Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week

Summary

Pardon My Take: Breaking Down the NCAA Tournament with Jon Rothstein

Episode Overview Released on March 17, 2025, the episode titled "Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week" features hosts Big Cat and PFT Commenter delving deep into the intricacies of the NCAA Tournament. Joined by their esteemed friend Jon Rothstein, the trio dissects bracket selections, scrutinizes committee decisions, and forecasts potential upsets, all while maintaining the show's signature blend of humor and insightful sports analysis.

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1. Bracket Breakdown and Selection Critique

A. The Bracket Reveal: A Non-Sporting Spectacle Big Cat kickstarts the discussion by highlighting the unique tradition of physically holding and reviewing brackets. As Hank humorously shares his ink-stained bracket, the hosts emphasize the personal and almost ritualistic significance of this event. This hands-on approach contrasts sharply with digital bracket submissions, adding a nostalgic charm to the process.

Big Cat [04:23]: "I know some people don't like the first four, but I actually love it because... it feels great and it's one of my favorite weeks."

B. Controversial Selections: UNC Over West Virginia and Indiana A significant portion of the conversation centers around North Carolina's (UNC) unexpected inclusion in the tournament over arguably more deserving teams like West Virginia and Indiana. The hosts express frustration over what they perceive as favoritism, especially given the role of UNC's Athletic Director, Bubba Cunningham, in the selection committee.

Big Cat [07:03]: "He went on CBS and ESPN... asked about UNC... didn't say anything and just deferred to another committee member."

Hank [07:34]: "It's a real miscarriage of justice... West Virginia and Indiana deserved the spots more."

The discussion underscores a broader concern about the integrity of the selection process, questioning whether personal relationships and subconscious biases are undermining meritocratic decisions.

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2. Regional Analyses

A. South Region: "Region of Depth" The South region is lauded for its robust pool of teams with deep rotations and significant talent. Auburn enters as the overall number one seed, with discussions highlighting their seeding decisions and potential road games.

Big Cat [11:17]: "Auburn, the one overall seed. Another thing that made no sense... Auburn has to play a road game in the second round as the number one overall seed."

The hosts express optimism about Auburn's chances but remain critical of the seeding dynamics affecting teams like Louisville and Creighton.

B. West Region: "Region of Prestige" Florida dominates this region as the top seed, boasting a strong performance in the SEC tournament. The inclusion of UConn sparks debate, with the hosts contemplating the team's potential impact on the tournament's landscape.

Hank [24:30]: "Florida is going to beat Norfolk State, and then UConn plays Oklahoma."

The conversation touches on Florida's offensive prowess and the strategic placements of other teams like Colorado State and Drake, emphasizing the region's competitive intensity.

C. Midwest Region: "Region of Toughness" Characterized by its formidable coaching and high-powered offenses, the Midwest region features teams like Houston and Gonzaga. The hosts analyze seeding discrepancies, especially Gonzaga's placement as an eight seed despite being a top-tier team.

Big Cat [36:52]: "Houston's screwed because Houston. Gonzaga is the ninth team in Ken Palm and Houston is a one seed."

This region's unpredictability is highlighted, with discussions on potential matchups and the impact of key player injuries on bracket outcomes.

D. East Region: "Region of Firepower" Duke emerges as the favorites in this region, with the hosts predicting their inevitable march to the championship based on their depth, coaching, and offensive strength.

Big Cat [40:29]: "Duke's gonna win it all. They're just so well-rounded, so deep."

The East region is portrayed as a powerhouse, with strategic insights into Duke's adaptability and resilience despite roster changes.

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3. Insights from Jon Rothstein

As a seasoned analyst, Jon Rothstein brings a critical eye to the selection process, reinforcing the hosts' concerns about UNC's inclusion. He delves into the criteria used by the selection committee, emphasizing the importance of Quad 1 wins and the integrity of the overall seeding process.

Jon Rothstein [74:20]: "North Carolina was 1 in 12 against Quad 1 opponents... This is one of the biggest miscarriages of justice I've seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball."

Rothstein advocates for transparency and fairness, drawing parallels to past tournament controversies and stressing the need for evaluative criteria that prioritize team performance over affiliations.

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4. Betting Strategies and Tournament Predictions

The hosts discuss ownership and strategic betting approaches, advising listeners not to shy away from backing top seeds given their historical dominance and current team performances. Backed by statistical insights, they argue for a more straightforward ("chalk") approach to bracket selection.

Big Cat [42:00]: "What we're saying is don't be afraid to just do chalk... The top seeds are playing at such a high level."

Rothstein supports this by citing net rating data, highlighting that only a handful of teams historically align with the high net ratings typical of championship contenders, thereby validating the emphasis on top-seed selections.

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5. "Who's Back of the Week" Segment

In this lighter segment, the hosts diverge from basketball to discuss various sports topics and personal anecdotes. Highlights include:

• NFL Contracts: Breaking news about Jamar Chase and T. Higgins signing record-breaking contracts with the Cincinnati Bengals, making them the highest-paid non-quarterback and wide receiver in NFL history.

  Big Cat [126:08]: "He is now the highest paid wide receiver too in NFL history."

• Aaron Rodgers Speculation: Debates around Rodgers' potential move to the Minnesota Vikings, showcasing the show's engagement with ongoing NFL narratives.

• Personal Stories: Anecdotes about managing sleep, dealing with technology changes, and maintaining personal relationships amidst the rigors of sports coverage.

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6. Breaking News and Final Thoughts

The episode concludes with a mix of sports news and personal interactions, reinforcing the camaraderie between the hosts and their guest. The hosts share humorous behind-the-scenes moments, such as accidental interactions with local residents and shared experiences from their trips covering games.

Hank [137:08]: "All right. So, yeah. So, well, this would suck, right, Max?"

Big Cat [137:08]: "Yeah. Thanks for the breaking news, Hank."

The final moments also touch upon the segment "Numbers," where the hosts engage in playful banter and recap the episode's key takeaways, ensuring listeners depart with a comprehensive understanding of the tournament dynamics and selection controversies.

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Notable Quotes with Attribution and Timestamps

• Big Cat [04:23]: "It's one of my favorite weeks."
• Hank [07:34]: "It's a real miscarriage of justice... West Virginia and Indiana deserved the spots more."
• Jon Rothstein [74:20]: "This is one of the biggest miscarriages of justice I've seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball."
• Big Cat [40:29]: "Duke's gonna win it all. They're just so well-rounded, so deep."
• PFT Commenter [126:08]: "He is now the highest paid wide receiver too in NFL history."

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Conclusion

This episode of "Pardon My Take" offers an in-depth and entertaining exploration of the NCAA Tournament's intricacies, spotlighting contentious selection decisions and providing expert analysis on team dynamics. With the addition of Jon Rothstein, the hosts enrich the conversation, blending critical insight with their trademark humor. Whether you're a seasoned bracketologist or a casual basketball fan, this episode promises a comprehensive and engaging breakdown of one of the year's most anticipated sports events.

Transcript

[Big Cat]

Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working? Nah. Neither has Ariat. Ariat work jackets and boots are packed with all the cold stopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions. So you can take any job out there and always deliver. Check out Ariat in your local workwear retailer or visit ariat.com work to get 10% off your first order when you sign up for email and weather whatever in Ariat work year. On today's part of my take we have our brackets and we also have our good friend John Rothstein on the show to break down the best storylines. He's going to name all the regions. We got a lot to catch up on with him because we haven't talked to him in a year. We're going to talk some brackets. Great weekend of hoops College conference tournaments wrap up and we're going to get into one of the best weeks of the year. We also have who's back of the week and it's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Hey basketball fans. Are you ready to win real Money? Check out pick six from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings pick six dunks on its rivals, including prize picks. When you hit all your picks, you'll slam home higher minimum payouts on Pick six and flex plays on prize picks. And best of all, you'll win even more cash if you posterize a competition. Track your picks for a shot at huge cash prizes. That's all there is to it. Pick six is available in most states, including Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia and more. Don't settle for a smaller payout. Switch to pick six and cash in your basketball knowledge. New players get 50 and pick six credits instantly on just a $5 entry. The the fun of the basketball season continues with the most fun way to play fantasy sports. Pick 6 from DraftKings Download the DraftKings Pick 6 app now. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to play. $5. Get $50 in Pick 6 credits. Better payouts, bigger wins only with Pick 6 from DraftKings, the crown is yours.

[PFT Commenter]

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[Big Cat]

Welcome to part of my take presented by DraftKings. The fun of basketball season continues with the most fun way to play fantasy sports. Pick six from DraftKings. Download the DraftKings pick six app now. Use code TAKE. That's code TAKE for new customers to play. Five dollars. Get $50 in pick six credits. Better payouts, bigger wins only with pick six from DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Monday, March 17th, and we have our brackets.

[Hank]

Got the brackets right here. Got a little, little ink under my fingernails.

[Big Cat]

Big cat, you hear this?

[Hank]

This is a, a real life in person bracket. I don't do my online. I hold in my hands, hell yes. Pen and a paper like a man always. This is horoscopes for guys.

[Big Cat]

This is the best. It's the best. I'm gonna sleep with it underneath my pillow tonight.

[Hank]

I'm gonna fuck it.

[Big Cat]

I. I wasn't gonna fuck it, but now I have to.

[Hank]

I'm gonna.

[Big Cat]

My bracket now I gotta.

[Hank]

You're not a man if you don't f. I actually think that this is the best non sporting sporting event of the year.

[Big Cat]

Just roll it up like this is.

[Hank]

Yeah, just roll it up and crank it. Yeah, I think, I think that.

[Big Cat]

Oh, Max is going through the hole.

[Hank]

Oh, you make a hole in your.

[Big Cat]

Bracket, you're fucking it that way.

[Hank]

You could.

[Big Cat]

I was thinking of just going like this.

[Hank]

You could also roll it up and then the bracket could fuck you.

[Big Cat]

True. Maybe just get a whole. Maybe make a paper mache doll out of it.

[Hank]

Yeah, okay, I'm into that.

[Big Cat]

I'm in for that.

[Hank]

But you know, I'm saying I think that. I think that bracket reveal is the best sporting actually contains sports of the year.

[Big Cat]

Oh, it's. It's incredible. And it's. It just, just the, you know, you spend. I think I, I counted. It was like 50 hours of basketball I've watched in the last five days and I, my eyes hurt and like every morning I wake up and I'm, I'm. I'm like, what just happened? I feel I got hit by a truck. But then you end it all with the bracket and it's all like, oh, that was worth it because we, we just, we just did all that and now we have a bracket and it's feels great and it's one of my Favorite weeks. And it's. I know some people don't like the first four, but I actually love it because they're like, at this point right now, I wish there was a college basketball game on right this second. And we only have to wait till Tuesday. But let's talk about the bracket. Let's first talk about who got screwed, and that'd be West Virginia and Indiana because UNC got into the tournament with one quad, one win. And Bubba Cunningham, who is part of the selection committee, is also the AD at unc. He. Now, he said that he recused himself from all conversations. What I would say to that is, that doesn't fucking matter at all because you spend an entire weekend hanging out with these people, and then you're like, hey, guys, we're going to talk about unc. I'm going to go take a piss. You guys talk about unc, but come on, we're boys, right?

[Hank]

It's me, Bubba.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we're boys. And then let's say he doesn't even do that. Let's say he doesn't say, hey, come on, guys, give me a solid. Everyone in that room has to decide on UNC and then have him come back in the room and he's going to be like, so how we look at.

[Hank]

Yeah, Then you tell him your decision. And then bub has to look at you and be like, what the hell? Yeah, God damn, y'all gonna do that to Bubba.

[Big Cat]

He also just. He. He went on CBS and ESPN after and just used. I don't know who his human shield was next to him, but they asked him a question about UNC and he. He brought another guy who's from the committee, and he. He immediately said, well, I wasn't allowed to talk about unc, so I'm just gonna have to defer to him. Yeah, it just made him answer all the hard questions.

[Hank]

Answer all the UNC related topics that you have for me. This is classic Belichick. Yeah, I think he might have had something to do with it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, well, he was on a beach.

[Hank]

He was on a beach. We know that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Living his best life.

[Big Cat]

Living his best life.

[Hank]

Congrats, athletes. Congrats, athletes.

[Big Cat]

I mean, Hank, that's a. That I do that game with my kids.

[Oldie]

Yeah, your kids are small.

[Big Cat]

Actually, the age difference is less between me and my kids.

[Oldie]

Your kids are. Don't weigh a lot, but.

[Big Cat]

But like, that's the airplane game. I play with my kids.

[Hank]

I'm not going to make fun of Coach Belichick for doing that.

[Big Cat]

Congrats, Bill, she wearing headphones in this?

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

So they're not talking.

[Hank]

He's listening to like airplane noises.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Either way, back to. Back to the bra. UNC got in.

[Hank]

So here's a stat that I looked up because the bracket matrix, they track everything. They compile everybody. All the amateur bracketologists out there, which is such a funny science to study. They have 111 bracketologists and they compile all their results out of those 111, 27 of the 111 had UNC in the bracket. And 111 out of 111 bracketologists had West Virginia.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Hank]

And UNC got it.

[Big Cat]

They got screwed.

[Hank]

I think they were 1 in 12 in quad one.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, they. They beat UCLA. They. Listen, the committee and we. We can ask John Rothstein. The committee. It's very clear. They stopped working on Friday night. Maybe that's why Leonardi's been sleeping. Because it makes no sense that UNC is in this tournament. It makes no sense that Michigan got a 5.

[Hank]

It makes no sense that Louisville got an 8.

[Big Cat]

Louisville got an 8. It makes no sense that they put Wisconsin and Denver in four days after. In the third game total in the tournament. Yeah, they're playing at like 1:00 in the afternoon.

[Hank]

I have a question for a big cat. Why does the Big Ten insist on having their championship game as late as possible?

[Big Cat]

I don't think it's the Big Ten. I think it's cbs.

[Hank]

They asked them to. So they have a lead in for the.

[Big Cat]

I think it's the. The tv. The TV networks dictate that because it's.

[Hank]

So late that the committee is forced to ignore the results of the Big Ten championship.

[Big Cat]

Correct.

[Hank]

No matter what.

[Big Cat]

But that's cbs.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I mean, they want a game going into the bracket reveal. And they have rights to the Big Ten.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

So they. I'm sure the Big Ten would like to be like, hey, can we play this game on Saturday? And cbs, like, no, we need this right before.

[Hank]

So I think. I think Louisville finished the season 20 and two.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

They were 14th in the AP and they were 23rd in the net. And they got an eight seed.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, they got an eight.

[Hank]

See, riddle me this.

[Big Cat]

Also Gonzaga is an eight seed and they are a top 10 Ken Palm team.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Houston would potentially have to match up against them in the second round, which would be a very tough matchup. Especially for. I think Houston was. Houston, technically the second one seed. I have the full seed list. Hold on, let me find it. Because I always love going through the seed List. I know Wisconsin was the fourth three in. Michigan was the first, fifth, five seed. So. But it didn't. Like, Purdue shouldn't have been a four. Michigan should have been the four. All right, here it is. You have it. It's Houston. Oh, Houston's the third one seed. Okay, that actually makes sense because Duke is an absolute wagon. We can talk about them in a second. Either way, there's some weird things that they made. Like even I believe Colorado state is a 12 seed. That's a three and a half point favorite.

[Hank]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

Over Memphis, the five seed. So. And I know it's not off betting lines, but it's like th. This committee outside the unc I think did a good job, except for the fact that some of the seatings make absolutely no sense. Yeah.

[Hank]

I think this year there weren't as many teams that are pissed off. Like, obviously, if you're Indiana, if you're West Virginia especially, you have every right to be super pissed. But there weren't a lot of bid Steelers this year.

[Big Cat]

Right. But West Virginia did get screwed.

[Hank]

They got fucked.

[Big Cat]

West Virginia got absolutely screwed. Okay, well, yeah, so, yeah, I mean, Houston might have to play without Juan Roberts against the top 10 Ken Palm team. I don't understand that. Gonzaga feels like it should have been a higher than an eight seed.

[Hank]

And Grand Canyon women's team got left off. Total snub.

[Big Cat]

Why'd you.

[Hank]

Well, no, they made the tournament of this one.

[Big Cat]

Oh, this one? Yeah. Why'd you bring them up?

[Hank]

I just thought that was a snub.

[Oldie]

You said something in the cave too. Like, I love their women's program. Why?

[Hank]

They got a great program.

[Oldie]

Why?

[Big Cat]

Because their head coach is very hot.

[Hank]

No, no, no.

[Big Cat]

So put it on the bonk list.

[Hank]

She's a great coach.

[Big Cat]

Put it on the bonk list.

[Hank]

List. She's a fantastic coach.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that's, that's, that's why. What's her name?

[Hank]

Her name? Yeah, Coach.

[Big Cat]

Exactly.

[Hank]

I have respect for our coach.

[Big Cat]

Coach. Okay, how do we want to. How do we want to break down the bracket? Where do we want to start? You just want to go region by region.

[Hank]

Let's go region by region. And I think that there should be a uniform there. I'd say like 90 of the brackets are in the same format, but then you get some websites to try to get cute with it and they mix things around.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

The regions, they go south in the top left corner. They go west in the bottom left corner. East, top right, Midwest, bottom right. That's how it should be.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

So let's just go by region.

[Big Cat]

I agree. All right, so south region, top left.

[Hank]

Yep, top left.

[Big Cat]

Auburn, the one overall seed. Another thing that made no sense. Not only the Louisville being an eight seed, but if Louisville wins their first game, which I actually kind of like them to win that game because I think Chucky Hepburn is going to put Stephen Ashworth in a torture chamber. They're going to be playing in Kentucky. This game is in Lexington. Auburn's going to have to play a road game in the second round as the number one overall seed.

[Hank]

Yeah, it's one of those things where Louisville got over by having a bad seed. So they have to play Creighton in the first round, which sucks for them. But also they get what would be two home games.

[Big Cat]

Speaking of which, Creighton and Yukon. A little do to do on Saturday night. That was very funny or sorry, that was Friday night. My, my brain is, is warped. That was. That felt like a situation that Yukon fans didn't fully realize that when you're on the top of the block for as long as they've been, people hate you and they just gotta, you just gotta eat it.

