March 20, 2024 • 37 mins
Iain MacMillan, senior editor at Fansided and host of Bacon Bets podcast joins the show. Iain explains why he thinks Washington State can top Drake on Thursday, is Arizona a legitimate top seed, and much more. Adam Rittenberg, senior writer for ESPN visits the program to discuss the news of Troy Dannen leaving UW for Nebraska. To wrap the hour we play audio messages from listeners.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
At the bottom of the hour whenwe talked to Adam Rittenberg from he's the
ESPN college football writer. We'll betalking to him then and at twelve thirty
we'll find out we'll get a Nebraskaperspective from Adam Shelter, who's there covering
the Nebraska football team for the AthleticBut now we're going to get into the
march madness. I mean, thisis a big deal. And I was
(00:21):
planning on talking about the Washington StateDrake game for three hours today, but
we're gonna find out about all theother games with some help for your bracket.
It's Ian McMillan. He's the senioreditor of Fan Sided and bet Sided
and he's also the host of theBacon Bets podcast. And so we're gonna
be catching up with Ian momentarily andTim. I mean, this is an
(00:43):
exciting time of year. It getsgoing tomorrow. Last night, everybody was
all over Virginia because it was likeTony Bennett's team. They shot twenty five
percent in that loss to Colorado State. Not a good night for Tony Bennett
and his squad. That was thatwas even more proof that the selection committee
screwed up this year by putting aputting Virginia in in the first place and
(01:07):
then having Colorado State seed again.The entire Mountain West got seated horribly,
but having Colorado State is a tenseed and having to play in that game
in the first place seemed rather ridiculous. And they seem to back up the
point that it was ridiculous they wereplaying in that game by going out and
thumping thumping Virginia. And I thinkColorado State has a chance. One of
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these teams, whether it's Colorado Stateor the winner of the Boise State Colorado
game tonight, I have a prettygood feeling that they're going to win in
the next round and advance at leastto the round of thirty two. You
know, there's a lot of there'sa lot of proof over the years that
a team that wins those one ofthose first four games can end up making
a run. I think the winnerof Boise State Colorado probably has a little
(01:52):
easier path because Florida lost. They'llplay Florida in the next round, and
Florida lost their center in the SECchampionship game to a broken leg, So
I think the winner of that gameprobably has an easier chance to advance.
But Carro State looked pretty good lastnight and it helped that Virginia couldn't hit
anything shooting wise. But yeah,the Rams look good, and I think,
(02:15):
I think again the committee screwed upby putting Virginia in in the first
place. That probably should have goneto Indiana State or Saint John's or someone
like that instead. Two more firstfour games tonight, Grambling versus Montana State
actually this afternoon at three point forty, and Colorado and Boise State at six
' ten. Helping us make senseof it all In March Madness. It's
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Ian McMillan, senior editor, fansided Bacon Bets podcast host. I've been
following Ian for a couple of yearsnow. I love the picks he makes
on the NFL. Also like hispicks on golf. I'm big into betting
on golf and Ian, welcome tothe show. Thanks for your time today.
Not a problem, guys, thanksfor having me. It's an exciting
week, arguably the best week ofthe sports betting calendar, so I'm excited
(02:58):
to get into it. Boy,you've got all kinds of podcasts, You're
on YouTube, you seem to beeverywhere all the time talking about golf.
But boy, the march madness.You have predicted every single game in the
first round, haven't you. Ihave. Yeah, It's something I do
in the NFL too. I don'tknow why I do it, and that's
betting on every single game. Ibet on every single game the NFL regular
(03:19):
season, and then for some reasonnow I think this is my third year
doing it. For the NCAA tournament, I'll be making a pick for every
single game as well. So thefirst round was tough. It's tough to
go through and handicap thirty two differentgames for the first round. But I'm
done. I have my best lockedin and I'm feeling pretty good about it.
Well, let's start with the gameof the most local interest to people
(03:42):
around here and me specifically, WashingtonState against Drake. Washington State opened is
a one and a half point favorite, and now Drake has flipped on it,
they're a one and a half pointfavorite. But I like what you
had to say, Ian, becauseI saw your YouTube broadcast and you're higher
on Washington State most people in countriesin the country, So I'm expecting that
you think the Cougis are going toadvance here. I am. Yeah,
(04:05):
it's obviously a close game based onthe odds here, but I do like
Washington State. I've been on WashingtonState a handful of times this year,
and I just don't understand why nobodyin the country talks about this team whatsoever.
This is a team that beat Arizonatwice. Arizona is one of the
top ranked teams in this tournament anda number two seed in Washington State.
(04:27):
If you look at their metrics,and I'm a big numbers guy, I'm
a big stats guy, they don'treally have any weaknesses. They're extremely good
defensively thirty third in the country,an opponent affective field goal percentage. I
think specifically for this matchup against Drake, I think they can attack Drake where
Drake is weak, and that isthe interior of the Bulldog's defense two hundred
and forty six and opponent two pointfield goal percentage. So I think the
(04:49):
Cougars can really pound a rock downlow against this Drake team. I love
them in this matchup, and Iwouldn't be surprised if they go on a
little bit of a run here inthis tournament. I'm just shocked, once
again, I nobody that I listento or have heard in the across the
country talk about Washington State or givethem any kind of respect whatsoever. And
once against they beat Arizona twice thisyear, they beat Colorado, and they
(05:11):
have some impressive wins on the resume. They're going to be a dangerous team
for anyone to face. Well,what about it in the next round.
Let's just jump at We don't haveto take a one game at a time.
If they beat Drake, you thinkthey have a shot against the second
seeded Iowa State. Yeah, Andthis is one thing that I that is
unfortunate with Washington State, because Iwould take them further. I'm just about
any other region, but that Eastregion is so tough. Yukon, Iowa
(05:33):
State, Auburn, Illinois could beinteresting, BYU could be interesting. So
I do right now have Iowa Statewinning that second round match up against Washington
State, just because I think IowaState straight up a national championship contender.
I mean, Iowa State went andwon the conference tournament in the most in
(05:53):
my opinion, the best college basketballconference in the nation in the Big Twelve.
They beat Houston twice. Houston,who's the number one see the team
that a lot of people think canwin the national championship game. So yeah,
Unfortunately, as much as I likeWashington State in the first round matchup,
they're in a tough spot here inthe East Region and especially in that
second round against Iowa State. Sodo they have a shot? Sure?
(06:15):
Am I currently picking Washington State tobeat Iowa State as of right now?
No? I think I think theCyclones would advance from there. And the
other local team we've got playing inthe tournament this year because Washington failed to
make the NCAA's is is the teamover in Spokane from Gonzaga. They've had
a very, you know, nota very impressive start to the season in
(06:38):
terms of picking up any notable nonconference wins, but they sure got hot
and in January and especially in Februarywith wins at Kentucky and at Saint Mary's.
But McNeice is not a McNee Stateis not an easy, easy opener
for them to have to face.How do you see how do you see
that game playing now? I thinkthe Zags are favored by five right now.
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How do you see that matchup playingout? Especially because it's one of
those attractive five to twelve matchups thatpeople like to pick us upsets. Yeah,
I do like in Zega quite abit. I actually think it's kind
of similar to Washington State. I'mnot just saying this because you guys are
having me on, Buttega is anotherteam that I actually think being a little
bit disrespected. I think maybe it'sbecause they don't kind of have that big
(07:19):
name player like they have in pastyears. You know, they don't have
a chet Holm Grin, they don'thave a Drew Timmy, they don't have
a Jalen Suggs. But if youlook at their metrics and be compared to
them to some previous iterations of this, of this Gonzega team, maybe not
quite as good, but still avery very very good team. So I
like in Zega over McNeice. McNeicejust has not really played anyone this year,
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which makes me nervous. I mean, and if you look at the
Bulldogs numbers, like I said earlier, eighth and effective field goal percentage sixth
and average scoring margin beating teams byan average of fourteen points three points,
mcneese's numbers look fine. But withthese mid major teams, you got to
look at their ota coop play andmcnee's played absolutely nobody either outside the conference
(08:03):
or inside the conference, So thatmakes me quite nervous for McNee State.
I'm surprised to spread is it's smallas it is around six points. I
like the Bulldogs, not the Bulldogsgoing all the way to the Elite eight.
Actually talking to Ian McMillan, senioreditor Fans Sided, the host of
the Bacon Bets podcast, breaking downMarch Madness and the bracket and stim more
(08:24):
here with Tim Booth Sports Radio ninetythree point three kJ RFM. All right,
Arizona, are they a fraudulent numbertwo? Ian? I know that
you've got fraudulent teams in the NFL. I'm wondering if Arizona is legit or
fraudulent. What do you think?Yeah, here's the thing. Arizona is
an interesting team because I think ifevery single team brought their A plus game
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into the tournament and played their Aplus the best that they can play,
I think Arizona is actually the bestteam in the entire country. When they're
at their best, nobody can beatthem. The issue is they don't bring
their best games more often than whatyou'd want to see from a top seed.
