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XII Tourney Champs + March Madness Preview!!!
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Welcome to Episode #48 of the No Conference for Old Men Podcast.
Our Houston Cougars are now 30-4 & XII Tourney Champs, after 3 stellar efforts in beating CO, BYU, & AZ in succession! Now it's March Madness time, with the brackets out and Houston as the 3rd #1 Seed assigned to the Midwest Region. The 3 Old Men provide a recap of the XII Tourney games & break down our respective March Madness brackets in this episode. The 3 old men are also sponsoring a Bracket Challenge on CoogFans.com for a chance for fans to beat the old men, with the overall winner joining us on a post-season pod episode!
Please have a listen as the 3 Old Men weigh in & discuss the March Madness brackets, as well as provide our respective picks for the Final 4 & Champion.
- No Conference for Old Men is available for free via Spotify / Apple Podcast / SoundCloud & the GoCoogs.com website; we're also available via the Republic of Football Podcast feed from the folks at Dave Campbell's Texas Football as their only basketball-centric offering
- Intro / Exit music: Ground Zero provided by FreeBeats.io
- Please follow us on gocoogs.com/old-men/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:08
@NoConfForOldMen
Welcome folks to episode number 48 of the No Conference for Old Men podcast, a podcast where the real guys are talking Houston Cougars basketball with a bit of Big 12 coverage added in as well and proud members of the gocougs.com network, the undisputed number one Houston Cougars content provider.
Meet the Hosts
00:00:25
@NoConfForOldMen
We're here today again with all three of the old men, Tom Lidiak, former coach, Bill Walker, former player, and myself, Steve Chang, analytics guy for this episode.
Cougars' Big 12 Triumph
00:00:34
@NoConfForOldMen
Well, our Cougars finished out the Big 12 slate in style, sweeping the regular season and postseason championships with a 74-75 blasting of BYU, followed by a 72-64 win over a hot Arizona team, both via upping our suffocating deed to the next level in preparation for March Madness.
March Madness Seeding Drama
00:00:53
@NoConfForOldMen
The brackets are now formally out. We're the third number one seed out in the Midwest region, which was a bit of a surprise given we supposedly requested the West. But put us anywhere because this Cougar team is ready for any team.
Fan Bracket Challenge Announcement
00:01:07
@NoConfForOldMen
We're also sponsoring a no conference for old men Coug fans bracket on CBSSports.com for fans wanting to participate in and competing with the three old men for a chance to join us on a future episode.
00:01:19
@NoConfForOldMen
Bill, you got a comment on this?
00:01:21
Bill Walker
Sure. as Steve, you've got more insight in terms of the instructions, but I know it's on Coug fans.
00:01:32
Bill Walker
I'll give a little incentive to whoever would like to enter the bracket challenge. One, whoever wins...
Fan Engagement and Predictions
00:01:40
Bill Walker
we'll have the opportunity to be a guest on one of our post-season episodes and they can discuss their teams, what they think about this past year, what they think about next year.
00:01:51
Bill Walker
If you're a U of H grad, you can recap, an unbelievable championship season and give predictions for 2025, 26. twenty twenty five twenty six If you attend another school, we could discuss that as well.
00:02:05
Bill Walker
I mean, if, if you went to A&M, people could discuss how it felt to get knocked out of last year's NCAAs by Ryan Alvin,
00:02:13
Tom
Mm-hmm.
00:02:13
Bill Walker
At the end of our bench, UT fans can discuss getting swept by us last year, then jumping ship to the weaker SEC for both schools. You know you could discuss whether your basketball programs could possibly, although unlikely, ever ascend to U of H's level.
00:02:32
Bill Walker
And for our other conference rivals, we can discuss how it felt to see U of H enter the Big 12 and absolutely dominate years one and two and in year two, winning the conference easily.
00:02:45
Bill Walker
And then lastly, for our tech fans out there, assuming you know how to fill out a bracket, we'll we'll keep this as simple as possible.
00:02:51
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:02:55
Bill Walker
No, no.
Tournament Recap and Analysis
00:02:56
Bill Walker
if you're on the podcast, we will not hit you with any multi-syllabic words. And if things get a little too difficult or complex for you, we will absolutely provide you with a coloring book and a box of crayons to keep you both entertained and of course challenged.
00:03:15
Bill Walker
And, you know, maybe we could talk about, how a junior college possibly made it into the big 12, but, we'll save all that for after the bracket challenge.
00:03:27
@NoConfForOldMen
i'm Nice.
00:03:27
Bill Walker
So good luck.
00:03:28
Tom
Thank you.
00:03:30
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay, guys. So for this big March Madness episode of the pod, We're going to quickly summarize the two Big 12 tourney wins, but then quickly pivot to talking about March Madness brackets with specific attention to the Cougars Midwest bracket.
00:03:44
@NoConfForOldMen
So let's get into it and dissecting our, I guess, three wins over Colorado, BYU and Arizona. Let's begin with post-game analyses to the wins to take the Big 12 tourney and, thankfully, no serious injuries.
00:03:57
@NoConfForOldMen
Then we'll transition to a more free-flowing discussion on the March Madness brackets, going from region to region to highlight interesting matchups, potential upsets, and who we see coming out from each region.
00:04:08
@NoConfForOldMen
Let's start with you first, Tom. What were some of the things you saw from a coach's perspective in the Big 12 championship wins?
00:04:15
Tom
I'll start off with Colorado. I think Colorado was like 3-17 in Big 12 play. I think the expectation was we'd just like run them out of the gym.
00:04:25
Tom
Two quick fouls on Milo's. That hurt. We got up by 14 double-digitly. I think it was 21-7. Then we let them back in the game, let them get their confidence.
00:04:37
Tom
Jawan, I think he had two points, two rebounds at a half, was not a great half for him. Then he sprained his ankle in the beginning of the second half. Kelvin talked to a sideline reporter, and he described her performance as arrogant, basically meaning that we didn't treat Colorado like you're supposed to treat them. The most important game on this schedule is your next game, and i think he was pretty pretty ticked about that.
00:05:03
Tom
He actually told Juwan in a huddle, says if I had somebody else to put in the game, I'd put him in the game. That's how, you know, he wasn't too pleased with Juwan's play. But anyway, second half, we went out and built a comfortable lead again, and then they kind of came back and cut it to like seven or eight.
00:05:20
Tom
We ended up winning by nine. So Colorado, the good thing about that was, yeah, Juwan did get injured, but it looks like he's going to be able to play in the NCAA tournament.
00:05:29
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:05:31
Tom
Kelvin on his radio show said on a scale of like one to four, four being the most serious, Jawan was like in between a two and a three. So
00:05:40
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh, really? So still...
00:05:42
Tom
so he'll be good to go. BYU game, that's a game we probably didn't miss Jawan as much as we missed in the Arizona game.
00:05:53
Tom
Going into the BYU game, talking heads, they were going gaga over BYU. Nine a row, 14-3 in their last 17 Big 12 games.
00:06:04
Tom
Coach Kevin Young is an offensive savant. BYU is going to beat U of H.