[Hank]

And I'm okay with them like throwing home a slam dunk at the end of it, hanging on the room, celebrating a little bit.

[Big Cat]

That's.

[Hank]

I don't think it's that up.

[Big Cat]

Well. And they'll say, and Danny Hurley, who we, we love and we'll defend Dan. Danny Hurley. But Danny Hurley does think part of what makes Danny Hurley great is he is boisterous and yells at fans and lives on the edge. And that's also why he's won back to back national titles is because he's that type of coach, wired that way. What comes on the flip side is if you're wired like that where you're yelling at fans as you beat Creighton a month ago, when the, the other team has a chance to rub it in your face, they're going to do it. Yeah, like that's just how it works. So if you're a Yukon fan, I know you can get in arguments with Creighton, but you should just say, guess what? Yeah, we, we kind of, we kind of deserve. We. We've been on the top for so long and we've been killing everyone. Yeah, it's gonna, it's, it's gonna turn every now and then.

[Hank]

I'm okay with it.

[Big Cat]

It's fair, fair play.

[Hank]

You win the Big east, you. You celebrate with a dunk at the end. That's fine.

[Big Cat]

They were trying to make the Point that some fans were trying to make the point that Yukon never like, you know, when Danny Hurley's son would get in, Andrew Hurley would get in games, he would dribble it out and he would yell at him not to shoot.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Those were also like 20 point games. And I, I don't think UConn does like run it up in that, in that scenario. But again, if you're. If you're the best team for two years running and you just demolish everyone and you have a coach like Danny Hurley, the minute it turns people are going to take their shots, I'm okay with it. Max is a Big east guy. You think that's fair play?

[Max]

Yeah, I think that was obvious. An obvious retaliation to.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Max]

Danny Hurley doing the rings to the Creighton student section on his way out of winning.

[Big Cat]

Right. And people like, well, that's not the players. It's like. But it is, it is. It's an extension of the players. That's just. And. And I wouldn't. If I were a UConn fan, I wouldn't take back Danny Hurley doing that to Creighton fans because that's what makes Danny Hurley wired that way to win two national titles. So it's like fair play all around. In my, in my event, you just have to. If you're a Yukon fan, you just have to accept it and be like, yeah, we, we lost this one. Tough shit. We got dunked on.

[Hank]

If you're the type of fan that gets online and says stay classy after getting beat by somebody, you've lost. You lost. You lost that argument already.

[Big Cat]

You've lost.

[Hank]

And there's probably a bunch of people that did the. Stay classy to Danny Hurley from Creighton that are now getting stay classy by Yukon fans.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Hank]

And you're all losers big time.

[Big Cat]

All right, so that was. Creighton also has never won a Big east title. I feel like they've been to every single. Every year they go to the final and they lose. I like Louisville in that game, though.

[Hank]

I do too. I got them moving forward.

[Big Cat]

Then we have the, the. The probably. Probably going to be the number one 12, five upset that everyone's going to pick UC San Diego, who's been awesome, who could have been an at large team if they failed to win the Big west, which they did on Saturday night playing against Michigan. I think they're only three and a half point underdogs. The Tritons are fun, though. They're. They're a top 60 team in offense and defense. On Ken Palm. They're really, really good. They got a New Zealander who love. He would love. Pft. Tate Jones. He's tight. He's, he's, he's sick. That's his last name. It's a hyphenated last name.

[Hank]

Tight Jones.

[Big Cat]

I don't know how to say his first name. It's, it's a lot. I don't want to. Wena.

[Hank]

I don't want to. We know Tight Jones.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I don't want to. We know Tight Jones, but I watched that whole game on Saturday night. He's good. So that's, that's the pick that everyone's going to make.

[Hank]

They force a lot of turnovers. Right?

[Big Cat]

They forced a lot of turnovers. Michigan turns the ball over. But I will say Michigan obviously beat Wisconsin. Big Ten title today. Dusty May called it correctly. He was like, our team needs a reset. They got their reset and then they won the Big Ten tournament. And they looked really good doing it. So maybe they've turned the corner and gotten that reset they needed. And also they have two seven footers, which always scares me when you go up two seven footers against a smaller team.

[Hank]

If you look at San Diego starting lineup, it's all 6, 4, 6, 5. I think they got one guy who's 6, 8 and they don't really run. They don't really. Their pace isn't big. So if they can, if they can force turnovers. But Michigan, the way they were playing against Wisconsin, that's granted also like at the end of a Big Ten tournament run where every team's tired, the shots aren't going in. It was like every shot.

[Big Cat]

It was a horrendous game to watch. Well, yeah, but it smoked out the haters who think that's what Wisconsin, how Wisconsin plays now.

[Hank]

Yeah, it was, it was not a fun game. But this goes back to what we talked about with Dusty May. It's like at the end of a hockey game in the playoffs, you're getting your ass kicked. Start a fight.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Flip up the whole dynamic. And they got into a fight with Michigan State and played way, way better coming out of it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I also kind of like Yale is over Texas A and M. Yale's, Yale's a good team. I feel like Yale also just. That's just a Yale does it every year kind of guy. Remember the big sweater guy?

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that was pretty funny.

[Hank]

Buzz is going to be dressed up like a guy from Yale. He wears like nine piece suits.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

He's going to be sweating his Balls off. It's going to be great.

[Big Cat]

I. I feel like Buzz, though. He might dress up like a guy from Yale, but if you spot him. He's not a Yale guy.

[Hank]

No, he's not. I'd say he dresses like a guy from Yale in the 1920s.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Like a robber baron. Yeah, that. That contributes a significant amount to the Yale endowment.

[Big Cat]

He sweats too much to be a Yale guy. Yeah, Yale guys don't sweat.

[Hank]

And there's never been a guy from Yale named Buzz.

[Big Cat]

No. And then we got Ole Miss, Vers, San Diego State, and Uncle, which UNC we've already discussed. Now you know what's going to happen. UNC gets the sweet 16.

[Hank]

Well, it's. There's one team that's in the play in that gets to the Sweet 16 every year.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's going to be them. After everyone complained, it's going to be them.

[Hank]

Louisville is going to lose in. In the first round, and then UNC is going to make it. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Also Iowa State. Great move by TJ Otzelberger. He basically just held out pretty big injury until after the selection committee, because.

[Hank]

They can ding you for that.

[Big Cat]

They can absolutely ding you for that. And after. After everything was decided, he was just like, oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, one of our best players is out. My bad. Thanks for the 3 seed. See you guys there.

[Hank]

Yeah, we'll take it. We'll run.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we're good.

[Hank]

Max and I were talking earlier about Villanova, and then if them firing Kyle Neptune would have actually made it more likely for Villanova to make the tournament.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah.

[Memes]

No.

[Max]

That would have been the funniest thing ever if just somehow they resume up and we're like, you know what a Kyle Neptune less Villanova team should.

[Big Cat]

Should be? Yeah. Would be a dangerous team. I kind of like that idea. We also have New Mexico versus Marquette. That's going to be a fun game.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

That's going to be a lot of points. Cam Jones is awesome. New Mexico runs Richard Pitino.

[Hank]

Richard Pitino, Shaka Smart.

[Big Cat]

And Michigan State Bryant at the bottom. I actually like this region a lot for Michigan State because I. Auburn has not been playing its best ball. And Michigan State felt like on Saturday when Wisconsin beat him, like that was the reset they kind of needed where they had been running so hot. And it was a perfect time for Izzo to be like, all right, guys, we're not, you know, a perfect team. Let's get ready for the tournament.

[Hank]

Yeah, A good loss. I have them. I have Michigan State winning this bracket.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I do too. Hank, any thoughts?

[Oldie]

I like Unc to make a run.

[Big Cat]

What's your mental's at right now?

[Oldie]

My mentals are. We're stringing it together for why St. Patrick's Day.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Yeah. Give people. Because I don't want you to. I don't want the aws to be like, Hank said five words I actually said before you came in here. I was like, over. Under ten words. If we don't ask him any questions.

[Oldie]

I'm gonna speak with.

[Big Cat]

How is St. Patrick's Day?

[Oldie]

St. Patrick's Day is a lot of fun. Chicago. I would say it goes harder than Boston for St. Patrick's Day.

[Hank]

Wow.

[Oldie]

Everywhere is absolute chaos. A lot of fun. I'm old.

[Big Cat]

What was you.

[Oldie]

I don't know that I have those days in me too. Many more. More of those days than me.

[Big Cat]

If we did it old school, like steel mill. Clock in, clock out. What was your clocking? Clock out. Numbers.

[Oldie]

It was. It was a full 12 hour shift.

[Big Cat]

12 hours?

[Oldie]

Yeah. @ least was it I. Maybe overtime.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

I feel like it was maybe some time and a half.

[Big Cat]

What time did you guys. Did you guys all meet up early? What time did you guys.

[Oldie]

I went out late, quote unquote, at like 11.

[Big Cat]

And you stayed out till 2. That's 14 hours.

[Oldie]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

Overtime, 10 and a half.

[Big Cat]

That's 15 hours.

[Max]

I was with Hank at 11. I went out until like 4:30. Went home, took a nap, went back out. Hank was still out from when I started.

[Big Cat]

And then I left earlier and then.

[Max]

I left and then he was like.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, what, you're a pussy.

[Big Cat]

You're going to beat me out here? And then.

[Max]

And then you're going to be the one to leave early. I'm like, dude, I'm going home. You guys are. You guys are too fucked up for me.

[Hank]

No, that's actually. That's the most impressive thing you can do, I think. Max. I think it's way more impressive to go home for two hours, take a nap and then come back than it is to stay out for 15 hours.

[Oldie]

Yeah, I can't do that.

[Max]

I felt great. If I was rejuvenated, it was. It was like I was just starting my day over again.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Max]

But nobody else was in my mindset, which I didn't account for.

[Hank]

The power nap reset is something I don't think I've done that in 20 years. I really don't like. It's. That's something that you just don't do when you get older. You go home, you even think about your house. And you're like, well, that's it for me for the night.

[Big Cat]

Sleep is death.

[Oldie]

Sleep is death.

[Big Cat]

The. The. What Hank is referring to as sleep is Death is when 2015, when Wisconsin beat Kentucky in the Final Four. I basically stayed out from after that game until. So the game ended Saturday at, like, 10pm I think I was out till about 4am Went to sleep for, like, three hours, got back up, went back out to the bar on that Sunday till, like, midnight. So basically was out for, I don't know, 24 out of 30 hours. And we were with clients, and they were like, we have a tour of Lucas Oil stadium. This is Sunday afternoon after I've been drinking for 14 out of 18 hours. And I just kept on repeating. I was like, sleep is death. Sleep is death. Sleep is death. I was like, I'm going. The only way I can go on this tour is if you let me sneak alcohol in. So they. They poured me drinks into, like, a coke can, and I walked in standing on Lucas Oil stadium, just drinking, like, straight vodka, just trying to stay awake because I was so. Sleep is death. But credit to you, Hank.

[Oldie]

Yeah, we're here. I'm excited for this week. I mean, this. This is the best. Like, you know, it was definitely one of those, like, I'm never drinking again type of mornings. And. And this is the best week to. To just take it easy and just go all in on college basketball.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Love it. Love it. How'd your bets do? Did you just. You were so drunk you forgot to fade me? Yeah. Damn, that's tough to do. No, I actually did well. So you. You're good. All right.

[Hank]

This was a good week. Shout out, oldie.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

If you tailed oldie, you did well.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Hold you with some red hot. Okay. Any other thoughts from this region? I'm excited for this region. I like Michigan State, though, a lot.

[Hank]

Yeah, I got Michigan State over Auburn.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Okay. West Florida is the. Is the one seed in the west. This is. Is this my region of death? No, I think it's another one.

[Hank]

This is the best region of coaches.

[Big Cat]

This might be the best region of coaches. Yeah. The big storyline in this. In this region is that we get Bill Self versus Cal for a chance to play Rick Pitino.

[Hank]

If Rick Patino can beat Omaha.

[Big Cat]

If Rick Patino beat Omar, I need that to be Cal versus.

[Hank]

Yes. You know, Cal versus Patino. That's what America is hoping for. Kansas is a bummer to watch.

[Big Cat]

Ye.

[Hank]

They realize because you're going to look at them and think oh, wait, it's Kansas. Kansas determinant Bill Self in the tournament. They're going to be a pain in the ass to watch. But Arkansas is not great.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Hank]

So I think Kansas is favored, aren't they? It's a 7 10, but I think Kansas is also a slight favorite.

[Big Cat]

Someone look it up on DraftKings. Right now, this is my region of death because I think Florida, Maryland, and St. John's and Texas Tech, those the top four seeds in this region. All in my mind, could be final.

[Hank]

Four teams, and they've got maybe the best 12 seed.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. They have one of the best 12 seeds in Colorado State, who's a favorite in this game. And Florida is probably playing the best ball out of anyone right now. They just steamrolled the SEC tournament.

[Hank]

Oh, yeah. And also UConn is in there.

[Big Cat]

Okay, so let's talk about that real quick, because Florida is going to beat Norfolk state, and then UConn plays Oklahoma. I think UConn can lose Oklahoma. I kind of don't want UConn to lose Oklahoma because I want UConn to play Florida and everyone to be like, watch out for UConn. And Florida is going to beat him by 100. And it's no offense to UConn. They're back to back title winners, but they're not the same Yukon.

[Hank]

But you're going to see UConn in that second round.

[Big Cat]

Everyone's going to be like you say.

[Hank]

To yourself, danny Hurley, he knows how to coach during the tournament, and Florida will kill him.

[Big Cat]

That would be my. That would be my take on that. So I'm rooting for UConn just so that I can bet Florida against UConn.

[Hank]

Florida is very good.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Colorado State team has started 5 and 5. Probably the hottest team in the country. They are awesome. And they're the 12 seed over Memphis, and they are a three and a half point favorite, which makes perfect sense if you follow the numbers. It doesn't make sense if you just look at a bracket.

[Hank]

And Memphis, they have that. What's the guy that they got that scored. He scored 42, I think, in the tournament semifinals.

[Big Cat]

I don't know who. They have a big injury, though. Fuck. Who is it? I wrote down notes. God damn it. I took notes on, like, three different things.

[Hank]

They have.

[Big Cat]

They have a really, really good player, and I can't. I can't remember where all my notes are. Oh, Tyrese Hunter is the. Is the Memphis player who might be out. He was in a walking boot, and he will. He's A. He's a very big part of their defense. Yeah. Nick Clifford is. He's awesome. He's awesome. No, we were looking for Memphis.

[Hank]

I think it was Clifford.

[Big Cat]

I think you're saying Colorado State scored 42 points.

[Hank]

I know somebody on Memphis scored.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah.

[Hank]

Because I think 42 in the semis.

[Big Cat]

All right, Find it. Max there. I watch so much fucking basketball, my brain is just completely. P.J. hagerty. He score 42. He's a bucket. He's a walking bucket. Max is just not good at the Google thing.

[PFT Commenter]

42.

[Big Cat]

There we go.

[Max]

Against Wichita State.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, there we go. You got it. Max.

[Hank]

That nap coming in clutch.

[Big Cat]

That nap is.

[Max]

You can feel another nap today.

[Hank]

Let's go.

[Big Cat]

Wow. You did.

[Max]

I'm napped up.

[Big Cat]

Take that nap.

[Max]

I don't know. Around like one.

[Big Cat]

Hell, yeah.

[Hank]

Sick.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Nick Clifford, though, for Colorado State is. He's awesome. And without Tyrese Hunter, if he doesn't play, that will be a problem. Missouri Drake, I'm very excited for. Oh, Maryland. Maryland Grand Canyons would be a good game. Maryland kind of got screwed, too. I feel like they probably could have been a three.

[Hank]

Crab Five.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

The best nickname they have to.

[Big Cat]

Where is that game? Why doesn't the games. Why don't the games have the locations on the bracket?

[Hank]

I don't know where that game is, but I got a fun stat about Maryland. Okay.

[Big Cat]

Queen.

[Hank]

One of the members of the Fab Five.

[Big Cat]

Yes. Crab Five.

[Hank]

Yeah, that's what said. Right. First time I said Crab. The Crab 5. They have lost in every single game that he's made a three pointer. So keep. Keep an eye out for that. If he makes a three early on, they're gonna lose.

[Big Cat]

Do not. Yeah. If he's. Do not let him shoot any threes. That's very important. Yeah. So I like Maryland in that little quadrant. And then Missouri Drake's going to be very fun because Drake is an absolute snail of a team. They don't want. They want to go as slow. As slow as possible. If there was no shot clock, they would hold the ball for the, like, 10 minutes to start the game. That's. They'd be like a high school team just being like, we're not going to play this game. We're gonna make it a three possession game. And Mizzou can run. And then Texas Tech is really good, too. So this is. This might be my region of death.

[Hank]

I'm just rooting for Drake to keep winning so we can make jokes. That's it.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Hank]

That's like when oral Roberts is playing.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah. You love that. Yeah, yeah.

[Hank]

With Drake, a lot of.

[Big Cat]

And Morehead, you loved. When it's Oral Roberts and Morehead. Yeah, that was the best. That was maybe bracket.

[Hank]

Yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

You can't. Can't get better than that.

[Hank]

There's making a sandwich and then there's crafting a sandwich. And when I want something perfectly crafted, I go straight to Boar's Head. For over a century, Boar's Head has been dedicated to crafting premium deli favorites. Every ingredient is carefully chosen, every recipe made with a purpose. Their oven gold turkey, smoked master ham, and ever roast chicken are made from premium whole cuts, hand trimmed and perfectly seasoned. Last weekend, I made the ultimate sandwich Oven gold turkey, cheese, pickles and mustard. Simple but unbelievable. So next time you're at the deli, don't settle. Get the best Boar's Head. Committed to craft since 1905. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at boarhead.com Hank, how you doing?

[Big Cat]

Checking in.

[Oldie]

Good.

[Big Cat]

Checking in on the West.

[Hank]

Checking in on you physically.

[Big Cat]

I actually think you should fill it out right now because there's a chance you might just be so hungover that you. You turned off your brain and you just come up with the best picks.

[Oldie]

I would like coach Cal to make a run.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Oldie]

I think that'd be fun.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Good thoughts.

[Oldie]

And St. John's I.

[Big Cat]

You.

