Mark Titus Talks Brackets and Basketball

How is your weekend? I am feeling like an immigrant trying to come into the States going through Ellis Island. Like you said, I'm tired, broken, hungry, and I feel like the United States needs to take me right now. I put it on the card. You just go to Miami and put it on the card. My wife, she chose all the most expensive restaurants and so you know. But when you go to Miami, nobody goes to Miami to get their lives together. You go there to make bad decisions. And I feel like we did that, so

mission accomplished. And now there's just club music playing in my head. I've never eaten as many meals while I've danced at the same time in my entire Miami is gomra Yeah Bi Relie, I I message you on Instagram. Was like Miley's my favorite place in Miami. I saw you guys tearing it up in there. You know, how does it feel that Tom Brady goes to Florida when the Super Bowl he retires? He un retires, could win a Super Bowl again at years old. But you go to Florida and you feel like you got hit by

a truck and then robbed. I mean, different kind of trip there. Yeah, we had a great time. It was my wife's first trip, you know after having the baby, being away from the baby at all, so we really spared no expense and the best part of the weekend for me. I used to live in Miami, so you know, I run that town. But the yeah, I run that time. But Miami late unregarden this. But my best moment was former Syracuse great and NBA star Ronnie Psychly, who's now

a world famous DJ. Hit me up and he was like a big fan and I want to come see a show. So that made my life because he was my favorite player on my favorite team, coming up, you know, talking about March madness. I was a big fan of those Derek coleman Ronnie Psychly for Washington teams. And so my man, Ronnie Psychle, the Lebanese Tower Baby, who I always thought was Greek when I was a kid, is a fan of my comedy. And that's all I need

in life. I can retire. So shot out. Ronnie Psychly, one of the greatest DJs going right now, lived that lounge at Baby. Okay, that cool, that's a good take the trap he messaged me on the Graham, and it's just it made my It made my life. Man, I remember when DJ's used to message me on the Graham. That'll stop where you get knocked up, you honest. I'm just yeah, Mrs Harlan Rodrigo says high from Miami. By the way, Oh my god. Well, they don't pay us to talk about our weekend. So let's get into some

March madness. I want to remind our listeners that you played a little college hoops yourself at American University. So you're our resident analyst. Okay, sure, sure, I'll be your resident failed walk on. At least we're gonna have on his successful walk on, which is he's like my idol, so it looks great. Yeah, he's a college basketball analyst with Fox Sports. He's the other half of the Titus and Tate podcast. Remember Rann's. A couple of weeks ago the Big U n C tape Frasier, we had him

on the show. He was so great. So I'm glad we're gonna have someone in the know help us break down this year's field of competition. There's a lot to get to here, absolutely, and like you said, Tom Brady's stealing the headlines. I can't believe Pete Davidson and Kim Kardashian's relationship lasted longer than Tom Brady's retirement. But you know, he spent a couple of months at home. Giselle asked him to do a few things. He watched the season

of whatever show they're watching. He was like, I gotta get back out there. But it is all about the tourny, Olivia, so let's talk some college whoops. I am psyched. So yeah, as I was looking at the bracket when it came out on Sunday, I wanted to first look back at last year's tournament. It was the most upsets ever in the Big Dance. And since we are a betting show, I want to remind people anything can happen. Anything can

happen in this next month a week. So I just wanted to recap some of the best upsets from last year. Abilene Christian beating Texas, North Texas beating per Due, one of my favorites. One seed Illinois did not advance to the Sweet sixteen off the prayers of a one year old nun sister, Jean Oral Roberts. They were the first big one of the tournament as a fifteen seed. They beat number two Ohio State in overtime and in terms of bracket busting U c l A making the final

four as an eleven seed that was huge. No one's bracket was safe after that. So it was a great tournament last year. So what does two have in store? Well, I will tell you from a betting perspective that four lower seeds are favorites in this first weekend. Memphis, Michigan, loyal to Chicago in San Francisco. But let's just look at our one seeds, just to go over. Who are some of the early favorite Starting in the South Arizona. I feel like everyone is so hot on Arizona right now.

A lot of people think they have the easy his path. It's the first tournament without Sean Miller thinks to n C double A infractions in an ongoing FBI investigation. So it's very impressive that former Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd won the Pack twelve and is a one seed in his first year at the Helm. They haven't made a final four and twenty one years, so Arizona. A lot of people are excited about Arizona. Yeah. Yeah, then you've got Gonzaga. Of course, top overall seed, reach title games in two

of the past four tourneys. This year, led by two Wooden Award candidates Drew Timmy and the toothpick chet hold Green seven ft one, So they've only lost three times this season. So they're definitely the most balanced, most dominant team in the country. So of course everyone has them as a favorite. Yeah. I Likenzaga. This might be their year. I think they get over the hump this year. And then in the East Baylor they obviously won last year.

They were so dominant. They won all six tournament games last year, but at least nine points, including sixteen point victory in the title game, so I don't know. I don't like them to repeat. I'm curious to ask Mark Titus his opinion. I don't know. I thought they were

better last year. I'm not jazzed about Baylor. They didn't do great in the Big Twelve tournament, so this will be an interesting one, okay, of course, and the tep flawed man who has avoided all controversy, Bills self still standing going for his second national title over in Kansas. So another top contender. Best time of year for a basketball fan. You get to watch teams run plays, play passionately. This is just anything can happen to me. This is

the greatest sporting event in the world. So I'm so excited, all right, But you know who's not so excited. This week we'll move over to m M A little UFC action for our bad beat of the week, Bad beat of the Week, our bad of the week. This was all about UFC. It was our boy Evan from Indiana. He hit nine out of ten fights on his UFC parlay. But it was Chris Matinho who didn't get it done, losing to forty two year old Guido Connetti. You never

bet against Guido. The kids. Tough. He's still fighting like he's twenty. He's the Tom Brady of the UFC. What a tough break for Evan in Indiana. You lost on your parlay, but you did win our bad beat of the week. So we're hooking you up with a hundred bucks and bet MGM site credit to help ease that pain from that submission that you experienced in your UFC betting extravaganza. So hope that eases the pain a little bit. Evan,

better luck next time, baby. So now as we are getting into March Madness, that MGM is gonna have promos throughout and Peter Andrew at the end of the show he'll talk more about that. But the big one, you guys, that starts right now I've got to tell you about. I want to remind you. Bet MGM gets you ready from March matchups with a special welcome offer to the tournament. All you have to do is register for bet MGM, make your first deposit, and place a ten dollar money

