Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / The Favorites - Friday March Madness Betting Preview
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- 1:20Speaker 1: Welcome to The Favorites, the podcast from the Volume and
- 1:23Speaker 1: Podcast Network. I'm Chad Mollman, Chief Content Officer of the
- 1:27Speaker 1: Action Network. We are still talking March Madness, folks. We're
- 1:32Speaker 1: going to dive deep into the bets you need to
- 1:34Speaker 1: make for Friday with one of our Action Network college
- 1:39Speaker 1: basketball experts, Mike Calabris. You hear him all over the
- 1:44Speaker 1: BBOC podcasts all football season long. He's amazing on college basketball.
- 1:50Speaker 1: He was on our preview show on Sunday night spewing knowledge.
- 1:56Speaker 1: Before we get to Calabris, let me bring in my
- 2:00Speaker 1: co host, my bff, my companion, Mike and Padre professional
- 2:03Speaker 1: Better or Simon Hunter. Hello sewing In, Hello Chad. Just
- 2:08Speaker 1: in time for kickoff of the March Badness. We do
- 2:11Speaker 1: a show, Gotta love it, lemon am here we are
- 2:13Speaker 1: for twelve was it twelve am or twelve pm? They
- 2:16Speaker 1: kick off these games, dude, It's called tip off, man,
- 2:20Speaker 1: Fuck it's tip off it's all right. Listen, listen, I
- 2:25Speaker 1: know where your head is at Your head is the
- 2:26Speaker 1: same place my head is, which is how amazing are
- 2:30Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears, which will be a continued theme for
- 2:33Speaker 1: this podcast. Whether we're talking in March madness, whether we're
- 2:37Speaker 1: talking Masters, whether we're talking NBA playoffs, whether we are
- 2:41Speaker 1: talking baseball, it's not gonna matter. The Chicago Bears are
- 2:46Speaker 1: marching their way to the super Bowl this year. That
- 2:50Speaker 1: odds are dropping. Let's bring in Mike Calabres, who, by
- 2:53Speaker 1: the way, the man knows a little bit of something
- 2:57Speaker 1: about betting because in a into being from a family
- 3:01Speaker 1: of degenerates. And I say that lovingly, I assume love
- 3:06Speaker 1: and affection. I say that if people don't listen to
- 3:09Speaker 1: the Group of Five podcasts that Calabris does during the
- 3:13Speaker 1: season on BBOC, these guys they freaking nail their picks
- 3:21Speaker 1: like it's uncanny. Calabries, how much you know about the
- 3:26Speaker 1: Group of Five, it's pretty impressive. Nice job. Well, I
- 3:29Speaker 1: appreciate that. I think it's time to step into the
- 3:32Speaker 1: tea box, drop the puck, get ready for this basketball action.
- 3:35Speaker 1: You know, try to too as many cross supports references
- 3:37Speaker 1: as we can. Yeah, I agree. This is such a
- 3:41Speaker 1: fun time of year, and for me, people come out
- 3:43Speaker 1: of the woodwork. It's you know, friends, family, a lot
- 3:45Speaker 1: of ex girlfriends. Oh hey, could you help me with
- 3:48Speaker 1: dear bracket? You know, who do you think's going all
- 3:50Speaker 1: the way? So depending on how those relationships ended, I'm
- 3:52Speaker 1: giving out some Easter eggs and I'm also giving out
- 3:55Speaker 1: some soon cold dead losers, just for the first round,
- 3:58Speaker 1: just to turn turn the knife a little bit. But yes,
- 4:01Speaker 1: I'm here to provide as much insight as I can.
- 4:05Speaker 1: Because when I'm tolling away in mid major Land in January,
- 4:08Speaker 1: no one wants to talk about Grand Canyon. But now
- 4:10Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm the bell of the ball.
- 4:11Speaker 1: People are like, tell me everything you know about the Lopes.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Let's get to it. Well, listen, I want to remind
- 4:17Speaker 1: people as I have all you know month long. We're
- 4:22Speaker 1: talking about the game Time ticketing app, which is the
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- 5:18Speaker 1: tickets a little sprice guaranteed Calabris. It's Thursday, we got
- 5:26Speaker 1: games tomorrow. Obviously, people listening to this, We're not going
- 5:30Speaker 1: to try to tell you who to bet in the
- 5:32Speaker 1: middle of a Thursday when games are kicking off and
- 5:35Speaker 1: we're dropping the puck and it's you know, opening pitch
- 5:38Speaker 1: going up until about ten thirty to night. But we
- 5:40Speaker 1: do want to focus on Friday. I listened to the
- 5:43Speaker 1: Road to the Final Score Show, and listen to watch
- 5:45Speaker 1: the Road to the Final Score Show with you and
- 5:47Speaker 1: Stucky and Anthony du Bundo and Mariam. Are you know
- 5:49Speaker 1: on Sunday you can still check all that out on
- 5:51Speaker 1: YouTube Action Network YouTube page. You had a lot to say,
- 5:55Speaker 1: and I liked a lot of what you were talking about.
- 5:57Speaker 1: I was picking up a lot of what you were
- 5:58Speaker 1: laying down. Give me your best bet right now for
- 6:03Speaker 1: the Friday matchups, you can only choose one. I know
- 6:05Speaker 1: there are a bunch of teams you talked about, So
- 6:08Speaker 1: during the offseason I like to do a deep dive.
