March Madness First Weekend Recap & Sweet 16 Preview

Neil (00:59.352)
It starts with the theme song.

Nick (01:01.954)
The da da da da da da.

Nick (01:16.622)
Alright, we're rolling. You ready?

Neil (01:18.884)
year.

Nick (01:24.27)
Did get your fix in? 4 straight days of hoops. The best weekend of the year is over. We got plenty to recap. Plenty to look forward to coming up on Thursday and Friday with the Sweet 16. It is the Height Differential. I am the 410 Nick. That is the 660. Before we jump in, if you're watching live or catching this later, make sure to subscribe to the Height Differential wherever you listen to pods.

Neil (01:28.014)
I'm exhausted.

Nick (01:51.82)
rate it and leave review also follow us on social at height differential did you get your hoops fix in? Neil. Well is that because of the hoops watching or is that because of other extracurricular activities?

Neil (01:59.364)
I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted. I mean, that's a lot.

Neil (02:07.12)
I mean, is it not a combination of everything? I mean, you've got 30, what, 32 games in the first two days, then add another 16. So, I mean, we're at 40, 48 games in four days, something like that. Is that the math? Is that the math, math? I mean, that's a lot. I mean, it's...

Nick (02:23.726)
Pretty good math, pretty good math. And then you add in the Tuesdays and Wednesdays with the play-ins and you add all the women's games that we've been watching because I've been watching those too.

Neil (02:33.296)
Yeah, mean, yeah, you ain't kidding. I mean, it's the best four days on the sports calendar, but then when Monday rolls around, you just feel a little weary, a little tired. So now you got two, three days to regroup, and let's get ready for Thursday.

Nick (02:50.082)
Well, I don't know about how weary like the tournament just straight turns to women's the women's tournament on Monday keeps you going There's games all day starting off with Louisville This afternoon holding on to beat Alabama 69 to 68. They won't do anything easy But they're marching on to their 13th sweet 16 under head coach Jeff Wall So congratulations to the cards was fun to be there atmosphere was good for a noon game

Neil (02:56.56)
That does keep you going.

Neil (03:04.004)
Yes. Nope.

Neil (03:14.64)
It was great. Kudos to Card Nation. It's at noon on a Monday to get almost 6,000 fans out there today. So, yeah.

Nick (03:22.626)
Yeah, so tournament towards turned towards women's but we'll recap the four days of the men's tournament here But like you said on on Thursday you get that CBS theme song Right. You watch the end of prices, right? Because you can't wait for the for the coverage of the basketball tournament to start as soon as Drew Carey It was better when it was Bob Barker But now Drew Carey when he ends it tells you to get yours pet spayed or neutered, you know, that theme song is about to hit

Neil (03:37.828)
That's right.

Neil (03:49.68)
yeah, like you're already juiced, you're already juiced, you're down sitting in front of the TV and you find yourself yelling at Suzy and George of how much they overbid on the showcase showdown. Like no, you idiot, that's too high. And then we roll right into the games. So yeah, you're right.

Nick (04:06.093)
You can't beat it and it's I mean, I don't know how many years it's now been where they've had it on four different TVs where you can find every game but it is the greatest thing ever and yeah, my eyes are tired from watching hoops and

Neil (04:16.452)
Yes.

Neil (04:20.986)
Well, we also watched it. Technically we started on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week too. mean, the playing games were alright. They were alright.

Nick (04:31.553)
They were good the Miami, Ohio game. I guess do we need to start off with that before we get into the actual bracket? It's been almost a week since that went down You were a Miami, Ohio hater They took care of smooth. I it might be more the fact that smooth is just not very good and shouldn't have been in the tournament, but If you're if you're arguing who was gonna get in I think it was clear-cut that Miami, Ohio Deserved to get in over smooth and it was fun for them to get the national stage

Neil (04:43.331)
Yeah.

Nick (04:59.849)
They had deserved that for what they did this season. And I know it didn't turn out their way against Tennessee, but just to have that one night, I think it was cool for the Red Hawks in Miami, Ohio.

Neil (05:11.222)
It was fine. mean, did they end up, basically, did they end up deserving to be in the tournament? I guess so. I mean, they earned it by beating. They beat that. They finally beat a Power Four team in SMU who did not look very good on Wednesday night last week. But kudos to Miami. Their offense, I was very, very impressed with the way they run their offense. A lot of backdoor action. They shot the ball really well. They were by far the better team.

Nick (05:18.029)
Well, that's not good.

Neil (05:38.06)
over that ACC SMU team that got it, got in the playing game. So kudos to Miami. They did deserve to get into that playing game. They proved themselves and then they got housed by the first actual good team they played.

Nick (05:53.155)
Well, Tennessee is just a physical team, they're athletic. They're just not a great matchup for them and was not a close game. But we've talked a lot of Miami, Ohio on here. I feel like it was worth their due to kind of give them their flowers for showing up against SMU. But now I guess just kind of get into the tournament. We can go region by region because there's been so many games. We don't need to go into every single game. But if you look at the East region,

Neil (06:06.042)
I'll give them their flowers. They get their flowers.

Neil (06:19.31)
No.

Yeah.

Nick (06:23.01)
and this region is went almost completely chalk and I got every game right on my bracket. You, I don't know if you got it right because what you said on the air last week that was changed the next day. I don't know when I could post shorts because you're changing your mind constantly. Did you get everyone right in the East region?

Neil (06:27.833)
Yeah.

Neil (06:31.546)
I got all...

Neil (06:45.712)
I got seven out of eight. Correct. I missed that Ohio State TCU game, which was a great opening game for the first game of the tournament. An outstanding game. TCU getting the bucket late and then forcing Ohio State, you know, to not get off a good look at the end, forcing them to a half court heave that wasn't even close. So great game to start it off. But yeah, I got seven out of eight. That was the one I missed.

Nick (07:08.022)
And you know, you talk about the ending there and it's one thing I want to get into during this pod is talking about fouling at the end of games and in the game situations. And Ohio State had to go the length of the court. They had almost five seconds. It was like four and a half, something like that. They don't get the ball running downhill. They don't even get to half court. Like just play defense. And obviously the way the Ohio State, what they drew up is not what they actually were able to execute.

it the way they wanted to but they caught the ball not going downhill because that got a terrible shot off and I don't know everybody just keeps talking about it in all these late game situations after you see what happens that they would foul to me that is an instance to show you why you should not foul. Just guard!

Neil (07:53.636)
Yeah, well that one was a two point game, right? I mean, unless you're the top. Yeah, no, I agree. But unless you're Todd Golden, you're not fouling up to input giving them a chance to tie the game. But we'll get into that later. But no, East region, like you said, it was all chalk. I think probably the game of the first round there was probably I'm gonna guess. I mean, for me, it was that Louisville South Florida game. And we obviously have a lot of interest in Louisville being the local team here. They played really well.

Nick (07:57.113)
Yeah. No, but I'm just saying like just guard, just guard.

Nick (08:04.684)
and we'll get into that.

Neil (08:23.86)
for, I don't know, about 30, 35 minutes of that game and kind of started turning it over a lot and ended up with, I don't know, was it 22 turnovers or something maybe? Something high like that. It was not great, but you know, they held on. They did what they needed to do. Isaac McNeely was on fire. Good for the cars. First tournament win since 2017. So it was something that we needed, Louisville needed, PK needed, the fan base needed.

Nick (08:33.728)
It was ugly. It was ugly.

Neil (08:51.38)
A lot of people didn't have Louisville winning this game. If you listen to all the national quote unquote experts, everybody was picking South Florida as the trendy upset and Louisville shut that down. So it was good. Good winning in round one for the cards.

Nick (09:03.704)
Well, it's almost a good sign, I think, when all the experts are not picking your team. And you're right, not a single person on national media picked Louisville to win this game. And because of that, Louisville goes on to win. They then played Michigan State, hung in there, within striking distance. You're kind of hoping that the under four, they were a little closer. late in the game, it really was never a doubt. I don't know really what to say about the game on.

On Saturday, think Michigan State's probably just a better team.

Neil (09:31.998)
No

They played Michigan State played better. mean, the cards, were in strike, said in striking distance, most of the way it was in that five to seven point range, like they'd cut it to five and just hoping for that stop and they couldn't get it. And it go back to seven, it go back to nine, then they cut it back to five, but they could never, they had the ball one time and I think midway until late in the second half where they had the ball down three, they did finally get a stop and then they missed the three pointer and that was the closest that they got the rest of the way.

I don't know, it's-

Nick (10:04.6)
Yeah, that Khalifa look in the corner, that was kind of a rush shot, that was where they were down three where they had a chance to tie it. If that falls, maybe it's a little different, but.

Neil (10:14.032)
Yeah, the Michigan State was the better team. Don't get me wrong. The officiating, a little questionable perhaps. So a lot of flopping on the Michigan State side and a flagrant one foul that I don't know how you call that when the man missed the ball by about an inch and just hit an arm, but it's what it is. It's fine.

Nick (10:20.526)
No.

Nick (10:35.534)
Yeah, would have been fun to see what that run would have looked like with Michael Brown. I mean, they're gonna be a lot better press offense with him on the floor. That's a big reason why they struggled against the press is cuz he's not in there. Just unfortunate the way all that went down and I don't know, we're likely to not see Michael Brown in a Louisville uniform again, so.

Neil (10:55.6)
To me that was the game of the first round.

Nick (10:57.462)
The game of the first round, I think you're wrong. I think it was Duke Sienna. Who expected Sienna to hang in there playing five guys almost the entire game, not using their bench one time, hanging in there and they just ran out of gas. And you listen to Malik Brown at halftime, he's very honest and says, you know what? We just kind of thought this was gonna be a cupcake game and we were overlooking them.

Neil (11:14.76)
I did,

Nick (11:25.69)
And that's why they're hanging in there. And in the end, Duke just kind of wore them down and ended up winning by six. But the fact that Sienna had a chance to win at the under four, I don't think anybody's expecting that. And now you've seen two coaches that lose in the first round. Jerry McNamara leaves Sienna to go to Syracuse and Brian Hodgson leaves South Florida to go to Providence, which I think is a really good get for the Friars.

Neil (11:51.256)
Yeah, I mean, he had his choice between Providence and Syracuse or saying it's South Florida and he obviously went the Providence route which left McNamara going back to Syracuse. And we've talked about former players going back and coaching their alma mater's and a lot of times how that can or may or may not work and a lot of times it doesn't work. But McNamara did a great job with Sienna. I hope he plays more than five guys at Syracuse, but it'll be interesting to see what he can do up there.

