How far can OSU go in NCAA tourney? | Laurinaitis the heir apparent?

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Good morning, Bucknotte is welcome to the Bucknotte's Morning 5 here on Thursday, March 19th,

2026, I am Dave Biddle, I'm joined by my good friend and co-host of On The Money on

97.1 The Fan, the great Scotty Vegas, his name is Scott Prokop, but he's got the cool

nickname Scotty Vegas.

My friend, this feels like Christmas morning, it's awesome.

You know what Dave, I felt like a failure as a father to even be dropping my kids off

at school today.

I feel like this is a day that everybody should celebrate and oh, by the way, nice shirt.

Nice shirt.

Yeah, you did a good job, great job putting these together, you got our On The Money logo

here, you got the Hollywood Casino logo here, look at all this, like with the basketballs

that look like food, pizza, you look at that, you just did a fantastic job with this,

we're wearing matching shirts, Scotty and I are going to be at the casino for watch parties,

Hollywood Casino Columbus, noon to five, all four of the first days of the tournament.

Including, of course, today, the Buckeyes with the first game, 1215 against TCU, TCU is

talking that smack, but anyway, I do want to say, come out to Hollywood Casino, the sports

book, it's the best place to watch the game, you can hang out with Scotty and I, you can

win free prizes, we're going to have stuff like three point shooting contest, it's not on

a real hoop.

I told one of my friends, I'm like, yeah, you can get in this three point contest that

we have, he's like, oh man, I haven't shot a hoop, hoops in a long time, like dude, it's

a mini ball with a mini hoop.

We have a lot of fun out there, we have Bill Raftery impersonation contest, so come out

to not to Hollywood Casino, any of the next four days, we're going to be out there noon

to five, you can win free prizes and watch March Madness.

All right.

He's speaking quickly of the three point contest.

How about the fact that talking to John Deibler yesterday, he can still make 95 out of 103s.

I'm so glad I heard that you're filling in for Maddie Ice, who was on the Buckeyes

25 last week with our good friend, Anthony Rothman, and I was picking up my daughter from

school, so I was listening to you guys on the way there and the way back, and I heard

this stuff about, at first I thought you guys were interviewing Jake Deibler, it took

because I heard, I didn't hear the very beginning of the interview, I heard it like probably

a minute in, I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool, I got Jay, I'm like, oh, that's John,

it was such a good interview, and then you're like, all right, you get 103s and you versus

Jake, John, who's going to win?

He goes, well, Jake has no shot at all, he's like, actually a few months ago, I shot 100

with the guy, since he was a assistant coach of Butler, where some of the guys at Butler,

he had a rebounder and an assist man, he's made 95 out of 103s, John Deibler, it's almost

like I could shoot.

And Dave, I'm not sure if you and I could make 95 out of 100 layups, right?

I mean, and he's still hitting the 95 out of 103s, but Epicoceno, I don't think we're

going to see that display today, I don't think we'll see a 95 out of 100.

No, probably not, probably not.

You and I, like, unfortunately spoke this into existence, though, as it has the first

game, but now I'm kind of like happy about it.

Ask me at 2.15 if I'm happy about it, okay?

As of now, I'm happy about it, but for those of know what I'm talking about, like we were

talking on the money, we do it 9 to 11 a.m. every Sunday, we were saying, okay, this

is awesome.

We'll have to say it's definitely in.

They're probably going to be an 8 seed, maybe a 9 seed, probably an 8 seed.

And we were talking about, and they're like, one thing we don't want is them to have the

first game of the tournament because we have bad memories of 2001 with Utah State.

We have bad memories of the Dayton Flyers game, which I don't know if that was the first

game, but it was one of the first games.

And we were like, just, I just hope it's not the 12 to 15 game.

And it is.

That's okay.

I've gotten over it.

Yeah.

You know what?

Same way as far as I was like, I was like, Nisham, oh my gosh, anything but.

But now it's like, you got Bill Raftry on the call.

So I love that.

You're going to start out the tournament.

So all the eyes are going to be on that one.

And honestly, you know, what my feeling is, get the win, and then we can relax and enjoy.

Right?

So, you know what?

Nisham, I hated it, but now I love it.

I love it.

And did you see this?

You used to talk on some crap.

Their leading scorer came out and said, we played Ohio State 10 times would beat them

nine.

That's hilarious.

That's hilarious.

It's funny.

It's a two and a half point underdog to be talking trash, but you know what?