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in Mississippi or Nevada. Rewards issued as non withdrawbal free bets or site credit free bets expire seven days from being issued. Please gamble responsibly. If you have a gambling problem, call gambler. All right now, before we get to our guests, the Great Mark Titus, it's time for me and Olivia to hit on a topic in the world of sports we both feel passionately about this week. That's right, it's

time to woo. Okay, you spoke about the forty two year old Guido, And that's where I want to take this. Tom Brady is officially back, and he's gonna be forty five. And the Bucks went from twenty five to one to win the Super Bowl down to ten to one. That is the power of Brady brand. He's forty four. Like I said, he turns forty five in August, and he still has something to prove. And it sort of seems like a lot of athletes at the top of their sport have found this fountain of youth while the Lakers

have struggled. Lebron James, at thirty seven years old, is battling Joel Embiid and Jana Satakumpo for the league lead in scoring. He's averaging almost thirty a game. This past week he had two fifty point games. That's crazy. Now he deserves better, I think, than this Lakers squad. He shouldn't have to be scoring fifty at his old senile age. But he's already made it clear. He wants to keep playing so he can make history. He wants to have the scoring record. He wants to play with his son

in the NBA. Then there's Christiano Ronaldo, thirty seven years old, which is above the soccer average. I believe it's low thirties. And he scored a hat trick this week for Manchester United, which set him as the Premier League's all time leading score with eight hundred seven goals. That's nuts. He is at the peak of his game. And I'm atly invested because I'm watching his girlfriend's documentary on Netflix right now. Say Georgina, Oh, it's so good. Honest, it's such a

binge worthy show. She's amazing anyway, So I'm a big soccer fan right now. And yeah, the average soccer retirement age is thirty five, so he's just a couple of years over, but he's still he's playing better than ever. And then onto another show that I'm binging on Netflix. Can you tell have a lot of time on my hands? Is the Formula One Show? And Lewis Hamilton's is now so fun to watch. He's also thirty seven, when a

lot of these guys are in their young twenties. I mean, it's it's just so cool to watch, you know, Like, honest, how old are you? Um? How old? My look? I'm Tom Brady's age. Let's just say that I'm Tom Brady's age, Are you really you're you guys have the same age or the same age, and it makes me feel good to watch a guy doing it. Yes see, this is this goes out to all you older fellas us old are are geriatric? Daddy's cause geriatrical? Uh you know, I'm

saying this all with love and I'm joking. And it's always funny anytime a player is in their upper thirties. Even announcers on the broadcast crew always act like he's coming out in a wheelchair and just doing the damn thing. But my point is that I love seeing all these players and all these different sports competing at their peak and competing against guys and their young twenties who think they've got it all figured out. And a big part of it is technology and recovery and all the things

at their disposal. But man, is it fun to watch and Tom Brady coming out of retirement to play at forty five years old in August. It's pretty cool. So I had to give this topic it's moment, absolutely, and to piggyback off this amazing unleash, let's give a shout out to Nadal and Federer. Federer still hasn't retired Nate dal at thirty five or thirty six, I believe, which is ancient for tennis playing his best right now. Of course the joker being out because he's unvaccinated has helped that.

But this is one of the best starts to a season any players ever had. He's seventeen and oh he wonted Melbourne, he won um in Acapulco, and he looks like he may be on pace to win his third tournament of the year already at Indian Wells. So unbelievable that these old heads are representing for the old school. Let's do it. I support everyone over thirty five. You're my People's keep it up, guys, you're making us look good. Sugar,

Daddy's unite. All right. It's all Brady Brady stealing headlights again. So I want to unleash on Brady, But not so much about him specifically, but about a tweet that I saw go viral this last week. I don't know if you saw it or not, but it wasn't from a football insider or or an expert. It was actually from John Cooper, the former National Finance chair for Biden in two thousand and sixteen, So the tweet ended up having

like ten thousand, fifteen thousand retweets something like that. And what the tweet was was basically saying Tom Brady is back. Who else wishes the NFL would welcome back Colin Kaepernick instead? And then he put a little handwave emoji. He looks a little too old to be putting emojis up there, but he did it all right. Like I said, John Kieber isn't an NFL executive, he's not a former player, he's not a commentator. But you know, this was something

that people started tweeting about. Colin Kaepernick obviously has been training getting ready every year. It's a thing. Should he deserve a spot? Yeah, maybe he does deserve a spot, But this has nothing to do with Tom Brady coming back. Okay, it's not a mutually exclusive deal where it's one or the other. Like you said, Tom Brady is playing m VP level football at the age of forty five. God bless him. Colin Kaepernick as great it as he's been

for the causes that we all support, etcetera. His football play came into question, you know, while he was still playing, I mean every year since that Super Bowl appearance, his numbers got worse and worse and worse, too horrible by the time he was released. So does he deserve a spot Maybe, but that maybe is based on his play to make this political I feel like was a really low move. You know, it's just at a time where

hopefully we're trying to find common ground. I thought it was a real cheap, cheap maneuver to try to pull Brady and Kaepernick into this like political divide by making Brady this sort of Trump guy and Colin Kaepernick this sort of left wing guy. Their football players. Obviously, Kaepernick is very outspoken about his causes, but you know, if you're talking football, sometimes they intersect. But this was not one of those moments, and it was a real bummer.

It was a real bummer, Mr Cooper. So why don't you just stick to what you know, which is stealing money and raising money for political candidates. Because I'm sure your whole life has been on the up and up considering your job description, So just please stay out of football, leave football out of this. Just can we just please, can we get a break from politics? I mean football, Just can we just have a break. Just let let the kid play he's forty five, all right, he's he's

drinking in shore already. So just just celebrate the guy for his football achievements and leave whoever he's friends with in politics out of it. Five seconds, that's all. I don't know how his adult diaper is gonna look under those tight football pants, but we're gonna have to find out. Now. That was really good. Another another word that sticks out to me in that tweet is deserves. I mean, no one's getting a job in the NFL because of what

they deserve. You're telling me that there aren't guys who have deserved it and played really hard, to practice really hard and did it. Come on, Yeah, I love it. Friend. Let's get of hoops and bring on Mark Titus. Al Right, our guest today was a basketball walk on who actually made it unlike me, at the Ohio State University, where he helped lead the Buckeyes to a Final four in

his freshman year. And by help lead, I mean he kept the team loose by telling jokes and having great energy on the bench, which was my dream that I couldn't fulfill. Not only did he manage to become a school legend, he's also the co host of the Tightest and Tate podcast from Fox Sports. Mark Titus is here. Welcome a living legend. All of us potential walk ons look up to you. You made it. I tried to walk on at the American University. It didn't happen. What

was your key to success? I think you hit the nail on the head. Was I I knew how to tell the right jokes I guess at the right time. Also, let's let's not discount the one rebound I had and that two thousand seven and a tournament. I think that kind of changed the course of our season when I came in against Central Connecticut State in the one sixteen game and uh emphatically pulled down a garbage time rebound. You know, I think I think that was the difference.

I think Coach Model went back and looked at the tape and was like, I didn't realize Titus had that in his game and he kept me around for three more years. So I think it was that did you ask for the basketball? Did you want the basketball? Yeah? I should I should have. Can you imagine that that heat check of like the walkout going up to the ref and then tournament, like, can I have that that's a Oh my god, that is rich. As we mentioned now, we had Take Fraser on a couple of weeks ago.

