TruTV Awareness Week

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, what you have scheduled this game. He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey.

I do say go target. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taken the wind out of my face. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham. You are on a Tuesday Drive, WSJS, News Talk Sports for The Triad, and happy True TV Awareness Day to all that celebrate. That's where all the games are going to be broadcast tonight.

The NCAA tournament beginning with the first four, which includes an ACC game that we'll get to shortly. But we'll get to it shortly because a front runner has emerged for the Carolina Panthers to take with the number one pick. And that's Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud. Ever since the trade was made on Friday, two questions have been asked to me since then. Why did the Panthers trade DJ Moore?

Why did they give up so much essentially? And who is Carolina going to take with that pick? I believe it's going to be CJ Stroud. And this is why. It might be a tell that this trade happened right after the scouting combine.

Now, why is that a tell? Well, Stroud had the best workout of all the quarterbacks in Indianapolis. In fact, former app state quarterback, NFL draft lead analyst Daniel Jeremiah in real time was saying, this is one of the best workouts I've ever seen.

That's how good Stroud was in his on-field workout. Well, who's to say that Bryce Young wasn't just as good? Don't forget Bryce Young was the only quarterback out of the QBs that participated in Indianapolis in interviews and working out in the on-field portion that decided not to throw. He said he was going to wait until his pro day.

Now ask yourself this question. Would Carolina given up, would they have given up everything that they gave up to get the number one pick? DJ Moore, a couple of ones, including the number nine pick, a couple of second round picks. Would they have done all that without having seen Bryce Young throw up close? They saw CJ Stroud. They didn't see Bryce Young. We're going to have to wait for his pro day in order for that to happen. If you're a skeptic, if you're still not sold on that, if that's not enough logic for you, you're thinking, Josh, Bryce Young might've been the best quarterback the last two years at Alabama, the tape speeds for itself, the draft, the underwear Olympics as our friend, Ryan McGee calls Indianapolis, that doesn't have much sway on me. I still think they could take Bryce Young with the number one pick. If that's not convincing of enough of an argument for you, listen to new Panthers quarterback coach, Josh McCown, breaking down the QBs because this is kind of amazing.

I've never seen this before. Josh McCown did 30 plus minute breakdowns just a couple of weeks before he was hired as Panthers quarterbacks coach on both Bryce Young and CJ Stroud. He also did one on Kentucky quarterback, Will Levis that you can find online.

Josh Norris, who does a great job on all things draft related subjects. He had Josh McCown break down these quarterbacks extensively. And it's a fun watch to see what McCown might think. And it's relevant because he's the quarterbacks coach of the Carolina Panthers.

Now, this is just a few weeks before he was hired and listen to the way he talked about Stroud. Physically without doing the deep dive of, you know, who he is as a person and talking to his coaches and getting to know really CJ Stroud all the way around physically as I watch him, I think his skill set is very similar to Joe Burrow. Okay, I think that would be the guy in the NFL and, you know, fellow fellow one-time Buckeye that that I would look at and go, okay, he moved about same size, same frame, same kind of arm talent, moves the same way physically. He reminds me of Joe Burrow, who every team in the NFL wants. Other than Patrick Mahomes, if you asked any team in the NFL, you can have one quarterback in the league, not named Patrick Mahomes. Who do you take? They'd all take Burrow.

They'd all take Burrow right now. And CJ Stroud reminds Josh McCown, the Panthers quarterbacks coach of him? Okay, let's get to what he had to say about Bryce Young though. The fastest way to get the ball from point A to point B is to throw it. So you got to be able to do that from the pocket. You have to, it's a requisite in this league. And especially at his size, you know, to think that you're going to come in and make a living running around and doing what we showed, you know, in that first section of plays, it's just hard to sustain for 17 games. And so that's going to be an issue. All right, so you're gonna have to throw from the pocket.

That's going to be an issue. His size. Stuff that he did running around in the SEC, that might not work across 17 games. And if he was taken number one, he'd be the smallest quarterback ever taken with the number one pick. While a guy, the Panthers quarterback, coach just described to say, reminds him of Joe Burrow, is there on the board.

Stroud has more tools. And Carolina, David Tepper, Frank Reich, they put together this all-star coaching staff that they paid a fortune for. Jim Caldwell on the offensive side. Sean McVay's right-hand man is the OC in LA. Reich himself, McCown, you put all these guys together who have backgrounds and coaching quarterbacks to find them a talent with these types of tools that you can develop.

I don't think they're going to pass up on that. Stroud has the tools and Bryce Young is going to pass up on that. Stroud has the tools and Bryce Young, it's a big knock, his size.

