🎉Our BIG 2025 Year-in-Review! 🎊 Parrish + Norlander reveal their Top 🔟 stories of the year in college🏀

Summary

Eye On College Basketball Podcast

🎉 Our BIG 2025 Year-in-Review! Parrish + Norlander Reveal Their Top 10 Stories of the Year in College Basketball

Date: December 29, 2025
Hosts: Gary Parrish (GP) & Matt Norlander
Podcast: CBS Sports Eye On College Basketball

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Episode Overview

In this special year-end episode, Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander revisit and rank their Top 10 college basketball stories of 2025. Each creates a personal list, covering the year’s major headlines—from on-court triumphs and historic firsts to off-court controversies and evolving landscapes in NIL, recruiting, and the NCAA Tournament. Expect insightful debate, nostalgia, humor, and sharp college hoops analysis that makes Eye On College Basketball a listener favorite.

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Main Discussion: Top 10 College Basketball Stories of 2025

[02:26] – Episode Kickoff & Rules

• Norlander and Parrish greet listeners, swap Christmas stories, and remind the audience: their Top 10 lists are independently created and not shared with each other ahead of time.
• Norlander: “It is my vow...this podcast will not go more than an hour 45. The last one. We very much intend to make this at least somewhat shorter than that one.” [08:20]
• GP: “Let’s get going so I can spend time with my family.” [10:19]

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#10 Stories [11:10]

Norlander’s #10:
February 1st: Chaos Day—Historic Upsets Everywhere

• 11 ranked teams lost, 10 to lower/unranked opponents (most ever in one day).
• Five top-15 teams lost at home (also a record).
• Notably: “Luca for AD” blockbuster NBA trade broke during the college hoop mayhem.
• Upsets included:
  • Tennessee routing Florida by 20
  • Texas Tech snapping Houston's 33-game home streak
  • Sub-.500 Kansas State wins at #3 Iowa State by 19 (largest ever for such matchup)
  • Arkansas beats Kentucky at Rupp, changing the Razorbacks’ season trajectory
  • More: Duke over UNC, K-State over Iowa State, and a record day for losses by bluebloods
• Norlander: “February 1st, top 10 chaos day in the past 10, 15, 20 years. That’s number 10 on my list.” [15:56]
• GP: “Definitely not on my list. I don’t even think like that.” [16:16]

Parrish’s #10:
Daryn Peterson's Start at Kansas Marred by Injury & Family Decisions

• KU star freshman, hyped as perhaps the nation’s best, missed 9 of 13 games.
• Debates swirl about Peterson’s readiness/rest, with his family involved in choices.
• GP: “I do hope...we see him play next weekend in KU’s Big 12 opener and then never miss another game again.” [18:43]

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#9 Stories [19:26]

Norlander’s #9:
Players Era Non-Conference Event Changes the Calendar and Dollars

• Players Era pays out $20M+, hosts a record 18 teams, and becomes a November force.
• Big 12 secures major future involvement.
• Major shakeup for non-league scheduling and Maui Invitational's future.
• Norlander: “Frankly, Players Era probably will make this list...again one of the bigger stories." [21:00]

Parrish’s #9:
Maui Invitational Fading as Players Era Rises

• Former Thanksgiving classic now weakly attended by top teams; future uncertain.
• GP: “My fear is that we’re losing something that was special to the sport and special for the people..." [22:05]

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#8 Stories [23:20]

Norlander’s #8:
Best Freshman Class—"The Year Freshmen Mattered Again"

• Class headlined by Boozer, DeBansa, Caleb Wilson, and Kingston Flemings praised as maybe the best ever.
• Norlander: “It really could be the best freshman class we’ve seen ever, or one of the two or three best ever at this point, and it has uplifted the watchability of the sport.” [25:03]

Parrish’s #8:
Gambling Scandals Sideline Players & Threaten Integrity

• Ongoing, frequent headlines—Arizona State, New Orleans, others.
• GP: “Bringing gambling as mainstream as it now is is going to lead to these headlines being fairly common, I’m afraid.” [27:01]

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#7 Stories [30:38]

Norlander’s #7:
Willard & Miller Coaching Dramas: Villanova & Texas Shakeups

• Kevin Willard leaves Maryland for Villanova, openly pines for Philly return, draws ire by dragging out process.
• Sean Miller leaves Xavier for Texas, burning bridges.
• Norlander: “Willard was openly discussing [leaving], and as I said on the show then...he made enemies out of Maryland fans forever.” [31:00]
• GP: “He must have regrets.” [32:56]

Parrish’s #7:
AJ DeBansa’s Groundbreaking NIL Move to BYU

• Top-5 national recruit from New England spurns bluebloods, enrolls at BYU for reported unprecedented NIL deal.
• GP: “Is AJ DeBansa the biggest example of NIL can take an elite prospect anywhere?” [35:36]
• Norlander: “Just seeing someone as good as him how just him on the floor, it’s like, huh, Jimmer for that doesn’t even compare.” [38:43]
• GP: “Money well spent. I’d double the wage right now if I needed to.” [39:37]

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#6 Stories [39:42]

Norlander’s #6:
Dan Hurley: “Two Rings, Baldy”—UConn Coach Stays in the Headlines

• Multiple viral moments (ex: “Two rings, baldy!” to a Creighton fan).
• Book release, admits to “a shit year. I didn’t coach my best. I didn’t lead my best.” [43:09]
• Rumors of stepping away, but returns—and keeps UConn relevant and unpredictable.
• Norlander: “He is the face of the sport with what UConn has been able to do and with the headlines he’s been able to produce.” [43:49]

Parrish’s #6:
St. John’s: Big East Titles, Offseason Drama, Highs and Hangovers

• St. John’s wins first outright Big East title since 1985, then crashes in NCAAs and stumbles early in new season.
• GP: “Everything St. John’s is a big story in the year 2025.” [48:05]

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#5 Stories [48:05]

Norlander’s #5:
No True Cinderellas in 2025 NCAA Tournament

• No mid-major in Sweet 16 for (almost) the first time ever; all Sweet 16 are "power conference" teams.
• Only double-digit seed: #10 Arkansas under John Calipari.
• Norlander: “Statistically, the 2025 NCAA Tournament had the fewest upsets of any March Madness ever…” [50:02]
• GP: “When John Calipari is your Cinderella, you’ve lost something.” [51:13]

Parrish’s #5:
Former NBA Draft Pick James Nnaji Cleared to Play College Ball

• Nnaji, drafted, played pro, then ruled eligible at Baylor—the doors now wide open for similar future cases.
• GP: “There is not a single person on the planet right now who can tell you...who is eligible and who’s not...The NCAA is consistently telling us that they’re adjusting on the fly.” [58:20]

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#4 Stories [58:47]

Norlander’s #4:
Cooper Flagg vs. Johni Broome: An All-Time National Player of the Year Race

• Flagg (Duke) and Broome (Auburn) with extraordinary stats, trade leader status all season.
• Norlander: “One of the best national player of the year races of the past 30 or 40 years.” [58:47]

Parrish’s #4:
Cooper Flagg: Youngest Wooden Award Winner Ever

• The presence of elite talent still pays off, even in the experienced-transfers era.
• “Even in the transfer portal era, where older teams tend to do better...elite talent is still elite talent, whatever the age.” [62:52]

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#3 Stories [64:12]

Parrish’s #3:
SEC’s Unprecedented Dominance: 14 Teams in the NCAA Tournament

• All but two SEC programs (LSU, South Carolina) make the dance.
• SEC sets records: 14 bids, 8 in Round of 32, 7 Sweet 16, 4 Elite Eight, 2 Final Four, Florida wins the title.
• GP: “It didn’t just put a record number of teams in the tournament. Once they got there, they performed well.” [65:28]

Norlander’s #3:
Portal Money & The “House” Settlement Redefine Recruiting Chaos

• $10M+ rosters become the norm for ~20 teams.
• Questions about collectives, cap, legal limits, fairness, and the future.
• Norlander: “The gears and levers that maneuver the sport are in many ways working against each other... this is my number three story.” [67:56]

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#2 Stories [69:08]

Parrish’s #2:
The Death of Mid-Major Cinderella—No Power Conference Teams in Sweet 16

• See #5 for details; noted as symbolic of a likely trend.
• “Cinderella’s non-existent...I think that’s going to be more common than it’s ever been.” [51:13]

Norlander’s #2:
Duke’s Epic Season + Cooper Flagg’s Collapse in Final Four vs. Houston

• Flagg, Knueppel, and loaded Duke dominate most of the year before an all-time Final Four collapse to Houston (squander 14-point lead, offensive heat check, Houston rallies).
• Norlander: “The most efficient offense in the history of KenPom scored one field goal in the final 10 minutes and 30 seconds.” [70:09]

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#1 Stories [71:29]

Norlander’s #1:
Florida’s National Title Crowns SEC as Greatest Conference Ever

• Florida wins third title, led by Walter Clayton (Final Four MOP, clear #3 player nationally).
• SEC sets all-time record for NCAA Tournament wins (23), KenPom rating, and 14 bids.
• “Florida’s national title cements the SEC having the best season in college basketball history.” [71:29]
• “Florida does it by overcoming Houston down 12 in the second half to the Cougars. They never led by more than two in the entire game. The Gators up their position... getting that third national championship, doing it the way you did, getting another Final Four ... a really, really strong run.” [74:08]

Parrish’s #1:
Todd Golden's Stunning Arc: Title IX Investigation to National Champion

• Golden survived a Title IX investigation (allegations of harassment, stalking)—facing the prospect of losing his job, then coaching Florida to the title amidst heavy scrutiny and pressure.
• GP: “That is an all-time flip script, buddy. I mean, that’s an all-timer.” [73:46]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the NIL Era's Influence:
  “Is AJ DeBansa the biggest example of NIL can take an elite prospect anywhere?” – Gary Parrish [35:36]
• On SEC’s rise:
  “Florida’s national title cements the SEC having the best season in college basketball history. There’s no argument.” – Matt Norlander [71:31]
• On Gambling’s impact:
  “Bringing gambling as mainstream as it now is, is going to lead to these headlines being fairly common, I’m afraid.” – Gary Parrish [27:01]
• On Dan Hurley’s persona:
  “Two rings, baldy.” [40:36]—creighton fan moment
  “It was all my doing. I’m not a victim... I did it throughout the year.” – Dan Hurley (quoted by Norlander) [43:09]
• On the unpredictability of eligibility rules:
  “There’s not a single person on the planet right now who can tell you with any sort of degree of certainty who is eligible and who’s not... The NCAA is consistently telling us that they’re adjusting on the fly.” – GP [58:20]
• On the competitive landscape:
  “When John Calipari is your Cinderella, you’ve lost something.” – GP [51:13]

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Fun Housekeeping / Listener Engagement [76:55]

