Breaking Down The Bracket With Mark Titus, Bears Trade 1 Pick, Aaron Rodgers Won't Go Away And More

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On today's Pardon My Take, we have our brackets. The brackets are out.
March Madness is finally here. My bracket's busted.
Oh no, there goes my bracket. It's the gif of the trash can going down a flooded street.
Ha-ha. Hey, Big Cat, live look at my bracket.
It's a dumpster fire. Oh, shit.
And we also have Whitey in the building. We have Mark Titus on to break down the brackets.
We're going to talk about the eve of NFL free agency. The Bears have made a big trade on Friday afternoon.
Talk about that. Aaron Rodgers still a piece of shit who's back of the week and guess what a bonus nit bracket reveal at the end of the show before we do the lottery balls see if nova gets in hey it's ria from tricks in the office it's officially mini skort season and abercrombie has the ones to go out in their scarlet mini is a classic it's one of those skirts that fits the outfit vibe for any plans and I'm excited to style their new sienna skort it's a little more flirty and it's perfect for date night make plans to go out in Abercrombie shop their newest arrivals in store and online okay let's go.
Boy! Boy! Now in the street there is violence And then a lot of stuff, work to be done No place to hang out or wash in And then I can't blame all on the sun oh no we're gonna rock down to electric avenue and then we'll take it higher oh we're gonna rock down to electric avenue welcome to part of my take today is, March 13th, and we have our brackets. This is March.
Let's go. Hear that? Hear that, folks? Yeah, you even got Hank with a pen in his hand.
You never see that. That's like Loch Ness Monster.
This is the most reading that I do in a calendar year. Oh, my God.
Non-internet reading is,, I think 90% of the words that I read over the course of the year when it comes to paper and ink are probably in the three days before March Madness starts when I just look at all these different brackets. I'm probably going to print out seven or eight different brackets.
Just look at them. I just love looking at a bracket.
Guys only want one thing and it's disgusting.'s so look at brackets it's a bracket. It's a bracket.
I'm so excited for March Madness. We have Mark Titus on the show.
We're going to break down the bracket talk all the storylines get excited before we do that though because we can save I want to talk about the bracket with March Mark Titus. I don't want to talk about anything else.
I do want to say Rutgers got screwed. Let's just throw that out there.
Rutgers got fucked. Rutgers got fucked.
One of my favorite parts of when they do the bracket reveal and you have the last four out and one team always gets fucked, that team gets maybe like three minutes of everyone feeling bad for them. And then you're like, oh, shit, I have a bracket in my hand.
Yeah, don't care. I don't give a fuck.
Rutgers who? Who the fuck cares? Rutgers? Did they even play basketball this year? I have a bracket. Texas A&M got fucked, too, with their seeding.
Yeah. But that's another thing where I see that they come out and they get a seven seed.
But then I see that we could get a juicy second-round matchup between Texas Aas a&m and texas and i'm like good i'm glad a&m got screwed just so that i can potentially look ahead to that match yes yes so um i also got duped i want to just hand up i got duped um i did not expect wisconsin to make the bracket i actually am happy they're not because their season has been torturous i i was at maybe if you asked ask me honestly this morning, it was like 1% chance, 1% like three or four teams say, hey, we're not playing, so we need to find some more teams to get in the 68-team field. Right before the bracket was revealed, my friends, my best friends from college, we have a group text.
One of them dropped a CBS Sports link. I thought it was going to be a big black cock.
It wasn't. I thought we were going to go back to COVID times.
It was instead an article that said NCAA Tournament 2023 Wisconsin Badgers. It's all positive vibes now for the Badgers after they somehow snuck into the field of 68 despite being one of the nation's lowest scoring teams.
That was an insult sentence right there, but that's fine. Either way, I saw it and i was like oh script leaked we're in yep so in a cruel twist of fate i have not let this team hurt me whatsoever all year and then i had this dropped into my lap right before the bracket reveal got my weird hopes up and then they hurt me in the last final second they're like wait hold on let's get him one last you know what it is it it's like when they write an obituary ahead of time so they're ready to drop it this is like uh jimmy carter dead at the age of 98 and they accidentally publish it like two days before he gets in so i i feel like um i feel like just acknowledging that you were a bubble team is kind of a win yeah but it just it it really was so mean that they did that to me at the last possible second.
I had no expectations. I could not emotionally get hurt.
And then it was one last, oh, maybe they're alive. No, they're actually dead.
Yeah, they're dead. They're deader than dead.
So there's that. There's UNC preemptively declaring that they're not going to participate in the NIT, which is a bullshit thing that they're doing.
One more spot for Nova. It's disgusting that UNC is bowing out.
Maybe JMU gets in instead of UNC. We'll find out at the end of the show.
People forget that UNC, the NIT used to be the national championship tournament. That's true.
It's very disrespectful what you're doing. They are the first team to go from preseason number one to not making the NCAA tournament since the field was expanded in 1985.
They're also the first team to go from a Final Four straight to Cowardville. They're cowards.
They are cowards. It's disgusting.
It's a slap in the face to all of college basketball. Bitch made.
The sport we love so very deeply. And we were robbed of Armando Baycott rolling his ankle three or four more times.
That's also true. That's bullshit.
I wanted to see it. I wanted to be like, oh, no, is he really injured this time? No, he's back in the game.
So my big takeaway from this, from looking at how the bracket could play out, and Big Kid, I think you're on the same page as I am. I think this is Duke's year.
Yeah. I think we got to go heavy on Duke.
Yeah. Because how awesome would that be if Duke won the national championship the year after Coach K left? Coach K was holding the boys back.
It would be so awesome for so many reasons, but it would also change all of history because I will go back and I will comb through every year where Duke underperformed because I

would think the John Shire winning the ACC tournament on Saturday night.

They've kind of put it together here.

They've overperformed what they look like at the beginning of the season.

You could say that that coach K should have had 10 national championships.

He's actually a colossal disappointment.

Failure.

I would overall as a human Hank.

Are you going to be back?

Are you back into the Duke bandwagon? You're back. Yeah, kind of.
Okay, so if they don't make it... You don't even want it to win.
Listen to you, Hank. You don't want Duke to win.
If they don't make it to Sweet 16, you get a cat? No. Okay.
Well, I tried. I tried.
I took one Hail Mary. Do you think if they made the national championship, you think that Coach K would try to retroactively claim all these wins for him? Like the opposite of a Pete Gaudet situation? Yes, yes, absolutely.
They're his guys. He recruited these guys.
Yeah, yeah, no. He would be like, actually, I've been involved with his team since day one.
Yep. But we will do all the bracket talk with Titus.
We've got to break through everything. We'll do every region.
We'll talk about our picks. We'll see storylines, everything.
We've got a lot of bracket talk to get to also the bears are back so on friday fleeced they fleeced somebody got fleeced i don't know who asked me in three years but somebody got fleeced fleeced the bears uh traded the number one pick we all expected it i i want to say that the timing uh it feels like we kind of pushed ryan poles to do it he actually texted me after and was like thanks man uh we took all your well he texted me before the trade said does this look good to you and i was like i just thumbs up it and then they did the trade he's like you and pft have great football minds thank you for uh getting this he's a smart guy deal done he's a smart guy uh they got the the part that was kind of looked over when they announced this trade because it didn't seem like the massive haul of picks that some people thought. But DJ Moore, getting DJ Moore, did you know, Big Cat? Oh, yeah.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me finish.
Did you know that DJ Moore, his career total for receiving yards, would make him the Bears' all-time leading receiver?. So congrats.
You got the best receiver in the history. I'm saying it's a good thing.
You got the all time leading wide receiver in the history of the bears organization. I'm pretty sure that I'm pretty sure the top like seven or eight, three of them are non-wide receivers.
Yeah. They're tight ends.
No, it's Matt Forte, Walter Payton, and Mike Dick are definitely in there. Yeah.
So that, yeah. Greg Olsen's probably up there, too.
No, he didn't play long enough. But yeah, it's bad.
It's been bad. Offensive football's not great.
But yeah, so the haul exactly is Bears trade the one pick to the Panthers, who, shout out the Panthers for throwing out a smokescreen today and being like, we're not, we might trade the one pick, which would be so hilarious if they did and got more than the Bears. I don't even want to think about that.
They trade the one pick. The Bears get back the ninth pick, the 61st pick, which is the second rounder this year, the 2024 first pick, and the 2025 second round pick, and DJ Moore.
And I love the trade for many different reasons because we need draft capital but the fact that they got dj more who if you're going to draft a wide receiver you're basically saying yeah there could be a wide receiver in the first round this year that's better than dj more but it's a risk you don't know it's a 50 dj more is pretty fucking good really good. Now you have your wide receiver core.
I think they still probably will draft someone or maybe free agency, but you got a pretty decent wide receiver core around Justin Fields, and you can focus the draft on offensive and defensive line. I love how assertive it was.
Get it done right before free agency. Start moving forward, and Jalen Carter might fall.
I don't know. Imagine that.
imagine if the bears actually got jalen carter who they could have drafted with one that would be nice probably won't happen that would be nice though uh the panthers seem like they're somebody leaked something because cj stroud went from being like plus 600 plus 400 in some places to now he's like negative money yeah to be the number overall pick. So somebody somewhere knows that the Panthers love CJ Stroud.
Tough break for all the Anthony Richardson fans out there, of which there are many, but it could still happen. It could definitely still happen.
Hank, think about it this way. Anthony Richardson physically could wear a lot of the same uniforms that Cam Newton wore.
They're basically the same player. If I were the Panthers, I would look back on that Cam Newton draft and I'd say, I want somebody that's as close to Cam Newton as possible.
Who better than Anthony Richardson? You'd be like, hey, Anthony, will you do the Superman after touchdowns? Okay. Yeah, dab.
Anthony Richardson, he could bring the dab back. Yeah, he could.
But I am very – the Bears did something good. I'm talking with everyone on friday i was like everyone's enthusiastic it feels good the options are unlimited they still have the number one uh most cap space which is crazy because that was the other part about dj more dj more is signed for three years 17 million a year that's pretty good like hey, we're going to throw.
You needed weapons for Justin Fields to see what he is as a passer. I know that this all hinges on Justin Fields' progression.
That might be the scary part. But everything else is starting to align that if Justin Fields is who I think he is and who I hope he is, the Bears could be in a really good spot and it's all crazy to me because it it doesn't make sense for the bears to actually be doing competent things as an organization and i also just want to say shout out davis mills that motherfucker i love him for life because none of this is possible if he doesn't beat the colts and that's why i was that excited that day because when you have the first pick you have all the ability to make all the moves that was a franchise alter hopefully franchise altering touchdown pass and two point conversion he made in Indianapolis that Sunday because if these picks start to align and they start to do well this could be like hey the Bears have built something here I'm excited now the, I said that they could trade back more.
They said that they might trade back or they might trade up. Two second rounders.
Yeah, if this was draft day, they would not be done just yet. So, yeah, there's a lot of stuff that could happen.
It would be very funny, though, if the Panthers somehow figured out a way to get more for the first round pick. And then they traded to some other team and that third team.
Yeah. Like as teams get more and more desperate leading up to the draft, or maybe it's a smoke screen.
Maybe the Panthers are saying they leaked this stuff about CJ because they knew there was another team that maybe, I mean, who is probably, who's the most dupable owner in the NFL? And I say this with love. Jim.
It's probably Jim. I say if Jim, if Jim, or saysay doesn't get Lamar Jackson, it sounds like he's going to try to get Lamar.
He might be one owner that's in on Lamar. But if things don't work out for him, I could see Jim Irsay then being like, shit, you know what? We should get that pick.
Colts traditionally have a rich history of drafting good quarterbacks with the first overall pick. That's true.
He's very comfortable drafting first.

That's true.

I think the Panthers will use this pick.

I think Frank Reich probably took this job being like,

get the first pick for me because I don't want to do a replacement quarterback again.

Yeah.

He spent the last five years of his career just getting, you know, cast-offs.

Not cast-offs, but guys at the tail end of their career.

And he's like, I need something new. I need a a fresh start the panthers are going to have a fresh start uh the bears are going to have a fresh start i'll say it you know what i'll be i'll be honorable win win all around good job panthers both teams won i do think uh from like because obviously this news happened it happened on friday during uh conference tournament like madness so i processed it and then on Saturday I just started reading every article I could read about it and it seemed like the there was a sticking point in the trade where the Panthers didn't want to give up DJ more and they want to give up 2025 first because a lot of people were like if you trade the first pick you should get two additional first back.
I would much rather have DJ Moore than the 2025 first. I would.
I'd rather have the guy who's good, who's an established NFL wide receiver. It's so far in the future that it might not even happen.
Right. When I hear 2025, that's a future problem.
We can figure that out at a later time. And it also just makes it so the Bears can attack the draft on the line.
Like can go get the offensive defensive line and they don't have to to to try to get a wide receiver right now like they still it's not finished it's not people were were were tweeting the wide receiver core of the bears and being like where does it rank everyone's like last dead last all this shit like that's hurtful still hurts my feelings this is good. This is a decisive move that Ryan Poles has now set himself up to make more decisive moves.
Yeah, it's actually perfect because in three years we can look back at every person that they drafted. And then it's going to take three years to finally determine whether or not this was a good trade back.
This is actually, it's so nice having the first overall pick if you're a general manager. It's the best.
Because you trade back and then you get essentially like a job extension. Yeah.
So you get a contract extension because you're like, well, you can't judge me until the last of those draft picks two years, three years after we draft until they mature. Right.
So essentially you've given yourself like a seven-year window to prove yourself as a general manager. I trust in Ryan Poles.
It's a weird feeling yeah you know what i think the bears are doing the right thing they're making the correct moves the only the only problem with giving up the first pick is you no longer have the first pick it's like the last bite of a sandwich i would if i were a gm i wouldn't i wouldn't trade i wouldn't even use it i wouldn't even use the first pick i would just hold it forever what if you traded back to the first pick yeah just be Panthers, how about we give you your picks back, but we keep DJ Moore? Yeah. Done.
Maybe the Panthers are experiencing regret right now. Yeah.
There's definitely some buyer's remorse because the Panthers, come on, that was stupid. You guys got fleeced.
But no, no, good trade. Well, the Bears, they definitely miss having the first-round pick because Ryan Poles was probably talking to a lot of good friends on the phone for a while.
He probably seemed like he was cool. Everyone was blowing him up.
Yep. Now the phone stops ringing once you stop having something everybody else wants.
NFL GMs are such fake friends. They don't keep in touch with the other GMs unless there's something they want from them.
Yeah. No.
No. Now we grind some tape.
Now we grind some tape. So free agency starts Monday.
By the time you're listening, it's already started. I think we'll have an Aaron Rodgers resolution by Monday are you starting to think about what I said on Friday so it makes it makes more and more sense to me the more I think about it that Aaron would absolutely love to just rub in people's faces that he turned down this contract so you can't tell him anything for the rest of his life yeah and Mark Murphy the president of the Packers, comments definitely furthered that along.
So first of all, shout out Mark Murphy because you would think – well, actually you wouldn't think this. This is very Wisconsin.
I say this actually in an endearing way, not in a negative way. He didn't do a press conference.
He actually was interviewed in the middle of a Wisconsin high school girls basketball state tournament. That's when he was interviewed and talked about Aaron Rodgers.