Nick (12:18.913)
And then the second round the game of Sunday was St. John's in Kansas. St. John's leads almost the entire way. Looks like they're gonna cruise and then all of a Darren Peterson in Kansas kind of starts to make some threes, making a run at it, get some big offensive rebounds. And St. John's ends up with the ball with less than ten seconds, what about six seconds left because they had used three fouls to give.

Neil (12:45.808)
which they, I thought we'll talk about filing later. I thought that they did an excellent job of using those files to give. And then you just let them go right by you there at end of the game. But when we, you when you have all those files to give, like they, they made them run the clock down. They, what, it took off at least 13, 14 seconds.

Nick (13:01.335)
They got it down to six, I believe. That was what they inbounded it on that last play. My thing is, like, I get it with the... What? Was that not right?

Neil (13:09.912)
I think it was less than that. I thought it was down to like three.

Nick (13:11.701)
Okay. It wasn't that short.

Neil (13:16.772)
look that up. I thought it was done to like three seconds.

Nick (13:20.205)
But here's my thing with it. You've got fouls to give. I'm not going to go to six to where if I get a checking foul, I'm sending them to the line. And that's what you risk there is putting them to the line when it's not a shooting foul. So if I can use that fifth foul, I would do it. But Dylan Darlin, who hadn't scored the entire game, and we talked about him on this spot, how he really didn't do a lot the first couple of months for St. John's.

told Patino that he wanted the ball, he wanted to get downhill. And when he turned the corner there, there was nobody, nobody underneath protecting the paint. He went to his right, even though he's a lefty, and was able to finish the play and get the two points to get St. John's the victory. What'd you find out there? Three.

Neil (14:08.304)
Three seconds. Foul on Flory Bedunga with three seconds left. And when they started fouling, their first foul was with 13 seconds left. So they made them waste 10 seconds. So you get it down to three, they're inbounding it from half court, basically. Like you feel pretty good. And then you just let the guy just straight get to the rim. Like I don't know how you allow that to happen.

Nick (14:19.949)
So they. 10 seconds.

Nick (14:30.957)
Well, it wasn't that there was also like there was just straight just clear sailing once he got past his guy. There's nobody there for help defense Nobody there and look he's going his wrong hand like he's a lefty talked about that post game and is able to finish that with his offhand So kudos to him. He's the first player ever to hit a shot at the buzzer that hadn't scored previously in the NCAA tournament Which which is the man's asking for the ball what he hadn't scored

Neil (14:35.952)
There's just nobody.

Neil (14:46.437)
Yeah.

Neil (14:58.042)
That's kind of cool. He talked about it. He talked about it. Yeah.

Nick (14:59.362)
And Rick and Petino is like, all right, let's go.

Neil (15:08.132)
What was your stat? said Rick Pitino, the third coach?

Nick (15:11.341)
So Rick Petito now is the third coach in college basketball history to reach a final four or reach a sweet 16 and five different decades. He did with 80 with Providence, 90 with Kentucky, 2000 and 2010 with Louisville and now 2020 with St. John's. There are two other coaches to do it. One coach has done it six times. Do you know who those two coaches are? Both of those coaches did it with the same school.

Neil (15:37.7)
We go. Mike Soshevsky's gotta be.

Nick (15:41.549)
Kay did it also did it in five decades.

Neil (15:44.784)
and somebody else did it in six?

Nick (15:46.413)
I'll write it in six.

Neil (15:51.01)
Roy Williams done it in six? No, not around long enough. Bob Knight?

Nick (15:52.886)
No.

Neil (15:58.941)
Six decades.

Nick (16:00.929)
He's got a new coach.

Neil (16:04.25)
Jim Bayheim. Wow. Yeah, that makes sense.

Nick (16:05.453)
That is it.

Nick (16:09.269)
And look, this is another reason why I don't think John Shire gives the credit that he deserves. He's like, look what Syracuse has done since. I just think it like, I don't think he gives, I think we all just assumed that Duke is just always going to be Duke because they didn't skip a beat. And we've seen so many of these programs when they lose their head coaches have such a tough time getting back to the level that they were. And

Neil (16:17.284)
We do love, you love some John Shy.

Neil (16:29.28)
That's true.

Nick (16:38.061)
Now Syracuse is going to Jerry McNamara has had zero success whatsoever since Bayheim has retired. And I don't know, just, we just assumed that it was gonna happen. And I'm not, you know, I'm not a Duke fan. I do not cheer for Duke. But it's the fact that he is, they have not skipped a beat at all. I mean, look what North Carolina is going through right now. Like Hubert Davis might not have a job next year.

Neil (16:43.833)
Yeah.

Neil (16:52.474)
Yeah.

It is impressive. No, I agree with you.

Neil (17:02.458)
Yeah.

Neil (17:06.042)
Yeah.

Nick (17:06.733)
I think it makes sense. I don't know, he maybe deserves one more year, but I think it's definitely something that you would look at. You can't lose that game that they lost to VCU, and last year you barely get in, and I don't know. So now you've got Duke and St. John's, Michigan State and UConn, Shire, Pitino, Izzo, Hurley.

Neil (17:26.746)
Yeah.

Neil (17:32.752)
Quite a group.

Nick (17:34.945)
Quite a group. On the bottom of the bracket, in the south, I got some games wrong in this one. And I think a lot of other people did too.

Neil (17:45.584)
I'll say first round I only missed one in the first round on that one and that was the Texas A game but my first round was I mean it was mostly chalk except for what well Iowa was a nine but VCU was an 11.

Nick (17:45.963)
the

Nick (17:50.229)
Yeah, I miss that one too. Just watching that game, I'm like, you're an idiot.

Nick (18:00.512)
All nines won and I picked all nines, so.

Nick (18:06.221)
No, just just saying in This the the game obviously of the first round in the south was the VCU Coming back from 19 down against North Carolina, North Carolina was just killing them inside to and that's how they built their lead and They went away from it. They went away from it and Terrence Hill got hot Nick Smith made some some big plays

Neil (18:06.414)
What else did you you miss another one in that first round?

Nick (18:35.745)
They ended up getting it overtime and dude that overtime was a dogfight. Neither team could score. I think they went the first two and a half minutes without a point in that overtime. Terrence Hill finally does hit a three and VCU ends up escaping. I forget regulation. They had a chance to win and then turn the ball over and then North Carolina almost scores going the other way to end it. And then we go to overtime and but.

Neil (18:40.272)
It was a dog.

Nick (19:04.705)
Yeah, then that's why Hubert Davis is on the hot seat. had a 19 point lead to a VCU team that was one of the hotter teams in the country. They coming in, I think, went in 19 to 20 into the tournament.

Neil (19:14.936)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick (19:19.413)
Other than that, really, in the first round there really wasn't...

Neil (19:24.666)
Another one-y thing really exciting.

Nick (19:27.357)
It was Randy Bennett's last game at St. Mary's as he is now the next head coach of the Arizona State. A lot of teams losing on the first round, having losing their head coaches to go other places. And then the second round in the south, Illinois just kind of puts it on VCU. Houston does the same to Texas A But the other two, about as good as games as you're gonna see in this tournament.

Neil (19:37.69)
cups. Yeah.

Neil (19:52.922)
Great games.

Great games.

Nick (19:57.038)
And we can start with the Vanderbilt Nebraska game. Tyler Tanner was just incredible again. And we had already seen the bucket by Owe on Thursday to start the tournament. And dude, it looked like he had did the same thing from a little deeper.

Neil (20:16.912)
I don't know how it didn't go in. I don't understand how that thing didn't go in. I you look at like the still frame of it and it's halfway in the hoop and it kicked back out.

Neil (20:33.784)
Good for Nebraska, like, you know, coming into this tournament, no wins in their over a hundred year basketball history, no wins in the NCAA tournament. And they'd absolutely destroy Troy in the first round and then beat a very, very good Vanderbilt team in the second round. And Nebraska had struggled coming into this tournament a little bit. You know, they, they, they, the way that they started out the year so hot and winning all those games in a row to start it. And then I guess they coming in, coming into this NCAA tournament, they, they dropped a couple.

Nick (20:49.907)
I mean...

Nick (21:04.237)
Well, yeah, I mean, you don't get to 20 and 0 without being a really good basketball team. here's my thing. I think Vanderbilt, I talked about this last week, was under-seated. I don't think these two teams should have met this early. But two really good basketball teams. And you're right. It's the first time, obviously, that Nebraska's ever been to the Sweet 16 when you've never won a tournament game. That's going to be the case. And now, because...

Neil (21:04.633)
Thank you.

Nick (21:34.209)
You've got Iowa upsetting Florida. Now you get a chance to play an Iowa team that you've split with. We'll get into more of that later in the show, but a chance to win another one for the the Conehouse Christian.

Neil (21:47.696)
Yeah, I mean, guess, don't know, let's see who's, do you know who won the regular season matchup? Oh, they said they split. Yeah, so one of them in overtime looks like, yeah, recently on March 8th, Nebraska got the win in the, I guess that was the, right before the Big Ten tournament. So the last game of the season. Yeah, it's gonna be a good game. I don't know, that one's a toss up for me. I don't know which way you can go, I don't know.

Nick (21:53.133)
They split.

Nick (22:14.925)
Well, you better figure it out because you're going to be picking who wins here in a little bit.

Neil (22:18.088)
I'm gonna ride the Nebraska train. We're gonna ride the Nebraska train. We'll stay on it. We'll do it for the field and the rest of the Nebraska fans out there.

Nick (22:23.308)
No.

Nick (22:28.321)
But the biggest shocker of, would you say the biggest shocker of this tournament so far is Iowa upsetting Florida. They led the majority of the game, but then Florida fought back, got a four point lead, like they kinda were just gonna, national title defenders are usually hard to knock off. Now I've got some numbers here that say otherwise.

Neil (22:33.656)
yeah.

Neil (22:36.88)
Yeah.

Nick (22:54.797)
But they got the lead up four, but Iowa did not blink and you know, they're down two there late and Run that starts gets the ball gets downhill where they're kind of chasing him and then they they find Fogaroos Fogaroos however you say his name for the three in the corner to go up to or to go up one and Then Florida calls timeout goes the length of the field but length of the court

Neil (23:16.112)
Yeah.

Nick (23:23.533)
and league gets underneath really has a bounce back there in traffic that can't get through and Florida or Iowa goes on to win the they are in the last two 2017

Neil (23:26.842)
I think he got caught. He got caught. Yeah.

Nick (23:43.009)
They are the Yukon team in 24.

Neil (23:44.89)
So, is your next point.

