The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - College Basketball Analyst Reid Gettys Talks Texas Teams In NCAA Tournament

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

College Basketball Analyst Reid Gettys Talks Texas Teams In NCAA Tournament 

next guest is a staple of this program every March. He should be doing many more national TV games, but he's busy being a successful attorney. That's fine. For the all-time Cougar Greats. And a man that I go for my baseball analysis, read the Astros Outfield in 2026. What are you thinking? I was about saying, you only call me in March. You really undersell my fandom of the Stroes.

That's why I'm bringing you on now. What do you think about the exact call is going to make the team coming out of spring? What's your thoughts? Come on, let's go. Oh, yeah. Come on. The way he played last year, he's absolutely going to make the team.

Hey, the bigger deal is all the infielders. All the people saying, oh, we got too many, we got too many. No, we don't. That's like saying you have too many shooters going into March Madness. Too many shares. Don't keep them all. So there you go. All right, thank you.

Man, it's good to hear your voice. We've missed working with each other this year because those national people took all of our games from us. That's bastards. That's fine. Yeah, they did. We had a bunch of really good games, and they just left us with the dogs. Yeah.

No disrespect to Toledo, but it is what it is. All right. So let's get first things first. Our beloved Cougars are the two-seed South Regional. It doesn't look particularly pesky, although a potential rematch of Florida for the championship of the South could be happening inside Toyota Center. Yeah, you know, here's the deal.

It's really, really good to be a number one or a number two. Other than that, seeds just don't matter. and the reality is the one or two seeds gives you what should be a really good warm-up game. And then after that, you're playing really good teams. Having said that, I would much rather be in the south than in the east. The east is brutal. But I've got the Couges making a run to the final four. I've got a rematch with Florida.

But let me tell you something. Illinois, who's unpredictable, that's going to be a really tough game. And then I may not care what else happens in the bracket as long as we don't lose to AML. You got that right. It's the second round match of potential Oklahoma City. Let me ask you this in painting with a broad brush on the Cougars. Defense isn't nearly as intensive as it was last year. But man, it surely showed up for the most part in Kansas City.

Last year's defense could mask some offensive woes. Is the defense good enough this year to mask some of them maybe perhaps offensive woes the Cougars might have? and maybe you don't have those woes if Kingston Fleming's is playing, you know, 34, 35 minutes a game. Yeah, that's what I was about say. The answer to that is no, but the good news is we have less offensive woes. Not to be mistaken

is no offense, but we have less. And Kingston is that good, and he's been that good since the opening tip on the first game. If you watch them play, kid is just special. And he can go get

not difficult shot. You know, Manuel Sharp can go get you, you know, a degree of difficulty 9.9 on the scale. Kingston can go get you shots that it looks like they're wide open 15 footers and can come off, you know, can come off on the ball screens and pull up and get you all balance, can get to the rim. And so he more than makes up for the less, you know, I don't want to say defensive woes. I don't know what they ended up in Ken Palm, but they've still got to be really close to the top 10. Yeah. What I don't understand is why they aren't as good, because Milo is excellent on the ball. Emmanuel Sharp still as good as anybody.

Jojo Tuggler is one of the top 10 defensive players in the country, and Chris Snack has been terrific. So I don't, you know, I would agree with the premise not as good, but I think people are overplaying that. I hear a lot of the national pundits going, oh, they're not as good. They don't have, you know, they don't have Jamal. And I'm like, I wouldn't oversell that. Well, McCarty's played better. Cinnac is getting better as the season progresses. It feels like to me it's a little bit of a deeper squat that maybe Calvin's had in years past.

Absolutely. I just kept waiting for him to have trust in Mercy Miller. And he's a difference maker. I'm telling you, that kid is special. Without a doubt, Matt, if you extrapolated out over 40 minutes, maybe the two, I'll start off with. Krista Mack is as good a rebounder, and he has translatable skill to the NBA rebounding.

