← Eye On College Basketball
Eye On College Basketball
Final Four postmortem: More reflections on Florida-Houston; GP + Norlander share after-hours stories from San Antonio; first look at offseason Top 25 And 1
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- [00:01]
Gary Parish
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Gary Parish
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Matt Norlander
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- [00:55]
Gary Parish
Hey there Gary Parish. Welcome back to the CBS Sports I own College Basketball podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting, dodo birds and leaky black. Matt Norlander is here with me. If you're watching on YouTube, you know what to do to that like button shouts to Brandon Davies. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the CBS Sports college basketball YouTube channel, please also do that while you're here. Let's get into it. We're both back home from the Final Four. The title game is now three days in our rearview mirror. Final score Florida 65, Houston 63. As you know, the Gators are national champs for the third time in history. Norlander, I hope you're travel home was as smooth as it could possibly be. Have you settled back into Connecticut yet?
- [01:37]
Matt Norlander
I'm settled, yeah. Traveled. I didn't get home until. Who, who got home first? GP on Tuesday. I walked in my door at 9:32 Eastern. What time do you walk in?
- [01:48]
Gary Parish
12:40Am Okay, I win, you lose.
- [01:54]
Matt Norlander
I guess that's late. It was actually. No, we got, we got stories to tell and it's great to be with you. I wasn't on the show on late late Monday night, Tuesday morning because I wound up being on a boat with Florida and reporting all that I actually had wanted to beam into the show, but the reality was the signal around San Antonio wasn't great and it was so noisy that I actually feared that if I did it you wouldn't even really hear me. That would not make for great podcasting, but I did want to try regardless. We are here. Yeah, there was some, there were some big time wins in the Northeast so I wound up getting delayed a bit. But. But I did beat you home by a few hours. It's Great to be back with you. Excited to look back on the tournament in the Final Four and all that good stuff.
- [02:37]
Gary Parish
Yeah, I didn't get delayed. It's just that I have to do another show at 10am Central and that means I'm tied up till noon and at that point you probably can't take any flight before, you know, 2:30ish. And I think the my best route given my schedule was depart San Antonio at 6:23, go to Atlanta, stay there for, stay there for about an hour or so and then yeah, I was Memphis International right around midnight in my front door around 12:40. Up with the, up to take the kids to school the next morning. Fun stuff.
- [03:10]
Matt Norlander
Well, my wife actually let me sleep in. So I got home, kissed my kids, went to bed and my wife got up, took the boys to school and I didn't even see them until I got back home on Wednesday. And we had a good time there. But she was, she was a dream for that. A coach who will rename, who will remain nameless by the way, joint texted you and me on Wednesday and also a heavy Delta loyalist. Maybe, maybe not to your level. But, but we appreciate that. We appreciate that check in. We don't need to go too deep into the title game. I know you did a ton with Boone, but I do want to look back at, at the Final Four. I want to tell a few stories from San Antonio and do a little bit of a look back on the tournament before looking ahead. But I will just give my since I haven't done it on the show, I guess we'll dive right in and I'll kind of give my, my perspective on, on what happened here with Florida and Houston, the Gators. You know, it's interesting to me and I, I apologies sheep, but I did not get a chance to listen to you and to you and kb. Although in all honesty, I'm gonna try and squeeze in a run here before dinner time and I may, I may queue it up and listen to you to retell what happened there in the, in the thick of the moment late, late Monday night. What was interesting about Florida to me was that this was a team that for the majority of the final three weeks and change of the regular season in the SEC tournament was playing like the best team in the country. You know, going into the tournament, it was talked about as the hottest team in the sport to some extent because it was in the SEC and what it had been able to do and getting past Mizzou, Bama and Tennessee in the tournament, I Think in totality. Now I want to say that Florida finished with what, nine, ten straight wins over ranked opponents to end the season. Really impressive stuff. And yet, ironically enough, the Gators in the tournament, they did not have a single game. I, I kind of don't even count the Norfolk State win because it's a 16 seat. So they didn't really have a game. Maryland, they look good, but they just didn't put on a performance where it was like, well, holy hell, like, you know, that's the best team in the country. Now they have that claim. They won the national title. They come from the sec. It actually is, you know, kind of beneficial to the SEC that you had this huge year for that conference and then lo and behold, you do have one of your teams wind up cutting the nets. So you have a claim to having the best single season in the history of the sport. But intriguing to me that Florida had done something that I'm not sure if we've ever seen. I haven't seen anyone tweet this out. I haven't seen it said on television, heard on a podcast, perhaps you guys said it on the bracket breakdown show. GP but by nature of coming back from what, six down to Yukon, the, the big deficit against Texas tech late what 10 the Auburn deficit early in the second half, but nevertheless big there and then 12 to Houston. I don't know if we've ever had a champ since the field expanded in 85 that had four comeback second half wins of, of the, of those margins before. If we have, I just haven't seen it. But in the, in the process of winning a national championship and doing it in, in dramatic style and comeback style, I don't know if we've really ever had a champion do this. And it is a refreshing change of pace. But from the Yukon dominance of the past two seasons, where it was just fait accompli two years in a row, that was amazing and awesome to cover. And I don't know if we'll ever see something like that again. But an interesting plot twist GP that Florida was so, so good yet in the tournament, really had to overcome a variety of really, really good opponents to get there. Keep in mind that at the end of the season here, Maryland 10th at Ken Palm. Texas Tech ninth at Ken Palm. Auburn fourth at Ken Palm. Houston second at Ken Palm. Those were the four final wins that Florida had in the tournament.
- [06:41]
Gary Parish
They obviously, you know, I went back when I got, I got home late Tuesday, as you know, and I had slept on my flight home a little bit So I just got home and everybody was asleep, and I, I was just sort of up. And the first thing I did is go back and watch the last like five minutes of the game. And it's just crazy to watch how that unfolded. Like you, you watch a Houston basketball team suddenly look like anything, but just everything that they do well, they suddenly weren't doing any of it well anymore, or at least not enough of it. And so, you know, it felt wild in the, in real time. But going back and watching it, knowing what's about to happen, it was just a strange watch unfold like that. And so Florida emerges as a national champion, even though it was never ranked number one in the country. It didn't win it. It didn't win its conference and was really never a serious part of the Auburn, Duke, Houston conversation until very late. And one of our editors, as you know, is a. Is a Florida fan, Florida grad, the whole deal. And he had sort of asked me if I had any thoughts on why it took people so long to come around to the idea that Florida really might be the best team in the country. I know people got there eventually, but it wasn't something that anybody said too loudly. In November, December, January, or even February, maybe late February, we started getting there a little. Just how would you answer that question? Why did it take people so long to recognize Florida might be able to really do this whole thing?