• Favorite running jokes from the year (St. John’s preseason #1 flameout; Norlander hitting wrong soundboard buttons)
• Podcast countries: Heard in 189 countries in 2025, including one download each from exotic locales (Lichtenstein, Vanuatu, Marshall Islands).
• Trivia: Top non-US countries for podcast downloads – Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, Singapore [83:40]
• On AI & misinformation: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell fact from fiction...I feel like this is gonna get bad.” – GP [81:26]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 02:26 – Banter, holiday recaps, show format
• 11:10 – Beginning of Top 10 lists
• 21:20 – Feast week/Players Era discussion
• 25:22 – Best freshman class in history
• 27:01 – Ongoing gambling headlines
• 35:36 – Impact of NIL on recruiting/deBansa to BYU
• 39:42 – Dan Hurley’s year of controversies
• 48:05 – St. John’s highs/lows, tournament Cinderella narrative
• 58:20 – NBA Draftee eligibility chaos (James Nnaji)
• 62:52 – Cooper Flagg and NPOY race
• 64:12 – Portal $/House settlement chaos
• 65:28 – SEC’s historic 2025, Florida title
• 70:09 – Duke’s epic collapse in Final Four
• 73:46 – Todd Golden’s tumult, Florida’s title
• 76:55 – Listener moments, trivia, wrap-ups

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Summary

This episode delivers a comprehensive, entertaining, and enlightening look back at the wild, unpredictable, and impactful year that was 2025 in college basketball. Parrish and Norlander’s lists examine not only what happened on the floor—legendary seasons, epic collapses, and the slow extinction of Cinderella—but also what’s shaking the foundation of college hoops: the transfer portal, NIL, gambling scandals, and eligibility conundrums. Through playful ribbing, memorable soundbites, and sharp insight, they offer a must-listen wrap of the year—all in their signature tone that blends deep reporting with diehard fan enthusiasm.

If you missed 2025, or just want a refresher, this episode puts a bow on college basketball’s biggest developments—while leaving you laughing and eagerly awaiting what 2026 will bring.

Transcript

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[Paris]

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[Gary Parrish]

Sam.

[Paris]

Hey there.

[Gary Parrish]

I am Gary Parrish. Welcome back 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, be Brandon Davies Smash. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the CBS Sports I own College Basketball podcast, please do that wherever you subscribe to podcasts like Apple and Spotify. Let's get into it. First and foremost, I hope everybody had a nice Christmas or a nice week or a nice whatever. Norlander, did you have a nice Christmas or a nice week or a nice whatever?

[Paris]

I did. It's good to see you. We got hit with a pretty substantial snowstorm in the northeast on the 26th. We actually went out and saw my sister in law. They live about 30 minutes from us. And then we're all looking, it gets to be about 5 o' clock and we're looking at our phones and it says, oh, this storm that we're talking about, that says it's about to hit in about 25 minutes. Let's get on the road.

[Gary Parrish]

We're about talking.

[Paris]

We pulled into our driveway and the flakes were just starting to fall. I'm not exaggerating. And anyone that's listening to this that lives in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, you know what I'm talking about. Within 30 minutes there were 3 inches on the ground. It was the fastest falling snowstorm I could ever remember. We got six inches. So yesterday for the first time, my kids and I just for whatever reason, we had never actually done it. We rallied some of their friends. We actually had a full on snow sledding day. We got at this really tremendous hill about a five minute drive from us in town. So I was straight on sledding for for three hours yesterday. It was an awesome way to, to cap off this, this Christmas weekend. And in addition to podcasting with you, Christmas went well. I did cave and get my boys a switch to. I'm very happy to discover that there's a whole app, parental controls, the whole deal. They don't mess around, they've only got Mario Kart. I hopped in, I had not played Mario Kart.

[Gary Parrish]

Oh, it's so fun.

[Paris]

In like 17 years. I still got it. First race, 150cc, second place. I'm a toad guy by the way. I'm always towed second race first just dominating. And then I was talking to my youngest brother who listens. Not only listens to the show. Hello, Cody. I know you listen to every show. He plays the switch too. He's like, you can go get the SNES, the N64. You can get all that for free. I thought that was the case. That's not the case. You gotta buy the expansion packs with all that. I haven't done it yet, and I don't really ever play video games, but it's one of those things where I got a little taste of that drug, got a little taste of that Mario Kart. And I'm like telling me I can play goldeneye right now. You're telling me I can play Tecmo Bowl. So I haven't done yet. I'm resisting on that. But my boys were thrilled with that. And I also bought them. Haven't put it together yet. You can get it on Amazon. There's this like nine foot tall goal poster in the backyard. Four pylons. We got all the snow, so we're going to get that together. It was a fun Christmas. We got a Roma dunesday jersey into the mix here in advance. I told them they haven't been able to do this yet. My boys are 10 and 7. They've never been able to stay up to the end of a Bears game that ends late. I said their Christmas present. If they want to, they can watch bears 49ers in full tonight. So we're excited for that as well. How was your Christmas week?

[Gary Parrish]

Wonderful. Just to. To note the different locations in which we live. But while you were having a snowball fight, I was playing golf in shorts.

[Paris]

That is. That is insane that you actually got. You got an 18 this week. All the good. The golf courses here, you know what they were being used for? Sledding. That's what you do in the Northeast when there's snow on the golf course.

[Gary Parrish]

No, bro. It's 71 degrees this morning. Got 18 holes before noon. 71. It was beautiful. No, it was. It's been warm all week. Does that matter to you whether it's warm or not warm on Christmas like it does?

[Paris]

No. I want. We actually did not have snow on Christmas. The irony is that we got it after. I was actually supposed to take my little guy skiing tomorrow. It's gonna rain. Ate that. So we might have to postpone that a couple days. No, I want. I grew up in Vermont. I love the cold. I embrace the snow. I love winter. It's my favorite Season.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, we went to Telluride for Christmas several years back. Like a long time.

[Paris]

I remember because you had never been skiing. And I made your wife text me the videos and damn, do I wish I still had those to put those on the pod. I was like, I need every single photo and video of this guy on skis. I think that's a good like 10, 11 years ago. I remember when you did that.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, it was, it was, it must. Okay, so my little guy, my middle guy just turned 12 and he was learning how to walk on the. His first steps were taken. And Telluride, we have that on video as well. So it was 11 years ago because I remember he was about a year old. And so, so yes, I got to ski and that was hilarious. But just sort of waking up and seeing the snow in the mountains and the cold, like that that mattered. That like meant something on Christmas. And we just did not get that this year. But we did get nice weather. Yeah. Like, our oldest son came back into town with his girlfriend and so we got to spend Christmas morning together and then on Christmas day, it's sort of a cool thing. My buddy Craig Brewer is the writer and director of like one of the big Christmas openings. Song Sung Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. You know, Craig's a Memphis guy and so we decided to go a just like see a great film but support our friend on Christmas Day. So we went and saw Craig's film and just the whole thing, it was just, it's been really, it's been real, like a real beautiful holiday. And also, you know, we have gotten a little bit of a break. You know, the top 25 and one hasn't been updated in a few days. And so it's, all of this has been nice, but it's good to be back here ready to talk college basketball.

[Paris]

No doubt about it. We've had a really, really fun filled, terrific season year. It's the poll question right now to anyone watching, you know, how would you grade 2025 overall? Great, pretty good, mixed or subpar. We'll get to the results of that before we, before we get out of here. But yeah, little break here and then we still lacking games for a few more days. So we'll be back with you in a few days after. But always happy and excited to recap the year. As a reminder of how we do this, Parrish and I intentionally create our own top 10 list, not knowing what the others is. Later this [e-mail] I will have and I've been doing this as the years have gone on. The 22 biggest stories of 2022. The 23 biggest stories of 2023. I. I'm going to have the 25 biggest stories of 2025. I am drawing the line there. When I got to do this for 2026, I'm not going to 26. It's going to be whatever I think should be on the list, whether that's 17, 19, 24, whatever. That's it. So anything we don't mention here today, just know there's going to be even more mentioned in that story there, and we'll trade off. And it is my vow. I hope I'm not cursing us. This podcast will not go more than an hour 45. The last one. We very much intend to make this at least somewhat shorter than that one.

[Gary Parrish]

It cannot go an hour 45. Here's the truth. Also, like, sort of. This is a weird. Like, you're experiencing a weird day in my life right now. So our oldest son came into town. He doesn't live here anymore. And our middle guy, we were like, hey, Oliver, what do you want for your birthday? And his birthday was yesterday. And it was like. And it always sort of gets mixed in with Christmas. It's rough. It always gets mixed in with Christmas. And he genuinely said, I. I just would like to go spend time with Aiden and Julie. And so they were like, cool. So he's with them. He went out of town with them for his birthday. Our little guys with my mother. We have an empty house. So if I. If I'm podcasting for two hours, my wife.

[Paris]

Should be with his wife. Instead, he's with me right now.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, I could be. I. I could be alone with my wife. Instead, I'm alone with you.

[Paris]

Hey, no, that's the story of this show.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, but, like, so let's get going. Let's get going so I can spend time with my family.

[Paris]

Watch. I'm gonna have all these words for all my stories. Paris is gonna just wrap this up in, like, 30 seconds. Yeah.

[Gary Parrish]

Okay, look, number 10 is. All right, so let's get to the list. We did the top 10 stories intentionally. We did not exchange list. We. As of this moment, I know as much about Norlander's list as anybody listening knows about Norlander's list. Yes. I did not do Google searches to try to find other people's list, if they exist. I really did go off the top of my bald head with the idea being, if I. If I. If I nail this, that's going to be pretty impressive. And if I don't, it'll be funny. Just like the time Norlander left Bob Knight's termination off of the top 25 stories of this century. So let's see if. Let's see if there's anything big that I'm going to miss because it's possible.

[Paris]

It's possible we both missed something big. By the way, that's very much on the table. So in the YouTube comments in the live chat, if you've got certain things from the show and obviously from the sport this year, let us know. We enjoy reading them. I'll go first with number 10. And by the way, as to what GP just referenced, if you just came around when the season started, hey, in the summer, go look for it. We did a whole top 25 and 1 stories of the 2000s. Just overall overarching stuff. If you want a little bit more of this content as we wait for the calendar to pick up my number 10 story, I can almost guarantee you is not on your list because I don't think you would have thought to do it if you did. Kudos to you, but I don't think so. It's February 1st, the biggest non NCAA tournament basketball day of 2025, and really one of the most chaotic days of college basketball in recent memory. 11 ranked teams lost, 10 lost to lower ranked or unranked opponents. That was the most in one day ever. Five top 15 teams lost at home on February 1, the most in one day ever. The only better ranked team to lose to a fellow ranked opponent was when number one Auburn beat number 23 Mississippi. You want to hear all these results, GP and refresh your memory because I guarantee you this ain't on your list.

[Gary Parrish]

If you're asking that question honestly, my answer is no.

[Paris]

Yep. Do you know the very big.

[Gary Parrish]

I don't want to hear all of them.

[Paris]

Do you remember the very, very big thing that happened on February 1st? Huge story, not huge basketball story. Okay, not a huge college basketball story.

