The NCAA Tournament is underway and brackets are getting busted

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WakeMed Heart and Vascular Physicians. Your heart, your choice. Brian Geisinger, my man. Pack pride, 24-7 sports.

He's everywhere. Nobody knows more about basketball. Let's get smarter and talking about the game.

And he joins us on the Adam Gold show. Let's get into what NC State did last night. We'd probably be here a long time listing off the things they did well, but what really stood out to you against Texas Tech?

There's kind of a lot to choose from, like you said. I mean, they kind of blasted Texas Tech last night. That was a pretty dominant two-way performance. The defense continues to really show up. They rebounded it well.

I thought of like solidly on both sides of the court. They continue to not, you know, turn the ball over on offense. They've been a staple under Keats, but like really, as they've gone on this run the last week and change, that's really set like a high floor for the offense. I cannot say enough about Mo Diarra. You don't have enough time to just go into it, because like what he's doing is incredible. He's also shown out, like I would, I think we've been singing Diarra's praises all season for the most part, but my guess would be that like, you know, there are probably some, whether they're, you know, I guess some scouts, he's landing on their radars more and more, just sort of like with his rebounding, the defensive versatility. I loved what he did against Williams last night from Tech, who had a pretty good game, but Diarra sort of made him work for it. They didn't give up any easy switches like Tech wanted them to do, so they could get Williams matched up and posted up against some of NC State's guards, and I just thought his two-way play was pretty sensational.

Hit a big catch and shoot three, got loose in transition. It feels like every transition possession for State, whether like they're out running trying to score or they're trying to like get back and, you know, stop a secondary break or a fast break, it feels like Diarra is involved in every one of those. I don't know how he's he's summoning the energy for this, but he's been legitimately amazing and the versatility defensively has been pretty special. And then Middlebrooks is one of those, like Ben Middlebrooks had this monster game last night, he had a great game against UVA, he's been really solid. He's probably a starter level center for the ACC, he just happens to be behind the guy in Burns. I thought his pick and roll, screen defense was really good last night. He can kind of do everything, he can be up at the level, he can hedge, he can switch out in the pinch if you need him to. And then I think one of the other lessons with with Middlebrooks is like if NC State's playing a team that's going to guard pick and roll by either putting two on the ball or by trying to like, you know, ice and pin those ball screens on one side and so that pocket of space is open in the middle, the Middlebrooks can be a real threat and a target because he makes good decisions with the ball, he's got touch in that short mid-range area, he can put the ball on the deck one or two times, like he doesn't need to catch at the rim to get a finish, like he can throw it to him 14 feet from the hoop in space and he can make a play.

And so he's just a real, he's a real weapon to have when they get to their spread pick and roll. And then DJ Horn, just the downhill drives, the spot of threes. I mean, he didn't have his best game last night, but his perimeter creation is like integral to what they're doing and he gave it to him again last night.

Brian Geisinger is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Yeah, Diarra, Middlebrooks, Burns, I mean, State got good performance. I thought Michael O'Connell played a good game and didn't score a point. I thought, and defensively, what they did to Texas Tech by making the three-ball much more difficult for them, until Kerwin Walton hit two that screwed me in the over, but that's fine. But they, they literally, they, what Texas Tech wanted to do, State made that, yes, they missed some, but I've always said the good defense is cumulative. They, they made Tech, they made Tech really fight for anything they wanted to get.

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Investment Advisory Services offered by Capital Financial Advisory Group, a North Carolina registered investment advisor. Yeah, I mean, and again, like that's basically been the trend since the Louisville game. You know, again, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia, UNC, like Texas Tech, they just stacked up five really good defensive performances.

And like that stuff travels. When you play defense like that, you know, nothing states doing offensively is like, is, is fluke-y or anything. It's not like states, you know, I mean, maybe Michael O'Connell shot above his head a little bit from three in DC, but it's not like states having some game where they just come out, you know, launching threes and they make a bunch of them. And like states offense, like they've got a formula, it's working, you know, they play through the two DJs, you know, if they're gonna post up burns, pick and roll, or motion stuff, it's horn. And then defensively, like especially when Diarra and Middlebrooks are out there flying around and they're so versatile, they cover a ton of ground.

States being anchored by, by two really good defenders. Diarra had two more blocks last night. I think the rim protection for him has continued to be good. And then Casey Morsell, who was an excellent guard defender last season, I thought was like solid for most of the year. I think his defense has been, has been really good during this run.

I thought it was great again last night. And states got a bunch of guys that just compete guarding, guarding ball screens and chasing guys off the screens, which like, they're gonna need that against, against Oakland because they're gonna need someone to, you know, to, to, to follow around their shooters. So some guys are gonna have to step up and be ready to run through a bunch of screens tomorrow night. Well, they, they, they sort of just came off of that.

So maybe they're, they're honed in. Isaacs and Toussaint combined for two of 17 from three-point range. All right, about the matchup with Oakland.

