Andy & Ari On3 - Alabama SWATS its way past North Carolina | Can anyone slow down UConn?

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Need to sneak in those tournament games while at work? Prime Video has you covered. Watch every game live, on your phone, on your laptop, or relax and watch at home on Prime Video, with a subscription. Prime Video gives you choices to add on channels like Paramount Plus and Max, both featuring March Madness tournament games, all in one place. It’s March, it’s Madness, stream it all on Prime Video.Learn more now…https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/storefront/ref=atv_hm_spo_c_rEmqNT_6_2?contentType=tournament&contentId=amzn1.dv.icid.64a44c0e-3ac7-4b14-ad4d-c2a438001f2c&jic=8%7CEgNhbGw%3D(0:00-6:40) Intro - Recapping a Wild Thursday in the Sweet 16(6:41-6:59) James Fletcher III joins to recap Thursday night's action(7:00-9:44) Alabama 89, North Carolina 87(9:45-11:00) Clemson 77, Arizona 72(11:01-16:05) Alabama's Accomplishments this Season(16:06-19:09) Deeper Dive into Clemson's Run(19:10-21:09) Transfer Guys in the Tournament(21:10-32:49) UConn 82, San Diego State 52(32:50-40:19) Illinois 72, Iowa State 69(40:20-43:34) Previewing Friday's Sweet 16 Games - Duke vs Houston(43:35-49:18) NC State vs Marquette(49:19-54:09) Midwest Region - Tennessee vs Creighton(54:10-59:55) Purdue vs Gonzaga(59:56-1:00:16) ConclusionHalf the Elite Eight is set and if Thursday is any indication, Friday will be a wild night of basketball. Andy and On3’s James Fletcher III break it all down.For possibly the first time all season, Alabama’s defense matched its offense and the Crimson Tide beat North Carolina in a thriller that ended with multiple Grant Nelson blocks. Alabama will face Clemson, which beat Arizona on a night when the Wildcats inexplicably kept shooting threes that wouldn’t go down when easier scoring options were available.In the East Region, Illinois is headed to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2005 after beating Iowa State. The Cyclones brought their usual suffocating defense, but the Illini matched it and Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 29 and helped seal the win with a breakaway dunk.Illinois will face defending national champ Connecticut in the Elite Eight. The Huskies went cold late in the first half Thursday but roared to life in the second half and crushed San Diego State by 30 in a rematch of last season’s national title game.Friday, South No. 1 seed Houston plays Duke, while Marquette plays tourney darling N.C. State. In the Midwest region, Tennessee plays Creighton and top-seeded Purdue plays Gonzaga.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube - Join us live at 8 am et, M-F, don't forget to subscribe so you NEVER miss an episode of Andy Staples On3: https://youtube.com/live/VCS9nYJYUCU

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. What a sweet 16 and well, there's half of it to go tonight, but wow. Incredible games. North Carolina, Alabama was absolutely amazing. Illinois, Iowa State was pretty darn good too, but it's one of those things where I was thanking my lucky stars that I live now in 2024 and look I lived through the era of all of the games are on one channel and you're gonna get whatever matches where you are and um but I was thinking last night as as Alabama North Carolina playing as good as Illinois and and Iowa State was like if you were living in the old days when all the

games were on CBS and you only got the game that corresponded with where you were regionally you would imagine you lived in Chicago but you're not an Illinois fan you don't know anything about it like you came from somewhere else and all you want to do is watch Alabama UNC and you can't like that would have been miserable so thank goodness we live in the times we live in right now and what a game what a finish Grant Nelson the pride of North Dakota former North Dakota State Bison with 24 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks, including a key block on RJ Davis at the end of the game. And then a block of the desperation heave after he missed two free throws at the end of the game. It was incredible. That was just exactly what you want in a brand name, two really good teams, sweet 16 game. Now, Illinois, Iowa state

was kind of the same thing. And it was interesting because the teams known for their offense really did come through with their defense. The Alabama's defense came through Illinois defending Iowa state. Well, you knew Iowa state was going to play good defense, but it was a lot of fun. And then the first couple of games, okay, UConn is just a machine, keeps rolling. We're going to talk about that. James Fletcher III will be joining us, our resident bracketologist and NCAA basketball expert. But UConn is fun to watch just because of the way they destroy teams. And that game was actually close at the because of the way they destroy teams. And that game was actually close at the end of the first half.

And you're thinking, okay, is this going to be the moment in Rocky IV where Pauly says he's human, he's not a machine, he's a man? No, no. No, they're a machine. They're not normal. They are not normal. They won by 30 against San Diego State in a rematch in the national title game from last year. So they're interesting in the way that they're running through this. Clemson is interesting because Clemson wasn't supposed to be. They were six seed, which means they had a pretty good season.

But they got bounced from the ACC tournament quickly. Brad Brownell sitting there kind of hot seat-ish. No. They have been spectacular through the tournament, and we all wrote them off. I mean, all of us were picking New Mexico to beat them in the first round, and Clemson has been effective, and none of this has been fluky. Beating New Mexico, beating Baylor, beating Arizona, none of it's been fluky. Now, Arizona, I'm sure the fans just apoplectic.

The loss to Clemson looked like some of the losses earlier this season. It looked like they hadn't learned much. It looked like they just kept jacking up threes when they had easier options. They could have gone inside for easier options. Ryan in the chat, may I get a roll tide this morning? Ah, yes. The Bama folks are very, very happy. There was a scrimmage yesterday for the football team, too.

First scrimmage of the Kayla DeBoer era. So this is big doings. Big doings in Tuscaloosa. Boosted. Better hope Bama doesn't meet Tennessee again. Tennessee would go 3-0 versus Bama. It's a horrible matchup for Alabama. Well, a lot of golf left before that might happen.

