Introduction to Sports Equinox
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Speaker
That straight on high five feet Give me paper bed and one mic to make this man complete I'm always they sucker free So haters hop off my dish till that day I is so unique Rockin' heads, stop them dead then bring them back their feet You better watch what you speak Popping off with the mouth, I leave your body feel weak Switch your face and grit your teeth Cause everything else will have your outlook look bleep Death is the time to sleep Never slow down, never stop, I'm always on my grunge And any mountain will climb Reach my fist to the climb and I ascend to the peak
00:01:10
Speaker
Yo, yo, yo, what up, what up, what up friends? Yes, welcome to a special edition of the Professor's Seminalmente!
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Speaker
I am your host, Omar, the sports professor, Fonseca. Yes, today it will be all about the sports. Usually we bring you news, entertainment, U.S. news, all that good stuff. But no,
What is the Sports Equinox?
00:01:38
Speaker
no, no, no. no We had the best sporting day of the year yesterday, the sports equinox.
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Speaker
All four major U.S. sports played in one day. We will talk all about it. We will catch you up on all of the sports news, ah including the amazing Game 3 from the World Series last night.
00:02:03
Speaker
Wow, wow, what a game. 18 innings. We're going to talk all about it. Also, we'll give you our NFL college football rankings, and as well, the NHL, NBA. We'll keep you updated on there.
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Speaker
season that just started as well. We'll talk about the WNBA labor negotiations and a little bit of women's college basketball, all American team. So buckle up quick 45 minute show. Cause I do got to get out of here.
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Speaker
to get to someplace in a little bit. So let's kick this bad boy off. Please make sure you subscribe to Ball and Buds, B-A-L-L-A-N-D-U-D-S.
00:02:47
Speaker
Hit that like button, whether watching now or on the replay. it does help us out in the algorithm, gets us out to other things. fans that may not know about a so we thank you for hitting that like button that love that laugh whatever you want a little love laugh life decor home photo whatever you want to call it I don't care just give it to me all right cool I like it that way all right let's get into it yes what a sporting day yesterday was have you heard if you're not a sporting fan
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Speaker
sports fan, you may not have heard of the sports equinox, but what a happy sports equinox it was.
Impact of Schedule Changes on Sports Equinox
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Speaker
The sports equinox indicates that we have all four major sports playing in one day, and it only happens nowadays. Well, it's happening more frequently, at least once a year now.
00:03:44
Speaker
It is the 32nd time it's happened in history. ah But it used to not happen and be as common because the MLB series season ended earlier and the NBA and NHL seasons started later.
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Speaker
But with the MLB being extended into November, the World Series, with the NBA starting and NHL starting their seasons earlier, especially with the NHL going to 84 games next season, and These sports equinoxes will happen at least once a year. And so yesterday, the greatest sports day on Earth, the equinox. Yes, we had the Major League Baseball Game 3. What an epic classic it was. 18 innings. If you were on the East Coast and you watched the whole game, you were up till 4 in the middle.
00:04:38
Speaker
Wait, it ended at midnight on the West Coast, so 3 in the morning, East Coast time, you would have been up to. Here, on my time, Central, it was 2 o'clock
MLB and NFL Highlights
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Speaker
I was up to. I stayed up and watched every at-bat, every pitch.
00:04:53
Speaker
It was such an amazing game. Even though there were no runs scored within, like, the โ from the 7th to the 18th, it was just exciting baseball. And I know you might think if you're not a baseball fan, well, Omar, how can ah baseball be exciting when there's no run score? But there were so many close plays at the plate.
00:05:15
Speaker
There were so many great defensive plays, um even exciting errors in which Shohei, the greatest baseball player in the world, Otani got so kicked off a car stealing at second base. So it was a classic. And then as well, on top of that,
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Speaker
You had Monday Night Football. The Chiefs blew out the commanders as we said they would on Sunday Showdown. Shameless plug. Every Sunday, 7.15 Eastern, 4.15 Pacific.
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Speaker
Come to Sunday Showdown. Check out your boy, the sports professor, joined by my brother's club buddy, the Combat G, and hopefully. to be continued, Dirty Mojo and Peach-O-Mania. We missed them this weekend, so shout out to them. We hope they will be back this week.
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Speaker
um As always, we like to hang out with our
NHL and NBA Game Recaps
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Speaker
brothers. ah But anyways, there, ah myself and Culber D, we talked about the game, and we set out we both predicted a blowout for the Chiefs, and that's exactly what it was.
00:06:17
Speaker
Then you had two NHL games, including the kid Sidney Crosby going out for the penguin Unfortunately, the NHL, the game didn't go over into overtime because if it would have, then we would have had the amazing lineup of Shohei Otani, Patrick Mahomes, um,
00:06:40
Speaker
ah and ah Nikola Jokic and Sidney Crosby all at playing at the same time. So that didn't happen. The NHL game did not go into overtime.
00:06:53
Speaker
But we also had NBA. My Celtics played last night, blew out the Pelicans. I watched that, but also watched the other games. We'll talk about the games in the NBA section coming up because we've got some good things to talk about. But, yeah,
00:07:05
Speaker
The sports equinox, so awesome to have everything on one day. And by the way, MLS also played yesterday. So if you want to count five sports at once, you could even do that um as Evander's FC Cincinnati faced off against the Columbus crew in round one of the MLS playoffs.
00:07:26
Speaker
ah Speaking of, shout out to Nashville going up against Lionel Messi's Miami team. ah They're playing on Saturday here in Nashville at Geodisc Park. So ah hopefully the the the Nashville SC will be able to pull out the victory in the playoffs. But, yeah.
00:07:43
Speaker
Amazing. Sports Equinox. As a sports fan, it is the best sporting time of the year, hands down. Oh, I just did the yeet. Shout out my brother.
Challenges of Watching Every Game
00:07:56
Speaker
What's up, Usos? My brothers. Yes, yeet on them fools. Anyways. Monday, i do want to talk about something, though. If you remember ah last week on the Professor Seminole Mente, I talked about with the NBA season starting how fragmented the viewing is in sports these days.
