It’s officially March Madness!

NCAA Tournament, underway! They're at the half wherever West Virginia and Maryland are playing.

I have to assume it's in Orlando because that's where CBS is and I believe CBS follows Duke. Like, I don't know, like I follow Brian Geisinger on Twitter. Brian Geisinger is what we're all about and he joins us to talk a little hoops. So let me ask you this, Brian Geisinger. Is Oral Roberts the only team standing between Duke and the Final Four?

It's funny, you're not, you're definitely not the only one to like at least in half just considered that. No, I don't think they're the only team, but Duke is a pretty tough first round, first round opponent. I mean, I know Duke has played very well for the last month or so, but man, yeah, that is a tough, you know, championship caliber team with an NBA, you know, guard running its offense. Right. That's been in college for a long time too.

So yeah, that is tough to see. And, you know, it's going to be up to certainly a team effort, but it'll be a big opportunity for Tyrese Proctor probably to guard the ball. And for, you know, Derek Lively to be mobile, active, guarding pick and roll, shut down the rim and stay out of foul trouble. All of that has happened for the most part over the nine game winning streak, including the three at the ACC tournament.

Brian Geisinger is joining us. Couple of years ago, Duke wasn't in the NCAA tournament. Oral Roberts was, and they got to the Sweet 16. Again, people, you think Oral Roberts.

Yeah, they're no problem. No, this team has won a ton of games this year. Max, I guess it's pronounced Amas. He's a really, really good player. He's the guy you reference with the ball.

What is the challenge of stopping him? Is Proctor up to it? I think Proctor has as good of a shot as just about anybody, you know, short of, you know, Reese Beekman from Virginia or Jalen Clark from UCLA, who's who unfortunately is hurt right now.

But these are the, you know, the elite sort of on ball point of attack defenders that we have in the college game. And Proctor is not the steals machine that those guys are, as you and I have discussed, goal, but he's just he's very good at keeping the ball in front of keeping contact with the guys that he's guarding on or off the ball and using his length. He's going to need that because he's going to be at, you know, speed disadvantage.

And so he's going to have to lean on screen navigation, his length in knowing that lively is, you know, floating around to, you know, put out any potential fires. But Amas, like he is the guy that has big time range. He can shoot it off the dribble from way out to like is, you know, I'm not sure Proctor has necessarily seen the guy quite like this. I mean, he did a great job against her Quavion Smith, who maybe that can sort of, you know, serve as a facsimile of sorts. But I mean, the last time Proctor saw Smith and Cameron, that was, you know, Turks been in a bit of a slump for a while now. So, you know, maybe not as opposed to Amas, who's playing at a, you know, a very, very high level. It really has been for several years now. Look, Oral Roberts is not afraid to launch threes.

I mean, Amas has taken over 300 of them this year. He has made a hundred and seventeen three. I'm not sure Duke as a team has made a hundred and seventeen threes. He's made a hundred and seventeen on his own, but Duke has been generally good at guarding the three-point line. Yeah, well, I mean, they've got they've got a lot of length around the perimeter. Guys like Mark Mitchell, guys like Tyrese Proctor on the ball and having a guy like Lively that gives you the kind of versatility because he's so because of his size and his mobility. You can do a lot of different things with him. I mean, the Pittsburgh game in Cameron two months ago, they used him to switch and to have Derek Lively go out and switch on on guys like Jamarius Burton, Nelly Cummings, like, you know, big time, Oscar bowl pull up shot makers against NC State. They used their lively to play above the level of the screen and sort of show on those on those ball screens a little bit. And, you know, I mean, Jarkel had a big game shooting in Cameron making some really tough shots.

Jarkel joiner that. Yeah, but they did a nice job against her Quavion Smith. And so having a guy like Lively, you know, do they just keep putting more and more responsibility on that guy's plate and so far like he continues to especially the last, you know, six, six, eight weeks, like he just continues to handle everything as long as he can be on the court. They can really make some of this some of the stuff that or Roberts wants to get to tough.

So it's a it's a collective team effort. And I think one of the things that's gone under the radar with Duke this season is because like, because they want to play lively closer to the level of the screen, they need guys on the backside to to rotate intimate plays and to be synced up. And I think Mark Mitchell has really started to like come along as like a backside help defender. He saved a couple layups against Baycott during the final game against UNC. He had a big save with either the Miami or the UVA game, the ACC tournament in Greensboro.

