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

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

The brackets have arrived. We talk about who got screwed and go through the matchups and celebrate one of the best sports weeks of the year. Hank also may be a little hungover from St Patricks day but we get his picks and they may be genius (00:00:00-00:52:09). Who's back of the week including one of the dumbest debates weve had about a video posted by MLB account (00:52:09-01:11:10). Jon Rothstein joins the show to talk Tournament, how each region is going to go, saying "This Is March" as he paces around in his house, how many coaches he texts, and who's going to win it all (01:11:10-02:00:42). We wrap up with some breaking news about the Bengals and say. goodbye to Oldie (02:00:42-02:14:23).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/pardon-my-take

Hey, pardon my take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, we have our brackets and we also have our good friend John Rostein on the show to break down the best storylines. He's going to name all the regions. We got a lot to catch up on with him because we haven't talked to him in a year. We're going to talk some brackets. Great weekend of hoops, college conference tournaments wrap up and we're going to get into one of the best weeks of the year. We also have who's back of the week and it's all brought to you by our friends at Draft Kings. Hey basketball fans, are you ready to win real money?

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with the most fun way to play fantasy sports. Pick six from draft Kings. Download the draft Kings pick six app now use code take. That's code take for new customers to play $5 get $50 in pick six credits better payouts bigger wins only with pick six from draft Kings the crown is yours today is Monday March 17th and we have our bracket got the brackets right here got a little ink under my fingernails big cat you hear this this is a real life in person bracket I don't do my shit online. I hold it in my hands. Hell yes. Pen and a paper like a man. Always. This is horoscopes for guys. This is the best. It's the best. I'm gonna sleep with it underneath my pillow tonight. I'm gonna fuck it. I wasn't gonna fuck it, but now I have to fuck it. I'm gonna fuck my bracket. Now I gotta fuck it. You're not a man if you don't fuck it. I actually think that this is the best

non-sporting I got a fire not a man if you don't fight. I actually think that this is the best non sporting Sporting event of the year just roll it up like this is yeah, just roll it up and crank it Yeah, I think I think that oh, hey. Oh Max is going through the hole Oh, you make a hole in your bracket you're fucking it that way you could I was thinking of just going like this You could also roll it up and then the bracket could fuck you true Maybe just get a hole maybe make a paper mache doll out of it. Yeah. Okay. I'm into that. I'm in for that. But you know, I'm saying I think that I think that bracket reveal is the best sporting event that does not actually contain sports of

the year. Oh, it's it's incredible. And it's it just just the you know, you spend I think I counted it was like 50 hours of basketball I've watched in the last five days and I, my eyes hurt and like every morning I wake up and I'm, I'm like, what just happened? I feel like I got hit by a truck, but then you end it all with the bracket and it's all like, Oh, that was worth it. Cause we, we just, we just did all that and now we have a bracket and it's beautiful. Great. And it's, it's one of my favorite weeks and it's,

I know some people don't like the first four but I actually love it because they're like at this point right now I wish there was a college basketball game on right this second and we only have to wait till Tuesday but let's talk about the bracket. Let's first talk about who got screwed and that would be West Virginia and Indiana because UNC got into the tournament with one quad one win. And Bubba Cunningham, who is part of the selection committee is also the ad at UNC. He now he said that he recused himself from all conversations. What I would say to that is that doesn't fucking matter at all because

you spend an entire weekend hanging out with these people and then you're like, Hey guys, we're going to talk about UNC. I'm going to go take a piss. You guys talk about UNC, but come on. We're boys, right? It's me, Bubba. Yeah, we're boys. And then let's say he doesn't even say, let's do that. Let's say he doesn't say, Hey, come on guys, give me a solid. Everyone in that room has to decide on UNC and then have him come back in the room. And he's going to be like, so how we look at it. Yeah. Then you tell them your decision. Bob has to look at you and be like, what the hell? Yeah. God damn. Y'all going to do that to Bubba. He also just, he, he went on a CBS and ESPN after and just used, I don't know who his human

shield was next to him, but they asked him a question about UNC and he brought another guy who was from the committee and he immediately said, well, I wasn't allowed to talk about UNC so I'm just going to have to defer to him. Yeah. It just made him answer all the hard questions. He's going to answer all the UNC related topics that you have for me. This is classic Belichick. Yeah.

I think he might've had something to do with it. Yeah. Well, he was on a beach. He was on a beach. We know that. Yeah. We do. Also live in his best life. Live in his best life. Congrats. Athlete. Congrats. Athlete. Hank. That's so that I do that game with my kids. Yeah. Your kids are small. Actually the age difference is less between me and my kids. Your kids are don't weigh a lot. But like that's the airplane game I play with my kids. I'm not going to make fun of coach Belichick for doing that. Congrats Bill. She wearing headphones in this? Yeah. So they're not talking. He's listening to like airplane

Okay, either way. Back to back. UNC got in. So here's a stat that I looked up because the bracket matrix, they track everything. They compile everybody all the amateur bracket ologists out there, which is such a funny science to study. They have 111 bracket ologists, and they compile all their results. Out of those 111 27 of the 111 had UNC in the bracket and 111 out of 111 bracketologists had West Virginia. Yes. And UNC got it. They got screwed. I think there were one in 12 in Quad 1. Yeah. They beat UCLA. Listen, the committee and we can ask John Rothstein, the committee, it's very clear they stopped working on Friday night. Maybe that's why Lennarty's been sleeping, because it makes no sense that UNC is in this tournament.

It makes no sense that Michigan got a five. It makes no sense that Louisville got an eight. Louisville got an eight. It makes no sense that they put Wisconsin and Denver in four days after the third game total in the tournament. They're playing at like one o'clock in the afternoon. I have a question for you, big cat. Why does the big 10 insist on having their championship game

as late as possible? I don't think it's the big 10. I think it's CBS. Are they asked them to say they have a lead in for that? I think it's the TV. The TV networks dictate that. Because it's so late that the committee is forced to ignore the results of the big 10 championship.

Correct. No matter what. But that's CBS. Yeah. I mean mean they want a game going into the bracket reveal and they have rights to the big ten yeah, so I'm sure the big ten would like to be like hey, can we play this game on Saturday and CBS like no we need this right before so I think I think Louisville finished the season 20 and 2 yeah They were 14th in the AP and they were 23rd in the net. And they got an eight seed. Yeah, they got riddle me this also Gonzaga is an eight seed and they are a top 10 Ken palm team. Yeah, Houston would potentially have

to match up against them in the second round, which would be a very tough matchup, especially for I think Houston was Houston technically the second one seed. I have the full seed list. Hold on Let me find it because I always love going through the seed list. I know Wisconsin was the fourth Three in Michigan was the first fifth five seed So but it didn't like Purdue shouldn't have been a four Michigan should have been the four. All right, here it is You have it was Houston. Oh, he uses a third one seat Okay, that actually makes sense because Duke is an absolute wagon. We can talk about them in a second

either way, there's some weird things that they made like even I believe Colorado State is a 12 seed. That's a three and a half point favorite. Yep over Memphis the five seed So and I know it's not off betting lines, but it's like this committee outside the UNC, I think did a good job except for the fact that some of the seedings make absolutely no sense. Yeah. I think this year there weren't as many teams that are pissed off.

Like obviously if you're Indiana, if you're West Virginia, especially you have every right to be super pissed, but there weren't a lot of bed stealers this year. Right. But West Virginia did get screwed. They got fucked. West Virginia got absolutely screwed. Okay. Well, yeah So yeah, I mean Houston might have to play without Juwan Roberts against the top 10 Ken palm team. I don't understand that

Gonzaga feels like it should have been a higher than an eight seed and Grand Canyon women's team got left off total snub Why'd you well, they made the tournament and then of this one? Oh this one? Yeah, why'd you bring them up? I just thought that was a snub. You said something in the cave to you. I love their women's program. Why they got a great program? Why? Because their head coach is very hot. No, no, no. She's a great coach. Put it on the bonk list. She's a fantastic coach. Yeah. That's that's that's why. What's her name? Her name? Yeah, coach. Coach.

Coach. Okay, how do we want to how do we want to break down the bracket? Where do we want to start? Do we want to go region by region? Let's go region by region. And I think that there should be a uniform. I'd say like 90% of the brackets are in the same format, but then you get some websites to try to get cute with it and they mix things around. The regions, they go south in the top left corner. They go west in the bottom left corner, east, top right east top right Midwest bottom right. That's how it should be. Yeah. So I go by region. I read. All right. So South region top left. Yep. Top left. Auburn, the one overall seed. Another thing that made no sense. Not only the Louisville being an eight seed,

but if Louisville wins their first game, which I actually kind of like them to win that game, because I think Chuckie Hepburn is gonna put Steven Ashworth in a torture chamber They're gonna be playing in Kentucky. Mm-hmm This game is in Lexington Auburn's gonna have to play a road game in the second round as the number one overall seat Yeah, it's one of those things where Louisville got fucked over by having a bad seed So they have to play Creighton in the first round which sucks for them

But also they get what would be two home games. Speaking of which, Creighton and UConn, a little do to do on Saturday night, that was very funny. Or sorry, that was Friday night. My brain is warped. That was, that felt like a situation that UConn fans didn't fully realize

that when you're on the top of the block for as long as they've been, people hate you and they just gotta,, you just got to eat it. And I'm okay with them like throwing home a slam dunk at the end of it, hanging on the rim celebrating a little bit. Yeah, I don't think it's that fucked up. Well, and they'll say and Danny Hurley who we love and we'll defend Danny Hurley, but Danny Hurley does think part of what makes Danny Hurley great is he is boisterous and yells at fans and lives on the edge. And that's also why he's won back to back national titles is because he's that

type of coach wired that way. What comes on the flip side is if you're wired like that, we're yelling at fans as you beat Creighton a month ago, uh, when the, the other team kid has a chance to rub it in your face, they're going to do it. Yeah. Like that's just how it works. So if you're a Yukon fan, I know you can get in arguments with Creighton, but you should just say, guess what? Yeah, we kind of, we kind of deserve, we've been on the top for so long and we've been killing everyone. Yeah it's gonna, it's, it's gonna turn every now and then.

I'm okay with it. It's fair, fair play. You win the big East, you celebrate with a dunk at the end. That's fine. They were trying to make the point that some fans were trying to make the point that you can never like, you know when when When Danny Hurley's son would get in Andrew early would get in games He would dribble it out and he would yell at him not to shoot. Yeah, those are also like 20-point games And I don't think you can does like run it up in that in that scenario

but again if you're, if you're the best team for two years running and you just demolish everyone and you have a coach like Danny Hurley, the minute it turns, people are going to take their shots. I'm okay with it. Max is a big East guy. You think that's fair play? Yeah, I think that was obvious. An obvious retaliation to Danny Hurley doing the rings to the Creighton student section on his way out of winning.

Right. And people are like, well, that's not the players. It's like, but it is, it is an extension of the players. That's just what, and, and I wouldn't, if I were a Yukon fan, I wouldn't take back Danny Hurley doing that to Creighton fans because that's what makes Danny Hurley wired that way to win two national titles. So it's like fair play all around in my, in my event. You just have to, if you're a Yukon fan, you just have to accept it and be like, yeah, we, we lost this one, uh, tough shit. We got dunked on. If you're the type of fan that gets online and says, stay classy after getting beat by somebody, you've lost, you lost that argument already. You've lost. And there's probably

a bunch of people that did the stay classy to Danny Hurley from Creighton that are now getting stay classied by Yukon. Yes, yes. And you're all losers. Big time. All right, so that was Creighton also has never won a Big East title. I feel like they've been to every single year. Every year they go to the final and they lose. Mm-hmm. I like Louisville in that game, though.

I do, too. I get them moving forward. Then we have the probably going to be the number one 12-5 upset that everyone's going to pick. UC San Diego, who's been awesome, who could have been an at-large team if they failed to win the Big West, which they did on Saturday night, playing against Michigan. I think they're only three and a half point underdogs. The Tritons are fun though. They're a top 60 team in offense and defense on Ken Palm. They're really, really good. They got a New Zealander. He loved, he would love PFT Tate Jones. He's

tight. He's, he's, he's sick. That's his last name. It's a hyphenated last name. Tate Jones. I don't know how to say his first name. It's a, it's a lot. I don't wanna wiener. I don't want to wiener Tate Jones. Yeah. I don't want to wiener Tate Jones, but I watched that whole game on Saturday night. He's good. So that that's that's the pick that everyone's gonna make they force a lot of turnovers, right? They force a lot of terms Michigan turns ball over but I will say Michigan obviously beat Wisconsin big ten title today Dusty may called it correctly. He was like our team needs a reset They got their reset and they won the big ten tournament and they looked really good Doing it. So maybe they've turned the corner and gotten that reset they needed and also they have two seven footers

Which always scares me when you go up two seven footers against a smaller team if you look at San Diego starting lineup It's all six four six five I think they got one guy who's six eight and they don't really run They don't really their pace isn't big so if they can if they can force turnovers But Michigan the way they were playing against Wisconsin, that's granted also like at the end of the big 10 tournament run where every team's tired, the shots aren't going in. It was like every shot.

It was horrendous game to watch. Well, yeah. But it smoked out the haters who think that's what Wisconsin, how Wisconsin plays now. Yeah, it was, it was not a fun game, but this goes back to what we talked about with dusty mates. Like at the end of a hockey game and the playoffs, you're getting your ass kicked, start a fight. Yeah, flip up the

whole dynamic. And they got into a fight with Michigan State and played way, way better coming out of it. Yeah. I also kind of like Yale is over text A&M. Yale's a Yale's a good team. I feel like Yale also just that's just a Yale does it every year kind of guy. Remember the big sweater guy? Yeah, yeah, it's pretty funny. Buzz is gonna be dressed up like a guy from Yale. He wears like nine piece suits. Yeah, he's gonna be sweating his balls off. It's gonna be great. I feel like buzz though. He might dress up like a guy from Yale, but if you spot him, he's not a yield. No, he's not.

