Transcript of March Madness Mega Preview, Mark Titus Breaking Down The Bracket, USA Loses To Venezuela + Hot Seat/Cool Throne

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On today's Pardon My Take presented by DraftKings, we have our Mega March Madness preview. We're doing fun facts for every team in the bracket. We've got Mark Titus on the show to break down the bracket, talk about You know, Cinderella's best teams region by region, getting you ready for all the madness starting on Thursday. We're also going to talk World Baseball Classic. USA loses to Venezuela. Jalen Waddle got traded to the Broncos. Hot seat, cool throne. We won an award and it's all brought to you by our friends at Everyman Jack. You're a grown man making better decisions about what you put in your body, are you paying attention to what goes on it? Here's the thing: using grooming products with harsh chemicals, like washing your car with dish soap— sure, it gets the job done, but you're stripping away the protection and doing long-term damage. Most guys think they have— they have to choose products that work or products that are better for you. Everyman Jack says that's BS. Their clean, naturally derived formulas have none of the garbage the other guys use.

No parabens, No dyes, no shortcuts, and they're incredibly effective. Their coconut-based body wash cleans while hydrating. Their new 48-hour antiperspirant has unbelievable glide and staying power. Everyman Jack— clean, effective, made for men. What more could you want? Start your new routine and find Everyman Jack at Walmart, Target, Amazon, Kroger, or wherever men's personal care products are sold. Okay, let's go. Football guy, but you know, AWM. Welcome to Pardon My Take, presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Wednesday, March 8th. And Team Venezuela has won the World Baseball Classic 3-2 over the U.S. Congratulations, Hank.

Hmm. Not so fast, Big Cat. Oh, not so fast. Mark DeRosa, he's saving Cal Raleigh in Game 2. We're going to have a fresh lineup. So we're not out of this just yet. Venezuela has not punched that ticket. So I trust in Mr. DeRosa and all his decision-making.

But yeah.

That sucked.

Sucked. Sucked. I mean, it was— you thought the Bryce Harper home run, you're like, that's it. Like, we just— that was everything we needed. Captain America did it for us. And then it was followed by Aaron Judge just sucking yet again. And he's going to get— he's going to lose some pinstripes over this. I think that's only fair.

Never had him.

Yeah. I mean, it was not, not great performance. I did see one tweet that said just like we— hold on, I'm going to try to find it, give the guy credit. I think it was just like we, we give credit to Paul Skeens for almost joining the military, we should give credit to Aaron Judge for almost making contact tonight. Shout out that guy. Sorry, I don't have your Twitter in front of you, but that was a very funny tweet. It was— yeah, I mean, it was really—

when we take out Venezuela, we don't ask for any help from a judge. So next time, sit this guy out. That's a bad joke.

He sucked tonight. He sucked.

He sucked tonight.

He sucked. And yeah, Hank, floor is yours. I assume you got swept up because the crowd was electric. It was all Venezuela except for Marlins man who— I don't know if you guys saw my breaking news, but he texted me saying, should I move my hat a certain way for the troops in the top of the third? I said, yes, definitely. And then he did.

Yeah, no, I think everybody, yeah, all the troops saw that. It was a touching moment.

Yeah.

Hank?

No, I mean, I was ride or die DR. And I got, I was pulling for the boys after that Bryce Harper home run.

I did.

I mean, Aaron Judge, like you knew he was striking out and he did. He is an absolute joke. Absolute choke artist. Expected nothing else from him and he delivered nothing. Uh, but no, I was, I was, I was pulling for America in that game.

But you just said that you were pulling for America after Bryce Harper hit the game-tying home run. So like from the bottom of the 9th, or the bottom of the 8th on, you were rooting for Team USA?

Hard.

You just like bat flips. Anything that bat flips is the team you are rooting for.

Let's forget like it's March.

It's like, okay, I'm in.

It is March. I like, I'm watching these games for entertainment. Like Roman Anthony Red Sox. Everyone else, like, in, in now that this is over, I don't root for these guys. So it's like I was watching the game and then when we, you know, that was an exciting moment and I was like, I hope we win.

Well, you're the guy who gave up the hit.

Ah, whatever.

You didn't even know that.

The team did feel like it just had a lot of Phillies energy to it.

How so?

You got Bryce in there, you got Schwarber finishing in second place. It just—

you're absolutely right. I was thinking it the entire time watching the game. It was exactly like every Phillies baseball game or playoff game I've ever seen, except for Bryce hit the homer to tie, and I was like, oh, maybe this, maybe this is different. Maybe there's a little bit of a different vibe.

I think Hank's doing some research right now. Hank, what have you found? Hank, come back to us with your findings.

I will.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, I can see the Phillies energy.

Has there ever been a better player that sucks more during these primetime moments when it matters most than Aaron Judge?

And he's just so tall. So there's so much of him to hate.

You know, like last year, this most recent playoffs when he hit like one home run.

Yeah.

And we're like, oh, okay, okay. Aaron Judge is clutch now.

Yeah. And he's like, it's just, you know what I mean about the tall thing though? Like it's something about him. Like where, when he, when he, when he just strikes out over and over, it's just so, you're like, damn, he might just be too tall. I don't know what it is, but his height, when he looks, when he plays that bad, his height It's just like it bothers me. It's like, damn, that just doesn't make sense. Like, he— if he was shorter, he— and maybe like, you know, punching something in the dugout, you'd be like, oh yeah, that scrappy guy, he really wants it. Instead, it's just like, this is a behemoth, a world beater who can't do shit.

I— yeah, I did like how the guys cared though. Like, oh, they did that. I'll give them that. There was a lot of effort. Mark DeRosa, for all his quirks and mismanagement, I mean, getting the guy that killed Osama bin Laden to give a pump-up speech, that's, that's an all-time, like, galaxy brain move right there. My only problem with that is, why— what do you save for the finals? Like, if that's your semifinals move, who do you bring in when it, when it matters the most? I feel like we just ran out of, ran out of that next gear because we had the guy that killed bin Laden, shot him in the face. I, I think now we got nobody else.

I think it's just Jack Hughes. He's got Jack Hughes. We had the hockey jerseys on, by the way. Shout out Team Venezuela. They were— I mean, Eduardo Rodriguez, like, going into that game, everyone's like, we should just light him up. He pitched, what, 4 and a third, I think. And I don't know if you guys saw, but before the manager Omar Lopez said that before the game, he had 3 different big league clubs hit him up being like, do not use our pitchers on back-to-back nights. Because they had to use like 5 relievers against Italy. So he had to do some negotiating. But yeah, I mean, you, you could tell, like, the crowd was awesome. It was all Venezuelan, some, some very attractive Venezuelans and Marlins man. Uh, and it was, I mean, it seemed like the biggest deal. I don't know if you guys saw that TikTok of the guy on the street in Venezuela watching on like a little tiny TV. That was pretty cool. So Good for Venezuela. We expect better. And the fact that we just finished second yet again in the World Baseball Classic is a joke in our own pastime.

I don't think it's our pastime anymore. We got to find a new pastime.

Hockey.

War.

War. When we dominate that. Hank, what'd you find?

No, that's on me. That's on me. Hand up.

What'd you find? What were your findings?

He—

that was—

I didn't—

I just— that one, I missed that one.

Yeah, Whitlock, who gave up the— I mean, Whitlock pitched a lot of innings and pitched well during the World Baseball Classic. So you can't like shit on him totally. But I also— I was locked in. I was locked into the March Madness. By the way, the rollover over is dead. I had the thought this morning like, What if I just win? What if I have the best March ever? It lasted 2 games, but I was locked in when the double got hit in the gap. And I like, I was sitting here with Memes and Shane and Colton and they were like, they're like, oh shit. And I looked over to the TV after the ball was coming into the infield and I was just like, PCA would have got it. Why the fuck isn't PCA in the game? They're like, that was PCA. I was like, fuck. Okay. I've run out of excuses.

Yeah, I, um, I, I, I gotta put my hand up too, Hank, just like you. I kind of fucked up before the game. I just— I came into my, my office here and I just wanted to play Freebird because I hadn't played Freebird all the way through. I've done like the riff a little bit a few times, but like I was pumped and I wanted to get the juices going. So I sat down in this chair and I was recording me playing Freebird, and then I, uh, I sent the phone— I sent the video to my phone. I just didn't turn the sound on to record it. So it was just me, like, rocking out, trying to play, and I thought it was going to pump me up. When I watched it, I felt like I was bad news for the United States. So if I'm going to point a finger at Aaron Judge, I also have to say that's messed up on my part. I basically muted what should be our national anthem. So I apologize to America for that one fully.

Okay. There's a better name for that room than an office.

I mean, it's got a desk, a flight simulator. It's your basic office.

Yeah, it's a regular office.

15 guitars.

Yeah, that's an office. That looks like an office.

I think I've got 4 guitars and then 1 double guitar. Wait, 1, 2, 3, 5 guitars and 1 double. So yeah, 7, pretty much 7 guitars and a flight simulator.

Pretty much. Uh, okay. Other things real quick before we start talking some brackets. Jalen Waddle, Traded to the Broncos. They're going all in. This is a year for Bo Nix. I kind of like this for the Broncos, just being like, hey, we have, we have Bo Nix right now under a rookie deal. Bo Nix is a good quarterback. We don't know if Bo Nix is a quarterback that once you pay him a ton of money, you can skimp everywhere else. Like, take the window and try to win right now.

Yeah.

Or, you know, load up for Stiddy, give him some weapons.

Yeah. And the Dolphins, it's a good move too because the Dolphins are— they just got to get as many assets as possible.

The Dolphins have like every draft pick. And, um, yeah, the— I think the Broncos wanted to get rid of this year's draft picks. Like, I, I'm pretty sure that they— the Dolphins would have accepted 2027 draft picks, but 2027 is going to be a loaded draft. Um, so yeah, I, I like it for the, for the Broncos too. I feel like this is the time that you do it. You got money, you got cap room, you got a young quarterback. This is when you spend. Like, they, they probably should have been in the Super Bowl last year, so let's strike while the iron's hot here.

Yeah, so the official trade was, um, or sorry, the, the official picks the Dolphins have in this year's draft, they have the number 11th pick, the number 30th pick, 43, and then, uh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 third rounders. So they have They have 7 picks in the first 95 selections. That's pretty good. That's a lot of picks. It's a lot of picks. We also have Justin Fields to the Chiefs. Not really a needle mover. I actually think weirdly, is this a mistake by Justin Fields? Because if he, if Patrick Mahomes doesn't come back and he has to start and it doesn't go well, like if you can't do it in Andy Reid's offense, it's over, right?

Yeah, I mean, you're kind of all out of excuses when it comes to that, right?

Like, go be the backup in Arizona and be like, well, it was Arizona's fault.

I feel like— I, I wonder how many options he truly did have though.

Yeah.

So, um, or I guess it's a trade, right? It was a trade with the Jets. So the Jets—

yes, it was a trade.

Now it was a, uh, was it a 6th round pick?

But I feel like he probably— the Jets might have done him a solid and told him where he could, you know, like, or at least helped him out being like, here's where—

here's the—

here's the deals we have.

Maybe he can be a tight end.

Maybe he could be a tight end. They do need some more.

I think that it's not necessarily the end of the road if you— if you can't play with Andy Reid. Like, Gardner Minshew was there, he's going to find another job. Like, there have been other guys that have bounced out. But, um, I guess if it doesn't work out here, I think you can throw out any and all hope of him being like a starting quarterback anywhere. Yeah, if you haven't already. But he is going to get some reps this offseason because Mahomes got injured so late in the season.

Right.

So I think up until the regular season, it's going to be Justin Fields like essentially going out there as QB1. And then once the, once the games actually start, then it's Mahomes.

Yeah. By the way, this Texas-NC State game has been such a painful watch. It's just they can't, they can't put the ball in the hoop. We also had— I love that Dickie V got to call this game. Very cool moment. I love Dickie V. I think he's one of those guys kind of similar to Al Michaels where it's like, they've given me so much as a sports fan that as long as they want to keep going, I'm cool with it. Even if they're not, it's not the same. There was like a 15-minute stretch. I don't know if you guys had sound on where Dickie V and Chuck just didn't even talk about the game. They just decided to talk about NIL, transfer portal, all that stuff for 15 straight minutes. And yeah, I get it, like, there is their one time doing it. I just think, like, if you were an NC State or a Texas fan, you would be bullshit because it wasn't even— they weren't even trying to discuss the game. It was just a straight-up podcast they were doing about how ruined college basketball has become.

So it was, it was a podcast, but it was also like a very bad podcast. Not that I don't like listening to Dickie V and Charles Barkley just shoot the shit about things, but it was like every kind of stone conversation that you've ever had with somebody where you even remotely talk about college basketball, where you're like, NIL, I mean, we got to do something. Things are out of control. I'm all in favor of players getting paid, but something's got to change. And then the other guy's like, you know, I I like to see guys get paid, but I mean, we can't, we can't root for the same guy 2 years in a row, so we got to do something. And no one ever actually like throws out a solution for it. It was just like 2 older guys complaining about the current state of college basketball. Yeah, I was happy. I was happy with the, the points in the first game. That was nice. A ton of points. And Howard and UMBC.

Yeah, shout out Howard. First win in program history in the NCAA tournament. Kennedy Blakeney, really cool story. He's been— he was— he played at Duke, went immediately into coaching, has been coaching for I think like 25 years or so, took over the Howard job. I think they won 4 games his first year, been to the tournament 3 out of the last 4 years, finally wins a game. This is where I, you know, there's sometimes people will debate and say if you're— it's bullshit the 16 seeds don't get in the actual tournament to get in the plan. I think this is why it's cool. Like he just got a tournament win. I know it's against another 16 seed, but that's the first tournament win in Howard history. So, and that's— it was a very cool story. You got very emotional at the podium. It's like why we love March.

I liked it. There was a ton of sportsmanship from that guy. He was oozing sportsmanship. He was just like, they're such a good team. I'm so happy that we were able to play them. They played a great game, actually. Like Howard, Howard almost choked that away at the end. Yeah, they just got out. Yeah, on the stretch. But yeah, the— If you— back to your point about like, if you're a Texas fan watching this, I don't really think that you have that much room to complain. Like, you're Texas, you should not be in the playing game if you're Texas. So like, let this be a lesson to you Longhorns, that if, if you're in the playing game, we're liable to throw Charles Barkley at you.

Yeah, that's fair. That's a fair point. I, I feel like they just overinflated the balls for the second game. The balls just aren't going the same way. And I'm, I'm— I might just be done with totals for the entire tournament because the balls are driving me nuts. They just won't go in the hoop.

Ball in the hoop. I mean, 1-1 on overs for me. Not a bad start.

Yeah, I just really need the rollover. All right, so let's kick it to ourselves. We've got our entire bracket fun fact preview, some really good facts, make you sound smart if you're at a bar, if you're hanging out with friends this weekend and you want to be like, hey, I knew this thing about this team. Maybe even get some facts about Big Lloyd. That's a little teaser. Shout out Zach with his facts. And then we have Mark Titus to break down the entire bracket and give you some tips on filling out your bracket. And let's do it. Okay. Before we get to our fun facts bracket preview, DraftKings, DraftKings Sportsbook, the number one sportsbook for live betting, is built for March. The tournament is unexpected. Rewards are guaranteed. DraftKings Sportsbook is delivering the most generous rewards in the market no matter what happens on the court. Because this isn't a tournament you bet and forget. It's one you react to. With DraftKings, the number one sportsbook for live betting, you're not betting what might happen, you're betting what's happening. Possession by possession, play-by-play, live lines, props, next play outcomes. As the chaos unfolds, the bracket will break.

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Okay.

Okay, time, boys. This is actually one of my favorite things we did. We started it last year. We're gonna go through the bracket. We've, we've all taken a region. We're gonna go through the bracket. We're gonna give you fun facts. This is basically the primer for one, people who have not watched college basketball until right now. Two, people are going to be at the bars or parties or wherever you may be this weekend, and you want to just drop a little fact a little factoid about a school, a team, a player, and you got it in your back pocket. So we're giving you that. And we also have this year Zach facts. So Zach, we're gonna go through each region, then Zach will come over the top if anything we missed or anything he wants to add on the teams. PFT, you are up first.

We're going in the East.

We're going in the East. You're up first, top left.

One thing I've noticed this year, it's, it's really just been like recently that America's got their shit together when it comes to, uh, uniform brackets.

This is a disaster.

Oh, Hank didn't the right.

I did the East.

Oh, we got double East.

Great.

Okay, well, so Zach can pick up— Zach can pick up the leftovers.

We can also do just, uh, rapid facts.

Well, part of— for Wednesday's show, PFT East, Big Cat South, Max Midwest, Hank West was confusing.

I just misread it and started— I just— that's, that's on me.

We can just do top-of-the-head West Coast facts. Okay, for the West. But you know what I'm saying? Like, it feels like this is the first year that We've seen complete uniformity when it comes to brackets. What regions are in what spot on the brackets they get printed out? Yeah, I haven't seen any strays. There's no, like, outlying websites that have the brackets in the wrong spot. So great job, America.

We finally did it.

You okay, Zach?

We're going to need you on the Midwest.

Got to step up.

No, no, I'm Midwest. I'm sorry.

The West.

No, the West. Yeah. All right.

What?

What's going through your head right now, Hank?

I just spent a lot of time doing the East and I'm an idiot.

Did you go back and read the text I sent to everyone?

I just read it. I just initially read it as East and then just went— I just didn't go back and reread it.

Obviously we can, we can do double East. Okay.

All right.

Well, technically we got triple East.

Well, Zach, why don't we do— can someone do Middle East?

We're just, we're heavy on the East. All right, PFT, you're up.

The straight of 4 moves. Okay. First off, we have Duke against Siena.

Okay.

1 versus 16. You might be asking yourself, I've seen Duke play in the tournament a lot. I'm very familiar with Duke. Why do they call the Blue Devils? Do you guys know what a Blue Devil is?

Coach K's a nefarious person. He's a devil. He looks like it. And they're like, hey, we'll just make it blue.

And the mascot kind of looks a little bit like Coach.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah. Yeah. No, a Blue Devil is actually a French French Arctic— not Arctic, a French Alpine soldier known as Diable Bleu. And these guys are the most French dudes that you've ever heard of in your life. They hang out in the French mountains. They are not allowed to say the word red because their rivalry against England.

Got it.

The only time they're allowed to say the word red is when you're referring to the lips of a lover.

So you're telling me the Duke is French?

Very French. Oh, The Lips of Love.

8 out of 10. Or you can't expect perfect from them.

Or you can say the word red if you're referring to wine.

Okay.

So it's the most French thing ever. It's like it really speaks highly of the lofty expectations you have for yourself if you're naming your school after the French military, famous for their many, many victories.

Yeah.

But then I actually, I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole when it came to Cameron Boozer. And the Boozer twins.

Yeah.

And it's something I actually didn't know about him. I missed this when it came out on ESPN. Did you know that Cameron Boozer was born to save his older brother's life?

I did.

Yeah. So this is kind of crazy. So his older brother, Kamari Boozer, was born with sickle cell anemia, which interestingly enough, sickle cell evolved as a trait to— I think it was to protect against malaria. So if you had sickle cell and you got the malaria in your body, it wouldn't bind onto the sickle cells. So it would kind of save you from that. But now modern day, it's not good to have sickle cell and it could be deadly, especially for a kid. So his parents decided that they were going to have— they're going to have kids and they were going to have to give— they were going to have the kids to give the stem cells from the umbilical cord to their already born son to help save his life. Save his life. So they did like a bunch of IVF and they found two of the embryos that that same donor type that could give. And so they carried those, those twins immediately after birth. Cameron Boozer, they take the stem cells out and save his brother's life, which is pretty cool.

That is very—

it's a pretty cool story that I did not know.

Zach, I'm my brother's keeper. Your tattoo, you want to show it? Yeah, it's a great brother move. It's all right.

A lot of brothers—

he literally is brother's keeper.

Yeah, great brother.

All-time brother move.

All-time.

Not 10. Elite brother move.

I have not. I have not given my umbilical cord to anybody. I don't— it could be anywhere for all I know.

Bros before life.

Yeah, exactly. So the first thing that he did when he was born was save a dude's life.

Yeah, that's kind of rocks. Okay.

Hot seat Tim Tebow for that. Now, Siena. Siena is now Siena University. They used to be Siena College.

Nice. Congrats to them.

But that was a $6,000 or $60,000 move to change all the signs on the university. From Siena College to Siena University. Their mascot is Bernie the St. Bernard. So to my knowledge, this is the very first time that two teams named after alpine rescue helpers have played each other in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

I'm going to say guaranteed first time.

We will have to double-check that, but I'm, I'm pretty sure. Also, Siena's coach is Jerry McNamara.

Yeah.

Who you might remember from legend Syracuse University. And, uh, the crazy runs that he would go on in March. Great player.

And Clem.

And Clem, you might know him from Clem. Yeah, so yeah, uh, that's about all I got for the 1 vs 16.

Love that.

All right, next up we're gonna do Ohio State TCU. So The Ohio State University, uh, they're a pretty slow team. They don't get a lot of rebounds, they don't get a lot of steals. Um, so I looked into their, uh, their current roster right now, and Bruce Thornton is a player you might Remember, you might recognize that name. He just became Ohio State's all-time leading scorer along the way, surpassing players like Mark Titus.

Mm-hmm.

And I did also see that Jeffrey Epstein drafted an email referring to Les Wexner and all the gang stuff that they've done together over the years.

Okay.

No explanation. Les Wexner, you might know his name from being all over buildings in Columbus, Ohio.

Yes.

As one of the most prominent donors to The Ohio State University. TCU is obviously— they're the Horned Frogs. Not, not actually a frog. They're lizards. They squirt blood out of their eyes. They're led by David Punch, and their head coach, Jamie Dixon, quit basketball after injuring his pancreas. Oh, so just something— a guy— representation matters, Hank.

Have you guys— has anyone here been to TCU?

I have. Yeah. Fort Worth.

Have you been to the campus?

I've been. In and around the campus. So I haven't spent too much time.

I've been in the campus, all inside the campus. It is one of those colleges that is straight out of a magazine, complete fake life. And I mean fake life in the best possible sense. You walk on that campus and you feel like you're on a movie set.

Yeah, it's gorgeous.

It's nuts how nice it is.

It's gorgeous. Pretty expensive to go to school there. Their coach, Jamie Dixon, he was in commercials for Bud Light, Rice Krispies, and Volvo and Mattel when he was a kid. I guess his dad was a director and put him in a bunch of commercials. I looked everywhere on the internet to try to find the Jamie Dixon Bud Light TV commercial where apparently he gets dunked on by a woman.

Yeah.

And I can't find it. I think he's had it scrubbed from the internet. I think he's afraid of people finding it. So somebody maybe who's better than me at internet research, look that up.

Jamie Dixon also is an all-time I wish he still wore a suit guy.

Yeah. Yeah, very much so.

He was a great suit wearer when he was at Pitt.

At Pitt. Yeah. And so he's been He's been coaching at Pitt and TCU for 23 years, made the tournament 16 out of those 23 years. Pretty impressive for those two schools.

Absolutely.

So Jamie Dixon, awesome head coach.

And Pitt, I don't think has made it since he left.

They might not have.

I think they haven't been in a long time.

Did they have— was what's his name, Dwan Blair? Was he there with Jamie Dixon?

Yeah. My favorite, my favorite pump fake of all time, Sam Young. Elite. He would get all the way on his tippy toes. Krauser. He had all those guys. Yeah.

So yeah, Jamie, great coach, but please somebody find me— please find me the Bud Light commercial.

I agree.

So then we got St. John's. St. John's going up against UNI, University of Northern Iowa. Obviously we got Rick Patino, Coach Patino at St. John's, friend of the program. Amazing coach. Amazing coach. And if you look at what he's done this year, St. John's, I believe, has the second-best record against the spread out of all Power Conference teams behind only Arkansas.

Whoa.

So they are covering. They are covering at a very high clip this year. They don't really shoot the ball that well, but it doesn't really matter unless they run into a situation where they go up against like that, that UConn game.

Yeah.

Where when it looked as ugly as basketball can look.

Fact check myself. Pitt went in 2023. That was the only time they've gone without Jamie Dixon. Okay. Jamie Dixon hasn't been there for 10 years.

Okay.

One time.

But Jamie Dixon, awesome, awesome coach.

Yeah. Okay.

So also Rick Pitino, if you had to, if you had to guess, would you say he is or is not a Kentucky Colonel?

I would say he is. Well, I would have said he is, but based on this question, I'm going to say he's not. Yeah.

Yeah.

