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Eye On College Basketball
March Madness 2025 Round 1 Thursday Recap - Arkansas sends Jayhawks HOME; McNeese St. UPSETS Clemson
00:47:22
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- [00:00]
Gary Parish
This episode of I Own College Basketball is presented by Travis Matthew. Apparel designed for confidence and comfort. No matter where the day takes you, you worked hard to lay the foundation for your contracting business. And when you're with Amex Business Platinum, you can keep building it up with a flexible spending limit that adapts with your business. And since you earn 5 times Membership Rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com, you get even more from on site overseeing. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Not all purchases will be approved. Terms apply. Learn more@americanexpress.com AmExBusiness Everybody needs flip flops for the warm months. But not just any flip flops. You need nice flip flops, comfortable flip flops. Flip flops that won't destroy your big toe while you're trying to break them in. And that's why the flip flops I own are Hari Mari. Hari Mari makes comfortable colorful premium flip flops with their patented memory foam toe that completely eliminates that break in period. They're classic rubber dunes for men and women. Come in tons of colorways that are the perfect casual shoe for days wandering around your favorite city and their water friendly leather clippers. Yes, water friendly leather are an elevated option for pool, boat or beach days. And considering pool, boat and beach days are just right around the corner, it's time for you to get like me and get you a pair of Hari Mari flip flops. Shop harimari.com today where every day is a destination. That's H A R I M A R I dot com hey there, I'm Gary Parish. Welcome back to the I Own College Basketball podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting dodo birds and leaky black. David Cobb 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're here watching us live, man, we appreciate you. You probably should get better sleeping habits, but we do appreciate you. I realize this is a later than normal start, but I was on CBS Sports Network till 2am so we are getting started just as soon as we could. To be clear, these recap shows we're doing at the end of every night of NCAA Tournament games are not always going to start this late, but tonight, as they say, it is what it is. Let's get into it first Thursday of the 2025 NCAA tournament. It's in the books. On Thursday we had 16 games that dwindled the field down to 48 teams and the place I want to start is in Providence because that's where two of Thursday's biggest stories originated. First, McNeese upset Clemson. We'll get to that momentarily. But I want to focus at the start on the only first round game featuring two Naismith Memorial hall of Fame coaches. It was Arkansas. Kansas. Final score, Arkansas 79, Kansas 72. The preseason number one team was just eliminated by a team that started 0 and 5 in the SEC. David Cobb. First, let me say thanks for staying up with me. Now let me ask you for your thoughts on Arkansas eliminating Kansas from this NCAA tournament.
- [03:08]
David Cobb
Yeah. GP Nice of you to. To join us. I hope you don't come at me like you were coming at Wally. I was just watching you guys on the. On the network and boy, you're kind of on one tonight, man. Are you all right?
- [03:19]
Gary Parish
No, it was first, it started with Wally and Chris Walker arguing. Arguing and dragging out the A block. And then they team. And then they teamed up on me during a competition of jump ball that we play nightly during the NCAA tournament. Tonight, I was up against Wally Zerbiak. Chris Walker was the judge. I lost two to one. And I'll be honest, I think Wally had the better answer on the final question. So he deserved to. To win. But, yeah, I don't take defeat so well. So I got a little testy. I apologize. Let me get night's sleep and I'll. I'll snap back to my normal behavior soon.
- [03:53]
David Cobb
I'm sorry you lost in that game of jump ball. And, you know, I'm sorry that Kansas had to go out in a cloud of offensive misery. Right, because that's what it was. Four minutes without a field goal with the game on the line. I mean, come on. Because I thought Bill Self threw a nice little wrinkle at Arkansas with that zone. I looked it up. Gary. Kansas has played a total of seven possessions of zone all season long. They throw this wrinkle at Arkansas. It's got Arkansas tied in knots. But the problem is Kansas couldn't score. And so that ended up being their Achilles heel, as it was all season for Kansas. The inability to put the ball in the basket, especially when the game is on the line. And so that's kind of the big takeaway is, man, Kansas has got to got to reboot this thing. And they're, they're going to. So it's. Yeah, we get John Caliperi versus Rick Pitino. Bill Self versus Rick Patino would have been great too. But Cal versus Patino will be. Will be absolutely phenomenal.