00:06:09
Tom
Richie Saunders is an NBA player. Yegor Dammon is a top NBA pick. etc, etc, etc.
00:06:16
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:06:17
Tom
And then according to Fran Frischilla, his exact words, we came out we punked them.
00:06:21
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:06:22
Tom
15 to stars. Held them scoreless for the first seven minutes. They actually had two neck balls. And in that I think it was on the same possession, too, because the guy shot a neck ball.
00:06:30
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:06:35
Tom
That's when the ball gets wedged in between the rim and the backboard. And it's a jump ball. And I think BYU had the possession arrow. And then on the ensuing shot, they had another they had another neck ball like Bill Raffrey.
00:06:47
Tom
That's what he calls him. And then he always says, you know, one of my teams led the nation in neck balls one year. Anyway, build a 21 point halftime lead. At one point we got up to 22 points.
00:06:59
Tom
BYU cut it to 13 and the crowd started, getting behind BYU. Terrence had a horrible turnover in that sequence. And then Kelvin pulled him out and he put Sharp in and then Sharp immediately hits a couple of threes to build the lead back to 19. And that was all she wrote in the,
00:07:17
Tom
in that game. But, that was the key sequence of the game. As far as I'm concerned, uh, from a coaching standpoint, uh, Especially with Juwan out, we were kind of forced to play small lineup with Terrence at the four.
00:07:31
Tom
BYU plays four perimeters around a big guy. Probably a blessing disguise that we had to sit Juwan out and we started Terrence because we avoid the mismatches.
00:07:40
@NoConfForOldMen
Yep.
00:07:41
Tom
By matching their lineup, you don't get beat off the dribble, forcing help, leading to open threes as much as when you have two bigs. And that will come, that will come in handy because in the Arizona game, we exploited their big, big lineup. So going on to the Arizona game, we had no Roberts again.
00:08:04
Tom
t Terrence's Achilles was bothering him a little bit. I thought that's a game we were missing Roberts a little bit because, you know, we couldn't throw it inside
00:08:11
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:08:15
Tom
and get a basket and kelvin mentioned that on this radio show he said you know arizona picked them that real quick and so they just pushed their defense further and further out instead of just guarding the arc or guarding 28 feet all of a sudden they're out there 35 feet pressure the ball we're down 33 28 at half Caleb Love was good Caleb Love in the first half. He was knocking down shots. I can't remember how many points he had, but he had he had quite a few.
00:08:44
Tom
And then coming out at halftime, Kelvin mentioned this again on his radio show, just made a little tweak to our offense. Instead of having our, you know, we were playing a four perimeter lineup, instead of having the big come out and set screens and Arizona bringing two to the ball and then having like Milo's, you know, have to give the ball up.
00:09:04
Tom
We put our five, just told them to stay in the dunker spot. And then we went, two guys in the slots, two guys in the corners. And then we just started doing some, it's called like a ghost screen. It's where you come and come up and you look like going scream, but then you just slip out real quick to the other slot.
00:09:22
Tom
To make a long story short, what that does is Arizona was switching and the end result was Midos had Waka on him. And then that was our offense. You know, he was able to take a walk into the hole, shoot threes, whatever he wanted to do. So great move by a Hall of Fame coach who doesn't give enough credit for his offensive genius. You know, people criticize. Even the guy on the radio show said, hey, coach, this is this is how – this is why he gets a little prickly with some questions in the media and fans.
00:10:01
Tom
A guy asked him a question, says, coach, you ever thought about setting a screen for a guy off the ball?
00:10:08
Tom
You know, and... Kelvin, next question. You said next question.
00:10:13
Tom
It's, yeah, we do that. Kelvin's probably got 225 plays that involve some type of, you know, down screen or pin down or whatever.
00:10:22
Tom
But anyway, really good win against Arizona. We actually won the second half 44 to 31. Yeah. it was a,
00:10:34
Tom
great Great weekend for the Cougs to cut those nets. And even though I believe that the regular season championship is the one that counts, you know this is kind of like the cherry on top of the cake, winning the one of the Big 12 tournament championship as opposed to the regular season championship.
00:10:55
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, it's a nice warm up at least. So Bill, how about your views to the three wins from a player's perspective?
00:11:02
Bill Walker
Yeah. Just a quick recap. number one, and we all talked about this, getting through the, tournament healthy and being healthy going into the NCAAs.
00:11:12
Bill Walker
And, and, so that's good with that said, I still picked us to win the tournament as I assume did Tom knowing how competitive we are, how competitive Calvin is.
00:11:25
Bill Walker
And the fact that we're just, the best team in the big 12, uh, Roberts got hurt early in the Colorado game, and I was very, very pleased to see him sit versus BYU and Arizona.
00:11:39
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, agreed.
00:11:40
Bill Walker
I also love how Sharp played throughout the entire three games. Calvin had mentioned that he wanted the team to go inside more.
00:11:50
Bill Walker
go to the basket, and if we're missing shots, at least hopefully we can draw fouls and get to the line. I think everyone, including Wilson, Cryer, Uzahn, did this for sure. They're all doing it, and it's been going on now for some time, kind of going back to that West Virginia game that we've mentioned quite a bit, but no one excelled to the extent that Sharp did, and I love the way that he's playing.
00:12:18
Bill Walker
heading into the NCAAs. Once again, best of all, we're healthy heading into the NCAAs. And the last thing I'll mention about the tournament was and I was getting calls from but people. I was getting texts about the commentating and just how outwardly, uh, Shambi and,
00:12:42
Tom
Atta boy, there you go. but
00:12:45
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:12:45
Bill Walker
And I've quite honestly, and as you can imagine, I've watched a fair amount of basketball.
00:12:45
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. it
00:12:51
Bill Walker
I've never, I've never come across anything like that unless it's the home teams announcers, in which case, yeah of course it always happens, but on a, you know, a nationally televised game and, non-biased,
00:12:52
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:13:05
Bill Walker
commentators, play-by-play guys. I've never heard anything like that. that just That shocked me. But whatever. where where We won.
00:13:14
Bill Walker
We're Big 12 regular season and conference champions, and we're on to the NCAAs.
00:13:20
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, agreed. I think they just wanted a closer game more than anything else.
00:13:21
Tom
yeah
00:13:24
Tom
Yeah. and I do too, but they all want competitive close games, but you know and I love for Sheila, but I've never heard a guy like, I don't know, attaboy, there you go, and and that kind of stuff, but
00:13:35
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:13:37
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:13:38
Tom
you don't know how many times I said to the TV, could you just shut the F up for Sheila? You know, I want to add one more thing guys to that, Arizona game.
00:13:47
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:13:48
Tom
When it comes down to what I call winning time or magic Johnson called winning time. I think it was the last two 18 of the game.
00:13:59
Tom
We had my LJ Malik, and sharp on the floor with JVA. with jva You know, Uzan's, what, 6'4", LJ's 6'2", on a good day.
00:14:09
@NoConfForOldMen
Yep. Yep.
00:14:10
Tom
Malik is, what, six three Sharps, like six two And they had their big lineup in there. They had Visar and in Awaka in there. And they never touched the ball or got off a shot. They're too big kit they're two big guys.