So if they enter the tournament andthey start playing well and they bring
(09:09):
their A plus game in all sixgames, they're gonna be your national champion.
But the issue is if we kindof saw this last year in the
first round they didn't bring their theirA plus game and lost it. Who
wasn't Princeton last year. That's theissue. If at any point in this
tournament they don't bring their A plusgame and they bring a C minus,
D plus, you know graded game, they're gonna lose. And that could
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be against just about anyone. Now. I don't think they're gonna lose a
Long Beach State. I'm not highon Long Beach State whatsoever. They're a
middling team at best in the BigWest. But in the second round winner
of Day Nevada, Arizona doesn't bringthe A plus game, they could lose
there. You know, like aBaylor at New Mexico at Clemson in the
sweet sixteen, they could lose there. So I wouldn't necessarily call them fraudulent,
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because I do think Arizona has avery high ceiling. When they bring
their best stuff, they're impossible tobe But at some point this tournament it
just matters where I think they're gonnanot bring their best stuff. And the
mark of great teams are teams thatcan win games when they don't bring their
best stuff. That is not Arizona. When they don't bring their best stuff,
they implode on the court. Andit's gonna happen at some point this
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tournament. The trick is just tryingto figure out when that's gonna be.
The beauty of this tournament is theupsets and in the teams that come out
of nowhere to make a run,and you know, schools that no one
has really known about, and thenall of a sudden, everyone's talking about
them about, you know, tendays later because they've they've made a run
to the Sweet sixteen or the Elitedate. Who are in your mind,
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who are those teams this year?Who's who's the double digit seed, Who's
the twelve seed, the thirteen seed, the eleven seed that you look at
both from a from a maybe aspread standpoint, but then also from a
straight up being capable of making arun standpoint, that could make some noise
over these next couple of weeks.Yeah, I'll give you two. There's
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one that's gonna be a popular onethat you're probably gonna hear some other people
mentioned if you haven't already, andthat's James Madison as a twelve seed.
They're a team that can shoot thethree ball really well. They're hot all
season. They take on a Wisconsinteam, which I think is a really
good matchup for them in the openinground because Wisconsin's biggest weakness is they can't
defend the three. So if JamesMadison can get as hot as they can
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from beyond the arc, I thinkthat's gonna be a win for them.
And I mean, if you lookat the spread, it's only like a
five point spread anyways, So oddsmakersdo expect that James Madison Wisconsin game that
twelve five games to be a lotcloser than maybe you'd think from a twelve
to five matchup. And JMU hasno weaknesses across the board. They're strong
just about everywhere. Now that's abit of a popular one. I'm going
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to go a little bit off theboard with a fourteen seed that I could
imagine seeing winning a couple of games, and that's Accron fourteen seed. They're
playing against Creighton in the opening round. I am not high on Creighton whatsoever.
Creighton is dead last in the countryof all every single Division one calls
(12:01):
basketball team. How many are there, three hundred and sixty two. They
are three hundred and sixty second inopponent turnovers. They do not force turnovers.
They also don't grab offensive rebounds.Now, Creating is a very good
shooting team. They have a verygood shooting defense. But if they stumble
a little bit with their shooting,they lose possessions every single game. In
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fact, if you look at usthat extra score and chances per game,
they're almost dead last in the countrythat averaging minus four possessions per game.
And in these kind of close upsetgames, they're looking for teams that can
get those extra possessions and maybe getthe last possession of the game and get
an upset. And stylistically, Creightonshoots the three ball a ton. What's
Acron's best trait, in my opinion, is their perimeter defense. So if
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they can shut down Creating on theperimeter get some extra scoring opportunities, I
think that Acron that fourteen to threegame could be an upset, and then
I could see them beating the winnerof South Carolina in Oregon as well in
the second round. So yeah,probably not a school you've heard too much
that can pull off a couple epsoshere. But if I'm picking one,
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I kind of like the zips thereat the fourteen seeds. So you would
lay the thirteen and a half oryou see me not late, you would
take the thirteen and a half ifyou're betting that game, because I think
that's what the line is right nowwith Creighton being favored by that much.
Yeah, I would absolutely take thepoints. And that's actually each each year
I like to take one big moneyline upset and just take them to win.
(13:28):
Out right, Akron is the teamI'm looking to take over, So
if you want to get now,that's probably ill advised because it is it's
not likely to happen. But Ithink they're around six to one if you
want to take them to beat Creighton. Oe right, I'm gonna sprinkle a
little bit on that, but obviouslyI think the smart move would be taking
the points if you want a littlebit more of a conservative play. Love
that matchup for Akron against Creighton.Hey, and you mentioned Oregon. What
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do you think of the Ducks?I was down in Vegas and saw most
of their run there to win thePac twelve championship and they seem to be
on a roll. Yeah. Ithink actually the toughest first round matchup for
me to predict is actually that SouthCarolina Oregon game. There's a lot of
things to like on both sides ofthe ball, and Oregon's a little bit
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of a difficult team to handicap inmy opinion, because they've just kind of
got healthy recently. They got thatcenter and Sally Dante if that's how you
pronounced his name. He's only playedtwenty games for the Ducks and he's already
become the most impactful player sixteen pointtwo points per game, eight point five
rebounds per game, almost two blocksper game. If he can continue to
(14:33):
play as kind of he played theredown the final stretch of the season.
Oregon could also be a dark horsein terms of a double digit seed going
on a little bit of a run. And if Oregon beats South Carolina in
that opening round, even if Cretongets back gets past Akron, I could
see Oregon being a team that takesdown that number three seed Creighton, who
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I think is right for an upsetat some point this tournament. So,
yeah, another double digit seed thatcould go on a run. But actually
I think that could be a bitof a tough matchup against South Carolina in
the opening round. Like I said, if there's one game that I would
kind of step back and not makea pick on, I think it would
be South Carolina. Oregon's just thatclose, and I think the betting ads
reflect that too. I think it'sbasically a coin flip in terms of the
(15:18):
betting ons to that game. Soyou're betting all of the first round games
this year, but I'm assuming you'realso placing a bet on a team to
win it all. So who whois your team at this point to win
it all? And maybe who's ateam that's a little bit off the radar
that you feel like could win itall with an upset or two along the
way. Yeah, my pick rightnow is actually a four seed. It's
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Auburn to win it all. Playedin a very tough SEC, playing a
lot of great basketball, obviously,just won the FDC Tournament. And when
I'm looking for when I'm picking theNational Championship win theer is a team that
doesn't have any weaknesses, doesn't haveany part of their game that can collapse
and cost them a win. InAuburn doesn't have that. They're great offensively,
they're one of the best defensive teamsin the country. They're very well
(16:03):
by Bruce Pearl, So I actuallythink they're completely under seeded. So don't
get scared by the fact that they'rea four seed. I think they deserve
to be a three. Maybe eventhe argument could be made they're a two
seed in this tournament. So Ilike Auburn as my national championship winner.
If you want someone a little bitmore off the board, I think you
can look at that Midwest region andtake a little bit of a higher seed
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there or a lower seed there.I guess whichever way you want to put
it, because that is a regionwhere a lot of the top seeded teams
has some flaws. Perdue obviously hasflaws, Tennessee has some flaws offensively.
So I could see a team evenKenza going to be honest as a five
seed. But I'd even be lookingat maybe even like a Texas as a
seventh seed, and you're looking atlike one hundred to one, one hundred
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and twenty to one team in aTexas long Hoarse underperformed all season in terms
of their record, But if youlook at their metrics. Once again,
a team that's not great anywhere,but solid everywhere. They don't really have
any weaknesses. They're good both offensivelyand defensively. So if you're looking for
a complete off the board long shothere, I think you can look to
that mid West region and I mightthrow it a team like in number seven
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Texas or even mentioned in earlier numbereleven Oregon, number six South Carolina.
I think if there's gonna be along shot, I think it comes out
of that Midwest region well. Andthen Ian, you like Texas Tech too,
don't you? I do like TexasTech another reason. You know.
I keep bringing up these teams thatare solid everywhere, no huge weaknesses,
and that's what Texas Tech is.None of their numbers are going to jump
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off the board when you look atthem, but they're good everywhere. And
I think in order to win sixgames in a row, you need to
find a team that is good bothoffensively good defensively. They can rebound,
they don't cough the ball up toomuch. So I like Texas Tech as
well. Now, for some reason, every single year, I convince myself
that Texas Tech is a good longshot. So I don't know what it
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is. I just have an obsessionwith Texas Tech. It might just be
that they're that their school colors arepretty similar to my Atlanta Falcons colors.
They're red and black, and mightjust get fooled by that. But yeah,
I do like Texas Tech as wellas sixth seed if you're looking for
a team to come out of theSouth. Now, they do have some
tough matchups along the way. Inthe second round that's going to be a
tough one against Kentucky that Kentucky canstart playing some defense. But yeah,
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Texas Tech another kind of mid seedteam that I could see going a little
bit of a run. Last thingfor you, ian the number one seed
that falls out of the tournament.First, I'm so the popular pick.