- [04:44]
Gary Parish
Just Real quick on Arkansas because I do think the bigger story is Kansas losing. Arkansas was always supposed to be in the round of 32, at least based on preseason expectations. I know it got sideways for a minute, but, you know, whatever Arkansas, you know to. To. To be in this position now after starting 05 in the SEC is. Is pretty remarkable given that while they were starting 0 and 5, they lost. Also lost Boogie Flan for a big chunk of the season. And it looked like, I don't mind saying it looked like it was going somewhere other than the NCAA tournament. And then they do enough. Never got great, but did enough to. To safely, I think, or at least without controversy, make the NCAA tournament. And it's just a reminder that these seasons are long. They often take a lot of twists and turns. And I don't want to say no matter how bad it gets, it can always get better because sometimes it just doesn't. But when you play in a league like the SEC and you've got a roster like Arkansas, there's always a. There's enough opportunities for you to turn it around if you can actually start playing better basketball. They did. They won games and now they're in the round of 32. And if they can win one more game, and I don't know if they can, but if they can win one more game, then they're in the Sweet 16. And this feels way different. The entire first year of John Calvary at Arkansas feels way different than it otherwise would have been to Kansas. What do you make of this? Because Norland and I have talked about this all season. I've talked about it infrequently or less frequently with you. It would be one thing if Kansas was just bad all year and like disappointing all year. Kansas started, I don't even know if people remember this, started seven and oh with wins over the outright Big Ten champ, Michigan State, outright ACC champ Duke. Duke is now the favorite to win this tournament. KU beat them by two on a neutral court early. At the time, it looked like, okay, 70 preseason number one wins over Duke, Michigan State, I guess they are exactly what we thought they'd be. And since that happened, the 70 start, they are 14 and 13 the rest of the way and only one more than two games in a row after that 70 start once more the entire season. That's a long way to get to the question, but the question is, do you have a sense for what happened? How did this team go from looks good on paper. Wow. Looks good on the court. And the rest of the way after seven and oh is basically 500.
- [07:20]
David Cobb
Yeah, no, I don't, don't really have a good explanation because the question I saw posed tonight by some folks was like, where's Kansas's nil budget? Like, because that's the default, right? When things don't go well these days, everybody wants to say, well, maybe their nil is not up to Paris. I don't think that's the case for Kansas. If you look at the roster that Bill Self assembled, it's a talented roster. You got Hunter Dickinson a high dollar player. You got AJ Store, a high dollar transfer. Riley Griffin was a highly rated transfer. Zeke Mayo was as well. Not to mention you were able to retain Dejuan Harrison, K.J. adams. So talent was not the problem. Offense was the problem. That's the simplest explanation. But for all the people out there who want to bury Bill Self, consider this. Roy Williams went three years from 98 to 2000 without escaping the first weekend of the NCAA tournament at Kansas. What did he do after that? He went Sweet 16, Final 4, National Title game, and then he went to North Carolina. So what were, what were Kansas fans saying in 2000 when they got eliminated in the, in the, in the second round? Right, because if we're going to say that Bill Self is done, you know, I think you're ignoring the history here, which is that it's Kansas. You can get this thing turned around. I mean, Bill Self is a Hall of Fame coach, a national title winning coach. I don't bury Kansas. Based off what happened tonight, tonight was just the continuation of what we've seen for the last two and a half months. What we're wrong. I think it was just a lack of, lack of offense lack, lack of shot creation because I thought the zone was a creative wrinkle, that, that, that Bill Self got in his bag and threw something at him that was not on tape. Seven possessions all season and it worked, but they just couldn't score. And then KJ Adams also got hurt in that stretch. And I know Kansas fans all season have been picking on K.J. adams a little bit, but when he leaves the game, the game changes, right? Because without him on the floor, they really couldn't do anything. And so tonight at least his absence I think is largely what hurt them.
- [09:11]
Gary Parish
Now KU has lost 24 games the past two seasons and those are the two seasons with Hunter Dickinson. 11 losses last season, 13 losses this season. Do you connect those dots at all? I, I know Hunter Dickinson has been an all American caliber player. He's posted Big numbers. He's obviously one of the faces of the sport, but, you know, it's hard not to notice because this is just a fact. And we can then debate or discuss whether you can attach it to the things people are attaching it to. But Hunter Dixon showed up at Kansas. Bill Self had just been basically running through the Big 12 year after year after year. And the worst two years he's ever had as KU's coach happened to be the past two years happened to be when Hunter Dickinson was the centerpiece of everything. I know people on social media connect those dots to you.
- [10:03]
David Cobb
Well, he's our coworker first off. Gary, no regular guest on CBS Sports hq, does a great job with that.
- [10:11]
Gary Parish
Oh, he might be at CBS Sports Network this weekend, like, you know, so, yeah, listen, I, I, I, I'm, I'm just speaking factually. There's no emotion here. I'm just Bill Seth's worst two years as KU's coach are the past two years and those are the two years where Hunter Dickinson was his best player.
- [10:27]
David Cobb
Well, if you surround him with better shooting, if you surround him with better shot creation, then maybe, maybe it's a totally different conversation. So if you, if you need Hunter Dickinson to literally do everything for you, then, then yeah, that's a problem. And it felt like for stretches of this season that was it. I mean there was a quote from Bill Self not, not too long ago about we gotta feed Hunter, ride Hunter here down the stretch. If everybody knows that that's what you're going to do, then, then you're telegraphing your, your, your style of play and you're over overly reliant on an antiquated style of basketball when you're trying to play through the post and you don't have the perimeter shooting to keep the pressure off a guy like that. So, I mean, what do you think? Do you, do you think, do you think the, the blame lies on, on Hunter Dickens shoulders?
