North Florida Sports Network Podcast
North Florida Sports Network Podcast
The Madness Continues: Sweet 16 Breakdown and Bold Predictions
Hey, welcome back. It is the North Florida Sports Network where everybody does their job.
Speaker 2:We understand that.
Speaker 1:And we're going to talk hoops. March Madness, sweet 16. Our perfect bracket is no more. It's like one in four times trillion. You'd rather you have bigger chances of getting struck by lightning ten days in a row than you would like 66 times In the head bracket. Yeah, um, I regret not just picking all the teams based on how much money they spend, and that's it. Because that's you have a sweet 16. That's all big boys, not one well, well, you're missing Kansas. That's who's spent, but still, didn't make it, but there's no money.
Speaker 3:That's because Bill Self hasn't figured out how to spend money legally yet he only knows how to do it illegally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, but your Sweet 16 set UConn florida was a good game. Um, they didn't. Uh, in the end, though, clayton was clutch, they're not losing man. Yeah, that, I thought that was their best shot as we talked about um, but I'll chalk man. You can really look at. You know, you got set. I mean everyone's like, oh, you got seven sec teams. Well, you had 14 in the tournament. Yeah, like I mean, they went seven and seven.
Speaker 2:So it's not like murderers row here, you only have one matchup in the sweet 16 between two SEC teams right yeah, it's right out there.
Speaker 1:You got Arkansas. That beat St John's, ole Miss beat Iowa State. Couple of lower seeds there. Iowa State was shorthanded. What sticks out to you, justin?
Speaker 3:The fact that I have the worst bracket I've done in 30 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's terrible man.
Speaker 3:No, especially at this point last year, dude, on my ESPN bracket I was in the top 2 percentileile, yeah, uh. Today I'm in the bottom third of all brackets I mean, it's a chalk like never before.
Speaker 1:Um, that's what that's.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's kind of what sticks out to me, yeah is the death of the mid-majors yep, you got nothing, but well, it's just for one year, man.
Speaker 3:I mean, it wasn't but what? Two years ago we had FAU and Miami in the Final Four.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people would tell you that's bad for the first weekend, but it's going to be great for this week, right? I mean, you have a lot of good matchups. I'm really excited about you got Florida playing Maryland, although Maryland's coach is going to be probably out of there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we skipped a team dinner last night there you go, it's going to be Villanova's new coach at the end of the season. So tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Duke Arizona. You still got Arizona beating Duke? I hope not.
Speaker 3:I got Arizona in my final game they're the only team I really got left on this bracket yeah, um, so it's pretty much all chalk um.
Speaker 1:Auburn made it, found away houston nobody tested them. You know it's. Uh, it starts tonight. You might as well pick it. So when you listen you'll know how we either got it right or wrong. Right or wrong. So who you?
Speaker 3:got. If you want to place bets, listen to this podcast and pick against the opposite of everything I pick, because my shit's bad, dude, it's.
Speaker 1:It's awful this year like never been so bad well, I mean, that's why we're gonna re-pick it a sweet 16 oh, there you go, dude, and make me not.
Speaker 3:Save a little taste for me.
Speaker 1:You don't like it it's kind of like what we did in the nfl. It's you know, yes, you had a preseason pig, but this is kind of like sweet 16. We're down to we lost majority of the teams in the tournament, so let's repick it. And then sweet 16 starts tonight and it is going to be Florida, Maryland. No wait, first game is actually BYU-Alabama. Byu. You know one of the lower seeds left Right Alabama hasn't looked too great. Any chance of an upset here?
Speaker 3:I'm done picking up that yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, uh, byu, um, you know, 91 to 89 over Wisconsin and, uh, you know, fun game there. But I think that they're not going to be able to do that again. Alabama can do it again.
Speaker 3:If you give up 89 points to Wisconsin, dude Bama's going to hang 100.
Speaker 1:Right, I think that Bama's going to outscore them. Then you have what I previously said Maryland and Florida. I think Florida was tested by the two-time national defending champions. I know they had a kind of a down year up to that standard, but they, they it little. I mean, if you're a Florida fan, you definitely were nervous because UConn's got the lead on you and they haven't lost a game in years in the tournament. But their guy Clayton Jr, he came up big. I mean, he hit clutch shot after clutch shot. Yeah, they're not losing and they have just so many guys that they can rotate in Kind of the new college basketball.
Speaker 2:Maryland is lucky to be here. Like yeah, all they had to do is call what was a travel, and they're not even.
