INSIDER: Ryan Hammer REVEALS Which SEC Squads Are TRULY On Upset Alert - Who Can Win It All?

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Which SEC teams are on upset alert?

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What's everybody?

Welcome to locked on SEC.

I'm Chris Gordy.

Thank you for making us the number one sports podcast network.

We're going to jump right into it on today's show.

We'll get you caught up with some of the news going around the SEC.

But it is tournament day.

We're getting you caught up with all 10 teams in the in the NCAA.

tournament from the SEC.

Who's on upset alert?

Who could be going home early?

And who could have a sustained run to out this tournament run?

Of course, we know Texas won the other night beating NC state.

So they are paired up with BYU in the first round.

So congrats to Sean Miller and crew getting it done.

But as we know, we look at this tournament.

A lot of question marks with some of these SEC teams,

particularly a team like Alabama.

That will be playing without Aiden Holloway, their point guard.

But 10 teams to get into.

We're going to break it all down.

Joining us now is Ryan Hammer.

Host of the blue blooded podcast and basketball analyst.

And knows the thing or two about this bracket.

And Ryan this time of year is always so fun because we're all experts.

Right.

It's like, I just start hearing my buddies tell me,

oh, you know, what's caught in the zone.

I'm like, dude, you didn't watch Wisconsin play all year.

So it's always funny.

You're the amateurs out there.

But expert perspective.

What do you make of this bracket kind of overall?

Yeah, everyone becomes bracket experts.

That's the glory of it.

I used to get upset about it.

But at this point, I just like accepted that.

That's what the sports sports nation does.

You can turn on first take it.

It might be on to.

It's crazy.

But no, I'm excited.

It's been a great season.

Better than obviously most recent memory because of the overall talent.

A lot of the elite mid majors.

We have a lot of parity at the top and a few different contenders

and different teams in normal.

So it's been a great year in the bracket.

It's always great.

But it's also always awful because I hate picking some of the regions.

So it's it's pros and cons.

I want to talk a little bit on the the SEC teams.

It was a weird year for the SEC because I think they were,

they struggled in the nonconplay.

And after last year, we said it was so the SEC was so impressive

with a historic number of teams making the tournament.

I think we all were like, well, it's going to be a down year.

And still the end of the day, 10 teams from the SEC,

most from any conference, made the tournament.

So would you kind of make of the conference this year,

whereas Florida still looks like the cream of the crop?

Yeah, it reminds me of what the big 10 usually is.

I call it in in conference cannibalization.

They beat each other up so much.

And there's so much parity in the league that none of them have elite resumes outside of Florida.

Obviously, even Arkansas who wins the SD championship is still four seed

and normally a team of that caliber that it felt like last week would be like a one or two seed.

And most of the teams like the big 10 in the past says beat each other up.

And I guess they're a point or one.

They're fatigued and they're playing just that style so much.

But they also don't have great resumes and great seeds because they're so many teams that are

texting them as a 10 seed line.

You have a four seed and a six seed and 10 to see in there.

They're all over the place to a point where they have very tough paths to get out of the first weekend.

And that's why the big 10 always fails in March because one the style,

which is different than the SEC obviously, but two,

they never have great paths to get there.

So it's not easy and just mathematically speaking also.

But the SEC is great.

I think it's been so good in the middle better than obviously better than any other league in the country.

And it's just a weird different year than we had last year, obviously.

It's wild to how they did this because the most teams of any conference to make it.

And yet in the East region, there's not one SEC team.

So I thought that was kind of peculiar how they kind of did this.

But real quick, just look at the East.

Is there a clear favorite?

I mean, Duke's the one seed, but is there a clear team you just love on this side?

Yeah, I think it is Duke.

And by the way, like you said, makes no sense that they did that because they were trying to obviously,

in my opinion, at least forced a lot of those big brands and big teams in here in this region where you have Duke,

you can't, you can't say John should not be in the same region.

