Dan Beyer and Aaron Torres Present the Men's College Basketball Selection Show Special

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio Happy Selection Sunday.
We are an hour away from the brackets being released,
and you will hear the full field of sixty eight
coming up again in an hour as we are broadcasting
live from the tierreck dot Com studios. Tirec dot com
will help you get there in unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
free road has a protection. You know, over ten thousand

(00:23):
recommended installers. Tirec dot com the way tire buying should be.
There are two conference games still to be decided Conference
tournaments championship games. UAB could be the bid Steeler. We
know Michigan and Wisconsin aren't in the field, but the
American Athletic Championship right now going down eight minutes to go.

(00:44):
You heard Monci say Memphis though, with the lead over
the Blazers in that one.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
You know what CBS does not want right now, over
time at Dicky's Arena. Baby, that's right, because I don't
know what they would do. You and I talked about
this the other day. So when Yukon was in aac purgatory,
there was actually one year where the conference championship game
went to overtime, but it was a one Big League

(01:09):
so and I think the teams were pretty comparable. Yukon
did not win that year. That was the Kevin Ali year.
We don't have to talk about that, but I bring
it up because I think they just kind of started
the bracket show and let the game finish and it
was like a whoever wins one slot him in as
a thirteen. Don't know if you could do that with
Memphis and UAB, as you said, if UAB wins, they're in.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
If they don't, they're out.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
And Memphis, by the way, with the opening up a
little bit of a lead, this would be a pseudo
impressive win for Memphis. I know that, you know. I
know that UAB is a team that won't be in
the tournament if they don't win here. But Memphis without
their starting point guard Tyres Hunter in this game has
been seen in a boots, so you hope he's okay.
But if Memphis were to win this game, this would
be a pretty solid win.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Fan. Would this be his like fourth NCAA tournament appearance
with four different schools? Tyres?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I mean, our buddy Doug Gottlieb had some major Tyres
H Hunter takes like three years ago, so Tyree Hunter
was like the original guy that had everything you could
want at a school and ended up transferring anyway, led
Iowa State to a Sweet sixteen in twenty twenty two,
was the leadings. I don't know if he was leading scorer,

(02:17):
but he was the starting point guard for a Sweet
sixteen team and decided to enter the portal and that was,
you know, you gotta remember four years ago in college
sports in twenty twenty five, four years ago might as
well be fifty years ago, and we knew this portal
thing was coming and there was an nil component to
it and what did it all mean? But it was
kind of the guy that either didn't play or the
coach got fired or whatever. And Tyree Hunter was like

(02:40):
the original one that's like, yeah, I got everything I
could want here and I'm still gonna test the market anyway.
And I remember Doug among Many was outspoken about that decision.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
But this would be I believe, his fourth tournament with
three teams.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Because two years at Texas, a Sweet sixteen at Iowa State, So.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
So yeah, bit out of the trifecta. His college basketball
reference page, we'll have just a bunch of different jerseys
on it, but again Memphis. Aaron mentioned playing without Tyre's Hunter,
but having the lead right now if it did come
to the fact where this game was still being played
an hour from now, should be very rare. There's about

(03:17):
they're at the under eight minute TV timeout right now.
You would think it overtime could get wrapped up at
that point. The contingency plan, though, is you as a
TV show, have to have your graphics, have to have
everything set. There are very few people that know the bracket,
especially considering what happened a few years ago when the
bracket ended up getting leaked, and that's we're known, so

(03:39):
I think the security around it is even more tight.
And that's why you have to listen to us, because
once CBS announces it on their broadcast, it is one
hundred percent fair game, and we will tell you exactly
what happens once CBS announces it. When we get the information,
we pass it along. That comes up at six o'clock

(04:01):
Eastern time, three o'clock Pacific. But there's still a lot
of college basketball to talk about, and Aaron, as we
look at this field right now, we have a Wisconsin
Michigan game going on in addition to the UAB Memphis
Championship contest. We know Wisconsin and Michigan will be in
the field, but I don't think we're going to see
them in the top two seed lines. I actually feel
that we've almost had the top two seed lines, maybe

(04:24):
with a little bit of fluctuation here and there, but
it's been set for seemingly at least a week or
two for what we thought was going to be the
top seed line, with maybe a question who was going
to be the fourth number one and then the other
two seeds that we've had in I felt like it's
been it's been pretty much status quo when we've looked
at the top eight teams of the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, it's been interesting. It's been interesting just to kind
of watch from a distance, especially that fourth number one
seed where coming into the week, it felt like it
could be probably about four different schools the three SEC
schools not named Auburns, so that would have been Tennessee, Alabama, Florida,
and then Michigan State out of the Big Ten. I
think Michigan State losing in their semi final in the

(05:06):
Big Ten tournament helped. And I'll tell you this, Dan,
I don't know what you've kind of heard or the
people that you've talked to throughout the weekend, But it
seemed to be after Florida beat Alabama, the sentiment was
Florida is going to get that fourth number one seed.
We'll see if the committee agrees or if that was
all kind of hearsay. But I just bring it up
because it feels like those four seem like, even coming

(05:28):
into today, were largely set. And then what's interesting is
there's so many different dynamics that go into the bracket.
I know you know this, but for the audience, and
I know you're going to dive into it even deeper.
What is it A one seed in a two seed
can't be from the same I know it's something with
the top four seed lines, but you.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Can probably articulate it a little bit better than I can.
So they'll put the top two seeds. You would not
want the top two seeds being from the same conference. Now,
if there was a scenario where five of the top
eight teams in the country we're from the same league,
it should be very rare. But it's very rare that
we have three. If that were the case, there's nothing
that you could do about it. You would have to

(06:03):
have you would have to have the top two seeds
in each region be from the same conference. What I
think is going to happen here, And there used to
be a rule in the NCAA tournament where teams from
the same league. This shows you how far back that
I go could not reach until the regional final. So
think about that. I know that would be a maximum

(06:26):
of eight teams that you would have from your league.
Like if you had nine, that would break the rule
because of how the bracket works out. But back then
it would be unheard of that you would have nineteen,
like the Big Ten getting nine of the ten teams
like that doesn't work, or nine of the eleven when
Penn State comes in. But there was a rule when
that you could not have that. When we got to

(06:49):
the super leagues of sixteen schools, when the Big East
was the first to expand, I think the Big East
was the first one to really have that, And I
felt like it was like a seven seed Cincinnati that
ended up having to play a conference foe in the
secon round. Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
He took the words right on I'm out twenty eleven.
Remember Cincinnati was in the Big East, yeah, Yukon was
in the Big East. Was the year Yukon with Kemba Walker.
I forget if they were I think they were a
three seed in Cincinnati would have been a six, but
maybe they were two and a seven.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
But as as you can probably guess, in the least
surprising news ever, Yukon beat Cincinnati, and then Mick Cronin
proceeded to complain about it NonStop for a very long time.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
It would be the three to six matchup then, because
then the West Region came out here and Yukon ended up.
I think Arizona was the the two seed because Duke
was the one seed that year in twenty eleven, but then,
excuse me, Arizona was the five seed. San Diego State. Yeah,
it was the two, That's what it was. It was
Arizona State. I'll tell you what. Forget about twenty eleven
look at the answer that year though, that was the

(07:47):
first year that he had a second round conference matchup. Now,
the point that we're getting to is you don't want
a one on the two seed from the same league,
which I think and I think when the bracket comes out, Aaron,
I think we're gonna see Duke is the No. One
overall seed interesting and for the reason being, they win
the conference, they win the league. By all accounts, Cooper
flags gonna be ready for the NCAA Tournament. But I'll

(08:10):
tell you what I know that they got to run
for their money from North Carolina. They pulled away from
Louisville last night in the championship game. I think that
they've they showed well enough without him, and the win
over Auburn is actually I think the biggest step that
you're gonna get. So I think Duke's gonna be the

(08:30):
number one overall seed. But what you would have is
you now would need to put an SEC school as
the two seed, because I think we believe Auburn and
Florida are gonna be the one seeds. You would not
have Alabama or Tennessee in the same region as those schools.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
So I will tell you this, I'm not disagreeing with
your personal sentiment that I believe that that you believe
that Duke could be the number one overall seed, because
I think there's a chance as well. I think that
will be a little bit of Duke bias. Appear to
be a little bit of Duke bias because here's why.
Right now they have out of all the number one

(09:05):
seeds in contention. Remember, for people who are new to
this bracket stuff, quad one wins are the best wins
that you could possibly have. Dan coming into today, Florida
has eleven quad one wins or coming in had ten.
They just picked up their eleventh. Houston has fourteen, Auburn
has sixteen. And if the argument is well, that Duke
beat Auburn at home, and again I'm not saying that

(09:27):
your argument is wrong. I'm saying that this is what
the critics will say. Florida beat Auburn on the road,
and so more quad one wins. The only metric, and
it shouldn't matter, is fewer overall losses. Florida would be
thirty and four coming into this tournament with eleven quad
one wins, Duke with nine at thirty one and three.
I think it would set up for an interesting I

(09:49):
don't think it'd be Duke bias, but I think it
would be another thing that kind of says something you
and I have talked about as we filled in all
week is are these big picture to see on the
bracket being made a day two three in advance? Because
every metric on Florida's resume, except for overall wins, would
be not like like they would have as much of

(10:10):
a case from the number one overall seat if you
don't give it to Auburn as duke what in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
But no, it's totally fine. And I'll say this, and
I wasn't going to say this at all during the show.
There is a very good chance that I will pick
Florida to win it all when I welcome to the club,
you know, like like there's when you see how they
play and you lay out everything there. There was word
that the and we've talked about the committee getting all
of this work done ahead of time that by Saturday night,

(10:35):
the bracket is pretty much set. I may have read somewhere.
I don't know if it was real or not, but
that you know, the first eight or nine lines were
probably set by the committee by yesterday afternoon, which by
the way, isn't shocking considering the few number of games
that you have and what those lines have. But with
Florida being that team that we thought was volatile in

(10:56):
terms of could they drop depending on what they do
in the SEC tournament to now ultimately winning the SEC tournament.
It just would seem to me that now we're all
of a sudden going to then take into account a
Sunday finish in conference tournaments, and I don't think that.
I don't think that that's the case. So I kind
of eliminated Florida from my thought process just because of

(11:17):
how the committee seems to like to be ahead of
the game. And another thing, in years past, if you're
an old guy like me, you remember they would always
talk about last ten. That is not criteria anymore. That
the last ten would have been really important, especially if
you go on a run in the conference tournament to
improve your seating. So I don't think Florida's going to
be affected as much Aaron. So that's why the reason

(11:39):
I said that I thought it was Duke was because
I think it was down to Auburn and Duke. Now
I think and I think you're right.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
I'm I want to be clear, this is not a
and I know you know this, but for the audience,
this is not a criticism of what you said or
your personal opinion.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
I'm just setting up what the perception could be. And
a couple of things.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
One, you know, we actually had a bractologist on our
show last night, who really like really gets into the
weeds on all this, and he basically said, exactly what
you said is that they have multiple content. Like we
could say that's not the case, but the hey is
basically in the barn late Saturday night, they have a
contingency bracket for what if UAB wins, what if UAB doesn't,
what if UAB and say George Mason had won earlier

(12:18):
in the day. So a lot of this is done
before Sunday. But it doesn't change the fact, and this
is maybe an irrelevant talking point, but doesn't change the
fact that it is frustrating for those teams that play
on Sunday. I mean, I saw even Tennessee fans yesterday
saying wait a second, because you know, poor Joe Lonardi.
You know, this guy is the face of bracketology. And

(12:39):
let's remind everybody, all the bracketologists out there, their job
is to only project what will happen based on previous
data that they have been given. Joelanardi is not making
the bracket people, Okay, neither is Mike Decorci on Fox.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Neither is anybody that you see.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
And so apparently Joelnardi said on one of his shows
is that, well, uh, there's the winner of Alabama Tenant
or Alabama Florida yesterday was going to get the fourth
number one seed. And of course Tennessee fans were like, well,
wait a second, we just beat Auburn. If we beat
Florida or Alabama, why wouldn't we get the fourth number
one seed. So I just bring it up because I
think as the years go on, Dan, it's exactly what

(13:16):
you said. I think, whether it's fair or not, whether
it's right or not, I think the perception has become
accurate that what you do on Sunday really doesn't impact
all that much. I think it brings up a broader
question of if we should be playing championship games on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
I was thinking about it yesterday.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I think we should end all the championship games at
one or two am Eastern on the West coast, you know,
one or two am Eastern on the East coast on
Saturday night into Sunday, and then spend all day debating
the bracket so that the committee has time to put
things together. That is a long ramble to say that
what you said appears to be accurate in that I
just don't think very much of what happened on Sunday

(13:52):
is going to ultimately impact what we see in the
bracket when it comes out in about forty five minutes.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
If we think the number ones are Duke, Auburn, Houston,
and Florida, who is the weakest of the twos? Do
you think between Michigan State, Saint John's, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
And this is where to your point, it gets into.
So Saint John's would be in a region with either
Auburn or Florida, as would Michigan State, and then we
would have Tennessee and Alabama in a region with Duke
in Houston, which would be a lot of fun. I
would still say Michigan State, you know, you know them
and Saint John's are very similar. You know, It's actually

(14:29):
kind of cool, you know, for people who don't love
the way that analytics has taken over college basketball in
the NBA, and you can only shoot three Patino Iso
old school coaches, Saint John's, Michigan State neither are great
three point shooting teams, and so I think when neither
is a great three point shooting team, that makes you susceptible.
I would say of all the twos without knowing who

(14:51):
would be the one in their region, let alone the.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Rest of the bracket. I would probably say Michigan State, Okay,
So then then that could fit that you would have
a duke Michigan State one two. I did with Saint John's.
I thought you could see a duke Saint John's. I
thought that the atmosphere that you could get in Newark
would be off the charts, but it may be more
advantageous for Saint John's and be something that they wouldn't
want to do to a top seeded duke team if

(15:14):
you sat them.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
And Saint John's can't be a two because yes, yeah, correct, yeah,
And that was actually a disappointing thing because I didn't
as much as I think I know about this sport.
I didn't understand all the semantics with conferences. And I
had somebody tell me yesterday, oh, Saint John's can't be
a two seed in the East, And I said, darn
it because that felt like that. And you and I
talk about this every year. That made for TV Sunday Afternoon.

