Hot Takes Only

Alex was unable to make this episode of Hot Takes Only, so we called in some other big guns from HTN to help with this week's episode! Isaac Carmichael, Matthew Watson and Coty Van de Byl join Ben to discuss some football and hockey picks for this weekend's action! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

After a technical glitch did not allow for an episode to be released last week, Ben and Alex are back with a fantastic edition of Hot Takes Only this week! The boys like the board this week with some confident plays on both college and pro ball, including the Wazzu vs Utah match-up, the Jaguars vs Broncos meeting and the Dolphins vs Chargers showdown! Enjoy this weekend and remember, football is family!

Ben and Alex are back with more picks from the gridiron! Featured selections on this week's episode include a play on the Thursday Night Football over/under, the point spread in the Bills-Giants and a couple of games from the college battlefield.

For college football fans, there's also a discussion to look forward to about Chip Kelly's UCLA failure and Willie Taggart's inexplicable ability to continue to play down to his opponents! Enjoy another great weekend of football!

After a successful NCAA Week 1 where Hot Takes Only enjoyed a 6-3 weekend, Alex has you covered with NFL Week 1 and NCAA Week 2 betting tips, while Ben focuses on season futures for the NFL talking about all things team win totals. After a long off-season, we've finally made it. Enjoy the NFL football this weekend! 

After a successful Week 0, Alex and Ben are back with their Week 1 College Football picks! Enjoy the football this weekend!

We're back from our summer hiatus and we're ready for a great Fall of sports! This episode begins our strategic shift of HTO to focus on sports betting discussions. Ben and Alex kick off this new focus by talking about Miami vs Florida on college football's opening day, as well as college football team win total futures.

Cian Wright of Game, Set, Slice has made the trip over to Canada and joins Ben and Mac in studio for an update on the first week of Wimbledon! The lads talk about some of their favourite story lines from Week 1 including Coco Gauff, Nick Kyrgios, Bernard Tomic and the failure of the Next-Gen.

Ben and Mac then dive into the pandemonium that is NBA free agency, including their thoughts on Kawhi leaving for the Clippers, PG13 joining Kawhi and what Raptors fans should be feeling now and in the future.

Ben and Mac are back with a full recap of Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Topics of conversation include Nick Nurse's timeout usage, Kawhi Leonard's struggle getting to the hoop, the booing of KD by Raptors fans (including a passionate rant directed at DeMarcus Cousins) and Kevon Looney's importance in Game 6.

The episode finishes off with a discussion from the Women's World Cup and the celebrations of the American team after goals in a 13-0 win.

We're trying a new format on the podcast this week! Thanks to a suggestion from listener Dave Caputo, we're going quick-fire on the hot takes! Mac Turchan and Isaac Carmichael join Ben to "buy-or-sell" six hot takes from a wide-variety of sports!

At the end of the episode, Isaac shares some exciting news about the future of Hot Takes Network, as he and Matthew Watson are starting a baseball-specific podcast, "The Hot Corner: Presented by Hot Takes Network"! Cristian Dragan and Reuben Wahab are also launching a soccer-specific podcast!

Let us know if you prefer this format of the podcast and make sure to check out "The Hot Corner"!

After a week off, Mac and Ben are back with an action packed episode filled with basketball and golf talk. The lads recap a disappointing Game 1 of the Raptors vs Bucks and what to expect from the remainder of the series. They then circle back to the greatest shot and moment in in Toronto Raptors history from Kawhi Leonard, before heading over to the Western Conference to update the series at the end of Game 2. To finish off the episode, the guys respond to a write-in question, addressing Brooks Koepka's comments about golf and the PGA Tour prior to this week's PGA Championship.

We have a big announcement on next week's episode about the future of HTN, so make sure you tune in!

The first two games of the Raptors-76ers series resulted in a split and Ben breaks down the adjustments the Raptors need to make to ensure success in the series. He touches on what to do with Fred VanVleet and Marc Gasol, the Raptors rebounding troubles and how Nick Nurse needs to ensure he doesn't get out-coached by Brett Brown again in Game 3.

The second half of the episode features a discussion with HTN's newest contributor Matthew Watson, as he and Ben break down the good and the ugly from the 2019 NFL draft. Questions answered include: Biggest reach, best first-round value, best day two or three value and worst pick (Yes Daniel Jones, we're looking at you...). Check out Matthew's awesome pre-draft blogs at www.hottakesnetwork.com.

With the NFL Draft getting underway on Thursday night, Ben and Alex talk about some players, teams and picks to watch out for as they mock draft the first ten picks of the 2019 NFL Draft.

HTN's own Mac Turchan joins Ben on this week's podcast to recap the magical Sunday at Augusta National where Tiger Woods captured his fifth green jacket. The lads then discuss the opening week of the NHL playoffs and the first two games of the Toronto Raptors-Orlando Magic series.

The episode finishes with a very special interview as Ben sits down with Toronto Blue Jays radio legend Jerry Howarth to talk about some legendary Blue Jays moments and some of his favourite career memories. Enjoy!

With the NHL playoffs getting underway Wednesday night, Ben sits down with Hot Takes Network's own Isaac Carmichael to discuss all eight first round series, including predictions, match-ups to watch, and X-factors for teams. You won't want to make any bets or brackets until you listen to this episode! Enjoy all the sports action this week!

With a phenomenal Elite Eight weekend in the rear-view mirror, Alex and Ben are back this week to discuss their picks for the Final Four and the National Championship. The second half of the episode transitions to professional basketball and with the NBA season winding down, the lads give their selections for all the end of season awards. Enjoy the basketball this weekend!

On this week's episode of Hot Takes Only presented by Hot Takes Network, Alex and Ben analyze the first weekend of March Madness and discuss some players and teams that impressed and disappointed. The guys then move onto a preview of this upcoming weekend's action and give some betting tips for the gamblers out there. Enjoy!

Alex has rejoined the podcast just in time for March Madness! The boys go through their picks for the tournament, including some upset alerts, matchups to watch and final four predictions. Ben also has an important tip for all of you involved in March Madness office pools!

A brief recap of THE PLAYERS is included, with shout outs to Rory McIlroy and Jim Furyk as well as a discussion about what transpired between Jon Rahm and his caddie. Some early Masters thoughts finishes up the golf talk.

Finally, Ben sits down with HTN's own Cristian Dragan, as well as Reuben Wahab and Marko Martinovic to discuss footy and the state of La Liga, the Champions League, as well as answering this season's most burning question - Where does Real Madrid go from here?

After missing last week, we're pleased to bring you a double episode this week, so enjoy the extra content!

On this episode of the podcast, Ben is joined once again by Isaac Carmichael to talk about the free agent signings of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, as well as the extension for Nolan Arenado and what that menas for the teams involved as well as the MLB as a whole. Ben is also pleased to be joined by Cian Wright of Game, Set, Slice to talk about the ATP Tour season, as well as the upcoming tournament in Indian Wells. This episode did experience some technical difficulty, so we apologize for any sound issues.

This week we have special guests Cole and Mac on the podcast for NBA Trade Deadline reactions.

Join us for the first episode of HTO presented by the Hot Takes Network, where we discuss our Super Bowl reactions and look ahead to the 2019 NFL season.