There's only one way this show can started. Damn, damn, damn it,
damn that's Ryan realize. Yeah, I think that's on the Thames.
You're gonna pay ROYALSS for this on at some point. Yeah, please don't
come fine this. Yeah, I don't think Larry David wants anything to do
with us. Time for the crushes. I can't be close at half time?
How's it our fault? Well, I need someone to blame, all
right, guys. Nick Timberlake hits that three the Jayhawks are up, are
up four in the second half, and then oh or more specifically that but
for nineteen minutes? Because why did I have to be Gonzaga? Has anybody
here by chance? Do any of you remember things that a particular one of
us has said about Gonzaga and the tournament? And is that ringing any bells
for anybody here? I certainly remember the spirit of them, because I said
I wanted Kansas to get Nova, and I said I wanted Kansas to get
Oregon. But this, this is the darkest humor the universe could throw at
me. It really is. The team that I said sucked against noteworthy competition
in the tournament just completely kicked my favorite teams up and down the floor in
a basketball game instead n cuaa tournament because Kansas this year, this year not
a particularly noteworthy team. Nope, but hey, you know what were actually
noteworthy is who is with us today? Because we didn't think we were gonna
have you, Nick, but instead you spent about ten hours in the car
today only to come home eight hours before you have to get up and go
to work to do a podcast talking about DA losing to the Bulldogs of Gonzaga
by a lot. Look at your dedication, sir. You pay me the
big bucks, So I'm cunning. Yes I do. Okay, So no,
no, no agenda today. You already know what we're gonna say.
This is in said the Pain on Rock Chalk Blog. I'm Ryan Landrath,
I'm Mark Fu's alcohol choices, and I'm I'm Bill self after losing the Gonzaga
by twenty one on the road. That's that's plenty good enough. Let's talk
about the game. Damn it. Bill, there's a new sequence for you.
Number five Gonzaga eighty nine, number four Kansas sixty eight. You know,
guys, I don't know if you've if you remember, but we've talked
about some blowout NCAA tournament losses on this podcast before. Yeah, and each
one of them has gotten worse numerically. This one wasn't worse than the This
is just the second worst NCAA tournament loss in Kansas history. We talked about
the first and the third and the fourth. Actually we were all on those
shows. But this one was only the second worst, So it wasn't that
bad. It was only nine. It was only twenty one this time.
Yeah, that's almost exclusively because Gonzaga didn't have like a Lobby Pick and a
bunch of other good players on their team. If they had, I think
it might have been mad. Somebody tell me what happened, because it was
a big After a high paced, entertaining and even first half, Nick Timberlake
opened the second half with the three, giving Kansas a forty seven to forty
three leave with nineteen minutes left. What followed was a wild collapse that saw
Gonzaga go on It's like the Saddam Hussein statue collapse saw Gonzaga go on a
thirty seven to six run over the next thirteen minutes. The Jayhawks ran out
of gas and it showed on both ends resulting in a season ending blowout loss.
Haven't seen that, you know, It wasn't like USC did that or
anything. In the round of thirty two. It wasn't like USC did that
or anything. Thirty seven to Sixford, I have never in my life seen
the Jayhawks on the wrong end of a thirty seven to six run. That
is, that's almost impossible. Think about the amount of things that have to
go wrong to get yourself in a thirty seven to six run. It really
does feel like the season's end in like a complete like distillation of the year.
Like it can't just end in a way that is normal. It has
to end in the most like extreme version of what the entire season has been,
which is like Kansas playing very soft interior defense with bad rotation and not
being able to score, which is true, that's things that they kind of
struggle at, but in this game they were like literally in like literally incapable
of both of those things, and that was quite apparent for that run and
endless, endless it felt like, and if you want the twenty nineteen comparisons,
they that team also gave up eighty nine points in a blow out season
any loss to a five seed as the four seed, like you really can't.
Was that game also in Salt Lake City? Am I crazy? Or
did Kansas play all the Salt Lake sounds? I think it was. I
think that game was in the same venue. Actually, wow, what a
bunch of what a what a wild wild the comparison set that that wound up
being. Okay, Nick, the Jayhawks they are Well I was gonna ask
you for your thoughts, But first, how about one of those great old
stats, because I got a good one here. Kansas is the first team
in the history of the NCAA Tournament, which is always a great way to
start a sentence two, be a higher seed, lead at half and wind
up losing the game by twenty Never happened before. Has a team that was
a higher seed have a lead at halftime and lose by that many points?
The number of points that the Jayhawks lost on Saturday, which was twenty one.
Kansas shot fifty percent in the first half, twenty eight percent the second
half. Gonzaga was fifty six percent in the first half, and that went
to sixty seven percent after halftime. And I know you're gonna touch on this
here a little bit, but it was a great basketball game for a half
in a minute, like it was so up and down, high scoring.
The Jayhawks were making plays that put them on a path to at minimum be
right in the game at the end, like it was a lot of fun.
And then just holy gracious did the floor fall out in a minute?
M Yeah, apparently I just fell off there too, both of them.
But uh, weird, just emulating what happened. Uh was the question in
sorry I had gator almost just your general thoughts, like, oof is my
general thoughts? That drop? I pushed them bunch of time at halftime.
At half time, we were all talking and texting and saying, you know,
uh, I guess kind of like, man, Kansas can't play or
Gonzaga can't shoot the ball this well, And it's almost like, well,
yeah, Kansas can't shoot the ball this well. They made a ton of
set what how many threes in the first half? They made a lot of
threes in the first half. Seven they made seven seven first half and they're
never gonna but that wound up that did that did slow down if you're talking
about eight. Yeah, they made the one they won in the first minute.
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, But we were we were
talking We were talking at halftime, like you know this, they're those is
gonna switch up the defense and Gonzaga is gonna cool down a little bit.
But like you said, fifty six to sixty seven percent field goal percentage in
the second half, Guys, this team was with Gonzaga shooting that well,
this team was not winning if Hunter Dickinson was scoring on ever almost every possession.
Like that's just the reality of it. They they got into a hornet's
nest and somehow they got to play a Samford team who's good at threes and
a good Zaga team who's peeking at the right time, also very good offensively.
This team we talked about in the tournament show or the selection show bracket.
You wanted this team to avoid a super athletic team and a team that
can score a lot because they can't keep up with teams who score a lot.
And look what they drew in the first two rounds, two teams that
score a lot. They would had another team that scored a lot with Purdue,
but it is unfortunate. It is kind of indicative on how the downhill
decline of the season began. But it is interesting because the past few losses
they've gotten blown out Houston Cincinnati. It was pretty quick that things turned south
this game a lot of hope. In the first half. Looked great offensively,
you know, the defense had some wards. Hunter Dickinson completely I think
that's the big point here is Hunter Dickinson defensively was just complete, complete no
shows, so as Nick Timberlake. But off of those pick and rolls,
those switches completely caught in no man's land at the top of the key while
a guy's driving in to dunk the ball. Like, they looked all sorts
of disoriented defensively. And I don't know if bill selves adjustmentson after the locker
room really made much of a difference either, kind of seemed like he checked
out of the game too. Just an overall, like abysmal tournament performance for
Kansas to end a very disappointing end of the year after starting as the number
one overall team. So Landon, I'll throw it to you in a minute.
I do want to offer one quick stat correction. I misspoke. They
actually made nine threes two in the second half. I'm forgetting about Parker Brown's
Parker Brown's three that cut a twenty five point deficit to twenty two in the
second half. So sorry, Parker didn't mean to forget that. Uh,
yes, Kansas, but like and my takeaway from this as Nick was correct
about how they've struggle all year to keep up scoring. Uh, Kansas played
three good halfs in the tournament, like three real quality offensive halves, where
we thought that would be the thing that this team would struggle without mccolor the
most with. And then I you some people say they run out of gas.
Some people say they shouldn't have because they'd only played two games in a
last two weeks. Some people say it is understandable because they had fewer players,
the altitude, all that, they definitely just ran out of gas.
Also, shots stopped falling, the defense wasn't there the whole night. Oh
and by the way, Nick pointed out that they got blown out in their
last three games. Correct, They actually scored fewer points in this game sixty
eight. Then they did the If you add up the amount of points that
they lost by in their last three games thirty twenty and twenty one, they
lost the last three games of the year by seventy one damn points. Wild
Land in your thoughts, oh bad, I'll go more in depth than that,
I suppose, But yeah, yeah, I mean obviously we're gonna somewhat
eulogize the season. As Ryan said on Twitter, X I mean sorry,
sorry, You're busy with neuralink, so you're probably not even focusing on X
ray. It's too busy putting brain implants into paraplegics to care about the bot
forms. Are the bots that make rock Chalk Blog awfully popular with the ladies
in the notes? Because oh my gosh, those respons do not Yep,
that's ain't that the truth. It's like the website whether it's trying to sell
you Viagara. Yeah, hey it's ninety five percent off, sir. There's
some good deals on those Russian bots, not just Russian, Arabic, Chinese.
Yeah. All the symbols were the webbing's font just on the keyboard.
