March Madness isn't just about filling out brackets; it's the stories, the heartbreak, and the triumphs that keep us coming back for more. This episode's got all that, plus new guest, Matt, helps us break down this year's tournament with predictions that'll have you rethinking your picks. We're reliving the emotional rollercoaster of Gator sports, from football disappointments to basketball glories, and pondering how changes like NIL and the transfer portal are reshaping the college sports experience.
Tune in as we tackle the tournament's tough questions: Can Coach Cal's Wildcats make a March Madness run? Will the changing tides of coaching styles and strategies affect the outcome on the court? And which dark horse teams are poised to bust brackets across the nation? We're not just analyzing matchups; we're exploring the personal connections that make the madness meaningful, from Andrew's insights on injuries to our collective nostalgia for rivalries like Florida vs. Florida State.
Wrap up your sports cravings with our Sweet 16 predictions and dive into discussions on the evolving NCAA landscape. We're speculating on potential conference realignments and the effects on powerhouses like Clemson and Florida State. And as the tournament tips off, join us to see if our picks, from the safety of San Diego State to the upset potential of McNeese State, make us look like geniuses or just another bunch of fans with busted brackets.
March Madness isn't just about filling out brackets; it's the stories, the heartbreak, and the triumphs that keep us coming back for more. This episode's got all that, plus new guest, Matt, helps us break down this year's tournament with predictions that'll have you rethinking your picks. We're reliving the emotional rollercoaster of Gator sports, from football disappointments to basketball glories, and pondering how changes like NIL and the transfer portal are reshaping the college sports experience.
Tune in as we tackle the tournament's tough questions: Can Coach Cal's Wildcats make a March Madness run? Will the changing tides of coaching styles and strategies affect the outcome on the court? And which dark horse teams are poised to bust brackets across the nation? We're not just analyzing matchups; we're exploring the personal connections that make the madness meaningful, from Andrew's insights on injuries to our collective nostalgia for rivalries like Florida vs. Florida State.
Wrap up your sports cravings with our Sweet 16 predictions and dive into discussions on the evolving NCAA landscape. We're speculating on potential conference realignments and the effects on powerhouses like Clemson and Florida State. And as the tournament tips off, join us to see if our picks, from the safety of San Diego State to the upset potential of McNeese State, make us look like geniuses or just another bunch of fans with busted brackets.
three, two, one hello and welcome sports bros. Episode 34 it is march. Basketball is here. Basketball is here. Brackets are here. Matt is here. Welcome to Sports Bros it's madness time let's talk some ball. What do we think about UConn Stetson? I'm picking UConn.
Speaker 2:I think, the question do they cover 26.5? That's the question.
Speaker 3:I don't know, Troy I don't know what Troy I?
Speaker 1:don't know. What do we think about Duke, my boy, jay Billis?
Speaker 2:He'll win their first game and they might get by Wisconsin's second round and they're done after that.
Speaker 3:Wisconsin's hot.
Speaker 1:I think the only game I've really watched. I watched Yale and Brown. I watched like the last five minutes. That game was awesome, it was elite, it was like a high school stadium.
Speaker 3:Yeah, retractable bleachers.
Speaker 1:And the pep rally the night before.
Speaker 2:I think Brown missed four out of the last five, three of those. They could have put that game away, but of course I picked Brown to win that game, so of course they choked it. It's only when I put money on teams that they lose.
Speaker 3:Harry, how bad's your streak right now.
Speaker 2:Seven.
Speaker 3:Ah, we gotta get past that Did you bet tonight's game.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't bet tonight's game.
Speaker 3:You're doing a full reset.
Speaker 2:Starting fresh, not touching the NIT. Guys from NCAA parlays Got Connecticut to win their region. I picked Kentucky to win the South, even though I think Houston's going to win it, but I like Kentucky. I think it was plus 850. So I laid a little bit down. I like those odds to cash in if it happens. But I've got Connecticut winning the East and winning the whole thing. I think a lot of people do as well. And then I did a big. I think I did like a 16-game parlay for the first round. Then I'll just do some individual games.
Speaker 1:What was the bet that would PFT do last year or the year before? It was like all ones and twos, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So whoever did the one and twos, was that to cover or was that just to win?
Speaker 1:I think he just did to win and it lost because of what Purdue and uh.
Speaker 2:When was the?
Speaker 1:Kentucky, st Peter's Was that two years ago?
Speaker 3:I think you're muted, andrew, just let him talk on.
Speaker 4:Alright, I got my AirPods on.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're running into other technical difficulties, so it's Andrew's first time in a while.
Speaker 4:Is this the set you usually use for the pod?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're muted, bro. We can't hear you if you're not muted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he was saying Kentucky looks good, kentucky's getting hot at the right time.
Speaker 3:Hammer Kentucky.
Speaker 1:I think we're just kind of talking right now. This is Harry. By the way, Harry, this is Matt we worked together at back in the day.
Speaker 2:What's up, Matt?
Speaker 4:Hey Harry, how you doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm good friends with Corey and Christopher's dads. I've known these guys Crap. I've known Corey since he was seven, I think. Oh, wow, Something like that, right, Corey you were seven, Victoria was eight. I think I've known you guys a long time. Gotcha, yeah, we were just saying beforehand, before we started recording, instead of everybody going down their whole bracket. Just kind of highlight who your final four is and what upset picks you're thinking of. Who's?
Speaker 5:your final four.
Speaker 4:So I heard you guys talking about the ones and twos. I actually have the ones and threes. I have well spoiler I have UConn winning the whole thing. Unfortunately, I think they're going to be the first team to repeat since my Gators, and then we won't be able to say we're the last team to do that. I have Purdue reaching the final four. I think they got a big chip on their shoulder from obviously being the second team to ever lose to a 16 seed. Last year, edie came back, you know best player. Well, him and Dalton Connect, I think, are the best players in the country, but Edie, obviously, is just a massive human being, whereas Dalton Connect is the you know pizzazz, I guess you would say. And then I have Kentucky making it. I know, andrew, I know you're a big Kentucky fan. No, but, but Kentucky didn't have their full team, I think until March. We played one game with our full drafts.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly so. So I think that you know, now having it all together, I so I think that now having it all together, I think that they can do it. They're in the south, I want to say with Houston.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I have them coming out of that region. And then for the last one, I actually have Baylor. I like Scott Drew a lot. I remember watching the Gators play them earlier this year in I think it was the Barclays Center or early season or you know, early season NIT, wherever you want, whatever it's called, and they were just lights out from three. They have this guy, ray J Davis, Like that's his. Actually. His name is Ray J, like all one word. He's just phenomenal, I like. I like Scott Drew a lot. I have a lot of faith in him. So, yeah, that's my final four.
Speaker 4:As far as upset picks are concerned, I have McNeese over Gonzaga. That's probably a really common one. Will Wade was, actually I thought he was. He wasn't a bad coach at LSU, he just NIL'd a bit too early and he's got McNeese completely turned around. At his introductory press conference he said McNeese lost 23 games last year, will win 23 games this year. They've won 30 games. So I like that again. Yeah, gonzaga isn't the typical. You know one through three seats, I should say, because they're not. This isn't one of their better gonzaga teams under mark few, still dangerous, you know grammy, cake and ball.
Speaker 4:And then, as far as other upset picks, I have that. I have duquesne over. I think it's Texas Tech. Whoever that is, I don't have the bracket in front of me. In fact, byu yeah, sorry BYU I got Duquesne over BYU. To be honest, I don't know much about either of those teams, but I know Duquesne won that Atlantic 10 tourney, atlantic 10. It's not a power six conference, but it's a decent conference. I say, as far as I want to call it a mid-major conference, it's one of the better ones. Give me a second. I'm just going to pull up my bracket. Bear with me.
Speaker 1:While you're doing that, Matt, did you have your most heartbreaking sports moment ready to go?
Speaker 4:I do. Can I do one football, one basketball?
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:Okay, going to start with football. Going to take it back to the first year I ever followed, an entire season of Gator football, which was 2001. I was nine Before then. I just did not have the attention span for sports in general, just couldn't sit down in front of the TV and watch the whole game. I was just a little kid, I couldn't really focus. So 2001, I started following 2001,.
Speaker 4:Unfortunately, was the year of 9-11. One of the repercussions of that obviously totally not a concern at the time, but they ended up taking all the games that were supposed to be played the weekend after 9-11, moved it to the end of the season. So we were supposed to play Tennessee that weekend and we had we're pretty healthy we had Ernest Graham, you know, was our star running back at the time, but instead we played them at the end of the year. We played them after the FSU game. So I went to that FSU game. We beat them pretty badly, but Ernest Graham got injured by Darnell Dockett, which I'm not going to go into my theories on that, but here's what it is.
Speaker 2:So then, Was that when he was accused of twisting his leg in the pileup?
Speaker 4:Look innocent until proven guilty. I'm not going to say he did, I'm just going to call it an injury. But I know there was a lot of talk about that.
Speaker 4:But I'm not going to go and accuse Darnell Dockett of doing that, like when I was younger I used to think that, but I'm like you know what. There's no true evidence he meant to do that. I'm not going to, but at the time, yes, I was pretty upset and we played Tennessee in December, like that first week in December, which would have been the SEC Championship game. Now we had a loss that year, I forget to who, but if we win that game, we win that Tennessee game. We I mean I forget who came out of the West that year, but if someone could have beaten them in the SEC Championship, we would have gone to the Natty and we lost Tennessee 34-32. We would have gone to the natty and we lost tennessee 34 to 32.
Speaker 4:Never forget, sitting in my grandpa's mobile home right here in clearwater and just being like totally dejected, like this was probably. This was the first like true sports disappointment of my life because this was the first year I really thought I'd be able to football. As you know, you know parents went there but I gave him a whole life. You know uf grabbed myself. It was bad and I just was like, damn. Now, of course we would probably. If we went to the natty. We probably would have lost to that oh one canes team not gonna sugarcoat that, but it's college football, who knows. Again, we probably would have lost that and I would have had to deal with canes fans at home because I'm from Miami but, again, didn't know at the time. Eight years old, sorry, nine years old. So actually, yeah, nine years old. So yeah, that was pretty heartbreaking, considering. You know, I hadn't seen the national championship time in my life and thought we'd go to Natty.
Speaker 4:But now on to the basketball one. So I'm going to take it back to the 2013-2014 Florida Gator team and I actually think that was the best team we've ever had, better than either of the back-to-back teams. We just got unlucky. So we went to the Final Four. My dad, my brother and I went out to Dallas. We had lost two games that year in total, one to Wisconsin, one to UConn earlier in the season. Of course, wisconsin and UConn are both in the final four. But my dad, my brother and I, we thought we were going out there strictly business. We thought, okay, that's not going to happen again. You know, it was early season losses, whatever. Whatever. We thought we were going to win national championship. We thought we were going to win the national championship. We thought we were just out there, you know, to watch it and we were the first game in the semis.
Speaker 4:And the way the I don't know if any of you have ever been to a Final Four, but the way it works, and I don't know if they still do it they sell tickets officially through a broker called Prime Sport and these people are really legit and they can naked, so you can't scalp. In order to get in to Jerry World, my dad had to show the credit card that he used to buy the tickets, and they print out these little movie theater tickets. But anyway, the cheapest way to get tickets to the Final Four and the National Championships is to buy them all at once, because they want you to do that instead of waiting to see if your team gets there. So we're the first semi and we lose to UConn again. Shabazz Napier just lives to kill Gator hearts.
Speaker 4:I don't even think we stayed around for the Kentucky-Wisconsin game. We were just so pissed off. And here's the crazy part. So this is the. This is our Jerry world.
