Live March Madness Show: Wisconsin is upset, Duke nearly falls & conversations about March Madness experiences

Host Steve Hartman takes the Splash City Basketball Podcast on the road for a live broadcast from Back Channel Brewing on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. It’s opening day of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, and the madness is already in full swing as the crew reacts in real-time to a massive 12-5 upset with High Point taking down Wisconsin.

In this episode, Steve is joined by a rotating cast of guests—including friends Tate & Matt —to break down the first-round action, Vegas odds, 1st round weekend experiences and much more.

Highlights include:

• The Badgers are Shocked: A deep dive into how High Point managed to outlast the Badgers in an 83-82 thriller.
• The "Vegas Grind": Guest Tate Schoenbauer shares nostalgic stories of navigating the pre-mobile betting era in Las Vegas, from waiting in 9:00 AM sportsbook lines to the evolution of the "second weekend" experience.
• NIL and the Death of the Cinderella: The crew discusses whether the transfer portal and NIL money are making top seeds more dominant, or if mid-majors are actually benefiting from "trickle-down basketball" talent.
• Tournament Favorites: Early impressions of Arkansas and Michigan State’s dominance, Duke’s narrow escape, and why VCU might be the next team to bust your bracket.
• All-Tournament Names: From Chandler Bing to Boopy Miller to Jomo Goings, a look at the best names in the 2026 field.

Whether you’re tracking your bracket at a food truck or scouting the next NBA draft pick you'll want to listen to this fun, lively episode! 

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube. 

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Alright, now I think we're live. Now we're good. We got Jack and Silas. A topic right now. How did it happen?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Um, I think that it was pretty close. You know, at like the start, yeah. Wisconsin had a nine-point lead, but High Point just kind of took control of it.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

I think I think uh the game between Wisconsin and High Point, it was close during the thing. I don't think Wisconsin was uh like really like trying their hardest on defense. I feel like they didn't give out the full energy that they needed. But during the end, I feel like High Point gave out more energy and they uh took out the W. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yep. Uh I thought at the end there, they kind of just threw the ball away, you know. That guy was like double teamed, they just chunked it up. At least try to get a shot off, you know?

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Yeah, didn't work out.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Nah.

SPEAKER_04 0:57

Wisconsin goes down 8382. Uh big last there. Duke was in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Oh, yeah, I thought I thought Duke was in trouble.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

But they were down like 11.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

It was 11. At half they were down 11. The two the two boozers cooked.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

They sure did. Uh they needed it every minute of it though. They needed every minute of it. So we are live here at Bat Channel brewing. Um got a nice cohort here. We got a nice group of people. Come on out. They got all the cold beer you can have, food trucks here. Uh some food, so we're gonna go do that right now. Uh, it's a compressed atmosphere. Beautiful day out here. Oh yeah. Yeah. You scootered here. What'd you take a nap?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Uh pretty wet. Just dry it up. Yeah, just from the snow.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

Okay, well, that'll happen. Oh yeah. That'll happen. Yep. Alright, so right now we got uh Arkansas up 8160, Michigan State up 25 on North Dakota State. Uh I'm gonna do my shameless plug of the uh NDSU coach interview I did last week with Dave Richman talking about his team. Struggling a little bit today. Michigan State's athleticism, definitely a problem for NDSU. Um getting out in transition too much, but um still bison get a uh tournament hit for the sixth time in program history. Um Silas, what do you think about uh Darius A. Cuff Jr. in Arkansas?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Um, I feel like Darius A. Cuff Jr. is one of their uh most like valuable players other than uh Thomas.

SPEAKER_04 2:45

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

He's been like very reliable on the shots.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

So yeah, very reliable. Uh we will pick in the NBA draft most likely next year. Um Jerry's Acuff's been phenomenal for uh Arkansas. They're not gonna get upset today. They're looking pretty good. Um tipping out here in about 40 minutes, which I'm really excited about. I think BCU is gonna pull the upside on that one. Yes. Um I like BCU. So thanks a lot, man. We're gonna have to get um owner of back channel Josh in here at some point to talk to him for a minute uh as we go. A lot of topics to cover. We're gonna cover a little bit on the um early games. We'll talk more later about uh first round experiences. Anytime uh, you know, I got a buddy who's going to do a lot of first, second round games. Um we're gonna talk a little bit about uh some of the line movements we've seen today and uh Vegas experiences, uh which is always fun. Uh to talk about going out to Vegas for March Manus, which is a whole another experience if you haven't been there. Um super fun time. Um so we're gonna we're covering a lot of ground today. Um I got a list of topics we're gonna hit on, uh including some of the best names in the NCAA tournament. Um outstanding names going. Um Boopy Miller goes down last night with SMU. That was Heartbreaker for Boopy Miller and SMU. One of the best names. We got a whole list of those as well. Um so we got a crew here. We're gonna do a quick span of the camera so everybody can see what's going on here at Back Channel. We got we got folks left and right, spilling in. We got the E name game starting the violence, so come on out, back channel. Uh super fun uh atmosphere. So Splash City Basketball Podcast, the name of the podcast, came from Vienna, Minnesota, landed 10,000 lakes, of course. Um back channel on the shores of one of those lakes, Lake Minnetaka. So super fun there. Um, NDSU playing right now, like I said, against Michigan State. Um, Andy Stefanowitz, local kid from Minnetaka, playing for the Bison, second year player, sophomore, won a state title at Minnetonka, and um starting point guard for them. It really kind of sets the tone for the bison this year. Um again, tough, tough night here against Michigan State. Sometimes Michigan State, you know, they're not the most athletic in the front court, so you're kind of curious to see how that matches up with a mid-major, but uh they definitely uh on the wing with Colin Carr. Jeremy Fears is kind of picking them apart a little bit here, so um yeah, it's uh it's a great experience for Son of us and uh and the Bison, so they can get three. We got the lead down, we gotta delete it. Seventeen now, seventeen is a leader. Alright, I'm gonna bring on my buddy today. We're gonna talk a little bit about some of the things we're as we go through the racket and some of that really line, some of the others come on over. Is it a room? Alright, what are we first of all, what are we drinking? So, um, you and I were texting Tate and Tate Schaumauer. Buddy, we've got to be a big thing. How's my volume?

SPEAKER_07 6:40

Am I good?

SPEAKER_04 6:42

Okay. I gotcha. Um let's talk. Let's talk about first of all, the Vegas experience in March Vegas. What is your you know, if you were you're a big second weekend guy, sorry. You're a big second weekend guy a little quieter.

SPEAKER_07 7:04

If you've never done the first weekend, you should definitely do the first weekend. And now that there's mobile bedding, I'm sure it's much better. My first couple experiences, it was very long lines at legitimate bedding windows.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

You're walking up at 9 a.m. flying all the books. Like that was a crime.

SPEAKER_07 7:33

Yeah, it was real, and so then the way around that was to reserve spaces at the different casinos. And if you went to the right places, they would set up their own kind of like mini booths just for you. So that was always the trick. My favorite one was at the flamingo. I don't remember how much it cost, but this was also this is how old I have. This was before all the games were on TV, like it is now. So they would set up these like mini stations where they would have the regional CBS broadcasts on on these like TVs in your little like space, and then you'd have a couple of like individual betting stations that you could use. And that would they they would cut in with games that they changed, or would they well because like if you remember back in the day, you would get whatever like CBS Midwest wanted to play, so that they usually would lean towards like a Big Ten matchup or something, where you know the game that starts 45 minutes later might have West Coast implications, so then they could have like the West Coast affiliate. Yep. Uh so it was still like multi-screen, but no nowhere near what it's like now. So now that you can bet on your phone, I'm sure the first weekend is super fun. And if like I say if you've never experienced it, I think you should, but after doing it a few times and especially that way, the second weekend was much more chill and a little easier.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

My favorite, one of my favorite memories was uh Kentucky, Indiana, Sweet 16, half the crowd in red, half the crowd in blue, and it's just every shot, it's cheers, it's people rolling nuts, super fun. Um, so you and I were texting earlier today about the four seeds, double-digit favorites, in every four, three, two, and one. And that I don't know if that was the first time, but it's for sure been a while.

