3.19: This Is It - Hour 3

the trip. But I just I know I'm not going to be able to be there tomorrow because I'm going to well, first of all, I wouldn't be able to be there, like even if like I mean, I can be there, I just I'm choosing not to be there because one would I want to be able to do the show here after the game, and also, like I wouldn't. I would be a lunatic, like I wouldn't be able to sit still like I pay, Like I can't sit in a press seat for this game tomorrow, right, I

just give mean I was forced to. I could, and I'm very fortunate that I do get credentialed to go to these games and you know, get access and whatnot. But there's, you know, there's there's limits that I know as far as myself, and you know, I don't want to put myself in a position where I'll embarrass myself anymore than I do every day on this show. I mean, I'm going to be there's no way I'm sitting in any moment during tomorrow's game. Yeah, it's gonna be wild.

So it took me a while to get there because there was I guess construction going on and I'd never see the construction because I'm just going off of what my GPS told me, and then it routed me past it. So I got off in Frankfort and kind of went around a long but went a long way to Lexington. So I don't know if there's you know, I don't know what we're in for tomorrow, but just what I would recommend people doing. And I'll give a shout out to the former producer of this show, the Company Man.

He's very very very organized, very prepared, very responsible, and I exactly he just you know he was. But you know, at times I need a guy like that that can really, you know, tell me the you know, remind me of like you know, you you could have avoided the goof that you just had there, man, And that's like, you know, maybe preparing and being a little bit more ready. And what I'm what I'm talking about is like driving so John, and this is if you know the Company Man, mister

John Alden, this is so him. And I mean this is a compliment before he goes anywhere, even if he knows where he's going, Like even if he could drive there with his eyes closed, he puts it in GPS to see if there's ever any kind of like arrest. Still smart, it's really it's real smart. I just never think to do it, but like I think he does it. Like if he's going to McDonald's, you never know, there might be a you know, there might be a wreck on you know, a back road or something like that.

So anyways, just do that before we leave tomorrow and it'll tell you the best way to go. I don't know what GPS you use. I use ways and it usually works pretty well. So I think there will be clearly more Louisville fans there than any other fan base. Maybe I don't know, Tennessee. I mean, Lexington and Knoxville aren't that far apart, and there are a lot of Tennessee fans in general. I mean, that's a huge fan base, and when they're good at something, you realize how big

their fan base is. But there's also Tennessee fans that live probably closer to election than Knoxville, so maybe they'll end up having a good amount. I mean, they're gonna have some fans there too, But I just I'd be shocked if Louisville didn't have the most fans. But then again, you got to keep in mind it isn't noon on a Thursday, and that's just not as convenient for a

lot of people. But clearly there'll be a home court presence to an extent, and whatever helps, whatever can help Louisville get past Creighton and keep this fun season rolling along is what I'm of course hoping and praying for, and my nerves have been have been at a high level the last twenty four hours, probably only getting it

worse as we get to tomorrow. In fact, I don't know, maybe sometimes I'll sometimes I just hit a wall when it comes to the nervousness and I'm kind of all right, whatever, I can't get any more nervous than this. Let's just let's just see what happened happen. Yeah, And I'll probably

be there tomorrow when it comes to this game. But my nerves are not about Creighton, not about Louisville not being good enough, because you know, I believe this team is good enough to beat Crayton, and I actually, you know, when it comes to Crayton, I think they're a good team as well. But what I'm what I'm trying to say is is that my nerves are really more than anything due to the fact that we're here, meaning you

win tomorrow, we stay alive. You lose, and it's all over and we don't get to see most of these players ever again. And that's just a scary feeling because of how fun this season has been, and lost a loss tomorrow won't change the revival that took place that you know, brought us back to life. And you know, I'll always remember this group. I will, but I'd like to be able to remember them for more than just

this season. I'd like to be able to remember them for, you know, making it to the round of thirty two, winning Louisville's first tournament game in you know, let's see, eight years. Last time Lee won a tournament game was when they were a two seed, and they beat a

fifteen seed at Jacksonville State team in twenty seventeen. So I'd also like them to be and I'm getting greedy, I'd like them to be remembered not only for winning a game, but maybe you know, knocking up the number one overall seed as Louisville fans took over Rupp Arena and punched their ticket to the Sweet sixteen for the first time in a decade. So you know, that has clearly been on the minds of fans as far as you know, that'd be awesome. Let's just get there, but

