All Episodes

March 17, 2025 13 mins
Hunter Sansom is "NKY Bracket Guy" (@BracketNKY), and he's our official bracketologist. He joined us to share his post-Selection Sunday thoughts on ESPN1530. 

Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.

Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.

Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen

Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger


Follow on X: @MoEgger

Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have enjoyed having on our show the NKY Bracket Guy.
This guy has become the official bracketologist of The Moegger
Show and he's gained quite a following on social media
at bracket nkhy. His name is Hunter Sansomon, and this
guy has walked us through the process. He's offered different

(00:20):
guesses as to whether certain local teams might make the tournament.
And he was all over this on social media throughout
the course of a champ week. And instead of being
allowed to sit back and take a breath and now
just look ahead to the NCAA tournament, we're bothering him again.
It's good to have you. Congratulations on again. To me,

(00:41):
you're the breakout star of the college basketball season. So
good work and thank you was always for joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hey Mo, thanks for having me. I greatly appreciate it.
It's been a lot of work, but it's been a
rewarding process this year.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
All right, relative to what the committee did, how close
did you come to guessing the entire sixty eighteen field
with all the seeds accurately guessed?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
So I had sixty six teams correctly picked. I did
miss on Indiana and West Virginia. Seed wise, I had
two teams that were more than one seed off, and
then about I think eleven teams that I was one
seed off on. Overall, we have a scoring system called
a Paymon score. I won't wore you with the details,

(01:24):
but I improved from last year. I went up seven points,
so I'll call that a win, especially with the curveball
the committee through us with West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
All right, we'll talk about that in a second. Were
you better than some of the more well known bracketologists
like Joel Nardi?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Better than a couple of them? A couple of them
got me this year, so I'll have to I'll have
to recalibrate.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Apparently I understand, all right, well, you're still number one
in our book. The West Virginia thing, how egregious is
their exclusion from this event.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
If you remember last year when we complained about Indiana
State not getting in. Indiana State did not surprise me
last year when they got in. My jaw genuinely dropped
when I realized they left West Virginia out. Initial reaction,
I was like, okay, whatever, they were close to the
eleven line. And then I looked back at it and
I have no idea how any either of Texas, North Carolina,

(02:20):
or Xavier for that matter, got in the tournament over
West Virginia. They cited an injury that the guy only
played eight games. He did not just get hurt like
other people have he I can't wrap my mind around it.
I am genuinely just appalled.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Is is there an example in recent years at least
of a team that had a similar beef to the
one that West Virginia and the state's governor has.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I don't know that there's a Honestly, I think this
is unprecedented. I think this is the worst miscalculation by
the committee I've ever seen, and the governor getting involved.
I don't I don't love that. But at the same time,
I understand why they're the here.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Uh, North Carolina was the last team in. Should they
have been the last team in relative relative to the
teams that got in quote more and more comfortably ahead
of them, like Xavier in Texas?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I think that North Carolina should have been ahead of Texas,
behind Xavier.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Personally, is there? I guess a lot of folks are
walking away from the Carolina thing effectively feeling like the
results of games don't matter. That is that the takeaway
here do you think there's something nefarious in play here
with regard to their athletic director chairing the committee, Like, like,

(03:44):
what's what's the big takeaway specifically from Carolina giving.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
In We're letting computers select teams for North Carolina. That is,
I mean their metrics were good, they had good reds
A metrics. Apparently scheduling really hard. Losing a ton is okay.
I will say anytime that you're in a group where
the leader of your group has a conflict and has
to step out, there is still a tendency by human

(04:11):
nature to potentially and I don't know that the committee
actually did this, These are my thoughts. Maybe make sure
the committee's team got or the committee members team got
kind of bumped up a little bit. I wouldn't be shocked.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Within the bracket itself. I'll give you mine and you
can give me yours. I was surprised that Louisville will
get a chance if they advanced to play a one
seed in Lexington. At the same time, I was surprised
they were seated as low as they were. I thought
relative to what their net ranking was. Gonzaga was underseated,
and I was surprised, although I think pleasantly surprised that