Speaker 1:It's an nba move, yeah um, but yeah, maryland, uh, florida, I think florida wins big yeah uh, you agree everybody. Oh, oh yeah, no doubt about it. All right, well, uh, then we get to the late games tonight. Uh, which, um, before? Uh, let's go arizona duke.
Speaker 3:That's a good one man, why the hell are you?
Speaker 1:tipping off at like are you gonna 9, 40, the next one's 10, 10, arkansas.
Speaker 3:I mean, like what the hell is going on? And these are.
Speaker 1:East Coast teams Right? Well, arizona's not. They're playing Duke. I don't see it. I think Duke's. They're on a mission, I think it's them and they're on a mission. It's going to be them and Florida. I haven't. Collision course.
Speaker 2:I haven't watched Arizona play one second of basketball this season.
Speaker 1:They're an older team, if they beat Duke they're going to be.
Speaker 2:They have to be really good. Well, they're older, they're.
Speaker 1:I mean they have. You know the thought there is. Maybe you couldn't be more physical. Duke is still a young team.
Speaker 3:I mean that was kind of my thought process with having Arizona going all the way to the final game was because of their experience they got some good, good experience. That usually means something in the tournament.
Speaker 1:Yeah, All right, Well, you should pick against him. Tomorrow we have we have that only matchup of SEC schools, but before that we have another SEC school taking on Tom Izzo and Michigan State and that's Ole Miss Chris Beard taking on Michigan State. I think I'm going Ole Miss here, Even though I picked Michigan State to be in my final four. How about that?
Speaker 2:I mean they got that guy Padula from Virginia Tech.
Speaker 1:That's exactly why he was always the guy, that man.
Speaker 2:If they get in the tournament Virginia Tech with this dude he's going to piss everybody off, but they could never get in.
Speaker 1:Man that was such a big ad for them and I remember him from his days at Virginia Tech just being annoying.
Speaker 2:He drained everything every time we planned it.
Speaker 1:I like Ole Miss here, so I'm picking against myself. What do you think, Justin?
Speaker 3:Actually this is one of the games I actually had correct in my dumpster fire of a bracket. I didn't have Ole Miss in the game, but I did have Michigan State and I'm going to stick with my original pick of Michigan.
Speaker 1:State.
Speaker 3:Tom Izzo in March man.
Speaker 1:Yeah and tears when he made it to the Sweet 16, brought him to tears this time. We didn't pick the late game of today that arkansas texas tech, calipari, calipari, um, I mean his athletic team, texas tech. They can shoot it. What's gonna play here?
Speaker 2:man, I, I don't know dude, it's hard for me to even give a shit about the teams in the bracket with Florida, because they're not going to beat them. I'm going.
Speaker 1:Texas Tech here.
Speaker 2:Give me Texas Tech.
Speaker 1:Sure, I mean. Arkansas has got you know they'll be able to play good defense If they make threes Texas Tech wins. If they can't shoot it, arkansas is going to end up out-physicaling them to the win in an ugly game.
Speaker 3:My in-depth analysis for this one is Arkansas took out my champion, St John's, so Arkansas wins.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised there.
Speaker 2:It's Coach Cal man.
Speaker 1:Alright. So we were uh, all right, let's go to kentucky, tennessee. So we picked the um, michigan state, one um. This is the matchup the two sec schools, the only sweet 16 matchup um you got. They matched up twice in the regular season. Kentucky won both times. Are they able to do it a third time?
Speaker 1:I never trust rick barnes but you're gonna say yes no well you just said you never trust rick barnes and I said, is kentucky gonna be able to beat tennessee a third time? And you said no, I was testing you I'm gonna say, yes, I, I think, I think it's gonna, I don't think they can beat them three times. I think they finally figure it out and they'll get by it I'm gonna keep picking against them let me see, here I'm gonna take tennessee, yeah.
Speaker 3:Um, when I was watching the sdc tournament a couple weeks ago, tenn Tennessee was like a ball hair away from beating Florida. So I'll go ahead and I'll take Tennessee in this game, even though, like Jimmy said, it's Rick Barnes and you can't really trust him. Yes, tennessee is a damn good basketball team man. Oh, they're loaded. Yep, all right Basketball team man.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're loaded. Yep, all right. Well, let's go to Michigan-Auburn Sweet 16 matchup.
Speaker 3:This is going to be a good one, I know you like the upset here, justin Yep, michigan, I got Michigan-Michigan State on my bracket for the next round. It's about the only thing I got.
Speaker 2:So I'm sticking with it. Yeah, how about a little little storyline?