- [08:38]
Matt Norlander
I would say Walter Clayton, who was a unanimous first team All American for us and is, in terms of unanimous for team, All American status collectively, like he. He got there. But it took toward the back half of February to solidify that for sure. The fact that you had a composite roster, that you had a lot of productivity, but not, Not a lot of star power, for sure. Golden had never won a tournament game before this tournament. So he's the rare coach to actually have gone from zero tournament wins to a national championship in the same year that. That rarely happens. Ali did it, Steve Fisher did it at Michigan, and those are the only two others to do it since the field expanded in 85. Fair or not, conscious or not, the Title 9 investigation around golden in the early part of the season, I think affected or impacted some of the coverage or it from, from a team capacity standpoint, it should have nothing to do with it. But you're asking me why I think that played, why this, you know, people didn't take it more seriously. Maybe that was part of it. I also think another big part of it was the SEC was so loaded that you had the likes of Alabama in there, which was highly ranked in the early parts of the season. You had obviously the Auburn conversation, Tennessee heavily in there. Kentucky had some really, Kentucky had some really big wins. And so it was another really, really good team. But it wasn't necessarily standing out again until we got to the end of the regular season. And then I will say, like, you know, once Florida got the 1 seed, which was a no doubt about it kind of situation, it played Tennessee in the SEC championship game. And there was some thought like if Tennessee won, would they get the one, whatever Florida one, they got it going into the tournament. You know, I remember on Selection Sunday, like plenty of people talking about how hot Florida was and, and being capable of winning the national championship. So I, I think that it was in that conversation by the time we got to the tournament. But even then, once we got to the Final Four, there was a lot of Houston, Duke, what would it be there, Auburn at the national player of the year and florid got plenty of conversation, but still not quite as much run. And then fittingly so for the Gators, they wind up, they wind up getting this win. And in the process, this Florida team is now again, in the context of the season, it doesn't mean that Florida, this Florida team is the sixth best team in the Ken Palm era. But efficiency wise, now that the numbers have settled, 98, 99. Duke is one. This year's Duke team is two. Again, efficiency margin in your own particular season. Oh, three number three is 01. Duke number four is 1415. Kentucky five is this year's Houston team. Six is this year's Florida team. So this year Houston team still narrowly finished ahead of Florida in the predictives. Gonzaga of 21, UConn of 24 has 8. 08. Kansas is 9. And this Auburn team did have enough still to finish 10th overall. So good on the Gators. I can get into a little bit of what it was like to celebrate with them in a second there. But. But yeah, they, I'm impressed by how they did it. That's my bottom line here with Florida. GP I'm impressed by a 364 team that was top both offensive and defensive efficiency, that had a genuine bonafide star in Walter Clayton Jr. But also had moments from Elijah Martin. Condon did not have himself a great final few games. I get that. But in the whole of the season, he was a really, really impactful player. Will Richard came up huge against Houston. They just had Thomas Hauk went from first guy off the bench to starting player. You know, you had Han Logdon, who was able to return. They just had such a tremendously well rounded team filled with for the most part seniors and juniors. How is a sophomore? I get all that. Jenny Lou is also a sophomore but they had enough experience overall. Intriguing composite for national champion. We haven't seen too many teams that look just quite like this but. But they got it done and golden doing it. Mighty, mighty impressive considering everything that this program went through this season.
- [12:16]
Gary Parish
Yeah, I answered the question largely the way you answered the question. I I do think there's an explanation for why Florida didn't get at the same time of type of national attention that the other Final Four participants did pretty much from start to finish this season. Some of it was they started lower in the AP pole than the other three Final Four teams. They were 21st preseason AP poll. So nobody in the preseason, at least nobody outside of Florida was talking about Florida as a legitimate national championship contender. Again, 21st preseason AP poll. Then they didn't get their second quadrant one victory until January 7th. So they had a nice record November December. But the big signature wins that make that force people to pay attention to you and launch you into the top 10 and top they didn't have those types of wins early. Again they on January 6th. On the morning of January 7th they still had one quadrant one win. Then they picked up their second on that day. So that's part of it. The Walter Clayton is clearly the third best player in America and best guard in America. That stuff didn't start until like SEC tournament slash NCAA tournament. So that was way late. And then I do think Todd's the Title 9 investigation into allegations made against him. I do think that they played a role because not everybody was comfortable talk you know, saying things like Florida is awesome. Todd Gon's doing a great job because it was just a little, you know, complicated. I like I still notice this sometimes when I even try to talk strictly basketball about certain people. The replies on social media are going to get overwhelmed. Like there was some video from throughout the NCAA tournament where I was in studio and I was asked about, you know, the job Chris Beard had done at Ole Miss. And I just said listen, I you know my wife graduated from that place and in and you know I live 50 minutes from that campus and I can just tell you that growing up that's not a a thing that people even in the state of Mississippi cared about Ole Miss basketball. Honestly, if you lived in north Mississippi when I was growing up, most people who describe themselves as Ole Miss football fans would Also describe themselves as Memphis basketball fans. They would split their allegiances. I like Ole Miss football and Memphis basketball because Ole Miss basketball doesn't matter. And you say so for Chris Beard to have it. They're selling out every game, setting attendance records, you know, going to Sweet six, all this stuff, whatever they were doing, like you, you can't overstate how much of an impact he's had. Just, just a nice basketball comment. And then the replies are, you can, you know what? They are just one after another after another. And I do think if at any point, particularly early in the season, had you or I or anybody tweeted something like, it's not getting enough attention. But the job Todd Golden's doing at Florida, oh, boy, you better start paying attention to this. He's got a really nice team that could win a national championship. Our mentions would have been overwhelmed with negative stuff. And so as I always say, it's important to point out the Title 9 investigation found no evidence of, of violations as it pertains to exactly what they were focused on. And it is now in Todd's review mirror. But I do think the existence of it and that initial story that had very serious allegations made against him made that a tougher story for college basketball people to wrap their arms around and, and really hold up as something nice because it was, again, just a little complicated, if that makes sense.
