Latest / Cocaine Willie / Casey Alexander is a WINNER. What say you? (S4//E52)

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Casey Alexander is a WINNER. What say you? (S4//E52) · Cocaine Willie

0:39
All right, what is up, everybody?
0:41
You're listening to yet another edition of Cocaine Willy.
0:43
We are back. The official KC representative
0:47
on the college huddle. Obviously, I'm not your
0:49
commissioner. Bob Trollsby is over in Boston.
0:53
Got to watch the Celtics win yesterday, big one.
0:56
But I am fireball Matt as always.
0:59
I got next to me my trusty compadre chef who is somewhat
1:06
here. Maybe, maybe not.
1:08
We'll figure it out if he gets here.
1:10
But before we do get started with today's show, let's go
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ahead and give a shout out to our sponsor, Annie Maze Parlor
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Andy Maze is always my favorite destination when I go to
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2:11
Chef, are you alive? I made it.
2:16
I am trying to survive the Internet malfunctions but I'm
2:21
ready to talk some ball baby. The round orange one to be
2:25
specific. Tis the season and it feels OK.
2:30
I'll I'll say it like this. We thought the the timeline last
2:34
time it was just me and you talking and we're talking coach
2:36
search and all that We thought this would drag on a little bit
2:40
longer. We thought it would be a little
2:43
bit longer they they knocked it out.
2:46
I'm excited for basketball again.
2:48
Obviously K State is not in the tournament that is upcoming in
2:51
the next couple days, but hey, we got a new coach, Casey
2:57
Alexander, so I am pumped and I am ready to watch.
3:02
I'm ready to watch some basketball because I know next
3:04
year we will be there. Let's go.
3:07
We better. I mean, it's been a long time.
3:09
It's been a long time. I had hair the last time we made
3:12
the NCAA tournament back in 2023, man, three years ago.
3:17
But it has been a big week for it has been a big week for K
3:21
State basketball. Obviously, if you have been
3:25
living under a rock, you may just be learning on the show.
3:28
But K State did come to terms and sign a contract with Belmont
3:31
coach Casey Alexander to be the new men's basketball head coach
3:37
on Monday. He was introduced to everybody,
3:40
had an excellent press conference, which we'll talk
3:42
about in just a second. But just want to give a little
3:44
bit of background on Casey Alexander, just some statistics
3:48
so everybody's kind of, you know, aware of what we're going
3:50
to be getting here as we move forward.
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This guy's a winner. He's won 10 consecutive seasons
3:57
of 20 wins or more. He has 303 total victories under
4:00
his belt. 4 conference championships at Belmont, 2 at
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his previous school, Lipscomb. Two time conference coach of the
4:10
year, 2 NCAA tournament berths. He did qualify in 2020, but that
4:14
of course, NCAA tournament was cancelled.
4:16
But he did win the conference tournament at Belmont, which
4:19
would have gotten him into the NCA tournament.
4:22
You know, the big thing with me, especially as, you know, we've
4:26
been kind of keeping up with the coaching search and all this and
4:29
that a winner like you have a guy who has proven to win
4:35
basketball games in his time. And I think that's going to be
4:39
absolutely huge, especially as you move to what you know is
4:42
obviously going to be the biggest job of his career.
4:45
But I think to have a winner at the start, you know, is a big
4:49
thing. So when the announcement was
4:51
made that he was hired Chef, what were your first thoughts?
4:56
Not that he was necessarily a Plan B, you know what I'm
5:00
saying? I don't think he was.
5:01
I don't think he was that at low on the run.
5:15
We we all kind of the gone. He wasn't he wasn't the plan BI
5:23
don't think. I think in terms of where he was
5:27
for fan excitement might have been a little lower because we
5:30
had kind of latched on to Calhoun and thought that he was
5:36
the slam dunk pick. You know, from all reports, it
5:39
was kind of like that analogy was that it was at the goal
5:42
line. It was right there was ready to
5:45
be pushed through. That didn't fall through.
5:47
And Casey Alexander's timeline actually matched perfectly with
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where K State wanted to go in terms of wrapping this up as
5:55
quick as possible. Unfortunately, his team got
5:58
knocked out in the in their conference tournament and they
6:01
are A1 bid league, so their team was not going to make the
6:04
tournament. I think they were a really
6:05
talented squad. I think they had a chance to do
6:08
some things in the NCAA tournament if they were to make
6:10
it, but that's neither here nor there.
6:13
I think in terms of where he is in coach pedigree, I think he's
6:19
right there. I don't think that there was
6:21
much discrepancy amongst the coaches that were available.
6:25
This was not the hottest of the hottest names that were for
6:30
coaches available. But I, I will say Casey
6:34
Alexander, like you said, he is a winner.
6:37
He is banging out 20 win seasons constantly.
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Mind you, they're in the, the, the valley.
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That's it. That's a solid conference, but
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it's going to be a step up in competition.
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What can he do? And, and from all indications
6:54
with how, with what his contract looked like, with how he talked
6:58
at the press conference, this is a long term deal.