That's That's what's on the new rock Chalk Blog dot com, folks. It
runs about as well as the twenty twenty four Jayhawks landon. What were your
thoughts? Uh, yeah, I do think and Ryana, I think you
were. You're talking about this in the chat for sure that the margin that
Kansas lost by hair was a little bit fluky because Kansas shot such a poor
percentage, and Gonzaga shot very very well. But I like I was saying
that that feels like how Kansas played and lost pretty much all season was that,
yes, they had some great individual talent, and obviously Kevin McCuller not
with the team for the vast majority of the end of the year here,
but nonetheless, like they had some great pieces, mostly one great piece and
some other fine pieces, but the offense was always gonna struggle. They were
never gonna be able to score at a super high rate for very long,
and then you saw what happened when they go cold. This was not ever
a great defensive team either. Yes, they had moments of playing very good
defense against very good teams, even watching them play excellent defense against Houston and
against Yukon. They had some excellent moments against some very good teams all season,
but you saw what happened, and it's happened over and over and over
again this year. Other teams get really hot against the Jayhawks, and the
Jayhawks just can't quite keep up with that. You can call that a fluke
if you want. Yes, some element of three point defense is luck.
Some element of defense is luck in general when the other team's taken a lot
of jump shots, but Kansas's rotation in Kansas's defensive ability this year, Hunter
Dickinson is not an instinctive defender, and they don't have very many instinctive defenders,
and it leaves a lot of open guys a lot of the time.
And he saw that for about twenty minutes against Gonzaga in the second half especially,
So a very rough outing here for the Jayhawks and a very unfortunate end
to the season. Not one that I'm especially shocked to see happen, although
I do think twenty one I didn't quite quite envision, but yeah, night
where they just got ran off the floor. And that's become a habit for
the Hawks in the last several tournaments. Yep. They're one and four in
the round of thirty two in their last five tournaments, which is weird.
And I mean because self, I believe won his first seven round of thirty
two games at Kansas, and he's just four and six in his last ten
that dates back to twenty ten. You obviously have had a title run in
there, You've had a couple of their Final four, so it's not like
they are always disappointing. They're also ten and oh in the first round of
those games, seventeen for their last seventeen there so, but yeah, it's
been it's been a trouble spot and it's definitely a thing now where they've been
the higher seeded team and every one of those six losses they haven't been able
to get out of the first weekend and even half of their last ten runs
and that's you know, I know it will laugh at what happened with Kentucky.
This is the first tournament, I believe in forty something years that neither
Kansas or Kentucky made the second weekend in back to back tournaments. You know,
there's more parody in college basketball than there have been than there ever has
been at any point, and you're starting to see the effects of that.
Let's go ahead and start talking about some of the players. As the Houston,
Texas A and M game is still going on as we record this,
Houston's entire team has fouled out. So they're sending basic walk ons that I've
attempted four free throws all year to the line to try to close out an
overtime thriller against A and M. Something that was that Kansas did not have
to worry about was closing out free throws, even though their walk ons did
play. Don't worry Nick, tell me about Hunter Dickinson. Last show of
the year. Is always kind of weird because whenever we talk about players,
there's not really I'd like to see them do this next time. It's kind
of more just like, what's gonna happen next year at this point. Weird,
but whatever. Yeah. Hunter Dickinson led Kansas with fifteen points on six
or fifteen from the floor, five rebounds, four assists. He was probably
the best player in the game in the first half, swing thirteen points hitting
two threes. Was also completely burned defensively. As I alluded to earlier,
Mark Few knew exactly how to exploit his lack of a flist. As Mark
Few also knows how to exploit the sheriff by calling for nothing but pick and
rolls all game long. Mark Few also tried to pick and roll outside of
the Sheriff's deputy. Yeah. I tried to ask him to perform a pickup
role and he was like, I don't want to do that because I have
a bum Nay. Yeah, but he's also two and Oh against his friend
Bill Self, who, by the way, found out during the broadcast that
those two men were born on the exact same day, which is kind of
interesting. Apparently they're friends and he's two and oh against Bill self since the
both coaches got through their current schools. Yeah, Land and we talked about
Hunter Dickinson's defense being a problem all year, and it was very clear that
the strategy was, let's get Hunter Dickinson out away from the basket and then
with the paint freed up, we know that we can be lying to the
basket and he's too slow to be able to keep up with our athleticism.
Mark few knew exactly how to attack Kansas's biggest the biggest vulnerable spot in the
armor, and it was to target number one, get him out away from
the basket. The defense was the biggest problem in this game. Kansas could
not stop the pick and roll, and I think that starts with Hunter,
who hit a couple of big threes in the first half. Did the look
how well fallist I am with the forearm in front of his crotch after making
one of them, and Kansas got totally run out of the gym after that
point. Yeah, it's pretty much the same thing we've been talking about already.
And yeah, Hunter did have a great first half, he really did,
and his second half was pretty abysmal. Yeah, his his defense not
good all year certainly, and it was especially bad, I thought against Gonzaga.
But I don't know, does he come back Nick, Does he come
back and try to run this back and go average like twenty and eleven next
year? Man, he's getting paid like two million dollars in an al like
he's he's either playing for the Wongdong Tigers or he's gonna come back to Ku
make two million nil money. And somebody had his hands down like he has
a big penis. Somebody had a video of and it was where is Hunter
Dickinson going to be taking his talents next year? And it was a video
of Trump going It's called China And I immediately and I immediately thought of all
the Twitter burners. Okay, so let's get one thing straight. I'm not
gonna sit here and defend Hunt Dickinson endlessly because he didn't play well. Nobody
did in this game. But the worst part of this loss is how many
uugh, we have to watch another year of Hunter next year tweets that I
had to see on the timeline. Hunter Dickinson is not, nor will he
ever be, one of the ten biggest problems with this team. He was
a second team All America, second in the conference in points, first among
guys who played every game, first in rebounds. If that man wants to
play basketball for you next year, you say, well sure and roll out
the red carpet again. The fact that he's gonna be back anchoring the number
five position, the Jayhawks will win a lot of games if Bill self can
figure out the right players to surround his skill set with. The defense is
a problem. Part of finding the correct players that can align with his skill
set is making sure those players are very good defensively, so Hunter has to
carry less of that load. But you are absolutely nuts if you do not
want Hunter Dickinson back, and make no other if. If you want to
know what would happen without Hunter Dickinson, go watch the Cincinnati Big Twelve Tournament
game. Hunter is a star Wars and he will have a great year.
You told me about a poll you put out on Twitter. Do I get
to learn about that at some point? Oh? Yeah, Oh yeah,
So I put out a poll and no one on Twitter could figure out what
I was doing. But it was for the podcast, and I asked Twitter,
and I waited to do it till right after the game ended. Who
was the better basketball player at Kansas, Hunter Dickinson or Marcus Garrett. Now,
you guys, if I ask you that question, Okay, Landon Dickinson
could play, Hunter Dickinson could play ten games at KU, and he'd still
have a better career than Marcus Garrett. I too believe, like you guys
do, that Hunter Dickinson was a better player at Kansas. He was a
first he was a second team All American. But Rock Chuck Blog, Twitter
and the two thousand and sixty two people who voted on this, only forty
seven point seven percent agree that Hunter Againson was better than Marcus Garrett. Fifty
two to forty eight was the final poll numbers. So if that just goes
to show over one thousand people chose that Marcus Garrett was a better player than
Hunter Dickinson, Guys, stop, that's not real. Hunter Dickinson may not
be everybody's cup of tea. I've seen people talk about how he's not a
Kansas player. I don't know if that's really a thing. But come on,
and also I commend Hunter. I do all the Kevin mcculr stuff.
And here's a dude with his shoulder and a sling and he's out there playing
his seven foot two lungs in the altitude salt lake, having to play thirty
eight minutes a game because no one else is out there. I think you
could do a lot. I think you can find a lot more parties to
blame than Hunter. But we'll talk about him with ascarcib. kJ Adams ten
points, six rebounds, thirty two minutes, five of twelve from the floor.
Fine on offense. If you if anybody tells you how bad Hunter was
on defense, they can point out that kJ was no better. They were
both terrible. kJ was asked after the game if he's gonna come back to
Kansas just like Josh Jackson and just like he is. Christy Han said,
well, here, I'm gonna predict right now that kJ Adams isn't back,
or that kJ Adams doesn't start next year. Bill likes him too much.
I don't I start, sir. Even even Will Smith had to shoot even
Will Smith had to shoot his dog at one point, Like it's not working.
This doesn't work. kJ is a good enough basketball player where you convince
yourself that his playmaking ability and his his talent, his dunking, his hustle,
his heart, you convince yourself you can make it work at the four.
This season is proof that you can't. They cannot start him next year.
You cannot play him thirty minutes a game alongside Hunter Dickinson. And if
it's between those guys, I'm picking Hunter ten out of ten times. Yeah,
and it's gonna be interesting to see with Floorya be doing good coming in
next year as a very highly touted recruit. We've talked about that some,
but yeah, it's gonna be very odd if they're gonna go back to the
one big setup, which I think they're gonna have to. Who plays,
and if you want to maximize Hunter Dickinson, if you want to maximize his
strengths, which what is that an entry pass recipient, Dewan can throw the
ball into him, he'll lay it in. He doesn't have to leave the
paint very much unless you want him to. Unless he has the ability to
shoot a three, whatever you primarily want him to play in the paint.
