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Speaker 4: Today, it's time for a little college basketball.
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the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 4: March madness is pretty crazy.
Speaker 3: There's been a number of different kind of these Cinderella
stories and we haven't We even have an eleven.
Speaker 4: Seed getting into the Sweet sixteen.
Speaker 3: So I always think it's a good thing, even if
it's a power Conference blue blood type of team. As
an eleven seed you get in. I think that's a
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let's get out to the hotline. Welcome in College Basketball Insider,
National Basketball Insider for twenty four to seven, and CBS Sports.
We got Isaac Trotter on the line. Isaac, how you
live it doing well?
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Hey a pleasure talking ball with you today. How would
you describe march madness this far, How would you describe
from your pulpit the ups and downs, the undulations, the surprises,
and the chalk talk as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like if you wanted chok in this tournament,
you certainly got it right with a bunch of top swinning.
But if you wanted a little upset, you also got
that as well. Right with Iowa pulling the upset over Florida.
I still cannot believe that the Hawkeys won that game.
That roster had no business beating the defending champs. But
Ben McCollum is kind of a wizard, kind of good
at what he does. He's won eighty percent of his
games for a reason. And then if you wanted really
high quality basketball, I think this this weekend also really
showed that to you. I'm kind of going through some
of the games. Every time you kind of flip the screen,
you're like, man, that's a really good game that's playing.
You know, even Michigan beats slow by you know, twenty
five points, but if you watch that game, you're like, Wow,
these are really two high quality teams running good offense.
So I felt like, for the most part, the quality
of play throughout the weekend was really good, officiating was
really poor. We got a lot of chalk and we
got one good upset and a couple of really really
good games.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the there's a bit of a Cinderella
story with high point and the three point shooting, the efficiency,
et cetera.
Speaker 4: I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 3: And you know, do you want do does does does
the college basketball fan base do they want to see
Cinderellas make it to the Sweet sixteen?
Speaker 4: Or do they just like.
Speaker 3: That that initial round or a playing game type of
Cinderella story and it stops at the round of thirty two?
Speaker 4: Do you think?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at too. I think
one or two games that you win from a Cinderella
is great. But you know, I think a few years ago,
like FDU playing Carolina in a big Sweet sixteen game
wasn't necessarily the most fun or something like that like
that that's kind of the or No, I think it
was at Saint Peter's against Carolina where it wasn't super competitive.
But yeah, like that's kind of where it goes a
little bit too far for me. I think if you're
a basketball fame, you kind of look at this sweet
sixteenth slate. You're like, man, these are eight excellent games,
really excellent games, and you know, I think there's gonna
be a lot made of like, oh no, Cinderella's in
this second weekend, But I think there's real like explanations
for it, and it's far more than nil. And you know,
the portal, I think it really does come down to
just roster building and more teams at the top of
the sport are just trying to get bigger and bigger
and bigger, and to kind of use the football analogy
of just like, hey, big people move little people. I
think that's what we're kind of noticing more at the top,
and it's why some of the you know, the teams
like that are in the high major leagues have just
become more successful early in the tournament. I also thought
this tournament was seated better as well, like for the
most part that the top teams got decent draws, but
like a Utah State that's a really good team that
could have easily made the second weekend, they just had
to play Arizona slew It's a really good mid major
team they got they had a great year, but they
got a horrible draw. They had to play Michigan. That's
why they're not in the second weekend. So that just
felt more just like unfortunate timing, and it kind of
all muddles together. We have sixteen kind of high major
teams playing for the title.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Calhoun was pretty ticked off when he got his
seating right the match tip in the bracket. He's like,
look like we should have been a higher seed and
we kind of got screwed.
Speaker 4: That's why we're out in the round to thirty two.
Speaker 3: He said it prior to to tip off in that
first round, and he said it again in the post game.
And now he's he's head into a power conference where
he's got a more robust uh, he's got more robust resources.
