Otega Oweh SAVES Kentucky | Will Cinderella Reach the Sweet 16? | Duke In Trouble, or just a Blip? | CBB Squad Show

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Santa Clara Freshman, Alan Graves was the newest March hero, or about two and a half

seconds, and then Oteka Oway happened.

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What's up folks?

Happy Friday.

Welcome into The Lockdown College Basketball Squad Show.

I am your host, Andy Patton.

Join today by a handful of fantastic Lockdown College Basketball hosts as we get into the

second full day of the NCAA Tournament, all this part of the Lockdown Podcast Network.

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We're leading the show with the epic matchup between Kentucky and Santa Clara, a 7-10 seed

game that only delivered to kick off the slate on Friday.

We're also going to talk about Cinderella.

The death of Cinderella was greatly exaggerated.

We saw a handful of phenomenal results on Thursday.

Some coming down to the wire right now as we're recording this live on Friday afternoon,

and then we're going to get some previews for Saturday.

We're going to look at Duke and Michigan State and Houston a couple of their games coming

up this weekend.

We're going to start with this game between Kentucky and Santa Clara, and I said it in

the cold open.

I thought Alan Graves just etched his place in College Basketball history, hitting that

three with two and a half seconds to go to give Santa Clara a lead over Kentucky.

Otega Oway hits like a 30, 41, 42-foot three-pointer to send that game into overtime.

It was just so deflating for the Broncos, Kentucky, Mark Pope gets a win here.

For those of you who know or see the hat and know that I'm a WCC and Gonzaga fan, I

could talk about this Santa Clara team and this game for a very long time, but I will pass

it off.

What was our initial reaction?

Do we think this is a game going to top this in terms of just excitement and intrigue

down the stretch?

This was a phenomenal basketball game.

I think the only thing that would top it is if the overtime had also had the same excitement

right?

It's supposed to get to overtime.

Isaac got the Carolina background, one of those things behind them somewhere, right?

They had a title game finish with a couple shots to finish, kind of like that right.

One of those numbers was a title game that had right, a shot and a shot and a shot.

Actually, I don't mean to rough things in the other way.

Actually, that poster doesn't have that because that was a game they did in the game.

Thank you for reminding me how Mark's pages shot is completely forgotten to history, just

Alan Graves will now be.

Right because that finished the game.

This got us to overtime.

The overtime was less exciting, but it's definitely the best shot of the first round.

It's best finished the first round and it'll take a lot to top it in the rest of the tournament.

I mean, the long way to go.

It's almost depressing.

Why even watch the rest of the day?

That's the pinnacle right there.

Now I'm just going to be a slow come down after that, but yeah, right state's beating

Virginia right now.

Let's go.

I apologize.

I apologize to the Raiders.

That's on me.

Great.

You don't write state.

I'm glad that follow up three didn't even get a chance to be taken into account in this

game because look, it probably would have been beneficial to the 1% of Santa Clara fans.

And then the other 99% college basketball fans, how fun was that?

So thanks a lot for just not falling at all.

I feel so bad, but oh, man, what a bonus for the rest of us guys.

They were trying to call a time out.

There's a picture of Herb Sendeck calling time out, but the official is not looking his

way.

And like, you know, that does happen time to time.

It gets loud in there.

The official is trying to focus on the play and stuff.

But maybe if they do get that time out, call like maybe they do end up valid.

Okay.

DJ, I wonder about this though.

I thought two things that Herb Sendeck did wrong in that moment is he hesitated.

Like if you watch it, there's like a beat before he goes to call time out.

And also he charged forward to try to call time out with the ref that was already sprinting

back towards the Kentucky bench, instead of hitting the ref that was behind him on the

baseline.

I think if he turns to him, he still started to signal it before that ball was embounded.

I think Isaac's exactly right there.

He needs to go to the baseline official because that's the balls being embounded.

You need to get on the floor and make a show of it like, like, let's stop the game.

And then I also think that, and this is, you were talking about mistakes in that moment,

Isaac.

All these high level programs, you practice situations.

And so look, you might not have had a time out to talk about it.

Like we're all mentioning, you need to have talked about as a staff, as a, whatever.

Hey, if we're up three and they've got to go to the link to the floor, we're taking

a foul at half court or taking it like, you have to, I mean, all these tournament teams

are successful.

You have to practice it at some point.

You're not working on fundamentals the entire three hour practice every day.

You got to do some situational basketball and have some situational awareness to keep

that from happening.

And I get that Santa Clara is elated with what just happened, but immediately

Graves turns around and he's like celebrating like it's like until it's eight

Gajillion zeros on the clock, you have to stay locked in and pick up defensively.

Like that, again, that's a situational lack of awareness.

And I get, I probably would have done the same if I'm being honest, because I wouldn't

end that moment.

