2026 March Madness is HERE! Bracket Breakdown & High-Stakes Sleepers

In this live stream episode ff the Splash City Basketball Podcast, host Steve Hartman is joined by longtime friend and bracket enthusiast Eric Quackenbush to dissect the newly revealed tournament field. Fresh off the selection show, the duo breaks down each region to identify the "Group of Death," potential Cinderellas, and the impact of recent injuries on top-tier contenders.

Key segments include:

• The Toughest Region Debate: Eric makes the case for the West as the most grueling bracket, while Steve argues the East is a "blue blood" gauntlet featuring legendary coaches like Bill Self and Rick Pitino.
• Seeding Snubs & Surprises: A deep dive into why St. John’s landing a 5-seed is a "travesty" and why teams like Akron and VCU might be the most dangerous double-digit seeds in the field.
• Freshmen to Watch: Analysis of the tournament's most dominant young stars, including Arkansas’ "dog" Darius Acuff and Arizona's smooth-scoring Burries.
• Upset Alerts: Why High Point’s high-scoring offense makes them a nightmare matchup and why a shorthanded Duke squad could be vulnerable in the Sweet 16.

Plus, Steve shares details on a live opening day show Thursday, March 19th at Back Channel Brewing and discusses the interview with North Dakota State head coach Dave Richman.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube. 

Follow Splash City Basketball Podcast on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey, what's up, everyone? It's uh Splash City Basketball Podcast. We just got the brackets revealed. Uh, we're gonna take a look at those, break them all down here in a second. So, first of all, uh, let me introduce the guest tonight, guest of the hour, Eric Quackenbush, my longtime friend. We have done a few brackets in our time together. Yeah. So write them by hand as they were revealed, because we didn't have any digital uh way to it.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Started here tonight. So little print out and copy number one. I love it. You know, I need the magnets. That's my favorite thing to see. The winners slap the magnet on the next next step of the bracket. So for sure.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

That's all about that. That's a fun way to do it. I wish, yeah, we that's what we need. I went with the uh painter's tape. This is a social media, but um Yeah, that's slick and easy.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Take it down thereafter.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

But the uh Sharpie doesn't soak through on the paint.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

We just painted, so I don't think I was gonna say it looked pretty fresh.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Uh all right. Looks like we got uh public chat. All right, Lisa representing the the Denver, Colorado. We're pulling them in from everywhere. I love it. Uh thanks for being here, Lisa. All right, so the chat's working, so that's a good sign. Um I want to do a quick run through here. Um, a couple of housekeeping items. Uh, I want to let everybody know Thursday, I will be at Back Channel Brewing here at Spring Park on the shores of Lake Minnetaka for a live opening day show. Um, I got some swag to give away. There's beer, there'll be a food truck. Uh it's a super cool place if you haven't been out there. So we'll do a live show at Back Channel Thursday night. Um, time still to to be determined. I'm kind of waiting to see who plays and when, um, but we'll figure that out. And then um tomorrow I'll publish an interview I had with 14C North Dakota State's head coach Dave Richman. I did the interview last week, but we'll get that up. Uh, they play Michigan State. We'll talk more about that later, but really excited to have Dave on the show. Uh, I've known him since like 20, 2008, probably something like that. So super nice guy. Really excited for him and his program. So uh they just punched their ticket last Sunday, a week ago, beating UND to get to the big dance. So um today, Eric and I are gonna talk about the regions. We'll kind of break down who we think is the toughest region. I I already have an idea in mind. Um, can Michigan be the first Big Ten champ since 2000? Um, that's a big storyline. Um, snubs. I don't know if I really felt there was any major snubs, but some seating issues for sure. Um, and then we'll also talk about you know some of the players, teams to watch, upset potential, Cinderella possibilities, and all that um within the show. So for the next hour, hour and a half, we'll see how long we want to go. Um, but that's that's kind of the plan. So Eric, uh, where do you want to start? Do you want to go bracket by bracket? Should we go region by region?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Well, I mean, I could guess which region I think is the toughest. I would go west region. You're going West region. If I had to pick one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Uh I would go.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

So you got Arizona out west. Um, you got who else we got down there?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

I mean, I think Arkansas, obviously seeing what they did in the SEC tournament, Wisconsin at the five, that's a heck of a five seed right there. BYU, same thing at the six, even though you know, any of those six elevens, you are ripe for the picking. Gonzaga, um, and then Purdue at the two, obviously. Um, you know, a couple of teams that I would have said were kind of underrated, and I don't even know if you can really say that, but going into the tournament, uh, Wisconsin, Vandy, and Purdue. So you got two of those teams right here in the west bracket that I look at as, you know, maybe not talked about as high as their seeds are throughout most of the season.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Besides Purdue, of course, but yeah, Purdue is an interesting one because like today, that was the Purdue team I expected all year. Like they were in control. Braden Smith was just yeah, kind of playing with everybody on a string there. Um, but we haven't seen a lot of that this year. And I'm I'm just I'm worried that they get super matchup dependent, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Like if so, I'm a little I feel as though I feel as though at times when they go too big, it hurts them defensively. Yeah. And um, I don't know if they've maybe come to that realization or not, or or what they'll do turning time here exactly. I mean, you you hate not to have some of those guys on the fork. Clough is is pretty effective offensively, but I think at times does cause problems for them on defense to have him and Kaufman Ren. Um it's not as clogging the lane as you like it to be. Klough is not super athletic. So right.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Um, yeah, the other one out west that intrigued me though, from like an upset. Like I I think both the four and the five, and I know that's always like a trendy thing, and Wisconsin's playing so well, but going into it, I was like, you don't want to play high point, like nobody's gonna want to play high.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

I didn't realize this they average over 90 points a game in Wisconsin's game. So well, yeah. This is Wisconsin's highest scoring team since 1970 or 71. So shootout right there, potentially.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Um, I mean, and and they don't turn it over, like high point, they're fifth in the country in turnover rate, so they are gonna shoot shoot the ball. They got uh, I forget the kid's name, um, but he's like just an outstanding shooter, and that's like all he does, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:05

He's like the Jack Dolkey from a couple years ago, but definitely lacking um the tougher schedule in Wisconsin, Boyd, Blackwell, Braden Carrington. Um, they can shoot just the experience at the guard spot. Man, I just find them a tough out. Is Nolan Winter? Is he hurt? He's hurt, yep. So he's out.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Um he's out null. Uh let me check. I I was looking at the case.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

They still have decent size, but that definitely hurts him uh for big.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Looks like he'll be back. Yeah, he'll be back. Okay, but I mean, Austin Rap, Nolan Winter. I mean, they're all the same.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Like they're rap got hot in the Big Ten tourney for sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

So it's it's tough to really, yeah. I agree. Like, I going into the year and you know, not to toot my own horn, but I was like, Boyd and Blackwell might be the best guard tandem in the country.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Like when you think of both together and either one of them can take over either night. Yeah. Um, you know, I don't I don't feel like they get too reliant on the outside shot. Boyd, especially, is great at getting into the lane. I just think that's huge. Um you don't you don't have to be you know hitting 30, 40 percent on threes to win a game. Um, because that will happen in the tourney. So we'll find out, but yeah, it's a fun, fun little matchup for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Yeah, and then Hawaii too was another one when I did my like mid-majors to watch kind of going like what a month ago, just kind of as the season was kind of getting to that point where March Madison was coming out. I really like Hawaii. Um I like Arkansas a lot, though.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

I mean, Darius Acuff is yeah, getting to see a freshman like that. That guy doesn't look like a freshman at all. He is something else. Um making it look easy, almost averaging a double-double and efficient. Um, you know, to see a young guy, he's shooting close to 50% overall and over 40% from three. I just think that's wild um to see a guy be that dominant as a freshman.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

I mean, to me, hopefully we get to see a good bit of him.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

He I think he might be putting himself in like the second or third overall pick situation at this point.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Like behind Copy number one. AJ, yeah, Peterson. Probably with his fierce size and athleticism, but yeah, cuff, man, he he looks like a dog. So I wouldn't hesitate to pick him.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

