three, two, one, hello and welcome sports bros. Episode 35, final four set yeah, uconn set. Yeah, uconn Alabama, uconn Alabama and Purdue in state, just like we all predicted. Tell me why UConn isn't going to win by double digits, wait they're not playing St Mary's. I thought Hold on. I think I have the women's final four. Hold on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, check it. I think St Mary's was in this right I heard it was a lot, very reliable. Yeah, I heard it on a podcast and the guy was pretty adamant about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he said it about 4 or 5 times.
Speaker 2:They must have been the elite 8, at least they must have gotten knocked out right before the final.
Speaker 3:Alabama's final 4 team. They're hot. It sucks that. You know they must have been the Elite Eight, at least right. They must have gotten knocked out right before the final. Alabama's Final Four team they're hot.
Speaker 1:It sucks that you know St Mary's ran into Alabama the buzzsaw right.
Speaker 3:They got out of the first round and lost to Alabama. Okay, at least they lost to the Final Four team right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do remember in that same podcast that someone said that if Alabama makes the Sweet 16, I'd be shocked.
Speaker 2:Care to answer that? Yeah, that was a man. Did I have some bad takes? I?
Speaker 2:can't believe it I think Alabama and Clemson are two examples. I guess NC State for that matter too. If you count prior to the ACC tournament, the regular season doesn't mean anything. The way you finish the season doesn't mean anything when it comes to it. It's a brand-new year, brand-new season when you hit March and anything can happen as long as you got the pieces.
Speaker 2:Alabama's defense was awful, awful for most of the season, especially at the very end, the last couple weeks. What did they lose, Corey? They won like two of their last seven games or something. They dropped like four or five games at the end of the year, gave up 100 points to Florida. I mean terrible defense. And then they get in the tournament and all of a sudden they can play defense, they can start guarding people. They can, you know, play a.
Speaker 2:That Grand Canyon game was like a you know rough you up kind of foul fest. They grinded it out. It's been remarkable, Like their run. Clemson's run too, was to me shocking to see, and they had a chance to beat Alabama there. At the end, Alabama just got hot from three, which, if you want to make a case against UConn, a team that could take them down, is a team like Alabama. They could go out and just shoot the lights out. They could get up on you. They can score points in a hurry. If UConn wasn't careful in this game, Alabama is definitely capable of going on a 10-0, 15-0 run. Uconn just did that to Illinois 30-0 run. It was incredible. Alabama is the one team that might be able to do it.
Speaker 3:I agree, but I don't know how they're going to stop UConn. That's just another level of offense that they're playing.
Speaker 1:I'd be shocked if we don't see UConn-Purdue. I just feel like that's the collision course that we're on. I'll chalk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that would be the best. That'd be the best final. I wouldn't even know what to think about that game. Yukon Purdue.
Speaker 2:Yukon Imagine a Yukon Purdue final is just an ED foul fest, like it's just 40 free throws for ED just on the national stage.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was out with like 17 minutes left in the second half.
Speaker 2:I mean honestly Filipowski. That's if you want to end UConn's dominance. It's Alabama gets really hot from three or they get it run into. Zach Edie have no answer in the officiating, just edges in favor of Purdue. Purdue's at the line 40 times. That's basically it. Uconn is a buzzsaw right now. That's the only way I see them slipping up. If it's NC State, they're just going to demolish NC State. No offense to their run. What they've done is incredible.
Speaker 3:They would have gotten hammered by Houston.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:She stayed healthy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was quite an injury in favor of Duke there If Duke didn't have that second half collapse against NC State. I mean you're sitting here thinking that was probably the easiest cakewalk to a Final Four.
