← Eye On College Basketball
Eye On College Basketball
EOCBB on CBSSN: Most trustworthy 1-seed? One more chat on the UNC/WVU mess; favorite 1st-rd matchups; coaching carousel latest
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- [00:00]
Gary Parish
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- [00:51]
Gary Parish
Hey there, Gary Parish. Welcome back to the Ion College Basketball Podcast CBS Sports Network, where we sometimes discuss camel fighting, dodo birds and leaky black men. Orlando is here with me. You see him right there. And we're both going to be with you for the next hour discussing that thing. The 2025 NCAA tournament bracket, because the bracket is now set. It's a beauty. A controversial beauty, sure, but a beauty still. The four number one seeds are Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida. No controversy there. Norlander I know we both agree that the selection committee got the number one seeds right. We both agree that Auburn should have been the number one overall seed, even though the Tigers three of their four previous four games entering Selection Sunday. So let's not waste time on that. Instead, let me start by asking you this. Of those four number one seeds you see right there, which one do you actually trust the most to win its region?
- [01:47]
Matt Norlander
Good. Good question. GP we did not. For the, for the Hardcore is tuning in right here live on CBS Sports Network. We appreciate you. And for everyone listening after the fact, we didn't get into this on the Sunday late night reaction Selection Sunday pod. So I love starting here. Trusting the most. Are we talking about team quality specifically, or do you want to factor in the road that they could potentially meet? Because I think those might be two different things.
- [02:08]
Gary Parish
Parrish I think they're two different things. I think it's possible to say I believe this is the best team in the country, the team that I think is going to win the NCAA tournament. But I actually trust this team to get to the Final Four more than I might trust that team just because I think they're also good. And the path, at least theoretical path, could be a little easier. I think you include everything and then reach the conclusion. Just answer the question directly. Who do you trust most? If you had to bet a mortgage payment on this team is going to get to San Antonio, which one you trust in most with your mortgage.
- [02:42]
Matt Norlander
Houston. My pick is Houston. And the reason why is Kelvin Sampson has done something here that, that Houston hasn't had before. Houston has been top two at Ken Palm the past three seasons. It is, it is consistency year over year over year. This team has been a one seed three consecutive years. Hasn't made it to the Final Four in those previous two, three years. Did make it in 2021 when Houston was a two. They could have Gonzaga waiting in the second round and that would be, that would be one heck of a second round game. But the team I trust most is Houston, and here's why. Auburn's lost three or four heading in. Little note for you, no team has ever won the national championship, losing at least three of its final four games before the tournament. Duke, it does have a lot of players that haven't played on the stage before. Cooper flags ankle when he plays on it, is it going to be 100%? Is he going to play on it? On 70%? You and I have heard over the years so often when a player eventually goes into the draft, hey, by the way, this guy was playing like, you know, he, he played, but he was like, you know, 60, 65%. I don't know if that's the case or not with Flag, but not knowing his true status and how good he really will be, I can't trust Duke on the same level that I can trust Houston, even knowing full well that Juwan Roberts also dealing with an ankle injury. Houston's a really, really good shooting team. And then Florida. Todd golden is yet to win an NAA tournament game as a head coach in his career. He's going to end that finally this, this week. We know that to be the case. But, but I just trust Kelvin Sampson a little bit more. I've been doing it longer. So to your question, yeah, my pick.
- [04:08]
Gary Parish
Is the Googs couldn't possibly intelligently argue against the idea of trusting Kelvin Sampson and trusting that Houston program. It's been one of the most trustworthy programs in recent years. A program I believe would have gone to the Final Four last season if not for an unfortunate injury to Jamal Shed. I could easily, easily see the Houston Cougars in San Antonio, but I went with Duke. Now, let me acknowledge up front, if you tell me Cooper Flag can't walk, then I'll reconsider. But I'm assuming by the time they need him to be good, he's going to be good enough. And I like the theoretical path that the Blue Devils have in front of them. Spoiler alert. This is not the team that I'm going to pick to win the national championship, but it is the team I feel most comfortable placing into the final four because a they're awesome, clearly. B Alabama is the two seed in that region. Could be without its second leading score. Grant Nelson Wisconsin is the three seed. Very good team. But a team that lost nine times so far this season and isn't even top 12 at Ken Palm. So not even a top three seed according to the predictive metrics. They're not far outside of the top 12, but not technically in the top 12. Again, you tell me this Cooper flag ankle is going to be a serious injury that prevents him from playing anywhere close to the level at which we've seen him perform. You tell me that's going to be a thing in the Sweet 16 in the Elite 8, then I'll have to reconsider. But I'm going to believe that he's going to be good enough to be good when it's time for her. They need him to be good. And I'll take Duke and put him in the Final Four. I think of all four number one seeds. Again, the theoretical path. We never know exactly somebody's path, but the theoretical path seems more manageable than than any of the other number one seeds. At least from my perspective.
