March Madness 2024 - What You Need To Know

Welcome to this week's episode of the Sports Curious podcast. I'm your host, Amy Buchan Siegfried, and I am joined by Mr. Basketball himself, Scott Scott. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. It's an honor. This is March. We've got March Madness. So we're excited. I'm excited. I mean, there's nothing like this time of year and be purely because you're getting great basketball for almost, I wouldn't say 24 hours a day, but for 12 hours for four days straight. And it's incredible.

Yeah, other than the Superbowl, I think this is the most exciting time of year and we get basically three weeks of the Superbowl. This is a true statement. This is a true statement. For those who don't know, March Madness is a single elimination tournament, both men's and women's, and that's what makes it so exciting. Single elimination means, right, you have a bad game or you have a great game, you're in or you're out. Like there's no opportunities for a series. We're not drawing this out.

This is play your heart out, and if you don't, you're not moving on to the next round.

And unlike, you know, baseball or basketball, which are seven game series, one game, one bad game, you're done. Right. So a little more semantics for those who are newish to March Madness. You know, what we really want to do here is provide you with conversation starters. There's no need for you to spout off names of these athletes that we're talking about.

It's really just taking in the concept of what we're talking about and utilizing that in conversations because everyone is filling out a bracket. And that is something huge, obviously. So the one thing we want to note up in the beginning is the difference between the men's and women's games. They're essentially the same. But the men's game has two 20 -minute halves, so they play two halves, whereas the women have four 10 -minute quarters. There's no difference time -wise.

There's no competitive advantage, really. So it's just the way they broke it up. And there's a lot of, it really doesn't make sense why the men play two 20 minute halves in high school. They play four, four quarters. And then in the NBA, they play four quarters as well. So really there's no reason for the men's to be two 20 minute halves, but it is.

Can you do math? Not really. So let's start us off with what everyone's really curious about is picking a bracket. I mean, that is something you're doing, whether you're five, maybe, or you're 55. Everyone's picking brackets. Everyone's talking about it. There has been no such thing as a perfect bracket. Warren Buffett has run that competition amongst his employees for years that if you win, you get a perfect bracket, you win a million dollars.

And the chances of that happening are 1 in 9 .2 quintillion. Didn't know that was even a number, but that's the chances you have. You have a better chance of flipping a coin at every game you get to. That improves your odds a little bit. But talk to us about, we're not going to have a perfect bracket, but how might we have a decent bracket? perfect bracket does not exist and it will never exist.

Last year we saw a number one seed lose to a 16 seed, which is lowest seed for only the second time in history, which everyone automatically picks top number one seeds first round. So that blew everyone's bracket up immediately. So I would still pick the number ones in the first round this year. A lot of upsets that we typically see in the past. would be it's a 12 -5 matchup. So the 12 seed versus the five seed. But last year, the 12 seeds went 0 -4. So that kind of blew the myth.

I don't know if they're going to come back for vengeance this year since they were shut out last year. And one of the more popular picks that I'm seeing right now is the 11 seed to beat the 6 seed. Do you know why? Do you know why? no clue. Three of the 11 seeds actually won their conference tournaments. So they're coming in hot, a lot of momentum. So Oregon, how about, I do, let's run through them.

Oregon kind of had a rough year with injuries, but they got healthy towards the end and won the Pac -12 championship. And so they're 11 seed and South Carolina is a six seed. So a lot of people are picking Oregon. NC State had a rough year, but they actually. made history winning five straight games in the ACC Championship to make the tournament. And if they do win, they have DJ Burns, who was the ACC MVP of the tournament. He's this big man with silky moves, great shot, great personality.

Everyone loves a big man. And they're facing Texas. are these his dance moves or his basketball moves or maybe a little bit of both? it's the big dance. So I mean, basketball and basketball and dance moves. And they're facing Texas Tech is number six seed. And then we've got New Mexico who won the Mountain West championship. And they are, they're actually favored over Clemson despite being the 11th seed. Okay, so if you want to mix up your bracket a little bit, there are some options.

Now, those are typically ways you can mix it up. And I would say another way to do that, if you want to pick by color. So this is not for the women's brackets, but for the men's bracket. Since 2002, with an exception of two teams, every team that has won at all had blue among its primary school colors. So when you think about it that way, there's an option if you go through, pick the teams that are blue. if you don't know what to do with it.