Speaker 4:But back then, 2014, because there was an NCAA event, there was no alcohol being sold. So we're like, wait, what You're kidding? Like, this is not a college campus, it's an NFL stadium and you're not selling out. So now we want to drown our sorrows and can't do that because they don't sell out there. So we leave and we go to some mexican restaurant, have dinner and drink there. But now we have another problem. Well, I don't call it a problem, but we have something to decide. So we have the tickets to the natty on monday. Can't sell them because, like I said, you show the credit card you used to buy them when you get up to the gate.
Speaker 4:So we, we ended up, uh, gate. So we, we ended up, uh, just going to that. You know, we got some, uh, some mini bottles and, uh, we watched. We watched Kentucky, uconn, uh. So you know, definitely not what we thought, but pretty heartbreaking to go out there to. You know, a tournament which we were the number one overall seed and also, I don't know if you remember, but that year we were just that school year. We just got awful in football. I mean, even if we didn't have tons of injuries, I think we would have gone like 6-6. But that was the year we lost to Georgia Southern and you know, just a bad year once those injuries started. Anyway, yeah, so that was.
Speaker 3:I think that was a.
Speaker 2:So this was after they had won the back-to-back national championships, or before Back back-to-back national championships or before, back after after.
Speaker 4:yeah, back-to-back happened when I was in eighth grade, ninth grade.
Speaker 3:Those were awesome. Was it 0-4-0-5? 0-5-0-6?
Speaker 4:It was 0-5-0-6 and then 0-6-0-7.
Speaker 2:I forgot that the Gators were in the final four. I thought those were the only two final four that they were in. What did they want?
Speaker 4:No, no, we've been in one in 2000. We lost to Michigan State in the 90 and then won in 94. Oh, that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right Okay.
Speaker 1:Who was on that 2013 team? Was that Scotty Wilbican or was that before him? Yeah, scotty.
Speaker 4:Wilbican, casey, prather, michael Frazier, will you Get Patrick Young? That was a starting five, patrick.
Speaker 1:Young.
Speaker 4:Oh, Patrick, Young yeah yeah, and announcer on sec network, so it's cool, you see you see, he got a spinal cord injury. I saw that he's in a wheelchair. It's terrible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, really yeah, like last year or earlier this year or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so anyway, those are my. Those are my two most heartbreaking sport. Oddly enough now that college football is just like a mercenary sport. Until they fix NIL and they fix the Easy Portal, I just don't. I mean, there's still some games I obviously really want to win, like the games against rivals like FSU and UM, georgia, what have you. But as far as the every Saturday standing up pacing in front of my TV, I don't do that anymore. I mean, why should I care that much when some of the players don't even care that much anymore? So definitely less stressful and, you know, doesn't hit as hard as an adult compared to when you're a kid.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but when I was younger, you know, the other problem with college basketball Is the one and done Makes it harder to follow teams, at least in college football. They've got to stay there two years.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but the one and done. That's one thing I noticed this year. If you look at the players who made the AP All-American first team, a lot of them are not one and done. I don't know if any of them are. Dog Connects, a grad transfer. He's been there for a while. Tristan Newton on UConn, I'm pretty sure he's a grad transfer. I want to say that guy, jamal Sheed on Houston, he's been there, he's not a freshman. I don't believe. So I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:And even if you look at teams like Duke Duke, you know, used to be, you know, kings of the one and done or no, actually that's more Kentucky, but Duke used to have a lot of one and dones, you know, like Jason Tatum and what have you Dion um. But if you look at their roster, like Jeremy Roach is a senior that got, he's still. That's a coach K guy. So I'm starting to see that because of the portal. In other words, I like what the portal has done in basketball a lot more than what it's done in football. Because, yes, the transfer portal and NIL exist in college basketball, but players have been able to go play in the G League or overseas for a year before going to the NBA for a while now. So I don't think NIL has college basketball in as much of a chokehold as it does college football.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good point, Good point.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's the portal and like, for example, like the Gators this year, like, I think, two if you exclude the guys who don't really play like the walk on the managers, if you want to call them whatever their title is on the team there's like two guys from last year's team there's Riley Kugel and there's Will Richard, and the reason I like that is because this is Todd Golden's second year.
Speaker 4:He flipped the roster, like last year there was a bunch of Mike White guys and I don't know if he'd shoot them out or what. But yeah, I don't expect us to have that many transfers next year. So I don't think that the transfer portal is as much of an issue either either in college basketball. So that's why I'm still, you know, very much as passionate about college basketball as I used to be, like growing up. Like you know, it was Gator football, gator basketball every year, and when football didn't go well, we used to, we usually had basketball. Because Billy D was the man During the Mike White years, you know, kind of hard to have a lot of faith. His only good year was with christiosa, who was a billy recruit, and then it was just, you know, mid-major mike every year after.
Speaker 2:So yeah, what what I, what I, what I miss about college football you know, being me, being a florida state guy, and you know a lot of people that I know are florida fans is I missed. I missed those two schools playing each other at the end of the year and they were both ranked in the top ten and it had national championship implications. You know I missed that. You know, because it was so exciting and you had Miami in the mix too, you know. So it was, you know, and I remember that one year and you were actually sentient for that.
Speaker 4:You watched that being a little older. You know I didn't start watching you know college football till 2001, so I I'm jealous of that. I would have loved to see you know the bowden sparrier battles.
Speaker 2:Actually remember them yeah, I graduated in 88. In my senior year. In 88 florida miami played florida state in tallahassee. That was a crazy game was like 29 20 and I think in that game it had like 52 players that ended up playing in the nfl, that were that were in one stadium. It was just incredible. That was Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders. You know, deion got whooped that game. I think I've mentioned this before in a podcast but I think Michael Irvin had like four catches for like 180 yards and four touchdowns that game and they were all just little slants where he just freaking outran everybody. That was their plan because you couldn't go deep against Deion. He can cover you, but you do a slant, you get a step on him, you got a chance and that's exactly what happened in that game.
Speaker 4:Yeah, their relationship is really cool. They're like the best of friends. Like Michael Irvin's been tweeting ever since he took the job at Colorado. Like I'm so proud of my friend. It's cool, being huge rivals and competitors, that they're best of friends.
Speaker 2:Getting back to the tournament, all of my upsets are in the West, Sorry hold on.
Speaker 3:Sorry to interrupt. Did anybody just see that ending?
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh my gosh, they had interrupt. Did anybody just see that ending? Yeah, oh my gosh. They had three chances to tie the game. Howard was down by 12. Yeah, they went on a 14-2 run to come back within three In the last three minutes of the game.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was insane. I'll be honest, I think putting two sets of 16 seeds in the first four is just cruel. I mean, we've had two 16-over-one upsets in history. They're probably I mean, they have the biggest chance of losing the first round of anyone. Just let them have their moment in the sun of making the actual field of 64, and let them have that experience the 64 and let them have that experience. Make the playing games. All you know, power six teams or whatever, or high mid-major teams that are on the bubble like 10 seeds, 11 seeds. What do you guys think of that?
Speaker 2:take I agree because those would be better games. You know, I agree. I agree for sure In the West. I've got St Mary's coming out of the West. That's my dark horse.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:I got New Mexico getting past Baylor in the second round.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:I've got Novet, what do?
Speaker 1:you think about that, Matt?
Speaker 4:I think that's I don't like that. I got New Mexico coming in the first round, though, so I do like to that the thrifty 32, as my friend calls it, and then done, and I've got four right, yeah I do?
Speaker 2:I've got nevada beating arizona second round, because arizona has is traditionally a team that that just fails miserably um in the second they lost the princeton last year in the first year right, that was a 15.
Speaker 5:That would be pretty bad. They just gave their coach a huge extension during the season, so they were looking for a deep run and the Final Fours in Phoenix. We haven't had a winner on the West Coast since they won it in 97. That bracket is opened up. I mean they couldn't ask for a better draw being out there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, where are their first-round games?
Speaker 2:Arizona, arizona's got Long Beach State, and then they play the winner of.
Speaker 5:Nevada, dayton. Yeah, they're starting on Salt Lake City. Yeah, I mean, I look at North Carolina as the weakest one, for sure, agreed. I feel like them and Arizona are pretty much equal. It's just a matter of getting there. I'm with you. I think Baylor's the third best team in that bracket. To me, bama's a fraud. They're kind of like Kentucky. They're just all offense, no defense.
Speaker 4:They're the committee darling. I don't know why the committee loves them so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah 91 points a game leads the country. That's why they like offense. Nba fans are the ones that like Alabama.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Bama has anyone been the same team the last couple weeks. I don't think they make it too far.
Speaker 2:Anybody have a team other than UConn coming out of the East in the Final Four?
Speaker 5:I got Auburn beating UConn.
Speaker 5:I hope you're right. Yeah, so Auburn in 2019 did the same exact thing. They won the SEC tournament as a four seed and then were the four seed in the NCAA tournament, beat North Carolina, then, with the four seed in the NCAA tournament, beat North Carolina, kansas and Kentucky to make the final four. So Bruce Pearl is kind of running back. Same formula get hot at the end of the year. I think they have. I mean, if you look at their net rankings their top 10 and that they've been dangerous all season. They have a great defense. They match up really well against UConn. It's just a matter of if they could shoot the ball well and if Katie Johnson can not turn it over so much, because he's kind of a wild guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, keep in mind too that game would be in Boston too, so that's a UConn home game, yeah no, Boston definitely sets up well.
Speaker 4:Trey Donaldson's been shooting lights out. I mean, being a Gator fan, I watched him Watch us play him twice and the first game we played him at home and you know we Won by like 14. But Again it was at the O'Dome but Played him again in Nashville, lost, handlocked early on. But you know, even with him I still think we lose that game. They were just really locked in Jani Broome Playing his A game. So I got a lot of respect for Bruce Pearl. I remember him from the Tennessee days when he'd just be yelling at the refs, just sweating profusely. I'm so glad that you know the standard of dress for coaches is now you don't have to wear a suit because some coaches would just pit through their suits Like Calipari would pit through some suits, yeah, so I'm glad that they have options.
Speaker 4:I know some coaches still do. Buzz Williams, for some reason, loves to wear a vest, but it's basketball, you don't have to be wearing a suit. If I was going to pick a team to upset UConn, it would be Auburn.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think that's a good matchup. Who?
Speaker 1:was the guy that was famous. He had a white, he was all sweaty Sean Miller.
Speaker 5:Yeah, he was the coach of Arizona.
Speaker 1:Sean Miller. Yeah, the photo's awesome. His white shirt is tan, yeah he was just sweating Tan from the sweat.
Speaker 4:Billy Dee was smart. Billy Dee would always start off in the suit and then, like, right as the game started, he would take the jacket off. So it would just be, you know, tie, shirt and slacks, and yeah, that way I think he didn't sweat as much.
Speaker 2:I remember what was it? A Vegas coach at UNLV, turkanian, the one who used to bite the towel. That was fun to watch. He looked like he belonged to some mental institute, you know, anybody think Purdue's going to repeat history and be another Virginia Lose to a 16 and then win the whole thing the next year.
Speaker 4:Oh that. No, I think I got them making it to the national championship and losing to UConn, so I think they redeemed themselves to a degree, but then just lose to a better team. What's funny about that region?
Speaker 5:is. You got all the teams that can't get over the hump in that region. You got Purdue, you got Gonzaga, you got Creighton and Tennessee A bunch of teams that literally cannot get it together. Someone's got to win that region. Is Creighton legit? Creighton is the best team on paper. If you look at them on paper they're starting five. They're the two-time defense player of the year in the Big East. In Kalkbrenner he's the seventh player that blocks shots. They have great perimeter defense, a good scorer in Alexander. They're an elite team and when they put it together they beat UConn by 15.