[Gary Parrish]

Is it Luca getting traded?

[Paris]

It is. So that was technically after midnight on the East Coast, February 2nd, but it was February one and all the other time zones. And so subsequently, after this insane, insane, huge day of college basketball, the Luca AD stuff subsequently over. I remember this day so well because I was in the HQ studio and it was a marathon day of highlights, reaction, one thing after another after another after another, getting ready to take the final thing on, I think on St. Mary's Gonzaga. And then I remember someone saying in my ear, you know, Luca and AD just got traded for each other. And I remember telling the I was like, you guys need to triple check that. There's no way correct. We've talked about this on the show. But I was like, because I was I didn't have my phone up in front of me. I didn't have Twitter up in front of me. I was doing tv. I was like, this is not like they're basically like we got to wrap this because we got to talk about Luca ad for the next hour. I was like, I don't. Are you guys sure about this? Anyway, all of this stuff happened on February 1st and I'll try and go quick, but this is a refresher and an insane day. Number 8 Tennessee wallop. Number 5 Florida 6444 it was Florida's penultimate loss of the season. Tennessee beat Florida by 20. Only the second time in history that you had two teams ranked beat each other by 20 plus in the same season. The only other time that happened was Oklahoma. Villanova number 22 Texas Tech won at number 6 Houston 82 81. That was Houston's penultimate loss of the season. Houston won after JT Toppin and Grant McCaslin got kicked out in the first two minutes of that game. Houston's 33 game home winning streak was kaput. Sub 500 Kansas State 1 at number three Iowa State on February 1, 80 to 61, Iowa State's 29 game winning streak was over and the result was probably the most shocking of the season when it happened in the moment. Kansas State's 19 point win at ISU, which was a top five team, was the largest ever road win by margin in the history of the AP poll by the winning team being under.500. Number 20, Missouri won at number 14, Mississippi State, 88 to 61. Middling USC ended the second longest winning streak in the country, which belonged to number seven Michigan State that lost that day 70 to 64. Unranked Oklahoma eviscerated number 24 Vanderbilt by 30 points. Number 25, Yukon One at number nine, Marquette. Remember, Yukon was a little up and a little down, 7769. Unranked Baylor beat Kansas, then ranked number 11, 81 to 70 after Kansas blew the largest lead in school history 21 points. Baylor scored 60 in the second half to win that game. Number 13, Texas A and M lost at the only bad SEC team, South Carolina. A bad Georgia tech team won 7770 over number 21 Louisville. The Cardinals gave up 50 in the second half and I haven't even gotten to the most notable Result of the day. That was the day that Calipari returned to Rupp arena. Arkansas was 1 in 6 in the SEC going into that game. It beat 12th ranked Kentucky 89, 79. Basically changed the alter the, you know, the trajectory of Arkansas season at that point. And by the way, there's even more. Duke beat Carolina with ease. 87 70. The lead was even bigger at that point. That really heated up Hubert Davis's seat, which only cooled in the past few weeks. St. John's one on CBS with three seconds to go against Providence. A bad Providence team, but a key win for St. John's courtesy of Kaderi Richmond. And then St. Mary's Beacon Zag at 62:58. At that point, St. Mary's is 23. Gonzaga was 16 and 7. All of this happened on February 1st. It was insane. My last thing, Kansas, Carolina, Kentucky. Those are the three winning schools in the history of college basketball when they all lost by double digits. It was only the second time in history that those three schools all lost on double digits on the same day. February 1st, top 10 chaos day in the past 10, 15, 20 years. That's number 10 on my list.

[Gary Parrish]

Okay, definitely not on my list. I don't even think like that.

[Paris]

Yep, I got you. But it was insane.

[Gary Parrish]

But I remember most of that stuff. Or that was a lie. I remember some of that stuff. And most notably the Luca thing. And I experienced it the exact same way. The same way you did. CBS Sports Network. I'm in studio, we're about to go live. And Seth Edelstein's producing. And it's like, hey, we're back in 20. And it's like in my ear. G.P. you see this? You see this trade? What's the trade? It might be fake. You see this trade? What's the trade set? Just tell me the trade. Luca for Anthony Davis. No, that's fake. Seth. And we're back. And then if we do the. And then we go back to commercial seven minutes later and it's like, no, it's real. What? Just a weird bananas day. Didn't make my list. But an incredible day on a lot of different levels. Number 10 on my list. It's possible. We also constructed our list wildly different ways.

[Paris]

Inevitably.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah.

[Paris]

I already warned our shouts to Claire, who is producing pinch hitting here. Josh, still back from his three week long vacation. I said, Claire, just be aware. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know when he's coming back. I said, Claire, just be aware. The way that I make my list and the way Paris makes his list are very, very different. So just brace for that. So go ahead, give me your number 10.

[Gary Parrish]

Number 10. Darren Peterson's college career gets off to a rough start because of injuries. I think that's been one of the big storylines of the this season. So far. He's missed nine of KU's first 13 games. Hamstring issue, cramping issues. Bill Self most recently has made it clear that the family is playing a role in dictating the win. Darren will be available for Kansas. I think the hope is that when he's back, he's back for good. But this is obviously a huge story connected to the program, a big story in college basketball, because as great as Cameron Boozer has been from the jump and as great as AJ DeBonta has been recently, Darren Peterson, in most people's eyes was supposed to be the best freshman in the country and perhaps the best college basketball player in the country. And we, we have barely seen him. I will say some of the conspiracies connect. Like I've seen some people get really worked up about the idea that Darren Peterson's family is playing a role in like this is very normal in the NBA, is what I'm trying to say. When John Morant has a soft tissue injury, John Moran is largely in charge of telling the Grizzlies when he feels like he's ready to play. And and like Ty Jerome suffered a calf strain in October, he still hasn't played a single game this season. These things can take time. They don't always take a ton of time, but they can take time. And unfortunately this one's taking longer than most would have wanted or even than some expected. But I do hope, fingers crossed, that we see him play next weekend in KU's Big 12 opener and then never miss another game again.

[Paris]

I have this on my list. It's not in my top 10. You'll have to wait and see where it is when the story publishes. I decided to include it with Kansas has its most turbulent year since the 1980s. Considering what Kansas did last season, what it didn't do and then it transfers over to the will he won't he with Darren Peterson, I kind of folded them all in one kind of a GP move there. So on my list, but not in my top 10. Obviously a very, very noisy start so far for the Peterson stuff to this point, let's go to number nine. My number nine is the players era helps pay out more than $20 million, sets a record by hosting 18 teams in a single regular season event and basically alters the non conference scheduling model both in 2025 and moving forward. It was a groundbreaking event in 2024. Didn't really pierce the consciousness too much of of the general sports world or even to a certain extent college basketball. That changed in 2025. It became a viable entity. Some college basketball fans hated it. A lot of coaches wanted to in on it. But it was making headlines even in leading up to the event, before the event even got played. Sporadically, you know, as it, as it grew and when it got more teens, when Kansas suddenly was involved and this, that and the other, the Big 12 deal that will ensure at least eight of its teams are now going to be involved moving forward and the tens and tens of millions of dollars that have been agreed to contractually between the Big 12 and players era. There's just a lot of that. Obviously the event itself was noisy. The flawed format, the changes that purportedly are going to come in 2026 and beyond. It's going to go to 32 teams next year. Frankly, the players there probably will make this list. I don't know if they'll make the top 10 a year from now, but next year in general it will probably be again. One of the bigger stories because of the very nature of the event and what it's purporting to do. I'm going to guess this didn't make Paris's list, but maybe it did. But I thought considering the amount of money it's outsized presence in November, what it's doing to threaten the MGE model. Yes, yes. I thought it was a clear cut. Number nine for my list.

[Gary Parrish]

So this is interesting. We got the same thing at 9. I just flipped it around. I've got the Maui Invitational starts to die at the expense of Players ERA festival. So it's the same type of thing. I'm just looking at it from a different perspective. This Maui field was widely regarded as the worst Maui field we've ever seen. Only one ranked team in it, zero top 20 teams in it, unranked. USC won it next year. The field is already set with Arizona, byu, Clemson, Colorado State, Ole Miss, Providence, VCU in Washington. That's better, I think, but still not where Maui was in its heyday. And who knows what it'll look like in 2027. So we've talked about this a lot on the pod. We don't have to spend much time on it here, but that's a special event. The visuals that come out of there, you and I have both been. It's an awesome experience. So many young men have probably left the continental United States for the first time to go to Maui to play in that event. It's a real life experience for so many and my fear is that we're losing something that was special to the sport and special for the people who got to experience it. Las Vegas is awesome. Everybody has a good time there. But Maui's a different trip of different event and I hope there's a way to salvage it and make it still mean something in what we refer to as feast week. Obviously they're going to have to change their business model if they want to be that. Hopefully there's a way to do it because I like turning on the television on that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of Thanksgiving and seeing that little gem and compelling ranked versus ranked matchups, you know, originating inside of there and and we quite literally did not have that this year because it was impossible to have given the lack of ranked teams in the field.

[Paris]

No doubt about it. I like when we unintentionally line up there we go with number nine. Okay, number eight. The best freshman class maybe ever showcases itself early and often is my number eight story. You could even if you wanted to go broader on this and say 2025, the year when freshmen really mattered again and phrase it like that, I'd buy that because dating back to last season, you had Jace Richardson obviously Cooper flag, but Jace Richardson at Michigan State, even someone like Asa Newell at Georgia getting them to the tournament and mattering Derek Queen at Maryland, Con Knippel, VJ Edgecombe, they were really good. Jaegor Demon a little bit up and down, but he was a factor and wound up being a lottery pick there. So there were really good freshmen a season ago. But really my story is more focused in on this, this freshman class. This is the story where I am extremely confident it's in my top 10 this year and I think it'll be in my top 10 next year and might be cracking the top five because you've got even with the Peterson stuff and him not even being a major factor to this point for the most part. Boozer Debanza, Caleb Wilson, Kingston Flemings, Koa P, Darius Acuff Jr. Mikhail Brown Jr. Braylon Mullins and still plenty more. It really could be the best freshman class we've seen ever, or one of the two or three best ever at this point and it has uplifted the watchability of the sport. The talent is quite clearly obvious and irresistible and I think how good they've looked led by Boozer and Debance more than anyone else to this point. Registers to me tried not to be too prisoner of the moment, but I do think that this stuff is is on a very, very good trajectory and will only carry higher to be a bigger story as we flip to the second half of the season. But I think what what those guys have been able to do has been a big story and just this isn't on my list but for this show. But in the top 25 story list overall, the general start to the season that college basketball's had this season, that's also on the list. But to me the flasher, the star power, the names ranks higher than college basketball having its best November, December start in a generation. That is also on my list. It's just not in my top 10.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, that's good. That's something I if I were redoing this, I would have that type of item somewhere in my type 10. This freshman class is arguably the best ever that deserves to be recognized in that way. I've got a debancer item here on my list that we'll get to. But yes, focusing in on the freshman class at large is probably a good place to be. My number eight was how players continue to be sidelined by gambling scandals. And this is a thing in college basketball. It's a thing throughout sports now, just some programs that have dealt with it. Arizona State, New Orleans, Eastern Michigan, Temple, Fresno State, just to name a few. But like the list is long and I, I'm when does this touch a player that matters? When does it touch a program that we care about? When does it, when does it get connected to an NCAA tournament game? You know, the prop bets are what gets most of the attention. Yeah. But there are other stories where the allegations are players were literally shaving points. Like, like, not just like, oh, my hamstrings hurt. I've got to check out of the game. I went under three and a half rebounds. It was like, hey, we are 23 point underdogs. We're down by 25. There's an allegation that one player told his teammates in a huddle, no more points, we don't score anymore.

