Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

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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 going to launch a wedding shop. Well, we lost it because as you know, we are both getting ready to get Abercrombie and hitched the The whole vibe of Abercrombie these days is clothes you 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 good friend, Mark Titus on to break down the entire bracket. We've had a couple of nights to sleep on it, figure out where we're going with our pics, story lines, everything to get you ready for Thursday morning, one of the best days of the year.

We are going to do Hot Seat Cool Throne. We are doing #MadOnline, correct, Hank? Yep. Also, I finished the Patriots documentary. I don't know if you guys did. I did. I could maybe do some cherry on top because holy shit, did they really take down Belichick.

Yeah, the last Two episodes were...

They were some abomination. Yeah. So we'll talk about all of that and some more tournament thoughts before we do all of that. 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 five bucks into $150 instantly in bonus bets with any college basketball bet. We got lines up for every single game coming up this weekend, and Thursday and Friday. James Madison is a five-point dog right now. Is that right? Five-point dog?

Last I saw, they were four and a half.

Four and a half?

Five? Might be five.

We also have Oakland is 13 and a half to Kentucky. There's some big lines out there. Also, Mcneez plus 6. We're going to talk about Mcneez with Titus against Gonzaga. North Carolina listeners, don't forget DraftKings Sportsbook is now live in your state. You got three teams in there. Nc State, Duke, and North Carolina. Is there a fourth team that I'm missing?

Nc State, Duke, North Carolina.

There's always a random one. Highpoint didn't make it.

No, no Elon.

If I forgot you in North Carolina, I apologize. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code take. New Customers can bet five bucks to get $150 instantly in bonus bets only at DraftKings Sportsbook with promo code take. This is the best time of year, the best my favorite two days. You got to get involved with DraftKings. The Crown is yours. New customers, again, get five bucks to get $150 instantly in bonus bets only at DraftKings Sportsbook with code take. Do you have someone, PFT? No. I don't think so. I think we got all the North Carolina schools. There's a lot in South Carolina. A lot in South Carolina. I didn't want to leave anyone out.

Shout out, North Carolina. Maybe the most underrated state. Wait, where is- We're big fans of North Carolina. Where is...

Hold on. I have one. Oh, no, Stetson's in PA. No, Stetson's in DeLand, Florida. Deland, Florida. That's what I meant. John B. Stetson Company is in PA. All right, so DraftKings Sportsbook. Go check it out now. Get involved in the mania. We will be at the DraftKings Sportsbook in Wrigleyville on Thursday. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 or in West Virginia, visit 1800gambler. Net. In New York, call 877-8openY or text openY-467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg. Org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort in Kansas, 21 and over. Age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. See dkng. Co/beball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. Okay, let's go. Now in the street, there is violence, and lots of work to be done. No place to hang a low washing, and then I can't lay all on the sun. Oh, no, we're going to wrap it down to It's Part of My Take, presented by Marshall Sports. Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings Sportsbook. New customers can bet five bucks to get $150 instantly in bonus bets only at DraftKings Sportsbook with code take.

Today is Wednesday, March 20th, and we are just 24 hours away from the best two days of the year. Boys, I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but Monday night, I crawled into bed and my body was craving college basketball. It was like I had been All of Conference Championship Week, I've been watching all this basketball, and then they just shut it off. I was like, Give me college basketball. I need more college basketball.

Big news today, also, the start of spring. Yeah. We made it. Shout out that groundhog. Wait, is it? Yeah, that little motherfucker was right. I thought it was the 21st. 20th. Oh, shit. 20th, first day of spring. Hank was right. The calendar is so stupid. We're done with the winner.

The calendar is so stupid. The start of spring is St.

Patrick's Day. There should be sports that go along with the changing of the season.

It's St. Patrick's Day is start of spring. Start of summer is Kentucky Derby Day. Start of fall is week zero college football. Start of winter is-Halloween.Christmas. Oh.

No, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving should be start of winter.

No, I like to pretend that winter doesn't... Short in winter. Winter is just Christmas. It's the St. Patrick's Day. You're like, Oh, it's two months.

But when you have the score bugs on TV and it's the cornucopia and all that stuff, that is a little bit of both autumn and winter. We made it to spring.

Spring has sprung. Good job, boys. How are you guys feeling when we're 24 hours out from the best two days of the year?

I'm feeling good because- Do you agree that it's the best two days of the year? Best two sports days of the year, yes. I would agree Thursday, Friday of the NCAA tournament because Because it's just all you think about the entire time. You wake up, you start making your preparations, you take one last look at your bracket, you go, you sit down on a couch, and you don't move for basically 48 hours.

Yeah. I know that there will always be a random day, weekend in the fall, where you have an insane NFL slate and an insane college football slate, but you can't depend on that. That's year to year. If all the stars align, this is just it.

I think underrated. The second best is the two weeks of the first round of NBA and NHL playoffs, where every night there's a game that matters.

Okay, I agree with that.

But if it's the first two rounds of the NBA playoffs, there's a lot of blowouts. Yeah.

A lot of blowouts. But you have NHL.

You do have NHL as well.

We spend a lot of time talking about how the Monday after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday. Thursday and Friday should have Thanksgiving rules. Absolutely. People pretend to work on Thursday and Friday, which actually, you know what? I'm I'm walking myself out of it. I think the holiday of this Thursday and Friday is that you get paid for going to work, but you just don't work. Yeah, you don't work. It's an unspoken holiday. Shout out the boss button.

Remember when they unmailed the boss button in 2006 or something or '07? They're just like, Yeah, you can click on it and it has Excel pop up.

Yeah, I hit that one time. I think it was my professor was like, Why are you looking at a spreadsheet? This is an English lit class.

Yeah, in my first job, I remember there's like, You don't use Excel.

Yeah, what's Excel? You don't know how to use Excel. Maybe you When I read my resume. I said I was proficient. Me being proficient in Excel is knowing the website for the boss button.

Shout out 99% of the world who has put proficient in Microsoft Excel on their resume. That's just a must-have. That doesn't mean shit. Have you ever seen the Excel Olympics? Yeah, they're sick.

They're basically like musicians. No keyboard. Yeah.

They just use a mouse. No mouse.

No mouse. Just keyboard. They're like piano players, the way the speed that they go.

Oh, I actually saw it. Oh, man. Since we're down this rabbit hole, fuck, I got to try to find it. It was a Monday reading that I saw that was probably the most diabolical thing I've ever seen. Someone fill in while I find it. Oh, okay, got it. Someone in IT trolled me for over a decade. Have I any recourse? I work in a medium-sized firm. Between 2014 and January 2024, I found myself constantly making mistakes while working. Some examples are my calculations on Microsoft Excel being wrong, data inputs on spreadsheets being wrong, booking the wrong days with my annual leave by accident. I booked the first through the 10th of October, but suddenly found I had booked third to 13th of October impacting the business negatively. Typos and documents that I had sent, counts was cunts. I felt like I was going crazy So I would do things like screenshot what I had calculated, but found my screenshots had disappeared when I logged in the next day. I was wondering if I ever took them in my first place. In February 2024, our IT guy, we'll call him Bob, left us after facing a disciplinary, and we I hired another one.

The new IT guy over the next two weeks, approached me and showed me a series of records. Bob had been accessing my system, editing my work, and changing the information I had put into my annual leave sheet, among other things. The man has been sabotaging my work life for a decade. The consequences I have faced are, I don't mean to laugh, but it's funny. I was not allowed to work from home like my colleagues due to my apparent unreliability. This resulted in $250 in transfer costs every month. I've been I've looked for promotion. I've had my professional life and credibility massively damaged. I had to undergo assessments for ADHD and early onset Alzheimer's and other cognitive tests with the NHS. I was put on a performative improvement plan. Shout out memes. Pip, the old IT guy has moved out of the UK, but is there anything I can do? I've spoken with HR and they issued an apology, allowed me to work from home again and remove my paper. How crazy is that?

All right, so my take is I would hire Bob in a heartbeat. To me, Bob sounds a guy that he gets shit done. He's vengeful. I actually look at this as a negative on the dude that wrote this post. How many years?

Ten.

Ten years, and all your shit's getting fucked with all the time and you couldn't figure it out? I would like to have Bob at my company to see how dumb people are.

Is this a fight club situation?

I mean, it's crazy. It's like if Jim Halbert was the most evil person ever, and he did all his pranks to Dwight, it ruined his life.

I was thinking the same thing, Hank. It could be me, myself, and Irene. This guy's got split personalities. Spoiler, if you I haven't seen the end of me, myself, and Irene, our fight club. But it might be this dude. What's in the box? He might go home. It was his wife's head. He might go home, and then he just fucks with himself when he thinks that he's asleep. He might be a shitzophrenic.

That was crazy. I saw that and I immediately screenshotted it. So that's an extra bonus Monday reading.

But don't you almost respect Bob? Oh, yeah.

What an absolute savage that guy is.

I would hire Bob just to make sure that Bob was under my control.

Yeah, he moved out of the country. He was like, I got to get the fuck out of here.

Yeah, because otherwise, every job that I go to, it's going to be like, I hope Bob's not working here. It might be kim.

Com. He's in the Philippines somewhere.

Oh, yeah, that guy. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, but the Excel, no one knows how to use it, and everyone says they can use it.

Yeah. Excel, that's a program that will one day end up replacing human brains. Yes.

All right. So any other thoughts about the term before we continue with the show? I'm just so excited. Nit, big NIT, number one. We'll do a poll tomorrow. Should Max Live stream Vilanova's bid to win an NIT Championship.

This is Max's Super Bowl. No.

It's like second half on Instagram. Yeah.

Just give it to us.

If it's within 10 points in the fourth quarter, you should have to go live.

On Instagram. On the part of my take, Instagram.

Fine. Deal.

The NIT did quarters at some point.

I don't know if they still did.

Then you can also join.

Oh, yeah, we could join. We can laugh at you.

Yeah.

Max is ready to go for the NIT.

I just filled out my NIT bracket. Shout out NIT I've got Ohio State beating Villanova in the final. Wow.

Would that be incredible?

It'd be so funny.

We should talk quickly about Anthony Edwards ending in life last night.

Yeah, that was embraced debate. Was that a dunk?

So all those dunks always- Inspiring. Yeah. When you zoom in, you're like, did the ball leave his hand beforehand?

Then touch the rim.

Did he follow through on the rim? Some of those screenshots, you see he made John Collins smell his fingers before he dunked.

He dislocated his finger.

Yeah, he dislocated his finger on the dunk and then stayed in the game afterwards.

I'm counting it as a dunk just because I like cool sports moments like that where the world stopped to be like, Did you see what Anthony Edwards just did?

Yeah, it was pretty incredible. He's had six dunks like that over the course of his career where people have stopped and legitimately asked the question, Is this the best dunk of all time? Yeah. So he's fucking awesome. The only problem with that dunk was it was overshadowed by Austin Reeves getting dunked on last night. Oh, no, I didn't see that. Because Big Cat, I want to get your live reaction to it. There was a teabagging. Oh, no. There was a teabagging. And they asked Austin Reeves after the game what it was like from his vantage point. He's like, Nobody wants to see that from my vantage point.

No one wants to see that. We also should mention... Wait, hold on. Jelen Johnson on Austin Reeves. Oh, no. Oh, no. It was Johnson. The fallback is the problem.

It was literally Johnson on Reeves.

If I were Austin Reeves, I'd try to headbutt his dick. You bite it off. Yeah, there's only one move. I would never get dunked on like this. I just want to say that right now. No. Because I would foul way before that.

Well, I also have pride in my rim protection. Yeah.

I would just tackle him before that. Oh, man. Yeah. It looked like he actually was hitting a hurdle. Holy fuck. That's bad. Yeah. Vicious stuff. Also, while we're talking to NBA, we missed it because we were deep into college basketball. But Kyrie's game winner was one of the coolest shots ever.

It was crazy. The left-handed flow. Over Jokić. It was such a cool shot that you had guys from around the league in their next practice trying to recreate that shot to see if they could make it.

They had guys on the maps, I don't know who was on the baseline, put their hands on their heads and collapsed. That was fucking awesome.

Yeah, it was wild.

But it is college basketball time. We respect the sports calendar. I had one thing that we also missed on Sunday, which we should probably talk about.

Aaron Donald?

Yeah, Aaron Donald. You're tired. Yeah, that's our fault. Maybe Aaron Donald, you could have the case, the perfect career?

If he had won two Super Bowl.

If he had won the other one, but that wasn't a defensive issue. The Rams defense came to play in that game. They gave up 13 points to the Patriots. But Aaron Donald played 10 years in the NFL. He was a pro bowler all 10 years. He won Rookey of the Year. He won three-time Defensive Player of the Year, and he was an eight-time First-Team All-Pro Selection. And he had a Super Bowl ring, and He had some crazy-ass stats. For the last six years, Aaron Donald faced 1,797 double teams, 150 more than anyone else in the defensive field, yet he still led all defensive tackles and pass rush win rate during that span at 26%.

Hank.

He also was responsible, highest of high, most viral best interview on this podcast ever, as well as one of the worst.

Yeah, that's right.

There's probably him and John cena in terms of really good interviews while also having really bad interviews.

Then remember, he was on that other podcast where they asked him just football questions, and he kept being like, I'm just here to talk about Epsonsault. I want to talk about this Epsonsault.

That was on an issue.