He would be North Carolina. Ithink they're probably the overall weakest number one
seed. And then the other popularpick would be Perdue. Obviously they lost
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to the one seed last year inthe opening round. I'm going to actually
kind of say Houston though. Houstonvery good defense, lea very good at
getting extra chance scoring opportunities, butthey can't shoot, and that's what we
saw happen to them in the BigTwelve Championship game against Iowa State. They're
outside the top two hundred in thecountry and effective field goal percentage. So
if they run up against even inthe second round, a team like Texas
(19:03):
A and M or Nebraska and theyand they, they don't bring their A
plus shooting game, and they don'tgrab the offensive rebounds that they've been able
to grab against some other teams inthe Big Twelve. I could see Houston
falling off early. They just don'tquite have the offense that I look for
for a number one seed to goon a run here. So yeah,
you and c and Purdue are probablygonna be the popular plays in terms of
(19:25):
stating number one seeds, but Ithink it might go Houston. I wouldn't
be shocked if they don't make itpast the second round. Ian McMillan the
senior editor of Fans Sided and BetsSided. He's also the host of the
Bacon Bets podcast. You can followhim on Twitter at Ian Macbetts. That's
I a I n m ac betsthere on Twitter, and I'm a fan
of yours. Ian, I've beenfollowing you for a long time. This
(19:48):
has been a pleasure. I hopeYou've had a good time doing it.
Thank you for having me on andI appreciate it. Take care and best
luck with their picks this week.It's going to be a fun weekend,
all right. There, he goesIan McMillan again, you and follow him
on Twitter at Ian mac betts.The story of the day though, Troy
dan and leaving Washington the outgoing athleticdirectory lasted all of five months on Montlake
(20:10):
taking the job at Nebraska, signinga six year deal there to take over
as the athletic director there in Lincoln, Nebraska. Adam Rittenberg is a senior
writer covering college football for ESPN.We'll catch up with him next. Get
the latest developments there from Adam Rittenberg. It's Jim Moore with Tim Booth here
on Sports Radio ninety three point threeKJRFM. The big story of the day
(20:30):
though, Troy dan and outgoing Huskyathletic director taking a six year deal to
become the athletic director at Nebraska.Adam Rittenberg is the senior writer covering college
football for ESPN. He joins usnow and Adam, I'm guessing, even
though you're dialed in with college footballthat maybe this came as a big surprise
(20:51):
to you as well. Yeah,certainly it was Troy. I think Nebraska
was under a lot of pressure toact quickly go after losing of Albert to
Texas A and M. But thefact that they hired an ad who you
know, hadn't been there for afull football season yet, and it obviously
just made a change in men's basketball, you know, not even half of
(21:11):
a calendar year as the ad.You know, again, we're just in
a different era right now where there'sa lot more movement and ten years are
shorter than ever. But that certainly, you know, it makes sense on
the surface, But I think itwould have made more sense having Troy move
from Tulane to Nebraska than only afew months at Washington and then making another
move, Adam, when you tryand make sense of it, was it
(21:34):
just that the job was so appealingat Nebraska. Was it a increase in
salary? Were there problems internally atWashington? What do you think led to
this move today? Well, yeah, I think it's more about the Nebraska
job and the position that they werein. I mean, this is a
very desperate program that has you know, obviously taken its hits on the field
(21:56):
on football in recent years. Butthen too was a guy like Trev Alberts,
who you know, was a Huskerthrough and through, and I obviously
had had brought a lot of enthusiasmto that role to lose him to a
former league member when they were backin the in the Big Twelve together text
A and M. That that reallyset off alarms in the state of Nebraska.
(22:18):
You had the governor, you're callingout the university for not hiring a
president fast enough and now for lettingthis happen. And so the one thing
Nebraska has always had is a lotof support. They have money, they
can go out and make an offer, and they, you know, clearly
made one that that Troy felt hecouldn't pass up. And obviously, a
guy from Iowa has a lot ofroots in the area, so that's part
(22:38):
of it as well. But Ithink it was the fact that Nebraska,
you really had to do something quicklyand had to do make a bold move
here to satisfy its own base,and they were able to pull it off
in relatively short order. Adam,what what does this do for the perception
of Washington nationally? I mean,you're on your about to be your third
(22:59):
a d in the last six tonine months. You had to you obviously
made a run to the National championshipgame in football, but then you had
to replace your coach, and youcurrently have a men's basketball opening, and
you're about to move to the tothe Big Ten. What do you feel
like the broader perception is of whereWashington is at right now? You know,
the thing is, most people Italk to still see Washington as a
(23:21):
great job, as do I.You know, I grew up on the
West Coast and when Washington football wasreally in its heyday in the early nineties,
and then you've seen what's happened herelately, getting to the national title
game and and moving to the BigTen and having you know, tremendous tradition
and donor support. I still thinkthis is a this is an appealing job,
(23:41):
and they just have had quite alot of turnover here in leadership roles
in the last you know, eighteenmonths to two years. And so how
can Washington find stability because that's goingto be really important. Ironically, Nebraska's
big problem as a school that's movedinto the Big Ten now for you know,
about a little over a decade theyhave had massive instability in the leadership
(24:06):
position football coach, athletic director andso on. And so that's what you
don't want to be. If you'reWashington, You're still operating from a relative
position of strength. You have justmade the football national title game. I
know there's excitement about around Jet Fish, but can Washington stabilize itself because you
know, again you can just lookat Nebraska and what they've gone through since
(24:27):
they joined the Big Ten in twentyten. That's what you don't want to
be. And so that's why theseyou know, this hire of the next
athletic director, Washington needs to makesure it's somebody who wants the job and
wants to be there and create anoffer in a situation where where makes it
(24:47):
very very difficult, if not impossible, for that person to leave anytime soon.
Adam Rittenberg is joining a senior writercovering college football for ESPN. Your
teammate the story to de Troy danand leaving Washington going to Nebraska to become
the ad there, signing a sixyear deal. Pete Tamil writing that Troy
Dana and he's a power player incollege athletics. I mean, is I'm
(25:10):
sorry, I'm a Washington State guy. I'm kind of skeptical on all this
stuff, and whenever it comes tothe rival, you know, I mean,
somebody was writing in going, Jim, you should be finding this hilarious,
and I kind of am. ButI'm trying to be professional here.
Is he really that big of adeal, Troy Dana? He's a power
player in college athletics. Well,he's an experienced athletic director. You know,
who was you know, a guyyou know you didn't know, you
(25:33):
didn't hear that much about athletic directorsat the group of five level. He
was the guy that you were awareof that I was aware of who I've
known for a number of years,and a guy that was certainly ambitious and
someone who I expected to be ina league like the Big Ten and really
in a job like Nebraska. Again, I think Washington was maybe the outlier
(25:53):
in his career. I think alot of people thought he would go from
Tulane to a program like Iowa ora program like Nebraska or Wisconsin, certainly
with a guy who was, youknow, maybe in the mix for those
jobs, and this is where hewanted to be. Now, Washington came
along and he took that opportunity.But you know, he again is her
(26:14):
power player in college athletics. Ithink that there really aren't many athletic directors
who I give that label to.I think the commissioners and the media executives
are much more important in the landscape. But he has been a leading voice,
and his voice, you know,we'll get maybe even louder now now
that he's in Nebraska. Adam,you met, you mentioned that Washington is
still viewed as a as a goodjob in the marketplace. I know there's
(26:38):
going to be a lot of namesthat are that end up attached to probably
the search for this What What doesWashington need? What should they be looking
for? Do they need someone who'sgot a history with the Big ten or
at least working at a at aPower five or Power four level kind of
kind of school as they make thistransition to the Big ten next year.
(27:00):
Well, I think they need somebodywho's going to be familiar with the financial
picture, in the media picture.I think anyone who's in this role had
a Big tenor an SEC school.You know, can't be surprised by you
know, what's going on in thosetwo conferences right now, and the power
that's being consolidated, and the moneythat's coming in, and the pressure to
perform, and and who you're goingto be up again. So, you
(27:22):
know, while I think there shouldbe athletic directors that that that you know,
aren't currently at a Big ten orSEC school that would be considered for
the Washington job, you can't hiresomebody who would be intimidated by that.