- [11:08]
Gary Parish
I, I think some of it does. I don't think it's all him. I, I think what a team goes from 7, 0 ranked number one in the country to 14 and 13 the rest of the way. You're not going to put that on one guy. I do think he's a, he's a, a statistical monster who maybe doesn't impact winning as much as you would like a statistical monster to impact winning. But no, to answer your question more directly, I don't think you can pin all this on him. I don't think that's his legacy. I think the truth is, and it's. I always. I always am aware of what it sounds like when somebody like you and I are sitting here being like, well, the thing Bill Self ought to do, like, he's a Hall of Fame coach with multiple national championships and were podcasting, like, that's never lost on me. But they do not play a modern style of basketball. You know, even in this game, they took 17 threes. And the majority way, overwhelming majority of shots came from inside the arc. That's just not the way people play basketball anymore. At least not people who pay attention to the analytics. So I just think all of this is new. And when you've been doing something a certain way and it's worked so long, it can be difficult to change it, or you don't even really understand why you should consider changing it. Like, if it works this way, might as well keep doing it this way. But it's clearly, it hadn't worked the past two years. Whatever. I do think in a different era, you would just go out and recruit talented players that fit what it is you were looking for, and then you'd figure out how to piece them together sometimes over multiple years. Like you. I can remember talking to Ben Howlen a million years ago, and it was like, you're losing this guy who replaces him. He was like, Russell Westbrook, because Russell Westbrook's on my bench. And I knew Russell Westbrook wasn't going to be a primary player for me early. But now that this other NBA guard is gone, Russell Westbrook would just slide into there. You could just sort of plan years in advance about what your teams might look like. Well, if you are thinking anywhere past next November, right now you're looking too far ahead. So I think maybe there's a way to better figure out exactly how these pieces I'm getting out of the transfer portal fit together in November. Like, let's really talk about it, you know, I know John Shire emphasized that with Duke's roster, we have Cooper flag. Now, how do we put the best possible players not just around him, but the best possible players that fit well around him, around him. Maybe there's some more thought into that. Ultimately, I think Kansas will be fine. Ultimately, I think Bill will be fine. Bill. But I do think it's probably time to, you know, take a look at some stuff because these past two years have both been wildly unusual enough about that. Yeah, go ahead.
- [13:46]
David Cobb
I'm sorry. Cal and Arkansas figured it out because Nelly Davis and Jonas Adu, they were high on my list of transfer busts six weeks ago. And here they, they both are. I mean, Jonas Adu was playing six minutes a game for a stretch there. Now all of a sudden, Big Z can't get off the bench because adu's just feasting. So even if the pieces don't fit in November or December, you can still figure out a way in February and March, which is what, which is what Arkansas has done. So that's what blew my mind. This was like the transfer bust all star game when you got A.J. storr and Nelly Davis and Jonas Adu all out there playing well tonight. Actually thought it made the game a better game, the fact that those guys were at or near their best.
- [14:24]
Gary Parish
So now on Saturday, we will get Arkansas against St. John's John Calipari against Rick Patino. And that's because St. John's as expected, got past Omaha with no issues. I don't think we need to spend any time on that. But just real quickly, your thoughts on John Calipari and Rick Patino, Saturday afternoon on cbs. Just think about this for a second. If I would have pulled you aside five years ago and said, hey, I can see into the future, and in the future 2025, Arkansas and St. John's will play in the round of 32, and the coaches of those teams will be John Caliperi and Rick Patino. Would it even be clear to you which is at which school?
- [15:04]
David Cobb
No, I would have thought you were crazy, man. What, what a, what, what a turn of events.
- [15:07]
Gary Parish
It's wild. It's. It's wild, but it's fun. Just your thoughts on that matchup?
- [15:12]
David Cobb
Well, you know, I might have rather have seen Chris Crutchfield versus Rich Rick Patino. You know, I would have liked to have seen what Omaha would have done to some trash cans tonight had they beaten St. John's and heck, I mean, at halftime, it looked like they had a shot. They were kind of just baiting St. John's into shooting threes. And then second half, St. John's got hot. No, it'll be, it'll be fantastic. I mean, it'll be. Let me just run through the, the coaching matchups that we have for Saturday now, because it's not just John Calipari and Rick Patino that's the headliner, but we also have Will Wade versus Matt Painter. We have Dusty May versus Buzz Buzz Williams. We have Mark Few versus Kelvin Sampson, and we have Mick Cronin, the greatest coach in UCLA history versus Rick Barnes, the guy who almost took the job when Mick Cronin took it several years back. So, I mean, come on, they're phenomenal. Greg, Greg McDermott versus Bruce Pearl, Ben McCallum, McCollum versus Grant McCaslin. Those two guys are close friends. And then the under, under, under card there is Kevin Young versus Greg Guard, which is still a good coaching matchup. So no, the, the, the Patino Caliperi matchup is, is the headliner, but it's a, it's a lot of really, really good coaching matchups on Saturday.
- [16:19]
Gary Parish
So Arkansas and St. John's both win in Providence. Let's stay in Providence. Touch on the other two games because one of them was maybe the biggest story, at least the most notable upset of the first Thursday of this NCAA tournament. Final score McNeese 69 Clemson 67 Classic 125 Upset in the round of 64, Will Wade's Cowboys closed as 7 1/2 point underdogs led by as many as 24, held on to win by a bucket cup. What do you make of this unusual story at McNeese where the coach has already reportedly agreed to leave for NC State, but his players don't seem distracted or even bothered by the development because they just eliminated a Clemson team that had gone 18 and 2 in the ACC.