7:01
I don't think this is like no offense to Jerome Tang, but he
7:04
definitely gave you the excitement that it was going to
7:07
be a turn around quick and obviously came out the gate
7:10
swinging. And we we had high expectations
7:13
after that. But I think Casey Alexander's
7:15
kind of building this program a little bit different.
7:18
Yeah, I would agree with that. And kind of going back to the,
7:22
you know, thinking about the, the candidate pool that was
7:25
going to be, you know, available in this kind of coaching
7:29
carousel, you know, mid major coaches are, are a crapshoot.
7:34
And for I, I, I think a lot of the Calhoun hype came from the
7:42
reporting of he, you know, he's a guy that K State's very
7:47
interested in things are moving very positively.
7:51
And I think ultimately when we heard, I guess Wednesday or
7:54
Thursday that, you know, the Cincinnati job is going to open
7:57
and K State maybe doesn't seem like, you know, they want to
8:02
kind of wait to see what Jared Calhoun is thinking.
8:06
You know, that just put it in my mind that you have a guy that
8:09
maybe isn't 100% committed to want to come to K State.
8:12
And ultimately, you want a coaching candidate, you want a
8:16
guy who wants to be here. And kind of from what I said,
8:22
yeah, mid major coaches are a crapshoot in this type of game.
8:25
You see ones that that move up and are successful.
8:28
But for every single one that you see be successful, I feel
8:31
like you see two or three that kind of tank, you know, that
8:35
that don't see as much success moving up.
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And there's plenty of reasons for that.
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Casey Alexander to me is a guy that just, you know, based off
8:45
of the press conference and, and what he has said, you know, he
8:49
wants to not just, you know, build a program, but he wants to
8:52
bring in a culture that wins. And he wants to bring in a
8:56
culture, you know, that is exciting and, you know, just
9:01
kind of doing the right thing, which I think is kind of huge
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right now considering, you know, the past three years we've been
9:08
in situations where maybe the coaching staff wasn't doing the
9:12
right thing and we didn't see a lot of wins coming from that.
9:16
So I, I, I'm not going to lie, I became, you know, when I heard
9:21
he, when they heard that he was the pick and you know, he was
9:25
going to be coming here, I was excited.
9:30
I really just liked his background.
9:32
I like, I like his resume, what he's had, you know, the, the
9:37
NCAA tournament thing, you know, I think we, we have some people
9:40
who automatically take that as a huge negative and you know,
9:43
maybe it is. But for me, again, with these
9:46
one big leagues, one game, you know, 1 bad game takes out.
9:53
All of. You know, takes out all of the
9:55
play that you've had for basically three months.
9:58
And, you know, if those conference tournaments bring
10:01
excitement and they bring eyeballs and this and that, but
10:04
they don't necessarily reward who is the best team over a
10:08
period of time. And, you know, unfortunately, at
10:12
least from a Belmont perspective, like we saw that
10:14
this year, this is a talented team and, you know, had one bad
10:19
game and there you go. You're not in the NCAA
10:21
tournament. I am not necessarily going to
10:24
take that as a huge knock because that's just the nature
10:27
of these leagues if you're going to find candidates.
10:30
Yeah, you know, from. Yeah, not necessarily the
10:33
Mountain West or something like that where, you know, that's a 2
10:36
bed 3 big league most years. This is this is going to be
10:40
what, what you're going to find. So I'm excited.
10:43
You know, I really am. I I, I think he is a really,
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really good hire and, you know, just brings a culture that wins
10:53
And, you know, as long as you can continue that culture in a
10:55
very new environment and a new league in a much tougher league,
11:00
I, I think that's where the challenge is going to be.
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And that's going to make things interesting, especially with,
11:05
you know, maybe bringing in some of his Belmont players to K
11:09
state and, you know, maybe trying to convince a small
11:13
handful of current K state players to stay and, and, you
11:16
know, kind of continue. That will be very interesting to
11:19
see what happens there. Yeah, let's talk about that a
11:22
little bit. I mean, from all indications, I
11:25
mean, obviously he's not going to go out there and put himself
11:27
out there like he's poaching Belmont.
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He's going to say the right things.
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And that that kind of goes back to what he said at the press
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conference, not necessarily the breakout session, but just his
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introductory press conference. He's going to, like you said,
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he's going to do the right things.
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He's going to say the right things.
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And it's not hard to win over K State fan, the K State fan base.
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I mean, you said it yourself. I mean, people necessarily, you
11:54
know, weren't going to give him the grace necessarily, But when
11:58
you this, this fanbase is so primed and ready to have a
12:02
winning program, as long as you don't go up there and, you know,
12:07
slap a woman or something like that, people are going to flock
12:11
to you and try to give you the benefit of the doubt.
12:13
But he knocked it out the part and the, the program that he
12:18
wants to build, if the foundation starts with, you
12:24
know, a handful of those Belmont players, maybe even some of his
12:27
high school recruiting class that he was bringing into
12:31
Belmont, that's, you know, that might be a solid 6 guys right
12:34
there. And then.