- [05:59]
Matt Norlander
Talk Auburn real quick and I I totally get what you're saying with that. I I think there's a Remember how in a down ACC with Duke, how it just mutilated the majority of its opponents and even they had that game against Illinois and handed Illinois its worst margin of victory in our margin of defeat ever in the history of that program. If, if you tell me that Duke's going to get to San Antonio and it's going to do so and not have a single game decided by single digits, I will believe you if that if that were to go down. I'm interested to see how Duke fares once we get on the big stage and it's as desperate as it possibly can be. Let's talk Auburn real quick here. GP tigers are 28 and 5. You and I agree the rightful number one overall seed based on the total body of work there they've had. You know, some some slumpage going in. I sat on the pod last week. I thought Auburn was going to correct itself and make a push to the SEC championship game at minimum, and I thought it would win. That didn't happen. You may have seen the clip. Bruce Pearl was asked afterward after Auburn got knocked out over the weekend in The. In the semis. I don't have the ex framing of the question with the, with the reporter, but Pearl parroted back the word panic and he said, I'm glad you asked me that question. Like, panicked. Are we panicked? Like, you know, he really shrugged it off, but in a way of, like, getting the message across, like, I can't wait to play our next game. Do we think Auburn has peaked? Do we think Auburn could be susceptible in a South region that includes a Michigan team that just won the Big Ten tournament, that includes an A and M team that has a win over Auburn. This is the top half of that bracket. Could get Louisville in the second game maybe. And Louisville fans got to make all of a barely more than an hour's drive there. The bottom half. Tom Izzo could await. You could have the likes of Chris Beard in his league awaiting. And then Iowa State, Auburn. They've already met earlier this season in Maui. Auburn won that game, but Iowa State was actually up by 17. Now they don't have Keyshawn Gilbert. So your thoughts on. On if Auburn should be considered vulnerable to getting picked off prior to the Final Four and how much stock and faith you have in Pearl's team right now?
- [08:01]
Gary Parish
Obviously they're vulnerable. They've just lost three of their past four games. I know Bruce sort of downplayed it and sarcastically said, yeah, we're panicking over here, and then went on to say we lost the Texas A and M, Alabama and Florida. The implication being we lost to three of the very best teams in the country. And that's fine. If I were bp, probably the way I would frame it as well. But they didn't used to lose to the best teams in the country they used to beat their brains in. His team was 27 and two playing the best teams in the country and was destroying them one after another. It got to a point where we were like, it feels like that's a big number over a top 20 team, but I guess we'll just lay it because they've been beating everybody else by double digits. So it is true that the only thing Auburn did in recent weeks is lose to great teams, but they didn't used to lose a great teams. They didn't used to lose to anybody outside of Duke. I know I. I'm aware that that game happened. Duke fans. So I'm probably a little more worried about them than BP is publicly suggesting, but I still am going to believe in the team that I watched for most of these past four months. There's no reason that they shouldn't be able to get right back to where they were three weeks ago, four weeks ago, six weeks ago. Like there's no reason that stuff's still not there. And I'm going to trust that the team I watch start 27 and two is there's the team that'll show up in the bracket as opposed to the team that just lost three of its past four games. But I will tell you, there's a lot of data that runs counter to what that number one overall seed tends to suggest when you're the number one overall seed in the tournament. I know one doesn't technically have anything to do with the other, but oftentimes you're also going to be the favorite in the betting markets. Auburn isn't. Duke is. And after Duke, it's Florida. Auburn only has the third best odds to win this NCAA tournament as the number one overall seed. And like you noted, no team has ever lost three of its four games heading into the Selection Sunday and then gone on to win the NCAA Tournament. So Auburn is working from a place of, I don't know, there's some obvious areas of concern, but that's still a team that I'm going to trust. I've been watching basketball every day, looking at resumes every day. For much of this season that was the best team in the country, clearly still settled with the best resume. But for much of the season that was the best team in the country. Nobody was really arguing too loudly. I'm going to trust that they can get back to that and I will have Auburn in the Final Four.
- [10:33]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, if you look at the efficiency margins, the top four seeds are a tier above everyone else. It's, it's Duke with a little bit of separation from Florida, with a little bit of separation from Houston, which is really tight up there with Auburn. Then there's a noticeable drop off when you get to Tennessee. See, Auburn still does have a top two offense in the country for the most part. It doesn't turn the ball over. Janai Broom I think, I think is set up here to, to show up big but not just him. Like they need to hot Pettiford to play well. Chad Baker Mazara when he's really in the zone and feeling it can be very dangerous. And we've seen what Miles Kelly can do from beyond the three point arc. Last one gp then we can, we can head to the next segment. True or false? These are four really good one seeds. We talked about it in depth on our Sunday show. True or false? A 1 seed will lose prior to the elite 8.
- [11:22]
Gary Parish
True. I just think, I think from a probabilities perspective, that's probably more likely to be true than not. Wouldn't you agree?
