Speaker 1: All right, welcome in the full court press.
Speaker 2: As you can see in the background, I am on
the road to Indianapolis, the road to the Final four,
ron Vino, where we are on the show, and the
next stop, if you will, is the Nit which will
be the feature of today's show. So we're going to
talk about both that It Games. We're also going to
talk about Crown Semi Final number one, which was set
after the Crown Games last night, which rob some would say,
we got a little bit lucky, but you know what.
Speaker 1: We cashed the parlay.
Speaker 2: Baylor wins big by twenty and Oklahoma gets there in overtime.
It's sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I've
heard that a couple of times. So welcome in and yeah,
we let's try to do it again today.
Speaker 3: Yeah it was nice, Adam. I mean there's a lot
of times where that type of stuff goes against you.
Yesterday the ship fell our way. You know, you're just
asking at the end of that game, you're asking, you know,
for a two point make rather than a three and
the win. That's what we got. Oklahoma then proceeded to,
you know, make a few shots. Still we're behind eighty
three to eighty two with about a minute and a
half left, but really did the job on the free
throw line. Honestly, Oklahoma was both sides. I mean, if
you had a total play to the over in that game,
you're really happy with the free throw shooting in overtime
and at the end of the game because it was really,
really good. But it was an exciting game. I think
it kind of played out the Oklahoma game the way
we suggested it might hear on this show, in terms
of Oklahoma getting off to a slow start, having that
great run at the end of the year, and then
having the long layoff. Oklahoma didn't shoot it good to
start the game. Maybe some people were able to take
advantage of some in game numbers at some point, but
they did turn it on second half. Didn't really want
to go home. Colorado give them credit. They played eight
guys last night, six freshmen. Obviously, that's a team that
looks like they could be a bit of a problem
next year because they played as good a game as
I thought they could have played last night. So we'll
take the parlay. Baylor made it easy, hon Us. We
had to sweat early, we coasted late, and we'll take
it that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll get to that game later in the show.
We'll also get to chat questions. We may start the
discussion about the final four if you guys have specific questions.
Speaker 1: But those games.
Speaker 2: Again, as I said, we will be talking Final four
in detail on tomorrow's show. So Rob, let's go to
hinkle Field House where I will be tonight. I believe
Andy Lang will be joining me, So looking forward to
that and really looking forward to both of these games.
I think we got an outstanding sort of semi final
here in the NIT, the first game of which could
be one of really could be one of the games
of the weekend. From an excitement standpoint, Tulsa New Mexico,
which will be the first N I T semi final
hinkle Field House tonight, uh seven pm Eastern. I mean
this is gonna be from a viewing standpoint, this is
like as good as it gets.
Speaker 1: Two teams, a lot of offense.
Speaker 2: I'll start with you know, Matt Winnick filled in for
you last week and talked about New Mexico and made
a very very interesting point about this Logos team where
he and about Eric Olin, the head coach, and essentially
what his point was was Eric Olan is as good
as anyone at making your bad shooters beat you know,
making your bad shooters beat them.
Speaker 1: Meaning he's scout.
Speaker 2: He's as good as anyone at scouting out who your
good three point shooters are and taking them out of
the game or essentially forcing you to beat them with
your lesser shooters. We saw them do just that against
Saint Joe's, and it actually, you know, Saint Joe's, to
their credit, was able to you know, you know, they
had a couple of their lesser three point shooters.
Speaker 1: I think Derek Simpson came out, came out and hit
like four threes right.
Speaker 2: Off the bat, and but over the course of the
game it kind of worked out Saint Joe started to
miss thies. The reason I wanted to bring that up
here is that Tulsa doesn't have any bad shooters. They're
a I mean, this is as good of a three
point shooting team as you're gonna find and one of
the more efficient offensive teams in the country. So that's
kind of got me leaning toward Tulsa rob But at
the same time, Man New Mexico could put the ball
in the basket as well, So sider total for you.
But this kind of feels like it's got Robbino over
written all over it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll tell you what when you said from a
fans standpoint, and also you said that if just run
a weekend or it could be one of the more
exciting games of the week. It's also a difficult handicap
and that's for sure. That's how good of a game
it is. That's how close to a game it is
when you go to handicap and you can make good
cases for both sides. I'm gonna do that right now,
just to lay out the game. You're absolutely right. I mean,
if Eric Oland is seeking out a pour three point shooter,
he's got issues because Tulsa comes with Riley. Tyler. Riley
the point guard is the least likely. These guys all
have large sample sizes. He has the smallest of these
sample sizes. He's only shot sixty six threes this year,
yet he hits thirty nine and a half percent of them,
and he's the worst. That's the guy. I mean, if
that's the guy you want to shoot threes, you're probably
in trouble. I think when you add barn Stable in,
when you add Papola in, and now last game we
added David Green back. David Green gave you twenty three
minutes last week against Whichita State and likely to go
thirty plus here tonight. He's had more time to rest,
more time to get acclimated back into the team. That's
a problem. All three of those guys I just mentioned
forty percent or better from three, so they just surround
the perimeter and open guy launches. And I think you
had and I'll let you say it again because I
won't say it right, but the statistic that you got
from a Tulsa staff member when you were there, as
far as their shooting is concerned, I'm the one thing
that I think maybe Tulsa is going to be a
little undersold on here Adam is. My immediate inclination was, well,
they'll get hurt on the boards tonight by New Mexico.
Bouillon's been great in this tournament for the Lobos. But
then I look back to the Wichita State side or
the Wichita State game, and Tulsa didn't get hurt on
the boards at all, win by four, close game, but
Wichita State, I don't know I would in my opinion,
they're probably better rebounding team than New Mexico and New
Mexico is a good one. But Wichita State savage on
the glass and Tulsa didn't get hurt at all on
the boards by Wichita States. So that forces me to
somewhat think that maybe I shouldn't negate that advantage to
New Mexico. New Mexico wants to run, Tulsa wants to run.