I'd say he dresses like a guy from Yale in the 1920s. Yeah, like a robber baron. Yeah, that contributes a significant amount to the Yale endowment. He sweats too much to be a Yale guy. Yeah, you guys don't sweat and there's never been a guy from Yale named Buzz. No. And then we got Ole Miss versus San Diego State and UNC, which UNC we've already discussed. Now you know what's gonna happen. UNC gets the sweet 16. Well, there's one team that's in the play in that gets to the Sweet 16 every year. Yeah, it's gonna be done after everyone complained. It's going to be them. Louisville is going to lose in the first round and then UNC is going to make it. Yeah. Yeah. Also Iowa State, great move by TJ Otzelberger. He basically just held out a pretty big injury until after

the selection committee They can ding you for that. They can absolutely ding you for that and After after everything was decided he was just like, oh, yeah, I forgot to mention one of our best players is out my bad Thanks for the three seed see you guys there. Yeah, we'll take it. We'll run. Yeah, we're good Mac max and I were talking earlier about Villanova and then if them firing Kyle Neptune would have actually made it more likely for Villanova to make the tournament. Oh yeah. No, that would have been the funniest thing ever. Just somehow they messed up and we're like, you know what, a Kyle Neptune list Villanova team should, should be. Yeah. Should

would be a dangerous team. I kind of like that idea. Uh, we also have New Mexico verse Marquette. That's going to be a fun game. Yeah, that's going to be a lot of points. Kim Jones is awesome. New Mexico runs Richard Patino, Richard Patino, Shaka smart and Michigan state Bryant at the bottom. I, I actually liked this region a lot for Michigan state cause I Auburn has not been playing its best ball and Michigan State felt like on Saturday when Wisconsin beat them like that was the reset they kind of needed where they had been running so hot and it was a perfect time for Izzo to be like all right guys we're not you know a perfect team let's get ready for the tournament. Yeah a good loss I have them

I have Michigan State winning this bracket Yeah, I do too Hank any thoughts I like UNC to make a run What's your mental's at right now? I'm a mental sir. We're stringing it together For why say Patrick's day? Give people cuz I don't want you to I don't want the AWS be like Hank said five words I actually said before you came in here. I was like over under ten words if we don't ask him any questions I'll speak with how would say Patrick say Patrick say is a lot of fun in Chicago. I

Would say it goes harder than Boston for st. Patrick's Day. Everywhere is absolute chaos a lot of fun I'm old. What was sure that I have those days in me What we need more more those days in me if we did a old school like steel mill clock in clock out What was your clock in clock out numbers? It was it was a full 12-hour shift 12 hours. Yes. Yeah At least was it I may be overtime. I feel like it was some time and a half What time did you guys you guys all meet up early? What time did you guys I went out late? Quote-unquote at like 11 and you stayed out till

2 that's 14 hours. Yeah. Yeah over time time and a half as 15. I was with Hank at 11 I went out until like 430 went home took a nap went back out Hank was still out from when I started and then I left Yes, and then I left early. You know that? And then I left and then he was like, oh what, you're a pussy? You're gonna beat me out here? And then you're gonna be the one to leave early? And I'm like, dude, I'm going home.

You guys are too fucked up for me. No, that's actually, that's the most impressive thing you can do, I think, Max. I think it's way more impressive to go home for two hours, take a nap, and then come back than it is to stay out for 15 hours. Yeah, I can't do that. I felt great. If I was rejuvenated, it was like I was just starting my day over again. Yeah.

But nobody else was in my mindset, which I didn't account for. The power nap reset is something I don't think I've done that in 20 years. I really don't. That's something that you just don't do when you get older. No. You go home, you even think about your house, and you're like, Well, that's it for me for the night. Sleep is death. Sleep is death. The what Hank is referring to as sleep is death is when 2015 when Wisconsin beat Kentucky in the final four, I basically stayed out from after that game until so the

game ended Saturday at like 10pm. I think I was out till about 4am went to sleep for like three hours got back up went back out to the bar on that Sunday till like midnight. So basically was out for I don't know 24 out of 30 hours and we were with clients and they were like, we have a tour of Lucas Oil Stadium. This is Sunday afternoon after I had been drinking for 14 out of 18 hours. And I just kept on repeating I was like, sleep is death, sleep is death, sleep is death. I was like, I'm going on the only way I can go on this tour is if you let me sneak alcohol in. So they poured me drinks into like a Coke can and I walked in standing on Lucas Oil

Stadium just drinking like straight vodka, just trying to stay awake. So fun. Sleep is death. But credit to you, Hank. Yeah, we're here. I'm excited for this week. I mean, this this is the best like, you know, it's definitely one of those like I'm never drinking again type of mornings. And this is the best week to just take it easy and just go all in on college basketball. Yeah, love it. Love it.

How'd your bets do? Did you use you were so drunk you forgot to fade me? Yeah, damn. That's tough to do. No, I actually did well. So you're good. This was a good week. Shout out oldie.

Yeah, if you tell it older, you did well. Yeah, hold you some red hot. Okay. Any other thoughts from this region? I'm excited for this region? I'm excited for this region. I like Michigan State, though. Yeah, I got Michigan State over Auburn. Yeah. Okay, West. Florida is the is the one seed in the West. This is is this my region of

death? No, I think it's another one. This is the best region of coaches. This might be the best region of coaches Yeah, the big storyline in this in this region is that we get Bill self first cow for a chance to play Rick Pitino if Rick Pitino can beat Omaha if Rick Pitino beat Omar I need that to be Calverse. Yes, you know the Calverse Pitino. That's what America is hoping for Kansas is a bummer to watch Yeah, they really like because you're gonna look at them and think oh wait It's Kansas Kansas determined Bill self-determined. They're gonna be a pain a bummer to watch. Yeah, they really like because you're going to look at them and think, Oh wait, it's Kansas, Kansas, the tournament bill self-determined. They're going to be a pain in the ass to watch. Uh, but Arkansas is not great. No. So this, I think Kansas is favored, aren't they? Uh, it's a seven 10, but I think Kansas is also

a slight favorite. Someone looking up on draft Kings right now. Uh, this is my region of death because I think Florida, Maryland and St. John's and Texas Tech, those the top four seeds in this region all in my mind could be final four teams and they've got maybe the best 12 seed. Yeah, they have one of the best 12 seeds in Colorado State who's a favorite in this game. And Florida is probably playing the best ball out of anyone right now. They just steamrolled the SEC tournament. Oh yeah. also UConn is in there. Okay so let's talk about that real quick because Florida is going to beat Norfolk State and then UConn plays Oklahoma. I think UConn can lose to Oklahoma. I kind of don't want UConn to lose

to Oklahoma because I want UConn to play Florida and everyone to be like watch out for UConn and Florida is going to beat them by a hundred. And it's no offense UConn they're back to back title winners but they're not the same UConn. But you're going to see UConn in that second round. Everyone's going to be like UConn. You're going to back title winners, but they're not the same Yukon But you're gonna see you con to that second round and everyone's gonna be like yourself Danny early He knows how to coach during the tournament in Florida will kill Florida my that would be my take on that So I'm rooting for you con just so that I can bet Florida against you can Florida is very good Yeah, Colorado State team has started five and five probably the hottest team in the country

They are awesome and they're the 12 seed over Memphis and they are a three and a half point favor which makes perfect sense if you follow the numbers. It doesn't make sense if you just look at a bracket in Memphis they have that what's the guy that they got that scored for he scored 42 I think in the tournament semi finals. I don't know who they have a big injury though. Oh fuck who is it? I wrote down notes god damn it. I took notes on like three different things. They have they have a really really good player. And I can't I can't remember where all my notes are. Oh Tyrese Hunter is the

is the Memphis player who might be out. He was in a walking boot and he will he's a he's a very might be out. He was in a walking boot. And he will he's a he's a very big part of their defense yet. Nick Clifford is he's awesome. He's awesome. No, we're looking for Memphis. I think it was Clifford. I think oh, you're saying Colorado State scored 42 points. I know somebody on Memphis score. Oh, yeah, cuz I think 42 in the semis. All right, find it max. There. I watched so much fucking basketball. My brain is just Alright find it Max. I watched so much fucking basketball my brain is just completely PJ Haggerty.

Did he score 42? He's a bucket. He's a walking bucket. Max is just not good at the Google thing. 42! There we go! Against Wichita State! Yeah there we go.

Against Wichita! You got it Max! That nap coming in clutch. That nap is, you can that nap is you can feel that today. Let's go. Wow. You did. I'm napped up. Take that nap. I don't know around like one. Hell yes. Yeah. Nick Clifford though for Colorado State is he's awesome. And without Tyrese Hunter, if he doesn't play, that will be a problem. Missouri Drake I'm very excited for Maryland. Maryland Grand Canyon is a good game. Maryland kind of got screwed too I feel like they probably could have been a three crab five. Yeah, the best nickname they have

to where's that game. Why doesn't the games Why don't the games have the locations on the bracket. I don't know where that game is but I got a fun stat about Maryland. Okay, Queen one of the members of the fab five. Yes Yes crab five. Yeah, this was said right. He said first time I said crab the crab five They have lost in every single game that he's made a three-pointer Mmm, so keep keep an eye out for that if he makes a three early on they're gonna lose do not Yeah, if he's do not let him shoot any threes. That's very important. Mm-hmm Yeah, if he's do not let him shoot any threes. That's very important. Yeah, so I like Maryland in that little quadrant. And then Missouri Drake's gonna be very fun because Drake is an absolute snail of a team. They don't want they want to go as slow as slow as possible.

If there was no shot clock, they would hold the ball for the like 10 minutes to start the game. That's the they'd be like a high school team just being like, we're not gonna play this game. We're gonna make it a three possession game and Mizzou can run. And then Texas Tech is really good too. So this might be my region of death. I'm just rooting for Drake to keep playing

so we can make jokes. That's it. Okay. That's like when Oral Roberts is playing. Yeah, yeah. You love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With Drake, a lot of-

And Morehead, you loved when it was Oral Roberts and Morehead. Yeah, that's the love that. Yeah, yeah. Well, Drake, a lot of and more head you love when it's a Roberts and more. Yeah, that was that was maybe my super bracket. Yeah, yeah. You can't can't get better than that. Hank, how you doing? Checking in good. Checking on the West. Checking in on you physically. I actually think you should fill it out right now because there's a chance you might just be so hung over that you turned off your brain and you just come up with the best picks. I would like coach Cal to make a run. Okay, that'd be fun. Okay. Good thoughts. And St. John's, you I bet St. John's final four probably a month or so ago when you told me to and we were running for that. St. John's good. They played big East basketball. You have a pen over there? I do. and we're rooting for that as well. St. John's is good.

They play Big East basketball. Do you have a pen over there? I do. Yeah. Memes and Max, if you guys have any thoughts or picks you love, just chime in because I know Memes, did you already fill out a bracket? Memes has St. John's to win it all. St. John's to win it all.

I filled out my entire bracket. It's kind of, it's a weird Final Four. What's your Final Four? Michigan State, St. John's, BYU, Kentucky. Hmm. Michigan State, St. John's, BYU, Kentucky. Hmm. Hmm. Michigan State, St. John's, BYU, Kentucky. That's a first go at it. How many edits are you gonna do?

Probably two or three. What led you to that? I love BYU. I just love how they play. And the region they're in, I think they could outrun the teams are gonna play Yeah, straight shot, but that's also memes It had been a while because I haven't been in a lot of big games in a long time It had been a while since I lost a quote-unquote big game the Big Ten championship today

Memes was just firing off the memes Instantly like it felt like he had been waiting for that moment for so long Big Ten Championship today, memes was just firing off the memes instantly. It felt like he had been waiting for that moment for so long because he hasn't had a chance. If you're just betting on social media memes, I would say that you want Wisconsin to beat BYU and then you want Wisconsin to lose to Duke. No, you want the Wisconsin Bama. No, I think you want Wisconsin to beat Bama just so that Duke can be the one to beat you.

If I'm just thinking about memes here. No. He's gonna get, listen, he's gonna get him off no matter when Wisconsin loses. It's gonna be, he's ready to go no matter what. I made so many more today too. Oh of course, I'm sure you did. There's so many good ones. I thought you were gonna win too.

We need to have a rule for, we need to get back control. Remember when we used to have control of the Twitter account? I haven't had the password for the Twitter account forever. We need to get control for when memes loses. We should do that next year. If the Jets are ever in a big game. Oh, you know what? The Knicks. So if the Knicks, when the Knicks are in the playoffs, I want control what the Knicks so if the Knicks when the Knicks are in the playoffs I want I want control if the Knicks are an elimination game okay so we can just go off on me about the Islanders now they suck they suck I knew that they suck ah okay East I've come to the realization that I think Duke's gonna win the whole thing so flag his injury is gonna I don't think Duke's gonna win the whole thing. So flag, his injury is gonna, I don't think he's gonna play at all in the first two games.

Doesn't matter. But then he's gonna be back. Will he be 100%? Doesn't matter. I don't know. They're still very deep. They're so good. I they're gonna win it all.

I've just come to accept that. I would. They're just so well rounded, so deep. I think Cooper flag will be fine. I think he probably, even if he doesn't play in the first weekend, they'll be fine. And then it'll be fully healthy. They're so good. I can't, I'm just, I have to brace myself.

Where are they playing? Probably somewhere, probably at Durham. Raleigh. There you go. Pretty easy. Pretty easy trip for him. Hold on. I have the oh by the way, shout out our guy Jonathan Warner. I think we mentioned him last year. A lot of people

have brackets. He's the only guy I know that in the 45 minutes from when the bracket is released to when the tip times come out, he tries to predict every tip time. How do you do this year? Uh, I don't know. So many games. Trying to see if he nailed any of them. And you're playing on Thursday, right? Yeah. Whiskey. Yeah. Okay, so Duke, we have we have revenge games in Duke's region because we have Jeremy Roach on Baylor could play Duke he played for Duke. And then we also have on Arizona if they get to the sweet 16 against you killed love, which would be fun to see them go up against each other one last time. I think air Oregon is the is the scary team in this region for Duke.

If they can get to the sweet 16. Yeah, I have Oregon beating Arizona the second round because that will be, I think that's going to be the Caleb love masterpiece. Yeah, I think he'll go three for 21 for 14 points. I like that. I think that's what I like that. Essentially the the Josh Rosen stat line of basketball. Yes. Yes. Okay, then in the bottom half, he had to be why you vcu memes is BYU if if BYU loses in the first round memes, I'd like access to the

Twitter account. Okay, deal. Okay. I'm a BYU loses in the first round memes, I'd like access to the Twitter account. Okay, deal. Okay. I'm a BYU leaver. Oh. Please don't say that ever again. What? How much BYU basketball have you watched? I watch every single game.

They play late and I just love betting on them. Okay. BYU and VCU, that's actually a stylistic clash because VCU can muck it up and just play gritty defense right in their face. And then Wisconsin, Montana, Wisconsin got screwed in terms of the time, but you got to go play the games. At altitude. At altitude.

It is crazy. Montana is used to the altitude. Yeah, it is crazy the third game on Thursday after playing four games in a row out in Denver. Yeah, I don't know why they didn't give. I also don't know why they wouldn't want why why wouldn't you want to sell more tickets? Why wouldn't you want Wisconsin to be in Milwaukee? Like they were well, there's two other three seeds in Milwaukee. So who is playing in Milwaukee, Kentucky and and Iowa State. I don't know. I think like protecting a three seat is like halfway down the list of stuff that's important for them.

