you mean, kind of do what a Saquon Barkley and the Giants did with the Eagles? That’s not a real Phi Beta Kappa move, I don’t think.

Yeah, that’s the same thing. And the bottom line here, how many first round picks would you have to give up? And what you’d have to give up a player, one of your top three or four players, and you’re not, you know, LeBron’s not going and Anthony’s not going, so Austin Reeves or somebody’s going. And about 10 number one picks for De’Aaron Fox, who’s a good player, a real good player, he’s the point guard you need. But from either side, I don’t like this deal.

No, I gotta tell you Fred, I’ve been trying to watch the NBA. It is so difficult for me. You know, don’t get me wrong, I love watching the Greek Freak do his thing. He’s unbelievable. And he won the what they call it the World Cup or whatever they had, that little in-season tournament. There’s players in the NBA that can’t miss basketball. I love to watch Luka, you know, I just, but, but again, it’s, it’s so much Harlem Globetrotters basketball, to me that I go back to the 80s. When you know, you had guys like Robert Parrish and McHale, and you had Magic, and you had Worthy, you had Norm Nixon, and you had Byron Scott. They played defense, they really stepped up. You look at the great Pistons teams, you know where were they? You got done with them? You were like you played a football game, there was, there was, there was physical basketball, palms on the floor, you know, people really working and moving, and the game now is just not the game that I grew up loving.

OK, so I interviewed John Wooden a few times, and I interviewed him right after they went to the three-point shot and he said, I hate the idea. The object is to get the ball as close to the basket as possible, not 22 feet away. So I’m listening to some shows the last few days and they’re saying, basically what you’re saying, no fun in the NBA. Maybe limit the number of three-point shots, just like you limit the number of timeouts? What would that do?

I gotta, I gotta tell you as much as everybody says, the three-point shot is exciting. And Steph Curry at the Olympics at the end of the game and the gold medal game, that was incredible to me. But again, Fred the, the name of the game is is, is picking, moving, you know, getting the ball to the basket for an easy layup. I mean, Johnny Wooden talks about it. This, this, driving down to the basket and throwing it out for a 27-footer. I’ve never understood that, and I realized you only have to shoot what, 34% for it to pay off? But is that the game, I mean, my favorite all time times that I remember basketball was Wilt backing down, hitting the, you know, the fadeaway bank shot over, over, you know, Kareem or Lou Alcindor, those were great times, you know?

And so so, what’s the answer? do you move the three-point range back, line back, or do you limit?

I think you have to make the court, I think you need to make the court a little longer, and you need to make it wider. These guys are so big now, I mean, when these guys are in the corner, shooting their three, they have to curl their toes.

Folks,

Because you’re talking about guys that are size 17 feet!

Fred and Art on Fred and the Fantastics. You can email us at sportsfred@aol.com, sportsfred@aol.com. Eric Bieniemy got a new job, apparently at the University of Washington. Will he ever get a head coaching job?

Well, there must be something in that dossier somewhere, that resume somewhere that’s holding him back because he’s awfully good football coach. You know, if you’re under, if you’re under Andy Reid at the offensive coordinator for all those years. You don’t get an opportunity, but a guy like Foster gets an opportunity, all these coaches get these opportunities. I don’t know. I think the most fascinating thing in college football is the contract that Bill Belichick signed, so that his son Steve is going to replace him when he’s done, which might be in June of this year.

All right, we’re gonna take a break and a quick break and come back with more on Fred and the Fantastics.

All right, three, two and one. Hey everybody, it’s Fred and the Fantastics, Art Source and Fred. You can email us at sportsfred@aol.com, heard on BLEAV and on PodClips. Artie next week, of course, and we’re taping this Friday afternoon, folks. Next week we’ve got the final eight in college football. Let’s start with, in my mind, the one that has been closer to my heart forever, the Rose Bowl. You have Oregon against Ohio State early on in the season. Oregon bested the Buckeyes by one. Buckeyes are a slight favorite in this one. In fact, in some of the books now, Oregon was the favorite to win the whole thing. I think Ohio State’s now the favorite in some of the books to win the whole thing. Artie, make your case. Who do you like, Ohio State or Oregon?

