← Eye On College Basketball
Eye On College Basketball
The most anticipated weekend of the regular season shakes up the race for the No. 1 overall seed: Duke, Arizona and Michigan are all 25-2
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- [00:00]
Matt Norlander
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- [01:00]
Gary Parrish
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- [02:58]
Matt Norlander
Complaints? No. Disagreements? Yes. The the media put Houston on the one line and we actually talked about it for a Good probably like 10 minutes when we did our selection on I'm losing track of my days here. I guess that was Thursday. And keep in mind when we did that, there were about three or four selection committee members that stayed over were still in the room, including Chair Keith Gill, Vice chair Martin Newton, which if you haven't checked the feed, Josh, appreciate you doing that. He dropped in the quick 10 minute HQ interview I did with the vice chair on Saturday afternoon after this came out. So they had they knew that they were going to have Iowa State on the one seat and they probably just had some chuckles internally as they heard us hash it all out. And it was not a universal decision. C.L. brown, who's long time great writer out of out of Kentucky and done great work in North Carolina, he advocated for Iowa State to be on the one line. C.J. moore also did as well. But ultimately Houston won out. The surprise here though, Parrish, is that it was not Iowa State versus Houston for the final spot. It was Iowa State versus UConn, which was the best two seed in the group there overall. So it went Iowa State 4, UConn 5, Houston 6. You know, as this happens every single year this bracket comes out and then it is immediately deemed largely irrelevant by the end of the weekend because results have changed the very nature of this stuff. We're going to get to Duke in Michigan in short order. Quite obviously Duke would be the number one overall seed right now if the committee redid this because it was they were the top two teams, Duke one on the neutral, yada yada yada. So I was surprised by Iowa State, but And then I would say, by the way, I always say lost. I think UConn is now back on the one line as a result of winning on the road. We'll get to all of that. I was surprised Texas Tech was not only in the field. Texas Tech was rated as the best four seed in the field. So for the purposes here they did not. And keep in mind, when the committee was doing all of this, quite literally as they were doing this, Texas Tech was playing against Arizona State. It lost that game. JT Toppin went out with an injury and before the committee broke and went their separate ways, they knew that Toppin was done for the year with the season ending injury. They opted not to implement that as it pertained to Texas Tech, which was a little surprising. But just so everyone realizes here, Texas Tech is going to have three plus weeks worth of games to play without topping. It is my estimation that Toppins injury is not going to affect Texas Tech seating on selection Sunday because they are going to have more than enough data and game results to evaluate where Texas Tech should be slotted overall. But I was surprised to see him as high as they were in the bracket. What were your takeaways?
- [05:33]
Gary Parrish
Well, I, you know, we all did a bracket preview for CBSSports.com mine was more or less the top 16 of the top 25 and one just ordered slightly differently for bracketing principal reasons. And I had it Michigan, Duke, Arizona and Iowa State as the four number one seeds in that order. So no complaints for me. I did think it was a debate as of Saturday morning between Iowa State and Houston. But like you said, the committee said they thought it was more of a a debate between UConn and Iowa State. Either way, I had the four number one seeds, right? I, I had 15 of the 16 schools in the in the top 16 in the top 16 of the top 25 and one on Saturday morning as well. I had the two seeds, I had three of those four correct. The three seeds. I had three of the four correct. The four seeds. I had three of the 4 correct in terms of the number next to their name. But in total, 15 of the teams you see right there in that graphic were also in the top 16 of the top 25 and one on Saturday morning. So like I told Emily Proud on CBS Sports hq, it is always, I guess, refreshing on some level. You ranked 26 basketball teams every morning in November, December, January, throughout February, and every day. The Internet can't wait to tell you how you don't know what you're doing and then we get the bracket preview show and it lines up basically exactly what I've been trying to tell you, you know, for months now. So, yeah, that's. That's me patting myself on the back. The one miss I have, Tech I had did not have Texas Tech in my top 16.
- [07:12]
Matt Norlander
We both missed on the same team. Out of curiosity, I had Bama as the final team on the four line.
- [07:17]
Gary Parrish
I. I need to see who I had.
- [07:21]
Matt Norlander
Bama, by the way, was the first cut. They revealed that after I was surprised. I just thought they would bump Tech off the four lines. So Bama I had there as virtue of its win over Arkansas. Those two played a phenomenal game, obviously midweek last week. Sorry to throw a curveball for you.
- [07:36]
Gary Parrish
I know who I had in. I had St. John's in as a four seed and I had Texas Tech out. And I guess the argument for putting Texas Tech in is that based on their resume, there's some data to support it, but they did just very publicly lose not only their best player, but like one of the best players in the entire country. And if you want to take a wait and see approach with them, like, I'm not going to fight about it. I'm not going to argue intensely. It's just a television show. But I don't need to see Texas Tech without JT Toppin to know that Texas Tech isn't one of the. Probably isn't one of the 16 best teams in the country. I think Evan mia.com had it where the numbers were something along the lines of his computer had Texas Tech rated as like a top 15 team with J.T. toppin, but outside of the top 40 without J.T. toppin. So I would not have had Texas Tech in the top 16. But it is a minor quibble and at the end of the day, not that big of a deal. Let me ask you about this because I had all the one seeds, right? And I had three of the four two seeds. Correct. Where I missed is I had Florida as a 2 and UConn as a 3. The committee had UConn as a 2 and Florida as a 3. Were you surprised that UConn was as high as it was? Do you think UConn should be? I know you said you think they would be the one seed right now. Based off of what the committee showed us Saturday morning, Do you think UConn should be a 1 seed right now?
- [09:15]
Matt Norlander
I do. UConn is fourth in resident metrics with some daylight between them and Purdue. It's got a very healthy record. It just won on the road against a projected single digit seed. And the predictives are where they get a little bit dinged here. But if I was doing it right now coming out of the weekend, I would have Yukon as the fourth one. Benefited by the fact that Iowa State lost. Well, I always say has one more loss than Yukon. And to me that kind of stuff can matter when you're really, you know, getting to the narrow margins and, you know, doing one versus another. Houston didn't win, so that all the more helps. Illinois didn't win, so that helps. And UConn has, has some space, I think between itself and Purdue overall. So yeah, I do believe that that UConn should be the fourth one right now.
- [10:01]
Gary Parrish
I would still have Iowa State as one seed. You know, like everybody in that range lost. It'd be pretty easy. Right now you're going to have Michigan, Duke, Arizona in some order. And then you get into a debate about, I think I would still have Iowa state as the fourth number one seed. I had them fourth in the top 25 and one on Sunday morning. As for the bracket preview, like I had somebody ask why would you have Florida over over UConn? Which is a completely reasonable question. I'll try to answer it. UConn is the only projected number one or number two seed in the bracket preview. With a quadrant three loss, they have six quadrant one wins. That's low relative to the other teams in that range. Florida has two more quadrant one wins than UConn. One fewer quadrant three loss because they have zero. Florida's higher in the net, higher at Ken Palm, higher at Torvik, higher at Evan MIA, higher in the BPI. I know Florida has three more total losses than UConn, but some of that
- [11:01]
Matt Norlander
twice as many losses is the big reason why they're not ahead of them.
- [11:03]
Gary Parrish
That's a perfectly reasonable point to make. I would just counter it with. I think that's more schedule induced than anything else. UConn has played a tough schedule. It ranks 28th in the country according to Ken Palm. Florida has played a tougher schedule. It ranks fourth in the country according to Ken Palm. Again, no big deal either way. I could turn around just like that and make the case for UConn over Florida. But I don't think there's anything ridiculous about Florida over UConn. I just laid out the argument you would make if you were trying to
- [11:29]
Matt Norlander
make, all right, a couple quick notes from the NCAA and then we can move on if you want. And we've gone now. This was the 10th, 10th version of this or the 9th or 10th version of this. Obviously there wasn't one in 2020. The only year, so dating back almost a decade here, the only year where the same one seeds in this reveal were also the one seeds on Selection Sunday was 2023. And all the other seven previous years where we've had a subsequent tournament, three of the four remained on the one line. So I think that is going to absolutely hold here. I think we are going to get to Selection Sunday. Hello, folks. Three weeks from today. Okay. In fact, as we do this at this very moment, we'll be within two hours of the bracket reveal. While not guaranteed, it feels fait accompli. Duke, Michigan, Arizona will be your three ones. And then we get into the battle of Yukon, Houston, Iowa State. Don't count out Purdue. If Illinois really, you know, went on a big run, perhaps it's there. It's going to be one of those. I think that's going to. I think that pattern will continue. I will note that UConn was the 1 seed. I think the committee said this as well on Big cbs. Martin told me on the interview as well. It was the one scene. Then it lost Creighton and then, and then it lost that there. So it's. I, I just don't think there's that much daylight between those teams. I hope that makes for a really compelling race for the final one seed. And then in the previous eight times that we've had a subsequent tournament, all but one of the 32 teams that were on the two line, the two line specifically remained in the top 16. So the point is, if you are a fan of a school that had a one or two next to its name on Saturday afternoon, you're almost virtually guaranteed to be nothing worse than a four. And only six number three seeds have failed to do it over the past or over the previous eight times we've seen this again, we can't count the ninth time because there was no tournament in 2020. So there's still. We do strike the balance of we only get one of these, which I do appreciate because the way college football does it, it's idiotic. So we get one. We're far enough away from Selection Sunday where like, we've got a good idea of how the clay is going to be molded. But there can be significant changes and you can have teams. I want to say that Kansas might have been the team in recent years. I can't remember the specific season and I'm sorry, I can't remember the seed line. But it might be Kansas was the team that like, it was. It might have been the two and it drops significantly down. We typically don't have that situation where you've got a team that's featured here and then you look up on Selection Sunday and you find yourself caught in the 89 game or on the 7 line. But that being said, there's still plenty of of room to maneuver. And that is evidenced by the fact that brackets, the brackets shown in full by, I don't know, 12:45 Eastern, 12:50 Eastern on Saturday and and all of you know, less than 12 hours later, there's just teams obviously moving left and right, most notably with the huge duel in the district that saw the number one overall seed flip.