Perfect.

I love that.

Like in a true,

I truly do love that.

So he said when asked about Rodgers,

he said,

yeah,

I mean,

unless if things don't work out the way the Packers want them,

yeah,

we would bring him back.

He is obviously a great player.

And then he started talking about his legacy and and like we're gonna retire his number and we just want to do right by him which means they he clearly wants to leave but now he might retire i don't know you're right here was the exact quote that was like huh this feels like a done deal unless aaron rogers retires he said we're fortunate to have back-to-back Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

It kind of happens in our game.

Very few players play for only one team.

Brett had a great career here.

Aaron had a great career.

Regardless of what happens, Aaron will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He'll be in our Hall of Fame.

We will bring him back and retire his number.

But this is just one of the things that you go through as a team.

We want to try to achieve something that is good for both Aaron and us. Yeah.
that doesn't feel like Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers it also seems like the Jets would have had a deal that was in place tentatively with the Packers and then the Packers are like okay you can sit down and meet with Aaron Rodgers they did do that all the weird stuff they did do that so they had yeah they that's what I'm saying they had a place before that meeting happened. That meeting has long – that meeting has been done happening for almost a week right now.
So it feels like if nothing has moved since then, it might be Aaron Rodgers being like, you know what, I'd really rather just retire than go somewhere else. And also, like, yeah, I don't – I wouldn't blame Aaron Rodgers to retire rather than play for the Jets.
No disrespect, Billy. But I feel like – But full disrespect.
They got rid of Braxton Berrios. So who's he going to throw the ball to? Yeah, thirst trap king.
Yeah, but no, this feels like we're just waiting for Aaron Rodgers to sign off on him going to the Jets because the Packers have moved on to Jordan Love. It definitely, like all the comments, everything around it, it just, you can't say some of the things that have been said on both sides and not come to this conclusion he went on yeah hopefully it'll create a situation where it's a win for both sides we'd love to have it resolved to start the free agency the win for both sides is not Aaron Rodgers coming back when would be the the most perfect time for Aaron to drop his his news if he was going to retire he's going to do it like 3 a.m.
tonight. And we're going to have to wake up.
I'm going to wake up because my son's going to jump on me. I'm going to see it.
I'm going to text everyone. Then someone else is going to wake up.
I'm going to be like, holy shit. And then last person to wake up is going to have FOMO that they were the last person to wake up.
It could be during the Oscars. I'm still missing the slap buzz that I had from last year.
This Oscars isn't going to have a slap. I need Aaron to interject and put something out in that place.
Going back to your point about Ryan Poles not getting phone calls, that is essentially what Aaron Rodgers has done the last month. He just wants to be talked about on every show.
He's a fucking diva bitch. Yeah.
Hey, Aaron, I need some DMT too. I demand more transparency.
Yeah. Boom.
Suck on that. Bitch.
Suck on that. Yeah, no, he's there's no reason that he's doing how this whole process goes through.
He's just making it as dramatic as possible so people can keep talking about it. That's really all it is.
Which is kind of cool. Like I kind of understand.
I guess, but he's also done it multiple times now. He's in the content game now.
Yeah. What if he retired to become a blogger? He's definitely going to have a podcast.
Yeah. Aaron Rodgers, a million percent going to have a podcast.
It's going to suck. It's going to totally suck.
It's going to be the worst podcast. I'm going to one-star review that shit.
Actually, I would watch a podcast that was done in complete darkness in a studio with no light whatsoever. No sound.
Do you just hear him breathing? Yeah, it's just Aaron goes into a darkness retreat with a celebrity. So it's like week one, Aaron Rodgers and Joe Rogan probably.
Sure. Or Aaron and Kyrie.
That seems right. Aaron and Kyrie go into a dark room and sit together in silence for three hours.
Oh, by the way. I would listen to that.
That would actually be perfect if you're trying to fall asleep. Yeah.
Special fuck you to Kyrie Irving who called out gamblers. Who does he think? Like, this is just crazy how he's just torching everything.
What did he say? He was like, yeah, it's really the animosity sometimes from the crowd. Like, we don't care about your parlay.
Like, we're playing balls. Like, dude, guess what the league advertises with gambling gambling companies every league does now yeah you want you want your 200 million dollars you're gonna get it like what are you talking about i just he pisses me off i think kairi just doesn't like anybody that tells him anything anything like not even not even people that are like telling him what to do he just doesn't like people talking to him yeah no no he's like why are you talking to me? He is my three and a half year old son.
The other night, my son, I said, he grabbed my face and I was like, please don't do that. In that exact tone, and then he got mad at me.
He was like, I don't like when you say something to me. Yeah.
That is literally Kyrie Irving. Yeah, Kyrie doesn't like interacting with people.
I do not. What do you do with that sentence? I don't like when you say something to me.

That's what he said.

And I was like, okay.

What gives you the right to tell me to sit down?

Well, I'm your coach, Kyrie.

Yeah.

Jay Williams called out Stephen A on first take last week,

saying like, this seems personal.

And Stephen A kind of got flustered and then came out today or yesterday

and said, Kyrie and I have our differences on a personal level,

which is none of anybody's business.

And I'll never tell why. He knows why, and his daddy knows why.
Oh, wow. So Jay Williams was right.
That is personal. And now I just need to know what the reason is and what Kyrie Irving's dad did.
That was an awesome clip, though, when Stephen A. and Jay Williams were just yelling at each other, and it got personal between the two of them.
Yeah, and he said, I'm always triggered. Yeah.
Yeah, that's what, yeah. This is a great line to have.
What did he say? I wonder what Kyrie's dad could have done to Stephen A. Smith.
Yeah. Oh, here it is.
Gambling, this is what he said. Gambling and sports betting have completely taken the purity and fun away from the game at times.
I'm going to be honest with y'all. There's a difference between being a diehard fan and supporting your team and loving your

team versus somebody that's betting on a parlay or somebody that wants to hit.

I agree with that.

But do you think people just started gambling last year?

Yeah.

Like, what are we talking about?

It absolutely takes away some of the purity of the game.

Yes.

But it's also, what Kyrie needs to realize is it's also very fun.

Yeah.

It's always, and we're not saying like a diehard Mavericks fan definitely cares more than a bet i make on the mavericks we're not arguing yeah shut the fuck up dude don't come at me yeah billy people have been gambling since the coliseum that was actually something really interesting that like the origins of gambling is like in the coliseum it's right there with sports since like the beginning of time i mean I mean, would you go to a gladiator event and not gamble on it? Yeah. That would be disgusting actually.
The people that were into gladiator sports for the purity of it. It's like, no, I just want to go see these two humans fight to the death because I love the game.
That's fucked up. If you're betting on it, I completely understand that.
If you go to a fucking sword fight and don't bet on it, you should be arrested.

Yeah, you're just like, I want the guy in the red to die.

Yeah, I'm rooting for blood.

Yeah, why not?

But I just would love for Kyrie to put in the thought experiment of like, take away all gambling, everything all together.

And then the NBA goes and negotiates their TV contract.

Yep.

What happens?

Well, what about betting on yourself? Yeah, that's true. He's done that like 17 times.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
All right, what else do we have? Anything from this? I mean, the conference tournament week took a lot out of me. Took a lot out of me, but it was fun.
It's always fun. March is the best.
These two weeks, oh my God, I'm so excited for the break. Odell Beckham's back.
Oh, yeah. Odell Beckham worked out for, what, 10 teams, 10 different teams? Somebody said that he's, like, the most jacked up that he's ever been.
Yeah, that makes sense. But then, Big Cat, guess when the last time Odell Beckham had over 1,100 yards receiving was? I think it's 1,100 yards.
2016? 2016. Oh, I nailed it.
It's been a while. It's been a while since Odell was top of the line elite as a wide receiver.
Do you know what a rumor I heard? I... What? Chiefs.
Oh, did you hear that from Leroy? Oh, no, I missed Leroy's tweet about it. Leroy broke the news on Saturday.
All I see on Twitter is just ads and all quiet on the Western Front. Yeah.
I can't... I don't see anything on Twitter anymore.
I don't see anyone's tweets. I just see ads.
Are you on the For You page? Yeah, no, I'm on regular Twitter, but I just, it's like everything else is an ad. I don't remember the last time I've gleaned something from Twitter.
Yeah, so, well, if you follow what Leroy had to say, he's reporting that the Chiefs are front runners right now in the Odell Beckham sweepstakes, but also he's asking for a shitload of money. So Odell thinks that he's still in 2016 Odell mode.
I'm going to withhold judgment on whether or not teams should sign Odell until I see the most recent clip that his dad puts together of his highlight reel. And it really just needs to be the Super Bowl catch for a touchdown.
And then I'll be like, yeah, Odell's still good. Yeah, pretty much.
I mean, he definitely will. He'll come back.
He won't be the same Odell, but then he'll make one or two plays where you're like, yep. Counterpoint, if he signs to the Chiefs, the Chiefs are all the way back.
They're all the way back. He's going to have.
Odell Beckham's going to have 2,300 yards receiving if he signs with the Chiefs. If he signs with the Chiefs, I'm going to pick the Chiefs to win the AFC West.
That's bold. Yep.
I think this is Denver's year. I think Denver's back.

They did it.

Okay, anything else before we do who's back of the week?

And then we're going to get all into the bracket.

We're going to get inside the brackets with Mark Titus.

Anything?

Going once, going twice.

Scottie Scheffler's a beast.

Scottie Scheffler's a fucking beast.

And I'm not going to say someone that we know choked.

But he went in the water.

But he wasn't going to win anyways.

He was on a run.

He was on a hot streak.

And there's barely any water on that hole.

When was the last time whoever won the TPC at Sawgrass won the Masters?

I need somebody to look that up.

Tiger.

Was it Tiger?

Yeah.

Sure.

Sure.

You're probably right about that. Yeah.
So it's probably a good thing that Max didn't win this. Yeah.
No, we're gearing up. Listen, it's all about the Masters.
It's all about Augusta. None of this matters.
I think every golfer is born with a finite number of wins inside of them. You don't want to waste it on the TPC.
That's like the seventh or eighth major. Correct.
We want to save that for the Fortnite, for the Genesis, anything else that's named after video game systems, and then the Masters. I, uh, yeah, John, or, uh, Scottie Scheffler is so fucking good.
He's so dialed in. It's insane.
Him and John Rahm. Yeah, I was going to say, like.
Well, John Rahm got diarrhea. When somebody's locked in, the two most fearsome golfers, when they're dialed in right now, nobody can beat either Scotty Scheffler or Jon Rahm when they're dialed in.
No, they're on a different level. And Jon Rahm, yeah, he had diarrhea.
What are you going to do? It just sucks when you get... I feel bad for Jon Rahm because when you're a little bit heavier and you get diarrhea, people automatically assume like, well, shouldn't have had that fucking ice cream in the pizza.
Like, they judge you. Like, if I look at it differently than when you get diarrhea that's just a fact people people they diarrhea shame me where they're like well no shit you fat slob yeah you get it they're like oh make sure you drink some water like make sure you stay hydrated no if i get it it's like oh it's another tuesday yeah but no this is how people judge's not right.
When I heard Jon Rahm had diarrhea, I was like, of course he did. He fucking went to Sonic last night.
All that paella runs right through you. Yeah.
So, shout out Jon Rahm. Shout out Jon Rahm.
Stay strong, bro. Most impressive golfing of the week goes to Trent, though.
You see Trent stuck it on the green on 17? Yeah, he did. Max could never.
Yeah. Great shot by Trent, though.
Max went into the water. Nails.
Not a lot of water. It was a very funny video.
There's a lot of non-water on that hole. It's a very funny video that they put out where they had all the amateurs try to hit it onto the green the day before the sawgrass, before the TPC, I mean, and like 90% of them hit it in the water on their first shot, and then of those guys that hit in the water, like 90% of that 90% water again on the second shot i would i would be saying i'd still be standing there i just i just hold it out yeah i'd swish it it would go right in the cup no problem ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working nah neither has ariot ariot work jackets and boots are packed with all the cold stopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions so you can take any job out there and always deliver.
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Alright, let's do who's back of the week. Hank, you ready? I'm ready.
Who's back of the week?

Who's back of the week is baseball.

Yeah.

World baseball classics going on.

Wasn't getting a lot of buzz.

It was kind of last week.

It was like, damn, baseball is dead.

There's no buzz around this.

This weekend, it was popping off.

A lot of good clips.

Great Britain's jerseys.

Great Britain's jerseys. So funny.

Looked like they lost their jerseys the night before,

and they had to go to the jersey store down the street and just print jerseys as quick as they could. We need jerseys in an hour and they had to like go to the jersey store like down the street

and just print print jerseys as quick as they could like we need jerseys an hour yeah what can you do for us we just need the words great britain on them all right that's good enough right they get ironed on there uh how big are the bases are they big i don't know i don't think that they're not big enough for me to care about baseball they need to be 20 percent did you see the Shohei clip? No.

He hit a home run and

a woman caught the ball

and then everyone in the... Is he playing for the U.S.? No.
No. That's bullshit.
We should get him. Everyone in the crowd, they passed the ball around, and everyone in the crowd got to take a picture, and then they nicely brought the ball back to the original girl.
It was so respectful. And it was like, that would never happen.
Is this like the upside-down world of Philly? Yeah, pretty much. What the hell's going on? It's good culture.
No, I think that means that Japan's a bad sports town. I think a real sports town...
Is that where it's taking place? No, but that's... I think it's all over the place.
Yeah, but the fans... I think so.
They're doing home games? There were Japanese fans that were passing it around to themselves. A real sports culture would have been so drunk that they would have thrown up on each other.
Yeah. And then fought over the ball.
See, this is another thing with the Twitter broken. I like saw.
I'd see it like once every like, I don't know, a couple hours. Like, oh, that's going on.
I just. March is college basketball.
This is my same argument with with XFL. Like March is college basketball in the world baseball classic.
They should least if they're not gonna have the bigger bases let them use aluminum bats yeah that would be sick just here yeah like schwarber would be going yard all over the floor playing yeah oh i'm in i'm in all right that's it i'm in you should have started we should just call him captain america yeah you should have started captain america then also... By the way, we should say on this podcast,

the fact that they call it Chinese Taipei is bullshit.

That's Taiwan.

We recognize Taiwan on this podcast.

We're not communists, are we?

Hell no.

Nah, I don't think so.

I don't think so either, but I need to do my own research.

Hank's got to wait for all the facts to come out.

No, I don't want you to speak for me.

That seemed pretty aggressive.