I love it.

I love the fact that you have a little bit more bulletin board material for Ohio State.

But it doesn't matter because you don't need to be motivated at all to play in a tournament

like this.

So, you know, talking a little crap is funny, but yeah, no extra motivation needed.

I love it.

Yeah.

It's like when team, when Ohio State's disrespected in football, I love it.

Even if it's not another team talking crap, even if it's just like Ohio State when they're

an underdog in football, they're dangerous as hell when they're doubted.

And like this basketball team is riding high and I think they're kind of playing with

house money anyway, but I think this gives them, you know they're talking about.

If you and I are talking about this right now, guarantee Jake Deblur and the boys have

been talking about this.

So, I look at every little bit helps, and as you mentioned, Buckeyes, two and a half point

favorites.

That sounds about right to me.

And you know what, man, if they're able to win today, I actually think they can give

Duke hell.

Duke is banged up.

They have a starter out, they might have two starters out.

We'll see.

And I mean, I would pick Duke to win if I had to bet my life on it.

I know I'm looking ahead.

Let's just beat TCU.

I know.

But I think they could give Duke a good game.

What do you think?

Gosh, I'm with you 100%.

You know, before the bracket even came out, Dave, I was kind of like the one seed that

I want is Duke.

Look, I mean, Ohio State has a pretty good history, a recent history when they play

Duke.

I remember running on the court celebrating after Ohio State beat Duke at the shot with Chris

Holtman.

I still think back to the, you know, and this was a long time ago when when Solinger and

Kraft and those guys, but that team beat Duke handily in the shot.

And Duke has had some weird tournament losses in the past too.

I mean, you think back, gosh, they lost a Lehigh one year.

There was a really, really good, I think they were a one seed or a two seed and they lost

a South Carolina.

So they've had a history of having some surprising upsets in the tournament.

And then as you said with this team, Duke's dealing with injuries.

So you've got a point guard, a starting point guard who's out.

And then you've got a backup center who's out.

I think of all the one seed, potential one seed matchups that Duke is kind of an interesting

one.

And look, I'm with you.

It's still like a bit of a long shot, but to just have the opportunity to shake up the

entire tournament by having the number one overall seed, you have nothing like you have

everything to play for.

All of the risk is on them.

And so I love the opportunity if they get there.

What are your expectations for this program overall moving forward now when they finally

got over the hump after three years and it feels so damn good, like we were saying, it

feels like Christmas morning that Ohio State said the tournament, it feels so good.

Last three years, it was just not the same, not having them in there.

So they got over the hump.

They're in.

And it's not like they barely got in.

Not like they have a great seed, but it's not like they snuck in.

They're an eight seed moving forward next year and then projected forward.

What are your personal expectations for this basketball program?

So it's wild date because I actually sat down and did the math.

It was 1,460 days since this team has played in the NCAA tournament.

And there can't be a drought like that ever again, ever again, because that's that's

four years.

And that's ridiculous.

And I do think that going forward, my excitement level is really, really high because I feel

like they are going to start putting a little bit more resources into basketball.

I think this year was like the get over the hump and that crazy drought.

And then now, okay, we're going to start putting, putting more into this program.

And you look at it and one of the things about why you brought Jake DeBlor in is his

recruiting ability, right?

The fact that he is, he can recruit the state of Ohio and he's already proven it.

He's got two top 10 kids over the next two years committed.

And that is enormous.

If you look across college basketball, if you have one great freshman, you can have a great

basketball team.

And so they're going to have that.

When you think about what's coming back potentially with, with Moby and Royal and I am so excited

about the development of a Murray, right?

I think he has superstar potential as far as college basketball and in a future NBA player.

So if you think to next year and you have a starting five where you have Moby, and by

the way, I think Chapman is going to be an important piece next year and then you throw

in, buy them and Royal and they got a big from Baylor that's been hurt all year that

I think is going to do some good things.

So I, I'm really excited for next year and, you know, for the future, I think it's great

for Ohio State hoops.

You know, if you had asked me a month ago, it would have been like a little dicey.

But now, I mean, my expectations are a crazy high day.

I love it.

I absolutely love it.

Yeah.

I love Gabe Cups, who's turned into just a scoring machine.

Get the ball to game.

I can't believe I was yelling that during the OSU Michigan game where he hits a three and

I think he had another bucket and is like, get the ball to game.

He's open.