- [14:24]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, okay, that seems like a good place to pivot. Let's get to some actual gains. We'll talk Duke Michigan next. First, let's get our first word from our partners.
- [14:32]
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- [15:02]
Matt Norlander
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- [15:06]
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- [16:00]
Gary Parrish
for 20% off@collarsandco.com Final score Duke 68, Michigan 63 and what was a 1 versus 2 matchup according to the bracket preview and the top 25 and won the Blue Devils two snapped Michigan's 11 game winning streak. Cameron Boozer 18 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks. Big buckets in the final couple of minutes. I saw you talking about it on CBS Sports hq. What's the main takeaway Norlander from Duke's big win in D.C. i think my
- [16:31]
Matt Norlander
main takeaway is that this was a good result for college basketball. It was all right. It was a good result for college basketball because had Michigan one, I saw the Wolverines do what they did at Mackie just a few days prior at Michigan 1 and Michigan won with some room to reach then it would have been on a tier two itself. I think fairly evaluated as such and that would have been a fine storyline and we would have let the pot all the same with it. But now we've got this and this is our poll to start the show. We've got this three team race and that's not to say that the teams underneath that are populating the two line and the three line because they can get involved in this for sure. But who is the best team in college basketball? We're entering the final week of February and we knew who that we now know who the projected number one seed is. That's that number one overall seed. That is Duke. It has earned this opportunity. It was Michigan and then Duke. The committee showed that to us. Every reasonable bracket forecaster would agree. Now they have identical records and Duke has won on a neutral against Michigan. It's Duke. But is Duke the actual best team? Michigan is actually still number one at Ken Palm. Arizona went on the road and won against Houston. Bring it there in just a few. So I think that's a wonderful development. That's my biggest takeaway is that Duke winning period. The final result was a good thing. To throw even more uncertainty heading into March who the best team in the country is. That was wonderful. As for the actual game from my end I was surprised by how easy it was to score to start this game. They were filling it up quickly and I thought because these are two top five defenses, in fact Michigan was was number one in defensive efficiency going into the game. Still is as a result of the what wound up being a relatively low scoring 68, 63 final and then they and then the defense has started taking over. Not having Kado be effective I thought was the second most important factor in the game. When we were previewing on hq, I said Duke's capability literally like around the rim at both ends of the floor. Could it be successful at second chance opportunities? Could it limit Michigan's and Adai Mara and Lindenborg and Merez Johnson because they can just be magnets to the rim in a variety of different ways, different angles and it did the final numbers on the boards. Michigan had eight second offensive rebounds and second chance opportunities. Duke had 13 defensive rebounds, Michigan 20, Duke 28. For the game. You know Duke grabbed well over half the opportunities on both ends when you tally it all up and winning the rebound percentage battle combined with like Cadou hit his only three of the game final maybe three and a half to go. GP finished one of six from deep. Londonborg had some good moments, but he was he started better than he finished for the most part. I know he also hit a big three. When he hit the three to cut it to one, it felt like okay, like can we really get this thing that's going to be decided in the final possession? It didn't wind up going that way. It was a close game. Good game, wonderful for the sport neutral site. I we always want these home and homes but I actually do like this and we are going to and my expectation in just talking to coaches event organizers is we had three three notable ones this year. We had Baylor, Louisville, Virginia, Ohio State last week and then Duke, Michigan. I think we'll get like five or six at least next season. That's just a a great change of pace for college basketball. And all the buildup and all the hype surrounding this one, I loved it. I have not mentioned Boozer yet. I'm kind of setting the I'm setting you up on a tee. You can go big time on Boozer who didn't even have his best game but yet again came through when he needed your takeaways on the Blue Devils getting it done.
- [20:06]
Gary Parrish
Well first on the I love the non league showdown in February. I wish we'd get more of these. They're just sort of fun, if only because they're different. I I will acknowledge that it did pop in D.C. like it was good. Courtside seats were going for reportedly. I mean I didn't check the prices myself, but this is what I read. According to the Associated Press, courtside seats were going for as high as $6,000. Upper deck tickets were going for 600 in some cases. Again, you can confirm that on your own, but I read it straight from the Associated Press. I so it was it was a great, it was a great scene. But I don't like it when people take great neutral court scenes and say, well, wasn't that great? As if it wouldn't have been just as great. And by just as great, I mean actually better if it were in Cameron and door or at Chrysler. So yeah, it was great in dc. I would prefer it on campus, but whatever. I'm just glad we got it.
- [21:05]
Matt Norlander
But yeah, as you know, they like, they intentionally wanted this so.
- [21:09]
Gary Parrish
I know, I know.
- [21:10]
Matt Norlander
In the lead eight game, literally a month from now, this is, this is still, it's right there at forefront of their mind, you know, theoretically speaking, because it's not a league, it's not a conference tournament game where you're playing. This is a non conference phone. I'm just clearing it up for.
- [21:22]
Gary Parrish
Of course, I know, like obviously they want to do it this way, which is why they do it. I just would always prefer to have home and homes instead of neutral courts. But I'm not going to complain. I would just, I, I'm just glad we got the game. It was a fun way to spend a, a Saturday night. The Cadot 3, the one that he made, that came right after Boozer buried a three with 155 left to turn a one possession game into a six point game.
- [21:47]
Matt Norlander
Then Kadok, I thought that's when they won the game by the way.
- [21:49]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, I thought that was it.
- [21:50]
Matt Norlander
The moment I was like, Michigan's not going to do this.
- [21:52]
Gary Parrish
Right. Okay. So then Kido comes down, Bangs home that 3:1 possession game again and then Boozer goes right back down and that's when they get the goaltending call on
- [22:00]
Matt Norlander
a Di Mara, which I thought was accurate. Now. Super close.
- [22:03]
Gary Parrish
It's super close. But it looked, it looked goaltending it live.
- [22:06]
Matt Norlander
It looked to me like it was just barely coming down.
- [22:08]
Gary Parrish
Yes, live. It looked like goaltending. I completely understand why Dusty challenges it. I mean like why not at that point? But I was not surprised to see that the goaltending call was confirmed. And that was basically it. Once that bucket counts, it's 66, 61 and Michigan finished with 63. Final score 68 63. So fun game even if it wasn't the prettiest of games. Duke was up 35, 33 at the half and then never trailed for a second in the second half. Boozer, it wasn't his most productive game, but like when it was time to go get buckets and time to like, hey, can you go win this for us? Make A three. Now bounce it. Get into the paint, finish in there. I mean, he was just making winning basketball plays. And he and Shire did the post game interview on television together and you can just see how much John thinks about him. And then I liked it, the way John answered this question. He was asked like, what did you learn about your team tonight? And he was like, you know, honestly, not, not much. Point being like, I know who we are, I know we're good. And it just sort of stuck with me because on Friday I was doing HQ and we were previewing Duke Michigan and in the rundown I was going to get asked there was a question in there about, you know, does John Shire need to do this to, you know, show he can win the big game? We never got to the question probably because I was rambling just like this and my answer was going to be no. Like, John Cher's won big games. He's been in a final Four, he's won conference tournament championships, he's won Duke, North Carolina games. He is a young coach, but he is an incredibly successful young coach in this sport. And he doesn't have anything to prove to me and he does. And his team doesn't seem to have anything to prove to him. He knows he's got, just like last year, he knew, I think by this time, way earlier probably that he had a team good enough to win the national championship. They just didn't do it. Same thing right now. They've got a team good enough to win the national championship and you know, we'll see if they can do it.
- [24:15]
Matt Norlander
Boozer again just shows up for the moment. He had four fouls. He goes out. Duke doesn't take on water. Very impressive. I thought you got good, I thought you got good play out of Gangba, who's just got his hands full with Mara obviously there. And Mara was the only Wolverine who wound up in foul trouble. Boozer as well. And I thought that was, I thought it was a key moment, like a key development for Duke to be against a really good team on a neutral site, NCAA tournament type atmosphere. Then you lose by far your best player for minutes at a time. I actually thought it even helped him all the more because we had some stoppages. So if he really needed a, a real breather, he got that. In addition to the fact that he needed to sit for four plus minutes of game time. Then he comes back in, fresh legs, ready to go, attacks. He's so hard to contain and gets it done. His final stat line, 18 points, 7 assists, 10 rebounds. Flirted two freshman studs, came extremely close to a triple double de bonta being the other. But yeah, a wonderful performance by Duke. 25 and 2, Michigan, 25 and 2. Arizona, we'll get to them. 25 and 2. So we've got this at the top of college hoops right now. A really, really fun race developing. And this is my reminder to everyone that Duke is quite literally two possessions and essentially two and a half seconds away from being undefeated at this point. So as capable as any team in the country at winning a national championship. And for Shire to have brought in, you know, the talent, he brought in, amazing class, obviously. And Boozer is. He really is just as dependable of a winning player as a freshman as we've. As we've, like, ever seen. Like, he barely lost it all in high school. Continues to get it done here. And he. The way that he can just take all this on and, and it just doesn't seem to rattle him. He's like such a different player than Flag, but it's, it's, it's super impressive by Duke. So congrats to the Blue Devils for getting that done and in the process taking over the number one overall seed. They've got two. Well, I guess they've got three potentially tough games remaining. They're at Notre Dame Tuesday. I wouldn't count that. Home to Virginia. Wahoos are looking wonderful at NC State. Okay, we'll see. Could be feisty there. And then host Carolina in the return game, where I think the hope is that Caleb Wilson will be able to be back for that one. But. But good on Duke for getting it done. Meanwhile, Michigan, it's got home against Minnesota, and then Friday it goes and takes on Illinois. That is another battle between two top five. Ken Paul.