(15:36):
It used to be jim nantz leading into sixty minutes.
I mean, imagine duke versus Saint John's one versus two
in Newark to go to the final four. That might
even be a Saturday Regional. I just bring it up
to say that is a made for TV Patino versus
Duke in the Elite eight. But unfortunately, unless Saint John's
falls to a three, which to your point, I don't
think is going to happen, that matchup will not happen,
at least not in the elite.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
And so, yeah, so you wouldn't. So that's why I asked,
and I thought Saint john eight of the top eight,
that I would put them eight, and I would have
Duke number one. You're penalizing number one Duke essentially because
of the strength of the SEC. So when we're talking
about these matchups and how the bracket goes, there is
never It is truly a guessing game. And this is

(16:17):
why bracketology is inexact. And the way that bracketologists pat
themselves on the back is not how many matchups or
seeds they get right. It's just the number of the
sixty eight that they get right. And if you get
sixty four sixty five, it actually isn't that great. You
have to get sixty six to sixty seven, and the

(16:39):
reason being something that Aaron and I will will decide
because we're going to talk about the bubble in a
little bit. But there's there's basically about I broke it down,
and I was very lenient in this erin eight teams
for eight spots for sixteen teams, and I was very
lenient in both ways where I don't even think there's
that many spots, and I don't think there's many teams,

(17:00):
but just for the sake of an argument. So when
you're talking about bracketologists and how they're judging themselves, sixty
of the sixty eight are automatically right, like you would
have to be an idiot to get fifty four, like
you just wouldn't know college basketball. That's the breakdown of it.
But the guessing game comes into what you and I
are talking about. Because I did my guests last night.

(17:21):
I had Duke as a one. Tennessee is a two
in the east, Auburn a one in Saint John's a
two in the South, Houston a one in Alabama, a
two in the midwest, and Florida the one out west
with Michigan State going out west. That's what I ended
up having broken down looked at bracketologists and everybody else
was different in terms of like moving pieces here and there,
and I don't think that they have. And I did

(17:43):
the same thing as they did. I typed out mileage
from what it is from Auburn to Lexington because we
saw on a selection show within the past ten years.
I can't remember what it was where they did the
mileage of what was shorter and what was because more
people thought, look, why wouldn't they go there? Like it
was a closer, Like uh oh, this arena was actually
forty miles closer. So they do all of those things.

(18:04):
That in the end is the bracket that I came
up with with the top two seeds. But if I
think Saint John's is the worst and you think Michigan
State's the worst, it's the same argument. Top seeded Duke
is likely getting screwed if they weren't the number one
overall seed because of that. Such a great point.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
By the way, I'll give you a little inside whispers
from the sport today. I have been told that if
Houston had their druthers, they would rather be in the
West Region because they're going to get a two seed
from the SEC. They're afraid it's going to be a
closer mileage for say a Tennessee or whatever, and so

(18:38):
they would rather go to San Francisco. Now, I don't
know if the way the bracket works, they they'll have
that choice. Obviously, the number one overall seed gets to
choose where they want to go, and then they kind
of go from there. But you just bring it up
because there's a lot of variables and to your point, yes,
every bracket dollar just should get about sixty five to
sixty six to sixty seven of the sixty eight, right,
But then once the bracket has actually formed, their many

(19:00):
variables that we think we've taken into account, but not necessarily.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
And there is no dominant team out west. Gonzaga by
the way, Gonzaga seeding has been all over the map,
and people looking at how you judge the Bulldogs this year,
but they're not a top two seed, so you're not
putting them out west in the West. Regional finals that
we've seen in recent years have been Los Angeles, they've
been Anaheim, they've been San Francisco, and it's back in
San Francisco this time around. So if you're going to

(19:26):
to Houston's point much better for them to make the
Alabama fans if that was the case that I had
in my bracket, or Michigan State fans travel all the
way out, then say go to Indianapolis. Yeah, and allow
Michigan State or Alabama fans too. Well, it's not necessarily
close for Alabama fans. It's not as far as you
would think for them to drive and go and check
out the games exactly. So now it'll be interesting.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
By the way, we had a net issue in the
AAC Championship game. I was terrified that it was. You know,
we're we're on a bracket. Watch here, thirty nine minutes,
this game has to be done, and we had a
net issue. They had to fix the net. So I
was worried for at about four minutes left. And now
there's an injury on the court, hopefully that player. Memphis
is up nine in that contest. So again, keeping our
eye to see if UAB can steal a bid. Otherwise,

(20:10):
there haven't been really any I know, big bid Steelers
this year. Colorado State solidified, but they were on the
bubble anyway. It's just not what's gonna happen with Boise
State in the Mountain West. Yeah, I felt like it
was a good week. It was a good week if
you're on the bubble. But if you're one of those
like first five or six teams that's in and not
really on the bubble, but sort of like I think
in Oklahoma and Arkansas would fall under that mix, it

(20:32):
was a good week for you because the conference tournaments
have actually largely gone to plan.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
Wisconsin and Michigan tied up at fifty three with a
minute seventeen and their Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis,
they really don't want this one to go into overtime
to possibly threaten the three o'clock start. You may get
you may get a friendly whistle here because the brackets
are coming after that game. At least with the American
Athletic Conference, it's on a different network. CBS is like,

(20:58):
all right, let's wrap this one up in Indiye plea
ray job is in. According to Dan Byer, no kidding,
he is aeron Torres. I'm Dan Byer. Hit him up
at Aaron Underscore Torres. You can find me at Dan
Byer on Fox our special selection Sunday show live from
the Tairaq dot com studios. Like Basketball Tractor Supply knows
that a winning season takes practice, teamwork, and a can

(21:19):
do attitude. It's Bracket Challenge season. Be sure to complete
your bracket at Fox sports Radio dot com beginning tonight.
Visit Fox sports Radio dot com to register and get rules.
The winning bracket and the Fox Sports Radio Bracket Challenge
will win a twenty five hundred dollars gift card the
Tractor Supply and a perfect bracket will win you one
million dollars. You could preregister now, then be sure to
fill out your bracket between Sunday night and Thursday morning

(21:41):
before the beginning games begin at Fox Sports Radio dot com.
It's all sponsored by Tractor Supply for life out here.
He's erin Torres. I'm dan Byer. The other side of
the bracket, the bubble and who will it burst for?
We'll tell you next year. On Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 1 (22:07):
He's erin Torres, I'm dan Byer. A Happy selection Sunday
to you. It's our Selection show special on Fox Sports Radio.
Chris Purfetter Technical producer, Shay Executive producing Today, let's go
to Monty Belanios, who's at the news desk, who can
give us an update of what's happening in the final
two games of all of the conference tournaments before we

(22:28):
finally get to the bracket reveal. Moncey, what's happening in
college heaps?

Speaker 4 (22:31):
Oh, you know, it's a close one between Wisconsin and
Michigan at the Big Ten Championship. The Badgers just at
the ball with a chance to tie the game. They're
down by two. They didn't get a bucket. So Michigan
right now with the lead fifty five to fifty three,
fourteen seconds to go, they have the ball. They just
got fouled. So now the Wolverines just have to hold
on and they are the Big Ten champions Tournament champions,

(22:54):
tournament champions.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yes, a big day, and you didn't say anything wrong,
But there is quite you get in these arguments in
these fan bases of like who's the real champion? Like, uh,
you're gonna hang a banner for a tournament championship?

Speaker 4 (23:06):
Come on, yes, yes I am yeah, that's the answer.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Or you could be like U cla, yeah, we only
hang National Championship banners. Paulie, Oh yeah, it's gonna be
a while. It's been thirty years in the counting, so
have fun with that.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Ben Hollins goes to three straight you know, nothing to
show Ford and the raft.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
No, put it up, kids, put it up whatever you want.
At the AAC Championship Final in the tournament, I should
I say all those words just to make sure. Uh,
with about two and a half minutes to go in
that one, and it looks like sixteen drength Memphis is
gonna win this one. They're up on u AB seventy
nine to sixty six. So again down to the final
two minutes. And earlier today the teams that won their tournaments.

(23:45):
Yale won the IVY League Tournament, Florida took down the
s won the SEC tournament. They took down number eight
Ton of C eighty six to seventy seven, and VCU
won the Atlantic Ten. In the NBA, right now, give
you guys a quick up date with the Lakers in
the sun la is up eighty three seventy one after
three quarters. Luka danc Is twenty eight points, eight rebounds,
eight assists.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
As for Lebron James.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
He's doing on court workouts, but he's still going to
be about a week out until he can return from
that groin injury. According to ESPN, the Magic snapped the
Caps sixteen game winning streak today or Lando wins. It
went away to one ZH three Palo Vankaro twenty four points,
eleven rebounds and seven assists. The final round of the
Players Championship is supposed to be back in running because
they had weather beautiful beautiful, so they're back and running.

(24:29):
But Rory McElroy has been in the lead today at
twelve underd part overall in baseball guys, Mookie Bets, Dodger shortstop,
apparently is sick.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
He's dealing with.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Like flu like symptoms. They don't think he's going to
be ready for Opening Day against the Chicago Cubs in
Japan on Tuesday, so you may not see Mooki Bets
out there. Joey Gallo was released from the White Sox
and now there's a story that he's going to pitch.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Outfielder Joey Gallo has been released by the White Sox
because he wants to pitch.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
See, by the way, I'm my wife once called Mookie Bets,
Bookie Mets, and every time I hear they were playing
the Mets too, She's like, oh, that's Bookie Mets, right,
And I'm like what, You're.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Like, sure, yeah, sure, why not? Now I'm going to
say that. Now that's gonna be stuck in my head.
I'm gonna get it, like you can mix them wrong
Boogie Knights, it's kind of close to that, but Mets
the whole deal.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
And then my buddy who's a Mets fan, said, oh,
that was show Hayes interpreter, right, And then it went
completely off the rails.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
And then you know, so my wife started a little
you hang with a funny crewer. I know, yeah, I
like that. I just laughed at it because it was funny.
I feel bad for Mookie Bets because there's nothing worse,
and I don't care if you're a professional baseball player
about to be sick get away from home.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Oh that's a life hack, like worst worst life situations
in the world.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Apparently he was sick before they left and he just
still went with them, and that he tried to do
work a workout today and he just has no energy.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
I know, we have a bracket to break. Down.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
But have you ever been ready to take a trip
and convinced yourself that you're sick and you're not actually sick?
Like I just went to Utah for four days and
I was like I was convinced on the plane there.
I was like, this is going to be terrible. I'm
not gonna make it. I'm gonna be in the hotel
room the whole time. Then I ended up being fine.
I a little tickle, but you know.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
I have a sick NC DOUBLEA tournament story. Oh, I've
told you this before, so you know this what's us.
When I was in high school, we would our spring
break would be going to first and second round n
CUBAA tournament games. When I was at junior in high school,
there weren't any close. My mom treated me to a
trip to the Then it was the Southeast Southeast Regional

(26:37):
Final semifinals and finals in Knoxville, Tennessee. They said Purdue Duke,
Kansas and Marquette and Glenn Robinson Grant Hill. Nineteen ninety four.
I came down with tonselitis and then mono. I only
saw the inside of my hotel room in Knoxville for
three days, and then we just decided we better go

(26:57):
back home. I just get that mono though. Yeah, maybe
it was wid after a lot of necking. Yeah yeah,
that's uh, but no, it's stunk. And yeah, being on
vacation nothing worse than being sick.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
That's rough.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
It is. It is rough, by the.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Way, about what an eighteen hour flight to just get
sick in other country?

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, well, we did clear up to twenty eleven brackets.
San Diego State was the two seed, Yukon was the
three seeds. Cincinnati was the sixth seed that year. So
you were correct in that three to six matchup that
we were trying to trying to clear up earlier. By
the way, in this Big Ten championship game that Michigan
is now won, they are the Big Ten Tournament champions.
When Michigan State lost today and they lost a close

(27:37):
game to Wisconsin, I don't think that tom Izzo was
that mad. And when you look at the run that
you went through tip of the captain Michigan, I think
both of these teams were a bit gassed. Michigan did
play on Sunday of last week as well, but Wisconsin
had four games in four days. For as great as

(27:57):
it was for them, to go on this run. I'm
not sure on how much it's going to improve their
seating and Wisconsin will now be a team to watch.
To be okay, where are they seated? They should be
playing in Milwaukee for the first two games, but you
mentioned Iowa stayed earlier. They lost Johnny Davis in that
twenty twenty two game and i was State and ended
up knocking them off in Milwaukee. So it's not a

(28:18):
fix all to be close to home. But I'm curious
to see if a four games in four days deal
for a power conference team that plays on Sunday, if
that will have any effect on them. Because the Tennessee
and Florida game, they were those teams already advanced to
the quarterfinals. Wisconsin had to play an extra game being
the fifth seed in the Big Ten. Yeah, and you
just mentioned the SEC.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
That was a big talking point coming in as a
conference with probably thirteen maybe fourteen NCAA tournament bids.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Is it the worst thing?