Yeah, I know. It's just it just kind of made no sense. I actually think they probably should have lost on Saturday and almost hurt them. Yeah. And then Alabama, St. Mary's Vanderbilt and Robert Morris, the bottom half. We need We need Alabama loose I got I think baby could be Duke I Think they could I think they possibly could to phylon is my favorite player to watch and call it they get hot Hank was also you didn't you I also didn't watch the game on Saturday, but you also did not watch the game It was all at the bar Didn't they get absolutely get bullied smoked. Oh, yeah, they got ball all the baby game. No, I didn't watch baby game

Yeah, they got bullied Bama also is not as good of a three-point shooting team as they were last year when they went to the final four which they were a very good team last year I Think and Grant Nelson got hurt who knows what's gonna happen with him. That's a very big injury that is to not know that Yeah, that happened on Saturday night that changes things for my bracket Saturday afternoon That's you got to check in on Grant Nelson. He might be okay Bosco couldn't get an answer, but they did crush Vandy when they played earlier. Yeah, and then st

Mary's I don't know anything about st. Mary's st. Mary's do they have an Australian guy this year? They always do Randy Bennett's been to about a billion tournaments he also this year. They always do. Randy Bennett's been to about a billion tournaments. He also, they last two years, they've not played great, but I think one of them was against UConn. So it's like, that doesn't really count. Cause UConn was really, really good. They'll slow it down. So it would be a very fun matchup to see Alabama trying to speed it up for St. Mary's slowing it down. Where are they on Ken Palm? They had a very St. Mary's year. They beat Gonzaga twice in league play and then lost to them in the championship game. And they're a very well-rounded team that plays very slow.

Three hundred and fifty nine in tempo. Yep. That's what they want to do. And Bama is one. That's, that's why I want to see it be very funny to watch. Okay. And then in the Midwest, we have, like I said, Houston kind of got screwed because Houston Gonzaga is the ninth team in Ken Palm and Houston is a one seed. So that's who they maybe have to match up with in the second round. And they have a big injury with Jawan Roberts. So that could be, that could be a wrinkle in this whole bracket. That happens at every year. Yeah, every year. They've got the worst luck. This is one of my favorite regions. And just that there's a game that I really want to happen in Illinois and Kentucky in the second round. That would be so much fun because it's like the two quintessential boomer bus teams where if they on, they play the best basketball in the world. And when they're off, they are just absolute dog shit. So I would love to see them match

up and hope both are on because we'd get one of the best tournament games possible. I like the I like the bottom half of this bracket a lot. I like Illinois, Kentucky, UCLA and Tennessee. I think those will make for at the very least, very entertaining second round matchup. Yeah, they all win tough region Clemson also Uh, I feel like they got a little bit screwed with their seating But Clemson Purdue high points gonna be a great game. There's so many fucking good games. I god damn it I love this tournament heard a rumor that high points not pumped about playing Purdue. Oh, really? Yeah, there's a rumor It's a rumor. You got sources. No, I don't want to throw anybody another bus

it's not it's somebody the boss but it's someone who's in my inner circle and You know, we have a good relationship. Yeah, and so I don't want to go behind their back. I don't want to annoy the guy. Yeah Hank, what are your thoughts on the Midwest? I got a huge to come out of the Midwest. Yeah, I like Houston, Tennessee in the Elite 8 And I think high points gonna make a run despite not loving their first-round matchup against Purdue. That's bad to not love that Yeah, I know that's what I said to the one thing I will say about this bracket It's crazy that they hypothetically were even thinking about Purdue This this early on High point. What do you mean? Like they said before the tournament actually never mind?

Well, oh they said before the tournament actually never mind. Well, oh they said They didn't want to play here They were just saying like if there's a bunch of teams that they could play in that, you know The slot that they were looking at the 13 ish Slot that they were putting themselves in and Purdue was one of the teams that they said we do Do not like that matchup. Who's your guys source? I don't want to talk about it max Just rumors. He knows someone at high point. He knows a coach No, no got it. I didn't say it was a train It was a he yeah good point Hank if he has multiple insiders sources that are women. That's right could be anyone

Purdue's defense is not good. I think this is the I think the Midwest region so the West is my I think the Midwest region. So the West is my, uh, region of death. Cause I think there's four teams that are all very like qualified to be in the final four Midwest is my chaos region. I, this could go any which way. Cause I could, which Juan Roberts out for Houston, potentially out for Houston. Uh, there's not one in like Tennessee, Rick Barnes, Rick Barnes, Rick Barnes. And then you have two teams in Kentucky and Illinois who at their ceiling could be final four teams,

but they've also shown their floor and it's very ugly. I coach Cal, he could lose that first round matchup again. That would be a game that Cal would lose. Pope. I don't think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No cow would lose. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Cal would lose to Troy. Troy would throw a zone at Cal and he'd be like, what? I think Pope would not lose to Troy. Right. Pope might lose to Illinois. Yeah. And also this, this region has some fun wrinkle that, uh, Mick Cronin, who was very vocal about Eastern Standard Time and having to play there and you say it was bad playing in Eastern Standard Time this year. This, they have to bad playing in Eastern Standard time this year

This they have to go play in Eastern Standard time. That's tough. So they kind of stuck it to him there Yeah, this is my region of I don't know what the fuck's gonna happen. So I think here's my take I think whoever wins the East winning it all. It's gonna be Duke Duke's gonna win it all Could be Wisconsin could be Bama. Florida's the only chance. Why not, why not Wisconsin revenge in the Elite Eight for a chance in the Final Four? Listen, I'm, I just want to get to the Sweet 16. That's my, everything after that is like, let's just, let's see what happens.

God will take me. Revenge. Yeah. If Wisconsin can shoot like a shot on Thursday. You're just a meme. You're a meme. Start of the championship DVD, 2015. You're a meme. You're just another memes. You want to set me up for I do I am very happy that Wisconsin

played a game like today where just it really smoked out all the haters because there's a lot of people watch their first college basketball game today. And they're like, Wow, Wisconsin stinks. They hit 18 threes on Friday. They play great offense. Bad day. They're tired legs. They're taking the same shots. I actually think that they were taking better shots. Yeah, they were in the championship game than they were on Friday. It's just that every shot they were taking on Friday was going in every single one. And they were just were ran out of gas. But that was, it was fun to, I got a lot of bookmarks and hopefully I can revisit. All right. What, any other things from the bracket?

We're gonna get into more of it with John Rothstein, talk more brackets. I'm sure he's got some good intel we didn't even think about. Oh, I had one thing that I wanted to say about this. This is the year that don't be afraid to just do chalk. I know that it sounds like you never want to be that guy Don't get as cute as you think you want to get Because I saw this stat. It's from max bar cbb on twitter Only four teams

Since 2000 have entered the tournament plus 35 net rating That's adjusted efficiency rating on Ken palm or better So only four teams since 2000 entered the tournament plus 35 net rating. That was the 2021 Gonzaga Bulldogs they were they finished second. They were the runner-up in that year 2019 Virginia they were the champion 2015 Kentucky Final Four loss to Wisconsin Duke, they won it all. So only four teams since 2000 at 35 net rating or higher. This year, four teams have 35 net rating or higher. So that's insane. Yeah. Like that, that just shows you that the one seeds this year are playing at such a high level and are so dominant that it's

literally the total amount of teams that are as good this year. It's been whatever 25 years it took for four other teams to do it. So Duke, Florida, Houston, Auburn are historically great teams. And so don't be afraid to just go chalk that would be my speech You're gonna want to get cute. Well, don't get maybe get cute early on Get cute early on and I would say if you're gonna try to say hey Where can we not do the one seed it would be if Juwan Roberts doesn't play in Houston might be that one and maybe Michigan State Possibly she stayed over Auburn does have bad vibes the way they finish out the season bad body like they didn't look great But a Auburn Bama a national championship hypothetically. I would like to see that no What he what the last Bama few years a Bama few but every time they play it's a good game on the bus

Not even I mean I just want good content He wants you at the at the pumps party. And you on the bus. What's Max on the bus? For a pick them. We made a bet Rico Bosco, huge Bama fan, good cause ball expert, close friend of NATO. If Alabama doesn't make the final four, Rico Bosco has to take a bus to San Antonio from New York City. If Alabama does make the final four, Max and Jack McCarthy have to take a bus from Chicago to San Antonio and I have to go to the pump party on Thursday night. Am I, this is a Pick'em bet? Yeah.

Am I a part of the Pick'em show? Yeah. Yeah. By proxy? Yeah. All right. Just wanted to put a little bit of context out there that this is an insane bet that I'm a part of. Max just got thrown into it. No, I know. You're a guy. Don't do it. Your chief scouts. Max. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's basically what happened. Yeah. Blame your buddy. It was you. No, it was Jack McCarthy. Oh, it was your buddy. It was Jack first Rico. And then, and then you were like, oh yeah, we'll have Max go with

Jack too. Well, well, Bama's gonna lose. What's done is done. Bama has to lose. You have to you have to, as Hank said, we're just rooting for content. So you'll be very invested in those games. Other good content though would be Wiscoe beating Bama and then beating Duke. Oh, I appreciate that. I assumed you wanted them to lose one of

those games so that you can get your memes off. Well, then he's just assuming you would lose in the final four. Oh, yeah, but that would be those would be two electric electric games. Those would be electric and cat first Hank. Be fun. Duke Wisconsin. People forget I respectfully didn't wear Duke. You did here. You're very nice about that. The national championship. You're very nice. Wow. There's I just love looking at this bracket. Also, the nity bracket just came out. Max. Oh, you're not in it.

Sorry. What you are you aware of the crown? Or you're not aware of the college basketball crown? Yeah, the fake tournament that The crown is pretty the crown pretty prestigious I don't think you know about the crowd I know about the crown the crown where they say that they're gonna make it in IL payments But they don't actually make it in IL payments unless you finish to the finals that crown the crown is gonna be pretty sick It's in Vegas. It's pretty awesome Is Villanova crown the crown is going to be pretty sick. It's in Vegas. It's pretty awesome. Is Villanova in the crown?

We're we should be stand by who's coaching them. Great point. I want to do a player coach. Oh, coach. What is he gonna do miss more shots? Yep. Then and then we're just on I'm fine with losing immediately and just figuring out who our next coach is if I was losing the crown Then let's not be that important tournament. It's not that important. Okay, but it's cool It's cool to say the crown Yeah, it was a good weekend of hoops Fucking wall-to-wall. I had fun until I didn't

Anything else And I to say oh and I T suit do it you have the IT bracket yeah I got the NIT bracket right now give it to us all right SMU against Northern Iowa SMU the one seed Oklahoma State at Wichita or against Wichita State Arkansas State against st. Louis North Texas against Furman Dayton Furman in that day the N MIT is taking a hit this. Oh, David FAU Middle Tennessee against Chattanooga Bradley against North Alabama. George Mason against Sanford. I love

George Mason's big band. He was fun to watch. Yeah. San Francisco against Utah Valley San Jose State against Loyola Chicago. Sister Jean. Yeah. Say last ride. He's saying Bonnie's against Kent State and then Stanford against CSUN Cal State Northridge. So no Indiana. Do they just deny the bid? They might be in the crown. No, they're in the crown. All in the crown. I've seen you got to understand how important way round is. You don't get the crown. I left off one leg of the bracket. Then we have UC Irvine, Northern Colorado, Georgia Tech against Jacksonville State st

Joseph's against UAB Santa Clara against UC Riverside The IT it's gonna be about the crown So who's the biggest power five team in the in the NIT this year? I respect your tech respect It looks like the ACC is the only Crown Georgia Tech Stanford Stanford SMU SMU, Oklahoma State Yeah, okay Damn and then Hanks Furman You like Furman all the way for a lot. Well, I'm in what's the Furman boilers the boilers

All right, like boilers like a chef someone who boils something or boilers like an engine like an engine, okay Hey, did you fill out a bracket? I did. All right, give it to us Well, I asked a question for a reason although I didn't know about the injury I have out of the South Auburn Coming out of the West st. John's after beating Yukon. Oh in the elite eight Yeah, so you got over Florida and Maryland Yeah, wow You got to beat the champs to be the champs that they have the championship Florida beats the champs What if Oklahoma beats the champs? I don't think they're going to I think I think this team is coached

Well, they have championship DNA. They know what it takes to get it done at this time of the year Rick Petino He has championship DNA. Sure That's why it's been tested. Uh-huh. And then I have Houston beating Tennessee to advance out of the Midwest I love that when you talk college basketball you say it the correct Houston way, Houston Auburn I like Kentucky, Tennessee Matchup before that that'll be a fun one High point they

have the the kid he's gonna be the story the mmm exciting white yeah yeah oh who mean mugged yeah yeah big time and then in this bracket I guess I wasn't thinking about storylines but I have Bama beating Wisconsin and then Duke on the way to the final four. So Bama is going to be in the final four and they're going to beat Auburn to win it all. So you have Bama winning it all and Max having to take a bus and me having to go to the pump party. Yeah, I wasn't really thinking about any of that when I filled this bracket out.

This is just how it kind of shook shook out. Yeah, got it. Well, that would suck. Right, Max. I'm still doing research on the crown. What do you what do you find? You might not even be in the crown. What do you got for us? No, we're definitely in the crown. I think we have an auto bid to the crown. Yeah, the crown is in conjunction with the TV networks. So they basically

force teams to go to the crowd. Got it. You can't say no. Yeah, I did ask some Villanova people because I've been trying to get on the, I was trying to get in the know of who our next coach is gonna be. I'm like, can we opt out of the next tournament

to just focus on coaching? And apparently you're not allowed to opt out of the crowd. That sucks. You can opt out of the NIT. You can opt out of the NIT. You're not allowed to opt out of the crown. That sucks. You can opt out of the NIT. You can opt out of the NIT. You're not allowed to opt out of the crown. You just got to wait for Vandy to lose, then you get your next coach.

Yeah, he's on the list. Who else is on your list? Jay Wright? I can give you my list. Richard Pitino? I can give you my list. Richard Pitino is on my list mm-hmm Italian League my list is TJ Otzen Otzen what's his name?

Otzelberger yeah Todd Golden, Will Wade, Tommy Lloyd, Ben McCollum, Ryan Odom, Chris Collins, Mitch Henderson, Richard Patino, Matt Lengel, Porter Moser. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Go back real quick. Todd Golden is the Florida head coach. Yep. On my list. Who's on one seed and has probably an insane NIL and coaches in the SEC. On my list. He's going to go to Villanova? He's on my list.

