Best of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

Aaron Torres & Jason Martin (in for Jason Smith and Mike Harmon) open this 'Best Of' edition of the show with their immediate thoughts and reactions to Duke taking down UNC in the ACC tournament after the Tar Heels almost completed a massive comeback. That leads into a discussion on March Madness in general, as the guys peek ahead to who's in and who's out! College hoops bracketologist Rocco Miller joins the show to weigh in with his own thoughts and help the guys look ahead to the tournament. Plus, should Cooper Flagg's ankle injury affect his decision on whether to enter the NBA draft this year?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
your local station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Welcome in, everybody, Fox Sports Radio. This is the Jason
Smith Show. Jason Smith and Mike Harmon are out this
evening errors Jason Martin taking the up till two am
Eastern Time. We are broadcasting live from the tyreck dot
Com studios tyrack dot com. We'll help you get there
an unmatched election, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection,

(00:52):
and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack dot com the
way tire buying should be. Jason and will be back Monday.
We are filling in all evening long. Jason Martin, what's
going on, buddy? How are you doing well?

Speaker 4 (01:07):
Man? I know it's your time of year, my time too.

Speaker 5 (01:11):
It's been fun It's been a lot of good basketball today,
some crazy comeback that we just watched, and even the nightcap,
there's some good stuff here and sets up for what
really should be a fun weekend. And then on top
of that, well, I was going to say, there was
a pretty enticing NBA matchup, but Luca's not playing and
Lebron's not in it, so I guess we don't have
to pay attention to that one quite as much. But

(01:33):
at least the NFL was here with all sorts of
weird moves as well.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
All I know about the Lakers Nuggets game, it was
obviously circled.

Speaker 6 (01:40):
We knew you were coming in.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I walked into the beautiful Fox Sports Radio ty Rex
studios here, and when I came into studio, I saw
Bronnie James on the court, and that was when I
was like, yeah, I don't think this is one we're
gonna have to monitor all that closely. So, yeah, the
Lakers are actually up twenty nine to twenty four on

(02:03):
the Nuggets, and yeah, you know, if Bronni goes for fifty,
maybe we'll talk about it. Other than that, I don't
know that it's gonna be at the top of the
priority list. Obviously, Lebron is out for a few weeks
here with the strain groin. Luca is not playing. But
we got Walla wall basketball, j Mart. Let's see here
in the three TVs that I currently have on, we're

(02:23):
efforting a fourth TV right now. I got Alabama Kentucky
top top twenty matchup in the SEC SEC Tournament in Nashville.
I got you kon Creighton, two time defending champ against
a top twenty five team in Creighton at the Big
East Tournament. I got Arizona, Texas Tech at the Big
Twelve Tournament.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
You're gonna have Clemson in Louisville here in a minute.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Any second now, we'll get Clemson Louisville, less Bronni more Clemson.

Speaker 6 (02:48):
Please.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I never thought i'd say that about Clemson basketball, but
here we are. I'm gonna say something a little controversial
one like you said. Listen, it's a fun time a
year for everybody. You know, Dan Byron and I were
talking last night. It's just a fun time. Everybody fills
out a bracket. Everybody's got takes, everybody's got their style
of doing things.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
Everybody, you know, some.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
People pick the mascots and some people pick the I'd
rather vacation here or there, But you know, I'll say
this is that as great as next week is the
first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament four straight days.
I truly believe we are currently in the midst of,
in my opinion, the two best days on the sports calendar.

Speaker 6 (03:30):
Let me explain why first two days are good.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
And it's like picking between chocolate ice cream and vanillaiscam.

Speaker 6 (03:37):
You can't make a wrong decision.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
And whenever I say this, I never want to preface like, oh,
once I get that bracket, I'm out, don't care. Don't
love college No, I love college troops. Okay, but I
just bring it up because daylight today you get all
the best teams. So first of all, of course, opening
rounds of the NCAA Tournament, you're not gonna get Duke, Houston, Auburn, Florida,

(03:59):
Tennessee all in one day. But now you're talking about
Thursday Friday. Really you can include Wednesday and Saturday as well.
You get all the best teams. You get teams playing
really good teams. Whereas look next Thursday Friday, a Duke's
gonna get a one seat and a Duke's gonna get
a sixteen seed, an Alver's gonna get a sixteen seed,
and it's still fun, but it's not the same. You

(04:21):
get all these teams back to back days, teams that
know each other. I mean, I know that Duke is
without Cooper Flag, but Duke playing a team that they
just beat by twenty five on the road and it
comes down to the final play tonight. It's just a
really fun time of year. And I'm here to tell
you I think the Thursday Friday a championship week, for

(04:41):
my money, are the two best days on the sports calendar.

Speaker 6 (04:45):
J Martin, am I crazy for saying that?

Speaker 5 (04:47):
I mean, that's a bold, big statement. I understand your point,
and I like the fact that you talk about all
the big teams playing, but you're also having teams playing
that are familiar with one another because they've seen each other,
they understand the programs. There's rivalries, there's built in stuff,
the chaos of March. Even though you know you're gonna

(05:08):
have the one sixteen to two fifteen all that kind
of stuff, you're also gonna have like sort of weird
things that these teams haven't seen before. So sometimes it
can be kind of ragged. But here you've got tradition, rivalry,
fan bases that don't like each other, or fan bases
that have some kind of mutual respect, but you have
buildings that are full of similar kinds of people when
it comes to those universities and those schools, and just

(05:32):
the familiarity that breeds the contempt and.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Breeds the pride. I like it the only thing.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
I guess because I grew up where I grew up, Morn, Virginia,
but grew up in Winston Salem, and you know, went
to the ACC Tournament ninety five final with my dad,
probably one of my greatest sports memories, which was the
overtime wake Forest North Carolina game with Tim Duncan and
Randolph Childress against that great North Carolina team.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
I think it was just because that ACC.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
Tournament back when I was growing up in the late
eighties into the nineties was so special and so huge
that it just doesn't feel.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
That big to me anymore.

Speaker 5 (06:14):
Sure, and maybe that's why I don't have quite the
same feeling. But I got a little bit of it today,
Like today it felt a little bit more.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
My dad never took off work. My dad took off.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
Work for the AEC tournament every year, not to go necessarily,
but to sit home and watch, and so we would
watch the games together and things like that. I would
still have to go to school most of the time,
but you know that's all right. If he wanted to,
if he loved me a little bit more, you would
let me sit out. And no, I'm just kidding, absolutely not.
But it was always fun. But I think the when

(06:49):
you go sports calendar, that's just opening up a completely
different argument. But I know what you're saying, and I
understand what you're saying, and I do love the fact
that you have wall to wall basketball with you know,
good teams that know each other a little bit, and
there's a little bit of pride and a little bit extra.
I don't care as much about who wins these tournaments

(07:10):
as much as just kind of the the like drive
to compete that you see and some of these big
schools that aren't used to being on the bubble that
you know, have to find a way to do something
in these tournaments to get in. I think that's special too.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Well, we're gonna talk about one of those schools that
did have to here in just a minute, but let me.
You know, we're gonna bring in the crew a little
bit later in the show to kind of talk about
best days on the sports calendar. But I'm just curious
from your perspective. I mean, this is a fun show.
By the way, people can always tweet in Aaron Underscore
tours J Mart Radio at J Mart Radio as well.