- [15:56]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, it does. And yeah, this is, this is a title run, really. I mean, from start to finish. Something like we haven't seen before in college basketball specifically. Let's dive into a little bit more of Florida and then a quick look back on the tournament and then share a couple anecdotes from on the ground here. We've got a couple good things I want to share. I was able to be with Florida afterward. You know, I wrote a, wrote a post game column kind of in the locker room after the media had left, was with them on the bus. Kind of cool, actually, to see golden was in the seat ahead of me. So I was kind of just kind of being, trying to be flying the wall, like maybe a comment here or there. But try not to say too much because I was trying to take it all in. And sure enough, like, I watched, I watched golden queue up Twitter and bring up the final play and kind of watch it in full and then rewind it and then watch it again. That was really, really cool. And then one thing I didn't put in the story was it took Florida a long time to leave. And on a, on a, on a media note, Here I want to thank Kelvin Sampson for. I wasn't. I didn't write Houston. I actually would have if I. I already knew what I was writing off the winner, no matter what. This would have been a store. This would have been a title game where I actually would have preferred to write off the losing side. It took Houston a long time to open this locker room. I don't know what the ncaa, NCAA can or will do about that, but. But he made up for it on the other end because this dude, like, I was running back and forth. I had to do HQ and all this. Kelvin Sampson had an army around him after his press conference just outside the Houston locker room. And I saw him when that started. I had to go do other stuff. And then I came back and he was still talking. This guy gave everyone 30 plus minutes of additional. And he's not obligated to do that. What he's obligated to do is to make sure his locker room is open, generally speaking, within 15 minutes of the game ending. But apparently it was 40. Not the best. When it's late and everyone's on deadlines, regardless, go to the press conference and make players available for 30 minutes. I think Emmanuel Sharp was not made available. I understand. I feel really, really bad for Sharp that that play actually happened. I'm kind of getting off course here. I'll get to the floor stuff in just a second. That play happened right in front of me. And it is. It is a weird, weird, bizarre, unique way to see a title game end. I don't. I can't remember a game, period, ending with the player going up to shoot, changing his mind in a split second, dropping the ball because he doesn't want to have an up and down, he can't touch it again. And then time just kind of expires. To see that play out in front of me, I actually posted the video on Twitter. Sharp is crouched over for what's got to be 45, 50, 55 seconds. I went back and watched the end of the broadcast. They showed a little bit of Clayton coming over, but if you find my video, you see he's just. He's just there, man. Clayton comes over and consoles him, which was an awesome thing for him to do. It takes him a good while to. To get off the floor. I would have liked to have heard from him in the aftermath, but it's a very, very, very tough moment. I understand that some of his teammates obviously spoke so well of him, and I hope that they are lifting him up and continue to do so. After this, because that can't be easy. It wasn't just that he had the turnover on the play before. The idea that Houston went four straight plays with turnovers was mind boggling. I texted with Kellen Sampson the day after. I'll actually read you real quick what he sent me because he was a gas to just the fact that they couldn't. They couldn't get this done. He said the last play, of course, was brutal, but we ended on. He said three straight turnovers. It was. It was, in fact, four, I believe he said the single best thing we do on offense is rebound it. And we took it away from ourselves. Our inability to get a shot off is mind boggling. If we get the ball to the rim, we'd have gotten an offensive rebound. But we'll get our legs and bearings soon enough there. Yeah, it's. It's wild. And the Sharp stuff, you want to at least get a shot up. And the fact that they didn't. Weird, weird way to. To end it there, gp. But I know you talked a ton about that with kb. I just hadn't talked about it from my angle. Like, to see it happen right now. Like, I was expecting to see, okay, Sharp's gonna put the shot up. We'll go in. Well, not. And to see it all just kind of just splatter 12ft in front of my face just because of where I happened to be sitting on presser. I was right next to the broadcast crew and all that. It was. It was something else. But thank you to Kelvin Sampson for doing that. Like, that stuff is super appreciated, particularly on the back end when it took too long to get the doors open and let the media go in and help tell the story and. And put a light on Houston, that can be accurate, but also fair and in some ways sympathetic to what's obviously a very, very tough ending there. So because of all that, it took Florida longer than expected to leave the Dome. Like, I want to say, at least 30 minutes longer than they were anticipating. And so some guys on the bus were like, do we have to go do this on the river? Like, can we just go back to the hotel and celebrate? Like, do we have to? And they're like, yeah, you kind of have to. And in my mind, I'm thinking, yeah, you better, because this is. This is what I signed up for. I'm doing this story. And to go from that to when they got on the boats and the parish, the thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of Florida fans that were on the riverwalk as. As an objective observer. And I was a very special moment for me to. I'd never covered something like that. Like, I know this was a reporting assignment that I'd never had before and only was getting it because it was San Antonio. They have the riverwalk. You can't do this in any other city that hosts the Final Four to just curl around, you know, the river and you go to this, the first part. And I was like, wow, there's. All right, there's fans here. Then you go to the next stage. It's like, whoa, there's more people. Then you go to the next stage. It's like, what in the hell? Like, they had one part where they got off the boat so they accepted the NABC championship trophy, which by. By the way, it's so much. It is so much better than the ncaa. The NCAA championship trophy is ass. I'm gonna say it. I think we've said this on the podcast before. You agree? Come on. This little, like, wooden. It's not good.
- [21:48]
Gary Parish
It is. It is. It's okay in the sense that it's very recognizable because it's consistent. You know, exactly what it looks like. Like, have you been seeing it your whole life? But I have never really liked. If I remember the. Is it like the ncaa? Like, the most prominent thing you see on it? And I don't know that is the case.
- [22:07]
Matt Norlander
Yes. As you're saying that right now. Yes. Or. Or the fact that, like, it's, you know, it's half wood, half glass. I guess it's just. Yeah. That's all.
- [22:15]
Gary Parish
I don't love it, but I don't know that I have. I don't know that I'll protest it publicly, but I don't think I love it.
- [22:19]
Matt Norlander
Well, I'm gonna need you to join my side over here. But the NABC trophy is this massive, like, crystal ball basketball. It's just way, way cooler. So they had to get out, walk across this little bridge. They go on the stage. There's like, this stadium set up with I don't even know how many Florida fans. And the amount of times I heard, it's great, Debbie. Florida game. I said, it's Great Debbie. I'm Parish. 300 times.
- [22:43]
Gary Parish
Are you a chanter? Do you chant things? Are you a chanter?
- [22:46]
Matt Norlander
I am not really.
- [22:47]
Gary Parish
Are you the type of person that could find yourself standing in public chanting?
- [22:53]
Matt Norlander
I'm not gonna say never. It just would seldom be the case. Yeah. Yeah.
- [22:58]
Gary Parish
The only thing I can imagine.
- [23:01]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [23:02]
Gary Parish
Well, obviously, more of us chant, like, would I be at Citi Field with a let's go Mets chain.
- [23:08]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, yeah, that. Sure.
- [23:09]
Gary Parish
Yeah, of course.
- [23:10]
Matt Norlander
Of course. If I'm, if I'm at, if I'm at a Chicago Bears playoff game, home game, and you know, it's bear down Chicago, I. I would sing that. I would sing the song after a big time touchdown. I would do that for sure.
- [23:23]
Gary Parish
But the idea that I would just be walking down a street and I would just randomly go, o h. In hopes that somebody would go, I owe. I don't know that that would be me.
- [23:33]
Matt Norlander
Well, yeah, well, that's, you know, that's the end. Then what about the chomps? Because I. I saw 5 million chomps. That's. That's different.
- [23:39]
Gary Parish
I actually like the Gator chop.
- [23:41]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, you would chomp it.
- [23:42]
Gary Parish
Yeah, I like the Gator Chomp. I, I, yeah, I'm pro Gator chomp for sure. I'm. How you feel about Gator boys stay hot. Getting said 70, 000 times. You okay with that?