No, you read that correctly. I thought that he was. So the stat was going to be he is a fellow. He, he's the same rank as us. In the Kentucky military, but actually no, we out— part of my take outranks Rick Pitino in the Kentucky military.

No big deal.

You and I, they will suck the life out of you. They've got the second best defense in the entire tournament. They are just kind of a pain in the ass to watch.

Snails' pace.

This game feels like it's going to be ugly as shit. Correct. This would be your ugliest shit first round matchup, which In a way, you would think that that would favor the, uh, the 12 seed. But I, I think that since St. John's is so used to playing this type of like grinded out game.

Yeah, bro.

It's not really gonna— it's not like you're dragging them into your ocean, right? They also live in the ocean, right? All right. So next up we got Kansas, Kansas and Cal Baptist. Uh, Kansas, I've talked about this guy before, Floribadunga. He's one of my favorite players in the country. He was a high school soccer player. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a family friend noticed that he was fucking enormous and was like, hey, I noticed that your son is huge. Would he like to play basketball? And they're like, sure, I guess. I guess he'd like to play basketball. So then he moved to Indiana, which is every Congolese child's dream. And he was like, this is awesome. I get to live in Indiana at Kokomo High School, play soccer there. I watched some of his soccer clips, by the way. He was pretty good. Yeah, he was pretty nasty. He was like a forward. So then he committed to Kansas, which probably— you got to, you got to ask, like, what are we doing at Indiana University?

Oh yeah.

Like the kid moves from Africa to Indiana to play basketball and you can't keep that guy in state. Mm-hmm. That's not great. So he obviously committed to Kansas and Bill Self. And now we've got Kansas, who is playing in the tournament for 36 consecutive years. Asterisks. Not really. Oh, they don't have the longest streak. The streak technically stopped in 2017 because that appearance was retroactively taken away for recruiting violations. But they have— they have played games in the NCAA tournament for 36 consecutive years, which is pretty crazy. Darren Peterson is back to playing almost nearly full minutes of every game. And, uh, saw that StatHole put this in his blog, that he has the third best plus-minus in college basketball. So him playing 37 minutes a game when he has that huge plus-minus, he's good. He's very, very good. Probably means good things for the Jayhawks. Um, and they're going up against Cal Baptist. Unders are 64% in Cal Baptist games.

Yeah.

So they will also grind it out. It's their first time in the tournament. So congratulations to them. I did look on their website and found out some interesting facts from their handbook, the Cal Baptist Handbook. They don't let girls wear leggings at Cal Baptist.

Oh, no.

Yeah, it's no legging school. No, you are allowed to wear them, I guess, but they have to be under a dress. But no leggings at Cal Baptist. And then I was reading like the school newspaper and it— there was an article that said the next time you're brutally honest with a friend who's wearing an unflattering outfit, let them know that you're simply being honest and truthful and they would probably rather hear it from you anyway. And they're talking about leggings.

Okay.

So I don't— yeah, I guess that's a good friend move to be like, yeah, you look fat in those leggings.

Yeah.

Because they'd rather hear it from from you.

Seems like a lot of time spent on leggings.

Yeah, spent— well, it was just not you, them. They, they think about leggings a lot, but I don't, I don't get that logic where it's like you'd rather hear it from me because I, I'm the protagonist, right? So I'm, I'm telling you because I love you. Anyways, that's leggings at Cal Baptist. Uh, Hank, do you have anything else about Cal Baptist?

Uh, let's see, he's got He's got something.

It is their first time in the NCAA tournament, which is good for them.

There are no Greek organizations at Cal Baptist. Big focus on community life. They have clubs there. This is on their website. Their workshops are offered through career center with topics such as business dinner etiquette, which parentheses, which fork do you use? So if you're, if you're, you know, a high school AWL, you're thinking about schools, you're not interested in, you know, Greek life, frat life, but you want to maybe take some like workshops on, on which fork to use.

Got strong thoughts on leggings at dinner and for, for dinner etiquette. Yeah.

You don't know what dinner etiquette is at a business dinner.

Mm-hmm.

Cal Baptist might be like High Point.

High Point. Remember last year we talked about how High Point has the steakhouse you got to eat at once a month?

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is good though. It's like, yeah, if you want to, if you want to go to a college that has dinner as a course, That's a good spot to go. How many credits do you get for dinner?

I don't know.

Dinner, one. That's probably a 400-level course.

Yeah.

Talking etiquette.

Yeah.

Louisville. We can talk about Louisville, South Florida for a little bit. Fun fact about Louisville. It's the first time this year that Louisville has ever played on the road at Duke in the regular season and also made the NCAA tournament. Oh, at the end of the year.

Okay.

It's a weird, quirky stat with the way that the schedule has worked out since they joined the ACC back at— when was that, like, early 2010s, I believe. So, yeah, Louisville, they're going to have a tough task on their hand because South Florida plays with the second highest pace in the nation. They're also number one in terms of shots per game, and they make a lot of shots too. So this is going to be an up and down, back and forth matchup with Louisville and, and South Florida.

I like that over.

Yeah, this is a, this is a big, big time over. They've got a big man, 7-footer, Sanada Frew. Sanada Frew, he shoots 783 for effective shooting percentage. So big man going to be yamming and Louisville also makes threes. So this is going to be a great game to bet the over on, I think.

Love that.

Next up, we got Michigan State, who does have the longest tournament streak in the country.

Okay.

Which is 28 years. It's a great story seeing Izzo just still doing it, still coaching as hard as he ever has. They do have a guy who I love, Jeremy Fears, one of the best point guards in the nation. He has a penis-kicking addiction big time. He is addicted to kicking. What's that face, Max?

Yeah, he's kicking.

Yes, he's used to crazy.

He is addicted to kicking dudes in the dick and he does it in all different directions. Forward, backward, sideways, which is why I kind of respect his game.

He's like an—

he's like a switch kicker.

He's like a heat-seeking missile. The bottom of his foot to penises.

Yeah, there's, there's the most recent clip I think was against Michigan, right?

Where—

yeah, he backwards, he went backwards. So there was a guy that was like, you know, it was almost like he was posting up on the guy from the 3-point line and Fears just kicked like a mule.

Yeah.

Up into his dick.

Yeah, he likes to do it. And then I did love Izzo's reaction.

Action. He was just like, I'm gonna eat his lunch. But you know what, I'm looking at some of the guys on Michigan, they do dirty stuff too. I'm not sure their lunch is getting eaten, but I just want Dusty May to know that I'm about to eat his lunch.

It actually is kind of an intimidating thing to have to go up against, being like, this guy is liable to kick us in the nuts at any moment.

Yes, but really, you can, you can make a highlight mixtape of, uh, oh yeah, like all the dicks that he's kicked.

Yeah, he's been doing, he's been doing it all, all season.

So Michigan State, they've been pretty good defensively all season except for the last 4 games. So since the calendar flipped to Izzo, January, February, Izzo, Michigan State is 192nd in college hoops.

Not good.

So it's only 4 games, but they haven't been all against great teams. So we'll see if they can get that straightened out in the tournament. Big Cat, you probably know the answer to this, so I'll just ask the rest of the guys.

Yeah.

Do you guys know the last time that a Big Ten school won a national championship in basketball, men's basketball?

Do you know the answer to this?

I think—

anyone?

Anyone?

I mean, this is an appropriate reaction.

Yeah. Okay.

Michigan State.

Yeah.

Yeah. Michigan State in 2000.

Yeah.

Pretty crazy. That's, that's a very, very long streak for the Big Ten.

You could count Technically, Louisville did vacate theirs against Michigan.

Okay.

I don't— I don't technically do it.

I respect my official record book is the back of Rick Pitino's shoulder, which has the Louisville National Championship tattoo on it.

Yeah. Been to a lot of Final Fours and championship games and just haven't gotten over the hump.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So North Dakota State, they are Number 9 in the country in terms of steals. They've got 283 steals, and per StatHole, they also rarely commit fouls. So kind of a weird combination. They foul at the 8th lowest clip in the entire country, but they get a lot of steals. So, okay, okay, great job. They've got active hands, uh, so look for a lot of steals from North Dakota State. I do think that, uh, Michigan State is— this, this feels like it's this might be a blowout for Izzo and the boys because North Dakota State has played a terrible, terrible schedule this year. And Michigan State is maybe the most battle-tested team in the entire country in terms of their schedule. Also, Carson Wentz went to North Dakota State, so fuck that guy. Next up, we got UCLA and UCF bracket busters.

UCF, let's go.

All right. So UCLA, prior to a reporter raising his voice at McCronin The Bruins were 1-5 against top 25 ranked teams. Afterwards, they're 3-1. That reporter just woke up a sleeping giant.

Wow.

UCF, Blake Bortles went to UCF. He's a left-handed golfer. I thought that's interesting. Mm-hmm.

That is.

And also they've got a guy named Carmelo Pacheco who is kind of this Chase Johnston type. He, he's taken 114 shots. 106 are 3-point shots this year. He's also from Harrisonburg, Virginia. I don't know how he got away from JMU, but this kid loves to shoot threes. So yeah, that's what I got at UCF. You have anything on UCF or UCLA, Hank?

I had Blake Bortles birdie the number 2 hole at Ponte Verde Country Club Lagoon Course, March 13th, 2026.

That's true.

I did do a lot of research.

Mick Cronin's brother is a horse racing gambler and has a Twitter account for it called Fat Bald Guy Racing.

Love that.

And UCLA is a network of tunnels connecting most buildings, though accessing them is highly restricted. So, huh, kind of.

What are they doing in the tunnel?

Yeah, I also have a tunnel fact for one of my— oh wow, a little foreshadowing.

Repeating tunnel facts.

What's going on with that?

Also from the school website. So I feel like this is kind of like when the sign outside says like world's best coffee, it's UCLA gets the most college applications of any school in the country.

I believe it. I actually believe—

yeah, there's a lot of people in California.

There's a lot of people in California. It's prestigious. Good weather, good colors.

Do you think that's very— do you— so you don't think any other school claims that? Um, I feel like a lot of state schools could.

Yeah, a lot of state schools could, but I feel like UCLA, just because of how big California is and how, like, a lot of California kids just stay in California, right?

I'm thinking like, uh, maybe a really bad school that, uh, maybe a lot of people— well, no, I guess it would be a good school that people don't get into. Yeah, like what's a good school in an area filled with dumb people?

U.S. News does confirm that UCLA gets the most.

Okay.

And second is they're all California. California. San Diego.

Yeah.

So it's just all the kids in California probably just spray and spray every school.

I bet UCLA probably has a pretty high clip of like kids that get in and then their parents are like, we're not paying for out-of-state tuition at UCLA. You're going to community college. You're going to like it. Next up, we got UConn against Furman. UConn, did you know, in UConn basketball history— so I'm talking about both the men's and the women's in this stat— do you know the last time, not counting the COVID year because there was no tournament, the last time, not counting the COVID year, where there was no UConn team in the Final Four?

Mm.

Men's and women's.

It's got to be like in the '90s.

It was 2007. Oh, but yeah, before that, it was still crazy. Went back pretty long. So there's, there's all but there's always a UConn team in the Final Four. They're also 18-1 as a program in championship games.

Well, I was just saying my favorite UConn stat is, or one of them is that every time they go to the Final Four, they win it all. They don't go for empty trips.

Yeah.

18-1 overall in national championship games. And the men's side, they've never lost national championship. The— I saw one thing that was like the math on— I think it's if you're 55 years old and you went to UConn, then you had like a national championship run during your, your college career there at some point.

If I would—

if you went 4 years, but they had a gap 2014 to Hurley.

With Kevin Olley to Hurley.

Men's and women's.

Oh, men's and women's. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So if you're, if you're 55 or younger, you went to UConn, you enjoyed, you enjoyed yourself. Yeah, you had a great time. Uh, on the Furman side, they've got one really interesting player. He's a big man, Cooper Bowser. He shoots 77%, averages 14 from the field. He just yams it. So they're just going to try to work UConn inside. Uh, Furman, they've been in the tournament a few times the last few years. You might recognize her name. The fun fact about Furman in terms of notable alumni was Mark Sanford, who went there, and then he was banging that chick, Olivia Nuzzi, that everyone was like, oh, she's about to write this article about banging RFK. Turns out it was Mark Sanford that she was banging in addition to RFK.

Got it.

Pretty much at the same time. Double bang.

Mukbang.

Yeah. Also, Mark Sanford quit being governor of South Carolina and said he was going on a hike on the Appalachian Trail. But it turns out he was really in South America the entire time banging his girlfriend.

Oh yeah, that's good. That's better than Appalachian Trail.

Yeah, pretty horny guy. Yeah, pretty horny state. So yeah, we all know, we all know UConn. Yeah, Dan Hurley, he drinks piss before every game. Great head coach.

So Zach and Hank, do you have any good— you don't have to do every team, but just any interesting facts that you want to throw in there?

I have a good Ohio State one.

Yeah, Zach has a good UConn one.

Okay, great.

In 1926, the school elected a cow named Maudine to be the homecoming queen. She was an award-winning dairy cow, once produced over 343 pounds of milk and over 28 pounds of butter in a single week.

That's a good woman.

And the school initially voted for a girl to win, but after the votes were counted, there were more votes cast than students at the school. So since there was fraud, They gave it to Maudine, and the cow is still listed as homecoming queen with all the other girls who have been elected in school history.

Oh, wow.

So they once elected a cow homecoming queen. Okay.

Okay.

I think Zach has to just do his whole Zach.

All right, go.

He keeps saying, like, I don't have a good one. Then Max is reading it, being like, all right, go.

I've got a good UConn one. I guess it's 0 United States presidents graduated from UConn.

Love that. Yeah. Why don't you just go rip it down? Rapid fire down the, down the line.

Okay, Furman, you know, upon first glance you think Furman University has a lighthouse, but it's actually an 88-foot-tall bell tower on the lakeside. You also can't fish in that lake, really highly restricted.

Okay.

UCF, you know, Knight's Pub, great bar at UCF, unfortunately did close down. I was curious if we could just take a quick moment of silence for the Knight's Pub.

Yes.

Thank you so much, guys. UCLA—

You know what, if UCF wins, open bar at the Knight's Pub on me.

On Rothstein.

Yeah.

That's big of you.

Yeah, Rossi's gonna match. Yeah, actually, he'll double.

That's huge.

Yeah.

UCLA. UCLA is 2,198 miles away from Magic City. They may be anti-chicken wing and anti-women.

Mm-hmm. So far away because they're not close to Atlanta.

They're so far away. They go any further, Pacific Ocean. North Dakota State, their school mascot is the bison, but this is incredibly misleading because North Dakota's bison population is pales in comparison to its neighbor South Dakota by tens of thousands of bison. North Dakota roughly 12K, South Dakota roughly 40,000 bison.

Wow.

Okay.

Michigan State, Tom Izzo was born the same year Albert Einstein died. That's 1955.

Whoa, that's a good one.

Uh, USF, uh, most of my box wine— where were you moment was a USF.

Oh, most of your box wine consumption?

Yeah, it was a USF.

Uh, probably barefoot. Barefoot box.

Oh man, you're gonna be just fine filling in for the Midwest, I can already tell.

Also, Thomas—

or the West, sorry.

Tom is those— no, I think we're, we're getting caught up. Tom is those— town is famous for bat viewing.

Oh, he lives—

he grew up in a mountain, in the mountains.

Okay.

All right, keep going, Zach.

Louisville's coach, uh, Pat Kelsey, uh, in his headshot he's got Mike McDaniel fit on, big glasses. They're also both 5'9".

Okay, good.

Titans.

Cal Baptist, a majority of their campus lies under clay tile roofs, which have a fantastic longevity of life, roughly 40 to 50 years. Uh, really some great curb appeal there, and you just don't see that at scale much with the clay tile roofs.

Yeah, it's like, yes, mission-style housing.

Yeah.

Uh, for Kansas, you know, despite the recent narrative that Joel Embiid doesn't play, this Kansas alum only missed 7 games his entire college career, playing 80% of total games.

Wow.

Wait, He did.

He played at Kansas when he was at Kansas.

He played a lot.

Yeah, 80%. So he's very healthy, decently healthy. He did hurt his back towards the end though.

Yeah, he was out for—

yeah, yeah.

But he got better after that.

No, keep going, Zach.

I can do that. Uh, uh, TCU, their first matchup was against Ohio State. They've never won against Ohio State in the men's basketball. They played 4 times, all in the 1960s though. So TCU due for a win.

Yep.

Ohio State. We all know the Buckeye is Ohio State's mascot. The Ohio State Buckeye tree habitat though is currently being forced out of Ohio, driven northward towards Michigan. Their mascot is actively fleeing the state, which is bad energy for the tournament.

It really is.

That is tough. That's a good fact.

Do, um, do Ohio State players, do they get Buckeye stickers? And if so, where do they put them?

Hmm, I don't know.

We should— I'm gonna text Titus and see.

Yeah. Okay, keep going, Zach.

Uh, Siena— Siena starting forward Francis Fulfak seems to be incredibly locked in on basketball and not any off-court distractions because he's only got one post on Instagram the last several years and it's all about basketball.

All about basketball.

And, uh, Duke— John Shire, the current coach of Duke basketball, won Glenbrook North High School a state championship in 2005 averaging 33.5 points per game. If a team associated with Shire needs a player averaging that many points to win Duke stands no chance because their current leading scorer only averages 22.5, and Cameron Boozer.

Okay. Yeah.

Bucket.

White Mike.

White Mike. All right.

Good job, Zach. Way to go. All right. I'm going to rip the South. Here we go. Florida. First up, the 1 seed, Florida. They have the tallest player in the history of college basketball. When he got into a game earlier this year, Oliver Rieu, he's from Montreal. French guy.

Olivier Rieu.

Olivier Rieu. Uh, tallest player. He also said that he can put his head— his leg behind his head, which is pretty crazy. And he can draw. That was his fun facts on the, uh— I got deep onto the Florida fun facts on the roster page. Florida has a player named AJ Brown, Max. And guess what his favorite non-basketball player is?

AJ Brown.

Christian McCaffrey.

Smart guy.

No, actually it is AJ Brown. He listed it as AJ Brown. Also, Isaiah Brown on the team said that if they— they— one of the questions was if you wanted— if you had a superpower. A lot of teleportation from the Florida basketball team. Isaiah Brown said Iron Man. Isn't Iron Man just a rich guy?

Iron Man's a rich guy with a cool suit.

So that's not even a superpower, that's just being a rich guy.

He just wants a cool suit.

Okay, smart guy too.

So Isaiah Brown, maybe, maybe think of something different like being invisible or something. All right, they're going up against Lehigh.

I can't believe Olivier Roux can put his leg behind his head.

Isn't that crazy?

That, that should not It happened.

He didn't have to add, and I can draw. No, that was his two facts.

Like, this dude with his leg— if I saw this dude putting his leg behind his head, I— it would just be an alien. Yeah, I would, I would leave that room.

He's 2 full inches taller than the second tallest guy to ever play in college basketball, Kenny George.

I just wish that they'd play him more. I love it when that guy gets out there.

Uh, Lehigh.

Lehigh.

Uh, they have a wrestling, um, a legendary wrestling stadium called the Snake Pit. Just thought that was cool. My brother-in-law went to Lehigh. Also, Jesse Reno invented the escalator in 1891. He went to Lehigh. Not that cool because I think he's just like— he kind of like accidentally invented it. The cool thing about Jesse Reno, his dad was also by the same name, Jesse Reno. His dad was a general in the Civil War. And he was known as a soldier's soldier. Badass.

That's nice.

Died in combat, was a general, fought with the boys.

That's a good dude.

Would always go and fight with the boys, even though he's a general.

That's a good dude.

They're playing Prairie View, so we already know what's going to happen.

What do you mean by Lehigh? The guy accidentally invented the escalator.

I think I was reading about it and it's like he kind of invented it, but it's like it wasn't really perfected.

So maybe he was— so he's just like an all-time lazy guy.

Yeah.

He was like, this fucking sucks, taking the stairs.

There actually was a moment where I had an interesting duel, duel stats on Lehigh, because they're on online, it claims that Lehigh created, invented the turkey trot. So that would be like the duality of man forcing you to run and the escalator. But turns out the turkey trot was invented like 50 years earlier in Buffalo. Prairie View. So this game's happening tonight. Prairie View, the only thing I have on Prairie View, they own the longest against the spread winning streak currently at 11 games dating back to Valentine's Day.

Okay.

So maybe you should have bet on them. Maybe not. We don't know what happened.

If you would bet $1 on Prairie View University on Valentine's Day, as is custom.

Yeah.

All right.

Clemson, Iowa. Clemson has one of the best names in the entire tournament. Butta Johnson. His, his, his birth name is Ephraim, but he goes by Butta. He's listed as Butta. B-U-T-T-A.

Love it.

They also have probably the whitest white guys possible in terms of names. They have Chase, Blake, Jake, Carter, and Trent.

That's a lacrosse team.

Yeah, I was just going down, I was like, how the fuck? You can't have a Chase, Blake, and Carter.

Chase, Blake, Carter, Trent, and Jake. Yeah, that's, that's an AWL team.

Yeah, they also have a Nick as well, but still, Chase, Blake, Jake, Carter, Trent. Iowa, uh, slowest team in the, uh, second slowest team in the tournament. Northern Iowa is the slowest. It's nuts too because this is actually an important thing for people to listen to because if you were tuning in for the first time since last year or the year before, Iowa was 357th in pace. Under Fran McCaffrey, they were one of the fastest teams. He was 16th in pace. So just be ready. Iowa goes so, so slow. They used to go fast. They are so, so slow. Also Ben McCollum, their coach, very good coach. He's from Iowa City. And his claim to fame before he became a really good basketball coach was that he learned all the names of the 99 counties in Iowa in alphabetical order when he was in high school.

That's like some shit that a guy that finishes 5th in the presidential primary would say.

Yeah. So that's Ben McCallum. Yeah. By the way, credit to me. I didn't do any Clemson is a cult facts. I think we did that last year.

Yeah, but they are a cult.

Yeah. Oh, for sure. Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt. Turns out Vanderbilt. So the name— I was like, why are they the Commodores? Cornelius Vanderbilt was nicknamed the Commodore. Pretty badass nickname. Shipping family. People don't talk enough about the Vanderbilts just squandering all their wealth. The Rockefellers are still rich. The Vanderbilts just fucking— they're broke boys.

What?

Yeah. What happened with that?

They just— they just fucked it up.

What do they invest in?

I don't know, but they fucked it up. The Vanderbilts are not wealthy anymore.

How do you— how do you get wealthy and then become like a major property owner in Nashville and then not make money?

I don't know. Vanderbilt. So like Rockefellers keep doing it. Vanderbilt's not so much. They're going up against McNees. McNees. Amir Khan, you might remember him, the viral boombox trainer from last year. He has made $3.7 million in NIL.

No, no.

Yeah, no, I made that up, but it sounded cool, right? That sounded like a cool fun fact. It's like almost believable. Also, for this game, uh, you might want to take the over because Vandy is 10th in the tourney in total free throw attempts and McNeese is 19th. And Vandy also has the 5th most personal fouls of any tourney team, and McNeese ranks 13th. So we might get a lot of clock stoppage Free throws at the line. Good.

I like that.

Okay, Troy, Nebraska. Big one here. Are you guys ready for, uh, a father's respect on the line? So we actually had on Wake Up Barstool today, we had Scott Cross, the, the coach of Troy, and I was doing some research on him. So we're about to talk with Titus about the whole tournament. Fred Hoiberg's son Sam plays a very important part on Nebraska. Turns out Scott Cross's son Austin plays for him, Austin Cross. So I think this has to be like loser is a bad dad. And I actually proposed this to Scott Cross. He giggled a little bit, but I don't think he loved it. I was like, are you willing to put your reputation as a father on the line in this game? Because we got two coaches' sons going up against each other. And on top of that, we— an assistant coach on Troy, Scott Campbell. Yeah, he's got ginger twins on the team.

That's crazy. That's a lot of— that's a lot of blood.

So he's got Kobe and Cooper, uh, Campbell. So there's 3— there's 3 sons from the coaching staff of Troy.

I think that it should— it may be not like who's the worst at— who is the worst coach's son's dad? Yeah, just like cloak it a little bit. Yeah, I mean, we'll give you that award.

Sam Hoiberg is a senior and, and Austin Cross is a freshman, so it's not a little— it's not fair. But I'm— I told Scott Cross when I brought this up, I was like, I'm willing to have it be Scott Campbell's twins because they actually played meaningful minutes.

Mm-hmm.

Also, just a weird one because I was looking, I was like, there's no way Nebraska also has twins. They have Cooper and Jacob Koch, same exact last name, no relation whatsoever.

That there's two Kochs.