(07:45):
What are your favorite days on the sports calendar? But
if you had to power rank them, J Mart outside
of this college basketball, because there's so many good ones,
you know, Sunday of the Masters, opening day of Major
League Baseball, what are some of those that are on
your sports calendar that you look forward to? And then also,
you know there's nothing really at stake for most of

(08:05):
these teams playing today, But where do you put today
and yesterday and tomorrow as these conference tournaments ramp up
as far as great days on the counter for you.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, I mean I'm not sure it would have been
a lot higher. Like I said back in the day,
Number one for me is going to be Master Sunday
as a huge golf and but just generally the drama
involved and what it means to win that tournament. I
would even put the US Open Sunday as well love
it as well. Divisional round of the NFL playoffs, not

(08:36):
the wildcard, but the divisional where you still have a
few more games, but you got the one seeds in
the buy is over. You've kind of maybe separated the
week from the chaff a little bit more. I feel
like that's that's one that I just get completely and
totally geeked up for. I'm much I'm much more keen
on the Sweet sixteen. Th I am the Thursday and

(08:57):
Friday even I love the Thursday and Friday. The NCAA
tournament go ahead.

Speaker 6 (09:00):
No, I'm curious, why do you say that.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
There's just again, some of the schools that just didn't
really you know, the sixteens and fifteens that weren't going
to be the upset teams are kind of out of it.
You've sifted through a little bit more, but you still
have a lot more basketball. Like I'd love the Elite eight,
I truly do, but Sweet sixteen, I'm still getting a
few more games in that week on that Thursday and Friday,

(09:25):
So I like that. I think that's part of it
is just when I can go channel to channel and
get all of that and I do think that's one
of the advantages of this, and I think that's why
this could be higher, and why you've made a good argument.
It's because I've literally just not had anywhere to go
today where there hasn't been basketball. Even when some of
the tournaments here that I'd been watching throughout the course

(09:47):
of the day had stepped aside.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
To set up for the evening, I was able to go.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
Watch Saint John's Marquette like and that was, you know,
solid for a while. So I think there's I do
think that it's it's high are up on the list,
maybe than I would have thought. Open A day of
baseball is fun. The only problem with I love I
love baseball. The only problem with that is again, one
hundred and sixty two games. It's just there's so much
that you have to watch at that point. I would

(10:13):
also say Christmas Day NBA would have been there. Sure,
I don't know that it still has the same effect,
but it's still it still probably deserves to be mentioned.
And then there's a few that I wish were there
the way that I used to feel about them, but
I haven't felt about them that way in a while,
And that would be something like the Wimbledon final, you know,

(10:35):
Sunday morning at Wimbledon, the semi finals of the US Open,
where you get a couple of matchups there to set
up a final. So I mean there's I think there's
a there's a number of different ones. It just depends
on where you come from as to where you land.
But the top of my list is I think always
going to be master Sunday. And then you know, you

(10:55):
know me, and you know my background, you know what
I did for a living for a while, So wrestle
Mania Saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
Are going to be up there too.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
It was WrestleMania in the NBA this year when Luca
got traded on WrestleMania Night or was that a different
royal rumble? Okay, I let's get those two confused. Yeah, fun,
I'll say this is it. You know, wherever, wherever, you know, wherever,
whatever ranks a top of your list. I do think
today is in the short conversation. The other thing too
about today, like all the leagues have all the best

(11:24):
teams playing where it's like even yesterday was awesome. And
I think I did say previously that the Thursday of
conference shaption week's my favorite day. But like the SEC
has had four really good teams didn't play yesterday the Big.

Speaker 6 (11:36):
Ten as well, and yeah, we uh we got wall.
How about this.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
We're in the Fox Sports Radio studios, the Geico or
excuse excuse me, the Tire Rack studios, and uh, I
don't even have the Big Ten Tournament on. I don't
even have uh, the Mountain West Tournament on because that
is how many games are going on right now. Atlabama
up six against Kentucky, now eight, Creighton up seven against

(12:02):
Yukon as they head towards halftime, Arizona trailing Texas Tech
by one. Clemson Louisville has just tipped off Clemson up
by five.

Speaker 6 (12:11):
Fox Sports Radio. This is the Jason Smith Show.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Jason and Mike are out Aeron Torres and Jason Martin
are filling until two a m. Eastern time. So what
we're gonna do. We're going to come back. When we do,
we got to talk about you know, we talked about
the greatness of today not so great the North Carolina
tar Heels crazy finish, crazy ending, but was it also

(12:36):
the ending to their season? We'll discuss that next. This
is the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Aeron Torres,
and Jason martin In.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 6 (12:55):
Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
Mark.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
One thing you can't say about Alex Tyshert. This guy's
got the memory of an elephant.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
Man he knows, Man, he knows.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
This is, by the way, The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon, Jason and microre out Erin Torris, Jason Martin
are in. But this is Jason Martin's favorite song. It
is and out of the first break, you didn't even
wait till.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
No, no, no, you said right off the top.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
I need to let j Martin know how much he
means to this show, in this network and to me personally.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
You know, iron My family's from outside the country, and
we treat y'all like family when you're a guest.

Speaker 6 (13:34):
So you guys are first, Okay, Well, your good guy,
Alex Tyshert.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
We appreciate you. We like having you. Mary Mack on
the weekends. Can't get hurt or doing no I'm kidding Mary, Mary.
We love Mary.

Speaker 6 (13:46):
We love Mary.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
So this is though the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmer.
Jason and Mike are out erin Torris. Jason Martin are
in taking you up till two am Eastern time, and
there is so much college hoops, such a fun night,
such a fun night, at least if you're literally anyone
other than a North Carolina fan. Okay, so you know, listen,
we won't do a ton of bracket breakdowns here, but

(14:10):
North Carolina is obviously a blue blood program and they
came into this afternoon, this evening in a very precarious situation. Okay,
so North Carolina, everybody knows the history, you know, it's
easy to forget now. They actually won the ACC regular
season title last year, made the Sweet sixteen, but not
a great year. They came into this evening twenty two

(14:32):
and twelve, and for people don't follow bracketology on a
day to day basis, they were basically right on that
cut line of one of the first few teams in,
one of the first few teams out last few teams
in however you want to describe it.

