Ep. 36: Week 11 Recap, Week 12 Preview

Joe and Greg recap week 11 and preview week 12 of the college basketball season! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the TGH College Hardwood Podcast. I
am Joe with b As Greg as always here to
talk about college basketball. Greg, We've had a ridiculous week
of college basketball that kind of shows how crazy things
might get. I know we say that a lot of
years with college basketball, but this year we had a
lot of different things happened. How did you take the
last week of college basketball? Before we get into the

(00:21):
nitty gritty of.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
It, I have the Notre Dame fight song pulled up
on my phone.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
No, I do feel like we have we have this conversation.
It feels like we say something like this like every
year and again we can have these kind of top down,
you know, big, big, big thought conversations where it's like
all of these variables. You know, maybe it's one thing

(00:55):
or the other, but I just, you know, I think
it's just all of the age in college basketball all
happening at once. Man, It's just like it it creates
this chaotic environment. I don't know that like in terms
of like putting perspective in this year, like what it
makes me think about certain teams or certain conferences. But

(01:17):
there's just there's there's a lot to digest Joe, and
as as as we already know, we got a game tonight.
There's a small game, so why don't we just why
don't we just jump into it.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, So gregre you going to
with the higher state in their day tonight. It seems
like it seems like a cheer for Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
But yeah, I have I have a little bit of
money on Notre Dame and I was getting myself hyped
up on the on the way home.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Driving home, so that's why that was pulled up.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, I have Ohigo State to win, and obviously college
basketball show, but this is a nice day to have
kind of like a like a lot of people will
be tuning into college basketball basketball more after this week.
We have NFL winding down, we have college football. Obviously
we will be over after this point, so h it'll be
it'll be a fun, fun National Championship tonight. And as

(02:09):
we said, like in terms of college basketball, yeah, there's
some teams, you know, Auburn and Duke and Iowa State,
even though Iowa State lost, We're gonna get to a
little bit here that might seem like they're a cut above.
But in the middle there's just so much changing. And
I think we're seeing that with college football too, with
the transfer portal and NIL. It's creating a universe or
dynamic that you can't just hold on to players on

(02:30):
the bench, and players are gonna transfer and play other places,
so you can, you know, you can if your highest state,
you can lose two games in the regular season for
college football and still make the championship and like be
the eight seed to make it. And that's gonna that's
the same thing's happening with college basketball. Over the last
seple of years, we've seen sixteen seeds beat ones. We've
seen some pretty incredible runs by so some lower seeds too,
so excited for it. Let's let's get to the recap though,

(02:53):
and see what we might get going here in the
next couple of weeks before we get into you know,
February and then March badness itself. Greg, We're gonna start
off with some quick hitters. There were so much of
that happened this week that we'll do a recap of
some of the games he talked about, some of the
games that we even talked about last year. We'll just
do a quick hits on because we may not have
learned anything, or to be honest, like it just maybe

(03:13):
doesn't impact things in the grand scheme of things as
much as the other games. So let's get started here.
On Tuesday last week, we have Illinois beating Indiana ninety
four to sixty nine. There's been really quickly, there's been
some kind of culture issues that seems with Mike Mike
Woodson omar Balo was kind of like not trying very hard.
He got flamed after this game for that, but big
win for Illinois. We have Marquette and DePaul was closer

(03:37):
than many people thought want into overtime and Marquette was
able to win after getting thirty points from David Joplin.
We have Mississippi State and Auburn. We were talking about
how jan I Broom not going to be there for
Auburn and they still get to win eighty eight to
sixty six. Pretty good fashion there. We have Baylor and
Arizona kind of looking for who's going to compete in
the Big twelve behind Iowa State in Kansas and we

(03:58):
just haven't found that yet. Arizona hot with this win,
winning eighty one to seventy. Baylor was ranked twenty five
at the time, and then we have Missouri and Florida. Uh,
Missouri gets the win here eighty three to eighty two.
This was on the road for them. This is pretty
big because they're having a pretty good season under Dennis Gates.
But I don't think anyone really legitimized it before this
win happened. Obviously, they weren't in the top twenty five

(04:20):
last week, so that it makes it big in and
of itself. Greg, any thoughts about those games that you
want to go.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Over, Yeah, I mean things really going off the rails
of Indiana. It was snow secret how much money they
they spent in an il and.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
You know, the.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Talent that they brought in, and you know, they all
brought in a lot of big names between Ballo and
Miles Rice and you know others, and they've got obviously
some good you know, homegrown in you know, talent that
they've they've hearded, and it just seems like, you know,
I don't have this even as a quick hitter to
talk about, but you know, they do go on and
win in overtime at Ohio State on Friday, So like,

(05:02):
you know, if Mike Woodson once another year, like they're
gonna have to just go on an absolute torrent here
over the rest of the Big ten schedule. I very
much don't think that just making the tournament is enough.
I don't I don't know what do you. I think
they're gonna have to be like a sweet sixteen team

(05:22):
or better for him to even have a shot at
keeping this job.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
Do you want to comment on that or do you
want me to move on to the next thing. I
just want to leave it. I just want to leave
it open because, like, if you have a comment on
the Woodson situation, yeah, I mean he spent an hour
on it, but yeah, he I think.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
It's pretty clear he's gone. If they don't make the tournament,
he's gone. If they do make the tournament, he still
might be gone if they don't do well enough in
the tournament, especially with today's day age. We just talked
about how to change Greg, Like you can change your
culture very quickly with a transferportal. You can get a
team that wins right away. So last thing I'll say
is like maybe that they had some so good successful

(05:57):
year one coach under Kurtzignetty that came from like maybe
not the most Like it wasn't like an Indiana guy,
Maybe that'll convince them to do the same thing for
basketball because they had so much access to football, might
as well go back to what you're good at as well.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, if you want a top down thought that relates
to this, I know we kind of kind of mentioned
that in the open but like somebody mentioned I heard today, Uh,
it was all the first year coaches that are doing well,
like Mark Byington at Vanderbilt and Utah State, and like
it just it was just like a long list and

(06:29):
there's there's some exceptions to that, but it's like it's
it's there, and obviously this isn't this isn't what he's
first year. So you know I'm putting out there. I
know you said maybe maybe not, but like I feel
like just making the tournaments not enough. Like there, I
feel like it's even they heat could win a game

(06:50):
and they might still fire, you know, like.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
It's they got to they they've got.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
To make some noise in the tournament and they've got
to make some noise in the rest of the Big
Ten schedule.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
This Marquette to Paul game, like I don't man, Like
I know is that to Paul? But like I just
this is this is what.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
We're talking about in the open and we're like, oh,
what's gonna happen this year? Like that is that is
case in point of the case study that is this year. Thankfully, though,
we have something that somewhat makes sense where Auburn wins
over Mississippi State at home. I say somewhat makes sense
because you know, they do it without Deny Broom, so

(07:32):
I guess it kind of makes sense. But at the
same time, it's like, you know, I guess they're just
playing well enough and have a good enough roster that
without you know, arguably, you know, top two National Player
of the Year contender, they're able to beat a really
good Mississippi State team.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
Baylor demolished again. I'm sorry Arizona.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
The score finished a lot closer than it than what
forty two to nineteen At halftime, I put money on
Baylor on that game, and I felt silly, So you
can you can laugh at me for that one. I
just I don't know what to make of that. And
then Arizona goes and who they lose to on Saturday?

(08:14):
They lost to somebody on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, they lost. It was a Texas Tech.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
I can't eat yes, I believe. I think it was Tech.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
But it's like they were on they were on a
five game big fault winning streak, which is like, hey,
maybe they're you know, turned around and he again like
the Texas Tech, Like we mentioned that, you know, hey
they might be better than you know, we thought they
might be, or that might be a more valuable win.
But they're they weren't playing with house money. So I

(08:44):
would have liked to see them get that Texas Tech.
I don't know, We'll just again not worth spending an
hour on. But Arizona's gonna be something to watch. And
Baylor I have now I I I just keep looking
at the dudes they have on the court and thinking like,
this has got to be a good team, and and
then there's games where it's just it's just not there.

(09:04):
Uh missoo Florida, Joe, I don't think you specifically said this,
but this is Miszoo beating Florida.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
And do you recall how many SEC wins they had
last year?

Speaker 1 (09:17):
I don't know, No, I don't. It was a zero?
Was it one?

Speaker 4 (09:20):
It was zero? It was zero?

Speaker 3 (09:21):
I believe, Uh so yeah, pretty good turnaround from and
it's just like you know we're about to talk about
after this after a quick hits from Tuesday night, We're
about to talk about two SEC games. But it's like
you look left and right, up and down this conference
and it's like where are the Guineas.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
There's just not They're not there.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
So I mean, like, I think that's a good segue,
like let's let's talk about the I guess bigger games
from UH from Tuesday night.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, I mean, in large part, the SEC is the
reason why I have to do some of these quick
hitters because there's just so many games in the conference
every weeks. It's a battle. And you know, we'll get
to it a little bit. But John Cayl Perry says,
we don't even know who the easy winning is in
this conference, and maybe it's us, maybe it is them,
and we're gonna talk about that, but let's start with
ole Miss and Alabama. Ole Miss wins this one on
the road, a really impressive win for them. This was

(10:17):
I think a showcase of what ole Miss's defense can do.
I believe the ranked thirteenth and the Ken Palm right
now defensively did it. For the defensive rating they have
six or six or seven guys they really like on
this team that they can kind of, you know, play
for the most of the minutes, which I think is
good to have a short rotation if you can, if
you can play seven guys you really trust, I think

(10:37):
that's really good. But they they held Grant Nelson to
nine points, They held Mark Sears to eleven points, and
six of those were free throws. Just an incredible defensive performance.
Aiden Holloway try to bring back Alabama fifteen points. But
I think that was the biggest thing that stuck out
to me. Ole Miss at this point was on a tear,
and I think you know, everyone's gonn take their losses

(10:58):
as an sec play, but have done a really good
job to build the resume up in a way that
hasn't been the most flashy until this game.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
I watched this game, and I feel like it's the
first time that I've been able to like sit down
and see all misplay start to finish. Like I've seen
them playing bits and pieces, but watching them play start
to finish, I mean, the defensive intensity just nothing easy
for Bama. And we're talking about I think they said