And so it's just been cool to see that light bulb sort of come on for him as a guy that can kind of like put out, you know, put out fires when they pop up and help us meet it on the backside of the defense. Before I move on to to state, what is the key for Duke advancing apart from, you know, defense because we know defense is their bread and butter. What is the key to Duke advancing and how far do you think they go? I think they can go really far.

I don't know quite. I think I think some people are picking them all the way to the final four. And like they're they're in a quadrant that I think they could or they're in a part of the bracket that it really does look like. The path is maybe there and they're playing so well so I can I can see why people are trending that are pushing or thinking like, oh, hey, maybe the stars are lining up for me, though. I would really need to see Duke's offense. I think jump a little bit more before I felt like really comfortable putting them there as a team.

That's like, you know, you feel really comfortable going to the to the final four. But obviously the offense has been playing better recently. So for them to get past or Roberts for them to continue to make a deep run. I think it really inches on like Philipowski offensively. I mean, he's going to put up numbers. He's going to you know, he's going to get points in the interior. But, you know, if he has a hot stretch shooting from deep that changes the game. If he continues to unlock things for other guys with his ability to to draw double teams, the ability to force help in the middle of the court, his ability to be a, you know, pick and pop in a short role partner for Jeremy Roach like those guys have been so good on those empty corner looks.

And then certainly like the high low stuff that they that they want to do with him either as a finisher or as a pastor. So I think just think Philipowski like he's the keys, the guy that probably forces help the most as far as like what opposing defenses have to worry about. And so, again, I think if the offense is going to continue to trend upward and therefore perhaps get Duke for a deep postseason run, like they need everybody. There's no one guy. I think that's been obvious for this team for a while now.

Like it is they need the blend, right? But Philipowski is the one guy that can really, really create advantages for them with his work as a screener and like an interior score. All right, let's move on to NC State.

Brian Geisinger, now at pack broad at big guys underscore bird. I didn't like the way they exited the ACC tournament. I really wish that their defense had been more consistently good of late. I still think that if they can defend in the half court, like I know they're capable. I think they're a dangerous team here.

Tell me about their keys. And what do you think about Creighton? Yeah, far as state goes, I just wish the offense could get.

I don't know, like a little bit more a little bit more movement, a little bit more randomness. You know, I think defensively they had some shortcomings with some of those late season Clemson games, but it was for me the loss to Clemson in Greensboro was like a kind of a tough pill to swallow. Like they'll be against Virginia Tech, literally their most efficient offensive game of the season. And one day later, literally their least efficient offensive game of the season in that game against the third game against Clemson. And it comes, you know, a couple of weeks or a week or two after the senior day matchup in Raleigh. And it was the same thing. It was just the same thing.

It was just watching the same slow moving, you know, accident for the second time in two weeks or whatever. And I think for a team like Clemson that can gap up and in, you know, clog up the paint and force guys like Smith and Joyner to have to get hot and shoot from over the top. And it's going to force D.J.

Burns to try to go one on one and stay out of rotation. I just think the math immediately, unless one or both of Smith and Joyner are humming, all of a sudden the math is so tilted against NC State. And I do worry about that a little bit with Creighton. They've been known, I think, under under Greg McDermott as like a offensive first team, like a three point shooting juggernaut. And I mean, they are that. They're top 25 in efficiency. The 42 percent of their shots are threes this year. But they're also a very good defensive team. They have a guy, Ryan Kalkbrenner at center. It was the two time defensive player of the year in the Big East. I don't know if he maybe should have won that this year. I would have given it to also Iguodaro from Marquette. But Kalkbrenner is a guy that they use in drop coverage.

Right. He sinks as deep in the paint as you're going to see any center guard pick and roll in college basketball. It's kind of like if you watch Brook Lopez with the Bucks, like he's so far deep in the paint. And so they want to force you taking after bowl mid range twos, which I think plays into.

And this is what I'm worried about. A bad habit of NC State's offense. What state likes. Yeah.

Something we've seen flare up. And Creighton is also an elite defensive rebounding team. And they don't foul. And so state has won games this season.

