Filling Out Brackets With Mark Titus, The Dumbest Fun Facts For Every Tournament Team, Hot Seat/Cool Throne And More

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners.

You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
The Barstool Golf Time app makes it easy for golfers to find the best tee times at the best prices. Stop searching all over Google for your next tee time.
Start searching multiple courses in your area from one app. It's annoying to have to create accounts for each individual course to book online.
Just make one account with us at Barstool Golf Time and book all of your tee times. Plus, the new reservation sharing option allows you to take control and book tee times for your entire group.
Earn golf time rewards every time you book or leave course reviews. And then you can redeem those rewards for free Barstool Golf Merch in our store store download the barstool golf time app now start earning those rewards and booking those tee times barstool golf time app now on today's part of my take we have our very good friend mark titus we're going to break down the brackets from a basketball standpoint we're also going to do something new i think it's gonna be very fun for the people it's our fun facts for every team we split it up into four regions you're going to do something new.
I think it's going to be very fun for the people. It's our fun facts for every team.

We split it up into four regions.

You're going to find out things like the entire Baylor men's basketball team died when a train hit their bus in like 1920.

You're going to find out that MLB team once sued one of these tournament teams for copyright infringement. Fun facts all around.
Give you little nuggets to go into the weekend. We are going to do hot seat, cool throne, and we have a couple bets for you, and it's the best time of year, so get excited.
Extra long PMT breaking down the tournament from every single angle, and it's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. When it comes to march mania one thing is for sure nothing's for sure upsets buzzer beaters cinderella's advancing top seeds going home early it's all going to happen bet the unexpected every upset every day with draft king sportsbook with live betting exclusive content promos and parlays draft kings the ultimate college basketball destination for march ready to make your first bet check out the matchups and pick a team to win it's that simple first time here's something special just for you new draft kings customers bet five dollars get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly bet the unexpected with draft kings sportsbook download the draft kings sportsbook app use code take that's code take for new customers get two hundred in bonus bets when you bet just $5 only on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE.
That's code TAKE for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours.
Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY 467-369.
In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org.
Please play responsibly. On behalf

of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction,

void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance.
For additional terms and

responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash audio. Okay, let's go.

Hey, football guy, for Dean of A.W.M.

Part of my take, yeah, part of my take, yeah, part of my take, yeah, part of my take, yeah, part of my take, yeah, part of my take.

Welcome to Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. Bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook.
Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just $5 only on DraftKings.
The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, March 19th.
And, boys, we've got it. The tournament has arrived.
We're going to do arrived we're gonna do a little choose your own adventure uh we are taping this in the afternoon i bet san diego state so i'll be a very sad boy if they lost by more than four and a half but it does feel like unc is the team now yeah we've had four days of just hearing that they don't belong you don't belong you don't belong they probably don't belong yeah the don't belong. They probably don't belong.
Yeah, the West Virginia governor even did a press conference, the National Corrupt Association of Athletics. He had a big sign.
It was a big story for what we said. 24 hours.
You get 24 hours to basically bitch about it. And then as soon as the ball is tipped, everyone's like, okay, we want to watch the game now.
He went on the yak. He went on the yak.
What did he say on the uh not a whole lot he basically was like uh yeah i know this isn't going to do anything uh but we have to fight for ourselves we he came on because nick our good friends nick and kb are both west virginia natives nick is a west virginia fan uh and he he he gave the right answer in the fact that he said we're like dude, dude, you're not actually going to get into the tournament by suing.

He's like, yeah, of course not.

But you got to basically work for the constituents.

He's working a ref.

Constituents.

Next year, if they're on the bubble,

they might give them a little friendly bump.

This is the best thing that can ever happen to a politician

because it gives you something where you can take everybody under your wing and be like, got your back as your leader meatball ron did this with florida state yep and then got awful quiet about it when florida state got their ass kicked in that bowl game that's true but it's a good opportunity like if you're a politician you know every crisis needs a leader it's a great opportunity for leaders to step up and to have everybody support them so i guess congratulations to the governor yeah but cunning Cam is also like maybe the most corrupt person's name of all time. So my idea is that we need to change.
He doesn't deserve to be Bubba. A Bubba is a guy you want to be friends with.
Yeah, but also someone that's corrupt. A Bubba is someone you hit up to get out of a tough situation.
Bubba has walked into a lot of meetings where the other guy brings a briefcase in and then doesn't take that briefcase with him on the way out. I think, though, we should call his real name is Lawrence.
I think we should call him Larry. Larry Cunningham.
Strip him of the Bubba. How about Liam? You could call him Liam.
Liam Cunningham. Yeah.
I just feel like that's a Bubba move. It is.
To take bribes. But also, like, being a Bubba, that's kind of a point of pride, you know? When you're a Bubba, that's cool to be like, hey, I'm Bubba.
So we should take that away from him and be like pride you know you when you're a Bubba that's cool to be like hey I'm Bubba so we should take that away from him be like no dude you're Lawrence yeah Lawrence Cunningham you're a complete no-name Lawrence you remember your Bubba's I feel like this is this is on the whoever the committee is the NCAA for putting Bubba in charge of everything you don't put a Bubba in the position of leadership. You put Bubba brings the beers.
Well, it's also copied by them

where they're like,

we're UNC,

we'll never be on the bubble.

Right.

And oh yeah,

we get $100,000

if we make the tournament.

That's not a conflict

of interest or anything.

It's bullshit.

I think he gets like

anywhere between 40 and 60 grand.

And the reason why they do it,

they say,

is because if you make the tournament,

then the AD has to work overtime.

Yeah.

So he deserves to be compensated for that. Yeah unc probably will win and we'll they'll probably go

to the sweet 16 and everyone be like yeah you didn't think they should be in the tournament

uh and then alabama state won yeah sure i'm just guessing yeah alabama state st francis i was

looking i did research into these teams earlier yeah so i've got fun facts about them as fun as

they can get about alabama state and st francis but yeah who they're gonna lose yeah i've i've

I don't know who it was i saw it on uh x everything app so apologies uh if this was you but i i like the take that the playing game should be bubble teams and not agree like it shouldn't be 16 seeds yeah we've been the point we've been saying that on on this here program yeah that was with john John Rothstein on Sunday night. Thanks for subscribing.
Please unsubscribe and resubscribe. You're welcome.
It would be better if it was just the bubble teams that had to play for the right to get in and then give the 16 teams their opportunity to get their ass kicked by the one seed. Now, the only counterpoint to that, our good friend Tom Fernelli did text me after listening to part of my take on Sunday, something Hank, I guess, doesn't do.
But he pointed out that they do get a bonus for winning a tournament game. If they win the plan.
Yeah. So if you ask the 16 seed, do you want a 50-50 chance at a bonus or a one in a billion chance, I think they'd probably take the 50-50 chance.
And for the kids and the get a ncaa tournament win on your resume is a pretty big deal so i they might they might be fine with it do they not get a bonus if they just play in the tournament no i don't think so i think they might but they get an additional bonus for every win also i i appreciate the pageantry and and the tradition that is dayton ohio yeah it's fun it's where we started off listen i i want another playing game on game on Monday night because last night, I don't know about you guys, but I was lost. I do think it's interesting though, and John brought this up, Hank, so if you see it online, it's probably from him, that San Diego State, North Carolina, both teams that have played in the NCAA championship game in the last five years.
Interesting. Fun fact.
It is a fun fact. Really, very, very fun fact.
Should we get to our fun facts yeah let's fucking do it so we split up the regions we all took a region uh pft i think you're up first because you have auburn's region right i do all right so auburn and pft uh the south one seed yeah the south so auburn is the one seed out of that out of that division they are the tigers we know them as the auburn tigers but they also chant war eagle do you know why they chant war eagle no so the tradition goes back to 1892 there was a football game going on it was auburn against georgia and there was a civil war veteran in the stands who had a pet eagle that he found during a battle in the civil war don't ask what side he was on okay but he had his pet eagle in the stands then the eagle took off start a circle in the sky as auburn came back and drove for the win i love that against georgia and the crowd started chanting war eagle war eagle plot twist then the eagle just turned straight downwards from the sky flew into the field and killed itself oh kam Kamikaze. Kamikaze war eagle.
That's an awesome story. I didn't know that.
The eagle might have been woke because he was like, I'd rather die than go back to my Confederate soldier boss. Yeah.
So we don't know what happened there. But yeah, that's why they call it war eagle.
Okay. I like that.
I went to Auburn, saw one of the coolest college football traditions that I i've seen yeah the war eagle flying yeah yeah very cool that now if we saw that today we would say that's a bad omen for auburn if the eagle just decided to unalive itself yeah it's like that central park uh pigeon or whatever oh are you talking about flacco flacco the owl yeah but he was a slut remember he was a was a slut. He was fucking everything.
He had herpes, owl herpes. He also might have been taken out.
Yeah. I didn't have eyeballs on Hillary at the time.
Okay, that was a great start. I had no idea about that.
Is that a fun fact? Well, I didn't know what war. I knew they said war ego, but I never looked it up.
Yeah, it's a fun fact. Okay.
And they're playing? And they're playing against either Alabama State or St. Francis of Pennsylvania.
So Alabama State Hornets, notable alumni, 2 Chainz. Oh.
Also notable alumni. Oh, I think he might have played college basketball there.
He might have played ball there. And also Clarence Carter.
He sang that song Strokin'. When I start making love, I don't just make love.
Stroke. I'll be stroking.
There we go. That is a great.
That's a super fun fact. That's a great song.
It's a b song it's a banger that is a very fun song maybe the best like dynamic duo if you're putting together an nba jam team yeah two musicians that went to any of these schools two chains and clarence carter pretty good like that clarence carter uh they're always in the first four and they've never won a first four game okay and then the red flash here's fun fact about the Red Flash. St.
Francis coach Rob Krimmel has a lifetime record of 171 and 227. Oh, wow.
So he's been coaching there for a long time. They haven't won a lot of games.
Good job. Just keep staying out there and trying.
He's elite at keeping his job. 2 Chainz did play two seasons at Alabama State.
Wow. Oh.
You think he's going to be there? Got to be. He's got to be there.
Titty Boy's got to be there. Hank, you're adding some nice fun facts to PFT's list here.
I want to say, we should have started the show with Welcome Back Hank. Thank you.
Thank you. It's going to be back.
You were just a vessel on Sunday night. Yeah.
That was your innie. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. No, that was his Audi.
It might have been his Audi. Well, his Audi punished his innie.
Yeah. I was reintegrating, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. It was your nose bleeding and being like, what the hell's going on? But, yeah, it's good to have you back.
Okay. Next game.
Next game, Louisville-Crayton. Louisville versus Creighton.
We've got Bird Nugget. Bird Nugget of the week because it's the Cardinals against the Blue Jays.
Hit the noise, Hank. Go.
That was good. That was good.
A Blue Jay would kick a Cardinal's ass in a fight, even though the Louisville Cardinal has teeth. Blue Jays are much bigger.
They're super, super aggressive. Also, per Stat Hole Sports, Rain Smith is the best free throw shooter in the country for Louisville.
So keep your eye on that. Wait, his name's Rain? R-E-Ye i believe that's rain but that's still making it rain making it rain pretty good uh creighton fun fact the toronto blue jays sued creighton in 2014 over the redesign of the blue jay logo and after three years of litigation it got thrown out because creighton's name predates the toronto blue jays name and also the judge ruled that the toronto blue jays logo was not famous enough to be infringed upon.
Ouch. Yeah.
That's brutal. I had to go wild.
I went balls deep in reading actual court documents to figure that one out. Also.
Oh, I did so much more reading than I've ever done today. Yeah.
Creighton Blue Jays. Blue Jays is one word.
It's not two. So if you see somebody put a space in between blue and J's in March, they're casual.
What about BJ's? BJ's. Can you do the shirt? I love BJ's.
I heart BJ's. Blue J's translates to edging.
Blue J's translates to edging. Blue ball.
No. BJ, blue ball.
What does the J stand for? Are you saying B-L-E-W? Like BJ, but you have blue balls. Okay.
Okay. Okay, yeah, yeah.
Bad head. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, got it. Welcome back, Hank.
Too much teeth. All right, which the Cardinals have.
There we go. Full circle.
Next matchup, we got Michigan and UC San Diego. Michigan, Dusty May literally translates to pollen season.
10-0 in games decided by 10 points or less this year. They've been very good in those tight games.
And 10 of their last 12 wins have been decided by four points or fewer. So they play close games.
UC San Diego, they have the fewest turnovers in the entire country. And they live in heaven.
They live in San Diego. So who cares if they lose, honestly? Go back to back to your vacation you probably don't even like sports sports is for people who don't have to deal with winter right you don't deserve to see san diego you just you just hang out all day also uc san diego during every finals week they have a primal scream at exactly 10 p.m that goes 10 p.m to 1005 where all their students can just scream as loud as they want out their window in their dorm wherever the campus just erupts with people screaming because they're frustrated is this like covid yeah i was gonna say it's like the covid we're we're right in the zone where everyone's doing the five-year anniversaries and i cringe at every single thing i see where it's like you know videos of people dancing in the street socially distanced i was walking to the grocery store during that.
It was pretty cool. I felt like I was in a parade.
Yeah. In New York, I can kind of see it.
Because in New York, the hospitals were bad. A lot of people died right off the bat.
But yeah, I don't want to remember anything from that. No, I don't either.
It just bums me out when I see it. It was a bad year.
Yeah. All right.
So that's that game. Next up.
Like bad, like month and a half for us. We went back to work pretty quickly.
We did. Yeah.
Got to get back to work. Texas A&M against Yale is the next one.
Fun fact about this one. You could make the case that alumni from Yale have gotten more alumni from their opponents killed than any other matchup in the history of March Madness.
Oh, CIA stuff? All, all the war criminals that went to Yale, and then Texas A&M has the highest percentage of military graduates.

So when you look at it, famous alumni from Yale, George-

What were you saying?

No, I think you're about to explain.

George W. Bush, John Ashcroft, Prescott Bush,

some Nazi ties there, Dick Cheney, Billary clinton all yale graduates went to yale and then a&m has the highest amount of medal of honor winners of any school in the entire than army uh any oh non-military school yeah also texas a&m not a cult that's my fun fact they're not a cult they're very clear about that reveille the dog their mascot is considered a cult. That's my fun fact.
They're not a cult. They're very clear about that.

Reveille, the dog, their mascot, is considered a cadet general

and the highest ranking member in the Corps of Cadets at A&M.

Freshmen are required to address her as Miss Rev, ma'am.

It's a held tradition that if Reveille decides to sleep on a cadet's bed,

the cadet has to sleep on the floor.

Reveille has her own cell phone, who's operated by the mascot corporal, and she has her own student identification card. Not a cult.
Not a cult. They wear the rings, too.
Yeah. Everywhere.
I got some ring facts for you. The Aggie rings from A&M are just, it's a lot.
Also, fun fact about Yale, Yale played in the very first five-on-five collegiate basketball game. Oh, wow.
Who played in the first four-on-four? I don't know. I don't know what happened before that.
I have that same stat for a different team. Oh, competing fun facts.
I do not. What team? Oh, we'll get to it.
You can't spoil the fun facts. You're right.
I've said too much about class rings. All right, next up we have Ole Miss against UNC or San Diego State.
There was, I think it was Doyle. Who was it on CBS? One of them said that Ole Miss gets a lot of love because they played in a great conference.
They had a lot of opportunities. But eyeball test, they're a fraud.
They've been called out as being frauds. The eyeball test seems like a personal shot at notable alumni Ben Mintz but i don't know uh chris beard is their coach he's a very very good basketball coach yes way better basketball coach in person i already built up my unc san diego state fun fact which is what john rostein told us that these two teams both played in the national championship game in the last five years iowa state okay i.
Iowa State. This is a fun fact.
I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. There is a Reddit user who goes by the name of Otzelberger's Polos.
Very tight. Who put together a spreadsheet of the winningest and losingest polos that he wears.
Wow. Pretty good, right? This is the stuff you need.
This is the stuff you need for your bracket. This is why the internet was invented for this guy to figure this out.
So the best polo shirts that he wears are the dark red stripes, the red polo shirt with the dark red stripes on the front, and then the red polo shirt with the single yellow stripe. The worst that he has is the plain gray.
He's really bad in the plain gray, and he has never worn a polo that's the extra medium size that has yellow as the primary color, even though that is one of their primary colors at Iowa State. Okay.
So keep your eye on what Otzelberger wears for his polo shirts. Very important.
Lipscomb has five guys who are shooting 33% or more from three iowa state is 135th in three-point defense okay fun fact yes lipscomb what does lipscomb mean hank teeth i was gonna say mustache okay but you're thinking about teeth a lot yeah something going on no i'm just that when you dream about your teeth falling out you're infertile it's that you didn't say something that you should have said or you said something that you shouldn't have got it marquette marquette marquette new mexico uh marquette the term the big dance was first coined by marquette coach al mcguire who said that he would wear a blue blazer because he's going to the big dance it's the first anyone said it. And they won the title that year.
Shock is smart. Their coach has a 26 page document about culture that he sends to every single recruit.
Manifesto? Well, it's a manifesto if you killed somebody. Okay.
But it's borderline manifest. It's borderline manifest.
Call that a handbook. a handbook, but a culture document.

That's a manifesto.

I think that's a coaching thing.

That might be a manifesto.

I think if you send it to somebody for publicity, it's a manifesto.

I'd like to get my hands on that and we can judge if that's a manifesto.

Yeah, 26 pages.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of pages.

Yeah, but if they send it and then it's like, if you don't want to handle this, don't come. If you have to click and download, that's a manifesto.
I like that move. I think manifestos, they typically have to be uncovered too.
Like somebody finds a manifesto. Why don't you do that as a project? A culture manifesto for part of my take.
Okay. That'd be nice.
Yeah. It'll be one page.
Great. Good.
Then it won't be a manifesto it's at that point it's an executive summary yeah yeah yeah it's table of contents is what you're doing uh they marquette has lost to every tournament team in conference twice except for xavier whom they beat twice okay uh new mexico richard patino is their head coach yes fun. And my other fun fact is we should change the name to New America.
Oh. Instead of New Mexico.
I like that. That's my only fun fact there.
Okay. Michigan State, they have the longest streak in the country in terms of consecutive tournament appearances with 27.
Next year, they would tie the all-time record. So 28 would be the record that Kansas had.
Kansas does not – it's not an active streak for Kansas any longer. So, yeah, Tom Izzo, January, February, Izzo, April.
Although he should want it to be January, February, March, Izzo. Would be better because that's when they play the championship game.
And they play against Bryant. My fun fact about Bryant Is their coach is Phil Martelli Jr.

Son of... be better because that's when they play the championship game and they play against bryant my fun fact about bryant is their coach is phil martelli jr son of legendary saint joe's coach phil martelli senior yeah also i believe this is true richard patino back to new mexico i think he's the only coach in this tournament that at some point has lived in another coach's balls that's also in this tournament that.
That's also in this tournament, yes. Because Phil Martelli Jr.
lived in Phil Martelli Sr.'s balls. That makes sense.
Okay. Who's up next? That was great, PFT.
Thank you. Who do you have coming out of this region? The funnest fact out of this region.
Who do you have coming out of this region? Oh, I've got Michigan State coming out of this region. I've got Michigan State against Auburn.
Okay. Hank, are you up next? I think so.
Duke? Florida. Oh.
Max, you're up next. Jesus Christ.
Duke. Duke.
We're going to the east. We're going across.
Okay. I thought we were going to go to Hank, too.
Clockwise. Okay, we can go to Hank.
No, no, no. I'm good.
I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go.
Who's more ready to go? Me. He said that faster.
I've already told you guys this fun fact. I don't know if I told all four of you.
We're starting with Duke, and my friend's sister is John Shire's assistant at Duke. Yes.
That's pretty cool. So how close are friends? We played baseball together in college.
Do you keep up? He was in Chicago last year.