You can't have kJ be the big alongside him for that to work, because
kJ can't get any space. They need to stretch four and that helps the
whole team obviously, because you're probably adding a guy who can shoot the ball,
which kJ cannot, and that's gonna help spacing in general because if kJ,
if a Hunter does want to pick and pop and play on the perimeter
a little bit, now the entire paint is wide open because theoretically you're gonna
have four other guys that can shoot the ball, and your spacing is gonna
be a lot better. So, yeah, kJ can't play with Hunter very
much, if at all, next year if he does come back, And
like I was saying, I don't know if two of those three guys who
are all starting caliber players are gonna want to ride the bench, and kJ
Adams has a role on this team. It's just a matter of is he
gonna want to accept being a sixth man. Is he gonna accept his playing
time going down by ten to fifteen minutes a game. He might not.
He may opt to go play at UTEP and be an absolute monster, be
the best player in school history. I don't know. I have a lot
of respect for kJ Adams, and I love it to work, but it's
just, at the end of the day, not the right fit. And
if you have the choice between another year of Hunter another year of kJ,
you're taking Hunter. You're taking the second team All American. There are KU
fans out there that if I ask them who's the better player between kJ Adams
and Hunter Dickinson, they would say, kJ, You're wrong. You can
like him more, you can like his skill set more, but he's not
a better player. And Bill self knows that you have to have a center
in this college basketball day and age, they have one that gets twenty and
ten. And you want to play a guy alongside a tall not for particular
athletic back to the basket big. It's gotta be a guy who can rebound
well, or it's got to be a guy that can shoot well. And
kJ can't do either. That is all accurate. Yeah, you need a
guy that can do that at the four. And really what you need at
the four is a small forward, and kJ is a is a finesse ish
power forward, and that's just not gonna work in this modern age basketball.
Let's talk about what Bill self said after the game, which is I've been
thinking about next year for the last month. To be honest, a lot
of people on Twitter took some issue with that. Any of you guys do
No, your team was atrocious for the last month. Who else was thinking
about next year? Everybody? Yeah, I don't know. Nick, you
got a problem with it? No, Yeah, I don't either. I
think it's a weird quote. Like you know, people were saying, well,
Kevin mccullor got hammered for what he said. Guys, they're very different
things. Bill self obviously doesn't meant during the game out there, He's sitting
there going, man, I hope he transfers or I wonder who I'll bring
in. It's just a matter of of you know, this season. I
think that was a direct I'm not gonna say attack of Kevin McCuller, but
I think the Kevin McCuller situation is more or less what led to him thinking
that, because that's when you realize that this team just was. You were
checking up hill, they had too many things against it. Johnny furfey Land
and tell me about him nine points, seven rebounds, but he did miss
four shots in a row in the opening a few minutes of the second half.
As the game was starting to slip away from the Jayhawks, but then
again, so did everyone else, so I can't blame him too much for
that. He finishes the season averaging nine points, five rebounds a game and
thirty three point rate. A question that we ask every show, we will
ask it again. Is he back Nick? Yes, he has to be.
There's no way he's getting drafted right the way that he finished the year,
There's no way he would get drafted. It's a it's a really bad
draft year, but there's I don't think there's I don't think it's gonna happen.
I think the cutoff is top twenty. I think if he goes to
the Combine and some team says, hey, we're picking seventeen and we love
you, I think he'll stay in the draft. I think that most likely
fifty five forty five right now, maybe if he's a because if you're a
late first round pick and you're not guaranteed to be in the first round,
that's a big money difference there. But if you're gonna go in the top
twenty, and you have pretty good jurisdiction that you're gonna go in the top
twenty potential lottery pick, you go every time. I think that's the cutoff.
I don't know if he is a top twenty pick right now, but
if he is, I think he goes, and if he's not, I
think he stays. If he comes back, I think he can go from
twenty two to five really quick in the next year's draft class, and he'd
be an awesome piece because he's the second best rebounder on this team. He
can play minutes at the four if you want to have three shooters out there
next year, or you can play him at the three, and whenever you
want to play really tall, assuming you have a different four out there that
can work landon. You think he goes, yeah, I think I would
mostly agree with you that. I think it's more likely than not that he
returns. But as you're saying yeah, if someone in that top especially like
top fifteen, is like, yeah, no, we love you. If
you're if you're on the board at twelve, you know we're taking you,
I think he probably takes that heartbeat and goes. I do think his main
feedback at the combine he's gonna have to be a better uh, He's gonna
have to have better game feel in the half court defense, and being more
consistent shooter, because obviously he showed he can be a really good shooter,
but he also was very streaky for most of the season. So I think
if you can get that straightened out, and I think it's very likely that
he will, uh and he seems like a smart enough kid he'll figure out
defense. Also weird that I could borderline legitimately call him a kid in comparison
to me. He's like five years younger. Yeah, he's very young.
I think he'll figure it out, but I think it's very possible that that'll
be the feedback and then he'll come back and average like seventeen a game next
year. Yep, he's gonna have more time to play next year than if
he's drafted and plays two minutes a game and his rookie season in the NBA
because he's raw. But it's all about the paycheck. If you're gonna be
a top twenty pick, there's no better place to get better for the NBA
than in the NBA. So I'm with you, though, I think the
defense has to be the main thing that he's the game field, which comes
with experience. It just had to be Gonzaga, didn't it Bill. So
anyone who's listening to this podcast knows that for years, my Twitter account and
my podcast has just taken a big dump on Gonzaga any opportunity we get.
I had a couple Gonzaga tweets our Twitter accounts blow up, some old takes
exposed rock Chalk blog takes where I made fun of how bad their conference was,
a lot of stuff about how I thought they were overrated at the beginning
of this year and now they get a steamroll through their dog pot, their
pile of dog crap conference to rack up wins and get overseeded. This game
didn't change that they weren't very good early in the season. They do get
a ton of built in wins with that horrible schedule. They are overseeded.
They had a great get they had a great day on Saturday. They're better
than Kansas, and I know this isn't even one of the better Gonzaga teams.
Kansas just wasn't very good at the State of Kansas that Gonzaga played.
But let's not act like them beating Kansas changes the narrative that they don't have
a history of gagging in the tournament. Spare me the stats about their seat
suggests that they get this many expected wins. I don't want to hear about
it when you have a one on a two darn ear every year and you
never manage to get it done. Win a title, and then we'll talk.
Maybe that's a really shallow boomer perspective I have with Gonzaga, but I've
seen him knock on the door enough. Tonight they won't. They'll lose in
the Sweet sixteen again like every year they and they've come close a couple times.
But for me, the game that broke me forever with Gonzaga was the
Baylor game. That was the game when I realized, like, okay,
I tried to listen, I try to believe that this team was different.
The best college team ever was in recent memory, was being hailed and they
got ran out of the gym by a Big twelve team that was admittedly also
extremely good, but Gonzaga was favored in that game. That was when I
realized that the best WCC team and the best Power League team, it's never
going to be a comparison. They have another chance against People were like,
oh we beat UCLA last year, Oh wow, that changes everything. Win
a title, and then that narrative will change, but I'll give him credit.
They're better than Kansas the two years that they played Kansas, they were
better than Kansas. And it showed because that was an ass kicking Dewan Harris
Nick. Let's talk about Ky's point guard. Yeah, I mean, I
guess everyone played bad in the second half, but this was really not his
fault. Had a double double with ten points eleven assists, really stepped up
when they teams needed scoring these past few games. But he was just four
for twelve from the floor, including two for ten on twos. All ten
of his points were in the first half. Brilliant before half, invisible afterwards.
Again everyone he was one of the main targets on Twitter as a result
of the loss. How much of this game or this season do you really
put on him? Landon. Here's my thoughts, and then I'll throw it
to you. I'm gonna push back a little bit on what Nick said.
I think that you mentioned one thing, and that's that he's been good the
last few games when Kansas has needed a step up in score. I think
that's the problem. I don't think he's done that. He was nothing thing
in the second half, and this is now three games Cincinnati, Houston and
this where you're the senior point guard. I know it's not you're You're not
a score first. You know I'm gonna gret I want the ball in my
hands, I'm gonna take over. But whenever Hunter is gassed and Kevin's not
there and Furphy's a freshman, like you're the senior point guard at some point,
dude, you've played. You've made over one hundred collegiate starts. Like.
I love Dewan Harris's skill set. I think Dewan Harris and Hunter Dickinson
are a good match for each other, and I think they're gonna win Kansas
a lot of basketball games next year. But this is the criticism of Dewan
Harris. He's not somebody who's going to be able to win. All the
secondary pieces, or the primary pieces for that matter, aren't playing well.
He's not gonna be able to overcome it by himself. Most of the time.
That was the problem in this game. He was invisible in the second
half. And whenever you are getting blown out in a tournament game, your
senior point guard can't go scoreless in that half. That cannot happen. That's
unacceptable. That's yeah, Hey, it is fair Nick it is Landon wouldn't
talk, so I had to fill in with his own verbiage. I think
Harris was alright, but I do agree with you Ryan that, especially with
my color out, I've been a little surprised that Harris because say what you
want about Harris, but he does have an ability to get two spots.
Sometimes he does have an ability to take guys off the dribble and guys will
leave him uput on three point line two, and that allows him space to
drive as well. And so especially in games where Kansas has not scored a
lot, I've really expected Harris to take a lot more shots and be a
lot more assertive, and he just kind of isn't. And I'm very surprised
by that. And I shouldn't be, I guess, because he's never really
been that. But I thought, you know, in moments like that where
his hand was forced, maybe he would, and he still never really did.