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Like, like, Okay, you gotta play this team, then you
play Auburn, then you gotta play Tennessee, play this I
guess whatever, play this team. You gotta play Auburn, then
you play Florida, you know, and it's like, is it
the worst thing to get home? Like as an example,
like Ark and Saw felt like they kind of couldn't
lose to South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
They don't.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
They lose on a buzzer beat at Old Miss, But
they're a team that's got three or four guys that
are battling injuries right now. I know guys that cover
that team that are like, behind the scenes, they aren't
that mad that they're not going to be in Nashville
till Saturday or Sunday. And so it's an interesting thing.
And I think you and I talked about it the
other day. You know, I've done a few shows here,
so a lot of the conversations are running together. Is

(29:25):
I love conference tournaments. I also understand that they are
one not the best way to determine who to send
for a one big league And I also know, as
you know we kind of saw with Duke, and thankfully
there were no side effects to it, it can have
a wear down effect, and it might for these teams
playing in the Big Ten Championship, in the SEC Championship, whatever.
But I think it's a good point by you about Wisconsin,

(29:46):
especially playing its fourth game in four day.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
We laugh at the brackets. We have so much fun
when we see the West Coast Conference in the sun
Belt this year was you had to print your bracket
on landscape because it was so long. That's the way
that you could get the bracket. But those are done.
Those are done so they can have their best foot
forward when it comes to the tournament, so their best
team's advance. I'm not so sure, Aaron. Considering you and

(30:10):
I were talking this week of when the Big twelve
tournament started, the games were on ESPN plus. When the
Big Ten tournaments started, there are games on Peacock, and
I know that they're giving inventory to those streaming services.
But you're like, all right, it's the conference tournament. You
and I are feeling like, all right, at least be

(30:30):
on ESPN two if you're the Big ten network. Yeah yeah,
or something like that if you're the Big ten. But
it wasn't the case, and so you're already leaving out
some schools from your bracket. For whatever reason, you keep
it at fifteen. If you wanted to play more games,
you could just include everybody and figure out a way
to do it, or you could even try to figure

(30:52):
out a way to maybe protect a five, six or
seven seed because Wisconsin. Wisconsin's in the running for a
three seed in the bracket, and now they're four games
in four days. If they do go to Milwaukee, which
I think they will by the way the way I
worked it out as well, I think Michigan actually will
also be in Milwaukee. We'll find out in the next hour.
But the point is is you got to figure out

(31:13):
a way to give them a little rest.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Do you think this might be stupid and irrelevant, but
do you think there's any type of out of sight,
out of mind for the bubble team? So like Xavier
on the bubble, both their games are on Peacock. I'm
sure that the committee has every game imaginable lined up,
but it just felt like they were out of the spotlight.
Ohio State loses on Peacock. It's not out of you know,

(31:36):
I just it feels like those were teams that it's
just like, Oh, I didn't even know they were playing.
Oh they're playing, Oh they lost okay on in the
next game.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
I mean, it probably means nothing, but it was just
something I was thinking about when you were talking.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
I don't think in Ohio State's case, because I think
that Ohio State's so far off the bubble. If there
were any questions, they were answered by losing Shiowa in
the way that they did earlier in the week. Xavier
maybe a different story. I think Xavier's firmly on the bubble.
We've seen a lot of final first four projections for them.
I should say I don't know, though, because I think
what happens is we get wrapped up into everything and

(32:10):
seeing and are taking things in real time. I do
think that the committee looks at it differently.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
I totally fair, and you know, like you said, you know,
these these are games that would have been decided on Wednesday.
You know, Xavior played on Thursday, but you get to Sunday.
With the way the world, with the way the world
works in all of the games that we have seen,
I guess it does become a little bit of an
out of sight, out of mind variable.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
He's Aaron Torres, I'm Dan Byer. We are twenty minutes
away from the bracket being released, and as soon as
they announce it on CBS, we will announce it to
you here on Fox Sports Radio. I want to remind
you to be sure to check out the Fox Sports
Radio YouTube channel. There's a ton of great videos for
many of our Fox Sports Radio shows. Just search Fox
Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see a whole bunch
of video highlights from our shows. And be sure to

(32:54):
subscribe so you always have instant access to our Fox
Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Again, the bracket coming up
in about twenty minutes or so will have the full breakdown,
will reveal the field of sixty eight for you. So
if you're driving in your car, maybe you're in a
warm area of the country and doing some Sunday yard
work trying to get ready for the spring, please stick around.

(33:15):
We're gonna have all the information that you need right here.
On Fox Sports Radio. He is erin Torres. I'm Dan Byer.
Some more bracket quirks, some special teams, and ah yes,
that bubble we talked about, we'll all talk about it
next on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Radio Fox Sports Sunday. He's erin Torres. I'm Dan Byer,
a special selection Sunday show. Find Aaron at Aaron Underscore Torres.
You can find me at Dan Byer on Fox Selection
Sunday Brackets being released. CBS has the countdown on twelve
minutes and they'll start with the number one overall seed

(33:52):
and then they dive right into the brackets. The number
one overall seed is up for debate. I said earlier,
I think it's going to be Duke. Aaron had information
that said maybe it could be otherwise, could be Auburn.
We think is the top two. I don't. I don't
have any information.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
I just think the thing, like, I just found it
interesting after Tennessee beat Auburn yesterday. The single thing that
Duke's argument is for the number one overall seed is
that they had that win against against Auburn. The problem
is now Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida all have wins against Auburn.
So I just thought that if that's like the key

(34:30):
bullet point on your on your resume, I just don't
know if it carries as much weight as it did
two or three weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
Sure, and the committee may look at it as a
whole and take all four of those teams that we
feel will be number one seeds and could mix it up.
I think the through the telescope that we look at
it through because of the value of the conference tournament,
or should say lack there of the value of winning
the conference tournament. From what we've seen in the past,

(34:58):
Florida was a borderline one before the tournament. So now
they win the conference tournament earlier today, we think that
they solidified their one, but I don't know if it's
enough to move them up. So that kind of eliminates
them and puts Alabama and Tennessee in that two group.
So then it's down to Duke, Auburn and Houston, a
team that nobody is talking about. With Houston that I
know you're you're fond of, it's the point of, all right,

(35:20):
if it is Duke Auburn, which has seemingly been the
theme throughout the year, that if you're ultimately going to
just try to decide with the two, wouldn't it be
great if they played?

Speaker 5 (35:30):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (35:30):
They did, sure, you know. So there's the outcome that's
but again that may not be how the committee ends
up looking to you. So final answer, do you believe
you said you believe I think Duke will be number one? Yes,
LA number one, number one.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
I think there is certainly an argument, and by the way,
I was just making the counter argument for why I
think the resume.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
If you're going to argue for Duke is the.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Number one overall seed, you then have to then probably
make the argument for Florida, which I agree with you.
I don't think the committee will do. And I will
say you mentioned it earlier. The final ten games used
to be a metric that the committee uses. They no
longer use it. They basically felt like, you know, you
shouldn't be punishing teams for getting good wins in the
out of conference. But I bring it up because I

(36:11):
do think recency bias. It's hard not to have some
degree of it. We are human beings. I know you're
not supposed to, but I would imagine that with the
way Duke looked at by the way, it sounds weird
because it be counterintuitive. I think there was a thought,
what if Duke loses without Cooper flag. But the way
that I know they struggle with Carolina, but the way

(36:31):
that they really kind of control Louisville the entire second half,
a team that we're looking at as a six to
seven seed and really dominated that game, I think that
actually helps the argument of like, look at what they
did to that team without Cooper flag. Imagine how good
they'll be and we all assume that he does come back.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
One overall theme and we're going to get to the
bubble in like sixty seconds. I just want to make
this point. We talked about how because of the number
of SEC teams that are atop the top three of
the top eight, we believe how you wouldn't have them
in the same in the same r region being a
one and a two seed. There also is another deal.
When you're talking about the Arkansaws of the world, the

(37:08):
you know, I don't know if you want to put
an ole miss in there, but we'll talk about teams
who are seven, eight, nine, to ten somewhere in that world.
When you're talking about seeding these teams, they can't be
an eight or nine. So now you're gonna have an
SEC team not only be opposite of Duke as a
two very likely because you're putting thirteen to fourteen, you know,

(37:29):
schools in the bracket very likely against either Duke or
Houston in that second round, just because I don't think
it would be fair to a number one seed of
Florida or Auburn to have to face a conference foe
in the second round.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
It's amazing you know looking at all these brackets, and
we'll get our official bracket here in eight minutes. But
just how you know all you know Alabama is a
two seed versus say, you know Kentucky as a potential
or not Kentucky Arkansas is a ten seed or Oklahore.
You know teams that you literally just played a week
or two ago that could have been in you or
did beat you. And how like you said, with thirteen teams,

(38:05):
there's no way that there isn't some overlap, just.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Like you know, Mississippi State could be there in an
eight to nine you know matchup, and I don't think
it would be fair to either of the SEC schools
to have to face them in the second round. He
is Aaron Torres, I'm Dan Byert. Does North Carolina get in?
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
I really, again, it shouldn't come down to one game,
but I think the perception of not being able to
beat Duke when Duke was not at full strength and
not having a resume before that, I think you could
at least make a little bit.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Of an argument. I just I'll be sure. No, I don't.
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
I think that even these SEC teams that have you know,
ten eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen losses. You know, they also
have several wins that are significantly better than anything North
Carolina did, So I don't think Carolina.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
It would be the first time in history that a
team could lose a bid to the NCAA tournament on
a lane violation. Yeah, that's how close, like you talked
about and again, and maybe it's not that close because
of the twelve opportunities they had to win a group
of one game. But North Carolina, what about Indiana and
the Hoosiers?

Speaker 2 (39:13):
You know they at least have four quad one wins.
I think they're four and thirteen in quad one. It's
not great. It shows you how weak the bubble is.
All indications seem to be that they will be in
another one. By the way, didn't really the thing with them.
They don't have a ton of great wins but zero
bad losses. I will say Indiana is headed to Dayton.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
All right, and a couple of others.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
For you Texas, I think Texas is out fifteen losses
at some point. Overall, wins and losses is not a metric.
I just think it's hard fifteen losses, six and twelve
in SEC play. No, by the way, important thing with them,
no greade out of conference wins. Arkansas is great out
of conference wins, Oklahoma does, Texas does not. Boise State

(39:53):
the first team in last team out. I think they're
either sixty eight or sixty nine.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
I really do.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
It's just you feel bad. They made it to the
conference championship game. They upset New Mexico. They beat two
NCAA tournament caliber teams in San Diego, state of New Mexico.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
I don't know if it's not and any hope for
the ant eaters of U c Ervine. We had a
big debate about this on our show on Saturday night.
I think they're out. He's eron Torres. I'm Dan Byer.
It is almost that time. We bring you the field
of sixty eight for the twenty twenty five NCABLEA Tournament
next on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (40:24):
Ah.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yes, it is that time, as we now await the
bracket for the twenty twenty five NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament,
as we are broadcasting live from the tirereq dot com studios.
Tirerec dot Com will help you get there in unmatched selection,
fast free shipping, free road hazard protection in over ten
thousand recommended installers. Tirec dot com the way tire buying

(40:46):
should be. So we're gonna try to mirror what CBS
does and get you the brackets as they are announced.
We expect the number one overall seed to be announced
at any point for those that are wondering Aeron torres.
In our four regions, the regional finals will be held
in the East Region in Newark, New Jersey, the West
Region in San Francisco, Midwest Region, and Indianapolis in the

(41:09):
South region in Atlanta. The East West will be the
Thursday Saturday of the regional semifinals and finals, while the
Indianapolis and Atlanta sites in the Midwest and South will
be Friday Sunday games. This is obviously two weeks from now,
but I bring up the point when you look at
a team like BYU, we know BYU is gonna have

(41:29):
to be in a Thursday Saturday match up because the
school does not play athletic events on Sundays, and so
then they'll have to be put in a region, probably
in the East or West because of the Thursday Saturday
games that are played in those regions. Just one of
the bracket things you have to take into accounts.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
By the way, I know we got to be quick
here because we're going to get information soon. But if
Duke is the number one overall seed, I think we've
all defaulted to they would want to play in Newark.
Obviously Atlanta geographically probably a little bit closer. They obviously
large alumni base in Newark. I would assume that they
would still take Newark. But again, the number one overall
seed has priority on where they would play.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Region, and that would be if they went to Newark,
would be beneficial to Auburn, which would just have a
couple hour drive to Atlanta for that South region so
much to get to first and second round sites. For
those that don't know, the Thursday Saturday games will be
in Denver, Wichita, Providence, Rhode Island, and Lexington, Kentucky at
Rupp Arena. The Friday Sunday sites are Raleigh, Milwaukee, Seattle,

(42:30):
and Oakland Aaron Torres. Let's get it going. Auburn appears
to be the number one seed in the South Region.
They are your number one overall seed. I was wrong.
Now it is the Auburn Tigers.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
There was certainly an argument for Duke Auburn was sixteen
Quad one wins, by far, the most in college basketball.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Not totally surprised. Auburn will face the winner of Alabama
State in Saint Francis, playing a first four game in
Dayton coming up on Tuesday. Saint Francis Cinderella run to
the tournament and they get the first four game in
Dayton coming up on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Eight number one seed Central Connecticut in the NEC Championship game.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
The eighth seed Thursday in Lexington. Short drive for the
Louisville Cardinals. There's their first controversy right there. Auburn's going
to be playing as the one seed potentially again against
Louisville in Lexington. I would not be happy if I
was Bruce Pearl right now. So Louisville will take on
the Creighton Blue Jays from the Big East to nine
seed Creyton making it all the way to the Big

(43:33):
East Championship game last night before losing to Saint John's.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Yeah, I mean, that's what it is right there, Louisville
potentially having a significant home court advantage over Auburn.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
I'm curious to hear Bruce Pearl on that throughout the night. Well,
this is your first Sunday doesn't matter. Michigan just won
the Big Ten tournament. Michigan is now a five seed,
a five seed in the South Region. They will be
playing in Denver, Colorado. I thought they had a legit
shot of being a three seed playing in Milwaukee. Now
they're gonna play at altitude on a short week and

(44:06):
taking on You see San Diego making their first ever
appearance in the NCAA tournaments.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
I'll tell you this Thursday regional means that Michigan will
have to fly out Tuesday afternoon for media availability Wednesday,
so they probably don't get back to campus till late tonight.
Have to fly out Tuesday afternoon. That is a short,
short turnaround for them.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
So the other Thursday game, a four to thirteen matchup
in Denver is Texas A and M from the SEC.
I did get this one right. You could even see
it on the paper. Texas A and M the second
SEC team that we've seen in the bracket. They will
face the winner of the IVY League. Speaking of short weeks, Yale.
So the Aggies against Yale, Well, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Yale of course pulled off the upset against Auburn and
Round one another last year, another SEC opponent in twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
So that's your first nine schools. Because we have the
two sixteen seeds. Now these are Friday games in Milwaukee.
Chris Beard and ole Miss will be the sixth seed
in the South Region. Ole Miss really solid team. Oh
look who they're playing, San Diego State or North Carolina.
The tar Heels get in San Diego State North Carolina

(45:15):
two of the final teams in this year's bracket.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Shock one up for Torres being dead wrong. I did
not think North Carolina had an argument. They will play
on Wednesday night in Date and it appears.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Curious to see if it's Wisconsin here again a Milwaukee
site and for a short turnaround it's going to be
Iowa State instead. Iowa State. It's the three seed in Milwaukee.
There could be another one, but Michigan's seeding of five
is interesting to see how it plays out for the
rest of the Big Ten. Iowa State, a three seed,
will face Lipscomb Friday afternoon in Milwaukee.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Iowa State's got to get healthy. Two of their top
scores have been in and out of the lineup the
last couple weeks.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
I don't want to guess and say that it's the afternoon.
But they'll face Lipscomb, Iowa State will on Friday seven
to ten. Matchup in the South is Marquette against New
Mexico own Richard Bettino.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
Yeah, in New Mexico regular season champs, really solid team.
Marquette is struggling coming down the stretch. I don't want
to do the whole thing that everybody hates, but I
could see upset potential if you will, in that ten
seven game.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
And that's a Cleveland game on Friday. The two seed
is Michigan State, So Michigan State will be the two
seed in Cleveland coming up on Friday, and Tomzo and
the Spartans will end up facing as the fifteen seed.
Spending a lot of time Bryant. Bryant Bulldogs out of

(46:34):
Rhode Island. Phil Martelli Junior, Phil Martelli Junior the head
coach there. Of course, his dad was the longtime Saint
Joe's head coach. I saw them embrace, giving each other
a big hug after they clinched beating Maine in the
championship game. Did Bryant handedly but Maine trying to get
to the tournament by the and said it's Brian to
Bryant now gets to deal with Tommyzo and Michigan State Iowa.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
Sam bringing up a great point last night. Very weird
not seeing the Vermont Catamounts in the America East Championship game.
It feels like the first time in about thirty years
that Arnie Spaniards from matt Catamouts were not in the
conference championship.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
All right, So here's the South Region. Auburn the number
one seed and the number one overall seed in the tournament.
They'll play on Thursday against either Alabama State or Saint
Francis and Lexington. The eight to nine matchup is Louisville
against Creighton. Were you surprised Michigan as a five seed
a little bit? I hate to keep going back to
the same thing. I think.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
I just Auburn having to play Louisville in Ropperena.