- [17:09]
David Cobb
Yeah, I thought, I thought Will Wade's played his cards pretty well here in the sense of like, if you don't address it with your team and you're not forthright about the situation, then everybody's just sort of uncomfortable in, in living on edge to a certain extent. But he's been pretty forthright about the whole situation. And I think that's freed his team up to play sort of a YOLO style of ball. And they were just, I mean, all out, all out in that first half. Just incredibly impressive on the boards, just going 110 miles an hour. And, and McNiece is clearly okay with this, right? Did you see the way that, that the AD there wrapped up Will Wade in a bear hug after the game? The university present was there too, doing the same thing. So the fact is Will Wade's probably spent twice as much time at McNeese as they ever would have imagined when they hired him to be their head coach. They might have thought it was a one and done sort of thing. And he's done exactly what they hired him to do. And the AD himself, Heath Troyer, he's a former Division 1 basketball coach. He knows how this game works. So they got him for two years and he took him probably even farther now than, than they thought he would. So it's It's a win. Win for McNeese. It's a clearly a win for, for Will Wade and for the players. A lot of these guys, after having good seasons that in the Southland Conference, will be looking to jump somewhere else themselves for next Friday. So, you know, I mean, I think it's. It's great. And Will Wade still very much cares about that university. You saw in his post game interview how he was talking about, hey, this is huge for our school, right? So everybody won here from the McNeese and Will Wade, you know, sort of marriage.
- [18:39]
Gary Parish
I, I think you've got it right. Like, I see people getting really offended by this and bothered by this, and I'm just not. And in part because it doesn't seem like any of the characters involved are like, if, if the people who run McNiece are cool with this and the players who play for McNiece are cool with this, I don't know what the point is of me getting up in arms about it.
- [19:01]
David Cobb
He's a hero there. He'll be a hero there forever.
- [19:03]
Gary Parish
I think he will be a hero there forever. And so I, I just try to look at these things, these things practically, as opposed to, well, the way we normally do it. Because the way we normally do it is coaches pretend nothing's going on or they lie or they decline comment. I mean, you saw Ryan Odom tonight, which I don't mind, but at vcu, he was very clearly asked about his future and he just said, I'll answer any question about this game or this team, but I'm not talking about any of that stuff. So, like, that's what they normally do. Well, Will Wade's like, you saw him at the media availability even before the game. Have you or your represent. They like, the person asking the question was trying to ask it from every angle, so there's no wiggle room. And Will was like, yeah. The question was, have you or anybody you know, or anybody you ever dated or anybody associated with you or anybody you went to second grade with, has anybody ever talked to NC State about you? He's like, yes, yeah, you know, yeah, sure. So I guess this is the way I look at it. I don't think anybody in the history of college sports, at least in my lifetime, has been at a school like McNeese and turned down a job in the ACC. All right, so why do we need Will Wade to pretend like he might not do it? He's going to. He was always going to. Anybody in his shoes would. So I'm fine with it. Everybody just being upfront about it and being like, yes, the conversations have been going on. We now know that the Indiana Darren Devries conversations were going on during the season. These conversations were going on during the season too. And they reached an agreement and they didn't try to lie about it. I actually like people telling the truth. Everybody reached agreement. They're not really trying to mislead us about it. The other thing that's interesting, once upon a time, if your coach were getting ready to leave and you're at a mid major school, it might actually be a distraction. You know why coach is leaving me? The only reason I ever came here is because coach told me to come here and now coach is leaving me here and now I'm stuck here. Well, nobody's stuck anywhere anymore. In fact, I bet you few of those guys think they're going with Will Wade de Raleigh and probably are. So nobody's stuck. I bet you when there's a time where a coach gets a bigger job and the players are disappointed that their coach is leaving them, now this coach is getting a bigger job and these players are trying to see if they can go with them probably and if not, there somewhere else. So if nobody involved in the actual story is mad, I don't think I'm going to be mad. Now we get McNeese and Perdue on Saturday because Purdue beat High Point 75, 63. High Point was like in the game, the whole game, but never really like about to win it. They were just in the game the whole game. Braden Smith, Trikop and ran combined for 41 points. I don't know that we need to spend much time there. Purdue, McNeese on Saturday. Let's move on to the games in Wichita and let's start with Gonzaga, Georgia because my God, that looked like something right out of the, right out of the starting blocks. But first, before we talk that game and everything else that happened in Wichita, let's get a word from our partners.
- [22:00]
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- [23:01]
Gary Parish
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- [25:10]
Gary Parish
Final score Gonzaga 89, Georgia 68 the WCC tournament champs whipped one of the four SEC teams that got bids to the NCAA tournament. With eight and 10 conference records, the game was over quickly. Zach's jumped to a 13 nothing lead. Then it was 27 to 3. Big debate before Selection Sunday Cobb about what to do with Gonzaga. Top 10 in the predictive metrics, but with the resume of an 8 seed. So how do you seed them? That was the question. The committee went with the eight seed, so they relied more on the resume than the predictive metrics. But against Georgia, the Zags look more like a top 10 Kim bomb team than they did an 8 seed. How surprised were you that Gonzaga did that to Georgia?
