INITIAL MARCH MADNESS THOUGHTS

[00:00:00] and I know that the women's games surpassed the men's last year when it came to the NCAA tournament.

[00:00:10] I know that this year the women still have the story lines with Angel Reece, Caitlin Clark,

[00:00:16] Ju-Ju-Walking, so on, so forth but ladies and gentlemen, the madness is here.

[00:00:24] So I just wanted to talk to you real quick about a few thoughts that I had initially after

[00:00:29] looking at the brackets. I'm not going to make any picks right now because that'll be tomorrow night

[00:00:35] on Sports Reports As Order, you know with Mr. Logical but I just wanted to hit y'all with some thoughts

[00:00:42] that I had after seeing the bracket. So first and foremost national champion defending

[00:00:51] the Yukon Huskies in the East region. Oh what a bracket they have. They are the overall number one

[00:00:58] seed. In the final four to committee said you know what we're not trying to have any of these

[00:01:05] shenanigans we had last year. FAU come on over here and potentially get Yukon in the second round.

[00:01:13] San Diego State will give you another five but we're going to put you in Yukon's bracket.

[00:01:21] And then they said Yukon, you are the overall number one seed but we're going to give you Iowa State.

[00:01:28] We're going to give you Auburn. We're going to give you Illinois, you know three of the conference

[00:01:34] champions from this weekend. I think the road sounds it sounds like it may be tough for Yukon

[00:01:45] but I think Yukon should have relative ease to get to the regional final. We'll see what happens

[00:01:51] and oh by the way the regional finals in Boston. So there you go good luck everybody.

[00:01:59] So how do you beat Yukon? I guess you just got to mix Steph Castle try to beat you. He came in with a lot

[00:02:06] of height very value-hood. You know we thought he was going to be the next one to go on or run

[00:02:10] like Jordan Hawkins last year, you know but the shot hasn't quite been there. Now he's a defensive

[00:02:17] stalwart but I think you got to play that Harrison Barnes defense on him remember to Cleveland

[00:02:23] Cavaliers or back in the day when Boris D. All just walked away from whenever LeBron was going to

[00:02:28] take a mid-range shot. I think you got to let Steph Castle beat you, you know. Klingons too big,

[00:02:35] Yukon's too good. When I look at what region is the cake walk region if you will,

[00:02:44] you know what would be I guess the easiest region. All for first glance I thought about the West

[00:02:50] region. You know North Carolina starting out with the winner of Howard and Wagner from the first four.

[00:02:56] You know potentially Spardy in the second round. You know come through that. You got

[00:03:02] Grand Canyon and Alabama Charleston and Clemson on their side of the bracket. So if North

[00:03:08] Carolina doesn't at least get to the regional final something's wrong and I'm not saying like it's

[00:03:15] all Huber Davis or anything like that but something's wrong if they don't make it to the regional

[00:03:19] final. Looking at the other side of the bracket down here New Mexico, I'm sorry, Bailer and

[00:03:27] Cole gate dating in Nevada Arizona Lomb beach like look what is Arizona? You know we've seen them

[00:03:37] lose to USC. We've seen them lose to Oregon State. We saw them get swept by Wazoo.

[00:03:44] We saw them going to Cameron indoor stadium and win but if you know me, you know I don't trust

[00:03:51] any team with Caleb love to actually get it done even if they go on a long run. I just can't

[00:03:59] pick them to go to the final four or be a national champion as long as he is on that team.

[00:04:06] Gonzaga. America's sweetheart wants a pawn of time. Not anymore. The NCAA tournament said Gonzaga

[00:04:15] we don't gave you one seeds. We don't give you two seeds and you have not cut down the net. So

[00:04:21] what are we going to do? We're going to give you Mick knee. The eighth best three point shooting team

[00:04:28] in the country have fun with that Gonzaga. No cream out the bar, no st. John's. I'm a little

[00:04:36] disappointed from an entertainment standpoint but truth be told they probably didn't deserve it.

