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Bou Basketball no longer in the Big twelve Tournament. If
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Without further ado, let's get out to the ESP and
the fan hotline and welcome man we got Sam Halfield
record of eight on one bracketal to excuse me, Sam,
how are we doing today?
Speaker 4: Doing great? I really appreciate you guys having me on.
We're just a couple days from selection Sunday. It's a
great time of year.
Speaker 3: It is a great time of year. The best time
of the year. I always say the most wonderful time
of year is in November, right when you're in football season, basketball,
you a little bit of soccer, NBA started up in HL,
you know the World Series just and then. I'm a
true sports fan. I like it all right. I'm always
locked in. I'm never bored in the offseason. But this
is a lot of good time for a lot of people.
A lot of people love the bracketologies, the march madness.
Still looking for that one person to get that perfect bracket.
Still don't think that's gonna happen this year. Is just
it's too much fluidness. And speaking of fluid, there's no
fluid on the Big twelfth court. But it looked like
it was because people were slipping. I had never seen
an led court. I love the aesthetic on television, but
players were slipping left and right. They didn't like it.
Bray Or Mark said it last night, told insiders of
CBS Sports Network of the athletic of the field of
sixty eight and put out a statement that they're going
to the traditional hardwood for the semi final this evening
and then the final tomorrow night. Your thoughts on just
the court, have you ever seen an led court? And
is this a good move by the Big Twelve?
Speaker 4: You know, I've got mixed feelings on it. I have
never seen the led court before and I was quite
impressed by it as well. I thought it was out
of a nice aesthetic on TV. Thought it was innovative,
and that's very Brett your mark, right, He's very cutting
edge technology, trying to be front of the line. So
I appreciated the chance to see that and see the
Big Twelve trying to do something innovative. But I do
ask myself, is there not a chance that we could
have had to test this more for player safety beforehand
before implementing it and at least know that it's going
to work for an entire week of a Big twelve tournament? Right?
So I don't know a mixed mixed emotions on the situation,
but I'm glad they're going back to the hardwood for
player safety and just ensuring that they likely will take
more time to test it in the off season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't know if this court is gonna come back.
A lot of fans don't want it back. Some people
say get rid of it, keep it bad. I think
he's over to Sam and courts. Last year, people on
television it looked like ecstatic, and then now he goes
to the led court loses it again. He's not batting
a good percentage right now when it comes to courts.
Speaker 4: No, he's not.
Speaker 3: You gotta get back to the Trisian. Okay, let's get
caught up with you before we get into, obviously the
bracketology of around college basketball. Give us an update. House
life been for you in the family really quickly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, everything's great. My wife and I are buying a home.
We are local to Utah, and so we're thrilled to
be watching BYU basketball, thrilled to be moving into a
new house this year. Things are great for us.
Speaker 5: All right, Sam, let's start off right off the top
with the Big twelve.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: Your Mark thinks that the Big twelve could get eight
to nine seeds in this thing. It's interesting because you
look at a couple of these teams like BYU and
Texas Tech specifically, where they're not necessarily the same exact
team that they were in the middle of the season.
They've had some injuries. How many teams do you see
from the Big Twelve conference getting into the Big Dance?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Right now, I've got eight teams that will get into
the Big Dance from the Big Twelve, those being Arizona, Houston, Kansas,
Iowa State, Texas Tech, TCU, UCF, and BYU. I think
both West Virginia and Cincinnati did themselves a great disfavor
this week losing their first losing their games for Cincinnati
against UCF, for West Virginia obviously against our Baya Couters.
I don't think either of those teams will end up
making it. I think they'll be close, but they'll both miss.
So you should anticipate eight teams from the Big Twelve dancing.
Speaker 3: Eight teams dancing BYU one of those teams in Europeon
is the Big Twelve the best basketball conference right now
in America? Brett Yormark says that the players say. He says,
it's second to the NBA, and we know what the
NBA is what say you, Sam, I say.
Speaker 4: That that's one hundred percent correct. And if you were
to go compare compare conference Ken Palm ratings, it would
tell you that the SEC is the best country or
the best team in the country, best excuse me, conference
in the country. But we all know the honest truth.