Nick (23:48.366)
Which was was defending their title is the only team that has got back to the sweet 16 the next year And of course that you can't team went on to win the whole thing Last year you con lost in a second round defending their title and then Kansas and Lost in a second round Baylor in the second round Virginia in the first round Nova in the second round Carolina in the second round and Nova again in the second round dating back to 17 so

Other than that one time where UConn broke through, it has been tough sledding for national title defenders.

Neil (24:19.76)
That's kind of a wild stat when you think about it. You know? Like, that's crazy.

Nick (24:22.753)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (24:27.767)
But after the game, or did you have something else?

Neil (24:32.763)
I'm just like we were talking about how good of a game it was and you know and how Good of a team Florida you had Florida as your number two pick. I think in our draft, right? Yeah, and I how well they've been playing minus that Vanderbilt game and you know I would jumped on him early and once Florida took that lead in the second half They had the crowd behind them. They're playing in Tampa. It's a pro Gator crowd I just expected Florida to just run with it and in this game, you know kind of pulling away been that eight to ten point range, but

Iowa just kept battling and battling and battling. I mean it was...

Nick (25:03.629)
Well, dude, here's the thing too, Bennett Sturks was 0-9 from free in this game. And he's their best player. And the fact that I was able to overcome that and beat a Florida team, Chinuelu didn't score and only had one field goal attempt and one rebound. They took him completely out of the game. Condon and Hawks still combined for 40 points. You're not gonna stop their front court completely.

Neil (25:08.911)
Yeah.

Nick (25:33.525)
Yeah, you're right. Like once they got up four and you're like, all right, Florida's got it rolling. Like the fact that Iowa was able to take that punch and kind of come back and figure out a way to win late is impressive. And I think it's, they won by 50 against A in the game before, or preview A And it's the most somebody's beat somebody and then the next game get knocked off. I think in NCAA history, saw that stat somewhere.

Neil (25:37.23)
The crowd was in it.

Neil (25:46.245)
No.

Neil (25:59.6)
It's happened twice. Kansas, and it's both Prairie Review A Kansas also beat Prairie Review by over 50, came back and lost in the next round. Yeah.

Nick (26:02.219)
And it's both in preview A right? Yeah.

Nick (26:09.995)
But and look, Ben McCollum is the dude. The dude can just coach and he is now.

Neil (26:15.397)
win some games.

Nick (26:23.533)
He is now 35 and eight in NCA tournament play. And that does include D2 tournaments, obviously. But I mean, last year he won a game with Drake. He's now three and one in D1 and 32 and seven in D2. I think he's proved that this dude just knows how to coach and knows how to win games when it's tourney time. He obviously did that with Northwest Missouri State and D2 level and now he's doing it.

doing it with Iowa and I don't know. I never would have picked this game, obviously, and I don't think many other people did. But good on Iowa, 10 and 10 in the Big 10. And they're going to the Sweet 16.

Neil (27:10.736)
That's crazy.

Nick (27:13.335)
So, but I do what you, I talked about it a little bit, the whole Fallon thing. And Iowa has the ball, down two, and like this is not something that even crossed my mind, but they allow Sturge to get it, and he's going downhill. Like that's the thing, like if you get.

Neil (27:33.616)
That's the first problem. That's the first problem. You let him not only catch the ball going with a full head of steam, but you let him get behind you right off the bat. You're chasing. You're already chasing after two dribbles. That was the main problem.

Nick (27:42.635)
Yeah, you're being chased.

Nick (27:50.027)
Right, to me it's just execute defense. And Todd Golden in his post game press conference is talking about how they wanted to file.

Neil (27:52.772)
Yes.

Nick (28:02.686)
and what are we doing? Like what are we doing? Like you're up two, you're gonna send it to the line? And look, I get it, this prevents you, I guess, from being able to lose in regulation for the most part. I mean, there's still a chance they make the first one, miss the second one, get offensive rebound and tip it back in, and you can lose that way. There are other ways you can still lose. I just don't understand all this fouling talk. I don't know.

Like I get it and I still debate it when you're up three. I think there are times you can do it. But I think sometimes when they're found with nine, ten seconds left and you're extending the game like that, it doesn't make sense to me.

Neil (28:32.996)
No, this one...

Neil (28:37.262)
Yeah.

Neil (28:43.024)
He's completely wrong in this situation like you you made the free throw to go up to with eight seconds left Why do you need to pressure full court? You don't there's eight eight seconds is plenty of time Drop back a little bit because otherwise didn't when you pressure full court look what happened You got beat right down the court play half court defense and just prevent them from shooting a three and you don't lose You don't need to pressure the ball with eight seconds if there was two seconds or something maybe three side with eight seconds

Nick (29:03.596)
I don't disagree.

I know this is good.

Neil (29:12.826)
Just play defense, play half court deep. Pick them up at half court and guard the three point line. Instead, you let them get behind you, they hit a wide open three, you're not fouling. This is the most outrageous thing I've ever heard is to put a guy at the line to where he has two wide open free throws. There's no defense on that. Yeah, I mean, no, I'm not putting the potential game tying points at the free throw line. I'm picking up at half court and I'm defending the three.

Nick (29:20.438)
And you're, because you're scrambling.

Nick (29:30.284)
They're called, you gotta make your spouse.

Neil (29:42.307)
If they make a shot, they make a

Nick (29:42.582)
Do you buy? Like obviously they didn't do that. And do you buy that that was actually their strategy? Like there's no way he's just making that up in post game.

Neil (29:54.864)
Was there a timeout? Was there a timeout call after he made the free throw? There was. Yeah, there was a timeout. So maybe it was. Maybe he had time. In that timeout, he told his guys, who were you fouling in that situation? I was going to get the ball to, it was Sturtz. You're not fouling Sturtz. You're going to foul off the ball? So you're going to foul 50 feet away from the ball by just grabbing somebody's jersey?

Nick (30:14.764)
I think for him, what he said is when it gets out of search hands, foul.

Nick (30:23.404)
And then you walk them to the line.

Neil (30:26.916)
What? I... I don't...

Nick (30:28.5)
And how many like and look how many late game situations even in half court have we seen teams just get off terrible shots because they don't execute and the other team just plays defense like in those situations we're not even mentioning fouling because they guarded and they get off the worst shot like tie games in the half court where they don't need a three and they're shooting desperation threes because they don't execute offense

Neil (30:41.732)
Yes!

Neil (30:55.652)
Yes. Yes. And this is exactly what should have happened in this situation up to you don't pick up full court. You don't need to. You don't need to do it with eight seconds left. mean, Golden's obviously a good coach.

Nick (31:10.028)
I don't even think you need token pressure. you don't even need token pressure. Have everybody on the other end of the court. Or maybe just have one guy waiting for the guy that gets the ball to kind of slow him up a little bit, but he where he's in front of. Just full court man, full court man that you're staying in front and you're not letting them get behind you.

Neil (31:15.269)
Yes!

Neil (31:21.614)
Yes, like the one thing that couldn't happen happened to you.

Neil (31:27.792)
It basically, it turned into being a fast break off an in-bounce play. It was a fast break.

Nick (31:32.138)
Well, and dude, much that corner three in transition is going down is going down

Neil (31:36.738)
Every time. Every time. Every time. Brutal.

Nick (31:41.588)
And to be honest, you got the ball in a really good spot. If I'm Lee, I think you just shoot that. Try to draw a foul. Or put it up on the rim to where your front-court guys can maybe try to put it back, because they had time to do that.

Neil (31:47.342)
Yeah, I mean, you didn't have that either.

Neil (31:55.644)
Yeah, I think maybe he wanted, I don't know. I don't know what his thought process was. He got caught and then just the guy, mean, I don't know who he was passing it Condon, but no, didn't even look like he was expecting it. Balls, tip drive, there's too much traffic in there. You just got to shoot that.

but well.

Nick (32:14.582)
Going over to west.

The high point Wisconsin game obviously was.

Neil (32:25.988)
Yeah.

Nick (32:26.73)
the game of the first round there.

just a back and forth game. The high point is proven that they, you know, we're going to talk about as Cinder, as NIO killed Cinderella, but high point, and I've talked about how much money they have. They've got some money to spend, but I think they've proven that, I mean, very easily could have beaten Arkansas to get to the sweet 16. So if you're going to say that Cinderella is dead, I think high point is like, look, dude, we're hanging on. We're right there.

Neil (32:53.978)
Yeah.

Neil (32:59.47)
Yeah, no, I mean, we talked about this as being a potential, one of the trendy upset picks with the way the high point could score the ball. mean, are they one of the top offensive teams in the country, if not the top offensive team in the country? They can score points and they certainly put up 83 on Wisconsin and hung, like you said, hung really tough with Arkansas. But yeah, that was a tough one. I had Wisconsin going another round. So that was a bummer loss on that one.

Nick (33:29.418)
mean that's what it's all about. You sacrifice the bracket for stuff like that. the crazy thing was that it was Chase Johnston that actually got free on that transition layup. And what dude just does not shoot twos at all.

Neil (33:30.99)
It is. You do.

Neil (33:42.666)
yeah, yeah. We talked about him last week.

Neil (33:51.28)
0 for 4.

Nick (33:52.779)
Yeah, does not shoot twos, but then is the one that gets free. And dude, it was a pretty little finger row too. I'm like, just put that thing in, don't risk that finger row. And then Nick Boyd and Blackwell were both really good in that game too. Just didn't get a lot of help really. But look, every single year we've got the 12 that beats the five I feel like. And it's just do you pick the right one because-

Neil (34:19.984)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (34:23.616)
We both talked about how this is gonna be a tough game for Wisconsin, but neither one of us had the cojones to go against him.

Neil (34:31.012)
No, I picked the wrong, I picked a 12.5 but I picked the wrong 12.5.

Nick (34:34.848)
Yeah. In the second round, Arkansas does pull away from high point late. And then Texas wins their third straight game to get to the sweet 16 beating a Gonzaga team that I thought was right for an upset. I just had the wrong team beating them. Thought AJ DeBonsa would get a little more help than he got.

in that first round game, it's good, BYU just looked awful.

Neil (35:06.158)
Yeah.

Nick (35:08.01)
And then, let me, we encountered them out and.

Trey Kaufman ran in these first two games is looking as good as he's looked all year. Just.

Neil (35:22.126)
Yeah, Purdue seems to be living up to the preseason hype, but they were preseason number one, start the year, dropped several games along the way. And now they're rounding into form at the right time. They look good. They look like the team that everybody expected them to look like.

Nick (35:41.164)
And then in the last region Midwest, I think we got to talk a little bit about that first round Kentucky game against Santa Clara. Santa Clara gets a three point bucket with 2.4. Yeah, you're right.

Neil (35:54.832)
I mean, just the last 11 seconds. Well, O-way ties the game with 11 on the layup there. Yeah.