He was awesome, you are his better half. Thank you on the podcast. I love listening to y'all. And you've had such extensive coverage of conference tournaments and now the nc Double A Tournament. I'm curious, what do you take away from conference tournaments because it seems to not really matter in the seating. Yeah, it definitely doesn't matter in the seating. Uh. It also you can talk yourself in circles as too. I mean we had a great example

of this last season. There there were two two very obvious conference tournament results in terms of like teams that just got hot for their conference tournaments. And you have Oregon State in the Pact twelve that I'm talking about last year who won there, who kind of came out of nowhere to win their conference tournament getting an NSTA tournament, and Georgetown did the same in the Big East. And

you're going into the NTA Tournament. You're saying, all right, both of these teams are are not that great, but they're hot right now. So I wonder what's going to happen in State tournament and Georgetown's case they got blown out in the first round, and in Oregon States case they went to the lead eight. So I guess, like what I'm saying is I have no idea what they tell us. You can look. I mean there's the one stat about like teams that don't make their semifinals have

never won the national titles. I think that's interesting. That tells me something. So I think, like a team like Illinois losing to Indiana and the first that that that gives me pause. But you know it's it's you see teams that need the rest and they lose early and like sometimes it helps them out to not have to play four games in four days or whatever leading into the tournament, and other teams you know, are hot and they write it. So I I that that's the joy

of March. It sucks for a guy like me who's supposed to have answers, and you guys have me on your show and you're like, makes sense of the madness for us, But for for the neutral fan it's it's it's what makes the sports so great is because you can talk yourself into million different outcomes looking at this stuff. Do you use ken palm at all. Are you familiar with kempalm? Yeah? Are you familiar with it? Yeah? Yeah,

I used uh yeah, I used kempalm. But um, it's it's the same sort of thing is like they're so it's it's almost paralysed by analysis. You look at all these numbers and try to make sense of the thing that kills me too is like I just said it, I said, no team has lost in the semifinals or their conference tournament, and we use that as a data point. So as we look forward, these things definitely are gonna happen.

Cross these teams off. When you look at like the last few national title we've had, we had Baylor won a national championship. They had never won a national championship. In fact, before they had won the national championship. Like the knock on, Scott drews like he couldn't get it done and might like he never goes to final four's, he always has like good teams he can, he always chokes.

The year before, well, there wasn't a term with you before, but the champion before that was Tony Bennett at Virginia who had just lost to a sixteen seed who like if you asked anybody on the street who knew Tony Bennett, they would bring up the singer first of all, probably, but then if you asked him about the coach, they would be like, yeah, that that's the guy that chokes in March, and he won a national title. And he won a national title against Texas Tech and beating Auburn

in the final four. And I guess like we're at an air in college basketball where it feels like a lot of first are happening, and yet we go into March and we like look at like ken palms and we look at patterns and we say, like, the last twenty five national title teams have all had this on Kim Pom and that on Kim Bom and that, and then there always seems to be like one team that

you know, that that breaks through and does something. And then instead of going okay, so maybe these formulas don't really tell us much, we then just go into next year and we're like, okay, so now let's change the formula, and now this is the formula we're going with. So right, no, absolutely, and you mentioned Baylor. They won for the first time last year, but there's always talk about a defending champion curse, which I just think, yeah, points out that it's really

hard to win twice. Does this fate befall Baylor as now we look at their path to the championship. Yeah, I think Baylor's problems is more their problem is more injuries, I'd say, than than having the target on their back, because I I really did love this Baylor team, but Baylor has been an incomplete product all season. We've been waiting to see what their complete team looks like, and unfortunately just don't think we're ever gonna actually see that.

But yeah, it's tough to win back to back. It's it's very very tough. I do think there's there is part of that target on your back mentality, and a lot of the guys like it was funny as a lot of the guys on Baylor this year weren't even on the team last year, so they just kind of inherit that, you know, pressure that comes with being the

defending champion. But no, if you're asking me, do I do I think Baylor will win the national tie, I do not, But it has like Baylor's there obviously one seed the've They've had a great season, they're a great team. But I think even Baylor fans are scratching their head about like what this team could have been with L J. Cryer looks like he's out for the tournament, and Jonathan Chamwachachua has been out for the year for a little while now, and they they've had a bunch of other

guys banged up throughout the season. So it's it's more for me this Baylor team, it's more of a testament that they got a one seed. That's almost like the impressive part than anything that happens in the tournament run now. So I think they're just kind of playing with house money at this point. Certainly as a program. Once you want a national title, I think you get like a five year grace period to do anything in the tournament. I think that's how it works. Well, how early are

we talking for them to fall? I know Tate is looking at that one eight North Carolina meeting potentially this weekend, then U C l A potentially after that. Like, how early do you think they fall? I I'm Baylor to me is definitely And again I say this with the utmost respect to Bailor's program. I I this has nothing to do with the talent they have on that team

because they are absolutely loaded from a talent perspective. Has to do more with uh just like they've been piecing together their team, They've been patching it together throughout the entire season. Um, so I do think they're the most susceptible one seed to lose in the first weekend. Now having said that, North Carolina is I I have been forced to watch a lot of North Carolina basketball this year because my co host is A is a proud maybe not so proud at times, Carolina. Alum, they are

all over the place. Carolina is uh Carolina to me like they match up well with Baylor in the second round. But it always works this way somehow. That like anytime you start getting excited about an eight seed that can knock off the one seed, the e C blows it against the nine seed and Marquette will beat Carolina because Carolina is looking ahead and Taylor. So no, I think Baylor. I would be very, very surprised that Baylor makes it the Final four, certainly, which is as a one seed.

Usually don't say that about one seed. I would be very surprised. I mean U C L A and the Sweet sixteen or st Mary's in the Sweet sixteen. I think the sweet six team matchup for Baylor is gonna be tough. I Baylor is just gonna have a tough path the entire way through. But that's nothing new for Baylor. So we'll see about a couple of teams that play like incredible defense, like Arkansas or Indiana. What are their chances? Yeah,

I certainly like Arkansas's chances better. But Arkansas's first round match against Vermont is to me like the game to watch in the first round. I think that's gonna be And Arkansas fans are killing me for saying that, because they anytime you like one team, that means you are saying you don't like the other team. And I really like the Vermont team. I think Vermont is like the absolute perfect team for the n c A tournament. Did the perfect double digit seed. I think like the way

they're built. They start five seniors, they take care of the ball, They are not super athletic, they're not super big. But when you like our our engineering a team to to have success against the power conference team and then say tournament, the results you build looks a lot like this Vermont team. But yeah, Arkansas plays great defense. J D. Note is uh, I believe in the combination of of

great defense and great guard play. And J. D. Note is a guy that for Arkansas that they all year they just kind of throw the ball to him and say we need your help, go get us a bucket, and he'll go do it. I think Arkansas is certainly more so than Indiana, more so than like l s US another team that plays great defense and kind of suspect offense. Trying to Texas Tech is interesting. I mean, Texas Tech is one of those teams that plays great defense,

the offense can look a little rocky. I think they can ride that pretty far in the n c A Tournament this year. But Arkansas will be my pick of those great defensive teams. It's just that first round game. If if Arkansas can beate Vermont, they can go far. But Vermont scares me. Vermont really really does scare of me. For Arkansas. Is JD Note one of your Kemba candidates? And can you explain your audience what a Kimba candidate

has to include? So the Kimba candidate is that in two thousand eleven Kimba Walker carried can I mean everyone who watches college basketball, remembers that that Yukon was. I believe they were like the ninth seed and the Big East Tournament. They have the most ridiculous Big East Tournament run.

They then go on to win the n c A Championship, and the way they did it was they played great team defense and basically Kemba Walker was like, I'll take care of the entire offense and you guys, don't worry about this. I'll make it. I'll do everything myself. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.