They were 15 of 31. One kid went for, hit 10. I don't even, I can't, it's hard to even process all of that.

How do you, how do you approach guard? You have to make them two-point shooters, right? You can try. I mean, I don't know if you're gonna be able to do that with, with, with Gulkey from, from Oakland, who's taken just eight twos all season compared to the 347 threes.

Wait a second. He's, he's attempted eight two-point shots all year? Yes, and 347 threes. So, you know, you would like to put him up, like, try to make him, you know, put the ball in the deck, but like, he is tough to run off the three-point line because, like, yeah, I watched, between late last night and very early this morning, I watched the Kentucky-Oakland film, and like, look, Kentucky had some breakdowns for sure, and Oakland's running, you know, cool actions to get, to get him open for three.

They run, I think, more elevator door screens than any team I've seen. Probably, you know, 10 or 12 of them alone in the first half of that game, but also just, like, he had some tough shots. Like, Rob Dillingham or Reed Shepherd are right there contesting his, like, a good contest, and he just sort of, like, fades away a little bit more. He's got, like, just enough size, and obviously the range is impressive, too. So, like, he was on one last night, but, and it's like he did not do, like, an amazing job, I thought, sort of, like, tracking him off screen to get lost a few times, but he also hit a couple shots where, like, the defense was pretty good, the contest was good, and he's tough, and, like, they might have to live with that, too, at times, like, where he's just gonna hit a ridiculous three from 27 feet out, and, like, you got to try to keep chipping away because it does feel like Oakland is the team that you don't want to, kind of, like, you want to be able to trust your process and not get discouraged because the way they play defense, this sort of, like, weird 1-3-1 matchup zone, which, like, I would need to see more of to, sort of, like, figure out quite exactly how it works, but, you know, Kentucky tried a bunch of different stuff against it last night. Some stuff worked, and they still missed shots.

I'll be curious to see how State handles that, you know. Do they try to overload? Do they flash burns to the nail?

Do they flash more cell to the nail? Can they post up burns against that? Can they get them out of zone into the matchup looks in post up? Like, there's lots of questions that State's gonna have to figure out on a pretty short runway here. It seemed like Oakland's tough to play in tournament on a quick turnaround because they shoot a ton of threes, and because they've got this, like, weird defense that you got to figure out. I think it's why it seemed like Oregon gets kind of tough, too, because they've got this weird hybrid zone that they play, too. But, hey, at this point, State, you got to think, like, they, you know, you'd rather see Oakland than Kentucky in the way State's playing defensively if they can keep that up. They've got, they certainly got a great chance to, you know, get to the Sweet 16.

Yeah, I mean, to me, it's a pretty simple formula. You hope to be able to just get it to Burns or Diarra or Middlebrooks inside because there's not a lot of size for Oakland. They're a bunch of small guys. Even their best forward, who's their leading scorer, is only 6'6".

So, hopefully, Burns and those guys stay out of foul trouble, and they can be effective inside and just kill them, you know, with a death by paper cut or something like that. Just, and get to the free throw line, which is what they're doing. I love the fact that they don't rely on the three. They can shoot it, but they don't rely on it, and I think it gives you a lot of options when we get to the NCAA tournament.

Let me, let me throw this real quick. Carolina, kind of a little slow in the first half, had a nice lead, but nothing earth-shattering, and then crank up the pressure, just wore out Wagner? Yeah, yeah, it certainly seemed like that. I mean, ultimately, this looks like a totally fine, you know, result for, for, you know, one versus 16 seed. I continue to be like a little, I think we talked about this maybe last week or in previous weeks, like, like it was a tough game for Elliot Cadeau yesterday, 0-2 shooting, four turnovers in 18 minutes, and they don't really have like a shooter to bring off the bench necessarily, sort of like, bolster that. Like, you know, they have one, they have good lineup versatility at UNC, but like, it is a little limited, and I just, we'll see if that ends up being, like, at this point, it's just something to monitor, I think, game to game for them.

Cadeau's really good, like, he's had a great, he's had a good season, incredible pastor, his drives are really important to them, but he kind of has a target in, on him in terms of, like, who can you help off of, how can you defend him? I thought State really took advantage of that in the, in the tournament championship game. So, I'm not too worried about that for UNC, like, they problem-solved around that all year, and have a very, very good offensive team, you know, top 20 offense.

It does sort of go to show you, like, the shooting of RJ Davis can solve a lot of, you know, simplifies things pretty, pretty easily, you know, like, that could shoot, like, that off the catch and off the dribble. All right, let's get to Duke before we have to say goodbye to Brian Geisinger at BGuys underscore bird. Vermont's a really good defensive team. They make you work for everything. Duke has not shown the, you know, compete level that their head coach wants them to show the last couple of games.