We got dinner.

Okay.

So fairly like, yeah, you could get us John Shire on the show.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes.

Love that.

I could get it.

I could.

Yes.

I will say yes.

Okay.

That is a very fun fact.

Fun fact.

Fun fact.

What does John Shire translate to, Hank?

Oh, I got one.

What? No, I'm waiting for Hank Bilbo's son I don't know who Bilbo is Bilbo Baggins shire I don't know okay what do you got PFT I was just gonna say uh Sirius X 2015 bathroom there we go bathroom because he couldn't piss he couldn't piss got it what what's wait what is that uh what are you referring to i i mean i brought it up with ed sheeran i don't think you have in 2015 i was at the serious xm studio and i went to the bathroom he came in with me and ed sheeran goes to the urinal next to me i start to piss i'm letting it rip i'm just pissing like a racehorse okay like letting out gallons it's a it's a fire hose it's like a super soaker and then ed sheeran's trying to piss and he can't piss what and yeah he's just standing there like you know he's shorter than me too which is crazy so he's trying to piss he's intimidated by my strong stream and then he does the fake flush like he pissed but him and know he didn't piss. And then he gets out, washes his hands and leaves.
He went in there to pee. He didn't pee because he got scared.
Holy shit. How do you not tell us that story? I don't know.
That's crazy. All right, Max, back to you.
So Duke plays the winner of American or St. Mary's.
I have some facts about both of them. Okay, great.
The American fun fact is another personal fact.

In 2009.

I hope they're all personal facts.

In 2009, they were beating Villanova by 13 at halftime

in the first round as a 14 seed against a three.

And I vividly remember where I was at that moment

and thinking that I wanted Jay Wright fired in that moment.

And then they ended up. How old were you? I was 14.
Okay. I love that.
I love that. 13.
I was 13. Yeah.
So like, this is why we shouldn't listen to you. You're going to want every coach fired at some point.
Yeah. No, I wanted him fired, but then Villanova ended up winning that game by 12.
Okay. Nice.
I also did something. I started to do something and then I felt like it was mean.
I started to do a best player and a worst player from each team. Okay.
Okay. I don't have to continue.
I don't have to. No, give us one.
Okay, American. Matt Rogers, best player, 17 points, 55% shooting, 40% from three.
Pretty good numbers. Worst player, no disrespect to Jeff Sprouse.
Jeff Sprouse is definitely in AWL. He's definitely listening to this right now.
Trying to take his mind off the play in that. The guard, Jeff Sprouse from American, plays 23 minutes a game.
I didn't want to pick the walk-ons who never play. He has six points a game, but he's the guard who shoots 33% from the field and 50% from the line.
Just not great numbers. Jeff Sprouse.
Let's get those numbers up. What are the assist numbers like there, Max? What's his game like? Yeah, he might be like a John Stockton.
This is the notes that I have. I don't have the assist numbers on here.
Okay. Okay, St.
Mary's. This kind of got away from me, too.
You're on your third team, Max. Okay, D2 wagon, 1962 national champions in the D2, five final fours in the D2.
Okay. And then I started thinking about St.
Mary's. I'm like, I'm pretty sure they have a really small court.
And then I looked it up. I'm like, oh yeah, they have a small court.
But then it made me think like, is that the smallest court? The court's not regulation size? No, like stadium, small stadium, like high school looking stadium. Small barn.
Yeah. So they have 3,000 people in their, like, they can seat 3,000 people in their stadium.
And I was like, that's pretty small. I wonder what the smallest is.
South Carolina up upstate their stadium seats 800 people in it whoa like i think i look i'm gonna show you a picture of it right now i want to see this i think if if like we could get more people in our office basketball gym than this than this team can i love these small gyms yeah so it kind of got away from me and i started to look this is why is why this is being a South Carolina upstate fact look how small this gym that's really small small this gym is that's like a high school gym this is why this tournament is so great though because it's it's these type of teams I know South Carolina upstate's not in it but uh they could be it's why I love this tournament it's why it's it's analogous to uh the what do they call it FA Cup FA Cup yeah where it's why I love this tournament. It's why it's analogous to the, what do they call it? FA Cup.
FA Cup. Yeah, where it's like a YMCA is playing against Man U.
That gym, I can guarantee you, is hot as fuck during a game. Yeah.
That's a cool gym. 800 people in that tiny room, yeah.
That's a cool gym. And one more thing about St.
Mary's. This is a bad fun fact that I found.
Oh. Just like, it's just a stupid fact.
They have a player on their team that his name is two other teams in the tournament. Oh.
His name is Xavier Lipscomb. Wow.
Whoa. That is a very fun fact.
That's a very fun fact. Xavier Lipscomb plays for St.
Mary's. You killed that.
What happens when he plays against Lipscomb?

Does he play for the name on the front or the name on the back? Whoa. Yeah.
Whoa. That's big time.
Okay, I think Duke's going to win that game. Okay.
We're on to Mississippi State Baylor. Mississippi State Big Dairy School.
Yeah. Didn't know this.
Brandon looks like a bag of milk. They annually produce 369,000 gallons of milk, 9,000 gallons of ice cream, and 300,000 pounds of cheese.

All sold exclusively on campus.

Love that.

Big Dairy School.

Didn't know it.

Josh Hubbard, good player.

Okay.

Baylor.

So I have a fun fact about the people in this room with Baylor, and then I have a morbid fact that I did not know about Baylor so I have a fun fact about the people in this room with Baylor and then I have a morbid fact that I did not know about Baylor oh you did not know about that did you know about this he's pointing at you are you talking about the murders I didn't know murders you didn't know the murders that's not Go ahead. Well, the fun fact is that- Is it the Branch Davidians you're going to bring up? No.
Okay. No.
You don't know what that is either. I don't know what that is either.
The fun fact is that Baylor is the team of the bracket busters of the three of the four people in this room. Well, whatever, room, whatever.
So let's go Baylor's. We're rooting for Baylor in here.
Let's go Baylor's. Max, PFT, and Hank have Baylor as their Experian buster, which we do every year at Barstool.
It's very fun. I have Utah State with Jerry.
Bear up. Yeah, you do the- Bear down.
You do the claw, yeah. Bay leave.
It's one of these, right? No, that's a horn frog. I'm a bay lorry.
What's the hand signal for the bears? The paw. Paw.
They do a claw? I don't know. I'm just doing the Caleb Williams.
Paw. Okay.
Okay. Morbid fact about Baylor basketball.
Did you know that they had a Marshall situation? A what? We are Marshall. A we are Marshall situation.
Oh. In 1927, they were busing the team to a game,

and the bus driver ended up putting the bus on a train track

as the tracks were coming through.

What?

And 10 of their players died, and they had to suspend the season.

Holy shit.

Not good.

That's bad.

Morbid fact.

Not a fun fact.

All gas, no brakes.

Should have blown through it.

There were some crazy stories of it.

Apparently, one of the teammates pushed another one out the window before the train hit and

saved his life.

Good teammate.

Yeah.

Because you know the other one, too, which is also very morbid.

I don't know.

A Baylor player shot another Baylor player and murdered him.

They pretty much had to redo the entire program.

Yeah, like 20 years ago.

Yeah, so I didn't know about either of those.

But this is a new program.

Yeah, this is a new program.

And it's good vibes because you guys have Baylor. Yeah.
And Waco. Is Waco Baylor? Yeah.
Yeah, so I didn't know about either of those. But this is a new program.
Yeah, this is a new program. And it's good vibes because you guys have Baylor.

Yeah.

And Waco.

Is Waco Baylor?

Yeah, that was the Branch Davidians.

Yeah.

Nothing bad.

Yeah, we've really put a nice spotlight on Baylor here.

I mean, RG3.

They won a national title.

Yeah.

There we go.

Baylor.

Baylor.

Okay. I like Baylor in this game.
How many schools have won a national title in basketball and a Heisman in the last? Oh, I thought you were going to say one national title and also had murderers. No, we're not talking about that.
We're not talking about that. In the last 15 years, let's say.
Won a national title and a Heisman? And a Heisman trophy. If you go a little bit, Florida, obviously, if you go a little bit further back.
I selectively put it at 15 years for that reason. Yeah, not a lot.
Baylor. Baylor.
Baylor. Baylor's the answer to that question.
Okay. Okay.
Oregon, this was another. I got fixated on courts a little bit during this.
I was in my head. Your ADD? I was going to say, Oregon, horrible, horrible court, because I remember watching how bad their court is.
They changed the court. That's what I was going to say.
They changed the it still is not great, but they changed way better. The coloring of it.
So it's not as distracting. It looked like it had water damage.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. No, they did.
They definitely upgraded it this past year. Yeah.
So it looks much better now. Yep.
That's it. They've improved their court.
Okay. Which they won't be playing on in this tournament.
Yep. Nope.
That has nothing to do with it. They also have TJ Bamba, who was once a Villanova Wildcat.
So I like him, but I also hate him for leaving. Fun fact.
Okay. You remember when they tried to update Puddles the Duck into Robo Puddles? Nope.
I think they debuted that in like 2002, 2003. They tried to have like a new space age version of Puddles the Duck, who we all know and love.
And this duck, the Robo Duck, is fucking hilarious. Yeah.
He looks like Batman if it was a duck. It was crazy.
They just went a little too far. Little too far with it.
Oh, there's Robo Duck. Well, that's from...
Oh,, yeah. You gotta watch the birthing of RoboDuck.
They had it hatch out of an egg. It was weird.
And then it met Puddles, and it was, yeah, one of my favorite clips. Yeah.
Okay, well, they played Liberty, and I knew that Liberty was strict, but they're worse than BYU strict. Oh, yeah.
I looked up in some of the things that you can't do at Liberty School. No R-rated movies, no cursing, no hugging, and no dancing.
And if you violate any of these, you get fined. Yeah.
I don't understand how you can fine someone who's paying to be there. They can do whatever they want.
What about, is there anything in the rules about a love triangle with a pool boy and watching your wife get cucked? I didn't. That didn't come across my research.
Okay. Jerry Falwell Jr.
Yeah, Jerry Falwell Jr. Who's the president of Baylor.
The pool boy was fucking his wife and he was just sitting there watching it. And they have all these rules and then that whole thing happened.
Yeah, I didn't know about that. You don't know a lot about a lot.

Yeah, I spent like four hours looking for these, by the way.

You can ask memes.

I was stressing.

Okay.

I like Oregon in that game.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Now we're on to Arizona-Akron.

Yeah.

Arizona, fun fact.

They already have a Cinderella on the team. One of their best players, Trey Townsend, was a teammate of Jack Golke at Oakland last year when they beat Kentucky.
He's got Cinderella DNA. Yep, he had a really good game in that game.
I think he had like 18 points. Yeah, I think he was like, obviously Golke was a story, but he was a stud.
He was a stud. Yeah.
Also, Caleb Love, I think he's been on the team for 40 years. Well, in college basketball for 40 years.
He was on North Carolina. Yeah, in college, whatever.
You know what I mean. Yeah.
This is the worst fun fact that I found of the day. I was looking up every team's fun facts, and then I found this, and it pissed me off, so I had to tell you.
Akron is really excited about this matchup because he really likes likes coffee and the game is being played in Seattle that was a fun fact that I found who really the coach really like John Gros yeah okay he's excited because Seattle is known for their coffee you can't get coffee in that anywhere else no yeah so he's really excited to go to Seattle for their coffee that's that's the fun fact that I found from Akron pissed you off. Well, I want to say right now, John Gross, if you guys hit the over in this game, I will send you coffee from StellaBlueCoffee.com.
Love it. I like the over in this game.
Okay. Okay.
BYU. Memes is a BYU leaver because they play super fast, and he likes teams that play super fast.
And they also have the most NIL in the entire country. Yes.
They have the number one recruit coming in next year and they've given them $7 million and I did not know BYU had NIL money like that. Yeah.
I also read another article. They got stupid money.
Yeah. I don't know where that money's coming do why do the mormons have all the money but what 10 you gotta kick it up to the boss um also i read an article that they may have that someone predicted richie saunders would be the the the name of march madness so that's a guy on their team that apparently is getting a lot of hype okay what was it was that documentary you told me to watch, Max, about the influencer family? The mom influencer.
Fuck. Ruby Frank? Ruby Frank.
Yeah. Crazy.
Crazy documentary. And then her weird husband, who I think is just as in on it as she was.
Either that or he's the biggest idiot on the planet. He's always rocking BYU gear.
Interesting. So he's a BYU fan.
Also, good fun fact. Yeah.
Very good fun fact. And they will be playing VCU, who their head coach, this will be his last time at VCU, no matter what.
That's my prediction. This isn't a fact.
No, no, no. I'm telling you this as my thoughts, is that this guy will not be coaching vcu after this is this are you reporting i'm reporting this you're reporting this that he's going to be the villanova head coach or virginia it's most likely virginia okay like because i want him to be the villanova head coach but it's looking like he's going to virginia so he will either be going to Villanova or Virginia after this year.

This is his last ride with VCU.

And what's his name?

His name is Ryan Odom.

Yes.

They also have a player, Max Schulge,

who said he was transferring to Villanova

and then said he wasn't transferring to Villanova

and went back to school.

I love these fun facts.

These are great fun facts.

Okay.

Okay.

Wisconsin, Montana.

Another terrible fun fact that I found that I'm going to share. Montana's forward Amari Jedkins and Wisconsin guard Kamari McGee are both from Racine, Wisconsin.
Yeah. And they both started their college at Green Bay.
However, they did not attend the same high school, and they weren't at Green Bay at the same time. So it's basically a nothing fact.
Okay, that's a nothing fact. I was starting to read.
I was like, oh, this could be good. This could be good.
And then by the end of it, I was like, why even include this in anything? They both know the same restaurant. They know of each other.
They have been in one area at the same time. Okay.
It pissed me off. Maybe one had the old guy's old locker.
Yep. Yeah.
Yeah, I guess at Green Bay, yeah. Another thing that I found about Wisconsin is that every single article about Wisconsin basketball, the headline is just the coach is not complaining about quick turnaround to Thursday.
Love that. But it makes me think that he might be complaining.
No complaining. But everything is just about they're not complaining.
Can't complain. You haven't complained once.
No. About going to Denver.
Nope. Their best player also was named the second team All-American today.
John Tonji. He's great.
And last thing, not good for Big Cat. Montana has the best name in the tournament.
The Grizzlies? Money Williams is a guy for Montana. What about Danger Danger? That's a good name.
Yeah. But Money Williams sounds like a guy who's going to be a star in March Madness.
Any fun facts about Wisconsin and Villanova going up against each other in the tournament? Wisconsin once beat Villanova as an eight seed.

Stopped them from a three-peat.

Yeah, Nigel Hayes decided to be, you know.

The one year in between their Villanova's championship.

Wisconsin's been really good recently.

Max, do you know the last team to beat Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament?

JMU.

Yeah, it was a JMU. I also have a fun fact about that game.
I was watching that game at my friend's house at Delaware, and he had friends that were coming over that apparently had to leave because he was like, I couldn't watch a game with that guy. That's fair.
He was freaking out so much. Yeah, but you guys were defending champions.
I was pissed. And, yeah.
I mean, you won titles on either side, so it's not really a big deal. Yeah, it's okay.
But at the time, I was pissed. Yeah.
Okay. I like Wisconsin in that game.
Okay. Now we're on to St.
Mary's versus Vandy. Oh, this is actually a pretty fun fact.
Well, first off, notable alumni, St. Mary's, PFT.
Deli. Deli.
There you go. Fun fact.
Their name is the St. Mary's Gales, and their name was given to them by a sports writer in the 20 who nicknamed them that because they had so many Irish guys on the team.
Oh. So that's where they got the St.
Mary's Gales. Australians are just Irish criminals.
And now they're just importing from the opposite side

i guess so good way to look at it okay and now we have a a contradictory fact from pft from earlier oh but i think i understand where the contradiction contradiction comes from vanderbilt is the first team to first college to participate in a basketball game And that was a 9-6 victory over Nashville YMCA.

Oh, okay.

So I think maybe yours is the first to play another college, and this is the first college to play. Okay.
Was yours a 5-on-5 game? I don't know. All it says is in 1893, Vanderbilt beat Nashville YMCA 9-6 in the first college to participate.
Whatever. Okay.
Okay, this is my last game. Alabama versus Robert Morris.
I have some bad stats about Alabama. Murder.
But I thought that I would phone a friend to, you know, maybe see if he could save those facts from being said.

Yes, I like that.

That's a good idea.

So let's phone this friend.

Let's see if he answers.

I mean, he should.

He's probably on the phone with somebody else, though.

He probably is, yeah.

He's got deep Rolodex.

What's up?

Rico, thank you for answering the phone.

Tell him he's live.

You are live to tape on part of my take.

Okay. Do you have any fun facts about this Alabama Robert Morris game? Yeah, we went to the Final Four last year.
We're 11 deep. Got a great coach, great fan base, friends of the program.
So that – What's up? I just want to know if you have any fun facts about Alabama's basketball program. Yeah, I mean, they came out of nowhere.
They were never good my entire life. And now O's has left to five straight high seats, something that's never been done before.
I was personally going to say that their coach may be involved in a murder allegation. I mean, you guys are supposed to be an incredible news source.
Why don't I just say that you double teamed three fat girls at the ball last week? I called you. I called you because I wanted.
Wait, is that true, Max? No, it is not true. How do you double team three? Wait, it sounds like he's at home.
You got your number two. You want to play the number game? You got more followers and you watched it.
I'll go. You're going to get Hammond.
You're going to get Hammond. Wait.
I don't think he does have more followers than Max.

Let's fact check that because that's a fun fact.

You bring up Rico.

I'll bring up Max.

I'll bring up Rico.

Also, can you just make sure Rico sounds like he's at home right now?

Just tell him to let the kids have the Reese's.

He hung out.

He hung out.

All right.

The kids have the Reese's.

Oh, he might have more followers.

He does.

Max has 144,000.

Rico has 180, so credit to Rico. Credit to Rico.
Credit credit to rico he had that off the top of his own pretty quickly by the way there's a rumor going around that rico and max are dating what they left together on friday night well they were hanging out that's actually incorrect they're sitting right next to each other i saw you double team this is actually incorrect i actually have video evidence of us not leaving because we were going to go to the bar together, and then some assistant coach hit him up and asked him to go to a different bar, and he was like, oh, I got to go here. And you have video evidence? I have video evidence of him on the phone with this other.
Oh, that doesn't prove that you didn't leave with him. I guess technically that's true.
Yeah. But I have him on the phone.
Sounds like you guys did, in fact, make plans for a date. Sounds like you guys might be dating.
Yeah. Okay.
I wanted to go on a date with him. Yeah.
But now I was- You were too busy. I was turned down.
Triple teaming fat girls. I was not triple teaming fat girls.
I think it was- Was it you guys double teamed three fat girls? No. I had not- He was ready to go with that.
For the record, I had nothing to do with any fat girls. His kids were right there.
I had nothing to do with any fat girls. They were just happy that they could eat the Reese's without getting stolen.
But no disrespect to fat girls? No. No disrespect.
All right, Hank. Hank, you're up.
Wait, was there a Robert Morris fact in there? I thought maybe he would have something about Robert Morris. Oh, okay.
All right. To me, Robert Morris just sounds like a cigarette.
I do have a fun fact, but this is via Stathol Sports, is that they have the most losses of all time without a win in the NCAA tournament. Oh.
Robert Morris. Okay.
0-8. Oh.
Okay, Hank. All right, here we go.
South region. First fun fact actually comes from PMT alumni South region yeah West already off West region yep this comes from PMT alumni our darling Jake Marsh oh Florida said this is this is his tweet this is awesome three of the four number one seeds in this year's NCAA tournament are led by Jewish head coaches Bruce Pearl John Shire Todd golden of flor Golden of Florida.
Mazel Tov on a great season so far. Wow.
Fun fact. That is fun fact.
Fun fact. Also, love you, Jake.
Yeah. Love you, Jake.
Are all your fun facts going to be ripped from other people? No. That was just a...
I guess it's not great timing that the first one was, but the rest are all me. Because you could see how we'd think like, oh, well, we all did hours of research.
No, I did. I did a lot of research.
That was just that. I liked that.
That was a good fun. I did just call Rico, but that's fine.
No, that's right. That was fun.
Norfolk State. There's a few fun facts here.
Okay. Won each of their previous games by one point.
So if it gets close, they know what to do. That was the intentional foul game.
Did you see how that came out? So they tied. I can't remember who they were playing.
It might have been like North Carolina, Upstate or something.