[Oldie]

I bet St. John's final four probably a month or so ago when you told me to, and we were rooting for that.

[Big Cat]

St. John's good. They play Big east basketball.

[Oldie]

Do you have a pen over there?

[Hank]

I do, yeah.

[Big Cat]

Memes and Max, if you guys have any thoughts or picks you love, just chime in because I know Memes. Did you already fill out a bracket? Memes has St. John's to win it all. St. John's to win it all.

[Hank]

I filled out my entire bracket. It's kind of. It's a weird Final four.

[Big Cat]

What's your final four? Michigan State, St. John's BYU, Kentucky. Michigan State, St. John's BYU, Kentucky. That's. That's.

[Hank]

That's the first go at it. How many edits are you going to do?

[Big Cat]

Probably two or three. What. What led you to that?

[Hank]

I love byu. I just love how they play and.

[Big Cat]

The region they're in. I think they could outrun the teams they're going to play. Yeah, Straight shots. But that's also Memes. It had been a while because I haven't been in a lot of big games in a long time. It had been a while since I lost A quote unquote, big game, the Big Ten championship today. Memes was just firing off the memes instantly. Like, it felt like he had been waiting for that moment for so long because he hasn't had a chance.

[Hank]

If you're just betting on social media memes, I would say that you want. You want Wisconsin to beat byu and then you want Wisconsin to lose to Duke.

[Big Cat]

No. You want. Or the Wisconsin. Bama. No.

[Hank]

Yeah, I think you want Wisconsin to be Bama just so that Duke can be the one to beat you. I think if. If I'm just thinking about Memes here.

[Big Cat]

No, he's gonna get. Listen, he's gonna get him off no matter when Wisconsin loses. Like, it's gonna be. He's ready to go no matter what.

[Hank]

I made so many more today too.

[Big Cat]

Oh, of course. I'm sure you did.

[Hank]

There's so many good ones. I thought you were gonna win, too.

[Big Cat]

We. We need to have a rule for. We need to get back control. Remember when we used to have control of the Twitter account?

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I had the password for the Twitter account forever. We need to get control for when Memes loses. We. We should do that next year. If the jets are ever in a big game. Oh, you know what? The Knicks. So if the Knicks. When the Knicks are in the playoffs, I want. I want control. If the Knicks are an elimination game. Okay, so we can just go off on Memes.

[Hank]

What about the Islanders?

[Big Cat]

Nah, they suck. They suck. I knew that. They suck. Ah. Okay. East. I've come to the realization that I think Duke's gonna win the whole thing.

[Hank]

So Flag, his injury is gonna. I don't think he's gonna play at all in the first two games.

[Big Cat]

Doesn't matter.

[Hank]

But then he's going to be back. Will he be 100%?

[Big Cat]

Doesn't matter.

[Hank]

I don't know. They're still very deep.

[Big Cat]

They're so good. I. They're going to win it all. I've just come to accept that. I. It would. They're just so well rounded, so deep. I think Cooper Flag will be fine. I think he. He probably. Even if he doesn't play in the first weekend, they'll be fine. And then he'll be fully healthy. They're so good. I can't. I'm. I'm just. I have to brace myself.

[Hank]

Where are they playing?

[Big Cat]

Probably somewhere. Probably at Durham.

[Oldie]

Raleigh.

[Big Cat]

There you go. Pretty easy. Pretty easy trip for him. Juan. I have the. Oh, by the way, shout out our guy, Jonathan Warner. I think we mentioned him last year. A lot of People have brackets. He's the only guy I know that in the 45 minutes from when the bracket is released to when the tip times come out, he tries to predict every tip time.

[Hank]

How do you do this here?

[Big Cat]

I don't know. So many games. I'm trying to see if he nailed any of them.

[Hank]

And you're playing on Thursday, right?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Whiskey.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Okay, so Duke, we have. We have revenge games in Duke's region because we have Jeremy Roach on Baylor, could play Duke. He played for Duke. And then we also have on Arizona, if they get to the Sweet 16 against Duke, Caleb Love, which would be fun, see them go up against each other one last time. I think Oregon is the. Is the scary team in this region for Duke. If they can get to the sweet 16. Yeah.

[Hank]

I have Oregon beating Arizona in the second round because that will be. I think that's going to be the Caleb Love masterpiece.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

I think he'll go 3 for 21 for 14 points.

[Big Cat]

I like that.

[Hank]

I think that's what.

[Big Cat]

I like that.

[Hank]

Essentially the. The Josh Rosenstadt line of basketball.

[Big Cat]

Yes. Yes. Okay, then. In the bottom half yet byu. VCU memes. Is byu. If. If BYU loses in the first round. Memes. I'd like access to the Twitter account.

[Hank]

Okay, deal.

[Big Cat]

Okay. I'm a BYU lever. Don't.

[Hank]

Please don't say that ever again.

[Big Cat]

What. How much BYU basketball have you watched?

[Hank]

I watch every single game they play.

[Big Cat]

They play late, and I just love betting on them. Okay. BYU and vcu, that's actually a stylistic clash because VCU can muck it up and just play gritty defense right in their face. And then Wisconsin. Montana. Wisconsin got screwed in terms of the time, but you got to go play.

[Hank]

The games at altitude.

[Big Cat]

And altitude. It is crazy.

[Hank]

Montana's used to the altitude.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it is crazy. The third game on Thursday after playing four games in a row out in Denver. Yeah. I don't know why they didn't give. I also don't know why they wouldn't want. Why. Why wouldn't you want to sell more tickets? Why wouldn't you want Wisconsin to be in. In Milwaukee like they were? There's two other three seeds in Milwaukee.

[Hank]

So who. Who is playing in Milwaukee?

[Big Cat]

Kentucky and. And. And Iowa State.

[Hank]

I don't know. I think, like, protecting a three seed is, like, halfway down the list of stuff that's important for them.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I know. It's just. It just kind of made no sense. I actually think they probably should have lost on Saturday. It almost hurt them. Yeah. And then Alabama St. Mary's Vanderbilt and Robert Morris. The bottom half. We need Alabama to lose.

[Hank]

I got.

[Oldie]

I think Baba could beat Duke.

[Hank]

I think they could. I think they possibly could too. Phylon is my favorite player to watch in college.

[Oldie]

They get hot.

[Max]

Hank was also. You didn't you. I also didn't watch the game on Saturday. But you also did not watch the game.

[Oldie]

It was on at the bar.

[Hank]

Didn't they get.

[PFT Commenter]

Absolutely.

[Big Cat]

They get bullied.

[Max]

Smoked.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah, they got bullied.

[Oldie]

Oh, oh, the Bama game. No, I didn't watch Bama game.

[Big Cat]

They got bullied. Bama also is not as good of a three point shooting team as they were last year when they went to the final four, which they were a very good team last year. And Grant Nelson got hurt. Who knows what's going to happen with him. That's a very big injury.

[Hank]

That is.

[Oldie]

Did not know that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that happened on Saturday night.

[Oldie]

That changes things for my bracket.

[Big Cat]

Saturday afternoon. That's. You got to check in on Grant Nelson. He might be okay. Bosco couldn't get an answer.

[Hank]

But they did crush Vandy when they played earlier.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

And then St. Mary's I don't know anything about St. Mary's St. Mary's do they have an Australian guy this year?

[Big Cat]

They always do. Randy Bennett's been to about a billion tournaments. He also. They last two years they've not played great, but I think one of them was against UConn. So it's like that doesn't really count because UConn was really, really good. They'll slow it down. So it would be a very fun matchup to see Alabama trying to speed it up for St. Mary. Sloane down. Where are they on Ken Palm? They had a very St. Mary's year. They beat Gonzaga twice in league play and then lost him in the championship game. And they're a very well rounded team that plays very slow.

[Max]

359 in tempo.

[Big Cat]

Yep. That's what they want to do.

[Max]

And Bama is one.

[Big Cat]

That's. That's why I want to see it be very funny to watch. Okay. And then in the Midwest we have, like I said, Houston kind of got screwed because Houston. Gonzaga is the ninth team in Ken Palm and Houston is a one seed. So that's who they maybe have to match up with in the second round. And they have a big injury with Juan Roberts, so that could be. That could be a wrinkle in this whole bracket.

[Hank]

That happens to Houston every year. Yeah, every year they've got the worst luck.

[Big Cat]

This is one of My favorite regions. And just that there's a game that I really want to happen in Illinois and Kentucky in the second round that would be so much fun because it's like the two quintessential boomer bus teams where if they're on, they play the best basketball in the world and when they're off, they are just absolute dog shit. So I would love to see them match up and hope both are on because we'd get one of the best tournament games possible.

[Hank]

I like the. I like the bottom half of this bracket a lot. I like Illinois, Kentucky, UCLA and Tennessee. I think those will make for, at the very least, very entertaining second round matchups.

[Big Cat]

They all win tough region. Clemson also, I feel like they got a little bit screwed with their seating. But Clemson, Purdue, High Point is going to be a great game. There's so many fucking good games I got. Damn it. I love this tournament.

[Hank]

Heard a rumor that High Points not pumped about playing Purdue.

[Big Cat]

Oh, really?

[Hank]

Yeah. This is rumored. It's a rumor.

[Big Cat]

You got sources?

[Hank]

No, I don't want to throw anybody under the bus.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Hank]

But it's someone who's in my inner circle and, you know, we have a good relationship.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

And so I don't want to go behind their back. I don't want to annoy the guy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Hank, what are your thoughts on the Midwest?

[Oldie]

I got a Houston coming out of the Midwest. Yeah, I like Houston, Tennessee in the Elite Eight. And I think High Point's going to make a run despite not loving their first round matchup against Purdue.

[Big Cat]

That's bad. To not love that.

[Hank]

Yeah, I know. That's what I said too.

[Big Cat]

The one thing I will say about.

[Oldie]

This bracket, it's crazy that they hypothetically were even thinking about Purdue this, this early on.

[Big Cat]

High Point. What do you mean?

[Oldie]

Like they said before the tournament. Actually, never mind.

[Big Cat]

Well, oh, they said before the tournament they didn't want to play, but they.

[Hank]

Were just saying like if there's a bunch of teams that they could play in that, you know, the slot that they were looking at, the 13ish slot that they were putting themselves in. And Purdue was one of the teams that they said do, do not like that matchup.

[Max]

Who's your guy's source?

[Hank]

I don't want to talk about it, Max.

[Oldie]

Just rumors.

[Big Cat]

He knows someone at High Point.

[Max]

He knows a coach.

[Hank]

No, no.

[Max]

Got it.

[Big Cat]

I didn't see those train trainings.

[Oldie]

Who said it was a he?

[Hank]

Yeah, good point, Hank.

[Oldie]

PFT has multiple insiders, sources that are women.

[Hank]

That's right.

[Oldie]

Could be Anyone.

[Big Cat]

Purdue's defense is not good. I think this is the. I think the Midwest region. So the west is my region of death because I think there's four teams that are all very, like, qualified to be in the Final Four. Midwest is my chaos region. I. This could go any which way because I could. With Juwan Roberts out for Houston, potentially out for Houston. There's not one in like Tennessee. Rick Barnes. It's Rick Barnes.

[Hank]

Rick Barnes.

[Big Cat]

And then you have two teams in Kentucky and Illinois who at their ceiling could be Final four teams, but they've also shown their floor, and it's very ugly.

[Hank]

I like Coach Cal. He could lose that first round matchup. Again, that would be a game that Cal would lose.

[PFT Commenter]

Pope.

[Hank]

I don't think so.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, Cal would lose.

[Hank]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Cal would lose to Troy.

[Big Cat]

Troy would throw a zone at Cal and he'd be like, what?

[Hank]

I think Pope would not lose. Detroit.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Hank]

Pope might lose to Illinois.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And also this. This region has some. A fun wrinkle. That Mick Cronin, who was very vocal about Eastern Standard Time and having to play there, and you say it was bad playing in Eastern Standard Time this year. This. They have to go play in Eastern Standard Time.

[Hank]

That's tough.

[Big Cat]

So they kind of stuck it to him there. Yeah. This is my region of. I don't know what the fuck's gonna happen.

[Hank]

So I think. Here's my take. I think whoever wins the east winning.

[Big Cat]

It all, it's gonna be Duke. Duke's gonna win it all.

[Hank]

Could be Wisconsin, could be Bama.

[Big Cat]

Florida's the only chance.

[Oldie]

Why not? Why not Wisconsin? Revenge and the Elite Eight for a chance of the Final Four.

[Big Cat]

Listen, I'm. I just want to get to the sweet 16. That's my. Everything after that is like, let's just. Let's see what happens. God will take me Revenge. Yeah.

[Hank]

If Wisconsin can shoot like, you're.

[Big Cat]

You're just a meme.

[Oldie]

You're me started the championship dvd.

[Big Cat]

You're just another memes you want to set me up for. I do. I am very happy that Wisconsin played a game like today, where it just. It really smoked out all the haters because there's a lot of people who watched their first college basketball game today, and they're like, wow, Wisconsin stinks. They hit 18 threes on Friday. They play great offense. Bad day. They were tired legs.

[Hank]

They were taking the same shots. I actually think that they were taking better shots. Yeah, they were in the championship game than they were On Friday. It's just that every shot they were taking on Friday was going in every.

[Big Cat]

Single one, and they just were ran out of gas. But that was. It was fun to. I got a lot of bookmarks and hopefully I can revisit. All right. What. Any other things from the bracket. We're going to get into more of it with John Rothstein, talk more brackets. I'm sure he's got some. Some good intel we didn't even think about. Oh, I had one thing that I wanted to say about this. This is the year that don't be afraid to just do chalk. I know that it sounds like you never want to be that guy. Don't get as cute as you think you want to get because I saw this stat from Max Barcb on Twitter. Only four teams since 2000 have entered the tournament. Plus 35 net rating. That's adjusted efficiency rating on Ken Palm or better. So only four teams since 2000 entered the tournament. Plus 35 net rating. That was the 2021 Gonzaga Bulldogs. They were. They finished second. They. They were the runner up in that year. 2019 Virginia. They were the champion. 2015 Kentucky Final Four, loss of Wisconsin, 2001 Duke. They won it all. So only four teams since 2000 at 35 net rating or higher. This year, four teams have 35 net rating or higher. So that's insane. Yeah, like that. That just shows you that the one seeds this year are playing at such a high level and are so dominant that it's literally the total amount of teams that are as good this year. It's been, whatever, 25 years. It took four for four other teams to do it. So Duke, Florida, Houston, Auburn are historically great teams. And so don't be afraid to just go chalk. That would be my speech. You're going to want to get cute. Well, get.

[Hank]

Maybe get cute early on.

[Big Cat]

Get cute early on. And I would say if you're gonna try to say, hey, where can we not do the one seed? It would be if Juwan Roberts doesn't play in Houston, might be that one.

[Hank]

And maybe Michigan State. Possibly Michigan State.

[Big Cat]

Overall, Auburn does have bad vibes. The way they finish out the season.

[Hank]

Bad body. Like they didn't look great.

[Oldie]

But Auburn, Bama national championship.

[Hank]

Hypothetically, I would like to see that.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Hank]

Why not?

[Big Cat]

He just.

[Max]

He has a Bama few. He has a Bama few.

[Hank]

But every time, every time they play, it's.

[Big Cat]

He wants a good game. Max on the bus.

[Oldie]

Not even. I mean, I just want good content.

[Max]

He wants you at the, at the.

[Big Cat]

Pumps party and you on the bus. What's Max on the bus for, Pickham? We made a bet. Rico Bosco, Huge Bama fan, good college expert, close friends of NATO's. If Alabama doesn't make the final four, Rico Bosco has to take a bus to San Antonio from New York City. If Alabama does make the final four, Max and Jack McCarthy have to take a bus from Chicago to San Antonio and I have to go to the pump party on Thursday night.

[Max]

Am I. This is a pick em bet?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

Am I a part of the pick em show?

[Oldie]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

By proxy.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right.

[Max]

Just wanted to put a little bit of context out there that this is an insane bet that I'm a part of.

[Hank]

Max just got thrown into it.

[PFT Commenter]

No reason.

[Hank]

I know a guy who'll do it.

[Big Cat]

You're a chief scout.

[Hank]

It's Max.

[Max]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's basically what happened.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Blame your buddy. It was, you know, it was Jack McCarthy.

[Max]

It was Jack versus Rico.

[Big Cat]

And then.

[Max]

And then you were like, oh, yeah, we'll have Max go with Jack too. Well, well, Bama's gonna lose.

[Big Cat]

What's done is done.

[Max]

Bama has to lose.

[Big Cat]

You have to. You have to. As Hank said, we're just rooting for content, so you'll be very invested in those games.

[Oldie]

Other good content, though would be Wisco beating Bama and then beating Duke.

[Big Cat]

Oh, I appreciate that because I. I assumed you wanted them to lose one of those games so that you can get your memes off.

[Max]

Well, then he. He's just assuming you would lose in the final four.

[Oldie]

Oh, yeah, but that would be.

[PFT Commenter]

Losing.

[Big Cat]

It would be.

[Oldie]

Those would be two electric. Electric games.

[Big Cat]

Those would be electric games.

[Hank]

Big Cat versus Hank.

[Oldie]

Be fun.

[Hank]

Duke, Wisconsin.

[Oldie]

People forget. I respectfully didn't even wear Duke.

[Big Cat]

You did here. You're very nice about that.

[Oldie]

The national championship.

[Big Cat]

You're very nice about that. Wow, there's. I just love looking at this bracket also.

[Hank]

The NIT bracket just came out, Max. Oh, you're not in it.

[Big Cat]

Sorry, What?

[PFT Commenter]

You.

[Max]

Are you aware of the crown or.

[Big Cat]

Are you not aware of the crown?

[Hank]

The college basketball crown?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

The fake tournament that just built up at the last second.

[Big Cat]

The crown is pretty.

[Max]

The crown. Pretty prestigious crowd.

[Big Cat]

I don't think you know about the crown.

[Hank]

I know about the crown. The crown where they say that they're going to make nil payments, but they don't actually make nil payments. Unless you finish in the finals. That crown.

[Big Cat]

The crown is going to be pretty sick. It's in Vegas. It's Pretty awesome. Is Villanova in the crown?

[Hank]

We should be.