He is awesome. So um, all right. We're working on YouTube, just had to just had to verify everything was good there. Uh yeah, so I I don't know. I I think Arizona from the jump has been really impressive, like beating Florida out the gate, you know, and it's been there hasn't really been a lot of letdowns from them, but no this bracket, I mean, yeah, like Wisconsin, Arkansas winner, you still have BYU, the probably the probably the best player or top three player in the country in BYU and you know, Purdue. You've got a great veteran team.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

BYU is probably the best sixth seed in the tournament. You know, I don't I don't know enough about Tennessee. You know, maybe the SEC fans would push them up there, but BYU otherwise I would argue is the best sixth seed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

I I I tend to lean like in those games, right? Like best player on the court. And most nights, BYU is gonna have the best player on the court. Um could be an interesting matchup with Gonzaga in that second round, though, because that's that's yeah, not too far from Spokane, not too far. Like that's good.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yeah, they pitted that one out on purpose for sure. Gonzaga, it's a it's wild to see how good defensively they are. Um, but again, I don't remember them having too many high profile non-conference matchups this year, maybe as much as years past.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

They won at Kentucky. Um they did have a pretty good non-conf, I think they got blown out by Michigan. Um they lost by 40 to Michigan, they beat Oklahoma, they beat Kentucky, beat UCLA, um and Alabama. So they just had the one loss going into conference play, and then they lose twice in the conference.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

So which I would say the WCC is is getting better. I mean, it's we got St. Mary's and Santa Clara. Um, you know, there's so there's some better top-end talent um in that conference.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

If Santa Clara hadn't made it, I might have revolted.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

I'm just I'm just yeah, I'm there with you for sure. I mean, it's not the NCAA tournament. They had said that Miami of Ohio, they made sure to have mentioned that they weren't the last team in. Because if they were, then yeah, that was a it would be a sad state of affairs if that was a debate. Um it's not their fault, nobody will play them. Same thing with Akron, man. Exactly. Good luck to Texas Tech. That is a tough draw. Obviously, they got that with uh losing their best player, JT Toppin. Um and I'm I'm okay with that matchup. And that's a hard one not to pick Akron there. Get a chance to slip a 12 seed.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

I 100% agree. People forget that Akron was the preseason pick in the Mac. They've been better in the metric all year. They have higher Kenpon, they're higher in Torvik. They are objectively, they have been the best team in the Mac this season. And so the fact that they're you know an 11, or are they uh they're 12, right? Playing it, uh so they're I mean, they're lost to Purdue, Yale, who was a buzzer beater away from being in the tournament, Murray State, Rammy. And then they left to Troy. And Troy's Troy's in the tournament, Troy's sound. And Troy's legit. So yeah, I think I think Akron, Texas Tech will be uh a great first round matchup. Um so you you think the West is the toughest region. I'm gonna say that East, and it's odd because Duke is the number one overall seed.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

East gets the blue bloods, you know. You got Duke, you got Kansas, Michigan State, Yukon as the top four. So it is it is fun to see that.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

And I think the the biggest, like, if I had a gripe with the seeding, it'd be St. John's being a five. Oh right. They won the big east tournament, so that means two clips over Yukon, and they're a five seed.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

I would easily flip them in Kansas, don't you think? Not, I mean, they're gonna have to play each other quickly, potentially, anyways. Yeah, probably. But like Kansas, if if there's one four seed, that I would say kind of surprise me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Um they're desired.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

This is the problem with the um the metrics-based stuff, because Kansas plays all these games against really good teams. And they're I mean, yeah, like listen, Kansas has some great wins and they have some terrible losses. Bad, ugly, like no shows. So I mean, could I see Kansas in the Final Four? Totally. Could I see them losing to Cal Baptist? Totally. Yeah, like I have no.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Um D2 not that long ago. I mean, it's fairly recent their jump to D1. So that's pretty cool to see them already making the tourney.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

So you got UConn with a two-time national title winning coach. You've got Michigan State with a national title winning coach, you've got Bill Self in Kansas as a four, and you have Rick Patino at the five seed. That's why I think the East is the toughest. Like, I to me, those top five seeds are better than any other five seeds.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

I would be uh I think I'm a little I'm a little down, I'm a little down on Kansas. Michigan State, I don't know why they just don't strike fear into me. Maybe like usual Michigan State teams, maybe I'll be proven wrong. Um, I'm not picking against them early. I can't say. Um, in fact, you could easily make a case and they lead eight. I would say, yeah, UConn, absolutely tough matchup. Um gotta get there, but they don't I don't have many other teams that strike a ton of fear in me. Um no, I can totally see where you're coming from. Is Duke healthy?

SPEAKER_02 14:30

What do we know about Duke Patrick Gungba's gonna be back? So that helps him in the front court, but Caleb Foster, it sounds like he's done. And so you're relying on Caden Boozer to run the point. Um and you know, they were playing uh Harris Moore yesterday because they had to kind of, you know, and I listen, Duke's ninth guy is still pretty good, right? Yeah like they're but when you get into a game, I I'm like if St. John's gets by Kansas and plays Duke in the Sweet 16. I I don't know. The St.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

John's I I can't say that I've watched enough of them. Did they have a little more scoring this year? Because I do remember last year in the tourney. Man, they could outpace you, they could out hustle you. I don't know if they have enough scoring punch enough.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Yeah, did they got Bryce Hopkins from Powerman? So he's like the big offseason guy. Um I I don't know that they have more than they had last year. Like RJ Lewis was biggest player of the year, he was awesome. Um but what I can see if if let's just say St. John's and Duke matches up, St. John's is gonna just wear you out. And I don't without Caleb Foster, I think Duke struggle. And then what I've been worrying about all season with them is foul trouble between Boozer and Gangba. And if anybody's gonna get you in foul trouble, it's absolutely four. I mean, edge of four is a monster for for anybody. I just I don't know if if they were full of things.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

They do a great job, St. John's, getting you to play their style, and if they get you to play their style, you're in trouble, right? For sure. So it is it is a fun team in terms of you know really embracing the Patino style and not not a style that everybody plays, uh and can very very much bode well for a tournament style um uh program for sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Uh okay, let's go down to the south region. That's Florida. Florida gets the final number one seed. There was kind of some talk like, oh, is it gonna be Houston, Florida, or Yukon? They all lost yesterday. Florida stays as the number one, which they were going into yesterday, according to people who do stuff like this. I I never really care. Like, I don't really understand why people get so worked up at who's the 4-1 seeds, because yeah, now that they've lost twice in the last eight years, like if if you're Florida and Houston's the one and Florida's the two, does that make any difference? Other than you know, like if anything, Houston has the advantage because the region's in Houston.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah, I'm sure that's I'm sure that's why they did that as such, right? Houston probably being well, Purdue, yeah, Houston wouldn't be the top two seed, I don't think, but maybe. Uh I think they are they didn't afford because they wouldn't have they wouldn't have had Purdue on the two-line before the Big Ten tourneys, so possibly, yeah. Um yeah, that would make sense. Um Houston's tough, man. Another tourney tested team and amazing to watch. It is crazy to think that I've seen out Houston out Houston this year, one of which was Texas Tech, unfortunately, with JT Toppin no longer. Right. Um, but they have been more vulnerable, better guard play, I would argue, but more vulnerable down low um from their typical dominant on the boards and physical style.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Um yeah, this they're actually higher uh in adjusted offensive efficiency than they are defense.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

That's all Fleming, I would say, all day long, and then uh Flemings, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

And it's lack of um, you know, I would say like kind of when you're playing two freshmen a lot, like Sinak and Flemings, you're just gonna naturally have a little bit more laps, but they're they're still number five in defense. Uh they're just not uh you know top.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

They don't scare you as much. Um it's hard to it's crazy to think to say that as a number five defense team. We say that, but I guess that's how scary I would say they were in previous seasons. Never a team I would want to run into, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