you know, you got to get past Creighton first. And I'm sure this team has not thought much about it. I'm sure they're you know, they're humans, so therefore I'm sure it's at least in their mind to an extent that if they win, they will have another big challenge. But there's one thing I believe in this group, as far as they're being able to do, is that they're gonna They're gonna. They're not gonna overlook Creighton. They're not going to be you know, asleep at the wheel when

this game starts. They're gonna be ready to go. And that I mean they're gonna win, but they'll be ready to play. And I think today, being at Reparna for the open practice and the press conferences, you'd think my nerves would be better. But it's not about again, it's not about like confidence in them winning or losing. It's just, you know, the nervousness and the anxiousness of this potentially

all being over. But to see these guys in the walk through, and it wasn't a real practice, right, there were fans there, media, It wasn't as if they were really doing anything at full go. But you can just tell by the way that they carried themselves, the demeanor. They are very mature. They're older than a lot of college basketball players. It's a really old team, and there's a lot of old teams to stay in age when

it comes to college basketball. But you know this group, I think even during the setbacks, really throughout the entire season, because it was a roller coaster early. Right, you come out against Tennessee, a real big build up there, right, Pat's first game, it's a white out. You've got a top ten team here on your floor. Fans showed up in a big way, and you got killed. Well, then you know, you beat up on a couple of Patsy's.

And then you go to the Bahamas and you come out and you beat the hell out of Indiana, could have beat him by fifty, beat West Virginia in overtime, Chucky's going off for thirty plus, you lose to Oklahoma, and then you come back from the Bahamas thinking, Okay, we let that one get away against Oklahoma, but man, we might not have been ready for Tennessee, but we're

a good team. Then you find out Cason's out for the year, you find out Korn's not coming back at all, and then you've got Ole Miss, You've got Duke, you got Kentucky. And those were tough games. Obviously you didn't win them, and and some of them you got killed, and it made you think Okay, maybe this team will be lucky to get to you know, five hundred and I never was there, but some fans were, and I

don't think that's crazy. But it's been a it was a roller coaster early and then we hit smooth sailing right once you got into conference play in acc action, I mean you went eighteen and two. So throughout all of it, I think they have never been too high and never been too low. And that's a good it's a good place to be when it comes to games like this where some teams will lose because they're too tight, right, some teams will will come out and and lay an

egg because you know they are a fourteen seed. I'm sorry, a three playing a fourteen seed, and they're telling themselves, yeah, we know, we gotta we gotta avoid the upset. Let's not create a Cinderella here. But then, you know, then they come out and Cinderella, she's got a she's got a mean left hook, and she knocks you on your ass. And then you start to press because you think, oh, we're not gonna do this, are we, Like, we're not gonna We're not gonna lose to this team, are we?

And then sure, enough, you let a team like that stay alive long enough, and they they pull off the magic and Louivell's not in that position tomorrow. They're I mean, they're playing a nine seed, they're an eight seed. But I'm just saying that things that you know, from an emotional standpoint, I don't even want to call it like lack of maturity. It's really just experience and maturity and focus that I think bodes well for this group as

far as tournament games. Now, it doesn't guarantee they're gonna win because they've got to they've got to have an answer for for Cauugh Printer. They've got to be able to,

you know, limit him as best they can. And what I really really just keep kind of remembering, and I don't know why, because again, Rain Smith's been been a guy we've talked about all year, and we talked about him more in the last two weeks than we ever have because his status has been up in the air, right we don't know is he gonna be able to go, is he not well? Now we know he's gonna play after missing two weeks, and he looked good today, but again,

he wasn't doing anything at one hundred percent. It was just to walk through kind of thing. But he was, you know, he was he was shooting shots and you know, it wasn't like he was just out there doing layup lines. But they also weren't doing the full practice. But he looked he looked like he wasn't really dealing with any discomfort. And even if he is tomorrow, which he probably will be considering the injury, he's gonna try to play through it.