- [26:53]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, like you said, Duke Tuesday, Notre Dame on the road. Michigan up next for them, Minnesota at home. That was one top five matchup we got on Saturday. Let's transition to the other one. Final score, Arizona 73, Houston 66. That was at Houston. No co op. No problem. Wildcats are now 25 and two 11 quadrant one wins, including wins at Houston and at UConn. They are now alone atop the Big 12 standings and projected to be outright champs. Are you convinced they're going to do it?
- [27:29]
Matt Norlander
Hold on. Let me peek at the schedule here. They've got Baylor on the road and color. Yes, Baylor and Colorado on the road. They got a host Kansas and host Iowa State. Not going to be easy, but I will say yes. Hey, real quick, what was the more difficult win on Saturday Duke against Michigan on a neutral or Arizona on the road against Houston on the road against
- [27:52]
Gary Parrish
the top five team. That's, that's, that's, that's the most Michigan
- [27:55]
Matt Norlander
rates is the better team.
- [27:56]
Gary Parrish
Yeah.
- [27:56]
Matt Norlander
Come on. Come on. And, and by the way, like I understand, Houston's lost back to back games. That's happened for the first time in more than two years. I'm, I'm sorry, I'm just not going to. Arizona is really good and they're doing this shorthanded. Amazing. My quick thing on Houston is this.
- [28:12]
Gary Parrish
I'll put it this way. I'll put it this way. If I had a basketball team and you said gp, you got a basketball team, they're good enough to win either one of these games. Like you're also, you know, questionable enough to lose either one of these games. You, your whole life depends on it. You got to go play a basketball game. Would you rather play Michigan and Washington D.C. or Houston in Houston? I'd rather play Michigan and D.C. if my life depends on it. Let me go take a shot at Michigan and D.C. i don't want any part of Kelvin Sampson in Houston.
- [28:39]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, and Houston's now 23 and 4. I'm just not gonna, not selling any Houston stock. I know they've taken back. Just like I said all of a few days ago, I wasn't any less of a. My opinion on, on Arizona didn't drop at all after it lost back to back games. Same thing with Houston. It's the Big 12. Just not going to get there. While, you know, Flemings had himself a good, not great game, he actually hit a, he had a three in this one in the second half that I thought was going to be the, the spark that was going to guide Houston to the win. I'm just not there. I'm, I'm still. I consider Houston to be top four quality in the country overall. This is part of life in the Big 12. It just is for Arizona. You know, missing multiple rotation players, no co op heat. Braden Buries didn't play a good game. He had actually a key offensive board that led to, to a key bucket on that possession. Just come on, man. This is Arizona just showing you why Arizona fans should have the confidence, deserve to have the belief, should feel the optimism that your team is going to make a Final Four for the first time in more than two decades. Ivan, our, our buddy Sam Vicini tweeted this. I thought, I swear I thought the same exact thing. And Sam, if we have time for you, we'll Try and get to before the end of the show. When I was watching Karchenkov play the way that he's playing. Bradley's an older player, but he's got some savvy and some smooth and a silica shot buries. We know, Pete. We know they're gonna, they're gonna make the league. Maybe Del or so Crevas. Like I was looking at this Arizona team in this game and I'm saying, are we going to look back in 10 years and discover that they had six guys on this roster that played at least multiple years in the NBA? Because I do think it's possible. I really do. Delorsa was massive in the first half and they got off to a great start, which I thought was the most important part of this game. You go into Houston's building, do not mess around and find yourself even, like, even in like a 17 to 11 spot. You know when you're just. When it's that early and now you got to kind of claw and fight and just grapple to get back to a level. It wasn't that they got off to a lead early. Houston did take the lead back. But then Arizona pushed back en route to the 7366 outcome and ending there and doing so getting its third top three win of the season. No other team has that. It is only the second team this century to have three top three wins. Unbelievably, as I sent out and credit to our CBS Sports research team for this on Saturday. I know we talked about it after the first time they got the win when they beat Florida open the season out in Vegas. That was a noisy one. Okay. Arizona has won away from home against Florida, on the road against UConn, on the road against Houston. And incredibly, it has done that against top three opponents and hit three or fewer three pointers in every single game over the past five years. Teams that went three or fewer made triples in a game against a top five opponent. Are 2 and 72 in those games. Excuse me, I think I said a top three, top five, top three opponent. Arizona this season is 3, 0. It's outrageous. They have cracked a code. They play a certain genre that no other team can match. I very much think it benefits them. Could it bite them? Yeah, sure. But it benefits them more than it draws them back. I standing ovation for me, for Arizona with the way that it played against Houston and doing what it did and essentially said this on HQ as well, like it's not a lock. As long time listeners know, I'm extremely stingy with my idea of a lock. No matter how unlikely it would be that you would lose every game, if you can mathematically still lose every game, and that would theoretically take you off a certain line or get in the tournament, I don't call you a lock. So Arizona's not a lock for a one seed. For all practical, practical purposes, GP Arizona got it done. It's going to be a one seat getting this win on the road the way that it did. Wildcats 1 in the west. That's what Saturday clinched to me.
- [32:53]
Gary Parrish
I don't have much to add here. I'll just say that the thing you said about the NBA, where you might look up five years from now and like, you know, six different Arizona players are in the NBA. One of those Villanova teams was like that, that won a national title like throughout the season, like in real time, as you're watching them, you're like, yeah, but how many of these guys are really NBA players? And you look up, they're all NBA players, they're all in the league, like the whole team, plus guys could like everybody and Arizona could be like that. I do think the lack of three point takes is a flaw. Undeniably it's a flaw, but it is not a flaw that keeps them from being great at this point. You know, the results are in. They can, they can play this way, beat great people this way. They can win a national championship this way. I don't know if you were trying to design it, if you would design it this way, but, but it works for them. I echo everything you said about Houston. I still believe in them, not only as a Final four team, but a legitimate national championship contender. Like if I had to put pen to paper today, I might put them right in the center as my national champion steal. But you know, they, you know, they were up a bucket. And then Arizona goes on a 12, 0 run. They go 8 minutes without scoring a point, roughly 8 minutes without scoring a point, nearly 10 minutes without a field goal. Like at some point that that becomes a problem. These long stretches where you're not scoring. And so you know, the problems are smaller than, than most people's problems, obviously. But that was, that was concerning to see because in a single elimination tournament, obviously that, that is how the whole thing could end. You got one bad eight minute stretch and the whole season that you had plans to take it deep into into April or at least deep into the bracket into the month of April, it's just over like that because you went eight minutes without a bucket for some stupid reason. So either way, up next for Houston. Hey, this is going to be great. I'm gonna have a party. Up next for Houston at Kansas on Monday. Up next for Arizona at Baylor on Tuesday. You want to do the weekend whip
- [34:56]
Matt Norlander
around a lot to get to? Let's do it, bud.
- [34:58]
Gary Parrish
All right. First, the award from our partners.
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- [36:01]
Gary Parrish
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- [36:58]
Matt Norlander
Oh yeah, definitely a late night in the studio. But I was, I was riled up for it because I, I felt genuinely. And I obviously wasn't on the Friday show except for that quick drop in. I did think that BYU was going to win the game. Desperate game for the Cougars needed to log the first top 25 Ken Palm win of the season had only beaten one ranked team. That was that that just trouncing of Wisconsin and Salt Lake City back in November and BYU's resume just really needed to jolt. No Richie Saunders obviously for the rest of the season. How would they respond? Iowa State coming off of you know getting the one seed earlier in the day of course but responding well to the TCU loss by winning Kansas, Houston back to back having those games at home again life in the Big 12 and here we get the the Bots has had higher scoring games but the best all around game I think that he's had in in that uniform 29 points, 9 assists, 10 rebounds. Just one dime away from from a triple double, a block and a steal. Only true turnovers and canard. Davis played well. He had, he had some good moments there. I loved cable Keda Given the the props to Saunders with his number on the back of his headband I think that's really awesome. But this was DeBonts's night and Boozer is still the comfortable front runner for national player of the year. And I know we talked about like our first team All Americans last week. I think the Bons is number two for national player of the year. He is now leading the country in scoring by what I think is a margin that no one will catch him at this point. And as a freshman no less 24.9 points. He's going to finish the season finishing north of 25. It really might wind up being north of 26 at this point the way that he's going. I wouldn't even put 27 out of the question because they don't have Saunders to produce there. Big time, big time dub for byu. That building looked awesome. Iowa State okay, you take the loss. It dings you from the one line in my estimation at this point but there's no, there's no shame in the loss. They mock Chilovich was a non factor and I think that was as big a reason as any but it just was. It was. This was the last game of the night of any consequence and Brigham Young just had minimal interest in keeping it all that interesting. Iowa State was still within striking distance so to speak but they got it done the way that I thought they would.
- [39:30]
Gary Parrish
Devonta is going to have a shot at national player of the year. I still think Cameron Boozer is the leader. Some of this is team related. I don't know if I told you this or Cal boom this last week but I know I said it on the pod. I went and looked it up for the Naismith segment that we do every
- [39:43]
Matt Norlander
week, it was us. Okay. I think he's talented enough to break that.
- [39:47]
Gary Parrish
I do too. I do too. That's what I was going to say. For people who missed it. Of the past 20 Naismith Award winners, 18 of them had teams that finished in the top 10 at Kenpa. So you, you got to be on a great team typically to win the national Player of the year award. The only two in the past 20 that won it without finishing on a top 10 Kim Pump team, it was Doug McDermott and Kevin Durant. So what does that tell you? You still need to be on a good team and you have to have crazy video game numbers. And he does have crazy video game numbers like he's leading the nation in scoring. He's terrific. So if he doesn't get there, it will be because maybe BYU is just not quite good enough in the absence of Richie Saunders to, to, to rank in a way that leads voters down that path. But if, if there is a player in the country who could be on a non top 10 team and be the national player of the year, that's the guy in Provo. ISU drops to 10 and 4 in the Big 12. They're now tied for third in the league standings with Texas Tech, Iowa, BYU 8 and 6 in the Big 12. Now tied for sixth in the league standings with UCF. Up next for Iowa State at Utah on Tuesday. Up next for byu. They get UCF at home on Tuesday. Let's go to Allen Field House. Final score, Cincinnati 84, Kansas 68. That's the biggest surprise of the, of the weekend, don't you think?