00:08:15
Speaker
And the Equinox only further to ah further exploited that ah fragmentation. So listen to this. If you wanted to watch yesterday's Equinox, you would first of all have to have four TVs or if you're like me, you use a combination of TVs, laptop, and phone and you get a few different screens there. You got the two TVs set up I got.
00:08:40
Speaker
You can see them right there. And then I get the laptop and the phone going. i also got an extra laptop if I really wanted to get, you know, five screen going. I got extra phone if I really want six screens at once. But if you're not able to do that or if you wanted to and didn't know how, the NFL played on ESPN and ABC, the Commanders and Chiefs.
00:08:59
Speaker
The NBA had 11 games, so you had a lot of chances to watch it, but you either had to have Peacock for two of the games or you had to have NBA League Pass or league local channels in order to see any of the nine others.
00:09:13
Speaker
In order to see the Blue Jays-Dodgers, you would have beat Fox. In order to see the NHL, you would have had to have either the NHL Network or or ESPN+. plus I have ESPN+, plus thankfully, so I get all the NHL games.
00:09:30
Speaker
And then for MLS, you would have had to have Fox Sports Or Apple TV. So you're like, what the heck just happened?
00:09:41
Speaker
How am I supposed to watch all that? ah you Even with cable, you would not have had been able to watch all of it. You may have been able to watch... the MLS, MLB, and NFL if you had cable, but you would have still missed out on NBA and NHL unless you had one of the league passes or Peacock and ESPN+. plus So the fragmentation in sports, while it's going to make each individual league richer with these new media rights deals that all the leagues are getting into, WNBA collective bargaining agreement we'll talk about later in the show, MLB,
00:10:20
Speaker
right having their media rights deal coming up. All these things play in together, hand in hand. It's the change in the sports media landscape. You look at NBA last year signing their $77 billion dollar media rights deal.
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Speaker
um And now they're, as you saw in the professor's seminar last week when I showed you the NBA, they're spread across five, six different streaming networks ah every day of the week.
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Speaker
And it's like, wow, well, if I don't have all this, I can't watch all of this. So either you're a huge sports fan like my myself, and I have ESPN, I have NBA League Pass, i have ESPN Plus so I can watch GNHL, I have ah cable, or at least...
00:11:03
Speaker
I have cable. Let's just say that. um and So I can watch all the cable channels and to have Apple TV so I can watch MLS. um But unless you have all those things, and I have all the streaming just because I don't even know why, ah but actually a lot of them were bundled.
00:11:17
Speaker
So I got a lot of good deals on the streaming ones, so it only made sense. But now I have like eight streaming platforms and I barely watch any of them. But they're still really good deals because it's like three of them for โ for 15, 20 bucks. It's like, you really can't beat that. So you keep it anyways.
00:11:32
Speaker
And if I can watch all my sports, then whatever. But anyways, the whole point was that fragmented viewing is here to stay in the overall sports landscape. Moving on into that awesome MLB game that we talked about just a few minutes ago.
World Series Analysis: Shohei Ohtani
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Wowzers, if you did not watch this game, if you don't like baseball, you really missed out.
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on what was an amazing, amazing game. 18 innings. And I know you non-baseball fans are saying, well, that doesn't sound amazing. That just sounds like a long-ass game.
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And yes, it was long-ass game. Six hours and 39 minutes to be exact. 609 pitches.
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The Blue Jays used every One of their position players, the Dodgers used every one of their pitchers. ah It has been a whirlwind of a World Series.
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Speaker
This might be one of the greatest ah in just terms of... spectacle and magnitude, not even in terms of the game scores, to be honest, because game one, Blue Jays blew them out 11-4.
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Speaker
Game two was a little closer, 5-1. Yamamoto, complete game. But if you're a baseball purist, that complete game is something we don't see no more. That complete game is something beautiful to the eyes of a baseball fan. So, anyways.
00:13:03
Speaker
Neither here nor what is here and there, actually, because I'm talking about it. And if I'm talking about it, that's where you want to be at, the sports professor, baby, at Ball and Buds. Anyways, continuing on, he's actually had two complete game performances in these playoffs, which proves why he was worth that 12-year, $325 million dollars contract that the Dodgers were able to sign him to. Anyways, going back to yesterday, Tyler Glasnow pitching for the Dodgers, the great Mad Max coach.
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The warrior god Scherzer, as they call him, the 41-year-old for the Blue Jays. By the way, first pitcher ever to appear in the World Series with four different teams.
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The Tigers, the Nationals, the Rangers, and the Blue Jays. And by the way, fun professors, professors, fun fact, excuse me here. or your pro fact for the day on this, is the first and only position player is Lonnie Smith, who played for the Phillies, Cardinals, Royals, and Braves.
00:14:09
Speaker
Very good player. Go back and look him up if you don't know who he is. But anyways, so again, Very, very cool. Let's check out our bracket. As you see it, you know where we're at.
00:14:21
Speaker
It's not hard to tell. We don't need to see anything really different because we already know that the bracket is down to the World Series. We got the Dodgers and we got the Blue Jays. And tonight we will move it into game four Dodgers with a two-game lead.
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Speaker
Who is going to pitch for the Dodgers, you ask? all Oh, oh. Only the greatest baseball unicorn on the planet right now, Shohei Otani, who, by the way, got on base nine, I repeat, nine times last night, a record for any player. And by the way, he's going to pitch again.
00:14:59
Speaker
tonight Just crazy. By the way, if you haven't checked out the short on Ball and Buds, is Shohei Otani the greatest baseball player, unicorn of all time? i have my I have my brother, Lion Reese Penn, for the rec room sports.
00:15:14
Speaker
Shane Picciomania from Ball and Buds and Alan Perales from Let's Talk Sports. We debate that in this quick two-minute short, so go check it out. Please watch that video. But anyways, it will give you our opinion.
00:15:25
Speaker
This is going to be crazy. He's going to pitch tonight. And he said he was winded, which I completely imagine after last night because last night's game was crazy. Shout out, though. to Mr. Will Klein, who actually pitched four innings, getting into the 70s in pitches after being a he's a reliever.