SPEAKER_07 9:53

I think it's been quite a while that it was all four top seeds in every region were favored by ten or more.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

Yeah. And the discussion was is that NIL? Is that just how it is? Is it just the big teams getting more powerful, more talent?

SPEAKER_07 10:12

Um I think it's 100%, well not 100%. It's a lot of it is NIL.

SPEAKER_04 10:18

Yeah. And I I mean I after last year they had all one seeds in the final form. So everyone's like, it's Cinderella dead. Like, will we ever see another BCU or George Mason run to the championship? And I think this year we've already seen Wisconsin go down.

unknown 10:35

Right.

SPEAKER_04 10:35

Um, and you know, Sienna's pushing Duke, and we've had one seed win in the past, but one of the things that I I thought was that a lot of one seeds lost their conference tournaments. And so you're playing, like Lehigh was first born, they're a 16 seed, maybe, maybe they're a 15 or 14, uh, Liberty lost in the conference USA tournament, they would have been a higher seed, probably. Um you get a lot of these conference tournaments, which is I think why they brought the conference regular season champion to almost get to the satellite, no matter what. So they get the best representation in their conference versus you get like um who was it, the sixth seed uh in the conference USA, right? Right? Um so then you get them and not as maybe capable of pushing somebody. That's maybe why the spread's really high, but I think you're right.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

NIL I'm sure has a lot to do with it.

SPEAKER_07 11:35

I think some of it too is there's so much sports gambling now available, what is it like 39 states or something have it now that I think some of it is to see where the action comes to. Oh, sure. Like I if you that was my initial reaction when I saw all that was like, wow, Vegas slash sportsbooks do not like these low seeds. But then watching over less than 24 hours the swings of some of those lines move. Yeah, I think some of that might have had to play into it as well. It's just maybe some of some of it is let's see how much action we get, and then that'll tell us what to do from there.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

So that could be.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Um I think the some of the mid-major teams, you know, people are saying are they at a disadvantage? But then you see teams like Miami, who wins last night in the first four. Uh St. Louis is a great team. You know, now the West Coast they used to be uh Justin Gonzaga. Now you got St. Mary's and Santa Clara, that's a three-bid league. Uh 8-10 is a two-bid league. So I I don't know. I was talking to uh Grant Seamus Plug, NDSU coach, about it. And he said, you know, it's like a chip cloud. And they used to not be able to recruit as many high-end high school kids, but now these big programs aren't recruiting them because they're getting the ah, because they're going in the transfer portal. Yeah, yeah. So now you have an opportunity as a mid-major to maybe get a high school kid that's a little bit better. So it's almost just like trickle down uh basketball economic economics, right?

SPEAKER_07 13:31

Or it's like sounds like a smart basketball coach to me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:36

Well, I mean, it's it's right, right? Like you that makes total sense.

SPEAKER_03 13:41

You can't hang on to your players after potentially MSU as an example. Grant Ellison goes to Alabama.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

Um the last uh two uh last year's team went to Illinois State, but you replaced them, maybe you replaced them with a high mid-major kid who didn't play a lot, or you're replacing them with a younger high school kid who's ready to go because they're a little bit higher down. So it does kind of just have a fall a little bit.

SPEAKER_07 14:08

Um I think I saw a graphic somewhere that Duke as the one seed is the only team, at least the only one seed, that all five of their starters have only played for Duke. I think the rest of the one seeds are have some transfers, and I think Michigan is like legitimately all transfers. Right.

SPEAKER_04 14:28

Yep, yeah, because they got uh Pidel from UNC. There's your NIR. Yeah, yeah. Um Diamor is at UCLA. Yep. Uh Florida's got Xavier Lee and Woody Flan for sure. Uh yeah, I mean, who's the other Arizona? Um Arizona.

SPEAKER_07 14:48

Oh, I think on the graphic, yeah. I think they had one guy that starts as a transfer.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

Alright. Yeah, so but yeah, I mean the point's point taken. So yeah, it's uh it's tough to uh, you know. I think what we're seeing is the top end, right? It seems like there's right now, at least this year, although Duke did not look like it today, but the three teams kind of separating, and a bunch of kind of muck in the middle, and then everybody else, but you know, smart madness, man. Like CNN. So down to the wire.

SPEAKER_07 15:20

It's uh it was great. Exactly. And I thought about that. We were texting about, you know, is Cinderella dead? It's probably not. But when you get one, you're gonna get the whole country behind them because I'm not sure any regular sports fan is interested in watching teams that just buy up town. That's why people don't like the Yankees, they don't like the Cowboys, like, right? But so like a true Cinderella will will get the country's attention immediately.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

Well, and the old Cinderella was like these teams who had guys that played for four years together, right? Like they stuck together, and even on the mid-major level, you don't see that as much. So you end up with like these teams who are you know pieced together maybe a little bit, or maybe they played together for two, three years, and that still helps them enough uh, you know, to become kind of those mid-major high major killers, Cinderella's.

SPEAKER_07 16:18

But yeah. Especially the exposure too, right? Back in the day, you're like, What? I didn't even know George Mason was a cow. Yeah. Like, oh, but yeah, go George Mason, right? Like, so some of that too, right? Is like they're not coming out of nowhere now. I think most people paying attention at least know the school names. Right.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

Yeah. Yeah, it's good for baseball.

SPEAKER_07 16:41

But maybe that's what's gone. It's just that true, like, I've never even heard that this school existed. Yeah. But yeah, go!

SPEAKER_04 16:48

It's good for college basketball, right? Like, you know, they were talking about Miami and whether they were gonna get in, and they a lot of people were saying, well, if they don't get in, like, there's gonna be riots. Like, they need to be in. You're undefeated in your regular season, you deserve a bid. Um, so I think it's good that they got in. I'm super happy they won. Because otherwise, you get the if they would have lost, you would have had the see they don't belong, mid-majors, we need more power conference teams, they can't hang. And now you got didn't play anybody high points in the other one. Like you need these mid-majors to win and be competitive to to keep that kind of going, which is what makes this tournament the best, I think, sporting event in the country.

SPEAKER_07 17:32

And he said, What's the Miami of Ohio's coach supposed to do? Recruit for the other teams too?

SPEAKER_04 17:39

Yeah. Well, and he's been on uh uh Travis Steele's been on uh like nobody'll schedule us. And uh coach said that again today after Lady Wisconsin. He was like, you know, everybody's saying we can't beat these big teams, but they don't play us. Guess what? We can let's go. Like, alright. If we get a little power, uh power play between the high majors, the power six or power four, whatever the heck it is, and everybody else, like I'm here for it. Like, I wanna I wanna see that. I want to see them kind of say, like, no, we're here, we can play. So I've always written for those. Um now when you get to the final four and you got random teams and you got Arizona, Michigan playing, you know, you know, Hawaii and High Point, like that ain't gonna be great for the final four, probably.

SPEAKER_07 18:24

Has been where the Cinderellas have gone to pasture, yes. They they eventually get crushed.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Yeah, but if you can get through the first couple weekends with one or two, that's always been some fun. Oh, yeah. That's what it's all about for sure. So um anything on the lines or else, uh, and we're not just to be clear, not gonna be promoting gambling or giving advice.

SPEAKER_07 18:50

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04 18:50

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_07 18:52

Anything you hear on this podcast from out of my mouth, I do the opposite.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

Right, yes, yeah. So, what else did you notice on some of the lines? You said big movement, like a lot of movement on some of them.

