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[00:00:00]

Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Listen up, we've got some tea and you all are going to be obsessed. We spoke with the Abercrombie team and they told us that they were gonna launch a wedding shop. Well, we lost it because as you know, we are both getting ready to get Abercrombie and hitched. The whole vibe of Abercrombie these days is clothes you'd wear for a perfect long weekend. And all their customers were like, hey, we spend long weekends traveling for weddings these days. And then Abercrombie was like, we love that. Let us just give you everything you could ever possibly want and love to wear for all things wedding. So they did. It has everything. Tons of dresses, jumpsuits, pants, swimsuits, pajamas, pantsuits, and all perfectly curated for different events, bachelorettes, brunches, showers, ceremonies as a guest and ceremonies as a bride, reception and even honeymoon. It is incredible. Check out the Abercrombie wedding shop on abercrombie.com. Go shop it now. On today's part of my take, we have our brackets. March Madness is finally here and we're going to break it all down.

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Someone in the selection committee is a real pervert. We're going to talk about that. We have John Rostein on the show. As is tradition, he is going to break down all the regions. Tell us some fun nuggets. We also have to talk to him about potentially losing friends and a wife and kids over March Madness. We sleep in May.

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Problems at home, problems at home.

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We got who's back of the week. Justin Fields has been traded. We're going to actually talk about that after John Rostein. So anyone who wants some thoughts on that, we also had some other moves in the NFL that we will discuss. And before we get to all of that, a quick word from our friends at draftkings. The thrill and excitement of March mania is here in DraftKings. Sportsbook, one of America's top rated sportsbook apps is giving new customers a shot to turn $5 into $150 instantly in bonus bets with any college basketball bet out there. So I'll just say this right now. There's a line out there that I like. I can't say that I like it, but you know what? We'll just say what James Madison Wisconsin line is four and a half right now. Four and a half. Also the first four games, Colorado is a two point favorite over Boise State on Wednesday night. So some lines out there. North Carolina listeners, don't forget Draftking sportsbook is now live in your state. Download the Draftking sportsbook app and use code take. New customers can bet $5 to get $150 instantly in bonus bets.

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Okay, let's go, boy. Now in the street there is violence and a lot of work to be done no place to hang out on washing and then I can't name all on the sun oh no, we gonna rock down to electric I rendu and then we'll take it higher oh, we gonna rock down to electric it's part.

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Of my take presented by Marshall Sports.

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Welcome to Pardon my take presented by Draftking Sportsbook. Use code take right now. When you sign up with the Draftking sportsbook app, you get up to $150 instantly in bonus bets. When you bet $5 only at the Draftking sportsbook app with code take. Today is Monday, March 18, and we have our brackets.

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My brackets busted.

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We have our brackets. And someone in that committee is a real sick pervert. I actually think it's probably someone that Hank knows because he's been smiling ear to ear since the brackets have been announced. The pardon my take region. It wasn't just that they had to put me versus PFT, Wisconsin versus James Madison in the first round. They also put Vermont and Duke in the same quadrant.

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Yeah, Hank, they just loaded it up. Famous graduate of Duke University, Henry Lockwood. Famous graduate of Vermont, Jake Marsh.

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Yeah, that's. That is actually. We'll get to our game. But the worst part about what they did to us is not just the two of us. Because we can survive anything. We're stronger than steel, stronger than iron. We can survive anything. It's the fact that the winner of our game will then go up against either Hank and Duke or Jake and Vermont, and they both will be like, we don't really care as our team's like, one of our teams loses to those fucking bums.

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I've seen this movie before. Here's what's going to happen. Here's what's going to be. It doesn't matter who wins between me and big cat.

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Yeah.

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Because Jake Marsh is going to be.

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Into the second round and he's going to just. I'm actually kind of rooting for James Madison or Wisconsin. Yeah. I want Vermont to win, but I want you guys to be happy. Yeah.

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Oh, yeah. He's going to have a smile on his face when he shakes her hand. Hey, sorry, I just beat you. I'm the best in the office again, despite the fact that this is perverted and it'sick, and it's disgusting. And there's somebody that's listening to part of my take right now in some college ivory tower.

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Oh, they're all loving it.

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Some athletic director, and he's silently jacking his dick off, just listening to us in pain. I want that person to know that they're a pervert. But that's actually not the sickest thing they did. The sickest thing they did was put Uva in. Yeah, that's disgusting.

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Uva.

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You should be ashamed of yourself.

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Let's give some shout outs to the people. Got snubbed. The bubbles burst. It was a crazy weekend of basketball Saturday. You saw basically the bubbles shrink and shrink and shrink because NC State won, beat North Carolina, they weren't going to get in. New Mexico won the Mountain west, they probably weren't going to get in. Temple beat FAU, and then it became a temple. UAB. One of those teams was not going to get in. And the bubble just got smaller and smaller and smaller. And the big loser was the Big east, who ended up getting three teams in, which is crazy because they're the second ranked conference. Some people are saying. Our friend Frank Fleming is saying that because the Big east is broadcasted on Fox and the Mountain west is broadcasted on CBS. What is the tournament broadcast on?

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That would be on CBS.

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Big cat. Interesting. Also, we have another theory. Max, could you please share it? The committee is anti italian. Anti italian american discrimination.

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This is an example of anti italian.

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Why is it going against the big east? Is italian. I actually agree with.

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Yeah, no, I agree with that. You got some catholic schools, you got New York schools, you got Providence, Patino.

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Yeah, you got Patino, and then you got legends like Roley, Massimino, great italian. Jim Beheim, Carneseca. Patrick Ewing. Patrick Ewing, John Thompson. The most famous Italians you can find.

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Italian league. Yeah, you got Patrick Ewing, the first italian american coach of Georgetown University.

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Yeah, Kyle Neptune ends in a vowel. Italian. Jay Wright.

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Looks like he could be italian.

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J. Wright is italian.

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He's not italian, but he got there as quick as he. Yeah, the suits are italian.

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It was, though. The big east got screwed. St. John's wasn't even in last four out. Seton hall, who beat Yukon, the number one overall seed, wasn't in. Providence, didn't get in. It's bullshit.

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Yeah, it's kind of crazy, too, when you look at what the NCAA did by inventing the net ranking, right? That's a NCAA official NCAA evaluation tool to determine what teams are better. It's their own metric that they invented that they claim to rely on. They did this and they did it so that they could have some data to show people when they complained about bubble teams and they invented a whole new formula, and then they just threw it out the window when it came time to decide on which teams were in. It's ridiculous, but it's also very funny that they just created as a distraction, like, hey, maybe this will make people shut the fuck up for a while, and then we'll just put in the teams. If Oppenheimer had spent those, like, four years inventing the atomic bomb and then Harry Truman just surrenders right afterwards before they drop it. It's so dumb what they did. Do they have an explanation?

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Well, so here was one. So Matt Norlander, who works for CBS, talked to the committee. They said, q one, New Mexico would have been out if it didn't win the Mountain west. Also, Q one wins were why Michigan State got a nine, which was pretty shocking. Also said the Mountain west wins mostly came in conference, thus why so many teams seated that low. So there's two competing things. Mountain west teams are like, our league got seated low, and Big east fans are like, but you got six in and we got three in. It's bullshit. I think it's quad one wins is what they're looking at. But that also doesn't make sense because Michigan State had three quad one wins. I think Providence had six. So it really was no rhyme or reason. And then you have Duquesne, who got an eleven seed, who I'm pretty sure they were just. The committee got lazy. And they're like, whoever wins this game is going to get an eleven seed. There's no reason James Madison shouldn't have gotten an eleven seed over like James. I agree. Better than Duquesne. James Madison got a twelve, Ducane got an eleven.

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It's just crazy. Ducane got the same seed as like, hold on, I got to find it.

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It's almost like they just looked at the name of the school. Yeah, that feels like an eleven seed to me. Yeah, put them in there.

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All right, so New Mexico, they admit was on the bubble is number 22 in net, and they have the same seed as Ducane, who was 83 in net, and Oregon, who was 59 in NC State, who is 63. This might be the first year where the arguments about how the bracketologists, the committee did it is all valid. It feels like they just kind of winged this thing both in seeding and who they left out. Obviously, the bubble getting so tight. Virginia, that should have just been an easy, like, do we want to watch more Virginia?

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It's so funny that not only did they take a team that they knew would piss people off because they might not have been deserving to get in, but also that they picked the one team in America that would piss the most people off because now we all have to watch a Virginia standalone game.

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Standalone game. Also, just one last thing about Michigan State, who I thought should have been in, but when you put the resume up, you could definitely poke some holes in to when they were revealing the bracket on CBS, they asked about Michigan State and someone said it might have been Clark Kellogg. Was like, they're playing really well, even though they haven't won a game. Okay. Yeah, they're competitive games. They haven't won games. They're playing really well.

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So it's awesome just having a bracket in your hands, holding the bracket, looking at it, smelling it when it comes out of the printer, and it's still warm. Everything about a bracket I love.

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It's the best.

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I just went with my balls. I did a balls first pick, and I think I'm going to keep this bracket. I think I'm going to trust my initial reaction on the bracket.

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Who do you have in the twelve five matchup?

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Twelve five matchup in the south? Yeah, I have the Jamu Dukes. I have James Madison winning two games. And Hank, by the way, this is the time, if there was ever a time, you versus Jake Duke versus Vermont, they are the cat amounts. If you lose to Vermont, you should get a cat.

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Oh, all right. Hank is.

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I tried.

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Hank has. This is, pardon my take, civil war in this quadrant. And Hank does not give a fuck.

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And we knew it was.

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Have I filled out a bracket as well? There's one matchup missing. Wisconsin JMU. I wanted to give you guys the floor, maybe try and pitch me. Okay, I'll pitch you. It's hell for me because I just bought back into this Wisconsin team. They played their balls off in the conference. I. I've watched every single Wisconsin game. They were playing very bad basketball in February. They fought hard. They beat the refs on Saturday. They played toe to toe with Illinois. Illinois is really good. They have two guys that just, you can't stop. So I was, like, feeling excited. I was like, this is a team that. I talked about it in January. They have the makings. Every piece that's needed for a run. JMU is a problem. They're really fucking good. And basketball, they score the basketball, they shoot the three. Wisconsin doesn't defend the three. I'm just hoping that height and scoring down low can work, but it's a lose lose for me, because if Wisconsin beats JMU, they're the favorites. They're the five seed. And if we lose, it's like, ha ha, this one's going to probably hurt. It won't hurt as bad as 2015 because nothing will, but it will hurt very, very bad.

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What about, like, sweet 16, 2016, early date Florida? That hurt very bad. Probably won't hurt as much as that because it's the first round.

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It's the first.

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Four. It'll be number four on Wisconsin basketball losses.

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Big cat's right.

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Yeah.

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Wisconsin is supposed to win this game. We're the underdogs for a reason, as we should be. But, Hank, to make my case, I'm not sure if this is going to make the case for me or against me. I think I'm going to be there. So it's about 15 minutes away from where the wedding is going to be. It's like the universe lining up for me. I'm going to go there straight from the wedding. It's a black tie weding, too. It's a haitian black tie wedding. And I'm going to go twelve minutes down the road, go to Barclays. That might actually work against us, because if you look at the history of barstool and the teams that we root for, breaking hearts, if there's somebody there in person, that person usually loses. Right? Maybe not from your perspective as a Patriots fan, but for most everybody else's, like, this does feel like it's going to be. We are underdogs and we are playing with house money, but it does feel like, it will be more heartbreaking for me if I were to be there in person to watch it lose.

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Okay, but counterpoint, hold on, don't fill it out yet. Counterpoint. I just can visualize. I'm going to be streaming me just at people love to watch me die on streams. The numbers spiking as the game gets worse and worse. And then every ten minutes, a clip coming out of happy Pft. Not on mushrooms, but looking like he might be on mushrooms.

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I haven't said I'm not going to take mushrooms.

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Okay, so he might be on mushrooms. Happy pft. While everyone just watches me die. Now, the last thing I'll say in defense of Wisconsin, this will 100% be the trendiest. Twelve five. Upset. Yeah. Everyone's going to pick Jmu. I was looking at the matchup because I was like, I'm nervous. I was looking at Ken Pompe Torvic trying to find, texting, all my friends who make power ratings. It's going to be a very difficult game for Wisconsin to win because I think James Madison is very good and they were criminally underseated. But just got to be taller. Just got to be taller. And AJ Stor's just got to be awesome.

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You mean AJ score.

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Aj score. And Max Klezman has to get his groin replaced.

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It's going to come down to this is actually the perfect litmus test for rest versus rust. Yeah, that's it. Hank, do you believe in rest or.

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Playing good ball right now? We're playing good ball right now.

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Jamie's had a lot of time to recover.

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What did you put in there? Well, here's the other thing, too, is you would love for me to die against Duke, so. That is correct. I'm thinking about the vibes. I don't want to get lashed out on in person on Friday. Oh, true for Wisconsin with you, because PFT won't be there. And then you're going to convince yourself that you're going to get revenge for 2015 and lose to Duke, which will be the best content case. So I wrote Wisconsin. Okay. It's really Jamie against the world again. Someone did this on purpose. Yeah, someone did this on purpose. I said it on Monday. I was like, I'm not trying to be a narcissist, but remember, know, we had standalone games, bears versus commanders, bears versus patriots. Like someone in the universe is like, how can we squeeze it out of them and try to break them up via sport? Thank you. It's good content for the show. No, wait.

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Heck, you're one of them. You're one of the perverts out there. You probably put a phone call in.

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But even if it was just twelve five, I would be like, okay, that's kind of a coincidence. The fact that Duke's there sitting there against thumbs, against Vermont. Fuck. Yeah. Is just. Oh, I know. I wish maybe that would have been great if it was just like. And Villanova's in the tournament. Duke versus Villanova, that would. Right.

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So we unveiled Hank's pick for that game on Wednesday's show. We'll unveil Max's pick for that game.

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Yeah.

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And then on Friday, we'll unveil memes'pick.