- [11:28]
Matt Norlander
I agree. I, I, I, I, I really like all four of these one seeds. In fact, I, I think this is some of the strongest one seeds collectively we've had in a number of years. But I think one way or another, weird stuff happens in this tournament. I'll say at least one gets picked off in the second round of the sweet 16.
- [11:45]
Gary Parish
Yeah. And keep in mind, like 50% of the one seeds are dealing with recent ankle injuries. You know, Houston has one in Juwan, Juwan Roberts, and he's their third leading scorer. He's not Cooper Flag, but he's important to what they do. And obviously Duke is dealing with an ankle injury with Cooper Flag, so that should be factored into the decision making process. You know, is, is Duke vulnerable of getting picked off early? Yeah. Their best player isn't, isn't healthy. That could be a problem. Same thing for Houston. If one of its best players isn't healthy, that, that could be a problem. So, yeah, vulnerable. But for what it's worth, I have three number one seeds making it to the final Four. So I, I believe in, in what we've been watching for much of this season, I'm going to assume that the best teams are going to show themselves to be the best. As always, we'll see. Barring a surprise, I'll end up lighting my bracket on fire at some point. Let's move on. When we come back, we'll turn our attention to the bubble conversation. North Carolina got in the bracket. West Virginia was left out. Folks are big mad. We'll dive into that next. It's the ion college basketball podcast, CBS Sports Network.
- [12:56]
Travis Matthew
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- [13:33]
Matt Norlander
Highly, highly recommend.
- [13:35]
Travis Matthew
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- [14:00]
Gary Parish
So anytime a bracket is released for the NCAA tournament, some things that you didn't expect to see, some teams that are in maybe that you didn't expect to be in. A team left out that you thought for sure would be in. The best examples of this, this is Carolina and West Virginia. North Carolina is in the field. Oh, by the way, the North Carolina athletic director is the committee chair of the selection committee. It sounds like we're having some technical difficulties here, so let's get to break real quick, see if we can get this cleaned up. We'll be back with the Ion College Basketball Podcast.
- [14:39]
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- [15:09]
Gary Parish
Podcast on CBS Sports Network. Apologize for the technical difficulties. We think we've got that all cleaned up now. Fingers crossed. But as I was saying, as I was saying, big surprises on the bubble. North Carolina in the field. West Virginia out of the field. It sounds like the governor of West Virginia. Virginia is alleging corruption. Like quote, that's a quote. Corruption, corruption. The governor of West Virginia is alleging corruption. What do you make about this year's big biggest bubble conversation?
- [15:39]
Matt Norlander
All right, we don't have this on the show in real time to show you, but the governor of West Virginia has held a press conference and incredible turnaround time. Had a placard made up. That's at a placard made up that, that says the National Corrupt association of Athletics. I believe that is, I believe that is what we're rolling with in West Virginia right now. After the, after, after the Mountaineers didn't get in. Nathal Corrupt athletic association. Just phenomenal stuff here. Listen, West Virginia not getting in is a, it is a shock. It is a surprise. Carolina getting in. You and I talked about Sunday. We weren't overly surprised. We can dig into these two specific teams if you'd like. I think that's really what it comes UNC was the last team in. West Virginia was the first team out. UNC would not have made it into the field if Memphis had not defeated uab, because Memphis would have been in and UAB would have taken that last spot. But that's not how it went. UNC got in. West Virginia lost to Colorado in the Big 12 tournament. It finished with a net of 51. Now that's not the only metric, but I will say that that was the lowest net ranking of any team in the field except for San Diego state, which was 52. Indiana, by the way, was 50. North Carolina, conversely, was 36. This is just net ranking. If we were to go to wins above bubble, which is what and North Carolina's metrics won out. And that's why it got in the field. It was 1 in 12 in quad one. That's the thing everyone keeps referencing. But it ranked better in strength of record and wins above bubble, in Ken Palm, in Torvik, in ppi, in the net ranking. North Carolina was better positioned there against almost every single other bubble team in the conversation. So that's what won out. And to me, Parrish, just seeing how the committee voted, my opinion is that the committee got in that room. They added the likes of Torvik to the team sheets. They added winds of bub bubble. Those are two different things. One's predictive and one's resume based. And they saw North Carolina easily or comfortably outpacing many other bubble teams in both of those metrics. And so they I have to assume that they just said, okay, are we going to use this new stuff? And if we are, we're going to vote how we're going to vote. North Carolina barely got in. It was the last team in. But I think that that wound up winning out over the fact that this team was 1 in 12. I wouldn't have had him in the field. You get 13 cracks at tournament level competition when one game you're not getting in my tournament. As far as I'm concerned, West Virginia is shocking and the reasoning I interviewed the committee chair Bubba Cunningham and the vice chair Keith Gill on CBS Sports HQ on Sunday night. The Tucker Devries stuff is it just doesn't hold any kind of water. He hasn't been with the team for more than 75% of the season. We've seen what West Virginia is without him. But we now know that losing to Colorado, which is a bad loss. It was a bad loss, but still only ranked Quad two. Technically only Quad two. Colorado's not a Good team, but it was on a neutral floor and that was a quad two loss. It was enough to do them in. West Virginia ended its season 10 and 13 combined. Quad one, quad two. What are your, what's your take here? Now that we are, you know, a morning after a day removed from, from the bracket settling and the decisions that.