(11:28):
in the Kentucky game that Kentucky and Bama A. You know,
maybe it changed since then they were they're the top
two scoring teams in the country and like the whole
BAM out of sixty four points at home. I mean,
that's an accomplishment. They do have some good players. I still,

(11:51):
you know, obviously Bama is not like the most offensive
or defensively talented or defensively sound, So like I do wonder,
you know, obviously defense travels, but like I worry about
this team when you when you start projecting long term,
like do they have the offensive firepower to make some
noise or could we look up and down and then
all of a sudden, you know, they're on a five

(12:11):
game skid in the SEC, which again is not like
the worst thing in the world because it's the SEC
this year. But like, I wouldn't be the most surprised
if this team faded. But if that, I mean, it's
they're gonna be in games just because of how good
that defense is. Like, regardless of whether or not you know,
they're able to put up to score points, they're just

(12:34):
gonna be able to at least hang around in staying
games because.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
Of the defense.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Oh absolutely, it's Chris Beard's done a good job with
the defense there. We'll talk about their other game of
the week later, but just something I wanted to do
now because of the wins like this, we're like, you know,
Alabama now has a conference lot like Auburn's the only
undefeated team in conference and we're five games in for
I think every single team so far. This is a like,

(13:00):
I don't know how they're gonna do the brackets. You're
gonna have a lot of teams who have to play
each other in the second round, probably from the SEC,
whether it's a bunch of like four or five matchups
or eight nins. Like the way they do the bracket.
You obviously have to try to break it up and
not have too many teams from the same conference. That way,
you can't play. This is obviously more fluent now with
all the major conferences, but you can't play in the
first round. Obviously, you're not supposed to be able to

(13:21):
play in the second round if you can help it.
But and you're not supposed to have more than you know,
more than one of the top four seeds in a region. Either.
That's out the window now because of things. But this
year might be different. You might be seeing a lot
of that because the SEC is gonna make it that
way because almost gets this win. You're talking about a
team that's like, you know, four or five seed. You know,
you got Alabama, Auburn, Missouri, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Texas,

(13:45):
A and m you know, Georgia we talked about last year,
Oklahoma got hot at the start, and Vanderbilt you mentioned
Mark Byington earlier doing a very good job there and
they have pretty big games this week, Greg and like
if they win, a couple of games are ranked this week,
or even one that might be ranked this week, so
it's it's gonna be a blood bath. And that was
my my findal point is like Ole Miss being that

(14:06):
solid defensive team, it's gonna pick off a lot of
teams in the conference and could mean the SEC just
gets bolstered that much more.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Joe, just to just to.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
Flesh out a little bit that I thought you brought
up about the tournament, I mean the like, yes, some
of this is because of the larger conferences, but like
just having if they get twelve to thirteen teams in
like if you just think about it for a second,
like that's almost a quarter of the field, I mean
not white, but like and then on top of that,

(14:36):
like none of these teams would be seated thirteen through
sixteen or twelve through sixteen, So you're really talking about
like some of these rules are gonna have to like.

Speaker 4 (14:47):
It's it's I wouldn't you. I don't think you can.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Get to a point where you can move a team
like three seed lines just so that they don't play
until the second round.

Speaker 4 (14:55):
Someone from their conference.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
Like, I feel like with as good as this com differences, like,
you can't punish a team and we just might end
up seeing an SEC first round matchup.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Were like, I don't think you first around one of these.
Well okay, so think about it again.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
You're not gonna see a lot of these like like
you could pretty much throw seeds twelve through sixteen out
the window, right, you might see like some of the
bubble SEC teams get in as tens and eleven's, But
are they gonna punish like, uh, you know, a three
or a four seed and move them to like a
six seed so that they don't like you, Like, that's

(15:35):
too much of a bump in.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
My head, right, but that but that wouldn't affect the
first round, it would affect the second round.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
Yeah, but I think you're gonna there.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
I think what we're gonna see is as this thing
shakes out, there's gonna be a lot in that six
to eight range of these sec teams. I mean, like
maybe they will just bump them and like it'll be
one of those things where it's like, well, if you
didn't want to get bumped, like you you could have, right, Like,
this isn't gonna affect like, you know, the We're not.

(16:06):
I don't mean like we're gonna see you know, like
a one and you know, obviously when we won sixteen,
I think we'll be able to avoid the like the
eight nine sec matchup or whatever. But like I feel,
I almost feel like there might be a reasonable like hey,
this six ' eleven matchup, like it like there's no

(16:26):
other way to, you know, to get around it kind
of thing.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
I don't think that's gonna be an issue. I do
think some seed lines might be changed a little bit,
But you think about a lot of the eleven seeds.
Sometimes it's sometimes it's teams from smaller conferences getting the
eleven seeds too. Sometimes it's you know, playing games as well.
Which that could be the issue here is like, hey,
you win a play first round first four game, and
then you go uh to the first round and you

(16:51):
play an SEC team because that's the only way you
can fit it in. But I think in general they're
not gonna have eight nine matchups with those two teams.
It is very tough conference, but you can find ways
around it. I don't think you're ce seven tens or
six to eleven's either, So I think it very much
is the second round problem. But we saw this. I
think Cincinnati played Yukon when the old Big East was
going on, and they played in the second round. I
think they were three in a six matchup. I think

(17:12):
they might have been Kimba Walker's year. Maybe it wasn't
Kimba Walker's year. But it's definitely gonna have different impacts too,
And one part that could happen greg too. To your point,
like maybe not the first round for me, but like
the first four, who's to say if you get I mean,
it might be three SEC teams if some teams fall
off too, So that's something to watch out for in
the future. I don't like, I don't know how we

(17:34):
can predict that other than saying like, there are a
lot of good SEC teams and things will have to
give and go. But I don't know, this is gonna
be a fun time to watch, and like, if we
do have to have second round SEC matchups, the one
thing we know is they'll probably be high level games
because even in some of these blowouts, like you're just
seeing so much talent in this conference. That'll be fun.
All right, let's go to the next game on the list.

(17:55):
We have Kentucky and Texas A and M. Kentucky wins
this one eighty one to sixty nine. Greg Aid Taylor
did not play for Texas A, and M was still,
you know, a good team. Even when Wade Taylor hasn't played,
they have not some decent wins without him, but they
I think struggled to find consistency on offense without him.
Farel Payne had fifteen points, Zurick Phelps had twenty one points,

(18:18):
but it was kind of like they were looking for
other guys to step up and it didn't always happen.
For Kentucky, Jackson Robinson had a big game twenty two points.
There was a point in the game where he was
talking trash to the Texas A and M bench. That
is because he started his career at Texas A and
M under Buzz Williams. The rumor is the Buzz Williams
made him transfer after his rushman year and basically said yeah,
you're not going to play here, and so he was

(18:38):
talking shit to the bench. He got a technical the
first time the bench started drawing back. He started drawing
back with the bench. He made another three and jobbed
to the bench again after the first technical and they
somehow missed that one. So good for that. But he
had a great game. He hasn't like it's been a
little hot up and down with him for Kentucky fans
that just like, we'll have a lot of good games,
so then they'll have a couple down games. The kind

(19:00):
of the body language doesn't feel like it's right there.
But he's talked about how he's gotten things better and
could be a valuable player for the team. This is
the guy who I think we saw flashes of last
year at BYU. It wasn't the cleanest shooting game at
eight seventeen, but if he can continue to score the
ball better than he has been and be that threat,
that go to guy for Kentucky, that makes them a
lot harder to stop when they have so many guys

(19:21):
that they can go to.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, granted, I think Kentucky shot the ball better in
the second half than they did in the first half.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
I don't have like any splits in front of me.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
I felt like I saw some of what I was
asking for from Kentucky where the first half was kind
of grittier, muckier, like really bang it out. And yeah,
like they didn't have to defend you know, a total
complete and roster in Texas A and M. But like,

(19:50):
I still feel like they were forced to play a
little bit out of their comfort zone and in the
second half, you know, like it felt.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Like the shooting kind of came alive a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
But I like this is what I was asking for
to see, uh, you know from them, is you know,
can can they can they play and win a game
where they're uncomfortable. Obviously it was a home so you know,
there's a there's a little bit more comfort and you're
you're not having to to kind of face the full
on slot of text A and M. But I mean
a twelve point went at home in the sec against

(20:19):
you know, Texas A and M. Like, there's really not
much more I can ask for. They did a tremendous
job on the boards, uh in this game. Obviously text
a m known for John I don't know you you
were the one that pointed it out about.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
The specific coach. I don't know if you want to
talk about.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
That, but no, you know, known for kind of really
attacking the glass. And the rebounding margin was plus ten
for for Kentucky in this game, which I think is
a pretty good fee.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, Texas A and M has A is a specific
coach that dials up plays for free throw rebounding and
it was awesome. He he looks like a professor of
some sort, uh and it it was great. But your
point is is very good, Greg, because I think there's
been some frustration for I guess for Amari Williams are
from Kentucky fans for him because he isn't like he's

(21:07):
a good defender, but there have been times where he's
been out rebounded and stuff, and that, like it's really
cool that he's good offensively to pass and be good
around the basket, but in that fits Mark Pope's offense.
And he you know, was the ca defensive player of
the year for Drexel, but that is like, this is
a different level and having him be more of an
anchor and being a guy who goes and gets those

(21:27):
rebounds was really impressive to see, and they need to
continue doing that. Whether it's him or Brandon Garrison off
the bench, or even Andrew Carr. That will be something
to note down the stretch if they can, if they
could be gritty, or if they can win some of
these tough games against physical teams. It was good to
see that. I would like to see them win games
where they're not shooting the ball very well as well.
They've done it at you know, not a couple of times,

(21:48):
but I want to see more of it because I
think that's again I think I said a couple weeks ago,
like when Kentucky loses, it's almost about them just missing shots.
Because they get good shots too, It's just about them
missing the shots rather than I would say anything that
is other than that, like it's more about them than
it is the opponent a lot of times, which is
which is crazy to say a lot of times, but
not in this case. I think, all right, let's go

(22:11):
to the next game, gregor the next day. We have
some quick hits for Wednesday. First off, we have Georgia Tennessee.
We talked about this game last week, but it wasn't
much of a game here, Seventy four to fifty six
for Tennessee to get the wins. Z Kaisigler sixteen points,
seven assists, six steals as a very good defensive player
we've known for a couple of years. And then Utah
State takes a loss to UNLV. Not a great loss here,

(22:32):
you know vs. Ten and seven at this point with
that win, but Mountain West can be tough to travel
in a conference that is not easy to play on
the road either. Greg any thoughts about those two quick hits?