There's three biggest teams in the entire in the entire tournament.

They should not be in the same region at all.

But they wanted to put them both in the East.

You have Kansas and UCLA and Michigan State Louisville,

even Ohio State, all these big name brands.

And they really should have put some kind of SEC representation in here because of so many teams in there.

Duke's still my favorite patent.

And Gongba's injury is a huge one. He's not going to play in their first game.

But I also think he obviously doesn't need to play against Sienna versus being honest about it.

So hopefully it's just precautionary and he's going to play against Ohio State or TCU and then obviously in this 16th,

if, if and when they get there.

But Duke's still my favorite to get out.

Let's get into some of the SEC teams as we look in, in the, on the Western side.

And obviously Arkansas and as a foresee, I've just loved this Arkansas team all the year long.

Gary say cuff wins not just freshman of the year, but SEC player of the year.

And he seems to be getting better, better game by game.

But 13 soon with the Hawaii, I don't think we feel they're an upsettler.

But it seems like a lot of people are looking at that next round with a potential Wisconsin matchup as a dangerous spot for them.

Yeah, I've said Arkansas was constant.

If they both win their first round game would be literally my favorite game in the entire tournament.

Those are two teams that before the bracket was released on Sunday morning.

I said, I can't wait to pick both them into my elite eight or final four in some capacity because those are my two big dark courses on the four and five line.

And then also I love Arizona.

So of course they all get put together and that's how the bracket always works.

Everybody has a region that they hate picking.

But Arkansas has been great.

They've been awesome.

I don't really fear the first round matchup because Hawaii plays.

There's no help defense where they just want you to play isle ball.

They allow the least amount of assists in the entire country.

Arkansas is perfectly fine playing isle ball and they will they will be happy to do that.

So I don't really fear that matchup ball.

Is that one of the tougher roads, though, if they have to go through Wisconsin and then Arizona potentially in the next round.

So tough of all the four seasons.

I can think of at least top of my head.

Absolutely. I think to me, Arizona is the best team in the country right now because they're fully healthy and you know that for sure.

At least obviously what we can forecast right now and Duke's not Michigan's been volatile and they're not fully healthy.

So I absolutely I think it's not impossible.

Excuse me. It's really tough.

The other SEC teams in their Texas beats NC State.

The other night is the playing game and they get BYU and I've had some people tell me they feel like BYU's a little bit banged up.

They were a sexy team a couple of weeks ago.

What's this matchup going to be like for Texas?

Yeah, can they stop.

I don't know if they can, but teams are still being BYU when AJ puts up 30, 30, 35 plus.

I like Texas ability.

I actually thought like, okay, maybe NC State wins this game, but I like Texas is opportunity more to be able to win a game or two in the NCAA tournament.

BYU Gonzaga is not awful.

They do have to go to Portland going to be a BYU home game and then it's going to be a Gonzaga home game essentially after that with the amount of fan representation.

But Texas looked decent enough last night.

We know that they can lose to anybody, but we also know they can beat almost anybody.

That's kind of how they've been all year.

So I don't hate their ability to win this game, but I still need BYU.

Sean Miller, he knows a thing or two about coaching in the postseason.

So we'll see what they do there.

The other SEC team on this side, Missouri as a 10 seed.

This one kind of seems I've seen some people picking this is kind of a, you know, a 10, 7 upset.

I would see a whole lot of Miami this year, but a few people I've talked you said they're the real deal.

Any, any chance from a zoo to pull this off?

Absolutely a chance. They're playing in St. Louis.

I mean, they need a chance right there. That's enough.

And we know I know how much SEC teams are so much better at home just generally speaking.

I think Missouri is one of those teams really year after year.

It feels like they're much better in the zoo, obviously, but the home game for them.

Miami is good. They are the real deal.

The seven tends to me are basically eight nine games.

Like the seeds are close enough where for the most part, they're basically toss up games.