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Grainger, for the ones who get it done. Yeah, I mean, it is, really is, you know, now or never. You don't want to dip too hard into the bag of cliches here, but I would say a team like Duke that's gonna have, you know, a size advantage here, certainly a big talent advantage, like it would be, they could very easily put the last two games, you know, the UNC and the state game behind them pretty quickly if they just come out and sort of just like dominate Vermont, you know, and you go and just get on to the next round, which I think if they do that, I think they would, it would be Wisconsin or James Madison, I think they get the winner of that, so like, I don't know, I just hope, I hope my, for Duke's sake, I hope the offense looks good, you know, they haven't played in a while, and I've seen the news yesterday, no Caleb Foster for the rest of the tournament, that was no real surprise, he's been out since the loss in Winston to Wake, and I do, I brought this up, I think twice now on the show, like, I feel like his loss hasn't been talked about enough, he's a 40% three-point shooter, he's another ball handler, he operates pick and roll, his drives have been good for them this season, so like, I don't know, like, he's a guy that, it's tough, you know, you lose a 6-4 point guard like that, that could do a bunch offensively, and he's like an okay defender, it's tough, but they'll just need the guys to step up, and hopefully, you know, Phil Powski, get the offense running through him, get Jared McCain coming off screen, and go to, you know, get to the two-man game with Proctor and Flip, and with Roach and Flip. Yeah, because all year long, Duke's been a three-guard team, and when you're missing Caleb Foster, you don't have, I mean, I guess they could use Jalen Blake's, right, coming off the bench, and he would be their first guard off the bench, but John doesn't seem like he's, that that's what he wants to do, so they're bringing, whether it's, it's usually Sean Stewart, right, somebody like that is coming off the bench, in certain situations they're using TJ Power, right, Ryan Young is kind of, his minutes have have almost always been Philip Powski, Mitchell foul trouble dependent of late, which is fair, because Ryan Young doesn't really make a huge difference in most cases, but in a game like tonight, you would think that Young would be available, would be a plus, because Vermont isn't going to bring a ton of, you know, size and resistance inside. It should be a game much like State versus Oakland, that if Duke does it right, get to the rim, get to the free-throw line, and not necessarily rely on the three, but if the threes come, but it, doesn't this really all boil down to Jeremy Roach? Yeah, I mean it does feel like, well at least like beyond this game, you know, assuming Duke continues to advance, like yeah, like just Roach is like his shot making, the two-man game with Philip Powski, like how useful that is, like they're just gonna need Roach as he's done before it, you know, multiple postseason venues now, like he's gonna have to get in his bag a little bit, and bust up a bunch of different coverages, and he's capable of doing that obviously, so yeah, I do think like Roach, like this is a big opportunity for him, he's a senior guard at Duke, all ACC type player, and he's got, he's proven in the postseason, like he's just kind of got to do it again, and they've got methods to get him going, like the two-man stuff with Flip is pretty, it's pretty bankable, but I do think you got it, like just as far as Vermont, like you were talking about their defense, like they're tough, this is one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the country, top ten in defensive rebounding rate, they don't foul much, obviously Duke is a, you know, different kind of monster, this is not UMBC or NJIT, this is a different, you know, talent level and size to contend with, but like basically like they take care of the small things on the defensive end, and it would be interesting to see if Duke can sort of like reverse some of those trends, get to the line, put him in foul trouble, and also like, you know, can guys like Flip and Mitchell and maybe Young or Stewart off the bench kind of get going on the glass as well. You know, I haven't asked you this, but as I say goodbye, did you pick a final four? So I did not, but that is because the bracket that I do, which is with a group of dentists up in Michigan, you do a bracket with a group of dentists in Michigan, they might, some of them may be retired now, this is through my, it's with my godfather, Michigan State fan, you don't have to explain it, I just wanted to get that on the record, yeah, but it's, we do it round by round style, okay, nice, because like you're not, if you have a bad day or whatever in the first round, you know, like it's okay, you're not out of it, and the further you go into it, the more weighted each round is, so it's kind of nice because you can't, you don't have to just like freak out about worrying about everything going down the tube the first day, so I don't have a final four.

If I had to predict one though, it would be very, very chalky, like it would be UConn, Houston, you know, Arizona or UNC, and I don't know about the Midwest, I mean that does kind of feel wide open. I basically picked what I want to see happen, although I'm kind of a hybrid, I just, I don't want to watch Purdue play basketball, so I picked them to lose in the second round, I just, I don't, I don't, I have no interest in watching them play. Brian Geisinger, you're the best man, I appreciate your time, as always, that BGeist underscore bird, we will talk to you soon.

Yep, take it easy guys. You got it, Brian Geisinger here on the Adam Gold Show. For the ones who work hard to ensure their crew can always go the extra mile, and the ones who get in early so everyone can go home on time, there's Grainger, offering professional grade supplies backed by product experts so you can quickly and easily find what you need, plus you can count on access to a committed team ready to go the extra mile for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.