Ever since then, I've I've been obsessed with the formula because three years later you kind kind of did it again with Shabazz Napier, this time as their their guy who was like, I'll go score everything and we'll just play defense. So I'm obsessed with that idea of like a team that just plays great team defense. Maybe their offense isn't great, but they have like one guard who you can just give the ball to and say, just please do something for us. J D Note is like

at the top of my list. I think of that because Arkansas is a great defensive team and if you've watched this guy all season, he shot them out of a couple of games. There's a couple of times where he was feeling himself a little too much. But that's what march is about, is like the spotlight gets turned up and and and guys, uh you know, sink or swim and and you find out who these guys are that that can rise to the occasion. And J. D.

Note is certainly one of those guys. So I really hate Arkansas's draw, though I really wish they weren't playing Vermont because I like it Romt too. So what about Yale? Finally? You know, I mean, will an IVY League school ever make it to the Final four or win it? Or will it just be the closest that they get? Is

a great team using the Princeton offense. And second part of the question, do you think there should be a Revenge of the Revenge of the Nerds movie sequel where a team wins it against a team of football players. I think the move here's the move for the IVY League teams is you gotta like we're in this name image likeness area and everyone's talking about how the Kentucky's and Kansas is and North Carolinas of the world are going to beat everybody because they're the big basketball programs.

I think the move is, you get these IVY League teams. I mean, they're the ones with the billion dollar donors and stuff. You know, you gotta get you gotta get your billionaires of the IVY leagues to care about this and and get them to set up name image, likeness steals and so instead of like offering these high school guys like car dealership situations, you're offering them just like straight cash from like you know, hedge funds and stuff. Said that, Yeah, give him big horn. I think that's

the formula. Yeah, is Yelle going to go to the Final four? I would say that is highly unlikely. I do not think. I don't love Yale's matchup with Purdue produced a team that, uh has been up and down all season. So I guess you could. You could catch Perdue on a down swing, but Perdue, Perdue, Perdue got upset last year and they brought a lot of those guys back. And I don't think perdu is gonna overlook you in the first round like they did with North

Texas last year. So I don't think it's gonna happen. You honest I'm sorry to say that, but maybe they need to build a robot, a robot player, you know, just have a robot. Yeah, college basketball parody is as it continues to we're seeing more and more like like this tournament is going to be insane. This is uh. If you followed the sport all season, like last year, Gonzag and Baylor were head and shoulders better than everybody else.

You know, there was a chance one of them could get upset, but the tournament really wasn't going to start. Like I don't think I was really going to get that excited about the madness going on until Gonzagger Baylor lost, and maybe both Like if both of them lost, I've been like, oh my god, we have a tournament now. So the fact that they met in the title game, it wasn't a surprised last year to anybody this year. I mean, if if you if you told me like all the one seeds lost in the first weekend, I

would be a little surprised. I wouldn't be stunned, you know, like I would like last year, I would have been stunned. This year, that's not the case, and there there are obvious flaws to every single one of these teams that that miss that's what's gonna make it fun. But to bring it back to the IVY League, I think like that's going to continue every step of the way of moving forward each year. And I don't know that there's a path the IVY League could could figure it out.

Why not some of these smaller schools have figured out of Loyal in Chicago configure it out. I can't one of these IVY League schools figured out. Yeah, seriously, speaking of Loyal Chicago, they faced zero Ohio State buck Eyes in the first meeting and they're dangerous. But as I've heard you point out on your own podcast, this isn't the team of last year. They've lost talent, but good

defense and in a great Nune and close. So what do you think in that first media Yeah, sister, I'm more scared about Sister Jean than anyone on the oilist teams. Sister Meme to that's kind of shady, sister, sister Meme, because we can, we can so somehow Ohio State. It has been frustrating to watch this Ohio State team and they've been up and down. They do not play great defense, but somewhere along the line, the narrative of the Ohio State season got changed, where it was that we were

dealing with injuries and COVID pauses throughout the year. We we got really how we beat Duke in the nonconference season and expectations were sky high in Columbus and then we get hit with like a COVID pause for a few weeks and kind of lose our momentum. So it's been up and down, and then now Ohio State has

no doubt limped into the Inn State Tournament. I will not deny that, but we are with We've been without our two big are are big dudes and z Kei and Kyle Young for like the duration of the end of the season. I think they're both going to be back for this game. And what's what's frustrating to me is that I I have been down on this team and in ways that maybe no it would be surprising for a guy that that is wavy. I'm literally wearing

Ohiose State had in this interview. I very much won o House State to be good and and they've they've bummed me out a lot this year. But the fact that Ohio State is an underdog against the loyalist Chicago team with the first year head coach and round one is insane to me When we have an All American d J Liddell, we have a first round pick in Malachi Brandom. I don't know. The disrespect is through the roof, and I it's a good position for us to be in.

I know a lot of people remember what happened in the tournament last year, which uh, we had guys out for that game too, which no one wants to talk about. That's okay. I don't take loyalist Chicago lightly, but the facted Ohio State is being disrespected to this extent, I actually think it works in our favorite and uh, I'm excited about this first round matchup. But you mentioned all the talent. Two first round picks. They have more length,

more talent, They should on paper win this game. But fifth year for Chris Holtman and he's never advanced past the second round. What do you attribute that too? He always has talent? Olivia your connections cutting out, I can't that wasn't that wasn't very I didn't hear what I'll say this like, do you want to see someone new at the Helm? Do you like Chris Holtman? And and all seriousness. Hold. Uh So hold style of play is is uh, We're very fun to watch on the offensive end.

What we struggle at is defense. We struggle at closing games. And I think the criticism of Hold would be like this. Those those are things that you need an ins a tournament obviously, because on the one and done setting, you you get into a situation like, uh, you know Oral Roberts game last year, or Roberts is just red hot making everything in Ohio State was kind of we're matching or Roberts shot for shock. But at a certain point, as a Buckeye fan, you're like, all right, can we

please get one stop? And we just weren't capable of doing that. So I think that the problem, like the moving forward To answer your question, no, I don't. I don't want anyone else at the helm. I love Chris Holt and we just have to like tweak the machine. It reminds me of the Tony Bennett problems he was having when he first got to Virginia. He was winning

a lot of games. He would get to the n State tournament and he would never really have a plan B. He would they would play great defense when their main a plan fell apart. They never really had a plan B. That's kind of Ohio state right now. We need a plan B. I don't you're putting me in a tough spot, ol of you. You're putting me in a tough spot

because just just don't speak from your heart. I would love for us to figure it out defensively, because I think I think like that that is kind of the problem. Is like every single year we we try to outscore teams and it doesn't always work that way. And it's a tournament. So I don't know if we're gonna be able to figure that out with this team this year. I think it's too late for that, but we'll see. I don't know. I'm sweating so much down. I was

not prepared to answer question. Team you were to seed last year and lost Oral Roberts. I mean we're asking it again. Blocked that out. I've blocked that out. I've pressed it. Know how much therapy I had to go to to get that out of my system, and now you're bringing it back to the surface. All right. You you predicted that the n c a A would take care of coach k They gave two seed. What are you making that what do you think is going to

happen in that part of the bracket. When I saw the selection show and I saw Duke as a two seed, I bout fell out of my chair because like, that is absolutely egregious, and Tennessee was that through Tennessee should have Duke's two seed. But then it's like click that Duke is the two seeing Gonzaga's region, and I think that's kind of perfect. I think that's a good balance to balance it back out and they have a tougher path in Tennessee. Yeah, they do kind of like Tennessee

spot better. I think being in Gonzaga's region for Duke is tough because obviously Gonzaga is the number one overall seed, but that to me, the West is that it's Gonzaga has to win a national title. I mean, like that's what everyone's waiting on. I felt like they had to win it last year. They did not. Obviously, that is the only way this season is a success for Gonzaga.