- 6:10Speaker 1: I'm not quite on the Evan Abrahams level of research,
- 6:14Speaker 1: but I do like to have my little theories and
- 6:16Speaker 1: then go on these little easter egg hunts and see
- 6:18Speaker 1: if I can find something and one element that I
- 6:21Speaker 1: found since twenty fourteen, when you look at all the
- 6:23Speaker 1: pods and you can see this beautifully on the Wikipedia
- 6:26Speaker 1: page for every single March Madness tournament, you can see
- 6:29Speaker 1: where all the regional spots are located, all the first
- 6:32Speaker 1: and second round spots. So there's eight pods with four
- 6:35Speaker 1: games each in them. So what I do is I
- 6:38Speaker 1: try to find the teams that have the longest travel
- 6:40Speaker 1: because not only are the miles important, but also if
- 6:44Speaker 1: it's thousands of miles away, you're not going to get
- 6:46Speaker 1: many of your fans to come to the games. And
- 6:48Speaker 1: then it's an added bonus if there's some kind of
- 6:50Speaker 1: time shift that works against you. The body clock theory,
- 6:53Speaker 1: all of that is coming together for VS to you
- 6:56Speaker 1: against Saint Mary's. Saint Mary's spent the majority of the
- 6:59Speaker 1: season in the top twenty five. They got, you know,
- 7:02Speaker 1: close to the top ten. And what is their reward
- 7:04Speaker 1: for that? They get to go across country and play
- 7:06Speaker 1: in Albany, New York. Not a great look for them.
- 7:09Speaker 1: When are they playing two pm Eastern so eleven am
- 7:13Speaker 1: body clock tip off for the gals, and they're up
- 7:16Speaker 1: against a high energy VCU defense that turns you over
- 7:19Speaker 1: just about as much as any team in the entire country.
- 7:21Speaker 1: And when you pair that with the fact that Saint
- 7:23Speaker 1: Mary's likes to play real slow, low possession games, every
- 7:27Speaker 1: turnover takes on added value. If it's an up and
- 7:29Speaker 1: down game, back and forth, hey can turn the ball
- 7:31Speaker 1: over fifteen times, that's fine. But when you're playing in
- 7:34Speaker 1: those low scoring games that they want to play and in
- 7:36Speaker 1: in the sixties, if you turn it over fifteen times,
- 7:38Speaker 1: that can be a death knell. And then finally, Aiden mhaney,
- 7:42Speaker 1: who was one of the best freshmen in the entire country,
- 7:44Speaker 1: playing for the Gals. It was a great story. He
- 7:46Speaker 1: turned down some very high major opportunities to go play
- 7:50Speaker 1: for Saint Mary's. He has just been in a bit
- 7:52Speaker 1: of a shooting funk. Four games with ten points or
- 7:55Speaker 1: fewer in his last seven, and that's really why the
- 7:58Speaker 1: Gals have been leaking oil down the stretch. After they
- 8:00Speaker 1: beat Gonzaga in an overtime game, looks like they spent
- 8:03Speaker 1: all their emotional energy up against a VCU team that
- 8:06Speaker 1: has a star of their own, Ace Baldwin at the
- 8:08Speaker 1: guard position. He's a combo guard. He can facilitate, he
- 8:11Speaker 1: can score. I think is gonna win this game out right.
- 8:13Speaker 1: You can still get him plus four and a half
- 8:15Speaker 1: five at seven places in the market. But I'm gonna
- 8:17Speaker 1: go ahead and play him at about plus one seventy
- 8:19Speaker 1: five on the body line VCU, plus four and a
- 8:22Speaker 1: half at Vanduel. As you just said, plus one seventy
- 8:25Speaker 1: five of the money line. I'm not gonna lie caliberies.
- 8:28Speaker 1: That's not one of the teams that you mentioned on
- 8:30Speaker 1: Sunday night in the road to the final score. And
- 8:33Speaker 1: I unloaded on basically every team that you talked about seriously.
- 8:38Speaker 1: And when I say you I mean the collective you
- 8:41Speaker 1: Stucky Dubundo, Nick Giffen. I unloaded on Drake Creighton Firm
- 8:45Speaker 1: in Utah State. I unloaded down West Virginia, Yukon, Arkansas,
- 8:49Speaker 1: Oral Roberts Kent State. Not once did you mention VCU Well.