Speaker 1:Called it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I still think 2015 was probably the easiest walk to a Final Four. That was one that was almost gifted to Duke the fact that they literally didn't have to play anyone. Got to play an under-seeded Michigan State team in the Final Four and then got to play Wisconsin, who just played the game of their program's history. To beat undefeated Kentucky was already gassed, their emotions were spent and Duke just was gifted that title. That was what I thought was going to have happen here. The bracket completely opens up. Marquette goes down, kentucky goes down, duke gets to play Vermont, jmu, houston without their point guard, and then NC State, their rival, who they've owned for years, who are going to be playing their ninth game in like 10 days at that time.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, a team that's on an incredible run. Let's talk about that for a second NC State. They already have the most improbable run in the history of college basketball in 83, when they beat the 5 Slamma Jamma Houston team with clyde drexler and akima lajuan, uh, which honestly is one of my favorite. 30 for 30s. The survive, uh, survive in advance. It's one of the best this might top that. I mean it's hard to say that just given that they had to go through Michael Jordan, sam Worthy, north Carolina team. They had to be, you know, number one Virginia with Ralph Sampson Incredible the amount of talent in college basketball in the early 80s, like that was the golden age of college basketball. So it's really hard to say that this is even on that level. So it's really hard to say that this is even on that level. But you're talking about a team that had lost what? 14 games in the regular season, no shot at a postseason, unless they win the ACC tournament, and then they're playing on Tuesday at the ACC tournament. The ACC is now double what it was back in 83, right, like they have so many teams, they had to play five games in five days the finals on saturday, so they started tuesday wednesday thursday yeah
Speaker 2:yeah. So they're starting tuesday, they're playing louisville one of the worst teams in the country, and they're losing. They were losing at halftime that game. Pretty sure they were down by as many as 10 points in that game and they come back, win that game. Then they go to play Virginia, and that game was insane. They were down, I want to say six, with like a minute left. They had to get fouled, shooting a three. Virginia had to miss. Before that, beekman missed the technical, so they missed the front end of the technical free throw. Then Virginia goes down, fouls Marcel, shooting a three. They get the three free throws and then at the very end, mcneely all he has to do 87% free throw shooter, best one Virginia has at the line misses the free throw. That would have made it four point lead. They get the rebound, they go down, they hit the three at the buzzer. They force overtime. I mean the most impossible run you can think of. This team even got to the tournament.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not to mention that win against Virginia was sandwiched between a win against Duke the week before and, obviously, unc in the final right, right, like they beat the heck out, they crushed Duke yeah in that game that's why I thought the Duke game just now that was going to be tough, just because they already beat Duke last week yep, yep, tough to beat the same team twice in a short amount of time.
Speaker 2:And they did it. And yeah that, that emotional game. Against Duke, they come off, they, their legs are tired. Against Virginia, they play the overtime game and then they beat North Carolina One seat in the title game, acc. And then you know, they got lucky that, you know, kentucky fell apart, lost to Oakland, so they got Oakland in the second round, but they had to play that game in overtime. That wasn't an easy game. Oakland was still shooting. They were red hot. Golke made seven threes in that game.
Speaker 3:That Townsend kid is really good. I saw he hit the portal this morning too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's going to be a big-time name in the portal, for sure. Just incredible what they're doing. The are just incredible what they're doing, the fact that they're here. If they could beat Purdue. That's why I'm sitting there thinking, if they beat Purdue, two-time National Player of the Year in Zach Eadie, so one of the better, he's probably in the top. He's at least in the top 50 of college basketball players of all time, just with his accolades.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, he's like a walking 30-15, 30-20.
Speaker 2:He had 40 against Tennessee. Yeah, if Tennessee just had anybody else besides Dalton Connect that could make a shot, they would have won that game. But yeah, if they could beat Purdue and get to the title game and then beat UConn, a team that's looking to repeat, a team that is, you could argue, is looking to make a statement as one of the best teams in college basketball the last two years. The fact that they've covered every spread, that they've just blown teams out on the way to back-to-back Final Fours, won a title, looking to win another one. If they could beat them, I think this may be top 83. It's going to be hard, though I don't see it. I don't know. Does anyone think UNC State has a chance?
Speaker 3:It's hard to look at their team and then Purdue and say that they have a chance. But I didn't think they had a chance against UNC in the ACC tournament. I didn't think they had a chance against Duke in the quarters. I didn't think they had a chance against Duke just now. So I don't know what they're going to do for Edie, but they're playing good basketball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they have a couple bodies to throw at Edie. You know the Burns that's going to be an interesting matchup because they're completely different players. But Diarra is really good. He's had a great tournament.
Speaker 3:He's been grabbing like 16 rebounds a game, 14 rebounds a game recently.
Speaker 2:He ain't going to do that against Edie, but he will at least be a force up against him.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I think they could cover. I feel like if this is going to be a tough one for Purdue to do this back-to-back but Tennessee almost won because they decided not to double Edie in the beginning so that they didn't have the three-point shots, Then they weren't really making any of them.
Speaker 1:So, Purdue.
Speaker 3:If Lawyer and Braden Smith cannot shoot that well, gillis too, I guess. I think they would have a chance. Edie would obviously have 50, but you can still win if Edie has 50. Probably there's a situation there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's tough about Edie is he is a good foul shooter too, so even forcing him to go to the line doesn't really do you too much, because he's going to knock them down and plus you're losing guys left and right getting in foul trouble. That's what I'm worried about with NC State is getting DJ Burns picks up two early fouls and then he's sitting, which he's known to do for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. With Purdue I do worry a little bit of the Monkees, kind of off the back they made it to the Final Four. Can they do what Virginia did and take it one step further, like if you go back in that Virginia-Auburn game they needed a miracle to beat Auburn. It was. I mean you could make a case Like there were some bad calls there. You kind of worry about that a little bit with Purdue. Here is do they, you know, face the moment actually take it one step further, get to the title game? Because for years I mean it's just get to a Final Four, like Matt Painter never been Like been knocking on the door with good teams, always get knocked out early. Here they are. Is it enough for them, or are they really looking for that title to get at least to Monday night? Because NC State I mean they're playing with house money. They've been playing with house money for weeks. They have no fear.