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I don't know who necessarily he wants from this program that's
12:42
already here. It doesn't in my opinion.
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I don't think anybody matches the formula that he wants to put
12:48
out there. We could talk about that, maybe
12:52
you you disagree, but I think him with the resources to go and
12:59
find not necessarily the top end guys either.
13:02
I don't think he needs to go after the top end guys in the
13:06
portal right from the start and spend a huge boatload of money
13:11
on one or two guys. I think if his philosophy works
13:14
where he's going to go in and find a solid four to five guys
13:20
in the portal that are just ready to be molded that have
13:24
multiple years of eligibility that they can spend, not
13:29
necessarily break the bank. And then if they produce, then
13:32
we can pay the money to retain them.
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I think that is where his philosophy goes.
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And it's kind of funny because that is exactly what the Houston
13:43
model is, which Tang famously said that he wanted to get after
13:47
and start doing. I think that's what the the
13:50
Houston model is. Obviously they have a an upper
13:53
echelon of talent out of high school and in the portal, some
13:56
people, you know, they they flock to those top in guys.
14:00
But Casey Alexander has a lot of work to do and I think I think
14:06
he's going to get it done and I think he could be quickly.
14:09
I mean it not necessarily. I don't think he's punting on
14:12
this first season. I that's that's also another
14:15
thing he loves a good football analogy when he's talking
14:17
basketball. I don't think he's punting on
14:21
this first season. I think he's he left the little
14:23
leeway. He he played Switzerland on it
14:26
and he said, you know, it's going to take some time, but I'm
14:30
ready to do it now. So there he waffled on it a
14:32
little bit, but I like that. I like that he, you know, he's
14:35
giving it both ways. And who who let's talk about the
14:39
players on this roster who you think because I think you
14:42
grimaced at the thought of. Me saying no, I, I think there's
14:46
a couple players that I think would be very interesting in the
14:51
type of offense that he has employed at Belmont.
14:55
I mean, his, his offenses have been very strong at Belmont, you
14:58
know, consistently, you know, top offenses.
15:03
His defense leaves a lot to be desired, which I think he
15:05
understands and has said, you know, and you know that he
15:09
that's something where you bring in assistant coaches who have a
15:12
focus on defense and, you know, try and continue the offensive
15:15
culture. Thinking about from AK State
15:19
perspective, You know, ultimately one guy that I think
15:23
would fit in really well is Andre Kostich.
15:26
Now, my thinking behind this is if you cannot get Tyler
15:32
Lundblade, Tyler Lundblade, who is a Belmont player, Missouri
15:38
Valley Player of the year, you know, he's a guy who, I, I mean,
15:43
you look at some of his highlights.
15:44
I mean, he's a scorer. He averaged almost 16 points a
15:46
game, shot almost 41% from three this year.
15:50
He's a guy who I, I think obviously I, I think would be
15:56
really good, you know, to bring in from a building and
15:59
continuing the culture perspective.
16:01
He's a guy whose defense is not very good.
16:03
He's similar to, I think I, I would say, you know, similar to
16:06
Andre Kostich in in kind of multiple ways, a guy who has
16:09
shown the ability to score from the three-point line but cannot
16:12
play a lick of defense. So if you're not able to get
16:18
Tyler Lundblade to transfer over your program, I think Andre
16:23
Kostich is an interesting guy for the right price.
16:26
I'm not saying we're paying him $1,000,000 to come back here,
16:29
but I I think he's a guy that would be a very interesting
16:33
piece to the puzzle. Because of what Casey Alexander
16:37
runs from an offensive perspective.
16:40
I can I can understand that and Kostich is a young player that
16:44
it mean if he's really serious about, I mean, obviously he's
16:47
got NBA aspirations and you know, there's talks about him
16:51
being a second rounder later down in his career.
16:55
I could see it. I don't think his skill set is
16:58
necessarily at the par. Maybe maybe a year of
17:01
progression can get him there. I don't think that is a an
17:06
apparable in terms of what you're getting if you get lung
17:09
blade compared to what you get with Kostich.
17:12
Abbi Bashir is somebody that doesn't put the ball on the deck
17:16
nearly as well as I think somebody like Casey Alexander
17:20
wants. But I think in terms of a
17:24
veteran guard, somebody that's senior that's seen a lot of
17:28
college basketball, I think Abbi Bashir would fit somewhat, but
17:34
you know, he's a Tang loyalist. So I don't think that's even a
17:37
possibility. You know, I, I wouldn't mind a
17:42
Taj Manning. I would not, I would not mind a
17:45
Taj Manning. Somebody that a role that he
17:50
should play is a guy that can eat up fouls, has the
17:54
physicality to play in the Big 12 at at the right position.
17:58
Obviously somebody like him. I don't see a lot of Casey
18:04
Alexander imprinted on this roster.
18:07
If I'm being honest. I don't see a lot of it.