- 8:57Speaker 1: One thing I will say in defense of this good thing,
- 8:59Speaker 1: you jump on that Drake client because I think I
- 9:01Speaker 1: could end up closing as a pick against Miami. It's
- 9:04Speaker 1: a twelve five game that's in paper flat. I'm just
- 9:07Speaker 1: trying to say here, we gave you that scorching hot
- 9:11Speaker 1: intel to be able to get in before they rule
- 9:13Speaker 1: out in North Shadow Mirror from this game because Drake's
- 9:15Speaker 1: defense is incredible. They're really strong on the glass. All
- 9:18Speaker 1: the things that we said on Sunday night, I'm glad
- 9:20Speaker 1: that you got in at the right number, because that's
- 9:21Speaker 1: what Stuck is preaching this time of year, get the
- 9:24Speaker 1: best number possible. Yeah. I'm not getting the best number
- 9:26Speaker 1: on anything. By the way, all my numbers are off
- 9:29Speaker 1: from what I did on Sunday. I'm just saying, Simon,
- 9:33Speaker 1: before we jumped on the air, you said you add
- 9:37Speaker 1: some late breaking info from professional groups on one of
- 9:41Speaker 1: the games that's happening on Friday. I think I'm still
- 9:44Speaker 1: recovering from here. In chat say unload multiple times in
- 9:47Speaker 1: about a two minute span. That was a bit much. Yeah, Chad,
- 9:51Speaker 1: this is my time of year. I'm just a true
- 9:52Speaker 1: fly on the wall. Like I'm in all these texts
- 9:54Speaker 1: group with all these pros, and I know this is
- 9:57Speaker 1: in my place to say anything or reach out. So
- 9:59Speaker 1: I literally I'll wake up in the morning, I'll just
- 10:01Speaker 1: read through conversations that people have all through the night,
- 10:03Speaker 1: just the degenerates talking shit, throwing ideas, and multiple guys
- 10:08Speaker 1: keep popping up with Grand Canyon outright over Gonzaga, which
- 10:13Speaker 1: to me is so out of this world even thinking
- 10:15Speaker 1: about it, because Gonzaga historically, yes they do choke, but
- 10:18Speaker 1: it's not until maybe the second or third week, right,
- 10:20Speaker 1: they don't choke first weekend. Usually they're pretty good at
- 10:23Speaker 1: beating up these bad teams. And then I look, I
- 10:25Speaker 1: see you online. There are three seed Grand Canyon is
- 10:28Speaker 1: the fourteen. It's plus eight ninety right now on Fandel.
- 10:33Speaker 1: Of course I'm gonna throw some on it. So I
- 10:35Speaker 1: would love to hear that from another professional viewpoint. What
- 10:38Speaker 1: are these guys seen and what's the other side here,
- 10:40Speaker 1: Why would you say no, Tiken zag on the spread.
- 10:42Speaker 1: That's the better play than calling for the big upset
- 10:45Speaker 1: here of Grand Canyon over Gonzaga in round one. This
- 10:49Speaker 1: is a three point variants kind of play. You know,
- 10:52Speaker 1: the Lopes are gonna fire up probably twenty five thirty
- 10:55Speaker 1: threes in this game. They go ahead and make ten
- 10:56Speaker 1: or twelve, it's going to be a game in the
- 10:58Speaker 1: under eight time out. So I stand from that perspective.
- 11:01Speaker 1: But then when you look on the other side of
- 11:03Speaker 1: the ball, for Grant Kenyon, they're one hundred and ninety
- 11:05Speaker 1: eight and palm defense. They're going to get fed into
- 11:07Speaker 1: the wood chipper by this Gonzaga offense. They're by far
- 11:10Speaker 1: the number one rated offense. And really I've been calling
- 11:13Speaker 1: them the zombie Zags ever since they lost an overtime
- 11:15Speaker 1: a game that they dominated for thirty nine minutes against
- 11:18Speaker 1: Saint Mary's and just fell apart at the end of regulation.
- 11:20Speaker 1: They lose in ot and the national media was basically like, well,
- 11:23Speaker 1: they were this cute story this year. You know, they're
- 11:26Speaker 1: not going to be in the national conversation to really win,
- 11:29Speaker 1: to finally get over the hump for Mark Few. Since then,
- 11:32Speaker 1: they've averaged ninety three points per game in their last nine,
- 11:35Speaker 1: including two games against Saint Mary's where they thumped them.
- 11:38Speaker 1: And I think from a human nature standpoint, Mark Few
- 11:42Speaker 1: is really pushing the right buttons right now. Because Drew
- 11:44Speaker 1: Timmy came back for this run, They're not overlooking anything
- 11:48Speaker 1: in March Madness. It's been all about getting to this
- 11:50Speaker 1: tournament and dominating. And for that reason, I think they
- 11:52Speaker 1: actually have great value to make the Sweet sixteen at
- 11:54Speaker 1: minus one sixty because beyond this game, they have a
- 11:57Speaker 1: chance to go up against a wounded UCLA team that's
- 12:00Speaker 1: down the defensive player of the year in the Pac twelve.
- 12:02Speaker 1: They also set have some injury issues in their front court. Gonzaga,
- 12:05Speaker 1: I think it's just locked and loaded, and I love
- 12:07Speaker 1: their depth. Malakai Smith is a name to keep in
- 12:09Speaker 1: minds as this tournament goes on because he comes off
- 12:11Speaker 1: the bench. Last year, he led Chad knew Good to
- 12:13Speaker 1: the MC double A tournament and he was like a
- 12:16Speaker 1: twenty and eight kind of scorer. This year, he's coming
- 12:18Speaker 1: off the bench, but he's capable of double digits and
- 12:21Speaker 1: that's the beauty of what Gonzaga has going on offensively
- 12:23Speaker 1: Beyond Timmy, it's just a multi headed attack. So there's
- 12:27Speaker 1: no way to take the offensive pressure down from Gonzaga.