Speaker 6 (47:32):
Now.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
I know there's gonna be some unbiased, you know, Kentucky
fans there that might be pulling for Auburn. But by
the way, Auburn, the last time they were in Reperena
clinch the SEC regular season title, they did some dancing
on the floor, they did some celebrations. The folks in
Lexington were not happy about that, and now those Louisville
fans where people wh don't know the geography. It's less
than an hour drive from Louisville to Lexington. I would

(47:53):
expect a lot of red both days, but certainly if
Louisville were to.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Advance, soxas A and M will face Yale. Winner of
that game faces the winner of the Michigan You see
San Diego game. Aaron talked about the eight and M
matchup with Louisville and Creighton the other side of the
bracket Friday games. First of all, in Milwaukee, it's Ole
miss against the winner of North Carolina and San Diego State,
So that's bad news for the bubble teams to see
North Carolina's name up there. San Diego State will face

(48:20):
North Carolina on or in Dayton. Coming up on Wednesday,
Iowa State and Lipscomb in the three fourteen matchup, Marquette
against New Mexico seven to ten in Cleveland on Friday,
Michigan State and Bryant in two fifteen matchup, also in Cleveland.
He's erin Torres, I'm dan Byer. We will take a
time out. A quarter of the field is set. How
will the rest of the bracket look? We'll tell you

(48:41):
next year on Fox Sports Radio. It's Fox Sports Radio.
He's erin Torres. I'm Dan Byer our Selection Sunday Special.
We're smack dab in the middle of it. When we
left you, we gave you the South Region. If you're
just joining us, Auburn is the number one overall seed
of this NCAA tournament. They got the numbernumber one seed
in the South Region. The East region has just been

(49:04):
revealed while we are away at What we can tell
you is that Duke is the number one seed in
the East region. Aaron. They don't know who they're going
to play on Friday because they're going to face the
winner of the American Mount Saint Mary's first four matchup
coming up Wednesday in Dayton. But Duke will be playing
in Raleigh on Friday, giving Cooper Cup excuse thirty seven

(49:26):
times extra time to rest his ankle. Sorry, Cooper flag
Cup needs some rests as well.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Yeah, Duke not surprised they're in the East, especially with
Auburn being the one seed that was the only logical
landing spot. Big question is, as you said, does Cooper
Flag play on Friday.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Or does he wait till Round two? An interesting East region.
This is how the rest of the bracket played out.
Also playing in Raleigh in the Friday Sunday matchup. The
eight to nine matchup is Mississippi State from the SEC
as the eighth seed and number nine seed Baylor the
fifth seed, playing in Seattle on Friday. As Oregon, they're
taking on the Liberty Flames the twelve seed, while the

(50:06):
four seed Arizona Wildcats take on thirteen seeded Akron. Again,
that's Friday in Seattle. That's the top half of the
East region, the bottom half of the bracket in the
East by you as your sixth seed. Something we talked about,
they're gonna have to play on Thursday. They're gonna have
to be in a region where the regional is on
Thursday and Saturday. So they got put in the East

(50:27):
and they're playing in Denver in a Thursday Saturday matchup.
But on Thursday they've got number eleven Virginia Commonwealth.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
Yeah, a lot of thoughts on the top half of
the bracket. I know we have plenty of time to
break down. I just think Yukon had been projected as
in that eight to nine game in virtually every bracket
I saw facing Duke potentially in the second round. Stead
you get a physical Mississippi State team, a Baylor team
with NBA athletes. But I think, all things considered, nice
little draw for Duke the top of the bracket.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
I know you want to continue here on the bottom. Yeah,
in a surprising move. And what I've seen here is
now we've got Michigan who won the Big Ten. Today,
VCU ended up winning their conference championship in the A Ten,
and Wisconsin just lost to Michigan. They're all playing Thursday
in Denver. Because Wisconsin is the three seed in the East.

(51:13):
Wisconsin is not going to Milwaukee. Instead, they'll be taking
on fourteenth seed Montana. By the way, if you're talking
about advantages, if you're at least used to altitude a little,
Montana is. But Wisconsin now on a short week, like Michigan,
like VCU, They're gonna have to go to Denver and
play on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Yeah, we talked about, you know, the advantages if you
have a spot locked up, not the worst thing to
lose early in the conference championship BYU as an example,
plays on Friday, they get home probably late Friday night.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
They've been resting.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
They'll head out to Denver as opposed to VCU, which,
as we just said, plays today. They're probably in the
air right now as we speak, and well, I think
the game was in Washington today, but you get the
point is that they're probably just getting back to campus.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
They will have to fly out.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Tuesday to That is a quick turnaround after a couple
high leverage, a ten conference championship game, tournament games.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
And then the bottom half of the East bracket. Saint
Mary's the seventh seed, the runner up in the West
Coast Conference tournament. They lost to Gonzaga. They get Vanderbilt,
the ten seed from the SEC. Considered a bubble team,
but most projections were that Vandy was in and they
are in solidly as a ten seed if you're just
joining us. North Carolina did make the bracket. They are

(52:27):
playing in a first four game in Dayton against San
Diego State. They were placed in the South Region. They'll
play on Wednesday. The speaking of the SEC here could
be a possibility. Now you can't project it because you
have a lower seed, but Alabama the two seed, could
face Vanderbilt in that second round of Van Der Pols
the upset against Saint Mary's. The games in Cleveland on Friday,
we'll have Alabama against number fifteen seed Robert Morris Crimson

(52:50):
tied the two seed in that contest.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Yeah, they only played once. If Alabama were to face
Vanderbilt in the second round, Alabama with a sixteen point
home win in their only matchup with Vanderbilt. Again, if
they were to play in round two.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
And as we talked about some of the positioning that
you're doing in so far, it has held true Aaron
Torres is that we have seen with Auburn, they were
not given an SEC team in the eight nine. We
felt that that would be unfair. But here the two seed,
and I feel that you could do that. You couldn't
have Vandy a seven seed. You couldn't have the two
higher seeds be from the SEC, but they can. They're

(53:25):
allowed to do it in a way because it's a
lower seed. So if Vandy pulls the upset, you will
get that second round game Sunday in Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Fascinating draw and again that first time that we see
the double SEC early round potential matchup. I think with
Arkansas and both Oklahoma, I would say probably sitting on
around that ten or so line. Wouldn't shock me to
see one of those two teams getting either Tennessee, I
guess Tennessee. I think one of those two will probably
be in a bracket where they have to face Tennessee

(53:56):
in the second round.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
So you see North Carolina in a nice y vanderb in.
We're starting to see teams that are on the bubble,
some teams getting really nervous, and you know what, the
fund never stops. Strike up the band again because now
the Midwest region and your top seed, the Houston Cougars,
the number one seed in the Midwest. Houston, so we'll

(54:18):
be playing a Thursday in Wichita, Kansas in Thursday Saturday games.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
So much so much from my Big twelve source that
insisted Houston wanted the West region, looks like they'll be
in the Midwest instead.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
They play si U E Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville,
winners of I believe the OVC Yes, so SIUE first
official bid clinch was SIU Edwardsville and one of Doug
Gottlieb's wins this year at Green Bay against a tournament
team and SIU E the eight seed Gonzaga Thursday. A

(54:53):
lot of people are all over the map with where
the Bulldogs were going to be seeded. They get an
eight nine matchup in Wichita on Thursday. Who will the
Bulldogs end up facing as a nine seed in Wichita?
They're making us wait and it's the Georgia Bulldogs.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Georgia really good team. Won four straight games in the
regular season. They did lose on the opening night of
the sec. ASA Newle's the name to know there. He's
like definitely a potential first round pick.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Clemson, who made a run to the Elite eight last year,
was curious on where they were going to be placed.
We saw Louisville make the runs to the ACC Tournament
final this past weekend in Charlotte. They were an eight
seed earlier. Now Clemson, playing in Providence on Thursday, will
face McNeice in a five to twelve game.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
That's Will Wade, of course, former LSU head coach. They
got a really good team. They went nineteen to one
league play. That is a good matchup for McNeese. That
is a game they could win.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
Playing in Providence on Thursday is the four seed the
Purdue boiler Makers out of the Big Ten and the
thirteen seed high points at twenty nine to five.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Ever NCAA tournament bid for them. You can see the
arena going crazy. Alan huss well respected former Creighton assistant coaches,
taken over there.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
They are going to the NCAA Tournament. Very very cool
story for that group. This is not where it gets
tense because usually in the top half of the bracket
there aren't tons of bubble teams where what we're seeing
are the twelve seeds are the high end automatic bids.
The sixth seed is Illinois in the Midwest region. This
is Friday in Milwaukee, so Illinois will be the sixth seed.

(56:31):
This is where we could get a Actually we won't.
All we will Texas and Xavier playing on Friday. Texas
and Xavier both get in the tournament. That's awful news
for Indiana.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
I was just thinking that Texas the fifteen losses, I
think that ties the most for an at large bid.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Ever, Xavier, you gotta be happy, you know.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
I think some of these SEC teams, I mean, do
you worry if you're in Arkansas or in Oklahoma that
hasn't seen your name called yet? Arkansas sweeps Texas beats Vandy,
and their matchup. You'd assume they'd be fine, but you
just never know. There's only so many spots left. I
do want to correct something I said earlier, but I
have to let you know. Kentucky ends up getting the
three seed in the Midwest. They go to Milwaukee.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
This is a spot I thought Wisconsin was gonna be in, Yes,
but Wisconsin loses the tournament final. Kentucky ends up getting
the spot in Milwaukee where Mark Pope and the Wildcats
take on Troy.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
There you go, Kentucky Wildcats, by the way, bottom half
of that bracket in Lexington.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Go ahead, Dan Flores your yeah, that's all right. Ucla
is the third seed now in Lexington in this seven
to ten match up. These games are on Thursday in Lexington,
Ucla will face Utah State. I'll be curious Utah State
is in.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
I thought that might be an Arkansas as the ten
seed potentially going to Lexington.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
That's not the case. So this is Lexington on Thursday
and Saturday. Tennessee gets the two seed in the Midwest region.
One other point to just bring up about Utah State.
They obviously coming from the Mountain West Conference. We haven't
seen Boise State's name yet. So there's a team that
was on the bubble as well that we were looking
at Wafford with the automatic bid. They are the fifteen

(58:12):
seed facing a Tennessee coming up on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Starting to wonder if Arkansas or Oklahoma is going to
somehow get left out of this field. Both of those
teams felt like they were in pretty good shape coming
out of champ Week. Only so many spots, you know,
those eleven seeds, there's you know, very limited spots left.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
I'll be very curious.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Remember, by the way, Oklahoma last year was I believe
one of the first two or three teams out. So
Porter Moser, you would feel awful for him if for
a second straight year they were one of those first feeds.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
So here are just some of the names that are
on the bubble that we have not heard yet. Indiana,
West Virginia, Boise State, Wake Forest, Arkansas, U See r Vine.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
I'll tell you what it's going to certainly be very
interesting to hear the committee's explanation. Indiana has four quad
one wins, zero quad three or four losses. North Carolina
has one quad one win. As we very much heard,
Xavier has.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
One quad one win.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
It'll be very interesting, to say the least. How they
explain Indiana not getting in but North Carolina and Xavier
getting in, I do.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
Have to correct myself. Then we're gonna jump over to
Monzi just for an update. She can give us an
update of what's happening in other events. But before Monty
we go to you. The two eleven seed games Aaron
Texas and Xavier and San Diego State North Carolina. The
winner of those games will end up being played on Friday.

(59:39):
So I don't know who's gonna be on Tuesday. I
think earlier or I said earlier that San Diego State
North Carolina would play on Wednesday. Somebody's gonna get an
extra day of rest playing in the first four. Yes,
because you're gonna play on Tuesday, and then the bracket
that you're funneled into will have a Friday first round game.
All right, we have one region to go. We're gonna
go over to Manzi Blanias.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
With the latest, there has to be something that you
too unlock in your brain when it comes to this,
because the way you to discuss it this is year.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Six road It's not only year six, it's probably year
seventy combined with our ages of following the NCAA.

Speaker 7 (01:00:15):
Take a part of your brain that you unlock yes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
For this and it goes away for a year, just
like the groundhog. Phil.