I don't see either side, you know, game planning for
this and saying, man, I gotta slow New Mexico down. Man,
we have to slow Tulsa down. I think they're both
gonna do what they do best. I give a slight
edge to Eric Oland from the defensive standpoint. You mentioned
what Matt thought of his capability of kind of taking
the best shooter out of the game. But Eric Oland,
we know what he did at San Diego. We know
what he's doing here at New Mexico. This team can
score quickly. They played a game a couple of games
ago where Dayton Oldberry didn't even play. They've had seven
against Sam Houston, eighty six and eighty four in three games,
all in the pit granted for Tulsa, all at home, granted.
But Hickelfieldhouse is a pretty good shooter's gym. I think
these guys probably shoot well here tonight. I sort of
lean over Adam in the beginning. When I first started
this ANDICAP, I was siding with New Mexico a bit,
But now I'm starting to come around to Tulsa somewhat,
so I don't know if I can get to a
side here At one sixty one. It's a big number,
but New Mexico seems to get their eighty plus every game,
and as good as they are defensively, I think they'll
have issues with Tulsa's shooters. The one thing you hope
for if you do play over in this game is
that Tulsa doesn't go cold from three, But you can
counter that by telling yourself, you know what it would
take four guys to go cold from three? Are all
four knocking to be able to shoot tonight? Because somebody's
gonna step up and make a bunch of shots. I
guess a slight lean over. I'm way more interested, I think,
in watching this than playing this, but it's as good
a game as it gets. You're right, tulsa outstanding offense,
and Mountain West has come up to some criticism because
they exited this tournament early. But New Mexico is a
really really good team here, Adam and I think they've
got multiple ways to score as well. So we'll see
if defense rides. If defense wins the day, New Mexico
will win a high scoring game. And last thing I'll
say to Tulsa's credit, Wichita is not a good shooting team.
But man, I think they held Wichita. I should have
the numbers right in front of me, and I don't,
but I believe it was like three of nineteen or
three of twenty something from three point range that Wichita
shot against Tulsa last game, which is way better than
what the Tulsa defense has been this year. She got
Aeric Concle on one side, offensive guy old and on
the other side defensive guy. It's a good matchup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's we can talk about this game for an hour.
I mean there's so many like sort of like ins
and outs of this one. I think, you know, again,
like Tulsa, I think you know, New Mexico is going
to defend the rim. They have an elite RIM defense,
so they will force Tulsa into a high volume of threes.
But like you're saying, it's like is everyone.
Speaker 1: Gonna go cold.
Speaker 2: You've got a lot of guys on this team. You know,
Barnstable forty one point one percent. That's a that's you know,
he's an elite shooter. Uh you know, uh poop POOLA.
I'd probably said his name wrong, but he's he is
also over forty percent. And then you've got guys like
David Green who are not your typical three point shooters
that still hit the three at a high percentage. Now
I will comment on the two sort of guys that
missed time in this tournament. David Green, it's a shoulder injury.
I don't really think David Green was ready to play
last week, and I think that was something rob where
it was like, hey, I'm a senior, right, or like
what you know, I don't want to go out with
you know, not getting on the floor. He played twenty
three minutes. That was not the typical effort you get
from David Green. Over the course of twenty three minutes
five points. He did get six boards, but you could
tell he was, you know, kind of favoring the shoulder
a little bit. Granted that was a week ago. Now
Dayton Albury was sick, He's probably fine.
Speaker 1: Right like he had. He missed the weekend game with an.
Speaker 2: Illness, and then they didn't really need to play him
much because you know, he played the you know, he
didn't need to play much in the second half against
Saint Joe's because that game got a little bit out
of hand, but he only played fifteen minutes. I would
imagine that he's back completely normal and totally fine here.
So you should have still you should have full two
teams at full strength. Taulas has taken money, which I
do agree with off the opener of four. But kind
of like you were saying, there is there is pass
to both teams winning. There's path to both teams winning
and blowout fashion. I joke with Andy Lang, I said, oh,
you're in for a treat with New Mexico Tulsa. It's
gonna be the first one to ninety. I kind of
think that's what it's gonna be. Rob, I would be
shocked if both of these teams don't score.
Speaker 1: Here's the other thing for that total.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a big number. But like even if one
team scores at like a super efficient rate, which I
think you probably get here, the other team would have
to like almost lay a complete egg to not get
that one to one sixty, I feel like, yeah.
Speaker 3: I agree, And if they do get a big lead,
you force together one to chase, which is even better
for you if you're playing over there. Again, I look
back to Wichita State game. That game got to one
sixty two. I would not consider Wichita State the type
of offense that New Mexico has in any way, shape
or form, but I would consider Wichita State to be
on a defensive par with New Mexico. So the eighty
three that Tulsa put up, although at home, I think
translates here against the New Mexico defense. And I think
that the New Mexico office, they said boillyon is going
to be a handful for Tulsa downlow. If we just
want to go over what they have to attempt to defend.
He's been a monster in this tournament. They're very good,
and not a lot of teams are, but New Mexico's
very very good at scoring at all three layers and
in multiple ways. Like New Mexico will pound you underneath,
they'll beat you mid range, they'll beat you from three,
they'll beat you in transition. They'll beat you a lot
of ways. There's a lot for Tulsa to depend here,
and so you know, I'm an over guy anyway, so
I do lean that way, and you know, client wise,
it'll probably get to the card tonight, but should be
a great, great game. And I also think I said
this before, but I do think you have to take
into consideration the venue and I do think Hinkle is
a you know, it's a basketball gym. It's a good
place to shoot. So I think that these guys will
be a okay And I don't know that the moment,
it's a lot of upperclassmen in this game. I don't
know that the moment will actually you know, get to
these guys. I think they'll be okay, And everybody wants
to get this Saturday, right, Gaybridge is the goal now
because that's big spotlight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll actually be It'll actually be Sunday by itself
at night.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be Sunday night.