That was when we interviewed him at the Super Bowl in Miami, and it was incredible. Meme's whole career was based on that interview with me calling him a pussy. You mean Pit? Yeah, all-time clip. Then he came on to, what was he promoting? A sports drink, and he insisted on his partner coming on as well, who might have played basketball at Pit, but we didn't have any questions for him, and we did 10 minutes, and then he wanted to go. So he gave it all. He really was everything. But I actually think that Aaron Donald is as close to a perfect career as you could possibly have, minus the Super Bowl loss. But he literally was a pro bowler every single year, and eight out of his 10 years, he was an all-pro first team.

And he trained with knives. That's also an all-time clip, is watching him just work out in the offseason. There's a guy trying to stab him. He's just like, no.

And he also was just like... The fact that he was, quote, unquote, undersized at his position, but still so goddamn dominant. Because a lot of defensive tackles, you think of the Holody Nadas or the Vince Wilfork, but he had a fucking six-pack, and he would just dominate everyone all the time.

One thing I don't like is the new trend of really good players retiring, and then instantly, the official Hall of Fame social media The Accounts being like, We'll see you in four years, or whatever. It leaves some suspense up there. Yeah, he's going to be a Hall of Famer. He's one of the best football players of all time. Give it some time. Don't annoy him just yet. I like the official accounts to stay out of that. The official account should be above all the speculation. Yeah, I agree. It's final when it's final for them. I agree. But yeah, Aaron Donald, I think probably the best defensive player I've ever seen play.

Yeah, he's the most dominant in this era. I You know, JJ Watt was... I mean, JJ Watt, his peak was very dominant. But a reminder that Aaron Donald did it from the defensive tackle position. Which is just... That's not... Your job isn't always to get after the quarterback, and he just always did.

He also had the perfect time of year to retire, quit your job before March Madness. Yeah.

I wish he had done it on not Sunday of conference championship. We would have talked about it on Sunday.

That was our fuck up. Imagine, though. Imagine retiring one year and you're like, Oh, shit. What am I going to do now that I'm retired? Oh, wait. I have an entire month of college basketball to watch.

Pitch and make it, though.

Yeah, it's tough.

Also, RG3 got ratioed to hell.

Yeah. Rg3 loves the take game.

Man, he was so off. He basically was like, Kale Williams should not go to Chicago. Basically, I had no facts behind it.

No, I agree with him. I think he made some good points. Then he should demand a trade to a successful well-run franchise, historically, like the Washington Commanders.

I quote you and just stated simple facts, and he then did the Kermit the Frog, all Big Cat in his fields. Everyone was like, Dude, he got ratioed again. It was like thousands of quote tweets on his original tweet.

Yeah, RG3, he likes to dip his toes in the game.

I like him, but, man, he has some bad fucking takes. That was a bad take.

Real bad. I think he's right.

I had time for it on Monday. I went to war with the fallout of the Caleb Williams, Justin Fields. There's still some people. I don't know if it was a troll or not, but there was one person who did tweet out a petition for the bears to bring back Justin Fields.

No, that's what we were I'm talking about. Remember, if Caleb Williams gets dinged up this year. I want to sprinkle it out there for bears fans to just have in the back of their head, Why not bring back Justin?

Yeah. I was looking at stats. I was doing everything because people were arguing about there's not enough quarterbacks that have won Super Bowl's on rookie contracts to actually be like, This is the way. I went and looked it up. It's essentially if you have Mahomes or braided, you win a Super Bowl.

Yeah. It's also that if you have a cheap quarterback, you would rather have a cheap quarterback than an It's an offensive quarterback, am I right?

It gives you your best chance. So I'm pulling it up. I went through the whole thing. Like I said, I had time for it on Monday because I was just waiting for college basketball to start. But starting this past year, Brock Purdy was in the Super Bowl on a cheap, cheap contract. The year before, Jalen Hertz was on a cheap, cheap contract. Burro was on a cheap contract in '21. Mahomes in '20. Mahomes won it in '19 on a cheap contract. Goff in '18. Foles, because remember, Carson Wentz was still on his rookie contract. Foles won it, not paying a lot. Kam in '15, Russ in '14, Russ won it in '12. And Flacko went against Kaepernick, who both were on cheap contracts, and he won it. Flacko won it in '12. Basically, every year, someone from the Super Bowl is going to be a cheap quarterback, and the other one is going to be Mahomes or braided, and they're going to win.

Yeah, you'd rather have a quarterback that's not getting paid a lot of money so you can pay a lot of money to other good players. If you disagree with that premise, I don't think we're speaking the same language.

The argument boils down to if you want to say having a cheap quarterback will just get you a loss in the Super Bowl to Mahomes or braided, that's fine.

I would take it.

I take it in a second.

It's quarterback Photoshop season, too. Shane came up to me earlier today and said that he's working on Photoshop for the draft. I was like, Just give me all the quarterback Photoshop. Just make me a Caleb Williams one just so I can look at it. Yeah. Caleb Williams DC one. I just want to have that on deck. You looked at it? I looked at it. It looks pretty That's mine.

I agree with RG3. That's mine. Hank, while we're talking about braided Mahomes, the Patriots' dynasty documentary has concluded. Wow, was that a hit piece on Bill Belichick? Yeah. A big time. Holy shit.

I'll say this. It was very clearly pointed, and it was meant to make Robert Kraft look like the benevolent father-Who kept it all together. Who kept it all together. Following him, Tommy, constantly. Which is very creepy every time he says it. Then it made Belichick look like he was abusive. They made him look like he was abusive and negligent. The only thing that I would say to Bill would be he didn't do a very good job of acquitting himself in those interviews. When they asked him the tough questions, he would just be like, I don't want to talk about that right now, which made him look worse than I think the actual situation was. But Bill Belichick is not an open book. He didn't want to be doing the documentary. If he had just been a little bit more gregarious, if he had explained one or two things more in-depth rather than just sitting there, and we don't know what they cut out. We don't know what they cut out. But from what they used, he just seemed like he would rather be anywhere else than answering those questions, which ended up making him look worse.

But I love- Intentionally. I love those, some of those answers when they asked him, What did you think about Tom Brady's performance in the Super Bowl against the Eagles? And he's like, Well, their offense scored more than us. So give credit to their coaches.

Yeah. So the Malcolm Butler thing was, it still is weird to this day. So weird.

So weird.

But they also set that season up to make it seem like all the players hated. They didn't want to be there. All those players came back. They made it to the Super Bowl that year, almost won. They won a Super Bowl the next year. They did give Belichick credit for that Super Bowl against the Rams. But then they also made it seem like, Well, because Bill did good, I told Tommy, Tommy knew I had to sign Belichick. It almost made him seem like he was mad about the fact that- They had won a Super Bowl. And then that he was like, Well, that decided the fate. We had to go with Bill. Right.

It made it seem like they were going to fire Belichick if he lost that Super Bowl, which I don't think was ever going to happen.

It was weird watching it because it made me… They slanted it from Kraft's POV, but they didn't have any Being a Patriots fan for those 20 years, rooting for Belichick, rooting for Brandi, rooting for all the players, was the greatest time of all time. Being a Patriots fan was amazing. It didn't feel like that. They made it feel like you should be sad for being a Patriots fan and like, Oh, you're a of this guy? How dare you? That part made me sad where it was like, this was the greatest run of all time, and they're not making it feel like that.

Yeah, the weird part to me is, I've been consistent when everyone's like, braided or Belichick, It's like, well, the player is obviously the most important thing. When we talked to Diana Rossini and she was like, the Patriot way. I was like, the Patriot way is having Tom braided, just like the Chief's way is having Patrick Holmes. If you have the best quarterback in the game, it doesn't really matter. Everything else works. I don't think most people don't say, Oh, it's Belichick over braided. They're like, Yeah, the player, he's the greatest quarterback. That's the guy. To then go even further to bury Belichick seemed just so unnecessary.

He was also slightly burying his own organization with the trainer stuff being like, Oh, it was crazy. They kicked Alex Guerrera out when he was directly going against what the Patriots team trainers were saying, Which I don't know if those are Belichick's guys or Kraske's guys or whatever, but that whole thing was strange. It was a sad watch.

Also, from Belichick's point of view, your star player has his own personal trainer who's also working with other people on the team. That same personal trainer has also been accused of being a fraud in the past that misdiagnosed cancer, or not misdiagnosed, said that he had cures for cancer and diseases like that that he obviously did not have. That's probably a liability in your head Oh, there's this outside guy that's working my best players.

And trying to grow a business.

Trying to grow a business, so conflict of interest, probably right on the inside. So, yeah, it's not as cut and dry as they made it seem in that documentary. But when they talked about the Malcolm Butler stuff, Hank, how many people on planet Earth do you think know the true exact story of what happened and how Belichick reacted to it and decided to bench Malcolm Butler? Maybe three, four? Yeah. How much money would you pay to know that, to to have your own personal documentary made about how it went down and have all the footage?

I don't know. I don't really want to know. I don't think.

Here's the one thing that doesn't make sense to me about the Malcolm Butler thing. Malcolm Butler has never said what he did, right?

Right.

So it has to be something that people be like, Whoa. You know what I mean? Malcolm Butler is in a good spot right now because everyone's like, We don't know why he got benched. Belichick will never say it. Malcolm Butler will never say it. So your mind can just be like, Belichick fucked up. But doesn't it feel like if you got benched in that position and you literally did nothing, wouldn't you just be like, Here's everything I did, and there's nothing here. I just don't know. It makes no sense to me.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, it was a very, very, very personal situation. Right.

So doesn't it feel like if Malcolm Butler said it... Malcolm Butler probably knows deep down what happened, and if he said it, people would be like, Oh, well, dude, yeah, you shouldn't have done that.

So now we need to ask, is Bill Belichick the good guy in this situation? I don't know. For never saying what it is.

That always confused me about it because it's like, Malcolm Butler, as far as I know, has never said, I think it might be this.

You know what I mean? No, he was acting oblivious in the document.

Right. Because to get disciplined by the Patriots, if you're a star player, you have to do something really fucked up. Right. Really fucked up.

Yeah, it was weird. Also, they pinned the Trump thing on Belichick, but it was like it was braided, Kraft, Belichick. It was all three of them were Trump guys, but they started the episode with reading the letter from Belichick, and then that slanted the whole thing.

I thought it was a good documentary in the fact that they did... Okay, I thought it was a good documentary in the fact that the things that people are interested outside of you is those stories. But it was so slanted to bad stories instead of a couple of good stories. That's what people want to watch. People don't want to watch a documentary that's just like, They won six Super Bowl's. I know you do.

It could have been a 15-part series, just only football porn for Hank Lockwood. Yeah.

I guess the only thing comparable would be the last dance, but the last dance was through Michael Jordan's lens, and it was anti-ownership, and this was through the owner's lens, and it was anti-Belchick.

Now, there's another piece of this that I wanted to bring up in- Also, braided.

That was tough where braided was like, Yeah, there's things I don't want to talk about. Yeah, and then Kraft just said it. Yeah, like Giselle said, You're not making my husband a man. You're not treating him like a man.

They don't treat Tommy like a man. That was so weird.

Yeah, that was very strange.

We were the same, Max. Was braided a part of the edit?

Because there's a part that I want to talk about. Are you and I about to talk about the same thing? Max and I are on the same page here because I've got it cued up, Max. Yeah. My cool thrown was going to be Tom Brady's pettiness because a Twitter user, Todd Orenbecker, Orendenker, discovered that they edited something out during this documentary. That's very weird that it was edited out. They showed the highlights of the Super Bowl where the Eagles won. On the Philly Special, they played an edited version of Al Michael's play call. I want you to listen to these two play calls. One is the first is the actual game call, and then the second is as it appears in the dynasty documentary. So it's right here.

This is the call by Michael's. Obviously, saying the word foals because he's the one who caught the countdown. They're going to snap it. And it's Trey Burton who throws caught foals, countdown. Caught Foles' Touchdown. So what does the Apple show do? They're going to snap it. And it's Trey Burton who plays caught, countdown. What?

They edited out the word Foles.

What?

And we've seen clips of Tom braided not liking it when people bring up nick Foles. Was it one of the mannings that brought up nick Foles' name? He fucking hates nick Foles. What? And he had his name edited out of this documentary. That's wild. That is wild.

Yeah, I'm not going to defend the filmmakers of this.

It seems like that would be a Tom Brady-specific request. I don't think that there's a filmmaker that's like, You know what? I'm going to edit out fulls.

Well, for time, you got to save time.

It may have been like a quarter of a second.

Hank makes a good point. Also for time, I think the time of each episode varies between 37 minutes and one hour and six minutes. I think they can do as much time as they want. No, you're right. Probably edit out for time.

A 10-part series, They Come For Time. One word.

I like that.

I respect that level of pettiness.

That's awesome. Max, does it make you feel good, though? No, I love that.

The Eagles are so far in Tom Brady's head, and nick Foles will always be there.

They also discredited the whole... That Super Bowl had nothing to do with the Eagles winning. It was just Malcolm Butler.

Yeah. If Malcolm Butler plays that, you don't have a Super Bowl ring. No, I don't care. I didn't watch it. I won't watch anything about the Patriots' dynasty. Yeah, that is so funny just I was thinking Tom braided watched all 10 parts. It was like, only one note.

Yeah. Foles. Remove the word fole is please.