Obviously we'll get to Kentucky in a second, but like you have a Kentucky Santa Clara.

That's a little bit more of a disparity in terms of who people perceive the teams to be.

So that's more of an upset pick.

But I think this Miami Missouri, especially in St. Louis is basically it's awesome.

All right, let's get to the South region as we look here.

Obviously Florida is in as the one and they'll play that first round game.

But Clemson Iowa the match up in the second round.

I just, I've watched Florida all year Ryan.

I mean, Thomas Hawk and like, I mean, player after player after player Florida has just been so dominant,

particularly the last month plus in the SEC.

Yeah, I love Florida.

I was there in Gainesville when they turned their season around.

They had the Tennessee home game in middle of January, late middle of January.

I think it was or early, maybe it was early mid January, but that was when they turned their season around 2026.

Counter turns, they've been much, much better.

Part of me thinks that's the SEC and it's been friendly to them stylistically.

And they're much more dominant in the front court, especially defensively where.

Them in Tennessee really the only teams that are somewhat defensive minded in that sense,

especially physical and defense.

So I think that's benefited them for sure, but they've absolutely turned a corner.

It's got them going on the right path and there's no doubt they can go back to back as long as the guards are playing well.

The interesting path to I keep looking at that potential Vandy match up in the third round because.

They just beat Florida by 17 this past weekend in the SEC tournament.

I'm just looking at that and going, Oh, man, would Vandy be feeling themselves that they were able to get past McNeese and the winner of Nebraska Troy and.

A rematch with Florida there.

I think both Florida and Vanderbilt would be thrilled to play each other again in his 16 because Vandy's like,

Oh, we just kicked their ass a little bit like we can definitely do it again.

And Florida says we beat them once they think they got us.

We have this one this time.

This is what we're saying before there's no way in that they should be remotely close to each other in the bracket.

St. John's and Yukon are in the same region.

St. John should be here just because they're in the East, whatever they should be here and then Vandy should be up in the East.

They'll be the only SEC team makes no sense that that hasn't happened.

But whatever I digress, that's not a problem.

All year I've been like, Oh, Vandy, good story, but they're going to fall apart and they never did.

Mark Biden just hell of a coach, right?

They're, I love them.

I think they're great the way they play.

It's super fun.

They're underrated.

Their guys have been underrated.

Also, even Tyler Tane around them and gets the respect that he deserves, even though he's gotten all conference nods and probably all American consideration, but he didn't get the full votes to get there.

I think, but they're really fun team.

Love Mark Biden as a coach.

Yeah.

The last one in the South.

Another section when people are jumping on Texas A&M.

Bucky ball.

They came out so strong in SEC play and then kind of fell apart of the backstretch of the season when the schedule got a lot tougher, but.

Still a dangerous A&M team in as a ten seed playing a seven seed St. Mary's.

I mean, Bucky ball and I call it Bennett ball for St. Mary's.

It's the complete opposite sides of the spectrum.

Texas A&M and Bucky ball play one of the fastest paces, deepest into the bench, open, free flowing style.

The basketball that you were going to find really in the world to be completely honest.

And St. Mary's is the opposite.

They play slow.

They crunch it down.

They play half court offense.

A lot of scheme and action and intention with every kind of movement.

One of them has got to get.

They're not going to play super fast or they can't both play fast and slow at the same time.

So it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

I think the St. Mary's are hitting their shots early.

They might be able to control the pace of this game.

But if they're not, they have to by catch up then advantage Bucky ball for sure.

The interesting too is if they could get past St. Mary's A&M.

A rematch with Houston.

That's that game two years ago in the tournament.

You remember they went to overtime.

That's a danger spot for Calvin Samson in company.

I'll never forget that it was the last game on Sunday night.

I think you're one of the last games.

And I remember like I was like actually finally about ready to get some sleep.

Then all of a sudden that game stays too close.

