← Eye On College Basketball
Eye On College Basketball
Sweet 16 Friday Recap: Houston-Purdue thriller; Auburn flips switch on Michigan; Izzo in his 11th E8; Tennessee gets revenge on Kentucky; a surprise guest joins the show!
01:19:26
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- [00:00]
Matt Norlander
This episode of I Own College Basketball is presented by Travis Matthew.
- [00:04]
Kyle Boone
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- [01:19]
GP
Welcome to a Friday Sweet 16 recap edition of the Ion College Basketball podcast. The Elite 8 is set for the first time in nine years. We have all one seeds alive and Kyle Boone is with me. And guess what, I got a special guest coming. Just give me one second here. Let me set up the matchups before we break down. We're going to open for anyone watching us live. Appreciate you so much. We are going to open with how Houston just escaped from Purdue in the South. It will be one versus two. It will be Auburn against Michigan State in the West. That is where you find your Cinderella, I suppose. Not really. One seed Florida plays Texas Tech in the east where I am here in Jersey. Of course on Saturday we'll have one seed Duke versus two seed Alabama. And we also now have a one versus two matchup in the Midwest thanks to Houston moving along and Tennessee moving along as well. Incredible stuff. Kb how you doing? It's great to see you, bud.
- [02:14]
Nada
Yeah, good to see you. A crazy day of Sweet 16 matchups and finished the day with a boom. Houston. Purdue ended up coming down to the final few seconds. Final second. And yeah, excited to talk some hoops.
- [02:28]
GP
Yeah, we're gonna talk some hoops and we're gonna go three man situation here. So prize is this. We're bringing back an old buddy from the other side of the planet. The one, the only, Sam Vicini is right here. Welcome back to the show. How you doing? What time is it on Your side of the world, my friend.
- [02:48]
Matt Norlander
Guys, it's beautiful. It's like 3:55pm here. I've got a night to hang out. It's going to be great. You guys are dealing with like a 1 o'clock finish, east coast time. Have fun with that man.
- [03:00]
GP
Yeah, I know he's get.
- [03:02]
Nada
You get that.
- [03:02]
GP
Well, that's the pro and the con and we'll get to the game in just a second here. But Sam gets, he's in Australia. So that means you get to watch every like late night finishes right around lunchtime for you. But that also means like games that happen in the afternoon, like the tournament games of the first round. You weren't able to watch those because they were in the middle of the night.
- [03:19]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, so most years I wake up and do it in the middle of the night. I just say screw it, I have to do this two times a year. It's fine. I. This year I didn't. To be honest, I missed the opening window games this year for the first time. Had to go back and like watch VJ against Mississippi State while I'm watching other games. But you know, it's. It's a small hazard to pay.
- [03:41]
GP
Well, it's great to have you here, buddy. Thank you so much for joining. We'll have a fun little three man show here. No gp. He gets the night off and a night off he deserves. He'll be back on the show on Saturday and, and looking forward to that. And for everyone that continues to listen and engage with us, we appreciate you so much. Let's go right into it. Houston beats Purdue in the regional semi. Out in Indy, 62 to 60. Braden Smith has himself one hell of a game. Again. Houston overcomes the fact that LJ Crier does not have a good night whatsoever. Milos USAN has another good game and then we can get into the Blob. Of course it's usan to JoJo Tugler. You saw Braden Smith, he curls away. It looks like he's trying to track down LJ Cryer on that play. No one's guarding the inbound or Tugler use that. Even said to Evan Washburn after the game. That was not the design there, Tugler, just high IQ play. Bada boom. He's right there. Look what I found. Cookie in the cookie jar. 0.9 to go. Houston6260 Boone. I'll queue it up for you and then when you're done, Sam, feel free to take it away. Thoughts on how this game played out and that ending, which is Not a true buzzer beater, but about as close to it as you can get.
- [04:46]
Nada
No, I thought, I thought it was a fitting finish. Uzan was great in the second half. I think was, was key for Houston because as you mentioned, Crier really struggled in this game. 2 of 13 shooting from the field. I mean credit a guy named Sam Vicini who actually tweeted this out just a few minutes ago. He had 15 assists. Smith scored or assisted on every second half Purdue field goal. That was just a masterclass from him. He wasn't really taking over on offense in terms of scoring, but just his control of the game in the second half to keep Purdue in that one I thought was so impressive. Just the, the will to, to keep the Boilermakers in it and Houston just could not put them away. Purdue was able to kind of make this close down to the final second. Of course Uzan gets the, the near buzzer beater and he was great the entire game.
- [05:39]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. So you know, it's not even just that he scored or assisted. He literally assisted every single bucket for Purdue in the second half. It was unbelievable. I don't think I've ever seen a guard deal with Houston's like blitz and trap kind of ball screen defense that they utilize as well as Braden Smith did tonight. I thought it was incredible just seeing him confidently and quietly in, in a very poised manner just manage those situations. I mean that ato. I feel like I was just like standing at my computer like the farmer and the water boy, just like touching my nipples, just like excited how beautiful this ATO was. It was incredible to know that it was Tuggler who made the read just an oozon. To come in off of the inbounder as well and understand that know that's the way that this ended up going is just so, so smart. Both of those guys are so high IQ in general. And what I love about the design of that play just real quick to get real nerdy for a second, is that the way that that sets up is you're essentially setting a flare screen from JoJo Tugler for LJ Crier. And if Smith doesn't come off of him, then basically Kaufman Ren has to come off of him and switch on to it. Which then leaves JoJo Tugler wide open. If Smith doesn't end up stepping up and helping off of the inbounder, you can switch that action. But my guess is that Houston's advanced scouting knows that Purdue is not going to switch that action on the original flare screen. So everything about this play design is just utterly perfect. And I really can't get out of my head just how incredible and how remarkable is it was to see Kellen Sampson, Kelvin Sampson, whoever drew that up in the huddle there, come up with such a brilliant, brilliant design to get that winner at the end.
- [07:33]
GP
Yeah. And the irony of this, obviously Painter is no stranger to some, some sweet, sweet ATO stuff and blob stuff and for his team to go absent minded a little bit there now some of it is on the design no doubt but that and as we're going live in real time like it's going to be another 25 minutes until painter hits the day. So we are not going to be able to get his response. I'm sure he'll have a responses Purdue gets to the Sweet 16 meet seed expectation, you know, plays in his backyard. Side note, I you know, just don't love the view whatsoever. Like the, the arena looked dark. It was just there's such a stark difference and we went over this with me and GP on the show earlier this week they had the high school tournament at Gainbridge. I get all that but it's, it's drastic so let's try and avoid anything pre Final Four in a football stadium as much as we can moving forward here. Houston getting, getting on. They get out of the sweet seat map of the past two years. They had been a one seed knocked out prior to getting to the Elite Eight. They had to deal with an Auburn team playing its backyard a couple of years ago. Don't have it here. I thought this was the kind of win knowing Kelvin and that staff. No, they don't want to play to a 6,260 final, especially not with this team. But they'll take, they'll take some sick enjoyment over like now that they got the win like just kind of a vintage, you know, quasi throwback because this Houston team has been really, really good on offense. Just winning this way and for the most part containing who they want to contain like Braden Smith was, was incredible again just in terms of his distribution and hitting Heidi on the corner and the just the trust and the timing of that assist to actually put this game in doubt. Heidi drills it. He barely got it off in time. I'm pretty sure that was Tugler closing in on him and Tugler can, can practice practically touch the clouds when he, when he jumps off the, jumps off the court there but that was, that was really, really impressive. Sam, I'll throw it back to you. Any thoughts elsewhere on the game or just what you've seen of Houston so far. This is a team that I have winning the national championship. Where do you have, where did you pick Houston to, to finish in your bracket? And yeah. Any lingering thoughts on. Just an awesome one and a great way to wrap the night on Friday?
