The Kevin Sheehan Show - Bad Terps Loss and #21 on Landon Collins

Episode Date: March 15, 2019

Kevin opens the show with the Kareem Hunt news and speculates on what Reuben Foster will get. He then answers the Redskins' question of the day of whether or not Landon Collins should be able to wear Sean Taylor's #21. He recaps the Maryland loss to Nebraska in detail and talks about what's next for Turgeon and the Terps. Patrick Stevens (Bracketologist) was a guest on the show and predicts where Maryland will be seeded and where they'll play and a lot more on the field. Kevin also talks about the possible moves the Redskins might make over the weekend. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I'm here. Aaron's here. This show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation, or go to Windonation.com and tell them that we told you to call. I will get to the unacceptable Maryland loss in a few minutes. Not happy about what happened yesterday at the Big Ten tournament. Patrick Stevens will up. date us a little bit later on in the show on where Maryland will be as a seed when the field is unveiled on Sunday evening. And we'll talk a lot about the seeding, the top four seeds, the bubble teams, etc. Patrick does a great bracketology is all over this thing. So we'll talk to him a little bit later on. I'm going to start real quickly with the breaking news this morning that Kareem Hunt is getting eight games, a suspension that is of eight games for Kareem Hunt.

He's accepting it, will not appeal it. The Browns understand it. He's a Cleveland Brown. They have other backs. They've got Chubb, they've got Duke Johnson at this point, but Kareem Hunt won't be eligible to play for the Cleveland Browns until after the halfway mark of the year. For Redskinned fans, that leads to the discussion about Ruben Foster, who has already been suspended for two games for violating the league's personal conduct policy back when he was a 49er in the beginning of last year. And that stemmed from the weapons offense and the misdemeanor drug offense.

And then, you know, obviously what happened in late November, the domestic violence charges, which were dropped. But I think given that the league doesn't necessarily, of course they consider whether or not charges were dropped or not. But this is a second incident anyway that he's involved in. He's going to get games. Like you're fooling yourself if you don't think Ruben Foster is going to get suspended for some games. He's already been suspended for two games. That was a year ago. I can't imagine that he's going to get any less than four.

if Kareem Hunt got eight. Now there's video, all right, and Kareem Hunt, you know, is caught on video, slapping a female right in the face, all right, attacking a female on video, but he didn't have any sort of track record. So there's a lot that the league will consider. I'm not going to sit here and really speculate other than to speculate that, to me, it seems pretty intuitive that Ruben Foster is going to get suspended for some amount of games in 2019. I would be shocked if there's no suspension and would be surprised if it's only

two games, but wouldn't be surprised if it's more than two. I'll leave it at that. There was other Skins News, and then there was the Landon Collins press conference. The Skins news is that Ha Ha Clinton Dick signed a one-year deal in Chicago. The Redskins were interested. They were in resigning him. But clearly he didn't feel the same way because he signed what would have been a very affordable contract for just about anybody. Yeah, one three point five, right?

Yeah, one year $3.5 million deal to play for Chicago, all right, to play for the Bears. So taking stock here for a moment in the offseason to date, the three players so far, the Redskins have been able to add and or keep in free agency, or via trade, is a quarterback in Case Keenham that was traded for, a 34-year-old running back who may not have had many other options in Adrian Peterson, and a safety that grew up idolizing Sean Taylor

and dreaming of playing for the Redskins because of Sean Taylor. Attempts to trade for Antonio Brown didn't work out to sign CJ Mosley, haven't worked out. Those are the ones we know of. I believe I cannot confirm, but I do believe that the Redskins were interested in Golden Tate, but he signed with the Giants. Got to wonder what the Giants are doing, right? Signing a player a little bit older in Golden Tate, but they did need a receiver or two. In terms of their own free agents, the Redskins' own free agents are mostly gone.

Crowder, Preston, Smith, Ty, and Secky, now Ha Ha, Clinton, Dix. Splash is absolutely the plan. A splashy off-season is the plan, but you can only make a splash if players want to come here. And so far, one player has decided to come here, and that one player is Landing Collins. There will be more to come because of necessity. The team will need players, and there will be players that don't have other options. But understand that the Redskins right now, you have to understand this. Redskins right now are not at the top of the list for players unless there are special circumstances,

like in the case of Landon Collins, or they don't have any other real legitimate options. It was the same with the coaches, which is why they lost some and the ones they added, like Rob Ryan and Ray Horton, were out of work and desperate to get back into the league. I mean, be sharp here. Pay attention. Dan Snyder used to be able to go out and get anyone he wanted. more likely than not, those days are long gone, long gone. Another piece of news since the show yesterday. Doug Williams admitted that they are still in the market for a quarterback, most likely in the draft where they could trade up, he mentioned, or trade back.

The other thing Doug Williams admitted yesterday was very interesting to me, because I watched his scrum interview with a bunch of media after the landing Collins press conference. And he admitted something about the personnel office and group and the coaching staff. And for the most part, admitted that the two weren't necessarily in sync. Listen to this question from Chris Russell and then listen to Doug's answer. Follow up, if I could piggyback off of that. I've always been taught that in personnel acquisition,

you try and find players that fit the scheme and what the coaches ideally want. on. So you're kind of saying that you guys in personnel are just identifying talent and then not worrying as much of the scheme? I think that's what people think that, you know, because we're not in the room with the scheme. So I don't know exactly what the scheme is, more than what we see. But I think athletic ability and the play of a player should fit in the scheme you put him in if you look at it from that standpoint. You know, it's some guys that we had on the board that we'd say he could only play in the box because he might not can run, but he's tough, his nails. But a guy like this, you know, we didn't put him in the box.

We put him as a safety that he can play wherever you put him. You know, it all depends on how you use him. But, you know, I tell people all the time, whether it's the receiver, whether it's the running back, no matter what. We don't scheme them up because we can't. It's just like going to the combine. You know, they're not up here, so you don't know what's keem to end. But you do take for what you see at the combine, his workout, his jillity drill and all that. You say, hey, we can get that guy and we can put him in our scheme.

All right, there's a lot there, but what I really wanted to tie it back to, basically Doug sort of admitted that they evaluate players based on the players' abilities, which of course you want to do, but they don't necessarily give much thought to how the team is schemed up by the coaching staff. Remember what Jay Gruden said. Tommy's harped on this many times here in the offseason. Remember what Jay Gruden said the very end of the year, that that, that season-ending press conference or just after the season had ended. There's the quote, and I'm going to pull it right now, quote, there are a lot of things that probably need to change,

but I think just moving forward, we all have to be on the same page as far as personnel, coaching, and all that stuff, closed quote. Doug's essentially saying that it's not necessarily all on the same page. Look, I can't tell you how much this organization, is in sync on a day-to-day basis between personnel group, front office, coaching staff, etc. But the results speak for themselves, right? The results speak for themselves. They bring in players and they have over the years that haven't necessarily fit based on the way the team's being

coached up. Look, I need a reboot. I need a reboot with a legitimate, one-voice general manager who is given the responsibility to hire the coach and works off of one page with competence. That's what I want. We're not getting that right now. All right, let's get to the Dan Snyder, Landon Collins story from yesterday. The Landon Collins press conference I watched.

Dan Snyder made Landon Collins cry the other night at dinner by giving him one of his two signed Sean Taylor jerseys. By the way, Dan Snyder made Landon Collins cry. Join the club, Landon. He's made us all cry over the years. But God, are people totally wrapped up in the should he or shouldn't he be able to wear Sean Taylor's number 21 jersey? You know what isn't important to me at all? Might be to you guys, not to me, whether or not Landon Collins wears number 21.

I couldn't care less. And don't mistake what I'm saying. And I think most of you know this. Whatever you hear me say in the next five or so minutes, five, ten or so minutes is not a shot at Sean Taylor or Landing Collins. I loved Sean Taylor as a player. I'm still saddened by what happened to him. He was a very good player and getting better on his way to a great career and potentially

more than that. Watching him play was thrilling. It was those last two years. And also understand this. I can totally appreciate and respect that Sean Taylor was, you know, a hero for Landon Collins and that Landon Collins has had this desire to play for the Redskins since he was a kid because of Sean Taylor. All right, nothing wrong with that at all.

I'm happy for Landing Collins. You know, Sean Taylor was his idol. Nothing wrong with that. Now, with that said, Sean Taylor's number 21 protected, not protected. You know, the Redskins have one retired jersey. It's Sammy Baas number 33, and then they have a lot of jerseys that are protected. Sean Taylor is number 21 protected, not protected. Landy Collins being able to wear it or not doesn't mean anything to me.