Speaker 4:What about Baylor Shireman? He's a forward.
Speaker 5:Baylor Shireman's there. He's a great scorer. I mean they had it last year. They were a tip in away from beating San Diego State to go to the Final Four. They were right there.
Speaker 4:Last year was an extremely wacky Final Four relatively speaking Two fives, and then UConn is a four, which obviously are a good team. Then I'm trying to remember Gosh. I don't know why I'm blanking.
Speaker 5:FAU's in the same spot. They were last year, so don't write them out. And it's the same roster. I think they're going to give UConn a game in the second round. They can get past Boo Booey and Northwestern.
Speaker 4:I see them beating Northwestern but then losing to UConn. I kind of had a lot of beef with FAU this year when they were just ranked above us, whatever it might be ap, what have you. Because I just think, okay, they would treat them whenever they would get like a win over a good team in a non-conference, like arizona, like obviously I think that was that was their best win, net wise, the media it seemed like the media would treat them like a mid-major team, like like oh, okay, well, they, they, you know. Or they would treat them like a Power 5 team, power 6 team. But then when they lose to like Bryant or some crap school, okay, that's not fair to say, I don't want to call any, but when they lose to a Quad 3 or Quad 4 opponent, they go. They treat them like they're an AAC school. So it's like all right, which one is it? Are you going to treat them like they're one of the big boys? Are you going to treat them like they're?
Speaker 1:you know a mid-major school, and it just seems like they got away.
Speaker 4:Like I, one of my, and chris, you went to usf, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so, like one of my good friends also went to usf and he called them going to the attorney for the season, and I, I, you know, I think usf beat them. They beat them at least once, I think they might be twice and yeah. So it just seems like it's, you know, the only thing that they have over usf is the better non-con. I think they're two big non-con wins for arizona and then a&m right yeah, yeah, I mean they beat charleston, they played illinois close.
Speaker 5:I mean they played a tough non-conference that's my okay.
Speaker 4:So I actually have a question about that. Since there's just so many games in college basketball and I know the net rank is relatively new, do they take into account losing close, or is it just Ws and Ls? It doesn't matter if you won by 20 or 30. It's quad, whatever Ws and Ls.
Speaker 5:It does weight the strength of victory. So if you blow out a quad four team versus winning close, that matters style points yeah I wonder.
Speaker 4:I've been wondering about that for a while. I'm just like I thought maybe they didn't, because there's just so many games to you know to look at each. I mean, I mean, net is a, it's an algorithm, right?
Speaker 5:yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically, people don't like it because it's a metric that changes, so teams are constantly moving in and out. So if you played a team early in the season, they could have been a quad one team, and then Kentucky beat Miami and they were quad one, and then Miami fell apart and that became a quad four.
Speaker 4:I like that. I think especially, especially same thing with college football wins and losses. I mean, I'll say it's not weird to say losses gain or lose value, but they, they gain or lose. You know strength. So I, I do like that you, you can't say, oh well, they were great earlier in the season, they tanked off, okay, so maybe they weren't that great, maybe it was just earlier in the season. Right, I actually like, actually like that part of it. It can hurt and it can help. Like, for example, we got blown out by Ole Miss' second SEC game and that was a quad one loss and then Ole Miss fell off at the end of the year in its quad two.
Speaker 4:It's like oh well that's not good for us, but it is what it is.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I wonder. So talk about Florida. What's your guys' vibe? You guys went on a pretty good run there in the SEC tournament. Obviously it didn't work out the way you wanted it. I think the injury kind of derailed that game on Sunday. I think that kind of changed things.
Speaker 4:Here's my take on that. Yeah, the injury sucked. It was gruesome. I hope Megan Handlockton recovers well. Luckily they were in Nashville so they had the vandy hospital close and from what they were saying on tv it's a good one. He had surgery right there on sunday.
Speaker 4:But you know it was emotional impact on the team. You had some guys over there crying on the bench, but auburn was all class the whole. You know all the fans were very classy about it. I I still don't think we would have won that game. You know, auburn on they played three games in three days. That was our fourth game in four. So they had that. You know, props to them for getting that double bye. They played well enough in the regular season to do it. You know, I think they wanted revenge for when we beat them in the O-Dome and they were locked in. So I'm not going to sit here and say, oh well, if Micah didn't go down we would have won. No, I still think we would have lost. I just think it would have been closer. You know we pulled to within one when it was like 45-44. And then after that they got back up like eight or nine and we just didn't have anything left in the tank.
Speaker 4:I listened to a podcast called the Florida Basketball Hour. It's one guy from Saturday down south and then another guy who I think coaches's high school and they were just saying, yeah, when you see Walter Clayton and Zion pulling front-rimming three balls, you know it's over, they're just tired. But as far as our tourney chances, I think we got screwed in this draw. I think we should have been a sixth seed. I don't think Clemson deserves to be a sixth seed over us. I'm not going to go into huge detail on that, but just you know, not only do are we a seven c, we get to play in game, which means until that game is played tomorrow night we have to scout two teams and that sucks and yeah. So even with all that, I think I think we win the first round.
Speaker 4:I think you know the whole the rallying behind micah, will you know, galvan team Micah's going to be there. He's driving from Nashville with his parents who are driving him. So he'll be there for emotional or motivational support. But unless Western Kentucky upsets Marquette and this is even without Tyler Kolek and I forget the other good players' names Torchman and I His last name is Torchman and I, because they're both doubtful players. I still don't think we get past that. My own personal goal for Todd Golden to see whether I supported him for a third year or not was just make the tourney. Give me some hope and fun in March. Just get there. So I can't move the goalposts on top now, but I think we have everything that we need to win the first round game, even without Micah. So we do that. I'll be content for this year. So that's where I see us Winning the first round game and if we play Marquette, that's the end of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah what about you, corey? Yeah, I think it sucks that if we win, we get.
Speaker 3:That's the end of it. Yeah, what about you, corey? Yeah, I think it sucks that if we win, we get to play a two seed, especially Marquette.
Speaker 5:They're a weak two seed, though I mean of the two seeds you'd want to play them right.
Speaker 4:No, but if Kolik plays, Kolik is like he's really good at creating opportunities for the rest of his team to score.
Speaker 3:Kolek would ruin us if he's healthy. I think, yeah, I'm not as I would. I don't know, it's close. I'm probably more scared of Marquette than Arizona.
Speaker 4:Really. Yeah, I haven't watched a lot of Arizona this year, to be honest. I watched a little bit of them in the FAU game and that's really it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean they're kind of limping in too. They lost two of their last three. Usc got them last game of the season. And then Oregon, oregon, man, it's always dangerous in March. Man Don't bet against Danny Altman. That guy's got a great record. He's like Him and Izzo. Yeah, a great record, him and Izzo. For March he's 15-6 against the spread in the tournament.
Speaker 4:What do you guys think about Michigan State going on a little run, just given Izzo's propensity for March?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I do like Mississippi State seeing how they played against Tennessee. They ran them off the court. Do you like them State seeing how they played against Tennessee? I mean they freaking ran them off the court.
Speaker 5:Do you like them over Sparty? If they could duplicate that Mississippi State, though, is that kind of I mean, they haven't been consistent all year, so I don't know. I kind of would lean Izzo just in that spot, and then, if you're North Carolina, that's the last team you want to see. Is Michigan state? Is, oh, the second round? I would be worried about that.
Speaker 4:And this is I think this was one of the problems for not only that 13 to 14 Florida team, but also I know you're a Kentucky fan that that undefeated Kentucky team, man, that's still, to this day, one of the best teams I've ever watched.
Speaker 4:The three best teams I think I've ever watched are that well, actually, okay, I put the anthony davis kentucky team above the 14 to 50 kentucky team. They lost like two games, but I still I still think like in a seven game series they would beat that 14 to 50 kentucky team, then that team after them and then that uh, 13 to 14 gators team. You know I'm not biased at but yeah, I think that if you're on a big winning streak, right, or if you've never lost a game in the season like that one Kentucky team, and now you haven't had a loss in a while or all season, so it starts to make you a little nervous. So I think losing in your conference championship game, conference tournament championship, isn't necessarily the worst thing. I think the year Virginia won it, all that happened to them they lost in the semis.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so you kind of get that out of the way. Obviously, I'm never saying you should lose, but if you do and you lose in that conference tourney and you got a good seat in March, it's not necessarily the worst thing. You kind of get another opportunity to see what you messed up on and you get to do that right before the most important tournament. I actually think I have North Carolina making it to the Sweet 16, or maybe the Elite Eight. I have to check. Obviously, I'm in the Final Four because they weren't one of my picks, but yeah, I think they have all the talent. I think Baycott's going to give it all he's got Not that he didn't before, but it's his last year. I know he's pulled some records for them by now. I forget which ones.
Speaker 5:Hubert Davis only lost one game in the tournament because they went all the way to the championship his first year.
Speaker 4:I had them in the Final Four that year. Oh, of the championship, his first year, I had them in the final four that year I had, oh, really, wow, I'm trying. Yeah, I had, I know I had them meeting whoever the one c was, I'm almost positive I had them in the final four, maybe the elite eight, I'm not totally sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I was. I was kind of a an anticlimactic ending for coach k thought I thought you know kind of wanted to see him win it all last year, dude do you want to see him win it?
Speaker 5:all you like, coach K.
Speaker 4:I like Coach K. I'm not a Duke fan oh gosh, I lean for the heels but I'm a big Coach K fan. You know. I like how he coached our boys in the Olympics. I like him as a person. He's a girl dad, just like me. Yeah, he's Catholic. I'm a K fan. I have a question for you guys.
Speaker 5:ACC is just not the same without him.
Speaker 1:So my question is I haven't watched a lot of college basketball, but I'm looking at a matchup here that I don't think we've mentioned yet. I'm curious of your guys' thoughts. Nebraska, texas A&M what are we thinking there? Eight versus nine?
Speaker 5:So a fun fact about that is Nebraska is the only Power Five team to never win an NCAA tournament game.
Speaker 1:Really yeah. And then they get Houston. Right we're long-winded.
Speaker 4:I have A&M winning that just because they were hot at the end of the season. I mean they blew an 18-point lead to us, but I think we were also just angry that we lost to them by one in College Station I've actually watched a few of their games this year. They did a starting lineup change and they moved this guy, manny Obaseki, into the starting lineup now and he's a pretty good scorer and of course they're too big. Their guard play is pretty good. Wade Taylor is the leader of that team. He can get hot. Same thing with Boots.
Speaker 5:That's Michael Jordan against us. It's unbelievable. I want to pick Texas A&M just because of what they did to us, but they only play well against us. They turned around and didn't do anything against the Gators, and that's what's so frustrating about them is those guards are on a different level, Granted we were giving wide-open drives to the basket, but they were hitting everything.
Speaker 4:They're just an annoying team. That was our first time beating them in five games, and the five games that they beat us in before that was by a total of, I don't know, less than 10 points. They're not a great program, but they're just really good at beating us. It just annoys me. So it felt good to watch them blow that lead, considering the gators this year have blown a lot of double digit leads, um, you know some of which they ended up winning, but I'm sure you remember, andrew, that the kentucky game in gainesville you know fell apart at the end there you guys got us back in lexington though yeah, that was.
Speaker 4:That was insane. I you know, I definitely did not think I thought we're going to beat you guys would be in. You guys got us back in Lexington though. Yeah, that was insane. I definitely did not think I thought if we were going to beat you guys, it would be in Gainesville. Rupp pulled like what? 20,000 people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, I was very surprised.