No, no, they're they're awesome. I mean, they don't turn it over, they they force you into turnovers, they're really good on both ends of the court. Like that that's a team going into the year. I would say once you kind of saw Fleming's play a little bit, you're like, okay. You combine Samson's defensive uh you know education that he puts on those guys, and and you get in a a tournament situation, that's still I I mean, I'm gonna Fleming Fleming was the he was the ingredient they were missing.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Yes, you know, you put him on last year's team, yeah. Um I would say it's a hard argument between the South and the Midwest, though, for kind of the least sexy bracket, um glancing back and forth at them. Houston's lights out, um St. Mary's is a great team, Illinois, you know, quietly. I find them hard to believe in or love, and then you watch them and you see flashes where you're like wow, these guys are a matchup problem for so many people coming at you with so much size, uh so much scoring. Um and then other times they just don't seem to scare you. I don't I wouldn't be afraid of them defensively, um, playing against them, that is. Um you know what was their Achilles heel, you tell me maybe it was just that, maybe it was defense and lack of physicality. Illinois.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Yeah, I mean, I don't think they can't guard.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

They're it's the same as it has been for I mean, I'll so they're ranked 28th defensively in the Ken Pom. So there's seven overall Ken Pom, two offense, 28 defense. Yeah, you know, they them and Purdue 36. There's kind of the biggest fall off, either offense or defense in the Ken Pom, those two teams right there. That makes sense from what we saw all year, and thus they both have eight losses.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

The biggest thing is they don't they don't really like get you out of anything, other than having some size, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Like they don't force you, I don't think, in a lot of I'm shocked they're 28th, and maybe that is just because of their overall length. Um they're point guard, he's a gritty guy. Um Boswell. He's he is physical for a point guard and willing to do the dirty work. I don't see dirty work written over anybody else on that roster. Too European. I hate to say it.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

But yeah, well, they just flare every matchup they get on offense is usually like an advantage on offense, is it is a disadvantage on defense because they're just they're kind of slow.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Um Keaton Walker. I mean, they're long. It's it's hard to be quick when you're that long at the same time. Um, and if you don't have a big paint presence to kind of clean up the house, which I don't believe they do, do they? Yeah. Am I missing something there? You mean size on the inside? Big do they have a big rim running shot blocker, you know?

SPEAKER_02 22:03

I mean they got they got two guys over seven feet. Uh both the Ivisic brothers. Um the thing is, is like, I don't know, I I agree with you about like I don't trust them, but then I'm like looking back and I look at they had starting in uh set the February 7th, they lost to Michigan State in overtime. They lost to Wisconsin at home in overtime. Then they went to, then they lose to UCLA on the road in overtime. Then they lose to Michigan again. Whatever. Michigan's awesome, and then they lose to Wisconsin in overtime in the Big Ten tournament. So you're like, are they that far away? Yeah, or is the bad loss, right? Right, but they gave up 85 to Michigan State, 92 to Wisconsin, 95 to UCLA, who's UCLA shouldn't score 95 points, uh, 84 to Michigan, and 91 to Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

So I know those games are overtime, but like maybe play a game in the 70s and 60s and maybe maybe getting some matchup with other teams that just get the tourney jitters will help them. They might be able to shoot through that where other teams won't. You know they play first, though, right? Fran McCaffrey. Yeah. The uh I just saw some some kid put up 44 last second three to put it into overtime.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Played as a freshman at Duke, didn't get a lot of run. 6'9 shooting uh is it Tyler Power Tile type tie power, something like that. Chad Powers? Yeah, Chad Powers. He's reincarnated. He went through a little sky. Um, but okay, say fine, you win that game. Then you got North Carolina and VCU waiting. Um VCU, I feel like, is the kind of team that will make them extremely scattered. Um Carolina. Carolina has some size with uh their big guy down low. Um, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, Illinois, it's the same as it's the same as um Kansas. I could see them losing first round, I could see them getting to the final four somehow. Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of them.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Well, does Nebraska get their first ever tourney win? They better. We should, right? They better. If this ain't the year, I don't know, man. You're 26-6. You better. You know, I I hadn't known a ton about them, but I had, as I mentioned earlier, Vandy is one of my underrated teams. Um, they have a sophomore guard, but after that, five of their top seven are seniors. Yeah, well balanced. Not a ton of size, but enough. You know, it's hard to say that when everybody's six, seven, but they don't have too many monsters. Um, but very well balanced. I would I would like to think a little bit battle tested in the SEC. And obviously they put together a pretty good SEC tourney run. Um, and they had they started out the season 16-0, I want to say. Um you know, I don't recall a ton of bad losses. A lot of it was there in in the SEC. Um and I think hopefully they're hitting their stride just at the right time. And just I just see another veteran team um with all those seniors. So it would be cool to see Vandy put together a little bit of a run.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

So Vandy is 12th in Ken Palm and 10th in Torvick, which means they are underseeded according to those metrics. Um worst loss home against Oklahoma. Otherwise, every other line. Every team is a tournament team that they lost to besides them.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Yeah, you had SC or excuse me, Auburn and Oklahoma, the two highest Ken Pom-rated teams to not make the tourney, which Auburn was 17 and 16. Both both Auburn and Oklahoma highly highly rated offensively, but poor defensively. Um, which is interesting to see.

unknown 26:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Now if there's one there's one metric in Ken Pom that you geek out about and think, okay, it's it's a recipe to success. What would you what would you pinpoint as?

SPEAKER_02 26:21

Oh in for the tournament or just game by game? I would say for the tournament, what seems to play out. Well, it's so math-dependent. Like if you are if you don't right. So say you you have a lot of turn, you know, you have a higher turnover rate, like your 60th or 70th in turnover rate, and you're playing someone who forces the ton, that would be it. But otherwise, I mean, I always look at effective field goal percentage, offense, and defense, because however you get it done, some teams will force tough shots at the rim because they have a shot blocker. Other teams will, you know, just force you to take a ton of log twos, whatever it is. But um total those are the things I look at. But like so, you brought up Oklahoma and Auburn, right? Yep. And I I am so glad that they're not in. I feel like it would have been a travesty. So I'm kind of glad BCU won the A10 so they can get that automatic bid and St. Louis was going to be in regardless. But like, what are we so they're high in Ken Pom? Why are they high in Ken Pom? Because they lost to Florida and Texas and Kentucky and Arkansas and Tennessee again and Texas and they must put up points, which is kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

You know what? The SEC is filled with a lot of very offensive teams. Alabama being uh you know number one in that realm. Florida is nine. Florida is probably the one most balanced. Nine offensive ratings, six defense. You know, after that, Vany is seven offense, 31 defense. Arkansas, six offense, 48 defense. Tennessee is actually one of the few that's higher rank defense. I usually look at defense, to be honest, more often than not. I think it's a bigger tell. Obviously, when you get to turning time, you can rely on defense a lot more than you can offense. Um, hence somebody like a Houston that's just gritty. One team, this is, you know, uh referencing us back here to the South Bracket, Iowa. I would never guess. Iowa's the best um scoring defense team in the Big Ten. I never would have guessed that. Um new coach from Drake. Why am I blanking on his last name? Ben McCollum brought in brought in a whole new style from old Fran, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Um yeah, they they uh they kind of went the opposite route, other than that went shooting, but they play so slow. They're 357th in the country in tempo.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

That helps defense.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Yeah, it does. Shorten the game. Um but going back to like the the Auburn Oklahoma, like to me, I I've said this for so long, I'm so sick of it. If you're the ninth or tenth best team at a pit power conference, you've already proven to me that you're not one of the best teams in the country. Like, there is no way to really prove Miami is or isn't because they didn't get to play anybody because nobody could play them. So now you're gonna say, like, well, look at their metrics, look at their this, look at their that. It's like nobody would play them.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

I can almost the metrics metrics get watered down after playing the same teams after a while. You know, our our reliability isn't great. We don't we don't know, like you said, Miami of Ohio. Sadly, there's no incentive for teams to to play, you know, the non-power four exactly as it's set up, and they're getting, you know, with NIL and everything as it is, it's getting very dangerous of watering down this product. Um, so the tourney is the best uh sporting event in sports, and they have to keep the possibility of the Cinderella stories, all of those things. It's it's the pageantry of the tournament, and you cannot lose that. Um, you lose that, you know, it could just be conference tournament winners, and we go from there, and that's it.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