But if you broke down the 10 episodes into things that were not positive versus dynasty. Yeah, no. It was definitely- It's like 75, 25.

Yeah, it shouldn't be called… It wasn't about the dynasty.

I just feel bad for Belichick because he's the best coach of all time, and he just got butchered. Absolutely butchered.

I do think, though, I like the NFL films, backed out when they realized what was going on. I feel like that's going invigorate them and Belichick to come out with their own version, which will be- That will be awesome.die nasty.

Yeah.

I like that.

Come back at it. I like it. The demeanor that Belichick had the entire time he's being interviewed was that of a man that knew it was a setup.

Yeah. Oh, we got Breaking Moos. Breaking Moos. Former Moos. Former Chargers wide receiver, Mike Williams signing with the Jets. Oh, congrats. Memes.

We're back. We're back. Shout out, NYJ Matt.

He sent Mike Williams a the Bacon, Egg, and ham to the facility. It got to him. That's the deal.

I like that. Good job, NYJ Matt.

Why didn't you do that? Is it because you're on the PIP?

Stop saying that. I think his name is just PIP. He's just going to be talking to me about this for the rest of the time.

I love you memes.

I'm not going to let that take away from this news.

This is awesome. Yes, congrats. And Marvin Harrison, possible. Marvin Harrison. No, Dana Jeremiah dropped a mock draft and had the Jets draft Marvin Harrison. What number?

Four. Trading up. Oh, trading up. I love mock drafts with trades in them. Yeah, the best. Just anything can happen. They're trying to sprinkle around. They're trying to get clicks, so they're like, each fan base can have something to look forward to if there's a trade.

I can't wait for draft season. The Vikings are up to something. The Ryan Windhorse meme, up to something.

They're JJ. They're the favorites to draft JJ.

I know which would be the perfect quarterback for the Vikings. Where he will be discussed endlessly.

Justin Jefferson is not going to be happy with that.

Yeah. Okay, let's do Hot Sea, Cool Throne, and then we'll get to Mark Titus talk Brackets. Hot Sea, Cool Throne is presented by Coors 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. Turn that canceled concert into a parking lot dance party. Too cold for an ocean swim, play volleyball and light a bonfire instead. That's choosing chill. When you choose chill, reach for a Coors Light. When the mountains turn blue, it's as cold as the Rockies. We have something very special because today, as we're taping this on Tuesday, it is the start of the Choose Chill calendar brought to you by Coors Light. When you're listening to this on Wednesday, it's day two of the tournament, so we get to open up both day one and two of the Choose Chill calendar. Oh, look at this. Look at that.

That's nice.

That's incredible. All right, so open up one and two for us, PFT.

On the Chill Islander?On.

The Choose Chill calendar. Don't let your bracket break you.

I had to beat Hank's ass because he tried to open up the first day early. Okay, what is that? He has no patience.

We got some pencils.It looks like some pencils.

Some pencils here. Says, Pick by team on one pencil, pick by uniform.

Oh, I like that. So helps you with your bracket.

Yeah, and then on the second day.

On the second day. What do we have here? Choose Chill calendar.

Oh, an Eraser. Yes. Everyone makes mistakes.

I like that. So choose chill calendar. Love it from Coors Light. They're always coming up with the best ideas. Don't let your break you. Choose chill. 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/take. Celebrate responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado. Hank, your hot seat, Cool Throne.

My hot seat was going to be John Collins, so I'll go with my other one, which I'm scared to talk about, but Boeing.

Yeah.

Boeing is on the hot seat, allegedly, I guess I'll say.

No, they're on the hot seat.

They're on the It's a hot seat. There was a whistleblower, John Barnet, who was doing a deposition. He worked for Boeing. He had all the inside secrets at one of their plants or factories or whatever. He did a whole testimony, going through what he said. I guess he was reciting a lot of stuff off memory, and that scared the Boeing lawyers. He was supposed to drive home. Boeing lawyers asked him to stay one more day to finish his testimony, and then his body was found the morning of 3:09 dead. Yeah, he was- Allegedly from suicide, even though he told his family, If I die, it's not suicide.

He was suicided. There was another thing that happened. I think it was a flight from New Zealand where the plane dipped. It dropped for about 30 seconds, and everybody on board was certain they were going to crash. The Boeing explanation of what actually happened on that plane was that a stewardess hit one of the buttons on the seat, which made the plane drop.

Like not putting your phone in airplane mode?

Yeah, I'm not an expert on planes. I do know more than, I think, the standard flysexual out there. But there's not a button on a seat that makes the plane crash. That would be a bad button to include on a plane.

I did use to think when I was a little kid that my Game Boy could control the plane.

Yeah, that part's true.

I was like, Oh, I have to turn it off because I could just be left.

Plane goes left.

That part's true. Really dumb stuff from a kid.

But yeah, Boeing. Not a great week to be Boeing. No.

I'm worried about you, Hank. That was Henry Lockwood who said that. He lives on- Allegedly.

He does have information pertaining to the arrest and subsequent conviction of Hillary Clinton as well.

Please contact him.

If you're looking at him.

But don't do it at work.

No.

If I die, it's not suicide. Then my cool throne.

If I die, it's not suicide as well.

If I die, it's not suicide. It's another- Unless Billy gets elected President, then I will commit.

If I die, it's not suicide. Okay.

Kate Middleton.

Yeah.

She's alive. Is she? No BBL. What do you mean?

Is she?

What do you mean she's alive? How do you know? Is she?

There was pictures of her out with her family.

Was that real, her?

Oh, the blurry picture, the Bigfoot quality footage?

Is she?

What do you guys think?

I think she might be alive. I don't think that was her. I think they just keep putting these things out there to try to get us off the case.

Any AWLs out there that have had a Brazilian butt lift, let us know first how it turned out, second of all, how long it took for you to be out in public again, because I'm pretty sure that it's not four months.

Wasn't the throne supposed Did they have to announce something? Didn't they have an announcement coming? Yeah. King Charles might be dead?

It seems that if you... Well, yeah, I think it was like Sputnik over in Russia that reported that King Charles was dead, and then England had to be like, Psych, he's not dead. That's fake news.

But the British people are fucking weirdos. King Charles could be dead. He could have died on Saturday, and they'll just have him laying in that bed, giving him little kisses and being like, We love you.

Are we going to do the thing that we did during football season where we delayed kickoff of week one to all cry for the queen? You remember that? Fuck no. Are we going to do that again for Charles?

Also, I'll just say, if King Charles did die, dude, what the fuck? You waited how long? If King Charles- Your mom lived to be 100 years old. You waited 50 years to become king, and then you just... Damn, dude. If he is- Why is that shit longer.

If he is dead, I'm taking Alabama to lose in the first round of Charleston, though. Yeah, I agree. You got to think of the edge in that situation.

I love the Royal family because they're the quintessential you can just make fun of them because you can punch up to those people all day.

Maybe that's what they're there for. Don't feel bad. They're not really there to give hope and meaning and optimism to the British people. Maybe they're just there to have a group of people that you can just make fun of all the time.

We can all make fun of them. We're American. We can make fun of them all we want.

Yeah.

They got to fuck. His brother is a fucking pedophile, allegedly. No.

You know what? I'm going to say it. He's a pedophile.

He's a pedophile. Sweating problem. He doesn't sweat.

Yeah, if I lived in England, that would be my career. I would just be making fun of the royal family. It's awesome. But also, if you're Kate Middleton and you just got caught releasing a fake Photoshop, at some point, if you're okay, Wouldn't you put out a picture being like, Sorry, I got caught putting out a fake Photoshop. Here's a real picture of me.

Do a Reddit AMA.

Yeah, I'm okay.

Yeah, with today's date. Okay. Good hot seat, cool drone, Hank. Thanks. Pft?

My hot seat is the NIT because Tom Crean, I think he cried on TV when they announced the brackets. We love Tom. We love Tom Crean. I like his passion. I admire his passion. But he's just saying coaches should demand to get better. Then somebody brought up the fact that his last year at Indiana, they had the opportunity to host an NIT game, and they declined hosting it because they thought hosting an NIT game would be beneath the University of Indiana.

You know what Daukets would say to that?

My ass. My ass. Fucking my ass.

My ass.

But now, to be fair, Tom Crean, I believe that was right before he was about to be fired. It was the AD's call.

Right when we had him on.

Yeah, it wasn't Tom Crean's call. We're getting all the facts around the situation, but people are upset at Tom Crean. I agree. If you're a college basketball coach, you probably want to coach more basketball. Now, if you're a player, you probably don't want to play.

I don't know. I've always assumed the NIT, if you're a player who's maybe not a starter or someone's going to the NBA, but if you're someone who wants to get better, playing more basketball is good, right? Yeah. If you want to cement your job for next year, it's like bowl games. Everyone shits on bowl games. That's an extra three weeks of practice for these college football teams. All these young guys opt-outs, young guys get a chance.

Listen, I want to watch more college basketball. I'm always in favor of having-I bet the NIT.just more sports on. Yeah. Then my cool term is going to be pettiness with Tom braided editing out the word foals. I love it. Which, again, respect, but also good for Max. Yeah.

Okay. My hot seat, I have two. One is, Memes pointed this out, the hot seat is Houston. This was on College Basketball Reddit. In every tournament since 2021, a top two seat is lost in the first round. Big sample size, by the way. In the first round to a team with a phallic euphemistic name. In 2021, Oral Roberts defeated Ohio State. In 2022, St. Peter's defeated Kentucky. In 2023, Fairly Dickinson defeated Purdue. That's three years in a row. Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. In 2024, Houston will face Longwood in the first round.

I guess, looking at the bracket right here, I see two right next to each other.

What about Morehead?

Morehead. And then Drake. Yeah. Drake's very phallic.

Yeah, Drake is also phallic. Okay, so what will happen?

I don't know. Interesting. I'm going to go with Drake.

It's only one in two top two seats in this huge sample size.

Well, yeah. I don't know. I think it's just because usually big schools play against schools that you don't hear about that have... They have to get admissions up somehow, so they have to insinuate penises into their names.

Exactly. There's also St.

Peter's again.

Yes, St. Peter's again. There we go. Tennessee, there it is. The Peacocks. Peacocks, the Cox.

And Long Beach.

Long Beach. Not a youth mission.

Longwood. Just the word long?

It's the same as longwood.

Longbeach.

Longbeach. Longbeach. Look at us. Okay.

Longbeach.

My other hot seat is Clemson fans. This is from a hilarious Twitter account that everyone should follow Board Genieces. It's message Board Genieces. This Clemson fan called Tiger Bomb 1. I stayed up all night watching every New Mexico State game, start to finish. And from what I've been able to determine, there are two things the staff needs to be on the lookout for. First, if they shoot threes, we better be careful. They are not bad misses or we may get out rebounded. Second, I hope our team is well-rested going into this matchup. We can chalk this up as an automatic W if we win in those two key areas. Clemson He was playing New Mexico, not New Mexico State. That's awesome. But Tiger Bomb 1 stayed up all night to watch every single New Mexico State.

Are we sure he didn't watch New Mexico and called them New Mexico State?

I don't know, but that's just very funny.

I hope he wasted his time.

The idea of just watching all of them being like, We got this. What is New Mexico? New Mexico State. Let's see, their basketball team this year.

Well, they dealt with some off-the-court stuff last year after Chris Jans left, and now he's doing a great job at Mississippi State.

But I think it's been downhill for them. They were 13 and 9 in Conference USA. So easy dub. Easy dub for Clemson. My cool drone is Jim Harbaugh, who did in the most Jim Harbaugh way ever a garage sale at house in Ann Arbor.

Is this common? When coaches get fired or they leave to go somewhere else-For Jim Harbaugh, it is. They just sell all their shit.

The man who has millions of millions of dollars is like, Well, we got to... He doesn't waste things. He doesn't waste the nut.

He would probably win the Excel Olympics. Yes, for sure. He's proficient in Excel.

I just love the visual of Jim Harbaugh being like, Here's all my junk, because you know he's going to get good prices for it.

Yeah, it's not a bargain hunter's dream. The khakis would probably go for 500 a piece. Oh, man.

Game 1 khakis?

He probably has some dips of school that have just a little bit left in them, and he's like, Fuck it, sell those, too.

When we next interview Jim Harbaugh in person, we got to ask for some game warrant khakis.

Yeah. I bet you he'd give it to us. I think so. Some of the transition lenses, too. A mock turtleneck. Yeah.

The whole deal. I would like that. Jake. My hot seat is us here on part of my take because we have some new competition in the sports podcasting world.

Yeah, Lou Holt.

Lebron James. Has started his own podcast with JJ Reddick called Mind the Game. You'll never guess this, but their first episode. You ready for this? Are you sitting down? You sitting down?

I'm down.

They were drinking wine.

Oh, really? Yeah. Good for them.

That's just what average guys do when they podcast.

I would actually listen to a LeBron James podcast if the topic every day was who's the GOAT, MJ or LeBron, and they just broke it down in a different way every single time.

Topic one, who's the GOat? Topic two, remember when you gave your five-year-old daughter wine?

Yeah. Topic three, you remember when you showed your penis on national television? Yeah. People forget that. People forget about LeBron just-Flashing us all.flashing America, including youngsters. Yeah.

Well, they started as asking a very simple question, what makes a great basketball player?

What was the answer? I don't know.

I was reading the synopsis.

Being 6'8.

Being able to shoot the ball in the hoop.

Wine.

