Mike DeCourcy Joins to Recap Steelers Season, Talk College Hoops

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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.

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