Or pick the mascots if they fight each other, whatever that might be. However you want to pick your bracket, pick it that way.

And honestly, it's probably the best strategy since two of the four number one seeds are blue with UConn in North Carolina. But I think also mascots fighting is also a great way to pick it. I mean, I guess why not, right? Well, and I've fully admitted before, there have been times where it's like, we are so busy this week, I forget to pick my bracket and you can go in and hit auto fill. And I have done that numerous times because I've just run out of time. There's no thought process.

And I've done quite well usually. Last year, I don't think so much, but typically it does pretty well hitting the auto fill button because it's a crap shoot. Typically you have your number one seeds that end up coming to the top. as it gets toward the end of the tournament. But in the middle, you have so many opportunities to gain points by just picking some of these 12 and five, 11 and six teams, whatever that might be.

Yeah, and even the experts end up having no clue and losing a lot of games. So trust your gut. yep. And have fun. I mean, I think a lot of people do a head and a heart bracket, right, where they take their team. So I would take the Notre Dame women. You might take the Arizona men and you put them all the way through the end because that's what your heart tells you. And that's kind of a fun one to do.

But then people do the one where it's like, okay, I'm gonna be cerebral and actually think about this 11 versus a six. And that's not as much fun necessarily. No, it really isn't. And it doesn't necessarily do that well. So we have the women's tournament. So the interesting part about the women's tournament, if you may recall, three years, this is the third year that they're able to use the term March Madness because previously they were not allowed to.

And we had this big blow up, if you remember correctly, about three years ago where they compared the men's weight room to the women's weight room. And it was just absolutely asinine. They were terrible. And the women this year, I could name you five women's college players, but I could not name you one men's college basketball player. And the women are killing it this year. And so let's start with the ladies when it comes to what the tournament looks like from their perspective.

And like you said, in the short amount of time that they've been able to use the March Madness phrase, investing in women has paid off tremendously for the NCAA. It's just blown up since then. So, I mean, they made a good decision to finally let them use it. And this year, I think, like you said, it's going to be probably the best ratings of any tournament in women's history. And should we run down the number one seeds here? let's go through those number one seeds. Absolutely.

Okay, number one overall seed and by far the best team in South Carolina Gamecocks. They've had two undefeated regular seasons and the only loss in the last two seasons is to Caitlin Clark in Iowa in the Final Four.

That's incredible. And then we have Iowa with Caitlin Clark. Obviously, the Caitlin Clark effect is real. We saw their conference tournament sell out. We've seen her games sell out. She's declared for the WNBA draft in April. And so this is our last chance to watch this phenom who has broken records. And from all intents and purposes, what I can tell seems to be a really good human on top of everything else.

But you had a really good point on why we have so many popular women players versus male players. Can you share that with folks? Yeah, and we've had this discussion quite a bit the past few months with the rise of all these female players. It's the fact that they're forced to stay in school based on the WNBA draft rules as to where NBA draft rules only make players go to college for one year. Women have to stay for what is at least three years or until they're 22.

I think they have to be out of eligibility and they have to be 22 and or 22 years old. And so these rules allow them to, you know, establish themselves, build a brand. People get to know them on and off the court. Uh, like Caitlin last year had an incredible March madness run and she was able to build that off up through the off season and into this season. And we've had so many other players like Angel Reese from LSU won the national championship.

Cameron Brink from Stanford, you know, she'll probably be the top three pick. There's so many different women, like you said, that we can name. incredible. So we have South Carolina, we have Iowa, then we have USC in Texas rounding out that women's number one ranked number one spots in the bracket. And USC has quite a superstar in their freshman Juju Watkins. They do.

Juju Watkins is looking like she's going to be the next face of women's basketball for the next two years since she's forced to stay in school until she can get drafted. She's this phenomenal freshman. She's broken multiple scoring records. She put up over 50 points against Stanford, which is, you know, number two seed in the tournament. So she definitely looks like she's going to take the crown from Caitlin and Angel Reese and all these other incredible players.

And then we've got Texas coming out of the big 12. So it's going to be. It'll be fun. It's gonna be a great tournament. And I did wanna say that LSU is the defending champion. They have a number one seed, which don't count them out. You have Angel Reese, you have their head coach, Kim Mulkey, who was known for her flashy outfits on the sidelines. We're talking feathers, we're talking, do you when they were in Vegas and she had a whole slot machine poker situation and sequence happening?