Yeah.

They had two bottles of wine on the table. Okay. Yeah. My cool throne is baseball.

Happy opening day.

We talk about it with Sanford Steve a little bit, but we have opening day in South Korea between the Dodgers and the Padres at 6:30 AM Eastern Time.

Way to stay relevant, baseball.

Hey, it's not going against March Madness.

Kind of is. But it's not. The timing. It's in the spirit of it. Yeah.

It's a crazy move. What do you say, Max? I need to add this.

Did you see Jose Alvarado?

No.

He's a pitcher for the Phillies.

He's a larger man. They asked about the power coming from his legs legs, and if that helps him with his velocity.

And he talked about how he's a big grizzly bear. And then he said, I'm fucking fat. I fucked it up.

Well, you're fat, too. Yeah.

Wait.

He goes, Wait a minute. Come on, Max. I just had it up. Come on, Max. 6:05 AM Eastern, Dodger's Padres in South Korea.

In other baseball news, did anybody see Chapman's Instagram post that he put up a couple of days ago?

He likes his mom's breasts.

He likes his mom's breasts a lot. Yeah.

Isn't that just nature?

Well, usually you grow out of that, like what, 37 years ago? How old is he?

He's older and he...

Yeah. 36 years. Yeah, usually you would grow out of that 35 years ago.

He was honking him.

He was really into his mom's boobs. Yeah, he was honking. That is the source of life.

He was fondling. He's a weird dude.

It was very strange. He's a weird, weird dude. That might have been the weirdest self-promoted Instagram video of all time. Yeah.

Maybe it's cultural.

Dude, is that what happens in Cuba?

I don't know. I'm just trying to help him out. He did win a World Series for me. Max, give us the quote. Bro, I feel like a fat boy. You know I'm fucking fat. Can you send me that clip, please?

Yeah, it's the best. He's awesome.

Yeah. Okay. Good Hot Sea, cool drones, guys. Let's get to our interview with Mark Tite. We're going to break down the whole bracket before we do If you're trying to go to a March Madness game, Game Time. Did you know that you can get tickets to any of the basketball games coming up on Game Time? Can you pull up our game, PFT, on Game Time real quick? With Game Time, the official ticketing partner of Barstool Sports, you shouldn't have to worry when you buy tickets to your next big event. Game Time is a fast and easy way to buy tickets to all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. 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 up to 60% of your favorite events. What are you waiting for? Pft is going to buy tickets for Friday night in the Barclays.

In the door, 172.

172. See some awesome James Madison verse. You also get to see Duke of Vermont. You get to see Duke of Vermont. Yeah, you get Duke of Vermont as well. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the GameTime app. Create an account. Use code PMT for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download the Game Time app today. Last Minute Tickets, lowest price guaranteed. We also brought to you by our friends at Uber Eats. This is the weekend for Uber Eats. Big announcement. Did you know you can get almost anything from Uber Eats? 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, highlighters, 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. 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. This is the weekend to sit on your couch and do nothing.

Get almost, almost anything with Uber Eats delivered straight to your door. So thank you to Uber Eats. Okay, here he is, our good friend, Mark Titus. Okay, we now welcome on a A very special guest, one of our favorite long-time recurring guests. Eight years running. I think he was first on the show.

I believe it was March of 2016.

Might have been March of 2016?

Yeah, it was. I was guest number three or four.

Three or four. It is Mark Tite.

Everybody was like, who the fuck is this guest? This podcast sucks now.

Our coworker.

Just kidding, Mark.

He's been with us now at Barstool for over a year.

Over a year.

First-year review. You got to work better. You got to work harder. I got to work harder. I got to do more work. You suck. You're actually on a pip.

No, I said this last time I was here. I love it. It took a little while. Being a new guy here does suck. I will say that. I'll be completely honest. Because I was under a microscope that I didn't necessarily think I would be under. You get a reality check of how not important you are, too, when you sign on to work here. Because I don't think I'm the biggest guy in sports media by any stretch of the imagination. But I felt like when I came here, I had some reputation, or I had some people knew me a little bit. But then I got to Barstool, and there was just a lot... I realized I'm being introduced to a completely different audience of people. They're like, Who the fuck is this guy? A lot of he's only here because he's Dan's friend, which is true. But also, we became friends because I was doing some shit before I got to Barstool. So that part was... I was not anticipating that, But I love it here, and I think year one was awesome. Yeah.

What do you have for-I thought year one was awesome as well.

You have anything big for year two?

Face tattoo. I'm getting a face tattoo. I think face tattoos, this is the golden era of face tattoos. They're everywhere. A lot of celebrities have them, and I just feel like maybe that's what I need to shake it up.

Yeah, I've noticed that there's a lot more people, if you're a moderately successful punk musician now or a pop punk guy, you're getting teardrop tattoos on your face. We need to put something in place where we monitor. If you have a teardrop tattoo, you should have somebody.

That's what I thought it meant. People are just doing it to look cool.

Now people just do it because they're depressed.

Do you remember when Mike Tyson got the face tattoo? Oh, yeah. We all freaked out about it. The biggest thing ever. Now, if you watch the Grammys, half the people there have face tattoos.

If you're an artist or an MMA fighter and you don't have at least neck, you're like, What have you been doing? Yeah, but year one, I thought, went great. Also, I'm so happy you've been here and joined us. I pitched you hard what it was two years ago. I was doing my cow sitting in your living room being like, You got to come, you got to join. Part of that was just that when we get to this week of the calendar, I didn't want to have to text you being like, Hey, can you come on the show? I wanted to just be able to be like, Hey, can you come on the show and just walk 5 feet and come on the show?

Let me text my bosses, make sure it's okay.

Yeah, so this is good.

I'm way more prepared, I will say, for this year's NCA tournament. That was probably the hardest part is the second I signed on, it made a lot of sense for me to get hired right before the NCA tournament because it's my big time, I guess. But having my first real assignment here to be in the gambling cave with you and Dave and everybody else when I really didn't know. I know Dave a little bit, but when I was in there, I had met Dave three times in my life, and suddenly he's screaming at me about pics. Yeah, it was like, this is weird. It was like, this is weird. It was like, this is weird.

It was like, this is weird. It was like, this is weird. It was like, this is weird. It was like, this is weird. It was like, this is weird.

It was like, this is weird. We essentially put you into Navy Seals Buds training, where it's like the first day they drown you and bring you back to life. They're like, All right, now you got to go lay in the ocean.

That is how college basketball guys recruit, is you show all the big-tittyed women and all the gear and all the money. Then the second you're on campus, you're like, Get on the line. We're running suicides. That's how it felt for me. It was like, You're selling me on this dream in Chicago and this fantasy factory and all that. I'm like, Yeah, dude. Yeah, I'll sign right here. I sign and you're like, Go sit next to Big EV. Go sit next to-Treadmill. Go have Dave yell at you, and Big EV was yelling at me. Yeah, we Where the fuck am I?

We were just sending you links daily to smoke shows and guess that asses. Then you signed up here, you're like, Okay, now you have to sit on a couch directly next to Mincy. Yeah. We hardened you. Let Mincy breathe on you for a while.

I'll be better prepared this year.

Who was your final four last year?

Not good. I had Bama winning it, which wasn't... Bama made the sweet 16. I can't remember who else I had. I had Bama winning it, is all I really remember. And then they lost to San Diego State. But I don't remember Last year's bracket being that bad. As far as embarrassments go, I wasn't Jake Marsh, who has two years in a row now picked the... Has his national champion lose on that.

Who's your national champion this year? North Carolina. So shout out to the Howard Wagner winner. Howard Wagner. I actually... I mean, we could just dive into it, and we could start with the West. I actually think that that is the most chaotic and ripe for upset region because I don't-The region of drama? The region of drama because of LA. That's what Russ is. Yeah, it's overrusting. But we caught him because- It's LA.

Yeah. And that's it.

It seemed like he had predetermined that one. But I was looking through the bracket because it's always like Sunday night, we just give our instant reactions. Then you have a couple of days to digest it, and I'd spend basically Monday through Wednesday filling my head with stats and a whole plan on how I'm going to gamble on Thursday and Friday. Then the minute the games tip, I throw it all out the window. But that West region, I actually think it's the region of teams I don't trust. I don't trust the... Like Alabama, which you just mentioned, they have been playing some of the worst ball possible down the stretch. Arizona, they throw out clunkers left and right, and if you slow them down, it's like they can't run the half court. Baylor, they turn the ball over and they're chaotic. Baylor can look awesome one day, and then it can look like they don't know how to play basketball the next. North Carolina is probably the weakest of the four one-seats.

They definitely are. Baylor Bama, yeah, like you said, they don't guard anybody. I don't think Baylor guards anybody. Dayton is an interesting team in terms of they were ranked at certain points in this season. They have Deron Holmes, who's one of the best players in the country, but they're actually, as a team, not really putting it together. St. Mary's is interesting, but the way they play so slow, I don't know if they have the top-end talent to really go on. I think St. Mary's can win a few games in this tournament, but when it comes to the Jimmies and Joes versus the X's and O's type thing, I don't know if they have the horses, really.

Can I throw out one crazy thing in this West?

Go ahead.

Michigan State.

I know. It's hard not to.

It does feel like if we're going to have the Iso conversation that we have every year. It's like his team's not that good, but they overperform in March.

They always do. You guys were doing your Bracket show, so you weren't able to watch the CBS Bracket reveal, but we were joking about it. They showed Michigan State, and someone was like, They're playing really good ball. They're just not winning games.

You do have to win the game.

But they are that lurking team where if they could put it all together and start making shots for once, who the fuck knows?

My problem with this Michigan State team is I think the Michigan State teams in the past that have had those runs that have not necessarily been seeded high, but last year's team was a seven seed. They make the sweet 16, right? They didn't make the elite eight. They made the sweet 16. They lost to Kansas State in the garden. Yeah, that's right. But they beat Marquette, who was a very good team last year. They beat Marquette in the second round, and it felt like we got a little taste of Iso in March. Every other team, I felt like there have been stretches through the season where Michigan State has shown the promise, and then they just put it together in March. I don't feel like this year's team has really ever shown that. There's been no point in watching Michigan State this year where I'm like, This feels like a team that can go on a run in March. That's the biggest difference. They felt disjointed the entire season, starting with when they lost to the Dukes to open the season.

Yeah, I remember that game.

It's very funny looking at this Michigan State team because if you look at the Ken Palm and the Bartorvick and They're analytically a top 25 team, but you're right. They never had that one stretch where you're like, Oh, Michigan State. Watch out for them. They had a couple... No, they didn't beat Purdue, did they?

They beat Illinois at home. They beat Illinois, that's right. That was like their big one. Then they beat Penn State and Michigan after that, which neither one of those teams are all that great. Then they turned around and lost three in a row. When you see them at their best, yes, it wouldn't shock me. If you get Michigan State at their best, they can hang with anybody. We saw it in the Big Ten tournament. They were right there with Purdue. But I haven't seen consistent. And obviously, to go on runs in an inside tournament, you have to string together multiple good games. I haven't really seen that for Michigan State this year. I don't know, but it is Iso in March. And as much as Iso haters want to say he's won one national title, and it's been a while since he's been to a final four and all that, it's not that Iso goes to the final four every year. It's that you have situations like last year there. They had no business beating Marquette. Marquette was very much a better team than Michigan State. On that night, you thought the seeds were flipped around.

Iso was really good at that. He doesn't always have the best team, but it does seem like every time March rolls around, that is the best version that Michigan State can possibly be. I just think that this year's team, their best version isn't really that good.

It's a great way to go through life, though. If you can somehow reach a point where you chronically set the bar very low for yourself and then outperform those expectations, then people are always happy with you. People are like, Oh, you're a great coach. Good job.

That is pretty much what he's doing.

Yeah, he's doing a great job of that. Another coach, big story in the region of drama, Long Beach State, Dan Monster. I'm obsessed with this story because he got fired, and then he was like, Yeah, can I still coach? They're like, Yeah, I guess you can still coach even though you're fired. And then he just keeps winning. I hope that if they can somehow pull off the upset, if Arizona has... I'll put it this way. It's not necessarily like if Arizona has a bad night. If Long Beach State, because they play really fast, they're like one of the fastest-paced teams, but they just don't score that much.

But if they- That's also really bad to go against Arizona. If you want to play fast with Arizona, Arizona will just Out of Arizona.

They love that. I think the over-under is like 160, 163, something like that. But if they can make shots, if they can score and they beat Arizona, you have to hire that guy, right?

You have to rehire. You have to rehire Dan Monson. Yeah. Jake's storyline, I don't know if we didn't talk about this on Sunday. Dan Munson was the head coach of Gonzaga. He should never have left. I think he technically hired Tommy Lloyd, but Lloyd never coached with him because he left for Minnesota. Which was a failure. Then Mark Few takes over, and then Tommy Lloyd becomes Mark Few.

Yeah, there's an alternate world where Dan Munson just stays at Gonzaga because he was the start of Gonzaga, and then left for Minnesota, and then that failed, and then Gonzaga just continued to be Gonzaga.