But this is why you practice those things.

So you can act like you've been there before and make the right mental decisions.

I was just going to say, I can't believe, oh, wait, got in a position to get that

shot off 2.4 seconds is not much time.

Do you think Ohio State and Bruce Thornton are watching, which is happening there?

That's immediately allowed to do that.

Right.

I was like, we, you know, as a basketball observer, we ruined this yesterday at the end

of Ohio State, TCU.

And finally, someone was able to get all the way across half court nearly to the three

point line.

It felt like for a way to let that thing go at 2.4 seconds.

Yeah, Ohio States have an miserable morning.

Oh, away was in high point range.

I mean, that's where the guy pulled up from the other way, like I mean, basically, right?

So, yeah, I mean, that was like not far from where Jalen Suggs hit that shot a few years

ago.

And I think he did that in like three and a half seconds.

Like the fact that oh, we got there in two and a half is just insane.

And again, like if graves had turned around immediately to defend, what probably

would have happened considering how this game went is Alan Graves would have tried to get

a note, take it a ways away.

He probably would have fouled him.

That would have been bad because he would have fouled out.

But then Kentucky would have had to inbound the ball with like one and a half seconds left

at half court.

Like they may not have gotten a better look off of that.

Like that we have been a game-winning move had that happened.

You at least set up a defense, right?

You put seven footer on the ball.

You make them chuck a bad pass.

You make them run something like this was glorified.

We're taking advantage of you dancing, right?

Like it, I mean, it was not not a good look.

Um, 82 year point.

We have a comment from rip snort.

I don't know how to say that.

You literally said Santa Clara got sugs, uh, so brilliant stuff there.

Look, here's the thing.

Then when we get to overtime, I'm like, Sasha, what are you doing?

Thank you.

Like you get this switch with garrison.

You drive that switch.

Oh, I know they're down for, but you got plenty of time to take an easy to and then

foul and keep extending this game.

Like that was a, a, a, a young mistake and then, but then to go back to that

well, they get like again, it doesn't twice.

I couldn't believe it.

I mean, not only was fouling 90 feet away from the basket, just a dynamite way to

start over time, which at an up, I'll be darned.

Being a good foul.

He didn't miss both free throws, but man, the back to back, try to shoot the

three over garrison play Santa Clara.

We, we lost our cool.

I'm sorry to point it down to something so simple as that cliche, but oh,

we lost our head guys.

Oh, no, Broncos.

So sad.

Yes.

And I'll.

I'll give you three times this year.

And in those matchups, like, Santa's a really good three point shooting team,

but Gonzaga figured out to just run them off the line and force them to drive

because they outside of Christian Hammond, they don't have a lot of guys who can

get downhill and get to the basket.

And Sasha's not one of those guys.

He's a three point shooter through and through.

And I think he knew that getting into the lane on Merino and those guys wasn't

going to work, but trying to shoot over Brandon Garrison wasn't going to work

either.

And the fact that he tried it twice, like you said, Matt, just, yeah, it was a bad

strategy that and they just seemed like they lost their head when they got into

over time.

But if he'd had a fair time, there are times of charm, you know, how about

Garrison, though, down the stretch of that game, he gets a four style with seven

minutes left, I think, and then to not foul down the stretch, stay in the game.

And then even though it was stupid to keep chucking shots over over him, he made

the plays down the stretch, got Kentucky and transitioned a couple of times.

He's a big part alongside Otega Owe of the reason why Kentucky won that game.

That's one of my favorite things about March.

You get these guys who like Garrison has gotten a lot of heat from Kentucky fans

this year.

He's had a lot of ups and downs and you get these like everybody expects

Otega Owe to have a big game or Alan Graves to have a big game.

You don't necessarily expect Brandon Garrison to go off and be one of your

top two players.

Maybe if you're Kentucky and it's almost like this redemption arc you get in

March where you, sorry to bring this one up Isaac, but like David McCormick

was this like, you know, he was this, I don't know, he was this rollercoaster of

a player.

He'd drop a rebound, but then he'd make this incredible play.

And then he goes out on top with the NCAA tournament.

And now everything that was not great is just forgotten.

Great.

So so far we've brought up the 2016 shot, the 2022 floorboard incident in New Orleans

and Carolina becoming the worst upset or the worst collapse in first round history.

That's awesome.

I'm going to have more about that too, Isaac.

Don't you worry.

I can't wait.

Hey, while I've got the floor back, though, did you guys see the stat of the

company that Otega Owe joined after this per CBS.

So Otega Owe in this game finishes with 35 points,

eight boards, seven assists, a block and a steal from CBS sports.

Here are the only people ever documented because assists weren't kept until

84 only documented people with at least 35 points, eight rebounds and seven

assists in an NCAA tournament game.

Oscar Robertson, Bill Bradley, Larry Bird, pretty good to take it away.