- [09:47]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. So, like, my theory was, you know, this isn't sexy, this isn't exciting, but I went with all 41 seeds in the final four because we have four teams this year that are leaps and bounds better than anybody else, in my opinion, in Florida, Duke, Auburn and Houston. So I kind of thought that I'd be zigging while everyone's zagging, trying to find the two seed to put into the tournament. I would guess that that's not a super common thing, having all 41 seeds, even though it's, you know, the chalk idea or whatever. Two things on this game that like, you know, were interesting in some respect. It's like borderline insane to me that they made the third overall number one seed. Basically play a road game against a four seed and it felt like a road game. Like you could really feel that Purdue had the home court advantage there. Just Makes no sense to me whatsoever. If you're going to do that to somebody, do it to Florida. Send Houston out West. I'm sure Houston preferred to go out west versus having to play basically a potential road game against the four seed in the Sweet 16. The second thing here with Houston, I love this Houston team. I love how tough they are. You mentioned JoJo tougher. I think he's the best defender in the country. He's unbelievable. You mentioned the closeout onto Heidi. I mean, the way that he covers ground is just one of the most remarkable things you will find across college basketball. He completely takes away so many driving gaps, so many potential jumpers. Just a great player. But offensive execution at times can be a struggle once you can't rely as religiously on offensive rebounding as Houston often does. Right. So if you get a cold night like they did from LJ Crier, if you get a cold night at some point from a Milo Suzan, the worry is that they could go cold and end up in a problematic circumstance like they did tonight. The good news is that unlike the last couple of years in Sweet sixteen, they were able to fight through that and be able to execute offense enough to get up to 62 points as opposed to the last couple of years where it's been like, you know, it feels like 50 to 55 points, something like that.
- [11:57]
GP
KB your thoughts?
- [11:59]
Nada
No, I, I, I think that's Good. I don't want to you know, beat a dead horse, but yeah, I think to, to Sam's point, like the, the depth of this Houston team I think is, is probably the most impressive. Like they on, on most nights are not going to be able to survive crier just having a complete dud 2 of 13 in most seasons. This is a different season. This Houston team is something special. They've won 29 of their last 30 games. They are dominating in a way that is really impressive and to edge out this, this game in a, in a gritty, ugly fashion basically on the road, you know like an hour and a half or whatever it is from, from West Lafayette. I, you know, I think you just have to tip your cap to, to Houston the way that they've played and advanced in this, in the season and in the instant way tournament. Very very impressive from the Cougars.
- [12:50]
GP
Here's a couple nuggets for you. Uzan's winner came with 0.9 to go. That's the, that's the latest game winning shot in the Sweet 16 specifically since 2017. I was there, it was the Garden, it was Chris Chiozza of Florida to beat Wisconsin. That's specifically in the Sweet 16. Houston is only one of two schools, Duke being the other, to make three Elite Eights in the past five seasons. Kelvin Sampson, pretty damn good coach. A reminder of just how much of a heater the season has been for the Cougars. They got off to a slow start in November. We've documented plenty on the show. Houston is now 29 and 1 in its last 30. 29 and 1. Okay, so I picked them to win the title because they, when they're going, they are super, super tough to beat. Purdue has never defeated a one seed in the tournament. Had a really good shot tonight. Was not able to get that done. Purdue also has more wins than any program to not win a national championship in the tournament. It has 51 NCAA tournament wins, has never cut down the nets. And, and Braden smith, he's the first player assist became an official stat in 84. So since 84, no doubt this would have possibly been true before then, but we've only got the official statistics since, since 84. To have multiple 15 assist games in the NCAA tournament. You know, he's just, he's something else man.
- [14:08]
Nada
And he will be eight turnovers the game before too. Like I thought that was going to be a real issue for Braden Smith, especially against this Houston team that is so good at creating havoc and being opportunistic. Braden Smith, 15 assists in this game, I thought you know, just a super duper bounce back game for him.
- [14:26]
GP
Yeah, riveting stuff. Sweet 16 in general, I thought really delivered across the board. Obviously it was not on the show Thursday night into Friday because I was covering the games here. But between that and what we got here on Friday was really, really good. Nada. Let's take a break, we'll talk partners and then we will get into what went down in the south on on Friday in the atl. But first, quick break, then we talk Michigan versus Auburn.
- [14:52]
Kyle Boone
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- [16:38]
GP
You're welcome.
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Kyle Boone
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- [16:56]
GP
All right, let's get into Auburn versus Michigan. The SEC has now tied the ACC in 2016 for the most wins by a conference in a single NCAA tournament. That's 19. Auburn helped make that possible with obviously what Tennessee did as well getting there on Friday night. And the SEC does have four teams in the Elite Eight. We'll get to that later in the show. This game was riveting from start to finish and riveting near the end because of what Auburn wound up being. And what Auburn wound up being was the team that we saw for the majority of the first two and a half months of the season. Michigan got out to a lead 49, 43 I believe it was. And Broom was doing most of the stuff in the, in the, in the early parts of the second half. And then he started to get some help from his, from his teammates and Peter to hot Pettiford who was ridiculous. He hit a jumper that put him up 49, 48 with 952, 953 to go. Auburn goes on a 39 to 17 run over the final 12 minutes and 11 seconds of the game. They were down by nine. Before that, Broom, Pettiford and Denver Jones combined for 62 points. It was incredible to watch Auburn just rediscover itself in real time. KB I throw it to you. Why did Auburn do what it did and why wasn't Michigan able to regather itself and make it a close game in the final eight minutes?
- [18:28]
Nada
Yeah, I feel like this, this game added to the, the mystique of the inflated basketballs. Like there's maybe like some, I don't know, like beaver tranquilizers in the balls or something. This game was super weird. Like the entire game was just bizarre. Auburn season high 10 first half turnovers. They look shaky in the first half. Michigan you know that they basically came out and said, hey, we're going to use our seven footers to attack you. And Danny Wolfe was awesome in the first half. I thought he did a really good job of basically going right at Janai. Broom wolf finished with 20 points. But the second half rally for, for Auburn seemed inevitable. Basically if you boil it down to you know which, which guards are you taking, Auburn's or Michigan's? Auburn's guards just ended up winning out. Denver Jones had hit some big shots to Hod. Pettiford was huge. 15 of his 20 points in the second half. Chad Baker, Mazara, some, some good and some bad energy on offense and yeah, Auburn ends up escaping. I don't know if Norlander, I would go as far to say that Auburn team looked like they did earlier in the season, but they did enough to.
- [19:37]
GP
Escape final 12 minutes. It was Pettiford's fade away, his fade away that I think got deflected even when it got shot off his hand was outrageous. Sam, floor is yours. What did you love? What did you hate? What? Just give me everything on this game. Because there were parts where it looked like a disaster, but a disaster that we couldn't turn away from. And then obviously, you know, Pearl's team just, they, they found something. They shut down Wolf and they ran away with it. What'd you think?
- [20:04]
Matt Norlander
Well, mission get gets out to a 48:39 lead even. It wasn't even just five, it was nine in the second half at one point. And after that, if I remember correctly, I think they had to take Danny Wolfe out. Like I think he just needed a breather. He's a seven foot guy, 245, 250 pounds, whatever. Like you can't just keep him in for the entire second half. After that point it felt like Auburn kind of saw its season flash before its eyes a little bit. And while you can't necessarily always be more efficient offensively with this group, like if you look at their last month, right, they've played 12 games in March so far and of those 12 games, six of their worst 12 offensive games of the season in terms of offensive efficiency have actually come in March. Or I think it might be eight games that they've played in March or something like that, but six of those games have been within their worst 12 games that they've played all season offensively. And I think that's kind of where they are. They're a little bit messy offensively right now, but what they can always bring is the defensive intensity. They have a lot of guards that can really get after you like Denver. Jones is obviously a tremendous defensive player. I think Dylan Cardwell is a fantastic defensive center as well. Janai Broom, obviously a great post defender, really knows the scheme quite well. I think was better last season defensively but has been really, really good this season too. And to Hod, Pettiford is a fighter on defense. Chad Baker Mazzara is long on defense. You can really just up the energy and the aggressiveness defensively. And this is a Michigan team that we know struggles with turnovers and ball handling decisions and everything. When you ramp up the intensity, I think that's what happened more than anything tonight. I think Auburn's defense let its offense feed off of it in the second half here and that's what led to the. I think it was a 28 to 6 run at one point in the second half.