Speaker 2: The final is gonna be at Gainbridge, Gamebridge in where
the Pacers play and Gamebridge Field House, I think it is.
We're in Indiana, Pacers play and that will standalone at
eight pm on a Sunday night, in between the Final
four and the and the championship game. So that's pretty
cool right there, that you know, you're gonna have a
bunch of people in town for Final Four weekend and
on Sunday night it's you know, they may get they
may get like, you know, ten thousand for that game,
you know, in the Pacers Arena. So that is a
pretty big prize in my opinion, Rob. And you know,
one other thing I'll point out, just to I guess
make a further case for the total. You talked about
Wichita State not you know, shooting the ball particularly well
Kenyan Giles, who has been just a bucket all year
for Wichita State four for fifteen in that game, and
he could not get his shot going. I know this
because I was on Wichita State plus four and a
half in that game. And yet still somehow Wichita State
came back, Rob. They were down twenty six points early
in the in the first half of that game, they
came all the way back to cover the four and
a half and there and even with the shooting woes,
there was one hundred and sixty two points in that
Wichita Tulsa game.
Speaker 1: You mean to tell me this game's gonna have less
points than that? Game. I don't know if I could
see that, so I leaned toward the open.
Speaker 3: Yeah, quick story about that, which I had posted a
picture from Las Vegas when I was on vacation before
we went into the concert. Had a lot of people
there and some wager talk colleagues. But Teddy was there,
Brian Leonard, myself and me and Teddy both had Wichita
State plus four and a half. And there's TVs all
over the place, and we are when we arrived at
the place, we're getting smashed. The comeback begins and as
superstitious as better as are I know I am, I
know Teddy is. We would be on one end of
the table and it would go all wrong, so we'd
walk all the way to the other end of the
table where it would go right. And we just stood
there till the final and covered that four and a half.
But you know, Adam, last thing I'll close with is
if somebody could argue us and say, you know what
the Wichita State tolds. The game had a lot of
free throws. There was a lot of extension at the
end of that game, and you know, it's a valid point. However,
this game has that say, potential for extension at the
end of the game. You have to figure that in
a game that's lying this close, game that probably will
be close, you probably get that extension. So I think
we're both saying the same thing here as far as
over is concerned. We'll see if it gets over that number,
it's going to be a really exciting game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's the Again, you want to talk
about potential extension at the end of the game. I
think the only way there's not extension at the end
of this game, Rob, is if it is like a
one possession game, right, like where it's like a one
possession game and you got teams playing for a stop,
in which case, if you are you know, if you
do like the over in that scenario, well maybe you
get maybe you get the Rob Bino special from last
night and it ends up in ot and you go
ahead and cover the over there. So yeah, I think
there's that's kind of how I think.
Speaker 1: You have to look at it.
Speaker 2: And again, you'd have to have a serious sort of
dud from one of these teams, I think for this
one to not go over the total All right, Joey
Cheese is in the chat. He's here for the Yukon hatred. Listen,
Joey I already I already said, is someone that uh,
you know, the the great part about being a sports
better is.
Speaker 1: And not a fan.
Speaker 2: Obviously, I'm a fan of you know, I consider myself
a fan of Siena College because that's where I went,
and I'm always gonna have a little bit of bias there.
But Rob, you know, the beautiful part about being a
sports better and not really being a fan is you
can hate a tea one day and then the next
day you're all over that team. That was me with Yukon.
I was on them against Michigan State, although I have
to admit I was on the wrong side of the
duke game. I had Duke minus five, thought I was chilling,
thought it was all good, and here comes Yukon back
to you know, win the win of the tournament without
a doubt. So shout out to Joey Cheese and his
Yukon Huskies. They'll be here in Indie this weekend and
we'll get to them maybe a little later in the show,
definitely tomorrow. That game will get the full treatment tomorrow.
But first we got a game that goes tonight that
needs a full treatment. This will be part two semi
final Number two Hinkle Field House, Auburn Tigers Illinois State Redbirds.
Rob geographically very close for Illinois State. I hear it's
going to be a lot of red at Hinkle tonight.
Some of that red is going to be North New
Mexico Red Don't underestimate that fan base. They will come
support their team pretty much everywhere. But I think most
of the red is going to be Illinois State. A
quick drive from Normal to Indianapolis and kind of a
big deal for them.
Speaker 3: Rob.
Speaker 2: I know it's you know the nit, but getting a
chance to beat Auburn is a big deal for a
school in the Valley, especially when none of these SEC
schools will will give them the time of day during
the regular season. So Auburn, Illinois State, I'll let you
kick this one off. How are you attacking this game?
Speaker 3: This is interesting again because I think you can make
cases for both sides here. You know, the one thing
I had to overcome or try to overcome in this
handicap adam is the class difference between conferences. I get
to a point and I say, well, this is the
Missouri Valley team really going to be as good as
the SEC team with the SEC talent. I know when
this tournament started you had had the opinion that if
Auburn comes to play, they probably should win this tournament.
They're probably the best on paper. And then they go
out and they kind of play with their food, so
to speak, in a couple of games here and then
they did get the job done to get to this point.
And now when you're at this point, if you're Auburn,
it's got to be full pedal to the medal. Now,
the path to get here for these two teams, certainly
Illinois State had the way more difficult path. Right the
opening game against Kent State is I think back now,
it seems an eternity a go, But I remember liking
Kent State in that game. I played Kent State. In
that game, I thought they'll play they'll play close, they
always give you a good forty minutes. They got destroyed.
Never in doubt. Illinois State win that night at home.