- 12:31Speaker 1: They're gonna push, push, push, and I mean, Grant Indian
- 12:34Speaker 1: is a good story. But the fact of the matter
- 12:37Speaker 1: is they're better home team. They're clear on that playing
- 12:38Speaker 1: on their home floor here. So I actually like the
- 12:41Speaker 1: fifteen and a half point spread for the Zags. Maybe
- 12:44Speaker 1: play it in the first half, see if they come
- 12:45Speaker 1: out with their hair on the fire. But I think
- 12:47Speaker 1: in terms of the pros, it's just a value proposition.
- 12:50Speaker 1: I would have to be north at ten to one
- 12:51Speaker 1: for me even to get interested in a nightmare scenario
- 12:54Speaker 1: where Gonzaga goes out because Mark Fu's gone to the
- 12:56Speaker 1: Sweet sixteen and seven straight tournaments, so that's early exit,
- 13:00Speaker 1: you know, tag that's attached to them. As you said,
- 13:02Speaker 1: that's a second weekend conversation, not on the first weekend.
- 13:06Speaker 1: Calabrie's is unloading on your wise guys. Yeah, no, it's
- 13:10Speaker 1: making me feel good. I like when I hear a
- 13:11Speaker 1: team can get hot from three points, That's what I
- 13:13Speaker 1: wanted to hear. I just want to know why are
- 13:15Speaker 1: they taking Grant Cannon that makes perfect sense. If they
- 13:16Speaker 1: can hit the threes. You know, Gonzai can score they want,
- 13:20Speaker 1: they can't catch up to all those threes being made.
- 13:21Speaker 1: That's that's kind of the angle I think they're taking here.
- 13:25Speaker 1: All right, Michael, you told us about VCU five days
- 13:30Speaker 1: after the seatings came out. Who is another one that
- 13:34Speaker 1: we should be looking for on Friday? So I'm hot
- 13:38Speaker 1: to trot on Creton. This is one that I have
- 13:41Speaker 1: not kept close to the best. I'm telling everybody stopping
- 13:44Speaker 1: people on the street the hot dog vendor here in
- 13:45Speaker 1: New York City because I'm at the lovely New Action
- 13:48Speaker 1: Network headquarters shooting video so I can the opportunity to
- 13:51Speaker 1: walk around talk basketball with anyone to listen to me.
- 13:54Speaker 1: Craydon's got it all, to be honest, there's a certain
- 13:58Speaker 1: championship DNA out there. From a composite resume standpoint, when
- 14:03Speaker 1: you look at Kenpom, if you can be top thirty
- 14:05Speaker 1: and offensive even defensive efficiency year elite, they're twenty eighth
- 14:08Speaker 1: and offense fifteenth in defense. All five starters average over
- 14:11Speaker 1: eleven points per game. They got a great big and
- 14:13Speaker 1: Kalk Brenner, so they're not going to get bullied by
- 14:15Speaker 1: any of these opponents. They play great defense and something
- 14:18Speaker 1: that I really love that's infuriating and something that can
- 14:21Speaker 1: be overlooked pretty easily when you're putting together your picks.
- 14:24Speaker 1: They don't put opponents to the line. They only give
- 14:26Speaker 1: up twelve point four foul shots per game. That's third nationally.
- 14:29Speaker 1: So you have to truly beat him. There's no cheapies,
- 14:31Speaker 1: there's no easy points being handed out. You got to
- 14:34Speaker 1: beat him in the half court and that's really difficult
- 14:36Speaker 1: to do. And then additionally, beyond everything they have offensively,
- 14:40Speaker 1: they do not turn the ball over. So when you
- 14:42Speaker 1: put it between not turning the ball over and not
- 14:44Speaker 1: putting teams on the line, it's hard work to knock
- 14:47Speaker 1: out the Blue Jays. And they're up against ency state
- 14:50Speaker 1: team that has some nice wins this year, but they're
- 14:52Speaker 1: all at home. They've done absolutely nothing zip zero, nada
- 14:55Speaker 1: on the road or a neutral sites, and I think
- 14:57Speaker 1: that's a bad recipe for the wolf Packs. All go
- 14:59Speaker 1: ahead and the five and a half. I'd love to
- 15:01Speaker 1: get five. I think there's a chance maybe it'll go
- 15:04Speaker 1: down to five in the market, but I would probably
- 15:07Speaker 1: play it up to seven, where it still has its value.
- 15:11Speaker 1: Now looking at the whole board here, do we have
- 15:13Speaker 1: any Cinderellas up pop out to any teams that can
- 15:15Speaker 1: make a run. You know, every year we always have
- 15:17Speaker 1: these teams. Now everything in the NCAA is so much
- 15:19Speaker 1: closer now where we talked about stuck. If there's a
- 15:22Speaker 1: bunch of good seniors, you can usually make a run. Right,
- 15:25Speaker 1: These guys haven't been together for three four years playing
- 15:28Speaker 1: against these teams at Yes, they might have the pedigree,
- 15:31Speaker 1: but they're just not a team like these other teams are.