SPEAKER_07 19:03

Well, that's what so the more I thought about it is I I think some of that has to do with just how much opportunity there is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:12

So I was can you imagine your spare time?

SPEAKER_07 19:17

I thought it was interesting that like the Wisconsin one was the one that I saw that had I think it seemed like the I guess pros or the the people that look at it immediately thought there was an edge and hopped on them immediately. So then it started swinging one way, and then it gets to a point and it starts swinging the other way, and it's just I I think only in this environment it's unique in that way that I've seen that because uh one, it's uh they're not professionals, right? But I think in some cases, I think the lines are set just to see where that action's and how much it moves so quickly now. Like, holy cow. And probably more so than any other sporting events.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

You get so much loyalty, right? Like your school, like you will blindly, if you were a even NDSU fan today against Michigan State, uh I think it's a 20-point game, but yeah, bison fans will probably push money out of the NDSU side blindly. Whereas like Super Bowl, it's more, I would it feels more like professional, like people are kind of actually thinking about it from a strategic standpoint, but college sports is such a royalty and my school, my alma mater, I'm gonna bet them no matter what, that you you do get some crazy, crazy lines in March Madness.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Well, and I also think too, it's like that's where everyone goes.

SPEAKER_07 20:58

Sometimes you pick with like just your gut or fun things. Yeah, like it's not McNeese, it's McNeese, right? So I'm gonna go with McNeese every time, baby. Right, like, or there's that one player who's speaking of St. Louis. That was you guys tease me all the time, that was my sleeper team when they were like top ten in the country. Abdul Jabal. So some of that happens too, where you're just like I just really want to cheer for them, right? Or I want it, I want that feeling with the edge.

SPEAKER_04 21:38

So well, it's I mean, it's it's where these guys like Jack Dolkey at Oakland a couple years ago, right? It's where like that guy's a name because he had a game against Kentucky in which he hit like twenty five three pointers. And today, and today it was high point. They got the Johnston kid just draining logo threes, like he makes his first low up of the season to win the game.

SPEAKER_07 22:00

Obviously. But you get that, that's another good example though. Like, not just the Homers, but then all the anti-sweats. Right, right. Putting Wisconsin on my parlay. I'm a Minnesota fan. That's blasphemy.

SPEAKER_08 22:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 22:18

Or maybe you had a bad experience when Nigel Hayes fumbled a ball out of bounds. And you now I'm never touching them again. Right? Like, so there's some of that too. Yeah. That's that makes it fun.

SPEAKER_04 22:30

That does make it fun. And that's where that allegiance to the school changes how people feel about it.

SPEAKER_07 22:36

You look down the sheet and you're like, I swear I had money on Purdue one time and they screwed me. I'm off.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

Oh, believe me, I will never forget the uh the random, like, I forget which uh Vegas place had it, but it was like a you pick like 16 games and whatever, and literally the first one on it was Michigan State, two seed, playing some 15, and I'm like, well, they'll win. And what are they doing? Like, I will never forget that. And that's what that's what uh the bracket is about, that's what March Madness is. It's just it's it's a great, you know. It's I think this is the greatest weekend in in sports, just because it's all day Thursday, it's all day Friday, most of the days on the weekend, you know.

SPEAKER_07 23:21

And then you can watch it all now. That's the other bad part.

SPEAKER_04 23:25

Yeah, the March Madness Live app, you got, you know, every TV. Like here if we're at Black Channel, we got, I don't know, there's a big screen outside, there's four or five TVs inside.

SPEAKER_07 23:34

So I love all the messages about people being like, remember, true TV is channel, you know, 60 on your TV or whatever. Like the channel you never watch until March.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 23:48

So sweet.

SPEAKER_04 23:49

Um, let's see, what else we got? It looks like Michigan State won final, so they move on, and they will get uh who's the sixth seed on their region there? They must have is that the UNC BCU? Or is it Louisville? Maybe it's Louisville. Right? That one. Yeah, I think you're right. BCU UNC is in the south, Michigan State in the east, and that is yep, Louisville. So Louisville, Michigan State, second round. Um, high point waiting on the winner. The high point against Arkansas. That game might be the first one to 100, the way those teams score. Yeah, yep. I mean, somebody said we should take uh over in the high point Wisconsin game. I don't know who that was, but that advice was not taken. No. That hits. So that was about McNeese. They were a 12. They pushed Vandy, would they have? They had a lead. They had a lead early, but Vandy ends up winning by 10. McNeese, my bad. Thank you. Of course. So yeah, it's uh it's been a good day so far. I mean, we started the day with TC Ohio State. We're just getting warmed up, which was great. Uh you know, that's one of the best things that they've done with the tournament is that 8-9 game first every year now. Because that 8-9 game is usually pretty solid.

SPEAKER_07 25:12

Yeah, well, and I I know that's on purpose, right? Because CBS isn't silly. They're like, we're the first and only game on. Yeah. We're not starting with uh, well, again, dupe. But right, yeah. It's a great game. Somebody just getting absolutely slaughtered in the first matchup.

SPEAKER_04 25:32

It's also wild, like the three-point shooting and how that's changed too, because man, you used to have to kind of just beat team. I mean, if you get hot.

SPEAKER_07 25:44

I saw a couple posts that way of people saying, like, man, I can't wait to watch that one team or the coach is like, guys, let's just hoist threes and see what happens. Right. I mean, like, yep. You never know, right?

SPEAKER_08 26:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 26:01

Yep. That's that's what they might beat us nine out of ten times, but not this time. Yeah, because we are sizzling hot from three.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

Channeling our inner Herb Brooks uh on that one. So um, yeah, it's uh okay, so we got what? Well, normally in the football season we call it the witching hour. But now we're moving into the evening slate. We got UNC VCU coming up, Howard, Michigan. Uh I don't think Howard is gonna push Michigan. Like uh another game I'm really interested in tonight.

SPEAKER_07 26:36

So you weren't impressed by Howard's victory on Tuesday night?

SPEAKER_04 26:42

See Okay, so Duke's you know, there's been some concern about Duke. Like, I think if anybody is objective right now, they're like, because of their injuries, uh I did not see Gungo play today. Which I don't know that I expected him to play today, but they're gonna need him against Ohio State. Uh and Kelly Foster's out. So you lose two starters off any tournament team, that's a big deal. You know, you lose uh Rain Smith and uh Oscar Clough off Purdue, that's a big hit. If you lose uh Kingston Flemings and Jojo Tugler off Houston, you're in trouble. And so uh I didn't think it'd be that close, but I do think Ohio State uh Ohio State, sorry, TCU. TCU and uh Duke is gonna be that's gonna be dicey. TCU has got a little defensive juice to him. So uh who's their coach?

SPEAKER_07 27:35

Dixon? Jamie Dick, yeah. He's got some pedigree. He does, right? I was thinking about that as so this is speaking of totally different Tate. I'm not in Vegas for the first weekend. I was actually exercising and watching that game. And I thought in my head, I'm like, this is close, and the edge here is the coaching. Yeah. Like a guy, again, Ben there, multiple teams, like yeah. I mean, you could tell like Bruce Thornton just couldn't really get going today.

SPEAKER_04 28:03

Um I kind of kept waiting for Ohio State to make an adjustment, but TCU just kind of I don't know, frustrated him, and then they relied on Mobley to make shots, and he, you know, he did, but yeah, just uh, you know, TCU, maybe Michigan, or almost beat Michigan this year. They have they have some great wins. Uh maybe Iowa State at home, so they're they're capable. Um, and that's where I'm like, you know, you go into this Duke game and you're TCU, you're you're confident. You have to be confident in that game.