18:09
He he specifically said he does not like the isolation ball, the
18:14
highball screen. I think every one of our guards
18:17
on this team needs a highball screen to be effective, and I
18:22
just don't see that working for him.
18:24
So I, I and we didn't have a big and we don't have a big that
18:27
would even be worth a grain of salt to bring back.
18:30
So other than Taj no Buca. 7 foot you know what?
18:36
7 foot guys don't go on trees, man.
18:38
Yeah. That's true, but he's a giant
18:40
plotting, you know, white guy that might work in the Valley,
18:44
but it ain't working in the Big 12.
18:45
I don't I honestly don't think that it he was effective at some
18:50
points. And I think that was versus
18:52
certain situations like teams that like to get rugged and
18:56
physical. But I think the honestly, I
18:58
think the Big 12 is getting more skill than it's ever had in
19:04
less, not necessarily less physical because I think there's
19:06
some we'll we'll talk about the NCAA tournament here in a second
19:09
Arizona giant monstrous team that but it they're highly
19:15
skilled. And I think that the Big 12 is
19:20
not necessarily the beat you up every week kind of league
19:23
anymore, but it's just the best players you will see in college
19:27
basketball playing in one league.
19:29
So you could, you could I said that last pod where you you need
19:35
to find an identity. I think to survive in the Big
19:37
12, you have to have an enormous amount of skill and your depth
19:43
pieces need to be able to take the brunt of the physicality if
19:47
they're it for what you going to see.
19:50
So I, I think he needs to find just absolute units physicality
19:56
that he could teach basketball. And it's it's funny because the
19:59
way he described it, he's he described himself not even as
20:04
the best scout of like, you know, having the best scouting
20:09
perception of a basketball player.
20:11
He kind of gave it anybody can can see a good basketball
20:15
player. It's whether he can coach
20:17
multiple people to gel together on the court.
20:22
Like if you don't have a high basketball IQ, and I don't know
20:25
and I'm not a basketball coach so I don't know what who has the
20:28
highest. Basketball IQ out there, but
20:32
everybody on this roster from Kansas State dumb in terms of
20:37
basketball IQ, no offense dumb. And I mean it's obvious.
20:41
I mean it's it we all we have all seen it.
20:45
They have all made bonehead mistakes constantly.
20:48
It's not like a one off thing. They made constant mistakes and
20:50
I don't think you can coach that for one season.
20:53
So I'm all for him going out there and just if he wants to
20:57
bring 6 Belmont guys, I'm all for it.
21:00
I am all for it, yeah. Just I'm going to kind of
21:05
mention another Belmont guy and for everybody, if you're not
21:09
aware. So the transfer portal
21:10
technically opens on April 7th. So it is.
21:17
It's the day after the national championship game.
21:20
Oh, OK, OK. So today is March 17th.
21:24
So we're not going to necessarily be expecting anybody
21:28
from a transfer portal perspective to be signing with
21:31
Kansas State until after April 7th.
21:33
However, some high school recruits, I know Belmont had a
21:38
high school recruiting class that was planning on signing.
21:42
Will be interesting to see if maybe we get some high school
21:45
recruits, which is kind of a novel concept from A.
21:50
Never heard of her. Yeah, yeah, who'd have thought?
21:52
So it will be very interesting. Now I want to ask kind of one
21:57
last question, just thinking about Casey Alexander.
22:01
So it's hard to know, obviously, you know, based off of the
22:08
transfer portal, high school recruiting, you know this and
22:11
that, what the schedule is going to look like.
22:14
But give me like a year one scenario #1 is this a guy who
22:22
you think is going to maybe employ maybe an Iowa State
22:25
model, you know, of the past of not a not a hard non conference
22:31
schedule. Get into Big 12 play and see
22:34
what happens. Do you think he's a guy who's
22:37
maybe going to, you know, schedule a little bit more
22:39
difficult? Think about like what for a year
22:43
one would you want to see out of Casey Alexander in this program?
22:48
Year one do we have we have commitments for an Invitational
22:53
tournament, right? We do for the the one in
22:58
November, whatever the heck it's called trying.
23:02
To is it like? It's not a, it's not an, it's
23:04
not. Like a player, players era.
23:08
Is that in that's in the like the Bahamas or no?
23:10
Las Las Vegas. Las Vegas.
23:12
Las Vegas, OK, that's the Vegas tournament, OK, I mean that that
23:16
in itself. I mean, that's going to have a
23:18
decent field. I think that is a that is a
23:21
rising Invitational tournament. So that would be exciting.
23:25
I I would love to see us just rattle off some wins.
23:29
I would love to be in, you know, get that height bubbling for
23:33
Casey Alexander, even if the Big 12.
23:36
And that's kind of where his style is one of those things
23:42
where like if he wants to get them going, he wants them to be
23:45
successful on the basketball court, see that the ball, go
23:49
into the hoop and learn each other's tendencies.
23:54
And to do that, I think you don't need the stiffest
23:57
competition. I mean, it would be nice to get
23:59
wins like that, get some quad 2, get some quad one wins in the
24:04
non con before Big 12 tournament.