They could go to the national title game again in losing quadruple over time and it's a failure of the season and that is harsh, but that's the reality we're living in. With Gonzaga basketball. Meanwhile, Duke has to make the Final four. It's coach K's final season. That's all we've heard about all season is that this is his farewell tour. He's got Palo Bankarro might be a number one pick, or we'll certainly go in the top five. They're a loaded team, so one of those has to

like want they both can't happen. Gonzaga can't win the national title and Duke go to the Final Four. So I'm absolutely fascinated to see how that plays out. I think a lot of people are excited about the idea of Michigan State not going off Duke in the second round. I want to caution everybody about that because, like this

Michigan State team is not built for that. Really, like they the way Michigan State beat Duke in twenty nineteen was Cassius Winston was awesome and just like eight, their point guard Alive Tree Jones, Michigan State's point guard is Tyson Walker. He's not exactly Cassius Winston, We'll put it that way. I love the idea of Michigan State beating Duke. I don't see it this year. I think Duke's making it to the sweet sixteen, and then that's when the

fun starts. Maybe they're playing a Texas Tech, maybe they're playing in Alabama, and then they have Gonzaga probably in the lead eight. That's when it gets fun and interesting, and that's when, uh, that's when America should get excited. But I think Duke makes it to the sweet sixteen at least, and then we see what happens. I love hearing Tate talk about that. It's so good. I'm Gonzaga. Let me just ask you, like you said, been so close so many times. If they don't win it this year,

the only constant has been Mark Few. Do you start looking if you're Gonzaga, do you start going, hey, we gotta change coaches. I mean, we can't get over uh. I don't think you do. I think you you stick with the guy that turned your your cow past, your school into a college basketball powerhouse. I think you. I think you stick with that. I think it's best for college basketball. I really do for Gonzaga to not win it.

I think it's like, if Gonzaga goes to the title game again this year, they're not go and they don't win. I think this is great for college basketball because Gonzaga. The moment Gonzaga, I don't think people have really picked up on this. Tate certainly is well aware of this, and we talked about this on our show a lot, but I don't I don't know if the general public has picked up on this. The moment Gonzaga wins a national title, and it might happen this year, they become

the new Duke. They are the new Duke, and in every single way, down to like their tiny private school that like can trace all of their success back to like one coach who turned him from nothing into something, the kind of players they recruit, the way they play, the attitude of their fan base, just on down the line,

they check a lot of the duke boxes. And I think the timing of putting Gonzaga Duke in the same region and coach case final season at a time when Gonzaga has to win a national title, I think it's all a little too perfect. I am cheering for I I have historically loved Gonzaga. Adam Morrison is my favorite college basketball player of all time. I probably cried along with him when he lost to U C. L A

in two thousand and six. I have loved this Gonzaga rise to national prominence and and getting one seeds every year and all that, but I also, deep down don't win Gonzaga to win because the moment Gonzaga starts winning national titles, everybody's gonna hate them. Everybody's gonna good point. Good point. As I'm looking at my bracket, now, what is the most likely one sixteen upset? We don't know all of them were recording this Tuesday. We don't know

who all the ones either they're playing. But if you had to pull one out of that bag right now, all right, I believe that Arizona is the best team in the country, even though Gonzaga is the number one overall seed. I thought Arizona is the best team. They're the most fun team for me to watch all season. So this has nothing to do with how good I think Arizona is. But the Right State Bryant game, which is the sixteen playing game, which I think is on Wednesday.

I think that's the Wednesday sixteen playing game. Brian is a team that if anyone watched the Northeast Conference championship against Wagner. They're led by this guy named Peter Kiss who wears a Kiss T shirt to warm up. His last name is Kiss. He sticks his tongue out when he makes good plays. He is absolutely electric, is the only word you can describe him. And Brian as a team plays very high paced basketball, so in Arizona does too.

And if Arizona plays Bryant in the sixteen one game, it is gonna be the most like up and down basketball game you've ever seen in college. It is that they're gonna be a ton of points. Peter Kiss is going to try to score sixty. He's probably gonna take like fifty five shots to do it. I don't actually

think Brian's gonna beat Arizona, but I can. I have never been in my entire life, and I mean this genuinely, I've never been more excited to watch a sixteen one game then if Briant plays Arizona, because I don't necessarily think the upsets gonna happen, but I think it's gonna be an awesome game to watch. I think it's gonna be so fun. Honest, take the over, That's what I'm hearing. Take the over. It really it feels like a game

that like Peter Kiss would score like fifty points. And Briant as a team would have like ninety four and Peter Kisses like popping his jersey and the crowd and pointing at his family and all that, sticking his tongue out, and Bryant lost by thirty four. Didn't realize that like Arizona kick their assid he had no idea because all he knows, he's like I scored fifth year. You see you guys see that? You know I love it. I like a little pageantry and showmanship. Nothing wrong with that,

nothing nothing. Is he the guy you think the big break? Who's is there a player or players you think that now that they're on the national stage will have their coming out party. I mean, like Staff, they were big on their teams, but they were mid majors. But maybe a guy like Dante de Vincenzo who has a talent, just has a monster game and then gets drafted because of it. So the guy like the small school guy.

I don't know about draft. But as far as like stealing America's hard it kind of happened to the Conference USA tournament. This kid Jordan Walker nicknamed Shelley on you ab he is he? Yeah? I think he had a forty point game against Middle Tennessee in the in the Conference USA Tournament. He kind of single handedly carried you a B into the tournament and they go up against Houston in the twelve five game. Houston is is is great defensively, and I'm really worried that they're just gonna

put the clamps on him. But he's a guy that that certainly it's to answer your question, you're honest about a guy that that kind of comes out of nowhere from a small school. I could see him going nuts and even if they lose, it's one of those deals where he, you know, scores thirty something points and is trying to will his team to a victory. That that could be a ton of fun. The serious answer is a guy who has for for people that are like

deep into the weeds in college basketball. Followed it all season. Know this guy, but uh, the general public probably doesn't. David Roddy at Colorado State is a guy that I absolutely love. He's there big dude in the sense he's not he's not a super tall dude, but he's a He's built like a bowling ball and he plays like a bowling ball, and he just grabs every single rebound. He's very skilled. I don't even know who I could

compare him to that. I mean, I guess like he's probably gonna get maybe big baby Charles Barkley type comparisons. He has a ton of a ton of fun, and he's going up against a Michigan team that's gonna draw a lot of eyeballs because Michigan, uh just kind of always does. They're a team that whi Juan Howard is the coach, especially is I think a lot of people

are gonna tune in that is. The very first game on Thursday is gonna be Michigan versus Colorados date and I think the matchup of David Roddy and Hunter Dickinson is going to be fascinating because Hunter Dickinson has never guarded a guy like David Roddy. David Roddy has never guarded a guy like Hunter Dickinson. Is gonna be awesome to watch those guys go up and it's each other.