- 15:33Speaker 1: There's anyone that stands out to this year that could
- 15:35Speaker 1: be a Cinderella or is it kind of flat across
- 15:37Speaker 1: the board? So I'd love to say Drake, but I
- 15:40Speaker 1: don't want to get yelled up by Chat again. So
- 15:42Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with Montana State, one of the most
- 15:43Speaker 1: experienced teams here in the field. They're up against a
- 15:46Speaker 1: Case State team and Bobcats have won fourteen and fifteen,
- 15:50Speaker 1: coming in four upperclassmen, and they're starting lineup a dynamic
- 15:54Speaker 1: score in former Washington guard Raquan Battle. The other issue
- 15:58Speaker 1: in this case is sometimes it becomes the game inside
- 16:01Speaker 1: the game. So kse State loves to get to the rim.
- 16:04Speaker 1: They want to attack, attack, attack, but Montana State is
- 16:07Speaker 1: six nationally in points per possession allowed at the rim,
- 16:10Speaker 1: so I think that's bad news for KSE State, and
- 16:13Speaker 1: pressure wise, I think all of its slides. When you're
- 16:16Speaker 1: a fourteen seed, they're quote unquote happy to be there.
- 16:19Speaker 1: But KASE State has spent a lot of this season
- 16:21Speaker 1: in the fight in the mix in the Big Twelve,
- 16:24Speaker 1: thinking of themselves as a national title contender. Certainly, it
- 16:26Speaker 1: contended to win the Big twelve regular season and it
- 16:29Speaker 1: didn't come to fruition didn't come together in the Big
- 16:31Speaker 1: Twelve tournament. And I think if they have some bum
- 16:34Speaker 1: luck early in this game and they kind of get
- 16:37Speaker 1: stuck in the mud trying to drive and not finding
- 16:39Speaker 1: their usual success, I think the bobs are going to
- 16:41Speaker 1: absolutely throw a scare in the Wildcats. So I think
- 16:43Speaker 1: they're alive as dog here. KSE State is an interesting program.
- 16:48Speaker 1: Another interesting program with national aspirations in my backyard the
- 16:56Speaker 1: Yukon Huskies, which at one point this year were you know,
- 17:02Speaker 1: a top two team and then faded and then they
- 17:07Speaker 1: were listen the West Hartford cocktail party circuit. We were
- 17:13Speaker 1: ever at the Burns. They had the whole neighborhood over
- 17:18Speaker 1: talking about Yukon basketball because in the middle of January
- 17:21Speaker 1: they got hot last six weeks of the year, potentially
- 17:27Speaker 1: one of the best teams in the country. They got
- 17:30Speaker 1: to take on rip Pettino and Iona great couple of years.
- 17:34Speaker 1: Rumors he may take a new job. Rippettino coming back
- 17:39Speaker 1: at seventy years old. Love that. Where do you stand
- 17:42Speaker 1: on Yukon? Right now? Yukon is an elite offensive rebounding
- 17:49Speaker 1: team and I love the fact do you bring something
- 17:51Speaker 1: special to the table. And in a lot of cases,
- 17:53Speaker 1: teams at this point the season will say we're great
- 17:55Speaker 1: from three point range, which to me is a double
- 17:57Speaker 1: edged sword. It doesn't always travel. Sometimes it's the bay
- 18:00Speaker 1: and you can throw you off. Sometimes you just have
- 18:01Speaker 1: those nights where you shoot twenty five percent from three?
- 18:04Speaker 1: Can you recover from that? Offensive rebounding travels everywhere. They
- 18:07Speaker 1: have these bouncy athletic you know, six foot six to
- 18:10Speaker 1: six foot ten guys. They just come in waves like
- 18:12Speaker 1: it gets a line change in hockey, and for the
- 18:14Speaker 1: most part they overwhelm teams in that regard. Now I
- 18:17Speaker 1: own them is a good offensive rebounding team in their
- 18:19Speaker 1: own right. They're twenty sixth in offensive rebounding percentage nationally,
- 18:22Speaker 1: which is one of the best marks for mid major.
- 18:24Speaker 1: It begins and ends with Nellie Junior Joseph the averages
- 18:27Speaker 1: close to fifteen and ten per game. I own. It
- 18:30Speaker 1: also is great in terms of turnover margins. So when
- 18:32Speaker 1: you put the offensive rebounding stats in there, and then
- 18:35Speaker 1: fourteenth in turnover margin at just about plus four per game,
- 18:38Speaker 1: that's a lot of extra opportunities. You're not giving opportunities
- 18:41Speaker 1: to the opponent. They're also elite at shutting down the
- 18:44Speaker 1: three point line for opponents. Their twentieth in opponent shooting efficiency.
- 18:48Speaker 1: So the gals are real tough defensively, and when I
- 18:50Speaker 1: look at Yukon, there's so much to like about them,
- 18:53Speaker 1: but their offensive engine on the perimeters. Jordan Hawkins, he's
- 18:56Speaker 1: seventeen for fifty in his last four games. That concerns
- 19:00Speaker 1: a little bit, not necessarily to get out of the
- 19:02Speaker 1: first round, but I think it's they're legitimate threat to
- 19:05Speaker 1: go to the final four. He has to get it together. Luckily,
- 19:08Speaker 1: in this spot, Yukon can also turn around and just
- 19:10Speaker 1: shut down the three point shot. They only gave up
- 19:12Speaker 1: four point nine made threes per game. That's third nationally.