The top end of the Big Twelve is so much
more legitimate than the top end of the SEC right now,
and just the level of basketball is on an entirely
different different hemisphere than the SEC. The basketball's elite, the
top teams are extremely physical. It's challenging every night no
matter who you play, where you play. It's tough to
compete in the Big twelve, and I think the Big
twelves obviously, in my opinion, at least at the top end,
the best basketball conference in the country.
Speaker 5: Sam, your top two teams out of the Big Twelve,
you have Houston as a two seed and Iowa Stay
as a three seed. When we're talking about the national
contenders for this championship, obviously you have Duke Michigan, Arizona, Florida.
I forgot throw Arizona in there, But looking at Houston
and Iowa State, given they had some interesting losses late
in the season. What chance do you think Houston and
Iowa State have it running the table in the national Championship.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say that Houston's got a bit of
a better chance than the Iowa State. Iowa State has
been very jaqueline high the last month or so, and
obviously right now they're making a crazy run in the
Big Twelve tournament, where they hammered Arizona State the other
day by nearly fifty points. They destroyed Texas Tech last night,
and so I'll be interested to see how Iowa State
looks against Arizona today. I still think that there's a
chance that Iowa State could get up to a two
seed and jump Illinois for that final two seed in
my opinion, but I think Houston has the better chance
to run the table in to win six games starting
next week for a national championship. I think that's probably
obvious from a BYU fan perspective having seen both of
those teams in the Marriott Center this year. Houston is
just extremely extremely athletic, extremely deep, They played physical defense.
They're a fantastic team. Iowa State has some missing pieces
this year, and they've just been very inconsistent in general,
especially away from home.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Houston's interesting, right because I don't feel like they're
as good defensively as they were last year, but you
didn't have a Kingston Flemings last year. In terms of
comparing last year's Houston team to this year's Houston team,
do you think this year's team can compete with what
last year's team did and making a run?
Speaker 4: That's an awesome question, and I don't know, to be
completely honest, You're one hundred percent right that last year's
team was probably better than this year's Houston team. But
this year's team has Kingston Flemings, which was a big
piece they were missing last year. So although Houston's not
as deep and not as good defensively as they were
last year, I think depending on how well Kingston Flemings
and crew play, they could absolutely make the same type
of run that they last year. But I would say
I think it's going to be a little more challenging
because of some of those elite one seeds Duke Michigan Arizona.
I just think that the level of talent is even
a step above what Houston has to offer. So Houston's
gonna have to get lucky in terms of pathway.
Speaker 5: While we're on the subject of Houston, let's talk about
the game that we all watched last night, which was
Cougar's versus Cougar's BYU versus Houston. An interesting one one
that you felt like BYU could have won, even though
I think if you would have told me that a
month ago, not having Richie Saunders, that BYU would be
up at four at half the in the Big Twelve Tournament,
I don't think a lot of people would believe you. However,
I do feel like that close of a loss against Houston,
given the losses that BOU had suffered in weeks prior,
even though it's not great, feels like a little bit
of a silver lining. What did you see as far
as even though BOU lost the game, they seemed to
have to put put up a better fight then maybe
they would have expected. What are you expecting from this
BYU team going into the tournament based off of what
you've seen for the last couple of days.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would just say I think last night was
the absolute best case scenario for BYU. Obviously, as a
Cougar fan, I would love to see them win the game,
right but in my kind of higher college basketball brain,
I'm thinking to myself, this is a team that's really thin,
that had struggled over the last few weeks mightily. I
wanted them to come into the Big Twelve Tournament, win
two games, to be competitive in their third game, and
get knocked out, have an entire week of reps to
get ready for March Madness. And they did exactly that.
So they came in, they won their for two games.
They looked really competitive against Houston last night, and I
feel really good about the way that Bayu looks right
now in terms of comparison to the last few weeks.
They look much more elaite. Defensively, everything since simplified. They're
sharing the ball well. I was really encouraged by this week, actually,
and I reached a bit of a Siah of relief
last night when they lost to Houston because I was
glad that they kept it competitive. I'm also glad that
they're going to have an entire week of rest to
get ready for them ad bess.
Speaker 3: Rest is a good thing. Houston knocked them out last year,
just to remind people, but it was in a semi final,
but that team was more experienced deeper, things were a
little bit different. They had that extra day of rest
because they got the they got a double by, it
was a little bit different. And they had beat Iowa
State in the quarterfinal, so kind of in reverse this year, Sam,
But yeah, they get a week's rest. I think this
team needs the rest. You saw in that second half
when they weren't getting fouls called. The team just got
tired and maybe a week off will help them. And
obviously in between days, you play one game every other day,
having a game off in between. Because if you were
to tell me, Sam, and I think you would agree.
