Biggest Tournament Storylines (Hour 3)

Yo, yo! How we doing? Hour number three of our radio program.

Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. It's March. Ain't that right? Upsets, upsets, upsets, and more upsets.

I just sounded like Oprah Winfrey right there. Hickey during the holiday time. You get an upset, you get an upset, you get an upset. And that's what happened today. Furman taking down Virginia in a 13-4 game. You have Princeton, the mighty Tigers of Princeton out of the Ivy League. Taking down Arizona, a 15-beat and a 2.

Three straight years. And we'll see what other chaos can happen tonight. Now there's different sizes of an upset and different waves of an upset. Like an 8 beats, a 9 beats an 8. Okay, it's a mini upset.

A 10 beats a 7. Mini upset. But when you start to get into like the 12-5 category, that's when you start to get to your pretty damn big upsets. And then once you're like a 14, a 15, or a 16, that's like monumental.

Drop everything, what you're doing, and you need to get to a television or a radio to watch or hear what's going on. And we've already seen two of those upsets today as, like I just said, Princeton beat Arizona 59-55. Arizona didn't score a bucket. Not even a single point. They had a free throw. They had a lousy free throw in the final 4 minutes and 45 seconds. And then you did have Furman beat Virginia 68-67. And you just had an awful turnover late by Virginia. Furman takes it.

And Pageas did make the big play and made the bucket after the turnover was forced and the ball was passed to another player on Furman and then eventually passed to JP. So just what a crazy, crazy day so far. And I'll give you your final scores right now and then we'll get into a news brief. Arkansas beats Illinois 73-63. Maryland beats Huggy Bear 67-65. Missouri gets a victory 76-65. San Diego State beats Charleston 63-57. We just told you Furman beats Virginia 68-67. Princeton takes down Arizona 59-55. Kansas beats Howard 96-68. Bama, they're moving on. Brandon Miller, though, did not play well in this game.

Had no points. Has a groin injury. Tracy Wilson said it happened in their previous game. So we will monitor that and Alabama's going to get the winner of this Auburn-Iowa game as right now you do have Auburn up at halftime 31-26.

Miller only played 19 minutes in the 96-75 victory. And you have Texas early up by one against Colgate 215 with 12.50 to go. And you do have Northwestern right now up 24-18 on Boise State under seven to go.

Let's go Leon Rice's squad. Get things moving at the half. Duke up big 40-23 up against Oral Roberts. And we're awaiting the second half play to begin. It's just about to begin between Auburn and Iowa once again. Auburn is up 31-26.

Still to come, Houston, Northern Kentucky. That's coming up at 9.20 p.m. Eastern. Tennessee, Louisiana at 9.40 p.m. Eastern. Penn State has a ten seed going up against Texas A&M who's a seven seed at 9.55. UNC Asheville, UCLA at 215 game at 10.05 p.m. Eastern.

And then when you turn the page to tomorrow, Hickey, are there any big upsets that you identify early tomorrow that could potentially be brewing? I see some people are down on Baylor. I don't think Baylor is going to lose to UC Santa Barbara. I do like VCU tomorrow to beat St. Mary's. That's a 12-5 game so I like the 12 seed VCU team. Marquette does play Vermont.

I don't think we're going to see another 15 seed go down but that would be something. I do like Iowa State but there are six. They play Pitt. I know some people like Pitt in that game.

You do have a 6'11 crate in NC State. UConn, Iona. I wouldn't put anything past Patino, Hickey. But I do think that Hurley squad is going to find a way to beat Iona. Did you hear the Fairleigh Dickinson coach, by the way, last night?

That's one way. That's one way to get your guys ready to go. I want Purdue to hear this. We're ready to play Purdue.

We're not afraid of them. The more we watch, the more we say to ourselves that we can beat these guys. Now I have Purdue losing to Memphis in the second round. But Purdue Fairleigh Dickinson, it seems like Purdue is going to go win that game by 20 tomorrow after the coach of Fairleigh Dickinson just run in his mouth. Yeah, that does not sound, not maybe the wisest thing we'll say in terms of calling out a team that you're going to play.

At this point, you're going to get the most promotion and most publicity for your school. You really have nothing to lose. No one thinks you're going to win.

That's really the only downside. You lose by 40. It's not a big deal. I think you're a clown. You lose by 10, 5. You win the game, I think you're a hero.