I never said reverse layup when he went in against these trees against Michigan against Iowa,

the previous game.

He hit a three and I'm like, game over, you know, kind of classically, but kind of not,

you know, because Ohio State already had like, they weren't like blowing them out.

Ohio State already had like a little bit of a lead and Gabe Cups in a three.

I'm like, that can happen.

He's allowed.

Incredible.

And Brandon Knowles back.

I'm not acting like they're bench is good, but it's gone from maybe the worst Ohio State

bench I've ever seen to like not too bad.

Chapman's gone from nothing to something cups has given them something Brandon Knowles

back.

You got big Ivan like the bench is obviously I like the starting five, you know, Tilly

as well.

And as you mentioned, Biden is a star on the rise.

He got the big three, but the bench is now at least like competent.

Yeah.

And, and one of the things that I love about this matchup with TCU is TCU is not big.

They're one of the smallest teams in the NCAA tournament and let's be honest, one of

the things that they honestly hurt Ohio State every time they played Michigan was the length

of Michigan, especially Mara in the middle.

Yeah.

You know, Bruce is so good at getting into the lane and getting a shot up and stuff.

And against Michigan, that was so tough to do because they have shop lockers and they

have height.

That's not what TCU is TCU is a physical team and they're they're a good team defensively,

but they do not have a shop blocker.

So I like the fact that Ohio State has that advantage.

And then the same thing with with with the Duke matchup, if it does happen with their

back up center, he's that he's been injured.

He might be back for the game on Saturday.

But he's been banged up and I think it's a decent matchup because they don't necessarily

have that shop blocker that I think gives Ohio State a lot of trouble.

But as far as the bench goes Dave, you and I were texting each other the entire month

of January.

And we would send each other screenshots of the production of the bench and how many times

would it be?

Oh, they got zero points off the bench as much as they did.

Oh my gosh.

And so now finally, it's like this team is healthy.

And so having Chapman, and as you said, having, you know, the Gabe cups a little bit of an

emergence out of him and then having no healthy and having puffed Johnson and having to go

and you at least have names and guys that can go in and get you a break so that Bruce

and Juni don't have to play 40 minutes.

No doubt about it.

All right.

We're going to finish the show later in about 10.

Scottie has a meeting that he has to get to in about 13 minutes.

So we'll finish the show here in about 10 minutes with our final four picks and our national

champion.

I do want to move to football.

First of all, I hope Brian Day is here for the next 10 years or 20 years, whatever.

And put a number on.

I love Brian Day.

I love the culture he's created and I love the winning.

He's married the two very well because I say what I always say is Scotty is, you know, Ohio

State recruits five star players, but they recruit five star young men too.

Like it's just so damn impressive.

Sonny styles is one of many examples like that's like the perfect example right there.

Year eight of the Ryan Day era we're entering, which is kind of crazy.

You think urban was here for seven years.

Okay.

We're already entering year eight of the Ryan Day era.

All right.

Let's project it for when Ryan Day eventually decides to step away.

As James Laurenidas, the heir apparent to be Ohio State's head football coach.

Gosh, David certainly feels that way, right?

Like, I mean, the other thing that I keep coming back to is looking at Matt Patricia's

contract extension, right?

And it looks like it's a three year deal and it's three plus million dollars and it's

a lot of money.

So while I do think that if long term, if what you say is possible of of Ryan Day maybe

eight, 10 years here, then I feel like, okay, then James is probably the next guy, right?

Eight to 10 years down the line.

Now if for some reason, Ryan Day is two years or three years or four years, we see Patricia

with this with this extension and the amount of money that he's getting.

Would it be outrageous to say if two, three years from now, Matt Patricia with that contract

is the next coach?

So I do believe long term, James is probably the guy being groomed.

But if in case, maybe Patricia is that guy in a couple years.

So that's kind of, that's just me kind of reading into the contract that Patricia has

is like, boy, the way to keep him is obviously three plus million dollars.

But maybe it's also, hey, you know, you'll be under consideration for head coach.

Yeah, I've had a couple of sources tell me and neither of them were like, hey, I'm predicting

James Lornais is definitely our next head coach.

But they both told me keep an eye on Lornais as the air parent to Ryan Day.

So that'll be interesting.

You're right about Patricia though.

If day doesn't stay as long as I hope you stays, I mean, I know he wasn't a good head coach

with the Lions, but was urban a good head coach with the Jaguar?

So I was was saving a good head coach with the dolphins.