- [18:50]
Gary Parish
Were made doesn't make any more sense to me today than it made yesterday. To be clear, the margins are very thin. North Carolina was never as far away from the bracket as some people thought they should have been because of that 1 in 12 record in quadrant one. And so it really just comes down to there are so many data points available. Quadrant 1, quadrant 2, predictive metrics, results based metrics. You, you can emphasize specific things with any bubble team and get the result that you want to get to. And so with North Carolina, they stop talking about quadrant one and all of a sudden they're having a big quadrant two conversation. But did you see how great these guys are in quadrant 2? I never heard quadrant 2 be emphasized like that. But suddenly there and then, just like you mentioned, strength of record was good relative to the other bubble contenders, wins above bubble good relative to the other bubble contenders. And if you emphasize those types of things, then that's how you get North Carolina in the bracket. To me, the one that is less simple to defend is the West Virginia omission. I want to be very clear. I don't think North Carolina belonged in this bracket for the same reason you said 1 in 12 in quadrant one when you've gotten 13 swings and you've only, you know, succeeded once. I don't need you. You showed me what you can't do. You can't be good teams. You've shown me that over and over and over again in the NCAA tournament. I don't need you there. If you've shown me in 13 opportunities against quadrant one teams or at least 13 opportunities in quarter one games, you can only win one of them. That's all I need. That is where the conversation starts and stops for me. But I can understand how you reach a conclusion to get North Carolina in if you emphasize these other things. The one I can't understand and the one they couldn't properly explain is West Virginia. Because to bring up Tucker De V, somebody who hasn't played in more than three months as a reason to leave West Virginia out of the field, even if it's the smallest reason, even if it's the seventh most important reason. They said it, they mentioned it. And that is nonsensical. Like nonsensical. I don't know that it's corruption. In fact, I feel strongly that it's not. I don't think it's corruption. Okay. I don't think it's corruption.
- [21:10]
Matt Norlander
The fact that we are doing this the day Parish, the fact that the governor is doing this, like, yes, on one hand, why would I be shocked in this current world that that's where we're at? I assure you there is not. Let me be, let me be perfectly clear about this. I assure you there is not corruption to the deepest levels in the halls of the NCAA about making sure that Darren Devries doesn't coach in the NCAA tournament. I'm pretty confident that if you. And diving down those rabbit holes, you're not going to uncover anything. There was the exact quote from the governor, according to some posts here that were shared along was quote, this reeks of corruption. I mean, and quote, governor Patrick Morrissey calls West Virginia snub, quote, a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest level. End quote.
- [21:59]
Gary Parish
At the highest level.
- [22:00]
Matt Norlander
Come on.
- [22:02]
Gary Parish
It's. I don't believe it's corruption. I believe that they emphasized North Carolina strong points, got them into the field and just miscalculated on West Virginia in a way that is frankly indefensible. Not corruption, just, you know, just wrong. They just missed it. But I don't think it's incompetence. I just think incompetence is a, is a word that would make some sense here. So neither one of us believe it's corruption. But when a team everybody thinks should get in gets left out. And the team that actually gets in is a team that most people didn't think belong and that team's athletic director happens to be the committee chair. You're just playing into a bunch of narratives. I think Dan Walken from USA Today suggested this on social media. I'd be curious to get your thoughts. Is this maybe exactly why we shouldn't have athletic directors chairing the selection committee? Not because we believe they will do anything corrupt, but because when stuff like this happens, we live in a country now, a world perhaps where people are skeptical of everything. Nobody believes anything. Everybody's a cynic about every single thing that happens. And so when North Carolina's in and the committee chair is the North Carolina ad, it just feeds into all these. Suddenly you got governors holding press conferences the day after Selection Sunday yelling corruption. And part of an hour long television show about the NCAA tournament is spent with you and I discussing this. Is that Reason enough to just, we don't want the perception of impropriety. So we're not even going to allow ADS to be a part of this anymore. Yeah.