- 19:14Speaker 1: So Iona, I do not think have the Cinderella formula
- 19:18Speaker 1: to be able to bomb away from three. It's going
- 19:20Speaker 1: to be Yoman's work on the glass just to probably
- 19:23Speaker 1: be minus five in the offensive rebounding battle. What I
- 19:25Speaker 1: actually like, there's under one forty three and a half.
- 19:28Speaker 1: I think it's going to be at rock fight, and
- 19:29Speaker 1: I think Ukon's going to be happy to get out
- 19:32Speaker 1: of there with a five or six point win. Simon.
- 19:34Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I like listening to
- 19:36Speaker 1: Calabrie's talk about college basketball. Might be making up the
- 19:40Speaker 1: name of every single player on teams, like he talks
- 19:45Speaker 1: about the Lopes, he talks about, you know, Iona's offensive
- 19:49Speaker 1: rebounding prowess. Can you name the leading score for every
- 19:55Speaker 1: team in the NCAA tournament year the NCAA tournaments. There's
- 20:02Speaker 1: a good chance. One of my parlor tricks is I know,
- 20:05Speaker 1: you know, obviously every single Division one school nickname which
- 20:08Speaker 1: comes into play. You know, if I meet someone's wife
- 20:11Speaker 1: at a party, she's like, well I went to Western Illinois.
- 20:13Speaker 1: Just give them a good go leathernecks, that icebreaker, I
- 20:17Speaker 1: know the Leathernecks. A guy from my high school played
- 20:20Speaker 1: football for Western Illinois, and we're like the Leathernecks roof
- 20:24Speaker 1: positive right there. Just bringing people together school. It doesn't
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- 22:17Speaker 1: West Virginia. Speaking of college basketball powers Indiana University. I
- 22:24Speaker 1: went to Indiana. Been super excited about this team. All year,
- 22:29Speaker 1: up and down, up and down big wins against Purdue.
- 22:33Speaker 1: Looked terrible against Penn State. After jumping out to an
- 22:37Speaker 1: early lead, I think they made one three the entire game.
- 22:40Speaker 1: They got Kent State. In my IU text chain, it
- 22:44Speaker 1: was reminded. I was reminded that the last time we
- 22:46Speaker 1: played at Kent State in the first round, we were
- 22:48Speaker 1: dominated by Antonio Gates before he moved on to the NFL.
- 22:53Speaker 1: I bet Kent State plus four and a half. It's
- 22:55Speaker 1: a little bit of an emotional hedge. Give me your
- 22:58Speaker 1: take on this Indiana team. Well, I would say if
- 23:01Speaker 1: an upset happens, that means I guess Sincere Carrey is
- 23:04Speaker 1: going to be a starting defensive back in the NFL
- 23:06Speaker 1: in five years because he's there there you go, showing
- 23:09Speaker 1: off right there, ten and one down the stretch for
- 23:12Speaker 1: the Golden Flashes. And here's the thing about MAC basketball.
- 23:15Speaker 1: There's a decent amount of teams that go to the
- 23:17Speaker 1: low post and play back to the basket and want
- 23:20Speaker 1: to feed the post. So they have experience and they
- 23:22Speaker 1: come in as one of the best mid majors defending
- 23:24Speaker 1: the post. Why is that importance? Because Trace Jackson Davis
- 23:28Speaker 1: is such a dominant post player. So really it becomes
- 23:31Speaker 1: Jordan rules where it's like, as long as we can
- 23:33Speaker 1: let him get just twenty five instead of thirty five.
- 23:36Speaker 1: I think the Golden Flashes are going to be in
- 23:38Speaker 1: good shape there. And there's also at this point in
- 23:41Speaker 1: the season, you know, we make light of some of
- 23:43Speaker 1: the teams like Grand Canyon in Montana State where they
- 23:45Speaker 1: don't have those apples to aticles nonconference comparisons, but not
- 23:50Speaker 1: Kent State. They played Houston, they were within five, They
- 23:52Speaker 1: held Houston to forty nine points, and they were within
- 23:55Speaker 1: seven of Gonzaga, both of those games on the road.
- 23:58Speaker 1: So I think that illustrates that they don't feel that
- 24:00Speaker 1: they're in deep water playing against you know, elite teams,
- 24:04Speaker 1: nationally ranked teams. Yes, Trace Jackson Davis is probably gonna
- 24:07Speaker 1: have a double double in this game, but if he
- 24:10Speaker 1: gets in foul trouble early, this could be curtains for EU.
- 24:13Speaker 1: I think this is a bad raw. I think that
- 24:15Speaker 1: they were you know, misseated, probably by one line. I
- 24:18Speaker 1: would have preferred them in some of the five twelve games.
- 24:20Speaker 1: In terms of the overall player on player matchups. This
- 24:24Speaker 1: is not a good situation. So I think the emotional
- 24:26Speaker 1: hedge was the right move on your part. He a
- 24:29Speaker 1: little curball here. What is Arkansas Tech's nickname? Arkansas? They're
- 24:35Speaker 1: not division one of anything, as I I thought you
- 24:38Speaker 1: were gonna hit me with Arkansas Pine Bluff, Go Gold Through.