I also think guys that Washington needsto hire someone with at least some type
of connection to the program. Obviously, Jen Cohen had been there many many
(27:42):
years, uh, you know,had had a deep affinity for Washington and
became the AD and served in thatrole until USC came open. Detroy Dannon
really had no connection to University ofWashington. So I think there's there's there's
administrators out there or even people thataren't in the traditional athletic director role that
would have the ability to come inand lead that department as it makes its
(28:06):
transition to the Big ten. Butreally have a I want to be there,
I want to be in Seattle,I want to be at the University
of Washington. I'm not looking forthe next best thing. I think that's
going to be really really important fortheir university side administration to figure that out
here relatively quickly because they don't wantto have this happen again. Not to
(28:26):
not to repeat myself too much,you don't want to become Nebraska. Nebraska
has become a revolving door of coachesand ads. You do not want to
do that, especially when you're comingoff of such an incredible season reaching the
National title game, Adam, beforewe let you go, Washington State near
and dear to my heart here andthen Oregon State in the PAC too,
Just kind of trying to figure outthe college landscape. It looks like the
(28:48):
ACC will be breaking up sometime inthe near future. What do you anticipate
if you were to speculate and lookdown the road, what's a likelihood outcome
is for Washington State and Oregon's Doyou think the PAC two or the PAC
ten or eight or whatever is goingto be revived at some point? Yeah,
I think it's gonna be tough.I would hope that it's revived at
(29:10):
some point for for the non footballsports. As someone who grew up in
California and you know, watched allsorts of PAC ten sports at the time,
I think it's such a shame thatyou're not going to see you know,
Arizona and u c l A playbasketball on a regular basis or a
really name of pairing in a sport. There's so many you know, you
know, great series and rivalries thatare now uh, you know, going
(29:32):
to change because of this. SoI would hope that that happens. You
know, I think in football it'sgoing to be hard, you know,
to to sustain at the levels thatthey were in terms of financially, but
you know, with the expanded playoffs, there are still goals out there.
I think these can still be goodprograms, and they have blueprints of how
to develop players, and and andand and and have the type of culture,
that underdog culture that I think,uh they they they've had success with
(29:56):
in the past. So it's justgoing to be different in football. But
again, I would hope that there'sa path eventually for not just Oregon State
and Washington State, but a numberof leagues are teams that have been you
know, kind of displaced with theserounds of realignment to get back to the
way it was in the other sports. Because that's a real shame that you
know, we're not talking about volleyballand swimming and baseball and basketball, when
(30:19):
you had so many great pairings thatare now changed because you know, the
football had, you know, becausethere was such a dramatic shift on the
football side. Yeah, just bugsthe hell out of Adam, to be
honest, it really does. I'mgoing to miss the pack well and watching
all of those games. Adam Rittenberg, senior writer covering college football for ESPN.
Hey, thanks for your time today. All right, thanks having guys.
(30:42):
Yeah that it's uh, you know, it's still disturbing, but it's
a way of the world. Iguess. Greg Woods will join us at
the top of the hour. Fromthe Spokesman Review, he covers the Cougar
basketball team, The Kug's getting readyto take on Drake in the first round
of the NCAA Tournament tomorrow night,seven o'clock, seven oh five there in
Omaha. You can catch a gameon True TV. We'll get the latest
(31:03):
from Greg at noon. Coming upnext, we're gonna have some voicemails hopefully
you know what I would really likeand this is a late request, but
how about a Troy Dan and impersonator? Can anybody like put something like that
together right away? That would be. That would be difficult on the spot
because I don't really know how manytimes he's spoken publicly outside of the outside
of his introductory press conference. Sowell, you can maybe just convey the
(31:23):
phoniness, you know, the trueYeah, yeah, you could just do
that genuineness of line to be herefor a long time. Yeah yeah,
all of that type of thing.But we'll see, we'll have voicemails.
Next is Jim Moore with Tim boothIn for Pock Sports Radio ninety three point
three KJRFM. Instead of the sarcasmand the uh, the bad tone that
your morning crew from ten to oneseemed to put into the ad and they
(31:48):
rejoice and talk about all the confusionon the Husky scade. Those two need
to go get him out of here. Wow, tough crowdouts again. I
hate everybody. I hate one Washington, I hate Wazoo. I went to
Central. You'all suck on the eitherside of the state. Thank you very
much. All right, let's goto voicemail number two. Jim, you
live in a fantasy world that thatdoesn't exist. Maybe it did at one
(32:14):
point, but it certainly does itanymore. Man. I mean, you
got to accept it. I knowyou say you say you accept it,
but it really doesn't sound like youdo because you're getting so worked up over
this. I mean, this isthe way of the world, now,
that's what it is. I don'taccept it. I don't know where you
got that. I don't accept it. I don't like the way of the
(32:37):
world. Troy danon leaving after fivemonths. He should have told Nebraska,
Look, man, I would loveto take that job, but you know,
I need to show some integrity andsome class and he's got neither.
So he took the job and heleft. So yeah, I hope he's
a miserable failure there. That's howI feel about it, all right,
voice No. Number three Okay,sorry two or three? You know what's
(32:58):
also kind of funny soft he's gonnaput the spin on it, like,
well, you know, we didn'twant him anyway, right, He wasn't
a good fit. Pissed a lotof people off. Now, you know,
stay tuned to three o'clock, right, and you know he mentions his
dee I thing and I'm not goingto get into that, right, Okay,
but baloney, it's a bunch ofbaloney. Okay. The guy's good
at what he does, and we'llsee what his future brings. Right time
(33:19):
will tell. But you can't tellme that they're happy he's gone. Come
on, guys, no, Ido believe Softy on that. If I'm
a Husky fan. After everything thatyou hear behind the scenes, I think
they will ultimately be happy with whoevertheir new replacement is. Well, I'm
sure there's some people that probably arepleased that he's no longer there, but
there's probably more who are like,why do we need this much chaos going
(33:40):
on right now? We don't needto have another search going on in the
midst of a basketball coaching search,in the midst of having done this six
months ago to find this person inthe first place. So I agree with
Softie. There's there probably are peoplewho are happy that at the end of
the day, he's no longer goingto be employed by Washington, But there's
(34:00):
others in there who are probably reallyupset at this amount of just craziness that's
going on for them. Voicemail numberfour, Oh yeah, hey, fellas
Dan in here. I gotta keepit down. I'm in the office today.
But well, I guess doesn't matter. I'm leaving anyway. I don't
know how to put this, Jim, I'm sure you can appreciate this.
(34:22):
Took a flight out to the Eastcoast a few weeks ago and I made
a stop in Nebraska for some fuel. And have you ever seen the corn
fed ladies in Nebraska? Holy moly, be the ad in Nebraska State Tech.
Come on, Troy, you're married, man, Ernie. Doesn't Kerney
(34:43):
State have a have an opening foran athletic director? Could go to Nebraska?
Omaha? Maybe I don't know theycould. Yeah, somebody said,
boy, he must he must lovecorn if he's going to Nebraska. I
saw that on Twitter. All right, this is the final voicemail for the
day. Guys, Dave Maller here, just call him back. In reminder,
three o'clock stories galore on my show, Baby, I ain't gonna give
(35:06):
you nothing. I'll give you onestory whin it wasn't a good fit.
I invited him over for sleepovers,eat snacks and play in the yard.
Then he never goes. So thatalone, good Wrens. I'm gonna throw
a nominee in the hat. I'mgonna nominate Dick Faine is the new director.
Baby, And even though I didn'tgo to school there. Hell,
maybe I'll do it. It's allabout the purple and gold and malat I
(35:29):
think it's funny. The number onetrait that the new ad has to have
is to get along with Dave SoftyMaller. I think that should be number
one. Hopefully, hopefully that newad is willing to go over and play
with Softy's Star Wars character coys athis house during his sleep over. That
sounds really weird, but yes hemight. He must get along with Softy.
(35:50):
That should be like a part ofthe job requirement, like number number
two bullet point. Must deal withDave Maler in a positive fashion. Do
not piss off Dave Maller. Yes, his name really is Softy. I
don't know why I get such akick out of that. I love the
guy, but I love ripping himto Dave Softy Maller. Yeah, he's
got all kinds of behind the scenesstories that he didn't tell us earlier because
(36:14):
he wanted to save him for hisown show. You can stry time with
Softy at three o'clock today. Yeah, yeah, at three o'clock. Boy,
Doug Baldwin, did you hear thatinterview yesterday? I unfortunately missed it.
No, Doug Baldwin with Softy andDick Faine, And does Doug ever
loosen up? I mean, hashe ever like let his hair down?
And Doug Baldwin, every time Ihear him, everything is so serious.
(36:37):
Come on, Doug, come on. He That's just I think who he
is. Every interaction I've ever hadwith Doug, he is. He will
joke, he has a has alight side to him, but for the
most part he takes things very seriously. Yeah, it was an interesting interview.
I enjoyed it. I was listeningat three o'clock today, I'll be
(36:59):
listening to get de Troy Dannon stories. But coming up next in the meantime,
we're gonna talk a little Cougar hoops. Let's go Koogs baby. I
am so fired up for this.I'm gonna be watching the game with my
kids somewhere at a bar in Lakewooddown in the Tacoma area. I can't
wait for this game. Seven ohfive tip against Drake Greg Woods from the
Spokesman Review. He covers the team. He's on the scene in Omaha and
(37:22):
we'll talk to him next. It'sJim Moore Tim Booth in for Pock Sports
Radio ninety three point three KJRFM,
At the bottom of the hour whenwe talked to Adam Rittenberg from he's the
ESPN college football writer. We'll betalking to him then and at twelve thirty
we'll find out we'll get a Nebraskaperspective from Adam Shelter, who's there covering
the Nebraska football team for the AthleticBut now we're going to get into the
march madness. I mean, thisis a big deal. And I was
(00:21):
planning on talking about the Washington StateDrake game for three hours today, but
we're gonna find out about all theother games with some help for your bracket.