SPEAKER_07 28:36

But then I was also thinking, like, what are the stereotypical things that they taught like rarely do I dig that deep where I'm like, oh, coaching edge to TCU. But uh, Wisconsin, their guards were like super cocky. Was it Void and Blacklow? They were I think they even said it on the broadcast. Oh, best guard combo in the country. That would you I feel like that used to be like the automatic thing, right? Is if you went on without any information, you were like senior guards with tournament experience, yeah. You know, put them in the elite eight. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

Whoops. Yeah, you know, that was an interesting game too because it seems like in that the last few weeks, um, Void has been awesome. And they've been going to him. They were really good. And they but they've been going, and I but I almost feel like Blackwell got left out. Like at the end there, Voyd had a chance, but he's going through three guys, and I'm thinking, dude, you got you got rap who made a ton of threes in that Big Ten tournament. You got Blackwell. Nolan Winter was back today. I just felt like um they didn't really use that to their advantage, the two guards, you know. Like Boyd was getting to the rim and making shots, but man, those last couple possessions, TCU takes away his left hand, which was genius. Because he still tried to get under the basket to his left and couldn't. And then uh the last possession, they just swung them.

SPEAKER_07 30:06

They forgot about the three-point shooter guy that might go in and shoot a layup. Yep. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

I feel like uh Wisconsin kind of just maybe relied on Boyd too much at the end there.

SPEAKER_07 30:16

So maybe being overly cocky about your guard play was not the answer.

SPEAKER_04 30:22

Well, yeah, I just think they've, you know, Blackwell made some big shots all year for him, and felt like the last few weeks it was definitely more Boyd's team. And today they just couldn't really find that second guy at the end at the end of the game, uh when they needed it.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

But I mean, high point, like, what do you do? And they just Hey, win for Minnesota fans. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 30:43

Absolutely. Alright, so what else do we want to talk? I see I had a few things on my list. Um Are you good to stick or you want to get going? Okay. No, let's keep talking. Let's go. Um I wanna I want to get your thoughts on the best games. I I was going through some names of the players in the tournament. Number one on my list is Chandler Bing. For all the fans. Oh, that's a hundred percent his name. He threw down against Bang uh in the SEC tournament the other day, and and the best is like when these these announcers now and they're like, Chandler Bing throws it down, and you're like, no way. I remember Chandler Bing. He couldn't even, he was not.

SPEAKER_07 31:27

I feel like if you're that kid's parents, you better be good at something. Otherwise, you're just gonna get made fire all the time. 100%.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

Uh okay. Okay, so he plays about 14 minutes a night for Bandy. So not a big time player for them, but he plays. Uh six, I think he's only a freshman, too, so I mean, we're gonna have a lot more Chandler Bang in our life coming ahead. Okay. And the next one I had on my list was David Punch, TCU. Got a little foul trouble today, but he's one of their leading scorers. Nice player. I mean, punch, just straight to the point. You know, if you're David Punch, you have to be physical, right? Like you can't be soft.

SPEAKER_07 32:08

Uh yeah, same thing. Yeah. You probably should be good with some post moves.

SPEAKER_04 32:17

Uh okay, and then the other guy, let's see, we're going down the west, I had Jojo Tuggler. Joseph, but they call him Jojo. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta be careful. Tuggler. Uh Joe Tuggler. Uh mostly defensive star for Houston, which is you know, Calvin Sampson's his jam. Yeah, but aren't they like bad on defenses here? Well, or they're down. They're down from top one or two to five. So I don't know if they adjusted defensive efficiency.

SPEAKER_07 32:50

I feel like the only time I paid attention to their games, I'm like, wow, this is high scoring. Well, and that's the that might have been the few games that were on the national TV ESPN where I turned it on, like, oh, alright, I guess we bailed on this defense thing.

SPEAKER_04 33:07

Uh, not quite, but they're not quite as good. What are they? 16th and effective field goal procedure. Oh, there we go. Fifth and adjusted defense. A warm blanket of so they're still they're still elite. They're not the top two or three like they usually are. Um and then this one, this I gotta be honest, I just ran across I've been loving it. Right, they were on my like mid-majors to watch about uh early February, and I found Gaidus Mini XA. That one, I just like the first name a lot, Guidus. I gotta That's the one where I'm like, dude, you got a ray case of guidance.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

I got a bad case of a guidance.

SPEAKER_07 33:51

Give me the rainbow. I would make an appointment.

SPEAKER_04 33:53

Yeah, um, so they go down to Arkansas, one more guidance.

SPEAKER_07 33:57

Okay. The next guy on the list also went down in the first four, Boopy. Boopy Miller. Yeah, are we doing the bit from uh Key and Peel here? Okay, nope. Alright, Boopy Miller. I'm not familiar with him.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

Actually, Boopy might be the best player on the list because he averages 19 a game. Okay. He's an RACC card. Uh state though. Landing Ohio. The lights gave right. The lights get right. Uh next one I got is Victory Oduetu from Hofstra. Hofstra plays Alabama first round, 6'10 junior. Uh, mostly a rebounder, but with a name like Victory, do you go with Hofstra in the upset over Alabama? Me. You remember Alabama's second leading scorer got picked up with two pounds of uh stuck they got. Oh, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

Aiden Holloway out for Alabama. I'm on the victory.

SPEAKER_07 34:57

Here's second leading scorer is dealing with something off the court.

SPEAKER_04 35:03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 35:03

Also, it's funny you say that though. I while I was watching the TCU Ohio State game, TCU has a guy that has his first name on the back of his jersey. And I'd never seen that before, and I immediately was like, this guy's my new favorite player. His name is Conrad Rodriguez, he's from Spain, and his he just goes with straight Conrad. Yep. I love that. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:33

Pretty soon he'll be like share. He'll just be Conrad. So there you go, there's that nut. TCU Moneyland here. Okay, the last one's the best one. Jomo Goings. Long Island, L I U. Jomo. Jomo Goings. Got it. Love it. I don't know anything about it. I don't either. But I saw Jomo Goings and I'm like, yeah, yeah. He's going places. I mean he's average at 10 players. Keep going. Yeah. Goings. Jomo is Goings places. Anyway, that's.

SPEAKER_07 36:08

See, that's another. We totally I'm glad you brought this segment up. That's another great way to pick teams.

SPEAKER_08 36:14

If you're on the fence, who's got a great name?

SPEAKER_07 36:18

Which team's got a guy with an awesome name? Jomo. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 36:22

Alright. I'm cheering for Jomo and LIU. Alright, so that's my name. That's like seven names to watch. Unfortunately, two of them are out, but Conrad Rodriguez. Conrad Rodriguez. Well, as a name, I don't know that that's that intriguing. But the fact that he puts his first name, I mean, yeah. Listen, guys. That's I'm on a first name based alright. Exactly. Correct. Yeah. That's good stuff. Uh, okay. What's up, Everett? We got uh still got a passage showing up here. Good crowd. Good crowd. Hey, what's up, buddy? Hey Ellis. This is my son Ellis. Say hi. Okay. Alright. Looking for my buddy Matt. Matt's my next guest. We're gonna talk about. Are these guys at the door? Awfully young. Awfully young. I mean, this is what we get when we get come out to the lake. This is lake life. Lake Manatonka. Um where's my guy? Looking for my guy Matt. We were gonna talk first round experiences because he's gone to a few um a few first round experiences, like he'll travel to Raleigh or Des Moines or Milwaukee. So I'm looking for finally a legitimate co-host. Well, this is legitimate. I feel like most of this is just about having fun. So I think we're having fun. Oh, 100%. Yeah, this is good times.

SPEAKER_07 37:52

Um but when you get to interview the coach of North Dakota State University, and then you have Mia, I feel like that's a wide gap of basketball knowledge.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

Um there are varying levels of degree that you can find content on a podcast. We're going with both ends of the spectrum. That's right. Um lowest to the low, highest of the high. I mean, but I gotta be honest, it's all good. It's all fun. Uh I don't know that NDSU's coach uh shouts Dave Richmond. Sorry about the loss. Great season. Um this might not be his vibe. Um, at least not publicly with me. Okay. Here. That's fine. We keep it professional. Yeah, all right. But yeah. So anyway.