That's what we know. But what I keep you know, when I do have that brief moment Austin where I'm like, you know what, we are gonna win this game. We're better, it's because of rain, not because I'm envisioning him hitting four threes in the first half. It's more so just because Louisville is just a different team to be prepared for on the defensive side of the ball. When he's

out there, Yeah, it's just spacing the floor. It's just the threat of him being open and what you miss and guys like you know, Chucky played great in the ACC tournament for the most part. Didn't have a great game against Duke. I think he really ran out of gas. You know, he played three games in three days and he's played thirty five plus minutes a game all year, so you know, also Duke was a factor in that

as well. But I think for Terrence, and it sounds crazy because Terrence went off for thirty against Duke, so he was doing just fine. But I just think for those for those guards that are creators, their ability to create is a little bit easier when Rain is on the floor. And then once they're creating, and then you got to account for Chucky getting pain touches and get

into the free throw line. That's when somebody just for a moment falls asleep and Rain Smith's left wide open somewhere, and as soon as everybody in the arena sees he's open, you realize they're going to have to pay for that mistake. Maybe it may not be that shot, but eventually he'll he'll get hot and he could flip a game in a hurry. So again, I'm confident in Louisville. I just

you know, this is such an evenly matched game. I feel like somebody asked me on the text line earlier, do I feel like this is the opponent that is the most evenly matched for Louisville that you can remember all year and there's really no way to know about because we don't mean again, all we're basing this off of is the conferences, Right, Like Creighton finished second in the Big East, Louislle finished second in the ACC and clearly the committee didn't think that was worth much of

anything because they put him against each other in the eight nine game. So when you get to the tournament, like, you really don't mean you can go back many months ago and base it off of what teams did in non conference play, and a lot of people do that, and I understand, but that was also a long time ago, Like teams are different now than they were then, So

you really just don't know. But I think Clemson, I think Clemson is a pretty comparable team to Louisville, but also Louisville, you know, they if they didn't if they didn't slip up late and let that one get tight, Louisville really just I mean, I don't want to say they dominated that game, but they punked them, like they just they were kind of bullies out there. And that's one thing though that as we sit here, you know, just forty minutes left in the show before we start

the tournament, tomorrow. It's like the last you know, and there's really no point in bringing up now. But this is another thing I think you can add to the list as far as reasons why I like Louisville's chances in this game against Creighton, what they did against Stanford at times, and especially with did it against Clemson, and also what they did against Duke at in the first half.

They were bullies like these are grown men, guys like these are grown ass men twenty three, twenty four years old, and they may not be you know, look like they live in the weight room, but like they were pushing Clemson around the whole game. They pushed Duke around the

first half. There's a video that Duke shared the cinematic footage of Duke's championship in the ACC Tournament last week, and they show a clip of Shire at halftime calling out his team for being soft, and basically he's saying that Louisville's pushing them around and they were, so you know, I know, the point guard Ashworth for Creighton looks like he's thirty five, but he also looks like somebody I could throw around a little bit. I'm sure that's delusion

in my party might whoop my ass. I don't know. I'm just saying, like Creighton to me, outside of the big fella, the big call runner, I mean, they should be They should be a team that you won't have to worry about them, you know, being the physical aggressor and just you know, bullying you, and that could be an issue with foul trouble. That's another thing you got to keep in mind. We don't know how the officials are going to call this, because you know, Louisville has

been officiated pretty concillered. I don't know I was gonna say consistently. I'm not sure they have. But you really just never know, like if you maybe you get in a fit, maybe you get a crew that hadn't had a Louisville game all year. I mean that seems rare, but I don't know. Maybe it does happen, and you just don't know, like what you could get away with as far as contact and reaching for the majority of the season, are you going to be able to get

away with it in the tournament. There's so many unknowns, which again is one of the things is one of the many things that makes the NSAA Tournament great. But Anyways, let's get to some more Pat Kelsey sound. This is Pat talking about facing this Creighton team, and of course they're all American caliber big man Ryan kaulk Brenner Calk Brenner is the name.

seed type of team. Everybody else seems to think they're

in a much different tier. But nonetheless, I think these guys their story, right, like, yeah, he played in the tournament last year, but like Terrence comes from James Madison, ray Smith comes from Charleston to where they're only going They're never gonna get a seed high enough to where they're gonna If they're gonna win a tournament game, they gotta pull off a massive upset, right Trey, they played at Long Beach State last year, so you know, Javon,

he did play in the tournament, I think at Colorado, but you know, different world there than it is here. So I think overall these guys, they they probably were as bummed about the seating as anybody surprised, but I still think there's a level of like appreciation that like they're not gonna dwell on it because one of they seem to be mature enough to kind of realize, you know, only thing that could you know, only just dwelling on it.