It's Ian McMillan. He's the senioreditor of Fan Sided and bet Sided
and he's also the host of theBacon Bets podcast. And so we're gonna
be catching up with Ian momentarily andTim. I mean, this is an
(00:43):
exciting time of year. It getsgoing tomorrow. Last night, everybody was
all over Virginia because it was likeTony Bennett's team. They shot twenty five
percent in that loss to Colorado State. Not a good night for Tony Bennett
and his squad. That was thatwas even more proof that the selection committee
screwed up this year by putting aputting Virginia in in the first place and
(01:07):
then having Colorado State seed again.The entire Mountain West got seated horribly,
but having Colorado State is a tenseed and having to play in that game
in the first place seemed rather ridiculous. And they seem to back up the
point that it was ridiculous they wereplaying in that game by going out and
thumping thumping Virginia. And I thinkColorado State has a chance. One of
(01:29):
these teams, whether it's Colorado Stateor the winner of the Boise State Colorado
game tonight, I have a prettygood feeling that they're going to win in
the next round and advance at leastto the round of thirty two. You
know, there's a lot of there'sa lot of proof over the years that
a team that wins those one ofthose first four games can end up making
a run. I think the winnerof Boise State Colorado probably has a little
(01:52):
easier path because Florida lost. They'llplay Florida in the next round, and
Florida lost their center in the SECchampionship game to a broken leg, So
I think the winner of that gameprobably has an easier chance to advance.
But Carro State looked pretty good lastnight and it helped that Virginia couldn't hit
anything shooting wise. But yeah,the Rams look good, and I think,
(02:15):
I think again the committee screwed upby putting Virginia in in the first
place. That probably should have goneto Indiana State or Saint John's or someone
like that instead. Two more firstfour games tonight, Grambling versus Montana State
actually this afternoon at three point forty, and Colorado and Boise State at six
' ten. Helping us make senseof it all In March Madness. It's
(02:36):
Ian McMillan, senior editor, fansided Bacon Bets podcast host. I've been
following Ian for a couple of yearsnow. I love the picks he makes
on the NFL. Also like hispicks on golf. I'm big into betting
on golf and Ian, welcome tothe show. Thanks for your time today.
Not a problem, guys, thanksfor having me. It's an exciting
week, arguably the best week ofthe sports betting calendar, so I'm excited
(02:58):
to get into it. Boy,you've got all kinds of podcasts, You're
on YouTube, you seem to beeverywhere all the time talking about golf.
But boy, the march madness.You have predicted every single game in the
first round, haven't you. Ihave. Yeah, It's something I do
in the NFL too. I don'tknow why I do it, and that's
betting on every single game. Ibet on every single game the NFL regular
(03:19):
season, and then for some reasonnow I think this is my third year
doing it. For the NCAA tournament, I'll be making a pick for every
single game as well. So thefirst round was tough. It's tough to
go through and handicap thirty two differentgames for the first round. But I'm
done. I have my best lockedin and I'm feeling pretty good about it.
Well, let's start with the gameof the most local interest to people
(03:42):
around here and me specifically, WashingtonState against Drake. Washington State opened is
a one and a half point favorite, and now Drake has flipped on it,
they're a one and a half pointfavorite. But I like what you
had to say, Ian, becauseI saw your YouTube broadcast and you're higher
on Washington State most people in countriesin the country, So I'm expecting that
you think the Cougis are going toadvance here. I am. Yeah,
(04:05):
it's obviously a close game based onthe odds here, but I do like
Washington State. I've been on WashingtonState a handful of times this year,
and I just don't understand why nobodyin the country talks about this team whatsoever.
This is a team that beat Arizonatwice. Arizona is one of the
top ranked teams in this tournament anda number two seed in Washington State.
(04:27):
If you look at their metrics,and I'm a big numbers guy, I'm
a big stats guy, they don'treally have any weaknesses. They're extremely good
defensively thirty third in the country,an opponent affective field goal percentage. I
think specifically for this matchup against Drake, I think they can attack Drake where
Drake is weak, and that isthe interior of the Bulldog's defense two hundred
and forty six and opponent two pointfield goal percentage. So I think the
(04:49):
Cougars can really pound a rock downlow against this Drake team. I love
them in this matchup, and Iwouldn't be surprised if they go on a
little bit of a run here inthis tournament. I'm just shocked, once
again, I nobody that I listento or have heard in the across the
country talk about Washington State or givethem any kind of respect whatsoever. And
once against they beat Arizona twice thisyear, they beat Colorado, and they
(05:11):
have some impressive wins on the resume. They're going to be a dangerous team
for anyone to face. Well,what about it in the next round.
Let's just jump at We don't haveto take a one game at a time.
If they beat Drake, you thinkthey have a shot against the second
seeded Iowa State. Yeah, Andthis is one thing that I that is
unfortunate with Washington State, because Iwould take them further. I'm just about
any other region, but that Eastregion is so tough. Yukon, Iowa
(05:33):
State, Auburn, Illinois could beinteresting, BYU could be interesting. So
I do right now have Iowa Statewinning that second round match up against Washington
State, just because I think IowaState straight up a national championship contender.
I mean, Iowa State went andwon the conference tournament in the most in
(05:53):
my opinion, the best college basketballconference in the nation in the Big Twelve.
They beat Houston twice. Houston,who's the number one see the team
that a lot of people think canwin the national championship game. So yeah,
Unfortunately, as much as I likeWashington State in the first round matchup,
they're in a tough spot here inthe East Region and especially in that
second round against Iowa State. Sodo they have a shot? Sure?
(06:15):
Am I currently picking Washington State tobeat Iowa State as of right now?
No? I think I think theCyclones would advance from there. And the
other local team we've got playing inthe tournament this year because Washington failed to
make the NCAA's is is the teamover in Spokane from Gonzaga. They've had
a very, you know, nota very impressive start to the season in
(06:38):
terms of picking up any notable nonconference wins, but they sure got hot
and in January and especially in Februarywith wins at Kentucky and at Saint Mary's.
But McNeice is not a McNee Stateis not an easy, easy opener
for them to have to face.How do you see how do you see
that game playing now? I thinkthe Zags are favored by five right now.
(06:58):
How do you see that matchup playingout? Especially because it's one of
those attractive five to twelve matchups thatpeople like to pick us upsets. Yeah,
I do like in Zega quite abit. I actually think it's kind
of similar to Washington State. I'mnot just saying this because you guys are
having me on, Buttega is anotherteam that I actually think being a little
bit disrespected. I think maybe it'sbecause they don't kind of have that big
(07:19):
name player like they have in pastyears. You know, they don't have
a chet Holm Grin, they don'thave a Drew Timmy, they don't have
a Jalen Suggs. But if youlook at their metrics and be compared to
them to some previous iterations of this, of this Gonzega team, maybe not
quite as good, but still avery very very good team. So I
like in Zega over McNeice. McNeicejust has not really played anyone this year,
(07:42):
which makes me nervous. I mean, and if you look at the
Bulldogs numbers, like I said earlier, eighth and effective field goal percentage sixth
and average scoring margin beating teams byan average of fourteen points three points,
mcneese's numbers look fine. But withthese mid major teams, you got to
look at their ota coop play andmcnee's played absolutely nobody either outside the conference
(08:03):
or inside the conference, So thatmakes me quite nervous for McNee State.
I'm surprised to spread is it's smallas it is around six points. I
like the Bulldogs, not the Bulldogsgoing all the way to the Elite eight.
Actually talking to Ian McMillan, senioreditor Fans Sided, the host of
the Bacon Bets podcast, breaking downMarch Madness and the bracket and stim more
(08:24):
here with Tim Booth Sports Radio ninetythree point three kJ RFM. All right,
Arizona, are they a fraudulent numbertwo? Ian? I know that
you've got fraudulent teams in the NFL. I'm wondering if Arizona is legit or
fraudulent. What do you think?Yeah, here's the thing. Arizona is
an interesting team because I think ifevery single team brought their A plus game
(08:48):
into the tournament and played their Aplus the best that they can play,
I think Arizona is actually the bestteam in the entire country. When they're
at their best, nobody can beatthem. The issue is they don't bring
their best games more often than whatyou'd want to see from a top seed.
So if they enter the tournament andthey start playing well and they bring
(09:09):
their A plus game in all sixgames, they're gonna be your national champion.