Speaker 7 (01:00:22):
It's just it's incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
You see Tours and Bayer in mid March. Six more
weeks of winters definitely coming so.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
Well as the bracket continues to be released. In case
you missed it, Auburn is the number one overall seed
in the tournament. Out of the South Region, out of
the Midwest region, the number one seed is Houston, and
out of the East Region.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
The number one seed is Duke. We'll check in on
the NBA.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
Some games just got going so still in the first quarter,
but the Nets are on top of the Hawks twenty
six to twenty one, and the Raptors are all over
the Trailblazers twenty two to ten. Earlier, the Lakers, they
outscored the Suns one of seven to ninety six. Luka
Doncish thirty three points, eleven rebounds, and eight assists. As
for Lebron James, ESPN reports that he is doing some
encore workouts, but it's gonna miss at least another week

(01:01:09):
with that growing injury. The Magic snapped the Cavaliers sixteen
game winning streak. They came out on top one o
eight to one oh three, and it was a total
team effort. But Pawlll Bancaro twenty four points and eleven rebounds.
Norman Powell is gonna make his return to the Clippers
starting lineup tonight. That's right against the Hornet. So I'm
excited at the Players Championship. Rory McElroy is in the
lead twelve under part. Overall, he is four hundred through

(01:01:30):
fifteen holes for today. JJ spawn is one shot back
back to you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
All right, manzis he is jacked for some Clippers hoops.
I'll tell you what the Bucks. The Bucks played tonight
against the thunder and I am so in college hoops mode.
Oh yeah that it just it feels, and you say,
like unlocking your brain in a certain way, it's very
difficult to transition over and to be then locked in

(01:01:55):
on NBA action.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
If I asked your name all twelve college football playoff
teams from this year, now, could.

Speaker 8 (01:02:00):
You do it right? Now?

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
It's like that, that's how it gets right. It's like
you spend hours and days talking about this stuff and
then you move on to the next thing. And oh,
by the way, a month from now, we're not gonna remember,
Oh dude, who did they? They were in wet region now,
but you know, some time here. This is the fun
of it in terms of I will say for what
we had talked about in the first ninety minutes of

(01:02:22):
the show, at least in the first hour, and if
you're just joining us, a big topic of conversation was
how does this committee deal with the large number of
SEC schools in the bracket? And then how do you
pair them opposite your three teams that you feel are
better than everyone else? And three of the top eight
seeds are going to be from the SEC, and they've

(01:02:45):
pretty much kept with it so far. We just saw Georgia,
a nine seed, playing Gonzaga in the Midwest region. They're
in Houston's region. The only eight to nine matchup that
we know so far that doesn't include an SEC team
was in the South Louisville and Creighton, and they're facing
the number one seed in Auburn. I expect us to
see Florida as the number one seed in the West

(01:03:06):
region as it's just about to be announced, and that
is the case so I'd be shocked if we saw
an SEC team here in an eight nine matchup.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
I think this is probably where you see Yukon, the
two time defending champ. They've been projected as a as
a eight nine game in Raleigh. We just assumption was
always going to be that they played Duke. We'll see
what happens here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
So Florida is the number one seed. Their sixteen seed
will be Norfolk State. So Norfolk State in as the
sixteen seed. I think there was some question on whether
they'd be a first four. There you go go, Yukon Huskies. Yeah,
they were projected to Yukon the eighth seed.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
By the way, Friday and Raleigh. That's okay, tough down
the show. Oh, there you go. There's one of those
teams that we were waiting on. Dan, go ahead, and.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
The there you go is for the Oklahoma Sooners, who
are in the bracket, comfortably in the bracket in in
an eight nine matchup against Yukon Friday and Raleigh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Yeah, obviously a lot of interesting developments there. Oklahoma was
on the frintinges of the bubble. They're in, by the way,
another Sunday that doesn't seem to impact anything. I'll tell
you that. Go ahead, Dan Friday Sunday games in Seattle.
Number five seed Memphis in the West Region. Talk about
something not mattering. The buzz was Memphis could be as
high as an eight seed. They come in on the

(01:04:16):
five line.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
And they will face Colorado State, winners of the Mountain
West Conference tournament. Again, as a lot of people said,
Colorado State had to win the tournament to get in,
and it appears that way. Five to twelve matchup Friday,
Maryland will be the four seed in the West Region
playing in Seattle. Coming up on Friday. One of the
longer hikes of teams making the first round track Maryland

(01:04:38):
going across the country to play in Seattle against a
thirteen seed in Grand Canyon, and Bryce drew the Lobe
second straight year. Remember they upset Saint Mary's last year.
In round one.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Maryland played really well, obviously losing at the buzzer essentially
to Michigan in the Big ten semi fi.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
So there's not much drama here at the bottom. But
Missouri is the sixth seed. Saint John's is gonna be
the two at some point here. These are Thursday games
in Wichita, so this.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Probably meets Arkansas on the seven to ten spot, likely
facing Caliperi and Patina. Caliperry versus Patino in round two
is what we're.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Trying foreshadowing that Thursday Saturday games Thursday in Wichita will
be Missouri against Drake Winner are the MVC.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
There you go there, Drake Cauldoggs. Listen, they're the team
that everybody's gonna love. Everybody's gonna pick where they thirty
plus wins this year, Missouri kind of struggled down the stretch.
Be curious to see how they match up with Drake
when they face off in which time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
Thursday in Whichita. The three fourteen game has Texas Tech
from the Big twelve. Texas Tech has been firmly on
that three line. It feels like for the last week
and a half anything that they didn't seem to waiver.
So they are the three seed taking on the Seahawks
of UNC Wilmington.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
UNC Wilmington getting in for the first time since Kevin
Keats was there. Texas Tech is one of those teams listened.
You never say never till the bracket comes out, but
they could absolutely make a deeper run than maybe they've
been given credit.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
For all right, this is the last drama that we've
got of the bracket reveal Thursday in Providence. The seventh
seed is Kansas. Who will they be facing as the
tenth season Arkansas? There's going to be it is Arkansas.
Look who they're going to play in round two? Ar
Kansas against Kansas. That's what we've got.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
By the way, they played in a charity exhibition to
start the season. Arkansas one.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
Providence is going to be the place to be. We
told you we felt Saint John's was likely going to
be the two seed in the West Region. They are
the thirty and four Red Storm winners of the Big
East regular season and the tournament. Rick Patino will be
playing in Providence. How about that? That's fitting playing in Providence.
That stops along his coaching career. Saint John's will be

(01:06:49):
facing the fifteenth seeded squad from Omaha Winter some Mavericks.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Have you seen the Omaha locker room celebrations by the
way with the garbage ca Yes, they do this thing
where they're like professional wrestlers and they just like jump
on garbage cans and elbow them and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
It's a great thing. A couple things that stand out
one Memphis. I mentioned it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
They were projected by some as low as like an
eight seed. So again I actually am happy that they
got credit. They played a monster out of conference schedule.
They beat Missouri, they beat Clemson on the road, they
had a I'm glad that they are rewarded.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
They also get the extra day.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
I remember we talked about Tyree Hutter, their starting point guard,
being out with injury.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
All right, there is your field of sixty eight. The
bracket is now set. Where is no more revealing. You
do not have to listen to John Tesh anymore. You
have got your fill over that thirty five minutes. It
now allows us Aaron to take a time out and
we can digest what we just got. I want to
let people know Fox Sports Radio is going to be

(01:07:51):
here for you when it comes to the Bracket Challenge.
Like basketball, tractor Supply knows that a winning season takes practice,
teamwork in a candy attitude. It's Bracket Challenge season. Be
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Beginning tonight. Visit Fox sports radio dot com to register
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(01:08:12):
Sports Radio Bracket Challenge will win a twenty five hundred
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and be sure to fill out your bracket between tonight
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Radio dot Com. It's all sponsored by Tractor Supply for Life.

(01:08:34):
Out here, we react to the field of sixty eight
and the fourteen schools from the SEC that got in.
He's Erin Torres. I'm Dan Byer. That's next tier. On
Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Sunday. He's erin Torres, I'm
Dan Bayer in the field of sixty eight has been revealed,
and boy, it's tough to be sixty nine in West Virginia,

(01:08:55):
the team left out, the first team out of the bracket.
As we're going through this whole deal, Aaron Torres, we're
looking at the teams that are in and we're surprised.
We saw North Carolina early, we saw Texas a bit
later on, but now, all of a sudden, then you realize,
we knew we didn't see Indiana. We knew he didn't
see Boise State. I think a lot of people took

(01:09:15):
for granted feeling that West Virginia was in the Mountaineers
instead are on the outside looking in.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Yeah, West Virginia was an interesting story, you know, to
use a cliche term, a lot of hay in the barn.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Early in the season.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
They went to the Bahamas, They beat Arizona, they beat Gonzaga. Listen,
you know you and I have talked about it. I
know that you know, last ten second half of the
year isn't a thing. But they did lose to some
of the bottom half of the Big Big twelve. They
went ten to ten overall in the league. They lost
to Arizona State at home, who finished fifteenth out of
sixteen teams they finished. They lost to Kansas State on

(01:09:49):
the road. They lost to TCU at home. I mean,
these are bottom half of the of the of the
conference losses, and I do wonder, and we'll hear from
Bubba Cunningham, the chair of the committee here momentarily, but
I do wonder if not only losing games, but losing
games in the bottom half of that conference played a
factor there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
North Carolina's resume on the board, and some people feel
it's a conflict of interest, but Bubba Cunningham will leave
the room. And here's the interesting thing we are watching
on CBS right now. Bubba Cunningham the chairman of this
NCAA tournament committee, and Keith Gill is the vice chair.
I have never seen two people do the interview. Yeah,

(01:10:30):
And I think the reason that they're doing that is
because Bubba Cunningham cannot speak to North Carolina because he
technically was not allowed to be in the room when
they are going to be talked about ices, right, I mean,
doesn't that seem to be the optics here? I mean,
Bubba Cunningham, by the way, I know that you're employed
by the University of North Carolina. I just today would

(01:10:51):
be the day that I don't wear the baby blue
tie with the baby blue shirt as well. But I
think that's why you have vice chair Keith Gill of
the NCAA Selection Committee on this or during this interview,
because he's the one that's able to answer about North Carolina.

Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
No, and what we're obviously producer Shay and Brendan in
the backer monitoring sound. I will be curious what the
explanation is because I mean, even if you make the
argument that you know, the argument that I made on
behalf of West Virginia. That was a team that had
six Quad one wins this season. North Carolina, as we've
discussed time and time again, had one. Again quad one
wins are those best possible wins that you could have

(01:11:31):
on their resume. Now, West Virginia did have thirteen overall losses,
ten in Quad one. There's nothing metrically, and I'm not
you know, we're not in that committee room, but there's
nothing metrically that says that North Carolina should be in
over in West Virginia or frankly a couple teams that
may have gotten left out.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
So an interesting variable there is this is drama. And
the only thing that I would say two those are
saying that North Carolina got in on name brand. Yes,
that is exactly gonna be. Then what do you say
with the Indiana Hoosiers? What do you say about that team?
And I there were no two teams on the bubble

(01:12:14):
more I felt than Indiana and North Carolina that went
both ways. Now, I'd also put Xavier into the list here,
but people aren't as tuned into Xavier. I totally agree.
So it just felt, and it's something that you mentioned earlier.
North Carolina was the last team in the field as

(01:12:39):
this showing on, it was Texas, Xavier, San Diego State,
North Carolina. Those were the last four. The first four
out West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio State, and Boise State. But
it just is surprising considering that it's North Carolina and
Indiana that we had so much attention on. One does
get in the other one doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
Yeah, I thought Texas was for sure out to one.
That shows you how truly weak the bubble was. I
know we say that every single year, but I think
there's something to it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
The other thing I would say is I will say
I will defend North Carolina a little bit. Is they
played an insane out of conference schedule. I mean, you
look at the teams that we were talking about as
potential number one seeds. They played Auburn, the SEC regular
season champs in Maui. They played Michigan State SEC regular
season champs in Maui. They played Florida SEC Tournament champs

(01:13:23):
number one seed earlier in the season. They played Alabama
earlier in the season. So and oh, by the way,
they played Duke three times as well. And so I'm
not saying I think at some point you got to
win some of those games, Dan, but they certainly challenged
themselves out of conference. And you know, I also think
there's that fine line of do you want to punish
a team that pushed itself so far out of conference

(01:13:46):
so hard out of conference because you know, North Carolina
didn't have to go to Maui. They could have stayed
home and played you know you, I'll just generic fill
in the blank school. And so I made the argument
about two or three weeks, guys said, if they're on
the cut line, I'd like to see them in rewarded
for the schedule that they put together. But I just
think that when you look at them on a piece
of paper compared to everybody else, I mean West Virginia,

(01:14:07):
for all the criticism that I had of some of
those bad losses, look at some of these wins that
they had earlier in the year.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
This is a team that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
Won at Kansas, as I said, in the out of
conference one, against Arizona on a neutral court, beat Gonzaga
on a neutral court. This is a team that also,
you know, throughout the regular season, had a couple other
good wins. They swept Cincinnati, which was another bubble team.
So I don't think there's like an amazing case for

(01:14:33):
West Virginia. But you know we're efforting the sound Abubba Cunningham.
If you have us on a second screen, you can
tweeted us what he said if you were able to
hear it. But I am very curious for the explanation
as to what North Carolina had on their resume. And
again to your point, he can't really talk about it,
so you're curious for whatever explanation it ends up being.

Speaker 1 (01:14:52):
I your point about the bubble is is very fair. Again,
we're talking about the teams that this wasn't forty teams
for two spots, This wasn't thirteen teams for twelve spots.
It was a mix, but it wasn't a huge range
when you really wanted to talk about when you're watching
bracketology and you're looking on the bracketology pages, when you

(01:15:15):
get to the next four out, let's kind of be
realistic here, those teams really aren't you can play your
way in. I think Boise States run to the championship
game of the Mountain West Conference allowed us to sit
there and think, Okay, well maybe this team is now
in even without winning their conference tournament. Jerry Palm, I

(01:15:36):
believe said on CBS A nine or two ago that
Colorado State needed it more than Boise State, and now
it looks like that, well, I'm not throwing shade at
the comment at all. It just looked like both teams
needed it. Maybe it was the way that Colorado State
looked pretty dominant in that game to show so everything counts.
And I go back to and I made light of
it earlier, but the lane violation, and again, there's no

(01:15:58):
guarantee that North Carolina win the game against Duke on
Friday night, But are you really going to determine North
Carolina as you look at that is their national turn
the NCAA tournament hopes gonna rest on a lane violation,
and it didn't appear that way, but it shows you

(01:16:19):
how close that it got. And so because it was
that close erin Torres, I'm wondering if they almost considered
it a half win in that point. We had heard
that by Saturday night that most of the top nine
lines were sorted out. North Carolina wouldn't have been in
that group. But it's just the point of I think

(01:16:39):
it would have been heartbreak city for them to lose
out in a scenario like that where they played Duke
so tough even without Cooper flag. But man, they would
have been tough to keep them out on that penalty
because that extra win would have helped them. Now, I
wonder if it actually helped them get into tournament, that
it actually happened in a game that they lost.