How did how did they get on there if assists weren't classified to 84?

Dude, I don't know.

But CBS sports.

That's a great point.

Just going to play like the 60s, you know, vibes.

The assistant lasted that long.

Well, before we move on, I do want to ask because this is a game that I think

busted a lot of brackets.

I think a lot of people pick Santa Clara as a trendy upset.

But while this game is literally just getting underway as we're going live,

I don't think Tennessee State's going to pull off the upset over Iowa state.

Does anybody have a lot of optimism for Kentucky?

Maybe using some momentum to potentially pull off an upset over the cyclones?

Or do we feel like T.J. also brothers teams going to make the switch 16?

Joshua Jefferson was just laying on the court herd a second ago.

So that would change the equation then.

I think I think he's fine.

But it's just, just watch it.

It does feel like sometimes you can get that boost of playing in such an

emotional game.

And then you're able to really step up to the level of competition that you've

been, well, I think that's going to happen tomorrow.

The four game agreed, Bill.

Sure you do.

Sure you do.

I wanted him to join the club so bad.

I wanted to do to join my, my little club.

I thought we were, but it was not, it was not in the cards.

Well, let's talk about some of these double digit seeds.

And probably not going to be any 16 seeds moving on air zone is certainly

taking care of Long Island right now.

So I think we're going to be safe there.

But what other double digit seeds might make the sweet 16 because it just

hasn't happened all that much over the last couple of years.

And we're going to look at whether that might change this weekend, all that

and more coming up here in just a second.

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And again, we've talked about him a lot already, but Otega Owe, what a

performance for him did not get deterred by Alan Graves hitting that three

point shot gets off an incredible look with two and a half seconds to go.

Ties this game does work in overtime 35 points, eight boards and seven assists

for Owe, the emotional team leader for this Kentucky team.

And that reminds us what it really takes for a program like that to raise

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Folks, one of the big storylines last year, the potential death of Cinderella,

there was concern about NIL and the transfer portal and this era of college

basketball being so financially driven that we weren't going to see as many

of these 14 free upsets and 11 seeds getting to the sweet 16 elite eight final

four, whatever it may be.

And last year's incredibly chalky bracket certainly added fuel to that fire

and that conversation.

And while we're, you know, only halfway, not even halfway through day two

of this tournament, we've already seen more upsets this year or at least about

the same number of upsets this year as we did all of last year.

And I think the first round in the first round in the worst in the first round.

Yeah, we'll see how that continues going into the sweet 16 and into the elite.

But we had high point over Wisconsin.

Their first win ever over a high major team in their entire history.

And they do it in the big dance, incredible, incredible game there.

DCU over North Carolina.

Target was blowing that 19 point lead Isaac.

We're not going to escape that unfortunately.

And then number nine seed St. Louis.

I know they're not a double digit seed, but they are a mid major team.

And they slaughtered Georgia folks 102 to 77 was the final score here.

And it's worth pointing out that Georgia went on a 17 to two run to close this

game. It was a 40 point game at one point in favor of the Billikins.

Really fun one there unless you are a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs.

But now kind of want to look ahead what potential double digit seeds will

we see in the sweet 16 because there's been just one in each of the last three

tournaments.

Now before that, we saw quite a few more.

So again, that's part of where this narrative exists because it's been more

recent in the NIL era.

But we got a lot of teams that could potentially do it.

Anybody have any thoughts on a team?

They think outside the top 10 seeds that could potentially make a run of the

sweet 16 or even beyond.

How about Miami of Ohio?

Yes.

Oh, why don't we talk about Texas.

They played in Dayton.

I know Miami.

They played in Dayton as well, typically or at least this year, but historically

teams that do play in Dayton have a little bit of momentum going into their

first round game.

Let's look at right state in Virginia, though.

I know that games happening right now.

If white state is somehow able to beat Virginia, Miami of Ohio goes over

Tennessee later today.

And we're seeing a right state versus Miami of Ohio round of 32 game.

A sweet 16.

Yeah, who's going to say the Cinderella is dead then, right?

So I actually really do like Miami of Ohio.

I know the whole conversation, all the rhetoric surrounding that team

throughout the course of this year.

I've been hot on them all season long.

I don't care about quad one wins.

As high points coach said, they won't play us.

They didn't play Miami of Ohio and then Miami,

Ohio beat an SMU team that shouldn't have even made it into the tournament.

That's a story for the another day, but if they're able to get through Tennessee,

I think the Red Hawks have a really good shot.

You mentioned the high point coach and how like they weren't able to play

these quad one games necessarily either.

I should stress.

I think Arkansas is one of the best players in America in DSA.

And this is not a shot at that.

But the way they play is primed to upset because these are one game samples

and they shoot a bunch of threes.

