Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week

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Restrictions apply. USA! On today's part of my take, we have our brackets, and we also have our good friend John Rothstein on the show to break down the best storylines.
He's going to name all the regions. We've got a lot to catch up on with him because we haven't talked to him in a year.
We're going to talk some brackets. of hoops college uh conference tournaments wrap up and we're going to get into one of the best weeks of the year we also have who's back of the week and it's all brought to you by our friends at draft kings hey basketball fans are you ready to win real money check out pick six from draft kings when it comes to basketball payouts draft kings pick six dun pick six dunks on its rivals, including prize picks.
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Today is Monday, March 17th, and we have our brackets. Got the brackets right here.
Got a little ink under my fingernails, big cat. You hear this? This is a real life in-person bracket.
I don't do my shit online. I hold it in my hands.
Hell yes. Pin and a paper like a man.
Always. This is horoscopes for guys.
This is the best. It's the best.
I'm going to sleep with it underneath my pillow tonight. I'm going to fuck it.
I wasn't going to fuck it, but now I have to fuck it. I'm going to fuck my bracket.
Now I got to fuck it. You're not a man if you don't fuck it.
I actually think that this is the best non-sporting event of the year. Just roll it up.
Like this is, yeah, just roll it up and crank it. Yeah.
i think that oh hey oh max is going through the hole oh you make a hole in your bracket you're fucking it that way you could i was thinking of just going like this you could also roll it up and then the bracket could fuck you true maybe just get a hold maybe make a paper mache doll out of it yeah okay i'm into that i'm in for that but you know i'm saying i think that i think that bracket reveal is the best sporting event that does not actually contain sports of the year oh it's it's incredible and it's uh it just just the you know you spend i think i i counted it was like 50 hours of basketball i've watched in the last five days and i my eyes hurt and like every morning i wake up and i'm, I'm like, what just happened? I feel like I got hit by a truck, but then you ended all with the bracket and it's all like, oh, that was worth it. Cause we, we just, we just did all that.
And now we have a bracket and it feels great. And it's, it's one of my favorite weeks.
And it's, I know some people don't like the first four, but I actually love it because they're like at this point right now. I wish there was a college basketball game on right this second.

And we only have to wait till Tuesday.

But let's talk about the bracket.

Let's first talk about who got screwed.

And that would be West Virginia and Indiana.

Because UNC got into the tournament with one quad one win.

And Bubba Cunningham, who is part of the selection committee is also the AD at UNC he now he said that he recused himself from all conversations what I would say to that is that doesn't fucking matter at all because you spend an entire weekend hanging out with these people and then you're like hey guys we're gonna talk about unc i'm gonna go take a piss you guys talk about unc but come on we're boys right it's me bubba yeah we're boys and then let's say he doesn't even do that let's say he doesn't say hey come on guys give me a solid everyone in that room has to decide on unc and then have him come back in the room and he's going to be like so how we look yeah then you tell him your decision and then bub has to look at you be like what the hell yeah god damn y'all gonna do that to bubba he also just he he went on uh cbs and espn after and just used i don't know who his human shield was next to him but they asked him a question about unc and he he brought another guy who's from the committee and he he immediately said well i wasn't allowed to talk about unc so i'm just gonna have to defer to him yeah it just made him answer all the hard he's gonna answer all the unc related topics that you have for me this is classic belichick yeah i think he might have had something to do with it yeah well he was on a beach he was on a beach we know that yeah we also live in his best life living his best life best life congrats athlete congrats athlete I mean wait Hank that's a

I do that game beach we know that yeah we also live in his best life living his best life congrats athlete congrats

athlete i mean like hank that's a that i do that game with my kids yeah your kids are small actually the age difference is less between me and my kids your kids are don't weigh a lot but i was like that's the airplane game i play with my kids i'm not gonna make fun of coach Belichick for doing that. Congrats, Bill.

Is she wearing headphones

in this yeah so they're not talking or you just listen to like airplane noises okay either way back to back unc got in so here's a stat that i looked up because the bracket matrix they track everything they compile everybody all the amateurologists out there, which is such a funny science to study.

They have 111 bracketologists, and they compile all their results.

Out of those 111, 27 of the 111 had UNC in the bracket, and 111 out of 111 bracketologists had West Virginia.

Yes.

And UNC got in.

They got screwed. I think they were 1-12 in Quad 1.
Yeah. They beat UCLA.
Listen, the committee, and we can ask John Rothstein, the committee, it's very clear they stopped working on Friday night. Maybe that's why Lenardi's been sleeping, because it makes no sense that UNC is in this tournament.
It makes no sense that Michigan got a five. It makes no sense that Louisville got an eight.
Louisville got an eight. It makes no sense that they put Wisconsin and Denver in four days after the third game total in the tournament.
They're playing at like one o'clock in the afternoon. I have a question for you, Big Cat.
Why does the Big Ten insist on having their championship game as late as possible? I't think it's the big 10 i think it's cbs they ask them to so they have a lead in for that i think it's the the tv the tv networks dictate that because it's so late that the committee is forced to ignore the results of the big 10 championship correct no matter what but that's cbs yeah i mean they want a game going into the bracket reveal and they have rights to the big 10 yeah. Yeah.
So I'm sure the Big Ten would like to be like, hey, can we play this game on Saturday? And CBS is like, no, we need this right before. So I think Louisville finished the season 20-2.
Yeah. They were 14th in the AP, and they were 23rd in the net, and they got an 8th seed.
Yeah, they got an 8th seed. Riddle me this.
Also, Gonzaga Gonzaga is an eight seed and they are a top ten Ken Palm team. Yeah.
Houston would potentially have to match up against them in the second round which would be a very tough matchup especially for I think Houston was Houston technically the second one seed. I have the full seed list.
Hold on. Let me find it because I always love going through the seed list.
I know Wisconsin was the fourth three and Michigan was the first fifth five seed. So, but it didn't like Purdue shouldn't have been a four.
Michigan should have been the four. All right, here it is.
You have it. It's Houston.
Oh, Houston is the third one seed. Okay.
That actually makes sense because Duke is an absolute wagon. We can talk about them in a second.
Either way, there's some weird things that they made. Like even, I believe, Colorado State is a 12 seed.
That's a three and a half point favorite over Memphis, the five seed. And I know it's not off betting lines, but it's like this committee outside the UNC, I think, did a good job, except for the fact that some of the seedings make absolutely no sense.
Yeah, I think this year there weren't as many teams that are pissed off. Like, obviously, if you're Indiana, if you're West Virginia especially, you have every right to be super pissed.
But there weren't a lot of bid stealers this year. Right.
But West Virginia did get screwed. They got fucked.
West Virginia got absolutely screwed. Okay.
Well, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, Houston might have to play without Juwan Roberts against a top 10 Ken Palm team.
I don't understand that. Gonzaga feels like it should have been higher than an eight seed.
And Grand Canyon women's team got left off. Total snub.
Why'd you? Well, no, they made the tournament. Of this one.
Oh, this one. Yeah.
Why'd you bring them up? I just thought that was a snub. You said something in the cave, too.
You're like, I love their women's program. Why? Yeah, they got a great program.
Why? Because their head coach is very hot. No, no, no.
So put it on the bonk list. She's a great coach.
Put it on the bonk list. She's a fantastic coach.
Yeah. That's why.
What's her name? Her name? Yeah, exactly. I have respect for her.
Coach. Coach.
Okay. How do we want to break down the bracket? Where do we want to start? Do we want to go region by region? Let's go region by region.
And i think that there should be a uniform there i'd say like 90 of the brackets are in the same format but then you get some websites to try to get cute with it and they mix things around yeah the regions they go south in the top left corner they go west in the bottom left corner east top right midwest bottom right that's how it should be yeah so let's just go by region i agree all right so south region top left yep top left auburn uh the one overall seed another thing that made no sense not only the louisville uh being an eight seed but if louisville wins their first game which i actually kind of like them to win that game because i think chucky heppard is going to put steven ashworth in a torture chamber. They're going to be playing in Kentucky.

This game is in Lexington.

Auburn's going to have to play a road game in the second round

as the number one overall seed.

Yeah, it's one of those things where Louisville got fucked over

by having a bad seed, so they have to play Creighton in the first round,

which sucks for them, but also they get what would be two home games.

Speaking of which, Creighton and UConn, a little do-to-do on Saturday night.

That was very funny. Or sorry, that was Friday night.
My brain is, is warped. That was, that felt like a situation that Yukon fans didn't fully realize that when you're on the top of the block for as long as they've been, people hate you and they just gotta, you just gotta eat it.
And I'm okay with him like throwing home a slam dunk at the end of it, hanging on the rim celebrating a little bit. I don't think it's that fucked up.
And Danny Hurley, who we love, and we'll defend Danny Hurley, but Danny Hurley does think part of what makes Danny Hurley great is he is boisterous and yells at fans and lives on the edge, and that's also why he's won back-to-back national titles is because he's that type of coach wired that way. What comes on the flip side is if you're wired like that, where you're yelling at fans as you beat Creighton a month ago, when the other team has a chance to rub it in your face, they're going to do it.
That's just how it works. So if you're a UConn fan, I know you can get in arguments with Creighton, but you should just say, guess what? Yeah, we kind of deserve.
We've been on the top for so long. We've been killing everyone.
Yeah, it's going to turn every now and then. I'm okay with it.
It's fair play. You win the Big East.
You celebrate with a dunk at the end. That's fine.
They were trying to make the point that some fans were trying to make the point that UConn never, like, you know, when Danny Hurley's son would get in, Andrew Hurley would get in games. He would dribble it out and he would yell at him not to shoot.
Yeah. Those were also like 20 point games.
And I don't think UConn does like run it up in that scenario. But again, if you're the best team for two years running and you just demolish everyone and you have a coach like Danny Hurley, the minute it turns, people are going to take their shots.
I'm okay with it. Max is a Big East guy.
You think that's fair play? Yeah, I think that was an obvious retaliation to Danny Hurley doing the rings to the Creighton student section on his way out of winning. Right, and people are like, well, that's not the players.
But it is. It's an extension of the players that's just what and and i wouldn't if i were a yukon fan i wouldn't take back danny hurley doing that to creighton fans because that's what makes danny hurley wired that way to win two national titles so it's like fair play all around in my in my event you just have to if you're a yukon fan you just have to accept it and be like yeah we lost this one uh tough shit we got dunked on if you're the type of fan that gets online and says stay classy after getting beat by somebody you've lost you lost that argument already you've lost and there's probably a bunch of people that did the stay classy to danny hurley from creighton that are now getting stay classied by uconn yes yes and you're all losers big time uh all right so that was great creighton also has never won a big east title i feel like feel like they've been to every year they go to the final and they lose.
I like Louisville in that game, though. I do, too.
I got them moving forward. Then we have probably going to be the number one 12-5 upset that everyone's going to pick.
UC San Diego, who's been awesome, who could have been an at-large team if they failed to win the Big West, which they did on Saturday night, playing against Michigan. I think they're only three-and-a-half-point underdogs.
The Tritons are fun, though. They're a top-60 team in offense and defense on Ken Palm.
They're really, really good. They got a New Zealander who you would love, PFT, T he's tight he's he's he's sick that's his last name it's a hyphenated last name tight jones i don't know how to say his first name it's uh it's a lot on a wanna wina i don't wanna wina tight jones yeah i don't wanna wina tight jones but i watched that whole game on saturday night he's good so that's that's the pick that everyone's gonna make they force a lot of turnovers right they force a lot of turnovers.
Michigan turns the ball over. But I will say Michigan obviously beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten title today.
Dusty May called it correctly. He was like, our team needs a reset.
They got their reset, and then they won the Big Ten tournament, and they looked really good doing it. So maybe they've turned the corner and gotten that reset they needed.
And also they have two seven-footers, which always scares me when you go up two seven-footers against a smaller team. If you look at San Diego's starting lineup, it's all 6'4", 6'5".
I think they've got one guy who's 6'8". And they don't really run.
Their pace isn't big. So if they can force turnovers.
But Michigan, the way they were playing against Wisconsin, that's granted also at the end of a Big Ten tournament run where every team's tired tired the shots aren't going in it was like every shot it was a horrendous game to watch well yeah but it smoked out the haters who think that's what wisconsin how wisconsin plays now yeah it was it was not a fun game but this goes back to what we talked about with dusty may it's like at the end of a hockey game in the playoffs you're getting your ass kicked start a fight yeah flip up the whole dynamic and they got into a fight with michigan state and and played way way better coming out of it yeah uh i also kind of like yale is uh over texas a and m yale's yale's a good team i feel like yale also just that's just a yale does it every year kind of guy remember the big sweater guy yeah yeah that was pretty funny buzz is going to be dressed up like a guy from yale he wears like nine piece suits He's going to be sweating his balls off. It's going to be great.
I feel like Buzz, though, he might dress up like a guy from Yale, but if you spot him, he's not a Yale guy. No, he's not.
I'd say he dresses like a guy from Yale in the 1920s. Yeah.
Like a robber baron. Yeah.
That contributes a significant amount to the Yale endowment. He sweats too much to be a Yale guy.
Yeah. Yale guys don't sweat.
And there's never been a guy from Yale named Buzz. No.
And then we got Ole Miss versus San Diego State and UNC, which UNC we've already discussed. Now you know what's going to happen.
UNC gets the Sweet 16. Well, there's one team that's in the play-in that gets to the Sweet 16 every year.
Yeah, it's going to be them. After everyone complained, it's going to be them.
Louisville's going to lose in the first round, and then UNC's going to make it. Yeah.
Also, Iowa State, great move by TJ Otzelberger. He basically just held out a pretty big injury until after the selection committee.
Because they can ding you for that. They can absolutely ding you for that.
And after everything everything was decided he was just like oh yeah i forgot to mention one of our best players is out uh my bad thanks for the three seed see you guys there yeah we'll take it we'll run yeah we're good max max and i were talking earlier about uh villanova and then if them firing kyle neptune would have actually made it more likely for Villanova to make the tournament.

Oh.

Yeah, no, that would have been the funniest thing ever

if just somehow they messed up and were like, you know what?

A Kyle Neptune-less Villanova team should be.

Yeah, would be a dangerous team.

I kind of like that idea.

We also have New Mexico versus Marquette.