00:15:45
Speaker
So he's never thrown more than 50 pitches ever in his whole entire career as a reliever. So they got four scoreless innings from him, and you can't ask for anything more than that. He was their MVP.
00:15:56
Speaker
because Yamamoto did not have to come in and pitch. But by the way, shout out to him for being a team player. Yamamoto, after throwing that complete game that we talked about yesterday, volunteered to Dave Roberts last night in the 17th inning that he would pitch if they didn't have any other pitchers.
00:16:13
Speaker
My man just pitched a nine-inning complete game yesterday, and he willing to come out and die on the sword for his team. Because that's a quick way that you can get an arm injury is by pitching that close back-to-back.
00:16:29
Speaker
Ask Johan Santana for my New York Mets after he pushed himself in that no-hitter and then came back and injured himself because he pitched on four days rest afterwards. It happens all the time.
00:16:39
Speaker
So for him to try to be that hero, that just says more about his character and these Japanese players in general, just bringing their culture and their character to the game. And that's not to disparage...
00:16:53
Speaker
any of the players, I'm Hispanic. I love the Latin flair for the game. I love the bat tosses. I'm not one of those old men yelling on the lawn, you know, whatever, blah, blah, blah. No.
00:17:05
Speaker
Have your passion. Have your, i like in football, let them do their end zone dances. Who the hell cares? They hurt nobody. ah But anyways, so, but still, the Japanese players bring a sense of, of, of,
00:17:22
Speaker
of reverence for the game, right? ah some Some distinct ah love for the game that is different from other cultures. And even Yamamoto, after he pitched his complete game, he cleaned up all the trash in the dugout when all his teammates are left.
00:17:41
Speaker
Who the hell does that? They got these guys who get paid for that $15. They get paid. You ain't got to do that, brook bro. I get it. I get that's in your culture. But, man, you're making $325 million. You don't got to that no more.
00:17:53
Speaker
But I love it, and it shows the type of person that he is. And a good person is always going to win out in my and my view. ah You should always be good to your fellow man, love, and be kind to each other.
Chiefs' NFL Dominance
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Speaker
That being said, Clayton Kershaw also came in with the bases loaded, top of the 12th, and the legend who has only pitched for the Dodgers was able to get them out of the jam.
00:18:15
Speaker
And finally, We'll talk about two other legends from the Dodgers. Freddie Freeman was another walk-off winner after a walk-off last year in the game one.
00:18:26
Speaker
He had a walk-off here, a home run in the 18th inning to give the Dodgers the 6-5 win. Funny thing here, and ah ah John Smoltz said it on the telecast, shout-out to him for this distinct point of view as a player,
00:18:43
Speaker
When you get into those extra innings, everyone wants to be the hero, so everyone's aiming for the home run and trying to hit the ball as hard as possible. And after he said that, there were like five...
00:18:56
Speaker
almost home run balls that got driven to the outfield wall right before they got caught by the outfielder. So it was very prescient of him to have that observation, and it was very true.
00:19:09
Speaker
And it cost the Dodgers a few times because they had three of them that went to the wall ah before Freeman finally took it out. Anyways, that was an amazing game. I could go on about that game all day long. I really hope you were able ah to catch it.
00:19:26
Speaker
um Moving on into the NFL last night, we had a blowout, as I said earlier. Clever D and myself on Sunday Showdown both said that it would be a Chiefs blowout and that it was 28-7. And while it was a game in the first half when it was 7-7,
00:19:50
Speaker
to seven ah It was quickly turned into a blowout in the second half when the Chiefs then put the pedal to the metal and now have won five of six after starting the year 0-2. Everybody was woe is me.
00:20:07
Speaker
um this and that, and it turned out that it was all for naught as Patrick Mahomes has turned back into, not even turned back into, he never went away from, but has just continued to perform at legendary status. And as a ah Raider fan, it pains me up.
00:20:30
Speaker
Oh, God, I'm going to throw up. ah ah Excuse me. I got to hold it down. As a Raiders fan, it hurts me to say this, but I've continually said this for years now on every stream that you'll see me on Talking Football.
00:20:44
Speaker
Until Patrick Mahomes is gone, the AFC West is on lockdown. I don't care if he starts 0-2. I don't care if he would have started 0-4 like the Ravens. I still would have picked him to get the division. So no hot take, Jake.
00:20:57
Speaker
Don't worry about your Broncos being 5-2 because it ain't going to make a damn bit of difference when the Chiefs take you over. Holla. Anyway, so. Yeah, we'll see happens there, but nothing really to talk about in that game per se, except the fact that the Chiefs are back in control of their game, and you will see them going forward take over the division down the stretch. The one game I do want to talk about from this weekend was that revenge game.
00:21:27
Speaker
Yes, Aaron Rodgers now as a Pittsburgh Steeler going back to โ are Sorry,
Rodgers vs. Packers: Emotional Game
00:21:35
Speaker
not going back. They played in Pittsburgh. But playing against his former team, the Green Bay Packers, man, they played.
00:21:45
Speaker
He played there for 18 seasons. 18 seasons he played for that franchise. And he said, oh, nah. You know, he did the line just like and just like most a lot of these athletes will do in these revenge games.
00:22:03
Speaker
Oh, it's all good. I'm not really worried about it. I don't have any ah extra emotions for this game. i don't have any extra energy. I don't have any hostility. This and that.
00:22:14
Speaker
Blase, blase, blah. Save that for the birds. Ain't nobody want to hear that. You know this game was the most meaningful game of his career outside of winning the Super Bowl.
00:22:25
Speaker
And it was just like when Brett Favre did the same thing, and he said he was as nervous as he had ever been going into the game. But unlike Green Bay, unlike Favre with the Vikings who swept Green Bay 2-0, and Brett Favre had 523 yards, seven touchdowns, and zero interceptions in two wins, A-Rod, unfortunately,
00:22:48
Speaker
Lost the game this weekend to the Packers, but it was a good game. It was a fun watch. Unfortunately, Green Bay is, and i said I said this on the Sunday showdown, is the better team overall.