That's going to be something that's used against him. And don't say, well, what about the Ohio State quarterback issue? Not a lot of great quarterbacks have come out of Ohio State. Justin Fields, I think, put that one to rest. Carolina, they wouldn't have had to trade all of this to get a quarterback if they would have just taken Justin Fields a couple years ago, number eight in the draft. They did that rather than taking JC Horn.

You wouldn't have to do all this. So it's just fitting that the Panthers finally get their quarterback by taking the guy who came after Justin Fields. It's just fitting that that's what it's going to be, I think. CJ Stroud, he's the likely quarterback that Carolina traded up to take it number one. We'll get Darren Gantz thoughts on it though. Panthers.com, Hall of Fame voter.

He'll be here in about 20 minutes or so. Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show is wearing a Panthers toboggan in studio today. What a coincidence. Which you can find, you can see his toboggan on YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch. We put out video for those who don't know. We stream live video that you can find at all those places. Make sure to subscribe, rate, do all those things.

On Twitter at WSJS radio is where you can chime in on the show. Now let's transition back to college basketball. And as we do so, I'm going to try and do something here I've never attempted.

And I don't think it's ever been attempted in sports radio. I'm going to try and make a SpongeBob analogy. Yes, the kids show SpongeBob.

There is a meme that is popular on the internet. When somebody does something that's unpopular, when somebody keeps making the same mistake, there's like a fish character that has his arm outstretched in the, in the air and anger that expresses this sentiment. How many times are we going to have to teach you this lesson, old man? And that's how I feel about the ACC continually getting snubbed by the NCAA. This is me yelling out to the college basketball world.

How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man? Because for the second year in a row, the ACC is going to have to teach the nation a lesson in March. Clearly last year wasn't enough, or maybe they don't give the big 10 conference eight teams this year. You know, the conference that no living college basketball player was alive for the last time they won a national championship.

No active basketball player was alive in 2000 when Michigan state last won. Let's give them eight teams, even though last year the ACC was given five. And what did they do with that five? Three in the elite eight, two in the final four, one leading at halftime by 16 points in the national championship game. So what did they do a year later? There are two teams that were right there on the first four outline that they decided to bump out Clemson and North Carolina, and the ACC was left with five again. Got to teach them that lesson all over again.

And all five have paths, I think, to the second weekend. Miami, assuming that O'Mear is well enough to play, their toughest competition in their bracket is Indiana. Going back to the big 10 thing, I will take Miami over the Hoosiers in round two. NC State is paired in a bracket with teams who don't play a lot of defense. NC State's probably thinking, great, neither do we. We're going to get into a scoring fest. Creighton's best player is a rim protector?

Okay, see what you do with DJ Burns and these two guards, Baby T and Taquavion Smith. Watch out for the pack on the 40-year anniversary of their last national championship. Virginia is a top four seed, which means they should be favored to get to the second weekend. They will be higher seeded than the two teams that they would play if they win their first game in order to get to the second weekend. Duke, they're looking like they're going to play a hobbled Tennessee team in round two that before their starting point guard got hurt, struggled to score.

And without him, they're not long for March. They might match up with Purdue. Again, big 10, not really that concerned about them. And Duke has the bodies inside to deal with Zack Eady. But it all starts with Pitt tonight.

First four, True TV, happy True TV Awareness Day. I think they beat Mississippi State who shouldn't be in the field. And then they're going to be sent to Greensboro and they'll become the darlings of Greensboro because they'd be the only ACC team there.

And people will get behind Jeff Capel and we'll get behind this group that we've watched during the year and we'll root on the ACC. If they beat Iowa State, which is known for their defense, Pitt, one of the older teams in all of college basketball, they're capable of grinding out a win in that situation, they're likely going to get Xavier in round two. And Xavier is without their top guard. Xavier is without their top guard. I'm told guards win in March and Pitt has a handful of good ones. The crowd will be behind Pitt if they play Xavier. So I like their chances in that spot too. And that's the team that's playing once again in a play-in tonight in the first four. For the second year in a row, the ACC is in the same position. You're going to doubt us?

Okay. We'll teach you a lesson when it matters most in the month of March. And here's to hoping that a year from now, we're not having this same stupid conversation. Before we get to Darren Gant, panthers.com, our state's hall of fame voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a quick word from our friends at Modern Chevrolet, a word that we continue to tell you about in regards to them as family. Now, what does that mean, Graham?