That's going to be a fun game.

That's going to be a lot of points. Cam Jones is awesome.
New Mexico runs. Richard Pitino.
Richard Pitino, Shaka smart. And Michigan State, Bryant at the bottom.
I actually like this region a lot for Michigan State because Auburn has not been playing its best ball. And Michigan State felt like on Saturday when Wisconsin beat them, like that was the reset they kind of needed where they had been running so hot and it was a perfect time for Izzo to be like, all right, guys, we're not a perfect team.
Let's get ready for the tournament. Yeah, a good loss.
I have Michigan State winning this bracket. Yeah, I do too.
Hank, any thoughts? I like UNC to make make a run what's your mentals at right now my mentals are we're stringing it together this is uh for why st patrick's day give people because i don't want you to i don't want the awl to be like hank said five words i actually said before you came in here i was like over under 10 words if we don't ask him any questions uh i'm gonna speak with how is st patrick's day st patrick's day is a lot of fun chicago i would say it goes harder than boston for st patrick's day everywhere is absolute chaos a lot of fun i'm old what was i don't know that i have those days in me what many more more of those days in me if we did a old school like steel mill clock in clock out what was your clock in clock out numbers it was it was a full 12 hour shift 12 hours yeah at least was it maybe overtime i feel like it was some time and a half what time did you guys did you guys all meet up early what time you guys i went out late quote unquote at like 11 and you stayed out till two that's 14 hours yeah Yeah, overtime, time and a half. That's 15.
I was with Hank like 11. And you stayed out till 2? That's 14 hours.
Yeah, overtime. Time and a half.
I was with Hank at 11. I went out until like 4.30.
Went home, took a nap. Went back out.
Hank was still out from when I started. And then I left early.
And then I left and then he was like oh what, you're a pussy? You're gonna beat me out here? And then going to be the one to leave early? I'm like, dude, I'm going home. You guys are too fucked up for me.
No, that's actually the most impressive thing you can do, I think, Max. I think it's way more impressive to go home for two hours, take a nap, and then come back than it is to stay out for 15 hours.
Yeah, I can't do that. I felt great.
I was rejuvenated. It was like I was just starting my day over again.
Yeah. But nobody else was in my mindset, which I didn't account for.
The power nap reset is something. I don't think I've done that in 20 years.
I really don't. That's something that you just don't do when you get older.
No. You go home.
You even think about your house. And you're like, well, that's it for me for the night.
Sleep is death. Sleep is death.
What Hank is referring to as sleep is death is when 2015, when Wisconsin beat Kentucky in the Final Four, I basically stayed out from after that game until – so the game ended Saturday at like 10 p.m. I think I was out until about 4 a.m., went to sleep for like three hours, got back up, went back out to the bar on that Sunday till like midnight.
So basically was out for, I don't know, 24 out of 30 hours. And we were with clients and they were like, we have a tour of Lucas Oil Stadium.
This is Sunday afternoon after I've been drinking for 14 out of 18 hours. And I just kept on repeating.
I was like, sleep is death sleep is death I was like I'm going on the only way I can go on this tour is if you let me sneak alcohol in so they they poured me drinks into like a coke can and I walked in standing on Lucas Oil Stadium just drinking like straight vodka just trying to stay awake because I was so fucked sleep is death but credit to you hank yeah we're here i'm excited for this week i mean this this is the best like uh you know it's definitely one of those like i'm never drinking again type of mornings and and this is the best week to to just take it easy and just go all in on college basketball yeah love it love it how'd your bets do did you you were so drunk you forgot to fade me yeah damn

that's tough to do no i actually did well so you you're good all right this was a good week shout out oldie yeah if you tailed oldie you did well yeah hold you with some bread hot uh okay any other thoughts from this region i'm excited for this region i like michigan state though a lot Yeah, I got Michigan State over Auburn.

Yeah.

Okay, West.

Florida is the... I'm excited for this region.
I like Michigan State, though, a lot. Yeah, I got Michigan State over Auburn.

Yeah.

Okay, West.

Florida is the one seed in the West.

Is this my region of death?

No, I think it's another one.

This is the best region of coaches.

This might be the best region of coaches. Yeah, the big storyline in this region is that we get Bill Self versus versus cal for a chance to play rick patino if rick patino can beat omaha if rick patino beat omar i need that to be calvers yes you know the calvers patino that's what america is hoping for kansas is a bummer to watch yeah they really like because you're going to look at them and think oh wait it's kansas kansas the tournament bill self in the tournament they're going to be pain in the ass to watch.
But Arkansas is not great. No.
I think Kansas is favored, aren't they? It's a 7-10, but I think Kansas is also a slight favorite. Someone look it up on DraftKings right now.
This is my region of death because I think Florida, Maryland, and St. John's, and Texas Tech, the top four seeds in this region all, in my mind, could be Final Four teams.
They've got maybe the best 12 seed. Yeah, they have one of the best 12 seeds in Colorado State, who's a favorite in this game.
And Florida's probably playing the best ball out of anyone right now. They just steamrolled the SEC tournament.
Oh, yeah, and also UConn is in there. Okay, so let's talk about that real quick, because Florida's going to beat Norfolk State, and then UConn plays Oklahoma.
I think UConn can lose to Oklahoma. I kind of don't want UConn to lose to Oklahoma because I want UConn to play Florida and everyone to be like, watch out for UConn, and Florida's going to beat them by 100.
And it's no offense to UConn. They're back-to-back title winners, but they're not the same UConn.
But you're going to see UConn in that second round. Everyone's going to be like, UConn.
You're going to save yourself. Danny Hurley, he knows how to coach during the tournament and florida will kill him that would be my take on that so i'm i'm rooting for yukon just so that i can bet florida against yukon florida's very good uh yeah colorado state team has started five and five probably the hottest team in the country uh they are awesome and they're the 12th seed over memphis and they are a three and a half point, which makes perfect sense if you follow the numbers.
It doesn't make sense if you just look at a bracket. And Memphis, they have that.
What's the guy that they got that scored? He scored 42, I think, in the tournament semifinals. I don't know who's – they have a big injury, though.
Oh, fuck. Who is it? I wrote down notes.
God damn it. I took notes on like three different things.

They have a really, really good player.

And I can't remember where all my notes are.

Oh, Tyrese Hunter is the Memphis player who might be out.

He was in a walking boot, and he's a very big part of their defense.

Yeah, Nick Clifford is awesome.

He's awesome. No, we were looking for Memphis.
I think it was Clifford. I think Clifford.
Oh, Nick Clifford is, he's awesome. He's awesome.

No,

we're looking for Memphis.

I think it was Clifford.

I think,

oh,

you're saying Colorado State

scored 42 points.

I know somebody on Memphis scored.

Oh,

yeah,

because I think 42 in the semis.

All right,

find it,

Max.

There,

I watched so much fucking basketball.

My brain is just completely PJ Haggerty.

He scored 42.

He's a bucket. He's a walking bucket.
Max is just not good at the Google thing. 42.
There we go. There we go.
Against Wichita State. Yeah, there we go.
Against Wichita. You got it, Max.
That nap coming in clutch. That nap is.
You can feel that. I took another nap today.
Let's go. Wow.
You did?

I'm napped up.

What time do you take that nap?

I don't know.

Around like one.

Hell yes.

Yeah, Neat Clifford, though, for Colorado State, he's awesome.

And without Tyrese Hunter, if he doesn't play, that would be a problem.

Missouri Drake, I'm very excited for...

Oh, Maryland.

Maryland Grand Canyon is going to be a good game.

Maryland kind of got screwed, too, I feel like. They probably could have been a three.
The Crab Five. Yeah.
The best nickname. Where is that game? Why don't the games have the locations on the bracket? I don't know where that game is, but I got a fun stat about Maryland.
Okay. Queen, one of the members of the Fab Five.
Yes. Crab Five.
Yeah, that's what I said, right? You said Fab Five. First time I said Crab, the Crab 5.
They have lost in every single game that he's made a three-pointer. So keep an eye out for that.
If he makes a three early on, they're going to lose. Do not, yeah.
Do not let him shoot any threes. That's very important.
Yeah, so I like Maryland in that that little quadrant and then Missouri Drake's going to be very

fun because Drake is an absolute snail of a team.

They don't want it.

They want to go as slow as slow as possible.

If there was no shot clock, they would hold the ball for the like 10 minutes to start

the game.

That's the, they'd be like a high school team just being like, we're not going to play this

game.

We're going to make it a three possession game and Mizzou can run. Uh, texas tech is really good too so this this might be my region of death i'm just rooting for drake to keep playing so we can make jokes that's it okay that's like when oral roberts is playing yeah yeah you love that yeah yeah with drake a lot of and moorhead you loved when it's oral roberts and more yeah that was the best that peak bracket.
Yeah. You can't get better than that.
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Hank, how you doing?

Checking in.

Good.

Checking in on the West.

Checking in on you physically.

I actually think you should fill it out right now

because there's a chance you might just be so hungover

that you turned off your brain

and you just come up with the best picks. I would like Coach Cal to make a run.
Okay. I think that'd be fun.
Okay. Good thoughts.
And St. John's.
I bet St. John's Final Four probably a month or so ago when you told me to, and I'll be rooting for that as well.
St. John's is good.
They play Big East basketball. Do you have a pen over there? I do.
Memes and Max, if you guys have any thoughts or picks you love, just chime in because I know Memes, did you already fill out a bracket? Memes has St. John's to win it all.
St. John's to win it all.
I filled out my entire bracket. It's kind of...
It's a weird Final Four. What's your Final Four? Michigan State, St.
John's, BYU, Kentucky. Hmm.
Hmm. Michigan State, St.
John's, BYU, Kentucky. That's, that's, that's the first go at it.
How many edits are you going to do? Probably two or three. What, what led you to that? I love BYU.
I just love how they play and the region they're in. I think they could outrun the teams they're going to play.
There's shots at you. Yeah, straight shots at me.
But that's also memes. It had been a while because I haven't been in a lot of big games in a long time.
It had been a while since I lost a quote-unquote big game, the Big Ten Championship today. Memes was just firing off the memes instantly.
It felt like he had been waiting for that moment for so long because he hasn't had a chance if you're just betting on social media memes i would say that you want you want wisconsin to beat byu and then you want wisconsin to lose to duke no you want or the wisconsin bama no yeah i think you want wisconsin to be bama just so that duke can be the one to beat you i think if if i'm just thinking about memes here no he here. No.
He's going to get them off no matter when Wisconsin loses. It's going to be he's ready to go no matter what.
I made so many more today, too. Oh, of course.
I'm sure you did. There's so many good ones.
I thought you were going to win, too. We need to have a rule for...
We need to get back control. Remember when we used to have control of the Twitter account?

I haven't had the password for the Twitter account forever.

We need to get control for when memes loses.

We should do that next year.

If the Jets are ever in a big game...

Oh, you know what?

The Knicks.

So, when the Knicks are in the playoffs,

I want control if the Knicks are in an elimination game.

Okay, deal. So we can just go off

on memes. What about the Islanders?

Nah, they suck. They suck.

I knew that. They suck.

Okay.

East.

I've come to the realization that I think Duke's going to win

the whole thing. So Flag,

his injury is going to...

I don't think he's going to play at all in the first

two games. Doesn't matter.
But then he's going to be back. Will he be 100%? Doesn't matter.
I don't know. They're still very deep.
They're so good. They're going to win it all.
I've just come to accept that. They're just so well-rounded, so deep.
I think Cooper Flagg will be fine. I think he probably – even if he doesn't play in the first weekend, they'll be fine then he'll be fully healthy they're so good i can't i'm i'm just i have to brace myself where are they playing uh probably somewhere probably at durham raleigh there you go pretty easy pretty easy trip for him hold on i have the uh oh by the way shout out our guy jon Jonathan Warner.
I think we mentioned him last year. A lot of people have brackets.
He's the only guy I know that in the 45 minutes from when the bracket is released to when the tip times come out, he tries to predict every tip time. How do you do this year? I don't know.
It's so many games. I'm trying to see if he nailed any of them.
And you're playing on Thursday, right? Yeah. Whiskey? Yeah.
Okay, so Duke. We have revenge games in Duke's region because we have Jeremy Roach on Baylor.
Could play Duke. He played for Duke.
And then we also have on Arizona, if they get to the Sweet 16 against Duke, Caleb Love, which would be fun. See them go up against each other.
One last time. I think Oregon is the, is the scary team in this region for Duke.
If they can get to the sweet 16. Yeah.
I have Oregon beating Arizona in the second round because that will be, I think that's going to be the Caleb love masterpiece. Yeah.
I think he'll go three for 21 for 14 points. I like that.
I think that's where I like that. Essentially the Josh Rosen stat line of basketball.
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Then in the bottom half, yeah, it's BYU VCU.
Memes is BYU. If BYU loses in the first round memes, I'd like access to the Twitter account.
Okay. Deal.
Okay. I'm a BYU leaver.

Please don't say that ever again.

What?

How much BYU basketball have you watched?

I watch every single game.

They play late, and I just love betting on them.

Okay.

BYU and VCU, that's actually a stylistic clash because VCU can muck it up and just play gritty defense right in their face and Then Wisconsin Montana Wisconsin got screwed in Terms of the time but you got to go play the games At altitude and altitude It is crazy Montana is Used to the altitude yeah it is crazy The third game on Thursday after Playing four games in a row out in Denver Yeah I don't know why they didn't give I also don don't know why they wouldn't want. Why wouldn't you want to sell more tickets? Why wouldn't you want Wisconsin to be in Milwaukee? There's two other three seeds in Milwaukee.
So who is playing in Milwaukee? Kentucky and Iowa State. I don't know.
I think protecting a three seed is halfway down the list of stuff that's important for them. Yeah, I know.
It just kind of made no sense. I actually think they probably should have lost on Saturday.
It almost hurt them. And then Alabama, St.
Mary's, Vanderbilt, and Robert Morris, the bottom half. We need Alabama to lose.
I think Bama could beat Duke. Why? I think they could.
I think they possibly could, too. Phylon is my favorite player to watch in college basketball.
They get hot. Hank was also...
I also didn't watch the game on Saturday, but you also did not watch the game on Saturday. It was out at the bar.
Then they get absolutely smoked. They get bullied.
Oh, yeah. They got bullied.
Oh, the Bama game. No, I didn't watch the Bama game.
Yeah, they got bullied. Bama also is not as good of a three-point shooting team as they were last year when they went to the Final Four, which they were a very good team last year.
And Grant Nelson got hurt. Who knows what's going to happen with him? That's a very big injury.
That is. Did not know that.
Yeah, that happened on Saturday night. That changes things for my bracket.
Saturday afternoon. That's...
You got to check in on Grant Nelson.