Speaker 2 (01:16:56):
No, I think there's definitely something to it, and it
shouldn't come down to one game. But again, late in
the season, high profile. If we're arguing that Duke is
at worst the second best team, I know they weren't
at full strength, but you played them pretty close to
one hundred percent. You know, we got another hour to
break this down. And I'm so excited because I just
there's so many things to look at. I mean, I

(01:17:16):
mentioned this a minute ago, but Cali Perry versus bill
Self in round one. They actually opened the season with
a charity exhibition game at Budwalton Arena when Kansas was
the number one ranked team in the country. Arkansas pulled
off the upset. If you will winner would potentially play
Rick Patino in Saint John's. You have potentially Yukon versus
Florida in the second round, Louisville playing.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
Auburn at Auburn. And by the way, the other thing.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Too, which we'll talk about, the seeding discrepancies between where
everybody had people projected. I keep going back to Memphis.
Every bracket I saw was on the eight to nine line.
They get a five. I'm actually happy to see that
you reference Michigan potentially being as high as a three.

Speaker 1 (01:17:57):
They're a five. Wisconsin.

Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
I don't know where you thought they were, but it
seemed like you didn't think that the seating matched up
with everything that we thought coming into today. So I
you know, we need this next hour to really peel
back this bracket. But I think there are a ton
of talking points going into going into these these these
all these games.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
Thursday Friday, I had said to you a couple of
weeks ago, this was off air. This is as we
were are passing ships in the night from one shift
to another, and I joke to you SEC fourteen schools. Yeah,
And I said it half joking to be like, man,
that would be something that was also the max at
that point. But that's what it ends up being. And

(01:18:40):
there's a part of me that I'm sure in the
past would really not like it and not be happy
with it. But there's a part of me that appreciates it,
and there's a part of me that says, okay, we
did the right thing. I actually thought that the pendulum
swung at one point, almost too far away where we're
looking at it's either got to be mid majors or

(01:19:00):
nonpower conferences, and I felt that it swung a little bit.
I thought, I'll just say, I thought maybe we gave
the Mountain West a little bit too much credit. Sure,
and ca tournaments results would reflect that. Yeah, and so
now it's kind of swung back. Now it's up to
the SEC, who is dominanting their conference challenge with the
ACC that now they'll have an opportunity to try to
show that in this NCAA tournament.

Speaker 2 (01:19:21):
Yeah, well, we got another hour to break this down.
As far as the SEC getting fourteen teams, we can criticize,
but you know, you look at an Arkansas six squad
one wins, You look at Oklahoma. They beat Louisville, they
beat Arizona, they beat a bunch of really good teams
out of conference. So when you factor in the out
of conference with the in conference, Texas is really the
only one that was a question mark. And even Texas.

(01:19:42):
You know, I don't think if they win those two
games at the SEC Tournament against Vandy, against Texas A
and M on a neutral court, that we're talking about
them in this field.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
He is aeron Torres. I'm Dan Byer. It is Fox
Sports Sunday. The field of sixty eight has been revealed.
We'll run it down. We'll break it down for you
and again. Go to Fox Sports Radio. Tonight you can
register for our Tractor Supply Bracket Challenge. Some great prizes
up for grabs. Bracket will be up later tonight. You
have until Thursday morning, so those Thursday first round games

(01:20:11):
to get your picks in. Get Aaron at Aaron Underscore
Torres NX. You can find me at Dan Byer on Fox.
The field of sixty eight is set now it happens.
That's next. The bracket is set. Some are smiling, others
are not. We'll get to that in a second. Welcome in.
We are broadcasting live from the tirerec dot Com studios.
Tirec dot Com will help you get there an unmatched selection,

(01:20:33):
fast free shipping, free road as a protection in over
ten thousand recommended installers. Tirec dot Com the way tire
buying should be. You talked about the bubble maybe not
being as big as as it had been previously. Personal
bias here. I watched Ohio State more than any other
team probably this past season, and I don't think they

(01:20:53):
had any business being in consideration for the NCAA Tournament
with what type of team they were.

Speaker 6 (01:20:59):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:20:59):
There was a a win against Kentucky, they had a
nice stretch in the Big Ten, but they were knocked
out of the Big Ten tournament on Wednesday by fifteen
seed at Iowa who a week ago, I wasn't even
sure if they were going to get into the actual
Big Ten tournament, let alone go and win a game.
But the Ohio State was the third team out. So
in terms of when you're looking at teams getting in
and teams getting out, we're really talking about maybe mad

(01:21:22):
for one or two teams or one or two schools
and angry at another maybe one or two for getting in.
But other than that, I don't think you can necessarily
complain on what you saw from the bubble, just because
I just don't think that the bubble was that big
this year.

Speaker 2 (01:21:38):
Well, and it's I think you're only mad until you
see that North Carolina gets in one quad one win,
Texas gets in, or Texas gets in with fifteen overall
losses Xavier with one quad one win.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
You know, it's funny.

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
I saw like a poll of Indiana fans earlier today
and it was like, how many of you want to
be in the tournament versus just get a head start
on this coaching search and whatever. And I think it
was about six are like, just get me to the
coaching search.

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
And then the same.

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
Accounts that we're saying that you know, are now like, well,
wait a second. Now, we didn't care about being in
until we saw that Carolina's in with their bogus resume,
with their with their head coach or their excuse me,
their ad as the head of the tournament committee. So
I think there's a lot of frustration on that bubble.
But again, like you said, the teams that are actually there,

(01:22:26):
the teams that were actually left out, I think it
is hard to really complain, but I do think there
is a complaint in an argument when you look at
who actually got in.

Speaker 1 (01:22:34):
So, just for reference, in doing some bracketology report cards,
in the latest bracketology from Joe Lunardi, who tip of
the cap to Joe Lunardi on being the guy who
really started this, no doubt. He had his last four
in are you ready for this? Utah State, Vanderbilt, San

(01:22:57):
Diego State in Indiana, and you say to yourself, great,
chop three of four. The problem is the first four
out where Xavier who gets in Boise State, not in Texas,
in North Carolina in so he misses on three, so

(01:23:19):
he gets sixty five of sixty eight. He had West
Virginia in a last four by this is yeah, this
is I don't know it's in exact science.

Speaker 2 (01:23:29):
I don't know if he deleted the tweeter what. But
he puts something out earlier in the day where he
was like, it's three teams for four spots or four
teams for three Oh here it is realistically, we're down
to three teams for two spots Indiana, Xavier, Boise after them,
Texas has too many losses in North Carolina doesn't have
enough Quad one wins. And then he goes into if

(01:23:50):
you know, if Memphis loses da dada dap. But I
just bring it up because I'm not gonna blame him,
because it felt to me like virtually every single person
that was doing brackets and it's one where listen, I
know some of these guys. I think that's sometimes in
sports coverage, you can get some kind of what's the

(01:24:13):
right word, the bias in which everybody has the same opinion.
I can't think it's not recency bias, it's something else,
but confirmation bias. That's exactly what I'm looking for, or
term I'm looking for. I don't think there's confirmation bias
in the bracketology world. I think all these guys are
competing to prove that they're the best, and there's websites
that rank them and stuff, and so I just bring
it up because it felt like it was pretty much

(01:24:35):
a consensus from all of those guys and girls that
do it that North Carolina was definitely out, that Texas
was probably out, Indiana was probably in. And so I
know it's easy to rag on Joe Lonardi because he's
kind of the face of all all of this, and
I'm not saying you weren't necessarily you or anybody else,
But I also just think the committee threw some curveballs
that I don't think a lot of people were ready

(01:24:56):
for today.

Speaker 1 (01:24:57):
Well, and my point of this is number one, that
it's in inexact science, and I don't even know if
it's science. It's just guessing what other people think. And
then what you're trying to do is you're trying to
think of contingency plans. You and I can go at
the top of the bracket. There's a perfect example where
you have the top four seeds. In a perfect world,
you would then snake it back with the next four
with the fourth best team playing the fifth best team

(01:25:19):
and the sixth best team, and they'll rank the schools
one through sixty eight. But because of the SEC conflicts
that you have to have that we've had in this tournament,
where you don't want two SEC teams being the top
two schools in the same region, so it's altered after that.
Houston's the third seed. We found out that Tennessee was
the fifth overall seed in this bracket. They're going to

(01:25:40):
be in the same region like that would be That
would be a nock to Houston in terms of having
to play the fifth best team because they should be
playing the sixth best team and the fourth seeded Florida
Gators ended up playing or being in the same region
as Saint John's who they deem the weakest of the
two seeds, and now they're gonna have to play them
out West. Like there's just there are so many things

(01:26:00):
that go beyond who did you beat, where did you
beat them, and how did you beat them for them
to put together a bracket. Now the bubble it is,
it's those sort of things that play out. But when
you're looking at how things are seated, there are a
lot of other contingency plans go into play. That's why
it makes it's fun for us to look at a
bracket and say, oh wow, my school is thought to

(01:26:24):
be a three seed in this week's bracketology and they're
going to be playing in Raleigh. That's awesome, But that's
not how the bracket is filled out. So you're just
guessing what other people are trying to put together. And
that's really difficult.

Speaker 2 (01:26:36):
And I'll defend all the bractologists by saying, again, their
job isn't to do what they think is right. Their
job is to do what history tells them the committee
will do. And so again that's where I default to.
If everyone said that history tells us that North Carolina
isn't going to get in, I'm not going to blame
any of them for not having North Carolina in, or

(01:26:57):
having Indiana in, or having this team out, or having
you know, again to the seed line stuff. Is that again?
I keep going back to the same two or three teams.
But Louisville fans they're playing their regional in Lexington, but
they're mad because they thought they were about a six seed.
Now they're gonna have to face Auburn and round two
very likely if they were to beat Creighton. So listen,

(01:27:18):
you know, we're still reacting to this in real time
as we do every year. But you just sit there
and say, it does feel like the committee just did
not fall in line with what everybody had been told
they would over the course of the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
He's Aeron Torres. I'm Dan Beyer. This is how the
top of the bracket will look. Auburn is your number
one overall seed. Duke is your second seed. If Duke
holds their seed and makes it to the final four,
they'll face the Midwest Region winner, where the number one
overall seed is Houston and the top seed in the
West Region is a Florida. So if Florida holds their

(01:27:54):
number one seed, they will face Conference Fall Auburn in
the national semi finals. That's how they bracket will shape
up that way. The two seeds we mentioned Florida and
Saint John's in the West region, that's the one too.
In the Midwest region it is Houston and Tennessee. Top
seeded Duke in the East will have Alabama as the
two seed, and the two seed in the South region

(01:28:15):
is Michigan State. We do have comments from Committee Chair
Bubba Cunningham, who is the North Carolina ad and if
you're just joining us, there was an optic on the
screen when CBS was doing this interview that I had
never seen before, and it was the committee chair joined
by someone else, and that was Keith Gill, the vice
chair of the committee, who I feel had to answer

(01:28:38):
some of the questions that you were to get about
North Carolina that maybe Bubba Cunningham wasn't privy to as
he was not allowed to take part in those conversations.
Here was the questioning from CBS to Bubba Cunningham and
Keith Gill on North Carolina being in and Cunningham not
being involved in that process.

Speaker 5 (01:28:55):
You are the athletic director of the University of North
Carolina in your day job. So it's going to be
a natural question for people who don't know all those
procedures to ask whether North Carolina may have gotten a
little bit of an advantage that their AD is a chair.
So I'm going to invite you to answer that question
and then maybe if Keith could shed some light on
that discussion.

Speaker 6 (01:29:15):
Well, thanks Seth, and obviously I'm going to defer that
to Keith, but you know, all the policies and procedures
were followed, and Keith can address exactly how North Carolina
was discussed because I was not in a room for
any of that.

Speaker 8 (01:29:29):
Yeah, thanks Baba and Seth. I appreciate the question. As
the vice chair, I managed all the conversations that we
had about North Carolina, and we had quite a few.
Our policies require the ADA of any school to refuse
themselves and actually leave the room for those discussions, and
they're not allowed to participate in any vote as well,
So we followed those had lots of discussions about North Carolina.

(01:29:53):
You know, Saturday night, we took our final vote and
we voted in four teams in the field on Saturday,
and we had a contingency vote and the contingency vote
that was the last team in the field, and it
was based on Memphis and UAB. If Memphis won that game,
then that was going to free up the spot in
the tournament, and that was going to be North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (01:30:15):
If UAB had won, then Memphis was going to be
in the tournament.

Speaker 8 (01:30:19):
UAB would have been in the tournament in North Carolina
would have been the first team out.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
You know, I'll say this, it's it is easy to say.

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
Well, first of all, yes, by definition, if they're the
last team in and we had zero bid Steelers, then yes,
they would have been the first team out if somebody
had stolen a bid. The counter to that is, let's
say UAB won and let's say maybe Xavier's out instead.
Then you could have said, well, you know, listen, if
UAB and George Mason had won and we had two
bid Steelers, then North Carolina would have been out.

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:30:49):
So, I'm not ready to go full blown conspiracy theory here,
but I don't think.

Speaker 1 (01:30:56):
He said anything that was that was newsworthy. I agree.
I think that there is a lot of you know,
word salad there, But what he's basically telling us is
UAB could have stolen a bid, and if they stole
a bid, it would have been from the last team
in the field exactly. Well, that's every year, I know,
every single year in whether it be the A ten

(01:31:17):
that we had earlier to your point, George Mason losing
the VCU, or if it was UAB in Memphis, it's
not how close it would be. That doesn't that doesn't
matter at all. What we want to know is why
did North Carolina get in over West Virginia And their
last vote, as they said, had North Carolina in at
sixty eight. That's fine, but why are they then above

(01:31:38):
West Virginia sixty nine. That's the answer that everybody wants
to know.

Speaker 2 (01:31:41):
And I would say that let me let me ask
you this because we're not going full blown conspiracy theory,
but I am going to ask you, if UAB had
won today, do you truly believe that North Carolina would
not be in this bracket?

Speaker 1 (01:31:53):
Yes, Okay, I do. Here's the tricky part about it, though,
because if you look at the bracket and for bracket heeads,
you'll be able to follow along. The eleven seeds that
we got in this bracket are the San Diego State,
North Carolina game, the Texas Xavior game in VCU and Drake.