- [23:55]
Matt Norlander
That was awesome. When they went to their, when they went to accept the trophy, every player, every coach, they ended with, get a boy stay hot. I was like, all right. Hey, why not? It's a rallying cry attached to this team forever. Anyway, to be, to, you know, to be on the boat with the team coaches, pick off a quote here and there, but try and just kind of soak it all in. Was. Was really cool. I don't think I got back to my hotel until like 3 in the morning. Filed at 4:59am if you have not read the story, we'll put a link in this podcast description. Please go give it a read. It was a. It was a cool thing to get to experience up close and personal. Congrats to Florida. Congrats to my father, who was a Florida alumnus, by the way. I think he graduated in 73, so. So he is quite, quite thrilled and happy as well. I think he passed out before the end of the game, though. I'm gonna call him out on the pie. I texted him with about three minutes to go. I said, I actually texted him and my mother, I said, is dad still awake? I need video right now. I got no response until the next morning, so I don't think they could make it. But nonetheless, he's. He's thrilled all the same that his Gators got another win. So shouts to Bob Norlander. Love you, dad. Love you, Mom. Okay, before we get to stories real quick, man, oh man, it's already 126. We're already running out of time. Okay, a couple things here. SEC won 23 games in this tournament. That's the most ever by a league ever. They broke the record by the 2016 ACC that had what, 19. So we have that. I have the top 10 games of the tournament. All right. I put, I pulled this together really quick this morning, so I'm not even in love with this list, but here's my top 10. These are, these are the games. So like I don't have the title game number one, because it wasn't the best played game of the tournament, but it's on the list. I go 10 and I didn't include the first four, which actually had a pair of really, really nice games. But I put it like, you know, feel the 64 proper. Michigan 68, UC San Diego 65. At number 10 in the first round. First, second round, Arizona 87, Oregon 83. Number nine. Number eight might be too low. BYU 91, Wisconsin 89. Second round matchup, number seven. Houston 62, Purdue 60. Is that too low? Well, here's the rest of the list. At number six, I have the championship game. Florida 65, Houston 63. A game with, you know, what, how 34, 35 missed combined three pointers, a lot of turnovers late. I just can't put it higher than 6. At 5, I have Florida 84, Texas Tech 79, which I do think was not quite as good of a game as Florida 77, UConn 75. I think the, the totality of Florida Yukon was a better game than Florida Texas Tech, even though the ending was more dramatic. At three, I have the national semifinal. Houston 70, Duke 67 for a variety of factors. Number two, I have Texas Tech 85, Arkansas 83. And number one, I think was a tremendous 40 minute battle that featured the only buzzer beater of the tournament. I have Maryland 72, Colorado State 71. Any thoughts whatsoever?
- [26:50]
Gary Parish
Duke Houston should be number one on every list.
- [26:53]
Matt Norlander
Was not a better game than Maryland Colorado State. It meant more. It was deeper in the tournament, but the actual game, tension and back and forth lead changes. Maryland, Colorado State was better, but I understand why you'd say that. I knew you'd say that.
- [27:05]
Gary Parish
I would just. I, I look back on an instability tournament. What is the thing I remember most of that's the most memorable thing I Most.
- [27:12]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [27:12]
Gary Parish
What's the most I. What's the game I'll remember most about? What's the game people will be talking about 10 years from now, 20 years from now, nobody's going to be talking about Maryland, Colorado State, 10 years, 20 years. Now, outside of Derek Queen, like, Derek Queen will talk about that.
- [27:27]
Matt Norlander
But Kevin Willard leaving for Villanuel. Actually, you're, you're understating the value of that game. That was Kevin Willard's last game at Maryland. You don't think we're going to remember Kevin Willard's last game at Maryland?
- [27:37]
Gary Parish
I. I couldn't. I probably won't.
- [27:40]
Matt Norlander
You won't. Actually, you won't. We know that you won't. We know that you want. So you would have Houston, Duke, number one. What would you have number two?
- [27:48]
Gary Parish
Honestly, the title game.
- [27:51]
Matt Norlander
No, no, no. That was not the second best game of the tournament.
- [27:53]
Gary Parish
Man, you and I define best. I. I define best. Closer. As closer to the word compelling. And you define best like, what was the most beautiful basketball game?
- [28:02]
Matt Norlander
No, what was the most. No, what was the most compelling competitive 40 minutes of basketball? Yes, the.
- [28:09]
Gary Parish
The title game that came down literally.
- [28:11]
Matt Norlander
To the last second after Houston couldn't get a shot off in the final 70 seconds because of turnovers.
- [28:17]
Gary Parish
Buddy, the first thing I did when I got home on Tuesday night was go back and watch it. Ugly, yes. But compelling. Undeniably, that was compelling. Those final few minutes were unbelievably compelling. Dramatic, tense, everything.
- [28:31]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [28:31]
Gary Parish
We don't need to argue about it. I don't care enough to argue with you about this.
- [28:35]
Matt Norlander
We go back and forth here.
- [28:36]
Gary Parish
This is.
- [28:36]
Matt Norlander
This is good. Those are my. I did it. I did it quick. I didn't have enough time as I wanted to do all this. Thank you to Alan Huss for leaving for Creighton. By the way, as we do this, like, there's been some coaching stuff. I would assume next week. We always do a coaching carousel recap. So I figured next week we'll have the bandwidth to do, you know, here's what happened, here's what we think of it. So we're not going to touch on. On all that stuff here, but if you're listening in real time or whatever, Alan Huss is going to leave to be the coach in waiting at Creighton under Greg McDermott. And the expectation there is that McDermott will coach one or two more years and then Hustle takeover. We'll get into all of that next week. A couple more tournament things. Here's how we did on our picks and in the pool, you were 35 and 32 against the spread, 54 and 13 straight up. You did better than me straight up. I was 50 and 17 straight up in this tournament, you were 54, 13. But I got you by one against the spread. I was 36 and 31. Shouts to Cameron Salerno on our staff. He was 39 and 28 in the 67 tournament games against the spread. He was the best of anyone on staff in our eye on college basketball bracket pool. You beat me. You finished 645th. I had, I was 752nd. There were more than three, 200 entries but you finished ahead of me.
- [29:44]
Gary Parish
Yeah.
- [29:44]
Matt Norlander
Anything to say?
- [29:47]
Gary Parish
I'm unsurprised really.
- [29:49]
Matt Norlander
Did you have any idea where you finished?
- [29:51]
Gary Parish
No. You couldn't? No.
- [29:52]
Matt Norlander
If I the over under of 700, you would have taken the under, right?
- [29:56]
Gary Parish
I guess. But I have no con. I don't ever look at that stuff. Like I, there are, there are people out there who pay more attention to my bracket than I do. I, I, I email it and then I move on to the next thing. I email it in and I say, okay, that's done. That's one thing I know I had to do and now it's done and I move on to the next thing.
- [30:17]
Matt Norlander
Well, you finished 645th. Congratulations.
- [30:20]
Gary Parish
I appreciate that. Thank you.
- [30:22]
Matt Norlander
Here are our top five. In fact the winner. We have two winners. So they get a year's worth of Paramount plus Peter Held, Steb and Ricky Young 174 points. But I'm also going to shout out Aria Cranford and Ed Quigley. They were in third place and then Jeff Dillon with 173points was in fifth place. Congrats to all of you. I'm not, I, I, well, I'll try and make more to happen with like just the Paramount. I'm not satisfied with just that. If you want to hop on a zoom call with at least me, I can make that happen. OK. Okay. Just find us. Shouts to CBS gmail.com I'll make it happen in the off season. Paris, you're more than welcome to join. I don't know if you want to. I just, I feel compelled if people do. If people finish top five in a, in a bracket pool with more than 3, 000 people, you know, if we want to hop on a group zoom for, you know, 30, 40 minutes and talk a little bit, I'll make myself available to it. I'm not going to ask you of that gp but I'm, I'm going to try and do a little bit more here for, for the people that finished up up top. Congrats to all of you. The highest person to finish to not take Florida was a guy named Brady Vaughn. So he would have won the pool. If Houston had maybe gotten off one shot in the final 70 seconds, which, by the way, I would have beat you in the pool. Doesn't work that way. He finished 103rd, 146 out of the top 148 people in our pool standings. Took Florida to win it all. That's like. That's what I got from the tournament. I mean, it was a. It was a. It was this very, very good tournament. It was also. Paris, are you aware of this? Did you talk about it on the Monday show? It was just. It was the smallest combined margin of victory in a Final Four since the tournament expanded in 85.