Is Villanova, are they in Jesuit school? What? I don't know. He's on my list. He's on your list. You think he's Villanova? He's on my list. Is Villanova, are they in Jesuit school? What? I don't know, he's on my list. You think he's Villanova material? He's on your list. He's on my list. John Shire? Yup. He's on your list? Sure, he can be on my list. I do like Will Wade though. Let's get Will Wade a proper program to run now. Father Peter would love Will Wade and Todd Golden. What about Chris beard list? He's on the list list You're all on the list they're all in the list they're all in the list don't know was the number one job in America arguably

Championship DNA what a Jay, right? Jay right owns the list. Oh, he runs the list. He runs the list What do you think they'd have to offer Jay right to come back? I think they have offered him unlimited money. So I think that there is not a number. Got it. What would you personally do to get Jay Wright as the coach? Well, what would you want? I would do. I just want to know where your line is. Yeah, line is high. My line, I miss Jay Wright. Would you suck and fuck? Yes.

Okay. Would you, would you quit? Would I quit this show? Yeah. I wouldn't let you. I'd think about it. Well, you should say yes because we just say no, you're not allowed to. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Would you kill memes? Easy. That's easier than quitting the show. I would help you with that. Yeah. Okay. Would you kill memes easy? That's easy quitting the show. I Would help you with that. Yeah, he's a B why he's a B why you leave her Don't say that please. Oh He's just been like cackling to himself back here with the mic soft just saying B why you leave her over and over again I wish I wish they given B why you a Sunday game Just be like, let's put our chips on the table here. Yeah. I was saying it'd be funny if, if there was a year where

BYU makes a tournament, but they're not very good. And the committee is just like, yeah, we're giving you Friday, Sunday. You're not going to win. Don't worry. It's not a big deal. Uh, okay. Let's do who's back in the week. then we will get to more bracket talk with John Rosting. Who's back of the week is brought to you by our friends at Truly Unruly. Guess what guys, we're about to get unruly this summer. Truly Hard Seltzer is the first high ABV hard seltzer that actually tastes good. Truly Unruly is a hard seltzer that breaks all the rules, drinks light, parties hard. With 8% ABV, it hits hard but still tastes amazing. It's the official hard seltzer, pardon my take. Find Truly Unruly at a store near you or visit

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hardseltzer comm all right Hank Who's back the week my who's got it in you? Yeah, I got a couple Let's go my first one is playoffs playoffs playoffs We talked about it a lot I mean, it's obviously a week early but there was a lot of college basketball similar to the tournament and having something to wean you off on Monday and and having something to wean you off on Monday and the golf gods, the weather gods have granted us that there's a three-hole aggregate playoff for the players championship tomorrow morning

9 a.m. Eastern so that will be a nice thing to wake up to. Nice way to get you into the week. Rory McRory, JJ Spahn. Who's gonna win? I hope JJ. Why? Rory, it's a fun storyline of him just you know kind of getting so close and choking the Rory on st Patrick's Day I feel like that's good vibes for him right isn't he Northern Ireland also celebrate you I looked it up Yeah, it's not as big a deal. I don't think it's like they're Protestant up there. It's st. Patrick's Day. That's a Catholic thing I just feel like if it's a guy from a part of Ireland against a guy not from a part of Ireland that leans towards the Irish guy.

And then my other way. Do you not like Rory now? You've come around on our tape, our discussion on the live guy. This is where it's like, I haven't something I've come around. You see the live performer? Yeah, she was great. She was awesome. What if Liv just decided to get into the college basketball playoff scene? Probably is going to happen. They're probably going to be what the crown is going to be in. Yeah. It's kind of what it is, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And then my other who's back the week is, hey, it's Hanks on the street. And this is definitely a sign of I'm really old. But have you guys seen a Borks? Nope. Yeah. Oh, you're talking about the jugs.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's big in Madison. I see everyone drinking Borks out on the lake. I think it's Borg. Isn't it Borg? Sorry. Yeah. Blackout rage gallon. Yeah. And it's basically just pouring is jungle juice, a ton of vodka into a gallon jug, some water and then just the like liquid drops. Yeah. Drops. Yeah. F Yeah foul Yeah, but you don't have that it like parties Not no not in the way not in a way where like he's ever clear

Obviously yeah in the game we'd put it in like an actual Gatorade container It wasn't as it's not as common. It seems like it's a super super common thing We're like they're you know in the streets of Boston streets of Chicago. There's just all the confiscated Borg gallon Borg's what people name them and stuff James what it is it's just like a personal thing that you bring around it's just it you just get blacked out yeah it used to be just jungle juice in that cooler at the party yeah and then you have some of that you never have to worry about cleaning out the cooler because you just make more jungle juice and it goes in there but now yeah

you've got your own borg that you carry around. Yeah, no cut. Like it's just, it's, it's, it's so ratchet. I assume it's a half handle of vodka and some, I assume it's also like, it's a lot of underage shrinking I would assume. Yes. Yeah. Big. Oh, look at all those Borgs.

Borgs confiscated. Yeah. I, it's one of those things that, things that I saw it and I immediately said That would make me want to die. But if I I were 20 years old, I'd be heavy into the Borgs. Definitely Alright, so those are two whose backs those are all right. Hey took one of my whose backs or say Borg. Yeah Oh shit, I brought two. Sorry. We should Borg yeah, it definitely made me it seems like a case race thing, but a Borg race. No, I just think, yeah, Chairman of the Borg.

I like that. My Who's Back of the Week is Karen Reed. You guys remember Karen Reed? Yeah. So her trial is gonna resume. Restarting? I think it's gonna restart. Hank, you probably know more about it than I do.

Karen Reed. Is it? They I think it's going to restart. Hank, you probably know more about it than I do. Karen Reed. Is it? They're restarting her trial? Yeah. So I thought what would happen? Why did it get stopped last time? No, I think it was a... They didn't come to a decision or whatever.

Is it a hung jury? No. What's a hung jury? Split jury. Hung jury? When you're all just packing heat. Yeah. I think that's it.

Too many cocks. There was a lot of meat on the jury. No, it was... Yeah, there was... It's not unanimous. It was a lot of meat on the jury. No, it was yeah, there was it's not unanimous It wasn't unanimous. Yes another murder news trial. There's new oj simpson documentary, which I watched as well Which doesn't I will watch every single oj documentary that they put out I will learn nothing new every single one that I watch because I've already seen 20 of them But I'm gonna watch it if it's out. I have a question for you pfd

if we're in the circle of trust yep, I Actually almost made a purchase for you the other night, but then I realized you know what this is probably too messed up I should've done it. I Don't know if it's still live There was an auction selling off oj simpson's Clothes what kind of clothes like Hawaiian shirts. Oh not the clothes. No, okay, but like gloves his entire Closet listen, I don't like OJ

I've been very clear on that OJ's been on my shit list for a long time ever since he blocked me on Twitter comm So you're saying so maybe I shouldn't I should have bought it But it may be the fucked up parties that I saw it and immediately thought of me. Yeah. I want people to look at OJ and their first thought to be PFT. I know exactly who'd want this shirt. Remember when we always interviewed him outside of jail? Yeah.

No, it wasn't outside of jail. The deal was there was an alcohol brand, I won't say their name, that was asking us to pick him up from jail in a van and do an interview in the van on the ride home from the jail in Las Vegas, Nevada. His first interview out was going to be with us. And we're like, you know what? He's a, he's a murderer. So we're going to pass credit to us. Yeah. Integrity, integrity also would have just been a terrible interview and he probably would have tried to kill us. Yeah., it would have it would have been a bad one All right. Here's the here's the auction site. Let me see if they're still

Okay, you could get Where oh, oh his husband's $10,000 that's it. Yeah, I mean, I think it's an auction. So there's still time to go 13 days to go Yeah, I mean, I think it's an auction. So there's still time to go 13 days to go. That's buying his eyes will be pretty sad. That is a steal. That would be pretty fucking sick. You want to do it? Well, let's see. Let's someone someone please keep a counter 12 days from now. Let us know. Pretty much depends on how I do in March. Hey, can you do that? Can you actually do it? No, unlike the bonkless, which you didn't do. Bonunkless is hot and heavy. Oh, he's got golf bags That'd be sick now that you having OJ's golf bags. Yeah would be pretty sick. Yeah, I'm in on that

Alright, yeah, let's let's get it. There's 13 days left in the auction. So what we've is March 26th I don't know if you do the math you got the calendar in front of you what website is the ocean on is it on enter slash slash slash slash escape no it's actually the guy golden auctions yeah we had in yeah oh I got it yeah I got the joke uh that's an old school old school throwback yeah what max I Slash slash his email address is enter slash slash slash backslash Escape the PFT literally just dropped like it was actually I remember I think I even remember my dad saying that joke in like 1996 I still I still don't get it slash like a knife Oh

Enter slash slash slash backslash. Yeah escape got it got it Got it And it was it was like one of the premier dad jokes when the internet came along and they're like, how can we make the OJ? Internet it was a big one. Mm-hmm. That because they like oh the internet was new too. Yeah So it's like combining two very current things Okay, Leno got paid probably 40 million dollars just for those jokes that Monica Lewinsky. Uh, oh, he's got his, uh, his student ID. That's a Ravel. Ravel's got to be all over this. Yeah. That's the problem is like if we get some, we just have to understand that Ravel is going to have his paws on one of these things. Yeah.

Yeah. Also, it's kind of fucked up to just be like, I have OJ's golf bag, but also kind of a statement piece ran for 2000 yards in what 14 games. Peter King has them in the hall. Yep. Yeah. All right. My who's back the week. I have two baseballs back Cubs opening days Tuesday morning in Japan against the Dodgers. I hate that so much. Did you see the camera angle? Yeah, it's a angle. I'm gonna be live streaming with with Eddie chief and White Sox Dave and Titus At 510 in the morning. So this camera angle it looks like it's a video game. Don't laugh at me Hank That's wild. What I mean there it's first first pitch of the major league baseball season. Where's the camera angle? Look, I gotta send Matt actually on the defend Max on this one. Twitter's search is so bad now. You can't find anything. Max memes just tells me to look up stuff that

we aren't talking about. All the time. You listening yourself? I am. But he just keeps saying, look this up. Look this up. He's like, look up the handshin tigers. Why would you say that? Because I guess they shut out the cubs no that was a in association to what you're talking to max look up get look up Dan's be camera because there's a sick angle of Dan's be swanson parcel type of cover I was fake was it it looks fake it's scary this one that was my point oh yeah that's definitely fake yeah it's a video game. Yeah, that- Wait, that's- this is what I saw.

This is- Is there another camera angle? So we all scrolled past that and thought maybe it's real. This is SO fake. It's very fake, yes. This is- this is like MLB the show. That's the show. That's insanely fake.

Yeah, it's the show. Did you think that was- I scrolled past it very fast on my phone. And I thought that's what he was talking about with the camera angle Got it. I think it's real Look to the left of you He is really

Show that's so fake It looks fake yeah, you just said it looks real, but it's so fake Hank. It looks fake. You just said it looks real. But it's so high tech I think. I don't know. Hank, Hank, there's no way that you think this is real. Why would BarselSportsMain tweet it that it was real? Hank, look at it. I understand that. That's why I brought the point up.

It's because if this was real, it's scary how weird it looks. And if it's not real, then I'm happy because up is because if this was real it's scary how weird it looks and if it's not real then I'm happy because society is alright Good, you're happy. By the way I found a new- It was a talking point, I'm happy I brought it up. We got to the bottom of it, maybe. I found a new kind of guy online on Friday. It's very rare that you find a new guy but there's been like a conspiracy out there for a while that sunscreen is actually what gives you cancer not the rays from the sun. Oh, this is good But that's no that's that's been out there for a long time account tweeted it

What so it's real? All right, this person says look at the MLB actual tweet Okay, this says it's actual footage from a different angle fed into AI which then creates the highlight, okay? So it is fake, so it's like, that really happened, but then they make this angle via AI. This is also my source's robj08, and it has four likes on Twitter. Also... x.com the everything app, it's all happening on it. MLB main account said, we can't get over this ridiculous replay from the Tokyo Dome.

So what they're doing is they're taking real highlights and then they're making it look more like video games so that kids will watch the highest hurting my brain. That sucks. So I brought it up. It's crazy. Is this talking point? Okay. My other who's back is a boy.

Wait, I didn't tell you about the new guy. Oh yeah. So the sunscreen truth was they've been out there for a while. Then I found guys that think that actually this is a different sun that we switched the sun out like 40 years ago and it's the new sun. And it's worse? And it's worse for you. I have so many questions though. One, where did we make the new sun? What did we do with the old sun? What year did we switch it out? Oh, and how is that person able to get through life without dying every single day getting hit by a car? This is good. So I got it. I got to do some more research on the new Sun guys

Good conspiracy. Yeah, it's very good. I Had one the other day That actually I completely believe that uh Chernobyl was on purpose. Okay. Yeah. For what reason? Everyone was doing nuclear power plants and Russia has a shitload of oil and gas.

And so they're like, Hey, let's blow up a nuclear power plant and scare the fuck out of everyone about nuclear energy. Oh, I like that. Stop doing nuclear energy or inside job. Maybe we sabotaged it to fuck with Russia. But that wouldn't make sense for us because then we have to buy their gas. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. But that's just I like that one.

That was just cut and dry. I just saw one tweet and I was like, yep, I'm in. All right. My other who's back is Aaron Rogers playing games because Aaron Rogers is apparently the Giants and the Steelers are sitting and waiting for Aaron Rodgers to decide if he wants to be Minnesota Viking. And I don't know if the Vikings are also I don't know what the Vikings are if they're waiting for Aaron Rodgers or they're like, hey, we haven't offered you anything.

I think the Vikings want them. I don't think that the Vikings love JJ. Why wouldn't they love JJ? I don't know. But it seems weird that they wouldn't they love JJ? I don't know. Drafted him. But it seems weird that they're waiting for Aaron Rodgers to make his decision. If they were really that convinced that JJ was their guy, right? I I read it as the Vikings. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know what's going to end up happening. Oh, so it is a real highlight. It's it's a real highlight with AI. It's like the footage is AI. Apologize. No, it's a real highlight that they were like if this looked like video games then kids would like watching it. So let's just turn the real highlight into a video game. Apologize. The angle is AI. The footage is real. What does that mean? Look at it. That is not like a... I've seen it. Look at the difference between the two?

Video yeah, and where would be there's no there's no camera behind looking at his long his Jersey. It's like There's no camera behind Dancy Swanson lags the jerk like the middle of his torso lags It could just be a super wide lens super long lens Yeah, it could be a super long look at his at his belt. Look at his belt when he does this little action. Well, it's a grainy video, like the, the, Oh, yeah, no, it glitches. It's AI. It glitched, Hank.