24:06
But I mean, in all honesty, if you're just winning games,
24:10
you're going to have enough of those opportunities in the Big
24:12
12 to get it done. So I think for me, I like that.
24:16
I like that you brought up the Iowa State model of just, you
24:19
know, cupcake after cupcake after cupcake.
24:22
I would love that. Honestly, I would, I think
24:25
getting the team to gel around a core of, you know, 9:00 to I, I
24:33
would probably want to keep it around 9 guys, you know, that
24:36
are seeing the court consistently with, you know,
24:38
people that are on the bench that are just projects that are
24:43
red shirt, actual red shirt candidates who like that's a
24:47
novel concept like guys that are planning to be here for probably
24:50
4 years, maybe 5 if they, you know, if things are, if they're
24:55
life works for the program. So I would love to see that in
24:59
terms of getting 9 guys to gel over a solid.
25:03
What do we usually play in the knock on like 1212 games?
25:06
Well, 13 games. Something like that?
25:08
Yep. Give me 13 games of 11 and 2
25:13
basketball where we're we're scoring where we're scoring
25:18
points. And then if you know, if we, if
25:20
we're 1718 win team year 1 under Casey and Alexander, I almost
25:28
said it, Casey, Alexander, I, I think that that is success in my
25:36
opinion. I think that's success.
25:38
Yeah, I agree with you. And you know, the players are a
25:40
tournament. You're going to get 3 games that
25:43
are probably going to be quad one games right off the bat, you
25:46
know, for that November week, which will be good.
25:49
Who's in that? Do we know that for sure?
25:52
Well, we know the Big 12 teams and we know some of the you
25:55
know, but you get some big name teams in this in this
25:57
tournament, especially I believe as they're expanding it to 32
26:00
teams this year. You know, it's going to be kind
26:04
of a, you know, there's going to be a who's who of basketball
26:08
teams, basketball programs in this one.
26:11
But you know, ultimately the non conference and I, I mentioned
26:17
Iowa State because this was something early in TJ
26:21
Alsoburger's time there. Now they, I feel like they put
26:25
together a pretty hearty schedule because they know, you
26:27
know, they've built a program with high level, high IQ players
26:33
who have been in the program for years.
26:35
They can handle some of those tougher games like they went on
26:37
the road to Purdue this year, but early on, you know, Iowa
26:42
State, you know, was using non conference, you know, to really
26:45
gel and get that group together before they hit Big 12 play.
26:50
So I do think that that's probably something that we're
26:52
going to see and you know, hopefully, though, they get like
26:55
a big name and Bramwich as always, and they're going to be
26:59
on the road to Seton Hall this year.
27:01
So that will be a. Didn't we?
27:04
Oh, we were on the road, OK. I was thinking Saint John's.
27:07
We were on the road to Saint John's last year, OK.
27:11
The participants for that player era, obviously you mentioned the
27:14
88 Big 12 teams. Other participants include
27:19
Syracuse, Notre Dame, potentially Louisville and
27:22
Virginia and Gonzaga and Florida are also scheduled to play.
27:26
So that it is a lot. That's heavy hitters right
27:31
there. That's heavy duty stuff.
27:33
So it'd be interesting to see where, you know, K state lands
27:37
in terms of how their 32 team bracket king, 4 kings or
27:42
whatever they're calling this crazy stuff.
27:45
I'm I'm excited, man, I'm excited.
27:48
The era has begun and you know, I'm I'm all in.
27:53
I'm all in and I'm going to be patient.
27:56
It's not like that Jerome Tang feeling where you're like, I've
28:00
got high expectations, but I'm not even going to say them out
28:04
loud because I know it could flop.
28:05
I'm like, I'm legitimately rooting for this guy to just
28:09
build the program. Yep, same here.
28:11
It's going to be exciting and obviously the goal for next year
28:16
would be to make the NCAA Tournament, which we are about
28:19
to talk about as this does kick off actually tonight.
28:22
Howard Bison won in the first game tonight here in the plan.
28:27
But I do want to make sure and of course I don't want to miss
28:32
our ad read for the mid part of the show, which is our sponsor
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and our latest sponsor, Heartland Beef Connection.
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just doing it out there on the land instead the football field,
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which matters a lot to, well, Bob, as a 6th generation Kansan,
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I'm a fourth generation K Stater.
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All my family's from Kansas, so I forgot to make that change.
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today. Very sad.
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No, no, you know, I mean, I'm, I had some, I cooked 3 lbs of
30:27
ground beef today. Split it halfway for, you know,
30:30
tacos today. Leave the rest for, you know,
30:33
just a quick Sketty dinner right before tumbling tomorrow.
30:38
It is my birthday tomorrow too. By the way, I've gone through a
30:41
lot of beef this week at burgers yesterday, tacos today,
30:46
obviously low carb wraps, low carb buns.
30:49
Got to keep the just straight carnivoring it up.
30:52
But I do love a good beef. Got to love a good beef.
30:55
Yeah, I agree. I agree.
