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Speaker 1: To miss around the Horn with Jordan Banucci on Utah's

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Home of Major League.

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Speaker 2: Baseball one O three, nine and ninety eight three ESPN.

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Speaker 3: The van.

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Speaker 1: Welcome Macnus of March is right around the corner, and

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the Cougars are in the metal of it. It's time

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to talk some college basketball on Cougar Sports with Ben Cripple.

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Speaker 3: Welcome Back Cougar Sports. One of three, nine ninety point

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three ESPN. The ban I met Crital broadcasting from our

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Vanderwelt Studios Vanderwealth dot Com. Get on that free Q

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and a no obligation to advanced Q anda with our

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tax more Wealth Advisors certify financial planners. Nobody does it

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better than Vander Well did he stomped a little college basketball?

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Cougar Sports gonna welcome in a college basketball insider and

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a bracketology expert. It's going to be brought to you

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by Big O'tires in America.

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Speaker 2: Fork.

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Speaker 3: If you're looking for an honest, hard working, cost transparent

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mechanic who's also a Big BYU fan, get some VP products,

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VMP servers VA he discounts over at Big O'tiers in

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American Fork. Let him know I sent you for that deal.

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He's a big BYU fan that's been aiding and supporting

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the by student athletes for a long time. Now you

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want to stay and support Cougar Nation. To contact Ryan

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Eldridge over at Big O Tires in American Fork. He's

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going to take care of you know, if sans Or

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Butt's about it, Let's get out to the hotline. Welcome in,

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Rocco Miller college basketball analysts and owner operator of bracketeer

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dot org. What's up, Rocco? How you living?

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Speaker 1: I'm living good. How you guys doing. I'm out here

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in Vegas, you know, just going through these conference tournaments.

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We had the WCC the last two nights, some exciting

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action in Gondega for the twelfth time in fourteen years,

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wins the title, of course, But Santa Clara, the big story.

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Looks like they will be in the NCAA tournament for

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the first time since Steve Nash in the early nineties.

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It was gonna be a big day on Sunday down

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there at the Levi Center to'll throw a big party

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for the first at large bid. And I don't know,

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I think since the sixties. I got a double check

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that because I know they only got in as the

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auto Bid with Steve Nash. So just an amazing experience

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for that program and a program that I've been close.

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Speaker 2: To for about a decade.

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Speaker 1: And now we move on to the Big West tonight

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for some early action. That'll be good watching a ton

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of games like you guys today, and then I'll be

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at the Mountain West quarterfinals throughout Thursday, which which shapes

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up to be four really important games because that that

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tournament figures to steal one of the bids you know,

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available in the bubble picture.

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Speaker 3: So, yeah, what's your bubble watch right now? What is

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that looking like? You know, the four, eight, six teams

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that you're really intrigued by right now with that bubble watch.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the bubble watches, it's as a moving it's like

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a conveyor belt of warts. You know, you're not on

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the bubble unless you have warts, right, So I think

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I think the big thing is first, it's just where

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these bids might get taken from. So I'm I'm accounting

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for the Mountain West West to get two teams in

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right now, they only have one deserving team in Utah eight.

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As you guys know, New Mexico might have a path

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to a at large if they win twice and maybe

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lose to Utah State in the finals. I think any

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other scenario with the other seven, I think you know,

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good enough teams to win it not named Utah State.

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That adds up to about a seventy percent likelihood that

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will have a bid steal.

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Speaker 2: From the league.

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Speaker 1: So I think it logical to go ahead and project

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two bits for the league as this at this point

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in the exercise, and that that knocks the spot away.

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Right now, SMU is holding the last spot. Obviously, they

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just lost moments ago to be done with their season.

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You know, they're about as bubbly as can be as

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a team that I think that the committee can select.

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You know, they've done just enough, but at the same

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time be very easy to remove them from the field.

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If somebody steps up this week and really kind of

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build a better profile, I think they can be they

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can be taken over. So we'll see how that plays.

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Speaker 2: Out with them.

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Speaker 1: You know. VCUS also in Limbo. You know, they had

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a really really solid year, but they only got to

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play five.

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Speaker 2: Teams in the projected field.