Before a potential Alabama-Tennessee matchup. Because the way the bracket sets up, that would have to happen in the national championship game. So we'll get to that when it comes, if it comes, because Tennessee has its hands full with Creighton tonight. Lots to, I mean, the games tonight are incredible too. You've got Duke Houston. You've got Purdue and Gonzaga. I mean, come on. This is going to be so much fun. Marquette NC State, DJ Burns. Oh boy. This is going to be an absolute blast. So before we get to James Fletcher III the third, and we talk about Dan Hurley's dragon underwear, we got to talk about Amazon prime because that is how you can watch these games. You subscribe to Amazon prime, add on a max subscription. That'll get you your TBS,

which is where you can watch the final four in the national championship game. Add on a paramount plus subscription gets your, your CBS. You get your Roadhouse from Amazon Prime. You add on that Mac subscription. I just started watching Tokyo Vice. Tokyo Vice is fun. But more importantly, you're getting those March Madness games. You can get them on your phone. You can get them on your tablet.

You can get them on your TV. Anywhere you want them. Anywhere you need them. And you don't have to remember all those app passwords because you added on Max and you added on Paramount Plus within Prime Video. You can add it all on and then work from that very easy to use seamless Prime Video app, one password. If you want to know how to do it, click the link in the show description. If you're watching on YouTube, it's in our show description. If you are listening on your favorite podcast platform, it's in the show description. You just click listening on your favorite podcast platform, it's in the show description.

You just click that link and they will get you set up. So sign up for Amazon Prime. Watch the rest of these games that way. And there'll be plenty to watch afterward. I got Roadhouse stored on my iPad right now waiting. But I think my wife is not going to let me watch it on the road. I think she's going to say, you got to come home, and we're going to watch that together. So good luck with your teams in the tournament.

You don't need luck, though. Hit that link, sign up for Prime Video, and you can watch those games with ease. All right, let us go to James Fletcher III. Let's talk about an incredible night of basketball. James, I think we got to start in Detroit. Excuse me, not Detroit, in Los Angeles. We'll get to Detroit later. We'll start in Los Angeles, Alabama and North Carolina. What a game for Grant Nelson. What a horrible night for RJ Davis. So Grant Nelson, 24 and 12 with five blocks, including the last two were incredibly critical.

But RJ Davis, four of 20 from the field, including one of those swats from Grant Nelson. O of nine from three. Bama's defense showed up. Yeah, this Alabama team that has struggled with defense all season, you knew that the DNA was there, that kind of blue-collar mentality that Nate Oates preaches, but it just had not shown itself. And that's why they drew a lot more comparisons to the team two years ago

than they did last year's team or the team from three years ago. Those two teams, of course, made the Sweet 16. The one two years ago got bounced in the first round by Notre Dame in an upset. So when we came into this, that was kind of the thinking, was an offense that is elite, that has always been elite under Nate Oates, but the defense is not there to go on a title run. Well, they get through Charleston, which we all expected, thought they got a good draw there to advance. And what happens? They avoid St. Mary's because of an upset on the

other side of that bracket. Now they get Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon, they roll through that, they get to North Carolina, and now you start to believe. You've made it through the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, and you start to think, we are one upset away from making it the furthest that any Alabama team has made it in program history. They become the second team to make it to the Elite Eight. And now an upset happens on the bottom of the bracket. They are just one win that they were probably going to be favored in away from making history or that program. So this is kind of the madness of March. This is what happens. If you are elite in one area, you're going to give yourself a chance. They have done that and they have really brought together that defense as well.

And people are playing just a little bit harder with so much on the line here late in March. Yeah. And an Alabama Clemson game with, with stuff on the line, wrong sport. Yeah. Who would have called that? Yeah. I think this is kind of the, the confusing matchup. And we, we talked about this. This was the bracket, the part of the bracket where I said, I don't know what's going to happen. I have no idea. I knew it was going to be chaotic, but I knew that we weren't going to get this North Carolina, Arizona matchup that everybody wanted. Caleb Love versus his old teammates.

It just something was going to happen. Something was going to go wrong and we weren't going to get to see that matchup. Well, here now we have Alabama versus Clemson, which I'm assuming just about no one, unless they thought they were filling out a football bracket, had in this Elite Eight. But Clemson, another really, really great story. They go to their conference tournament. They don't look so good. They had a kind of difficult run late in the season, but we talked about it last week. They go up on that stage before the round of 64, before the round of 32, and they say, we got back in the gym, we got right, we got back together as a team, and now we're playing our best basketball.

And everyone kind of just said, okay, yeah, we'll see. They were right. They weren't lying to us. They were telling the truth. They have found a whole new year from what they had through most of the regular season and definitely have flipped it almost 180 from how they ended the regular season and the ACC tournament. So a really great story, no matter who you end up pulling for to come out of this West region. Two teams that are about as far from the West Coast as you can get, but I'm assuming there's a few fans looking to catch a flight out there for this matchup on

Saturday. So Ryan in the chat is a very defensive Alabama fan. He says, I feel like this guy is trying to diminish Alabama's accomplishments. I don't feel like you are, James. What I feel like you're doing is pointing out that down the stretch, Alabama had some games where their defense just completely failed them. Now I will say that hasn't looked that way in the tournament, the grand Canyon game, the North Carolina game, the defense showed up at the, especially at the end of the game. But that's the, that's my concern with Alabama going forward is one of those games where somebody just drops 105 points on them. Yeah. And that's the thing that they're going to have to overcome. They're going to have to show us that they are a different team than they were in the regular season on the defensive end

of the floor, which they have done in some of these games over the course of the last week. And so I surely, I do not want to diminish anything that they have done. I think Nate Oates is one of the best coaches in college basketball. What he has done, and we'll do the opposite of diminishing here, what he has done with this basketball roster this season is one of the most incredible jobs I have seen a coach do in a long time because he lost all three assistant coaches from last year's roster that had been with him for the entirety of his tenure at Alabama. He goes out, he has to get three new assistant coaches to put on his bench. He does that.