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And then next Monday, the much anticipated memes pick. Yeah. Next Monday, I'll unveil my pick. But, yeah, the brackets out. I'm just so excited. I'm so excited for college basketball. It is my favorite. We should talk about conference tournament week because it was incredible. I reached that point where I think last night I was up again at, like 12:00 at night watching our UT Arlington boys struggle with. Who are they playing? Grand Canyon? But it's just these five days, I've just had nothing but basketball in my brain. I don't even know. I just need to see a ball be bouncing at all times. Yeah.

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Hearing the squeaks.

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Yeah. And there was just so many crazy games. I mean, the fact that NC State, that was one of the craziest runs, five games, five days. And to beat Virginia when Virginia should have fouled on a bank in three pointer and then kind of low key throttle. NC, like, they were up that entire game. It was crazy. And then we had every tournament had its own weird thing happen. Kentucky losing in the first round, Tennessee losing in the first round. Bama getting smoked.

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SEC was a bloodbath.

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Yeah.

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Wait, I can't say that. You could say, okay, it was a B bath.

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Yeah. B bath. Houston getting absolutely trucked by Iowa State. Wisconsin beating Purdue was the happiest I've been in a while for any of my sports.

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Mean, that was a crazy game, too.

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Yeah.

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And the big pain for me is I like this badgers team. They're so fun to watch.

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Fun.

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Especially when they're shooting the ball.

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Well, they have fun guys. They're not the typical, like, slow it down, Virginia. Let's just fucking go 30 seconds. Just passing the ball around and then get a good layup.

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It's very hard for me to root against a guy named Chucky. I can't be like, God damn it, Chucky. I fucking hate you. It's like, that's Chucky.

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Yeah. And then Pac twelve had craziness. And then every single conference, it felt like the only conference that went chalk was the big east. And Yukon just marches on, just dominating everyone. Yeah.

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I feel like this is a big set up for Yukon to just destroy people again.

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Yeah. Who would you say?

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Because I was going to say that NC state to me, feels like America's team or America's sweetheart? America's sweetheart. Because DJ Burns can't root against that guy. Just throwing his ass into people. He looks like Escalade. He's the new model of an Escalade and he's just mowing people down with his ass. And then the fact that he's such a silky smooth passer, too. Watching a big dude that can pass like that is so fun. NC State feels like the team that most of America has fallen in love with. But besides them, who would you put as, like, the sentimental favorites?

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Sentimental favorites. Good question. But can I just say one thing about NC State and where they're seated in the bracket? I know that we're just going off vibes and everything, but I was thinking about it. You have Houston and Tennessee futures.

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I do.

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I have Kentucky, UNc and Yukon futures. If Kentucky wins their first game and Texas Tech wins their first game, I was just thinking about how I'm just going to watch that game and Patrick Mahomes can be standing behind the bench and just another future gone by. Patrick Mahomes, he's going to somehow come in and drop 30.

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Yeah.

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It's like, God damn it, this guy. All right, team of America's team.

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America's sweetheart.

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America's sweetheart. That's great. I mean, you usually don't find out till you get that upset. But based off will Wade McNeese, we also need big sexy merch for be our. He's got to be our guy.

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Does he have a nickname yet?

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I think I've heard Escalade memes just keeps calling him big sexy.

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What about the cybertruck?

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The cyber truck? We can workshop something, but we need.

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To make a deal there.

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Yeah.

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You're the perfect person to ask about. That is coming on the show, actually.

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Yeah. It was Indiana state who didn't get in. I feel bad for Indiana state. It fucking sucks because they were so fun to watch this year. That definitely would have been the team that everyone was rooting for and pulling. Got.

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I've got another America sweetheart, but they're going to get bounced in the first round. Okay, long Beach State.

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Yeah.

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Because their coach Dan Munson, he and the university mutually agreed to part ways after the season. Yeah, essentially he was fired. But they're like, hey, you can stick around and you can coach for the tournament. Then they just won their conference tournament. So he's still their coach and Dan.

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Munson's a legend coach. If you want to actually draw the line of, when did Gonzaga become Gonzaga? It's Dan Munson. He was the coach of Gonzaga. He was assistant coach for a really long time, then their head coach when they made their very first deep run where everyone's like, what is this school? Where is it? They fired him. And he's like, yeah, I'll keep coaching him for this conference tournament.

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You're fired. He's like, okay, can I still coach the team?

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Yeah. And they came back, they were down. I was watching that game. They were down like ten in the second half and came back and won that game.

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He said afterwards that Jim harboss full of shit. When he says, who's got better than us? Nobody. He's like, yeah, I do, I do. My life's pretty sweet. So a guy who's fired, being that happy about his life, which I guess is still to coach basketball, it's hard not to root for that guy.

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By the way, if they win, if.

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They beat Arizona the first round, is he coaching for his job? Like, could they rehire him?

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They should rehire him. Another one. Keats, NC State's coach all time. All time coaching for your job. He had a line in his contract that if he ever wins the ACC tournament in a contract year, he gets an automatic two year extension. So he got an automatic two year extension on Saturday night just by winning that game.

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That's cool.

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Good. And he was, he was on the hot seat like they were going to fire him and it kicks in and he just got all these bonuses. All right, I'll give you one other team that I think could be the capture America's heart, Alabama. Sanford. Sanford's playing Kansas, 13 four. Kansas has been trending downwards. They've had a lot of injuries. They got bounced quickly in the first round against Cinci in the big twelve tournament. Sanford plays so fast, they chuck. And that's the type of team that everyone falls in love with, just a bunch of undersized guys who hit threes and played a crazy pace. So Sanford could be that team and Kansas is like, you always got to look. What's the story? Even though Kansas is down, it's like ten years from now, if Sanford beat Kansas, everyone will be like, wow. Remember when Sanford beat Kansas? Yeah, it's Kansas.

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They lost to a school named Sanford.

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Yeah, right.

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If you're looking at the Jake Marsh storyline, Super Bowl. I see one in the second round. Tennessee, Texas, Rick Barnes.

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Yeah, I love that. I really wish the committee had done Purdue versus St. Peter's in the first round.

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Yeah, me too.

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That would have been great. But yeah, this bracket looks great. All right, so do you guys want to do a quick final four that we can then adjust at a later date? Yes. All right. Do you have yours, Hank? Okay, give it to me. Yukon, Arizona, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Yukon, Kentucky, rematch for a Moza 2014. Kentucky wins the national championship.

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Okay, I have Yukon, Arizona, Houston, Tennessee.

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Okay, this is my first glance. I haven't even done all throughout. I think it's going to be the storyline revenge factor. It's going to be Yukon, North Carolina, Marquette and Creighton. And everyone's going to be like, why did you leave out the entire Big east? Three out of four of the final four teams are big east teams.

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Counterpoint. Do you know what network this is going to be played on?

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Oh yeah. CBS.

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And what network is the Big east played on?

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Fox.

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Fox.

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Something to think about. Shit. That's not going to happen. It would be very be, it actually would be great. Colorado State.

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Yeah, it would be great if that did happen. It would be a big fuck you succeeding committee.

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I'm rooting for that. I think I would love to just see the, I just like whenever the committee gets embarrassed, whether it be college football, whether it be college basketball, committees are bullshit. And I'm convinced that all of these committees can be the job of the committees can be done better by like 75% of the fans or AI, just anyone who's been paying attention. I know for a fact, I know college basketball guys who are way more informed about college basketball and who's good and who's bad than this stupid committee. Yeah.

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Committees exist just so that one person doesn't get blamed for stuff.

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Yeah. And then they, it's like when somebody.

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Says, oh, you know, I have to take this to the board and get the board's approval on it. No, it's just having a board or having a committee is very useful. So you can be like, no, it's this nebulous entity's problem that you got fucked over. There's no one person that like a St. John's fan can call up on the phone and be like, fuck you. That's all we want is fans. Like, give me somebody to tell us to fuck off.

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Yeah, give us a hotline.

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Establish an open hotline. We should do that for voicemails, maybe for Wednesday's show.

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Oh, yeah. What was that segment we used to do? We should bring that back for March Madness. Was it like when your dad texts you?

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Parental advisory.

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Parental advisory, yeah.

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Pissed off parents.

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And then we had another one where we used a hashtag that was good that people. Higher education. No, when people tweet us, they were mad and we would read them off and they were great.

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It might just be like, mad online.

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Yeah, we got to bring that back because that was great to hear from the fans when they feel like they're.

[00:26:58]

If you are, if you are in a grieved party, if you feel like you've been wronged by the committee, just tweet at us. Hashtag mad online. Let us know why. Let us know what school they fucked over, and we will read the best ones.

[00:27:10]

Yeah. The end of the CBS show, they thank the committee. Shut the fuck up. It's a bunch of dudes sitting and women probably sitting in business casual attire in a Sheridan conference room eating, like, lukewarm spinach artichoke dip, and just sitting there being like, oh, this team looks pretty good.

[00:27:32]

Thank you for your service. You spent 6 hours today, and it's probably, I don't know if it's spit art dip or if it's like, just cold cut sandwiches.

[00:27:39]

It's just gross food.

[00:27:40]

You had to eat dry sandwiches for a day. You had to eat a turkey club that didn't have almost any mayonnaise on it at all, like a very dry sandwich. Thank you for your service. You basically served overseas in Iraq.

[00:27:51]

Yeah. You keep standing up and looking at the cookies again, being like, oh, is this oatmeal raisin? Then sitting back, I'll have half. And then you have another half. Then you have another half. You've had seven cookies, dude. They probably, who put ducane at number eleven?

[00:28:04]

They brought in the pitcher filled with water in, like, the metal vase, and it was probably filled to the top too far when you poured it into your little stemmed glass. It probably spilled a little bit on the white tablecloth that was housing all the craft services. So it was a tough day for everybody.

[00:28:19]

That fucking one idiot who's been accidentally drinking decaf for the whole day, and he's like, halfway through, he's like, fuck, this is decaf.

[00:28:25]

Yeah, it probably took him like, ten minutes to get the PowerPoint set up. You didn't have the right connection cable.

[00:28:30]

They're morons. So, no, thank you to the committee. You guys did some bad jobs. Bad jobs. The bubble got burst by everyone. This was the craziest conference tournament week. I'm more mad about the seeding. I think they did some really bad shit with the seeding and fucked over some teams. Yeah.

[00:28:50]

In terms of the teams that got left out, I think you have to look at the ACC and then you look at the big east teams that got left out and be like, which team? Like Clemson was what, a 6th seed?

[00:29:01]

Yeah, I think so.

[00:29:02]

Yeah, they.

[00:29:03]

Yeah.

[00:29:04]

Yeah.

[00:29:04]

Clemson's six seed. Joe Gerard's going to get absolutely eaten alive by New Mexico. They play fast. Yeah, fastball.

[00:29:13]

This is also a very funny time of year because I'm very bad at gambling. I'm on a historically bad run right now. But I also think that I'm smart enough to pick, like, Colorado to win a play in game and then pick Colorado to win their second round game over Marquette.

[00:29:28]

I already bet I.

[00:29:30]

We're smart, we're sharp.

[00:29:31]

Yeah, no, it's fine. You got to get into it. So what else we got for the bracket? Anything else, Hank? Duke. Are you going to be a Duke fan? Yeah.

[00:29:44]

I like how you just decided that right now. Sure.

[00:29:47]

I mean, I don't have a college basketball team, so they're the closest thing I got. Duke went out. I mean, this team is not good. Sad. Who do they lose to? I just. My brain is just melted with me. Asked me what happened and I'm just like. I think. I don't know. Well, Max, do you have any other thoughts? Villanova, how mad would you have been if Wisconsin lost at the refs? Oh, with Zach Edie? Yeah, very mad. I mean, anyone who. What? Everyone who roots for a big ten team should be thankful that that was the last time we have to watch a big ten. Ref. Crew. Ref Zach Edie. I still think Purdue is a very good team. They're better than they were last year. But it's just maddening watching a seven foot guy get treated like he's a five foot guy and with kid gloves. And every single time he gets touched, there's a whistle. He's barreling over people. It's nuts. So that felt really good. That was a very fun win to have.

[00:30:44]

It is funny because the refs feel bad for Zach Eedy.

[00:30:47]

Right?

[00:30:47]

Which is really strange for a guy that he's that physically imposing. And you're like, oh, poor Zach Edie. He doesn't look like he's having any fun out there.

[00:30:55]

They did it to Michigan State. The night before, too. It was just egregious call. After egregious call. I had one last thing. Max, you were never even close to the bubble. You keep saying that. That's not true. No.

[00:31:06]

You kind of wasted our time.

[00:31:08]

Yeah, like you wasted all that anger. And you weren't even close to the bubble. If Villanova beats Marquette. Then beats Providence. And is in the biggies final and loses to Yukon. They are a thousand percent in. That would be six quad one wins. I don't think so. A thousand percent.

[00:31:26]

We know how the committee feels about Italians, Max.

[00:31:29]

And what network is the big east on? It's true. And the whole quad one thing is bullshit. Like Michigan. That Michigan State got that seating because of their quad one wins. They have three of them. Yeah. Seton hall has more. St. John's has more. Yeah. I thought Michigan State should be in. But five quad one wins. I know. And they beat Yukon. Yeah. It's crazy. And, Max, you were never close to close. Providence wasn't. Was Providence even the last four out? Were they last four out?

[00:31:57]

No, they were not last four.

[00:31:58]

They weren't last four out. And they went around further than you in the Big east tournament. But we already beat them twice. We were ahead of them going into.

[00:32:07]

The Big east tournament.

[00:32:07]

So last four out was Oklahoma, Seaton Hall, Indiana State and Pitt. You wasted our time. But if they beat Marquette and then beat Providence to get to the Big east final. They're a thousand percent in. Yeah. I don't think so. I don't know why you say that. I don't think so. Because you weren't even close.

[00:32:24]

Did you call him Frank?

[00:32:25]

You weren't even close. But yes, you're saying that because they lost. That would have got them to 20 wins with six quad one games. Actually, I don't know if Providence would have been quad one. Justice for Pug. Justice for. Justice for Pug. Oh, yeah. So we should say that is another fleming curse. A crazy stat. John Fanta put this out there. For the first time in 45 year history. The Big east conference. A team went over five games, over 500 in conference play. And did not make the NCAA tournament. That team is Seaton Hall. Damn. That's tough. That is tough.