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Speaker 1: They went zero to five in those five games, and

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they've been very very clean. Besides that, they got a

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big win at Dayton to close the year, So again,

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kind of like SMU, a team you can feel okay

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about selecting if you're the committee, especially compared to a

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lot of the Power Conference teams with warts. But if

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spots go away, or if a team like a Cincinnati,

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for example, can beat Arizona tomorrow, it's gonna shake the

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whole picture up. And at the Power Conference level you

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have chances to do that. You have California. I'm not

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predicting they're going to do this, but if they were

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to beat Florida State today and then they beat Duke

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tomorrow with the Duke's two injuries, that would shake the

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world up in the bubble because I think you would

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have to probably put California in the field if that happens.

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So there's so many things like that can happen, and

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it's all about how many opportunities you can get early

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in the week. And then you have Indiana sitting there,

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who I think, you know, most people would have as

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one of their first teams out or last teams in.

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That's pretty much where I'm at with the Hoosiers. I

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do not think they've done enough, so they need to

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beat Northwestern today, and then I know they get a

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crack at their arrival the Purdue boiler Makers. If they

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win today, they play them tomorrow. So those are the

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teams I think are the most fascinating. Auburn, of course,

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is going to get a lot of attention. They're still

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playing right now. We'll see how that finishes up. I

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think they should be out no matter what, for a

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lot of good reasons, but I'm also concerned about the

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power of the SEC in that committee room. College sports

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are different right now than we've ever seen, and we

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might see some history made if they really strongly look

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at Auburn and try to make a case for them,

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but otherwise there's no history says they have no business

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being selected. Then you have Oklahoma, who I think is

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even further away, but they're starting to creep up because

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they do. They did finish strong, So if you're rooting

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for a bubble team, you definitely want Oklahoma to lose

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early in this tournament. In the SEC, and that's probably

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the main list right now. We know Stanford's probably played

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themselves out, Virginia Tech played themselves out. USC just lost,

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They're out of the picture. So those are the core

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teams that I'm looking at.

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Speaker 3: Love that breakdown that only you can give. Roco Miller

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here on your UTAI ESPN radio network. Roco, where do

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you stand with the Big twelve right now? How many

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bids do you see coming from this conference?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's been a you know since TCUs

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really established themselves. Did that finish they had, They're cleanly in.

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You know, it's kind of kind of crazy because two

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weeks ago we looked at TCU.

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Speaker 2: We didn't know what to do with them.

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Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden, they they I think they

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finished seven and one to close the year. Phenomenal job

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by the Frogs, and they're clearly in. They played their

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way up to like an eight seed now or maybe

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a nine, and so they'll be in, and that gives

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the league a solid eight teams. And then again we've

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got the wild card situation with Cincinnati that I just explained.

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So if and I'm not predicting they'll be in Arizona,

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but if it happens, I think the committee is going

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to make a case for them to get in. It's

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not too many teams in the country can go be

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to one seed. Cincinnati's got the wild results too. Because

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you know, go into fog Allen Fieldhouse and winning by sixteen.

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I know that just as a human it sticks in

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your mind. Cincinnati has had a lot of battle bad

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on their profile, you know, even with Gigsel James, they

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were swept by West Virginia. I think there are twelve

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and ten right now overall, so they're they even with

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giggl James, are still kind of a bubbly type of record,

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and that's being a little bit generous. And then of course,

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if you if you are looking at the full season,

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they lost to Eastern Michigan, which is a team that

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fired their coach and did not even qualify for the

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MAC Tournament. So it's one of the ugliest losses you'll

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see anywhere. So we'll see what happens. So there's there's

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an opportunity for a ninth team. I think Oklahoma State

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would have to make a very deep run, and I

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don't know if they would get considered at this point

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even if they did. So I think it lies with Cincinnati,

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but the league can count on eight getting in.

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Speaker 3: Definitely, Rocko Byu looks to be a six seed. Anything

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that could change that in your opinion.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so.