(04:49):
Memphis was seated as high as the Tigers were seated.
Your take away, your thoughts, and those three.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
So I'll start with Memphis. I absolutely love what the
committee did. They rewarded them for playing a hard ske
and beating good teams in the non conference. They didn't
punish the aa SE. I love what they did for that.
I hate what they did to Louisville by way of seeding.
There's no way that I can get them to an
E seed. So I had Memphis as an eight seed

(05:15):
because I expected the committee to punish them for the
AAC like they like to do. They didn't do that.
They put Louisville there and punish them for their conference play.
I get it the ACC was bad, but I was
very surprised to see Louisville as an eight regarding them
being put in Auburn's region in Lexington, I think that's
in this calculation as well by the committee. That's a

(05:37):
geographical advantage to Louisville. So we're putting these they're supposed
to be protected seeds on the top four seed lines.
We put a protected seed at an unprotected site, and
by that I mean Louisville now has the geographical advantage.
That's going to be almost a home game for Louisville.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
If I had to guess, yeah, without a question, I've
watched Louisville play in the NCAA tournament at a rep
aerina of I could tell you that's going to be
a home court advantage. And so I think there's multiple
ways of looking at it from from a seat perspective.
If they beat Duke, are they a seven? Like you
and I talked about this, I think two weeks ago
that I kind of felt like because of the relative

(06:14):
weakness of the conference, like there wasn't a lot of
mobility for Louisville. But they did get to the ACC
title game. They lost to Duke, Right, they didn't lose
to a lower tier ACC school that's snuck into the
title game. If they beat Duke, are they just as seven? No?

Speaker 2 (06:30):
I don't think so. If you look at what the
committee did to Michigan, they put them as a five seed,
which tells me they did not honor any of the
conference tournament's results. So I think Louisville was kind of
stuck into that eight line, regardless.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
What did Jamaica organ Zaga was seeded.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
I I don't hate it. I really like that we're
valuing resume over predictives. Again, I don't want to project
where a team should be. I want the results to
speak for themselves. So I'm not super upset with Gregon
Zaga is. I was pleasant surprised they put them.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
They're based on the predictive. Michigan's net is a twenty three,
which puts them in the four or five line. They
were a five. I know they win the Big Ten tournament.
You and I have talked about how the committee doesn't
put as much stock in those conference tournaments as maybe
they should. And look, they played right into the last minute,
right they were the second and last game to end
yesterday afternoon. Uh so it kind of made sense that

(07:24):
Michigan was seated where they were. What about you?

Speaker 2 (07:28):
I completely agree. I So I got in my head
right after that game ended and flipped them up to
four seed. And I tell myself every year, don't rely
on the conference or the committee to use conference tournaments
as a any sort of metric. So I shouldn't have
done it. I did it. The committee proved me right
yet again, so I need to next year. I'm going
pencil down Sunday morning.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
All right, you mentioned you had two teams that ended
up being on the outside looking in West Virginia being one.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Who was the other Indiana?

Speaker 1 (07:58):
All right? Do you think the Hoosiers got snubbed? Do
you think their their case is as emphatic as West
Virginia is talk about the talk about IU.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
For me, no, I don't think Indiana got snubbed. There
were a handful of reasons to leave them out. The
committee obviously by choosing North Carolina really valued conference or
non conference slates, and they punished Indiana because their best
gon conference win was evidence Providence is not good this year.

(08:29):
It was not even in the top hundred of the net.
So I'm I'm okay with them doing that. But again,
I there were a bunch of teams for that last
spot that I could have seen it. I just West
Virginia just had such a good complaint.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Right now, what is your what is your biggest sort
of takeaway about the overall selection of the field this year?
That's different than prior.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Years, I think so looking at the eleven and twelve lines,
they have UC SAN Diego, VCU and Drake kind of
seated lower than I expected. I think really the committee
has kind of set a precedent this year that the
Power Conference teams are going to get the benefit of
the doubt a little bit more so than they already do.