He might be okay.

Bosco couldn't get an answer.

But they did crush Vandy when they played earlier.

Yeah.

And then St. Mary's.

I don't know anything about St. Mary's.

St. Mary's...

Do they have an Australian guy this year?

They always do.

Randy Bennett's been to about a billion tournaments.

He also...

The last two years, they've not played great, but I think one of them was against UConn so it's like that doesn't really count because UConn was really really good. They'll slow it down so it would be a very fun matchup to see Alabama trying to speed it up for St.
Mary slowing it down. Where are they on Ken Palm? They had a very St.
Mary's year. They beat Gonzaga twice in league play and then lost to them in the championship game.

And they're a very well-rounded team that plays very slow.

359 in tempo.

Yep.

That's what they want to do.

And Bama is one.

That's why I want to see it.

Be very funny to watch.

Okay.

And then in the Midwest, we have, like I said, Houston kind of got screwed because houston gonzaga's the ninth team in ken palm and houston is a one seed so that's who they maybe have to match up with in the second round and they have a big injury with juan roberts so uh that could be that could be a wrinkle in this whole bracket that happens to houston every year yeah every year they've got They've got the worst luck. This is one of my favorite regions, and just that there's a game that I really want to happen in Illinois and Kentucky in the second round that would be so much fun because it's like the two quintessential boomer bust teams where if they're on, they play the best basketball in the world, and when they're off, they are just absolute dog shit.
so i would love to see them match up and hope both are on because we'd get one of the best tournament games possible i like the i like the bottom half of this bracket a lot i like illinois kentucky ucla and tennessee i think those will make for at the very least very entertaining second round matchups yeah they all win tough region clemson also uh i feel like they got a little bit screwed with their seating, but Clemson, Purdue High Point's going to be a great game. There's so many fucking good games.
I got damn it. I love this tournament.
I heard a rumor that High Point's not pumped about playing Purdue. Oh, really? Yeah.
There's a rumor. It's a rumor.
You got sources? No, I don't want to throw anybody under the bus. It's not throwing anyone under the bus? No, but it's someone who's in my inner circle, and we have a good relationship, and so I don't want to go behind their back.
I don't want to annoy the guy. Yeah.
Hank, what are your thoughts on the Midwest? I got Houston coming out of the Midwest. Yeah? I like Houston, Tennessee, and the Elite Eight, and I think High Point's going to make a run despite not loving their first-round matchup against Purdue.
That's bad to not love that. Yeah.
I know. That's what I said, too.
The one thing I will say about this bracket... It's crazy that they hypothetically were even thinking about Purdue this early on.
High Point? What do you mean? Like they said before the tournament. Actually, never mind.
Oh, they said before the tournament they didn't want to play Purdue? They were just saying there's a bunch of teams that they could play in that slot that they were looking at, the 13-ish slot that they were putting themselves in, and Purdue was one of the teams that they said do not like that matchup. Who's your guy's source? I don't want to talk about it, Max.
Just rumors. He knows someone at High Point? He knows a coach.
No. Got it.
He knows the training staff? Who said it was a he? Yeah, good point, Hank. PFT has multiple insiders, sources that are women.
That's right. Could be anyone.
Purdue's defense is not good. I think the Midwest region, so the West is my region of death because I think there's four teams that are all very qualified to be in the final four.
Midwest is my chaos region. This could go any which way because I could, with Jawan Roberts out for Houston, potentially out for Houston, there's not one in Tennessee, Rick Barnes.
It's Rick Barnes. And then you have two teams in Kentucky and Illinois who at their ceiling

could be Final Four teams, but they've also

shown their floor and it's very

ugly. Coach Cal,

he could lose that first round

matchup again. That would be a game that Cal would lose.

Pope, I don't think so.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Cal would lose

to Troy. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Cal would lose

to Troy. Troy would throw a zone at Cal and he'd be like,

what? I think Pope would not lose to Troy. Right.
Cal would lose to Troy. Troy would throw a zone at Cal, and he'd be like, what? I think Pope would not lose to Troy.

Right.

Pope might lose to Illinois.

Yeah.

And also, this region has a fun wrinkle that Mick Cronin,

who was very vocal about Eastern Standard Time and having to play there,

and it was bad playing in Eastern Standard Time this year,

they have to go play in Eastern Standard Time.

That's tough. So they kind of stuck it to him there.
Yeah, This is my region of I don't know what the fuck's going to happen. Here's my take.
I think whoever wins the East, winning it all. It's going to be Duke.
Duke's going to win it all. Could be Wisconsin.
Could be Bama. Florida's the only chance.
Why don't Wisconsin revenge in the Elite Eight for a chance in the Final Four? Listen, I just want to get to the Sweet 16. That's my...
Everything after that is like, let's just see what happens. God will take me.
Revenge. Yeah.
If Wisconsin can shoot like... You're just a meme.
You're memes. Start of the championship DVD, 2015.
You're just another memes. You want to set me up for...
I am very happy that Wisconsin played a game like today where it really smoked out all the haters because there's a lot of people who watched their first college basketball game today and they're like, wow, Wisconsin stinks. They hit 18 threes on Friday.
They play great offense. Bad day.
Tired legs. They were taking the same shots.
I actually think that they were yeah they were in the championship game than they were on friday it's just that every shot they were taking on friday was going in every single one and they just were ran out of gas uh but that was it was fun to i got a lot of bookmarks and hopefully i can revisit um all right what any other things from the bracket we're going to get into more of it with John Rothstein.

Talk more brackets.

I'm sure he's got some good intel we didn't even think about.

Oh, I had one thing that I wanted to say about this.

This is the year that don't be afraid to just do chalk.

I know that it sounds like you never want to be that guy.

Don't get as cute as you think you want to get because I saw this stat from max bar CBB on Twitter. Only four teams since 2000 have entered the tournament plus 35 net rating.
That's adjusted efficiency rating on Ken Palm or better. So only four teams since 2000 entered the tournament plus 35 net rating.
That was the 2021 Gonzaga Bulldogs. They finished second.
They were the runner-up in that year. 2019 Virginia, they were the champion.
2015 Kentucky, Final Four lost to Wisconsin. 2001 Duke, they won it all.
So only four teams since 2000 at 35 net rating or higher. This year, four teams have 35 net rating or higher.
So that's insane. Yeah.
That just shows you that the one seeds this year are playing at such a high level and are so dominant that it's literally the total amount amount of teams that are as good this year it's been whatever 25 years it took four for four other teams to do it so duke florida houston auburn are historically great teams and so don't be afraid to just go chalk that would be my speech you're gonna want to get cute well don't get maybe get cute. Maybe get cute early on.
Get cute early on, and I would say if you're going to try to say, hey, where can we not do the one seed, it would be if Juwan Roberts doesn't play and Houston might be that one. And maybe Michigan State.
Possibly. Michigan State over Auburn.
Auburn does have bad vibes the way they finish out the season. Bad body language.
They didn't look great. But Auburnurn-Bama national championship, hypothetically.
I would like to see that. No.
Why not? He has a Bama future. But every time they play, it's a good game.
He wants Max on the bus. Not even.
I mean, I just want good content. He wants you at the pumps party.
And you on the bus. What's Max on the bus? For Pickham, we made a bet.
Rico Bosco, huge Bama fan. Good college basketball expert.
Close friend of Nate Oates. If Alabama doesn't make the final four, Rico Bosco has to take a bus to San Antonio from New York City.
If Alabama does make the final four, Max and Jack McCarthy have to take a bus from Chicago to San Antonio, and I have to go to the pump party on Thursday night. Am I? This is a pick them bet.
Yeah. Am I a part of the pick them show? Yeah.
Yeah. By proxy.
Yeah. All right.
Just wanted to put a little bit of context out there that this is an insane bet that I'm a part of. Max just got thrown into it.
For no reason. Oh, you're a chief scout.
I know a guy who don't do it. You're a chief scout.
It's Max. Yeah.
Yeah. That's basically what happened.
Yeah. Blame your buddy.
It was you. No, it was Jack McCarthy.
No. It was your buddy.
It was Jack versus Rico, and then you were like, oh, yeah, we'll have Max go with Jack, too. Well.
Well, Bama's going to lose. What's done is done.
Bama has to lose. You have to, as Hank said, we're just rooting for content, so you'll be very invested in those games.
Other good content, though, would be Wisco beating Bama and then beating Duke. Oh, I appreciate that, because I assumed you wanted them to lose one of those games so that you can get your memes off.
Well, then he's just assuming you would lose in the Final Four. Oh.
Yeah, but that would be – Losing at some point. Those would be two electric games.
Those would be electric games. Vinkette versus Hank.
Be fun. Duke, Wisconsin.
People forget I respectfully didn't even wear Duke gear. You did.
You were very nice about that. The national championship.
You were very nice about that. Wow.
I just love looking at this bracket. Also, the NIT bracket just came out.
Max. Oh.
You're not in it. Sorry.
What? Are you aware of the crown? Oh, are you not aware of the crown? Oh, the college basketball crown? Yeah. The fake tournament that he just built up at the last second? The crown is pretty prestigious.
The crown. I don't think you know about the crown.
I know about the crown. The crown where they say that they're going to make NIL payments, but they don't actually make NIL payments unless you finish in the finals.
That crown? The crown is going to be pretty sick. It's in Vegas.
It's pretty awesome. Is Villanova in the crown? We should be.
Stand by. Who's coaching him? Great point.
I want him to do a player coach. Eric Dixon.
Oh. Coach.
What is he going to do? Miss more shots? Yep. And then we're just on.
I'm fine with losing immediately and just figuring out who our next coach is. You're fine with losing the crown? Then it must not be that important of a tournament.
It's not that important. Okay.
But it's cool to say the crown. It's cool to say the crown.
Yeah, it was a good weekend of hoops. Fucking wall to wall.
I had fun until I didn't. Anything else? Who say? Oh, NIT.
Wait, do you have the NIT bracket? Yeah, I got the NIT bracket right now. Give it to us.
All right, SMU against Northern Iowa. SMU the one seed.
Oklahoma State against Wichita State. Arkansas State against St.
Louis. North Texas against Furman.
Dayton. I like Furman in that.
The NIT is taking a hit this year. Oh, man.
Dayton against FAU. Middle Tennessee against Chattanooga.

Bradley against North Alabama.

George Mason against Samford.

I love George Mason's big man.

He was fun to watch.

San Francisco against Utah Valley.

San Jose State against Loyola Chicago.

Sister Jean.

Yeah.

One last ride.

St. Bonnie's against Kent State.

And then Stanford against CSUN.

Cal State Northridge.

No Indiana?

Do they just deny the bid?

They might be in the crown.

No, they're in the crown.

They're in the crown, dude.

You've got to understand how important the crown is.

You don't get the crown.

I left off one leg of the bracket.

Then we have UC Irvine, Northern Colorado, Georgia Tech against Jacksonville State,

St. Joseph's against UAB, Santa Clara against UC Riverside.

The NIT.

It's going to be about the crown.

Who's the biggest Power 5 team in the NIT this year?

I respect the NIT.

Georgia Tech.

It looks like the ACC is the only Power 5.

Is the only crown.

Georgia Tech, Stanford.

Stanford.

SMU.

SMU.

Oklahoma State.

Yeah. Okay.
Damn. And then Hank's Furman.
You like Furman all the way? I like Furman a lot. All the way? The Furman what? The Furman Boilers.
The Boilers. All right.
Like Boilers, like a chef, someone who boils something, or Boilers like an engine? Like an engine. Okay.
Hank, did you fill out a bracket i did all right give it to us uh well i asked a question for a reason uh although i didn't know about the injury i have out of the south auburn coming out of the west st john's after beating yukon oh in the elite eight yeah so you have yukon over florida and mary. Wow.
You got to beat the champs to be the champs. They have the championship DNA.
What if Florida beats the champs? What if Oklahoma beats the champs? I don't think they're going to. I think this team is coached well.
They have championship DNA. They know what it takes to get it done at this time of the year.
Rick Pitino, he has championship DNA. It's true.
That's why he's going to be UConn. It's been tested.
Uh-huh. And then I have Houston beating Tennessee to advance out of the Midwest.

I love that when you talk college basketball, you say it the correct Houston way.

Houston, Auburn.

I like Kentucky-Tennessee matchup before that.

That'll be a fun one.

High point.

They have the kid.

He's going to be the story. Exciting white.
Yeah. Oh, who mean mugged.
Yeah. Yeah.
Big time. And then in this bracket, I guess I wasn't thinking about storylines, but I have Bama beating Wisconsin and then Duke on the way to the final four.
So Bama is going to be in the final four. And they're going to beat Auburn to win it all.
So you have Bama winning it all, and Max having to take a bus, and me having to go to the pump party. Yeah, I wasn't really thinking about any of that when I filled this bracket out.
This is just how it kind of shook out. Yeah.
Got it. Well, that would suck.
Right, Max? I'm still doing research on the crown what do you what do you find you might not even be in the crown what do you got for us no we're definitely in the crown i think we have an auto bid to the crown yeah the crown is uh in conjunction with uh the tv network so they basically force teams to go to the got it you can't say no yeah Yeah, I did ask some Villanova people because I've been trying to get on the –

I've been trying to get in the know of who our next coach is going to be.

I'm like, can we opt out of the next tournament to just focus on coaching?

And apparently you're not allowed to opt out of the crowd.

That sucks.

You can opt out of the NIT.

You can opt out of the NIT.

It's an invitation.

You're not allowed to opt out of the crowd. You just got to wait for Vandy to lose, then you get your next coach.
Yeah, he's on the list. Who else is on your list? Jay Wright? I can give you my list.
Richard Pitino? I can give you my list. Okay.
Richard Pitino is on my list. Italian League.
My list is...

TJ Ottson.

What's his name?

Otzelberger.