One of those schools.

Their opponent scored, got the ball on a press, scored to tie it with 10 seconds left.

And then they intentionally fouled because he just like didn't have time and space.

That's how they ended up in the tournament.

J.R. Smith.

Yeah.

They're one of their most notable alums.

Also recurring guests on the show. J smooth oh yeah people forget and then this is multiple this is the wind horse this one doesn't make sense to me i feel like maybe i'm still uh brain fried and big that's going to have an obvious reason for why this is all the other 16 seeds are 101 100 to 1 to make the sweet 16

on draft games norfolk is 20 to 1 yeah well at least two of them haven't won yet right right okay and then the last one the last one would be oh no yeah uh who's the last one siue Yeah.

S-I-U Edwardsville.

What is their...

Oh, I do have the reason.

There are... Oh, yeah.
Who's the last one? SIUE. Yeah.
SIU Edwardsville. What is there? What are there? Oh, I do have the reason.
They're an Illinois school. So you can't.
Yeah. All right.
I knew it didn't. As I was looking at it, it made no sense.
It's like, what does Vegas know? And that's the answer. The other two have to play in the play-in.
The other four have to play in the play-in and the last one would be 20-1 but they are in Illinois school. You can't bet Illinois schools in Illinois.
So 20-1. Can you bet the opposite side of that? I wish.
That's a good investment. Okay.
No, it's 200. What is it? It's 2,001 said Norfolk State is not 100-1? Wait, this was also this.

I swear to God, they changed this in the last hour.

Me and Spider were on this earlier.

Me and Spider were looking at this earlier.

This is what happens when he doesn't get it from somebody else.

Didn't make sense.

Okay.

Okay, moving on.

Well, that was an extra one.

Betting the opposite of 20-1 for Norfolk State.

Yeah, that would be the easiest bet ever.

That's a great bet.

UConn.

Yeah.

Trying to be the first team to three-peat since UCLA in 1969. They were led by Luol Cinder.
A gallon of gas in 1969 cost 35 cents. That is a fun fact.
That's good. And the number one song at the time was Dizzy by Tommy Rowe.
Give us a couple bars of Dizzy. I don't know.
Dizzy, Dizzy, Dizzy. When I make love, I be stroking.
And then Oklahoma, this is just some player fun facts. Bryson Goodien is from New Bedford.
That's in mass. That was a fun fact to me.
Okay. And then one of their top players, Jeremiah Fears, is from a local guy, Joliet.
Okay. Yeah, he said it perfectly.
Brother of Michigan State Fears. Yeah.
Assist machine. Another fun fact.
Memphis. I am choosing to believe this because it is crazy.
I don't know if you guys seen the Memphis Louisville. People are saying that the committee accidentally swapped them.
Louisville has a better net RPI, Ken Palm, H-Lock, and higher in the ESPN BPI rankings in every category. But Memphis is the higher-seeded team.
Yes. I choose to believe that, too.
I do as well. Because it makes no sense other than they just accidentally mess it up and they just have to live with it that's how i choose to believe that they put wisconsin endeavor not making excuses for it but they're like whoops we meant to put them in milwaukee yeah i mean there's a lot just like mixed up a couple things yeah they're moving around a lot of things things things get lost in the michigan should have been flipped uh and then they are playing colorado state whose campus is on a 5,011-foot elevation, which is the fifth highest in the country.
And the highest – or New Mexico, UC Air Force, and Wyoming are higher. Okay.
Maryland. Yep.
Interesting. I couldn't find the reason why because Maryland's the biggest crab exporter in the country they're all about the crabs i was

curious why you know the crab five why uh aren't they the terrapins and not the crabs why are they

the turtle why are the turtle not the crabs yeah i i don't know the answer i feel like crabs just

aren't a great mascot i disagree no in terms of like there's a turtle though right well but a

turtle is stronger than a crab turtle you can you can't like crabs you just fucking put a little

Thank you. I disagree.
No, in terms of like... There's a turtle, though.
Right. But a turtle is stronger than a crab.
A turtle, you can't... Like crabs, you just fucking put a little trap out and then you just eat them.
I think it has something... Turtles can at least defend themselves.
I think it has something to do with a flag. I think they wanted the flag to be the star of the show, and so they wanted a less angular, cool mascot so they wouldn't be the Terrapin.
And the reason that Maryland blue crabs are so elite is because they hibernate in the chesapeake bay during the winter which allows them the luxury of building additional fat reserves that have distinct look and taste delicious put some old bay on there uh they are going up against grand canyon which fun fact is not the deepest canyon in the world did you you also know, fun fact, it would take us, the entire population of the world, 800 years to fill up the Grand Canyon with piss? I did see that video. 800 years? Yeah.
If we were all just continuously pissing. We should try that at some point.
Yeah, we should. What is the deepest canyon? What is it? Bonnie Blue.
Yarlung Topango Grand Canyon in Tibet. Oh.
Plum is to a depth a depth of 17 567 feet making it more than two miles deeper than grand canyons 6093 feet it's also about 30 miles longer than the grand canyon wow the grand canyon i saw it for the first time last year it's grand it is really awesome it's it's a very cool place to go i can't imagine the first person who it. They're just like walking through the woods and they're like, holy fuck.

Yeah.

Where's Grand Canyon University, Hank?

Nevada?

No.

Arizona.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's in Phoenix.

It's also for profit.

I believe you can buy stock in Grand Canyon University.

Oh, we should.

Yeah. Or short it.
That would be nice. I will not be buying stock.
I Canyon University. Oh, we should.
Yeah. Or short it.

That would be nice.

I will not be buying stock.

I like Maryland in this game.

Okay.

But their women's team.

Yeah.

Buy stock.

You caught up on their women's team?

I did.

Yeah.

I understand now.

I understand it now.

Mizzou.

This is what makes the March Madness great.

Missouri, 3,543 students.

Drake, 4,774.

The University of Missouri only has 3,000 students?

You said it wrong.

31,500.

There you go.

There you go.

That does make it great.

31,543.

Drake has 4,774.

Missouri's leading scorer went to Duke for two years.

Fun fact.

I'm sure they'll mention that in the broadcast.

And Jeremy Piven is an alum of Drake.

Nice.

Love it.

Also, wouldn't have thought Drake was in Iowa.

Yep.

Or Des Moines.

Iowa.

Yeah.

You got it.

Yep.

Where would you think it was?

I don't know if your brain's on your back.

Toronto?

Somewhere in the Northeast or, I don't know, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas. Seems like a rough, I guess, Iowa.
Yeah. Texas Tech, moving on.
Mm-hmm. The mascot is named the Mask Rider.
Jeffrey? But true fans know that the Mask Rider's real name is Jeffrey. Jeffrey.
So when you see him on the broadcast, they'll say, oh, it's the mask rider. You can say, no, his real name is actually Jeffrey.
And even say like, hey, that's Jeffrey. Yeah.
Yeah. Give a shout out to Jeffrey.
Yep. They are going up against UNC Wilmington.
There are 17 schools in the University of North Carolina system. System.
There's a school, the University of North Carolina system.

There's a school, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Their mascot is the Fighting Pickle.

Whoa.

One of the best mascots I've ever seen.

That's cool.

If someone here is listening from UNC OA.

Doubt it.

I would love some Fighting Pickle gear.

Because check it out, Pia. I'm checking it out now.
The UNC Williamson is the Seahawks. That's one you can just throw around to people makes you feel like you know ball.
Not as good as the Fighting Pickle. Yeah.
Oh the Fighting Pickle is great. Fighting Pickle is awesome.
He's got like a little Cavalier Soul Patch mustache thing going on. Yeah.
That's cool. That's cool get some fighting pickle merch okay uh kansas versus arkansas arkansas arkansas uh kansas so both of these names they're so similar and it's because they're both uh named after native american tribes and i'm guessing it's Kansas means wind.
Oh, okay.

You're guessing?

Or like, let me pull up.

Let me pull up.

This is a fun fact.

Well, no.

That's a fun fact you can find out.

I had different notes going.

How come Kansas is pronounced Kansas, and then Arkansas is pronounced Arkansas, not

Arkansas?

Because they're both, they're different tribes. Got it.
Now, that's Arkansas is pronounced Arkansas, not Arkansas. Because they're both different tribes.

Got it.

Now, that's a fun fact.

South wind or wind of the people.

That's Kansas.

And also, Arkansas is a different...

Type of wind?

No, it's also wind.

Yeah, it's wind.

So, it's the wind battle.

Yeah, battle of wind.

Coach Cal? Yeah. Very superstitious.
He wants – he said he wouldn't start a player who got a haircut on game day. So if you play for Coach Cal, no haircuts.
Wow, the Yankees. And he hates raisins and oatmeal.
Oh. If he walks into, like, where they're having breakfast and he sees raisins and oatmeal, he said wants they were on like a 25 game win streak or something at home and he walked in saw raisins oatmeal threw it across the wall they lost the game wow he also collects bobby pins he thinks they're good luck if he finds a bobby pin he saves it and he has a collection of what is a bobby pin is it it's like the thing in your suits, I think, or something.
Yeah, it's like the little tiny thing. Oh, the tiny hair clips.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's a fun fact. That is a fun fact.
Coach Cal's kind of weirdo. Yeah, that is weird.
Yeah, notable pro golf alums. Gary Woodland went to Kansas.
He has six pro wins, one major. John Daly went to Arkansas.
He has 19 pro wins and two two majors it would have been funny if you just did all golf facts yeah and then you got one more game i do where are my

notes st john's in omaha uh omaha was just an indicator word manning explained it was a trigger

word that meant he changed the play there was low time on the clock and the ball needed to be

snapped right now kind of let my offensive lineman know that hey we've gone to plan b there's

Thank you. explained it was a trigger word that meant he changed the play there was low time on the clock and the ball needed to be snapped right now kind of let my offensive lineman know that hey we've gone to plan b there's low time on the clock it's a rhythmic three syllable word omaha set hut jimbo sex positions okay good job and then say john's i think they're gonna my fun fact is they're gonna advance out of this region and win the national championship wow fun fact hank that's very fun all right uh these have been great yeah these have been great i feel like i'm ready for the tournament now i got i got my region uh before i do that game time the best part of college basketball is here and we know you're as excited as we are to watch some big upsets throughout the tournament while we're streaming in the cave you can get out to see the action in person with game time the official ticketing partner barstool sports game time makes getting tickets faster and easier prices on the app actually go down the closer it gets to show time plus the game time picks feature makes it even easier to find the great deals on the seats you want you can even find last minute tickets for the tournament for up to 60 off quickly and easily just pull up your chosen event, turn on the GT pick setting at the top of the screen or browse the best local game time picks deal near you on your game time app homepage.
We're looking at tickets. There's, there's tons of games going on right now.
It's the best. Go to coach, go check out a regional, go to Denver, go get a regional hundred bucks.
Get in, watch a couple of games. They've got great curated deals for all tiers of tickets and you know you're getting the top option when you see Super Deal Icon.
What are you waiting for? Buy those tickets now. Go get some March Madness action going.
Take the guess we're going to buy tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app.
Create an account. Use code PMT for $20 off your first purchase.
Terms apply. Again, create an account.
Redeem code PMT for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today.
What time is it? GameTime. There's a ton of games going on.
If you can make one, it is so, so fun. I've been to a ton of these games in March, and it is a lot of fun.
All right. I am up.
Last region. We have the Midwest.
Am I in the Midwest? You are the Midwest. I am in the Midwest.
You've got to get your hands on one of these brackets. I know.
Someone printed out all these, and they don't have any of the regions. So stupid.
Okay. First big picture from my region.
Three of the teams in the Midwest are in the top six for most tournament appearances without a final four. So Xavier has been to the tournament 29 times, no final fours.
Tennessee's been in the tournament 26 times, no final fours. Utah State's been in the tournament 24 times, no final fours.
Utah State's sneaking in there. Yeah.
Okay. First matchup.

Houston versus SIU Edwardsville. Houston, speaking

of, has the most

final four appearances without

a national title. So they've been to the

final four six times. They've

never won the title. The next

in line for them is Illinois and Oklahoma. Both

have been to five. Never won a title.

Also, Little Wayne attended University of Houston

for a year in 2005.

Majored in political science. So shout out political

We'll see you next time. in line for them is illinois and oklahoma both have been to five never won a title also little wayne attended university of houston for a year in 2005 majored in political science so shout out political science majors i did not know that pretty cool let's get him talking some poli so i was steven a smith yeah then he had to he had to drop out and he went to university of phoenix and uh finished his degree uh siu edwardsville what what i don't know if he finished his degree but he went to to University of Phoenix after.
Lil Wayne went to Houston? He went to Houston. He enrolled in Houston.
He allegedly was getting good grades. That's what it was said.
Wow. 2005 to 2005.
Poli-sci major. Pretty fun fact, huh? Yeah, that is a very fun fact.
Blow your mind? SIU Edwardsville. It is the first ever NCAA tournament appearance for them because they became D1.
Hank still doesn't believe it, by the way. I saw that.
Right there. Well, he was like putting music out.
Yeah, I know. You can do both.
Yeah, you can do both. He probably saw higher education was like, I was wildly misled by this title.
Yeah. I'm left.
This is our first ever tournament, NCAA tournament appearance uh, became D1 in 2008. Also, if you want to sound, get a little cheeky at the bar, say you like the Cougars in this game.
I do like to get cheeky at the bar. Both teams are named Cougars.
I like to get cheeky with the Cougars. Yeah.
So just say, Hey, who you got in this game? I got the Cougars. Also Houston's going by a billion.
Uh, SIU Edwardsville's 34th largest college in America by acreage. Okay.
Kind of cool. It's down by St.
Louis. Notable alums, Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, Bill Plaschke, and this one, I feel like, is stolen valor because everyone talks about the big show, the wrestler, going to Wichita State.
He finished his career at SIU Edwardsvilleville that's where he got the degree from yeah and he he played d2 basketball there okay so we need to put some more respect to the big show going to siu yeah uh also game notes for this one i had uh houston has played five teams uh 200 or worse in kenpom here are the scores 97 to 40 against Jackson State. 91-45 against Louisiana.
80-44 against Hofstra. 78-49 against Toledo.
87-51 against Texas A&M. Corpus Christi.
Not good. Not good.
Not good. Okay.
Next one. Next game.
Gonzaga and Georgia. Gonzaga is going for their 10th straight Sweet 16, which is insane.
Yeah. That's an insane.
Nine straight Sweet 16s is nuts. Also, I found out one of Mark Few's dogs, who you might remember from his DUI video, is named Stella.
Oh, that's fun. And he brings her to practice.
With a record like that, Mark Few could have also gone to georgia yeah that's true mark few also uh he loves fishing so much he convinced his dentist to shave down a piece of his front tooth so he can better use it to cut fishing lines with his teeth that's kind of creepy so he put like a little notch in there so he can line it up i think it was like uh it had gotten a little like there was an indentation for where he had been doing it because it was like wearing down yeah and the dentist was like we could we could replace the tooth he's like can you just shave it down so i can just keep going that's crazy but i i actually respect yeah he's very competitive it was they i read an interview with his fishing buddy he's like he's so competitive even when fishing. Pretty cool.
All right, Georgia. Does anyone know the last time Georgia won a tournament game? Did Tom Crane win one? He did not.
2008. 2002.
And so this got me thinking, and I went down a little rabbit hole of just searching because it makes no sense georgia's a huge school uh of the 10 college football national champions since 2002 seven out of 10 of them have been to a final four all all 10 of them have been to an elite eight all of them have won a minimum of six tournament tournament games, and Georgia has not won a game. That's crazy.
So you go down the list, like Ohio State, 21 wins, Final Four. Michigan, 25 wins, Final Four.
Alabama, 13 wins. Clemson, six wins, Elite Eight.
That was actually the worst. UCF? UCF I did not have on there, but they've won games in the tournament.
Florida, obviously, 33 wins,xas 20 wins final four usc eight wins lead eight georgia zero win combined 154 tournament wins for all other programs that have won a national title in football and georgia has had zero wins since 2002 that's kind of crazy isn't it why do you think they've had some decent players too right it's obviously you can do the like Villanova's a basketball school. Football is not.
But it's rare to have such a like football when you have a big, robust football program. That means you have a lot of money in the athletic department.
The basketball school should at least be in the tournament every now and then and at least winning tournament. It also means that, yeah, you can fund a decent basketball program with what you get.
And you want to have your fan base spend money in the wintertime after football season's over. With basketball, yeah, funding a great athletic department for football is a lot harder to do from the ground up.
Right. So this is, I think that's the biggest disparity.
Yeah, I would say so. Between a football and a basketball program.
Hank, you with us? Mm-hmm. What are you doing? Just doing some research.
Oh, okay. Nice.
Also, this game, just game note, Gonzaga's a better team, but Georgia is taller and more physical, so it'll be very interesting to see how Gonzaga has sometimes been called soft. Yes, they have.
By me, specifically. Next up, Clemson versus McNeese State.
So this is Clemson. I have gone to a game at Clemson.
Pretty cool campus. Nice stadium.
It was good. Clemson is also a cult that doesn't get enough credit for being a cult.
They all wear their class rings. Didn't realize that they all wear their class rings.
So they're in the Texas A&M, Notre Dame camp in there. There's a rule on campus before football games.
You have to wear orange on Fridays. It sounds like you get arrested if you don't.
Yep. They also do the $2 bill thing where this started because in 1977, Georgia Tech and Clemson used to play every year in Atlanta and Georgia Tech canceled their rivalry game and so George Bennett, an executive director of Clemson's Booster Club said all Clemson fans, let's use $2 bills to show the impact we have on the economy.
Now it's kind of just they're bragging. Now they don't even make $2 bills anymore.
Yeah. They're just bragging though.
You probably have to, if you're a Clemson fan and you're planning a road trip, you have to go to the bank and ask for all the $2 bills that you might have behind the scenes. You have to plan these road trips.
And they're kind of just being like, look at how awesome we are. Everyone's got $2 bills now.
Yeah. We travel well.
And then there's also a statue, Thomas Green Clemson in Tillman Hall statue. You're not allowed to read the plaque until you graduate guess what i read the plaque today but you didn't graduate but i i might graduate and i already read the plaque but you're not allowed to i could i'll fucking do it but you're not allowed to read the plaque what do they do is there a punishment if they catch you reading the plaque i don't know i asked uh we have a co-worker kayla who went to clemson i was like did you? She's like, I don't remember.
I was like, sounds like you specifically didn't read the plaque.

I would definitely read the plaque.

And she had a ring on.

I didn't know they all wear the rings.

They need to be made fun of for the rings.