I mean, tune in for Kim's outfits, if anything. Yeah, Kim's outfits, sequins, feathers, dice. I was fortunate enough to go to the game when Alice Yu played in Vegas against Colorado and her sideline apparel was truly incredible to see in person. You know what I'm really impressed by that these women get out there and coach, but they're also typically in like three inch heels. That is really impressive. Those, I would call those like dinner to like car to dinner shoes.

And here they are walking the sidelines coaching in them. Absolutely. Well, and then we have a couple of quick other players we've talked about.

Hannah Hidalgo from Notre Dame who's phenomenal shout out to coach Ivey and her team and then Paige Bueckers We've heard a lot of her of her previously, but haven't seen a lot of her in a while Paige was really a few years ago, she was kind of the first female athlete, female basketball player to break through and sign big deals with companies like Gatorade. And she was really the face of women's basketball.

And then she suffered a few knee injuries that set her back a few years, but she's seemingly healthy and ready to go for UConn and likely make a big run here. Awesome. Let's talk a little bit about the men's side of the tournament.

So the men's start on Thursday, the women's start on Friday, and the number one seeds in the men's tournament, we have UConn who are the defending champions, Purdue who is the team last year that was number one ranked team that lost to a 16th ranked team, Houston and North Carolina. So North Carolina and UConn are blue teams, in case you're picking your brackets as we talk. And so give us a little bit about the men's side.

You know, UConn, like you said, is a defending champion. They just had, they just continued momentum from last year. They've been pretty dominant all year. Seems like far and away the best pick to make the championship and possibly win it. But they do have a pretty tough road. They are the number one overall seed, but the selection committee made their road very, very challenging. So they've got three out of the four teams from the final four last year in their bracket. So it's UConn.

FAU and SDSU, San Diego State are all in the same region. So they'll have to get through those teams as well. And they play. UConn played last year in the championship game.

They did. So I think that would be a sweet 16 matchup if they both win. So it's kind of doing both teams at a service for what they did last year. And UConn gets to play Stetson, who Stetson, this is their first ever March Madness. So that's quite a treat for them. Here you made history making the tournament, and now you have to go play Danny Hurley in the UConn Huskies. So. go Stetson. Where is Stetson? Sounds like it should be something in Texas based on the hats.

You would think that, but it's Florida. So don't. So Florida's, they got a team and I don't know if they can make history, but we'll see. Let's blow up some brackets, but I'm probably gonna pick UConn to go further. So but let's regardless who cares have fun. Let's blow up some brackets Let's do it.

Let's get let's let's get wild Okay, give me two or three players that we should be listening for and watching for on the men's side I mean, one of the biggest ones, biggest figuratively and literally is Zach Edy on Purdue. He's seven foot four. He was a Naismith player of the year last year and he's likely going to win it again this year. And he could have gone to the NBA, but he came back because you mentioned that Purdue lost to a 16 seed last year.

And the only other number one seed to lose to a 16 seed was Virginia. And then the next season they came back and won the national championship. Okay, so maybe so. Maybe Zach and his all seven four of him will carry his team. Yeah, isn't Purdue during the season, don't they have that? I think their band has like a giant drum or something like that. I didn't say that it's football season.

I was just kind of hoping that, you know, maybe we would see the giant drum somewhere along the line, but probably not. if it fits in basketball areas. is probably a true statement. Okay, and there's a Japanese player you've been talking to me about, I believe, right? Oh, as you do. he's at Nebraska. Keisei Keisei Tominaga And the funny thing about that is if Nebraska can win their first ever March Madness game, this guy's going to be an absolute legend.

He's going to be everywhere, all over the highlights because Nebraska is the only Power 5 team to never win a March Madness game. Interesting. So another fun story about Nebraska. This is like one of my favorite karma stories. All I can think about is karma is my boyfriend by Taylor Swift, right? But Texas A &M lured away the Nebraska athletic director, Trev Alberts, to be their athletic director last week.

And now Alberts' Texas team is going to play Nebraska, not only in the first round of the men's tournament, but the women's tournament. So talk about... sense of humor by the selection committee to say, you know what, remember how Trev left? Let's put them together both times. Yeah, it's definitely a diabolical plan by the selection committee. I think Nebraska is going to be pretty fired up to prove him wrong and actually win the game. Well, they have nothing to lose.