And that's what they want it to be, right? Like, that's the whole power.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Unfortunately, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Yeah, so that's what they're trying to do. But like at the end of the day, you have to win some games. So I don't care. Like, I use this site called breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

I want to see, I want to see winners, right? Yeah, I you know, I don't care who you are. If you win, I want to see you.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Um you look at wins above bubble, which maybe not everybody knows, but like the average bubble team, how many wins would they have against the bubble, you know, versus the other bubble teams? And and Miami wins that one, okay? Cool. Nobody really cares what that means. Guess what? Who is this one? Auburn is 7 and 15 in the first two quadrants. You didn't win any of the game, like you won a third of the games. I don't care that you have a high you know Ken Pop or what plenty of opportunities to play. It's 10 and 15, so they won a third or whatever it is, you know, they won uh 40, 40 of them.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Great job. I mean, the only asterisk I would put on any team is if they had some major injury at the beginning of the year, you know, and we didn't get to see you know their number one roster. Um but other than that, if we did, we we know who you are. Um go play in the NIT. Uh we've seen enough of you.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Yeah, I agree. Indiana, you know, they were on the even Ohio State, like, okay, they're what what are they nine and eight, nines? Like, they're fine. They're in. It's hard to get excited. I've seen them play. I know they're not that good. They're they're fine, whatever. But like, give me a break. Why do we get so worked up over these power conference teams getting it? Because they all want more money. Like, I get it. But good lord. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Yeah, it's a slippery slope if they go down that road too far and they'll damaging the unbelievable product they already have for sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

If they had held Miami out, I would have rioted. I think they know people would have rioted.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Absolutely. I mean, you gotta reward a team for doing what they did.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

Yeah. Well, and again, it's not their fault. No, no. It's like the Robin Williams in Goodwill Hunting. It's not your fault. That nobody would schedule you. It's not your fault they didn't pick up the phone. It's not your fault. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right, let's go over to the Midwest, talk about this quickly. Michigan, um, there's the top seed. Like you mentioned, Texas Tech Akron is a, you know, that's a classic 512. You got an injured Texas Tech team, but uh, that could be an interesting.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Texas Tech was interesting how good offensively they are. Um, it wasn't their defense completely leading the charge, which was interesting to me, even though they are scrappy for sure. Um, but I thought that was surprising just looking at their metrics.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Yeah, they just they're gonna miss. I mean, obviously they're gonna miss JT Tauppin, but like the biggest thing is just points that are on the rim. Like that Arizona game where they were at at in Tucson, and they could throw it to him down low, and he could just get a bucket. Like now you put so much pressure on your guards and your three-point shooting, um, that you know, yeah, maybe you win the game against Akron. Um, you know, I mean Texas Tech is still a very good team, but their top end was Final Four, and now it's probably if you get to the second weekend, it's a great tournament.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

That's that's a win, definitely. Is Virginia are they getting overlooked? Are they the quietest three seed out there? I would say so. Being out of the ACC.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

I love Virginia. I mean, I saw him in person. Uh oh, oh good for me. Um who is the current head coach at Virginia? Brian Odom from VCU. So he's his dad was Dave Odom. Okay. Is it very much full court press? It is. It's Shaka Smart style. Yep. And they're old. Like they got they got um, uh, what's his last name? Dalin. Um that he he played at BYU. Older older point guard. They got a bunch of old dudes, even their freshmen. De Ritter from Europe, from Belgium, is like 23 years old, so he's a freshman, but he's he's that was you know what?

SPEAKER_00 34:42

That was Vandy's point guard. He might be he's absolutely on his six year of eligibility. He had an injury somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Another one.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Uh no uh miles, Duke Miles old. Yeah, but it shows it helps big time, you know.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

That's Virginia yesterday against Duke. That was the Virginia team I thought I'd see the first time they played Duke when I got ran out of Cameron. Um, but they I mean they can shoot it, they have three or four guys that can shoot the ball.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Jacari White from So it's a new up tempo style, it's not the old school. Um it's not Tony Bennett, no.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

Tony Bennett 50 to 48 victories. Yeah. No, Virginia's legit. Uh Jacari White, 6'3 guard from uh played at NDSU. Um he's on that squad. He hit some big shots yesterday. So I mean, they've lost a Duke in North Carolina since January 1st, basically. So those are their two losses.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

I would love to see I'd love to see a Miami of Ohio, Virginia matchup, you know. Sorry to Tennessee fans, but I'd love to see that. Um I'd love to see St. Louis up against Michigan. I don't know that St. Louis truly has the physicality by any means, especially against a Michigan. But St. Louis is one of the best three-point shooting teams and a best uh opponent three-point field goal percentage teams in the country this year, albeit against lesser opponents um on a whole, but I would love to see them match up against a Big Ten team.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Um I want more Cleet and Abdul Jabbar. I want more St. Louis. Give me Robbie.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Absolutely, Robbie all day long. Absolutely. With the rec specs, yep, can't get enough of those. He is an amazing passing big man, and it's funny watching him kind of stumble down the floor but yet be so nimble all at the same time. Such soft hands. So he is uh unique, he is uh college basketball's less athletic Jokic, I would say. Can be physical and dominant all at the same time, but cannot jump a lick. Um, but it's such a great passing big man, and he does have an impact on defense, albeit not vertically. But he's a big enough boy um to be a presence. I sure hope Santa Clara beats Kentucky. I don't care to watch Kentucky, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Yeah, I mean injuries kind of, and they just like that$22 million roster everybody talks about, but like, you know, they're just yeah, they're just not fun to watch at this point.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Yeah. I remember Iowa State. Oh, I'm bouncing around, go for it.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

Uh early in the year, before the regular season started, Purdue did a scrimmage at Kentucky, and Kentucky kind of took it to them. Granted, scrimmage. Yeah, but like some of their freshmen, I was like, man, these guys are awesome. Like, I think they got something here, and it just never really materialized for Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

And like, I just you know a couple little spurts were started to come together, but right.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

No, but no, they're another classic case of like, yeah, every loss was bad, but at some point you got to string something together, you know. Like they beat Vany, Tennessee, Arkansas, and all these teams are highly ranked in Ken Pom, but you know, you just had what'd they have? 13 losses? Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

So mention Iowa State, another team that started hot. They beat St. John's early in the year. I forget about that victory, beat Purdue. Um, then started to get in the Big 12, lose to Kansas, lose to Cincinnati, lose to TCU. TCU's a little uh underrated, I would argue. Lose to BYU, Texas Tech, Arizona. A little, a couple, a couple uh get right games against Arizona State and Bobby Hurley. Um one of which put the nail on the coffin there that was probably coming anyways. Um so yeah, it's hard to it's hard when I was state's rolling, they look like a really fun team to watch. Um I am I would say watching their game against Arizona point guard lipsy, I think he's hurt. I don't think they're saying it. He looked like he pulled a groin, or he just got in a shot in an unfortunate area. But towards the end of the game, I was surprised they had him out there. It didn't look right. He went to the went to the tunnel for a little while, then brought him right back out, and he wasn't moving right.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

Yeah, um he's got a groin injury, you're 100% right.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

So here's what you do. You don't play.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

I don't know why they I don't know why they threw him back on the floor, but you don't play him the first game.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

You give them hopefully if they're the Friday, Sunday, then you get you could almost get a full week of rest for them. Um but the question is like, do you probably need them to beat Kentucky and Santa Clara?