Speaker 3 (22:42):
I think I saw UNLV went and do they beat
San Diego State or something?

Speaker 4 (22:48):
On Yeah?

Speaker 3 (22:48):
They so they beat San Diego State at San Diego
State on.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
Saturday, I believe.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
So if anything helps Utah State, it's maybe that maybe that.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Turns into a quad two eventually.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
I think it's I think it's a quad three or
not because that was ah no, I'm sorry, it might
be a quad It might be a quad two right
now because they're a hundred.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
What's this is?

Speaker 3 (23:15):
This is the stuff that I should know off the
cuff at this point. Yeah, it's a okay, so it's
already a quad two. It may not have been a
quad two until they beat uh, San Diego State. Maybe
that's maybe that's what I'm thinking. But I mean, like
their wins are okay. I would I would say, for
in Utah State's case, like please don't take any more

(23:35):
bad losses, even though this one right now is a
quad two. But like their best win is Saint Mary's. Well,
I think, you know, there's a good team. Beat San
Diego State at San Diego State.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
And like that's kind of about it.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
I mean, they have a win over Boise stay at home.
I know Joe's a little higher on the preseason, but
you know, they do have they do have a nice record,
but I still don't think like they have a ton
of room for you know, taking you know, they'll take
another one. I would imagine they'll take another loss or two,

(24:09):
but like, don't let it be the Air Force or
Fresno State or something like that, because that could turn
their season upside down. Georgia Tennessee and sorry I flipped
fop those and are in terms of order, but I mean,
like the kind of sawd is common. You know, I'm

(24:31):
I'm the Georgia expert, as we know from from last week.
So they got they got their wins, they got on
the map. But I mean they're I think they're probably
better than we thought at the beginning of the season.
But like had didn't really think that they were gonna
beat Tennessee in any way, shape or form.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, they they they got some good ones. It's just
gonna be good. I mean, when it comes down to it,
they might be on the bubble by the end of things,
like those winds will matter and hopefully they can get
some more because it's gonna be huffled than in the
sec greg one game. We're not gonna do a quick
hitter on From Wednesday, we have Kansas and Iowa State
possibly the best Big twelve game we're gonna see this season,
and not in the result, but just the fact that
its two top ten teams and the conference has been

(25:13):
struggling in different ways. Iowa State wins this won seventy
four to fifty seven to move to fifteen to one
on the season at that point. This is a game
where Bob Silovich was out for Iowa State, so Curtis
Jones enters the starting lineup. He went pretty nuclear in
the first half, scoring a lot of points in the
first half. I think he had finished with twenty five,
but a lot of them were in the first half,

(25:34):
kind of cooled down in the first Yeah, twenty in
the first cold, cold down in the second half, and
they kind of showed more team oriented basketball at that
point and got him the win. They I think did
a good job of getting Hunter Dickinson in foul trouble.
He had four thousand and had to come out at
different points of the game. And this Kansas team, I
don't know we've said this enough Greg So, I don't

(25:55):
know how much more I can say it, but the
same thing came up for them. More like Zeke. It
has been a good transfer for him, but they don't
have a lot of guys who score the ball very
well from their transfers or anyone. Ryland Griffin had seven
points and that was the third leading scorer on the team.
The guys they thought they were getting, I mean, outside
of Zeke Mayo just have not stepped up. And so
when you have a point guard like Dwan Harris, so

(26:17):
we've noted it just doesn't like to shoot the ball
that often and you have paint cloggers and kJ Adams
Hunter Dickinson that that doesn't always lead to the best
offense and they have to figure that out. There's no
solid team and I can get things figured out, Bill
self can figured out, but they have that going on.
And then kJ Adams did have to leave this game
at different times with the shoulder injury.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
Yeah, their their defense has gotten a lot better. I
don't know if you've looked today or recently, but they're
all the way up to fourth in kem. Homan defensive efficiency, but.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
It it says thirty fourth in offense. But like, I
don't know, I like I feel like some of that
has been kept the flow, like you said by Zeke Mayo,
playing really well. Obviously kJ Adams being in and out
of the game didn't help. But yes, they played a
very good Iowa State team. You know at Iowa State

(27:08):
and that they're very hard to score on. But there
were times where it just kind of felt like pulling
teeth in this game for them to get a good
look or get a bucket. This is one of those
one of those I think two or three teams where
like early in the season, you know, we looked at them,
we said, yeah, it look great, and now it's like,

(27:28):
what do we do with them?

Speaker 4 (27:30):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Stoke is probably gonna be top three in the in
the Big twelve, at least top four in the Big twelve.
But like in terms of the you know, the national landscape,
like are they are they? You know, I feel like
because of how flawed this team is, they're probably and
I think, did you say this last week, they're probably

(27:51):
prime suspect for picking them to get upset first round
even if they finished with, you know, a high seed.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Yeah, I said, they're definitely one of those teams you're
looking for. I don't know if I will or things
will change by that point, but I think last year
they were a four seed and they had Gonzaga in
the second round, who was a five, and that was
like a game where we're both teams. I think we
talked about having their own issues last season, and they
lost second round to Gonzaga and it was like one
of those things where it was kind of easy to see.
I think they they have the talent this year to

(28:21):
get out of that discussion. But from what we've seen
right now, like yeah, if you if you get a
bad matchup round one, round two, you could be going
home early again in March, which not MK. Kansas fans
very happy. All right, let's go to Thursday, Greg. We
have some quick hits on this day. We have Oregon
State beating Gonzaga ninety seven eighty nine in overtime. Gonzaga

(28:42):
had a pretty rough week. We're going to get to
their second game here in a little bit. We have
Memphis losing to Temple by seven. It was eighty eight
eighty one. Temple having a pretty I guess better year
than what they have had. They have not been the
greatest team over the last several years, and getting a
digging with this, getting to eleven and six is pretty
good for them. And then Minnesota beats Michigan eighty four

(29:04):
to eighty one in overtime, despite Danny Woff putting up
twenty three points, ten rebounds, and seven assists. Dawson Garcia
had an insane game twenty seven points and twelve rebounds.
Any thoughts on those.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
Greg, Gonzaga Like, I don't think they're in jump in
like danger of missing the tournament or anything, but this
almost kind of looks like I think I said something
similar about like Carolina, like they have they don't really
have a lot of bad losses. Their worst loss is
another one that they took later in the week. But
I mean their best win is Baylor, who we have

(29:38):
a lot of questions. Mark's at about at San Diego
State and then Indiana. I mean, like there's there's not
a lot of.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
Substance to that.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Now. The the WCC is a little bit different this
year with Oregon State and Washington State playing in the
league because of what's going on with the PAC twelve
and a few of the WCC teams are you know,
a little bit better. I mean, they had a chance
to get a quality win on Saturday. They will have

(30:06):
some other decent opportunities both home and away. I don't
want to say their schedule is WCC backloaded in terms
of but but like I mean just just coming up,
Like they still have Saint Mary's at Saint Mary's, they
still have San Francisco home and away. They have a
Saint Mary's at home, and they have a Santa Clara Way.

(30:27):
I mean, like there's there's some decent opportunities coming up.
But like I wouldn't take a bad loss, as you know,
I know, I just said this about someone else, but
like I still it's one of It's this is another
one of those teams. Man, Like I feel like I've
said I'm saying it's about like four or five teams,
but like I just can't quit what I saw, you know.

(30:51):
It's it's like I have that bias in my head
from from the beginning of the year where I saw
them just obliterate Bailor, and like it's like even the
all I have questions about Baylor, It's like I can't
quit this Gonzaga team. And I feel like if they
get like a six next to their name, you know,
in the tournament, like I'm gonna have trouble picking them
to lose against you know, their second round opponent.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, this is a team that is exactly the same
as last year, and we thought they'd be a lot better. Right,
there are five seed last year. This year I had
them top five in the country preseason and it was
the guys returning, but also the transfers coming in. You
look at the Ken Palm and is very similar offense
and defensive numbers wise from this year to last year.

(31:36):
It is the same team. The schedule is tough, the
WCC is tougher with all the teams, not just Oregon
and Washington State coming in, but also like you know,
Santa Claro and some of the other teams we talked about.
San Francisco, Saint Mary's is always there, maybe being a
little better than usual. So it's it's a tough sledding
right now. I'm with you. I don't know if I
can quit them. If they make the tournament to at

(31:57):
least like last year, making the sweet sixteen, you can
always spence a gazag game into the sweet sixteen. I
don't know if I can quit them either, depending on
what the seed is and depending what teams are doing
around them either. So they need to get back on
the right track. I will save a little bit more
thoughts because we are going to talk about their next
game as well. That happened this weekend. But that's all
I had about that for now. Is I'm with you

(32:18):
on that. And it's just weird. It's weirdly similar to
the team they had next year according to the numbers.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Two.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
All right, let's go to Saturday, Greg. We're gonna start
off with the quick hits and get those out of
the way. The first one being We have Auburn and Georgia.
Auburn only won this one seventy to sixty eight. Obviously
still dealing with J and I Broom being out, but
Todd Pettiford had a very good game in that one.
We have Tennessee losing to Vanderbilt. We talked about Mark

(32:47):
Byington doing a really good job so far. They win
this one seventy six to seventy one or seventy six
to seventy five, sorry, And Vanderbilt was able to storm
the courts, which is always fun to see on that
weird arena they have. We have Santa Clara beating Gonzaga. Uh,
this was a pretty impressive win. They had won a
lot of games in a row, but then they just
lost to Loyla Loyola Marymount right before this, so kind

(33:07):
of maybe puts a little bit of a a little
I always say a little bit of a hamper on that. Uh.
Soca takes their second loss of the week on that one.
And then we have Arkansas and Missouri. Uh, Arkansas drops
another game in SEC play, going to er to five. So,
as I mentioned earlier, John cala Perry says, we don't
know who the easy win in this conference. Maybe it's US,
and that is not looking good right now because it

(33:28):
looks like they might be the easy win. And there's
a lot of a lot of chatter about John cal
Perry to Arkansas right now, Greg, So any any thoughts
on those?