Todd Golden.

Will Wade.

Tommy Lloyd.

Ben McCollum.

Ryan Odom.

Chris Collins.

Mitch Henderson.

Richard Pitino.

Matt Lengel.

Porter Moser.

Wait, wait.

Hold on. Go back real quick.
Todd Golden is the Florida head coach yep on my list who's one seed and has probably an insane NIL and coaches in the SEC on my list he's gonna go to Villanova he's on my list is Villanova are they a Jesuit school what I don't know he's on my list you my list. You think he's Villanova material? He's on your list.
He's on my list. John Shire? Yep.
He's on your list? Sure. He can be on my list.
I do like Will Wade, though. Let's get Will Wade a proper program to run now.
Father Peter would love Will Wade and Todd Golden. What about Chris Beard? List.
He's on the list. They're all on the list.
They're all on the list. They're all on the list.
Don't know what's the number one job in America. Arguably.
Championship DNA. What about Jay Wright? Jay Wright owns the list.
Oh, he runs the list? He runs the list. What do you think they'd have to offer Jay Wright to come back? I think they have offered him unlimited money.

So I think that there is not a number.

Got it.

What would you personally do to get Jay Wright as the coach?

What would you want?

I would do anything.

I just want to know where your line is.

My line is high.

My line, I miss Jay Wright.

Would you suck and fuck?

Yes.

Okay.

Would you suck and fuck? Yes. Okay.
Would you quit?

Would I quit this show?

Yeah.

I wouldn't let you.

I'd think about it.

Well, you should say yes, because we just say no.

You're not allowed to.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Would you kill memes?

Easy.

That's easier than quitting the show.

I would help you with that. Yeah.
He's a BYU leaver. Don't say that.
Please don't say that. BYU leaver.
He's just been, like, cackling to himself back here with the mics off, just saying BYU leaver over and over again. It was so bad.
I wish they had given BYU a Sunday game. Just be like, let's put our chips on the table here yeah I was saying it'd be funny

if if there's a year where BYU makes a tournament but they're not very good and the committee's just like yeah we're giving you Friday Sunday you're not gonna win don't worry it's not a big deal okay let's do who's back of the week and then we will get to more bracket talk with John Rostein who's back the week, is brought to you by our friends at Truly, Truly Unruly. Guess what, guys? We're about to get unruly this summer.
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All right, Hank, who's back of the week? You got it in you? Yeah, I got a couple. Let's go.
My first one is playoffs. Playoffs.
Playoffs. We talk about it a lot.
I mean, it's obviously a week early, but there was a lot of college basketball similar to the tournament and having something to wean you off on Monday. And the golf gods, the weather gods have granted us that there is a three-hole aggregate playoff for the players championship tomorrow morning uh 9 a.m eastern so that will be a nice nice thing to wake up to nice way to get your way into the rory mackerel jj spawn who's gonna win i hope jj yeah why i just rory it's a fun storyline of him just you know kind of getting so close and choking but rory on st patrick's day i feel like that's good vibes for him right isn't he northern ireland also celebrates i looked it up yeah it's not as big a deal i don't think it's like they're protestant up there it's saint patrick's day that's a catholic thing i just feel like if it's a guy from a part of ireland against a guy not from a part of that leans towards the Irish guy.

Wait, do you not like Rory now? You've come around on our discussion? I'm a

Liv guy. This is where it's like I haven't come around.

Did you see the Liv performer?

Yeah, she was great. She was awesome.

What if Liv just decided to get

into the college basketball playoff scene?

Probably going to happen. Probably going to be what the crown is going to be.

Yeah. It's kind of what it is, right?

The crown prince? Yeah. And then my other who's back of the week is, it hangs on the street, and this is definitely a sign of I'm really old, but have you guys seen Borks? Nope.
Yeah. Oh, you're talking about the jugs.
Yeah. Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's big in Madison.
I see everyone drinking Borks out on the lake. I think it's Borg, isn't it? B-O I think it's Borg.
Sorry, yeah. Blackout Rage Gallon.
Yeah. And it's basically just pouring- It's jungle juice.
A ton of vodka into a gallon jug, some water, and then just the liquid drops. The flavor drops.
Yeah. Foul.
Yeah, but if- Did you not have that at parties? Not, no. Not in a way...
Not in a way where, like... We used to use Everclear.
I've seen... We wouldn't put it in the...
We'd put it in, like, an actual Gatorade container. It wasn't as...
It's not as common. It seems like it's a super, super common thing where, like, they're, you know, in the streets of Boston, streets of Chicago, there's just all the confiscated...
Borgs. Gallon Borgs.
People name them and stuff. Yeah.
Borg James. What it is, it's just, like, a personal thing that you bring around it's just it's just get blacked out yeah it used to be just jungle juice in that cooler at the party yeah and then you have some of that you never have to worry about cleaning out the cooler because you just make more jungle juice and it goes in there but now yeah you've got your own borg that you carry around yeah no cut like it's just it's it's it's so ratchet i assume it's a half handle of vodka and and some i i assume it's also like it's a lot of underage drinking i would assume yeah it's got it yeah big oh look at all those borgs confiscated yeah i i it's one of those things that uh i saw it and i immediately said uh that would make me want to die.

But if I were 20 years old, I'd be heavy into the Borgs.

Definitely.

All right.

So those are two who's backs.

Those are.

All right.

Hank took one of my who's backs.

Borgs?

I was going to say Borg.

Yeah.

Oh, shit.

I brought two.

Sorry.

We should Borg.

Yeah.

It definitely made me.

It seems like a case race thing, but a Borg race. No, I just think, yeah, chairman of the Borg.
Like that. My Who's Back of the Week is Karen Reed.
You guys remember Karen Reed? Yeah. So her trial is going to resume.
Restarting? I think it's going to restart. Hank, you probably know more about it than I do.
Karen Reed. Is it? They're restarting her trial? Yeah.
So I thought, what would thought what would happen why did he get stopped last time no i think it was uh they didn't come to a decision or whatever is that hung jury no what's hung jury split jury hung jury when you're all just packing heat yeah i think that's it too many cocks there was a lot of meat on the jury no it was uh yeah there was it's not unanimous it wasn't unanimous not unanimous yes uh another murder news trial there's a new oj simpson documentary which i watched as well which doesn't i will watch every single oj documentary that they put out i will learn nothing new every single one that i watch because i've already seen 20 of them but i'm gonna watch it if it's out i have a question for you pft if we're in the uh circle of trust yep i actually almost made a purchase for you the other night but then i realized you know what this is probably too messed up i should have done it uh i don't know if it's still live there was an auction selling off oj simpson's uh clothes what kind of clothes like hawaiian shirts oh not the clothes no okay but like just his entire closet listen i don't like oj i've been very clear on that oj's been on my shit list for a long time ever since he blocked me on twitter.com so you're saying so maybe i shouldn't i should have bought it but maybe the fucked up part is that i saw it and immediately thought of me yeah i want people to look at OJ and their first thought to be PFT. I know exactly who'd want this shirt.
Remember when we always interviewed him outside of jail? Yeah. Well, no, it wasn't outside of jail.
The deal was there was an alcohol brand, I won't say their name, that was asking us to pick him up from jail in a van and do an interview in the van on the ride home from the jail in Las Vegas, Nevada. Like his first interview out was going to be with us.
And we're like, you know what? He's a murderer. So we're going to pass.
Credit to us. Yeah.
Integrity. Integrity.
Also, it would have just been a terrible interview. He probably would have tried to kill us.
Yeah. It would have been a bad one.
All right. Here's the auction site.
Let me see if there's still... Okay, you could get...
Oh, it's Heisman's $10,000. That's it? Yeah, I mean, I think it's an auction, so there's still time to go, 13 days to go.
Plying his Heisman would be pretty sick. That is a steal.
That would be pretty fucking sick. You want to do it? Well, let's see.
Someone please keep a counter 12 days from now. Let us know.
Pretty much depends on how I do in March Madness. Hey, can you do that? Mm-hmm.
Can you actually do it? Unlike the Bonkless, which you didn't do? Bonkless is hot and heavy. Oh, he's bags that'd be sick now that you having oj's golf bags yeah would be pretty sick yeah i'm i'm in on that all right yeah let's let's get uh there's 13 days left in the auction so we'll have to revisit march 26th i don't know dude you do the mats you got the calendar in front of you.
What website is the OJ option on? Is it on enter slash slash slash escape? No, it's actually the guy Golden Auctions. Yeah.
We had in. Yeah.
Oh, I got it. I got the joke.
That's an old school. Old school throwback.
Yeah. Slash is what, Max? I don't get it.
Slash slash knife. His email address is enter slash slash slash backslash escape the pft literally just dropped like it was actually i remember i think i even remember my dad saying that joke in like 1996 i still i still don't get it slash like a knife oh enter slash slash slash backslash yeah escape got it got it got it and.
And it was like one of the premier dad jokes when the internet came along. And they were like, how can we make the OJ internet? It was a big one back in the day.
Because the internet was new too. Yeah.
So it was like combining two very current things. Jay Leno got paid probably $40 million just for those jokes.
That and Monica Lewinsky. Oh, he's got his student ID.
That's a Ravel. Ravel's got to be all over this.
Yeah, that's the problem. If we get some, we just have to understand that Ravel is going to have his paws on one of these things.
Also, it's kind of fucked up to just be like, I have OJ's golf bag. But also kind of a statement piece.
Ran for 2,000 yards in, what, 14 games? Peter King has him in the Hall of Fame. Yep.
Yeah. All right, my who's back of the week.
I have two. Baseball's back.
Cubs opening day is Tuesday morning in Japan against the Dodgers. I hate that so much.
Did you see the camera angle? No. Show me the camera angle.
It's sick. I'm going to be live

streaming it with Eddie

Chief and White Sox Dave

and Titus at 510 in the morning.

So this camera angle, it looks like it's a video

game. Don't laugh at me, Hank.

That's wild. What?

I mean, it's first pitch of

the Major League Baseball season.

Where's the camera angle?

We've got to send Max. Actually, you don't have to defend Max on this one.
Twitter search is so bad now. You can't find anything.
Max. Memes just tells me to look up stuff that we aren't talking about.
All the time. Are you listening yourself? I am, but he just keeps saying, look this up.
Look this up. He's like, look up the hand-shin Tigers.
Why would you say that? Because I guess they shut out the Cubs? No, that was in association to what you're talking to. Max, look up Dansby camera because there's a sick angle of Dansby Swanson.
Just type Cubs camera. Oh wait, that was fake.
Was it? It looks fake. It's scary.
This one? That was my point. This is fake.
Yeah, that's definitely fake. Yeah, it's a video game.
Yeah. Wait, this is what I saw.
This is another camera angle? So we all scrolled past that and thought maybe it's real. This is so fake.
It's very fake, yes. This is like MLB The Show.
That's the show. That's insanely fake.
Yeah, it's the show. Did you think that was...
I scrolled past it very fast on my phone, and I thought that's what he was talking about with the camera angle. Got it.
I think it's real. Hank! Look to the left of you.
Look to the left of you. You think it's real, Hank? That is MLB the show.
That's so fake, Hank. It looks fake.
You just said it looks real. But it's so high tech, I think.
I don't know. I don't know.
Hank, Hank, there's no way that you think this is real Why would Barstool Sports Main tweet it that it was real? Hank, look at it I understand that That's why I brought the point up Is because if this was real it's scary how weird it looks And if it's not real then I'm happy because society is all right good you're happy

by the way i found a new it was a talking point i'm happy i brought it up yeah we got to the bottom of it maybe i found a new kind of guy online on friday it's very rare that you find a new guy but there's been like a conspiracy out there for a while that sunscreen is actually what gives you cancer not the rays from the sun oh this is good uh but that's that's that's been out there for a long time. And the B account tweeted it.

What? So it's real?

Alright, this is good. But that's been out there for a long time.
MLB account tweeted it. What? So it's real? All right, this person says- Look at the MLB pin tweet.
Okay, this says it's actual footage from a different angle fed into AI, which then creates the highlight. Okay, so it is fake.
So it's like that really happened, but then they make this angle via AI. This is also, my source is RobJ08, and it has four likes on Twitter.
Also, x.com, the everything app, it's all happening on it. The MLB main account said, we can't get over this ridiculous replay from the Tokyo Dome.
So what they're doing is they're taking real highlights, and then they're making it look more like video games so that kids will watch the highlights. This is hurting my brain.
That sucks. That's why I brought it up.
It's crazy. It's a talking point.
Okay, my other who's back is... I didn't tell you about the new guy.
The new kind of guy. So the sunscreen truth, they've been out there for a while.
Then I found guys that think that actually this is a different sun that we we switched the sun out like 40 years ago and it's the new sun and it's worse and it's worse for you i have so many questions though one where did we make the new sun what did we do with the old sun what year did we switch it out oh and how is that person able to get through life without dying every single day getting hit by a car this is good so i gotta i gotta do some more research on the new son guys good conspiracy yeah it's very good i had one the other day uh that actually i completely believe that uh chernobyl was on purpose okay yeah for what reason Everyone was was doing nuclear power plants and russia has a shitload of oil and gas and so they're like hey let's blow up a nuclear power plant plant and scare the fuck out of everyone about nuclear energy oh i like everyone stopped doing nuclear energy or inside job maybe we sabotaged it to fuck with russia but that wouldn't make sense for us because then we have to buy their gas. Yeah, that's true.
Yeah. But that's just, I like that one.
That one was just cut and dry. I just saw one tweet and I was like, yep, I'm in.
All right, my other who's back is Aaron Rodgers playing games because Aaron Rodgers is apparently the Giants and the Steelers are sitting and waiting for Aaron Rodgers to decide if he wants to be a Minnesota Viking. And I don't know if the Vikings are also – I don't know what the Vikings are – if they're waiting for Aaron Rodgers or they're like, hey, we haven't offered you anything.
I think the Vikings want him. I don't think that the Vikings love J.J.
Why wouldn't they love J.J.? I don't know. They drafted him.
But it seems weird that they're waiting for Aaron Rodgers to make his decision. If they were really that convinced that JJ was their guy, right? I read it as the Vikings.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what's going to end up happening.
Oh, so it is a real highlight. It's a real highlight with AI.
The footage is AI. Apologize.
No, it's a real highlight that they were like, if this looked like video games, then kids would like watching it. So let's just turn the real highlight into a video game.
Apologize. The angle is AI.
The footage is real. What does that mean? Look at it.
That is not like a... I've seen it.
Look at the difference between the two video. Yeah, and where would be...
There's no camera behind Dan Z. Swanson.
Look at his jersey. It's like...
There's no camera behind Dan Z. Swanson.
It lags. The middle of his torso lags.
It could just be a super wide lens, super long lens. Yeah, it could be a super long lens.
Look at his belt. Look at his belt when he does this little action.
Well, it's a grainy video. Oh, yeah yeah no it glitches it's ai it glitched hank it glitched come on that's the play on top it's the same no that's the same play but it's not that's not a real camera that shot that correct the big camera that's over top of everything it sees all the movement and then it feeds it into a little processor and it's like here the the idiots like hank out there will like this highlight more if it looks like we're playing the show well and when mlb the main account posts this and it doesn't have the little ai tag or anything and it just says i can't believe this replay why would i not believe that it's a real replay i'm very sad for the future of our society yeah well this whole conversation has made us all dumber.