Speaker 3:Yeah. With that being said, I'm hammering Purdue.
Speaker 2:Yeah With all that being said, I think they've covered every game, haven't they? I mean, they destroyed Utah State.
Speaker 3:Them and UConn. I guess, besides Tennessee, but has pretty much run through the whole bracket.
Speaker 2:Yeah, collision course for sure.
Speaker 1:So why did? Why was NC State Just so mid Throughout the year? Did they have injuries or they had New guys coming in? They just weren't familiar. Why did they suck and then just get good where they had new guys coming in, they just weren't familiar.
Speaker 3:Why did they suck and then just get good? They've kind of strapped up on defense a little bit more. Ej Horn, I think, missed some time in the middle of the season. He's their best player.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean they've really just been a hot and cold team all year. They're notorious for having win streaks and then go on a losing skid. I mean they had three-game losing streak, four-game losing streak. Right now they're on the incredible nine-game win streak. They're on the incredible nine-game win streak. They're on the last three weeks.
Speaker 2:But yeah, they've just been inconsistent and they're finally putting it together. I mean that's kind of what college basketball is is can you play your best ball at the right time, can you be up for the moment? And they're a deep enough team. They have enough scoring. Their guard play has been incredible. Horn's been awesome. O'connell's been great at shooting the three. I mean they've been staying hot and then on the interior like we talked about, dr grabs boards and DJ Burns is great at the post Like they're a really tough matchup for a lot of teams because they can play versatile and they play really well in the half court, which in the tournament. That's why we were skeptical about Alabama. They play fast. They need to be hitting their shots. If Alabama goes cold it's hard for them to adjust and luckily they've stayed pretty relatively well shooting the ball. So with NC State they're more balanced and that's kind of been the best thing for them. They got down against Duke but they stayed in their game and they battled back in the second half when Duke started going cold and not making shots. They've been there, they've had the formula.
Speaker 2:I think we were all wrong about the ACC. All year Everybody was down on the ACC, thought the ACC was a garbage conference because Miami was a returning Final Four team with most of their players back and they were terrible and it really looked like North Carolina and Duke were the only two good teams in the conference and then they end up with four teams in the Elite Eight Happens every year. They just don't have a good read on the conference. Because it's hard to tell in college basketball, because you get your non-conference out of the way in the first two months when no one's paying attention, and then you play three months of conference play when you're just beating up on the same teams and you're trying to, you know, judge teams based on what they did, you know, three months ago in the non-conference. That's hard to do. It's hard to figure out which teams are good against teams that aren't in the same conference as them.
Speaker 1:Is it kind of like soccer in the Champions League? When they play, they're playing teams from all over Europe, all different styles of football. Is that part of college basketball March Madness, playing other teams and other conferences that play differently than your own conference Is that a thing, or does everyone kind of just have their own style based on their coach and players?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if it's by conference. I think that's more in college football. Like when you get to bowl season, it's like Big Ten versus Pac-12, you know which. Now that's all going to change next year. When you got like all the conference realignment going on, it's just, I mean, because your different coaches play different ways, like so you could have similar teams in each conference. I think it's more about just seeing the same teams each night in and night out and getting that familiarity. Then you go to the tournament and it's just matchups and you're playing a whole different team. You haven't seen you find out who you played two days before. If you advance over the weekend, it's so much about momentum at that point and being playing your best ball. Like Clemson just got hot in the tournament, like they just turned it on, they started rolling. Yeah, I mean it's kind of a little bit of both.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 3:So do we all have Purdue?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to see Purdue versus UConn. I think Purdue and UConn to cover I think all season those have been the two teams Houston's been there but Unfortunately they had the injury. It's a Single elimination tournament. You have one bad break, like Houston's had so many of them, I mean gosh. You look at the last few years and they've had some great teams that just can't catch a break, can't either go cold or lose a player run into a buzzsaw of a team. It's been tough for them. I think these have been the two best teams all year, which is rare in a tournament Most tournaments you count Gloucester you get a bunch of random teams in the Final Four.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'll be stunned if it's not Purdue-UConn on Monday. That just seems like what they want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just want two good games on Saturday. To be honest, I want high scoring. Hopefully there's no inflate gate. I don't know if you guys have been following that. They've been juicing the balls.