[Paris]

All right?

[Gary Parrish]

Like that's that. Like that is actually dictating the result of a game specifically.

[Paris]

And.

[Gary Parrish]

I don't know that there's an obvious fix for it. Somebody's always going to need money and somebody's always going to be willing to give it to them to compromise them. And obviously I think the prop bets are the first place to start. But this bringing gambling as mainstream as it now is is. Is going to lead to these headlines being fairly common, I'm afraid. And I know that there's an argument that says, well the headlines are good because this stuff has always been going on and now we're finally catching it. I don't know exactly how you can balance those two things. Like I'm not ignorant to the point where I'm pretending that these types of things were never issues until gambling became this mainstream. But the idea that the exact same thing that's happening now has always been happening, I resist that a little bit. I bet you it's happening more now than it. Than it's ever happened. And yes, we're catching some of the people, but I bet, I bet we're not count. We're not catching everybody.

[Paris]

Glad you have it on the list. It's the. It was my last cut so this will be number 11 in my story when it publishes and I'm glad that it's on your list so we can talk about it on the show because it obviously matters. I think the thing that prevented me from putting it in the top 10 is although we had a former Arizona State player that has also been caught up in this. Arizona State wasn't good last season. We did not have a school and or a player. This is a good thing, let me be clear about this. But we did not have a singular incident or incidents that I think vaulted it to another level. It's been there. There's been a semi steady Drum beat in 2025 of having these issues. The fact that they've been snuffed out to this point is good. I still think we have more to come on this in 2026 based on what has been not vetted but just speculated to me at this point, hopefully not. But you know, the prop stuff is obviously a huge, huge deal as well. This isn't just specific to college basketball. Of course you see everything that's happening at the NBA level. But basketball just happens to be the. The cross section in American sports where you can have a sport where individual players can really affect on the micro with prop bets and rebounds or steals or shots or whatever and, and how the sport is actually composed with players on the field. It's not the same. In football. Could you theoretically drop a pass? Of course you can. In baseball we saw with professional pitchers, sure you can. But in terms of manipulating the game, basketball is viewed as the one sport that is most vulnerable to this kind of thing and that really stands up to historical reference as well. When you look over the past, you know, 50, 70, literally 100 years, basketball as much as anyone else, even acknowledging the Black Sox scandal, that's really one of the more infamous ones in the history of all sports and illegal activity in baseball, that was a big one. But you know, literally go check ccny, see what, see what it was doing back around the turn of the 20th century. A major, major story. We got plenty more to get to. That's eight. That's three for me. Three from gp. But we got to get to seven, six, five, four, three and two and one first. Can we get a quick word from our partners? Claire? We'll take a quick ad break and go back with our number seven right after this. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. You know, one of the perks about having four kids that you know about is actually getting a direct line to the big man up north. And this year he wants you to know the best gift that you can give someone is the gift of Mint Mobile's unlimited wireless for $15. Now you don't even need to wrap it. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Gary Parrish]

Of $45 for three month plan equivalent.

[Paris]

To $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes if network's.

[Gary Parrish]

Busy, taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com Top 10 Stories 2025 we both unveiled number 10. Number nine, number eight. We're at number seven. Norlander, what's number seven on your list?

[Paris]

Kevin Willard, about 80% of it. And Sean Miller 20% of it. Kevin Willard and Sean Miller criticized for their slap dash coaching. Miller is, well, both of them are Persona non grata at both of their respective schools now. But Miller was, you know, given something of a lifeline after he was fired from Arizona to coach at Xavier where he once was. And things were going really, really well there, you know, all things considered. They didn't make the tournament in the second season, but year one, really good. Made the tournament two out of three years. And then in the COVID of darkness, he takes the Texas job. And while his reasons for it, you know, are certainly understandable to a certain level, yeah, they can't stand him at Xavier anymore like he is. He is, he is truly hated by, by a decent portion of the fan base there under the circumstances in which he left. So that almost got overshadowed because what Willard did was obviously much more known, publicized, talked about, can certainly say more egregious. Willard was openly Discussing. And as I said on the show then, and I will say now, I will take as much honesty and transparency as you want to give us on the record, please. Because that makes this show more interesting. It's. It makes colle basketball more talked about and gives real insight into how these things work. So I prefer you don't lie. Tell us, tell us up front. That's what Willard did. But in the process of doing that, he made enemies out of Maryland fans forever by taking the vacant Villanova job. He loses his AD in the midst of all this. He talks about how he wants to spend an extra night in New York City around the holidays. Questions about Maryland's nil budget and all the things attached to it. Whether you didn't care about Willard going the way he did. I asked him at Big east media day if he had any regrets about how he handled. He told me no. And this was in October. So that led another brief.

[Gary Parrish]

First off, that's just being stubborn. He is either too hard headed for his own good or he's just being stubborn because any reasonable person should be able to look at you and say, of course I'm. Of course I mishandled some of that. Of course I'd like to have some of that back. To be clear, I don't think there's a perfect way for him to handle it.

[Paris]

Right, of course.

[Gary Parrish]

But he mishandled it.

[Paris]

That's big story. Is it on your list?

[Gary Parrish]

He must have regrets.

[Paris]

Yeah. Did you have this?

[Gary Parrish]

Did you have Willard on my list? I didn't care. That felt like just a. It felt like a story that mattered to Maryland and Villanova mostly and not didn't really matter much outside of that to the sport. Although it did get a lot.

[Paris]

It dragged on into the second weekend of the tournament, which is what elevated to me specifically with Willard.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, we talked through it in real time. I think looking back on it, my advice to coaches would be very early in your career, like literally the first time you were ever mentioned for another job. Establish a precedent right then. And just the first question that ever comes up in your career. You're a mid major coach somewhere and for the first time ever somebody has mentioned you as a candidate somewhere else and now you're you. ABC24 is asking you about it. You know what you say? I appreciate the question, but I just do not talk about other jobs ever.

[Paris]

Lane Kiffin did that. How did it work out for him?

[Gary Parrish]

Lane Kiffin did not do that. Woke up every day and tweeted every day.

[Paris]

That's Also, he did also tweet. He didn't also say. But he said. What did he say? He tweeted like, we're in the good old days right now or something like that.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, no, that's. That's. That's. You can't. That's also wildly mishandling it. Say nothing.

[Paris]

I know, but my pushback on you is this. Saying nothing does not make it easier on you. In some ways, it just. If you don't. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying if you say nothing, it only creates more of a driving hunger to get answers out of you. And then if you ultimately leave, people will be just as angry as if you talk about it.

[Gary Parrish]

Let it be my situation. Let it be mad. But that's my policy. I'm not talking about this. I'm not asking you to talk about your jobs, and I'm not talking about mine. I'm the coach here right now. We got a game tomorrow. What do you want to talk about? Well, do you have any interest. I don't talk about jobs publicly. Ever. I find it disrespectful to my bosses to. To possible future. Nothing. I don't talk about this ever. Never. I've never seen a coach talk. This is what I would say. I would actually look in the camera and I'd say, I saw Lane Kiffin try to do this. I saw Kevin Willard try to do this. I've seen every. I've been watching this stuff for decades. I've never seen a guy nail it. I've never. And I know I'm not the smartest person. I know I'm not the smartest one who's ever been in this situation, and yet I've never seen a situ. A person handle this situation well. So here's what I'm going to do. Nothing. I'm not going to say anything. I'm going to coach here until I don't. That's all I have to say.

[Paris]

The only way that you get out of this unscathed is if you're at a smaller school and you go to bigger school. John Sumrall has been widely lauded for how he handled leaving Tulane to take the Florida job. Understandably so. But if you're going to a job that is power conference to power conference, unless you are at the end of your rope, almost like a. Like a Rick Barnes to Tennessee type of deal, it's very hard to transition this way. I hear you the whole way on it. That's number seven on my list. What's seven on yours?

[Sponsor/Ad Host]

I.

[Gary Parrish]

This is where I went back into the freshman class, but I made it specifically this specific thing because I think it tells a larger story. AJ DeBonsa enrolls at BYU. I went back and looked. He actually committed in 2024, December, but obviously didn't enroll until 2025. So it works. And I just think it's. It's, it's. Perhaps you tell me if this is true in college athletics, not just basketball. In College Athletics, is AJ DeVonta the biggest example of NIL can take an elite prospect anywhere. A five star.

[Paris]

Yeah.

[Gary Parrish]

Phenomenon from New England enrolls at BYU. That's NIL. That. That happens in no way.

[Paris]

Exactly.

[Gary Parrish]

Obvious religious tie.

[Paris]

Right.

[Gary Parrish]

That never happens. That would never happen unless the phenomenon, the phenomenal prospect we're talking about growing up in New England happen to have the religious tie to the school. That's not the case here.

[Paris]

I think it's the biggest. Like Travis Hunter going to play with Dion going from Jackson State. That's as much Dion as NL as anything. But Travis Hunter, like a super elite prospect, like on the DebonSA level, dementia level there, as you asked me it now I can't think of one that's larger. We've had players, you know, like Ben Simmons going and playing at lsu and you go back to what Ben Simmons was thought as, as a prospect coming out of high school and playing there. Like there have been some, some zags here or there. We have.

[Gary Parrish]

That was strictly like.

[Paris]

Like it wasn't nil. It was David Patrick.

[Gary Parrish]

Right. I mean, it was like.

[Paris]

Correct, correct. You've had it done for a long time. Like, understandably. So.

[Gary Parrish]

Like, like relationship stuff is one thing. This is. You have nobody. You have no relative on staff, no former AAU coach on staff. No. They didn't hire your high school coach this year. They didn't give a scholarship to your best friend to get you to come there. They. They just. They have the money and that's why you're there. And I know you can read a 3000 word story about why AJ Devonso went to BYU if you want to. But, like, it's a lot of money. That's the answer. I can shorten it to one Senate a lot of money. And then. And then, sure, if you want to argue there's other reasons. Argue them if you want to, but they fall well below number one, which is it was a lot of money.