Aaron Rodgers, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know what the Vikings are going to do.

They have a good offensive line.

They made some good moves in the free agency.

I feel like he'd be good on the Steelers.

Steelers would be funny.

Yeah.

He loves Mike Tomlin.

Let's make the Steelers happen.

Where do you want him to go, Memes?

I would like the Giants because I predicted that.

But the Vikings for the Brett Favre storyline.

Yeah, that's memes for you.

And that means the Jets are going to the AFC Championship.

Oh.

Okay, got it.

Good point.

Good point.

Okay.

Hank is still looking at this highlight.

Are you okay, Hank?

Yeah, I'm trying to get some proof that it's not real,

but you guys are just...

Thank you. Hank is still looking at this highlight.
Are you okay, Hank? Yeah, I'm trying to get some proof that it's not real, but you guys are just... You got...
What? Never mind. Okay.
Let's get to John Rothstein. After John Rothstein, we say goodbye to Oldie for now.
He was watching with us all weekend, and we do numbers with him. John Rothstein is brought to you by our friends at Experian.
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It's a great straight on the rocks or in your favorite whiskey cocktail make your irish entrance this saint patrick's going on? Where are we going to see you? Crazy schedule. I'm on with you guys tonight, which is awesome.
It's a tradition unlike any other. I'm going to fly out to Ohio in the morning.
I'll be doing the first four games with Spiro Didis and Jim Spinarco on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think from the big games in the first four, it's the best first four in the history of the first four with Carolina, San Diego State, and Xavier against Texas.
And then we are going to go, after we do Wednesday's broadcast, up to Cleveland, and we're going to do those games. So that's Michigan State against Bryant, New Mexico against Marquette.
That's a great matchup between Donovan Dent and Cam Jones, the two great guards.

And then we're also going to do Alabama, Robert Morris, and St. Mary's Vanderbilt.
So pumped to be in the great state of Ohio here coming up this week. So it's interesting you said that.
I like the promo. It's maybe the best first four in the history, the long vaunted history of the first four.
We got UNC in there. And John, just but a couple days ago, you were passionately making your declaration that UNC would not be in the first four yep what what happened what's going on with it because I know that you talked to Bubba Cunningham the AD from from UNC so what happened this is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I have seen in all my years covering college basketball and when you think right now about what the criteria is to get teams into the NCAA tournament, at the end of the day, what is always going to usurp everything is who did you play, where did you play them, and did you win? North Carolina was 1-12 against quad one opponents.
That is just a fact of life. And then when you look at some of the teams that were left out of the bracket, the two that I'm looking at specifically is West Virginia and Indiana.
And remember, with North Carolina's resume, Carolina also had a quad three defeat on its resume, which Indiana, who was left out of the tournament in favor of North Carolina, did not have. And if you're looking at big wins right now, North Carolina had won against the field.
It had the win against UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic. Let's look at what Indiana had.
And again, remember the Hoosiers had no quad three and four losses. Indiana won a road game at Michigan State in East Lansing, who is a two seed right now, okay, in the South region, which I've named the region of depth because of the depth that exists with the Spartans, Auburn, Texas A&M, and other programs in that region.
And Indiana also beat Purdue at home. I don't understand how Carolina can get in over Indiana if Indiana won a game at Michigan State and beat Purdue and doesn't have a quad three or four loss, and Carolina does.
But what about West Virginia? The miscarriage of justice continues. West Virginia went to Allen Fieldhouse and beat Kansas.
West Virginia beat Iowa State at home with three seed. And West Virginia, on a neutral court, beat Arizona State and beat Gonzaga.
This is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I have seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball on the national level. Now, I will say this.
Because North Carolina does not deserve to be in the NCAA tournament, that has no bearing on what the Tar Heels can do when they get into the NCAA tournament. And I'll give you a perfect example.
14 years ago, I did not believe that VCU deserved to be into the NCAA tournament. VCU then started in the first four and went all the way to the final four under Shaka Smart.
And VCU in the regular season that year averaged 8.3, made three-point shots a game, and then made 12 in the NCAA tournament. So what Carolina does moving forward has no bearing on whether or not the Tar Heels deserve to be in the field.
But my heart breaks for West Virginia. It breaks for Indiana that North Carolina got this opportunity instead of them.
So you talked to Bubba Cunningham, the AD from UNC. What was his explanation? What did he say? Was he just like, hey, wasn't my call? Did he try to defend it? he was very very clear that he was not involved in obviously what was going on in the room when North Carolina was brought up.
But you guys know this as well as I do. It always helps to help out your friends.
And when you're in a situation like this, where the committee chair is from North Carolina, it's obviously going to influence the other committee members. Now, I understand he can leave the premises when a resume of the Tar Heels is going to be brought to the table, but I'm sorry.
This, again, is the biggest miscarriage of justice that I've seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball at the national level. My heart breaks for Darren DeVries in West Virginia.
My heart breaks for Indiana and its fan base. But again, North Carolina is going to get an opportunity here in the first four to do some major things in this bracket if it can beat San Diego State coming up here on Tuesday night.
Alright, so I agree with everything you said. It's crazy UNC got in.
Relationships matter. Bubba Cunningham can leave the room when he comes back in the room.
Those are the people he's been sitting with all weekend. That has an effect.
Whether you want to say it's subconscious, that's fine, but it has an effect. I also don't understand.
It feels like this bracket is just littered with some weird decisions. Gonzaga's a top-ten team in Kenom they're an eight seed and they and they're going up

against uh what is it houston in the second round if they win their first round game auburn who's the number one overall seed if louisville wins their set first round game auburn has to play a road game in their second game as a number one overall seed michigan was the was a five seed i I think they got misseeded.

You had VCU is probably not an 11 seed. Michigan was a 5 seed.
I think they got misseeded. You had VCU is probably not an 11 seed.
Probably should have been higher than that. It's all over the map where it feels like they just pray and sprayed a lot of this stuff and it doesn't really make sense.
You have Colorado State is a 3.5 point favorite as a 12 seed over five seed. Yeah, it feels like in a lot of areas of the bracket, we did not have a compass and there was no rhyme or reason in a lot of things that were going on.
I thought for certain that Gonzaga would have been better than an eight after it beat St. Mary's in Las Vegas last week in the WCC tournament, but I'm with you, Kat.
I think there's a lot of different things that really stood out here. Another thing that stood out to me, and I wasn't surprised about this, I felt with the way that the selection committee had treated the Mountain West last year by putting two teams into the first four in Dayton, that Boise State was vulnerable by not winning the automatic qualifier on Saturday.
And that's what came to fruition. Xavier had a pristine resume in quad three and four.
And Xavier also, we have to remember, lost two games in December without Zach Fremantle in the lineup, who was a 17 and seven guy at UConn in overtime. And also by a basket at home against Marquette, as you guys know, as well as I do.
and we had heard this when we spoke to Bubba Cunningham, I believe on Friday, player availability matters in the NCAA tournament when you're evaluating teams. If Xavier obviously is going to have Zach Fremantle in the NCAA tournament, which it will, it's going to be a much more formidable team.
I think that is one of the biggest reasons why the Musketeers are going to hook up here with Texas in the first four on Wednesday.

And you guys know I've been doing the first four now for a number of years. We have never had brands like this in the big games in the first four in terms of games on back-to-back nights.
North Carolina and San Diego State have appeared in two of the last three national title games. Xavier is Xavier.
And get this, UD Arena is 47 miles away from the Cintas Center

where Xavier plays its home games.

That's going to be obviously a Xavier home game.

And Texas has a lottery pick in Trey Johnson, and it's Texas.

So I think the brands in this first four in terms of the marquee games

are second to none.

And I've said this, guys, time and time again.

The three of us haven't really schmoozed about this, but I want to put it out there right now. You guys know how I feel about NCAA tournament expansion.
I've said for a long time that Jeff Goldblum said in The Lost World in 1997 that taking dinosaurs off this island was the worst idea in the history of long sad history of bad ideas. Expanding the tournament will be worse than that.
But I do think this, I think if you're good enough to get an automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament, you deserve to partake in the Thursday and Friday of the first week. I think if we made that shift and moved all AQs to Thursday, Friday, and then put the last eight at-large teams in the first four, it would reward these programs again at the lower level

and give them the NCAA tournament experience of Thursday, Friday,

and also spruce up the way we start the tournament

with maybe four bigger games instead of two.

I agree.

I think we were talking about expanding the tournament.

We said don't expand it.

It's great the way that it is, but if you were, do it that way

so you don't make the automatic qualifiers play

play-in games on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

I got a question for you, John,

about the injury stuff.

TJ Altsaberger announced

after the bracket came out that

Keyshawn Gilbert is out for Iowa State.

That was

just a smart move by him because do you think

Iowa State would have had a different seed

if that had been known to the committee

going into selection

Sunday? Because

He's like,

Thank you. just a smart move by him because do you think Iowa State would have had a different seed if that had been known to the committee going into selection Sunday? Because Iowa State's playing in Milwaukee.
Yeah, and Wisconsin has to go all the way out to Denver. Right.
It's very possible that we could have flip-flopped Iowa State and Wisconsin if that information was made privy to the committee before the selection went out. I remember it was 25 years ago now.
Cincinnati had the best team in the country with Kenyon Martin in 2000, and Kenyon Martin broke his leg in the Conference USA tournament that year. And Cincinnati, which had been dominant all year long, number one team consensus in the country, was dropped to the two line.
And it was ridiculous. And Bob Bob Huggins said it at the time but they were evaluating Cincinnati without Kenyon Martin who wound up being the number one player in the NBA draft so I totally agree with you on that cat okay so uh let's get to the actual bracket we got some other questions that we'll ask you after but let's talk about the bracket I know you always break it down so I kind of will let you go whichever direction you want to go tell us what what you've got, and yeah, go off.
We'll jump in where we want to jump in, but this is our favorite part of Selection Sunday. All right, guys.
Well, let's start right now on the top left of your bracket, which is the region of depth, the south region. Now, why is it the region of depth? I'm looking right now at these teams at the top, Auburn, Michigan State, Texas A&M, really deep rotations on all of these teams.
All of these teams can really go into their bench. That's why I like it to be the region of depth.
I obviously got Auburn coming out of the top. I am going to take Creighton to beat Louisville at Rupp Arena, the Ryan Caulkbrunner factor.
He's kind of like, and I haven't really watched a hockey game in probably 30 years but wasn't martin brodeur that famous goalie for the devils in like the 90s yeah he's kind of like the martin brodeur of like you know the big east you know he's kind of like the goalie because he's so good defensively then i am going to take michigan to beat uc san diego who's going to be a trendy upset pick and here's an upset i'm going to take yale under james jones a program that beat Auburn last year, to pick off Texas A&M in a 13-4 game in Denver. Remember, Yale beat Auburn last year, beat Baylor in 2016.
And then I think when you look at the next part of the bracket in this region of depth, this is tailor-made for Ole Miss. This is tailor-made for Chris Beard to really, really go on a run right here.
I felt all season long that Ole Miss reminded me of some of the teams that Chris Beard had at Texas Tech. I've got Ole Miss beating the winner of San Diego State Carolina and then beating a vulnerable Iowa State team without Keyshawn Gilbert.
Ole Miss to the Sweet 16. I'm going to take Marquette to beat New Mexico and Michigan State to beat Marquette.
So in the Sweet 16 here, I'm going to give you Auburn against Michigan, and I've got Ole Miss against Michigan State. I've got Auburn against Michigan State in a regional final Atlanta, and I've got Tom Izzo getting back to the final four.
Okay. I like it.
Yeah, I like that a lot too. I like it.
So you think that Yale's coach is the most underrated coach in America, right? I think he's the most underrated coach in America. It amazes me that James Jones has not gotten a bigger job.
He has won the Ivy League multiple times in the last couple of years, as I mentioned, won a game against Auburn last year in the NCAA tournament, won a game against Baylor in 2016. But I think, you know, we could see this, you know, Yale team be a factor.
But guys, here's the interesting thing. When you look at the amazing job that Yale has done, only lost one game this year in the Ivy League.
When you think about Yale and you think about the dynamic right now for this team that, again, is going into the NCAA tournament as a trendy, trendy upset pick potentially. Yale is in a scenario where it lost Danny Wolfe to Michigan and it lost Matt Knolling to USC and it is still in the scenario that it's in right now where it made the NCAA tournament.
That is a credit to the head coach. A couple of names you want to keep your eye out for for Yale right now as you're getting ready to think about the NCAA tournament against Texas A&M.
Nick Townsend, obviously a very, very burly forward inside. He's going to have to hold his own on the glass.
And then John Pulakidis, a dynamite, dynamite lefty shooter, can come off screens. He had 25 against Cornell in the title game.
And also Bez Embang, along with Casey Simmons. Cat, you might remember from the Big Ten, started his career at Northwestern before he transferred to New Haven.
Okay. And then you got Tom Izzo over Bruce Pearl to get to the Final Four there.
What's your thought about Auburn right now? Because they were dominant all year long, and then at the end they kind of stumbled a little bit. You could write that off.
Some people were like, yeah, it's the tournament. It doesn't really count conference tournaments.
Not a big deal. Yeah, no, I think PFT, what it does is it reiterates to me that we don't have a dominant team this year in college basketball.
And what I mean by that is, you know, last year, UConn was so removed from the pack because it was a two-year run that we may never see again in our lifetimes in terms of the level of dominance, 12 NCAA tournament wins by an average of 21.7 points per game. But we do not have a team this year like UConn.
We not have a figure this year like Zach Eadie at Purdue last year the only player since Ralph Sampson in the in the 1980s to win obviously National Player of the Year awards in back-to-back season so I think Auburn's a little bit vulnerable right now I do think it's a big advantage for the Tigers to be playing in Atlanta which isn't that far from from the Auburn campus, potentially in the Sweet 16. But if Louisville does beat Creighton in the first round, Auburn will have a pseudo-road game there at Rupp Arena, which is something to monitor.
Yeah. Okay, let's go west, where Florida's the one seed.
Florida's playing probably the best ball of anyone right now. What they did in sec tournament was incredible uh what are we calling the west this is the region of prestige because four coaches in this region dan hurley rick patino john calipari and bill self have won national titles also florida the one seed in this region has won multiple national titles in the last 20 years.
So there brand name power in this region i got florida over norfolk state i got uconn over oklahoma both coaches in that game dan hurley and porter mosher have been in a situation where they've coached in the final four in the last decade dan hurley's won two national titles i'm taking neke clifford in colorado state over memphis maryland Grand Canyon. Drake, started from the bottom now they're here, in my opinion, has, for all intents and purposes, an interesting road here.
And I'm going to tell you why. You got Missouri and you got Ben McCollum, who's really looking like, you know, a bit of a wizard at Drake.
It wouldn't shock me if next year he's coaching somewhere in the Big Ten. He's got a 31 team with four D2 transfers.
One of them, Mitch Mascari, has made 86 three-point shots this year. If Drake beats Missouri, Drake gets a vulnerable Texas Tech team in the round of 32.
Now, why are they vulnerable? Grant McCaslin told me earlier on Sunday night that he expects Chance McMillan and Darian Williams to play in the first round against UNC Wilmington. But with that said, those players didn't play in Texas Tech's last Big 12 tournament game due to injuries.
So Texas Tech's a little bit banged up. I think Drake is a team with Ben McCollum.
If it can get by Missouri, that could maybe flirt with a chance to go to the Sweet 16. And then how about the lower part of that region in Providence? Kansas and Arkansas, Calipari against Self, two coaches that coached against each other in the title game in 2012, and then St.
John's takes on Omaha. Now, look, you guys understand media as well as anybody.
I work for CBS. I know how much the program executives love to match up certain games on Saturday nights and going to 60 minutes.
And look, whoever St. John's plays on Saturday night is going to be crazy.
Can you imagine if we get Calipari and Patino on Saturday night? And look, Patino himself would be great. It would be an incredible matchup of Hall of Fame coaches.
But if it's Calipari and Patino, it would become, again, appointment television. And it would be the third time that these guys have met in the NCAA tournament, I believe, yeah, since 2012.
And remember, they also met in the 1996 Final Four. Now, I've talked to Rick Patino about this, and I did an interview with him when he was at iona and he made a joke about it but i think he was telling the truth he said one of the reasons why he came back to college was to get john gallipari off his resume because if you think about it these coaches each took three different schools to a final four So that's another thing that is lying here in the weeds right now.
Rick Pitino is trying to get a fourth school to a final four, but he might have to go through John Calipari to do it. It's going to be Calipari herself as long as St.
John's gets by Omaha. So I have Florida, UConn, Colorado State, Maryland, Drake, Texas Tech, and then I'm going to go Arkansas, St.
John's.