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Speaker 1: By using in a tough spot with the Richie Sanders

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Saunder situation, right, and the way the committee evaluates means

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in this situation for good or bad and then unfortunately

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for you are you it's it's hopefully nothing, but it

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could be add because they might just take it. Look

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at what the teams looked like since the Saunders injury,

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which obviously had a little bit of a drop off,

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especially on that road trip to West Virginia and Cincinnati.

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Nice job by the Krugers to get that Texas Tech

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home when I thought that was very important, just because

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the evaluation could go a lot of different ways, especially

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if they really look like a different team. So they

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at least showed, and of course they showed that first

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game when they came out and beat Iowa State. Have

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two really good wins without them, but they're both.

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Speaker 2: At home now.

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Speaker 1: I think today don't want to go down to West

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Virginia again because I think that would still open the

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door for the committee to really pick this team apart,

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and you know, they could fall.

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Speaker 2: Down to an eight nine game.

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Speaker 1: I think if that happens, because they would they would

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zero in on the results lately without Saunders, and that

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that leaves b Yu exposed I think to be moved down,

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and so I think a win today is really important

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because it will help hold the line. You know, they've

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they've earned that spot. I think as the last six today.

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I don't see them being higher than a seven if

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they lose today. So pretty important game because you have

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to think about the chronological order of the voting in

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the committee rote room. So voting started today, a lot

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of voting, and and this part of the bracket will

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be sorted out tomorrow. So just getting into a game

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tomorrow and still playing will help yu Uh to stay

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in the conversation and obviously relieve some of those concerns

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about how good they actually are without Saunders.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, how how good do you think they are without Saunders?

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From your purview?

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Speaker 1: But I think honestly the defense has dropped off. They

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got to figure they got to figure some things out defensively.

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So I'd love to see that in this in this week.

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That's my biggest concern. I also think Richie Saunders was

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their best force pacer and Uh there's been a lot

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of a lot more ice, though I kind of figured

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it would be with with Aju, He's touch an elite talent.

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He can go get buckets on his own. But you know,

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I just I think the BYU offense is less effective

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without that.

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Speaker 2: Elite force spacing.

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Speaker 1: You're not getting as many clean looks as you wore

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with Riggie. So those two things are a little bit

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of downgrades for me, just from what I've observed so far.

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Speaker 2: But obviously still very talented, very capable team.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I've noticed with injuries across the country

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all this year. All this year, Stanford as a quick example,

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they lost Chishimawk Para I think at the end of January,

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and their next four games they look terrible, basically played

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themselves out of the picture. But Kyle Smith and that

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that staff just kept working on the guys they had,

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and eventually those new those newly uh those fresh to

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defined roles uh played out to be. Stanford got pretty

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good again.

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Speaker 2: By the end of the year. They beat NC State

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and they were clearly better again.

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Speaker 1: So by you has that opportunity. They just need to

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get some more at bats. And that's why I thinks

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another reason just basketball wise, for them to to get

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a win today so they can keep playing together before

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it's really the big pressure of the NCAA Tournament.

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Speaker 3: Rocco Miller talking some n c double A tournament and

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bracketology here on your Utah ESPN Radio Network, brought to

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you by Big O Tires in American Fork Roco this

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uh uh this tournament. You know, I feel like, you know,

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there's certain teams that are trending. Is you know, favorites

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to win the national title. They've been favorites for most

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of the year. We kind of feel like we know

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who our one seeds are. Where do you staying kind

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up with your one seed and your favorites to win

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the NCAA Tournament this year?

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Speaker 1: Well, thanks to yukon Ukon Locke to Marquette on that

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final day made everything kind of clear, right, Florida takes

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that fourth number one. Duke Michigan and Arizona are just

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at a whole different level with their resume and you know,

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only having a couple losses each, quite clearly the top three.

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I think the committee will didn't have enough reason to

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change that order up going into their actual final bracket

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this weekend. Arizona has an argument they didn't get to

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play either of those two.

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Speaker 2: They have went at Houston.

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Speaker 1: They have a lot of great wins. They've been awesome

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in the Big twelve. But because Duke played Michigan and

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beat Michigan and it's still Duke, you know, you figure

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those day one now. One thing, you know, we'll have

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to see how Duke plays, at least this first game.