Sean will always be remembered, but the only thing that matters to me right now is that somehow, miraculously, because it would almost seem like it would take a miracle at this point. But all I care about is that they win. They win and they start winning consistently after 20 years of being beaten down as a fan. The only thing that matters is not, I don't give a shit about a jersey number at this point with the state of this franchise. Start effing winning. The history of this organization, which I have personally revel in over the years, I'm a very nostalgic person by nature.

And when it comes to things that I have an emotional attachment to, all right, I get nostalgic. But the pathetic way this owner has taken that attachment that so many of us have had for so long and taken it away from us, it's made that emotional attachment so less emotional because of his incompetence. You know, the incompetent owning of this sacred trust, it makes conversations like this one. about a jersey number, so meaningless for me now. So meaningless. You know, I've been working on something. I have something actually ready to go and I'm going to do it in the next month or so, probably after the draft. I put together a list of the most memorable Redskins games in history. I actually have a top 25 list, but I have like others, you know, that nearly made the list.

So I could turn this into like a 30-day, you know, or a 40-day, every day doing, you a countdown of the greatest or the most memorable to me anyway, Redskins games of all time. And I'm going to do it. But, you know, even those things aren't as much fun anymore. And I think some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you are already gone. You're done. You don't care at all anymore.

Actually, some of you, many of you actually, have told me over the years, in recent years anyway, that you enjoy the conversation about the team, the dysfunction of the team, more than the games and the seasons themselves. How sad is that? And it's true. Some of you have told me that the conversation we all have about, you know, debating the Case Keenham trade

or the Landon-Colins signing is more entertaining than the pathetic games and seasons themselves. And you know what? Aaron, you know this. the number two show right now for the podcast since we launched in September. The number two downloaded show was the day after the case Keenham trade last week. I'm shocked by it. I'm not totally shocked by it.

I'm surprised by it. The day after the Keenum trade last week, not a game, not a good win or a terrible loss, an off-season trade. I believe it. You know, the two sports stations in this town, one of which I worked for for nearly 15 years, will tell you the same thing, that it would certainly be better, by the way, if the team won. It would be better for everybody if the team won. There is no debating that. But that they would say there's no doubt that many of you enjoy the conversation about the team more than the team itself.

Now, that's a crazy town. It's true, though, for some of you. But anyway, I digress. Those of you like me who have had this connection to this team for so long, that connection just isn't as tight as it once was. For me, you know, it usually tightens back up when the season starts, the games start. I love football season. I love the rhythm of football season.

I love the early season optimism that you convince yourself of, you know, if everything goes well, if they stay healthy, if this guy plays up to his ability, if we get the bounces to go our way, you hope for something better. But I know many of you are out. You're done. Snyder and Allen and the losing and the off-putting way in which they've lost, you're done. You know, and life gets in the way of things that you aren't emotionally attached to anymore.

You know, the same guy that 10 years ago may have said to his wife, nope, I can't go to Uncle Joe's retirement party. the skins are actually playing the Sunday night game. Count me out, sorry, can't do it, honey. Now that guy says, oh yeah, I can't wait to see Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary and all the cousins. And the wife says, are you sure the Redskins have a game, don't they? Yeah, they do, but I don't really care. They suck.

That's a real conversation that many of you have had in recent years. The games that you had to be home to watch, that you told your wife, no, can't make plans. They've got a Sunday night game, or they've got a Monday night game, or the game's at 1 o'clock. You know, I know Junior's got a soccer game. Can you go to this one? I'll go to the one next weekend.

Now you allow life, and by the way, things that actually really do matter, to actually get in the way of that emotional attachment, much more so than you used to. You know it. I know it. I haven't missed a game though I don't think I've missed a game but you know what

if I didn't do this for a living I don't think I would have been if I had had a better offer the Philadelphia game at the end of the year this year I don't know that I would have been involved for all three and a half hours of it so Sean Taylor's jersey on landing Collins

wear it don't wear it I am unmoved by the topic other than this particular itch, which I'm going to scratch right now, because it's an annoying itch. It's one that I developed yesterday watching Landon Collins talk about the story from dinner with Dan Snyder the other night and the gift that Dan gave him, which was the, you know, one of just two Sean Taylor jerseys that Snyder owns. I hope that Landon Collins wasn't signed for any other reason, except that they think he's going to be a great player and he's going to help the team get better. But cynically, can't you

see Snyder's marketing and merchandising brain working on this one? Number 21 back on the field, playing safety, playing safety at a high level. Sean Taylor is back. There he is. Number 21 on the field. Jerseys are available at Redskins.com right now. Go get them. I'm going to go easy on that one because I do think the organization honored Sean Taylor in a very appropriate way in 2007. His death touched everybody in this town. And Dan Snyder and Joe Gibbs in particular, and the players on that team. And I thought that they handled that horrible week with empathy and with grace. But the organization needs a jolt. Snyder's pushing this offseason. It needs juice. Landing Collins isn't going to sell any tickets, really. I mean,

I mean, he's a good player. I like the signing. I'm in favor of the signing. Antonio Brown, if they had gotten Antonio Brown, that would have moved the needle. A little bit anyway. But they were out there yesterday, all of them, congratulating themselves over signing the number one safety and free agency. Personally, whether he wears number 21 or number 41, just win, God damn it, win.

The only way they start to get the lost part of this fan base to tell. pay attention again is to win, consistently win. At this point, it may take more than one season of winning. That's how much Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen have alienated so many that used to care so much. It may take two or three winning seasons, playoff seasons, in a row to rope people back in. A downtown stadium would help too. The Jersey thing with Landon Collins, seriously, do you really care? Win one effing playoff game next year. That would give us something serious to talk about.

For those of you, however, for those of you that are wrapped up into this jersey thing, I've got a couple of quick points. Number one is that Snyder, in my view, the Snyder era hasn't produced one player, not one, whose career deserves or is worthy of Jersey protection. Not a single one. Sean Taylor is a special circumstance, and that's because of the death. All right, his three and a half careers, three and a half years here were certainly the last year and a half.

They were bordering on brilliant. But does it deserve a protected jersey? If the owner wants to protect Sean's jersey because he was so impacted by the death, and we all were, I guess I don't have a problem with it. Taylor's career was shortened in a tragic way. We all know that. And we can project what he would have been, but we don't know for sure. I get Sean's influence. I do. Actually, when I say that, I'm actually a little bit at times surprised at the influence he's had on so many young players. But it's not surprising. So many young safeties out there look up to Sean Taylor. I mean, we all know that Sean was a very good player, a unique player at that position because of his size and speed and range.

But it is, you know, it's amazing that his influence was what it was. He only played three and a half seasons, three and a half. And his first two, if we're really being honest with each other, were inconsistent at best. Now, he improved. He went from, you know, just a talented guy, making him. three to four flash plays a game, big hits a game in his first two years, to a guy who became a pro bowler in his third year, and then in that fourth year, you could see it coming, man. He was really, really good before that injury that ultimately led to that tragic trip home to

Florida. What was he becoming? I think one of the best in the game. I think we missed out on what would have clearly been his best years, and perhaps all-time franchise great years at the position. Maybe even Hall of Fame years that we missed out on. We don't know for sure. You know, let's also recognize that it's not uncommon for people to extrapolate someone's future and exaggerate that future when someone dies tragically at a young age. You know, Len bias always comes to mind as the other just painful death in this. town of an athlete. I don't think he's necessarily a great comparison with Sean Taylor, other than he died

very young and he was a supreme talent. Because bias became a four-year completed college player and the greatest player in Maryland history. That became a reality. That was his reality. Sean didn't even get to that point in three and a half years in the pros. Ken Houston, just to be completely up, you know, up for him. front about it because I think most of you would agree. Ken Houston's the greatest safety in

franchise history. Sean may have become that, but he didn't have the chance. What bias's NBA career may have become, all right, may have been exaggerated in the same way that maybe we exaggerate Sean's future. Although that fourth year that Sean had, the way he was playing, you could see it coming. I mean, he was becoming the most feared safety in the game. If he hadn't been already. Bias, though, the NBA career, that gets exaggerated perhaps a bit, but he was one of the greatest college players of all time. In the best, in my view, I put him in front of Juan Dixon

as the greatest player in Maryland history, even though Juan Dixon won a title. Sean's production is less why he is revered by young players, because while he did produce, it was so short. It was his style. It was his demeanor. It was his highlight reel. That's why he's so revered by young players, is my guess.

He played the position uniquely. You know, he was so big and so fast and closed with so much speed and power and strength. You know, it produced these highlight hits. I loved watching him play. But no one else, no one else during this 20-year horror ownership reign, an ownership of horror for this franchise, once proud. Not one other player had a career worthy of Jersey protection. Not Chris Samuels, not Clinton Portis, not Santana Moss, not Chris Cooley, not anybody.