- [31:59]
Gary Parish
I didn't make that. I did not know that point to make it on Monday night. But one point I did make, and I think is another way I'll remember this. Final Four. The. Every game flipped in the second half.
- [32:13]
Matt Norlander
Every.
- [32:14]
Gary Parish
All three.
- [32:14]
Matt Norlander
How about that?
- [32:15]
Gary Parish
All three games flipped in the second half. And I don't know if it's exactly true. In the Auburn, Florida game. I don't know if we ever got to a point where Auburn was up and we said, we're done here. But I do think there were moments in both Houston games where in the second half it was reasonable to say, we're done here. And after we thought we were done here, the game flipped. Obviously, Duke, it looked like they were on their way to the national title game. You know, they're up 14 with. What was it, 805 to play. You've got the best team in the country, and the predictive metrics. You've got the best player in the country. You're supposed to close that game out. I remember thinking, all right, looks like we're done here. I remember actually thinking, I wonder if Duke could win this. I wonder if Duke could still win this game without scoring another point.
- [33:09]
Matt Norlander
You said this on a Saturday show. I remember. Yeah, yeah.
- [33:12]
Gary Parish
Okay. And then it flipped. And then on Monday night, I at least got to a point where anything can happen. Sure. But up 12 with 15 to go. Roughly 15 to go. You've got the best defensive team in the country, and the other team, star player is giving them nothing. All right, we might be done here. And then the game flipped. I think that was another interesting component of this Final Four. At least two, all three games flipped in the second half, and at least two of the three flipped in ways that it was very hard to see coming until it actually happened.
- [33:45]
Matt Norlander
That's a great way of putting it. I completely agree, and I do think The Houston Duke game will be the most memorable of this tournament. The fact that we got all 41 seeds will only add to how easy that will be to recall in my opinion, 10, 12, 15 years from now. Because you know, in 08 when we got four one seeds, you know, I think most people didn't remember or realize the semis weren't good. They weren't, they weren't close games. There was the title game that was great, but the two before weren't. This one will I think will in part be remembered by the fact that it was 41 seeds. The SEC won it in the year where it said all these records and you had the Duke Houston thing and, and the winner of that didn't even wind up winning the championship. But on the whole with the tournament, you know, yeah, it was very, very chalky, but I ran down the top 10 games there and frankly there were, there were probably like 14 good candidates to be out of 67 overall. We did have a buzzer beater. We did lack Cinderella. I get all that. Ratings were expectedly tremendous for both the national semis and the title game and combined overall like a really, really healthy. In fact I think actually a pretty positive and good development for college basketball that you had Duke not getting to the title game and still even Florida and Houston were able to command a lot of attention. A really good number. Obviously having a close game late led to that. And then one more thing on like a script flip gp, you also had the unexpected development where it was Florida averaging better than 85 a game and Houston holding teams to under 60 a game. And it was. So it. Was it going to be Houston's defense or Florida's offense that went out well? Actually really it was the inverse of that. It was Florida's defense that wound up winning out and Houston not having the offense to really keep up and not getting good 3 point shooting overall, which I thought to be quite an quite intriguing. We are running up against the clock. We have a few things from off the court that I'd like to talk about, including me meeting GP's mother at the final four. First, quick let's get a word from our partners and then we'll dive into a couple quick stories off the floor in San Antonio. This episode is brought to you by Chevy Silverado. When it's time for you to ditch the blacktop and head off road, do it in a truck that says no to nothing. The Chevy Silverado Trail boss get the.
- [35:40]
Gary Parish
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Matt Norlander
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Gary Parish
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Matt Norlander
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Gary Parish
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Matt Norlander
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Gary Parish
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Matt Norlander
See what's new and exclusive like the 17 inch string trimmer with line IQ technology that auto feeds to save you time. And the 22 inch select cut self.
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Gary Parish
Propelled mowers with a multi blade system for precise cutting.
- [36:16]
Matt Norlander
Shop EGO days happening now during Spring Fest at Lowe's we help you save. Selection varies by location while supplies last. All right, G.P. you want to go with me meeting your mom first? Because I think she might love you more than me. Me more than you? Well, either way it was, she was a gem. A gem.
- [36:39]
Gary Parish
It was fun watching her. I, I, my, my mother is like a die hard sports fan. Like she, she listens to this man. She listens to every one of these and she watches every time we're on and like she's into it. And so I, I took her to the final four this year and was bouncing around with her on I guess it was Friday night.
- [37:00]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [37:00]
Gary Parish
And it was funny watching her because she knows all these people. Like she recognizes everybody but like they don't know her. So like we were get like the little private Lionel Richie show, which is where you matter like Turner does a private, like a big, big act but a private show every year and it's like big act in a small venue. So last year it was Sting in front of like 700 people and this.
- [37:28]
Matt Norlander
Year Dolls in Minneapolis at blanket on the place, man.
- [37:34]
Gary Parish
The Princess place.
- [37:35]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. Come on, Matt.
- [37:37]
Gary Parish
Avenue something Avenue something. Avenue.
- [37:39]
Matt Norlander
Yes, yes. What's it called?
- [37:41]
Gary Parish
What is that called?
- [37:43]
Matt Norlander
Is it First Avenue?
- [37:45]
Gary Parish
Maybe? First Avenue. So yeah, I've always hesitant to say Goo Goo Dolls because it like seems to take away from the.
- [37:51]
Matt Norlander
It is First Avenue. Yes, first.
- [37:52]
Gary Parish
Yeah, yeah, but like Sting, Lionel Richie, Goo Goo Dolls didn't really seem like it goes together, but whatever.
- [37:59]
Matt Norlander
Yes. Yeah, we actually, we almost didn't get into the Goo Goo Doll show in Minneapolis in 2019. I remember that. Yeah. Anyway, okay.
- [38:05]
Gary Parish
Yeah, so anyway, we like the doors don't even open for that for like 10 till 10 o'clock and I go swing by my mom's hotel and I, I walk over, I pick her up and we've got about 45 minutes before it's 10 o'clock and I'm like, hey, well so the doors aren't open for that place yet. So let's just go over here, we'll pop in, get a drink and just, you know, hang, hang out for a second. And our buddies Pete Thamel and Jeff Porzello are sitting at the bar. And so me and my mom walk in and I see them and my mother immediately is like, porcello, hey, what's up? And he doesn't know what's going on, right? Because this woman he's never seen, but she knew Jeff and Pete like she's known him her whole life. And so same thing. When she sees you, like, she feels like she knows you because she watches you talk at least three times a week. But it was, it was very sweet to see her get to meet all of my co workers and friends and she had a blast. It was the time of her life.
