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Jon Rothstein reacts to & picks every game in 2026 NCAA Tournament Bracket!
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Jon Rothstein
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Jon Rothstein
Let's put the women and children to bed and go looking for dinner. Jon Rothstein here at Inside College Basketball Now. A special selection song Sunday edition of the only college basketball podcast coming to you 52 weeks out of the calendar year. Want to remind you to subscribe to Inside College Basketball now on both Apple and Spotify. We want to be your bible for the college basketball season and beyond. We are the only college basketball podcast coming to you 52 weeks at the calendar year. Also want to remind you that Inside College Basketball now will be coming to you each and every Monday on CBS sports network at 1 o' clock Eastern for the remainder of of the 2526 college basketball season. We are doing something different from a programming perspective during the NCAA Tournament. The shows now that happen in the latter part of the week are going to run on Wednesdays so we can hit you with an episode obviously before the games this week on Thursday, Friday and also then in the Sweet 16 on Thursday Friday. So those will be happening on Wednesday, the next couple of weeks and obviously also before the Final Four. Also want to remind you to like and subscribe to Inside College basketball now on YouTube. We need an army with us for each and every show here on Inside College Basketball now. And we need you to be all you can be. And in addition to the like and subscribe button, also hit the hype button to create the necessary palpable buzz that is needed to get things rolling at the highest of levels to make this show what we hope is it will become. But this is obviously a different type of show. This is a show where there are no scripts needed. This is a show where we can get into the guts of the greatest day of the year of the college basketball calendar. It is a day that no other sport has. It is our day. It is Selection Sunday and there are Sometimes I get the reaction to the bracket and you feel volatile, you feel opinionated, you feel like there are things that happen that you just can't fathom. Tonight is not one of those nights. The 68 teams that I had projected to be in the NCAA tournament on Sunday morning are the same 68 teams that wound up in the NCAA tournament on Sunday night at 6 o'. Clock. And I think the committee did an outstanding job with putting the bracket together in terms of rewarding the 68 best teams that deserve to be in the field. Now, I will say this. There was a couple of things from a seating perspective I was a little surprised at. I was shocked that St. Louis got a 9 seed after finishing the regular season 8. 8. I was also a little surprised that St. John's did not work its way to the 4 line. We'll get into all that and more in time here. But I am obviously really overall very pleased with the way the bracket came out for the 2026 NCAA tournament. I know some people felt that Vanderbilt should have been better than the five. We are splitting atoms at that point. You are completely splitting atoms. I think the committee did an outstanding job putting this bracket together. I think now we have an NCAA tournament that has all sorts of storylines. And I also want to be in a situation where, where I am connecting with you. And I want you to leave a comment in the chat. I want to hear from you about your thoughts on the draw for the NCAA tournament. The bracket for the NCAA tournament. I'm going to get to all that later in the show here on Inside College Basketball now. But first, of course, I have to go through the bracket and give you my picks and breakdown for the greatest event that there is in sports. Now, before we dive in to the scenario where I get into the bracket names and if you guys are seeing somebody behind me, that's Brent Stover. He is not on Twitter, but I am using his dressing room for this show tonight because, you know, it's nice to, yes, reciprocation and a friendship once in a while. And this is the one night of year that Brent's gonna come through and let me use his dressing room. Get a little chuckle out of him there. But I am going to go through the regions. If you're looking at your bracket right now, from left to down to right throughout this show. And I'm going to start with the region names. The east region in the top left portion of your bracket. I have named the region of Blue Bloods because of the brand name programs that you have in this region. Duke, Ohio State, rick Pitino and St. John's Kansas with Bill Self, Louisville, Michigan State, UCLA and UConn. And I was going over the dynamics right now about the brands in this region. Think about this. John Shire, Rick Pitino, Bill Self, Tom Izzo, Mick cronin, Dan Hurley. Six of the 16 coaches that are in the East Region have all advanced to the Final four and four of those coaches, Rick Pitino, Bill Self, Tom Izzo and Dan Hurley