- [25:50]
David Cobb
Yeah, being ahead 30 to 5, that was impressive. I mean, what so I have three quick, very quick takeaways from this game. One, a big loser here, Houston, because they have to play Gonzaga next. I got another big loser, Gonzaga, they have to play Houston next. But we got a big winner here, which is all of us, because we're going to get to see an Elite eight type of matchup in the second round between two great teams, two great coaches. So from that standpoint, I'm not mad. I think it'll, it'll make Saturday really, really fun.
- [26:20]
Gary Parish
Oh, it's going to be a blast. I mean, I don't like it if I'm Kelvin Sampson and this is the type of thing I was talking about before Selection Sunday, after Selection Sunday, I don't think that this should happen. I don't, I don't know that there's a perfect solution to this, but I do think a solution or at least a improvement would be yeah, we're going to mostly focus on resume stuff more than predictive metrics. But if we have somebody in the field that is so dramatically different from a results perspective and a predictive metrics perspective, we're not going, we're going to maybe move them up a seed line just to get them out of the 89 game. If we have to make a two seed play a top 10 Kim Bomb team in the round of 32, we can look at that two seed and say, well, if you'd have been a one seed, you wouldn't have to do this. Stop complaining. Be better next time. But what can we tell a one seed? What can we tell Houston? There's nothing to say like, Houston, you were awesome. You won the Big 12. You're just running through everything and you got a one seed. But we ignored, mostly ignored Gonzaga's predictives and focused on the resume. And now you got to play a top 10 team according to the Net. Kim Palm predictive metrics in the round of 32. I don't love it, but it'll be. I love. I can't wait to watch it. I don't love it, but I can't wait to watch it. And one note. As expected, Juwan Roberts did return to the court for Houston after suffering an ankle sprain in the Big 12 tournament. He played 20 minutes, wasn't highly productive, but he was on the court. So again, Houston Gonzaga now in the round of 32. Houston opened as a five and a half point favorite. Elsewhere in Wichita, final score, Drake 67, Missouri 57. And Texas Tech got past UNCW Drake. It's underdog six and a half points. Everybody picked them to cover. A lot of people pick them to win the game and then they go out and pull away from Missouri in the final minutes. This is one where if you didn't watch the game. Well, if you did watch the game, you might come to the same conclusion, but if you just scroll Twitter, man, everybody fell in love with Ben McCollum and people kind of fell out of love a little bit with Dennis Gates.
- [28:33]
David Cobb
Yeah. So incredibly impressive that Drake was able to regain its composure because Missouri made that run. They made a 100 run. It looked like Drake was on his heels. Bennett starts with the one legged shot. We're gonna see that in one shining moment, aren't we? That, that's a lock. Like, you know, the producers for One Shining Moment had to be saying, oh, put that one in there. Like, I mean, come on. That, that was, that was ridiculous. But yeah, drake and Ben McCollum. It's kind of wild, isn't it? Two of the heroes of the first day of the NCAA tournament are the coaches who we think might be going to take other jobs. I mean, will WADE and Ben McCollum at this point, though? Shoot. If you're Indiana and you're like, dang, we got the freeze and maybe we talked ourselves into that. But the guy who followed Devries at Drake has won more NCAA tournament games in one year there than, than DeVries did, which is, I mean, this is Drake's first NCAA tournament win since 1971.
- [29:26]
Gary Parish
I don't think I'm exact, I don't think I'm exaggerating right now. Keep in mind it's 3 o'clock in the morning, so I could be saying anything. I think if I had a high major opening right now and I wasn't already locked in on somebody. That's the guy. He's clearly unbelievable as a basketball coach and in this era of college athletics, recruiting skills, recruiting ties, geography, none of that matters as much as it used to. Can you coach basketball, run a program and do you have nil to buy your players? That's all it is. You don't have to out recruit anybody anymore. You got to out buy him. Give that guy an NL package, nil package comparable to the top teams in his league and he'll just keep winning conference championships. I promise you whoever hires him is not going to regret it. And whoever decides not to, but could have, they'll look back on it with a bit of regret if the guy they actually choose doesn't knock it out of the park. I just believe in consistent success at different places. And there is, I can't think of a reason. Oh, and oh, by the way, just, I was in studio tonight with Dan Dickow, former Gonzaga player, NBA player who's in studio with us. Like he's been around Ben, done some games. He's like, guy's really sharp, really sharp. So like even firsthand you talk to other basketball people, like you don't hear bad words about him. I'm, I'm a believer.