They didn't win anything. All right, Sunny didn't win anything either. But none of the players I mentioned can even compare to Sunny's career. Sunny was a Hall of Famer. Not one player I mentioned is or will be. If you want to make an exception for Sean because of the circumstances, I'm fine with that. I'm not debating that. But no other jerseys worthy of protection during the Snyder era.

I just personally hope that Snyder isn't sniffing out a marketing opportunity here. I'm not going to be overly cynical. Landon Collins wearing Sean's jersey, you know, it has marketing potential if he plays well. even if he doesn't play well at the beginning. But I won't really be overly concerned about that or cynical about that because I do know, I do know that they handled the Sean Taylor passing in November of 2007 in a first-rate way. And I know how much it hurt the organization and the players especially.

I know how much it hurt Clinton and Santana, the guys that knew him and grew up with him. and played with him in college. I know it hurt coolly. I know I've predicted that Snyder's influence was going to be felt more this offseason, you know, that there was no chance he was going to look his Quar's light team president in the face and say, hey, man, thanks for giving me E.J. Biggers and Jason Hatcher. That wasn't going to happen this offseason. So Landon Collins and Moore, I think, are coming. He needs something he can sink his teeth into, you know, and Colin.

is that for right now, and I think a quarterback is coming as well. So anyway, the jersey number couldn't care less if Landon Collins wears 21. It's not even remotely related to the way I felt about Sean Taylor, who I am still to this day so sad about. But just the way I feel in all the conversation I was hearing yesterday and even this morning, just couldn't give two shits about whether or not landing Collins where's number 21 or not. All right, quick word about Window Nation. Harley and Aaron are the two best entrepreneurs I have ever met. Harley's a good friend.

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in-home estimate. Now's the time to act. You'll get two windows for every two. You'll buy for free and there's no limit and you can buy you can buy a house of windows for just $69 a month window nation.com or 86690 nation all right let's get to maryland and there's 69 61 loss in the second round of the big 10 tournament yesterday i'll start with this i don't know that i've been that angry watching a Maryland game in a long time i get emotional during games. But yesterday was, it's not an all-timer. There have been other Alzheimer's. Okay. And I'm talking about, you know, horrific losses and, you know, painful losses. Yesterday, I was just angry. I was pissed off for a couple of reasons. Number one, I didn't like the way they played

the game yesterday at all. And I'm going to get into that in more detail. But number two, It just ruined my entire weekend, Aaron. I just kept thinking, just let's get through Nebraska. We'll have a game on Friday afternoon against Wisconsin. I think we can beat Wisconsin and then just get me into the semis on Saturday. This is a college basketball weekend. The next four weekends are college basketball weekends, really the best four of the year. And I want to be able to have my team playing more than one damn game.

And when that ended yesterday, I was just. so angry that they had ruined my weekend to a certain degree. I did watch Zion Williamson last night in Duke. I did watch that. But I will tell you that my appetite for college basketball, the rest of the weekend after Maryland losing, is not as strong. It isn't. Like I was, you know how it is. Well, I'm saying that right now. And I definitely, I watched a little bit of that, but for the most part, I didn't watch any more college basketball yesterday. Because you were pissed, too. Of course. That was, you know, you say you can remember, that was quite possibly the most inexplicable loss that Maryland has had in decades. I'll explain how it happened.

Well, no, okay, inexplicable is not the wrong word. The worst loss. The worst loss as far as they should, there was no reason they should have lost that game. There was nothing that you can point to to say, oh, Nebraska, you know, coming into the game, Nebraska has the advantage here. Except for one place, maybe. That's on the bench. But, you know, we'll get to that in a minute. However, I'm different from you. I think by tomorrow I will be okay.

I'm going back to my traditions on selection. Well, I can tell you this. I'm going to watch golf. I'm going to watch golf this weekend. That's probably going to be the number one priority for me this weekend will be golf. I will tell you something else I'm going to watch. I'm going to watch the Caps in Tampa on Saturday night. Yes, I am.

I will watch some of that. game. Now, if it's Virginia Duke or Virginia Carolina in the ACC title game, I'm probably not going to watch a lot of the caps game. All right. Busted. I probably won't watch a lot of the caps game. And I'm going to watch Duke Caroline in Virginia, Florida State tonight. And I'll watch the Big Ten today, too, a little bit. I guess. I just, you know, I tweeted out in the first half. And the first half really, really was the part of the game that just makes me, I'm frustrated, I'm angered, I think, and I have a sense of this sometimes as it relates to the Redskins fan base and the Maryland basketball fan base in particular. I think a lot of you Maryland basketball fans were

as frustrated and angry yesterday as you've been in a long time too. You know, the way they played that first half. If they play that way again, it's going to be one and done. I don't care who they play on next Thursday or Friday. It doesn't matter who they play. As a five seed, a six seed, maybe even a seven seed. I'm going to have Patrick Stevens on here in a little bit. I'm curious as to where he has Maryland now. Lenardi dropped Maryland to the six line. I can't imagine that they'll drop below the six line. But we'll ask Patrick when he comes on. I'll be surprised if it's a seven. But at this point, they're probably not a five, and they're more likely than not a six. But it doesn't matter.

6-11, 512, 7, 10, 4, 13. They ain't win in a game next weekend if they play the way they did in the first half against anybody. It is really, really painful to watch Maryland play a team yesterday that has allowed 90 points coming into yesterday, had allowed 90 points in three of their last six games and 80 points in one of their last six. So in four games coming in to yesterday's game against Maryland, Nebraska had given up 80, four times, 80 or more, 93 times. And Maryland had 20 points at halftime and 61 for the game.

Against the team that has six scholarship players on the floor. against a team that had six scholarship players on the floor and had played the night before. And Maryland was the well-rusted team. Maryland, on the other hand, since the Ohio State game on January 18th, the one in Columbus, they have scored more than 70 points since that game just one time. I know they should have scored more than 70 against Minnesota. They took the foot off the pedal at the end. Fine. They've scored more than 70 one time.

I'll go a step further with that. On five different occasions, they have scored less than 25 points in a half over their last 12 games. They can't score. They struggle and they go into these scoring droughts, and I don't know why that is. They're playing a team last night that allows you to score. They've given up 93 times in their last six games coming in, and more than 80, four times in their last six games coming in their last. six games coming in, and Maryland had 20 at halftime. I will tell you one reason, and it's the same reason I've given you all year long. I don't and cannot fathom why Maryland prefers low-possession

games, especially yesterday against a team like Nebraska that had no bench and had played the night before and just is not a very good and hasn't been a very good defensive team in recent weeks. It just seems totally counterintuitive to me to watch, you know, to watch Iala or Cowan crawl across half court, set the offense up, couple dribble handoffs, couple weaves, try to go to Bruno, took the double team. They did not handle the double team well yesterday. Just a quick aside, Bruno Fernando is working his way down, not up, the draft board. He's not coming back from what I've heard, but he has not done himself any favors with his play over the last three weeks, Aaron, five, six, seven games. He had three points in the game yesterday.

He did not have an offensive rebound in the game yesterday against a team that has no depth, And a team that theoretically should have been somewhat tired coming into the game. And they played tentative because they didn't want to get in foul trouble. Exactly. And another good point. And Bruno had no offensive rebounds in the game. Had three points, had three block shots, had eight total rebounds, and had four shot attempts. Four shot attempts.

I you know all of you on Twitter you want me to just bury Mark okay I think I'm doing that to a certain degree right now but I'm trying to do it responsibly all right in my own way from my own perspective without all the information just the information I have

I know most of you know this I like Mark all right I actually like him personally and I know this to be a fact that if he were fired at Maryland he would get hired in a New York minute. Trust me on that. Because he is a good basketball coach. He does know how to coach basketball at the college level. My criticism of him with this team and some of the teams in the past is I don't think he consistently coaches to the talent that he has. I don't understand,

and I'm sure he might say and might have some good reasons if we talked about it. I have no idea why a team with talent, all right? Not overwhelming talent, not top five talent, not Duke talent, not Kentucky talent, not the top five talent, but they've got top 15 talent. Yeah, Maryland's got top 15 talent. It's very difficult for me to understand why you would not want to play a more uptempo pace with more possessions in the game. In the game last yesterday afternoon, they played their typical low possession game in the first half.

I think they had 27 or 28 possessions in the first half. That's not a lot. Now, you know, there was an attempt. I saw a quick press put in after a made free throw, but they dropped quickly. They didn't trap, didn't try to really, really turn them over or slow them down that much. You know, there were a couple of opportunities they took to get out on the break,

but for the most part it was what we've seen a lot of, which is Maryland wants to run half-court offense. They want to beat you with their half-court sets, and they want to stop you with their half-court defense. They want to make you shoot a low-fuel goal percentage with their half-court defense, and they want to shoot and be efficient offensively in their half-court offense. And just so you know, they have been a top-25 Ken Palm offensive efficiency team this year. again that measures more how efficient they are when they run offense and their offense i would prefer that they be less efficient with 10 more possessions in a game 15 more possessions in a game using their athletes they've got two bigs who can run

a jalen smith runs the floor really well for a big guy they have guys that can fill and shoot threes or get to the rim and they've got one of the fastest end and point guards or guards in the country in Anthony Callan. Now, sometimes some of you have said, well, have you watched Cowan lead a fast break? It's not always great. Yeah, it isn't, because my guess is they don't practice it a lot, and they don't do it a lot. So it's not something that's going to come, you know, that they're going to do proficiently all the time when they haven't done it. I would have started from the beginning of this year, you know, what Roy Williams does, what Tom Izzo does.