We hear people say that all the time and it makes us roll our eyes when people continually do so. Well, this is what it nets you, family at Modern Chevrolet. Everywhere you look, you see folks who have been there for 10, 15, 20 years, sometimes even more than that. I bought a car from Modern a few months ago, and the person who helped me out had been there for, I think, a dozen years. And I can speak personally, outstanding service as a result, complete satisfaction. You didn't really feel like you were being sold on buying a car, which you often hear is a nightmare when you're going to car dealerships. No, you feel like you get a chance to do something. You get a chance to buy something.

Go to the dealership today and have the same experience, 59, 55, University Parkway in Winston-Salem and experience yourself, that being the Modern Chevrolet difference. Now we're being joined by Darren Gant from panthers.com, Hall of Fame voter, as I mentioned. In the last week, Carolina made our jobs a lot more interesting for the next month and a half or so. Everything in regards to draft now going to be observed through the lens of what Carolina is going to do with the number one pick, spoiler, it's going to be a quarterback. Do you think the Panthers know which guy they're taking today at number one?

No, and why would they? They're more than six weeks away from that process. Just to kind of put it in some context with you, when they went looking for a head coach, how many guys did they interview? They interviewed nine. When they interviewed for a GM last time, they interviewed 14 guys before settling on, not settling on, choosing Scott Fitterer.

He was the guy. So I think this time they are going to make sure that they are careful about this thing. They're going to do all the work. They're going to talk to Bryce Young. They're going to talk to CJ Stroud. They're going to go see Will Leviss. They're going to go see Anthony Richardson.

And I said that in the order of their pro days, not any other order. So we'll see how it goes. I mean, they are going to go through this thing deliberately. They're going to do all their research. They're going to turn over every rock on all four of these guys and make sure they're taking the right one. When you give up what they gave up to get there, that's your job.

It's incumbent on you to do that. What you're saying makes all the sense to me. You put together this terrific staff that David Tepper invested in. It just had the writing written on the wall that you'd want to bring in a young quarterback for this staff to do their thing, to let the chefs cook, so to speak. But I can hear the counter of people listening to this conversation right now saying, wait a minute, you just gave up DJ Moore and all these draft picks without knowing for sure what guy you actually want at number one?

You can lean a certain way. You can think that that list of four might be too deep, or maybe it's three deep. You might even have a one, but you owe it to yourself to have a thorough process. I think, honestly, as David Tepper has gone through this thing, he's learned some things about what it takes to hire a coach or go find a quarterback. There's a lot of quick knee-jerk reactions that, in hindsight, maybe you wish you would have done over. I think now they're at a point where they want to go through this thing deeply and thoroughly and make sure they've got the guy. I think some people say, oh, you don't know who your guy is, as if that's a bad thing, because we've confused certainty and adamance with a certain conviction, and I think it's the other way around.

I think curious people will want to find out as much as they can about all these guys and make sure they're right, rather than just insisting that they're right right now without any degree of evidence. Carolina gave up DJ Moore and Krista McCaffrey last year. Some are wondering, well, who's this quarterback going to be throwing to, hypothetically?

And my concern, I'm not that concerned about that. I've learned, come to learn, following this league for a while now, there are two positions it's really incredibly hard to find talented players on the open market at. Offensive lineman, which Carolina last night locked up, Bradley Bozeman. So they'll have all their starters back. And you wrote about that at panthers.com.

People should check that out. And then it's really hard to find quarterback. So it didn't surprise me at all. Carolina gave up all that they did to ensure they have their pick of the litter and getting a dude at quarterback, knowing that they already had the offensive line piece figured out of this as well. How concerned are you, Carolina, with that second second round pick they have and also the money now they have in free agency is going to be able to find weapons that this quarterback will be paired with? Listen, I think it's fair to be concerned about who those guys are going to be, but it's so early in that process. Again, you're talking about they've still got the 39th pick and the 93rd pick. I think it is off the top of my head without referring to our charts at panthers.com for that. You've got the opportunity to tap into a pretty deep class of wide receivers.

There's still actually one of the things I'm kind of curious about through the first, what are we, 26, 27 hours into the negotiation period. None of those top couple of tight ends have done anything yet. I'm a little curious to see Darren Waller got traded today, but Darren Waller is old and expensive and has been hurt a lot.

I think a lot of people see that and they're like, oh, what are they doing? Well, he's on the wrong side of 30. He hasn't been terribly available and he's expensive. Not everybody's going in for that, but there's still a couple of guys in Giseke and, yeah, you're putting me on the spot, Dalton Schultz, who haven't gotten deals in the last 10 minutes at least.