Speaker 6 (14:45):
Okay, don't have much.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Of a resume, played a lot of really tough teams
don't have any great wins to speak of. One great win.
They beat UCLA, that's it. But they played Alabama, they
played Auburn, they played Michigan State, they played Duke twice,
including this past Saturday, and they lost.

Speaker 6 (14:59):
So if you ask most bracketologists, they.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Would sit there and tell you that Carolina probably needed
a win to get in today. And it was I
don't want to quite say it was a win and
you're in losing, you're out. But you ask the people
that do this stuff on a day to day basis,
that's certainly the way that it seemed. Well, I bring
it up because Carolina for most of this game was

(15:24):
trailing by quite a wide margin, as much as twenty
four points of one Jay. But before we even get
to the ending, I'll be real, we mentioned how awesome
this day is, how many things are going on, and
I kind of this one got lost in the rotation.
Like you said, I was watching Saint John's Marquette. I
was watching Florida and the SEC Network, and all of
a sudden, it's time for me to come in studio.

(15:44):
It's about a six to seven point game. Well, I
bring it up because fellas do we have. I just
want to make sure I sneath thumbs up. Okay, perfect,
So I bring it up because Carolina cuts.

Speaker 6 (15:56):
The lead all the way down to one, seventy two
to seventy one. They go to the.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Free throw line for two free throws. They missed the
first free throw, then the second free throw with a
chance to tie it. We have both calls. If we
have the Duke call first, that would be great touch.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
This second one is on the way.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
It's a lane violation.

Speaker 7 (16:19):
He made it, but where they's stepped in the lane,
it's it's herdover hand. The Blue level lead stand seventy
two to seventy one with four point one to go,
where there's got an early start and the Blue Levels
still lead by one.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
So you heard it right there, Duke Radio Network again
one point game one free throw to tie the game
for Carolina trailing by one, a lane violation.

Speaker 6 (16:46):
That was the Duke side. We might as well play
the North Carolina side.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Moving to tie the game with four point one.

Speaker 6 (16:52):
The second free throw is.

Speaker 8 (16:55):
Good violation on whether it's we're moving early kidding me.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
There is a lane violation on Jalen Withers.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
He finked like he was going to go before the
shot was taken, and you're not allowed to make any
movements before.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
The SHOT's taken, so you can hear quite literally the
throw of victory the agony of defeat.

Speaker 5 (17:17):
There.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Duke obviously gets the ball back, they make two free throws,
they win, seventy four to seventy one. First of all,
J mart again, I was driving in when this all happened,
but I bring it up because I guess there was
maybe a little controversy online. It looks like a clearest
cut lane violation to me, you don't want that to
happen in that moment. But did you have like a

(17:40):
did you have a fundamental issue with the call itself
at all?

Speaker 4 (17:43):
Not necessarily.

Speaker 5 (17:44):
I mean, there was the Duke player next to him
moved his arm a little bit towards him, and I
thought maybe that kind of caused him to jump, But
that's just something you can't do. And it was so
clear and obvious, like they didn't even have to show
the replay as it happened live, even before the whistle blew.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
I said, oh no, and then immediately you heard.

Speaker 5 (18:03):
The whistle, so it was it was clear and obvious.
I don't know if he was made it into it
by the arm or not. But no, I really don't
have a problem with it. It's it's a you hate
that that call gets made in that moment, but it
had to be like there was no other there was
no other choice there.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
I don't think you could. I don't think you can
do anything but call that call.

Speaker 6 (18:21):
That yeah moment.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
It was funny you and producer Ian were texting me
while I was driving in and just when you hear
lane violation, I just defaulted to, you know, you guys said, hey,
lane violation, crazy situation. Check out the highlight when you
get in, and I defaulted to, well, this must be controversial.

Speaker 6 (18:39):
And then, you know, like anybody else would.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
In twenty twenty five, I pulled it up on my
phone and my thought was like, yeah, that well that
definitely sucks.

Speaker 6 (18:47):
But that was a laane violation clear as day.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Let me ask you this, j mart So, so I
you know, listen, there's a million bracketologies out there. I'm
just using ESPN's for the sake of simplicity.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
North Carolina Come into Today was one of the last
four teams in in other words, to playing games in
dating on Tuesday and Wednesday, they would be in there.
Not gonna ask you to be a bracketologist, whatever, but
are you somebody like you? Look at Carolina, they had
all they did to their credit. They schedule very tough.
They played at Kansas, they played the Maui Invitational where

(19:21):
they played the SEC and Big Ten champions in Michigan
State in Auburn, they lost to them twice. They lost
to each of them. They lost to Alabama, they lost
to Florida. They did beat UCLA. But they are sitting
here at twenty two and thirteen overall, basically one good win.
They lose three to Duke, including one without obviously a
first team All American in Cooper Flag, which we'll get

(19:41):
into in a minute. Are you somebody that believes like
they should get the benefit of the doubt because they're
in a power conference? Are you somebody that would rather
see a small school with a better record. Do you
have any strong opinions on like if this team specifically
should or should not be in Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:56):
Not really strong, but they certainly haven't distinguished themselves in
a way throughout the course of the season that would
make me weep for them or have any sympathy if
they don't get in. You know, you have every opportunity
and you have every advantage as well if you're North
Carolina and you just didn't get it done. And in this moment,
just the way that that played out there at the

(20:16):
end is like that's almost a microcosm for what North
Carolina has felt like over the last couple of seasons,
certainly this year. It just it just something's not quite there,
something's not quite right when you look at them. I
think I saw Lenardi say he still has them in,
but he would not want to be one of their
fans right now, and I agree with that. I think

(20:38):
they're going to be watching with bated breath what happens
over the course of the weekend and hope that, you know,
nothing happens that might elevate somebody above them, because this
you hate this to be the lasting impression on the committee.
Although look, you're down twenty something and you've fought back
like at that when they were down twenty one. I
just said, man, I can't believe how far North Carolina

(20:59):
feels like it's fall as a program right now. And
I was immediately starting to have a thought exercise of
what would they compare to in football, Like if I
was thinking to college football programs in North Carolina and
their tradition and how much basketball means to them there,
you know, to watch them kind of in this spot
where they're just kind of an afterthought. They just don't

(21:20):
it just doesn't matter right now to the rest of
the country. The way that it once did is kind
of stunning to me. But yeah, I don't know that.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
Like I said, I.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
Don't have a strong opinion as to whether or not
I want to see them in or out. I just
am not going to care if they don't make it
in because that's going to be on them.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Yeah, I'll just really quickly for people who care about
this stuff, I mean, I think the important thing is
that one, you know, you have to not only factor
in like what they did today and what they've done
all season, but the teams around them and what they've done.
And so just using the ESPN bracket, you know, the
last four and according to Lonardi, San Diego State, which

(21:58):
lost in the Mountain West Tournament already, Xavier, which lost
in the Big East Tournament admittedly to a good Marquette team,
and then Texas, which of course lost earlier in the
Day to Tennessee first four out Boise and Colorado State,
who will play each other, so one of them will
lose Indiana which has already lost to their conference tournament, Dayton,
which has already lost in their conference tournament.