SPEAKER_07 38:39

Well, I love the answer about being able to recruit kids out of high school because the other guys are too busy in the portal. Yeah, and it's makes a ton of sense.

SPEAKER_04 38:48

Or, you know, he's got so he I asked him this. And he said, um, because I noticed they had to sign five kids seniors this year, going to be, you know, next year. And I said that seems kind of uncommon these days because of that, right? Uh to recruit high school kids. But he said part of that is kind of that that model of like, I want to bring guys in, I want to develop them. If they choose to go because they're whatever reason, I'm gonna support them, but like while they're here, I'm gonna love them and we're gonna work with them, and we're gonna do everything we can to help them.

SPEAKER_07 39:20

Do they have some NIL?

SPEAKER_03 39:22

I'm sure they do. I mean, there's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_04 39:24

I clearly watched your podcast. Uh thanks. Wow. Uh I mean NDSU has football money like a lot of schools. Right.

SPEAKER_07 39:33

But is any of it allocated towards? I'm sure some. Okay. Uh I don't know how much. Uh I suppose that's probably not a nice question to ask. So, how much cash do you have?

SPEAKER_04 39:43

It's a public university. We should probably know that. Maybe. Ah, yeah. But so like last year they had an all-Sunny League player, Jackson Money. He's goes to the he's in the G-League. And now this year, they're center, played behind him. He's a sophomore. You know, now he goes from getting like two points a game and maybe a rebound, and now he's getting 10 and 8 or 10 and 7. So I think his point is like all the stuff still matters. Like, as much his hit what he said was it's it's a transactional business in some places, but he said, I refuse to run my program. Right. I'm gonna coach and plan on guys staying here and do what I can to develop them. And if they leave, they leave, and you know, that's that's a choice too, and we'll we'll be fine. So I think there's you know kind of that component to it. So he's got five freshmen coming in. Now two of them high red shirt. Um, yeah. But that's kind of how they're replenishing their pipeline there. Yeah, you know, they love that. They don't have a ton of seniors on that team, so they they might be back next year as well. But um, yeah, we're getting ready here for the evening window. We got UNC VCU tipping off shortly. That's I I got a VCU.

SPEAKER_07 40:56

Your channel probably gets shut down if we live stream uh an actual game.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

Yeah, I don't think we know an actual game. But we're just gonna comment on it. I got VCU uh winning this. Uh Caleb Wilson, star for UNC out um for the year, bro uh thumb, I believe, this time. And uh Carolina's only two and a half point favorite. So Vegas uh obviously thinks VCU's got something here too. Um but there's been a lot of a lot of talk earlier today about South Florida meeting Woolho. Whoau hangs on. The other one was BCU. I mean, I think the six seeds in this whole bracket are are in deep trouble because tomorrow you got the sixth seed that the other one that I liked going down was Tennessee against Miami. I don't know if I don't know if Miami's got enough uh big guys to compete in that game against Tennessee. Tennessee is just so big. Um so that one's gonna be tough, but um I do like a lot of these 11s. So we'll see how it goes. UNC uh UNC BCU will be tipping off shortly. Other than that, I don't there's not a ton of games in the late slate that I'm loving. Uh AM and St. Mary's tonight. Texas BYU. I think BYU's gonna I think they're going Elite 8. I like AJ DeBonsa. Oh, I love I just Oh I think when you're the best player on the court, I think he's got a little Carmelo vibe going right now. Okay. Uh he plays that mid-post game like Carmelo did, so I'm I'm a big Carm uh AJ DeBonza fan. Well, okay, how many brackets did you fill out? Uh well actually my son did two. Okay. I did two.

unknown 42:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 42:39

So uh one of them was basically just for fun. Uh and then he and I both did, he did two and I did one for the for a bigger pot, but that'll be we'll see. Um I do two is acceptable. I know everybody wants this. This is good podcast slash radio, is talk about your brackets.

SPEAKER_07 42:57

But uh I just want to know how many. Because I feel like if if you say three or more, you're a fraud.

SPEAKER_04 43:03

No, no. I was only gonna do one, and then we got a lot of things.

SPEAKER_07 43:06

That's the correct one. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I'll do a word. Okay, that's that two is also acceptable because there's usually that. It's yeah, there's the legacy one and then a work one.

SPEAKER_08 43:17

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 43:18

So um, all right, so what else you got? Um I got other things to talk about if you want to go down this path here. We got more. Um, under the radar. Under the radar players. This was uh this was a fun list to put together. So one of them goes down. My first one on the list, Javon Garcia. I was hoping McNeese could maybe pull an upset and we could get a little like excitement for McNe McNeese. Thank you. Uh but Javon Garcia, he had 31 in the Southland conference title game. So I was like, alright, he's on a heater, let's get some buckets today. Uh not enough buckets today for McNeil. No, they couldn't pull it off. So So what did he end up having? Let's see. Quick box score. On air production meeting. He has 10. He only had 10 today. TJ Power, though, they played him. That's a pen. I don't know if you heard about that. Have you heard about him? Have you seen about him? TJ. No. Okay, so 6'9. Started at Duke. Transferred, I believe, to Virginia. Now he's at Penn playing for Fran McCaffrey, red face Fran, playing tonight against Illinois. TJ Power had 44 points in the Ivy League Championship game. Okay, so he can score a little bit. He can shoot it. Yeah. So they were down late in that game against Yale in the Ivy League Championship, and he has back-to-back freeze to go overtime, unguardable. The kid at high point, you mentioned earlier, hadn't shot at two. Or maybe two all year. All year. He was one of the guys that I was. Genius play. The other guy I really like, Alan Graves from Santa Clara. He's not the winning scorer, but he's a big dude. He's starting to get like NBA potential talk. Okay. So watch out for Santa Clara in the Kentucky game. I believe that's Friday night, I think, right? That's a Friday game.

SPEAKER_07 45:24

Yeah, that's tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 45:25

Yeah, double check here. Too much going on. Yep, that's tomorrow. That's actually the first tip of the day tomorrow. So Alan Graves, power forward for Santa Clara. And then the last one, I love this guy, Peter Souter from Miami. He um they win uh obviously the play uh first four game last night. But he is like the ultimate mid-major guard. 6'5, kind of does everything, got a little feisty at times. Uh, really like Peter Souter. Uh 14 and a half points a game, four and a half rebounds a game, four assists per game, shoots it at a high level. So those are some of my under the radar guys. Um what about the Minnesota guys?

SPEAKER_07 46:05

Oh, yeah. I mean, Wisconsin went down, so that was like half their team. Four of the Minnesota, four of the Minnesota players. But our CDH guy, Hadley, Vaughn Hadley, made some clutch free throws for the end.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

Hadley's a nice, he's a he's a great like blue guy, right? Like just kind of does dirty work, just three pounds, guards other guys, put up four inches and guard a big guy, he'll guard a guard.

SPEAKER_07 46:30

I remember you and I talking about watching him his senior year at Cretan of being a guy like the Gopher should have been going ass. Like again, a guy that's not the obviously the top of the top, but a division one rotational player that is gonna be good in your program. Yeah. He's uh it's cool to see his, although I was like, wait, is he like a fifth-year senior maybe at this point? He was he was COVID senior year.

SPEAKER_04 47:00

Okay, so remember they had him and Ray Holoman was a junior and no state tournament. And they they were like the five by far the favorite. So yeah, those two, um, Lehigh had a point guard and Asir Whitlock from Deal Salle. They lose uh obviously in the first four last night. Or uh was that last night? I think it was last night. Losing track of time here a little bit. Um who else do we got from Minnesota guy? Let me pull up my list. I got I got a full list. I think they ended up being 19. There is a guy on uh LIU, Gavin Pendergras, South St. Paul, shouts to the Packers. Doesn't play a lot. Doesn't play a lot, but he's on the like that.