Then what does he do? He goes out in the transfer portal. He's got to replace Brandon Miller, who looks like a potential star in the NBA right now, as well as Noah Clowney, who was a guy that they expected to be there for multiple years, but was so good last year that he gets drafted in the first round as well. So he has to replace some really talented players late in the cycle. And he's able to put together this roster with Grant Nelson, Mark Sears comes back, Latrell Reitzel, who didn't play last night, but has been a huge part of their success when they've been at their best. He is probably the catalyst that makes that defense go more than anyone when it's clicking. And then you talk about a guy like Jaron Stevenson, who got some spotlight, was considered a guy who would probably end up at

North Carolina since he was so close to that school, grew up in that area, able to bring him to Alabama. And now he's playing a role in knocking North Carolina out of the tournament so everything that he accomplished this year he has overcome the odds and now they're overcoming what was a subpar defense for most of the year to show that they are something different in March and create school history here it is something that is should be talked about and should not be diminished in any way we won't tell ryan where you went to school and why you know so much about alabama we are talking to a crimson tide grad here uh so but but yeah i think you you understand how that team got here where they came from this is i would argue a better coaching job by nat Oates this year than the previous couple.

And think about this. I mean, what he's done in Alabama, nobody's been able to do this. Wimp Sanderson had good years, but most people now don't remember who Wimp Sanderson was. If you look at Nate Oates' jackets, that's that's the homage to Webb Sanderson, but, but Alabama has never been this in basketball. And the fact that they locked down Nate Oates and they have that massive buyout, which by the way, I think Nate Oates was kind of down with, cause like, I think he's, he's good with where he is. Uh, if he were to leave Alabama, my guess would be it's for the NBA, not for another college team.

So I feel like they've got him for quite some time, and this could be the beginning of something pretty special there. Yeah, they've got all the pieces to keep this going for a long time, like you said. And that I think that this year was a key point in the Nato's tenure to show whether this was some long, sustainable thing over the course of whether it's a decade, two decades, whatever it ends up being, because you do lose those assistant coaches. And when you've got continuity on the staff, when you've got a group of guys that knows their role that comes in every day, and you don't even have to talk to the head coach about what you're supposed to be doing you just walk in there and you know exactly what you need to do when he's able to replace all three of his assistants he's able to continue to build a

team that shows that same kind of identity that looks like past alabama, that's where it becomes a sort of sustainable over years and years type of team because he's going to lose another assistant here already taking a job. Austin Clonch is going to UT San Antonio, so he's going to have to replace an assistant this season. And so I fully expect him to be able to do that again because he proved this year that he could do it with three assistant coaches in one offseason. So I don't see why he would have any any problem replacing one assistant with some of the names that are out there on the market right now. Even there was a coach at Alabama who was really good at replacing assistants and continuing to to go deep in the playoffs. So it's it seems to be in the water in Tuscaloosa

let's talk about Clemson in Arizona as good as Clemson has been I imagine this was a very frustrating watch for Arizona fans because it felt a lot like some of these other games this season where they fell short and I just I felt like I was yelling at my TV at times, just throw it inside. Stop trying to jack up every three. They're going to let you score inside. Why are you making this harder than it needs to be? Yeah. And this unfortunately has become a narrative that's tied to Caleb Love, not only this season,

but last season in North Carolina, is this idea that he's going to either lift you up to this big win or he's going to keep shooting the ball, trying to lift you to that big win. And if it's not going in the basket, you might just get upset. And whether that's fair or not, look, there's certainly games that he has shot more than fans would like him to shoot. But if the coach doesn't take him out of the game, ultimately, that's on the coach because that's his offense. He controls who's out on the floor, who takes the shots. So if he's comfortable with Caleb Love taking that shot, then you've got to believe. And Caleb Love has shown that he can hit those shots. It just wasn't his night last night. And it went into an overarching theme that I noticed as the night

came to a close. I started to kind of look around at the box scores. And if you really look at it, you can draw a really, really clear line on the teams that won and the teams that lost. The teams that won, their stars shot really well from the field. They knocked down threes. They were able to get to the free throw line. The teams that lost, almost all of them shot under 40% from their two or three best players from the field. Caleb Love struggled. He wasn't the only one. Pele Larson, who is probably their second best player, at least their second best perimeter player, he shot really poorly from the field, struggled from the three-point line. And so when you've got your two best players who can't knock down shots, it's just going to be a long night. It's going to be really hard to win games. You can point to North Carolina in the same way. RJ Davis, like you said,

struggled. Armando Baycott was not his efficient self. They did not shoot efficiently from the, from two point shots even. So yeah. And you can go down the line of the teams that lost their star players just didn't make their shots yeah I just I don't know what you do in that situation when you're like the R.J. Davis one's hard for me because you kind of want to do you want you want him to keep shooting you wanted to shoot his way out of it but at a certain point he's shooting your way out of the game now they put the ball in his hands in crunch time he had a chance there at the end of the game and it wasn't a three that missed it was a he drove and just got got blocked and you know we'll talk about this but the transfer portal you know everybody has their opinions on it uh i thought that eric prisbell story was very

interesting where 46 percent of the starting players in the Sweet 16 had transferred at some point. Grant Nelson's one of those guys. So Grant Nelson is a guy that Alabama picked up from North Dakota State. And without him, like they're going home. Yeah, Grant Nelson kind of showed a little bit of what he was supposed to be. like they're going home. Yeah. Grant Nelson kind of showed a little bit of what he was supposed to be.

I got actually some tech text messages last night saying like, who is this guy from a, from a couple of people that I know in Alabama who they don't follow basketball as closely as I do. So they wanted to know who is this guy and why am I just now hearing about him in March? Well, he's had a couple of games like this throughout the season, but this is what he did at North Dakota State. This was his night in night out kind of performance. He struggled a little bit this year to translate that to SEC play going up against bigger players, stronger players,

the day in day out of it all in a power conference. But he's always had that ability. He's always had this skill set that translates so well to the college basketball game into any level of basketball, really. And he went out there last night with a completely different mentality. If he can carry that mentality into the next round and beyond that, then there is really no ceiling on what this Alabama team can be with a guard like Mark Sears, another transfer, and a big like Grant Nelson. Well, and that's the basket that gave them the lead. It was actually a three-point play.