Twelve shots is not nothing, but it's it's not a ton when you're
getting ran off the floor in the NCATE tournament. So yeah, I don't
know, and I think this is not really gonna change for Dwan Harris.
He's either just gonna have to magically become like a fifty five percent shooter from
the field, or this is gonna be the exact same thing is next year,
which is plenty good enough to win a lot of games. But it's
not. It's it's a very flawed kind of style. Remy was such a
perfect I don't know who is the Batman and who is the Robin, but
maybe you just say they were the perfect one two punch. Remy was the
perfect counterpart for Harris. That National Championship second half shows it. Harris started
and keyed that comeback on the defensive end. He had multiple steals, he
had multiple assists. He was and you go back and watch I know that
we love Remy Martin and Remy had all the big shots down the stretch for
him. He did, he made the plays late. But it was Whenever,
but North Carolina's offense was really bad to start the second half, and
it was Whenever self whitched Martin back out there for Harris that the offense for
UNC started to get going. They just played perfectly together, and it would
be so great to be able to go get a point a score first.
Marco Jackson oh, very much like he's very much like Green and Morning.
All right, let's talk about Alamarco Jackson. Here, he had seven garbage
time points and two turnovers and seventeen minutes this tournament, he had seven turnovers
to six baskets. Uh. He concludes his freshman season fifty two baskets,
fifty one turnovers, and seventy one fouls. And also, in case that
wasn't bad enough, a team worse twenty seven percent three point right I I
people on Twitter get so sensitive whenever you criticize players. Marco Jackson's bad at
Mike two six three eight two five two four, Well, yo, with
for a different team, then we support our Jayhawks the same twit, the
same account hates Hunter Dickinson. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Hunter's not a
real Jayhawk. El Mark Jackson's got to go. I do not want to
see us scholars and everybody's like, well look at Tyane Grant Foster enough,
stop please just stop, just stop. No. No. Somebody said that
somebody had a really good analogy that says we gotta let the product cook in
the oven and stop trying to microwave it and be surprised why it tastes bad.
That's not the worst analogy, but the portal nowadays, you can go
find a guy that can shoot better than Almarco Jackson. If you are a
guard and you cannot shoot, you are dead. To me. Yeah,
he's gonna be an odd one because he says he's coming back, which you
know who else said that, sir? You know who else said that a
week before the season ended, Bobby Pettiford and Joe Yesafu. He hasn't had
his exit meeting with Bill self yet. Yeah, sure enough, And I
think there's a very good chance that happens if indeed he does come back,
as long if he plays the exact same role next season as he finished the
year playing this year when they had the full rotation, that's what you're looking
for. And I think that's fine, And I think he has a chance
to be a not disgusting player because I think another year in the system he
could be better, at least a little bit, at least playably better.
He had a couple of nice dunks. He can't shoot. He's not very
good defensively. He can't He's a freaking he was listed as a combo point
guard and he can't handle the ball. Well, he doesn't turn it over.
He falls down every time he gribbles in space. You cannot know.
And that's why I think he really can't play much more than that kind of
role next year if he does come back, because why why would you try
that? You have a Harris and you have two freshmen air force next year.
Yes, yes, he's a nice guy. He's worked hard. He's
worse than Bryce Thompson. He's worse than than than MJ. Rice because he
didn't get the shot with injury out. I'm dye on that hill and he's
Oh my gosh, is he worse than Josh Selby? Josh Shelby was a
disappointment Shelby. Please stop saying he's worse than He's better than Selby and grind
He's not two games. Yes, Selby broke his foot, and Grimes was
a competent player, if not oh and if not unspectacular, he was a
He was a serviceable player on a four seed. El Marco has had more
freaking turnovers than baskets enough. I hope it works for el Marco, I
do. I hope he goes to a different school like Bryce Thompson and it
works. He can't shoot. Let him figure it out somewhere else, and
that's probably likely. And another guy who would do that if he wasn't like
in college for his twelfth year is Nick Timberlake. He finishes the game with
nine points, two threes, six rebounds in thirty two minutes. His career
is indeed over, but at least he went from over uh thirty percent from
three thanks to this game. That's what a mark for Nick Timberlake thirty point
two. Jamar mcdal had three points in seven minutes. The Walkuns played at
the end, as they typically do when Bill self loses tournament games, and
my only Timberlake blurb is the one of the first questions the reporter asked to
him is did you make the right decision coming to Kansas? And he just
looked at him, like what what? What do you even want me to?
What? What do you want me? Can we can we stop?
We can we start taking press passes from these lousy ass cracker jack reporters who
in the world Duke would have made his career better? Right? What do
you want to say? No, man, I wish I didn't come here.
This place sucks like what I hated my time I had a bad time.
I wish I know, yeah, done this just hard? Did you
see the reporter ask Matt Painter, I know you guys are probably gonna win.
But and Painter looked at him like, what the hell are you talking
about? He interrupts him and goes, whoa, wha, Well, this
is March madness. Everybody's really good, Like I feel like that the reporters
have just lost their mind recently. No, Matt Paine was like, who
whoa, whoa have you seen this lose in the past five seasons. That's
a tournament. We have a great chance of losing, thank you very much.
And they look like winning. My watch which car dealership well Timberlake be
working for in a month? I assume that's I heard. Hi, I
get yourself a nice new Chevy Cruise at a Laithakia. I'm Nick Timberlake.
Make sure your March isn't a bust like mine. It's like the post It's
like the post NL job offer this I made for miles of the gallon than
my three point percentage. Hi, I'm Neck Timberlake, and I get thirty
dollars and thirty cents every time I sell a car, which is the percentage
of threes. I made my last season of Kansas. Our warranty on all
of our new vehicles is six years. It's a long time, and that's
how long I've been in college. And if it busts like we made your
bracket due, we got a twelve month warranty yours for no extra charge.
Oh, I meant to push h We got any closing thoughts your future,
ladies and gentlemen, Yeah, that's it's a glimpse into El Marco jack future
is all right, guys, we got a real tough one night against a
cane, but if we catch him, I think we can win this conference
championship. All right, let's go team on three. No. I don't
want to bag on Almarco Jackson too much, but you got two stud freshman
point guard prospects coming in. Uh Flon can really shoot the ball, pass
more, does more things than than al Marco Kann. Neither of those guys
should lose minutes to a guard that he'll be a great Big West guard.
Yep, yeah, yep. He can go play in the Big West and
dunk every six games and make people at s And he's I'm Eastern Washington al
Marco Jackson. I'm sure he's a great dude. But in the transfer portal,
when there's guys that can shoot, and you already with Harris and Timberlake
on our Timberlake, with Harris and Dickinson on your roster, you kind of
know you need to surround those guys with shooters. I don't need another good
de plus defender, combo guard that can't shoot, no please, And I
think Bill self is probably gonna make some moves too if Bill's I will say
this, if Bill self keeps telling Marco Jackson, I expect el Marco Jackson
to have a very nice sophomore season, because that does not feel like the
sort of move that self will break the trend and bring back underwhelming freshman unless
he sees something. Probably look at me just blindly trusting freaking Bill and his
four first weekend losses in the last five tournaments. The guy who didn't try
to switch one GEDD MF thing with that pick and roll defense, And they
asked him after the game, He's like, well, I can't just play
a different zone. We hadn't practiced that olden by all means, go ahead,
keep playing the one that was working. Quite so well in the whole
second half, Bill, I'm glad we didn't try anything else ever, just
just Mark freaking few who do they also get like gosh, Mark Fu looks
terrible. He looks like a freaking yetti out there. Do they not have
a dental planetaint Zaga? What in the hell is going on with Mark Fu?
He's a weird wolf and he kicks Bill selfs ash twice now in four
years final, I think that's thirty from the floor from three out of nowhere,
yay, six from the free throw line, minus five on the glass,
minus two turning the ball over. None of those des are horrendous.
Well, I guess some of them are, but that doesn't scream. They
lost by twenty one. Nick, Kansas final loss the year, uh,
perhaps your final Kansas March loss recaps. It's such a fall from grace.
Two years ago we were celebrating a national championship, and my departure on this
show is a twenty point loss to Gonzaga in the second round. Anyats on
this season as a whole, Nick, here was games very disappointing. I
mean, anything other than that is you know, start number one overall?
Just yeah, just a fall from grace. But it's the worst. It's
the worst season. Yeah, era, it is. It's the worst season.
But it's just I think it was over before began. That's my hot
take with with Arterio Morris being out, they were soaked thin at the beginning.
Yeah, I wish self would have added someone before the end of the
year, but man, what a it's like a balloon deflating. They were
thirteen and one when the game in Orlando tipped off, and they wound up
going what ten and eleven in the last twenty one games. Yeah, that's
that's shocking. Yeah, it's the worst season in the celf Era. They
finished fifth in the Big twelve and they didn't make the second weekend of the
tournament. Like those are you literally can't do that. He's never done worse.
He's never not He's never done worse than that. So it's pretty disappointing,
especially whenever you consider that it started with the preseason number one team in
the Land and a team that looked like that they were playing really well for
quite a while and then yeah, then they also they had their well I
also want to add too, like Land and I were really skeptical early on
because of how they played against Eastern Illinois. They did not look skeptical.