Then they get forced to the road to play the
one seed. Wait Forrest do the job there. Then they
get forced to the road play what could arguably have
been the hottest team in this tournament. Dayton beat Dayton
at home, beat Dayton at their own game, basically just
outdefended Dayton, and so now they're here, question is can
they defend Auburn? You know, total wise, Adam, this is
a here's the problem I run into with total here.
You know, I'd like comp games. When I look back
at Auburn's Seattle Seattle, Seattle is a slow tortoise type team.
Defensive base, don't shoot it incredibly well at all. That
game goes ninety one to eighty five, one hundred and
seventy six. Let's Seattle score eighty five. And that kind
of takes me away from my first thought process, which
would have been under this game could very well get
over Illinois State. For what it's worth, they do hang
their hat on defense, but they've been good offensively down
the stretch. And a guy that you've mentioned a bunch
of times on the show, Johnny Kinsinger, seems to be
playing his best ball of the season now, which is
helpful to Illinois State. Because you take a look at
what Stephen Pearl had to say about this game, I'll
just read the quote here. Pearl noted that his club
has to focus on six junior forward Chase Walker. Chase
Walker's been all everything for Illinois State. So if the
focal point goes to Walker, guys like Kinsinger are going
to have to step up offensively. Two things here, in
its simplest form, I do believe Illinois State's gonna be
fully focused and Illinois State's is gonna have a ton
of energy, and sometimes Auburn gets lacksed. No, Auburn has
had two games in this tournament where they had sixteen
point leads and blew them both at home on their
home floor, blew them in the fact that they didn't
cover games that they should have covered against Nevada in Seattle.
So it's hard for me to back Auburn here. It's
almost equally as hard for me to push myself to
the Illinois State side. But I think that's where I
would land, and I think you might get a doubleheader
worth of overs because again, Auburn allows teams to score
at them. I mean, they're a funny team, they just
don't They don't give me the impression all season long
that they are fully focused for forty minutes. There's lackadaisical
stretches and games for them, especially defensively. Illinois State I
don't think will show that so I have a slight
lean here toward the over I think that would be
my number one option, and then very close, almost like
a horse race entry one on one A. I think
Illinois State pleasant points is probably a good spot.
Speaker 2: You know, Like I still am not convinced that, even
now that we're at Hinkle, that Auburn really cares about
this tournament. Like if you watched every minute of Auburn basketball,
they are they're just playing care free, like they are
just out there shucking shots up. Now that's it's a
little dangerous because they have like their players are better
than Illinois State players. Like that's not let's not get
that confused. I mean, Keyshawn Hall, Kevin Overton has been tremendous,
Like Pettiford's played really good, Like individually, they have the
best players in this tournament, right, And you know, you
go back to I think it was like the South
Alabama game. They didn't care about that game, and then
on five straight possessions, they hit five straight threes, and
suddenly you went from them being down six at halftime
to suddenly, now you're starting to do the math.
Speaker 1: Am I good?
Speaker 2: With nineteen and a half. It literally got to that
point as someone that was on South Alabama. Am I
good with nineteen and a half here, I was just
up six at halftime. You know, you talked about the
Seattle game, Rob, Seattle's got some size and the ability
to score in the front court, and Auburn, you know,
just had they just didn't. Again, there was no real
effort to stop them. Now, Seattle hit sixteen threes, but
a lot of that was because stuff was so open,
because eventually they had to start guarding the guys in
the paint and now all of a sudden, Seattle had
had all these three point shots open where they hit
fifty one point seven percent from the field. But Auburn
still won the game by six. And I think that's
the trend we're starting to uncover here is once again
Auburn is the better team and you and you know
they You go back to the Nevada game. I was
on Avada plus the points there. They were flirting with
being down twenty in that game, but like you know,
Auburn again, they're not really guarding the rim, and Nevada
kept working hard and got their way back into the game.
Speaker 1: Part of the reason Auburn can't guard the rim. Rob is.
Speaker 2: They are one of the teams without one of their
better players. You know, they've been without key Sean Murphy.
Key Sean Murphy, six foot ten forward, not the end
all be all, but he is a lot better defensively
than the than who's been taking his minutes. I think
it's been a Philip Jo Djovic has been taking his
minutes and he's just not the defender Murphy is.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of with you.
Speaker 2: I think there's gonna be points here too, especially if Kinzinger,
who's someone that I criticized quite a bit for being
down this year and and sort of you know, costing.
Speaker 1: I think I had Illinois State.
Speaker 2: Number one or very close to the top of my
power rankings for this league coming into the season, and
Kinsinger just did not replicate what he did last year.
But you know, we we You texted me because I
know you cashed a bet in that Illinois State Wake
Forest game, and you texted me Kinsinger with a bunch
of exclamation points, and I texted you back, it's about time.
Speaker 1: And you know, really he's had a good.
Speaker 2: Postseason tournament here and if he's gonna do that, and
Chase Walker can you know, we know he can score inside.
He's been as good as it, you know, as good
as it gets in the NBC for post post presence,
sort of like guy that can draw defenses, they're gonna
have to worry about him.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of with you. I think we're seeing this
game the same way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know I called it lackadaisical. You called
it care free. It means the same thing Auburn is.
Just it's almost like they know, hey, we're better than
the South Alabama game that you referred to. I even forget,
Like I say, these things seem like an eternity to go.
But remember this South Alabama showed up with like seven guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were without two of their best players, which
was unknown unbeknownst to me.
Speaker 1: I was yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. It was crazy.
Speaker 3: And then Auburn like all right, you know, green light
hit the gas and next thing you know, they're running away.
So I think they can always score on anybody.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 3: Illinois State has been good defensively. I don't know the
Illinois State can take Auburn totally out of their game
for forty minutes. Illinois State, they're not gonna win this
game the way they beat Dayton. Let's put it that way.
I'm gonna have to score, so I.
Speaker 1: Do like over in that contest.