[00:33:03]

That is very tough.

[00:33:04]

It's just a bubble. The bubble went crazy. It was all those teams just stealing bids. I mean, the a ten had every single team being upset. But, yeah, we have a bracket. And I'm very excited about the bracket.

[00:33:17]

I love my bracket. My bracket is perfect. And it's 100% correct. And nothing ever bad is going to happen to it.

[00:33:23]

Who do you think Purdue is going to lose to?

[00:33:25]

I think they lose to TCU.

[00:33:27]

Sanford. Sanford's in the elite.

[00:33:33]

Just, I picked some of these teams because I want to see these storylines develop. Like, I want to see will wade win two games. I want to see McNeese beat Kansas.

[00:33:42]

Sanford. Also, everyone needs to know that you have to fill out your bracket. You have to have a really strong conviction about one crazy upset and then have that team lose by 30. Yeah. And then your entire bracket is gone. You guys are highlighter guys, right?

[00:33:56]

I go back and forth depending on the year.

[00:33:58]

Highlighter.

[00:33:59]

I don't have a device that I need to use every single. Oh, I go with the flow.

[00:34:04]

Oh, highlighter for sure. Right, Hank? Yeah, always highlighter. Right, Max?

[00:34:09]

Circle.

[00:34:10]

You circle, circle. And then weirdo. And then put a line through it. Yeah.

[00:34:16]

You got to be able to do both.

[00:34:17]

Yeah.

[00:34:18]

If I have a highlighter for me, I'm a highlighter guy. If I got a pen, guess what? It's big time.

[00:34:21]

I want it to be as quick as possible. And I don't always have a highlighter close by. I will always have a pen. Yep. Yeah. All right, well, we'll get more into the bracket with John Rostein and we also are going to have Titus on, on Wednesday where we dive really deep in, have more crystallized thoughts. Let's do who's back the week? By the way, I mentioned at the top we are going to talk Justin Fields after John Rostein got a lot of thoughts on that. He was traded, so we're not ignoring it. Who's back the week? Brought to you by our friends at game time. Game time. PFT is going to use game time on Friday night to go see James Madison versus Wisconsin. Did you know that you can get tickets to James Madison right now for only can you find the price? I don't know if we have the prices up, but that's right. With game time, the official ticking partner of Barstool Sports, you shouldn't have to worry when you buy tickets to your next big event. Game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all your sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you.

[00:35:15]

They have flash deals for sudden discounts, zone deals for when you're feeling flexible, and their lowest price guarantee means that if you can find the same seats for less anywhere else, game time will credit you 110% of the difference. Game time is the best place for last minute seats with up to 60% off your favorite events. What are you waiting for? I'm going to buy or PFD is going to buy James Madison versus Wisconsin on Friday night at the Barclays. He's going to do it right now. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app, create an account and use code PMT for $20 off your first purchase terms. Apply. Download the game time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed with the game time app. Okay, Hank, who's back of the week? Who's back of the week is. Okay, good. Grady Dick and Anthony Black did a jersey swap at the end of their game on Sunday.

[00:36:07]

That's pretty cool. It's like when Chris very funny. When Chris very funny picture used to always stand next to Fletcher Cox. So it would say long Cox. And then one time Jalen hurts.

[00:36:15]

Got there.

[00:36:15]

It said long Cox hurts.

[00:36:17]

That was awesome.

[00:36:17]

Yeah, just guy stuff.

[00:36:19]

Yeah. Always makes me laugh. Nothing like a good jersey swap. Who's back to get Scotty Scheffler? This guy is good. He's a problem. Golf.

[00:36:28]

He is a big problem.

[00:36:29]

Another comeback victory at the players. Repeat champion at the players fifth major. Fifth major. Wyndham Clark had a putt to tie. Force a playoff. Went inside the cup, rolled around, popped.

[00:36:42]

Back out, did 180 degree loop, came out. I may have bet on Wyndham Clark to win. That was a tough loss.

[00:36:49]

That was crazy.

[00:36:50]

It was wild. Yeah, it was really close. Going down the stretch there. It was like Brian Harmon Shoffley. Is Shaffley ever going to win anything? He just doesn't like to win.

[00:36:59]

Zander.

[00:36:59]

The only thing Xander does, his name is always at the top of the leaderboard on Saturday. It's always right next to Patrick Cantley. It's always like Cantley Schauffley.

[00:37:07]

I think he's like for nine and he's been in the final group nine times. Maybe it's over his last nine because he's won a couple of times, but can't break through. Can't break through.

[00:37:16]

Tough. What about a Xander? Is it where you're a kid and your name is Alexander and you decide to go by Xander instead of Alex?

[00:37:23]

I think some kids are named Xander. Yeah, Xander Zander and Jimmy Tetro in his show. I don't think his name is Alexander.

[00:37:30]

That would be why you think his name is just Xander.

[00:37:31]

Yeah, I think it might be Xander. I think people do Xander now. I mean, people do all kinds.

[00:37:36]

No, his name's Alexander. Of course it's Alexander. That's what Xander's.

[00:37:39]

It's short for I didn't. Alexander.

[00:37:40]

I didn't know that you thought just Xander was a name.

[00:37:43]

I think people do. Name. Yeah. Why don't you just go Alex?

[00:37:46]

Yeah, Alex.

[00:37:46]

That's what you should.

[00:37:47]

If your name is Alexander and you choose to go by Xander, that tells me all you need to know.

[00:37:51]

He should go by Alex till he wins a tournament. Yeah, well, he's won tournaments. No, but wins one since he's been choking. Does he choke? You could call today a choke. Also, Max Homa did not hit a person. He hit a tree. Yeah, he was very clear about that on the record.

[00:38:06]

Although I wish he had hit the. I wish because the person was standing right in front of him when he was trying to hit a shot. That's darwinism.

[00:38:13]

He said afterwards. He's like, yeah, I asked him to move. And then they just kept on inching closer.

[00:38:17]

The post match press conference with Max was so funny because they asked him about that situation, and he had this smile on his face, and he kept holding himself back. And if I'm running it through the Maxoma truth translator, he wanted to say so badly, like, I wish that had hit the guy. It's his fault for being there.

[00:38:34]

Yes.

[00:38:34]

He should not have been there. That's his problem, not my problem. You should ask him about that. But the video made it look like it just whopped him in the head. And I was hoping that he got hit in the head, but not bad enough to cause a serious injury. Just enough to teach him a. Yeah.

[00:38:48]

Yeah, I agree. So Max did not hit a person. I thought he killed the guy. Yeah. I mean, there's. There's no way that hits him in the head. It doesn't seriously injure him.

[00:38:57]

Yeah. It hits the thing, and then you hear somebody scream, like, half a second later.

[00:39:01]

Yeah, that would have been.

[00:39:02]

I kind of wish that it happened.

[00:39:04]

Yeah. For. Okay. Pft, your who's back.

[00:39:07]

My who's back of the week is the Titanic.

[00:39:11]

Oh.

[00:39:12]

So I think we pitched this on the show to Damon John from Shark Tank, like, five years ago. But it's been my dream to one day recreate the Titanic. And by that, I mean build the exact same ship again, have it leave from the same port on the same day of the year, have it sail the exact same route as the original Titanic.

[00:39:34]

I like it.

[00:39:34]

And have the exact same number of lifeboats on it, have tickets cost the same that they did back in the day.

[00:39:38]

The three richest guys in the world on there. Yeah.

[00:39:40]

Adjusted for inflation. And then just see if you can make it. I guarantee you that would sell out. People like thrill seekers out there. There's a bunch of titanic freaks out there. We saw it with the sub that imploded. People get legit obsessed with the Titanic. I would love to have it be like stowage class where it costs like $5 for a ticket. You sell 1000 of those, and then you have other suites up top that cost $250,000 where rich people get to go in. Just recreate it 100%. But there's an australian billionaire named Clive Palmer, and he is planning on building the exact replica of the Titanic, and he wants to set sail in 2027. I hope he does it at the same time of year.

[00:40:21]

Do it.

[00:40:22]

Just run the whole thing back. See what can happen.

[00:40:24]

Well, there's no ICE caps anymore, right? Maybe by then we fucked up that iceberg.

[00:40:31]

Yeah, we did. That iceberg is non existent.

[00:40:33]

Global warming. Titanic kind of a little bit of a bitch made boat when you think about, obviously, because it got destroyed. But have you ever seen the pictures of the Titanic versus, like, a modern day cruise?

[00:40:45]

It's not as big as that.

[00:40:46]

Shit is a fucking joke. Bezos probably has a boat bigger.

[00:40:50]

Yeah, definitely.

[00:40:51]

Titanic was mid at best.

[00:40:53]

Yeah. So they should make this a bigger boat.

[00:40:56]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, if you remake the Titanic, everyone's going to look at it and be like, that's it. Because in our heads, you're like, biggest boat ever for that.

[00:41:05]

One day, like, on the same day of the journey that the Titanic hit the iceberg, they should just have the captain blindfolded. It's like, we're going straight ahead. Can you imagine what a real that would be to be on that boat?

[00:41:16]

I want this thing to sink so bad.

[00:41:17]

It would rock.

[00:41:18]

Especially a billionaire named Clive.

[00:41:19]

It would rock so hard if it sank. I'm rooting for it to sink.

[00:41:23]

He might be building this just to blow it up and be like, it sunk. Yeah.

[00:41:26]

This might be a Michael Bay movie.

[00:41:28]

Yeah. Okay, my who's back week, I have two. One is. I should have said this during the brackets, but this is the funniest time of the year in terms of non sports fans versus sports fans. Because I think in NFL season, if you aren't a football fan, I think most non football fans at least respect it. Like, we know that's big. We know the NFL is big.

[00:41:48]

The NFL is king.

[00:41:49]

There are people who just will never watch a college basketball game just out of principle. And I saw this one guy tweet, you're a sick individual. If you've been watching college basketball all week, it's like, no, this is the best. But it's always a funny divide because you have people who, obviously not listeners to this show, but you have people who are just like, this is just another week for them while we are just going to go to war. Yeah, I love it.

[00:42:12]

Yeah, it is, it's really strange. But you know what? Get it. I get into whatever big sport is happening at that time. That's how my calendar is.

[00:42:20]

Right, of course. But you know what I mean? When you meet someone who doesn't watch the NFL, they're like, oh, yeah, well, I watch Super bowl on Rothstein, but you meet people who don't watch college basketball, they're like, what is going on?

[00:42:30]

But I feel like during bracket week.

[00:42:33]

Yeah.

[00:42:33]

That kind of transcends office.

[00:42:34]

Yeah, you're right.

[00:42:36]

But conference championship week, you're right. There's a lot of people out there that college basketball does not start until the bracket.

[00:42:43]

Right. It's more about conference championship week. They don't understand. Like, wait, you've been watching basketball every day for the last five days.

[00:42:49]

It's the exact opposite of Joe Leonardi's schedule.

[00:42:51]

All right, so that was my segue because my other who's back is Joe Leonardi, who's now no longer back because it's golf season. Joe Leonardi. I thought I liked this guy. Have we had him on?

[00:43:00]

I don't think so. I think, you know what? He reached out to us, maybe year two of part of my take, and I think we were going to put him on the show, but he was like, the thing is, I'm actually like swamped until the third week of March, so I can come on the third week of March. And then we were like, wait a second. What the fuck are we going to talk to Joe Lenardi about during the NCAA tournament?

[00:43:20]

Right? Like his job is done by even. I don't think he watches the NCAA tournament. He was also getting community noted because he was putting in like, wins. He had Virginia winning against NC State, they didn't. At Illinois losing to Nebraska, they didn't. But Joe Leonardi on Friday night, after making Virginia the winner, tweeted, danger time for UVA and good night for me. Joe Leonardi has to work three weeks a year and he said goodnight at 1057 during conference championship week on Friday night when there was like six games left. What is up with this guy?

[00:43:57]

I think he hates brackets.

[00:43:58]

Yeah, because he also said, I think.

[00:44:00]

Joe Leonardi is trapped in his own personal hell. Like the one thing that he has to do all day, every day he hates doing, which is watching college basketball.

[00:44:08]

Right. And he was the first to do it. And everyone respects him and ESPN employs him, but like a million people do. Brackets now shout out bracket matrix that compiles it had, you know, a couple hours before the brackets came out. He said 2 hours, actually, two days until golf season. He's just so excited to be done with this stuff. And then he also said, this is grumpy time for him. Right. Like right before the brackets come out. He's as grumpy as it gets. What is up with this guy? Does he not? Bro, you got to love what you do. Yeah.

[00:44:38]

It's like if Hank's job was to read all the time, that's what he's treating this like.

[00:44:43]

I was shocked.

[00:44:44]

And he might not even watch the games this week. I don't know. His job is done. Like Joe Leonardi's usefulness runs out at exactly this time.

[00:44:52]

Every single. Yeah, it's over. And Max was here on were just, we're like, what do you mean good night?

[00:44:58]

I was furious.

[00:44:59]

What do you mean good night? Your job is to watch the games and decide the bracket for us. You are going to had Max when he tweeted that I think you and I both stayed up for another 5 hours. Yeah.

[00:45:11]

I mean, the Arlington game was unbelievable.

[00:45:13]

It went forever and it was incredible. Yeah. New Mexico and Colorado hadn't even tipped off yet and they were both bubble teams. Good night. How are you supposed to make a judgment on who should be in and who should be out if you won't even watch the games on championship week? Careful, Max.

[00:45:28]

Careful, Max. He's an italian.

[00:45:29]

We were literally, we were just screaming. What do you mean good night? You can't go to sleep. This is your job. It's five days a year that he has to stay up that late. Yeah.

[00:45:41]

What he needs to realize is that with one snap of the fingers, that freak Steve Cornacki could step into his job and do it better.

[00:45:48]

I've always been a Jerry palm guy myself. That fucking piece he has on his head just rocks. I like, goes out there with authority. You're like, dude, what are you wearing?