Speaker 3:I saw something about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what was it about so? So basically they were tracking the games at term, certain tournament sites saying that they inflated the over, inflated the balls, so like boston was one of them, um, dallas, and if you go and you look at some of the the moments in the game, like when the ball is inflated the ball travels farther, so like if they took a shot, like it would go over it would, it would bounce off the bat, it would be way off, like it wasn't normal shooting. And then dribbling, yeah, like dribble, the ball would bounce too high and you'd have like these weird turnovers. So scoring was really down in those games. Like you, the unders were hitting and you know, of course you kind of didn't really phase them.
Speaker 2:But yeah, just those small things, like just the balls being played, it's like you know, I don't understand about the ncaa how they can't fix this stuff up, especially like the referee, and how inconsistent it is from game to game. And you look at the women's tournament, I mean heck, they couldn't even get the three-point line drawn correctly. They were literally playing games where one half of the court had a closer three-point line than the other half. I mean it was like how does this even happen and they played like five full games on that court. Right yeah, until someone up in the stands in like the 200 levels up top, took a picture and sent it down to somebody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's like look at this. I mean, anybody can see it. I don't understand. I mean, if you want to take women's sports seriously, let's at least get the court right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a bad look.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what's funny is the teams that shot on the three-point line that was closer actually shot worse. I guess it was just because they didn't know the perception, they weren't used to that distance or something. But yeah, there's weird stuff like that in March, madness.
Speaker 3:Anybody have any futures out, any futures that are still alive.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Duke ruined it. Was that the only one you had, Chris?
Speaker 1:I have one. As far as a bigger few, I did a couple big ones with UConn. I mean I say big ones are like $1 for a bunch of things to happen, but starting with UConn, yeah.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, I had a lot with Kentucky winning the title. In fact I had parlays. That was the last leg, so I would have won close to $ grand on a parlay. I had like a 50 free bet and I I had the chiefs at 10 to 1, with kentucky at like 21 or 22 to 1, so that would have been fun. The one that's probably the best, yeah, the one that's the best. I played when I was in New Orleans Back in February. I had the Chiefs and I had Purdue. I got them at 7-1 back then. So the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. I had them at like plus 200, purdue at 7-1. And then the next one is the Hurricanes Carolina Hurricanes. Now, I haven't been hauling hockey at all. Are they even good?
Speaker 3:Oh, they're legit.
Speaker 2:Do they have a legit chance?
Speaker 3:yeah, they grabbed a couple uh guys at the deadline too okay, all right, so that's the next leg.
Speaker 2:I had them at 10 to 1 and then the last leg this wins 11 000. If it hits, uh, on a three dollar bet, is the lakers to make the finals? I don't think that's going to happen because the Lakers are like playing and they're like in the play-in game, and so that was kind of like they were at 18 to one. Then I think they're now at like 30 to one or something Like I thought maybe they could pull it together.
Speaker 3:So that was the regular season. Regular season doesn't matter, right? I mean, you get hot in the playing game, maybe, maybe we can do it. This is LeBron's last dance too. Potentially, potentially.
Speaker 2:See what's weird is Bronny, though I thought was going to the NBA, no doubt, no, he's coming to Florida.
Speaker 3:He's going to be in the draft.
Speaker 2:But now he's in the portal. Why is he in the portal? Does he actually want to play college basketball? I thought he just wanted to go to the league. Maybe he's not that good? Well, no, he isn't that good. That's the point. Any team that would have taken him in the draft is just doing it for LeBron.
Speaker 3:Hasn't LeBron been saying for the past 5-10 years I can stay as long as I want to until I can play with my son. And now that people are figuring out that LeBron James' kid isn't exactly a top three high school recruit, now LeBron's all of a sudden like oh, I mean, I can't play forever. It's going to be coming soon. Yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I can't play forever. It's going to be coming soon. Yeah, yeah, I think it was a little awkward there when people were well. The thing with Brawny, though, is he had the health condition so he like collapsed his first week at USC at practice and missed a significant amount of time. Actually, he was lucky enough to come back and play during the season, forgot about that, so that was a big reason why he didn't play as well this year. But yeah, he hasn't been that good. I don't know. I don't know. So we'll see. I mean, the NBA, it's a crapshoot. I mean there's really not much to preview for the playoffs there.