00:14:25
Tom
We didn't give up an offensive rebound.
00:14:27
@NoConfForOldMen
ye
00:14:29
Tom
Milo's had two defensive rebounds in that stretch there. Malik had an offensive rebound. So I thought that was pretty outstanding, that small lineup we had.
00:14:39
Tom
And then on the other hand, Tommy Lloyd, who's considered one of the best offensive coaches in the game, they never got the ball to, to one of their bigs to take advantage of that.
00:14:39
@NoConfForOldMen
Agreed.
00:14:49
Tom
And speaking of winning time, there were two key offensive possessions for Arizona where they're down by two. One was Love grabbed a defensive rebound on the other baseline. He went 92 feet.
00:15:05
Tom
He tried to go one on five and against a set defense, and he traveled. He kind of ran into Malik, and Malik forced him to travel.
00:15:10
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:15:14
Tom
So that was one possession where Arizona was down by two. Javier comes down there and has that – Weird handoff to Milo's and JVA picks it up and he dunks and it puts us up by four.
00:15:27
Tom
Arizona's next possession, Bradley goes one-on-one versus LJ. LJ forced him, kept him from his right hand, forced him into a turnover. Love never touched the ball on that. And the last one, the last possession,
00:15:44
Tom
They had an air ball. Love came off a dribble handoff and a ball screen. and He shot an air ball. So those were Arizona's possessions in crunch time against us. LJ did a great job on Bradley.
00:15:59
Tom
Bradley was getting to the rim. earlier in the game and LJ cut him off a couple of times and, didn't let him get downhill with his right hand. So kudos to LJ and to Sharp and to Malik for the defensive job they played on Arizona's guards.
00:16:15
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, so just quickly from advanced analytics perspective, as we're running short on time at this point, and just looking at the two final wins, the formula was actually pretty simple yet effective in both cases.
00:16:26
@NoConfForOldMen
Turned it up a notch on D and stayed true to our patient but balanced offensive philosophy this season. Both cases to this day in the course resulted in breaking down the opponent's will in preparation for the actual real tourney here. so What we saw was consistent across the final two games with intense turning ready D that just suffocated both BYU and Arizona to the best offenses in the conference and the country.
00:16:50
@NoConfForOldMen
This was especially apparent from the three-point line where it was clear the staff had put a greater emphasis on coming into the postseason, limiting both teams, even Colorado actually in the game before that, to under 28% three-point range.
00:17:04
@NoConfForOldMen
Now you guys know that I've been harping on this one area of our D that has regressed the season against the three since the calendar hit February. But you know what, guys? After this Big 12 tourney, our three-point defense has hit our top 40 excellent threshold again, where we're at number 35 heading into the tourney.
00:17:22
@NoConfForOldMen
It was basically just reds across the board on the offensive side for both BYU and Arizona during our two games. 37% effective field goal percentage for BYU, 48 for Arizona.
00:17:34
@NoConfForOldMen
And on top of that, they had turnovers at 20% and 18%. for both games. While on the flip side, offensively, we just played to our game. Balance, mix of twos and threes, making up our offensive points, keeping the teams off balance. What you'll notice as of late is a gradual uptick in our three-point attempts versus two-pointers for the games, where historically we've been really heavily weighted towards the two-point range.
00:17:59
@NoConfForOldMen
What I'd like to see, especially given how well we shoot the threes this year, is getting up over 20 threes per game in the tourney because it just basically opens everything up. So that's something to keep an eye on.
00:18:11
@NoConfForOldMen
So now let's get to the March Madness brackets. As stated, we are the third number one seed in the Midwest. Other number ones were Auburn in the South, Duke in the East, Florida in the West.
00:18:21
@NoConfForOldMen
Let's start with our Midwest region first, where Tennessee is number two, Kentucky number three, Purdue number four, and then five through eight, we have Clemson, Illinois, Kentucky, plus a tricky Gonzaga at number eight.
00:18:34
@NoConfForOldMen
What are your guys' initial thoughts of the region itself? How tough it is? How do you like our potential matchups? What are some of the interesting first round games as well as potential upsets? And then,
00:18:45
@NoConfForOldMen
Who do you have going to the Elite Eight and Final Four? Bill, why don't you kick things off?
00:18:50
Bill Walker
Aside from Ken Palm number nine, that is number nine in Ken Palm, Gonzaga, who plays well historically in March and has no business being an eighth seed.
00:19:05
Bill Walker
And I think that the obviously kind of stinks for us.
00:19:06
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:19:08
Bill Walker
It stinks for them, too.
00:19:10
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:19:10
Bill Walker
Yeah.
00:19:12
Bill Walker
yeah Playing us in round two, I'm not thrilled about. Assuming they beat Georgia, that's not guaranteed, but likely.
00:19:18
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:19:21
Bill Walker
Other than that, I really like this region. i think we're absolutely final four bound. I think Clemson and Purdue are from not very strong conferences this year, but Clemson, especially from a week conference.
00:19:38
Bill Walker
And I think both schools are a bit overrated. And quite honestly, I like us versus either Kentucky Xavier, who I'll mention a little as we get into the brackets or Tennessee. I think this is a good region for us.
00:19:56
Bill Walker
Gonzaga is the potential road bump. And other than that, I think we're fine.
00:20:04
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay. And how about some of the the other things in terms of like good matchups and things like that in the region that you're interested in seeing as well as who who you've got coming out from the region itself?
00:20:15
Bill Walker
Oh, okay, we're going through the whole thing.
00:20:16
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:17
Bill Walker
Okay.
00:20:17
@NoConfForOldMen
Go through the whole thing.
00:20:18
Bill Walker
Okay. I've got, I've only got a couple of upsets in this region. i have, and I wish we were waiting another day or two to make our predictions because have right i have right now I think Xavier, Texas is going to be a good game.
00:20:39
Bill Walker
i think the winner beats Illinois. i have Xavier winning and I have Xavier beating Kentucky.
00:20:42
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow.
00:20:45
@NoConfForOldMen
Holy cow. Okay, cool.
00:20:47
Bill Walker
My other, my only other early upset is Utah state over UCLA. And, Aside from that, i mean, that's first round.
00:20:56
Bill Walker
Second round, i mean, I have Clemson a five over Purdue a four, so that's not much of an upset.
00:20:57
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:21:02
Bill Walker
And I've got Xavier, like I said, Xavier the 11 over Kentucky a three. In the end, I have us beating Tennessee, and and I don't think Tennessee is going to be especially challenged until they meet us, and then and then they're done and we go to the final four.
00:21:22
@NoConfForOldMen
Nice. No, I love those picks, man. You went out on a limb. Love it. Tom, how about you from a coach's perspective on the Midwest region?
00:21:30
Tom
I have us, of course, winning the Midwest. I have us playing Georgia in the second game.
00:21:37
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay. Wow.
00:21:39
Tom
Assuming we beat Southern Illinois Edwardsville.
00:21:43
@NoConfForOldMen
Yep.