They take it out of the net and they start their fast break drills for 25 minutes of practice. At least that's what I've been told. I haven't watched any of their practices. I've been told that they practice. And I've been told that Maryland doesn't spend a lot of time in their practices, you know, working on fast breaks, working on really up-tempo stuff. It's not what they prefer. And I know he's got good reasons for it, his own reasons for it.

I just think with this particular team that he is. is in many ways coaching against what his talent may be able to do best. But again, that's me outside looking in. I watch every single game. I watch every single minute of every single game. I've been to 10 games. I haven't been to one practice. And I've said this before.

You don't know what the limitations of players are unless you really know. And maybe there are some limitations that these players have. Or maybe he is actually coaching them to do what I'm talking about. they're just not doing it. All of that's in play. But yesterday was in particular, so frustrating because you had a team with six scholarship players, had played the night before, had been giving up 90 plus like it was easy. And Maryland had 20 at halftime, 20 points at halftime. And they have had less than 25. Hold on for a second. I'm going to find exactly what that stat is because I wrote it down and I sent it to my brother this morning. Here it is. Maryland has scored 20 or less,

20 or less four times in the first half in their last 12 games. That is really hard to do with a team that talented. And I do understand, trust me. That's really hard to do for a team that's far less talented. Yes. I understand the following is an absolute fact, and that is the Big Ten has some really good defensive teams and excellent defensive coaches. And Maryland has been scouted by these Big Ten teams to a T. You watch when they have to run half-court offense against a set defense. The only thing that has worked consistently through the year, through this season, is running it through Bruno. If Bruno is going to catch the ball in the post, he's got to handle the double team better. There have been times this year where he's handled it well, and there have been

times like yesterday where he doesn't handle it well at all. I don't understand the going backwards. This is a quick pass or a step-through pass from that double team, and you've got to be strong with the ball. Something should happen much faster than it happens. Minnesota got doubled by Maryland at the beginning of the game last week last Friday night, and it was two quick touch passes to a player filling the open spot in the lane for dunks. We've seen that occasionally. We've seen that occasionally. That's got to be more consistent.

The ball cannot be in his hands waiting for the double team, backing up, not being strong with the ball, with no one to throw the ball to in the middle of the floor. Anyway, yeah, 20 or less in the first half four times in the last 25 games. Maryland is still ranked in the 300s in college basketball in possessions per game. Maryland plays good defense. They don't turn people over enough, which also limits the opportunities you have to be a fast break team. I think Maryland plays hard. I do. I never have questioned that with Turgeon. I think they play hard. I don't.

don't think they play aggressively. You know, you can play hard and strategically and smart, which I think they try to do, but they aren't aggressive on offense. It's been very rare where they've been super aggressive offensively. And they're really not aggressive defensively, although you saw it yesterday when they got behind and they got desperate. You saw Wiggins step in passing lanes, Bruno's step in passing lanes, Morsell step in passing lanes. And then, By the way, Morsel is the one aggressive player they really have. And he actually generated a few fast breaks by himself, off of a steal, off of a rebound, and he was pushing.

You know, you don't have to score when you play uptempo, but you're going to make a team sprint back instead of walkback, which is what most teams do because Maryland's not going to make you sprint back. and you can have more time on the shot clock to run more offense. You can get what's called a secondary transition opportunity. You may not get a quick open three or a quick dunk or lay up at the rim, but if you've pushed it and the defense is set up but still scrambling to completely set up, you can get something off that. I also don't like that Bruno Fernando doesn't look at the basket enough.

He catches it at that elbow in the mid-range. and never, never looks at the basket. He's hurting them offensively by not being a scoring threat there. I think even Turg would admit that. I don't know why he doesn't shoot that elbow jumper. He has a great free throw stroke. I would imagine that he'd be a fairly high percentage shooter from that 12 to 16 foot range.

He doesn't, he rarely, rarely looks at the basket. He catches it at the elbow for the purpose as many times with his back turn to the basket to start their dribble handoff or a ball screen handoff or something else that they're trying to get off of a down screen on that wing or the opposite wing. Or sometimes he'll be looking for sticks or Marcel or somebody ducking into the paint underneath. Look, they run an offense. If you guys think they don't run an offense, I've heard that, they run an offense. Turgeon has a lot of sets, has a lot of plays.

they just aren't getting enough out of it. And there are lots of reasons for that. They're very well scouted in the Big Ten. That's a big part of it. They've played very good defensive teams in the Big Ten. That's part of it. And some of it is easy to guard the way they're doing it. Easy to scout, easy to guard.

I would love, you know, two big changes. One, please play more aggressively on offense. please take the ball off the rim and not wait for Anthony Cowan to come back so you can hand it to him, but look down court to throw an outlet pass to somebody that at the very least has gotten beyond the three-point line and is approaching half court. And let's run. That's number one. Number two is Bruno's got to shoot more than four times in a game. He is got to, he is hurting them offensively with four shot attempts. he is hurting them offensively when he catches the ball and doesn't look at the rim in the mid-range. You know, they go through Bruno basically in two spots, the post or the elbow, all right, the free-throw line extended.

And when he catches it in that free-throw line extended area, the elbow, he doesn't even often turn to face the basket. And when he does, he rarely shoots it. And he's got a great stroke. I'll tell you what, Stick Smith, all of you bitching about how soft he is. Yeah, he's a freshman. You know, he's not physically up to it in some cases. He is highly skilled, though. And every time he shoots from the three-point line, I am fine with it. I'd like him to get more shot attempts. I think sometimes Maryland passes way too often on an open shot early in their offensive half-court set and tries to get a better one that never comes.

And Sticks is often the guy that when they've played well, he's been on the floor. For all of you that say, oh, sticks shouldn't start, he's too soft, go back and remember the best games they've had this year. Most of the time it's been with him on the floor playing well. He can stretch the floor. He can score off the dribble.

He is also a shot blocker. I know he gets pushed around defensively. I get it. I know that. I know it's hard for him to score close to the rim against strength. I think that'll change next year. I think he'll be physically more imposing next year, and I think he'll be a better player next year.

But this team yesterday was, to me, it wasn't coached to the talent that they have. I think there have been many times this year. That's been the case. and I know that Mark has what he thinks are really good half-court sets and some really good half-court plays. And I've said this five times already for those of you that say I never criticize Mark Durgeon because I like him personally. And by the way, again, I think he is and knows basketball. Don't get, don't get me wrong on this.

But I think many times, and I don't think he's the only one, they get enamored with the sets and the plays they have. and sometimes the best coaching is less coaching. Sometimes you just got to say, take it out of the net or take it off the rim and let's go. And let's let's let's let it come down to my players against your players versus my sets against your scout. That's just my opinion. With respect to what's next, look, they cannot make a change.

It's not affordable for, Maryland to make a change for those of you that want a change to be made. You know, the Durkan situation, the football situation, pretty much etched in stone, that Turgeon, if he had had a bad year this year, and he hasn't had a bad year, all right, that he was still coming back. You can't afford to fire him. Now, if he wanted to leave and had a job that he took, well, that's different. But the other thing that we have to make sure we're being really,

real with each other on, you Maryland basketball fans, you Aaron, and me, is that the problem with the program right now is they haven't sucked at any point in such a long time. You know, Yukon has sucked over the years. Syracuse has had down years. Carolina had some bad years. You've had really good programs that have had shit years. I'm talking about losing record seasons. Maryland hasn't had any of those seasons since probation, basically. When's the last time, Aaron, Maryland had a losing record? I bet it was pre-Garry or it was the probation years under Gary.

I was thinking maybe the Gary, I can pull it up here really quickly. Yeah, 91, no, 92-93. 92-93, which was... The fourth year under Gary, yeah. Which was the first... Right, they were still in probation, and the next year, 93-94, okay, when they came off a probation, and they had recruited Joe Smith and Keith Booth, and they had Simpkins' hip and Johnny Rhodes in their second year.

