The Ringer NFL Show - Aaron Rodgers Watch Continues, NFL March Madness Comps, and More

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Sheil, Steven, and Diante start the pod by discussing the latest developments surrounding Aaron Rodgers’s future landing destinations (3:24) and the new subjects for Season 2 of Netflix’s ‘Quarterback’ series (15:20). They then preview the upcoming NCAA men’s college basketball tournament by debating, analyzing, and drawing comparisons between the top-ranked teams in the bracket and the NFL teams that made the playoffs at the end of last season (25:12). To check out more of Steven’s March Madness coverage on ‘The Ringer’ click here. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producer: Chris Sutton Social: Kiera Givens Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you hear the word Seattle Supersonics, what comes to mind? Maybe it's Sean Kemp, The Rain Man, or Gary Payton, the glove, or maybe an image of a tall and skinny 19-year-old rookie, Kevin Duran. For fans in Seattle, it's something else. It's tragedy. It's theft. An iconic team with an incredible fan base that packed its bags and shipped off for Oklahoma City. From Spotify and The Ringer, I'm Jordan Ritter-Con.

and in my podcast Sonic Boom, I talk to players, politicians, owners, and fans about how Seattle lost the Sonics. You can listen to it on the Book of Basketball feed, on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capati here with Deonté Lee and Stephen Ruiz. We're trying a little something different today.

We'll go over some news here at the top, but we're not like the NFL. We're willing to give another sport at least one. week of the season. And this is March Madness Week, of course. And so Ruiz has been grinding the college hoops film. I was just telling him, I just read his piece on the ringer and was astonished at the level of detail he's got on all these teams and the takes he's got ready. So Ruiz, you, correct me if I'm wrong, I think this is the exercise. You are going to compare some of these NCAA teams to NFL teams and help me and help Deonté maybe, you know, fill out our

brackets, get some knowledge before we settle in to watch like 50 hours of college basketball over the next four days. That's right. I have pre-prepared, uh, comps for all of the playoff teams, all the teams that made the playoffs in the NFL, but I'm willing to just go off the cuff. You can just throw a team at me and I'll give you a comp. Okay. I love it. Deonti, how locked in have you been on this college hoop season? How much March Madness will you be following? Are you ready or is this going to be useful for you this exercise with Ruiz? I was raised as a Duke fan and like, I have been aware. Wow.

I know. I know. Get him off the police. I'm shocked right now. But you know the funniest thing about it is like my father is like the, if he were on Twitter, he would be the Twitter user that gets mocked all the time because he's a Duke Cowboys, U.S. Dodgers fan.

But raised a Duke fan. So like, and I've been aware of Cooper Flagg since he was like 15, 16 years old, right? Because he was the next hot thing for a while. So the fact that he's been at Duke, I've tried to catch as many conference games as possible. I do think, though, with college basketball, especially now, there's, like, there's clearly a bell curve where you want to be on one of the disparate ends, where you're either in Stevens position, where you've been looking at it the entire year. I know all the quad one statistics. I've got all my Ken Palm ratings. I know my RPIs and all that stuff.

Or you want to be like me, which is like, I have seen my favorite team play a few times, and I know absolutely nothing. There is nothing worse than having a moderate amount of information on college basketball. I feel like those brackets end up being the worst. I agree. You don't want to be the Charlotte Hornets of like your bracket pool, like right in the middle. I guess the Hornets is a dated reference. I don't know who the new NBA team that represents mediocrity is anymore. Is it the Sixers?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, the Sixers are the Cowboys. I can give you that comp. The Sixers are the Cowboys where or have been where you turn in some good regular seasons, but you never get it done. So the Clippers come on and maybe be in that mix as well. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of teams in that middle ground there.

So we'll get to that. I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be fun. We'll see who Ruiz Comps some of these teams too. But let's get to the news. And I do, you know, I am thinking maybe we do a little moratorium after this episode on Aaron Rogers. Because the way this thing is going, I'm not prepared to do weekly shows with an Aaron

Rogers update. So we can discuss that at the end. But we did get some newsy information today. I think you guys can tell me if I'm wrong because there were a bunch of reports. Tom Pelliserro of NFL Network got it started, saying the Vikings have rejected multiple trade calls on J.J. McCarthy telling other teams they're moving forward with him as their quarterback sources say the team plans to add a veteran, but they're not pursuing Aaron Rogers at this time. McCarthy now enters the offseason as QB1. Now you had that. Then you had Diana Rossini of the Athletic said there's no in or out on Aaron Rogers from Minnesota. they're simply not making a decision at this time.

And then you had Kevin Seifert of ESPN said, told the Vikings are not pursuing QB Aaron Rogers and don't consider him an option as they move into the next phase of the off season. So those are kind of all the reports that we've got here. And then I guess the last one is Adam Schefter saying that a source says that Rogers is in no rush at all to make a decision about 2025. So it seems like it's like 99% not happening with the Vikings that they're saying, hey, you know, Aaron, go ahead, look at other teams right now because it's not happening here. But maybe they're leaving that 1% open just in case something happens between now and week one. So Deontay, this latest rounder reporting with Aaron Rogers, where does this put us? I guess it puts us with the Giants, the Steelers, or the wild card, which would be Aaron Rogers just deciding, I'm good.

I'm going to call it a career here. I think I'm leaning most towards the ladder now. I think that we are, first of all, we are 100% secure me to exactly what Aaron Rogers wants, which is that every week. Every few days, we've got to come in and talk about what he might be thinking.

And that definitely plays to, I think, the way that he views himself, I think he likes being the storyline at this stage in his career. But I do think if we're just surveying all the options, I still think while the Giants might be most likely just based on like, power vacuings where he could step in and maybe exert the most force over the organization.

I think the likeliest outcome still is that he just looks at the options and says, this thing is over. It's over, man. There's no happy ending to this. The happiest ending was the fact that you got to win back-to-back MVP's in Green Bay before all the stuff with the Jets happened. Like, great, awesome career, we'll be a hall of fan. All that is awesome.

But yeah, this thing is done. And I think that the longer he waits, the less likely it feels to me that he lands in the kind of situation that's most amenable to Aaron Rogers. Otherwise, you know, if there were deals on the table that gave him everything that he asked for, he has absolutely no incentive to wait. I don't think that those deals are on the table. It sounds like he wanted Minnesota was like his sort of his top option, most likely, which we discussed on the last episode, which makes sense from his perspective. But now that he's not in the mix, sorry, what were you going to say? I was going to say, like, it is interesting.