As you would say, no big deal, no big deal either way. Drake tomorrow up against Miami, that's a 12-5 game. Could have an upset there. And that's probably where you draw the line in the stat. I think I did pick Kent State to beat Indiana in a 13-4 game.

So, we'll continue to monitor those situations as well. And Hurley, you have two Hurleys in the NCAA tournament. So, Bobby Hurley over at Arizona State going to go up against TCU tomorrow.

Jamie Dixon's squad in an 11-6 matchup. So, you got a good slate of games tomorrow, but we still got a lot more to get to tonight. And it's tough, really like, it's only 8 p.m. Eastern right now, Hickey. And we've been saying this ever since, what, 6.30? It's going to be tough for tomorrow to top today. I won't put it past the Friday of the NCAA tournament, but when you already have a 15 in Princeton beating a 2 in Arizona, and a 13 in Furman beating a 4 in Virginia, I don't know how you get much better than that.

I don't think we're seeing a hot take. Come on, 16. Let's do it. Call your shot. Purdue losing tomorrow. Houston losing tomorrow.

Let's go. Why do you have to do that? What do you mean? Well, like, usually you're just jinxing now the better, you know, the worst seeds. No, I'm not saying that's what I'm saying. I'm saying that's what you should be saying right now on the radio, but calling your shot. Purdue is going down tomorrow.

That's what's going to make tomorrow better than today. A lot of people are upset with you about your Arizona pick, by the way. We had the caller from Tucson berate you and say, this is all on Hickey, that's why my team is out, because if you missed it, Hickey's final four was Arizona, Marquette, Texas, and Gonzaga. My final four, I went with, let me see if I can remember this off the top of my head. I went with Alabama, then I did go with Texas. I went with Duke and Kansas and ended up having an Alabama-Texas national championship. And how about the storyline entering that national championship, Hickey?

Because like when you're, you know this, when you get to a Super Bowl, when you get to an NBA finals, when you get to a national championship, it becomes an event, and then you like document the entire season as if no one was watching the season at all. For Alabama, you can't not discuss the Brandon Miller situation, right, and everything that has gone down with that basketball team, and that's been talked about on the pregame show today, on the selection Sunday show, and obviously when it initially occurred, just with the terrible situation that we did see unfold where an innocent woman unfortunately did lose her life, and she was murdered. And then on the other side of it for Texas, Chris Beard gets arrested, then gets fired. Now he lands at Ole Miss, but the job that Texas has done with Chris Beard being away, you know, and no longer with the program, you know, if that ends up being the championship game, Alabama and Texas, that pregame show, it's really going to be like just bizarre when you have to go through some of those storylines.

At least Texas, you could say, did the right thing and got rid of a guy who, you know, was in trouble and they moved on. Now obviously there's no charges against Brandon Miller, so it's not exactly a direct comparison, but like you said, there's a lot of questions that are still unanswered, and it does still feel weird, even though it's been now a few games, still feels weird seeing Brandon Miller out there, despite the fact of everything we know, everything that's gone on, and like I said, unfortunately resulted in a tragic death, and it's like nothing's happened. Like I know Darius Miles is clearly off the basketball team and has bigger things to worry about right now with him being more involved in the situation, but you look at Brandon Miller, that was even, like Charles Barkley even said today, they had to sit him down at one point this year, like they should have sat him down. And then even Barkley, I was listening to him today, it was on the pregame show, I forget which exact channel it was because it's all linked together with CBS, TruTV, TNT, and TBS and all that, and Barkley was saying he shouldn't have played the entire season, they should have sat him down at some point, but Barkley, and obviously he went to Auburn, he said when I've watched Alabama this year, he thinks they're clearly the best team in the country, and there's a reason why they are the number one overall seed. So you wonder who's going to prevent them from getting to the Final Four, because right, we had Jon Fantone yesterday, and even Jon said that kind of when you look at it, they have the easiest road to get to the NCAA tournament, and there's no one that Jon, like we asked Jon who watches more college basketball than anybody, and Jon yesterday was struggling to say who the heck is going to beat Alabama coming out of that south.

