Plank and Spanier: 03/11/2018

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. You know, I don't
even know why we waste three hours tonight because we
know what's gonna happen Arizona. This is even about me.
Arnie's picking you got You know what, if you want
to really get down to the crux of it, based
on a four letter networks report, You're lucky you still
have a basketball program. But Arnie's picking Arizona to win

(00:23):
it all. It doesn't matter who they're playing. They could
be in a playing game right now. Arizona's winning the title.
Let's just see you next Sunday night, right, That's kind
of it. That's it, wrap it up. We just we
just we just wasted three minutes, two minutes, and we
could have done it in one minute. For christ I
know right. We are coming to you live tonight from
the get go Fox Sports Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes could

(00:44):
save you fifteen per cent or more on car insurance.
Visit guy dot com for a free rate. Quote. Yeah,
I'll accept it. I'll be the first one to own it.
Oklahoma in Arizona state. Two very fortunate teams to be
in this n C Double A tournament. Based on the
way they played down the strap. I would use the
term shocking that both of those teams are in. How
did you know you were in like three or four

(01:05):
minutes before it was? Now, don't be given away all
my secrets. I gotta I got a few things out there, Arenie.
Here's the deal is you just you just shushed me
away from that. Well, you can't be given away all
my secrets, you know. I gotta stay. I gotta stay,
make sure that we we don't give I had a
pretty good source that had said, listen, this is happening tomorrow,

(01:27):
and you're gonna be even more surprised because guess what,
You're not going to be in the playing game. And
I thought, I thought for sure that Oklahoma was gonna
be in eleven seed in that playing game, and lo
and behold they're not. And lo and behold, somehow what
U c l A? Who? I thought it's a pretty
good team this year is in that game. So is
Arizona in Syracuse. But yet Oklahoma slides up to a

(01:49):
ten seed. They slide into the tournament. And this isn't
about Oklahoma versus Oklahoma State or a Baylor. This is
more about you know, how you had a couple of
upsets and teams were viewed through this broad Remember when, Arnie,
for so many years, what was a very important factor
whenever we were picking teams for the n C Double

(02:10):
A Tournament? What would they always say? How are you
playing in your last ten games? Right? That doesn't make
it difference anymore. It's irrelevant. It's irrelevant now. Um. And
again that's not me sitting here trying to defend Oklahoma
getting in. I really can't as much as I want to,
but I still have never heard of a team turning
down an invitation to the n C Double A Tournament.

(02:30):
I know what happens in the n I T so
you play on and I don't know how you feel, Arenie.
I think we've got a pretty good field this year.
I know there are some teams that have gripes about
being left out, but I think we got a good field.
You know what I don't understand is they asked the
selection president, um, if you know the FBI probe had
anything to do with it. He said, absolutely not. Didn't

(02:51):
even come up, absolutely not. Then they said they talked
about Oklahoma and said, well, Oklahoma played just, you know,
really well early and I'm saying to myself, how do you, oh,
this isn't this supposed to be like blind resumes. You're
not supposed to know which team is which when you're
taking a look at it, and so how do they
know when they're taking a look at a blind resume?
Chris Well, I think at some point they do kind

(03:11):
of have to un you have to well, And then
here's my other We brought this up and Aaron Torres
is coming on with us here in our next segment.
But you can't help but wonder about the star factor, right,
I mean, you got a Trey Young who is one
of the most talked about guys in college basketball this year,
and you almost get the sense that they're gonna find
a way to get him in. I want to know, though,

(03:33):
it is interesting when you look at some of the
teams that were left out and you're talking about those
FBI connected teams by by the means of bubble teams.
I mean, you can't leave Arizona, you can't leave, but Louisville,
Oklahoma State in USC they were connected to that investigation
in September. Again, you're like you said, aren't you're supposed
to have kind of that blind look at it. You're

(03:54):
supposed to take it from the perspective of on the
court numbers, resume if you will it. What do they
call the nitty gritty? I think the dirt sheet whatever.
I kind of feel like that might have played a factor.
I would love for someone to prove me wrong, but
I can't help but think it swayed some opinions when
it came to those three. So I I kind of
agree with you on that. You know, we we just

(04:15):
kind of just jumped into this. We need to take
a break. I mean to take a deep breath, because
I kind of wanted to start from the very beginning
on what you thought about the new Selection show and
the way they did it and the process. And I'm like, well,
they got everything done in forty minutes, what are they
gonna do for the other hour in twenty minutes? I
was I was pretty much done with them, you know
what I mean? What did you think of the new

(04:35):
selection process? I will not lie to you, Arnie and
try to say that I completely hated it all. There
were certain parts of it that I dug. I think
there was some genuine moments that were created, and I
wasn't as down on it as all of social media
was with that set. I don't think you're ever gonna
have a formula unless you just come out and give

(04:55):
the bracts. I mean I I do like I didn't
like the idea at first of just unveiling the teams
that made it and those in the bubble teams. I
thought that seemed a little goofy. I thought the way
they did it worked out, okay. I mean I didn't
think it was I I didn't. And again I'm not
sitting here telling you that I'm gonna be sitting glued
to my chair watching it every year. But it wasn't
as god awful as I thought. I get the since

(05:16):
you're in a completely I thought it was horrible. First
of all, when they started, did you notice the sound
was off from you? If you notice that, so the
sound was off, then you know they started, you know,
giving you like five teams at the time. They went
in alphabetic quarter um Ernie pumped, no, tre dame. I
don't know if you caught that. He goes next, No,

(05:38):
they're not. You know, he knew they weren't next. Yeah,
they he knew they had the list right there in
front of him. So but I thought they took away
the drama. They didn't really show. You know, they showed teams,
but those teams already knew they were in it. Some
didn't know. They got excited, like Syracuse and stuff like that.
But it's not the same because you could get these
teams that you already know that are in it when

(06:00):
they see the matchup and they get excited. I think
they took all the drama away, and they did a
kind of I never thought I would say this. They
didn't kind of fast. I mean, really forty minutes and
stretch it out a little bit. Let us soak it
in a little bit, you know what I mean, Chris,
I think that I we brought this up last week,
and since we're starting here, and like we said, Aaron
Torres will help us get through the nuts and bolts

(06:21):
of it. Will spend a couple of segments each hour.
We're breaking down the brackets, looking at some of the
matchups and talking potential upsets. And then in our final
segment tonight, Arnie will pick Arizona to win the National Championship,
rooting the tease. I mean, come on, now, they don't
know who I'm picking. I don't think there's a single
person listening right now that would expect you to do
anything different. With that in mind, I think that we

(06:43):
try to continue to recreate what should be a very
simple formula for this, which is announce your one seeds,
take a break, get some perspective, go through one region,
take a break, go through your second reason, take a break,
go through your third reason, take a break, and then
go through your fourth region. I've never understood why we
try to take something that seems so simplistic, Arnie and

(07:06):
make it complicated. Like I said, I'm not sitting here
trying to tell you it was great. I thought it
was gonna be awful. It wasn't nearly as bad as
I thought it was gonna be. But I'm not sitting
here telling you it's must see TV all of a sudden,
there's a lot of work to be done on this.
And they why why do they keep trying to change
the name? No, they didn't have to, you know what,
and give out our our Twitter addresses because I promise you,

(07:27):
I promise you, nine of our listeners are gonna say
it sucked the fun out of it, It took the
drama away. It really did. I and and like I said,
they went too fast. I always like to hear the
analyst afterwards. But I mean, you gotta give me time
to soak it in and and go to a break
so I can look it over a little bit. And
by the way, they started giving the Times in the days,

(07:49):
I believe like halfway through. So now I was like confused,
Have I right about that? Usually we would get the
Times doing our show, something that we'd get late in
the evening. I'm like, if they got it that quick,
why don't you make the fifth segment now the Times
in the day. So, like you said, the number one
seeds commercial break one one, you know, one region break,

(08:10):
another region break, the third break, fourth break, and then
the Times break and then you get the that's that's
like an hour and fifteen minutes into it. They I
thought they really botched it up. I was really disappointed.
I looked forward to this like you do with the draft.
I I really I enjoy it so much and to
take you know, some of the fun away. And I

(08:30):
gotta tell you on a little side note, I feel
like the mid majors, especially now that I'm living up
in mid major country up here in Vermont. But then
in Middle Tennessee, which, by the way, is the first
round matchup. I feel horrible for them. We've made it
harder and harder. Now on the mid majors, Now about
Chris Okay, lest I just gotta hit pause on this.

(08:50):
You realize, how do you realize how you treat mid
majors knowledge football? Do you realize what you say about
mid majors? You know? But that's a big difference than
in football in basketball. Okay, I'm just as long as
you realize the hypocrisy of what you're saying. Right now,
you're like boo who buckaroo for Vermont not making it,
But oh my gosh, if Arizona played Boise State from

(09:11):
that trash conference, who are they? It's a different world.
It's more St. Mary's and Middle Tennessee. I feel bad
for especially like St. Mary's was like in the top
twenty one like two days ago. I really think this
whole quadrant one thing is just something that benefits the
big conferences. I know the commissioner said no, and benefits

(09:33):
the small guys. I don't believe that for a second.
And you can't take eight or nine teams from one conference.
I and and by the way, how Arizona State jumped
over USC who finished second in the conference. I I'm
scratching my head over that. I I still can't figure
that out, Chris Well, and we'll talk coming up here

(09:54):
in just a few minutes with Aaron Torres. But since
you brought up the mid majors, Middle Tennessee St. Mary's
bounced earlier than expected from their conference tournaments. Think about this.
Middle Tennessee was twenty four and five in the regular season.
They lost their season finale to Marshall and then got
knocked out by Southern Miss and boom they were done. St.
Mary's uh had a pretty solid at large resume. They

(10:16):
won at Gonzaga, they lost to b Y You in
the semifinals, but neither was enough to get them in.
So I've always had a soft spot in my heart
for the true men majors in college basketball. And it's
just it has always been the game. You know, you're
always battling back when which daw State was in the
Missouri Valley and you would have teams like Carbondale, and
you would have teams like Illinois State that would be

(10:39):
left out. There was in my my Golden Hurricane from
the University of Tulsa May two Swix Sweet sixteen runs
UH and an Elite eight run out of them. I
think the the Elite eight run was in another conference.
My point is, though I have a soft spot in
my heart for these mid majors, and you're right, I
have a lot of education for myself to do to
truly understand the quadrant conversation and truly grasp kind of

(10:59):
the a new way. You know, just because you do
something differently doesn't mean you're doing it the right way.
I remember back in the days when you can look
at the rp I and you can figure out, all, right,
there's the teams that are in, who's hot. Well, they've
stunked down the stretch, they're out. And now it's almost
much like the show Aarnie. It's like they've recreated and
reinvented the process to where it's as transparent as they

(11:21):
try to be, it's equally confusing, I think still to
try to figure out what's a good and what's a
bad UH team for the tournament. I thought I knew
the process for this. I thought that I did. I
thought that, you know, there was the last ten and
that counts more than than the first ten. And there
was a blind resume. And and by the way, I
never understood the injury aspect of the thing like they

(11:42):
were talking about with Notre Dame And who cares if
there's an injury or not. That's none of your business
if you think a team can win because one guy
is out or not. I again, another head scratcher on
on something like that. Really, the committee did it awful,
awful job, no respect for the Pack twelve. I to
know what they were thinking. I mean, look at Arizona
getting a fourth seed. They won the conference and in

(12:05):
the conference tournament. What would you gonna do dropping down
there like a sixth seed? Had they not one night?
I really scratched my head on so much that they did.
Uh today, Cris, I really I really don't understand. Well,
coming up here in just a bit, we'll talk to
Aaron Tares. He not only was on with Arnie last night,
we talked to him last week. We dug it so much.
The college basketball writer for The Athletic will help us

(12:25):
answer some of these questions. And I tend to agree,
by the way, with the first tweet to the show
tonight from Erica Rights, who gives a damn guys, the
Lakers are kicking the calves asked tonight on National TV
one seventeen to ninety eight with four twelve left domination.
If only the Lakers were in the East, Bobo, if

(12:45):
only we were in the East, all right? Eight seven
seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven six three
six nine, you heard Arnie bring up the Twitter feed
all night long. Hit us up. I'm at Plank Show.
Arnie's at Stinking Genius one. Aaron Torres is next with
Arnie and Plank a Fox Sports Sunday. You gotta get
to Hooters and try the new smoked Wings. It's a

(13:06):
whole new way to crave wings, and with all the
taste and half the calories, you can eat twice as
many Hooters with the Stinking Genius Arnie Spanier, I am
merely Chris Plank. Eric Roberts is our producer extraordinaire. Bobo
is on the wheels of steel, and I guess bri
are uh Intern is a huge bon Jovi fans, So

(13:28):
we're making her. We're making her dream a reality right
now by spinning the hits. Sager on updates as well.
Coming up at the bottom of the gower, So Arnie,
how many brackets have you filled out already? Just one?
Just like, go with my gut feeling. I go with
are I started to see everybody usually starts with the
first round. I go right to the middle right after that. Yeah,

(13:51):
is Aaron ready to roll? Let's welcome in the college
basketball Oh, coming up here? Just a bid? All right,
Aaron Torres coming up here in just mere moments. We'll
talk with him after you spent the evening on the
show last night with Aaron, what did he think about
the potential of some of these bubble teams getting in?
I think when we talked to him, Well, first I'm
curious to see what he thought about the new selection
show process. But I think what we talked to him,
he's gonna say he was surprised that USC didn't get in,

(14:13):
especially as they finished second in the Pac ten Ore
Pact twelve and they lost Arizona in the championship, which
was a good game till the for the most part,
till the end in Arizona pulled away. But um, that
was to me the biggest surprise. I think he's going
to say the same thing because I I think last
night he thought that USC and he talked to the
USC coach, uh, and they thought they were. He was

(14:34):
worried that he wouldn't gonna get in, but Uh, Aaron said,
now you'll get in, coach. I think he's gonna be
surprised about that. Chris Well, he joined us right now
on the Geico Fox Sports Celebrity Hotline, was at the
big shock for you, Aaron Torres not seeing USC in
this field of sixty eight. You know, I appreciate you
guys having me. Um, Arnie, I would say, I don't

(14:54):
know that I agree with with what you said, and
only in this context. If you remember, Arnie, remember we
had had how we swab on the bracket collegists, and
how we swab said oh, I think they're in, And
I said, are you sure about that? Um? You know?
And and you know I talked to in the n
field after that game and he pled his case. But
I also felt like he I don't think that he

(15:15):
felt confident at that time. Now, what I would say,
Arenie and Chris, both of them, first of all, thank
you guys always for having me, is that I think
it was wrong. And you know, my big thing with
the selection committee is this is that I find it
so bizarre that we reward teams that we we always
overcompensate for the teams that play really well early in

(15:38):
the season, but we never reward the teams that play
really well late. Right, Like everyone's saying, oh, Oklahoma, yeah,
well this and that Arizona State, well they beat his
you know, they beat Savior in Kansas. What Arizona State
finished ninth in the Pack twelve. They're not the same
team that beat uh, you know, Candice in Xavier. And
so to me, I just think that we have to

(15:59):
do a better job. And to your guys point, aren't
he as you introduced it? USD finished second in the
Pac twelve regular season, they finished second in the league tournament,
and they were played Arizona right down to about the
final five minutes. Ask any coach in this field of
sixty eight who they would rather face USC or Oklahoma
USC or Arizona State USC or Syracuse. None of them

(16:22):
are going to pick USC. So to me, I don't
know that I was the most surprised by that, But
I think the right word, honestly would be disappointment. I
really feel that way. Right If we're gonna talk about disappointment. St.
Mary's Middle Tennessee. And I think it's kind of funny
that Middle Tennessee is hosting Verbot where I live, which
is another team that you know, they lose one tournament
or one conference game in two years, they go to

(16:43):
one tournament, they're out this year. I look, this whole
quadrant one thing is not working for the mid majors.
It's for the major conferences. I think it is a
tremendous screw up that we've added this. I think the
mid majors are in trouble. We've got to make it
a little bit more mid major friendly. Aeron. Yeah. You
know who agrees with you, Aarnie is Kurvitt Davis, the
Middle Tennessee coach that literally literally a few minutes ago.