And if it's a hot day, it doesn't really matter who the team is at that point.

Now, it could also go completely the opposite direction.

But there are 12 seed.

We've seen 12 feet 5s before and playing a four in Arkansas.

It's not a whole lot different.

I was eight cups.

Great.

But like if high point gets a bunch of threes on the board, it makes.

Would anybody be shocked if John Calipari lost to a hot shooting mid major team?

I mean, it's not like this story hasn't been told time and time and time again.

Are you representing specific or?

I'm going to go.

Let me know if I'm wrong on this, but isn't the last two double digit seeds?

So the one last year and then the one the two years ago, those were both power five teams.

Correct.

You know, they were double.

Last year was Arkansas.

Okay.

And then the year before was we had Arkansas last year.

NC state.

The four and it's power five teams, right?

The one in 2023 was Princeton was a 15.

Sure.

But if we go off the last two years, that's where I'm kind of looking.

Like I think Texas has looked really good to this point.

I mean, Daly and Swain gives them pro potential.

I mean, Vokit Titus is been on a tear right now.

Traymon Mark is just making every important shot.

I do think that Gonzaga without Braden Huff, like it's at least vulnerable there, right?

And then I also look at I'm picking Houston to beat Texas A and M Parker.

But if ever like to your idea of a one game sample size with Bucky ball,

they're a team that could, you know, if they just get hot from three, then who knows?

So I don't know.

I'm almost looking to like the the power five schools that are 10 11 seeds.

Could one of them just make it in.

But honestly, if you gave me an over under one and a half of these double digit seeds,

making it to the sweet 16, I think I would take the under.

I think that's what the last couple of years has kind of shown us.

And Derek, just to build on that really quick, as Andy said, you know, these last three years,

it's just been one double digit seed, but the two years before that 21 and 22,

there were four double digit seeds in each of those.

But one, two, three, four, five, six of those eights were high majors in 21.

It was Syracuse UCLA and Oregon State who was still in the pack 12 at the time,

along with anybody.

Remember the 15 seed that year?

St. Peter's tiny point guard from Tulsa.

Nope.

Not St. Peter.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

Roberts and then in 2022, it was Miami, oh, uh, Florida version.

Iowa State Michigan and then St. Peter's got it.

Well, and was 2023 that you had, uh, both San Diego State and one other one in the final four.

You know, they were single digit seeds, even though that's right.

Yeah.

But it as opposed to the high major point.

Yeah.

The Derek's to Derek's point.

I think another team that hasn't tipped off as we're recording this right now,

that could do it as Missouri.

They're a ten seed.

Uh, they're taking on Miami in the first round.

I do have Miami winning that game, but not a chance in Missouri playing.

Yeah, they're playing in Missouri, but then they have to play Purdue and Arvin,

like I, I'm sure you're not expecting, uh, either Miami or Missouri in that game,

but Purdue rolling right now, but was vulnerable earlier in the year.

Uh, again, I like Miami in that matchup, but if Missouri wins,

I think they present at least an interesting challenge to Purdue in that one.

I got a question.

This is out to Derek.

I'm sorry to single you out, Derek.

I say Cal Baptist.

You say I am very worried about Dominic day.

All right.

Here we go.

Come on.

Let's go.

I would get electric.

Yeah, really.

And to Derek's point, sorry, I was going to say Texas is a massive threat to Gonzaga,

to pretend I'm anything other than absolutely terrified of the fact that Sean Miller

has beat Mark few multiple times.

The fact that they don't have Bradenhof, the fact that they're offense.

I think they're adjusted offensive efficiency was like ninth in the country.

When Bradenhof got hurt and now it's like 30th and, and yeah,

Grammy K cannot do it all by himself as much as he is trying to just carry this team.

Greg Jennings style to the sweet 16.

I'm a little worried this Texas team has got enough juice to take him down.

I think that's quite honestly my, my probably top pick among all the double digit

seeds to make the sweet 16.

Just because again, I don't like A&M versus Houston very much.

I think high point could do it.

I think VCU maybe, but Illinois looked so good in that first game.

Like it just feels like it's going to be Texas, maybe Missouri.

I'm not sure if we're going to see the other ones.

I'll throw one out there.

Go ahead, Matt, especially if Yukon's not healthy.

UCF could take out, you see it today and they could be a team that could give

Yukon some troubles if they don't get their things together.

Matt, we have an update on Demory.

Yeah, he's, he's questionable per Dan Hurley.

He released on social media that he was going to be good to go, which Dan Hurley was looking around.

Like he said, what?

I'm putting on this questionable on the shade.

That's how the press conference went.

And then he asked, we've got some other guys injured.

Maybe I should go ask Silas.

I'm thinking they're going to be ready to go or not.

I think he always got to deal with how they communicate some injury news.

But I don't know, TBD, we'll see if he is playing.