You ever been to Clemson?

I just said that.

Yeah.

I went to a game.

You spend any time in the town?

Yeah.

They've got a gas station.

Yeah.

They've got a rock.

It's small.

And then they have a hill.

Yeah, it's very small.

Yeah. The bars were cool.
I went to a couple of bars there. Yeah, that's the Clemson class ring.
And they switch the C around when you graduate. McNeese State, it's all about Amir Khan, viral student manager.
He's the best. His nickname is Aura, and he's the first student manager to ever sign an NIL deal.
He got a deal with Buffalo Wild Wings, and insomnia cookies and he has the quote if they kept manager stats for rebounding and wiping up wet spots on the court i'd put up wilt chamberlain numbers yeah this guy rocks he's the best i've seen a bunch of videos with this dude yeah he is he's worth every penny yeah uh one note on this game mcneese State actually played two Power 5 programs this year.

They lost by eight to Alabama and three to Mississippi State.

So they might be able to hang.

Fighting Will Wade.

Okay, next up, Purdue high point.

I got Purdue.

I'm going to keep it clean here.

Purdue has produced 27 astronauts,

and they also have the first and last guy to walk on the moon so neil armstrong first eugene cernan last do you mean a soundstage in burbank california yes okay also i found out that uh 16 of people who've been on the moon are named alan that is a fun fact yeah alan shepherd and the other alan there's another alan yeah also over% of Purdue students graduate as virgins. High Point.
This one's crazy. High Point University.
I don't know if you guys know anything about High Point. I actually talked to Kelly Keeks, our co-worker who went to High Point.
They have the second longest win streak in the country right now with 14. High Point University is they basically like a sims college because it looks like disneyland there's like 15 pools there's a max you're gonna like this because i know i liked it there is a ice cream truck that you can that's free to all students that you can get in between classes it's free all the time yeah that is an incredible that's i think it's part of your meal thing but it's like you just go you get ice cream that is the best perk uh high point also has a steak restaurant that you can go to once a month free uh and it is the the goal of the state steak restaurant is it's a fine dining learning lab aims to teach students business and social etiquette including how to eat in a professional setting they're literally teaching them how to eat high points not real world i i'm gonna guess the high point might have outside of like yale high point might have sneaky the highest tuition it's it's a great like looking at the campus, seeing this stuff also like the president is from uh the country jordan and he made it from high point college to high point university and then he built all this stuff seventy thousand dollars a year it's insane like if you look at anything about high point it's it basically is like a movie set for a college that's very funny they're like it's seventy thousand dollars a year but000 a year, but free ice cream while you're here.
Yeah. And you get to learn how to eat a steak.
Yeah. Also, High Point, South Carolina is the furniture capital of the world.
Yeah. North Carolina furniture is a real thing.
Yeah. So they have like a furniture expo every year.
Pretty crazy. My only game note from...
Oh, they also have a guy, a seven-footer, Jocelyn Bodo Bodo. I like that.
Just like it. My note from this game is high point plays a drop coverage scheme, and Braden Smith is probably going to go over on his points and assists.
Okay. They're just going to run two-man offense, Purdue, all game.
Okay, next up, I got Illinois versus Texas and Xavier. My Illinois fun fact is, uh, I have two of them.
Tom Ferdelli was once at a party with Duran Williams and Duran slept while standing up in the corner. Oh, that's pretty cool.
Yeah. Way to go, Tom.
Yeah. So that was, uh, that was a cool one.
And then my other one is that just cause you didn't want to talk to Tom or that was really mean. That was really mean.
You don't think that Tom can party? No, he's saying that he was, Tom was such a bore that he was sleeping in the corner. Maybe Tom was Tom talking to him while he fell asleep.
Well, yeah, it's like, oh no, this guy's going to come talk to me. Yeah.
Other fun fact is our guy Chuck. And I witnessed this firsthand.
He had a friend in college named pat moriarty who uh would bring a ziploc bag of italian sausages to the bar and i actually watched this

we were out there doing a uh event at red lion for the blackhawks i think it was like 2013 or 14

and he literally just pulled a sausage out of his pocket he's like you want a sausage

cooked sausage not like sausage bites cooked on the grill the grill sausage. Was it hot? How fat? Pat Moriarty? He actually was in pretty good shape.
That's a wild move. Yeah.
Pretty cool move, though. I ate the sausage.
Was it hot sauce? Like, was it temperature hot? Or was it just cold, stale pocket temperature sausage? No, it was like he grilled the sausage in the morning, then would put it in the Ziploc bag, and then bring it out with him. Boom.
Need a sausage? There you go. I think you were there with us.
You might have been underage, so you might not have come to us, the bar with us. Yes.
Okay. And then they're going to play Texas or Xavier.
Xavier, Sean Miller, all-time sweat guy, just needs to be reminded, everyone. Yep.
Also, Xavier, Zach Fremantle, has been there for about 100 years uh if you're not familiar with him he's very good but he's been there forever and ryan conwell their other really good player uh you might recognize him he was on indiana state last year which was kind of a a darling that didn't make the tournament uh and then texas uh trey johnson is a lottery pick you should know his name and uh te and Texas is in the tournament 19 and 15 is their record and if you take out teams worse than 200 in Ken Palm on their schedule they were actually 13 and 15 so they beat the fuck out of Houston Christian Chicago State Mississippi Valley State Arkansas Pine Bluff New Orleans State. Texas has good players.
There might not be a good team. I've seen enough Texas this year that I would agree with that.
Yeah. Okay.
I got three more. Kentucky versus Troy.
Kentucky. Mark Pope met his wife.
She was a personal assistant for David Letter letterman and mark pope actually met his future wife's brother and then the brother called the future wife and said uh when my brother met mark he was like i just met the male version of you he's you but he's a dude he's gonna call you for letterman tickets is that good uh yeah i saw white lotus kidding me yeah true true and then also mark pope raps i saw mark pope's rap uh well he did eminem at the credit tim for trying yeah this one was uh he did hamilton do you want to play it i don't there's nothing i want to yeah yeah play it do i have a hidden talent just in the hopes that lin-manuel that you're watching i going to get a scholarship to King's College. I probably shouldn't brag

but dad got amazed and astonished. The problem

is I got a lot of brains but no polish.

I got to holler just to be heard with every

word. I drop knowledge.
I'm a diamond in the

rough. A shiny piece of coal, everybody.

Okay.

That's Mark Pope. That's Kentucky.

Troy.

Coach Kel would have killed that rap. Yeah.

Troy. That was tough to watch.
Troy. It's their third tournament appearance they've never won a game and uh this one's a fun fact their coach recently went on record saying he only recruits guys who like waffle house that's not a bad strategy yeah so uh in the town where troy plays it's like 15 000 people there's There's three Waffle Houses.
So it's like he said it's probably per capita the highest, like 5,000 person per Waffle House. And he said, we offhand asked them, do you like Waffle House? If the answer is yes, we sign them.
If it's no, we never get them. I like that because if you spend time in a Waffle House, you know how to handle yourself too.
Yeah. You got street skills.
Yeah, facts. Also, Troy, the game note I had, Lamont Butler's back for Kentucky, and Troy is one of those teams that's very analytical.
They only shoot at the rim, and they shoot threes. Only problem for Troy is they suck at shooting threes.
So they're literally the worst percentage in the entire field of 68 is shooting threes, and they shoot a lot of them. This is when keeping it Steph Curry goes wrong.
Yeah, yeah. But they're doing it.
They're doing it. All right, UCLA versus Utah State.
This one is just UCLA. Mick Cronin, remember when Mick Cronin basketball almost killed him? He had a unruptured aneurysm in the back of his head and almost died.
Yeah. So I found a very funny, I went deep.
I found a very funny dude's rock moment. There was a story about a man in Minneapolis who saw Mick Cronin's story.
He had similar headaches and he went to the doctor and the doctor was like, oh, you have an unruptured aneurysm. And the guy was like, I know exactly what that is.
Coach Cronin's got it. And the doctor was like, who the hell is Coach Cronin? So Mick Cronin saved the guy's life.
This is how dudes learn about injuries and learn about illnesses that they might have. Yeah.
It's like, oh, I think I might have what that coach has. He literally saw him.
He's like, yeah, I got really bad headaches. He almost died.
And he's like, oh, fuck, I've had really bad headaches. Am I about about to die he went to the emergency room was about to die good for him saving lives saving lives uh utah state i just have notable alumni because they have a lot of guys who played football there uh bobby wagner donald penn roy shivers al smith travis la boy eric hippel and chris cooley those are all the uh really good football players from utah state They're the Aggies too, right? Yes, they are the Aggies.
Utah State also is going to zone the fuck out of UCLA. So I kind of like the under in that game.
All right, last one for me, Tennessee and Wofford. Tennessee.
Rick Barnes is in his 29th NCAA tournament. A lot of tournaments.
He is fourth all-time for tournament appearances. He's never won a title.
He's been to one Final Four. He's 30-28 in NCAA tournaments.
Not great. Is it their last three years they won? Yeah, so that was my other phone back.
So 2020 was COVID year, no games. 2021, they lost the first round.

2022, they lost the second round.

23, they lost the third round.

24 in the Elite Eight last year.

So this year...

Final Four.

Final Four.

And next year, championship game, unless they're a playing team.

Yeah.

Then that would fuck up the whole thing.

That would mess.

I don't think that they would be.

But yeah, so this guarantees that they get to the Final Four.

Yes. Yes.
Wofford, Spartanburg, South Carolina. Notable golfer, Hank.
Willie McGirt. Do you know him? Nope.
Great name. Dirt McGirt.
Two professional wins. Also, they have a live mascot terrier named Blitz three uh and has been the mascot it has been the terriers or the live mascot since 2014 yeah those small dogs live a long time yeah i tried to find any other news and i couldn't find any which i think is a good thing yeah i mean the only i i think that most people learn about geography in the united states via mid-major schools in march madness yeah and so when i learned Carolina, I'm like, okay, Wofford, South Carolina, Terriers, and they had that one good player a couple years ago.
Fletcher McGee. Fletcher McGee.
Yeah. Also, this game, game note, Wofford, 333rd in tempo, Tennessee, 346th in tempo.
Going to be a slow one, a real slow one. Okay, I feel like that was it.
Very fun facts.

What?

What, Max?

I think that was the longest segment we've ever done.

But it was great.

It was good.

It was the funnest segment we've ever done.

Yeah.

Should we rip a quick Mount Rushmore?

This is going to be... All right, then we won't.

Let's not.

What about rapid fire?

Rapid fire Mount Rushmore.

Let's do it for Friday's episode.

I love that.

Yeah, let's do it for Friday's episode.

Friday's episode Mount Rushmore.

I love that. That's a good idea.
Friday guests might be sick. Friday guest might be sick.
Yeah. No.
Literally ill. Oh, so we can't get her? Friday guest is sick.
Oh, actually sick. Actually.
Wait, is that what you were referring to, Hank? The flu. Yeah.
Oh. Yeah.
Okay. We will have Stanford Steve on as well.
So no Snooki? Damn. It's looking like no Snooki.
She's sick. She had the flu.
She missed her filming shoot today. Okay.
Well, we'll try to get her on. She wants to talk ball with us.
All right. We just broke down the whole bracket.
Our fun facts. We're going to do more with Titus, but we got to do a pick, boys.
So when it comes to college basketball, March Mania, one thing is for sure. Nothing's for sure.
Upsets, buzzer beaters. Cinderella is advancing top seeds going home early.
Bet the unexpected. Every upset every day with DraftKings Sportsbook.
Everyone's sweating it out. Except you.
DraftKings is offering all customers a no sweat parlay every single day. How does it work? Opt in and place a bet on any eligible parlay.
If your bet doesn't hit, you'll get a bonus bet back in the amount of your original bet. Bet the unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook.
Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE.
That's code TAKE with a no-swept parlay every single day. Only on DraftKings.
The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
In New York, call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY-467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling.
Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly.
On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Boyd in Ontario, eligibility and wagering restrictions apply.
Opt in to get one no-sweat bet. No-sweat bonus bet issued in amount of losing qualifying bet.
Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. Maximum reward and qualifying bet criteria vary.
For additional terms or responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash audio. All right, so we're going to do a parlay for Thursday and a parlay for Friday.
So you guys got your Thursday picks? I'll start. I got Purdue high point over 153 and a half.
I have VCU money line. Okay.
Like that. Is Yale A&M Thursday or Friday? Yale and A&M is.
Okay. Yale plus 7.5.
Like that. Max? I am going to go Louisville minus 2.5.
Did anyone say that? Nope.

Okay, that's first game.

A lot of pressure.

Fuck, I didn't know that was first game.

Do you want to think about that?

No, just go for it, dude.

All right.

All right, go for it.

All right, change it.

If you want to change it, change it. UC San Diego?

Yeah.

All right, UC San Diego plus two and a half.

Why don't we move the line a little?

We got a money line in there.

Make it four and a half. For what? UC San Diego.
Our odds are going to be good because we have VCU money line. I like it.
And then our Friday pick. You're going to be able to bet all these in the DraftKings Sportsbook app.
New Mexico plus three and a half. Okay.
I'm going to do Colorado State minus two and a half. I'm going to doado state minus two and a half i'm gonna do memphis money line no well oh my bad i i i had that written down okay all right you could do you could do that i'll change the only problem is well we didn't talk about this before obviously it happened rapid fire you're acting like i did that on purpose well did you not get the text No.
Oh. Stu Finder.
Oh, yeah.

I didn't see that.

Okay. He said it was a lineage play.
He's going to be pissed if you're saying this. I already said it.
With Titus. Did we say that? Yeah, we live updated with Titus when he texted us yesterday.
All right, give me Grand Canyon plus 10.5. Okay.
I'm going to go with our Baylor Bears plus 1.5. Love that, Max.
Love your confidence in our Baylors. All right, go bet those.
The DraftKings Sportsbook ride with us. We're going to be live streaming all Thursday and Friday.
We're very excited. Let's do Hot Seat Cool Throne, and then we will kick it to Titus, and we will talk some more bracket from someone who maybe won't be fun facts, but actually be real facts about the games.
Hot Seat Cool Throne is brought to you by our friends at Body Armor Flash IV. Body Armor Flash IV is packed with electrolytes, provides faster and longer-lasting hydration with no artificial flavors, sweeteners, or dyes.

With great-tasting flavors like strawberry, kiwi, and tropical punch, Body Armor Flash IV gives your body the rehydration it needs to recover.

Get yours at a local 7-Eleven or on Amazon today.

Hank just walked out.

Yeah, so he's supposed to start off Hot Seed Cool Throne.

Did he forget that?

I don't know.

He's not back.

You know he's not back. He's off notes app hot seat what do you got uh michigan baseball player yeah notes app oh for doing a line of coke max he took mine but yeah that's that's what hank would have done sorry no no go for it i was just thinking i was like we should that's it was funny.
Yeah, the notes app. The guy from Michigan had to apologize for fake snorting a lot of coke.
Yeah, it was very funny. He really.
Read the notes app. Do you have it? I got it right here.
He really took down that line. Yeah.
I would like to apologize for my actions on third base yesterday. I made an immature decision in the heat of the moment.
The gesture made does not reflect my character the household i was raised in or the block m that i represent in any kind of way i take full responsibility for what i did and i'm truly sorry to all those who i've negatively impacted by doing this this is like michigan state's tradition of kissing the logo at center court every michigan player should snort up the third baseline yeah i like this i don't like it's very funny i don't think he should have apologized no uh what's your cool throne since uh hank left all right hank do you want to go no you got it i'm sorry i had to pee really bad cool throne pft okay my cool throne is paul skeins because paul skeins you might want to sit down. He was named the starter for opening day for the Pirates.
Wow.

And they did a big video production about it, too.

And they were like, congratulations.

You're going to start opening.

The dude fucking started the All-Star game last year as a rookie.

I love that.

And the Yankees don't have to put out an announcement that Giancarlo Stanton is going to be injured opening day.

Right.

The Pirates don't need to put out an announcement that Paul Skeens is going to be the starting pitcher for for opening day right uh my other hot seat was going to be griff to the drake bulldogs live mascot oh yeah you're not allowed to bring your live mascots to the ncaa tournament unless it's the final four yeah but they don't allow them in the building and the drake bulldogs they under uh griff to their current bulldog i believe their is, at least in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, 9-0. They're 9-0 when Griff 2 is there.
You've got to, if you're a Drake alumni, if you're a Drake administrator, you've got to trench coat this Bulldog. Yeah.
You've got to bring him in a trench coat. I don't care.
You've got to get the Bulldog in there. For all the dogs, right, Hank? Yeah.
Yep. Get him.
Get him. Do the service dog.
I don't care. Griff's got to be in the building.
Got him. Free Griff.
Free Griff. All right, Hank.
My hot seat is the FBI slash CIA slash mafia. Okay.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Trump announced that he's actually finally releasing the JFK files.
So he was supposed to release those today. We haven't seen it today.
I hope it happens. I mean, they got to come out, right? They got to.
The Epstein files, that was a big nothing. Nothing burger.
Yeah, no, obviously nothing's going to come out. Who do you think did it? I like how they keep saying, because I'm sure in a couple weeks or months, they're going to say, now we're going to release the F-Sane files.
Yeah. Yeah.
Who do you think did it, Hank? The CIA. The guy, his driver.
Yeah. Turned around and got him.
Yep. I think it's the dude that was from Illinois.
That guy. Mafia guy? Oh, yeah.
Mafia slash CIA, yeah. Who was in charge of getting Jack Ruby killed? Yeah yeah that guy did that shit yeah or jack or in charge of jack ruby killing killing that guy yeah and then the craziest part about jack ruby he went to prison and then one of the doctors that ran mk ultra went to visit him gave him like a dose of some medication then jack ruby went insane right after that visit.
Damn. Damn.
Nuts. Makes you think.
Finally, we'll know the truth. My cool throne is Podcast P with Paul George.
Is it back? Yeah, so he, on February 26th, said, I want to let the Podcast P family know that after today's episode with Dwight, I plan to take a break from the pod just to focus on getting my body right, mentally right, and help the squad make a push towards our goal to finish the season out and gives ourselves a chance to be in contention to compete for a championship. And then today, the Sixers announced that Paul George received injections and has left muscle and left knee on Monday and has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
He's bringing it back it back. He's got to bring it back.
I mean, you said podcast P. I thought you meant that you just got off the couch again to go use the bathroom during a segment.
Or you were just talking as oldie. I love that oldie calls you P.
Yeah. It's so funny.
Podcast P. Makes you laugh every time.
It's a good nickname. P.
I like it. Okay.
My hot seat. I have two.
Is my sleep because I woke up this morning at 4.30 this morning to watch the Cubs lose to the Dodgers. Turns out the Dodgers are still really good.
Yeah. And they're going to win a lot of games.
I hate this shit that they start the season overseas. Yeah.
And like Shota was pitching a no-hitter through four, which doesn't really count through four. He threw four walks.
And they pulled him because I think they're trying to be very cautious

with the fact they have to go all the way back from Japan,

and then there's 10 days before actual opening day.

So it's weird.

But the Dodgers are really good.

Did you see any more highlights?

Yes.