00:21:44
Tom
And i only know five things about them. One, they're from the Ohio Valley Conference. Two, they finished in second place. Three, they're also named the Cougars.
00:21:55
Tom
Four, coached by Brian Barone, son of Tony Barone, used to be at Creighton, used to be at A&M.
00:21:58
@NoConfForOldMen
A&M, yeah. yeah know man
00:22:01
Tom
And most importantly, they lost to Doug Gottlieb's Green Bay team.
00:22:06
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh my God, really?
00:22:07
Tom
So that's all I know about them. So I'm assuming unless there's a – Meteor strike. We're going advance to the second round. And my prediction is we play Georgia and we beat Georgia.
00:22:23
Tom
Next round, I'm looking at Clemson or Purdue, even though it wouldn't surprise me if High Point beats Purdue. Because Purdue has, in their recent history, they've lost to some double-digit seeds.
00:22:31
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow.
00:22:36
Tom
And you're looking at High Point as the 13th seed. But I don't know. Clemson, Purdue, six of one, half dozen of the other. you know Flip a coin on that one.
00:22:44
@NoConfForOldMen
All
00:22:46
Tom
But we beat them to go to the Elite Eight. I don't see Miami in our Midwest bracket this year lurking, lurking around. So we go on to the next round where we'll see either Tennessee or Kentucky, and I'm thinking it's going to be Tennessee.
00:23:02
Tom
And then that gets us to the final four.
00:23:05
@NoConfForOldMen
all right. Do you have any upsets in that region for your bracket? Any upsets?
00:23:09
Tom
Pardon, what's that again, Steve?
00:23:10
@NoConfForOldMen
Do you have any upsets? in your bracket in that region?
00:23:13
Tom
No, i you know I pretty much went –
00:23:17
@NoConfForOldMen
Went chalk.
00:23:17
Tom
Went chalk the whole way.
00:23:18
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:23:19
Tom
I, I went to you. I attended Utah state for a year. So I'm always watching them. I love to see the beat you slowly, but I don't think they're going to do it. I here, here's one for you.
00:23:31
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, so do I.
00:23:31
Tom
I have North Carolina being beaten San Diego state. Then I haven't beaten Illinois to go to the next round.
00:23:36
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh, wow.
00:23:37
Tom
It's like a big F you to the, to everybody in the country.
00:23:38
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow. Yeah, yeah, it is.
00:23:41
Tom
That's how those things usually see work. Right. You know, uh,
00:23:43
@NoConfForOldMen
You're you're right. that's
00:23:45
@NoConfForOldMen
That would be pretty funny, though.
00:23:46
Tom
You know, big time, you know, we're talking about North Carolina, big time underachievers, and then, they, they reach, they dig deep and they find something to win a couple of games.
00:23:58
Tom
But then I think it's going to come to end when they, when they play Kentucky, but really no upsets.
00:24:02
Bill Walker
Are we moving to the...
00:24:03
@NoConfForOldMen
No, no, no.
00:24:03
Tom
I mean, Georgia is what, and okay.
00:24:03
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, yeah. we we'll we'll we'll cover We'll cover that later. The the other bra the other regions later.
00:24:08
Tom
The other regions.
00:24:09
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:09
Tom
Okay.
00:24:09
@NoConfForOldMen
We'll we'll cover it later.
00:24:09
Tom
Okay. But that's, that's it for the Midwest. Yeah.
00:24:12
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:24:13
Tom
Yeah, i have us playing Clemson, beating them, and I have Tennessee beating Kentucky, and then I have us beating Tennessee, and and then going to where is it?
00:24:20
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:24:21
Tom
Is your San Antonio?
00:24:22
@NoConfForOldMen
San Antonio.
00:24:23
Tom
San Antonio.
00:24:25
@NoConfForOldMen
It will be there. So from my perspective, and I looked at it strictly from an analytics perspective, I think we got by far the toughest region in the Midwest by virtue of having both Tennessee and the Zags in our quadrant.
00:24:37
@NoConfForOldMen
Ridiculous underseeding of the Zags, as Bill had mentioned, number nine and Ken Palm, who should have been number six, in my opinion. which makes the average Ken Palm ranking in this region at a low 14.6, where the next would be the South at 17.6, 18.6 for the East, and then just a terrible number of 19.3 for the West, where Memphis is inflated number five.
00:25:02
@NoConfForOldMen
Even if you move the Zags out and replaced with another Ken Palm ranked team that was around 32, this would still be the toughest region. But whatever, you've got to beat the top teams along the way to win the championships. We play well when we feel slighted and it's like everyone is against us.
00:25:18
@NoConfForOldMen
And plus this year's team is good enough to beat up on all comers. So basically just bring it on, baby. Bill, you and I had talked about this in previous episodes around matchups and we both agreed in wanting to avoid UConn and the Zags as number eight.
00:25:33
@NoConfForOldMen
So of course we got the Zags though. Again, i do hate this matchup so early on because I respect the Zags, but honestly, it's really more of a too bad for them because I don't think they can match up with us with our rugged D and highly efficient offense this year, but that'll be a fun matchup on Saturday.
00:25:53
Bill Walker
Yeah, I agree. i agree with you, Steve.
00:25:54
@NoConfForOldMen
Right? Right. Yeah, it'll be fun. It'll be a fun, it'll be a good test for us, right, for a round two game. Interesting games early on for me are like the Zags in Georgia, Clemson versus McNeese in the first round, potentially us versus the Zags, Illinois I've got versus Kentucky in the second round.
00:26:12
@NoConfForOldMen
I'm actually not predicting very many upsets early on in this region either, Though I was tempted with Clemson and McNeese, but I am predicting a healthy Illinois over Kentucky, so we'll see.
00:26:24
@NoConfForOldMen
And finally, I do expect it will be a UH Tennessee in a heavyweight bout in the Elite Eight, where of course I've got our coups coming through to the Final Four. Now let's go to the South region with Auburn, where Michigan State's number two, ISU's number three, A&M number four.
00:26:39
@NoConfForOldMen
Then five through eight, we've got Michigan, Mississippi, Marquette, and Louisville. Again, initial thoughts to the region itself. How tough is it? What are some of the interesting first round games with potential upsets? And then who gets to the Elite Eight and Final Four?
00:26:53
@NoConfForOldMen
Tom, you can go first here.
00:26:56
Tom
Okay, I'll i'll start backwards. I have Auburn and Michigan State playing in the Elite Eight, and then I have Auburn win that game and go into the Final Four, even though they're they're kind limping to the finish line.
00:27:05
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:27:08
@NoConfForOldMen
I know.
00:27:09
Tom
Yeah, losing three of their last four. You know you imagine if they had lost three of four to begin SEC play or middle SEC play, would they still be that but number one seed?
00:27:11
@NoConfForOldMen
know. know. I know.
00:27:21
Tom
yeah I guess we'll never know.
00:27:21
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:27:24
Tom
not really not a whole lot of upsets here. I do have, I hate to say it, but I do have A&M beating Michigan to go to the sweet 16.
00:27:33
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh, okay.