[00:45:55]

I like Charlie cream. I'm on the team.

[00:45:57]

Okay. Yeah. So let's normalize other think.

[00:46:01]

So. I was thinking about the upcoming college football season. I think Blake, his line is going to be, he's going to be a bracketologist for football because nobody's doing that yet. He's going to be the first.

[00:46:12]

Yeah, as long as Leonardi is not doing it. No, he hates his job. Good night. You don't fucking say goodnight to us at 1057 on Friday night of conference championship week. What do you mean, good night?

[00:46:26]

Yeah, well, it was midnight on the east coast.

[00:46:29]

This was after he had put Virginia as a win.

[00:46:32]

Yeah, that's tough. Tough night for him.

[00:46:33]

Real tough. Okay, Jake is still taping with Titus. We can ask him his who's back when he gets back here, let's get to John Rostein, talk a little more college basketball. Also got to talk some tweets with John Rostein because he's had a bunch recently that have had us. Huh? We are brought to you by our friends at Uber Eats. This is the time for Uber Eats, people. Big announcement. Did you know you can get almost anything from Uber Eats? And no, I'm not just talking about food from your favorite restaurant. Uber Eats has a full range of delivery capabilities beyond just restaurant food, like groceries, convenience, and alcohol. Whether you need ICE cream, batteries, two sodas, or paper towels, or maybe all four, uber eats can deliver almost almost anything. Get grocery alcohol and everyday essentials in addition to the restaurant food you love. So in other words, get almost almost anything with uber eats. Order now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Uber eats. This is the perfect time to sit on your couch all weekend long. Never leave Uber eats.

[00:47:35]

Get almost anything with Uber eats. We're also brought to you by our friends from Chevy. You know that we are truck guys. We love the Chevy Silverado. The Chevy silverado has commanding and unstoppable grit, legendary capability, and dependability, too. We've all spent seat time, as they call it, in the biz, behind the wheel of a silverado. And we're not just truck guys, we're Chevy truck guys. You know about the Zr. Two family of trucks lifted and ready for anything right from the factory. Now Silverado is taking it all to the next level with even more Silverado truck tech like available supercruise. Only supercruise lets you drive hands free and tow hands free on more than 400,000 miles of compatible roads. With over 138,000,000 miles of hands free driving by customers, supercruise will help you get to your adventure energized, and it'll help you drive home. Go to Chevy.com, where you can check out the Silverado. Build your own Silverado online and learn important details about super cruise today with Chevy. Thank you to Chevy, our wonderful sponsor. Okay, here he is, John Rostein. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest, recurring guest.

[00:48:42]

It is John Rostein. You can find him on CBS Sports. You can hear his podcast, College Hoops. Today. It is a tradition unlike any other. We have John Rostein to break down his regions, talk, brackets. But before we do that, John, how are you feeling after Shaka smart just outed you for being a serial texter to him on national television? For people who missed, John asked him about Tyler Koleck and whether he'd be playing. And Shaka said, should I answer this now or should I wait till you text me every single morning? How are you know?

[00:49:17]

Hey, look, I hope that Kat, everybody who meets me, and I think probably most people feel this. They feel I'm one of the most relentless people that they've met in the history of their life. Look, nothing was given to me. Nothing obviously was put in front of me and said, okay, take this. This is yours. So the only way I know how to live life is to go through every life, each and every day, like, I've accomplished nothing. And the way in life to accomplish everything is to wake up each and every day believing that you accomplish nothing.

[00:49:42]

Oh, every day is a gift.

[00:49:45]

Wait, so every day you wake up and you're like, I have not texted shaka smart ever in my life. Essentially, no.

[00:49:53]

I was following up with him this past week, obviously, about Colix injury news, and we spoke before the big east tournament. He said, there's no news right now. I'll let you know if that changes, and so on and so forth. But I can never go through life feeling like I could have done more in my vocation and in my effort. So what I mean by that is, you know, I believe it. Was it Salvador Dali who said, have no fear of perfection. You'll never reach it. We're getting deep and philosophical here on the first question, but why not? We're close.

[00:50:24]

Yeah, I like that.

[00:50:25]

I think the way you have to look at it is, I could never live with myself, like, well, I could have done x, y, or Z to be better, and I didn't do that. So now I look at things and I say, you know what? I have to always make sure that I'm stretching things out as much as I can, giving my best effort. And if the chips don't fall in your favor, the chips don't fall in your favor, you're never going to be able to be on top of everything. But you can never not give your best effort in life. As you know from one of our favorite movies that we share together, one of most. Sylvester Stallone's most underrated movies, over the top. The world meets nobody halfway.

[00:50:56]

Yeah, and you live that mantra, and sometimes to your personal life's detriment. Because I was made aware of this tweet of yours a couple hours ago. I wanted to follow up, make sure that you're doing okay personally, because I believe this was Friday. You tweeted, problems at home been so dialed in that my wife took our six month old girl with her to a work trip on the west coast. I hope they come back. But if they don't, dying on your.

[00:51:22]

Sword is worth it.

[00:51:23]

When Yukon St. John's is 24 hours away at msg. Remember, life is about choices. So are you single? Is this the, like, look out, ladies. John Rostein ready to get back at it?

[00:51:34]

No, but the truth of the matter is this. My wife. I've got a really busy stretch. As you guys know. I was doing tv tonight. I had to do my own podcast. I'm on with you guys. I have more TV in the morning, then I'm flying out to Dayton for the first four, and then I'm going to another site from there. But she was like, all right, I get it that this is march. Every month is March for me because I have a job, too, and I have my own career. And she's like, you know what? I'm putting the baby to sleep and I'm sleeping in a different room tonight because I don't want to hear about these brackets. I'll watch the game socially, but that's it. And I go, that's fine. So March season drives a think know in the house a little bit. Like, people don't understand that it's a really big deal that Ducane hasn't been to the tournament since 77, which is the same year that Star wars first did theaters. But I have learned this, and you guys tell me if I'm wrong. Nobody is perfect, not even my wife, who I love to pieces.

[00:52:21]

But at the end of the day, you are who you are in life. And at this point, you guys know me well enough. I'm not changing. So if I for years have felt that the most underrated rivalry was St. John's Yukon and it was untapped because St. John's, who didn't make the NCAA tournament, hasn't won an NCAA tournament game since 2000, when Mike Jarvis led St. John's over northern Arizona and Tucson, when Northern Arizona had a very dangerous center named Dan McClintock. I am not going to back down on the fact that I was still waiting to see if St. John's could get to Friday night, the biggies tournament to play Yukon, who again has become a team that is operating on a Calhoun level under Dan Hurley.

[00:53:03]

Yes. No. Hey, listen, we have busy seasons, football season. We have a lot of stuff that pulls us in different directions. So we understand. I wanted to follow up on one other. We had your back on the other tweet where you said you lost a friend because you didn't go their engagement party. I don't know if you heard what we said on our show, but we said engagement parties are bullshit. A guy should never be like, I can't believe you didn't come to my engagement party. That's point, John Rostein. You made the right choice.

[00:53:30]

But also, and you guys know this, when you do what we do, you don't say no to work. You don't say no that when you have opportunities, because especially, and you guys know this, when you're starting out, if you say no, you may never get another opportunity. This guy, who, again, was a pseudo friend, I would say when I went to college, he was like, friendly. Like, hey, do you want to go to a nick game or whatever? Kind of like friendly. But then when I started having more opportunities in my career, he's like, hey, my brother really wants to get into talk radio. Can we come by and see the station? And it's like a friend of convenience. And you get invited to the wedding and you're happy that your pseudo friend is having success, but you're not going to say, no, I'm going to come to your engagement party instead of going to a final four. When Butler was playing VCU and Yukon was playing Kentucky and Shabazz Napier and Jeremy Lamb were freshmen at Yukon.

[00:54:18]

Right?

[00:54:18]

And that friend's name. Jonathan Bosco.

[00:54:21]

Yeah.

[00:54:22]

Look where it ended up.

[00:54:24]

Who's Jonathan Bosco?

[00:54:25]

You can put it together with a last name.

[00:54:27]

Okay, fair enough. That's all you. PFP. I'm not going down that rabbit hole.

[00:54:31]

Yeah, we had your back. All right, so let's get into it. Let's dive into it. I know you always like to put names on the bracket, on the region, so we're just going to hand it to you. You drive. We'll insert ourselves here and there with questions, but let's rip it off.

[00:54:48]

All right, well, let's start now in the top left. Right now, which is the east region, Yukon is the one seed. And I look at the makeup of the coaches in this region as having such fiery personalities. Dan Hurley is your one seed. TJ Altelberger is the two. He looks like he could step in an octagon and fight Ken Shamrock right now. Brad Underwood at three is a coach who keeps a treadmill in the gym at practice. And if a player isn't playing well, he makes sure they gets on and obviously hits the treadmill. Ducane is Pittsburgh tough at eleven. Auburn, one of the toughest teams in the country. One of the hardest playing players in the country in Katie Johnson. San Diego State is also a very hard playing time for hard playing team at the five seat. I see ruthless, hard nose, competitive teams in this region. And I see the region of gladiators led by the coach of the one seed, in my opinion, the favorite in the NCAA tournament, Dan Hurley. And Dan Hurley, probably in his own mind, feels like he's a little bit like Russell Crowe and gladiator in this NCAA tournament, brother to a famous point guard, son of a famous father.

[00:55:55]

And even though he won a national championship last year, he will have his vengeance in this tournament or the next.

[00:56:00]

Okay, I like that. I like that. The gladiator region. So can you tell us what just missed for this region, or how quickly do you come up with the names and was there anything you were workshopping? Because I'd love to see the drafts. I'd love to see what was, ah, this was so, you know, Iowa State doesn't really fit this or BYU doesn't really make sense. Was there, was there a name that you were toying with before you came up with Gladiator?

[00:56:28]

Well, I was looking up and down, obviously this region, and I was just saying, oh my God, Iowa State is so tough and Dan Hurley is such a personality, and we have Bruce Perlu, such a personality and so fiery. And then you have obviously the Brad Underwood stuff. He's such a personality. And Ducane and Pittsburgh, and it's such a story for them to get there. For the first time since 77, I almost went with the region of Hutzpa.

[00:56:54]

Okay. I liked it. I need whatever is on the drawing or in the drafts for each one of these regions. I like that.

[00:57:02]

So it was almost the region of Chutzpah, but I went with the region of gladiators because I think you have the Dan Hurley element of, again, even though he won a national title, brother to a famous point guard, son of a famous coach, and even though he won a national title, he will seek his vengeance in this tournament of the next.

[00:57:17]

Yeah.

[00:57:17]

I also think in your flowchart, it really helps if it can line up with a movie that would fit right in at like 02:00 p.m. On a Saturday afternoon. Hasn't airing on TNT.

[00:57:27]

Came out at least 20 years or more. Yes. Right.

[00:57:29]

Gladiator came out in 2000.

[00:57:31]

Yeah, that's 20 years or more. That's right, yeah. All right, who do you have coming out of this region?

[00:57:37]

I've got Yukon guys. I mean, Yukon is going to be playing, and I've been talking about this for weeks in situations where Yukon is not going to have to get on a plane to go to a Final Four, stores to Brooklyn, win two games there, back to stores, win two games in Boston. But I will say this, if Auburn can find its way to Boston there in the Sweet 16, I think Yukon against Auburn in that Sweet 16 in Boston has a chance to be one of the best games of the entire tournament. I don't know if you remember this cat or PFD. They played a couple of years ago in the first round of the battle for Atlantis. And it was one of the best games that we had that season. Cat. I think it.

[00:58:20]

It was. I was at the park in Brooklyn with my kid. I think I had two kids. I was with my son. And it was like, what, two overtimes? And I had a lot of money on that game. Was it two overtimes?

[00:58:34]

That was, I think two overtimes. Yes, it was definitely.

[00:58:37]

I remember it well. That was a great game.

[00:58:39]

So there's a lot of conference champions in this bracket. Do you put any stock into them fading out in the tournament?

[00:58:45]

There's two sides to that. We look at what happened obviously with Purdue in the past. We've seen it work both ways. It's obviously great momentum for some teams. Yukon in ₩2011.05 in five days with Kemba Walker and then won six games in the NCAA tournament. I think there's some of that. I also think that you look at the bottom of this region, you've got, I think the two three seed is massive. I mean, Iowa State on Sunday I had forecasted as my fourth number one seed. And Illinois is a team that I felt for about a month could be a dark horse Final Four team. So I'm looking at the scenario at the bottom of that region as being a dynamite, dynamite region here.

[00:59:25]

So who did you have dropping out if you had Iowa State as number one seed?

[00:59:29]

I had North Carolina dropping out. Okay, North Carolina dropped.

[00:59:33]

I saw a lot of people online said that. I'm not saying this, but I saw a lot of people online saying that you were a moron for that. Would you like to defend yourself against those people?

[00:59:41]

I don't look at my mentions. I haven't looked at my mentions since 2017.

[00:59:44]

That's smart. That's smart. What about the people that say Ducane was lazily seated because it seems like the committee basically said whoever wins VCU, Ducane over the 11th seed, VCU would make more sense as eleven seed. Oh, shit. We already filled out our whole bracket. We'll just put in Ducane when they clearly are the weakest of the eleven seeds resume wise. And actually, a lot of twelve seeds have better resumes.

[01:00:11]

Well, look at this right now for a sec, guys. The eleven seeds Ducane bid stealer out of the a ten. New Mexico, we learned later, was a bid stealer of the mountain West. I thought New Mexico should have been in regardless. NC state bid stealer out of the ACC, and Oregon, the 11th seed in the Midwest, bottom right, was a bid stealer. So it almost feels like the eleven seat slots all just went to the bid Steelers.

[01:00:36]

Yeah.

[01:00:37]

Interesting.

[01:00:37]

That might be what happened.

[01:00:38]

Okay, well, if you haven't read your notifications or your mentions in 2017, did you ever think that maybe there's like a young John Rothstein out there that wakes up every day and tweets at you and it's trying to interact with you in the same way you're dealing with coaches and they're just pounding their head against the wall. They're just trying to make a name for themselves.