Wade Taylor and the gang in Buzz Williams.

I remember that game so well.

I think it was the second round like one eight or one nine, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And Houston came out.

But man, they give them everything they can get different different A&M team.

More of the Ryan Hammer in just a second.

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Hey, thank you guys for making us your first to listen every day.

And I want to remind you about our every day or club.

If you haven't yet, join the every day or club.

Now use promo code March and get your first month free.

If you sign up before the tournament tips off, you still got a few minutes.

You can compete against me and our men's and women's bracket pools on discord.

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We're talking with Ryan Hammer here host of the blue blooded podcast and doing some great work on behalf of splash sports.

What it's a peer-to-peer contest social gaming platform.

And when I read the home of the NCA basketball survivor and college hoops contest.

Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, survivor is something I love.

I've done it for NFL.

I think people will understand it for that more than anything else.

But it's the same concept.

It just offers something different than doing your bracket because you feel it.

You feel like your bracket for final four teams and lose first weekend.

And then you're spending the next three weeks kind of sad and like you missed to pick the wrong things.

But a survivor is survived in advance.

It's the same thing as the idea of what March madness is and the NCA tournament.

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The catch you can't pick the same team twice all year long.

The same as NFL survivor contest for anyone that is familiar with it.

A lot of strategy.

It's super different than NFL because NFL.

At least you know everybody's playing every week, except for a by week.

The NCA tournament.

If you pick a team like you don't know if they're going to be if you save a team they might lose the next round.

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Check out Ryan's social at Ryan hammer nine.

All right, last bracket to get to with the year of the Midwest.

And this is just loaded with SEC teams.

Let's start with the AC Georgia.

It's nine seed St. Louis.

This one.

Again, another one feels like a lot of people not buying into Georgia.

And a lot of people pick at St. Louis in the upset here.

Yeah, St. Louis has been one of those sexy fun.

The majors all year long.

And I love them.

I'm on that too.

But I also know that Georgia has athleticism and size that is way beyond what St. Louis has.

They both play fast pace open transition.

They like to shoot a lot.

They like to get in transition.

It's a different type of scoring.

St. Louis wants to shoot more Georgia wants to attack the rim a little more.

They like to rely on athleticism and St. Louis has that blistering shot making them in their garden.

They're back court.

So one of them is probably going to have an advantage.

They'll have their advantage when one of them is going to kind of supersede and take the win in that game.

So if St. Louis is hitting shots, if Georgia's smashing the glass for the hard, one of those teams will kind of get through.

Yeah, that's one of the SEC teams.

I just I don't have.

I'm not very confident on Georgia.

How about Alabama?

They get 13 seed Hofstra and then you know,

potentially really good Texas tech team in the second round.

This one just got a lot more interesting because as good as NATO has been in the turn of it,

man, losing your point guard aid in the hallway.

Not the best time to do so.

Yeah, and they're still the better team in Hofstra.

Obviously Hofstra is a very, very dangerous team.

They have two really, really good guards, Cruz Davis, who played for Rick Patino for two years at Iona and St. John's before going Hofstra and Preston and me,

this young dynamics, small, shifty freshman Hofstra is a good squad.

They play slow.

Alabama plays fast.

Now they have one less ball handler and one less shotmaker.

And it just feels like there's this weird cloud over them, which I hate.

Now LeBaron file on it's going to be the best pair on the court, no matter what.

So he can come out, have his day 30, 40 points and they can move on easily to the next round.

And they can move on easily with the sweet 16.

We've seen the Alabama do that in the past.

But it's going to be interesting how they kind of function like Aiden and I'm just curious what the vibe is going to be like for them.

Yeah, they ought to have Aiden Holloway in the stands with Charles Betty Akko rooting on Alabama.

You're great.

Great site there.

All right.

How about 16 Tennessee?

You know, look, Rick Barnes has done a good job there, man.

Every year feels like they're winning tournament games.