All that could do is potentially hurt you. So you know, I think they're able to move on from it more so than than than a lot of people, just because again they still just think, hey, this is still crazy. We brought Louis back, Buttle back to life and we're in the tournament and yeah, this seating is off the we're top ten team right now. Like they have a lot of belief in themselves and I think they're still enjoying the uh you know, the ride that they're on,

and they don't want it to end. Like I think you're gonna see a level of desperation from this group, which is what's needed in March, because you know, you lose now it's all over. But here is uh, here is let's see where is it at. This is Javon Hadley talking about hearing their name called early on selection Sunday.

be here. Not in a way of like hey, they don't care if they win, but they're just look, hey, we're in. We we get to go just down the road here to Lexington, and uh let's go win. So I love this team, Austin, if you can't tell, I love them a lot, and I don't want it to be over. And it might be over tomorrow and I might be sad. It's not going to be over, all right,

all right, I believe it now. So we've got we've There are three people today that have that have that have shared their confidence with me, and it's been infectious. One was my sweet mother who talked who I called, We talked. I talked to her earlier on the phone and she told me she's confident in the Creton Games. So you know, she may not even be confident, but she knows that I'm gonna be put put at ease knowing Mam is confident, right, because you know, if she's

not worried, then I shouldn't be worried. It's my mom. And then Hippy let us Jeff he called in and gave me some great advice about the the gummies and the doses and you know, did some Hippi Lettuce Jeff stuff. But he also said that he's not worried about Creighton either. He's he's ready to see LOI will take on Auburn. And then Austin's telling me that it's not going to be over tomorrow. You guys, I'm believing in the power positivity and I'm hoping that you're right. But we got

to get to a quick break. We'll come back on the other side rep that. Well, we've got two more segments left and a lot more to get into. We'll talk about tonight's games and a little bit more about just the overall first and second round, because you know it starts tomorrow and when we when we get on the air, it'll be in full swing. Keep a lot right here. It's coffee and company. Feel about Thorton's on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Michigan State and Florida. But some notable upsets that I have. I do have Drake beating Missouri, and I also have Mayrill. No, never mind, I have let's see. Well, I'm looking at it now and I want to change it.

and Saint John's. So yeah, very chalky one through four, and I've got Florida getting past Saint John's. But when it comes to the South, I do have Louisville. You know, again, this is clearly me being a homer here. I have Louisville, and in the Sweet sixteen, getting past Auburn and then knocking off Dusty May in Michigan, only to then fall short to Michigan State, who I have winning the South region. Some other upsets, this time from the South. I have

New Mexico beating Marquette. I think Richard Battino being able to utilize his old man's expertise when it comes to playing Marquette. Clearly, Saint John's and Marquette met a few times, and I just think New Mexico's a really good team and Marquette has kind of fallen a little bit. And I just don't know how great the Big East is. I was tempted to take Kansas by the way to beat Saint John's in the second round, but one Kansas, I just can't give them the benefit of the doubt.

They really did not have a good year, especially for their standard, and they should be a lot better. And I think that weighs on you when you get to March, you know that you were very underwhelming. And Rick Patino, I mean, getting the Sweet sixteen is something he's pretty good at, and I just I'm trusting Rick in that one. And then I have and this is not acc HOMERSM. I have Carolina beating Iowa State after they beat ole

Miss to get to the Sweet sixteen. I just think Carolina has always had the pieces, and they're playing with more confidence than ever. And I don't think ole Miss is as good. I mean, ole Miss is a team that I think one enough games in the SEC to get a six seed because they're tough and they're really well coached. I don't know how talented they are overall. And then I have Yale beating Texas A and M.

So there you go. I'll get to the East and the Midwest before we get out of here, because I know you guys just been dying to hear how my bracket I was. I was waiting for it, honestly. So far, very very underwhelming. As far as surprises, I've got you know, one and two on the left side, as far as the final four, and then the real upsets that I have, you know, include Louisville. Of course not the only one, but the only deep upsets are are Louisville. And again

it's wishful thinking on my end. All right, Babo, twobove seven one seventy nine hundred is the number if you want to give us a call. You can jump in on the phone line. So let's welcome in JP. How we doing JP?

I mean Chucky. I guess they kept Chucky Hepburn from getting the ball. But watching uh Terrence Edwards Junior try to dribble out of those presses.

them to cough it up at all times. I mean, I think Chucky, you know, credit the defenders for doing a good job at keeping him from getting the ball, But I think if he can get the ball, I'm not as worried. But even Chucky, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of repetition this year where he was being pressed full court because you don't really see that a lot in college basketball, and Chuckie Eburn's the kind of guy that'll make you pay if you do that.