- [23:44]
Matt Norlander
The NCAA tournament selection committee should not be solely comprised of athletic directors and conference commissioners. I have written about this@cbssports.com for more than a decade. I brought it up on podcast. We had Dan Gavin on the show on ion college basketball a few weeks back. I asked him about this. This is obviously an NCAA membership decision. It's only ever been this. It's only ever been athletic directors and commissioners since the first selection committee was formed decades and decades and decades and decades ago. But stuff like this hopefully will push for diversity on the committee. I think that you should have people that are the likes of whether he would want it or not. But like, why is Ken Pomeroy not on the selection committee? One of his metrics is used. I get that. But he even says, don't use my pred to put teams into the tournament. Use people that actually know, love, follow the sport are heavily invested in it from the first day of the season all the way through to the national championship game. And not just athletic directors and commissioners who you and I both know have to occupy their time, especially now in this era of college athletics more than ever before, with all sorts of stuff. So this idea that they can truly put a lot of the, their day to day stuff, the stuff that they're paid, you know, in many cases millions of dollars for, to say, all right, you know, time for me to lock and bring the quad box on YouTube TV and just watch hoops for the next six hours. That's just not happening for most of the season with most of these people. The selection committee does need diversity. College Football Playoff has had this since its inception. The NCAA is lagging behind on this. I don't have a lot of faith that it is going to change because the people that are in charge of making these decisions don't have incentive to let other people on the committee. It is considered one of the highest honors and career achievements in college athletics. If you can sit on the NCAA tournament selection committee. Dozens, if not hundreds of people aspire to do this and only a select few actually break through to get that, to get that task. But yeah, the, the model is outdated and the NCAA needs to fix this and change the way that it comprises its committee as quickly as possible. And then one last thing. I was actually talking to a coach on my drive home from the studio last night, just checking in. He's going over tape watching this. It was actually a coach at a power conference level and he was like, I'm terrified of this team. When you're talking about an image. It was real fun. But in the midst of all this, the coach got to lamenting about what the committee does and he said, I actually don't like how much it changes. It changes over too quickly. That you have people that like five people, people stay on for five years, but every single year it feels like there's two, three, four new faces. And because of this, like, we almost keep restarting and restarting and restarting and. And these, you know, problems we have with seating or selection, they keep repeating itself. You might, might not have that as much if you had a few more people that were on it that were not ads and commissioners. Heck, I don't even think you could go wrong. And yes, this is self serving, obviously, but by having one or two people that cover the sport allegedly objectively, like, and could help add, be another voice in the room. It has been overdue for a long time. I would like to see it change in the coming years. I am very pessimistic. That will actually happen.
- [26:48]
Gary Parish
Like, here's the thing and then we'll move on. It's not difficult to fix this. Like, we. Maybe we just don't need to have university employees as part of the selection committee because there could be conflicts of interest and you can talk about, you know, exiting the room and not being a part of these conversations, but people still believe that there is influence involved on some level. There's a perception of corruption or at least the possibility of corruption. And there's an easy way to eliminate that. Just get rid of all university employees. And if the question is. But then who would be the selection committee? Literally anybody. I say this as respectfully as I can say it to all bracketologists. It's not that hard. It's a pretty well known formula. We know what they're looking for, we know what they care about. My wife couldn't pick Con Canipple out of a lineup. Definitely couldn't spell his name. But I could teach her in like two weeks how to put together a bracket and she'd do pretty well relative to everybody else or comparable to everybody else. It wouldn't be hard to find 12 independent people or however many you want to assemble and become a selection committee and put together a bracket that looks like every other bracket we've ever gotten. And you would eliminate the possibility for West Virginia governors or people like that to stand up the day after Selection Sunday, hold press conferences and scream about corruption. It wouldn't make it perfect, but it would make it better. It would eliminate this. I would be in favor of them doing it. Let's move on. Enough about the bubble. Let's actually talk about some games. We technically get started on Tuesday. First foreign dates, Dayton Wednesday, first four in Dayton. But the real bracket, the 64 team stuff that gets started on Thursday. We have four regions as you know. So what I want to do here is just sort of pop through. Just interesting, fun first round matchup in each region in each region that you're looking forward to. Let's start. Let's start in the South. Who's your favorite matchup in the first round in the south region?
- [28:42]
Matt Norlander
I think we have the same game here because I'm going off of what we talked last night on the show. The south has good possibilities with Louisville and Creighton Marquette. New Mexico could be fun but I go to and I think Gail can give A and M a Game I Michigan vs UC San Diego is my most anticipated game. It's also a matchup I don't think we should have had. Michigan has no business being on the five line. That's a huge swing and a miss by the committee. I'm sorry, just. There's no. You actually can assemble a case to put Michigan on the five and then they get the toughest mid major, a 30 win team. That game is going to be a TBS game late night on Thursday in Denver. I'm very much looking forward to it. I don't know what UC San Diego is going to do when it comes to trying to handle Vlad Golden. But also if you look at what UC San Diego has done, Eric Olen's done a really, really good job. They've got a player named Ani Wanna IWA Tate Jones. I think I almost got that correct. He will be the best guard on the floor. I don't know if he'll be the best player. There will not be a better. He's. He's six six. Awesome at getting into the lane, getting to the foul line. Distributing dude is really, really good. Michigan can't stop turning itself over and. And UC San Diego turns Timos over at one of the best rates in the country. This has really good potential to be an awesome game. I just don't know what they're going to do with golden because I'm. I doubt they have the size to handle them. But that's my pick. You agree?