- [41:18]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [41:21]
Gary Parrish
As I was getting the sentence out, I was trying to run through it real quick like what else happened? What else happened? But that's it. I mean, you don't expect West Miller a few weeks ago was, was basically crying on radio and now he's walking into Allen Field house paying no heed whatsoever, knocking out Darren Peterson and the Jayhawks.
- [41:37]
Matt Norlander
Couldn't give less of a heed.
- [41:38]
Gary Parrish
Could not give less of a heat.
- [41:40]
Matt Norlander
Could not, could not give less of a heed. Mustafa Cham could not give less of a heed. Dayday Thomas 0 Heed given. Congrats to Cincinnati in that roster. Miller and his coaching staff dropped a home game to, to West Virginia to go to 11 and 12. And he's got fans angrily yelling at him, asking for answers like that. Had access to the, the back tunnels like, you know, near where, wherever the Hell west was walking to and he gave them a little bit of time and explained like no one's more like angry and disappointed and heartbroken than me. Since then peeled off four in a row, not a bubble team yet. When a Texas Tech win at home against Oklahoma State in your next two, then we will very much be talking. But you let's get that done first. For the Bearcats, this was a stunner. I don't know how to account for it. Cincinnati looked ready and this was you know, we come out of the bracket show and there was some other stuff going on early, but this was just kind of like, okay, big CBS game, Raffenburg on it. Let's just see what we can get from Cincinnati at all. And honestly, like what's Darren Peterson going to look like? That's why we're all dialed in. Well Peterson was he was pedestrian for him. He had he had 17 points in this game. Did log 32 minutes, four boards and assists, a foul. But Kansas was listless like weirdly so takes its seventh loss of the season. And my when I we talked about this game on hq Hakeem Dermish and I like my biggest takeaway and talking point was Bill Self has admitted multiple times to the media this season that he wants to see how this team can play together when it plays together consistently. He hasn't really seen that yet. We don't know how his is close to his exact words Parish might have been we're not quite sure how to play each other. We don't know how to play with each other all just yet or something like that. I'm obviously butchering the quote. He's right. And while Kansas has logged some awesome wins like clearly good enough that they were easily into the top 16 seeds on Saturday, I it is reasonable to at least bring to the table the idea. Okay and yes, these are some significant qualifiers that because of the will he won't he aspect of Peterson and now that we're a week until March, do we have some sort of just purely on court consistency slash chemistry issue with Kansas? I'm I'm giving this grace because they play tomorrow night on a Monday at home. Houston's coming to town. Kansas hasn't dropped a home game since the Dodo Bird. So I'm it's very possible the Jayhawks get a big win and some of this stuff quickly dissipates. But if you watch that Cincinnati game you would have been like that's not one of the 50 best teams in the country, let alone a team that's, you know, top 25, top 20 call quality or should be on the three line.
- [44:47]
Gary Parrish
Yeah. And just a few weeks ago they beat Arizona. So like, you know, yeah, of course I do think clearly they've got chemistry issues, like why wouldn't they like you? You, the most talented basketball player in the world, not in the NBA, comes into your games and dominates. Like, you know, like it changes everything you do. He's gonna, he eats up shots other people take. He, he starts possessions other people start. And that, that can be a difficult to, to get comfortable. And so I'm not surprised that it's been a little rocky. I am surprised. They lost to Cincinnati at home. They're now 11 and 5 with Darren Peterson in the lineup, 9 and 2 without him. So they win 69 of their games with him in the lineup. And they have won 82% of their games without him in the lineup. Some of that's just the way the schedule unfolds, the individual games, when he's there, when he's not. But either way, this is a fact. Kansas wins more without Darren Peterson than it does with Darren Peterson. I'm not saying that means they're better. I'm just saying that's a fact. I do like that Bill has finally sort of stopped tippy toeing around it. You know, he addressed the media before the game and was asked about Darren Peterson and he was like, the reasons people say he's missing games, those aren't right. But it's true, he's not finishing games. And if, you know, he more or less said like, if, if he, this is the way I took it anyway, if Darren Peterson and his people want people to, to stop saying what's wrong with Darren Peterson and stop asking questions, well, then he needs to finish games. The questions arise from him either his inability to finish games or his unwillingness to finish games. But it's all right there. And if you want to change that, the only way to do start finishing games. So I like that, I like the way we're talking about this now. And he played 32 minutes, he finished the game. But, but you know, it was a loss. So I'm eager to see what it looks like. This is a program. I wouldn't ever say something like, I mean, there's just no way you're going to beat Houston two days after losing to Cincinnati. Yes, there is. There's definitely a way. I've seen it before. That's, that's college basketball. But they did not look good against Cincinnati. And let me ask you this real quick, just as we were. Because I mentioned West Miller was crying a few weeks ago on radio, more or less, and that became a story. We had Penny Hardaway crying in a press conference just last week. I was hoping he would rally the way west did and. But instead they just lost UAB by a billion or whatever. It is a shame. I mean, you have no idea. Division 1 men's basketball coaches crying in press conferences or post game interviews. Not, not tears of joy or, you know, not like Tom Izzo tears. I mean, like, you are overwhelmed. It is getting to you and now you're on the verge of tears. Does this happen? Is this a new thing? Do you draw anything from. We have in the past month basically watched two high major coaches publicly cry because the basketball season's not going well.
- [48:06]
Matt Norlander
No, because it's only two. I mean, if there's a third or fourth or fifth, if it was like five, then we really might have something. I think Wes Miller is just knowing, you know, decent amount about him, like he's extremely committed to the job and he genuinely cares and that's reflected in it and he doesn't take it lightly. And the other guy is coaching at his alma mater in a city that once had immense passion for it. A lot of that slipped away. And these are also two coaches who, who very well may not be coaching at these schools in less than two months time. So I think that's as much about it as anything else.
- [48:39]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, sure. I guess my point was just like, yeah, it's only two, but it used to be zero. You know, we didn't, we didn't used to see this. Not that I can really remember. And I do wonder if it's a byproduct of like, everything else we see in this world. Like, everything's harder today in terms of the, the way people can penetrate your mind with social media and everything else. Like, like you, you just feel it more now when things are bad and you have a public job, you feel it now more than ever. And people can get to you in ways that they used to couldn't get to you. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to boo the Cincinnati coach, you kind of had to show up and do it in his face. And, you know, now you can just bombard him all day long in his phone. And unless he's strong enough to just turn it off, it can, it can become overwhelming. So I don't know. That's a conversation. That's probably a conversation for another day. But I just noticed, I've watched Two basketball coaches basically break down because of nothing. Not because one of their players got diagnosed with something, not because they lost a mom, but because like, man, I'm, I'm losing games a lot and this is really hard. We, we hadn't really seen that much. And I wonder if it's a byproduct of, of the way we're, we're all living these days. Let's move on.
- [49:53]
Matt Norlander
Hold on, hold on. Quick, Scott. I forgot to mention worst loss at home to an unranked opponent under Bill Self. Kansas has ever had 16 points. Here wasn't the worst loss, period. They had much larger margins against ranked teams, but never an unranked team. And it was the first time in 425, 425 games that Kansas had not lost at home by double digits to an unranked team. That's the longest streak ever. The second longest was 309 by Arizona from 83 to 08. Third longest is Vegas UNLV 73 to 93, 294. So it's 294, 309. Kansas did it 425 games in a row. Mustafa Cham and Wes Miller put that to an end on Saturday.
- [50:43]
Gary Parrish
Let's get to the Big 10 final score. UCLA 95, Illinois 94 in overtime. What a week for Mick Cronin. Gets blasted at Michigan State, ejects his own player, bullies a reporter, publicly apologize and then upsets Illinois. Donovan Dink got the game winning layup. Let me set the scene, then we'll watch it together. So Illinois is up 94, 93 in overtime. There's 4.9 seconds left. UCLA has to go length of the court, Tius Edney style. The inbound goes to Donovan Dent. Josh, run your, run your video. Come and try to get to half court. Here's the. There it is. I mean, can you turn him once? Can you turn him once?
- [51:34]
Matt Norlander
That was.
- [51:34]
Gary Parrish
I mean, can you turn him once? People say things sometimes. Sometimes people will say things about non players. You know, they'll say things like, well, you never played. And I say, yeah, that's, that's pretty much. Yes, that's about right. That's about right. I never really played, but I, I've been in enough practices to know, oh, buddy, you're supposed to turn that guy at least once. You gotta turn him.
- [51:59]
Matt Norlander
Didn't turn him. Emblematic Villanoy's issue, which we'll get to in a second. This was almost a brutally blown game by UCLA. Okay, so they're down 33, 10. I think I had done like a hit, went back up to the green room. So I come, I think when I got back up there it was like 278 or 2710 or something. And I hadn't started watching the game. I'm like, we're over already. Like this is already done. And then in a, in a flash they're back in it. Then UCLA subsequently went on a, on a significant run to get it tight. They had a 132 run in the second half, took the lead. There was some jostling and it was nice and competitive. And then, and then you know, the. Probably should add in regulation. And then Dent had a shot to win in regulation from three that didn't go in and overtime Wagler gets the put back. And that was also bad. You know, UCLA didn't lose, but it, it almost lost on that kind of play. Kentucky did lose on that play. We're going to get to the Wildcats. And so in that moment I'm like, like, are we going to hit a new tier of McCrone at press conference? Because this is, this is going to be an atrocious loss. And instead Illinois just decides to give D level defensive effort on the final possession of the game. This is. Was that. You see the still? Did you see this? I don't think we have it. Did you see the still with the final score with UCLA winning and Brad Underwood's head is in his hands and it was Fox. It was just, it was, it was perfect. So good on ucla. I, I would have it in the field now with. As a result of this win. UCLA has a weird resume. But I think that's enough for now. There is more work to be done. It was a loss here and it's not even first four out as far as I was concerned. But they get the win here. Illinois. Let's talk about the. These fighting the line, okay? Boswell back Stoyakovich back. The most efficient offense right now. Right now. Still not, not in the country that has ever been logged at Kenpom. Now they're about to go through the toughest part of the schedule, so we'll see if they can actually hold that record. 30th in defensive adjusted defensive efficiency, dead last in the country. Enforcing turnovers just doesn't force the issue there. It's last three losses all in free time. OT at Michigan State by three earlier this month, home, Wisconsin by two. The game after that and then the bonus five on Saturday night out in Westwood. Wind up splitting the couch SoCal trip because they won it at Southern Cal. On Wednesday. So now 22 and 6 with a defense that is not top shelf and not on the shelf below that. It's the third shelf. I think you can say at this point I want to still put Illinois in my team list of teams that can win a national title. Are they on your list?