When they lost to Illinois and the exhibition, you were like, hmm,
that's kind of strange. They can't shoot very well. They didn't look very
good throughout the timber Lake even shot the ball well early. That's what we
said. I remember us saying like, somebody other than Timberlake has to step
up, and Timberlake didn't step up, and oof drop. You've heard a
few times, yeah, that this roster wasn't the best fit together. I'm
not gonna sit here and be like, oh, imagine if they had had
Ourtario. That's not the question. The question is imagine if they had the
roster spot used on somebody else, because Ourtario never should have been a Jayhawk
based off of what happened to Texas, and they went for it, and
people are like, oh, is a high risk Hyer. No stop that.
Let's just pretend that they instead chose to go after somebody that they wouldn't
have to worry about if he would behave well enough to still be a contributor.
Hell, in game one, I was gonna say in March, but
he didn't make it a late night that's when it got off the rails.
They didn't have the athletes, they didn't have the shooting Artario could have helped
with both those things. Then they were still okay for a while for their
standards. They were still going to be a two seed until mccullor got hurt.
What were they sixteen and three whenever mccullor got hurt during the Cincinnati game,
I think it was, and then like losing record after that too,
So that's when it all fell apart. I we knew around the time that
they lost to West Virginia that something was up. I think, yeah,
the sorry go Aheadlanin No, I was just gonna I was just gonna say
that. Unfortunately, the concerns, which at the time I didn't even think,
we're one hundred percent founded that KU playing pretty poorly against teams like Eastern
Illinois and not looking great against UMKC and Gale and stuff like that. Indiana
wasn't good games like that. Yeah, in Missouri they beat Missouri by eight.
Yeah, like these very mediocre teams. At the time, I was
like, I think Kansas is just kind of playing down to their opponent,
especially when you consider like they beat Tennessee and they beat Yukon, and they
played well in other games, like they held around with a very good Marquette
team before they kind of put them away. But I thought, hey,
we're gonna enter conference player. I remember saying this early. We'll see if
that holds with Kansas. If that style of play holds, I didn't think
it really would, and for a minute in conference play I didn't think it
was. But unfortunately they were never able to shake that. And that was
something that did indeed factor in for the entirety of their season was that they
just did not have an X factor, especially away from home. Yes,
they won some big games as I alluded to earlier, Yukon, Houston,
Baylor, they played some very good games and won against very good teams who
were playing past when they are. But that was a problem for kansasll year
was that they just really had no no X factor, no get up and
go at any point on the road or away from Allen Field House, and
that is what ended up getting them. What I find more concerning than this
season alone, like scratch this season. I know Bills've had a down year,
but the transfer portal is just this shows how unsustainable this whole thing is
like you used to be able to get recruits, Like way back in the
old days, you used to be able to get recruits and maybe get at
least two to three years out of them. And now it's like you're picking
up because you need experience. People realize you need experiencing. And see a
tournament. You see Kentucky losing in the first round. So you go pick
up all these seniors and super seniors in the transfer portal and you're turning them
over the next year and you got to go find them again, and you're
just hoping that you can. It's basically like taking different colors of play though
and trying to like push them together and make something cool out of it.
And it's just it just doesn't work sometimes and some Yukon's figured it out,
but overall, like the transfer portal is just really just ruined any continuity,
continuity in the in the in the college basketball gave landscape. I mean,
you look at women's basketball, we're like where they're not going pro. There's
not as much transferring happening as the men because the nil is less important.
Let's just be honest, there is a chalk you know, it's chalk.
These teams are very good. They're good year after year college basketball, the
men's Yeah, it's a top few top teams that are good every year.
But it's so unpredictable. I don't know how Bill wants to keep coaching in
this environment. Yeah, that's that's the thing. You've seen a lot of
coaches. I mean, look how quickly Roy Williams, coach K Jim Beheim,
those guys got out whenever the recruiting change like that. So it is
interesting. We'll have some more with the ascarcbs. But now it's well the
airhorn and talk about how basically every other higher seed one except for the one
we receive it Bill other games. Let's recap the second round of the NCAA
tournament. I always get the first bracket Landon, Why don't you start?
Then Nick can go and I'll go third. So we'll go in a different
rotation orders time. I let's do it round to thirty two. Here we
go in East Yukon. They continue their march to being the first team to
repeat in a long long time since six oh seven Florida as they take down
Northwestern seventy five to fifty eight. I didn't get to see too many of
the Sunday game. Both had a pretty busy day, but Yukon seemingly never
never really endo out there. They marched on a pretty good Northwestern team and
they handled their business a game that just went final. Yukon will play San
Diego State in the Sweet sixteen next week. San Dieo State absolutely rolls Yale
eighty five to fifty seven game never close San Diego State in a rematch of
the National championship game from last season. They continue to look good. Do
you think they have any chance to upset the Huskies? Nick? I don't
think so. Yukon is just a bulldozer right now. I mean Yukon eventually,
eventually, Yukon is gonna play a game, but they don't win by
thirteen. No defending champion has made the Elite eight in and what I think
we're on seventeen years now, it was oh seven Florida, which is what
they are trying to do. They need to beat San Diego State to do
it, as Techs have played with defense in the first game and they won
with offense in the second game. Yes, I think this is going to
be a game that's decided by single digits. I still think Yukon wins,
but San Diego State clearly they have. I mean, geez, they've won
what seven NCAA Tournament games the last two years? Like they have been They've
been really good in the postseason eight now five plus two? Right, they
didn't win six, Yukon won eight. Oh yeah, Yukon won six.
Yeah yeah, San Diego State, Yukon's the only reason that San Diego State's
not an eight in the bottom half of that region. Illinois also looking very
strong. I think Illinois one of the three or so Bass teams in the
tournament, and they looked the part as they rolled to Kne eighty nine to
sixty three. In other game not particularly close. Terrence Shannon continues his excellent
form. They were going to take on big twelve zone Iowa State, the
two seed. Washington State gave him a game for a while that was close,
but the Cyclones pull away late and they finished strong to get the eleven
point wins sixty seven fifty six. So are we are we all on Yukon
Illinois or do we think Iowa State gets gets into the lead eight here,
Nick, I think Iowa State's gonna win. I don't trust Illinois. See
I don't trust Iowa. I say I trust Illinois a lot more on I
trust Iowa State. Yeah, I think Iowa States had the easiest path to
the second weekend of any of the ones and the twos, if we're being
honest, like Washington State, Okay, I think Iowa States. Ioy played
Ducaine and Morehead State. That Yeah, I guess the the that is true.
They got the benefit of not having to play BYU. But Illinois can
put up points. I think they win, and I still think I'm gonna
go with what I had in my original bracket. I think Illinois upsets Yukon
in the ely d eight. Okay, I think it's very possible. I
think I think Illinois is money, but I'm still betting Yukon because they are
an absolute machine. They're a wagon for sure. All Right, take the
South region. This is unsharded waters for you. Normally, I feel like
you've gotten the Midwest. Let's see if you can handle the South. Yeah.
Well, the game that just wrapped up as we were recording. We
saw the buzzer beater at the end of the regulation. But Texas A and
m unlike Kansas in two thousand and eight, was unable to take their buzzer
beating game tying shot two oh victory. They lose to Houston in the overtime
period one hundred and to ninety five. When is the last time the Houston
Cougar scored one hundred points in a basketball game. It's been gave up ninety
five And this was one of the worst officiated games ever. Houston starting five
had twenty four fouls. That's one under the maximum possible. Here, they
had walk on shooting free throws. In the end, they were up thirteen
with like two minutes left, A and M forces overtime and then just runs
out of gas. Houston would not have survived a second overtime with who was
still on the court. Shark fouled out, Crier fouled out. Shed found
that, like my goodness, just a wild game. Game of the tournament
thus far. That's hard to beat though, because you had Colorado beat Florida
one hundred and two to hundred. Yeah, they will be facing the Duke
Blue Devils. They beat James, they beat a president, a dead president.
Glad they could beat a dead president ninety three to fifty five. The
Dukes are out of the tournament good thirty and thirty three in four season or
whatever, but they did the Blue Devils to everyone's surprise, or in the
sweet sixteen to set a match versus Houston. Any comments on Duke with how
you've seen so far, They're really good. They looked Austin today. They
put it on James Madison. Yeah, I think they're gonna lose to Houston.
However, the fatigue factor is interesting. Houston just played an extra quarter
of a game. They do get five days off. I don't know,
Landa, what do you think that Duke's one of the foremost talented teams.
They're more talented than Houston. I don't think they're only as well coach though,
that's the tiebreaker. Yeah, I think that is very like. Duke
has played very organized basketball in what I've seen of them so far in the
tournament. They have also be a twelve. That's also true. That's also
true. They dominated a good twelve, though Houston obviously a much different animal
than that. It's hard to bet against them, but I think Duke'll give
him a run. I think it'll be I think it'll be close, close
for a while, and then in the bottom of the bracket. The eleven
versus fourteen interesting matchup in the second round they are, but in C State
continues their hot streak in this March run. They win against the Oakland Golden
Grizzlies and they will be playing Marquette. Shaka Smart made it to the second
weekend a really close game against Colorado. Eddie Lampkin been fantastics this season,
but the Buffalo's run ins there. Do we all like Marquette to be playing
Houston and the elit eight? Yeah? I think so, I think.