- [21:54]
GP
Yeah, I think there was a few things going on here. I got to see Michigan in person. Michigan. Every Michigan fan watching, listening is all too of the fact that this team had serious issues with turnovers the entire season. They finished with 15 here. That actually cancels out with what Auburn had in this game. Wolf had some wonderful moments, but he quite clearly did get gas. I thought they actually ran some stuff to shut him down a little bit there. Vlad golden was. Vlad golden and Trey Donaldson combined for 15 points, but they were just 3 of 14 from inside the 3 point arc and they did not get it. They didn't get enough there. Michigan did have a point where it was in seemingly a good spot, but funnily enough it must have been the Wednesday show. Frankly, I've lost track of it. But GP and I specifically talked about Auburn. Specifically. Did they. Do they have the capability to actually be a team that flips a switch? If you ideology wise believe that teams can actually go from just kind of cruising to oh no, we're actually, we're going to try harder right now. We can flip the switch and do what we want to do, largely speaking. You got that in this game. And you know, broom, I have it here. So broom. So Auburn had no points from anyone other than broom up until 12 and change to go in the second half. This is from out of the break until 12, 12 and change were left in the second half. And then Pettiford hit a three, Denver Jones hit a three and they just started to get more contributions on down the line. And then eventually, you know, between Pettiford and Jones, they, they matched with at least 20 points in that game. And the run just kept building and building. I think, I think the biggest gap it got to be was 20, a 22 run. They got up to 59, 50 like it was. It was such a good spot for Auburn that Broom picked up his fourth foul with 650 to go in a six point game. Auburn having the lead and it just didn't matter. It did not matter at all. I thought this was a very big moment for an Auburn team who maybe they lose two days from now, they get knocked out of the Elite Eight against an ISO coach team. And it's a good season but they should fall short of their goal of minimally making the Final four. Or maybe this team wins the national championship and we look back and say middle part of the second half against Michigan, that's when it all seemed to change for him. It was, it was mighty, mighty, mighty impressive to see what they did, how they did it real quick on Michigan. Dusty May wins 27 games. That's the most ever for a first year coach at Michigan. Quite clearly did a really, really good job with the quality roster. That, that staff did an awesome job in the portal this season. And this team was also like whatever at this point. We're not going to go back and bitch against receding again. And if, if, if Michigan had been, I like I thought Michigan should have been a three, but whatever. But if it had been put in a different region and not against the number one overall seed, maybe it does break through or maybe it gets a bad matchup in the second round and gets booted against, you know, a team that, to play against him. I'm all too aware of the fact that UC San Diego nearly beat Michigan in the first round. But all told, thought they thought they did a really good job this season. Excited and interested to see what Dusty does in year two because he's going to have some guys like Danny Wolf is off to the NBA. I want to get to that before we move on to the rest of the rest of the games. Vlad Golden's going to be done. They just, they've got a lot of guys whose expert whose eligibility is going to expire this year. KB I'll throw it to you. First thoughts on, on, on Michigan as a whole this season and what we saw and expectations next year under Destiny.
- [25:17]
Nada
Yeah, I mean Michigan was at 8 and 24 last season. 8 and 24. So the fact that they, you know, they end up winning the Big Ten tournament, they win 27 games this season, they make it to the Sweet 16. Like all of that is well beyond any reasonable expectations for a first year coach. And you know, I think they've built a foundation there at Michigan where they are going to consistently compete at the, at the top of that conference in the Big Ten moving forward. Like I, I think if you're a Michigan fan, you have to be absolutely ecstatic. Obviously the season ends, it's a tough way to lose, especially to a, you know, the number one overall seed. It's a tough matchup. Maybe you're a little bit underseated yada, yada. But I think the building blocks there for Dusty May, for Michigan, like the, the future there is very, very bright.
- [26:07]
GP
Sam, two guys, I want to talk to you all three. We'll go three guys, just NBA stuff real quick. We'll go bang, bang, boom. We'll do Danny Wolf first. To me, Danny Wolf has zero business dropping out of the lottery. I'm sorry. Dude, seven foot, incredible handle, amazing passer, shows he's at least competent on defense. Really good teammate, super high IQ as a human being. He dude went to Yale and let alone on the court there. What are your thoughts on where he will you think get drafted and where you think he should get drafted? Those can be two different things. But I have been all in on Danny Wolf. Needs to be a top 15 pick going back to basically early December.
- [26:42]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. So I mean, just looking at my board, I'm pulling it up right now while we talk, like my personal board. I just did the draft guide profile on Danny Wolf a couple of days ago or whatever. I have Danny right now at 17 on my board. I'm a really big fan of Danny. I think he is an awesome offensive player who has some holes to figure out for sure. And I think he's a sneaky, better defensive player, like you said, than what he gets credit for. Like his ability to actually slide and stay in front of guards and switches. He had a great moment against Ahad Pettiford in the first half in this game where like he was totally on an island and Tahad is super slippery. You know, there was a moment where there were multiple moments where Taha just completely cooked Vlad golden in space. Right. I think you, you got to see the difference there in terms of what it looks like with a true center versus what it looks like with Wolf right now. Like, Danny has some issues to clean up. Teams are a little bit worried about what the shooting will look like because he has the funky mechanics extending back to like at the NBA three point line and then the turnovers. Like he's a fairly high handle and just throws some outlandish passes. Like, and I love it, I'm for it. But we gotta moderate it just a little bit in the NBA. Right. But I think that having the wider, you know, driving lanes, the wider court structure and geometry of the court that the NBA provides will help Danny Wolf quite a bit. But it could also hinder him a little bit more on defense because he's quick but good with his angles in college. Right. To be able to take guys into help. So I Like Danny Wolf, I have him in the top 20. He'll go somewhere in the first round off the top.
- [28:15]
GP
I should have done the proper intro with Sam, but he's on every show and we try and get to him before the end of every show. But obviously host Game Theory podcast. Very, very, very good stuff, high level stuff. Covers college, pro, the whole, whole gamut. So if you're not already dialed into a show, be sure to do that. And he does great work with the draft at the Athletic there. So I want to just happen quickly on a couple of NBA draft stuff, but keep it mostly determined. So two more for folks that, you know, are mostly college minded listening to the show and might not have looked at a single mock draft, Janai Broom is at worst number two for national player of the year. Does he have any kind of NBA future? What do, what do people think of him?
- [28:52]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, definitely has an NBA future. I will get drafted in some respect. Will definitely, I would say go in the top 45 at least. Has a real shot to go in the first round though. You know, can shoot it had a better year shooting last year. But you know, great rebounder as well, good rim protector this year. What I think people in the NBA were a little bit worried about is I felt like his foot speed was a little bit slower. You can certainly point to the fact that he dealt with a couple of different, different little ankle injuries throughout the year that could have hindered him in that regard. But he's really a guy who's not going to have immense size by NBA standards. He's going to have to live off of the fact that he can really pass, he can knock down threes, he can rebound at a high level. At the very least, I think he looks like a good backup center in the NBA who will be able to live out there. But the key for him being able to hit any sort of ceiling in the NBA is being able to continue to improve that foot speed and showcase a little bit more of what I thought we saw last year where he was a little bit more versatile in that way.