- [55:07]
Gary Parrish
Yes, they have to be. I mean, at this point, when I ran it a few weeks ago, or a few, I don't know, whatever I ran it, they were like playing like the best team in the country over at Torvik. So I, this is one of. And I think you and I share this opinion. One of the things we like about college basketball, we've spent so much time on Arizona's lack of three point shooting. Well, here's a national championship contender that plays just completely the opposite way. More than half their shots come from three. And so Arizona ranks near the bottom in the entire country. I want to say it's like 362 out of 365 in terms of percentage of field goal attempts from three point range. And Illinois is top 10 in the country in that same category. So in theory, these teams could play for the national championship and approach the game in entirely different ways. But yes, to answer your question, Illinois, you give me a list of, I mean, man, it could be G.P. you can only have six names. And I, I might use one of them on Illinois. They're, they're, they, they, they look the part. And all the data is there to support it.
- [56:23]
Matt Norlander
By being down 33 to 10 this game, 23 point margin. UCLA made history on Saturday. Largest comeback win over a top 10 AP team in the history of the poll. So never before had a team been down by as many points against an AP top 10 team ever and come back to win a game. Then Mick Cronin's UCLA Bruins. That's why he's the greatest coach in the history of that program. How about, how about Sunday's action? The big time real quick. Before we went live here, Michigan State won at home against Ohio State. And so the pattern now continues. That is now 10 consecutive games for the Ohio State Buckeyes where they have alternated win, loss, win, loss, win, loss. If the pattern continues, I've got good news for Ohio State fans. It's not just a win, it's a quad one win. Next game is on the road, Iowa on Wednesday. See if they can get that done there. Michigan State, you know, improves to 22 and 5 with a 6660 win on CBS. Bruce Thornton was awesome in this game. He was Almost everything. Christoph Tilly had some, some good contributions as well. But Thornton had 32 points in this one and carried them fierce, had eight dimes. Carson Cooper had himself a very, very good game. Cohen Carr only had five points, but he had another amazing dunk and also took a hard hit to the floor at one point in this one. So quick thoughts or we want to keep moving? I just wanted to at least mention it before we moved on.
- [57:41]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, this was a good. This is the background for podcast prep on a Sunday afternoon.
- [57:48]
Matt Norlander
Exactly. That's exactly what it was.
- [57:49]
Gary Parrish
Yes. Ohio State like led a good percentage of the game. They were up at the half but got outscored 43:34 in the second half and now they're 019 in quadrant one. Like you know, was an 11 seed according to CBS Sports bracketology on Sunday morning. But you know, I did the pregame show with Fink earlier today and you know, the point is like you can have strong computer numbers and a strong strength of schedule and all of that stuff but at the end of the day, and you were just, you were in the room last week. So let me actually ask you, at the end of the day the committee is going to want you to beat somebody like just having strong computer numbers but a zero quadrant zero number of quadrant one wins. Like I'm not going to say you can't get there, but it's, at some point you got to, it's just, hey, hey, we didn't really, we didn't really lose to any bad teams. Is not going to get you an at large bid.
- [58:46]
Matt Norlander
Yes, that will be a significant factor. They're going to need at least one quad one. When Carolina famously got in last year with only one quad one one. The reason why was Carolina was comfortably ahead of every other team and win wins above bubble. That's basically what vaulted them in. Ohio State does not have that situation right now whatsoever. And let me bring it up right now, actually they've lost the game. So it's going to drop even more. Ohio State going Into the game was 45 and wins above bubble. That'll drop. If you're not top 40 and wins above bubble, you got reason to have some real nervousness going into selection Sunday, broadly speaking. So they still got time to make up for it. But and it's tough to ask them to go on the win on the road. I get that. But back to back games here against Michigan State and Iowa, this is why you need to get the job done earlier in the season and why you can't you know, lose a game by one against a bad pit team, and when you got Illinois on your home floor, you don't lose that one. And when you're involved in a really tight game in the CBS Sports Classic against North Carolina, you got to win that one and Washington's not a good team and you got to try and pull out a win on the road there, and you can't get that done. So you look up, you find yourself 17 and 10, but you are lacking, quite literally, you're lacking one good resume win. So there's still time to go. Time is running out at Iowa, home to Purdue, home to Indiana. Three of the final four for the Buckeyes.
- [59:58]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, the next two are quadrant one opportunities, but it's at Iowa. Good luck. It's home against Purdue. Good luck. But they need to get one of them. They were in the field as of Sunday morning. I'll, I'll let the CBS Sports bracketology team handle the update on Monday morning. But if we look up in their oh, 111 in quadrant one after the next two games, I would assume they're going to be needing to do work in the Big Ten tournament to get back on the, on the right side of the bubble. Let's get down to the SEC and we'll start Auburn 75, Kentucky 74. You referenced it earlier. Elijah Freeman gets the offensive rebound and stick back with 1.4 seconds left to win it. Keyshawn Murphy, 25 points, 10 rebounds. Mark Pope went in. Did you see, have you seen the postgame press conference?
- [60:48]
Matt Norlander
Dude, okay, we don't have the video. We don't need the video. We still got some games, though. Okay, yes, I saw it. But it wasn't just that. Okay, so, and just like, so I've seen there are two press. There's one press conference video and then there's one video of after the press conference has technically ended. The press conference video I was laughing at, like, because I thought it was funny. Like, Pope is angry. He doesn't think it's funny. But when he's talking about we are not going to let anyone dictate what happens to this team steal our joy. And he's like, not the fans, not anyone. He's doing everything in his power not to say the word ref or official or zebra or any of it. And I get why he's pissed. There was an offensive call, offensive foul call against Colin Chandler for a push off that seemed like a flop. I wouldn't have called it. Then again, to me missing the box out on Keyshawn hall is just as egregious, if not more so. Take care of that end of it. That's why Auburn winds up winning. I get it. And then Pope leaves the press conference. And the way that Auburn's building at Neville arena set up is like, it's actually a tight press conference room. And then there's a door right behind it. And then right there is like the open air of the back bowels of the. Of the arena. But it's very. It's got a lot of reverb to it, a lot of echo to it. So, like, the door is still open. And whether Poe. I. I don't think he wanted to be caught on a hot mic or.
- [62:14]
Gary Parrish
Or not.
- [62:15]
Matt Norlander
But, like, he immediately goes, I didn't say a single thing about how those mother effers us, Mitch. I didn't say a thing. They can't find me.
- [62:25]
Gary Parrish
He technically didn't say it at the
- [62:27]
Matt Norlander
press conference, but I kind of wonder if he is going to get dinged for a fine again. The coaching quips and quotes and pressers this season have ascended to a new level. I can't get an. I just. I can't get enough Parrish. It's every other day there's a different coach that is aggrieved, that is pissed off, that is sarcastic as hell. That. That has an unintentionally funny moment. And. And we have not hit March. It is good. It has been an amazing season, and this is very much added to it. It.
- [62:58]
Gary Parrish
I don't think he was trying to get caught on a hot mic. I think he was caught up in the moment and the mic happened to be still in his presence. But he, like, does his best not to do anything to get fined while making it clear I'm mad in the press conference. And then it's like. It's like you're on the phone and you're like, yeah, yeah. You know, every. Everything's fine. You know, I'm a little upset, but we're not going to complain about it. We're not going to make excuses. And it's like, all right, all right, I got to go. And then you don't hang up the phone. And it's like, but this sort of a. And you forgot to hang up the phone then. So the person's still listening. I think we've all been.
- [63:32]
Matt Norlander
You're like, in the car on the Bluetooth, it didn't disconnect. And you're like, oh. Oh, my. Yes. Yeah.
- [63:38]
Gary Parrish
I mean, we're all like, like, Susceptible of that. Like it's a miracle we all haven't been caught. Like just okay. I mean, I don't, I mean, like just saying. I sit in front of microphones all
- [63:50]
Matt Norlander
the time and you get, you're entering some bad juju here. Keep it moving, keep it moving. Yeah, yeah. Keep it, keep it. Let's, let's. I don't want the universe bending back to you in a negative way here. Kentucky is speaking of that. Kentucky's dropped three.
- [64:06]
Gary Parrish
Gotta be careful around microphones. That's what I'm trying to tell you.
- [64:08]
Matt Norlander
That's correct. Kentucky has dropped game at Florida last weekend. Georgia at home, last two or just Tuesday and then 75, 74 here. Auburn just, you know, up and down, up and down, up and down for the Wildcats. Auburn got out of it five in a row. They had dropped here 15 and 12 now in a manageable schedule. But I guess maybe as winnable, as losable as it is, Auburn's got the toughest strength of schedule in the country. 12 losses is a lot of losses. It's really going to be flirting with fire from an NCAA bid standpoint here on the road against Oklahoma on Tuesday. It won't be easy. No league game on the road is, would highly advise Auburn win that game. If it does in the here and now and gets to 16 and 12. I think that, I think the Tigers would be in the projected field at that point, but I wouldn't have them in at 15 and 13 at that point. There's still room to make up. But man, Steven, you saw, you see Pearl like that game ends and he, it's like he is exhaling like finally, we finally got one. You can, you can see the, the, the stress and pressure of just getting a win at that level. And he's obviously in year one. So congrats to the Tigers. I didn't love the call, honestly, but Kentucky shouldn't have put itself in that position to begin with. And you got to make the block out. You didn't get it done. They put it back. That's how the game ends.