00:27:35
Tom
I have Iowa state beating Ole miss to go the sweet 16. Then I have Iowa state losing to Michigan state. They're going without Keishon Gilbert talking about the cyclones there with a grown injury.
00:27:43
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:27:46
Tom
And then Taman Lipsy, he's also a nursing, a grown injury too. It wouldn't surprise me if he tweaks that thing and, you know, Just like Marcus Sasser a couple years ago, groins, they're bad they bad news.
00:27:55
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, I know. Stuff.
00:28:03
Tom
Marquette, New Mexico, that's probably the game to that intrigues me.
00:28:07
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:28:07
Tom
New Mexico has a fantastic guard in Donovan Dent. That's a 7-10 game. I do have Marquette advancing on that.
00:28:17
@NoConfForOldMen
okay
00:28:19
Tom
Let's see. UT Xavier. I don't know who's going to win that one. Probably probably Texas. And that's probably not a bad thing because if Rodney Terry's job is on the line, maybe that gives them another year.
00:28:33
Bill Walker
you Tom.
00:28:35
Tom
i don't know. maybe and maybe Maybe it's a done deal behind the scenes. you know Maybe it's been done for a long time.
00:28:39
Bill Walker
Hey, Tom.
00:28:41
Tom
But I do have Ole Miss beating whoever comes out of UT and and like Xavier.
00:28:44
Bill Walker
you
00:28:45
Tom
So Creighton, what's that?
00:28:45
Bill Walker
UT plays San Diego State.
00:28:48
@NoConfForOldMen
oh
00:28:49
Bill Walker
UT plays San Diego State.
00:28:49
Tom
Who?
00:28:52
Tom
Oh, do they?
00:28:53
@NoConfForOldMen
now
00:28:53
Tom
I thought San Diego State played...
00:28:54
@NoConfForOldMen
No, no so no, San Diego State plays UNC.
00:28:55
Bill Walker
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. In the South, in the South, Carolina plays San Diego State.
00:28:57
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:29:01
Bill Walker
We're in the South region.
00:29:01
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:29:02
Bill Walker
It's Carolina, San Diego State.
00:29:05
Tom
Okay. Okay, so I had it wrong there? Okay, okay.
00:29:10
Bill Walker
Well, we both apparently we both did.
00:29:11
Tom
All right, i had i had tech I had Texas in there. i don't know why. Anyway, they're not going anywhere anyway. and...
00:29:17
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, that's exactly.
00:29:19
Tom
no
00:29:19
@NoConfForOldMen
Exactly.
00:29:20
@NoConfForOldMen
Nice.
00:29:21
Tom
and Probably along with New Mexico and Marquette, just on paper, the Louisville-Crayton first-round game is another one that's really intriguing.
00:29:34
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay. Cool. How about you, Bill, from a player's perspective for the South region?
00:29:39
Bill Walker
Well, I think almost every game other than 1, the 2, the two the 2-15, I think every other game in this region is and is a really interesting game.
00:29:49
@NoConfForOldMen
It's fun, right? Yeah, I agree.
00:29:53
Bill Walker
I ended up with... Three first round upsets. I mean, if you want to consider Creighton as a nine and upset over Louisville, I've got Creighton.
00:29:58
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh.
00:30:03
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh, yeah, we count it.
00:30:05
Bill Walker
And I think it's even a little bit more of an upset because Creighton plays Louisville in Lexington. So but bit more of a home game for Louisville.
00:30:12
Tom
Thank you.
00:30:16
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:30:20
Bill Walker
But I'm guessing it's going to be a bit more of a home game. for Louisville, but I've got Creighton winning that.
00:30:25
@NoConfForOldMen
Uh, mm-hmm.
00:30:27
Bill Walker
I've got the University of San Diego as a 12. This is my 12-5. Well, actually one of my 12-5s.
00:30:35
Bill Walker
I think San Diego beats Michigan. I think a lot of people are high on Michigan because they won the Big Ten tournament. They got outplayed by Wisconsin. I mean, it was a close game, but Wisconsin was beating them the entire game, and Michigan...
00:30:52
Bill Walker
you know, kind of took charge and won the game right at the end. But I'm not a huge fan of Michigan. I think San Diego wins this game. And then where you guys like Carolina, even though they've been up and down this season, I think when it's tournament time, I'm I'm going to ride San Diego state. And I think San Diego state beats Carolina.
00:31:18
Bill Walker
And I think San Diego state, and I had, I struggled with this, but I think San Diego state beats Ole miss.
00:31:27
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow.
00:31:27
Bill Walker
Uh, I also have the university, UC San Diego beating a and M,
00:31:28
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:31:35
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh, two rounds. Nice.
00:31:36
Bill Walker
after that so yes i have i have a 12 seed making the the well the sweet 16 uh i really struggled with marquette over new mexico and i really liked down new mexico's point guard but in the end i took marquette and after that i really struggled with michigan state beating marquette uh
00:31:38
@NoConfForOldMen
Holy cow.
00:32:00
Bill Walker
I think Michigan State's a bit overrated, but in the end, other than San Diego, it's chalk. It's Auburn, Iowa State, Michigan State. I have Auburn and Michigan State only because of the injuries to Iowa State's backcourt, and I have Auburn coming out of the South.
00:32:11
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:32:15
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, agreed.
00:32:19
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay, nice. Wow. Interesting picks. Now, again, for me, from an analytics perspective, Auburn got the second toughest region in the South, though I'm actually going to say that Florida really got the next toughest region after ours. If you take out the ridiculous Memphis as a number five, but still some tricky games here where I don't think the matchups are that favorable for Auburn team that has lost through the last four games.
00:32:43
@NoConfForOldMen
Similar to us, and I know the ACC is very weak this season, but I think Auburn got a tough draw to potentially face number eight Louisville and in Lexington, Kentucky, right? In round two.
00:32:55
@NoConfForOldMen
But honestly, it's like us where it's just really more too bad for Louisville because I actually think they were underseeded. But you know yeah, they're going to lose to Auburn on Saturday.
00:33:03
Bill Walker
Agreed.
00:33:07
@NoConfForOldMen
Interesting games for me in the South. I think as you guys had mentioned, Michigan, UC, San Diego, A&M, Yale will be fun. Mississippi and UNC, which is what I'm predicting in round two.
00:33:20
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh, round one, I guess, the true round one. Marquette, University of New Mexico. And then potentially Auburn, Louisville, A&M in Michigan or UC San Diego, Mississippi, ISU, Marquette, Michigan State in round two. So like you highlighted, man, lots of potential great matchups in this region.
00:33:40
@NoConfForOldMen
I'm, like you, also predicting UC San Diego to upset Michigan. I think it's about matchups, quite honestly, because Michigan turns over the ball a ton and UC San Diego turns people over a ton.
00:33:54
@NoConfForOldMen
And then I actually have UNC, as I had stated, getting into round one. And I actually think they're going to upset Ole Miss for a shocker early on. So we'll see.
00:34:05
@NoConfForOldMen
And finally, I do expect it will be Auburn-Michigan State in another physical bout in the Elite Eight, where I actually have Michigan State upsetting Auburn to go to the Final Four. So now let's get to the East region with Duke, where Bama is number two, Wisconsin number three, Arizona number four, and then five through eight, we've got Oregon, BYU, St. Mary's, and Michigan State.
