Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Jerry Palm on men's basketball bracketology, BYU and Utah St's ceiling for March Madness seeding, Number of bids for the Big 12 + more

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Jerry Palm on men's basketball bracketology, BYU and Utah St's ceiling for March Madness seeding, Number of bids for the Big 12 + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: You're attuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
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  Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven a half. Sean O'Connell Show
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  Speaker 1: continues here on a Friday. Time to talk a little
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  Speaker 1: n Cuba. Who Jerry Palm kind enough to give us
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes today Palm brackets dot com. You know
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  Speaker 1: about the bracketology expertise that this man has been bringing
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  Speaker 1: to us for years and years, and we're lucky enough
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  Speaker 1: to lean on him yet again. Jerry, Welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 1: How are you, sir?
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  Speaker 2: I'm all right. How are you doing? Okay?
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  Speaker 1: I just spent a lot of time ranting about the
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  Speaker 1: NBA punishing the Utah Jazz, in my opinion, unfairly. So
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  Speaker 1: it's nice to talk about something else because there's no
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  Speaker 1: solution in sight for me. But you, uh, your two
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  Speaker 1: worlds of basket are your world of basketball. It definitely
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  Speaker 1: crosses over into that draft lottery system because a lot
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  Speaker 1: of these guys in the brackets end up being top picks.
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  Speaker 1: Is there any solution that you think makes sense for
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  Speaker 1: the NBA?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know what the NBA's problems are. I
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  Speaker 2: don't even know the Utah Jazz story. I get so
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  Speaker 2: focused on college basketball I don't even start paying attention
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  Speaker 2: to the NBA.
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  Speaker 1: That's what a cool, what a cool way to view
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  Speaker 1: the sports world right now. I was gonna gonna ask
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  Speaker 1: you how much Olympics you're watching? But I think I
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  Speaker 1: got the answer to that as well.
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  Speaker 2: A little bit. Yeah, I'd get a peek at it
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  Speaker 2: a little bit. It's hard to ignore the Olympics entirely,
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  Speaker 2: but yeah, I'm not spending a lot of time on
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  Speaker 2: that either. Okay, but it's yeah, the NBA has got
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  Speaker 2: their own problems. College basketball has got, you know, problems
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  Speaker 2: with like eligibility rules which seem to change day to day.
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  Speaker 2: You know, they've got their own off the court problems.
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  Speaker 1: That's absolutely true. Maybe we'll get to those at some point.
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  Speaker 1: But let's talk a little bit about the two in
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  Speaker 1: state teams and where they're going to find themselves when
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  Speaker 1: March Madness begins. Will start with BYU, because the expectations
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  Speaker 1: at BYU all time high coming into this year for
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  Speaker 1: obvious reasons. AJ debonsa Rob Wright, the returning guys from
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  Speaker 1: last year's roster that have been equally important so far
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  Speaker 1: this season, and BYU they snapped a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a skid. It was almost five in a row, but
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  Speaker 1: they ended up losing four in a row and winning
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  Speaker 1: that fifth one. And they're not necessarily having the regular
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  Speaker 1: season that a lot of people hoped they would. But
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  Speaker 1: there's plenty of good basketball left to be played even
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  Speaker 1: before they get to the Big twelve tournament.
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  Speaker 2: Where do you.
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  Speaker 1: See BYU right now? And where's their ceiling when we
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  Speaker 1: talk about seeding for the upcoming and CAA tournament.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm actually still working on my bracket, but I
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  Speaker 2: just put BYU in and there are five So but
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  Speaker 2: you think of that four game losing streak, be itse Arizona, Houston,
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  Speaker 2: Kansas and then the at Oklahoma State, you know from
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  Speaker 2: the road is tough, but that's the worst of those
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  Speaker 2: losses and that's still at least a maybe tournament team.