Don't put words in my mouth. Oh, so you guys are CCP apologists.
No, we said we don't know. We don't know yet.
We're going to have to. It's fine.
This seems like an ongoing issue. You guys love China.
When did it? Did you just add Trump to your repertoire? China. He's Australian Trump.
You're the last guy to add Trump to your... No, it's Australian Trump.
This wall's going to be 10 feet higher. The Chinese...
I'll side with Taiwan. Good, good.
Hank? What if they give us the bag? I've been convinced. What if the CCP gives us the bag? No, I'm signing with Taiwan.
We're going live tour. They don't allow this podcast in China.
Okay. We're going live tour.
Hank? I'll get back to you. Give me some time.
Don't pressure me. Okay.
Sounds good. And then in the real shocking news of the weekend, the strip club that John Morant was at.
Oh, that was mine. Okay.
Sorry. I'll wait for it.
No, that's okay. It was a great visual.
Well, yeah. I was just like, wait, wait.
I had John Morant. The strip club that John Morant went to, he was in a private room throwing money and getting a lap dance.
Like, this is crazy. They asked, Shotgun Willys is the strip club.
So John Morant's all the way back because Shotgun Willys' owner came out and said he spent over 50K on tips a few weeks ago. He said this kid, real young, was exceptionally respectful and sweet, and he did not drink.
He's marvelous. He gets it.
I feel like Shotgun Willie's making a bad business decision here.

Why?

I don't think you want to blow up the spot of your famous clientele that's dropping 50K.

No, but it's good.

Why is that bad?

That looks good for John Morant.

It does, but it also...

I don't think other players want to worry about their pictures being out there. Yeah, other players going to a strip club and dropping 50K and Shotgun Willys does a press release.
I think that they didn't put the pictures out there. I think that was somebody else.
That was in the investigation, I think. Either way.
Somebody leaked it. I think it's like, if you're John Morant, the pictures, did you see the pictures? Yeah, I understand that.
The craziest part of the picture was that John Morant in the VIP section, he had papered every surface in this massive VIP room with cash. There were tables.
There were booths. The floor was covered in cash.
It was a snow globe of cash when he walked in. That looked awesome.
I saw that, and I thought to myself, I may have been premature in discussing how immature john morant was because he the interior decorating that he did with money i want to have a room in the house that i buy that's just wallpapered with money here's here's a point to my side though uh maybe the horniest man online uh in in the world steven a smith is very upset steven ain't no no steven he also is but steven a smith said what do people think happens here why is the club releasing these feels like a massive invasion of privacy why would any big spenders go there ever again steven a smith goes shotgun willies all the time that's what i'm reading from this and then he followed up with saying you know what i have a lot of feelings about the john moran strip club photos being released frankly i'm ticked off about the whole situation he like stephen a smith is probably a preeminent strip club goer yeah and he's now got to be on red alert the shotgun willies is is airing dirty laundry well we don't know that shotgun willies released the photo but that's what'm saying. It could have been released by the police that are investigating it.

But the owner talked about it.

The owner could have just been like, no, I never saw him.

The owner saying he was very respectful, we love him.

I would be okay with that.

I'd be fine with that.

I'm siding with Stephen A. Smith.

He's a strip club guy.

You know he's a strip club guy.

It's also obviously a very serious topic,

but Gilbert Arenas has had some hilarious lines in the whole thing.

Oh, yeah.

He said he called John Moran a philanthropist donating 50K to a local community. And I think he said at least when I got caught, I was trying to get money from someone.
Or there was a reason why I got in trouble with guns. I wasn't just flashing it for Instagram.
He's like, to my credit, I was trying to rob my teammate. No, he was like, yeah, my teammate owed me money, and I had to get it.
He also had a story about – you told the story about Melo saying that, like, David Stern just went in and, like, strong-armed him. He had a story about that, too, that when all of it went down, David Stern was like, we have two options, 50-game suspension, or you don't take the suspension, I just take all your money.
And he was like, okay. And Gilbert was like, all right, see you next year.
That was it. That was the negotiation.
One of my favorite stories about, I think it was when Gilbert Arias was on the Wizards with Deshaun Stevenson. Deshaun Stevenson used to keep an ATM in his house.
He had an ATM installed in his house because he would have parties all the time. He'd have strippers over.
And then he knew that his teammates would spend a shitload of money on him. So he had an ATM with like $9.99 service transaction fees.
So he was just taking a tax from all of his teammates every time they come over to his house. It's like Jimmy Butler and his coffee.
That's hustling, man. Yeah.
Yeah. All right.
Who's your who's back? My who's back of the week is Kirk Cousins because we've got a video coming out tomorrow. Right, Max? Correct.
From Super Bowl week. I did a little one-on-one slinging it with Kirk Cousins.
We just passed the ball back and forth, and I put him through the ringer about what to do if he was presented with an option like he had at the end of the season against the Giants this year. Who's he going to pass the ball to? Does he make the right decision? Does he fuck it up? Who knows? You have to tune in tomorrow and figure it out.
And Steven Chase in it, right? Steven Chase in it. It's me and Kirk throwing the ball back and forth and then Chase, my guy on the sidelines, that catches the ball for me.
So I don't break any fingers. You don't want that.
That's below my pay grade to catch balls. I like that.
Billy. My who's back? Your face.
My face is back. We were given a picture over the weekend that we promised to not release.
Billy's face was in a bad place on Friday night. Now that my face is back.
You can release it? You should release it. Release the pictures.
Well, maybe. We'll find the right time.
You look like you just got stung by a thousand bees. I look like I got my face beat.
A bad bee. It was crazy.
Remember when Aaron Rodgers doesn't sign with the Jets? Yeah. You've got to release it.
Oh, if he signs, I'll release it. Okay.
And if he doesn't sign. If he retires, you never have to release it.
I'll just put it in the Aaron Rodgers blog. I post, so please click on it.
There you go. There we go.
You remember when Sidney Crosby had mumps? That's kind of what you looked like. It also was just funny having Billy text us out of the blue being like, I'm going to send you a picture if you promise not to tweet it.
Credit to us. We all had to promise.
Thanks, guys. Stop me in my track.
Really credit to the conference championship Friday. Because if it wasn't that, I would have tweeted it.
But I barely saw the text. It was a great Billy moment because he it was on Friday and he was like hey guys I can't work on Sunday because this is what my face looks like right now but and we saw it and we're like yeah you know what he's kind of right he shouldn't come into the office if I still look like that I don't think I would have came into the office you're very jowly yeah um but my who's back is a unified world heavyweight belt for the's a possibility that for the first time since April 2000, one heavyweight boxer may be able to hold all of the belts.
And that's because Tyson Fury put up the proposition to Alexander Yusik that if he took a 70-30 split with him, he would fight him to unify all the belts. It's not official, but they're looking at at april 29th for wembley but tyson fury said i get 70 you get 30 in every day that you don't accept this offer you get less of a percent that's awesome usik usik called him on it he said as long as you donate a million dollars to ukraine i'll take the fight and it sounds like it's going ahead so tyson this is gonna be a great match because tyson's been boxing a lot of bigger guys who aren't as skilled big right hands i mean the the fury wilder trilogy was insane i mean the joshua usik fight was amazing i'm actually super pumped for this because you know usik is going to go the distance with him he's got the uh he's got the stamina he's got you know the feet i think this is gonna be a really good fight are they gonna add ruffin rowdy's belt to it i mean that's not all the belts true true you gotta unify all the belts yeah they should make a belt that's made out of all the other belts and that's what you get the iron throne yeah that would be sick i'm just i would watch that if it was a giant belt and then they just make like the last two rounds really suck and the kid in the wheelchair wins it.
Yeah. Spoiler.
Are you over it yet, Hank? Over what? Game of Thrones? No. Still upset? I mean, imagine the Klitschkos in Game of Thrones.
Once I start to rewatch it, that's what I'll be over it. They'd just be beating the shit out of each other and probably make out at some point.
It hasn't happened yet. I actually think Uso could beat Fury.
That's why I think Fury's been trying to duck him for the big belt for the all the belts all the belts all the belts and also some guys suing Buffalo Wild Wings for having boneless wings he says that they're really chicken nuggets and that they've been selling an inferior product for an upmarket price what is the thing boneless wings are this guy it he just figured this out now yeah he's like Buffalo Wild Wings has been fucking me over and he's suing them. There should be a law that if you have a dumb enough lawsuit that you can then open yourself to get sued by everybody that has to read about it.
Yes. Wait until he finds out that French fries aren't from France.
Yeah. Wait, what? Also, economic meltdowns? World's gonna crash today? Is that a that a thing? No.
We're good? No. Silicon Valley Bank.
I read a Twitter thread. Pretty much, those guys are fucking crooks.
They knew it was going to collapse. They all sold their stock right before.
Lock them up. Throw them next to Hillary in jail.
Done. What about everything else? No, no, no, no, no, no We just print more money, dude If you run out of money, the government prints more money That's how it works The thing is, money is not even real Right, we just add it onto the deficit Or not, no, what is it? The debt? The debt Yeah Dude, that debt? You think we're ever going to pay that debt? No chance My favorite is when people are like, think about it like it's your household credit card bill.

There's a lot more shit that goes on in the national debt.

You can just add a number to it if you want to.

We need like a 10 million leg parlay to get out of this debt.

We're never getting out of that debt.

You remember when people are like, just print the $1 trillion coin?

We should do that.

Yeah.

Just print, just make a coin and then tell me that the money's real yeah you know i don't have to pay the debt why nukes yeah yeah come get it that is true you won't yeah you're gonna break my legs we're basically like the bat like the the tough ass dude on the on the block who like borrows the tools from his neighbor he's like they're my tools now. Say something about it.
You're not going to.

You know what?

I wish I wish somebody would try to collect on that debt.

Yeah.

No,

Hey,

don't worry.

Like people are going to freak out,

whatever.

Maybe we'll just make more money on GameStop diamond hands,

that shit,

but we'll be fine.

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah.

I was just checking.

I was curious,

but now I'm good.

Okay,

good.

It was funny.

The clip of Jim Cramer,

just being like SVP,

SVB,

sorry,

SVP,

SVB has the fundamentals for a huge bounce back. This was like a few months ago.
He's like, bye, bye, bye, boom, gone. It's all the nerds in fucking California.
They had a little bank with their friends. It went under.
Who cares? And I think people were telling every company that they were investing in, like, I'll only invest in you if you put the money in Silicon Valley Bank. Yeah.
Dude, they all they're there they're crooks they're not going to go to jail but they should go to jail i was yeah in that twitter thread that some guy had uh all the percentages that like the basically the entire c-suite sold in in like february and then i don't know what you got to be to be like a rich guy simp online but another person responded like we have to double check because that's actually when bonuses come in so that might have been a scheduled payment of all the or sell off it's like dude you really went online to be like hey these guys who ran a bank that has now gone under we should wait and make sure because like we don't want to accuse someone of something wrong here the real take that you should have at all times is anybody that makes more money than you should be in jail.

Correct.

And if you disagree with that. No, and anyone who makes 10x what you make, we should eat.

Guillotine.

Yeah, we should eat them.

Eat the rich.

And then if you disagree with that, then you're a bootlicker.

That's a fact.

These are big time economic.

We just took all the AWS to Econ 101.

Print more money.

Hate people who are more rich than you.

And if someone wants to fucking come and try to collect this debt, try us.

Yeah, my general rules of thumb are if they make more money than me, they're evil.

If they're younger than I am, then they're a Zoomer bitch.

Yeah, and they probably will like...

Then they're going to eat me. They'll probably do like the knockout game with me and put meer bitch.
Yeah. And they, and they probably will like, like then I'm going to,

then they're going to probably do like the knockout game with me and put me on

tick tock.

Yeah.

This is why,

this is why I like shit all the time is because I know that anyone younger

than me that wants to eat me.

Yeah.

Good luck.

I'm,

I'm not putting it past Billy for one day to just like sucker punch me and

just be like,

tick tock,

knockout games back. Fuck dude.
I got caught. What are you going to do about it? Can't really do anything.
Or else you're a boomer. Yeah.
He got me. Ultimate prank.
Knock someone out who's not looking. That's top-level humor.
All right. Let's get to Mark Titus.
Let's talk about the bracket. We're going to break it all down.
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Okay. We're able to book

an elusive special

guest. It is Mark Titus back

in studio.

Mark Titus show. Go

subscribe on the YouTube podcast.

First of all,

how have your first two weeks of Barstool been?

I've enjoyed it. Everyone's been very kind to me everyone everyone everyone i noticed though who's your no no who's your least favorite person so far uh honestly brandon yeah brandon walker set you up for that one yeah and the the really stupid part about that about saying brandon is he's going to think it's like a bit and he he's going to be like, yes, they're talking about me, which is what he wants.
Yes. I'm just answering that genuinely.
Yeah. Brandon texted me at all times.
Anytime anything goes well for me, he's like, this is bullshit. This should have been mine.
Yep. And anytime anything goes poorly for me, he's like, you suck.
Yeah. He reminds you of it.
I think you've been fitting in seamlessly. I did have my first red flag happen tonight on a cultural fit uh we're in the office right now the office water is shut off because of uh construction or something uh max had to go take a shit at macy's shout out macy's no free ads shout out macy's uh titus was like i'm gonna go to my hotel room and take a piss real quick i was like bro yeah piss jug.
And he looked at me like, what? It felt like an HR trap that you were like, just go ahead and piss in this bottle. I promise nothing.
Do I have permission to pee in any jugs during this interview? I mean, you can do what you want around here. So that's kind of.
Was that permission? You're not going to sue us if we pee? No. No.
I felt like I don't think I have that clout. Sweetie, let's not get upset about a little piss in a jug.
You've been an indoor cat for a while, Mark. Now, this is like letting your indoor cat outside for the first time.
Like, go cause some ruckus in the bushes. Yeah.
Pee wherever you want. Fox doesn't do any sexual harassment.
They don't. All right.
Let's talk about the bracket. Let's do the bracket.
Let's fucking get into the bracket. Let's talk about the bracket.
So, Jake and I just got done recording my show where we filled out our entire brackets. And the only way I would describe my process with this was I felt like I was at war.
I felt like this is a legacy play for me this year. Okay.
Because I have the last two years my national champion has lost in the first round of my bracket. That's tough.
It's tough. You're an expert, though.
I won a national championship in 2019 with Virginia, but then COVID happened, and the haters are saying that I've lost my touch, and I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm not an expert. And so this is a legacy play for me, and I can feel it.
I can feel the pressure going into this tournament. Now, when you won with Virginia, so you picked Virginia to win the year after they got eliminated

as the 1 seed to the 16 seed.

That's pretty good.

I thought so.

I thought at that point I had arrived.

But the haters are saying that was a one-off.

Okay, so let's cut to the chase.

You have to win two titles to be a legend.

Yes, you do.

I've only won one.

Who's your team?