00:23:03
Speaker
I like Pittsburgh. I like... Mike Tomlin, I think he's a great coach. I think everybody should shut the hell up about him being fired. That's ridiculous. He's only consistently been a winner every year.
00:23:14
Speaker
Yeah, you're not going to win the playoffs every year. Sorry. You bring somebody else, in who you going to bring? And you think they're just going to go make the playoffs every year? Okay, you're dreaming. That's the problem with unrealistic sports fans.
00:23:25
Speaker
That being said, the Packers are a better team at this point. And When Rodgers left Green Bay, it was because he had got upset that they drafted Jordan Love.
00:23:38
Speaker
um Was that the exact reason at that point in time? No, he stayed mad for a little bit until that Jordan Love was ready, but he was in the same position that he had put Brett Favre, not he, but that the franchise had put Brett Favre in by drafting him at the same exact point, which brings me to my professor's pro fact for the NFL today, and you're going to love this one.
00:23:59
Speaker
And I heard this on the broadcast. Shout out to the broadcasters. ah Troy Aikman and, wait, was it? No, Joe Buck was on the World Series game, wasn't he?
00:24:11
Speaker
No, he wasn't. i was kind john Okay, yes, Troy Aikman and Joe Buck. Anyways, they stay pointed out that... i Brett Favre won his title with the Packers at age 27. Aaron Rodgers won his title with the Packers at 27. Jordan Love about 27. The Packers are 5-1-1.
00:24:33
Speaker
about to turn twenty seven the packers are five one and one I was going to pick the Packers next year as my championship team. I had already planned that out since I was on bottom line last year because I could see their progression of getting better. And I was like, okay, I'm going to choose them in a couple years if they're still good, right?
00:24:53
Speaker
um So, but shout out to Hot Take Jake for picking them this year ah because if it holds at 27, Jordan Love will be due to win the championship. And as a storyteller, as a professor who loves the storylines, you know I'm always going to go with some serendipitous shit like that.
00:25:13
Speaker
And all three of them winning at 27, you can't say that's not cool and it's not crazy. So I definitely would love to see it because it's not like my Raiders are going to win anyways. They suck. Love you, but you suck. By the way, programming note, I do want to โ uh say that I uh I made a mistake on Sunday showdown I said that Lamar Jackson had played I swear I thought I saw him at the end of the game I thought I saw them put him out there for a few plays at the end of the game I thought I or even heard his name I know Tyler Huntley started the game but I I guess I made that shit up in my head and my bad I made that up
00:25:51
Speaker
We didn't mean to Lamar Jackson did not play in the last game. So that was, I just made that up apparently, but he will come back this week. John Harbaugh says for the dolphins game.
00:26:04
Speaker
All right, cool. Moving on, by the way, Go ahead and hit that like button, whether watching now or on the replay. I really appreciate it And there's a QR code up there at the top. Scan that bad boy. Make sure you subscribe at YouTube at Ball and Buds, B-A-L-L-A-N-D-B-U-D-S.
00:26:24
Speaker
Appreciate that. And let's get to some comments here. Ooh, my brother Canteen. Holla. My brother Canteen doing well there with the Bottom Line Sports, who I just talked about a couple minutes ago.
00:26:36
Speaker
And he says, I like... Toronto tonight and some good bourbon. Ah, yes, my brother. ah Bourbon in arms. You know, we both love ah good bourbon. So you got Toronto tonight, you say, huh?
00:26:53
Speaker
Let me check on the spread on that really quick for everybody. So Toronto,
00:27:04
Speaker
Toronto. Okay. Canteen. Are you talking the Maple Leafs? or are you talking the Raptors? Because the Raptors don't play tonight. Let me see. You must be talking hockey. Let's see.
00:27:16
Speaker
You talking hockey? He is talking hockey. You got the Maple Leafs tonight, huh? They're down 1-0 to the Flames. Uh. I'm just joking. I know. I'm just messing with you.
00:27:26
Speaker
I know you're talking about the Blue Jays. We got World Series game four tonight. I'm excited. And I do as well have the Blue Jays tying this up.
00:27:38
Speaker
ah Dodgers have barely any bullpen. I don't know what they're going to do after Shohei. Shohei may have to pitch a complete game, which is not out of the realm of possibility, um you know, being Shohei Ohtani. But it'll be much harder said than done. So we'll see what happens there. But I got Toronto too.
00:27:56
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in. All right. Now, let us hit those col of those NFL sports professor, NFL power rankings.
College Football Updates
00:28:07
Speaker
Here we go. Look at this. These are my power rankings for the week.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yes, not much movement from last week as pretty much everybody, well, yeah, everybody, in the top five either won or did not play. Buccaneers, Buccaneers,
00:28:25
Speaker
Bills, Eagles all won by blowout fashion, and the Detroit Lions had the week off. So this top five does not change from last week.
00:28:36
Speaker
Your sports professors, NFL, power ranking top five. Now, moving on, college AP top 25 of the week Yes, we had some shake-ups, and I'm not just talking to Coach.
00:28:54
Speaker
Yeah, you heard me on Sunday's show, Dad. I know you heard it when I said b Brian Kelly was not for long at LSU and that he was going to be gone soon. He was fired the next day. I don't like calling people's obvious firing. That's not what I was asking for at all. But just seeing how the trajectory was going of the program and knowing where they want to be as ah as a a college and a university.
00:29:19
Speaker
I figured it was only a matter of time, and he was let go. The next day after Texas A&M whooped that behind, 49-25. Ole Miss also beat Oklahoma, 34-26. Great victory for them.
00:29:34
Speaker
And finally, Vanderbilt, yes, Here at College Game Day, you know your boy was there at College Game Day watching Pat McAfee and the rest of the crew up there. was pretty cool seeing that field goal kick live in person. Pretty awesome.
00:29:49
Speaker
But anyways, yeah, so Vanderbilt, good victory over number 15, Missouri, 17-10 score. So looking at our AP top 10 here, Ohio State, the Ohio State is number one.