They're still out there. I think there's some other names they're curious about, but it's still so early in this process. I would also suggest a lot of contracts are built with guarantees that are effective two days, three days into the league year. By Friday, Saturday, you'll see some movement on guys probably who will become available in a little bit who might not be available now.

I would just say there's a degree of patience in this thing. Even though DJ was a wide receiver, there's a big glaring hole at wide receiver. I think it's worth being patient on that thing because I keep going back to Cam Newton's first year. What did they do for him when he was a rookie? They trade for Greg Olsen and they go sign Jeremy Shockey to back him up. Now, there's not a Greg Olsen available right now. I think Dalton Schultz is pretty good, but he's not a Greg Olsen level player. But I think if you go out and find a tight end now or maybe in the draft and then put them together with some of the odd parts you're collecting through free agency, I think there's still an opportunity to have that because as you mentioned, the biggest thing for whoever this quarterback is, whether it's Bryce, whether it's CJ, whether it's any of the rest of them is he's got Bradley Bozeman snapping it to him. He's got Icky Iquanu and Taylor Moten on either side and two pretty good guards in the middle, even though Austin Corbett's coming off an ACL. So I think that part of it is bigger than, oh my gosh, who at 342 on March 14th is the wide receiver. And Brady Christensen coming off an injury as well in the regular season finale. Darren Gant with us. The Panthers are one more trade away from not having any picks on Friday and you being able to go to Merle Fest with me to watch the Avett brothers. So that's something to root for, I think.

Yeah. Tell me more. Tell me more about taking a day off during the draft. That's kind of the dream, I think, if you're covering a draft, if you could have only the first pick. The Saints beat writers back in the day with Ricky Williams. That was a perfect draft to cover.

It was a really interesting story right out of the shoot. And then, all right, we'll see y'all. WD is putting together a skips or plays with Hayes playlist for Hayes-Permar. And he told me since Kentucky's coming to town for the NCAA tournament, it's going to be all Kentucky artists. We got to celebrate.

We have to. Going to be fantastic having all the Kentucky people around here. Had me thinking about bluegrass. Heavy Sturgill in that list. You have to think. Is bluegrass, country, or rock star Sturgill Simpson your favorite Sturg?

All of the above. I love that he contains multitudes. I love that he is both at the same time.

Why would you want to be one or the other when you can be both? The rock and roll album, the concept, anime, movie, that was good Sturgill. I like that. I knew it was good with Mick Mixon. Yeah, the weekend that came out, I knew it was good when Mick Mixon came up to me, former voice of the Panthers, and said, hey, have you heard this? You heard this?

All right, this is how I know. It's pretty good that Sturgill has broke through a bit. Any big shows on the horizon for you?

Boy, I don't know. Hey, like I said, it's been kind of a busy month between combine and catching a little COVID and coming back and having a little trade for the first pick dropped in your lap. Feels like I've been in football mode trying to sketch out all these pro days coming up starting next week. So it feels like March is a little bit of lost month, but I got to get back out there.

Yeah, league year starts tomorrow. Then after that, you can get a nap. Baron, thanks for the time. It's good to see you, buddy. One of these days. See y'all.

Check this out. We're on it. The perfect blend of sports and pop culture happens this evening at six with the Rich Eisen Show. Okay, let's get this show rolling. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham.

My final four picks, my national championship prediction in about 10 to 15 minutes. But it is true TV awareness day, true TV awareness week as the only time sports fans watch this channel is when NCAA tournament games are on, including the first for Pittsburgh facing Mississippi State with the chance to advance to Greensboro, hanging in the balance. W.D., if you continue to watch true TV, you might watch great shows like Adam Ruins Everything. That sounds pretty good. Impractical Jokers, anyone?

Tacoma F.D.? That sounds great. How about the true TV original top secret videos, which has some guy waving like a nerd in the picture standing next to another guy who looks just like Louis C.K.? See back on TV? Find out on true TV. We have the broadcast schedules for the NCAA tournament regional games in Greensboro. The first game on Friday afternoon will be at 1240 Kennesaw State and Xavier.

That's 1240 in the afternoon, by the way. 1240 tip, it's the second game that's going to go that day. Following this game will be Pittsburgh and Iowa State, just assuming that Pitt wins against Mississippi State tonight.

That's what we call optimism in the biz. Give me some of that March Madness music. Let's jazz this thing up a little bit. It's the start of the tournament. The tournament starts today. Just inject it into my veins.

There's no theme music that gets me more excited for college basketball than March Madness. Yeah! Yeah! Ah! Give it to me! I'm right here! Kill me!