Who's he going to be this year?

You want him to reveal his winner? Well, I want to know who not to bet on. Right off the bat.
And then people can skip the rest of this interview. Just skip the whole interview.
God, Mark Tice is on every show now. So when we sat down to fill out the bracket, this was not my intent.
Oh, no. You didn't do it, did you? I did it.
I did it, Dan. They're criminals.
I know they are. You took Alabama? I took Alabama.
Oh! I was filling it out, and it just happened. Did they circle the wagons? Is Alabama like, it's us against the world, and the criminal justice system? It was that.
It was, they play the best defense, I think, in the country. They have the best player in the country, probably.
I don't know. I don't know.
I didn't mean for it to happen. It was just wrong place, wrong time, I guess.
It was. It was.
It was. I was filling the bracket out.
You can only control what happens while you're filling out your bracket. Everything else.
It was out of my control. You asked Jake to bring your bracket to you.
Does that implicate Jake as well? That's true. And Jake actually texted, the bracket is hot.
No, I did not. Who did you take, Jake? I took Arizona.
Oh, okay. I didn't like that pick for Jake.
You just did that to be different. But Jake, as I pointed out on the show, Jake is a storyline slut, and he just like – Oh, I just aligned all the stories.
He was just going crazy for – He ultimately had Tommy Lloyd versus Mark Few. Oh, my God.
An Arizona-Gonzaga game. Yeah.

Yeah, I have all Blue Bloods playing in the garden down the street in the Sweet 16.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah, just stuff you want to see for the good of the game.

Exactly.

All right.

Now, you're a big Mark Few guy, right, Jake?

I mean, besides having them in the national championship game,

I do not condone what you're setting me up with.

Just bringing his dogs back from a little lake house thing? Disavow. Maybe Mark Few is just really allergic to dogs, and that's why he was driving erratically when he was up in the front seat with him.
Those dogs were all over him when he got that DUI. Okay.
Should we go? Let's go region by region. All right.
Let's talk region by region. By the way, I have a little trivia for you to start.
Ready for this? So when you're filling out your bracket, just remember, because everyone always fills out their bracket, and I think what happens is I call it the Dickie V bracket, where you blindly start filling it out, and then you look up, and you're like, I have three ones and a two. That's what happened to me.
Yeah, the Dickie V bracket. That was my bracket.
Now, it's hard to predict, but since 2012

there's only been one

year that there hasn't been a seven

or higher in the final four.

Every year there's been

at least one seed has been

broken every bracket. Do you remember what year it was?

Every year there's

been a seven or higher. Since 2012.

At least one

in the final four. I don't know.
My brain doesn't work that way i don't i don't i can't it was your year oh really 2019 uva texas tech michigan state and auburn yeah yeah the lowest seed there was a five seed so just keep that in mind okay when you're filling out your bracket there's going to be someone who crashes the party i i i did go and you did the Dickie V? I did the Dickie V, yeah.

And I acknowledged it as I was doing it,

but as I keep saying,

this is a legacy play for me,

and I don't have time to get cute.

This is not a...

This tournament is very serious to me.

That's the problem.

I get that you've got to take a big swing,

but you take a big swing and miss.

Yeah, no.

You look like a fucking moron,

and I'm not in a position to make myself look like a moron.

Yes, I agree.

All right, so let's go through it.

Let's go through it. We'll go how you you read so we'll start with the south yep uh let's do big picture in the south and then we can all pick who we have coming out of the south big picture is this is super fun these teams are fun to watch if you're someone who hates watching college basketball because you think that there's not enough points that the kids can't make open shots all that sort of thing thing.
This is the region for you. Alabama can score a ton of points in a hurry.
They are – obviously I picked them to win it all, but they shoot a ton of threes. They play up-tempo.
They're awesome to watch just in terms of pure basketball, as long as they're not throwing the ball over the gym. Arizona – There's a couple other as long as – Yeah.
But, yeah shots They do That is actually a fact Not a lot of charges on them Their friends take a lot of shots Yeah Well he was on the team Oh yeah that's right Arizona plays very fast as well Scores a lot of points They're fun to watch they're very fun they're super fun yeah i think we touched on this when you were on the uh two weeks ago if you aren't arizona is very fun for a lot of reasons they have two very skilled big guys they have uh who's their who's the guard not kirk creesa corney ramey yeah he's very very good and kirk creesa like, if you miss the days, if you're like, oh, man, I wish we had a Bobby Hurley point guard that we can all hate. Kirk Crease is that guy.
He will pump up the crowd when someone else does something good on his team. Yes.
And then he will throw it off someone's face. He is that guy.
I think I said this on the show when I was on last time, though. He has like a tinge of self-sabotage that when things start going well yes he just he can't help himself he has to throw an alley-oop over the backboard he's also got a tiny mini grayson allen in him where like once a game he'll get in like he'll get like legs tangled up and you'll be like did anyone take a nut shot there he doesn't go all the way so i'm not going to put that on him but there's a lot of like there'll be little moments where you know or or even uh you know when when the guy comes up to the to the coach's box to call timeout but you know advances it to half court he'll try he'll try to steal it yeah and he'll be like yo dude chill out like he loves those he lives in the gray area basically he loves living in that gray area right yeah i like that they are very fun to watch.
So Arizona's that. Baylor, the three seed, is also that.
They score a ton. They're a three-guard lineup that they all shoot threes and make a ton of threes, and that's like their whole MO.
They're not going to win the national championship because I don't think their defense is good enough, but they are so fun to watch. And I just think on down the line, like Virginia's not quite as fun as they they can be obviously, so that kind of starts to fall apart at the 4-5, but Creighton I think is a fun team.
NC State is a fun team. Missouri is another team that gets up and down and they score a ton of points.
Yeah, Missouri-Utah State games should be a lot of fun. Is that going to be one of those situations where it's a 10-7, but you think the 10 is going to be favored, or you think Missouri is going to be favored? Well, the Mountain West, we should say it.
The Mountain West is 1-11 overall since 2016. And if you don't remember the Mountain West last year, they had four teams in the tournament.
They were eliminated from the tournament in 10 hours. They didn't make it to Friday.
I brought my – so before the bracket came out, I was sitting in the hotel room, and jotted down like a manifesto based on, because what happens is when the bracket comes out, I get, I just get sucked into like, I do what Jake does, which is I look at storylines and I think like, wouldn't that be cool if this happened? And I lose all sense of what makes actual sense. So I wrote down a bunch of shit before I even saw what the matchups were.
So that way,

it was like a reminder to myself, don't do this when the bracket actually comes out.

My number one bullet point was Mountain West. They've been to four Sweet 16s in the history

of their conference. Yeah.
In the history of the conference. One in 11 since 2016.
Yeah.

So I made sure. And what was that? Just San Diego State when they were really good?

Yeah. They went to two.
And then Musks with Nevada went to one, I think.

Oh, I love that team so much. They had the twins then, right? yeah yeah they were so much fun i'm just looking at i go by uh my bible is the kin pom luck statistic that's a great stat yeah it's a great stat uh missouri is the luckiest team that is you know from a power conference are they really tournament yeah so it's missouri and then kansas kansas is also a very lucky team.
I'm not going to bet against Kansas. I didn't know that.
Do you think they factored in Bill Self having to go to the hospital? Well, Bill Self. That's unlucky.
No, that was planned. Okay.
It's lucky that they caught it in time. We were saying that.
He got a stint put in. We were.
I hope Bill Self is okay. I actually used my one thoughts and prayers on Friday to Bill Self, but we were joking before that it would be funny if he came back

and he was just fully bald

and it was like it was a Joe Buck like

he actually was getting hair plugs and

something went wrong like we're gonna have to

like like like all

quiet on the Western front like we're gonna have to take off

the leg we're gonna take off the hair bill yeah

like it's suffocating you you can't breathe

it would be awesome Bill Self

as a bald guy I would actually bet

I would bet the farm on yes he's finally

living his authentic life at that point

Thank you. You can't breathe.
It would be awesome. Bill Self, as a bald guy, I would actually bet the farm on.
Yes. He's finally living his authentic life at that point.
You're Virginia Hoos. So that would be – I'm going to circle that as maybe one of my upsets.
Furman bombs. You should actually mark Furman.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Furman. Yeah.
Furman bombs. They just chuck, and that's how you can beat Virginia because the pack line defense, they're going to – like, if you could just shoot over them, you might have a chance.
As the preeminent Tony Bennett lover, I'm not saying the game – I'm worried that maybe – like, as everyone has started to figure out that three is worth more than two, and as every team. Yeah.
Okay. Steph Curry, I think, taught us that in 2016, and then it's starting to make its way to middle America, and all these teams are starting to learn that.
I am worried that the pack line might be a thing. Like, it might not have – its heyday might have come and gone.
Now, would it be fun to watch UVA against Alabama? Like two completely opposite styles of basketball. I think Alabama would win by 40.
Because I think what would happen is Alabama would get up like 15-2. Virginia can't come back from that.
So I'm clear. If they played, I would 100% cheer for Virginia to win that game.
But I wouldn't have much faith in Virginia yeah that's so that's one of my upsets also I have a question for you because we're going to get to more of these but how would you classify a revenge game because that's everyone's favorite storyline I saw someone tweet uh West Virginia Maryland the mellow trimble revenge game yeah no one remembers Who remembers that? It was obviously a Maryland fan. Was it Jeff D.
Lowe? It was just like, wait, this is too far in revenge games. This can't be a revenge game of a guy who went to Maryland like eight years ago.
Not a revenge game, but the winner of that game should get Frostburg. That's the closest city I can think of to that border.
It's a border war is a border war is what it is. It is.
West Virginia is another fun team, by the way. Yes, they are.
Throw them in the region of fun. Yeah, like the most fun outcomes are West Virginia-Bama game would be fun in the second round.
Creighton-Baylor would be fun. Missouri-Arizona would be a ton of fun.
Charleston-Furman would be awesome. Charleston-Furman would be – yeah.
So that to me, the south as a region is the most fun region for sure in terms of uh if you have if you're like uh all three of us are where our schools are not in this thing and we're just uh here for a good time for a second i just like saying charleston sounds like somebody that's in like the alec murdoch trial yeah is that a rivalry isn't firman down that way by south carolina is it in south carolina yeah it is south car is. It is.
It is. In-state rivalry.
Yes, that is in-state rivalry. Yeah, the bracket, whoever makes the bracket, the NCAA, they did it right in the fact that Alabama was the number one team.
They deserved it. I don't like them, but they deserved it.
You can even look through their entire season. I don't think they ever lost back-to-back games.
They had a couple, what, lost four games. One of them was Gonzaga neutral site.
Like, they were good all year long. They deserved the one seed, and they by far have the easiest region.
Like, if they don't win, I said this before on our show, but if Alabama doesn't go to the Final Four, this is the biggest failure in all of sports. What I back you up on is because this is the fun region, I think every one of these teams will, when Alabama wants to get up and go and try to score a ton of points, every single, all the best teams in this region by seat, except for Virginia and San Diego State probably, the rest of them are going to nod along and be like, yeah, we want to play this style of basketball.
Let's roll it out. Yeah, let's do this.
And it's not going to work out well for them. So in that regard, it's a great job for Alabama.
Maybe they're not hitting their threes. Yeah, you have to make shots.
I know how this is going to go. Alabama's going to win the national title, and every game I'm going to be like, this is the game they're not going to hit their threes.
Yeah, yeah. They're just going to keep hitting their threes.
But that's why they're not just the three-point shooting i know they they are going they're so long and athletic they're playing great i know i hate it i hate it length is important you have bama coming out of this region i have bama um i have bama over baylor somehow which i don't love this baylor team but i just like every matchup it just felt like i i like they're they're a guard-oriented team and i mattered, but their defense stinks. Their defense stinks.
It has been really bad. You know what, Jake? I apologize.
Wait, you have Arizona winning it all? All right, so I don't apologize. I'm going to take Arizona to get to the Final Four just because it's anyone but Pama.
That's fair, and I respect that, and I think that's what most people should do, but I have my legacy on the line here, so I have to well that i mean it tells me that you're you're picking with your head yeah not with your heart yeah you're a true analyst yes what do you got pft uh you know mark makes mark makes a good point about alabama i'm gonna do some fuck fuck boy shit with kirk creesa no you know what i'm gonna go with he is aboy. He's a total fuckboy.
Talk me out of NC State making a little rough. Talk me out of the Wolf Pack.
Well, if you're a Clemson fan listening to this right now, you have to be very upset because Clemson did not make the tournament. Rutgers was the main one that everyone's upset about.
But Clemson didn't make the tournament. Clemson beat NC State by 1,000 on whatever it was, Friday or Thursday.
That was an absolute ass-kicking. Well, NC State was wrestling their best players.
They knew they were going to make the tournament. That one, I would be really pissed if I were a Clemson fan right now.
So, I don't know. NC State has not.
The ACC has been weak this year. What about San Diego State? Mountain West.
Yeah. This might be the year they turn around.
I predict the Mountain West will make it to the second round. Somebody from the Mountain West will win again.
San Diego State is a team that I have wanted to believe in all year. There are a handful of these teams that we can get.
As we get to other regions, I'll talk about more of them. But it's a team that on paper at the start of the season, I was like, this team's going to be freaking season even when they lose i'm like that the pieces are there the pieces are there if they can just if they could just and i've never really seen the san diego state i've wanted to see all year but yet they're a five seed um and they've been and they have a decent draw and they've been playing well they've been playing well they haven't lost you know like i i have wanted to believe in san diego state all year and i just can never really fully get there.
You know what? I'm going to do it. I'm going to get there.
All right. San Diego State.
Get yourself a Matt Bradley jersey. You're getting there? I'm getting there.
All right. Yeah.
I'm switching back and forth between Alabama. Between the Mountain West.
The Mountain West and the SEC right now. Okay.
I'm going to say it. San Diego State.
All right. Final four.
Why not? Listen, if they make it more than 10 hours, they will have a successful tournament. They play in Orlando.
I don't know if any Mountain West teams have Friday games. They hopefully do, so they cannot have.
That was just 10 hours. That broke me.
Last year, Colorado State was the one that I wanted to believe in. I was really high on Colorado State and David Roddy.
David Roddy, yeah. They were so fun.
And they lost to Michigan. But that game was like an Indy, wasn't it? Yeah.
Which was horseshit. Michigan was an 11 seed and got to play Colorado State.
Yeah. Yeah.
That was tough. All right.
East region. New York City.
Yep. Purdue is the number one seed.
I don't – I think Purdue is good. I think they've been fading.
I mean, they just won the Big Ten tournament, so obviously they played well. But they were fading in Big Ten regular season play.
Just seeing Purdue as a one seed, I'm like, someone's going to beat them. Repulsive.
So I have Purdue. I've had a future on them for quite some time now.
That's right. I forgot about this.
I'm watching this. I'm watching Purdue play over the last weekend, especially today, especially the second half against Penn State.
This is shaping up to be a repeat of my doink bet in the Super Bowl all over again because Purdue's going to be their prohibitive one. What are they, the number two-ranked team right now? Did they get the overall two seed? I think Houston was two.
Houston, yeah, so they're the fourth. They might be the fourth.
Oh, they're the fourth. Yeah, they're the fourth.
Okay. Well, I was wrong about that.