It glitched. Come on. That's the play on top. It's the same play. No, that's the same play, but it's not, that's not a real camera that shot that. Correct. The big camera that's over top of everything,

it sees all the movement, and then it feeds it into a little processor. And it's like, here, the the idiots like Hank out there will like this highlight more if it looks like we're playing the show. Well, and when MLB the main account post this, and it doesn't have the little AI tag or anything, and it just says, I can't believe this replay. Why would I not believe that it's a

real replay? I'm very sad for the future of our society. Yeah, well, this whole conversation is... Made us all dumber. Ah, Aaron Rodgers, yeah I don't know. I don't know what the Vikings are gonna do. I have a good offensive line, they made some good moves in the free agency. I feel like he'd be good on the Steelers.

Steelers would be funny. Yeah. Loves Mike Tomlin. Let's make the Steelers happen. Where do you want him to go memes? Uh, I would like the giants because I predicted that. But the Vikings for the Brett Favre storyline. That's memes for you. And that means the Jets are going to the AFC Championship. Oh,

okay. Got it. Good point. Good point. Okay, let's uh, Hank is still looking at this highlight. Let's uh, Hank is still looking at this highlight. Are you okay, Hank? Yeah, I'm trying to get some, some proof that it's not real, but you guys are just, you got it. What? Nevermind. Okay. Uh, let's get to John Ross scene. After John Ross, team, we, uh, say goodbye to oldie for now. Uh, he was, he was watching us all weekend and we do numbers with him. Uh, John Rostein is brought to you by your friends at Experian.

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Now we're also brought to you by our friends at proper 12. You've heard of the Irish exit. You slide out the bar or the party without saying goodbye to anyone slipping away quietly. This St. Patrick's day proper 12 is celebrating a new trend, the Irish entrance. The Irish entrance is what happens when you show up and bring the energy with great vibes and a bottle of proper number 12 Irish whiskey. The party starts with the Irish entrance and it simply wouldn't be a proper Irish entrance without proper 12. The original rich and smooth proper number 12 Irish whiskey is delicious blend of golden grain and single malt, triple distilled and aged four years in bourbon barrels

because anything else just wouldn't be proper. It's great straight on the rocks or in your favorite whiskey cocktail. Make your Irish entrance this St. Patrick's Day with proper number 12 Irish whiskey. Make your Irish entrance this St. Patrick's Day with proper number 12 Irish whiskey. We love proper number 12. I saw Max was drinking some proper number 12 on Saturday. I think Hank was as well proper number 12 Irish whiskey, the absolute best. Okay. Here he is. John Roste. Okay. We now welcome on a very special guest. It is John Roste. He is our good friend. You can see him on CBS. He's got a new podcast coming out with CBS, which will be his exclusive podcast

home moving forward. John, we got our bracket. What's your schedule this week? You got a probably crazy schedule. What's going on? Where are we going to see you? Crazy schedule. I'm with you guys tonight, which is awesome. It's your tradition. Unlike any other, I'm going to fly out to Ohio in the morning. I'll be doing the first four games with Spiro Ditas and Jim Spinarkel on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think from the big games in the first four, it's the best first four in the history of the first four with Carolina, San Diego State and Xavier against Texas. And then we are going to go after we do Wednesday's broadcast up to Cleveland and we're going

to do those games. So that's Michigan State against Bryant, New Mexico against Marquette. That's a great matchup between Donovan Denton and Cam Jones of two great guards. And then we're also going to do Alabama, Robert Morris and St. Mary's Vanderbilt. So pumped to be in the great state of Ohio here, coming up this week. So it's interesting you said that I liked the promo. It's maybe the best first four in the history, the long vaunted history of the first four, we got UNC in there.

And John, just, just put a couple of days ago, you were, you were passionately making your declaration that UNC would not be in the first four. Yep. What, what happened? What's going on with it? Cause I know that you talked to Bubba Cunningham, the AD from, from UNC. So what happened? This is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I've seen in all my

years covering college basketball. And when you think right now about what the criteria is to get teams into the NCAA tournament, at the end of the day, what is always going to usurp everything is who did you play, where did you play them, and did you win? North Carolina was one and 12 against quad one opponents. That is just a fact of life. And then when you look at some of the teams that were left out of the bracket, the two that I'm looking at specifically is West Virginia and Indiana.

And remember with North Carolina's resume, Carolina also had a quad three defeat on its resume, which Indiana who was left out of the tournament in favor of North Carolina did not have. And if you're looking at big wins right now North Carolina had won against the field it had the win against UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic Let's look go at Indiana head and again remember the Hoosiers had no quad three and four losses Indiana won a road game at Michigan State in East Lansing who is a 2c right now Okay in the South region which I've named the region of depth because of the depth that exists with the

Spartans, Auburn, Texas A&M and other programs in that region. And Indiana also beat Purdue at home. I don't understand how Carolina can get in over Indiana if Indiana won a game at Michigan State and beat Purdue and doesn't have a quad three or four loss and Carolina does. But what about West Virginia? The miscarriage of justice continues. West Virginia went to Allen Fieldhouse and beat Kansas. West Virginia beat Iowa State at home with three seed and West Virginia on a neutral court beat Arizona State and beat Gonzaga.

This is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I have seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball on the national level. Now I will say this because North Carolina does not deserve to be in the NCAA tournament that has no bearing on what the Tar Heels can do when they get into the NCAA tournament. And I'll give you a perfect example. 14 years ago, I did not believe that VCU deserve to be into the NCAA tournament. VCU then started in the first four and went all the way to the

final four under shock of smart. And VCU in the regular season that year averaged 8.3 made three point shots a game and then made 12 in the NCAA tournament. So what Carolina does moving forward has no bearing on whether or not the Tar Heels deserve to be in the field. But my heart breaks for West Virginia. It breaks for Indiana that North Carolina got this opportunity instead of them. So you talked to Bubba Cunningham, the AD from UNC.

What was his expl- what did he say? Was he just like, Hey, wasn't my call? Did he try to defend it? He was very, very clear that he was not involved in obviously what was going on in the room when North Carolina was brought up. But you guys know this as well as I do. It always helps to help out your friends. And when you're in a situation like this, where the committee chair is from North Carolina,

it's obviously going to influence the other committee members. Now, I understand he can leave the premises when a resume of the Tar Heels is going to be brought to the table, but I'm sorry. This again is the biggest miscarriage of justice that I've seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball at the national level. My heart breaks for Darren DeVries in West Virginia, my heartbreaks for Indiana and its fan base. But again, North Carolina is going to get an opportunity here in the first four to do some major things in this bracket. If it can beat San Diego state coming up here on Tuesday night.

All right. So, uh, I agree with everything you said. It's crazy. UNC got in relationships matter. Bubba Cunningham can leave the room when he comes back in the room. Those are the people he's been sitting with all weekend. That has a effect, whether you want to say it's subconscious, that's fine, but it has an effect. I also don't understand the, it feels like this bracket is just littered with some weird decisions. Gonzaga's a top 10 team in Ken Palm, they're an eight seed, and they're going up against, what is it, Houston in the second round if they win their first round game?

Auburn, who's the number one overall seed, if Louisville wins their first round game, Auburn has to play a road game in their second game as the number one overall seed. Michigan was the was a five seed. I think they got miss seeded. You had VCU is is probably not an 11 seed probably should have been higher than that. Right. Like it's all over the map where it feels like they just pray and sprayed a lot of this stuff and it doesn't really make sense.

You have Colorado State is a three and a half point favorite as a 12 seed over Memphis, the five seed. Yeah. It feels like in a lot of areas of the bracket, we did not have a compass and there was no rhyme or reason in a lot of things that were going on. I thought for certain that Gonzaga would have been better than an eight after it beat St. Mary's in Las Vegas last week in the WCC tournament. But I'm with you, Kat. I think there's a lot of different things that really stood out here. Another thing that stood out to me, and I wasn't surprised about this, I felt with the way that the selection committee had treated the Mountain West last year by

putting two teams into the first four in Dayton, that Boise State was vulnerable by not winning the automatic qualifier on Saturday. And that's what came to fruition. Xavier had a pristine resume in Quad 3 and 4 and Xavier also we have to remember lost two games in December without Zach Freemantle in the lineup who was a 17-7 guy at UConn in overtime and also by a basket at home against Marquette as you guys know as well as I do and We had heard this when we spoke to Bubba Cunningham, I believe on Friday player availability Matters in the NCAA tournament when you're evaluating teams if Xavier obviously is gonna have Zach Freemant on the NCAA tournament

Which it will it's gonna be a much more formidable team I think that is one of the biggest reasons why the Musketeers are going to hook up here with Texas in the first four on Wednesday. And you guys know I've been doing the first four now for a number of years. We have never had brands like this in the big games in the first four in terms of games on back-to-back nights. North Carolina and San Diego State have appeared in two of the last three national title games Xavier Xavier and get this you D arena is 47 miles away from the Cintas Center where Xavier plays its home games. That's going to be obviously a Xavier home game and Texas has a lottery pick in Trey Johnson and it's Texas. Yeah. So I think you know the brands

in this first four in terms of the marquee games are second to none And I've said this guy's time and time again, you know The three of us haven't really schmoozed about this, but I want to put it out there right now You guys know how I feel about NCAA tournament expansion I've said for a long time that Jeff Goldblum said in the lost world in 1997 that taking dinosaurs off this island was the worst Idea in the history of long said history of bad ideas Expanding the tournament will be worse than that but I do think this I think if you're good enough to get an automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament you deserve to partake in the

Thursday and Friday of the first week I think if we made that shift and moved all a cues to Thursday Friday and then put the last eight at large teams in the first four, it would reward these programs again at the lower level and give them the NCAA tournament experience of Thursday, Friday, and also spruce up the way we start the tournament with maybe four bigger games instead of two. I agree. I think we were talking about expanding the tournament. We said, don't expand it. It's great the way that it is, but if you were do it that way so you don't make the automatic qualifiers play playing games on a Tuesday or Wednesday. I got a question for you, John, uh, about the injury stuff. Uh, TJ Altshuber announced

after the bracket came out, the Keyshawn Gilbert is out for Iowa state. Does like, was that, that was just a smart move by him because because you think Iowa state would have had a different seed if that had been known to the committee going into selection you know Sunday because like there Iowa state's playing very pot. Yeah. Yeah. And like in Wisconsin has to go all the way up to Denver. Right. You know it's very possible that you would go to flipflopped Iowa State and Wisconsin. If that information was made privy to the committee before the selection went out. I remember it was 25 years ago now. Cincinnati had the best team in the country with Kenyon Martin in 2000. And Kenyon Martin broke his leg in the conference USA tournament that year. And Cincinnati,

which had been dominant all year long, number one team consensus in the country was dropped to the two line and it was ridiculous. And Bob Huggins said it at the time, but they were evaluating Cincinnati without Kenyon Martin who wound up being the number one player in the NBA draft. So I totally agree with you on that cat. Okay. So, uh, let's get to the actual bracket. We got some other questions that we'll ask you after, but let's talk about the bracket. I know you always break it down. So I kind of will let you go whichever direction you want to go. Tell us what you've got and yeah, go, go off. We'll, we'll, we'll jump in where we want to jump in, but this is a, this is our favorite part of a selection Sunday.

All right guys. Well, let's start right now in the top left of your bracket, which is the region of depth, the South region. Now, why is it the region of depth? I'm looking right now at these teams at the top. Auburn, Michigan state, Texas A&M, really deep rotations on all of these teams. All of these teams can really go into their bench. That's why I like it to be the region of depth. I obviously got Auburn coming out of the top. I am going to take Creighton to beat Louisville at Rupp Arena, the Ryan Kalkbrenner factor.

He's kind of like, and I haven't really watched a hockey game in probably 30 years, but wasn't Martin Brodor that famous goalie for the Devils in like the nineties? Yeah, he's kind of like the Martin Brodor of like, you know, the big East, you know, he's kind of like the goalie

because he's so good defensively. Then I am going to take Michigan to beat UC San Diego, who's going to be a trendy upset pick. And here's an upset. I'm going to take Yale under James Jones, a program that beat Auburn last year, to pick off Texas A&M at a 13-4 game in Denver. Remember, Yale beat Auburn last year, beat Baylor in 2016.

And then I think when you look at the next part of the bracket in this region of depth, this is tailor-made for Ole Miss. This is tailor-made for Chris Beard to really, really go on a run right here. I felt all season long that Ole Miss reminded me of some of the teams that Chris Beard had at Texas Tech. I've got Ole Miss beating the winner

of San Diego State Carolina and then beating a vulnerable Iowa State team without Gishon Gilbert. Ole Miss to the sweet 16. I'm going to take Marquette to beat New Mexico and Michigan state to beat Marquette. So in the sweet 16 here, I'm going to give you Auburn against Michigan and I've got Ole Miss against Michigan state. I've got Auburn against then Michigan state in a regional final Atlanta and I've got Tom

Izzo getting back to the final four. Okay. I like it. I like that a lot too. So you think that Yale's coach is the most underrated coach in America, right? I think he's the most underrated coach in America. It amazes me that James Jones has not gotten a bigger job. He has won the Ivy league multiple times in the last couple of years.

As I mentioned, won a game against Auburn last year in the NCAA tournament, won a game against Baylor in 2016, but I think, you know, we could see this, you know, Yale team be a factor. But guys, here's the interesting thing. When you look at the amazing job that Yale has done, only lost one game this year, you know, in the Ivy League. When you think about Yale, and you think about the dynamic right now for this team

that again is going into the NCAA tournament as a trendy, trendy upset pick potentially. Yale is in a scenario, okay, where it lost Danny Wolfe to Michigan and it lost Matt Knolling to USC and it is still in the scenario that it's in right now where it made the NCAA tournament. That is a credit to the head coach. A couple of names you want to keep your eye out for for Yale right now as you're getting ready to think about the NCAA tournament against Texas A and M Nick Townsend, obviously a very, very burly forward inside. He's going to have to hold his own

on the glass. And then John Pula keyed is a dynamite dynamite lefty shooter can come off screens. He had 25 against Cornell in the title game and also Bez and bang along with Casey Simmons cat. You might remember from Big 10, started his career at Northwestern before he transferred to New Haven. Ah, okay. And then you got Tom Izzo over Bruce Pearl to get to the Final Four there. What's your thought about Auburn right now? Because they were dominant all year long and then at the end they kind of stumbled a little

bit. You could write that off. Some people are like, yeah, it's the tournament. Doesn't really count. Conference tournaments, not a big deal. Yeah, no, I think PFT, what it does is it reiterates to me that we don't have a dominant team this year in college basketball.