Nick (36:00.927)
It was less than 10, I think, when it went in. And then they go the other way. They get the three from the wing with 2.4. Herb Sendick's trying to call Tom out. They don't give it to him. A lot of the Santa Clara guys are not even playing defense because they're celebrating. And then O.A. It wasn't exactly a half court shot. He was a little bit in front of the half court line. Banks it in, sends it to O.T. and then Kentucky.

Neil (36:09.018)
They tried to call time out. Yeah.

Neil (36:16.464)
They're celebrating! They're gonna back turn to the play, almost.

Neil (36:24.528)
About two steps in from it.

Neil (36:29.238)
It wasn't like it wasn't contested. I thought Santa Clara minus the two dudes that were celebrating the rest of them. I thought played actually decent defense on him. There was a hand on his face and I mean, that's just one of those.

Nick (36:36.49)
But you also let him get to that spot in 2.4 seconds. Yes. So you can contest the shot, but you can't.

Neil (36:42.946)
Also, you didn't turn, yeah, you gotta, yeah, that's the problem.

I mean, he makes that shot, what do you think? One out of every 20? Maybe even less than that.

Nick (36:55.468)
I would say, no, think it's inside the half court line. They shoot these shots every day in practice. I think maybe one for 20 is about right. I wouldn't go any lower than that.

Neil (37:03.813)
Yeah.

Nick (37:11.373)
And, but.

Neil (37:12.474)
But I'm still not fouling, we go back to the fouling thing. I'm not fouling here either when you're up three with less than, there's three seconds left, just stop the ball. All I have do is stop the ball from getting to half court.

Nick (37:19.594)
Yes. First off, I wouldn't call time out, but if I see my guys celebrating and they're not ready, then I understand why you're wanting to call time out. Because they didn't have any time outs. And I don't want to allow them to set up a play. So if you are just composed, which is hard to do, I get it. You just hit a game winner with what you think is a game winner with 2.4.

Neil (37:31.492)
Did Kentucky not have any? Did Kentucky have any? Okay, okay. Cause Mark Pope probably would have called one.

Neil (37:40.676)
I

Neil (37:46.147)
Yeah.

Nick (37:49.6)
You're naturally going to celebrate, but if you just calmly defend, you win the game. Because they're always not going to get that close to the rim. He's not going to get across the half court line. So I understand why Herb Sendick was trying to call timeout because his guys were out of position celebrating. Ideally, I wouldn't want to call timeout, just play it out and guard. But in no way am I fouling on purpose.

Neil (37:56.164)
Yeah, just don't let him get her.

Neil (38:03.087)
No.

Nick (38:19.454)
and walking them 90 feet to the free throw line with no time coming off the clock and giving them an opportunity to make the first one miss the second one and get an offensive rebound. Like just guard.

Neil (38:35.47)
I think that's more likely. I think it's more likely in the scenario that what just happened and what played out. It's more likely that if you had fouled them and he makes the first, misses the second, they get a put back, then O-Way making that miracle three point shot. Like I would put the odds of the make the first, miss the second, put back higher than the shot that he made.

Nick (38:57.792)
You're also giving them a chance. Like it's a miracle heave, a miracle heave. And it should have been tougher than it was. And it was still tough. It was, it was still tough. And this is like, we can revisit all this stuff after it happens and then be like, I'm going to foul. But if OA shot hits the top of the backboard and banks back to mid court because it's not even close, then we're not even discussing this.

Neil (39:02.096)
Yeah, it's what it was. It's what it was. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

Nick (39:27.422)
It's revisionist history. It's the fact that it went in. And now you're like, well, I would have filed. I would have filed.

Neil (39:29.06)
Yeah. There are times when when I would foul that was just not one of them. And the times that I would foul is if you're up three, they've got the ball already in the half court and there's five or six seconds left, something like that. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (39:46.701)
That's the very minimum of what the clock, I think five seconds. Because I've seen it happen where they're found with nine, ten. And then they make both and you come back down. And now there's still seven seconds left. And you're up one and then if you miss one of two, now all of a sudden they've got the ball down too with six seconds to go. And you've brought it into the place and you lose in the game.

Neil (39:55.36)
That's too much. Yeah, no, that's much.

Neil (40:05.732)
No, but they've got to be the ball. The ball has to be in the half court and there's like, I think it's got to be around the five, five second mark. There's a time to fail.

Nick (40:13.388)
We've just gotten out of control with this foul, foul, foul late game situation. It's just easy to do. There is, but there also are not times to do it. And we're talking about fouling when there's not time to do it way too often right now.

Neil (40:22.49)
There's a time to do it. There's a time to do it. There is a time.

and

Neil (40:32.496)
I would agree with that.

Nick (40:34.814)
And the Kentucky game and the Florida game are two games where you're not going to foul.

Nick (40:42.57)
And I get it, they both lost, but that's not why they lost. Play defense.

Neil (40:48.784)
Agree.

Nick (40:49.932)
Don't let starts get behind you and find a wide open guy in the corner. Don't run down to court celebrating that you hit a three and not defend.

Neil (40:53.579)
That's the worst one.

Neil (41:00.708)
Yup.

Nick (41:06.464)
Second round games, Michigan just won. We didn't even talk about St. Louis. Georgia didn't even show up. So Mike White, don't even know if they knew that they played in the first round. Alabama just makes a million threes on Texas Tech. Puts them to bed really quick. The Tennessee Virginia game was a really good game.

Neil (41:21.178)
That was a butt whooping.

Yeah.

Neil (41:28.622)
Yeah.

Nick (41:31.916)
This is one that I did pick correctly.

Neil (41:39.024)
What's that, Tennessee, Virginia? Yeah, mean, it was a good game. I mean, it was a one possession game with what a minute left. There was a review, I think the ball went off Virginia, which gave it back to Tennessee. Yeah, but I mean, Virginia was chasing most of that game and just could never really catch up. And they were down five at the half, lose by seven.

Nick (41:46.785)
Yeah.

Nick (42:01.768)
And Tennessee's now been to four straight Sweet 16s, so is Alabama. Two football schools that have been to four straight Sweet 16s. Jacobi Gillespie is just good, dude.

Neil (42:13.296)
Very good.

Nick (42:15.806)
And then Kentucky jumped out early on Iowa state. And next thing you know, they're down 30.

Neil (42:16.677)
data mental.

Neil (42:23.588)
Yeah, Iowa State didn't shoot the ball very well in the first half. Dug themselves a hole. They were down 12, I believe, early on. And, know, clawed and fought and finally took a lead on with the buzzer beater three at the end of the first half to go up by one. And then when they came out of the second half, they were just lights out on fire, turning Kentucky over left and right. I mean, was.

Nick (42:45.072)
Kentucky just, well, even the first half too, they're just turning the ball over left and right. We're lucky to be down one. But, and that was despite the fact that like you said, Iowa State wasn't hitting threes. So it was kind of twofold. If you're Kentucky, you're like, we're only down one. I didn't feel like we played great. Had way too many turnovers. But if you're Iowa State, you're like, these shots are going to start falling and we're going to start pulling away.

Neil (43:06.832)
I mean, what was this that Kentucky had the 20, they turnovers that they end up with 20 turnovers most of it was that most in the NCAA tournament game I think I've seen Mars with us all. Yeah, something like that. I I was just they can play defense. They're good.

Nick (43:16.588)
in their history.

This-

Well, and Manchilovic is not gonna miss. He's gonna hit three or four threes. It's gonna happen. He's the best shooter in the country. And they've got other guys, Lipsy's gonna hit some threes. He started really getting in the paint and finding guys on the perimeter. These two played ten times. I think Iowa State beats Kentucky by 27 times. I just think they're 20 points better. This Kentucky team was not fun to watch all year. They were hard to watch.

Neil (43:26.82)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (43:52.301)
They weren't very good. If you don't have a take away, wow, are they terrible? Like Aberdeen was good the last 10, 20 games, but overall there was no way that they were gonna be Kentucky and get to the Sweet 16. This is a stat on Kentucky. They have not been the Elite Eight for six straight seasons.

That's 21 to 26. That is the longest streak in Kentucky history, which is pretty remarkable, honestly. The fact that their longest previous streak was 86 to 91, and that was the Eddie Sutton kind of going the beginning of the Patino era when they're going through probation. Tubby Gillespie was 06-09, was four. So yeah, they're in their longest streak ever without being into Elite Eight.

Neil (44:51.664)
I mean that fan base isn't going to put up with that either. That's probably the most passionate basketball fan base in the country. That's not going to fly in Lexington.

Nick (45:01.664)
Yeah, last year they were 3C, got to the Sweet 16. I think that helps Pope a little bit. Does it help Kentucky's fans, the view of the future of this program right now? I don't know if it does that. I think they're all pretty down on Pope. Like this roster was just poorly constructed. And you had one point guard, he got hurt. And then after that, you didn't really have a backup plan. And it was pretty obvious.

And I don't know, there's like, yeah, people want him fired right now. You can't fire him after two years when he's won three tournament games and got to Sweet 16 in his first year. But if they struggle next year to where they're struggling to even get in the tournament, they don't have a recruit right now. If they struggle to even get in the tournament, then maybe you look at it. dude, I was out watching games with bunch of big blue fans and.

Neil (45:37.102)
No, you're not doing that. It's not doing.

Yeah, hold on. Not doing it.

Nick (46:00.043)
Let's just say the vibes are not high.

Neil (46:01.232)
Yeah, give me the vibes. How were the vibes at Joe? mean, it was a nice day, 85 degrees, sunny. You know, I'm sure the people were sitting outside on the patio watching the games, the drinks were flowing. First 10 minutes of the game, I'm sure the vibes were high.

Nick (46:18.944)
Yeah, they were and they died pretty quickly. At halftime, diet vibes were still okay because you're only down one, but I'm also thinking, like I said, Iowa State hadn't hit any shots and they're still up one. But I will also see this. It is both annoying and entertaining to listen to people drinking beers, watching games on the patio that clearly only watch basketball in March.

Neil (46:32.762)
Were there any tournament?

Nick (46:50.238)
and their opinions on the game and specifically their opinions on the officiating.

Neil (46:56.363)
yeah, yeah. I mean it's enough, it's always against their team.

Nick (46:59.466)
Because

Nick (47:03.976)
Maybe the fact is your teams just, they weren't very good.

Neil (47:07.824)
where any turnaround shots consume.

Nick (47:11.116)
Yeah, they did some, they're still doing the Irish car bombs, dude. It's still March. I stayed away from that. I stayed away from that. So we're now to the Sweet 16, the Big 10, six teams in the Sweet 16 with Michigan, Purdue, Michigan State, Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa. The SEC is second with four, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas.