have, have won a national championship. Hence the region of blue bloods. So we will go to the top portion right now of this region and I am going to give you how I think things are going to shake out. Duke against Sienna in the round of 64. Duke against Jerry McNamara taking Sienna to the NCAA tournament for the first time since his arrival. First appearance for The Saints since 2010. Duke against McNamara, obviously I got the Blue Devils moving on there. Oh, Ohio State, tcu. Everybody seems now to be going for tcu, excuse me, going for Ohio State in this game. I'm a big TCU guy. I believe in TCU in this game. I don't think people have truly, truly been in the situation where they have watched TCU as much as the college basketball junkie. Jamie Dixon a couple years ago scared Arizona to depth to death in 2022 and would have went to the Sweet 16 if obviously Ben Matheran did not make that three from just, you know, behind the three point line in San Diego in that game in 2022. I like TCU to beat Ohio State. Names to watch right now for the basketball fan to be in a situation to monitor tcu. You have obviously a guy, David Punch who's a burgeoning star. Malik Edmonds is another, excuse me, Xavier Edmonds is another guy to really keep an eye on. Edmonds is a player that again has stepped into an expanded role. CCU lost the starting center, Malik Season Edmonds and are guys who I think could become household names by next weekend. Both have gotten better and better and better as the season have gone along. So Xavier Edmonds and David Punch, obviously two guys you want to monitor. Also like the steadiness of their guards with Brock Harding and Jaden Pierre. St. John's Northern Iowa, I'm taking St. John's Kansas, Cal Baptist, I'm going to take Kansas. So we got the 5, 4 matchup there with the seeds holding. Then you go to the bottom portion of your bracket. Louisville, South Florida. We still do not have an official word on Mikel Brown status for the round of 64. I'm taking the Cardinals and I'm obviously going to take Michigan State over North Dakota State, ucla, ucf. Now, UCLA had a major win the other night in the Big Ten tournament against Michigan State. Tyler Billodeau missed about the final 25 minutes of that game texting with McCrone in the last couple days. He obviously 100% expects Billeto to be ready for Friday in Philadelphia. He obviously also expects Donovan Dent to be ready to play. So I've got UCLA beating UCF. I have UConn beating Furman. But here's one thing we got to keep in mind, and this is just a fact of life. UCLA has been the one Big Ten team that's been able to survive outside of the Pacific time zone. But the Bruins have not been great coming east the last couple of years. UCLA just flew this morning, which we're taping this on Sunday. UCLA flew from Chicago to Los Angeles and then is going to have to fly from LA to Philadelphia. This is very similar to what happened last year after the Big Ten tournament. UCLA flew back to Southern California and then had to fly to Lexington to play Utah State and then play Tennessee. So UCLA is going to be again on Eastern Standard Time. But if you don't want to obviously deal with that, then you got to win more games and you got a better seed going to the top portion right now of your bracket. I think a lot of people are overlooking the potential of TCU pushing Duke. I think TCU is a very, very difficult game for Duke in the round of 32. I'm a huge fan of Jamie Dixon's team. I will have Duke advancing, but I think that game could be tricky for the Blue Devils and I am going to take St. John's to beat Kansas. Keep in mind, right here in terms of Nuggets, go Bill Self and Rick Pitino, two of the only three coaches right now that are active that have won multiple national championships. This is the first time, the first time that that Bill Self and Rick Pitino have coached head to head as power conference head coaches. They have only played one time, one time together against each other. It was when Kansas played Iona a couple years ago when Rick Pitino was the head coach at Iona in an early season tournament in Orlando. Brent Stover again getting everything hung up. We got another big show Monday, but kudos to Brent Stover. He just said he. Brent Stover just said we sleep in March. You want to jump on there? Indeed. Sleep in March. All right. Kudos to you for your great job on the Brit show. On cbs. We're all big fans over here. He's not on Twitter. So St. John's and Kansas, an interesting game. I'm going to go with Rick Pitino in this game. Kansas has been too mercurial. And then the bottom part, I'm taking Michigan State over Louisville. UCLA and UConn is an interesting game. UCLA's played great basketball or better basketball the last couple of weeks. But UCLA's Achilles he mess and in the middle, I think Terrace Reed is in position to have a field day against against UCLA's front line. The game's also going to be in a pro Yukon crowd. I'm going to take UConn to win that game and then I'm going to take in this region the two Big east