- [29:51]
GP
All right, last one. Give me a paragraph on Tahad Pettiford because this dude had some huge moments here. Maybe he's got one more game in his freshman season, maybe he's got three more. We'll see. But does he, does he have a legitimate case to, to declare or, or would he be better served at this stage right now at coming back for a second season?
- [30:12]
Matt Norlander
Should a thousand percent declare and test and see where it goes? In my opinion, just A totally fearless dude. Every NBA scout has noted to me this year that I've talked to about him, just how fe he is in these big moments, right? And that really matters. The ability to continue to knock down shots in the biggest moments of your team season against the best teams. I mean you remember the Houston game from earlier this year, certainly this game tonight, like you can point to every single game. It feels like he's had a big moment in the second half where they've desperately needed him. He's just small, right? And while he is feisty on defense, it's just exceptionally hard to be 6 foot tall in the NBA. Teams are going to attack you and the best ball handlers in the world are going to attack you and shoot over the top of you. You have to be basically perfect. I feel the same way about Braden Smith, right. These guys have zero margin for error there. It's incumbent upon them to be able to minimize that margin for error in any way, shape or form.
- [31:14]
GP
Kb, let's wrap here. What are your thoughts on Pettiford and any extended thoughts on what he showed tonight? Because to me, you know, just another example and reason why I love this tournament is just because you have guys in a big moment on a big stage and Broom was awesome and Denver Jones had some moments and Danny Wolf but like Pettiford had heat checks and you know, I love when this tournament just gives us reason to, to lose our minds over that and that like 16 foot fade away from the elbow was just, it was a bonkers, bonkers shot. Your thoughts on Pettiford and I know we'd all like to see him back in college, but do you think he, do you think he winds up leaving after one year?
- [31:58]
Nada
Are we gonna, I mean, yeah, yeah, it's definitely possible. I would, I would expect that he probably test the draft just to see what, what is out there. You know, I think to, to Sam's point pretty much nailed it. Like the size is definitely the biggest concern, but the way that he plays, he's totally fearless as a shot maker. Consistently shows up in big moments. Bruce Pearl after the game caught him a little and I thought that was just perfect because he just has this like little brother, I'm just trying to piss you off type energy that just embodies like just the way that he plays with just a swag that like hey man, you know what, I am a little bit small but I also don't care. And that was very evident. With Auburn's season potentially going down the the toilet tonight. He has you know, one of his best halves of the season, 15 points in the second half to, to keep Auburn dancing. So yeah, I mean, look, I like Pettiford a lot. I'm not sure I'd have him in my first round right now. But he's a guy who I think, you know, if NBA teams decide like you know, the size is not as big as a concern as we maybe see it is, then yeah, he could end up being a one and done at, at Auburn.
- [33:13]
GP
All right, good.
- [33:15]
Matt Norlander
Real quick though, like just to finish real quick on this. As you know, as Kyle knows, the transfer portal has set things up for where these kids have exploded in terms of financial abilities. And I'm not saying Todd's going to transfer. I'm saying that Auburn will take care of this before he hits the portal would be my guess in terms of trying to make sure that he gets a substantial amount of money. And just to put the numbers in perspective, unless you're getting a guaranteed contract. So that is to say you are a one of the 15 players on an NBA roster that are not on a two way deal, you're getting it most like $600,000. And the way that the numbers have exploded throughout the transfer portal and throughout college basketball to hod Pettiford is going to make double that at least next year. There's no doubt.
- [34:01]
GP
I think, I think he's minimum one five and if they get to the final four, you put a two at it. Honestly. Incredible.
- [34:10]
Matt Norlander
So he basically has to be a first round pick or else he comes back. And to Kyle's point it's going to be questionable and he'll go through the pre draft process and we'll see what it looks like.
- [34:18]
GP
All right, good deal. Let's get to the other two games. Here we'll talk Sparty Tom Izzo back in the Elite Eight for the 11th time of his career. And we still got to talk obviously Tennessee beating Kentucky by 13. But first let's take a break and then we'll get to the two games right after this. Nada partners.
- [34:35]
Tracy Wolfson
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- [35:34]
Kyle Boone
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GP
Now.
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- [36:37]
GP
Travismathieu.com Michigan State 73, Ole Miss 70 they get it done. Shouts to Ken Palm. It actually predicted that exact final score and that's what it wound up. Wound up doing big time stuff there. Jace Richardson had 20 points and six boards. This was a game that was good for 40 minutes. Ole Miss had it early, but in the final 12 minutes, Michigan State ran away with it 34:22. Over the final 12 minutes, Michigan State outscored the Rebels shot 11 of 14 from the field. Meanwhile, the Rebs were 7 of 23. It was a script flip, no doubt about it. Tom izzo now has 14 wins in his career when trailing at halftime in the tournament. That ties Mike Krzyzewski for the most ever. Roy Williams and the late Great John Thompson Jr. Both have 12 apiece. Michigan State has found a way to. To have consistency when down. It has now won seven of the past eight games when it has trailed at halftime. And all, all of those games have happened since the month of February. Richardson was really, really good. It wasn't just him, but he, you know, in addition to scoring, he just made a couple of just general plays that I thought really helped him out big time. Kb, I go to you first. We can talk about Cohen. Cars insane. It's ridiculous. Dunk off the steel. We can talk Richardson, we can talk Aikens because he had some good moments as well. Or we can talk if you want to go losing side first. Rebs have never made an Elite 8. They had an opportunity here. Matthew Morell, Sean Padula, they showed up. Some other guys weren't able to. To me it was. It really, you know, it came down to big plays and some interesting coaching. Take it away. Kb. Where do you want to go?
- [38:20]
Nada
Yeah, I think we need to have an intervention with Jace Richardson and tell him he might be the best player on the floor because it doesn't seem like he knows it. He only took eight shots. I think he was eight shots in this game. Finished with 20 points.
- [38:33]
GP
Yeah.
- [38:34]
Nada
Four of six from three point range. The rest of Michigan State two of 13 from three point range. And this was a matchup that I thought Michigan State could have trouble with. The way that Ole Miss plays, it's. It's no middle defense with. With Chris Beard. I thought that Richardson would have to have a big game for Michigan State to advance. He does end up having a big game. Of course they get some contributions elsewhere. But yeah, this was, this was a star turn for Jace Richardson and man, Cohen Carr was really good. First career start, 15 points. Iron Eagle with a. We get the full car wash. I thought was fantastic. We got a couple from. I mean it's just like this was, this was a fun game. It very much flew under. Under the radar because of everything else that was happening. But yeah, and you know, of course finishing the game with Tom Izzo literally crying in the post game with Tracy Wolf, Wolfson talking about, you know, I love my guys. Just if you love college basketball, I thought like just the entire Jace Richardson, Cohen Carr, Michigan State advancing. Izzo crying like all of it I thought was just. Was very cool to watch.
- [39:47]
GP
Yeah. Cohen Carr, by the way, got the start for the first time this season. That's obviously with the way that Ole Miss runs out his starting five. Sam, what'd you take away from the game?