Speaker 4 (33:35):
All right?

Speaker 3 (33:36):
So I'll just take these in the order that that
I believe you talked about them in order, and I
won't mix up the order this time.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
So we'll go.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
We'll go one in a row. Auburn Georgia. I was Auburn.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
I Auburn had like a like a five point lead
with you know, under a minute or it was just
like something something funky happened, and I think it was
Stiles to Mary hit in three and then if the
game became question but you know, they whatever.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
It's a game.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
It's on the road against the Georgia team that you
know is coming off one of their better weeks. You're
playing without uh Jenny Broom. You'll take that win, even
if two points, one point half a point, You'll you'll
take that win.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
Move on.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
They get they I know we've heard it a couple
of places, but they don't play it all this week
until Saturday. So hopefully get broomed back for their game Saturday,
and and you know, just kind of get go unscathed
in this this time that they had without them Tennessee Vanderbilt.
Do we wanna do we want to start talking Vanderbilt

(34:38):
Mark Bington Tournament or is there they just gonna get
run over by the by the bulldozer of like they
don't have a lot, but like.

Speaker 4 (34:50):
A win over Tennessee might carry some weight.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
And I feel like, you know, like I just we
just got done looking at that Gonzaga resume and like
that Tennessee win is better than anything that gon Zach
got as on their resume.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah, they're gonna have They're gonna have opportunities.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
You know, Like they have three SEC wins already, three
and two. One of them are Tennessee, one South Carolina
obviously that's not the greatest, and then one over LSU,
which is not the greatest either. So I think maybe
they will get washed away, But Greg, they've got an
amazing opportunity this, I mean Alabama in the UK this week.
If you win one of those, I think you feel
good about things. And the next week you have Oklahoma

(35:27):
and Florida. So it's it's it's in a way it's like, hey,
you know, you can't lose too many games, but if
you can pick off maybe win one a week, I
guess maybe it gets tougher with some of the schedules
down the road, But pick off a couple upsets this week,
pick up one upset this week and maybe one next week.
Maybe you kind of get in a good groove and
maybe be in like five and three conference play, and

(35:47):
then you even if you lose out, at that point,
you might be pretty close to the bubble. So I
don't want to say premature to talk about maybe tournament,
but they still have a lot of their resume to
be fleshed out, for sure.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
I mean like it's one of those things where I
considered putting one of the one of one or both
of the Vanderbilt games in our picks for the week.
But it's like like it's one of those things where
we'll talk about it and give them their due and
and you know, give them more than just a quick
hit next week if they honestly, if they've win one
of those games, so worth keeping an eye on. But

(36:21):
they definitely they definitely have more work to do. Thirty
seven in the net, Joe, Like that historically is like
really obviously, I know there are teams that that's that's
definitely not the worst net that's made it, but like
that's bubblish territory, right, Like I feel like there's there's
been there's been teams that have had like what was
Saint John's like twenty ninth or whatever the year that

(36:42):
we didn't, but like there's been at large teams that
have had a worse net and got in. So like
that's obviously there's tons to go, but worth keeping an
eye on them. Let's see what else we got here
from our quick hits. The Santa Clara Gonzaga game. The
only thing that we didn't mention I was, I was

(37:02):
gonna bring it up, but like you said, we got
another game, but to talk about you kind of mentioned, Hey,
they're not getting some of the stuff, some of the
stuff they thought they were gonna get, Like Michael Jay
he's moved to the bench and Ben greg is starting.
Michael Jaii six points in this game and three points
in the Oregon State game, Like definitely not what you
thought you were gonna get from him. Like I remember,

(37:24):
you know, talking about him coming out of Pepperdine, like, hey,
he was supposed to be one of the uh, you know,
kind of one of the big guys for this and
Khalif Battle finished this with zero points in this in
this particular game.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
I mean like, ah, it's still for me.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
It's gonna be like when they put it together, Like
I have confidence that this Gonzaga team can do something
in the tournament, but it's just like, are they gonna
be rolling when it's time to go? Now again, we
already talked about this, no reason to rehash, but they're
gonna get a little bit more tech stood and you know,
maybe a little bit more prepared, uh than than most years,

(38:03):
just with the way the WCC is.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
But I'm gonna need to see some significant I would I.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Want I don't want to know if I want to
say improvement or I think stability is the word I'm
looking for. I'm gonna want to see more consistency before
I really feel like I can trust them come to
finish the season.

Speaker 4 (38:21):
Arkansas Miazoo.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
I'd like to, uh, I'd like to know how many
Power five teams right now have no wins in conference?
Because Arkansas is one of those teams. We already mentioned
first year's coaches that are doing great. Cal is not
one of them.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
And I mean, like they have a.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
Decent roster, Like they beat Michigan, they in a in
a comeback fashion like that win looks like it's it's
you know, it's gonna travel. So I mean like some
of this is like the the nature of the beast
that is the SEC. But like I mean, Joe's kind
of been preaching it, you know, like there's just some

(38:58):
things that you know with Cal Perry and the way
he coaches that you know, like he might just be
a little too stubborn to change and you know, the
game might have just kind of evolved past that style.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
So I don't know where they go.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Props to MISSOI you know, and again, any when you
get in the SEC home or away, like with the
way it is this year, like you'll take it. But yeah,
as Joe already mentioned, they entered the top twenty five
this week, So just just another SEC team in the
top twenty five.

Speaker 4 (39:30):
Who cares?

Speaker 3 (39:31):
You know, that's that's everyday business for most of the conference.
But I don't know what the CAL thing is going
to look like in a year.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, Power Conference teams who don't have wins in the
conference so far. You mentioned Arkansas, South Carolina, Miami, and Colorado,
so not teams who were looking very good either. Yeah,
it's it's it's definitely a tough situation for Cal. They
brought in a like an NBA coach last year to
kind of get him to see the value of kind

(39:59):
of new age basketball and shooting a lot of threes,
and they had a roster with rechepperd and Rob Dillingham
who were able to stretch the floor and that really
helped them up until March. But the years before that
we kind of like the offense was kind of like
stagnant and the only hope was like you know, Oscar
Shebey Oscar Sheeble rebounds and you know even Severe Wheeler
are like setting up some pretty nice assist It wasn't

(40:20):
like this fluid offense.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
John L.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Davis has not been what they've thought he was gonna be,
which I think is is obviously something that Cal needs
to figure out. But also a lot of credit to
Dusty May. We're seeing what he's doing in Michigan right now,
which even with some tough losses this week that we
just talked about, like pretty good season, better than people
would have thought. So they have a lot to figure

(40:43):
out down there. Cal Perry probably has to change his ways,
and not in terms of like, hey, it's really cool
that you put players first, but the offense has to
change that. It worked really well when it was the
early two thousands, when it was even early twenty tens,
when it was a lot about my guys better than
your guy. So we're gonna win. But basketball has become
so much more of a skill game, so I'll repeat

(41:03):
that real quick. You know, we talked about it before,
but that's just something that it's the game's changing, and
you know, there are still teams out there that maybe
can win some games playing the way he played in
the historically, but it takes a lot. So last year
was different for him with the roster setup in the
in the NBA coach helping him out. I think his
name is John Welch, so uh, last to be figured out.

(41:25):
We're gonna be having some conversations about some big name
coaches this year, or at least big name jobs as well.
So I can't imagine they're happy, but I do think
the talent will get them back on the win column
here soon Greg, let's move on. We have Big East
games to talk about. We'll go a little bit more
in depth on these, but we don't spend a lot
of time since they're maybe just surprising results. We have

(41:47):
Creighton and Yukon. Creighton gets a big win sixty eight
to sixty three. This is a team that maybe people
rode off and maybe I did too with Pop Isaacs
being out. Yeah, and hey, maybe maybe it's still over right,
Like the Big East may not get these teams in,
but it puts the Big East in a better position
that that that they got this one to have more

(42:08):
teams in the tournament. It's important to note that Lee
McNeely is not playing right now with an injury for Yukon.
So I'll say they're an average team without him. I'll
say that like it's it's not it's not a great
team with him in the lineup. I think they get
some of these wins that they've lost the last couple
of weeks and but still looks good on the resume
for Creighton. I just I'm not like, this is not

(42:30):
like when we get to the March, like Leam McNeely
has been back healthy and back in a groove, like,
forget about the seed. They might be better than the
seed they got because him being out it was so
important they after Mallory. They made him the focal point
of the team, and you could see that pretty quick clearly,
and when they don't have him, it's it's just not
the same.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
Oh, we're you gonna touch on do you want to
hear Marquette first, or.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
If you want to talk about it, or we can go.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
I wanted to look at this from a big picture
thing because I think I asked you this question. Maybe
it was last week and then I know we talked
about it early in the season. You know, Big East
is down, and I think I framed it to you
as like, what's the better scenario. Is it like kind
of the middle rising up, you know, at the cost
of you know, kind of the elite the elite Big

(43:20):
East teams, but maybe the biggest ends up with more
teams in the whole injury thing to William McNeely might
be I don't I don't want to say best best,
but it's like it makes the Yukon losses explainable. But
it's still gonna credit Creighton for the wins, right, A
team that we thought we had we'd you know, written

(43:42):
off or whatever, the Marquet Xavier thing, Like, I don't know, man,
But like when you start looking up and down on
this conference like Saint John's, I mean, I guess maybe
stepping up to their potential. They're you know, leaders in
the clubhouse right now in terms of uh they're seven
and one in the conference, fifth in the net, Marquette's eighteenth,