- [65:25]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, I mean if you're Auburn. I'm trying to get it exactly right here. I don't want to misquote the stats, but if you're Stephen, they had lost five straight and no coach wants to lose five straight. You especially don't want to be a first year coach losing five straight. A first year coach losing five straight at a program that was recently in the Final Four at a program losing five straight that you. That was very recently in a final Four. And oh, by the way, everybody in the world, I say this respectfully, but it's true. Like says, well, the reason you got the job is because of your dad. And that's the only reason. And I imagine that would be very tough because you've got a lot to prove. People are very eager to tell you you're not your father and that you don't deserve what you have. Whether you are your father or even better or whether you do deserve what you have. There's a whole Internet out there eager to tell you this is nepotism 101. And so yeah, I can understand a sigh of relief. He needed a win and so they get it in I guess controversial fashion, but he'll take it. Arkansas 94, Missouri 86. High scoring game between two projected NCAA tournament teams. Billy Richmond, team high 21 points. He was 9 of 14 from the film right now. As of this morning, CBS Sports Bracketology, Arkansas 5 seed Missouri and 11. I got no issue with Arkansas as a 5, but in the past nine games they're 7 and 2 in that stretch that dates back to January 20th. So more than a month at Torvik, Arkansas is performing like a top 10 team over the past nine games for more than the past month. John's got that thing headed in the right direction. He's got a electric guard. I don't think there's anything crazy about if somebody want to, wants to start the conversation about could John Calipari get to another Final Four at a, what would it be? Fourth, different school. Yeah, he's got a team that looks like he's capable of doing that.
- [67:28]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. Biggest reason why Arkansas is number one in the country at not giving the ball away. You go back to John Caliper, his tenure all those years at Kentucky, all those years at Memphis has never had a, has never had a team that is ranked even in the top five. His best one was the 08 Memphis team, number eight in the country in turnover percentage on the offensive end. Acuffs is just a stud and, and you know, not surprised whatsoever that they get the win and they get it at home. What else? Oh, there was another one of the SEC GP Tennessee, Vandy that was, I thought that was actually a seed SW game. I, I think that you can make the case that Vandy which was on the four line going into the day hosting Tennessee and Tennessee by virtue of winning this game on the road to get to 20 and 7. Vanderbilt losing the game drops to 21 and 6. These two teams will meet again to wrap the regular season obviously intra state rivals. You want to build out a case that the balls are are that last four seed right now. I believe you 6965 native men only had 13 had a really beautiful fade away that in the moment I actually thought was pretty important. Gillespie played well but well balanced across the board. Vandy did get Duke Miles back. I had that knee issue he had missed what the previous six games I think so he came off the bench. He has a starting level player. They're obviously going to ease him back in but not enough overall for sure. Impressive stuff by by the Vols here who have won eight of the past nine. Only loss was that three pointer against UK back at the start of the month Paris. So Rick Barnes is starting to pull it together. We'll see what what you know what awaits come come the big dance. But Tennessee has responded a way that I did not expect it to and that's really impressive. The win at Vandy is part of a two game road swing. They're going to play at Mizzou a very obviously a huge leverage game for the Tigers on Tuesday night.
- [69:15]
Gary Parrish
Vanderbilt was the biggest dropper if you will in the top 25 and one on Sunday morning and not necessarily because they lost to Tennessee, but they did lose at home to Tennessee to drop to just five and six in the past 11 games. I mean you go back this stretch for them starts on January 14th with a loss to Texas and it features
- [69:34]
Matt Norlander
no, the stretch for them starts on January 13th when I call them a national title contender. Honestly that is what's going on here.
- [69:41]
Gary Parrish
Now all six of these losses are to top 60 Kingpom teams. I'll just keep it factual. You know all six could end up theoretically in the NCAA tournament. So it's not like a bunch of quad three, quad four stuff. But they've been trending the wrong direction for a little while. So I was why she had this game. I'm always just on Saturdays I'm sitting here in my home office and I'm just sort of. I got all these screens up and but I had Tennessee Vandy up on the main screen with the audio at one point. I'm not sure why but you're about
- [70:16]
Matt Norlander
to say that you were surprised by how loud it was in there when Tennessee made a bucket.
- [70:20]
Gary Parrish
No, I was about to say I
- [70:21]
Matt Norlander
thought there was a decent amount of all fans in there. Okay.
- [70:24]
Gary Parrish
I mean I'm sure there were. It's not only is the University of Tennessee, you know in the state of Tennessee not too far away from Nashville. You're gonna have tons of Tennessee alums who actually live in Nashville. So, yeah, at the. And I, I don't remember who was on the call, but the, the color analyst, I believe, made this point, which just sounded wild to me. Tell me if you heard this or if I'm just gonna say. In the last six seasons.
- [70:50]
Matt Norlander
Okay.
- [70:51]
Gary Parrish
Before yesterday, Tennessee had only played six games while unranked. Tennessee not in the AP poll right now.
- [70:58]
Matt Norlander
Nice.
- [70:59]
Gary Parrish
They should be in the AP poll on Monday. I've got them back in the top 25 and one this morning at number 21. Okay, here's this. Here's the fact. In the past six seasons before yesterday, Tennessee had only played six games while being unranked, which is kind of amazing. Just, period. Just stop it there. Yesterday was the seventh. They've won them all. Yeah, that was, that was. They've only, they've now played in the past six seasons, only seven games while unranked, and they have won every one of those games. Who, what other team in the country is undefeated while unranked over the past six years? There's got to be none, right?
- [71:39]
Matt Norlander
It's got to be none. That's a good. Yep, I like that. That's a good nugget. They got to be the only ones.
- [71:44]
Gary Parrish
It's gotta be. I mean, it's gotta be.
- [71:45]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, good stuff. Where should we turn to next, biggie?
- [71:49]
Gary Parrish
Let's go to the ACC.
- [71:50]
Matt Norlander
Oh, ACC. Okay.
- [71:51]
Gary Parrish
Yeah. A couple of likely NCAA tournament teams. Two first year coaches having really nice seasons. Virginia 86, Miami 83. Virginia now 12 and two in the ACC. Just one game back in the lost column of Duke and they play Saturday at Cameron. So listen, Duke is probably going to be your outright ACC champion, but I don't know, go down there and steal one. And now we're talking.
- [72:18]
Matt Norlander
I agree. Virginia has been outstanding this season, Year one under Ryan Odom, and I think they've gotten a decently consistent amount of at least recognition on this show, at the very least. But a relatively quiet 243 team, especially a program that's got a national championship not that so long ago, and doing a wonderful job. If, if I may really quickly just invoke Tony Bennett here. I was doing. I was at St. Louis on Friday and I was doing a zoom hit for Jim Rome's radio show and then it got interrupted because my computer was connected to my phone and Tony Bennett's name pops up on, on the screen and I'm doing the hit and I got to Cancel it out. And I'm doing it, but in my mind, I'm like, why is Tony. Like, why is Tony Bennett calling me right now on a Friday? He is just such a great dude. He was calling. He was calling me because his name is on the court now. And it was. They were supposed to have this done, I want to say, four weeks ago, maybe five weeks ago. And then there was that huge storm that hit the Carolinas and Virginia and all of that. But in the lead up to that, I was like, hey, listen, I'm gonna do a thing on. On Ryan, but, you know, you're gonna have your name emblazoned on the court. I want to. I want to just. Let's just talk here, if we could. And then we played, like, phone tag or text tag. I can't remember. And then, you know, the time came and went, and then I was just. I've been working on other stuff, and I was at St. Louis, so I was. I was. And I've written about Virginia now. But he was calling me because he was like, hey, if you're still right, like, I didn't want to leave you hanging high and dry. Like, if you still need to talk to me, like, let's do it here. And I was like, I'm not, but I so appreciate it. And that's when he told me. And that's just awesome for him to do that. He did not need to do it. That's when he told me. He's like, hey, listen, don't. Don't say anything. But the thing I'm most excited about tomorrow is that when they reveal the name on the court, like, in my signature is the name of every player and support staff and, you know, grad assistant that was ever a part of the team while I was there. And in my mind, I was thinking they were going to make it so, like, his signature was going to be all of their names and the signature. But it's not that you can actually find it on social media because of the amount of space it takes up on the court. It's actually little. Little inscriptions of every single person. I thought that was the coolest thing, man. If you were a part of that program at any point, for any period of time, even Tony told me, he's like, I think we had a couple guys that might have been just around, but it doesn't matter. You're a part of his name and a part of that court forever, which was really, really cool. Something that Tony definitely deserves. He's not at every game, like, he's around. He checks in with Ryan every so often, he told me, but he's not trying to be a looming presence there. Really cool. Josh has got it up right now. You can see Ty Jerome, Jason Williford, who was a longtime assistant there, Justin Maxey. One after another, I think that is. And that was hit. That was Tony's idea. He's like, they wanted to come into him and have him put his name on the court. And he's. He's just obviously, you know, covered in humility. He's like, okay, I get it. I'll do it. But if we do this, every person's name has to be affiliated with some way somehow they made it done. I thought that was really, really cool. A good win for Virginia. Miami's still obviously going to be pacing toward the tournament. But that was one of my more favorite moments of the weekend.
- [75:34]
Gary Parrish
Took John Wooden and one upped him.
- [75:36]
Matt Norlander
He did one up him. Yep.