- [39:59]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, so interesting game across the Board. I thought it was really just kind of fascinating how early on I thought in the first half Ole Miss just kind of out. Michigan stated Michigan State almost like they just felt like the more athletic team. They were getting buckets by going out in transition and they rebounded the ball exceptionally well. And they were playing really tough on ball defense. Like those are the things that you associate with a Tom Izzo team. And essentially what happened in the second half was Michigan State kind of recalibrated a little bit in the particularly, I think half court offense. It was a little bit bizarre to me, frankly, the way that they utilized Jace. I don't think it's so much that Jace doesn't know that he's the most talented guy. It to me it's like a combination of the way he is used and it sometimes kind of just the corner player in that offense, frankly, and they won't always let him touch the ball. But also he is like somewhat one dimensional. Like he is very much a player who is going to try to get to his left hand and be able to get downhill. Like for instance, Ole Miss, you know, did a fantastic job in the second half as Michigan State continue to utilize him. Really it happened after he came in off the bench at around the 12:20 mark. Michigan State, I believe that he. What was it? Drove and like bobbled it and it went to car and then car got that little floater and then the second one he got fouled. And then we went to the TV timeout after that, Michigan State really started to utilize Jace a little bit more. A little bit more. And particularly one thing that they did was they tried to get him downhill off like an empty side dribble handoff, right? And what happens there is because he is fairly one dimensional, Ole miss is able to deny that by overplaying that, right? You can just say, okay, we're gonna stop you from getting to your left hand. But the downside of that is and why Michigan State continues to run it is because it then basically sets up like a four on four and it gives you a ton of space offensively to be able to operate. So I think that Jace getting going on top of Jace having his 20 points, you know what I mean? Jace was fantastic and efficient and his ability to do so much with so few touches is incredible. It's more that I think that his presence and utilizing him more helped get the other guards going a little bit. You saw better, you know, Jeremy fears in the second half. You saw a better Trey Holloman. I think we'll Miss started to have to overplay a little bit to deny Jace the ball in so many ways.
- [42:39]
GP
I think it's quite clear that Michigan State's roster feels a certain lift of spirit and motivation when Jace is on. He did have a couple of pretty big three pointers in this game that helped swing it Michigan State's way and a big picture offset. You know, Padula again, Padula was if you follow Ole Miss a ton, you're aware of this, but Padula really was one of the most valuable transfers in the entire portal portal this season. Like if they don't have him, they make the tournament, but they're not nearly as good of a seed. He had 24 in this game. Morell had some moments but ultimately I just, you know, Malik Dia wasn't as impactful as they wanted would have want him to be. I thought that was a pretty good job by MSU overall. And it's, it's Izzo again. You know, Chris Beer going to this game multiple times referred to Izzo as being on the Mount Rushmore of coaches. I don't know if he meant that literally in the history of the game or active or whatever. We know what Chris Beer thinks of of Tom Isso and this was a, a very intriguing X and O coaching matchup and Sparty gets it done. It was compelling game and certainly for the first 55, 58% of it, it looked like Ole Miss was going to have a real shot at, at pulling this off and being the the somewhat rare in recent years 60 to break on through. But that's not what we got whatsoever. So here he is, Tom Izzo back again the moment after the game on camera. He had a little bit of tears of joy with Tracy and his team around him. Really awesome stuff. And you know, before we get to Tennessee, Kentucky, you know, I just, I can't get enough. I, I can't get enough of Tom Izzo and I would think that people watching the show, listening to it, unless you are a Michigan fan and this is not an easy night for, for those who support the Maze and Blue because your team's going home and and Sparty's obviously still sticking around for at least two more days. Yeah, it, you know, I just, I treasure the fact that this guy is still doing this and the fact that now he's made an elite eight in four decades. 90s, 2000s, 2000s now 2000s. This is the first elite eight for for go green, go white since 2019 when they knocked out Zion, Williamson, Duke, to get to the Final Four that year. But Izzo had a clip that went viral a few days ago because he got asked about the Portal and he was almost, you know, he was answering the question, but he didn't want to go for like 30 seconds. And like the full clip was like a five minute answer. And it was just Izzo in his purest sense. Like, I know the Portal's a thing. I haven't paid one damn second of attention to it because I got my team, my guys right here, right now, got to make a Final Four. This is what I care about. And I just loved, loved, loved every single thing about that clip. So no questions specifically from me to you guys, but I did want to give Izzo a little bit more love because to see him this deep into his career, he's not retiring after the season. I mean, if they won the national title, I guess, you know, that's going to be the question. But I sat with them for two hours in his office a month ago and he's just not near it. Like, it's not this season, it's not next season. Probably won't be the season after that if things keep going decently well. Yeah, Sam, just, you know, big picture on what Izzo's able to do and continue to navigate and get a team like this. It's. It's pretty impressive, dude.
- [45:56]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, I was literally about to just like, throw it back to you and just ask you, because you know Tom way better than I do. Like, I've. I don't really have a relationship with Tom at all. But, like, my impression every time that I see, you know, anything of his is that he just hates the entire idea of where college basketball is going. And I was just curious, like, where. Where this is headed for him, right?
- [46:19]
GP
Like, yeah, it's. It's not that he doesn't hate that. He doesn't like the way that it has happened. And he actually, I kind of got into. In the feature I wrote about a month ago where he has stopped trying to wage battles with the powers that be through nabc, NCAA Division one oversight committee. Like, all, like, he's done, he's like, you know what? I'm not, I'm not giving up coaching. I may not be happy with some of this stuff. I talk to every single coach in the sport and almost no one's willing to talk on the record about everything they hate about what's happening here. Not that the players are getting paid, but just the reality of what's happening across the sport. But he, he is. I, I. It's wild. It's what. How I perceive him to be. And I, and I perceive this is true is Tom Izzo is more at peace. While not satisfied or content, he is more at peace with the reality of college athletics now than he has been in a decade. And in accepting that, as much as he can possibly accept it, it has enabled him to put his energies and motivations. All this stuff would take up so much of his time. This dude would be on zooms and calls and he's tossed it all aside. And so he's been able to invest more in his players and his teams and kind of the pursuit of why he does this to begin with. And I think it's no coincidence. That's why MSU got a two seed. It's back in the Elite Eight, and he might get to another Final Four.
- [47:44]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. Like, again, my question would be, like, how much of that is that this season is going well for him and, like, let's see what happens when he has a season that, you know, goes. Look, Michigan State seasons so rarely go completely off the rails. Right. Like, he. We should feel confident that he's going to win 20 games. Right. Like 20, 21 is the last one that, like, felt questionable in any way, shape or form where whether or not they were going to make the tournament or anything. So we can expect he's going to make the tournament. But, like, this is a team that was exceptional within the Big Ten this year. Number two seed, obviously well deserved. I'll be interested to see how happy he is when things are not going his way. Maybe.
- [48:24]
GP
It doesn't.
- [48:25]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, it's just. It's a fascinating situation. Like, I have an immense amount of respect for Tom Izzo. I think that what he's done within college basketball over the last. Realistically, we're closing in on four decades now. His just been so incredible because he's kind of done it just in a different way than everybody else. Like, he has built this brand of basketball that is built on physicality, rebounding. We're gonna do it our way. And in a lot of ways, I don't want to say it's not archaic. That's completely unfair in any way. Like, it's. You can't say that, but it flies in the face of a lot of modern principles in terms of team building and in terms of what you care about on the stat sheet, what you care about in terms of the players you're recruiting. And I love that we have a throwback that in so many ways does things so differently than everybody else, I guess. And that's what's really cool about this version of 70 year old Tom is otomie more than anything.
- [49:28]
GP
And one more thing for me, kb I'll throw it to you, then we'll move to the next game. There's all of what Sam just laid out, which is great. And it's also like a lot of the principles that he is running his program on now existed 25, 30 years ago when the most athletic freak athletes of his generation decided I want to go play for that dude. And his name was Jason Richardson. And now we go 23 years in the future, Izzo is still doing this and so much of what Sam laid out is still happening. But oh, by the way, because Izzo has like, just hearing him talk about this over the years, the relationships that he continues to have on a like familial level with his players. It's why Jason Richardson, you know, he let this, he let Jace pick where he wanted to go. But it obviously he learned it in the family and so all that is true. But also you have a lottery pick on your team that is helping you advance along this. He deserves to have the circumstance under which, under where he finds himself. KB quickly on his own. Then we'll get to Tennessee. Kentucky.