- 24:42Speaker 1: They're called the Boys, Wonder Boys, the great nickname. What
- 24:46Speaker 1: a nickname that is? That's one one more? You see
- 24:51Speaker 1: Santa Cruz. Anybody got that one chambered? Okay? Good? All right,
- 24:55Speaker 1: So somebody somebody's awake at the wheel over there, frash
- 25:00Speaker 1: out of the favorite. Okay, do you have any other
- 25:04Speaker 1: best bets for Friday that pop off the top of
- 25:05Speaker 1: your head. Let me just look through my entire sheet here,
- 25:10Speaker 1: because there's a couple of games that I actually think
- 25:13Speaker 1: are very well calibrated by the market. Not surprising. That's
- 25:16Speaker 1: what stuck. He was saying. You're just talking about how
- 25:18Speaker 1: the margin now just just got big sports betting his gun.
- 25:21Speaker 1: He just keeps getting smaller and smaller. This value of
- 25:23Speaker 1: March Badness and doing the podcasts throughout the basketball season
- 25:27Speaker 1: was stuck. We noticed that as well. And it's not
- 25:29Speaker 1: just the National Lady televised games. It's also you know,
- 25:32Speaker 1: Leeds down to the high mid major level, you know
- 25:35Speaker 1: that kind of middle tier. I'm gonna go ahead. I
- 25:37Speaker 1: think there's one team that is an underdog. I think
- 25:39Speaker 1: they should be favored, and it's the ten seven game
- 25:41Speaker 1: between USC and Michigan State. Spartans are a two point
- 25:44Speaker 1: favorite here. I actually like the Trojans. I mean, they
- 25:47Speaker 1: nearly swept UCLA. They're only lost in that series was
- 25:50Speaker 1: a two point road loss. They lost the Tennessee and
- 25:52Speaker 1: ot They gave Arizona run for their money to end
- 25:54Speaker 1: the regular season. But really, beyond the fact that they're
- 25:58Speaker 1: always close or they're winning those games against you know,
- 26:00Speaker 1: the best competition on their schedule, their backcourt gives them
- 26:04Speaker 1: huge upside. Boogie ellis a lot of people on the
- 26:06Speaker 1: East Coast have never seen this guy play. He's a bucket.
- 26:09Speaker 1: He poured in twenty one plus in seven of their
- 26:11Speaker 1: last twelve games. Drew Peterson is also absolutely lethally. He's
- 26:14Speaker 1: like six nine, six tenth, so he gets a shot
- 26:16Speaker 1: anytime he wants. Last month of the season, he shot
- 26:18Speaker 1: forty percent from long range. This backcourt helps them achieve
- 26:22Speaker 1: one of the cooler New Age stats in college basketball,
- 26:24Speaker 1: which is the kill shot. That's a ten o runner better.
- 26:28Speaker 1: They are one of the top ten teams in the
- 26:29Speaker 1: country and kill shot runs. So I see them potentially
- 26:33Speaker 1: running away from Michigan State team that Yes, they don't
- 26:35Speaker 1: shoot a ton of threes, but when they're not falling,
- 26:38Speaker 1: their offense can fall apart. You saw that happen against
- 26:41Speaker 1: Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament. They shot I
- 26:43Speaker 1: think like twenty percent from long range. They end up
- 26:45Speaker 1: losing by double digits in that game, so that's a problem. Additionally,
- 26:50Speaker 1: when it comes to stopping Peterson and the perimeter weapons
- 26:53Speaker 1: from USA, Michigan State ranks three hundred and twentieth and
- 26:56Speaker 1: catch and shoot three point defense, so I see a
- 26:58Speaker 1: lot of slashing, kick the ball out three's fallen for USC.
- 27:02Speaker 1: As they mentioned, I think they should be the favorite song.
- 27:04Speaker 1: I go ahead and just play them at plus one
- 27:06Speaker 1: out of five plus one ten New Jersey Institute of Technology.
- 27:14Speaker 1: He must be referring to the Highlanders. Man, you are
- 27:17Speaker 1: a fucker that is not to be not to be
- 27:21Speaker 1: confused with UC Riverside. Also the Highlanders. They have a
- 27:23Speaker 1: really cool Scottish bear mascot with the whole Highlander look.
- 27:28Speaker 1: I'm moving out to California in the spring. I'm excited
- 27:31Speaker 1: to get my hands on some UC riverside swag. That
- 27:34Speaker 1: was good because not only did you paused for a
- 27:39Speaker 1: second where I'm like, I think I got them, and
- 27:43Speaker 1: then you just pulled out like fucking suave, really really good.
- 27:49Speaker 1: Give me your final four, assuming that you know, we'll
- 27:54Speaker 1: hope that whoever is in your final four doesn't get
- 27:56Speaker 1: napped at on Thursday while people are listening to this podcast.
- 28:00Speaker 1: All right, I'm going to go through region by region.
- 28:03Speaker 1: So in the South, I have Cradon. In the East,
- 28:07Speaker 1: I have Marquette. You're gonna like this one. Chad. Out
- 28:10Speaker 1: of the West, I have Yukon, and then I have
- 28:13Speaker 1: Texas coming out of the Midwest. I love Texas, And
- 28:17Speaker 1: I brought this up on Vison about a week ago.