(44:02):
Yukon's thirty second, uh Crighton's forty fourth, and Villanovn Xavier
in the fifties. The only people out, the only teams
outside of the top one hundred are Seaton, Hall and
De Paul. I mean, like, in terms of what the
resumes are gonna look like, there's not really a ton
of bad losses and there's gonna be some there's not

(44:26):
gonna be like the elite of the elite wins. But
I just like am starting to see how this might
work out to where all of a sudden we look
up and it's four big East teams getting it. And
you know, I was worried about getting you know, are
are we going to be looking at two again? You know,
like I feel like two weeks ago, But I mean,
I don't know, if you feel like it's more important,

(44:48):
like hey, we've got Yukon winning two national championships in
a row. That's like enough to carry the banner for
the Big East. But like, to me, it just feels
odd to have, you know, a basketball centric conference and
like we're struggling to say, how, you know, are we
gonna get Are we gonna see three you know teams
in the tournament? So obviously the best case you want
to have the most quality teams possible. But if it

(45:13):
looks like yeah, Marquette, Yukon and Saint John's can kid,
they can make some noise in the tournament and like Creighton,
Villanova or Xavier sneaks in, Like I'll take that over
what over my expectations that I had for this year.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yeah, we'll have to see a lot to be played
out here in the Big East. Specifically, I think this
week has some pretty big games for the conference overall
that we're gonna get to. We have the Xavier Musketeers
winning fifty nine to fifty seven over Marquette as well
that we mentioned the biggest gut a couple of big
wins there, So just to kind of quickly go over
that they won this old school Xavier basketball style, Greg,

(45:49):
like the times when they're in the A ten where
they have really good defense and they have balanced scoring
where the leading scorer had fourteen points. That is a
to a t old schools Zavor basketball when they had
like Stanley Burrell scoring thirteen fourteen points per game and
that was the leading scorer. Very good job by them.
They shot eleven point eight percent from three, so hard
to win those games. Defense stepped up Dale Swayne and
specifically had a really good game for Xavier on defense.

(46:12):
So very good for them. Uh, it's you know, Marquette's
had some struggles, you know, recently with obviously the DePaul
game that we talked about. Now Xavier losing Xavier, Greg,
you have to give us your thoughts since you texted
the group chat that I was in that Xavier is
dead and now they have won three straight in the
Big East and you have to answer for that because broken,
you lost I used broken, sorry, broken, and you lost

(46:36):
some some friends, some parlays and now they can't afford
to go to Disney World with their kids.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
So well, he's at Disney World. I think he'll be
all right. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
This is one of those things where you start to think, maybe,
if you want to like be an optimist, like, hey,
maybe just with all of the injuries and you know,
all of the fluctuation on the roster that they've had,
maybe took them some time to figure stuff out. I
still don't think we're gonna look up and all of
a sudden it's like, ah Xavior's ranked in the top

(47:06):
twenty five, but like they could feasibly sneak in, you know,
maybe maybe a daton Ish team, right like for first
four or not. Like comparing them to Daton makes makture.
We don't even need to talk about Daton anymore from
until they do something of note. But and I guess,
like again, it's just it's like my opinion on them,

(47:28):
I guess it's back to influx. Like I had written
them off with all their injuries. I had written Creton
off with pop Isaac's out, And like maybe it's you know,
just teaches us or me specifically, a little bit of
a lesson that like maybe you give some of these
teams some time to figure out how how they're like

(47:50):
how the roster looks and how the rotations look and
how everybody's Roles. Look, you know, after a big change
like that, you know, I feel like we give that
race to like Auburn, like if they had lost one
of those games this week with Aul Chenibram. And obviously
this is a different level, you know when we're talking
about one of one of these Big East teams. But

(48:10):
as far as like making or missing the tournament, like
maybe it's more sensible, you know, not to just write
off one of these teams and and you know creating
I mean like when we went to Butler, like you know,
I was watching, I know it joked when when we
were coming to preseason we were like, oh, Liam McNeely
is the uh you know, he's the the highest recruit

(48:33):
you know, in the Big East. And outside of that,
there's this just this Jackson mc andrew do He actually
looked really good when we went to Butler. So I
mean like that could be one of those things where
not just like yeah, next man up mentality, but like
maybe maybe the opportunity for some of these guys, it's
just maybe it turns into again not not an addition

(48:54):
by subtraction thing, but kind of like kind of like
I was talking about with with the Texas A Nam
Wade Taylor. I think when I mentioned last week, maybe
sometimes you learn how to play without someone and then
come back and you're better. You know, that's up to
the coach to like manage, all right, now this player's back,
how do we you know, how do we mesh that
with with how we've been playing without them?

Speaker 4 (49:13):
So I don't know.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
I mean, like if if you went up and down
the Big East right now and you made me say,
like who's in who's out? It's like, all right, I'll
give you like Marquette and Yukhan looks like Saint John's's
gonna be in now. But like if you said, do
you think one of one of the three between Xavier,
Villanova and and George, I.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
Don't even I even know.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
I'm not gonna talk about Georgetown. There's somebody else that
I'm missing that's in like that second tier. But I'm
still like, I'm still like on.

Speaker 4 (49:45):
The fence, like do I think one of those teams
is gonna make it in?

Speaker 3 (49:48):
Like I I don't want to put my foot down
one way or the other, even with these these results
coming in, Like I think you're I'm gonna need another
like week or two of maybe not necessarily wins, but
seeing how they're playing and if they're competitive in game.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
Like you know that, that might make me change my mind.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yeah, I think a lot of it. I mean, I
don't think necessarily writing him off is maybe the right
word for me. It was like, all right, like I
I'm not going to pay attention to these teams as
much until they prove it to us. And if you
get wins like this, then you put yourselves back in
the conversation. But you're out of the conversation by your
own volition if you lose some of those games earlier
now with teams like we'll just use Xavier for instance,

(50:26):
their schedule was tough at that point in the start
of the season, started the Big Beast season. So like, yeah,
the injury stunk and everything, but you finish off your
game Lis Cincinnati and you lose that one. You go
at Yukon when they still had Lee McNeely, I believe.
Then you have Marquette at home and you lose that
when you beat Seaton Hall, which is great, and then
you go at Georgetown, who's much improved this year, where

(50:49):
that's the game Zach Fremantle came back. But I believe
he came back and like, I don't know if he
was like one hundred percent, but it seems like he
was playing playing more. And then you had Saint John's. Well,
you've already played you know, it is round robin, but
you have to play everyone twice. But like you've played
three of the top teams in the Big East, and
that's three of your four losses in conference so far,

(51:10):
and the other one some of them while your best
player was injured, and that just that makes things tough.
So I'm not like buying stock in them, but i
will say, like they have earned their way back into
the conversation. Even if you know they beat the Paul,
they beat the second tier team, I think you're forgetting Greg.
They beat Villanova and they now have beat at Marquette.

(51:30):
That's a good win this week. We don't have these
on our pick sheet, but like they're at Saint John's,
but they we are picking them at home against Yukon.
So like that, that is like a very unique opportunity.
That is catch twenty two, Greg, because at that point,
you only have you have all of your big games

(51:51):
in the Big East done right, because like you already
played Marquette, twice, and at that point you'd play Saint
John's and Yukon twice, So like you won't have many
chances for a big resume wins necessarily at the end
of the season. But if you can kind of get
some wins under your belt and win fifteen conference, I
don't know, I don't even know what number is fair

(52:11):
at this point, Like you could, theoretically could even if
you lose these two games, you could you could win
like you're very winnable games the rest of the schedule.
So just something to keep in mind too. The schedule
sometimes play a factor along with the injuries, and like
when you get guys back, that changes things. When the
schedule gets easier, that changes things too. All right, let's
get to some of the games we're going to go
into more detail about. I know we've aready been talking

(52:31):
for a lot, so we'll try to make it fast.
But we have Alabama and Kentucky. We promised every one points, Greg.
They gave us points one hundred and two to ninety
seven in this one. I think Kentucky's defensive issue showed up.
I mean, both teams defensive issues showed up, but obviously
more detrimental to Kentucky in this one where Mark Sears
had twenty four points and Grant Nelson had twenty five points.
So their star players had stepped up a game where

(52:54):
than three pointers were falling for Kentucky as well. So
that was like not, you know, we said like that
was kind of the things like a lot of times
they do beat themselves, that wasn't the case in this one.
It was just their offense was not as good as Alabama's,
and a lot of it was their star players were
able to get their shots. You know, maybe not the
best shooting percentage from Mark Sears, specifically from three, but
that guy obviously scores his points and deserves a lot

(53:17):
of credit for what he did. And and you know,
Kentucky played a good game, but maybe still just you know,
they can beat teams like Alabama, but maybe still need
to lock in defensively sometimes.

Speaker 4 (53:27):
Yeah, this was a fun game to watch.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
Again, both of these teams at times leave things to
be desired on defense, but it's so fun basketball to watch.
It's both both teams play a fast pace in terms
of you know, well, I don't think like this changes
this result changes what I think of either team. I mean,

(53:51):
like kind of kind of got exactly what we thought
we were going to out of this game. The only
thing I want to bring up, I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna like reiterate and you just said, but I
know you you saw I put it in one of
our chats, but I don't know if you are. I'm sorry,

(54:11):
I don't know if you saw it or not. But
did you see Kobe Brea after one of the threes
that he made. I literally I couldn't find it on Twitter,
so I literally videoed it myself on my TV screen.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
Are you aware of the video I'm talking about? Sit.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
I would think that simulating shooting another player in the
head is probably enough for technical.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
But didn't get you know what I mean. I guess
he was really feeling it.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
But that was just one that, like I could not
believe no one on like a lot of times when
something like that happens, like you go to Twitter and
it's like it's all over nothing that I saw nothing
on it, So I didn't think I'm the only one
that noticed it, but like no one talked about it.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Yeah, I didn't see a lot of it either. I
think the that's something that happens a lot in summer
basketball and like aau and stuff, and you know the
officials don't see it, then you know that's that's what's
gonna happen. It was funny how they did catch Jackson
Robinson talk in trash to the Texas A and M bench,
but they didn't catch that later in the week. So yeah,
it'd be better's best at best if Dayton teaches their

(55:20):
players how to act professionally before they send their players
to Kentucky, and that way they don'll pick up key
technical fouls for us, and that'd be nice. We'll see
what we'll see if it comes back to bite us
in the bite us in the butt later on. All right,
let's go to Purdue beating Oregon sixty five to fifty eight.
It resembled a old Big Ten basketball game, even if

(55:40):
Oregon is new to the conference now. Trey Coffin w
Ren twenty three points in this one, Braden Smith had
fifteen and seven, and Oregon, I think, you know, I
don't know how to put it. There's still a team.
I'm trying to figure out how I feel about them.
I don't know if you feel the same. Play Greg
but Jackson, Chelstead didn't have the greatest shooting night. That's
gonna that's going to hurt you. I don't know this.