- [30:47]
David Cobb
Yeah, no doubt. I mean he won four national titles at Northwest Missouri State. I realize that's Division 2, but I mean, look at the college football side. Look at what Lance Leipold's done at Kansas. He was the Division 3 coach at Wisconsin Whitewater and then was at Buffalo. Now he's turned Kansas into a winner. Right. So it's. You. Sometimes you got to think out of the box a little bit here and I would encourage ADS to do that because it's clearly proven now that there is coaching talent at the lower levels of the sport. And as you mentioned, the recruiting ties aren't. They don't mean what they used to mean. You don't have the end with the sneaker guys. So what? We're going to help you buy players.
- [31:20]
Gary Parish
It doesn't matter. I don't, I don't want to say it doesn't matter because what coaches will tell you is, is the relationships and the, that kind of stuff matters. If everything else is still comparable. But the. You gotta, but if you could just outspin people, you, you'll win those every time. I mean, Rick Patino laid it out earlier this year. Kadari Richmond did not want to go to St. John's did not want to leave Seton hall, did not want to play. Rick Patino did not want to leave Shaheen Holloway. But the money just gotta go. Used to. If you would ever look at a Division 2 coach or a first year Division 1 coach for a big job, you'd have to go. Has he ever recruited at this level? Has he ever worked in this part of the country? Does he know our grassroots people? None of. I'm not saying it doesn't matter. I'm just saying it's, it's not the type of stuff I would even think about anymore. Can a guy run a program and coach basketball? Yes. Can we support him via nil to let him buy and assemble the roster he wants? Yeah. Okay. We'll probably win big then. Well, because every. Because he's been winning big for a long time. Moving on, let's go to Denver. Final score BYU 80, VCU 71. I had the Rams going deep. That's not going to work out well. Final score Wisconsin 85, Montana 66. So it's going to be BYU Wisconsin in the round of 32 on Saturday. Final score Texas A&M 80, Yale 71, Michigan 68, UC San Diego 65. That Michigan, UC San Diego game went down to the final buzzer. Tyler McGuire just missed a potential game winning time. Game winning or game tying three in the final rough possession. He's just dribbling and dribbling but not going anywhere. It's like he thought he was James Harden, but he never really went anywhere. And then he tried to take a shot and it was a contested shot. Wasn't great either way. Texas A and M, Michigan in the round of 32 on Saturday. Those were the four games in Denver. Any thoughts on what happened at Ball Arena?
- [33:06]
David Cobb
Yeah, no. I, I don't know if you know this, Gary, but Richie, I know everything at byu. Did you know his great grandfather invented the Tater tot?
- [33:14]
Gary Parish
Oh, I heard. I've seen that. You know, you know what's actually funny? I'll just be transparent. I have heard that 50 times, but never actually taken the 20 seconds it would take to like learn any more about it. I was just like, okay, that's fine. But I have not. I Have I just, I just have not clicked on it yet to find out exactly the story, but I am aware that Richie Saunders grandfather had something to do with Tater Tots.
- [33:38]
David Cobb
Yeah, he, he speaks four languages as well. Turns out he's really good at basketball too. BYU looked great today. Jegor Demon was hitting threes. So I mean that's scary when that happens. I mean. Hey, I'm sorry about your Rams. I know you're a big, big fan of the, the A10 guys there, but BYU looks like a team that could do some damage.
- [33:55]
Gary Parish
No, like I. The truth is you have to pick up sets somewhere in the bracket or else everybody tells you you didn't pick up sets anywhere like. And so you just, you try to find one and run with it. And that was a VCU team that I know the A10 is not the Big 12, but they had played well consistently. They had high major caliber players on the roster and then you know, it was a 40 minute game and they lost it. But that was. I tried to pick a flyer and didn't pick the right one. Just didn't pick the right one. I don't know that there's much else to say about what happened there. My apologies to you if you were just a random college basketball fan in Denver today. You didn't get the best Thursday of games. Hopefully Saturday pays off for you. Let's go to Lexington, which is where we actually started. The day seems like a million years ago. But first, before we do that, can we get one more word from our partners please?
- [34:47]
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- [35:51]
Gary Parish
So we started the day we got. Actually don't even remember where we started today, if I'm being completely honest with you. I guess it was Creighton and Louisville. Creighton 89, Louisville 75. And then we get Auburn 83, Alabama State 63. Both those games were played in Lexington. And I said this on Inside College Basketball, so you might have heard it. But you know, every once while you're just laying around and you're scrolling through Instagram or watching stories and people sometimes will post like inspirational things or, or just jokes or just words. They're not pictures as much as words. And you're supposed to read them and then go, hmm, that's interesting. And sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I read this one at some point and somebody had sent it into my feed. It said something along the lines of like 95% of the things you worry about never actually happen. You're just worrying for no reason. And that's one that I actually try to keep in mind because I worry non stop. I worry about everything.
- [36:53]
David Cobb
I know where you're going with this. You were ready to lead a riot outside the NCAA headquarters because of the, the miscarriage of justice that would have been, that would have been Louisville playing a quote, home game against Auburn in the second round.