Speaker 2: All right, So we did cast our parlay yesterday, Today's
so we are gonna put together a three team or
today and you have basically we've got four games to
choose from. There's two Crown games tonight. Now we did
the full breakdown of those games yesterday. There's two NIT games,
which we just broke down in full. So Rob, because
this is where it fits on the show, let's go
to the Crown. But let's go to the semi final
game first on Saturday, because it's the only time we're
going to talk about this game. There's no number out
for it yet, but I don't think it really matters
in terms of like us breaking this game down. And
I'll tell you guys that I think it's likely something
like Oklahoma minus one. I can't see this opening very
far off a pick either way. I think you're gonna
see like a pick maybe a minus one Baylor, maybe
a minus one Oklahoma. So this is just where this
game fits in terms of our shows. Show scheduled the
next two days, So Rob, let's do a little look ahead.
This is the Crown semi Final which is on Saturday,
and then with the time left, we'll circle back and
maybe rehash some of the show from yesterday. Try to
find a couple winning bets for today's slate. Oklahoma, Baylor.
I had Baylor last night. You ended up being right
on Oklahoma. How are you looking at Baylor Oklahoma now
in the semi final round?
Speaker 3: Yeah, general, right off the top of my head. First
sort of first instincts on this game would be, I
think Oklahoma got themselves together. They had their slow start,
then they pulled it together and played a really good
game from the I don't know. I would say maybe
the six minute mark of the first half on they
played pretty well, and we know how hot they were
down the stretch, so I liked that part about them.
Love what Baylor did last night. However, I would caution
against Baylor simply because Minnesota is inept well offensively, they
just don't have anything. They're short players, they only have
one real score. We talked about Cracker Johnson being out.
That proved to be a problem. So for Baylor and guys,
excuse me because I'm under the weather a little bit here.
For Baylor, I think the issue is going to become
can they defend Oklahoma? And if they can, you know,
I'd be a little bit surprised. I think that Oklahoma
will score I think Baylor will score back.
Speaker 1: Wow, because nothing that I can jump in quick. You
need a sip of water, I'll jump in for a secon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, go ahead, take over for me quick.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: I wanted to just play off a point you were making.
A point you were making about that being more Minnesota
ineptitude than Baylor, like just being this like like such
a better team. I feel like if you watched the
first half in that game, Baylor led by five at
the break, I don't know if you could have even
like sort of like said, oh, Baylor's like just so
much better than Minnesota right here. They just you know,
they had a couple put backs and you know, I
Minnesota missed a good look right before the half. You know, obviously,
someone sitting there with Baylor minus three and a half,
I wasn't thrilled with that first half. I kind of
felt like, you know, sitting there thinking, man, we kind
of got out played a little bit. But you know,
I noted yesterday that they would have a big rebounding
edge against Minnesota, a big physic cality edge against Minnesota.
Maybe Minnesota doesn't, you know, maybe they start bringing in
some of their lesser players, and Baylor's just is just
a far more skilled, more physical team. I kind of
think all of that happened over the course of that game,
and then you're sitting there, like at the end of
that game, Now Minnesota also did they did what we
thought they might do, or they only played six guys.
It's just they gave that one Shinholster, that their one
bench guy got a lot more minutes than he usually
does in yesterday's game. But I'm with you being like that,
just that Minnesota team was a shell of the team
that Minnesota was at their peak this year when they
were at their best, whereas I kind of think Baylor
showed up with their best team for this tournament. However,
now you have to turn around and play Oklahoma, who
also showed up with all of their players, and it's
like rob once they shook the cobwebs. Once Oklahoma shook
the cobwebs, they looked like what I expected them to
look like in this tournament. So if we're kind of
looking ahead, I think I'm gonna like the Sooners here
because I just think that there Again, I'll go back
to our.
Speaker 1: Conversation from yesterday.
Speaker 2: They were probably they were probably one crazy Missouri three
point buzzer beater away from being in the NCAA Tournament.
We weren't sure how much how serious they were going
to take this tournament. They didn't play the best first half.
They kind of let Colorado do whatever they wanted in
the first top, but that second half was a lot better.
I kind of think Oklahoma might be the favorite to
win this thing now, the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I said, Yes, I would have
played him in the NCAA tournament as they had made it.
I think they could have been trouble. It would have
been easy for them to take the floor yesterday at
him and overlook Colorado. Three starters out, you know, they
can't possibly beat us. But the shooting is more or
less what I was looking for once they straightened out
the cold start. They've got too many guys, they really do.
They've got so many weapons as far as scoring is concerned.
I don't like them defensively though, still don't like them
defense man. I think Baylor's got, you know, counter weaponry
that can attack them and score on them. It'll be
interesting to see where this total opens again. I think
you'll get a totally different game. Baylor has to play
a totally different style here for the Colorado side today,
thirty three points came on free throws. Oklahoma's gotta stop
following people. I know it was an overtime game and
there was a lot of extension. And let me just
say real quick, because you talked about that Missouri game
where they get beat by the three by Mark Mitchell
of all people at the buzzer. And Oklahoma went through
those devastating losses early. It shows kind of how the
season has turned for them, because you know what, last night, Adam,
it could have been another devastating loss for them, Like
early in the season. You know what would have happened,
Colorado would have hit a three at the buzzer and
won that game walk off three. It didn't happen last night.
The game got extended and Oklahoma winds up winning. I'm
gonna look at total here if it's not unreasonable, and
I agree with you that I think Oklahoma's probably the
best team remaining in this field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Porter Moser looked like he was having fun
last night. That looked like a team that wanted to
be there.
Speaker 2: And you know what, Like, I'm not gonna discount them
for struggling with a shorthanded Colorado team because I think
we were both right in our counterpoint yesterday, and I
think it's part of the reason that you gravitated toward
team total as opposed to side. Tad Boyle would not
have come to this tournament if he was not taking
it seriously and like preparing his team to play. And listen, Colorado,
they showed up to play. They played extremely hard. Yeah,
they were a little bit shorthanded, but don't knock Oklahoma
for like not blowing them out, because that was a
team that was well prepared, that was that was there
for that opportunity to win.