If Houston had Tugler in foul trouble with four Flemings
and foul trouble with three sharp with the filming with
for excuse me, sharp with three and Byu shoots above
forty percent from three and from the field, you would
think by you would knock off Houston. But that wasn't
the case. And I think that definitely was due to
three games and three nights.
Speaker 4: I agree with you. They looked, they looked a little
tired down The stretched legs were heavy.
Speaker 3: Legs definitely were heavy. But they'll get it. Speaking of,
you know, losing to Houston, where do you have them projected? Look,
we're gonna find out obviously on Sunday. Some people have
said a high of a five, some people said a seven, six.
Where do you have them seed wise going into selection Sunday?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know you said earlier in the show that
you you believe you've got the YU as locked as
a sixth seed right now? Is that correct? Yes?
Speaker 3: I think that. I put it on Twitter. Yeah, I'm
saying I think they're going to be a six and
hopefully go to Portland.
Speaker 4: I liked it, so I wouldn't go so far as
to say that I would lock the YU into a
six right anyway, right now, I think there's too many
mitigating factors I believe, but I think I have Yu's
a sixth seed right now, and I could see reasons
why the committee would put the YU as a seventh
seed that are out side of this Sunday play reason.
There's a couple of things on ba's overall resume with
the team that I have questions about. The first one
is BYU does not have an elite level road win
over a tournament team. They've got some of the great
neutral court wins, but the committee really loves for the
top seeds to see those wins away from home against
tournament level competition, and Boy's best win on the road
this year is at Baylor, and obviously Baylor's nowhere close
to a tournament team, and so I could see the
committee dinging BYU a little bit for that and their seeding.
I think because of that, I think it would preclude
them from getting a five seed. So I think six
is probably the max, and then it just depends on
how the committee's views. How BYU has played since the
Ritchie Saunders injury. Obviously they've picked up a couple of
big wins. At other times they have looked absolutely horrendous,
where I was kind of waffling between a six and
seven seed, and like I mentioned, was really hoping to
watch them this week and see some solid play to
feel like they would be put as a succeeed, And
I think I got that out of YU this week,
So I'm going to have them as a sixteed going
into selection Sunday. Another big factor was Kentucky playing Florida today.
I think Kentucky could have jumped BYU if they beat Florida,
but they did not, and so I'm anticipating succeed for BYU,
and I think they would either go to Portland to
be in Zagas Pod or to Oklahoma City to be
in Nebraskas Pod.
Speaker 5: How does the committee balance what you've done for me
lately as well as comparing that to your full resume? Right,
because we're talking about the BYU team who played Yukon.
Obviously they lost that game. They go on to beat
Clemson in neutral sight, like they had a solid non
con but to your point, they don't have like a
signature road win. But then you kind of balance the
silver lining of BYU because to your point, like they
looked rough without Richie Saunders and over the last few
games they've started to figure things out. So how does
the committee juxtapose Okay, in the non con early in
the season, when they had all their tools, they were great,
and their resume as a whole looks solid. However, towards
the end of the season, what you've done for me
lately doesn't look great. How does the committee go about
balancing both of those and what do they value?
Speaker 4: Well, I think there's two different ways that they go
about it, And the first case is if there were
no injuries, if the team was one hundred percent the
same at the beginning of the season as they were
at the end of the season, and I think in
that scenario, you just have to consider every game on
an equal footing. There used to be a metric that
the committee would consider that was called last ten games,
and they would take a look at how teams have
performed in the last ten games, and they did away
with that several years ago, saying that they didn't want
that to influence whether a team made the tournament or not.
They didn't want that to influence seating, and so I
don't think that they look at recency bias in terms
of an overall resume, especially if a team didn't have injuries.
In BYU situation, where there are mitigating factors in terms
of injuries and obviously they're not getting Richie Saunders back,
I think that you have to consider their non conference
play a little less than the committee would if they're
if Richie Saunders was still playing, and you have to
really consider how BYU has played since then. For that reason,
I'm really going to be interested to see where the
Committee puts BYU and where the Committee puts Texas Tech,
because they're almost in opposite positions. Both lost a star
for the season inn acl injury. BYU looked rough really
early on after that injury, and they've looked pretty dang
good in the last week or two since figuring some
things out. Text Tech is the opposite where they lost JT.