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  Speaker 2: So but for b YU to move up, they need
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  Speaker 2: to win those games. You know, they need to beat
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  Speaker 2: Oklahoma States, they need to beat Arizona and Houston and
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  Speaker 2: Texas Tech. I mean, those are the kinds of teams
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  Speaker 2: that they need to beat the teams ahead of them
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  Speaker 2: in the bracket in their own league to really get
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  Speaker 2: the Jews. They need to move up. They're gonna get
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  Speaker 2: Iowa State at home, They're gonna get Texas Tech at home.
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  Speaker 2: You know, that's the place where you want to, you know,
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  Speaker 2: best take advantage of it. And UCS has been tough too,
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  Speaker 2: especially on their home floor. And there that's a tournament
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  Speaker 2: team at least for now. So you know, those are
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  Speaker 2: the games that you want to win to get some
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  Speaker 2: Jews to move up. And then you have to win
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  Speaker 2: the games you're supposed to win anyway.
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  Speaker 1: In the case of b YU and the you know,
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  Speaker 1: the roster as it stands now, you know, one of
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  Speaker 1: the criticisms is that you spend all this money and
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  Speaker 1: you got all these big time star players, but the
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  Speaker 1: depth has not really come through. And that is part
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  Speaker 1: of the NIL world that we're all living in now.
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  Speaker 1: When we get to the tournament and when you get
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  Speaker 1: to your brackets, do you find that teams that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: some of these smaller schools or some of the lesser
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  Speaker 1: knowns who aren't as big a players in NIL might
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  Speaker 1: actually do okay because they have a more even distribution
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  Speaker 1: of talent and maybe even better depth.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe depth. I've never really thought of depth as a
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  Speaker 2: big issue in the NCAA tournament because you play two
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  Speaker 2: games in three days and then you get a week
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  Speaker 2: off or most you know, half a week off, and
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  Speaker 2: then you play two games in three days, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's it's not as rigorous a schedule as any more rigorous,
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  Speaker 2: at least in a regular season. So I don't know
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  Speaker 2: how much depth really matters in the NCAA turmal unless
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  Speaker 2: you foul trouble. That's where your depth comes in is
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  Speaker 2: if you if you have to go to your bench.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you want to have guys that you can
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  Speaker 2: count on on your bench, and foul trouble is an injuries,
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  Speaker 2: but mostly foul trouble is what causes that. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it's depth is good in the regular season because you
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  Speaker 2: know it's a grind, but it's it's important and it's
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  Speaker 2: also important to cover for injuries. But I don't know,
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  Speaker 2: I think you can get by with a seven man
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  Speaker 2: rotation if your seven man rotation is good enough.
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  Speaker 1: How many teams from the Big twelve conference are going
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  Speaker 1: to be in the bracket this year, so you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, it's funny because they have great teams at the top.
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  Speaker 2: I mean they've got five or six that could win
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  Speaker 2: the national championship, and then beyond that they might only
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  Speaker 2: put one more in the field, or maybe two if
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  Speaker 2: somebody makes a run. So seven or eight I think
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  Speaker 2: nine would be a stretch. The other major conferences will
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  Speaker 2: probably put it least nine in and the Big Twelve
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  Speaker 2: may come up on the short end in terms of
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  Speaker 2: the raw numbers of teams, but in terms of actual
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  Speaker 2: title contenders, they might actually have the most.
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  Speaker 1: As it stands now, both Arizona and Houston one seeds.
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  Speaker 2: I still have Houston as a two. They're my number
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  Speaker 2: five overall, so three of the top five from the
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  Speaker 2: Big Twelve, but you can make a case for Houston
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  Speaker 2: as a one. I've been every bracket I do. The
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  Speaker 2: last couple of weeks. I'm still checking to see if
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  Speaker 2: it's time to move them up, and i haven't got
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  Speaker 2: there yet.
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  Speaker 1: When you talk about those five or six teams that
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  Speaker 1: might actually be national championship contenders from the Big twelve conference,
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  Speaker 1: should we put byu in that conversation?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're in Iowa State, Arizona, Houston, Kansas because coming
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  Speaker 2: on and you know, they get Darren Peterson to be
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  Speaker 2: able to play every game, you know, regular minutes every game.
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  Speaker 2: Kansas might actually be the best of the bunch.