You know, it was spurrier, a good head coach with the then Redskins.

I could go on and on.

So I don't put that much validity when you're talking about a college head coach.

Yeah, if I think if Ryan Day did step away the next couple of years, Patricia would be a more

suitable hire.

But I think eventually, Lornais is going to be the head coach here.

We'll see.

I do have another thing you and Anthony were talking about yesterday on Rothman and I.

So I thought was interesting and very on point on the money, if you will.

I don't know.

And I've talked about this too.

The over under for Ohio State with wind total is nine and a half.

If you just say that, that's not even money, though.

You guys, you guys talked about this explain why nine and a half.

Oh, that's a safe bet, right?

I mean, maybe it is, but explain why there's a little trick involved there.

Yeah.

So it's actually a brilliant trick by the sports book because it gets a lot of

attention of, okay, Ohio State nine and a half.

That's wild because since 2004, 2011 is the only season where Ohio State didn't go

over that nine and a half, but the trick is the juice, right?

And so when you look and you actually want to try and place the bet of over nine

and a half, you actually have to pay minus one 60, which means if you're,

if you're doing a hundred dollar bet, you're not getting 90 back.

You're not getting your even money back.

You're getting about 150 or even, or I'm sorry, you're getting 50 or less back.

So it's not as great of a bet as it sounds like.

So the deal is minus one 60 of the juice brings the attention in.

It's like, oh, let's go look at it.

Let's go place it.

But that's, that's not exactly what the number will be.

In fact, I expect once all the numbers come out, the over under number

that'll be closer to even money will be 10 and a half.

It's just the headline grab of nine and a half in, and it makes sense, right?

Everybody, everybody that I know is like nine and a half.

Can you believe that the numbers came out at that?

And then you go to it and it's like, Oh, you're also paying minus one 60.

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Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I mean, everybody's been told I even had it as like the headline of this show a few days ago.

Over under nine and a half wins, question mark, like, yeah, it's a brilliant,

it's a brilliant technique because they want the attention.

They want the, the news to come out that, okay,

college football totals are out and get attention to it.

So it's a brilliant move.

I love over underwind totals across the board and sports.

And I know it's sometimes it's tough to be, you've talked about this.

It's like, I like the instant gratification.

I want to bet on a game that's going to happen in the near future.

You can still do that, though.

You can still do that.

The future's bets are awesome.

I love them.

Like maybe like random things like over under for reds, wins totals, just off like that.

Yeah.

Oh, I love, you know, the biggest win I, the biggest betting wins I've ever had have been

future's bets last year that Ohio State to win the national championship.

So like on the daily bets, I feel like it makes sense to kind of keep your units a little

smaller, but when you feel aggressive and feel like there's value on an actual

champion, I love taking it like just for, for instance, about a week and a half

ago, I grabbed Florida to win the national championship at nine to one.

And I'm like, I think there's good.

So I invested some decent money in the nine to one.

And now it's down to about six to one.

So there's a little extra value in it.

But I, I love doing the futures bet for the bigger amounts of money than rather, you

know, daily game picks, which are so much more variance and tougher to pick.

Good value there.

When you got Florida plus 900, you're right.

It's down to like plus 600.

And I hope you're right because that's my pick to win the national championship.

We did our player pool last night.

My first three picks are Gators.

Go Gator.

And I was jealous of you.

I was jealous of the player pool, you know, picks because I might, these, I was

going to take these guys and a pick two and you got them at pick seven.

And I'm like, oh, my gosh.

And then you got the wrap around with Condon.

I was jealous of your player draft, for sure.

That makes me feel good.

If you're jealous, we'll see how it pans out.

But like if, if you think I had a good draft, that means a lot to me.

All right, let's get to our picks.

I already mentioned my pick for national champion.

Give me your final four picks and the upsets you want to talk about in your

national champion, please, sir.

Yeah.

So for today, I am on South Florida to pull off the upset.

They are of four and a half point dog to Louisville.

Louisville's got some injury issues.

South Florida's a fun team, a really, really good team that I think a lot of

people don't know a lot about.

They're the third game of the day today.

I'm on South, South Florida money line.

I think there's great value on that.

As far as final four picks, I'm pretty chalky Dave, except screw Michigan.

I don't have Michigan in my final four.

I've got Duke, obviously, I've got Florida.

I've got Arizona.

And I actually went to seed Iowa State.

I was going to stay in final four.