And fortunately Utah State has said like four coaches, it
seems in five or six years they just start stepping
stone for everybody. But everybody moves there. Everyone can go
go there, move there and win there.
Speaker 1: Right. There is no like there is no drop offs,
which is like you just names, change coaches, change players,
change Utah State keeps winning. So yeah, I'm just kind of.
Speaker 4: Curious, why is that? Do you think? How is that happening?
Do you think It's.
Speaker 1: A good question, you know. I think part of it
is just like institutional there, Like they do a really
good job of like keeping guys like Mason Falslav has
stayed for three coaches now throughout his career, and he's
like one of the best players in the Mountain West.
But it's definitely more than just that, Like I think
it's a it's a place that really loves basketball. I
think it's a place that gives good resources to its
coaches for its league. Right compared to some of the
other teams that are in there, they have a great
home court advantage, so I think that certainly helps. Well,
it's an attractive place to play basketball when you factor
in just everything that they have going there. So I
think that's kind of all of the different things there.
But also part of me just kind of feels like
it's a little bit of good fortune too, right, Like
there's they've done a good job of like executing and
finding good coaches and like I mean even Calhoun to
a certain extent, like if you looked at his resume
at Youngtound State, like I think a lot of people
like view him as like, oh, you have to like
win in March in order to like be a good
basketball coach like Calhoun didn't do that, but Utah States
brass still did a good job of being like, no, look,
he's exceeded expectations every single year at Youngtoun State. If
we give him these type of resources, he's going to win.
And sure enough they did just.
Speaker 4: That, no doubt about it.
Speaker 3: We were discussing, you know, the disappointments as well in
the NCAA Tournament. I think the BWAU Cougar's losing to
Texas that was a disappointing for kugarnation we've had we
either there are some people that felt like, hey, this
is one of the more disappointing, if not the most
disappointing season in b leage basketball history, because of all
the talent that they had to start off the season,
the five season ending injuries. Three of those guys are
starters or rotation players. Give me your synopsis of BYU
this year. What did you see and how do you
feel it ended up for them?
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit of a cursed year, right, Like
you feel like you're blessed with the type of talent
that you're able to accrue and just never really got
to see it on the full center stage, right like,
how many games does this team fully healthy? Like not
any of their biggest ones, right, Like, that's just a
fair a fair estimate of where this season was. But
I also do think there were some miscalculations with this
roster being built, you know, I think there if you
ask Kevin Young, like they probably wish that they had
a little bit more depth in the front line. And
you see the teams at the top of the sport,
right like what Arizona has done at the top of
the Big twelve, Like they have four massive dudes that
they can trot out in our major, major difference makers,
And it felt like the Uyu's frontline, like Kbaketa, outside
of that, it was a little limited, Right, That's just
a fair part of what their roster was. So I
think their margin for error was a little bit slimmer
than some of the teams at the top. But there's
no question if Richie Saunders was healthy, I would have
been stunned if Yu was not in the second weekend.
A guy like that can kind of almost single handedly
drag you into the into the second weekend when you're
paired with aj De Bones and you're paired with Rob
Wright and just without him, it felt like this team
kind of got wobbily. And you understand it for everything
he did on the court, off the court as a leader,
as their offensive, rebound englishry, the hustle, hustle guy basically
kept possessions alive. It's just a shame that a guy
like that didn't get to didn't get to play in
March Madness one more time?
Speaker 3: Who are your favorite teams right now to survive in
advance to get to that elite aid Where you leaning
right now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So for me, like I think Arizona matches up
great with Arkansas. You know, I think Arkansas's interior defense
is an issue, andandition defense is an issue, pick and
roll defenses issue. Arizona is like elite at all three
of those categories. So unless Darius Akuff like touches the
heavens and goes for you know, forty five, forty six points, like,
I think Arizona's good advance And to me, like, I
just feel like Arizona and Michigan have been the best
two teams that I've seen this year in person, and
I just think they're on a collision course in the
final four. I think Michigan is going to be able
to get through an Alabama team that doesn't have Aiden Holloway.