(09:10):
So I think the biggest kind of takeaway is that,
and you need to make sure you're scheduling decent in
the non conference.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Do you understand anything about how they choose the field
for the NIT.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
This year? I will be fully honest with you. I
know I mentioned that I was going to try to
put something out for the NIT and the Crown. I
At this point there are so many opt outs in
so many people not playing that I can't wrap my
head around how they do those things right now.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
So I agree with you. But I went to bed
on Saturday night after having watched Miami lose an absolute heartbreaker,
a game they had a big lead in the first half.
They lose on a layup essentially at the horn door
a really good Acron team. I went to bed thinking,
at the very least Miami is going to compete in
the NIIT. They wanted to compete in the NIIT and
did not as somebody who just follows the overall tournament

(09:59):
selection process as close to than others. Can you make
that make sense at all for me?

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Not really, I'm I just struggle with we're letting people off,
like we're letting teams opt out of games. We now
have the new Crown or whatever it is, like they
need to have some sort of like clear criteria. In
my opinion, at this point, teams like Miami or to
a lesser degree, NKU or some of the smaller schools
in the area are just never going to be able

(10:27):
to play in the postseason unless they win the conference tournament.
And we've got to do something to give some of
these every school some sort of shot in the Postmas Well,
i mean.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Look, they they they they wanted to be in right,
They wanted to participate in this event. Ken State made
the event, Miami beat them head to head three times,
finished with a better record than them, played them in
the conference tournament, and beat them, finished higher, finished three
games better than them in the MAC regular season. Again,
It's it's one thing if if Miami University made it known, hey,

(10:56):
look we're good, we don't want to be in it.
That's what they wanted to be in it. I don't,
and again, it's the NIT. At the end of the day,
I know nobody really cares. I felt bad for Miami's
team because they came this close to winning, But for
a school that wanted to play in that event to
not make it and have a team that you beat
three times that didn't finish as high as you in

(11:18):
your own league standings doesn't make any sense to me.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
No, I completely agree. And when you asked about the NIT,
I knew you were headed straight from Miami because I
saw that earlier today and I was honestly frustrated by it.
I don't understand what they're doing with these postseason tournaments
right now, and it's really frustrating to see, especially like
a Kent State get in over Miami at this point.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, I won't even ask you about the composition of
the field for the Crown, which I'm really excited about.
When you see plays de.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Paul, Hey, I am actually very excited to see that field.
It actually looks fun. I know some people aren't as
excited about it, but I think you see has a
good draw and there's a chance they could win a
couple of games. Sick.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
I think the comp is fun, right. I think the
concept of we're gonna have a tournament that takes place
over the course of less than a week, all in
one city, and the players are gonna get paid on
the winning I think that's fun. I think what's not
fun is the fact that you're gonna have a lot
of teams that put out there a skeleton roster, not
completely representative of and I know Bowl games worked this way,
but not completely representative of the team they had over

(12:19):
the course of four four and a half months.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, it should be this week. They should be flying
out to Vegas right now, and they should go play
that game this week and get it done. Started like
this week and then ended like Monday or Tuesday of
next week.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
When Carolina would go really one more, really quick, I'm
starting when Carolina's When the name North Carolina popped up
on the screen yesterday, did you assume that meant doom
for Xavier.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes. So, I don't know if you know this, but
my wife and I are actually Xavier season ticket holders.
And she turned to me and said, and I quote,
that just screwed over Xavier, didn't it. And I said, yes,
it did. I was astonished when I saw Xavier's name
pop up as well.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, I was in the same place. All right, Well
you've been awesome to have on. I hope we can
do this often next year. And uh and and thanks again.
It was it was really cool having to do this
for us.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
We do appreciate it, absolutely no anytime.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
That's our guy. The official bracketologist of the Moeggers show,
Hunter Stands. Follow him on Twitter at bracket en k
why and and like everybody else, he has a bracket game.
That's right, he's got a bracket game. He's taking on
all comers. It's pinned at the top of his feed

(13:35):
at bracket en k Why.

Mo Egger News

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

The Breakfast Club
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Decisions, Decisions

Decisions, Decisions

Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.