So they had what I think was the camera we watched from behind the plate,

and it was just the player. The batter was just totally pixelated every time.
Yeah. It was garbage.
It's weird. It was garbage.
So it's not one camera. I don't know what it was.
It's a combination of a bunch of cameras. Every time it looked like your TV broke, it would show this highlight.
So it sucked. Your thoughts, Hank? No comment.
Also, hot seat Aaron Rodgers because Cam Hayward said, I ain't doing that doing that darkness retreat and he said i don't need any of that crap either you want to be a pittsburgh sealer you don't it's that simple that's the pitch if you want me to recruit that's a recruiting pitch pittsburgh stealers yeah i like that from cam hayward yeah he's like this is what aaron rogers is doing right now it's not stealer football yeah and he's like i'm ready i'm about to retire just fucking just let me go like just figure it out i'm not doing this uh also shefter said that he thinks that the vikings want er he's he's option number one for the vikings ah and so now it's up to aaron rogers to just decide if he wants to play there yeah so the whole thing is weird we'll find out crazy at some point crazy that Aaron

Rogers is holding up an offseason this will turn out well yeah he really is just it is cats in the

cradle with Brett Favre yeah he's just learning everything from him and he hated Brett Favre I

know too it's perfect uh cool throne uh two of them as well uh get your brackets in Stell Blue

Coffee we're doing a golden bracket so all you gotta do is buy something on Stella blue coffee.com. If you have the best bracket, you're coming to the final four with us next year.
You know what? I'd like to make an announcement, big cat. Yeah.
If anybody that enters the Stella blue, it's one per person, right? You buy something, then we send you the link and then you're in the pool. One per person.
If somebody gets a perfect bracket, I will cut off my penis. Yes.
Love that. So go sign up.
We need more. Hank's going to cut his dick off, too.
Max. Yeah, no, no, Max.
We're doing it through Wednesday. Yeah, yeah.
Yes. I thought Max was also going to say he's going to cut off his penis.
All right. Go buy Stella Blue Coffee and fill out a bracket.
And like I said, you'll get to go to the Final Four with us next year in Indy, so that's pretty cool. And then my other cool throw in is Tracy Morgan.
He just had food poisoning. It happens.
I think this was awful that you're throwing up courtside of the Knicks game and the game's delayed like 20 minutes. That sucks.
I think it was, like, in a weird way good that Tracy Morgan could see how much he's loved because i didn't see anyone clowning on him well tracy more he's had this opportunity a few times yeah it's like the world has reminded tracy morgan like please i hope you're okay yeah like he's had health issues and so everyone when i saw it because i'm i'm the number one puke guy i love puke i laugh at puke all the time there wasn't a lot of like joking about tracy morgan everyone was like i hope he's okay okay. Yeah.
James Dolan has got to be furious that Tracy Morgan got food poisoning at MSG. Yeah.
He might be kicked out. Yeah.
Also, it was very funny. Cause if you saw one of the videos, Bobby Bacala was just looking like, get this guy out of here.
Yeah. He was a goal.
I need my train set. It's very, very funny puke.
All right. Mark Titus time.
Let's do it. Before we get to Titus, he's brought to you by Highland Film Group and their new movie, Locked.
Locked sounds awesome. It is awesome.
Buckle up for a little taste of hell from producer Sam Raimi. You might recognize him from The Evil Dead.
Comes this pulse-pounding horror thriller. Imagine breaking into what you think is a luxury jackpot only to realize that you're the one who got robbed of your freedom that's locked in a nutshell bill skarsgård's character eddie gets trapped in a high-tech suv controlled by anthony hopkins playing one seriously twisted car owner think think uh phone booth but if it was set in a car this guy is trapped inside this car by a demented dude who tortures him.
It's not just a game of survival. It's psychological war.
The question is, would you survive a car like this? This is the kind of movie that demands to be seen in a theater. The sound design alone, especially the psychological torture sequences, will hit way harder on the big screen.
It's exclusively in theaters on Friday, March 21st. it out today check it out friday go see locked you're gonna love it bill skarsgård anthony hopkins thriller you know i'm in mark titus is also brought to you by uber eats where you can get almost anything from uber eats sweet green is on a mission to build healthier communities by connecting people to real food they have relationships with farmers and suppliers that we trust to cook food from scratch.
It's both delicious and nourishing. They plant roots in each community by building a transparent supply chain and investing in local farmers and growers.
With over 240 locations across the United States, with a vision to lead the next generation of restaurants and lifestyle brands built on quality, community, and and innovation sweet greens must try bowl is packed with 35 grams of protein featuring crisp romaine bold blackened chicken avocado chickpeas goat cheese and other fresh ingredients now back for limited time only that's right it's the blackened chicken bowl the sweet green blackened chicken bowl exclusively on uber eats now through march 30. Now, I've been on a Sweet Greens kick recently.
Very good food. Very healthy.
The Black and Chicken Bowl is elite. And you can find it exclusively on Uber Eats now through March 30th.
And now, here's Mark Titus. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very, very, very, very special guest.
It is tradition. Except that one year when he said really inappropriate things.
Yeah, when he got canceled. It's tradition.
Mark Titus, it's a lot easier than in years past when we would have to, he would basically get hit up by every single person in the media world this week being like, oh, Titus, you like ball? Come talk to me about March Madness. Now we work together.
Now you own me. Yeah, we own you.
Two years. Is your two-year anniversary coming up? Yeah, yeah.
I think I've been here two full years now. I was going to be right before March Madness, which I don't know if that was smart or not.
It was a terrible idea. Well, no, it was actually smart because because you survived it but yeah we uh we always have you on the wednesday of march madness of the tournament week i'm excited about this bracket do we need to just say a quick fuck you to unc and uh prayers to west virginia and indiana for being left yeah i mean like uh like you said before you'll move on fast the second the ball's tipped i won't a shit.
But it was egregious, I thought. I thought North Carolina at no point in the season did they look like an NCAA tournament team.
Yeah, their highs weren't very high. Their lows were pretty damn low.
And I was stunned. I was.
In all the years of, you know, that's how the bracket works. It comes out.
We lose our minds about teams that got in that didn't deserve it.

We feel bad for the teams that were left out.

This is the most egregious example that I've ever seen.

And, you know, the fact that the AD is the guy running the whole thing

also is interesting.

But this has Michael Jordan's paws all over it.

But, you know, when the basketball starts, who gives a fuck?

Yeah, who gives a fuck?

The more I thought about it, because we did our instant reactions on Sunday night, I think the committee basically was like, we have four historically great teams at number one seeds, and the rest of the bracket will just fucking fill it out however it goes. Because it's not just who got left in, left out.
There's some weird weird seating like michigan getting a five louisville getting an eight louisville getting an eight yeah the whole wisconsin going out to denver and four days rest like it just felt very weird how they put those half ass thing together and i think i would have been fine with that if they just like would have straight up said all right so here's the deal carolina got in because bubba cunningham's the chair uh some of these seatings are off because to be completely honest we think it doesn't matter this right because the it's so top heavy so who gives a fuck um but the yeah so saying like Tucker DeVries was hurt and that's why West Virginia was it I don't know it's it's it's so transparent and stupid I I didn't think Carolina I said this you did I didn't think Carolina if I was running the NIT Carolina would not have even been one-seeded NIT bracket, much less in the NCAA tournament. But at the same time, we move on.
We get excited about the bracket we do have. And they're going to probably win a couple games.
You guys just interviewed the governor of West Virginia, but he also gave a press conference earlier today. I wasn't able to watch it.
Did he do the thing like Chiefsaholic's lawyer where he made a lot of bad basketball puns in reference to the miscarriage of justice no he actually he had a good uh perspective on he was like this isn't going to change anything yeah okay he's like nothing's going to change i just want to raise a little hell yes i was hoping he was going to say like this is an alley oops oh or like like this is the big dance is now the big dunce he did that, the National Corrupt Athletic Association. But he, yeah, the West Virginia governor doing that, he basically had, like, two hours of, you know, everyone's paying attention, and then I'm already over it.
He's just like, I'm showing my constituents. I, too, am upset, and I'm going to say something about it.
It's the quickest, like, literally when Tuesday happens and the first ball say something about it it's the quickest like we

literally when tuesday happens in the first balls tip it's like who was that governor that's what i went when we were signing off i told him i'll do anything to help you governor as long as it doesn't require extra effort or inconvenience me in any way um i will throw my weight behind your cause but would you change the channel to something else during the play in-game halftime show no No. Rosty.
Yeah, that's a good point. Rosty's going to get some nuggets.
I can't turn my back on Rosty. You can't turn your back on Rosty? I'm trying to figure out what I could do.
Yeah, probably nothing. Do we think – we're going to break down the bracket with you in a second, but do we think there is any chance they have the ball situation figured out this year oh yeah i'm very nervous about that we had the guy from wilson there's a guy from well we were doing one of the upfront today a guy from wilson was in the office i talked to him for like an hour about this he said the the the problem they have with this ball and maybe you experience it because we have them here yeah the super orange balls there's they're a little more cushiony than the, right? Yeah.
He said the cushion, the way it works is they'll pump the balls up, and then they just give it a little squeeze to see if it's, you know, you want like a little bit of give but not too much, you know. Right.
Just you feel it out. It's like, yeah, that's how you pump up the ball.
But it has so much cushion that they'll pump it up to the max, give it a little squeeze and feel the cushion. And be like, pump it up more? And pump it up more.
And he said it's like the people that pump this thing up are working on – apparently there's just not a PSI system. I don't know.
He told me this. This was like a year ago he told me all this.
And I was like, oh, my God, it makes so much sense. So I don't know if they solved it.
They have to have solved it. Because I think they just got these like 65-year-old dudes just over there pumping up these balls and they're over inflated and uh i don't know i i and it matters it does matter we saw like crazy air balls and weird things happen um yeah but hopefully hopefully that's not a problem and they and they've learned the lesson but yeah that that first year especially i think that was the 22 tournament yeah i think it was three years ago it was brutal guys couldn't dribble dribble.
Guys couldn't shoot. Has it ever gone the other way where the ball is perfect? Like a great example of a ball, and it's like scoring is through the roof because the guys love this ball.
The guy has a perfect ball? Yeah. Oh, that's a good question.
Because I feel like any time they switch out a ball, it's never for the better. You're right about that.
Yeah. No, we should figure out what the perfect ball is.

It's a fuel thing.

You know when you dribble it, it's that perfect ball,

the exact right amount of bounce that you were expecting.

You throw the other one away.

Let's go.

I had someone point out to me something I never thought about, but when Wisconsin was playing Michigan in the Big Ten tournament final,

I was like, yeah, tired legs.

This is what I expected.

They just aren't moving.

And someone was like, do you ever think maybe the ball is tired? The ball could be tired. That ball has played a lot of hoops in the last five days.
And on top of all of it, it's too orange. It's just a weird orange.
It is very orange. And I think they've got to fix that.
We've got to go back to a more brownish orange. I agree.
So you want to get into the bracket, Mark? Yeah. I would love to get into the bracket.
Let's dive in. Mark Titus' credentials, he was drafted by by the harlem globetrotters that's right so that's a pretty fucking impressive thing on your resume i got a high level bracket before we go uh region by region so this is the the season and i love it where we get all the analytics and people are like hey this is what needs to happen as a as a champion uh it's the ken palm rule where uh i I think it's a team has to be, I believe it's 21st or better in adjusted offensive efficiency and 37th or better in adjusted defensive efficiency.
And both of those cutoffs exist because of 2014 UConn, right? Yes. Both of them.
But, so those cutoffs usually and it is like if you look at it going into the tournament, that's where you're going to find your national champion. This year, though, it's crazy.
There's 11 teams that meet that, which I feel like has never been. It's usually like six or seven teams.
So there's 11 teams. I'm going to list all 11 for you, and you can tell me, yes, that the national champion will be in this group.
Duke, Florida, Houston, Auburn, all your one seeds. Tennessee, Alabama, both two seeds.
Texas Tech, a three seed. Gonzaga, an eight seed.
Iowa State, Wisconsin, also your three seeds. And Arizona.
That's the list. I mean, yeah, I think the national champion is in that group.
Notable exceptions that have been left out are Michigan State, St. John's uh so those are the teams like i i think a lot of people maryland's maryland's not in there uh would you feel comfortable saying that the others are not going to win i would i i think this year is the most top heavy uh feeling i have about college basketball entering an ncaa tournament since 2015 i remember 2015 2015 was a it stood out to me going into the tournament.
There was Kentucky at the top who was undefeated, obviously, but I felt like the rest of the ones and the twos Duke ended up winning, but Wisconsin was absolutely loaded that year. As you know, Dan, I think Virginia and Villanova both had really, really good teams.
Arizona had a good team. I think Kansas was a two.
They were like a week or two that I think ended up losing early. But I remember going into the 2015 tournament feeling like it was kind of a perfect setup because Kentucky was the undefeated behemoth Goliath, but they weren't unbeatable as we learned in the Final Four.
But I had a really good feeling that it was going to be a one or a two because if you watched all season, it just felt like these teams are just way better than everybody else. Right.
I feel that way this year for the first time since 2015. I have that same feeling again.
I just think the Dukes, the Auburns, Florida's been coming on strong, Houston, all the one seeds are clearly better than everybody else to me. And then the two seeds, it's like all the ones, all the twos, and then everybody else is kind of how I feel um and texas tech is like the one team that might be in the mix that's not a one or two they got healthy yeah uh otherwise i i just think it's really top heavy and it sucks because i think everybody this time of year gets excited about the cinderella and they they want me to come on here and be like i think this team's gonna get upset early i think it's really chalky season yeah i think I have a really chalky bracket.
I think this is the year of chalky. But chalky, again, obviously you want an upset or two in the first round.
It's fun. Chalky always does make it great for the second weekend in the final four.
Because it's like you don't – like St. Peter's was a great story.
That Elite Eight game was garbage. It was garbage.
It was terrible. Right.
And even George Mason, who's like the OG Cinderella story, they got to the Final Four and got their ass kicked by Florida. It always happens that way.
It's weird because you want to celebrate the fun little guys making the runs, but you do want to see the big boys. I think that's what we're getting this year.
I think there might be one or two. Maybe you get a double-digit seed, make the Sweet 16.
Maybe you get like a crazy Elite 8 run. Hell, maybe there's like a seven seed in the Final Four, but I'm very, very confident that your national champion will be a one or two, which I understand everybody listening is like, good job going out on a limb.
But UConn two years ago was a four seed. What I'm telling you is that will not happen this year.
There will not be UConn two years ago four seed. There will not be the UConn of 2014 being a seven seed.
It will be a one or a two, and it will probably be a one. They're just so much better than everybody.
The other nice thing that we like about the Cinderella's early on is if there's an unlikable coach or a coach where it's fun if they lose to a Golki. Last year it was Cal losing to a Golki in the first round.

Is there any coach out there that you think America would be like,

be really funny if that guy lost?

It'd be funny if that guy lost.

Um,

good question.

I mean,

Todd Golden,

I don't know how many,

I don't know if people are paying attention to what was going on.

They did investigation.

Yeah.

And their investigation was Florida's really good.

Uh,

it's always funny if Rick Barnes loses.

Rick Barnes losing is funny.

Yeah. Uh, I mean, Matt Painter, going matt painter getting over the hump just to go right back to like losing to the first round yeah it's also a little bit personal for you yeah um you don't know who notes you got the uh you got the bill self john calipari rick patino uh little section down there in the bottom left you know only of those guys can come out, so I don't know.
There could be some interesting dynamics at play there. Yeah.
All right. Let's start breaking it down.
All right. Let's go in the top left, the east.
Is that right? South. I have a bracket.
South. That's Auburn.
That's Auburn. think auburn was deserving of the one overall um it is unprecedented uh lost three or four going into the tournament that has never no team's ever done that and gotten the number one overall seed uh they they had a a obviously a dominant stretch up until like the last couple weeks basically someone pointed out that their their tough stretch started when they clinched the sec so maybe if you're if you want to believe in auburn just say that they have had nothing to play for yeah uh but it was interesting because like up until they started losing there someone i was watching i think it was jimmy dykes i was watching one of the auburn games he made the point auburn could forfeit every game for the rest of the season and still get the number one overall.
And they pretty much were like, okay, we're going to go do that.

A little practice.

So, yeah, I think if you're looking at it in the totality of the season,

Auburn's resume was maybe the strongest resume we've kind of ever seen,

which maybe is not true now that they lost because I guess Kentucky was undefeated that one year.

Right.

But it was just like an insane resume.

They played all the other one seeds uh they beat they beat just about everybody but yeah i mean it is weird because going into the tournament the number one overall seed is generally the team that everyone's like yeah that's probably the best team and i think most people are like yeah auburn is it feels like it's duke and florida um i would not have if if i'll put it this way if any of the one seeds were named the number one overall seed, I probably would have been fine with it. I think all of them have arguments.
I think Duke is the best team. I think Florida is the hottest team.
I think Houston is a team that ripped through a Big 12 that's really strong. I think Houston only lost one game in regulation all season.
Yeah. They lost like four, but three of them were in overtime.
Yeah. And they just like, they don't go away.
It's impossible to beat them by, yeah, more than one possession. I think Houston had a case to be number one overall.
But I don't know. Auburn had a historic run and played Houston non-conference.
They played in the Maui Invitational. They went to Duke.
And then they were also in the SEC, which was as good of a conference as we've ever seen all right so what do you have any any any upsets in this region so i'm looking at what everyone else is looking at 12-5 how do you feel about this because i i you see san diego i'll be honest transparent i watched one game it was the big west championship they did not look good i know they won the game against a team that's also supposed to be good i didn't think they were that good i was i was worried i'm worried about the idea michigan turns it over like crazy uc san diego leads the country in turnover margin so part of me is like michigan's just going to turn it over like 30 times and uc san diego wins this but i'm has uc san diego faced two seven footers running a pick and roll right do they have the horses for that? I think their tallest guy is 6'8", and most of the guys are 6'6", or under. I feel like everybody's hot on UC San Diego.
The other thing, they haven't played a power conference team, and that's why I'm worried about that, because it feels like McNeese last year. You remember McNeese State last year? They were the hottest team in the country.
They lost by a billion. And then I looked at their schedule.
I was like they have literally not played anybody that has a center that's taller than 6'8", you know? Yeah. When did they become McNeese? I don't know when that happened.
They just dropped the state. You know what's funny, too, about the UC San Diego-Michigan upset that everyone's going to pick? Because I agree with you.
I think that UC San Diego is a very good team. Their metrics are, like, off the charts for a 12 seed for a small conference.
They haven't played anyone, and they're going to go up against two 7-footers. That doesn't feel like a good recipe.
But then right underneath it, I think Yale could beat Texas A&M. Yeah.
Yale is the team. Like, Yale completely dominated the Ivy.
They played a couple. Like, they played.
They lost by, like, eight to Purdue. They played a one-possession game with Minnesota.
Obviously, Minnesota did not, like, was an incredible team. But I feel like Yale, and they got guys who could rebound.
Like, Yale might be that team. Your point about Minnesota, I think that matters.
I want to see these smaller schools having having played just just get a taste for it get punched in the mouth by having to have to go up against the defense even if they're not the best team in the world you're actually being guarded by like a 6-6 guard out there or something versus you know playing in the Ivy League and dealing with the smaller and less athletic dudes right and Texas A&M is one of those teams I like Buzz Williams think they're a good team, but they are a team that struggles to shoot basketball. They're a muck it up team.
If you can't score, that's why as much as I want St. John's to go deep, it's like if you don't have the ability to get a couple guys hot just because you look at their body of work and they just can't do it.
That always spells trouble. So I feel like Yale might be

my upset. That could be a good one.

You could get the Yale-Michigan Danny Wolf

storyline.

That little thing going.