Ahh! So, yes, Kennesaw State, Xavier, followed by Pitt, Iowa State, and then the Nightcap. Both those games, you're not going to believe this, W.D. They're going to be broadcast on true TV. You're not going to believe this, W.D.

They're going to be broadcast on true TV. Let's go! Those first two games. Look at that. So, if you don't have true TV, Piedmont Triad, listen to my voice right now. Get your butt to the Coliseum. If you don't have true TV and you want to watch Xavier play Kennesaw State or Pitt play Iowa State, we hope Pitt. You've got to be in the Coliseum to give that a watch. And then the big crowd going to show up for 710 Kentucky facing Providence. West Durham was with us yesterday saying Providence is going to bring some people. All right, we shall see. The Nightcap, hopefully, will start at 940.

That's generous. If that game tips off a minute before 945, color me shocked. That's UC Santa Barbara and K-State.

So, this is the question I have for the Triad today. Which game will attract a bigger crowd in Greensboro Friday? Xavier, Kansas State, Xavier, Kansas State at 1240 in the afternoon or Kansas State, Montana State after the Kentucky game, which they say is going to tip at 940, but probably closer to 945, 10 o'clock.

60% of the poll that I put out on Twitter that you can vote on at Josh Graham Radio says the Night game, K-State and Montana State. And I think I agree with that. And this is my logic. Kentucky fans have bought tickets to both games.

It's true. They're going to stick around for the second game. And secondarily to that, it's Friday night. We're not working tomorrow.

That's a good point. Yeah, we're not working tomorrow. We could stay up late.

It's fine. Let's go. And K-State, they got fans. Montana State apparently has fans. I was in Greensboro just a couple of weeks and weekends ago hanging out with a Montana State Bobcat fan. They hate the Grizz in Montana. Don't break up the Grizz when you're around Montana State folks this week, Greensboro. So we got the broadcast schedule.

Here's the crew that's going to be broadcast in the games. Ian Eagle, Jim Spinarkle and Evan Washburn. Spinarkle has history in the Greensboro Coliseum, former Duke Blue Devil. He was on the teams right before Coach K arrived and won an ACC title and an ACC tournament MVP inside the Greensboro Coliseum. That was his junior season in 1978-79. He went back to the championship game, lost to North Carolina.

So he knows the building well. Ian Eagle, who we've had on this show several times, he is going to be the one replacing Jim Nantz after this season as the lead play-by-play man for the NCAA tournament. But even though Orlando probably stole the tournament that the regional we should have had here in Greensboro, our city's going to make it great. I have no doubt about that. Earlier today, I was invited to speak at the Piedmont Triad Sports Club. We were at Kickback Jacks in Greensboro and I'm so appreciative to those who came out, who listened to the show, who listened to me speak, put up with 45 more minutes of me speaking. But one thing I pointed out to them is this area, not pandering, loves college basketball more than any area across the country.

Full stop. And we can chart that. Just go ahead and look at the ratings books. For the Final Four and for the national championship game, the last 10 years, and you will see on every single one of those, Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem appear. Because we love college basketball, even when our teams aren't involved. There's no reason why when Texas Tech is in their first ever national championship game, more people percentage-wise in this area were watching that game than watching in Lubbock, Texas. That shouldn't happen.

And it did. Speaks to how much. And maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. Maybe we shouldn't look at the NCAA giving Orlando those teams as a sign of disrespect to Greensboro. Maybe we should look at it as a sign of respect that they can send teams that aren't even within five hours drive of it and know they don't have to worry about a draw. Kentucky fans, they're going to show up. As much as we're annoyed by Kentucky fans, we respect how they show up in volume, in mass. We get that.

But I mean the other games that I'm talking about, that 945 tip, that 1240. There are going to be people in the building for that. And there are going to be folks here in the Triad that simply love college basketball and want to support it.

So maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. People are going to be there, and there are going to be a lot of people from a lot of different places that otherwise never even thought to visit Greensboro, North Carolina, who are going to experience the games that are going to experience the Gate City for the first time. And I guarantee you they're going to have a great experience because the folks at the Coliseum, they are top notch. The way that we handle tournaments, the way that we support these things, the way local businesses support it, that's going to be, it's going to be a fantastic week no matter what. In fact, we're going to be broadcasting shows 10 a.m. to noon, Thursday and Friday, since we're going Westwood One's coverage throughout those days, including a broadcast from Steel Hands on Friday from 10 a.m. to noon.

So you could see us across the street at the Coliseum before walking in to watch that 1240 game that we're talking about, that first one. My final four pick, my final four picks in my national championship prediction, next on The Drive. Thank you, sir. May I have another? March!