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You know, like I said earlier, they'll play Florida State

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or California because they got two injuries, and we know

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Foster's probably going to miss that at least the first weekend,

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maybe even the entire NCAA tournament. Curious to see if

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Duke fell in that game. You know, I think you'd

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probably have to at least move them below Michigan and Arizona.

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Despite the head to head, they would still be a

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one seat, but it would change up the order. I

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think that's really the main thing at stake there Florida,

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since they're crushed to the to the picture obviously still

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not that much margin between them and Yukon. I think

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they just probably need to win their first game in

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the season tournament and then they'll be fine. And it

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looks like they'll play like Missoo or Kentucky. So even

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if they lose, they might be okay, because that's not

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a bad loss. Those are both tournament teams.

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Speaker 2: And then speaking of.

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Speaker 1: Florida, I mean, I think that's the team that's.

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Speaker 2: The team to be when we get to the tournament.

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Speaker 1: I mean the way I understand that they've figured all

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this stuff out in league play, and they lost.

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Speaker 2: A lot of their our key non conference games, but they.

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Speaker 1: Didn't lose by much. You know, they lost to Duke

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by one, they lost to Arizona in a really good

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game on opening night, lost to Yukon by four, and

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then they really started switching things up with their with

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their guards, you know, Xavion Lee and Boogie flann and

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and Urban and all those wing players. Uh, they were

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they were a little two three point reliant and lately

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they've just been attacking the paint relentlessly. We we only

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know they have the best front line in college basketball

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when it comes to offensive and defensive rebounding. Well, now

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what they're doing is they're using their bigs at the

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top of the key and uh in the areas where

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the guards are driveling to free the guards up for

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back cuts. And now you're seeing Zavion League getting wide

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open layups in the screen game. And so they're taking

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a lot less threes and they're just attacking the rim.

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That's seventy two points in the paint against Alabama in

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their biggest game lately, and that was not it wasn't

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just your traditional points in the paint. A lot of

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guards were getting layups because of those back cuts. And

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now the defense is that in that are trying to

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stop this offense don't know what to focus on because

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they're scoring in a variety of ways and it's very,

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very difficult to stop. And then, of course, on the

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other side of the coin, they have elite defenders. You know,

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rubenclu is probably the best defender in the SEC. So

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I think that formula gives them a really, really good

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chance to repeat as national champs.

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Speaker 3: Love that breakdown, Roco Miller here on ESP and the

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fan Roco going back to b Yu, what's the ceiling

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of this stand if they get hot, if they play well, Like,

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how far can they go in the NC DOUAA tournament?

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What would you project?

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Speaker 1: Well, First of all, I think they need to play

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teams that just want to play offense and they don't

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have like I don't want to vy. You have to

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go up against a really good defense. I think I

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think that could that could be a problem giving by

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You go cold and and just be an ugly, ugly game.

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I want to see by You play a team that

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wants to get up and down, they can beat them

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like ninety five to ninety that type of game. So

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if they get that kind of path, of course, they

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can still get Probably about the Elite eight, I would say,

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would be anything beyond that would surprise me. But I

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think it's all about the matchups. You know, they should

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run into a brutal matchup in the first game for

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all we know. So it's anywhere between the first round

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and the Elite eate in my opinion. And even if

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they did get to the Sweet sixteen, I think based

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on Richie going down and all the concerns right now,

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I think I think hopefully the fans and BYU community

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would still call that a good year.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, where do you project them as far as location

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is right now? I was, I was looking at possibilities

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with Portland, but then you could also see, you know,

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I've heard you know, you could get a matchup with

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like maybe Miami, Ohio or you know kind of where

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where do you kind of see location wise? In first

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round matchup with BYU.

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Speaker 1: So let's say if YU can hold on to the

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six spot, that requires a win today. But if they

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hold on to the sixth spot, it's really nice because

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they'd be slotted into Portland in the same pot as

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Gonzaga as the number three seed, and the way I

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have it right now, they play since I have a

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spot for the Mountain West champion, I have that penciled

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in as San Diego State, but you could just plug

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in any Mountain West champion. They probably get that last

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eleven seeds and keep them in the West in Portland,

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so it makes a lot of sense. So in my

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projection right now, it would be by U versus San

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Diego State winner plays Gonzaga, but they've been a seven

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seed on other occasions. If they're seven, they're most likely

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to go to Buffalo because in Buffalo you have a

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Thursday Saturday sight there and that's where Michigan Michigan State's

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likely going to be, So that would be with Michigan State,

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and then in some of those I think the last

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one I had they had BYU was playing Texas A

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and M, but it could also be like a Georgia.