Yeah, Arizona last year lost to Princeton, and Jake and I have talked about it a lot. It's the biggest upset in March Madness history that nobody remembers because it happened on the same day as Purdue losing. But Arizona, it is interesting because they They feel like a program under Tommy Lloyd that has... They've racked up a ton of wins. There's a lot of promise in the program, but they have underperformed an NCAA tournament the last few years. With the final four being in Arizona, they are in a region that's wide open. There aren't a lot of West Coast. I mean, you look at the top seeds, it's Baylor's, I guess, in Texas, but Bama and Carolina. If they get to the sweet 16, they're playing in LA, they're probably going to have some homecourt advantage. It does feel like a great draw for Arizona, but they can't get out of their own way. Both this particular team and them under Tommy Lloyd the last few years, they are the kings of beating themselves. I don't think they're going to lose the Long Beach, but who the hell knows what's going to happen with Arizona? Because they were number one in the country at one point this year.

I would love to see Long Beach win, but I think it's going to be a blowout. I think Arizona is going to crush them.

If you're filling out your bracket, I feel like this is the region that you take a shot. I think it's going to be a mess no matter what. So it's like there's going to be very few people who get this portion of the bracket correct that you might as well take the shot.

I completely agree. I think if there's a double-digit seed, if there's a six or higher seed, whatever your line is where you're like, That's crazy. I can't believe they're in the final four. I think it's coming out of the West, which is why I got really crazy with my bracket. I picked Arizona to make the final four. Love it. Wild guy. A lot of people think one seed. I was going two on that.

What do you think about New Mexico?

I like New Mexico. New Mexico is Good. They play defense. They like to run, too. They have the story, which I don't know how much that matters, but the pedigree of Patino I love that. I love the idea of that. It is so weird, though, because the Mountain West, as you know, Dan, we never trusted the Mountain West for years and years. Rightfully so. I don't think the Mountain West even had a good tournament last year, but San Diego State made the national champion. Correct. I think it was one team had a good run, and that's all it really takes is now all of a sudden, the West has six teams in, and I like all of them. I think they're all very good.

No, yeah. The Mountain West usually is just they're bad in the tournament. It's just a fact. Then San Diego State corrected that for them. But remember, I think it was two years ago when the Mountain West had four teams in, and they were out by three o'clock on Thursday.

Yeah. I remember, was Colorado State, like Michigan? I remember there was David Roddie, who was a fucking bowling ball. I love him. I love that Colorado State team. I think they were playing Michigan in the first. It It was like a 6-11 game, and I was like, That's an upset. That's an obvious. Michigan beat the fuck out of them, if I remember right. Maybe it was a close game. But every time I talk myself into Mountain West teams, they let me down. But New Mexico, I think, has a great draw. Clemson came out of the gates hot. They have P. J. Hall, who's a great player, and obviously, they have a good team, but they're not playing their best basketball right now. And New Mexico is. Baylor, I don't think, really guards that well. So, yeah, I think New Mexico has a great draw for sure. I have them going to the sweet 16 out of that pod.

What about your champion last year, Alabama?

They are definitively worse than they were last year, so that gives me pause. They don't guard anybody. They're Caliperry.

So soft at the rim. Florida was getting layup after layup after layup on them.

It's not that they don't guard anybody. It's that they're okay with not guard anybody. I think that rubs me the wrong. It's not like they're a team that... Kentucky doesn't really guard anybody, but it feels like John Caliperry is losing his mind over that, and he's trying everything to get them to guard.

Oh, he's got tweaks, by the way.

I saw that.

Yeah, he said he's got some tweaks. He said he's got some tweaks.

I think Cal looks at his team and is like, We have to figure this defense out. He just can't quite fully do it. Nate Oates is like, Fuck it. I like my team. We're just going to out-score everybody, which I would like a lot more in a seven-game series. I don't like it in a one-and-done series. But it's hard to match Alabama. When they get up and down, everybody on the floor has a green light. If you catch them on the right night, you think you're seeing the best team in college basketball. But they don't have the top end. They don't have a Brandon Miller. Their best player is Mark Sears, who's a good player. I don't know how many NBA minutes he'll even get in his career. That's what worries me about Bama's. I don't think they have the top-end talent, and they don't have the defense.

So St. Mary's, Alabama, second-round upset alert?

Yeah, it could be. I mean, that is about as much of a stylistic clash as you can get in college basketball. If St. St. Mary's can slow it down and frustrate Alabama.

Does St. Mary's have an Australian player this year I can get behind? They have to, right? They always. They have to, right? I need an Aussie that I need to be like, I'm obsessed with that guy.

Yeah, they always do. All right. Then the Opposite of the West, going to the East, the most loaded- What did Rostin call that one?

That's the region of gladiators.

Gladiators. You know why?

Because he likes the movie gladiator.

It is a crazy region because you have the number one overall seating Yukon. Then if you look at just analytically speaking, Auburn, Illinois, and Iowa State are all top 15 teams all grouped in that bracket. Obviously, Yukon doesn't have to play all of them because Illinois and Iowa State would eventually meet before that. But they got a tough... Yukon got a tough draw. They did. I mean, Yukon's better than everyone, but they got a tough draw, and everyone's looking at it being like, Auburn's playing great ball. Illinois has two guys that everyone is going to have a problem with in Damasks and Terran Shannon. And Iowa State just what the fuck out of Houston.

Yeah, all four of them won their conference tournaments, which where are we on that? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I think it's a bad thing. I think it's not as bad as people want to make it.

This is my favorite time of year because everyone tries to find the key recipe. The famous one is everyone's top 20 in offensive efficiency, top 20 in defensive efficiency on Ken Palm. That's the only teams that have ever won a title. A lot of the times people are tweeting that using the end of the Ken Palm rankings.

After they just went on a national championship run.

Yeah. Of course, they're top 20 because they literally just won six games against tournament teams. If you look at it in the past, there's been many, many outliers that have not met both of those. I've even seen people throwing out top 40 and top 22.

What happens- Changing it all these ways.

There's no key to it. You want a team that's good on offense and defense, but if you think there's a formula, there isn't.

Yeah, you figure out the formula based on the past, and then someone wins it that doesn't fit the formula. Instead of just being like, all these formulas are stupid, you say, Okay, well, let's just tweak the formula. Well, let's throw them in with the mix and then tweak the formula.

Then there's always the formula, and everyone's like, there'll be 20 out of the last 21 just because 2014, Yukon doesn't meet any formula.

Yeah, exactly.

You're like, But wait, they just won the title.

Instead of going, Well, maybe the formulas don't matter. You You just put a little asterisk. Maryland in '02, I remember, they had no McDonald's All-Americans. As Maryland was going through in '02, it was like, I don't know if you can win a national championship if you don't have a McDonald's All-American. Then they did, and then everyone's like, Okay, so maybe you can. All right, we got that. It's like-New formula.

To Gary Williams, just break basketball.

We've seen that with coaches, too, where it's like, Jay Wright can't get over the hump, and then he does. It's like, Okay, so Jay Wright, you're now one of the good coaches. We'll add you to the mix. Now we trust Jay Wright in March. Tony Bennett, you're the new guy that can't do it. Okay, now we trust you. Even the 12-15 or 12-5 matchup where everyone's like, You got to have a bunch of twelves.

Since 2015, the twelves are 9-23 against five seeds. Then if you look at the 6-11, 11 seeds are 17 and 15 against six seeds. That's the news. But it's just all these things that we try to put in our head, and they're all just shapeshifted for your, Here's the perfect bracket.

Eleven seed is just a really good 12 seat. Yeah. That makes sense.

Except Ducaine.

Except Ducaine, yeah. That they should not be there. This year, they're all bid dealers, all four eleven seeds.

Yeah, just penciled them in there. What's funny about this is you can twist it any way you want. If Yukon loses and they lose to a conference champion, you can be like, Championship fatigue for Yukon. Then if they win, then you can be like, Okay, well, no. Actually winning your conference championship is good. It puts you on a roll. The bottom line is we're not going to learn anything about that debate from this region because we're going to have one conference champion that comes out of it. The rest are going to lose.

Yeah, or Yukon wins the national championship. The rest of the teams that won their conference tournament lose their first game. But because Yukon won the national championship, the conclusion is winning conference tournaments is a good thing because we're ignoring the rest of the crop that it made them tired or-I'm trying to find-I'm trying to find-Bruce Pearl cried at the end of the SEC tournament. He did.

He was weeping. Maybe that was too much emotion. I'm trying to find the stat.

I saw a stat where it's like the conference champion is it really doesn't matter if you win or not. The only thing that actually matters is if you lost in the first round of your conference.

Yeah, right. That's the only- That's the indicator. If you lose the first game, you won't win the national champion. Right.

That's the indicator. I saw a stat where it's basically the final four is usually made up of teams that either won it, their conference championship, or at least were in the semifinal or final.

Last year, I went Galaxy Brain, and I thought I really had something. Boy, I was so convinced that I thought if you're a crazy coach, you can't win a national team. I thought if you're a coach known for being insane on the sidelines. And my rationale, because I went back and I looked through all the coaches, Bob Knight won some, but that was so long ago that it didn't factor into modern college basketball. And I was like, There must be something to When the pressure is high, it's a tie game at the under-four timeout. There's nerves setting in and guys are all over. You need a calming influence in the huddle. You can't have a guy who's spastic and yelling at guys and motherfucking guys. You need a guy that's called. Then Dan Hurley won the national champion. Dan Hurley won the national champion.

That's because his dad was sitting behind him telling him when to use timeouts.

The one thing you could say about Yukon is it has been 10 years since the number one overall seat has won the national title and 20 years since we've had a back-to-back. That would be the only thing or about 20 years. But still, Yukon can do it all. They can do it all.

Ten years was... Wait, who was the last number one overall seed?

Let's see. It was probably Kentucky, right? Anthony Davis?

Oh, yeah. You met over 10 years. Yeah, over 10 years. I was like, Yeah, Yukon 2014 was not.

Yeah, it was probably... Or who won 2013? Well, Louisville won, but they didn't.

Yeah, Louisville with the asterisk. Yeah, I mean, '09, North Carolina. We went into the tournament. They were so clearly cut above everybody else. And you're like, But it's March. You never know. You never know. And then they beat the fuck out of everybody.

They killed everyone. So this region, are you just going Yukon?

Yeah, I do I think the Yukon-Auburn game could get really good. The reason, Yukon, beyond just the simplistic, They are the best team, the reason you trust Yukon in March, and what they have demonstrated throughout the season, is that Yukon has a plan A, they have a plan B, they have a plan C, they have a plan D. They can beat you in all sorts of ways. You don't have to look any further than just the Marquette game in the Big East Championship when they couldn't hit a shot to start the game, and they still play great defense. You The Yukon fans will say it's Tristan Newton, and I agree with them. But also, you could conceivably, just like you could last year with Yukon, you could have a debate about who the best player on the team is because it depends on certain factors of certain games and all that. For that reason, that's why you believe in Yukon. It's not just that they are beating everybody, and it's not just like you look at their record and you're like, Oh, they won it last year. They're the number one. Let's just go with them.

When you think about how these games will shake out, Auburn, Janai Broom is a great player, and Auburn plays great defense, and maybe that turns into a rock fight. We can trust Yukon in that game. If Yukon meets Illinois in the Elite 8, and Illinois wants to get up and down, and Taryn Shannon and Marcus DeMask are hitting everything, I can trust Yukon in that game. And that's the reason I really, really like Yukon, is that they can adjust to whatever the game becomes.

And Auburn, they dispelled it with the SEC tournament, but the big bugaboo about Auburn going into the SEC tournament was a way they were not as good. They will be playing. If they play Yukon in the Sweet 16, it will be in Boston. The one thing does have basically a home game.

This isn't me being an Auburn hater. This is just trying to really take everything into account. Their run to the SEC Championship, they didn't have to play the other top teams. Auburn looked great on the run to the SEC Championship, but it wasn't like they went through Tennessee and Kentucky and Bama to do it, which doesn't take anything away from them. It's just a little bit of context where it's like, All right, is that part of it, too? Because Illinois looks awesome. Illinois was down 10 every game they played in the Big Ten tournament and came back and win. Terrence Shannon Jr. Is the best scorer in the country right now. He's on a tear. But I didn't realize that Illinois has not beaten a currently ranked team all season. Illinois, that gave me pause where I was like-They lost both games to Purdue. They lose both games to Purdue. The teams they beat, Wisconsin is good, but it's not- But they weren't ranked when they beat us. Yeah. And have we seen Illinois go on a... I think they played Arizona. Arizona beat them. They beat FAU, but FAU... And at the time, it felt like something, but FAU hasn't had a great year.

They didn't play Arizona. That was last year. They beat tennis, or they They lost to Tennessee.

Tennessee.

And they lost to Marquette as well.

Yeah, they lost at home to Marquette.

Can you come it down a little bit for us? Are they frauds? Are you saying they're fraudulent?

Yeah, why not? Okay, cool. Frauds. Yeah, sure. That's That's what we want to say. But that's the context you need, though, is because you're like, Illinois won the Big Ten, so they must have beaten. They're the best team in the Big Ten, and I guess technically they are. But I would feel a lot more comfortable about Illinois if part of their path to the Big Ten title was they beat Purdue by 10. Yeah.

Our friend Tom Fernilli was mad about their seeding. He actually texted me, Big Cat Hank, that he was mad online. He said that in 2021, Illinois won the Big Ten as a one seed and got loyal in the second round. Loyola was ranked ninth by Ken Palm. We know what happened. 2022, Illinois was a four seed, got the three seed Houston in the second round. Houston was ranked fourth by Ken Palm. The fix was in. Now, this year, Illinois is a three seed. Bio is the six seed. Not only is BIO 16th in Ken Palm, But they've admitted that BIO is a five seed, but they had to bump it to a six because it can't play on Sunday. And who did they decide to give BIO to? That's right, Illinois, the committee. The committee hates Illinois. Does the committee hate Illinois?