Yeah, it's crazy. That is wild. Two white guys from Iowa named Koch, no relation whatsoever. Both play basketball on the Iowa— or on the— sorry, Nebraska team, because I think their last name in Iowa would be Pop. Yeah, no, it's Coke. It's spelled the K-O-C-A.

Got it.

Yeah. Okay. UNC, VCU. UNC, Caleb Wilson was 6th best plus minus in the nation. He's not going to be playing. Sucks a lot. UNC feels like they are just limping into this. VCU, I just got famous alums. Jay Pharoah, didn't know that. And also Susan Higginbottom. Author and attorney.

She sounds hot.

Yeah, it's a cool last name. What do you got there, Max? What was the thumb?

That was just thumbs up. Thumbs up fact.

Yeah, thumbs up fact. Also, just a fun fact about UNC that I like to share because it shows how cool of a guy Dean Smith was, the legendary coach. When Dean Smith passed away, he had his estate send a letter to every single player and $200 saying enjoy a dinner on me. Yeah, $36,000 total in money. No chance Coach Kade he does that.

I think that's an awesome thing.

Yeah, very awesome. Also, VCU has a guy named, uh, Lazar Djokovic, but it's spelled A-L-A-Z-A-R. I'm just gonna say he's Laser.

Hey, Laser.

And that's a common Serbian name. Serbians are doing names better than—

yeah, Laser Joker.

Yeah. Uh, okay, Illinois. Illinois. Tom Fornelli has complained multiple times that we don't talk about Illinois enough, and that was my fact for Illinois. No, I actually have one, one fact for Illinois. They're, they're the most ethical team in the tournament, and I mean that by they were actually number one offensive inefficiency. They're number two now because Purdue beat Michigan on Sunday. But Illinois is dead last in steals and second to last in personal fouls. Okay, they play it, they play you straight up. They don't— they play it the right way. They're not trying to steal the ball from you.

I like it.

Yeah, yeah, let the, let the best Let the best team win.

They're not trying to foul. They're not trying to steal the ball. We're all like, hey, we're going to play this game, ball and hoop.

We're all out here trying to make shots. Yeah, we're not going to do anything to you that we wouldn't want you to do to us.

Yeah.

Penn, they got a lot of, a lot of Eastern Europeans.

Yeah.

On Illinois.

Yeah.

So much so that I mistook it and I believe I said Momčilo Vićić was on it. But they do have so many itches.

Yes, they got a lot of itches. Penn, Fran McCaffrey, 5th team he's taken to the tournament, which is pretty nuts. Lehigh, UNC Greensboro, Siena, Iowa, and now Penn. And they have the combo of TJ Power and Cam Thrower both shooting over 42% from 3. Pretty cool.

Also respect to the Quaker religion. Yeah, that we don't get enough shine. Representation matters.

Penn's going to get killed. St. Mary's. Randy Bennett, coach of St. Mary's, third longest tenured coach in the tournament, only beat out by Mark Few and Tom Izzo. He's only been to one Sweet 16, so maybe this year they can, they can get back there. That'd be a nice story. Also, I just always forget that St. Mary's is 10 miles from Oakland. Yeah, I don't know why. I always just kind of in my head, in my— the map in my head, St. Mary's is Southern California.

Oh no, in my— the map in my head, they are just outside of Perth.

Okay.

They're actually in Australia.

Yes. Texas A&M, Bucky Ball. Just say Bucky Ball if you're watching the Texas A&M game at a bar. Bucky McMillan, their coach. They play an awesome style. High tempo, press, uh, shoot a ton of threes. He calls it systematic chaos. You can call it Bucky ball. It's fun.

And also credit to you for not saying that Texas A&M is a cult.

Thank you. I got the cult. I got the cult region. And then Houston, Idaho. I had nothing other than Houston's gonna kill them. I'm gonna take Houston first half and full game. Um, Idaho is named the Vandals because they had a team in 1917 that was so good defensively, they vandalized the ball. What? Yeah, they vandalized the other team, so they took away the ball. Yeah, graffiti. That's why. All right, Zach, clean me up.

Uh, Iowa first official women's basketball coach appointed in 1902. Shout out to women.

Oh, okay.

Uh, Vanderbilt's located, uh, just 1.5 miles from the heart of Nashville, making it the closest in proximity to the most bachelorette parties ever.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

McNeese 15-0 this year at home. Thankfully for the other teams in tournament, McNeese does not have any more home games on the schedule.

Yep.

VCU took roughly 30 million bricks to build the VCU campus. It is incredibly clay and sand heavy. Masonry masterclass.

For Nebraska, he has Nebraska on the left for the school, and then the fact is Nebraska.

Yeah, that's a great fact.

I couldn't let you skip that one.

Yeah.

Uh, Troy. Waze rerouted me and my dad a few times, uh, and as a result, on our road trip to Chicago, we did get to pass by and see Troy.

Oh cool.

Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Alabama.

We got really rerouted. Our drive was 23 hours. My dad has disavowed Waze since. Oh man, deleted it off his phone.

Great.

One of the funnest times I've ever had in a car though.

What a ride. Yeah, great.

Texas A&M. A guy who sells cars, his name is Jared, went to Texas A&M. Shout out to Jared.

Yeah, respect. And was he good?

Yeah, he's— yeah, like 6'7". He's probably a hooper.

Okay, I mean, it's selling cars.

Oh, also good at selling cars.

Yeah, nice.

He's a finance office guy.

Oh yeah, that's where they get you.

Extending warranties, where you get banked.

Yeah, insurance.

St. Mary's, 46 different outdoor benches on campus. Phenomenal amount of seating.

That's awesome.

So many benches.

And then lastly, North Carolina, the hex code for North Carolina's powder blue is Pantone's #7BAFD4.

It's a great one.

Love that.

It's an all-time one. Hall of Fame.

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21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire 7 days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Limited time offer. We're going to do a quick parlay that you can bet with us on the DraftKings Sportsbook app. I will go with— I'm going to go Houston first half minus 13.5.

Okay.

I'm going to go Arkansas team total under 87.5.

I like that.

I'm going to go Michigan State minus 16.5.

Okay. So go bet with us on DraftKings Sportsbook. Zach, you want to do the West? Hank, do you have—

I got the West. We got most of the West.

Okay.

Arizona, Bryce James looking to become the first NCAA champion in the family.

Yeah.

See the clip of him after they won the conference championship?

No.

He was in his sweats. Obviously wasn't playing, but before they took the picture, he ripped off his sweats.

Savvy move.

Classic move.

Also, the first live mascot, Tom Easter, accidentally hung himself in 1915.

Oh, what kind of mascot?

I'm assuming a bunny because his name was Tom Easter. I don't really know.

I just didn't know.

Sadly hung himself, leading to a tradition of hiring or finding feline mascots until moving to a costume version.

But that— you remember when the Denver Nuggets mascot hung himself? That was an ugly moment in NBA history.

The campus also used to have a nuclear reactor. So injuries. Long Island, their mascot now, Philly, the shark fins up. They used to be the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the LIU Post Pioneers. So there's a little fun fact for when the fins are upping.

Yep.

Shocking the world.

Brooklyn Blackbirds is actually a pretty sick name.

Yeah.

Villanova. They have a tradition. Max will like this one. Kind of makes sense. They have a tradition of naming parts of the campus after cookies, i.e., the Oreo.

Familiar with the Oreo?

What's the Oreo?

I'm listening.

I'm curious of the other parts of the campus that are named after cookies.

Well, you just said the Oreo.

Yeah, the—

yes, they got that.

Did you ever name any of them?

I did not.

Oh.

They've also had a student athlete or alumni in every single Summer Olympics for over 20 consecutive games.

Whoa, that's pretty cool.

It is very cool.

Utah State, their head coach Jared Calhoun is a Bob Huggins disciple. They're very mad about their seeding, so they're going to be, you know, chip on their shoulder. Top 30 offense, top 50 defense. Thought they were going to be a 6 or 7 seed. So there's someone to look out. 4. And unlike BYU, which is owned and operated by the LDS Church, Utah State is a public university and does not have the same religious requirements for students.

Cool.

Oh, so it's like the bad boy.

Yeah.

Utah schools, you can have, you can have Dr Pepper.

Wisconsin. I have Kamari McGee played for Wisconsin last year, averaged 6 points per game and is probably the greatest basketball player I've ever seen in person. So if he, if he wasn't scoring like that, I think their, their, their team is stacked. Yeah, he was. That good and not even that significant of an impact on the team.

But I mean, how lucky is, is High Point that he's not there?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, he's so good.

So, man, shout out Kamari McGee for showing up to the stream.

Mm-hmm.

And they—

Wisconsin invented modern stem cells.

Mm.

Love that.

That's kind of cool.

Yeah.

High Point, I have— they give free ice cream to their students.

Yep.

Bad sign for Big Cat.

It's fine. Listen, we give free ice cream here to our students.

I know. I'm saying you're like, it's, it's just, I don't know, it's just a bad— I feel like it's a bad sign.

Okay.

You're going up against—

you're going up against the cream.

I've already talked about it. Yeah, I'm going up against free ice cream school. It's cream on cream.

Yeah, cream on cream. Arkansas, they think they could stop a bad guy with an ice cream cone as a good guy with an ice cream cone.

They had women's basketball before men's, so they had women's basketball in 1910, basketball in 1923. And they have over 3 miles of campus sidewalks that are engraved with the names of every graduate since 1876. That's creating one of the largest monuments to alumni in the world called the Senior Walk.

What if one of those guys does something bad?

Do they have to?

Yeah.

Do they dig up the brick? You got to think, since 1876, there's been some, some bad, some bad guys from Arkansas.

Yeah.

Hitler was a Razorback.

Why do they call them Razorbacks?

The team originally had other nicknames, but in 1909, a coach said his players fought like a wild band of Razorback hogs. The name stuck and became one of the most recognizable mascots in college sports.

Look at that. You had it right on the rip.

Hog up.

Way to go. Hawaii. Hogline.

Take it to the hog. I do love the hogs.

Hawaii.

This ties into the DraftKings parlay we just did. They held their opponents to 75 or fewer points 22 times this season. And are 22-1 when doing so. So the Arkansas team total on DraftKings is 87.5. If somehow Hawaii can tee up and hold them 75 or fewer, pretty much a guaranteed win.

I like that pick.

And the head coach has a twin brother who's a high-end fashion designer.

Oh, so that's cool.

Twins and twins not always going to go the same path.

What, what fashion design?

Just high-end. Not low.

Super, super high end.

Like, we probably wouldn't even know about you. Yeah, I'm more interested.

We don't understand high end fashion.

Max's cookies.

Yeah. So you would just like point to like a street lamp, be like, Nutter Butter.

This for sure has nothing to do with me.

Would you point to your bedroom? That's the cream pie.

I never, I never lived on campus.

Bench.

Twinkie. Nope.

None of these things are accurate. Now we're giving, now we're giving false facts. You started with fun facts.

Now it's false.

Now you're welcome to. You're exhausted because you're on a diet and then you see the bank and you're like, thin mint, needle, needle gang.

Oh man.

Uh, BYU, AJ Dibin— I'm gonna fuck that last name up— Tabansa, Brockton legend, Massachusetts.

Uh, sounds Italian.

Was the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year as a freshman in high school. Impressive. Uh, and then he went to California in high school, in Utah, which Bizarre.

I have a conspiracy theory that I've been mulling over the last few weeks here. There are so many Mr. Basketballs. There can't possibly be this many Mr. Basketballs out there.

50.

Yeah, no, it feels like there's more, right?

Well, it's probably different years and—

Yeah, but there's so many Mr. Basketballs.

Being Mr. Basketball would be so sick.

So sick. They have hit their first half over in 5 of their last 6 games.

Like that.

Something to think about.

It's a rollover over.

And beards have been banned since the 1960s. That's brutal.

The Yankees.

Coffee, tea, alcohol, premarital sex banned.

What about leggings?

But beards is really the bad part.

Yeah. Uh, roughly 1 out of every 4 students on campus is married. Around 55 to 63% of BYU students are married by graduation in some studies. Crazy.

I guess credit to BYU, like, for speaking for the guys in the room, in this room that have beards. Kind of like you—

wait, did you say beards or beers?

Beards.

Beer.

Hey, what are you saying? Are you using a D or not?

B-E-A-R-D-S. Oh, you're saying beer?

No, he's saying beards. So for the guys in this room that have beards, like, if you ban beards, you don't also have to ban premarital sex. We're not gonna have sex if we have to shave our face.

Yeah, no, that would be a deal breaker for me.

Yeah, it's like a little redundant.

I've long said, I've long said, if the Yankees tried to sign me right now, I would do it.

Yeah, I've seen a lot of Mormon women. There are some of them would qualify as beards.

What about it? What about gay guys who have fake girlfriends? Are those allowed?

That's what I was getting at. I think—

I don't follow the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Yeah, I think like their star just got arrested or some has some crazy conspiracy going on.

Mm-hmm.

That's, that's fun. Yeah, fun for the Mormons.

Flying over Provo, I've never been there. Flying over It looks like heaven on earth. It looks like just an incredible place. Like, you got the lakes. Yeah, you got the hills. It looks amazing.

I was just about to say I've been there, but I have not. I've been to Utah.

And that's where—

University of Utah.

That's where they have the nuclear reactor, right?

You think so?

Danny Ainge, legend.

Utah State, maybe?

Uh, Gonzaga people are very nice, by the way. I, I, I was lashing out on the bracket reveal show on Sunday and being like, like, it's bullshit that we got BYU got a better draw just because they can't play on Sundays. Like, it's fucking religion. And then I had a bunch of BYU fans be like, dude, what's your problem? You're spreading false facts. And I replied to one of them, I was like, yeah, man, I was just lashing out for no reason. I don't really care. And he was like, respect, love the show. It's like, that was a really nice exchange.

Wait, is that— that is true though, right?

No, they can't.

But I was just basically— it has nothing to do with Wisconsin seed. But yes, they cannot play on Sunday. Yeah, they've actually gotten screwed over by it more. More often than not. Like, they've gotten overseen— they've gotten worse seeds because of their restrictions.

What, uh, how does like Kyle Van Noy get around that? Respect.

I think it's just a school they're not allowed to.

Okay, but it's not like a command, correct? Religion, correct.

Okay, keep going.

Uh, Gonzaga has one of the smallest campuses of a basketball powerhouse despite their huge basketball reputation. They only have 7,000 undergraduates.

Are they a powerhouse? They've been to a Final Four? They have not.

They have.

Hmm. How many?

Well, we're doing the fake facts again. Let's do it again. So, Maxi's—

No, we're not doing this again. Get your jokes in now, boys.

Uh, Kennesaw State may be a team of destiny.

Okay, they stink.

Well, their leading scorer got suspended He was like in one of the gambling, you know, controversies. He got indicted, but they rallied. They won their Conference USA championship.

Mm-hmm.

Team of Destiny.

Max disagrees.

I—

I think they're leading—

they're leading score getting suspended and still making the tournament. That's— that's Team of Destiny vibes, is it not? That's like championship DVD.

Yeah, that's— I just watched that. That championship game because I had the under on it. I was like, this is just the worst basketball I've ever seen before in my life.

Muck it up.

But maybe muck it up.

And then Purdue versus Queens. Purdue, their campus is home to Hugh Hefner's Playboy DC-9 aircraft. What does that look like, PFT?

It's a—

it's a big plane known as Big Bunny.

Yeah.

Which was used in the 1970s as a luxurious mansion in the sky. Featured a bedroom with a fur-covered bed and was staffed by Playboy bunnies.

Cool.

I don't know why they would want that on campus, but they do.

That is the second most controversial jet in Big Ten history. The first being the Lolita Express that Les Wexner flew on all the time.

Mm-hmm.

And then for Queens, the Royals, that's their mascot or that's their team name. Makes sense. They're averaging 85 points per game. They shoot more than 28 threes per game, hitting at a 36% clip. Their coach in college made over 40% of his 3-point shots in collegiate career. So 3-point, you know, that's their policy.

That's their policy.

That's their policy.

Threes in, threes out.

All right, Zach, any others?

Contrary to popular belief, Purdue University has no relation to Purdue Farms, the poultry company. They do chickens, breasts, and chicken tenders. Purdue University does computer science and agriculture.

Okay.

Miami, uh, a Belle Danger has not yet confirmed her attendance for the tournament. Uh, Kennesaw State has a double campus. It's 100% more campus than other campuses. Yeah, that's in the Metro Atlanta area. Uh, Hawaii, my best friend Nick has family in Hawaii, but he decided to go to Florida State.

Okay, that's Hawaii. That's probably the farthest from Magic City.

Yeah, Nick respects women.

Yeah, Nick loves women, respects women, and I think he's a flats guy.

Yeah.

Uh, so Arkansas, definitely not Magic City then.

Maybe Magic— eh, no.

Yeah, you can't, you can't say flats only when you go to Magic City.

That's a good point. Uh, Arkansas PSA, uh, you do need to be worried if your school is playing against Arkansas with a bird-themed mascot because Arkansas hosts the Duck Calling World Championships every year. Nobody knows birds like Arkansas.

Okay.

Uh, hype— oh, never mind. Uh, John Blackwell on Wisconsin.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What was, what was the high point?

One, they probably free ice cream.

They use ice cream. But I guess, uh, to add on to that, theirs is mobile. They have ice cream trucks. So like some of the other schools, stationary, they'll come to you.

Yeah.

Uh, Villanova, just a quick reminder, Power of the Pope.

Yep. Anything about naming things after Cookies.

There may be like a Nutter Butter Street. I'm not sure.

I've never been.

Not another—

but what is the Oreo, though?

It's like a— it's like a meeting center in the middle. It's not like a meeting center. It's like a little quad area.

Delicious.

Why do they call it the Oreo? It's a sculpture.

There's a sculpture in the— like, there's a sculpture that kind of looks like an Oreo that's like in the middle.

It's like a little circle.

Got it.

I'll show you a picture.

And you're like, I got to— I got to name this after a cookie to remember what it looks like.

See, it looks like an Oreo.

Oh, it's the Bean. Yeah, they have their Bean.

Yeah, it's just like in the middle of campus.

There's the Oreo.

All right. Now pull up the Samoa.

There's no—

there's no Samoa.

All right. Keep going, Zach.

Wisconsin's John Blackwell Guard may, uh, he may own a Lamborghini, may not, but on Instagram he frequently drives one. Oh, it's good for him, he goes fast.

Yep.

And, uh, I guess we can round it off with, uh, we'll go Missouri here. Missouri alumni Brad Pitt is the only Missouri alum in history to marry both Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston.

Yeah, nice work.

That's really good.

Good work, Brad.

Okay, last region, Max. You're doing a great job, Zach, by the way. Oh wait, say the Queens one that I sent Queensborough is a good one.

Queens is the first school beginning with the letter Q to make the NCAA men's tournament despite giving Quinnipiac a 25-year head start joining division.

That's pretty good.

Yeah, first Q school.

Okay.

All right, Midwest. We have Michigan. Michigan, I guess, was just the best Big Ten team in the history of the Big Ten this year. First team to win 19 conference games. First Big Ten team in 50 years to go undefeated on the road in conference. This, this is the fact that was really shocking. They still would have won the Big Ten outright this year if you only counted games that they won by double digits. Wow.

But did they lose any games in the conference?

They did. No.

So Wisconsin.

Oh, cool.

And they also have a Big Ten record for victories by 40 points or more, which is 7.

That's great.

7 games they won by 40 points or more. Domination. UMBC, they're playing the winner of UMBC versus Howard. UMBC, this is the first time coming back to the tournament since they upset UVA in a 16-1 situation. I don't know why I said situation.

They were in a situation.

Their coach Jim Ferry came from LIU, fins up.

Any famous alumni at Michigan?

Dave Portnoy. I don't even know if Larry Ellison— I, I think he—

no, it's his, his girlfriend. Larry Ellison went to Illinois.

Yeah, his girlfriend's like, hey, I'd like a quarterback. Yeah, you got it, babe.

Okay, that's cool. I thought he went there because he gives so much money to them and Tom Brady.

Okay, kind of a, kind of a beta move to be like, spend so much money on your girlfriend's school.

Yep.

Uh, although when you're Larry Ellison, it's no different than like— for Larry Ellison, it's like your girlfriend saying, hey, can you buy me a new purse?

Yeah.

You buy me a new $12 million quarterback, probably cheaper.

Can you give me an Underwood for how much money he has?

Yeah, for sure.

You think Tom Brady is rooting for Michigan or does he have a dog in the fight?

I feel like he's probably rooting for Michigan.

You would think.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, he probably should have played more at Michigan. He could hate Michigan.

Yeah.

You never know. Yeah. Like a guy like that.

UMBC. Kathleen Turner went there. She's an actress.

Yep, I know her.

Uh, Howard, they won their last game— their last 8 games by an average of 25 points. They're beating the shit out of teams right now. Uh, they have a senior who got a lot of hype last year about maybe entering the transfer portal, but he decided to come back for one more year. And they have a powerhouse of alum from Howard. So many alum from Howard: Kamala Harris, Thurgood Marshall, Chadwick Chadwick Boseman, Marlon Wayans, and ex-wife of Zach's so-called best player in NBA history, LaLa Anthony.

We don't, we don't say Kamala Harris's name around here. That might get Jerry O'Connell beat up.

That's a fair point.

We're going to have to talk about that next time he comes on.

Next, we got Georgia. Georgia scored 120 points in a game this year.

I thought that's cool.

That's so many points. So it was against Morehead State earlier in the year. Yeah, 120 points is so many points. That had to have been a very fun game. Uh, their starting forward, uh, Kanan Catchings, is a nephew of WNBA legend Tamika Catchings.

Oh hell yeah.

All right, uh, some notable Georgia alumni is Ryan Seacrest and Coach— and Coach Taylor Kyle Chandler.

Ah, Coach Taylor, former, uh, prospective part of my Take guest, Kyle Chandler. All right, cool.

Uh, St. Louis, we finally got Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. We talked about this. Robbie Avila, leading scorer. I think he's only scoring like 12 points a game, but he's the leading scorer for St. Louis. They have, I think, like 6 guys that average over 8 points a game. Uh, it's the oldest university west of the Mississippi, huh? And their mascot is a Billiken. What is a Billiken, you may ask?

What is a Billiken?

I'm glad you asked, because I have the answer. It is a mythical good luck figure that is a symbol of things, of things they ought to be, which is lame as hell.

That's, that's a horrible, bad mascot. So it's like you always, always be wishing for something better.

Yeah, they, they, the opposite grass is greener. They describe it, no, they describe it as a mascot of Optimism.

What is a Billiken? What cookie does the Billiken remind you of?

Probably just like a chocolate chip cookie.

Oh, so you are good at this.

That was, that was the most basic answer. And Jenna Fischer went to St. Louis.

Nice.

All right, Pam, it does make sense that it would be the oldest west of the Mississippi, right? Because it's on the Mississippi. So it's like they probably crossed and they're like, okay, school right away.

That's a good point.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a good point. Uh, Texas Tech, I was meaning to look up more, but I— all I have for Texas Tech is during finals week they offer free late-night pancakes between 10 and midnight.

That's it for them. That's a great fact.

That's, that's, that's what we got for Texas Tech.

Used to be in a dry county until pretty recently.

Uh, Big Cat's assistant, uh, next we have Akron. And Big Cat's assistant Dom went to Akron, so he gave me all of these facts.

I, I—

let's not use to say he's He's Dom. He's a partner.

He's a partner.

No, he's—

no, I've made him a partner.

He's a partner.

Nope, nope, that's—

I have made—

Big Cat made me partners, what he said.

I made Dom a partner.

So Dom said that to him the most notable alumni of Akron is Mark Davis's right-hand guy, also a partner. Okay, that's not where—

I mean, he very well could be. That, that sounds like a guy who might be a part—

a right-hand guy for Mark Davis for an NFL owner?

I shouldn't have said that.

Being a right-hand guy? I shouldn't have said that. No. We got so many partners.

All right, keep going.

Okay.

All right, I'm back. Their mascot is the most popular female mascot in all of sports. That's according to Dom.

Disagree. And I'm a blue hen guy.

There was a big shot made in the, you know, the conference tournament by Shama Scott. He had a big buzzer beater to advance Akron. His grandfather is Pastor D. Scott, who is also Trump's pastor.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

And then you get political, Max.

Do you have any tweets about that?

I have a tweet from the pastor. Had a good call with the POTUS. We laughed, joked, and talked about several things, including the Akron Zips basketball team going to the dance.

Oh, nice.

He said, I'll watch the game.

Very cool.

Alabama.

You think— wait, 0% chance he watches this game.

Yeah.