- [38:56]
Matt Norlander
That was. Yes, that was. She was tremendous. It was great to meet her, to see her enjoy. Lionel Richie, by the way, better than I expected. Brought it. Now he knows how to, he knows how to work a room. And you could tell he was saving his voice here or there. But it was, it was a really, really good show. That was also where I unexpectedly met and had like a six minute conversation with Will Forte, who was just. Will Forte was just there in the crowd. Now. He shot. I didn't see it. He did something with Capital One. And so it was one of those deals where you have a celebrity do something and they fly in and super nice dude and, and UCLA fan. He was under the impression that he was only going to get to go to one of the semifinals. And I was like, that's not how this, I was like, will, that's not how this works. The games are back to back. You will. They will not kick you out of the, they will not kick you out of Alamo Dome as soon as Florida and Auburn are finished there. He's like, well, I, I certainly hope not. And he was. That you think Will Forte is. He is. He was so nice to talk to and, and really cool dude to meet. So that was, that was a lot between him and your mom. That was a lot of fun, without a doubt. Okay, so that was.
- [40:13]
Gary Parish
By the way, if you, if it seems like I'm distracted or you can hear yelling and screaming through the microphone, it's because the Masters updates from Chris Vernon are happening right behind me right about 20 yards back that way. They're happening right now. And buddy, they're coming straight through these walls.
- [40:32]
Matt Norlander
I, I swear I can't hear it. But the idea. I already, I, I know what's happening in that room without even seeing it. He's got his whole crew dressed in ridiculous costumes and all this. He's got the sunglasses on. He wants to know where Tony Fee now where he'd be now. I know exactly what's going on right now with, with Chris Vernon. Okay, okay, so there was that then we have to give love and a shout to Dennis Dodd who has retired after an illustrious 45 year career in sports journalism. The past, geez, almost 30 years at CBS Sports Digital. He came on in what, 98 I think we had had a couple of send off dinners for him and then on Sunday night we got just a whole big old random group of folks together. Plenty on the CBS side, plenty of just of hacks folks here and there. You know I, I think it was close to at one point close to 30 of us there and you know I've got to give him love. He was, he's been, you said some really nice words. We, we toasted to him on Sunday. He has been an incredible teammate and colleague. You know he's, his personality is just, he's as connected, he really is with, he doesn't even put, put on airs like this but he really is as connected as just about anyone in college sports media. And that, that's reflected in the people I heard from and the people he ran into at the Final four and relatively humble guy. He's, he's in, he's in better shape than both of us. He's only maybe two years older than you at this point. It's really, it's impressive that he's, he's given this up because he doesn't have to, but he's, he's earned retirement and it was a treat to be able to share one more experience with him. You know, a few more days in the media room. He filed his final story on Kelvin Sampson. I was able to snap a photo of him I think from availability on Friday where Kelvin, you know sometimes head coaches, they're kind of tucked away in the back coaches locker room before they got to do media availability. And Kelvin was more than willing to have folks come in and he gave dad probably at least 15 minutes one on one. That was really cool. And yeah there was another moment that came later that I'm going to get to before we do your top 25 and 1. But put some shine on Dennis Dodd, the one and only the Dodd father who's, who's now already, I mean effective immediately, he is enjoying retirement.
- [42:52]
Gary Parish
Well so many quote unquote national jobs now. Like you know, there's a million people who at least say that they cover something on a national level. Whether it's true or not, a lot of people say it, but upon a time, there was not that many of those types of jobs. And Dennis had one. Like I told him the other day, before I knew him and got to call him a friend and a colleague. He was just somebody I admired for a distance. Like, man, he's really good and really talented, and also, what a cool job to get to write for a website on a national level. You know, you kind of live wherever you want to live and, and, but still have a national voice and presence. And, man, I wonder if I could ever get a job like that. And then, you know, I end up getting a job like that, and it happens to be at the same place where Dennis Dodd works. And on the day that I got hired, which was July 1, 2006, I was the college basketball writer and Dennis Dodd was the college football writer, and, like, Pete Priscoe was the NFL writer. And there was one of everything. Like, I may be missing something, but for best I can remember, there was like, one of everything. We had one NBA writer, one NFL writer, one college basketball writer, one college football writer. And so Dennis and I worked more closely together back then because during football season, before basketball, I'd go cover football games and. And then after football was over, he'd go cover basketball games and, you know, I got to see him up close. And just like I told him the other day, not everybody that you admire and appreciate and like, from a distance is as good up close. Like, once you get to know them, once you're around them, once you see how they operate, you know, this business is filled with a lot of great people and some, you know, pretty shitty people, too. You know, backstabbing people behind your back, even co workers. Once upon a time like this ain't filled with nothing but great people. But Dennis Dodge, one of the greats like you, you get whatever you think of him from a distance. You get up close, and it's even better. Just a genuinely good man, a wonderful colleague, an incredible career. As I said on CBS Sports hq, just because he doesn't look like he's ready to retire. He's earned it, buddy. He. He holds it. He has held it together really, really well. I. I don't even know if I'll be alive at his age. But, but, but, but, I mean, I'm just, you know, I. I'm just speaking honest. I don't know that I'll be alive with. I Don't. I'd probably bet the under, you know.
- [45:31]
Matt Norlander
Stop.
- [45:33]
Gary Parish
Let's put a number on it.
- [45:35]
Matt Norlander
No.
- [45:35]
Gary Parish
7, 70. Over. Under. I think under.
- [45:38]
Matt Norlander
Taking the over easily.
- [45:39]
Gary Parish
Well, that's sweet of you, but I don't have that kind of comment either way. Dennis died, man, he has held it together and now he's gonna get to like, enjoy retirement at an age and at, you know, as a while he's still physically able to do basically whatever he wants to do. Like, what an awesome. Not everybody enjoys retirement the way I envision. He's going to get to enjoy retirement, traveling with his family and man, I wish him all the best. I love him to pieces and have enjoyed getting to call him a friend and colleague for. For so many years.
- [46:08]
Matt Norlander
No doubt about it, it was a joy to. His last HQ hit was with me on Monday at the title game. So that was. That was a cool thing to get to, to be able to experience there. And then you mentioned Borzello. Borzell. Every this. I say this lovingly and I would say it to Dodd. His use of Twitter has varied over the years and sometimes he would post things that weren't like, immediately timed because just what he do, that's not how he's wired and he was amazing because of it. But every so often, like three, four times a year, Dodd would just shoot out some. Some random tweet on something and either I would send it to Borzello or he would send it to me and it would just be like, how can you not love Dodd? And do you remember, do you remember when he, like, went after Aaron Rodgers like 10 years ago? Because Aaron Rodgers was on the court and went and do a post. He would. Aaron Rodgers on the court when Wisconsin made the final four and 15. I remember that he wouldn't do an interview and him. And he like, posted a photo on Twitter and it was. It was the best. Dodd got dragged. I mean, he. Aaron Rodgers, I think, quote, tweeted it and dragged him. He never, he never backed down. It was. It was glorious. Dodd just such. Such a. Such an immense resource for a lot of things and just gave me continual joy, a pleasure working with him. I was never really a runner the way I see running is a gift, especially when you have stage four cancer. I'm Ann. I'm running the Boston Marathon presented by bank of America. I run for Dana Farber Cancer Institute to give people like me a chance to thrive in life, even with cancer. Join bank of America in helping Anne's cause. Give if you can, @b of a.com supportann. What would you like the power to do? References to charitable organizations is not endorsement by bank of America Corporation Copyright 2025. Hey there, travelers. Kaley Cuoco here. Sorry to interrupt your music. Great artist, BT Dubs, but wouldn't you rather be there to hear it live? With Price, you can get out of.