You know, if it's just you're just trying to speed him up, Chucky wants you to speed him up, because then he gets change of pace, he can get you on his hip, he can draw a foul. I mean, he's really good in that spot. And he's somebody that really, no matter how goo you are as a defender, he's not gonna be easy for you to defend. So if Chucking can get the ball, I'm not as worried. But Chuck, he did have some turnovers that, like, you just don't know how the hell that happened. I mean, chalk it

up to mistakes. Mistakes happened, fatigue set in. Maybe that leads to you making a decision you typically wouldn't make. But you know, when Chucky got the ball and just had it ripped away from him, and then he fouled the Clemson defender and then they scored the next play I think it was, or maybe maybe they had just scored either way, like that was a disaster scenario. And then Terrence. Terrence is a good enough ball handler to operate in the half court and he can clearly help

you when it comes to breaking the press. But he's somebody that I think if he gets sped up and he picks up his dribble and the double team comes. You know, he might be playing hop potitto, just wanting to get rid of it, and that's what happened. That's how he turned it over. So I would say, you know, he's big enough though to where if he does pick up his dribble and he gets trapped, just call a time out or you know, I mean, you're better off

at getting a five count. Then you are just lobbing it across the field the court, not knowing who's over there. And they did that a couple of times. So long story short, they're not from a personnel standpoint, I think great if Korin Johnson was here, he would absolutely help

you in that regard. Not to say that like you wouldn't be able to turn Louisville over in the half court, but like he's a dynamic guard that that is really really shifty, he's quick, he's got a really good handle, and he would like he would make you quickly realize we probably are not gonna we probably shouldn't stay in

this full court press. So I think teams doing that to Louisville, like right out of the gate, I just don't think it's it would be wise for them to do that because if Creighton does that that's gonna speed the game up. And not to say they can't play, you know, and pick their spots when it comes to up tempo, because they can, but they can't. But like

their bigs aren't running with Louisville. Like as good as Ryan Coulbriner is, he's not gonna be enjoying a game that is played at like a really fast pace because he's gonna tire out and he's just not as effective whenever he's running like that. That's where that's how a seven foot plus guy he's seven to one. I think that's how a guy that tall starts missing shots around the rim that you feel like anybody his size could

make because his legs aren't where they are. He's not you know, he doesn't have his footing because he's sped up. And also is as much as Pat Kelsey's praising their point guard, which again he deserves praise. Steven Ash was a good player, I mean nineteen I'm sorry, sixteen points, six point eight assists per game. He's a good player. But he also, you know, turns the ball over like crazy, averages about four a game. So if the game is

sped up, that favors Louisville. So I just think the scenario where they're gonna want to try to do that to expose a louis of a weakness that really really became visible in the ACC Tournament. I just don't think that would be wise for them. But what you do worry about is, all right, you're up eight, you're up six, four minutes left. Then they got to turn it on. Are you gonna are you gonna crab your pants? And

I mean this group shouldn't do that. I don't feel like it should be like an expectation because they don't have anybody that can help break a press. But you just had I think a I mean, it was really a perfect storm of Louisville errors for Clemson and even even Stanford to get back in the game in the ACC Tournament. Not excusing it, but I think one or

two of those things happening collectively in both games. You know that that even that'll put you in a tough spot to where you feel like, all right, we can't, we can't, we can't. You know, we can't blow this. But the way in which it all kind of crumbled

in those games again, it could happen again. I hope it doesn't, but I would just I would trust that Chucky Hepburn would be able to, Like, if you're gonna try to press Louisville with Creighton's personnel, I just I think even even given what we saw against Clemson and Stanford, I still think Louisville would be able to more so take advantage of that than than you know, give the game away. But again, I'm with you, JP. I was.

I was stressed as anybody because I mean, I keep thinking of the Clemson game where they they let them get back in it late, and it just seemed unreal that the game was that close down the stretch. But also you know, they had an eight point lead against Stanford that disappeared instantly and you needed the Chucky buzzer beater to get past them. All right, quick break, we'll

come back on the other side, try to. I want to try to give us as much time as possible in our last segment here before we wrap it up, So stick around. We'll finish strong, taking you up till six o'clock. It's coffee and company, and we are fuel about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

we're here meeting. You win and you get an awesome feeling and you survive, you advance, but you lose and it's all over, and that's just, you know, it's an unfamiliar feeling. It's been a while since we've been there. All right, let's talk about the Little Men's Clinic really quickly. Imagine how bad I would be if I didn't have my testosterone levels corrected. I mean, could be even worse.