- [50:31]
Nada
Yeah, no, I, I think to Sam's point, like it's, it's very interesting and awesome to see that he is just totally bucking normal trends. The modernization of college basketball. You've got Michigan state this season. 23.2% of its total offense is attributed to three pointers. That's 356, sixth in all of college basketball. They are one of the worst three point shooting teams in all of college basketball this season. 31% that was worst in the Big Ten. And then, you know, on the other side of the bracket you have Alabama shooting 51 threes in a Sweet 16 game and making 25 of them. And Michigan State has just accepted that that is not their reality right now. That is not what they're going to try to bend that program's will towards. And they're still advancing in the instability tournament, doing it with, you know, a way where they're winning with defense, they're winning with physicality, they're winning on the offensive glass. And it's it, it certainly makes for fun just because not every team is alike in the NCAA tournament in college basketball. And Izzo is just going to continue to, to do things the way that he wants to do it.
- [51:43]
GP
Yeah. Auburn Will play Michigan State in the last game of the regional finals on Sunday. That's going to be interesting. There are eight of the top nine. Ken Palm teams are still standing by the way, and I'm almost positive this is a first. The only team in the top nine that is out was Gonzaga which got knocked out by Houston. Texas Tech is nine. It's the lowest. Duke is one. It's the highest. Let's talk Tennessee beating Kentucky. It's the only game of the four that really didn't carry continual interest over the course of 40 minutes. 7865 Tennessee avoids a three game sweep at the hands of Big Blue nation Zakai Ziegler. It was his game. It was his night. He had 18 points, he had 10 assists. He only had two turnovers. If you just, if you watch the game and it wasn't just because of him, but he was dialed in. He made sure he was not going to let Tennessee lose. He was talking some smack at one point. He pointed up to the scoreboard when the two teams had a little bit of tiff there, you know, they were able to shut down. Tennessee was collectively Kobe Bray up only at 5. Andrew Carr wasn't that impactful. Kentucky's lack of a bench and really having impactful players come off the bench and it finally came back to get them here. But Tennessee gets it done. They're in back to back elite eights for the first time in the history of the program. Lanier went for 17. Jordan Gainey came off the bench to have 16 here. So this game didn't have a ton to it. But it's notable all the same for Tennessee which is absolutely good enough to win a national championship. Rick Barnes has gotten this team to a 31 season again. It's just the third time in history that's happened. It's only the fifth time they made the Elite Eight and they stopped a Kentucky team that had looked pretty good. I mean they turned off their water in many regards in the first half. Kentucky only had two assists in the first 20 minutes of this game. And it's 28 points in the first 20 minutes were its second fewest in the first half this season. So a lot of credit to Barnes and his team. Boonie, I'm gonna go to you first. What were your thoughts on. On what? The voltage to get things going in Indy on. On Friday night?
- [53:40]
Nada
Yeah, I thought, I thought it was really impressive from Tennessee. Tennessee's got, you know, a top three defense in three point percentage this season and Kentucky just for whatever Reason was red hot in in both regular season games they made 24 combined threes in in both of those games did Kentucky and you know in this matchup it it was pretty clear that Tennessee was scheming to try and make sure that Kentucky did not have good looks from three point range and really just ran them off the three. Kentucky was 6 of 15 from three in this game. They only took six threes in the second half and Tennessee dominated on the offensive glass as well. Just typical Tennessee win. Winning with defense, winning with second chance points. They had 19 second chance points to Kentucky's five and that felt like, you know, basically the the difference in the game. Ziegler was great. 10 assists linear and Ziegler combined for 35 points in this game. Back to back Sweet 16s for Rick Barnes Kentucky season ends predictably had some injuries throughout the season. Felt like at some point these accumulating injuries were going to to add up. Lamont Butler playing through a shoulder injury in this one, I thought he was pretty good. But yeah, the season for UK ends up just falling short.
- [54:59]
GP
Sam, thoughts?
- [55:01]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, honestly I think Boone hit on most of what I had to say just in terms of it felt like Tennessee had felt the wrath of Kentucky being able to beat them from three twice this year and decided you are not shooting threes against us. They sold out to the three point line and said okay, if Amari Williams wants to post us and try to beat us inside, go for Felt like particularly Kobe Braya they didn't imagine amazing job on him. Basically just saying you are getting no space. Even the one three that Brea hit was like a wildly contested shot where I just like kind of like my jaw went slack. I was like oh my God, like how did he just make that? He. I think Tennessee just did an amazing job defensively, kind of game planning and scheming for this Kentucky team. Ziegler was unbelievable. I don't know that I need to really go super deep into that, but I will say like I think that the way that this, you know, coaching triumvirate of moves turned out between Mark Pope getting to the Sweet 16, John Caliperi getting the Sweet 16 and then Kevin Young in his first season at BYU getting to the Sweet 16, it feels right to me. It feels just that this is where it all ended. I think it was a win across the board for all three of those teams. I don't know that it was more of a win for one team or the other comparatively. I think that all three of these teams have just been really, really successful this season. And you know, Mark Pope looks like a great energetic coach for Kentucky moving forward and he's obviously one of their own, which matters in that state for sure. And on top of it, he just plays a very modern style of basketball that I think a significant number of recruits are going to really, really connect with if their goal is to get to the NBA. Obviously Kentucky this year does not have many NBA prospects necessarily. I do think Kobe Braya will end up at least on a two way in some respect, but if not on a guarantee. But at the end of the day I think that this is just a really, really good situation for Kentucky here moving forward. And you know, already they've reaped the benefits of the portal getting Cam Williams today from Tulane. It's a perfect scheme fit and it's going to go well.
- [57:04]
GP
Yeah, yeah, there's a chance, there's a scenario. It doesn't seem all that far fetched to me that we, we look out over year two, three, four and five at Kentucky under Pope and this roster just has the least amount of pro talent on it and yet they won 24 games. They beat eight top 15 teams. There was a nice moment in the post game where Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr both spoke to what it meant to wear the jersey. Not wanting to take it off and really just it's good to hear this kind of stuff. We see a lot of this in the tournament and it's good reminders. Yeah, the players are getting paid as they. As they should but on a, a real human level like the amount of sacrifice, the relationships they build. Speaking up for Pope, telling players to hop in the portal because if you're going to go anywhere you want to go to Kentucky. They even Carr said that unprompted as well. He's just like I got to get a word in here. This is what this meant to me. I thought that was a really awesome moment and there was a apologies I don't have the person who shared it on my timeline, but I saw a photo that got shared a lot of of Pope and consoling Lamont Butler in the hallway after, in the tunnel in the, in the back of the ballast of the arena. And uh, yeah, good season for Kentucky. I know it didn't end the way you wanted. I get that like you make a sweet 16 you'll take but you just wish you'd been more competitive. Tennessee is actually a fairly big rival for UK and now the Vols march on real quick. Can we just, can we talk Tennessee Houston real quick here, that matchup. There are two teams that do a lot of stuff. Similarly, Houston has rated better than Tennessee for most of the season. KB I'll go to you first, just your expectations of what of what we you think we're going to get in this kind of game.
- [58:42]
Nada
Yeah, it's Tennessee. Houston very much the Spider man mean pointing at Spider Man. They do a lot of things very similar in terms of their physicality, the way that they create second chance points through pounding the offensive glass. Really good at defending from three point range. They've both been pretty good on offense of late. Houston certainly a little bit more efficient. In fact right now they ranked number one in three point shooting percentage this season. It's going to be an interesting matchup. I'm curious to get Sam's thought here because I don't really have a preview, but my gut tells me this could end up being kind of a low scoring game. Both these teams really like to play defense and I think Houston could end up sputtering a little bit just the way that Tennessee plays on defense.