- [47:55]
Gary Parish
Your dreams and into your dream concert.
- [47:57]
Matt Norlander
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Gary Parish
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- [48:12]
Matt Norlander
Go to your happy price. Priceline. We're running out of time. I hate that this is happening. But before we get to your top 25 and one, we have to address what happened late Sunday night. Do you want me to tell the story or do you want to tell the story?
- [48:27]
Gary Parish
I'm gonna assume you've got a better recollection of it than I do, so I'll let you have first stab at dotted left.
- [48:34]
Matt Norlander
His own going away party at this point. And we are. We are af. We are approaching midnight. I think we're almost to midnight. And it's you, it's me. It's a few folks on the editorial side. Our boss, Adi Joseph. Our former editor, Sergio Gonzalez, who does an incredible job now at the Athletic. He was there. Borzella was there. Eric K, who was one of our most valuable resources on the editorial side at cbs, was also still there. And there's this guy who's. Who's in the bar and for whatever reason, he doesn't know you. He thinks he. He thinks you're Tillman Fertitta. I. I think Adi might have told him that you were Tillman Fertitta. Anyway, he comes up to you. He thinks you're Tillman Fertitta. If you're listening, you don't know who that is, just Google. Tillman Fertitta is both his net worth and what he looks like. Okay, so he, he goes through this whole thing. I've got a photo of this guy taking a selfie with you, by the way. Let me see if I can bring this up real, real quick. Real quick. Where is this picture? Here it is. I'm gonna show it on the show. Here's this guy taking a picture at the bar.
- [49:42]
Gary Parish
Oh, that's me.
- [49:43]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, Quit GP in his grizzlies hat. So he goes to this whole thing, okay? And I'm just. I'm just standing there watching. And then you. You kind of walk away. And then he looks over to me, he goes, oh, my God, I know you. You're Matt Norlander. And Parish, he almost collapses in embarrassment. And it was the funniest moment of the entire Final Four, because why would this person know who I am but not you? How is that even possible? How is that remotely possible?
- [50:11]
Gary Parish
Well, that's fine. I am.
- [50:13]
Matt Norlander
Everyone busted up at this. Man. It was. It was tremendous.
- [50:16]
Gary Parish
I am not so arrogant that I walk around thinking, everybody who knows you must know me. And with no exceptions. Right.
- [50:23]
Matt Norlander
That'd be a biggest load of crap I've ever heard.
- [50:26]
Gary Parish
Pretty silly way to go through live. But I do think, just practically speaking, the idea that you would be in a room with two people who host a podcast that you clearly consume, because that's the best way to know who Matt Norlander is, would be through this podcast. I think, at least visually, the best way to know who Matt Norlander. The place. The place people see you more than any other place is right here.
- [50:51]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [50:52]
Gary Parish
Right beside my face.
- [50:53]
Matt Norlander
Correct.
- [50:55]
Gary Parish
So I don't know how you could be in a room and be like, I know you. You're the guy from the podcast, and I think you might be a billionaire. Houston booster.
- [51:03]
Matt Norlander
The timing of it. I can't. For storytelling purposes, it is truly. You had to be that. This guy's talking to Paris for four minutes, thinks he's filming for Tita. Paris takes three steps, his eyes hit mine, and instantly it's like, I know you. You're Matt Norlander. And Paris is like, what the. What the what. What? Incredible, amazing man. Like, sometimes people know they see me in their home. I don't expect that in. In the slightest, especially not there, not then. And for this guy to. It was. It was an incredible moment, and. And I'm so glad we got to experience it together.
- [51:40]
Gary Parish
I just. I never. That's the first. I've been caught a lot of things throughout the years. Mostly a penis. Yes, Right.
- [51:46]
Matt Norlander
Yes, of course.
- [51:47]
Gary Parish
But. But never, never, never. Tillman for Tita. I've never. I've never been called that. But maybe. Maybe that's a new one. Maybe that's. Maybe, maybe. Maybe we're doppelgangers. I'll go to the bank and see. I'm gonna go to the bank and try to withdraw a billion, see if I can get away with it.
- [52:02]
Matt Norlander
What made this even better is that completely understandable. Parrish just doesn't socialize at the Final Four nearly as Much now or you know, post Covid. It has nothing to do with COVID I'm just saying like it has nothing to do with, he wasn't triple masked out at the bar. That's not what was happening. But he just doesn't come. So. He did, he did. He was like I'm gonna make the time. I can't not like we, we passed on seeing Stapleton. We wanted to see Stapleton. I made the time to see Pitbull two nights before. Oh by the way, that was one hell of an experience. But we didn't, we, we passed on Stapleton for Dodge. So you came out and that this all happened here was, was all the more special. And San Antonio last thing and then we got breaking it to your teams before. I gotta get out here. San Antonio needs to host a final four every four to five years now. The Alamo Dome is going to need some upgrades and so I don't even know if it's gonna, it can't get one before 32. But just being on the ground in that city, just a reminder like it needs to be in the rotation as frequently as possible. I, I think New Orleans is the only city that's better for the Final four than San Antonio. There are so many amazing things about it, except for the fact that I think we went from 95 degrees to 46 degrees in about 36 hours, which was insane. The weather swing there. But otherwise overall it was incredible.
- [53:12]
Gary Parish
It went from burning up hot one day to freezing cold the next day to by the time we got to the title game, perfect weather.
- [53:22]
Matt Norlander
Like Monday.
- [53:22]
Gary Parish
I remember being perfect.
- [53:23]
Matt Norlander
Correct.
- [53:24]
Gary Parish
But Saturday was, I think Friday was hot, Saturday was freezing, Sunday was crazy windy and Monday was perfect. I enjoy San Antonio. Yeah, San Antonio, Indianapolis, New Orleans, they're all great final four cities. I'll take final four. I'll take a final Four at those places in a year.
- [53:42]
Matt Norlander
Nada says we don't have to worry about the break for YouTube. So that sounds good. Let's go right to the Final Four. We got seven minutes before I gotta bounce and do a, do a radio hit here as well. I have not seen Paris's top 25 and 1. I, I, I have a general idea that like being with you, you were going to consider Houston for number one. I think Purdue was going to be decently ranked, but I have not seen it. And with intention. I wanted to learn it here on the show. So, so read it off for me. Read me your top 10 in order and, and I don't even know what.
- [54:10]
Gary Parish
To expect, Honestly, the top 10 in order is number one, Houston, number two, Duke, number three, Purdue, number four, Yukon number five, UCLA number six, Arizona, number seven, Alabama, number eight, Iowa State, number nine, Florida, number 10, St. John's to be clear, every one of those I projected, who's leaving, who's staying, obviously. But I do not assume anything about anybody in the transfer portal. So I know there's like Rob Wright might be close to committing to byu. When he does, I'll adjust for that, but I'm not going to assume he's there. You know, St. John's might be about to get a five star North Carolina transfer.
- [54:56]
Matt Norlander
Right. And Jackson. Right.