I don't know. Maybe he likes sports. Alabama. I reached out to notable alumni Rico Bosco for some fun facts on Alabama. Unfortunately, he did not answer in time. So I'm just going to go with their second best player was arrested for first-degree possession of marijuana, and he is now the fourth player to be arrested on the Alabama men's basketball team since 2023.

I saw an update to the story this morning. It was about 2 pounds, 2.1 pounds. Not really that much pot. Like, it's— pot is basically legal right now. I mean, if this was— if this was anywhere else, and let the—

actually, PFT, I saw a bunch of people because I thought the same thing, but it actually would be illegal in 50 states.

No.

All 50 states.

But it's legal.

Yeah. Having that much would be illegal in all 50 states.

That's a lot of weed.

It's a lot of, a lot of kush.

I mean, we did have Alex Caruso on this couch like a month ago, and he's a great friend of ours. I don't— I think that we should be willing to overlook minor marijuana infractions on this show.

You're giving Nadeau permission.

I'm giving Nadeau— if he can find a judge in town that will Okay.

All right.

Keep going.

I think it'd be way funnier if he, if he just kept doing this.

Yeah.

Next, we got Hofstra. I, I personally attended Hofstra for 2 years. 2 other people that also attended Hofstra were Marquise Colston, great wide receiver in the NFL for the Saints, and Bernie Madoff.

And Steven Che.

And Steven Che.

Yeah.

Bernie Madoff, not as good of a guy.

Yeah.

This is the first— he made a lot of money.

Dude, he could pick them.

He probably had a pretty good life. Like, let's be honest, Bernie Madoff, if you can— if you have the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world, a great run, you had a solid 30 years.

Oh yeah.

Where it was just eating high off the hog, just loving every day, waking up bright-eyed, bushy-tailed. They made a movie about you too. Yeah, two movies. Robert De Niro played in the movie.

Pretty cool.

Yeah.

All right.

This is the first time that Hofstra's been back in the tourney since 2000 under Coach Hank—

the fastest mouse in all Mexico.

He's looking for Jay Wright.

Jay Wright. Jay Wright was the coach the last time Hofstra made the tournament. But this isn't the last time they won the CAA. They unfortunately won the CAA in 2020 but weren't allowed to go because COVID canceled the tournament. Sucks for Hofstra. It's good that they're back. Shout out Hofstra hoops. A couple other fun facts: in 2016, the first baseman on their baseball team hit a home run against Manhattan College while simultaneously shitting his pants. And also in 2016—

what was this first baseman's name?

This first baseman's name was Max DeLente. Also in 2016, there was a very— I just want to shout out, there was a bar named Dizzy's. Shout out Dizzy's.

Love that.

It was a good bar. It unfortunately got shut down also in 2016, or no, actually that was in 2015 because there were undercover cops that went in and busted some people underage for being inside of that bar. I happened to be one of those people that were underage and was there the last night of Dizzy's. Sorry about that for everyone at Dizzy's.

Wait, so you got Dizzy's closed down?

I was one of the culprits, yes.

Hmm.

I hate that about you, Max. Yeah, that's my— that's my least favorite thing about you.

Sorry. Meme said he'd been to Dizzy's too.

You could go there when you're like 15.

Yeah, that was a thing with Dizzy's for sure.

Okay.

Oh, Tennessee. Tennessee. I got these, these from our good friend Big T, also alumni of Tennessee. The first one is their point guard, Jacoby Gillespie. His grandfather was a world champion drag racer.

Mm-hmm.

It's pretty cool.

Yeah. I saw him on RuPaul.

Yep. And Cade Phillips, who is an injured player for Tennessee, has gone viral on TikTok very recently for being hot. So I guess girls take videos of him while he's playing and say, this guy's really hot.

It's important to have one of those guys.

Yeah.

It's good to have one of those guys. Next we got Miami of Ohio. Notable alumni: Big Ben. They are an annoying school that say that they are the original Miami, even though they are obviously not the, the real Miami.

Not the one that people think of.

But their, their defense is that Miami as a school was founded before Florida was even a state.

There you go. Love and honor.

So whatever.

I have one more fun fact about Miami of Ohio.

Yep.

It's from Mad Dog. She told me this fact. If you're ever at a bar and you see a really hot chick at that bar, she probably went to Miami of Ohio.

That's, that's a great—

Yeah, she swears, she swears that that's true.

Huh.

Okay.

So just something to know. Like if you see, if you're betting with your friends, like where do you think she went to school?

Miami of Ohio.

You'll win like 60% of the time.

Love that. And apparently they— Miami of Ohio also has a very cool bar on their campus, which I guess most, most of these schools do.

Yeah.

Gronk has his jersey retired in there.

Yeah.

Uh, SMU has a guy named Boopy Miller. Awesome name. Uh, they don't tailgate at SMU, they boulevard, which upon further research looks exactly like a tailgate, but they just do it on a boulevard. And also, uh, Larry Brown remains the only coach to win an NCAA title and an NBA championship. Not the current coach of SMU, but a—

cool fact. Yeah.

Oh, it might be the number one MILF university. SMU.

Love that.

Yeah, that's a good fact. Uh, I crowdsourced a lot of these, these facts. Yeah, yeah, I had a— I had a lot of, uh, alumni, Barstool alumni, because we're going on to UVA next. Crowdsource this one from alumni Jake Malasek. Who is a partial employee, works for Coach John Gruden. Ja'Kari White has alopecia, and the students have created a kind of a group, a fan group for him, and they call themselves the Ja'Karmy, and they have a bunch of t-shirts and all sit behind the basket. It's a bit— it's a cool thing. It looks like Ja'Karmy is a great name.

There's the alopecia. Have to do with that?

I don't know.

This is—

I thought it was going to be like something to do with like raising awareness I did too, but I'm just, I'm just reading the facts that I got.

Malicek just wanted to include that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They have a freshman, Tyce DeRitter, who is 22. He's a freshman.

Okay.

There's a guy, Chance Mallory, who went to high school across the street from the campus. And Ryan Odom is their coach, and he was the coach of UMBC when UMBC beat UVA.

Okay.

Then we have, they're playing Wright State. They almost blew it in the Horizon League Championship, but they had a sick block to save, save the game and advance them to the tournament. And they have an underground tunnel system that connects 21 of the 22 academic buildings so students don't have to walk in the cold in the winter, which sounds awesome.

That is awesome.

You could probably have some fun in those tunnels.

Kentucky, a lot of boring basketball facts, whatever.

That's good. That's a good fact.

Yeah, that's fine. We can go. Well, one of the facts I found is John Calipari stat, which I probably shouldn't have even included. Oh, and they have more barrels of bourbon in the state of Kentucky than they do people.

Oh, that's cool.

That's very cool.

All right.

Santa Clara memes. You actually gave me most of these facts. You want to hop in?

No.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Read the Calipari stat. That's actually— it's kind of interesting.

John Calipari, the longtime coach of Kentucky, coached a lot of NBA players in his time there. The players under Calipari have a total GDP of $5.8 billion, which is higher than the countries of Eswatini, Liberia, South Sudan, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Wow, that is—

that's crazy.

That's a crazy stat. That one was from Quigs. Quigs sent me that one. Shout out, Quigs. Um, Santa Clara, they're playing Santa Clara, which— oh wait, no. Oh no, they are playing Santa Clara. This is Memes' favorite team in the tournament, uh, because they play late at night and hit a lot of overs. Uh, first time making the tournament since 1998 when Steve Nash was there. And they have a guy named Sashi— Sash, who transferred from Nova, and I liked him, but he never got any time at Nova.

Josh Sash.

I like Herb Sendek too. He is like an old-school Pittsburgh football guy that coaches basketball.

Then we have Iowa State versus Tennessee State. Iowa State, basically, I just want to talk about Milan Mancilovic because he's the— he might be one of the coolest guys in college basketball. Yeah, he just absolutely dominates threes. There's a lot of debates going on online right now of who's had the best, like, 3-point season in college basketball, and it's between him and Steph Curry. He broke the Iowa State record for most made 3s in a season, and he did that while shooting 49.6% from the field, which is, which is the best 3-point percentage in the country. He made 8 3s in a game 4 times this year, including the Big 12 semifinal where they They did lose Arizona, but he was insane.

So he is nasty and I have loved watching him play, but I feel like I might, I might personally be the Momcilovic stopper because every single time I think I've bet on his point total over 5 times this year and it hasn't hit a single one of the times. So I just got to stay away.

Yeah, you got to stay.

I got so fun.

I want to make a promise to all the clones out there. I'm staying away from betting Momcilovic. Points, any prop.

That's you.

I'm not gonna touch it.

Okay, last one, Tennessee State.

Last one, Tennessee State. First time back since 1994. They used to be known as Tennessee A&I and was an NAIA dynasty. They won 3 consecutive national championships from '57 to '59, and they were the first HBCU to win a national championship in basketball at any level.

Okay, good job. Uh, clean us up, Zach.

I got some cleanup for us. Uh, Michigan. Michigan starting 5 lineup has a combined 26 syllables in their names. Average at best when it comes to syllables. Uh, Georgia. University of Georgia has the highest rated dining hall of any school that's competing in the tournament. They're 13th in the nation.

Wow.

Some notable options there: they have personal pizzas, customizable taco bowls, and scratch milkshakes.

Okay.

Uh, Texas Tech. Decent amount of moms in the parents of class of 2025 to 2026 Texas Tech Facebook group saying Texas Tech is by far the longest tour they've been on by a long shot.

Wow.

Big campus. Akron, you know, their mascot is a kangaroo. Fun fact: kangaroos can't walk or jump backwards due to their long feet. Hofstra keeps a presidential debate on them at all times. Only college to have 3 in a row: 2008, 2012, and 2016. Tennessee campus located very close to the Tennessee Valley Authority TVA nuclear assets. Players are some of the most likely in the tournament to develop adaptations due to the proximity of 7 nuclear reactors.

Okay.

When I was there during the Hofstra debate, I just wore a Mike Rizzioni jersey around campus all week that week. The most college— stupid college thing of all time.

That's what I did.

I love that. I love that.

I got a Kentucky. My friend Lloyd's dad, Big Lloyd—

was that the Ken Bone debate?

It was.

Fuck yeah, it was.

All right, you had to win it.

Fun fact, Ken Bone got famous at Hofstra. Most famous Hofstra alumni.

I did not attend the debate. You had to win a lottery to actually get inside the building, but there was a bunch of stuff going around.

What do you think Ken Bone's doing these days?

Just hanging.

What's Ken up to? Don't want to know, Hank?

The Bone Zone. Sold about 10 of those shirts.

Yeah. Hank's right. That's the guy. Don't look too deep into that.

I want to hear Big Lloyd.

So I've got— so my fact for Kentucky is my friend Lloyd, his dad, Big Lloyd, of course, used to sit in his man cave in the garage and motherfucking tuckey basketball. I ride with Big Lloyd, so if it's gotta be fucking tuckey basketball— he also loves Jeff Gordon.

Okay, love that. Love Big Lloyd.

Uh, St. Clair sits in the— yeah, big shout out Big Lloyd. Love Big Lloyd. Great guy. All-time guy, man. Uh, St. Clair sits in the heart of Silicon Valley, or some call it the global hub of technology, so they may have access to tech that other teams just can't touch.

Love that.

And, uh, Tennessee State have got, uh Their next game is on a Friday against Iowa State. They played on one other Friday this entire season, UT Martin, 68-55, the victory. Currently undefeated on Fridays. So if you're going off days of the week, Texas State might take it. And then, uh, I've got Alabama. Respectfully, some of the hottest women I've ever seen on Instagram all go to Alabama.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

On Instagram, Sydney Thomas, as you're talking about, they got I mean, they've got all of them and just hang them in the rafters everywhere.

She just released her bracket. I love the March Madness official account just dropping random brackets. Sidney Thomas has Alabama over Illinois.

Okay.

Young— no, who's the Young Gravy? Young Gravy is that person. He has Wisconsin winning it all.

MILF guy.

Yeah, huge. Okay, good job, boys. Let's do hot seat, cool throne. And then we'll talk some more actual basketball talk with Titus. Okay, before we get to Hot Seat, Cool Throne, Twisted Tea— Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. Twisted Tea is the perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long. Whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar, or day drinking with friends, Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today. I'm trying to think of a moment from— we were talking about it in the Gambling Cave on Thursday, PFT, you and I, the Creighton-Oregon game.

Yeah.

Double overtime from 2 years ago. That's a moment that could have used a Twisted Tea. We were, we were a lot of stress. Yeah. Could have had a Twisted Tea.

A great March moment.

Yes, a great March moment. So go get a Twisted Tea today. Real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. Grab it. Refreshing Twisted Tea today. Okay, Hank, hot seat, cool throne.

My hot seat, I don't know if it's, it's Matt Leinart.

Oh, disagree, disagree.

That it's an embrace debate.

I like this.

So he, uh, his, his jersey number 11 is retired at USC, but the school is asking him to unretire his jersey for recruits who wanted it. Leinart said he'll never agree to that. I think it's hot seat just because they even ask. Like, they're like, oh, he's not good enough. Maybe it was because of his pro career, I'm not sure. But the fact that the school thought it was even a possibility that he would unretire his number kind of means to me he's on the hot seat. But I could see, I could see it either way.

Okay, so, so he did clarify this and he said Coach Riley, Lincoln Riley, has not asked him if a specific recruit can wear his number, but he has been asked in the past and he said the same thing every time.

I think that's probably just a logistics thing because there's there's so many guys on the roster, like they have to do double numbers anyway. So they're probably like, I wish we hadn't.

But when they're recruiting, you know, if they were recruiting a 5-star and he's like, I need to be number 11, I would be—

I'd be like Matt Leonard. I would say no, we got to start opening up more numbers.

Yeah, here's the thing.

But if you're— if you're— if, if it's Wisconsin and you have an opportunity to get a great player as an alumni, don't you want to help your program?

I would maybe do— I would maybe say, oh, like, then you're here this time, but he has to be really good. If he's real— if he's not— if he doesn't pan out, I'm never doing it again. You get one shot.

I think that if your number is retired, your number's— it's retired, right? The word retired is retired because it means something.

What if— what if number— what if he gives it up to a 5-star recruit and that recruit wins 2 Heismans?

I agree.

Then you're— then you just don't have a number anymore.

But don't you think it's kind of disrespectful to even ask?

Yeah, no, I do. It was like the—

I think if he was like a Hall of Famer in the NFL that they would ask, I think he might actually say yes.

I mean, USC is what he has. That's not disrespect to Matt Leinart. I love Matt Leinart, but like, he is— USC is his thing. I completely back him on saying no.

Yeah, he shouldn't be. He should never be asked. Like, you should have— you should have too much, too much decorum to ask Matt Leinart. If he's going to unretire his number for you.

It—

what about— is OJ's number still retired?

Uh, I don't know. Probably, uh, Google or—

yeah, it says that. Yeah, number 32.

Yeah, let's get that one.

So get that. You got a perfectly good number 32.

Yeah, get that one going. Get that back in the mix.

That, that's what Matt should counter with.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can't do my number. Best I can offer is OJ Simpson.

My other hot seat is PFT for a couple of reasons.

A couple of reasons.

Did you see what happened to your JMU Dukes rugby team?

I did not see what— wait.

Oh, whoa.

They lost to Southern Virginia 122 to nothing.

Yeah, but remember, this could, this could maybe be a tie in second place or something.

Hang on. Let me, let me do a little, a little digging. Where'd you see this?

A few different places.

Southern Virginia. Which school is that?

It's in Virginia in the South region.

Yeah. You lost 122 to nothing.

Hey, I need to read about this story here.

You got to, you got to do some digging.

They closed the match with a 40-point run. Oh, 57-nothing at halftime.

Oh, man. Just let me let Listen, you sprung this on me. I need a chance to read about it.

Are you reading?

I'm reading about it right now.

Yeah.

All right.

I'll let PFT read and then, and then I'll say my other reason.

It looks, it looks to me just by reading the game recap of this that Southern Virginia might import a lot of players.

Southern Virginia is 2-6 in the season.

Oh no.

It looks like they might.

Now are we gonna find another spin zone?

Are we talking about the same kind of— oh, well, they lost to— yeah, Life University. Life University is like the best sevens team.

Also, this is Life University.

Yeah, so Life University is a chiropractic university in, I think, Georgia or Florida, but they have like one of the best rugby teams in the world.

How about University of Mary Washington?

Yeah, Mary Washington, we played against them a couple times. This is sevens, by the way.

Well, JMU had the flu. I'm looking right now.

I think it's Sevens.

Queens College.

Hey, everyone on JMU had the flu.

I need to— I need to do some more research about this. Um, we're gonna regroup. We'll be fine.

JMU takes precautions with flu on the rise.

Social distancing.

Yeah, that was from December 1st, 2022. But that— when was this game played?

A couple weeks ago.

You don't know how long the flu lasts.

March 6th.

March 6th. Yeah, it's forever.

March 6th, I guess, was when this article was written.

And then, and then, and then that's—

listen, that's, that's ancient history. In fact, it's probably going to be good.

JMU played another game since.

Yeah, look up JMU schedule here. This could be dangerous because we were very good in rugby just like 2 years ago.

This could be dangerous if they played.

Is it like an NIL thing? Do you need to get on and get on the horn?

I did give them a bunch of money when I was there. When I was there for the football game in the parking lot, they were tailgating. I was like, here's $1,000, go buy some beer. I don't know if that made it back to facilities.

Okay.

And then my other, my other hot seat for PFT was, you know, got a lot of skills, a lot of talents coaching basketball. Not one.

Yeah, no, I'll agree with that one. When it— I mean, when it comes to rugby, listen, I built a legacy at JMU. I can't— it's a tough one for them to live up to sometimes. So I'm very aware of the shadow that I— that my talents cast over the program. It's like if your dad's Tiger Woods, hard to become one of the best golfers in the world. That's why Charlie's so different, special. When it comes to my basketball playing ability or my basketball coaching ability, yeah, I did you guys a big disservice last night. I did. I got outcoached by Roan big time. No, no excuses on my part. Now, it, it was kind of tough that it was going 15 to 2 and you guys were still committing turnovers.

And taking twos. Yeah.

Yeah, we did pros versus joes. We were playing former college, like, All-Americans. Tyler Hansborough, the Wisconsin kid we talked about earlier. But we, at one point, I, I kind of knew we weren't going to win, but I was like, by the time we get to 15 versus 4, maybe we have a shot. 15 versus 3, we should definitely win. We lost 15. We lost 15 Barstool employees versus 3 former college basketball players, and it was one of the most demoralizing.

Yeah.

Losses I've ever been a part of.

Great stream.

Yeah, I'm sure it's fun to watch.

I was having a great time watching. Yeah, I think, I think taking, taking twos when, when we have no one who can shoot was probably a problem. And then, yeah, I felt like there was not a lot of organization, but that's okay. Those guys are good. They're good at basketball.

We tried to organize, but coaching was, coaching was pretty pointless last night. I could say anything. I could say anything and you guys would just go out there and just dribble and bounce it off your legs in the lane. That's—

is that not a coaching concern?

Well, I was screaming, no more dribbling, no more taking the ball into the paint.

We could have had a better game plan.

I agree.

We could have had a better game plan.

What would you have done, Max? I tried to switch it up though.

We were defending each other on offense.

That's a user issue.

We, I see people, people would have told her issue. We needed less people on offense.

I was telling people to stay back and then I was telling people to cherry pick too.

Now you guys watching at home, I was like, just put 5 guys on the 3-point line extended, 5 guys underneath the hoop and then 5 guys on the offensive side.

We're trying to implement no dribbles.

I think that's too many guys underneath the hoop. I think, all right, 5 guys extended, 3 guys.

Yeah.

One, one guy in the whatever. This is, you know, you could have trapped them for Monday morning.

Trapping would have been—

yeah, you had so many guys. Oh, I tried. Well, funny, you did try. And funny you mentioned that, Memes. I tried to do that. I tried to do the—

this was— this was the stupidest idea ever.

I tried to do the form of circle, the Steph Curry NBA Reddit post. And then I gave the plan to the guys and Max goes, this is stupid. We're not doing that. And then I said it was stupid. I said, fine, Max, go ahead. And then you guys inbound the ball and turned over and lost the game.

Well, it was so— it was so fucking frustrating. Whatever. I was barely even playing because I was the only one who realized that too many people on offense who aren't good at offense is a detriment. But for some reason, everyone in this company thinks that they're the hero and that they need to take that shot.

Yeah.

And it was like, like, just, just let— if we just actually try and win this game, we can get out of here now.

No one has nailed this place better than our good friend Nick Trani, who said that we're just the home of pathetic Titans. That's what we had.

A lot of small guys.

Titans. Yeah, but they were— we have a lot of— we also have a lot of wasted size.

We have wasted size, but we had a lot of small guys out there too. And it was the, the most frustrating thing by far was the very last play of the very last game. And we're winning 15 or we're winning. What was it? 6 to 3 at the time. And it was 15 on 2. And we're up 6 to 3. And we have the ball under the basket. And I'm just— the plan for the last 3 games has been pass the ball to Deutsch because he was the only guy that could score on the inside. But for some reason, they just wouldn't pass the ball to Deutsch. So Dave, White Sox Dave gets the ball. Ball and on the inbounds play again, it's 15 against 2, throws the ball directly to one of their 2 guys.

Yeah, that was tough.

Who takes up the court. Then Nicky Smokes takes his shoes off, throws them into the crowd, and we finally get the ball down court and get off there with a 7-3 win. But it was, it was the most frustrating thing I've been about. I tried, I, I tried the best that I could, Max. I'm sorry that I was not able to put you guys in a good position to win, but you guys weren't listening either.

Next time.

Next time.

Next time we have—

That is true. People weren't listening.

Yeah, that's fair. Shout out to McGee. He was awesome.

He was really good.

Yeah.

Brendan Paul was awesome too. All of them are awesome.

Yeah.

And then my cool throne, Dune Part 3.

Hmm.

What do you mean?

The trailer came out today. Dune Part Two, probably my favorite movie last 5 years. Dune Part Three. And then they have— so it's like it's coming out the same weekend as like the new Avengers movie, but Dune Part Three has some deal with IMAX where they have the rights to show their movie in all of the IMAX theaters. So the movies come out at the same time, but Dune Part Three just owns the IMAX. So it's just a power move.

Okay, okay.

When is it coming out?

Uh, December.

OK, you excited? How many times you can see it in theaters?

Probably 2 or 3, and then I'll probably watch it. I watched Dune 2 like on every flight.

I think, you know, they're one of those popcorn bucket advertisement things.

Yeah.

The thing that everyone wanted to fuck.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, it's exciting.

OK, PFT.

Yeah, my, my hot seat is also going to be me. So this triple hot seat because I'm a broke boy apparently and was not able to buy one of Jimi Hendrix's guitars. So they all went for sale last week and they all went for like $5 million.

Yeah.

And it was crazy. Like, I think the, the black Strat from Pink Floyd went for like $15 million. Jerry Garcia's Tiger guitar went for what, like $11 million?

Like $11 million. Yeah. Derek Trucks played it on Friday and Saturday at the Beacon Theater. It was awesome.

Yeah. So I did— when they announced that this auction was going to happen, when they're going to sell all of his guitars, I made a note and I was like, okay, check check back in when this comes up because I'm going to save up some money and I'm going to buy one of the cheapest ones that goes up for sale. There was not one that was even remotely in my price range to buy. So everybody hit me up and they're like, hey, did you buy anything? I was like, no, no, absolutely not.

Not even close.

I did not even think about buying anything. And the other hot seat is Ryan Whitney. Oh, because Drysidle is out for the year. They just announced Yeah, which is a tough break. And you know what, maybe, maybe this is what they need. Maybe it's like, maybe the Oilers are better without Drysdale.

Yeah. So Drysdale and Auston Matthews, right? Auston Matthews, I think, is out for the year too.

For the Leafs?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I saw that like 2 days ago. That sucks.

Yeah. So this tough break from Whitney. I have not seen—

and also kind of tough for us because we don't like— if they're not good, it's not even fun. Yeah.

If there's no expectations. I mean, it just seems like it's all falling into place for the Avs right now. Yeah, Whitney had a bad couple of days. He said that he was in a, he was in a coffee shop and some kid looked at him and was like, hey, ask, ask that old man what time it is. Said that to their friend. So Whitney was just the random old man at the coffee shop.

Damn.

And then Drysaddle goes out for the year. I don't know if that means also out for the, for the playoffs. Yeah, probably out for the regular season at least right now. Has he?

Oh, yeah. Whitney said Leon out for the rest of the regular season. So no panic.

Don't worry.

This is all part of the madness that is Oilers hockey.

Okay.

So it might be back.

It's part of the plan. My cool throne is us as a group.

Yeah.