And what I mean by that is, you know, last year UConn was so removed from the pack because it was a two-year run that we may never see again in our lifetimes in terms of the level of dominance. 12 NCAA tournament wins by an average of 21.7 points per game. But we do not have a team this year like UConn. We do not have a figure this year like Zach Eady at Purdue last year, the only player since Ralph Sampson in the 1980s to win, obviously,

National Player of the Year awards in back-to-back season. So I think Auburn's a little bit vulnerable right now. I do think it's a big advantage for the Tigers to be playing in Atlanta, which isn't that far from the Auburn campus potentially in the sweet 16. But if Louisville does be Creighton in the first round, Auburn will have a pseudo road game there at Rupp arena, which is something to monitor. Yeah. Okay. Let's go west where Florida is the one seed Florida's playing probably the best ball of anyone right now. Florida's playing probably the best ball of anyone right now. What they did in the SEC tournament was incredible. What are we calling

the west? This is the region of prestige because four coaches in this region, Dan Hurley, Rick Patino, John Calipari and Bill Self have won national titles. Also Florida, the one seed in this region has won multiple national titles in the last 20 years. So there's brand name power in this region. I got Florida over Norfolk State. I got UConn over Oklahoma. Both coaches in that game, Dan Hurley and Porter Moser, have been in a situation where they've coached

in the final four in the last decade. Dan Hurley's won two national titles. I'm taking Nick Clifford in Colorado state over Memphis, Maryland over Grand Canyon, Drake started from the bottom. Now they're here in my opinion has, has for all intents and purposes in interesting road here and I'm going to tell you why you got Missouri and you got Ben McCollum, who's really looking like, you know, a bit of a wizard at Drake. It wouldn't shock me if next year he's coaching somewhere in

the Big Ten. He's got a 31 team with four D2 transfers. One of them, Mitch Miscari, has made 86 three-point shots this year. If Drake beats Missouri, Drake gets a vulnerable Texas Tech team in the round of 32. Now, why are they vulnerable? Grant McCaslin told me earlier on Sunday night that he expects Chance McMillan and Darian Williams to play in the first round against UNC Wilmington. But with that said, those players didn't play in Texas Tech's last Big 12 tournament game due to injuries. So Texas Tech's a little bit banged up. I think Drake is a team with Ben McCollum. If it can get by Missouri, that could maybe flirt with a chance to go to the sweet 16. And then how about the lower part of that region in Providence,

Kansas and Arkansas, Calipari against self two coaches that coached against each other in the title game in 2012 and in St. John's takes on Omaha. Now look, you guys understand media as well as anybody. I work for CBS. I know how much the program executives love to match up certain games on Saturday nights and going to 60 minutes and look, whoever St. John's plays on Saturday night is going to be crazy. Can you imagine if we get Calipari and Patino on Saturday night and look Calipari Patino itself would be great. It would be an incredible matchup of hall of fame coaches, but if it's Calipari and Patino, it would become again, appointment television.

And it would be the third time that these guys have met in the NCAA tournament, I believe. Yeah. Since 2012. And remember they also met in the 1996 final four now I've talked to Rick Patino about this and I did an interview with him when he was at Iona and he made a joke About it, but I think he was telling the truth He said one of the reasons why he came back to college

Was to get John Gallup Harry off his resume because if you think about it these coaches each took three different Because if you think about it, these coaches each took three different schools to a final four. So that's another thing that is lying here in the weeds right now. Rick Pitino is trying to get a fourth school to a final four, but he might have to go through John Calipari to do it. It's going to be Calipari herself as long as St. John's gets by Omaha. So I have Florida, Yukon, Colorado State, Maryland, Drake, Texas Tech, and then I'm going to go Arkansas, St. John's. I've got St. John's against Drake in the Sweet 16. And I've got Florida against Maryland in the region of prestige. I'm going Florida over St. John's in a regional final. So on the left side of the bracket, I've got Michigan

State against Florida. And ironically enough, you know, I love good nuggets guys. That would be a rematch of the 2000 national title game that Michigan State won 89 76 in Indianapolis. There we go. All right. That's good. That's some good stuff. Okay. We'll get back to John in a second. He's brought to you by Morgan and Morgan. There's a reason why coffee is the first thing that people reach for in the morning. Just like there's a reason why Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. For over 35 years, Morgan and Morgan has been fighting for the people just like you and I.

They have over 100 offices and more than a thousand lawyers nationwide. When hiring Morgan and Morgan, it's like hiring an army that has your back. If you're injured by the negligence of another, you deserve to be paid. When you hire the wrong law firm, you may be beat before you start. All law firms are not the same. If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to forthepeople.com slash PMT or dial pound law, pound five two nine from your cell phone. That's forthepeople.com slash PMT or pound five two nine from your cell. And now here's more John Rothstein. What about in the East where we have Duke who Duke is? I said it before you came on.

I think Duke's winning the whole thing. I they're just there. They're so good. And even without Cooper flag in the AC tournament, they showed how good they are. I think he's going to be fine. He'll come back and they're going to roll through everyone. Yeah. You know, guys, it's amazing. And I think it speaks obviously how talented Duke is, but it also speaks to the state of the ACC right now. Duke was able to win the ACC tournament and be Carolina in Louisville and back to back days without Cooper flag and also without Malik Brown who, you know, Duke staff feels this way.

And I know from being, you know, on Duke's campus in the preseason, he's like Emile Jefferson was 10 years ago, not to bring up bad memories there, Kev. I mean, you know what I'm saying in terms of a versatile defender that can be a factor defensively in that rotation. Those two players don't play. And all of a sudden we have a scenario where Duke is still beating Louisville who is the second best team this year other than Clemson in the ACC and North Carolina. That is not obviously a great obviously ringing endorsement for the ACC but for Duke it speaks

to their town level. I've got Duke playing Mississippi State. I've got Oregon Arizona which to me could be one of the best games in the round of 32. These former pack 12 rivals hooking up. Then I'm going to take VCU to beat BYU to hook up with Wisconsin, the most aesthetically pleasing Wisconsin team of our lifetime. Thank you. And then I'm going to be in Cleveland for these games. So I'm pumped, pumped about this. I'm taking St Mary's to be Vanderbilt. I'm taking Alabama to beat Robert Morris. I've got Duke, Oregon, Wisconsin to the Sweet 16 to take on Alabama. And then I am going to take in a rematch of the 2015 National Title Game.

Duke, over Wisconsin in Newark to go to the Final Four. That's the region of firepower because Duke, Alabama, Wisconsin, Arizona, Oregon, obviously explosive teams offensively, so much offense in that region. So you got VCU over BYU. It sounds like you're not a BYU lever. Hmm. Did you just come up with that? I'm not.

I just came up with that. You can use that if you want to use that. Yeah, use that one. I like, I like BYU. I think Kevin Young's done an incredible job and I think they got great pieces, but look, it's not fun if you don't roll the dice places in your bracket. The NCAA tournament isn't fun. So I'm looking right now at the BYU VCU matchup. And I know that, you know, we have seen a scenario where BYU has, you know, played great basketball last couple of weeks. It wouldn't shock me if BYU wins a couple of games, but I'm looking at this, VCU is no 11 seed.

And if there was one thing that I would say right now, the non-power conference teams in this bracket, in a lot of places, won their respective conference tournaments after having a high volume of wins during the regular season. VCU with Max Schuelga, Zed Jackson, Joe Bamaseel, all these guys, okay, Philip Russell as well, has the deepest perimeter in the Atlantic 10 since Dan Hurley's last team at Rhode Island, had Fats Russell,

Jeff Doughton, Stan Robinson, JT Terrell, EC Matthews and Jarvis Garrett. That team you have to remember beat Trey Young in Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament and lost to Marvin Bagley in Duke in 2018. This VCU team is for real and also another player on VCU, Jack Clark was a part of the Clemson team last year that went to the Elite Eight and lost to Alabama. VCU is the best VCU team since we saw

Briante Weber and company lose to Stephen F. Austin in 2014. John, when you're rattling off all these names from old teams, do you ever just think about making up a name and tossing it in there, see if you get called on it? I would do that if I were you. It's an interesting proposition, it never crossed my mind. I just go to the internal hard drive

and I just keep it moving. Just like if you're thinking of an A-10 team from 2006, just toss in the name, I don't know, Tommy Spannanati. Oh, yeah. See if it's Tommy Spannanati. Yeah. Great, like all-time three-point guy. Not much off the dribble, but catch and shoot all day long.

You know me though, BFT, and you're America's drinking buddy for a reason. I pride myself on being as accurate and as thorough as possible So I feel like I'd be shortchanging the beat if I did that that is true So I have a question for you because you are plugged in John. Yeah, and that's not a robot comment Yeah, you're plugged in you talked to a lot of people Grant Nelson from Alabama What are we hearing about him? Because I think Alabama is a good team

You know, I would still take them in the first two games without Grant Nelson but after that it's probably gonna be a problem what are you hearing about his it's his knee right yeah I have an update for you I had a bunch of injury updates earlier so I'm gonna I'm gonna just read you exactly what I tweeted and it NATO it's texted me this oh in the early afternoon but I want to give you guys the full reports I have a couple of injury updates of substance for the NCAA tournaments. You guys just let me know what you want Yeah, so Grant Nelson's gonna see a knee specialist on Monday to determine his status moving forward He obviously suffered the injury so that evaluation is gonna happen on Monday

And then you know as I told you like Alabama plays Robert Morris in Cleveland That's one to monitor some other stuff from Sunday And this is big for the first four Brian Dutcher told me that Magoon Guaf, the Mountain West freshman and defensive player of the year is going to be available for the NCAA tournament. So in the first four Tuesday night, Magoon Guaf will be available to play against North Carolina. He hasn't played since February 22nd. That's a big boost for San Diego State. Mark Pope also told me earlier on Sunday morning

that Lamont Butler will be available for Kentucky's first NCAA tournament game. He's been dealing with a shoulder. And John Calipari has told me that a do-thero is doubtful for the Kansas game due to the knee injury he has been dealing with. He hasn't played since February 22nd. But Boogie Fland, who we thought was out for the season

came back on Sunday to practice, went through practice, had no missteps, he should be fine. I was referencing the Missouri Drake game. According to a school spokesman, Mark Mitchell from Missouri is expected to be fully available for that basketball game against Drake in the round of 64. A note from Scott Drew, Langston Love is expected to be available against Mississippi Drake in the round of 64. A note from Scott Drew, Langston Love is expected to be available

against Mississippi State in the East region. He averages just over eight points per game. Another nugget for a number one seed. Kelvin Sampson told me that J.J.Jaywon Roberts, who did not play at the end of the Big 12 tournament, due to an ankle injury, they're obviously veteran leader, is receiving treatment. He'll be reevaluated on Monday in terms of his status for the Cougars first game. We'll just make

sure I don't leave anything out there, but those are the bullet points as an hour. It fell us. John, do you have every single head coach's number? Yes. Wow. Most powerful phone on the East coast. Like every single one, every, every single one. I believe I mean, I do what I do is I kind of like, when I get back from the final four, like you use April to detox a little bit. And then you just, you spend some time over the summer, just making sure your Rolodex is on point and everything is on point. And then, you know, you just go, you know, you just, you make sure you're locked in. Yeah. How often do you text these guys? Um, I would say probably, let me think.

I mean, I think it's, it's pretty, I have daily communication. So it's like, I would say with every staff there's daily communication. It might just be for an injury update. It might be like, what is the key to this game on game days? I like to follow up if it's team. Cause if I'm in the studio, I like to have obviously, you know, nuggets on what they think keys to the game are or trends to watch. Because when you're trying to cover everything you want to I always try to as somebody who's a non-player coach

get the insight of the player of you know the teams that I'm covering from their perspective. So it's constant communication and in the offseason it's constant communication as well because there's thing to cover during the offseason. Yeah I like that. Yeah because I mean I read the article in the New York Times it was great that said that the Rothstein text is an inside joke in the industry. Now I feel like they're being disrespectful to you with that. No, I mean, look, I mean, you guys know me now for a number of years. I mean, I don't make any bones about this. You know, I did not have any connections in this injure in this industry. You know, I have no inheritance, so I don't have any other choice but to work

as hard as I can each and every single day To be as thorough as I can to do the best job I can and I'm never going to relent on that It's never going to happen. I'm never gonna stop Yeah, the world meets nobody halfway and you know that because you told me that you thought over-the-top was an underrated movie by Stallone that is it's facts. Yeah, no you are you are I love the article because I there were some things I didn't even know like that you basically bought time on a radio station that had No one listening to it just to get reps Yes, it really an awesome story of how to work your way up through the industry and The other nugget I had from it was you get your haircut every Sunday

Every Sunday. Yeah 10 a.m. And out of season Yes, just if I thought as long as I'm home as long as I'm home 10 a.m. Every Sunday. Yeah. 10 a.m. That's a standing appointment and out of season. Yes. Just as long as I'm home, as long as I'm home, 10 a.m. every Sunday creature habit. So what do you do when you're when you're on the road? On the road this week, because I'm leaving Monday. And obviously, I couldn't do it selection Sunday. I got it Thursday. And I said, just go a little shorter on the sides,

because I'm not going to be back in New York till a week from now because I'm going to Dayton and then we're going up to Cleveland and those first and second round games are Friday, Sunday. But I want to tell you guys something if I can backtrack a little bit because I know you guys obviously started out with humble beginnings too. That experience of selling air time was the most humbling experience that I ever had in my life. Because at that time I was making like $13 an hour screening calls and doing reporting at ESPN radio New York.

I was cold calling for my friend's brother's mortgage company like Glen Gary, Glen Ross. That was like what I was living in just cold calling people out of the yellow pages. And I was like making $50 an article writing college basketball for different publications. So I knew though, I needed like a demo to try and have an opportunity. So I would like walk up and down Neurachelle going into businesses trying to buy airtime

and nobody would buy anything. And I remember talking to a guy in a car dealership and this was like probably 20 years ago. And I said, well, if I do a weekly show, you know, will you buy some airtime? And he goes, well, is Joe Tory a weekly guest? And I didn't know who that was at the time. And then he was like, he was like, well, if Joe Tory is not a weekly guest, you know, we buy some air time and he goes, well, is Joe Tory a weekly guest? And I didn't know who that was at the time. And then he was, and then he was like, he's like, well, if Joe Tory's not a weekly guest, then I'm not doing it. And it was that moment where I was just like, look, I'm not going to become anything in his business unless I have calluses and I'm getting calluses right now. But that also brought me back to the

over the top thing. You know, the world meets nobody halfway. Yeah, no, it's very cool. And it's, it's a very cool story. And I think people should go read it because it gives kind of a backstory of like, Hey, John Rostein has, has done it the hard way. You know, people don't, people need to respect that because it's very hard business to, to, to break into. And you weren't a coach, you weren't a player and to get into it is, is awesome. Well, another thing too, and you guys know I have a passion for this, but you know, when 20 in my twenties, when like people that I was close with in New York and friends like that were taking vacations and traveling, I went to AAU tournaments and networked.