I never really thought about that. Like, when you think about those two bounce back years that he had. And you kind of look past those. Over like the last decade, he's really only had those two great seasons where he's looked like a top five elite style of quarterback. And I don't know, I never really considered that, that like most of his track record, his recent track record, and it's sizable at this point, is him kind of being a middling quarterback, at least production wise. And it was even worse with the Jets last year. It is kind of odd that the Vikings themselves haven't just come out and set it instead of leaking it through reporters because it would be so easy. you just drafted the quarterback first overall,

and we're obviously excited about them last year, less than a year ago at this time. Why can't you just come out, the GM, the head coach, and just be like, yeah, JJ's our guy. Like, we're starting him. He's the week one starter. The fact that it hasn't happened leads me to believe that they are kind of leaving that door open.

And maybe the fact that Aaron Rogers is in no rush is sign that he's hopeful that it does happen with Minnesota eventually. Because it's really the only way that I could see him having a year comparable to the years he had in Green Bay where he did bounce back and win those MVP's. Yeah, it seems pretty obvious that they've at least discussed it. And we, again, in our last episode, we went over the reasons

why they would discuss it. And there are reasons why you would take a look at it and say JJ McCarthy has never played a snap in the NFL. We won 14 games last year. And I think their roster is better this year than it was last year with how aggressive they were in free agency. And you look at it and say, he's coming off the injury.

Maybe we just take a one-year flyer on someone like Aaron Rogers, you McCarthy will still be our quarterback in 2026. We won't have to rush him. But let's see if we can kind of catch lightning in a bottle here with Aaron Rogers and compete for a Super Bowl right away. So it seems clear that that discussion happened. Now, sometimes, because you're right, you know, they could have just slammed the door shut here and been like it's not an option. And the reporting is like, it's most likely not an option. So maybe it's a situation where they're like, you know, what if JJ McCarthy doesn't look great athletically coming off that injury in the spring?

when he's here for OTAs in minicamp. If there's something like that, and then Aaron Rogers is still available and hasn't signed anywhere, then do we leave the door open to change our minds a little bit? So that's how it read to me with kind of some of the reporting on what was coming out of Minnesota that, like, move on.

They're not doing it, but like a lot can happen between now and week one. And for Rogers, a lot can happen too. You know, maybe he doesn't sign and waits, like you guys said, he doesn't mind the attention. he doesn't mind his name being in the headlines. Maybe he waits, sees what the landscape looks like after the draft. Maybe he waits till August.

What if a great quarterback suffers an injury in training camp? And now all of a sudden, that's an appealing situation to go somewhere that doesn't look like an option right now, but could potentially be an option. So I think all of those things are in play. I mean, it seems pretty clear. I would be stunned at this point if he were to go sign with the New York Giants. I mean, that's one that would just shock me. It just feels like he doesn't want to be there.

He understands the situation there and rightfully so, that that's not going to work out. And then the last one, Deante, is the Steelers, which this is interesting. I saw Cam Hayward had some comments. I don't know if you guys saw this on his podcast. This is via ESPN. Hayward said,

I ain't doing that darkness retreat, responding to a question from co-hosts on whether he'd go into the dark with the Rogers to land the quarterback services. I don't need any of that crap. Either you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or you don't. It's that simple. That's the pitch.

If you want me to recruit, that's the recruiting pitch. Pittsburgh Steelers, if you want to be a part of it. So be it if you don't, no skin off my back. So Deontay, Cam Hayward is not about to, you know, go begging Aaron Rogers

for his services at this stage of his career. That sounds like a defensive player that just went through a year with another mercurial. aging quarterback. And I think probably about midway through the season, midway through him taking over the starting job, realized life isn't so bright.

Even with the veteran guy who's going to do what Mike Tomlin asks of him, it's not the greatest. I'm not surprised for him as a player as he advances in age. He's probably just thinking like, look, man, I want to win. I don't need all the histrionics. And I get that with the Steelers. That does make it a fascinating, it does make it a fascinating thought experiment,

trying to match up what Aaron Rogers' personality is, not just with Mike Tomlin, but with the rest of that building, right? Because everybody in there seems to have very strong opinions of what it means to be a stealer. I don't know if Aaron Rogers is necessarily the most amenable to the way it seems like they like to do business. So it's a fascinating thought. And then I think if you're Pittsburgh and you brought a guy like that in, you probably still want to double dip in the draft, right? Like you'd want to take a chance on another young guy to go compete with them, even if it's not with your first round pick. You know, maybe you bring in a Jackson Dart. Maybe you bring in a, a, uh, Jalen Milrow, somebody who... The dinner, some reporting that they had a little dinner with Jalen Milrow as teams do this time a year, but it's got my attention a little bit. 1,000 percent. And I think that that kind of hints at the fact that if it's a guy like Milrow that you're interested in, you're not bringing in a Milro to be your day one starter.

More likely than not, you'd maybe want to bring in a vet. I just don't know if Aaron Rogers is the guy to get that done. I just love Cam Hayward saying, like, I'm too old for this. That's all I heard from that is I'm too old for this crap. I am not catering or cowtowing to any. else after all these years I've put in with this franchise. Yeah. That was very relatable.

Yeah, it sounds like a guy who's been disillusioned by these quarterbacks who come in. And like even Ben Rathesberger before, like at the beginning of Hayward's career, was a difficult quarterback to kind of work with. Like he was very outspoken about the direction of the team, about the play of his teammates. And he had a radio show. It wasn't quite the podcast era where now where every player has a podcast. But he was on the radio, which is an equivalent. So, yeah, I just think Hayward.

it's just tired of that. But I do think that bringing Rogers in, I think if we got to August and Rogers was there and it was training camp and they interviewed Cam Hayward about how he feels about having the quarterback, I think would be pretty excited. It seems like these players still think kind of highly of Aaron Rogers and aren't as caught up in the off-the-field character as much as we are and as much as we'd like to talk about it. And we like kind of talk about Aaron Rogers. Like he's this like almost like a super villain in the NFL who's like threatening to take over teams

and like turn them into a terrible organization. I don't know if it's that bad, but we'll, I don't think he goes to the Giants. I agree with you. That's like buying a ticket to the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. I don't understand why any quarterback sign up for that. Yeah, that would be go collect a paycheck for one more year and, uh, and see what happens. But I, that doesn't seem like it's going to happen here. So we will see.

Like I said, I don't want to be on the Aaron Rogers hamster wheel of content for the next five months or whatever it is. So I'm, we're going to set the bar a little bit higher from here going. forward about when we have to discuss what's happening there. I don't think it'll be every report if something happens. If a team is eliminated, you know, something like that. If a team signs him, obviously, we can discuss it. Can we make a rule now?

Can we just say we won't talk about him until he signs? No more report. Like, what report are we going to get in the next month or whenever he signs that is going to be worth talking about? Oh, he's thinking about another team that he would like to go to Pat McAfee and say something that's going to force us all to have to be on a podcast. See, I was trying to be, I'm with the Anta. I was trying to be like the Vikings there where I was like,

I'm slamming the door shut, but just in case, you know, content is content. It's like, I can't slam it shut all the way just in case. This is how he wins. This is how it's winning. You're right. You're right. That's a bad job by me.