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We'll make sure you know, Heartland Beef connection is
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going to be your move, especially for any beef moving
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forward. Now let's get into the NCAA
31:07
Tournament. So as I said, NCAA Tournament
31:10
brackets came out on Sunday and tonight here on Tuesday we have
31:15
the first two playing games. Let's talk though.
31:18
First off, the number one seeds for the NCAA Tournament, the Big
31:21
12 took 50%. No, they didn't.
31:23
I don't know what I'm talking about.
31:25
They took 25%. Duke, Florida, Arizona and
31:29
Michigan. I'm giving you know, I thought
31:33
Houston was going to be a one seed, but it's OK.
31:35
Almost Iowa State, too. Almost Iowa State, man.
31:39
But anyway, from a Big 12 perspective, the Big 12 did have
31:42
eight teams make it. Arizona, Iowa State and Houston.
31:45
As we mentioned, Kansas is a four seed, Texas Tech is A5, BYU
31:50
is a six, TCU is a nine and UCF is a 10 seed.
31:56
I believe the eight teams in the Big 12 are the most that the
31:59
conference has had in the Big 12 tournament in its history.
32:02
So half the conference made it. Now, the fun part obviously
32:06
about the NCAA tournament isn't necessarily the shock.
32:09
It's the upsets that occur the entire way.
32:13
I want to know Chef give me a couple first round upsets.
32:19
Interesting. I I think the upsets on this
32:23
because I mean, there's some really heavy hitters in this, in
32:26
this tournament this year, but I think the 611 is kind of where
32:31
you want to look for me specifically.
32:33
I think that is the most, you know, I mean, the 710 gets a
32:37
little bit like is, was that really an upset?
32:40
You know, it's usually sometimes the power conference is actually
32:42
the the 10 seed in that one. But I've got UCF over
32:48
Louisville. I think this is what was the.
32:51
South South Florida. Not not UCF.
32:54
Sorry. Big 12 bias.
32:55
Big 12 bias. USF Bulls going to battle
33:01
Louisville. Well, I can't remember the head
33:04
coaches for Louisville's name. He's like Pat Kelsey, the
33:08
glasses, excellent recruiter. I'm not.
33:12
I'm not sold on Louisville. I am not sold on Louisville.
33:16
I think USF can pull that victory off Vienna lice 11-C
33:20
going into the next round. And then I took this one a
33:24
little personal. This one's just this one's
33:27
personal for me because this was a name that I thought the
33:31
coaching search would go to, and that's Richmond at North Dakota
33:35
State. He made the NCAA tournament, won
33:39
the What is that? What's that?
33:41
Summit League The. Summit League won the Summit
33:44
League boat. I think he won the regular
33:46
season and the conference tournament.
33:49
He's a solid ass coach. I think they could get Michigan
33:52
State, Izzo maybe a little bit, you know, over.
33:55
He's a little bit over. I think he think he might be
33:58
over the hill. I think he might be tailing
34:01
down. They also have two giant
34:03
plotting white guys at center and North Dakota State is used
34:07
to seeing those kind of things. So give me give me North Dakota
34:11
State 14 / a three. That would be that would be a
34:16
big upset, but you know, you never know.
34:20
I mean I. Thought I thought they would
34:22
give Richmond at least a sniff for this Kansas State job.
34:26
I mean, all the tea leaves were reading that there.
34:30
Yeah. Gene Taylor hired him at North
34:32
Dakota State. Very reminiscent of what he did
34:35
with Chris Kleinman. I'm just saying he's a solid
34:39
coach. He's been to the NCAA tournament
34:42
a bunch. He's been able to recruit, find
34:44
diamonds in a rough. The one kid that transferred
34:46
from North Dakota State to Alabama.
34:50
No. He finds these guns.
34:51
Yeah, Grant. No, I mean, I would have.
34:54
I would have been a total supporter of him and I would
34:56
have just rubbed it in everybody's faces that I called
34:58
it. But that's neither here nor
35:00
there. They will get that episode over
35:01
Michigan State. Oh man, that would be a big one
35:03
to to muck up. I believe the East Region Bob
35:07
did give a couple first round upsets, which I actually agree
35:11
with. The first one, Santa Clara over
35:13
Kentucky, which is a 710. It is a 710, but I actually do
35:20
like that pick and I have that in my bracket.
35:22
The other one. So Nebraska has never won an
35:26
NCAA Tournament game. Never.
35:30
He thinks Troy is going to ruin the party.
35:33
A 13 over. No.
35:36
Yeah, there are four seed 13. Over seed.
35:39
Four. That would be a very wild upset
35:42
if that did happen. Troy, though, pretty good team.
35:46
I'm not. Saying I'm not saying shout out
35:49
to my dad's alma mater, the Troy Trojans, also one of our my
35:53
favorite guests that we had on the Trojan wall for football
35:59
that couple seasons ago. Yeah, I I would if Troy won that
36:03
one, that one would be a monster upset.