Having said that, extrapolated over 40 minutes. Chase Bacardi and Mercy Miller are the best rebounders on the team. Yeah, that's crazy. They have been exceptional rebounding, and I see what to see Mr. Miller just to say, to heck with it. I'm going out and I'm letting it fly. The kid is really good, but I agree with you.

those two off the bitch. And Chase, you know, the fact that he's a freshman, everyone talks about all the freshmen and, you know, Kingston and Isaiah Harwell

and Kristen Act, Chase McCarty's a freshman. Yep. That kid is really going to be good. Reed Geddes, ESPN, attorney du jour, Fislamma, JAMA,

just one of the greatest cougars of them all joining us here on the Matt Tomasel Ross. Last question about UBH, what type of team? You don't have to get them in particular, but what type of team scares you against the cougars

and potentially running to Indianapolis. Arizona. Yeah. We don't run into them until we get there. Yeah, that's true. But they, they, the teams, this is crazy. Kelvin Samson has changed the way basketball's played in the Big 12. Texas Tech, now they're short-handed.

They duplicated how the Cougars defend in their approach, and they can beat us. Iowa State is almost a carbon copy. They do the hard, They blitz on the ball screens double. They do the hard hedge. They double down on the – you talk about that meme, you know, Spider-Man pointing to Spider-Man. That's Iowa State. And Arizona can play that way, too.

All right. Let's get some other – Go ahead. Well, I'm just saying those guys don't have the offensive struggles that we do. So those are the teams that scare me. That makes a lot of sense. All right. Let's get to a little bit of the other schools in the state.

Texas, are you surprised they're playing this extra game tonight? No, I'm not, and I wanted to pick NC State just because I get so mad at Texas, but there's not a chance in God's creation I can ever articulate that I'm cheering for the wolfback. Not that right. By the way, Texas is good. Texas has got size, they've got guards. I don't, you know, they've struggled, but that's a team that could jump up, and they could win too. They could beat BYU.

Yeah, DeBantz is really, really good. everybody else on BYU, I'm not overly impressed with, but he can take over a game if necessary, but enough about them. Do you like Texas Tech? Tell me about what you think about TCU squeezing in. Does SMU have a chance to survive the playing game as well? I mean, you've got quite a bit of flavor in this Lone Star State again this season. Yeah, I got SMU is healthy. They've struggled being healthy all year long, and I've got them beat in Miami, Ohio, and they could beat Tennessee. I don't think they're going to, but that would not surprise me. But I've got A&M over St. Mary. A&M is all gas, no brakes.

They don't defend very well, but man, can they shoot the ball and do they crank up the tempo? And so I like them a lot. In TCU, I've got TCU winning their first round game. They're, the kid punch, I won't say Donald Punch, but I think that's who I went to high school with. David Punch. He's as good of an interior player as there is. in the country. I don't think they can beat Duke, but I definitely think they can beat Ohio State. You mentioned Miami of Ohio. If you're in the committee room, what's your take on the Red Hawks

with the scheduled strength of 296? Yeah, I, you know, I don't put a lot into that. Any team that, you know, goes into their tournament, what were they 30 and 0 or 31 and O or whatever they were, that team deserves an invite. And you look at the bubble teams. I mean, does Oklahoma really have a reason to jump up and down and yell? No. You know, so if there was some team that you just thought, oh, man, they got screwed. Then I would listen to that argument, but I don't think that team was out there this year. All right. I have, I mentioned this on my show yesterday. If not for Houston, I think Arizona wins the whole thing. So would you like to have backed me up on that?

Or does somebody else you think could be a legitimate championship contender besides the Coogs? without well no i yeah i think i think there's about six or seven teams that are legitimate contenders i think duke would i think duke and arizona are the best teams in the country but duke's not healthy um i've got uh i've got u of h in arizona playing for the championship yeah Arizona is the best team in the country they flat out are can can you of h can we beat them absolutely we can beat them um but they they are the best team extremely well coached golly, are they loaded with talent? Here's what makes me nervous about the Cougars,

and it's been this way, I think, ever since really Kelvin's turned the program around, is that the foul trouble, and look, Jojo has become a bunch bigger offensive force for the Cougars in the last week and per se. But man, when he gets that second quick foul, five, six minutes in the contest, it's like taking the air out of the balloon a little bit.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that. If you want one key to the game, that is that Jojo doesn't pick up his second foul until the last five minutes of the first half because then you can take him out it won't have that big impact but if he picks up his second foul you know before the 10 minute mark I'm with you that that's going to make me nervous and I don't care I don't care who we're playing