Topham and then they looked really good after JT. Toppins injury,
and now they look like a complete disaster and unmitigated mess.
And so it will be interesting to see kind of
how the committee evaluates those two resumes and where they
put the teams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, kind of a flip or turn of the tide,
slip of the tables. BYU has figured out that third
iteration per Kevin Young, that identity Texas Tech kind of
looking like BYU a little bit after they lost Richie Saunders,
even though they both have been without their star player
for the same amount of time. And look, you have
no idea Texas Tech could be without Christian Anderson. We
don't know what's gonna happen with that growing injury per
him and Lawan Wats I think roll at his ankles.
So Texas Tech trending downward, not the way that they won.
And Graham McCaslin is a good coach. I know this
is not what he wants. Let's let's go more into
BYU though. Obviously, if Iowa State wins the Big Twelve Tournament,
they'll move up to a two. If Houston wins, I
think they'll move up to a one. That's just my predictions.
But let's say that I always think, you know they
lose tonight, they stay as a three seed. BYU's a sixth.
Is that BYU can Zaga matchup that six to three
seed the best for them to get to the sweet
sixteen Because I'm looking at it, Nebraska, Purdue. I always say,
I don't know if BYU can get those other three
teams again, but I feel like a team in in
Zaga motivation old ties at WCC. Yes to be a
home game for Gonzaga, but BYU fans travel. I feel
like that's the most favorable matchup out of those. Out
of the four teams you have as a three seed,
is Gonzaga the most favorable one?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I would say there's actually a two pretty favorable
matchups for BYU on that three seats line, and they
would be Gonzaga and Nebraska. Where which conveniently is most
likely where they're at to end up. Going Ioways stayed
is kind of out of the realm of possibility, and
that's not just because they've already played this season. I
don't think that the committee would would consider consider that
as a preventative measure from having them in the same
pod together. But Ioway State is going to go to
Saint Louis as their preference TORP geographic location, and so
they'll be in that pod, and that pod plays on
Friday Sunday, So I think that kind of precludes BYU
from being in Iowa States pod. It could be that
BYU gets thrown into a pod with Perdue, but I
think Purdue more than likely is going to end up
in the East or the Midwest region in the larger bracket,
and both of those played in the second weekend on Sunday,
and so I think it's very very likely that it's
either good Zagger or Nebrasket, and I think those are
both actually pretty favorable matchups for BYU.
Speaker 3: Do you think that the committee moves into a seven seed.
I've heard these talks and discussion because I think Greenville
I think that's Thursday Saturday, correct me if I'm wrong.
Do you see the committee being like, you know what,
let's see AJ Debonsa and Cam Boozer. Let's go ahead
and put a put another potential matchup. We've seen AJ
and Aaron Peterson, We've seen AJ versus Kingston Fleming Sanak Junior,
but we haven't seen AJ and Cam. Could the committee
move him down to a seven and have a potential,
you know, a matchup? If with that would Duke? Potentially,
I think Duke's going to be a one. But I'm
just throwing this out there because you know, this is
the things I see on Twitter.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, it's a fair question, and I don't think
there's the possibility that that could happen. I think Duke,
with their win last night, has walked up the number
one overall seed and Duke be playing in Greenville. But
I don't think that they're gonna bump BYU all the
way down to an eight seed and match them up
with Duke. I would highly doubt that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not happened. Ahead to throw it out there. Look,
these are the dreams that we have but not going
to happen at all. Do you believe I'm not trying
to have you reveal your bracket way too early because
it hasn't come out. Do you believe BYU would be
in the Sweet sixteen? Make it to the you know,
the next week. It feels like with the way they're training,
they have a shot.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think I'm gonna pick b YU to the
Sweet sixteen this year. And I say that from an
unbiased perspective. I know I'm a BYU fan, but I'm
also an overall college basketball fan even more. But I'm
really going to be watching even more so than the
matchup they get in the second round, who they're going
to be playing in the first round, because I think
there's some favorable opportunities on the eleven seed line that
would match up with the sixth including Miami Ohio. They
probably wouldn't see VCU because they saw him last year,
and it may be one of those last four teams
in so it could be like an SMU or a Texas.