That's my answer. I think David because I like Colorado State to pull the upset even though Michigan's playing in Indy and kind of got a favorable draw and that and that regard I see Colorado State pulling the ups. They're the sixte in Michigan the eleven. But I think Michigan is actually favoring the game. So there you go. That that's my answer, David Roddy, you don't know the name now, you don't know it by by Thursday afternoon, Yeah, if you don't, you know, we haven't talked a lot

about the Midwest region. Actually, in a couple of days ago, when the bracket first came out, you said, now it's wide, wide open. You've had two days to kind of digest it. What do you make of the Midwest now? So what makes the Midwest interesting to me is Kansas is the one seed, right so they they they Kansas is the one seed every year, and it's hard, I guess if you're casual and to kind of suss out the differences between Kansas teams. What makes the Kansas teams great historically

has been their point guard play. This Kansas team is frankly doesn't really have a point guard. They just kind of like, whoever gets their rebounds seems to bring the ball up the floor unless it's one of their big dudes. David McCormick is their center who Traditionally, again, most Kansas teams play through their center. They don't really do that with McCormick. They are led by oak Boji who plays on the wing. Christian Brown plays on the wing. Jalen

Wilson's are one of their better players. He plays on the wing. They are playing a completely different style than what we've seen from Bill Sell through the years. They don't play great defense and and that gives me a

lot of question marks about Kansas. Meanwhile, Auburn has been great for most of the season, but they're mostly just great at home and if you really like pay attention to to Auburn, like the times we've been really high on Auburn and the big wins they pulled out are usually at home, and they haven't been as great on

the road. So I think that's what that's what makes that region so interesting is at the top you have two teams that are are very obviously flawed to me, and Wisconsin is kind of limped into the their the three seat, they've kind of limped into the n States an him and Johnny Davis's health has been called into question. So I ultimately went with this. I went with Iowa beating Kansas in the sweet sixteen. I like Iowa pulling the upset because Keegan Murray is playing out of his mind.

This Iowa team is they aren't. They haven't been great defensively all year, but they've kind of figured it out and they've they've they're They're a completely different team to me when I watched him right now than I did throughout the year. And I like Auburn to play Iowa and the lead A Still, I still think Auburn is is a team. I'm i They're so good defensively, and Jabari Smith is going to be the number one pick

in the NBA Draft, I think so. I ultimately went with Auburn, Ohiowa to answer your question, that's where I landed on. I don't feel great about it because, as I said, all of these teams have obvious flaws, and

I think that's gonna be the most fun. If if I'm picking one region where chaos happens, I would probably circle the Midwest as far as like, I don't know, a South Dakota state going on a run as a third team seed, you know, or like Miami or USC maybe they beat Auburn in the second round and they kind of go to the lead aid. I don't know, but the Midwest to me is where it was where I'm forecasting the most chaos for sure. That's definitely where I have the most question marks on my bracket, Like

USC Miami, that's a coin flip for me. I don't know some of these, even Providence, South Dakota State. I heard you guys talking about that. You were a little stumped on, right, Iowa, Richmond, Yes, South South Dakota States the best three point shooting team in the country, So that could go either way. You know, like if if they're shooting like they have it all year, then that's

that's great for an upset. But then you know, sometimes these teams that are great three point shooting teams, they get to in a tournament, they missed their first five and then they start getting like nervous and they're like, what's happened? Why isn't Why an't our shots going down? So? Uh No, South Dakota State. If South Dakota State goes to the Sweet six team, I'm not going to be surprised.

I won't be surprised by anything in the Midwest, honestly. Yeah, Now it's a mess over there two part question, are there any walk ons in the tournament who are making noise? Second part of the question is Jeff hornes Sac the best walk on of all time? Okay, so I gotta be honest that I don't know new walk ons that, uh, that's not true. I'm gonna shout out my guy, Stephen Iszo, Tomazzo's son. He's a walk on at Michigan State. Who

who who loves our show? All text with him every so often about stuff, and he's, uh, he's holding down the club trillion brand? How many years is it since I graduated twelve years after I whoofed twelve? That's boy, that's tough to that's tough to say all out. Um, So I'll shouting him out. Stephen Iszo he uh, he's he's uh. He got into a game late in the season and got a steal and then I forget what

the highlight was, but it was so funny. I got Michigan State put it on their Instagram and I was howling because he checks in the game and walk ons

you're supposed to just like dribble the clock out. That's kind of how I became famous, is like I I bragged about how good I was and just dribbling the clock out, and Stephen gets in the game and makes a steal and then like pushes the ball and it's like trying to lead the break and somehow it gets knocked out of bounds and he goes crazy and he's like getting the crown pumped up and the crowd's going crazy, and you can see his dad on the side I

lend with his arms crossed, just like shaking his head like the son of a bit, like we talked about this, son, Please don't do this, so I'll shout him out. And then the answer your other question, I think I want to say Scottie Pippen was a walk on at one point. I think he's he's been. The answer. I'd have to double check that, but I want to say someone once brought that up to me that Scottie Pippen started his

career as a walk on at Central Arkansas. And when I learned that, I was like, he has to be. I mean, he has to be. It's hard to top Scottie Pippen as Yeah as an answer, you know, so do you know that? Yeah? If he and that's for sure, I mean, otherwise I think hornet check right, I mean who Yeah, Yeah, I would, I would say, yeah, there there have been a handful of good ones. I I don't remember. I don't know if there's any other NBA Hall of Famers like Scottie Pippen though, that's that's gonna

be tough to be. Yeah, I was close. I wonder how many in state tournaments rebound Scottie pippenhead though? Did he have? You have one in central Connecticut state? I feel like he yeah, I feel like he didn't grow to like, you know, his senior year, his first year in Chicago and he's sprouted up eight inches and yeah, so he's a late bloomer. But it's sad. The only reason I think a lot of people know anything about that story is from the Jordan documentary, like they briefly

touch on that story. But yeah, I think Scotty's not too happy about that. I would don't imagine. Okay, Mark, let's get to the meat. Can you give us your final four and a winner as it stands on Tuesday in March? Yeah, so my final four, I want a little chalk. People don't like it when I go chalk. But I'm sorry to say the hater. They don't like it because the haters want nothing more than a college

basketball guy like me to give them some ammo. And you know when when you take a big swing, they want to see me step into the batter's box and take a big swing and follow my ass when I don't make contact. That's really what they want. And unfortunately I'm hitting for singles. I'm hitting for doubles. You know, I'm just trying to move the runners a lot of the bases here that my final four is Gonzaga and

Arizona were the one seeds I like. I had Arizona beating Ohio State and four overtimes in the lead eight on a very controversial call that will lead to me picketing outside the n s A offices. So that's what I have. I had that written in my bracket. Actually, I wrote a parapharning I have Gonzaga, Arizona, and then uh I like Kentucky out of the East. Kentucky is a team that uh I have loved for the better part of this season. And then I I said earlier,

