[Music]
all right welcome back uh this is the
ncaa tournaments pandemic playbook why
does it have a pandemic playbook because
we had no tournament last year you
remember that you remember that day in
march where sports shut down
rudy gobert had his issues rudy gobert
versus the bank of microphones and then
that led to a uh
a lot of cancellations nba nhl
ncaa tournament men and women's
tournament
canceled we're gonna have it this year
and we got the best guy
in the world to talk about it nobody
knows this tournament nobody knows
of this sport better than jeff goodman
jeff
what's up man and and i gotta tell you
i got to tell you you know michael smith
mentioned it in his feed we got a
tournament without
duke and without kentucky and i'm saying
never happened in my lifetime we have a
tournament
that honestly i didn't miss
in 2020 so let's let's talk about uh
duke and kentucky first and then what
you expect from this tournament
uh in 21. i mean it's crazy
if you had told me that uh rick pitino
would be in the ncaa tournament this
year and john calipari and mike
schuszewski would not think of the odds
you would have gotten on that one
i mean seriously it's insane right
pitino's taking iona they play alabama
in the first round
um kentucky and duke listen part of the
problem was
they're both young we hear from them
every year cal every year we're young
we're young we're young well they are
and they didn't have the preseason this
year so it hurt him plus they made some
mistakes
you know the local kid from boston
terrence clark frankly wasn't that good
brandon boston wasn't that good you know
duke jalen johnson he was never invested
he
bailed out once with a foot injury
thought about leaving came back
he left and he can't blame him whatever
you know it's his choice if if he was
protecting his drought stock i'm fine
with that
but they recruited some some kids that
didn't pan out you know some top
20 kids ultimately think about it
the freshmen that have been terrific
kate cunningham oklahoma state
went to oklahoma state his brother is an
assistant coach evan mobley
went to usc he'll be the number two or
three pick he went his dad's the
assistant coach
so those guys jalen suggs went to
gonzaga he's been great
but ultimately like duke and kentucky
are used to getting
the elite of the elite this year they
had to evaluate the next tier
and they didn't evaluate well
interesting um definitely want to get
into uh cunningham and mobley and the
other prospects who are going to make
themselves a lot of money
uh in this tournament and speaking of
money that's why we're
having this uh let's not get ourselves
like everything else i mean they lost
hundreds of million
dollars in revenue last year from not
having it um
so before we get into gonzaga's chances
in alabama i'm curious about alabama and
some other programs
just we made it this far i should say
they made it and you made it jeff
covering this sport this far this season
it's actually going to be a men's and
women's tournament but there are no
bubbles
in indianapolis and san antonio how much
of a logistical i don't want to say
nightmare because i don't want to be
negative
but how much of a logistical um headache
do you anticipate realistically we're
used to seeing
first four out man they got four teams
on standby
i mean it's not even really set in stone
until tomorrow right like i mean just
kind of take us inside this this this
how does how do you gonna pull this
thing off
i i think it's stupid that they didn't
bubble up to some degree
right like to me i talked to one coach
the other night
who was already there there were like
nine teams that that had to be there
uh saturday that had already the
automatic births the smaller teams and i
said to the coach i said hey
what's it like there you know he's
staying at the uh one of the hotels
right in downtown
india i won't say which one because
that'll probably cut it down to figuring
out who it was
he said no no like if you want to come
up and visit me in my room right now
you can come up and visit me in my room
right now i'm like really
they don't have crazy security they had
a
how about this when they got in they had
a volleyball
high school tournament that was still
there because again
they weren't planning on having this in
indy
so those teams came in while there was a
high school tournament
parents kids you name it in the in the
lobby of the hotel
now they're gone now but for that first
day so i guess what i'm trying to show
here is
i would have invested the 50 million
it would have taken to bubble up here
you know nba was about 150 million i
guess
for three four months this is your talk
in a month i know there's more teams
but i would have put forth 50 million
and said it's worth it
to invest 50 million to make sure that
we're going to be able to get this thing
off and running and get it uh off the
ground throughout without any major
hitches
instead they went cheap and let's hope
it doesn't come back
back to bite them and then you know what
you know
jeff i can't remember the first time
uh i heard about gonzaga being first it
was underrated
so gonzaga was underway that was a
storyline for about you know five or ten
years
uh you know excellent mid-major then
gonzaga is no longer a mid-major gonzaga
you know take them seriously
they're gonna win it this year top four
the final four this year
this year this year this year and now i
see gonzaga as the number one seed
and i have fallen for it so many times
that i'm kind of getting sleepy on this
thing tell me why
this is the year i should pay attention
this is the year
they're serious and that number one seed
is justified
it's easy michael a kid named jalen
suggs they've never had anybody like him
i mean
he'll be the a top three pick in the nba
draft he's from uh minnesota
and he is an absolute stud a top
five recruit coming out of high school
they've never had a kid like that
and he's just got a gear in him he's not