Neil (47:17.658)
Did not work.

Warmer.

Nick (47:38.444)
The Big 12 with three Arizona, Houston, Iowa State, the Big East gets two, Yukon and St. John's, and then the lone ACC team in the Sweet 16 is Duke.

They are zero.

Cinderella's because there's no way in the world that you count 11 seed Texas as a Cinderella when they have more money than pretty much any program that is out there is this is now the second straight year where this has been the case last year we had all four ones get to the final four that will not be the case this year but Neil I ask you before we get into these sweet 16s matchups is Cinderella dead and is NIL the culprit

for killing her.

Neil (48:28.122)
No, I'm gonna say that it's not dead. I'm gonna sell that argument. I'm gonna say that it's not dead because you still had, I mean, you still have, we talked about the high points. Like, as a 12 seed high point, they have money, so maybe this does kind of make your argument, but a school like high point goes out and beats a Wisconsin team. They hung right there with Arkansas. They easily, I mean, they were right, they could have won that game.

I think you're gonna have another double digit seed get to the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 in the, I would say in the near future. If it's not next year, you're like, it's gonna be, it'll be soon. I'm gonna say that maybe the transfer portal is more of a factor of killing NIL or killing Cinderella's than NIL money because as soon as any of these dudes are any good, they're gone. Like they're gone immediately. So you're not gonna have that.

30 point per game score at high point or that 30 point per game score That's a senior at Troy or Akron or you know whatever like these guys are gonna leave as soon as they show any glimpse of being good they're gonna be gone because they're gonna You know because they can because they can transfer in one year. They're gonna. They're gonna leave because there's money, but The transfer portal is allowing them is what's really allowing them to leave and that's what I mean that to me That's what's killing it more than than the actual money

Nick (49:52.245)
It's a combination. And am I going to come out and say that Cinderella's dead? No. But is it tougher? Yeah. Being somebody who worked at Morehead State and sees firsthand the resources that they have. And I was there before NIO and before the transfer portal. And you're already up against it then. And now just the discrepancy is even higher. And you're right. The problem is

Neil (50:00.346)
Cheers.

Nick (50:21.908)
If you get a kid that's freshman all OVC, there's a good chance that he's gonna be playing for a power five the next year or power four. And like the school is like high point because they have money, can put some money behind that and try to keep their guys. Places like, they can't keep up the big guys, but they can at least give a number that might make them stay if they're comfortable being there and they wanna stay there. They gotta have loyalty to the program. There has to be a part of it.

Neil (50:29.998)
Yes.

Neil (50:39.684)
They still can't spin, like, they still can't spin.

Nick (50:51.2)
because they're not gonna get what they can get somewhere else. But there are some mid-majors that have some money that they can throw behind it to be like, look, we can't give you what Michigan or Kentucky is gonna give you, but we can give you this and you make your decision. And there's gonna be some kids that decide to stay. But it's just, it used to be that the power fours had this much of advantage and now it's it's increased more.

Neil (51:20.312)
It has been, it's decreased more and going back to your point on like the Morehead, the Morehead State and be like, Cinderella, back in the day before NIL and before, you know, you could transfer without sitting out, like the Kenneth Fareed's of like Morehead State back then, he would have left even if NIL wasn't a thing. If he was getting paid no more money to go to Duke or Carolina as he was at Morehead State, he still would have left if he had the opportunity to just go play right away. Cause you know, you're going to want, you'd rather play in the ACC, you'd rather play on the big stage and you're on ESPN every night and you're like,

That's gonna help your draft stock. Like guys would leave even if NIO wasn't a thing because they can leave without penalty of sitting out.

Nick (51:56.781)
100 % and you saw it firsthand. I mean, Kenneth Free was there four years and then Janiah Broom comes in and is all of you see as a freshman does come back for a sophomore year, but there's no way that he's coming back for his junior year and he finds his way to Auburn and that's just you got to constantly refill your roster because you've just got your guys that are successful are likely going to leave and you almost it's like if I've got this freshman, I kind of want to hide him a little bit.

You know, so everybody doesn't see him and like you can't really do that and be successful. So I, is it dead? No, it's just, it's so much tougher. Do we, will we get to where we're seeing VCUs in Florida, Atlantic and Loyola's get to the final four again? I don't know about that. Now, do I think they can get to the next week? Yes. And I think high point proves that.

Neil (52:27.77)
Yeah.

Neil (52:31.92)
You can.

Neil (52:47.056)
It's gonna be tough.

Neil (52:55.013)
Yes.

Nick (52:56.296)
I think VCU was a good enough team to get to the second weekend if they didn't run into an Illinois team and if Nick Smith didn't get hurt with one minute into that game and where he didn't come back in.

Neil (53:04.846)
Yes.

Nick (53:07.808)
But, I don't know if we'll ever see it in the Final Four again.

Neil (53:13.006)
be tough. must never say never, but it is going to be tough.

Nick (53:14.636)
But that's not Cinderella. Cinderella doesn't have to get to the final four to be a Cinderella. Cinderella.

Neil (53:20.634)
No. St. Peter's was a Cinderella. They got to the Elite Eight and...

Nick (53:25.866)
Well, even if St. Peter's loses their second round game, that's still a Cinderella story, beating a two-beaten, or 15-beaten a two.

Neil (53:36.538)
Well, to your point, you almost saw a CNN team beat Duke, and Duke was the best team in the country for most of the year. And they still might be, you know. So it's not dead. It's harder, but I don't think it's dead.

Nick (53:53.545)
I agree. So before we get into the matchups, we did this little draft, what two weeks before the tournament? The draft went you Duke me Michigan me Florida you Yukon you Arizona me Houston me Illinois you Sparty use Gonzaga me Iowa State Who is in better position? You've lost one team with Gonzaga. I've lost one team with Florida

Neil (54:02.298)
Yup.

Neil (54:23.888)
We're both guaranteed to lose one team in the next round because we play each other. I've got Michigan State playing, UConn and you've got Houston and Illinois. So we're definitely going to guaranteed to lose one in the next round.

Nick (54:28.765)
and

Nick (54:40.876)
I'll be honest, don't know if Illinois defends enough. I think four of my five teams that are alive can win it all. I look at yours.

I Duke and Zonar, I don't think UConn can win it all right now. I don't think Sparty can win it all.

Neil (55:01.904)
Well, Duke and Yukon are also in the same region, one of them can't win it.

Nick (55:06.86)
Well, I mean, if they can read me to it.

Neil (55:07.864)
Yes, I hear I see your point. Yes

Nick (55:12.384)
Do you agree?

Neil (55:15.024)
I mean, based on the remaining teams, we both lost one. We're both gonna lose another one. I think, I don't wanna admit it, but your remaining teams, I think, are a little bit better than mine. I do have Michigan winning the title over Houston in the championship game. So both of those are on your roster. So I did think about that. I mean, last week I had Michigan over Duke in the rematch.

Nick (55:15.03)
This is an arguing show.

Nick (55:36.064)
Well, and here's the funny thing.

Nick (55:41.546)
Yeah, but you'll change your mind in two days anyway, so doesn't matter. Like all this is irrelevant. You gotta go to the paper to figure out what his real pics are, people.

Neil (55:45.816)
a flip flop.

Neil (55:51.982)
I mean, you dive in a little more on the matchups and then, know, after thinking about it on Tuesday, after thinking about it on Tuesday and Wednesday, after thinking about it on

Nick (55:55.413)
No, no, what you do is you prepare for the show. You prepare for the show and be prepared when you go on air. You be ready to go.

Neil (56:02.67)
I didn't have time to pick the pairings were announced on Sunday night and we went right into the thing on Monday. I finally had some time to dive into it. Now I had to work. We had to get prepared for a different tournament.

Nick (56:08.63)
It's one whole day. It's one whole day. But here is the funny thing. You picked Michigan to win it all, which is on my team. I picked Arizona to win it all, which is on your team. The crazy thing is that Arizona was the fifth selection in our draft just two weeks before the tournament.

Neil (56:28.688)
That is great.

Nick (56:29.746)
And I would have picked them at three, but I decided to go Florida. Just because they were playing so well, that was a tough decision for me. And then you went UConn over Arizona at four, but you ended up getting them at five.

Neil (56:42.106)
Well, I had back-to-back picks and yeah, I could have taken Arizona.

Neil (56:49.388)
I know, I like your team currently a little bit more than mine, but it's not over. It's not over yet.

Nick (56:57.536)
Alright, getting into this week. Duke St. John's, Michigan State UConn.

What you got?

Neil (57:07.652)
Well, after the Sienna game, I was a little bit down on you.

Nick (57:08.67)
And make sure you do a disclaimer that you didn't know we were going to have to pick these games and that you'll change your mind in two days.

Neil (57:16.496)
No, I'm not changing my mind yet. I'm not changing my mind on this. I mean, I was a little bit down on Duke after the performance against Sienna, but they bounced back. It took them a while to pull away from TCU, but they did, and they absolutely hammered him in the last 10 minutes. So they look like Duke again finally. I'm picking Duke. Give me the Duke Blue Devils over St. John's.

Nick (57:38.177)
And this stays consistent with your bracket. And then I pick St. John's in my bracket and I'm sticking with that.

Neil (57:40.29)
It does.

Nick (57:48.896)
Patino is gonna make them play the game his way. And I think Zuby can match with Cameron Boozer down low. think they, huh?

Neil (57:56.58)
That's gonna be a matchup. That's gonna be a matchup right there.

Nick (58:00.564)
I think they are going to absolutely just try to pressure Kaden Boozer all game and to see if he can handle that pressure. think St. John's is just the way they're playing right now. They've got confidence after hitting that game winner. They're gonna try to dominate the paint. They're gonna try to create turnovers.

Duke turned it over a lot against TCU. I know it didn't matter because they really, that game wasn't close, but they had 17 giveaways in that game. And something like that is gonna make Rick Pitino's eyes kind of light up. And look, like I said last week, you gotta take chances in your bracket. You gotta pick some upsets. I think this is an opportunity for one and I'm rolling.

Neil (58:47.76)
It's an opportunity for one. Yeah, I mean this would get you a huge boost if you pull this one off. I don't know, if Edge 4 can stay out of foul trouble, it could be a game of who's in foul trouble early. If Edge 4 gets Boozer in foul trouble, then advantage St. John's. If goes the other way, and Edge 4 has to sit on the bench for most of first half, advantage Duke.

Nick (59:11.51)
Yeah. Well, and dude, St. John shoots the three ball, but Bryce Hopkins had six threes like he did last week against Kansas. That makes me like our chances anymore.