After watching Ohio State do what they did to Tennessee? It looks like Ryan Day has that team going in the right direction. But I’ll tell you what I’m excited about, Fred. It’s a throwback Rose Bowl, an old Pac-12, Pac-10 team against a Big Ten team, Ohio State, Oregon and the Rose Bowl, that’s wonderful. I’m kind of neat that it worked out that way. A lot of my friends here in Pennsylvania are on their way down to the VRBO Tostitos Bowl, whatever it is down there, that’s going to be a heck of a game. We got Boise State and Penn State, and Penn State seems to have the easiest way to the finals. But you know, they lost their backup quarterback, Beau Pribula, and what would happen? You know, they have a freshman quarterback that came in the end of the SMU game and threw an interception for a touchdown. That’s scary. I mean, you know, and Penn State does have a great football team this year. I just, I think I think Ohio State has a little too much. If it was on an AstroTurf field, I’d probably take Oregon because of their speed, but being in the Rose Bowl on a softer grass field, I think Ohio State might have the advantage there.

Folks, do you agree? Email us at sportsfred@aol.com, sportsfred@aol.com.

You talked about, what do you think? what do you think about? What do you think about? The quarterback being out for Georgia? Does Georgia have a better chance now? I mean, can they really stay with this Notre Dame attack? Notre Dame looks incredible against Indiana, in my opinion.

Carson Beck you’re talking about, he’s got an elbow problem. I don’t know. This one’s very, very tough to call. What the Irish two and a half point underdog here, I think, last time I checked against Georgia. Folks, we’d love your thoughts. Email us sportsfred@aol.com sportsfred@aol.com. I want to, I want to go back to your Penn State thing. James Franklin. He’s got a great percentage of wins, but he doesn’t have a great percentage of wins against top-notch teams. Talk about that.

Well, he’s six and 18 against teams ranked in the top 10.

Yeah.

That says one thing. But I will tell you one thing that I’ve noticed about this year’s ball club and one thing I’ve always believed is great defense. Travels well.

And they’ve got a heck of a defense, that Abdul Carter coming around the corner, much like Chop Robinson last year. The young man that you’re going to see playing against the Eagles this Sunday. They seem to come out. They used to call it Linebacker U. Well, now it’s Edge Rusher U. And I think this is their best chance and a lot of Penn State fans. It’s been a lot of years since they tasted the fruits of victory.

Well, we’ll see what happens in the, the four game,

But how about Jared Goff playing? How about Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions playing outside and looking good?

He got a pair of ones up Fred.

You know, let me ask you a question, like, on Monday night you got the Lions and they’ve got something, you’ve got something to play for. And what happens in your head? As a former player at the highest point with the Rams, how can you? Can you play as hard if you’re playing for nothing? And if you look at the schedule the next couple of weeks, there’s a whole slew of games in the NFL where,

No, Fred, I gotta tell you, you got to bet on the teams that have to win, okay. Uh, that was told to me a long time ago by my uncle Jimmy, he said, look who needs the victory the most? And then look at the coaches, who has control of his team, who has guys all pointed in the right direction. And you know, if you’ve got to like, honestly, this is the week that you can see Kansas City get beat because they’ve got everything clinched. They basically have three weeks off now.

Yeah.

If they play their cards right, and you know, they need to get Carson Wentz some time, because you never know, you know how football is. Mahomes drops back to pass. It’s scrambled out. Somebody falls on that leg and you know, you want to make sure that Carson Wentz has had some rest, so it’s the time for that to happen. You’re also going to see the same thing in the Dallas-Philly game, you’re going to see Kenny Pickett in a chance to play because Hurts has a concussion. And, you know, that’s going to be interesting. Michael Penix, He’s looking good for Atlanta and Atlanta has a chance to get to the playoffs. I mean, you really have to look at the teams that really need the victory.

Yeah, I think that’s right on. That’s why it’s very, very tough to, uh, decipher this thing. Um, folks, you can email us at sportsfred@aol.com, sportsfred@aol.com..

I do have a lock for our, I do have a lock for our audience.

Go ahead.