That's what I would do. Like I would sit with Dan Hurley when he was at Wagner and, you know, build a relationship. I would sit with Bill Self. I drove once, I remember to Virginia, there was this big tournament down there, Boo Williams. And I drove, it was like seven hours each way. And I just went, I made business cards at Kinko's and I just went and just networked and networked and networked. And I feel like when that is your backbone, every single day you owe it to yourself,

but most of all, you owe it to your bosses who continue to give you these great assignments To give everybody every the best you can every single day now. I do want to because we're I feel like we're close Share something personal with you two things personal. Okay, but um, I switched recently I was kind of pressured. I had a little crisis and I don't know if you noticed this when we were texting earlier But it was probably I have I've had dreams and I will admit this to you guys But like I've had dreams because like of how much my life revolves around my phone and I need it like the machine rolling I've had dreams that I've been at a pool party and I jump and do like a cannonball my phones on me

Mm-hmm, and it's like nightmares and I wake up and I'm like I didn't do that So a couple of weeks ago, you guys know, I've been a droid guy my entire life. Yeah, like there's like nightmares and I wake up and I'm like, I didn't do that. So a couple of weeks ago, you guys know I've been a droid guy my entire life. Yep. Like there's like twice a year, there's like something that happens where there's like an iOS upgrade and droid people can't text iPhones. And like it was giving me a kind of hurrah.

I started the schvitz. Like I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't communicate with people and communication is so important. So my wife, you know, we have a child now who's 18 months, 18 months old, she couldn't get in in touch with me and you start to flip out So one day I just ripped the bandaid off and now I'm team blue bubbles. Yeah Just think do it. Yeah, I'm adjusting to it

So that I thought was a life-altering experience the day after I switched to an iPhone was either day or week after Yeah, and yeah, and when they just talked about the Rothstein text I bet they're happier to get the text now. That's a blue bubble That's what I'm saying. So but then it get then get this this was another thing that happened So I and you guys know us sometimes like I'll tweet in the spring. It's like an April or May like I hate you pollen Yeah, I've tweeted that in the past Last year, I was having a bad deal with allergies You know

I just said to myself, should I get allergy shots? And I went and investigated with my local allergist and they said you can do 32 rounds of shots and you should be 80% immune. And I was like, I don't want to get back from the final four when everything's over and have to deal with allergies. I'm sick of dealing with allergies. So there's 32 rounds of shots to be done with it. So I get through 30 rounds of shots. Okay? This is like maybe two weeks ago. I go for my 31st shot, I get it. I think, you know, you go to the gym, get your allergy shot,

come home to your podcast, whatever. I start having this weird reaction, like I'm Jack Nicholson and something's gotta give. I'm sitting on a stoop and I'm sweating. I go back into the doctor's office, I start throwing up. They give me two shots of an EpiPen to calm me down. And I just remember like my life was flashing in front of my eyes, but I said, I remember I said to these people, I thought it was crazy.

I said, if I'm going to go, I'm not going before March. Yeah. Yeah. It's smart. You can't, you can't. I can't. I said, if you, if you want to take me, take me on April 10th. Yeah.

Don't take me now. Yeah. We die in May. So, so that was exactly. Yeah. Dust another victim claim by dusty may. Yeah. Correct. Exactly. Exactly. There was another part of the article that I loved and it talks about your wife and she said, when it gets to March, he will literally walk around our place and repeat, this is March. This is March. I'm like, I know it's March. Just say it in your head. How many times a day do you say this is March to yourself? Probably 10 to 15, especially when the TV's on and like you're just soaking everything in and you see close finishes. You see crazy upsets. I mean, it's a part of the fabric

of college basketball. It's definitely a big part of my life. And the thing that's so humbling is like a takeaway I've gotten from that article and some of a very prominent media reporter reached out to me. It's like, I'd like to do, you know, feature on your wife. She sounds a lot more interesting than you do. I was like, yeah, I guess you don't care about the path obviously in the region of firepower. All right. All right. Back to, back to the bracket Midwest. That was great, John Midwest last one. Okay. This is the region of toughness. Okay. Think about guys, the coaches in the scowling that is, that is involved in this region. Kelvin Sampson, Houston, Rick Barnes, Tennessee, Mick Cronin, UCLA, Brad Underwood at Illinois. This is a dynamite region. I've

got Houston. I've got Gonzaga beaten Georgia. I've got McNeese coached by Will Wade, beating his alma mater Clemson in the 12-5. Remember, Will Wade was a student manager at Clemson before he got into coaching. That's my 12-5. I got Purdue over high point. I've got Illinois over the Texas Xavier winner, Kentucky, UCLA and Tennessee.

Then we're going bottom. I got Houston against Purdue. And then I'm going to take Illinois against Tennessee in the sweet 16. And I'm going to take Illinois against Houston in the elite eight. And I got Houston going on the final four. So I got Houston against Duke on one side, Houston comes out of the region, the toughness on the other side, I've got Michigan state State in Florida and I got Houston finally breaking through under Kelvin Sampson and winning the national championship. Kelvin Sampson, again, I've said it before.

This is why Houston basketball's nickname is no mercy. He reminds me a lot of the sensei and karate kid, John crease. You know, with just, you know, remember when he said strike first strike hard, no mercy, sir. that's what Kelvin Sampson reminds me of he's like the Sam he's a much you know kinder man than you know Martin Kovil in the karate kid but he has that same type of fierce kind of presence does that guy win in karate kid he doesn't win and if you remember at the start of karate kid 2 he'd be his knuckles bleed because he punches them through a car when he

Gets in a fight with mr. Miyagi. Yeah, thank you rock. So yeah, you mentioned will Wade We were actually just talking about will Wade earlier today will wait any chance if you're Villanova any chance You're picking up the phone giving will way to call I don't think Villanova is the school to give will way to call but I will say this We have seen a number of big-time coaches get second chances for off-the-court issues and There's many programs that are coached by them now in this NCAA tournament and those programs are thriving Yeah, yeah spirit at Ole Miss Rick Patino at st. John's Bruce Pearl at Auburn Kelvin Sampson at Houston the school that hires will Wade is going to be the school that falls next

in that line. Yeah. Think about this. Here's a couple of things on Will Wade I was thinking about. I talked about it tonight on our show. Will Wade is the only coach in Chaka Smart to win an NCAA tournament game at VCU. Will Wade won the SEC regular season title at LSU and Will Wade since he took the McNeese job in two years is 57 and 10. I know that things were very sloppy at LSU But a lot of those things are legal right now, right? So the school that hires them is gonna be on upward trajectory moving forward and I'm gonna have to come up with a new tagline For him. Yeah

I mean all the stuff that he got in trouble for his stuff that is actually Legal and it's an advantage if your coach can do those things. Well right now They also have I think the best student manager of anybody. Yeah. That guy, he's a star. Yeah. Amir Khan is a star. Yeah. Yeah. So good vibes from him. So you have Houston over Illinois. You got Illinois over Tennessee. Talk me through that one. You know, I did on Thanksgiving day, you know, CBS sports had a, a thank you. We have a Thanksgiving game game now after the NFL next year, it's going to be Arkansas and Duke in Chicago, which maybe you guys can go to. I don't know if you want to do on Thanksgiving, but it's a big time game in Chicago.

It is. So I did the game with iron Eagle and Bill Raftery, you know, in Kansas city. And I, Illinois, I saw Illinois up close and when everything is equal on a neutral court and cat, I know you know this because you know the big 10 so well. Illinois has final four talent when things are clicking with Yakicones, with Eva Sitch. There's obviously great role players and ancillary pieces around those guys with Boswell, Will Riley. I talked to Brad Underwood last week.

He loves the way Will Riley has been playing, you know, the last couple of weeks. And this is the thing too, you got to like when you're looking at Illinois, because of Eva stitches ability to stretch things from the five spot. It's very difficult. And this is what killed Arkansas on that game on Thanksgiving. It's very difficult to play a traditional five man against them because they can extend the defense so much with Eva. So she reminds me a lot.

This is a throwback comparison. He reminds me a lot of Rafe LaFrance. Ooh, I like that Kansas. So much Rafe LaFrance and Thomas Lop Eva stitch. Yeah. No, Illinois is a, like I was saying when we were, we were talking about the bracket before you came on. I want to see Illinois, Kentucky, because those two teams when they're, when they hit their ceiling, it's incredible basketball. They have had floors that we've seen as well and it's been bad, but both those teams have insane firepower and I agree Illinois is, they're very volatile, but if it's good, it's great.

It's good. It's great. And you bring up a great point because a potential Illinois, Kentucky game in the round of 32 would be like a regional final. But guys, I've always felt that the round of 32 is the most intriguing round of the NCAA tournament because you are going to get in some cases, the dreamer having a chance to dream the dream for another week, or you are going to get a massive showdown of powerful programs. Look, we could have in the region of toughness, you could have Houston, Gonzaga, Purdue, Clemson, Illinois, Kentucky, or Texas or Xavier against Kentucky. And then UCLA against Tennessee. If we saw any one of those matchups in an elite eight or a final four,

we'd probably take it. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. I mean, just the Houston Gonzaga one is crazy. That could be a second round matchup. So can you give us some names of guys that, that we're going to want to get to know for March? Like guys that have the potential to take over this tournament and become household names. How deep do you want to go? Do you want power conference names? Do you want me to get really in the weird seat in the weeds here? Let's start out with, with just give me like two names per bracket that you

should keep. Okay. Let, let's go right up right now to the top left. The region of depth. Donovan Dent from New Mexico is one of the great point guards in college basketball. That is somebody you wanna put on your radar for sure. Ole Miss has a couple of players. Sean Padula, a terrific veteran point guard who transferred from Virginia Tech.

Also John Pulikidis, I told you from Yale. We go down to the region of prestige right now. A couple of guys again who are off the radar I'm trying to come up with. Bennett Sturtz at Drake who's kind of the maestro for them. Also Neet Clifford from Colorado State who has been part of this incredible surge by Colorado State. He has been elite playing like one of the top 15 or 20 players in the country over the last couple of weeks. I will also point out in the UConn Oklahoma game, Jeremiah Fears, the freshman point guard for Oklahoma, the brother of Michigan State's Jeremy Fears is a name to watch. And then as we look

right now in your top right, the region of firepower, I'm gonna give you one for Mississippi State, Josh Hubbard, an electrifying yard, plus Oregon. You've got Jackson Shellstad and Nate Biddle, Max Schuylga at VCU, Richie Saunders at BYU, at St. Mary's, Augustus Marshalonis is the least talked about back-to-back conference player of the year we may have in history. He's won the award in the WCC in back-to-back seasons. Ryan Nemhardhard we know from

Gonzaga. For Georgia, a talented player, Asa Newell who's a good freshman. I'm trying to keep going down the... Ryan Conwell at Xavier is like a poor man's Michael Redd. He will be in the first four Wednesday night in the Xavier, Texas game. And then I'm going to say, I mean, UCLA, I mean, you can't, you don't really get in the weeds here too much, but I mean, UCLA, Eric Daley and Tyler billadoe, I would say are two, uh, are two names there. Okay. Love it. Um, all right. Well, John, I got one last question for you. This has been awesome. We love having on row back question, R H O B A C K.com promo code take row back.com promo code take. Q zips polos hoodies joggers shorts row back.com promo code take again. Everyone tune in. John

will be Tuesday and Wednesday and Dayton. Then he's going up to Cleveland. We're going to see him on the broadcast. Can't wait for it. Um, I saw you dropped a new rostinism and I had a question about it. The new one is Todd golden is to Florida basketball. What Mark Zuckerberg was to Facebook in the social network. They both built monsters and and golden's looks like it can win the whole damn thing. You know like Mark Zuckerberg's a real person. Social network is his life. Right. I know I know that. But in terms of like, Todd was always this guy and like, I'll just, I talked about this with Bruce Pearl on our show tonight.

When Bruce Pearl first got the Auburn job, you know, I went down to a practice and we went out to eat after and like Todd was this guy who wasn't even like an assistant coach on the staff, but everybody looked at him as like this prodigy and he had this incredible mind for basketball and he had these Unique ways to evaluate and he was always kind of ahead of things with the analytics and he used that you know He had that team at San Francisco a couple years ago that went to the tournament and you know gotten that large bid And now he's doing incredible things at Florida and guys I want to say this because Todd golden I had my top five for national coach of the year and this is not to disparage him at all as a coach, but obviously he's still so young. If Billy Donovan was coaching this Florida

team with the way we're playing, Florida would be universally viewed as the favorite to win the national championship and it wouldn't be close, but Todd knows he's got to prove it in the NCAA tournament, but Florida is ripping through college basketball right now like a chainsaw through butter. But I think Big Cat's point still stands though, which is Mark Zuckerberg is a person. He's a real person. Not like outside of the movie. The movie was about Mark Zuckerberg, but you can just say- Mark Zuckerberg.

He's like Mark Zuckerberg. Okay. I appreciate the amendment, but you guys know part of what gives me balance is when I get through the final four and things get a little quieter I love having like a Peroni and a bowl of Terales and watching these old movies that I've watched 15 to 20 times sometimes more the social network is in that rotation. Okay. Yeah. He is a real person. Yeah. He is a real person. What about the Rothstein ism I suggest. I know that you don't take you don't take submissions for Rothstein isms but Danny Hurley, drink and piss.

That's a good one right there. That's a really good one. I don't know, man. You said one a couple of years ago, like for Wake Forest, like run forest run. Like we have to kind of put that in the lead files. You think that's good? Yeah, it fits in with your thing. It's like old movies.

Rothstein-isms can't be forced. I know. I know. I know. It can't be forced. Okay. Well, I do before I have one last last question for you John some people have accused you, you know, you're an insider you you work on the air You're in media, but you know, you weren't a coach you weren't a player Some people are saying that you can't diagram a flare screen. Can you describe your screen? You describe a flare screen to us?