I don't think he's going to be his full, his full go is full minute rotation.

And he's so important to Yukon's defense that if he's not healthy and he's not able to play

into the second round, that Yukon's vulnerable, for sure.

Can I say that I think that from each season to go, I know Isaac, we've talked about this in the past.

It's because of Silas, Demory, Junior, where he's brought defensively.

That's coming over to Georgia.

Go ahead, Nate.

Can I just say that I think that UCF who kind of fell to a tendency because they struggle

down the stretch, beating an injured UCLA team and then a potentially injured Yukon team

to be our double digit team is maybe the least sexy Cinderella team, like in the history

of college, but like that, like I think you're right that that could happen.

But man, that just would be such a letdown of like, oh, this like high point doing it would be awesome.

Cal back to the North, they've got to find the yard.

Yeah, with no disrespect to Johnny Dawkins and UCF, like that would not be fun at all.

Well, maybe it's something that's been in his point.

Just like we haven't seen it yet, but Donovan Dent is apparently good to go.

But earlier this week, Microno was like, dude, I think Bill, those going to need a couple more days.

So like we're going to wait and see tonight.

Also, for all the Nebraska talk about them getting their first win.

Hello, UCF.

They've only got one NCAA tournament win all time themselves.

And so we'll see if they should have had two, should have had two.

Yeah, they should have had two.

JJ, where was your heart at that moment as Ogre was trying to tip that ball?

Yeah, there was, you know, no readings on it.

It was just a total shock and unbelievable.

Like the brotherhood of it all that's tied into everything.

And, but Zion and those guys prevail, fortunately, until that's until the

match. Not for a long, though.

Well, speaking of Duke, let's, let's take a look at this team.

Obviously, this near loss to see Anna again, it doesn't, doesn't count.

They still won.

They still advance, but obviously some questions about this team and kind of

whether they're going to write the ship coming into their next matchups,

especially with the injury, still a situation for them.

We're going to talk about that.

Some previews of some other games coming up on Saturday, all that coming

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All right, folks, closing out the show continuing our conversation here on the

second day of the greatest four day weekend in the history of this country.

As we got the NCAA tournament rolling through phenomenal slate of games on

Thursday, Friday got us started with an epic all time classic between Kentucky

and Santa Clara.

Now we're going to kind of look ahead.

We know all of this late on Thursday has done.

Obviously, so we're going to kind of look at some of these Saturday matchups

and how those games might play out.

And we want to start start with you, JJ.

Obviously this scene a game was one of the big story lines on Thursday.

CNN led most of this game.

We had a lead in double digits in the second half Duke survived.

And again, it's not even really putting it that way.

They came back and won and got the victory here.

Obviously, no Gongba, no Caleb Foster.

We knew that going into this game.

JJ, how did you feel kind of outside of relief after this game in terms of what

it means for Duke going into their next matchup against TCU?

Yeah, I mean, hopefully it means that you got that one out of the way.

Now you can go back to playing the basketball.

We've seen the number one overall seed play for the overwhelming majority of the year.

Duke had a close one in their first ACC tournament game against Florida States,

surviving by one point and then really kicked it into rhythm against Clemson in Virginia.

I hope that's a wake up call.

Great news for Duke in that right now.

As we speak, Patrick Gongba, the second is on the practice floor for the Blue Devils

and John Chyra is hopeful with the boot off with the boot off boot.

That would be quite the asses, you know, he's on the floor, but he's got his boot on.

He's just riding around like March on Lynch style on the floor.

I see. So I need to see some boot cart races between him and Caleb Foster.

That's what I need in my life.

Assign me up for that, too.

I mean, I would love every second of it.

But I think that'll be a big boost against TCU when you've got that big interior.

Caden Booser has really come on lately.

He's a totally different player.

And then Caden Booser is one of the best guys in the entire world.

So, yeah, what an experience that was going through the scene again.

Yes, straight to boys.

So I want to make sure we give the Saints enough credit and to only play

five guys.

Who does that?

Like that?

Who does that?

You're just going for it.

That's that's what I'm talking about.

We're all in this bus together.

Everyone get in.

No need for subs.

It's just these.

No, we're with it, right?

You know, JJ, I wanted to get your thoughts on Malik Brown's comment.

Was that like a, was that like a, hey, he missed media training day?

And you don't see that?

Did you like the transpired?

Like, what, what?

I just like, I want to make sure we see.

Oh, hang on.

I'm so sorry.

Joshua Jefferson is on crutches right now.

Oh, walker room for Iowa State.

This is a matter of work.

We need to come back to that.

But like, JJ, what, what, like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, where were the thoughts on that?

I think a lot of people have obviously had commentary on this.

So I'd love to hear from you guys as well in terms of is Malik saying this

himself or is this what Shire has said then to the team that he's repeating?