That's the year that Gary started his run of tournaments. They went to the Sweet 16 that year, lost in Michigan. They beat UMass as a 10th. They beat UMass. It was a two seed in the second round. Lost to Michigan in the Sweet 16, and that started Gary's incredible run. But they've never sucked. I think if they had a really down year, like let's just say two or three years ago, they had a really down year. Two horrible years under Turgeon, but he stayed. And now they were on a run of four NCAA tournaments in five years, which is what they are in the midst of right now

for NCAA tournament births in five years with probably what, Aaron, an average of 23 wins a year somewhere in that neighborhood, I'm going to guess. Yeah, about there. You know, somewhere around there. You know, if they had had two shit years back to back leading into this stretch,

I think the pressure and the heat wouldn't be the same. But because they've been, when they have had a bad year, it's been over the years in NITS season or a 19 and 15 season, they haven't sunk to like a massive low. Like the lows for the Maryland fan base have been not making the tournament. You know, that you haven't had.

I think that's part of it. But the point I guess I'm getting to is nothing's going to happen. You know, and they're going to come back ranked preseason next year with this team, even without Bruno Fernando, who I think right now is slipping into the late first round area, more likely than not, but who knows, between now and June. You know, he could have a great tournament, he could have great workouts, people could look at the offense that Marilyn ran and said, how did this player only shoot four times in the Big Ten second round game

against a team that was given up 80 or 90 points a game coming in in their last six? And, you know, they may blame it on coaching, and Bruno may soar up the board. I don't know. He's a physical specimen, man. he looks the part. He has to improve in a lot of areas, though. For those of you that said I got too excited about Bruno early in the year, you know what? You were right.

You were right. He's got a lot of flaws that he can improve, that he can definitely improve. I'd like to see it start to improve next week with him getting no less than 12 shot attempts a game, including five or six of them from the mid-range. I'd turn him loose. Bruno, when we throw that bounce past you at the elbow, you turn face. and if they're not going to guard you, stick it. Put it, he can, he's got a great stroke.

I don't know why he doesn't shoot that. It doesn't make any sense to me. You know, the other question is, who do you get? I told Van Pelt the last couple weeks, did I do it on the podcast or not? I'm like, you know what, if there was a change, give me Rick Petino now. I don't care about all of the negative publicity.

that would come with it. If Rick Petino had this program, we'd be in the final four and five years. But anyway, I do like Mark. That wouldn't happen. I know Mark can coach. I have been critical of Mark during this season, and in past seasons at times. But again, I do it understanding that I don't have all the information. And the reason I say that is because I have coached before, all right, not at the college level. All right, I've been an AAU travel, you know, high school, youth coach on and off for the last quarter century. It's the sport I enjoy the most and I probably know more about than any other sport. And I know one thing more than any other.

I don't have anywhere near enough information to be super definitive about any of this. I just look at it as a basketball fan and I wonder why they don't play faster and I wonder why Bruno doesn't shoot more, among other things. Real quickly. Zion Williamson last night. Oh, they're going to be a six seed. We talked about that. And, you know, matchups or everything, and I'll be hopeful next week that getting out of the Big Ten, that it might be easier for them, that they won't be as well scouted, and that it might actually be a little bit easier for them in a first round game.

But anyway. Actually, I think it could be easier for the – actually, it's funny, just kind of looking at how it could stack up. I think dropping to a six from a five could actually help them in the first round, but I do think there could be a big difference between the three line and the four line this year. You know what? All of those seating things, I used to get so wrapped up into them too. And I enjoy the conversation about them, no doubt. But the bottom line in this tournament, it's in sports in general.

But in this basketball tournament, in a 40-minute game, it's matchups. You know, you may be playing as a five-seater or a six-seater. succeed a really strong 11 or 12, but you just, you might match up really well with them. You know, you just, your strengths, you know, go against their weaknesses and your weaknesses go against, you know, whatever, their moderate strengths. Sometimes the matchup, regardless of the seed, and that's why you see big upsets, you know, in the NCAA tournament. You know, you also see upsets in the tournament for other reasons, too. It's a short game, 40-minute game, the three-point line is certainly an equalizer to a certain extent. I don't call it the great equalizer,

but it can be an equalizer, especially if you've got good guard play and good shooters. You know, I do look at things like good guard play in this tournament. I think it's very important that you have good, solid guard play. I also think it have been convinced of this over the years by Gary Williams, you've got to be able to score to make a deep run. That to win the national championship or to make a super deep run, you've got to be able to score. And that that's what Maryland has struggled with more than anything else, is their insistence on playing lower possession games have led to more turnovers, actually, than I think they'd have if they were playing fast.

And, you know, lack of points. It's just not able to generate, you know, easy, enough easy scoring opportunities. I wanted to mention about Zion Williamson last night, his return. It was unbelievable for that first half. That first half that he had, if you didn't see it last night, Zion Williamson in the first half had 21 points, nine rebounds, and five steals in a half of basketball. And by the way, he was two for seven from the free throw line in the first half. So he could have had 26 points in a half.

He ended up with 29 and 14 and five steals. So most of what he got statistically last night came in the first half. and Duke definitely looked like a different team. They looked like a different team. They're still really talented without him, but they look like a different team. He is just impossible to keep off of the glass. That's the thing you notice most about him is you can't box him out.

You can't keep him away from the offensive rim or the defensive rim. He is just a load. The other part of his stat line that I nearly forgot to mention is he went 13 of 13 from the floor. 13 of 13. He was one for one from behind the arc. So 12 for 12 on twos, and I'm going to guess that six of them were dunks, right? At least. Sounds right. And they beat Syracuse last night. Syracuse actually made a run back in the game and tied it in the second half. And then one of the big stories coming out of that game is something that they went to at halftime that they did not pick up on during the actual broadcast of the game. And that was that Frank Howard, who's a good player, By the way, a local kid plays for Syracuse, that Frank Howard, who stuck his foot out and tried to trip Zion after Zion scored a bucket and was running back down the court.

And Jason Williams, Jay Williams went nuts at halftime over. Which is so funny with how much he defended Grayson Allen. Well, no, he said, and I don't remember what he did or didn't, the first thing he said when he went off on Frank Howard at halftime is I criticized Grayson Allen. He didn't. He didn't? People are posting videos of him defending Grace and. now.

Oh, wow. Well, then what a hypocrite. Didn't realize that. I had no idea what he felt about Grayson Allen, but he said at half time, I, you know, I said that I didn't think what Grayson Allen did was right. I criticized that. And what Frank Howard did was wrong, too. It was wrong.

It was wrong. But you know what? All of these things that people go nuts over, they're competitive reactions. Yeah, it's dirty. And in a, in the heat of competition, People occasionally do things that are dirty. And yeah, they should be penalized for them. But let's not act like it's the worst thing we've ever seen.

I mean, come on. It's dirty and he deserves a one-game suspension, probably. It's hard in the tournament, I know. It's different balance, but... Yeah, they were playing without their leading score. I mean, let's be honest. If he hurt Zion, he would be suspended. Yeah.

Now, if Zion had fallen, you're right, which he didn't. They would have probably seen it, first of all. And he probably would have been suspended. That's a very good point. One other game that I just want to mention from last night. Because I, you know, I just spent time talking about how, you know, I like teams that are more aggressive. Nobody's coached more aggressively over the years than Bob Huggins. I love West Virginia.

I love Bobby Huggins. I love the way they've played over the years. to me, you know, pressing full core, you know, being physical. I like that. I personally like that. West Virginia, who had the worst year, Huggins, I think, has had in many, many years at West Virginia. Might be the most disappointing team of the year. Finish dead last in the Big 12.

They upset Texas Tech last night, the number seven team in the country, 7, 74. And they did it the Huggins way. They were physical. They beat them up. Texas Tech's a very good defensive team themselves. All right. They turned over Texas Tech, I think 16 or 17 times in the game. They had 12, 13 steals, something like that in the game.

And they won. They're into the Big 12 semifinals. They beat Oklahoma the night before. They beat Texas Tech last night, the number 17 in the country. And they play Kansas tonight. Kansas is not Kansas this year. No. And so I guess right now I have one rooting interest for this weekend.

I'm going to root for West Virginia Huggins to get to the tournament by winning two more games. I'd be surprised. Look, nobody in the Big 12 is unbeatable. To be honest with you, of the teams that I would have said to you they can't beat, it would have been Texas Tech because I think they can beat K-State. I think they can beat Kansas. And is that the other semi-final game, K-State? K-State and, who's the other semifinal game?

It's K-State and... It's West Virginia, Kansas. K-State plays who? Iowa State? I'm actually not sure who won. I turned off a lot of the games yesterday, so I don't remember exactly. I can't remember either. It's another Big 12 team, though.

I promise you that. But I'm rooting... It's Iowa State. Iowa State and K. State and the other semifinal. But I'm rooting for Huggins. Just I love the way they muck up a game, man. fun to watch. They are going to lose fighting and being aggressive. They may turn the ball over 20 times in a game, but it's going to be because they are being overly aggressive. I don't know.