We won something.

We did it.

Good job, guys. We won memes. What award did we win? Best sports podcast.

Let's go.

All right.

Love it.

First time in 10 years we won an actual award. Who gave it to us?

So that's a good question, Piquette, because memes put out a graphic. Show them the graphic, memes. Pull that.

Yeah, I retweeted the graphic. That was the extent of my celebration.

The graphic was wonderful. It was, uh, Just a graphic that says Best Sports Podcast Award.

First award in show history. Yeah. Yeah.

And Memes just refused to put the name of the company that gave the award out, which I respect. Good job, Memes.

That's great, Memes.

I think we've disavowed awards in the past. We have.

Oh yeah, we have.

We don't really care. I'm shocked that they ended up— So I was thinking about it, like, what's different about this show? Zach.

Zach, I feel like Zach's your award.

Zach, this is really your award.

Yes, I agree.

We've been doing this shit for 9 years and everyone is like, you guys suck. This podcast is terrible. And then we get Zach on there.

We had a plus-minus monster.

I'll bet that there's a— I'll bet this panel. Yeah, it's just women. Hot bodies, hot chicks. And they were like, Zach, Zach, Zach attack. I'm a Zach fan.

Fucking love this guy.

So I'm just in the—

I'm just in the ecosystem. Is your guy's award? No, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no.

You are the ecosystem.

We literally didn't win an award without you. You can't win an award without Zach.

Zach, I would like you to give the, uh, our thank you speech for this award. And now to accept the award, Zach.

Part of my take would like to say thank you for number one sports podcast award. Thank you very much.

Wait a minute. There was an award show?

Yeah, we get invited to it sometimes or have been.

I think this one was in Austin. Austin.

Oh, did you guys know about this?

No, no, definitely not.

I think I might have got an email.

Yeah, no, we didn't know about this.

No, there's like a whole red carpet of people.

Doesn't it feel awesome to win an award and just not even know about it? Like, did they announce it? Do we have video of them announcing it? That would rock. There's no way they announced it without us being there. No, no chance.

Wait, Zach, finish speech.

And today we would like to undisavow awards to accept this award. May disavow awards in the future, but today we're accepting.

Okay.

I would like to say congratulations to everybody on the award.

Great job.

So, wait, thank you. Wait, you just congratulate everybody else?

Shane? Yeah, your award winners. Shane, can you make a graphic, but make sure you include us talking about Austin and everything in the middle of his speech? I want that as a transcript. Maybe we'll print it out and put it on a poster. Yeah, it's like the Gettysburg Address.

I listen, I was— I think we were invited to this award ceremony. I can't be sure. I have 40,000 unread emails.

Yeah, I don't have that. I don't— I actually keep a clean inbox, but I also would 100% just cruise on by this one.

Your inbox zero?

Yeah, I just open them. I just open every email and then I don't I don't do anything with—

that's awesome.

40,043.

Very jealous of that.

Yeah, I can't— I actually can't stand having emails that I haven't opened.

Oh, and that's just— listen, that's just one of my accounts.

How many do you have, PFT?

40,000 and— oh, 44. I just got another one.

40,044.

You just got another thousand?

No, I just got another email. It was 40,043. Just got another one. And then my other account, 74,467.

Nope.

So I'm up above 100,000 unread emails.

I have 110,859 total.

So it just has that number on your iPhone total. That would drive me insane.

No, that's about text messages.

Text.

I got 0. 4,446.

You have text messages unread?

449.

How are you guys doing this? I get up, I get mad when I have like an Instagram DM that I haven't looked at.

4,446 unread Text.

A little red thing pops up.

Yeah.

Bothers me.

Now, a lot of those are from an old group chat that I had when I lived in Austin, and I just don't have the heart to leave the neighborhood group chat because they have hilarious complaints that they always— like, I'm not backing out of that one. Well, you get a lot of entertainment.

There's no way. What?

The requests that you don't all look at.

No, no, not requests.

Got it.

The prime.

Okay.

Okay.

That makes sense.

Yeah. Look, PFC there, you can verify. I have 2 because we've been recording and 0 text messages. 2 emails. I can't stand it. It drives me nuts. All right, my hot seat. Kind of me, although we just won an award, uh, on Sunday. I, I guess it made a kind of a story. I went, I went a little hard again. Rosenzweig, I thought it was kind of innocuous. I guess looking back, I was a little harsh in context. It was like midnight, long day, long weekend. He popped up on the TV. I just went stream of consciousness. I don't really know him. He could stay in baseball.

Yeah, but I think I said get him out of baseball. Hey, listen, I'm so sick of this guy.

Yeah. All right. So I, and I had a couple people reach out who know Ken Rosenthal. They're like, dude, you got it wrong. He's a good guy. Like, you know what, I hand up. If I got it wrong, I got it wrong. That's my bad. Um, so Ken Rosenthal, you can stay. I do think it was weird with the Brewers thing, but you could say— I would say that, um, Ken Rosenthal He's just a jerk is what I said. Yeah, I don't even remember because it's so— we do so many podcasts. I don't even remember saying it. Just popped up on the TV and then on Monday afternoon I was like, whoa, why is this trending?

1.2 million views, this tweet.

I don't want to also take credit, but Ken Rosenthal, a lot of people came to your defense and said some really nice things about you. So what? You're welcome.

I'm going to actually say that Ken Rosenthal, he does come across as a jerk.

Yeah, I will.

Yes.

But he can stay in baseball. That's where I was.

Well, because baseball, if there's any sport out there that needs some jerks, It's baseball. Baseball has always had several jerks, several, several prominent jerks that are announcing.

And you know what? I'll do an olive branch. Ken Rosenthal, I saw— I think he raises money for ALS. I've had a family member die from ALS. So thank you, Ken Rosenthal. There's our olive branch. We can, we can bond over horrific diseases.

That's nice. But also, like, I'll agree that he is a jerk.

Yeah. But he can stay. I think— yeah, I don't want to get him out.

I don't want him to lose his job.

My quote was every jerk ever since that Brewers thing last year. He's such a loser. Get him out. I don't want him anywhere near me anymore.

I think that Ken Rosenthal should be allowed to stay in baseball. He might even— hey, why don't we just give him a raise, but also he's a jerk?

Yeah, but when you guys— when we were doing the show on Sunday, did you guys, any of you in the room, be like, oh whoa, that was crazy, that's gonna be a big story?

I just thought it came a little out of nowhere, but I didn't—

but it didn't because he was on TV.

But I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't know it was going to get picked up by anybody.

Yeah.

But no, I'm going to have your back. Don't let them bully you into saying that he's not.

No, I'm not. I'm not apologizing for the jerk part. I'm just apologizing for saying he has to leave baseball.

The amount of quotes that you could pull from this podcast of things that we say about people is insane.

It's crazy.

We say shit that we don't actually mean all the time.

And Ken Rosenthal, I'll say you do have some friends because I did have like two guys I trust reach out to me and said, hey, he's a good guy. And it's like people that I actually respect their opinion. Still going to think he's a jerk, but stays in baseball. OK, congrats to Ken Rosenthal. He's officially staying in baseball according to Pardon My Take. Is that fair?

Yeah, he can. He can watch.

Congrats, buddy.

I'll let him watch.

And that's from an award-winning show. It's just so funny because I never know when, like, we really— I do think the reason why— part of the reason why this podcast works is we continue to do it as if no one's listening.

Listening.

And then every now and then we'll say something like, fuck, people are like, who, who cares about our opinions? But apparently some people do.

Now, if it's, if it's because of the Fox Sports thing, because we somewhat share airwaves.

No, that's not to do with it.

No, I'm just saying, if that's why it blew up.

Oh, maybe, maybe that even, that even crossed my mind. And no one from Fox said anything to me.

But keep that same energy for when we discuss Tom Brady.

Yeah. Talk about Tom Brady a lot on this show or how much we love Greg Olsen. Yeah, that's nepotism.

Probably even a better example. Yeah, I want these, I want these articles coming out when we're talking about how Greg Olson is the best human being on planet Earth.

Yeah. So I don't, I mean, Ken Rosenthal has every right to hate my guts. I think he's a jerk.

He's a very powerful enemy.

Ken, stay in baseball. My cool throw-in is Thad Mata because Thad Mata is retiring. Congrats on a great career, Thad Mata. How old do you guys think Thad Mata is?

67.

70.

That Motta is 58 years old. No way. That is the oldest 58-year-old of all time.

Disagree. Jim Leland.

He's been 50. How old's Jim Leland?

No, when Jim Leland.

Yeah.

When he was 50.

But I'm saying currently that Motta has been old for like 30 years, it feels like, doesn't it?

Yeah.

That's awful. Now, if you want to, if you want to quote tweet this one, Thad Motta, oldest, oldest 58-year-old going.

That's pretty nuts.

And get out, get out of here, Thad Motta.

So he, yeah, he was actually— he is getting 1967, first coaching job was in 1990. So he's a young coach.

So yeah, he doesn't— it feel like a guy who's been old? Like when he— when I saw that he retired, like, oh yeah, that makes sense, time to, time to hang him up. And then I saw he was 50, I was like, wait, that doesn't make sense. So congrats, Thad Motta.

Something tells me he'll be back.

We, we don't get a lot of Thads. So what's the other— is there a famous actor Thad?

No.

Thad Castle.

Yeah. Is that a fictional—

Thaddeus Young.

Thaddeus Young. We don't get a lot of Thads, so we got to, we got to enjoy the Thads.

Jazz musician Thad Jones.

Oh, nice.

He is the number one Thad that comes up.

Yeah. Okay, Zach.

My hot seat this week is going to be technology company Nvidia. You guys seen Nvidia in the news?

I'm familiar with their games.

Tell me this stock thing again. It's— is it NV?

So Nvidia did a— or, oh, I don't know the stock handle off top of my head, but it could be NVDA.

That— yeah, I've seen the stock handle because everyone's like, you got to buy this, you got to buy this.

That's a good stock to hold for— that's, that's great advice.

Nvidia is like financial advice, one of 4 companies that is doing really well right now. So they're one of the AI companies.

Yeah.

And so their chips are so good that we absolutely have to have them and other countries want to buy them. And now we're telling— we've been going back and forth with Nvidia for like the last, what, 3 years telling them, okay, yeah, you are going to be allowed to sell to China. No, you're not. Yeah, you will.

No, you won't.

And then China's like, yeah, we want them. No, we don't. And so they're just kind of like always in limbo, but the stock keeps doing really well.

So they announced a product, DLSS 5. So they're bringing, they're essentially bringing AI into like video games, animations, and like graphics. So like kind of boxing out guys, like people who like jobs that would've been done by humans are now more getting outsourced to AI. Not cool. You know, you just hate to see it. Little AI takeover for your head top this afternoon.

So their chips are AI friendly.

Yeah, they're like launching a product that will like do more of the— so essentially what it does is it's like it attributes to visual fidelity, which is like how closely a digital image or asset, like how realistic it looks. And instead of like entrusting that to people to do in advance, or like we'll just do— we'll just plug and play AI in it.

Got it. Okay.

I'm still skeptical about it.

I also still don't understand what you said.

AI just screwed— AI is just— if you ever look at the little thing with the little three stars at the top of the screen after you do like a search on anything. It's always wrong.

I think I'm 100% for any time AI comes up in any type of conversation within just an auto. Oh yeah, that's interesting.

Hmm.

Fair.

Got it.

Yeah, that's fair. Oh yeah. Oh, okay. They're doing that now. Don't know anything about it. Nothing. Not good. Not I don't know.

I can't tell you if it's sometimes not good. This could not be good.

No clue.

Why would this one be bad?

I just—

it's just like sometimes you get the A-slop out of here.

Yeah, I agree.

Okay. You're cool.

My cool term this week is Savannah Bananas. Did you guys see Savannah Bananas last series that recently just happened?

No, I did.

They are two of the party animals, but it was cool because it was at the Dome.

They too owed the party and the Shuckster was there.

Shuckster was there.

Shock was there.

Yeah, I sent that picture, remember?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So I've heard from somebody behind the scenes, the Shuckster hanging out with the Bananas. They were chatting up part of my take. They were talking about the show.

I thought you were doing just a dream sequence.

I thought I was doing like fantasy.

Yeah, I was down with it.

No, no, that actually happened.

Yeah, that's sick.

At the Superdome, it's like 140,000 seats for the Bananas.

I thought you were talking about the The other thing with bananas, dude, I can't wait to watch Shuck play football again. Look at that arm.

Oh, what a catcher. We got a week one. We're laddering Shuck.

Just have to.

I'm pretty sure I already have an MVP ticket.

Okay.

Look at that whip of an arm. I only heard— I heard about the Savannah bananas today because Jeff Dillow cornered me and showed me a a TikTok of a guy that does a Savannah Bananas podcast. So I guess what I'm saying is I think we're going to be one and done in Best Podcast Awards because next year that one is like—

break down the matchups and everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And listen, I could get into it. Listen, I'll probably leave that to the pros. That's a little bit too heavy for, you know, my intelligence level.

Yeah. Okay.

I did have one more quick one.

Oh, yeah.

NBA expansion teams.

Yes. Seattle and Vegas.

I think it's like 2028, 2029.

And then potentially moving Minnesota and Memphis into the East.

Hmm.

A little bit of a shuffle.

Yeah. So it would be even 16-16.

Okay. That would kind of make sense.

Yeah.

Now they're going to give one of these to LeBron, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

LeBron's going to own maybe Vegas, maybe both.

What if they just gave him both?

He could have both. Or maybe they give one to his son.

Yeah.

But yeah, I think LeBron's going to own the Vegas team. I just hope that they bring back the Sonics.

Did you see that story about a college recruiter was like, yeah, it was so hard to recruit Bronny. I had to call the PR agent to ask for time with the moms. Like, yeah, no duh, dude. It's, it's LeBron James. What do you think? You're not just rolling up to someone's like suburban house.

Can I talk to the father? It's like I haven't been able to talk to his dad yet, so don't really have a real beat on what the family is like.

I want, I want Seattle to get a team for our guy Spencer Hawes.

Yeah, get this, get the Sonics back there.

Yeah, let's get them, let's get them. Okay, let's get to our interview with Mark Titus. We're going to do some more bracket talk, real deep dive on brackets.

Before we get to Mark Titus, he's brought to you by Reese's. Reese's is teaming up with basketball titans to build their brackets, brackets that inevitably bust, but this year those busts can score you a Reese's. So pick along with the pros and just know whenever you bust, at least you can win a Reese's. Will your bracket survive or will it bust for a Reese's? Get your brackets in early and let's see who's the last one standing and the first to get a Reese's, because even busted brackets happen for a Reese's. So turn your busted bracket into your shot at Reese's and more. Post your busted bracket, tag @Reese's on Instagram, on X, on TikTok, and use hashtag #ForReeseSweeps for a chance to score free Reese's and a shot to enjoy those Reese's at the men's or women's Final Four and the championship game. So no purchase necessary, open to only legal residents of the 48 US and D.C., 18 years or older, void in Alaska, Hawaii, where prohibited by law. Starts 3/19/26, ends 3/27/26. Includes daily entry period. See official rules at everybracketbustedforareces.com/pages/officialrules for how to enter, the prize details, the odds, and the restrictions.

Sponsor: The Hershey's Company. So turn that bucket busted bracket into your shot at Reese's.

Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest, longtime friend of the program, made it in the reel for the PMT 10-year anniversary Instagram slideshow.

I had the— whoa, my mic's—

you're good.

Is that good?

Yeah, you're good.

Hold on.

You're fine.

I'm fine.

It's Mark Titus.

What's up, guys? I'm going to take the headphones off.

Well, Hank demands that we turn his microphone up, so that's the one that you're—

oh, is that why? Okay.

He needs a boost.

I was on like the first picture.

Yeah, the first picture.

That's crazy. Nobody knew it was me.

At the Indy 500.

But I was there. Yeah.

So, and it's nice because we always joke about it. Like in the past texting you this week when you would get hammered with people being like, can you come on my show? Can you come on my show? Was tough to schedule you. Now it's just, hey, let's, uh, walk down the hall and do it. You could— you can hear them on Mostly Sports, Mostly Hoops. Yak, it's Mark Titus.

Double intro, double intro. Um, I'm excited to be here. It's the best time of the year. I'm very excited about this. Uh, I, I will selfishly say that it, it doesn't hit me how much the NCAA tournament means to me until my team is out of the NCAA tournament and I have to watch it without Ohio State participating. Ohio State is back in for the first time in 4 years, and, uh, I was feeling real emotions on Selection Sunday. And we drew Duke. We have to get by TCU first. We have the first game. There are a lot of things I don't like about the draw, but, uh, we can get into that later. I just want to say it's the greatest event in the world, and you think your team's going to be in it every year.

Yeah.

When you go 3 years in a row without it, without being in it, it is agonizing. The Buckeyes are back. I'm so excited.

It's, it's the worst because I, I went through it a couple years ago, and I think Wisconsin missed like 2 out of 3 years, and it was just like, what the fuck is this?

We're—

yeah, even if you're not making a run, you just want to see your name on the bracket.

I've talked myself into us winning the national championship.

I love that.

But you just look at every matchup and you're like, well, I mean, if this goes this way, then why can't, you know, why can't we win that game? Could you win that game? We'll win the next one.

Could you do 2 national championships? Could you do Ohio State men's basketball and Ohio State women's ice hockey? Oh, because it is that time of year. It is that time where we have the, the Big Cat versus Titus Women's Ice Hockey Championship.

Now, PFT wasn't here for this because we've already had— it's gotten contentious.

For what?

The—

we have dueling Saturday.

It got contentious when we were— we do not have dueling dynasties.

There are two dynasties going on at this time.

Let me ask you a simple question. Is two championships a dynasty with a pending third? Answer the question.

So we, we've been actually— we've had this discussion on part of my take before. The, uh, the line is on a dynasty 3 in 5 years.

Correct.

So, or you could do 4 in 7. 4 in 7, I think, works too.

Okay.

So when—

or you could do 4 in 6.

4 in 6.

Oh, that's what the Badgers have right now. Yeah.

So when we win on Sunday, that will be 3 in 4 years.

Dynasty. Dynasty.

That'll be 3 in 4 years. Right now, the Wisconsin Badgers women's hockey team has a dynasty. We've won 4 out of 6.

You guys are trying to become dynasty breakers. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know.

Can you have, can you have two dynasties going at the exact same time though?

Well, that's what they're trying to do. And again, you would still have 4 in, in the, in the dynasty. If you're like, oh, Ohio State has a dynasty, you'd look at that like, you know, 6, 7 year stretch and Wisconsin would still have more championships in that stretch.

So it'd be dynasty cucked.

Yeah.

Now it could be a passing of the torch. That's from one dynasty to the next.

I think that's what's happening.

But to do that, you would have to repeat after getting your dynasty.

I think the Wisconsin programs like UCLA, they racked up a bunch of titles. We're the new kid on the block. We are. I mean, they beat us last year, but if you go back and watch controversy, that's just— and we beat them.

We talk.

We've already beat them this year. We're ranked number 1.

I—

yeah, we'll see what happens.

Yeah, that's a loser talk.

But the bracket's awesome. It's so cool to look at.

Yeah. All right. So let's talk about the Ohio— by the way, I can't keep doing this, but whatever. All right. We— you— yes, you— it would be great that you won 3 and 5. 5, and we'd still have 4 and 4 and 7. Okay, 4 and 7 is better than 3 and 5.

But if we have the most recent—

sure, that's what I'm saying. Like, if, if Titus would then go on to repeat and win next year, they'd have to win 2 in a row. If you win next year, then correct, it's like officially passed.

I'd be happy with that. I'd be fine with that if they won 2 in a row. All right, let's talk real quick, uh, before we break down the bracket. You mentioned Ohio State and I'm in a similar boat. How do we feel about being in the first time slot on Thursday? I absolutely hate it. You're the first game.

We're the very first game against TCU. I think we're better than TCU, but it is a little bit of a coin flip. And I hate it. I do hate it. I'm probably just too pessimistic with my sports teams that I just assume the worst at all times because I've had people try to be optimistic and say like, this is perfect. You want to be first. You want to win, you want to be the first team in the second round, um, which like, yeah, obviously if I could guarantee that we're going to win, that would be great. I don't like the nerves. I don't like that the entire world is going to be watching us, and like, if we start out not hitting shots, that could be damaging for the reputation of Ohio State basketball for a very long time. This is the only game on. This is the, the one game everybody's excited about. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't love it. I don't love it. But you know, having said that, you can't go down like 12-2. We go down 12-2, that will—

the other game hasn't—

if we go down 12-2, you'll be talking about that like 8 years come out where I'll be like, Ohio State will be a 1 seed, you'll be like, I don't know, man, I just— every time I think Ohio State basketball, I think that one year where you guys like, you guys start slow, you guys just can't hit shots.

I mean, even if—

yeah, people are going to forget what happens for the rest of the game, which could be a good thing too. Like, if Ohio State loses that first game, by the time the weekend's over, no one is going to remember what happened, right?

That first 8 minutes is huge. We have to— yeah, yeah, we have to play well in the first 8 minutes. Um, but yeah, I, I I think we should win. We're a better team. So I'm optimistic about that. And then I'm talking myself into us giving Duke a good game too. But I don't know. Can I just do like a broad topic thing real quick before we dive into matchups and stuff?

I have one broad topic for you after that.

I'm kind of like, I don't know how I'm feeling coming on to the show because I do enjoy talking about the bracket. I love being on the show, obviously. But last year I came and I made the argument that we're probably going to get chalked. That's exactly what happened. Now I'm back this year. It's boring as shit to be the guy that's like, this is going to be a chalky tournament. I hate that that's where we're at. I want to be— I want to drum up some excitement for the casual college basketball fan. And they— and casual college basketball fans love to latch on to the Cinderellas, never mind like the tiny schools that might go to the Sweet 16. It's also like the idea that like a 7 seed could win the national championship, I think gets people excited. I just, for the second year in a row, I don't see that at all. And it's frustrating because I'm the guy who's supposed to sell this sport. I'm the guy that's been given— I'm like a car dealer. You know, I'm working at a car dealership and the new model of cars we have are just kind of— boring is not the right word, but it's just, they're just like real reliable, not flashy.

And I'm just like, I don't know what else to say, but this thing's not going to break down and it's going to run well. That's about all I got for you guys. I don't really have a lot of flashy bells and whistles. And last year, that's exactly what it was. This year, I feel like we're headed for the same thing. So I don't know.

Can I sell you on— because I've struggled with this as well. It's— last year was the first time all the top 4 seeds advanced. And so if it happens again, it'll be the first time ever in the tournament that back-to-back years, all 4 seeds.

Yeah. No. Oh, the 4—

all top 4 seeds advanced at least the first round last year. Last year.

Yeah.

And that could happen again this year. They're all pretty heavy favorites.

We had one double-digit seed in the Sweet 16 last year, and it was the team coached by John Calipari. Yeah, that was— yeah, that was the situation.

Yeah. So, um, the, the sell I'd give to you is that as much as the first— and you never know because that's why we love the tournament, there could be an upset we're just not seeing— the second round, like, the, the, the— there's so many good teams this year in college basketball. The second round has some, like, insane matchups that could potentially happen, which is— that's what I'm trying to sell myself on. Yeah, like if the first round is a bust, guess what? The second round will be incredible.

Don't get me wrong, last year's tournament was awesome. It was just the, the not a ton of upsets, not a lot of Cinderellas. But yeah, the Final Four is an all-time Final Four. Every game in the Final Four was great. Um, I was very happy with how the tournament shook out last year. But anyway, I, I get the same— that, that's my like broad topic point is that I, I felt that I've similar feelings going into this tournament that I felt last year, which is that there is a little bit of a divide now. Dukas looks susceptible in the ACC tournament, uh, despite winning the ACC tournament. It wasn't exactly domination from them. Michigan, of course, loses to Purdue, uh, which like Purdue low-key dominated them.

So that was my big topic question, yeah, was do we, do we, do we fall victim again? And I, I'm guilty of this because we, we taped Sunday night show with John Rossity and I was like, I, you know, I love Purdue's draw. The teams that play really well in conference tournament week and we're like, oh, everything's fixed. Purdue Purdue was not good down the stretch. They lost 5 times at Mackey this year. They get into the Big Ten tournament, they beat a bad Northwestern team, they beat a flawed Nebraska team where that's a matchup nightmare for Nebraska.

It's been playing awful down the stretch.

Bad.

Yeah.

UCLA has Billadoe and Donovan Dent go out of the game, and then they played, to their credit, a perfect game against Michigan. They were incredible against Michigan. But it feels like we're like, oh yeah, Purdue's— because they were the number 1 team going into the season everyone's like, yeah, they're fixed, they're good, they're, they're great.