But the issue is if we kindof saw this last year in the
first round they didn't bring their theirA plus game and lost it. Who
wasn't Princeton last year. That's theissue. If at any point in this
tournament they don't bring their A plusgame and they bring a C minus,
D plus, you know graded game, they're gonna lose. And that could
(09:31):
be against just about anyone. Now. I don't think they're gonna lose a
Long Beach State. I'm not highon Long Beach State whatsoever. They're a
middling team at best in the BigWest. But in the second round winner
of Day Nevada, Arizona doesn't bringthe A plus game, they could lose
there. You know, like aBaylor at New Mexico at Clemson in the
sweet sixteen, they could lose there. So I wouldn't necessarily call them fraudulent,
(09:56):
because I do think Arizona has avery high ceiling. When they bring
their best stuff, they're impossible tobe But at some point this tournament it
just matters where I think they're gonnanot bring their best stuff. And the
mark of great teams are teams thatcan win games when they don't bring their
best stuff. That is not Arizona. When they don't bring their best stuff,
they implode on the court. Andit's gonna happen at some point this
(10:18):
tournament. The trick is just tryingto figure out when that's gonna be.
The beauty of this tournament is theupsets and in the teams that come out
of nowhere to make a run,and you know, schools that no one
has really known about, and thenall of a sudden, everyone's talking about
them about, you know, tendays later because they've they've made a run
to the Sweet sixteen or the Elitedate. Who are in your mind,
(10:39):
who are those teams this year?Who's who's the double digit seed, Who's
the twelve seed, the thirteen seed, the eleven seed that you look at
both from a from a maybe aspread standpoint, but then also from a
straight up being capable of making arun standpoint, that could make some noise
over these next couple of weeks.Yeah, I'll give you two. There's
(11:00):
one that's gonna be a popular onethat you're probably gonna hear some other people
mentioned if you haven't already, andthat's James Madison as a twelve seed.
They're a team that can shoot thethree ball really well. They're hot all
season. They take on a Wisconsinteam, which I think is a really
good matchup for them in the openinground because Wisconsin's biggest weakness is they can't
defend the three. So if JamesMadison can get as hot as they can
(11:20):
from beyond the arc, I thinkthat's gonna be a win for them.
And I mean, if you lookat the spread, it's only like a
five point spread anyways, So oddsmakersdo expect that James Madison Wisconsin game that
twelve five games to be a lotcloser than maybe you'd think from a twelve
to five matchup. And JMU hasno weaknesses across the board. They're strong
just about everywhere. Now that's abit of a popular one. I'm going
(11:41):
to go a little bit off theboard with a fourteen seed that I could
imagine seeing winning a couple of games, and that's Accron fourteen seed. They're
playing against Creighton in the opening round. I am not high on Creighton whatsoever.
Creighton is dead last in the countryof all every single Division one calls
(12:01):
basketball team. How many are there, three hundred and sixty two. They
are three hundred and sixty second inopponent turnovers. They do not force turnovers.
They also don't grab offensive rebounds.Now, Creating is a very good
shooting team. They have a verygood shooting defense. But if they stumble
a little bit with their shooting,they lose possessions every single game. In
(12:22):
fact, if you look at usthat extra score and chances per game,
they're almost dead last in the countrythat averaging minus four possessions per game.
And in these kind of close upsetgames, they're looking for teams that can
get those extra possessions and maybe getthe last possession of the game and get
an upset. And stylistically, Creightonshoots the three ball a ton. What's
Acron's best trait, in my opinion, is their perimeter defense. So if
(12:46):
they can shut down Creating on theperimeter get some extra scoring opportunities, I
think that Acron that fourteen to threegame could be an upset, and then
I could see them beating the winnerof South Carolina in Oregon as well in
the second round. So yeah,probably not a school you've heard too much
that can pull off a couple epsoshere. But if I'm picking one,
(13:07):
I kind of like the zips thereat the fourteen seeds. So you would
lay the thirteen and a half oryou see me not late, you would
take the thirteen and a half ifyou're betting that game, because I think
that's what the line is right nowwith Creighton being favored by that much.
Yeah, I would absolutely take thepoints. And that's actually each each year
I like to take one big moneyline upset and just take them to win.
(13:28):
Out right, Akron is the teamI'm looking to take over, So
if you want to get now,that's probably ill advised because it is it's
not likely to happen. But Ithink they're around six to one if you
want to take them to beat Creighton. Oe right, I'm gonna sprinkle a
little bit on that, but obviouslyI think the smart move would be taking
the points if you want a littlebit more of a conservative play. Love
that matchup for Akron against Creighton.Hey, and you mentioned Oregon. What
(13:50):
do you think of the Ducks?I was down in Vegas and saw most
of their run there to win thePac twelve championship and they seem to be
on a roll. Yeah. Ithink actually the toughest first round matchup for
me to predict is actually that SouthCarolina Oregon game. There's a lot of
things to like on both sides ofthe ball, and Oregon's a little bit
(14:11):
of a difficult team to handicap inmy opinion, because they've just kind of
got healthy recently. They got thatcenter and Sally Dante if that's how you
pronounced his name. He's only playedtwenty games for the Ducks and he's already
become the most impactful player sixteen pointtwo points per game, eight point five
rebounds per game, almost two blocksper game. If he can continue to
(14:33):
play as kind of he played theredown the final stretch of the season.
Oregon could also be a dark horsein terms of a double digit seed going
on a little bit of a run. And if Oregon beats South Carolina in
that opening round, even if Cretongets back gets past Akron, I could
see Oregon being a team that takesdown that number three seed Creighton, who
(14:54):
I think is right for an upsetat some point this tournament. So,
yeah, another double digit seed thatcould go on a run. But actually
I think that could be a bitof a tough matchup against South Carolina in
the opening round. Like I said, if there's one game that I would
kind of step back and not makea pick on, I think it would
be South Carolina. Oregon's just thatclose, and I think the betting ads
reflect that too. I think it'sbasically a coin flip in terms of the
(15:18):
betting ons to that game. Soyou're betting all of the first round games
this year, but I'm assuming you'realso placing a bet on a team to
win it all. So who whois your team at this point to win
it all? And maybe who's ateam that's a little bit off the radar
that you feel like could win itall with an upset or two along the
way. Yeah, my pick rightnow is actually a four seed. It's
(15:43):
Auburn to win it all. Playedin a very tough SEC, playing a
lot of great basketball, obviously,just won the FDC Tournament. And when
I'm looking for when I'm picking theNational Championship win theer is a team that
doesn't have any weaknesses, doesn't haveany part of their game that can collapse
and cost them a win. InAuburn doesn't have that. They're great offensively,
they're one of the best defensive teamsin the country. They're very well
(16:03):
by Bruce Pearl, So I actuallythink they're completely under seeded. So don't
get scared by the fact that they'rea four seed. I think they deserve
to be a three. Maybe eventhe argument could be made they're a two
seed in this tournament. So Ilike Auburn as my national championship winner.
If you want someone a little bitmore off the board, I think you
can look at that Midwest region andtake a little bit of a higher seed
(16:26):
there or a lower seed there.I guess whichever way you want to put
it, because that is a regionwhere a lot of the top seeded teams
has some flaws. Perdue obviously hasflaws, Tennessee has some flaws offensively.
So I could see a team evenKenza going to be honest as a five
seed. But I'd even be lookingat maybe even like a Texas as a
seventh seed, and you're looking atlike one hundred to one, one hundred
(16:49):
and twenty to one team in aTexas long Hoarse underperformed all season in terms
of their record, But if youlook at their metrics. Once again,
a team that's not great anywhere,but solid everywhere. They don't really have
any weaknesses. They're good both offensivelyand defensively. So if you're looking for
a complete off the board long shothere, I think you can look to
that mid West region and I mightthrow it a team like in number seven
(17:12):
Texas or even mentioned in earlier numbereleven Oregon, number six South Carolina.
I think if there's gonna be along shot, I think it comes out
of that Midwest region well. Andthen Ian, you like Texas Tech too,
don't you? I do like TexasTech another reason. You know.
I keep bringing up these teams thatare solid everywhere, no huge weaknesses,
and that's what Texas Tech is.None of their numbers are going to jump
(17:34):
off the board when you look atthem, but they're good everywhere. And
I think in order to win sixgames in a row, you need to
find a team that is good bothoffensively good defensively. They can rebound,
they don't cough the ball up toomuch. So I like Texas Tech as
well. Now, for some reason, every single year, I convince myself
that Texas Tech is a good longshot. So I don't know what it
(17:56):
is. I just have an obsessionwith Texas Tech. It might just be
that they're that their school colors arepretty similar to my Atlanta Falcons colors.
They're red and black, and mightjust get fooled by that. But yeah,
I do like Texas Tech as wellas sixth seed if you're looking for
a team to come out of theSouth. Now, they do have some
tough matchups along the way. Inthe second round that's going to be a
tough one against Kentucky that Kentucky canstart playing some defense. But yeah,
(18:18):
Texas Tech another kind of mid seedteam that I could see going a little
bit of a run. Last thingfor you, ian the number one seed
that falls out of the tournament.First, I'm so the popular pick.