I've got St. John's against Drake in the Sweet 16.

And I've got Florida against Maryland in the region of prestige.

I'm going Florida over St. John's in a regional final.

So on the left side of the bracket, I've got Michigan State against Florida.

And ironically enough, you know I love good nuggets, guys.

That would be a rematch of the 2000 national title game

that Michigan State won 89-76 in Indianapolis.

There we go.

All right.

That's good.

That's some good stuff.

Okay.

We'll get back to John in a second.

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And now here's more John Rothstein. What about in the East where we have Duke, who Duke is, I said it before you came on, I think Duke's winning the whole thing.
They're just, they're so good. And even without Cooper Flagg in the ACC tournament, they showed how good they are.
I think he's going to be fine. He'll come back, and they're going to roll through everyone.
Yeah, you know, guys, it's amazing, and I think it speaks, obviously, how talented Duke is, but it also speaks to the state of the ACC right now. Duke was able to win the ACC tournament and beat Carolina and Louisville in back-to-back days without Cooper Flack and also without Malik Brown, who Duke's staff feels this way, and I know from being on Duke's campus in the preseason, he's like Emile Jefferson was 10 years ago.
Not to bring up bad memories there, Kat, but you know what I'm saying in terms of a versatile defender that can be a factor defensively in that rotation. Those two players don't play, and all of a sudden, we have a scenario where Duke is still beating Louisville, who was the second-best team this year, other than Clemson in the ACC and North Carolina.
That is not obviously a great, obviously ringing endorsement for the ACC, but for Duke, it speaks to their talent level. I've got Duke playing Mississippi State.
I've got Oregon, Arizona, which to me could be one of the best games in the round of 32, these former Pac-12 rivals hooking up. Then I'm going to take VCU to beat BYU to hook up with Wisconsin, the most aesthetically pleasing Wisconsin team of our lifetime.
Thank you. And then I'm going to be in Cleveland for these games, so I'm pumped about this.
I'm taking St. Mary's to beat Vanderbilt.
I'm taking Alabama to beat Robert Morris. I've got Duke, Oregon, Wisconsin to the Sweet 16 to take on Alabama.
And then I am going to take in a rematch of the 2015 national title game.

Duke over Wisconsin in Newark to go to the Final Four.

That's the region of firepower because Duke, Alabama, Wisconsin, Arizona, Oregon,

obviously explosive teams offensively.

So much offense in that region. So you've got VCU over BYU.
It sounds like you're not a BYU leaver. I'm not.
I just came up with that. You can use that if you want to use that.
I like BYU. I think Kevin Young's done an incredible job, and I think they've got great pieces.
But look, it's not fun if you don't roll the dice places in your bracket. The NCAA tournament isn't fun.
So I'm looking right now at the BYU-VCU matchup, and I know that we have seen a scenario where BYU has played great basketball the last couple weeks. It wouldn't shock me if BYU wins a couple games, but I'm looking at this.
VCU is no 11 seed, and if there was one thing that I would say right now, the non-power conference teams in this bracket, in a lot of places, won their respective conference tournaments after having a high volume of wins during the regular season. VCU with Max Shulga, Zeb Jackson, Joe Bamaseel, all these guys, okay, Phillip Russell as well,

has the deepest perimeter in the Atlantic 10 since Dan Hurley's last team at Rhode Island

had Fats Russell, Jeff Doughton, Stan Robinson, JT Terrell, EC Matthews, and Jarvis Garrett.

That team, you have to remember, beat Trey Young in Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament and lost to Marvin Bagley in Duke in 2018. This VCU team is for real.
And also another player on VCU, Jack Clark, was a part of the Clemson team last year that went to the Elite Eight and lost to Alabama. VCU is the best VCU team since we saw Briante Weber and company lose to Stephen F.
Austin in 2014. John, when you're rattling off all these names from old teams, do you ever just think about making up a name and tossing it in there, see if you get called on it? I would do that if I were you.
It's an interesting proposition. It never crossed my mind.
I just go to the internal hard drive and I just keep it moving. Just like if you're thinking of an A-10 team from 2006, just toss in the name, I don't know, like Tommy Spaninotti.
Oh yeah! See if it was Tommy Spaninotti? Great all-time three-point guy. Not much off the dribble, but catch and shoot all day long.
You know me though, BFT, and you're America's drinking buddy for a reason. I pride myself on being as accurate and as thorough as possible.
So I feel like I'd be shortchanging the beat if I did that.

That is true.

That's fair.

I have a question for you because you are plugged in, John.

And that's not a robot comment.

You're plugged in.

You talk to a lot of people.

Grant Nelson from Alabama.

What are we hearing about him?

Because I think Alabama is a good team.

I would still take them in the first two games without Grant Nelson.

But after that, it's probably going to be a problem. What are you hearing about his, it's his knee, right? Yeah, I have an update for you.
I had a bunch of injury updates earlier. So I'm going to just read you exactly what I tweeted.
And Nate Oates texted me this in the early afternoon. But I want to give you guys the full reports.
I have a couple of injury updates of substance for the NCAA tournament. So you guys just let me know what you want.
So Grant Nelson's going to see a knee specialist on Monday to determine his status moving forward. He obviously suffered the injury.
So that evaluation is going to happen on Monday. And then, you know, as I told you, like Alabama plays Robert Morris in Cleveland, that's one to monitor some other stuff from Sunday.
And this is big for the first four. Brian Dutcher told me that Magoon Guaf, the Mountain West freshman and defensive player of the year, is going to be available for the NCAA tournament.
So in the first four Tuesday night, Magoon Guaf will be available to play against North Carolina. He hasn't played since February 22nd.
That's a big boost for San Diego State. Mark Pope also told me earlier on Sunday morning that Lamont Butler will be available for Kentucky's first NCAA tournament game.
He's been dealing with a shoulder. And John Calipari has told me that Ado Thero is doubtful for the Kansas game due to the knee injury he has been dealing with.
He hasn't played since February 22nd. But Boogie Flan, who we thought was out for the season, came back on Sunday to practice, went through practice, had no missteps.
He should be fine. I was referencing the Missouri-Drake game.
According to a school spokesman, Mark Mitchell from Missouri, is expected to be fully available for that basketball game against Drake in the round of 64. A note from Scott Drew, Langston Love is expected to be available against Mississippi State in the East region.
He averages just over eight points per game. Another nugget for a number one seed.
Kelvin Sampson told me that J.J. Juan Roberts, who did not play at the end of the Big 12 tournament due to an ankle injury, they're obviously a veteran leader, is receiving treatment.
He'll be reevaluated on Monday in terms of his status for the Cougars' first game. I We'll just make sure I don't leave anything out there.
Those are the bullet points as of now, fellas. John, do you have every single head coach's number? Yes.
Wow. Most powerful phone on the East Coast.
Like, every single one? Every single one, I believe. I mean, what I do is I kind of like when I get back from the Final Four, like, you use April detox a little bit.
And then you just you spend some time over the summer just making sure your Rolodex is on point and everything is on point. And then, you know, you just go, you know, you make sure you're locked in.
Yeah. How often do you text these guys? I would say probably.
Let me think. I mean, I think it's pretty I have daily communication.
So it like, I would say with every staff, there's daily communication. It might just be for an injury update.
It might be like, what is the key to this game? On game days, I like to follow up if a team, because if I'm in the studio, I like to have obviously, you know, nuggets on what they think keys to the game are or trends to watch. Because when you're trying to cover everything, you want to, I always try to, as somebody who's a non-player coach, get the insight ofplayer or coach, get the insight of the teams that I'm covering from their perspective.
So it's constant communication. And in the offseason, it's constant communication as well because there's nothing to cover during the offseason.
Yeah, I like that. Yeah, because I read the article in the New York Times, it was great, that said that the Rothstein text is an inside joke in the industry.
Now, I feel like they're being disrespectful to you with that.

No, I mean, look, I mean, you guys know me now for a number of years.

I mean, I don't make any bones about this.

You know, I did not have any connections in this industry.

You know, I have no inheritance, so I don't have any other choice but to work as hard as I can each and every single day to be as thorough as I can to do the best job I can.

And I'm never going to relent on that. It's never going to happen.
I'm never going to stop. The world meets nobody halfway.
And you know that because you told me that you thought over the top was an underrated movie by Stallone. That is.
That's facts. Yeah.
No, you are. I love the article because there were some things I didn't even know, like that you basically bought time on a radio station that had no one

listening to it just to get reps.

Yes.

Really an awesome story of how to work your way up through the industry.

And the other nugget I had from it was you get your haircut every Sunday?

Every Sunday, yeah, at 10 a.m.

That's a standing appointment.

And out of season.

Yes, as long as I'm home.