It was a pick and roll between Mark Sears and Grant Nelson. And I mean, there's nothing you can do to stop that unless you have absolutely perfect defensive rotation, which most teams are not going to have when you're dealing with a scorer like mark sears so that yeah if they could if they could keep that going there's a chance that they can they can go all the way but again the defense has to has to be there and grant nelson's part of that like his length his rim protection that does add a layer that sometimes down the stretch in sec play you didn't see so let's uh let's move to let's move to boston let's let's talk we'll talk uconn first because

james into the first half uconn goes on a little drought and it gets it gets close san diego state got within five i want to say four or five. And I'm like, oh, somebody might be able to hang with them. And then the second half starts and it's just pure annihilation. Yeah, I'm going to be honest. I never really worried about that game. I kind of was just watching it while eating dinner, while kind of walking around the apartment,

just knowing that this UConn team was going to win. It did not feel at any point, even when the score got a little close to me, like they were in danger of letting this one slip away. It felt like, okay, Hurley's got some ammunition in the locker room. He's going to let them have it. He's going to tell them that this is unacceptable, that they've got to get right. And they're going to come out here. I didn't think it was going to be 30. Don't get me wrong, but I thought they probably extended up to 10, 15 and then kind of hold it there for the rest of regulation. basketball why I think that they will repeat as national champions because there's no team on paper who you can put up against them and convincingly argue is better and going to win you know even even three four times out of ten if you play this out in a simulation so I've got UConn and they they really just cemented that with their performance against San Diego State last night. Well, and Dan Hurley got a question after

the game that his response was just perfect. So we'll just watch this. So that's nine straight tournament wins by an average of 22.8 points. When you hear that number, just what is it hard to believe? I mean, it's not supposed to be this easy.

I mean, we suck at winning close games. So games, so you've got to go with the alternative. No, I think the group, we've got a killer instinct. We play every possession with great desperation. We've got NBA-level players that are incredibly well-prepared by Luke Murray and Kamani Young, two of the best coaches in the country, assistant, head coach, players that are incredibly well prepared uh you know by luke murray and kamadi young uh who two of the best coaches in the country assistant head coach just two of the best that do it uh and uh you know obviously uh we're very comfortable in tournament play we're hard to prepare for that is pretty much accurate the we suck at winning close games, Bart. That's a joke. They can win close games too.

My question to you, James, is will they play one? I mean, it feels like everybody who's left in this tournament could challenge them if they wind up playing them. Clemson maybe is the only one you're kind of worried about. Everybody else could give UConn a very tough game. So what happens when they play somebody and it's tough and it's tight? Well, I think if they play somebody and it gets tough and it gets tight and you're right there, starting with this Illinois game, we're going to talk about Illinois, Iowa state here in a little bit, I assume, but starting in this elite eight, UConn is going to face the toughest challenges that they have faced in the postseason so far. With that being said, they are totally built for it.

They have the experience. And I think what happens when they get in that close moment is Tristan Newton, Donovan Klingin, even some of these guys, Alex Caraban. They're going to bring the team together, get in the huddle, and they're going to say, all right, guys, we did this last year. We've been here before. We did this in last year's NCAA tournament. We won it all. We did it in the Big East tournament. We won it all. We've done it to this point in the NCAA tournament again this year. So let's go out there and let's just execute how we know we are capable of. And we're going to get this done because the only young guy on that team that you really worry about, you know, does the moment get just so bright that he struggles?

And, you know, then what happens is probably Stefan Castle, the freshman that they play a lot at shooting guard. He really lifts their ceiling, but he doesn't really impact their floor because if things aren't going the right way for him, well, they defer to cam Spencer, a graduate transfer right in the system. They've got Alex caravan who, like I said, been there, done that Tristan Newton been there and done that Donovan Kling and been there and done that. They've got so many guys who have so much experience that I don't worry about anyone on that team kind of having that panic in the big moment. So I think this team really is built for this time of March.

They are built to continue to win these games, whether they get closer or not in the scoring margin. Well, and the other thing is Hurley talks about, you know, they've got NBA players who are coached very well. It's really interesting with the NBA players part of it because it doesn't feel like any of these guys is going to be a superstar in the NBA, but it feels like they have four guys who are going to be the fourth best player on their NBA team, which in college basketball makes you completely dominant. Yeah, and you look even beyond that. And most of these guys that they have, Stephon Castle would be kind of the exception to this. Yeah. And you look even beyond that. And most of these guys that they have, Saffon Castle would be kind of the exception to this. Right. He's maybe going to be a star.

Yeah. Yeah. He's kind of grown throughout the course of the year even, but most of these guys have improved greatly since they arrived at UConn, whether it's the transfers or the, you know, young guys who have kind of come along two, three years in the system now, you've seen big time growth from all of them. Donovan Klingin is a much better player than when he arrived as a freshman. You've got Tristan Newton, completely different player than what he was early in his college career. So for Dan Hurley and his staff, he gave a shout out to his assistants there

in that clip that we watched for them to be able to not only bring in the talented players, but develop them into better players, make them into, help make them into NBA level players. That is really what elevates UConn as one of the elite programs right now in college basketball. And yes, they could be upset, but whoever upsets them, if it happens is going to have to play their best game of the season. And they're going to have to play almost flawlessly to get it done. Well, and also Dan Hurley's got his red dragon underwear. You saw him after the game, he's talking to Andy Katz and he's like bringing his wife over to say, Hey, this is the lady who washes, like hand washes the Red Dragon

underwear. He wears, okay, we're not going to name the brand because it's a brand that advertises on lots of podcasts, but doesn't advertise on this podcast. So if they want to advertise, then by all means, we'll talk about it all you want. We'll actually dedicate a whole show to it. But it is a brand of underwear that is known for its softness, its suppleness. This is a pair of red boxers with dragons all over them. It is something that you would probably give your eighth grader to wear. It is not what you'd expect from the best coach in college basketball, but these are the things that...

Dan Hurley is such an interesting guy, James. That's what it's. So for me, they crush everybody. And you think, Oh, these guys are boring.