We sleep in May! I've got picks here. My bracket is completed.

I'll post the entire thing on my social media at Josh Graham Radio, Twitter and Instagram shortly. In terms of big upsets that I have, I've got a 10, an 11, a 12, a 13, a 14 and a 15 winning round one games and a 13 seed Furman going to the Sweet 16. So I'm stopped, I'm fully stopped on upsets. Colgate is my 15 seed. Three straight years, we're going to get it, I think.

Last year, we saw the Peacocks, St. Peter's make that run, but it started with beating a two seed and the year before that it was Oral Roberts taking down Ohio State. Colgate, I've always been a Colgate guy. Crest, get out of here.

Colgate, that's where it's at, taking down the Horns. Horns down. But let's advance things to the Elite Eight.

That's where we're going to start here. I've got my Elite Eight picks that we'll do all the way through to the national championship and we start in the top left south region where this is as chalky as my bracket gets. The number one seed Alabama facing the number two seed Arizona. Arizona, Red Hot just won the Pac-12 championship. Alabama, the tournament's overall number one seed. WD, I believe in a thing called basketball karma.

We saw it with Wake Forest taking down Syracuse, ending Jim Boeheim and it happening in Greensboro. And I think basketball karma is going to strike in the Elite Eight. There's way too much smoke surrounding this Alabama program right now.

They will not get to Houston. Arizona will. It's a shootout. Both these teams probably shouldn't have said that with Alabama being the team. It's a high scoring game. Yeah, we'll just edit that out in post. It's not like we're live or anything. Arizona is the team that goes to Houston.

I'm sorry about that. To the east region, bottom left region, we've got five seed Duke facing second seeded Marquette. These two teams, WD, I don't know if you know this, have the longest winning streaks among high major teams heading into the tournament.

Both have won nine in a row. Duke's just a little bit hotter in my opinion because it should be 10-10. It should be a win against UVA in Charlottesville if Filipowski is allowed to go to the free throw line. I think Duke's just a really tough draw to face on short rest, to face on a two-day prep. That length is going to bother a lot of teams and Duke has first round talent all across its roster. The good vibes continue for the Blue Devils.

They're on to the next one. The Blue Devils, they're on to their second consecutive Final Four. To the top right Midwest region, we have that Texas matchup that everybody's looking for in the Elite Eight, except it's not featuring the Longhorns.

As I mentioned, first round loss to Colgate. It's Houston against Texas A&M. And for folks who don't know the city of Houston at all, how sports fans generally work there. Yes, the Longhorns matter all across the state, but actually the two most popular teams in that city from a college sports perspective, Texas A&M and Houston, who's in the city. So you're going to get one of those two teams to Houston, Texas for the Final Four. And I think it's going to be the seven seed. I think it's going to be Texas A&M.

Buzz Williams has a wagon this year. They go to what's going to feel like essentially a home game at the Final Four in Houston. And then to wrap things up, I think this is the easiest path a one seed has. I don't have any other one seeds going to the Final Four. Kansas facing TCU. I think TCU is going to make a run. Love them out of the Big Twelve, certainly battle tested. So you have an all Big Twelve Elite Eight matchup. Kansas wins that to go to the Final Four trying to protect or repeat as national champions from last year. There's my Final Four, Arizona, Duke, Texas A&M and Kansas. Let's dive into these matchups. Arizona, Duke. This is where I think the Blue Devils get toppled. Arizona just has too much offense.

Now I do worry about playing in these big football stadiums. Teams that rely so much on scoring because of depth perception and generally you see scoring go down. But I think Arizona will have just enough and Duke will be the one struggling to shoot in that spot. The Wildcats on to the national championship game. And I'm going to keep riding the wave with A&M.

A lot of familiar names. Henry Coleman transferring from Duke. You've got Radford who transfers in from Virginia Tech who's an excellent guard that they have. I love this A&M team.

They roll like 10 deep. Buzz Williams is a fantastic coach. They upset Kansas in what will feel like a home game for them in Houston to go to the championship game. Arizona and Texas A&M face off.

And I'm going to go with the Wildcats. Arizona with their offense with a great coach in Tommy Lloyd. They were tempted to hire Damon Stoudemire who's an Arizona alum a couple of years ago. Opted for the longtime Gonzaga assistant instead.

It wasn't the most popular thing at the time. It worked out for them and they're going to be rewarded with a national championship. Arizona over Texas A&M in Houston on April the 3rd on the final Monday of March. This song's a banger. Oh harmonizing! Haze Permar's blank brackets.