Speaker 1: So I love to see so far, two games I
don't think we've seen.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm going off of a chat question here
and we can we can kind of get into this
as we circle back on the games from yesterday that
we've broken down the two that will go tonight. So far,
I don't think any team has showed up and just
not wanted to be there. I just think Minnesota was
very very undermanned in that Baylor game. So let's go
back to the two games that we talked about yesterday
for a minute. Rob that's going to be tonight's game,
West Virginia Stanford, Creighton Rutgers. Does what you saw last
night from a competitiveness standpoint, and the fact that there
was some people in the stands, I was actually it
was more well attended than I thought it was going
to be.
Speaker 1: I know it wasn't. It wasn't full house, but there
were some people there.
Speaker 2: Now that you've had the luxury of watching two games,
does that change your opinion on the two games we
talked about yesterday at all?
Speaker 3: Well, I always thought that West Virginia would come to
play tonight. I don't think that Ross Hodge would have
it any other way. He's kind of an intense coach
defensive mind that we went through all of this yesterday,
and I don't think that my opinion changes of the
strategic way that West Virginia has to go about this. Obviously,
you know, just like Bruce Pearl is zeroing in on
Chase Walker, you know they're gonna zero in on a quay.
There's no question about it in this game, and I
think that West Virginia has the defensive capability to do it.
I will also again, I don't like to and I
will say that you and I haven't brought this into
context much at all, if at all, in our handicaps
of the NSKA Tournament, the NIT and the Crown. But
I'm gonna bring I brought it in once today, I
brought this in yesterday. I'll do it again. I just
think that the class of the Big Twelve, the class
of the opposition that West Virginia had to play this year,
the class of the star players on those teams kind
of puts them in a great position to defend here tonight.
The ACC just doesn't have the same thing. But I
think the bigger point is West Virginia's seen all of
this before. They've come out victorious in some instances against
this before. So you know from Darren Peterson' tonight they
know what they have to do here. I'd still I said, yes,
I hadn't looked at ticket sales or how they travel,
but West Virginia, I mean Morgantown travels. I wouldn't be
surprised to see a lot of blue and gold in
the stands tonight. So it doesn't really change my opinion
about that game, Nor are the quotes I read about
Rutgers creating They all want to be here. Coaches have
said so, players too have man have said so. So
I think you'll get the same type of excitement and
focus tonight from these games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm my handicap really hasn't changed at all we
talked about yesterday. I will say this though, in relation
to that West Virginia Stanford game, I think I pointed
out that if a team was not going to maybe
be like all in on this sort of venture, it
would be Stanford just because. And the reason I say that,
I have no intel on that being true or not.
The reason I say that is, you know, they're close by,
so it's not a big like, Listen, West Virginia is
not coming.
Speaker 1: Across the country to play in this game. If they
just straight up don't care.
Speaker 2: But Stanford they're around the corner, you know, I just
and and I guess I go back to like, if
they are not fully engaged and they just think like,
all right, we're gonna roll the balls out and see
how it goes, they will be in the same boat
as Minnesota last night, where they're struggling to break fifty
points against this West Virginia defense. But if they show
up and they and they do, you know they've they've
prepared for this game, and they have a good game plan,
namely one I want. I think what Stanford would need
to do is probably goes zone and try to force
West Virginia into like into like shooting the basketball. They
they could be in the game, and without a doubt,
they have the best player on the floor. Buko Ocory
is the best player, might be the best player in
this in the building of any team in this tournament.
I mean, he's an insane talent. But if they think
it's just gonna be like, hey, we're going to stand around, Oh,
Corey is gonna cook and you know, we'll see how
it goes, I think they'd be in for a root
awakening because I do think you get the big time
defensive effort from West Virginia here.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think you're muted, Rob, I think you're muted.
Speaker 3: Am I better now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're better?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Adam. I think also to your point,
I think that West Virginia has had to shoot the basketball,
even though they're not a good shoot Sometimes these statistics,
we talk about it a lot sometimes are a bit skewed.
When you're shooting into big twelve defenses for nineteen games,
twenty games, that's going to lower your percentage Stanford's defense,
I think you said it yesterday. I agree totally. It's
not good. It's not good for West Virginia. This is
going to be a step down to defensive class. And
maybe guys are able to make shots tonight or find
openings tonight that they couldn't find a big twelve player.
Speaker 2: All right, Rob, maybe let's preview very quick preview into
what we're going to talk about tomorrow. So tomorrow will
be Tomorrow will be our Final four show where we
break down both final four matchups. We'll also look at
the NIT Championship game, since we will have a matchup
after the semi finals tonight and then the other Crown
semi final tomorrow, We're going to take a look at
that as well, because of course we'll know what it
is after Rutgers and Creighton, Stanford and West Virginia play tonight.
Speaker 1: But I want to go to the.
Speaker 2: Chat because Walter says, I've got to ask Adam does
he still think Yukon sucks seems a bit outside on
that one. To answer your question, my opinion on Yukon
hasn't really changed. But you have to understand that the
NCAA tournament is all about matchups, and so when I
was really anti Yukon, so two things. One, I was
anti uk against the number in the Big East because
I did not feel like they were like worthy of
the of the numbers that.
Speaker 1: They were laying in February February in the Big East.
Speaker 2: Then when I sort of like doubled down on that
again was in the Big East tournament, where I didn't
necessarily think there were a better team than Saint John's.
I'm still not sure that I don't think my opinion
has changed, but I do think that when you get
into matchups that are that are super favorable and now
all of a sudden, it's like, you know, you get
a little bit of momentum. They got Furman in the
first round, which was a gift, and then they get
UCLA without bill Adu in the second round. If UCLA
is healthy, I think UCLA probably has a really good
chance to win that game.