- [75:38]
Gary Parrish
John wouldn't. John Wooden said, I will accept this honor, but Nell's name must join mine on the court. Tony said, I'll see you one nail and I'll raise you 800 players, including a tie.
- [75:54]
Matt Norlander
Jerome, I don't think he coached 800,
- [75:57]
Gary Parrish
but yes, I think he coached 800.
- [76:00]
Matt Norlander
I don't know what the number is. I actually might have given me the number. I can't remember the number, but that was really. That was really, really cool. So congrats to UVA for getting yet another win. Hey, 3 seed really isn't that far off. Got to get this big one. This is a. This is. This is a biggie that's. That's forthcoming here at Duke on Saturday, in addition to hosting NC State on. On Tuesday.
- [76:19]
Gary Parrish
But, yeah, I mean, it's a huge week. I mean, you get NC State.
- [76:22]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [76:22]
Gary Parrish
Huge week. NC State at home, Duke on the road. Hey, you go two zero this week, we talking. You go two zero this week. Now we're talking, by the way.
- [76:31]
Matt Norlander
We're talking real quick. Yeah. Okay. You can dive right into it. FSU beat Clemson. Tigers, I don't think are going to pull a Pernell here, but it is. It's like slipping away. And I saw Brad. Did you see Brad Brownell admit that they didn't even practice because the players were too sad?
- [76:47]
Gary Parrish
No, he said. He said they didn't practice. The reason of sadness.
- [76:52]
Matt Norlander
Find it. Yeah, I gotta find it.
- [76:54]
Gary Parrish
Too sad to practice. That seems clinical. I mean, you might need to. You might need to talk to somebody about that.
- [77:04]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. Let me find the exact question I Mean, Josh is texting us. DNP sadness.
- [77:10]
Gary Parrish
I mean, I can say to yourself, I'm not. I don't. But I. You know.
- [77:14]
Matt Norlander
This is from John Blau. B A L U covers the team locally for the Post and Courier. Clemson coach Brad Brownell says his players didn't even practice Thursday because the Tigers were so down after three straight losses. Says he thought the Clemson had good energy versus Florida State. Obviously that one hurts. Feel bad for our guys.
- [77:31]
Gary Parrish
You gotta practice. I just pulled it off. No, I. Okay, it's so. It's a so much better story when it. When in my head he actually uses the word sadness.
- [77:40]
Matt Norlander
I know.
- [77:42]
Gary Parrish
I wish he would have said like, we didn't practice because the guys were down. That's one thing. We didn't practice because we were sad. It's. It just sounds so much funnier to me. I mean, I get sad sometimes, too, but I don't ever go like. I mean, I've never hit Marcus with like a direct message on slack and been like, hey, man, I know you're waiting on the top 25 and 1, but I'm too sad today. I do hit him sometimes and say, I know you're way.
- [78:08]
Matt Norlander
You're.
- [78:08]
Gary Parrish
You're waiting on the top 25 and 1, but I fell asleep sitting at a desk in a hotel room with my computer up. I'll get it to you as soon as I can. But I've never hit him with. I'm just too sad to do the top 25 and one today. Maybe I should try it.
- [78:24]
Matt Norlander
Clemson's up against it. What else we've got before we wrap here?
- [78:28]
Gary Parrish
Yeah. Clemson's four straight, down to a nine seed. CBS Sports bracketology. The home loss to Florida State for right now is quadrant two, but it's probably going to flip to quadrant three. Florida State 74th in the net, so if they drop to 76, they're lower. Now you got a quadrant three stain on your resume. North Carolina 77, Syracuse 64, UNC shots 52 from the field, whatever. I don't really care about that. Just we don't have to spend much time on it.
- [79:00]
Matt Norlander
But.
- [79:00]
Gary Parrish
But it makes me sad watching Syracuse.
- [79:03]
Matt Norlander
I know. You've said this like three times in the past three weeks.
- [79:05]
Gary Parrish
They're 15 and 13, nine in the ACC, 76 in the net. About to miss the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year. This is year three for Red Autry. Maybe the reason it makes me sad is because it reminds me a lot of my alma mater.
- [79:21]
Matt Norlander
There's probably something to that.
- [79:22]
Gary Parrish
You you look at it and you go, oh, well, Syracuse is playing a home basketball game and there was nobody there. Hold up, Memphis is playing a home basketball game and there is nobody there. That's the same thing. They're coached by alums who are really going through it. This is year three for Red Autry. Year one, tied for fifth in the ACC, but missed the NCAA tournament. Year two, 14th in the ACC, missed the NCAA tournament. Year three, 12th in the ACC right now, probably not going to make the NCAA tournament. Does he get a year four? It's just gotten sad and uncomfortable. You say no.
- [79:53]
Matt Norlander
AD is changing, winds are blowing. I am expecting a new coach at Syracuse in less than two months.
- [79:59]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, I would assume, I would assume so. In the Big East. Yukon 73, Villanova 63. Villanova had a chance to disrupt this Big east race, but they dropped a 124 in the league. St. John's now 151 in the league. We'll get to them in a second. Let's just wrap all this together. St. John's 81, 52 over Creighton. So the same Creighton team that just beat Yukon get smacked by the Johnny's. So Red Storm 15 and one in the Big East. UConn 15 and two. And those two are going to play each other at home on Wednesday. I'm assuming you'll be there.
- [80:36]
Matt Norlander
I mean we're about to get, I shouldn't be pounded 20 inches of snow. I mean, who's to say? We'll, we'll see. But I think a general idea is probably to go that is on Wednesday night we will preview that game provided I have power. By the way, like I went to fill up the car with gas earlier today. There's like three people filling up the, the portable gas tanks for their generators because they're, you know, 50, 60 mile an hour winds are supposed to hit overnight. Yeah, I, I, if I can get there, I think I will. Yeah, that's a, that's a big time game on Wednesday. We'll Preview that Wednesday. UConn getting the win to 25 and three winning on the road quad one against a projected single digit seed. Good response after dropping at home to Creighton. Just in general, I defensively was the key takeaway. They, they, Hurley and that staff did manage to get that thing flipped immediately with this game. And now they set up the second huge game between St. John's and the second of what we expect will be three. Like we do think that these two teams are just faded to meet on that Saturday mid March Midtown Manhattan for the, for the Big east tournament title.
- [81:36]
Gary Parrish
I am obviously supposed to be headed back your way tomorrow. Original flight canceled. Original flight canceled. Rebooked flight canceled. Rebooked flight canceled. And I am now, I usually go on Mondays. I am now on a 605American Airlines flight out of Memphis International because Delta has no flights leaving Memphis for New York tomorrow or Tuesday. So I gotta, I gotta go on American Airlines. If I go at all odds I get to odds you see me on Inside College Odds you turn on Inside college basketball at 6:30 Eastern on Tuesday. And I'm sitting in studio next to Brent Stover.
- [82:21]
Matt Norlander
5 to 1, is that good?
- [82:24]
Gary Parrish
6 to 1, is that good or bad?
- [82:27]
Matt Norlander
It's not great. It's not awful. There's a chance you're not flying on Monday. That's not happening. It's a matter of like, can they get. Can the infrastructure of the city and the region enable flights to land at LaGuardia or JFK or wherever the hell you're gonna fly into? I don't know. I don't know. Not so sure about that one. Hey, one more thing with the weekend whip around, by the way, I was in St. Louis. He didn't even put this on the dock, by the way. But I had the game in person on Friday night.
- [83:00]
Gary Parrish
I had the game on. I had the game on. I thought you were gonna jinx them. I thought they were on the verge of taking a little loss there.
- [83:07]
Matt Norlander
Well, I thought so as well. VCU got off to a, a great start and then St. Louis got it done. Billikens 8875A near brouhaha at the end of the game, thankfully wasn't too. There was a, there was a public reprimand. Commissioner of the league Bernadette McLaib was on hand as well. Josh Hertz's team is now 25 and two, joining the likes of Michigan, Arizona and Duke is 25 and two teams in the country. And that I'd never been. That is a high level facilities, arena situation they got down there. Yeah, all of it is connected. I'm talking the building, the offices, the, the cafeteria, the wellness center, the sports psychologist, the, the practice court and courts that are connected to the building. The building itself is just an amazing size. The community obviously supports it. Well, why wouldn't you? This was for first place in the A10 press row right there on the, on the baseline. Loved it. Right in front of the student section. Little camp. Not, not, not Cameron, but, but they're right behind you. And that was really, really cool. So I had a, I had an enjoyable time there and really, really enjoyed it. I'm glad I made the drive shirts was kind enough to. To give me some good access there and be in the locker room and I don't think he'd mind me sharing this at all. What was interesting is they were down at the half like in the, in the pre game he. One of the messages was, guys, you're about to go play a really good team for first place in the league. Like I, I want you to just enjoy this, like know the game plan but like play for your brothers and just enjoy what this is all about. And at the half they're down and his message, it's just, it's always this, it's steady. He never, he doesn't go high, he doesn't go low. Was just really clear, concise. Some guys didn't play well in the first half. Told them, you know, pretty frankly and team just responded. St. Louis, by the way, is the third best team in the country at points point margin overall. So they are built to come back on you in the second half in a major way. And they got it flipped. Really impressive. Love my. It was brief, but love my time in Slew. Really, really, really cool stuff there. And now 25, 2 and we'll see if the Billikens can continue winning like this, get themselves a fairly healthy seed. That is a team that can make the second weekend. No doubt about it, they've got, they've got the capability of doing that. Really dependable on both sides of the ball.
- [85:27]
Gary Parrish
Having spent a lot of time my entire life in St. Louis, given where I grew up, you know, St. Louis was always the closest MLB city to us. And so if you wanted to go see the Mets, you had to go to St. Louis to do it. Or at least that was the closest way to go do it.
- [85:43]
Matt Norlander
Having a good picture when I was driving there, there was. There's one part where it's this way to St. Louis, this way to Memphis. So I picture and that I was driving. I wanted to be safe. But yeah, I was like, oh, wow, okay, here we are.