[Paris]

I will at least say that I know Kevin Young's NBA experience, his extremely tight relationship with Kevin Durant, who Is Devon says, you know, primary idols, probably putting too hard. But when, when DeBonsa looks at the kind of player he wants to be in, the impact he wants to have in the NBA, he sees KD and Kevin Young had a direct line to kd. So I know I'm not discarding what you're saying. I'm also just giving some additional. I, I acknowledge that because Devonta and his father, they, they have, they have hammered that home. And I don't think that's nothing personally. But I, I hear what you're saying.

[Gary Parrish]

It's, it's, it. If, if it's not nothing, it's barely anything. Take $2 million off the table and see how much you still want to play for Kevin Durant's coach.

[Paris]

It's obviously a case to be made for that, but. Yes, and I will also say with AJ Going to play for BYU kind of taps into what you're listing here. Just seeing someone as good as him how just him on the floor, it's like, huh, Jim or for that doesn't even compare. Like Jim or Freddette fit the mold of a guy who could go play at BYU and then become a star. And that's what he did over a four year career. Be it the average college basketball fan or just even our editors like have tossed out these story ideas over the past year or so. There is still very much a huh, how did BYU get that player? They never seem a lot of money. Right, I know, but I'm saying he brings an intrigue to BYU that even elevates it beyond. And that's why, you know, it's obviously viable, what you included there as a top 10.

[Gary Parrish]

Oh, and then let's be clear, money well spent.

[Paris]

Beautiful. Of course, yes. I paid wonderfully right now.

[Gary Parrish]

I'd double the wage right now if I needed to.

[Paris]

Yes, fair enough. Story six.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, let's go.

[Paris]

My, my six story wasn't tied to any one specific event. It was more the continuation of. Of many headlines that. That happened in 2025 and that is two rings. Baldy. Dan Hurley can't escape his noise. Baldy. Noisy headlines. Baldy. We might have a situation with GP where his computer did the thing again. I will keep going. We are working on that on the tech end, on the back end. So he'll be back in just a second. I went with Dan Hurley, number six. Yes. The Yukon stuff happened like the Maui stuff. That was all 2024. I get all of that. But consider in 2025 he had the confrontation. I've got it on here. Hold on, let me get to it too. It's in my board as well. When he had. If you don't remember this specific quote, two rings.

[Gary Parrish]

Two rings.

[Paris]

First of all, two rings. Baldi is forever goaded. As far as I'm concerned, that's with a Creighton fan that was going after him. And if you've forgotten the context around that Creighton really had Yukon's number in that building. I could be wrong. I want to. Was that Hurley's first win in Omaha? It might have been. So you had that. You had the high profile losses to St. John's conceding the biggies to Rick Patino. St. John's will also be on my list, just not in my top 10. And their reemergence there. So again, look for that later this week. The loss to Seton hall on the road, which prompted Hurley to I believe, call the ride back a coffin on wheels that dropped UConn to 17 and 8. Permanently put it outside the final four contender conversation. And then there was obviously more. There was the loss to Baylor. Excuse me, there was a loss to Florida in the tournament. And as he's walking off, he's yelling to Baylor, I hope they don't F you like they f'd us. That becomes its own story and news cycle. Yukon season's over. They don't get the three peat. They were up and down, they were rocky, everything tied to that. Hurley kept himself in the headlines. Yukon did as well. He's the most prominent face in college basketball. I would argue he is the face of the Sport with what UConn has been able to do and with the headlines he's been able to produce. And then he also released a book in September. And in that book, you know, he had the book tour. So we got another blast of really consistent pub over the course of 4, 5, 6 days. He revealed that he briefly contemplated at least semi seriously taking a year away from coaching with the potential pivot to broadcasting. That obviously didn't happen. And then he atoned for his bad behavior plenty in the fall. You know, I sat down with him on this podcast and Hurley went on record and I've just got a couple of quotes that he gave here. GP Is back for everyone listening. I'll just toss it to him in just a second. Here's what Hurley told me at Big east media day in October. He said, quote, having a year like we just had, which was very challenging. It took me to a point where I did think about taking a gap year or being done. I had a shit year. I didn't coach my best, I didn't lead my best. I didn't put together a group that could compete for the things we wanted to compete for, end quote. And then another quote when I got to asking him about all the stuff attached to last season, and obviously a lot of that bled over into 2025, which is why I've got Dan Hurley in the headlines as my number six story. He said, quote, it was all my doing. I'm not a victim. We have enough victims in the world. I did it to myself, and I did it throughout the year. We were not able to really celebrate the run we had because all the attention was on the jackass that I acted like in the tunnel. I think all those things combined to put me in a state where I had to consider what I wanted to do next, end quote. And by that, he meant when he just, you know, took a couple of days to consider whether he needed to step away from coaching or not. And then there's just the general funny stuff at the press conferences as well. Tossing the papers earlier this year with the home loss to Arizona, he's got this great quote about that I haven't put on my board where he was. He. He basically says something like, and now we're going to be talking about the Bears. And I was like, man, if there's ever a quote from Hurley that's built for my board, I need to load it on there. So, yeah, GP Dan Hurley and everything connected to him was my number six story on the list.

[Gary Parrish]

We thought we had the glitch fixed, didn't we?

[Paris]

We thought we had the glitch fixed. The glitch has not been fixed. We will hopefully get it fixed soon. And we also know this. We know that the longer this pod goes, the more likely the glitch could resurface. So hopefully we'll dodge it on the rest of this episode. Welcome back.

[Gary Parrish]

It's nice to be back. Dan Hurley did not make my list. Perfectly reasonable addition admission. But I was just, like, thinking through it, like, Yukon getting Yukon winning it in 24. Big story. Obviously getting off to a terrible start in 24, 25 season. Big story. And then, you know, then they were just in. They were just a good team that got eliminated in the NCAA tournament. And. And then they're one of the way.

[Paris]

They got knocked out getting caught on camera saying, two rings, baldy. Going after Creighton fans. That's why I put it on there. Turley, as that you were gone, he's the most prominent face coach in the sport. And he had numerous major headlines where they felt like the story of the day in college basketball. That's why I put him on the list.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, I guess it just all sort of blends together at this point. It's fine. He is a. He's a. He's a big factor in the sport, and everything he does gets discussed one way or another. My number six, can I keep it in the Big East? St. John's wins its first outright Big east title since 1985 and struggles to start the subsequent season. So last year, 31 and 5 overall outright Big east regular season champs. First time since 85, Big east tournament title. They turned Madison Square Garden into one of the best college basketball venues in the country. That was all great stuff. And then they lose to John Calipari in Arkansas in the round of 32. This is where it starts to take a turn. Bench the biggest player of the year down the stretch. It seems like everything from that moment has been off. They lose that game and then this season, it's not a disaster. I was thinking about this last night as I was going through some of this. Like, if I just told you this, hey, we're in year three of Rick Patino at St. John's he already has one outright biggies for regular season title, a Big east tournament title. And right now we're in the middle of year three, and you know, he's got a team that's ranked 20th at Kinpom. You'd be like, wow, it's amazing. It feels like it's not. But like, still, broadly speaking, this is going well. But when, you know, some idiot ranks you number one in the preseason and you don't live up to that, it can feel bad. Even if it's not as bad as I'm struggling with it. I don't know how Rick's doing, but I've really been struggling with how this same time.

[Paris]

Who's taking it harder right now, you or Rick?

[Gary Parrish]

I think me.

[Paris]

Yeah, I think so, too.

[Gary Parrish]

I think Rick probably knows how to turn his mentions off. I don't. I woke up on Christmas. Some guy was like, merry Christmas. Remember when you ranked St. John's zero.

[Paris]

Business checking Twitter on Christmas? Shame.

[Gary Parrish]

I do think about it.

[Paris]

I.

[Gary Parrish]

Somebody can go find the tweet. I don't know if it was Christmas. It was right around Christmas. I just. I was just looking at Twitter and it was like, somebody like. Like in the world right now, there is somebody sitting with their family enjoying the holiday and then there's another person who just decided to just remind me about ranking St. John's preseason number one.

[Paris]

Yeah. Not to play spoiler, but I asked for just a few, few things from the listeners. Hey, what stood out to you? What lingered with you? Moments that stuck with you from the show this year? We had a few inputs on Parish absolutely flaming out by picking St. John. So that's been one of the things that has stuck with our audience. Just so you know.

[Gary Parrish]

God. Jeez.

[Paris]

It's all for good content. I'm, I'm all in favor. It's hard.

[Gary Parrish]

Very disappointed in the red. I was so excited for the Red Storm last season. I was basically living in midtown Manhattan, spending so many extra nights in midtown Manhattan. Kevin Willard was jealous as could be. All right. And I got caught up in it a little bit. I got caught up in a little bit and next thing you know, I had Johnny fever. Next thing you know, I got a 1 next to their name. Next thing you know, they're 8 and 4 and don't have a point card. It's, it's a, it's a, it's a rough situation, but everything. St. John's is a big story in the year 2025.

[Paris]

All right, my number five story where Cinderella, the incidental tournament has almost no mid major charm. You know, this event is built in no small part on the attractiveness of Cinderella. And in 2025 the lovely lady was essentially locked out. Not a single mid major program made the Sweet 16, which marked only this, I think the second time in the 64, 68 team era that was the case and only for the first time ever. The entirety of the Sweet 16 was comprised of teams from power slash high major conferences. That had never happened until this year. The only double digit seed to even make the second weekend was what GP just mentioned with 10th seated Arkansas and John Calipari. Not exactly a portrait of the so called little guy. So a bummer of a year from the tournament. From that standpoint, if you tune in to see your bracket get blown up and, and get shocked. We did see McNeese roll Clemson. I was there, saw it in person in Providence, but they didn't make the second round. That was the only mid major to log a win. If you want to call Colorado State, I mean, I would buy that, sure, but it wouldn't have the Cinderella. To me, you're not really a Cinderella if you're from the Mountain west for the most part. If you're not, say Air Force or San Jose State. Hard for me to tag a Cinderella attachment to you, especially with only one win. And then statistically, the 2025 NCAA tournament had the fewest upsets of any Marsh Madness ever. In the expanded era, all top four seeds won their first round game. I think that might have been the first or the second time that ever happened. 15 out of the 16 sweet 16 sweet 16 teams were six seed or better. The elite eight had all four one seeds, which almost never happens. All four ones made it to the final four. Only second time in history. And this was only a second tournament since we went to 68 teams that a first four team didn't even make it to the second round. So when you've got the SEC in the Big Ten alone making up half of the teams in the second round, 16 out of the 32 teams that made it that first Saturday Sunday were from the SEC or the Big Ten. That means Cinderella went MIA. And to me, the lack of that is one of the biggest stories of the year.

[Gary Parrish]

This was number two on my list.

[Paris]

Ooh, look at you.