36:05
I do not have that in my bracket but maybe I'll have to re look
36:09
into that again. I keep forgetting Nebraska's
36:14
never won it. Never won and NCAA tournament
36:17
game. The pressure will be so
36:19
overwhelming and Troy will beat them.
36:21
They'll be wild. My 2 upsets VCU over North
36:25
Carolina. So if you haven't been keeping
36:27
up, North Carolina's best player Caleb Wilson did get hurt.
36:30
He's not playing in the NCAA tournament.
36:33
VCU look pretty good in the Atlantic 10 tournament.
36:35
They did win the conference tournament to get into the NCAA
36:38
tournament. So I have an 11 / a six and then
36:43
I am on the high Point train and I don't like Wisconsin 'cause
36:47
they always beat us and everything. 512 has to happen
36:51
like a 512 happens. Normally does.
36:54
Normally does. The other 512 matchups aren't as
36:58
like super enticing like St. John's is.
37:01
A5 I think they got under seeded.
37:04
I think Vanderbilt's A5, they looked really good.
37:07
Yeah. But they they kind of surged
37:09
late. They kind of surged.
37:10
Late, which is what? And they were, and they were do.
37:13
Yeah, but they were also basically at home for the entire
37:16
conference tournament too, so. Hey, whatever works, whatever
37:19
works. But anyway, so I have high
37:22
point, a excellent shooting team going up and beating Wisconsin
37:28
in A5 or a 12 / 5 match up. Now, looking at the final four,
37:36
is this a year where we see all of the one seeds make it to the
37:40
final yet again? No, but I don't.
37:44
Think so. I don't think so either, Right?
37:51
Yeah, that's correct. Oh my God, I'll go first.
37:55
I'll go 1st. And admittingly, I'm going
37:58
first. And also Bob's going first
37:59
because we do have the same final four.
38:01
So we do have we do have three out of the four one seeds, so
38:06
Duke, Arizona and Michigan. We also picked Houston to come
38:10
out of the South region. Houston will be playing the
38:14
Sweet 16 if if they make it to the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8IN
38:19
Houston. I think it'd.
38:21
Be huge. I think it will be definitely
38:24
huge. So I believe they are going to
38:28
upset Florida to make it to the Final Four.
38:31
So I have two Big 12 teams making it to the Final four.
38:35
What about you, Chef? I've got I've got a lot of
38:38
littered with two CI got 22 seeds.
38:41
I've got Yukon two seed. I think I think they somehow
38:46
make it out of that daunted EI think they're they are the two
38:50
seed in the east bracket. I've got Florida back-to-back.
38:55
I mean they back-to-back final four runs.
38:58
They could be a back-to-back national championship run.
39:00
You never know. I think Florida very solid team.
39:05
I think they caught caught up in the moment versus Vanderbilt.
39:08
They did get absolutely smoked, but I think Florida will bounce
39:13
back. I think they are final four team
39:14
and I think they're just a proven program.
39:18
That's just they're so solid all the time.
39:22
Arizona, it's a given. I think that they are.
39:26
They are looming over this tournament field.
39:29
Just Big Brother always watching.
39:32
They are ready and primed to get going.
39:34
And then I have Iowa State. I am, I hate to say it, but I
39:39
think they got the easiest run to the final, but at least the
39:44
Elite 8, I think they have the easiest run of anybody.
39:48
It's insane that for all that they got, but I think they they
39:54
can do it. I think they can make it to
39:57
that. And that would be that would be
39:59
Arizona versus Iowa State on that side of the bracket, which
40:03
would be really funny. What a what AI mean?
40:08
The Big 12 tournament semi final game against those two teams, if
40:13
you did not watch was incredible basketball. 13 straight
40:19
possessions a shot was made in that game to end the game.
40:24
I mean the, the shot making at the end was just incredible.
40:29
It was a battle of really like 2 excellent teams and just kind of
40:33
shows how good the Big 12 has been all year that you you know,
40:39
I mean it was I was just kind of in awe.
40:41
I would I would love to see another rematch to that give.
40:44
Me the rematch. That would be very fun from a
40:50
championship perspective. So we all are in agreement on
40:54
who we think is going to win the national championship and
40:58
probably, you know, the Big 12 bias might be showing.
41:00
But because we get to see this team pretty consistently, we all
41:03
have the Arizona Wildcats winning the national
41:05
championship. I, I've been trying to tell
41:08
people around the office so that at the post office this if you
41:12
haven't seen Arizona play, they are spooky.
41:17
They are absolutely spooky. They are loaded from top to
41:20
bottom, senior guards, electric freshmen that are just built out
41:25
of this world. And I think we were, we were
41:28
talking about it. The one guy that like, I think
41:31
he's a bench player now. He like led the conference in
41:34
rebounding last year and then like went to the bench.
41:37
I think what was big, big swole guy.
41:40
He's like 260 lbs. Excellent.
41:43
Awaka, Toby. Awaka, yeah, I feel like he led
41:46
the conference in rebounding last year and that he doesn't
41:49
even start. I mean, that's how talented this
41:52
team is. And I have said since the
41:55
beginning. You have you called it.