Speaker 5:All we had to do was make a free throw.
Speaker 4:Yeah, all you guys said is you guys were up by three and didn't foul.
Speaker 5:Yeah, cal won't do it for whatever reason. I don't get it. Yeah, he's so stubborn. We have two top ten NBA draft picks and he won't start them. Robin Reed.
Speaker 4:Rob Dillingham.
Speaker 5:Reed Shepard. I'm coming off the bench. We're like begging him, dude, we started the game down 8-1 against A&M.
Speaker 4:Please start these guys Do you think Reed Shepard is going top? I've looked at some mock drafts, dude they haven't gone.
Speaker 5:1 In some of these mock drafts. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 4:I haven't looked at them in a little while, so maybe they've changed. But yeah, dillingham is a real deal. Antonio Reed, you guys have some ballers Like every year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he should start them for whatever reason. Kyle's an interesting fellow.
Speaker 5:Yeah, he would rather lose his way than take someone else's advice really so.
Speaker 4:He's the Dan Mullen of college basketball, but has a national championship. Yeah, right, right, yeah, don't get me started on.
Speaker 2:Dan Mullen Matt, you got Baylor, uconn and who else?
Speaker 4:Kentucky, baylor, uconn, kentucky and Purdue yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a, I'm a Scott drew believer. I still remember I mean, granted, it was the COVID kind of asterisk here, but they beat that undefeated Gonzaga team. I mean that that's. That's gotta be a very you know, pain, painful experience as a college basketball fan being a Gonzaga fan, cause they've come close many times, especially that undefeated team.
Speaker 4:Even if it was the COVID year, I mean, who cares Teams go undefeated in college football every few years. The last team to go undefeated in college basketball was boy that Indiana team Indiana 81. Yeah dude.
Speaker 2:Being a Florida State guy, I know what that's like, because until Bobby Bowden won his first national championship in what? 93, they were top four. How many years in a row without winning a national championship? So that's what that kind of reminds me of. You know, until they broke the streak.
Speaker 4:But now imagine it for like 20 straight years.
Speaker 2:Oh, i's crazy, it's crazy and they've had so many good teams.
Speaker 4:They've had so many good teams, so many final four appearances crazy yeah, there's been some talk about them going to the, to the big 12 for, for basketball, I guess, for other, I guess for the other sports too, like baseball and stuff there just wouldn't be a football member but it hasn't materialized yet yeah, I think the big 12 is waiting, or I mean the big 10 is waiting, to see what happens with the hcc teams that are filing suit.
Speaker 2:I think, uh, you guys heard clemson filed soon. I think, now, now, now, the dominoes are going to fall again. You're going to see virginia, virginia tech, miami, north carolina, nc state.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're all, they're all going to do the same too much because Virginia, virginia, tech, miami, north Carolina, nc State yeah, they're all going to do the same. Too much because I know it's a basketball thing, but I think that the FSU is going to end up going to the Big Ten. The Big Ten, you know, wants that Florida market. Fox Sports wants that Florida market. Yeah, I think they'd. But I'm keeping on basketball. I don't want to get off topic. I'm the first time on the pod.
Speaker 2:Yeah, andrew, who's your final four and who's your surprise pick?
Speaker 5:So I've got Auburn coming out of the East. I think it's been since the Gators won it that the number one overall seed when they went back to back has won the tournament and the last, the furthest that a team has come since that Gator team on a repeat year is the Sweet 16 is the furthest they've made it. So it's really hard to do and I think they gave them a really tough, tough region to come out of. So I kind of like Auburn. Another sneaky team I like out there is BYU. They're. They could really shoot the ball Well. They're a good team to watch out for. Also, drake, they're good.
Speaker 5:So I like Auburn out of the East, out of the West. I think it's Arizona's time. I think they kind of bounced back from last year's disappointment and come out strong, try to get there to Phoenix. Extra motivation In the South, I like. And then it's two one-seasons. I like Houston and Purdue. I think Houston got a little of a wake-up call in that Big 12 championship game. I think it's a good reset for them. I like their path here as much as I want to pick Kentucky. If we end up against Houston, they are the one team that would just dismantle us, because they're the one team that could defend us really well.
Speaker 2:Andrew, I assume you made a bet with Auburn to make the Final Four, because I made a bet with Kentucky at number three seed that was plus 850. Auburn's at number four seed. I would imagine that's plus 900 or something like that.
Speaker 5:I haven't looked at it recently, but yeah, I'm going to probably put a little bit of money on that. I got Arizona versus Purdue. I got Purdue doing it. I'm just doing what Virginia did. If you look at their records, they're identical. Virginia at the same time. They had the same record during the season. They lost in the conference semifinals. They were the one seed and they made it all the way to the championship.
Speaker 4:Auburn should have won that one.
Speaker 5:Auburn yeah, that was a brutal goal.
Speaker 4:BS foul that put Kyle Guy at the line for three. Look, nothing against Virginia, I have no beef against them. In fact, my boss is a UVA grad but I just I remember that game and I'm just like, yeah, that's not, that's not a foul, yeah.
Speaker 2:Corey, did we get your final four pick In surprise team?
Speaker 3:I'll go UConn. I think they walked through that.
Speaker 5:Really.
Speaker 3:I agree too, I do think, auburn would be their biggest test, assuming they beat San Diego State. I think North Carolina is really good. I think if anybody gives them a test it'll be St Mary's. I like Marquette in the south. I'm just banking on the fact that Houston's going to lose before the Elite Eight to either Duke or Wisconsin, maybe, and then I really don't know about the Midwest I guess Purdue. I don't love Tennessee that much. I don't like them winning. What four straight games.
Speaker 4:Rick Barnes is not over choking in March.
Speaker 3:And I don't like Creighton either for the exact same reason. I feel like if Shireman goes one for seven from three, they can lose pretty easily. So yeah, give me three one seeds and then marquette nice three ones and a two shannon sharp over here.
Speaker 4:Wait, wait, wait to go out and live there, cory you guys saw that shannon shark pic for the men's and women's all one of my friends sent me. One of my friends sent me the screenshot both and and. He said hot takes galore, Unreal.
Speaker 2:If something happened one time there's been all four one seeds. I said Corey way to go out on 11.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I know, in case you guys were wondering, I'm just pulling my serious bracket now, if you will, my big Cinderella. I don't have anyone going crazy Cinderella like Elite 8, but I have Mc. Have anyone going crazy Cinderella like a lead eight, but I have McNeese going to the Sweet 16. Because is Kansas going to have Kevin McCuller and Hunter Dickinson?
Speaker 5:No, McCuller's out. Dickinson's going to be there, but McCuller's out.
Speaker 4:All right, well, mcculler's the best player in my opinion, yeah, yeah. So I think that's a. You know, I think they're kind of. You know what's the phrase I'm looking for here? Right for the picking. There you go, yeah, and you know, like I said, I like Will Wade as a coach. I mean, obviously I didn't like him when he beat us as the LSU coach, but I think he's a good coach and I think that they're going to seize this opportunity. So looking forward to those games.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got three number one seeds UConn, houston and Purdue but then I've got a dark horse, st Mary, who's a five seed. I just don't think North Carolina, I just think the ACC was down this year and North Carolina looked good towards the end, but they're playing against average ACC teams so they've got to go out west so they're going to be far from home. So I think that's a disadvantage. It's not like the old Georgetown team when they went out to the west and walked right to the Final Four. I think it's going to be more difficult, although everything that I've been watching, they all think that UNC's got the easiest region, which is probably true, but I don't think they're taking any consideration. They're playing all the way across the country.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but they've got UNC fans everywhere. They're a big fan base.
Speaker 4:They are, they'll travel, yeah. Speaking of fans that travel Kentucky fans definitely travel, yeah. Speaking of fans that travel Kentucky fans definitely travel, andrew. So I actually saw that almost undefeated Kentucky team in person in the O-Dome in 2015. And that was the first Gator game I'd been to where there was like an actual large contingent of away fans, like I remember looking and I heard go big blue chain, like oh wow, like they travel for this, like it's a college football game. I mean not you guys in college football.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that was the epic. Willie Kellerstein dunk Really jumped from the free throw line. But yeah, I was at that Final Four when they lost to the 15. That was my most disappointing moment as a sports fan. Haven't been back to the final four since.
Speaker 3:Andrew, do you have the bracket pulled up? I do, yeah, yeah. What do you want? Give me an ultimate chaos.
Speaker 5:Final four Chaos, final four. Okay, so I'll just give you a. Uh, what do you? You want double digit seeds, or do you want just like no, okay?
Speaker 5:well actually I like. So the sleeper teams that I got in each region out of the east uh, my two sleeper teams would probably be drake. They're very good, they, they, they, they can go on a run. Iowa State to me. So there's no team that was unranked preseason that ends up being a top two seed that's ever made it to the Final Four. So I don't see them really going on a deep run here. So I think Drake could take that spot. Illinois is always a fraud in March, so I think they could be in the Elite easily.
Speaker 3:I like Terrence Shannon a lot, though.
Speaker 5:Yeah, he's good, he's really good. He's one of those guys.
Speaker 3:He just runs downhill and gets fouls whenever he wants Literally just whenever he wants. Yeah.
Speaker 5:But Illinois hasn't been to a Final Four since the Lutherhead 2006 2006. It's been a long time, yeah. So I mean, and that's the thing with the big 10, right is they? They always fold in the tournament like they'll get out of the first round and then they'll just they won't go on a deep run. So, yeah, that would be my drake and I.
Speaker 5:I really liked BYU early in the season. They faded late. They had a terrible performance. The big 12 tournament game. They got destroyed by Texas tech, so that kind of turned me off on them. Uav is really hot right now. I'd watch out for them. I kind of like that. I like all the twelves. So last year we didn't have a single 12 beat a five. This year I think all the 12s could win. Yeah, yeah, I might just put money on all of them just because I like. The only one is I do really like here. I like St Mary's a lot. They finally won the West Coast Conference over Gonzaga and they're an elite team. That's really a senior-led, experienced team. But Grand Canyon with Bryce, drew, the Lobos or the Antelopes, they're dangerous. So that would be a tough matchup for them.
Speaker 2:I heard that BYU was supposed to be a five seed but got moved to a six seed because the five seed has to play on Sunday. They win their first round game and BYU doesn't play on Sunday. I don't know if you guys heard of that, is that true?
Speaker 4:I didn't know that yeah, wait, I mean, I know, I know they're Mormons, but they really like they even they've never played yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember about five years ago they were in the Super Regional with Florida State and the deciding game was on a Sunday and they had to postpone it until Monday. Byu has an agreement with the NCAA.
Speaker 4:None of their sports teams, none of them will play on Sunday because of the Mormon religion. Wow, wow, I'm surprised Notre Dame has never tried to get that same consideration.
Speaker 2:You know, given that they, you know it is a sabbath day for not just mormons but, you know, all christian religions follow the money, follow the money I just, I just didn't know that yeah yeah, I saw that on some on some, uh, youtube video I think it was ESPN Bet, one of those and they were saying that they were supposed to be a 5C but they got moved to a 6C because they can't play on Sunday. So that's kind of an interesting fun fact.
Speaker 4:But yeah, there was a basketball player for BYU I don't know. I want to say it was sometime in the last 10 years and they almost kicked him off the team because it was found out he had premarital sex.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, he was on. I think he was on Jimmer's team, wasn't he? They were like that. They were a really good team. He was yeah, maybe. Yeah, he was the best guy.