00:34:27
@NoConfForOldMen
Again, initial thoughts on the region itself, how tough it is, what are some of the interesting first round games, plus potential upsets, and then who you've got in the Elite Eight and Final Four. Bill, you can go first on this one.
00:34:40
Bill Walker
Yeah, I have fewer upsets in this region than anywhere else.
00:34:43
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, me too.
00:34:44
Bill Walker
There's a fair amount of chalk here. Really, the only the only upset I have in the first round is at the expense of one of our Big 12 opponents.
00:35:01
@NoConfForOldMen
Ooh.
00:35:02
Bill Walker
And I have VCU beating BYU.
00:35:04
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh.
00:35:06
Bill Walker
And I also... and this is literally a coin flip. I, I, I'm taking VCU over Wisconsin, but, but yeah, I, I, I struggled mightily with that pick and, and maybe just because I like picking upsets, by nature.
00:35:27
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh.
00:35:29
Bill Walker
but other than that, I've got chalk, uh, I have Alabama in the next round beating VCU. Well, not the next round.
00:35:38
Bill Walker
Well, yeah, next round. Beating VCU. I have Arizona Duke. I have Arizona. This is where Duke, this is where the end of the road comes for them.
00:35:48
Bill Walker
I really, really thought about taking Mississippi State over Duke, and I think Duke's going to struggle with State. But I have them getting by and then losing to Arizona. I have Alabama beating Arizona, and Alabama will be the team coming out of the East.
00:36:03
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow. Very nice. Tom, how about yours from a coach's perspective?
00:36:09
Tom
I have have trouble getting this word out of my mouth, but it's going to be Duke.
00:36:14
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:36:15
Tom
In that reason, maybe since I pick them, then they'll lose.
00:36:19
Bill Walker
Chalk.
00:36:19
Tom
But, yeah, oh here's here's the upsets I have, and it's two of our Big 12 brethren.
00:36:20
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:36:21
Bill Walker
Chalk, chalk, chalk.
00:36:22
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:36:23
Bill Walker
Ha, ha, ha.
00:36:29
Tom
Like Bill, I think VCU is going to beat BYU. Yeah. VCU, very well coached. Ryan Odom, he was at UMBC when they were seed and they beat number one seed Virginia. Then he went to Utah State for a year or two. Now he's back on the East Coast.
00:36:47
Tom
I think his wife wanted to get back to the East Coast. But the style of play VCU is probably going to give BYU some problems. And, you know, when you're BYU and you're down by 20,
00:37:03
Tom
And you go to a timeout and your coach is talking about offense. That's, that happened against us when we played them.
00:37:08
@NoConfForOldMen
Ha, ha, ha.
00:37:10
Tom
You know dude, you're down by 22 and you're talking about we need to shoot more threes, you know, more threes. And, you know, how about talk about defense and rebounding? But anyway, I have VCO for BYU.
00:37:23
Tom
And then another tough matchup for our Big 12 bros is Akron in Arizona. And I have Akron.
00:37:32
Bill Walker
Wow.
00:37:32
Tom
I went in that game.
00:37:33
@NoConfForOldMen
Oh my gosh. Nice. i love it.
00:37:37
Tom
Hey.
00:37:37
@NoConfForOldMen
I love it.
00:37:38
Bill Walker
Wow.
00:37:38
Tom
But, yeah,
00:37:39
Bill Walker
yeah You're not the only one who's picked that, but I just don't see it
00:37:43
Tom
yeah I don't know. It's just, you know, Tommy d Lloyd is kind of struggling in the NCAA tournament. You know, you never know what you're goingnna get with Caleb Love,
00:37:53
Tom
Good Caleb, bad Caleb. You just don't know. But anyway, I have – Duke playing Mississippi State, beating them. I have Oregon beating Liberty, playing Akron, and then Oregon advancing Wisconsin over VCU, Bama over St. Mary's, and then I have Duke playing Bama in the Elite Eight, and then Duke winning that game.
00:38:18
Tom
So that's that side of the bracket.
00:38:19
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow.
00:38:21
Tom
of Grant Nelson is going to play. uh, in probably the second game, uh, first game Bama plays Robert Morris. And they're definitely going win that game for one thing, Robert Morris. I think he's 300 years old.
00:38:34
Tom
Uh, you know, so picking on an old man, and then, but, uh, yeah, he's really old.
00:38:39
@NoConfForOldMen
There you go. Hey, we love the old man.
00:38:44
Tom
Robert Morris is good old, good old Bobby. Uh, But Nelson is going to play, I think, in that second game against the Vanderbilt St. Mary's winner. I think it's going be St. Mary's.
00:38:56
Tom
We'll just have to see how effective he is. There was some talk for a while there that Nelson might have missed the whole tournament.
00:39:02
@NoConfForOldMen
Really? Interesting. Okay. We'll see. For me, for the East, I believe Duke, surprise, surprise, got the easiest region again, right?
00:39:15
@NoConfForOldMen
Struggling Bama as a number two, overrated Wisconsin as a number three. But thankfully, at least for me, we've got Arizona here for a nice opportunity for a statement win coming in as the number four seed.
00:39:28
@NoConfForOldMen
Interesting games early on for me in the South, or in the East, that is. Mississippi State, Baylor, b y u VCU. Then you've got potential matchups of Duke versus Baylor, Arizona versus Oregon in round two.
00:39:44
@NoConfForOldMen
Then possibly a Duke, Arizona, or possibly BYU-Bama in the Sweet 16. So lots of, I'll just call them intriguing possibilities here, but again, very weak region.
00:39:55
@NoConfForOldMen
I am predicting Baylor to upset Mississippi State. And then I'm much higher on BYU than you guys because I've got BYU over Wisconsin. And then I've also got them actually beating Alabama as well.
00:40:11
@NoConfForOldMen
So, hey, call me call me a big 12 homer, baby.
00:40:12
Tom
but First one 115
00:40:17
Bill Walker
Fentanyl. Fentanyl.
00:40:20
Bill Walker
Jeez.
00:40:21
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, I know.
00:40:21
Bill Walker
We need to get you into rehab.
00:40:23
@NoConfForOldMen
So, i mean, ultimately, i have to go with Duke advancing to the Final Four. And quite honestly, this region is so weak, I feel like they could get to the Final Four without Cooper flag.
00:40:34
@NoConfForOldMen
So, you know, again, it doesn't surprise me, but yeah, really?
00:40:38
Bill Walker
I don't know.
00:40:40
@NoConfForOldMen
You don't think so?
00:40:41
Bill Walker
i think they're going to I think it's going to be a tough, tough matchup, assuming that they play Mississippi State. I think they'd handle Baylor, but I think Mississippi State is a tough, really tough matchup for Duke.
00:40:51
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:40:56
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay. Then I hope you're right. I hope Mississippi state makes it and give some a go here. So we'll see. Now let's finally go to the West region with Florida where St. John's is number two.