But what are you going to do? All right. I'm going to commit to it. Let's see if it lasts a week, you know, that we don't discuss Aaron Rogers. I feel like listeners would be on board with that. They do not need to hear every update on air. and Rogers going forward. What we know now, Steelers, Giants, mystery team, retire, probably not going to make a real difference in the landscape of how the NFL plays out in 2025, regardless of any of

those stops. All right, let's take a break. We come back. We're going to get to one more little news items, and then we will get to the NCAA tournament and the March Madness Combs to NFL teams. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. All right, one more little, I don't know if news is the right word but content. Netflix announced that they are coming back with what was quarterback in 2023, the documentary that followed

it was Marcus Marietta, Kirk Cousins, and Patrick Mahomes, right? The 2020-23 version. I did watch that one. I enjoyed that one, actually. 2024 receiver. I did not watch, but I heard... I didn't watch that one, but I heard it was pretty good. I think Nora liked that one.

She mentioned it on a pod last year. Well, now they're coming back, going back to quarterback, going back to the Kirk Cousins well, it's going to be Kirk Cousins, Joe Burrow, and Jared Gough. So this was already in the works. Presumably they followed them throughout the course of last season, and it will be kind of a documentary style production where they take you through the seasons of those three quarterbacks. Ruiz, will you watch this?

Are you excited? Did they get it right? did they get it wrong? Are you confused? Where are you with quarterback season two? I'm kind of worried about them bringing back her cousins because it just feels like they're doing the same bit over again with him. Like, oh, look how normal he is.

And he shops at Coles and all that stuff. I will watch. I'm a sucker for content, especially quarterback content, as you guys probably know. I want to see Joe Burrow in the season that he goes through. It'd be interesting to hear him talk, especially if the Jamar Chase contract thing comes up, the T. Higgins thing comes up,

and we get some like behind the scenes look at that. But like Jared Goff, like, sure, fine, interesting story, don't really care. And I've seen enough of Kirk Cousins. Who's the Marcus Mario? I guess it's Kirk Cousins. Why do the Falcons keep signing up for this? It's Kirk Cousins. I was thinking about this, Deonté, because if you remember, season one, all of a sudden,

Marcus Mariotto was gone. They didn't address. If you remember what happened that season. I love the move, by the way. Yeah, it was kind of this controversy of like, wait, is he injured? Is he not injured? Arthur Smith didn't want him anymore. He left the team.

Now it's, and it was just like they didn't address it. They just stopped going to Marcus Marietta. So maybe that's what it'll be. They'll follow Kirk Cousins until Kirk Cousins is no longer a part of the Falcons. And then they will just kind of ignore what happened with Michael Pennix Jr. taking over. I'm not sure. But will you be watching this in July, Diat. I'll be watching because I'm just a glutton for football content.

Yeah. I will say it is very humorous to me that the Falcons seem to have the courts. quarterback on this show is going to have the saddest storyline of all parties involved. I know with Marcus Mariotta, it was like a very quick dissent from like, oh, you know, we're not necessarily winning a bunch of games, but I'm getting a chance to start. And I'm with Arthur Smith. And it seems like we have a great relationship. And then it was like a switch flipped, got a little banged up.

And then it was like, all right, he's done. It's over now. So I'm definitely fascinated to see, like, what is the storyline going to be with Kurt cousins around that Broncos game? And it was like very clear that like, oh, this is over here. There's nothing else to see here. So I'm really fascinated from that respect.

And I would say Stephen laid out all the reasons why Burrow was interesting. I'm actually kind of fascinated by watching Jared Goff's storyline, being with the team that can contend for a Super Bowl, especially a team that kind of unraveled due to injury over the course of the season. I'd be interested to just kind of see what his thought process is, because this is about as good a chance as they'll ever have to make deep playoff runs. you know, there's no guarantee on a year-by-year basis and has more of their young guys' contracts come up.

You know, I want to see if he, as a guy who watched a contending window shut in front of his face, I would love to see if that's kind of something that's on his mind throughout what was the 2024 regular season. I'm trying to think of like what would be my dream lineup based on that. Let's do it. Based on the season last year. These guys aren't very interesting, but then I'm like, wait, most quarterbacks are weird and really not that interesting. It's situation-based. Yeah, it's situation.

I would have loved for the Colts for Anthony Richardson to be on there. That would have been amazing. The Texans game where he tapped out of the game. That would have been fun to watch. The Steelers, both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields and hearing how they dealt with that. Because I feel like Justin Fields probably feels like he got the short end of that stick. And then a team like the Panthers with Bryce Young, I think Bryce Young would have been fascinating to watch.

Seeing him get bench, seeing him come back and bounce back a little bit and look like an NFL player, legit NFL quarterback. would have been fun to watch. If I didn't already know he had the personality of a wet blanket, I would have definitely said Dak Prescott. Like if I knew nothing about him, like this highly paid quarterback who's got opinions all over the place about his level of play,

it would be funny to follow him around. I think I've seen enough interviews. I've kind of seen him just as a public figure, enough times to let me know that there's just not much there in terms of interest. I've got a kind of wildcard name. I would throw Baker Mayfield out there as a guy who had a very high opinion of himself coming into the, week, had to deal with some stuff.

And now it's like he's firmly in that above average to fringe good territory. And it seems like he believes that about himself again. You can definitely see him on the field, kind of talking to his opponents as though he believes he's that guy again. I would love to see what that looks like from his perspective. And then Josh Allen, to me, would be another one I'd be interested to watch.

I just think that him as a character is fascinating to me. I don't think we hear enough from Josh Allen. I'm with you. Yeah, it doesn't feel like a lot of these guys, I have a preconceived notion like that guy would be boring. That guy, you know, Josh Allen, I don't really know. Like, you know, we've seen him. We've seen him play in these big games.

We've seen press conference clips. I don't feel like there's been enough like he's been miced up or behind the scene. So yeah, that one might have a higher ceiling than I anticipate. I just feel like I don't know a lot about him. But man, going through this list, it is tough. Jane and Daniels could be interesting. Just, you know, giving the heartwarming. We don't need a heartwarming story.

I want a mass. I want the Browns. Forget the Camino. Give me the brands. Would Gino be a good character for quarterback? Yeah, I would love that. He's interesting. I think he was a confident quarterback.

I think, and obviously he was in a lame duck season. We didn't know it at the time, but there could have been some tension there with his contract negotiations. I think there were a lot of good options, but it really feels like they went with the three boring ones. Well, I wouldn't say Burroughs boring, but the other two I could do without. Last one I would say would maybe be like Matthew Stafford. If we knew like this upcoming season was going to be his last. and they were doing a season three of quarterback, I'll watch Matthew Stafford on the way out.