[Big Cat]

Who's coaching him?

[Max]

Great point. I want him to do a player coach.

[PFT Commenter]

Eric. Oh, Coach.

[Big Cat]

What is he going to do? Miss more shots?

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Max]

Then. And then we're just on. I'm fine with losing immediately and just figuring out who our next coaches.

[Hank]

If I were losing the crown, then it might not be that important of a tournament.

[Max]

It's not that important.

[Hank]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

But it's cool. It's cool to say the crowd. Yeah. It was a good weekend of hoops. Fucking wall to wall. I had fun until I didn't anything else and I to say. Oh, NIT suit. Do we. Do you have the NIT bracket?

[Hank]

Yeah, I got the NIT bracket right now.

[Big Cat]

Give it to us.

[Hank]

All right. SMU against Northern Iowa. SMU the one seed. Oklahoma State at Wichita or against Wichita. Witchita State. Arkansas State against St. Louis. North Texas against Furman. Dayton.

[Oldie]

Furman in that.

[Hank]

Dayton.

[Max]

The NIT is taking a hit this year.

[Hank]

Dayton against fau. Middle Tennessee against Chattanooga. Bradley against North Alabama. George Mason against Samford. I love George Mason's big band. He was fun to watch.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

San Francisco against Utah Valley. San Jose State against Loyola Chicago. Sister Jean.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. One last ride.

[Hank]

St. Bonnie's against Kent State. And then Stanford against CSUN.

[Big Cat]

Cal State, Northridge.

[Oldie]

So no Indiana. Do they just deny the bid?

[Big Cat]

They might be in the crown.

[Max]

No, they're in the crown, dude.

[Big Cat]

You gotta understand how. Wait, wait. Crown is you don't get the crown.

[Hank]

I left off one leg of the bracket. Then we have UC Irvine, Northern Colorado, Georgia Tech against Jacksonville State. St. Joseph's against UAB. Santa Clara against UC Riverside. The NIT.

[Big Cat]

It's going to be about the crown. So wait, who's the biggest Power 5 team in the in the NIT this year?

[Hank]

I respect Georgia Tech. Respect.

[Max]

It looks like the ACC is the only crown.

[Big Cat]

Georgia Tech, Stanford, Stanford, smu.

[Hank]

Smu, Oklahoma State.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Max]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

Damn.

[Hank]

And then Hank's Furman.

[Big Cat]

You like Furman? All the way.

[Oldie]

From a lot.

[Big Cat]

Where are they?

[Hank]

All the way Furman.

[Oldie]

What's the Furman? Boilers.

[Hank]

Boilers. All right. Like boilers. Like a chef. Someone who boils something or boilers like an engine.

[Oldie]

Like an engine.

[Hank]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

Hank, did you fill out a bracket?

[Oldie]

I did.

[Big Cat]

All right, give it to us.

[Oldie]

Well, I asked the question for a reason, although I didn't know about the injury. I have out of the South, Auburn coming out of the West. St. John's after beating Yukon.

[Big Cat]

Oh. In the Elite Eight.

[Oldie]

Yeah. So you have UConn over Florida and Maryland. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Wow.

[Oldie]

You got to beat the champs to be the champs that they had the championship.

[Big Cat]

Florida beats the champs. What if Oklahoma beats the champs?

[Oldie]

I don't think they're going to.

[Big Cat]

I think.

[Oldie]

I think this team has coached well. They have championship DNA. They know what it takes to get it done at this time of the year.

[Hank]

Rick Pitino, he has championship DNA.

[Big Cat]

Sure.

[Oldie]

That's why he's going to be.

[Hank]

It's been tested.

[Oldie]

And then I have Houston beating Tennessee to advance out of the Midwest.

[Hank]

I love that when you talk college basketball, you say it the correct Houston way.

[Oldie]

Houston, Auburn. I like Kentucky. Tennessee. Matchup before that. That'll be a fun one. High point. They have the. The kid. He's going to be the story.

[Hank]

The exciting white.

[Oldie]

Yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

Oh, who mean mugged. Yeah, yeah, Big time.

[Oldie]

And then in this bracket, I guess I wasn't thinking about storylines, but I have Bama beating Wisconsin and then Duke on the way to the final four.

[Big Cat]

So Bama's gonna be in the final.

[Oldie]

Four and they're going to beat Auburn.

[Big Cat]

So you have Bama winning it all and Max having to take a bus and me having to go to the pump party.

[Oldie]

Yeah, I wasn't really thinking about any of that when I filled this bracket out. This is just how it kind of shook out.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Got it. Well, that would suck, right, Max?

[Max]

I'm still doing research on the crown.

[Big Cat]

What do you. What do you find?

[Hank]

You might not even be in the crown.

[Big Cat]

What do you got for us?

[Max]

No, we're definitely in the crown. I think we have an auto bid to the crown.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the crown is in conjunction with the TV network, so they basically force teams to go to the crown. Got it.

[Hank]

You can't say no.

[Max]

Yeah, I did ask some Villanova people because I've been trying to get on. Get on the. I'm trying to get in the know of who our next coach is going to be. I'm like, can we opt out of the next tournament to just focus on coaching? And apparently you're not allowed to opt out of the crown.

[Hank]

That sucks. You can opt out of the nit.

[Max]

You can opt out of the nt. You're not allowed to opt out of the ground.

[Hank]

You just got to wait for Vandy to lose, then you get your next.

[Max]

Yeah, he's on the list.

[Hank]

Who else is on your list? Jay Wright.

[Max]

I can give you my list.

[Hank]

Richard Pitino.

[Max]

I can give you my list. Richard Pitino is on my list.

[Hank]

Italian league.

[Max]

My list is TJ Odson.

[Hank]

What's his name?

[Max]

Todd Golden, Will Wade, Tommy Lloyd, Ben McCollum, Ryan Odom, Chris Collins, Mitch Henderson, Richard Pitino, Matt Lengle, Porter Moser.

[Big Cat]

Wait, wait. Hold on. Go back real quick. Todd golden is the Florida head coach on my list, who's one seed and has probably an insane nil and coaches in the sec.

[Max]

On my list.

[Big Cat]

He's going to go to Villanova.

[Max]

He's on my list.

[Hank]

Is Villanova. Are they in Jesuit school?

[Big Cat]

What?

[Max]

I don't know. He's on my list.

[Hank]

I don't. You think he's Villanova material?

[Big Cat]

He's on your list?

[Max]

He's on my list.

[Big Cat]

John Shire. Yep. He's on your list.

[PFT Commenter]

Sure.

[Max]

He can be on my list.

[Hank]

I do like Will Wade, though. Let's get Will Wade a proper program to run now.

[Max]

Father Peter would love Will Wade and Todd Golden.

[Big Cat]

What about Chris Beard list? He's on the list. List.

[Max]

You're all on the list.

[Big Cat]

They're all on the list.

[Max]

They're all on the list.

[Big Cat]

Vilna was the number one job in.

[Hank]

America, arguably championship DNA.

[Big Cat]

What about Jay Wright?

[Max]

Jay Wright owns the list.

[Big Cat]

Oh, he runs the list.

[Max]

He runs the list.

[Big Cat]

What do you think they'd have to offer Jay Wright to come back?

[Max]

I think they have offered him unlimited money. So I think that there is not a number.

[Hank]

Got it. What would you personally do to get Jay Wright as the coach?

[Max]

Well, what would you want? I would do.

[Hank]

I just want to know where your line is.

[Max]

Yeah, my line is high. My line. I miss J. Wright.

[Big Cat]

Would you suck and.

[Max]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Hank]

Would you. Would you quit?

[Max]

Would I quit this show?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I wouldn't let you.

[Max]

I think about it.

[Hank]

Well, you should say yes, because we. We just say no. You're not allowed to. Okay. Would you kill memes?

[Big Cat]

Easy.

[Max]

That's easier than quitting the show.

[Big Cat]

I would help you with that.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

He's a byu.

[Max]

He's a BYU lever.

[Hank]

Don't say that. Please don't say that.

[Max]

He's just been, like, cackling to himself back here with the mic soft. Just saying BYU lever over and over again so bad.

[Hank]

I wish. I wish they had given BYU a Sunday game. Just be like, let's put our chips on the table here.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I was saying it would be funny if. If there was a year where BYU makes a tournament, but they're not very good. And the committee's just like, yeah, we're giving you Friday. Sunday. You're not going to win. Don't worry. It's not a big deal. Okay, let's do who's Back of the week. And then we will get to more bracket talk with John Rothstein, who's back of the week is brought to you by our friends at Truly Truly Unruly. Guess what, guys? We're about to get unruly this summer. Truly Hard Seltzer is the first high abv Hard seltzer that actually tastes good. Truly Unruly is a hard seltzer that breaks all the rules. Drinks light, parties hard with 8% ABV, it hits hard but still tastes amazing. It's the official hard seltzer. Pardon my take. Find Truly Unruly at a store near you or visit www.trulyhardselter.com. go right now. Truly Unruly. It's about to be warm. We did have a little snow this morning.

[Hank]

That was crazy.

[Big Cat]

That stunk.

[Hank]

It was like 68 degrees on Friday.

[Big Cat]

It was 75.

[Hank]

Then it snowed.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. But guess what? We're gonna get unruly this summer. And it's right around the corner. Truly Unruly. Go check it out. With 8% ABV, it hits harbor. Still tastes amazing. Official Hard Seltzer. Pardon my take. Find Truly and really at a store near you. Visit trulyhardseltzer.com all right, Hank, who's back of the week? You got it in you?

[Oldie]

Yeah, I got a couple.

[Big Cat]

Let's go.

[Oldie]

My first one is playoffs.

[Hank]

Playoffs.

[Oldie]

Playoffs. We talk about it a lot. I mean, it's obviously a week early, but there was a lot of college basketball similar to the tournament and having something to wean you off on Monday. And the golf gods, the weather gods have granted us that. There's a three hole aggregate playoff for the Players Championship tomorrow morning, 9am Eastern. So that will be a nice, nice thing to wake up to.

[Hank]

Nice way to get your way into the week.

[Oldie]

Rory McElroy, J.J. spawn.

[Big Cat]

Who's going to win?

[Oldie]

I hope. J.J. why? I just. Rory, it's a fun storyline of him just, you know, kind of getting so close and choking.

[Hank]

But Rory, on St. Patrick's Day, I feel like that's, that's good vibes for him, right?

[Big Cat]

Isn't he?

[Hank]

Northern Ireland also celebrates.

[Big Cat]

They do.

[Hank]

I looked it up. Yeah, it's not as big a deal. I don't think. It's like they're Protestant up there. It's St. Patrick's Day. That's a Catholic thing. I just feel like if it's a guy from a part of Ireland against a guy not from a part of Ireland that leans towards the, the Irish.

[Oldie]

Guy, then my other.

[Big Cat]

Wait, do you not like Rory. Now you've come around on our t. On our discussion.

[Oldie]

I'm a live guy. This is where it's like, I haven't told that I've come around.

[Big Cat]

You see the live performer?

[Oldie]

Yeah. She was great.

[Big Cat]

She was awesome.

[Hank]

What if Liv just decided to get into the college basketball playoff scene?

[Big Cat]

Probably's gonna happen. You're probably gonna be with the crown. The crown.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

It's kind of what it is, right? Crown prince.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

And then my other who's back of the week is, hey, it's Hank's hot in the street. And this is definitely a sign of. I'm really old. But have you guys seen Borks?

[Hank]

Nope.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah.

[Hank]

Oh, you talk about the jugs.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

Yes.

[Hank]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

So it's big in Madison. I think you see everyone drinking borks out on the lake.

[Hank]

I think it's Borg, isn't it? B O R G. Borg.

[Oldie]

Sorry. Ye. Blackout Rage gallon.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

And it's basically just pouring. It's jungle juice, a ton of vodka into a gallon jug, some water, and then just the, like, liquid. Drops.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

Drops.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

Foul.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

But you not have that at, like, parties.

[Oldie]

Not. No, not in the way. Not in a way ever.

[Big Cat]

Clear. I've seen in the. In. We'd put it in, like, an actual Gatorade container.

[Oldie]

It wasn't as. It's not as common. It seems like it's a super, super common thing where, like, they're, you know, in the streets of Boston, streets of Chicago, there's just all the confiscated Borg gallon. Borgs. People name them and stuff.

[Big Cat]

James.

[Hank]

What it is, it's just like a personal thing that you bring around.

[Big Cat]

It's just. It just get blacked out.

[Hank]

Yeah. It used to be just jungle juice in that cooler at the party.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

And then you have some of that. You never have to worry about cleaning out the cooler because you just make more jungle juice and it goes in there. But now. Yeah. You've got your own Borg that you carry around.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Oldie]

No cut. Like, it's just.

[Big Cat]

It's.

[Memes]

It's.

[Oldie]

It's so ratchet. I assume it's a half handle of vodka and some.

[Big Cat]

I. I assume it's also like. It's a lot of underage drinking, I would assume. Yeah. Big. Oh, look at all those Borgs. Confiscated. Yeah. I. I'll. It's one of those things that I saw it and I immediately said that would make me want to die. But if I. I were 20 years old, I'd be heavy into the Borgs. Definitely. All Right. So those are two who's backs.

[Memes]

Those are.

[Oldie]

Those are it.

[Hank]

All right, Hank. Hank took one of my who's backs. Borg. Yeah.

[Oldie]

Brought to. Sorry.

[Hank]

We should. Borg.

[Oldie]

Yeah. It. It definitely made me. It seems like a case race thing, but a Borg race.

[Hank]

No, I just think.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Chairman of the Borg.

[Big Cat]

Like that.

[Hank]

My who's back of the week is Karen Reed. You guys remember Karen Reed?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

So her trial is gonna resume.

[Big Cat]

Starting.

[Hank]

I think it's going to restart. Hank, you probably know more about it than I do. Karen Reed, is it? They're restarting her trial.

[Oldie]

Yeah.

[Hank]

So I thought what would happen? Why did it get stopped last time?

[Big Cat]

No, I think it was.

[Oldie]

They didn't come to a decision or whatever.

[Big Cat]

Is that hung jury? No. What's hung jury?

[Oldie]

Split jury.

[Hank]

Hung jury. When you're all just packing heat.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I think that's it. Too many.

[Hank]

There was a lot of meat on the jury.

[Big Cat]

No, it was. Yeah, there was.

[Hank]

It's not unanimous.

[Big Cat]

It was unanimous.

[Hank]

Not unanimous.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Hank]

Another murder news trial. There's a new OJ Simpson documentary which I watched as well. Which doesn't. I will watch every single OJ documentary that they put out. I will learn nothing new. Every single one that I watch because I've already seen 20 of them. But I'm going to watch it if it's out.

[Big Cat]

I have a question for you. Pft. If we're in the circle of trust.

[Hank]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

I actually almost made a purchase for you the other night, but then I realized, you know what? This is probably too messed up.

[Hank]

I should have died.

[Big Cat]

I don't know if it's still live. There was an auction selling off O.J. simpson's clothes.

[Hank]

What kind of clothes?

[Big Cat]

Like Hawaiian shirts.

[Hank]

Oh, not the clothes.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Hank]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

But like just his entire closet.

[Hank]

Listen, I don't like OJ. I've been very clear on that. OJ's been on my shit list for a long time, ever since he blocked me on Twitter dot com.

[Big Cat]

So you're saying. So maybe I shouldn't. I should have bought it. But maybe the up part is that I saw it and immediately thought you thought of me. Yeah.

[Hank]

I want people to look at OJ and their first thought to be pft.

[Big Cat]

I know exactly who'd want this shirt.

[Oldie]

Remember we almost interviewed him outside of jail?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Well, no, it wasn't outside of jail. The deal was there was a. An alcohol brand. I won't say their name, that was asking us to pick him up from jail in a van and do an interview in the van on the ride Home from the jail in Las Vegas, Nevada. Like, his first interview out was gonna be with us, and we're like, you know what? He's. He's a murderer. So we're gonna pass. Let me credit to us.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Integrity.

[Big Cat]

Integrity also. It would have just been a terrible interview, and he.

[Hank]

He probably would have tried to kill us.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it would have. It would have been a bad one. All right, here's the. Here's the auction site. Let me see if there's still. Okay, you could get where. Oh, oh, it's Heisman's $10,000.

[Hank]

That's it?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I mean, I think it's an auction, so there's still time to go. 13 days to go.

[Hank]

That's.

[Big Cat]

Buying his Heisman would be pretty sick.

[Hank]

That is a steal.

[Big Cat]

That would be pretty fucking sick.

[Hank]

You want to do it?

[Big Cat]

Well, let's see. Let's. Someone. Someone please keep a counter. 12 days from now. Let us know. Pretty much depends on how I do in March Madness.

[Hank]

Hank, can you do that?

[Big Cat]

Can you actually do it? Unlike the Bonkless, which you didn't do.

[Oldie]

Bonkless is hot and heavy.

[Big Cat]

Oh, he's got golf bags. That'd be sick now that you having OJ's golf bags.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Would be pretty sick.

[Hank]

Yeah, I'm in on that.

[Big Cat]

All right. Yeah, let's. Let's get. There's 13 days left in the auction.

[Oldie]

So we'll have to revisit March 26th.

[Big Cat]

Dude, you do the mats. You got the calendar in front of you.

[Hank]

What website is the OG auction on? Is it on? Enter. Slash, slash, slash, slash. Escape.

[Big Cat]

No, it's actually the guy Golden Auctions we had in. Yeah. Oh, I got it. I got the joke. That's an old school one.

[Hank]

Old school. Throwback slashes.

[Big Cat]

What? Max, I don't get.

[Max]

I didn't get it.

[Big Cat]

Slash, slash.

[Hank]

His email address is Enter slash, slash, slash. Backslash escape.

[Big Cat]

The PFT literally just dropped like. It was actually. I remember. I think I even remember my dad saying that joke in, like, 1996.

[PFT Commenter]

I still.

[Max]

I still don't get it.

[Big Cat]

Slash like a knife. Oh.

[Hank]

Enter, slash, slash, slash. Backslash escape.

[Max]

Got it, got it, got it.

[Big Cat]

And it was. It was like one of the premier dad jokes when the Internet came along, and they're like, how can we make the OJ Internet? It was a big one back in.