Speaker 6 (22:17):
So North Carolina if the.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Fans are hoping to get into the tournament, and I'll
be real, like you kind of said, at a school
like that, I don't know if they even want to
be a part of the field of sixty eight. If
it's a situation where they basically have to eke in
and they haven't really bet in anybody of note, I
don't know what the tenor of the fan base is, like,
do we just want to get in or are we

(22:41):
just ready to start over and start next year.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
I don't know that.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
But what I would say is, if you actually look
at the teams around them, there's a lot of dead
weight and a lot of teams that have already lost,
and frankly, there's just not a lot of teams that
are still playing that could pass them.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
So that question, let me ask you this y time,
does it change anything that they performed the way that
they performed in a Cooper flagless game.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Well, I'll tell you what, why don't we come back
and discuss that. We'll discuss that what this means for Carolina,
their coaching staff, but also what it means for Duke.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
We'll do that in a moment, but first up to Sega.
What's Upboddy?

Speaker 9 (23:17):
Hello, gentlemen, it's not Saturday? Right, No, we're good.

Speaker 6 (23:21):
It's not Saturday.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
It's not Sunday because Arizona basketball is playing well as
we speak.

Speaker 6 (23:25):
So no Harney Spanners nowhere to.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
Go one either.

Speaker 9 (23:27):
Once again, that's Arizona basketball there, Thank you, thank you
very much.

Speaker 10 (23:31):
Let's update the college hoops on Fox TV tonight. The
Big East Tournament semifinals one seed Saint John's beat Marquette
seventy nine sixty three, about to start the second half
in a late game, creating ahead of Yukon forty six
to thirty five. Yes, Number one Duke over North Carolina
and the ACC Tournament semis seventy four seventy one. Duke

(23:52):
had led early second half fifty two to twenty eight
with four seconds left. Carolina was close, had the tie
free throw waved off due to a lane violation. Clemson
Loisville's a late game. Clemson up late first half twenty
three to twenty one. And in the Big Twelve tournament semifinals,
one seed Houston all over BYU seventy four to fifty four,

(24:14):
Arizona leeds late first half thirty five thirty four over
Texas Tech.

Speaker 9 (24:18):
In the Big Ten, it's a quarter final night.

Speaker 10 (24:21):
The late game has Michigan ahead early second half against
Purdue fifty four to forty five, already wins for one seed.

Speaker 9 (24:27):
Michigan's date two seed.

Speaker 10 (24:28):
Maryland and Wisconsin absolutely threed Ucla to dead.

Speaker 6 (24:33):
It was like, oh, Ucla, they're good.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
And that was another one that was about twenty at
the half, and Ucla did not make the Carolina runs.

Speaker 10 (24:41):
So it was an eighty six to seventy final and
it wasn't that close. It was one three pointer after another.
They finished by making nineteen three pointers. Most of those
were in the first half for the Badgers.

Speaker 9 (24:51):
And in fact, our friends at stat saying point this out.

Speaker 10 (24:54):
In the last twenty five years of college basketball, how
many times have three teammates come fine to take at
least a dozen three pointers? Again, Well, the answer is
over a million times in these twenty five years. This
was the only time that those three teammates made every
three pointer.

Speaker 8 (25:10):
Wow.

Speaker 10 (25:11):
Those three were a combined twelve for twelve, including John
Tangi and it was gol Wisconsin. It was an astounding
display in the first half. UCLA, I repeat was buried.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
Had no chance in the athletic departments be so pissed
that they played Tate for flights and hotels just just
for that effort.

Speaker 6 (25:30):
I thought you could have just forfeited and just said, yeah,
we're not gonna show up defense.

Speaker 9 (25:33):
Nick Cronin's team stone for d oh, yeah, okay, maybe
not today.

Speaker 10 (25:37):
SEC Quarterfinals number one over and over Ole, miss sixty
two fifty seven. Should i brew twenty three points fifteen
rebounds to seed Florida winner tonight against Missouri ninety five
eighty one. Alabama leeds Kentucky with about five minutes to
go first half thirty three point thirty. Fourth seed Tennessee
over Texas eighty three seventy two Today and the one

(25:59):
seed in the America Conference, Memphis won its quarterfinal eighty
three eighty over Wichita. Iowa fired coach Fran McCaffrey after
fifteen years. A reminder selection Sunday to fill out the
NCAA tournament field is this Sunday for the men and
the women's bracket comes out Sunday night. As far as
the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers entered tonight having won fifteen

(26:20):
straight games. They won again tonight, winning at Memphis. Despite
forty four points from John Morant, Cavs won thirty three
one twenty four the final. Houston won its fifth in
a row victories for Indiana and Charlotte and Boston is
now forty eight and nineteen.

Speaker 9 (26:36):
After winning at Miami one oh three to ninety one.
The Heat have.

Speaker 10 (26:40):
Lost six in a row. The Lakers are actually close
at Denver late first half now gets sixty one fifty
six the Kolejokich fifteen points.

Speaker 8 (26:48):
So far.

Speaker 10 (26:49):
The Lakers are missing four injured starters, including Luka, Doncic
and Lebron James, who is not watching Bronnie play. He
is injured and apparently as permission to leave town and
go see his other son in Sacramento at the State
High School.

Speaker 9 (27:05):
Find oh back to you.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
You know this has been a theme on our Saturday show.
I'll just say this, I want to get back to
do Carolina. This just feels like a Lebron James Nostalgia
Tour season. Now his team just so happened to trade
for one of the five best players on the planet.
Coincidental there, but the Bronny thing. You know, remember Bronni
wasn't with the team and then he flew out specifically

(27:29):
to Cleveland to play in Cleveland.

Speaker 6 (27:32):
Now in the middle of the season. I mean, listen,
I understand you have kids.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
I'm not trying to be all lebron has no right
to be a great bother which by all accounts it.

Speaker 6 (27:40):
Is supposed to be rehabit. He's kind of not with
the team, he's kind of flying to see his.