[Gary Parrish]

Okay, just because I think it's symbolic of where we might be headed and where I think we are headed. I don't want to say Cinderella is dead, but we ain't going to see her much anymore. I don't think last season was an anomaly. It doesn't mean that I think every season, every tournament will unfold like that one, but I think that's going to be more common than it's ever been. Like you mentioned, nothing but power conference schools in the Sweet 16. Lowest seated team to make it. John Cal. Like when John Caliper is your Cinderella, you've lost something. All right, so now you just look at this season. Right now there are zero top 25 teams outside of the traditional power conferences other than Gonzaga. Gonzaga is fourth at Ken Palm. The next non power conference school you're going to get to is Utah State at 30th, St. Mary's at 33rd, St. Louis at 39th. Once upon a time, if you got a Steph Curry at a place like Davidson, you could, you know, have him for multiple years and maybe try to ride that thing to an Elite eight. Now the Steph Curry who averages whatever Steph Curry averages as a freshman at Davidson is a sophomore at North Carolina. So you don't even build those mid majors in similar ways anymore. Now that the power conference programs are taking all of the best high school players and then they're taking all of the best players off of the mid major campuses and it just really stacks the deck against, against everybody outside of the traditional power structure. And there's nothing that I've read, heard, seen that makes me think this growing divide is going to get any smaller going forward. And whether it's the George Masons or the Loyola Chicago's, any of those stories that we celebrated marching deep into the bracket, all the way even to the final four, St. Peter's to the elite Eight, I, I think that's over. I just, I don't think we're gonna see that. I, I know it's not going to be common. I, I think it could become almost non existent.

[Paris]

I wouldn't go that far. But I do want to get to not just one more tournament. I want to get to two more tournaments. And theoretically this means one more 6018 tournament and then a 7016 tournament, if indeed we're heading that way before I draw some bigger conclusions. But there is enough writing on the wall to suggest that what GP just laid out could be in store. Not a good thing for college basketball, by the way. You want to have a tournament that gives you a little bit of everything and tournaments that would be void of any small school surprises making it to the second weekend not an ideal situation for the sport. Overall. Number four.

[Gary Parrish]

I think I'm still at number five because.

[Paris]

Oh, oh, because that was your number two. That's right. Sorry, what's your number five?

[Gary Parrish]

Still at number five. And on my list. This is a recent one. A former NBA draft pick gets cleared to play college basketball.

[Paris]

This is on my list. It's just going to be in the 20s. I haven't decided where I'm going to put it. It's a big, like a year ago, Jim Larnega retired in the final week of the, of the calendar year. That broke onto my list. So for the second straight year we have a story here surrounding Christmas that's going to crack onto the list. It's a legit story. It's a big story. It's on my list. I don't know if it's top 10 because James Najee is the player. This has obviously been a big story since we last podcasted. I don't know how good he's going to be. I don't know if this is going to be something that really triggers an entirely new wave. I don't know how many of these players are going to actually be impactful at the college level moving forward. There was a report in the past 24 hours, since we've even started this podcast, where Trenton Flowers, who was under contract and with The Bulls, the Chicago Bulls own his rights. Was purportedly receiving interest from a variety of schools. Well, earlier on Sunday, just I reached out to schools, but also some staffs found me like at least half the schools on that reported list had never expressed any kind of interest whatsoever in the player. And we don't even know if that player can play at the college level. So legit story didn't make my top 10. GP puts it in number five.

[Gary Parrish]

I don't really care that much about James Najee because like you, I don't know how impactful he'll be at Baylor. But what it represents, I do think is, is a huge story because this is the first time ever somebody who will have entered a draft, stayed in a draft, been selected in a draft, is then going to play college basketball after being a professional. He's been playing for Barcelona in parts of three seasons. Played in the summer league for the Knicks. This dude was traded for Carl Anthony Towns. All right? He was a part of the Carl Anthony Towns trade on some level. So just to circle back to where we were in the off season, I remember it was a different former G League player who. It was a different international prospect, slash G League player who got eligible. And I just sort of asked the question like, where are we drawing the line on this stuff? Because the line used to be Ennis Cantor, right? That's what the line was. That was a famous story. Blue Blood program, NBA prospect, he wants to play at Kentucky. He's enrolled at Kentucky. They said no. I think the number was like $30,000 above expenses he had taken. And they were like, no, that's the line. And we have gradually started moving that line. We started bringing over international players who had played professionally overseas, basically in his canter. And we're like, well, they didn't make that much money, so I guess it's okay. Okay, fine. And then it was like, well, you know this guy. Yeah, he's been in the G League and he's made some money, but you know, he never was in the draft. And so it. We guess it's, well, now where are we? Because I actually gave the hypothetical on this podcast of Liam McNeely and I just said, you tell me why this would be a no. But these things are yeses. And I just sort of made up a whole story. He gets drafted where he gets drafted after one year at UConn, signs a two year contract like everybody, like every other first round pick. Bombs can't play, right. And then can't get a new NBA contract after Those two years, he's. He's still, you know, technically within his college window. If Dan Hurley says, come back to UConn, here's $3 million. Why can't he do it? And the answer, I believe, from you and others at the time was, well, he was in the draft. I mean, you know, if he's in the draft, well, then, you know, that's the rule. Okay, well, now. Now what? That was what people told me then. Well, he was in the draft and he got picked. And so that's the difference. Once you're in the draft and you get picked, then it's over. Okay, now what? This is what I was talking about. Everybody who acted like they knew, they were just pretending they knew nobody. There is not a single person on the planet right now who can tell you with any sort of degree of certainty who is eligible and who's not, who should be, who shouldn't be, who will be, who won't. The line has moved since the summer based on what college coaches thought they knew in the summer, since Media Day, if you want to be honest. So just. I got no patience anymore for people trying to act like, well, don't freak out about this because, you know, the jokes come, is LeBron James going to go to Arizona and play with Bronny? And everybody's like, come on, he's been in the NBA. And I know that's an extreme example, but, like, stop pretending you know what's right and what's wrong or what's going to work and what is it when it comes to eligibility of former professional players or current professional players? Because the NCAA is consistently telling us that they're adjusting on the fly. Like you saw, I'm sure, the five minute answer from Tom Izzo. Over the weekend, he was asked about the situation at Baylor, and he went on and talked about it for several minutes and expressing the frustration. But, like, part of it. He's got a. He's got issues with it in a lot of different ways, but one issue I hear from coaches a lot is like, yo, what? Like, we don't even know. So here's the thing. James Najee, play college basketball. Or don't. Doesn't matter to me. I just think it would be nice to know who is eligible and who isn't. We used to. There was a time where it used to be you have to have this type of academic stuff and you got to have this type of amateurism tied to you, and if you check both of those boxes, you can be a college basketball player. And if you don't check these boxes, you can't. Nobody knows anymore. And the people who act like they do are just, they're just acting. It's, it's a big story because we don't know where this is headed.

[Paris]

All well said by gp. Number four on my list. Cooper Flag beats Jennai Broom for National Player of the Year. It was one of the best national player of the year races of the past 30 or 40 years. Wrote about it, talked about it on the show. Just a quick refresher on the final stats because Cooper Flag was the consensus national player there. He was not the unanimous one. Broom actually took home a national player of the year award. Flag finished at 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals, 1.4 blocks, blocks 38 and a half percent from 3 and 53.3 effective field goal percentage with a 30.4 player efficiency rating in 37 games for one seeded Duke, which was 354 and lost in the Final Four. Broom right there with them. 18.6 points per game, 10.8 rebounds per game, 2.9 assists, 2.1 blocks per game, 0.9 steals per game, 27.8 from 3. But 53.4% effective field goal percentage. One percentage point better than flag. 30.9 per better than flag in 36 games for a one seeded 326 Auburn team that lost in the Final Four. Brorom was the clear leader after Maui. He still had the lead after December. At the end of January it got really close. But Broom I think still had the lead narrowly. And then in February it became a toss up. We know what, what that became. Flag nudged him. He got a, he got a narrow lead on it. I think Flag because he played for Duke, because he led Duke in all five major statistical categories, because he was the obvious number one pick because his game, the way he plays basketball, it just popped on TV more than Broom. Broom had this like playing in third gear swagger about him sometimes, but man, was it effective. Really, really compelling national player of the year race. GP just got booted. He'll be back in just a second again. But I do think that Flag versus Broom. I'm determined to make this and to remind people that it, that 2425 was not the runaway. Cooper Flag was amazing year. He was amazing. He got my vote for national player of the year. But I happen to think it was one of the three closest player of the year races we've had over the past two, three decades. Really, really riveting stuff. And it was essentially because Auburn was in the regular season, the best team in the best league. And Broom, even though he actually dealt with multiple injuries, I think that hampered him somewhat. But the Flag versus Broom back and forth was super compelling to me. I can only hope we get something like that again this season. Obviously, we know Boozer has got the lead, but AJ DeBonsa, Caleb Wilson, Yaxel Lindenborg, Joshua Jefferson at Iowa State's actually been really, really efficient. We'll see if Iowa State can maintain that top status. Braden Smith, we'll see if he can get involved there. J.T. toppin. I still think we've got a chance for this season to have a pretty compelling national player of the year race. But last year was just two guys and that was one of our best head to heads. I do wonder if Boozer can get caught and if he can, can we get a an out and out three player and national player of the year Chase. I'm excited to see if it can happen. But to me, Broom versus Flag was my number. Number four story for, for just in general, I've got more on Flag and Duke to come. To me, they were two separate things. For over half the season, those two guys vying for the hardware was a major, major story. And I wanted to reflect that in my list.

[Gary Parrish]

Gp hey, good to see you again.

[Paris]

Good to see you.

[Gary Parrish]

GP Remember before we started the show, I said, hey, if this thing, you know, glitches again, we're not going to get mad. We're just going to laugh it off.

[Paris]

Correct, Correct.

[Gary Parrish]

It's testing me. It's my. My patience is being tested. I'm still going to try to not get mad, but it's harder than you think.

[Paris]

Technology does that to the best of us.

[Gary Parrish]

I thought for sure.

[Paris]

Again, I am Robin Williams. You are Matt Damon. It's not your fault.

[Gary Parrish]

I thought for sure. Once I got all these kids out of the house, I was gonna have a good day. I was gonna be your fault. I was stressed, but I'm stressed. Hey, we lined up again. That's what I was trying to tell you.

[Paris]

Okay, what do you got?

[Gary Parrish]

Number four on my list was also Cooper. Flag becomes the youngest Wooden Award winner in college basketball history. I'm confident you said everything about him that needs to be said. Just a reminder that even in the transfer portal era, where older teams tend to do better than younger teams, elite talent is still elite talent, whatever the age.

[Paris]

Yeah, I had. Mine was Broom versus Flag specifically. But you've got Flag one in the the award and that Was obviously a fantastic race. Let's take one more quick break. We've got to do our top three and then a couple of notes and then we'll get the heck out of here. But first, quick word from our partners.

[Gary Parrish]

I see the chat just for transparency. It's clearly the new boy. Like, I don't know if you guys notice, I got new equipment and ever since then, this has happened. It never happened before. Like literally not one time.