[Hank]

The day because it, like, the Internet was new too.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

So it's like combining two very current things. Jay Leno got paid probably $40 million.

[Big Cat]

Just for those jokes that Monica Lewinsky oh, he's got his, his student id. That's a revel. Ravel's got to be all over this.

[Hank]

Yeah, that's the problem is like if we get some, we just have to understand that Ravel is going to have his paws on one of these things.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah. Also it's kind of fucked up to just be like, I have OJ's golf bag. But also kind of a statement piece.

[Hank]

Ran for 2,000 yards in what, 14 games.

[Big Cat]

Peter King has him in the hall of Fame.

[Hank]

Yep.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right. My. Who's back of the week? I have two baseball's back. Cubs opening days, Tuesday morning in Japan against the Dodgers.

[Hank]

I hate that so much.

[Oldie]

Did you see the camera angle?

[Big Cat]

No. Show me the camera angle. I'm going to be live streaming with with Eddie Chief and White Sox Dave and Titus at 5, 10 in the morning.

[Hank]

So this camera angle, it looks like it's a video game.

[Big Cat]

Don't laugh at me, Hank.

[Oldie]

That's wild.

[Big Cat]

What I mean there it's first, first pitch of the Major League baseball season. Where's the camera angle? Look, I gotta send Matt. Actually, you know, I'm gonna defend Max on this one. Twitter search is so bad now you can't find anything.

[Max]

Max memes just tells me to look up stuff that we aren't talking about all the time.

[Oldie]

You listening yourself?

[Max]

I am, but he just keeps saying.

[Big Cat]

Look this up, look this up.

[Max]

He's like, look up the Hanshin Tigers.

[Big Cat]

Why would you say that?

[Max]

Because I guess they shut out the Cubs.

[Big Cat]

No, that was in association to what.

[Hank]

You'Re talking to Max.

[Big Cat]

Look up good.

[Hank]

Look up Dansby camera because there's a sick angle of Dan's B. Swanson Barcelona type Cubs.

[Max]

Oh wait, that was fake.

[Hank]

Was looks fake.

[Oldie]

It's scary.

[Hank]

This one.

[Oldie]

That was my point.

[Hank]

Yeah, that's definitely fake. Yeah, it's a video game.

[Max]

Yeah, that way. That's what this is what I saw. This is another camera.

[Hank]

So we all scroll past that and thought maybe it's real.

[PFT Commenter]

This is so.

[Hank]

It's very fake.

[Max]

This is, this is like MLB the show.

[Hank]

That's the show.

[Big Cat]

That's insanely fake.

[Hank]

Yeah, it's a show.

[Big Cat]

Did you think that was?

[Hank]

I scrolled past it very fast on my phone and I thought that's what he was talking about with the camera angle.

[Big Cat]

Got it.

[Oldie]

I, I think it's real.

[Hank]

No, that's.

[Max]

Look at, look to the left.

[Hank]

Look at the TV hang.

[Max]

Look to the left of you.

[Big Cat]

You think it's real, Hank, that is MLB the show.

[Hank]

That's so faking.

[Oldie]

It looks fake.

[Max]

Yeah, you just said it looks real.

[Oldie]

But it's so high tech.

[Big Cat]

I think.

[Oldie]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Max]

Hank, Hank, there's no way that you think this is.

[Oldie]

Why would. Barcelona Sports Main tweeted it that it was real?

[Hank]

Because they got.

[Max]

Look at it.

[Oldie]

I understand that. That's. That's why I brought the point up is because if this was real, it's scary how weird looks. And if it's not real, then I'm happy because society is.

[Hank]

All right, good. You're happy. By the way, I found a new.

[Oldie]

It was a talking point. I'm happy I brought it up. Yeah, we got to the bottom of it.

[Hank]

Maybe I found a new kind of guy online on Friday. It's very rare that you find a new guy, but there's been, like, a conspiracy out there for a while that sunscreen is actually what gives you cancer, not the rays from the sun.

[Big Cat]

Oh, this is good.

[Hank]

But that's. That's. That's been out there for a long time. Account tweeted it. What?

[Big Cat]

So it's real.

[Max]

All right, this person says, look at.

[Oldie]

The MLB actual tweet.

[Max]

Okay? This says it's actual footage from a different angle fed into AI, which then creates the highlight.

[Hank]

Okay, so it is fake.

[Max]

So it's like that really happened. But then they make this angle via AI. This is also my source is Rob J08 and it has 4 likes on Twitter. Also x.com the everything happens. It's all happening on it.

[Oldie]

MLB main account said we can't get over this ridiculous replay from the Tokyo Dome.

[Hank]

So what they're doing is they're taking real highlights and then they're making it look more like video games so that kids will watch the house.

[Big Cat]

This is hurting my brain.

[Hank]

That sucks.

[Oldie]

That's why I brought it up.

[Big Cat]

It's crazy.

[Hank]

It is a talking point.

[Big Cat]

Okay, my other who's back is.

[Hank]

But wait, wait. I didn't tell you about the new guy.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah.

[Hank]

So the. The sunscreen truth was they've been out there for a while. Then I found guys that think that actually this is a different sun. That. That we. We switched the sun out, like 40 years ago, and it's the new sun. It is worse, and it's worse for you. I have so many questions, though. One, where did we make the new sun? What did we do with the old sun? What year did we switch it out? Oh, and how is that person able to get through life without dying every single day? Getting hit by a car.

[Big Cat]

This is good.

[Hank]

So I gotta. I gotta do some more research on the new sun, guys.

[Big Cat]

Good conspiracy.

[Hank]

Yeah, it's very good.

[Big Cat]

I had one the other day that actually, I completely believe that Chernobyl was on purpose.

[Hank]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

For what reason?

[Big Cat]

Everyone was doing nuclear power plants, and Russia has a shitload of oil and gas, and so they're like, hey, let's blow up a nuclear power plant. Plant. And scare the fuck out of everyone about nuclear energy. Oh, I like, everyone stop doing nuclear energy. Or inside job.

[Hank]

Maybe we sabotaged it to fuck with.

[Big Cat]

Russia, but that wouldn't make sense for us because then we have to buy their gas.

[Hank]

Yeah, that's true.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but that's just. I like that one. That one was just cut and dry. I just saw one tweet and I was like, yep, I'm in. All right. My other. Who's back is Aaron Rodgers playing games because Aaron Rodgers is apparently the Giants and the Steelers are sitting and waiting for Aaron Rodgers to decide if he wants to be a Minnesota Viking. And I don't know if the Vikings are also. I don't know what the Vikings are. If they're waiting for Aaron Rodgers or they're like, hey, we haven't offered you anything.

[Hank]

I think the Vikings want him. I don't think that the Vikings love jj.

[Big Cat]

Why wouldn't they love jj?

[Hank]

I don't know, but it seem. It seems weird that they're waiting for Aaron Rodgers to make his decision if they were really that convinced that JJ was their guy. Right.

[Big Cat]

I, I, I read it as the Vikings that. Yeah, I get. I don't know. I don't know what's gonna end up happening. Oh, so it is a real highlight.

[Max]

It's. It's a real highlight with AI it's like the footage is AI.

[Hank]

No, it's. It's a real highlight that they were like, if this looked like video games, then kids would like watching it. So let's just turn the real highlight into a video game.

[Oldie]

Apologize.

[Max]

The angle is AI. The footage is real.

[Oldie]

What does that mean?

[Max]

Look at it. That is not. Like, look at the difference between the two video.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Where would be. There's no. There's no camera behind. Look at his.

[Max]

Look at his jersey. It's like, pick it.

[Big Cat]

There's no camera behind Dancing swans.

[Max]

It lags the jerk. Like, the middle of his torso lags.

[Oldie]

It could just be a super wide lens. Super long lens.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it could be a super long lens.

[Max]

Look at his belt. Look at his belt. When he does this little act.

[Oldie]

Well, there. It's a grainy video like the, the.

[Max]

Oh yeah, it's A.I.

[Big Cat]

It glitched, Hank. It glitched. Come on.

[Oldie]

That's the play on top.

[Hank]

It's the same, same play, but it's not. That's not a real camera that shot that.

[Big Cat]

Correct.

[Hank]

The big camera that's over top of everything. It sees all the movement and then it feeds it into a little processor and it's like here, the, the idiots like Hank out there will like this highlight more if it looks like we're playing the show well.

[Oldie]

And when mlb, the main account post this and it doesn't have the little AI tag or anything and it just says, I can't believe this replay. Why would I not believe that it's a real replay?

[Hank]

I'm very sad for the future of our society.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, well, this whole conversation is made us all dumber. Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the Vikings are going to do. I, I, they have a good offensive line. They made some good moves in free agency.

[Hank]

I feel like he'd be good on the Steelers.

[Big Cat]

Steelers would be funny.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Loves Mike Tomlin.

[Hank]

Let's make the Steelers happen.

[Big Cat]

Where do you want him to go? Memes. I would like the Giants because I.

[Hank]

Predicted that, but the Vikings for the Brett Favre storyline.

[Big Cat]

That's memes for you.

[Hank]

And that means the jets are going.

[Big Cat]

To the AFC championship.

[Hank]

Oh, okay. Got it.

[Big Cat]

Good point. Good point. Okay, let's. Hank is still looking at this highlight. Are you okay, Hank? Yeah.

[Oldie]

I'm trying to get some, some proof that it's not real, but you guys are just.

[Hank]

You got what? Nevermind.

[Big Cat]

Okay, let's get to John Rothstein. After John Rothstein, we say goodbye to oldie for now. He was, he was watching us all weekend. Then we do numbers with him. John Rothstein is brought to you by our friends at Experian Madness in March is good madness and credit is bad. To take control of your credit and finances, make sure you pick the Experian app. Experian could be your financial Cinderella with tons of free tools at your fingertips to help you take control of your financial life. The amount of free tools you get with Experian could fill a bracket with things like, I don't know, your free FICO score. You could boost your FICO score instantly free with Experian boost. Free credit monitoring with alerts to keep you in the know on changes to your profile. Free access to a marketplace, a credit card loan and auto insurance options. All matched to you. Freeze your credit file for free, helping protect you against identity theft. Make sure you're ready for your one shining moment with Experian. Go to the App Store and download the free Experian app now. Results will vary. C App for details, go to the App Store and download the free Experian app now. We're also brought to you by our friends at Proper 12. You've heard of the Irish Exit. You slide out the bar or the party without saying goodbye to anyone, slipping away quietly. This St. Patrick's Day, Proper 12 is celebrating a new trend, the Irish Entrance. The Irish Entrance is what happens when you show up and bring the energy with great vibes and a bottle of Proper no. 12 Irish whiskey. The party starts with the Irish Entrance and it simply wouldn't be a proper Irish entrance without Proper 12. The original rich and smooth Proper no. 12 Irish whiskey is delicious blend of golden grain and single malt, triple distilled and aged four years in bourbon barrels. Because anything else just wouldn't be proper. It's great straight on the rocks or in your favorite whiskey cocktail. Make your Irish entrance this St. Patrick's Day with proper number 12 Irish whiskey. Make your Irish entrance this St. Patrick's day with proper number 12 Irish whiskey. We love proper number 12. I saw Max was drinking some proper number 12 on Saturday. I think Hank was as well. Proper number 12 Irish whiskey. The absolute best. Okay, here he is, John Rothstein. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is John Rothstein. He is our good friend. You can see him on cbs. He's got a new podcast coming out with CBS which will be his exclusive podcast home moving forward. John, we got our bracket. What's your schedule this week? You got a probably crazy schedule. What's going on? Where are we going to see you crazy schedule?

[PFT Commenter]

I'm with you guys tonight, which is awesome. It's a tradition unlike any other. I'm going to fly out to Ohio in the morning. I'll be doing the first four games with Spiro Dietis and Jim Spinnarco on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think from the the big games in the first four, it's the best first four in the history of the first four with Carolina, San Diego State and Xavier against Texas and then we are going to go after we do Wednesday's broadcast up to Cleveland and we're going to do those games. So that's Michigan State against Bryant, New Mexico against Marquette. That's a great matchup between Donovan Dent and Cam Jones of 2 Great Guards and Then we're also going to do Alabama, Robert Morris and St. Mary's Vanderbilt. So pumped to be in the great state of Ohio here coming up this week.

[Hank]

So it's interesting you said that. I like the promo. It's maybe the best first four in the history, the long vaunted history of the first four. We got UNC in there. And John, just, just. But a couple days ago you were, you were passionately making your declaration that UNC would not be in the first four.

[PFT Commenter]

Yep.

[Hank]

What, what happened? What's going on with it? Because I know that you talked to Bubba Cunningham, the ad from, from unc. So what happened?

[PFT Commenter]

This is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I have seen in all my years covering college basketball. And when you think right now about what the criteria is to get teams into the NCAA Tournament, at the end of the day, what is always going to usurp everything is who did you play, where did you play them and did you win? North Carolina was 1 in 12 against Quad 1 opponents. That is just a fact of life. And then when you look at some of the teams that were left out of the bracket, the two that I'm looking at specifically is West Virginia and Indiana. And remember with North Carolina's resume, Carolina also had a Quad 3 defeat on its resume, which Indiana, who was left out of the tournament in favor of North Carolina, did not have. And if you're looking at big wins right now, North Carolina had one against the field. It had the win against UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic. Let's look at what Indiana had. And again, remember, the Hoosiers had no quad three and four losses. Indiana won a road game at Michigan State in East Lansing, who is a two seed right now. Okay. In the south region, which I've named the region of depth because of the depth that exists with the Spartans, Auburn, Texas A and M and other programs in that region. And Indiana also beat Purdue at home. I don't understand how Carolina can get in over Indiana if Indiana won a game at Michigan State and beat Purdue and doesn't have a quad three or four loss and Carolina does. But what about West Virginia? The miscarriage of justice continues. West Virginia went to Allen Fieldhouse and beat Kansas. West Virginia beat Iowa State at home, a three seed. And West Virginia on a neutral court beat Arizona State and beat Gonzaga. This is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I have seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball on the national level. Now, I will say this because North Carolina does not deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. That has no bearing on what the Tar Heels can do when they get into the NCAA Tournament. And I'll give you a perfect example. Fourteen years ago, I did not believe that VCU deserved to be into the NCAA Tournament. VCU then started in the first four and went all the way to the Final Four under Shaka Smart. And VCU in the regular season that year averaged 8.3, made three point shots a game, and then made 12 in the NCAA Tournament. So what Carolina does moving forward has no bearing on whether or not the Tar Heels deserve to be in the field. But my heart breaks for West Virginia, it breaks for Indiana, that North Carolina got this opportunity instead of them.

[Hank]

So you talked to Bubba Cunningham, the AD from unc. What was his exploit? What did he say? Was he just like, hey, wasn't my call? Did he try to defend it?

[PFT Commenter]

He was very, very clear that he was not involved in obviously what was going on in the room when North Carolina was brought up. But you guys know this as well as I do. It always helps to help out your friends. And when you're in a situation like this where the committee chair is from North Carolina, it's obviously going to influence the other committee members. Now, I understand he can leave the premises when a resume of the Tar Heels is going to be brought to the table, but I'm sorry, this again is the biggest miscarriage of justice that I have seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball at the national level. My heart breaks for Darren Devries in West Virginia. My heart breaks for Indiana and its fan base. But again, North Carolina is going to get an opportunity here in the first four to do some major things in this bracket if it can beat San Diego State coming up here on Tuesday night.

[Big Cat]

All right, so I agree with everything you said. It's crazy UNC got in. Relationships matter. Bubber Cunningham can leave the room. When he comes back in the room, those are the people he's been sitting with all weekend. That's. That has a effect. Whether you want to say it's subconscious, that's fine. But it has an effect. I also don't understand the there. It feels like this bracket is just littered with some weird decisions. Gonzaga is a top 10 team in Ken Palm. They're an eight seed and they. And they're going up against, what is it? Houston in the second round if they win their first round game? Auburn, who's the number one overall seed if Louisville wins their set first round game, Auburn has to play a road game in their second game as a number one overall seed, Michigan was the, was, was a five seed. I think they got mislead. You had VCU is, is probably not an 11 seed. Probably should have been higher than that. Like it's all over the map where it feels like they just pray and sprayed a lot of this stuff and it doesn't really make sense. You have Colorado State is a three and a half point favorite as a 12 seed over Memphis, the five seed.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it feels like in a lot of areas of the bracket we did not have a compass and there was no rhyme or reason in a lot of things that were going on. I thought for certain that Gonzaga would have been better than an 8 after it beat St. Mary's in Las Vegas last week in the WCC tournament. But I'm with you, Cat. I think there's a lot of different things that really stood out here. Another thing that stood out to me and I wasn't surprised about this. I felt with the way that the selection committee had treated the Mountain west last year by putting two teams into the first four in Dayton, that Boise State was vulnerable by not winning the automatic qualifier on Saturday. And that's what came to fruition. Xavier had a pristine resume in Quad three and four. And Xavier also, we have to remember, lost two games in December without Zach Freemantle in the lineup, who was a 177 guy at UConn in overtime and also by a basket at home against Marquette. As you guys know as well as I do, and we had heard this when we spoke to Bubba Cunningham, I believe, on Friday. Player availability matters in the NCAA Tournament when you're evaluating teams. If Xavier obviously is going to have Zach Freeman on the NCAA Tournament, which it will, it's going to be a much more formidable team. I think that is one of the biggest reasons why the Musketeers are going to hook up here with Texas in the first four on Wednesday. And you guys know I've been doing the first four now for a number of years. We have never had brands like this in the big games in the first four in terms of, you know, games on back to back nights. North Carolina and San Diego State have appeared in two of the last three national title games. Xavier. Xavier, and get this, UD arena is 47 miles away from the Cintas center where Xavier plays its home games. That's going to be obviously a Xavier home game. And Texas has a lottery pick in Trey Johnson and it's Texas.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So I think, you know, the brands in this first four in terms of the marquee games are Second to none. And I, and I've said this guys time and time again. You know, the three of us haven't really schmoozed about this. But I want to put it out there right now. You guys know how I feel about NCAA tournament expansion. I've said for a long time that Jeff Goldblum said in the lost world in 1997 that taking dinosaurs off this island was the worst idea in the history of long said history of bad ideas. Expanding the tournament will be worse than that. But I do think this, I think if you're good enough to get an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament, you deserve to partake in the Thursday and Friday of the first week. I think if we made that shift and moved all a cues to Thursday, Friday and then put the last eight at large teams in the first four, it would reward these programs again at the lower level and give them the NCAA tournament experience of Thursday, Friday and also spruce up the way we start the tournament with maybe four bigger games instead of two.