teams. I'm going to take St. John's to bust up this region over Duke and I'm going to take UConn to beat Michigan State. These two teams actually played in a charity exhibition game early in the season. And that sets up something that to me is something we've talked about for or I've talked about for months right now. When we were doing content and we were making shows last summer, I got into detail about how the burgeoning rivalry in College basketball was St. Johnson, UConn. You had Rick Pitino, you had Dan Hurley. You had Dan Hurley and you had Rick Pitino. If we see phase four in Washington, D.C. it's going to be much bigger than a Big east tournament title game. It's going to be much bigger than a Big east race, regular season title on the line, which it was obviously, you know, the last couple of weeks when they were both going head to head for it. It would be for a birth in the Final Four and it would be in our nation's capital. That's what I'm picking to happen. And I'm taking the Carpenter, who is 13 and 1 in the last three NCAA tournaments to take UConn to the final Four out of the region of blue blood. So you just have right there my East Region breakdown. I'm going to get to the four Final Four teams, which is when we go through all the brackets. Now we're in the South Region, bottom left on your bracket, and the number one seed is the defending national champion Florida Gators. And I have named this region the region of pressure. And for good reason. This is the region of pressure because there's major pressure on a lot of the programs in this region. There's pressure on Florida after earning a number one seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history to go back to back because they're good enough to go back to back. There's pressure on Nebraska, who has tied the program record for wins under Fred Hoiberg, my national coach of the year, to win an NCAA tournament game for the first time ever. And if you go to the bottom part of this bracket right now, there's pressure on North Carolina to win a game or two without Caleb Wilson. There's pressure on Illinois, who in my opinion has what feels like a nice path to the Sweet 16 to get back to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. And there's pressure on Houston, who to me should cruise to the sweet 16 to put itself in position to be in position to go to another Final Four by winning its first two games and then playing Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games at the Toyota center in Houston. The so this is the region of pressure. Let me go through my picks down the line just like we did in the top, right? We go to the top right now. I'm obviously taking Florida to beat the 16. I like Clemson to beat Iowa. Bennett Sturts, to me, is the most important player to his team or as any player in college basketball. But he's like Tom Hanks in Castaway. He's on an island by himself. I'm taking Clemson, Vanderbilt over McNeese. I'm going with Vanderbilt. The 413 game. I said it. I opened my big fat mouth. I said that if we got into a situation where Nebraska would win an NCAA tournament game for the first time in program history, I would go to Lincoln, put my credit card down for an hour, and I would be in a situation where I would give Nebraska fans an hour to drink and eat on me. I would throw a happy hour for Nebraska fans in Lincoln. That's not happening because I'm taking Troy to pull the upset. You're looking for a name right now to monitor on Troy. Put in bold print Thomas endowed that Dennis Rodman of the sun belt had 25 and 19 in a win this year against San Diego State. I am taking Troy to upset Nebraska. And Nebraska, unfortunately for their sake, will not be in a situation where it's obviously going to win. It'll be Clemson and I'm going to take Vanderbilt to beat Troy. So that means that we have a scenario where then Florida will play Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16. That's a rematch of the SEC tournament semifinals, which Vanderbilt won. And I've got Florida beating Vanderbilt and getting to a regional final under Todd Golden. Bottom part of your bracket. I've got North Carolina beating vcu. I think that'll be a really competitive game. I've got Illinois beating Penn and T.J. power, who had 44 and 14 Sunday against Yale in the Ivy League tournament title game. St. Mary's over A and M. Give me Randy Bennett and then give me Houston over Idaho. Big so I'm going to take Illinois to beat Carolina. I'm going to take St. Mary's to beat, excuse me. I'm going to take Houston to beat Saint Mary's. Solve Houston in the Toyota Center. I've got Houston over Illinois. And then in the South Regional final in a rematch of last year's national championship, a game that will give Houston a major home court advantage and geographic advantage in a revenge game almost 365 days later. It's probably 358 days later. I am going to take Houston to come out of the south region and go to a Final Four for the third time under Kelvin Sampson. So there you have it. Those are my picks for the east region, which is going to be UConn, the region of blue bloods, the south region, the region of pressure. It's going to be Houston. So on the left side, I've got Yukon and Houston going to the Final Four. What are my other two picks? We'll check in with those when we return. John Rothstein here on INSIDE COLLEGE Basketball