00:30:06
Speaker
Indiana, after blowing out, blowed the hell out with some ass-whooping casserole, as we say in my friends' group. ah My UCLA Bruins just look like some some booty juice, look like some basuda. The kind of booty juice that UCLA looked like in this 56-6 loss was the kind of booty juice you would see if you saw a brown bear, ah maybe a grizzly,
00:30:33
Speaker
going across the woods, chasing after a rabbit, maybe a deer, and they feast and they eat, right? They eat a lot, and they get all the food up in there. They get so full. They're fat. They're laying down.
00:30:45
Speaker
They're going to hibernate, and all of a sudden, they go to fart, and they get a shark on themselves, and you're like, what? What was that? You're like, did you just...
00:30:57
Speaker
You shart on yourself. um And then the juice kind of rolls down the Bears' backside. That's the kind of booty juice that the UCLA Bruins look like.
00:31:08
Speaker
Moving on. Canteen, your Georgia Bulldogs at number five. Alabama once up against them at number four. And then again, Vanderbilt there at number nine. Miami is sneaking back into the top ten, tied with BYU.
00:31:22
Speaker
At number 10, nice surprise there. Shout out to Knoxville, 14. The Virginia Cavaliers. Shout out my home state, number 15. if Shout out Clutch Bees, Michigan at 21. And great victory by Memphis over South Florida to get them into the top 25.
00:31:41
Speaker
twenty five ah So, yeah, really awesome week of college football. But, yeah, back to Brian Kelly being done after three and a half seasons. And, yeah,
00:31:52
Speaker
Look, LSU is not the type of team that's going to stand around, type university that's going to stand around and be bad at football or even be, and they weren't even bad, right? In his three and a half seasons, he was 34 and 14, which is not bad for most universities.
00:32:06
Speaker
That is not one of them that is LSU. They are not one of those universities. If they are not in the playoffs year in and year out, they're considering it a failure. And so with not being able to capitalize on Jaden Daniels' Heisman campaign on an appearance in an SEC title,
00:32:22
Speaker
yeah among other things, for a top-line program like LSU, after you got blowed out by a Texas A&M team that, by the way, just fired Jimbo Fisher and paid a $72 million dollar buyout earlier in the in the in the year, then you're not going to feel bad about having to pay...
00:32:41
Speaker
Brian Kelly's $54 million buyout. And they can say that he wasn't a cultural fit. No one has ever been a cultural fit at LSU since Ed Orgeron. All right?
00:32:51
Speaker
Les Miles wasn't. Nick Saban at Alabama wasn't. But if you're a good coach, you win championships no matter what. So you can say, yeah, it was his corny ass, country voice he came in with, knowing damn well he ain't been nowhere but the Northeast and Mid-Aleven.
00:33:08
Speaker
and Midwest maybe at the best in Notre Dame. And he came with that fake-ass Southern accent. We already knew it was over for him at that point. Plus, what?
00:33:19
Speaker
You mean you tell me you got Jaden Daniels, Malik Nabors, and Brian Thomas, and now you can't get one championship out of any of them? No, I don't know about that. Now, again, this brings you to the question of all coach firings.
00:33:31
Speaker
Where do you go from here? In college it is โ at least a little easier to find ah good coaches and you can pluck from lower universities. Like speaking of a Clark Lee at Vanderbilt, I hope he doesn't go because Vanderbilt's his alma mater, but I wouldn't be surprised that he's going to be one of the top coaching candidates.
00:33:49
Speaker
Another one, one of my most despised Lane Kiffin, you know, we don't get along at all. ah He'll be another hot name in the coaching arena. So we'll see what happens. LSU is going to have their pick of the litter.
00:34:03
Speaker
um because they should be the number one spot this offseason. ah You could go as well with Penn State, but I don't believe so. I think LSU is a bigger a job than Penn State. Penn State would probably be number two on that list.
00:34:19
Speaker
So we'll see what happens there, and we'll keep you
NBA Rising Stars and Team Performances
00:34:22
Speaker
updated. But, yeah, that's your that's your college football news for the week. Moving it into the NBA.
00:34:32
Speaker
Yes. Let's get you a little NBA and NHL. Update power rankings. First of all, the NBA, Chicago Bulls, Philadelphia 76ers, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, only undefeated teams left after one week. Thunder beating the Mavs last night, 101-94.
00:34:52
Speaker
Mavs 1-3 with Cooper Flagg, the Rook, and Anthony Davis healthy. thee Not looking good thus far. Kyrie Irving still not there. We'll see what happens. The biggest story of the year in terms of players,
00:35:03
Speaker
Victor, the alien, Wimbanyama, leading the Spurs to a 4-0 record, looking to take them to the playoffs for the first time in his three-year career. 24 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists.
00:35:20
Speaker
This dude is crazy, yo. i just I mean, ah me and... uh warren shaw shout out from the baseline and nba podcast we were talking about this in our interview go check it out on youtube at ball and buds we were talking about this last week about him and just how much of an alien is and i was i remember saying to warren i was like it's just crazy how he could just go off the dribble and cross you up and step back and he did three and and then the that neck that first game he went up not only did he work ad but then he came back and worked derrick live lee
00:35:51
Speaker
Two with a crossover from three, not two with the fadeaway. Chopped them up, backed it up, hit it from three. Game over another day. Rhymes from Street Professor just dropped, by the way, if you didn't hear those bars.
00:36:06
Speaker
um Victor Wambayama is going to be a problem for this year within this league for decades to come. God forbid injury because he is a little lanky and i get a little I get scared when I see tall players like that playing basketball because I just get worried that they're going to get undercut or something might happen and I don't want to see that at all to him because or anybody but definitely you know the the special kind of talent that he is you don't want to see that go down.
00:36:33
Speaker
So So let's talk about some stars. Tyrese Maxey dropped 40 again, leading the Sixers to an undefeated record. We talked about the Bulls. Shout out the Snail being undefeated, beating the Hawks last night.
00:36:48
Speaker
um Hawks have not looked as good as we thought we were. They were going to look one in three. ah ah ah My brother Warren there at the baseline, we talked about that as well.