SPEAKER_07 47:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:38

Uh well Michigan's got our guy, uh Cheddar. Get that cheese. Yep, better Cheddar. Gotta get that cheese. Alright, uh, Kendall Bull at Nebraska. Uh what do we got here?

SPEAKER_07 47:49

Crush today. Yeah. I will admit, I looked at that line and was like, is Nebraska ready for the bright lights? Thank goodness I stayed away from that. They crushed it.

SPEAKER_04 48:00

Troy was another one that was sneaky. Like I could see this being closer, but it was not. Uh Nate Heisey, Iowa State. Tayson Chapman from Ohio State, they lose. Uh Nolan Groves at Texas Tech. Uh Jalen Wilson, freshman from Vanilla, playing at uh UNI, Northern Iowa. Uh doesn't play at R, but uh he's on that roster. Uh Whitlock, I mentioned, uh, who else we got here? Two eyes on the bison, and Stebanowitz and Caleb Schoenrock from St. Francis. Uh Hadley, Chase Thompson from Alexandria. He's at uh Clemson. So if you're looking for that, you can watch him and then Holliman. And I think that's uh oh, hold on, we got more, we got more. Mercy Miller, okay, caveat. Mercy Miller at Houston, you know, Master Peace Kid. Mercy Miller played at uh Mini Haha with Suggs and Holmgrin. And then as soon as those guys were gone, he would go home. And uh now he's at Houston. So I count him, we'll take him, okay, Cam Heidi, Texas. Yep. Who advanced, survived in advance? Who advanced, yep. So Cam Heidi from WyZetta. So that's that's the full list of Minnesotans on the roster. A lot to watch. Who are on the in the NCAA tournament.

SPEAKER_07 49:15

So if you're looking for that local angle. Local angle. I'm always looking for it.

SPEAKER_04 49:19

Any edge. Yeah. Yeah. So that's uh, you know, we talk Minnesota ball, and everything's got a Minnesota angle to it for us here at the Splash City Basketball Podcast. Alright, we're six o'clock. Um we got UNC, what do we got for the story? Can you see that one? We got the big screen outside, I can't quite see, so we got uh UNC DCU early. Six five, I gotta do eight five. I'm telling you, I'm telling you. Alright, great minds. We're not gonna talk about all the ones I missed. Or we got wrong, but um the beautiful one like wine.

SPEAKER_07 50:03

Yeah, and you got a guy that's actually played in this thing coming up, don't you? First round? Don't you have a special guest that's got first round experience? First attending? First round experience. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:18

No. Yeah, I don't know what that is. We're gonna have to get him on the on the horn here. Um yeah, I wanted to bring Matt on to talk a little bit about that. Um let's see. What else we got to talk here? Um I got some more topics to cover, so we got plenty to talk about. Freshmen. Who are your top freshmen? I have no idea. You have no idea. Debonsa. Let me give you the list. Yeah, let me see the list. Let me give you the list. Debonsa, Boozer, there is A Cup, obviously. Kingston Fleming.

SPEAKER_07 50:56

But this is back to like, so these are all in the mix for number one pick. Uh but we think DeMonsa DeBonsa is number one.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

I would say I would say De Bonsa's probably the lock at this point. Um he passed Peterson probably in January. Peterson's been weird all year. Um and so like that's been a thing. And um then this A cuff kid goes off, Acuff or 100. You know, there's I've heard some people kind of compare him a little bit to Derrick Rose. I don't think he's quite as explosive. I know. And uh he's not as explosive, but he's probably a better all-around, like averaging 10 assists and shooting it. Uh and so, yeah, that's um A Cop's definitely him and Kingston Flemings, I think, are like probably top five, with if you consider Pooh Peterson still in that group. Yeah. Um Wagler's in that conversation now. Like he's again another guy kind of just came out of nowhere. I mean, I feel like if I heard this right, he was a 150 ranked recruit. And so it's so rare to see those guys category. Yeah, yeah. So that's been wild to see uh Caleb Wilson for UNC was putting up almost a double double until he got hurt. So it's too bad. You know, like him a lot. They just uh so I if I were ranking him right now, I got uh DeBonzo won. Boozers the tough one. Because they're like, you know, they're like, eh, he's not a pro. He's not explosive enough. But I'm like, dude, he's averaging 23 and 10.

SPEAKER_07 52:45

So the and the knock on him is athleticism, is that what our problem is? Like uh and then we watch the Joker go out there and mess around and get triple doubles. Right. He's not overly athletic by those standards, right? Right. I think the the challenge with blues is are you good at basketball? Right. That's a good question. Ask him about the ball in the booth. Right. Yeah. Um because there's been a lot of athletes too, right? That appear to be good at basketball that really aren't that great at basketball. Yeah. I mean, that's that's and the pedigree is there.

SPEAKER_04 53:25

Right, but even his dad wasn't probably a great pro. Yeah, right. So, but like that kind of goes back to then what are you expecting? So if you want a 10-year pro, uh, and do you want a guy who's gonna get you a double double most nights, then you're good. Yeah, if you're looking for a guy who's, you know, gonna be uh top ten player in the right. Right, right. It's probably not Cam Boozman. Okay. It might be Devonta, it might be Peterson. Alright, Big Cat Matt showed up, so we're gonna talk uh first round NCAA tournament experiences. Tate. First of all, appreciate you. I appreciate you having me. I still wonder why.

SPEAKER_07 54:05

That's Metro. But I always appreciate the email. What was that?

SPEAKER_04 54:08

Cab ride again? Uber 17 miles. 17 miles? Just grinding it out here.

SPEAKER_07 54:15

Anything for you, Steve. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 54:17

Yep. Bye. Alright, big cat, Matt, you're in. Uh alright, we're Matt, I'm bringing Matt on because Matt is a friend who, well, first of all, he's got this quick feet, 6'5, plays down low. Uh but what I like about Matt, what we talk about a lot, you've gone to how many first round tournament, like first second round?

SPEAKER_06 54:42

Uh we've been to three and the part on four in Minneapolis.

SPEAKER_04 54:46

Okay, yeah. So you went to Raleigh. Was it Raleigh last year?

SPEAKER_06 54:50

Yep. Okay, and then where else? Uh and then we were in uh what's next to Dowhouse? Fort Worth? Oh yeah, North Texas. Yep, and then Portland.

SPEAKER_04 55:02

Okay, well, perfect. Yeah. Alright, so the first three first rounds that you've attended, what was anything stand up?

SPEAKER_06 55:11

You know, I think at the end of the day, like, there's nothing better for me than just to be able to watch basketball, right? And be the most of the experience, right? And so I think just being there with good friends, uh, being able to be there. So you know, I think Raleigh was probably, you know, obviously a basketball capital. So um, you know, a lot of fans there, a lot of people passionate about basketball. Fort Worth was great, but like it was just really an event in their city. Whereas Raleigh, like, you've got Duke, you've got UMC, you've got rivalries, you got people who really care. So yeah. Um who did you see play?

SPEAKER_04 55:50

Oh gosh. Any fan bases, maybe I'll ask you that. Any fan bases that you're like they were crazy or they were.

SPEAKER_06 55:59

You know. Texas AM, I saw Minneapolis, and I thought their fan base was one of the best, right? Like so we just had a lot of people around us from there. Uh, and they just uh yeah. I mean, I think the lady next to me drove all the way overnight, went to the game, and went home. So like that's dedication, right? Like you gotta be like 19 hours going to a game and then like going home. So uh is this for me, by the way?