- [37:05]
Gary Parish
I thought it was wrong. And I talked about it on Sunday and then I'm pretty sure I talked about it again on Monday and then I talked about it again on Wednesday and then I talked about it again all day today. And then guess what happened? Creighton went out and bombed Louisville 89, 75. So that thing I was worried about, the number one overall seed having to play a road game in the round of 32. That's not fair. Why the committee do that? Guess what? Just like Instagram told me, never even materialize. We will get Auburn and Creighton in the round of 32 on Saturday in Lexington. And I haven't looked it up, but I think it's possible Auburn is closer to Lexington than Creighton is to Lexington. Seems true. Seems true. And so that whole nightmare we were worried about, not a nightmare at all. Creighton and Auburn in Lexington. Louisville is done. We also got final score, Tennessee 77, Wofford 62. Final score UCLA 72, Utah State 47. So it'll be Tennessee and UCLA on Saturday in the round of 32. And I'm glad you brought that up. I had actually forgotten about that. But Rick, this is wild to think about. Tell me how funny this is. Rick Barnes didn't only almost take the UCLA job. He actually said he would have if not for the buyout. Is that right? Am I remembering that correctly?
- [38:26]
David Cobb
More or less. Like Tennessee fans were kind of miffed after all that. They were like, dang, bro. Like, what.
- [38:32]
Gary Parish
What most coaches would say in that spot was what? No, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm fall for life. What are you talking about? Ucla? Yeah, they were interested and so of course I would listen. But like, no, I'm of all for life. And Rick was like, if not for the money, I would have gone. That was the impression I was left with, at least.
- [38:48]
David Cobb
Well, and now UCLA has its greatest coach in program history.
- [38:51]
Gary Parish
That's right.
- [38:52]
David Cobb
Boy, this is gonna be a defensive dog fight, is it not? I mean, that might be, it might be an ugly game, but I can see a bit. It's also a very late, late game. It's gonna be the latest game on Saturday, which, I don't know. Does that help ucla because they're coming from the Pacific time zone? I don't know. Mick Cronin seems to care a lot about time zones, so I'm just, yes.
- [39:09]
Gary Parish
It might help them. I don't know what helps and what hurts. I just, I know that Mick doesn't like being this far from home. Typically this is a long way from home for, for Mick, so. So as always, we'll see. But yeah, it could be a rough game. I mean, those are. Those two coaches coach a certain type of way and their teams, you know, have a certain mindset that they bring to the table. Tennessee, I think, frankly, more than ucla. But yeah, that's going to be a, a fun one on, on Saturday. We got one more little segment to go and this is where before we get out of here, we're going to focus on some players who had some big days on Thursday. So let's do that right now. And let me start by telling you that Friday's on CBS. Max Terriot stars in TV's hottest show. It's fire country. And beginning April 4th, you don't want to miss the five episode countdown to the season finale of Fire Country. If you need to catch up, you can binge episodes. Right now they're streaming on Paramount plus, so with Fire country in minecab, I need you to tell me a player who went off Caught fire, if you will, in Thursday's NCAA tournament games.
- [40:14]
David Cobb
All right, GP give me Kerwin Walton, fifth year senior at Texas Tech. Eight of 19 from three. And they needed him because UNCW staged a little bit of a rally in the second half of that game. Most points in an NCAA tournament game by any player ever without a made two point field goal. He finished with 27. That's a career high and Texas Tech needed it. So Kerwin Walton came up big tonight.
- [40:39]
Gary Parish
I went with Chaz Lanier and I also went with Chaz Lanier on jump ball and inside college basketball. This is partly why I lost. This is partly why I got a little upset. So I was asked by Chris Walker name a player who might be a household name by the end of the weekend. And I went with Chaz Lanier. And I was told that wasn't a proper answer because Chaz Lanier is already a household name. No, we. In what household?
- [41:04]
David Cobb
Tennessee. He's a household name in Tennessee.
- [41:06]
Gary Parish
Is he though? Is he like, in certain parts of Tennessee? Could I walk into my wife's uncle's house and be like, yo, so what do you think of Chaz Lanier? You guys live in Tennessee? And they would automatically know what I'm talking about.
- [41:22]
David Cobb
You live in Germantown. Where's he live?
- [41:23]
Gary Parish
Bartlett.
- [41:24]
David Cobb
Oh, man, that's. Those are my homies. Amar Knox. Shout out, Bartlett. Anyway, shout out.
- [41:31]
Gary Parish
Do you think your neighbors on either side of you growing up in Bartlett right now? Absolutely. 100 know who Chaz Linier is.
- [41:39]
David Cobb
You know, a lot of them have moved away. A lot of them got out of the main streets of Bartlett and moved over to Germantown.
- [41:44]
Gary Parish
You know, I understand that. I made that own. I did that trek myself, not from Bartlett to Germantown, but Horn Lake to Hernando. It's a similar. It's a similar path.
- [41:51]
David Cobb
Good on you, bro. Good on you. Yeah, you got. Hey, by the way, do you see there was a Slack meme or gif of you with hair circulating. It's like a Jerry Palm hairpiece on top of your head. It's all.
- [42:04]
Gary Parish
I once. I think I once said in Slack that I feel like I could be a bracketologist. And then somebody put Palm's hair on my head and said, that's our new bracket.
- [42:13]
David Cobb
It's like the thing in Slack today. Everybody's responding to everything with this picture of you with hair. But I love it. It's fantastic.