All right, well, tonight, Texas A&M is going to blow the doors off USC because USC has 19 guys that are in the transfer portal, OK, 19 guys including their top four receivers. I don’t know who Maiava is going to be throwing the ball to, but they’re playing a Southeastern conference team that has only lost two guys to the portal. That team played some unbelievable schedule this year. And I just. I looked at the numbers in that game and I think that’s going to be a three touchdown differential. I hate to say it being an old USC kicker, but that, to me, is the take that on that one and take it to the bank.

Is that 7:30 Pacific, 10:30 in the east, from Las Vegas?

Yep, the Las Vegas Bowl.

Folks, are you going to stay up at 10:30 at night if USC?

I gotta, I gotta, I gotta watch my alma mater. I mean, even though I’m not real happy with what’s going on there.

But you’ll never make the, but you’ll never make the three hours, though.

Well, I don’t know I if it’s a good game, I might, but like, I’m kind of thinking it might not be such a good game. I might be cashing in a little early on that one.

All right, so we talked about this last week. Some of the coaches now, uh, Mike Norvell among them, and uh, uh, basically, uh, paying back to the school and the school putting it in the NIL, uh, to keep their job.

Did he give a million dollars back to the university or something like that?

Yeah, one million bucks and some of the, there’s two or three other coaches who have done the same. Do you think that we’re in that same situation where the your USC mentor?

Uh, let me tell you what the contract he signed and the fact, like, you know, we had Pete Arbogast on the show, on the National Show a couple of weeks ago. And he said, you know, who’s going to step up and pay $85 million to buy out on this deal? I don’t, I don’t see that happening. So, I mean, that would be a good idea. Um, if the contract goes, from what I’m gathering, they have a real good chance of getting, you know, a $20 million per ball club in the in the big conferences for the NIL. But then again, Fred, you know, the average kids right now, one kid at a high school the other day just signed a four-year deal for, you know, $2.5 million. He’s an edge rusher, you know? It’s like, where are they going to come up with this money? I mean, these coaches are making, the Governor of Pennsylvania makes $200,000 and Franklin makes $9 million.

Josh Shapiro versus James Franklin. Okay, um, final 30 seconds on Fred and the Fantastics, Art Sorce.

Well, you know, it’s going to be fun, a lot of football the next week, tonight, tomorrow. Uh, got NFL going against college football again, you got the CFP playoffs coming up in the old bowl format. Um, I’m, I’m in heaven. I’m just bummed how fast this year went. I’m bummed about all my superstars like Jerry West and Willie Mays and Ricky Henderson passing away far too young. Pete Rose even, you know, not that I was a great Pete Rose fan, but, but still, at least he got to live a long, a long life. But, uh, I just, you know, I, I feel like, I feel like it’s a tough time right now, and you know, I’m, I’m just hoping that everybody can get through it all.

Was it you or somebody made the case that since the Pandemic, since Covid, athletes are dying much younger? Do you agree with that, that it may be, uh, for some groups,

I absolutely 100 agree with that. I really do. I mean, you know, I, I just I have, I have a, I think they’re going to look back 25 years from now and they’re playing two-hand touch football.

But you’re right, you’re right on.

Touch football and I and I think they’re going to, they’re going to look back at it and they’re going to realize that, whenever you rush to save everybody, you come up with these, you know all these, whatever your virus, you know, virus/antivirus things, you know you, you have to test products. And it’s just the saddest thing of all time because I really think we lost a lot of people because of that, the side effects. No matter what it was, whether it was, you know, I don’t know, the Moderna, whatever you took, you know. I did, I did get tested, I didn’t lie to people. I went and got the shot, but I didn’t get the second shot. And now that I look back at it, I’m kind of happy I didn’t get the second shot, but I’m also very, very fortunate that I got the first shot. I look at it from that perspective, but it’s just been a real bizarre situation, Fred.

All I can tell you is that Sandy and I finally got Covid June of this year. And it’s something you don’t, do not want to get, folks, is all I can tell you. I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know what RFK is going to do. I don’t know if he’s going to let you get a polio shot, but all I can say is be safe. And for Mario, for Art and I’m Fred, and a whole lot more down the road on Fred and the Fantastics.

Bye, everybody.