I think New Mexico, when I look at this

region, the first round game I'm most excited for is New Mexico

Marquette. I think Donovan Dent versus Cam

Jones is going to be

fucking insane to watch. I think both those guys

could score 35 points in this game. It'll be up and um and i'll love it and i don't care who wins but uh i that's that's an upset i guess you know new mexico beating marquette that has my attention um but yeah i i am gravitating towards chalk in general across the board in this bracket which is very boring and i apologize to the uh to the awls out of the gate because i i just not the first time you had to apologize uh i wish i had the balls to pick louisville to beat auburn yeah i wish i had the balls but i don't louisville playing in louisville got fucked with their seed but they could play in lexington i know like i would have rather had a five seed and be in milwaukee uh here's another one that i'll throw out there and i don't think bryant's gonna beat State, but it shocked me when I saw this.
Bryant's taller than Michigan State. Oh, really? Yeah.
They don't have a starter under 6'6". No shit? Yeah.
That's a shocking 15-2 where you get a 15-2 and it's almost always, oh, well, look, height actually matters in basketball. But Bryant, again, I think Michigan State's going to win the game, but that could be a game that's a little bit trickier for Michigan State if they can't out-physical them.
Give me your overall vibe reading on Michigan State and Tom Izzo heading in. This specific Michigan State, does this feel like a quintessential Tom Izzo and March-type Michigan State team? Does this feel like maybe they've been punching above their weight class, so to speak? Because I'll be honest, after the Champions Classic, I thought Michigan State was going to be in jeopardy of missing the tournament.
I was like, this team just doesn't have a ton of talent. I felt like last year's team was like a nine seed, if I remember right.
Yeah. And they lost their three best players.
Yep. They didn't really replay.
Like, Jace Richardson ended up being awesome, but at the time,, I think he was a four-star recruit, and it was like, I don't know how they're going to replace the production they lost, and they weren't even that good last year. I didn't think they would be very good.
I was very wrong. They have bought into the culture.
They've been playing out of their minds, but I don't know, now that the tournament is here, is that the recipe for Tom iso or is the recipe like sneak up on teams a little bit what i see from iso usually coming like the last couple seasons going to the tournament iso he's very transparent he kind of like lets you know with his body language and his language language that he's not happy with this team and he's not like super confident what i've seen more from tom iso is him being like upset that he doesn't have enough reasons to be pissed off at his team. Right.
Which, to me, I read that as confidence. Yeah, no, I think this is a very classic Michigan State team in the fact that they have guards that wear thick headbands and are absolute dogs.
And then even they throw in the Kohler bear, Jackson Kohler, just a white dude who plays basketball like he's a football player. Dude, he's got like a Hakeem Elijah one dream shape, too.
He'll just post up and hit a little baseline turnaround. But they always need one of those guys, too.
Yeah, I like this Michigan State team. I think they're good.
I settled it. So I have Michigan State going to the Final Four because I think Auburn's going to get tripped up somewhere.
So I do think Michigan State's going to go to the Final Four. I think I settled on they are on a typical Michigan State tournament run, but it just started in November.
Yeah. I think that's what this team is.
This team started their typical, like, I don't know. When I think of the Tom Izzo runs, they're like a seven-seater, a six-seater, or something.
Right when the seed is starting.

It's not hot yet, but people are talking about maybe heating it up next year.

And I think this team was that in November,

and then they just stayed on a run the entire season, basically.

And I think they might be a quintessential Michigan State team

in the fact that I think they'll go –

I'm going to pick them and go to the Final Four in this region as well,

and then they'll lose like 72-54 in the semifinals uh semifinals in the first one they're gonna play the early one they're not gonna shoot it all yeah in the big dome and you'll be like ah exactly right that was it you made a great point too the guards that they have um the the one thing that they have perfected is is figuring out the exact amount of confidence you should have on a basketball court. They have the perfect amount.
They talk the perfect amount of shit. But Auburn's a team that I think they've overdone it in recent weeks.
They almost get too much into the shit talking and pumping up the crowd and all that. Whereas Michigan State is the perfect level of we're going to talk insane amounts of shit to you, but also remember that we're playing a basketball game and we need to beat you with basketball.
Right. Whereas Auburn, I feel like, yeah, I don't know.
The last couple of weeks, every time I watch Auburn, they'll hit like one shot and like just start getting the crowd going and getting just like, you're still down four. Yeah.
Who's that one guy that just, he blacks out and just gets a technical. Chad Baker Mazzara.
Yeah. They'll just hit you in the back of your head.
He got kicked out of the game two weeks ago. Yeah.
Yeah. I think they were were playing Arkansas.
I think it was the Arkansas game where he hits a three by Arkansas's bench and turns to them and pops his jersey. Then two possessions later, he hits another three and goes like – he says something, obviously.
And the ref immediately texts him up, and he just goes, what? What? Yeah, what? And then in the Alabama game, he clotheslines someone. He clotheslines someone in the Alabama game.
Well, last year – He hit him, and then he was like, no, that wasn't hard enough, and then brought his hand back. Last year in the tournament, he got the flagrant against Yale to start the game.
Yeah. This is like Izzo coaching against Draymond if they get to that matchup.
Yeah, that's right. All right, so you've got Michigan State in this region.
I think so. Michigan State's offense worries me.
I'm not blind to that, i think uh i've doubted michigan state the entire season basically um and i i i think i've seen enough to be like yeah they play great defense they're all bought in uh i think i think jace richardson is a star and i do think as much as i was concerned about throughout the season like do they have top end talent do you have a guy who can go get you one when you need it i think he's that guy and yeah and. And I think Auburn will get tripped up somewhere along the way.
And Iowa State Kayshawn Gilbert being out is definitely significant. Yeah.
That was going to be my question. As a college basketball casual, I watch probably five to six games of college ball a week until March starts.
And then you ramp it up and you feel like you know more after conference tournament week. I don't know anything about Iowa State.
I don't know anything, but I know they have a great coach. I know that they have a star who's going to be injured.
Tight shirts, TJ Altsonberger. Tight shirts.
He looks like a thumb. Is he going to be thinking about how the Villanova colors will look on his body? Oh.
Is he maybe mind elsewhere? But also really, how is Iowa State going to be able to do without their star? I also will say that T.J. Otzenberger, Greg Gard is a phenomenal coach, and I want him to keep coaching forever, but T.J.
Otzenberger will be next. He's from Wisconsin.
So he's going to Wisconsin. He's already got that on him.
Yes, you can't have him. Iowa State, there were times this season Iowa State looked like they could be national title good.
They went to Maui. They had Auburn up like 18 at halftime, I think it was.

And obviously Auburn's the number one overall seed.

Throughout the Big 12 schedule, they have awesome wins.

They've dealt with a bunch of injuries.

They're banged up.

But I guess the overall thought on Iowa State is they are like Houston's cousin almost.

They play insane defense, but they also, even though defense is what they're known for, they have guys that can score the basketball. I loved Iowa State throughout the year.
The injuries have taken a toll, though. They've had dudes get randomly sick and banged up.
Yeah, and I don't know how healthy they are, and I don't know if they've really put it back together since then so it would not it would not

it would not surprise me if iowa state uh i have iowa state my sweet 16 i haven't played in michigan state in the sweet 16 but uh yeah it wouldn't surprise like i think iowa state at their best is a team that is it is national title good all right so michigan state over auburn in the elite eight and then michigan state going to the final four that's what i have okay uh okay final four The next region, Florida's.

Yep.

How did they print a bracket with no uh what is that south oh that's the west west the west florida uh florida's playing incredible ball right now they're they're on fire uh i don't know i i don't know how i like i it sounds stupid because the tournament and anyone could beat anyone i just don't know how you deal with everything florida can do because they have everything they shoot threes they have incredible size they rebound the fuck out of the ball it just feels like they're almost like a a ramped up hyper version of alabama of what alabama wants to be i we'll get to du in a second, but I think Florida and Duke are the two teams that I honestly can't figure out how they lose before the Final Four without them fucking it up themselves. Right.
Like they just, yeah. If they play their best game, they're in the Final Four.
Yeah, it's not even close. They have answers, like you said, they have answers for everything.
There's no team that says, I like our matchup with Florida because we can do this and they're not good at this. There's just not – they have no weaknesses.
They have guard play. They have a rotating cast of big dudes.
They play defense. They shoot threes.
Everyone can shoot. Everyone can shoot.
They have demoralizing dunkers. Elijah Martin will just shit all over you, and you're just like god damn i thought i thought we were kind of uh cutting into this lead a little bit but i guess i guess maybe not that's a great point because it is when you watch florida that is exactly what happens it's like oh here's a logo three and then here's like a dunk on your two your center and power forward yeah um in back-to-back possession and then you i mean the guards are the what makes them go them go with Martin and Walter Clayton and Will Richard, who's like a, you know, could just out of nowhere drop 30 points.
But then Condon is like, he's a dude that – that was at Bama. The Bama game, he had – I forget what he ended up with, but in the 20s or something.
He was dominating Bama. Florida is playing insane basketball right now.
You know what else is demoralizing about florida is when they they just wheel their seven foot nine redshirt freshman who's not even playing doesn't even play yeah and he's the tallest human being you've ever seen yeah we don't need this guy he just got size they get size like in their back pocket i think that like do you think that helps them like where they just come out to warm up and he's just standing there yes you're looking at them at him instead of the guys you're actually going to play against yeah you're like you're like holy shit this guy is not even playing he's not even one of their best players and he's it's kind of fucked up that he doesn't play i'm just gonna say we all want to see him play we all want to see him out there it's kind of fucked up that that we all saw the video of him in the preseason and then they redshirt him it's a cock tease i wanted to see him out there and i watched him walk he looks like he's a healthy walker he looks like he can move he did the uh ed move where he cut down the nets without a ladder oh i love that you know he was the world's tallest teenager that's pretty cool i think he was like seven foot four that's really cool yeah but this this is actually my uh so with with everything we said about florida how good they are this actually is my group a death because I do think Maryland is Final Four caliber. I think

St. John's, Texas Tech, who we mentioned, and Colorado State's probably the hottest team outside of Florida, and they're all in the bracket together.
Yeah, I think Maryland's probably the best four. Yeah, I think Texas Tech is definitely the best three so uh in that regard I would agree with you I I also just think like though if you're a Florida fan you're not really worried about any of these teams I think I don't know how much what's the read on UConn like I'm oh I I said I want UConn to win the first game because then I want everyone to be like oh watch out for UConn Florida will kill you yeah like those of us us that have been watching all season know this UConn team's just not good.

No.

They can't guard and they don't.

The thing with UConn, though, you'll watch them.

They'll be down like 15.

They'll go on a run.

They'll cut the lead to like six.

And they fucking have it.

And Dan Hurley's fucking chest bumping someone.

And I'm fucking, you know,

Liam McNeely's going crazy.

Carabin hits a three.

Carabin hits a three.

I don't know.

They get the juice flowing and you think that they have something, and then you look up, and they're playing like fucking – sorry, Max, but like Villanova or something, and you're like, what a – Seton Hall. They're playing Georgetown, and you're like – I mean, the fact that we're down to this team is kind of concerning, boys.
I don't think UConn, yeah. I was curious, though.

Like, PFT, as a self-proclaimed casual, you see UConn in a bracket.

Do you think the casuals across the country are talking themselves into that? Danny Hurley knows how to coach.

I don't know.

It's disrespectful that UConn is an eight-seat mark.

Because I don't know if you know this.

They won the last two national championships.

And I think they covered every single game in both those tournaments.

And now you're just relegating them to an eight. You're throwing out like the trash give me a fucking break they stink and caravan the the shocking thing about watching caravan this year is last year people were saying like top 10 pick top 15 pick in the nba draft yeah and it turns out he needs it appears that he needs other guys that he can just worry about getting open.
Yeah, when he has four other guys on the court who are better than everyone else's guys on the other side, he looks a lot better, is that what you're saying? Well, I'm saying that also, like, last year, I thought that he was better off the dribble. I thought that he was a better shot creator.
This year, he has just not been that at all. They also really miss – did you guys see the Cam Spencer clip of him just barking at KD?

Like, that's the guy.

They don't have that guy who's like a hurley on the court.

And I've held out hope for UConn this year that they were going to –

like, there's been moments, like when they played St. John's twice,

I was like, this is the moment.

They were up big against St. John's in stores.

And I was like, oh, here comes UConn.

Even in the Big East semifinals, it's like like UConn's going to beat Creighton they're going to go take down St. John's it just isn't there I have a bone to pick with you about UConn though you don't like Dan Hurley? no I never said that I said Dan Hurley is an asshole and I think that's fair I thought that was the's fair i think i thought that was the whole point with no that's fair that is fair like but you is dan hurley good for college basketball yes okay good yes then we don't have a phone when dan hurley loses three games in the maui invitational and then says i'm never going back to the maui invitational he shits over one of the great things college basketball has going for it which is the maui invitational which i fucking love shut the fuck up Dan Hurley but that also like shut the fuck up but that's yeah like that's good for college basketball but like but that's part of the that's that's yeah I'm I thought this is a my whole thing with UConn and Dan Hurley was that I thought this was like a dance we're supposed to do is Dan Hurley's an asshole then I the pundit I'm supposed to be like this guy's an asshole And then UConn fans are supposed to be like, he doesn't like our ass.
I thought that was the whole thing. Yeah, all right, so we're on the same page.
I'm doing my job. I'm a big believer that one of the things about college basketball, because the rosters change every year, especially now with Transfer Portal, coaches matter.
And you know what I mean? The asshole coach is kind of getting phased out yes where we don't have the boeheim we don't have the huggins we don't have the coach k dan hurley to me is like he's the torchbearer for that next generation of dickhead coaches you need them because otherwise you you're getting mad at like an 18 year old that you've known for like two months. I completely agree with you.
I just can't. Okay.
I can't. Yeah.
I have to play my job. Dan Hurley is the heel.
That's fair. So I'm going to react to the heel behavior.
Okay. We're on the same page and say, yeah, when you tell the ref I'm the best coach in the sport, you know, we're on the same page.
You're back to me. I'm going to call you a douchebag.
He's important to the ecosystem but i do want him to be yeah he would have gone to the lakers like he definitely was 100 going to do and that was a very real thing that almost happened for sure um i would be i would have been upset that college basketball lost yes uh lost him he's a heel so that you're a face as a pundit right i don't i don't know yeah if he loses are you going to take any pleasure in UConn losing in the first round? I won't take any pleasure. I don't know.
I've enjoyed, for as much as the Dan Hurley antics I don't always love, I do enjoy watching their team when they're good. I think the offense they run is fucking awesome.
Last year's team was like sex, dude, watching them play basketball. I appreciate good basketball.
This year's team is not good and i just think like when they lose it'll just be like another mediocre team dipping out in the tournament he knows how to coach an attorney though he does know how to coach in the journey i will say like if he if he goes on if he can like go on a run to the sweet 16b florida he'll i mean obviously won two national titles he has my respect for that but like that's a different level of like goddamn this guy might be a wizard yeah you're a wizard if you can take oh yeah if you can take this team and go on a deep run you actually are yeah that dude you figured it out college basketball all right so at the bottom of this uh bracket we have the the bill self cal matchup which i know people want to hype up but like i feel like it's just a depressing it's depressing because both these teams aren't these teams aren't good. So it's just like, I'm closing my eyes.

How I'm going to bet this game is I'm closing my eyes

and I'm just going to try to figure out which one of these two

I'm going to visualize standing in a hallway after the game

doing a CBS interview being like,

we just didn't have the guys this year.

This is why the Patriots and Giants are playing

and they're just showing Super Bowl highlights

of the times that they met.

But it's modern-day Patriots versus modern-day Giants. What are they're just showing like Super Bowl highlights of like, you know, the times that they met and this like, but it's modern day Patriots versus modern day Giants.
Right. What are we, you know, this isn't it.
So I don't know who's going to win that game, but I hope St. John's gets to the Sweet 16 because I do like Rick and Rick Pitino is going for Rostein told us he's he's personally trying to get Calipari off of his resume by taking a fourth team to a final four Cal and he are the only two to take three teams to a final four okay so he would then he would be the it would no longer be Patino oh that's right and he might have to go through Cal to do it it would be Patino did it wow yeah um St.
John's is what a story man what a story uh they they are so fun to watch I can't get enough of it. I am fully bought in on this team, even though, yeah, the offense isn't great.
And you pointed out the Ken Palm thing. Their offense is like, what, in the 60s or something? They just can't shoot.
They can't shoot. They get rebounds.
Every time they do hit a three, though, it feels like it's worth like 10 points. I know.
It's like, oh, my God, they hit one. And they got the technical on Saturday night for the pistols.
They're so comfortable. They know they can't shoot, though.
That's what helps them is that they are aware of it. They're not like a team like, well, we'll get to Wisconsin in a second, but Wisconsin, it's a bad example because Wisconsin is a good shooting team, but Wisconsin, the Big Ten tournament was just missing, and they're just like, we're just going to keep shooting and keep missing.
You're not going to see that at St. John's.
If St. John's is brick and threes, they're not going to put up 30 threes.
They're going to be like, all right, we're not going to make threes tonight.

But, yeah, they're comfortable being down 15.

They're comfortable with chaos.

They're comfortable, I think, when these NCAA tournament games

go to the under-8 timeout and it's a three-point game

and assholes start getting tight and the energy in the room is building

and there's something here going on.