00:36:59
Speaker
um Laurie Markkinen hit 50. That was right after Austin Reeves hit 51, and then he hit 41 the next night. um That's after SGA hit 55, and that's after Aaron Gordon hit 50.
00:37:17
Speaker
So we've had four 50-point games in the first week. The NBA is blazing and off to an amazing start in terms of playoff.
00:37:33
Speaker
There's more. are You know, at the start of every Walking Dead episode, they always have that that previously voice. So if you want to hear somebody do that, previously on The Walking Dead.
00:37:47
Speaker
ah Previously on The Professor's Seminal Mente. You'll know ah that The NBA season is not all about that because we have a much bigger issue.
00:38:01
Speaker
I talked about it on the mind of the professor a long time ago when I talked about gambling and sports and how it was going to become a problem. And I'm sure a lot of people besides myself saw that coming as well.
00:38:15
Speaker
But... Clearly, Adam Silver, the and NBA commissioner, didn't when he was the initial commissioner to start spurring on sports betting within leagues and allowing that to come to fruition. So now you can't go back on what can of worms you open, sir. This is your fault.
FBI Investigation on NBA Gambling
00:38:38
Speaker
um And so shocking breaking news reverberated throughout the NBA. Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier, Damon Jones were among over 30 people arrested by the and FBI into illegal gambling investigations.
00:38:55
Speaker
Billups and Rozier are on immediate contact. Leave while everybody is being investigated for wirefrog conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
00:39:08
Speaker
Not a good look at all. And again, goes back to that op-ed in 2014 that Adam Silver wrote that said he supported sports betting.
00:39:20
Speaker
Okay, well now, 11 years later, they have this issue and then the NBA puts out a me puts out a memo after this all happens because we don't forget Jontae Porter was already ah banned from the NBA for life for doing similar to what Terry Rozier did here. So what did happen before we get into that memo?
00:39:45
Speaker
For Chauncey Billups, the Portland Trail Blazers coach was arrested at 6 a.m. in Oregon following the team's opening night loss to Minnesota. The allegations involve him participating in illegal poker games that were rigged and run by the mafia, even dropped a La Cosa Nostra reference, did the FBI director, Cash Patel.
00:40:06
Speaker
Billups allegedly participated in illegal poker games as the face card or as the celebrity that brings the marks in or the people that they're going to a scam in.
00:40:19
Speaker
These games, this is crazy, y'all, a lee allegedly had shuffling machines that read the cards and knew who would have what in their hands at all times because they knew what was being dealt at all times.
00:40:32
Speaker
They had an x-ray table where you could read the cards face down. They even had cameras that were um inside the where the chips are held to look up at cards that were face down, and they even had contact lenses and glasses wore by some of the people that could look to see what was on the cards. So this is some crazy sci-fi next level type shit they had going on in these things. Billups was not named as someone...
00:41:03
Speaker
ah oh sorry Billups was not named in the initial sports but betting investigation, but he does fit the description of someone the FBI gave information about Blazers players sitting out in a game in March 2023.
00:41:18
Speaker
twenty twenty three so obviously, he has potential A lot of charges up to 20 years hanging over his head if convicted. He just signed a contract extension. He was the Portland Trailblazers head coach.
00:41:34
Speaker
um So we'll see. kind of Well, we'll keep you updated what happens exactly with him, but there have been tweets and podcast clips in the past that reference Billups poker games as nefarious endeavors.
00:41:52
Speaker
um So, I mean, again, this is... This is just crazy, but you wouldn't think that someone like a Chauncey Billups would need ah this with all the money that he's made in his career. to and I mean, I would assume he still has, ah especially with the contract extension he just signed.
00:42:12
Speaker
So this might feel more like ah just trying to make more than you have or even just the competition part or even just ah the scamming part. Again, these are all allegations. We'll keep you updated. For Terry Rozier's part,
00:42:24
Speaker
You'll remember the NBA recently investigated him and said that they couldn't find any wrongdoing. But there are allegations that he would take himself out of games, including one game in particular, in which he sent messages to people to go ahead and bet on the fact that they were going to hit the under because he was going to take himself out very early in the first quarter. So Rozier is the big...
00:42:52
Speaker
ah perpetrator here that they were trying to catch in this whole thing and has been investigated for a while now because, again, he would have been using himself as the prop bet, which is just going even a little deeper into it than just saying about other people, which also is where we come to Damon Jones.
00:43:13
Speaker
Damon Jones is said to have sold insider information about players missing games, including โ The king, LeBron James. Yes, he sold information on his own friend on when he was going to be missing games.
00:43:30
Speaker
um So again, all allegations, we don't actually know what is true and what is not true yet. But obviously the FBI has been doing their due diligence for a long time in order to bring these charges up and to arrest these people. They ain't going to do it and make ah make a big scene in a perp walk for nothing.
00:43:49
Speaker
Celtics forward and MBPA Vice President Jalen Brown calls for more allegations. teaching of the players and instead of prioritizing revenue from gambling, actually protecting the players.
00:44:02
Speaker
um So there was a full memo sent out by the NBA. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but essentially it says in light of these charges, the NBA is going to put additional scrutiny, not only on injury reports so they can see when, when players are being saying they're going to be injured and then what actually happens in the games They're going to pay attention more to prop bets.
00:44:22
Speaker
They're also going to start using AI to um yeah better use it. They are using it, better use it with the gambling operators to to identify these players that could be doing it.
00:44:35
Speaker
So they're trying these different ways. But again, that just takes me back to the fact that, well, this can of worms was opened by the NBA commissioner and,
00:44:46
Speaker
um At this point, wait if you ask yourself what can be done yeah end these betting scandals in sports, there is nothing that can be done. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can be done.
History and Rise of Sports Gambling
00:45:00
Speaker
First of all, it's not like gambling hasn't been around forever. We can go back to the Black Sox in 1919. You can go to Pete Rose, the hit king in baseball, still not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But It's only more prevalent now that we actually have sports gambling legal and the players themselves are able to bet on sports.
00:45:22
Speaker
For instance, college athletes can bet on pro sports. So what happens when those college athletes then graduate and go pro? Do you think they're just going stop doing this activity they've been doing for years? No.