(17:08):
But you know, the disappointing thing with Middle Tennessee specifically
if we're talking about them, and people will make the argument,
well who did they beat this and that? And it
always comes down to, obviously, the opportunities. And I think
Kurvitt Davis brought up a really good point. He said,
the only chance we only get two, three, four chances
to play these schools, uh, you know, these Power five schools,
and it's always either got to be on the road

(17:29):
or or in a neutral court game. But the thing
with Middle Tennessee specifically is the committee claims that they
wanted to reward teams that that ventured away from home.
That's what the quadrant system was supposed to do. They Aren'tie,
guess who had the most road wins in college basketball
this year? And all ten of these eight did. So
what you like, you can't make this up, Aarnie, I'm

(17:51):
not made like. I'm not making this up. These are facts,
and so I and I agree with you, by the way,
just the broader point of the quadrant system. You know,
I I I understand both sides. You know, I think
that you would make the case, well Tennessee, Middle Tennessee
doesn't finish whatever they did twenty eight and five or
whatever if they play in the Big twelve. Texas doesn't
finish eighteen and fourteen. But I'm with you, man, at

(18:13):
a certain point, it kind of goes back to what
I was saying before. Let's reward the totality of the season.
Let's reward the fact that Middle Tennessee was good at
the beginning, middle, and end. And it's just I don't
have all the answers on what needs to be fixed,
but it's clearly not working. I thought it was a bad, bad,
bad night for the selection committee. On the positive side

(18:37):
is we'll start playing games as earliest Tuesday in the
playing games. But with that said, did they at least
get the top part of the bracket, right? Aaron? Do
you agree with the one seeds with Virginia, Xavier, Kansas
and Villanova? I think so? Um, you know I I again,
you know, I don't know, guys. Here's the thing. I

(18:58):
think they got the one seeds fine, but Michigan State
a three seed? Really Arizona State or Arizona four seed?
Like you know again, Arizona, they've lost three of their
seven games in November without Robey Awkins Like that was
a long time ago. I can't even remember two weeks ago.
November is like ancient history. And so, you know, I

(19:21):
was thinking about it today and I know that this
has been talked with the college football playoff. Is you know,
getting more quote unquote football people in the college football playoffs.
I think we gotta get some basketball people in there
in the basketball playoffs committee because or the basketball selection committee,
because you know, Arizona as a four seed. Are there
five teams in this tournament that you would be more

(19:43):
fearful to face? And it's not like they have a
terrible resume. Four out of their seven losses came with
one of their top three players out of the lineup,
and so I think the ones are fine. But I
think Michigan State should have been a two. You know,
Michigan States at a three. In North Carolina is a two.
Michigan State the North you're on a head to head.
Arizona is a four as a conference champion with four losses.

(20:04):
So the ones are fine. I'm sorry for by the day.
I'm sorry for coming on and ranting and being angry
because I love this stuff. But I just you know, guys,
you guys got a lot of power on this show.
Can you just put me in charge of all this.
I'll pick sixty eight teams. Everybody will be happy, and
there's no quadrant system. That's the platform that I'm running on.
When when people get into politics, they have us, they

(20:25):
have a stance. I'm a no quadrant system kind of guy.
All right, give me give me some sleepers. Everybody wants sleepers.
By the way, I have South Dakota State winning a
couple of games. I got College of Charleston winning a
couple of games. I think Kentucky is gonna lose to
David said, I I like Marie State winning a couple
of games. Give me some sleepers, baby, alright, some sleepers. Okay,

(20:46):
I'm trying to you know. The one thing I didn't
do is pull up the bracket as I as we talked. Uh,
I will tell you this first of all, New Mexico
State and Clemson. Mexico State is really good and Clemson.
Like I I watched so much college basketball. I'm not
kidding when I say this. Clemson was really good early,
they lost one of their best players and really did

(21:09):
nothing over the second half the year. I'm not even
joking when I say I don't know if Clemson is
one of the forty best teams in this tournament. I'm
not kidding. I'm not kidding. I don't know if they're
in like the top forty and there are four seats.
So I like, New Mexico you're the guy. But Clemson
is only a four and a half point favorite over
New Mexico State. By the way, Really, yeah, I believe that.
I totally believe that By the way, Arnie, I like

(21:30):
your South Dakota State pick. I think Ohio State another
team that probably peaked about four or five weeks ago
to their current that they overachieved this year. I don't
want to take away from what Chris Holtman did. They overachieved,
but I think they peaked a few years ago. Here's
what I'll give you for down the road. If Arkansas
can beat Butler, I think they beat Perdue in the
second round. So Perdu, Yeah, Perdue. They're big, they're strong,

(21:55):
they're athletic, they're smart. They're big, they're strong, they're smart,
they're not overly athletic. And I think just just Arkansas's
guard play their three point shooting, and they got a
superstar freshman down low and Daniel Gafford, I think they
can pull it upset. I think the Butler game in
round one will be tougher for them. I'm trying to
look at you know right now as we speak in
real time. The other one I'll tell you is this,

(22:16):
this is kind of a weird one. Whoever wins is
Chris just mentioned The playing game starts on Tuesday, u
c l A Saint Bonaventure. Yeah, I think yeah, I
was gonna say when were when I was on the
show last time. I think we talked a little sat Bonaventure.
But I think the winner of that game has a
really really good shot against Florida as well in what
was actually technically the first round. So that's another one, hey,

(22:38):
by one more quick thing? Any chance that? And this
is very homeroistic, so you can call me out on it,
but in Arizona State or in Oklahoma can recapture some
of their early season magic? Are they basically one and
done if not two? In barbecue here? Well? Look, I
mean what it's Well, first of all, Arizona States playing Syracuse,
who's terrible, So it wouldn't surprise me if they on.

(23:00):
I don't think they will. Um. But uh, but the
second one was Oklahoma. I mean, first of all, they're
not getting past Duke in the second round. I don't
think they're getting past Rhode Island. My thing with them,
Chris is this and wait, oh Chris, you're sooner, aren't you?
Is that? Why? Yes? That I can I can live it.
I can live it. I can take it. Go ahead,
go ahead, shoot me. No, Well, you know this program

(23:21):
really well. And here's my question they for like eight
straight games. We've been like, okay, is this when they
turned the corner? As a good point, You're just not
gonna turn the corner. You're just not good, like you know,
like to me, you going to a it felt like
you know, you have four or five days prepare for
your conference opener, your conference tournament opener. Excuse me, against
Oklahoma State natural rival. Uh and you lay an egg

(23:46):
and you lay an egg there. Now I get it.
Maybe a team that's not as familiar with them, it'll
be different. I don't think that team turns the corner.
I just think it's unfortunately it was a good run
with Trey Young. But I just think that that that
they're cooked right now now, I would not be able
to argue against it. Aaron, thanks for your time, buddy,
and look forward to catching up with you hopefully next week. Again,
great stuff, no problem, Sorry for yelling the whole time, Guys.

(24:09):
I'm actually a happy person by nature, but I was
fired up and I love it. Man. I love that's
Aaron torre as. You can follow him on Twitter at
Aaron Underscored Tourists, covers college troops for the Atlantic, The
Athletic and always always a great guest here on Fox
Sports Radio, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Making his
way into the studio is the man who has covered
it all today, not just college basketball, the entire gamut

(24:31):
of sports. Steve Disagers in the house. It is full
and good evening, gentleman. Nine NBA games, the last of
which was in l A and the Lakers whip Cleveland one,
seven to one thirteen. Isaiah Thomas, now with l A,
had twenty points and nine assists. Earlier wins for Chicago,
Denver and Philadelphia. Indiana got a narrow victory at Boston seven.

(24:52):
Kyrie Irving left with a sore knee. He says it's
no problem Utah one at six in a row, Toronto
when it's eighth straight game. Minnesota beat Golden State today
one oh nine, one oh three, and then Houston won
easily at Dallas tonight, so the Rockets are a game
and a half over Golden State in the West. To
college hoops, Virginia is the number one overall seed for
the upcoming nd C Double A Tournament, and the a

(25:12):
c C is the conference with the most teams in
the field this year. Nine out of the fifteen in
that league, but also in the South region with Virginia
are Cincinnati, Tennessee, Arizona, Kentucky, and Miami. Those are the
two through six seeds in the South. Probably Virginia the
first number one seed to lose also, so that's the RNY.
I hate Virginia because they're in my region. Pick no.

(25:34):
I just hate Virginia over Okay, Villanova the top seed
in the East. It'll play the winner of Tuesday's opening game,
which is Radford against l i U. Brooklyn. Kansas is
the number one seed in the Midwest. It'll play in Witchtock,
Kansas this week, opening against penn which won the IVY
League today sixty five over Harvard. Michigan State, by the way,
is a three seed, and we'll play in Detroit this week,

(25:55):
opening against Bucknell. And in that Kansas region of the Midwest,
not only Michigan State, but the two seed is Duke
and they'll have an opener against Iona this week. Xavier
earned its first ever top seed. It'll open against the
winner of Wednesday's Texas Southern North Carolina Central game. By
the way, Cincinnati is a two seed in a different
region from Xavier, but both the Bearcats and Xavier from

(26:16):
the same city. They'll both be playing in Nashville on Friday.
Syracuse was the final team selected u C l A
in USC out by the way that Syracuse game Wednesday
night against Arizona State. Davidson won the Atlantic Ten Final,
and that win fifty eight fifty seven over Rhode Island
that knock Notre Dame out of the n C Double
A field. Rhode Island will open against Oklahoma. Cincinnati won

(26:39):
the American Conference Tournament, Kentucky won the SEC. Kentucky will
face Davidson Thursday night. Georgia State won the Sun Belt Final.
Tiger Woods finished tied for second place in Florida. Kevin Harvick,
the NASCAR winner. Phillies agree to a deal with pitcher
Jake Arietta and guys. Of course, aside from the n
I T and the last four that didn't make the

(27:00):
n C Double A Tournament, those are your top four
seeds for the n I T, So that's USC and others.
But there's also the cb I Tournament, not much of
a field of sixteen this year. Grand Canyon coach by
Dan Marley will be hosting Mercer in the c b I,
and there's also the c I T Tournament and that
starts tomorrow with four games, including at noon Eastern Tomorrow.

(27:23):
The College Insider Tournament gets going with make sure to
set the v c R or something as we have
a throwback a Central Michigan Fort Wayne. That's a postseason
tournament opening round tomorrow. In that tournament, great stuff. See
we're coming to you live and the getic Fox Sports
radio studios. We're gonna go through each region, coming up
here a little bit like, well, maybe we'll start now.

(27:45):
You want to go through the Do you want to
save the South, Arny, so we can talk Arizona and
start in the East. You want to work our way
sleepers out there that I got a lot of them
this year. I was gonna say, I feel like you
picked every lower seeded team. So we'll have to go
through this the top part as we look at the
East region, which is in Boston. Uh the first and
again added to quadrant the pod system. Now, I remember

(28:11):
back in my day, Arnie, the four teams that were
in one region played in our eight teams in one
region played in the same place, and they liked it. Well.
Now they move guys around all over the country. So
Villanova will take on l I U. Brooklyn Radford's winner
in Pittsburgh, and then you'll have vo Tech and Virginia
Tech and Alabama in that eight nine game. You know,

(28:33):
Alabama maybe has a chance to do some damage. They
without a doubt have one of the most exciting players
in the n C Double A tournament when you you
look at their point guard. I don't know, man, I
I don't really know if I see an upset on
that top part of the bracket. Maybe in Alabama Villanova's
second round matchup, But that's really about it, isn't Well
the Virginia Tech in that's a coin flip. I think

(28:53):
according to Vegas, Virginia Tech just the two point favorite.
I think that's gonna be a battle that's gonna be
one of the better first round matchups. Uh, there's no
upset there. That's just two teams that are just equally
you know, perfect for each other eight and nine. So
I'm looking forward to that game. Yeah. By the way,
Colin Sexton is the point guard for Alabama whose name
escaped me. Comparisons made to Wrestle Westbrook. Those are some

(29:16):
pretty awesome comparisons. And if you go back and listen,
everything ties back to Oklahoma with me and just accepted
that's kind of where the slide started for Oklahoma when
they went to Alabama and Sexton did a good job
shutting down Trey Young. Uh, they went downhill a little bit.
Middle of this bracket, or at least the bottom part
of our middle part of the bracket. West Virginia and
Murray State. I think I heard in one of your

(29:36):
eighteen upset predictions. I think Murray States got this one. Yeah,
you know West Virginia, who, by the way, has really
had a great year. Let's give them a lot of credit.
They're only a nine and a half point favorite in
this one, and Murray States played really good. This was
a team I was looking at before even the brackets
came out. On my guy, I was worried that Arizona
was gonna have to play Murray State because that was
a lot of the projections. I'm like, that's one team

(29:58):
I didn't want to play. I think if they get
by West Virginia, which is a tough one obviously at
nine point favorites, not impossible. I think they'll have a
good second round matchup against Wichita State, which means they'll
be in the sweet sixteen against Villadova. Wichita State has
any mentioned is the other matchup in the four thirteen.
These games will be in San Diego. Marshall Wichita State.