[01:00:57]

John, I have an email. He can reach out to you guys, or Hank or Jake, and I'll get in touch with, you know, help to know younger people achieve their passion like we've been fortunate enough to do.

[01:01:08]

Okay, so any upsets coming out of this? In the first two rounds, I've got.

[01:01:11]

Duquesne beating BYU, so that's a little bit of an upset. And it's not an upset I'm going to take here, but in terms of the seed. But I think considering how poorly Florida Atlantic played, losing the temple, I think a lot of people are going to fade. Florida Atlantic, I think Northwestern, you guys know this. Being in Chicago is severely limited after losing Ty Berry to a season ending injury, and that Northwestern has know been without Matthew Nicholson, who has been a stalwart inside for them during this two year run. He has been out for a number of games. I'm going to take Florida Atlantic to beat Northwestern. I've talked obviously for a long time about Auburn, because I love Auburn and I don't really love the matchup for Yale, but James Jones has a good ball club at Yale. I think Auburn is too deep for that. But my upset in this region is Ducane beating BYU in an eleven six. I think we have to remember this, and you guys get this. BYU, for the most part, was a team that it was recruited to play in the West coast conference. And now you have a team in Duquesne who just won the Atlantic Ten.

[01:02:20]

There is not the conference gap that there probably would be in your normal 611 when you have a bid stealer. So I'm taking Ducane right there, but I've got Yukon, Auburn, Illinois, Iowa State in my suite 16, the region of gladiators, and I've got Yukon over Illinois in the Elite Eight.

[01:02:37]

Okay. All right, next region, wherever you want.

[01:02:41]

To go, bottom left. We'll stay on the left side of the bracket, the west region, which is played in Los Angeles. And because it's played in Los Angeles, it should fittingly be called the region of drama. Now, why is it the region of drama? Well, let's look right now who the one seed is. North Carolina, obviously, two years ago played for a national championship, lost to Kansas, had the dramatic season last year where it missed the NCAA tournament. Now it has done a complete 180. But who is the two seed? Arizona. And that means if the seeds hold in Southern California and it's a one two, we would have Caleb love going up against his former team for the right to go to the Final Four. That is the region of drama. Now you look at the other characteristics of this region. You've got drama with New Mexico, a team that had to play well at the Mountain west tournament after losing the Air Force in obviously a very brutal loss a couple of weeks ago. You also have drama with St. Mary's. Randy Bennett's club starts eight and six. Then it goes. He rips to the WCC like a chainsaw through butter.

[01:03:53]

It gets a five seed. It wins the WCC regular season and also tournament titles. St. Mary's has not been to the second weekend of the NCA tournament since 2010 with Omar Samhan, Mickey McConnell, Matthew Della Vadova when they beat Richmond and Villanova back to back in Providence. And then you got Tom Izo in this region as well, who again, is always a great quote, always opinionated. He's a very dramatic guy. But the big headline for the region of drama is the potential North Carolina Arizona. Caleb love against the Tar Heels matchup in the Elite Eight in the west region, therefore the region of drama.

[01:04:30]

Okay.

[01:04:30]

How much longer do you think ISO is going to stick around?

[01:04:33]

Oh, I don't see him not coaching. I don't think Tom Izo could not almost. I think Izo in some ways enjoys the adversity more than the actual success because the adversity then forces you to have the truly brutal practice the next day and getting back to respectability.

[01:04:51]

So what missed the cut in this region? What were we thinking about when we saw this region?

[01:04:56]

As soon as I saw that it was being played in Los Angeles and as soon as I saw there was a chance that Arizona could play North Carolina in the Elite Eight, I said hands down, this is the region of drama. There's nothing else to talk about. It's so dramatic. And again, life is not obviously a movie, but this would feel like a movie if we have Caleb love against North Carolina going up against RJ Davis and Bacott, guys he went to the national championship game with two years ago.

[01:05:22]

Hold on. That feels like kind of like the selection committee screwed up by just like, oh, we'll just put Duquesne in at eleven seed. When you found out that it was going to be la, what? Like when did they announce the sites? Like a year ago. Was that always going to be the drama in LA? Yeah.

[01:05:38]

No, but the matchup, the potential matchup.

[01:05:42]

I want to make sure. You could maybe tell us what the regions are next year based on where they're being played.

[01:05:48]

I'm not there yet.

[01:05:49]

Right now.

[01:05:50]

I'm taking it one year at a time.

[01:05:51]

So if we're looking at this like a movie, who's the good guy, though? Is Caleb Love the good guy or is it his teammates? And then Caleb Love walks out the door on him.

[01:06:00]

Caleb love, I think, has gotten a bad rap. I think Caleb Love is perceived to be the bad guy, but he's not. I went to Arizona and spent some time with him. The preseason wonderful guy. He's had a great year. Pac twelve player of the year, played like an all American. I just think that it would be compelling, compelling theater if that's the case. I mean, look, both of these teams got to go through really good teams to get to that point. I'll say this, guys, I'm looking at North Carolina now. The game will be played in Charlote, but whoever North Carolina gets, Mississippi State or Michigan State in that round of 32 game, that is a bear of a game to get to the Sweet 16. Now I think America is going to be taking Michigan State in this game because of Tom Mizzo. That's what people from the periphery do. I am going with Mississippi State. I am going with Chris Jans, the dentist who will give you a root canal without the Novocaine when he gets the chance. Guys, let's look at Chris Jans here in the NCAA tournament. New Mexico State, he beat Yukon two years ago last year, got Mississippi State to the NCAA tournament.

[01:07:03]

Lost on the last possession in the first floor to pit. Now he's back, the dentist doing work.

[01:07:08]

Cat I like sound like a very good dentist, though.

[01:07:11]

It sounds like just a torturer.

[01:07:13]

Yeah, I like it. All right.

[01:07:15]

I mean really good defensive coach, Pfc.

[01:07:17]

Yeah. Although their defense hasn't been as good as it was last year.

[01:07:21]

Fair enough. Fair enough. I guess he took some tweaks out, but again, a little bit better offensively. The guy you want to keep an eye on for Mississippi State, a guy who I think could be a real star as again, people who are coming from the periphery is Josh Hubbard, 510 freshman from Mississippi State. Believe he scored over 4000 points in high school.

[01:07:40]

Okay. All right.

[01:07:41]

We're going to get back to John Rothstein in a second. He's brought to you by Peloton. I was on my peloton earlier today. Been doing some classes on the bike. We're back on the bike, baby. Buns of anarchy. Get it going. And wherever you're beginning and wherever you want to be, Peloton encourages you to just start. Peloton helps you start no matter what level you're at, whether you're starting. There's thousands of classes to get you moving if you're a beginner, if you're advanced, doesn't matter. They've got rides for both. They have feel good live DJ rides. They even have artist theme rides. I've been doing some pop punk rides. Outstanding. Having a great burn. They've got you covered no matter what you're into. Get started with a peloton bike or a bike plus rental by visiting onepeloton.com slash bike slash rentals. Terms apply. That URL is one peloton.com slash bike slash rentals. John Rothstein is also brought to you by our great friends over at light. The mountains were blue this weekend for St. Patrick's Day. I'm happy to report there's some seriously blue mountains. Had a great time with the help of my good friend Coors.

[01:08:43]

Light from day to day annoyances to the big stuff life throws your way. It's easy to get worked up, but there's a better way. A chiller way. You can turn that canceled concert into a parking lot dance party. If it was too cold for an ocean swim. Well, you can play volleyball. You can light a bonfire instead. That's choosing chill. And when you choose chill, you can reach for Coors Light. When the mountains turn blue, it's as cold as the Rockies. When you choose to rise above it all. Choose chill. Choose Coors light. Get Coors light delivered straight to your door with Instacart by going to coorslight.com slash take celebrate responsibly. Coors brewing company Golden, Colorado. And now here's more. John Rothstein.

[01:09:18]

Where are we going next?

[01:09:20]

Let's go to the top right, the south region, the region of firepower. And I'm looking at this region, and I'm seeing elite perimeters and elite scoring power. Houston obviously didn't play well against Iowa State in the big twelve tournament title game. Tremendous four guard sets, tremendous guard play, tremendous firepower. You know about Nebraska with Fred Hoiberg. We love K say Tomanaga, another player I think could captivate the country in spurts with his ability to shoot. Nebraska, by the way, has never won an NCAA tournament game, so that's on the line for them. They go against Texas a M. Who has that dynamite backcourt for Buzz Williams with Taylor the fourth and Tyrese Radford, and they can really, really score. That's a dynamite first round game. And guys, I'm going to be at that game doing sidelines in Memphis. We got then Wisconsin, the best offensive team of the gray guard era with AJ store against James Madison. That's going to be a trendy twelve five. And then you got Duke against Vermont. Duke is Duke. I know Kat doesn't want to hear that. We've got Kentucky, the best scoring team of the Caliperi era. And then if you look at the bottom right in the region of firepower, you've got Florida, who again, they lost their center Micah handlogged into an injury on Sunday, a leg injury against Auburn.

[01:10:37]

But they're going to probably go in against the winner of Colorado, Boise State, Colorado, a potent offensive team. And then Marquette's the two Chaka smart, as you know, saying on CBS Sports Network that they're planning on Tyler Cole coming back. There is major firepower in that region. I have loved Florida's ability to score the ball throughout. Obviously this season. They're a little bit different now up front without hand logged in, but you look at the offensive capabilities of the teams in this region. It is.

[01:11:07]

I mean, PFT and I obviously were going up against each other in the first round. Then you got Jake and hank going up against each other. This is going to be a fun region. Yeah.

[01:11:15]

Can you give us a pick for JMU Wisconsin? I know you said people on the periphery, people on the outside. Trendy. Twelve five pick for JMU. Does that mean that you're going Wisconsin?

[01:11:24]

I'm going to take Wisconsin. I like Wisconsin to play Duke in a rematch of the 2015 national title game at the Barclay center. I've got Houston, and then obviously I think A and M beats Nebraska. I love the way a and M is playing. Even though they lost a little early. Nebraska again, never won an NCAA tournament game. I'll take Texas Tech over NC State, Kentucky over Oakland. I got Florida playing Marquette. I would take Florida over Marquette. That's a little bit of going to break it open a little bit there. Then I'm going to have Kentucky, Florida in the Sweet 16 and SEC game. I'm going to take Wisconsin to beat Duke, and then I'm going to take Houston to play Wisconsin. And I've got Houston beating Kentucky in the Elite Eight in the region of firepower.

[01:12:10]

Okay, how about this? If jmU beats Wisconsin, can jmu get a John Rothsteinism? Can you come up with something for Harrisonburg?

[01:12:18]

Well, I can't force rothsteinisms. Rothsteinisms are things that can't be forced.

[01:12:22]

Yeah, but if they beat Wisconsin, if they shock the world, if these JMU dukes, I don't.

[01:12:27]

The badgers, I don't have a rothsteinism for Kansas, Kentucky, gonzaga, I mean, they've done a little bit more than JMU.

[01:12:35]

Yeah. What was your last rothsteinism that you came up with?

[01:12:39]

I'd have to go back and look at things in the lab, but one of the things that got a lot of play today was the Keith Danbrot one, because nobody for a long time cared about Ducane. But when Keith Dan brought to ducane job, I called it mission impossible. Ducane, like account tweeted today, mission accomplished. Because Ducane hadn't been to the hat goat. Ducane hasn't been to the tournament since 77, so mission impossible got accomplished. But, yeah, I don't just come up with them and throw it out. Everybody was like, oh, I want to tagline. I want to tagline. It's not that easy.

[01:13:12]

What about just hand those out?

[01:13:14]

Harrisonburg. More than just meth.

[01:13:17]

What about that?

[01:13:18]

You like that one?

[01:13:20]

No, I think that would be Harrisonburg.

[01:13:22]

The Las Vegas of central Virginia.

[01:13:25]

That's not what I've heard about Harrisonburg.

[01:13:27]

Oh, well, my friend, you have not spent time at Finnegan's Cove when they get the sigs inside and the jello shots going.

[01:13:32]

Fair enough, fair enough. I have a feeling that you might have had enough for me during your tenure there. How long was it?

[01:13:38]

Four years.

[01:13:38]

Exactly four years. Thanks, John.

[01:13:40]

That was a really mean question.

[01:13:41]

Yeah, I just wanted to check.

[01:13:43]

All right, so what about the last one? Midwest?

[01:13:47]

Well, the Midwest region is the region of.

[01:13:50]

Oh, okay.

[01:13:52]

Now why is it the region of tension? Well, your one seed is purdue. Your two seed is Tennessee, who has not been past the sweet 16 under Rick Barnes. Your fourth seed is Kansas, who again did not have both Kevin McCullough and Hunter Dickinson available for the big twelve tournament. There's a lot of tension in this region right now, and I also think when you look at the one seeds, guys, I think the path for Purdue, and I know you have to obviously take this with a grain of salt because nothing is easy for Purdue in March. I think the path for Purdue is very favorable to at least get to the Elite Eight. First two games are at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. You're going to play the winner of Utah State and TCU second. And then if you win there, your five and your four are Gonzaga, which is the most vulnerable Gonzaga team we've had since 2016. Then you have Kansas. We discussed without McCullough, without Dickinson, potentially. Well, they didn't play in the big twelve tournament, but they're obviously very wounded. I mean, it's not a great Kansas team, even if those two players play.

[01:15:04]

I'd be shocked if Purdue doesn't get to the Elite Eight. I know that's saying a lot considering the way things have gone in the NCAA tournament and then the bottom. I'm looking at Creighton being an underrated team. I think they lost early in the Big east tournament. That changed things. And then also, if Texas wins and Tennessee wins, we could have a game in the round of 32, Rick Barnes against his old school and against his former assistant, Rodney Terry.

[01:15:29]

Okay, so what was region attention? Was there anything else that we were going to name this region?

[01:15:35]

When I saw Purdue and Tennessee together, it was either the region of tension or the region of pressure. But I thought tension was so that a little more so.

[01:15:46]

Which.

[01:15:46]

Which of these teams is best equipped to handle tension?