- 28:21Speaker 1: Twenty five years ago, if you lost a head coach midseason,
- 28:25Speaker 1: that your whole program would have just fallen apart. There
- 28:27Speaker 1: was the game of basketball, there was more involvement from
- 28:30Speaker 1: an exs no standpoint, and a little bit of a
- 28:33Speaker 1: tighter leash by a head coach. Particularly had a huge
- 28:36Speaker 1: program in the top ten. That's just not been the
- 28:38Speaker 1: case with Texas. I think they circled the wagons. I
- 28:41Speaker 1: think strangely, I think it's made them a closer team.
- 28:44Speaker 1: They have a great backcourt in Marcus Carr and one
- 28:46Speaker 1: of the best names in all college basketball, Sergibari Rice.
- 28:50Speaker 1: So I love what the Longhorns have, and their front
- 28:53Speaker 1: court got better and better. Dylan to Sue in particular,
- 28:56Speaker 1: you know, took a step forward in the Big Twelve tournament.
- 28:58Speaker 1: He gives them that final piece. If he plays like
- 29:01Speaker 1: that for six games, I think they're gonna win the
- 29:03Speaker 1: national championship. And then who do you have winning it?
- 29:06Speaker 1: So I've Texas over Creton in a tight one. We'll
- 29:09Speaker 1: call it a one possession game, just from a you
- 29:13Speaker 1: know style, making fights situation. That's going to be a
- 29:16Speaker 1: really good defensive battle, and both teams can heat up
- 29:20Speaker 1: from the perimeter. So I think it's going to be
- 29:22Speaker 1: a seesaw events. It's a little bit heavily on Big
- 29:25Speaker 1: East teams, but I think that's just the way it
- 29:27Speaker 1: shook out. I'm not trying to get in my own head.
- 29:29Speaker 1: Those are just the teams that I think have the
- 29:31Speaker 1: right path and the right mix of analytics and personnel
- 29:34Speaker 1: to get it done for six games or in this case,
- 29:36Speaker 1: four games to get to the final four. Do you
- 29:38Speaker 1: know what's interesting about this final four? It's the last
- 29:40Speaker 1: thing that I think we're going to cover here. Marquette, Creton, Yukon.
- 29:45Speaker 1: In this new age world of nil, these are not
- 29:50Speaker 1: programs that are going to compete at the same level
- 29:54Speaker 1: as the Texas, the Dukes, the uncs. We'll be able
- 29:58Speaker 1: to compete in college basketball. So I know we're still
- 30:02Speaker 1: in the early stages of this, but that's a fascinating
- 30:07Speaker 1: idea and it would be real boon for these programs
- 30:11Speaker 1: to be able to get to the Final four when
- 30:13Speaker 1: it's going to be increasingly competitive for talent. It is interesting,
- 30:17Speaker 1: although I will say, you know, these mini collectives at
- 30:20Speaker 1: the mid major level you can get together. You can
- 30:23Speaker 1: keep one guy on campus. Western Kentucky just did it
- 30:25Speaker 1: with their quarterback Austin Reid, who looked like he was
- 30:27Speaker 1: going to enter the transfer porter and next thing you know,
- 30:30Speaker 1: he's on Instagram with a brand new car. So it's like,
- 30:33Speaker 1: to me, these are all victimless crimes, Like they are
- 30:36Speaker 1: absolutely funny. And you know, we're not talking about competing
- 30:40Speaker 1: with the death star like Alabama or Texas, where they
- 30:43Speaker 1: just have an unlimited amount of resources to just pound
- 30:47Speaker 1: the competition on the recruiting trail if you want to
- 30:49Speaker 1: get together and put you know, three hundred thousand dollars together.
- 30:53Speaker 1: A lot of these schools are big schools. I think
- 30:55Speaker 1: of school like Liberty, and not many people know it's
- 30:57Speaker 1: the largest undergrad you know, a population in terms of
- 31:01Speaker 1: kids on campus in the entire country. There's a lot
- 31:03Speaker 1: of people that graduated from Liberty. You get five ten
- 31:05Speaker 1: bucks ahead, all of a sudden, you can start competing.
- 31:07Speaker 1: So I think it's a little bit overblown that there's
- 31:10Speaker 1: such a gulf between the major power programs and their
- 31:14Speaker 1: potential on the NIL front and everybody else. Speaking of
- 31:17Speaker 1: power programs before we go Rezbyterian College. Yeah, I mean,
- 31:26Speaker 1: I wish I could say that I didn't know that
- 31:28Speaker 1: it was the blue Hose, but of course, and you really,
- 31:31Speaker 1: you really had to enunciate when you're around Presbyterian PC grads.
- 31:35Speaker 1: Make sure to enunciate so you're not calling them blue hose.
- 31:40Speaker 1: Oh my god. By the way, that's a great doublelon
- 31:43Speaker 1: to Andrea. Presbyterian College, Mike Calabrie, out standing. Thanks for
- 31:50Speaker 1: coming on the Favorites podcast. Great work during college football,
- 31:55Speaker 1: great work during college basketball for Simon Hunter, for Matt Mitchell.
- 32:00Speaker 1: Our producer, I am Chad Millman. This has been the
- 32:03Speaker 1: favorite podcast from the volume Podcast Network rate review, Subscribe, subscribe,
- 32:09Speaker 1: subscribe directly to the favorites. Please leave us five stars,
- 32:16Speaker 1: say whatever you want feedback as a gift. Good luck
- 32:18Speaker 1: in your brackets until next time. Love you. Action Network
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