Speaker 10 (27:44):
On I don't know, it's just a little and Bronni
is active tonight and has one basket because without him
they would have nine healthy players on the roster team.
By the way, one NFL note Seattle is citing wide
receiver Cooper cumpact.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
We will get to NFL Hour two to sag You're
gonna need your help on a segment. I got a
very special segment cooked up for the top of the hour.
I'll just I'll give you some details in just a moment.
This is though the Jason Spins Show with Mike Harmon
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon are out. Aaron Torres and
Jason Martin are in. We are broadcasting live from the
Tireck dot Com studios. By the way, don't have the
right team on your court. Express Employment Professionals can help

(28:22):
from contract placements to full time hires.

Speaker 6 (28:24):
We've got you covered.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Visit expresspros dot Com today and let us handle your
hiring so you can focus on growing your business. All right, So,
jmart I think you wanted to switch gear. So we
were talking about Duke Carolina for people who missed it.
Duke number one team of the country coming into the week.
Cooper Flag gets hurt in the quarterfinal on Thursday. He
did not play carolinup essentially needed again. It feels unfair

(28:48):
to say winning you're in losing your out, but when
it certainly helps your resume lose you actually don't have
much of a resume and you're basically hoping that your
resume sucks just a little bit less and everybody else
on the bubble. So there's a few different angles to
go to, JMR, But which one specifically did you want
to hit on?

Speaker 4 (29:05):
I apologize, I just wanted.

Speaker 5 (29:06):
To know how it affected, you know, Carolina still loses
even though Cooper Flag doesn't play. Does that affect you
if you're making a decision in that room that I mean,
I think it changes something the effort that they came
back and didn't just get beat by twenty some points.
Even with the ridiculous way that the game ends for
them self inflicted wounds and all that, I still think

(29:30):
that that's a that's a positive in their book, that
they didn't just go away like they fought back in
that game with a lot of pride and showed something
down the stretch. But truth of the matter, I mean,
what was it seventy five percent? I think I saw
the tickets started coming in on Carolina in terms of
the spread the minute that Cooper Flag was ruled out
of that game something like that. So I just I

(29:52):
just wonder how that affects like losing to Duke by one,
losing to Duke by three, whatever it is, that's not
that's never going to be a bad loss generally. But
this was not a full This was not the Duke
team that was expected to come into the a SEC
tournament either.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah, listen, again, we're not bracketologists, and you know, maybe
we should have tried harder, and that's on me, not
on anybody else to get one on today's show. But
the only reason I bring it up is because I
did hear Lenardi say something interesting. And to be clear,
there's a lot of great bracketologists not trying to sit
there and say that, you know, he's the only one
we should listen to. We have good ones at Fox

(30:28):
Sports Radio as well, you know Mike de course, he
does a great job for Fox Sports.

Speaker 6 (30:33):
But I bring it up because all I know is
I heard Leonardi say this during halftime. I thought it was.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
Interesting, is everybody is focusing on or coming into the day,
everybody was focusing on what does a win over Duke
without Cooper flag mean, Like should it be held in
the same regard as beating Duke because they're obviously without
potentially the National Player of the year, certainly a first
team All American. And I heard Leonardi say this, and
I thought it was interesting. He said that he felt

(31:00):
it was actually the opposite is that if you don't
win that it would be looked upon somewhat poorly, because again,
Duke is nowhere close to one hundred percent. And so
for me with Carolina, you know, My only real thought
is one, it certainly doesn't help without Cooper flag, it
certainly doesn't help. And then two, it's just you just

(31:21):
look at the resume. There's not much there and it's
not anybody's fault, but it's just a reality. The ACC
also stinks, and that doesn't help either, as far as
you just didn't have very many good chances in the
conference to get quality wins, and so you don't get
quality wins in the out of conference. You don't get
quality wins in conference, and then you have the chance
to be duke and you can't capitalize. So you know, again,

(31:44):
there's still games that are going to decide certain things.
I mentioned Colorado State and Boise State are both deemed
to be bubble teams and they are playing later this
evening at the Mountain West Tournament. There's a couple other
results that are yet to be in. And then if
you're a Carolina fan, I guess the positive is most
of the other teams on the bubble have already lost.

(32:05):
All those teams in the SEC Texas Laws today, Oklahoma
the other day, vander Built, Arkansas, et cetera. But I
will say I do think it's you know, I think
it would have been seen more as a pot. I
think it's a bigger negative that they couldn't win than
it would have been a positive even if they had one.
If that makes any sense at all.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Yeah, it does, It definitely does. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
It was almost like, you can't lose here, but even
if you win, you're going to kind of lose in
a way because they're going to be able to They're
gonna be able to put kind of the asterisk next
to and say, well, you beat Duke, but did you
really beat Duke? But the fact that you actually lose
the game that was where it was just is that
going to end up costing them in the end. But
to your point earlier, a lot of the other teams

(32:50):
that are sitting on the bubble as well did nothing
to help their cause. And then Carolina with that comeback,
maybe they're in a little bit better shape and there
they are going to find a way to eat weekend.
But it's just going to feel odd if we're watching
North Carolina playing you know, Tuesday, yeah, or something like that,
that's just not going to feel right at all.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
I'll equally say this, it'll be interesting to think about
what would happen if one, if they don't make the tournament.

Speaker 6 (33:16):
Two would they a few years ago?

Speaker 3 (33:18):
If you remember they did not make the tournament, they
don't accept the NIT invite.

Speaker 6 (33:22):
Now what do they do?

Speaker 3 (33:24):
This is year four for Hubert Davis, So why don't
we come back talk a little bit about the Hubert
Davis side of things and also duke any concerns without
Cooper Flag, we'll discuss that. Next to is The Jason
Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Jason and Micro out air
tours are in Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
Tell you what want to go straight to the phone
lines is college hoops season brackets are going to be out,
as Steve de Sager just told you coming on Sunday,
and we got to get you caught up on everything
that you need to know going into the weekend. Friday
games are almost so to do. So we're gonna go
to the hotline. Roco Miller, bracketologist for the Field of
sixty eight, joins us.

Speaker 6 (34:07):
Rocco. First of all, are you at a game right now?
Are you at a game right now.

Speaker 8 (34:12):
Always a great question. You know, I get out there
all season long and go to see a lot of
these leagues play. I have a vast interest in all
thirty one leagues, So great question. I did get back
late yesterday from Vegas. We'll slow start this morning, but
got caught up quickly and we got a lot of
important games still going on here late on Friday night.

(34:33):
So I'm going to be locked in here in the
home office until the bracket comes out. We'll be doing
the show reacting to all the picks live me and
Jeff Goodman on Sunday, so you know this season, the
next two days will fly by. I can't be distracted
in the arena anymore, unfortunately.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
All right, fantastic, So I'll just let's put aside. How
Carolina and Duken, Jason and I have talked about it
for the last half hour. Was it like, give us
the context? Was this winning you're in losing your out
for Carolina? Is it more complicated than that? How do
you view what happened in Charlotte with North Carolina today?