But my levels are where they need to be because I was smart enough to realize, hey, they may be talking about someone like myself when it comes to not even realizing what it is and how it could affect you.

And that was me, you know, I thought at my mid thirties that maybe it was just okay, this is life now, but it you know, it didn't really make a whole lot of sense, right, Like, yeah, I'm getting older, but I don't know why I'm developing more you know, more belly fat, more you know, man boobs, Like I'm not getting the same the same results from my workout. I'm lethargic after work and wanted to laying, you know, go to bed at seven o'clock because I'm just like

a slug. And it did make a lot of sense. So finally I realized, Okay, all these symptoms that apparently are caused by low tie, maybe that's me. Oh you're telling me that it's not something that only happens, you know, to dudes that are, you know, in their sixties. So went over to see doctor Wood. He educated me on really how common it is and how it all works, and they checked my levels and I didn't know what to expect, but sure enough they were not where they

needed to be. But now after a year over a year now actually of getting that treated at the little Men's Clinic. I'm I'm a brand new man and life's never been better. So again they can help you, two fellas. Littlemen's Clinic dot com is the website BABO two four four four four thousand if you want to give him a call and tell them I sent you. All right, So I have the other the other side of the bracket complete in the uh in the East, another one

seed for me. I've got Duke getting past number two Alabama, and I look, we'll see. I'm sure there's gonna be upsets to the ones, because it happens, but I do believe this year the ones in the two who have really created some separation when it comes to everybody else. I think ones in twos are kind of in a league by themselves. I think threes through fives are are also kind of, you know, in their own tier behind

the ones in twos with some separation. And then six through nine I think you're, you know, actually really six through six through eleven, to be honest, could be you know, kind of in the same group as well, So you know, I don't. I mean, I'm a lot of times one seeds do make it to the final four, so it's not like I'm crazy here, but I just think Duke's playing that well, and I think Cooper Flag is going to be back. And you know, maybe this is some acc biased on my part, but I have Duke getting

past Baylor and then getting past Arizona. So it's really chalky there. But I have an upset in the five to twelve. I have Liberty taken out Oregon. Oh, and I also have this is my biggest this is my biggest upset of the tournament as far as like my Cinderella sleeper, if you will. I have VCU beating BYU and then VCU beating Wisconsin. So I have Alabama getting past Wisconsin in the sweet sixteen. Oh, so we'll see. I don't know, you know, I have Montana beating Wisconsin. Okay, yeah,

so I think the Big Ten good league. But like I I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, use my memory here and remind myself that that the Big Ten has not really done well in the tournament in quite some time. Like Perdue, I thought about having them lose early, but

I just I couldn't do it. I just don't think that hot Point's gonna be able to get him, and I think Purdue will avoid the early upset this year just because I think the strength of their team is guard played with Braden Smith, and I think you can become this may sound crazy, I think you become a little more vulnerable whenever everything is so dependent upon a giant named Zach Edie, who's a tough guy to stop. But you know, when they focus so much on him

and you limit him, they're vulnerable. And I just think this year Purdue they're not gonna get there, won't get got by a lower level team, but their ceilings not as high. So I think I have McNee State beating Clemson, so Will Wade will move on past Clemson, and then I've got Purdue taken out McNee State, and then Houston beating Purdue, and then I have I have Kentucky beating Illinois, and then I have Tennessee beating Utah State. Noticed the upset there. I have Utah State beating Ucla and then

Kentucky and Tennessee. Round three. I'm taking Tennessee just because, to give you the old cliche, it's tough to beat a team three times. You know Tennessee is a good team, but you know, if Kentucky's in that matchup. They got to feel good. They're playing a team that they've already beat twice in order to get to the to the to the Elite eight. So I've got Houston taken out Tennessee. So again, my my final four is Michigan State, Florida Duke,

and Houston. And I actually have Florida beating Houston in the National championship game. Wow, what do you? What do you? What are you rolling with?

where Kentucky's vulnerable. I just again, I think Kentucky. I don't know I'm gonna keep it that way for the bracket, but it wouldn't shock me because again, I just think the Kentucky team that deserved the three seed, just unfortunately for them, is not the same team as they were because of the injuries that they they had and the valuable wins that got them there. They got credit for them,

as they should. But those wins. You know, you didn't beat Duke two weeks ago, right, you beat them four months ago, I think.