derrick rose
but he's got kind of that that that body
that quickness
some of that explosiveness probably not
like vertically like derrick rose
so they got him at the point he's a
freshman point they got to kick corey
kissbert on the wing who's a senior
and could be a lottery pick so you're
talking about a kentucky team that could
have two lottery picks
and then a frontcourt player a sophomore
who everybody's falling in love with
from
texas named drew timmy who is versatile
probably not a first round pick but
i think could play in the league at some
point
so they got three studs and
they match up with anybody in their top
five they've also got two point guards
suggs and andrew nemhart who transferred
from florida so
if you look back at ncaa champions over
the last 10
12 years most of them have had two point
guards so
gonzaga fits that bill as does baylor
uh so you mentioned cunningham subs
mobley you mentioned
you know some of the elite prospects
give us a player or two jeff
that it may not be on the the broader
wider radar but people like you and the
people you talk to
you know that they got a real chance to
put themselves on the map uh and become
a factor
come pre-draft or come draft time uh
somebody could really rise
uh as a result of a tournament
performance
so you you want to watch that first
round matchup with rick pitino right
everybody wants to watch that just to
see slick rick and what he can do for
iona they play alabama in the first
round
alabama's got a couple guys that are
kind of under the radar a little bit
herb jones is an elite level defender uh
can guard one through four
and his offenses come along but uh
absolute terrific defender if under
roberson can stick in the nba
this long herb jones is better than
roberson his teammate john petty
is a six five two guard who can really
get it going
and really shoot the ball and alabama is
the most exciting team to watch in the
country
offensively uh their head coach nato
really
basically says just jack it just let it
fly
we have no mid-range shots whatsoever
just
absolutely let it fly or or get all the
way to the rim so
uh john petty is a guy that can really
really shoot the ball from the perimeter
i i would anticipate he increases his
draft stock
and might turn himself into a first
rounder in this tournament
thank you for that so you thank you for
being efficient jeff you just answered
two questions in one cause i wanted to
touch on alabama
because i'm like damn man like i'm used
to talking about alabama in the fall
or in the spring when it comes to like
you know who they've signed yeah
but like alabama winning the sec
championship and now you tell me the
most exciting team in the country i
can't say i've watched a whole lot of
bama basketball this year
but my goodness is like the rich get
richer i guess uh
you know in uh tuscaloosa so thanks for
telling me what to look forward to with
the crimson tide you got it
you got it hey jeff it's my final
question for you give me i'm thinking
about
over the years some of the uh speaking
of rick pitino some of the cinderella
teams that have been there so providence
college final four
uh mississippi state one year yeah um
let's go george mason final four team
that that came out of nowhere
give me one of those teams that uh
that could that could knock on the door
and we'll be surprised by and intrigued
by
i mean to me it's winthrop uh winthrop's
got a really good team they
they've only lost one game all year
they've got a six seven point guard
uh in chandler vagrant who's terrific
and winthrop is playing
against a villanova team that honestly
is susceptible right now uh they don't
have a point guard
you know they got ryan archie diacono's
little brother uh who's a sophomore and
played like 30 minutes all season until
colin gillespie went down for the season
with a knee injury so
winthrop plays like 11 guys they can
really really shoot the ball
they're tough they're well coached if
you remember i don't know if you guys
remember this
winthrop's coach by pat kelsey pat
kelsey was the guy a couple years ago
who took the umass job
for a minute got to amherst and then
said uh thanks but no thanks i'm going
back
that's right that was great i remember
that
that's good i'll look out for hey jeff
goodman
michael holly said that he didn't miss
the tournament last year yeah i i i feel
it coming from michael
just talking to you i think i might i
might have bracket fever now
i think i might be i i have not been in
on it all year you know why i think i
might have
yeah if i can sell you guys on anything
say this isn't it nice not to have to
deal
like k and and and calipari again like
you know you don't
you don't have to hear them bitching and
moaning and complaining after every game
like somebody else is going to have a
chance here
whether it's mark few or scott drew or
juwan howard is a great story this year
for michigan
i'm a great story i'm sick and tired of
cal and kay
this is great no i i i i'll be there
with you if one more guy didn't make the
tournament then i'd be i'd be with you
that is the guy at syracuse i know we
got so many syracuse alums in the media
i'm tired of jim behind go sit down
somewhere
go sit down sit down
you only got no if he only got like
probably one more year one more year and
then
buddy uh buddy graduates after next year
his son
and his other son is probably going to
transfer there from cornell for one year
and then i think you'll you'll be done
with jim beijing okay
thank you hey look uh one more you are
done with us
jeff goodman thanks for your patience
thank you for your insight as always man
uh have a have a productive and a safe
uh tournament experience man thank you
so much for blessing the show with your
knowledge man
now i love you guys and i hope all is
well and
maybe you uh you guys can get lucky and
win some money in the uh bracket
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