00:45:37
Speaker
It's just not even fathomable that you would think that it wouldn't happen. Now, you would hope that the majority of people would take things like this and say, okay, well, we could get in a lot of trouble with the FBI. Maybe we shouldn't do it.
00:45:52
Speaker
But there's always going to be people. always going to be people that break the rules. And, hey, some people will say, if you can it ain't it ain't bret it ain't cheating if you can get away with it.
00:46:06
Speaker
I'm not advocating for that, but I'm just saying that's what some people say. So we'll see what happens, but this really does overshadow Victor Wim Mayama and the hot start in play to the to the NBA when you have things like this that overshadow the actual game play.
00:46:25
Speaker
Right. Clubber I did some same-playing Unos in the ah Yes, sir. He was hustling them, huh? He was getting them on the reverse four. It's like it would be a reverse eight card all of a sudden.
00:46:42
Speaker
Oh, man. By the way, I heard they do have an FU like Unos version, which is that that's pretty crazy. um But, yeah, it's like a reverse eight. or id be I'd be so mad.
00:46:53
Speaker
I'd be so upset. um Anyways, let's go ahead and give you those and NBA power rankings for the week from NBA.com. OKC there. This is from yesterday. So before yesterday's game, OKC is 4-0 now.
00:47:08
Speaker
Golden State there at the number two spot. They also won. Denver also won. So they stay at the three. New York there at number four, 2-1. And Cleveland rounding out the top five at 2-1.
00:47:20
Speaker
They won also last night. Actually, I believe all five. of those teams won last night. So there you go. Actually, I don't think the Knicks played, but the other four definitely played and won. All right, so there's your power rankings for the week, NBA.
00:47:33
Speaker
Again, OKC is the one to beat, but don't count Golden State out. As me and my brother Warren Shaw ah talked about from the Baseline NBA podcast, Golden State, do not count them out just yet.
00:47:46
Speaker
And my pick, the New York Knickerbock. yeah oh I can't believe I ever picked them to win the championship are holding strong.
00:47:56
Speaker
Moving into our NHL power rankings for the week, the Colorado Avalanche are at number one, the Las Vegas Golden Knights at number two. ah Number three, you've got the Winnipeg Jets.
00:48:12
Speaker
At number four, you've got the Detroit Red Wings. And at number five, you've got the Carolina Hurricanes. Look at those Washington, D.C. Capitals at number seven.
00:48:24
Speaker
But yeah, Avalanche, real hot start to this year. Also a hot start is the young kids. We had three hat tricks on the 23rd, so five days ago, and one of them was by the 19-year-old number one pick from last year, Shark star Macklin Celebrini, had three three goals and a hat trick.
00:48:44
Speaker
Then the Rangers' fourth liner, a fourth liner, which means you're barely playing in most games. Taylor Raddice is getting like seven to ten minutes a game. Somehow came up with four goals. And then finally, but sha louis our the 21-year-old Utah center.
00:48:59
Speaker
Yes, Utah has a hockey team, y'all. The Utah Mammoth. Logan Cooley piled up a hat trick as well. By the way, the Mammoth off to a hot, hot start in the NHL. um there You can see them there at number 11 in our power rankings. But I believe they've only lost two games so far, or even one.
00:49:21
Speaker
So... And in the NBA, I mean the NBA, in the NHL, it's easier for expansion teams to win games because the NHL actually does it right and lets them actually have they make other good teams give up good players, not just any players.
00:49:38
Speaker
But whatever, for the and NHL, if you like the sports equinox yesterday, you will love the happy, staggered start day today. started at it started just an hour ago.
00:49:52
Speaker
um All 32 NHL hockey teams in action tonight. It started an hour ago. Every 15 minutes, a new game will start. So if you like hockey and you have ESPN+, have one of your TVs glued on ESPN+, because every team in the league will be playing tonight, and you have 16.
00:50:14
Speaker
NHL games to watch. I know I'll have one TV on the World Series and the other TV on ESPN Plus so I can watch all the hockey games. And then I'll have NBA League Pass on my computer so I can watch some NBA games.
00:50:28
Speaker
And that's what we're going to go do here in a little bit. So I'm going to get us off. Oh, wow. I don't know. I guess if I'm getting myself, ah it wouldn't be a pause. But you know what? You know what? going move it on.
00:50:40
Speaker
We don't need to. That's just going to get me in a bad place, and i don't want to get canceled. So moving on to the WNBA, the CBA collective bargaining agreement deadline is just days away.
WNBA CBA Negotiations
00:50:52
Speaker
Friday, more than 70 elected officials, including New York City Council member Tiffany Cabin and a number of but maybe Cabin, Caban, actually. Caban is what it looks like. Tiffany Caban.
00:51:06
Speaker
And a number of politicians from ah the Democratic Women's Caucus and Health Democratic Caucus, 85 members to be exact, sent a plea for them to be able to get a fair deal done and bargain in good faith between teams so that there is not a labor shutdown. We already got a government shutdown. We don't need a labor shutdown.
00:51:32
Speaker
I know some people watching now would truly agree, and I hope we get that solved soon so my peoples can get their money. um That being said, We'll see what happens. Also, New York City mayoral candidate Zorhan Mamdani, and I haven't talked and about the news. I did a brief news last week, so I haven't had a chance to talk about Zorhan Mamdani, but wow, is he really upsetting the conservative side of the aisle. They do not.
00:52:01
Speaker
like that guy because he called himself a socialist. And you know what, if he's a socialist, well then damn, we need socialist policies because I'm all for universal healthcare and, uh, you know, universal housing and all that good stuff. If people need help, we should be giving them help. If you can afford to do it on your own, that's great. But a lot of people can't, and we should be helping those people out.
00:52:22
Speaker
So damn it. If that's what you call it, then that's what the hell you can call me too. Um, But anyways, we'll get off of that because we don't need all that ah ah people jumping up in my comments and shit just because I want to help people and care for poor people, and you don't. Makes you an asshole, not me.