(56:03):
I can't figure out this team for that. I want
to believe in them. I wanted to believe in them
in this game and be like, hey, the travel might
get to Purdue and like Redue hasn't had the easiest
time and uh this year at least, and not as
maybe good of a time as we maybe thought despite
them being like a pretty solid team. So I was like, yeah,
maybe maybe pick organ I was wrong about it. And
I still like I can't figure out, like what the
what the ceiling is for this Orgon team is kind

(56:24):
of my biggest question mark here.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
Yeah, I feel like Purdue is one of those teams
that is going to run. And I'll touch on the
Oregon stuff, but I want to talk about Purdue first.
I feel like they're one of those teams that maybe
took their lumps, but like y'all also remember this team
beat Yes it was.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
At home, Like this team beat Bama.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
In the non conference, So I mean, they're they're a
good team. You know, they've had their issues, a lot
of them kind of rearing their head from from the
past in terms of turnovers, but it looks like they're
figuring things out and it's and it's one of those
things where they're related back to the Oregon Like I'm
going to ge have Purdue the credit. You have to
travel across the country, you know, to play this team

(57:04):
at home, and it's like it's still a decent team.

Speaker 4 (57:07):
And like, even though I don't I'm with you, I don't.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Necessarily know exactly what I think about Oregon right now,
I'm still going to give Purdue the credit and say, hey,
this is a this is a good win, this is
you know, it's it's going to look good on your
resume come towards the end of the year. I may
not know exactly where we're going is going to end up,
but I feel like they're going to be, you know,
at least a top fifty, top forty net team. So

(57:33):
that that right away, you know, that's automatically a quad one, right.

Speaker 4 (57:40):
In terms of.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
What do I think they can be, Well, just keep
an eye on And I feel I hate I hate
that it's January twentieth, and like I'm saying that about
Like how many teams have I said that about?

Speaker 4 (57:54):
Like, so that about.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
Vanderbilt today, I feel like I've said something that nature
about Gonzaga and Georgia on It's just like some of
these teams. I said this last year when we're recording,
some of these teams need to just let us know
who they are and just stay in that box so
I can give the people the analysis. Instead of saying
things and then looking like an idiot the next week,

(58:16):
I would just appreciate some consistency from some of these teams.
If you're bad, stay bad. If you're good, stay good.
If you're mediocre, stay mediocre.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Yeah, you would hate college basketball that actually happened, but
that's how it works. Yeah. But I do think we
need to do it something this year, Greg where we
have a last year I kind of did this on
the show where it was like teams I like, teams
I don't like, and I don't want to pick to
win a game in the tournament. Now. The problem was
like I would have this rule of like, hey, I'm
not going to pick a team like to go to
the second weekend of the tournament, and then they'd have

(58:47):
to play a team that I also said that about,
and that was a problem. But I do think we
need to have a list of Like for Oregon, it's
like very much, I do not have them figured out.
For you know, whatever team I don't know, Auburn we
have them figured out, Like Duke, obviously we have them
figured out. Like that is not saying they're gonna win
the whole thing or go to the final four. That's
not how sports work. But like their needs, there's definitely

(59:09):
three tiers when you're looking at your bracket, at least
in my mind, where it's like I like this team,
I'm probably gonna pick them go far for whatever reasons,
whether watching them or metrics. The teams you don't know
what to think of, whether the metrics are messed up
or you just kind of see it and kind of ugly.
And the teams that you're like, man, they might be
playing okay regular season, but I I don't know about
this one. And that's what you know. We'll have to
figure out how to put these teams in these boxes

(59:30):
by the end of the season, because it will help
with brackets, even if sometimes the bracket doesn't always turn
out the best way either. All right, let's go to
Ole Miss and Mississippi State, the first ranked matchup in
the history of this match or sorry, the first ranked
game in the history of this matchup. Mississippi State wins
this one eighty four to eighty one. It was all

(59:51):
the bench scoring for Mississippi State. They had Keishan Murphy
with eighteen and Riley Coogle, the former Florida player, scoring
twenty one in this one. So, you know, Ole Missus
defense broke down a little bit in this one, but
it was a very much an ugly, ugly, ugly game.
Inspite having eighty four points, we had you know, our
Jay Melendez as four for twelve from Mississippi State. We

(01:00:12):
had Josh Hovered two of thirteen from the floor. You know,
even Ole miss was probably more efficient with their shooting,
but it was not by much. It was there's guys
out there like Sean Pedgelo who was seven to eighteen
and his shots selection has been questionable. He was three
of twelve from three point range. So ugly game. I
guess you kind of expect that to revelry game. But

(01:00:32):
Mississippi State has they kind of stile that nedy gritty
about them where they play some good defense, but they
can score and it wasn't efficient in this one, but
they got some scoring from the bench, and that's that's
what kind of made got them the win.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
I mean, you say eighty four points, but eighty four
points in overtime. It's a seventy four to seventy four
game at the end of regulation, and we just saw
I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
Like, hey, thanks Ole miss for staying consistent.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Seventy four points against Bama, seventy four points against Mississippi State, which, honestly,
in my mind, Mississippi States pretty darn good on defense.
You already said it, But like putting up the same
amount of points in regulation against both of those teams,
like gives me a little bit of like, hey, maybe
there is some.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
You know, offensive consistence. Maybe you know what, maybe maybe there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Is something I'm still not ready to you know, kind
of put my put my finger down and say, yeah,
I'm riding the ride in the reps strain. But we
both kind of like Mississippi State, I think you might
like them a little bit more than I do. But
you know, it's one of those things where this game
is exactly what you thought it would be. Yes, there
was some scoring, but both of these teams played just tenacious,

(01:01:38):
gritty defense, rivalry game. I mean, like you couldn't really
ask for much more except over time.

Speaker 4 (01:01:45):
Oh wait, we got that. So I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
I'm sure Mississippi State fans that had bets on their
teams were loving over time. But I don't know that
my mind changed significant on either of these teams. If anything,
like Mississippi State did exactly what I thought they will.

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
You know, we both picked them the win this We
both picked them the win this game.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
I know I did.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
You did too correct?

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Okay again, if anything, the only like enlightenment I got
is like, okay, maybe there is you know, something to
that homeless offense, you know, and and if they can
if they can really start gearing up, this could be
a dangerous team. But again could definitely that this is

(01:02:31):
a loss it you know, if you just look at
their their upcoming schedule, uh so coming up Texas and
m Missouri, Texas, Auburn, Kentucky. Like that's rough man, you know,
Like if you want to say, like where's the win there,
it's Texas And it's like yeah, but like they're not

(01:02:54):
They're not bad either, you know, Like I just I
it's I just can't put a round. Like if they
I feel like if they go two and two in
that stretch.

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
I'm not saying they will.

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
I might walk away, you know, because that would probably
mean their wins are probably Missouri and Kentucky. I would
probably walk away from that saying this team might be
a top ten team if if they go too and
like that's that's weird to say, Like, yeah, if they
go too and two, they might be top ten. But
like two of those ones will be pretty darn good.
You know, God forbid one of them the Auburn uh,

(01:03:29):
which you know with the way this year is gone
that you know that's gonna happen because that's at home,
it's it's.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
Out all this so who knows, you know. I think
they're a lot better than we thought they would be.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
I mean, like this is just your typical like it
feels like a crisp beer projector projection of I'm sorry,
trajectory I can speak correctly, trajectory of what he does
with his programs right on pace. To be in the
national mix, as they always have every everywhere he's been
remains to be seen what what exactly they'll be this year,
but in the mix is a certainty.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
Yeah, I mean there's sixteenth in the polls, right now
both the coaches and media, so like it's not crazy
to say, you know, they could be a top ten team,
especially with some of the teams above them maybe having
more losses and or more issues that we brought up,
like you know, like Kansas, we don't you know, exactly
know if for Dues had like a season where they
played a tough schedule, but still like trying to figure

(01:04:23):
that thing out without Zach Edy, and you know, there's
definitely a lot of ball still up in the air
at this point. Greg, Let's go to Iowa State in
West Virginia. West Virginia upsets Iowa State, get a big
win at home. It is not easy to play in
Morgantown with you that year after year, Javon Small has
twenty seven points, they get to win. They're still without
Tucker Devrees. So you're looking for maybe a team to

(01:04:46):
kind of surprise people in the Big twelve. It might
end up being West Virginia. Now, Iowa State has some injuries,
so like, you know, I'm probably I know you probably
are because I know you really like Iowa State. I
like them as well. I'm not gonna look too much
into this and really care because it is a tough
place to and we see them get upsets even when
they're not a very good team at West Virginia. West
Virginia's only two conference losses so far are to Houston

(01:05:07):
and Arizona. So like right now they're tied for fourth
place in the in the Big twelve, So like looking
for more teams to step up. If Tucker to Reeze
comes back it, you know who's to say it can't
be them?