(30:19):
Marshall is the showdown. If I can spit it out tonight,
you would think I've never seen a bracket before. Marshall's
head coach is Dan Dantoni. Yes, relation Mike's son. He's
really kind of implemented that type of mindset with the
Thundering Herd. So you're gonna have a team that's gonna
go up and down with Wichita State. That could be
a fun four third team matchup. The bottom part of

(30:40):
the bracket in Dallas, the six eleven is Florida, and
then the St. Bonaventure U c l A winner is there.
I hate to hate on St. Bonoviture. I haven't seen
him a lot this year, but I really like the
run that U. C l A got on in the
Pac twelfth tournament. That was a hell of a game
between them and the Arizona the other night. What do
you think aren't any chance that U c l A
can pull that off if they win or St. Bonaventure
another great match up there. I mean First of all,

(31:02):
did you know U c l A. And this one's
a three point favorite, which I'm a little surprised. I
thought St. Pot A Venture would be the favorite, especially
because it's not that far of what in Toledo, so
usually coming across the country, another great matchup there, but
Sat Ponta Venture again before the matchup started, I'm surprised
they got in. Is one of the last four. I
thought they would have easily made it in. That's why

(31:24):
I was kind of surprised that they are in the
playing game with U c l A. That being said,
I think they beat U c l A and then
I think they go ahead and beat Florida and find
themselves with a victory over Stephen F. Aouston before losing
the Purdue. I think it's gonna be a run for St.
Ponta Venture. I liked them. I've watched a little bit
of them, but I'm telling you this team, you're not
gonna want to sleep on them, especially you'll see against

(31:46):
U c l A. That's gonna be a good one
if if you see it gets by, say PoTA Venture,
they can also have the run that Sat pot A
Ventures on. I think that's a favorite bracket for both. Yeah,
that three four team matchup is Texas Tech and Stephen F.
Austin Texts been injured for most of the season but
had a heck of a run in the Big Twelve.
Stephen F. Austin always a team that has something to

(32:07):
say come tournament time. But you're kind of dismissing that
little pod there, aren't you. No, I I have Stephen
Foster beating Texas Tech but then losing the same pot
a Venture doesn't mean Stephen F. Foster kid up said
sat pot a Venture. They they're not gonna be that
much of an underdog. And that one also, so, Yeah,
I got an upset. I should give more credit to
Texas Tech. You want to talk about a team that's
in a top four seed, there are three seed that

(32:28):
nobody's given respect for. It's Texas tex So should probably
give a little bit more respect. But they're away a
twelve point favorite over Stephen Foston, who I like gets
up and down, and I'm going with the upset that one.
You just said they should be given more respect and
you have them getting beat. I know, I know, I
just I just I can't help myself. I got to understand,
like what potato chip, I can't stop. I understand they

(32:50):
they were beat up a lot this season, a couple
of key injuries, but Keenan Evans is something else. Man.
I think TeX's got a chance to make some noise,
and they're in Dallas. They'll travel well. And in the
bottom part of the bracket, you Aaron Torres talk about
Arkansas is a team that he thinks can make a run.
They of course pushed to the semifinals of the SEC.
That Mike Anderson system, much like what the forty Minutes
of Hell that Nolan Richardson had that seven ten matchup

(33:12):
in the East is Arkansas and Butler, and then the
bottom part the two fifteen is Perdue and cow State.
Fuller to in those games will be in Detroit. But
you kind of like Purdue coming out of there, Arnie,
what do you think I like Produce coming out. But
I have Butler beating Arkansas. You heard Aaron say that's
gonna be the tough matchup in that one, because if
Arkansas can come out of that, maybe they have a run.

(33:33):
I think Butler comes out of that though. Again another
thing we don't give respect for us Perdue, which is
why I have them going all the way to the
final four. I'm on the Purdue bandwagon. So there is
the East region. Of course, the championship in the East
will be played in Boston. When we come back to
the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios, we'll get ready for
Todd Ferman by looking at the Midwest, and then as

(33:53):
the show progresses the West, in the South, your picks
on Twitter at Plank show at Stinking Genius one. Everybody
should be following us at Fox Sports Radio, and of
course at age seven, seven ninety nine on Fox will
dig into the Midwest region next. He's already spanner. I'm
Chris Plank on a Fox Sports Sunday. He's already spanninger.
I'm Chris Plank. We're gonna run through the Midwest region

(34:14):
coming up here in just a bit or that's Midwest.
So I'm curious, you know, I'm I'm obviously counting down
to a big day. I mean, free agency starts this week.
I mean we're March fourteenth, Arny, NFL free agency begins
on Wednesday. Oh my, I am so excited. And in fact,

(34:37):
if you didn't even tell me that, I would not
have known. Really, Not only does free agency start on Wednesday.
You've already seen just an onslot of trades in the
NFL with what the Browns did over the weekend. Uh,
Richard Sherman is now a Niner. Like if you fell
asleep at the end of football season and you just
woke up and you saw the news yesterday, your mind
would be blown and you'd be well rested. But I

(34:58):
want to just mention this to keep an eye on
this story. We are now fourteen hours away. This is
according to Tom Pellicero of the NFL Network, frequent guests
here on Fox Sports Radio. Before the negotiating window opens,
yet no deal is done between the Saints and Drew Breese.

(35:19):
There's still time to get it done, but could you
imagine that teams can start legally making their pitch to
Drew Brees tomorrow? He's gonna like Miami. I mean, listen,
I dig all this talk about Kirk Cousins. I enjoy
speculating what could happen with an A. J. Mccaren, But

(35:41):
aren't you get a Super Bowl winner that? I mean,
he might not be going anywhere. They might work out
a deal, but at least if you can pitch something
to him. I mean, you gotta be frothing to have
that opportunity if you're a Denver or as you mentioned,
in Miami or in Arizona. I mean, there's some quarterback
hungry teams that think they have a pretty good ros
What what's the hold up? Who's the one playing hardball? Chris?
I don't know, because they keep talking about how they

(36:03):
want to sign with each other. Oh, we we want
him here, he says, Oh, I want to be there.
But I guess they just keep thinking if they say
that enough, it will magically happen. So I don't I
don't know. Let's run through the Midwest reason Todd f
him and is coming up. I'll try to limit my
football talk tonight, y'all. I know n C double a
tournament time. The brackets are out March Madness. The one
seed in the Midwest is Kansas. They've got a tough

(36:24):
draw here playing pen who's a pretty good six teen seed,
but they get to do it in which talk Kansas.
The eight nine in this bracket is Seaton Hall in
North Carolina State. Any concerns about Kansas not getting out here? Actually, yeah,
I watched Penn in the semifinal game, and I watched
him in their goals against Harvard, who they're big man,
the player of the year for the IVY went down
and Penn made a comeback hitting a couple of three pointers.

(36:46):
I like Pen a lot. If there was ever a
sixteen seed gonna beat the number one seed, and I'm
not gonna put it down on my bracket, it would
be this. I mean, Kansas a fifteen point favorite, you
would think it would be a bigger favorite over a
sixteen seed. I think that's the lowest favorite among all
the number one seats against sixteen seats. I think this
game is gonna be closer than a lot of people thinking.

(37:06):
If like I said, if there is gonna be an
upset at a sixteen seat is finally gonna win. This
is gonna be the game Chris in the five twelve matchup.
These games are in San Diego, the five twelve and
the fourth thirteen. You have Clemson New Mexico State. When
Aaron Torres was on earlier, he brought up the fact
to keep an eye on New Mexico State. I agree
with him. And then Auburn and the College of Charleston.

(37:29):
You have, honestly, you have two teams in Clemson in
Auburn that could end up either in the Final four
Arnie or out in the first weekend based on their
opponent exactly. I have New Mexico State and Charleston winning,
and both of those teams could be sleepers. I mean,
take your choice. A lot of people are jumping on
the Niggies in New Mexico State's Bayowagon College of Charleston's
looked good. I picked Charleston. I got them winning two

(37:50):
games before losing the Kansas. But I wouldn't kno get
against Jeff yet New Mexico State winning and going out
and losing the Kansas. I do think though, they'll be Clemson,
and like I said earlier, they're only a four and
a half point dog to that. That's that's nothing in
college basketball. Charles did a little bit of a bigger
underdog there, eleven point dog. It has been called to
the region of death with how deep the Midwest is

(38:13):
for Kansas, and part of the reason why is what
we'll talk about here in the Detroit part. The bottom
part of the bracket, the six ceed TCU will take
on the winner of the Arizona State Syracuse playing game,
and then the three four team matchup is Michigan State
and Buck. Now Michigan State healthy Arnie. They have most
of this talk about the FBI probe and different illegalities

(38:35):
behind them. Could they be prime for a big run
here on the bottom part of this bracket. I don't
know why I treat Teeth. You know, I was gonna
say crandle know why I treat TCU like a big
twelve football team, But like I'm going to Arizona State
to beat Syracuse and then getting the victory over TCU.
I like Rhode Island at the bottom half of that.
And I told pick Rhode Island to win a couple

(38:55):
of games, but unfortunately gonna play Duke, and Duke's one
of my final four teams. I think they go out
a little bit of a roddyer and get to the
final four. Actually, I got Duke going all the way
to the championship game before losing. So that's unfortunate for
Rhode Island. Now that's that bottom part of the Brackett.
Rhode Island in Oklahoma and then Duke and Iona. Those
games are in Pittsburgh, but Oklahoma team there, Chris Hey,

(39:18):
that's completely understand And think about this Kansas, which is
actually lower in kin Palm Roy's ratings than two other
teams in its own bracket. Their ninth in the Palm
Roy ratings, Michigan State is six, and the number two seed,
Duke is the third. And then just think about let's

(39:39):
think about this. Even with Duke in this bracket, you
have three other teams that have won a national championship recently.
You've got Duke, You've got Michigan State, and then oh yeah,
there's your one seed Kansas. But we talked about it
in your four and five. You have two really good
teams in Auburn and Clemson, and Auburn is completely rejuvenated
under Bruce Pearl. If they get upset like you project, okay,

(40:00):
obviously it's a different story. But that is one heck
of a bracket and one half of a path for
Kansas if they can get out. So we've looked at
the East and the Midwest. When we come back to
the Geico Fox Sports Radio studios, we'll welcome in Todd Ferman.
We'll get that Vegas perspective. He's been sprinkling in some
lines all night long. We'll kind of find out exactly
how huge this week is for Vegas and how much

(40:22):
maybe some of the spreads can tell us about potential upsets. Again,
not always there to pick a winner, but Todd's gonna
help us pick a better bracket. Also, next hour we'll
look at the South the West bracket, play crowning or
crush him and much more from you. He's already spanner.
I'm Chris Blank. You know the most overused joke is
over the next eight hours in my opinion, Arn'tie, It's

(40:43):
gonna be something against Arizona. I'm sure, no, no, no.
I I would just say in general, it seems to
be a common theme that every year people have to
go with eat Now you gotta find out what channel
True TVs on. You know, there is a part of
me that's a hopeless romantic as we come you live
from the Guy Coo Fox Sports Radio studios, where fifteen
minutes could save you fifteen or more on car insurance.

(41:06):
Visit guy dot com for a free rate quote. Don't
get me wrong, I love it that you can see
every game now, but I did always kind of dig
how Greg Gumble would juggle the the different games, Like,
all right, this game right here is close. Let's take
you live to Oklahoma City where Bryce Drew and Valpo
have one more shot. And it's great to see every
game it is, but you know, sometimes the old school way,

(41:28):
just like the Selection Show, can be a little bit better.
Which was based on everything that we've been able to
gauge on your reaction tonight, not just you, Arnie, but
the Royal You was an absolute disaster on TBS tonight.
By the way, could you imagine if they did football
the way did that? They staggered it so you can
see you end of one game and then switched you
another game. They were five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

(41:51):
Just did that around the clock would make too much sense.
You'd be about a quote. You be having games going
at like midnight. Todd Furman joined just to give us
some perspective live from Vegas. I think this has been
Arnie's most anticipated spot of the night because I think
if there's a game, Annie wants action on it. Though
Todd had a great point on Twitter earlier, you don't
have to bet on the game just because it's going on.

(42:11):
Never stopped Arnie span your Todd. What do you think overall?
As you got a snapshot of the field, you think
it's primed for some upsets or do you think it's
gonna be chalk ruling? You know what, a little bit
surprising when you look at the entire breakdown. Syracuse, I'm
not quite sure what their resume did to justify inclusion
in the field. You leave out the likes of USC,
you would be the highest RPI of a Power five
conference team to ever be on the outside looking into

(42:33):
the tournament. I think St. Mary's, despite not having the
marquee wins on their resume, they had to look and
feel of a tournament team, and I'd make them relatively
decent favorites over Syracuse should they plan a neutral field.
So slightly surprised by that. Every year we talk it
seems about the field being more wide open than years past,
and inevitably it'll be the blue bloods that are Paul
playing in San Antonio, vying for a little bit of hardware,

(42:55):
not before there's not some upsets. What are the lines
that jumped out of you. I was looking at this
right off the battlem like, wait a minute, Kentucky is
playing good ball. Davidson wouldn't have made it in Yeah,
Kentucky only a five and a half point favorite and
New Mexico State just a four and a half point
dog to Clemson. What's going on there, toyto what would
line stuck out with you? Well, the MEXICU State a

(43:15):
very athletic team that most of the country hasn't had
a chance to see watch their game and the whack
Championship and its entirety. They have some guys on the wing,
they can flat out shoot the basketball basketball i Q wise,
maybe not the smartest team in the country, so it'll
be interesting to see how their athletics matches up against
the Clemson team that didn't play their best ball down
the stretch, I mean, still trying to forge an identity
without their key big man, and I think that's where

(43:37):
New Mexico State could gain a little bit of an
edge in a late tip off out in San Diego.
So we lean towards the Aggies in that particular spot
you mentioned, trying to identify some of the other spots.
Kentucky may have a little bit of a problem with
some of the motion offensive Davidson runs. Again, you're buying
Kentucky stock at the top of the market on the
heels of them winning the SEC Championship. Don't think they'll

(43:58):
lose to Davidson, but would not be shocked as see
that game closer in the number indicates and if you're
looking for that and spread, that inevitably will raise a
few eyebrows. Miami about a two and a half point
favorite right now against Loyola Chicago. Loyola very good defensively,
could struggle with some of the athleticism for Miami, but
early in the season Loyola had some marquee wins. I
think that game, if it's played to Loyola's pace and tempo,

(44:20):
first team to sixty wouldn't surprise me if the Ramblers
were able to merge it from that game victorious. I
gotta admit I do like Arnie's approach on one front
because Todd obviously Vegas. It looks at it differently than
say Billy Brackett's, who's filling it out trying to win
his office pool. But yet it can send off some
warning signs if you see a twelve or thirteen seed

(44:40):
and that's spread is a little bit smaller than maybe
what you typically see, right, it definitely can and I
tell people all the time, use the odds of the tool,
even if you're not betting the games individually, like a
lot of the folks that will flood to the desert
Thursday and Friday for their nine bender will I mean
that can kind of serve as a guy. But at
the same time, just because the number short doesn't always
imply an upset. There could be a number of other