- [54:58]
Gary Parish
That's right. When it happens, I'll adjust, but for now, I leave everything where it is. And I went with Houston number one. The projection being that they're going to bring back four of the top seven scores, namely Emmanuel Sharp, Milo Suzanne, Terence Arsenal and Joseph Tugler from the team that just finished 35 and 5 and played in the title game of the tournament. And then they got a recruiting class highlighted now by Creighton transfer Papa Isaacs. And then they got a five star freshman, Chris Sack and two four star freshmen as well. I do wonder if the addition of Isaacs either means one of these guards is going to leave or I might make.
- [55:37]
Matt Norlander
I don't have this. My instinct tells me, yes, my instinct tells me, yes, that's. That's just what instinct is telling me, that they will have a person that goes in the portal. But I don't have that as learned information. I want to be clear about that.
- [55:46]
Gary Parish
That I. The thought popped into my head, yes, you bring it. I. Because like in theory, before pop Isaacs, you go. Amanda Sharp, Milos use in Terence Arsenal slides in as the third guard. And now that, that, that makes it. Now you're. That that's how you play or whatever, however you want to do it. But now you. You got a lot of guards on that roster with people who think they should be playing a lot of minutes and starting. There could be a numbers crunch there, but as always, we'll see. Either way, that's pretty strong. Duke is obviously going to add pieces and could end up number one eventually. Duke, I believe, number two.
- [56:23]
Matt Norlander
You said two. And they're gonna lose every starter off the team. I'm not saying I disagree with it. I'm just for our audience's clarity. That is correct. Right?
- [56:31]
Gary Parish
For now, I have Proctor back in school.
- [56:34]
Matt Norlander
Okay.
- [56:35]
Gary Parish
When he, if he announces he's leaving, I'll adjust accordingly, but I sort of Drew a line like if you're not a projected first round pick, like, I'm not certain you should be leaving. Tyrese Proctor might be worth more money to Duke than he is to an NBA franchise. And again, just, I'm putting him on the roster for now and if he decides he doesn't want to be on the roster, I'll remove him. But obviously Duke is going to add pieces. And then the other one that's interesting is Florida. I have him nine right now. They've got to add guards in the portal. They clearly will. But that front court, you know, assuming they bring back Hauk Condon hand logged in. Yeah, I mean they're going to be strong up front again and I assume they're going to have the money and whatever else they need to get guards out of the portal. And so I imagine I've got Florida 9 now, but they can clearly move up and I expect probably will.
- [57:26]
Matt Norlander
Okay, a couple comments here. Keep an eye on what Florida is from a staff perspective. They lose Kevin hubby to Columbia and John Andersack is going to Campbell. He is going to be a fighting camel. We are going to get riding camel church for this podcast. That is, that is going to happen. Who does. Jonathan Sapphire was promoted within the staff, so he gets a well deserved bump there. But who else is golden gonna add? And then from the, from the backyard, uh, uh, back, back court perspective, yes, we will. Let's definitely do more of this next week as well. We're just about a time crunch and I wanted to look back more at the final four before looking ahead. So we gotta do coaching stuff next week and maybe a deeper dive in the top 25 and 1. But before we get out of here, we got three minutes and then I'm gonna get a call. It's gonna force me off. J.T. toppin, I reported yesterday, is going to get 4 million in nil. At least he's staying at Texas Tech. That's obviously a huge get. Where do you have Texas Tech? And then I know one team I brought up to you was Louisville. That's not in your top 10, I don't think I just heard you call it the Cardinals. So where are those two teams in your rankings right now?
- [58:20]
Gary Parish
Texas Tech? Well, they're, they're right next to each other. Louisville is 12, Texas Tech is 13. Obviously Louisville has killed it in the Portal. They've gotten three of the top 15 transfers, all three of which shoot above 41 from three. I love what Pat has done. I'm just concerned about what they're bringing back. You know, they don't bring back much, but you know, I have them 12th in the country. If you're a Louisville fan offended by that, just keep in mind where you were two years ago. This is pretty awesome stuff.
- [58:50]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. No, and this stuff is going to update, folks. GP does it almost.
- [58:55]
Gary Parish
We're already on version 3. We're already on version.
- [58:58]
Matt Norlander
So this isn't even version 1. We're already on version 3. And because of the portal, I'm not saying that this is how it should be. You're going to update this thing like daily for the next, like two weeks because there's just going to be ads every single day that's going to affect how it stands here.
- [59:10]
Gary Parish
So, yeah, Virgin one was Tuesday. Version two was Wednesday. Version three is Thursday. We will never update multiple times in a day for the same reasons during the season. I don't just like say, well, Purdue just lost at noon. We have to update now. You wait till the next day and start a fresh day. But yes, every day for the foreseeable future, I imagine I will wake up and have to adjust the top 25 and 1. So the off season is here, but not really.
- [59:35]
Matt Norlander
All right, as we wrap here, just a quick thanks beyond all to Dennis Dodd, obviously, but Kanata Edwards, our producer, thank you for the late, late, late nights throughout the tournament. Really appreciate all the work you've done on that end. GP it was wonderful to see you in person. We don't get to do that enough. So that was tremendous at the Final Four. To everyone with cbs, it was just, I'm so, so proud of our coverage. Like, I'm going to let this, when I get this call here, I'm going to be 30 seconds late. Whatever. You look at the way that CBS Sports covers college basketball throughout the entire season in podcast form, digitally, with our articles, with our staff on television. It's just I'm super proud of the work that we do and a lot of outlets do a lot of really, really good work. I can definitively say no one commits to the sport of college basketball more than CBS Sports and to the people that listen to the show and watch it. I know you feel that reflected and it means a ton to us that you do that. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Incredible NCAA Tournament, a really, really fun season. You know, we're going to dial down the cadence because thankfully now the tournament's now behind us. But we will still have shows, we'll still have podcasts. We still got plenty to to come forth here over the next, you know, two, three, four weeks as the portal continues, it does what it does and we'll have more on coaching, etc. I'm going to shut up now. Thank you to everyone for helping make this as successful of an N tournament march that we've ever had on this podcast.
- [60:51]
Gary Parish
Shouts to Devin Downey. Shout to Chester, South Carolina, Terry Teagle. He's a legend. Huck Larnell. Thank you guys once again for watching. Listening to the I Own college basketball podcast. You not subscribe. Go subscribe anywhere you subscribe to podcasts. Apple, Spotify, more of us than there are of them. That should be reflected in the comments. Do that. We'll talk to you again real soon. Till then, take care.
- [61:16]
Matt Norlander
Paramount podcasts. I'm gonna be famous.
- [61:20]
Gary Parish
The most original musical ever is now streaming on Paramount. I'm just giving the people what they want. I don't wanna.
- [61:27]
Matt Norlander
From the director of the Greatest Showman.
- [61:29]
Gary Parish
Betterman absolutely sizzles from start to finish.
- [61:32]
Matt Norlander
What are you gonna say? I want the world to see who I really am.
- [61:35]
Gary Parish
It's wildly inventive and deliriously entertaining. Wanna stop?
- [61:39]
Matt Norlander
No.
- [61:40]
Gary Parish
Stop it. Nothing.
- [61:42]
Matt Norlander
It's only the biggest event in history. Better man now streaming on Paramount.
- [61:48]
Gary Parish
Rated R.