That's just my preference. And I like watching beautiful teams play the game like Golden State too. But that's, I guess I've got a rooting interest tonight. I'll root for Huggins in West Virginia. There you go. Do you have any traditions for selection Sunday? Anything you do every year? You know what, I've worked mostly the last many years on Selection Sunday. I've either been hosting a show or in recent years I've been on Tony's show. He's done a special selection show. But no, not really. Do you? Yeah, actually, something me and some friends started in college after, you know, we watched the ACC.

We'd watch the ACC tournament all weekend. And because of that, we'd be inundated with Bojangles commercials. So we always went down. We got one of those, like, huge boxes of Bojangles, brought it back. drank a lot, ate chicken, and watched Selection Sunday, and we still do that. Bojangles and the Tournament Selection Show. Yes. And you said that the tournament selection show is going to be back to just unveiling bracket by bracket

rather than giving us all the teams, which they did a year ago, which was stupid. And I think it's also one hour. It's not, you know, remember two years ago they did the two hours thing, which was the debacle. And then last year they blew it. So they're back to the original format, which is good because it's the thing that's, it's the easiest show to produce ever. Don't mess with it. All right, let's get to Patrick Stevens, but first a word about scent bird. It's time for someone to come up to you and say that you smell amazing and what cologne are you wearing.

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Patrick Stevens, who is our favorite bracketologist. It's Friday. There are lots of games to be played today, tomorrow, and a few on Sunday as well, and then the actual field will be unveiled on Sunday evening, and we will all watch that. Patrick's working on his latest bracket. It will be up shortly. You'll see it in the Post, of course, over the weekend. That's the bracket that the Post uses is Patrick's. He does a great job on this, and I think we should start with Maryland, because

I've already talked about it, but they had an absolute gross loss yesterday to a team that had six scholarship players coming off a game that they had played the previous night, and Maryland could manage just 20 points in the first half and 61 overall and an eight-point loss to Nebraska. Where did you have them before yesterday, and where do you have them now? had Maryland on the 6th line before yesterday I have them is the best of the seven seats now so wouldn't be surprised if I ultimately hedge my bets a little bit and place them back on the 6 line when all is said and done be good to look at a fresh set of data wasn't able to do that this morning before I hit the road but regardless I don't see maryland as being anything better than a 6 at this stage which means that they're headed. They're going to be headed elsewhere.

They'll be headed maybe Tulsa, possibly Hartford, possibly. If they're down on the seven line, there's a chance they even end up paired with Duke maybe in a 2-7 possibility if Duke ends up on the two-line down in Columbia. So that's something to think about. You know, the other thing there too is you start thinking about 11s and 10s that they could possibly play. after a showing like yesterday, how excited would Maryland be to say a Murray State pop up or somebody like that or a Liberty or even an NC State or an Oklahoma?

I mean, those are all, I think, first round possibilities for this team at the stage. I would think that Murray State's going to be at 12, right? So if you have Maryland on the 6 or 7 line, they'd probably avoid them. I have Murray on the 11 line right now. Okay. All right. There's basically, you know, you could put them on the 11 or the 12, I think, but my hunch is that we see them pop up on the 11. You know, it's interesting is I didn't watch a lot of them, Murray State, that is, and John Morant, I didn't watch a lot of them during the regular season, but I watched their last two tournament games, Jacksonville State and then Belmont. And I actually

think Maryland would match up well with Murray State. There are other teams, and you, you mentioned a couple of them that I would not want to see in a 6-11 matchup or a 5-12 matchup. I personally wouldn't want to see St. Mary's. St. Mary's has great guards, Patrick. I mean, almost two point guards, and we know what guard play means in the tournament, not to mention that Randy Bennett is one of the underrated coaches, I think, in America. You know, I wouldn't want to see them. I personally wouldn't want to see a Fran Dunfee team, like a temple, you know, that's tough

minded, hard-nosed. But, you know, anyway, where... So what was Maryland's upside prior to the game yesterday? Did they have a chance for you? Had they won, say, two games to get to the foreline?

I think that might have been a bit of a stretch for that. I think it was an outside possibility, especially since one of the teams that they would have been scrambling for one of those last couple four seats, would have been Wisconsin. But that's obviously water under the bridge. I thought that for sure a victory yesterday kind of made

six the floor for them and maybe get up to a five. And the good thing about being a five is you know, that you would have had a decent shot at maybe being in Hartford or something like that. Of course, you would have had about a 50% shot of ending up in San Jose because I think you're going to see kind of the leftovers end up out there because there's basically no good West Coast teams beyond Gonzaga, or at least no West Coast teams good enough to end up with a top, with a one, two, three, or four seed. So you can sit there and imagine what could have been, but realistically, I think yesterday took the ceiling down, at least down from maybe a four and probably a five, so a six seat comes on that.

You know, just to be delusional for a moment, in the event that somehow they were to win two games next week weekend, which would at this point seem to be miraculous. Did yesterday's loss hurt their chances at all one way or the other from ending up in the East region, regardless of where they play their first weekend? I think that's a hard one to answer because once you get past, the committee's trying to slide in all these teams from different conferences, right? So you've plugged in, say, where does Michigan go as a two or a three, right? Or where does Michigan State go?

And once you get down to like the fifth and six teams in the conference, you're simply trying to plug them in in places where you're not going to have those conference matchups too soon. And in some of those cases, like a Michigan State, the committee's not going to have a problem with those teams being in the same regional to the point where they could meet in the Sweet 16 because they only played once during the regular season. a team like a Michigan, it might be a little more reluctant to do that, even though the guidelines say that they could meet the Wolverines by, say, a Sweet 16 matchup because they only played twice.

The guidelines are if you've played once, you can play by the round of 32, twice by the round of 16, three times by the elite eight. So it's possible, but it's kind of hard to make heads or tails out of where all that stuff's going. Frankly, I don't think the committee spends as much time, as people think, with the actual slotting the teams into different matchups and stuff like that. They spend a lot of time, excuse me, determining seating, and they spend a lot of time debating inclusion. But the actual bracket itself, I don't think, is something that is as time-intensive

as a lot of folks think. Well, the Maryland and location thing is fantasy talk anyway. They're not winning two games more likely than not next weekend regardless. But I did actually, you just brought up a thought. What is the rule now? I know when they went to 68, I think they changed the rules with respect to how early you could face a conference opponent. Is there a rule any more that says not until the Sweet 16 or even, you know, it's just what I went through. It was, if you play them once, you can play in the round of 32. Okay, got it. If you play them twice in the regular season, not until Sweet 16. The regional semis. Got it. Okay. That, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, makes sense. On the other locals, Georgetown obviously any chance they had, they had to make a

deep run, if not win the Big East tournament. They are done. Virginia is solidly a number one seed somewhere, Patrick. What guarantees them the number one seed in the east if it hasn't already been guaranteed? I think they're probably the number one seed in the east if they win their semifinal tonight against Florida State down at the ACC tournament. I think the overall body of work for Virginia, even in a scenario where they lose three times head-to-head to Duke and beat everybody else, is still going to be better than everybody else. Maybe you could argue a Kentucky team that wins the SEC would have a better overall body of work. I mean, as much as Duke might wish those games without Zion Williamson away, they exist. I mean, you can't just simply throw them overboard and pretend they didn't happen.

So I think a Virginia that is sitting there at what, it would be, what, 31 and 3 or something to that effect, 30 and 3, that's going to be a pretty compelling case for the number one in the east, I think, and the number one overall seat, quite frankly. And if it was Kentucky is the number one overall seed, you know what? They'll be in the south anyway and going through Louisville. So the east would still be sitting there, even if Virginia was the second team off the board. All right, let's focus on the ACC for a moment. If Duke were to win tonight and then beat Virginia for a third time,

are they a one-seed and would Carolina drop or would they also be a one-seed? What are the possibilities of the ACC ending up with three one-seeds? I think that, first of all, Duke's going to have to win tonight for that to probably happen. I kind of view it as a North Carolina Duke either or. I also think that, you know, given the fact that committee's been meeting now for more than three days, so it's not like they've just been sitting there twiddling their thumbs. They've gotten undoubtedly quite a ways through in terms of sorting teams out and figuring out some seating to this point. So it wouldn't shock me, frankly, if there isn't really that much riding on this thing,

and that the overall seating on those top few lines has already largely been decided. That having been said, the question is, do you view Duke as better than Gonzaga? Do you view North Carolina as better than Gonzaga? And I think if both questions come out, yes, in the committee's eyes, then you're looking at that distinct possibility of three number one seeds of the ACC.