(45:02):
factors there, and typically your bracket isn't going to be
one or lost on Thursday and Friday. If you're moving
along some of the power teams, you need to try
and get those points from the round of thirty two
into the sweet sixteen. And if you can have seven
of eight teams or even six of eight in the
elite eight, it's going to put you in pretty good
standing amongst your work colleagues or friends, and the potential
to give you bragging rights as we had deeper into
the month. Todd, what do you think about some of

(45:23):
those first four st BONDI U c l A Arizona State,
Syracuse or even some of those sixteen seed games? You
like any of that or what you know? A little
bit of real money came in initially on u c
l A. That number open two and a half out
to three and a half would not be surprised in
the least to see money come back in on St. Bonaventure.
When you look at these two teams U C l A,
uh their season can best be defined as a radic

(45:44):
at best. Uh St Bonaventure has a couple of guards
more than capable of filling it up. So I'm interested
to see kind of how that number ultimately settles out.
Wouldn't be shocked to see it land at three. And
then you Arizona State. I mean, this was a team
early in the year that had some major victories going
the fog Allen winning outright against Kansas, struggled down the
stretch a bit undersized. The real question is will they

(46:06):
be able to shoot well from the perimeter. As we
saw regression start to take hold, Arizona State came back
to the pack, and oftentimes it feels as though the
team that we didn't think was going to get in
not only wins their first game, but I'll find a
way to win two games. So they makes all the
media and feels like myself he crow, how big is
this week for Vegas? Todd? I mean, you hear about

(46:26):
those weeks that are just it for sports fans in Vegas.
To me, that's every week, but how big is this week?
Truly in the grand scheme of things, It's absolutely massive.
It'll probably do a betting handles that will arrival the
Super Bowl. Of course, you have a lot more games
on the docket from Thursday through Sunday, but from a
room rate standpoint, the food and beverage, I mean, this
is one of the crown jewels on the sports calendar

(46:48):
in Las Vegas. I always tell people, if you have
things on your bucket list, make sure you make at
least one trip out to Las Vegas for the opening weekend.
And then the kind of hidden gem actually becomes the
conference tournaments because you have so many different leagues here
in town that you get to see a little bit
of live basketball, and you actually have a higher volume
of games Thursday through Sunday of Conference Championship week than
you will during the first two rounds of the n

(47:09):
c A Tournament. Todd, my Arizona Wildcats has a forestay.
I gotta be getting what twenty to one on them
the to win the whole thing. Gotta be getting that
much right number down to fifteen to one. If you
wanted to buy stock when everybody was hitting the panic button,
and we thought DeAndre Eaton wasn't gonna be available in
the Alanso Truer Sean Miller, they bottomed out at around
thirty one. I'm still a little skeptical of Arizona ar Andy.

(47:32):
I know they ran ramshot over the pack twelves, but
I don't think that conference top to bottom really put
them through the ringers like we've seen in the past. Now,
Eaton's gonna create all sorts of match up problems for
a lot of teams as they get into the tournament.
But what better way to try and punch a ticket
to the round of sixteen if we see the tandem
of Wildcats go toe to toe with Kentucky taking on
Arizona Todd. This is very much a geography based question,

(47:55):
so I don't know how much you've seen them, but
no one's are in Vegas. Have you watched much in
the Vada And when I'm thinking about teams that have
been seated seven or I guess lower would be the case,
you've seen one of those teams make the final four
and what five the last six for the last five years.
So could Nevada be a team with its draw at
the bottom of that bracket that could end up making
a run in the South. You know, when I look

(48:16):
at this Nevada team, I actually watched him an awful lot,
given that the Mountain West is front and center here
in Las Vegas throughout the course of the season. The
problem I have with this team now is there was
a major injury for them, uh to Lindsay, one of
their top guards, so they play without a true point guard,
and that was really on display when you watch their
performance in their regular season finale. Now, of course that

(48:37):
game didn't mean a whole heck of a lot on
the road against the Indego State, but to replicate that
effort against the Aztecs in the conference tournament game that
I was actually yet, I think not having Lindsay Drew
out there, the thirty minutes per game he he played,
and the little over four assists he contributed that limits
some of Nevada's upside. I actually think Texas, assuming that
we're gonna get a healthy more Bomba out there, or

(48:57):
at least someone serviceable, can be a night marriage matchup
for a wolf Pack team that I thought was poised
for a deep run before that injury. I don't think
I could pick any more upsets. I got Montana winning
a couple a game. I got South Dakota State winning
a couple of games. I mean they got them all
over the place, star with with teams like that there,
Todd Well Arney is inevitably if you pick all the
double digit seeds to win at least one game outright,

(49:19):
you'll have one of them. So you can claim that
you called that particular upset. Now the real question becomes,
if I limit you to picking one double digit upset
that you're most confident in, which direction are you going?
I want to say, well, double digit. I can't even
believe South Dakota State is not a double digit underdoging that.
But I'll tell you what, maybe ask us, if you're
gonna talk double digits, what do you think if there's

(49:39):
ever gonna be a sixteen seed beating a one seed?
What do you think about Pen over Kansas? I was
watching them today. I know Harvard lust the number one guy,
the player of the year, but I wasn't pressed by Pen.
They're they're a plucky bunch. I mean, you look at
what Pen has been able to accomplish. I mean, no
stranger to having some postseason success. You do worry about
their level of athleticism and if they're gonna be able
to shut down the like of Devonte Graham for the

(50:01):
better part of forty minutes. This number open sixteen. It's
ticked down a fourteen and a half, and so it's
a relatively low line by a one sixteen standard. I'm
not going to be as bold and brash to say that.
You know, Kansas is going to fall victim and become
the first ever team in this format to lose to
a sixteen seed, But it is awfully funny when you
look at the pace and play there. Kansas is a

(50:21):
one a fifteen point favorite. Meanwhile, Duke is at two lane. Yeah,
you're so fired up right now. Let me let me
ask a random one here. Arni's ready to pick every
single underdog on the board. He's He's like when you
take a buddy to the horse track and they see shot,
they've got to put two bucks on it. I mean,
he wants to be holding that ticket. When one of
these dogs does win outright or comes in, he wants

(50:43):
to say he called that, because the gambler's remorse is
going to be more pronounced than the fact if he
goes one and nine and actually lose his money. He
wants to talk about that one instead of the nine losers.
You have just nailed Artie span Your in one short
little phrase, Hey, is there anywhere or any place todd
that you would venture and maybe throwing some money in
free agency. I know that we've become ridiculous to what

(51:05):
we can bet on, and we talked about some of
the offshore numbers, but like locations where guys can end up,
can we gamble on that or not? You did have
a couple of books hanging odds on Richard Sherman's landing
spot when he was released. It was the forty niners
or odds on favorite of a price a little bit
better than three to one. Of course, those folks able
to collect their money pretty quickly, and you will see

(51:25):
some of the more prominent players there. I did have
some folks inquire about baseball players before Jake Ariatta ultimately
came to terms with the Philadelphia Phillies earlier today. But
unless it's a marquee name, books aren't going to create
those markets because they don't get enough recreational better's money
in there, and inevitably someone is going to have inside
intel and they're gonna be able to profit hand something.
Hey ton I saw somebody is screwed up in Vegas.

(51:46):
They had St. Mary's mind is two seventy five to
get into the tournament. Somebody goofed on that one, huh.
And that's where you can find a little bit of opportunity.
Syracuse a slight long shot to get in Louisville. They
were about a two dollar underdog to get in. But
yes St. Mary have one to three favorite and a
lot of opshore books to be included in the field
of sixty eight. So despite their twenty six and five record,
a resume devoid of any mark he wins aside from

(52:08):
beating Gonzaga will keep them out. And you have to
wonder what they're going to do scheduling wise going forward,
because every time Syracuse seems to get in on the bubble, St.
Mary's appears to be the team on the outside looking in.
Byle thought, for me, it's non basketball. How much did
Tiger Woods competing well in the last two events affect
future odds for him in the major's todd It moves

(52:29):
things quite a bit. When we look at the odds
to win the Masters Tiger now climbing the board, and
he's gonna be mentioned amongst the same breath as the
likes of Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson at eight to one, uh,
Jordan's Speed twelve to one, Jason Dave fourteen one, and
Tiger nestled right there in the middle at ten to one.
That's not so much a prediction of UH and forecast
of how he's going to perform, but some of the

(52:50):
liability going into Tiger. So it'll be very interesting to
see what books continue to do over the next couple
of weeks leading up to AUGUSTA. And you remember when
you go on other shows and they say, hey, did
you know anybody that picked that upset? You said, yeah, Arnie, yeah,
I mean, I can't give you credit for picking an
upset when you pick every ten through seed to win
a game out right now, if you want to go
out on a limb and you want to pick one

(53:12):
of them and say, all right, if you pick this,
I can give you credit, then that shows a little
bit of discipline, and you're shreating it more as a
precise science than blanketing the board with with bold accusations.
I like it. Thanks Todd we'll talk to you next week. Buddy,
Always a pleasure. Jess at Todd Ferman on Twitter, oddsmaker,
former oddsmaker at Caesar's Great Dude, co founder of the

(53:33):
Better Border. You wouldn't be giving these ridiculous odds to
all these underdogs. Right when we come back to the
guy coo Fox Sports Radio Studios, let's play Crown him
Our Crush Him Tournament Edition with Arnie and Plank on
a Fox Sports Sunday. It's Arnie and Plank on a
Fox Sports Sunday Selection Sunday. Everybody's a bracket expert. Everybody

(53:53):
can name a player from South Dakota State. It's a
big day and we're brought to you by Granger the
products and services you need when you need them. Grangers
got your back to help keep your facility running. Granger
for the ones who get it done on Twitter, you
gotta get to those. The guy that said up yours,
we gotta read that too. I haven't seen the guy

(54:15):
that set up yours vandal owned and took it to
fanboy Lebron Homer worshippers thinking genius up yours? Why? I mean,
the Lakers beat the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers obviously aren't a
very good basketball team, and they won the championship. The
Cavaliers after they made the trade and won two games
in a row. I was trying to just remind you

(54:38):
that you had destroyed them, so people get fired up.
But I do think we need to kind of slow
down every now and then because it's a I mean,
we don't have a long ways left until the playoffs.
The West is crazy right now. Man. I would love
to see the Lakers with their current roster have gotten
an opportunity to maybe get things together earlier in the season.

(54:58):
They're not gonna make the playoffs for that was fun
to why. By the way, one of my predictions is
if the if Golden State wins the championship, Steve Kerr
will come on this show. Okay that that prediction could
probably carry over for the next few years. I thought
you had him as you had him as the next
head coach at Arizona three weeks ago. So why not? Uh?
Rod right, and says Arnie's upset because the selection committee

(55:19):
didn't take long enough to select the teams. Wow, Arnie
would complain about I don't want to say that on
the air. Let's just say, Rod thinks that you might
complain quite a bit, Annie, regardless of what happens. No,
I just again, they they they took two hours to
give it to us. Uh, So if you're gonna take
two hours, at least, don't push everything in the first
forty minutes and then it's an hour twenty minutes and nothing.

(55:39):
Let us decipher it, you know, get it in our minds,
see how it worked out. You added a new uh
selection to the thing, So let us at least enjoy that. Also,
I don't think they did a good job at all.
I kinda I kind of dug the idea of getting
it out there because I wouldn't mind having more analysis.
I just think they botched a lot of the analysis.

(55:59):
To be honest with you, here's a good one, uh,
this one from Big John. This this is in Pact
twelve country. So help me out here, Annie, add big
John two. Right. So USC basketball is second in the
conference and finished a second in the tournament in there
out and Arizona State is ninth and in I guess
the idea is the regular season in conference turney, results

(56:20):
don't matter. Just try to beat a couple of good
teams on the road and your gold. And honestly, what
did did Arizona State even win those games on the road?
Weren't they in tournaments early in the season for him too,
I'm not sure about the Kansas condo. Kansas game was
on the road in Kansas game was in it was
in launch, yes. And and also Arizona State lost the
opening game the play in PAC twelve tournament game to Colorado,

(56:41):
which the lost to Arizona. That should have been more
of of indication that this team has really hit a
brick wall. I'm really shocked. That's the big one that
has my head scratching. You know, Middle Tennessee has a
case they had a good RPI strength of schedule, but
that quadrant one Bologny I think kind of did that. Man.
I really didn't like the way this whole thing came down.

(57:04):
Uh this one from U C. L A Dodger Frank
who writes Arnie's final four Arizona, the Knicks, the Dolphins,
and the Mets. Is that your final four? Is that
what you're going with? Uh? Yeah, Arizona, the Knicks, the Dolphins,
the Mets. Yeah, that's pretty I'm gonna go with that
for right now. And I like this from Antelope thirteen,
who writes, I can't find the bracket and seating for
the most least wire taps Arnie. Wow, that's all right.