I would take a year of that. Or for Jordan Love, you know, I would take Jordan Love. Jordan Love might be an interesting person. Would you guys watch this? I got, I'm pitching you a show. I feel like a TV producer now. It's kind of like how they made, they turned The Bachelor into the Golden Bachelor.

What if they did quarterbacks, but they're the commentators instead? You got Tom Brady, Tony Romo, and Troy Aikman. I'd watch that. Troy Aikman, I feel like would be a really fun watch. I would be in a, okay, so we're following, their release. I mean, we might have to edit that out and pitch that to Ringer Films or something. That's a good idea. That is a much better idea than that would be so, now maybe, I don't know.

I would be curious to hear what the listeners think because we're in this bubble. We're in the NFL media space. So maybe we don't represent. But I would be way more interested in that than this. If you just showed me, here's what Tom Brady's doing during the week. Here's when he arrives in the private jet. All right. Is he having dinner with the? the crew on Saturday night. Is he by himself? What's, is Romo playing video games in his room? I don't think he's playing video games. You do it something else, but it's not video games.

And maybe we get some unfiltered thoughts on some of these quarterbacks. That would be fun because we don't really get that chance. I think they're informed or instructed not to talk shit about these quarterbacks. So that would be cool too. I don't know if it would last the whole season, but I would love to watch this. It's a great, it's a fantastic idea. If they want to, they should actually do that. for the next season.

That's phenomenal. The only other one I thought about for actual quarterback, Ruiz, this is right down. Tell me you wouldn't want to watch Brian Callahan yelling at Will Levis for, you know, an hour and episode,

20 minutes a week. That would have been so good. Okay, my last one on this topic would be who would be the Joe Shane of quarterback. Like, who's the guy who comes on and answer that. It might be Kirk Couss.

We can never air the show again. Nobody's ever going to get on this show again. You would assume it was Marriota with his disappearing act, but it might be Kirk Cousins after this year. so it would be so damaging to their reputation. We would view them just like this guy. They don't know what they're doing.

And nobody's going to come on and ruin it. Oh, that's a good one. It's probably Derek Carr maybe. I don't know. It feels like Saints fans just like hated that guy by the end of the season. But maybe I'm wrong about that. Yeah, that might be a good one. I'm going through here.

I can't really find another person. If I'm being honest, it's probably the guy we talked about to open the show. Yeah. I was going to say, but we're not mentioning his name. So yes, move on. We're not mentioning his name anymore here. So those would be, you know what?

If the Texans had a more interesting season, I do enjoy. C.J. Stroud feels like our last chance for a normal, fun, smart. Hey, I would hang out with this guy type quarterback. But the way that season went, I don't know that that would be the right season to capture it. Maybe it would be. You know, maybe he was like a great guy behind the scenes where he's just getting hit 14 times a game. just going up to offensive linemen, like, don't worry, you know, I believe in you. But I don't know if that's what he did or not.

But in another season, I would like to see C.J. Stroud on the show, I think he would be pretty fun. So there you go. Quarterback, who knows, that might, you know, there might be some episode recaps in early July when we're waiting for the season to start and have nothing else to talk about. We'll see how engaged we are with that content this summer. All right. Let's get to the main event. The NCAA comp, Stephen Ruiz. did the heavy lifting. We have to thank him because Deonti and are like,

Ruiz, you sure you want to do this? We got nothing. He's like, yeah, I'll do this. We're like, okay, we'll just play off of what you say. So I don't have any specific questions. I don't want to know like, hey, who is this team compared to what NFL team? So you start us off. You've done the work.

Give us your first comp for an NCAA team. How about we do this? How about we do this? You name a team. Okay. I described them, like I described why I came up with the comp. And then you guys try to guess what NFL team. it is.

Okay. All right. I'm pulling me. Pull up the bracket here real quick. We can do that. Let's open up with Houston. Okay. Houston is the first one I came up with.

And this is honestly my favorite one. Okay. Houston is a team. When they play defense, they play very aggressive. They blitz, pick and rolls. They trap post-ups. They are very aggressive.

They just throw a lot at you. Some could consider it a bit of a junk defense. On the offensive end, very explosive. One of the best three-point shooting teams in the country, long ball, they got it, they can shoot it and do all that. But the little things, those are more precarious. They get the least amount of points around the rim compared to anyone in the nation. And sometimes the offense can kind of lose their mind and they look really bad.

And I think they are very much in danger of going out earlier than a lot of people expect. I've got a name in mind. What do you got, Deonté? Do you have one in mind? I'm guessing the Chargers. Not the Chargers. I do have a comment for the Chargers. I was going to say the Bengals, maybe.

The Bengals weren't as good, but when you said, you know, good offense, junk defense, do a lot of dumb things. Not a junk defense. It could be considered like a, they're zinging when the rest of the teams are zagging type of thing. Like, it's just an aggressive defense and a uniquely aggressive defense. Aggressive makes you think Vikings? It's the Vikings. It's the Vikings. And the offense, the offense is Sam Darnold.

Sam Darnold, you know, you can complete the default, but you don't really trust them to do the little things. and there's a chance that he could melt down and end your season prematurely. It is the Vikings. And then the defense is obviously Brian Flores' defense, which is hard to prepare for it and game plan for it because he could throw anything at you.

I love it. Fantastic. Houston is a one seed here going into the tournament in the Midwest bracket. Yeah, I did. And they have flamed out, right, the last couple years here. The last two years, yeah.

Okay. So there you go. All right, we're up to a good start. That was great. Houston, I'm not picking you. You're not going to the Elite 8. Sorry, Sam. I don't want to continue my agenda versus Sam Darnold.

But you know what? The information is the information and maybe have a little upset in round two. Gonzaga, Georgia, maybe in the Sweet 16, Purdue, Clemson, my guy, Amir Khan and McNeese State. Maybe they make it to the Sweet 16. So there you go. All right. All right. So we have to pick another team here.

I will go with this one, Florida. Because everywhere I look, I don't know if this is the hipster pick or if this is the smart person pick, but there's a lot of buzz for one seed Florida in the West region to make some noise and potentially win the national championship. Okay, Florida is a team that really relies on their tempo, like how they play fast, they like to get up and down. They don't really run like a lot of great offense. If you watch the film, you're not like, oh, this is great offensive design. but they hurry teams up and they get a lot of good shots in transition.