I believe if Big East had that scenario unfold, back in 2009 with Louisville and Villanova and Pitt, I want to say, was the combination there. But in any case, I kind of size all that up and do wonder whether it's already set and set. We've had enough years where we've seen, say, a big 10 final clearly not mean a whole lot in a bracket. It's fair to wonder exactly at what point do the games mean a little bit less, given that it's one game out of 33 or 34 for these teams. So I do wonder exactly how they're going to evaluate a North Carolina or a Duke against Gonzaga. Both of them played Gonzaga head-to-head.

North Carolina won at home. Duke lost on a neutral floor. So there's that to take into account as well. So predict it. Let's just let's go with the assumption that Duke wins tonight and then beats Virginia in the ACC tournament final. And, you know, whether it's Kentucky, LSU or Tennessee, any one of the three winning the SEC title. Who are your four seats? Because clearly you still have Gonzaga as a one, it sounds like. Yeah, I think in that scenario, you're looking at something to the effect of Virginia, Kentucky, Duke, Gonzaga. And then on the two line, you're looking at probably, especially with Texas Tech losing last

night, I thought that was the most likely team to move up to the two. You're looking at, you know, North Carolina, Michigan State, Tennessee or LSU. And then, and then Michigan as well, I think, would be your likely two-seed at that stage. And would Carolina be, I'm sorry, maybe you said it and I just missed it. Would Carolina be the number one two-seed in that scenario? I think so. I think the overall body of work there is pretty strong. And you're also talking about only having a couple places that you could realistically send them.

If you have Duke and Virginia in, say, the east and the Midwest, that really leaves only the south and the west anyway where you could send a tar. But would Duke be the number four, one seed in that scenario, or would it be Gonzaga? I think it would be Gonzaga at that. I think Duke's overall body of work for the entire year is still pretty strong. When you look at Gonzaga, and some of it's really no fault of their own, there just aren't as many high-end victories. They do have the victory over Duke, which is obviously fabulous. and they beat the snot out of so many teams out of that league.

Yeah, they did. They did. It's hard to overlook that. They were just such a dominant team for so long over the course of the regular season. So I think regardless, you're definitely going to have Gonzaga out west, whether that's as the best of the two seats, the weakest of the ones, the third one, however you shake it out. You know, just as an aside, and I mentioned this on the podcast yesterday, I thought that St. Mary's win the other night over Gonzaga was one of the most stunning

results that we've seen not just this year, but in a few years, simply because of what Gonzaga had been doing to all of their opponents in that league, including St. Mary's, the first time they played them when they won by 48. I sat there and watched it mouth wide open, and I said to Aaron yesterday, Patrick. It's the first time in a long time I've heard Vital do a game where he was actually into the game he was calling. He was actually paying attention to the game he was calling because it was so shocking. Yeah, I mean, I remember the first of those Gonzaga St. Mary's games that you referenced. You know, that was a 10 o'clock tip on a Saturday night, and I was home by then, which is kind of rare for me on a Saturday. And, you know, because there's usually a Saturday night

game somewhere in the area. And so I'm like, all right, well, I'll watch, I'll watch this. You know, I figure good to see Gonzaga. And, you know, by the time the 13 minute mark rolled around and it's something like 21 to 4, it's like, nah, I think we're done here. And so, yeah, I was, I was startled by that as well. I actually had the chance to watch the end of that game in a hotel lobby where I discovered, where I discovered minutes earlier that the hotel had canceled my reservation, which, as you know, from ACCC tournaments past, that's not a good spot to be in. No, because there isn't much left. There isn't there isn't much. Yeah. So, I mean, scrambling to get a new reservation and just kind of trying to sort out

exactly what was going on out in Vegas in that game, it was, it was quite a weird 15 to 20 minutes for me, I promise you. Back to the ACC for a moment. You know, I brought up the where would, you know, Duke in North Carolina be on the one and two, because I don't believe, and you would know this perhaps. I can't remember anyway. that North Carolina and Duke have ever been in the same region. That's a good question. And I could probably look that up for you at some point. No, I mean, don't.

If it did happen, it would have been one of those years where one of them was much further down the board. Definitely. Like Carolina as an eight, Duke is a seven, something like that. But I'm not sure if that's ever happened. That's a really good question. I mean, because I was thinking, is there any way that Carolina could be, a one and Duke could be a two or vice versa in the same region. They will break them up. Yeah. They will break them up. No doubt. They will.

All right. A couple of other quick questions. Did Ohio State get in yesterday with the win over Indiana? Yeah, I mean, somebody's got to be filling out the 11 line, right? Right, I guess. Like, you get, you know, it's not, everyone talks about how, oh, well, this team isn't a tournament team. Well, this team isn't a tournament team. Well, there's got to be 68 of them. They're not just going to stop at 63 and say, eh, we're good here. And I think, yeah, I think Ohio State solidly took care of its business at long last. They really could have taken care of its Sunday against Wisconsin. It would help Maryland.

And frankly, yeah, and it definitely would have helped Maryland. And let's be candid here. Like the way the committee has acted over the last four years, with an emphasis on high-end victories, I can already hear the screaming, I heard some of it yesterday. I think Indiana's in the field. I think you're going to see Indiana as one of the last year. Wow.

That's large. I really do. Wow. I just figured yesterday was a play-in and play-out game head-to-head. Indiana, with that record, you think, is there's 17 and 15, Patrick? They are 17 and 15. They are. And were they seven and 13 or 18?

and 12 in the Big Ten. I can't remember now. They were, I think they got to, I think they got to eight and twelve. Okay. Maybe, maybe I'm off. Yep, here it is, eight and twelve. They got to eight and twelve. Yeah, because they won three at the beginning and four at the end and had the Michigan State win in the middle. Right. Well, who does a ninth big ten team getting in hurt? Because Alabama won last night. TCU. Yeah, Alabama. TCU lost, I mean. PCU lost. I think right now, the teams that I have just on the inside of the field are Indiana, Arizona State, and then we get into a couple teams that their best trait is probably that they haven't messed up that much in TCU and Clemson.

And then you're looking on the other side of things at Temple, at Creighton, at Belmont. I'm forgetting somebody that Texas Texas at 500 They had to win that game last night didn't they? I think Texas at 16 and 16 is a bridge too far for the committee

I would agree with that but you never know and they have a fair number of high end wins too and the metrics come out very very favorably for the Longhorn but gosh it is it is hard to imagine I mean there hasn't been a

there hasn't been a 500 team selected as an at-large yet. Can you imagine what the outcry would be if that team gets in? Well, you know, it'll come from all of the people that will insist that Belmont should be in the field. And personally, I've watched a little bit of Belmont. This is not the same. To me, it's not a great basketball team. I mean, I thought the team that they had a couple years ago, was, I think some of the teams that Rick Byrd's had in recent years is better than this team that he has.

But that's just a personal point of view. But that's where the outcry will come, is that Belmont didn't get in or, you know, Furman didn't get in or somebody like that, if Texas gets in, right? Yeah, or Lipscomb or somebody like that. Just based on the way the committee's acted, I don't see that, I don't see those teams getting in. Now, the interesting thing becomes what happens if, you know, if we start to see some bid thieves over the next few days, and I tallied it up, I don't have the number right in front of me here, but I want to say it's about 25 different teams over nine different leagues that could still come through and steal bids. Now, some of those are like seven teams in the Atlantic 10 not named VCU. Right.

So there's going to be at least one big thief kind of lurking about on Sunday, at least one, because, you know, VCU's got to play somebody in the A10 title game if they make it that far. But you've got Xavier, you've got West Virginia, you've got a couple teams in the Pack 12 in Oregon and Colorado. So there's still a lot left here that could kind of shift the edge of the field inward and kind of take some spots away from teams. like I said, like a TCU or a Clemson, that you look at, and it's like they're not that great, and they're not, but somebody's got to fill up. Yeah, I mean, this is the thing we talk about every year. It's like they're not going to shorten the field to 66 teams this year. It's 68.

They've got to get 68 in. They've got to get all of those at large as in. Real quickly on the Pact 12. I'm assuming that if Arizona State wasn't in before last night, they are in now, but what if Colorado, who actually is a pretty decent thing? recent team. What if Colorado won the Pact 12 title? What would it do to Arizona State? If Arizona State was the last team at the edge of the field, yeah, it costs them. If not, it probably doesn't. I mean, I don't think it's an either or there. And for all of, and for as much as

the Pact 12 has been maligned, they've actually gotten pretty lucky this week in that really the four best teams. I know that's right. six feet out there. The four best teams are still standing. Yeah, because Cal and Washington State had actually been playing well, and I think there was some fear they could do some damage in the tournament.