No, like Dan Hurley is endlessly interesting. He was on with John Fanta after the game last night. And he's like going through wrestling tag teams to describe, you know, how, how he and, and, and his best players fit together. He is really interesting. And also, it feels like at some point he's going to fight somebody after a game,

whether it's a fan or another coach. I just love watching him. Yeah. Not even the first time this week he made headlines with underwear. So that's just in itself tells me about Dan Hurley, but yeah, Dan Hurley is one of the up and coming stars in the coaching business. I don't even know if we can say up and coming anymore. He is kind of reached. He's there. It's just about sustaining it and kind of building up the brand over the course of the rest of his career. And so if you're Yukon, you probably want to try to work out some kind of long, long term extension with some big buyout to keep him there and make sure that the dynasty that he builds over the next 10, 20, 30 years is with you and nobody's able to touch him and try to build another program. he could do this anywhere. Yeah. And UConn though, you can make this your thing. Like they're, they're independent in football. Now they've, they've accepted, like they went

independent in football to move back to the big East so they can say, Hey, we are going to be good at basketball again. We are going to make sure we take care of what has brought us here and the sport that has always been great for us. Uh, and sides men's and women's and yeah i it's interesting to me because uconn is such a it's very much like lsu in football where multiple coaches have won national titles i does is kevin ollie your uh your ed orgeron comparison there i guess but jim calhoun is definitely like the nick saban who sort of unlocked how this works. And, and Dan Hurley is, is now continuing how, how, like once you, once you get the right mix of players in there, you can win there and win huge. Like there's no reason to leave if you're him and they take care of you. You can keep doing this forever at UConn.

Yeah. And that's, that's what UConn fans I know are hoping. And I think it's good, good for college basketball, at least in my lifetime, when UConn is at its peak, it feels like college basketball is, is really going and feels like it can take it to a whole nother level. So I'm all for UConn sustaining this and building for, for years and years with Hurley and, and all the pieces that he's going to bring in there because he has embraced modern college basketball and it has paid off big time for him. But it's like it's a mix, I feel like.

He has embraced modern college basketball. They play a very eye-pleasing style. They play a style that looks more similar to the NBA game but there is that old school edge and toughness that you used to say well they're not tournament tough you talk about a team and you say they're not tournament tough that's what we were saying about Alabama going into to the tournament you don't say that about UConn like they're going to punch you in the mouth, but in an aesthetically pleasing way. And I think that's what we've kind of found out is the medium there that you have to hit.

You've got to be able to do both. And modern college basketball, it does describe kind of the aesthetics of it. When we talk about spacing the floor, getting up and down the court, that side of the game, which they do in a big way. But like you said, they can also punch you in the mouth. They can kind of grind when they need to, especially on defense. And that's what we've seen from these teams, these coaches, the ones that have a mentality of defense first, but when we're on offense, it's going to look beautiful. Those are the ones that we're seeing have the biggest success lately in college basketball.

So Connor Stallions lives in Ohio state fan says that's his, that's his YouTube name. Better comparison. He says, Kevin Ollie's less miles. He won the title early. And then the, and then the downslide began.

I, I sort of disagree with that. Less miles slide. Didn't start till after 2011. He had a few, it's several good years before that, but I can live with that. I can live with that comparison. But speaking of punching people in the mouth, the game of punch in the mouth

was Iowa State, Illinois. Iowa State, one of the best defenses in college basketball all year. Illinois, one of the best offenses in college basketball all year. And the question was, could Illinois grind it out defensively enough to make sure that Iowa State couldn't win this game? And that's really what happened is Illinois stayed just ahead and it was a huge defensive play that really put it away. It was the Terrence Shannon Jr. steal and breakaway dunk that basically ended this game. Yeah, and this Illinois team, the offensive firepower is outstanding. You've got Damask, you've got Shannon, you've got Coleman Hawkins even in there. Coleman Hawkins, I think, is the key ingredient to this all. Not only is he the personality on the team, the one you want to

interview after the game, everybody wants to hear the little quotes that he has. I know he was kind of messing with Brad Underwood ahead of this game. And the thing is, if Coleman Hawkins is playing at his best, if he is being the kind of big bodied floor spacing power forward that he can be. They are really, really good and can give UConn a challenge. But there's times with him where it kind of floats in and out and you kind of wonder like, where is he? What's he up to right now? Maybe he makes a mistake.

If he can lock in and give them 40 minutes of really good basketball. This Illinois team can be really, really scary because he takes their defense to another level as well as that offense, which has that guard play that is just so good. And so, so hard to stop all season long, but especially here lately as they've rolled through the big 10 and now they're, they're well on their way to an elite eight matchup with the best

team in the country. Do you just have to accept that Terrence Shannon is going to bomb all over you that he's going to score a bunch of points because I, through this stretch, through the big 10 tournament, through the NCAA tournament, it doesn't seem like there's any way to slow him down. Yeah. It's, it's an interesting conversation. Do you accept one guy is going to score on you? We've seen this in basketball, and I know it's a little bit of a controversial thing, especially for fans who haven't watched the whole course of the season and how it all plays out in different defensive strategies. But there is this idea that if I let one guy score all of their points,

then basically I just need him to have a slightly inefficient night. And then we can win as long as like, like I said, these teams that lost generally their best players just didn't shoot very well from the floor. So if you put the ball in the one guy's hands and you say, all right, you score all of their points. If you can do that, congratulations, then you might go home because the guy put up 30, 40 points, but you also might take everyone else out of the game because you can take those guys out of the game. If you feel like you can't take Terrence Shannon out of the game,

you might be better served by accepting that he's going to score points. And instead of double teaming him, trying to hedge off of screens, trying to go over every screen and try to recover back, trying to play drop zone, whatever defense you want to employ to try to stop him from getting downhill or getting to his jump shot. You might be better served, and I'm not sure what different coaches will feel about this, but sometimes you are better served in college basketball or any level of basketball by saying, OK, we're going to cover you just like we cover everyone else. We know you're going to score because we do that, but you're not going to get the assists. You're not going to be able to pass it out for a wide open corner three. It's going to be a contested layup or you're going to reset the offense. You are not just getting a wide open three in the corner from a really good three point shooter

