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Who will be the Cinderalla in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

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  You can see I'm will hit the retweet button or share button on x final
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  four projections from Kelly. He's got Yukon with a forty six percent chance to
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  win the whole thing, Purdue at forty three percent in Alabama, and NC
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  State at nine percent and two percent respectively. You know, it's hard to
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  put your finger on a team like NC State in how you know, numbers
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  aren't always one hundred percent true. We know that, But how they managed
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  to do this? Do you when you watch them and you see them play.
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  I mean, like you said, they lost four straight ball games headed
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  into the end of the season here, you don't know if it's just chemistry,
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  if just some things click for some guys maybe late, but whatever it
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  is, it has done that for that has happened for INC State. Yeah,
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  absolutely, Jake, and we talk all the times. In college football
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  and college basketball, is no exception that models can't account for everything. And
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  they're going to have outliers. We're going to have teams that perform at a
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  level that is higher than the model or the numbers. Let's suggest that they
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  should. And also in college basketball, especially when you got all these one
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  game sample sizes in a tournament type setting. If you get hot, if
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  you get some momentum, then you're gonna exceed these expectations. NC State has
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  done just that, so they're really fun to watch. Like I said,
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  certainly take my projection, as you just said, two percent chance to win
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  it all by my numbers right now, only a twelve percent chance to beat
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  Purdue on Saturday. Take those with a grain assault because NC State, day
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  in day out here the last almost months now has just kind of looked at
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  the model and thrown the numbers right back in their face. So they are
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  a team that Purdue should not and will not I'm sure overlook. But it's
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  a really fun and exciting final four. You know, you got a potential
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  for the repeat national champions for the first time since two thousand and six,
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  two thousand and seven Purdue and NC State and their first final fours in forty
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  plus years. Alabama never been to a final four. There's all sorts of
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  storylines here. The only thing we're missing is is truly like a Cinderella,
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  and NC State is an eleven seed in most years in eleven seam makes of
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  that one four that is a cinerella. NC State. I have a hard
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  time calling them that because they are the ACC champions. That's a Power five
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  conference with blue bloods like Duke in North Carolina. But certainly, over the
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  course of this season, you would not have expected NC State to make it
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  this far. The way they've played the last month, it's really not all
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  that surprising. They just keep stringing together great performances. You know what,
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  it'll be interesting to see. I think everybody would be on the same page
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  with this, and rarely do you get the general public on the same page
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  with anything. As you want to see two really good games Saturday, but
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  you could potentially, if Yukon and Purdue are that much better and they look
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  like they could be, you could see two walk away games in the final
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  four and then a heck of a national championship game between Perdue and Yukon.
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  Yeah, Jake, there's really been three teams all year in my power rating
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  and a lot of power ratings out there that have kind of stood head and
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  shoulders above the pack, and those three teams are Yukon, Purdue, and
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  Houston. Houston remained hying the power ratings. You can argue, you know,
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  if Shed doesn't get hurt in that sweet sixteen game against Duke. Maybe
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  Houston ends up winning that game, and who knows what a healthy shed what
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  they're able to do against NC State and the Elite eight, but that should
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  have what a could of. Injuries are a part of the game, things
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  that the model can't always forecast or consider. Right, So, those three
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  teams have really been, from a power rating standpoint, the best, and
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  it's not been that close. I mean, they've been two or three points
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  better on a neutral court, which is a big deal in the power rating,
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  better than the rest of the field. And Nick, you said you've
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  got Purdue and Yukon on separate sides right now. If those two teams are
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  able to get past their their final four opponents, You're absolutely right. The
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  stage is set for a monster showdown between two teams that have been all year
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  in that elite group. And who knows, sports are funny, we could
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  have it all set up and get a blowout in that game one way or
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  the other. Yukon is like a freight train right now going down the tracks.
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  And Purdue's got Zach Edy and Braden Smith and the whole crew that plays
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  so well together. So yes, you want to see good game Saturday.
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  I think if Purdue and Yukon win, we could be in for something really
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  really special on Monday night in Phoenix,