I'm a little worried about their coach when it comes to the postseason. I don't trust them. They could be out game planned. I don't know. But at the same time, they have enough talent. They're very electric and they could go on a run in the playoffs

or in this case, the tournament. This is like one of those moments in jeopardy where like you get two words into the hit and you just leaning over the buzzer. We were timing. I think we got. this one. Go ahead. This has got to be Philadelphia.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Washington. Washington. It's Washington. It's Washington. I do understand the Philly top. I got a better comp for them. It's obviously more of a Jalen Hertz slander type of calm.

But no, no. It's Washington. And I would say Walter Clayton Jr., the point guard. He's the Jaden Daniels in this scenario. Like if anything goes wrong where the offense really isn't working, he could just pull up from three, from 10 feet behind. the line and he usually hits it. So I think that's a good comp for them. And I wouldn't be surprised if they do make it to the final four. But I also wouldn't be surprised if they go out early,

maybe do a team like Maryland. Oh, he's got the, listen, he's the agenda work. Yeah, he is the Maryland alum. So if you hear some Terps propaganda during this episode, you know what to attribute it to. All right. So Florida, I got to take a hard look at as a potential final four team. That got me, you know, the hips. Now the hipsters like them. So that makes me want to say they're going to lose. but what you described there sounds like a team who potentially could get there. All right, Deontay, you want to give us the next team here?

I'll throw another one out. I'm like, okay, I want to juxtapose two teams. You don't have to give me, you don't have to give me the profile for both. I just want to juxtapose two teams. With Michigan State, like, you don't have to tell me anything. I know exactly what that team is because I've known what that team is since like 2006. For 20 years, yeah. Nobody has to describe me what a Tom is-o team looks like.

Explain to me what a. Rick Petino team at St. Johns looks like. That is a one team I have no conception of. 100% agree. Okay. My St. John's comp was the Chiefs, where I think the thing that's, St. John's can't shoot. And they can't shoot the three in this day and age in college basketball,

you have to shoot the three. That's my comparison to the Chiefs who couldn't, you know, complete the explosive plays downfield. But the defense is very smartly designed. Rick Petino, if I had to pick one coach to game plan for one game in the tournament to win, it's Rick Petino. And I think every coach in the country would also say that. That's kind of his reputation. He's a game planner.

He's a tinkerer. He's had a lot of influence on the modern game. He's credited as the guy that brought the pick and roll to the college basketball game. It used to just be like an NBA thing. So that's kind of Andy Reedish. And then I would say him as like a defensive schemer, he's the Steve Spagnolo of college basketball. So I think that's what it looks like. The offense is flawed in ways that are very,

obvious in ways that you would assume you can't win a championship with. But they just get it done on the offense event. They hit a lot of mid-range shots. They're like Patrick Mahomes with Quick Game. They can hit the mid-range shots and they can maintain a successful offense with that. But they're built on their defense and their ability to take away what opponents do best. I mean, I'm just in awe, Deonti. This is this guy is put in Ruiz.

Is this the most prep you've done for any ringer NFL show like all this is incredible? No, this is actually. the least amount of people I've ever done. I was ready to do this. I told you guys, I was ready to do it after the production. You had it ready. Okay. Let me go to the Michigan State thing.

Michigan State was my Eagles comp. Michigan State was my Eagles comp. And like Deontes said, I don't need to explain to you what a Tom is-Izo team is. But Michigan State kind of lost their identity over the last 10 years where they were always known for their rebounding. Like we were the best rebounding team in college basketball. That kind of went away. But this year it's back.

They are the best rebounding team. So my comp for them was the Eagles, and I'm equating their ability to re-bound the basketball on both ends of the court to the Eagles' offensive line and their ability to just grind out possessions. And even if they don't have good three-point shooting, they don't have a passing game that's consistent. Sometimes they get hot. They have talented backward players, but sometimes they're inefficient. It doesn't matter because they get rebounds, and they have something they can hang their hat on, and it always works, and it's always there. and they're also very well coached on defense. One of the best defenses in college basketball,

which came as a surprise, which kind of reminds me of Vic Fangio's defense this year. So who is that? Yeah, yeah. Usually the teams that get to the Sweet 16 for me that I can just like sight unseen, I know they're going to win games. Are the teams that have great guard playing,

don't turn the ball over, and then the teams that have coaches who know how to scheme up defense and remounding, right, that know how to maximize their guys in that respect? Are there any other team, any other NFL comps that you think fit within this, within this bracket in that respect?

Yeah, and just to extend the metaphor actually a little bit out a little bit longer. Like the bracket has kind of lined up for the 2022, how the bracket lined up for the 22 Eagles where they didn't really have to play a good team. And then when they played a good team, the 49ers, they didn't have their quarterback, obviously. And that's kind of how it's shaping up with Iowa State. Like Iowa State at the beginning of the year was a very good team. solid on defense are always good on defense

but this year they really exploded on offense because they brought in a couple of guys they found some transfers and the metaphor is easy to make because Iowa State is obviously where Brock Purdy went but they just lost their best score to Sean Gilbert before the tournament and they're not what they were

and that kind of lines up for Michigan State to go on a run here and maybe make the elite eight where you still have questions about them so questions about their ceiling but they're there and when they're there they're so well coached They're so talented that I think they can beat some of the top teams in the bracket.

All right. I'm putting Michigan State in my final four there. I'm going with the Izzo. I'm going with the comp there. I have one more follow-up question. Let's take a break. We come back. This is I just want to hear every NFL team.

We can do this for three hours. Yeah, this might be two-parter. I don't know. We'll come back in a minute and talk more about this. All right, we're back on the ringer NFL show. All right. So your Eagles comp there with Michigan State. Now, you said, Michigan State very good defensively.

St. John's very good defensively. If you had to pick one team where you just said, they are the best, most suffocated, like we could be talking about two weeks from now, this is just like the most suffocating defense college basketball has seen in whatever three years. Like it's so clear what is just, you know, sets them apart from everybody else. Who would be, who is the best defensive team in the tournament? Who could go on a run like that? The numbers, it's Duke, but I have a different comp for them.

Like, I think it is St. John's. I think it's St. John's because they kind of have the SPAC things, spag thing going on where, like, anybody can end up at any point on the field, any spot on the field before the snap. And it doesn't really matter. They have a center named Zubi Edge of Four. He's like a 6-8 guy. He's like pretty beefy, too.

He's not like an athletic guy, but he can switch on to point guards. So they could switch literally everything. And their ability to do that just disrupts everything. want to do on the offensive end because you set a screen. It doesn't really matter. You don't get the advantage because you're just switching it. Same with offball screens. So they really blow up and disrupt everything you do and kind of take the game to you defensively.

And that's why I would prefer them over Duke where Duke is just like a classic. We have so much talent and athleticism. We have Super Flagg who's he's six, nine, but he has like a seven three wingspan. At least it feels like it on the court. He's like one of the best weakside defenders in college basketball history. But they also have a seven foot center in Malawatch. who can play ball screens on the perimeter aggressively, but also get back to the rim in time to block shots.