Neil (59:21.004)
They don't, they normally don't shoot it very well. They're not a very good shooting team, are they? St. John?

Nick (59:24.822)
They shot 30 degrees against Kansas. think that was if their season I was close to it. I wouldn't expect them to shoot that many on Friday.

Neil (59:34.816)
Duke can defend. Duke's one of the better defensive teams in the contract. Duke can get after it on the defensive.

Nick (59:40.62)
Yeah, and they wanna slow it down, limit your possessions. That was a big reason why they beat Michigan. They held Michigan to like 60, 62 possessions, which is one of the lowest amount of possessions that Michigan's had this year. They're gonna try to do the same game thing against St. John's. St. John's doesn't normally get limited in possessions like that,

This is one of the obvious, all these games are gonna be great, but I'm really looking forward to that game on Friday night. Michigan State Yukon.

I believe you were rolling Yukon originally? You were rolling Michigan State, okay.

Neil (01:00:18.224)
Nope. I got, I might have been rolling Yukon originally, but in the official bracket, I've got Michigan State and I'm going to keep, I'm going to stay with that pick in Michigan State with Fears and Carr. If Carr can play like he did against Louisville, then I mean, he was just a man amongst boys. I mean, he was unbelievable on Saturday, but we'll go Michigan State. We'll keep it consistent.

Nick (01:00:23.519)
God, I can't keep up.

Nick (01:00:45.323)
Yeah, I went Yukon. I'm still gonna go Yukon. It was good to see Silas Demery back in the lineup after sitting out there first round matchup. Yukon has not been shooting the ball well from deep. I think they're gonna have to do that to beat Michigan State. It's gonna be the Cooper-Terrish read matchup down low, I think is gonna be really important. Michigan State just wants to make this game ugly, right?

and turn into a slugfest. And that's what Tom is those teams always try to do. But I think it'll all come down to, can you limit fears? Can you keep him getting in the paint to create opportunities for others? And Michigan State's gonna just pack that defense and make you shoot over top of it. And UConn has not been doing a great job of shooting threes, but I think maybe they'll get that done on.

on Friday and get the win over Sparty.

Nick (01:01:50.271)
But God, like I know we already mentioned, but just those four coaches and we've been talking about it forever. But this looks like it could be a Final Four.

Neil (01:01:59.329)
yeah, those four teams right there, absolutely.

Nick (01:02:02.667)
Then in the south, you've got Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Houston, three big 10 teams. Iowa and Nebraska have already played twice this year. split Iowa one at home 57 to 52. And just what that's a absolute rock fight. And then Nebraska.

Neil (01:02:20.656)
That's when, that's when Holyburg slapped the kids phone. That was an island. Yeah, a phone slapping incident.

Nick (01:02:24.265)
Yeah, yeah. And then Nebraska returned the favor winning at home 84 to 75 and overtime. Who you got in game number three?

Neil (01:02:35.824)
Go on with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Keep riding, keep riding that train, that momentum. Big win over Vande. They look, actually they look really good against Vanderbilt. I mean, I Iowa look good against Florida and the way Florida was playing too, but give me the Nebraska Cornhuskers to pull that one out.

Nick (01:02:55.147)
I'm going to Nebraska too. They were one of the hottest teams in the country starting off 20 and 0. And I think they're kind of getting in that groove again. Bennett Sturge will be the best player in the court. But I just think overall Nebraska has a better team. We still have to remember that Iowa was 10 and 10 in Big Ten play. And to me that matters. They turned it over a lot.

Neil (01:03:17.136)
But you look at how good the Big Ten is with the amount of teams they've got still alive. I 10 and 10, the Big Ten isn't as bad as it sounds.

Nick (01:03:26.195)
No, you're right. And I think that's a fair point. In both of the matchups, Iowa has really struggled turning the ball over against Nebraska's defense. They turn it over 20 % of the time in game one, 26 % of the time in game two. I think they'll do that again. And that's why I give the nod to Nebraska. This next game, Houston, Illinois.

Like everybody talks about, thinks about Houston is just such a good defensive team. Illinois, a lot of their metrics say they are the best offensive team in the country. When you've got a team that's of the caliber defense like Houston and the offense like Illinois, who do you take in that one?

Neil (01:04:11.152)
I'm going with the offensive Houston in this one. They just seemed like they're playing some of their best basketball of the year. that game against Arizona in the conference tournament was a great one. I think they're playing probably, they're one of the best three, four teams left in the tournament. And I don't think Illinois is that. Illinois is good.

I just don't think that they're great on the level that Houston is right now. Jimmy Houston. Three and a I mean they're favored by three and a half, so it's gonna be a close game, but I'm going with Houston.

Nick (01:04:48.043)
I'm going Houston too and like both these teams are great rebounding teams as well. I just think that Houston's got a chip on their shoulder get as close as they did last year. I think their defense is gonna keep them in the game. Illinois is gonna have to shoot it well. Keaton Woggler is gonna have to get, he's gonna have to find ways to get into the lane and create for Jake Davis and those other guys to make some threes but.

I do. Kingston, Fleming's dude and Emmanuel Starr and use on like I'm leaning that way. I can't go against Calvin Sampson here. I do think Illinois is really, really good, but I got to lean Houston.

Neil (01:05:31.864)
Houston's coming off. mean, they've got the experience of making it all the way to the end last year. Calvin's in. And they are playing at home. I think that's also a huge factor that they can't be overlooked, yes.

Nick (01:05:39.157)
They're also playing at home.

Nick (01:05:47.967)
Moving to the other side, you've got Arizona, Arkansas, Texas, Purdue.

Arizona, Arkansas. There's a lot of pros. There's a lot of pros in this game.

Neil (01:05:55.636)
Sneak. A lot of pros on that one. I'm going Arizona, even though I really do like Arkansas. Arkansas is playing their best basketball this season. mean, Acuff is just a star, absolute star. If Brazil's knocking down the threes and he's playing the way he's been playing, this could be right for the upset. But Arizona's been just consistently good all season. They've beaten tremendous teams along the way. They've lost what, twice? Give me the Wildcats.

Nick (01:06:26.005)
I think if you match these teams talent for talent, it's very close. But I think at some point Arkansas who really is only going 60, I think it has to catch up with them. And I think when you're playing a team who right now I think is playing better than anybody else in the country, I think this is the game where it catches up with you. Arkansas struggles tremendously in transition defense and

That's something that Arizona, think, is going to take advantage of. Now, if Acuff goes up and has 35-40, could Arkansas pull this game out? Absolutely, 100%. And he's going to get help. Like you talked about it, Brazil's been good. I think Ewan is an X factor in this game. Billy Richmond is an all-SCC defender. But then on the other side, you've got Jaden Bradley and Braden Burris and Koepit.

Like it's, there's a reason why I Arizona to win it all. And there's a lot of teams that are left in the Sweet 16 that I would pick Arkansas to beat. And they're just matched up against one that I don't think they're going to beat. Now, like I said, Acuff could go off for 45 and figure out a way to win it by himself.

Neil (01:07:42.288)
It's possible.

Nick (01:07:44.875)
I look at the Purdue Texas matchup, I think it's a bad matchup for Texas and I think Purdue rules.

Neil (01:07:48.656)
Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be close either. I mean, especially the way that Purdue's playing. If Kaufman were in and Braden Smith and Fletcher Lawyer, if they're gonna keep playing the way that they've been playing, this is gonna be close game. think Texas, they barely escaped in that playing game. They played a bad BYU team in my opinion, and then a Gonzaga team that I thought was underrated and they turned out to be overrated. I know they were banged up. They are missing their best player, I understand, but.

Nick (01:08:14.34)
They're missing our best player, like that matter.

Neil (01:08:18.19)
I think it comes to an end for Texas and think it comes to an end double digits.

Nick (01:08:22.507)
Here's all I'm going to say about this game, and this is why Texas barely got in the tournament. Texas ranks 334 nationally against top five competition defensively.

Neil (01:08:34.672)
Yeah, it's not

Nick (01:08:36.543)
So that's gonna come back that good. And the way that Purdue is just playing offensively and dude, Braden Smith has not shot the ball well in the first two rounds. I think he's gonna shoot a lot better moving forward.

Neil (01:08:49.07)
Yeah, didn't even make a three in his last game.

Nick (01:08:51.147)
Give me Purdue all day.

Neil (01:08:54.746)
going double digits. I think the six and a half is what I see on here right now. Yeah, I think that that's probably accurate.

Nick (01:08:58.911)
Yeah, I would take them to cover.

Nick (01:09:04.489)
Then we get to the Midwest, Michigan, Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa State. Who you got?

Neil (01:09:15.822)
I mean, if Alabama wants to play that shoot the ball and play the way that they did the other day, then they're going to give Michigan a game. But Yaxle Lindenburg is just an absolute monster. He's the best player to me in the country, even better than Boozer. So give me Michigan to win this game. I think this is going to be closer than I think most people would expect. But give me Michigan.

Nick (01:09:41.836)
I don't know how Alabama guards Michigan and I don't know how they rebound. And that's a problem. Well, that's the only thing to make, that's the only thing that they can do. they physicality wise, they cannot stand toe for toe with Michigan. And Alabama has struggled against teams that out physical them like Arizona and Florida. And they got out rebounded by what 11 plus,

Neil (01:09:46.234)
But if they shoot it, they can shoot it. I they're gonna have to try to outscore them. We just gotta try to outscore them.

Nick (01:10:11.371)
Purdue outrebed Alabama by 24. I think Michigan will try to do the same. Now look, if Alabama goes off and hits 19 threes, like they get against Texas Tech, then yeah, they've got a chance. I don't see that happening in back-to-back games.

Neil (01:10:27.555)
That's how Wisconsin beat Michigan early in the season was by just getting hot from three and just outscoring. You're gonna have to outscore them. This game is gonna have to be in the 80s, 90s for Alabama to have a chance, probably in the 90s.

Nick (01:10:32.107)
Yeah, there is a need.

Nick (01:10:42.591)
Yeah, they've got at least at 15 threes, I think to even be in the game. And they had 19 yesterday, so will they continue that? I mean, Phylon's one of the best players in this, less in this tournament. So it's not like you don't have dudes, it's just Michigan has more dudes and they're bigger and they're stronger and they'll guard and they'll rebound. And Alabama doesn't wanna do any of those things.

Nick (01:11:09.267)
And then the last one, Tennessee, Iowa State.

Nick (01:11:15.243)
I, this could be another tough one. I'm leaning Iowa state because that's who I have in my bracket. I'm sticking with my bracket. Who you got?