Yeah, it's right there. You just spelled it out. Yeah, it's plain as dead.

Illinois has to get to the second weekend. Brad Underwood has been flirting with it, and they've had some really good teams. I feel like they got to make a little run here.

I cannot believe that they haven't been since '05. That's one of the things that even when I am reminded of it, I have to take a second and be like, It's been since 2005? Right. They've been to the sweet 16? Yeah.

I'm a big believer in the tournament, especially. If you can say definitively, You have the player on the court. Those are the teams I will trust because it always comes down to end of game, who's going to get you a bucket. Terrence Shannon should be the best player on the court for most of the games they play.

Right. Bio is a terrible matchup, though, because BIO has linked. They are very well coached. I would feel... If I was an Illinois fan, I'd be very frustrated by that. Like you said, the committee literally did say, We think BIO deserves a five seed, but we can't play them on Sunday. That is very funny. That's crazy to me.

It's crazy that school can just be like, Yeah, we're not going to play on this day of the week. The NCAA Tournament Committee is like, Yeah, fair enough. We'll just change your seed.

Which I guess the only saving grace is Duquesne is definitely not an 11 seed, so at least they corrected it there. Where they're almost playing a 5-12 match up.

I think they think that they're... I don't know if punishing is the right word, but it's like, All right, if BIO, if you don't want to play on Sunday, we're going to knock you down a seed. We're not going to knock you up a seed. They think that that's the fix. It is for BIO, but it's unfair. If you want to call it unfair. I do think that if you're a team that's really spending a lot of time trying to figure out if you got a fair draw in the tournament, you're not a serious national title contender. The attitude for the serious national title contender is like, Fuck, we'll play anybody, anywhere. We'll beat their ass.

The tournament turns into just such a random series of who you end up playing against.

Yeah, and who's hot on the right day.

But I do feel for Illinois fans because BIO, everybody they put on floor is seemingly 6'5 or taller, and they're all 26 years old. I actually don't know that, but that's how most BW teams are. They have a big boy, too, on BW. They're big guy. They got a DJ Burns type dude that's a wrecking ball. I love that.

That's fun to watch. Arizona State should be like, We are not allowed to play on Fridays because we party too much. That's our holiday.

I think they do. That's why they're not in the tournament.

Okay, so you have Yukon coming out of this region. So Yukon in Arizona is your left half of of the bracket.

I took a shot at... I like the Drake. I like the idea of Drake going on a run, too. Yeah. So I put Drake's my mozzarella of this tournament. So I crossed it out four different times, but I have Drake in my elite eight just because I felt like I should pick one team, one crazy team in the elite eight, and Drake was my pick. So the Drake Washington State game is one to watch in the first round. I think both teams are awesome, and I think it's going to be a great game. But I think Drake playing Iowa State, if Drake can be Washington State, playing Iowa State and having the in-state thing going on, and like you said earlier, Dan, they're going to have the best player on the floor in that game with Tucker Devries. So that's my team to watch. That's the team I believe in. They have unfinished business. Last year, they had Miami. I don't want to say on the ropes, but they were up at halftime. They were up deep into the second half. Let that slip away. Miami goes to the final four. Tucker Devries, their best player, was one for 13 in that game.

I think they have unfinished business, and I like the idea of Drake going on a run.

Yeah, I do, too. Isn't somebody had Drake related to somebody here at Barstool?

Yeah, Connor Inright, the point guard, brother Kyle. What does he do here, Jake?

He's part of Lisa's team on the live events side. Oh, yeah.

He's great. You remember last week?

No, I know Kyle.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Yeah, his brother, Connor, hit the game winner against Indiana State.

Yeah, that was awesome. Okay, so Drake's or Cindarella. What's the opposite of Cindarella? I guess that'd be-Beru. That'd be what? Like Wicked Stepmother?

Wicked, yeah.

Who's the wicked stepmother of this tournament? Actually, that sounds hot.

Yeah, that does. So what is that? The team that fucks it up? Yeah.

The good team that's going to choke.

Well, it would have to be Iowa State because I have them losing to Drake in the second round. I have North Carolina. North Carolina, I think, is the most susceptible one seed because they are heavily reliant on Armando. They have two identities. One is let Armando Baycott do everything for us, which is a problem because Mondo Baycott is a big guy, and it's not 1971, and you can't really play through a guy like that anymore. Also, he's just not that good. He's more of a rim runner.

Someone said that in the gambling cave on Saturday. They were like, Are we sure Mondo Baycott is that good? I was like, Well, he's been in college for six years, so I'd say he probably not.

Yeah, probably not.

He would have gone to the NBA.

But you look up his run at North Carolina, and he's the all-time leading rebounder, and he's averaged all sorts of points. You're like, He's good, though. But you don't want to run your offense through him. So this year, R. J. Davis is having an incredible year, is going to be a first-team All-American. He's the reason they're a one seed. I think R. J. Davis is awesome, but R. J. Davis is like 5, 11, 6-foot. If your whole offense is like, We need R. J. Davis to score 35 points, I don't love the idea of that either. I think they're the most susceptible one. The problem with picking them to lose is who's going to beat them. I guess you could talk yourself in a Michigan State in the second round, whatever. But the West is wide open.

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All right, so Midwest. I don't know. Purdue, number one seed.

Yeah.

I still don't trust Purdue, but I do think they have a pretty decent bracket.

The problem with that region is who do you trust in that region? It's a different problem from the West, which is the West I just don't like the teams. I like some of the jerseys. I like North Carolina. I like Michigan State. I like Arizona's programs. They can do it. They've done it before. The Midwest, I like the teams. I like Purdue. I like Tennessee. I like Creighton. I like all three of those teams. If you can make a list of three teams that are known to never get over the hump in terms of going to the final four, it's those three teams.

Rostin called this the region of tension because every team is like, I hope we don't fuck this up.

I'll tell you what, the Oregon I keep going back to it just because I think Dana Altman is one of the most underrated coaches in the NCAA basketball.

Fun fact, he's never lost a first-round game.

Yeah, he's got an incredible tournament record. He might be the new Tom Iso, and that every year, it's like, Oregon's in the sweet 15 again?

You think he's dead?

Yeah, and they were dead. They were a bid stealer. There's another 12:05 where I feel like everyone's trying to get Gonzaga because they have a down year in terms of Gonzaga.

I'm not falling into that.

I wanted to just bring up the funiest season for McNeese State. Mcneese State non-conference schedule. I don't know if you guys took a look at this. Let me just list a couple of these teams. They beat B Studies, 96:55. They beat Champion Christian, 110 to 46. They beat a school called La Tournay, L-E-T-O-U-R-N-E-A-U. I think it's La Tournay. Okay, so French. They beat a French school, 81:49. The big one that they absolutely dominated, they won a game 92 to 23 against Mississippi University for Women.

Oh, I love that. They have a men's team? Yeah. Do When they show the score- Maybe not.

No, they don't. They beat them by so much. It makes you think that maybe they played the women.

When they show the score, is it Mississippi University of Women, parentheses, men?

It's so funny just looking at this. I did a deep dive into that school. It looks great.

Yeah? I did a deep dive in the Mississippi women. They started letting men in, I think, like 86.

They go by the W now. Honestly, a sick name for a school. Yeah.

That is cool. Yeah, they're the Owls. They got plenty of men's sports, though, because I thought maybe it could have been women. Dude, what an easy pitch for a recruit. Like, Okay, you're not getting recruited by a premier program. Do you want to come to my women's college? Yeah. Just Chicks everywhere?

Yeah, I do. Odie the Owl, Mississippi University for Women. I love that. Yeah, just a hilarious schedule for McNeice State. But they do feel like one of the 12 teams that everyone's picking.

Yeah, for what you just pointed out, one, the schedule. Two, I think Will Wade has one foot out the door already. I think Will Wade has spent a lot of- Just signed a contract extension.

He also was just on Wake Up, Mincey. That's true.

Did Mincey ask him that? Are you leaving Mincey? I wonder if- No, I don't know.

It's so funny because you can get a contract extension and then your school feels happy about it. But do you really feel happy?

Yeah, if you're not... Because I'm sure whatever the buy out, I'm sure That doesn't-I don't think that McNeice can afford a huge buyout. Right. So I don't think- Yeah, they're paying money to Mississippi University of Women for a buy game. But yeah, McNeice, they're not a good free throw shooting team, which I think that's important. If you're trying to pull off an upset in March Madness, when you're up by five with a minute left and the other team starts fouling, you got to ice the game at the free throw line. I don't trust them there. I think I saw that on Kim Palm, that McNeice has one of the highest three-point attempt. Stick with me. The teams that play McNeice shoot a ton of threes because McNeice lets them shoot threes. They have one of the highest ratios of shots that their defense gives up is threes. Gonzaga shoots threes Well, so Gonzaga, the way McNeice plays defense is they're like, Go ahead, shoot threes on us. We're going to trust that you're going to miss them. They have through the season because they are playing women, and they are playing the ultimate buy game, BI.

But They're going to play a team in Gonzaga that's not going to miss three. Gonzaga, for having a reputation for not being able to win in March somehow, Mark Few, just because he hasn't won a national title, Gonzaga hasn't lost a first-round game since 2008 when they lost to Steph Curry and Davidson. I think that was a 7-10 game, if I remember. I think Davidson- Yeah, they were a 10. They beat Wisconsin. Yeah, Davidson was a 10. That Gonzaga team, I don't know. Everyone's just enamored with McNeice winning 30 games and Will Wade being the coach. They can shoot three as well. But that's not the 12-5 that I'm looking at.

Yeah, the team that I love in this region, which, again, I fill myself with stats, and then they'll probably lose by 20 because Kansas will somehow become healthy and build stuff as an incredible coach. But I do love Sanford and Bucky Ball, where they just chuck threes, and they have the opportunity to capture the hearts of America, just the way they play basketball.

Yeah, that's a more attractive pick to me than McNeice. But it is interesting to have Kansas and Gonzaga right there, both teams. How lucky you're about those programs because both these teams suck for their standards, and they're still four and five seats. That pisses me off. Yeah. Does that piss you off? It's like the worst team Bill Self's ever had, and it's four seating the NBA tournament.

Yeah. What about Tennessee? What about my volunteers? Tell me something good about my volunteers.

I love Tennessee. I hate that they lost in the first round of the conference tournament. They got the shit kicked out. If I was picking a team to get over the hump this season, it was Tennessee. If there was a breakthrough team, the Rick Barnes in March thing, but Matt Painter in March, you have all those coaches that you're certain can't get it done in March, and I had to pick one of them to buck that narrative. It was going to be Rick Barnes because of Dalton Connect. I just don't love that they got their asses kicked in the first round of the conference. Mississippi State, that was a boat race. They got the fuck out.

It wasn't ever close.

Let's talk about that loss because is it something that you think is a systemic problem with Tennessee? Did they get exposed?

I think Dalton Connect is the most electric guy in college basketball, but I think Dalton Connect. I do worry if Dalton Connect understands what the score and the time is at any point in the game. He feels like a guy that just has one thought going through his head, and it's get buckets. And he's a stylistic clash to what the rest of Tennessee's team is trying to do. And I find that slightly... For most of the season, I thought that was a good thing because that's what this team has needed to get over a hump is you need a guy that can go get you a bucket. Tennessee hasn't had that for a while. But sometimes you watch them and they feel very be disjointed because of that, because they're not all on the same page. They're not all cohesive. Dalton Connect does rule on offense. He sucks defensively. And this is a team that's like, to play great defense as a team, you do need five guys. You can't just have a couple of guys that are lockdown guys in college basketball. So I don't know. I have Tennessee going to the final four still.

I still think they're going to come out of the region because I do think that this is the year Rick Barnes breaks through. But I'm way more concerned now than I was a month for sure.

Are you concerned at all? As a fan of Purdue losing, I know you love it when Purdue loses. Are you concerned that you're not going to get that joy this year?

They're going to lose at some point. The problem is, I think they're going to probably... It feels the most likely scenario is like they lose in the final four, and it's still a W for Purdue fans. Yeah, that's a big W. Yeah, they still get their W, but then the Purdue haters are trying to celebrate because they didn't win the national title. But Purdue fans, we don't give a fuck. They haven't been in a final four since 1980, and they've won a thousand Big Ten championships. And since then, they've been the one seat all sorts of times or been like a top three seat. I don't remember what the Glenn Robinson years, what they were seated. And they've been a handful of lead eights. I think this Purdue team is better. The reason for optimism, if you're a Purdue fan, is this team is definitively better than last year. They are a better three-point shooting team. Last year's team wasn't a great three-point shooting team. Lance Jones is a wrinkle on this year's team that makes them a lot better. My problem is they are the exact same style style of Basque. They play the exact same way as they played last year.

I don't know how you can not learn from your mistakes last year, which is every time you catch the ball, you're looking to post feed Zack Eady. I don't understand how that's the way you're going about winning games in 2024. That's my concern with Purdue. They are the same team, but they are better. Depending on which way you want to look at it, they're not going to lose to the 16. I think they're going to beat the 16. I think they're going to get over the hump and beat the 16 seed this year.