Speaker 4:The Gators beat the Jimmer team but yeah that, yeah, it was okay. So I'm not the only one who remembers that. So, yeah, they don't. They don't mess around at BYU. Is it true that you can go to be like like their tuition is free for like their students If you're Mormon or something? There was a girl into high school with one of them going to BYU and I remember she's telling me about the way that looked just all free. I'm like wait what I don't know, how does that work?
Speaker 4:Yeah, is it all donations Like? Yeah?
Speaker 5:They got a lot of money at the Mormon Church. That's for sure. There's something going on over there.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you the other interesting fact on this whole tournament that one of you guys mentioned earlier the fact that Nebraska has never won an NCAA game. That's an incredible stat, Considering that they're an. Ncaa, you know.
Speaker 4:Is Fred Hoiberg going to be the guy that leads them to it? I forget who they're, I forget his name, but they have a. I want to be politically correct when I say this You're talking about.
Speaker 5:Kaisei Tomonaga, yeah, that guy yeah.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Thank you, I didn't want to say something. Yeah, I don't want to say something.
Speaker 5:I don't want to offend anyone. He's electric dude. That guy's like the Japanese Steph Curry.
Speaker 4:Okay, so he's Japanese.
Speaker 5:I think he is. I've only seen some highlights yeah, he's from Japan.
Speaker 4:That was fun to watch in the highlights. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:So funny thing about Nebraska A&M. So their AD just left, the AD at Texas A&M, so their AD just left From the AD At Texas A&M just left and went to Nebraska and both in the men's and women's tournament Nebraska and A&M Are playing each other.
Speaker 4:Wait, hold on hold on hold on the AD left A&M to go to Nebraska.
Speaker 5:Last week the athletic director at A&M Left to take the athletic director job at Nebraska and this week it just came out the brackets. Both the men's and the women's team are playing each other.
Speaker 4:That's an interesting move. One would think you would get paid a lot more at A&M yeah, whatever their. I guess you can't call it a bowl because it's not football.
Speaker 5:Oh, I'm sorry he went from, I'm sorry, backwards Nebraska went to A&M Dev Albert.
Speaker 4:That makes more sense. Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot more sense. You know I mean I'm not going to, like you know, dig into A&M that much, but how much did they just pay Jimbo not to? They have tons of money.
Speaker 5:Jimmy fisher got the best deal in the world oh wow, this guy was an alum of nebraska too. Played football there. Oh, that's cold dang, all that sec money are you guys?
Speaker 4:are any of you? I know I asked chris about chris about this, so every year. So march madness is by by far my favorite sporting event. So I usually take off at least part of the day on the first two round games. My favorite March Madness is when St Patrick's Day falls on one of the first round. Days that's not going to happen for another five years because it's just a huge spectacle. Days that's not going to happen for another five years because it's just a huge spectacle. It's like noon on a Thursday or Friday and you're at a bar and there's just tons of adults who normally be at work but everyone's just drinking and watching March Madness. It's just awesome. But this year my wife needs me at home with a toddler. So I'm still taking the half days but going to watch it at home. But any of you take off work for March Madness or you just kind of throw the iPad or phone up at the desk.
Speaker 2:About 10 years ago. I just bring my TV to work. Yeah, I do the same thing.
Speaker 4:I saw that. I saw it on your Instagram 10 years ago I was in Vegas.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm so jealous.
Speaker 4:I'm a huge Vegas guy. I've been there five times for March Madness what sports book.
Speaker 2:did you go to to watch when the Beatles love show is? I'm drawing a blank.
Speaker 5:What's the one with the pools?
Speaker 4:That's Stadium Swim. That's downtown at Circa that's where I've never been. That seems like the only place place to watch it now.
Speaker 2:It was crazy because at the end of every half of every game, regardless of the score, there was an uproar because people were betting spreads for the half and over under. And you saw, just back in the day, when people actually had tickets for their bets, they didn't have an app, you had tickets and you would just see people ripping up tickets and throwing it up the air in disgust, or people just crying running to the cage booth to collect their money, but I mean, it was just jam-packed.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was probably awesome.
Speaker 2:We sat in there for about seven and a half hours straight just watching a basketball game. It was absolute chaos, wall to wall people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but I am jealous of you, harry, for having done that. That's on my bucket list. I've only been in Vegas. Normally, as I get older I don't do this as much because responsibilities and such but big EDM fans. So I love going to the pool parties out there and the club shows, but I was there in September of 21.
Speaker 4:And it's wild because you know I'm always used to the NFL game starting at 1. But they start at 10 am over there because it's Pacific time. And I remember being at the MGM Sportsbook and it's just, you know, you got fans from all these different teams. They're all watching a lot more gambling heavy, and it's just, like you know, after like every crucial play, it's like, oh gosh, just people just losing their minds. It's, it's, if you haven't, I mean, and for March Madness, I can only imagine, you know, compared to a regular NFL Sunday. So you guys haven't been for, you know, a good, good weekend of sports. I would recommend it. And MGM they're capitalizing on it too. They now sell VIP sections around the sportsbook. You get your own couch and bottle service and stuff. So they're starting to make more of an activity out of it.
Speaker 2:I watched it. It was the Mirage. That's where I watched the games. The Mirage, yeah. I don't know if I've ever actually been. Was the Mirage that's where I watched the games? The Mirage, yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't know if I've ever actually been inside the Mirage. I've been inside like Bellagio and Caesars and Wynn and you know all that good stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:I watched that particular day. I watched it at the Mirage because we had tickets to see the Beatles' Love show that was at the Mirage. So I was basically there for about 14 hours straight, you know, between watching basketball and then watching the show. So yeah, I would recommend that to anybody. That is a hell of a trip and that is just a lot of fun.
Speaker 4:Do you know about Stadium Swim, what Andrew was talking about?
Speaker 2:No, I haven't heard of that.
Speaker 4:So at this hotel called Circa, which is downtown Vegas, which I still haven't explored, they hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 4:Whoever thought of this is a genius. So what they do is they have this pool specifically for watching sports and they have, like they have multiple pools, but they're terraced, so like they don't go up like extremely high, but they get higher and higher, so kind of like stadium seating, if you will. And then they have like one huge screen that's like specifically designed not to glare from the sun and like stay like the perfect level of brightness. And they have like a bunch of smaller screens but in reality are still huge screens because they're only small, because they're next to the giant screen and the pools are heated and you know, I think you can place bets right there at the pool, yeah, and they, they don't like they don't mess around, so like whenever there's like a london game, that pool will open at like 6 30 in the morning over there, whatever time it is, and I think yeah, I think it's it's 6 30 because it started 9 30 on the east coast and you can just stay all day. Definitely going to get out there one day for that.
Speaker 2:Hope they put a lot of chlorine in that pool. Oh, they absolutely must.
Speaker 4:The pools in Vegas are disgusting. I went in one at a pool party at Marquee, which is at the Cosmo, one time. I don't think I'll ever get a pool in Vegas, at least one of the pool party pools ever again.
Speaker 1:Christopher.
Speaker 3:Final Four.
Speaker 1:Final Four. Let's see, yeah, unc, illinois, tennessee and Duke.
Speaker 5:And Duke and Duke, you got that future with Duke right. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:I have Duke winning it all in my Not as serious bracket, but not a bad pick. So you got Rick Barnes actually making a run For once.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he'll probably lose that game. But I need Duke to win.
Speaker 2:Who do you have coming out of the East, christopher?
Speaker 1:Illinois.
Speaker 2:No Illinois.
Speaker 1:Is that Illinois?
Speaker 2:Yeah, illinois. Yeah, that's Illinois. Okay, alright, they're on the opposite side of UConn, so they would face UConn in the regional final, okay.
Speaker 1:I think UConn's going to lose to Auburn.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 1:Illinois beats Auburn.
Speaker 2:Christopher, can you check to see what the future bet for Auburn is To make the final four?
Speaker 5:It's plus 380. They actually have the second best odds Behind UConn in that region. Really, yeah, I put five bucks on it. It wins 24,.
Speaker 4:But I mean Auburn's on fire. I got.
Speaker 2:Kentucky at plus 850, just to win the South region.
Speaker 5:Dude, I'm telling you Kentucky, it's gonna be tough getting there Right now, don't be disappointed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's only 10 bucks. I just like that plus $8.50.
Speaker 4:Why not? Yeah, but now it's full team Kentucky it's doable.
Speaker 2:And Houston has shown that they can just play like crap, like they did in the Score 41 points. Yeah, I mean for a team that averages 85 points.
Speaker 5:Here's what makes me nervous about Kentucky. We are the number five offense in the country. We're the number 108th defense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, nba style Gotta love it, gotta love it.
Speaker 4:They just don't guard because they think all the offenses win anyway. I mean, at least that's what her podcast.
Speaker 2:Kentucky players are getting themselves ready for the NBA All-Star game. They don't play defense.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Calipari hot seat.
Speaker 5:If he doesn't make it out this weekend he's on the hot seat. It's already hot right now.
Speaker 4:What's the buyout for $50?
Speaker 5:million right now With is what's the buyout?
Speaker 2:50 million right now with with that recruiting class he's got coming in how you can't get rid of them. You can't get rid of them wait, hold on, sorry.
Speaker 4:Five zero, five zero million 50 million.
Speaker 5:That's how much we'd have to pay you. Wow, that's nothing for big donation 20 million less than jimbo no right, it's not as much as jimbo, but that's for football Like, this is basketball.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for college basketball. That's insane, don't they?
Speaker 2:have like, don't they have like Three, five, three, four stars and two, four stars and a three star Coming next year?
Speaker 5:Yeah, we do it every year, harry, but if we don't win in March, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:That's the point.
Speaker 5:Like we keep doing it and it doesn.
Speaker 4:To be fair, though, cal does have that one. Now that you're with Anthony Davis, look March Madness and I actually agree with my one friend, who I disagree with a lot on many things, but I agree with him on this it's meant to hurt the good teams In the regular season Because you can have this great season In a sport like basketball that's traditionally a serious sport To decide who's a better team. They do seven game, seven game series in the nba. You know all it takes is one bad day against the team. You know, I think things are a lot different when season's on the line march madness, yeah yeah, that that, but that that's what makes it great.
Speaker 4:He and I actually talked about this and while it would take away a lot of the upsets, you still have some, and it would be a little more fair to other teams. How many of you guys are college baseball fans?
Speaker 1:yeah, there he is okay.
Speaker 4:so I've gotten into it a lot over the last few years. So I wish they would do uh college basketball postseason the way they do uh the nca in baseball. The only problem and that way you get games on campus, which would be cool you double eliminations. Those aren't quite as fluky. The only problem with that is that you know these kids are college students and there will be a lot more games and keeping them away from class for a lot longer and yeah, so logistically it would be. But I think that way, you know, in a sport, because baseball is even flukier than basketball in my opinion, and I think that's why they do that. But also that happens in June. So you know, unless they're taking summer classes, they don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 4:But I think that would be. I actually would like that better, but I still love March Madness the way it is.
Speaker 5:You can't change March. It's the greatest postseason in sports.
Speaker 4:There's nothing like it they're thinking about expanding the 80 teams. I know.
Speaker 5:It makes sense when you think about when they expanded it to 64 teams in the 90s, the amount of teams total in Division I sports percentage-wise was less. It made sense at the time. With the amount of teams that we've added in D1 sports we're like over 300 now it would make sense, like proportionally, to increase the size of the tournament.
Speaker 4:I'm all for it. I love March. Madness, you want to add more rounds? Yeah, it'll be like one more round then I'm trying to think of how they do it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they want to go to 97. So essentially it's like adding more play-ins to get to the I heard 80.
Speaker 4:I didn't hear 97. Or would they start giving teams buys or no?