[00:04:41] I know Indiana State had the number 29 net ranking which is the highest now of any team that has

[00:04:48] not gotten in since we've started the net ranking back in 2018. It was NC state at 33 prior

[00:04:56] but they just didn't play anybody and it didn't beat anybody. You know they lost the Alabama

[00:05:02] by 22, they lost a sparty and their high leverage games you know they did beat Drake but then

[00:05:11] they also lost the drink twice. So as much as I wanted to see cream it just wasn't meant to be

[00:05:19] as much as I wanted to see Ripotino St. John's probably did as much or less than Indiana State

[00:05:25] and didn't even have the metric on their side in that way. I thought seat and hall would get in

[00:05:31] not that I think they deserve to be in but I thought they would get in. I thought about

[00:05:36] Providence you know they lost Bryce Hopkins to an injury on January 3rd and I lost the seat

[00:05:43] and hall lost the three subsequent games after that. They came back and beat Creighton twice

[00:05:50] you know so I thought that they had a chance they had beat seat and hall they'd beat St. John's

[00:05:56] so I thought Providence had a chance to get in it wasn't to be you know so I'm sure Coach Kim

[00:06:03] English is out there cursing out somebody the way that he cussed out that breath the other day

[00:06:08] you know Iowa State coming off the win against Houston have they shot their ludes so to speak

[00:06:15] because if you were here at the beginning of the season you remember I picked Drake is one

[00:06:20] of my tournament sleepers and I'm not moving off of it beware first four beware of the winner of

[00:06:28] Boise State in Colorado. I think that the winner of that game can make a run of course Colorado has

[00:06:33] Cody Williams you know Coach Leon Rice the first coach and Boise State history to take them back

[00:06:39] to the tournament three years in a row. Purdue number one in the Midwest we remember them last year

[00:06:46] going down to FDU Jersey stand up from the astrological but don't fret Purdue remember we saw

[00:06:55] Virginia lose to UMBC come back the next year and win the national title no pressure no pressure

[00:07:03] Purdue is 63.0% in the country even though all the talk is about Zach Edie so we'll see how

[00:07:10] Purdue gets through this bracket you know I got my doubts but we'll see how Purdue gets how they

[00:07:16] go through this and this is hopefully not the fourth straight year that they're going to lose

[00:07:22] to a double digit seed you know back in 2021 you know they lost to North Texas 2022 with St.

[00:07:31] Peters on that magical run where St. Peters clipped Kentucky as well and of course last year FDU like

[00:07:38] I mentioned Curtis Painter you're on the clock buddy you know right now you Luke Olson and

[00:07:46] Tony Bennett are the only teams to lose coaches to lose to lose to to lose to a double digit seed

[00:07:53] three times as a single digit seed in the tournament but you did it three years in a row so you do

[00:07:59] it this year it might be time to get to packing you know as I look at this Long Beach State shot out

[00:08:09] you know they lost their last five regular season games told their coach you're fired more on

[00:08:15] that in a second told the coach you're fired what did they do they go beat the number one and two

[00:08:19] seed in the big west tournament in route to winning the big west tournament and here they are

[00:08:25] in March madness why is that important to me because the head coach you might remember

[00:08:32] Dan Monson he was the original conductor of the Gonzaga train back in 1998 and 99 so there you go

[00:08:41] like how do you do this you know what does Long Beach do now you know I guess he's on his way out

[00:08:46] the door after this tournament shout out to Duquesne first tournament since 1977 four years before I

[00:08:55] was born so while congratulations to the dukes congratulations to Grabbling and Stetson

[00:09:03] for making the tournament for the first time ever which brings me to my next point which is I

[00:09:09] hate I absolutely love the fact that you win your conference tournament it ended up in the first four

[00:09:18] I love the fact that we count the first four as an NCAA tournament win because these schools might not

[00:09:26] otherwise get a win but what I mean by that is all we hear about is first four last four first four

[00:09:33] last four and those are the teams that should be playing for the right to enter the bracket not teams

[00:09:43] that did what was required of them in winning their conference tournaments just my two cents just my

[00:09:51] two cents you know Kansas beware coming off the injuries to Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullough

[00:09:59] sat out in the big 12 tournament obviously they went home early to Cincinnati got some extra

[00:10:04] rest but beware of Sanford that style that style they can rope a dope you they can rope a dope you

[00:10:13] you know like I said Drake is one of my sleepers I also liked that college of Charleston to the

[00:10:19] sweet 16 I'm not going to give you final four picks right now I just wanted to drop in and give

[00:10:26] you my first few thoughts on March madness and in case you forgot ladies and gentlemen the madness

[00:10:36] is here