But every time we go against n C State, Man Golkie only made six
three in this and that was a great game that went to overtime. They've
won seven games in twelve days and C State has really makes you not feel
too bad Whenever Bill self says that the Jayhawks were fatigued with their three games
in two weeks. The Marquette Colorado game six players in the rotation, that's
true, doesn't help. Tyler Kullak is a difference maker twenty one points,
eleven assists. Colorado really just had a like they were right there in the
second half and they just were disorganized down the stretch. I think Marquette wins,
Shaka's first second weekend appearance in his last ten tries. Svincent's twenty eleven
no idea. What happened at the end of that run. Yes, I
think Marquette wins, but I think this is Houston's Houston's region to lose.
That's my turn, isn't it? The Midwest where number one per Due just
absolutely sat on Utah State and won by almost forty one hundred and six to
sixty seven. And one of the It's a good thing that we are not
in side Utah State Athletics podcast because they're some of their coaching decisions. They
got some early foul trouble on their bigs. They have a seven footer that
was supposed to go to toe too with Edie, and they immediately set them
on the bench. This was a game for about ten minutes. It was
like twenty Yeah, it's twenty four to twenty three. They led through twelve
minutes, and the coach just decided, Nope, I'm not putting our bigs
back in there. With two first half fouls, and what happened. Purdue
opens up a huge lead and the game was over risk the third foul.
Shockingly, nobody wound up fouling out. It's okay to risk a third foul.
It's not a fifth foul, it's just a third. You can still
play with three. What constitutes foul trouble in you guys's minds. For me,
it's four fouls at any point, or three fouls in the first half.
That's it. That's the only time you're in foul trouble. Uh,
that's pretty good interpretation. I'd say, if you have three in the first,
like four minutes of the second half, that's probably foul trouble. But
Bill doesn't even pull them if they have three that early in the second half.
He'll pull you if you have three with one second left in the first
half, but he will not pull you if you have three with nineteen fifty
nine left in the second half, which makes no sense of course. And
Hunter, yeah, picked up a second foul with one second left. So
maybe we'll eventually have have a way to do that. Perdue will be playing.
I'm not quite sure. Does anybody here know what happened in the other
results of Oh hey, you know what, Hey, I see I see
a one seed, a two seed in a three seed in the sweet sixteen
in the Midwest. That means the four seed is there right too, chalk
Ash, If only sir, if only Perdue plays Gonzaga, I think Gonzaga
is about to get their doors blown off of them. But you know what,
if I hope it's close, I hope Gonzaga wins, but I don't
think it's going to be close. You guys got to take I think yeah.
And then the bottom half here, two good games. Number three Creighton
out last number eleven Oregon in two overtimes. They wound up winning by thirteen,
but it was in double overtime. Oregon should have won this game.
They were up by a bucket and had the ball missed a couple free throws.
The Ducks I think are the scarier team honestly than Creighton was. I
know, Creighton's pretty good. And then Rick Barnes almost Rick Barnes and an
ugly sixty two to fifty eight win over number seven Texas. Truly, the
Rick Barnes Bowl would have would be no better setting for him to Rick Barnes
himself. But Rodney Terry, future Burger flipper, Rodney Terry called a great
play call. They are down three with twenty seconds left, where Max Abemis
basically launched the ball from mars and it didn't even come close. And Rodney
Terry was looking like, huh, I can't believe my play call didn't work,
as he rubbed his gigantic flyglasses. I think Tennessee beat Creighton, but
I have this is the chokers region here. We got Painter, we got
Barnes, we got McDermott, and we got Few. We got four perennial
losers before they should lose in this tournament. I'm got to get to the
final four. That's the weird part. Yeah, I derm it. I
think I think Creighton's got a pretty good chance. No, yeah, I
like Tennessee. They can't score, uh, but they're but I think you
guys are are falling in love a little bit with the with the highlight tapes
of that. I don't think Creighton's good either. I'm gonna pick Tennessee,
but I think the regions matchup. If Purdue doesn't win this region, it's
never happening. This is their chance, all right, And I guess it
goes back to you. I guess you get an all you can in US.
I'm here back on the West, rounding out the bracket Here North Carolina
despite an early scare for Michigan State. Michigan State jumped out to an early
double digital lead, but then North Carolina went on a huge run never looked
back. Wins that game eighty five sixty nine where they will play Alabama,
who takes down the fighting Tyon Grant Fosters and Grand Canyon in a game we
thought was gonna be like one hundred to one hundred and six ended up being
seventy two sixty one. Not quite the fireworks show we were hoping for.
Alabama does get by. That should be a fun one between the Tar Heels
and the Tide. I think the Tar Hiels are going to get them.
I think they're the much more well rounded team. But you never can have
Alabama's offense. So the thing with this Alabama. They wound up winning the
game by eleven, but it was a one point game. With four minutes
left. Alabama scored the last ten total runout of gas by Grand Canyon Tyan
Grant Foster twenty nine points and eight rebounds. He's legitimately one of the ten
best players in the country. He also gets to play free, which Bill
self would never allow. That loose of eleish on him, and he did
miss a bunch of shots in this game, but they were going as far
as he took him. I'm with you, Lanta, and I think you
and C wins. But Alabama's got an offense that should be a high scoring
game. The defense is what get him. Also, I read online that
you and C the average age of their starting five is basically the same as
the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's drawn up by the fact that Armando Baycot is
celebrating his thirty eighth birthday next month and he's still dunking basketball's at UNC.
Nick, you think the Tar Heels advance. I don't like North Carolina,
but they do have kind of an easier draw Alabama's. The wheels are gonna
fall off for Alabama soon. I'm gonna say that again. I think I
almost trust Nate Oates more than Hubert too, But I yeah, I North
Carolina is the better team, and then bottom half of the region Landon Uh
not good. If you're a Big twelve fan. Yeah, it's bye twenty
seven from Ray J. Dennis. Clemson. Number six seed Clemson takes down
the Baylor Bears by eight seventy two. Sixty four to get to the sweet
sixteen. Baylor was a decently popular final four pick for some and they go
down pretty early, same weekend as the Jayhawks, and then Scott Drew rant
here one second before you go, I we need to play the draw because
there's some evidence that's been brought to my attention about Scott Drew boom. Scott
Drew's a great coach, He's got a ring. We think that he's the
top prospect for a lot of these head coaching vacancies. But Scott Drew has
made the second weekend of the NCAA tournament one time since two thy fourteen.
That was ten years ago. He's a three seed this year, didn't make
it a three seed last year, didn't make it a one seed the year
before that, didn't make it three seed back in twenty fifteen, lost to
a fourteen in the first round, number one for most of the year in
twenty seventeen, barely made this week sixteen, then lost. I don't know,
like it's it's a little underwhelming. I'm glad they got that title because
otherwise I think we'd be talking about Scott Drew like a lot of people talk
about Matt Paynter and Rick Barnes. That's true, but the one thing that
separates is that he did indeed win that title, winning a show and then
running out at all. In the round of thirty two, Number two,
Arizona takes down seven day and seventy eight sixty eight in a game that was
never really all that close. They'll go play Clemson. I think we're gonna
see North Carolina make their way to the Final four. If I'm being honest,
I mean it's out in Phoenix, or isn't it? Or no,
that's where the is that where the final fourth? Final four? Phoenix's in
Los Angeles, So Arizona should have a pretty distinct CREWD advantage there. I
was hoping we'd see Grand Canyon and Arizona in LA for a pretty split house.
I think Arizona goes to the final four. I think that I trust
them better than you and c and I think we get to see the Caleb
love Bull. Hope you like bricks, You're gonna get a lot of the
UK they play. All right, let's get on with the ask GARCB questions.
All Right, Nick, you've done an incredible job. I know this
is way past your bedtime. And I know you hate ASCARCB. Are you
sure you want to finish the show and do a bunch of ASCARCB questions?
I'm giving you the tap out chance here. I'm in too deep, all
right, I like it. Let's blow through these quickly. Here we go.
Once I hear an answer, we will move along. This can be
a whole bunch of random questions here. Let's see here at rock Chalking.
If Zach Clements won't be back next year, what in the world was the
point of him red shirting? Great question? So it can idea so he
can, so he can save eligibility to go play at Eastern Washington. Yeah,
I was gonna say, so he can and look more appealing. He
can say that he sat out at Kansas. I don't know. At Zigg's
Weed Dickinson gets a lot of hate, which ku Big Ben under self.
Would you rather have than them than him? Maybe? Udoka? My answer
is none of them, Robinson, Robinson, but here but I don't.
Okay, So that's obviously if I put that pull out, Oh wow,
would people it would be ninety ten. I think that Hunter Dickinson, I'm
not gonna say he's a better player than Thomas Robinson, because I don't know
that's true. Thomas Robinson also wasn't a center. But like I, I
don't think if you put the right pieces around him, I don't think there's
a huge difference in their games. I don't know, Like I'm taking yeah,
but Thomas Robinson wasn't. I don't think Thomas Robinson altered as many shots
as Hunter does. I don't know. I well, we know we altered
the biggest shot ever in his basketball history. Well, you want to know
what helped Thomas Robinson The fact all what helped him is he didn't have to
play the center because he played alongside the best defensive player in the history of
the Big Twelve. That helped he had Jeff with You alongside him. I
love Jeff with You. I wouldn't take with You over Dickinson either. He's
not as good of an offensive player. That probably is the ultimate question.