And now I just feel like everybody is circling back on, on what was said in that moment

in that sort of thing.

Can Booser said some similar comments about, you know, overmatched and overlooking something

like this.

And it's easy for us to do that.

And if that's the case, how was that not easy for the team as well?

Like, these guys are very aware of what seed structure looks like in their lifetime, right?

And I mean to say that it's not an honest thought that lots of guys have this weekend,

right?

I hope this doesn't come off like that.

It wasn't start contrasting much so that I mentioned it on Locton Cougs with a manual

sharp when asked about playing a sweet 16 regional in Houston was like, we've got to play

Idaho.

And then when the game was kind of dicey in the first four minutes because every game's dice

in the first four minutes, I once got nerves or whatever, he has a one man kill shot of

10 straight points because he's like, no, no, we're not, we're not losing Idaho.

And he's a senior, he's been on a huge for a long time and there's the difference

there too, right?

And like, I did think that what is an honest moment that some, you know, he just caught

on camera because he's a college kid talking to the camera, right?

Like, it's not something that I think is quite as, part of what makes these high-end athletes,

high-end athletes is that they can, they can separate that, right?

Like, that's, I think what makes the best, but it was the contrast of that happening

always in the same 24 hours was pretty strong to me.

Right.

I think like, you know, the mid-measure teams, like they, in order to ever pull a game

off like this, they have to really, truly believe and not just be trying to convince themselves

that they can win.

Like, they have truly believed that they can and the coaches, I mean, part of the reason

you see coaches, you know, obviously a coach who can lead a mid-measure team to a win in

the tournament is probably just a good exes and owes coach generally, but part of the reason

you see those coaches get coaches because they have found a way to convince their team

to believe, capable that they can win, you know, and coming off of, you know, this Gonzaga

Kenasau state game that I was at, I got to speak with the coach before the game and like,

you could tell, like he believed it.

He believed his team was capable and his players believed in after the game.

They were so emotional that they were, like, the emotion that came from these players kind

of felt almost like, like they were surprised they lost and I was like, I think you need

to have that.

Like, I think you need to feel like we truly, like it wasn't like, oh darn, we gave it

our best shot.

Like, and I didn't feel that from the Sienna players either, like, I'm sure they were

proud of how they played, but like, their goal was to win the game and they didn't

accomplish their goal.

And I think when you're a high major program or a player or a coach and you're, you're

not going into that game knowing that the other team is going to give you everything

they got.

Like, that's where you become vulnerable and that's where I think like Malik Brown

set it out loud, but like, I think that that, again, it's maybe not permeating across

every team in every high major program or even every Duke player necessarily, but it's

a narrative that will catch you, like it will catch you because those teams and those

coaches at those levels, they believe they can beat you with their full heart.

And if you don't, if you don't believe that they can, you're going to get caught.

Yeah, they were trying to ride every momentum swing throughout the course of that game.

And just fortunately, you know, Duke was able to rely on the Boos or twins to get them

back going in the second half.

And Isaiah had some big run out dunks that were huge for Duke.

And now it's, you know, I don't have to join that 16-seat up setting a one club.

Sorry Nick.

Hey, so how are you doing Nick?

Rats.

Rats, right.

No, I hate that.

I hate that.

But good for you.

You don't have to experience what I experienced.

Parker, I want to talk about this Houston Texas A&M matchup couple schools that are not

too far away from each other.

It's going to be a unique matchup of styles and really like the common denominator is

that Texas A&M is a unique style of basketball.

And so that usually ends up being the case.

They play this intense press heavy offense or press heavy defense.

They're going up and down the floor constantly.

They were able to speed up St. Mary's and frankly just out athlete St. Mary's, which seems

to be the story for the Gales pretty much every time they make the NCAA tournament

they will not be able to do that against Houston, but I'm curious kind of your thoughts

on how this matchup might play out and what you think about Texas A&M going up against

your coos here.

Well, and it's interesting because I think a lot of, you know, fans that tune in and

march or whatever.

Well, think about like Houston had played A&M a lot recently.

They played in the regular season in 2324, the Toyota Center.

They played in the second half of the tournament in a classic game, double over time, Ryan Elvin

and Ramon Walker is on one leg at the end of that game and Ryan Elvin is the white

walk on the streets free throw at the end of it, right?

And then they actually scrimmaged somewhat ironically in a predetermined scrimmage before

last season.

And this is so dramatically different today and team from the staff to the roster.

It's hard to like put that all like not out of your mind, but it's going to have nothing

to do with any of that.

There's no weight tailor or anything.

It's a dramatically different style of basketball.

I'm fascinated by, they do a lot of out-athleting, but they're also not like particularly big,

right?

And so you think about like having like these big, you know, six, 10 runner round, they

have none of that.