(01:32:14):
VCU and Drake are automatic bids, so they are not
being moved from that eleven line at any point. So
now you've got to go to the ten seeds. So
who then would have been in that first four New Mexico, Vanderbilt,
Utah State or Arkansas. Now we'll find that out when
we see the overall seed, which will be released. But

(01:32:34):
that's the team that then ends up falling into the
first four. If say, UAB would have stolen one of
those bids because you're not moving Drake, and you're not
moving VCU from those eleven seeds because they are in
the tournament as automatic bids. That's the one thing that
we don't know just yet, at least I haven't seen
the full one through sixty eight rankings. No, it's it's

(01:32:57):
a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:32:58):
It's a lot of fun, man, it's a lot of
information process in real time.

Speaker 1 (01:33:01):
We're doing it like everybody else.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
But yeah, North Carolina, listen, I think you know we've
been doing this all enough to know most of the
conversation on Sunday into Monday really is about hits misses.
This that the other thing I think, you know, by
the time you get to midday Monday, you just want
bracket picks, right, And so I think as we discuss
this conversation, as we discussed this bracket, I do think

(01:33:26):
North Carolina getting in will be the number one talking
point from now until basically midday tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
Here's and here's the thing that I will say with
North Carolina, and this is as how you're looking at it,
North Carolina seemingly aarin because of their record and where
all of their wins ended up coming from beat everybody
that they were supposed to. Yes, but they just didn't

(01:33:53):
beat the teams that maybe they shouldn't have been. And
sometimes if that's the case for North Carolina, and that
puts them at for the sake of this argument, sixty
eighth best or thirty fourth best, thirty fifth best, then
that's what it is. Then that's just because you can't
beat one, two, four, and five doesn't mean maybe you

(01:34:13):
aren't the fortieth or thirty fifth best team in the country.
There weren't really bad losses. You ran down the losses
that they had. So when you're looking at it from
that perspective, North Carolina is who they thought who we
thought they were, and they end up just getting in
by the skin of their teeth.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
Yeah, North Carolina finishing the regular or for not finishing
the season, but for people just joining us, North Carolina
twenty two and thirteen overall. Okay, So I keep reiterating
it for the new audience. Quad one wins are the
best wins you can have. Quad one losses are the
best losses you can have. North Carolina one in twelve
in Quad one. To their credit, though they were twenty

(01:34:56):
one and one in all other games the rest of
the year, so base their losses were to the elite
of the elite of their schedule. Now, even a North
Carolina fan might argue with you, well, wait a second,
we're North Carolina. Go you know, it's great that we
beat up on Boston College and whoever. Uh, but you know,
we need to start beating some of these teams that

(01:35:17):
we're trying to compete with for national championships.

Speaker 1 (01:35:19):
But I just think it's interesting. I just think it's
very interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
This will be the talking point and I'm I'm just
curious to see how this snowballs over the course of
the next few hours.

Speaker 1 (01:35:30):
And put it this way, by Wednesday, North Carolina may
not even be in the tournament anymore. You go, it
will play Tuesday against San Diego State in Dayton. But
what I was gonna say was I cut you off
on the It's okay, That's all I had to say. Really,
you always bring up this point.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
There's always you know, we always fill out our brackets,
and we just advanced that sixteed Oh they're playing who
who cares?

Speaker 6 (01:35:50):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
Listen, North Carolina has proven that. I mean, they played
Florida down to the wire. They could have be in Florida.
They played Michigan State tough, they played Duke to the
other night. The only point I'm trying to make is
I think they had won seven straight going into the
Duke regular season finale.

Speaker 1 (01:36:07):
They're not a total pushover.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
And as you've referenced many times, we have seen maybe
not every year, but pretty close to every year somebody
emerge from that six to eleven game to then win
a second game to get to the round of thirty two.
And it wouldn't be shocking if North Carolina was that
team this year.

Speaker 1 (01:36:22):
Could be them, but again could also they be out
of the tournament on by Tuesday night and then West
Virginia fans back, see we could have done better than
North Carolina did. That's what you get with the NCAA tournament,
all right, may not be the only wrong by the committee.
Erin Torres has a lot that he's seen from this
bracket that he wants to get off of his jest.
I have some questions as well, and I think that
our conversation of really, what good does Sunday do holds true.

(01:36:46):
They're talking about they're taking a vote on Saturday night
of the last teams completely get it. I'm not sure
on how much Sunday mattered in this bracket breakdown. He
is Eron Torres. I'm Dan Beyer. We are live from
the tierraq dot com studios. More on the field sixty
eight for the men's tournament next here on Fox Sports
Radio Fox Sports Sunday. He's Aaron Torres. I'm Dan Byer.

(01:37:07):
The bracket field of sixty eight has been released. As
we are live from the tirek dot com studios and
as we dive into this. If you're just joining us, Auburn, Duke,
Houston and Florida get the number one seeds. The two
seed in Auburn South Region. Is Michigan State. The two
seed in Duke's region is Alabama. That's in the east.

(01:37:27):
The Midwest region number two is Tennessee. That's who Houston
could face if seeds hold, and then Florida the top
seed out west, with the second seed being Saint John's.
We're going to dive more into the inner workings of
the bracket. We've talked a lot about the bubble and
we're going to hear more in just a second from
NCAA Committee Chair Bubba Cunningham and his interview that he

(01:37:49):
did with CBS after the brackets were released. He was
joined by Vice chair Keith Gill. We're going to talk
about the last four being out. But I mentioned Joe
Lunardi earlier in getting a leave sixty five out of
sixty eight. Correct, Jerry Palm CBS sports sixty five out
of sixty eight as well. It seems like the bracketologists
were out on Xavier, Texas and North Carolina, but in

(01:38:10):
on the likes of West Virginia, Indiana and in Boise State,
and instead it's the Mountaineers, Hoosiers and Broncos that stay
home with the Musketeers, Longhorns and tar Heels. Making it
to the making it to the dance.

Speaker 2 (01:38:24):
Well, I'll tell you we talked about it last segment.
Is that basically, again, I know that there can be
confirmation bias in a lot of things in sports. I
think we see it a lot NFL draft time, NBA
draft time. Oh Shador Sanders is in a first round pick,
let's all agree on it. These bracketologists, there is literally
a website that ranks each bracketologist, and they're all fighting

(01:38:44):
to get to the top of that list. And so
I only bring it up because I don't think that
all of these guys just whiffed because Jerry Palm was
looking at Mike Decorsi's PA. You know, I don't know
if Mike de Courses Jerry Palm was looking at Joe
lnardes Lenardi was. I just think that again, these guys
and girls who do bracketology, their job is to do,

(01:39:06):
you know, is to put together a bracket, not based
on their own personal opinions, but based on what the
committee has done historically. So when when everybody had Indiana
and West Virginia in, as well as generally Boise and
everybody had North Carolina out, that reflects to me that
whether it's.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
Anything big conspiracy theory or not. There was some historical
precedent that has never really been set before that the
committee tried to use in this case. I agree, and
that's why I bring it up like these to the
point of you're not going to get every game in
the matchup and you're not going to get matchups correct.
But usually if you get sixty seven out of sixty eight,

(01:39:44):
you hit it. Sixty five is a bit of a
miss orre There's some data that the committee ended up
using that maybe they hadn't used in the past, and
I think that's what we're saying speaking of how they
got to the field of sixty eight and specifically those
final four. Here was the conversation on CBS a short
while ago from Bubba Cunningham and Keith Gill.

Speaker 9 (01:40:04):
What was that discussion like with those teams that ended
up being on the outside in the last four or
five spots.

Speaker 6 (01:40:12):
Yeah, Well, you know, we have a lot of metrics,
and we added a couple of this year. We added Torvik,
we added the WOB and those are the ones that
were discussed frequently that you know, all of the predictive metrics,
the results based metrics have been around for quite some time,
and so we used a few additional ones. But you're right,
the last four teams that were out for you know,
it was a tough call. The next team out was

(01:40:35):
West Virginia and they had an outstanding year and unfortunately
no Tucker de Breeze was hurt and player availability is
something that we talked about quite a bit, and then
it just you know, Indiana was close, Ohio State was close,
Boise was close, and we had a lot of conversations
about those teams as well. But as I said at
the onset here is that's the hardest part of being
on the committee is having to draw that line. But

(01:40:58):
with only one real upset this year, and we're an
awful lot of teams on the bubble that got in
and last year, as you guys all know that we
had five and so we couldn't go very deep into
the to that pool.

Speaker 2 (01:41:09):
Can I jump in on that really? Yes, So when
we talk about I just completely lost my train of thought.

Speaker 1 (01:41:16):
I'll tell you, well, you can try to think about
it when we talk about expanding the tournament. Hearing him
talk like this, you know, when we're talking about going
to seventy two to seventy six. I was all four
because I thought we could get more in more exciting
games on Tuesday and Wednesday, games that we would care about.
But now we're to the point where we're not even
We're not even four deep. As I told you, like,

(01:41:37):
I didn't think Ohio State was a turney team. So
when we're talking about expanding that you wouldn't even need
to expand to seventy two to get Ohio State into
this field. So when we're talking about expansion, this is
what we're talking about. So for I think it's another
reason why fans don't like it. I think it's mostly
because they're afraid it's going to break up the bracket.

(01:41:59):
And I know you told me earlier this week you're
afraid of what it could lead to. But there's also
just this point of, all, right, are we really adding
eight more good teams? And is the only way that
going to happen if we get five bid steelers this year?
There there was one to their point of one school
that they felt was a bid stealer, and I believe
they're talking about Colorado State. I could be you know,

(01:42:19):
misrepresented here, but Colorado State stealing a bid knocked out
Boise State. Sure, you know, in essence because they were
one of the teams. So I think it's an interesting
dynamic too because we expect a decision on the expansion
of the tournament. Yeah, it would help West Virginia, would
help Indiana, and it would help Ohio State. But how
deep are we going? And are then going to SMU

(01:42:39):
Are we going to bring in UC or Vine? I
think that would be something that would be interesting. Are
you down to North Texas? Like where? Like how far
do you go? I think the expansion of the tournament
didn't get a win today because of what we're seeing
with this bubble. Yeah, so two quick thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (01:42:54):
One one of the biggest reasons I've been against tournament
expansion is because of the words they came right to
your mouth. Oftentimes, the teams that are on the bubble,
their fans don't even want to keep watching their team.
If you're an Ohio State fan, you've lost, You've seen
your team lose fifteen times this year, and like, I
don't need to lease, I don't see it. They're not
winning the championship. I'm ready to enter the offseason. You know,

(01:43:14):
in Ohio States case, it's probably more spring football. But
you know, in a place like Indiana, I think they're
just like, like, are they like I said, are they
mad now because they saw Carolina get in with one
Q one win, one quad one win, Xavier with one
quad win. Yes, but I think part of that fan
base is also ready to move on to the next chapter.
Who's our next coach, who's staying, who's going portal? This

(01:43:35):
that the other thing. So that's one and then two.
I will also tell you this is that, as you said,
outside of Boise, there were no true mid major teams
that appear to be anywhere near the cut line of
this this this NCAA tournament. And so if you're not like, like,
this is part of the reason why I don't think

(01:43:55):
fans want to see expansion either. I think even in
Ohio State fan, I don't want to speak for you,
but even an Ohio State fan, even a Texas fan,
would sit there and say, Man, there's this team called
UC Irvine that I know nothing about, but they went
twenty eight and five and get in this tournament. And
what I would just say really quick to that is
on our Saturday show, we had a bracketologist named Rocco

(01:44:16):
miller On and he referenced that the old metric that
the committee used was the RPI, and he said, if
there the RPI was still in place, UC Irvine not
only would have been in but would have trended to
be like an eight or a nine seed. And I'm paraphrasing,
but you get the point. I bring it up because.

Speaker 1 (01:44:33):
The metrics are already weighed so heavily towards the power
Conference teams that I don't think fan. You know, fourteen
SEC teams is enough, you know what, however, many big
twelve teams.

Speaker 2 (01:44:45):
I just I don't know. I just I think you're
the best way for me to wrap this is by
saying exactly what you did. You used the term this
was a bad day for tournament expansion.

Speaker 1 (01:44:57):
I grew with you one hundred percent. He's erin Torres.
I'm dan Byert. It's been a long day for Monsei Blaniel.
She's about to call it quits, but she's got you
just figured out, you know, the net back and forth.
I mean, what are you gonna do with all this knowledge? Now?
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 4 (01:45:10):
There is a lot of knowledge that I've gained from
YouTube listening the last couple of.

Speaker 1 (01:45:16):
Hours for us.

Speaker 4 (01:45:18):
It is better, better than North Carolina already.

Speaker 1 (01:45:21):
Yeah, you're tied with North Carolina. You could have gotten
in with just that, right, we are tied with North Carolina.

Speaker 4 (01:45:26):
No, but you already have one win and you have
plenty more time to get something to.

Speaker 1 (01:45:30):
Win three hours. It took Carolina eight months exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:45:33):
That's my point. So you're already doing better.

Speaker 1 (01:45:35):
What will I do with it?

Speaker 4 (01:45:36):
I am gonna just let it be in my brain
and I'm gonna leave here and I'm gonna go relax
because you're right.

Speaker 7 (01:45:42):
I've had a long day, but it's been fun, guys,
it's been fun.

Speaker 4 (01:45:46):
Let's check in case you missed it.

Speaker 1 (01:45:47):
In case you missed.

Speaker 4 (01:45:48):
It, the top number the four number one seats in
this upcoming men's NCAA tournament, Auburn number one overall seat
out of the South region, Duke the number one seed
out of the East. Out of the Midwest, Houston is
the number one seed, and Florida is the final number
one seed out.

Speaker 1 (01:46:05):
Of the West.

Speaker 4 (01:46:05):
The first four out which you guys were just discussing,
West Virginia University, Indiana, Ohio State, Boise State. In the NBA,
we got some games going on.

Speaker 1 (01:46:14):
The Clippers Norman Powell back, that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:46:16):
We're on top of the Hornets thirty two to twenty
one after the first quarter.

Speaker 1 (01:46:19):
That's right.

Speaker 7 (01:46:20):
The tim Roves are beating the Jazz thirty four to
twenty after the first quarter. Halfway through the third, it's
the Raptors on top of the trail Blazers sixty three
to fifty seven, and early in the third the Hawks
have a sixty four to fifty nine lead over the Nets.
Brooklyn was pretty much in front in the first half,
but Hawks have taken over. The Magic took down the Cavaliers,
so their sixteen game winning streak came to one end today.