Speaker 1:I think it's just a whole different season when the playoffs start. I was only looking forward to watching the Clippers if Duke were to somehow magically have won. But I don't know anything about the Clippers. I did like the Florida Panthers Future in that a little bit, but I think Florida's going to get bounced in the first round Just me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do we want to transition to a little bit of Million dollar parlay talk? Talk about maybe what futures we like Going forward. Yeah, I think if we all had to pick right now, we're all on UConn, right. Yeah, maybe confidently, I'd say like 70% confident In UConn Going back to back.
Speaker 3:I really just don't think that Alabama can give UConn that much of a problem. Maybe they'll like win the first half, maybe I can see that, but I Maybe they'll win the first half, maybe I could see that. But I think they'll wear them down on offense and they'll get good enough stops in the second half and then them and Purdue. I don't know, but I'm leaning UConn, but I don't really know for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm afraid that Alabama they're not careful, they could get run out of the gym against UConn, because UConn they have been able to destroy teams even when they don't play very well, like you could watch them play and they could, you know, have some stretches where they don't really score well, they're not hitting their shots, they're turning it over, and then you look up and they're like they're up by 15. It's just crazy how dominant they are at controlling the game.
Speaker 3:I watched a 12-minute video last night about UConn's offense and how they have so many even 20-something second sets that just eat up the whole shot clock. But they're going to get a basket at some point during that because somebody's going to be open underneath the bucket by himself, but they just off-ball screen you to death. They'll switch up sets to. This guy set a pick last set but he's actually going to spin off that and cut. So like I don't think alabama is going to be able to stick with with plays like that. No, I don't think they're disciplined enough on defense. They're going to get so many like a clinging is going to get so many like wide open dunks. I'm sure hairband is going to get like wide open cuts to the basket for easy layups.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's. The thing is that UConn has the ability to play fast too, and so when Alabama tries to get out and run with them, they'll be able to catch them on their heels and take advantage. They're not going to fall privy to that. They're not going to let Bama just pull up and transition hit these. I mean Bama could knock them down, but UConn's not worried about that because they can play that way. Yeah, and they'll also wear them down too, like what you're saying, they'll run the half-court sets. I mean, uconn is the closest to a pro team is what we've got in college right now. They are running a really high level.
Speaker 2:In fact, this Indiana State team that's playing the NIT, they run a pretty high level offense too, just some really clean sets with some back screens and you know just really good ball movement and that's kind that's kind of been the separating factor between these, between college basketball.
Speaker 2:Now, with this you're entering like a new age here where you can get these transfer portal guys who are just called good college basketball players.
Speaker 2:That maybe aren't going to be great pros, but I'll stick around and they're experienced and they know the game and they can play like a very advanced level of offense and actually run some some high level sets and and play good defense and understand how to recognize screens and picks and and and pick up on different you know tendencies and different players and take advantage of that.
Speaker 2:And that's honestly, if just to touch on Kentucky for a little bit, that's why I feel like there we have no shot, because Calipari for the longest time was let's get the best players on the court and then we'll see who can beat us Like. We're going to have the best talent, we're going to roll the ball out there and my guy's going to be your guy and that's just not how college basketball is being played now, because you're not getting enough of those guys coming in as freshmen that could take on someone that's three, four years older than them who's been playing high-level college basketball. Compared to what this player out of high school and AAU has been playing for the last you know four or five years, it's just a totally different game.
Speaker 3:So we're saturated with talent now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, really. I mean, it's good for college basketball, yeah, and that you're getting guys that want to stay and develop Still late $700,000 with an IL, so they don't have to leave.
Speaker 3:hundred thousand dollars with an IL, so they don't have to leave if they don't want to.
Speaker 2:Right. And when you're Kentucky and you're just recruiting the best prospect, well that that prospect doesn't have enough time to develop into a good player. Develop into a good player. And so when you get to March and you're playing against a team that's scheming against you, that knows how the how you're playing because you run the basic, you know triple drive offense you've been running for the last decade plus and they know how to beat you. And when you're not scouting and scheming against what they're doing, you're, you have no chance because you're just relying on your talent and that doesn't work.
Speaker 2:Like UConn has come up with the perfect formula of balancing transfers plus a couple of high level freshmen. And you know these guys that stick around for a couple of years to to have the continuity and they're able to to put it all together and they're the best built program right now. I mean, it's really them and everybody else. I don't think in Kansas was kind of there, but Kansas they didn't really the whole. You know, hunter Dickinson experiment didn't really work out for him this year Cause they weren't deep enough.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, it literally takes Sorry, it literally takes Purdue to have somebody who is 7'4 to even approach them, and even still, we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And then you got a team like Purdue and you just have like a generational like athletic specimen and Edie, who I credit to Edie, like that guy has put in the work. That kid was nowhere near as talented and skilled as he is now. When he got to Purdue, like I remember the first couple years he was there and it was just I mean he couldn't, he was a can. It was just I mean he couldn't. He was like can't miss guy, like he.