(57:31):
Let's play crown of a crush him, shall we? Yes,
let's do it. Done. It's done, the games are done.
Now it's time to crown him or crush Dody asked
you a question, crowding us. You're upset that Richard Sherwin
didn't go to the Raiders. Well, I don't know much
about his contract, to be honest with you, I've seen

(57:53):
every single report, so I think it's I mean, I
think it's kind of a price deal based on what
it's being reported that the Niners paid him. Yeah, I'm
fine with moving on from him. I think the Raiders
are gonna be I think the Raiders is gonna be
very much involved in a couple of other free agent cornerbacks,
maybe the the Tremaine Johnson former Ram who's gonna be

(58:14):
on the market now that the Rams have every single
cornerback in the NFL. Uh. So, yeah, I'm kind of
cool with that. Let me, since you started football, aren't
crowd I should have done that? You should that's your
faults you should have done that. Crowd hmer, crush him.
A team is going to make a play for Drew Brees,
who's not named in New Orleans Saints. Oh, crowd him

(58:34):
on that. I think that's a definite. There's gonna be
a couple of teams. Um, I don't know how serious
it's going to be. I got to assume at this point,
since he's gonna have to get other offers, it's got
to hit the serious meter of like nine out of ten,
because you can't now expect to go back. You have
to assume that you're going to move ahead and go
somewhere else when you're talking to other teams. So I

(58:55):
think it's gonna come out very serious. A As a
matter of fact, I think there'll be a good six
six teams that will be very interested in picking him up. Well,
we know the other big name in the free agent
quarterback makes one more football woman one I promise we
got brackets all night long, or one more thing fired
crown and come on man. Football quadruples the n C
Double A Tournament ratings. Kirk Cousins is now I guess

(59:19):
going the traditional route in free agency and not taking visits,
which again This isn't college. This is the NFL. Everyone
has elite facilities. I mean, you don't have to go
see their facilities. It's the National Football League. With that said,
apparently he's not planning any visits according to Diana Rassini,

(59:39):
and that it will be down to a three team
race between the Vikings, Jets, and Cardinals. The Broncos aren't
necessarily in that mix, but it's believed that they could
make a late push form So with that in mind,
Kirk Cousins will be the next head coach of the
Minnesota Vikings. I'm sorry, quarterback, quarterback, I'm drunk. Uh, you know,
I'm not so sure it's gonna be the Vikings. First,

(01:00:01):
I want to tell he just rubs me the wrong way.
I just, you know, I'm not saying he's not a
good quarterback and he can't lead a team to the playoffs.
And I'm not even saying that the Jets shouldn't go
after him. And it's the whole attitude, the you like
me now, how you like me now, and the whole
unkiness and uh, and you know I'm not gonna take visits.
Are I'm not gonna speak to people faith to face
or Hey, if I'm gonna give you sixties seventy million dollars,

(01:00:25):
you're gonna fly out of here. You're gonna go ahead,
look at our facility and let me take you out
a damn tour for cry it out loud. With that
being said, I think he's gonna end up. It's gonna
be a little bit of a long shot. Maybe it's
gonna come out of nowhere. I think it's gonna end
up with the Jets. I think you might be right.
All right, Chronomer crushing, Let's get back to what's relevant
and timely right now talking n C Double A tournament. Arnie,

(01:00:45):
Kansas is the most vulnerable of the one seats. Uh boy,
oh boy, I think they are, even though I think
Virginia could end up losing first. I think Kansas is
most vulnerable to the sixteen seaton Pennsylvania, But after that
it's really not that tough of a run until they
get to do so. Are we say it in the

(01:01:07):
first round or the first number one seed to lose
and first say it in the first round? I say
you're right, Kansas the most vulnerable and were saying, who's
gonna be the first number one seed to lose. That's
gonna be Virginia. Oh wow. See they've looked at this.
And we'll talk a little bit more about Virginia's path
coming up next hour. But they've been talking about the

(01:01:28):
Midwest as the region of death because you have Kansas
is the one, Duke is the to Michigan State the three,
and then there's Auburn and Clemson at the four and five.
But that path for Virginia is equally as challenging, and
I think part of it might just because be because
Arizona is there. But with that in mind, Artie Crownhamer
Crush him, teams involved with the FBI probe had that

(01:01:51):
held against them come bubble bursting time from the n
C double A selection committee. I think it had a
little bit to do with it, even though they said
had enough thing to do with it, and it never
even came up. Never even came up, Chris, is what
they're saying. I'm gonna call bs on that. I think
somebody did bring it up. They may have puted and

(01:02:12):
you know, shoot it down, but I believe it did
comed up. And I think it's more than a coincidence
that the three bubble teams all involved in the probe
all didn't make it, especially when one finished in the
second in the conference of the back twelve and they
still didn't make it to a team that finished night.
So I still can't explain that one away. One more
quick one here before the Sager slides in and we

(01:02:34):
uh get caught up on everything that's going on today.
Are any chronomer crush him? Something needs to be done
to give more play to the mid majors, like the
Middle Tennessee States in the St. Mary's of the world.
You have to Now you know, I wouldn't have said
this a couple of years ago, but now you came
up with this focus Quadrant one Bologny, which this is
gonna help the major teams out there, And don't tell
me it's gonna help teams that go on the road

(01:02:55):
or go to neutral sites. The Middle Tennessees, the Vermonts,
they don't get to play anybody good unless they play
in like the Hawaii Shamana Great Alaska Shootout or they
you know, get matched up with somebody like that. You
gotta make it. I'm not saying that a whole bunch in,
but you know, another two or three wouldn't hurt and
That's what and that's what the March Maddens is about,

(01:03:18):
is the mid majors pulling off the upsets. People want
to see these teams get in and Middle Tennessee I
think was deserving. They were in the top twenty five
and St. Mary's was in the top twenties. So I
don't know what more you can do. Uh find yourself
out on the outside looking and something's got to be
done to help the mid majors. By the way, Scott
Drew from Baylor has a plan. We'll talk about it

(01:03:39):
coming up here and just to he must be right now, yeah,
right now, Steve the Sager comes rolling into the Geico
Fox Sports Radio studios to get us caught up on
everything that we missed, including that dominating performance by the
Purple and Gold. Tonight, we will get to the NBA.
It's the Lakers beat lebron in Cleveland in the Lake game.
You were mentioning St. Bonaventure the last hour. The n

(01:04:00):
c A tournament starts Tuesday night and u c l
A will have a game then in the so called
playing games. Don't let the n c A let you,
yes nine seventy all over again here. Don't let the
n c A here has actually mentioned the phrase playing
these are first four games people anyway. U c L
against St. Bona Venture that night, like Tuesday, the Bruins
had been to the Sweet sixteen three times under Steve

(01:04:22):
Alford in recent years and lost all three times at
the sweet sixteen round, and in fact, a p says
coach Alford has never gotten past the sweet sixteen. It
is twenty two years of coaching in Division One. As
for this Saint Bonnie Venture Bunnies team, they did go
fifteen and five against league opponents in the Atlantic ten,
and they played one close game after another this year

(01:04:44):
and won a lot of them. They wanted Syracuse in overtime.
They wanted triple overtime against is Davidson. The team that
got in knocked Notre Dame out of the tournament. Davidson
one its conference final today against Vermont, a two point
win for the for the Bunny they beat Maryland by two.
They had a three point went against St. Joe's three points.
They beat Duquesne three points. They beat Rhode Island. This

(01:05:07):
is the u c L A opponent Tuesday night St. Bonaventure,
but it's Davidson that wins. The Atlantic ten tonight it
gets in the Irish do not Davidson beat Rhode Island
fifty fifty seven. Rhode Island will open against Oklahoma, and
that winner probably will get Duke in the second round.
The Sooners, well, I wish they would just show up

(01:05:28):
at some point in the last couple of months. The
Sooners are one of seven teams selected from the Big
Twelve Conference. Oh, you started twelve and one this season,
then went six and twelve the rest of the way
and still got in first game on Thursdays Oklahoma against
Rhode Island twelve Eastern Time. Syracuse was the final team
selected for this year's field. It will open Wednesday night

(01:05:48):
against Arizona State, which started the season a very impressive
twelve and oh and then the Sun Devils win eight
and eleven against conference teams the rest of the way.
A number one seed, they were in the top four
the a P Poll at one number one. Yeah, I've
never heard of a team beating the number one seed.
Not making that they beat Kansas, who is a one seed.

(01:06:09):
They beat Xavier, who is a one seed. By the way,
Villanova's top seed in the East. Virginia is the top
overall seed. Although we have mentioned last hour that's a
tough region the South. Great news. There's a quick way
you could save money. Switched to Geico. Go to Geico
dot com and in fifteen minutes you could say fifteen
per cent or more on car insurance. That late NBA game,
Lakers beat Cleveland one. See Julius Randall thirty six points,

(01:06:32):
fourteen rebounds, seven assists, Jordan Clarkson x of l a
one of eight shooting from the floor. Indiana beat Boston
by two. Houston and Minnesota with wins raptors one. They're eighth.
Straight back to you, all right, thanks to Seger as
we come to you live from the Geico Fox Sports
Radio studios. What does it mean when Geico says it's
easy to say or more on car insurance, Well, it

(01:06:55):
means you should have gone to Geico, go to Geico
dot com, or call eight hundred and nine four seven
all The only hard part is figuring out which way
is easier. Is there an underdog that you're looking at
that you're not picking right now? Arenie? I mean that's
I'm seriously, is this night has gone on? You're in
love with just about every double digits it's not taken
right State over Tennessee, sticking with that, but I'm not

(01:07:16):
taking Buffalo over my Arizona Wildcats. So that line is
like eight or nine. So I'm I'm very aware of
what Buffalo is. Of Course, I lived there for a
little bit, so I'm I'm very aware of that Buffalo team,
especially when Hurley used to be the coach. Um they're
a good team. You gotta watch out for them, and
I'm picking Gonzaga. I'm not going with the upset there. Also,
if there was gonna be an upset that I would

(01:07:37):
have said maybe Gonzaga was there only eleven and a
half point favorites. It's been a lot of buzz about
the team's left out. We've talked quite extensively tonight about USC,
not so much about Baylor in Oklahoma State, but they've
been crying for a little bit. And here was Scott
Drew's suggestion his team was kept out of the n
c Double A tournament. UH finished sixth in the Big Twelve,

(01:07:57):
and his idea was expand the field to nineties six teams.
Quote he right. He said in his press conference, almost
fifty of the team's go to a bowl game. In football,
we always talk about the kids. If you increase the
number of teams, it allows more kids to experience the tournament.

(01:08:18):
Add one more game for everyone, and now you've got
to win seven. If you're truly about the kids, that's
a reason to do it. Wow, he's really about the kids?
What about the kids? I mean, I don't really know
if we have to look at a situation to where
they need to expand the tournament. I mean, this isn't
that dastardly of a deed that we left these teams out?

(01:08:39):
Is it? No? But you see, the one thing is
if you win the conference and you don't get the
automatic bid, obviously, but you gotta win the conference tournament.
And look, I never gave it a second thought until
I lived up here in Vermont, and I feel bad
for Vermont who loses one conference game in two years
and now they don't get to go to the tournament.
I mean, something's not fair about that. Yeah, So if

(01:09:01):
you expanded by twenty eight teams, I mean, who's not
getting It's like the It's like the NHL playoffs used
to be, everybody gets in. We're letting everybody in right now.
I mean the dramas not even there anymore, So you
don't even care about that. You know. What's interesting, though,
is that that's a brilliant tactic that so many people
have kind of pushed teams that get left out of

(01:09:23):
the four team playoff. You know, if you if your
team gets left out of your conference, gets left out
like the Big ten did this year, the Pac twelve did,
Big twelve did last year. What's always what are the
pundits saying, well, you should push to have the playoffs
expanded beyond four teams, and now, hey, we we we
need more than the uh more than the number that
we have right now that what would we have sixty eight?

(01:09:45):
We need more than sixty eight. We gotta get up
to nineties six. I don't necessarily know. I'd be I'd
be curious to see how what would play out. It
would make for obviously fun sports talk radio and make
for fun social media comments. But Arnie, I don't really
necessarily know expanding beyond board is right now is a
good thing for this tournament? Right? I don't think expanding
it is, you know, football, I'm all four going from

(01:10:08):
four to eight or eight to sixteen, I'm we've left
too many teams out there. I'm And besides, I don't
even care if you think during the top four, I
want to get more teams into the football one. This
is what I'm okay leaving it at sixty eight. Remember
we used to have it at sixty four and we
added four more teams with these first round games or
playing games. So I'm I'm okay with I am too.

(01:10:29):
Uh Now, if if we want to debate whether or
not the quadrant system truly works, I mean I'm all
in because I don't really even know how it works.
This was what Kermit Davis said earlier today. Quote. The
committee sent a message to me that it's going to
get tougher for everybody at our level. To get an
at large with this new system, you've got to be perfect.

(01:10:52):
We only have a few chances, and they are usually
either on the road or on a neutral court, when
the Power five schools have six to eight opportunities at
home in front of their crowd. And I mean, he's right,
that's right, You're not. You're not. Nobody's going to come
up here to Vermont and play the Catamounts. Vermont's gotta
and I made they made a big mistake. By playing
in a tournament where there were no big boys in it.

(01:11:14):
You gotta play against the big boys to get those
games in. Otherwise you're just gonna be a one big conference. Yeah,
and and again it's it's nothing new. I don't know
why we're acting shocked by this. The Missouri Valley Conference
had the biggest cry for the longest time Conference USA
whenever it was only Memphis and nobody else. I mean,
this is this is nothing new. This has been the

(01:11:35):
norm in college basketball for the better part of I
don't know, ever, So I don't know why we're acting
to surprise by any of this. I like this though,
from David who hits us up on Twitter and rights
the n C double A can go fly a piano
with its lame expectations or explanations. I don't think any
tournament snub was a coincidence. So it's vigilante street justice

(01:11:59):
be for we investigate anything what that means. So his
point is, Hey, I'm not buying any of this BS
that you and your FBI investigation didn't factor into this.
It absolutely played a part in this. And you know,
we can look back in a couple of months and say, well,
you know, they have these FBI issues. But Oklahoma State
didn't make the tournament, and you know, USC didn't make it.

(01:12:22):
I kind of I kind of think that he might
be onto something here. I don't know if we'll ever
be able to prove it, but his point is that,
so you don't think that had anything to do with
Oklahoma State or USC being left out. Look, I'm saying
that it may have come up. They denied that it
has come up. I don't know if they said, Okay,
now we gotta leave out us See Louisville, we gotta
leave all these teams out there were involved in the

(01:12:43):
FBI probe. I I just don't have an explanation though
for USC, And I know they didn't beat U C.
L A or Arizona, but they did beat Oregon in
Utah five times, which is remarkable. They did finish second
in the Pack twelve and finished second Arizona in the
PAC twelve tournament. So I I don't have an explanation
for them, to be honest with you. Well, I can
tell you one thing is because Oregon and Utah garbage

(01:13:05):
of this year. I mean, that's one reason why. It's
because Arnie, we've mythically created this incredible Big twelve conference,
and we've dumped all over the Pack twelve. It's the
complete reverse of what you do to the Big twelve.
And so you're saying it play out right now in
the world of college basketball. All right, when we come
back to the guy called Fox Sports Radio Studios, it's
time for Steve to Seger to slide in and make

(01:13:27):
sure we're completely caught up on everything we missed with
Arnie and Plank on a Fox Sports Sunday. Great news.
There's a quick way you could save money. Switch to Geico.
Go to Geico dot com and in fifteen minutes you
could say or more on car insurance. I would not
picture the stinking genius to be a big Marshall Mathers fan,
but who knows. You don't think I know who that is.