[Big Cat]

I like that.

[Hank]

I agree. I think we were talking about expanding the tournament. We said don't expand it. It's. It's great the way that it is. But if you were do it that way so you don't make the automatic qualifiers play play in games on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

[Big Cat]

I got a question for you, John, about the injury stuff. TJ Altzerberger announced after the bracket came out that Keyshawn Gilbert is out for Iowa State. Does like was that that was just a smart move by him because do you think Iowa State would have had a different seed if that had been known to the committee going into selection, you know, Sunday? Because like they're Iowa State's playing in Milwaukee. Yeah. And like in Wisconsin has to go all the way out to Denver.

[PFT Commenter]

Right. You know, it's very possible that we could have flip flopped Iowa State and Wisconsin if that information was made privy to the committee before the selection went out. I remember it was 25 years ago now. Cincinnati had the best team in the country with Kenyon Martin in 2000 and Kenny Martin broke his leg in the Conference USA tournament that year. And Cincinnati, which had been dominant all year long, number one team consensus in the country was dropped to the two line and it was ridiculous and Bob Huggins said it at the time, but they were evaluating Cincinnati without Kenyon Martin, who wound up being the number one player in the NBA draft. So I totally agree with you on that, Cat.

[Big Cat]

Okay, so let's get to the actual bracket. We got some other questions that we'll ask you after, but let's talk about the bracket. I know you always break it down, so I kind of will let you go whichever direction you want to go. Tell us what you've got and, yeah, go, go off. We'll, we'll. We'll jump in where we want to jump in. But this is, this is our favorite part of Selection Sunday.

[PFT Commenter]

All right, guys, well, let's start right now in the top left of your bracket, which is the region of depth, the south region. Now, why is it the region of depth? I'm looking right now at these teams at the top. Auburn, Michigan State, Texas A and M. Really deep rotations on all of these teams. All of these teams can really go into their bench. That's why I like it to be the region of depth. I obviously got Auburn coming out of the top. I am going to take Creighton to beat Louisville at Rupp Arena. The Ryan Kalkbrenner factor. He's kind of like, I haven't really watched a hockey game in probably 30 years, but wasn't Martin Brode or that famous goalie for the Devils in, like, the 90s? Yeah, he's kind of like the Martin Brodeur of, like, you know, the Big East. You know, he's kind of like the goalie because he's so good defensively. Then I am going to take Michigan to beat UC San Diego, who's going to be a trendy upset pick. And here's an upset. I'm going to take Yale under James Jones, a program that beat Auburn last year, to pick off Texas A and m at a 134 game in Denver. Remember, Yale beat Auburn last year, beat Baylor in 2016. And then I think when you look at the next part of the bracket in this region of depth, this is tailor made for Ole Miss. This is tailor made for Chris Beard to really, really go on a run right here. I felt all season long that Ole Miss reminded me of some of the teams that Chris Beard had at Texas Tech. I've got Ole Miss beating the winner of San Diego State, Carolina, and then beating a vulnerable Iowa State team without Keyshawn Gilbert, Ole Miss to the sweet 16. I'm going to take Marquette to beat New Mexico and Michigan State to beat Marquette. So in the Sweet 16 year, I'm going to give you Auburn against Michigan. And I've got Ole Miss against Michigan State. I've got Auburn against then Michigan State in a regional final. Atlanta. And I've got Tom Izzo getting back to the Final Four.

[Big Cat]

Oh, I like It.

[Hank]

Yeah, I like that a lot, too. So you, you think that Yale's coach is the most underrated coach in America, right?

[PFT Commenter]

I think he's the most underrated coach in America. It amazes me that James Jones has not gotten a bigger job. He has won the Ivy League multiple times in the last couple years, as I mentioned. Won a game against Auburn last year in the NCAA tournament, won a game against Baylor in 2016. But I think, you know, we could see this, you know, Yale team be a factor. But guys, here's the interesting thing. When you look at the amazing job that Yale has done, only lost one game this year, you know, in the Ivy League, when you think about Yale and you think about the dynamic right now for this team that again is going into the NCAA tournament as a trendy, trendy upset pick, potentially, Yale is in a scenario, okay, where it lost Danny Wolf to Michigan and it lost Matt Nolling to usc. And it is still in the scenario that it's in right now where it made the NCAA Tournament. That is a credit to the head coach. A couple of names you want to keep your eye out for for Yale right now as you're getting ready to think about the NCAA Tournament against Texas A and M. Nick Townsend, obviously a very, very burly forward inside. He's going to have to hold his own on the glass. And then John Pulikitis, a dynamite, dynamite lefty shooter, can come off screens. He had 25 against Cornell in the title game. And also Bez M. Bang along with Casey Simmons. Cat, you might remember, from the Big Ten, started his career at Northwestern before he transferred to New Haven.

[Hank]

Okay, and then you got Tom Izzo over Bruce Pearl to get to the Final Four there. What's, what's your thought about Auburn right now? Because they were dominant all year long and then at the end they kind of stumbled a little bit. You could write that off. Some people were like, yeah, it's the tournament. Doesn't really count. Conference tournaments, not a big deal.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, no, I think pft, what it does is it reiterates to me that we don't have a dominant team this year in college basketball. And what I mean by that is, you know, last year UConn was so removed from the pack because it was a two year run that we may never see again in our lifetimes in terms of the level of dominance. 12 NCAA tournament wins by an average of 21.7 points per game. But we do not have a team this year like UConn. We do not have a figure this Year like Zach Edie at Purdue last year. The only player since Ralph Sampson in the, in the 1980s to win obviously national player of the year awards in back to back season. So I think Auburn's a little bit vulnerable right now. I do think it's a big advantage for the Tigers to be playing in Atlanta, which isn't that far from the Auburn campus, potentially in the Sweet 16. But if Louisville does beat Creighton in the first round, Auburn will have a pseudo road game there at Rupp arena, which is something to monitor.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Okay, let's go west where Florida's the 1 seed. Florida's playing probably the best ball of anyone right now. What they did in the SEC tournament was incredible. What are we calling the West?

[PFT Commenter]

This is the region of prestige because four coaches in this region, Dan Hurley, Rick Patino, John Calipari and Bill Self, have won national titles. Also Florida, the 1 seed in this region, has won multiple national titles in the last 20 years. So there's brand name power in this region. I got Florida over Norfolk state. I got UConn over Oklahoma. Both coaches in that game, Dan Hurley and Porter Mosher, have been in a situation where they've coached in the Final Four in the last decade. Dan Hurley's won two national titles. I'm taking Neat Clifford and Colorado State over Memphis. Maryland over Grand Canyon. Drake started from the bottom, now they're here. In my opinion, has has for all intents and purposes, an interesting road here. And I'm going to tell you why. You got Missouri and you got Ben McCollum who's really looking like, you know, a bit of a wizard at Drake. It wouldn't shock me if next year he's coaching somewhere in the Big Ten. He's got a 31 team with four D, two transfers. One of them, Mitch McCarry, has made 86 three point shots this year. If Drake beats Missouri, Drake gets a vulnerable Texas Tech team in the round of 32. Now why are they vulnerable? Grant McCaslin told me earlier on Sunday night that he expects Chance McMillan and Darian Williams to play in the first round against UNC Wilmington. But with that said, those players didn't play in Texas Tech's last Big 12 tournament game due to injuries. So Texas Tech's a little bit banged up. I think Drake is a team with Ben McCollum. If it can get by Missouri, that could maybe flirt with a chance to go to the sweet 16. And then how about the lower part of that region in Providence, Kansas and Arkansas? Calipari against Self Two coaches that coached against each other in the title game in 2012. And then St. John's takes on Omaha. Now, look, you guys understand media as well as anybody. I work for cbs. I know how much the program executives love to match up certain games on Saturday nights and going into 60 minutes. And look, whoever St. John's plays on Saturday night's going to be crazy. Can you imagine if we get Calipari and Pitino on Saturday night? And look, Cala Patino himself would be great. It would be an incredible matchup of hall of Fame coaches. But if it's Calipari and Pitino, it would become, again, appointment television. And it would be the third time that these guys have met in the NCAA tournament, I believe. Yeah. Since 2012. And remember, they also met in the 1996 Final Four. Now, I've talked to Rick Pitino about this, and I did an interview with him when he was at Iona, and he made a joke about it, but I think he was telling the truth. He said one of the reasons why he came back to college was to get John Gallipari off his resume. Because if you think about it, these coaches each took three different schools to a Final Four. So that's another thing that is lying here in the weeds right now. Rick Pitino is trying to get a fourth school to a Final Four, but he might have to go through John Calipari to do it. It's going to be Calipari herself, as long as St. John's gets by Omaha. So I have Florida, Yukon, Colorado State, Maryland, Drake, Texas Tech, and then I'm going to go Arkansas, St. John's I've got St. John's against Drake in the Sweet 16. And I've got Florida against Maryland in the region of prestige, I'm going Florida over St. John's in a regional final. So on the left side of the bracket, I've got Michigan State against Florida. And ironically enough, you know, I love good Nuggets, guys. That would be a rematch of the 2000 national title game that Michigan State won. 89, 76 in Indianapolis.

[Big Cat]

There we go.

[Hank]

All right.

[Big Cat]

That's good. That's some good stuff.

[Hank]

Okay, we'll get back to John in a second. He's brought to you by Morgan and Morgan. There's a reason why coffee is the first thing that people reach for in the morning, just like there's a reason why Morgan. And Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. For over 35 years, Morgan and Morgan has been fighting for the people, just like you. And I they have over 100 offices and more than a thousand lawyers nationwide. When hiring Morgan and Morgan, it's like hiring an army that has your back. If you're injured by the negligence of another, you deserve to be paid. When you hire the wrong law firm, you may be beat before you start. All law firms are not the same. If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to forththepeople.com pmt or dial pound law pound 529 from your cell phone. That's f the people.com pmt or pound 529 from your cell. And now here's more. John Rothstein.

[Big Cat]

What about in the east where we have Duke, who Duke is? I said it before you came on. I think Duke's winning the whole thing. I, they're just, they're, they're so good. And even without Cooper Flag in the ACC tournament, they showed how good they are. I think he's going to be fine. He'll come back and they're going to roll through everyone.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, you know, guys, it's amazing and I think it speaks obviously how talented Duke is, but it also speaks to the state of the ACC right now. Duke was able to win the ACC tournament and be Carolina and Louisville in back to back days without Cooper Flag and also without Malik Brown, who, you know, Duke staff feels this way and I know from being, you know, on Duke's campus in the preseason, he's like emil Jefferson was 10 years ago. Not to bring up bad memories there, Cat, but I mean, you, you know what I'm saying in terms of a versatile defender, that can be a factor defensively in that rotation. Those two players don't play. And all of a sudden we have a scenario where Duke is still beating Louisville, who is the second best team this year other than Clemson in the ACC and North Carolina. That is not obviously a great, obviously ringing endorsement for the acc, but for Duke, it speaks to their talent level. I've got Duke playing Mississippi State. I've got Oregon, Arizona, which to me could be one of the best games in the round of 32. These former PAC12 rivals hooking up. Then I'm going to take VCU to beat BYU to hook up with Wisconsin, the most aesthetically pleasing Wisconsin team of our lifetime.

[Big Cat]

Thank you.

[PFT Commenter]

And then I'm going to be in Cleveland for these games. So I'm pumped about this. I'm taking Saint Mary's to be Vanderbilt. I'm taking Alabama to beat Robert Morris I've got Duke, Oregon, Wisconsin to the Sweet 16 to take on Alabama. And then I am going to take in a rematch of the 2015 national title game, Duke over Wisconsin in Newark to go to the Final Four. That's the region of firepower because Duke, Alabama, Wisconsin, Arizona, Oregon, obviously explosive teams offensively. So much offense in that region.

[Hank]

You got VCU over byu. It sounds like you're not a BYU lever.

[PFT Commenter]

I am not.

[Hank]

I did. I just came up with that.

[Big Cat]

If you want to use. Yeah, use that one.

[PFT Commenter]

I like. I like byu. I think Kevin Young's done an incredible job and I think they got great pieces. But look, it's not fun if you don't roll the dice places in your bracket. The NCAA tournament isn't fun. So I'm looking right now at the BYU VCU matchup. And I know that, you know, we have seen a scenario where BYU has, you know, played great basketball the last couple weeks and wouldn't shock me if BYU wins a couple games. But I'm looking at this. VCU is no. 11 seed. And if there was one thing that I would say right now, the non power conference teams in this bracket in a lot of places won their respective conference tournaments after having a high volume of wins during the regular season. VCU with Max Shulga, Zeb Jackson, Joe Bama, Seal, all these guys, okay. Philip Russell as well, has the deepest perimeter in the Atlantic 10 since Dan Hurley's last team at Rhode island had Fats Russell, Jeff Doughton, Stan Robinson, J.T. terrell, E.C. matthews and Jarvis Garrett. That team, you have to remember, beat Trae Young in Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament and lost to Marvin Bagley and Duke in 2018. This VCU team is for real. And also another player on VCU, Jack Clark was a part of the Clemson team last year that went to the Elite Eight and lost to Alabama. VCU is the best VCU team since we saw Briante Weber and company lose to Stephen F. Austin in 2014.

[Hank]

John, when you're, when you're rattling off all these names from old teams, do you ever just think about making up a name and tossing it in there, see if you get called on it? I would do that if I were you.

[PFT Commenter]

It's an interesting proposition. It never crossed my mind. I just go to the internal hard drive and I just keep it moving.

[Hank]

Just like if you're thinking of an A10 team from 2006. 6. Just toss in the name. I don't know, like Tommy Spanati.

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah, great.

[Hank]

Three point, like all time. Three Point guy. Not much off the dribble, but catch and shoot all day long.

[PFT Commenter]

You know me, though. Pft. And you're America's drinking buddy for a reason. I pride myself on being as accurate and as thorough as possible. So I feel like I'd be short changing the beat if I did that.

[Hank]

That is true.

[Big Cat]

That's fair.

[Hank]

I. I have a question for you because you are plugged in, John. Yeah. And that's not a robot comment.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

You're plugged in. You talk to a lot of people. People. Grant Nelson from Alabama.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah.

[Hank]

What are we hearing about him? Because I think Alabama's a good team. You know, I. I would still take them in the first two games without Grant Nelson, but after that it's probably going to be a problem. What are you hearing about his. It's his knee, right?

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah. I have an update for you. I had a bunch of injury updates earlier. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna just read you exactly what I tweeted and NATO, it's texted me this. Oh, in the early afternoon. But I want to give you guys the full reports. I have a couple of injury updates of substance since for the NCAA tournament. So you guys just let me know what you want.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

So Grant Nelson's gonna see a knee specialist on Monday to determine his status moving forward. He obviously suffered the injury, so that evaluation is going to happen on Monday. And then, you know, as I told you, like, Alabama plays Robert Morrison, Cleveland. That's one to monitor. Some other stuff from Sunday, and this is big for the first four. Brian Dutcher told me that Magoon Guaf, the Mountain west freshman and defensive player of the year, is going to be available for the NCAA Tournament. So in the first four Tuesday night, Magoon Guath will be available to play against North Carolina. He hasn't played since February 22nd. That's a big boost for San Diego State. Mark Pope also told me earlier on Sunday morning that Lamont Butler will be available for Kentucky's first NCAA Tournament game. He's been dealing with a shoulder and John Calipari has told me that a Deuce Thero is doubtful for the Kansas game due to the knee injury he has been dealing with. He hasn't played since Feb. 22. But Boogie Flander, we thought was out for the season, came back on Sunday to practice, went through practice, had no missteps. He should be fine. I was referencing the Missouri Drake game. According to a school spokesman, Mark Mitchell for Missouri is expected to be fully available for that basketball game against Drake in the round of 64. A note from Scott Drew Langston Love is expected to be available against Mississippi State in the East Region. He averages just over eight points per game. Another nugget for a number one seed. Kelvin Sampson told me that J1 Roberts, who did not play at the end of the Big 12 tournament due to an ankle injury. There's. They're obviously veteran leader is receiving treatment. He'll be reevaluated on Monday in terms of his status for the Cougars first game. Let's make. I just want to make sure I don't leave anything out there. But those are the bullet points as of now. Right fellas?

[Big Cat]

John, do you have every single head coach's number?

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Wow. Most powerful phone in East Coast.

[Hank]

Like every single one.

[PFT Commenter]

Every. Every single one. I believe. I mean, I do. What I do is I kind of like when I get back from the Final Four. Like you use April to detox a little bit and then you just. You spend some time over the summer just making sure your Rolodex is on point and everything is on point and then you know, you just go, you know, just you. You make sure you're locked in.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

How often do you text these guys?

[PFT Commenter]

I would say probably. Let me think. I mean, I think it's.

[Big Cat]

It's pretty.

[PFT Commenter]

I have daily communication. So it's like I would say with every staff there's daily communication. It might just be for an injury update. It might be like what is the key to this game? On game days I like to follow up if a team because if I'm in the studio, I like to have obviously, you know, nuggets on what they think keys to the game are or trends to watch. Because when you're trying to cover everything you want to. I always try to, as somebody who's a non player coach, get the insight of the player of, you know, the teams that I'm covering from their perspective. So it's constant communication and in the offseason it's constant communication as well because there's thing to cover during the off season.

[Hank]

Yeah, I like that.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Because I mean I read the article in the New York Times. It was great. That said that the Rothstein text is an inside joke in the industry now. I feel like they're being disrespectful to you with that.

[PFT Commenter]

No, I mean, look, I mean you guys know me now for a number of years. I mean, I don't make any bones about this. You know, I did not have any connections in this injury in this industry. You know, I have no inheritance. So I don't have any other choice but to work as hard as I can each and every single day, to be as thorough as I can to do the best job I can. And I'm never going to relent on that. It's never going to happen. I'm never going to stop. The world meets nobody halfway. And you know that because you told me that you thought over the Top was an underrated movie by Stallone.