But as we know, the part one program has never been the final four.

What do you make of this Tennessee team?

Because man, they'd have met at an incredible freshman.

They just kind of really, really fun team to launch.

Yeah, I think they're without the best succeed in the entire tournament.

And I have the best ability and the best path to kind of get far.

They match up well for Virginia.

And I think they will beat SMU or Miami Ohio.

I just think match up was the way they play and crunch down the game with size.

And athleticism will be a problem for either SMU or Miami could be wrong.

Both those teams have shown the ability to get super hot this year.

Whenever they want to and the shots are falling.

But I like Tennessee a lot.

I like their potential against Virginia, excuse me.

And even Iowa state, these are teams that they have played similar styles.

And they beat Houston earlier in the year.

It's another big 12 team in Iowa state has played and played tightly.

Obviously.

So it'll be interesting.

I think they have the potential to get too many lead.

But they also could lose first weekend.

Yeah.

Time's running out here, Rick Barnes.

How many more years does he have to kind of get over the hump and get there?

We'll see.

I know.

And someone said they have Tennessee in the final four.

I said, adult connect couldn't get to a final four this teammate get into a final four.

And they to met my make himself some history if he does do that.

Last one.

It's 17 Kentucky against Santa Clara.

My wife as a Kentucky grad.

She is a nervous wreck about Santa Clara.

Is this one you think Kentucky gets the win in?

I mean, they they should.

They're on paper.

They're you think they're the better team.

But their defense, especially in the last 10 games has been bottom half in the entire country.

And just a tournament in Santa Clara's offense has been top 10 to 20 in the country in the last couple of the weeks.

And they're playing well.

They're long athletic.

And they have legitimate professional talent.

I don't think the talent gap and the quality gap in the roster is really anything at all.

I think they're pretty relatively even to Kentucky.

And that's why I like Santa Clara because one of those ones where if it's a toss up.

I like to pick the upset because it's more fun that way.

And I see a lot of opportunity where normally those upsets aren't 50 50 games.

But Kentucky's weird man.

They've been hot and cold all year.

They look great at times.

They've been the cardiac cats with comebacks at times.

But then they look awful the next day.

And I don't know.

They're really confusing.

They could be Iowa State for all we know in the second round and go to the sweet 16 or they could lose by 20 or Santa Clara.

Yeah.

I'd love to see a Kentucky Tennessee rebatch of the sweet 16.

I mean, you know, Kentucky beat them both times.

I need to come back.

And both of them to do it.

So it'd be a lot of fun.

Ryan, last thing for you.

Who you got your front of four?

I got Houston out of the bottom left.

The South.

I have Arizona top right out of the set out of the west.

Excuse me.

Duke out of the east.

And then Iowa State out of the Midwest.

All right.

So an SEC hater.

It's okay.

We'll see if we can get some some teams.

I want to take Arkansas.

So bad.

I told you.

And even I love Florida too.

And I was like.

Dang.

I just went away from the one seed in Florida.

And Arkansas is like.

Damn.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's hard.

Again, it's Ryan Hammer, host of the blue blooded podcast.

And of course, uh, uh, splash sports.

Com or download the splash app and make your picks and be part of the survivor.

Up this could be a lot of fun.

Ryan, I appreciate the time.

And thanks so much.

Thanks a tip.

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All right, guys, we're on along here locked on SEC.

You talked a lot on the tournament getting underway.

But do have some football news.

We got to get into and how about this some news coming out yesterday.

And while Richardson of orange blood supporting that.

Guard Lawrence Seymour has been granted eligibility for next season for the Texas longhorn.

Supply his final year of college eligibility.

It's major news for the long horns as they bring in a guy who is a starting level guard to their offensive line.

When he committed to Texas, he was seen as an immediate starter.

A lot of people expect he'll be there starting left guard.

But Texas they intend to kind of wait.

Steve Sarkeesian said at the start of spring practice.