- [30:10]
Gary Parish
Yeah. Michigan. UC San Diego would be my favorite first round Matchup in the South Regional. It's the team that we just watched when the Big Ten tournament and you're exactly right, they're a five seed in the final top 25 and one@cbsports.com I had Michigan number nine. That suggests I thought they should have been a three seed. I don't believe that them beating Wisconsin in the title game of the Big Ten tournament was factored in at all or at least not enough. They were misleated. They get into the 5:12 game and they're playing a program that I think most, even college basketball fans are probably unfamiliar with. But it's a program that is very high in the predictive metrics relative to teams from that level of the sport typically get. They've won 15 straight games in Michigan, the Big Ten tournament champs, only a just a two and a half point favorite over UC San Diego. So that's a fun first round matchup. Keep an eye on that one. Let's go to the West Region. What's your favorite first round match up there?
- [31:09]
Matt Norlander
Well, this is my favorite region, period. A lot of options here. I'm going to go Memphis versus Colorado State. Memphis doesn't know or at least the exact quote from Penny Hardaway after they won the automatic bid on Sunday was quote we don't know what's going on with Tyrese, so hopefully it's not the worst end quote. He hurt his left foot. His availability I guess undetermined. Colorado State is on an absolute heater. It is here because of the auto bid. It would not have been in otherwise, but they've got a guy named Nick Clifford who's been outstanding. Colorado State rates ahead of Memphis in the metric. So this is a rare instance where the 12 is actually favored over the 5 in the betting markets. I'm going to take the Rams here. It feels like everyone is going to be on. I'm actually interested to see once, once we get into the, you know, we see who's the most popular 12 over 5, literally as the brackets get picked on CBSSports.com and on the CBS Sports app, if UC San Diego or Colorado State will be the more popular 12 over five, those will be the two most popular and I'm going to go with the Rams. What's your favorite game in this region?
- [32:09]
Gary Parish
I, I love that game. I obviously I, I live in Memphis. For folks who don't know, that's my alma mater, we'll let Memphis announce, you know, an update with Tyrese Hunter on its own time frame, but there's nothing I've heard that that would make anybody optimistic. He was on crutches yesterday. At this point, it seems like it would be surprising if Tyrese Hunter is in uniform for Memphis. That obviously makes that more difficult than it otherwise would be, but it was always going to be difficult. That's a Colorado State team that is on a winning streak and has been playing well. He's got a legitimate NBA player on the roster. Memphis worked really hard to get a 5 seed in this tournament. They'll have to play well just to get to the round of 32 because this 12 seed they're playing is good and they might have to play them while shorthanded. But I'd go to Kansas, Arkansas. I just love the coaching matchup there. Bill Self on one side, John Calipari on the other. These men have coached against each other on the biggest stages that college basketball provides. I don't know that I ever expected that them to be in a first round matchup against each other, a 710 game. But here we are, Kansas, Arkansas. I don't know how great the game will be, but just any game that involves two national championship winning coaches and two nays with Memorial hall of Famers. That's one worth keeping your eye on. Kansas, Arkansas in the west region. Let's go to the east region. What's your favorite game there?
- [33:38]
Matt Norlander
Top right of your bracket. I will go byu. Vcu. VCU is a really, really solid team under Ryan Oda. Them BYU has been one of the hotter teams and I mean on like the short list of five or six hottest teams. They didn't win their conference tournament, obviously, but they've been playing so well as of late. Kevin Young run some really fun offense. BYU is going to be a very big story in college basketball next season because a player named AJ Debanza, who could well be the number one pick in 2026 is going to be on campus in Provo. I think this game's got awesome potential. I'm looking forward to it. I will go Cougars, Rams.
- [34:08]
Gary Parish
I went Cougars, Rams. We didn't discuss this in advance. We just sort of identifying the same stuff. First off, I just sort of like byu, vcu. Like three letters here, three letters here. Yeah, let's go play basketball. And I've got VCU in the elite eight of this NCAA tournament. A ten regular season champs. A ten tournament champs. That's a team that you know. Max Shulgas is a power conference level player. Joe Bama Sales a power conference level player. This is a really good VCU team. Out of the A10. Looking forward to that game. Let's get to the Midwest Regional. What's your favorite game there in the first round?
- [34:45]
Matt Norlander
It's going to be a game that I will be at Purdue versus High Point. That's going to be in Providence on Thursday. High Point's a really good team. Alan Huss is a coach that's done well for himself. Former Creighton assistant. He's going to get some opportunities here on the carousel as well once High Point season ends. They're really good at scoring on the in the interior and it pass Parish and I've talked about on the show earlier this season. Purdue's actually had a lot of trouble in the post ed era of stopping that. I think this game has really tempting potential to be very close. But I will say if if High Point doesn't prepare appropriately to scheme and scout against Braden Smith, easier said than done. I think Purdue's got potential to run away with it, but I think this one will be close and I'm looking forward to that one more than any other one with this exception. Real quick, Xavier. Illinois is my pick. If Xavier beats Texas, that would be actually my top one in this game. But they got to get through the first four first.