[Paris]

I know we want to really keep this moving and not keep you too long, but my in laws bought a refrigerator, I think call it 19 months ago. And maybe the warranty was 18 months. But it used to be that you would buy a fridge and it would last you 19 years. And now you hope that you get to year five with it and you get this new equipment and it just fails on you. We can go totally old man yelling at the clouds, but there really is something to it. These iPhones. It's amazing how year two, year three, year four hits itself. This thing isn't responding anymore. I guess I gotta go buy a new one. It's all. They know what they're doing.

[Gary Parrish]

Yes, yes, yes. All right, where are we at?

[Paris]

Number three on your list or my list? How about you go first? Number three on your list.

[Gary Parrish]

Okay, number three on my list is. The SEC puts a record 14 teams in the 2025 NCAA tournament. Only LSU in South Carolina did not make it. That was something that started to become a narrative to the season, I think, around the SEC ACC challenge when the SEC just blitzed them. And from there, two conversations started. One is, oh, my God, is the SEC going to be the best men's basketball conference in history? And the other one was like, why does the ACC suck so much? And then we did. We did that, you know, three times a week through April. And. And then you get 14 teams in the tournament, eight teams in the round of 32, seven teams in the sweet 16, four in the elite eight, two in the final four, one in the title game, and you win the national championship with Florida. So it didn't just put a record number of teams in the tournament. Once they got there, they. They largely performed well. And now, if you care, the sec, though not as good as it was last season, is currently the top rated conference at kempom.

[Paris]

Once again, this is tied to my number one story. So I married two. I said, Florida's national title cements the SEC having the best season in college basketball history. GP just gave you a lot of the context. I've got a few More nuggets for that when we get to number one. But just so you know, that's also in my top three. But I combined Florida's title because it's in the sec and to me it just was the cherry on top. This is what validated, validates it. There's no argument the SEC just completed the best season in the history of college basketball. My number three has some threads connected to what GP just had a couple of stories ago. But I, I built out this list even before the James Naji news on Christmas. And to me it's, it's more about what happened prior to that and that is portal. Player prices skyrocket and then the house settlement turns recruiting into an even bigger quagmire. Prices went nuts in April and May because of the looming house settlement. By my estimation, we've got parish, we've got at least 16, 17, maybe 20 schools or more this season paying out at least $10 million for their rosters. It's gotten bigger each year. This past spring I did a big expose on it back in mid April. It was truly portal pandemonium. And so in the lead up to the house case settlement, teams spend big, players are going for just insane money. Like I'm not exaggerating right now, there are players that do not start that are making more than a million dollars in nil. More power to you go and get it. But a lot of staffs are at their wits end with all this stuff. And then the house case settlement hit and as you know, and what we both talked about with coaches on the road in July, the rev share cap, it's 25.5 million. Do collectives exist? Do they not exist? Do some of them exist? With football taking so much of the money, is the biggies now going to be on a separate playing field? It prompted paranoia on that end throughout the sport and it also prompted, okay, well I guess cheating's going to come back. And if it is, how much can you cheat? What's the money value could actually go for before federal authorities actually are flagged and you are actually facing true consequences for this. What is, what is all of this amounting to? The gears and levers that maneuver the sport are in many ways working against each other. It still doesn't seem like calm pragmatic resolution is in sight whatsoever. This is my number three story. I really think you could build a case to make it the number one story. Just everything tied to that. But I put it at number three. And it was a wild, wild off season of college Hoops. And yeah, that's my number three slot.

[Gary Parrish]

It did not make my list just because I don't think it's going to be a thing going forward. Like it's like July 1st, everything changes and it's like I get it but have you heard the coaches? They, they're not acting like everything is changing. Link Kiffin is still talking about nil and and in.

[Paris]

Yeah, players that are projected to make a certain amount of money and you're like well if you tease out that math you're breaking the so called cap. So I still think that in itself GP is a story but this season just hit heights that it never had. So that's why I put it.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, like what's going to be interesting is next off season when the rules are clearly defined or at least they're supposed to be and there's no more pushing big nil deals before July 1st. Like you're supposed to be operating under this, are you? And spoiler alert, a lot of schools are not going to and they're going to dare you to try to, to try to stop them. So that brings us to number two. We've already done number two on my list. That's where I had no power, no sin, no non power conference teams making the sweet 16. Cinderella is non existent in any sort of meaningful way in the 2025 NCAA tournaments. We can go straight to your number.

[Paris]

Number two is Duke's epic season and Cooper Flag's brilliant freshman year end with an all time final four collapse against Houston down in San Antonio. That final four is an all timer for a number of reasons. All four one c some incredible comebacks collapses. Duke was rating in the context of its own season as the most efficient team that we have seen. It did not win the national title. It had one of the 3, 4, 5 best one and done players in the history of the sport. And you know, Duke kind of caught fire even more so once Flag's prominence rose. Dedicated listeners to the show will remember we talked about, I don't know, maybe two months into the season. Like Flag is good but he hasn't become a thing yet, so to speak. Well he did soon thereafter he had the huge dunk against Pitt on January 7th. I really think that's when he really hit and then it really started to take off and related to that broom national player of the year race that I just talked about. But in this game, which I, you know, in some ways I very much believe that Houston won because that's what Houston does. And in some Ways it's like how did. How did Duke go from leading 5945 with 817 to go in this game and lose? That's exactly what happened. Come on. Malawatch, just a behemoth of a human did not grab a rebound in this game. The most offense, the most efficient offense in the history of Kenpom scored one field goal in the final 10 minutes and 30 seconds was. It was just an all time ending. And considering that it's Duke that's involved. Duke was not automatically given the title because there were 41 seeds, but it was considered the favorite. It had, you know, con knipple coming to his own. You had all this NBA talent, five future NBA picks just, you know, three months removed from this. Just an incredible ending. It goes in that ending. That game goes in the all time annals of unforgettable Final four outcomes. So it's the way that Duke lost how it against Houston on a Final four stage is my number two story.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, like Duke gave that one away and then two nights later Houston kind of did the same thing.

[Paris]

Right, right.

[Gary Parrish]

You know, I had Cooper flag on my list in the top five. That specific game I didn't put there. But my number one does originate from the Final four and it's something you've already touched on. I just took it to a different place. But your number one was what?

[Paris]

My number one is Florida's national title cements the SEC having the best season in college basketball history. So it's combining the national championship winner, but really it's the fact that Florida won and it was representative of an all timer with the league and all that stuff.

[Gary Parrish]

Okay, so we're on the same page here. It's just. I framed it a different way. Todd golden survives a Title 9 investigation and then leads Florida to the national championship.

[Paris]

The Golden, Golden Title nine stuff is also on my list. Just wasn't in my top 10. But yes, I have that and I.

[Gary Parrish]

Don'T, I don't bring it up to be clear to rehash old stuff or whatever, but like it just sort of gets like glossed over. That's a crazy story. Like when, when you first hear. When I first. I'll put it this way, when I first heard Title 9 investigation launched and this is the way it's explained. There are allegations of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, stalking and cyber stalking from multiple women, including students. When, when that happens, it's like, all right, well he's done. That's it. I get. I guess I'll. I guess next year at the CBS Sports Classic. I'll see him scouting for the Miami Heat or something because that's the way these things tend to go. But that's over. Like you think in that moment. I don't want to get inside Todd's head, but I, I think perhaps in that moment you're, you're concerned about losing your job, you don't know where your marriage is going. Like your whole world could get flipped upside down. I bet you don't think that you're going to be the star of one shining moment when that stuff hits you. And yet to go from that place to holding the trophy at the end, that is an all time flip script, buddy. I mean that's an all timer. And what's also interesting about it is they were kind of overshadowed in their own league. For much of the, for much of the season their league was the story more than them. Auburn was the story more than them. Janai Broome was the story more than Walter Clayton. And then you just look up and I can remember like some people were on this early, but they were preseason number 21 in the AP poll. They started 26, that Ken Palm, then they started 13 0. But they didn't have a lot of like big signature wins because it was so sort of like, well, how good is this team? But then they finished 36 and 4. The only losses were to Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Georgia. And they, in a year where their league was the best league in the country, they emerge as the best team from that league. League.

[Paris]

Walter Clayton also emerged as the clear cut third best player in the sport. He didn't win the national player of the year award, flag and broom did, but he got the national championship and the final four mop as it goes and vaulted him to a really, really deserving draft spot. You know, just. And this is a player who previously, you know, playing in the Mac for Patino and look what he made of his uh, of his college career transitioning to the NBA. Really cool stuff there on the SEC stuff. And I'll try and wrap here. I'm really hoping we don't have GP Glitch one more time. Gonna try and get out of here in less 10 minutes. GP remember we had number one versus number two, Auburn, Alabama in February. Like huge those two football schools playing in a one versus two game in a, in a center stage centerpiece game. The SEC had 23 NCAA tournament wins. That broke the record of 19 by the ACC in 2019. The SEC rated higher in a single season at Ken Palm than any other conference ever beating the ACC's mark. In 1997, the SEC made up 21 of the tournament field to start 25 of the second round, 44 of the Sweet 16, 50 of the Elite 8, 50 of the Final 4 and 50 of the National Championship game. It sent seven to the Sweet 16, which was a record for only the third time in tournament history. The SEC or A conference sent four teams to the Elite Eight. The 2025 SEC, the 2016 ACC in the 2009 Biggies for the leagues to to have done that and Florida does it by overcoming Houston down 12 in the second half to the Cougars. They never led by more than two in the entire game. The Gators up their position just they're overall we had that mailbag question about the Gators and where they land and are they blue blood and all that stuff. But getting that third national championship, doing it the way you did, getting another Final Four just on the books they had they had pre Billy Donovan Final Fours. Of course they finished the season 17 and 1. A really, really strong run. And yes, you know, a confluence of a lot of stuff happening surrounding that national championship game. I happen to spend the post game celebrations and then the boat ride on the river with Florida. You can go back and read that or it'll be linked in my in my year interview story later this week. GP before we get out of here, just a couple things my favorite stories that didn't make the like these didn't even make my written list. I couldn't squeeze it in. If I had 26 or 27, I would have Mick at the mic, Mick Cronin, because he had a lot of fun stuff in 2025 we talked about on the pod St. Francis, tiny school. It's actually now leaving Division 1 but beating Central Connecticut. I went and covered that game. Rob Krimmel, who's now ret. He was an alumn there, had coached there forever. That was just one of my favorite stories. Yeah, they got run in the tournament, but that's what March can be about in so many ways. So those were some of my favorites that just didn't make the list in general that I wanted to highlight anything that either you considered or just that stories from the sport this season that you like that whether they were close or not to making your list kind of stand out over the past 12 months. Nope.

[Gary Parrish]

I got to 10 and I stopped.

[Paris]

Okay, we'll get out of here on a few more things real quick. Pod moments from listeners in 2025 we had a few people point out that I said K State should fold the program if they don't win by at least 22 against Louisiana Monroe. Did you happen to catch the final score of that game earlier today?