Yeah, I'm with you.

And like Arkansas, similar, where Arkansas is like, oh yeah, this team's incredible. Like, in Aikoff is incredible, but they're, you know, right, just because they won the SEC title, does that mean like, oh yeah, they're, they're just peaking at the right time, or they just happen to win their tournament?

I do love Purdue's draw, but I agree with what you're saying, that like they've had some, some very obvious problems throughout the entire season. I don't know if, if like a 4-day stretch erases all those problems, but But yeah, I think that Michigan losing makes things a little interesting. Arizona, you know, they did win the Big 12. I think the Big 12 is the best conference in the country and they won the Big 12 tournament, but they, you know, they didn't exactly dominate the Big 12 tournament. So it might feel like those 3 teams at the top are not— there isn't a massive gap, but all season there has been a massive gap. It's been those 3 and the rest. And I think people have wanted to throw Florida in there at different times. They've wanted to throw UConn in there. There is a divide. Now last year, I think the gap was bigger. I think the top, the top 4 teams in the country versus the rest of the country was a much, much wider gap than what we got this year. But it's a similar feeling. So that's my, that's my 30,000-foot view on this thing is that Arizona, Michigan, and Duke are, in my estimation, they've been head and shoulders better than everybody else all season.

So I, with that, I feel like it's gonna be kind of chalky because I also feel like even that next tier is, is way better than like the 4 and 5 seeds. And like once you start getting into the 4s and 5s and 6s, it falls apart a little bit for me. But, uh, yeah, I'm anticipating a lot of chalk and I hate that because what makes the tournament fun, I think, for a lot of people is, is the little guy going on a run.

Yeah, you mentioned Dent from UCLA. I think he's going to play in the tournament, right?

Yeah, I think so. Calf strain, as far as I know, should be back.

What about this? I know we're talking about about, you know, the high seeds and how they've kind of separated themselves. UCLA, before Mick Cronin— asked the reporter if he raised his voice at him, which he did— I believe they were 1-5 against top 25 teams. After that moment, 3-1 against top 25 teams. Did Mick Cronin fix everything?

I think he might have. I think if you, if you were just observing the UCLA season through Mick Cronin clips, you would have assumed they won 6 games this year, right? That, uh, there were various times where I only— not only did I think he was going to get fired, I thought he wanted to get fired. I thought he was actively— I, I felt like there was a moment in the season where someone told McCronin what his buyout is if he gets fired, and he was like, oh my God, I should, I should just try to get fired. Yeah, I should just like purposely lose. I should be a dickhead to everybody and just go get my buyout and go to a beach somewhere. Um, but yeah, they have a good team and they have, they have multiple guys who can, can score. Uh, Donovan Dent was like a disappointment all year, and then he's really turned it on lately. He's got the injury now. Obviously that sucks, but had a triple-double in the Big Ten tournament, which like—

It's so hard to do.

Triple-doubles in college basketball are like impossible.

Insane.

Which is really weird because NBA, they happen all the time. There will be like 5 triple-doubles tonight probably.

Yeah.

And in college, every time a guy gets a triple-double, there's a graphic. It's like, this is the first time in 23 years.

Right.

It was since like 2002, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Mc Cronin, by the way, he basically did a Frank Fleming on his own team where, like, Frank, if you look at his Twitter, you'd be like, the Mets have not won a game this year. And look at the standings, you're like, oh, they're 2 games up.

Yeah.

Mc Cronin, if you just looked at his press conference, like, this is the worst team in college basketball. No, they're pretty good. If they, if they can be healthy, they're a sneaky team. By the way, the— I think we should, you know, we obviously think about all the teams that the smaller schools, the 12, 13, 14 seed teams that have the upsets. It's not crazy, like, looking back, the, the best teams— and this is my favorite time of the year where everyone has a tweet being like, the national champion is going to come from these 4 teams analytically. Chris Felica, our friend, uh, had a tweet that shocked me. 17 of the last 18 national champions have either been named UConn or been a number 1 seed. I didn't realize that. So it's basically UConn wins with, you know, Kevin Olley, or I think they were a 4 seed with Dan Hurley the first year, or it's a 1 seed. The only one that, that didn't do it, or, or that was outside of this, was 2-seeded Villanova in 2016. So the best teams usually win, right? So when you fill out your bracket, you're like, I don't want to be chalk, you should probably be chalk.

You should be chalk. Chalk makes the most sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That one shocked me though. I was like, holy shit.

Because the thing is too, is like, even even if a number one seed goes down, like, I can already see the future here that, like, I'll just pick Florida because I think they're the weakest one. I'm not even predicting that they will, but say Florida loses in the second round, then everybody's gonna be like, you said this was gonna be chalk, you fucking idiot. Like, where— how's this chalk if a one seed goes down? If you just wait and you let the dust settle, I'm gonna go ahead and guess that the national champion will still be a one seed. Yeah, like, just because one of them loses We're still going to get a pretty chalky bracket. Yeah.

Also, by the way, Florida is kind of the reverse of Purdue, where Florida was the hottest team in the country going down the stretch. They lose in a pretty convincing fashion to Vanderbilt, and everyone's like, Florida stinks now.

Yeah. Florida— if you would have asked, uh, if you would ask people around this office who's going to win the national championship a week ago, right, it felt like 80% would have said—

now, now Florida stinks and Purdue's awesome.

Yeah.

It's like, maybe we should just cool it Decency bias. Yeah.

Yeah. What can you tell us about Purdue? Um, because I think they are America's most hateable team.

Yeah, right outside of Duke.

I don't know, they've almost become more Duke than Duke with this iteration of the team. When Braden Smith dove out of bounds like into the scorer's table and deflected the ball back in, I was like, this is Steve Wojciechowski, this is, this is 1996 Duke University right here.

But the thought has always been about Duke. Duke fans will say that you hate us because we're so successful, and Purdue has been very successful. They've obviously not a national championship.

So why put a man on the moon?

Why do we hate Purdue so much? I think it's when they haven't ripped off a run of national titles like Duke has.

I think it's the fact that they have 3 guys that stayed 4 years, and that's a rarity in college basketball. When you get to learn the guys and you're like, oh, Fletcher Lawyer's still there, and you get to learn— and I like Fletcher Lawyer, but you can, you could see how people would hate him because they're like, fuck, he's still there. Yeah, that, that gets the hate going.

Going.

Yeah, because it's so rare. You don't have time to hate one-and-dones.

It's true.

You really can't. Like, I hate Duke, and I've started— just started to really hate Shire and some of the things he's had to say this year. I don't hate Boozer. Like, I can't hate Boozer. Boozer's awesome, and he's gonna be— and he's not gonna be a problem in a year. Like, he's gonna be somewhere else.

Even if you do hate Boozer, even if there's a guy like Kyle Filipowski's playing for Duke and you're like, finally a guy I can hate, then he leaves and the next crop comes in, you're like, that guy's kind of cool, right? Like the next kid's kind of cool. I got it.

Like, I never got my hate up for Cooper Flagg. Yeah, I wanted to, but it just never came.

But if you would have stayed for 3 more years, I'm sure by the time he graduated, it was satisfying when he lost, but it didn't have that same— no, it sounds like, yeah, there was no like rosy-cheeked Duke kid crying.

So that's where Purdue comes in, where Purdue is that gap. Yeah, those guys, they, they, they, they—

it's a vital part of the college basketball ecosystem, right?

Yeah.

So I, I described Purdue on my show Mostly Hoops like a month ago as a suburban AAU, as an elite suburban AAU team that when they play in these suburbs, AAU tournaments, they dominate everybody. And then every so often, like once, once a year or something, there's a state tournament and they got to go into the city and play the city teams.

Yeah.

And when that happens, it's, it's just a nightmare for them. And that was kind of, that's kind of been the story of them for a while, really. But like this year in particular, like that's basically what Purdue was, is like Purdue plays good teams Purdue will play like— like Nebraska is a great example. I think Nebraska is a good team. Nebraska is not a national title contender. Nebraska is not a serious team that can, that can win a national title. When Purdue plays a team of that caliber, you walk away from that game thinking Purdue might be the greatest college basketball team I've ever seen.

Yeah.

But then every time Purdue stacks up against one of the actual elite teams, one of the teams that like has actual Final Four national title aspirations, uh, the things suddenly, just for whatever reason go horribly wrong for them, and the offense can't get going. They can't keep guys in front of them. The one exception is Sunday, they played against Michigan and they look good. And finally, the last game that they played of the season, they've looked good. So I, I have, I have to walk it back a little bit, but that's kind of been the, that's been the thing with Purdue is like, they're good. They're obviously, they're not a bad team, but like, they're the preseason number one team. They have the preseason number one player of the year in Braden Smith, um, and it's been I mean, even the most delusional Purdue fan will tell you that this year was a disappointment. And still, when the dust settles, you're Big Ten Tournament champions. You have a 2 seed and a winnable region. I mean, I think Arizona is the best team in the country, but I think Gonzaga is a good 3 seed as far as the draw is concerned.

I think BYU, if they can get through, like, I would like that. I like Purdue's draw a lot outside of like maybe having to play Missouri and St. Louis, but Purdue fans are going to have a ton of fans there anyway. So I think Purdue, it's been an up and down season. I don't think that they're elite. I don't think they're the number 1 team in the country.

We—

that they were coming into the season. But yeah, they're in a good spot to, to go. I have them in the Elite Eight at least. Yeah, which would be a good year for them.

Uh, okay, should we— let's go, let's go region by region. All right, picture thoughts. East, do we think it's a little ridiculous that, uh, all the graphics are like, look at the— look at how good these coaches are, and they're including John Shire?

Yeah, that's—

yeah, a little premature.

A little premature.

Yeah. You know, Izzo, Sell, Dan Hurley, and John Shire. Also, he's a very good coach, but it feels like some of those guys all have national titles.

Also, I feel like going into this tournament, Dan Hurley hates his team. Maybe that's not true, but I feel like Dan Hurley's like, I don't know about this team. I feel like Bill Self's saying the same thing. So like, yeah, the coaches are great, but it's not like every single one of these coaches has the elite teams that we're accustomed to seeing from them. But yeah, Shire's on the list.

Yeah.

And the one that's I agree with you on UConn has not been overly impressive. The one thing that if you're a UConn fan, which is probably nice to be able to like fall back on this, is Dan Hurley and the action they run on offense is so complex that it does feel like every time they get out of the Big East play, they can fuck teams up. And you're like, oh, that's— you're not playing the team that just knows exactly what you're going to run every single time, and it's a lot harder to game plan. So that would be what you're holding in your pocket if you're a UConn fan, being like, just get us out of Big East. We don't want to play St. John's anymore. Yeah, you know, they're in the same region, and we'll be able to fuck some of these teams up.

Yeah, that could be. I mean, I don't know, UConn, I've just been sort of waiting for them to flip the switch all season. It's just not happening. I mean, they were good in the non-conference, but UConn's the— UConn is probably the hardest team for me to peg in this tournament. Tournament. It's just, I, I really feel like if, if Dan Hurley wasn't coaching and if it wasn't UConn, it would be very, very easy to just think that they're going to lose in the second round. It would be very easy to think that. Um, and what's, what's confusing to me too is that like Dan Hurley does have this reputation as like once the tournament rolls around, he's, he's the best coach in the country and he's gonna, he's gonna obviously go on a deep run. He's made two Sweet Sixteens in his career. He's been to two Sweet Sixteens. They won the national championship both times, like, he's not, he's not a guy that is accustomed to getting to Final Fours over and over and over again. So I don't know, I can't make sense of them. I've been waiting for them to flip the switch.

They haven't really done it. The Marquette game is like— a lot of people are pointing to St. John's dominating them in the Big East Championship. My biggest concern is Marquette, because as much as you want to like act like the Big East, they just kind of get bored with the Big East and they're just waiting for the real games to start. That was a chance to win the Big East. That was it. That was like a trophy was on the line. They're cutting down nets if they win. I guess not. They were playing at Marquette. So they probably weren't. I doubt Marquette would have rolled out the ladders for them. But if they win that game, they're Big East champions and they lost. They looked horrible against a very bad Marquette team. So I don't know. I like the pieces are there. The roster looks okay on paper. Their names, you know, it's a coach, you know, it's a uniform, you know, but they just like they haven't really inspired confidence really at all except for there were a couple games that they played a good non-conference schedule. You know, they like— well, I think they won at Kansas.

They beat Florida, right?

They, they beat BYU. They almost beat Arizona. They beat Illinois. They beat Florida.

Yes.

So they had— yeah, I mean, they had a good non-conference. Marquette game, I guess the only thing I would say is they were— you're right, they should win. They should win the Big East there in that spot. But they were coming off like 3 pretty emotional wins, you know, the Villanova, the St. John's, and uh, Senior Day with, with Seton Hall. But still, they should win that. You're right. And I, I feel like that's this whole bracket other than Duke. Like, Kansas has been up and down. Yeah, Peterson has played, I think, 7 games in a row where he's, he's logged 28 minutes. So at least that feels a little figured out. St. John's, I think they're good, but I, I also have seen, like, they, they can— I, I— it's not like they have a guy who can just be the go-to guy, like, catch fire, right?

Yeah. Can they shoot? That's the question.

They're better than they were last year, but, uh, yeah, I mean, I don't know how you can watch the UConn game— not the, not the Big East Championship, but the one at UConn— and, and not have that thought bounce around in your head. Yeah, this could happen at any given time.

And Michigan State's kind of similar too, where Michigan State's been— yeah, like, they've looked good at times and they've looked really bad at times, and, and they're kind of up and down. So it's a lot brand names that I don't fully trust in this iteration of them.

If we're doing the, the picture of the coaches in this bracket, why, why are we putting Shire in there, not Johnny Dawkins? Yeah, Johnny Dawkins won a national championship at Duke.

Good point.

Yeah, we should put him on there.

That's a good point.

It's a really good point.

Uh, so it's a great point.

Any, uh, any upsets in the first round that you see? Um, South Florida.

I like South Florida. I like South Florida to beat Louisville. I think Louisville has been a big disappointment this year. I think, uh, injuries have it's a lot of injuries, but it's also a lot of just like they shoot threes and don't really have an interior presence and they don't really have much of an identity. Mykel Brown is awesome, but I don't think he's good enough to like single-handedly— I mean, I don't know, he kind of— he can be, but he's not— he's not good enough to go into a game and say, let's hope that he single-handedly wins this for us. And I like South Florida. I don't know, maybe it's the Bosco effect, but like he got me watching a lot of South Florida the last few days and they play hard. Hard, and I liked them a lot.

I kind of— I, I don't know if I'll pick this in my bracket, but I'll probably be betting it at 11.5. I do think Northern Iowa is going to be a motherfucker because it's gonna be a gross game. They do the— they, they pack line defense. They're gonna make St. John shoot, and they're also going to play in the low 60s possession-wise. And when that happens, it's like, all right, if you, if you're shooting 30%, you know, from the field, it's like, hey, how'd this happen? Why are we in this game? Why is it— why is 46-45 with 5 minutes left. Yeah, I was like, I don't know if they can win because St. John's still significantly better, but those type of teams that just slow it down to a snail's pace always have a shot in the tournament.

There's also the fear that Patino's just gonna bench his best player for the entire second half just to prove a point.

Yeah, is he having the best— is he, is he the happiest coach in America right now? He might be. Yeah, I feel like he's having the best best, because his career was over.

It's him and, uh, and Coach Cal have like kind of turned into happy-go-lucky guys in the last couple years.

It's crazy to watch.

He—

his career was over, and then, you know, the Grease team, and then going to Iona just to try to get back into it, and then having St. John's open up and having it be like— not only is it a New York team, but it's a New York team that was bad for a really long time. So he can be the, you know, the guy who saved them. He might be the happiest drinking beer and, and And, you know, it's like, I would imagine all these big St. John's wins have just incredible, you know, dinners after with all his friends at Italian restaurants.

Oh, him and Michael Rapoli going out.

Yeah, he might be the happiest coach in America.

That's a great point. He was done. He was— yeah, he was, uh, he actually said he retired over and over and over. He's like, I'll never coach again, that's it for me.

Now, yeah, he's winning the Big East, and he's like doing it in a way too where it's just— he was built for the Big East, that's where he started, all that stuff.

It had to be at St. John's.

It had to be. It had to be. Like, it wouldn't Like if Iowa opened up.

No, he can't go.

He's not going to go to Iowa. He's not going to go to—

you mentioned Rick Pitino coaching like Arizona State.

It was the only job that would have worked out.

He had to be going to the Big East and having to almost get in a physical altercation with Danny Hurley 3 times a year. That was the only way that this could all work out. OK, how about the South and Florida, who you said is the weakest one, which I would agree. That's not—

which is not— it's not— it's not a knock on Florida. It's just the other 3 are so good. Yeah, I, I mean, Houston is, Houston is, I have Houston winning the South. I'll just start right there. But Houston has been like a slight disappointment. But what's funny is like the narrative around them all season has been that the defense isn't quite as good as what we were expecting. They traded a little bit of offense for defense. They have Kingston Fleming is going to be a lottery pick, might be a top 5 pick leading the way. Yuzon, who's, who's back. He was on the team last year. If you watched him last year, you'll remember him. Emmanuel Sharp, the the guy who didn't shoot the ball at the end of the national championship. He's back, one of the best shooters in the country. Those 3 guys are dudes that can score 20-plus on any given night, all of them. Like, they could, they could get 20 out of all 3 of them on any given night. But in exchange for like having that dynamic on offense, they now like don't have— they miss Jawan Roberts where they don't have like a low post presence.

They don't really get— even though they have 3 great guards, they don't really get to the rim a ton. They shoot a lot of jump shots, a lot of floaters. Um, so the offense is good, but it's not like— it, it's not perfect. There are a lot of like holes still in it. And then with that, the defense— the story's been like, the defense isn't Houston defense. It's not like an anaconda that's just fucking slowly crushing you. But having said all that, like, at this point in the season, the defense is kind of becoming that. They're, they're kind of locking in on defense. And I think the 3 guards are so good that I, I'm talking myself into Houston actually they've spent like the entire season being like a step below, um, and kind of in that second tier. And Arizona's obviously went to their place, beat them, and then just beat them in the Big 12 Championship. And, uh, you know, the good news for them is they wouldn't have to play Arizona until the title game. So I like Houston a lot. I, I— Florida's a team that— I mean, we can talk about Florida, Dan.

You have a future, and, and you were probably higher on them at certain points than I've been, for sure.

And I still am high on them. I just, you know, they— it really comes down— Florida is a pretty simple one where it's like, how is Boogie Flanagan and Zavian Lee going play. Yeah, because their front court is, is probably the best in the country, and they have probably the best defender in the country in, uh, and, uh, it's just, will their guards— and they started to do better, they started to hit threes down the stretch. That Vandy game, I'm hoping that's just an aberration. I, I think Todd Golden's a really good coach, but yeah, it's, it's fair to say that Florida— they— we, we forget, you and I have talked about this, Titus, last year, just how close Florida was to losing so many times. They almost lost to UConn, they almost lost Texas Tech. They almost lost the national championship.

They were saved by Clayton, which is like— it makes for an all-time run. But then you think, you see Florida with a 1 seed and you're like, oh yeah, that team last year was so good. I'm gonna— I, I assume it's gonna be the same thing. They don't have Walter Clayton.

Walter Clayton saved their ass.

They have a very good team. They do not have a guy that's like just gonna pull magic out of his ass.

Yeah. Um, I also think Illinois has got a really good draw to the Sweet 16. I like Illinois.

I was in Sweet 16.

Yeah, I don't know how they match up against Houston, but I think Illinois is one of those teams that they also— like, this is what I love about the tournament too, is that you spend the last 2 months just beating the fuck out of each other in conference play, and Illinois is one of those teams that they— I think they're just tired of playing the same teams over and over, and getting out of conference is going to be great for them because they do play like a true 5-out and they can pass every— like, their offense is, is electric when it's humming. And I think it's going to cause a lot of problems for teams that haven't seen it, where they have been playing against teams that have seen it multiple times.

Bama is always going to— as long as Nate Oates is there, Bama will always be the team you point to as like the— if they can get hot, unstoppable team. Illinois has become right there with them. Yeah. Illinois is, you know, if you catch them on the wrong night and they're not hitting, then they look pedestrian. But if the offense is humming and Wogler is, is, you know, as good as he has been at times this year, Yeah, I like Illinois' draw a lot, especially Carolina's hurt. You know, Caleb Wilson's going to be out.

Yeah, they've been leaking. Yeah. And then Vandy was the other team in this, which I thought was— they were underseeded or over— underseeded.

Underseeded.

Yeah.

They should have been a 4.

Yeah.

That's a dangerous team.

Two guards that can score, man. I think that's my hesitation with Florida. I mean, you said it about Flandin and Lee, but I just— I keep going back to guard play every time I— like when I get excited about teams that can win the national championship, I think, how good are your guards? Yeah. I— they're not bad, they're fine. But like, I mean, you saw it with Walter Clayton. And even if you don't use Walter Clayton as an example, like, go back through— basically every national champion has like guys that are going to play in the NBA. And you could say like they have NBA big guys. That's not exactly true. Not every team has like NBA big guys. Yeah, like Villanova is a good example. Like, they used to just run— they used to just throw like as many guards as they have on the floor, just say you guys are gonna go figure it out. You have like Josh Hart.

Yeah, you know, one guy that's 6'9".

Yeah, yeah, but one guy's like Amari Spellman who plays in the NBA, but like, yeah, they're just like guard-oriented teams are the ones that excite me.

And, uh, big guy in foul trouble too.

Yeah, true.

If that's, if that's the strength of your team and you don't have a guy like Clayton, because there were so many times last year where it's like, is Florida in trouble? And then Clayton just, he gets like on fire and it's like, nope, not nearly on— they're not in trouble at all.

Get a rebound 5 feet from the hoop and then run, sprint back to the 3-point line and, and yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, cool.

Yeah, big guys aren't doing that, you know. Um, so that's, that's my hesitation with Florida. I have a healthy respect for the front court and the coaching and the program they have, but, uh, and I love Thomas Hauck. I think he's, he's a stud and he's, he's gonna be a first-round pick. But yeah, I'd— so I probably favor like whoever wins the Illinois-Houston matchup, I think, is a good place to look for who will win this thing. But no, Florida had a great year, um, and I'm not overreacting to just the Vandy loss. It's It's just like they've had turnover problems. The 3-point shooting has come along, but yeah, I do think that they are the weakest one. And it's— yeah, I say that pretty confidently.

What about Nebraska? Nebraska ball. Is this the year? Is Ross St. John going to put the card down for them?

Did you talk to him about that?

Yeah.

By the way?

Yeah.

He's going for what? He's doing 1 hour?

Yes.

1 hour.

I tried to nail him down on the rules. He's a little— he was a little dodgy on the rules. I was like, well, Well, if you put the card down, does that mean you can get whatever you want to drink?

Well, this is what I wanted to ask. I don't want to pocket watch or tell a man how to spend his money, but are there too many stipulations to this? Should it be like— how would you guys do this if you were declaring that you're going to pick up the tab?

I would—

one hour during a happy hour is what he said, right?

I would just say, I would say Twisted Teas.

I would say— so Nebraska, what time is Nebraska playing?

Play?

What do they play?

They play 11:40, uh, 11:40 in the morning on March 19th.

Okay, so on Friday or no, Thursday.

Thursday.

Oh, they wanted— oh yeah, they wanted their— so yeah, I would probably do— I'd probably just do like 2 hours right after the game.

Okay, like go to this bar right now, I've called the owner. Yeah, you get 2 hours. 2 hours.

That would be what I would do. Yeah, I wouldn't do like a in 4 months from now.

I feel like that's what he's gonna—

you gotta strike while the iron's hot.

I feel like he's gonna do a, uh, on a Tuesday from 3 to 4 PM.

John Rossing Day.

No, you have to have a little bit because, yeah, I, I did this once and it almost cost me a lot, was, uh, with Chase Daniel when we were watching. It was Georgia-Missouri and I said for some stupid reason during the game, football, I was like, if, if Missouri pulls off this upset, like, I'm gonna do an hour at the biggest bar at Mizzou. And Chase was like, well, match. And I started texting with Chase. I was like, how much? What do you think? He's He's like, dude, if, if they win this game, that's going to be like $10 grand. And I was like, what? They didn't end up winning the game. I think we, I think we bought a certain amount of drinks. But yeah, that's when you have to do it though. You can't just pick it, pick a time. You have to do it right after the win.

Yeah.

When everyone's celebrating and then that's the moment. It's like, hey, drinks on John right after we won. Yeah.

Everybody in town goes to that bar.

Correct.