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It could also be sorry not Georgia. I'm misspeaking there.

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It could be a Santa Clara. Santa Clara's gonna be

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a ten seed, so that could be interesting. So we'll

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see how that shakes out. But but yeah, I keep

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getting either Portland or Buffalo, and then certainly Oklahoma City

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could be in play. But I just don't see Oklahoma

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City because Houston is going to be the two seeds

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in Oklahoma City, and I know the committee will look

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to avoid having two teams from the Big twelve in

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the same pod, but if they don't have any other options,

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they could still do it. I believe Yu and Houston

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only played one time this year, so they are allowed

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to do it. So just keep that in the back

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of your mind as well for Oklahoma City.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Roco, love your content, man, you do fantastic work

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00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:43,359
for all those that are tuning in right now. Best

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00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:46,000
way to support you what you do, how you do

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00:18:46,039 --> 00:18:47,559
it for all of our listeners.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I really appreciate that.

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Speaker 2: Bracket.

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Speaker 1: Two dot Orgs, the site I own and operate, we've

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00:18:53,279 --> 00:18:56,920
got we've got some younger guys getting that experience covering

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00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,960
the NCAA tournament, these conference tournaments. We have two guys

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00:19:00,039 --> 00:19:04,079
out doing the Big East Tournament, so anybody that wants

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00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:06,559
to support our work. We also do non conference schedule

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00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,000
updates all summer and spring. I know sometimes I come

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00:19:09,039 --> 00:19:11,279
on in the summer with you guys to talk about

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00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:14,359
updates there. So it's a three hundred and sixty five

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00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:18,920
day operation obviously for bracketology, you know, every single morning

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00:19:19,079 --> 00:19:21,960
or afternoon at least I'll be posting updates about the

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forecast where you can expect your cougars to go or

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00:19:25,279 --> 00:19:28,759
if you're a fan of another team, definitely come to

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00:19:28,799 --> 00:19:31,039
the site for that. And then I'm on Field of

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00:19:31,079 --> 00:19:33,559
sixty eighth throughout the weekend. So we have our show

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Friday to do our last projection show, Fielding the.

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Speaker 2: Sixty eighth the name of the show at at three.

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00:19:39,319 --> 00:19:42,960
Speaker 1: O'clock Mountain time, five o'clock Eastern time, and then Jeff

406
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,640
Goodmin and myself will be on the live reaction show

407
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,480
on Sunday. Stuff you want to hear a little something

408
00:19:49,519 --> 00:19:53,799
else besides the announcement on CBS, come on to Field

409
00:19:53,799 --> 00:19:55,880
of sixty eight about forty five minutes early. We're going

410
00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,160
to start around forty five minutes before the show starts

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00:19:59,519 --> 00:20:04,519
to our final projection to get your juices flowing and

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00:20:04,599 --> 00:20:07,799
then we'll react to every pick. So you know, I

413
00:20:07,839 --> 00:20:10,400
remember last year with the North Carolinda pick. I think

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that one kind of went viral. So you never know

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00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:16,000
what's gonna happen, and it's a it's kind of a

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fun experience every year.

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Speaker 3: Roco, much love to you man, keep doing great work.

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And for all those March Madness fanatics, if you want

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00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:27,880
to pick the right bracket, the right winners, all you

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00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:29,680
got to do is go to bracketeer dot org.

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Speaker 2: Right, that's right, let's do it.

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Speaker 3: Well, go appreciate your Rocko, thanks so much for joining us.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, thank you very much.

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Speaker 2: Appreciate it.

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00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:42,640
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, great segment with Rocomiller bracketeer dot org. Check

426
00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:44,519
it out today. That segment was brought to you by

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who could step up to