[01:15:49]

Well, if history tells you anything, it might not be any of them, but I would say, oh, I think Creighton's the dark horse in this region. I'm going to take Creighton to get to the elite eight and lose to Purdue. I think that Purdue will exercise the demon much like Virginia in 2019 after losing to UMBC and get to a final four.

[01:16:08]

Okay. All right. So your final four and then maybe give us your national champion.

[01:16:13]

I am going to go with Yukon out of the region of gladiators. I'm going to go with Arizona out of the region of drama. I'm going to go with Houston out of the region of firepower and then purdue out of the region of tension. And I like Yukon over Purdue clinging against Edie, a battle of the Titans in the title game, and Yukon led by Dan Hurley. As we said, brother to a famous point guard, son of a famous coach, getting his vengeance in this tournament of the next, becoming the first back to back national champion since Florida in 2006 and 2007.

[01:16:43]

Okay. All right.

[01:16:45]

Do you have any comment about the biggies getting fucked over?

[01:16:50]

Well, the thing is this and Murphy's law sometimes happens with the NCAA tournament in terms of the bubble situation. The Biggies started championship week with seven teams in play for the NCAA tournament. Now, the thing was, the Big east all season long had a number of teams in play, but so many teams were tied up with the bubble. So there were only three teams all year long that separated themselves. And we had a Murphy's law type situation for bubble teams. Now what do I mean by that? If Florida Atlantic won the AAC tournament, we would have seen one bid open up because they are an at large team. If Dayton won the a ten tournament, we would have seen an at large bid open up because Dayton was already projected as an at large team. So that's two bids right there. And then if NC State didn't win the ACC tournament, we would have seen that large bit open up. And then if Oregon didn't win the PaC twelve tournament, we would have seen in that large bit open up. That's four. And then we found out tonight, if New Mexico didn't win the Mountain west tournament, we would have seen that large bit open up.

[01:18:07]

That's five bids and five spots for other teams where the biggies surely would have been represented. I thought that St. John's would have been a little bit closer to the cut line. They weren't among the first four out for the selection committee from what we saw earlier tonight. But obviously you have three Big east teams in Creighton, Marquette and Yukon that are all good enough to go to a final Four. But the Big east right now, with its lowest number of teams in the NCAA tournament since 1993, it's crazy.

[01:18:37]

And now, if all five of those hadn't opened up, would Villanova have been one of the last four out then?

[01:18:45]

Probably. Would the first four out or the last four out?

[01:18:49]

No, last four out. Like, it would have been first four out. So they would have been the eigth team out. Where would they have bumped up? If we had had no bubbles burst, could we have had at least last four out?

[01:19:03]

I think so.

[01:19:04]

Okay. All right. Maybe. Yeah. So they were like, if the committee had just said, you know what, this is an awesome year. Let's do 78 teams. Would Villanova have been in?

[01:19:17]

Potentially.

[01:19:18]

Potentially.

[01:19:18]

Let's do a little thought experiment, though. If St. John's had gotten in, what seed would they have been?

[01:19:23]

They would have been in Dayton in.

[01:19:25]

The first four instead of UVA.

[01:19:27]

Yeah.

[01:19:28]

Virginia was the know. I do a bracket projection every day during championship week. So when I did my bracket projection today, I did not have Virginia in the field. Now, what we learned, and I talked to Buba Cunningham about this, who obviously is part of the know, is that the committee really valued teams who didn't have any bad losses. Now, if you look at the metrics for both Virginia and Colorado, not too many impressive wins. Virginia beat Florida, won at Clemson. Colorado beat Washington State twice, but they didn't have any quad, three or four losses, so the committee really took that into consideration. Now, Texas A. M. Had a weird resume, had five, quad three losses, but Texas A. M. Beat Iowa State, who's a two seed, beat Tennessee, who's a two seed, beat Kentucky twice, who's a three seed, and also beat Tod golden in Florida, who's a seven.

[01:20:23]

John, what does. We haven't had you on since you had the birth of your child. What does fatherhood look like for John Rossi and how's it going?

[01:20:32]

I appreciate you asking. Every day is a by game. That's the best way I can say it. It feels like you're down eight at the time out every single day. You know it. There is nothing in the world like being a father and having, obviously, a child and the way it makes you feel complete as a family, but you also feel like you're in a by game against Matt Langle and Colgate and they're drilling threes and there's nothing that you can.

[01:20:55]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's a great way to put it. I often say the same schedule. You're going to Dayton. Do you know where you're going after Dayton?

[01:21:05]

Yeah, I'm going to be in Dayton. I'm actually some TV to do tomorrow morning. I'm going to do CBS this MOrNing or CBS MORNINgs tomorrow morning. And then I'm flying to Dayton. We're going to do the first four Tuesday Wednesday. Then after the games, I'm going to be going to Memphis for the Friday Sunday. So Friday Sunday is going to be Houston, Longwood, Nebraska, a and M, and then Clemson, New Mexico, Baylor, Colgate. And then I'll be back in studio on CBS Sports Network for the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight. And then we'll be at the final four in Phoenix.

[01:21:37]

Are you going to go take a dip in the bass pro shop pyramid in their tank that they got there?

[01:21:42]

What's the bass pro shop pyramid I've ever.

[01:21:44]

Oh, my friend, it's the most magical place on earth.

[01:21:47]

No, I mean, I'm pretty singularly focused until April 9.

[01:21:50]

Yeah.

[01:21:51]

I was going to ask you, what's your take on Justin Fields being traded to the Steelers?

[01:21:54]

What position does he play?

[01:21:55]

He's a quarterback.

[01:21:57]

For what team?

[01:21:59]

Well, he was in Ferris, now he's on the Steelers.

[01:22:01]

Yeah.

[01:22:02]

Okay.

[01:22:02]

Yeah.

[01:22:02]

I mean, I really haven't followed the Steelers since like.

[01:22:06]

All right, what about. Did you watch the Super bowl?

[01:22:09]

We had a party. Yeah.

[01:22:11]

And what did you think?

[01:22:14]

Mahomes played, right?

[01:22:15]

Yes.

[01:22:17]

And they play. Andy Reed was the coach who was the other team that played against Taylor.

[01:22:22]

Swift, the 49 ers.

[01:22:25]

Right. And that's not Jeff Garcia, is it?

[01:22:27]

No, not anymore.

[01:22:29]

Close.

[01:22:31]

Was it Brock Purdy?

[01:22:33]

Yes.

[01:22:34]

Okay. Yeah. I was kind of just socializing because the college basketball game was over. I think I worked the seat in all Villanova game that day and I just kind of was just talking to people. I didn't really have an interest in the game.

[01:22:44]

I would like you to maybe. You're relentless. We started this interview, you're saying you're relentless. I have a long standing thought that there should be a college basketball game after the Super bowl. On Super Bowl Sunday, everyone's looking for something to bet after they lose their Super bowl bets. Can we get that into someone's head and be like, hey, let's schedule a game, let's play a game.

[01:23:08]

Well, I think one thing we should do, and you tell me because you say you're always looking for stuff like that, for additional ways to obviously have money. Yeah. I think that, you know, I'm all about standalone games in college basketball. I think a certain league should play a 05:00 game on like a Friday afternoon, like a happy hour thing. And I also think certain leagues, maybe not the highest profile leagues, should play 10:00 a.m. Games on Saturday morning. So it's a standalone game and not have any tension and get things going quicker.

[01:23:43]

I like that. We also came up with an idea that you should pitch to people because this one has legs. Pft. And I don't think that they should expand the.

[01:23:52]

No, no, we should not expand the tournament under any circumstances. And it aggravates me, not you guys, but that people think that it's a good idea. Jeff Goldblum said in the lost world, the sequel to Jurassic park, that taking dinosaurs off this island was the worst idea in the long, sad history of bad ideas. Expanding the tournament might be worse.

[01:24:10]

Okay, so not an expansion of the tournament, but if on selection Sunday we have the eight teams that would be potentially on the bubble in the bubble in the, you know, Boise State, Colorado, Virginia, Colorado State, all. We're in Oklahoma, Seaton Hall, Indiana State and Pitt, we have them all in the same location. The minute we have the bracket, we have those eight teams play to see who gets the last four spots.

[01:24:38]

Well, I think that's a good idea.

[01:24:41]

It's expanding the tournament.

[01:24:42]

But yeah, I have also said this. I love where we're at right now with the amount of teams in the NCAA tournament. I feel that if you're an automatic qualifier and you win your league, you should be in the round of 64. And I said that repeatedly, so I would like it. And I love, I've worked the first four in Dayton. It's great if the last eight at large teams someday could be the teams in Dayton.

[01:25:08]

Yeah, I agree.

[01:25:09]

So if you're looking at it right now, let's look at, we know the matchups in Dayton. The last eight at large teams, the eleven seeds, were not, obviously were not at large teams. They were automatic qualifiers. So the last date at large teams were Nevada. And then, let's see, Boise State, Colorado. Well, Boise State, Colorado and then Virginia, Colorado State. But also, so that's four. Nevada is five. Drake was an AQ. So if you had Nevada, Michigan State, A and M, and then TCU or Northwestern in Dayton, and then you let obviously the 16s play in the round of 64, I think that would be an incredible way, if we could ever do that, to really draw people in.

[01:25:57]

I like that.

[01:25:58]

And not to say that people aren't obviously excited or whatever, and look, the first four is great. We had fairly Dickinson last year who wound up beating Purdue, and fairly Dickinson was a treat to watch. But I feel if you are a mid major team that wins your league, you deserve to be in the round of 64, and those last eight at larges should start off the tournament in Dayton.

[01:26:17]

Yeah, the first four is great because usually a team makes a run. I mean, we had UCLA go all the way to the final Four.

[01:26:24]

Out of the last eleven years, a team in the first four has won a game in the NCAA tournament.

[01:26:30]

So yeah.

[01:26:30]

Who's that team going to be this year?

[01:26:33]

I think the team to watch in the first four. Let's see. That's a great question.

[01:26:38]

Also, do you have a name for the first four? You should give a name to that.

[01:26:43]

The first four?

[01:26:43]

Yeah.

[01:26:44]

I would say the team most likely to win an NCAA tournament game this year out of the first four is the Boise state Colorado winner. I love Florida. That's a really tough round of 64 game because Colorado, if you think about it, guys, KJ Simpson, potent player. I think if Colorado was better, he would have been an all american candidate. Potent player. Cody Williams is a projected lottery pick. Tristan de Silva is going to play basketball professionally. Also, Eddie Lampkin, if you remember guys, is on the TCU team who almost beat Arizona two years ago when they had Ben Mather and he went for 20 and 14. Florida is going to have its hands full with either Colorado State or Boise. Boise playing in its third straight NCAA tournament under Leon Rice. And another storyline here, guys, which know wrote about for my daily newsletter tomorrow, one of the big takeaways is the Mountain west. Got no respect. Four double digit seeds out of the mountain West. I mean, Nevada, the two teams in the first four, and then also New Mexico as tens and eleven seeds. I mean, as a wise man once said, wasn't personal, it was strictly business.

[01:27:49]

But they did get respected. The fact they got six teams in and the biggest got three, no question.

[01:27:54]

And that should be celebrated. But the mountain west, I felt like all week I said, hey, if the mountain west gets six teams in, that's great. You should celebrate it. The mountain west has something to prove in this NCAA tournament. You were slighted. People don't respect you on the committee.

[01:28:06]

Yeah. All right, I got one last question. It's a row back question. Rho back promo code, take 20% off your first purchase. Q zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rowback.com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Go right now. We love rowback. The most comfortable clothes out there. Last question for you. John, we haven't talked to you in a while. How was Europe?

[01:28:29]

Europe was incredible.

[01:28:30]

Really?

[01:28:31]

Europe? Better than mean. When Shaka was there and it was Breonte Weber at the top of the mean. It was really tough to kind of take that over anything else just because you had the band, you had the havoc, you had the pressure. There's a clip, if you guys can find it. It was in 2013. Brian Weber stripped Alex Barlow on butler and threw down a ridiculous jam and just punched the air. And it made you seriously want to find a picket fence to start doing push ups on because it was so crazy. But Europe was great. I think the trip was long, cat like. We were there for 18 days. We had a couple of friends get married about 3 hours outside of Paris. So we went to Paris first. We hung out with them for a little bit. It was incredible. The bread, the scene. Paris is an incredible city. We then went to three stops in Italy. You were right about the food, both of you, in terms of it being have to. We talk about bucket list items. The show searching for Italy with Stan Tucci, to me, is one of my favorite shows because I'm such a food like that, to me, would be, I think, a tremendous guest for you guys to have Stan Tucci on.

[01:29:44]

Pardon my take, because this guy's just housing food throughout Italy, and he doesn't gain any weight. But we went to Portofino. We went to Rome. We went to the Amalfi coast. There's now direct flights from the Amalfi coast to New York. Then we went to last.

[01:29:58]

Nice. Yeah.

[01:29:59]

So are you willing to take back your statement, don't waste calories on pizza outside the eastern time zone?

[01:30:07]

Not in terms of the United States.

[01:30:10]

But pizza in Italy. You can do that.

[01:30:13]

I can do that. I leaned into the Italy trip, but the bread in France was the thing that really blew my mind. Yes, the bread in France. And the thing is this, you guys know how much I love food, but in France, you can be content with a beer and a great loaf of bread and, like, some butter.

[01:30:27]

Yeah.

[01:30:28]

So content.

[01:30:29]

Yeah. Paris, France.

[01:30:30]

The Siegel center. You got to pick one.

[01:30:34]

The a ten. I mean, aside from a rare thing like this year, they've kind of become a one bid league. So I'd probably take Paris over the seagull center.

[01:30:40]

Wow, you've changed.

[01:30:42]

John Rostein sold out.

[01:30:44]

Damn. Okay.