Speaker 2:As soon as he steps in the court it's like Holy cow, this guy's just nasty. He was just a goofball though, but he was, yeah, he was awkward, he wasn't coordinated, didn't really have much to his game other than that little hook that he would 50% of the time. Now he is like perfected it to the point where he's got his moves. He knows what to go to, he knows the positions, the spots, the floor he wants to hit and he's great the free throw line, you know he's, he's. He's become a great shop locker too, like he's timed it well so he doesn't get fouls, like that was the earliest career he would quickly. Yeah, so credit to him. I mean he's. They've built a team around him. I mean it's not fun to watch, like it's. It's literally just be like, hey, let's stick this seven foot four guy in the center and surround him with some shooters, but it works. I mean, we'll see. We'll see if it could take down UConn. Aren't they technically the best three-point shooting team in the country? I think so. Purdue yeah.
Speaker 1:So you guys had mentioned talent earlier. So who in the Final Four, if it's not the same person? Who's the most NBA-ready player right now and who's going to have the best NBA career? The same person, or is that two different?
Speaker 2:people. You're talking about the teams in the Final Four.
Speaker 1:The Final Four teams yeah.
Speaker 2:Who's?
Speaker 1:the most NBA-ready guy.
Speaker 2:Guess who's the best three-point shooting team in the country this year? Alabama, it's Kentucky. I didn't mean it? Like that. I didn't know, but Purdue's number two at 40.6. They're just 0.3 percentage points behind them, but yeah, damn Crazy, too bad, we couldn't hit 40% of our threes against Oakland.
Speaker 3:Isn't. That isn't Castle. Isn't he supposed to be like a super high pick, that kid from UConn?
Speaker 2:So him and Klingon has come out of nowhere really, Like he's developed into like this high-level draft prospect. He's only a sophomore. Yeah, they would be the top two for sure.
Speaker 3:I like Castle a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, he's good. He's 6'6", plays the point and the shooting guard. He could score pretty much anywhere on the court. I think, yeah, I think he's probably the best player. That's a pro, like the best NBA talent left in the tournament right now, cause I don't think I mean, I mean they have care band, he's, he's good on, and so it's Tristan Newton. I mean you can't, you can't. I mean and Cam Spencer. I mean they probably have five guys that could play pro ball.
Speaker 3:They probably won't all be drafted. Cam Spencer's awesome. Yeah, I don't know if Caravan's an NBA guy, but he's such an elite player on that. Yeah, yeah. Stephen Castle Stephon.
Speaker 2:Castle, I don't know how to pronounce it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the mock drafts they have. Who's Alexander? Saar Alexandra.
Speaker 2:So that's who we were talking about earlier. That's Olivier Saar's brother. Olivier Saar was a player that was at Wake Forest, transferred to Kentucky. He's in the NBA. He's kind of bounced around a little bit, but that's his brother. He's 7'1".
Speaker 3:Is he from France? In France.
Speaker 2:No, he's playing in.
Speaker 1:Australia right now. He's from France. Yeah, he's from France, though. Rob Dillingham, number two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, rob's electric Rob with the shifts Dilly dilly Pro comparison.
Speaker 1:Darius Garland, I know who that is.
Speaker 2:Is he still in the Cavs? I think he's in the Cavs still.
Speaker 3:I think so yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's all right. I think Dillingham could probably be better than See. The problem with Dillingham is he doesn't play defense at all, like just we lost I mean honestly the Oakland game. He kind of cost us with his defense, like he forgets and leaves his guy. It's just so annoying. But he's got some crazy offensive upside, though I have a question.
Speaker 1:How does this work? Because it shows the third. It says the third pick right now would be Ron Holland, out of the G League. So how? How do you get to the G League without being drafted? Do you just sign up like a free agent if you're 17 or 18 or whatever, so it's like the.
Speaker 2:Gatorade Ignite league it up like a free agent if you're 17 or 18 or whatever. So it's like the Gatorade Ignite League. It's like a supplement league for players that want to play amateur ball and get low-level contracts and not go to college and just go there for a year. It's actually just collapsed, so it's not going to exist much longer. I think this might be the last year. It's actually just collapsed, so it's not going to exist much longer. I think this might be the last year. It's not the D-League, it's not like the developmental league.
Speaker 1:According to this, the number one player coming out of the Final Four is that Klingon guy going five to Portland. Five Damn Wow Pro comparison Jacob.
Speaker 3:Poul.