(01:13:50):
I know what you're doing to me. No, no, yeah,
eminem slim shady. I'm not trying to question Arenie. I
know your hip. I know your hip. Speaking of hip,
as we continue to break down on the brackets, we
still owe you a South and West region breakdown that
will do to kick off our number two or our
number three, pardon me, to get you ready for Arnie's
picks before we get out of here. But ladies and gentlemen,

(01:14:11):
boys and girls? Why do I always introduce him like that?
Steve de Sagers in the house? I knew Arnie was
picking the music tonight's show. I just knew it. By
the way, if people ask you, and if it will be,
they will who who's kind of a sure bet for
the final four? My immediate answer is nobody. Have you
not seen college basketball this year? It's like one upset

(01:14:31):
after another. If pushed, I will give you one, though,
and that's Villanova. I like it. You like Villanova. You
know they're the top for this reason. They're the top
scoring team in the entire country at eighty seven points
a game. But beyond that, they've shot fifty from the
floor as a team for the whole season. To show
you how rare that is. They're about three fifty basketball

(01:14:53):
teams in Division one n C double A. Out of
those three fifty, less than ten teams shot fifty for
the season. Villanova's one, Gonzaga is another one, and they're
also won the top scoring my both. My bold Sega
prediction is Golden State's gonna make the playoffs in the NBA.
Why should we go with the Arnie predictions, which is

(01:15:14):
again pick every ten to fifteen season, then one out
of one out of your picks lands, Hey, I had
that one, yet I have North Carolina Greensboro to win
the title. That's gonna be. I had them, I had them,
and you had everybody. North North Carolina is gonna play

(01:15:35):
in Charlotte, North Carolina this week, opening against limps Lipscomb
on Friday. You know Lipscomb. How about this stat from
AP The tar Heels when they play their n c
A A Tournament game in state, North Carolina's record is
thirty three and one. It's been almost forty years since
the tar Heels lost in n c double A Tournament
game in state, So keep that in mind. Michigan State's

(01:15:57):
gonna be playing in Detroit this week, and the two
seed in that Michigan State's a three seed. The two
seed is Duke. The one seed is Kansas in the Midwest.
So as good as Duke and Michigan State have been
this year, they're probably gonna have to play each other
way before the final four. They're gonna have to play
each other before even Kansas would come into the pictures.
So keep that. In the sweet sixteen, that will be

(01:16:19):
Duke Michigan State. Yeah, which means some team. You know,
this is a tougher this Midwest region, tougher than some
of the other regions. Some team one of those two
is not going to be getting out of there. Well,
as far as the golf, we had Tiger Woods, shall
we say, nearly winning a tournament today. He finished one
stroke back of the winner, Paul Casey in Florida, tied
for second place. The ratings yesterday for this tournament around

(01:16:41):
Tampa Bay, well, the last couple of years, the rating
had been about a one point three. Yesterday it was
a three point three overnight rating with Tiger Woods tuned
in at the exact the best time. When Tiger made
the long put on seventeen, did you see that? That's
why I like perfect perfect. I saw a tie your
put today and as soon as it started rolling on

(01:17:03):
the green, the place was going nuts. And you know,
it was two or three ft wide to the left,
but it didn't matter. It's just it is, I'm tempted
to say everything for the game of golf by far
number one with the fans, by far number one with
the ratings, and we assume Tiger Woods will be playing
and maybe contending at the Masters next month. I don't

(01:17:23):
want to step over the line here, but he's actually
played defense decent golf, especially considering the injury and considering
his age. It is surprising. As far as ratings, we
mentioned last Sunday Night during the show was the Oscars.
It wound up, Yes, the lowest rated Oscars ever, but
that's still twenty seven and a half million. It reminds
me of when we would talk about NFL ratings and

(01:17:45):
people would say, oh, nobody's watching the NFL wast rated
Monday night football ever, and the regular season was down again. Okay,
yes to all of that, but it's only bad when
you compare the NFL to itself. It was still killing
just about every other TV show out there. The Oscars
still got better ratings than Golden State clinching the NBA
Finals last summer, which was under twenty five million oscars

(01:18:09):
twenty six and a half bill. So just see the movies.
Why would I want to see the Oscar? That is
usually the case, isn't it, Because the critics or the
the academy voters often are not going for the star
Wars types or the Marvel Comics types movies. And yet
well I think it was when Titanic was nominated for
all those oscars. I think that's still the highest rated

(01:18:31):
oscars they've had because exactly what you just said, Oh,
I've seen that. I didn't see what shock. That's been
a few years, but thank you for the pronunciation. Free
agent pitcher Jake Arietta is finally being signed. So many
baseball free agents have still been sitting out. There was
spring training well underway. Remember the opening day from Major

(01:18:53):
League Baseball is March twenty nine this year, and all
thirty teams will be an action on the day. The
Phillies agree to a deal with ari Edta the x CUB.
This is all pending a physical. It'll be a two
to five year contract depending on the opt out clause. Still,
Arietta will be making fifty five million dollars over the
next two years of the contract, and it could wind

(01:19:14):
up a five year deal. So again, don't play football, kids,
play baseball. Don't be stupid. Kevin Harwick the NASCAR winner
again third straight week, this time at Phoenix. Yes, the
Lakers beat Cleveland. Isaiah Thomas now with l a twenty
points and nine assists. Alonzo stop Alonzo ball two of

(01:19:34):
eleven shooting tonight, but he did have seven assists and
no turnovers. At Boston, Kyrie Irving left with a sword knee.
He says it's not a big deal. What is the
standings in the East Because Toronto won its eighth straight
game and the Celtics lost at home to Indiana. Celtics
now three and a half games behind Toronto for the
top seed in the East. And here we only have
about a month left in the season and without the

(01:19:55):
injured Steph Curry. Golden State lost at Minnesota today, but
Houston won easily to night at Dallas, so Houston's a
game and a half over. Golden State got a better record.
And James Harden they sat him out tonight because of
his knee. He will play tomorrow against the Spurs. LaMarcus
Aldridge of San Antonio will be out Monday with a
sore knee. Utah has won six games in a row

(01:20:18):
by the way. They won at New Orleans, but in
the Lass at home, Anthony Davis had a triple double
and that included ten block shots, not a triple double
with assists. I gotta mention Davidson again as we closed
this up winning the Atlantic Ten Tournament final in College
hoops fifty fifty seven over Rhode Island. The Davidson win

(01:20:38):
knocked Notre Dame out of the n C Double A
field and among the first four teams left out, those
are your top four seeds for the n i T
Notre Dame, USC, Baylor, and St. Mary and a reason
to watch the n i T this year. New rules.
They're going with the four quarters instead of the two
halves like women. That's right, all right, thanks to Segra.
When we come back next hour, we owe you a

(01:21:00):
breakdown of the South and the West your tweets, Arnie's picks.
A busy final hour next with Arnie and Plank on
Fox Sports Radio. Yes, final hour before I'm l A
bound for the show next week. As we came from
the guy called Fox Sports Radio Studios, Well, sooner softball.
Of course, Arnie and I'll be there through Monday, so

(01:21:22):
gonna hang out in the I feel like if you're
gonna go to l A, I feel I may drive
to Pittsburgh. Then what would you do in Pittsburgh? Isn't
that where Oklahoma is playing? Oh, I don't know. I
couldn't care less. They're they're one and done anyway. I mean,
they'll they'll beat Rhode Island and then they'll lose to Duke. Duke's. Duke,
by the way, is going to the national championship game. Army.

(01:21:44):
I'm sorry, I have I have just during the top
of the hour, I filled out my bracket, and um,
I have Virginia, North Carolina, Purdue, and Duke in the
final four with some upset wins for Buffalo Loyola, Uh,
pretty big upset win for San Diego State. And I

(01:22:06):
also have in New Mexico State make him some noise.
So that's that. That's it. I'm not giving out any
more picks. I'm ruining against San Diego State. Why is that?
Because from there you're going anti salam basketball team though. Man,
they're taking on Houston. I didn't even know they were
a four year college. So this year I thought, shall

(01:22:29):
we it is time to break down? Second, I mean, listen,
I don't know about I've seen you from salam Man.
You you can fight that battle on your own. I'll
basically be talking in a corner with Bobo and I
Rob whenever that happens in the segar to help us out.
But let's we We've talked about the UH and again
it's been a busy show. Thanks to Aaron Torres for
joining us, thanks to Todd Firm, and if you missed
any of it, I highly suggest to go to Fox

(01:22:51):
Sports Radio dot com. In the podcast link you can
listen to Arnie in our show. Uh it's it's slam
packed early on. That's setting up for a massive Latin
on in this final hour. Just giving you that heads
up first. So we talked about the East region, we
talked about the Midwest region, Arnie, we haven't talked about
the South, where I mean again, as the number one,
number one, if you will, that means Virginia is favored

(01:23:15):
to make the final four for the first time since
nineteen eighty four. But it's a very interesting bracket based
on since being in here, Tennessee, Arizona, among others. So
let's get after it, shall we. Let's go one through
sixteen in the South bracket. Virginia one u MBC, the
sixteen seed. They're playing for a potential trip to Atlanta,

(01:23:39):
but this starts in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bottom of
the other part of this pod. Has Creighton and Kansas
State any chance for an upset? I mean again, I'm
pushing my one seeds on. I don't think the sixteen
nine game could be good. I've seen them three times
already and I just saw them recently when they beat Vermont.
They have no chance to beat Virginia, though I wasn't
pressed with their victory here in Burrow Linington. They have

(01:24:01):
no chance of beating Virginia. The Craton Kansas State game,
I mean, I go back at forth on. It's like
a coin flip. This is a lot like the Virginia
Tech Alabama game Grade eight nine seed. This is the
way it should be when eight is playing nine. It
should pretty much be a pick up game or a
one point game. I think Creton's like a one one
and that point favorite. I went with Creton this well,
but it was a tough call. I mean, it really

(01:24:21):
is a balanced game, and it's it's a coin flip,
like I said, but I went with Creton in this one.
I have this stupid philosophy that has surprisingly worked every
so often. Whereas if I take one eight seed, I
take all the eight seeds, and if I take one
nine seed, I take all the nine seats. I really,
I don't know if it's truly time tested or not,

(01:24:41):
but it's just been a mindset of mind. So I'm
going with all the nine seeds for some reason this year, Arnie,
So I can't hear about your Creighton Blue Jays. Uh.
There's Kentucky taking on Davidson, two of the hottest teams
in the country, and the five twelve matchup up in Boise,
and then of course the fourth thirteen is Arizona and Buffalo,
which sets up one of those incredibly intriguing second round

(01:25:04):
matchups between Arizona and Kentucky. But hey, they both have
to get out of the first round. I think more
concerning for either one of those teams would be Davidson, right,
the winner of the eight ten got incredibly hot down
the stretches. So I'm not too concerned about your Wildcats
in all reality, But Kentucky is gonna have a battle
on that first thing. You know what, when I first
looked at this, I'm like, well, Kentucky will advanced. Davidson

(01:25:24):
wouldn't even have got into the tournament had they not
won their conference tournaments. I'm like, so, Kentucky is playing
good ball. Then I looked at the line, so it
was only five and a half of Like, that's a
lot of respect for Davidson. And don't sleep on Buffalo
even though Arizona is a nine point favorite. Uh, Buffalo
is a good team. They have like three guys at
average over fifteen points a game, so it's not just

(01:25:45):
like a one man crew there where one guy is
doing the scoring. They're very balanced or a good team. Um,
you know, I saw a little bit of the kent
game and then of course that was a semifinal game
when they beat them. But overall, I think Davidson is
the one with the upset. I'm going with Davidson to
be Kentucky because I mean they're on such a role.
They had a good run in the conference, and Kentucky,

(01:26:06):
even though they've played well, I think Davidson is gonna
have some matchup problems for them. I'm going with Davidson
with the upside here. Uh. You know, it was interesting
earlier this year I heard and I think it was
whenever Kentucky had lost they were hosting there. I think
they were playing Florida and they had hosted the college
basketball version of College Game Day and I thought it

(01:26:27):
was compelling what John Calipari said, because he was. He said,
we're not where we need to be right now, and
he goes, I don't know if we get there, he said,
but if we get there, this team is as talented,
if not more talented, than any team that I've ever had.
This dude has coached Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall

(01:26:48):
That's some pretty incredible talent. And oh, by the way, Arnie,
this was a team that had been mired in mediocrity
for a majority of the season and they went on
a pretty solid run to in the season, winning three
straight in the SEC Tournament. What was it? Uh? See,
they had won five, So they've won seven of their
last eight games. They're only lost was on the road
to floor. At that point, I kind of I kind

(01:27:10):
of think that Kentucky is getting hot at the right
time right now. Even with all that said, they're only
a five and a half point favorite. So tell me,
why is it some people think that maybe Kentucky has
done it with smoke and mirrors or Davidson is a
better team than we all give them credit for. I
think because they see people will just absolutely pound Davidson
on this lower number and Kentucky is gonna beat them

(01:27:31):
by thirty. Um, Loyola Michigan are loyalist Chicago taking on
Miami of Florida. That's the six eleven matchup. The three
fourteen in Dallas is Tennessee and Right State not LOYALA.
Chicago is an interesting team to me, aren'tie because in
my opinion, I think they're one of the more unique squads,
and that they get a little bit of a by
this year with Wicharda State getting out of the Missouri

(01:27:53):
Valley Conference, so it makes that roun a little bit easier.
But the Ramblers have won ten straight and they get
a six seed in Miami that you know has had
been hot and then gets knocked out early in the
A C C Tournament. So any chance for an upset
here with either the underdog loyal in Chicago or Right
State against Tennessee only an upset and seeds because I
went with Loyola. But in the game, it's a pick

(01:28:14):
up game. I think Miamian's like, now, at one point,
I know, is that crazy? Did you know that? Byamy?
I think that was like not a one point favorite
in that who would have thought that with a six
and eleven seat, especially with a team like Loyola, who,
as you heard Todd Ferman says, a good defensive team.
I went with Loyola. There's a lot of respect for
this defensive team and what they can do. And like

(01:28:35):
I said, Miami only being a one point favorite, I'm
gonna go with the eleven seat in this one. Yeah.
And you know what's interesting is that might pave the
way for a Tennessee to end up moving on to
the Sweet six STA. But if it does, what an
incredible coaching job from Rick Barnes. Maybe I should rewind
even if it doesn't. I mean, this is a dude,
Arnie that we buried after he got cut in Texas,

(01:28:57):
and you kind of thought, well, you know, better luck
next time, Rick Barnes. You couldn't make a run with
Kevin Durant. You couldn't make a run with all this
incredible talent that you've had in the past, and now
here he is at Tennessee. An incredible regular season, a
team that went twenty five and eight, and they might
be in prime position to make a run through the
Sweet sixth team maybe further the bottom part of this
bracket the seven ten matchup is Nevada and Texas. I

(01:29:20):
don't know what to make him Nevada. That's why I
asked hot for him and about him earlier in the show.
I haven't seen him enough to have an educated opinion
about him, but everyone seems to love him. I've seen
Texas enough to know that I think they're awful. So
I don't know how they're in this tournament right now,
but yet here we are, and they've got Mo Bamba,
who's a freak. So you have one star player. It's
incredible the difference that could make. Is there a chance

(01:29:43):
Texas can move on to the second round over Nevada. No,
I wont with Nevadi, even though that's another pickup game.
I wont with Cincinnati, and then I wont with Nevada
pulling the upset over Cincinnati, So I kind of jumped
on their bad wagon. But you hit it on the
head with Tennessee. I got Tennessee going all the way
until they play Arizona and losing to my wildcast us
to get into the final four. Yeah, I mean there
is This is an interesting region because I think for

(01:30:06):
die hard, long term college basketball fans, you have really
two traditional names that you're comfortable with, Kentucky and Arizona.
Virginia they just score enough to get to the final four.
They scare me offensively. And then in the bottom part
of it, Cincinnati. Yeah, I love the American Athletic Conference.
You did see in which it all stayed and what

(01:30:27):
Houston did this year, but you still wonder if they've
seen the kind of competition that they could get in
the tournament week in and week out. So I would
have to say it's one of the more curious regions
just because you only really have two traditional powers in there,
aren't You know, at first they said it was murderous
role going, oh my goodness, look how tough it is.
But when then you look at it and you kind

(01:30:49):
of examine it, not all that tough. I mean, you
got a favorable number one seed in Virginia can get
knocked off any time. Uh. Cincinnati is certainly not a
scary number two seed. Uh. Tennessee is probably one of
the better three seeds out there, but still not demanding
out there. But you've got Arizona Kentucky, the two teams
most people are afraid of, probably you know, the four

(01:31:10):
five seeds. So Uh, not really as scary as it
once look when it first got revealed. Uh, this is
an interesting question from Jonathan Day, who hits us up
and we're gonna get to this West reach and coming
up in the next segment. But at Happy for Life
seven hits us up and says, Arnie, can you explain
how ten loss North Carolina gets a two seed hashtag

(01:31:30):
a four seed in the South? Though, question MARKO. Obviously
he's a little bit frustrated about where Arizona ended up
in the South as a four seed, but yet here's
uh tin loss North Carolina team twenty five and ten
that's a two seed in the West. Are you frustrated
by the tar Heels being in a little bit better position?
At least seed wise in Arizona is not not all

(01:31:51):
that much, you know. I know, there's not a big
difference between being a two three two seed and the
three seeds, so it didn't make that much of a difference.
It's the four seed you want to have war because
then you gotta play the number one seed. I really
don't get wrapped up all into that much of of
where they're seated out there, but I do I do
get where he's coming from you do have to wonder
how a ten lost team does get a two set
out there. And this one from your boy one, who's

(01:32:14):
pretty happy with you tonight, Arnie. He said, there's no
way in hell Arizona is winning the n C Double
A title this year and u c l A losing
the St. Bonaventure. Are you kidding me? I'll buy you
a house off Sunset in Beverly Hills if that happens.
I'll give me some of that. By the way, what
did you think of Ernie eating pizza during the selection process.