00:52:38
Speaker
Anyways, moving on. Finish it up. Preseason AP All-American Women's College Basketball Team. Yes, you see it.
00:52:50
Speaker
Here we are. the team includes from UCLA. Yes, Bruins are going to do it this year. Lauren Betts. The Super Senior Center. Actually, she's not a Super Senior. She's a regular senior. But I meant Super because she is a superhero.
00:53:07
Speaker
The 6'7 Center, the player of the year last year, was an absolute beast. I saw her in person when they played Maryland in College Park, and she was absolutely amazing.
00:53:20
Speaker
And even though they lost their whole bench, and so they don't have a lot of depth, Their whole starting lineup is coming back, and they picked up a couple key transfers, and they're having one of their transfers come back from injury.
00:53:34
Speaker
So all in all, they'll have a nice round top eight that can win the championship this year. I'm cheering for it. Let's go, UCLA Bruins.
00:53:46
Speaker
UCLA, UCLA, fight, fight, fight. um UConn, Sarah Strong had an amazing freshman year last year. She is a sophomore coming back. She will be the leader there at UConn. She was also named to the team.
00:54:02
Speaker
Also, how about junior at Texas wing, Madison Booker? She's been on this on this list every year since a freshman. She's amazing.
00:54:14
Speaker
Hannah Hidalgo, another one that's on this list year in and year out. Junior guard from Notre Dame, also an amazing player as well. And finally, ah we have Tanaya Latson rounding out the top five. She is a transfer. She was at Florida State.
00:54:36
Speaker
University last year and has now transferred to Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks, always contenders in the women's college basketball. And that is it for your happy Sports Equinox Day.
Wrap-up and Upcoming Shows
00:54:53
Speaker
Yes, what an amazing day it was yesterday.
00:54:56
Speaker
Go enjoy your World Series tonight. Go enjoy your 16 NHL games. It's an amazing sports week. The greatest day in sports yesterday was amazing, and I hope you enjoyed this.
00:55:11
Speaker
Sports Equinox edition of The Professor's Seminole Mente. I am your host, Omar, the Sports Professor Fonseca. Please make sure you subscribe to Ball and Buds, B-A-L-L-A-N-D-B-U-D-S, handy QR code up there the top.
00:55:29
Speaker
Hit that. It'll take you to our link tree. Subscribe. And also hit that like button, whether watching now or on the replay. Yes, indeed. It helps us out in the algorithm, and I really appreciate it.
00:55:42
Speaker
By the way, also tune in Sunday Showdown every Sunday, 7.15 Eastern. As I said, ah the sports professor, myself, Clubity, the combat G, Dirty Mojo, and Shane Peachomania better be joining us next week.
00:55:57
Speaker
And then finally, yeah, we'll have the boxing stream coming up. Boxing champs in a couple weeks for the Gervonta Davis-Jake Paul shenanigan fight. And we'll also...
00:56:08
Speaker
um I may have some special guests too. And we'll also have our NBA stream coming up. Hopefully next week I'm to get Bobby G. I'm going to get my brother Jay from unfair sports. Hopefully have another special guest for that as well.
00:56:19
Speaker
And then as well, looking forward to the IOW version of the professor seminar may take sports, hopefully here in another couple of weeks, once we get that settled. And then finally, Total evisceration is coming.
00:56:32
Speaker
I know we've been talking about it for nine months now. I unfortunately just got really caught up because I'm making a course on social media for small business owners that I've been working on that was first priority.
00:56:44
Speaker
And I had the channel that I had to do videos for. And so unfortunately, I was not able to edit the videos. And so we're going to do it live. And it's going to be even better. Like if you thought recorded was going to be good of me and hot take Jake going to each other's jugular over sports for 30 minutes, you're going to love total evisceration.
00:57:03
Speaker
It's going to be three topics. I take Jake and the sports professor. We're going to go back and forth at each other. We're going be yelling. We're going to screaming. We're going to talking shit. And we're just going to have a great old time.
00:57:14
Speaker
Real sports talk, real sports value, and real sports passion with real sports friends and streamers on the like. Y'all check out the Final State Podcast with Hot Take Jake and the brothers there and as well.
00:57:27
Speaker
Make sure you subscribe to Ball and Buds. We are going to start this in the new year. I'm actually going back to Puerto Rico. for Christmas. I will have to go see my grandmothers and family.
00:57:38
Speaker
So I'll be gone all of December. So I won't be doing very much streaming ah except here and there when I get Wi-Fi. But total evisceration, look for it in the new year.
00:57:50
Speaker
It's going to be on Tuesdays. So it'll probably start the second Tuesday of January. I'll probably do the first premiere recorded version on the first Tuesday because I have Country Box.
00:58:01
Speaker
Shout out Country Box and Jimmy Adams. um By the way, next week they'll be at the Opry Mill, Opryland, God Plus, the Troubadour Theater in Opry Mills in Nashville. Cool.
00:58:12
Speaker
So again, make sure you subscribe to Ball & Buds, B-A-L-L-A-N-D-B-U-D-S, handy QR code up there at top as well for our link tree. Hit that like button, whether watching now or on the replay.
00:58:25
Speaker
And yeah, y'all be kind to each other. Be blessed. Go out and help another person. um Be your best. Be successful. Get lucky or be dusty, as we say.
00:58:39
Speaker
And yeah, spread love the Omar way. Holla! $5,000. five thousand
00:58:51
Speaker
That's straight on high five feet Give me paper, pen and one mic to make this man complete I'm always they sucker free So haters hop off my dish till that day I D.I.E. Focus till my mission complete Never stops that victory from the jaws of defeat Focused on create heat Missile shot, roar down enemies we must defeat MC so you meet Rocket heads, stop them dead then bring them back their feet You better watch what you speak is popping off with the mouth, I'll leave your body feel weak, switch your face and grit your teeth, cause everything else will have your outlook look bleep, death is the time for sleep, never slow down, never stop, I'm always on my grind, in any mountain will climb, reach my fistful climb and I ascend to the peak.
00:59:45
Speaker
Introducing Omar, the Professor Fonseca, and the Professor Seminal Men.