At the moment I did that for JMU after a win, a football game. And I said, okay, everybody go to Finnegan's Cove, $500 worth of Twisted Tea. So put a cap on it, $500 on me. It was like during the first week after people went home after finals in the winter. And so there were like 4 locals there, 5 guys hammered, and they got fucked up. They sent me pictures inside the bar. It was like 4 people in their mid-40s, like smoking cigarettes, like, thanks, buddy, appreciate it. Appreciate you. But yeah, I—

that's the way to do it. Yeah, Ross should do this over the summer when all the students are gone. Yeah, on a Tuesday afternoon.

But you think they're going to beat Troy, right?

Um, sure. I— Nebraska— I, I— yes, I think so. I, I have them beating Troy, but I, I am worried. Nebraska is, uh, they peaked too soon. Um, the defense is good, the offense has fallen off a cliff. The, the scoring has become a serious problem for Nebraska. I do think they can beat Troy. I, I don't like them to advance too far in the tournament, but I don't think they need to. I think winning one game— even though they were ranked in the top 10 at one point.

Yeah, yeah, they were, they were undefeated. They started 16-0.

Any other program, you get ranked top 10 and then you get to a point where you're just like, man, if we can just win one game in the tournament, I'll be happy. Yeah, you would laugh at them. Nebraska, it's a different story. I think they'd be happy if they just win one game. They've never done it before. So, uh, yeah, they had the back-to-back games where they, they fucking dominated us.

They beat us by like 30 in Nebraska. Then they followed up with the win against Illinois. So that was like the, the moment in December.

Their first loss was at Michigan. They were down 2 of their top 3 scorers.

Yep.

And they— did they go to overtime or they had like a shot at regulation? I remember it was like—

yeah, yeah. So yeah, they— and I also would like to say, I, I like Nebraska in the fact that we as a society, we don't get this very often, but it's college basketball is the one time we do get it when you have a coach's son that's actually good.

Yeah.

And I love that. I love that Sam Hoiberg actually is a good player on Nebraska. And it's just something about it. Like you don't get into any other sport at this level, but it can work in college basketball. Like the, you know, Doug McDermott and all that shit.

He's the best example of a coach's son who's not the best player on his team, but I still love watching him play.

He might be the most important.

Yeah. Every other, you're right. Every other coach's son is either like Doug McDermott, who's an All-American or like a guy who should not be getting minutes.

Yeah, right. And he's like, the defense is important.

Like, he's very, very, very important for them. And he feels like he makes every open shot.

Yeah.

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Okay, Wes.

Wes, I had one more question about Houston. I was actually— I want you to interpret something for me, Mark, because there's something about Houston basketball. Big Cat knows. I just find myself— I gravitate towards Houston. I like watching them play. They do play like a, you know, crazy hard defense. But there's some teams that play awesome defense that are not fun to watch. Houston, for some reason, I find myself just compelled by them every single year. So what is it about Houston, even though they play this tenacious defense that can be, you know, boring sometimes, what is it that would make them more entertaining than the standard just great defense team?

I think it's their relentlessness. They get in your ass. Is it because they get in your ass, PFF?

They get in everyone's ass.

They get in everyone's ass.

Like simultaneously.

Yeah.

And it always, even when they're winning, it looks like they're going to cry from emotion. Yeah, like everyone on Houston is like ready to cry because they're trying so hard all the time to get in everyone's ass.

One of my free bets that I've given out to everybody and I haven't had— what's the spread in the Houston?

The first round game? 24.5.

Fuck.

It might actually be more right now.

One of the most confident bets that I give out every year is Houston to cover in the first round because to answer your question, they get off on just like completely shutting down other offenses. And when, when offenses—

23.5 DraftKings Sportsbook—

when they're going up against these small schools that are completely outmatched, like Houston just does— like, they'll be up, they'll be up 25 with 3 minutes left and they're still playing like the national championship's on the line. And that's how they've been historically. And the only reason I'm like kind of cautious with this year's team is because this— the, the edge has been turned down from like a 10 to like an 8.5.

You saw what they did against a little bit BYU that second half.

But yeah, it's still there though. Yeah, they still got that dog. But I think the difference between like this iteration of Houston and say like a Virginia when Tony Bennett was there is they played great defense, but at the pack line like doesn't, it doesn't have like an aggressive feel to it. So that's probably why you like watching Houston.

Yeah.

The, is that there, it's almost like fun to watch them just completely shut their ass. Yeah. Get in your ass. You want them to get in your ass.

It's like watching the old Ravens defenses.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those were fun to watch even though like you watch the Browns defense this year and it's like dominant, not fun.

And it's, it's not even defense. It's like if I close my eyes and I think about Houston basketball, I think the first image that would come in my head is, uh, like 4 consecutive offensive rebounds and then a big 3. Yeah, like where they're like a possession that takes a minute and a half. Yeah, and they just keep, they just keep taking shots, missing shots, getting rebounds, and then finally the other team is almost like so out of gas they're just, all right, now we're gonna hit it.

Yeah, a stereotypical Virginia defense, the old Tony Bennett one. Their defensive possessions were shot clock violations, right?

Yeah.

Houston's are like, they're just swarming all over the place. You finally like get a little bit of a lane to drive, you go drive, and then a dude just pinning it off the glass and starting a fast break the other way.

Yeah, it looks like they—

that's awesome to watch.

It looks like the way they practice, or I wouldn't be surprised if Kelvin Sampson kept score different Constantly every game where he's also giving out points on like his secret scoreboard for a deflected pass or an offensive rebound.

Yeah.

And after the game he's like, actually Sharp, you were the leading scorer tonight.

Yeah.

Not what, not what you're reading in the stat sheet.

Does he, he puts lids on the rims.

He does.

Yeah.

Yeah. He'll do that.

That's such an awesome move. Okay.

West, West.

I actually think the West might be the most fun region in terms of offensive firepower.

Yup.

Um, in this region, Arizona's the best one, you would say? I, I have the healthiest right now.

Healthiest. I, I think even if all the teams are healthy, I would still probably— I mean, I'll just spoiler— I picked Arizona to win the national championship. I think what excites me about Arizona is they can beat you in so many different ways. They're comfortable playing a lot of different ways. And the one thing that people might point to is the 3-point shooting, which is that they don't take a ton of 3-point threes, but they make the threes they take. They have shooters. They have, they have multiple shooters. It's not like, it's not like one guy does all the three-point shooting. Um, they have, they have guards that are— I mean, Burrys is, is going to be a first-round pick. I don't know where Jaden Bradley's mocked. I think he's going to play in the league. Uh, they have a great front court. I mean, there are a lot of great front courts. All, all four one-seeds have great front courts. So I don't know if I want to say they're the best in the country, but they have, uh, rim protectors. They have guys who can, you know, you could feed the low post can score, multiple guys who can, can score in the low post.

They have— they grab every single rebound. Even when they miss, it feels like they get the offensive rebounds. They're dominant in mid-range. Uh, yeah, I, I have loved this Arizona team all year. Um, they, they played in the best league in the country. They won the regular season outright. They won the, the Big 12 tournament. Uh, the— I can't say enough great things about Arizona. I mean, the one thing that would give you pause is the whole West Coast thing, that like West Coast teams in this thing haven't won since Arizona did it in '97, but I think that's kind of stupid. I think that's kind of stupid. I just think that's stupid.

What about Tommy Lloyd being a Mark Few disciple and he can't win the big one?

He can't, he can't get over the hump.

Yeah. So the whole tree is poisoned.

Could be.

Well, he's also stupid, but I like stupid narratives.

What if we get Tommy Lloyd versus Mark Few in the Elite Eight?

Wouldn't that be something?

First Final Four for Mark Few.

Yeah.

Someone's going to the first Final Four.

That'd be crazy. Yeah.

Tommy Lloyd Lloyd has, I guess, yeah, he does have a little bit of a monkey on his back, the Sweet 16.

Yeah, they've had good teams. This is his best team.

At what point does that become a real thing for you, would you say? How many more years can Tommy Lloyd go to the Sweet 16 and lose before you're like, though, this guy actually—

I think it might be this year.

This year's the year.

You need one, just, you need one like really definitive one, and this would be the definitive one because this is, you know, this is the year that they have the best team.

I think, I think this is the best team he's had there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, this would be the, this would be the narrative starting.

But you're right, we were talking to Fana the other week about Arizona and how weird that the offense can be. Like, what do they shoot, 38, 39% from 3? But they just, they refuse to do it.

They're one of the, I mean, I'll pull it up right now.

362 out of 365 in terms of 3-point attempts based on their total field goal attempts.

Yeah.

So that's third to last in terms of 3-point I mean, just them taking them, right?

I think it just— I think it speaks to how good they are at getting the ball to the rim. I mean, that's, that's what I—

they just don't have—

I, I would be worried if they, they shot a poor percentage, if they, you know, if they were like St. John's last year and 36%. Yeah, 36% is fine. It's good.

Yeah.

And like I said, or I would be worried too if it was like nobody shoots threes except the one spot-up shooter we have and he's the only guy that shoots. Like, they have Delorso and Karchenkov and, and, uh, Burrys, like all those dudes will shoot threes and, and they're all capable. So, um, yeah, I, I like Arizona a lot, but Sweet 16, you have to be licking your lips at the idea of a Sweet 16 versus Arizona. Wisconsin's the Arizona boogeyman.

Listen, I'm focused on High Point. I also, I, I love Acuff, but I've, I've started to talk myself into maybe betting on Hawaii +15. 15.5. And here would be my case. One is that, uh, we talked about Cal last year, you know, going to the Sweet 16 with— what was he, a 10 seed? Yeah, 10 seed. The last two times that Cal has been a top 4 seed, they've lost in the first round. They lost to Oakland in 2024 and St. Peter's in 2022. And everyone's going to talk about Hawaii's no-help defense, which is probably a bad idea against Acuff, but it actually might not because Akuf is so good at getting everyone to collapse and then finding his guys. If he has no guy— if they basically say, hey, Akuf, we're gonna, we're gonna just say you're gonna get 30, you're gonna get 35, but you're gonna have to take 20+ shots to do it— that might be a strategy that works because then guys don't, you know, guys don't get warm if you're not get— if you're not distributing the ball. I don't know. And like, I also would just say for Cal and great coach, Hall of Fame coach.

That Oakland game, remember that Oakland game where they were playing a crazy aggressive 1-3-1 zone? It kind of fucked them up. And Cal, not exactly an in-game adjustment guy.

Yeah.

If Hawaii's like, hey, we're gonna zone, or we will do the no-help defense, is Cal gonna make an adjustment, or is he gonna be like, hey, you're better than everyone, go do it?

Yeah, go be great.

Right.

That's just his timeouts, right? Every time is just go be great. Yeah, you might not be— you might be on to something.

Again, I don't think they're going to lose. I'm just thinking about taking Hawaii 15.5.

Acuff has been great all season. Yeah, but Arkansas is not. And I think what makes Arkansas good right now is, yes, Acuff has been incredible, but that again, that's what he's been that way all year. So that's not the new part. The new part is like Trevon Brazile, who is like playing like he— like if you, if you only watched him in the SEC tournament, you would assume that he's a top 5 pick.

Made every shot.

Yeah, makes every single shot, blocking shots, long arms, runs the floor. Um, it's guys like him and Richmond and like, uh, DJ Wagner, who was a pre— used to be— it was, it was a number one overall recruit and just, just kind of like a castaway on this team. That's how loaded they are with talent, which I know DJ Wagner like didn't pan out to be what we thought he would be, but, um, just the idea that you have a guy who is the number one overall recruit in a recruiting class and he's just kind of like a throw-in for this team is crazy. They're, they're absolutely loaded, and I think when they're at their best, it's when the guys around A- stuff are great. So you might be on to something.

But yeah, I don't think Hawaii's gonna win. I'm just trying to make a case because again, we started this whole thing by saying it looks like it's gonna be chalk. So the only way you can kind of attack this is like, all right, if you're gonna make a case for anyone, like, where, where is it? And I just think Hawaii is such a, such a well-coached team, and it's like, yeah, they could maybe hang in.

I was prepared to— I, I said it in the cave before the bracket came out, I— because I, I wanted someone to hold me accountable, and my team around me is just— is that like, frankly, they're just not those guys. Like they just didn't do it. Yes, I got a lot of yes-men around me.

Yeah, Brandon Walker.

I said in the cave, I was like, I, I'm picking Hawaii to win their first round matchup, whoever they play. Whoever they play. And the reason I'm saying this now is because I don't want to be talked out of it once I see the matchup. And then I saw the matchup and I immediately took Arkansas.

Yeah, please talk.

I immediately, I immediately took Arkansas. But if Hawaii was playing like Nebraska, I, I, Hawaii is the 13 I'm most excited about, unfortunately. Unfortunately, Arkansas is the 4 I'm most excited about. So yeah, yeah, tough, tough draw for Hawaii.

Who is— who's the best player in this side of the bracket? It's Aikof.

It's Aikof.

Yeah. Dabansa.

I don't know because he started—

Aikof is my favorite person to watch.

Yeah.

Dabansa is really good. I mean, he's going to be the number 1 pick for a reason and he's really good. It's not even just like potential. He is like that dude right now. Um, that's, that's a great call, PFT. Well, I think like, like, if you're asking me who would I draft, it's obviously DeBonsai. Like, yeah, he should obviously be the size, but, uh, Malik Renu. Shit, I mean, I might have to go Braden Smith. Yeah, yeah, I might have to go with the senior leader.

Smart.

Um, so, so can we talk about Wisconsin High Point real quick? Because I've, I've psyched myself in and out out. Uh, just tell me I'm not crazy. Like, I, I— there's years where I'm very nervous about Wisconsin, especially in the first round. We have one of the best backcourts, if not the best backcourt in the country. And like that, we— you talked about guards, like, we're gonna be okay. High Point wants to turn you over, we have Nick Boyd, we have, we have John Blackwell. Like, those guys have been there. I mean, Nick Boyd is like 25. Like, they've been there, done that. They've been in the big moments. Yeah, it's gonna be Okay, I agree with you.

I'm not just saying that to make you feel better. Okay, I think this is a bad matchup for High Point. Excuse me. Yeah, because they're, they're, they turn people over. But yeah, I trust your guys. Yeah, I trust Wisconsin.

The only thing I'm actually really scared about is that Wisconsin season so far, like, I, I think Greg Gard needs to tell the guys like, actually, High Point's like the number 2 team in the country, and then they will win. Yeah, because that's what we've just done is just beat all the best teams. And then had a USC loss and an Oregon loss where it's like, what just happened?

Yeah.

So we need to somehow make it be like, High Point is so good.

Yeah.

And they're actually—

they—

I mean, they have won, I think, like 26 in a row or something. So that's maybe the only thing, you know, being a giant slayer, it's a little different when you have to play a small guy.

Um, is Winter back? He's going to play.

Winter's going to play.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I'm hoping Jack Janicki comes back too, because he's actually a pretty big piece for defensive rotation.

Yeah, I think it'll be fine. I, I— for what you said about you guys in big games, I like you against Arkansas too, to be honest. I, I hope it is Wisconsin-Arkansas. It'd be an incredible game because I think like Boyd is at his best when— like, the more Aikuf scores— yeah, against you guys, that's actually— every time Aikuf scores on you, you should actually be happy. Yeah, because like that makes Nick Boyd more powerful.

Yeah, I mean, the, the, the, the like number one— oh, Boyd is one of those guys. Who is not to be fucked with, like if you say someone else is better, was the Iowa game when everyone's talking about Bennett Sturtz being so incredible. He almost put up a triple-double against Iowa. Nick Wood was like, I got— it's me.

He leads the country in this. He just turns to any Wisconsin fan he sees and he just says, stand up, please.

I actually, I, I asked him to stop doing that. He came in and he, he, he worked out before he got his career high on Friday. I was like, dude, like, I feel like we're gonna get him on too much.

He's like, nah, nah, just constantly.

He'll do it after like a Wisconsin team foul. Yeah, he'll try to pump up the crowd.

He's like the St. Joe's Hawk PFT.

That's what he is.

Flapping his arms.

It would just be so nice and nostalgic if we had Coach Cal losing to Wisconsin and then Arizona losing to Wisconsin. I mean, it'd make me feel like I'm running 30 years old again.

A dreamer. I'm just excited. I'm And I— you probably have this too, Tice, where it's like when I get in the tournament, it's a mix of excitement, but also, especially in this era of college basketball, it's this fear of like, is this the last time I'm going to get to watch a team that I've truly loved? Like, I've watched every Wisconsin game. I truly love watching this team.

This is the most fun team since 2015, right?

Yeah, probably.

Yeah. Because like, even—

I mean, Tanjei was awesome last year. AJ Storr until he was illegally tampered with somewhere in February and the team kind of fell apart.

Uh, but yeah, this is probably it because I think it's unexpected too, for at least from my perspective. Like, I didn't, I didn't see—

I thought they'd be good. I didn't think it'd be this good.

Yeah, yeah, I didn't, I didn't think you'd have two, and I don't think both these guards would play so well together and both of them play like an All-American level the entire season.

We got great— I mean, Rapp, like, that was insane what he did against Michigan.

What happened this year? Because like, I know you were down on team until the, the Michigan game was really what turned it around. Well, because we had crazy last couple minutes too.

We had some bad early losses where like we lost to Villanova in— I know it was technically a road game, but it was in Milwaukee. And then we got 30-pieced by Nebraska and we lost to TCU. So like it was just— and then we got smoked by Purdue in like early, early January. So there was a moment where I think it was like early January where Wisconsin was not a tournament team, and especially knowing the schedule we had coming, it's just that we stepped up in that schedule and started just ripping off wins against that Michigan, Illinois, Michigan State run. It was pretty crazy.

I do feel like we, we forget in basketball that, like, you know, college sports, it's possible for these guys to get a lot better over the course of the season.

Greg Gard said that so many times this year. He's like, teams are not complete in December, but as sports fans, we're idiots. And yeah, I think they are.

Yeah, I mean, with a good coach, your starting lineup can improve so much over the course of the year. Um, have they messed around with starting lineup or is it pretty much the same?

No, I mean, there's been— Nolan Winter's been out for a couple weeks and Janicki was out, but yeah, I mean, it's— we gotta— we got a good group of guys.

You're kind of in a nightmare, uh, in a good way, if that makes sense. Nightmare spot where you're looking at the bracket and convincing yourself you could just win this whole thing. I think being, being a team like you have with two guards like that, but you're a 5 seed, so you're like, I know this sounds crazy, but— and you just start talking yourself into everything. Like, like I'm doing with Ohio State, but I know that second round we play Duke, that's, that's a long shot.

Yeah.

But I feel like a 5 seed— but you start getting higher than that, it's almost like pressure is on. So if you're like a 1 or a 2 or a 3, you're like, we have— we kind of have to go this. A 5 seed, you're just like, holy shit, I never— you know what's crazy is a month ago I never thought we could win the national championship, but now that I'm holding the Bracket.

It's right there.

Oh my God. Right. We can look. There's a path. Yeah. There's a path right there.

Right.

Yeah.

What about this Chase Johnson guy?

Shout out Braden Carrington too, because he's also a part of like what Wisconsin's done, like coming on. He wasn't playing at the beginning of the year much and he's been lights out. So yeah. All these guys.

You're talking about Chase Johnson?

Chase Johnson, the guy from High Point. The guy, the next Skokie.

He's 0 for 4 on 2-point field goal attempts and he's like 85% from 3.

I can't wait to watch this game.

Yeah.

Yeah, the only— I mean, that would be a tough way to go out to like the next goalie because that way you wouldn't even be able to truly appreciate it. Yeah, you just be like, fuck this guy.

Well, I'd have to root for him to take— I'd have to root for him to beat Cal as the next goalie. Another goalie.

True.

Yeah, I just have to immediately pivot.

Not again.

Now I'm just this guy.

What do you think about Nova? But the Cats— Max was just saying earlier that he's, he's actually— he's buying stock in the Cats now.

Yeah, there's no way that's a Sweet 16 or bust. No way.

He said boom, he's booming the Cats.

Cats.

Are they—

I'm supposed to start.

So they're one of the most uninspiring teams. Your mic's off.

Yeah. All right.

Okay.

Max has no mic.

All right.

Well, Max, to his credit, he's back there by himself.

It's funny because Nova beat Wisconsin. Like I said, that was a low point in the Wisconsin season, but Nova, I don't think, has beaten a tournament team. No other wins in 2026.

No other wins.

Because yeah, Max and I would text every time Wisconsin would take down like a Michigan or an Illinois, and he'd be like, sick, thank you, because this is actually helping us.

Hello?

Yeah, you got me now?

Yeah.

All right, this is the worst— as far as talent goes, this is the worst Villanova team post-J.

Wright.

Like, going into this year, they were supposed to be— they were supposed to be 8th in the Big East. They were getting a ton of production from Bryce Lindsey early on, who who was a JMU sixth man last year who couldn't really, couldn't really hold up on what, what he was bringing to the table. We have a Caden Lewis who's a freshman, that's a 4-star freshman coming in, who's our best player. But like, we don't have the firepower. Like, our most important player is a transfer, transfer from Penn, Tyler Perkins, and Duke Brennan, a big from Grand Canyon last year. We don't have the guys that can like really compete compete with everyone. We have Kevin Willard who's done a really good job with a group of guys that like have over— overachieved all year long. And now when you lost Matt Hodge, who was the only one who had a little bit of size other than, than Duke Brennan, like we're, we're just, we're just kind of grasping at straws to like stay alive and actually compete against the big dogs. But we, we're well coached enough and we, and we compete well enough that like we win the games that we were supposed to win, but we just can't compete with the big dogs.

That's okay.

And that's okay. That's year one of a rebuild. So like I'm okay with this being year one of a rebuild.

You can't make free throws and that pisses me off. It pisses me off that Villanova's not a good team.

It's crazy.

But we made a ton of free throws under Kyle Neptune. So I'll take this trade off 20 times out of 20.

You're like the best free throw shooting team forever and now you're dreadful.

Horrible. Like very, very bad.

Bad.

But it, it hasn't cost them any wins yet. There hasn't been any games where it's like, oh, they were winning this game but we couldn't make free throws at the end and then we lost. Like, obviously if you go through like the course of a game, it's like, oh yeah, you lost by this many points, you missed this many free throws. But I'm talking like crunch time, it hasn't really— like, we haven't had that yet.

I wanted Villanova-Ohio State so badly. Oh yeah, I want you guys— I— that's That would have been an easy dub for us. In fact, I'm gonna count it. It was an easy dub. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Playing game, we would have beat Villanova.

What do you think about that, Max?

Yeah, I don't—

I, I can't say I've watched a ton of Ohio State this year. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know.

We beat you. I just played it out in my head and we won. We won by, uh, we won by 12.

I'm going into this, this week like I'm happy that my team is back in the tournament I have zero expectations.

Yeah.

Which is a fine spot to be.

Is there another team out there, like one that has higher expectations than Nova that would have free throw shooting as like a real problem? Because that the Duke game the other day, I was thinking that like this could come back to bite them right in the dickhole.

Yeah. I don't, I don't know. I haven't looked at the free. I'm trying to think of who that would be.

I got it.

I think Tennessee's dreadful from the line. Who else? Yeah, pull up, pull up. That's a great question. We need to monitor these things because free throws are a big deal in March.

Huge.

They become a huge deal.

Yeah.

Massive deal.

You got to know who the bad free throw shooting teams are.

Yeah. Air Force is really bad at free throws.

Okay.

Miami, Florida, 308th. All right. That's not good.

Very bad.

Missouri, 304th.

Oh, so that game.

North Carolina, 315th. So Miami, Missouri is going to be a slam dunk.

Slapfest.

Yeah, but icing out Iowa State, 338. Iowa State, 67%.

Iowa State can't shoot free throws?

That's what I'm reading right now.

But they're like great. What's— what do they shoot from the 3-point line?

Uh, I gotta find that as well. But yeah, though, that would be— those would be some teams you'd have to work. Gonzaga, not great. Yeah, because it really is like when you get to the end of the game and it's just, you know, it's a 5-point game and you got to, you got to make the front end of a one-on-one. That's where the madness comes in, dude.

Iowa State, I don't know how I didn't know this till right now. Iowa State is 340th in the country in free throw percentage. They're 12th in the country in 3-point percentage.

That's crazy.

They should back up.

Yeah, they should take jump shots.

They should shoot threes for free throws.

Couple others. Tennessee is 279. They're 69%. Villanova, 280, 69%. And so those are, those are some big dogs. And Gonzaga, like I said, so that's not even that bad compared to the—

you just named so many other teams before Villanova.

Yeah, no, Villanova is not— I mean, they're bottom 100.