Speaker 5:I don't know what they. I don't think they have anything set up just yet, but they're in serious talks about expanding.
Speaker 1:It's like how can we make more money?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Follow the money. Follow the money.
Speaker 5:I mean. But then again, the other thing about March Madness is it's under the NCAA, and if the NCAA collapses, like it's all indications are showing, given how football is going, then it could be a whole different entity that runs March Madness. From here on out they can do whatever they want.
Speaker 1:Get the college football playoff committee, just get them. They're not full-time?
Speaker 5:Yeah, because there's no full-time employees. Right.
Speaker 2:Harry, no, no flaws at all.
Speaker 4:None whatsoever Not one, yeah, but in order for it. I've been thinking about that. So in order for the NCAA to collapse as a whole, schools like enough schools, I'm assuming just SEC and Big Ten. I don't know if you guys, I get those free SiriusXM subscriptions. For a few months I was listening to one of the college football channels on there. Instead of Power 5, they're now calling it the Super 2.
Speaker 4:If all the Super 2 schools just band together and they're just like hey, we're not going to go by the NCAA's rules, the NCAA's toast, in other words, you have to get the actual administrations at a bunch of schools.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I made that prediction a couple months ago on a podcast that the SEC and the Big Ten will leave the NCAA and just form their own league, kind of like a semi-pro. Think about the money they could make.
Speaker 4:Super League, yeah, league kind of like a semi-pro. Think about the money they could make. You know really, yeah, but couldn't like, couldn't like state government step in and be like, oh, you know, you schools, if you do that, you know like we're not gonna, you know, give you grants and stuff like that, like not, not, if not.
Speaker 2:If the school's gonna make more money being independent from the NCAA, because you know, for the public schools it's all about money, you know. So if the school can make more money not being part of the NCAA and having their own entity, I don't see why any state government would interfere. They would be like go for it. Look what's happening in Tallahassee. You know the Florida state government, you know the governor saying, you know they're cheering on Florida State in their lawsuit against the ACC. I see your point but again, follow the money If it's going to make the school more money and the school is funded by the state. As far as public universities, private universities, they can do whatever the hell they want. Look at Notre Dame. They got their own network and everything. So, yeah, I mean that's. You know. So each of those conferences, what are 16 teams now? Something like that 15, 16 teams.
Speaker 4:No, the big 10 is 18.
Speaker 2:18, and the SEC is 16, or is it still 14?
Speaker 4:It'll be 16 next year. It'll be 16 next year It'll be 16.
Speaker 2:next year You're looking at the ACC. Schools are going to be split up between the two conferences, I would imagine, or maybe some of them join the Big 12. The Big 12 is going to be a second-tier league.
Speaker 4:Except in basketball Next year. The Big 12 is going to get Arizona. Big 12 is still going to be great in basketball next year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's true, so yeah. So that'll be interesting. And you're right, that opens up a whole new can of worms. I know the contract that CBS has it's with the NCAA. So if there's a split and you've got a big group of schools leave the NCAA, I would imagine that voids that contract. Then it becomes a new bidding war. So I don't know. There's a lot that's going to happen, especially with those two conferences in the future. It'll be fun to watch.
Speaker 4:Yeah, what do you guys think I'm sure you've heard this In the 2026 playoffs, going from 12 to 14 in football, do you think they're just angling towards?
Speaker 1:getting bigger and bigger. I thought it was just 12. I didn't know they were going to 14. They already expanded 14 in 2026.
Speaker 5:Until.
Speaker 1:FSU shoots it down.
Speaker 4:I'll be honest, it's going to be hilarious. It's going to be hilarious seeing like and I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon, but if it does just like a three loss national champion, I think that would just be the funniest thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, basketball question for you guys. What are we? What are we thinking? San Diego State UAB I don't think we've talked about that one.
Speaker 4:I got San Diego State. I trust them enough to, you know, get over the whole 5-12 jitters and win that game. I think I mean UAB. They were a bid stealer. You know they weren't going to get in. I mean, granted, no one in that conference is going. You know they weren't going to get in. I mean, granted, no one in that conference is going to get in without winning the tournament, except for FAU. But like I think that they kind of you know, spent a lot of energy getting that bid and San Diego State's a good program. I forget the coach's name, but he's been there a while. I want to say Obviously made it to the Maddie last year. Just, you know UConn was a better team. I trust them to win that game. I don't know if you know this, but apparently San Diego State has like an amazing student section, like it's like a top-ten student section in college basketball.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, they're a five seed, though. Is that is that fair?
Speaker 5:It's pretty high. They were the fifth best team in the mountain West and they got a five seed.
Speaker 4:Now West got like six bids.
Speaker 2:I know and the big, he's only got three and the big he's got three.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's incredible.
Speaker 5:Mount mountain West had the weakest non-conference of any. Any Mountain West had the weakest non-conference Of any Scheduling of any conference. I like UAB there because San Diego State Is kind of limping in. They've lost 3-5. I just think that they Did their thing last year. If you go back to two years ago, the Mountain West was Completely out of the tournament by the Second day. They've been notorious for having rough stretches. Last year, of course, they proved everybody wrong with San Diego State going to the championship game. But I like UAB there.
Speaker 4:On the topic of college basketball, but not the tourney, do you guys think UNC started a dangerous precedent by opting out of the NIT last year? You see how many teams opted out of the NIT this well, you know why they're doing it?
Speaker 5:because the transfer portal just opened and they'd rather just focus on. They're like well, these guys aren't going to be here next year anyway oh, that makes so much sense, that makes sense.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, they. They got to come up with some better restrictions on the transfer that the windows make no sense like. It's the same thing for college football with bowl season. Like the transfer portal opens, windows make no sense. It's the same thing for college football with bowl season the transfer portal opens up before bowl season. So then you go to your bowl game and you don't even have the same team because you guys have already switched different teams. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:What about? I guess, andrew? This question's directed towards you. How is Oakland? Are they good? Are they? Are they good or are you nervous?
Speaker 5:They're good. Yeah, they, they. They've got some good talent. They shoot the ball really well and they could score. They've scored over a hundred a couple of times this year. So it's take the over for sure In our game. That's going to hit the over. And Alabama, charleston and Kentucky, oakland or two locks. I feel very confident in both of those. Yeah, they played a tough schedule. They played Ohio state, they played Illinois, they played Drake, they played Xavier. They played Michigan state, dayton. They've played a lot of tough teams and they've gotten hot. Recently. They've won eight of their last nine games. They didn't win their regular season in that conference or they did win the regular season conference in the conference tournament. They're a good team.
Speaker 5:This is where I'm at. I've already put $25 on Oakland Moneyline just to have something there, just in case, because I only put 30 on A&M and I was like that wasn't enough. I thought there was a great chance we'd lose to A&M. I think there's a slight chance. If we get out of this first round, I'm definitely doubling down on the next game because this team just makes me certain over us. They're so inconsistent with their defense they could lose to anybody.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this what, out of the four 12 seeds, if you guys had to pick two that you were most confident in the upsets, which two of the 12 seeds would you pick?
Speaker 4:McNeese and I believe, wait, Grand Canyon's the 12th.
Speaker 2:Yeah, grand Canyon's the 12th against St Mary's though.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I know you're big on them, Harry, but Grand Canyon. What about James.
Speaker 5:Mastin, though they beat Michigan State first game of the season. They've won 30 games this year.
Speaker 4:And who are they playing again as a five?
Speaker 1:Wisconsin.
Speaker 4:Nah, I think Wisconsin can take that. Yeah, and then who's the last 12? Uab, yeah, yeah. No, I already talked, yeah yeah. I'll stick with my Grand Canyon and McNeese, yeah, mcneese is good.
Speaker 2:I've got beating six seeds, I've got Oregon beating South Carolina and I've got New. Mexico beating Clemson Clemson we talked about earlier. They're a six seed. I don't know how they're a six seed, so let's see who are the other 6-11s.
Speaker 4:South Carolina kind of got unlucky on that draw.
Speaker 1:Texas Tech NC State. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I got NC State beating Texas Tech and I got Duquesne Beating BYU, so I've got all the On my bracket. I've got all the 11 Seeds beating the 6 seeds.
Speaker 5:Nice, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I should do just a little parlay A, a four-game parlay on that.
Speaker 5:If you just bet individual money lines of 12s and 13s not parlays, just individual money lines you'd be profitable every year for the last 10 years. Those are the ones you want to watch because you can get actually really good odds on the 13s and the 12s. What do you guys think about Utah State and TCU ones? You want to watch because you can get actually really good odds on the 13s and the 12s.
Speaker 1:What about? What do you guys think about Utah State and TCU?
Speaker 4:It's an 8-9, isn't it? Yeah, I like TCU there TCU's a 9.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 8-9's a coin flip.
Speaker 1:What about Matt? You mentioned it earlier, but what's the deal With Gonzaga this year? Are they just not as prolific as they have been in the past?
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're also just kind of Like a weird team like they. I mean, they had some like they lost, like Santa Clara, like normally, like the only you know they might have like one upset loss In the WAC or the West Coast Conference. I think they loss in the whack or the west coast conference. I think they're on the west coast conference, actually wcc, and and then, like you know, they might lose st mary's and that's that, and then, like they don't, they may lose to, like you know, like a good team in the in the preseason or the early season. Sorry, non-con, but this year they're just not as prolific, but they still have gram ek, but they can still surprise people. They came in a rough and won, as I'm sure Andrew remembers.
Speaker 1:Did they? When was that game?
Speaker 4:It was such a weird game. It was in the middle of SEC play, yeah, yeah, and it wasn't a challenge. It wasn't like the SEC Big 12 challenge they used to do, which now it's SEC.
Speaker 5:We signed like a seven-year deal to play them home and away, home and away.
Speaker 2:I've heard a lot of people picking McNeese to beat Gonzaga just because of that 5-12.
Speaker 1:That 5-12 historically has been a big upset of games. Where is a team that and this is obviously when I started watching college basketball but a team I feel like I've seen every year for a long time is not in here. Where's Seton Hall NIT? Were they like first floor out? Were they close, or they just had it down here?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, they were. Even Patino, who's obviously the coach of St John's, raised them and said they're the ones who really got nubbed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because only three Big East teams got in. They were talking about five or six, so them and St John's got screwed.
Speaker 4:The reason that so many teams got screwed this year is because there were five bid stealers, as they call them, and last year there were none. So if you're on the bubble, you don't want to see the NC Stakes and the UABs winning these tournaments. You want, you know, one of the contenders. So you want to go chalk. But it did not happen that year.
Speaker 2:Well, I agree what you said. I mean having two sets of 16 seeds play in the play-in game. Change that to 10.
Speaker 4:Change that to a 10 seed. Yeah, like this game.
Speaker 1:I'm watching right now.
Speaker 4:I'm actually interested in. You know, virginia.
Speaker 5:Colorado State oh.
Speaker 2:Virginia's not in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah they're in the play right now. They're in the play right now.
Speaker 5:They'll win Go Cavs. They're losing by six.
Speaker 3:It's 14 to 18, and there's five minutes left in the first half.
Speaker 5:The over-under was 120. I took that on this game sucks.
Speaker 4:Well, no, they're a defensive team. We played them earlier this year and we didn't have Zion Pullen because the NCAA is the National Communist Athletic Association and they made Zion Pullen sit the first three games because he took part in an experimental test of waters. Maybe you want to go to the NBA, maybe you don't camp over the summer and somehow they settled on okay, you have to sit out three games. So we didn't have him. We lost by three, but they're a really good team defensively Virginia, and I think they've been like that for a while. Right, it's kind of like what Tony Bennett does.