I think they could get through a Tennessee team that
has a beat up Nate Amen. I think they could
get through a team like ioways say too as a
beat up Josh Jefferson. Like, so Michigan in Arizona feels
like the National Championship game that we're going to have
just forty eight hours early, right on that Saturday in April.
So those two teams feel inevitable. There's other good matchups though,
right Like I think Illinois Youson is super fascinating. Both
those teams are top six on Pempom, just elite teams,
Like if you told me in the beginning of the
season Illinois and he started playing in the final four
out to believe you, But we're getting it in the
sweet sixteen, and those two losters can certainly go toe
to toe, and I'm out obviously super fascinat by the
East Region, right like Duke and Saint John's Michigan State Yukon.
Pray for the reps because the refs that have to
officiate both of those games are going to get Earpuls,
super Rick Mesino, Dominzough, and Dan Earley.
Speaker 3: You know, going back to the Texas Purdue matchup and
reflecting on BYU season, it reminds me of the sixth
seed that be what you pulled in twenty twenty one
where they had to face either Michigan State or UCLA
got the win over Michigan State. Both those teams are
really good teams. UCLA just and then went on a
run all the way to the Final four before losing.
I wanted to I want to say to Gonzaga that year,
is this another eleven seed Texas that all of a
sudden is going to go on a terror and upset Perdue.
Is there a possibility there the way to form the
fashion they're playing and how Sean Miller's coaching up this
crew right now.
Speaker 1: It's in play. I don't think it's likely. I think
that Texas is actually a pretty rough matchup for Purdue.
Like Purdue is so good in drop attacking drop coverage,
and Braden Smith and Trey Coff and Rent are just
like elite against that defensive coverage, and that's what Texas plays.
So I do think that there's avenues for Purdue to
win that one. It's an uphill climb certainly for Texas.
But at the same time, like if you talk to
rival coaches in the SEC, like they would say, like, hey,
Florida's the most talented team and the best team in
our league. But Texas is the scariest because like they
just have like this different gear that they can get to.
And I think lately, like Jordan Pope's been playing like
a really really good player like Tremon Mark is obviously
really scary. It can go off at any given moment.
Dalen Swain can. It's like one of the elite drivers
of the basketball this year, Like from a points for
possessions perspective, he's been elite in that category. But I
think the real X factor for them is in Mantis. Mukaitis,
like his emergence from like a good mid major transfer
into like a really good Big twelve big man has
certainly or SEC big man. Sorry that Texas is not
in the Big twelve anymore, and certainly definitely changed the
calculus for that Texas group, But I still think they
go down this week. I think Perdy is a tough
matchup for them across the board. In this Texas defense
that we know has real issues. I think they could
get carved by the best offense in college basketball.
Speaker 3: A team I'm kind of rooting for. You know, maybe
it's nostalgia for me because I grew up in there.
I'm only, you know, forty three, but kind of for
Saint John's.
Speaker 4: To upset Duke as well.
Speaker 3: We've seen the best, and we seen the worst, and
the best of Duke was, you know, lost one to
Sienos in that one sixteen matchup, and then they showed
their best face versus TCU destroying the horn Frogs. What
type of team are we're gonna see from from Duke
versus Saint John's or do you think that's another Should
that be an upset alert game?
Speaker 1: It's certainly an upset alert game because I don't think
the talent level between Saint John's and Duke is all
that far. Like it's pretty talented rosters like Zoobi Edge
of four is a All American candidate. Bryce Hopkins is
playing like an All Big East type of guy. Dylan
Mitchell is a freaky wing. They have guards that can
really go right, like if you and Jackson play as well.
He was a top ten recruit in the transfer portal
and a top ten recruit in high school for a reason,
so it really wouldn't be a surprise if Saint John's one.