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
Yeah, I'm still And again I don't know if you
want to. We don't need to have a tangent. We're
already over an hour into this. I feel like my
my like tier one teams right now are probably in
no particular order, although Auburn is first pending Jeni Braham's health,
so Auburn, and then like Duke Iowa State, but like

(01:05:46):
I don't care if you want to put Duke It
two in Iowa State at three or Iowa stated two
and Duke It three, Like that's probably my Tier one
and like this the only thing I don't like about
this results like yes it's at West Virginia, but like
no Tucker debrees props to them for for because they've
they've done quite a number if I remember correctly in

(01:06:11):
the time, because he's been out for a while.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, I don't know. I don't know exactly
when he was out.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
But he's like you like, they've they've grabbed some surprising
wins during this stretch, and it's like definitely something that
you know they'll take. Obviously, UH got trounced by Arizona
and and in Houston, but you know this win. And
I did he play in the Kansas game? Was that
like when this started when we were like, oh my goodness,

(01:06:38):
Like he.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Didn't play that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:39):
He did not He didn't play in that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
So that's I think that's kind of when this train
started of like okay, like the West Virginia is worth
paying attention to kind of thing. So you know, good
on them. Uh do you have when was the last
time you did bractology? I don't know if you do
it every week at this point or if that it
doesn't come until later. I'm just curious if you if
you have them in or where you have them at

(01:07:01):
this point, if they're.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
In or I did one last week, I want to say,
and I believe they were in and they were in
pretty decently. Like I think a nine or ten of
have to look it up. I'll look it up after
the next thing we talk about. But yeah, they are
very in a very good position to make the tournament
at this point, especially if you look at like some

(01:07:22):
of the wins will be easier than we thought in
the big twelve two Like this is a big win.
They already notched that. So now move on and take
care of the business. You should take care of and
have that consistency that Greg likes to see, and you
could be right there. So all right, let's go to
the last game. We're going to recap for the week.
Greg and I. In the meantime, I woke up what
I had in the bracketology, But we have Michigan State
beating Illinois eighty to seventy eight. Now Casparas was back

(01:07:45):
for Illinois, but he only played nine minutes and scored
three points. That is a large deal in this game
since he is so good. But they I was proud
of how Illinois played, to be honest, because they battled
tough even without him. He ended up falling short to
Michigan State. Trey Hollman had seventeen points. Really seeing some

(01:08:05):
of the guards step up this season, and this is
a game. I think at the end we had Brad
Underwood getting a technical too, so like it's a two
point game and like you're kind of like, hey, man,
like I know you got to fight for your guys
and everything, but oh man, the technical. I think it
was like two or three minutes left, Greg, I don't
know if I remember that right, Pare.

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
The only reason I know this is because I was
just looking at I can't remember there was something I
wanted to look at today. It was just over three
minutes to go, so I don't believe it was the
under four time out, but I think it was like
right after that.

Speaker 4 (01:08:39):
Yeah, so I think the game was it was one
or two points.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
I did see in the post game he said something
about it wasn't on me, it was on my bench
or something. But the score, like if you look online
at at they all note it as Brad Underwood and
not a bench technical. So I don't know he maybe
he thought something that he said in postgame and then
found out it wasn't, or maybe maybe it just I

(01:09:05):
don't know if some of these places, like you know,
ESPN and CBS, maybe they just knowed it. If it's
been maybe they just noted as brand under wood instead
of bench technical. I don't know, but it was a
weird sequence in a in a tight game. Ultimately, I
would say, like, yeah, that hurts, but it's I mean,
they still finish this as a two point game like
they they have they have, they have the ball with

(01:09:27):
less than twenty seconds left than a chance to take
the lead. Like that doesn't help, but like end all
be all, you know, like they still had a chance
to win the game in you know, in regulation.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Yeah they did. Yeah, It's definitely one of those things
that hurt the team, hurt their chances. They still had
a chance. They fought tough at the end, and again
it's it's great because yeah, you lost and your players
still injured, obviously not playing a lot of minutes and
and with with the five fouls too. Clearly he did
not look himself in this game. But Kyle and Boswell,

(01:10:01):
you have to give him the ball a lot more.
And he didn't play the greatest game, but affected the
game in other ways. The just shooting will say, he
had nine rebounds and like that last possession he had
the ball in his hands and he made a play.
I don't know how to say he made a play
and like having another person be there with him, kus

(01:10:21):
baras when he comes back is going to be good.
So we talked about how other people, you know, maybe
like when they're out, the other people can step up.
It is good to have different options. And I think
when he is back at healthy and not having fouls,
they will have a chance to put the ball in
his hands and maybe have a different result at the
end of the game as well. But they'll also have

(01:10:43):
Boswell being able to help as well. So Michigan's take though,
greg better than maybe we expected. Sixteen and two on
the year, now front runners for the Big Ten. At
this point, I would say, and I know we've been
talking for a long time, but I just have to
say there's another team. I just I don't know what
the ceiling is. I don't know how to feel about it.

(01:11:04):
They don't have the resume that I think a lot
of sixteen to two teams would have. But Tom Mezoe
doing a good job, So I'll leaven it that for me.
If you want to say anything, I'm on Michigan, you
go ahead, because I want to give you time.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
I mean, like, if you look up and down the roster,
and you're like looking at how many top one hundred
guys they have, like you know, Jeremy Fears and Jayden
Nakins and Cohen Carr and Xavier Booker, and like some
of those guys at Jace Richardson, like some of those
guys like Xavier Booker. We played like where in the
world is Xavier Booker last year because we thought he
was going to be the contributor. And I think as
things have come along, we're just starting to find that

(01:11:37):
maybe some of these young players take longer to take hold.
But like you start looking up and down the roster,
you're like, hey, these are all guys that you know,
we're pegged as talented basketball players. So it's not the
most surprising thing in the world that all of a
sudden they're figuring it out again, especially in a Big
ten where I don't want to say it anymore because

(01:11:58):
because it's like I think some of the some of
the top echelon has closed. I don't think it's as
wide open as we thought. You know, I think we
thought we were going to see complete and total chaos
and like, yeah, okay, Minnesota wins on a buzzer beater,
at home against against Michigan, and you know there's some
weird results, but like I think for the most part,

(01:12:18):
like Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State, Michigan like helping. If I'm
forgetting somebody but like kind of separated themselves, I hope
I hope.

Speaker 4 (01:12:31):
Them there's not someone obvious that I'm forgetting.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
But uh, that's I mean, like if you gave me
like one of those four you know, you said, hey,
one of those four or the rest of the field
for Big Ten title, Like I take one of those
four or you know what I mean, if you get
if you get that group, like there's no question in
my mind it's you know, that's that's the better bet
right now. I again, I hope I'm not forgetting someone

(01:12:56):
obvious that it's just like I should not forget I
I guess Maryland, but like I think they're good, but
I don't I don't think they're on the same tier
as these teams.

Speaker 4 (01:13:07):
Maybe maybe you disagree.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
I think they're good and they like maybe good enough
to win a tournament game, maybe two, But like as
far as the kind of the looking at just the
Big Ten Conference, like I'd rather have put my money
on Illinois or Purdue right now. And again, I know
Illinois just lost this game, but I probably still put
my money on Illinois over Michigan State. But this is
I feel like this is less surprising than we than

(01:13:30):
we you know, it's like one of those well it's
Tom Izzo team and you.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
Know, let's see check it all.

Speaker 3 (01:13:36):
Right, So we're getting to the end of January and
then you know, then comes February, and goodness gracious, then
comes March, so you know, like just business as usual,
although it feels like, you know, the past couple of.

Speaker 4 (01:13:49):
Years has been like the opposite where it just hasn't
been able to put things together.

Speaker 3 (01:13:52):
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
Yeah, we'll see if those are the four teams you want.
There are other teams with better conference records, but yeah,
it's we'll see how it evens out. Too. Like Maryland
has four conference losses already, it'd be very tough for
them to come back and win the league in a
league where it seems like Purdue A. Michigan's taking take
care of most of the games that they should. Uh,
Michigan six to one as well, Wisconsin five and two.
Illinois has fought three conference losses Oregon has three conference

(01:14:16):
losses already, so they've they've got three games behind. That's
gonna be tough. So with you on that though, I
think Michigan State and Purdue obviously would be like, you know,
gun to your head. I think those two teams specifically
are like, yeah, they probably will in the conference one
of the two. This this Michigan State team a lot
reminds me of Texas A and M if they didn't
have good guard play, like if they didn't have way

(01:14:36):
Taylor and Zurich Phelps scoring a lot. Because they throw bodies.
We talked about Daviy You talked about David Brooker, Greg
like seventeen minutes in this game. They just kind of
throw a bunch of big bodies at you and try
to play physical basketball. My concern with them is like
Jade Nakens as their leading scorer thirteen point nine points
per game. He's pretty solid, He's not shooting the three
very well under thirty percent. But after that, they don't

(01:14:58):
have a person scoring double digit points, averaging double digit points,
and I just I wonder how that's gonna play out.
It's nice to have a lot of options, a lot
of guys who you play. But it's a lot of
guys who are playing hard but not playing exceptionally well,
and they're getting wins as a team, but they're also
picking up wins they should pick up. So we'll see

(01:15:19):
how that affects things in the future. I'm excited to
see what they can do, as you said, as gets
more and more going on. Uh, maybe in this big ten,
with a winnable big ten, maybe they can get the
job done. All right, Greg, we have to get to
some picks here. We have Tuesday, Mississippi State and Tennessee.
Tennessee has looked like they've been able to uh, they've
been looked pretty vulnerable recently.

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
I forgot to have my uh because again I don't
want to I don't want to contradict myself while I'm
pulling that up. Joe, why don't you Why don't you
go ahead and give everybody your pick first?

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
Okay, I I have Tennessee. You have Tennessee too, in
case you're not picking.

Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
Up I thought I thought so, But you know I've
done I've done it on here where I like I'll
say something like, oh no, wait, that's not what I
have here, and you'll correct me. So I just wanted
to make sure I have it pulled up. Yeah, it's
at home. This is this this was I'm not oh
yeah Tennessee at all. Yeah, this was a difficult game
for me to pick. I'm like, you know, I'm excited

(01:16:20):
to watch this game. There's not a lot else on
this Tomorrow night. I mean there's other watchable games, but
like there's not like a lot of other there's there's
a lot of games this week that I considered putting
in or not.

Speaker 4 (01:16:33):
This one.