I think St. John's is going to be really comfortable in that environment.
So I understand all of the concerns about St. John's, but I'm fully bought in on Rick Pitino, the Rick Pitino renaissance.
And I'm bought in on this being a matchup of Cal versus Pitino. I think it has to be.
I'm with you. You've got to rig it.
You have to rig this. If you have to ensure it's a one-second-round matchup, it has to be Arkansas-St.
John's. Although it was very funny during the Bracket Busters selection that we took today.
Roan was on Pat Bev's team. Arkansas was still on the board.
And then he selected some random-ass team. Then Arkansas went off the next one afterwards.
Pat Bev's not going to be happy about that. I have to see Cal versus Rick Pitino.
I have to see it. I need Pitino wearing the white suit for the matchup against Cal, too.
What about Drake? What about him? What about Drake? Here's what's going to happen with Drake. Certified lover boy.
I'm going to bet on him. Certified spreadophile.
I'm going to bet on Drake, and they're going to be up for the majority of this game. Then they're going to melt down in the last five minutes where they can't score a bucket.
And I'm like, I did it again. Yeah.
We did it again, boys. It is a completely different Drake team.
It is. Different coach, different team.
Same Drake probably, though. I just think that it's really tough when you play games at that pace and then you have like a four minute shooting spell where you just can't hit a shot.
It's like, God damn it, where'd that game just go? What is your plan B is the question I have for basically every team. But that's why you get excited about the Floridas and the Dukes and the top of the teams.
They've demonstrated that they can win games of different styles and when they're hot and when they're not. Slugfest and yada yada.
Drake, I don't know. They play the slowest, right? The number one slowest team in college basketball, I think? They're the only team in the country to average less than 60 possessions a game.
And Missouri's reeling a little bit. I'm fascinated.
The SEC, very much deserving of the reputation it got this year. But there does seem to be a sense that all these middle-of-the-road SEC sec teams like your missouri's and your your oklahoma's say and your old missus there's there's a thought that like once they get out of the sec schedule and they have a little room to breathe they're going to just go back to dominating everybody and uh i don't know if that's going to be true or not so i'm fascinated by i'm more interested in when you talk about like the how the sec is going to do in the tournament i'm less interested in in is it going to be Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, Bama, those teams in the Final Four.
And I'm more curious the middle of the pack teams that swear the only reason they're losing these games is because they're also playing other heavy hitter teams. Right.
So now you get a Missouri team that has been struggling down the stretch, but let's see what they're made of against Drake. I think that's going to be an awesome game, but Drake will probably lose like they always do.
Yeah, I do too. I don't know.
I want Drake to win because I feel like every year I'm like, oh, Drake, they could do this. And they're really well coached.
Mark Titus is brought to you by Hey Dude. We'll get back to him in a second, but Hey Dude wants to remind you that game day's just got better.
We're excited to announce these stylish and comfortable kicks to rock from the stadium to the clubhouse. It's the Hey Dude MLB collection, the ultimate dream collab designed for everyone who lives and breathes baseball.
Featuring embroidered team details, a baseball-stitched heel, and green footbed. These shoes are a must-have for every game day.
With every step, rep rep your city with pride make a statement that's as bold as your team's spirit for astros braves cubs dodgers rangers red socks and yankees fans go to heydude.com on march 21st and get your pair check them out they're awesome they've got uh big cats cubs they've got hanks red socks on there i saw them the other day awesome shoes from hey dude check them out if you're an astros braves Cubs. They've got Hank's Red Sox on there.
I saw them the other day. Awesome shoes from Hey Dude.
Check them out if you're an Astros, Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, Rangers, Red Sox, or Yankee fan. HeyDude.com on March 21st and get your pair today.
Mark Titus is also being brought to you by our great friends over at Brex. Today, every company wants to do more with less, but you can't grow business by slashing costs.
To drive efficiency and growth, finance teams and founders have one option. They need a way to get more from every dollar and fast.
Meet Brex, their modern finance platform with the world's smartest corporate card, banking, expense, management, and travel all in one place. They help companies from the fastest growing AI startups to global enterprises with trillion dollar market caps make every dollar count towards their mission.
And they're committed to working as hard as their customers do in order to help them drive growth and win. Brex can do other things that software providers can't because from day one, they've been focused on reimagining financial services and software to shape the future of business on one AI-powered platform built from the ground up.
They don't just ship features, they solve customer problems. They use their deep finance expertise and world-class discovery, implementation, and support to drive transformational charge at every stage of growth.
They protect customer data and they process 20 billion plus annually with a high security protocols and compliance, earning the trust of 30,000 and more companies. Brex is great.
Check them out today. 30,000 plus of the world's best companies use Brex to make every dollar count towards their mission.
Join them at brex.com slash grow. That's B-R-E-X dot com slash grow.
And now here's Mark Titus. All right.
So in this, so if not Florida, is it St. John's or is it Maryland? I mean, Maryland, I like Maryland a lot.
I think they're super talented. I do think like having the depth that they have does hurt in the, in the NCAA tournament where you can get these stupid games where a guy gets two fouls, you in, and you're just like, what the fuck? What's the plan now? I think it might be Texas Tech, if not Florida.
Texas Tech is – You're so banged up. JT Top and Plus Shooters is the recipe.
I ended up – I filled out my bracket last night on my show live. I put St.
John's in the Final Four because – and maybe you guys can help me out with this. You're better at the content game than I am.
I said in the preseason when I was doing Final Four picks, I picked, I think, Bama, who was preseason number two. I picked UConn, who was preseason number three.
I think I picked Duke, who was in the top ten, but Cooper Flagg was going there, and I was like, I'm going to pick Duke. So that wasn't really going out on a limb.
And then the one, like I'm going to put my neck out a little bit with St. John's.
I said, St. John's of the final four in the preseason.
Uh, now I'm staring at the bracket and they're in Florida's region. And I'm like, it's Florida.
It's obviously fucking Florida. Right.
But I said in November, St. John's of the final four, what do I do? Do I double down and say, I said in November it was St.
John's and God damn it, I meant it. You double down.
Or do I diversify the tax that are out there? No, here's what you do. Max, what are you doing? You double down because if you're right, then you're like, I'm a fucking genius, I told you.
And you get to claim yourself as being like the number one St. John's believer.
Okay. And if you're wrong, then you just find something to bitch about, like something unfair that happened.
They got a bad draw. That made St.
John's lose that game. Okay, because that's what I settled on last night.
I picked St. John's in the Final Four.
I do believe in that. That wasn't just like a I said in November type thing.
I do believe the St. John's team is special.
You could also do – this is what Stephen A. Smith is really good at.
If they lose, then you can turn it on them and be like, they let me down. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. That's a good point.
You also would be going up against another Ken Palm stat that in the 64-team era, there have been 36 teams to enter the tournament as a one or two seed that weren't ranked in the preseason AP poll, and they have a combined zero Final Four appearance. St.
John's and Michigan State are those teams this year. They were not ranked in the preseason AP top 25.
There are two seeds. So you could be like, you know what? I picked them both.
Yeah, but if you get this right though, you are the first. I was the guy who believed.
You beat the Ken Poms. Yeah, you're right.
I beat the Ken Poms. So that's even more illustrious.
Because that is how these things work know, you draw the line, you're like, no one below this line, and then 2014 UConn happens, and instead of being like. It screws everything up.
Instead of taking the whole formula and throwing it in the garbage, you just move the line down. Yeah, yeah.
But that one is one that's floating around right now, and I mean, it makes sense. Like, I know we make fun of the preseason polls, but it is largely based on overall talent.
Yeah, who's got the talent. Right.
But St. John's was like 26, right? They were right outside.
I don't know. They might have been.
And I think Rutgers got in over. I think St.
John's was like – St. John's should have been ranked in the preseason.
Rutgers had just insane amount of talent at the top. Yeah, two lottery picks.
Two lottery picks. Anyway, Max is looking it up right now.
Let's see. Where was St.
John's?

The preseason.

Max is really bad at Googling. I'm not that bad.
I'll just do it myself. You're really bad at it.
All right, here we go. What? He's got it.
St. John's isn't there.
They're not ranked. Right.
Confirm that. What was the...
Others receiving votes. Wisconsin, Colorado, UCLA, St.
John's.

So they were 29th.

It's crazy.

Auburn wasn't in the top 25.

Oh.

They were 27.

Or they got 27 votes.

Wait.

Wait.

Is that this year?

This can't be this year.

No, I think it is.

Yeah, Kansas, Bama, UConn, Houston.

Oh, wow.

That's this year.

No, Auburn's right there. What the fuck? Why is Auburn at the end, too? They just got extra votes.
They just got extra votes. Oh, there you go.
Yeah. All right, so St.
John's and Michigan State are the two that fall under that. Last year, Iowa State was a two seed, not ranked in the preseason.
They went to the Sweet 16. Yeah, so I'll stick with St.
John's to the Final Four. And like you said, PFT, if I'm right, I just become the guy who believes in St.
John's. And I think I need to be part of the National Championship celebration.
I agree. Okay.
What about East? East. Duke.
I'll start with Duke. I believe Duke is the best team in the country.
I believe Duke has no weaknesses. I believe Duke has three.
There's three things you might be slightly concerned with Duke. They rely heavily on freshmen.
It's obviously the health of Cooper Flagg and Malik Brown. Malik Brown's out.
Malik Brown's just going to be out. He's not going to be.
I don't think. But strap it up? Dr.
Dan said that he's going to have to have surgery. What about next man up? He's a don't strap it up dr dan said that he strap it up having that

he's gonna have to have surgery what about next man up he's a defender just strap it up he's an important defender just strap it up and let him um but yeah cooper flags ankle like you i don't know it looked pretty bad to me but i assume he's gonna he said he's gonna he wanted to play apparently like in the acc championship yeah he's probably not gonna play against the 16 i don't know what they'll do for the second round game.

But then the ACC, that is's probably not going to play against the 16. I don't know what they'll do for the second round game.
But then the ACC, that is a – on a scale of 1 to 10, it's like a 5 of a – 4 or 5 of a concern for me that the ACC was weaker this year. I think it's being a little bit overblown that Duke played nobody.
I think Louisville and Clemson are better than people realize. I think Duke did play Auburn and beat them pretty easily.
They played Alabama too? No. But, yeah, I think they played at Arizona, I think, and just fucking smoked Arizona and Tucson.
They kicked the shit out of Illinois. I know Illinois was pretty down at that point.
So I think this idea that Duke hasn't played anybody with a pulse is just wrong, but I will at least admit that they have not played you know

your the the floridas and the bamas and like you know they haven't played those teams over and over and over anyway i i have duke winning the national championship because i think duke is uh i think duke is in a position when i was taught when i was making the the the reference to 2015 earlier and i said this tournament feels like the 2015 tournament i think duke more other one seed, feels to me like the equivalent of that Kentucky team where, yes, of course they can lose, but I think that they're a little bit better than every other team in this field. So I have Duke coming out of the East, and I have Duke winning the national championship.
And I think Cooper Flagg has had... For some reason, the hype is somehow there, but it's also I feel like it's not as great as it should be for this kid because he is un-fucking-believable.
He had an insane amount of hype coming in. He's delivered on all of it.
He leads Duke in every single category. He does everything there is to do on a basketball court well.
Do you know what it is? I don't know why. I think the hype went down a little because the acc is not good so it's like he wasn't playing uh top 25 matchups week in and week out uh and then he slipped in that game against kentucky he slipped early in the season and that was he slipped in the last possession yeah he is a if you haven't watched cooper flag he's an incredible basketball player guy sweats a lot.
He sweats a lot. Yeah.
And he slips. And his mom likes to talk shit.
I love that from her. Yeah.
That was such an awesome statement. The one in Carolina, the dunk, and she's on your fucking head.
Yeah. And then when she apologized, and then everyone was like, oh, shit, she's apologizing.
And then she was like two middle fingers. Yeah, for absolutely nothing.
PFT, let me ask you this, because Big Cat is compromised, and he can't give a straight answer i agree is it possible i already said they're gonna win it all by the way is it possible for duke to be likable no uh no i don't think it's possible to be likable i think it's possible for them to be less hateable okay and this is this is one of the less hateable duke teams yeah i think this is a pretty neutral one as far as duke goes and that almost makes them likable because i uh what i said about uConn's team last year where I said like like you asked me what I am I gonna am I cheering for their downfall and I was like I honestly can't because I enjoy watching them so much I feel I'm sort of starting to feel that way about this Duke team and it's very bizarre because yeah I'm not necessarily rooting for them to win I am I'll be honest I'll be transparent I want them to get to the final four because I think it's great for the sport if they make it there. And we do get the 2015 Kentucky thing where it's like you have the number one pick and the best player in the country leading this young team.
And maybe they fuck it up. Maybe they don't.
I think that's fascinating. But, yeah, I'm slowly enjoying watching them play, and I don't want them to stop playing.
But then also I don't want Duke to win the national championship. I the national championship I don't know how to reconcile those yeah I want them to give us a reason to hate them yeah they're not doing that and it's it's disappointing for the sport I don't know if I told you this Titus but I grew up I I liked both UNC and Duke when I was a kid oh really in my family because my parents were from my grandparents were from North Carolina and they were Tar Heels fans And then Grant Hill was my preschool teacher in Northern Virginia.
So then when he goes to Duke, now I've got to root for Duke too. And it was a very confusing time until I learned what a dickhead Coach K was.
And then I'm like, oh, this is a no-brainer. UNC, better colors, nicer people.
Let's root for UNC. And then now that there's no Coach K, it's like I need a reason to be reminded of my hatred.
If you watch the Carolina-Duke game, that was like living in Bizarro world because the identities of both of those programs have been flipped. Carolina was like flopping all over the court trying to draw fouls on Cooper Flagg.
Duke is the program that now has like all the five stars in the NBA players and Carolina's got these unheralded guys and we don't know if they're going to make the NBA or not and they're just trying to like grid out a win it was you know what it is blew my mind we need con can nipple to step up and like hit someone in the balls yeah that's really the only answer it's not going to be Cooper flag con can nipple more shots of coach K in the crowd maybe yeah like smiling I'll be like okay fuck this guy needs to do something fucked up in an NBA game when people when people are like oh man I wish we didn't have the one and done rule. I'm like smiling.
I'll be like, okay, fuck this guy. Grayson Allen needs to do something fucked up in an NBA game.
When people are like, oh, man, I wish we didn't have the one and done rule. I'm like, well, that's bullshit because kids should be able to go earn a living.
And if they're good enough to be in the NBA, they should be in the NBA. But part of me is like, I kind of miss.
I wish we had three years in college basketball just so I could get my hate up for Duke. Yeah.
Because that is – it's so transient now.

Yeah.

You know, it's in and out where – and again, I think more than anything

what you're saying, Titus, about this Duke team is they just didn't –

what's the most memorable game they played in this year?

Yeah.

They were just so much better than ever in the ACC.

They destroyed everybody.

Except Clemson beat them.

But, like, usually you have at least a couple memories from, like,

deep in January or February where it's like, oh, Duke went to Wake Forest and they tripped someone and then they won a bullshit way. Yeah.
Now all we've got is White Lotus. That's it.
That's the only thing about Duke that's been memorable this year. I saw that.
I'm not caught up. Okay, I won't say anything.
There's like a Duke. Yeah, yeah.
There's a guy from Duke and he's got a fucking hog. And his wife's UNC.
Oh. Yeah.
She's pilled out. Yeah, I mean, I think...
What else in this bracket? I agree with you. I think Duke's going to win it all.
Duke's the most talented team by far in the country. It doesn't always shake out, though.
If this was the NBA and a seven-game series, I would bet my house that Duke would win it all. Yeah.
Crazy shit can happen. Bet your house game.
This would be a bet my house. Bracket.
Bracket, yeah. What about the bottom half where Wisconsin is? We got screwed, but I – Montana's ass.
That's the thing. Montana's certified ass, so you're fine.
We got screwed in the location. I would rather play Montana than Lipscomb.
Yeah. Lipscomb's like – You're right about that.
Kind of plucky. Montana, I know they can shoot threes, but they've played two power four teams.
They got fucking work. They got fucking smoke, dude.
You're fine there. BYU is an interesting.
BYU-VCU would be interesting. I think VCU might win that game.
VCU might win that game. They're just so annoying.
They are annoying. You're not a BYU leaver? I said, I actually picked BYU to beat Wisconsin.
That's fine. I picked BYU to beat VCU and Wisconsin.
But I said on my show last night that BYU-VCU, I want BYU to just play all-time offense and have VCU guard them and annoy them. Yeah.
And I think that – and if VCU gets a stop, they get like two points. And when I say VCU is annoying, I just want to be on the record because I don't want Dugues' VCU guy to come after me and prison fuck me um annoying in a good way you don't want to play they are just they annoy their opponent they're not fun to play against um but yeah BYU Wisconsin if BYU gets past VCU that's a sexy matchup yeah that's a very fuckable matchup that's a lot of offense a lot of a lot of threes I like Wisconsin's draw though I like this Wisconsin team you know that, you do.
I think this is not a – if you have not been paying attention to Wisconsin this year, this is not your daddy's Badgers. Nope.
This is a completely retooled Wisconsin team and terrible showing in the Big Ten tournament. Brutal.
For what Wisconsin basketball is this year. In the final.
In the final, I meant. Yeah, that's what I meant.
That was the funniest part of everyone being like, this team is asses. That's what I meant.
They just won three games. Yeah, but if that was your introduction with this Wisconsin team and you turn it on and they're brick and threes, you're just like, goddammit, not again with Wisconsin.
They are a completely different team, and I have to believe that they're going to make shots in the tournament. If you would take Tonje and just put him in just like a black jersey with no letters on it, no numbers on it, how long do you think it would take for you to guess what school he went to? That he played at Wisconsin? Oh, my God.
I think it'd probably be like 90? There's 364 teams. I'd probably be well into the 150s.
Yeah. But they are fun, and they have like a solid nine guys, and Blackwell's awesome.
Klezman's clutch. I think Crowell and Nolan Winter, they both got called out early in early in the season for being soft and they played a lot better they just need to make it to sweet 16 if they make it to sweet 16 then i'm on the then i'm like i said this before i said this like a month ago get to sweet 16 then there's obviously i'll be devastated if they lose in the sweet 16 especially to alabama but i understand the tournament Crazy shit happens.
Once you get to that point, it's like anything can happen. So it takes a little bit of this thing out.
But if they lose in the first or second round, I'll be devastated. If we get BYU-Wisconsin and then we get whoever wins that game plays Bama, that's just a lot of fun basketball.
A lot of offense. A lot of fun.
What do you think about Bama? Bama's tough to figure out, man. They're tough.
They run the Bama that's just a lot of a lot of fun basketball yeah a lot of offense a lot of fun I what do you think about Bama's tough to figure out man they're tough they they they run the Bama shit they it's it's same old Bama of spamming threes and layups and Mark Sears is there and Grant Nelson's there although what's what's what's his deal I don't know he's getting a knee he's getting his knee looked at as we speak um they can't they they don't shoot as well as they need to they were so last year like because i think you know we do that as fans where we're like oh this is the same team last year they obviously went to the final four they were 19th in the country in three-point shooting yeah this year they're 114 right and their whole thing is that three is more than two so we're going to take threes three is only more than two if you make the three you gotta make them if you miss the three it is not more than two and they they just they they get stubborn and that's that's always when when it goes wrong for alabama in the tournament with nate oates it always looks the exact same way and it's just them being stubborn them being like a uh you know going back to the plan b thing of like they don't have a plan b it's like we are built to shoot threes we're not making threesrees. It doesn't matter.
We're going to keep shooting them. And then, and the mid range is coached out of them.
It's completely coached out of them. You see them standing there with an open mid range and they'll pass it up.
I, in 23, I think it was, yeah, that was the San Diego state team. They played San Diego state.
They were the number one overall seed. I lost my fucking mind.
I picked Bama to win it all. And I'm watching them play San Diego state and San Diego state had the rim protector.
I think it was Mensa was his name. Yeah yeah the seven footer and san diego state it was like so obvious what they were doing they were just running out to the three-point line funneling everything to the rim protector alabama if they would have taken mid-range shots would have been wide open the entire game just would not do it yep would not do it wouldn't take a single mid-range shot and uh that's why they lost i i don't know they they they have the the i think they have the players i think there there have been moments where alabama it feels like they're turning a corner and they lost.
I don't know. They have the – I think they have the players.

I think there have been moments where Alabama feels like they're turning a corner

and they are hitting shots.

But I don't trust that six games, they're going to put that together

and they're going to make shots for six straight games.

And their defense is not that good.

Their defense isn't as good as it should be either.

When they have that guy LeBaron Phylon making shots,

then they can beat anybody, I think.

Right.

If it's going like Grant Nelson's playing well and then also Phylon is able to step up and score, then they're a very good team. But, yeah, there's another team.
Is it Baylor? So they're really good from three, but they suck at shooting foul shots, right? Liberty's that way for sure. I don't know if that was your thing enough too, but Baylor but Baylor might be.
I think Baylor's like that, too. Liberty is

comical. I was

reading up on them. They are fifth

in the country in three-point shooting and

300-something in free-throw

shooting. So it's exactly what you

said about Baylor. I kind of like Oregon.

I think Dana Altman's, and

they have their seven-footer, Biddle,

who's a tough

one to look at, but he's good.

They play great defense.

Akron was a school that I was excited about. Before the bracket came out, I thought, I'm going to pick Akron to win a game.
Arizona is a horrendous matchup. They're just basically better Akron.
They play the exact same styles. They have the same philosophies, and Arizona has better players.
So I hate that matchup for Akron so duke coming out of this region yeah i like duke and you have byu who wins byu alabama um i i ultimately went bama but uh i think that's gonna be a track meet in a fun game but okay uh yeah i went a little chalky okay i went chalky with the lead eight and then yeah i got duke over bama all right last one midwest houston uh they're really fucking good they're really really fucking good man really fucking but they also have to play possibly gonzaga who's a top 10 ken pom team in mark few has made like a thousand sweet 16s in a row yeah right um houston has i've been like a houston critic a little bit through the years uh mostly just because they they always are they always look great in the regular season, but for a while they were playing in the American. Now that they've joined the Big 12, they're absolutely dominating the Big 12.
They stepped into what was the best conference in college basketball and just fucking own that conference now. I think this Houston team is as good as any Houston team has been in this stretch that Kelvin Sampson's had.
They can score. They have multiple guys who can score.