SPEAKER_00 39:58

I mean Yeah, that one doesn't heal right. Yeah, not that fast.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

If you can wait a week and a half, that's ideal, but I don't know if if I think they might need them to win the second game.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

Um, depending, I guess. But um Nate Heisey, by the way, shouts Lake City uh for Iowa State, hit the huge dagger three in the corner to get the win over Houston at Hilton Coliseum this year. So talk more about some Minnesotans on rosters later uh in this in this podcast. Um that's a quick we went through I think every region. Um anything okay, we talked about which one we thought was the toughest. You went with the west, I went with the south. Um you went with the east? I went with the south. I went with Duke's region. Oh, yeah, the east. Um what about like seeds that you think were like, oh my god, I can't believe that they gave that seed to that team or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

I mean, North Carolina was a little bit of uh, I mean, maybe they should very well should be. Um there was just another one I was staring at. Tennessee. I don't know enough about Tennessee. Um but just it's maybe they're an under-the-radar six, but the fact that they're under the radar, I feel like speaks enough volumes. Um Louisville has a six. I I see they're ranked in the top 25 or headband and they're 23 and 10. I that's it's hard for me to get excited about that team.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

Um they're you know, and they're six seed.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

They're gonna be dependent on if they have Michael Brown Jr. He's been heard a lot. It sounds like he's gonna play. If he plays, they're pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

If he doesn't I think I think this is where seeding is overrated, and you see who they're playing, and they're kind of set up. You know what I'm saying? Sure, you're a six, but you gotta play South Florida. Yeah, looks like a pretty darn good 11th seed. Um you know, you you can see some of these teams maybe you know, St. John's, right? Disappointed to see them as a five. Like I said, they could probably just as well be the four.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Um I'm not saying they get the easiest draw being next to Duke and meeting them in the sweet sixteen, but they got a path to the sweet sixteen that's not bad for a five. Yeah. Probably the weakest four in Kansas, although albeit probably the most talented shocker, right? Um Nebraska as a four. I was maybe a little bit surprised by that because they had a lot of momentum early in the year and then just seemed to fall off for lack of a better term.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Remember, the committee doesn't care. Like this whole, like, you know, that that's another debate that we can have. Because I I do think it mattered. I think you're a different team in February than you are in November. So I don't like, which is how they justify these schedules, these power conference teams loading up on schedules, because they're like, well, the whole resume, we look at it from the beginning to the end, and it all means the same. It's like, but no, guys get hurt, teams change, teams evolve. Like, you can't really say that no. Oh, I I don't think. I mean, just knowing.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

I can understand, I can understand, like, okay, we go queue going back to Texas Tech just because JT Toppin is such a stud. How a guy like that ends up at New Mexico before a power four is beyond me. Um but you know, yeah, you don't want to take away from what they accomplished and not get a decent seed. Um they probably got action. For a reason, and we we know why. The Akron's definitely the best 12, I would say, on here pretty easily. Well, there's some good 12s. High point Northern Iowa.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

There are some really tricky 12s. There's a reason the 512 is a known issue, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Absolutely. Obviously, 6'11. Um, you know, for the little bit higher matchups, I think they said around 52% of 11 seeds have beat six seeds over the last 10 turneys. Um I'm not sure the statistics are. And well, you know, the play in the play-in teams are always an 11th seed, right? You know, 2011 VC VCU made it to the Final Four as a play-in. 2021 UCLA with uh Jaime or Jaime Jaquez, right? Um NC State made a good ways in one re recent years, and they're 11 play in the year they won the ACC tournament, got the auto. That's the only reason they were in, yeah. Yeah, so 11 seeds are real real bracket buster pain in the butt. Now, last year's bracket was super boring. Very much by the book. There were very few upsets, and you gotta wonder. I think all of us wondered if uh NIL was gonna lead to that uh and the Power 4 conference dominance. Um it does choke out a bit of the mid-majors. Uh, but you do have some you know, mid-major superpowers nowadays. Gonzaga obviously is one of them. I don't know what kind of money they have backing them, but I wouldn't count that there's a mid-major, they're not far from some good tech money out there in Washington State.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

So they operate like they operate like a high major. I mean, they're not Santa Clara, yeah, they're different. But um, so I I think this year, and I've been telling everybody that I talk to, like, I think this year's basketball on the court, you know, don't forget about the transfer portal and NIL and whatever qualms you have about that stuff. I think the court on court product has been the best I can remember it. The freshmen have been amazing. And now to what you were just saying about last year being pretty chalky, all the you know, no fun Cinderellas. I think this year we get back to that. I think there's I think so too. Lots of teams I can see winning. I think the middle, I think what's happened is the top is very good. Duke, Michigan, Arizona, even like Florida, Yukon, Houston, I put in that group.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

Yep, but that middle ground of like the you know the Iowa's and the TCU Wisconsin, I mean those guys are I think you're seeing the the mid-major draft of talent that is coming to them and it's coming to the right places, and sometimes it's major to major almost. Nick Boyd from San Diego State. Yeah, you I guess they would maybe consider it a little bit of a mid-major. Um uh, but guys like that coming to some of these these bigger schools and coming into their own and showing how talented they are. Absolutely. You know, I see more upsets in this year's tourney as well, I would have to imagine. Um and I I agree with you, some of these freshmen blow my mind. Um it's crazy. Uh oh, who's the Arizona kid? Burries that I'm missing Burries, so smooth. He's like Jamal Murray, dare I say, a young, um non-foul baiting um Shea Gilgis, uh, just his style of play to get into the paint and kind of know with pump fakes what to do, the spin moves. These guys, they all know these moves so effectively. Um, you know, how to use a screen, how to split a screen. Um, it's pretty amazing to watch as freshmen how tourney ready a lot of these guys look.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

Um, so it should be a lot of fun for sure.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

Yeah. Um, going back to I I had asked you about your seating, my mine is St. John's. I think that's I I think it's hard to justify that. Um to just, I think they're first of all, you win the Big East and you win the Big East regular season and tournament title. No other conference team, if they did that, would be a five season. There's just no way. And and okay, so they've had one loss since January 4th. Their other losses, every team's a tournament team except for Auburn. And, you know, they were debating. And at the time we thought they probably would be. But Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn, Kentucky, Providence. Those are your other five losses.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

So definitely little little disrespect to the Big East, huh?

SPEAKER_02 49:01

Totally. I 100%. Like it's not, you know, they scheduled Mississippi, they had Baylor. Um, it's not their fault, those teams weren't very good. And it's also not their fault that Creighton and Marquette and Call of Villanova. I mean, Villanova's in the tournament, but like a lot of the big east teams kind of weren't as good as they were expected to be. But they ran through it, they lost two conference games. Like, I I don't know. I'm shocked they're a five. I think they're gonna be pissed.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

I think Patino Yeah, you look you'd look at the metrics. Man, the Big East did not represent well. Um I'm I'm surprised actually, looking at this, how fast it falls off. You have Villanova in there.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

Um three teams in the tournament, but Marquette is usually a tournament team. They were not very Seton Hall was close, but couldn't close the deal. Creighton had the injury to McAndrew. You know, that Creighton got the win at Yukon, but other than that, it was pretty blah for Yukon or for Creighton, excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

Um I mean Syracuse very oh, Syracuse ACC, excuse me. Marquette, yes, butler. I know the old big thing. We can get Syracuse and Pitts Crew back at the big east. Oh, it should be. You know, we gotta write things. There's a couple, you know, another public service announcement I have, Steve. Oh Pepsi Mountain Dew, they need to bring back the NCAA teams under the bottle caps. Oh, you know, god that was we need fun marketing. Something this time, it could be a waggle hat, you know?

SPEAKER_02 50:34

Nothing quite as exciting as getting mounts.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

That was the coolest start. Oh, absolutely. You're gonna win it for sure. You know, one thing I did want you to know, Steve, Chandler Bing is playing next year's tourney.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

Bandy.

SPEAKER_00 50:48

That's gotta be the name of the right. Absolutely. His parents, his parents, you know, gotta love him.

SPEAKER_02 50:55

I thought I think I'm gonna give uh somebody's gonna come up with like some sort of chenander bond TV guide.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

I mean, dude, that I was trying to get away.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

He gets minutes too.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

So he had a key of our card yet today, or yep. Absolutely. I think he's awesome. Cool now. That's it's fantastic. I'm just you know, if we get a Ross Geller on uh like the guy or something, now we're set or a Joey.

SPEAKER_00 51:23

Sounds you know, Ross Geller's gotta be Ivy League, something of the sort.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

Joey Tribiani feels like a St. John's or Providence.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

Oh, yeah, he's gotta be OD, you know, at Villanova for sure. He's like Boston College, Steven Chenzi, you know, if they were any good, you know, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 51:43

Um wrapping out there. The other team that I was kind of surprised to see seated where they were, not to break up the friends, the friends' comments, but um NC State in the in the uh 11 first four in Dayton. Um I don't know. I guess I mean they haven't played well lately. They've lost a ton of a ton of games here, including games to Notre Dame and Stanford. But um, you know, I I don't I think going in, everyone kind of had these high expectations for NC State and we'll wait. And I was not one of them. I I just was like, I don't know. I mean, their roster is kind of just okay. They got Darion Williams from um Texas Tech, and they are the great buttons JT Tappa. Now now he's not playing alongside JT Tappet and Trey Holland.