because we're scared of you making four or five of those layups. Yeah. It just seemed like last night, every time Iowa state got close, Shannon hit a dagger and it was like, okay. And it's so demoralizing time after time after time, because it really was, they get within three they get within two and then boom Illinois's back up four or five and it's just you can only take so many of those before you just can't do it anymore yeah and we are reaching the unfortunate thing with this this Illinois team is that there's more than just the basketball side of it you can't just enjoy the basketball because there's a restraining order against the school, which Terrence Shannon has put in while he goes through an active court case after being

charged. So this is all playing out in the background. And I think that the more of a national stage that they hit here in the Elite Eight and potentially a Final Four, I think the more that that side of it is going to kind of make this, this conversation about them a little more tense for, for not only media, but for fans as well. It's, it's going to be weird. And, and for those who don't know, for those who are just kind of walking into this, so Terrence Shannon has been charged with sexual assault stemming from an event in Kansas. And he was suspended initially by Illinois. And then he went to court and a federal judge said that Illinois is violating his civil rights by suspending him while he was awaiting trial. And so Illinois had no choice but to play him.

Now you can say, well, obviously they wanted to play him because he's their best player. But they did. They had suspended him at that point. And I remember when it all happened, James, like Brad Underwood got up and said, like, look, I actually have no say in this matter. Like we have to play him. I mean, I guess theoretically you could bench him, but I think you could get in trouble with the court if you did that. Yeah, that's the whole, it's such a convoluted issue because Brad Underwood is the coach technically has the right to bench whoever he wants and he doesn't have to give a reason, but you start getting into, do I really want to answer why I benched my star player who could take us to an elite eight, to a final four? Do I start, do I want to answer those questions in front of a jury, in front of a court, in front of a judge? Like it,

it's a very complicated situation for the coach, for the school, for the players and for just anyone trying to make sense of this situation and how it kind of relates or doesn't relate to the basketball that we're watching. Exactly. And so they are going to obviously have the biggest challenge in the elite eight because they've got UConn, but they are a team that can hang with UConn. This, this should be a really good game. What do you think played in the eighties would probably be talking about mid to high eighties. Yeah. I would assume that UConn at least gets to the eighties and then Illinois, if they make it a close game, it'll probably get into the eighties, maybe the low

nineties. That's probably the area that Illinois wants to play this game at. But as we know, I mean, UConn might win this by 20, 30 points again. So you can't guarantee that Illinois will get there to that 80 point threshold. Even, even though we know how good their offense is. Well, before we talk about the elite eight games, we got to talk about the rest of the sweet 16, because there's four games tonight and holy crap, like Duke Houston looks like potentially one of the more fun games of the year and that's one of those that you know Houston as good as they are and number one seed and number one in the country in the rankings most of the season I still don't think a lot of the country has watched

Houston play so Houston locks you down defensively. They make the game a slog. I really think if Houston plays a Houston, it's like a true Kelvin Sampson Houston game. The America, which is most of America that hates Duke is going to enjoy watching Duke deal with that. Yeah. I think that people will rally behind this Houston team if for no other reason than they're playing Duke tonight. But this Houston team, if you like hard-nosed basketball, you like getting on the boards, playing aggressively on defense, making sure that you follow all the fundamentals. They're going to box out. They're going to pass through the correct lanes.

They're going to make all the right cuts. That's this houston team they are extremely well coached well drilled in how to play basketball and they've got some veteran guys we're gonna lead the way jamal shed is a star at houston and he is really the offensive engine for this team jawan roberts is kind of their their go-to guy down low we'll see how healthy he looks. He was dealing with some stuff last week. Maybe over the course of the week, he's gotten a little bit healthier and he'll look a little bit better in these games if they play multiple this weekend. And then you've got LJ Cryer, one of the best three-point shooters in college basketball,

who transferred from Baylor into Houston and has really elevated this offense to another level this season. So this Houston team, they've got all the ingredients to win this game against Duke. They're favored for a reason. I know that that kind of blue blood label on Duke is going to always make them a big kind of backing, whether it's the betting market, whether it's fan support. But I really do think that this Houston team has everything it needs to beat Duke tonight. It's going to come down to, I think, the same thing that the games came down to last night. Which of the star players perform the best? Jamal Shedd and Jawan Roberts.

Maybe you throw LJ Cryer in that group as well. Or is it going to be Kyle Filipowski, uh, Jared McCain, Jeremy Roach? Will it be that group who kind of, uh, has a better night shooting who's able to play at their potential rather than trying to struggle through the night. So that's going to be the thing to watch here. How did the star players perform? I know that might sound like a simple breakdown, but that's really what it comes down to when the teams are this good. The last time we saw Jared McCain, he was simply unstoppable against James Madison. Like he may not have a night like that against Houston because Houston could make you very frustrated if you're a scorer. I do hope Jamal Shedd's mom is selling a lot of those, taking it to the shed t-shirts that's those are spectacular but yeah this is going to be a really fun game meanwhile you're at Marquette

and NC State you know Tyler Kolick came back for Marquette in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament that gives them their kind of complete form but nc state is the darling still you know the highest seeded team left in the tournament but we don't i don't look at them like they're an 11 seed james because we just watched them two weeks ago beat north carolina and duke in the same week so like i have no doubt they can beat anybody who's left in the tournament the question is is there a point they turn into a pumpkin? I don't necessarily feel that way because it just feels like they have pieces that are really tough for everybody else to match up with.

Yeah, I don't see this as a Cinderella story if you're NC State. I think that if they lose tonight, it will simply be that Marquette is one of the best teams in college basketball, and you don't always beat one of the best teams in college basketball. That's really where I'm at with this game. NC State has proven that they are worthy of being here, that they have put together a run of games, of performances, particularly from DJ Burns, who has emerged into the stall of this NCAA tournament. But I just think that it probably does come to an end tonight because they are playing one of the best teams in college basketball. They've done it against Duke.