Yeah, they just feel worse because they normally don't normally—

yeah, there's that one guy, what's his name, Northwestern takes jump shots from the foul line.

Martinelli.

Martinelli. Yeah, more teams should start doing that if you, if you stink.

Best free throws, by the way, because the reverse is obviously true, uh, St. Mary's, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Wisconsin. Those are— those— all four of those teams are in the top 10 in the country.

There you go.

Got to salt it away. All right, last one, Midwest.

Okay, Midwest.

I—

can I say that I— Michigan's really good, and again, we just talked about how you can't take the last thing you saw, but we also know, like, it wasn't just Michigan losing to Purdue. They let Wisconsin back in that game when they had us on the ropes.

Um, I—

there's some teams in this, in this bracket that are just flamethrowers.

Yeah.

And I do— I think Georgia or St. Louis is gonna beat Michigan? No. But Alabama or Texas Tech could, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, Texas Tech, uh, JT Toppin goes down, and I think the thought is like their season's over. And, and I do think they're I'm not making the argument they're better without him by any stretch of the imagination because they're just not. But their season is not over. They still have a ton of dudes that can score, and they still have Christian Andersen, uh, who I assume is gonna be fine. He pulled his groin in the, uh, on the slippery glass court.

Um, are we done with glass courts for forever now?

No, not—

Max, did you hit up the person?

I will.

I really want to get the glass court here.

Yeah, that would be so awesome.

It would be so—

the glass court was made for this place.

It was made for this place.

We could play video games from the second floor.

I watched Iowa State— or not, I was— it was Arizona State on the court. Um, there's this video that just was in my algorithm. Like, they were doing— they had a world map, they had a track, they were just running laps like an actual track. Like, there's so much shit we could do.

We could do Mario Party with ourselves out on the court, like, as the characters.

Think about that. Yeah, that's incredible.

We need the glass court.

We need— we have to find a way to get close.

But it is sad that we had one guy kind of get a little bit injured. And now it's like no more glass courts with LED screens for anybody.

Yeah.

Feel like this is— this— we have— we're at a crossroads as a society. If we just turn our back on this technology right now, we'll regret it.

But what's it going to take, PFT? What if someone dies? Is that what you're waiting for? I mean, someone dying on the glass court—

sacrifice is necessary for, for leaps forward in society.

Yes.

I'm sorry, someone dying could also be a benefit. Like, if we get the glass court and Lucas dies, I think most people would put it—

that's a win-win.

Yeah.

Like, people died in the NASA space program was a tragedy, and we all wish that didn't happen, but we learned from those mistakes and we went to the moon.

Yeah. Lucas is our Gus Grissom is what you're saying.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good point. Exactly.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. So Michigan. I know I'm. I'm wearing an Ohio State hat. I'm a Buckeye. So this is going to come across as me just on Michigan. I. I actually. I want to be as fair as I can. Michigan had a historic Big Ten season. They.

They.

They went 19 and one. Their one loss was Wisconsin at home when Wisconsin could not miss. Um, and outside of that, like, no team has ever won 19 games in the Big Ten. No team has gone undefeated on the road in the Big Ten since the '76 Hoosiers. There have been a ton of great teams through the— in the Big Ten through the years, and, and this team was special in that regard. But if you've watched Michigan throughout the year, yes, in November they had that stretch where I was like, this might be the greatest basketball team ever assembled, where they were just like— they beat Gonzaga by 40. The play— that Players Era run was, was historic shit. But they have had some, some— the dam is cracked at different times. Like Penn State had a shot to beat them, um, at Happy Valley. They had a shot at the buzzer to beat them. Uh, if you watch the Big Ten tournament, like, I'm at a point now with Michigan where the offense— like, all the metrics say the offense is fine and they're going to be okay. There's something clunky about the offense.

There's something about the offense where, like, the guards aren't dynamic. Elliott Kiddeau is capable, and he's a guy that, like, Like, I don't want to say he's not good because then Michigan fans will point to these certain games where he had like 20-something points and they're like, you said he couldn't score, here you go. But like, there's something about how he gets his points that there's not a— it's, it's got to be like within the context of like what he's capable of doing, which is to say he's not like a Nick Boyd or a John Blackwell, right? That he's not coming off of ball screens and sizing up his guy and taking him off the dribble and hitting step backs. It's got to be like wide open, his, his shoulders are square, or he can come off a screen and just get downhill and get to the bucket. It's just like there's, there's a really rigid feel to Michigan's offense right now, and they can get away with it because their size is so overwhelming. But that's what, like, I mean, a lot of people are talking about Michigan's defensive effort against Purdue. What stood out to me more than that was Michigan's offense was like, Purdue is not good defensively.

Yeah, they're just, they shouldn't be able to, they shouldn't be able to stop Michigan. And, and I just felt like Michigan, like, even when they would score, it, it just It was too much effort. It was like Yaxel like putting his head down and trying to like get to the rim and then he muscles it up. And then if he doesn't make it, Mara grabs the rebound and lays it in. And yes, you know, you can do that against lesser teams, but what happens when, you know, we get to a Final Four or whatever? So I still believe in Michigan. I have Michigan winning the Midwest, but there was a stretch there where I think outside voices were saying Michigan is a historically great team. I think Michigan themselves at one point, I think Yaxel said like in a press conference one time, he's like, I think we're one of the greatest teams of all time.

He's a little bit of a bragger.

I like it.

They've fallen off of that. And it's not just because they lost to Purdue. I think it's like my eye test is telling me that there are a little bit of warning signs there, but I think they are head and shoulders better than everybody in the Midwest, even though there are some exciting teams and there are, like you said, Dan, some flamethrower teams. I still think Michigan wins the Midwest.

Yeah.

What is the penalty for Aiden Hall? Hallway at Alabama. Sit out for 10 minutes.

What is— so I saw that story this morning. I saw what he was arrested for was the marijuana. But then the other thing I wanted to ask you about, do you know what, like the tax stamp failure to have a stamp?

Yeah.

He didn't put a stamp on his marijuana.

He did not register his illegal drugs with the state government and then pay taxes on them.

And he has been.

So it's a great charge. If you're a cop, This is the type of stuff you dream.

This is like Al Capone, tax evasion.

Yeah.

Just that's what got him.

If you really want to, like, nail somebody, you can always just put the extra stamp tax charge on him. But yeah, he did not have a stamp on his pound of weed, which is maybe worse than having the weed itself.

So he was released from jail. He has been charged with a Class C felony. That feels big.

I mean, so Nate Oates will suspend him the first, first 4 minutes, maybe half, maybe a full half, maybe half.

Can he play on Friday? That's all Bosco's just— he's on the phone right now.

There's, there's got to be a judge in Alabama somewhere that overlooked this for him.

Yeah, it's, it's crazy too that if this were like 20 other states, it would be nothing. You know what I mean?

If he was—

if he was playing in California.

Yeah.

What if—

yeah, a pound of weed. That's— I think you're actually allowed to have up to 10 pounds. Illinois, like any state that has legal weed. But Alabama feels like you can't do that. Yeah.

If this is Oregon, he would have a very successful business.

Yeah.

He'd be like, hey, like, where's your heroin entrepreneur?

Yeah.

He's not good enough for it to happen. But something like this happening with like Bama starting quarterback is how we become—

yeah, we figure it out.

Right. Right. It's like if there's enough like rainouts or rain delays in college football, I bet you the cops like climate change might be real.

Yeah. The cops even probably put it on a scale in his house. It was like, fuck, dude, over a pound.

We have to, we have to, we have to do this.

If you had just been half a pound, we would have been fine.

There probably is a judge somewhere that just like legalizes all this. Yeah.

And let's accept your charges. It's high time.

Yeah, it's high time.

Bama moves forward as a progressive.

I really thought about it before, but now as we're facing a big game against Michigan in the Sweet 16, I was thinking, what's the big deal with some weed?

Yeah, yeah, I think he's gonna play, probably.

I think so.

Yeah, Nate Oates will find a way.

Innocent till proven guilty.

Someone walked into Nate Oates' office and be like, listen, coach, we've dealt with worse.

Isn't that— I mean, your content brain is always on, Dan. Isn't, isn't Bama— so I think Holloway being suspended the first 2 games They make the Sweet 16 and it's now Bama versus Michigan. It's Bosco versus Dave and Nate O. It's like the day before the game announces that Holloway can play.

Yeah.

That like the best thing.

Oh yeah.

By far.

By far. Absolutely.

To give Dave that ammo.

Yeah. It's going to be, I mean, not that they need it, those two, but maybe even add in like a Michigan player gets caught for jaywalking and they actually sit him for a half. Dave could be like Michigan men do the right thing.

Thing.

Yeah, it's the— it's their 9th man.

Yeah, ignoring the whole like head coach trying to commit suicide with a butter knife in front of the girl he stalked. We just— Michigan fans are like, well, he was fired. He was fired at that point. He did all that after.

There's no longer a Michigan man.

Their head basketball coach, who was a member of the, the most famous basketball team they've ever had in the history of that program, punched another coach in Greg Gard's face. Wasn't even like the top 5 craziest thing that happened in that athletic department.

No, there's other— it's like there's other programs too, which is like— but I will say this is also coming from a place of jealousy, that if you win a national title in football, I'd trade it all for anything. Give me institutional cash, that's fine. To have the number one team in the country and also win a title, you know, 3 years ago. Okay, so what's your Final Four?

Uh, I, I, I, I—

oh, do you— oh, Duke and Virginia. Are you— you are— sorry, uh, Tennessee and Virginia. Tennessee, you can't quit. Virginia, you famously won a national title.

I won a national title for them in 2019.

Yeah, you did. They actually haven't won a tournament game since then.

Huh.

'21 Ohio. And Furman was—

Yeah. Isn't that crazy?

Wow.

Their last tournament game, their last tournament win, I believe, was when they won the national title. Wow.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

I can't— I don't know why I can't quit Tennessee. I just, I think that like there's the idea that Tennessee Tennessee can't get it done in March, which it's true if national championships or Final Fours are what you care about, but like they can, they can make Sweet Sixteens. They went to the Elite Eight last year, did they not? They lost to Houston, I think, in the Elite Eight. Um, this team isn't as good as last year, but Nate Amen is, is awesome. Jacoby Gillespie's awesome. Uh, they play great defense. They have a ton of guys that can block shots and grab rebounds. It still feels like a Tennessee team. They have struggled. I don't know what the problem is. Because I just like every time they lose a game, I find myself walking away saying, that's all right, they'll be fine. And I, at some point I have to just be like, all right, maybe they won't be fine. I just can't, I can't quit them. Having said all that, I do have them just going to the Sweet 16 and losing. But like though, if you talk to Big T, which is a bad example, bad representative for Tennessee, because they could be the number one team in the country and he'd think they're going to lose in the first round.

But, uh, you know, you would think that like Tennessee just has no hope and no players and nothing, nothing that good is ever going to happen. But I, I like them against Virginia. I think they match up well with Virginia's front court.

Um, the amount of times Big T has said to me, we're a terrible ball club.

Yeah, we're terrible. And I have to talk him into believing that Tennessee is okay. Uh, yeah, I think the SEC was really, really good this year. I, I just can't quit them. I think they have a lot of losses, but they played a lot of really good teams well.

So, all right, give us, give us the—

I have, I have a chalk Final Four. I have Duke, I have Arizona, I have Michigan, but then I Houston. So that's like the one wrinkle. I have Vanderbilt upsetting Florida in the Sweet 16. Okay, that would be— and it's not just because the SEC tournament, it's because when they played the first time in Nashville, Florida won. But I, I, I, I, between that game and the SEC tournament, I've seen enough to know that like Vanderbilt, one, is not scared of Florida. Two, it's like not fluky what happened in the SEC tournament. I think their guards are so good, I think they can turn over Florida. So if that game happened, I like the idea of Vanderbilt winning that. So that's the— I wanted a little bit of not chalk in my bracket. That's the best I could do, honestly, because I really think we're due for another chalky tournament. And if we don't get one this year, when I come back on this couch next year, I promise I'll mix it up a little bit more. But that's where I think college basketball is kind of slowly trending towards.

So what about—

we've had one of the playing games already, or I guess two of them, NC State, Texas. And then we also had Howard, UMBC, but we got SMU, Miami the day this show comes out.

Okay.

So what are the trends for those playing games? It's like every other year, one of the, one of the teams that wins this playing game goes to the Sweet 16 games, right? Yeah.

It was like UCLA going to the Final Four. Was it Notre Dame?

No, no.

And to go a couple—

you see UCLA in the Final Four. Was, was VCU?

Maybe.

Was that the—

No, I don't think that was—

Are they the OG playing?

Yeah. But yeah, it does feel like a playing team always takes a little bit of a run.

I think usually every year I think there's been a team that's won a playing game that wins one game.

Yeah.

And then I think it's like every other year there's a team that goes to the Sweet 16 from playing a game. So let's say you hypothetically—

Yeah.

FDU.

Yeah, they did. They won a game.

Hypothetically, we're looking at SMU. SMU. We're looking at Miami. A lot of people are looking at this game and just, it's going to be a complete referendum on teams like Miami, that level, that, that play a bad schedule like this could do harm to, to those types of teams in the future.

Yeah.

Where do you see this one going?

I mean, I think SMU is a better team. I do think Miami playing in Dayton helps. I don't love SMU, to be honest. And I, I've been kind of, I've positioned, I've been positioned in the college basketball landscape as a Miami hater leader just because I have the audacity to just say like they're, they're not one of the best, they're not one of the best teams in the country. But you know, whatever, I still think they should have been in. I'm fine with them being in.

Um, sounds like you don't like them.

But yeah, when they play it, sounds like you hate them. I expect SMU to win rather easily. But, uh, Miami is a team that like, you know, they've been counted out many times. They've, they've had a lot of close games. I do think that like, I think they fell into that trap a little bit where they just assume that they're always going to pull these games out. And against UMass I guess they kind of just made some stupid decisions down the stretch. And even like the shooter hit like a really tough shot to tie it late. And even that shot, I was like, man, the balls to take that shot. But I think they got to a point where they just like literally thought that like we're unbeatable and it's all going to work out for us. And maybe they're on to something. So maybe playing in front of the home crowd, I just like, if Miami wins against SMU, I think they get absolutely destroyed by Tennessee. I think Tennessee will just obliterate them. Um, but yeah, I give them a puncher's chance against SMU.

VCU, right, is the OG. That was, I think, the first year of it. They went to the Final Four. You had LaSalle in 2012-13 go from the First Four to the Sweet Sixteen. You had Tennessee in 2013-14 go from the First Four to the Sweet Sixteen. Syracuse in '17-'18. UCLA we talked about. So yeah, it's happened. There's, uh, 4, 5 times that a team has won a first 4 game and then gone to the Sweet 16.

So there's going to be, you know, I think win a game if you're looking for that candidate. I think it's NC State or in Texas just because like they both of those teams have lost a ton down the stretch. They have not looked good, but they have like the individual talent. Each of those teams have, uh, Will Wade, right? Yeah, Will Wade at NC State, um, Sean Miller at Texas. I, I think both of those guys, uh, you know, and I like the matchups. I like BYU is really good, but it has really good talent, but like BYU is, is not exactly a great team, and Gonzaga I think is a little overseeded. So if I was— if I— if you're telling me to pick one of the matchups to produce the team that goes to the Sweet 16, I would look at the NC State-Texas rather than SMU-Miami.

Okay, I got one last question. Rowback question. rhoback.com, promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, Roback.com promo code Take. Did you do the little sass, or you could say the maybe better known the Leo meme from what was that movie, the Hollywood movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? Did you do that meme when you saw the Ohio State president had to step back down for having a relationship with a Columbus podcaster?

Oh yeah.

Were you like, damn, that shit's on me?

Did I accidentally fuck the president?

Yeah. Was that me?

Me?

Me?

There but for the grace of God.

You were at one point a Columbus-based podcaster. I was.

That's exactly right.

So maybe actually you probably should be a little offended that he didn't try to fuck you.

A lot of people trying to pile on Ohio. Listen, we have a lot of problems and there's a bigger tie. There's a tie. There's an Ohio State tie to a much bigger scandal than that. That, you know, you talk about old Les. We might be talking about Les that I would have a problem.

Oh, Les West, the lingerie salesman.

Yeah.

Yeah, say what you want about that. I won't defend it. I, I would prefer—

that's great.

I do think, uh, the Ohio State leadership pretending like they're not sure how they would go about like taking Les Wexner's name down. Like, like, they're all these protests are like, we have to take his name off these buildings, and they're like, huh?

Yeah, how would we—

how would you even— like, how do you do that?

The school that takes the M off every single building for a week every year.

Now we can't just take his name down there. Logistics. We'd have to get a ladder out. We'd have to get like— probably— I don't know if we have the tools. I don't know if we have the time. That scandal aside, I mean, people are trying to pile on for the president thing. One, the guy fucks.

Yeah.

So like, there's that. Two, classy of Ohio State to just nip it in the bud. Like, the second we found out he's a bad guy, you got him out of there. So I thought— I actually— everyone, like, when this story came out, people were trying to throw it in my face, and I said said this is an example of weeding out the bad apples.

3.

Get them out of there.

3. Podcasters are kings in society now.

Podcasters are kings.

We're a podcast economy. That's our biggest export.

That's right.

Podcasting.

There was a moment when none of us had sex.

Yeah.

And now we're at—

It's actually good for the industry.

Yeah, we're winning Grammys.

Like, I could have— Yeah, theoretically, we could all be sleeping with any president of any college.

Yeah.

Yeah, I guess I looked at that like representation matters.

We had the new president's a woman, right?

Oh, oh, I think she like any podcasts. So, all right, Titus, you're the best. We'll, we'll be with Titus all weekend.

You guys, I did my picks. Who did you guys pick?

All right. I don't remember what I did last night, but I'm going to change it. Maybe change it.

I had, I had, I had Duke. I had Arizona over Duke, by the way, in the championship.

I had Michigan State. Houston. I think I took Arkansas and then did I take Michigan?

My second. All right. I had originally Duke, Arizona, Houston, and Virginia. I don't know what I was thinking there.

Yeah.

Michigan State, Arkansas, Houston, Michigan.

I'm going to change my pick.

Akron.

Yeah. Zach picked Akron. And then Yeah. And then didn't pick them in Bracketbusters when we had them. And he's like, no, I don't want to do that. My national champion. I'm going to— I'm going to change one. I'm going to go Iowa State instead of Virginia. Otherwise, I'll keep it Arizona, Houston, Iowa.

That's fair. Yeah.

I don't know why I was thinking Virginia. I think I was just trying— this is the problem with the brackets. Every year you fill out your bracket and you get to the point where you have all number ones. You're like, can't do this. And then you get— try to get all tricky with it. Where do you just really force it in? Maybe just go number one.

Where do you stand on the brackets more? How many do you do? You do?

I do one.

One.

I do one. I do one.

Every pool that you enter?

I think, uh, I would like to pretend it's like a moral thing. It's not. It's just laziness, I think. I think, I think when I was younger I did a lot, like when I had more time, or like, yeah, I don't know, I would sit down and just like rip through like 15 or something, but it kind of come up with a crazy— this is my crazy bracket.

But if you get asked to participate in like, uh, like a college friend pool or something like that, do you take your bracket and then you like have it in your hands in front of Or you just remember every game that you picked?

Um, I would probably remember every game I picked. I would remember everyone.

I printed it out. But yeah, I walk around with it.

Yeah.

But you pull it out of my pocket like, oh shit, I think I do have—

if your buddy was doing a pool and you could submit like up to 5 brackets, would you do— would you do 5 brackets?

I would still probably only do 5 of the same one.

I would do 5 of the same one.

I would do 5. I would maybe change like the national title winner. But I'd stay consistent because you don't want to root for 7 different things. So it's like I would maybe do the same Final Four but then switch the national title.

Yeah, I do like the idea of one, the crazy bracket. It's like, yeah, when, when the women are like, let's do a crazy picture now. Yeah, you know, you take your picture, let's do a silly one. I like that with the bracket. Let's do a silly bracket. Let's do a silly bracket.

Let's do crazy in the Final Four.

And then at the end of the first round, you're like, why the fuck did I do a silly bracket? Why did I waste my money on this?

I feel like as a person who's been online as long as you have, Mark, you remember the day when like half of all content in the month of March was various brackets. And I feel like we've gotten away from that. I don't see as many content-related brackets. When did we hit that peak? I want to say like 2016.

We ran out of brackets. Barakatology.

2017. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, what?

Kind of busy with the drones, but Andy, I'll do your bracket.

We need more brackets. We need— Yeah, to best condiments '64 team bracket and everybody vote.

That was such a simpler time.

It really was.

And people get mad like, I can't believe you put mayo over ketchup. Yeah, unfollowed.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks, Mark. See you guys.

Mark Titus is brought to you by Venmo, where you can get in the game with the college-branded Venmo debit card and earn up to 5% cash back. Back at some of your favorite brands with Venmo Stash Rewards. You can add your Venmo debit card to your mobile wallet as soon as you sign up. You can pay online and in-store right from your phone. And the best part, the card is tied right to your Venmo account. So if you got paid back from dinner, you can immediately access that money in your Venmo balance. You can spend it on whatever you want— game day snacks, tickets, merch, you name payment. You can easily split purchases in the app. There's no monthly fee, no minimum balance. What would you use your Venmo Stash on? Use on anything. Go to get some wings, get a couple rounds of beer, put your card down at the bar. Guess what? You're buying drinks for the University of Nebraska. Score more with the college-branded Venmo debit card. Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash. Sign up at venmo.com/collegecard. The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank in a select school available.

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Okay, let's wrap up. It's been a long show, but brackets are here. We're excited. Friday we're going to have Stanford Steve on the show to talk about Friday's games. So after the madness on Thursday, you'll be able to get your bets ready with Stanford Steve on Friday morning with us, and we'll recap everything Thursday. OK, let's do numbers.

23, 68.

I'm going to do 10 for UCF.

66.

I'm going to do 56.

I think I feel like today's the day. I don't know why.

I'll go 51.

Do you want to select two at the same time?

No, same time.

Oh, you mean to.

Oh.

Can do that.

I thought you said 2 numbers at one number, 2 balls.

Yes, 2, 2 balls can come out.

Let's do that.

The odds do change.

Let's do that. Oh, here the boys.

Is that change the—

go, go, go, go, go.

19.

Champion 18.

Jack 88.

69.

69 for Colton.

It changes it a little bit because you don't— we always put the number back in, right?

All right, 23, 56, 10.

All right, 2 numbers are coming out. This count's official.

This is, this is exciting. This is the first time we've ever done this.

Very, very—

although it would be a little Mickey Mouse if somebody won.

Well, not if they win with the first.

True, good point, good point.

Oh, 88. The other one got stuck. Oh, here comes the other one.

Here comes the other one.

21. Nothing. Nothing.

Oh, 88.

Oh, there you go. That's official. 88. First one on the board. Way to go, Jack.

All right, Jack.

Here we go. Great pull.

Jack, do you have anything to say?

Doesn't like it.

Just Patrick Kane, 2 goals last night.

That's it.

Just, just showtime.

Showtime. PFT, did you forget anyone?

I said Gaz's birthday. Did you forget anyone's birthdays? I wish Memes a happy birthday the other day.

Thank you. Okay. Just making sure. Did you—

if you forgot anyone, it was Jeff Lowe's birthday as well, I think yesterday or Sunday. Wish him a happy birthday. Okay. Whose birthday did I forget?

Monday.

Gaz? No.

The— 4-time, 5-time Blake of the Year?

Oh no. Blake Griffin's birthday?

Blake Griffin. Yeah.

Yeah.

God. 37.

You got to retire.

You got to retire, dude.

I love— I love how bad you are at this.

It's impossible.

It's impossible.

And I understand like some celebrities I don't give a fuck about. Blake Griffin is our guy. You have to get Blake Griffin.

It was last Monday?

No, yesterday.

I was just— that's what I get for thinking about Gaz. Done being nice to Gaz. Sorry, Gaz. You had a day. Hope it was a great one, by the way, guys. All right. Happy, happy belated to Blake of the Year, Blake Griffin. Happy also birthday to Brandon Ayuk. Great guy.

Where are you?

Great guy. He's, he's staying in great shape. And what, what, Max? Who else?

I'm just seeing all these other accounts post about Blake Griffin.

There's a lot of Blake Griffin.

There's a lot of Blake.

There's a lot of Blake Griffin.

Inside Buzz tweeted about it.

Happy birthday to Blake Griffin. Yeah, you know what, Blake, I'll send you something.

There you go. Nice.

How would you like a Hank Dog toy, Blake?

And a PFT gnome. You got it. We'll throw that in there. You got it.

Love you guys.