[Gary Parrish]

I did not.

[Paris]

I had actually a current assistant text me leaving his practice to go home. He said, I'm listening to the mailbag pod right now. I checked the score and he sent a screenshot and Kansas State was winning by one point. They beat Louisiana Monroe 94 85. A nine point home win over a team with one win against the Division 1 opponent. Jerome Tang might have to fold the program. So a few people hey, hey, no.

[Gary Parrish]

No, we're not going to talk like that.

[Paris]

It's the Warhawks, man. They're terrible. What do you want from me? What do you want?

[Gary Parrish]

We're gonna. We're gonna let Jerome keep his program for now.

[Paris]

Can't win by double digits over one of the four or five worst teams in the sport. Listener, you know we love you, but.

[Gary Parrish]

It'S a Christmas hangover. You've never. You've never had a Christmas hangover.

[Paris]

The honest answer to that is no, I have never had a Christmas hangover. But I'm guessing you can't say the same.

[Gary Parrish]

I. I'd aim for them.

[Paris]

Derek wrote in that he loved our talk about Bill Withers and him being from Slab Fork, West Virginia. Yeah, he actually happened to be in West Virginia recently and he sent the photo. I think we have this real quick. Fork home of Bill Withers. How about that? How about that? We had a couple people mention that. Philip wrote in. My favorite moment was when Chip Patterson snuck into the CBS Sports podcast booth and scared Norlander. Was that this year? Like I thought that was a year or two ago. I don't know. He also said I love when Norlander accidentally pressed the hold on, I'll hit it right here. Press the your ball sound but sound button when he disagreed with Parrish. I don't know if I accidentally hit that. A lot of people had GP sticking with St. John's one person wrote in said, I'm surprised you guys don't mention Boopy Miller. More on the pod. I thought there was some real promise there. GP Sounds like he would have fun saying Boopy. I assume that's true. Can you get some more boopy on the show?

[Gary Parrish]

GP Yeah, I can work on that, sure.

[Paris]

Another one, said Norlander, inadvertently hitting the during the Hitter Stay segment. Do you remember when I did that? When it. Because they're right next to each other. Where are they?

[Gary Parrish]

I've got see that's the thing about buttons. That's the thing about buttons, man. They're often right next to another button.

[Paris]

That was a great moment. The hit or stay. And I meant to hit. I suggest you hit so or the. I'll stay, but I hit the wrong button there. Chad Fleck says, I actually say there are less of you than Paris thinks. The more of us versus them. What? Then we also had another reader. Hold on.

[Gary Parrish]

This isn't somebody claiming there's.

[Paris]

He's not saying there's more of them. He's saying the gap is not as big as you presented on the show.

[Gary Parrish]

The gap is huge.

[Paris]

Someone write in and say, listen, I'm at this BYU game down in Orlando for the mge, and I'm just telling you it's nothing but them. But that's just a BYU game. Individual thing.

[Gary Parrish]

But if I could go back in time. Never mind. I'm not even gonna say that.

[Paris]

Okay. Tim, Why I said it was.

[Gary Parrish]

We don't need another email from a priest, so I'm just gonna leave this stuff alone.

[Paris]

The priests. The priests. The clergy doesn't want to hear anything with you in your scripture. We got Wally Zerbiak, by the way. Yeah, I'm saying it on the show. Wally. We got Wally Zerbiak referencing scripture in a group text out of nowhere on.

[Gary Parrish]

He was right. It was Sunday morning.

[Paris]

He.

[Gary Parrish]

Wally wanted to check in and see if you were in your scripture. You weren't.

[Paris]

No, of course I wasn't. I never claimed that I was. I want Wally to say on national television who he thinks stinks. I won't. I won't dox his opinion on this podcast. Do it, Wally. I dare you.

[Gary Parrish]

Wally has a very strong opinion about a very prominent college basketball player.

[Paris]

And. And he's yet. Because he's a coward. Say it on television. Wally. Tim Wise writes.

[Gary Parrish]

In fairness to Wally, he has hinted at it a lot.

[Paris]

There you go. Tim Wise wrote in It's a big year for computer trickers. I am adding, it's actually a big year for people tricked by computers, AKA the guy on this show with me. Can you make that your New Year's resolution not to be tricked so much by computers and the AI so much in 2026.

[Gary Parrish]

It's tough, man. I don't know what's going on in the real world anymore. Like, jokes aside, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell fact from fiction to, like. Like, when I see a picture, I don't know if it's a real picture. If I see a video I don't. The Internet's been wild for a while, but I. When I saw a video of two people together, I. I could reasonably assume, well, they must have been together. And now I just. I see pictures every day that are just AI generated. And I don't. And you don't know what's. I feel like this is gonna get bad.

[Paris]

Yeah. I feel like genuinely terrible development for our world and civilization.

[Gary Parrish]

I think our world's in trouble. Yeah, the world might be in trouble. I don't know if you watch the news. I know you're not in your scripture. I know maybe all that time you don't spend in your scripture, perhaps you spend it watching the news. I don't know if you. Yeah, it sounds like we might be in trouble.

[Paris]

I'm up to date on that. All right, last thing. It's trivia time.

[Gary Parrish]

Trivia time.

[Paris]

We've had a very thank you and nothing but well wishes in our decreasingly less optimistic world moving into 2026.

[Gary Parrish]

However, I think it's over for us.

[Paris]

Don't say that. I don't want to say that might be over, but we had another really quality year. Some. Some. A good surge of new viewership and listenership. We appreciate it so much. Some good numbers I have where people listen, how often they listen. And I'm going to trivia time you right now, outside of the US which obviously by far is our biggest listenership. I'm going to ask you for the top five downloads outside the U.S. i'll see if you can get it in. Eight guesses. Five countries outside the U.S. that listen to our show the most in 2025.

[Gary Parrish]

El Salvador. No deportations. You told me you've been watching the news.

[Paris]

I know. I don't know if they've got access to Apple podcasts.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. Okay, then I'm going to go with Canada.

[Paris]

Bada Bing. That is number one outside the U.S. zach Edie.

[Gary Parrish]

That's the Zach Edie effect.

[Paris]

Sure.

[Gary Parrish]

I'm gonna go with Mexico.

[Paris]

Not in the top five.

[Gary Parrish]

Because they all cross the border and then they listen to it in the continental United States.

[Paris]

Think it through.

[Gary Parrish]

I didn't think this through. I didn't think this through. I take Mexico back. Okay, how it works. Anybody who wants to listen to the on college basketball podcast, they actually cross the border and they. And then they're like, in El Paso. Let's see. El Paso.

[Paris]

Not a country. Give me a real guess.

[Gary Parrish]

Okay, real guess. Australia. Sam Bassini effect.

[Paris]

Number three. So you've got one and three. Yep. We'll try and get to Sam before the show's over.

[Gary Parrish]

Canada. San Bassini. I'm gonna go with England.

[Paris]

Number two. The United Kingdom.

[Gary Parrish]

Effect.

[Paris]

Yeah. We'll give you four guesses to get two more countries. Okay.

[Gary Parrish]

English speaking countries I think is what we need to focus on.

[Paris]

I will give you a hint. I do not believe the other two remaining countries have English as their first language. I know one of them doesn't. I have to believe the other one doesn't either. There's no reason why the other one would.

[Gary Parrish]

Germany.

[Paris]

Oh my God. Number four is Germany.

[Gary Parrish]

That's the Dirk Naviscu effect.

[Paris]

Claire. You better not be texting GP on the side. Are you help? Are you getting help? You're getting assistance?

[Gary Parrish]

I swear to God, I'm getting no assistance. I'm so. I'm flying solo right now.

[Paris]

Okay.

[Gary Parrish]

And the last. It's France. Spain. El Paso.

[Paris]

Other side of the planet.

[Gary Parrish]

Japan. South Japan. Taiwan. Do we do it? Does the I Own College Basketball podcast formally recognize Taiwan?

[Paris]

Oh my gosh, I was wrong.

[Gary Parrish]

We got to figure that out. That's something we got to figure out. Do we recognize Taiwan or not?

[Paris]

The answer is the Philippines. Singapore. Singapore. Number five shouts to our listeners in Singapore. Coming in hot and heavy. And how about this? I couldn't believe it, but it's true. There has been at least one download of the Ion College Basketball podcast. In some cases it is literally one download in 189 countries in the year 2025.

[Gary Parrish]

We've reached 100. We should go on tour. Like, oh, that includes.

[Paris]

And this. Listen, I don't know if this is AI generated. I'm not going to question it, but. Shouts to the Congo Republic.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah.

[Paris]

Lichtenstein.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah.

[Paris]

The Marshall Islands. Can you locate the Marshall Islands on a map?

[Gary Parrish]

I saw that. I.

[Paris]

That's what happens when you're too deep into your.

[Gary Parrish]

I don't go to island. I saw. I saw. I've been watching the news. I heard about all them fellas going to them islands. I don't. Islands like that.

[Paris]

Mongolia.

[Gary Parrish]

Yeah.

[Paris]

The Northern Mariana Islands. The Solomon Islands. I don't even know this country. Vanuatu. V A N U A T U. One download in 2025. All the countries I just named, they were responsible for. 1, 2 Niger's in there. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 10 downloads from 10 countries. But whatever. 189 countries. Thank you to every. No matter how you're listening to this podcast, wherever you're listening to how we doing in Ukraine?

[Gary Parrish]

You think how we doing in Ukraine?

[Paris]

How they doing that at the ready right now? All right, Claire, if you have the capability. She might not because we're about to wrap this pod.

[Gary Parrish]

You said that seven times.

[Paris]

We're done. Mention it. If you can get that Ukraine number In the next 90 seconds, we'll give it. Otherwise, that'll be. That'll be our cliffhanger for 20, 26.

[Gary Parrish]

How many people in the UK how many people. How many people in Ukraine listen to the Ion College Basketball Podcast? We'll let you know on Wednesday.

[Paris]

That's a show that's a year for ion college basketball.

[Gary Parrish]

Shout outs to Devin Downey. Shouts to Chester, S.C. shouts to Terry Teagle. He's a legend. El Paso, El Salvador. Hawk 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 podcasts, Apple, Spotify, El Salvador, wherever it is. There, there's way more of us than.

[Paris]

There are Marshall Islands.

[Gary Parrish]

Way more especially especially on those islands. Way more. Way more of us. All right, we'll talk to you again real soon. Till then, take care.

[Sponsor/Ad Host]

Paramount Podcasts.

[Paris]

It's football season and you gotta keep.

[Gary Parrish]

Up with the action. Listen in to Pushing the Pile part.

[Paris]

Of CBS Sports Podcast network with Mike Renner, Kyle Long and now me, JP Acosta for smart analysis of everything between the lines. With four episodes episodes a week, Sunday night recaps, film review, power tiers and weekly previews, you will know ball. Stick with us until one team lists the Lombardi download and follow Pushing the Pile on Apple podcasts, Spotify and anywhere podcasts are found.