I do kind of feel like this one for all
of like how I was kind of singing college basketball
praises for all of these like beautifully aesthetic games in
the first weekend, Saint John's Duke is not going to
be that, in my opinion, I think this one could
be like a football game on the basketball club for
both of these just really aggressive big dudes are just
hitting each other for forty minutes, so it's going to
be a very, very physical game. I think that both
these teams guard each other really well, and just the
avalanche of like who rebound rebounds the other I think
is actually going to tilt the scales in this one
because Duke is so good at limiting the boards, and
if you can keep Saint John's off the offensive glass,
you certainly have a chance to beat them like that.
Saint John's team got six threes from Bryce Hopkins right like,
that's the most of his career. I think he mostly
had ever made a game four was three. They got
eleven offensive rebounds against Kansas. They shot thirty. You know,
they made eleven threes, which is a great thing for them,
and they still only manage sixty seven points and manage
under like under a point for possession, So like it's
a limited offense. And I think against a team like Duke,
if you can keep them off the offensive glass and
just guard them, well, I think you could could keep
them under seventy points. And in that scenario, I have
a hard time seeing the Blue Devils lose.
Speaker 3: One of the elements that I'm always intrigued by is
the coaching carousel during March Madness. And you know, Herebert
Davis out at UNC, the easy thing to do, the
low hanging fruit thing to do, the sexy thing to
do for these eighties is to just go out and
find somebody that's currently in the sweet sixteen. Right, I've
been looking over at like, you know, kind of a
younger coach Otselberger, Like that could be an option.
Speaker 4: Do you think, you know where do they target? Who
do they target?
Speaker 3: They try to go out and get Patino right because
of everything that he's done and try to pay him
a bag because he's still got vigor and vim and
still high energy. Here his halftime speeches and he gets
after it. Oh so Alzberger, I was dy, he's always overachieving.
I think Mark Pope said he could he could go
pick up, like, you know, five guys from home depot
and create like a top twenty five defense or something
like that with his coaching ability. Anyway, give me your
thoughts on that vacancy and where they're going to turn to.
Speaker 1: It's it's drastic. It really has a chance to kind
of change the landscape in college basketball because the ripple
effects are huge. So I think the biggest thames you
look at right now are Billy Donovan, who's at the Bulls.
I think there's a really good chance that Billy Donovan
could leave the Bulls either in the middle of the
season or by the end of the season. He'd have
no buy out for Carolina to pay, and Carolina could
be a really attractive spot. And I think people look
at him and be like, well, you know, if you
want to come back to this Arab college basketball, I'd
argue this Arab college basketball is easier for Billy Donovan
to come back and coach at right It's it's more
transactional than ever. You're not spending three years chasing kids
down on the recruiting trail and trying to know everybody right,
like it's the zoom, it's here's our pitch, here's the money,
here's the role. Do you want to play here? And
like so I feel like that actually might be easier
for him to get on board with something like that.
So he's certainly their top name on the board right now.
But there's some big names too that they're looking at.
Tommy Lloyd from Arizona, tj Osselberger at Iowa State, Dusty
May at Michigan. Those would be the three names I'd
also keep an eye on if those four don't coalesce,
like I think Ozenberger would actually do a really good
job there. But say those four don't come through, I
think then you're kind of looking at a crop of
names that would probably include like a Mark Byington at Vanderbilt,
who's done a great job everywhere he's been. But I
just have a hard time seeing like North Carolina off
with a job to t j Otzilberger at him saying no, right,
and we know he's one of the best coaches in
college basket one. If that happened, I think Carolina woul
feel pretty good about its upside in future.
Speaker 3: I just wonder is is TJ refined enough? Is he
dapper enough? Is he white collar enough? For un see you.
Speaker 4: Know what I mean?
Speaker 3: He seems pretty gritty, pretty blue collar, you know what
I mean, a rough round the edges around them unc
you know, tar heeled donors.
Speaker 1: I totally agree with you. That's exactly what I was
thinking as well, too, because like if you've read about
t J Altenberg, he wakes up at four fifty nine
every morning because he wants to have his idea that
he got up before or five.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: He's militaristic in the way that his programs run like
it's very like by the book, and we're all together
in this. It's almost like boot camp est right. I
think his dad was in the army. So there's like that.