- [59:33]
Sam Vicini
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Sam Vicini
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GP
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- [60:33]
Matt Norlander
Your thoughts Sam yeah, I'm expecting just a straight up disgusting rock fight of a basketball game. Like that's what it's going to be. But like having said that, I don't think either of these coaches would have it any other way. Right. Like you have two for my money. Frankly like we texted about who I think should, you know, have been the national defensive player of the year. And you know the two names that I brought up to you were Jamai Mashak and JoJo Tugler. I think those are the two best defensive players in the country. May. Shaq is unbelievable. I think that guy might be, like, One of the 15, 20 best perimeter defenders on planet Earth with his ability to, like, guard and switch and fly around and contest and get his hands and pass. Like, he's just unbelievable at scrambling and rotating around. And then Tuggler is like this alien from a different realm where, like, he just is. So he covers so much ground on the court because of his length and athleticism. So I think that those two players just embody everything that this game is going to be in a lot of ways. And to me, the key is how the guards handle the pressure of that. Right. I personally think that Houston's guards are probably a little bit better equipped to handle that pressure between Oozon and Crier going into it. Plus, you have Emmanuel Sharp, who can just kind of get his shot versus anybody. Whether or not that shot's going to go in is an open question. But, like, he is very capable of getting to his shot from any level, you know. But look, Ziggler, Lanier, you know, Meshach isn't like a great ball handler necessarily, but he's somebody who's, you know, tasked oftentimes with, like, being that third, you know, playmaker with the ball. So I think I trust Houston a little bit more, but I also love Tennessee's perimeter defenders. So it's a matchup where, like, you try and find the little mismatches on the court or the little inside, where you go, oh, Tennessee is, like, not a particularly good defensive rebounding team, and Houston's like, a killer offensive rebounding team. Oh, wait, like, it's actually kind of the same with Houston, who is not an amazing defensive rebounding team for what their reputation is. Tennessee is a great offensive rebounding team. Like, how is this going to go? Right? So, yeah, I think it's just going to be kind of a disgusting rock fight of a basketball game, and we'll see where it goes.
- [62:53]
GP
Let's do a quick, quick look at the Saturday. Obviously, me covering the games here in Newark, I was on the pod, so I'll be quick on stuff. Alabama, Duke is the late tip. Texas Tech, Florida, Florida is the early tip. We'll go to the early one first. Out in San Francisco, I saw very little, and we don't need to rehash it because GP did it on the show before, so we don't need to go back and talk about it at all. But I saw very little of how Tech actually was Able to come back and give Caliperi one of the all time tournament melts. I did. See, I'm assuming GP mentioned this on the show was the second biggest collapse in the tournament ever. It was 16 points only Gonzaga, UCLA and 06 was was larger than that. Texas Tech has been a top 10 Ken Palm team for two months now. They've been doing this despite being injured. It's actually absurdly impressive how Grant McCaslin has been able to do this and now you get a Florida team that has gotten some, some good pushes here. It's really, really intriguing matchup to me. Overall. Florida just ran away from Maryland late. KB will Texas not can. I think we all agree that Texas Tech can Will Texas Tech knock out Florida on Saturday?
- [64:03]
Nada
No, they will not. They will not. It could be close similar to how Maryland played Florida close early in that game. But Florida's depth over the course of a 40 minute game just has consistently been able to win out here over the last couple weeks. Texas Tech had the juice in in the second half to to come back in and win that game against Arkansas. Darian Williams was fantastic, made some shots in the second half for Texas Tech. JT Toppin was big. They're still dealing with it with an injury to Chance McMillan. Don't know if he'll be available. Sounds like could be iffy even if he does. Probably not at 100%, you know, but this Florida team, you know, the fact that Walter Clayton was 3 of 9 in in its last game and still Florida pretty comfortably pass the test versus Maryland, I think just speaks to the depth of this Florida team. They have so many weapons across multiple positions. Alex Condon, I mean just Elijah Martin, the list is very long. So I think Florida probably wins and wins pretty convincingly. But if Texas Tech ends up making this close and pulling off the upset wouldn't be the most surprising thing. But I do think Florida wins and does so pretty handily.
- [65:22]
GP
Sam, quick from you before we wrap on Bama and Duke.
- [65:25]
Matt Norlander
Sorry, I'm still recovering from you just tossing dirt on Cal's grave.
- [65:31]
GP
Hey listen, I wrote a glowing feature about him after they made the sweet 16 and I did all I know, I saw the stat, they were up 16 and then I was, you know, I was in Newark, I was covering the Duke Zona thing. I just, I didn't have the capability to watch that stuff in real time for the most part. I saw Arkansas was up comfortably. Next thing I know the game's going to overtime.
- [65:50]
Matt Norlander
So.
- [65:50]
GP
Yeah, yeah.
- [65:51]
Matt Norlander
To be clear, I don't you're not wrong. I think that it was a, it was a coaching, coaching mismatch in the second half, to be honest. Okay. So on Bama, Duke, look, I think Bama's live. I think that anytime that you can shoot like Alabama does, you are have a real chance against Duke. Having said that, I think Duke is the best team in the country and I think that Duke is specifically very well designed as a team to try to shut down what Alabama does very, very well, which is shoot the basketball from three. Right. Because what Alabama is going to try and do, they're going to try to get to their three point jumper and they're going to try to get to shots at the basket. The teams that they struggle with are the teams like San Diego State that can really, really protect the basket and then sell out at three point line. Nathan Mensah for San Diego State in the final four last year, two years ago, whenever it was. And Duke is going to be able to sell out to the three point line. Tyrese Proctor, you know, conanipple's pretty good defender obviously. Scion James, guys like that, Mason Gillis been there before. And then they also have the interior presence of Patrick Gamba obviously common Malu watch. And you know, if Malik Brown can go in any way, shape or form, we saw him for a limited little run there in their Sweet 16 game. I just think that they match up really, really well to try and shut down specifically, specifically what Alabama does. But look, shooting variants can do anything in a game. You know, a single game elimination, it can.
- [67:17]
GP
And Bama. So real quick for me on what I saw Thursday night, real quick and then we'll get out here getting to witness a team make and you know my press seat right there on the floor like and I was on that side of the floor for the second half. Getting to witness a team hit 25 threes on 51 shots was and utter joy because let alone getting to witness it and write about it, just they might play the tournament another 50 years and we don't see that like the, the Loyola Marymount record held for 35 years. It's and like maybe another team hits 25, 26 in the next decade, but are they going to do it on 49 shooting? I don't think, I don't think so. So that was incredible to watch. And then seeing Cooper flag put up the best game statistically ever by a freshman in the history of the tournament and at doing it on the same night that Caleb loves, career wrapped and he goes for 35. It was just Thursday was a really really awesome special night and there'll be like you know just oh random by the ways like just as it was so happened to Bansa and his parents were right behind me and he's there for BYU but you know he's going to be wrecking the sport next year. He was, he was just sitting in and who knows what tournament stuff might await for him a year from now. Just a really cool experience on a sweet 16 night. Now on Bama vs Duke I talked to, I asked this to Oats at the press conference and I talked with those a little bit on the walk back afterward. He they don't he doesn't feel as though that they've got to hit 15 plus threes to beat Duke. They will if they have the opportunity is there they'll take it. But they have had instances this season where they have gotten 70 hit rate in the paint and won games and so if Duke wants to try and run them off the line or try and get them into some certain schemes that he that they they think they might have some success on. He even said this in the presser like he knows that they can hopefully get what they want but he kept going back to the fact that Mallow action has standing reach which is true. Like Malawatches is just him being down low. He is such a game tilter. Be interesting to see like he still played 26 minutes despite having some foul trouble if they can get him off the floor because if they can't it's going to be a big issue. That being said I do wonder Bama defensively how much can they possibly neutralize flag and if they do it's not like if you do that you're going to have a a for sure easier path to victory because a knipple can get you for for 23. Proctor was lava hot through the first two rounds of this tournament. I'll be against lesser lesser teams overall and you just go on down the line. They've got size, they've got length, they've got athleticism. If Alabama can get 90 of what it was against BYU then it's going to win the game. It just will. If you tell me that Alabama shoots 21 made threes and hits it above 45 hit rate it's going to be Duke like Duke. Duke is an amazing team, amazing offense but it can't keep up with that. That's asking too much of it. I can't wait to be in the building. I'm really excited to see how that that unfolds there. And I really hope that both of these teams play to their ceilings. The Elite Eight is always a special round to me, guys, because it is the last round where we get basketball games in basketball arenas. The Final Four is awesome for a variety of reasons, but we get the basketball games in an actual arena. And there's something about to be said about making the Final Four. I'm really, really looking forward to it. And I'll have coverage deep into Saturday night into Sunday as well.