Speaker 3 (01:16:34):
I feel like maybe I can get a semblance of
an idea of you know, gleaning something new from one
of these two teams or both, you know, just just
depending on how the game goes, like to see Chaslin
if you know, chanslyn Near steps up and has a
great game against a good defense, like good for Tennessee.
But if Mississippi State wins this game, like you know,

(01:16:55):
that wouldn't surprise me either. It's just it's hard to
pick against Tennessee at home.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
Yeah, the right. I think if it was flipped, i'd
pick Missippy State if they were at home in this one,
just because then I see struggling and like Chanslner has
been struggling specifically, and that really holds them back. So
I would I would do that. But Tennessee's at home.
They're seven and a half point favorites, and I think
they'll take care business in this one. All right, Next
one up, we have Texas A and m at Ole Miss. Now,

(01:17:21):
Wade Taylor did return at the end of the week
against LSUS. That's important to it. Before picking this one, Greg.

Speaker 4 (01:17:27):
I am gonna pick Ole Miss at home.

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
I am just like looking up and down my picks
this week and see how many favorites I'm picking, and
it just I gotta pick. I gotta pick something somewhere,
and like picking the defense that that travels not in
terms of like away from home, but like you know
they can carry that from game to game. Yeah, way

(01:17:51):
Taylor's back, but like maybe he's just working his way back.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
I don't know. This is one of those kind of
like shoot from the hip and like see what sticks
kind of things. I mean, if you look up and
down or pick from last week, I mean both of us,
it's it's it's a lot of red last week, Joe.

Speaker 3 (01:18:04):
So I don't know, I'm just like trying to trying
to see what makes sense and you're right. I know
I said something earlier like I want, you know, teams
to just you know, let us know what the r
and be consistent. But like this is I mean, this
is part of the fun of the sport. It's just
it's just how wild it is. I'll I again just
trying to pick something. Can't can't just pick every favorite

(01:18:26):
throughout the week. I mean, honestly, ole Miss might be
if yeah, in terms of points where they might be favored,
and I don't know, but like in terms of the
number next to the name, Texas A and M will
be ahead of them.

Speaker 4 (01:18:38):
So you know, I'll but in this game, I'll take
ole Miss.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
I was gonna say I Ole Miss will definitely be
favored in this one. I mean maybe I'm wrong and
Vegas knows something that I don't, but teams that are
ranked that close and they get it at home, I
think we'll miss will be favorite. But I'm taking Texas
A and M. I think the upside is higher for them.
I think they are a team that is you know,
I think Chris Beard will still I have good games.
They play physical and everything for all missed, but I

(01:19:02):
think Texas A and M has the ability to muck
it up with them and play physical with them. So
I'm gonna take them because they have more of the
scoring punch and get the win on the road very easily.
As you said, could be wrong. We both had terrible
picks last week. I think, just one of our worst
weeks ever, which again for me, I kind of like
because it makes the sport more fun than We just
don't know what's coming for us, but obviously we would
like to do better ourselves. Moving on to Friday, Greg,

(01:19:24):
we have Michigan and Purdue, two of the teams you
mentioned who are near the top of the Big ten
standings right now. Who you going with?

Speaker 4 (01:19:32):
I'm going to go with.

Speaker 3 (01:19:33):
Purdue again, just I have a certain feeling about you know,
them and what they're what they're seeling is. I'm gonna
be really interested to see how Trey Kauffman ren deals
with two seven footers on the floor at the same time.
Not the biggest big guy, but he is very physical.

(01:19:54):
That's gonna be a lot of fun for me to
watch along with, you know, seeing what Purdue guards do.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
Yeah, I think Michigan has lost a little bit of
steam for me. I still like you know their team
and what they can do, but they they've won a
ranked match up against Ucla. I think I've noted pretty
much that I really don't like this Ucla team this year,
even though they were ranked at that point, but they
before that, they haven't really beat a ranked team since
they played Wisconsin. Like way, it was like one of
those Big Ten games that was way earlier than January,

(01:20:22):
So I think that might be tough going on the
road and playing at Purdue. I like Braden Smith take
care of the ball and Trey Coffin run what he
can do, so I will go with Purdue on this
one as well. On Saturday, we have Houston and Kansas.
Greg mentioned we may have had one of the bet
games of the year in terms of quality, or not
in terms of quality of the game, but just terms
of quality of the teams when I was dating Kansas played.

(01:20:45):
But this is another one where where Houston is a
pretty solid team and playing at Kansas could could create
some fireworks for the Big Twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
This might be another one of those where like I
picked them to win the Big Twelve and now like
I don't want to quit my preseason thoughts on them,
I gotta get better at, you know, accepting being wrong.
But this is still one of those cases where again
I'm trying to kind of like shoot and see, like
all right, where where can I see? Like Kansas is
at home, probably gonna be I would imagine they're gonna

(01:21:15):
be favored of this game. Again, I'm not the smartest
when it comes to this stuff, so, you know, face value,
I would think Kansas would be would be favor but
maybe not.

Speaker 4 (01:21:27):
For whatever reason, I'm gonna take Houston this game.

Speaker 3 (01:21:30):
Obviously, we've talked a little bit about the inconsistencies that
Kansas has had and going up against a historically, you know,
a program that's always value defense. You know, since since
Calvin's been around, I like them to kind of disrupt
and continue Kansas's kind of struggles. So it still feels

(01:21:55):
it still feels weird picking even though this is like
if you're gonna have me pick this game. In the preseason,
I've been like, yeah, this is this goes right along
with what I'm picking what's gonna happen in the Big twelve.
But right now today it's like, even though Kansas is struggling,
like it feels strange to pick against Kansas at home

(01:22:17):
at fog But I again got to pick something surprising,
and like this wouldn't be just with Kansas struggles, that
wouldn't be the most surprising thing, but it would still
be somewhat of.

Speaker 4 (01:22:27):
A of a you know, a curveball.

Speaker 1 (01:22:31):
Yeah, I'm going with Kansas. It's two teams that I
I'm picking against Houston more so than I'm picking Kansas.
And I'm picking Kansas because they're at home more than
I'm picking because of how they played, because you know,
this could be a dogfight of a game and just
you know, not like a lot of physical play and
everything and that that's gonna be fun to watch. But

(01:22:54):
like Houston hasn't been a ranked team all season long,
it's not the same Houston teams that I think we're
accustomed to seeing. Yet I'm not gonna say they can't
get there. But even though they're six to zero conference play,
like they're kind of picking off the bottom of the conference.
So far, so not they deserve credits. Some of these
teams are better than maybe the record is saying, but

(01:23:16):
I don't think they've beaten a team who is better.
I think West Virginia is the biggest one at four
and two, but everyone else is three and three are
worse in Big twelve, And as you mentioned, the Big
twelve is not as good as usual, so it's not
like there's a ton of great teams in that range.
So a lot of bubble teams they're beating up on.
But going and playing and beating Kansas is a whole
different question. So I'm going Kansas in this one. All right,
We'll move on to the Tennessee Auburn game. I believe

(01:23:38):
College Game Day is going there for this one, Greg,
who you going with?

Speaker 3 (01:23:44):
I am gonna go with Auburn. I would imagine Jeni
Broom is gonna be back at least that's kind of
kind of what it sounds like. And I'll pick Auburn
to keep on rolling once he's back.

Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
Yeah, I'm going with Auburn. For some reason he doesn't play,
I'll still take Auburn. And I don't like the way
Tennessee is playing Chas Lanear struggling really just takes away
a lot of that scoring punch. So could be physical,
you know, a physical game. Obviously I thought about a
couple of these games, but this is another one that
could be really physical. If Lanier can't shoot better, they
are not going to win this game. And I think

(01:24:17):
Auburn and probably wouldn't even if you can't, even if
he does shoot a little better. So we'll go Auburn,
all right. Last pick, Greg, we have Ole Miss and Missouri.
Probably not a game we thought we'd be picking this year,
but Dennis Gates, as we mentioned earlier, done a fantastic
job at Missouri. They get this one at home.

Speaker 4 (01:24:31):
Greg, this is one that.

Speaker 3 (01:24:36):
I thought about, like, do I want to pick the
home team that's kind of like on the rise, Like
you gotta don't forget that. Yeah, I know Kansas had
the struggles, but but is already Kansas this year. So
like maybe I, you know, had put too much stock
in last year, but I just am too much into
that that Ole Miss defense, and this time it actually

(01:24:59):
travels ag to Missouri, so I'll take All Miss.

Speaker 1 (01:25:02):
I'll take All Miss as well. Like the defense as well,
they've Chris Beard has done a great job so far,
and I do think they're having that tight rotation with
guys that maybe he can trust. You get more offense
from from this as the season goes on. Will be
really impressive. Uh, but good for Missouri as well. I
think you know they This will be a fun one
to watch and see where that line is when we
get to it as well. So excited to watch this one, Greg,

(01:25:25):
any final thoughts for the week.

Speaker 4 (01:25:28):
Cheer for I don't know your name? Yeah all right, yeah,
like you only you want to college basketball? Thought?

Speaker 3 (01:25:37):
It's then come on snational title man, Like we just
we just we just talked for like an hour and
a half. Like people don't want to hear our voices anymore.
They just want to go and they want to watch
the national title.

Speaker 1 (01:25:46):
That's pretty wrong. People actually love your voice. Greg, That's
that's exactly where you're wrong. But I uh yeah, collech
we have to we have to wrap this up real quick.
So since I can go watch this game because it's
gonna start it says it's gonna start fifteen minutes, it
will not start actually right on the time. But it'll
be exciting to watch this. As someone who has family
members who are fans of both Notre Dame and Ohio State,
who has molded me a little bit, it'll be fun

(01:26:06):
one to watch. To wrap things up quickly, I'll say, Hey,
make sure to like and subscribe to the podcasts. Wherever
your podcasts, leave us a review, leave us some comments.
We were more than happy to help people with their
brackets when it comes to March and everything. And also
make sure to like and subscribe to the YouTube page.
Our episodes are up there as well. We will probably
start having more short videos of our podcast, kind of

(01:26:28):
clips of our podcast being up there on the GameHouse
YouTube channels well, it helps us all out as we
go forward. We've enjoyed doing this, but now thanks for watching.
We'll see you guys next time.