As long as I'm home, 10 a.m. every Sunday.
happens so what do you do when you're when you're on the road on the road this week because i'm leaving monday and obviously i couldn't do it selection sunday i got it thursday and i said just go a little shorter on the sides because i'm not going to be back in new york till a uh a week you know for a week from now because i'm going to dayton and then we're going up to Cleveland, and those first and second round games are Friday, Sunday. But I want to tell you guys something, if I can backtrack a little bit, because I know you guys obviously started out with humble beginnings too.
That experience of selling air time was the most humbling experience that I ever had in my life, because at that time, I was making like $13 an hour screening calls and doing reporting at ESPN Radio New York. I was cold calling for my friend's brother's mortgage company, like Glen Gary, Glen Ross.
That was like what I was living in, just cold calling people out of the yellow pages. And I was like making $50 an article writing college basketball for different publications.
So I knew though I needed like a demo to try and have an opportunity. So I would like walk up and down Neurochelle going into businesses, trying to buy airtime and nobody would buy anything.
And I remember talking to a guy in a car dealership and this is like probably 20 years ago. And I said, well, if I do a weekly show, you know, will you buy some airtime? And he goes, well, is Joe Torrey a weekly guest? And I didn't know who that was at the time.
And then he was like, well, if Joe Torrey's not a weekly guest, then I'm not doing it. Oh, man.
It was that moment where I was just like, look, I'm not going to become anything in his business unless I have calluses and I'm getting calluses right now. But that also brought me back to the over the top thing.
You know, the world meets nobody halfway. Yeah, no, it's very cool.
And it's a very cool story. And I think people should go read it because it gives kind of a backstory of like, hey, John Rothstein has done it the hard way.
People need to respect that because it's very hard business to break into. And you weren't a coach, you weren't a player.
And to get into it is awesome. Well, another thing too, and you guys know I have a passion for this, but in my 20s when like people that i was close with in new york and friends like that were taking vacations and traveling i went to aau tournaments and networked that's what i would do like i would sit with dan hurley when he was at wagner and you know build a relationship i would sit with bill self i drove once i remember to virginia there was this big tournament down there boo williams and i drove.
It was like seven hours each way, and I just went. I made business cards at Kinko's, and I just went and just networked and networked and networked.
I feel like when that is your backbone, every single day, you owe it to yourself, but most of all, you owe it to your bosses who continue to give you these great assignments to give everybody the best you can every single day. Now, I do want to, because I feel like we're close, share something personal with you.
Two things personal. But I switched recently.
I was kind of pressured. I had a little crisis.
And I don't know if you noticed this when we were texting earlier. But it was probably, I've had dreams.
And I will admit admit this to you guys publicly i've had dreams because like of how much my life revolves around my phone and i need it like the machine rolling i've had dreams that i've been at a pool party and i jump and do like a cannonball and my phone's on me and it's like nightmares and i wake up and i'm like i didn't do that so a couple of weeks ago you guys know i've been a droid guy my entire life yep like there's like twice a year there's like there's like something that happens where there's like an ios upgrade android people can't text iphones and like it was giving me a kanina hurrah i started to schvitz like i didn't know what was going on i couldn't communicate with people and communication is so important so my wife you know we have a child now who's 18 months 18 months old she couldn't get in touch with me and you start to flip out so one day i just ripped the band-aid off and now i'm team blue bubbles yeah i'm adjusting to it yeah i'm i'm adjusting to it so that i thought was a life-altering experience the day after i switched to an iphone it was either day or week after yeah and yeah and when they the coaches talk about the rothstein text i bet they're happier to get the text now that's's a blue bubble. That's what I'm saying.
But then get this. This was another thing that happened.
You guys know how sometimes I'll tweet in the spring. It's like in April or May, like, I hate you, Pollen.
I've tweeted that in the past. Last year, I was having a bad deal with allergies.
I just said to myself, should I get allergy shots? And I went and investigated with my local allergist. And said, you can do 32 rounds of shots and you should be 80% immune.
And I was like, I don't want to get back from the final four when everything's over and have to deal with allergies. I'm sick of dealing with allergies.
So there's 32 rounds of shots to be done with it. So I get through 30 rounds of shots.
Okay. This is like maybe two weeks ago.
I go for my 31st shot. I get it.
I think, you know, you go to the gym, get your allergy shot, come home, do your podcast, whatever. I start having this weird reaction, like I'm Jack Nicholson and something's got to give.
I'm sitting on a stoop and I'm sweating. I go back to the doctor's office.
I start throwing up. They give me two shots of an EpiPen to calm me down.
And I just remember like my life was flashing in front of my eyes. But I, I remember I said to these people, I thought it was crazy, I said, if I'm going to go, I'm not going before March.
Yeah. Smart.
You can't. You can't.
I can't. I said, if you want to take me, take me on April 10th.
Don't take me now. Yeah, we die in May.
Exactly. Another victim claimed by Dusty May.
Correct. exactly exactly there was another part of the article that i loved and it talks about your wife and she said when it gets to march he will literally walk around our place and repeat this is march this is march i'm like i know it's march just say it in your head how many times a day do you say this is march to yourself probably 10 to 15 especially when TV's on and like, you're just soaking everything in and you see close finishes, you see crazy upsets.
I mean, it's a part of the fabric of college basketball. It's definitely a big part of my life.
And the thing that's so humbling is like a takeaway I've gotten from that article. And some of a very prominent media reporter reached out to me.
He's like, I'd like to do, you know, feature on your wife. She sounds a lot more interesting than you do.
I was like, yeah, I guess you don't care about the path, obviously, and the region of firepower. All right, all right, back to the bracket.
Midwest, that was great, John. Midwest, last one.
Okay, this is the region of toughness. Think about, guys, the coaches in the scowling that is involved in this region.
Kelvin Sampson, Houston. Rick Barnes, Tennessee.
Mick Cronin, UCLA. Brad Underwood at Illinois.
This is a dynamite region. I've got Houston.
I've got Gonzaga beating Georgia. I've got McNeese, coached by Will Wade, beating his alma mater, Clemson, in the 12-5.
Remember, Will Wade was a student manager at Clemson before he got in the coaching. That's my 12-5.
I got Purdue over High Point. I've got Illinois over the Texas Xavier winner, Kentucky, UCLA, and Tennessee.
Then we're going bottom. I got Houston against Purdue, and then I'm going to take Illinois against Tennessee in the Sweet 16, and I'm going to take Illinois against Houston in the Elite Eight, and I got Houston going on the Final Four.
So I got Houston against Duke on one side. Houston comes out of the region of toughness.
On the other side, I got Michigan State and Florida, and I got Houston finally breaking through under Kelvin Sampson and winning the national championship. Kelvin Sampson, again, I've said it before, this is why Houston basketball's nickname is No Mercy.
He reminds me a lot of the sensei and karate kid, John Kreese. Remember when he said strike first, strike hard, No Mercy, sir.
That's what Kelvin Sampson reminds me of. He's a much kinder man than Martin Kovale is in the Karate Kid, but he has that same type of fierce kind of presence.
Does that guy win in Karate Kid? He doesn't win, and if you remember at the start of Karate Kid 2, his knuckles bleed because he punches them through a car when he gets in a fight with Mr. Miyagi.
Yeah, that guy rocks. So yeah, you mentioned Will Wade.

We were actually just talking about Will Wade earlier today.

Will Wade, any chance, if you're Villanova, any chance you're picking up the phone, giving

Will Wade a call?

I don't think Villanova is the school to give Will Wade a call, but I will say this.

We have seen a number of big-time coaches get second chances for off-the-court issues,

and there's many programs that are coached by them now in this NCAA tournament. And those programs are thriving.
Yeah. Bruce Beard at Ole Miss, Rick Pitino at St.
John's, Bruce Pearl at Auburn, Kelvin Sampson at Houston. The school that hires Will Wade is going to be the school that falls next in that line.
Yeah. Think about this.
Here of things on will wade i was thinking i talked about tonight on our show will wade is the only coach in shaka smart to win an ncaa tournament game at vcu will wade won the sec regular season title at lsu and will wade since he took the mcneese job in two years is 57 and 10 i know that things were very sloppy at lsu but a lot of those things are legal right now right so the school that hires them is going to be on an upward trajectory moving forward, and then I'm going to have to come up with a new tagline for him. Yeah.
I mean, all the stuff that he got in trouble for is stuff that is actually legal, and it's an advantage if your coach can do those things well right now. They also have, I think, the best student manager of anybody.
Yeah. Oh, he's a star.
Yeah. Amir Khan is a star.
Yeah. He's awesome yeah good vibes from him so you have houston over illinois you got illinois over tennessee talk me through that one you know i did on thanksgiving day you know cbs sports had a a thank we have a thanksgiving game game now after the nfl next year it's gonna be arkansas and duke and chicago which maybe you guys can go to i don't know if you want to do it on Thanksgiving, but it's a big-time game in Chicago.
It is. So I did the game with Ian Eagle and Bill Raftery in Kansas City, and I saw Illinois up close.
And when everything is equal on a neutral court, and, Cat, I know you know this because you know the Big Ten so well, Illinois has Final Four talent when things are clicking. With Yakachonas, with Ivisich, there's obviously great role players and ancillary pieces around those guys.
With Boswell, Will Riley, I talked to Brad Underwood last week. He loves the way Will Riley has been playing the last couple of weeks.
And this is the thing, too, you've got to like when you're looking at Illinois. Because of Ivisich's ability to stretch things from the five spot, it's very difficult.
And this is what killed Arkansas in that game on Thanksgiving. It's very difficult to play a traditional five man against them because they can extend the defense so much with Ivisich.
He reminds me a lot. This is a throwback comparison.
He reminds me a lot of Rafe LaFrance. Ooh, I like that Kansas.
So much Rafe LaFrance and

Tomislav Ivesich. Yeah, no, Illinois

is, like I was saying

when we were talking about the bracket before

you came on, I want to see Illinois-Kentucky

because those two teams,

when they hit their

ceiling, it's incredible basketball.

They have had floors

that we've seen as well, and it's been bad,

but both those teams have insane firepower, and I agree, Illinois, they're very volatile, but if it's good, it's great. It's good, it's great, and you bring up a great point because a potential Illinois-Kentucky game in the round of 32 would be like a regional final.
But guys, I've always felt that the round of 32 is the most intriguing round of the NCAA tournament because you are going to get, in some cases, the dreamer having a chance to dream the dream for another week, or you are going to get a massive showdown of powerful programs. Look, we could have in the region of toughness, you could have Houston-Gonzaga, Purdue-Clemson, Illinois-Kentucky, or Xavier against Kentucky, and then UCLA against Tennessee.
If we saw any one of those matchups in an Elite Eight or a Final Four, we'd probably take it. Yeah, you're right.
Just the Houston-Gonzaga one is crazy. That could be a second-round matchup.
Can you give us some names of guys that we're going to want to get to know for March, like guys that have the potential to take over this tournament and become household names. How deep do you want to go? Do you want power conference names or do you want me to get really in the weeds here? Let's start out with just give me like two names per bracket that you should keep it up.
Let's go right up right now to the top left, the region of depth. Donovan Dent from New Mexico is one of the great point guards in college basketball.
That is somebody you want to put on your radar for sure. Ole Miss has a couple of players.
Sean Padula, a terrific veteran point guard at Transit from Virginia Tech. Also, John Pulikidis, I told you, from Yale.
We go down to the region of prestige right now. A couple of guys, again, who are off the radar I'm trying to come up with.
Bennett Sturtz at Drake, who's kind of the maestro for them. Also, Neat Clifford from Colorado State, who has been part of this incredible surge by Colorado State.
He has been elite, playing like one of the top 15 or 20 players in the country over the last couple of weeks. I will also point out in the UConn-Oklahoma game, Jeremiah Fears, the freshman point guard for Oklahoma, the brother of Michigan State's Jeremy Fears, is a name to watch.
And then as we look right now in your top right, the region of firepower, I'm going to give you one for Mississippi State, Josh Hubbard, an electrifying guard, plus Oregon. You've got Jackson Schellstad and Nate

Biddle. Max Schulga at VCU.

Richie Saunders at

BYU. At St.
Mary's,

Augustus Martialonis is the least

talked about back-to-back conference player

of the year we may have in history. He's won

the award in the WCC in back-to-back

seasons. Ryan Nembhard

we know from Gonzaga. For Georgia,

a talented player.

Asa Newell, who's a good freshman.

Thank you. back-to-back seasons.
Ryan Nembhard, we know from Gonzaga. For Georgia, a talented player.
Asa Newell, who's a good freshman. I'm trying to keep going down.
Ryan Conwell at Xavier is like a poor man's Michael Redd. He will be in the first four Wednesday night in the Xavier, Texas game.
And then I'm going to say, I mean, UCLA, I mean, you don't really get in the weeds here too much, but I mean, UCLA, Eric Daly and Tyler Bilodeau, I would say, are two names there. Okay.
Love it. All right.
Well, John, I got one last question for you. This has been awesome.
We love having you on. Rowback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE, rowback.com, promo code TAKE, Q-ZIPS, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts roback.com promo code take again everyone tune in John will be Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton then he's going up to Cleveland we're going to see him on the broadcast can't wait for it I saw you dropped a new Rostinism and I had a question about it the new one is Todd Golden is to Florida basketball what Mark Zuckerberg was to Facebook in the social network.
They both built monsters and Golden's looks like it can win the whole damn thing. You know, like, Mark Zuckerberg's a real person.
Social network is his life. Right.
I know that. But in terms of, like, Todd was always this guy, and like, I talked about this with Bruce Pearl on our show tonight.
When Bruce Pearl first got the Auburn job, you know, I went down to a practice and went out to eat after. And like Todd was this guy who wasn't even like an assistant coach on the staff.
But everybody looked at him as like this prodigy. And he had this incredible mind for basketball and he had these unique ways to evaluate.
he was always kind of ahead of things with the analytics and he used that you know he had that team at san francisco a couple years ago that went to the tournament and you know gotten that large bid and now he's doing incredible things at florida and guys i want to say this because todd golden i had my top five for national coach of the year and this is not to disparage him at all as a coach, but obviously he's still so young. If Billy Donovan was coaching this Florida team with the way we're playing, Florida would be universally viewed as the favorite to win the national championship, and it wouldn't be close.
But Todd knows he's got to prove it in the NCAA tournament, but Florida is ripping through college basketball right now like a chainsaw through butter. But I think Big Cat's point still stands, though mark zuckerberg is he's a person he's a real person not like outside of the movie the movie was about mark zuckerberg but you can just say mark zuckerberg he's like mark zuckerberg okay i appreciate the amendment but you guys know part of like what gives me balance is when i get through the final four and things are a little quieter i love having like a peroni and a bowl of of Turalis and watching these old movies that I've watched 15 to 20 times, sometimes more.
The social network is in that rotation. Okay.
Yeah. But he is a real person.
Yeah. He is a real person.
What about the Rothsteinism I suggested? I know that you don't take submissions for Rothsteinisms, but Danny Hurley drinking piss. That's a good one right there.
That's a really good one. I don't know, man.
You said one a couple of years ago, like for Wake Forest, like Run Forest, Run. We had to kind of put that in the delete files.
You think that's good? Yeah, it's really good. It fits in with your thing.
It's like old movies. Rothsteinisms can't be forced.
I know. That's the thing.
I know. It can't be forced.
Okay, well, I do. It can't be forced.
I have one last question for you. John, some people have accused you.
You know, you're an insider. You work on the air.
You're in media. But you weren't a coach.
You weren't a player. Some people are saying that you can't diagram a flare screen.
Can you describe a flare screen to us? Sure. Well, let's just use Wisconsin as an example because that's obviously, you know, some common ground for us right here.
So a flare screen is this. Let's say we have three players on the perimeter.
Let's say John Blackwell is on the point and on the two wings. On the right wing is John Tonje and on the other side is Max Klesman.
If Blackwell throws the ball to the right wing, he is then going to go to the left to kind of drip to the corner and Klesman is going to come and set a back screen on Blackwell's man and then tonjay would throw it over the top to john blackwell and get him a shot now another thing is the guy who's the screener on that back screen is also a threat to roll to the basket and get an easy layup because the defense then might think that the play is going over the top to john blackwell so that's a that's the screen. I love it.
I think you got that exactly right. John, we love having you on.
And like I said, everyone go read the story because I can't say it enough. You love and breathe hoops, and you are a great story in the fact that the world is cynical.
You just worked your ass off and got to this point, and we're very happy for you. And this the best time of year yeah it's the best time of year I appreciate you guys this is something I look forward to every single year and uh if I make it to Chicago this summer I hope to see you guys yes also also you know you guys enjoy the tournament too because Kat I'm telling you man I don't know if it can happen but Wisconsin has enough here to at least get to the second weekend.
I know you live and die with that team, and they got the best off guard in America. Yeah, I'm very excited for the tournament.
I want to try to have a run. Also, it sounds like I might have to invite you over to Thanksgiving.
I mean, you might have to just come to my house for Thanksgiving. I mean, if I'm fortunate enough to get the assignment again, but, I mean, but you know me, I have to focus on a game day.
Like, when I have a game day assignment, like, it's like, you know, that's the only thing that matters, so I can't unwind until that happens. You don't have to unwind.
You can literally just come over and eat. You don't have to talk to anyone.
I'm totally fine with that. I don't like talking to anyone in my house on Thanksgiving.
But then you and I could get into a little disagreement because I'm going to want like Feast Week on the TV and you're going to want to watch the NFL. Listen, do you know how many TVs I have in my house, John? How many TVs? I have like 18 TVs.
There's not a room that doesn't have multiple TVs. I got you.
Don't you worry. I love, I love, I love, you guys know I love New York more than anything.
As you guys know, I used to watch Cocktail, Wall Street, The Secret of My Success nonstopstop but there's nothing like a great long weekend in chicago especially in the summer love doing it's italia so come do it portion sizes come do it let's get it let's live it up let's live it up we were gonna take a long weekend with the baby last summer and like we didn't think she was ready for it but maybe uh maybe this summer she will be we love that architecture tour too that's big time it's like vince vaugh breakup. Yeah, the boat tour is great.
But you don't eat pizza when you're out here. I do.
I will not waste calories on pizza outside of the Eastern Time Zone. Yes, yes.
We know that rule. Did you watch any football this year? We had a Super Bowl party, and I was so tired from the weekend in college basketball.
I, like, dozed off a little bit, even though, you know, just because I couldn't take the game. And my wife came over and said, we have an apartment full of people.
You can't sleep. And I said, you're right.
We sleep in May. Yeah, there we go.
There we go. All right, John, thanks so much.
Can't wait to see you on the broadcast. And hopefully you do come to Chicago sometime soon, and we'll get some dinner.
You got it. Love you guys.
Have a great tournament. John Rothstein was brought to you by TGL.