(01:46:40):
Orlando won it one away to one oh three, and
the Lakers defeated the Suns at home one oh seven
to ninety six.

Speaker 4 (01:46:47):
At the Players Championship. Roy McElroy and JJ spond both
ended twelve under part today.

Speaker 1 (01:46:53):
So tomorrow Monday.

Speaker 4 (01:46:54):
Will be a three hole playoff at nine am Eastern.
So because of all the weather delays happened Manyana. There
was the LA Marathon today and Matt Reitman is how
I'm gonna say his name out of Illinois, first American
to win the Los Angeles Marathon since nineteen ninety four.
He did it in two hour, two hours, seven minutes

(01:47:14):
and fifty six seconds.

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
Marathons, I do half marathon.

Speaker 4 (01:47:18):
I do half marathons. I'm only half crazy and that's
my time for a half marathon.

Speaker 1 (01:47:23):
And he's just wow.

Speaker 7 (01:47:25):
So Matt rightman, Yeah, I no, Yeah, that's impressive. And yeah,
first American to do it since nineteen ninety four.

Speaker 1 (01:47:31):
So it's pretty awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:47:32):
All right, guys, Always a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:47:34):
Thanks Fonzie, appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:47:35):
Jess.

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
I used to live near the finish line when it
would finish in Santa Monica, and I went down one
day and you know about this time in March. It's
one of the most inspirational places that you can be
because it's just strangers cheering on strangers. It's really really
awesome because you're at miles. I was at mile twenty six.
There was two tons of a mile for them to
go where I stood, and it was, Yeah, just seeing

(01:47:58):
people cheering on a people and for what they have done,
truly awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:48:03):
Sounds like an NCAA tournament site when the underdog is
about to pull off an upset people just cheering on
people they don't even know.

Speaker 1 (01:48:10):
I do want to play one more bit of audio
from Bubba Cunningham and Keith Gill representing the NCAA committee
that made the field of sixty eight because there were
fourteen SEC teams. It's something that we had talked about
in just how this bracket would set up. This is
the two committee members talking with CBS and how they

(01:48:30):
had to adjust for the most schools from one conference. Ever,
in an NCAA tournament.

Speaker 9 (01:48:36):
There's fourteen SEC teams, there's three opportunities that they could
play each other in the second round. Can you explain
any adjustments that had to be made with bracketing to
take on fourteen team from one conference.

Speaker 6 (01:48:49):
We didn't move anybody off of a seed line, but
we really had to move people around to minimize the
conflict early and when you have, you know, four different regions.
We tried we made sure we only had a most
four teams in one region so we could spread them
out the best we could. We had a couple of
contingency brackets and we actually had five, and so we

(01:49:12):
had to go back and then try to rework the
bracket a little bit to move them apart to the
best that we could, But you're right, fourteen teams out
of one league in a sixty eighteen bracket is a
real challenge to get everybody in there and meet all
of the principles that we have about trying to keep
the teams apart.

Speaker 1 (01:49:28):
And just looking at and one of the struggles that
they had, I believe Aaron was in the four, five,
six range, you only had Texas A and m Missouri
and Ole miss See teams, because you would love, in
a perfect world you could set them up where they
would meet in the regional semi finals, but you just

(01:49:50):
didn't have enough schools to be able to put in
a four or five to separate from the ones and
twos that you had on the top of the bracket.
So you ended up having those three possible second round matchups,
which all by the way, would require the lower seeded team,
which happens to be from the SEC, to upset their
higher seeded.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
So I have Oklahoma Florida in round two. I have
Vandy and Alabama round two. What am I missing here?
I don't see the.

Speaker 1 (01:50:18):
Kansas are no, excuse me? It was uh you had
Vandy Alabama? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:50:25):
Where what where were I don't think there's three. I
think there's two because Texas. I guess no, Texas would
play Kentucky in round two if they were to win a.

Speaker 1 (01:50:34):
Pair of games. There's that's that's what it would be. Okay,
that's what the that's what it is. But again, Texas
not only they're the eleven seed, Yes, they would be
in that in that scenario.

Speaker 2 (01:50:44):
Yeah, no, you're you're right. A lot of teams bunched
in that eight nine ten range. Arkansas as a ten,
Oklahoma as a nine, Mississippi State as in the eight
nine game. So so yeah, I I the committee had
a thankless job. I think there are something to be
critical of. When you have fourteen SEC teams, it's inevitable
that they're going to face each other.

Speaker 1 (01:51:04):
Yeah, that Oklahoma Florida one was the one that you
had to again, and that's more of a toss up
than any of them. I'm almost would rather have at
the seven to ten with the two. I just I
don't think it's great for.

Speaker 5 (01:51:19):
It.

Speaker 1 (01:51:19):
But how many times it Florida in Oklahoma? I think
only once. That's what I was gonna say. In a
sixteen team lead in a sixteen team league with eighteen
games In most cases, you're playing teams only once, So
to me, it's not that much different than playing a
team that you might have happened to catch in the
out of conference. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:51:35):
Like Vandy and Alabama played once, it was eight weeks ago.
Those two teams are completely different teams now than they
were eight weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (01:51:41):
I'm surprised. I was surprised with the Big Ten. This
may be me being a Big Ten guy. I think
I thought that they had an opportunity to get two
three seeds, and I actually thought Michigan was one of
those schools. So when Michigan popped up at five, I
was surprised. I was even more surprised to see them
having to play in on Thursday, and then now you're

(01:52:03):
facing you see San Diego. I think it's a really
difficult draw for Michigan, who just went on a nice
run to win the conference tournament. I actually like them
better than Perdue, even though they split this year. Pdue
dominated them in one. I'm not as high on Purdue.
They have high point in the first round, and I
know you and Purdue fans always like to go head

(01:52:24):
to head, but I'm just not as sold on the
boiler Makers as I am maybe a few of the
other schools in Wisconsin. Being a three seed not surprising,
But they don't play in Milwaukee. They got to go
to Denver, and they also got to play on Thursday
in an early matchup, which would be interesting against Montana.

Speaker 2 (01:52:40):
Another Big Ten team with an interesting travel. UCLA Mick
Cronin has not been afraid to share his thoughts on
Big Ten travel. After flying across country to play one
game in Indianapolis last week, Mick Cronan referenced, Hey, should
we just pack for the whole week?

Speaker 1 (01:52:55):
Is it worth flying back to the West coast?

Speaker 2 (01:52:57):
They will play in Lexington, Kentucky to open the nciach.

Speaker 1 (01:53:01):
They're too far away from Indiana. I mean, he's right,
he should have just packed his stad and maybe they
would have tried a little hard still have his place
in Cincinnati. He could have just you know, they all
could have just crashed there, maybe trying to find a
place in Bloomington soon. WHOA, he's Aaron Torres. I'm dan
byer our final thoughts on this bracket? Are you ready
to give a final four? Do we have to do it?

(01:53:22):
I haven't even thought about this bracket. We do because
I hate that when people throw it out there, We're
not gonna do it. We are going to buck the trend.
Let's do it. But I do want to tell people that,
like basketball, Tractor Supply knows that a winning season takes practice, teamwork,
and a can do attitude. It's Bracket Challenge season. Be
sure to complete your bracket at Fox sports radio dot
com beginning tonight. Visit Fox Sports Radio dot com to

(01:53:43):
register and get rules. The winning bracket and the Fox
Sports Radio Bracket Challenge will win a twenty five hundred
dollars gift card to Tractor Supply. A perfect bracket will
win you one million dollars. You can pre register now
and then be sure to fill out your bracket between
tonight and Thursday morning before the first round games begin
at Foxsradio dot com. It's all sponsored by Tractor Supply
for Life out here Fox Sports Sunday. He's herein Torres.

(01:54:06):
I'm Dan Byer. I know you're younger than me. I
know you're not a music guy, but you know how
great this album is def Leppard, I mean great steria. Yeah,
absolutely love it absolutely reminds me of back in the
day those brackets in the late eighties surly nineties. You
still get that same feeling as a kid when the
brackets come out, as we do today. Shortly after our show,

(01:54:26):
our podcast will be going up. If you missed any
of today's show, be sure to check out the podcast.
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast,
and be sure to follow and review the podcast and
rate it five stars. Again, just search Fox Sports Radio
wherever you get your podcast, and you'll see today's show.
Post it right after we get off the air. I'm
going to point out something that just this bracket stands
out to me. To it there's nothing you can do

(01:54:47):
about it. I mentioned it earlier, but with the wes
western part of this country not producing a top college
basketball team, when you have a West regional, they may
not bring a ton of the excitement. And not only
will it not bring a ton of the excitement, there's
going to be a lot of travel if the four

(01:55:09):
seeds in the West hold up. In Florida, the top seed,
Saint John's, two seed, three seed Texas Tech, and the
four seed Maryland. Three of those schools come from not
the Eastern time zone, like we're talking East coast. I don't.
Gainesville's not on the coast of Florida. But you get
my point. When you have Maryland in College Park, you

(01:55:30):
got Saint John's in New York City in Florida, They're
all going out west. It's a tough travel. It's also
a Thursday Saturday regional. So when we're looking at these
brackets without Arizona being a top team, Orgonzaga or UCLA
or another West Coast school or Oregon. Oregon's five seed,
they're playing in Seattle on Friday, they should be able

(01:55:52):
to bring some fans up up there when they take
on Liberty. I'm just curious about the West Regional and
how much it's just not great to have if seeds
hold three teams from the East Coast going all the
way across the country.

Speaker 2 (01:56:05):
If you look at the entire sixteen team bracket, I
believe there's zero Pacific Coast teams.

Speaker 1 (01:56:10):
Two that are even in the Mountain time zone.

Speaker 2 (01:56:12):
That would be twelve seed Colorado State thirteen seed Grand Canyon.
So you know, even if you get some mini upsets.
You know, Kansas, which was the preseason number one team, Oh,
what's the scenario they make the Sweet sixteen, there's still
thousands of miles away. Memphis is a five seed. You
kna as an eight seed, So yeah, probably a lot
of good tickets still available.

Speaker 1 (01:56:33):
And you and I aren't going to pick a final four.
But I told you beforehand that it's going to be
tough for me to leave Florida out of that center box.
I've liked Florida for a while. I think that we've
seen some pedigree run through this SEC tournament. Tennessee gave
them all they can handle. Florida's got scoring, They've got size.

(01:56:53):
I love offensive rebounding. When you can get offensive rebounds
of the NCAA tournament to keep possessions alive can turn
into backbreakers. Because of even saying all of that that
I said, when you go to the West Region, Florida
coming out of coming out of that, maybe not having
to deal with a fan base that travels to go
against Granted they won't have theirs, but I don't think

(01:57:16):
it's gonna necessarily be too bad. I am really really
high on Florida over these next three weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:57:22):
I think it's a pretty good matchup for them. I
think I listened, and I know I'm too close to it.
I think there's gonna be a lot of people that
maybe haven't watched a lot of college bass.

Speaker 1 (01:57:31):
But wow, you.

Speaker 2 (01:57:31):
CON's an eight seed. Oh my goodness, what a tough
second round draw. Listen, Dan Hurley is one of the
best in the game. He might tell you he's the
best right now. But regardless of what Yukon has been
in previous years, this is not who they are. This
year has lost four first four NBA draft picks off
last year's team.

Speaker 1 (01:57:50):
So for you, for people.

Speaker 2 (01:57:51):
Who maybe haven't seen a ton of Yukon or don't
follow college basketball, this is not the kind of Yukon
team that against that Florida team I think has much
of a chance to put up a fun.

Speaker 1 (01:58:00):
Are you with me? Auburn and Duke are the one
in the two one seeds in the South and East.
I think they're the toughest regions.

Speaker 2 (01:58:07):
Yeah, I think both of the eight to nine games.
Mississippi State's this big, athletic, physical team. They actually score
the ball pretty well. Duke big physical athletic. But again,
what is the status of Cooper flag? That's one where,
especially if Cooper flags at less than one hundred percent,
I think there's a scenario where that game is, you know,

(01:58:27):
sixty two to sixty with seven minutes left, and you're like,
oh my god. And then I said it literally within
thirty seconds of the first bracket reveal Auburn getting the
number one overall seed.

Speaker 1 (01:58:39):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (01:58:39):
You have face Louisville in Lexington, and I understand that
you're the higher seed. I would also say Louisville is
about a forty five minute drive. They probably should have
been closer to a six seed. I just think that
is a tough tough draw for Auburn.

Speaker 1 (01:58:53):
The four or five matchup and and M just I
shouldn't even say the four or five matchup in Denver.
The game that you're gonna get in the four thirteen
and the five twelve should be magnificent even for Auburn
in that scenario. Whoever holds if the Seeds do hold,
Sweet sixteen matchup could be against the conference foe in
Texas A and M could be Michigan who just won

(01:59:14):
the Big Ten tournament. Or if you get past that
Louisville Creighton game could be one of the upstarts if
you see San Diego or Yale who won the IVY
League today but I think that the South and the
East are are the most difficult. I probably think that
the East is tougher, but again, the full path, like
Duke's not gonna face everybody on the bottom half, so

(01:59:35):
they're not gonna have to face a Wisconsin, a BYU,
or in Alabama, They're only maybe gonna face one of
those schools. Same thing with Auburn. But I do think
that the South and the East are the toughest regions,
more so definitely than the Midwest or West. I do agree.
I do agree.

Speaker 2 (01:59:48):
We're still hour and a half in, still kind of
processing this bracket.

Speaker 1 (01:59:54):
Yeah No, I don't know what else there is to.

Speaker 2 (01:59:55):
There's a lot more to add, which is why you
need to listen to Fox Sports Radio all night long.

Speaker 1 (01:59:59):
Yeah again, Tractor Supply is gonna bring us our bracket
challenge this season. Twenty five hundred dollars gift card two
Tractor Supply is up for grabs bracket on Foxsports Radio
dot Com tonight. You'll have until the first round games
on Thursday, uh to get your picks in. It's all
sponsored by Tractor Supply for Life out here. I'll see
you Thursday. He's Aaron Torres I'm Dan Byer. This was fun.

(02:00:20):
We'll do it again next year on Fox Sports Radio

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Dan Beyer and Aaron Torres Present the Men's College Basketball Selection Show Special