Speaker 8 (35:10):
Yeah, that's an interesting question because we have to be
mindful of the fact that in the selection committee room,
these are humans that ultimately vote on teams, and they
might be coming from very different places. We know who
the chairman of the committee is this year is the
black director, Bubba Cunningham at North Carolina. So with just

(35:31):
all of those dynamics, and again like Cunningham can't be
in the room when they talk about North Carolina, we
get all that. But these guys have been together since Tuesday.
I was with Stu Jackson late Monday night in Vegas.
He's on the committee and he had to be there
Tuesday morning. He wasn't even at the Gonzaga Saint Mary's
championship game. So that just goes to show they've had
a long week together already. And when you do that.

(35:52):
I served multiple mock committees this year myself just recently,
and you just naturally human human in nature, you start
to like the people around you.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
You know who.

Speaker 8 (36:03):
Represents who, and I think that can only help North Carolina.
Now that's why they're going to be very interesting heading
in the Sunday. That's where the complication comes from that
you might have been hinting at. I think when you
look at the resume itself, it's really difficult to put
them in. They're one in twelve and their thirteen hardest
games in the quad one. I understand that like eight

(36:24):
of those twelve losses are against some of the very
elite teams of the country. Three of them against Duke,
They played Auburn, they played Michigan State, they played you know,
they played Florida. So they have a lot of teams
that they had to play. They scheduled the fifth hardest
in the country. There's a place for them that the
committee decides, so you know, all the other results that

(36:45):
are perfect. Besides the home loss to Stanford, between Quads
two and three, they won fifteen times. So they built
a metric this year, or it's been out there for
a while, but it's finally on the team chief for
and c DOAA purposes. It's called wins above bubble. And
part of the purpose of that is because all of
those lower level wins for teams that don't have as
many teams in their league where they get the constant

(37:06):
opportunities at the top, they still have to matter and
they have to mean something. They add up to something.
And that number is has North Carolina forty second best
in the country as of today, that would be within
range of selection you want to be in the top
forty five. So if some of the members are looking
at that strongly to try to figure out what to
do with them, you could see Carolina squeak in. But

(37:29):
I think in terms of bringing wins to the table,
like significant and multiple wins against the field, they're in
deep trouble because they only have the one win over
UCLA and nothing else against the team that's actually going
to be in the field.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
Texas didn't beat Tennessee, even though I mean it looked
good for the first half and then the second half,
it just kind of win awry. As I think maybe
you expected when you saw as the kay Ziggler done
nothing in the first half, you kind of assumed that
wouldn't stay that way.

Speaker 4 (37:55):
But did they have to win that game to get in.

Speaker 5 (37:59):
I know you had that out in your bracket to
your website there, but I wanted to double check and
just see if some of the things that you've seen
in some of these other tournaments have given them any life.

Speaker 8 (38:10):
Yeah. So Texas's situation is very unique just due to
the fact that there's been a little bit of a
precedent set over the years. You know, we've only seen
five brackets, something that got introduced in the quad system
that got introduced, and so one of the things that's
been a good trend and a good rule of thumb
that I've learned from the committee is that if you
just take away the Quad four record, what's their effective record?

(38:32):
Because most of those Quad four games, especially for us
coorect Texas, are just easy wins. And their record now
after the loss today is twelve and fifteen. So it's
really far out of bounds. And that's why I'm pretty
far out on Texas. The other thing I'll mention for
them real quick is, you know, a few years back
we're calling Sexton played for Alabama, and there was a
really impressive Vanderbilt team around that same time frame, I

(38:55):
want to say twenty eighteen, maybe twenty nineteen. They both
got in with fifteen losses. Because they have eat number
one seeds, number two seeds. They had a ridiculous collection
of wins at the top of their resume. This Texas
team does not have that. They needed this Tennessee win
just to have something in that area. Their best road
win was Mississippi State, which is a good roadwin, but
they're like an eight or nine seed that's it's not

(39:18):
top of the board level went away from home. So
if you're gonna lose that many times the committee had
told us over and over again, you better have some
extraordinary victories on your resume, Texas quite easily does not
have that. So I don't think they're going to hear
their name.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
Called for Rocko Miller joining US bracketologists for Field of
sixty eight as well as bracketeer dot com. Real quick,
not real quick. We got plenty of time here, but
Rocco back to Duke and Carolina. And this was a
question j Martin and I were talking about earlier, and
I don't know the answer, side be curious for.

Speaker 6 (39:48):
You to answer it.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Carolina playing Duke without Cooper flag like like like if
they had one. Do they get less credit because Cooper
flag is not on the court? Do they get Are
they dinged even more because Duke was less than one
hundred percent?

Speaker 6 (40:07):
Or are they are?

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Is the committee truly looking at what is supposed to
be a quote unquote blind resume and who's playing who doesn't?

Speaker 6 (40:15):
Is it doesn't really matter to them? That makes sense?

Speaker 8 (40:20):
It does? It does? And I'll just say this, It's
discussed in the room that and it's well known in
the room who's available and who's not available, and that
goes back to any game that happened throughout the season.
It's not just today. I think today it impossible not
to know that. Right if you're watching any channel, it's
being talked about, so you know. And the way the
community approaches that is it gets discussed, it gets introduced,

(40:44):
and then it's up to each individual member on what
it means. I think the one thing I caution about
taking it too deep is just because Cooper flagged and
Brown were not available, that doesn't mean and I'm just
kind of playing it out for you, if North Carolina
would have won one, it doesn't mean that Duke would
have wanted to add them. You can't prove that. So

(41:04):
the result is still the most important thing. But you
can take, you know, any of that information to your
consideration process for whatever that's worth. So for me being
not inside the room, but also having a lot of
good context over what these committees do each year, I
just basically have to treat at par and square because

(41:24):
so much of that is sub subjectivity and it's the
results typically speak for themselves. And I also would say
you know we saw Duke. I know they played Georgia Tech,
but when when Cooper flag went down, they were down
by I think nine points and ended up kind of
starting to slowly take control of that game and end
up being plus seventeen without flag yesterday. So I think

(41:45):
what they taught the committee and they taught me and
Brown went down a little bit later, I believe is
that this is a darn deep team, and even if
you're beating Duke without those two, it's a really impressive win.
So I would I would just answer the question by
simply saying they would have gotten enough credit to get in.

Speaker 5 (42:05):
What do you think about the SEC writ large right now?
I mean, obviously they've been.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
Stellar throughout the season.

Speaker 5 (42:13):
The only thing that I have wondered is, because we've
seen so much of them playing against each other, is
there an over Is there any risk of overvaluing them?
Do you think anybody in that conference is going to
get overseated or are they as good as advertised?