Speaker 5:Yep, yep. This year their offense is actually really bad. They go long stretches without scoring. I didn't think they were going to get in.
Speaker 2:Andrew, you're high on Drake. They're a 10 seed. How far do you have them going in your bracket?
Speaker 5:I got them in the Sweet 16. I think they could upset the.
Speaker 2:Iowa State. You got them beating Iowa State. Interesting Drake's good, I think they could upset Iowa.
Speaker 5:State. You got them beating Iowa State.
Speaker 4:Interesting. Yeah, they're good, drake's good. I don't know a single thing about Drake. It's one team I've literally watched none this year but their name is Drake and the rapper Drake has the Drake curse.
Speaker 1:So just based on that, where's Lamar? I've been betting Lamar all season.
Speaker 5:They're in McNeese's conference. That's why they're not there. Yeah, the.
Speaker 4:Southland.
Speaker 3:Snubbed.
Speaker 5:So Drake's going to be a storyline because their coach, the best player on their team, is their coach's son, tucker DeFries. He averages 22 points a game. Drake was really good last year and they ran to Miami first round. Miami went to the Final Four. Yeah, what happened?
Speaker 4:to Miami. First round, miami went to the Final Four yeah.
Speaker 1:What happened to Miami this year.
Speaker 5:Good, that's a good question, they just quit.
Speaker 4:I love what happened to Miami this year. Yeah.
Speaker 3:They finished dead last right.
Speaker 5:They're the only Final Four team to not make it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:They threw the rest of them in the same region.
Speaker 3:Louisville, I guess.
Speaker 5:But they're like.
Speaker 3:Second or third to last.
Speaker 1:Alright, I got two more questions For two games that I don't think we've Either talked about or at least not in depth. First one Dayton Nevada 7 versus a 10. I think a few people said Nevada to go through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got Nevada winning that one.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Dayton's Nevada winning that one. Yeah, Dayton's a big fraud to me. They got one player. He's an NBA talent. He's their power forward. He's actually pretty good, but it's Darren Holmes, and the rest of their team, though, to me is not very good. I bet on him multiple times this year and they let me down.
Speaker 4:What's he projected to go in the mocks?
Speaker 5:He's a first-round pick. Yeah, he's good.
Speaker 1:So Nevada, Where's Oral Roberts? They didn't make it this year.
Speaker 5:Their star player is on. He transferred to Texas, yeah.
Speaker 4:It's spelled Abmas, abmas, yeah, so what do we think about Texas? Have we talked about? Yeah, it's spelled Ab-miss, but he pronounced it as-miss yeah.
Speaker 1:So what do we think?
Speaker 4:about.
Speaker 1:Texas. Have we talked about Texas at all? Do we see them kind of making a run?
Speaker 4:No, I got them losing in the first round to whoever comes out of this game.
Speaker 2:Well, the second round you got UT versus UT, university of Texas versus University of Tennessee. So you pick UT to win that game. You can't lose.
Speaker 1:Well, Matt, you just said you have Texas losing the first game.
Speaker 4:Yeah, whoever comes out of this playing game I'm watching right now, I just don't have much faith in them Like they were like. So I, you know, obviously, as a huge college basketball fan, like I follow bracketology the whole year through, I follow. You know, obviously, as a huge college basketball fan, like I follow bracketology the whole year through, I follow. You know I see who becomes a lock each week and they were like one of the I think one of the last locks in the Pac-12. I'm sorry, not Pac-12, big 12. Granted, you know really deep league, but you know I, okay, to be fair, I kind of saw Virginia coming out of this, but they're down by eight and I just thought Virginia's defense would clamp down on them. And also I just thought, you know, when they had Chris Beard, they were more dangerous and then that whole thing happened and they don't have him anymore. And then Shaka Smart, who they fired, is now the coach of Marquette. So I just think you know that they're not that dangerous.
Speaker 5:And yeah, but if Colorado State wins this, Colorado State's not bad. Now watch out for the first. So the first four every year, one of those teams that won one of the play-ins won the first round.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I heard that today.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's definitely a trend to watch out for. To me, Texas has been frauds all year.
Speaker 4:Wait, the two 16 seeds, that being the ones were either of those.
Speaker 5:Well, last year it was Fairleigh Dickinson. Last year Fairleigh Dickinson had to win a play-in and then beat Purdue. Fairleigh Dickinson last year didn't even win their conference. The team that won their conference was ineligible because they hadn't been the NCAA D1 for two years. So that's how Fairleigh Dickinson got in, and then they beat Purdue.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well talking about that 10-seed playing game. That's why a lot of people have the winner of Colorado Boise State beating Florida, plus the fact that Florida's center got hurt and he's out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, preparing for two teams, though, that's just also hard to do.
Speaker 5:I like both those teams. Colorado's got an NBA player too. Cody Simpson's really good.
Speaker 2:To answer the question earlier about the Miami Hurricanes, they went from Final Four. This year they finished 15-17. In the ACC, in the week ACC, they finished 6-14. Only Louisville, who was 3-17, finished worse than they did. So they really went from Final Four to just absolute crap.
Speaker 1:Isn't Louisville the team that put 100 on FSU?
Speaker 2:Yep, that was one of the games that I put money on Florida State and of course they lost and I took that bet. I took it for them just to win, not even to cover. Thanks for reminding me about that.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that, christopher, thanks man, that's one of the things I remember from this season.
Speaker 4:Don't get me started. Obviously, harriet, I don't know you so you're excluded from this. But all my friends who went to FSU, who I know from FSU, when basketball was good like, I like to equate the FSU basketball fan base to the Miami football fan base Very fair weather, they're there when it's good, like even like my one friend who was like the biggest fan I knew at FSU. I mean, like I remember before, like that recruiting class with Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley came in. He was so hyped he was following, he knew everything going on. Now he's just like, oh, I hope we win, kind of like a go team type response when I ask him about it. I'm just like, man, come along, far cry from the New Blood days, huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think our coach is 70 years old, or 70-plus years old. I think it's time for him to move on. That's the problem with Florida State right now.
Speaker 4:I don't think they're going to fire him because I hope they don't, but I think that they want him to leave on his own so they don't look like the big bad guys. Yep, I agree, if I'm FSU and I can somehow get first of all screw looking nice, you want to win, you fire Ham and you go after Dusty May, I'd be okay with that. It looks like Dusty May is going to Louisville. Oh, really that's what they want. Yeah, what's a better job? Louisville or Michigan?
Speaker 1:Michigan.
Speaker 2:Go blue Right now.
Speaker 5:Michigan Louisville is a basketball school Michigan's a basketball school Michigan's always got a basketball school, tradition wise, but Michigan's Not a basketball school.
Speaker 4:They're also like overall, I guess, a bigger brand and you're probably going to get paid more At Michigan, right or no?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I could see that. To be honest, if you went back when patino was there, louisville was like a top 10 program. Now I mean it's hard to say like they've really fall apart I'm not totally sold on todd golden.
Speaker 4:I actually wanted us to hire rick patino. I mean, he's the only coach to win an ID at two programs. No, I do that. He's like 75. Okay, but still, I think that's the kind of guy who just loves coaching basketball.
Speaker 1:He's a young 75. Even after the thing happened the whole scandal.
Speaker 4:He was coaching for Puerto Rico and Penethonikos in Greece. I even DM'd. During the thick of the Mike White years I DM'd Penethonikos' Instagram account and I said please let Rick Pitino release him so he can come to Florida.
Speaker 2:I even.
Speaker 4:DM'd Scott Strickland about how to get rid of Mike White and try to rehire Billy Donovan after we lost to the Noles for the sixth straight time. Dude, we lost to FSU in basketball for seven straight years. That's ridiculous. I mean. It's never acceptable in football. But at least in football, when it happens, you understand why they're a really good program.
Speaker 2:That's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing when it happens. What are you talking about? It's a beautiful thing. No, it's just hilarious to me.
Speaker 5:You guys didn't fire Mike White. He left to go to Georgia. That's what's so funny about that.
Speaker 4:But that was great. No, but that was awesome about it because they paid us for him instead of us paying a buyout. He's 0-5 since leaving. Look, if he went to some random school like Minnesota, I'd have no ill will against him, but he really thought he was going to do something by going to our rival. So now I hate him Like not like hate him as a person, just, you know, in the sports sense, but yeah.
Speaker 3:I hate him as a person.
Speaker 4:No, he, he, he's a good dude. He's not like like in terms of he didn't do anything. You know that I view as morally wrong, like Jim McElwain did, where he would just like take players off scholarship without even telling them they find out through a letter in the mail or, like you know, like lie about no, that was actually that was not him, but he lied about our families getting death threats yeah, the fake death threats.
Speaker 4:Or like Dan Mullen, who just like stopped doing his job and like, literally I think he was angling for a buyout. I mean, you don't go up on a press conference after a loss and say we'll talk about recruiting when the season's over, it's, it's football time now. Like come on, dude, Seriously yeah.
Speaker 1:So where's, where's Will Muschamp at?
Speaker 4:Auburn Georgia. Auburn Georgia.
Speaker 3:Georgia.
Speaker 4:Georgia. Yeah, he was a Georgia alum. I still have a theory that Muschamp was a Georgia double agent. He was our coach and the only time we beat them was just to throw off suspicion.
Speaker 2:Wow, damn. Usf put 49 on UCF. In the first half, 49-35.
Speaker 5:Holy crap, harry. Before the NIT started they were plus 10,000 to win the NIT.
Speaker 2:Who.
Speaker 5:USF. Yeah, I threw five bucks. I was like that wins 500? Give it to me, let's go.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, why not?
Speaker 5:By the way, virginia playing right now they have not scored in eight minutes. They're still at 14 points in the first half.
Speaker 3:48 seconds almost.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they have not scored since the nine-minute mark.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not looking good for the Hoos Question from the Midwest. What are we thinking about the possibility of McNeese and Sanford in the next round? That could happen. Kansas 2 hurt, or what do we think?
Speaker 4:I still have Kansas making it past that, but I wouldn't be shocked if that happened. I mean, I think this is Sanford's first time making the tourney since 2000,. So they've got to be pumped. They're going to want to have a good showing. I'm going to have an echo now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just got that too, it just started just now. I have an echo for everybody.
Speaker 1:Speaking of Georgia. We were just talking about.
Speaker 3:Harry, I'm looking at you here. What do you got?
Speaker 2:I don't hear an echo for Harry.
Speaker 3:Harry, I'm looking at you here. What do you got, are you? I don't hear an echo for Harry. Oh my God, I can't even talk.
Speaker 2:I don't know, Can you guys hear me, because my airpod ran out of battery.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I think we're getting an echo from you.
Speaker 3:Follow the money Unbelievable.
Speaker 4:I still can't believe. Virginia has 14 points in one half.
Speaker 3:They're really making the committee look good.
Speaker 4:Do you think that they're going to move to like robo committee soon? I heard that on the Florida basketball hour. As soon as they're thinking about doing that instead of having like a human selection committee?
Speaker 1:Let me try this. Let's go's go cool, all right. Uh question, we were talking about georgia. I don't recall ever seeing them in the ncaa tournament, are they just not like?
Speaker 4:georgia tech as well I don't really remember them being in the tournament that's because georgia basketball is a poverty program and they haven't been in the tournament since 2015,. And they thought they really did something by stealing quote-unquote Mike White away from us, and now they are 0-11 against the Gators in the last 11 games. So yeah, I'm not biased at all, just talking facts?
Speaker 1:No, not at all. What about? Andrew went to Georgia Tech. So what are you thinking about Georgia Tech's basketball program, Are they just not? I?