But Purdue's – this feels like the best shot that Purdue's had in a while on paper.

Watching them try to navigate the press against Penn State.

That's exactly it.

They're going to lose – I'm calling it right now.

Purdue's going to lose in heartbreaking fashion against an inferior opponent.

But I'm going to be rooting for them the entire time. They got a bad draw.

Somehow every coach in the Big Ten waits until they're down 12 with like four minutes left to start pressing Purdue. It's crazy.
And if one team, just one team, looks at the film and says, wait a second, what if we built the whole airplane out of the blackout? Out of the press, yeah. And what if we just press from the start? It might work out well for them.
Yeah, it all is going to come down to how Zach Eadie's officiated, honestly. If he gets a favorable whistle, Purdue's unstoppable.
But every Big Ten team that loses to Purdue gets butthurt about how Zach Eadie got away with everything and never gets called for fouls. And I experienced it recently in the Big Ten tournament as the Buckeyes got called for like 400 fouls and Edie got called for one and zero three seconds.
But every Big Ten team that goes through it then says wait until the NCAA tournament when you don't have Big Ten refs. They're going to call so many offensive fouls and over the backs and all that sort of thing.
I don't know if it'll happen or not, but yeah. He's gotten a lot better.
Yeah. I mean, he is very good.
His footwork is a lot better. His defense is a lot better.
There could be a scenario where he goes to make post moves and he turns and displaces a defender, and the refs are like, that's a foul. We're going to call it on you, which they don't call in the Big Ten.
And the second-round matchup for Purdue is either going to be a Memphis team that, if you remember, that was probably the game of the tournament against Gonzaga last year. That was one of the best games of the entire tournament.
Memphis has physical players. They have guys that can go toe-to-toe with Purdue, and they just beat Houston, which is the most physical team in the country.
And they have Kendrick Davis, who could score 40 points. And Purdue is not exactly elite defensively, especially their guard.
yeah and then if Memphis doesn't make it the second round Florida Atlantic's really fucking good and which I'm kind of rooting for even though I think Memphis has a better shot against Purdue but uh we would get uh Zach Eady versus Vadislav what's his name Vadislav Golden the seven-footer for Florida I watched last night the UAB game because I was rooting for Jelly. This dude's a seven-foot white guy.
We're going to have a hilarious visual of those two going up against each other. Yeah.
I want that. It's always very funny when they do call like a seven-foot-three guy for over the back on someone who's like six-foot-three.
And they just catch the ball above the other person's head. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it's not fair what they do to Zach Eadie sometimes because he big sometimes right sometimes he gets bad whistles he can't help but be dominant i'm still riding with my boilermakers i'm just i'm seeing the train that's about or i guess that's a yeah ironic turn of phrase for purdue but i'm seeing the train the train that's about to come through the tunnel and just wipe me out on the track the train i know it's going to happen the train is going to Ohio in the first two rounds, and I don't know if there are any famous instances of trains derailing in Ohio. Oh, no.
That would be bad symbolism for UPFT. Yeah.
But Purdue will be playing in Columbus their first two games. I like Memphis, too.
They play like. Purdue's going to be the team that everyone picks, the one seed to lose.
Yeah, they will. That's the team that everyone's going to.
And Memphis feels like the team that if they play their best, they can play with anyone, absolutely anyone. How does Purdue not know how to break a press? The guards are young.
The guards are young. Can't you just throw the ball to Zach Eadie on the inbound and then have him ditch it to somebody that's coming up the wing? The guards are young.
You put way. Yeah.
That's what I would do. You can also do the guards hit the wall.
They hit the wall, yeah. Yeah, the young guys.
This season, high school basketball doesn't go that long. It did look like high school basketball.
Watch them try to just bring the ball to the court. Yeah, it's young guys.
They're like, why are we still playing? Yeah, right. Like, we're ready for a nap.
That's really what you got to say if you're a Purdue fan and things go south. Your guards are ready for bedtime.
Yes. Yeah.
No, it is crazy seeing some of these teams. No, I, I, I, I, I'm a little bitter towards Purdue because the Buckeyes were on a dream run there in the big 10 tournament.
And had we beaten Purdue, all we had to do is beat Penn state to make the tournament. So I'm a little bitter, but I do go back to what I said last time I was on the show.
I, I'm not cheering for Purdue, but if they won the national championship, some small part of me would appreciate how cool it is to now throw out everything we thought we knew about college basketball. It would change everything.
It would change everything. Yeah.
At least nine or ten guys are going to get laid in West Lafayette. Yes.
For the first time ever. Three hot dogs and shakes, which I don't think they have.
I feel like that would be the national title among all major sports where more people, more students at that school would lose their virginity than any other national championship ever. There might not be enough.
Well, that's what I'm saying. Sex is sex.
That's what I'm saying. Like nine or ten guys.
That would be the headline coming out of West Lafayette. It's like, dozens of men got laid tonight.
Yes. It's like that or Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.
Which one's more important for Purdue? Yes. All right.
So this region, other teams. Duke.
Oh. Duke.
Uh-oh. This is the year, right? Like we were saying before you came on that like this would be the ultimate for Duke haters.
If you're going to pick one year for Duke to win that, you want him. It'd be so funny to see them win.
I think I would have to agree. I think because we don't – I don't think John Shire is ever going to be hateable.
I don't. No.
I think – Like, we don't hate him now because we're comparing him to K, but I honestly think in 20 years, if he's still at Duke, he's not going to be hateable. I need to really kid a kid.
Yeah. Like a really small child.
Yeah. Like a five-year-old who's asking for an autograph.
He just open hand slaps him in the face. The only thing would be, I guess, we got to see him when the pressure gets turned up.
When he gets really... If he ever gets on the hot seat and he feels the heat, it's like a must-win game and he loses and maybe get a few of those.
Maybe then we'll get to see a dark side of him. But he just feels like he's too mellow and cool.
Maybe it's Coach K's got to hit John Shire, where it's like, I expected more out of you. He slaps him and is like, go out there.
Or K tries to take his job back and now Shire has to fight for it. Yeah, yeah.
He has to be a little bit of a dick. Then he would look good.
He's a nice guy. Yeah, and I don't hate him.
If there was, like, a young journalist, you know, they usually get, like, a 7- or 8-year-old that goes to cover the games. If he lectures a young journalist about asking a bad question after a loss, that would really – oh, I would love journalists.
We are so far away from that, though. And this team is, like, just not – I mean, we talked about it last time, but this team is just, like, not hateable.
And they're playing really well right now. The thing would be, though, the ACC stinks.
The ACC stinks. So, like, you've won nine in a row.
We acknowledge that. We tip our cap.
But also, how good is Duke? I don't know. I still – I'm at – what did I say, Jake, on the show? Six, four and a half? Somewhere between four and a half and six.
I can't remember on my Duke panic meter. I think it was like four and a half.
Yeah. I'm like four and a half that Duke is going to make the final four out of ten.
Here's the thing. As a joke, well, actually, maybe a little bit of me wants John Shire to win this just because it would be funny to do that narrative.
But then you also have to remember that those Duke fans that would die for Coach K. Yeah.
And those people would be happy, and you can't allow that. There are more Duke fans who were fed up with K by the end than you might realize.
Oh, there were really good Germans too? Is that what you're saying? I don't know. There were a lot of people.
I remember being in New Orleans and I had Duke people like, don't share this publicly. Don't share this publicly, but I'm over this man.
I remember handing that card to a few Duke fans. They were like, this stuff happened? I never knew this.
They didn't teach us this in the history books. I'm not saying a majority.
I'm just saying there's a silent minority. You are doing the really good Germans.
Yeah. There were a few really good Germans.
They were just doing their jobs. Yeah.
I will say about Duke, though, Oral Roberts is the best 12 seed.

Yes.

And that's a horrible matchup to start that I wrote down on my little manifesto

I put together before the bracket came out.

This is the first time somebody's had a manifesto and hasn't bombed somebody.

That's next up.

What you're just talking about is a blog, actually.

Wait to see what happens with my bracket. We might go down that path.
I wrote down before the bracket even came out that no matter what happens, make sure you have Oral Roberts win at least one game. They didn't lose in conference play.
Yeah. They ran the table.
They shoot threes all day. They shoot a ton of threes.
They don't turn the ball over. They have a guard who's been there before, Max Acemas.
This team is way better than the 15 seed that won a game against Florida. They beat Florida and then almost beat Arkansas.
Are you sure about that? Yeah. They did, right, Jake? Am I wrong? Jake, am I wrong? They beat Florida.
What you said is factually correct. That's all.
Okay. Cut his mic.
Cut his mic. Who'd they beat? They beat Florida.
Who'd they beat in the first round? You lost as a two seed? You were a two seed? Oh, no. To Oral? Damn.
PFT, your puns are back for this week. I emptied the clip on that one.
Play the hits the next week. Yeah, absolutely.
You're going to make me spit out my drink if they win this game. Anyway, this team is better than that team.
This team is miles better than that team, I think. All right, so now actually I'm – Because it is also – Remember that stretch when Duke was losing in – What was it, Lehigh? Did Lehigh beat Duke? Yeah, Lehigh beat Duke.
CJ McCollum. Yeah, CJ McCollum.
It would be fun to go back to that too. Maybe then I'll just – Listen, anyone who listens to this show knows that – oh, they're revealing the NIT.
Oh, Wisconsin's a three seed. Look at that.
Huge. Great draw for us.
Oh, Bradley out of the Missouri Valley. Great draw.
They won the Missouri Valley. They're very good.
Great draw. This is a stacked NIT right now.
No UNC cowards. Nova still has not been selected.
Oh, no. This could be Nova.
This could be Nova, Max. Max versus Big Cat in IT Sweet 16.
We're not beating Bradley. No chance.
No chance. Well, I will stream this Wisconsin-Bradley game because I think it's going on at the same time as the Mississippi State game.
Yeah, it is. On Tuesday night.
What I was going to say was that – Oh, Liberty. Anyone who listens to this show knows that we can – Oh, Nova Let's go Bees up baby let's go Oh I want you So that game would be in Madison Yeah Wow That is true Liberty ironically is going dancing Yes First time in school history What I was going to say was the Those Duke teams that like fumbled I will now be like yeah yeah, this is actually Coach K.
If they lose to Oral Roberts, I'll put that on Coach K. You should.
It's Coach K's. We can change on a dime here.
He recruited those guys. Yeah, exactly.
The bottom line is if John Shire wins a natty, then it just proves that Coach K completely lost it at the end. Duke's better off without him.
Now, if they lose early, then it's Coach K's fault for recruiting such shitty players. Yes.
John Shire inherited a terrible situation. Yeah.
Yeah. Coach K left the cover bear.
Yeah. With the number one recruiting class in the country.
Big question for you here, Titus. Yeah.
Kentucky. Yeah.
If they lose in the first round, Coach Kilperry? Coach Kilperry. Coach Jim Calipari, officially Hot Seat City.
Hot Seat City, yeah. I think I really – if you're a fan of off-season content, and I know you guys definitely are as it pertains to Big Blue Nation, I cannot imagine what will transpire if John Calipari loses in the first round this year.

I think that's what it is.

It's like if they lose in the first round, Kentucky's officially a football school.

There's also this.

Providence, Bryce Hopkins is Providence's best player.

Revenge game.

He transferred from Kentucky because he wasn't getting enough minutes,

and he was mad at Cal.

I don't know.

I'm sure he took the high road when he left, but the writing was on the wall. He wanted more minutes.
He's like, I deserve to be playing. I'm going to go to Providence.
He's killing it for Providence. If he beats Kentucky and Big Blue Nation has to watch a guy who was a Wildcat beat their team and knock them out of the first round yet again, that's juicy.
Bryce Hopkins revenge game. We have two revenge games at this bottom part because if Michigan State, if it holds serve at the bottom, Michigan State and Marquette, we get the Joey Hauser revenge game.
Yep, that's right. That's right.
Which will be the Hauser should have gone to Wisconsin, whatever. That's not a big deal.
I did slide into their DMs being like, what's up, guys? Come to Madison. I'm not a sure.
Has that ever worked? What's the most successful? Nope. Caleb Williams I struck out on pretty hard.
Caleb Williams. That one was pretty bad.
But, yeah, the Bryce Hopkins revenge game. You did convince Brad Davison to return to school.
That's true. That's true.
I did that. Yeah.
This is a fun region. I'm very excited.
Like, I know, listen, Purdue, maybe they have a miracle run in them. But Marquette's very good.
USC's actually really. USC's better than I think people think people realize yes uh drew peterson not the murderer yeah gotta just say that he's a stoolie not the murderer is a stoolie the players all right all right confusing there for a second uh jake was creaming his dockers uh thinking about uh a world in which what was the sweet 16 matchup he had well's in the Garden, so obviously it's a hot ticket no matter what.
But you're going to tell me Purdue, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State? Yeah, those four. Purdue versus Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State in the Garden.
Because that region's in Madison Square Garden. Providence would be pretty sick at MSG.
Yeah, definitely. Marquette going back to the garden after cutting down the nets there last night.
But he was saying you have Zach Eady, National Player of the Year. Or Vermont.
You have Duke, who is Duke. You have Kentucky, who is Kentucky.
And then you have Tom Izzo, Mr. March in the garden.
He's not Mr. March anymore.
Who's Mr. March? Jerry.
Oh, that's true. Jerry is Mr.
March. Tom Izzo is Mr.
Early March, mid-March. Who would be Mr.
March in College Bathory? Well, no, it's Jerry Fragrance. He said it's January, February, Jerry.
He has a shirt, right? This is I Am March. Yes, I Am March.
No, I don't know who's Mr. March now.
That's a good question. I guess Bill Self.
I guess it's just whoever won the latest title. Yeah, but he's been high-seeded.
Like, who makes – I'll tell you what. We'll get to him, but if Arkansas made, like, a deep run – because I think Mr.
March has to be – you have to, like, go farther than everyone expects. It's like three or four straight second weekends.
Yeah, right, right. And also just, like, be like, oh, I didn't expect them to be – Yeah, one or two of them have to be unexpected.
Yeah, if Arkansas can beat Houston. It could be Mr.
March. Or they don't play Houston, I'm sorry.
If Duke wins two games, we should just call John Charles. John Charles.
Mr. March.
Yeah, no, this. I don't know who I'm taking out of this.
Ed Cooley might be Mr. March.
Yeah. And we didn't even talk about Kansas State.
Kansas State's battle-tested. That's what you've got to say if you're a Big 12 team.

Yeah, battle-tested.

Battle-tested, yeah.