You have the exact same final four.

Did you pick Florida to win it all?

Of course.

Oh my gosh.

We're in a pool together too.

That's going to be so funny.

Our guy, Shmoose, is going to think that we like collaborated.

That's all right.

We have the doubt that's so funny.

I think we have the exact same final four.

I know I almost put Michigan in there.

I'm like, and I think Iowa State's a really good team.

Like, yeah, you know, they can fill it up.

I mean, they're leading score.

I mean, he shoots like almost 50% from three.

Yeah, really good.

They got a couple of really good players.

And I can't wait to get out to the casino because I am going to place a little

money line parlay.

I am going to take South Florida with the upset value.

I'm going to move the Houston line down a little bit to minus 20 today.

And then I also like Georgia.

So I'm going to do those three on the money line.

I'm going to stay away from the Ohio State game.

I'm just going to focus on rooting for Ohio State.

But yeah, that's my money.

That's my parlay.

I'm got ready to go at noon.

We're going to be eating food and watching the book guys and just having a great

time.

I'm out to Hollywood casino, the sports book and hang out with us today.

Or tomorrow or Saturday or Sunday or all four days.

Scotty Vegas, this is a lot of fun.

My friend, I know you have a meeting to get to.

Thank you very much for your time, sir.

Yes, thank you, Dave.

See you soon, buddy.

Yeah, I'll see you soon.

Thank you.

That was awesome.

Thanks, Scotty.

All right, Scotty's my guy.

We've now done.

We're entering year eight of on the money.

We started on the money in 2019.

So we're just like Ryan Day, we're entering year eight of our show on the money

on 97 one of the fans every Sunday from nine.

Nine to 11 love doing that with Scotty and we've become really good friends.

It's like we're going to just work together.

We've become really good friends.

He's a good guy and he's good at the sports gambling.

Here's my advice on sports gambling.

Either don't do it at all.

That's what my mom would say.

Just don't do it at all.

That's number one.

That's if you don't want to follow that rule, here's what my advice would be.

Go small five bucks here, ten bucks there.

I mean, unless you got like money to burn and do whatever you want, five bucks

here, ten bucks there, twenty bucks there.

Don't go too crazy.

You're never going to win anything that's going to change your life,

but you're never going to lose anything that's going to affect your life like that much.

You know, occasionally if you have a really good feeling,

maybe go a little higher than that, I don't know what your financial situation is.

But my advice is always if you're trying to pay your bills through sports betting,

seek help, like you do not do that.

If you're trying to make a little money on the side, good.

Mostly it's for entertainment though.

For me, I mean, obviously you want to win when you bet on these games,

but it's mostly for entertainment.

So rule number one, follow my mom's advice.

Just don't bet at all or if you can't do that, keep it low, low and slow and have fun.

All right.

That was great.

That was great.

I can't wait to see Ohio State play today.

Hopefully they get it done.

I love that TCU is out here talking smack.

Love it.

And as Scottie said, I mean, TCU is a physical team.

Like they're really good defensively.

They turn you over a lot.

So Ohio State has to take care of the basketball.

Ohio State takes care of the ball and hits their threes at a reasonable rate.

They're going to win because TCU turns people over like crazy.

They're not that tall, but they're physical.

What do I mean by that?

Well, like they're best players like six, seven, two, 45.

They've got another guy that's really physical.

Do that's like six, six, two, 35.

I got a bunch of like football players out there.

But I think they're six, sevens.

The tallest guy they start.

So not very tall.

And that's good because like Scottie was saying against Michigan at Mara, dude, man.

He's seven foot three.

So when Bruce is trying to drive in there, he just in Michigan had other tall guys as well.

And these guys are going to be very physical with Ohio State.

But I mean, okay, that's fine.

I mean, Bynum can just go over them, you know, and Bruce, when he gets in the lane,

Bruce is a six foot two football player.

Bruce, as you guys know, I mean, Bruce is he's a he's a steel

curtain. So when Bruce goes in there, he's going to be able to be physical.

And he's not going to have to worry about guys like blocking his shot.

Man, I can't wait for this.

I can't wait for this.

Thanks again to Scotty Vegas.

That was awesome.

Having him on the show.

I had him on like a couple of years ago, two or three years ago.

But that this was his second time ever on the buck that's morning five.

So thanks to my friend, Scotty Vegas.

Thanks to all of you.

I appreciate it.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Go Bucks.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.