Speaker 3:dude, those two giant seven footers they got at michigan are. It's like a throwback to the 80s where, like the big man was still a thing, I mean dude michigan's been doing this when they had the wagner twins a handful of years ago, mo and franz. Oh, I remember yeah, yeah, dude, and both of them are tearing it up in the nba too, man. I mean, they got two giant white guys that can hit the three again on this team.
Speaker 1:So you like michigan. What do you think?
Speaker 2:jimmy, I'm gonna go michigan. Here I. I got them winning this too. Man, they got a.
Speaker 1:Uh, auburn wheaton I think that their chance to get upset was, you know, maybe Creighton. They got their act together.
Speaker 2:So Trey Donaldson.
Speaker 1:Creighton's a fundamentally sound team and they're going to have to play that away again and they're going to be in Atlanta. They're going to have the home court advantage pretty much. I think they're going to get over that hump, although they lost at home to some big games down the stretch.
Speaker 1:And I don't trust Bruce Pearl any more than I trust Rick Barnes. All right, Well, let's go to Houston and Purdue. That's going to be another one where kind of Houston's up there in the Midwest where Purdue being the lower seed, might have a it's in Lucas Oil, so they're going to have like an advantage there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, that's a huge advantage.
Speaker 1:But is it going to be enough to get Houston? I don't think so, man. I think Houston has way too many dudes, way too many waves of defenders for Purdue.
Speaker 2:Well, leading scorer left in the tournament plays for Purdue Guy averages 20 points a game.
Speaker 1:Trey, kaufman, rennet, and that's where you're going.
Speaker 2:I'm going to pick Houston. I'm going to pick Juice Cryer's brother, LJ.
Speaker 1:All right, and how do you see it, justin?
Speaker 3:I'm just going to take Purdue because Houston pours the ever-living shit out of me. So I'm going to take Purdue just because Houston's boring.
Speaker 1:Yep, all right. Well, there you have it. We repicked it, we'll see what happens. The big boys, the sweet 16.
Speaker 3:No little majors, no little kids in the big boy pool. Yeah, they're all sitting at the little kids table. Yeah, it's over, they're all sitting at the little kids table at.
Speaker 1:Thank you I mean it's literally like if you're good, it's, there's like minor leagues, now basketball. I mean it's like a multi-level sport now where you're funneling into only a certain amount of teams that are able to even afford those type of rosters. And if you go back and you were to just pick your teams based on how much money they throw in, you would be killing it right now in your bracket.
Speaker 2:You've got to hit on the evaluation, though man you talk about, like you said, florida. That's how they built their team is going and doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But would they be able to afford the guys now, like with the reputation and the skills that they've shown.
Speaker 1:We'll find out.
Speaker 3:Michael Clayton Jr came from Iona.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the whole roster has done that.
Speaker 3:That way they didn't roll out the Brinks truck for Clayton. No, this is going to.
Speaker 1:Unless you're a phenom like Cooper Flagg, you're not going to see many high school kids being starters immediately, unless they want to go to these mid-majors and play and then get paid and then get plucked from the Right, it's going to be where teams want to have those veteran presence, the hungry kind of grown men type of player.
Speaker 1:Well, the high-end players coming out of high school still get a lot of money from blue bloods well, yeah, you're gonna have that but that's the only way to 10 or 15 kids, and there's still a lot of other schools that are going to start ponying up money and where they're going to go is those, those retreads that this is it for me, man.
Speaker 3:This is my pro career, so um, dude, it's like, uh, the miami team from a couple years ago, with all the transfers and what's his name?
Speaker 1:still playing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, omir, he was playing for baylor.
Speaker 3:This yeah geez omir is still playing and nigel pack is still down there and coral gable's playing oh my goodness, he's sticking it. You might not know it, because miami won five games, but nigel pack is still there well, uh, nfl free agency continues to heat up.
Speaker 1:Old james found a team and then right after that they signed russell wilson yeah, rock and roll russ um I think it's actually the greatest meme, kind of a backup plan for him. Um, I feel like you gotta try to get the best of both of them. Maybe if one of them works great, and then if it doesn't put in the other one right, if you can chop up all the best parts for me yeah, yeah, I know they draft travis hunter so he can defend the pass after james picks throws the pick.
Speaker 2:I get it or he can block it as a defender.
Speaker 1:That would be a good pick. I think that they might take hunter because of that. I hope so. Um there, but I I don't think it puts them out of a draft in a quarterback at all.