Speaker 8 (42:28):
That's an excellent question because I get a little concerned
about that too. Ken Ken Pom put out a pretty
good article I thought a couple of weeks ago about
overvaluing the league. Now again, I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna discredit anything that the teams at the top are
absolutely elite. Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, even Kentucky's got a

(42:48):
really dangerous side. Texas a and M brings a football
game to the basketball court, you know. So there's a
there's a lot of great at the top. But then
you see kind of how teams from Mississippi State on
down their resumes, and it really kind of starts to
irk you because they basically have a nice set of
wins against each other, and they did a really strategic

(43:10):
job of getting those wins when they were not at home,
so they picked up o the best road winds again
kind of against each other from Mississippi State down and
that's been really interesting to study and examine. And I
think everybody's in a little bit of a different spot.
I'd say Georgia and Arkansas are in the safest spot
of the bubble mix, assuming Mississippi State's pretty safe as well.

(43:34):
And then from there it gets interesting because Vanderbilt is
a team you know that I actually like on the core.
I like the way that Byington built the roster and
all that stuff. But that's not what this is about.
This is about evaluating the results and how they scheduled well.
Out of anybody near the bubble, Vanderbilt by far had
the worst schedule three hundred and thirty first in the

(43:54):
country by the net non conference schedule measurement. And you
may be taught us forever. If you're anywhere near the
cut line, you're out with a non conference schedule like that.
So just because of that, Vanderbilt, could you know, if
we see a couple of bidstill and they could still
happen in like the Big West. If Irvine wins, it
could happen in the Mount West, if Boise or Colorado

(44:15):
State win it. There's a couple others with Memphis, you know,
Looming if they don't win it. If some of those
spots start to go, Vanderbilt could be in a real jeopardy.
I think as it stands now, with no bid steals
officially out there yet, they're they're going to be safe
and probably up on the ten seed line. But the
closer they start to drift into the eleven area, I'd

(44:35):
be careful I find the commodores. Then you get into Oklahoma,
you could pick Oklahoma apart, inside out and sideways and
find ways to keep them out. They only won two
road games all year. I know they got a good
chunk of resume wins, especially non conference, that make them
probably survive this and get in. But there's a lot

(44:55):
of reasons you could pull them out too. And then
you know, Texas we covered, and I think that's where
it stands. So I think, you know, I think they'll
get the core in and then Texas will be out
and then we're down to Oklahoma or Andy.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
Last one for you, Rocko Rocko Miller from Field sixty
eight bracketology expert joining us. You know, three number one
seeds feel pretty set in Stone Auburn Duke in Houston.
My question is a little bit complicated. It's not just
who gets it, but there's been this perception, fair or not.
And I'm not saying that you would agree with this,

(45:28):
but there's been a perception that the games on Sunday
don't matter. That basically, you know, Tennessee a few years
ago felt like they should have been a seed line higher.

Speaker 6 (45:37):
They win the SEC, they don't get credit for it,
blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (45:40):
I bring it up because basically everybody that could get
that fourth number one seed, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Michigan State
are all playing on Sunday.

Speaker 6 (45:49):
I don't even know if there's a question there.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
I just feel like, if, like say, Michigan State loses
on Sunday and gets the last number one seed and
Florida or Alabama wins or something, I just feel like
there's gonna be a lot of people pissed. I mean,
do you have any thoughts on like, does it actually
matter on Sunday or there? You know, I don't want
to put like the Committee's not, you know, not even

(46:13):
doing anything on Sunday, But there is this perception that
the bracket basically gets set on Saturday night and that
Sunday results don't matter. And when you have four teams
battling for a number one seed that could all be
playing Sunday, I just feel like it could get a
little bit complicated.

Speaker 8 (46:27):
Yeah, it can't get complicated. So you get a couple
of answers to that. So one the committee will be
pretty much wrapped up with the process. The sixty eight
teams will be selected at that time, and then they'll
have to build contingency brackets. Some years they have to
build as many as twenty brackets. They could actually have
to build more than that. They might build only, you know,

(46:47):
eight brackets, just depends on how it shakes out. With
these potential automatic bids being stolen, they won't know that
till late. You got to wait for the Big West,
Mountain West, et cetera. Of those leagues I listed already.
So there's that part of it, But that's more bubble
related concerns for the committee. I would say with the
teams this year, I think our four are set regardless

(47:09):
of what happens from Saturday on, mainly because Florida and
Houston have done plenty enough to lock those spots up.
You looked at Florida, they have the two best road
wins money can buy. I mean neither Platinum Gold the
lead level road winds, both in the state of Alabama.
They go to the Jungle and win by nine, shock
the world in that win. Then they go to Touscaloosa,

(47:29):
one of these teams they theoretically would be competing with
for the final one spot, and they won there. So
if Florida and Alabama could actually meet on the same
side of the bracket, and maybe they are now. That
might be done now. But even if Alabama beats them
in Nashville, to me, and I think to the committee
would agree, it's more impressive either way that Florida won

(47:50):
in Tuscaloosa than anything that can happen in Nashville. And
then you go a step further and you see that
Alabama's lost seven games, Florida's only lost four. I mean,
the same vision is pretty much done in my books.
And then you look at Houston, a team that's ten
and oh true road wins dominated the Big Twelve. They've
made it to the final, they have nothing left to prove.
They could move to Arizona in the championship game, and

(48:12):
I think they're safely in the one spot. And I
think Florida and Houston are like three A and three
B in the order in the tecond order that could
go either way. I've been leaning towards Florida just because,
like I said, those two Platinum Gold road winds they
got in Alabama and Auburn really make them just kind
of show that they can do it at the highest level.

(48:32):
Houston's best road wins are really good as well. They've
wanted Arizona Texas, Tech, Cansas, etc. But that's not the
same as going to Alberta, Alabama. So I'm giving the
tiebreaker to Florida, but would not be surprised if it
gets slipped by the committee.

Speaker 6 (48:45):
That's really interesting.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
I haven't heard anybody make the definitive case that Florida,
independent of what happens the next day or two, has
the spot locked up. Roco Miller Bracketologists four Field of
sixty eight. You can follow them on Twitter at Rocko
Miller eight. Roco no pressure, But Jay Martin and I
are hosting tomorrow and night too, and we'll probably gonna
be talking about the exact same things and the exact
same teams. So you know, if you're available eight to

(49:08):
eleven Pacific, we'd love to have you on again. But
we appreciate the time, and you know, stay hydrated, get
as much rest as you can these next few days.