(01:32:37):
I mean, I'm kind of hungry right now. I'm getting
ready to go to break to try to eat some pizza.
And you should be sponsored by Steak and potatoes are grotten.
I love potatoes are grotten. If you can fit a
meal in during that long show, as disastrous as it was,
I would probably start eating. I would probably start drinking.
If I was Ernie. I was like, hey, just bring

(01:32:57):
me up, bring me Scotch and water. This is not
going well right now. Just get me out of here.
By the way, With that in mind, at Scooby Fan
one rights, the show was definitely awkward, terrible, and lousy.
It was just another bad idea from the n C
double a go back to the way it was and
put it on CBS. I actually had to remind myself
that's the selection show was on TBS and not CBS

(01:33:19):
like it's been for a million years. I know you're
being a little bit facetious there at Scooby Fan, but
he's right, and it's all. It's all part of why
Turner paid as much as they did because they brang
a few more ratings to TBS. And I don't know,
maybe that can remind you that they have Seinfeld all
day on Monday or I don't know, American Daddy Runs
or two Broke. They didn't make whatever better. You didn't

(01:33:41):
make it better. You know, usually when we have changed,
we're making something better or we add something, it's always
new and improved. This wasn't new and improved. We went
backwards when we did this selection show. It was embarrassing.
When we come back to the guy and and again
it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going
to be. Still bad when we come back to the guys,
see the first like minute of it were the audio

(01:34:04):
wasn't matched up to where they were talking. Did you
see that part. Well, I mean, there's always gonna be
audio problems, so I always believe in karma and that
I think, well, I think if problems if well, if
I make fun of audio problems in my I s
d N might stop working, then your Mike might mute out.
I believe in karma, so I won't bag him too
much on that. But you're right, you spend a lot

(01:34:24):
of money to have that pretty much screwed up. When
we come back to the guy go Fox Sports Radio Studios,
let's get into the final region. We'll talk about the
West region very intriguing, with North Carolina as the two.
We'll get to our final four picks, some nuggets your tweets.
It's a busy final hour here with Auni and Plank
on a Fox Sports Sunday. By the way, I've been
laughing during the brake, aren't because I went back and

(01:34:47):
rewatched just how bad the audio screw up was. And
as much as I believe in karma, right, that's a
pretty egregious Sarah bad, I thought it was watching a
Kung food a movie or something like that. You gotta
get to Hooters and try the new smoked Wings, y'all.
It's a whole new way to crave wings. And with

(01:35:08):
all the taste and half the calories, you can eat
twice as many at Hooters. Steve Sager coming up here
in just a bit like stupid, get it out of
the way. Let's do this the West do you want
to do? Come on? Come on, you know what I'm
talking about? You what you're trying to be a little tattletale,
a little narc Are you gonna run and tell mommy
that Magic was talking to Lebron's age? Come on, you're excited.

(01:35:33):
First of all, I watched taffering charges. I'm Magic. You
know they just not friends? How you do? Tell everybody
what we're talking about? Your brod During the break. During
the break, Bobo found the picture from tonight's Game of
Magic Johnson talking to Lebron's agent. And again, it's just

(01:35:58):
in past courtside, court side, you know what I mean,
not even like in an outburger or something like that.
There's something okay, wait, what he's done with this? Something
else that happened to right right right right? Uh. Arnie
told Bobo to post it, and then Arnie posted it himself,
and I made sure I retweeted so the whole world

(01:36:18):
can see, so Magic Johnson can get another million dollar five. Yeah, tampering,
question mark is what Arnie put on his twitter feed.
And then I think I think you even saw that
Bill Simmons had and you tweeted at him and said tampering.
So we I mean, snitches man snitches on the show tonight.

(01:36:39):
Why you gotta be like that. I gotta be like
that because it's against the rules, Chris, It's against the
rules to say hi to somebody. I was about, of fact,
I think there's a picture of Lebron signing a piece
of paper. I don't know d Lebron walked off the court.
He didn't even like shake hands after the game. Why
did I why after the game? There's reports he was

(01:37:00):
were in a Laker jer Lakers one tonight over the Cavaliers,
but that retirings jersey up at the Laker rafters already.
I gotta admit whenever I first saw that, I started
laughing hysterically right away that the first thing Arnie goes
for your Lakers, Arenie, I won't allow this. I won

(01:37:22):
you have proclaimed them as your Lakers, and now you're
trying to Why don't you just tag NBA on that.
Can you tag at him silver that? Yeah, go ahead
and do it. Come to all the commissioners just because
I know they talked to each other, the commissioners even
at the game. That wasn't the only controversial thing that happened. Um,

(01:37:43):
you know who Jack Nicholson is, right, I saw this
how Jack Nicholson had to show his ticket to get
to see Jack Nicholson. So seriously, Uh, in fact, this
story is or he reached Yahoo and clutch points. So

(01:38:04):
I don't know what clutch points is, but yeah, Jack
was signing a contract at the end of the year,
Jack Nicholson not needing needing his ticket. Yeah, they actually
had to kind of lay it out and they didn't
bug Jason Saidic Sadikas Siducas. I don't know, but anyway,
they did bug Jack Nicholson. I mean, come on, give

(01:38:24):
me a break. You think that should be fired. Who
asked him for that? Like, I mean it was a
young guy. I don't think he knew who Jack was.
To be honest with you, that should be like one
of the guylines, like when you go through hiring. You
see this face. He's allowed to go anywhere in this building. Yeah,
but if five years old, I'd say Jack, who I
don't know who that guy is. Yeah, he's having his show,
his ticket as he goes down to the front room.
And what's so funny is it when Spaniard than Jack

(01:38:47):
right now in the sports world. I don't you know what.
I want to agree with you because I want to
believe in how successful was the show? But the dude
made the shining. I mean, come on, he was the
first was like fifty year ago. I was seven years
old when that came out? Was it fifty came out?
By the way, Speaking of old, I like this tweet

(01:39:08):
from Erica writes selection show Arnie. I think that people
don't understand that we're making everything in America worse to
keep the millennials happy. And boy, dwy sound old in
that tweet. Yeah, he's uh, he's pretty much right that
I can give a thumbs up on that one. You
forgot to write state after arizonastan congenious? Did you have

(01:39:28):
Arizona winning the championship or Arizona State? Which one was it?
Arizona Arizona? What do you mean Arizona State? What kind
of knucklehead would write that? And one more before we
preview the West region. That way of thinking from Scott
Drew right Scooby Fan is also, as you guys partially
pointed out, is why people want the college football Playoff
to expand. But it's also why there are forty bowl

(01:39:51):
games and why five and seven teams make it to
the postseason. Yeah, I mean, I just I think it's
natural sometimes when you get left out this a more
teams should be allowed in. Uh, if you're at can
I use an artie analogy here. If if you go
to a party and you you're left out and you're

(01:40:12):
standing outside because you've reached the maximum capacity, what are
you gonna think, Well, we need to expand the capacity.
You gotta have more people inside this party. You need
more people, you need more room. And that's kind of
what's happening here is they're left out of the party.
They're like, Hey, you need to have a bigger venue,
And I just I don't think college basketball needs that
right now. You know, of all the things that college
basketball needs to fix, the tournament's okay, you don't need

(01:40:36):
to fix the tournament. You need to fix the one
and done rule. You need to fix whether or not
we're gonna start going to four quarters. I mean, as
far as I'm concerned, Arnie, this is something we can
get through over the next couple of years, maybe getting
rid of the quadrant system. But I don't see this
as necessarily urgent. Why shouldn't we take her with it?
It only makes a billion dollars a year, So why
shouldn't you take her with something that makes a billion

(01:40:58):
a year? By the way, have you order You're a
Lebron Laker Jersey yet? Are you not that I have
not because I am that I am like Bobo where
I kind of believe that I dig this core right now.
I kind of dig these young guys, and I you know,
I'm not necessarily thinking you need to go and kick
everyone at the curb to bring in uh Lebron James
or Paul George. Right now, I kind of think they

(01:41:19):
got something. But I can't get fired. Can I? In
the like a whistleblowers thing going on where you can't
get fired if you tell on somebody. I'd be deleting
tweets if I were you. I'm just saying, you know, wow,
you're right, I guess I don't get that covered. If
he's not in my company. You are there, You are
out there kind of an art right now. I'm like

(01:41:40):
the noon goon at the high school. You know, you know,
I don't think we're gonna Ernie Spaniard to vacate. Okay, listen,
let let me get a couple more tweets in there,
because it's obvious we're not gonna have time to get
to this West region. Uh. Mike writes. If Steve Kerr
joins Arnie and Studio, they can make a webcam show.

(01:42:02):
I know some girls that can get them started and
give them happy couple, some beginner tips. Steve Kerr want
to make a webcam Steve ever going if they win.
If they win the championship, I promise you he'll call
into the show on his own. I he as to right,
he has to well, I mean he's done it before.
I think he's mad because I said I looked younger

(01:42:23):
than him. I think that's bothering him because he's got
the crow's feet by the eyes and I got that
silky smooth skin. Uh Scoopy Fan added this. The problem
with Scott drew suggestion is if you expanded nineties six teams,
where does it end? Why not just merge the n
C Double A with the n I T C, B I,
et cetera, and have all those teams make the field

(01:42:44):
at the same time get rid of conference tournaments. In
this scenario, you add maybe a week to the n
C Double A tournament, and you put more focus on
the regular season as it should be. Boy, they're making
a lot of money off those conference tournaments, Arnie, I
could not see them possibly doing away with the conference tournaments. Yeah,

(01:43:04):
look with the Big Tin did I mean we haven't
even talked about had had a conference tournament. Remember they're
doing very true. I mean, we've had a week off
for the Big Tent, and they bet their house on
pushing everything to Madison Square Garden so they could be
able to have it there. I I love the idea
of saying, let's just start the tournament, but I don't.
I think we're in a place where the toothpaste is

(01:43:26):
out of the tube whenever to come the postseason conference tournaments.
I don't think we're gonna change that. And then real quick,
because I love free agency, and we've only spent a
quarter of a segment in our three hours show tonight
talking about it, Eddie writes as a Niner fan, I
barfed when I heard they got Richard Sherman, a guy

(01:43:47):
coming off a major Achilles injury on the latter end
of his career, kind of like O J who was
also on the news tonight. But what did you make
of the Richard Sherman signing by San Franciscan? And I
heard and I heard, uh, Brady Quinn going, well, you
know most people are gonna say it's three years, dirty,
nine million, thirteen year million a year. No, no, no,
but we really don't know. Let me explain something to you.

(01:44:09):
I don't care what this guy's making. If he's making
a dower, it's too much money to give this guy.
There's other facts that are making like six or seven
million a year. You want to give this guy an
average of thirteen million a year? Wake up, Dorothy and
e MS call and he's not even close to what
he used to be. Well, I'll say this much. It's
about to get really crazy in the NFL over the
next couple of days you watch, there'll be some moves

(01:44:33):
that will really challenge the n C Double A tournament
over the next few days for headlines in the sports. Wow,
there's my prediction with that set. Steve de Sager is
in the house to get a squat off on everything
going on in the world of sports. What's going on, Steve,
how are you doing well? The late game in the
NBA was in l a and the Lakers had a
strong second after rip Cleveland one, one thirteen, there was

(01:44:54):
a reference to our boss. Scott tweeted out after this game.
Do you know that the Cleveland Cavaliers are not only
not the three seed anymore in the East, the Calves
are only three games ahead of the eight seed Milwaukee
Bucks in the Eastern Conference. That's how bunched up it is.
Was still about a month ago in the season. Earlier
wins for Denver, Chicago and Philadelphia Indiana one at Boston seven,

(01:45:18):
Kyrie Irving left with a swordknee. He says it wasn't
a big deal. Houston won easily at Dallas. Well, I'm sorry.
There was a report now that he may take extended
time off. Now, Oh, it's ben sore and he sat
out after halftime with a sworde. He may miss a
lot more games out coming up. Oh, I wouldn't doubt
that he's He's trying to play it down, I said.