SPEAKER_00 52:34

They're 34 in the Ken Palm, and they're 11 seed, so they're the highest seed, you could say, or highest number seed for the highest ranking Ken Palm. Um Wade, old coach Wade, what is his last name from LSU NC State, right? It's his first tourney team.

SPEAKER_02 52:55

Uh yeah, he's uh and McNeese State the last couple years, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:58

Oh, that's right. Uh and they've had continued success. Right. As we see. So yeah, it's fun to see some of the uh smaller school, mid-major teams um have sustained success in recent years as well. Um trying to think of a couple of the others now that have been high point, I believe. Has been to the tourney consistently a few years now. Utah State.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

Utah State's very good.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

Has been a pretty solid, consistent attorney team.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

Yeah, BCU, I would say, since we absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 53:38

All right, so let me ask you this. Let's let's talk about upsets. We've mentioned a few of them. If you had to pick one, I'm gonna put one of them in here that I can tell you you probably aren't a big fan of this one. But I got McNeese Bandy, I got McNeese is a possible, uh, BCU UNC, High Point, Wisconsin, South Florida Louisville, or Akron, Texas Tech.

SPEAKER_01 54:02

Which one would you pick?

SPEAKER_00 54:10

I would probably, boy. You know, part of me wanted to say High Point, even though um Wisconsin and Vandy two older backcourts, I wanna believe that's gonna win out. I can see what you're saying with McNeese. Um you know, I haven't watched Texas Tech enough without Toppin to to know. Um in I'm just gonna say Akron. I'm gonna stick with my guns. Yeah, I don't think. Um so when I stare at the most, stay strong. I I wanna believe the old backcourts are gonna to get it done. You know, they can't all be cold one night. Um I would think one of those guards has got to step up um for those teams and power them through. Let alone they'll have the size advantage.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

Um to your you said how they played without Toppin. So they they win three in a row without him. Um right? No. Yeah, they lose. I think you could be right. Yeah, so they beat Arizona in overtime. Then the next night they play, or a couple nights later, they play Arizona State and lose, and he goes down in that game. Then they went three in a row, including at Iowa State and at Cincinnati, and then they lose three in a row of cents. They lose TCU, BYU, and then Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament, which wasn't competitive in that game, but Iowa State looks to me like they're having trouble scoring, which is interesting.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

Um, just a bit here. Yeah. Um right, and that I mean, 21.8 points a game, a lot of easy buckets, opens things up for a lot of other people. Um you know, they were averaging 80 points a game. Um, surprisingly, rebounds, they were not the greatest. Um either.

SPEAKER_02 56:10

My buddy Nick, my buddy Nick, who I play hoops with on Saturdays, big St. John's fans, he says, make it make sense that St. John's is a five and Yukon is a two. I don't know how to do it, so I'm I'm asking you.

SPEAKER_00 56:28

Let's look at the total body of work as they say. Well, yeah, UConn 28.

SPEAKER_01 56:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

St. John's 28 and 6. All right. Let's do some deep diving, huh?

SPEAKER_02 56:39

What's a deep diving? I'm pulling up, I'm resume comparison uh comparing here, uh, Nick. So hang tight here. I'm gonna pull this up. This is my go-to, uh, bracketologist.com. Here's here's a resume. Net Yukon 10, St. John's 15. So right there, Ken Palm 11, St. John's 17. So to me, they should be like maybe a two or and a three or two and a four at the worst. Um, strength of record, strength of schedule. You know, they're not far behind, winds above bubble, it's four and seventeen. Um, quad one and two. Let's combine those. 18 and 4 for Yukon, 16 and 5 for St. John's. They each have a quad three loss. I don't know, man. St. John's St.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

John's has been on a heater. Um, they lost to Providence back in trying to find the date. January 3rd.

SPEAKER_02 57:38

Yeah, I said they had they've lost once since then.

SPEAKER_00 57:42

One game. No, they beat Yukon K at home.

SPEAKER_02 57:47

And yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

They lost to Yukon by 32 shortly thereafter. And they beat Nova, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, Seton Hall, beat UConn again.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

They ran the table outside of the Yukon loss.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

They got on a heater. Okay, did they get on a heater because it was in the Big East? Part of it looks like that. They lost to Auburn, they lost to Kentucky, um, Iowa State, and Alabama.

SPEAKER_02 58:11

The Auburn, Kentucky, yeah, you know, it's early on stuff, but again, six losses. I mean, Purdue's got seven and they're a two-seat. I I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Yukon lost to Arizona. This is where the records are deceiving, I would say. They lost to St. John's, um, lost to Creighton by seven, lost to Marquette by six. At home, they lost to Creighton at home.

SPEAKER_02 58:39

They lost to Marquette, who's not. I mean, okay, let's say Yukon. At St. John's full body of work. Yes, you can say Yukon should be higher than St. John's. St. John should not be a five. At worst, they should be a four.

SPEAKER_00 58:53

And this is where too, I would say the seating is deceiving, right? We see the numbers in front of them, and we kind of uh place too much value on that. Um, but at the same time.

unknown 59:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:08

They got the number one overall number one though, too, Duke, right? Right. So you're you're probably like, you know. And you have okay, so did they get the shaft? Absolutely, they got the shaft. I wouldn't I wouldn't be opposed to uh Wisconsin being the five over there with Duke, right? St. John's. I mean, I don't know if that's a great I mean pick a poison with a one, but maybe they deserve the Florida one, right?

SPEAKER_02 59:35

Um if you're a five. Here's the best way I can I can imagine this right now is Texas Tech has lost its best player, right? Uh Texas Tech is 22 and 10.

unknown 59:52

St.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

John's has six losses, and they're the same seat. So like I don't I don't know how the committee can kind of look and they won the Big Ten or Big East regular show at the title.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

Like I think uh they're they're getting definitely the shaft for straight up just being in the Big East. How they're rated five from Yukon, Bukon's body of work maybe looks slightly better, and uh the committee's probably afraid of Coach Hurley. He's gonna get up on them, it's gonna get physical with them.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:25

Yeah, well, I don't think it's like one or the other. Like I can I you can easily say UConn could be a higher seed, but like a five seems ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

Absolutely, you know, you St. John's is the best five. How you put them in that bracket, though, I that doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah, especially when you look at the other fives. Like again, yeah. I like Vandy, I like Wisconsin. You know, they're clearly favoring the Big Ten and the SEC over the Big East. I would do the same, but not at St. John's expense. Um I wouldn't say. Um, but that's definitely what you're getting here. I mean, we gotta crank up you know, Big East, but it's gotta matter again. You know? Yeah, we gotta they gotta do some lobbying out there.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:10

Well, what's funny about the big east too is like you know losing like those rivalries, those those teams in your region, like the Syracuse we were talking about earlier, Syracuse and Pittsburgh, like that's the big East, man. Like what when you when you remove some of that stuff, like those teams have suffered since they've left, and the league suffers. And now Villanova's had great, obviously, a great silly. They've won. I mean, they're awesome. They they have a great tradition, they'll get back. Kevin Willard's gonna get them back. But and I I I fully think McDermott and Creighton obviously have had great runs too. So it's probably just it happened to be this year where Marquette was bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:51

Um, you your fringe schools as well. Butler has been a long time of just really 500-ish type of basketball, probably ever since they they got heavy in the Big East, unfortunately for them. Um, yeah, I mean, they they can just use a little shot in the arm. They're not far away from having Villanova running the show here with Jay Wright. Um, and now they've had a heck of a run with UConn. So they're not irrelevant by any means. Um, they definitely just they don't get the national publicity uh the of the Big Ten and then the SEC thereafter, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:30

For the record, I love the Big East, like I love the gritty tough.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:34