Anytime you cover Taylor Swift we'll play it on this show. Haze Permar joining us to play Skips or Plays with Haze. How's your bracket looking? Unstarted, uncompleted yet. I didn't even begin to fill it out. I mean I'll do it in 45 seconds from start to finish so I can do it you know whenever.

Thursday right before noon but no I've not even started doing it. That's how turned off I am by college basketball. He's approached it just like these great musicians always talk about how their greatest hits. Like a blank brackets for example. Just comes to them in 45 seconds and you're able to perform a masterpiece. That's what I took away from the Get Back Beatles documentary where just there was one moment where Let It Be was not a song and then there was another moment where Let It Be was a song and we got to see that in real time. 100% I let the bracket come to me. There is an element of you know when you as much as anyone else I don't think I'm not going to give you credit for being smarter than anyone else Josh Graham but you will spend as much time watching games reading articles looking at metrics as anyone else and you know that that will have zero effect on exactly how well. No no no I disagree.

I think it actually is it hurts you. It doesn't even it's not even in that neutral because I've watched and I've made this point before I've watched probably 50 of these 68 teams play but out the the little guys I've maybe watched a half of. I've watched a game or two.

What if somebody was out that I didn't know about? What if they were just a lot better that day than they've been all year long or a lot worse conversely when I watched? You're kind of your biases are your biases and if that's my if that one sample influences my opinion well that's it. Like I watch this team play and it hurts me more than somebody who can say I never watched Furman play so I can a lot easier just pick Virginia through to the next round. You know what I think would be an interesting study is like what if you know how in chess you can describe moves as like you know pawn from from a1 to b3 or whatever like that the squares are numbered and the same thing like every year the bracket looks the same like there's four quadrants a five you're going to play 12 in the first round or whatever whatever one of these every year you said I'm going to keep my combination the same the the same like I'm picking a 13 over four in the midwest I'm picking the one seed all the way in the south and the east I bet you know like you don't even look at teams you just say every year this is how my entire brackets going to light up seed laws and then when they fill out the bracket you just enter that into your teams and mark that against how you do with another bracket where you actually try to take the teams I'd be curious to see which one would do better. Hayes Permar with us here we're going to play skips or plays with Hayes in a moment but I want to get your thought on the draw that Greensboro received not the conspiracy stuff of hey on the screen Greensboro flipped to Orlando at the last second or Orlando got the the regional that should have been in Greensboro with Duke, Tennessee and Virginia all being sent there but more so do you think Greensboro there's two ways to think about this and I wonder what school you fall in here you can view this as the NCAA completely disrespecting Greensboro by giving them all schools that are from far away five hour drive I think it's the closest team and it's Kennesaw State with Kentucky being the draw or you can look at it as them having a lot of respect for Greensboro and just every year how the ratings books come out and regardless of who's playing in the final four Greensboro high point Winston-Salem's in the top 10 they're going to show up to watch whatever team show up and they're going to be they're going to be accommodating they're going to be great the gate city is going to show well regardless and have good attendance where do you fall on what the NCAA is giving Greensboro? It's interesting the way you describe the options I maybe go with the latter there yeah I think like obviously yeah however the NCAA selection process goes you know that they had earmarked okay our top seed in Greensboro will be probably either North Carolina, Duke, Virginia or maybe NC State as the season was going on at some point they may have considered that and like that that was who they were hoping to put there and then I do think I don't without knowing all the moving parts I don't think you can go total conspiracy theory because yes like from a ticket sales from a local interest putting Duke there obviously works but then there hits the you don't want to have a what happened to the NC State women last year where some team gets totally screwed where they're supposed to be a higher seed and they end up having to play an away game versus Duke you know they end up complaining about that seeding so likely some of those things were at play but I think it's like more of a respect factor of like yeah none of the top teams made it I mean anytime they give you Kentucky I feel like it's like you know at all the other places they're trying to do the work the puzzle of what are the best local teams to put here that fit seed wise to get us the best fan interest and once they stick Kentucky on your side they're like all right we we don't we don't think about any of the other B or C options it's like if you got Kentucky we know you're selling X number of tickets in this case it was probably Kentucky coupled with hot college bed traditional market and we know it'll do fine so we don't have to worry about it yeah I think that's my read on it as the week's gone on now let's get the skips or plays with Hayes which hitting on Kentucky again is Kentucky themed Hayes Permar is