[Big Cat]

That is. That's facts. Yeah. No, you. You are. I, I love the article because I. There were some things I didn't even know, like that you basically bought time on a radio station that had no one listening to it just to get reps.

[PFT Commenter]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Really an awesome story of how to work your way up through the industry. And the other nugget I had from it was you get your haircut every Sunday.

[PFT Commenter]

Every Sunday? Yeah.

[Hank]

10Am that's appointment and out of season.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[PFT Commenter]

Just if. As long as I'm home. As long as I'm home. 10am every Sunday. Creature habit.

[Big Cat]

So what do you do when you're. When you're on the road?

[PFT Commenter]

On the road this week because I'm leaving Monday. And obviously I couldn't do it Selection Sunday. I got it Thursday. And I said, just go a little shorter on the sides because I'm not going to be back in New York till a. A week, you know, for a week from now because I'm going to Dayton and then we're going up to Cleveland. And those first and second round games are Friday, Sunday. But I want to tell you guys something, if I can backtrack a little bit, because I know you guys obviously started out with humble beginnings, too. That experience of selling airtime was the most humbling experience that I ever had in my life. Because at that time I was making like $13 an hour screening calls and doing reporting at ESPN Radio New York. I was cold calling for my friend's brother's mortgage company, like Glengarry Glen Ross. That was like, what I was living and just cold calling people out of the yellow pages. And I was like, making $50 an article, writing college basketball for different publications. So I knew, though, I needed, like a demo to try and have an opportunity. So I would, like, walk up and down Nourish shell, going into businesses, trying to buy airtime, and nobody would buy anything. And I remember talking to a guy in a car dealership, and this is like probably 20 years ago. And I said, well, you. If I do a weekly show, you know, will you buy some Airtime. And he goes, well, is Joe Torrey a weekly guest? And I didn't know who that was at the time. And then he was. And then he was like. He's like, well, if Joe Torres not a weekly guest, then I'm not doing it.

[Big Cat]

Oh, man.

[PFT Commenter]

It was that moment where I was just like, look, I'm not going to become anything in his business unless I have calluses, and I'm getting calluses right now. But that also brought me back to the over the top thing. You know, the world meets nobody halfway.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, no, it's very cool, and it's. It's a very cool story, and I think people should go read it because it gives kind of a backstory of like, hey, John Rothstein has. Has done it the hard way. You know, people don't. People need to respect that because it's very hard business to. To. To break into. And you weren't a coach, you weren't a player, and to get into it is. Is awesome.

[PFT Commenter]

Well, another thing, too. And you guys know I have a passion for this. But, you know, when in my 20s, when, like, people that I was close with in New York and friends like that were taking vacations and traveling, I went to AAU tournaments and networked, that's what I would do. Like, I would sit with Dan Hurley when he was at Wagner and, you know, build a relationship. I would sit with Bill Self. I drove once, I remember, to Virginia. There was this big tournament down there, Boo Williams. And I drove. It was like seven hours each way. And I just went. I, like, made business cards at Kinko's, and I just went and just networked and networked, Networked. And, you know, I feel like, you know, when that is your backbone every single day, you owe it to yourself, but most of all, you owe it to your bosses, who continue to give you these great assignments to give everybody the best you can every single day. Now, I do want to, because we're. I feel like we're close. Share something personal with you. Two things personal. But I switched recently. I was kind of pressured. I had a little crisis. And I don't know if you noticed this when we were texting earlier, but it was probably. I have. I've had dreams, and I will admit this to you guys publicly. I've had dreams because, like, of how much my life revolves around my phone, and I need it, like, the machine rolling. I've had dreams that I've been at a pool party and I jump and do, like, a cannonball, and my phone's on me, and it's like nightmares. And I wake up and I'm like, I didn't do that. So a couple of weeks ago. You guys know I've been a droid guy my entire life.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Like, there's like twice a year, there's like, there's like something that happens where there's like an iOS upgrade and droid people can't text iPhones, and like, it was giving me a Kanahara. I started the Schwitz. Like, I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't communicate with people, and communication is so important. So my wife, you know, we have a child now who's 18 months. 18 months old. She couldn't get in touch with me, and you start to flip out. So one day I just ripped the band aid off and now I'm team Blue Bubbles.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

I think to it. Yeah, I'm adjusting to it. So that I thought was a life altering experience. The day after I switched to an iPhone was either day or week after.

[Hank]

Yeah. And when they. The coaches talk about the Rothstein text, I bet they're happier to get the text.

[Big Cat]

Now.

[Hank]

That's a blue bubble.

[PFT Commenter]

That's what I'm saying. So. But then again, get this. This was another thing that happened. So I. And you guys, you guys know how sometimes, like, I'll tweet in the spring. It's like in April or May, like, I hate you pollen. Yeah, I've tweeted that in the past. Last year, I was having a bad deal with allergies. You know, I just said to myself, should I get allergy shots? And I went and investigated with my local allergist, and they said, you can do 32 rounds of shots and you should be 80 immune. And I was like, I don't want to get back from the final four when everything's over and have to deal with allergies. I'm sick of dealing with allergies. So there's 32 rounds of shots to be done with it. So I get through 30 rounds of shots. Okay, this is like maybe two weeks ago. I go for my 31st shot. I get it. I think, you know, you go to the gym, get your allergy shot, come home, do your podcast, whatever. I start having this weird reaction like I'm Jack Nicholson and something's got to give. I'm sitting on a stoop and I'm sweating. I go back into the doctor's office, I start throwing up. They give me two shots of an EpiPen to calm me down. And I just remember, like, my life was flashing in front of my eyes. But I said. I remember. I said to these people, I thought it was crazy. I said, if I'm going to go, I'm not going before March.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah. It's smart. You can't. You can't.

[PFT Commenter]

I can't. I said, if you. If you want to take me, take me on April 10th.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Don't take me now.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. We die in May, so.

[Hank]

So, yeah. Dust. Another victim claimed by Dusty May.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, Correct. Exactly. Exactly.

[Hank]

There was another part of the article that I loved, and it talks about your wife. And she said, when it gets to March, he will literally walk around our place and repeat, this is March. This is March. I'm like, I know it's March. Just say it in your head. How many times a day do you say this is March to yourself?

[PFT Commenter]

Probably 10 to 15. Especially when the TV's on and, like, you're just soaking everything in and you see close finishes, you see crazy upsets. I mean, it's a part of the fabric of college basketball. It's definitely a big part of my life. And the thing that's so humbling is like a takeaway I've gotten from that article. And some of a very prominent media reporter reached out to me. He's like, I'd like to do, you know, feature on your wife. She sounds a lot more interesting than you do. I was like, yeah, I guess you don't care about the path. Obviously, in the region of firepower, there's.

[Big Cat]

Making a sandwich and then there's crafting a sandwich.

[PFT Commenter]

And when I want something perfectly crafted.

[Big Cat]

I go straight to Boar's Head. For over a century, Boar's Head has been dedicated to crafting premium deli favorites. Every ingredient is carefully chosen, every recipe made with purpose. Their oven Gold Turkey, Smokemaster ham and ever roast chicken are made from premium whole cuts, hand trimmed and perfectly seasoned. Last weekend, I made the ultimate sandwich.

[PFT Commenter]

Oven Gold turkey, cheese, pickles and mustard.

[Big Cat]

Simple but unbelievable. So next time you're at deli, don't settle. Get the best. Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at.

[PFT Commenter]

Boar's Head dot com.

[Big Cat]

All right, all right. Back to. Back to the bracket. Midwest. That was great, John. Midwest. Last one.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay. This is the region of toughness.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[PFT Commenter]

Think about guys, the coaches in the scowling that is. That is involved in this region. Kelvin Sampson, Houston. Rick Barnes, Tennessee. Mick Cronin, ucla. Brad Underwood at Illinois. This is a dynamite region. I've got Houston, I've got Gonzaga beat in Georgia. I've got McNeese, coached by Will Wade, beating his alma mater, Clemson in the 12 5. Remember, Will Wade was a student manager at Clemson before he got into coaching. That's my 12 5. I got Purdue over High Point. I've got Illinois over the Texas Xavier winner. Kentucky, UCLA and Tennessee. Then we're going bottom. I got Houston against Purdue, and then I'm going to take Illinois against Tennessee in the sweet 16. And I'm going to take Illinois against Houston in the Elite Eight. And I got Houston going in the Final Four. So I got Houston against Duke. On one side, Houston comes out of the region of toughness. On the other side, I've got Michigan State and Florida. And I got Houston finally breaking through under Kelvin Sampson and winning the national championship. Kelvin Sampson, again, I've said it before. This is why Houston basketball's nickname is no Mercy. He reminds me a lot of the Sensei and Karate Kid, John Kreese, you know, it just, you know, Remember when he said, strike first, strike hard. No Mercy, sir. That's what Kelvin Sampson reminds me of. He's like the Sam. He's a much, you know, kinder man than, you know. Martin Cove was in the Karate Kid, but he has that same type of fierce kind of presence.

[Hank]

Does that guy win in Karate Kid?

[PFT Commenter]

He doesn't win. And if you remember at the start of Karate Kid, too, he'd be. His knuckles bleed because he punches them through a car when he gets in that fight with Mr. Miyagi.

[Hank]

Yeah, that guy rocks. So, yeah, you mentioned Will Wade. We were actually just talking about Will Wade earlier today. Will Wade, any chance, if you're Villanova, any chance you're picking up the phone, giving Will Wade a call?

[PFT Commenter]

I don't think Villanova is the school to give Will Wade a call. But I will say this. We have seen a number of big time coaches get second chances for off the court issues. And there's many programs that are coached by them now in this NCAA Tournament. And those programs are thriving.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Chris Bearded, Ole Miss. Rick Patino at St. John's Bruce Pearl at Auburn, Kelvin Sampson at Houston. The school that hires Will Wade is going to be the school that falls next in that line.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Think about this. Here's a couple things on Will Wade I was thinking about. I talked about it tonight on our show. Will Wade is the only coach in Shaka Smart to win an NCAA tournament game of ECU. Will Wade won the SEC regular season title at LSU. And Will Wade since he took the McNeese job in two years is 57 and 10. I know that things were very sloppy at LSU, but a lot of those things are legal right now.

[Hank]

Right.

[PFT Commenter]

So the school that hires them is going to be an upward trajectory, moving forward, and then I'm going to have to come up with a new tagline for him.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

I mean, all this stuff that he got in trouble for is stuff that is actually legal. And it's an advantage if your coach can do those things. Well, right now they also have, I think, the best student manager of anybody. Yeah, that guy.

[PFT Commenter]

Oh, he's a star.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[PFT Commenter]

Amir Khan is a star.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Hank]

So, yeah, good vibes from him. So you have Houston over Illinois. You had Illinois over Tennessee. Talk me through that one.

[PFT Commenter]

You know, I did on Thanksgiving Day, you know, CBS Sports had a. A thing. We have a Thanksgiving game game now after the NFL next year, it's going to be Arkansas and Duke in Chicago, which maybe you guys can go to. I don't know if you want to do it on Thanksgiving, but it's a big time game in Chicago.

[Big Cat]

It is.

[PFT Commenter]

So I did the game with Ian Eagle and Bill Raftery, you know, in Kansas City, and I ill. And I saw Illinois up close and when everything is equal on a neutral court. And Cat, I know you know this because you know the Big Ten so well. Illinois has Final Four talent. When things are clicking with Yakichonas, with Ivacic, there's obviously great role players and ancillary pieces around those guys with Boswell, Will Riley. I talked to Brad Underwood last week. He loves the way Will Riley has been playing, you know, the last couple of weeks. And this is the thing too. You got to like when you're looking at Illinois because of Ivercitch's ability to stretch things from the five spot, it's very difficult. And this is what killed Arkansas in that game on Thanksgiving. It's very difficult to play a traditional five man against them because they can extend the defense so much. With Ibisic, she reminds me a lot. This is a throwback comparison. He reminds me a lot of Rafe LaFrence.

[Hank]

Oh, I like that.

[PFT Commenter]

Kansas so much. Rafe LaFrentz and Thomas Love Iversich.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. No, Illinois is like I was saying when we were. We were talking about the bracket before you came on. I want to see Illinois, Kentucky, because those two teams, when they're, when they hit their ceiling, it's incredible basketball. They have had floors that we've seen as well. And it's been bad but both those teams have insane firepower. And I agree, Illinois, they're very volatile. But if it's good, it's great.

[PFT Commenter]

It's good. It's great. And you bring up a great point because a potential Illinois Kentucky game in the round of 32 would be like a regional final. But guys, I've always felt that the round of 32 is the most intriguing round of the NCAA tournament because you are going to get, in some cases, the dreamer having a chance to dream the dream for another week or you are going to get a massive showdown of powerful programs. Look, we could have in the region of toughness, you could have Houston, Gonzaga, Purdue, Clemson, Illinois, Kentucky or Texas or Xavier against Kentucky and then UCLA against Tennessee. If we saw any one of those matchups in an Elite Eight or a Final Four, probably take it.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, you're right. I mean, just the Houston Gonzaga one is crazy. That could be a second round matchup.

[Hank]

So can you give us some names of guys that, that we're going to want to get to know for March? Like guys that have the potential to take over this tournament and become household names?

[PFT Commenter]

How deep do you want to go? Do you want power conference names? Do you want me to get really in the weird in the weeds here?

[Hank]

Let's start out with, with just give me like two names per bracket that you should.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, let, let's go right up right now to the top left, the region of depth. Donovan Dental from New Mexico is one of the great point guards in college basketball. That is somebody you want to put on your radar for sure. Ole Miss has a couple of players. Sean Padula, a terrific veteran point guard who transferred from Virginia Tech. Also John Pulikitis, I told you, from Yale. We go down to the region of prestige right now. A couple of guys again who are off the radar. I'm trying to come up with Bennett Sturts at Drake, who's kind of the maestro for them. Also, neat Clifford from Colorado State, who has been part of this incredible surge by Colorado State. He has been elite playing like one of the top 15 or 20 players in the country over the last couple of weeks. I will also point out in the UConn Oklahoma game, Jeremiah Fears, the freshman point guard for Oklahoma, the brother of Michigan State's Jeremy Fears, is a name to watch. And then as we look right now in your top right, the region of firepower, I'm going to give you one for Mississippi State, Josh Hubbard, an electrifying yard. Plus Oregon, you've got Jackson Shelstad and Nate Biddle. Max Schulgood, VCU Richie Saunders at BYU at St. Mary's Augustus Marceloness is the least talked about back to back conference player of the year we may have in history. He's won the award in the WCC in back to back seasons. Ryan Nemhard we know from Gonzaga for Georgia a talented player, Asa Newell who's a good freshman. I'm trying to keep going down the Ryan Conwell at Xavier is like a poor man's Michael Redd. He will be in the first four Wednesday night in the Xavier Texas game. And then I'm going to say I mean ucla, I mean you can't, you don't really get in the weeds here too much. But I mean ucla, Eric Daly and Tyler Billido I would say are two or two names there.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Love it. All right. Well John, I got one last question for you. This has been awesome. We love having you on Roback question R H O b a c k.com promo code take roback.com promo code take q zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts roback.com promo code take again everyone tune in. John will be Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton. Then he's going up to Cleveland. We're going to see him on the broadcast. Can't wait for it. I saw you dropped a new rostinism and I had a question about it. The new one is Todd golden is to Florida basketball what Mark Zuckerberg was to Facebook in the Social Network. They both built monsters and, and Golden's looks like it can win the whole damn thing. You know, like Mark Zuckerberg's a real person. Social Network is his life.

[PFT Commenter]

Right. I know, I know that. But in terms of like Todd was always this guy and like I'll just, I talked about this with Bruce Pearl on our show tonight. When Bruce Pearl first got the Auburn job, you know, I went down to a practice and we went out to eat after and like Todd was this guy who wasn't even like an assistant coach on the staff but everybody looked at him as like this prodigy and he had this incredible mind for basketball and he had these unique ways to evaluate and he was always kind of ahead of things with the analytics and he used that, you know, he had that team at San Francisco a couple of years ago that went to the tournament and you know, gotten that large bid and now he's doing incredible things in Florida. And guys, I want to say this because Todd Golden, I had my top five for national coach of the year. And this is not to disparage him at all as a coach, but obviously he's still so young. If Billy Donovan was coaching this Florida team, with the way we're playing, Florida would be universally viewed as the favorite to win the national championship, and it wouldn't be close. But Todd knows he's got to prove it in the NCAA tournament. But Florida is ripping through college basketball right now like a chainsaw through butter.

[Hank]

But I think Big Cat's point still stands, though, which is Mark Zuckerberg is. He's a person.

[Big Cat]

He's a real person.

[Hank]

Not like outside of the movie. The movie was about Mark Zuckerberg, but you can just say Mark Zuckerberg. He's like, Mark Zuckerberg.

[PFT Commenter]

Okay, I appreciate the amendment, but you guys know, part of, like, what gives me balance is when I get through the Final Four and things are a little quieter, I love having, like, a Peroni and a bowl of Toralis and watching these old movies that I've watched 15 to 20 times, sometimes more. The Social Network is in that rotation.

[Big Cat]

Okay. Yeah, but he is a real person.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, he is a real person.

[Hank]

What about the Rothschild ism I suggested? I know that you don't take. You don't take submissions for Rothsteinisms, but Danny Hurley drinking piss. That's a good one right there.

[Big Cat]

That's a really good one.

[PFT Commenter]

I don't know, man. You said one a couple of years ago, like, for Wake Forest, like, Run Forest Run. Like, we had to kind of put that in the delete files. You think that's good?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

I mean, it fits in with your thing. It's like old movies.

[PFT Commenter]

Rothsteinisms can't be forced. I know the thing.

[Hank]

I know.

[PFT Commenter]

I know it can't be forced.

[Hank]

Okay. Well, I do. I have one last, last question for you, John. Some people have accused you. You know, you're an insider. You. You work on the air, you're in media, but, you know, you weren't a coach, you weren't a player. Some people are saying that you can't diagram a flare screen. Can you describe. Can you describe a flare screen to us?