00:41:07
@NoConfForOldMen
Tech is number three, Maryland, number four, and then five through eight, we've got Memphis, Missouri, Kansas, and Yukon. Again, initial thoughts on the region itself, how tough it is,
00:41:18
@NoConfForOldMen
where there's interesting early games and potential upsets, as well as who you've got for the Elite Eight and Final Four. Tom, you can go first.
00:41:28
Tom
Well, make a long story short, I got Florida, so I have all four number one seats making it to the final four. Probably, Probably, probably, probably.
00:41:34
@NoConfForOldMen
ah
00:41:35
Bill Walker
You did that last year as well.
00:41:36
Tom
Did I, did I do?
00:41:38
@NoConfForOldMen
Is that right? i don't remember. Yeah.
00:41:40
Bill Walker
yeah Yes, yes.
00:41:42
Tom
Okay.
00:41:43
Bill Walker
I'm going to call you, I'm going to never call you Tom again.
00:41:43
Tom
Okay.
00:41:46
Bill Walker
Your new name is Chalk.
00:41:47
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:41:48
Tom
Okay.
00:41:48
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:49
Tom
Yeah. Yeah. i i spent too many years filling brackets out and going for the underdog. and They'd make it really, really close, and they'd lose by one. you know and
00:41:58
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:41:58
Tom
Then your whole bracket your whole bracket would be blown up. but A game I think to watch is Colorado State and Memphis.
00:42:09
Tom
I have Colorado State winning.
00:42:11
Tom
Remember this name, Neek Clifford.
00:42:12
@NoConfForOldMen
so
00:42:15
Tom
He's one heck of a player for Colorado State. They're on a roll right now. They absolutely destroyed Utah State twice in the past couple of weeks.
00:42:28
Tom
I think one game was in the tournament, their conference tournament. The other one, I think, might have been played at Utah State, but they're on a roll. They're Nico Medved, really good coach, a
00:42:38
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:42:39
Tom
has them clicking right now. Kansas-Arkansas, you know, that's another game. flip a coin. do have kind of held my nose and picked KU on that one.
00:42:53
@NoConfForOldMen
Love it.
00:42:53
Tom
Then I have KU. I have Kansas playing St. John's. I have St. John's winning that one.
00:42:57
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:42:58
Tom
You know, you got Rick Pitino going strong at 70, what, 73 years old.
00:43:00
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:43:03
@NoConfForOldMen
Yep.
00:43:03
Tom
you know he He doesn't like he's slowing down any at all. i have Drake beating Missouri. Drake and their four D2 transfers.
00:43:10
@NoConfForOldMen
Nice.
00:43:12
Tom
I have them, them beating Missouri. So there's my, there's your upset right there. have a tech over UNC Wilmington, Drake and tech. I have tech winning. I'm tempted to pick Colorado state over Maryland.
00:43:26
Tom
I'm actually, I'm tempted to pick grand Canyon over, over Maryland.
00:43:30
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow.
00:43:31
Tom
I still might, I still might do that.
00:43:33
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:43:34
Tom
But as of right now, I have Maryland down and then I have Maryland beating Colorado state, but, I'd love to see a Colorado State Grand Canyon game. I think that'd be a really good one.
00:43:45
Tom
UConn, Oklahoma, who cares on that one?
00:43:48
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:43:51
Tom
You got the best effing coach in the country going up against Porter Wagner.
00:43:54
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:43:57
Tom
I mean, Porter...
00:43:58
@NoConfForOldMen
and
00:44:01
Tom
Porter, what's his name? Mosher.
00:44:03
@NoConfForOldMen
Mosher.
00:44:03
Tom
Porter Mosher. I do have UConn. Then I have Florida playing UConn. Florida's going to beat them. Florida playing St. John's in the Elite Eight, and then Florida going to go into the Final Four.
00:44:16
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay. Good. Thanks. How about you, Bill? What are your thoughts on the West?
00:44:22
Bill Walker
In the West,
00:44:24
Bill Walker
I am not too dissimilar early on from Tom, but but it changes a bit.
00:44:28
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:44:30
Bill Walker
My upsets, I have Colorado State over Memphis, and only because Hunter from Racine, Wisconsin, is out.
00:44:36
@NoConfForOldMen
Yes.
00:44:41
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow. Okay.
00:44:42
Bill Walker
I'm not as down on Memphis as you guys are, and I know much like Tom –
00:44:45
@NoConfForOldMen
and
00:44:48
Bill Walker
shows love all the time for Kansas. I know Steve, you're the same way with Memphis.
00:44:52
@NoConfForOldMen
ha yes
00:44:54
Bill Walker
yeah, but I liked Memphis, but I do have Colorado state beating them. And I do have Colorado state beating Maryland, after that, because Maryland, Maryland's got a strong starting five, but they've got nothing after that.
00:45:01
@NoConfForOldMen
wow okay
00:45:08
Bill Walker
And, uh, and I think that Colorado State beats them. I also have Drake beating Missouri. And my last upset – oh, and by the way, with Drake beating Missouri, you may not have noticed this and no reason why you should have, but I have all four 11s winning.
00:45:17
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay. Yeah.
00:45:27
Bill Walker
and And my final upset, so that
00:45:34
Bill Walker
Patino and Calipari – coach against each other in the next round. I do have Arkansas beating Kansas. I have no faith in Kansas right now.
00:45:43
@NoConfForOldMen
yeah
00:45:44
Bill Walker
Uh, Florida over Yukon. Like I said, Colorado state over, over Maryland tack over Drake, uh, St. John's over Arkansas, Florida over Colorado state, uh, who beats Maryland and then tack over St.
00:45:59
@NoConfForOldMen
OK.
00:46:02
Bill Walker
John's, uh,
00:46:02
@NoConfForOldMen
OK. Yeah, I've got that too.
00:46:04
Bill Walker
Yeah, I like Tech. And Tech over Florida.
00:46:09
@NoConfForOldMen
Whoa, OK, so you've got two big 12 teams in the final four.
00:46:10
Bill Walker
So
00:46:13
Bill Walker
I have two big, yes, two big 12 and two SEC.
00:46:15
@NoConfForOldMen
Nice.
00:46:17
@NoConfForOldMen
Holy cow.
00:46:25
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:46:27
Bill Walker
I have Auburn and U of H one seeds, and I have Bama a two and Tech a three.
00:46:32
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay. Got it. No.
00:46:34
Tom
Hey, real, real quick for, for the record guys, for the record, uh, and I haven't submitted my bracket, on the, uh, no conference for old men, but I'm going to go with grand Canyon over Maryland.
00:46:34
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:46:37
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah.
00:46:47
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow. Nice. Wow.
00:46:48
Tom
I just, I just, I just like,
00:46:49
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. You guys have no faith in Maryland at all. Neither of you, huh?
00:46:53
Tom
no,
00:46:54
Tom
Derek Queen, he's going to a good pro. He doesn't play a lick of defense.
00:46:59
Bill Walker
I just wish they had some depth.
00:47:00
Tom
I mean, yeah.