There was no update on whether he was going to have another year of eligibility.

And a lot of uncertainty there.

Just kind of a lot of people thought that was closing the door.

But Sarke said in February.

Seymour and the team had submitted a waiver with new information that they felt felt strengthened in his case of winning.

And clearly it paid off last season.

Western Kentucky or Seymour had 764 of his snaps all at left guard.

And he joined several other transfers on that line for the Texas long horns who also bring back Trevor Goosby, branded Baker, Conor Robertson and Andre Kojo,

who was set to return after missing last season with a tornado.

So big news there for the Texas long horns.

Lawrence Seymour looks like you believe they're starting left guard.

Some news over at LSU as NFL insider Jordan Schultz reporting yesterday that Lane Kiffin is hiring team Martin as an offensive analyst.

Chris Lovon 3 confirming team Martin already on campus in Baton Rouge.

Martin and Kiffin both have ties to Tennessee.

They both previously worked together at USC.

Martin joined the Trojan staff in 2012 as a wide receivers coach.

When Lane Kiffin was the head coach from 2010 to 2013.

But 47 year old team Martin brings extensive coaching experience to LSU staff.

He's been coaching since 2006, been at the high school, the college and the pro level.

For the past five seasons, T Martin was on staff with the Baltimore Ravens.

Was their teams wide receivers coach in 21 and 22 before moving to quarterbacks coach.

Or with one March acts in the past few years.

So T Martin back in the SEC, but over at LSU.

How about some SEC nation news, Laura Rutledge stepping away from SEC nation after nine seasons at the host desk.

Andrew March, Sean of the athletic breaking the news yesterday.

And according his report, Laura Rutledge will be replaced by veteran ESPN personality Matthew Barry.

So Matt Barry going to step into the host role of SEC nation.

Of course, Laura Rutledge of Florida alum.

She's been with the network for so many years began appearing on the SEC network in 2014.

It's done tons of work on ESPN and what host of the NFL game day show.

I mean, it's just tons of stuff she's been doing.

And I've been saying for years, I think we even had her on the show a couple of years ago.

And I said, how do you do all this?

How do you keep track and update with all the college names, all the NFL names.

And obviously she works harder than anybody in the business.

But she'll be moving on and Matt Barry going to join the desk there.

And we assume we'll still feature Paul Feibompt and Tibo Roman Harper, Jordan Rogers, Marty Smith and Ryan McGee.

And we'll wait for the official news on that.

But again, all science points to Laura Rutledge stepping away from SEC nation after nine seasons on the desk.

Matt Barry going to jump in there.

One more note here.

How about over at Auburn?

They got their NIT win the other night over South Alabama 78 to 67 coach Stephen Pearl doing his best to,

you know, make the most out of a difficult situation as they just narrowly missed the field of 68 in the NCAA tournament.

But after the win, he clarified how they were able to play without center Keeshawn Murphy.

He said, quote, Murph decide not to play in these games.

Not sure why, but we love Murph.

We have Murph.

We have a lot of love for everything he's done for us and his commitment to this program.

So we'll see if Keeshawn Murphy plays in any more of Auburn's remaining NIT games.

But I saw Auburn tweeted out, you know, 18 wins for Stephen Pearl.

I thought that was a little, you know, like it's, it's, it's nice congrats.

But the 18th way did come in the NIT.

Go Auburn.

Let's see if they can go win this whole thing in the NIT.

And look, it's a good consolation prize for you miss the tournament.

Why don't you go on a championship in the NIT and you'll have a little something to celebrate there.

All right.

That is going to do it for this edition of a locked on SEC.

Thank you guys so much for making us your first to listen every day.

Of course, we're part of the locked on podcast that we're covering your team every day.

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I'm Chris Gordy has been locked on SEC or thanks to Ryan Hammer for joining us.

We'll talk to you guys tomorrow right here on locked on SEC.

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