- [35:29]
Gary Parish
I'll go Gonzaga Georgia the Zags have maybe the most important streak that's going to be on in the first round. Obviously that's a program that's been a nine straight sweet 16s. Trying to get to a 10th going to be difficult given where they're seated. But either way you don't even get the opportunity to play in the round of 32 unless you win that first game. Gonzaga Georgia with the zag streak of NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances on the line, I'm looking forward to seeing if Gonzaga can look like the team that it showed in that West Coast Conference tournament title game, get past Georgia and then set up what would be a high profile matchup with Kelvin Sampson's Houston Cougars in the round of 32. When we come back, we'll get you updated on the coaching carousel. What's going on at Indiana, Virginia, Minnesota, Villanova? We'll bounce through that next. It's the I Own College Basketball Podcast. We're on CBS Sports Network.
- [36:23]
Matt Norlander
What is Dax Are you tracking all.
- [36:26]
Kristen
Our cars on Carvana value Tracker on all our devices? Yes, Kristen, yes I am.
- [36:31]
Gary Parish
Well, I've been looking for my phone.
- [36:32]
Kristen
For In Dax's domain we see all so we always know what our cars are worth.
- [36:37]
Gary Parish
All of them.
- [36:37]
Kristen
All of them. Value surge trucks up 3.9%.
- [36:42]
Travis Matthew
That's a great offer.
- [36:43]
Kristen
I know. Sell, sell. Track your car's value with Carvana Value Tracker today.
- [36:52]
Gary Parish
Welcome back. I own college basketball podcast here on CBS Sports Network. Obviously this is a busy time of the year with the NCAA tournament set to get under. It's also a busy time of the year in the coaching carousel. So let's touch on that for a few minutes. Let's start with Minnesota. That job is open. And you just late last night in Orlando sort of casually said, yeah, and I guess Nico Medved, I'd be surprised if he's not the head coach at Minnesota. He, of course, right now is the head coach at Colorado State. Get ready to play Memphis in the round of 64. Is that where this is headed in your opinion? For folks who don't know Nico is from Minneapolis?
- [37:26]
Matt Norlander
He is. And listen, I'm not, I'm not trying to. All jokes aside here, Nico Medved, there is a running bit on this podcast that that is tongue in cheek. I'm not trying to make Nico Medved's life more complicated. I just, I think this is the reality of where it's going to go. I think that Minnesota has identified Nico Medved and he stands at the top of their list. And he is from Minneapolis and he has done an incredible job at Colorado State. I don't put out the potential that maybe another job that's open right now could even like, you know, maybe like an Iowa try and get him. But yes, my expectation, I'm not, I want to be clear about this. I'm not reporting it's going to happen. I'm telling you, the way that I'm reading the situation right now, I think it will inevitably lead to Nico Medved being the next coach at Minnesota. And if he is not, I think it will only be because another school came in with a competing offer that pride him away. He's a very deserving candidate for a lot of these jobs. He's been patient. He's done a really, really good job. You look at actually in totality what he has done at places like Furman. He was the first coach to really get Drake revved up again. And now at csu, all the NBA players he's produced, I think Minnesota will be his ultimate destination.
- [38:31]
Gary Parish
Let's stay in the Big Ten, Indiana and Iowa. There are some candidates that seem like they might be options for both. What's the latest there?
- [38:39]
Matt Norlander
Well, you know, the wrinkle of this is that Darren Devries isn't in the NCAA tournament now. He's the coach at West Virginia. He has Iowa ties, it sounds like. And who knows, maybe something like this switches things. Although I don't think it should. Iowa does not have a lot of nil at this point. I'm told by multiple sources that their nil situation is, you know, sub 2 million for the upcoming cycle, which just isn't good enough. That will keep you in like the bottom two of the entire Big Ten. I think I was going to try and make a push for, for Ben McCollum. Why not Nico Medved? We'll see. I, I think I was in a spot where if it's going to try and get McCollum, it's waiting on Indiana. Feels like McCollum is as comfortable a candidate at Indiana right now as anyone. Although I did have a source reach out to me over the weekend, I think it was Saturday and said, you know, just kind of informed speculation but not concrete until like the Scott Dawson really have someone like hiding in the wings here that hasn't been buzzed about too much there. So I'd keep an eye that. But McCollum, if he wants it, he's in Drake, obviously he's about to coach in the NCAA tournament. This is just the reality of the business. In fact, some of these coaches don't, don't, don't engage much. Some are more willing to say, okay, if you absolutely need like a 45 minute zoom just to, to hear my voice and see my face, fine. But then, you know, I'm sorry, like you're just gonna have to deal with my representation and we'll deal with this after. I think Ben McCollum will be at a bigger job if he wants it. I think that's going to be out there and I think Iowa is just unfortunately going to be playing from behind because it's not nearly as desirable of a job. It's viewed by people in the industry now as a bottom half of the Big Ten job. Job. A Big Ten job for sure.