[PFT Commenter]

Sure. Well, let's just use Wisconsin as an example because that's obviously, you know, some common ground for us right here. So a flare screen is this. Let's say we have three players on the perimeter. Let's say John Blackwell is on the point and on the two wings, on the right wing is John Tanjan, and the other side is Max Klesman. If Blackwell throws the ball to the right wing, he is then going to go to the left to Kind of drift to the corner, and Klezman is going to come and set a back screen on Blackwell's man, and then Tanje would throw it over the top to John Blackwell and get him a shot. Now, another thing is the guy who's the screener on that back screen is also a threat to roll to the basket and get an easy layup, because the defense then might think that the play is going over the top to John Blackwell. So that's a. That's the flare screen.

[Big Cat]

I love it.

[Hank]

I think you got that exactly right.

[Big Cat]

John, I. We love having you on. And like I said, everyone go read the story, because I can't say it enough like, you love and breathe hoops, and you are a great story in the fact that, like, the world is cynical. You just worked your ass off and got to this point, and we're very happy for you. And this is the best time of year.

[PFT Commenter]

Yeah, it's the best time of year. I appreciate you guys. This is something I look forward to every single year. And if I make it to Chicago this summer, I hope to see you guys also. Also, you know, you guys enjoy the tournament, too, because, Kat, I'm telling you, man, I don't know if it can happen, but Wisconsin has enough here to at least get to the second weekend. I know you live and die with that team, and they got the best off guard in America.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I'm. I'm very excited for the tournament. I want to try to have a run also. It sounds like I might have to invite you over to Thanksgiving. I mean, you might have to just come to my house for things.

[PFT Commenter]

I mean, if I gave. I'm fortunate enough to get the assignment again. But, I mean, but you know me. I have to. I focus on a game day. Like, when I have a game day assignment, like, it's like, you know, that's the only thing that matters. So I can't unwind until that happens.

[Big Cat]

You don't have to unwind. You can literally just come over and eat. You don't have to talk to anyone. I'm totally fine with that. I don't like talking to anyone in my house on things.

[PFT Commenter]

But then you and I could get into a little disagreement, because I'm gonna want, like, feast week on the TV, and you're gonna want to watch the NFL.

[Big Cat]

Listen, I. Do you know how many TVs I have in my house, John?

[PFT Commenter]

How many TVs?

[Big Cat]

I have, like, 18 TVs. There's not a room that doesn't have multiple TVs I got you, don't you worry.

[PFT Commenter]

I love, I love, I love. You guys know I love New York more than anything. As you guys know, I used to watch Cocktail, Wall street, the secret of my success nonstop. But there is nothing like a great long weekend in Chicago, especially in the summer. Love Doings Italia.

[Big Cat]

So come do it.

[PFT Commenter]

Portion sizes.

[Big Cat]

Come do it. Let's get it. Let's live it up.

[Hank]

Let's.

[PFT Commenter]

We were going to take a long weekend with the baby last summer and like, we didn't think she was ready for it, but maybe, maybe this summer she will be. We love that architecture tour too. That's big time. It's like Vince Vaughn in the Breakup.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the boat tour is great. That.

[Hank]

But you don't eat pizza when you're out here.

[PFT Commenter]

I do. I will not waste calories on pizza outside of the eastern time zone.

[Hank]

Yes, yes, we know that rule. Did you watch any football this year?

[PFT Commenter]

We had a Super bowl party and I was so tired from the weekend in college basketball. I like dozed off a little bit even though, you know, just because I couldn't take the game and my wife came over and said, we have an apartment full of people. You can't sleep. And I said, you're right. We sleep in May.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, there we go. There we go. All right, John, thanks so much. Can't wait to see you on the broadcast. And hopefully you do. Come to Chicago sometime soon and we'll, we'll get some dinner.

[PFT Commenter]

You got it. Love you guys. Have a great tournament.

[Hank]

John Rothstein was brought to you by TGL. TGL presented by SoFi. Golf's newest league in all new indoor arena style golf where high tech meets higher stakes meets primetime ESPN. And the first round of playoffs are here Monday St. Patty's Day. We've got number one LA against number four New York at 7pm Eastern. ESPN two and ESPN plus. And then on Tuesday we've got the second ranked team the Bay versus the third ranked Atlanta, 7pm Eastern. Espn and ESPN plus. It's three v three match play team golf that takes the competition of pro golf and places it inside an arena sports atmosphere. The regular season is over and the top four teams have clinched the playoffs. Number one LA against New York and then number two the Bay against number three Atlanta. Monday and Tuesday. This week TGL glory is on the line as each semi final round will only consist of one match with the winners of the semifinals facing off in a best of three exhibition to win it all. The semifinals have some big players. Atlanta has Justin Thomas Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel, LA has Colin Morikawa, Sayithe Gala, Tommy Fleetwood, NY has Ricky Fowler, Cam Young, Xander Schoffley and the Bay has Wyndham Clark, Shane Lowry and Ludwig A. Barrett. I dare you to keep up with the rest of the TGL playoffs. Tune in tonight, tomorrow only on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Plus. Search for and download the TGL app to keep up with all the matches through the matchup live. Real time stats, live interviews, highlights and more. It's TGL presented by Sofi. Keep up. It's golf. John Rothstein was also brought to you by Reese's Reese's is the goat. Reese's Peanut Butter cups are the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter. You can buy Reese's Cups basically anywhere. Feed your fandom. Reese's Cups are the perfect complement to the chaos of March. They're a drool worthy competition combination of chocolate and peanut butter to go wild for. With its mouth watering combination of chocolate and peanut butter, Reese's Peanut Butter cups are a winning part of the game day experience. The Reese's big cup with the the caramel sauce inside. Oh my God. So good. They've done it again. Eat Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Feed your fandom.

[Big Cat]

Okay, let's wrap up the show. Oh breaking news. We're actually cheating because we already finished the whole show and we're adding this at the end of the show before we do numbers with Oldie Breaking Moose.

[Oldie]

Hank Breaking Moose Jamar Chase T. Higgins paid.

[Hank]

Whoa per.

[Big Cat]

By who?

[Oldie]

The Cincinnati Bengals.

[Big Cat]

That's the important part.

[Hank]

Yeah. So Jamar, four years, 161 million 112mil guaranteed. He is now the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history.

[Big Cat]

Oh, he didn't give him seven days.

[Hank]

He got the crown. And then t. Higgins got four years, two years guaranteed worth up to 115 million. I don't know what the guaranteed money is on that, but he is now the highest paid wide receiver too in NFL history.

[Big Cat]

I am very happy for Bengals fans. I'm very happy for Joe Burrow. This is awesome because Bengals fans I think were very nervous about this entire off season. Will the Bengals be cheap? What's going to happen in the future of their franchise, their offense? Those two guys are really fucking good at football and they're both still young, relatively young. And you have Joe Burrow and you basically are saying, you know, yeah, they got to make some some right decisions on defense and and make some good picks but they're always going to be in the mix with those Three guys.

[Hank]

Yeah. They're saying, let's lean into what we do really well.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

That's offense. Our offense is awesome. Let's just do more of that.

[Big Cat]

And if you're a fan, that's exactly what you want.

[Hank]

That's what you want. You don't want to have to revamp that whole thing. You don't want to also. You just don't want to piss off your quarterback.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Hank]

And it seems like he's gonna be very happy with what you've done. It also probably means that Trey Hendrickson will definitely get traded at some point, right?

[Big Cat]

Yes, Yes, I would say so. But good for the Bengals. Good for Bengals fans. You basically guaranteed the next three to four years are going to be fun.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

I don't know if they're going to win, but they're going to be fun.

[Hank]

Yeah, you're going to be great.

[Big Cat]

Bengals have always been fun when those three guys are on the field, so good job. Thanks for the breaking news, Hank.

[Memes]

No problem.

[Hank]

Good breaking moves. So do we know if that video was real or not, Hank? Have we gotten to the bottom of that?

[Oldie]

Just a tweet from MLB saying, this tweet is not a video game. So Max saying, it's a video game, you idiot. He's the idiot.

[Big Cat]

I memory hold this whole conversation because.

[PFT Commenter]

I really don't like.

[Max]

This is from Quigs.

[Hank]

It's.

[Big Cat]

Well, I mean, it's. It's. It's. It might be the worst podcasting to. To have an extended debate about a video that people are listening. Can't see.

[Hank]

It's a new segment.

[Big Cat]

Is this real when you're thinking about it? Right. Yeah.

[Oldie]

I mean, I didn't bring.

[Max]

And we definitely can't even put the video.

[Big Cat]

Oh, so it's not even good for the YouTube.

[Max]

So everyone has to go look for the video.

[Big Cat]

I'm thinking about the fans, Hank. Personally, I'd be. Yeah. I mean, I bring it up when we end this. When we end recording right now.

[Max]

Did bring it up.

[Oldie]

Not right now.

[Big Cat]

When we brought it up. When we end recording.

[Hank]

Just to get this conversation going again.

[Big Cat]

When we end recording, I am 100% in on just hanging out with the boys and continuing this debate.

[Oldie]

Cool.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right, so let's do that. So now the podcast listeners can be like, finally.

[Hank]

Well, that's not good for the listeners either. Now they're like, I wonder if they talked about something cool with the video.

[Big Cat]

No, we're gonna just talk about the video or not.

[Hank]

We've a worse conversation than we did on the air.

[Big Cat]

All right, let's kick it to ourselves with Oldie. Okay, time for numbers. And we're gonna say goodbye to Oldie for now. Oldie, how was. How was your weekend watching hoops with us? It was four days of you just getting blitzed with college hoops.

[Memes]

Electric like fire. I was unbelievable from the second I showed up. While the airplane was another story, but, I mean, once I arrived, it was. It was on Donkey Kong. We were ready to rumble in the jungle. Heaters good on Thursday, heater on Friday. Good. Saturday Good. And Sunday, you know, my number's four and was my fourth day here and. Phenomenal. Finished hard.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Finished hard and hot.

[Big Cat]

So you just kept on winning, basically.

[Memes]

It's almost like. What's his name there? Piss and excellence. Right. Wake up in the morning. Piss. Excellence.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

What did you think about brackets?

[Memes]

That is sick.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So Oldie had never seen a live bracket reveal.

[Memes]

Like, I've seen a bracket in Canada, like, and once it comes out, but like 48 and 72 hours after the fact. Right. By the time it gets up north. Yeah, but I mean, to see it live, to see teams fired up, sitting, waiting. Is there a squad? Gonna be the squad? And all of a sudden, boom, it's their squad and everyone's fired up.

[Hank]

Give us a couple cinderellas.

[Memes]

Cinderella's. Well, St. John's not a Cinderella. No, used to be. I gotta go my boys. I gotta. We gotta go back to Akron. Zips.

[Hank]

Zips.

[Memes]

Unbelievable. Who else we banging with on the west side region? I'm trying to remember. There's so many teams. It's trying to hard to track.

[Hank]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Memes]

I think it's like 300 and, I don't know, 56 and just D1. And then we got the other unranked schools that still make it, which is still incredible.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Florida. Florida's one. Come on, Oldie. Orange one.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Badgers is not a Cinderella story, though. They should be even higher for some reason I don't understand, but they appreciate that. That's all politics stuff that's behind us. We figured out after.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Who else is out there? Is Shanty, who was the one team there? Or Norfolk. Norfolk.

[Big Cat]

You like Norfolk?

[Memes]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Memes]

I like them. I watched them play a couple games.

[Hank]

Pretty much get a home game. I think they're playing Raleigh. Right.

[Big Cat]

Max is trying to find a practice. All he's doing is looking up memes and tweaks where it's like holding a bracket.

[Hank]

There we go.

[Memes]

Give me empty brackets. He's giving me straight empty brackies. And I'm just like, okay, final four from 20.

[Max]

I got you right now, right here.

[Memes]

He's got. We're back in. We're back in.

[Big Cat]

Oldie, what. What was your takeaway from? Just the. The gambling. You spent a lot of time with us. You saw a lot like the Rico Bosco experience. A lot of. A lot of history. A lot of. A lot of inside jokes.

[Memes]

At some points it just like as I'm right now, I get speechless at some point. It's crazy. It's incredibly amazing.

[Big Cat]

Guy knows every coach in America.

[Memes]

The guy literally knows every coach. And if he doesn't know the coach, he's running straight goods. Practice facility.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

If your guys can't get into a barn because it's so big, it's. Call Rico. One shot, one dial. You got him. Boom. He's on it. He won't even miss the call.

[Big Cat]

No, I mean he.

[Hank]

I think I seen Rico beat Wisconsin last year.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Hank]

He got JMU the practice facility.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he did.

[Memes]

You might want to also keep an eye on the electricity he's been punishing through. That phone is constantly charging.

[Hank]

It's the most powerful phone on the east coast.

[Big Cat]

It is.

[Memes]

That's a huge phone. I'm surprised you're not a secure. Like a. Like a. One of those things like a beamer around it, like whomping kind of.

[Big Cat]

I don't know what you're talking about, but I like that.

[Memes]

But it's just so powerful. It has like a raise off everything. You can't even come close to it if you try to touch you to get zapped.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. All right. So great trip, oldie. We'll see you. We'll see you in the future. We. We. We. You'll maybe back for some hockey playoffs. So a couple months from now or a month and a half from now, but. Yeah, it's great having you around. You're great energy on the streams.

[Memes]

I appreciate it. I appreciate it. It's live. Everyone's a beauty in there. Everyone's bumping and grinding. They got tickets going. Winning tickets, losing tickets. It doesn't matter.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

And if you're not even for that team, just be the team. Be the team. If you're not for that team.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Memes]

Be there. Like, be the team.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. No, Oldie bet on Florida today and he was. He was head to toe in Vols gear. He was just like, I'm doing this for Big T. Oh, yeah. Ride with him.

[Memes]

I rode with Big T the whole choo choo train the whole way there in about Last seven minutes. I. I had a Florida ticket.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

It connected, though. It connected.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Great run by the Vols. Great run, good work, good team atmosphere. But Gators chomped in through.

[Hank]

Great run. Better bet.

[Memes]

Yeah, yeah, way better. Way better bet than the run.

[Big Cat]

Also. Great job. I mean, you just like. We would leave basically every day. We come in, watch basketball all day, leave at like 10:00, 11:00. And then I'd wake up the next morning and Oldie was just everywhere in Chicago, he was hitting, he was hitting. He was doing BP and at sluggers. Last night, at one in the morning, walking around Fulton Market, you had a great time everywhere.

[Memes]

I was on the Strip. I was here. I was there. I was here Friday. I want to apologize, though. I was late. I was a second in the office.

[Hank]

Oh, who was here first?

[Memes]

Luke. And I knocked on the door and I was excited. I didn't see anyone. He goes, holy, what are you doing here? I said, back to the grind with the boys. What do you mean, am I doing here? Like, it's got time. It's go time, dude.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

And he goes, well, it's a good thing you met me and seen me here because I was just on my way to the office. And you would have been done because you don't have a card, right? And I'm like, how would I have a card? Like, I don't have a card yet. Yeah, so. And I was like, okay, no problem, no problem. And I go, sorry for being late. And he goes, it's like 914 or.

[Big Cat]

9 something on a Saturday. This is Saturday.

[Memes]

Oh, this is this. Yeah, Saturday.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. No one was here till noon, but you're here at 9:14.

[Memes]

And he's like, the show doesn't start till like 12 or 1. The stream. And I'm like, I don't care about the stream of the show right now. I'm here for the work.

[Big Cat]

Let's go.

[Hank]

Yeah.

[Memes]

So I went and started filling up the waters, you know, cleaned it up and that was it. Bada boom, bada bang. We're back at it.

[Big Cat]

Love it.

[Memes]

And then everyone showed up. Thanks for coming too.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was. He was filling up the waters every single time I turned around. So I appreciate that. Oldie and throwing out trash with pft.

[Hank]

Yeah, that was. That was all time. We were working on the El Camino out in the garage here. We hear a beeping noise. The garage door raises up, it's a dump truck backing in. Immediately Oldie goes, hang on, I'll be right Back he runs over the dumpster. It starts loading the truck up with trash. The guy gets out and Oie starts hitting the gears to work the back gate of the truck. And the guy just looked at him. It was like. At first like, what the. And then only was like, it's okay. I got this. And then he just dapped it up. Yeah, it was all good from there.

[Big Cat]

You were touching another man's truck and.

[Hank]

The guy was cool with it.

[Memes]

I ran the controls. I ran the controls. He tried to come over and show me. This is how you do it, buddies. Take it easy. I got seniority, pal. But how many years you got in, dude? I want to tell him, but he's a good guy. He's out there bumping and grinding with the boys. Yeah, you gotta love that. Yeah, you can't hate on the guy. Bumping and grinding, words working full force. And he's been out. Probably popping from five in the morning.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Memes]

Straight shift.

[Hank]

It's a Friday. Long week for him. Oldie gave him a spell. At the end of it, he appreciate the blow.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah.

[Memes]

Big time. Big time. We got the car fired up. How'd she run?

[Hank]

Oh, she runs great. Like she got home safe and sound.

[Memes]

It's no putter. Nothing crazy like that snow.

[Hank]

It's all good. I think this is going to be a good year for the El Camino oldie.

[Memes]

Oh, it's going to be smooth once that sunshine come coming out. Look out, Highway 190, here we come.

[Hank]

No highways. Can't take it on the highway anymore.

[Big Cat]

No.

[Memes]

You know why? That's right.

[Hank]

Ran out of gas on the highway one time.

[Memes]

It's PTSD from that now.

[Hank]

I made. I made the entire city of Chicago late for work. Yeah, can't do it again.

[Memes]

Stay on those safe streets. Keep it real out there. Nice car.

[Hank]

Let's get it.

[Big Cat]

All right, let's finish up. Numbers, everyone. 3, 33. All right, go ahead, Memes. You get it? No means you have it. You have it. Say take it. I'll take 84.

[Hank]

13 1.

[Memes]

I gotta go. I already went my four banger. I had to hit the Nasher. 6 1. I gotta go back to the roots. Stand up on the hang side. Six, nine.

[Big Cat]

Oh, nice.

[Memes]

Back to the roots.

[Hank]

99 PO Jack.

[PFT Commenter]

52.

[Big Cat]

Little boy Jack.

[Hank]

21.

[Max]

Congrats, little Jackie.

[Big Cat]

54. 54.

[Hank]

Love you guys.

[Memes]

52.

[Big Cat]

Sa.