Speaker 5:mean they beat Duke and North Carolina and Wake Forest. They had all these great wins and then they couldn't beat the shitty teams like Louisville and Boston College and Florida State.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't know the first year. No, they beat Florida State. Yeah, I don't know. First, year.
Speaker 5:No, they beat Florida State. Yeah, it's going to be so tough to build up that program because they've been down for so long. I mean, they haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 2010.
Speaker 4:Didn't they make the Final Four? No, we made it in 2020.
Speaker 5:We lost in the first game, the COVID year.
Speaker 4:But didn't they make the Final Four or the Natty? They made the Final Four, or possibly the Natty in the Emeka Okafor.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they lost to UConn in Emeka, Okafor yeah.
Speaker 4:In the Natty or the Final Four.
Speaker 5:The National Championship game 2004.
Speaker 4:That was the Jarrett Jack team, right, I think that was the guy's name. Yeah, yeah. Well, at least they have that. Some teams don't have that. I'm just saying I'm not even being troll. It's a big deal to make it that far. The tournament is a very hard tournament to make that far.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's just tough. I guess, george Tech, I mean right now we're just trying to build back our football program. That's also been down. So it's one thing at a time.
Speaker 4:Are you glad that the triple option is gone?
Speaker 5:I was until how bad we were. After it was gone, at least when we had triple option, we were making bowl games and beating Florida State.
Speaker 4:Yeah, cool upsets.
Speaker 5:What was that?
Speaker 1:coach's name. He's not there anymore, right, the one that ran the triple option.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, what was that coach's name? He's not there anymore, right, the one that ran the? Yeah, he retired. Yeah, the only the only problem with the, with the triple option, is that. Then you like, I mean, did you guys, would you guys just recruit, like regular, like players who came out of non-triple option offenses and just be like, okay, well, you're gonna have to adapt to this? Or would you like, would you go to like, look at high schools around the country who ran that and then recruit those players specifically?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean you really just look for smaller linemen because it's cut blocking. So that's what made it so difficult for us to switch from it to a normal offense. We literally had to recruit totally different. We didn't even have a tight end on the roster. So yeah, I mean, as far as the skill positions, I mean we were putting out great receipts. Calvin Johnson came out of there, right. Demarius Thomas, like we had some great receipts.
Speaker 4:Darren Baller, like we had some great receipts. Was Calvin Johnson there during the triple option years?
Speaker 5:Yeah, at the tail. Well, he was there. We kind of ran like a hybrid with Reggie Ball, not the straightforward tip option, but more that was.
Speaker 4:that was early 2000s, so that was right before paul johnson got there I mean I know they throw it every once in a while in triple option offense, like that's kind of like the you know something they do like every few times a game. But yeah, I mean yeah but Demarius Thomas.
Speaker 5:He was in the triple option offense Damn yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, shout out. Orlando Magic. They made the postseason, did they already clinch? Yeah, I just got an alert. I'm a big fan, wow.
Speaker 3:Weren't they steamrolling somebody tonight?
Speaker 1:I haven't been to a Magic game in 12 years, something like that. It was when LeBron was on the heat and it was an Orlando Miami game. Oh, they beat the Hornets.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 4:About 20. I'm just hoping my Pistons aren't the worst team in the league Right now. They're not, Is it Washington? Yeah, Wizards are the worst. I just don't want to go down as the woke team. I thought for a while we may go down as the worst team of all time record-wise, but I think the only team I think the worst team of all time was the Bobcats. During that one lockout year, the year the Heat won it with LeBron for the first time, or the first time LeBron got a championship, I should say 2011, I think.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that Bobcats team won seven games. But shortened season. You got to go by winning percentage. I don't think the Pistons are in danger of having that terrible title anymore, but I'd have to check to be sure.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they're only one game up on the wizards, so yeah, what'd they lose?
Speaker 4:like 25 in a row or something crazy yeah, we, I think we taught we tied the record for most most losses in a row. But as long as we're not the worst team in the league at the end of the season, I don't care about that. Unlike the NFL, there's a lottery, so it's not like you're guaranteed the first overall pick anyway. Apparently, this year's draft is not going to be anywhere near as good as last year's draft. No, that's.
Speaker 5:What's killing us is that we have good freshmen and all of them are top picks. Essentially, all of them could go lottery, yeah, so it's going to be tough to keep, guys.
Speaker 4:I remember watching Reed Shepard against Miami? I'm just like man. This guy is just dangerous.
Speaker 5:It's crazy man. He's a kid from Kentucky going. We thought he was a four-year player and here he is. He'll be a lottery pick.
Speaker 4:You think any chance he stays just because he's from Kentucky?
Speaker 5:Not if he's a lottery pick. I don't think he even goes. I think at this point he's a lock for the first round, probably a lock for the lottery, so he's for sure. I mean, he'd be crazy to come back.
Speaker 4:Like on an opposite side of that. You know, you say that was a four year player and he's a Larry pick. Like I don't know what's happened to Riley Kugel. Like Riley Kugel was supposed to be. You know, at the end of last season there was talking to me, just going straight to the NBA. He came back. He was supposed to be our best. One out of every seven games he'll have, maybe even less he'll have a really good game, but other than that he's bad with turnovers. His defense is great, but I heard on the Florida Basketball Hour podcast that there's talk of him not playing in the NCAA tournament. I don't know if he's going to transfer, if he's just not happy with the situation or what, but yeah, I thought he was going to be the guy this year, just hasn't been.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess we're at an hour 45. Do we have any closing thoughts, any nuggets we want to part the listeners with? Maybe we can do another episode. When is there a little break? Is it before this week?
Speaker 4:16?. After Sunday yeah, Sweet 16 starts next Thursday.
Speaker 5:Yeah, okay, so maybe next week we can do a follow-up episode, while we go around real quick and everyone give a double-digit Sweet 16 team. We'll see if anyone gets it right. Okay, you guys go first. I'm still thinking double-digit Sweet 16 team.
Speaker 4:We'll see if anybody gets it right. Okay, you guys go first. I'm still thinking.
Speaker 5:I'm going to go with JMU. Oh okay, the Dukes Wisconsin always finds a way to lose in tournament. I feel like they're going to do that. They're going to go on that great run in the Big 10 and they'll come out and lose the first game. Jmu's tough. They're experienced, they shoot the ball really well, they play good defense. I don't believe in Duke. If Duke even is there, I think Vermont could beat Duke. I think JMU can make it to the second weekend.
Speaker 4:I got McNeese Cowboys. They have a standoff show. Yep. Fun fact, mcneese has a former Mike White Florida player. I'm trying, he wasn't great, it was CJ Felder, that's his name. He's been to Boston College. I didn't know that. And now McNeese. Yeah, yeah, cj Felder's on McNeese. I don't know that. And now McNeese. Yeah, yeah, cj Felder's on McNeese.
Speaker 5:I don't think he starts though yeah, he's only averaging six points a game.
Speaker 2:I've got the Wild, wild West. I've got St Mary going to the Final Four. I've got Nevada and McNeese going to the Sweet 16, with Nevada going to the Final Eight. Yeah, nevada, okay, yeah, going to the Sweet 16 with.
Speaker 3:Nevada going to the Final Eight.
Speaker 2:So those are my yeah, nevada, okay, yeah, so those are my double-digit seats. I think the West is wide open. I just think North Carolina is going to find a way to lose and I think once North Carolina loses and Arizona loses, that's going to really open it up. Arizona finds a way to choke.
Speaker 4:So, but maybe it's a party like 1997 this year for them.
Speaker 2:Yep, I'm just going to rename that West region and call it the Wild Wild West, anything goes I like it.
Speaker 1:Give me Oregon in the Sweet 16.
Speaker 5:Ooh, okay, plus 470.
Speaker 1:And then they'll lose. Give me Oregon in the Sweet 16. Ooh, okay, plus 470.
Speaker 5:And then they'll lose to Tennessee. Jmu is plus 680. Mcneese State is plus 570. This is on FanDuel, and then Nevada plus 470.
Speaker 4:Sports betting is legal in Florida now. Yeah it's lit.
Speaker 2:Harry, did you know that? I hear you. Usf is 10 for 18 on three-point shots 55%.
Speaker 4:Wow Geez, they woke up feeling dangerous.
Speaker 2:They're shooting 55.6% from three-point and from all field goals 55.2%. So they're shooting better from the three Everywhere else. It's crazy.
Speaker 3:Andrew, are you going to go, Drake? I assume?
Speaker 5:I went JMU, but let me see what Drake's odds are. They are plus 570. What about Oakland? I'm going to say Charleston.
Speaker 3:Charleston.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to say Charleston. So what do we make of Alabama? Did we talk about that at all?
Speaker 4:I actually have them going to the Elite Eight in my bracket, believe it or not. I thought I had them down out earlier, but the other way it shook out I have them going to the Elite Eight in my serious bracket. It's them versus Baylor in the Elite Eight.
Speaker 1:Do you have them beating UNC, I assume?
Speaker 4:I do, yes, maybe they've gotten their losses out of the way. Kind of just one of those mental things.
Speaker 2:I've got St Mary that part of the bracket. I've got St Mary running to the Final Four.
Speaker 3:Harry, who do you have coming out of the West?
Speaker 2:Hey, I'm going to keep saying it St Mary, St Mary.
Speaker 4:If you say it. If St Mary's ends up making the Final Four, they're 10-1. Genius To up making the Final.
Speaker 5:Four, they're 10-1. To make the Final Four Harry 10-1. I should just tell that it's a sign I'm going to do it just for Harry.
Speaker 4:We should campaign for Harry To get on like a show or something.
Speaker 1:Go Grand Canyon Over St Mary's, and then they lose to the Bama.
Speaker 5:Bama's one of those teams. I'd be shocked if Bama made it to the Sweet 16. This Bama team is just falling apart. The over-under, by the way, is a 173 for that Bama-Charleston game. It's the highest total since 1996.
Speaker 3:Wow, who shoots better that day?
Speaker 1:With that being said, are you taking the over?
Speaker 4:I'm taking the over, let's do it oh, I just saw the ending to that wagner howard game. They had so many chances.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I know man three chances to tie the game.
Speaker 4:So so how howard has that guy seth towns, who's been playing in college basketball since 2016, but there's just like been like injuries in covet year, so technically still has two more, two more years of eligibility left after this. He's been playing in college basketball since 2016,.
Speaker 5:But there's just been injuries in COVID year so he technically still has two more years of eligibility left after this.
Speaker 4:He was a freshman with Jason Tatum, that's how old he is. Wow, he's been there since the Obama administration. Wow, wagner's first NCAA tournament win in school history. But you really count this as your first tournament win? Yeah, it counts. I mean, I guess that is one of the benefits of having the 16 teams play, that they can call this a tournament win, whereas they're not just going right up against the one and probably get smacked.
Speaker 4:But I don't know, I think I think I actually think a lot of players would rather just go to the first round and not have to. You know, I don't know. That would be interesting to pull some players on that, get their opinion. All right, We'll just wrap it up.
Speaker 1:Wrap it up, let's wrap it up. All right, folks? Thanks for tuning in. We'll put out an episode next week with all of our reactions to all of our correct picks. Maybe a few incorrect picks here and there, not. St Mary's, though not St Mary's we need to get a bracket pool going as well, just to throw that out there. Oh yeah, but um appreciate y'all tuning in.
Speaker 1:I guess that does it for us just to throw that out there. Oh yeah, oh yeah, but yeah, Appreciate you all tuning in. I guess that does it for us. This is March.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having me on the show Well, yeah, yeah, nice to meet you man, Of course.