[01:30:46]

Sorry to tell you that. All right. I don't think it's really anything to do with Paris. It's just an indictment on the Atlantic Ten. It never should have went from 16 to 18 league games. From 16 to 18 league games. Guys, after the 14th season, think about this for a second. In 2013, the Atlantic Ten had five teams in the NCAA tournament. Five. And then after that season, Temple left, Xavier and Butler left. And the next year with the same crop of teams, pretty much what it has now. The league had six teams in the NCAA tournament. Then after that year, all of a sudden the 810 thought it was a power conference. It went from 16 to 18. League has never been the same since. You need that non conference scheduling flexibility. It's the same flexibility that the WCC had that allowed Randy Bennett to schedule Colorado State and New Mexico. Two wins. Obviously that helped St. Mary's get in a position it's in right now, which is to be a five C in the NCAA tournament.

[01:31:37]

I do have one last, last question for you. So we were just talking before you came on about Long Beach, Long Beach State and Dan Monson.

[01:31:44]

Wild story.

[01:31:45]

Is there any chance that he gets his job back if they win in the first round?

[01:31:51]

It's as awkward of a situation as you know. That would be incredible. I think he made a comment about, like, he said, it's like your girlfriend coming back and trying to get back together after you get famous. So somebody asked him if he would get his job back. It's as bizarre a scenario as I've seen in 20 years doing this. But there is a tie into that first round matchup. Do you guys know it?

[01:32:13]

What is it? Gonzaga.

[01:32:15]

Dan Munson was the head coach of Gonzaga when Gonzaga went to the Elite eight in 99, lost to Yukon, coach Calhoun's first final four. He's playing Tommy Lloyd, a longtime Gonzaga system.

[01:32:27]

I love the fact that he pulled a hank. They were like, hey, you're fired. And he was like, yeah, can I just keep showing up for work? Okay, cool.

[01:32:32]

The boys are playing for him. Love it.

[01:32:34]

They're playing for him, man.

[01:32:35]

Yeah. All right. Well, John, thank you as always. You're the best, best time of year. And we'll be tuning in. We'll be watching you in Dayton on Tuesday and Wednesday.

[01:32:45]

Always great being with you guys. Love you dearly. We sleep in May.

[01:32:48]

Absolutely.

[01:32:49]

Bye. John.

[01:32:52]

Rothstein was brought to you by proper twelve. Proper twelve was founded by a true Irishman, Dublin Twelve's own, the notorious Conor McGregor. We were on a boat dyeing the river green. Shout out to plumbers. 130, right? Yes. Did a great job dyeing that Chicago river green. And we're drinking some proper number twelve irish whiskey. We were passing around. They make outstanding mixed drinks. The irish apple. That was a great. It was irish apple and ginger ale, right? Delicious. Such a good drink. Such a refreshing drink. Probably did what, four or five shots on that boat at least had a great time with our good friends at proper number twelve. You can make it a proper Amazon primetime. You can grab a bottle of proper twelve for the premiere of the new film Roadhouse starring Connor McGregor. Proper twelve is a rich and smooth blend of golden grain and single malt aged four years in bourbon barrels. Anything else just wouldn't be proper. By the way, roadhouse one of the all time great movies. I can't wait to see the remake. The original was awesome. Probably in my top ten movies of all time. Crack open a bottle of the original rich and smooth, proper number twelve or new crisp and fresh irish apple.

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The irish apple is so good. So good.

[01:34:00]

Okay, let's talk some Justin fields. Oh, by the way, I should have mentioned during bracket talk, we are running a bracket at stellablue coffee. All you got to do is buy anything on stellabluecoffee.com and you will get a link to join the bracket. Fill it out. If you win the bracket, you get a trip to Chicago HQ with two friends and you get to spend the day with us hanging out, playing ball, whatever you want to do. Also the other, I think places two through eleven will get a signed Stellblue custom basketball. So you're filling out brackets. You got to drink coffee anyway. We have mugs, we have hats, everything. Stellbluecoffee.com. Just go buy anything between now and Thursday when the games tip and you will get that link and you can join the bracket. Justin Fields Justin Fields traded to Pittsburgh Steelers for a 6th rounder. That could be a fourth rounder.

[01:34:53]

Depending on playing time.

[01:34:54]

Depending on playing. Uh, I think actually a very balanced take that people probably are not gonna like because it's been a very polarizing subject and I have a take that's. I'm going to give you my honest take that's balanced and I feel is how I feel. The Bears failed Justin Fields. It sucks that this is the way it ended. They set him up in a really bad spot in the fact that they drafted him with a coach that was already on the hot seat. They were planning on sitting him that first year, and then remember, they decided, hey, let's start him against the Browns. One of the best pass rushes in the game, and this will be fun. And he got sacked like nine times and through for 27 yards and we were off and running. Year two, the team was actively tanking. They had one of the worst defenses I've ever seen. They had ten game stretch at the end of the season where they let up 25 or more points, and six out of ten of those games they let up 30 or more points. And then year three, this year, they were basically like, be so good, Justin Fields, that we will keep you.

[01:36:05]

Go out and do it with an OC that doesn't really know how to use you. Could Justin Fields have played better? Yes, but I also think he was set up to fail, and I'm really sad about that because I like Justin Fields as a guy and I think if you listen to anyone in that locker room, they love him as a leader. It sucks that a guy that was so exciting and I had so much hope for was failed by the organization. So I thought that they had to trade him, and I'm happy that he was traded just because Caleb Williams is the future and you couldn't have done the Justin Fields Caleb Williams thing at the same time. And if you had kept him, maybe you could have gotten more from when quarterbacks get injured, but that would have been a disaster for Caleb Williams. You would have basically done to Caleb Williams what you did to Justin Fields and set him up for failure. So at least they're learning from these mistakes. Also, shout out ryan poles and the Bears. They did say they were going to do right by Justin Fields, and by all accounts they did because they had a few different suitors.

[01:36:57]

And I think Patriots fans are like, why didn't we get Justin Fields? Eagles fans? Like, why didn't we get Justin Fields? I think Justin Fields was like, I want to go to a place where I can play. Yeah.

[01:37:07]

So when you look at what Ryan pulls did, I think you can definitely say that the Bears did not get everything they could have gotten for Justin Fields.

[01:37:15]

Correct.

[01:37:15]

So a legitimate criticism of Ryan Poles would be to say, your job is to do what's best for your team, the Chicago Bears. And in this case, it looks like he wanted to keep his word to Justin Fields and do right by him more than he wanted to maximize trade value for Justin Fields. So you might say that he made a mistake doing that. But I also think that this is, in his mind at least, like a long term play for becoming known as a GM that will do something nice for a player as a way to thank them for what they've done in that it could. It could, I guess, make Chicago slightly more attractive if it's between the Bears and a team that's in a situation like the Bears and you have a history that's been built up of doing right by your players, that could nudge a free agent or two over the edge.

[01:38:01]

And Ryan Poles is probably admitting that the Bears failed him. And it wasn't ryan poles failure, like, let's be honest, because it was. Remember, Justin Fields wasn't drafted by Ryan Poles. Ryan Poles shows up in year two of Justin Fields. He inherits Justin Fields. Ryan Polls'job is to basically completely strip this thing down and build it back up, which he has been doing an incredible job of. Unfortunately, Justin Fields wasn't in that plan, other than Justin Fields playing so well in year three that they had to have him. And then the contract part is a big part of this because everyone, I think, was saying all you got was a six, maybe a they. The Steelers have to decide whether they want to pick up the fifth year option in like three months. Yeah.

[01:38:45]

So I think a big part of this was that fields, his value ended up being so low because gms don't want to have to make a hard.

[01:38:51]

Decision before he plays a snap.

[01:38:53]

And we have to decide which is extremely relatable. I'm going to trade, like, a third round pick for this guy, and it's just going to make me have to make a big decision soon. No, my big decision is trading for the guy. I don't want to have to double down on doing work.

[01:39:05]

Right.

[01:39:05]

So I understand that if you're Russell Wilson, I saw he reacted. What do you say? Like, this QB room is about to be lit. Justin?

[01:39:13]

Yeah. I hope Justin Fields beats him out. I think he's better than Russell Wilson. Right. He.

[01:39:17]

I think he might be, like, for the future. He definitely is. And then Kenny Pickett is out of Pittsburgh, too.

[01:39:23]

Yeah.

[01:39:23]

So Kenny did not react well, apparently, to the Russ signing. I guess reading the writing on the wall, it just seems like Russ is now anointed as the just.

[01:39:33]

They told Russ, no, Justin Fields is. I think they said Justin Fields is going to be the starter.

[01:39:38]

Did they? No.

[01:39:39]

I think Schefter said something.

[01:39:40]

No, I think he said the opposite. I think he said, russ is going to start.

[01:39:42]

Oh, Russ is going to be the starter.

[01:39:44]

Yeah. So Kenny wanted out because I think they told Kenny, like, this is our guy for the next season.

[01:39:49]

Yeah.

[01:39:50]

Or he's the presumptive starter.

[01:39:51]

Yeah.

[01:39:51]

And so Kenny's like, no, I got to get out of here.

[01:39:54]

Oh, wait. Breaking moves. Breaking moves. Villanova gets a one seat in the NIt.

[01:40:02]

Let's go.

[01:40:02]

Max. Max. Yeah, it's big. VCU is a tough draw, though.

[01:40:06]

You know what? You know what, Max? People forget that the NIt was the original national championship tournament.

[01:40:12]

It's a very pristine Max win it. Yeah. I'm sure the boys are going to be fired up.

[01:40:17]

Got to be very fired up.

[01:40:19]

Okay. That was our villain over talk. Yeah, Kenny, I mean, he was an Eagles fan growing up. I hope he has a long career. We like Kenny and now he's in a good everyone seems to be going to stable places. It was unstable for Kenny in Pittsburgh. Now it's stable in Philadelphia. He's not the starter, but he knows his role. Justin Fields was unstable in Chicago. We failed him. Now he's going to a stable organization in Pittsburgh, which I think he's going to end up like. I think he'll probably win the job. I know they said Russ is the starter, but once you watch Justin Fields versus Russ, it's going to be apparent.

[01:40:57]

George Pickens is not going to like Russell Wilson. No, he's not going to like him at all.

[01:41:02]

So I had one last thing about the Justin Fields thing and this is where because it was very tumultuous the last two months on Bears Twitter and know seeing people on the street. There's Justin Fields camp, there's Caleb Williams camp. I've been in the Caleb Williams camp. Just out of the logic of ryan polls set this whole thing up to get that one pick and to get a franchise quarterback on a rookie deal when you have already invested in some other parts of your roster. And that's the window Ryan Poles is doing. He's correcting everything that was wrong for Justin Fields because like I said, Justin Fields stepped into a disaster situation with no defense. They obviously got DJ Moore later, but very little offensive talent to throw to. Ryan Poles is now doing the reverse where I think the Caleb Williams might be set up better than any number one pick ever. And I know that sounds crazy because it's still the Bears. But remember, it's not often that you get a number one pick as a seven and ten team. The defense is good. He has a legitimate number one. He now has a legitimate number two in Keenan Allen.

[01:42:03]

He has a top ten tight end. And Cole Comet, he's got a running game. This is finally outside of the coach maybe being on the hot seat. This is finally you've set up your future franchise quarterback to walk into a situation that he can succeed in. And that is why every Bears fan should be very happy that Ryan Poles is a GM and that he made this move to trade Justin Fields. And we turn the page and we go to the next one. Now everyone's telling me Caleb Williams is going to be a bust. I get it. He sucks nail paint, whatever. I don't care. I think he's really good and he's set up in a perfect way. Yeah. Like Andrew luck. Andrew Luck went to a two win colts team. Trevor Lawrence went to a terrible team. Wasn't that the Peyton got hurt that year? Yeah, Peyton got hurt that year. Did they even win two win to have two wins, I don't even know.

[01:42:49]

We can probably look, it might have been see what the best record was for any team.

[01:42:53]

Yeah, they picked number one. All these teams, like Bryce Young has gone into the worst situation. You can go, Trevor Lawrence was in a bad situation. All these number one picks, Baker Mayfield, they haven't been put on teams. That's seven and ten that have pieces around them that are legitimate. And, oh, I forgot to mention we also have the 9th pick. So that's another thing that's going to help Caleb Williams, whether it be a pass catcher, a defensive player. I don't know. I just think that Ryan Poles has set this up where it now is. The question is, if Caleb Williams is great, the Bears will have a definite window to win a lot of football.

[01:43:30]

It's a very funny thing that we do to first overall picks. We're like, congratulations. You're going to the shittiest team. Hope you're good enough to overcome how bad this team is, right? Will you be baker? Will you be good enough to overcome the brown zingy of it all or not? Urban Meyer is going to kick half your roster. Trevor, I hope you're good enough to overcome him ditching your team after Thursday night games and fingering coed's buttholes.

[01:43:53]

Right. Good luck. No offense to you guys, but would you not say that the Bears are in a better situation for a QB taken in the first round than the commanders in the.

[01:44:04]

I think our ownership is strong. I think the ownership in DC, our.

[01:44:07]

Ownership is about to be dead. But yeah, shout out Virginia. She's still kicking, but he's set up better than a number one pick has probably ever been.

[01:44:15]

I think they should build around Tyson Bajant.

[01:44:17]

Yeah, there's got to be at least a few out there.

[01:44:19]

Yeah, there's got to be some Tyson Bajant heads out there.

[01:44:22]

It's walking around. But yeah, that was an arm wrestler. I'm excited about this. If you go through ryan poles and what he has done, he gets so much heat for Chase Claypool, which was a mistake, but he also cut bait on that mistake, which know some GMs are stubborn like that. Everything else he has done, Montez sweat, DJ Moore, you know, getting the Carolina number one, all these things, beefing up, the defense, not going crazy on free agency, keep getting in a good cap spot. He's been great. And so why wouldn't you trust him? And why wouldn't you trust his evaluation of Caleb Williams? And I'm very, very excited for the future of the bears. And again, sad Justin Fields, but I think we have a very bright future, so you shouldn't be. It was tumultuous. It was. People were at each other's necks.

[01:45:08]

Yeah, it's one of the great controversies of all time. And it's something that you'll be doing a post mortem on for the next probably six years.

[01:45:14]

Chicago, we don't deal well with quarterback controversies. Josh McCown had a strong camp to start over. Jay Cutler.