I would be concerned if it was a South Florida.
So that's the team I would really watch out for.
Here in the last week of the season, a South
Florida wins the American and somehow gets assigned to the
Portland or the Oklahoma City Pod with BYU. That's a dangerous,
dangerous matchup for BYU, and that's one that I would
watch out for. But if it's another one of those teams,
I feel like I would feel pretty good about putting
BYU all the way to the Sweet sixteen.
Speaker 5: Sam, you've outlined a couple of times some of these
locations where the tournament are taking place. For some of
our listeners who may not be as deep into the
college basketball world, can you explain and give a quick
outline as to how they determine who's going to be
playing in what region and where?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Yeah, I absolutely can't. So there's let's talk first
weekend and then second weekend. So first weekend is teams
are placed into geographical preferences along the way one through
four seed lines. So the first sixteen teams in the
tournament get their priority in terms of which location they
go to, but only two teams can go to a
certain location from those top sixteen, and so they start
with the number one overall seed, and then they would
say Duke, their closest their closest potential POD is Greenville,
and they'll play Duke there. They'll then look at Michigan
the number two overall seed. Ins say, Michigan's closest to Buffalo,
so they're going to go to Buffalo. Arizona's closest to
San Diego, They're going to go to San Diego. And
that's how they'll do it one through sixteen to determine
which teams go to which locations. When they then see
the rest of the bracket five through sixteen, they're looking
at all of the five seeds together and putting them
in the most geographical preferential location of where the one
seeds are going, if that makes sense, so that or
where the four seeds are going, excuse me. And so
they'll look at Texas Tech, Arkansas, Saint John's, Wisconsin, and
who I have a five seeds and say, okay, which
of these teams is closest to the east, to the
east coast where where we're putting Virginia for example, And
they'll match up Saint Johns in Virginia, or they'll take
Texas Tech and say they're going to be close to
San Diego, so they're going to move them over to
the San Diego region. So really it is they're trying
to keep geographical preference as best they possibly can as
they create that bracket. In terms of the second weekend,
it's a little more challenging because teams can be placed
into various regions for really no rhyme or reason, and
there's some rules as to how many teams you can
put in a certain region from a conference, and so
it's a little more difficult. So just know that BYU
will either be in the West or the South region,
and we'll be playing a Thursday Saturday game probably in
probably in Portland or in Oklahoma City, and does.
Speaker 3: Make it a little easier Oklahoma City or Portland. I
think they're going to Portland, let's see, kind of for
BYU fans and probably trying to push that narrative BYU
versus agains Zagat bounced and get to Sweet sixteen BYU fans.
I think SAM would be validated of all times of yeah,
the WCC, we didn't need them anymore. See we beat Gonzaga.
I kind of feel like that's what fans want, even
though it would be a home game. But look, hopefully
they you know, they get that, they get that geographical preference,
and I hope that's what happened to. Committee sees that
because as totality as a whole, I think BYU is
well deserving and hopefully as a sixty locked up Sam,
we gotta let you go. We gotta go to break.
But before we do, what's the best way we can
support you? What you do and how you do it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, please follow me at eight or one Bracketology on Twitter.
I love interacting with fans of all kinds and so
I would love to see you there. Looking forward to
the next week, I'll be in Portland, hoping BYU gets
matched up with in Portland.
Speaker 3: Hopefully and hopefully fans will see out there. Sam, Thanks
for your time today. We'll let you go in a
enjoy a weekend and selection Sunday. Thank you guy with
Sam Halfill. If It'll Won Bracketology, you can follow him
on x slash twit or whatever the kids call it
these days at It'll Wan Bracketology. You appreciate Sam in
his time BYU. I think they'll be a six seed.
I think they'll go to Portland, and if I'm wrong,
happy to be wrong. But let's see. Let's hope that
BYU gets a matchup with Gonzag. I feel like having
played in the Big twelve and that physicality. You get
a WCC opponent in Zaga who's a good team. Not
overlooking them at all, but I think they can do
what they did last year and knocking off a team
like Wisconsin. The Big twelve is just built a little
bit different. Before we go to break, gotta reminds you
guys about it's Bryce at Bryce Into. To win a
five hundred dollars gift card to Ruby's in at the
gates of Bryce Kyan National Park, good for lodging, food, beverage,
and or at the gift shop whatever you're choosing, visit
espnefan dot com