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  Speaker 1: How does somebody like Darren Peterson with his inconsistent play
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  Speaker 1: factor into the predictive nature of bad echatology.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's you know, the committee can only, you know,
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  Speaker 2: put so much weight on what he's done. Typically, when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to players that miss time for whatever reason,
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  Speaker 2: they'll try and judge you a little bit more little
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  Speaker 2: being the operative ward there on how you have performed
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  Speaker 2: with the roster you're taking into the tournament versus otherwise.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, it's, you know, and for Peterson, you know,
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  Speaker 2: he's in out and out and out. It's it's inconsistent.
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  Speaker 2: It's hard. It's going to be harder for them to
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  Speaker 2: judge that as opposed to a case like but North Carolina,
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  Speaker 2: where one of their key players just got hurt and
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  Speaker 2: broke a hand and it's gonna miss probably some significant
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  Speaker 2: time and may not come back at all. So you know, now,
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  Speaker 2: what are we going to see from North Carolina? How
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  Speaker 2: they finished the year is going to be really important
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  Speaker 2: in the eyes at the committee because that might be
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  Speaker 2: the team that North Carolina has taken into the tournament.
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  Speaker 1: Spend a lot of time in the through the college
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  Speaker 1: basketball Lens talking about the great players because of the
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  Speaker 1: Utah Jazz kind of expected place in the lottery and
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  Speaker 1: picking near the top, and so you look at all
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  Speaker 1: the individual talents they are going to be in that conversation,
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  Speaker 1: it's not always the case that the best player in
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  Speaker 1: college basketball is also going to be one of these
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  Speaker 1: top picks, or the most impactful player in an NCAA
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  Speaker 1: tournament doesn't end up always being one of these top picks.
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  Speaker 1: Is there a player that you can identify for anyone
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  Speaker 1: big twelve, especially that you know, maybe they don't have
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  Speaker 1: the biggest NBA future, maybe they're not a future lottery pick,
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  Speaker 1: but they're going to be a big, big deal in March.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I still like JT toppin I'm not I really
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  Speaker 2: don't know what his NBA prospects are because it's like
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  Speaker 2: I tell you, I know great players, my feel and
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  Speaker 2: just you know there. We've got a freshman class this
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  Speaker 2: year that could put six guys in the top ten
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  Speaker 2: of the draft. I mean, it's just amazing freshman class.
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  Speaker 2: But j T Topping to me is, h he's an
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  Speaker 2: upper classman. That's a guy that's I think are really
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  Speaker 2: good to be a really good NBA player. I don't
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  Speaker 2: know how the scouts feel about him, because, like I
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  Speaker 2: told you, I don't really pay attention to that stuff until,
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  Speaker 2: you know, after the season's over. But I know that
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  Speaker 2: that's the guy that that that they like and an
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  Speaker 2: upper classman. Uh. And and I think that if he
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  Speaker 2: can lead Texas Tech, especially to some sort of a
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  Speaker 2: you know, a relatively deep tournament run, uh, sometimes that
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  Speaker 2: the scouts pay attention. You know, NBA scouts are always
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  Speaker 2: watching everything, so they know about all these guys. But sometimes,
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  Speaker 2: you know, when you get into a high leverage situation
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  Speaker 2: and you're leading your team, you know, farther maybe than
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  Speaker 2: people expected, that's kind of a gold star.
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  Speaker 1: Jerry Paulmer guests for another couple of minutes here on
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  Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell show, talking bracketology with the MCAA tournament
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  Speaker 1: and the COP tournaments right around the corner, death taxes,
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  Speaker 1: and somehow Utah State basketball regardless of coaching changes and
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  Speaker 1: anything else that seems to happen up in Logan, they
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  Speaker 1: find a way to be consistent in a sport marked
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  Speaker 1: by inconsistencies, especially at kind of like that mid major level.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think of the Aggies.