And so I actually think Houston's going to do it right on the boards.

I, a national perspective would help me here because I can't find like signature marquee

wins on A&M's resume.

They have a lot of wins.

They won all the games they were supposed to for sure.

And that speaks to a different level of excellence, right?

But like when they play other top tier teams, the, the, the stick here of, of Bucky ball kind

of needs a little bit more behind it, they, it's just, it's your one, right?

He did a lot to fix, but I think it just needs more umph behind it and they need to a

couple of years recruiting to the system, right, to build it.

That's it.

To your point, Parker, the only team that Texas A&M beat this year that is still in the

NCAA tournament is Kentucky.

And as we talked about it, Texas A&M, Texas A&M, Texas A&M, Texas A&M, Texas A&M, Texas

A&M, Texas A&M, Texas A&M, Texas A&M.

They did be Texas.

So Texas A&M and Kentucky are the only teams they beat in the tournament.

So yeah, I think that is a question of can they actually beat a team at the top level

of the sport?

So far, they haven't proven that.

Texas A&M playing team in Kentucky, barely got by, right?

So that's right.

That's why I will say a lot of people have been like, well, Houston's playing to get home

or whatever, college stations less than, less than an hour and a half from Toyota Center

as well.

Like they're playing to go home, figured.

One of these teams won.

One of these teams won a home game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So Matt, let's talk about Michigan State here, got a fun matchup against Louisville.

I think the perhaps the most trendy upset pick that we had in this entire tournament

with South Florida over Louisville did not end up happening, although it ended up close.

It looked like Louisville was beating the doors off of them.

And then South Florida came all the way back, Louisville still survives at the four point

win here.

Don't know the status on the kale brown right now who did not play in Louisville's, yeah,

in Louisville's first game against South Florida.

Obviously, that'd be a huge storyline against Michigan State and Jeremy Fears and their

guard play.

Michele Brown, big stronger guard, I think would be a, maybe not a problem necessarily for

Michigan State, but add a different element.

How are you feeling going into this one?

From all accounts, and this is also from a beat reporter from Michigan State who spoke

to Michael Brown in person today.

He's not going to go tomorrow, but who knows, we all wake up on a Saturday morning, feel

a little different, don't we?

Like maybe Michael Brown just wakes up feeling like he's got the sauce that day.

Yeah, I was actually a little conflicted how to feel about this game on one hand.

Louisville plays to a fast pace.

Michigan State, we enjoy a fast pace here, but they also shoot a metric bot ton of threes.

That's a Ken Pongstad actually.

A metric bot ton of threes.

MBT.

MBT.

Thank you.

See, ball knowers over here.

But you know, actually called my mind about this game is the one, the only Dalton pens

of Lockdown Lolville who I talked to earlier today and he hates to smash up for his

Cardinals.

So that did wonders for my mental health earlier, and he cited some very good points that

hey, the physicality of Michigan State and maybe we'll be a problem also lose kind of

known to get Lucy Goosey with the ball here and above all, Michigan State at worst, a top

five rebounding team in the nation.

They should be able to limit the second chance points here against a front court.

That isn't that outstanding for the Cardinals.

So I woke up with tears in my eyes about this game already on Friday morning, but I got

to say Dalton, Dalton did wonders to my mental health that no therapist could ever possibly

do.

So shout out to our good friend of Lockdown Lolville.

Yeah, the front court to me is the huge advantage for Michigan State in this game as well.

I think Lolville's front court is a little bit better than I thought they would be at

times this year, but they have been, it's not been their strength for sure.

And for Michigan State, I think that they, I've said this a handful of times.

I think their front court has been a little bit underrated just because, you know, it's

not the big dominant like offensive forces like they don't have a terrace read or a Grammy

care or anything like that.

But those two guys, Collar and Cooper, I just rock solid at what they do and are great

on the glass.

And I just, to me, Lolville would have to go scorching hot from three, which to be fair,

they're capable of doing like that's not unrealistic.

But unless they do that, I just don't think that they, they can really match up well with

this part of the team.

It'll be interesting to see, you know, those Michigan State want to apply any press.

I don't think that it will happen, but man, after the last 10 minutes of that game yesterday,

we're at the bowls.

What a cover by those young man.

Maybe that kind of creeps and it is those had, but I think it'll just be more of the

half court offense or half court defense.

I should say because I really want to add tread on the Jeremy fears, Jordan Scott's

tires when it's going to be pretty apparent.

Jeremy fears for sure will have to play at least 38 minutes tomorrow.

I don't know if you want to extend the defense from him, 94 full feeds.

So I, I can't wait for this game.

I can't wait for this game to be over.

How about that?

I'm a wreck this time of the year.

This is not a healthy match you and talking to you right now.

Well, shout out, Dalton, for making you a little bit healthier at least, we've got

this great for him.