Sure. Well, let's just use Wisconsin as an example, because that's obviously, you know, some common ground for us right here. So a flare screen is this. Let's say we have three players on the perimeter. Let's say John Blackwell is on the point and on the two wings on the right wing is John Tonjian. And the other side is Max Klezman. If Blackwell throws the ball to the right wing, he is then going to go to the left to kind of drift to the corner and Klezmer is going to come and set a back screen on Blackwell's man. And then Tonje would throw it over the top to John Blackwell and get him a shot. Now, another thing is the guy who's the screener on that back screen is also a threat to roll to the basket and get an easy layup because the defense then might think that the play is going over the

top to John Blackwell. So that's a, that's the flare screen. I love it. I think you got that exactly right. John, I, uh, we, we love having you on and, and like I said, everyone go read the story because I can't say it enough. Like you love and breathe hoops and you are a great story in the fact that like the world is cynical. You just worked your ass off and got to this point and we're very happy for you and this is the best time of year. Yeah, it's the best time of year. I appreciate you guys. This is something I look forward to every single year. And if I make it to Chicago this summer, I hope to see you guys. Yes. Also,

also, you know, you guys enjoy the tournament too, because cat, I'm telling you, man, I don't know if it can happen, but Wisconsin has enough here to at least get to the second weekend. I know you live and die with that team and they got the best off guard in America. Yeah. I'm, I'm very excited for the tournament. I w I want to try to have a run. Also, it sounds like I might have to invite you over to Thanksgiving. I mean, you might have to just come to my house for Thanksgiving. If I gave, I'm fortunate enough to get the assignment again. But I mean, but you know me, I have to, I focus on a game day. Like when I have a game day assignment, like it's like, you know, that's the only thing that matters. So I can't unwind

until that happens. You don't have to unwind. You can literally just come over and eat. You don't have to talk to anyone. I'm totally fine with that. I don't like talking to anyone in my house on Thanksgiving. But then you and I, I could get into a little disagreement because I'm going to want like feast week on the TV and you're going to want to watch the NFL. Listen, I do you know how many TVs I have in my house, John? How many TVs? I have like 18 TVs. There's not a room that doesn't have multiple TVs. I got you. Don't

you worry. I love, I love, I love you guys know I love New York more than anything. I, as you guys know, I used to watch Cocktail Wall, the secret of my success nonstop, but there is nothing like a great long weekend in Chicago, especially in the summer. Love doing it. Italia. So come do it portion sizes. Come do it. Let's get it. Let's live it up. We were going to take a long weekend with the baby last summer and like we didn't think she was ready for it, but maybe, uh, maybe this summer she will be. We love that love that architecture tour too that's big time it's like Vince Vaughn in the breakup yeah the boat tour is great that but you don't eat pizza when you're out here i do i will not waste calories on

pizza outside of the eastern times yes yes we know that rule did you watch any football this year uh we had a super bowl party and i was so tired from the weekend in college basketball. I like dozed off a little bit, even though, you know, just because I couldn't take the game and my wife came over and said, we have an apartment full of people. You can't sleep. And I said, you're right. We sleep in May. Yeah, there we go. There we go. All right, John, thanks so much. Can't wait to see you on the broadcast and hopefully you do come to Chicago sometime soon and we'll, we'll get some dinner. You got it. Love you guys. Have a great tournament. John Rothstein was brought to you by TGL. TGL presented by SoFi, golf's newest league,

an all new indoor arena style golf where high tech meets higher stakes, meets primetime ESPN, and the first round of playoffs are here. Monday, St. Patty's Day, we've got number one LA against number four New York at 7 p.m. Eastern ESPN 2 and ESPN plus and then on Tuesday we've got the second ranked team the Bay versus the third ranked Atlanta 7 p.m. Eastern ESPN and ESPN plus it's 3v3 match play team golf that takes the competition of pro golf and places it inside an arena sports atmosphere. The regular season is over and the top four teams have clinched the playoffs. Number one, LA against New York and then number two, the Bay against number three Atlanta Monday and Tuesday.

This week TGL glory is on the line as each semi-final round will only consist of one match with the winners of the semi-finals facing off in a best of three exhibition to win it all. The semifinals have some big players. Atlanta has Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel, LA has Colin Morikawa, Seyit Thigala, Tommy Fleetwood, New York has Rickie Fowler, Cam Young, Xander Schauffele and the Bay has Wyndham Clark, Shane Lowry and Ludwig Abert. I dare you to keep up with the rest of the TGL playoffs. Tune in tonight and tomorrow only on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+.

Search for and download the TGL app to keep up with all the matches through the matchup live, real-time stats, live interviews, highlights and more. It's TGL presented by SoFi. Keep up. It's golf. John Rothstein was also brought to you by Reese's. Reese's is the goat. Reese's peanut butter cups are the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter. You can buy Reese's cups basically anywhere.

Feed your fandom. Reese's cups are the perfect complement to the chaos of March. They're a drool worthy competition, combination of chocolate and peanut butter to go wild for. With its mouthwatering combination of chocolate and peanut butter to go wild for with its mouthwatering combination of chocolate and peanut butter Reese's peanut butter cups are a winning part of the game day experience. The Reese's big cup with the caramel sauce inside. Oh my god. So good. They've done it again. Eat Reese's peanut butter cups. Feed your fandom. Okay, let's wrap up the show. Oh, breaking news.

We're actually cheating because we already finished the whole show and we're adding this at the end of the show before we do numbers with oldie. Breaking news, Hank? Breaking news. Jamar Chase T. Higgins paid. Whoa.

Per? By who? The Cincinnati Bengals. That's the important part. Yeah. So Jamar four years, 161,000,000 112 mill guaranteed. He is now the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history. I didn't give him seven days. He got the crown and then T Higgins got four years, two years guaranteed worth up to 115,000,000. I don't know what the guaranteed money is on that, but he is now the highest paid wide receiver to well in NFL history. I am very happy for Bengals fans. I'm very happy for Joe burrow. This is awesome because Bengals fans I think were very nervous about this entire off season. Will the Bengals be cheap?

What's going to happen to the future of their franchise, their offense? Those two guys are really fucking good at football and they're both still young, relatively young and you have Joe Burrow and you basically are saying, you know, yeah, they got to make some some right decisions on defense and make some good picks, but they're always going to be in the mix with those three guys. Yeah, they're saying let's lean into what we do really well. That's offense. Our offense is fucking awesome. Let's just do more of that and your fear of Finn. That's exactly what you want That's what you want. You don't want to have to revamp that whole thing You don't want to also you just don't want to piss off your quarterback, right?

And it seems like he's gonna be very happy with what you've done It also probably means that Trey Hendrickson will definitely get traded. Yes on point, right? Yes. Yes I would say so but good for the Bengals good for Bengals fans You basically guaranteed the next three to four years are gonna be fun. Yeah, I don't know if they're gonna win but they're gonna be fun Yeah, you're gonna be great. I've always been fun when those three guys are on the field. So good job Thanks for the breaking news. Thank you problem. Good breaking news. So do we know if that video was real or not? Hank have we gotten to the bottom of that? Thanks for the breaking news Hank. No problem. Good breaking news Hank. So do we know if that video was real or not Hank? Have we gotten to the bottom of that?

Just a tweet from MLB saying this tweet is not a video game. So Max saying it's a video game you idiot. He's the idiot. I memory hold this whole conversation because I really don't like it. This is from Quigs. It's- Well I mean it's, it's, it's, it might be the worst podcasting to have an extended debate about a video that people were listening Can't see it's new segment. Is this real when you're thinking about it, right? Yeah, I mean I didn't bring

So I'm thinking about to go look for the video I'm thinking about the fans Hank Personally, I'd be yeah, I mean we bring it up when we end this, when we end recording right now, did bring it up when we were not right now. When we brought it up, when we end recording, just to get this conversation going again, when we end recording, I am a hundred percent in on just hanging out with the boys and continuing this debate. Cool. Yeah. All right. So let's do that. So now the podcast listeners can be like finally, well that's not good for the listeners either. Now they're like, that's not good for the listeners either Now they're like I wonder if they talked about something cool with the video. No, we're gonna just talk about the video

It's gonna be real or not. We're gonna have a worse conversation than we did on there. All right, let's kick it to ourselves with Oldie Okay Time for numbers and we're gonna say goodbye to Oldie for now Oldie How was how was your weekend watching hoops with us? It was four days of you just getting blitzed with college hoops. E electric like fire. I was unbelievable from the second I showed up while the airplane was another story. But I mean, once I arrived, it was, it was on donkey Kong. We were ready to rumble in the jungle. Heaters good on Thursday heater on Friday good Saturday good and Sunday you know my

numbers for and was my fourth day here and phenomenal finished hard yeah finished hard and hot so you just kept on winning basically it's almost like what's his name there piss and excellence right wake up in the morning piss excellence yeah what'd you think about brackets that is sick yeah so What'd you think about brackets? That is sick. Yeah, so. That is sickening. So Oldie had never seen a live bracket reveal. Like I've seen a bracket in Canada,

like and once it comes out, but like 48, 72 hours after the fact, right? By the time it gets up North. Yeah. But I mean to see it live, to see teams fired up, sitting, waiting, is there a squad gonna be the squad? And all of a sudden, boom, it's their squad

and everyone's fired up Yeah, give us a couple of Cinderella's Cinderella's well st. John's not a Cinderella knows to be mm-hmm I got to go my boys. I got it. We got to go back to Akron zips zips yes Unbelievable who else be banging with on the west side region. I'm trying to remember. There's so many teams It's trying to hard to track Yeah, yeah, I think it's like 300 in I don't know 56 and just D1 and then we got the other unranked schools that still make it which is still incredible

Yeah Florida Florida's one come on oldie orange one. Yeah Badgers is not a Cinderella story. No, they should be even higher for some reason I don't understand but they that shit that that's all politics stuff. That's behind. Yeah, we figure that out after yeah Who else is out? There's shanty. What was the one team there? Or Norfolk Norfolk's no, you like Norfolk. Yeah, okay. I like them. I watched them play a couple games I'm gonna get a home game. I think they're playing a rally right max is trying to find a bracket All he's doing is looking up

tweets where it's like There we go Empty bracket he's giving me straight empty bracket and I'm just like okay final four from 20 got you right now right here He's got we're back in we're back in oldie What uh what was your takeaway from just the the gambling kid? I mean you spent a lot of time with us You saw a lot like the Rico Bosco's experience a lot of a lot of history a lot of a lot of inside jokes It's at some points. It's just like as I'm right now. I have speechless at some points. It's crazy

Yeah, it's incredibly amazing guy knows every coach in America The guy literally knows every coach and if he doesn't know the coach He's running straight goods practice facility Yeah, if your guys can't get into a barn because it's so big it's my call Rico one shot one dial You got him boom. He's on it. You won't even miss the call. No, no, I mean he I think I seen Rico beat Wisconsin last year. Yeah, he got Jamie the practice facility. Yeah, he did You might want to also keep an eye on the electricity he's been punishing through that phone is constantly. It's the most powerful phone on the East Coast. It is. That's a huge

phone. I'm surprised you're not a secure like a like a one. What are those things like a beamer around it like whomping kind of I don't know what you're talking about, but I like that. But it's just so powerful. It has like a raise off everything. You can't even come close to it. We try to touch you to get zapped. Yeah Alright, so great trip oldie. We'll see you. We'll see in the future We we we you'll maybe back for some hockey playoffs So a couple months from now or a month and a half from now, but yeah, it's great having you around You're great energy on the streams. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. It's just live. Everyone's a beauty in there. Everyone's

bumping and grinding. They got tickets going, winning tickets, losing tickets. It doesn't matter. Yeah. And if you're not even for that team, just be the team, be the team. If you're not for that team, right, be there, like be the team. Yeah, no oldie bet on Florida today. And he, he was head to toe in Vols gear. He was just like, I'm doing this for big T. Oh yeah. I ride with him. I rolled with big T the whole Choo Choo train the whole way there in about last seven minutes. I had a Florida ticket. Yeah. It connected though. It connected. Yeah. Great run by the Vols. Great run. Good work. Good team atmosphere. But Gators chomped in through. Great run.

Better bet. Yeah. Yeah. Way better. Way better bet than the run. Yeah. So great job. I mean, you just like we would leave Basically every day we come in watch basketball day leave at like 10 o'clock 11 o'clock And then I wake up the next morning and oldie was just everywhere in Chicago He was hitting he was hitting he was doing BP and at sluggers last night at one in the morning Walking around Fulton market. You had a great time everywhere. I was on the strip. I was here. I was there. I was here Friday I want to apologize though. I was late. I was a second in the office. Oh Who was your first Luke? Oh, yeah the door and I was excited. I didn't see anyone. He goes holy

What are you doing here? I said Back to the grind with the boys. What do you mean? Am I doing here? Like it's got time to just go time, dude Yeah, and he goes well it's a good thing you met me and see me here because I was just on my way to the office and you would have been done because you don't have a card right and I'm like how would I have a card like I don't have a card yet yeah so and I was like okay no problem no problem and I go sorry for being late and he goes it's like 914 or 9 something on a Saturday

this is Saturday oh this is the Saturday yeah no one was here till noon, but yeah here at 940 He's like the show doesn't start to like 12 or 1 the stream and I'm like I don't care about the stream of the show Right now I'm here for the work. Let's go. Yeah, so I went and started filling up the waters You know cleaned it up and that was it big badabum badabing. We're back at it. Love it and then everyone showed up Thanks for coming to you. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was he was filling up the waters every single time I turned around so I appreciate that oldie and throwing out trash with PFT. Yeah, that was that was all-time We were working on the El Camino. Yeah out in the garage here. We hear a beeping noise. The garage door raises up It's a dump truck backing in immediately oldie goes hang on. I'll be right back

He runs over the dumpster starts loading the truck up with trash Yeah, the guy gets out and oldie starts hitting the gears to work the back gate of the truck the guy just looked at him it was like at first like what the fuck and then all he was like it's okay I got this and then he just dapped it up yeah it was all good from there you were touching another man's truck and the guy was cool with it I ran the controls I ran the controls he tried to come over and show me this is how you do it buddy just take it easy I got seniority pal what how many years you got in dude I want to tell him buddy he's a good guy he's out there bumping and grinding with the boys so you gotta love that dude. You can't hate on the guy bumping and grinding working full force and he's been out probably popping from five in the morning running straight shift. It's a Friday

long week for him, oldie gave him a spell at the end of it he appreciate the blow. Yeah big time big time we got the car was fired up how's she run Oh, she runs great like I should get home safe and sound It's no putter but nothing crazy like that. No, it's all good. I think it's gonna be a good year for the El Camino Oldie Oh, it's gonna be smooth once that sunshine come coming out. Look out highway 190 here we come. No, no, no highways Can't take it on the highway. No, you know what? That's right ran out of gas on the highway one time. It's PTSD from that Yeah, I can't do it. No, I made I made the entire city of Chicago late for work Yeah, can't do it again stay on those safe streets. Keep it real. They're a nice car. Let's get it All right. Let's finish up numbers everyone three

33 All right, go ahead memes you get it. No memes you have it you have it Say take it I'll take Say take it I'll take 84 13 1 I Gotta go. I already went my four banger. I had to hit the nashir 6 1 I gotta go back to the roots stand up on the Hangside 6 9. Oh Nice back to the roots

99 poke Jack 52 little boy Jack 21 54 54 Love you guys. Close. 52. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym.

I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym.

I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to go to the gym. So So So so So So I'm going to go ahead and get started. Thanks for watching!