What about –

But are they worn down is the other question.

Are they battle-tested or are they worn down from a –

That's a tough one.

What about Mr. February?

Rick Barnes.

Rick Barnes, Mr. February.

He is in this region.

I also wrote that down.

I've believed in Tennessee one too many times.

So, Tennessee fans, you'll be delighted to hear

that I have completely given up on your team,

which means this is probably the year they make the run.

But, yeah, I think this is –

Purdue's second-round matchup is tough,

but in terms of the caliber of each –

Marquette's not the best two-seed.

They are playing really well.

I have Marquette coming out of this region, for what it's worth.

Okay.

I don't think Duke is the best five-seed, per se.

I don't, I mean. I don't think Duke is the best five seed per se.

I'd have to think about it.

I guess they're playing the best right now.

I don't know.

It didn't jump off the page to me when I saw these teams.

Tennessee is a four seed.

Kansas State is a three.

Marquette is a two.

I think that's a good spot for Purdue.

But they are Purdue, and there's a one next to their name. It's really all it is.
And every Purdue fan knows what's coming. It's not – like, this is not the hardest region.
It's just – it's Purdue. Duke is the best five seed, by the way.
I take that back. They are the best five.
Yeah, they are. Anyway.
I'm going to take – you know what? I'm going to say fucking because I'm going to go back to what I said at the beginning that you have to have at least one seven plus in the final four. I'm going to take Memphis in this region.
Well. Yeah.
And I'm going to look so stupid when they lose in the first round. That's okay.
I got my Boilermakers. Okay.
Purdue or die. Okay.
There we go. Who you got? Oh, you got Marquette.
I got Marquette, yeah. Okay.
I took Marquette, which is probably dumb, but Marquette has not played great defense for most of the year, and I made the mistake of watching them in person against Xavier in the Big East Tournament Championship, and their defense was incredible. And so now I'm, instead of looking at the, how many games have they played? 34.
Instead of looking at the first 33 games, how good they were defensively, I'm looking at the last one and saying they figured it out. Right.
Now they know how to guard. Right.
Just based off of one game. Yes.
Rutgers is a one seed. Rutgers.
Powerful. Dangerous.
A dangerous one seed. There we go.
When you started by saying I failed a cultural test here at Barstool, I thought you were going to say that I feel bad for TJ that Rutgers didn't make the team. Yeah, no.
That was also a fail. Yeah, because it feels like everyone else is.
No, I was like, TJ, get in here.

I want to drink your tears.

The one the one the biggest rule of Barstool is when anyone suffers like terrible, terrible losses on their fandom, you have to just rub it in as hard as except for Max.

No, I think you guys treated me well.

Shouldn't have got that haircut.

Big Cat, we have a yak battle in the first round of the NIT. Rutgers-Hoffstra.
Who's Hofstra? Stephen Che. Oh, yeah.
Wow. No one tells Stephen Che that Hofstra's in the NIT.
He will not know. We can tell.
He doesn't know college basketball is a sport. He could win it all.
All right. Let's go to the Midwest region.
The Midwest region. Houston's the one seed.
I'm just going to make a quick prediction on Houston because I know Sasser got hurt. He's going to be back.
He was warming up today, wasn't he? Groin, I don't know. I'd have to take a look at his groin myself.
I'd have to really get in there. Yeah, we can arrange that.
But, yeah, groin injuries can suck, so I don't know. I mean, I assume he'll be back for the Sweet 16 if they make it.
Yeah, my main point, even if he's not back, Houston, what does it say? Probable. Probable.
He's probable for the first round. And they do need him to go to Final Four.
But this first two games for Houston. Houston is a team.
They just got embarrassed by Memphis. Houston, when they get embarrassed, they take it out so hard.
Yeah. On, like, the game against, who did they play in the quarterfinals the other day? Was it ECU? ECU.
They struggled a little bit with ECU. I mean, they were a 23-point favorite.
I think they won by 10. They then came out the other day that they kind of struggled.
Was it ECU? ECU. They struggled a little bit with ECU.

They were a 23-point favorite. I think they won

by 10. They then came out the next day

and just embarrassed Cincinnati.

I think Houston is going to

steamroll

Northern Kentucky. Duh.

But then Iowa or Auburn

are both going to get steamrolled. Either one.

Just a reminder. Houston is

the team that Kellen Sampson

for long

periods of time in their practice, puts a bubble on the rim, so they just rebound. Yeah.
He puts a lid on the rim, and they just rebound. That's all they do.
To your point, I think this is a great draw for Houston in the sense of, if they are the professional team that I think that they are which is to say they have like upperclassmen they have a culture of like toughness and we're just going to come out and beat your ass if they are that Iowa or Auburn in the second round are both great great for them to just like chew them up and spit them out and keep it moving I think Houston I thought Houston was the best team for most of the season. Bama beating Houston at Houston, I don't know, gives me pause a little bit.
It's basically the Sacher's groin. Like if I knew Sacher was fully healthy, I might have picked Houston to win it all.
But I got to take a look at that groin. I need to get in there.
You got to get in the groin. By the way, this Iowa-Auburn game, I don't want to get anyone too excited, but we have an Elvis bet.
We have an Elvis bet. Iowa Elvis and Auburn Elvis are making a bet.
What does that mean? Both teams' fan bases have an ad. Have a guy dressed up like Elvis? Dressed as Elvis.
So Viva March Madness, they released an official statement. Iowa Elvis versus Auburn Elvis.
If Iowa wins, Auburn Elvis will make a donation to the U of I Children's Hospital matching the Hawkeyes' point total from the game. What? Like $60? Well, if Iowa wins.
Oh, yeah, if Iowa wins, they'll probably score like $80. But if Auburn prevails, Hawkeye Elvis will do the same for the Children's Hospital of Alabama.
It's how much money? Whatever they score in the game. That's such a weak bet.
That's such a weak bet. I don't want to unit shame here, but...
I just love that they... You can.
If it's like a $70 bet. You're going to donate $70? You're the fucking king of rock and roll.
I love that they had this bet released within an hour of the bracket being out, because it's like, I would imagine the Elvis fan bases, like the Elvis community, they're all in touch with each other. He's like, oh, shit, my friend from Iowa City.
There was a group chat. I got Elvis there.
They had a group chat that if two of us play, let's have a bet. Utah State Elvis was like, shit, I don't have a fucking Elvis to go up against.
But, yeah, watch out. Iowa Elvis versus Auburn Elvis.
It's going to be crazy. I love that.
If they were any sort of Elvis whatsoever,

they would just bet that the loser had to die on the toilet after the game.

Or just, yeah.

Just sit on the toilet until you die.

Get addicted to opioids.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it's, yeah, maybe not that one.

Yeah.

I was going to say, I saw the picture of them.

I wouldn't put it past them.

Yeah, this game, though, is a bad matchup for Iowa

simply because they've been horrendous on the road and this game's being played in Alabama. Oh, it is.
That's right. Birmingham.
Yeah. So it's going to be all Auburn fans.
Yeah. Like, that's – And also, it's horrendous for Iowa because Fran McCaffrey's still their coach.
Yeah. Doesn't get enough credit for never being in the Sweet 16.
Yeah, yeah. Doesn't.
He does not get enough credit for that. I'm giving him credit right now for never being into a Sweet 16.
What about Texas A&M? We were saying earlier how it sucks that they got jobbed in their seating, but we instantly moved on past that once we saw the potential second-round matchup against Texas. I mean, Penn State will be a fun game.
That's why it sucks that they got jobbed in their seating because to have to play a Penn State team that's been playing really well is sort of unfair to Texas A&M. But yeah, I mean that whole bottom region, even if you want to take a big swing on a 15, now I think Texas, I have Texas going to the National Championship and losing to Bama.
So I'm not condoning picking Colgate to beat Texas, but Colgate I'm saying that whole bottom four in terms of fun. Colgate plays a fun, aesthetically pleasing style of basketball.
That's all I'm saying. They're not going to beat Texas.
That's not what I'm saying. Colgate, last year I did the Colgate thing because they played Wisconsin.
Dude, it's literally in my manifesto. Do not believe in Colgate again.
Because everyone's like, look at their shooting, and they have all these guys that don't make mistakes. They got to a point in the game against Wisconsin, which is hard to do, where all of our athletes, and I use that with air quotes, looked 10 times better, and they look like they're all wearing cement shoes.
Texas is going to plitter. I'm not saying pick Colgate to win.
I'm saying in terms of those two games. Fun teams, fun teams.
The two games, Texas A&P and then Texas Colgate will be two fun games to watch. Texas will probably be in a comfortable lead the whole game, but Colgate will be fun.
Their team you'll want to root for. Sounds like we have to make a legacy bet.
Texas is going to murder them. I think Texas will.
I think Texas will murder them. But PFT is right.
Texas A&M would be awesome. It's going to be awesome.
That's a big 12, no, a big 12. No, an SEC revenge game.
Yeah. But it's not SEC yet.
But it's not. Does Texas A&M get revenge on Texas? Because now Texas has joined Texas A&M.
I think it's a civil war. Yeah.
It's a civil war. It's a house divided.
They should actually wait and play this game on Thanksgiving. Oh, my God.
Yes. I would love that.
Pause the whole tournament. That would be – it's going to be a fun game.
The two guard-oriented teams that play great defense. We also – we have some other revenge games in this bracket, depending on how – because this is really all that, like, the media does in March Madness.
Like, look at this revenge game. I don't know if this is a revenge game or just a homecoming game, but Sean Miller, if he beats Mississippi State and Xavier wins, Sean Miller did play at Pitt.
So maybe is that a revenge game? He could play his alma mater. He's from Pennsylvania.
He played at Pitt. He plays alma mater.
I don't know. Does that count as a – what is that? It's just a storyline game? Yeah, that's just a factoid game, I think.
You know what that is? That's an interesting nugget. Yeah, that's a nugget.
it's just that's just uh yeah that's just a factoid game i think that's it yeah you know what that is that's that's an interesting nugget that's an interesting nugget game and then well you just kind of threw out iowa state there no i know i'm saying yeah they pit has to win two games they gotta win two games they have to beat mississippi state we had joey hauser already playing his second round game revenge game little nugget i have a nuggetget on Iowa State that their strength of schedule, their opponent's offense has been number one in the country. Yeah, Big 12.
Battle-tested. Battle-tested team.
Battle-tested. Battle-tested.
Do you think TJ Otzelberger, I asked this on the live stream, but we moved past him pretty quickly. Is he jacked or is he just wearing tight clothing? I think he's mini-jacked.
Okay. Because he's not a tall guy.
Maybe he is tall. He doesn't look that tall.
He doesn't look that tall. He doesn't look that tall.
I also am respecting Iowa State because this is a lot of, you know, the number one rule in sports and gambling, everything is like past doesn't. What's the actual saying? I need a line.
Past performance is not indicative of future results. There it is.
Iowa State beat Wisconsin last year in the tournament, so I respect Iowa State from that. It means nothing.
But this is just how my brain works. I think TJ Otzelberger, his hair is too nice to be jacked.
You know what I'm saying? Unless he's got that Oregon strength coach vibe to him. You remember the one with the mustache? Yeah, he's at Miami.
Are you saying that the only way to to really be a jack man is to have uh awful hair like awful terrible hair yeah because you have to overcompense yeah yeah shaved head goatee because you're going bald and then you're you wear polo shirts that are super super tight some really bad tragedy in your childhood yeah it'd be like i'm gonna get so jacked no one can pick on me anymore. Young adult life, maybe.
Yeah, right, right.

Something happened where you're like, I'm spending my whole life in the gym.

And then you move thousands of miles away from home to live by the beach or something.

Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.

Well, you didn't get jacked.

You got emaciated.

You're the first person who did the fucking insulin medicine without doing it.

Yeah, I did the opposite of it.

I thought we were going a different path.

Never mind. What about your beloved Hoosiers um revenge game uh Indiana Houston in the sweet 16 uh Kelvin Sampson versus the program that he sank yes on the way out um yeah it would be a juicy storyline to be sure um I see this is why this is why I hate filling out brackets because before the bracket came out I wrote down advance Kent State no matter who they play.
And then they played Indiana, and I was like, what do I do? And I had to stick with it. So I have Kent State beating Indiana, but I hate that.
I definitely hate that. And I just want to crawl into a hole because...
Kent State's really good. And Sincere Carey's a really fun March name to say.
Yeah. Like, that is it.
When you think in storylines, think of an announcer saying Sincere Carey from three. With a name like that, he's destined to play in the NBA.
Am I right? Yeah. When we're on fucking season 543rd of the dozen, there will be a Sincere Carey question.
Who led the Mac in points in, in like 2023? I don't even know if he did.

They also, Kent State is a muck it up team is how I've described them.

They played a game against Houston.

If I remember right, the score was like 45 to 43 or something. Yeah.

It was just disgusting basketball.

And I think that Indiana played a brand.