Speaker 4: No entitlement, no entitlement. We don't bring in.
Speaker 1: Entitlement exactly, And so it's a it's a different thing.
And you could argue that North Carolina needs change, they
need something different like that. Would everybody be on board
with it? I think that's a question, and it's a
fair one, right, where Whereas like like let's just call
it spade to stay like if Kansas opened up, I
could see Ozolberger looking at that Kansas chow being more
attractive to Kansas and Carolina Like that just is what
it is. But yeah, it's it's it really, those dynamics
and these coaching carousels are so fascinating and the ripple
effects are obvious because it just it has a chance
to impact the portal, impact, the coaching carousel, impact who's available,
Like the money is going to be nuts, like and
I was kind of geared up for a quiet coaching carousel,
and Carolina and maybe Kansas have certainly gone a lot
to change that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no doubt about it. If you had to put
money on it.
Speaker 3: Right now, who wins the natty y leen in you
of a yoleen in Michigan? Is there going to be
an upset that you're willing to put your name on.
Speaker 4: We won't quote you, We're not going to put it
in quotes.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, thanks for thanks for not quoting that. But
I've gone with Arizona for a while and I'm just
gonna lean with it.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I think the reason why is I'm just in onun
skilled size and the pure ros size that that whole
team has is just really hard to account for. And
here's the other thing too, Braden Burry's is playing not
like a good guard, He's playing like a great guard.
And so I think when you add him to the
mix alongside you know, you know, just the steadiness of
Jaden Bradley, just their elite defenders at every position, that
gives me the slight edge. But Arizona Michigan, I'm telling
you that feels like the two best teams, and I
don't know how that game is gonna go. Arizona has
the best backcourt. I would say Michigan has a slightly
better front court. Their coaching is even, their benches kind
of even. So I give Arizona the slightest nod there.
But there's also part of me that wonders that, like, hey,
if the winner of that Arizona Michigan game, like, is
there a chance they're just buddied or bloodied and battered
and brewed after that forty minute game, Like if they're
a little bit they just don't have enough in the
tank for that following Monday against whoever. So the door
is certainly opened for maybe in Illinois or a Houston
or Duke or something like that. But I'll ride with
Arizona for here on out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was, you know, we're in Big twelve country, right,
I was hoping maybe you they Houston match up in
the Natty.
Speaker 4: I thought that could you know, all.
Speaker 3: The Big twelve acolytes advocates, they just want to get
that confirmation by So this Big twelve was and is
the best conference in America even though they only got
eight seeds and the SEC got ten.
Speaker 4: Tell me how that happened.
Speaker 1: I think it's just more top heavy, right, Like, I
think it's pretty clear the top of the Big twelve
is on a different tier than a lot of the leagues, right.
I think them in the Big Ten are the top
two leagues for me this year. Like, I don't. I
didn't see the SEC on that caliber. I know they
were number one on Ken Pond, but I just the
eye test was not the same. You know, there's a
lot of teams in that league that did not play
defense or and in the Big twelve, like, it's way
better scouted. In the Big Ten, it's way better scouted.
So for me, it's a Big Ten or Big Twelve conversation.
I think we'll let that play out on the floor
if Arizona and Michigan go ahead to head in the
final four.
Speaker 3: Love it, Isaac Trotter, Ladies and gentlemen, CBS Sports and
twenty four to seven as well, Isaac. Best way to
support you? What you do, how you do it for
all of our listeners.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can read all my stuff on cbssports dot com,
twenty four to seven sports dot com, and then follow
me on Twitter, Isaac double underscore trot.
Speaker 4: There you go, follow him read here. He does great work.
Speaker 3: I've retweeted a couple of his articles that he's posted
recently Cougarnation. Check it out, Isaac Trotter. We salute you man.
Thanks for hopping off for the little March Madness segment.
Speaker 1: Of course, thanks for having me there go.
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