Yeah, and instead, you've got, you know, Colorado Washington's first semifinal, and I think Arizona State, Oregon, will be a fabulous game, and frankly, you know what, if there's a team that deserves a little bit of sympathy this year, it is the Oregon ducks. I mean, if they had bowl, and he hadn't gotten

hurt. That's the great what if to me of this season. And if they were, if they had turned out to be a pretty credible team, we probably wouldn't have spent so much time just laughing at the Pack 12 because they would have had two to three decent teams out there as opposed to one to two for so much of the season. All right. Last two questions. Number one, the new net rankings. Who will it hurt the most this year and who will it help the most? Like, is there a team that's clearly going to be aided by that where they wouldn't have been last year or in years past, and is there a team that will be hurt by it?

NC states the team that's getting helped by it. I mean, their net ranking is about 50 or 60 spots better than their RPI ranking would have been. Wow. And, you know, the thing is, is that all of their other metrics like Ken Palm and Saggerin and all them. I mean, they match, or at least are in the same neighborhood for the most part, as the net ranking. So this is sort of a confirmation, if you will. It's hard to figure who's necessarily getting hurt. I went through the data a couple weeks back, and it was mostly non-power conference

teams that were getting dinged by it more so than others. And I thought Arizona State was actually a team, too, that if we were dealing with an RPI situation, we probably wouldn't be asking any questions about whether they were in the tournament. I think their RPI was going to be in the high 30s or so at this point, whereas their net ranking is in the 60s. So that's a team that maybe got hurt a little bit by the switch. But remember, too, that the net is a sorting tool. And so it's essentially you're replacing one sorting tool with another. And ultimately, the input, the data input is different. But I suspect the committee is going to evaluate the output about the same as they would the previous set of data.

It's just a different, it's a different set of data, but it's being evaluated the same way. I forget if you tweeted this out or it was somebody else, and I read it in the moment, and I talked about it on Monday, that Petino at Minnesota, last Friday night when they played at Maryland, they cut a big lead to nine late in the game. They called a time out, and they decided over the final 24 seconds not to foul and to lose by nine instead of double digits. Was that you who tweeted out the significance with the net in a double-digit loss versus? Yeah. It was not me. Okay. And I think the difference in one, of one point in one game out of 34 is the sort of thing that a neurotic paranoid coach would

be back over. Well, he was. He was. But I don't think ultimately losing that game by nine as opposed to 11 is going to amount to any sort of difference at all for the golden go. Well, they're in, especially after beating Purdue and then winning, I think, last night coming back to beat Penn State in overtime. God, I'm a Big Ten guy now, Patrick. I watched more of the Big Ten games yesterday than I did the ACC games, which is new for me. But last question, actually real quickly, a comment.

NC State will be, I think, in the shot clock era, the first team to ever make the tournament having scored 24 points in a college basketball game. There's not many teams that have scored 24 points. No chance. No chance that anybody has scored less than 24 in the shot clock era. They lost a game to Virginia Tech for those that don't know. In January, I think it was early January, 47 to 24. That was the final score in a 40-minute college basketball game.

All right, last question. On Monday, when the field, out and everybody's debating and arguing what will be the biggest debate or the biggest argument? You're going to hear a lot of complaints if people see Indiana and or Texas in the field. You already touched on Belmont as being, you know, sort of a cause for all the folks that love the mid-majors. And you'll hear people, you know, possibly arguing about the number one seat as we talked about. So, you know, the other issue, and we touched on it a little bit, is somebody has to fill out like the eight line and the nine line. And that's about where, you know, the late in the seven line is about where the bracket starts to collapse a little bit.

And so I think people are going to be startled by the fact that somebody has to be on those lines. And frankly, a lot of those teams aren't very good, or at least they're not very accomplished. So it's a different kind of year that way. And obviously there's still surprises to come. Heavens knows how many bid thieves are going to be able to emerge here over the next few days or so. You're the best. I love talking to you about this stuff. Indiana is the biggest shock of this conversation. I just figured there's no way at 17 and 15, 8 and 12 in the league. And having lost yesterday to Ohio State a team that was struggling that did get Caleb Wesson back for the game yesterday,

but I just didn't think there was any chance. That would be fascinating if Indiana got into the field and the Big Ten had nine. Those six Quadrant won victories, including the sweep of a big wins. Victory over Wisconsin. They got Louisville, they got Marquette. That's going to be really, really hard to overlook. Yeah, you're right. All right. Thanks so much.

Really appreciate it. I know you'll be busy this weekend and we'll all be reading. Thanks. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks to Patrick. Appreciate it. Wish I could really get into basketball here for the next few days. But I am looking forward, Aaron, to Selection Sunday.

but I just wish that we as Maryland fans had at least another game or two to watch this weekend. A quick word on launch workplaces. If you're one of those people right now that's working from home and it's getting difficult to work from home or you're in an office, then you've got to move out of it. And you live in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Upper Northwest D.C. Check out launch workplaces in Bethesda. They've got affordable private office solutions so you can get work done. It's a beautiful new space.

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That's 240-86714. Launchworkplaces.com. They've got locations throughout the area, and you'll see all of them at launchworkplaces.com. All right. Last up, a couple of things. First of all, I still think, you know, there's going to be some Redskins news.

There has to be, right? I mean, we heard the news from JP yesterday that there's a potential upgrade at wide receiver. You know, could that be a trade for A.G. Green or somebody? I don't know. Did you see what, uh, it's something was floating around. I was trying to find it around Twitter. And I'm pretty sure it's just Redskins fans trying to will it into existence. All of a sudden on Twitter, people were talking about stuff on digs, which I don't see happening, but how could that happen? You could trade just the same way you could have AJ Green.

Why would Minnesota ever trade stuff on Diggs? If you gave up way too much for him, but they, exactly, it won't happen. But that was going around Redskins Twitter yesterday, which I found funny. Yeah. I don't see that happening. I'm expecting that, look, I'm expecting the Redskins to add some free agents. There's still players out there. First of all, Justin Houston, you know, was released by Kansas City.

As of now, he has not yet, I don't think, been picked up. He's 30 years old. You know, he could play outside linebacker in our scheme, or he could be a specialty pass rusher at 30. Maybe he's asking for too much money. You know who's still out there? is still out there. You know, the Redskins need a pass rusher. That's what they need. Whether it's in free agency, Shane Ray, the guy that I thought would be super cheap, one-year deal. There must be

something wrong with him. He hasn't been signed. You know who's still out there and was expected to be, I thought, signed at this point? Is Bashad Breeland. I don't think the Redskins will ever ask him back, but they still need secondary help. They need a pass rusher. Would you sign Clay Matthews, if you could get him on a one-year deal for not a lot of money, I don't know that he would come here. I would imagine that, you know, Clay Matthews and Justin Houston and, you know, maybe even Zika Lanza. You know, Ndama Khan Su, they probably want to go to a place where they can win, where they feel like they've got a chance to win something. You know, that may be part of the problem for the Redskins. But if they don't have a lot of other offers out there, hell, you know, there is another Alabama player out there.

Mark Barron's out there, you know, sort of a safety hybrid linebacker. I mean, sort of a landing Collins. That's the problem. You'd probably be adding the same guy. I still, you know, I think they need a pass rusher and they need more safety and corner help. I know they need a guard. There really isn't one out there. They're going to probably have to fix that problem in the draft.

That's probably where they're going to have to address that problem. The quarterback thing is what's left other. than the draft. Rosen. What's left at wide receiver other than the draft? A.J. Green, I guess. And by the way, I'm in on that, but I want to know what it's going to cost. Because I like A.J. Green a lot. I think A.J. Green is an elite receiver. But if you could have gotten Antonio Brown for a third and a fifth, or let's just say, because he wanted to play in Oakland and not Washington, if that was the case, You would have had to give up a third and a fourth. I'd rather have Antonio Brown as a receiver than A.J. Green.

I'd rather have A.J. Green as a player in my locker room. And A.J. Green, you know, was a J. Gruden guy. I don't know if A.J. Green's available. I'd be surprised if he's available. Wouldn't you out there, wouldn't you, Aaron, be surprised if they wanted to move on from A.J. Green? I think they would ask, too. If I'm the Bengals management, I ask for, I mean, I start at 15 and I go from there. Yeah, of course you do. You're looking for that one year.

That's the bare minimum. I don't take anything less than that. If Cincinnati really thinks that they have no chance of signing him after next year, then this is the time to trade him. You know, it's the Kirk Cousins thing. I mean, they can franchise him next year. You know, he's got one year left on his deal. They can obviously franchise him next year.

But if they really feel like he wants to leave, now's the time to trade. them. But anyway, I guess that's it for today. You know, the Caps won last night, beat the Flyers. God, they have handled the Flyers, and they have that huge game tomorrow night against Tampa. That's it. Enjoy the day. Enjoy the weekend. Thanks to Patrick Stevens. Thanks to Aaron. Monday, we'll have brackets in hand ready to go, and I would bet I'd be surprised if there isn't some Redskins news. They haven't added at least another player or two. Monday so we'll have that as well