Malik Wilson's a dude that just is a bucket out of nowhere.

LJ Cryer's the best scorer.

Wilson's the microwave guy.

If you want to be concerned about Houston,

but you're worried that you need a guy that can just go get you one,

they have an answer for that.

They have an answer for three-point shooting.

They have great point guard play.

They obviously play just phenomenal defense. I i really really really love houston um so yeah i think houston finally gets a breakthrough they and it makes the final four they made one in 2021 but i don't count that one yeah and you're and you were right so they're four losses on the season they lost auburn in the second game of the season early november which came down to the wire it was it was a minute left.
We need to stop here. I think it was like tied with a minute left.
Then they lost in OT to Alabama, OT to San Diego State, and OT to Texas Tech. Yeah.
So they've lost one game in regulation. And you remember the Kansas game in Allen Fieldhouse.
Oh, yeah. When they were dead.
Houston and St. John's are the two teams that just will not die.
When the clock hits zero and you think you've beat them, you better make damn sure you've actually beat them. Get the hell out of the arena.
Take your win and get out of there. Because if there is .1 second on the clock, they are still alive.
I don't know. You can't put away either one of those teams.
I love Houston for that. So talk to me about Gonzaga because as a casual, I got to admit, Gonzaga until the conference tournament, not a team I was ever interested in watching this year in conference play.
So all I know about Gonzaga is basically what Big Cat said, which is they're always winning in March. They're always winning in March.
They always go to the Sweet 16 at the very least. Never been to the Final Four.
They got screwed on their seeding. Last year, I remember being out on Gonzaga as the calendar turned to March.
Really like mid-February, I'd say. They put it together, started playing really, really well.
They go back to the Sweet 16 by beating the fuck out of Kansas in the second round. They brought a lot of those dudes back, and I was really high on Gonzaga entering the season.
They opened the season beating the piss out of Baylor. That was night one of college basketball season.
That was the big game, and they won by 40. I think it was literally 40.
Yeah. But then since then, they've just kind of been uninspiring.
They had a big lead on Kentucky and squandered that. In West Coast Conference, they've been just kind of – like St.
Mary's won the conference. They lost twice to St.
Mary's. They don't play – they don't have a rim protector.
They don't play great defense. I think the offense, like the shooting comes and goes, the three-point shooting.
They still have dudes that can play. They still have Mark Few, who knows how to coach in this tournament.
They still have a Nembhard. I think there is a world where Gonzaga does pull the upset over Houston.
I think that's going to be a great game, but I don't love this Gonzaga team as much as I've loved Gonzaga teams in the past. Yeah.
All right. Illinois.
Talk to me about Illinois. Yep.
Because I think from what I've seen at Illinois, they've been really, really good, or they've been getting the shit kicked out of them. Illinois is, in my estimation, and there's probably a lot of teams you could say this about, but if you were to say this phrase to me, I would think of Illinois immediately.
They are the make shots team at the NCAA tournament. Make shots team.
When they're making shots, you're like, who's going to beat these guys? They're the best team ever. When they're not making shots, you're like, this team is dog shit.
This team is absolute dog shit. So Illinois' whole thing is they're taking what Bama – they're taking the Bama approach, and they're like, we're just going to shoot a bunch of threes, and they just simply do not make threes.
They're shooting like a little over 30% from the three-point line, but they are just going to keep jacking them up. I went to the Ohio State-Illinois game in Champaign, and I sat behind the Ohio State bench, and the thing that stood out to me when the ball gets tipped off like immediately it was obvious that Illinois is like two or three inches taller at every position.
They just had, like Yaka Chonis is their he's going to be a lottery pick, he's their point guard he's like 6'6", plays like a European is under control at all times knows how to find the open man. They got the seven footer uh big z at uh at arkansas his brother is is at illinois um they have a bunch of big dudes they're just like yeah they're long and tall and they do nothing with it and they all just like hang out at the three-point line and shoot threes and i was like why are they doing this this is so fucking stupid why are they not uh getting inside and taking advantage of their height so that's that's the report on illinois is i think like there was one game i think it was at oregon where they were hitting everything and they looked like the best team in the country yep um but then you know against duke they lose by 40 it they are as volatile as it gets i you know flip a coin and if if you're someone that wants to believe in illinois flip a coin and you know that that's that's as good of an indicator as any as to whether or not they're going to be hitting shots.
The best way to sum up Illinois, and I'm pretty sure this stat is correct. Someone told it to me, and even if it's not correct, it makes sense for Illinois.
Their average margin for a victory is 15 points. Their average margin of defeat is 15 points.
Yeah, yeah. I love that.
That's it. You know what? I think I'm going to believe in Illinois.
And I can just about guarantee you every single win look just go straight to the three-point shooting yeah and it's like oh they went 11 for 24 they probably won that game oh this game they went four for 26 they probably lost that game yeah uh that that's really all it is with them um yeah just be a believer in illinois looking at it right now just going down the stretch they lost by uh 14 to Michigan State. They lost by 21 to Wisconsin.
They lost by, like, 50 to Duke. And they turn around and beat Iowa by 20, beat Michigan by 20.
That's crazy. In the Big Ten tournament, they beat Iowa by 12.
Then they lost to Maryland by 20. That's just what they do.
I like it. Yeah, they're fun.
I want so bad had to if you said like what if you could just you know snap your fingers and be like that matchup happens illinois kentucky i know that would be so fun so fun that would be awesome and then also maybe kentucky tennessee yeah tennessee beat kentucky twice this year um but yeah if that matchup happens i think that is yeah kentucky i know that tenn twice but I think Kentucky is another team that like they don't guard anybody that's what worries me and they are really injured they're seemingly every guy that's played for them this year has gotten hurt but Kentucky is a ton of fun and they push tempo and they score a ton of points and have a bunch of guys that can beat you so I like Kentucky a lot lot. So you have Houston out of this region? I have Houston out of this region.
Oh, what about Purdue High Point? What was the source you had? Source inside – well, I don't want to say who it was from or give away who it could be from. But it was a source.
A source that I have has sources inside High Point, and they said that Purdue was the one matchup that they did not want. Yeah.
yeah looking ahead at the tournament it said okay we can deal you know with a lot of these other uh three seeds four seeds that sort of thing but purdue was the one yeah nightmare yeah neither team plays defense very well i think it's it's kind of what i said about uh uh the akron arizona matchup where it's like you you would think that akron playing against a team that that likes to play up tempo is a good thing for them because they play up tempo i actually see it as the opposite it's like the way those teams win is they bring a style to the table that the other team isn't comfortable with and i think that's what high point purdue is going to be is that high point is a uh that their offense is great their defense is not i think produce you could say the same thing like when their offense gets going um they they look pretty good but they're never going to

be great defensively and i think brayden smith is just going to control this entire game this is just going to be a brayden smith master class of controlling the tempo and everything so oh yeah i just got a text breaking moves breaking moves

max just got a text

you guys Breaking moves. Max, just got a text.
You guys can tell me who this text was from. I'll tell you what it says.
Okay. Colorado State is a lineage play.
A lineage play? A lineage play. All right.
That seems like Rothstein. That means that's your entire lineage.
Your family tree is a long line. That's finer.
That's Stu Finer. He just texted me.
Colorado State is a lineage play. That is finer.
That is one Stu Finer. Colorado State.
Your entire family tree. You got it, too? Yeah, yeah.
I didn't mention it when we were talking about the West, but Colorado State, Memphis is going to be a fucking banger. That P.J.
Haggerty versus Neat Clifford. If you don't know anything about Colorado State, they've got to do that.
Nine of the last 12 games have scored 20-plus points. Memphis has P.J.
Haggerty, who is just a fucking bucket. I don't know how else to describe the guy.
He's an incredible scorer. That matchup and the Donovan Dent-Cam Jones matchup with Marquette in New Mexico, those are the two that I circled as like don't care who wins but god damn that's gonna be fun basketball it's gonna be fun basketball yeah so lineage play huh lineage play so duke houston yeah then we have did you go florida st john's i went st john's st john's and then i went michigan State.
That's my phone before. Yeah.
Copying piece of shit. Oh, really? Yeah.
And then I did Duke over St. John's? I went St.
John's. St.
John's. I had to go St.
John's. And then I went Michigan State.
That's my final four. Yeah.
Copying piece of shit. Oh, really? Yeah.
And then I did Duke over St. John's.
Okay. And I think Rick Pitino, who said he put the white suit away for the season, I don't believe him.
I don't believe him. I think if St.
John's makes the final four, I think we see it. Okay.
I hope you're right. Last thing I want to do with you, Titus, rowback question, RHOBACK.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase.
Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com, promo code TAKE. Go right now.
Let's do a quick ranking of the windows for the people. Okay, yeah, let me look at them.
I'm in prep, so I'm not just springing on everyone. It popped in my head that this would be a fun exercise ranking in the window so obviously we had the first we'll rank them the the eastern standard time the 12 15 to 4 35 window on thursday the night window um let's look max fill in with you with your bracket thoughts real quick why are you wearing a headband i don't know add what kind of while we look go ahead and fill in your bracket thoughts you and memes talk amongst yourselves while we look and do our research on this i don't have much thoughts i do have a villain of a head coaching yeah yeah what the hell yeah let's hear it um i ryan odom is the top of my big board i really think that he's going to be the guy to get villain over to the next step there were some talks with Mick Cronin today.
I don't think that I want Mick Cronin. People were upset that I said Todd Golden yesterday.
I still think that there's a chance there. We have money.
We have lots of money. They're upset because they think that you're delusional? Correct.
Is that what you mean? Yeah. Chris Collins, I think, is a bleh.
I think that he's probably going to be the one that gets hired. Wait, he's a what? Blunt.
He's just a little blunt to me. I don't think that he's going to be really exciting.
I've heard that Porter Moser is gaining more and more steam, which I think I would be pretty – I think I would be excited about Porter Moser, but I'm not exactly sure because, you know, he's kind of a one-hit wonder at Loyola Chicago. He's been in Oklahoma for a couple of years now.
This is the first time in the tournament. You want me to keep going? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keep going, keep going, keep going. You're doing the job.
A little Patino. I would like that just because it's fun.
Like St. John's, Villanova, to, you know, OG Big East basketball programs.
I have my answers. All right, I'm done.
Okay. I think Friday night is by far the best.
Friday night you got Marquette versus New Mexico, which we talked about. Illinois versus Texas or Xavier.
You got UConn, Oklahoma. Akron, Arizona, I think Arizona wins easily, but it will be fun to watch.
I think Arizona will be up like 7 to 10 the whole game. And then Troy, Kentucky.
Those are some really good games Friday night. So that would be my 1-1.
I'm looking at Thursday afternoon right now. I might go Thursday afternoon as well.
I think the early slate of Creighton-Louisville, we're starting off with a banger. High Point Purdue should be a lot of offense, a lot of fun.
I do think Montana is ass and Wisconsin will win easily, so that one's not good. Houston's not good, the Houston game, I mean.
I think McNeese-Clemson is going to be a great game. I think VCU-BYU is a great game, and I think Gonzaga-Georgia is going to be a great game.
I might go early. I think the opening slate is – I think the schedule maker's got right.
Yeah. I think that Thursday – They bookended it.
My favorite window is Thursday at like 11 through Friday at like 11.30 p.m. That is the sweet spot.
That's your goddamn right. Also, I mean Thursday night we got Arkansas and Kansas.
Yeah. I like though that there's some fun offense on Friday night that I'm like – because that's when you start to run out of gas mentally.
And you need to pick me up. You need some good.
You need to pick me up. Yeah, you don't want to have it be like a bunch of 215s or 116s.
Although it is electric when it gets close. That's true.
That's true. Okay, any last thoughts? I'm excited.
I don't know. I guess I would just say I apologize for going chalk.
I just think it. Don't apologize.
But I also don't want to apologize for being right, and I think I'm going to be right. I think this year is going to be the year of – I have a feeling after the first two rounds when the Sweet 16 is set, there might be one or two good stories that we can latch on to.
Maybe a 12 sneaks in there. There's always one or two but i think the the story of the first

weekend will be not as much madness in terms of the bracket breaking open as we had hoped

but that sets up for the heavy hitters playing each other down the road yeah i think that's going to be the story of this i agree all right nothing better the ball is tipped there you are

I just want to like

that Thursday morning feeling

I just want to like that Thursday morning feeling. I just wish I could bottle it up.
Yeah. Because like I'm stupid where I get like introspective where once Thursday's over, I'm like, damn, we're 365 days.
I've been doing that for three weeks. I'll just be sitting there in my kitchen.
I'll turn to my wife and and I'll be like, do you realize – she doesn't really care. Do you realize in three weeks there will only be eight teams left? Yeah.
I'll just say shit like that. She's like, I don't care.
Yeah, but it hurts me. It's like I just want to freeze time in that first window.
When I was growing up, my parents are both teachers, and they were hard asses where I had to go to school because they cared so much about the profession and you, you know, you do not skip school for anything whatsoever. And Thursday and Friday of March Madness were the two days out of the year that I would always get a mysterious call from the office and be like, you have a dentist appointment scheduled for now.
And I, that made it extra special because my mom and dad, not for anything, not like I was a senior in high school and I was like, can I just skip the last week of school? And they're like, no. See it through to the finish line.
Perfect attendance. All this was important.
But they respected the game. And, yeah, those Thursdays and Fridays, there's nothing better than it.
There really isn't. I can't wait.
I can't wait to watch all the ball with you boys. Yeah.
Thursday and Friday have our eyeballs bleed. Yep.
There's nothing like it. Feel like I got hit by a truck every night.
No. Get back at it.
All right. Thank you, Titus.
You're the best. Everyone go subscribe to Mostly Sports.
Mark Titus Show. Yeah, we'll be going.
Titus Show will be going live every night after this. Oh, I love that.
If you're a sicko and you're like, I watched all the games and I want more, I'll be going live every night after the games and talking about everything we saw. I might have to.
You can pop in. Well, hopefully Wisconsin wins on Thursday and then Saturday.
I will only come on if they win. I got to save if they lose for the AWLs.
I need your official pick. They don't want to hear me talk about winning.
Mississippi State Baylor. Your co-host Brandon Walker, big Mississippi State fan, allegedly.

And when this comes out, we'll know that Hank, PFT, and Max,

they accidentally took Baylor.

Well, we kind of had to.

We didn't want to take Baylor.

They wanted to do the troll move in Montana, but Montana is ass.

No, we actually did not want to do the troll move.

The troll move would have been to take VCU.

That would have been the troll move. We wanted to do that one.
But, yeah, we did take Baylor. RG3 is my guy.
Central Texas. I was near there for a while, so we had to.
Mississippi State never wins a big game. That's true.
They just don't win. I watched them all year, and Brandon would come in and just be like, this Mississippi State team, something special is going on.
I was like, alright, what's your next big game? He's like, we got Kentucky coming up this weekend. It's a must win.
They lose. It just happened every single time.
Last year, the tournament, they were in the spot. Not competitive.
Look bad. I don't know.
That's just what Mississippi State will do. They will lose.
Scott Drew, championship DNA. Scott Drew, championship DNA.
Somebody send us a merch. I'm on it, Max.
Yep. You're already on? RG3's hooking it up.
I need some Utah State merch. Probably won't get here in time.
Yeah, we'll figure it out. I need some Utah State merch.
Actually, Rico's got some. Wasn't Sprinkle there last year? Oh, yeah.
Yeah, he's got it somewhere. Which one of Rico's teams do you think he's going to know the farthest? Oh, man.
All right, thanks, Titus. Thanks, boys.
Titus is brought to you by Raising Canes. The games are nonstop this month, and when you need a delicious meal to watch the game with, you can trust in getting a craveable Canes combo fast through the drive-thru or dine-in.
I love Raising Canes. We eat it all the time in the Barstool office.
They sponsor a bunch of the live streams, and it's always great when you come in for a day. Maybe football is about to start.
Maybe some basketball games are about to start, and we've got hot, fresh Raising Canes waiting for us with the crinkle-cut fries, the chicken fingers, the buttery Texas toast, the cane sauce, dip that Texas toast in the cane sauce.

If you're looking for a little game to play alongside your bracket,

check out the Raising Canes Underdog Challenge.

But we love Raising Canes.

They are the absolute best.

Now through April 7th, you can enter for a chance to win a free box combo at RaisingCanes.com slash underdog challenge.

Every time an underdog team prevails.

No purchase necessary.

Must be 18 or older.

Ends April 7, 2025.

Rules on eligibility and how to enter at RaisingCanes.com slash underdog challenge.

Doesn't matter if your team's in the mix because Canes chicken fingers will always be a win.

So play the Raising Canes underdog challenge when you go to raisingcanes.com

slash underdogchallenge.

Titus was also brought to you by Truly Hard Seltzer.

Truly Unruly is the first ABV hard seltzer

that actually tastes good.

Truly Unruly is a hard seltzer.

Breaks all the rules because it drinks light,

but it parties hard.

With 8% ABV, it hits hard,

but it still tastes amazing. Comes in four fresh flavors, tropical twist, berry blast, citrus crush, strawberry smash.
I love the berry blast. The berry blast.
I think is the best flavor. Big cat.
You're a strawberry smash, strawberry smash all day. What do you like from truly? I like strawberry smash, but they're all great.
They are. The berry blast is so good.
It really does. It hits hard too.
have a couple of those, and you know that you've had some Truly Unrulies. It's Unruly Boy Summer.
It's the official hard seltzer of Pardon My Take. Find Truly Unruly at a store near you or visit trulyhardseltzer.com.
Okay, boys. The next time you'll hear from us, we're going to have madness.
We are a programming note. We're going to have Stanford Steve on Friday's show.
We will only talk about Friday's games with him. Give you best bets.
Talk with him. So after Thursday, if you get your teeth kicked in, want to just sound smart, this is the best.
It's the best weekend. It's absolutely the best weekend.
If you stumble on Thursday, guess what? You got Friday. And I and i'm gonna try to keep my voice didn't help that i had to wake up for the cubs game today but i'm gonna keep my voice hopefully knock on wood this is danger zone for me uh any other thoughts before we do numbers three i didn't oh that was not he said he didn't before we do numbers that sounds like a penalty that sounds like a penalty to me no i can we ask before we do numbers.
That sounds like a penalty. That sounds like a penalty to me.
Can we ask President Pug? Before we do numbers. Because Max was looking at me like he wanted to say something.
Yeah. President Pug.
President Pug. I said anything else before we do numbers because Max was looking at me like he wanted to say something.
Memes then said three right away. But he said numbers.
Right, but it was not in numbers like that. Three.
If it's end of show and you say the word numbers, I think it's fair. Okay.
All right. There we go.
All right. Better watch out.
Max, what were you going to say, though? It's messed up. What was Max going to say? I was just going to say my number.
Oh. What's your number? You were looking at me like you had something very important to say.
No, I just wanted to say one. 68.
64. 99.
76. 21.
Memes, you know this would be fraudulent. No.
You don't want to win withsterisk I do, I just want this number People would be like, asterisk I want to prove to people those numbers in this machine 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 34 Oh, you're never going to get it.

You're never going to get it.

It's tough for all the memes leavers out there.

Love you guys. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll be right back.
and Encore keeps him from coming back for up to four months. That's a nonstop 16 week tour of killing and preventing weeds in all the famous outdoor venues, the patio,

the driveway, the mulch bed, even

along the fence. When it comes to your hardscapes

and landscapes, the stuff puts on a show.

Roundup Dual Action Products

kill and prevent weeds for up to four months.

This stuff rocks. This stuff works.

When used as directed, always read and follow

pesticide label directions.