And that's hard to deal with. And they can also switch one through five because of their pieces on the defensive end. They can't switch one through five, actually. They switch one through four. They don't have the center like St. John's has that can switch on to point guards, but it's still kind of the same situation,

just not as, I would say, it's not as fun to watch as St. John's is. Because watching St. John's, I went and watched the St. John's game against Georgetown, actually, and it was just a massacre, and I've never seen a mismatch like that in person. It was amazing to watch. All right. You mentioned Duke, I feel like.

We just have to find out who is the comp for Duke for Deonté and try to make Deonté mad if you can with whatever this comp's going to be. This one was pretty simple. I just went with the bills. Cooper Flagg is Josh Allen. He can literally do everything, but he has enough pieces around him where Cooper Flagg doesn't have to be a hero. He's not a guy they just throw the ball and go, please go get us a bucket.

He's a guy that kind of gets his points in the rhythm of the offense. He distributes this year. He's like a passer. It kind of feels like what Josh Allen went through this year, like what type of player he was. Obviously, the Bills didn't have the defense that Duke has. But if Josh Allen played defense, I would imagine that the Bills defense would be much better. See, it's funny. Like, when I think of Duke and NFL comp, I might have said the Ravens.

The Ravens were the other team I was thinking of. Just because when they want to play bully ball, they can play bully ball with the best of them. I would say, like, defensively, not that they had any trouble defensively this season. I just know over the arc of John Shire as a head coach, I think he came in trying to be a little bit more guard-centric defensively, trying to play with a lot more ball pressure. They didn't really have the bigs behind to be able to play that way. This is the first year where it seems like he has a more balanced unit, similar to Zach Orr, you know, trying to do things that maybe other guys have done within the Ravens tree, and then you just get back to the basics, funnel everybody to your seven-foot center, who's a great rim protector, switch on the wing. with Cooper Flag and just kind of use

a bunch of arms and passing lanes. There have been games where I've watched from Duke where when they're locked in defensively, I don't even care what Cooper Flag does with the ball on the other end. They're great to watch on the defensive end. Last year's Ravens team, like not this year, the year before that would have been a good comp for Duke.

But this year, I think their defense took a step back, while their offense kind of evolved to the point where maybe they were the best offense in the league and they were hard to guard. And that's why their comp for me is Auburn. a team that has also gotten to the precipice of a championship, but hasn't quite gotten there. And then they don't always play their best ball in March.

And everything that could go wrong kind of goes wrong for them. Yeah. So I'm going to go with the Ravens. They're my Auburn comp. And it's kind of like they're in Michigan State's bracket. And I think I'm going to pick Michigan State to get out of that. For the same reason why I might pick the Eagles in a matchup with the Ravens, because everything seems to go right for the Eagles in the postseason.

They played their best ball at that time, while the Ravens always play their B game or their C game and end up going home because of it. I like the Baltimore Auburn Cup, because when you look at the bracket, it looks like they're probably going to breeze through to the Elite 8, and then they're going to find a way to trip over themselves once they get their first look at elite competition.

All right. I'm looking at the rest of the AFC playoff field, because I know you said you had a team for every playoff team, right? Yeah, that's right. Okay. Who are the Houston Texans? We kind of forget that they even, you know, made the playoffs at this point. And I'm curious how you bring this one home.

Who gets slandered in the process? The Texans, I comp to Tennessee. I'm not a Texans hater, but I'm very much a Tennessee basketball hater because I hate the way they play basketball. And that doesn't have anything to do with the comp. The comp is based on the fact that their defense is really good. Their defense is really good. Their offense, not so much. It's very flaw.

They go slow. It's not like the modern offense you kind of want to see. They have one good player, Chas Lanier, and if teams are able to sell out to stop him, it's over. Everything falls apart offensively. It doesn't happen too often, to be honest. I don't think it's going to be a problem until they get deeper. In the playoffs, if they face a team, that's the equivalent of the Chiefs, for instance.

I think they'll fall apart. But that's my comp for them. And Chas Lanier is playing the role of C.J. Stroud in this comp. Who are the Vikings? I need a fraud. Who were the regular season. The Vikings were Houston. Oh, that's right.

That's right. You did say that. I love it. I'll give you another fraud. My comp for the Steelers is Texas A&M. That was going to be the other team. I would know at you. That's a team that's always good.

They're always like a four or five seed, and you don't know why based on their talent. You look at their stats. They can't shoot the ball. They turn over the ball on offense. But they get offensive rebounds. And that's the thing they do. And they play really hard on defense. That's the kind of the Steelers defense part of it.

The offensive part of it, is kind of like the Russ Moonball thing, where they just jack up stepback threes and hope one of their big men get an offensive rebound and come down with it and then laid up for an easy bucket. And that's basically how their entire offense functions. And that's how I thought the Steelers' offense kind of functioned at the end there with Russell Wilson.

Texas A&M, see you, upside away. Pickie L. Yale, Yale, all right, there you go. The Denver Broncos. Now, it's funny, like, when you're describing this, I'm like, well, what would the comp be? And just in my head, I'm like Denver Broncos, coach who thinks he's, you know, God's gift to the sport,

but actually is very good, maybe a surprise team that's not great, but got in there. I don't know if that fits, but you're about to say, maybe you would point to the, you know, chaotic defense. You could do that also with Denver. Who are the Denver Broncos? McNeese.

Oh. Your boy, Amir Khan. Yeah, the guy you mentioned earlier, the student manager, they obviously the Broncos, I guess the equivalent for that for the Broncos franchise was Drew Lodge. rapping to Young Jeezy a couple years. I guess that's the cop there.

But let me stretch out this cop. This one actually makes a lot of sense. Okay, McNee's coach. He used to coach LSU when Ben Simmons went there, Will Wade. So he coached in New Orleans, in Louisiana in the state. He kind of goes out.

There was a scandal and he loses a job. I know Sean Payton didn't lose his job because of the scandal, but there was a scandal with Sean Payton, obviously. So he has to take a lesser job. Which one? I mean, there are, yeah, Sean Payton. I was referring to him. Bounty Gate.

Okay. I was referring to Bounty game. Okay. So, Will Wade goes to McNeese, and Will Wade is known for playing a very aggressive style of defense, kind of like a Vance Joseph style of defense. And that's why McNeese is so good. They really attack you on the defensive end. But they, and let me add this, they also have a bunch of like Power 5 flameouts.

So they have the Power 5 power conference athletes that they could just throw this hectic style of defense at you. In the Southland Conference, against an easy schedule, that works. That really works. They turn games into chaos. They create turnovers, and that helps them score on the offensive end, even though they don't have a lot of talent on the offensive end. It's schemed up fine, but they don't really have a talent.