I like Auburn own of the Midwest. And then I have Kentucky winning it all over Arizona and as I said, Kentucky, I like Kentucky because Kentucky has Kentucky can beat you in a thousand different ways. Kentucky is a team that that if the game is in the fifties, I trust that they can win fifty seven to fifty one. I trust that they can win a hundred and ten, two hundred and six. They are built for a lot of different scenarios. They went into Allen Field House and and

absolutely destroyed Kansas in an up and down game. They played in some meat grinder games in the SEC. I thought the SEC was the best conference all season, and in Kentucky it's really the one SEC team. They didn't win the league, but they were the one team that could go on the road and win because it felt like a lot of these SEC teams could win at home, but could win on the road. In Kentucky, Uh, Kentucky

one on the road. So with Oscar she Way, who's gonna win National Player of the Year two as their anchor, I know that every single Kentucky game they're gonna get defense, They're gonna grab every rebound. They have a very high floor. You know, a lot of tea, a lot of people when they felt their brackets. They get excited about the ceilings, like how good can teams be? I know that Kentucky's floor is a certain I feel like Kentucky has one

of the higher floors in college basketball. That they're not gonna they're not gonna lay a stinker out there. So they're going to give themselves a chance every single game. And I trust that they're going to be in every game. And for that reason, I picked them to win the national championship. So that's it. And also, my my dad's in Indian alum so I probably just subconsciously pick Kentucky just to like get under my dad's skin. I think

it's that too. He hates Kentucky. So like how you don't You don't say a word about Kentucky this whole show, and then you just yeah, yeah, Kentucky twice this season. No, No, Kentucky blew out Tennessee and uh at home in the regular season. Yeah yeah, but no, no Tennessee BECAUSEY beat them. They beat him in the SEC tournament. You're right, Yeah, they did beat Kentucky Tenessey Tournament. I'm sorry they did. But you know, Kentucky doesn't have to beat Tennessee again

to win the national championship. Necessarily clean clean. I don't know, we'll see. What do you make of that St. Mary's victory over Gonzaga? Was that the blueprint to beat him? And do you see a team doing that? Just pound them inside because they're big men are good, but they're they're light in the ass. Can you pound them? Uh? Yeah, I mean that that is This Gonzaga team isn't as good as they were last year, that's for sure. And it gives me pause because you know, last year's team

didn't win the national title. They came up short, but also they kind of ran into an all time great team in Baylor. So that kind of, I guess is the formula. I mean you certainly you're better stirved trying to Sloganzaga down then then trying to match their pace and and match the skills set that those guys have, which is uh. Some of the mistakes that teams get into is thinking like we can run with Gonzaga, but

Baylor did it. You know, Baylor in the national title game last year was like, we're our guys are better than yours, and we're gonna go out and prove it. And they did. But this is a different Gonzaga team, and I think you're right, you're honest like that that St. Mary's did kind of show the blueprint. The difference is that is St. Mary's identity, that's been their identity for a long time. They're very familiar with Gonzaga, their conference rivals.

They're like the one team that's been able in the West Coast Conference that's consistently been able to beat Gonzaga. So I think for a team to like in an n S a tournament setting where you look up and you have two days to prepare for Gonzaga, I think, uh saying, hey, we should take that blueprint that St. Mary's has built over twenty years and try to implement into our program over the course of two days. I don't know if that's gonna be the recipe for success,

but yeah. I mean, if there is a team like say a Texas Tech, and if Texas Tech makes Atilty and they play Gonzaga, Texas Tech is at team that has a lot of physicality, a lot of a lot of big bodies they can throw at Gonzaga, and they're certainly gonna provide like a St. Mary's type feel to that game. So if if you're someone who's pewing out your brack and you like Texas Tech to be Gonzaga, I don't. I'm not going to talk you out of that.

I have Gonzaga in the final four. But uh, if you think Texas Tech can be Gonzaga, that that certainly makes a lot of sense, and if they did, it wouldn't be a fluke. I don't think. I think I can see Texas Tech just kind of handing it to Gonzaga. To be honest with you, hot tip, hot tip. There you go. I like, well, Mark, we've taken up a lot of your time. Thanks so much for sharing all of your insight with us. You're on every show it

seems like this time of year. But you can follow Mark Titus on Twitter at Club Trillion, and of course listen to the Titus and Tape podcast. I also like watching it on YouTube. I've been doing that in the last couple days. Really, well, thank you. I'm one of your viewers. Yeah, well one of there are dozens of you. I think that we know you guys actually have a huge YouTube following. Yeah, I am going on a lot of shows, so I I employ everybody to please don't

follow me on any other show. Was because, like you'll, you'll quickly learn that every time I go on a show, I just kind of contradict myself. And I'm throwing a lot of darts at the board and I'm hoping, I'm hoping somewhere along the line I hit one, and then I'm just gonna clip it and spam the hell out of and be like, I totally call this you, guys, I totally call it a different bracket for everything you go on bringing everyone on the next show I do.

I'm saying Kentucky's losing in the second round to Mergy. All right, Mark, thanks for your time, You're the best man. Thanks guys. All right, now we're bringing Peter Andrew from bed MGM to go over the landscape of sports. There's so hus to cover this week, Oh my gosh. I wish we could just focus on March Madness, but the NFL is making that impossible. So Peter Andrew first and foremost. I just have to ask Tom Brady decided to come

out of retirement. I guess his family time was all he needed, which I laugh, is like it's like day two of your family vacation. You're like, oh man, I missed you guys. Now I'm good. I'm ready to go home. That's what Tom Brady just did. But how did that shake up the odds? Or Tampa Bay in their NFL features, Yeah, it's funny. Uh they have a meme Tomas Prices and yeah it changed everything a lot. Bucks PrePost it Sunday afternoon when you just shook up the world during selection Sunday, Yeah,

quite a bit and changed the odds. They were plus somewhere between plus plus one depending on where you saw the odds or at what moment, and they're down to plus eight hundred now. So I saw the news, I quickly fired a bit I got for next year. But it's changed quite a bit, and we actually had some big bets come in predecisions. So someone I think two weeks ago put ten dollars on Bucks to uh Bucks

to win the Super Bowl next year. So either someone was thinking they were gonna get to Shaun Watson or something, or or they had some knowledge there. Yeah, I would follow up with that person because they knew something that is not right. Was that just lbmin by the way, Yeah, like the equivalence of some insider trading, it felt like, but now it seemed like it was legitimate and maybe

the person just had an inkling. But yeah, it's it's not only have a domino effect on the odds for the Bucks, but now what happens with Shawn Watson Jimmy g I mean, you saw some teams make small moves like Trabisky going too the Steelers, but I don't know if that's the solution for them. So there's a lot of teams still looking for quarterbacks, and I think it's gonna be crazy once the next chip balls, everything else is going to start following after one quick thing that

I saw with Tom Brady that blew my mind. And it's not like a very advanced stat or anything, but it still was hard to about my mind round. In the last nine years, he's gone back and forth, year winning a Super Bowl, losing a playoff game, winning a super Bowl, losing a playoff game, like that's incredible. Last year he lost a playoff game. So I don't know, if history repeats itself, He's not coming back for nothing.

He's not coming back to losing the playoffs. So I like that if it happens that he went a super Bowl. I mean, there's a god like for not consecutive and his name is Tom Brady, and his name is Tom Brady. But yeah, once I saw that, I felt good about my bed. But yeah, they're they're bringing everybody back, and they brought their center back. I'm sure Bronk will come after.