I like that. Can Can you explain to me as an outsider? Because I'm not from the Midwest, you're from Indiana. You're intimately familiar with Purdue and the type of people that go there and the type of people that that university produces. There's a lot of hate towards it. I know why Duke's hated. They're like a national brand of hatred. I know why A&M is weird. I know how they're a cult. We know that reputation. But what is it about Purdue that makes you hate them?

They are humorless goobers. They are 75% dudes. They That's not an actual staff, but I know it's close. It is. You walk around campus.

It should be the Purdue University of Men. Yeah, it's dudes everywhere.

They have the demeanor of nerds, but not the intelligence.

They're nice. That makes sense.

They're nice people. I'm not like all these assholes, but it's just, yeah, it's goobers.

They're goobers. They're dorks. It's something that I've had people that aren't from Indiana. I've taken them to West Lafayette for Purdue basketball games, and I don't prime them for it. I'm not like, Tell me your thoughts on the Purdue. I'm just like, I sit back, let them go. And then I ask them, I'm like, What do you think about the Purdue people?

They're like, Are they good?

Like, is it?

The best way I would describe it is they're caught in no man's land where they're closer to Northwestern than they realize, but their sports are better. But they're not even close to the party Big Ten schools like Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana. So they're caught in this weird spot where they don't have an identity.

They don't. They also have an inferiority complex with a superiority complex at the same time. Somehow, it makes no sense, but they know they're going to fuck it up in March, but then they also puff their chest and they're like, You hate Zack Yeedy because you're jealous. Everyone's like, I promise you, I do not want... If there's one thing I do not want from my basketball team is to watch this fucking bullshit every single night out on the basketball court, and they're like, You're just jealous because he's Jack plus Hakeem, and you're just jealous of it. It's like, We're not jealous. I don't know. They're a tough breed to peg.

I like the inferiority complex. It's like that's why they have that big ass drum is overcompensating for something. That's why they get big players. They might just have small dicks.

The best thing they had going for them was the free hot dogs at Jake's, and that closed five years ago. That ruined it. Because I've been to West Lafayette a few times, and I was like, Well, they got a place that has free hot dogs.

That's pretty cool. You could have a good time in West Lafayette, but the good time you're having just makes you think of the other college campus you'd rather be on having an even better time.

But Neil Armstrong.

Also Neil Armstrong.

Yeah, they got a lot of astronauts.

Yeah, that is true.

They do have a shitload of astronauts. All right, last region, the south region, our region, the torture quadrant. I've looked through the Wisconsin-James-Madeson game in-depth. I think Wisconsin's fucked.

Stop it, Big Cat.

No, I have. Here's the thing. Wisconsin doesn't defend the three well, and James Madison likes to shoot threes. Obviously, it's very reductive. Reductive?

Reductive? Reductive. It might be reductive. I think it's ingenuous.

Who makes their three?

Let me text Jay Billis and see if that was used correctly.

Who makes their threes? Because the story of the Wisconsin season as the beginning of the season, November, December, January, they're making their threes. February, they just stopped making their threes, went four and eight or whatever it was down the stretch. Big Ten tournament, they started making their threes again, looked good again. If they don't make their threes, it's going to be a terrible, terrible night for me. I just think James Madison is a bad matchup. I'm not saying that. The only thing I could say, to be fair, is that James Madison has not played a lot of good teams. They've played three teams in the top 100 in Ken Palm. They beat Michigan State, which Wisconsin beat twice, and then they lost to Appalachian State twice. That is the only thing I'm hanging my hat on. But I'm being completely honest and unbiased that this is a bad matchup.

Are they going to be playing a good team on Friday? I guess is the question.

Is Wisconsin a good team?

Is Is Wisconsin a good team? Do we have to worry about them not playing a good team? Are we sure? I think AJ Store has to be a superhero. I think that's the formula. I think Wisconsin is obviously-You'll be the best player on the court. They're fine. They have shown... I mean, you guys were ranked what? Six at one point? Mm-hmm. Fridel on JMU, I'm worried about for you guys, though. I think I've been saying it all year about this season of college basketball, it is the year of the cold-ass white boy. All over college basketball, there are just white dudes that can light it. It's not just that they score a It's not that they're just catch and shoot guys. They just got a little sauce to their game. Noah Fridaul feels like one of those guys, maybe.

You're going to hate him so much if you hate him.

Yeah, you're going to fucking hate him.

You're going to hate that guy.

I'm ready for torture. They drag me back in. But again, I'm looking at it in an unbiased way. If I have removed any rooting interest from this game, I would probably bet James Madison just because I think it's not a great match.

What's the funniest outcome for the show? Not just for this game, but for the Vermont Duke.

How it all plays out. Funniest outcome is Vermont beating Duke Vermont beating JMU or Wisconsin.

Jake says good game.

Jake apologizes to us for winning.

Yeah, Jake shrugs his shoulders and he's good.

I think this is important, too. Also at the same time, Villanova finishing second in the NI team. That would actually be the funniest possible outcome.

I think the sicko outcome is Wisconsin beating JMU and then Duke just boat- That's what I picked.

We talked about this, Jake, on Sunday. That's a sicko outcome. I picked that in my bracket because I think between you two, PFT is far more excited about game. I think he has to suffer his pain, and then you start talking yourself into Wisconsin again, and then Duke just fucks you up, and then you're back to... And Kyle Filipowski- It's a lose-lose for me no matter what.

If Wisconsin loses in the first two rounds, no matter what, it's going to be pain for me. No matter what.

But can you just imagine? I have allowed myself to wonder, what if we win two games? What if I get an entire week of just watching highlights from the first two games, getting excited, buying in win the sweet 16? It would be probably the most electric college sports moment of my life.

That entire week. Well, I asked Dan this on the Yack yesterday. What is the stakes of this game in terms of... I feel like you guys are going to bring this game, whoever wins is going to reference this forever. I don't think so. I don't get to.

That's the problem.

I don't think so because people try to divide me and Big Cat sometimes with things like this. Hank. Hank, especially. There's a reason he's not on that couch right now. But I think if Big Cat wins, if Wisconsin wins, I'm going to be upset. But I'm still in the back of my head going to be like, Well, that was awesome that we got to go dancing. That was cool. I got to see the game, and probably the better team ended up winning. Then if JMU wins, I'm going to be very happy about it, but I'm going to be more focused on just what an electric experience it was than to remind Big Cat of it. Unless Big Cat starts coming at me for Commander's Bear stuff, in which case I've always got that in my back pocket.

That's what I asked, really. What could possibly be a bigger, this might actually divide us situation.

A playoff game in the NFL would be way, way, way, way, way at each other a certain way and then just know that it's on. But it's a lose-lose for me because James Madison is the underdog. It's a cool story. Their sports programs have been insane the last year. Just being honest, people love to relish in my sadness. They just are sick, sick fucks with that.

That's why I think Duke beating you is the move because I think you're going to be way sadder.

The delayed sadness?

Yeah, no.

For ultimate sadness, it is Duke over Wisconsin.

Kyle Filipowski has a couple of dirty plays.

Trips of people. People, injures Chucky Hepburn somehow. All right, so the rest of this bracket. I find myself believing in Marquette for some reason, and that's really just because my bracket is basically the Big East revenge bracket, where I have my final four is all three big East teams getting there. But I do like Kentucky, especially because Cal is doing his tweaks, which would be huge. In Kentucky, you would say, if you had to play one game and you're like, All right, Kentucky, they have so many dudes, and Reid Shepper is electric. They can beat anyone in the country because they have that style of play, and they can make so many shots, and they have so many guys who can get a bucket.

You fall in love with the guards who can make their own offense and teams that have one of them you fall in love with. I look at Northwestern, who's not really playing great basketball, but they have Boo Boo, and I'm like, If Yukon plays Northwestern and Boo Booi, they're not going to, but you're just like, I don't know, man. Boo Boo, he could score 45 points in that game. The guards that can make their own offense, you fall in love with. You just do this time of year. Kentucky has four of them. Kentucky has fucking four of them on their roster, which might be too many. I don't know. That might be part of their problem is you have Dylan and him and Reid Sheppard coming off the bench when both those guys might be top five picks. It's a crazy... Cal has almost too much talent.

How many balls are there on the court?

I think there's still one.

Just one ball.

But remember, he's got some tweaks.

He's got some tweaks, though. He's going to roll the ball out there. No, I have Kentucky in the lead eight. I think this Kentucky team is just too talented, and it's such a high pressure year for Cal and the program.

What about the one seed here? Because Houston, we know them. We know what they do. They play insane defense. I probably will take Houston in the first round just because they were so bad against Iowa State. It feels like they're just going to punish the fuck out of the 16 seed. They rebound the fuck out of the ball, but their offense can go away at times. I actually think Texas A&M might be live. They can get down and dirty and grind it out and play low possession games Because that's what I always look for with these upset is what teams can play these low possession games where if you're an inferior opponent, you can basically make them have to execute in the half court and things won't go as well.

Yeah. If you're talking yourself in A&M, Wade Taylor, again, is one of those guards that can just go bananas in the tournament. I think Houston, though, is... Houston doesn't feel like an upset candidate to me because I think Houston is so good at just strangling inferior opponents. When they're playing a team that's not as good as them, their defense is so fucking locked in that it's hard to... They don't really get upset. That's not how they lose. The issue with Houston is more when they're playing another high caliber team, do they have the individual talent to rise to that level? But I agree that when they play longwood, they might win by 70. When they play inferior teams, they just completely suffocate them. I have Houston win at all in my bracket. Oh, okay. Houston is my national champion. I probably think it should be Yukon, but it's boring. Houston, for long stretches of the season, has looked like the best team in college basketball. They're the best team in the best conference. Iowa State definitely humbled them. But I think Houston's defense gets all the headlines that not enough attention is paid to how good their offense actually is.

Lj Crier and Emmanuel Sharp can both shoot. And the idea when you watch a Houston basketball game is like, This is disgusting. This is ugly. The ball is not going through the basket. I don't think that's the case. I think they can score. I don't think they're going to lose to inferior teams, and I don't think there are a lot of teams that are better than Houston. I ended up picking them reluctantly as national champion, but I don't know. I think they proved it this year that they belong. The tear they went through in the Big 12 is impressive in year one. I love Jamal Shed, too. I think he's the best defender. He's a guy... If we're talking about guards that can take over games, the antidote to that is having a guy like Jamal Shed that you can just put on that guard and say, Shut that guy down, and he can do that. For that reason, I like Houston.

I want to see Kentucky, Houston in the That would be awesome. Because just stylistically, just completely opposite. All right, I got one last question. Roback question, robacked question, Promo code take. Use it right now. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. I'm wearing the joggers right now, the most comfortable joggers in the world. Roback. Com, promo code take. All right, so if you had to say your one first round upset, we can go around the room, who are you going to take?

Okay.

Also, I wanted to note, I had... Again, I'm just filling my head with all these stats and everything. What was the stat? I think if you're filling out your brackets since 2015, I think it's 2 for 32, 12 and 13 seeds getting to the sweet 16. And one of those years was when Oregon State was a 12 and they played a 13. So a lot of people will take the 13 and 12s to win a game. Just remember that But statistically, the last 9, 10 years, getting to the sweet 16 is a little different. You're one upset, PFT.

To the sweet 16? Yeah.

No, or just the first round.

Oh, first round. What do I really like in the first round? Oregon.

Yeah, I like Oregon, although they're like only a one-point dog, I think.

I got two. I got Oregon and New Mexico.

New Mexico is a favorite.

Oh, they are? Okay.

I was just looking at. They're two-point favorite.

It looks like I'm sharp.

Yeah, you are. Your advanced analytics works. Nailed it. I'll probably go with Drake, but I actually think Akron might be good somehow.

Is Drake favorite? Drake's not favorite. Jake's not favorite, I don't think. Jake's a point under the dollar or something? I think so.

I'll look it up.

Yeah, I mean, Drake would be my pick, too. I have him in the lead 8. So obviously, I think Drake's going to win the first round. I'll take Purdue over the 16th seed.

Okay. Sure. Okay. It's a big upset.

I think they do get over the hump. I like that one. Grand Grand Canyon is the 12 I'm slowly talking myself into. It's nothing against St. Mary's. It's just Grand Canyon is so fun. And Bryce Drew is an awesome guy. I think he's a great coach, and he didn't work out at Vanderbilt, but I think they They have the pedigree, too. They came to the tournament last year, and they're building something in Grand Canyon. They're on a long winning... Do they have the longest winning streak, Jake?

Yeah.

No, James Madison does. James Madison does. But they've been on a tear Grand Canyon has. So, yeah, I'll pick Grand Canyon because if they can speed St. Mary's up, which is a big if, and everybody that plays St. Mary's says that. But yeah, I think Grand Canyon is a fun team.

Drake is a favorite, by the way. Drake is the favorite.

I was wrong.

No, that means you were sharp. Yeah, that means I was sharp, but that's not really an upset. That does bother me. I know it shouldn't. I think it's something that I wish I could correct in my own brain when an 11 seed or a 10 seed is a favorite and wins and everyone's like, The craziest upsets today. Yeah. I feel like an absolute loser to be like, Well, actually, they were favorites, but I can't correct it because I'm like, Dude, they were favorites.

I think you can say that if somebody's like, They shocked the world. Then you can point out to them as they were favorites.