They've done it against North Carolina. But to continue to just win game after game after game against high-level teams, it's just hard to do night in and night out. And so I think it probably does come to an end tonight, but we probably would have said that in multiple times throughout the course of the last couple of weeks. So you can't rule them out for sure in any way before the final buzzer goes off. And Shaka Smart and Marquette, you know, Shaka was the darling of college basketball when he was at VCU he goes to Texas

tries the big time team you know big time thing basically gets run out of there to Marquette you know it was one of those I'm going to take this job before you make the decision that's not going to go well for me and I think we've learned he can still coach like, yeah, much like Rick Barnes after Texas, like maybe it's just Texas. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know if it's, it's necessarily Texas itself or the program or anything going on there. Sometimes it's just the fit. Sometimes coaches are better suited for the job that they have or for the league that they're in or for the the level of players the type of players that they're recruiting because when you get to texas there's kind of a different expectation on which players you're going to be using you know tyler kolick is is not a guy

who a texas type of program goes after and builds around but at marquette you can build around a tyler kolick you can kind around a Tyler Kolek. You can kind of develop him over the course of a year, two years, three years, and then he becomes a star in college basketball. That's not really what Texas is looking to do, especially in the transfer era now. Like they want the top transfers to come in, Max Aisman this year. They want even Tyrese Hunter.

And then they want the big time, the four stars, the five stars. Right, and they're coming next year. They want even Tyrese Hunter. And then they want the big time, the four stars, the five stars. Right. And they're coming next year. And so that's kind of the difference in the recruiting side of it. And then there's a difference as well in terms of the public and just how the program is viewed, how it is covered, how everything happens. And it's, it's interesting to see sometimes coaches find out that they had it better where they were or in whatever kind of setting they were in. And then they head back to something more similar to that. And they go right back to having big time success. So you see this in college basketball and in any sport, really any level of coaching, sometimes you make that, that big move to the blue blood program and you realize that maybe there are some some negatives to having

that level of job that type of job as well as the positives that come with it well marquette's a souped up version of vcu because i mean listen the big ec is a power conference in basketball like you're going to play against the best. You're going to be able to recruit the best. But like you said, you're not going to be kind of required to recruit the absolute biggest stars. And the Tyler Kolek thing is interesting to me because Tyler Kolek, when he starts at the top of the key, goes to his left hand and drives and does that little scoop like i don't know that anybody can stop that like that i'm sure in the nba there are people who can stop that but there's nobody in college basketball who can stop that no he is one of the

best point guards in college basketball and he's got kind of a the perfect pick and roll partner the perfect big man duo to go with him and oso Oso Iguodaro, just a freak athlete who is long, great defensively. He's adding to his offensive game, it feels like every time you watch him. And so this team has got a lot of the pieces. And Chaka Smart, like you said, it's a souped up version of VCU.

And that's something that maybe at Texas, he just wasn't allowed to run Texas like he would have VCU and that's something that maybe at Texas he just wasn't allowed to to run Texas like he would have VCU so it's just this Marquette team really good and they're here to stay I think because Shaka Smart having had that experience now coming to a place like Marquette I wouldn't be surprised to see him stay for quite a while we talked about Oates staying we talked about Hurley staying if Shaka Smart stays at Marquette for an extended amount of time, you can see this becoming a perennial one seed, two seed, three seed every year. That program has done it in the past. They've had great coaches and they've got one who might be willing to stick around for quite a while now. Let's go to Detroit where

all the news out of the Detroit region was that one politician who wanted to know who was on those buses. It was Gonzaga, the basketball team on the bus. That's who had the police escort. It was Gonzaga. But this is like the Boston region on Thursday night. One, two, three, and five. So essentially a chalk region. And that means hopefully you're going to get what you got in Boston,

which was a couple of, you know, well, one really good game and one superpower team. But I would love to see these two games just be awesome because I think they'll set up a good Elite Eight matchup as well, no matter what happens in the games. So you got Tennessee Creighton, Purdue Gonzaga. Which one do you want to start with? Let's go ahead and start with Tennessee Creighton because that's the one that I have been waiting

for. I mean, since the bracket came out, this is the game that I have been waiting for. Maybe that says something about just how sick of a college basketball watcher I am because I don't think that many other people even have this as the game of the night. But Creighton, their offensive firepower, what they bring, combine that with their defensive ability with Ryan Kalkbrenner in the middle, some of their perimeter defenders. You know how I feel about Baylor Shireman, how talented he is.

Going up against this Tennessee team, Dalton Connect provides them the offensive firepower and then everybody else is there to provide elite defense. So you've got two kind of contrasting teams in terms of, of what is their, their strong point. And then what is the thing that they compliment that with can Creighton shut down Dalton connect. That's what this game is going to come down to. If they can make Dalton Connect look more like RJ Davis or Caleb Love did last night than what Mark Sears or Chase Hunter looked like, then I think that they've got a really good chance to advance here.

And we would then have three Big East teams in the Elite Eight, all three who made the NCAA tournament. But we could also have Tennessee just as easily. We could see Tennessee make it to the Elite Eight. So I think that this is one of the most fascinating, one of the hardest to pick matchups of the NCAA tournament from start to finish. This one's going to be a really, really good basketball game. And I'm expecting to watch just from the perspective of watching good sets, good offense,

good defense. You're going to see it all in this game. You're going to see everything you would want to see in basketball, no matter what the score is. So really good one here, Creighton and Tennessee, almost too close to pick a winner, but I'm gonna go with Creighton just because I really like their roster and want to see what they can do as they continue to face the top teams in college basketball. Yeah. I hadn't thought of it, but it is definitely a pure narrative setter because if Creighton gets into the Elite Eight, and we'll see if Marquette does too, it could be two or three Big East teams in the Elite Eight, which the Big East, I think probably rightly upset that those were the only three teams that got in, they probably can use that as an argument

against the committee to say, look, hey, next year, if it's kind of on the edge between one of our teams and somebody else, maybe just go with one of our teams. But then you have on the flip side of that, you've already got Alabama in the Elite Eight. If Tennessee were to get into the Elite Eight, two SEC teams in the Elite Eight sort of blunts the impact of how bad the SEC was in the first weekend of the tournament. And there was a lot of schadenfreude there because you had Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, saying, maybe we should expand the tournament to 96 so that we get more of these bigger programs.