[01:45:21]

Listen, I'm still obsessed with the Kirk cousins rg three debate from ten years ago. You have not yet begun to see the end of this fight. Yeah, we also had Tyree kill in the news again. Tyree kill headline ad lib dolphins. Tyree kill. Bullied wife smashed face with unlit cigar. Police report says so. I'm glad that they clarified that it was unlit because the first time I saw this headline, it just read that he smashed a cigar into her face.

[01:45:46]

Yeah.

[01:45:46]

Which is bad, but it's way worse if the cigar is lit. Yeah, this was an unlit cigar. Also the term bullying your wife. What does that even mean?

[01:45:55]

I don't know.

[01:45:57]

I don't know what bullying means anymore.

[01:45:59]

He really is mad Libs. Every single time he's in the news, he's mad libs.

[01:46:02]

Yeah. Tyreek Hill, bullied wife smashed face with unlit cigar.

[01:46:07]

Unlit cigar. Hank, do you want to tell me that I was wrong and you were right about Justin Fields? You wanted him. I do want him. I think he's going to be good. Okay. I think the Steelers are going to be good. I still think he could be the guy I'm not giving up on think. I think the Steelers are set up. I think both quarterbacks are forgotten about.

[01:46:27]

But I think both could be funny. Not funny. I don't wish this, but something happens. Caleb Williams maybe has a minor injury, and then you trade back for Justin Fields, get him back in town. He knows the system.

[01:46:41]

A lot of people would like. Yeah, a lot of people would be pumped by that. It seems like from what I've seen from Chicago, people, they're mad. People are mad because I think there's a feeling that Justin Fields was failed by the organization, which I agree with. But you can't be mad when you're given the circumstances of, you have a decision you have to make on a fifth year, and you have the roster set up perfectly right now to insert a rookie contract. QB. It makes so much sense. If you want to win a Super bowl, you got to do it with this rookie contract and everything else you got around. Just, it's a no brainer in my mind. Also, shout out ryan poles for doing that when the entire city was drunk off their mind. So, like, people probably woke up on Sunday, like, what happened?

[01:47:27]

Oh, there were definitely some riots that, like, I would have loved to have been in a bar as the word of the trade trickled out, trickled through. Watch the instant reaction from the crowd.

[01:47:36]

But definitely some blacked out dudes who just like they were told, but they didn't find out till Sunday morning.

[01:47:42]

Yeah, they forgot about.

[01:47:43]

They woke up. They're like, what?

[01:47:44]

Or they woke up, they're like, oh, shit, I had a crazy dream. We traded Justin Fields for a six pick. I think people are also upset, Hank, to your point that people are mad? People are mad because it is a fleecing, because they were told, they were told that the compensation was going to be what, Sam Donald's compensation?

[01:47:59]

Who started that rumor? Who?

[01:48:00]

Shefter?

[01:48:01]

Was Shefter? The one who said it was a one? There was someone else.

[01:48:03]

No. Schefter said on our pod that the formula is out there for what Justin Fields is going to cost, and that's what Sam Donald got, which was a second or a third or something like that. So people's expectations were too high. The market wasn't that strong, actually. The Sam Howe trade, the Seahawks gave up more for Sam Howell than the Steelers did for Justin Fields.

[01:48:25]

Yeah, I mean, I at one point was, oh, it was Mel. Mel said that it was going to be the 8th overall from the Falcons. Fuck you. Mel fucked us. Who the hell is Mel? I remember when that happened. I was like, this is awesome. Maybe it's true, but in the last three weeks or so, I had come to grips, and I even said it on waddle and Sylvia. I was like, a fourth would be a dream, and it could still be a fourth, but it felt like it was settling there, and I had come to grips with it. Yeah.

[01:48:55]

Now you got to root for a Russell Wilson meltdown.

[01:48:57]

Yeah. Yeah, I'm rooting for fields. So we turned the page. It's better for the Bears franchise going forward to go with Cale Williams. Caleb Williams is going to be so polarizing. God, people are going to hate him so much. Not even Bears fans. I'm saying, like, outside, they already hate him. Max just tweeted, I'm getting so fired up for the NIt.

[01:49:16]

We can watch him live tweet because he's not searching for Sidney Sweeney right now on the computer here. He's just cruising Twitter.

[01:49:22]

Okay, Jake just walked back in. We got to get his thoughts from him. Also, Pug just walked in as well. Pug, quick, before we get to Jake's thoughts, Seton hall, give it to us. Seaton hall got screwed.

[01:49:37]

Three teams out of the big east is just blasphemy.

[01:49:40]

I'm sad.

[01:49:41]

Nit is here, Pug. Okay, good take.

[01:49:44]

All right, good take, Pug. Put that on a quote card, Jake. Yes.

[01:49:48]

Go off.

[01:49:49]

So much to break down. If you want to watch back on the. We just broke. We just filled out an entire bracket.

[01:49:55]

Okay.

[01:49:56]

I'm not changing it.

[01:49:57]

Wait, Jake, what's your favorite storyline? Because we did Jake's storyline prediction.

[01:50:00]

Yeah, my favorite storyline is. Well, obviously the number one is Purdue's redemption. Okay, can they do what Virginia did and win it all after losing to a 16? Another one is an elite eight matchup I have between UNC and Arizona. Arizona would be playing for the right to go to the final four in their home state. It's in Phoenix. And also, Caleb Love, one of their best players, a former North Carolina Tar heel, could see them battling for the Elite Eight. Okay, that's another one. And then Yukon, the best chance for someone to repeat since the Florida Gators in six, seven.

[01:50:35]

This is it.

[01:50:36]

Okay, what about the part of my take bowl?

[01:50:39]

I'm saying from a big picture, talking.

[01:50:41]

About national media who don't listen to this podcast, who are listening to this podcast right now. Exactly.

[01:50:46]

Yeah.

[01:50:46]

But yeah, the part of my take thing, we had our live bracket show, and when it said Wisconsin James Madison, I was like, wow, that's crazy. But we kind of saw it coming. And then Duke Vermont right afterwards, all in the same pod. Congratulations to us because one of our teams are going to the Sweet 16.

[01:51:03]

Yeah. So we predicted it. Vermont is going to go to the Sweet 16. And you're going to be like, I'm actually rooting for you guys because I only called Vermont for two years and I'm rooting for them, but I'm not rooting for them.

[01:51:13]

But then you're going to definitely root for them.

[01:51:14]

And then you're going to be like, oh, I feel so bad. For you. And then you're going to tweet like, cat amounts, and it's going to just trigger all of us.

[01:51:21]

I know it is. But I do have. I will say I have jmu over uvm.

[01:51:26]

Okay? Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. So fuck you.

[01:51:29]

So you have Vermont pulling off the first round up.

[01:51:32]

You've always had an anti Wisconsin.

[01:51:33]

Well, I was an.

[01:51:37]

College basketball expert.

[01:51:38]

I've always had respect.

[01:51:40]

He's an expert. He's an expert. Sucks every year, I really think that.

[01:51:45]

You know, ball, who's your. In your final four last year? What's. Who's in the championship? Because they're going to. But who's in your final four last year?

[01:51:53]

I don't know who my final four was, but two years in a row, my national champion has been eliminated on day one.

[01:51:58]

Okay. Yeah. Two years ago, did you intentionally pick someone that plays on Friday this year?

[01:52:03]

No, I wasn't scared of it because if it happens again, it would be equally as funny.

[01:52:07]

Okay.

[01:52:07]

Two years ago at Kentucky, they lost to St. Peter's on Thursday. Last year at Arizona, they lost to Princeton on Friday. This year, I have a team playing on Thursday.

[01:52:14]

Wait, do the Final four first. Don't just give us.

[01:52:19]

Auburn. North Carolina, Houston, Purdue. So three ones and then Auburn Dicky.

[01:52:28]

V. The Dicky v bracket. Three ones. Is that what Dicky v. He always does three ones in, like, a two. I know Auburn's not a two.

[01:52:34]

Yeah, they're what, a four? They're four.

[01:52:37]

And then I have North Carolina versus Purdue. So you have the storyline of North Carolina winning it in the same stadium that they won it last time in 2017.

[01:52:48]

You're such a storyline slut.

[01:52:50]

I know I am.

[01:52:50]

Gross.

[01:52:51]

And then you have purdue storyline. You just open up your mouth.

[01:52:53]

You have Auburn beating Yukon.

[01:52:55]

I have Auburn beating Yukon because the last few years, the number one overall seeds lost in the Sweet 16. I feel like everyone always has the number one overall seed going to the final four.

[01:53:03]

All right, what upset do you have?

[01:53:04]

Big upset, first round. I have no threes losing, but I have Charleston over Alabama and Vermont over Duke and deep runs. I have Drake in the elite eight, and I have Florida in the Elite Eight.

[01:53:18]

I don't hate the Drake call.

[01:53:19]

Drake's really hot. I think Illinois and, well, his dick is.

[01:53:25]

Did you see that video, Jake? I did, yes. Oh, you did? You saw Drake's cock? Wow. Sure. I did not think that he would have.

[01:53:32]

Is there a chance that Drake can play against South Carolina? That'd be awesome.

[01:53:35]

Yeah.

[01:53:36]

Drake beats the Cox again.

[01:53:39]

National championship.

[01:53:40]

Yeah. But, yeah.

[01:53:41]

The top left region, the east. You have all the conference tournament champions, the top four seeds, Yukon, Auburn, Iowa State, Illinois. And I had a reminder for myself. I rarely set reminders for myself. Last year, after the first weekend, I said, do not take more than one or two conference tournament champions going deep because everyone on the recency bias. So that's why I have Yukon, Iowa State, and Illinois all not making the elite eight.

[01:54:08]

Wow. Yeah.

[01:54:10]

So that was that. And I had North Carolina winning the championship.

[01:54:14]

Jake, why do you think they fucked over the Big East?

[01:54:17]

I honestly don't know. Because in recent years, they always threw over the smaller schools and they let everyone from the mountain west in.

[01:54:23]

Yeah.

[01:54:23]

All six strong.

[01:54:24]

Do you recognize those teams, big cat?

[01:54:26]

Which one?

[01:54:26]

Mountain west teams.

[01:54:27]

No, I've never heard of them. No. What did Frank say? Hold on, I got to find Frank. He had a great tweet about the mountain west.

[01:54:34]

I kind of see what Frank's saying about the broadcast rights. Yeah, Mountain West.

[01:54:38]

Shit.

[01:54:39]

The CBS broadcast the Mountain west. The tournaments on Turner and the Big east is Fox. But, yeah. So the biggest takeaways are, I have three one season, the final four. However, I have Drake and Florida in the elite eight. Okay, what about you guys?

[01:54:54]

I have a pretty chalk fun. I did two ones. Two twos.

[01:54:56]

Yeah.

[01:54:57]

I feel like I really mixed it up there.

[01:54:58]

You'll like mine, Jake. I went storylines. Oh, Frank said. So John Fantasy said, the Big east just announced that this year's entire conference tournament was a sellout. 19,812 came to all five sessions. Frank said, don't tell the committee. They're busy watching Mountain west boar ball. Fucking got them. Yeah. You'll love my final four because it's the storyline. It is. Yukon, Unc, Marquette, Creighton, three out of four. All three Big east teams get to the final four and show the selection committee was very stupid.

[01:55:30]

I love that.

[01:55:31]

Also.

[01:55:34]

I forgot what I was going to say.

[01:55:35]

Okay.

[01:55:36]

I also have jmu going to the Sweet 16. Jake, I think that's a sharp pick on your part.

[01:55:40]

Yeah.

[01:55:40]

I mean, the bottom, right, the Midwest, it's all the teams that choke in the tournament. So one of them has to break through.

[01:55:45]

Right.

[01:55:46]

Purdue and Tennessee, they always have, like, final four realistic expectations.

[01:55:50]

Creighton, Kansas, is there.

[01:55:52]

No, but that's what I'm saying. Of course Kansas or Gonzaga is going to end up winning the region because you can't really trust any other team.

[01:55:58]

Yeah. Although they kind of stink.

[01:55:59]

But I have purdue. Oh, I remember what I was going to say congratulations to the Howard Wagner winner on beating UNC because that will be my trend of my champion being out day one.

[01:56:07]

Oh, yeah.

[01:56:08]

So you should take Howard Wagner winner, Moneyline.

[01:56:10]

All right, Jake, give us your first four. We actually didn't break down any of.

[01:56:13]

The first four because everyone despises Virginia. I have them not only beating Colorado State, I have them beating Texas and going to the round of 32.

[01:56:20]

Yeah, they're going to make us watch more of them.

[01:56:21]

Oh, that's going to be such a great narrative game. Virginia loses like Virginia never should have been in. If Colorado State loses, it'd be like, mount west sucks. He should be in. We just basically get to decide what we want from that game.

[01:56:34]

Yeah, but you can listen to the Mark Titus show from my full bracket. But those are the big takeaways.

[01:56:38]

Okay. All right, well, good show, boys. We will have mark Titus on on Wednesday to get deeper into brackets. Best time of year. Let's do numbers 12, 18, 40. But I feel like three. I'll go one for Villanova once. He'd know a 2099 put if it's 60, I'm going to be damn bad. Yeah. Oh, Shane, thanks for Keenan Allen, by the way. Thanks for Keenan Allen. You want to say anything about that? Appreciate it. Shane was very upset at me. Yeah. You want to say something, Shane?

[01:57:19]

What were you saying?

[01:57:20]

Thanks for Keenan Allen. Fuck you. Okay.

[01:57:26]

23 MJ, North Carolina, my national champion.

[01:57:30]

Oh, there it is.

[01:57:32]

Love you guys.

[01:57:37]

I don't know what today I'm saying. Anyway. Today is another day to find you shine away I'll be coming for your love.

[01:57:45]

Okay.

[01:57:46]

I'll be coming for your love okay. I'll be coming for your love. Okay, come on. Me, let's say I'll send it but I be some relative way. Okay, say after me it's a bed to be safe and salvage. A bed to be safe and tell me it's a bed to be safe and tell me. Take on drink on the hat, on the aisle. Close. Safe on the saint.