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Okay, let's wrap up the show. Oh, breaking news.
We're actually cheating because we already finished the whole show, and we're adding this at the end of the show. Oh, Breaking Moose.
We're actually cheating because we already finished the whole show and we're adding this at the end of the show before we do numbers with Oldie. Breaking Moose, Hank? Breaking Moose.
Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, paid.
Whoa! Per? By who? The Cincinnati Bengals. That's the important part.
Yeah, so Jamar, four years, $16ar four years 161 million 112 mil guaranteed he is now the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history oh he didn't

give him seven days he got the crown and then T Higgins got four years two years guaranteed

worth up to 115 million I don't know what the guaranteed money is on that but he is now the

highest paid wide receiver too whoa in NFL history I am very happy for Bengals fans. I'm very happy for Joe Burrow.
This is awesome because Bengals fans, I think, were very nervous about this entire offseason. Will the Bengals be cheap? What's going to happen in the future of their franchise, their offense? Those two guys are really fucking good at football, and they're both still young, relatively young.
And you have Joe Burrow, and you basically are saying, yeah, they've got to make some right decisions on defense and make some good picks, but they're always going to be in the mix with those three guys. Yeah, they're saying, let's lean into what we do really well, and that's offense.
Our offense is fucking awesome. Let's just do more of that.
And if you're a fan, that's exactly what you want. That's what you want.
You don't want to have to revamp that whole thing. Also, you just don't want to piss off your quarterback.
Right. And it seems like he's going to be very happy with what you've done.
It also probably means that Trey Hendrickson will definitely get traded at some point, right? Yes. Yes, I would say so.
But good for the Bengals. Good for Bengalsles fans you basically guaranteed the next three to four years are gonna be fun yeah i don't know if they're gonna win but they're gonna be fun yeah you're gonna be great those have always been fun when those three guys are on the field so good job uh thanks for the breaking moves hank no problem good breaking moves so do we know if that video was real or not hank we gotten to the bottom of that just a tweet from MLB saying

this tweet is not a

video game so Mac saying it's a video game

you idiot he's the idiot

I memory hold this whole

conversation because I really don't like this is

from Quigs it's well I mean it's

it's it's it might

be the worst podcasting to

have a extended debate about a video that

people are listening can't see it's new segment is this motherfucker real when motherfucker real? When you're thinking about it, right? Yeah, I mean, I didn't bring it back up. And we definitely can't even put the video in.
Oh, so it's not even good for the YouTube. So everyone's just going to have to go look for the video.
I'm thinking about the fans, Hank. Personally, I'd be...
Yeah, I mean, I didn't bring it up. When we end recording right now...
You did bring it up. No, not right now.
I brought it up. When we end recording right now...
Just to get this conversation going again. When we end recording, I am 100% in on just hanging out with the boys and continuing this debate.
Cool. Yeah.
All right. So let's do that.
So now the podcast listeners can be like, finally... Well, that's not good for the listeners either.
Now they're like, I wonder if they talked about something cool with the video. No, we're going to just talk about the video.
It's going to be worse. We're going to have a worse conversation than we did on the air.
All right. Let's kick it to ourselves with Oldie.
Okay. Time for numbers.
And we're going to say goodbye to Oldie for now. Oldie, how was your weekend watching hoops with us? It was four days of you just getting blitzed with college hoops.
Electric, like fire. It was unbelievable.
From the second I showed up, well, the airplane was another story. But, I mean, once I arrived, it was on.
Donkey Kong. We were ready to rumble in the jungle.
Heaters, good on Thursday. Heater on Friday, good.
Saturday, good. And Sunday, you know my numbers four and it was my fourth

day here and phenomenal.

Finished hard. Finished hard and hot.

So you just kept on winning?

Basically, it's almost like, what's his name there?

Piss and excellence, right? Wake up in the morning, piss excellence.

Yeah. What did you think about brackets?

That is sick.

That is sickening.

So Oldie had never seen a

live bracket reveal.

Like I've seen a bracket in

Canada and once it comes out, but like

Thank you. That is sickening.
So Oldie had never seen a live bracket reveal.

Like I've seen a bracket in Canada.

And once it comes out, but like 48, 72 hours after the fact, right?

By the time it gets up north.

Yeah.

But I mean, to see it live, to see teams fired up, sitting, waiting.

Is their squad going to be the squad?

And all of a sudden, boom, it's their squad and everyone's fired up.

Give us a couple of Cinderella's. Cinderella's.
Well,llas well st john's not a cinderella no used to be um i gotta go my boys i gotta we gotta go back to akron zips zips zips unbelievable um who else be banging with on the west side region i'm trying to remember there's there's so many teams it's trying to hard to track yeah it's a lot i think. I think it's like 300 and, I don't know, 56 and just D1.
And then we've got the other unranked schools that still make it, which is still incredible. Yeah.
Florida. Florida's a one.
Come on, oldie. Orange's one.
Yeah. Badgers is not a Cinderella story.
No. They should be even higher for some reason.
I don't understand. I appreciate that.
That's all politics stuff that's behind the scenes. We've triggered that after.
Who else is out there? It's Shanty. Who was the one team there? Or Norfolk.
Norfolk State. You like Norfolk.
Yeah. Okay.
I like them. I watched them play a couple games.
They're going to get a home game. I think they're playing in Raleigh, right? Max is trying to find a bracket right now.
I'm doing a bad job of finding this bracket. All he's doing is looking up memes in his tweets where it's like the memes were holding a bracket.
There we go. I got it.
He's giving me empty brackets. He's giving me straight empty brackets and I'm just like, okay, final four from 20.
I got you right now. Right here.
We're back in. We're back in.
Oldie, what was your takeaway from just the gambling game? You spent a lot of time with us. You saw a lot like the Rico Bosco experience a lot of a lot of history a lot of a lot of inside jokes at some points just like as I'm right now I got speechless at some points it's crazy it's incredibly amazing guy knows every coach in America the guy literally knows every coach and if he doesn't know the coach he's running straight goods practice facility.
If your guys can't get into a barn because it's so big, call Rico. One shot, one dial, you got him.
Boom. He's on it.
He won't even miss the call. No.
No. I mean, I think I've seen – Rico beat Wisconsin last year.
Yeah. He got JMU at the practice facility.
Yeah, he did. You might want to also keep an eye on the electricity he's been punishing through.
That phone is constantly charged. It's the most powerful phone on the East Coast.
It is. That's a huge phone.
I'm surprised you're not as secure. Like a...
A beamer around it, like whomping kind of. I don't know what you're talking about, but I like that.
But it's just so powerful. It has a raise off everything.
You can't even come close to it. If you try to touch, you get zapped.
Yeah. All right.
So great trip, Oldie. We'll see you in the future.
Yes. You may be back for some hockey playoffs.
So a couple months from now or a month and a half from now. But yeah, it's great having you around.
You're great energy on the streams. I appreciate it.
I appreciate it. It's live.
Everyone's a beauty in there. Everyone's bumping and grinding.
They got tickets going, winning tickets, losing tickets. It doesn't matter't matter yeah and if you're not even for that team just be the team be the team if you're not for that team right be there like be the team yeah no oldie bet on florida today and he was he was head to toe in vols gear he was just like i'm doing this for big t oh yeah i'm gonna ride with him i rode with big t the whole choo-choo train the whole way there.
In about the last seven minutes, I had a Florida ticket. It connected, though.
It connected. Great run by the Vols.
Great run. Good work.
Good team atmosphere. But Gators chomped in through.
Great run. Better bet.
Yeah. Yeah.
Way better. Way better bet than the run.
Also, great job. I mean, we would leave.
Basically, every day we'd come in, watch basketball all day,

leave at like 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock,

and then I'd wake up the next morning,

and Oldie was just everywhere in Chicago.

He was doing BP at Sluggers last night at 1 in the morning,

walking around Fulton Market.

You had a great time.

Everywhere.

I was on the strip.

I was here.

I was there.

I was here.

Friday, I want to apologize, though I was late. I was the second in the office i was there i was here friday i want to apologize though i was late i was the second in the office oh who was here first uh luke oh yeah knocking the door and i i was excited i didn't see anyone he goes holdy what are you doing here i said uh back to the grind with the boys what do you mean am i doing here like it's got time it's go time dude and he goes well it's a good thing you met me and seen me here because i was just on my way to the office and you would have been done because you don't have a card right and i'm like how would i have a card like i don't have a card yet yeah so and i was like okay no problem no problem and i go sorry for being late and he goes it's like 9 14 or 9 something on a saturday this is saturday oh this is the yeah saturday yeah no one was here till noon but you're here at 9 14 and he's like the show doesn't start till like 12 or 1 the stream and i'm like i don't care about the stream of the show right now.
I'm here was the Saturday. Yeah, no one was here till noon, but you were here at 9.14.
And he's like, the show doesn't start till like 12 or 1 the stream. And I'm like, I don't care about the stream of the show right now.
I'm here for the work. Let's go.
Yeah. So I went and started filling up the waters, you know, cleaned it up.
And that was it. Bing, bada boom, bada bing.
We're back at it. Love it.
And then everyone showed up. Thanks for coming too.
Yeah. Yeah.
It was. It was.
He was filling up the waters every single time I turned around. So I appreciate that oldie.
And throwing out trash PFT. Yeah, that was, that was all time.
We were working on the El Camino out in the garage here. We hear a beeping noise.
The garage door raises up. It's a dump truck backing in immediately.
Oldie goes, hang on, I'll be right back. He runs over the dumpster.
It starts loading the truck up with trash. The guy gets out and only starts hitting the gears to work the back gate of the truck.
The guy just looked at him and was like, at first, like, what the fuck? And then Oli was like, it's okay, I got this. And then he just dapped it up.
And it was all good from there. You were touching another man's truck? And the guy was cool with it.
I ran the controls. I ran the controls.
He tried to come over and show me, this is how you do it. Buddy, just take it easy.
I got seniority, pal. How many years you got in, dude? I want to tell him, buddy, he's a good guy.
He's out there bumping and grinding with the boys. You gotta love that.
You gotta love that. You can't hate it on the guy bumping and grinding, working full force.
And he's been out probably popping from 5 in the morning. Running straight shift.
It's a Friday. Long week for him.
Oldie gave him a spell at the end of it. He appreciated the blow.
Yeah, big time. The car was fired up.
How'd she run? Oh, she runs great. She got home safe and sound.
It's no putter. Nothing crazy like that.

Smooth.

It's all good.

I think this is going to be a good year for the El Camino oldie.

Oh, it's going to be smooth once that sunshine comes out.

Look out.

Highway 190.

Here we come.

Nope.

Nope.

No highways.

Can't take it on the highway anymore.

No.

You know what?

That's right.

Ran out of gas on the highway one time.

It's PTSD from that now.

Yeah, can't do it.

Can't do it.

Not pee.

I made the entire city of Chicago late for work.

Yeah.

Can't do it again. Stay on those safe streets.
Keep it real out there. Nice car.
Let's get it. All right.
Let's finish up. Numbers.
Everyone. Three.
33. All right.
Go ahead, memes. You get it.
No, memes. You have it.
You have it. Nah.
Take it. I'll take.
84. 13.
One. I got take 84.

13.

One.

I got to go.

I already went my four banger.

I hit the Nasher, 6-1.

I got to go back to the roots.

Stand up on the hang side, 6-9.

Oh, nice.

Back to the roots.

99, Pogue.

Jack?

52.

Little boy Jack? 21. Little boy Jack.

21.

Little Jackie.

Little Jackie.

Congrats, little Jackie.

Congratulations, little Jackie.

54.

54.

Love you guys.

You were close.

52. 54 Love you guys You were close 52 Thank you.
Thank you.