Speaker 1:Who's that? Poul Jacob P.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the NBA is shutting down the G League Ignite program. That program's going to so they launched it in 2020. It's only been around for a few years and it's I guess it is associated with the G League. Basically. These players could like go and play and have like pros, coaching and whatnot.
Speaker 3:Wasn't this started kind of around the same time that Lamello went to Australia for a year instead of going to college?
Speaker 2:Lithuania. Remember they went to Lithuania when he pulled out. He told the ball brothers right when he pulled him out of UCLA after he stole money over.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I know yeah.
Speaker 3:He went to Lithuania. Why did I think he went to Australia?
Speaker 2:There's a couple of guys that went to Australia. Australia's got some decent prospects coming out of there, so I got a question for y'all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it says it's got Reed Shepard going six and then the guy from UConn Castle going seven. You put Reed Shepard over Castle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Reed's going to be a good pro. He is. I don't know he's not a franchise guy. I don't think any, Honestly, this draft is so weak. I don't know, Like he's not a franchise guy, I don't think any, honestly, this draft is so weak. I don't know if you're going to find any franchise guys that's like going to, you know, completely change your team's trajectory. I think there's a lot of good role players and I think Reid's one of those guys who's Be like a JJ.
Speaker 2:Reddick. I don't like the JJ Riddick comparisons but yeah, I kind of get it. He's more of a shooter. He's more than just a shooter. Dude can get to the basket. It's really his defense and his court vision, his defense. When I say defense, it's like his hands, his blocking shots. He's got to work on his man-to-man guarding defense, but he's really crafty. He's just got really good court presence.
Speaker 1:Passing IQ, yeah, heel and tie level Slashing to the basket.
Speaker 3:Good offensive awareness, Offensive awareness 96.
Speaker 2:Before this year, no one thought he was going to be in the NBA after one year. It's pretty incredible what he's been able to do. Who's Kirk Heinrich? He was a player for Kansas, I think. No. They lost the title. They lost to Kamala Anthony in Syracuse that year but he played for the Bulls for a while. That's who they're comparing him to yeah. So yeah, someone like that, Like a guy that could be in the league for a long time.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty sure, isn't he in the Warriors front office?
Speaker 2:Heinrich Kirk, heinrich, he might be Strike that for the record. Yeah, he last played in 2016.
Speaker 1:He retired a long time ago. Nba all-defensive second team in 2007. Yeah, it was number 10 jersey. He's retired at Kansas Wow.
Speaker 2:No, he was a great player at Kansas. Yeah, yeah, I don't think he's with the Warriors Corey.
Speaker 3:I think he's just like oh, it's Dunleavy, never mind, mike.
Speaker 1:Dunleavy. Yeah, mike Dunleavy, I remember him yeah.
Speaker 3:Common mistake oh wow, he's a 99-03.
Speaker 1:I didn't realize it was that long ago.
Speaker 2:It's so funny to see the pictures of the players that played in the early 2000s with the super long basketball shorts, when that was a thing yeah.
Speaker 1:The picture of him on Wikipedia from 2008. Yeah, it's as long as.
Speaker 3:It's like past their knees, that dude from St Bonaventure, the legendary picture, it's like touching his ankles.
Speaker 2:Alright, two locks for the parlay. It's like touching his ankles.
Speaker 3:All right, two locks for the parlay.
Speaker 2:What do you think Just put in Purdue UConn national championship matchup?
Speaker 3:South Carolina and Iowa National championship matchup.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I threw a little bit in a parlay just with the two Ucons, so it's happened a couple times If you go back. The last time it happened was 2004. Uconn men's Uconn women's won the title the same year, 2014 men's and women's. Now we're at 2024. It's been 10 years. Maybe we could get UConn men and women's.
Speaker 3:Yeah, even number 10. Nice even number there.
Speaker 2:Yep, I think you get UConn women at like 8-1 right now to win the title.
Speaker 3:Let's see.
Speaker 2:That would be a good game between them and Iowa. I have them at plus 800 on the hard rock with the title Yep South Carolina is minus 200.
Speaker 2:Yeah, south Carolina, man, they're really good. I mean, they're undefeated. They're only a spot on the season when they were in jeopardy of losing. Was that SEC tournament game? I think it was the championship game against Tennessee, when they just didn't guard the three-point shooter? No, I think it was the semifinals. Yeah, they just didn't guard her. They literally were inbounding the ball down two with like 1.2 seconds left. They throw it into that girl that hasn't ever made a three in her career. She banked one in to win the game.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I remember that, and then Tennessee ended up firing their coach. I was just going to say that I thought I remember that, and then Tennessee ended up firing their coach.