I mean, that's kind of like we've talked about before. The 16 seed, some of these teams like Stetson that have never been in the tournament before, they have nothing to lose. So why not come in and fight your way through the Aggies and, you know, prove them wrong? proven wrong. That's exactly what March Madness is all about. Absolutely, lots of chips on the shoulders. Okay, now a story that I love as we wrap up the men's side. Long Beach State. Talk to me about Long Beach State.

this is one of the, one of the greatest March madness storylines we've ever had. Um, last Monday, which would have been before their conference tournament, their coach and the school decided to mutually part ways. So essentially he was fired, but they let him continue coaching and he went on to coach and win their conference tournament, which gained them an entry into March madness. This guy is just playing with house money. And he's still there until they lose essentially.

But I did see somewhere that he's essentially working for free at this point. Because he doesn't really have a conference or doesn't have a contract because he's done. Right now it's a tryout, right? And if unfortunately they were given number two Arizona in the West, but anything can happen. It makes me extremely nervous that this guy doesn't really care. He's just going to wait. Lay his cards on the - It's pretty incredible.

And for those of you who've been to Long Beach, their basketball arena is a pyramid. So you've probably seen it if you've been to Long Beach. You've seen the pyramid basketball stadium. So, you know, it's just a little fun fact for you. So the ratings have been incredible for women's sports, for women's basketball specifically. Not as great for the men, but one thing...

gonna miss this year on TV is Jim Nantz He is the voice of March Madness. He's been the voice of March Madness for 32 years. He's the voice of the Masters, but he's not gonna be on this year. He's done. is the first time in 32 years we won't hear the sweet melodic voice of Jim Nance calling the Final Four. He hung up the tie, he's done, he's gone on to just call the Masters and then you'll see him on every single Capital One commercial, every commercial break. done, Jim Nance.

Yeah, he has a wine. His vineyard is called The Calling. So if you ever need a good gift for a golf friend, it's actually really good wine too. So probably should order some before the Masters. Yep. And kind of golf related, Ian Eagle is taking over for Nance for the final four. So he's got big shoes to fill, but I think he's ready to step up to the plate. Yep. It's a sore. There we go. Thank you.

Now, as I wrap us up, you might have something you wanna follow up on, but I wanna follow and mention this. DraftKings and Pepsi are both doing this essentially zero right bracket challenge.

The less teams you get right, I've never tried to lose a bet, but I'm pretty sure picking. Trying to pick all losers is also going to be equally as impossible So I mean More power to you if you can I think it was the price of $100 ,000. We said I don't know, Grant or so. I mean, it's no million dollars from Warren Buffett, but which means, makes me think it might be easier. That's true. Valid point, valid point. Is there anything you want to leave us with before we sign off? Let's see.

We can talk. Do we have two things we can talk about real quick? Okay, sports betting is going to be massive this year since we have, I think, 39 states that are legalized at this point. that's just legally. That's not the illegal office pools that are happening. Interesting. All right. Yes.

We've got, we had breaking news. I think it was yesterday that Omaha productions, which is Peyton Manning's production company. They're doing a documentary called full court press following the women's tournament. So we have that to look forward to coming out in May. So we've got Iowa Hawkeyes, Caitlin Clark, as we've already discussed senior center, Kamilla Cardosa from South Carolina and UCLA guard, Kiki Rice. be cool. That'll be neat to see what they go through in the mind of a champion.

But it's too bad they're not, obviously, because they need to cover the tournament, that we won't get it in March when we get excited. But we'll give us some little dose of love in May, which is when we typically start to take a nap because we finally come up for air from all the sports that happen in the spring, so before the Olympics. And it's likely they're going to have a champion in this documentary somehow, with Hawkeye's, Gamecocks, and Bruins all highly rated. should be fun.

Well, of course we do have our men's and women's brackets at lastnightsgame .com. Join us, pick them by colors, pick them by mascots. We don't care, we give prizes for the best, we give prizes for the worst bracket. But also we have our March Madness headquarters there right on our homepage, click on that. We have a March Madness guide there that will walk you through everything you need to know, stuff we've talked about today, and stuff additional that we haven't talked about today.

Like the fact that vasectomies go up during March Madness because...

People want to lay on the couch with a bag of ice and watch basketball. But check that out. LastNightsCame .com. Way to wrap it, right? And of course, join us for bracket challenge. And of course, these games, they start on Thursday.

What day is that? The 21st. So enjoy. Thanks.