41:57
I have called this, I think Arizona is going to win the
42:01
national championship. So I don't have any other
42:02
choice. Like I have to pick Arizona to
42:04
win. But you look at this team and
42:07
they just have a great mix of young, talented players and
42:12
older, more experienced guys. I mean, you know, Awaka's a
42:17
senior, Jaden Bradley's a senior, Delorsa's a senior.
42:21
Like, I, I mean, they, they just to go far in the NCAA
42:27
Tournament, you have to have a point guard who takes control of
42:32
the offense and is a leader on defense.
42:34
And we saw this with like Houston and Jamal Shed, you
42:38
know, two years ago when Shed got hurt, you know, in the Duke
42:43
game in the Elite 8 and or it might have been the Sweet 16
42:47
game, you know, that Houston, you know, was lost there.
42:50
But then last year, Mila Suzanne, you know, if you have a
42:54
point guard that is a force on the offensive end but plays
43:00
great defense and it's just a leader in general, they're going
43:03
to take you far. And I've always felt that about
43:05
Jayden Bradley. I mean, I and, and the crazy
43:09
thing is like, I think a lot of people are going to pick Duke,
43:12
which is fine because, you know, Duke's kind of a name.
43:16
You're going to have a lot of people that pick Florida because
43:18
they won it last year and they've been, you know, pretty
43:21
good. They've been very good in during
43:23
the SEC play. They struggle at the beginning
43:25
of the season, lost in TCU, but Arizona has beaten the best
43:29
teams they've played in what has been ranked as the best
43:33
conference. They won the conference
43:34
tournament. I mean, I, I think this is a
43:37
team that is primed and ready to go so.
43:42
I'm in a total so they're. Going to lose in the Sweet 16 or
43:44
some stupid shit like that but. No, no chance.
43:47
I I'm in a total agreeance with you.
43:49
I think even their Rd. they're they're staying out on the West
43:54
Coast the entire time. They I think they've got a nice
44:00
road to get there. They can do it.
44:02
And I think I think this is the year.
44:04
Would this be OK? How many Big 12 teams have made
44:09
the final four? Have has a bird of Big 12 team
44:11
that made the final four every year for like the past like 6 or
44:14
7 years I feel like. Oh man, so it would have been
44:18
Houston last year. I don't think a Big 12 team made
44:23
it two years ago. The.
44:25
UConn The UConn year. Yeah.
44:30
Look it up, give it a dude. I got it right now I'm looking
44:33
it up. So we got yeah.
44:36
So 2020. So this past year, Houston 20.
44:40
Nobody made it in 2024 or 2023. What?
44:44
Oh, my stats are just bad. 2023 was San Diego State, Miami, FL
44:49
Atlantic and Yukon which. You know what an ugly what an
44:53
ugly tournament. But 2022 KU 1/20/21 Baylor
44:58
1/20/19 Texas Tech 2018 Kansas. Yeah, I mean, historically the
45:04
Big 12 gets a team in unless some craziness ensues.
45:10
So I I'm not, I'm not expecting anything less.
45:14
Maybe, you know, they get 3. Dude, just think this time next
45:20
year we will be riding K State to the Sweet 16.
45:25
We'll just be back and we'll put them penciling them in for the
45:28
Sweet 16. You know, I just want some
45:31
excitement on Sunday at 5:00 PM when they announce the bracket,
45:35
right? You just want that is.
45:37
Always so fun. That's always so.
45:38
Fun, yes. You know, it's been a while.
45:42
Hopefully, hopefully next year we get there.
45:47
Yeah, I think that's it. But once again, wish Chef a
45:50
great and happy birthday. When you're listening, when
45:55
you're listening to this, it is my birthday.
45:57
So happy birthday to me, the big 3636 mafia.
46:03
I'm in here. All this one in the group, all
46:05
this one in the group. But everyone, if you are
46:08
listening to this, make sure to wish Chef a happy birthday at
46:12
Chef Andre Napier. That will do it for this episode
46:16
of Cocaine Willie. Once again, we want to shout out
46:18
our sponsors Annie Maze Parlor and Heartland Beef Connection.
46:22
Visit anniemaze.com for a full list of their upcoming events.
46:24
And if you're stopping stopping by Annie Maze Parlor this
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tell them cocaine what we sent you.
46:32
Also for Heartland Beef Connection, visit
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heartlandbeef.net and use promo code CW25 for $25 off your match
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Ride merch, so check that out as well.
46:48
And additionally, we are the K State representative on the
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47:00
Last but not least, you can follow our show at Cocaine Willy
47:03
on social media or follow us individually.
47:06
I am at Matt Marchisini chef for his birthday wishes is at Chef
47:10
Andre Napier and Bob Trollsby. Not here today, but he is at Bob
47:14
Trollsby Chef. Cocaine's a hell of a drug,
47:19
baby. We are all coke and no joke
47:23
Wildcat country. Let's.
47:25
Fucking Rod baby. Let's go get them brackets in.
47:31
Let's go.