00:47:01
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. No, I mean, that's a play they play D, Tom. Their metrics are really good on both sides, offense and defense. I mean, wow.
00:47:10
Tom
Okay, but I still say I'm going with Grand Canyon and then Colorado State over Memphis and then I have Colorado State over Grand Canyon to make it to the Sweet 16, but
00:47:13
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:47:22
Tom
That's when their run's going to end. Colorado State loses to Florida, and then Nico Medved becomes the next University of Iowa basketball coach.
00:47:24
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay.
00:47:32
@NoConfForOldMen
Iowa coach. Yeah, that's the rumor. That's the rumor going around.
00:47:37
Tom
I'm 0-1 because I said I'd be shocked if DeVries didn't get the Iowa job, so on that. now
00:47:42
Bill Walker
That's what I thought.
00:47:43
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. Well, I, I thought I sent you guys a note, or maybe I posted it, on the veer, Where basically they were saying Iowa, the job is actually not highly regarded out in the marketplace because their NIL is second lowest in the big 10.
00:47:59
@NoConfForOldMen
And so no one wants to touch that.
00:48:00
Tom
yeah yeah And they had three guys already hit the portal, you know, so.
00:48:01
@NoConfForOldMen
So yeah.
00:48:04
Bill Walker
They're paying players in corn.
00:48:07
@NoConfForOldMen
But, you know, the candidates aren't going to want to attach their name to that because it's like failure waiting to happen. So we'll we'll see who they get. I'm thinking it's McCollum, right, is going to be the one at Iowa.
00:48:17
Tom
Yeah, that'd be that'd be a, you know, a jump from D2 to Drake to Big Ten in a span of two years, but.
00:48:23
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, I know. Crazy, right?
00:48:25
Tom
you know Hey, he couldn't do any worse than some of these other coaches around the country. He's a proven winner. mean Bo Ryan went from D3 to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
00:48:31
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:36
Tom
I think he was there a year or two years max, then he went to Wisconsin, and we know what kind of run he had there.
00:48:42
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah, exactly.
00:48:43
Tom
so You can coach, you coach, but in this era of NIL, it's turned the whole thing on its ear and No telling, as a coach who can coach in this era and who can't.
00:48:57
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. So for me, for the West, Florida has got what I consider the second toughest region. And St. John's with Patino as a tough number two, underrated tech with everyone healthy as a number three, and a Maryland team that I actually love here.
00:49:13
@NoConfForOldMen
as a number four because their metrics are stellar. So like us, Florida got the second number eight that I wanted to avoid in UConn. So that will be a possible great test on Sunday for them.
00:49:24
@NoConfForOldMen
Other interesting games early on for me in the West are UConn OU in round one, Memphis, Colorado State, as you guys had mentioned, Missouri, Drake, and KU, Arkansas in the first round.
00:49:36
@NoConfForOldMen
potentially Florida UConn and KU St. John's in round two. So some great matchups in the West. I am actually predicting CSU to upset Memphis and then Tech over St. John's in the Sweet 16.
00:49:50
@NoConfForOldMen
And so if you look at a Florida Tech game in the Elite Eight, I actually... hate to admit this, I actually have Florida advancing. And as you guys remember, I had Florida as one of the most overrated teams coming in at boy, I got to say that I was completely wrong on that.
00:50:08
@NoConfForOldMen
So now let's finally go to your final four and championship participants. Who've y'all got guys in what's your predictions in the championship game, Bill, you can go first.
00:50:21
Bill Walker
Okay, well, like I mentioned, u of H a one, Auburn a one, Alabama two, and Tech a three. And by the way, the thing I'm going to say about Auburn is, yes, they've lost three of four, but they lost on a last second shot to Sears, to Alabama at home.
00:50:39
Bill Walker
And that was a game where they're
00:50:43
Bill Walker
kind of maybe, i don't know if you want to call him less than intelligent, overly emotional, whatever, uh, Baker Mazzara got thrown out and he also got thrown out when they lost in the first round to Yale last year.
00:50:55
Bill Walker
So Auburn could have easily won that game. So it's not entirely like, Oh, they've lost three or four.
00:50:59
@NoConfForOldMen
Yeah. Yeah.
00:51:04
@NoConfForOldMen
Well, they did, but they're all tough teams. Yeah. Yeah.
00:51:10
Bill Walker
And I've got them beating Tech. i This was a kind of a close one, but I have them beating Tech. I have us beating Alabama in the rematch.
00:51:20
Bill Walker
And not at all surprising, I have us beating Auburn in the rematch. 77-72.
00:51:26
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay, what's your predicted score? I know if you did that or not. Of the championship game. Us over Auburn.
00:51:33
Bill Walker
seventy seven seventy two
00:51:35
@NoConfForOldMen
Okay, close one. Okay.
00:51:37
Bill Walker
And that that just popped out of my mouth.
00:51:40
@NoConfForOldMen
Love it.
00:51:40
Bill Walker
Uh,
00:51:43
@NoConfForOldMen
That's great. How about you, Tom? What's your final four predictions for the championship game?
00:51:48
Tom
I have Auburn, Florida. Florida beating Auburn. I have Duke, of H. U of H beating Duke. And then I have u of H over Florida in the final.
00:51:59
Tom
And I have that 83-75. eighty three seventy five
00:52:03
@NoConfForOldMen
Wow, high-scoring game in the championship game. I like it. So I've got, as a reminder, us. I got Michigan State in as the only number two. Then I've got Duke in Florida in the Final Four.
00:52:17
@NoConfForOldMen
I've got us with a nice revenge game where we get to beat up on Duke to get to the championship game, which I will love if that actually happens. Then I've got Florida over Michigan State.
00:52:29
@NoConfForOldMen
So for us versus Florida, I fully admit, again, completely bombed on underestimating Florida. They are an elite team and elite team with great depth. However, I believe that given this is in San Antonio were and we're healthy, that Florida will not be able to stay with us for 40 minutes.
00:52:47
@NoConfForOldMen
Our relentlessness on D is greater than anything they have seen in the SEC. And we win at a close one. I'm predicting seventy three sixty eight And we get to celebrate our first national championship in men's hoops.
00:53:02
@NoConfForOldMen
So that's it. I think all three of us have got, obviously, u h is winning it all. And that's it for our 48th episode of the No Conference Rollbend podcast. We hope you all enjoyed it. And again, we'd really appreciate it if folks would follow, subscribe, or collect our podcast, depending on your podcast platform of choice.
00:53:18
@NoConfForOldMen
We are also available via the Republic of Football podcast feed from the folks at Dave Campbell's Texas Football as the only basketball-centric podcast or at the gocooks.com website for those that prefer to digest the content that way.
00:53:31
@NoConfForOldMen
We appreciate the continued support from all. Also, please give us a follow on our Twitter account, NoConferenceForAllBen. Thank you all again for listening and be on the lookout next week as the next episode drops.
00:53:44
Bill Walker
Sign up for the bracket.
00:53:46
@NoConfForOldMen
Yes, sign up for the bracket at the gocooks.com
00:53:51
@NoConfForOldMen
website. and It'll be posted there. Take care, everyone.