Like, New Mexico being a two-point favorite as an 11 seed, and if they win that game, everyone's going to be like, Holy shit, what a day. I hate myself.

Yeah, I hate you too.

I hate myself for that. I'm like, What team stormed the court as favorites? People are like, Well, they're favorites. Why are they storming the court? Yeah, I have no problem with that because I'm pro-court storming at all times.

Well, you can't undo the wiring in your brain. I can't undo the wiring. The decades of watching the NBA tournament and the team wearing white losing is an upset. That's an upset. No matter what the spread says, the team wearing the white jerseys, if they lose, that is an upset.

Also, you know what they should do? I wish they would go back. It's similar to the Super Bowl logos, how they've ruined the Super Bowl logos because they made it so corporate. Go back to the weird courts. I know. The Iowa State game always is seared in my brain when they were playing in that weird orange and blue court.

Boise State.

Yeah, when they were two seed and lost. I'm just like, go back to that. Those are the memories I want.

Jeff D. Lo is a big proponent of that, I think.

I'm sure he is. Maybe not.

I actually make the corporate.

Jeff loves all the weirdest parts of basketball that nobody else cares. Nobody else cares. Nobody else even notices. So your final four, you said Houston, Tennessee, Yuk, and- Arizona. We have the same final four, Mark. Oh, really?

You're fucked. Let's go. You're fucked. We have a perfect bracket.

I'm the biggest idiot on planet Earth.

So am I, though. Okay, cool. One A, one B. We have a perfect bracket. I think you watch too little college basketball. I watch too much.

Right in the middle. You're right in the middle.

Somewhere a narrative got started that I don't watch college sports.

No, I didn't see you don't.

I don't really understand. Okay, I watch probably five college basketball games a week before March.

No, I didn't mean for it to be a personal attack.

I'm sorry if it's coming off as defensive against you.

You sounded like a Purdue fan right now. There really are.

You can't take a joke.

I've just had three people tell me that in the last week. I was like, I don't know how much am I supposed to be watching.

No, it's fine. The problem is I watch too much.

I mean, it's fair to say no one is coming to PFT commenter for their bracket pics, right? Correct. That's fair. That's all I'm saying is you're not a guy who watches a ton to where everyone's like, I want to know what PFT has to say. I am, and I think we're On the bell curve, I think the guys who win are in the middle. I've watched too much, you've watched too little.

Yeah, I think that's the narrative that's just based on the fact that I watched an unhealthy amount of college sports. You watch a regular amount.

His lock of the day when we were doing our parlay was what University of Texas, Arlington? Yeah, fucking love them, dude. Against who?

They were playing... Who were they playing? I can't remember, but it was such a great game. Fuck, it was an awesome game. Oh, Tarleton. Tarleton. They won. Max and I were up till 2:00 in the morning watching them.

That game rock.

I'm so upset that I would have picked them to go to the Elite 8 if they won it. Hank and I had normal picks. I had the Kentucky over, Hank had NC State, and then Big Cat's like, You got to watch this Tarleton game. The best. You have Houston as your champion.

I have Houston over Arizona. I think Arizona beats Yukon in Phoenix. The Arizona fans are going crazy. They're like, Holy fucking shit. It's going to have a little Wisconsin 2015 vibes to it where they're like, We did it, celebrate, and then they lose the national championship to Houston. Okay. I think they celebrate too soon.

Yeah, I did celebrate too soon. Okay, Mark Titus. Thank you, as always. Thanks, guys. Go check him out. Mostly Sports, Mark Titus podcast, The Yack. He does it all. Let's get some madness.

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Okay, we got #MadOnline to end the show today. Reminder, Friday, we will have a show. We have Stanford Steve, who will give you Friday winners. So Stanford Steve is going to give us, after Thursday, we get our teeth kicked in. Stanford Steve will be joining us on Friday to hopefully pick up the pieces for us. Hank.

All right. These are people mad about tournament stuff. Dan says, In '21, one-seated Illinois had to play an underseated in-state loyal team in round 2. 22, they drew underseated Houston in round 2. This year, not only do we play an underseated BIO in the second round, number 16, Ken Palm.

Oh, no.

A lot of weight. We didn't say not only do we, but we didn't say, but. These are the Ken Palm ranks of the other teams in their region. One is Yukon, four, Auburn, five, Iowa State, 16, BIO, 21, SDSU. So they got a bad draw.

We talked about this earlier because you actually texted that to me and Big Cat last night. By you, I mean Tom Freneli sent that over. So they make good points. And also the BIO thing is very funny.

I like this one. Hot take. When non-at-large teams like NC State and Oregon make their conference tournament, That conference should be the conference that loses a bid. I like that. In this case, Virginia and Colorado out.

Yeah. I like that. Good choice. This is a good rule.

It also is very funny to me, which we haven't brought up because we've talked to Fanta and Rothstein about the expansion of the tournament. The tournament is already the whole country.

Yeah.

Because you can win your conference tournament.

Yeah.

When people say they want to expand, be like, Dude, it's expanded.

Yeah.

They're all in. Everyone's in the tournament.

Also the very nature of the regular season. Right.

But everyone's in the tournament because you can win your conference tournament and then be in the tournament.

Yeah. 96 is too much. That's too many teams.

We have a 336-team tournament or whatever the fuck it is. Except that's stupid rule with the D2 to D1 transition. That's the worst. When teams win that, I feel like there's one every few years.

Yeah, I agree with that. You shouldn't take that away from teams if they prove it.

But their tournament is expanded. The whole country is in the tournament. That's the beauty of the tournament.

Everyone's mad about Virginia, but why is Texas a comfortable seven seed while teams in the Big 12 with similar records got left out or weren't even on the bubble? Oklahoma. Oklahoma, Kansas State who just beat Texas, Cincinnati.

Oklahoma. Kansas State, I don't think had the resume. Oklahoma definitely did. They were the first team out, and they got screwed, and it was because of all these bid stealers. It sucks, but should have won more games.

I respect the guy from Oklahoma being mad, but their outlet for being mad is like, Well, Texas shouldn't be seated as high. I like that. That's good. A natural course of energy for you would be to be like, why the fuck is UVA in it? But because you're an Oklahoma fan, you're like, well, they gave Texas too much credit, they should be seated lower, which I like. I appreciate that.

You tried to get us off the scent there a little bit. Sinsi, I feel like, could have had a resume worthy, but Kansas State was... I mean, they were 19 and 14.

Dallas says, I don't think Dayton deserve to get in a tournament. Only two wins teams in the tournament, and that was Longwood and Duquesne. Lost games in conference against Duquesne, Richmond, VCU, Loyola, and Mason. Best wins against SINSEY and St. John's makes no sense.

I like this. The Daten, I mean, this is another one. If we had had the first rule that was offered up, which I agree with, Dayton wouldn't be in because Duquesne would have taken their spot. I'm fine with that. If you have a bid stealer in your conference tournament, it takes out one of your bids.

Yeah, Dayton, they should have won their tournament.

Wait, but hold on. But then by If not, someone could have taken out Creighton. Yeah, that would probably be a problem. If Providence had won the tournament, Creighton would be out.

I just think they should do a better job of picking which teams are in the tournament so as to not make me angry.

Yeah. Also, I hate to say it to the bubble people because I know that an Oklahoma fan, a St. John's fan is all you've been thinking about, no one gives a fuck once the bracket's out. Once we get our hands on the bracket, could you name a team that just missed the tournament three years ago?

No chance. No, it's more about- No chance. It's not necessarily when I get my hands on the bracket because you do have those two days to be angry. You can be mad Monday, Tuesday.

I'm just saying it's one of those angers that no one else cares about.

No one's going to care about it. I think it was Louisville. No one's going to care about- What?

I think Louisville may have been one of those teams. In when?

I'm still mad about that. 2021. Okay. Yeah, I'm furious about that.

Do you guys see Rick Patino's suggestion for the selection committee? He said, Have a great suggestion for Dan Gavet, who's absolutely the best. I know three guys who are watching games all year and would be a great addition. They won't just look at certain metrics. Jim Bayheim, Roy Williams, and Coach K.

They need to be part of selections.

Just get your friends involved. Get the old guard back in.

Just trying to get them a job.

His suggestion is just like... My suggestion is that it'd be a real shame if there was a horse head in your bed when you woke up tomorrow. Yeah.

Okay. Good suggestion, right? Big out.

I also think UVA makes a difference in your theory.

What do you mean? That nobody wants to watch UVA. Oh, yeah. That part, yes. That will add to the bubble. But they also got in the play-in. I always- But if they win tonight, 50 to 46, everyone's going to be like, Holy shit, we have to watch this fucking game. Well, like I said on Monday, it's the narrative game. Because if they win tonight, then everyone's going to be like, The Mount West shouldn't have six teams. If they lose tonight, they'll be like, Fuck it. The thing that sucks to me is St. John's is more fun than Colorado State or UVA. It's just a fact. They play a more fun brand basketball.

Yes, so we'll end with that.

That should be the tiebreaker, which is fun.

Who do people want to watch?

Yeah. Will the Overhead.

I threw away my Irish heritage on Sunday. I drank red wine and ate Italian food in preparation for Selection Sunday. I sat there watching my TV with a chicken parm, only to see my savior not be an attorney. What they did to St. John's and Rick Bettino is criminal.

Yeah, I mean, I would agree. Irish and Italians, they're so much more alike they like to admit. Yeah, they don't like each other. Yeah, but they're basically the same. It's like Baltimore and Pittsburgh fans hitting each other. It's like, no, you're the same person.

It's the famous Christopher Maltesanti when he was in the hospital bed and he's like, I went to hell. They're like, What did it look like? They were like, it was a bar and it was St. Patrick's Day. Every day was St. Patrick's Day.

Then the Irish person is like, I went to hell. What was it? It was Columbus Day. You are the same people. You should get along.

Italians, they don't have a party day. Imagine if they did.

Italians don't have a party day?

Like St. Patrick's Day?

I feel like they just have every day.

Memorial Day? No one has a St. Patrick's Day.

Djs? Biggie's Turny. The star of the Biggie's Turny is Italian Heritage Day. One of my favorite takes Max has ever had because it doesn't make sense, but it makes perfect sense.

Yeah, I get it.

Yeah, makes perfect sense.

Labor Day, all the unions. Rp Jimmy Hoffa.

Okay. Good show, boys. Good luck to everyone on Thursday. We'll see you on Friday morning, fresh off of 12 hours of watching College Basket.

Fresh off winning. Yeah. We're going to be the only podcast in America that has a perfect bracket on Friday.

I have to win tonight. All of our teams will survive day one.

You said it, Jake.

Jake, I'm surprised you haven't done a Who Do You Like In The First Game, MSU. Oh, I did it on the tightest show. Okay, Nice.

Have you done baroquetology? No. Good.

Stick to sports. I love it when it's like...

I didn't know Obama was Irish, by the way. That was a fun fact. He is?

Wait, what?

Someone released a video. I guess when he was a President, he released that he was Irish, and then Irish people made a bunch of songs about him. Oh, huh?

Did not know that.

You got to hear this song. Hold on.

Jake, you're big like when Arizona plays Kentucky, the Wildcats are going to win?

No, just the MSU thing.

But yeah, every President should fill out a barack of Dandy cats.

That rules.

It's very cool.

They make the best fucking song.

There's no one as Irish as Barack Obama. I would love to Obama.

The only one, Hannah McGregor, and there's nobody better.

And he's going to knock out Floyd Mayweather. So Floyd, watch out. The Irish are coming. Talk all you want, but you'll do nothing.

We may be saying that 3,000 times. Yeah. In Vegas. You have to.

We got caught up. We got caught up. I would love to see Joe Biden fill out a bracket. That would be... See if he can do it without falling down. How about this?

Biden-it.

Okay. We'll workshop it. All-time me and P. F. C. B.

Biden.

Getting swept up in the moment and betting Conor McGregor and just being like, he fucking hung in there. He almost won it. Then we watched it back sober. We're like, oh, Floyd was just messing with him the entire time.

We, with a straight face, bet McGregor against the best defensive boxer of all time.

Sat next to the sniper from Saving Private Ryan. Barry Pepper. Yeah, great dude. That's the level of celebrity we are. Barry Pepper. We got our seats and we're like, okay, I'm cool with the Barry Pepper level.

Yeah, I'm very cool with Barry Pepper, too.

He played Mickey Mantle. He killed- Or Joe Dimanji.

He killed 70 Nazis in Saving Private Ryan. He's a badass.

All right. Numbers.

40.

3. 8. 20.

69.

99.

29.

93. 93.

Love you guys.

I'm walking away.

I'm the one. I'm to say I've stayed anyway. Days are not the day to find you.

Shying away.

I'm coming for your love of good. I'm coming to your love of good, babe. I'm coming to your love of good, babe. Take on me. Take me up. I'll be gone. You're too much. I need less to say. I'm all just send it, but I'll be so a little late. Slow and learned, life is okay. Say, up to me.

It's for better to be safe and sorry. It's for better to be safe and sorry.

It's for better to be safe and sorry.

Take me up.

I'll be gone.

I'm not to want to.

Things that you say.

You can hear me feel like I'm just way All the things I've done to you and them, when you're shying away, I'll be coming for you anyway.

I'll be coming for you anyway. I'll be coming for you anyway. I'll be coming for you anyway.

Take on me. Take me up. I'll be gone. You too.