Dickinson and with You are probably pretty even players all things considered. Dickinson good
on offense, amazing on defense. To uh, Dickinson is a or with
the was a great defensive player at the offense, which just kind of he
took what was given to him and Dickinson is the opposite, amazing on offense
and not the best defense. I would take him over everybody. I take
him over Cole, I take him over Doke, I take him over Dickinson.
You guys are going to see what happens whenever you put how cheez dope
couldn't create his own shot and he had two of the best passers in the
history of the program, and Dodson and Garrett throwing him the lobs all the
time. What do you think Dickinson's numbers would look like with those guys.
They wouldn't dunk the ball. Nobody would go in just as much. It
would count as the same two points. I don't know. I don't like
Hunter Dickinson as much as you, that's for sure. At DJ Radar,
did head coach Bill selves health scare impact the recruiting this year? Very possibly
could be. Also, everybody who acts like Chris Johnson and Marcus Adams leaving
had an impact on this team. No, what didn't Bill wasn't it gonna
play him anyway? He doesn't play his bitch At Bill self? Me,
Dad, Hey, look at that account. That's I'll go ahead and follow
At Bill's self me dad, we'll see how we'll see what fun that brings
us. What are the odds? Flory? But Dounga stays if he's not
being given a starting role. Not sure if he had ever had his commitment
on Twitter, but he doesn't have a tweet about it. I mean,
clearly, do you think they thought Dickinson was gonna be here for one year?
And that's why they recruited a center that high. They recruited Flory before
Dickinson got here, though, didn't they? I think they did. I
think they're gonna use him together. But yes, but Doonga needs to play
or he's gonna be like, Nope, I can go anywhere else. Yeah,
and that's a lot of Also, the kJ Adams conversation is if he
comes back, then all of a sudden, Yeah, you have three guys
that all are probably gonna be worthy of lots of minutes. But I think
Bill self is only gonna want to play one of them at a time.
Yep, at J two, all right, I'll say that one at Cope
fraud all right, let's just go ahead and do these here. I'm gonna
group them all together. Which players do you want back of the potential returning
scholarship players. We have at Glitchen underscore Ashperd that says this team needs more
shooters. At CFB four three five asks about where do we go from this
year to next year. There's a handful of other questions about who comes back.
Dickinson comes back, Harris comes back, Johnny's fifty to fifty kJ.
I think you might be surprised. Al Marco I don't think comes back.
McDowell shrug clements, probably not. I arguments like Furfey to come back.
I would like kJ to come back if the role changes at least some I
wouldn't be like upset if el Marco plays. If el Marco has about the
same role as usual. Uh, and then obviously Hunter and Harris is fine.
I guess who's who I think is coming back and who isn't? Yeah,
I don't think I only I think that only Furfey and Dickinson will be
back Forurphy, Dickinson and Kg'll be back. Are you counting Harris? Oh
yeah, Harris. But that's already given. Because that's the case, they're
going to return four starters. And I will also say, by the way,
people including us lambassetted Bill self for saying things need to change, and
then what did you do? After twenty one? He brought back four starters,
right, Brown, Wilson, at Boggie and McCormick brought them all back.
How'd that work out? Like? I think that Bill self though that
team had a lot more potential sitting in in this one, did I think
for a lot of the time. Yeah, they have a second team All
American center, They have a most improved player in the Big twelve at power
forward. They have a national champion point guard. They act like this team's
full of scrubs. It's just a matter of getting the piece. Is the
fit, not necessarily that the pieces suck. That's largely true. I don't
know. I don't know. That team had a lot of potential. This
team has a lot of good players, but I just don't know if these
players do fit together. I just don't know if they do like at all.
And it kind of ties in here with that Kate Eden fourteen, who
says what's on my mind is I want Kay to shoot better and be more
athletic. I only want Hunter and Johnny back, maybe kJ. Besides that,
I want an entirely different roster. I mean that's more or less what
I think a lot of people are saying. Harris is an important piece.
And also, by the way, you guys may think I'm crazy on this,
Go ask any college coach who'd you rather have your choice of any freshman
point guard out there or to want Harris. One hundred out of one hundred
are taken to one Harris. Oh yeah, that's true. Like weird,
but it's true. No doubt, Harris is a winner. Harris is a
guy who can elevate his teammates. You have to surround him with the right
pieces. But Harris is a intelligent, plays within his means, well coached
player. That's the sort of guy you want quarterback in your offense. I
know that we watch Rob Dillingham and we're like, that'd be fun. Rob
Dillingham made plays in four or five Kentucky games that Harris didn't. He also
cost Kentucky four or five games that Harris wouldn't have cost his team. Yeah,
that is accurate. But nonetheless, they need someone on the perimeter next
season that can go get them a bucket at any moment, and dwe Harris
is frankly not that guy, and he that's yeah, Dwan can be your
point guard. You just need a guy at some point that can score baskets
for you from the perimeter at any moment, that can create on his own.
They did not have that this year. They need that next a few
for Matt show me Hawk here. I went on my timeline after the loss
and there was legitim discourse contents contesting Bill self's title as the best active coaching
college basketball. He has switched down a couple of years in the past half
decade with a Natty Sandwich. Then people are still trying to create a narrative.
Well, I mean, if Dan Hurley wins it this year, you're
gonna have some competition there. I would take Bill over any of them,
but that would change the narrative, I think, would it. Do you
think Hurley be considered the best? I think I'd be incorrect, but he
probably would be considered by Samia. Uh. We all know who the college
basketball blue bloods are, But who do you guys think is in their second
tier? Okay, let's do blue bloods talk. What is it? Kansas,
Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina. I think that Yukon. I'm more
of a recent game. I think Kansas. I'm putting Villanova in the blue
blood class and leaving out UCLA. In Indiana, I'm about a what have
you done recently? Not necessarily what have you in the last five years,
but you gotta have done something in the last fifty and ucl at least made
a few final fours now and again. Indiana, yeah, I agree with
Indiana not being in that tier. Still is in that tier, but they
are fading. So my tier, my second tier of blue bloods is UCLA
and Indiana. Probably Michigan State, Syrahcuse maybe, but they're they're fading fast
without Beheim Gonzaga probably they belong there. Honestly, Gonzaga wins a title,
and they may they if Gonzaga wins a title, I'm putting them above UCLA
and Indiana for now, like like it's a They've made nine straight Sweet sixteens.
They just need the title. Baylor's kind of getting closer. I don't
know. I don't care about what what you did in the fricking sixties when
sixteen teams made it and Bill Walton was going twenty of twenty one from the
floor. UCLA has not done anything in my lifetime. I am almost thirty.
I have not seen a minute of relevant UCLA or Indiana basketball would warrant
blue blood status. That's what I'm basing it off of. Put in Nova
and Yukon undoubtedly, are you kidding me? How are their people? They
don't think Yukon's the title for sure. People are like, well, they
don't make the tournament every time, but you count Indiana who has about as
many titles and doesn't make the tournament every time, Like what are we doing?
What did Yukon have to do? Yeah? I think Yukon has earned
that spot. Nova maybe, but they may be a product of their coach,
like now that they don't have Jay Wright. Yeah, if they never
have more success after Jay Wright, then it's harder to say that because then
they just become a team that had a really good coach for a minute.
Yeah, and I guess they they they did have a title in eighty five,
like they did have a They have had history, but but the peak
was with right. Obviously, if were to retire in the next two years,
I would call Jay Wright would be my first call. Yeah. Speaking
of remember whenever I listed all the coaches that retire because I didn't want to
deal with nil stuff, Jay Wright. That's why else would he retire at
the peak of his game. Yeah, which is probably accurate. But I
also agree with Nick. He's my first call. Yes, he would say
no, Uh, he probably is making every bit as much money. Yes,
yeah, he left Villanova at sixty. He didn't after winning two titles
in five years. Yeah, but I'd be a but Villanova was not the
top job in the in the in the sport. I think he went on,
what's my top job in the sport? Is it Kansas or Duke or
north of Kentucky? It's Kentucky, which might be open at some point here.
How was it Kentucky? The money blue blood of all They have the
most wins wink, and they have the most titles. No, you see
only whatever you see the shouldn't count the most money. Forgotten about. They
also have the most money. Thing to discussed at eleven forty eight at night,
Yeah, I would have been, Uh, we're about to have a
real conversation about which of the worst twenty nineteen, twenty one, twenty four,
who was the worst? It's this one. Those other teams finished better
than fifth in the Big twelve. I think it probably is this one.
Though I think ahead to head they might beat twenty twenty one. Also,
it's closer if Kansas just closes out BYU finishes third in the Big twelve,
and then we're probably saying it's all a wash because they all finish third and
they all are lost in the second round. Twenty twenty one and now twenty
three twenty four are I think are definitively the bottom two. Twenty one was
the worst team. If they're all in a best of seven series tournament,
that team loses first. Yeah, I agree, eighteen nineteen is probably right
after that. Yeah, this team is better than those two. They also
face the more challenging schedule than those two. They also had the same you
know, roster construction whatever. This team had the worst season, but they
were not the worst team in my opinion, and the last one from show
Me Hawk. Imagine if Kansas had actually lost the Creighton game in twenty twenty
two, Holy hell, can you have I think if they lose to Creighton,
the whole offseason is probably a little different. But can you imagine?