And as the big conferences expand, they're going to want more opportunities. And it didn't look like they needed those opportunities because they were getting whooped by mid majors. But if they get two into the elite eight, you're like, Hey, look, you know, we had, we had a quarter of the elite eight field. We ain't doing so bad. Yeah, it would calm the narratives. And then as the question that popped up on the screen, comment popped up on the screen earlier, it would set up a potential Alabama-Tennessee

national championship game. If they could run through the Elite Eight in the Final Four, which I'm sure Greg Sankey would be more than happy to go to Phoenix and watch that one. As an SEC administrator said, right after Alabama beat Clemson in the sugar bowl following the 2017 season. And remember Georgia had just beaten Oklahoma in the Rose bowl, uh,

two of our teams, none of our officials. This is the perfect situation. Uh, that is what every conference conference office dreams of, but for Tennessee to get all the way the way there i mean there's a lot oh they've got to get through quite a bit so does alabama get through creighton tonight but also the winner of purdue and gonzaga like okay we have been wondering when's purdue gonna

play a team that can blitz zach edie that can do what some teams in the Big Ten did this year. Remember, Purdue lost to Northwestern. Purdue lost to Ohio State. Purdue lost to teams that are not at this level. Can Gonzaga do what those teams did, slow down Zach Eadie? And also, I mean, I kind of wonder like how much does how Zach Eady gets officiated change who can win this game? Yeah, they certainly can. They can slow down Zach Eady. They can make it harder for him, put the ball in Braden Smith's hands, make him make the decisions. But the question is going to be like, will they? Will they be able to do it efficiently because you get too handsy with that blitz and now Zach Eaddy's at the free throw line for most of the second half or the foul total has just gone up to where I think if Graham Ekay gets in foul trouble, Gonzaga will be in serious trouble. I know that they've got Ben Gregg, but they just

don't have the depth at the center position, the kind of strength that they need defensively to slow down Zach Eadie if they lose a Graham Ekay for an extended amount of time. If he picks up two in the first half, we'll see if Mark Few decides to send him to the bench like most coaches. But yeah, if he gets in foul trouble or fouls out, I think that's when the tide really turns towards Purdue. But Gonzaga's got everything it takes. It's about putting it together and having one of the best games of the season that they've had. If they can do that, if they can shoot the ball well, if they can play well offensively, yeah, they have everything that they need to pull off this upset. But Purdue, in the same light, they have everything they need to win this one as well. And so it will

be interesting. I know that the officiating has become a big topic of discussion with Zach Eadie. Maybe he got a couple of calls in the last round or over the course of last weekend. But in general, I would say that this whole narrative of Zach Eadie is just tall. And I hesitate to even really talk about it because it's clearly coming from people who are either just trolling or they don't watch Zach Eadie play basketball very often because the guy is, is doing post moves at seven foot four to, to walk down the street at seven foot four is a challenge. So run up and down a basketball court for the majority of 40 minutes and to then be blocking shots and playing defense, staying in front of people, to get down to the other end and

be able to dunk the ball, do a little shake, and then put up a hook shot. None of this is easy. And he makes it look easy because he's one of the best college basketball players of this era. And so to not appreciate it, I think, is kind of a shame. But yes, the foul calls are going to be a topic of conversation, whether it's because you have to foul him to stop him or because people feel maybe he got the benefit of the whistle. People are going to talk about it either way. Well, right now, Purdue on the 2019 Virginia redemption tour arc where you lose to the 16 seed and then you run through the tournament. Interestingly enough, I covered that Virginia team's run through the tournament. You know who they had in the Elite Eight?

Purdue. That was a great game by the way Carson Edwards was was the the leader of that Purdue team he was he was outstanding but you know it was this is this feels like that because they they feel like they they are just a couple notches better they're they still do the same things but they do it in a much better way. Braden Smith has really kind of opened up things on the outside. It makes it harder to do the blitz Zach Eadie. So, I mean, that's the part.

When you've got guys that scare you from the outside, they can't just pack things down on Zach Eadie. Yeah, having the shooters around those two and then Braden Smith developing as a decision maker has been huge for thisie. Yeah. Having the shooters around those two and then Braden Smith developing as a decision maker has been huge for this team. That's really the difference in what they are this year versus last year. And for this Purdue team, this is the narrative setter right here. You get past this game and nobody can really talk about, oh, well, they can't win big games. They can't advance deep in the tournament. But it also sets up the potential for Matt Painter to, this is his best chance, if you

rule out last year, because clearly that one didn't go the right way. This is his best chance since that Carson Edwards team to get into the Final Four. A coach who has been considered one of the best coaches in college basketball for quite some time, but has not been able to have that big breakthrough to the final four to go on to the national championship game. And this is his best opportunity to do that in his career, right up there with that Carson Edwards team. So I know that there's going to be an added focus and added amount of emphasis put on this one, because once you get through this one, then you start to believe just a little bit more that you can make that happen. Yeah. And who was the Sweet 16 game against that Carson Edwards Purdue team to get to that game against Virginia Elite Eight? It was against Tennessee and Rick Barnes.

Yeah. So it all comes together in the NCAA tournament. It all comes. It sure does. Now the question is, will Purdue and Tennessee see one another because either one of them could lose tonight. And that is the beauty of these matchups is I have no idea what's going to happen.

You have no idea what's going to happen. So all we got to do is watch and enjoy James. Can't wait to talk to you on Monday when we know who's in the final four. Yeah, it'll be fun. All right, guys, enjoy the basketball. Enjoy your weekend. We'll talk to you on Monday.