Speaker 1: And then Michigan State. I actually bet Yukon against.
Speaker 2: Michigan State in that game for five percent because I
felt like the matchup was so favorable to Yukon.
Speaker 1: I can't explain what happened in the game. I cannot,
Like you guys all watched it.
Speaker 2: I cannot fathom how Duke opened up a nineteen point
lead and did not cover five let and not only
did they not cover five, found a way to lose
that game. That is that will forever blow my mind.
So to answer the question, yeah, was I theoretically was
I wrong on Yukon? And you know what I was
wrong about, which is something I've said so many times, Rob,
I've said this a million times. Yukon is the best
coaching staff in the country. Dan Hurley is the best
coach in college basketball.
Speaker 1: And he just.
Speaker 2: His teams just do not quit. And that's maybe where
I underestimated Yukon a little bit. They didn't quit after
blowing an eighteen point What do they have an eighteen
point lead against Michigan State, So it dwindled completely away
and then and then and then you know, had the
the sort of four or two to see that out,
and they did not quit when they were down nineteen
to do.
Speaker 1: So that is where I was wrong. About Yukon. I
don't think my rating of them was that flawed, though,
what do you think about that? Rob? Do you have
a counterpoint to that?
Speaker 3: Well, I could have a comparison to it. I would
say Yukon because you made the point about them being
overpriced inside league play all season long, fair point, fair assessment,
valid assessment. Say the same thing about Michigan. Look where
Michigan is. Michigan failed to cover eight straight and Big
ten play just too high priced. You know, when you're
talking about straight up in ats, there are two different conversations.
And I think that you and I and anybody else
out there who's betting games every day, we have a
different assessment of things. Our wins and losses are according
to point spread. Are who's good and who sucks is
according to point spread? It's not necessarily according to straight up.
We don't pay attention to AP top twenty five poles.
It doesn't matter. We pay attention to our own top
twenty five power rating poles, which normally are more accurate
than an AP Top twenty five. So I think it's
two separate conversations. You can in one breath say Yukon
sucks and mean it as far as points spread is concerned,
as far as our every day endeavor is concerned. But
it might not. You know, they're still thirty plus wins.
They're a good basketball team with a lot of depth.
I will say the one thing about Yukon Adam that
I do think plenty of people now are on the bandwagon.
Not that they didn't think he was a good player
to start with, but I don't think people thought he
could play to the level he's playing now. Is Terris Reid.
Terris Reid has just been an absolute force under no
matter who they've played. For about the last ten games,
he has shredded teams underneath. He's scored his passing ability.
In that Duke game, he made one pass from inside
the paint for a layup. It looked like a behind
the back pass at first glance it wasn't. But still
Terris Reid, and his free throw making ability has gone
up a little bit. He's still not a good free
throw shooter, but I think he's the one guy on
that team that is somewhat gained. If you want to
talk about NBA stock NBA money, that's a guy whose
stock has risen incredibly over the course of the last
ten games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta go to the chat verse that Colin
Gregory is referring to. He just pointed out Connor Griffin
got called up for the Pirates.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a little bit of a fail by me,
Connor I or Colin I was gonna go to the
I purposely was gonna leave early to go to the
game in Columbus last night to see Connor Griffin play
because I figured he would get called up sooner than later.
And the weather just looked so not promising that I
was like, eh, I would have had to leave on
Tuesday instead of Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, say, the game is.
Speaker 2: Probably gonna get rained out anyway, long story short, game
get did not get rained out, It got played in
its entirety, and Connor Griffin the next day gets called
up to the to the big League. So, yeah, missed
opportunity there for me, A little a little disappointed about that.
But I don't think you're gonna get the chance to
see him at the Triple A level maybe ever again,
unless he's rehabbing, because he probably should have been on
you know, the Pirates opening day roster when uh, you know,
just just just sorry to go off topic there, but
I had to had to chuckle at that, because you
know what, I'm probably only like a half hour from
the stadium right now where where I'm at on my
way to to Indy. So yeah, that was a that
was a fail for your boy, missed opportunity to see
Connor Griffin play. Hopefully we're gonna take advantage of this
opportunity though, around to that college basketball tonight. So my
question to you is do we you know, we were
trying to make up for lost time. We've only got
three chances at a parlay the rest of the way,
we do we try to fire the three team or
here since we're feeling good about winning last night, and
maybe find a leg that the two of us agree
on to. This probably is our last chance to do
it today and tomorrow, probably the last chance to do
three teamers this year.
Speaker 3: And I will say this, I'm just looking here. It
looks like there's an opener on the Oklahoma game. You
couldn't have been more right. Oklahoma opens minus one with
a total of one fifty seven and a half. So
I guess that at this point in a parlay we
could include that game because now we have odds on it. I,
you know, four games. I guess we shoot for three
here right now, a three team part. I guess we
go ahead.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, no, I think we should too,
and I'll I'll let you get first. You got first choice,
so you're you. You get to pick your game first,
whatever one you whatever one you want to go to.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: Well, as usual in this timeframe when we're on things
are on the move. I think we agree on the
other one and may end up using that as a
dual play. So I'm going to go ahead and play
West Virginia plus the one here tonight against Stanford. I'll
use the one as you know, protection against you know,
up by two three pointer at the end of the game. Whatever.
But I think West Virginia wins out right, so give
me the first leg. I'll go with West Virginia plus
the one against Stanford.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, I agree with that one too.
Speaker 2: I am gonna go to our first n I T
game tonight, Rob, I'm gonna go with the over in
Tulsa and New Mexico.
Speaker 1: I cannot see a way that that doesn't get to
one sixty.