He would be North Carolina. Ithink they're probably the overall weakest number one
seed. And then the other popularpick would be Perdue. Obviously they lost
(18:40):
to the one seed last year inthe opening round. I'm going to actually
kind of say Houston though. Houstonvery good defense, lea very good at
getting extra chance scoring opportunities, butthey can't shoot, and that's what we
saw happen to them in the BigTwelve Championship game against Iowa State. They're
outside the top two hundred in thecountry and effective field goal percentage. So
if they run up against even inthe second round, a team like Texas
(19:03):
A and M or Nebraska and theyand they, they don't bring their A
plus shooting game, and they don'tgrab the offensive rebounds that they've been able
to grab against some other teams inthe Big Twelve. I could see Houston
falling off early. They just don'tquite have the offense that I look for
for a number one seed to goon a run here. So yeah,
you and c and Purdue are probablygonna be the popular plays in terms of
(19:25):
stating number one seeds, but Ithink it might go Houston. I wouldn't
be shocked if they don't make itpast the second round. Ian McMillan the
senior editor of Fans Sided and BetsSided. He's also the host of the
Bacon Bets podcast. You can followhim on Twitter at Ian Macbetts. That's
I a I n m ac betsthere on Twitter, and I'm a fan
of yours. Ian, I've beenfollowing you for a long time. This
(19:48):
has been a pleasure. I hopeYou've had a good time doing it.
Thank you for having me on andI appreciate it. Take care and best
luck with their picks this week.It's going to be a fun weekend,
all right. There, he goesIan McMillan again, you and follow him
on Twitter at Ian mac betts.The story of the day though, Troy
dan and leaving Washington the outgoing athleticdirectory lasted all of five months on Montlake
(20:10):
taking the job at Nebraska, signinga six year deal there to take over
as the athletic director there in Lincoln, Nebraska. Adam Rittenberg is a senior
writer covering college football for ESPN.We'll catch up with him next. Get
the latest developments there from Adam Rittenberg. It's Jim Moore with Tim Booth here
on Sports Radio ninety three point threeKJRFM. The big story of the day
(20:30):
though, Troy dan and outgoing Huskyathletic director taking a six year deal to
become the athletic director at Nebraska.Adam Rittenberg is the senior writer covering college
football for ESPN. He joins usnow and Adam, I'm guessing, even
though you're dialed in with college footballthat maybe this came as a big surprise
(20:51):
to you as well. Yeah,certainly it was Troy. I think Nebraska
was under a lot of pressure toact quickly go after losing of Albert to
Texas A and M. But thefact that they hired an ad who you
know, hadn't been there for afull football season yet, and it obviously
just made a change in men's basketball, you know, not even half of
(21:11):
a calendar year as the ad.You know, again, we're just in
a different era right now where there'sa lot more movement and ten years are
shorter than ever. But that certainly, you know, it makes sense on
the surface, But I think itwould have made more sense having Troy move
from Tulane to Nebraska than only afew months at Washington and then making another
move, Adam, when you tryand make sense of it, was it
(21:34):
just that the job was so appealingat Nebraska. Was it a increase in
salary? Were there problems internally atWashington? What do you think led to
this move today? Well, yeah, I think it's more about the Nebraska
job and the position that they werein. I mean, this is a
very desperate program that has you know, obviously taken its hits on the field
(21:56):
on football in recent years. Butthen too was a guy like Trev Alberts,
who you know, was a Huskerthrough and through, and I obviously
had had brought a lot of enthusiasmto that role to lose him to a
former league member when they were backin the in the Big Twelve together text
A and M. That that reallyset off alarms in the state of Nebraska.
(22:18):
You had the governor, you're callingout the university for not hiring a
president fast enough and now for lettingthis happen. And so the one thing
Nebraska has always had is a lotof support. They have money, they
can go out and make an offer, and they, you know, clearly
made one that that Troy felt hecouldn't pass up. And obviously, a
guy from Iowa has a lot ofroots in the area, so that's part
(22:38):
of it as well. But Ithink it was the fact that Nebraska,
you really had to do something quicklyand had to do make a bold move
here to satisfy its own base,and they were able to pull it off
in relatively short order. Adam,what what does this do for the perception
of Washington nationally? I mean,you're on your about to be your third
(22:59):
a d in the last six tonine months. You had to you obviously
made a run to the National championshipgame in football, but then you had
to replace your coach, and youcurrently have a men's basketball opening, and
you're about to move to the tothe Big Ten. What do you feel
like the broader perception is of whereWashington is at right now? You know,
the thing is, most people Italk to still see Washington as a
(23:21):
great job, as do I.You know, I grew up on the
West Coast and when Washington football wasreally in its heyday in the early nineties,
and then you've seen what's happened herelately, getting to the national title
game and and moving to the BigTen and having you know, tremendous tradition
and donor support. I still thinkthis is a this is an appealing job,
(23:41):
and they just have had quite alot of turnover here in leadership roles
in the last you know, eighteenmonths to two years. And so how
can Washington find stability because that's goingto be really important. Ironically, Nebraska's
big problem as a school that's movedinto the Big Ten now for you know,
about a little over a decade theyhave had massive instability in the leadership
(24:06):
position football coach, athletic director andso on. And so that's what you
don't want to be. If you'reWashington, You're still operating from a relative
position of strength. You have justmade the football national title game. I
know there's excitement about around Jet Fish, but can Washington stabilize itself because you
know, again you can just lookat Nebraska and what they've gone through since
(24:27):
they joined the Big Ten in twentyten. That's what you don't want to
be. And so that's why theseyou know, this hire of the next
athletic director, Washington needs to makesure it's somebody who wants the job and
wants to be there and create anoffer in a situation where where makes it
(24:47):
very very difficult, if not impossible, for that person to leave anytime soon.
Adam Rittenberg is joining a senior writercovering college football for ESPN. Your
teammate the story to de Troy danand leaving Washington going to Nebraska to become
the ad there, signing a sixyear deal. Pete Tamil writing that Troy
Dana and he's a power player incollege athletics. I mean, is I'm
(25:10):
sorry, I'm a Washington State guy. I'm kind of skeptical on all this
stuff, and whenever it comes tothe rival, you know, I mean,
somebody was writing in going, Jim, you should be finding this hilarious,
and I kind of am. ButI'm trying to be professional here.
Is he really that big of adeal, Troy Dana? He's a power
player in college athletics. Well,he's an experienced athletic director. You know,
who was you know, a guyyou know you didn't know, you
(25:33):
didn't hear that much about athletic directorsat the group of five level. He
was the guy that you were awareof that I was aware of who I've
known for a number of years,and a guy that was certainly ambitious and
someone who I expected to be ina league like the Big Ten and really
in a job like Nebraska. Again, I think Washington was maybe the outlier
(25:53):
in his career. I think alot of people thought he would go from
Tulane to a program like Iowa ora program like Nebraska or Wisconsin, certainly
with a guy who was, youknow, maybe in the mix for those
jobs, and this is where hewanted to be. Now, Washington came
along and he took that opportunity.But you know, he again is her
(26:14):
power player in college athletics. Ithink that there really aren't many athletic directors
who I give that label to.I think the commissioners and the media executives
are much more important in the landscape. But he has been a leading voice,
and his voice, you know,we'll get maybe even louder now now
that he's in Nebraska. Adam,you met, you mentioned that Washington is
still viewed as a as a goodjob in the marketplace. I know there's
(26:38):
going to be a lot of namesthat are that end up attached to probably
the search for this What What doesWashington need? What should they be looking
for? Do they need someone who'sgot a history with the Big ten or
at least working at a at aPower five or Power four level kind of
kind of school as they make thistransition to the Big ten next year.
(27:00):
Well, I think they need somebodywho's going to be familiar with the financial
picture, in the media picture.I think anyone who's in this role had
a Big tenor an SEC school.You know, can't be surprised by you
know, what's going on in thosetwo conferences right now, and the power
that's being consolidated, and the moneythat's coming in, and the pressure to
perform, and and who you're goingto be up again. So, you
(27:22):
know, while I think there shouldbe athletic directors that that that you know,
aren't currently at a Big ten orSEC school that would be considered for
the Washington job, you can't hiresomebody who would be intimidated by that.