It's basketball through and through Madison Square Garden.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:38

Yeah. Um even like as ugly as that scene got in Providence the night uh Bryce Hopkins played back up there with St. John's, and there was all you know that hard foul that was terrible, all that. But like I mean, you kind of expect that out of Providence, but like it's it's a little new crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:56

It it it it feels like it means more out there. Um, so I do love that. I mean, these are basketball schools, yeah, right? Um all the way, yeah. So yeah, it is pretty cool to see.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:11

We got way off track. We were talking about upset earlier. Um that's what you want to list some other potential upsets. Uh well, you you picked uh actor and over Texas Tech. Yeah. Um, I think I know it's 11-6, and you brought up the stat that over half of those uh 11s have won. I think I'm gonna go with South Florida, even if Mikhail Brown Jr.'s back, there's some you know cohesiveness that needs to come from playing, and and South Florida, I think, has that. Louisville doesn't. Louisville's been kind of just meh for a lot of the year. Um Javon Hadley, Krieg Durham Hallgrad, very, very good player for Louisville. But um, you know, I just I don't they're okay. Like, yeah, you know, if Mikhail Brown's not awesome, I don't think that they scare anybody. Their bigs aren't great. Um, McNeely can shoot it, and Conwell can shoot it. Hadley does a lot of dirty work, but I don't think that's enough to beat a South Florida team that I think is good. Like they're 47th in Ken Pom. Like they're not they're not joke. So um, you know, I I I think they I think they might get them. Plus, they play super fast. Um they rebound the, you know, they get after the offensive last. So I just I don't know. If I had to pick one, if I had to pick one, I'd probably pick South Florida uh over Louisville.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:36

Uh I I don't see a lot of you know, Santa Clara as a 10 over Kentucky. I could see that. I don't I don't see a lot of other tens that I'm very excited about. Um Missouri, Miami, I'd like to see Miami move on. Um UCLA, UCF, UCF, UCF is a borderline surprise, maybe that they made the tourney. Um not the greatest defensively. They started the year well and they fell off.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:05

Well, they got they got the big wins in conference, though. They got they got a couple of monster wins over um they beat Kansas, they beat Texas Tech, they beat BYU. So, I mean they got a couple of those that they needed to get. Um most of those were early, right? Well, BYU was two weeks ago or three weeks ago. Um they lose to Vandy early. Let's see. I don't know, maybe they can they finished the regular season losing to Baylor, Oklahoma State, West Virginia. And again, this is this goes back to my rant earlier about one eleven, one oh four versus Oklahoma State.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

Yeah. This is not the best defensive team.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:47

These middle of the road power conference teams I've seen enough. Like uh that's great that you see off send. Good for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:54

Whatever. But you're not you know you're just that ninety seven eighty four victory over BYU. That's I think that shows BYU's Achilles heel. They've been a high-flying team, BYU, for a number of years now, but definitely leave a lot to be desired on the defensive end. I don't know if it's against the Mormon religion to play defense.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

Yeah, I don't know either. Like you're just not gonna go very far if you can't play a little defense.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:19

I mean they usually can shoot the lights out in our fun style of basketball. Uh absolutely, but man, it gets tough during tourney time. Um they would be a fun matchup against Zonzaga. Uh and then we'll see from there. You know, that I don't know how Miami, if they're a little more gritty or not. Um Miami's pretty looks pretty decent defensively and offensively, pretty even.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:47

Um I mean, that's a first year head coach in Miami, Jay Lucas from Duke. Uh he was an assistant. I mean, that that's a pretty damn good job to come into absolutely and go 25 and 8. I mean, he got Malik Renew uh transferred from Indiana, and that's helped, obviously. He was a pretty solid player. Not but he wasn't like yeah, you know, I mean, he was he was fine. Um, so that helps, but yeah, they just uh you know him and Trey Donaldson. I got a couple seniors, so spent their money right.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:18

Yeah, that's what you're telling me.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:20

Yeah, so um good for them. You know, that that run they uh, you know, Jim Lair and Agat had some good teams there.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:27

And absolutely, yeah, they made a great run last year.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:30

I remember uh Loyola knocked them out. That was you know a big surprise. Miami had a good team, so yeah, they did a solid program. Yeah, let's see what else we got. Oh, I was gonna just bring up a couple names. Uh Minnesotans playing. Uh obviously Wisconsin's got four of them, so that's this is a this is a Minnesota focused podcast. So uh well, I wanted to make sure we did this. Andy Stefanowitz, Minnetonka native playing for NDSU, starting point guard, um, really reliable. Another plug to listen to my podcast with uh Dave Richman, head coach at NDSU. We talk about Andy and his what he's meant to that team. Um Nasir Whitlock, DLC product, uh Mr. Basketball in Minnesota a couple years ago, starts uh point guard for Lehigh. Actually, you know, hit a half-court shot to get them into the semi. So they were close to not even the game was tied. I mean, it's not like they would have lost, but um that's he he's a bucket, and I don't know if you've seen him play not real big. Uh he he dropped, I'm pretty sure he had 20 against Houston earlier this year. So Nazir Whitlock. Yeah, exactly. Like though they're big guards, like Uzan and Sharp were guarding them, and he was still making shots. So like watch watch Nazir Whitlock uh if you get a chance to watch Lehigh. They have they if they're in a play-in game. Uh so if they win, they get Florida. So that'll be an interesting uh matchup there. But uh other guys, Nate Heisey, I mentioned at Iowa State, Trey Holliman playing at NC State, again, another Cretand Durham Hall product uh to go with Javon Hadley at Louisville. So those two actually, Hadley was a senior, Holliman was a junior, COVID hits, they don't get to play in the state tournament. That team was pretty damn good. Uh they had a they had a good chance, and then um the other one, uh yeah, Heise, I mentioned already. So there's a few more. I think all in all, I counted 18 high school, uh Minnesota high school players. Um Caleb Schoenrock, another uh player at NDSU from St. Francis. Chase Thompson, fresh from from Alexandria, playing at Clemson. Clemson. Um who else we got here? Mercy Miller. I I count him Master P's kid. He played at Baja for a couple years with Jaleb Chet, um, but then he transferred out after that. I don't know why. You'd think he would, I'm sure he loved Minnesota. Um at Houston. Get more minutes this year.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:06

He couldn't get any run here, you know, too much talent. Too much talent.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

Uh sure. And then uh let's see. Those are the big names. There's more, uh, some guys that don't play a lot, but did you mention Braden Carrington, of course, former gopher now with Wisconsin? I just mentioned all the Wisconsin guys because they're half the roster, it seems like. But Wilson. Northern Iowa? Northern Iowa, Cheddar at Michigan. Cheddar at Michigan. Uh-huh. Uh Jalen Wilson from Benelda's at Iowa or Northern Iowa, but he doesn't play a ton.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:35

So I'm trying to. I feel like there was maybe another any Minnesota kids on the Iowa State roster, they recruit well up here. That's pretty sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:45

I think the Lake City kid, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:47

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:49

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Oh, and Nolan Groves, a Texas tech, too. Also does a play. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:56

He had played a little more in the in the early part of the season, did he not?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:00

Yeah. He got a freshman record for rebounds in the game.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:04

And then hardly puts 6'5 or so, you know. That's uh the heck the coach there is intense. Maybe he got on the wrong side of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:14

Well, you know, uh Shooter's freshman. Shooter over at the Pioneer Press is telling people that he thinks Groves might end up at Minnesota. We'll take him. We'll take him. Absolutely. I don't know, man. It's pretty hard to turn down chances to compete for Big 12 titles. And yeah. That's what people don't get.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:32

Like, you know, Nico's Nico's got us going on the right track. Texas. The unfortunate thing is the kind of money in Texas is something else at all those schools. Texas, Texas, AM, Texas. I mean, they are throwing around money um to another level, to say the least. And it shows in every every sport for sure, not just football, it shows in basketball as well. Yeah. Um you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:00