Speaker 1:Um I'm curious to see what happens with shador now I'll tell you right now Russell or Jameis could be trade bait, you know, pending an injury later in the season, if they were to draft a Shador. Um, I don't think it runs away from that, I don't think I think he still might get drafted, if he's there, by the Giants.
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, you're gonna carry four quarterbacks yeah, davido because they still got Tommy Cutler yeah, he'll be a practice squad guy I mean you get, I mean who carries even.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean money, yeah, but you can afford it because you got the deals. I mean you got jamis and russell for cheaper and I mean they don't for like even a budget quarterback.
Speaker 3:So yeah, like where they combine making right 15 mil.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's not so you of, just. You know you're hoping one of them peaks here, I think you know. Hopefully the team will rally around Jameis, you know, just beat him out. Russell has already said he expects to start, which you know he should. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, he sucks, but he should expect to start.
Speaker 1:We'll see what happens there. Uh, pro days going on.
Speaker 2:Florida had their pro day they did man, they did I. I gotta point something out. I'm not trying to make fun of anybody, but you know, big des watson apparently weighed in at 464 pounds. Fat yeah.
Speaker 3:What.
Speaker 2:And I know he's about what 6'5", I get it Fat, uh-huh. I don't see how that's humanly possible to be an athlete and be I'm not. I'm not Fat, it's dangerous. But at the same time he seems to be able to carry the load and actually participate somewhat. Well, I have.
Speaker 1:NFC East teams drafting him. That seems to be able to carry the load and actually participate. Dude, you're gonna have nfc east teams drafting him that.
Speaker 2:That's exactly where I was going to the man no doubt that might be the secret secret against the old brotherly show of the tush push that was like last time we saw a guy this size coming out was old mount cody back in the yeah.
Speaker 3:And when he got in the NFL. He was just a fat guy he couldn't move.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's Fat. Yeah, man, I would take a shot at it, though Line them up only in goal line situations against Philadelphia behind the defensive line, and glory hopes, fat. Just my idea, man.
Speaker 1:Jerry, what do you think, man?
Speaker 2:I could sell him on it.
Speaker 3:There's a very low percentage of this, that is, smiles and glory holes, fat.
Speaker 1:All right, well, there's your draft analysis.
Speaker 2:That's one big glory hole, man 406 people got to count.
Speaker 3:Can you imagine walking into a fucking glory hole and finding that son of a bitch on the other end? Man, oh boy, oh man. That's good stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what time it is. We got to get on out of here. Our ride's here, college baseball. Oh yes, let's get into it. Our rides here, college baseball. Oh yes, let's get into it. Heating up the Noles with the walk-off against the Gators over in Jacksonville and Alex Luis doing something that nobody has ever done Sorry.
Speaker 2:Gil Nobody's ever done it.
Speaker 1:No one has ever done it, ever in college, nor in professional baseball at any ranks. No one's ever hit for the cycle and for the last hit being a Grand Slam to do so. He did that in a walk-off fashion against the Gators Tuesday in Jacksonville. After giving up the lead in top of the inning, they came right around and hit the Grand Slam in the bottom of the ninth. Exc. Came right around and hit the grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. Exciting time. Knowles got a good team, yeah good.
Speaker 2:Some SEC team will win it.
Speaker 1:Miami got one from them.
Speaker 2:They ripped Jamie Arnold. Yeah, they got the goal all over yeah.
Speaker 3:The best thing Miami baseball has got is that cool old-school M that they have on their uniforms. That's about it.
Speaker 2:All right, well, they'll make the coaching change. Yeah, that guy's out of here. It'll get back to him.
Speaker 1:What do you think of the video tribute to Jimmy Butler by the Heat? You think it's too soon? Oh, it's absolutely too soon um, but he does deserve one eventually I mean jimmy butler took a bunch of mediocre guys to two finals, like next season, not the season where you totally ditch the team and we're probably not gonna do crap because of that.
Speaker 3:But hey, I do like that. We smacked that ass though in that game. Yeah, and actually two of the guys I was talking about on one of these podcasts that I watched in the summer league dude, the rookie kid that we drafted, ware, is playing really well right now, and then one of the guards, mitchell, also played pretty well. So maybe we'll get a draft Cooper flag. Bring in Giannis, and then we're right back at it next year. There you go.
Speaker 1:It's just that simple NFL NBA free agency Right after we get to this sweet 16, we got the NFL draft. More free agency college baseball spring practice. We'll watch it all, we'll react to it all and we'll talk to you next time right here on the North Florida Sports Network.
Speaker 3:Go to the next hole.