Neil (01:11:24.132)
Yeah, I'm going to go Iowa State as well. I was impressed with the way that they defended against Kentucky and we all know that they can shoot the ball. I mean, yeah, their best player went down against Tennessee State on Friday, but they bounced back and didn't show, I mean, a lot of signs of that affecting them against Kentucky. So I think they'll be fine. me Iowa State.

Nick (01:11:50.836)
Dude, I just think this Iowa State team is They've been ready for this. They've got a lot of the guys that were there last year Tame and Lipsy's been there all four years. He's from that area He's motivated but that matchup Lipsy and Gillespie is gonna be awesome and then the Nate Ament and Milan Mandzilovic. Milan Mandzilovic! Like if you're playing video games and just banging threes dude, how fun would that be just to constantly hit threes with him and yell

his name at your buddy when you're just shredding him on March Madness would be awesome. Here's the one thing that maybe could lean into Iowa State's favor is the fact that Tennessee is the best offensive rebounding team in the country. And in all of Ohio State's losses, their defense has given up a 31 % or higher offensive rebound rate, which could keep Tennessee in the game. I just think that

Neil (01:12:20.343)
We all know Carl would do that.

Nick (01:12:47.647)
this Iowa State's prime for this moment. And we'll get past the Tennessee team that has the talent, but has been up and down all year. And they had an up weekend last weekend. I expect them to take a little downturn this week, especially against an Iowa State team that I think is ready for the moment.

Neil (01:13:05.525)
Has there been an update on the Joshua Jefferson? Is he out out?

Nick (01:13:08.351)
He's not Jeffrey. He's not going to play. I don't, I think there's very small chance.

Nick (01:13:16.669)
It didn't look good. mean, he wasn't even putting any weight on it.

Neil (01:13:19.748)
He was in a boot and yeah, I mean, yeah, no, I still think that they can win with

Nick (01:13:25.769)
mean, he's our best player. It does suck. But yeah, I think they can still win this game. I don't know if they can get past Michigan without him.

Neil (01:13:32.592)
And they just beat a Kentucky team that beat Tennessee twice.

Nick (01:13:36.671)
Well, what did I just say about Tennessee?

Nick (01:13:41.59)
But they're up and down, you just don't know what you're gonna get. And you're like, they're in the corner and then they blow a 10 point lead and lose late. That's just what they do. And Rick Barnes has got these four straight sweet 16s, but they've never been to the Final Four. And they ain't getting past Iowa State and Michigan to get there. This ain't the year for their first-ever Final Four.

Neil (01:14:03.118)
This is not the year.

Nick (01:14:07.455)
Some of the, looking back at the first weekend, CBS Sports did a...

Like all first weekend team they had a cuff on their Tyler Tanner dude was just a beast for Nebraska at 27 points in that heartbreaking loss and Had 26 against McNeese and then almost made that what would you call that? Not a three-quarter court shot a little bit closer than that between the three quarter and a half court

Neil (01:14:35.662)
It was about a yeah, three quarter court shot, right? It was, yeah, between the free throw line. Yeah, was between the free throw line and half court.

Nick (01:14:41.387)
This a little bit closer than that.

Nick (01:14:47.307)
They got Rob Martin at high point on here, Otega Owe at Kentucky and then Caravan at Yukon. And then the second team was Fierce, Taiman Lipsy, Jacoby Gillespie, Glennon Borg. And I don't know, just kind of cool to see who they had as the rulers of the first weekend.

What game are you looking forward to the most this week?

Neil (01:15:18.202)
This week, it's gotta be the Duke St. John's game, I think, with Patino and Shire. We talked about it, we've already gone over, I still have Duke, but don't doubt Rick Patino in March, man. He's done it before and he's on his way to doing it again. We'll call you.

Nick (01:15:40.076)
And you you went Rick, I'll go Cal. And I'm really looking forward to the Arizona Arkansas game. This game has more pros than any other game that's left in this tournament. And I don't think Arkansas is gonna win, but just watching that many pros go at it, it should be fun. But Kentucky and Louisville not in it, but Rick and Cal are, which just.

Neil (01:16:06.736)
I'm putting Illinois Houston as my honorable mention.

Nick (01:16:10.739)
Yeah, well in a lot of like Michigan State, Yukon, Lake.

Neil (01:16:15.831)
That one's alright.

Nick (01:16:18.795)
It's going to be fun this weekend. And then you're off to Fort Worth to follow the women's team.

Neil (01:16:24.784)
Yeah, got confirmation that we leave on Wednesday. We didn't really talk much about the cards game today, but Louisville still in it. Sweet 16, another one for Jeff Walls and our women. And fantastic performances all around from Elif Estambulogu. And Taj Roberts was on her game today.

You know, same with Laura Ziegler. So those three stepped up big time today when Amari Berry didn't have her best game and McKinley Randolph is just an absolute beast. Now she's the last five games she's got with four. She's one point away from another double double today. She's had the three or four in the last five games, so she's absolutely just a phenomenal player and it's going to be tough against Michigan. Michigan women absolutely I forgot who they played yesterday, but they just beat the tar out of them. NC State beat him by like 30 so.

Nick (01:16:56.885)
Every game is automatic.

Nick (01:17:12.969)
NC State.

Neil (01:17:16.45)
It's not going to be, mean, nothing's easy now. Like this is where you get into the ones and the twos. Like women's basketball is usually all chalk minus a big win for Virginia today at Iowa, knocking the Hawkeyes out as a two seed. But this is where you got to come with your A game. There's no, there's, I mean, it's time to play.

Nick (01:17:34.613)
Well, another Notre Dame, another ACC team with an upset winning at Ohio State.

Neil (01:17:38.082)
at a last day, six over three. Yeah, six over three. mean, when you've got Hannah Hidalgo on your team, I'm sure much.

Nick (01:17:43.123)
Look, it looked like it might happen today at the YUM Center. So you don't take anything for granted. All you're trying to do is move on and play that next game.

Neil (01:17:48.398)
You don't. But when you got Hannah Hidalgo on your team, there's not very many upsets you can call when Notre Dame rules the town.

Nick (01:17:56.096)
Well, they probably shouldn't be a sixth seed. They played theirself to a sixth seed, but they probably should have been a little better throughout the year. But no, good on the cards. Like I said at the beginning of show, 13th, sweet 16 and coach Walz's 19 years. then they had not been to a sweet 16 prior to him coming there. Just impressive stuff. And you talked about McKinley Randolph.

Neil (01:18:00.046)
Yes. They struggled early, but yeah.

Nick (01:18:23.061)
when they couldn't hit any free throws at all, she calmly knocked down two, they kind of settled the ship a little bit. then I know Amari Berry did not have her best stuff today, but a couple of times this year she hasn't been able to hit late free throws. And she did that today. And without those two.

Neil (01:18:34.105)
She had two crush ones.

Neil (01:18:42.51)
Raina Scott, yeah. And then a big shot, Raina Scott, I think was like her only two points of the game. Was that floater put us up six with under a minute left. So that was another big moment for her. Yeah, no, great atmosphere, great time. Looking forward to going down to Texas.

Nick (01:19:01.449)
Hey, give me walls with a couple days to prepare.

Neil (01:19:05.348)
Yeah, got till Saturday. So he's got a couple. He's got more than a couple.

Nick (01:19:09.675)
Go look at their record in Sweet 16 games. It's pretty good. It's pretty good.

Neil (01:19:13.392)
Pretty good. But another local team, if we want to talk about the Kentucky women, one point win today at West Virginia, the five seat over the four. sweet 16 for Kenny Brooks at Kentucky. And the first time Kentucky's been the sweet 16, I think, that I saw since 2016, 17, somewhere around there. So Kenny Brooks, a great coach. They will also be in Fort Worth, Texas. They're in the same bracket as Louisville or same region as Louisville. So Kentucky's got Texas.

Nick (01:19:29.387)
2017.

Neil (01:19:43.31)
Louisville's got Michigan.

We'll see what happens.

Nick (01:19:47.605)
Go ahead and knock off the longhorns. They're kidding.

Neil (01:19:51.15)
Yeah, we little cat's cards to go to the Final Four. That'd be some fun. It'd be a lot of fun.

Nick (01:19:57.174)
But like if you haven't watched the women's tournament, watch it. it's just as fun to watch it as the men's. Like I love the fact that Monday it's just all women's basketball. I like how they staggered the games throughout the day. I think the men should do a better job of staggering their games on Saturday and Sunday where they've got the two games solo and then all of a you've got three games at a time. Like do a better job of staggering your game. Start them at 12.

And look, I get the women's has an advantage of it because all eight of their games are in different sites. So it makes it easier. But they still could do a better job of staggering games and not having two standalones at the 12 o'clock in the 230 windows. But that's I'm really nitpicking because it's about as good as it gets.

Neil (01:20:32.132)
Yeah, it does make it easy.

Neil (01:20:46.906)
but like if you're a basketball fan, you if you would have tuned in today to women's basketball, there were multiple like Louisville wins by one, Kentucky wins by one, double overtime, Virginia upsets Iowa. And then, you you've got, like you said, you got Notre Dame that upset Ohio State. That was a good game. I mean, just four good games right off the bat before you even eat dinner. So it is, it's a quality product. get, do what?

Nick (01:21:09.749)
But we gotta do something about the monitor. Like the end of that UFA, I have again, it's just brutal. It's brutal. you, but look, quit not calling fouls on the actual play and then running the next play and then go into the monitor. And it wasn't even a foul, but now it's a flagrant.

Neil (01:21:15.287)
you're dead.

Neil (01:21:19.024)
Well, the Kentucky game as well. The end of the Kentucky game had review after review after review. I don't know. You want to get it right though, but.

Neil (01:21:41.991)
That's all for now.

Nick (01:21:42.166)
Like, that makes no sense. You didn't even stop action. You played on. You obviously didn't think it was a foul. And now you go to the monitor and you can't just call it a foul. So it's either a flagrant or nothing. But how is it a flagrant when you didn't even call it a foul to begin with? Now I get it if it's an elbow, like, I don't, maybe I really, don't even get that either. But it happened twice.

Neil (01:21:45.987)
It makes no s-

It makes no sense.

Neil (01:22:01.968)
That's great.

Nick (01:22:10.419)
it down the stretch in that UVA IWO game. UVA already had the ball and didn't score. They went to the monitor to look at the rebound previously and then put IWO on the line for two and gave them the ball. What are we doing? What are we doing?

Neil (01:22:24.08)
What are

Neil (01:22:30.544)
Yukon continues to roll. Shout out to the Huskies. They continue to roll as the best team in women's basketball. Again, they won by 50. mean, it's just, they're good. They're good.