I also think guys that Washington needsto hire someone with at least some type
of connection to the program. Obviously, Jen Cohen had been there many many
(27:42):
years, uh, you know,had had a deep affinity for Washington and
became the AD and served in thatrole until USC came open. Detroy Dannon
really had no connection to University ofWashington. So I think there's there's there's
administrators out there or even people thataren't in the traditional athletic director role that
would have the ability to come inand lead that department as it makes its
(28:06):
transition to the Big ten. Butreally have a I want to be there,
I want to be in Seattle,I want to be at the University
of Washington. I'm not looking forthe next best thing. I think that's
going to be really really important fortheir university side administration to figure that out
here relatively quickly because they don't wantto have this happen again. Not to
(28:26):
not to repeat myself too much,you don't want to become Nebraska. Nebraska
has become a revolving door of coachesand ads. You do not want to
do that, especially when you're comingoff of such an incredible season reaching the
National title game, Adam, beforewe let you go, Washington State near
and dear to my heart here andthen Oregon State in the PAC too,
Just kind of trying to figure outthe college landscape. It looks like the
(28:48):
ACC will be breaking up sometime inthe near future. What do you anticipate
if you were to speculate and lookdown the road, what's a likelihood outcome
is for Washington State and Oregon's Doyou think the PAC two or the PAC
ten or eight or whatever is goingto be revived at some point? Yeah,
I think it's gonna be tough.I would hope that it's revived at
(29:10):
some point for for the non footballsports. As someone who grew up in
California and you know, watched allsorts of PAC ten sports at the time,
I think it's such a shame thatyou're not going to see you know,
Arizona and u c l A playbasketball on a regular basis or a
really name of pairing in a sport. There's so many you know, you
know, great series and rivalries thatare now uh, you know, going
(29:32):
to change because of this. SoI would hope that that happens. You
know, I think in football it'sgoing to be hard, you know,
to to sustain at the levels thatthey were in terms of financially, but
you know, with the expanded playoffs, there are still goals out there.
I think these can still be goodprograms, and they have blueprints of how
to develop players, and and andand and and have the type of culture,
that underdog culture that I think,uh they they they've had success with
(29:56):
in the past. So it's justgoing to be different in football. But
again, I would hope that there'sa path eventually for not just Oregon State
and Washington State, but a numberof leagues are teams that have been you
know, kind of displaced with theserounds of realignment to get back to the
way it was in the other sports. Because that's a real shame that you
know, we're not talking about volleyballand swimming and baseball and basketball, when
(30:19):
you had so many great pairings thatare now changed because you know, the
football had, you know, becausethere was such a dramatic shift on the
football side. Yeah, just bugsthe hell out of Adam, to be
honest, it really does. I'mgoing to miss the pack well and watching
all of those games. Adam Rittenberg, senior writer covering college football for ESPN.
Hey, thanks for your time today. All right, thanks having guys.
(30:42):
Yeah that it's uh, you know, it's still disturbing, but it's
a way of the world. Iguess. Greg Woods will join us at
the top of the hour. Fromthe Spokesman Review, he covers the Cougar
basketball team, The Kug's getting readyto take on Drake in the first round
of the NCAA Tournament tomorrow night,seven o'clock, seven oh five there in
Omaha. You can catch a gameon True TV. We'll get the latest
(31:03):
from Greg at noon. Coming upnext, we're gonna have some voicemails hopefully
you know what I would really likeand this is a late request, but
how about a Troy Dan and impersonator? Can anybody like put something like that
together right away? That would be. That would be difficult on the spot
because I don't really know how manytimes he's spoken publicly outside of the outside
of his introductory press conference. Sowell, you can maybe just convey the
(31:23):
phoniness, you know, the trueYeah, yeah, you could just do
that genuineness of line to be herefor a long time. Yeah yeah,
all of that type of thing.But we'll see, we'll have voicemails.
Next is Jim Moore with Tim boothIn for Pock Sports Radio ninety three point
three KJRFM. Instead of the sarcasmand the uh, the bad tone that
your morning crew from ten to oneseemed to put into the ad and they
(31:48):
rejoice and talk about all the confusionon the Husky scade. Those two need
to go get him out of here. Wow, tough crowdouts again. I
hate everybody. I hate one Washington, I hate Wazoo. I went to
Central. You'all suck on the eitherside of the state. Thank you very
much. All right, let's goto voicemail number two. Jim, you
live in a fantasy world that thatdoesn't exist. Maybe it did at one
(32:14):
point, but it certainly does itanymore. Man. I mean, you
got to accept it. I knowyou say you say you accept it,
but it really doesn't sound like youdo because you're getting so worked up over
this. I mean, this isthe way of the world, now,
that's what it is. I don'taccept it. I don't know where you
got that. I don't accept it. I don't like the way of the
(32:37):
world. Troy danon leaving after fivemonths. He should have told Nebraska,
Look, man, I would loveto take that job, but you know,
I need to show some integrity andsome class and he's got neither.
So he took the job and heleft. So yeah, I hope he's
a miserable failure there. That's howI feel about it, all right,
voice No. Number three Okay,sorry two or three? You know what's
(32:58):
also kind of funny soft he's gonnaput the spin on it, like,
well, you know, we didn'twant him anyway, right, He wasn't
a good fit. Pissed a lotof people off. Now, you know,
stay tuned to three o'clock, right, and you know he mentions his
dee I thing and I'm not goingto get into that, right, Okay,
but baloney, it's a bunch ofbaloney. Okay. The guy's good
at what he does, and we'llsee what his future brings. Right time
(33:19):
will tell. But you can't tellme that they're happy he's gone. Come
on, guys, no, Ido believe Softy on that. If I'm
a Husky fan. After everything thatyou hear behind the scenes, I think
they will ultimately be happy with whoevertheir new replacement is. Well, I'm
sure there's some people that probably arepleased that he's no longer there, but
there's probably more who are like,why do we need this much chaos going
(33:40):
on right now? We don't needto have another search going on in the
midst of a basketball coaching search,in the midst of having done this six
months ago to find this person inthe first place. So I agree with
Softie. There's there probably are peoplewho are happy that at the end of
the day, he's no longer goingto be employed by Washington, But there's
(34:00):
others in there who are probably reallyupset at this amount of just craziness that's
going on for them. Voicemail numberfour, Oh yeah, hey, fellas
Dan in here. I gotta keepit down. I'm in the office today.
But well, I guess doesn't matter. I'm leaving anyway. I don't
know how to put this, Jim, I'm sure you can appreciate this.
(34:22):
Took a flight out to the Eastcoast a few weeks ago and I made
a stop in Nebraska for some fuel. And have you ever seen the corn
fed ladies in Nebraska? Holy moly, be the ad in Nebraska State Tech.
Come on, Troy, you're married, man, Ernie. Doesn't Kerney
(34:43):
State have a have an opening foran athletic director? Could go to Nebraska?
Omaha? Maybe I don't know theycould. Yeah, somebody said,
boy, he must he must lovecorn if he's going to Nebraska. I
saw that on Twitter. All right, this is the final voicemail for the
day. Guys, Dave Maller here, just call him back. In reminder,
three o'clock stories galore on my show, Baby, I ain't gonna give
(35:06):
you nothing. I'll give you onestory whin it wasn't a good fit.
I invited him over for sleepovers,eat snacks and play in the yard.
Then he never goes. So thatalone, good Wrens. I'm gonna throw
a nominee in the hat. I'mgonna nominate Dick Faine is the new director.
Baby, And even though I didn'tgo to school there. Hell,
maybe I'll do it. It's allabout the purple and gold and malat I
(35:29):
think it's funny. The number onetrait that the new ad has to have
is to get along with Dave SoftyMaller. I think that should be number
one. Hopefully, hopefully that newad is willing to go over and play
with Softy's Star Wars character coys athis house during his sleep over. That
sounds really weird, but yes hemight. He must get along with Softy.
(35:50):
That should be like a part ofthe job requirement, like number number
two bullet point. Must deal withDave Maler in a positive fashion. Do
not piss off Dave Maller. Yes, his name really is Softy. I
don't know why I get such akick out of that. I love the
guy, but I love ripping himto Dave Softy Maller. Yeah, he's
got all kinds of behind the scenesstories that he didn't tell us earlier because
(36:14):
he wanted to save him for hisown show. You can stry time with
Softy at three o'clock today. Yeah, yeah, at three o'clock. Boy,
Doug Baldwin, did you hear thatinterview yesterday? I unfortunately missed it.
No, Doug Baldwin with Softy andDick Faine, And does Doug ever
loosen up? I mean, hashe ever like let his hair down?
And Doug Baldwin, every time Ihear him, everything is so serious.
(36:37):
Come on, Doug, come on. He That's just I think who he
is. Every interaction I've ever hadwith Doug, he is. He will
joke, he has a has alight side to him, but for the
most part he takes things very seriously. Yeah, it was an interesting interview.
I enjoyed it. I was listeningat three o'clock today, I'll be
(36:59):
listening to get de Troy Dannon stories. But coming up next in the meantime,
we're gonna talk a little Cougar hoops. Let's go Koogs baby. I
am so fired up for this.I'm gonna be watching the game with my
kids somewhere at a bar in Lakewooddown in the Tacoma area. I can't
wait for this game. Seven ohfive tip against Drake Greg Woods from the
Spokesman Review. He covers the team. He's on the scene in Omaha and
(37:22):
we'll talk to him next. It'sJim Moore Tim Booth in for Pock Sports
Radio ninety three point three KJRFM,
Puck & Jim Show News
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