SPEAKER_04 56:29

Yeah, actually, of course. That's you know, this is uh is this a CO call again? This is a water. You gotta hydrate, stay hydrated during March Madness. Um I went to NDSU in Kansas, the first year NDSU made the tournament. Okay, and I was at the Metronome. And my takeaway uh besides that game being really fun, Kansas had Cole Aldrich and uh NDSU had Ben Woodside was awesome. But Dayton was playing the next game. And I remember being like, wow, these Dayton fans show up. Like they were awful, they were loud. So that's what's fun about the opening four. Yeah, it's a great basketball town, right? Yeah. Uh Obi Tappan, you know, like who got screwed, because that was COVID year when Obi Tappen, I think they were like ranked highly in the country. But yeah, it's a great basketball time. And that that's what's fun about the Final Four or March Manus going to these first round games, is you get to see these fan bases that you're not familiar with, and you're like, wow, they love hoops and they like are dedicated. Like I think that's what's really fun.

SPEAKER_06 57:36

Like I know the two of us went and like just seeing people so passionate about like Michigan State shows up, like you know, like I think um, you know, it's just uh it's fun to see people so passionate about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:49

It is. It's the Big Ten tournament was super fun. I agree. Um next year, Target Center hosts first and second round, so we'll be there, I'm sure. Absolutely. And um, you know, that's hopefully don't we yelled at by the what was the usher like we did last year at the Big Ten tournament?

SPEAKER_06 58:07

Yeah, yeah, we did uh we did get scolded. So that'll happen. Um yeah, I'd be curious if anyone's gone to like in a you know like Suite 16. I think that's the middle gap that I haven't kind of hit yet, right? It's like a final four opening round, suite 16 would be really interesting as well.

SPEAKER_04 58:24

Yeah, I went to uh the first year Florida won the national title with Yokandoa and Corey Brewer in that game. Oh yeah. So that was also Metrodome, and that was so fun. So a buddy of mine, Matt, uh different Matt, was uh he and I came down for the state boys tournament. So we're at the boys' state tournament, watching Pelican Rapids, took a cab at the time, no Uber, we're old, and go to Metrodome, and we go to that 316. So it's Beast Boston College with Jared Dudley, uh Randy Foy and Villanova, uh Roy Hibbert, and um Porter Jr. maybe? Otto Porter, I can't remember if he was on that team or not, and then Florida, and it was so fun. I mean, that was another one of those where you're like, these I mean, none of those schools are remotely close to here, and it was still packed. Florida fans, uh just awesome. I mean, it was that was a great that was a great time.

SPEAKER_06 59:21

And they get extra credit for coming to Minneapolis. Right, yeah. Like, as you choose locations, like it's not always the the first one you choose.

SPEAKER_04 59:29

Yeah, and I don't remember. I'm guessing Georgetown was like a high seed, but I don't think Florida was a super high seed that year. Maybe they were maybe they were the one. I don't know. But I you know, it wasn't like one of those things where you're like, you know, this team is so down that you were like, these are all good games. Yeah. I remember being fairly close and seeing um, I think it was Jared Dudley block somebody and just extend, you know, he's 6'9, 6'10, and he's just extending jumping. It's those are fun experiences.

SPEAKER_06 59:55

So just generally, Steve, like favorite players during a tournament, like a tournament run. Like, who do you got on your list of just like I would pay to show up to watch these people perform in an MCAA tournament? All-time? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:10

Ooh, that's a great question. I mean, I'm a Duke person at heart. I mean, okay, hold on. First, I'm gonna start with this. Willie Burton. Willie Burton's my all-time favorite college basketball. Like, I was there when they retired as Jersey. Uh, they went to a Sweet 16 and an Elite 8, and we're like a basket away from the Final Four that year. So Willie Burton. Um, I kind of gotta say Christian Leitner. It's because the most polarizing, like everybody hated him, but just gets it done. Campbell Walker, probably on that list. Um, we're Sienna playing today against Duke, right? Jerry MacAmera, like Jerry Mack, like he always had some moments, like he was awesome. So I don't know. Uh I'm sure I'm leaving lots of people off. How about you? Well, I think a Jimmer Ferdinand. Jimmer, yeah. Like everything went through hands.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:00

You know, hurry. Right. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:03

You know, as you think about, yeah, that those are probably a couple that hit in kind of the top of my list. Yeah, you know when I think back to uh just uh Gophers Final Four, Bobby Jackson, oh my gosh, like I followed his pro career. Nothing more enjoyable than just kind of seeing him succeed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:23

It was awesome. That that run happened. We watched it happen. I don't care if the banners are up, we watched it. It happened. Uh yeah, uh, a couple folks in the chat, what's up, Jamie Lisa? Appreciate you. Uh Duke, yes, Duke struggled today. We're down two starters. I thought Gonbo was gonna play today. Yeah, but he thought he was. But he didn't. Nope. So TCU without those two, man. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:50

You know, it might be a rallying cry. At the end of the day, it might be it might be the differentiator for that. Yeah, I know. I don't I mean, even if they get through TCU.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:59

Ooh. St. John's or Kansas after that, I don't know, man. Not without those two. I mean, Gungba comes back and helps a little bit, but yeah, it's tough. Um yeah, uh, and Lisa, you're checking in from, I believe it's Denver. Denver area. Any upsets you kind of predicted already. Any upsets? I mean, so I got VC. We got a score. Yeah, what's the score there? 1314, so still early. Um I did say on the podcast on Sunday when the bracket came out, I said going into it, I loved high point, but then I saw they were playing Wisconsin, and I'm like, oof, that one's tough.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:38

Like that is a tough, tough uh matchup because I really like Wisconsin's guards, but yeah, and generally, like, right? They're so fundamental, they grind you out. Yeah, like you're not gonna you're not gonna get them off their game, but they got there today, so yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:54

Uh any other ones?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:55

It's yeah, I I was pretty high, I did not like Hawaii, so I didn't I I thought Arkansas was just too good. Um I did not pick Siena. That's it.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:06

As you think of the NRL era, like there's just not a whole lot that uh you know where you're gonna see a 14 or a 15 win anymore.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

So well and I was talking to Tate earlier, uh but he I was talking about how there was a lot of one seeds in conference tournaments on lost. So like a Liberty, for instance, right? Super high scoring. Uh they would have been maybe a trendy pick to upset someone, but they lose. So now you get, I think they were they're a conference USA, so it's Kennesaw State was the sixth seed. Okay, so there's one. Um the uh Lee Navy, Navy was another one in the Patriot League. Uh they get bounced in the semifinals, and then you get Lehigh, who doesn't have as good a record, you know, and so like that's part of this year's tournament. Um I'm I'm on a Miami train.

unknown 1:03:52

Really?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:53

I love I mean I love it.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:54

Have you watched them throughout the year?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:56

I've watched a few games. I'm a junkie, Matt. Like, this is what I do.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:00

I mean, I've probably watched five or six of their games in the last two months, and like my takeaway was this is a first-round exit. So, but maybe I'm off.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:09

I mean they looked okay last night. They beat SMU, Boopy Miller. So uh we were just talking about best names in the tournament, Boopy Miller being one of them. What about Chandler Bing? Chandler Bing was number one on the list. Chandler, I I said if he's got any sort of TV guy that's his chemandal or bomb, yeah, uh, he wins the internet for sure. And uh, so yeah, anyway, um, but Miami man, so they're they actually lost their like leading scorer early in the year. Yeah. So their like best quote unquote best player is out, and they're still doing this. Uh Peter Souter, one of them, Spelljack, just Cajones last night, a couple big threes at the end. Like, I love them. I can give you a new hat. Woo! Give me a jersey. Where's my red hot skin?