Speaker 3:I was just going to say that I thought I saw that the other day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she almost beat South Carolina.
Speaker 3:Old world. So do we want to do like a March Madness winner, NBA Finals winner, NHL playoff winner?
Speaker 2:Yeah, or you've been looking at Masters, getting an idea of who you're leaning on. I don't know if we want to put that in the parlay, because I mean gosh. I've never won a golf bet. It's so hard.
Speaker 1:I did it, I think, when Brooks won.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you had when Brooks won the PGA Championship last year in the US Open.
Speaker 3:He won the PGA. I think the US Open was.
Speaker 2:Wait, was it last year that Brooks choked in the Masters?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean he was hanging around, yeah. I mean he was hanging around, yeah, because I got him at like plus 4850 or something when he won.
Speaker 2:I only put five bucks on it. Yes, I don't know, maybe.
Speaker 1:Corey, you can give a couple guys. You like man City to win the FA Cup. Lock.
Speaker 2:FA Cup or Champions League.
Speaker 1:Well, FA Cup is a lock, Champions League I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think they're the favorite for Champions League too, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they're in the semifinals for FA Cup. They're going against Chelsea and I think United is on the other end playing Coventry or something, so United's in the final. So it's going to be Chelsea United, which we saw that win today. Shout out Chelsea, dude. That was incredible.
Speaker 3:I think we're going to see City.
Speaker 1:United. I can't believe it.
Speaker 2:I can't believe you guys were all like, oh, this game's going to suck.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel like the last one was the same way. I just expected 1-1, maybe 2-2, but I expected a draw for sure. That would have been. Imagine betting on a draw there and they hit that final penalty and you're like, oh yeah, I hit it. There we go. And then Chelsea scores 45 seconds later. Yep, great redirect by McTominay. It was a very high IQ move. Well, we're at 50 now. We want to do the million-dollar parlay offline. Then Just figure out two Depends on how much we want to do the million dollar parlay offline. Then Just figure out two Depends on how much we want to. If we're going for a million, we're going to have to throw in the masters yeah, we're going to have to come up with.
Speaker 2:Let's do it on the text chain. Give a couple options, play around with it. One of us come up with the parlay. Get the numbers right.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep, what we can do. I have someone pick two or pick three.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Harry, in order to have him do we just have a 10 like part of my network? Yeah, sounds good. Very hairy bets with his brain, not his heart, so you got to get it right, right.
Speaker 3:Did you see that Harry bet you kind of win? That's crazy.
Speaker 2:He said Did you see that Harry bet Yukon to win? That's crazy. He's a genius. That's why I kind of want Yukon to lose, because it would be so funny. Harry put 50 bucks back, 50 bucks down them to win the title and they lose.
Speaker 1:I wonder if he put any money on St Mary's. Did he put money on St?
Speaker 2:Mary's yeah, he put a little bit. I think he put like 10 bucks or something.
Speaker 3:Before in the trust tree I tailed him. I felt horrible.
Speaker 2:I know I felt I put $5 on him too, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm like oh, let's see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, I was doing pretty good. I thought my final four prediction was going to be pretty close until UNC lost, because Illinois kind of shocked me. I was like damn, illinois is making a pretty good run.
Speaker 2:I know, I know, until that second half, they look good.
Speaker 1:Also trust tree when anyone has mentioned Terrence Shannon Jr and I nodded along and I was like, yeah, he's great. I thought he was completely another person. I thought he was the Hawkins guy, spencer Hawkins, or whatever that guy's name is. I thought that was Terry Jr.
Speaker 3:Until the last game they lost. He's good too. He's an NBA guy, right.
Speaker 2:Hawkins yeah, he'll probably be an NBA guy. Yeah, I like him. Yep, I gotta hop off. I'll let you guys know we're on baby watch. Next week is the week, so let's go yeah, I guess we'll see you. We'll see you in a little bit yeah, if you guys never want to part of a podcast when I'm up at like 3 in the morning because I'll probably get no sleep for a month yeah, that'll be fun.
Speaker 1:I actually have to get my wisdom teeth taken out in two weeks, so that's gonna be fun. I actually have to get my wisdom teeth taken out in two weeks, so that's gonna be fun. I'm gonna be MIA for. I forgot you never did that let's record right after just do a live pod after. That'd be funny. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it because they told me for the longest time oh you're good, but now it's not good.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I'm not looking forward to it because they told me for the longest time oh you're good, but now it's not good. So damn, that does suck. Well, all right. Best of luck, bros All right, we'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 1:Good luck, keep us, keep us apprised of details, and I guess that does it for us. Thanks for tuning in, folks.
Speaker 2:Way go big blue, even though we suck now, koki.