I mean, Texas, Texas Tech, and Texas AM more and SMU. SMU's in that playing game against Miami. So they all those Texas schools. But Miami, I've been defending them. I defend the mid-majors. I love mid-majors. I want more mid-majors in March Madness. Um I will say, like, if if you're Travis Steele and you're Miami, you go, you lose your one game all year, and you you complain about nobody wanting to play you. Now's your chance. If you show up and you get stomped by SMU, people are gonna say, see, they played nobody. But if you go out and you win that game, you you know, you you provide more ammunition. Yeah, and for people to say, like, see, these mid-major teams are good, they deserve a chance, at least a fair shake against you know, the NCAA and the power conference teams all want more money, they want more teams in, so they get more bigger slice of the pie.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:58

But I think watching uh I mean watching enough high school basketball, youth basketball, um, these kids in every sport they play so much nowadays, their talent is undeniable. Um, you know, the time that they put in, uh, it shows. And so, man, when you really only got eight guys on a roster, there's there's more than what do we got? 15 to 18 teams times four, you know, 70-some teams times eight, 560 kids. There's more than that many talented um kids uh floating around out there that can play D1 basketball. And it's showing here, you know, when you do get some of these fun matchups of the smaller mid-majors, a Lehigh versus a Houston or whatnot, and you see it get to see a kid like Whitlock Flash, yeah, and you're wondering how did that kid end up there? You know, how did anybody miss him? But there's that many good players, and there's only so many roster spots, and that's what the amazing thing with the transfer portal, you know, making a little bit more of a revolving door, but other than that, you're maybe handing out two, three scholarships a year at best. You know, you you'd love to hand out more, but you just only have so much playing time.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:19

And now a lot of these guys are smart enough to say I'm gonna bet on myself and go somewhere smaller and get paid eventually, right? Like they'll they'll say, Hey, I'm I'm willing to go for a year to whatever school. I mean, you see it in the Summit League, you see Andrew Roadie in St. Thomas goes to Virginia, gets paid. You see uh the kid I talked about earlier, Jakari White from NDSU. Not that he was maybe looking, but like you have a good season at NDSU and you score 15 points a game, Virginia comes calling and says, Hey, I'll give you half a million dollars to come play for us. Like, of course you're gonna do that. It's kind of minor league basketball at this point, and a lot of these kids are saying, Hey, if I'm not gonna start, if I'm not gonna play big minutes right away, I'm gonna go somewhere smaller. So that was I've I've talked to when I talked to Richmond, uh again, shameless plug, listen to that tomorrow. Yeah, uh, I will I asked him about the transfer portal and recruiting at NDSU and how it affects him. He's like, I'm not gonna do, you know, worry about that because I think it does go both ways, right? Like there are guys that maybe could be, they might have been a 11th guy on a Big Ten roster, but at NDSU you can go play for two years and crush it.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:32

It's gonna be complete stud.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:34

Yeah, and so it's it's working out for them.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:36

So we've seen what happened with Cade Tyson. I mean, that blows my mind that he's not getting any minutes at North Carolina and he's you know all Big Ten player for even though he didn't make the all Big Ten teams. But when you have 18 teams and they only pick 15 guys, you know, it's pretty wild. Let's be honest.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:53

If the Copers don't if they don't lose their three of their starters to injuries, oh and they're 11 at 9 in the Big Ten, he's he's on at least a third team, all Big Ten or second team.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:04

Absolutely. They they're probably borderline tourney team for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:07

100% they would have been. I mean it I I think I mentioned this like after they uh lost the Big Ten tournament this week. I I talked about how essentially, you know, you lose Chauncey Willis and Viola right before the the Thanksgiving tournament, and then they lose like three in a row to San Francisco, Santa Clara, and um Stanford. If you win two out of those three, and then you add two more ten wins, you know, yeah, you're you're yeah, the San Francisco one really hurts.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:37

Stanford wasn't too bad of a team, and obviously Santa Clara is a turning team, so they looked bad at the time. Um that little West Coast swing, but turns out it really wasn't that bad. Um and we were just kind of coming into our own. So it was amazing what they did. Um, you know, with the six iron men, um, they were fun to watch, no matter what. They moved the ball so well, you know. They're they are what I you know opine for in uh watching basketball. They made offense look easy, they made it look like you're at an advantage having the ball. Um far too many teams, it's just too many ball screens, and it looks hard to score, and it shouldn't shouldn't be that way. Um, so kudos to Coach Medved. Um, and you know, and kind of getting back to these mid-major coaches, credit to them um for churning the rosters the way they do, going to find these kids um that for whatever reason undersized, small school, um you know, overlooked on their own high school roster, with the amount of talent that some of these high school programs put out, um you know, they're they're finding kids and plugging them into a program, and you see the identities of these coaches in these programs, even at the lower levels. And now now the you know, power for athletic directors are realizing uh unfortunately for the smaller schools that these guys can coach. You know, um, wouldn't you know the guys having the most success are the guys that are just winners everywhere. We saw it in football with Signeti. Uh we're seeing it regularly in basketball now. Um you know, the guys without experience, you know, uh assistant coach here, assistant coach there. You know, they tend to, you know, kind of like first-round quarterbacks that haven't played a lot. Ooh. Yep. They need a little more seasoning. Um these coaches that win, shocker, they can win at any level.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:45

So 100%.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:47

All right, man. Well, uh, this was fun. I think we got everything we need to get covered. Um, again, I'll just plug Thursday back channel brewing. Um, if you're listening, feel free to stop by. We'll be giving away some swag. We'll be talking the first round of the tournament. March uh Madness starts officially, I guess, Tuesday with the first four in Dayton, Tuesday, Wednesday, but Thursday's the big day. We'll be out at back channel in Spring Park on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. And um also, like I said, I got that podcast coming out with Dave Richmond, head coach at NDSU. So, Eric, any any function? Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:25

Yeah, it's gonna be a fun tournament, best time of the year. Uh, then after the tourney, Steve, future episode, as I mentioned to you off air, um, start the debate. Best Minnesota high school team of all time.

unknown 1:19:38

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:39

You remember my vote. You remember my vote. 2000, early 2000s, 2001, Litchfield Carlson Brothers, and all the other brothers. Eric's a big fan of the Carlsburg. One of mine, I was blown away by them. But uh, you know, we talked, was it 2009 Hopkins, Royce White led, Marcus Williams, Minneapolis North. Yep. Would have some arguments there, but I think that could be a fun one. We could hear it from all corners of the state. That's a great idea. See some of the arguments.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:07

I'll get a I'll get a historian on. We'll we'll break it down. That sounds like uh in-person, like full.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:12

There's gonna be there's gotta be somebody good for this.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:15

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Great idea, man. Well, thanks for appreciate you having me. Thanks for jumping on. Sorry we couldn't do it in person. Uh, were you did you blow your snow? Did you get it plowed, or do you just shovel?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:26

Oh, yeah. My neighbor works for Polaris, so uh, you know, he gets to play with his toys.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:30

So it works out well. Nice. This was a bad time to have your snowblower go out. Like the last snow we had, mine went out, and I was like, you know what? We might be okay. We might be able to get through this winter. Should have known better.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:44

Yeah, I packed my shovels away. Shame on me. I had one little one in the garage. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:49

Thankfully, I got a couple boys that came out and helped for about 15 minutes, but that's the way to go. Well, sorry if we couldn't do it in person, but thanks for jumping on.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:58

Thanks for anybody listening, watching. Uh, Nick, thanks for the questions on St. John's. I know, I know you're you're upset. Hopefully they can get they can get through the first round and get to Kansas and show everyone what's up.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:09

But retribution.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:11

Thanks for joining, Eric. This was awesome. Uh let's stay at the end. Appreciate it. Uh oh, you know what? I I gotta ask you, what are you doing on Thursday? I might have to make it down.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:20

I'll have to look at the schedule. Okay, you don't have to make it over there.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:24

Bark a lounger, you don't watch at home. What do you usually do?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:27

Oh man, you know, I have many TVs going, so I can't, you know, make sure I got one in the garage. If I gotta sneak out there, a couple in the basement, wherever I need to have, I need to sneak it in, right? You're seeing all the kids shows. Well, maybe maybe sneak down. If I can make it down, I'll be there. Absolutely. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:46

All right, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:47

Big bad, have a good one. You too.