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Jon Rothstein
All right, Jon Rothstein, back here on Inside College Basketball. Now, going to the top right portion of your bracket right now. This is the west region, which I have named the region of four Floor Generals. That's because there's incredible, incredible guard play in this region. Arizona with Jaden Bradley. Utah State with Mason Falls. Lev obviously Wisconsin with Nick Boyd and John Blackwell. Darius Acuff at Arkansas. BYU has Rob Wright, Miami's got Trey Donaldson, and Purdue, of course, has Braden Smith. So we're gonna go right now with the region of Floor generals. We're gonna look top right. We're gonna start with Arizona, the number one seed in the West Region over liu. I am going to take Kevin Willard and Villanova to beat Utah State. Wisconsin over High Point, Arkansas over Hawaii. That is a real, real fascinating matchup in that 5, 4. We'll get to that in a second. Give me BYU over Texas. Texas plays NC State in the first four. Give me Gonzaga over Kennesaw. And I'm going to take Miami, who is playing this game, okay, in St. Louis against Missouri. I went over the mileage. It is over a thousand miles for Miami to get to this arena in St. Louis. It is just over a hundred miles for the Tigers to get there. This is going to be a very pro Missouri crowd later in the week in St. Louis, which is where I am going with Spiro Dietis and Jim Spinarkle. Can't wait for that. And I'm taking Purdue to be Queens. So as we look now at the matchups that we have in the round of 32, I've got Arizona over Villanova. I am going to take also Wisconsin over Arkansas. I think a little bit too much up front for Wisconsin, especially if we can get Nolan Winter back, which we're waiting to hear. Then I'm going to take Gonzaga over BYU and Purdue over Miami. I've got Purdue beating Gonzaga and I beating Wisconsin. So the Boilers were going to Arizona. Purdue. Look, it makes so much sense to be all in on Arizona. They've been a wrecking machine. They're going to be playing in San Jose, which is going to be a very, very pro Arizona crowd. But I'm a sentimental person. I'm somebody who loves great plays, great books, great storylines. And I firmly believe that Purdue, and I don't want to say Purdue was waiting till the start of the Big Ten tournament. To start the season. But this nucleus knew what was at stake in terms of the situation and when things really obviously were going to be put into play at the highest level. And what do I mean by that? When I started in this business, UConn in 2004 was the number one team. Ben Gordon to the league. Brown, Charlie Villanueva, Emeka Okafor. That team really didn't turn it on till the Big east tournament that year and start playing like a national champion. The defending national champion Florida Gators after Billy Donovan won it in 2006. I know that they were a 1 seed in the 2007 NCAA tournament, but they did not, you know, really get into a situation where they were playing like a team that was going to go back to back until later in the year. I see the same thing in Purdue. Purdue. Purdue's freshman Smith lawyer Kaufman Wren went through everything in their college careers. It started as freshmen when they won a Big Ten regular season title, a Big Ten tournament title, and then we're at the wrong end of the worst upset in the history of the NCAA tournament against Fairleigh Dickinson. The sophomore year was the great redemption tour. Beating Tennessee to go to the final Four, going all the way to the final Four, and then losing the UConn in the national championship game last year. Then they went to the sweet 16, lost the heartbreaker to Purdue. So they're made for all seasons. I'm taking Purdue out of the regional floor Generals and I'm taking Braden Smith to get Purdue to the Final Four for the second time in three years. Now we go to the bottom right portion, the Midwest region, the region of innovation. Because I look at the coaches in this conference and I look at the way they've adapted to the modern era of college basketball. Dusty May has been as good a roster composition guy as there is in the sport. St. Louis and Josh Shirts have obviously had a great style of play in the Atlantic 10. Nate Oates in Alabama, obviously, you know, a innovative offense that takes a lot of threes. Very forward thinking. And you could say the same thing about Ryan Odom at Virginia being innovative roster composition, putting together a roster. We have to remember that in year one, he has Virginia as a three seed in the NCAA tournament. So this is the region of innovation. I'm gonna go right now with my picks, starting at the top. Obviously, Michigan advances. I'm gonna take Georgia to beat