Nick (01:22:45.739)
Well, Neil, 37 consecutive sweet 16th.

Nick (01:22:54.899)
Before we get off, let me confirm that.

32. 32. So I was off by 5. 32 consecutive sweet 16s. They've been to 17 of 18 final fours. They've been to 17 of 18 final fours.

Neil (01:23:05.882)
And what, they've missed one Final Four in... Two decades? Yeah. That's just... That's just stupid.

Nick (01:23:13.949)
It's the final three. We should change the banners. We should change the banners at the KFC Yum Center. It should be the final three because UConn is, and look, I can't say that's my line. I stole that line from the head coach of the Carts.

Neil (01:23:17.274)
I mean, what it is. What it is.

It is.

Neil (01:23:33.328)
it comes up with some good lines from time to time.

Nick (01:23:33.59)
But no, excited dude, just give me a chance to get to Michigan. You're at this point now where just roll them out there, see what happens. And was good to see Taj get some confidence today, hopefully that carries over. Love the way Laura was just egging her team on, egging the crowd on. E was great, Max been awesome. Amari will show up and let's see what happens. Let's get to another lead eight.

Neil (01:23:58.042)
Tomorrow is fine.

Nick (01:24:04.831)
And then let's just watch Hoops again all next weekend.

Neil (01:24:08.516)
Here we go.

Nick (01:24:10.783)
So who is your, did your final four change since last time? Before we get off just to confirm so everybody knows who your picks are since you change them every three days.

Neil (01:24:20.068)
No, the Final Four did not change. My final game changed by one team. I always had Michigan, but the Duke, Duke used to live in Arizona, Michigan.

Nick (01:24:26.741)
So you're Duke Houston, you're Duke Houston.

So your three ones and a two.

Neil (01:24:33.08)
Yeah, and last week I said Michigan gets Duke in the championship game. They win, they get their revenge. It has changed. We got Houston now. We dug in the weeds. We dug down in the weeds and we pulled out a Houston.

Nick (01:24:37.695)
Look, this has now changed.

Nick (01:24:49.461)
Well, did not change. Mine did not change. We still got Houston beating St. John's and Arizona beating Michigan and Arizona beating Houston to win the whole dang thing.

Neil (01:25:02.062)
I've got Michigan over Houston, so. Go Blue, I guess.

Nick (01:25:04.427)
I will say, my bracket is 95 percentile.

Nick (01:25:14.611)
And in my survivor league where you got to survive in advance and pick a different team every day, we're in second place right now. We picked VCU in the first round to get 11 points to kind of give us a head start. We rolled with Tennessee yesterday. So trying to figure out who I'm going to roll with Thursday and Friday.

Neil (01:25:35.664)
Do you still have both of your teams alive?

Nick (01:25:39.463)
One team Gonzaga screwed me. And see, the thing about this is you wanna pick somebody you think is gonna win this week, but probably not the next week, cuz you don't wanna have to pick them again. And I thought Gonzaga could beat Texas.

Neil (01:25:55.312)
I did too. I did. Yeah, I did too.

Nick (01:25:55.805)
And they screwed me.

Nick (01:26:01.302)
But happy March everybody. We do not have a what would Joe do this week because I texted him right before the show. did he send one?

Neil (01:26:07.162)
He did send one. He sent one. We have gone long. He did send one. The show's gone long. We can do a quick one if you want.

Nick (01:26:15.593)
Do want to just go with this one off the top?

Neil (01:26:17.7)
Yeah. What's one? The one he sent? Yeah, why not?

Nick (01:26:23.807)
You can never leave the state of Kentucky again. Or...

Neil (01:26:28.206)
or the state that you live in, if you don't live in.

Nick (01:26:30.579)
Right. Or only friends with people you met post-college. Family excluded. But what does that mean? Only? You can only...

Neil (01:26:38.692)
That means you can only be friends with people you met post-college. Like all your childhood friends you can't be friends with anymore if you want to leave the state.

Ooh, that means no Carl for you.

Nick (01:26:48.393)
Ahem.

That's about it though.

Neil (01:26:53.456)
I mean, everybody I hang out with now is basically post-college. give me the post-college. Just being trapped in the state of Kentucky for the rest of your life just sounds kind pleasant. You can't go on vacation. You can't go on vacation. You can't do anything. You can't travel for anything.

Nick (01:27:04.331)
It'd be awful. It'd be awful.

Nick (01:27:10.507)
This is a tough beat for Carl, bro. It's like my best friend since I was a junior in high school. Yeah, cuz you can still hang out with him. Yeah, you could just kind of be the in between. Yeah, I think that I do not want to be stuck in the state of Kentucky for the rest of my life. And to be fair,

Neil (01:27:19.246)
I'll tell them you said what's up from time to time. I mean, I didn't know Carl. I didn't know Carl, yeah.

Neil (01:27:33.072)
What are you supposed to tell your kids? It's vacation. We're going to Mammoth Cave every summer now. Like, what? We're going to the Corvette Museum.

Nick (01:27:38.411)
And you can go to...

and go to the Florence Freedom Game.

Neil (01:27:44.959)
you can't even go to Reds or Bagels games. can't even go to a Bagels! Dude, can't even go to Bagels games anymore.

Nick (01:27:46.303)
You can go to Dinosaur World. No, no, we're have to figure out a way to buy the team to bring them across the river. Promise them a new stadium and across the river. That'd be the only way to watch them play in person.

Neil (01:27:59.588)
Yeah, sorry for anybody that I knew before the end of college, but you're out. Sorry, Carl.

Nick (01:28:06.687)
Yep. Yeah, that's about it. Sorry. Sorry, Carl, I guess.

Neil (01:28:11.48)
You. Yeah.

Is that it? Is he the only one?

Nick (01:28:17.195)
I mean, for the most part that I still really hang out with, there's other guys that I guess I talk to, but, and to be fair, Carl never goes out anymore anyways, so.

Nick (01:28:29.771)
It just, so. I guess.

Neil (01:28:32.304)
That was rather easy. That was rather easy. What would y'all do?

Nick (01:28:35.323)
The other one they didn't talk about is you get one condiment so you can only use one condiment for the rest of your life What would you pick and? I'm not a huge. I'm not a huge condiment guy. I got no some people are just a put ranch on everything I don't I'm not a big ranch guy Like all my hot dogs my hamburgers my turkey sandwiches, I like to put mustard on it. It's pretty versatile That sounds like a really boring selection to go yellow mustard

Neil (01:28:43.696)
Go and catch it.

Neil (01:28:51.738)
not either.

Neil (01:29:04.58)
I'm gonna go catch up. I'm gonna go catch up on.

Nick (01:29:04.779)
But you can't put ketchup on a turkey sandwich. You can't put ketchup on a ham sandwich.

Neil (01:29:10.8)
I don't put anything on I don't put anything on my sandwiches anyway, so I'm good there.

Nick (01:29:16.341)
Seems dry.

Neil (01:29:17.304)
I'm a dry sandwich guy.

Nick (01:29:20.895)
What do put on your hot dog? Do you put ketchup on hot dog? Okay, so.

Neil (01:29:23.504)
straight ketchup. Ketchup on burgers, ketchup on hot dogs. I mean I'm a barbecue sauce on chicken fingers and stuff, but you know what? Ketchup's fine on fried chicken, or like tenders and stuff.

Nick (01:29:33.747)
It's lame. It's it's so bland on that though. Like ketchup is the for fries. It's I know I'm trying to figure out what it is. Like for fries ketchup is perfect. I would miss ketchup when eating fries. I don't want to dip it in mustard.

Neil (01:29:39.406)
You get to pick one, Nick. You get to pick one. One. I hear you, but...

Neil (01:29:53.656)
I could dip their fries in mustard.

Nick (01:29:56.191)
Who does? Eric? I don't wanna do that.

Neil (01:29:57.306)
Honey mustard. She's a honey mustard person.

Nick (01:30:01.526)
So I guess I'm still going mustard just because it's more versatile. It's also, there's no calories in mustard. It's good for you.

Nick (01:30:12.383)
There's no sugar. It's a healthy condiment. But when I'm eating my fries, think that's when I would... And then, do I get to have the hot mustard at McDonald's if I go mustard?

Neil (01:30:24.772)
Nope. Nope.

Nick (01:30:28.619)
So you do you only get one brand mustard or just one type of mustard?

Neil (01:30:31.384)
You don't get, like mustard doesn't mean yellow mustard, honey mustard, hot mustard, grape hoopon. You want some grape hoopon over there? No, no, that's cheating. No, you don't get that. You don't get that. You get one type of mustard.

Nick (01:30:37.259)
Because that would be the move. That would be the move if you could do that. I could live with that.

Nick (01:30:46.443)
I didn't forget about for salads

I would never be able to eat a salad again.

Neil (01:30:54.746)
Well, guess you're gonna be a soup guy from now on.

The soup. Soup du jour.

Nick (01:31:01.387)
I love salads, but I'm not gonna pick blue cheese as my condiment.

Neil (01:31:06.832)
You can put mustard on a salad.

Nick (01:31:10.355)
You honey mustard?

Neil (01:31:11.352)
Yeah, so is that the kind of mustard you're gonna go with?

Nick (01:31:14.357)
I don't want honey mustard on my hot dogs.

Neil (01:31:17.004)
Mmm. You gotta plain hot, you gotta eat a dry hot dog then. That sounds awful.

Nick (01:31:19.829)
Dude, I do eat a lot of salads. This is tougher than I thought. What do you put on your salads? You going to put ketchup on them?

Neil (01:31:27.236)
Bro, I don't eat salad. Are you talking?

Nick (01:31:31.051)
How do you keep that figure there?

Neil (01:31:31.246)
Salads are for rabbits, I don't eat rabbit food. Those are for rabbits in the backyard.

Nick (01:31:36.021)
God, you're right. We gotta quit this. We're up to an hour and a half.

We gotta end this madness.

Neil (01:31:44.688)
Go to the kitchen and make you a salad.

Nick (01:31:47.34)
I'm not doing that I'm not eating with sorry what 1030. I will not be eating a salad at 1030 at night But before we in this Mattis just a reminder subscribe to the height differential hide your center pods I heart Amazon Spotify Apple music Right and leave a review. Dude. Those reviews matter. It helps more people see the show and then follow us on social

at height differential. Happy March Madness to everybody. We'll be back here. I guess hopefully next. I don't know. It depends on when the women's games are scheduled.

Neil (01:32:26.586)
We do not want to be back on here next Monday. I promise you that. We are Saturday Monday. Next Monday, next Monday, we are hopefully playing in an Elite 8.

Nick (01:32:30.389)
So we will be here at some point next week.