Yeah, that would have sucked. Yeah, Bill needed that title, so
at Matt Underscore, Gallentine says, read my story, I paid the price
for it. Yes, so I should have read this on the last show,
Matt. Sorry, I forgot about it. Now that's in the nascarcvs.
I see it. So Matt Gallentine messaged me, uh and talked about
how he did a challenge where he took a shot for every three that a
white guy made against Kansas in the Samford game, and he texted me the
results. Texted me the results. There were only three between nine thirty and
ten thirty PM. There was only the first half, but then in the
second half there were a total of six between ten fifty two and eleven fourteen.
That's twenty two minutes where Matt took shots number four, five, six,
seven, eight nine, and he adds then he tapped out with eleven
minutes left in the game. And Matt, I know that you know this
now, but it got worse. You probably have to do some shots like
not retroactively because you missed a couple more. That's wild. I'm glad you're
alive, Matt. Great story. I love that those sort of things.
Okay, uh yeah, then then the majority of what's left here, Travius
ninety, We're very close, yes, Travius ninety nine says I want to
issue a formal apology for defending l Marco. Yep, just it just didn't
work. Just didn't work. You're forgiven we all had higher hopes. Also
says that when K you played four round one with Dope, Bill self said
he never wanted to go back to playing two bigs. I guess getting a
one see with kJ in the middle wasn't enough. Do you think he goes
back to four round one? I do. I think he's two ball handlers,
two shooters, and a big. I do not think kJ is going
to be a thirty minutes a game guy if he's here at all. Yep,
I am att accurate. Three more at Chris Siriko two. Do you
think Ku has the one, kJ and Hunter all in the story lineup next
year? No? I do not. We kind of talked about that.
I should agree with that to the rest of them, two of them for
sure. Yeah. And then we have three or three questions left and Nick,
they're all about you, actually, so we need to I group all
these together here at Elliott rus and h Let's make this a lighthearted question with
Nick leaving, what are your top three to five moments from Nick on the
show. Anything that stands out also adds wish you well Nick, and don't
be a stranger to come back as a guest sometime. Really appreciate whenever the
listeners appreciate the work that goes in and what Nick has done Landon as well,
Landon, you'll have your senior night speech eventually, what Nick has done
while going through bachelor school, master school and now working full time and still
fitting this podcast into his schedule, Going from what how old were you in
the first season seventeen? Yeah, well is that now? I was sixteen?
I think sixteen all the way to twenty twenty three or whatever. However
old you are, I'm old. I'm older than you. Nick began his
ITV career asking the original ITPP people questions. In the third season of the
show, you listened in high school, So, oh my gosh, the
amount of hours that you have put into this project just to give out that
entertainment. It has been very appreciated. And I can tell you that a
million times. And I know you don't really want to hear it because it's
midnight. You want to go to bed, But there's lots of people out
there who definitely value that as well, I believe that this is if my
numbers are correct, this is your two hundred and forty first show. We've
done two hundred and forty one of these damn shows. And my favorite Nick
moment. If you're looking for a favorite Nick moment, my favorite is always
going to be this. That's what happens against Gonzaga and you picking Kentucky every
single year as they face plant in the first round. Landon, you got
a favorite Nick moment? I have lots of favorite Nick moments. It's hard
to keep specific moments. After doing so, Nick always writes he will always
try to. I feel like we're eulogizing you post active women in the notes
is up there? Yeah, that's where I was gonna picking Arizona in Kentucky
to win the National championship this season. I never picked Kentucky to win the
National championship. Arizona win. You picked them to beat Kentucky to do it.
No, I had Kentucky in the final four. Who'd you have them
lose to Purdue. You must have changed it. You switched it, Okay,
Yeah, that's when Kansas on the show. You had Kentucky in Arizona
in the championship game, which is banana pants and hilarious. Nick always gets
in the notes whenever Landon or I are reading, and he will change sentences
around just to throw us off, to try to get us to say something.
And we have had to several times because something gets typed or a letter
gets added. We've had to stop the recording and go back and e race
it because things just get completely off the rails. I said something really terrible.
Yes, that's happened before all the freaking jokes about the schools, the
real listeners, you know which one. Uh, that's that's always gonna be
one of my favorites. And yeah, then whenever we're just reading a blurb
and suddenly the words will change to Mandarin or one of our faces face dwelled
up here, yes, like and I don't know what it says. I
don't know how you want me to keep reading it. I can't read it.
It's in Mandarin. That's what we love about nick. Nick is a
word that's in French that looks similar to an English word. And Ryan's like,
yep, got that word. I try I see, and Landon tried
this too. We try to make it sound like we try to just continue
like, I think I pretty much know what it said. I'm gonna try
to not make this obvious, but it just goes off the rails. And
of course we can't forget how much Nick hates ask GARCB. That is so
funny because that's Landon's favorite. Or I don't and I like each other and
I like ACB, but I don't like. Oh wow, we're talking over
each other now. It's just like old days. Uh. I like to
ask ARCB. I don't like Kansas basketball questions during to ask GARCB. We
just spent an hour recapping a game. I don't need to answer more questions
about KU basketball. Ask me what my favorite flavor of ice cream is.
Yeah, that's beenilla, which which makes which makes sense that that's also kind
of makes sense. I like this. This is a good nick drop Gel
has his head up, has asked so much. I know, I know
you hate that one, but you know it's okay. We're allowed to criticize
the Lord Bill's self. So yes. And the other best part is yeah,
what Landon said? How uh Landon will read? Kansas is three and
two all time against South Dakota State. Their last win came in twenty sixteen.
Pause, pause, Oh my turn, and then Nick will go Kansas
is three and two again South Dakota State, and then you know, then
it usually is followed up by hmm and this and what's cool too, and
I don't know, this is a freaking Kansas gon Zaga recap. The season's
over. The three of us are all from pretty different walks of life.
We all came together in different ways, are similar. The pats merged in
different ways. The three of us have legitimately become really good friends with the
show, to the point of watching games together and having a freaking group chat
that is active all day every day. Yeah, like about other things in
sports. Yeah, it's it's become. It's becomes so much more than just
the show. And Nick, this isn't one, this isn't your last show,
because we'll have a couple more this year. I'm sure as the as
the season ends and two, you're not done forever with ITV I would hope,
no, nope, yeah, just uh, I cannot do. I
do not have it in me anymore. I need load management. I can't
do fifty shows. He's Kevin mccoloring, folks, he's had enough and he's
quitting oh, it like three seasons ago. I've been talked over ten times,
and I want to say a nice thing this one time. It's one
time, and then I'll dog on him for having no love life even though
I don't either, and that he sucks at reading notes. But Nick,
it has been awesome to actually become friends with you over the last few years
because you were just some random guy on Twitter and I was also a random
guy that wrote for rock Truck Blog and was on Twitter. And now like
we've actually hung out and like had real conversations, and like I stayed a
night at your apartment so we could go to college game day for ku TC
interviewed on TV. Yeah, we ended up on TV together, which was
wild. I don't know if I tweeted that. I think I did tweet
that. But we've done some fun things and it has been actually awesome,
and obviously that's not going anywhere. I'm also not dying, so we can
keep doing these things. Yeah, No, it's been It's been a lot
of fun, and I hope that the listeners to appreciate the work that goes
in each podcast takes you know, with the time you add and I write
the notes most of the time. These two helped me out quite a bit.
I mean in the showtime, the recording, like this is a three
hour commitment, uh forty times a year, six or seven season. You
guys have spent weeks and weeks of your time doing the show, and I
just think it's awesome. It's just a hobby that we do. So appreciate
everybody's listen and your kind words. At J two, Will says with Nick
leaving, does that mean that it TP will be hitting the transfer portal?
Uh? Yes, and and that's also in the works. So the three
of us are gonna figure out. I've had a couple of you reach out
with suggestions for what we should do with ITP going forward, needing a third
spot all that, I have an idea, and I think it's gonna kind
of be a rotating basis, but we're gonna all discuss what exactly we want
it to do. At the end, I t P will keep on Landon
and I are going next week question Mark. Yeah, that's that's that's me
and me alone. I'm gonna do solo shows, right, that's how this
works. Yeah, absolutely not. I don't want that. I know the
podcast is, but I don't want it to be total just yet, sir,
I can I can say that. All right. Well, on that
note, there is no better way to go. We already eulogize at Jayhawks.
Now I guess what eulogized Nick? Who you have to go to work
tomorrow. It's midnight. This is inside the paint. Good work. Thanks
for all the episodes. I'm Ryan Landrith, I'm Nick Whipert, and I'm
Lanning Fields. I like it. Uh so yeah, at that. Don't
don't uh, don't lose us just yet, because we'll probably do somewhere between
three and five more episodes this season into the early part of the summer.
Uh, probably a week or two from now, whenever there's more tournament news.
There's going to be some portal news that comes out. We'll continue doing
the off season shows and then uh and and stay in active. So stay
in touch and be looking because we will definitely have another show to you here
in the next week or two. All right, anything else, anything else?
Oh? Oh hi Bill? Wait? Bill, what's what's going on?
Why are you? Oh? Oh that's not very nice? Oh wow,
Bill has turned into a rabid dog. Mark fe you bet him?
And now it makes sense. Rats, that's too bad. I can't Waitin
when the exact same thing happens, we do by Nick oh hm hmm,
I don't like that