- [42:21]
Gary Parish
The thing about our CBS Sports College Basketball Slack channel is that I always see things two days later. Everything you've ever, everything you've ever put in that slack, I saw it two days later.
- [42:31]
David Cobb
You'll see it Saturday. But now, yeah, I don't think the people in Bartlett would, would consider Chazlin, you're a household name. And to your point, this time last year Dalton connect might have been, he might have been a household name. Chaz Lanier has a chance now to make himself that. So I, I, I would have given you the point on the jump ball, Gary. I would have given it to you.
- [42:48]
Gary Parish
My point was simply this. Those of us who live in college basketball, we get so in it that we were just like, well, everybody would know Chaz Lanier. He's the transfer that, you know, kind of like don't connect out. Chaz lanier in 29 points, 5 rebounds against wofford 11 of 22 from the field, 6, 13 from 3. Been doing stuff like this all season long. Except I think you could take Chaz Lanier, walk him down Bill street in Memphis and if he didn't have orange clothes on, you would not know who he is. And that's what I meant by it. You can become famous in the NCAA tournament to a different degree than even if you are a very good college basketball player in November, December, January, February. I honestly in college basketball I think there might be outside of the coaches, there's lots of coaches who are household names players. Cooper Flag. How many players are actually household names? So that's what I meant by that. But whatever. We've already spent too much time complaining about jump ball Chazine there, he's the guy like he's made eight three pointers in a game. So he's the type of guy who on a big stage in the round of 32 with an opportunity to go to the sweet 16 if he could pop off again. I don't know if it takes you to household name but it certainly makes you more famous than you otherwise would be. Think about Jack Golke last season and I'm not comparing those two people as players, but Jack Golkey quite literally went from who to I still remember his name today. And lots of people do. Like you could be in a television studio talking about the NCAA tournament and just be like goalkee and people will know what you're saying. That's it. That's the, when you do this stuff on this stage, it's it, it's a different level of notoriety and that's how you actually can become a household name again. The five episode countdown to the season finale of Fire country Begins on April 4th, if you need to catch up, you can binge on Paramount Plus I know I said let's try to keep it at 30. It's 39, 30 right now, so you know we only missed by a little bit. That was probably my fault. I apologize.
- [44:47]
David Cobb
Ah, it's all good.
- [44:48]
Gary Parish
You ready to go to bed?
- [44:50]
David Cobb
I'm so ready.
- [44:51]
Gary Parish
You know what I'm about to do? This sounds so stupid. It's 3:15 in the morning. You know what I'm about to do?
- [44:56]
David Cobb
Probably another radio hit or something.
- [44:59]
Gary Parish
I'm about to go on CBS Sports hq. I'm about to do an HQ hit. No I'm not. I'm off. I'm off for the night. This is this. I'm done. 3:15 in the morning. I'm done. I'm about to watch the season finale of Severance that just dropped tonight on Apple Plus. I am so excited, I am so excited to watch this that before I, before I put my head on this pillow, I'm just gonna watch, I'm gonna watch the series finale, a season finale of season two of Severance.
- [45:28]
David Cobb
So you got me hooked on Landman, you and Matt, you, you always throwing in these random Landman promo. I got me hooked like you, you literally got me hooked.
- [45:37]
Gary Parish
Well, the truth is like it's not, it's a good show. It's actually good and I love, I love Billy Bob, I just love, I just, it's a fun show. Layman's easy to watch. It's on Paramount Plus 2. So once you're caught up on Fire country, go get, go watch season one of Landman and then if you want to jump over to Apple tv. Plus season two of Severance wrapped up late tonight and I will spend the next hour or so of my life watching it provided I don't fall asleep. But given that it's 3:15 in the morning, I might. We'll see. I'll let you know. On the next episode of the Island College Basketball Podcast, we'll give an official review of season two finale of Severance. Then for now, let's call it a night. Shouts to Devin Downey. Shouts to Chester, South Carolina. Terry Teagle's a legend. Huck Larnell. Thank you guys once again for watching and listening to the Ion College Basketball podcast. If you're not subscribed, please go subscribe anywhere you subscribe to Pods, Apple, Spotify, more of us than there are of them. That needs to be reflected in the comments. So do that and we will be back tomorrow night. Just in the spirit of transparency. We're not making you wait till 2:30 in the morning tomorrow night. Matt Norlander is in an off day in Providence. He will be hosting, I think with Cal Boone tomorrow night. And then I'll be back on Saturday night for another late night edition. But we're gonna have you here on the Island College Basketball podcast covered in some form every night after NCAA Tournament games. So be here with us again. I'm looking at you guys in the chat. It's insane saying that you are here. I appreciate you being here. Love you. Talk to you again real soon. Till then, take care. Paramount Podcasts for the ones who get it done, the most important part is the one you need now. And the best partner is the one who can deliver. That's why millions of maintenance and repair pros trust Grainger because we have professional grade supplies for every industry, even hard to find products. And we have same day pickup and next day delivery on most orders. But most importantly, we have an unwavering commitment to help keep you up and running. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.