He's awesome.

Yeah.

Last thing one to talk about here, Nebraska Vandy matchup of two teams that were undefeated

for a very, very, very long time this season, Nebraska gets their first ever NCAA tournament

win.

They beat Troy on Thursday, Vandy survives a little bit of a scare from McNeese, four

five matchup, which of these teams that we kind of weren't expecting to be in this conversation.

And again, I think Vanderbilt may have been a little under seated as a five as well,

which these teams we think is going to make it to the sweet 16 is you may have any kind

of thoughts, predictions, projections on how this game might shake out.

Vandy.

Vandy is luck.

No, I just, I just think the back court combo of Tyler Tanner of Duke Miles now getting

back healthy.

I just think that's, and look, I know you got the price, Sanford of it all, but like,

I think there's enough in Vandy's front court between, like I know McLaughlin and O'Karek

a little bit under size, but they got the heath and you can bring Jalen Washington in

behind them as a guy with a little bit more size.

And I think that's going to be enough to stick with what they got to do to take care

of Rink Mask.

And then I just think that allowed the back court to take over here.

And as you said, Andy, like if this game were seated as I think it should have been,

it would be Vandy as the better seated team.

I think they should have been a three seed to Nebraska's four.

And so it's like, if you just look at the seeds, sure, it's like, well, Nebraska's the

four.

And while I've been all on the Nebraska ball chain, I also love the Vandy train.

And so I think the, the fight and comedors from Nash Vegas are going to win this one.

I paused for the stupidest reason, boy, did Nebraska fans make that a rockest environment

yesterday?

I know that there's nothing to do with the 10 players on the court, but it was, man,

at the point where everyone covering any game in Oklahoma City was talking about it.

If you're anyone, any reporter, any, any game that happened at Pekom that they're like,

man, Nebraska showed up.

And if you know Oklahoma City, Bricktown, like the going out area there near the stadium,

I'm sure that place was red rockin, yeah, rockin.

Yeah.

So it's a silly reason because Vanderbilt's more athletic than Nebraska.

I think, but I don't know, can the home court advantage of a four or five point swing make

up the difference?

It might.

So I'm excited for this one.

Well, folks, if you're listening right now live here, I definitely go check out the end

of this right state Virginia game because it's a one point game right now with about five

and a half minutes to go could be a really fun potential.

The first top four seeded team to lose.

If this holds, we also got Iowa State seeming to have no problem without Joshua Jefferson

right now against Tennessee state.

And Hofstra is up 10 on Alabama again for those listening lives.

So certainly a lot of actions still to come here on Friday afternoon.

Some phenomenal matchup Saturday and Sunday, the thing whittled down to 16.

Yeah, quickly, officially from Iowa State's Twitter account, Joshua Jefferson is doubtful

to return to today's game with a lower leg injury.

It was specifically his left and it occurs to me in real time that we assuming he can't

return to action.

That means we are missing three of the first and second team AP all Americans from this

tournament, not because they missed it, but due to injury.

Obviously, Joshua Jefferson now JT Topin at Texas, Texas Tech and Caleb Wilson from

North Carolina, like that injuries are just ruining this tournament in that regard.

And it's so frustrating.

And with my big 12 hat on, I would throw in Reggie Saunders and like the way that that

shape that changed the top 10 players in the nation, it's like three of them are out

injured right now.

Can I ask a question?

How many breaks does Michigan need exactly?

Jefferson's going to be out probably right state could take care of three C Virginia and

Alabama's getting people arrested.

I have any of the top four seeds in that bracket.

Why to have a full roster by the time you potentially face Michigan, let us dream for a little

bit.

Good God.

What's going on in the rest is if it had been the state of Oklahoma, he'd have been fine.

I didn't.

I don't know.

Honestly, sometimes in the tournament, like obviously you got to get the breaks.

Sometimes it's about you yourself as a team getting breaks.

It's about the Red Sea just parting in front of you while Moses stands there with his

arms, a Kimbo.

I mean, it's great.

I think Dusty may plan a devidence, but I don't want that.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Let that tweet that out.

We're getting the ball rolling.

Let's go.

Come on.

I'm waiting.

I'm tied to the cop.

It's like a third cousin or something.

Allegedly.

Allegedly.

Absolutely.

Let's go.

All right, folks.

I think on that note, we're going to wrap it up for the squad show today.

In this week, we'll have another one next week getting ready for the sweet 16, getting

into those elite eight matchups as well, always fun to have these conversations with all our

great hosts here.

Again, we always want to say apologies to you, Nick, and to the lawyer family.

We'll see other game goes later tonight.

Let's go wild, folks.

What a game for Mark Pope and Kentucky cheers to the Mick Bruins, unless they're pacing

match, we're on team, and until next time, folks, we'll see you next time.