I know there was talks about what he do pre the decision, but all it took was watching Ronaldo square hat trick for him to make his decision to come back. So that little yeah, I mean it was it was planned. You know, we all knew it wasn't real. We all knew he wasn't going to retire. On Instagram, he was pulling a little media move. He's media savvy now, isn't he. He's thinking about Brady right now. There was no way he was going out on the loss. He's going to

try to win it. Everybody again, I'm so ingrained in the worst way possible to like Niners, Twitter, whatever. Abody for the last years has been like Brady wants to play in San Francisco, he wants his family to go to all the home games something, and there's he's coming back, He's going to San fran But I mean, he's got he's clearly got something to prove in his own mind in Tampa to go out on a high note. So if they win this year, I think that wraps it up.

I kind of agree. I don't think this story is done yet. I think, you know, Bruce arians and Brady that hasn't been the smoothest thing either. He's been kind of adamant that if he's coming back at all, he's playing for us, and I don't know if that gels with Tom and so this story is not done. We're going to be covering this all off season. Of other free agency moves you mentioned, like Steelers getting Mitchell to Risky. Uh what about Khalil Mack going to the Chargers. I mean,

who has had a big splash on the futures market. Yeah, that one. You know, a defensive player doesn't change things too much, but combining him and Boasted together is legitimate. And I mean that division is absolutely insane between what all four teams will end up showing. Obviously with Russell Wilson and in Denver. Now that's like the division of death. Like you can go any which way and probably justify that you like the Chiefs or you like the Chargers

or whoever it is. But short answers, prices don't change too dramatically. When something like that happens. It's always the skilled positions. It's the running back making the big move. It's the de Gaun Watson going to X or the receiver going somewhere. But we've not seen anything yet. I think there's a lot of dominoes that still have to fall. I think there's a lot of teams that still have some cap constraints. So you're gonna see players move where

players get released. You know, Jarvis Landry was a good example when when Amar Cooper got traded to Cleveland. Um, So, where we are just getting started and it's gonna be a crazy couple of months, and then obviously as we get into the draft in Vegas, that's when things will really shake up. How about the Bengals, though, have their odds increased now that they've signed Kappa and Caros to kind of give some more protection to our to our

swag Daddy Burrows. No change yet. The only team I'd say otherwise that's changed for the better is Jags, who have just spent two hundred and eighty million dollars in the last day. But I don't know off hand what it is. But that's not a dramatic change. It's not like their Super Bowl favorites. Now. They just signed Christian Kirk to like the fourth most lucrative wide receiver contract ever. But that's the kind of move that will change it. You'll never see an on line move really move the

needle too much, especially this early in the season. As it gets closer and a big injury, you know, impact someone in training camp, then things change a bit, but it's too early to tell with still a lot of moves imminent. Got it. Okay, let's get to the n C Double A tournament first, let us know what bet MGM is offering in terms of proms. This is a very competitive time of year for sports books. It doesn't get any better than than here at bet MGM these

next couple of days. So as soon as Collected Sunday happened, we released our ten million dollar Perfect Bracket Challenge. So if anybody finally correctly guesses that perfect bracket, ten million

dollars cash into your account. So really really exciting. We've already had you know, six figures worth of packets, which is amazing, but The important thing to know it is, you know, while it's difficult to get that perfect bracket, we're offering a hundred k whoever is the top point getter, so obviously a traditional bracket you get points for each round. The user or users that get the most points throughout the tournament a hundred thousand dollars same thing cash on

your account. So really exciting to kick the season off or kick the tournament off with that. And then we'll have promotions all tournament long, Partley Boost tokens every single day for every customer we have offered the first and second weekends. We're doing a lot to keep our customers happy here. Um, so it's gonna be exciting a couple of weeks as we get into April for the National Championship. Oh that is, we've got to make sure every week that you let us know all of those because it's

a lot to keep up with. This whole in the next couple of weeks is so much to keep up with, so make sure you always let us know those promos going on. Looking just at the first round games, there are four lower seeds who are favored Memphis, Michigan, Loyola, and San fran and those can shift by the time tip off really happens Thursday. But of some of those matchup, is there one that you would suggest someone UH invests heavily in. Yeah, so one I hate and one I love.

The one I hate is San Francisco. I love Murray State. I mean they're not really a Cinderella team like they were a couple of years ago. They were a ranked team for most of the year. I love the minus one and a half. I know people are high on San Francisco just you know, giving teams like St. Mary's and Gonzaga challenge in the w CC. But love Murray State. So don't like San Francisco in that situation. But the

one I do love is loyal Chicago against Ohio State. Sister, that's how you gotta say God's always on her side. Uh there plus one and a half. Now, I would just take them on the money line. It's gonna be around even money. They've got a legit dot to make some noise. So and this year there's so much parody in college. We've seen it throughout these tornament games. We've seen obviously big seedd UH teams upset like Baylor. I

mean this year is going to be crazy. So my recommendation is don't just take the chalk like you've seen in previous years. There are a lot a lot of really good lower seeded teams, Cinderella Nature teams that are gonna make some noise. Yeah, we're just talking with Mark Titus and he was saying, Vermont, did he convince you, Janice? Because I'm I'm all into Vermont. Now, Hey, I'm a

Bernie bro. Why not I'm with Yeah and yeah. I mean it's almost like you just watched our interview with Mark Titus because he was talking about the parody this year as well. So it's an exciting tony. Guys, where are we watching it? Always flying out to Turkey to hang out with Olivia watch these games? I mean, Peter, what's up? Does bet MGM have like a big screen we can hang out and pop some trities together? Are

we sponsored by truly? Now? No? But we keep trying, We keep trying, keeping keep Yeah, it's just less calories. We're gonna have all of our TV set up in office. We're gonna have a huge watch party here a little sneak peek into it later this year. Next year we have a new office coming that's gonna have a huge TV. So but for now, we got pizza and beers coming for Thursday and Friday this week, which is gonna be

tough of fun and every one. So that's awesome, Peter, I recommend Truly's over Beer because a couple of big girls like me and you, we need to we need to cut some calories. I'm really glad you just included you two at that. I mean in l A, we had the two guys with the bellies with the bigger bellion and the girl who's who's pregnant so good together, yeah, like pregnant Charlie's Angels, especially after the mango the mango mongoes we had at the Spanish restaurant. We made Olivia

look small. I mean me and you we I mean yeah, wrestle, that was awesome. Let's make sure next week we get more into the matchups. As we get the first and second round behind us, this is when all the chaos happens. I don't even feel responsible telling people where to put their money in this first second round because anything could happen. But once we get more into the meat, I feel like we can get more into the betting. What do you think? Yeah, just just take Arizona for now. I

think that's the one safe bet. I like take the plus one money to get the final four plus six hundred for the for they the only one I feel confident about. Okay, do come on, have some fun. Put some money on Yale Revenge of the Nerds, baby supporting the Nerds. If you lost enough money in Miami this weekend, don't don't be putting a much of money on Yale. Now. Come on, I am refinancing my mortgage to bring up some cash. After the dinners. My wife necked Peter. Thanks

so much for joining us. This is fun as always. Thanks guys, what an amazing show man. That was one of my favorite. Shoutout to Mark Titus for stopping by and dropping some March Madness gems on us. Listen guys, follow bet MGM at bet MGM on all social media's follow me and Olivia. Most important to tell friends about the show. We air every Thursday where every listen to podcasts and don't forget We love you very very much