- [70:42]
Matt Norlander
Okay, can I just like mention one last thing here?
- [70:45]
GP
Yes.
- [70:46]
Matt Norlander
This is like a really big game for John Shire. He has a talent advantage here against Alabama.
- [70:53]
GP
He does.
- [70:53]
Matt Norlander
Last season they also had a talent advantage against NC State. I think John Shire is an unbelievable basketball coach. Like, I am not one of these people who is a hater in any way, shape or form. I love what he runs. I love the way that they have styled their defense. I think he's a fantastic basketball coach, but I think he kind of needs this one. Like, I, I actually do think that the Duke fan base will get a little bit frustrated if they don't win this one.
- [71:18]
GP
I would say give it one more year in this regard. And kb, you can hop in here, they have the boozers coming in next year and like, yeah, Flag is different. Boozer is also an ins. Like, if boozer is what he, like, he will be ridiculous as a usage monster next season. And if, if, if like Duke could win this game by 15 tomorrow and whatever. Like, but if they, if they were not to win and then we find ourselves in this conversation again, it's all about expectations. Like, you know, this team expects the thing, it expects national championship. I think Shires, I think he's two wins away from setting the record. I think he's two wins away from setting the record for most wins in the first three seasons of a career history in the industry at D1. So I get what you're saying on one hand, but also, like, he's done a very good job handling a very difficult situation. So I think it's more about the expectations with the talent overall. You can't criticize the job he's done in my opinion.
- [72:10]
Matt Norlander
And before KB jumps in, and I really actually do want to hear from kb, I do want to note, again, like, this is not my opinion. Like, I think John is an unbelievable basketball coach and I love the way that he has built this program. I just know that that Duke fan base sees Cooper Flag as like the Anthony Davis level player. And that's because he is that level player. And I think that they do have that expectation at this point. And I, I would. I, I hope that the fan base is reasonable if they do not win tomorrow because Alabama goes out and drops 25 threes again or something like that. You know what I mean?
- [72:48]
GP
Yeah.
- [72:49]
Nada
You know, I, I don't think, like, if Duke loses this game, there's going to be some crazy reactions. Right? I think that's totally reasonable. If that happens, Duke is the better basketball team. I agree with your point earlier. I think Duke is the best basketball team still in the NCAA tournament. You know, at the same time, though, like, I don't know, I, I just think that this Duke team, the, the way that they're constructed, this. This is all probably going to be a moot point for me. Like, Duke is probably going to end up winning by 12 or 13 points. Maybe Alabama has another historic night or something close to it. And, you know, I think in the previous game, Duke and Arizona, Arizona actually played pretty well on offense, got some stuff off. They made 12 threes. Like, Duke is not completely infallible, but they're pretty darn close to it. And I think in this matchup against Alabama, Duke has the personnel that, you know, there's. There was an article. I won't get into, like a ton of this, but there was an article at the Athletic, basically talking about John Shire. The way he constructed this team, which was, you know, the first year that he had this Duke program running, you know, he. He was heavy on defense, didn't have a ton of offensive punch. The second year, it was a little bit the opposite. Right? He had Jared McCain, their offense was really good, but gave up too much on defense. And then so basically he's like, hey, why don't I just, you know, like, make a super team and just have a little bit of both and success. He has a little bit of both. And a lot of that is because Cooper Flag is freaking awesome. And he's just a superhero and in the way that he plays basketball, just as a. As a passer, as a scorer, as a defender, but also, like, the pieces around him seem to fit. And Tommy Lloyd, I think after the game last night or two nights ago, I guess made a good point, which is basically like, not only has Shire put together a really good team, but also the pieces fit in a way that makes a ton of sense. And, you know, that's why I picked Duke to win the national championship. I think this team just is so cohesive, and the way that this team plays Together makes so much sense that, yeah, I'm. I'm rolling with Duke until. Until I'm not.
- [75:03]
GP
It could, it could be that. But it is the tournament. It is the Elite Eight. And you just. You just never know. I just really want a close game. But yes, the scenario you just laid out, I think is entirely possible. Okay, let's wrap here. Before we do, folks. KB's coming to us from Fort Lauderdale. He's in CBS Sports HQ studios. He has been doing that during the daytime for the past two days. He'll be there for two more days. You're killing it. Love to see you getting some airtime down there. Thanks, Kobe. That's awesome, awesome, awesome stuff. Sam. Promote every single thing you want to promote right now.
- [75:35]
Matt Norlander
Go to the athletic. Keep me employed over there. I enjoy working at that fabulous publication that KB just decided to, you know, shoot a. Shoot a note about. Go to the Game Theory podcast over on YouTube. If you're watching it here as we record this thing live, you can I guess, subscribe to it on Spotify, whatever podcasting platform you use. Yeah, just go follow my work. I like to have a good time and you know, go subscribe to the Ion College Basketball podcast, which I am also on every single week.
- [76:02]
Nada
That's right.
- [76:03]
Matt Norlander
I swear. Yes, I promise.
- [76:04]
GP
We just don't have enough time sometimes, Sam, that's all. Sometimes enough time. And I would have loved to get you on the show with GP but frankly I wanted to get it. I wanted to get like a three man thing going and gpr, our schedules don't line up during the tournament. So we'll make sure this happens again. Hey listen, you have been so kind to give us 70, by the way. This is nada. You're an MVP. It. It's. It's not as gonna be the last one in bed tonight. I'm rolling on like four hours of sleep, but it's worth it. And I know the people that, that consume these episodes like you really love the tournament. We love that you. That you watch, that you. Listen, Sam, thank you so much man for. For hopping on KBU as well. We will have another episode recapping Saturday and Sunday. So those are still coming. My thanks to Sam Vicini. My thanks to Kyle Boone. I am Matt Norlander. I will be in Newark to recap and write about and talk about everything. Duke, Alabama, I will be back on the pod Sunday night with Parrish in studio. You got that to look forward to. Have a great Elite eight, everyone. It is one of the lowest seated. If you added it up. 2007 was the last time we had the total sum is 13. It's tied for the lowest ever that we've ever had. All four ones are still alive. Oh and Evan Miyakawa texted me during the middle of the pot. I'm gonna give him a shout. He says there is a 17 chance that all 41 seeds will make the final four. If you think that's lower than it should be, just consider what a given team's chances are against another really good team. And a head to head. You've got four of them, all four of them going against good teams. Again. Eight of the top nine Ken Palm teams are still alive in this field field. I'm gonna wrap the show. Appreciate everyone for listening. We'll be back tomorrow with the recap. Until then, enjoy Saturday Paramount Podcasts it's.
- [77:59]
Evan Miyakawa
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