St. Louis. So Mike White gets Georgia to the round of 32. Another NCAA tournament appearance for Mike White, who has quietly done a great job after losing Silas Demery Jr. To UConn and then losing obviously Asa Newell to the NBA. I'm going to take Akron and John Gross to upset Texas Tech, obviously a little bit banged up after losing JT Toppin but Tavare Johnson obviously one of the great mid major players we have in the sport, Alabama over Hofstra and then I'm gonna have a Michigan Alabama game in the sweet 16 which would be a fascinating matchup there, Michigan against Alabama. So we got Michigan moving on. Let's go to the bottom part of the bracket right now. Tennessee Virginia is a war. I am going to go this is a tough one. I'm gonna roll the I'm gonna take Rick Barnes and Tennessee over the SMU obviously Miami, Ohio and I'm going to take Tennessee to go to the sweet 16 which Kobe Gillespie, Nate Ament, Felix Akbara, I'm going to take Tennessee to turn the water off for the acc. I'm going to take Kentucky over Santa Clara and Iowa State to be Tennessee State and then I've got Iowa State Tennessee in a bloodbath in the Sweet 16 that will be first to 60 wins. I'm going to take the Cyclones there to move on and I am going to have a Iowa State Michigan regional final in Chicago, which was the same place Michigan played against Purdue today and I'm going to take Michigan to get to the Final Four. So you look right now at my Final Four. I've got three twos and a one. We've got obviously storylines all over the place. You've got UConn against Houston, you have Michigan against Purdue, which is the rematch of the Big Ten tournament title game. I am taking UConn to beat Houston to advance to the national title game for the third time in the last four years and I am going to take Purdue to win the rubber match against Michigan and I then am going to again, I'm a sentimental person. In a rematch of the 2024 national title game, I am going to take Purdue to finish the job and win a national championship at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis. Matt Painter has said repeatedly that this is the best chance that Purdue has to win a national championship. I said that anything less than a Final Four will be a major disappointment for Purdue. You're seeing obviously now what the path would look like for the Boilers, who if they win their first two games and I'll be with them their first two games, if they win their first two games, they are definitely going to be in a situation where they have to get out west and play these games in San Jose.
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Jon Rothstein
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Jon Rothstein
Let's get into the chat right now, see some of your comments, see what you want to talk about. Got obviously all this chat is bleeding right now. My God. Okay, let's look at some of these questions. This is Blake Widmer says John, how does Purdue look to you now? Well, pretty good, Blake. I just picked him to win the national championship. Now you're in a scenario where you've got Purdue as your team to win it all. That's going to be a big time, big time thing to keep an eye on moving forward. I think it's a team of destiny with the way obviously that they played. James Stuber says TCU is going to beat Ohio State and Duke. Well, look, I picked TCU to beat Ohio State and I said this on our show on CBS Sports. I don't think people have obviously watched TCU closely enough to know how good this team is and how solid this team is. Think back to Jamie Dixon's teams at the University of Pittsburgh. Solid. Don't turn it over. High percentage shots. I like TCU to beat Ohio State, setting up obviously a major, major matchup with Duke, which again is reminiscent of what we saw, okay, four years ago against Arizona in San Diego. John, what is the double digit seed you think is most likely to make the second weekend? Well, I'll say this, I think it's a golden opportunity for Jon Gross and Akron, who almost beat UCLA four years ago in 2022. Santa Clara is going to be a trendy pick here, but I don't see Santa Clara beating both Iowa State and Kentucky. Wouldn't shock me if they beat Kentucky, but I don't think they will double digit seeds right now. I'm going to go with Troy. I think Troy is a team that People need to look at just because I think Nebraska has tapered off down the stretch. I know Vanderbilt is a team obviously that is playing great, great basketball. But Scott Cross's team I think, you know, if you're looking at double digit seeds would have the best. I mean you could make a case too for the end, the NC State Texas winner who then would take a wounded BYU team on and pour them. But look, I'm going to say this. The Texas NC State winner, which I believe is going to be Tuesday night in Dayton is going to have to play that game. And I know this from working on the first four the past couple years, is going to have to play that game and then get on a plane, go cross country to Portland, deal with the time change, practice, prepare