SPEAKER_06 1:05:00

Zerbiakas. You throw back Zerbiakai, Miami of Ohio.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:05

That was, I think the Sweet 16. Didn't they get to the Sweet 16? Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I think Texas is a great. I've been saying it um all year. Like these middle of the road power conference teams, I don't want any more of them. Like, I could care less. I mean, even Ohio State, TCU, like that was a good game, but like, you know, you're 500 and you're Big Ten.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:29

Like, if you won the conference and you have a different team win the tournament, right? Like, send them to the send them to the MCAA tournament.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:37

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:38

You know, just start to mix it up a little bit because like that 10 11 seed.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:43

Yeah. Yeah, I mean I I do think like to some degree, if you have like the A 10 this year is a great example. You have St. Louis who's gonna get in regardless. BCU wins a conference tournament, but they were like first core in if they were at large. But I'm like, I'd rather see. BCU than California or Oklahoma or Auburn. Like I've seen them.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:07

I know that they've got a bunch of teams that were mediocre. Really, I mean, let's be honest. Like did they really earn it?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:14

Exactly. I mean, if if I know, like, so the argument is always you are the best at large teams possible, right? Which some would argue then then you're taking like the ninth or tenth team out of the SEC or whatever. But I would say if the goal is to crown a champion, those teams have already proven they're not if you're not in the top half of your league, you're not one of the best teams in the country. I know you're not. If you're a BCU, you're second in your conference, you haven't been able to play these other power teams because they don't want to play you. I don't know. And I want to see you. That's my argument. Okay, well that's bad podcast radio. I need an argument. Let's get controversial here. Anyway. Alright, we're back at we're at back channel still. Uh we got about, I don't know, we're planning on going for two hours, so we're at an hour and fifteen right now. Uh I'm gonna bring Heidi. I was gonna bring Josh, owner of Back Channel, on Heidi. Heidi? Heidi hasn't listened to the podcast. Maybe she'll show up. She did show up. Shout out to the my wife has been uh very supportive of this in every facet except listening. Which I don't blame her, she's not a basketball fan, but you know lets me do it. Let's me it gives me the time. So love her, love the family, but yeah, she's not gonna be breaking down Miami, Texas with me tomorrow. Let's just be honest about that. Let's look ahead to tomorrow. Let's look at the games. Um I wish I had this pulled up on my computer, but we're gonna go on the phone. Uh matchup tomorrow that you're most interested in, Matt. Uh let's see, that's today. Let's go tomorrow. Let's go even just go these first eight games. We got Santa Clara, Kentucky, Akron, Texas Tech. Um Lisa, I think, asked about upset picks. I got another one on this list. Um, Santa Clara is an upset pick? I I like Santa Clara. I mean, I don't know whether I picked them in my bracket. I'm not as high on them necessarily, but what I do think, I think Akron will beat Texas Tech. Texas Tech doesn't have Toppin. Akron all season ranked higher than Miami of Ohio. They lost a head-to-head. Uh so they win the conference tournament, they get the auto bid. Akron, I think, is the best team in the back. At least that's what they predicted metrics say, Ken Pom and whatnot. So I actually think Akron's gonna give Texas Tech a heck of a game to go. Interesting. That's minor.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:10

Yeah, what's that line? 11? 11 and a half. That's a lot of points for a lot of points for missing such a key player. Yeah, he got a little too uh excited about partying or something. I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:26

Yeah. There's some big spreads. Tate and I were talking about this earlier. The all four and uh all of the top four seats of the top sixteen were all favored by double digits this year. And so we were kind of debating whether that was like is that an NIL thing or whatever? But I think it's more that power the mid-major confidence that's only teams lose that were the would have been probably not as big a hundred. Like Liberty would have probably been closer to nine or ten points instead of like 14-15 or whatever.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:57

The gap between halves and half-knots, though, is growing every year, so it is, yeah. They do something about that.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:04

Uh Iowa Clemson, that should be a good game. Like there's any like real upset in an eight-nine, but you know, Bennett Sturts and Iowa, they played a slow plate pace all year, and McCollum's a great coach, so St.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:19

John's is an interesting team in this coming end, too. Like, what they got they got beat by what 30-40 by UConn, and then on the flip side, when they decide to turn it on from a defensive standpoint, like I mean I would not want to play them.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

On Selection Sunday, that was the one where I'm like St. John's five seed? Yeah. They won the Big East regular season and tournament title. They got two wins against UConn, and they're a five-seed? I couldn't believe it. Um, so there's a lot of people picking them to get to go to the Final Four. Because because of Duke's injuries, though they could see Duke in the Sweet 16. You know, they got to beat Kansas if if assuming those two win. But um, yeah, I mean, I St. John's is scary as a five seed.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:09

I think I saw a stock that said that there's an 89% chance that a one or two seed wins. Right? So that probably sounds right.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:16

But the tournament? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:19

So you're really top heavy.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:23

Yeah, you you feel that way going in, and then you see Siena almost beat Duke, and you're like, well, you're still upset, aren't you?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:30

I'm just saying, it happens. Uh they are good.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:35

Uh Michigan has had moments, you know, they they've lost games. Um they almost lost to TCU early this year. You know, Florida looks really good right now, but I don't I don't love their guards. If they get in a game where someone can match their physicality a little bit or at least slow them down, like and they have good guards, they're they're anything. Yeah, I mean, they they're all very good teams. I'm just saying that. It's hard. Yeah. Alright. Alright. Any other topics you want to cover, Matt?

SPEAKER_06 1:12:06

No, no, I think I'll get back to uh back channel and uh supporting the cause here, but uh bring somebody else in.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:14

Um we're gonna probably bring in Josh if he's around. I don't see Josh owner, but uh I was gonna put Josh the owner here back to I haven't seen him here in a minute. He was over here earlier. I was gonna track him down. Uh here I want you to remember one name before you leave.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:29

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:30

Jomo Goings. Jomo Goings! What about you? Jomo Rowings. Alright, they should put his first name on the jersey. Oh my god. I need more Jomo in my life. Uh, let me see if I can buy Josh.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:46

Good job, man. Appreciate you coming on.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:48

Yeah, thanks for coming out. Alright, so we got uh Kansas going on right now, like I said. Um here. What's up, Tater?

SPEAKER_08 1:13:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:03

I was gonna grab him, yep.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:05

Alright, so we're gonna be ones with history.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:08

Yeah. Yep, uh, UNC up six right now on BCU, so uh that game still, you know, sometimes you get lose a guy and you're just not quite um the other team maybe thinks, hey, we got an opportunity here, but at the end of the day, like, you know, sometimes these teams are are here for a reason, right? Like Carolina's Carolina, they got they got dudes. They they lose one dude, but they got other guys. So um we'll see. Uh VCU I do think can wear them out. So um, you know, VCU's pressure might get to Carolina as the game wears on. Uh that that's my thought with VCU is that they they can be pretty tough to uh to play with for 40 minutes, you know. Um that's the style, that's the goal for VCU is to kind of wear you down over time. Um But yeah, anyway, thanks for thanks for joining here if you're on YouTube. Um a lot of people here in attendance, great environment, back channel boring. If you haven't heard of it, check it out if you're in the Twin Cities, especially West Metro, Minataka, Wizetta, uh out west here, uh on the shores of the lake. Super fun. Oh, Josh is out. Alright. Well, hey, we appreciate Josh. I feel bad not getting him on, uh, but we appreciate the back channel hosting this. We got a great group here. We're gonna uh just run the camera quick and show everybody what's up. Uh hold on. Here we go, here we go. Here we go. We got people. Say hi! Say hi! Uh all right. Well, I think we got everything covered. It's been a great night. Um thanks Matt. Thanks, Tate, for coming on. Hope you guys have enjoyed this uh broadcast. Uh we'll get this up on um Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. If you haven't already, uh follow the Squash City Basketball Podcast, Instagram, Facebook, subscribe on YouTube, um also on Blue Sky. I don't know if anybody else is on Blue Sky, but we're on Blue Sky. And uh yeah, more content to come. It's March Madness, baby. It's the first day, it's opening day, it's Thursday, March 19th, 2026. This has been Smash City basketball podcast.