So Indiana, before Mike Woodson got there with Trace Jackson Davis and some of the other guys that are still there, they played a brand of basketball that was muck. And I think there's a world where Kent State invites them back into the muck.
And they just revert back to their old ways. And suddenly they're playing Archie Miller basketball.
Oh, no. Yeah, and it's just a gross basketball game that's just like, yeah, that Indiana fans are losing their minds like, how did we get here? I don't know.
That's one timeline I see. I got a deep, deep revenge game on this one.
Chris Payton, who plays for Kent State, who might be guarding TJD for a little bit in this game or most of it. He played at Pitt.
He's from Bloomington. Oh, interesting.
Revenge game against the entire town. Yeah.
I like that. Yeah.
What about Texas coach? Terry? Yeah, Rodney Terry. Rodney Terry.
I've read a lot of stuff about him recently because they're going to have to determine at some point if he's going to come back. He's from Bloomington, Illinois, so it's not actually.
Oh, it's not. Different Bloomington.
Okay. But with Terry, how many games does he have to win for him to be a presumptive guy coming into next year I think there's an argument to be made he should be the guy already I don't think Texas is going to see it that way I think he's going to have to go to the final four for them to actually hire him and I think he could but the Texas is in a position like Chris Beard was such the perfect hire for them like when they hired them, they were like, we got our guy for the next 30 years.
He's going to be here for 30 years, and then he was not. And so I think they're in a position where they want to take a big swing.
Big swing. Hope they don't choke.
Texas, if they choke, they'll take a big swing. They want to take a big swing on their next coaching hire.
If you're looking for the inverse of the Alabama storyline, Texas would be it where they got rid of the bad guy, and then they go on a miracle run. Yes, and they're a program that I was talking to Stanford Steve on my show about how I was trying to make an argument that Ohio State basketball is actually fun to cheer for if you can just remove the football part of it.
But nobody can. I think Texas basketball is kind of the same thing.
There's no real reason to hate Texas basketball. They never win anything.
They always choke. They had Kevin Durant and they didn't do anything.
They never do anything. So there is some small part that's like, yeah, I get you hate the fan base because they're so loud and they think that they're the best and they never win anything.
But if you just cut out all of that and just focus on the group inside the Texas basketball locker room, they've never elevated themselves to hateable in my eyes because they never actually win anything. Do you know what it is? It's very similar to when LeBron was in Cleveland separating the Cavs and LeBron from Browns fans.
Because I was like, I root for the Browns fans, not thinking in my head, oh, yeah, these are also LeBron fans. These are the same people that are – Texas football and basketball, you've got to separate them.
Also, I mean, like TJ Ford, who didn't love him? Yes. But that's what happens is as Texas basketball starts winning, you realize the same people that are happy about this are those assholes that I deal with in the fall, you know, X, Y, Z.
And yeah, so then you're like, never mind. I hate these guys.
Yeah, it's similar to the John Shire-like Duke fan. Like, I'm rooting for John Shire, and then I'm like, wait, Duke fans just got a title? But then Duke fans are going to be happy.
Yeah. Shit.
Yeah, exactly. What did I do to myself? I do need to see McConaughey back on the bench.
Yeah. That would be awesome.
Slapping asses. Come on.
Many people, many national pundits are expecting Texas to make the Final Four this year. Yeah, I have him in the championship.
Yeah, I do. In the championship.
Now's the time when you need to come out of hiding, McConaughey. I think so.
Also, shout out in this region, Jim Lahrenag in Miami. I just love him.
He's awesome. Yeah.
I don't love that he goes by Coach L. I think that's a bad move.
Oh, yeah Inye. You should ride with that.
You should be Coach Inye. You're right.
Such a cooler letter. Is it called a tilde? What's a tilde? I think it's a tilde.
Inye is the squiggly over the end. It's a tilde in English.
It's an Inye in Spanish. We also have a wild storyline for Drake.
Their head coach is Darren DeVries. His son, Tucker DeVries, is the conference player of the year.
That's wild. That is wild.
So how do you recruit him? I don't know. Did he give him any free meals in high school, middle school? Maybe.
This is a problem. Violation.
I'm going to write in. NIL.
Yeah. It would be the first time.
Free clothes and a bedroom and a place to stay. It would be the first time Drake groomed somebody.
Ooh. That was too easy.
We forgot to mention the Bruce Pearl storyline that he was at Iowa when he was a rat. When he ratted on Illinois.
When he was a rat. Oh, he wore the wire.
Yeah. He was coaching at Iowa.
He was coaching at Iowa. Forgot about that.
Yeah. So the Iowa Elvis and Auburn Elvis.

Do with that what you may.

Who do you got coming out?

I have Texas, as I said, because Texas is depth.

Texas plays defense.

Texas is battle-tested in the Big 12.

Texas has a bevy of – that's not their mascot, is it Bevo?

No, Bevo.

Yeah, you're close.

Bevo.

I just tripped myself up.

A bevy of guards.

They check a lot of the boxes, and they're playing really well right now. So I have Houston and Texas.
I think it's going to go chalk in that regard in the Elite Eight, and then it's kind of a coin flip, and I went with Texas because I don't know what Marcus Sasser's groin looks like. Okay.
That's fair. I still haven't seen it.
See your groin. Mark, you should tweet at him.
me see your groin let me get a pic I need to see what the bruising looks like right now um I'm gonna join you I'm joining you with Texas yeah that's so you see that groin until I see the groin if Marcus Sasser is 100% healthy I would like Houston but yes yes I'm also kind of weirdly rooting for Indiana to make a deep run. And I do love watching TJD play basketball.

He is fun.

No, I think Indiana could.

I think Indiana, Jalen Hood-Chefino will be a lottery pick probably.

I don't think they play good enough defense,

and they're certainly not consistent enough.

But Indiana on their best night can beat anybody.

I mean, they smoked Peru in Mackey Arena.

Yeah, swept them first time in like 10 years. Yeah.
I kind of like A&M to beat Texas. Ooh.
Coach Buzz, ride with their guy a little bit. Yeah.
So I'm going to go chalk out of this region. I'm going to go Houston.
Houston. Houston.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Okay.
Last region. This is the death.
Region of death. The West.
Yeah. So when we were doing our bracket reveal show, I said this looks like the region of death.
I went back and looked in this region. You have five teams that are in the top 11 in Ken Palm, which is pretty crazy.
That's crazy. That's crazy.
That's good. And not only that, but the number one seed is the fourth ranked team of those five in Ken Palm.
So UCLA is number two in Ken Palm. They're the two seed.
UConn is number four in Ken Palm. They are the four seed.
Gonzaga is number eight in Ken Palm. They're the three seed.
And then Kansas is number nine in Ken Palm. They're the one seed.
And St. Mary's is up there, too.
St. Mary's is 11.
Yeah. And Arkansas is 20.
So you have six in the top 20. This is this entire region.
And then we didn't even mention TCU, which, like, when I was looking at the bracket reveal, I was like, every team, there's six teams in this region that their ceiling is Final Four national championship. Yeah, TCU came into this season saying we expect to make the Final Four because they last year, if you remember, took Arizona, who was the number one overall seed in last year's tournament, to overtime.
There was a controversial call that wasn't actually controversial at all, but everyone lost their minds on an over-and-back call. But that was when America was introduced to TCU, and then they brought all those guys back.
No Eddie Lampkin, you love eddie lampkin i love that you you've always loved eddie lamp i love it he was in the office uh a few months ago he was you could probably get him in the office now because he left the team he's got nothing going on right now why'd he leave i don't know uh well so a little bit of injury then also his mom came out and said that uh there was maybe some racial things said by Jamie Dixon. So we don't know.
Okay. Yeah.
But he left the team. Somewhere in between.
I can tell from the, well, I just asked a question. I don't want to know the answer.
Yeah, we don't know. Somewhere in between like a mild injury and racial slurs.
Yeah, right. Yeah.
Somewhere in there. Got it.
Fill in the blanks. Yeah.
Yeah. Somewhere in there.
So yeah, he's not there. But there is, this this is an incredible region.
I'm very excited about all these games. I will co-sign that and say look no further than just the Arkansas-Illinois game, having two teams that have just loads and loads of talent and on paper jump out at you at how good they could be theoretically if they could just put it all together.
Neither team has really done that fully yet, but you can talk yourself into it. And that's the 8-9 game.
So, like, honestly, it's a cop-out, I understand, and people get angry when I do this, when I do, like, the anything-could-happen type shit. But Illinois is good enough to make the Final Four.
They're not going to. They're not.
They're going to find a way to screw it up. But if you've been watching Illinois all year and you only focus on their positive flashes of basketball, you're like, that team is good enough to make a Final Four.
Same with Arkansas. They're loaded with talent.
I think it's going to be a rock fight, by the way. It's going to be.
I think it's going to be like very – that might be my under of the month. You have no idea which one of those teams is going to show up uh and if they whoever wins you don't know who's going to show up against kansas it's just but but that's what makes that region crazy is like if you're kansas you could you could get the shitty version of illinois run them off the floor and it's a ho-hum second round game or you could get you know like an arkansas team that's got multiple lottery picks yeah and a ton of athleticism and you're like, and I thought we were one seed.
How the hell did we get this draw? You know who I want to show up to this game? Burt Bielema? Yeah. Revenge game.
I would like him to do like a topless red panda at halftime. There should be an Arkansas Burt Bielema versus Illinois Burt Bielema bet that we have on this game.
It is a revenge game for him. Loser has to eat 70 pounds of red meat after the game.
We need it. We need it.
And we have, speaking of revenge games, if Illinois gets to the second round and Bill Self, that is obviously Bill Self, coach of Illinois. His guys went, you know, that was a famous team that went to the national championship game.
So I don't know if that's even revenge because that felt.

Who's we just say revenge.

If someone has any ties to the other team.

Who's mad at who?

I think Illinois probably would be a little mad, but then also wouldn't take Kansas job over Illinois.

Yeah, they'd be like, thank you for taking us to a national championship.

Right, right, right.

Well, Bruce Weber did.

But yeah, he's his guys. His guys.
His guys that he recruited. Cliff Alexander revenge game, by the way.
There we go. Remember that? Cliff Alexander, yes.
You know that video. Yes, yes.
Oh, my God. We also have maybe if CBS, TBS, whoever this game's on, knows what they're doing as broadcasters.
Iona UConn. We need it to just – don't even show the game.
Just show Dan Hurley and Rick Pitino just in their coaches' boxes just going nuts. They should have an alternate feed.
Yes. Coaches only.
Yes, absolutely. I did a personal alternate feed at the Big East tournament for Hurley versus Shaka the other night.
I just watched them for the whole game. Shaka was on the court.
Shaka was on the court. And did you see he blew me off post-game? What did he do? I said good game, coach.
He just walks right past me. Shaka was – Respect to Biz Shaka.
Chip on my shoulder, Marquette versus Vermont. Yep.
Shaka literally was on the court. It was driving me insane.
But either way, I was joking. If Rick's in the box, he'll only be in there for a few seconds.
Yes, yes. 15.
Yeah. If there was a stream of Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley, and they were mic'd up, and we got like a genuine mic'd up experience, not that they knew they were mic'd up, but you just get to hear whatever they would have said otherwise.
And you can either watch that stream or watch the actual game. I would watch that stream.
Yes. I would watch that stream and check the score later.
Absolutely. And just judge by their facial expressions.
I was saying that the ref, if they know what they're doing, they should just give a tee to both of them before they even tip it off. And be like, I know what you guys are going to say.
So here's your technical. If Rick Pitino wins this game, I think that we're definitely going to get Rick at a big school next year.
Well, that's the best part about this, is this could be something we get twice a year because Rick Pitino going to St. John's, Rick Pitino going to Georgetown.
I haven't heard Ed Cooley going to Georgetown, Rick Pitino going to Providence. There's all types of Rick Pitino fanfic going on out there.
I like that. He's going home.
I actually think Leroy broke the Ed Cooley of Georgetown. He might have been a little bit over his skis.
Got it. Might have been some bad rumors.
Ed Cooley loves Providence. He does love Providence, but he also likes money.
Is the thing. Everyone likes money.
I like that fan fiction, though. Ed Cooley to Georgetown, Rick Pitino, go to Providence.
He's going home. Run it back.
Where he started, yeah. That's interesting.
I would love to see Rick advance to the second round here. Rick Pitino against St.
Mary's second round. Oh, I think VCU.
What if it goes on a little run here? I think VCU is going to be a tough, tough game for St. Mary's.
I mentioned this on the show, or Titus' show, VCU revenge game against COVID. They forfeited the last time they were in the tournament.
Oh, yeah. I can't trust VCU.
Oregon won. Oh, yeah.
The forfeit. I can't trust VCU until I see a mask up.
I need a picture of the guys taking COVID seriously this time around. Because they, last time too many positive tests.
Which coach was it in 2021 that he had a massive herpes outbreak? I thought you were going to say Josh Pastor with the mask. He just got fired.
There was one coach that had a massive herpes outbreak, and they all had to wear masks. But for whatever reason, this one coach kept pulling his down.
It's like, dude, you have the best built-in excuse. It's a once-in-a-generation pandemic.
No one has to know. I don't remember.
I don't remember that either. I don't remember.
I know what you're talking about. Yeah.
I don't. I do know what you're talking about, but I don't remember.
Who's the coach with herpes? Oh, it was Fred Hoiberg. Oh, okay.
Everyone thought he had COVID, right? Fred was the one who was very, very sick. Oh, okay.
That's what I was thinking. He had the flu.
Remember? He was sweating on the sideline. Everyone's watching that, like throw this man in prison.
Yeah. How dare him? And then he didn't even have COVID.
It's just the flu. That's what you were going to say.
Yeah, this region. And Gonzaga.
What do you even talk about? Gonzaga. That great canning game is going to be awesome.
Gonzaga as a three seed with zero pressure whatsoever is very, very dangerous. And for whatever reason, America hates Gonzaga, and everybody loves to roll their eyes at the idea of Gonzaga.
The Gonzaga's gone to seven straight Sweet 16s.

He's Mr. March.

He's Mr. March.

Mark Few might be Mr. March.

He's never in no Final Four.

Yeah.

So Gonzaga's a three seed where there's no target on their back whatsoever and nobody's expecting.

I mean, I've kind of at times probably –

I've probably said this multiple times that I hate this Gonzaga team. I don't hate them anymore.
They're starting to play a little bit better lately. Their offense is really humming.
But, yeah, all season long it's been clear that this is not one of Mark Few's best teams, and that kind of makes them dangerous, that they can just let it rip and have Drew Timmy just, you know, be the All-American that he is. I feel like we are destined to see Drew Timmy, at least in Sweet 16 game.
Yes. Also just a reminder, don't root for Northwestern because a bunch of journalists are going to come out of nowhere and just be so fucking annoying.
I called my shot on a graphic that CBS is going to do. Northwestern kid crying then and now.
They're going to show him live in the sands.

The meme.

The AD's son.

Yeah.

They're going to show him six years later.

Yeah, he's like 25 years old now.

Yeah.

I hope he's crying again.

He probably will be.

He's a Northwestern guy.

Yeah, yeah.

Although it would be nice to see Greeny advance.

No, but Ravel?

Yeah.

That's the problem.

Yeah.

You can't have Ravel like.

He can't have anything nice. He took the polo off of Collins' body when they won at Rutgers.
He literally was like, on his Instagram feed, he was like, got the game-worn polo from Coach Collins. Fucking crazy.
We can't have it. We can't have it.
We'll get Wilbon on PTI wearing a little purple quarter zip. A quarter zip with like 10.
You can't have it. Something like a small piece of flair.
There'll be a polo shirt that he has underneath his quarter zip. You can't even see the logo on it.
Can't have it. Tony, my wild card.
Northwestern just, oh, they play an ugly style of basketball. Counterpoint, boo-boo-y, fun to say.
Boo-boo-ey is fun to say. You can't have that.
And then UCLA, if Jalen Clark was healthy, he's not, obviously. Yeah, that's on Max.
Max tore his Achilles. Is it officially torn? Yeah.
It was torn the second we saw the video. That's not true.
Yes, it was. We didn't see the MRI.
No, actually, that's technically true, Max, because he tore his Achilles,

and I said the second we saw the video, he tore his Achilles.

But we didn't know.

But we did because his Achilles was torn.

It was torn.

We just found out.

You're wrong.

His Achilles was torn.

You're jumping to conclusions.

No, I was not.

It's called being right if you were right about it.

Yeah, and his Achilles was torn.

