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Spiegel & Holmes Show

Deon Thomas talks Illini reaching Elite Eight & reflects on being caught up in Bruce Pearl saga (Hour 2)

Spiegel & Holmes Show

Audacy

Sports

4.2652 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the second hour, Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes were joined by Matt John Armstrong, the father of Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. Matt discussed Pete’s baseball journey, which had a monumental moment this week when he signed a six-year, $115-million contract extension with the Cubs. After that, Illini legend Deon Thomas joined the show to discuss Illinois advancing to the Elite Eight with a dominant win against Houston in the Sweet 16 on Thursday. Thomas also shared his feelings about former college basketball coach Bruce Pearl, whose questionable ethics thrust Thomas into the middle of a recruiting scandal in the late 1980s.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the official radio home of the Chicago Cubs.

0:03.8

Listen to every game here on Sports Radio 1043 The Score and always live on the free Odyssey app.

0:09.9

Broadcasting live from the Hyundai Studios.

0:12.0

Present to you in part by your local Hyundai dealers.

0:14.3

WSCR, WSCR FM in HD1 Chicago, and Odyssey Sports Station.

0:20.2

The score!

0:22.3

Here's the 3-1.

0:24.0

Hit in the air, deep center field, going back Armstrong at the track near the wall,

0:28.7

leaps, and he makes the catch.

0:32.2

What a play by Pete Crowe Armstrong, a leaping grab against the wall.

0:38.3

I was talking about his mom.

0:39.9

You could see her in the middle of the shot, and then his dad, Matt,

0:42.5

I was just up there talking to him, and I was with them when Pete made that great defensive

0:47.5

play, and he started crying when Pete made that catch.

0:51.4

And I said, why is this so emotional for you?

0:53.4

He's from Naperville, grew up a

0:54.9

diehard Cubs fan, and the fact that his son is now in the major leagues in a Cubs uniform brought him to tears. And I asked him, when did you realize your Cubs or that your son had a realistic shot of playing in the major leagues? And they both said, yesterday, we never wanted to get our hopes too high. And then yesterday when we saw him in the

1:11.8

uniform was really when we realized, okay, he can be a major leaguer and he is. So super special

1:17.2

moment for them guys. And I did ask them, what's it going to be like when he plays at Wrigley?

1:21.8

And his dad goes, oh, I'm going to be a puddle. That is where I watched my heroes play growing up.

1:26.8

And by the way, his hero's son,

1:29.2

Barryfoot in Leon Durham.

...

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