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  Speaker 2: I like them, and I always like them, and for
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  Speaker 2: the reasons you just mentioned. I mean, if they hadn't
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  Speaker 2: lost that game at UNLV so they'd be a you know,
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  Speaker 2: maybe a five or six type of seed, maybe they
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  Speaker 2: could end up there anyway. But you know, and and
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  Speaker 2: it helps that not just the Utah State is good
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  Speaker 2: on a consistent basis a borderline at least top twenty
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  Speaker 2: five team, but they've got other good teams in their league,
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  Speaker 2: so that when they're playing conference games, you know, there's
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  Speaker 2: gonna be half a dozen conference games each year that
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  Speaker 2: are gonna be quality games. San Diego State might make
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  Speaker 2: the tournament. New Mexico might make the tournament. Grand Canyon
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  Speaker 2: doesn't look like you're going to get there, but still
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  Speaker 2: a good team. Boise State still a good team. So
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  Speaker 2: you know, you're playing in a conference that's got enough
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  Speaker 2: depth of good teams and usually multiple NCAA Tournament teams
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  Speaker 2: that you're able to prove yourself both in your league
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  Speaker 2: and out of your league. And Utah State's been able
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  Speaker 2: to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Are we in an era now of college basketball? We
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  Speaker 1: talked so much about how NIL has changed the landscape
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  Speaker 1: of sport in college basketball, and college football more than
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  Speaker 1: any other. Are we in an era right now where
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  Speaker 1: the Cinderellas are going to find themselves overwhelmed because they
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  Speaker 1: can't keep the you know, the players that they used
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  Speaker 1: to keep. Instead those guys transferred to go play for
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  Speaker 1: a blue blood are Cinderella is going to slowly go
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  Speaker 1: extinct in college basketball.
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  Speaker 2: I don't like the directions that that is going, and
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  Speaker 2: it's because it's like you describe, you know, I say,
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  Speaker 2: the money flows uphill uphill to the major conferences, of
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  Speaker 2: which there are still five in college basketball. But I
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  Speaker 2: even wonder how long the Big East can maintain that,
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  Speaker 2: you know where that because the money generally is coming
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  Speaker 2: the big money from football, and the Big East doesn't
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  Speaker 2: play it. I mean, they've got a few FPS schools
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  Speaker 2: and a Yukon plays FPS, but you know, there's they're
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  Speaker 2: not getting. These schools aren't getting the big money from football,
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  Speaker 2: even in the Big East that the other majors do.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm afraid that college basketball and probably other sports
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  Speaker 2: as well, is going to be such that the major
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  Speaker 2: conferences dominate so much that it will be hard for
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  Speaker 2: even at large teams to come from some of these
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  Speaker 2: other leagues. You know, sometime in the I would say
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  Speaker 2: relatively near future, maybe five years or so, where you
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  Speaker 2: hardly see very many at largely, we might not have
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  Speaker 2: more than five a large teams from outside the major
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  Speaker 2: conferences this year. In fact, I'll be surprised if it
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  Speaker 2: gets to.
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  Speaker 1: Five how many how many more years before you and
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  Speaker 1: I get to talk about Utah basketball being back in
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  Speaker 1: the bracket.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Utah, I don't know what's going on there.
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  Speaker 2: The Big twelve is very competitive. Utah has always been
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  Speaker 2: kind of a proud basketball school, so I don't know
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  Speaker 2: if it's you know, poor decision making in terms of
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  Speaker 2: how they're spending money or not getting enough money and
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  Speaker 2: debuilding it to basketball while still trying to stay competitive
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  Speaker 2: in football. I don't know Utah basketball closely well enough
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  Speaker 2: to say for sure, but they should be getting resources
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  Speaker 2: like the rest of the teams in their league. And
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  Speaker 2: it's one thing to have money, the thing to spend
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  Speaker 2: it wifely.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we'll keep our fingers crossed at it's sooner than later.
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  Speaker 1: Jerry can't tell you how much I appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 1: I know that it's it's a busy few well couple
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  Speaker 1: of months now ahead of you, so thanks very.
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  Speaker 2: Much for sure anytime.
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  Speaker 1: Jerry Palm palmbrackets dot com, one of the best bracketologists
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna find, and an encyclopedia of college hoops knowledge.