The minute it was torn, I said it was torn. It is now torn.
No, it just got torn at the hospital. Imagine being torn in the MRM machine.
Yeah, it wasn't torn. Look at this.
You should do screenshots, Max. Like, look at this.
It's clearly intact when he was being wheelchaired off the court. I'll do some research.
Yeah, please do. I'll conduct my own research.
If he was healthy, I think I said on the show with Jake, if he was healthy, I would have wrote UCLA as national champion and filled my bracket out backwards. It was a good pick.
UCLA was a good pick. It was.
Until you toured Jalen Clark's Achilles. So I don't know how good they are now.
I mean, they played Arizona well. They had a shot to beat them in the tournament.
They have Mr. March, Mick Cronin.
They do have Mr. March.
Did you see his dad was fighting people? Yeah, of course. Yeah, I love that.
Good. See, this is his name again? Hep.
Hep C. Yeah, Hep C.
Hep C. Hep C's back, guys.
Watch out. Wrap it up.
But Mick Cronin is, I feel like this is when he really shines, is when everybody completely doubts him. Yeah.
And he's going to be coaching pissed off. And they've got guys that have been there forever.
Tiger Campbell. And Hawkins have been there forever.
This is why this is the group. I could see Kansas winning the national championship.
I could see UCLA winning the national championship. I could see Gonzaga's tough to go all the way, but I could.
I can't see them in the final four. UConConn is up there uh Arkansas and Illinois like I said in some like weird twisted timeline like I could see them TCU same thing like it's the ones that I did the the top eight seeds of the top eight seeds of the teams that I think there's no way they're they're winning national champions Northwestern and St.
Mary's Jake I need you to put a reminder in here for me because this is something I make a mistake every single year. If Arkansas or Illinois wins that game by 10 or more, take Kansas by a billion.
Because that is exactly what will happen. Like, Illinois would beat Arkansas.
You'd be like, holy shit. Illinois kicked the shit out of Arkansas.
So, reminder of me for Saturday morning. Yeah, Kansas better watch out.
Then Kansas is like, no, no, no. That's not how this works.
If Illinois wins, the game will be in Des Moines, Iowa. Now Kansas is close to there as well, obviously.
But Illinois, very close to Des Moines. Does that matter? How much does that matter? I think Kansas travels better.
It's like Kentucky, Kansas. Those teams, they're going to have fans there no matter what.
You know what I mean? But instead of Kansas overwhelmingly having the advantage, like say if it was Florida Atlantic that they were playing as their nine seed, it's going to be Illinois. True.
I don't know. Either way.
What makes you think? If either of those teams wins decisively in that 8-9 matchup, it's hammer time on Kansas.

Yeah.

Because I trick myself.

It's the same as in football.

Whoever wins the wild card, you're like, man,

they just won a playoff game.

This other team hasn't won a playoff game yet.

Like, the Giants won a playoff game.

They're going to be able to go into Philadelphia.

No, that's not how it works.

All right.

I have a rowback question.

R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. You're wearing it right now, Mark.
wearing the roback joggers they have q-zips hoodies joggers polos everything roback.com the most comfortable clothes in the world use code take for 20 off your first purchase uh who do you have coming out of this region group of death uh i have kansas it looks like. And I have Kansas because what was the stat I pulled, Jake? When Bill Self has a one seed, he's gone to seven out of nine Elite Eights.
So I think Kansas is a shoo-in to the Elite Eight. And then at that point, they're going to either play a Gonzaga team that's very flawed or a UCLA team that just lost their best defender.
And I thought they're probably going to win that game. So I have Kansas going back to the Final Four.
That's my pick. Which people hate because any time you pick the one seed, it makes people very angry.
I hate that. I'm angry.
I hate it. I'm angry.
So wait, what's your Final Four right now? I have, if you want storylines, here's your storyline.

I have Jim Boeheim's last season in college basketball.

I have a 2003 replay with Texas, Kansas, and Marquette all making the final four.

But the fourth team, because Syracuse isn't in it this year,

I have Alabama in Syracuse's place.

And then Alabama goes on to win the national match.

They're the new Syracuse. They're the new Syracuse, yeah.
With a freshman leading the way. Let me ask you this.
In a year that ends in three, has a freshman ever carried a team to a national championship and won their coach his first and only title with Texas, Kansas, and Marquette also in the final four? Has that ever happened? Somebody Google that. I don't think so.
Yes. I'm looking right now.
What does it say? Yes. It happened.
Actually, it's actually the last year that ended in three. The last time a year ended in three, Syracuse won at all.
That's right. Because Louisville didn't count.
It didn't happen. That year did not count.
Right. It never happened.
Yep. So 20 years later.
No, yeah. So the last time the year ended in three that we had this.
For the record, when I was filling out my bracket, that was not my train of thought. This is just retroactively making stories.
It sounds like you just kind of improv your bracket. You just go through it.
Pretty much. Without writing a structure, but you just lead wherever your heart takes yeah my big my big uh red flag is that i have a lot of conference tournament winners oh that's always very stupid the same thing that we just said yeah i know but i painted myself in a corner i didn't realize it till i was on my lead eight and i was like fuck it you gotta be tired too if you win your conference tournament at this point right you would yeah but Then UConn.
Remember UConn? Yeah, you can get hot. Kansas won theirs last year in the title.
Yeah, yeah.

I was –

Yeah, but then UConn.

Remember UConn?

Yeah, you can get hot.

Kansas won theirs last year in the title.

Yeah.

I would be tired.

Yeah.

I would be tired if I didn't play basketball.

I'm tired and I just watch the games.

You'd be like, fuck this.

I have to go play basketball again.

Yeah.

I'm going to take UConn in this region.

That's a fun pick.

UConn's a fun pick.

Too bad they're going to lose first round.

UConn.

So my file for is what? UConn's a fun pick. Too bad they're going to lose first round.
UConn. So my Final Four is what?

UConn, Texas.

What was my...

Did you go Arizona?

No, I went Memphis.

I went Memphis and Arizona.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm going to go UCLA.

Fuck it.

Because fuck it.

Because that's why.

Keep riding.

Because fuck it.

It's Mick.

It's Mick.

Hep C in the crowd.

Hep C.

The boys.

Team of destiny.

Let's get the boys back together. I actually do think to mick where like the the worse his teams get the better his coaching gets yeah i'd agree uh i'm very god damn it there's nothing better than a tournament it's the best any other last thoughts you're gonna be on streams with us yeah i'll be streaming um This be streaming.
That'll be fun, being in a room full of...

Can we get one lock a day?

One Mark Titus lock a day?

People are very angry that I'm not providing the locks of the day.

I told you this, that I wanted my locks of the day to just be like Houston.

Find the biggest spread.

I'll do that.

I'll do Moneyline.

I'll do 1 over 16 Moneyline.

Just roll it over. It'd be so awesome

if you lost.

512. Give us a 512 upset.

512.

It would have been Oral Roberts

over Duke, but I think Duke's

the best 5 and Oral Roberts is the best 12.

So I will say

Charleston over San Diego State. I think

San Diego State...

I think San Diego State's the

better team, but Charleston

all year, they're not that great, but they just keep finding ways to win, and the game will be close, and they'll eke out a W, and that feels like a good one. But I honestly like all the 12-5s, as everybody does every year.
But the little nugget, I guess, I was talking to Jake about, is that this year it felt like there were a ton of – in the small school conference tournaments, the one seeds and the two seeds won a lot of them to where your 12 through 16 seeds are very, very strong. There's not a lot of teams that got hot just to win three games in their conference tournament, and now they're like a 14 seed that might be a little fraudulent.
These are teams that were dominating their conferences all year, like across the board. So yeah, there probably will be a lot of upsets, because it's a lot of 25-plus win teams that are double-digit seeds, which doesn't happen all the time.
What 15 seed is the most likely to give a two seed a scare? There's always a scare out there. Princeton, Colgate, or Asheville would probably be the three I would look at.
Just three out of four. I don't know if there's – Can we narrow it down a little bit to maybe two out of four? Just three out of four.
I don't like the – So wait, what's the one that is not going to give a scare? It's Vermont. Vermont.
Oh, Vermont? Oh, okay. Gotcha.
Yeah, yeah. Sorry to – They're going to win.
I know. Jake creamed his – That's not a scare, yeah.
What did you say creamed his dockers? He creamed his dockers when they announced that in Columbus, and he asked for permission to go. It's like, yes.
Jake's very persuasive, so he's slowly talking me into the idea. But Vermont and Colgate were two teams I wrote down.
Don't trust them. How often can we – just one time I want Vermont to pop up on a bracket and nobody mentioned TJ Sorrentino.
But unfortunately, we have no other moments to go off of yeah and at what point do we all say wait a second we talk about this every year nothing happens yeah you know yeah but it's why it's gonna happen now when no one suspects it gonzaga it's it's you're taking that because no one expects them to go deep if if vermont does beat marquette jake deserves to just like host part of my take one day or something he gets he should host your podcast for a day. I probably would let you do that.
Yeah. He doesn't even want that.
Jake over. Jake, if Vermont beats Jake over.
If Vermont beats Marquette, you get to do the Ray Allen tweet. Perfect.
That's perfect. Let's go Golden Eagles.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go.
That's perfect. Wait, you would rather have Marquette win than to have an all-time upset

and have to tweet the Ray Allen tweet.

I'm so excited.

Yeah, I'm so excited.

We should actually pick one where if you call the upset correctly,

you get to do the Ray Allen tweet.

Okay.

Like how Max got to do that.

It has to be a 13 or higher.

13 or higher.

All right.

Titus, you in?

Yeah.

What are you going to do the Ray Allen tweet?

Oh, well, I'm clearly going to go Iona.

Yeah. If Iona wins, you do the Ray Allen tweet? I'm going to do the Ray Allen tweet.
I don't think I want to do the Ray Allen tweet. Okay, that's fine.
You don't have to. I'll go to the club.
I needed some help. Unfortunately, you still have some integrity.
Well, you could just pick a 16 seed. That's true.
I'll pick a... No, it might happen.
It might happen, Titus. Iley Dickinson.
Okay. Oh, yeah.
Say your line. Say your line.
Oh, that Dickinson did make. At least one Dickinson made the NCAA tournament.
Yeah. That's good.
That's pretty good. Because Fairley Dickinson has to win two games.
Yeah, they have to win two. And Dickinson.
I don't know. I would love it if Hunter Dickinson showed up with the ski mask on for the NIT.
Michigan has Toledo in the NIT, by the way. Our guys, Barstool.
I'll go Furman. I'll go Furman with my Ray Allen sweet pick.
I feel good about that. PFT and I want to do it.
Oh, yeah. It would pop.
I would love it. I would love nothing more than to do Ray Allen sweet.
But it's good that we're doing this type of stuff because it would lose its luster if we just did it.

Yep.

I'm excited to watch the tournament with you boys, though.

It'll be fun to be on the couch with you guys.

You say that now, by the end of day number two,

you're going to be just tapping out.

I'm curious.

I've done three, maybe four, West Coast NCAA tournaments. It's a tip-off at 9 a.m.
You wake up, make a little coffee, and then the games are starting. So I'm curious to get back on the East Coast.
Yeah, it all blends together. Because you really don't have a morning and then you just.
Recording podcasts at 2 a.m. Hey, some of us.
Thank you for your service. God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.
That's us. We'll see where that goes.
We'll get a little loopy. All right, you want to stick around for the lottery ball? Yeah.
Okay, all right. One last thing we got to get to.
I've talked about this all episode. PFT.
Yeah, Big Cat. I think I've sold it, but I want you to say right now that you're going to be a pepperoni dog owner and get your future dog pepperoni treats all the time.
Like Whitey, who's in studio right now. Give him a pepperoni treat.
I want to see if Whitey likes it before I make my final decision. Make sure you're on the YouTube to see Whitey in all his glory getting some pepperoni treats.
I mean, Whitey's going nuts. Whitey's in here right now.
Look at this. And Billy's dog's also here.
Clip this and send it to me, Max, because this is the best ad ever. I'll tell you what.
Whitey is locked in on those treats right now. I'm going to say it.
I'm a pepperoni guy. Yes.
Let's go. Everyone clap it up for PFTs.
Officially a pepperoni guy. The future PFT puppy is going to be loaded with pepperoni.
And pepperoni is our sponsor. Papperoni has a taste and aroma that dogs find irresistible.
Look at Whitey right now. He's barking at you.
Proof tested right now. Give me more.
He's going woof yeah with his Papperoni beef flavor snacks. So be your best friend's best friend with Papperoni treats.
Go to Papperoni.com to find a bag near you. Also send us a pic of you and your dog filling out your bracket for a chance to win some PMT merch.
Tweet us at pardon my taking at Pupparoni. I'll tweet out a picture of me and Stella filling out our bracket.
Go check it out now. Billy, let's go an extra mile for Pupparoni.
I want Whitey's bracket, so I want him to pick every single game. Oh, okay.
You've done it already? You actually did? You did the whole bracket. Look at that.
That's beautiful. That's why he's farting.
Why does his collar say 646-3266? Oh, that's your number. Go to Pepperoniaroni.com to find a bag near you.

Some psycho is going to spend the next, like, four days trying to figure out,

hack Billy's number.

Send us a pic of your dog.

Filling out your bracket for a chance to win some PMT merch.

Tweet us.

At Pardon My Taking, at Pupparoni.

Thank you to Pupparoni.

Go get some Pupparoni for your dogs.

Come on.

They love it.

Whitey's going absolutely bonkers right now for his pepperoni. Okay.
It's time. Titus, your first ever chance.
Hank, have you ever gotten this? Nope. Sure? Yep.
Positive. You've never gotten the lottery ball? No.
This is his first time, so he doesn't know? You guys have done a lot of shows, haven't you? Hank, you want to do a pee-back? This is our 500 show, actually. And you've never gotten it one time? No.
You want to do a pee-back? I don't have any pee. The water's off.
I don't have any right now. Okay.
All right. We won't do it.
Should we let Titus pick first? He's our guest? I'll go 83. 83.
Okay. Numbers.
69. Oh, that was PFT.
88. PFT beat you.
I literally beat you. 17.
Murph. What's your number, Billy? 96.
Okay. 18.
18. What was you? 83.
I was 83. Hank at 88.
20, 96, 69, 17. High percentage.
A lot of people are guessing right now. Eight.
Fuck. Eight.
Are you going to guess eight? I guess 88 Oh no Hank You were so close You're only 80 numbers off Were you thinking about guessing 8? No You don't guess 88 without thinking about 8 It's a lot of 8's You wanted more 8's You got greedy Hank You'd do half the amount of 8s and you would have won. Everything would have been different.
PFC, you won on eight twice. Yeah, eight to my jam.
And Hank's never won. I would have taken eight, but I took 69 for Billy.
Ever. All right, that's the show.
Love you guys. Birds are closer to dinosaurs than lizards.
Wait, are dinosaurs real? Are they methodically? I'm talking away Though I don't know what to say I'd say it anyway Today is another day to find you shining I'm coming for your love of great Needless to say All the sentence But I'll be Stumbling away Stumbling and learning Life is okay Say after me It's no better to be safe than sorry Say after me It's no better to be safe than sorry No See you next week. We'll be coming for you anyway I'll be coming for you anyway Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me Take on me I'll make you take me.

Take me.

Take me.

Take me.