and then play. That is a lot to ask for that team to go do that. More questions here. A lot of Missouri fans talking about the idea that they can't believe they got a home game. That to me was a bad, bad deal in terms of the scenario going on. Let's see other questions here. Somebody saying Northern Iowa is your 512run of this year. Wes Washburn ain't walking through that door, buddy. But keep an eye on Leon. Right now. A lot of people talking about John Shire in the chat. See what else anybody wants to talk about. Somebody's saying Kansas or St. John's will lose early. I don't see Kansas losing the Cal Baptist. I don't see St. John's losing the Northern Iowa. Take some more questions. Arizona continues to show they're on a tier of their own. They're the number one overall seedling, not the number one overall seed. But I will say this. You know, Tommy Lloyd is one of the coaches in this tournament that is really going to be in the spotlight. And that always happens when you're a one seed. It always happens when you're, you know, at Arizona. You're always going to be hoping to get to a Final Four. Haven't been in 25 years. But things are completely aligned for Arizona to accomplish that. Arizona's one seed. Arizona's on the west coast. Arizona is playing in San Diego, in San Jose. And then Arizona also is in a situation where it's got veteran point guard play. It's got great size up front. I think. You know Arizona is going to be hard pressed to lose before the Sweet 16. But Arizona has not gotten past the Sweet 16 under Tommy Lloyd. Lost to Houston in 2022, lost to Princeton in the first round in 2023, 2024 Arizona got upset by Clemson last year, got upset by Duke, can't seem to get past the sweet 16. Think it will happen this year, but we don't know. We don't know if we're going to see obviously Arizona be in a situation where it will get by Purdue, even though the game's in San Jose to get to a Final Four. See what else we got going here. Right now, some people are talking about this Duke, St. John's game. Somebody brought Troy. A lot of Nebraska fans getting obviously in the chat right now because I picked Troy to beat Nebraska. Look, I would love to go to Nebraska and I would love to go to Lincoln and give you guys a happy hour. But I'm just giving you the facts right now. Utah State. Now this is another interesting thing, people talking about Utah State. This is the first year since 2017 that the Mountain West Conference has only had one team in the NCAA Tournament. This has been a great, great league for a long, long time and it's going to be a different league next year with the start of the new PAC12. But that is something to really, really monitor moving forward. A lot of people talking about the Purdue, Arizona situation and the potential the Elite Eight game. Take a couple more here before I put a bow on the show. Virginia, Tennessee. A lot of people obviously chiming in on the fact that, you know, the ACC is obviously not going to be well represented in my sweet 16. I'll say this, I really think when you look at this bracket, I don't see a team in the ACC having a clear path to the second weekend other than Duke. It would not shock me if the ACC only gets one team in the second weekend. I think it could get two because obviously Virginia is a really, really good team. But that Tennessee matchup is looming for Virginia in the round of 32. You've got Rick Barnes defense, you've got a veteran point guard in Jacoby Gillespie who went to a sweet 16 last year at Maryland. And you also got Nate A. Met, who's obviously one of the more talented players in the sport. Want to remind everybody that I'm going to be back with all of this dialogue and all of this topic Monday, 1:00 clock Eastern on CBS Sports Network. I will also be with you before the start of the first round on Wednesday and before I go to St. Louis. So this content is only getting started. Think of this show as your charcuterie board for March Madness. You've had the brigitte, you've had the crackers, you've had the grapes but tomorrow we give you a little bit more. I don't know if you're getting the main course, but we're going to spice up the appetizers. Want to remind you guys, as always to subscribe to Inside College Basketball now on both Apple and Spotify. Or we want to be your bible for the college basketball season and beyond. We are the only college basketball podcast coming to you 52 weeks out of the calendar year. And also want to remind you to like and subscribe to Inside College basketball now on YouTube. And also hit the hype button to give us the palpable buzz that is needed to make Inside College Basketball the elite college basketball podcast in the world. We need an army with us each and every show here on Inside College Basketball. And are you ready to be all you can be? 68 teams left, 67 games remaining. I will be back with you Monday afternoon, 1 o' clock Eastern on CBS Sports Network. This was Inside College Basketball now with John Rothstein,
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