They don't have that star player who can really take over a game. They don't have that franchise quarterback, so to speak. And that's why my comp is to McNeese State. Because I think McNeese is going, they're going to be a trendy pick, an upset pick. But I think they're going up against a team that is very well coached in Clemson, and they're not going to let them play this chaotic game. and I could see Clemson really running them off the court. That's what happened to McNeese last year

when they're in the same situation, played the same style of defense, ran into a Gonzaga team that was well coached, and Gonzaga picked them apart, didn't turn over the ball, and McNeese's offense fell apart because of it. McNeese has the Denver Broncos. I love it.

There you go. I think the only AFC team, did we do the Chargers? We didn't do the Chargers. Okay, I think that's the last day, a AFC team. Who are the, do we have a Jim Harbaugh character? Who is your Justin Herbert?

The audience is saying, Who is your Justin Herbert Ruiz in the NCAA tournament? I don't know if that fits or not, but what do you got for the Chargers? Like the Chargers, this team is very near and dear to my heart because I've written about them. I've written a lot about the Chargers in the past, and I just wrote an article about this team. It's coming out. I think either today or tomorrow, the Drake Bulldogs. And the story of Drake, this is like the best story in college basketball.

So basically Drake hired, Drake's coach got hired to West Virginia. He just took the Indiana job after one year. but once he got hired, every player on the roster left. They went into the transfer portal. So they hired this guy from D2, Northwest Missouri State, Ben McCullum, who won four national titles at this lower level. He comes over to Drake. He brings four of his five starters from the D2 team.

So it's basically like, it's basically like a first take debate where it's like, can this team that's dominating at the lower levels compete with that? It's basically like that. And they went 30 and three. They won the conference in the first year. and their whole entire offense, which is, it's well designed, is built around the point guard, Bennett Sturts, who's like this 6-4 point guard, you could pull up from three,

who has crazy court vision, who can make any pass, he can make a lot of like pocket passes through traffic. But I swear to God, he never comes off the court. He leads the country in minutes played. I think he's playing 98% of the minutes. Early in the season, it was even wilder. It was like 101% of the minutes because they went into overtime, and he never came out of the game.

But literally every time down, they just run a ball screen for him. And they just keep doing it until it works. And the offense is just totally based around him. And then obviously, that can lead to some turnover sometimes. And if they lose, I'm imagining that Bennett Sturts will have a high turnover game, maybe five or six turnovers. And he'll get blamed, even though it's not his fault. The whole team's built around him.

And you should respect him more. And he has a top five point card, no matter what you guys are. I don't know if we're talking about drinking anymore. We are. I love it. That sounds exciting. That sounds exciting. That sounds like must see TV. Drake as the Los Angeles Chargers. Who is the guy who like is not a household name now? But you could see in two weeks, this guy is just like the college basketball player that everybody is talking about. Even if they don't have like an NBA career. It's just, you know, that's the fun part of March Madness is one or two of these guys emerge. It feels like every year. Do you have a name for a, uh, a celebrity? collection for that. That's kind of tough because there's literally only one household name at any given time in college basketball and its flag. Is there someone with like the charisma or style of play? It might be the guy you just mentioned. It might be stert, honestly, because I don't think a lot of

people realize how good he is. I don't know how far Drake is going to go. I think they have a chance to beat Missouri in that first game. I'm trying to think of a good one. I'm looking down the list of lack. I would say Milos Uzan from Houston. I know I kind of told you to fade them earlier, but Yeah. He's a really smooth player. He plays a lot. My comp for him is like Brandon Roy from Washington way back in the day. Not the NBA prospects. I don't think he has those, but he's similar style of a player always in control, can shoot a jump shot, off the dribble, can run a pick and roll, can pass the ball. He's in total control on that end of the court. And then I would also add, I'll say Walter Clayton Jr. from Florida. He really has like a Steph Curry type ability to pull up from three and to shoot the ball. You can get hot in a hurry. He can score 30 points. He can go on a run. And then the last one, for the same reasons, is probably, actually, I'll go with, I'll go with, who should I go with here? I'll pick Graham E.K. from Gonzaga. He's like the, I would compare it to like the Joelle and Bede of college basketball, not like with like the, oh, can he win in the playoff type thing. But he's like a true post-up guy, like a post-up artist and he can hit a turnaround jump shot from the mid-post two. And like over the last month, he's just looked unstoppable to guard. So if they upset Houston and the same,

second round. It's going to be because of him. And I think he's going to become a bigger name. All right. I love it. Deonté, which of these NFC teams do we need to get Ruiz's comps for? I think we got a few there still left. Let's see. I think we got the lions. I don't think we've done the Bucks. I don't think we've done

the Rams. Yeah, give me the Rams. Give me the Rams. That's what I want first. All right. The Rams for me is Alabama. And I'm thinking of, I'm just thinking of the shot. Sean McVeigh is Nate Oates. He runs this great offense. It's a modern offense.

Everyone wants to run a similar style of offense. And it's built around three-point shooting. They just run down the court. It's pace and space. Take the best three-point opportunity you got as quickly as possible. And they're not the best three-point shooting team. Like, their percentages is down compared to where it's been in past years. So it doesn't quite work as well.

But when they get hot, they can literally beat anybody in the country. But when it doesn't work, it looks ugly and they can get blown out. And I think that is the fate that's awaiting Alabama. And I'm really nervous about their second round matchup, their potential second round matchup with St. Mary's, which is a team like the Eagles that can just grind out a game. Like, that's what they do. The game has always played on their terms at their pace.

And they got a lot, they got a couple of star players that could take over a game and give Alabama some problems. I like that one. The high ceiling, their A plus game. They can play with anybody, but they might not deliver their A plus game in the tournament.

All right. I think we got left, the Detroit Lions. I don't think we've done the Lions yet, right? Who do you have for Detroit? I have Kentucky for the Lions. I was going to ask you about Kentucky. Tell me about Kentucky because all I remember is Coach Cal last year, it's over. He's gone.

What does this version of the Kentucky Wildcats look like? So they hired Mark Pope, who was at BYU, and Mark Pope is known for running a five-out offense. They shoot a lot of threes like last year, BYU, over 50% of their shots for threes. And he kind of brought that to Kentucky. and he built the team totally through the transfer portal. It's the same situation as Drake. Once Cal left, everybody left that was on the roster.

So he had to build the roster from scratch. But the reason why I comp them to the Lions is, like, I think if they're fully healthy, they're really hard to play against. They're really hard to stop. They have a unique style like the Lions do on offense. But they've just been hit hard with injuries. Like it's just been injury after injury.