Speaker 2: After the whole our whole breakdown of the game the
fact that Tulsa, which is state Wichita State, being a
much you know, basically a less efficient version of New
Mexico and sort of the way they attack offensively, and
the fact that Kenyan Giles had a bad game still
got to one sixty two, and and and then the
fact that Tulsa's gonna have to probably make a whole
bunch of threes to hang with New Mexico. Here, it's
just hard for me to believe that we don't see
one hundred and sixty points in this game, and that
total is still sitting.
Speaker 1: There at one sixty one and a half. Is that
is that what I'm seeing? One sixty one and a half.
Is that fair?
Speaker 3: It's very fair? Yep.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go with the rare. You know, usually
I'm the one taking sides and you're giving out totals.
But I'm gonna go Tulsa, New Mexico over one sixty
one and a half will be my parlay. Leg I
just think that there's unlimited scoring in that game. I could,
I'll tell you what, I could probably be talked into
anything else, you like, Because just the way we spoke
about these, I feel like we're on the same page,
So throw one out there and I'll let you know
if I agree.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm going to agree.
Speaker 3: Well, if you had gone anywhere else other than in Tulsa,
New Mexico, we would have definitely over the total. We
would have co signed on that one. So that's definitely
a dual liked game. You know what, if I can,
I'll skip ahead to Saturday. I said it earlier in
our brief overview of the Oklahoma Baylor game. I think
that one's gonna get up there. Oklahoma's gonna score, Baylor's
gonna punch back. Baylor does have offensive capability one fifty
seven and a half. I was expecting, honestly, at him.
I was expecting to see a one to sixty on
that game. And when it popped up at one fifty
seven and a half, man, I feel like that's got
to be an over game. I don't know how you
feel about that one, but it just seems to me
that Oklahoma Baylor's gonna have a different animal offensively to
defend here in this game. That other Oklahoma's got it going.
And for Oklahoma, you know, Colorado put up those types
of numbers yesterday with six freshmen on the floor. So
I think Baylor can do the same.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will, I guess if you if we're if
we're cool with including a game that's on Saturday, which
is ultimately what we're gonna do with tomorrow's parlay as well,
is going to be like a probably like a couple
of days ahead.
Speaker 1: I'm good with either.
Speaker 2: I mean, I can get down with the over there
if that's what you want for your I mean I agree.
Like the joint leg for US is really West Virginia, right,
so what we can call that. The co leg that
we can't very much agree on is West Virginia, and
I'm gonna take the over in Tulsa, New Mexico. Yeah,
I don't see why we get it Saturday.
Speaker 3: Let's let's do this. Let's let's let that because the
Oklahoma Baylor line from what I'm seeing here, is only
available in one spot right now, maybe we'll save that
till tomorrow, and let's we'll say tomorrow, let's double back
to this Illinois State Auburn game, and whichever way you choose,
I happen to think it's gonna go over. Adam one
for nine looks like the number Auburn's taking some money
at this point in a couple of places, but mostly
still seven. It's not a bunch of money.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you what I already I'm already in
lockstep with you, and I've already revealed that I agree
with you on West Virginia. So I'll let you make
the call. This one can be your game.
Speaker 3: You you pick whatever you like that let's play the
Illinois State Auburn game over. I just think that Auburn
is allowing teams to score too much. We talked about
the game at length, so we don't have to rehash
it again. I think we're kind of both done the
same wavelength here, So rather than chance it with a side,
I'll just say I think there's going to be one
hundred and fifty points.
Speaker 1: That's what we need here, and that would help me
be a good a good host.
Speaker 2: I am trying to entertain Andy Lang tonight promised Tim points,
I said, and he got it out to. These games
gonna be a lot of points score. They're gonna be
exciting games. So I hope that's the case, because two
n T overs likely means we had a pretty good
time watching the games, and you're kind of getting a.
I feel like you're getting a little bit of a
bargain price wise on this over in Illinois State Auburn.
That dipped a little bit, which is I guess surprising
to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you tell Andy Lang that our parlay includes
two overs, he's gonna say ven. No, definitely forced you
into those overs.
Speaker 1: I just want to comment real quick, true believer.
Speaker 2: We already broke down the Illinois State Auburn game in detail,
as we did the Tulsa, New Mexico game. So you
can head back to the replay of this show you
get all. We did this game and probably spent ten
to fifteen minutes on it. Rob What are you seeing
for a number that's fare for Illinois Auburn.
Speaker 3: Over eight out of ten places I'm looking at right now,
show one forty nine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll roll Hi.
Speaker 3: It's as high as one fifty, it's as low as
one forty eight and a half.
Speaker 1: All right, So that'll be our three.
Speaker 2: We'll go in three team or for today, couple Hail
Mary shots as we as we try to close the
year on a strong note for the parlay. Parlay won
yesterday with the Baylor and the team total over in
the Oklahoma game. So tonight we have West Virginia plus one.
That's our joint leg that we both agree on. I'm
gonna go with Tulsa New Mexico over fift one sixty
one and a half. Sorry, Tulsa New Mexico over one
sixty one and a half. And Rob is gonna go
Illinois State Auburn over one forty nine. I like that
because we'll also know if we hit or not coming
into tomorrow's show. And guys, if you're looking for Final
Four information, that is what Rob and I are coming
on to break down tomorrow at ten am Eastern. The penultimate,
I think is the word full court Press episode. We've
only got two left. We're going Friday and then Championship Monday.
So tomorrow we will cover both Final four games, the
NIT Championship game on Sunday, and we'll also try to
look ahead to those Crown semi finals, which will be
fully set after the games tonight. Appreciate all the support
all year, guys, and appreciate the like subscribes, the donations
you guys buying our joint package. It helps a ton
I do have a play in one of these games
that is a client play. It will be up on
my page after the show. And yeah, we will be
back here tomorrow ten am Eastern for more full court
press you guys.
Speaker 3: Then