somewhat of a renaissance man an expert in the finer things but he hangs his hat on music loves this god and he's the friend of satan he was like oh six getting busy with the sticks been watching big mike and little trinket trip I just need a Zion and someone he can dunk on today Hayes will decide if this music is smash or trash blows or blows it's time for skips or plays with Hayes Hayes I might make you middleman to try and get Matt Jones on the show since I know you know Matt I don't view anything I don't view there's no bad blood between me and Matt it's just Kentucky fans that I think are obnoxious and I disdain so I wonder how that would go if you could help me extend an olive branch to our guy Matt well you're a you're a big skin radio host I mean Kentucky fans aren't gonna rattle you right and like I said I didn't I won't say I heard every minute of everything that you or Matt said about each other but uh I think it was mostly respectful even if jabs were taken um so no I uh I'll touch base with them and I might maybe I'll um coordinate with Will Dalton and we'll just see if Matt Jones could just call in at a random time just to say what's up wow now that would be fun that's uh I don't know if I'm a fan of that I don't like surprises but we'll see we'll see what happens uh WD you've got Kentucky themed here see this is us starting to extend the olive branch since they're coming to town we're here to celebrate we're gonna be cordial here in the gate city I've got Kentucky getting through to the round of 16 so I think they'll win twice in Greensboro this is me trying to make amends with people that might have been hurt I don't know anyway these are artists all from the state of Kentucky from the bluegrass state all right we're gonna start with Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton when was this song released it's recent not that recent thing maybe last year no no no pre-pandemic this song this song is not 10 years old but I think it's five years old it's quickly become 2015 it's quickly become the go-to karaoke song yeah it's become the karaoke song of choice if you're trying to impress people you sing Tennessee Whiskey uh no this is a great song this is a play I won't pretend to be more of a Stapleton fan than I am I should be more of one I would definitely go to a show of his if it's off the opportunity and like this is his song that gets worn out but it's like it's a dang good song and it's a play so yes absolutely there are a lot of good options to pick between just off the top of my head from Kentucky what's the next song of choosing the way I've always been Tom T. Hall it is the bluegrass state Tom T. Hall I think is a Louisville guy could be wrong on that I was gonna say I've never heard of Tom T. Hall but you know there was a banjo in it so I was willing to listen and it sounds like a uh wistful ballad that I would thoroughly enjoy so I don't know a lot about it but in the sample I got him I have to go play it yeah you need to that's a good song by Tom T. Hall you gotta look that one up the way I've always been what genre is he is he considered folk or is he like avid brothers where he's like considered kind of rocky even though he's technically yes yes that's the answer to that question he's seemed to be a legend I only know him because of the album cover there was like an album cover of him in a suit and there are a lot of things like dispersed on like a front yard and that's what I know Tom T. Hall from anyway what is the last I like the sound I want to hear more time all right I'll text it to you what's the last song that we have Billy Ray Cyrus I want my mullet back that's the Billy Ray song I thought Billy Ray only had one song and it wasn't this I mean maybe I need to hear more of this but I'm more inclined to think I don't need to hear any more of this that isn't skill um I'm not sure if there was a Billy Ray Cyrus song that I would have played even though like there is what what what what was his famous song achy breaky heart right that was I was to say uh yes yes yes yes I might have liked that one just on pure nostalgia but um no the best thing that Billy Ray Cyrus gave us at this point is obviously Miley Cyrus more than any song that he gave us I'm a little disappointed we're doing artists from Kentucky no sturge we can't get the father of bluegrass bill Monroe in there the high loads of sound oh really not I mean the fact that you played two bluegrass inspired artists I guess uh will count so that'll be good I was surprised we didn't get any Sturgill Simpson I'm not the most educated when it comes to country that's all right and then if you're just going songs in Mitch Kentucky, Kentucky Woman by Neil Diamond, very underrated Neil Diamond song she'll get to know you uh Kentucky Woman great song. 32nd version Hayes are you out on the Carolina Hurricanes as a Stanley Cup contender after Andres Fechnikov we learned out for the season? I'm not I'm probably looking through it through canes colored glasses but uh they always were going to need people to step up in the playoffs and become playoff dudes and that's still the case but the fact that they didn't have an identified this is our playoff dude that we can't win without means that Fechnikov wasn't that guy so in that sense I don't feel like it eliminates him like somebody's gonna have to have a Tayshaun Prince like run and become a Justin Williams like oh my gosh I'm better in the playoffs than I regularly am nature's gonna be great I was gonna be great and then maybe somebody else is gonna have to be a playoff dude um it would have been awesome if it was such but I don't think necessarily uh they're done without such. Tayshaun Prince like run is excellent on your part. All right Permar we'll talk to you next week. Yes we will thanks boys.