- [40:12]
Gary Parish
On the point you just made about some coaches not wanting to engage while they're still in the NCAA tournament, A great example of that. When Wichita State went to the Final Four, I was there out in Los Angeles. UCLA wanted to talk to him and he just said, I'm not doing anything until my season's over. And then they just kept winning. And that is, I believe how Steve offered, ended up with the job. Like Greg Marshall would have been the UCLA coach. I, I think, think, I think they would have offered and he would have taken it, but he was not going to talk to them until the season was over and they didn't want to wait. And that, that, that, that influenced that, that coaching search in some way. A couple of more I want to ask you about, then we'll move on. Virginia and Villanova, the latter of the two open this weekend. Cal, Neptune out after three seasons that were undeniably disappointing. Missed the NCAA tournament all three times.
- [41:04]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. So with Virginia, you know, again, this is another one. Ryan Odom is the coach at vcu. He's done a great job and understandably so. He's been a person at the top of the list with Virginia. And Villanova, I'm told, has a lot of interest. You know, he lives in Richmond. That's barely more than an hour's drive to Charlottesville. Seems like he'd make a lot of sense there. I, I kind of get some Nico Medved Minnesota vibes with, with Ryan Odom in Virginia, but we wait and see on, on when that'll happen and, and if it'll happen. And for all we know that maybe, you know, Villanova is a Big east program with basketball as a priority. When revenue sharing is coming, that's going to be a big thing. The Nova search has only begun in earnest here. Over the past, you know, 24, 36 hours, there's been some Mick Cronin stuff been tossed out there. I'm not saying it can't happen or won't happen. I find it hard to believe that that fit would be great. And he's got a huge buyout and is Villanova going to do that? I kind of, I kind of resist on that. We'll see. Richard Pitino has been involved there. NC State is still waiting to fill. Will that be Will Wade, Richard Pitino, Justin Gainey? I think all these coaches are involved on that, on that end as well. So we'll get some advancement on some of this stuff this week. I think a few of these jobs that we've talked about will not fill until after the first weekend of the tournament, and that is important for this reason. The transfer portal does not open until the Monday following the first weekend of the tournament. And it adds all the more urgency, pressure, and frankly, uncertainty with ads as they try and fill these positions as quickly as possible, because once the portals open, it's going to be a bonanza and they want to have a head coach in place if at all possible.
- [42:35]
Gary Parish
One more segment to go when we come back. Who's going to go to the Final Four? Who's going to win the national championship? I'm going to make Norlander tell us and I'll do my best to do the same. We'll do that next. It's the Ion College Basketball Podcast. We're on CBS Sports Network.
- [42:49]
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- [43:49]
Gary Parish
Ion College Basketball Podcast on CBS Sports Network. One more segment to go. We're gonna do final four pitch picks. We're going to pick the national championship. Do this this early in the week after the bracket is released. I know you like to sit with it, but this is the only proper way to wrap up a one hour television show about the NCAA tournament. You got to get picks. I need Final four picks and if you want to change them tomorrow, I don't really care. I just need four, four picks right now.
- [44:16]
Matt Norlander
That's all I can ask for you with. I am changing these tomorrow. I'm going to go with Auburn, I'm gonna go with St. John's I'm gonna take Bama to change that. GP, I want to see what the Grant Nelson situation is and I cannot go with three one seeds like you. So I'll go Auburn, St. John's Bama and then I will go Houston. I will go Auburn and Houston, which that's the matchup from earlier this season and then I will take the Houston Cougars to win the national title. I promise you this, I will not be changing that pick. I will stick with Houston over Auburn. Auburn. I. I think GP's got a technical situation on his end. So I'll wrap up the show for us here. We will do a huge pick them all on Tuesday in the feed for CBS Sports Network and on the YouTube channel. Every single game going through the bracket, top to bottom, we do a big bonanza extravaganza and I can't wait for for it. I also can't believe that Parrish had a technical difficulty. He made me pick the bracket and now he can't wrap the show by doing this. But regardless, we appreciate everyone and I.
- [45:29]
Gary Parish
Want the, I want the record. You want to wrap this. This is, this is not my technical difficulty. This has nothing to do with me. I, I, I do not believe I got predictions too, and we're not as different as you think. I've got Auburn, St. John's Duke and Houston in the final four, Auburn and Houston in the title game and I got Bruce Pearl's Auburn Tigers winning the national Championship. Shouts to Devin Downey. Shouts to Chester, South Carolina. Terry Teagle, Huck Larnell. Appreciate you guys being here. We'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with less issues. Till then, take care.
- [46:07]
Sia Najad
Paramount Podcasts what's up everyone? It's the counselor of Cash Sia Najad from the Early Edge, a daily sports betting show powered by Sportsline and CBS Sports. If you're looking for the best bets, picks and analysis for the day in sports, we're your one stop shop. We are locked in with bets every day for the NBA, March Madness, Golf, Soccer and so much more. Download and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and anywhere podcasts are found. Plus, subscribe to the SportsLine YouTube page to watch us live at 10am Eastern Time daily. Make sure to turn on those notifications so you don't miss a single pick all season long.
- [46:39]
Gary Parish
Good luck.