Not as like, you know, they don't get to the line that often. But no pretty good offensive rebounding team in state doesn't turn the ball over. So they just won the possession game by taking like 10 more shots per game than their opponents have. And it's going to be tougher to achieve that against Creighton. And Creighton is just most likely going to be creating more efficient shots on the other side of the court. Like Creighton's defense opponents have like under 30 percent of the field goals this season against Creighton's defense. They've been three and on the other side, 42 percent of Creighton's shots have been three. They get to the rim.

Their staff profile looks like what, you know, an NBA team is trying to do. Creighton gets to the rim and shoots kick out threes in defensively. They take they run you off the line and they have Kolkbrenner in the paint. So they force you into taking a lot of tough mid range twos. So I just hope, you know, state is not just solely depending on Smith and Joyner to get hot and make jumpers because that can work like that.

Totally can. Those dudes are incredible basketball players. And they can take Creighton and all Creighton's good players and all that mask and they can just throw it right out the window.

But both of those guys get cooking. But my hope is that state has had some stuff sort of like lined up to go at Kolkbrenner in the drop coverage and go at this sort of like conservative defense. And in, you know, I think I think state can do an OK job guarding them, though I do have some concerns there. But but really, I sort of worry about state getting caught in the gears of Creighton's defense right now.

Yeah. Look, it almost looks to me like Creighton is a better version of NC State of what they want to do. Neither team. Neither team turns it over a lot.

Right. Creighton doesn't force a lot of turnovers. State forces more, but neither team turns it over a lot. They're both really good at taking care of the ball. Creighton's a better three point shooting team than NC State is. But I think they're both more than capable three point shooting teams.

Just looks like Creighton's is just a better version of it. But I think that if state can defend at a high level, I think that they can impact the game and maybe get a transition game going, which I'm certainly counting on. By the way, Virginia's, I think, got like a seven point lead.

What does it know? It's a five point lead to have thirty to twenty seven over Furman. Real quick on the other three ACC schools before I let Brian Geisinger go. The UVA's chances in this event are what? I think they, I think like Virginia's very good. I think it really depends on Caden Sheddrick continuing to play well.

Thought he had a nice tournament in Greensboro. Hit a nice first half against Furman today. And having a guy like that, that profiles as, you know, potentially an NBA center with his size and ability to play above the rim and his ground coverage gives them a different look. I just worry that the offense is not quite there. And I don't think Beekman, Reece Beekman, I think he's their best player.

I don't think he's been fully healthy since the hamstring injury against JMU back in December, whenever that was. So for me, it would just be like, can Sheddrick raise the floor of their defense enough to get it to play like a top, you know, whatever unit? I just think ultimately they're going to be undone by their, by their, like the inability to be, to, to really defend that elite sort of like, you know, usual Virginia level. The offense isn't there to sort of like bolster, bolster that. All right, Miami.

I think it just depends on North Chad O'Mear. Like, you know, it's so like reductive to go down that path, but like they have one of the best five man lineups in the country. So do Creighton by the way, but without O'Mear, you know, their numbers really fall off the table and he's an important player for them on both sides of the court. His foot speed, guarding pick and roll as they want to do, usually aggressively like trapping and hedging the screens, his ability to rebound. And then they have to probably NBA guards in the backcourt with, with the Isaiah Wong and Nigel Pack.

They run a lot of offense and initiate a lot of offense through the middle of the floor with O'Mear. And so to not have him, I mean, you could, you could lean on Jordan Miller to do some of that stuff and Miller is Jordan Miller is an awesome, awesome player. But, um, you know, I just think it's, it's a little diminished unless O'Mear, you know, is, can somehow get somewhere close to fully, fully, you know, as close as he can to a hundred percent. And it just stinks because like with him, I think Miami's like a sweet 16, a lead 18 without him.

I don't, I, you know, I get a little worried. They could, they could lose to Drake with or without him. Drake is really good too. Yes or no.

Healthy, uh, Norched O'Mear, Miami could be in the final four. Yes. Yes. Totally. Okay.

That's all I need to know. I have Miami in the final four. I'm counting on Norched O'Mear. I'm counting on him coming back. Uh, and, uh, on that note, we have to say goodbye to Brian Geisinger, uh, the, uh, the old league pass layer, and of course, Pac Pride, Devil's Den, Shrieking the Lawn, all of it, uh, at bguys underscore bird. I'll talk to you later, man. Yeah, you guys be good.