They've never really been fully healthy all year long. So I don't think we've really seen their peak since the beginning of the season. And I'm not sure we ever will. because their lead guard, Lamont Butler, who's really like the key to the defense being good. He's like really the only on-ball defender who's worth a damn is hurt.

And he could play, but he might not play. And his status is doubtful. So that's why my comp to them is Kentucky. I think if Kentucky was healthy, they could make a final four run. And maybe I would pick them even right now to make the elite eight,

but it's risky because of the injuries. Gotcha. Okay. All right. We saw the Packers. The Packers is the last team. I think we got the Packers and the, Box? Is that right?

I didn't come up with a Bucks comp. I'm not going to lie. I tried and I couldn't come up with one. I don't know what to tell you. Liberty. So the Packers are your last one. Liberty. They have an undersized point guard who thinks who pulls up from three. He can shoot from three and he's the Baker Mayfield of college basketball.

There's a new cop. I just thought of that out to top of my head. My Packers' comp is Arizona. A team that always seems to be like a high seed going into the playoffs. At this point, they're really young. And I think their best days are ahead of them. They have a lot of good young players. It's hard to figure out which of those young players is going to emerge and kind of take the reins.

Next year, I'm thinking of the receiving court in that regard. But they do have a talented point guard in Caleb Love, who just happens to have the same last name as the Packers Corps. I didn't even think of that when I made this comment. And he has a rational confidence. He is a volume shooter who doesn't really have efficiency at all. And when it works, it really works. And he's just bombing from three and he's taking over games. he started at North Carolina.

He famously, he made like a famous shot against Duke. It was Coach Kay's last game. He basically sent Coach Kay into retirement. He's career. Yeah. Yeah. And he's still basically the same player. And he's liable to go 0 for 12 from 3 and keep on shooting like he did last year

against Clemson. And that's why they got knocked out. And I could see that happening with Arizona. I think they're a team that's a year away. And while the Packers aren't going to get rid of Jordan Love, he's not going to graduate, Arizona will. and I think it's going to make them better. And I think Jordan Love will mature into a player that I won't comp to Caleb Love in the future.

You know what the fun part, Deonto, you're probably doing it. Anytime a school gets named, I'm just thinking of players from, you know, this is the ultimate guys name and dudes. I'm just like, man, Mike Bibby and Miles Simon. That team was awesome. That was three years ago. I know. I'm like, Mateen Cleves, man. He really, you know.

Did you stop watching basketball in 2001? Kind of. Not 2001, but as I was explaining to you guys before we came on, every kid that arrives, you know, every time you become a father, you give up a sport or two. And college hoops until March, I basically have given those help. Whereas high school, college, it was just like college, the NCAA tournament to me was all like the best weekend of the year. It's just like not doing anything else starting Thursday at noon until the end of the weekend. And it was just like nonstop four straight days. So yes, those days are behind me, but I will be watching these games.

I'm in the same boat, Sheel. The last college basketball season, I really, like, followed wire-to-wire was like the Zion Williamson year. That's like 2018. You know, we're approaching a decade, basically, of me caring enough about college basketball to watch from beginning to end. We're in a good age of college basketball. I would argue that, like, the quality of the play on the court

has never been better than it's been. And, like, the stats back it up. Like they're setting records for offensive efficiency. The shootings way up. The turnovers are way down. I know a lot of people are like, oh, the players aren't as good anymore. No, these players are way better than they used to be. And I think the transfer portal is a big reason why they're pushing these players

that wouldn't have this platform to these bigger schools who are still getting the good recruits. But now they have better role players because of it. They have like senior role players who actually know how to play. So we're seeing more complete teams. And I think that's why we're seeing more teams that could actually win the tournament this year. And then when you look at like the top. 10 teams in terms of experience, like in the whole country. Five years ago, before the portal became a thing in 2018, it was all like mid-major teams that were the most experienced. Now it's

like Alabama, Xavier, like big, big conference teams that you've heard of, big brand names that you recognize. And then there's teams like the Dukes that are still built around a great freshman class, but they brought in like three senior transfers who are like tough guys who can fill in the gaps and do all the dirty work for them. And they're a better team because of it. Deonti, I love this. this brings out a different side of Ruiz. I mean, did you hear that optimism, you know, the sports better than you think? You know, like he's not poking holes in it. I mean, this is amazing to see March Ruiz or something.

We need to have any important. It's different. I don't, I'm not as much of a hater. I'm not as much of a hater. I was going to say, this has been way more optimistic than the Ruiz. That's because we'll think about how the Panthers are, the situation they're in. Think about where Maryland is. This is the best they've been in like 20 years.

They're like 12th in Ken Palm. They're a four seed, but they're probably a two seed at heart. They couldn't make a final four run. That's why I'm optimistic. They've also lost, they've lost four games in their last 18, and all four have been by buzzer beaters. They're kind of like the Antitamanders in that regard.

And somehow, I'm still optimist. It hasn't broken me yet. Bombolae-Ozby. There you go. That was a great pool. That was a great pool. Amazing name. With the Afro, yeah.

He was a hard-nosed defensive player. He was very good. Hit the game when he shot against North Carolina when they were the number one team in 2006, 2007. Listen, I still used the Grievous Vasquez shimmy Giff from time to time. That's a good gift. By the way, Bennett Sturt's the Drake point guard that I brought up. That's my comp for him. Grievous Vasquez.

Tall point guard. He's kind of slow, but you can see over the defense and can shoot and score on his own. Yeah, that's my call. I love it. Rui's, what are you doing? What content are you creating for the end? NCAA tournament. So I've been on the One Shining podcast with Tate,

Tate Frazier. I'm writing winners and losers after the first round, after the second round, after the elite eight, after the final four, and after the national championship. And I got the Drake story coming out. There you go. And by the way, great, great primer. I'm telling you. You know, a lot of this stuff.

I'm ready to do my bracket now. I saw I've filled mine out yet. I'm kind of procrastinating on that. That's on the ringer.com. Yeah, he's got the different, who can win it all. He's got thoughts on each first round. Matchup, that is something I was looking at earlier, getting ready for this podcast. So check all that out.

Thank you to Ruiz for helping us get ready. Deonté and I will now fill out our brackets here. Of course, you can check out one shining podcast. You can check out the ringer.com for all of your college hoops needs. When stuff happens in the NFL, we will, of course, be back because they're not going to let another sport have the spotlight for a whole week. I mean, are you crazy? Have you been paying attention? A month is unheard of. Yeah, no, that's unheard of.

So we'll be back on this show for sure next week. Everyone, have a great weekend. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer. Oh, yeah, and thank anybody. Thanks to Ruiz. Thanks to Deiante Lee. Thanks to you to producer Christopher Sutton, additional production by Connor and Evans and Arjuna Rahm Gopal.

Okay, now have a great week. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL show.