Speaker 8 (49:17):
Okay, No, I appreciate it. Yees, send me a text tomorrow.
We'll see if we can do it again. As we
talk to you guys, all right.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
That is Roco Miller Field to sixty eight. Make sure
to follow him on Twitter at Roco Miller eight. Lot
of Bracketology and a lot of results from throughout the
day in college basketball. Disaga is gonna come back and
get you all of the details on one of the
craziest days on the college hoops calendar. Sega's up next.
Fox Sports Radio, Welcome Back everybody. Jason Smith Show with

(49:46):
Mike Carmen. Jason and Mic are out this evening. Aaron
Torres and Jason Martin are in. We are taking you
till two am Eastern. We will get to all of
the college hoops here throughout the show. By the way,
Alabama has extended its lead to eleven against Kentucky heading
in the halftime. Craighton pulling away from the Yukon Huskies
in the second half.

Speaker 4 (50:06):
Ouch, yeah, it's okay.

Speaker 6 (50:08):
Listen back to back.

Speaker 4 (50:09):
New Man, you can't win every year.

Speaker 6 (50:11):
Can't win every year.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
I don't know if you saw the Dan Hurley sixty
minutes this week, but he basically said that was like
after that Maui trip, he was pretty down, and Geno
Orima was basically like, if you can only get satisfaction
out of hoisting the trophy at the end of every season.
Uh yeah, that's literally exactly what Geeno Oriama told him.
So I think Dan Hurley even knows this probably isn't

(50:35):
his year. They played Saint John's a few weeks ago.
By the way, Saint John's advanced to the Biggies Final,
first time since.

Speaker 6 (50:41):
Two thousand, I believe.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
But I watched the press conference after the second Saint
John's game when Saint John's just boat raced him, and
you could tell Dan Hurley was like, yeah, that's just
a much better team than I have right now. And
so so yeah, so we're talking college hoops. So well,
we'll get to the NFL by the way, top of
next hour. We had a fun little segment that you
guys will guys and girls will enjoy across the country

(51:03):
really quick, you know, putting a bow on some of
this college hoops conversation. J Mark, let me ask you,
so Duke. For first of all, with Duke, you know,
they survive today. It isn't pretty, but I think you
could look at it the other way too, which was
they did have a twenty four point lead against North
Carolina in you know throughout this game. One Like, first

(51:27):
of all, do you have any just big picture thoughts
on the Cooper flag injury timeline? You know, John Shire
said after the game yesterday, Like you know, basically, he
made sure to let it be known that hey, it's
like like basically long story short is he had to
kind of make it seem like Cooper Flag could play
so that the committee knew, hey, this guy's not out

(51:48):
for the year, but we all knew he wasn't gonna play,
you know, really quickly. Duke will very likely be in
the Raleigh Regional next next week, which means that they
wouldn't play again until Friday.

Speaker 6 (51:58):
They'll be playing a sixteen.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
I kind of get the sense that I would be
kind of shocked to see him before the second round,
maybe the first round, if he's like pretty close to
one hundred percent. I mean, what, I assume you don't
expect to see him tomorrow. To any concerns about Duke
that they did struggle to put away Carolina today.

Speaker 5 (52:18):
Not necessarily Again, I mean, if CAROLINEA is going to
get up for anything, they're going to get up any
ACC tournament to play against that team, especially how they
got beat the last time they played. I'm not really
worried about Duke in the first round. I feel like,
if you can't beat whoever you're matched up with in
the first round without Cooper Flag, it probably wasn't gonna

(52:40):
happen for you anyway. If there's any risk at all
to him, he obviously can't play.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
He shouldn't play.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
His future is too important, whether it's a duke or
whether or not he's going straight to the NBA, which
is another conversation that we've had in the past, and
I'm sure we will have again before that decision's official
or anything to that degree. But I feel like you
can get the job done in that first round game.
The question is in the second round you probably do
have to bring him back unless he's just not healthy

(53:08):
for that. But there's no reason at all to risk
him in the ACC tournament. I don't think that you're
gonna get dinged by the committee if your duke at
this point from the seed line that you were already
going to be on. Considering that if you make the
play for the big tournament as opposed to this one,
like this one, it'd be nice to win this, and
I know that everybody plays hard in these conference tournaments

(53:30):
and really wants it for the pride factor and all that,
but it's ultimately not anywhere close to as important, is
what takes place next week, and then even that is
not as important as the future for Cooper flag.

Speaker 6 (53:41):
Well, this is a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyway.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
When an injury like that happens, the default is that
somebody did something wrong.

Speaker 6 (53:49):
There's no way to avoid that, right because you heard though,
like why is he even playing? Or are they already?

Speaker 3 (53:55):
And it's like, I don't know, it's a game, like
they're players, players play and I don't know. I'll give
credit to uh, to the internet, because I don't think
it became like a big thing yesterday, but there were
people like well, I mean they're already clinched number one seed.

Speaker 6 (54:10):
Why is he It's like I don't know. I mean
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
There was no like there was no like John Shire
made a mistake for having him on the floor, right,
Like that's not a thing, right.

Speaker 5 (54:25):
I don't think so, I mean that that seems a
little bit much to me, Like if you're if it's
that way, then why play these games at all?

Speaker 4 (54:34):
Like as long as these.

Speaker 5 (54:35):
Games are being played, some of these some of these
things are going to happen, and especially in college and
these moments and things like that. The idea that you're
just gonna sit them out because you were going to
win anyway in that case, unless that's something that he
decides from a business perspective and you agree with him,
I don't think that you can fault him for playing.

(54:55):
And I certainly don't think that like John Shire mandated
you have to play or you're off the team or
something like that.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
Like I just think it's it's very low hanging fruit,
and it's really easy when something.

Speaker 5 (55:05):
Like this happens to immediately point to it and try
to come up with someone to be the scapegoat.

Speaker 4 (55:12):
In this case, it's just people get hurt. People are
playing at a high level.

Speaker 5 (55:16):
Athletes get injured because they're playing at such a high level,
and it sometimes sometimes it's fluky, and sometimes it happens
at the worst possible time. Remember Matt corral And when
he got hurt for Ole Miss a few years ago
in that Bowl game. It's it's just the way it goes.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Sometimes.

Speaker 6 (55:31):
It is just the way it goes sometimes. Yeah, And
I'll give credit.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
I don't think it really became that big of a thing,
but whenever something happens, people are always gonna talk. And
I guess it is what it is really quickly again.
Everybody caught up. Arizona up by nine by eight at
the half against Texas Tech in a Big twelve quarterfinal.
Louisville up five on Clemson at the half in the
ACC semis Alabama up seven at the half in the

(55:56):
SEC quarters, Yukon Is on a twelve oer run to
cut the lead to five with twelve minutes to go.
A lot of college hoops, We're gonna go come back
talk NFL Cooper fat Cooper cup signed.

Speaker 4 (56:11):
But what is the least.

Speaker 6 (56:12):
Interesting story of the week?

Speaker 4 (56:13):
Fox Sports Radio