- [85:53]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, just 55 South. Just keep going 55 South. You'll run right into it. And so this is an opinion I've held for a long time. St. Louis is only a Brad Stevens away from being in the Big East. Like if Brad Stevens would have coached at St. Louis, St. Louis would be in the Big East. You get the point, like everything is set up for that. Is that is among the schools that if you told me you give them Big east affiliation, then it would, it would look like a Biggie's program.
- [86:23]
Matt Norlander
I agree with that.
- [86:24]
Gary Parrish
It's a great city. The facilities are on par. That, that that program could be a potentially good Big east program if it had Big east affiliation. And I think you got a glimpse of that probably on, on Friday night. So that's the weekend whip around. Oh, buddy, have you seen the clock lately?
- [86:46]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, we're running long.
- [86:47]
Gary Parrish
We are running long.
- [86:48]
Matt Norlander
Let's, let's get this done here.
- [86:49]
Gary Parrish
That was the weekend whip around brought to you by Domino's. If you're settling in for a full slate of college basketball, it doesn't get better than Domino's. Best deal ever. Any pizza with any toppings for just 9.99. That's what I'm getting for game day. Shout out to Domino's. For sponsoring prices higher in some locations, select this online only offer from 223to4.6 size. Availability varies by crust type max 7 toppings, 6 for New York style and pan crust. Stuffed crust is extra. Excludes XL and specialty pizzas. Minimum purchase required for delivery prices, participation, delivery area and charges may vary. Let's turn our attention to the AP poll. Look ahead. Now, before we get into this, you need to know something. And what you need to know is that over the past week, number one, Michigan. Based on last week's poll or this week's poll, this Week's poll, number one, Michigan. Number two, Houston. Number five, UConn. Number six, Iowa State. Number seven, Purdue. Number eight, Kansas. Number nine, Nebraska. And you know, number 10, Illinois. They all lost. They all lost. And Houston lost twice.
- [87:51]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [87:52]
Gary Parrish
Okay, so with that in mind, let's give it a shot.
- [87:56]
Matt Norlander
Let's just do a top. Let's just do a top five this week.
- [87:58]
Gary Parrish
Okay? Top 21st. To tell you what the top 25 and one is, as of this morning, the top 25 and one is number one, Duke. Number two, Michigan. Number three, Arizona. Number four, Iowa. State. Number five, Houston. And then I would go six Florida. Seven Purdue. Eight Nebraska. Nine UConn. Ten Illinois. I know I'm lower than UConn than most, but just like last week before Creighton, I was higher on UConn than most. So, yeah, it balances out, I guess, my AP poll prediction on Monday. Yep, Duke will be number one.
- [88:30]
Matt Norlander
Yes, it will.
- [88:33]
Gary Parrish
I think you can argue it either way here.
- [88:36]
Matt Norlander
You know, I, I would, you know,
- [88:40]
Gary Parrish
I would go Michigan. I think it's going to be Arizona.
- [88:42]
Matt Norlander
It Will be Arizona.
- [88:43]
Gary Parrish
Okay, I, that's, I disagree, but I don't disagree strong.
- [88:48]
Matt Norlander
The way the poll works.
- [88:49]
Gary Parrish
It's going to be the way the poll works. Right? So for me it would be Michigan at 2, Arizona at 3. I think the AP poll will be Arizona to Michigan at 3. And now we, and now we get going. So it's going to be 1, 2, 3, Duke, Arizona, Michigan in some order. It'll probably be Duke, Arizona, Michigan.
- [89:06]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [89:06]
Gary Parrish
And now, I mean here's what I would do. I don't know that this is what I was.
- [89:13]
Matt Norlander
We're trying to predict what it's going to be.
- [89:15]
Gary Parrish
This is my best prediction. This is my best stab at what's going to happen. Duke 1, Arizona 2, Michigan 3.
- [89:21]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [89:23]
Gary Parrish
Houston 4. Not with two losses. I mean the losses were.
- [89:28]
Matt Norlander
You can go ahead predict it. I'm not predicting Houston is 4.
- [89:34]
Gary Parrish
I, I would predicting Houston for UConn 5. But it, it, I could see it being Yukon 4, Houston 5.
- [89:41]
Matt Norlander
This is so messy.
- [89:42]
Gary Parrish
It's very messy.
- [89:43]
Matt Norlander
I mean it's so messy.
- [89:45]
Gary Parrish
And if you try to go like try to get to 10, I mean it's like do you just start keeping people where they were?
- [89:52]
Matt Norlander
I just don't think you, I don't think Houston will be four after back to back losses, but it might, maybe it will. I don't know. I mean, what the hell do I know? I will say, man, I'll say Yukon four.
- [90:11]
Gary Parrish
Okay, but let me you know what that means. That means Yukon goes from five to
- [90:15]
Matt Norlander
four after Iowa State six to four after taking one and one.
- [90:20]
Gary Parrish
The only way to get around this is Houston staying in the top four. Because if not you are jumping, you're jumping Yukon, which I don't care, you do whatever you want. But like UConn will move from five to four a week after taking a quadrant three loss.
- [90:34]
Matt Norlander
I mean, who the hell cares? This is going to be done in a week anyway. My prediction is Duke 1, Arizona 2, Michigan 3. UConn 4, Houston 5. That's my prediction.
- [90:43]
Gary Parrish
Okay. If you wanted to try to take it all the way out, just a stab at it, let's see how we do. Duke, Arizona, Michigan 1, 2, 3. Houston 4, UConn 5, Iowa State 6, Purdue 7.
- [90:55]
Matt Norlander
No, I mean Florida should be like 6 at this point. I realized the one thing that I didn't bring up here, that Florida. Hold on, I got the stat. I'll give it to you. Florida one easily. Mississippi, all that good stuff. The only power conference team since 96, 97, which was the year the Big 12 was formed out of the Big 8, they have won 14 league games on the road by 19 plus points. No other school has done that over the past 30 years. Hell, put the Gators at 5, put them at 4 for all I care. They should be higher than they probably will be. There 12 right now as we speak. I will be surprised and impressed if Florida goes to five. I would put in there personally if it was up to me.
- [91:32]
Gary Parrish
I have Florida six in the top 25 and one I had Florida as a two seed in the bracket preview on Saturday. I was unsure if they jumped that high in the AP poll, but in this projection that I built out this morning it went Duke 1, Arizona 2, Michigan 3, Houston, Yukon, Iowa State at 6, Purdue at 7, Florida at 8 on a seven game winning streak. They're now fifth at King Pond. I had Nebraska 9, Kansas 10. But buddy, anything after 1, 2, 3. Good luck AP voters. I'm gonna leave you alone tomorrow. AP voters. Do whatever you want because it gets real messy once you get past the first three. Looking ahead to the next couple of days, then we'll get out of here on Monday, Louisville at North Carolina, Houston at Kansas. I mean that's just, I mean that's. Only thing that could make that better would be Caleb Wilson. But. But we got a nice big Monday doubleheader there on Tuesday. I'm supposed to be in studio CBS Sports Network with Brent Stover, Chris Walker and a Mecca Okafor. We'll see about that Inside college basketball with me or without me. They're going to do it at 6:30pm Eastern, then triple header. West Virginia at Oklahoma State, Arizona State at tcu, New Mexico at Nevada. Elsewhere in the sport on Tuesday, Miami University 27 and OH at Eastern Michigan, NC State at for Jenya, AZ at Baylor, UCF at BYU, St. Louis at Dayton. Any of that interest you?
- [92:56]
Matt Norlander
All of it does. Just haven't come off the St. Louis stuff like they're, they're going to be pretty locked in. They know. They know it's going to be a tough game to win in Dayton for sure. Kentucky, South Carolina takes on some added urgency there. South Carolina is not good but you know and Pope actually you all but guaranteed a win there so we'll see if that gets done. Usc, ucla, that's a late tip onto like a late tip on Tuesday. Double bubble game. USC is in trouble, man. They lost at home to Oregon over the weekend. So that's also one to keep an eye out for I think. Tennessee, Mizzou, you mentioned that. Yeah, there's a lot on Tuesday as there is Tuesdays have been just loaded this season. Speaks to the quality of the teams and all that stuff. But we'll be raring and ready to go Wednesday regardless of where GP and I are both are at. Plenty to recap from the from the previous two nights. That's a big time one on Monday. Man. Houston at Kansas. Both coaches both just pissed off getting ready for that one. It will be must see obviously for a variety of reasons.
- [93:53]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, there's 3:11pm Eastern tips on Tuesday night. We got New Mexico, Nevada on CBS Sports Network, USC, UCLA, FS1, UCF, BYU on ESPN2. So if you have a sleeping disorder, we'll be there for you.
- [94:10]
Matt Norlander
That's a show.
- [94:10]
Gary Parrish
That's a show. Shouts to Devin Downey. Shouts to Chester, South Carolina. Terry Teagle's a legend. Huck Larnell thank you guys once again for watching and listening to the I Own College Basketball Podcast. If you're not subscribed, please go subscribe anyway. Subscribe to podcasts like Apple and Spotify. There's more of us than there are of them. That should be reflected in the comments. Do that. We'll talk to you again real soon. Until then, take care.
- [94:43]
Matt Norlander
Paramount Podcasts oh, could this vintage store be any cuter?
- [94:49]
Gary Parrish
Right?
- [94:50]
Matt Norlander
And the best part? They accept Discover. Accept Discovery in a little place like this? I don't think so.
- [94:56]
Gary Parrish
Jennifer oh yeah, huh?
- [94:57]
Matt Norlander
Discover is accepted where I like to shop. Come on baby, get with the times. Right.
- [95:03]
Gary Parrish
So we shouldn't get the parachute pants.
- [95:05]
Matt Norlander
These are making a comeback, I think.
- [95:09]
Gary Parrish
Discover is accepted at 99 of places that take credit cards nationwide, based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.