(01:45:39):
Minnesota beat Golden State today one oh nine, one oh three.
Kevin Durant at thirty nine points, but was eleven of
thirty two shooting from the floor. Utah wanted sixth straight game.
The Raptors won their eighth in a row. They won
one thirty two one oh six at New York. The
Knicks have lost seven straight. Nothing to see here, You're
darn right, there's nothing to see there. Syric Us was

(01:46:00):
the final team selected in the n c A Tournament field.
It will open Wednesday nights against Arizona State. Attorney starts
Tuesday night and U c l A will play then
against St. Bonaventure. Virginia is the number one overall seed
for the n C Double A Tournament among the first
four teams left out, and these are the n I
T tournament's top seeds, Baylor, St. Mary's, USC to the

(01:46:21):
n I T and Notre Dame, which got knocked out
of the n C Double A Tournament field because of
Davidson's conference tourney win in the final fifty eight fifty
seven over Rhode Island taking the Atlantic ten today. USC
was second place for regular season in the Pack twelve
alone and second and it made the conference tournament final also,
but I will say although the coach of S c

(01:46:43):
Andy Enfield, had no explanation for getting left out tonight,
they did. In the nonconference schedule, they lost in a
row to Texas A and M S m U and
Oklahoma back to back to back, and later USC lost
to Princeton in overtime and USC against Arizona a Zona
State in u C L A. The Trojans were O
and five this year, so onto the n I T

(01:47:05):
in a couple of nights. Oklahoma State is a two
seed in the n I T. As is Louisville, which
will host Northern Kentucky from about a hundred miles away.
Are we gonna have another upset? Remember when John Calipari's
Kentucky team was an n I T club a few
years ago and lost in the first round. We'll see.
N I T first round matchups include Temple at penn

(01:47:25):
State Pennsylvania battle, Louisiana at l s U B y
U at Stanford is a first round n I T,
and Boise State at Washington By the Way, Creighton and
star guard Marcus Foster, who averages twenty points a game
there in the n C Double A's and they'll face
Kansas State, where Foster played for two years for k State. Dallas,
Texas is going to host a first rounder with Steven f.

(01:47:47):
Austin from about a hundred fifty miles away against Texas
Tech in Dallas Thursday night, and the final four will
be in San Antonio, Texas. So no NFL stadiums are
being used in this year's tourney. I read it's been
over twenty years since that happened. Wow, nice stuff. Thanks
to Seger's will come to you live tonight from the
Geico Fox Sports radio studios. It's easy to say or

(01:48:09):
more on car insurance with Geico go to Geico dot
comer called eight nine for seven otto. The only hard
part figuring out which way is easier. You know, it's
a little part of me that's disappointed. We haven't fitted
in Hockey Talk tonight because my l A King's left. No, no, no,
We we got fourteen games before the start of the postseason.
Are battling, and boy do they put up a fight.

(01:48:30):
The other night, Arnie giving up seven goals seven goals
to the St. Louis Blues. All right, let's dive in
into the West region. The only region we haven't fully
covered yet. Your one seed is West Virginia. You're two
is North Carolina. The three seed in this region is Michigan,
with Gonzaga as the four. Here's how the top part
of the bracket breaks down. These games are in Nashville, Tennessee,

(01:48:51):
with the ones Davierre taking on the winner of North Carolina,
Central Texas Southern and the eight nine a very curious
one Missouri and floor a state obviously Missouri with the
port of junior controversy and whether or not he's gonna
be one cent in time, any chance for an upset,
maybe even if a Florida State gets by Missouri in

(01:49:11):
the first round. Or is this Xavier moving on to
the sweet six team? And I like Xavier moving on
to the sweet sixth team though I I will give
the committee credit on this. Every eight nine matchup is
either a pickup or one point spread, and that's what
the Missouri Florida State game is. I'm winning towards Missouri
once again, another coin flip with an eight nine matchup.
The selection committee did a good job on the on

(01:49:32):
the eight nine match up. There now you have been
all over tonight South Dakota State and and and I
don't know why I haven't, you know, been too intrigued
by South Dakota State, but they do have a very
intriguing individual. Yes, a lot of people talk about Trey
Young and his scoring performance this year, but Mike Don

(01:49:54):
had twelve thirty plus point performances this year and this
dude average ten rebounds per game. Is it possible, Arnie,
that the twelve seed, the jack Rabbits of South Dakota State,
whom you now know a player on their team, could
knock off Ohio State. More than possible. It's going to happen.
They score a lot. Also, I like teams that shoot

(01:50:16):
the three, no disrespect. Yeah, well, I guess it is
disrespectful for a while. Stage. Oh yeah, they have point favorite.
I'm going with the upset here. This is the one
of those twelve five seeds and you're going, hey, where
do you find the upset? South Dakota State is just prime. Uh.
And not only that, I got him beating Gonzaga in
the next game and then losing the Xavier in the
sweet six. Team now Gonzaga, speaking of, I guess kind

(01:50:40):
of back in its normal role. Very iffy. They're very
iffy as a four seed. You know, they've been the favorite,
They've been the one seed, they've been the the Cinderella,
they've been the favorite. This is kind of a middle
of the road here for Gonzagon. I don't really know
if I'm all that Florida with what they've done. They've
struggled in the conference that's not even all that great.

(01:51:00):
And I'm not talking about against St. Mary's. They've they've
struggled against a boost got upset in that conference. So
it's not a strong and zagat team like you mentioned
in the past. So that's why I said very iffy.
I still haven't winning the first game. But and by
the way, they're away at eleven point favorite over NC Greensboro.
That's not usually Againzaga type number. But I got of
them losing the South Dakota State after that. So you've

(01:51:21):
got South Dakota State and Xavier AF your sweet sixth
team matchup. Wow. In the bottom part of this bracket,
the six eleven matchup, which will take place in Wichita, Kansas,
is Kelvin Sampson's Houston Cougars taking on San Diego State,
which has had a heck of a run down the
stretch of this year. Any chance that Kelvin Sampson's team

(01:51:42):
can make a run. You know, this is a guy
that's coached a couple of teams to a Final Four.
Love Kelvin Sampson. I really I think he's taken four
teams to the tournament. I remember when he was head
coach at Oklahoma Washington State. Um, I think he was
out there left me tickets when I think Arizona lost
to Oklahoma in the Milwaukee Regional long time ago. But um, yeah,
I think he's done a good job. That's gonna be

(01:52:02):
a good game. Look, San Diego State is also a
good team. I'm impressed by them also, but Houston's very athletic.
I'm not so sure that San Diego State could keep
up with them. This is gonna be a good game.
But I'm waiting toward Houston in this one. And uh,
Michigan and Montana is the other day. You know what's interesting,
Uh we we talked about this. I think a couple

(01:52:24):
of weeks ago to Sega brought up an interesting point
and that in moving up, the Big Ten gets all
of its teams that are getting in an extra week's rest.
Is it good? Is it bad? Will it help will
it hurt them? Well, Michigan obviously got a nice little
bump from its run in the Big Ten tournament moving
up to a three seed, but a tough first round matchup.

(01:52:44):
You like these teams that shoots threes overall. We've talked
about Michigan State, Arny, We've talked about Perdue. But how
could this week off affect a Michigan team, I mean
rested and ready to go? Or do they prime for
an upset here? I think rested and ready to go?
You really want to get your legs aneath you though,
I mean most of these conference tournaments and on a Saturday,
sold up, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off before having to

(01:53:06):
play on Thursday. Four days is more than ample time.
But I can see where the extra rest is going
to help them and not really hurt them. Michigan, by
the way, has one nine of its last ten games. Uh,
they have been absolutely on fire. You know, we talked
about the I guess you could say elimination of the
final ten games in the mind of the committee, But

(01:53:29):
there might not be a hotter team heading into the
post season than Michigan at a tough first round matchup
with Montana, and then the bottom part of the bracket
is the seven ten Texas A and M in Providence,
and then the two fifteen which is North Carolina and
Lipskin Man. I'll tell you what, Arnie, I fell in
love with North Carolina this weekend watching them in the

(01:53:50):
A C C Tournament. Uh, it might be just me
falling in love with my last impression is my lasting impression.
But any chance for an upset or an underdog in
the bottom part of this bracket, I think it sets
up perfectly for North Carolina. Look, maybe the tough escape
could be Providence. I think they'll have to face Houston
in the Elite eight. They'll get by Xavier to in

(01:54:11):
the final four. I got North Carolina going all the
way to the final four. Wow, me too. In fact,
I have him in the championship game. Arnie, don't give
because when we come back to the guy called Fox
Sports Radio Studios will wrap this bad boy up with
a few of your tweets and Artie's picks to take
us home on a Sunday night with Arnie and Plank
on a Fox Sports Sunday. I can't believe it's our

(01:54:33):
last segment. One of my favorite shows of the year.
Where we get to go through every region in the
n C Double A Tournament bracket. We'll get Arnie's Final
Four coming up here in just a bidea gonna meet
with Georgia. Really interesting. I thought he was kind of
done with coaching. Wasn't he sick? You know what, I've

(01:54:55):
learned to believe about a quarter of what I hear
when coaches leave a job. No, he was. He was
really sick, wasn't he? That was the rumor whenever he
left Ohio State. Uh. He had claimed there were longtime
health issues that had caused a decline in the team performance.
But it's kind of amazing what happens after you take
a year off, like hey wait, I'm fine, I'm good.

(01:55:18):
Or maybe you take a year off and you're at
home and you're like, this is not where I want
to be. Get me back on the road now, I
want to work. Uh. Rick Pettino's name had been linked
to that job as well by Jay Williams, who obviously
stanks at reporting news because everyone immediately shot that down.
If Rick Pottino gets a job this offseason, then I'm

(01:55:40):
going to just absolutely laugh at the entire college basketball landscape.
I mean, come on, he at least deserves to be
shunned for what two or three years at the very
least for what happened. You gotta get shunned at least
two years. By the way, uh, the story that if
a coach takes over, I mean every sports talk in

(01:56:03):
the world, even outside sports, will talk about it, talking
to what maybe it's already shot down, but Becky having
one of the finals for Colorado State or what? Why not? Man?
Why not? I mean, it'll give everyone a reason to
talk about Colorado State. We'll see if I would dig in, man,
I'd go cover a game. Hey, but again, we broke
down every region in the n C Double A tournament.

(01:56:25):
We'll get Arnie spicks coming up here in just a bit,
but before we wrap up, let's get a couple of
tweets in here, and then we'll officially make way for
the great Big Bin Mallard to slide in and get
you ready for a busy week. I like this from Ernie,
who writes Arnie as a genius. That stinks. I'm sure
you've got Michigan going through the west of the final four,
and how cool would it be if Lebron takes number

(01:56:48):
eight or twenty four when he comes to the Lake.
I think he should word number eight for the home games,
twenty four for the away games, or just word number
twenty four. I don't know. Can you wear three digits?
I don't even know if you could do that. You
have a different jersey for every quarter. You know, it
comes out. He's number eight in the first quarter, twenty
four in the second quarter. Then he flops back and forth. Uh,

(01:57:08):
you did have Michigan at least winning a game, right,
are two in your projections in the Montana? Alright, well,
so much for that, but every double digit seat so
that way, if he hits one, he can say I
call that. Uh. Your boy writes your officially banned Arnie
from Staples Center and Los Angeles, and your picture will

(01:57:29):
be posted in every post office. By the way, Arnie, Marge,
Magic can pay any fine, He challenges, Why don't you?
It's awesome. I can't wait to get there next weekend. Uh,
And then Seawan writes, Magic has a show next weekend
on Fox Sports like o J's Tonight, where he confesses
to tampering. Like that, they have a They'll have a

(01:57:55):
panel of people there, like with Adam Silver and David Stern,
and they'll be friends of Lebron's agent and then they'll
be like friends of magic. They say, well, you know,
he really wants me, he really wants them to be there,
and then they'll go in depth on whether or not
he was truly tampering. Sean, I think you're onto something.
I think it's a great idea. By the way, keep
the tweets coming. We I live on Twitter. I'm at

(01:58:15):
Plank Show. So does Arnie at Stinking Genius one. He'll
even shoot tweets of him vacuuming and doing housework throughout
the week, hunched over to have like S T I
N K I N genius the number one. So with
that said, let's get after it. We wrap up every
show on a Sunday night into a Monday morning with
Arnie's picks. Stinking Genius. Where do you want to start tonight?

(01:58:36):
You know, let's start with some of the basic games,
like these playing games or first round games for the
n C Double A Tournament March Madness. I got Arizona
State beating Syracuse. I have no trust in Syracuse. I'm
going with that one. And then once this uh the
real tournament begins. I got Davidson Beatie Kentucky. I want
to go on the record for that. Also, College of
Charleston one of my sleepers. I think they win a

(01:58:57):
couple of games. And you already told you South Dakota
State over Ohio State. I got my final four of Arizona,
North Carolina, Purdue, and Duke. I got Arizona Duke in
the finals and Arizona cutting down the nets winning the
whole thing, and my last prediction, Magic Johnson fine one
million dollars for day we're talking to everybody associated with Lebron.

(01:59:22):
I'm with you on your final four, believe except for one.
I love Purdue coming out of the East. Uh though,
I think the East is gonna be interesting because I
think there's a really good chance that whomever wins that
Tech Purdue game is going to the Final four if
chech can get there. Um, but I'm with you on Purdue,
Duke and North Carolina. But I think this might be

(01:59:45):
Virginia's year. Arnie, and I worry about your boys getting
by Kentucky. But you don't even think they're gonna play Kentucky.
I don't think they'll play Kentucky. I'm going with the
upset before they even get there. And you know what,
Kentucky doesn't worry me. I want Kentucky. I'm hoping we
give them to beat down that I think they're going
to cat So I love to play Kentucky in the
second round. I think that'd be an easier game than Davidson.

(02:00:06):
You know, I think sometimes I don't think it's gonna
be an easier game to Davidson. But whatever you want
to believe in, I'm a big believer in trying to
be honest, and I'll be honest with you. I don't
know if I've seen Xavier enough this year, are Villanova
enough this year to say, oh yeah, I have a
good feel on either one of those teams. I mean,
you can listen to other sports talk show host outside

(02:00:28):
of maybe a Doug Gottlieb who truly lives eat some
breath suits. I don't know if I've seen enough of
Xavier and Nova to have a really good feel. And
I wonder, Arnie, if I've missed out on some really
good basketball this year. Listen, I've I've eat, sleep, and
breathed Big twelve basketball. I've watched a lot of the
big tin based on my region, and I'm a night owl,
so I've seen a lot of the Pack twelve. But

(02:00:49):
I just I don't have a good feel on Xavier
and Nova right now, and I wonder if maybe a
lack of education on my part might lead to not
believing in them. I mean, am I missing something on
these two teams because I don't have either one of
them going to the Final four? But you don't see
a lot of these mid majors also, and then all
of a sudden they step up, they play some good basketball.
You know it always if if they're close at halftime,

(02:01:10):
the favorite starts getting a little tight. Next thing, you know,
there's the big upset. I'll say this much. We've spent
this whole show tonight talking in c double A tournament,
and deservedly and understandably so. But friends, the NFL is
going to steal the headlines this week. This is going
to be the wildest week of NFL moves. It's already

(02:01:32):
started and you're not supposed to be negotiating, are tampering
or talking to anybody magic, but yet we've had like
eight trades already. You watch, this week is going to
be wild next Sunday. When we come back, we'll have
trades galore, Kirk Cousins, Wileven out new team so Mike
Drew Brees already see you next week. Ben's Next on
Fox

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