Now, I know Alabama has more than just Brandon Miller, right, they are a great team, but we know how great Brandon Miller is, and there's been comparisons to Kevin Durant with his style of play, but for Brandon Miller, he's now dealing with this groin injury, and he barely played today, you don't have to really force him up against a 16 and push him up against a 16, especially with how lopsided the game is, but Tracy Wilson reported that Nate Oates told her that he was dealing with this groin injury going back to their last game that they did play. So if this game is tight up against Maryland, who found a way to beat West Virginia, and you don't have a healthy or healthy enough Brandon Miller, you know, maybe Alabama does go home sooner rather than later, but like right now, I look at that region, Alabama-Maryland we know is a matchup, San Diego State-Furman is a matchup, Missouri-Princeton is a matchup. You know, we were looking at teams like Arizona, maybe Virginia, to kind of derail the Alabama path to Houston for the Final Four, but you look around, now Virginia's gone, Arizona's probably the biggest threat, they're gone, and you look the rest of the way, Baylor doesn't have the looks of a NCAA championship team this year.

We know how great of a coach Scott Drew is. I don't think anyone, even though Furman had a great upset today, and they could beat San Diego State, I don't think anyone if Alabama gets past Maryland is going to pick Alabama to lose to Furman. So the road did get easier today for Alabama. Now, you've got to control what you could control, but when you look at Alabama, your biggest challenger would have been Arizona to get to the Final Four, and now Arizona's gone. So you don't even have to hold your breath and be like, all right, you're in the Elite Eight, and you've got to go through Arizona with their bigs, because now Arizona's going home. So it did get easier for Alabama today, but you do say, okay, what's going to happen and how big of a deal, and we don't know the answer to that, is the injury with Brandon Miller.

The easiest team or the best team I'm sure to have the easiest bracket, the road just got a whole hell of a lot easier. That is, again, if you're Alabama, even with the injury, you still have to feel pretty good about where you are right now looking ahead. When we look at storylines in this NCAA tournament, and obviously, Cinderella's are always a storyline, and now Princeton and Furman get thrown right at the top of that list. Alabama, we have talked about that storyline in a big way. Outside of that, what are the biggest storylines in this NCAA tournament?

Like Zach Eady's a big storyline, obviously, and there was no pun intended there. Duke, can they get to the Final Four? And they've been red hot as of late. And now the Dukies, we saw last year what UNC was able to do, first year without Roy Williams, they almost won a national championship, got to the national championship game, is the same fate in store for Duke with John Shire in year one. I do look at Kentucky, too, as a big story in this NCAA tournament hickey. It seems like no one's talking about Kentucky this year, and I know early on it got really ugly for Calipari, and people were like, ugh, Calipari, they're overrated coach, but he kind of saved that chip from sinking, and that will be a fun coaching matchup coming up tomorrow between Ed Cooley and also you do have John Calipari. So I think Kentucky may be an overlooked story in this NCAA tournament. I don't know how far they're going to take it, but how many years do we talk about Kentucky's going to go far, Kentucky's going to go far, and there's expectations on Kentucky. There are really no expectations on Kentucky headed into this tournament. I look at Kentucky and Duke in a similar way because, like I said, two powerhouse Blue Blood programs that got off to really rough starts. Kentucky's, I think, was even a lot worse compared to Duke because they do have the new coach transition, so you can kind of, okay, make a little bit more excuses, make sense, there's more bumps in the road, but either way, both are going to have to slow starts. It really took until late January, they really started kicking into gear, and now the last six weeks, it's like these are two of the hottest teams in college basketball.

It's like, do you really want to be playing them right now? And like I said, Kentucky's kind of that snake in the grass team where because they played so bad the first half of the year, they get written off. Now they're playing some of their best basketball. I have Kentucky going far.

I think my lead eight, if I'm not mistaken now, my bracket, you want to laugh at it because, you know, my champion is out halfway through the first day, but I do think Kentucky has what it takes to make a deep run this year. And then also, you have Shaka Smart away from Texas, now at Marquette, has Marquette in dominant form as a two seed. There's just certain coaches, like whenever you watch Miami, even though Jim Lara Nega has been with the hurricane since 2011, whenever you watch Jim Lara Nega, you think about Jim Lara Nega with George Mason. The same can be said about Shaka Smart, like whenever you look at Shaka Smart, even though Shaka Smart has now had two jobs since his magical run with VCU to the Final Four, like Shaka Smart is one of those darlings, even though it didn't work out to the level they thought it would at Texas, now he's back at Marquette and instantly you see him as a two seed very quickly in short order, like two years into this job, Shaka Smart will always be a storyline as well.

And it also goes to show fit matters. Fit matters for players with coaches, fit matters with coaches in schools, and you see Shaka, for whatever reason, just cannot get it going at Texas, goes to Marquette and now into, like I said, a tremendous year this year, you win the Big East, you are a two seed, a very popular, very popular Final Four pick as well. He's got things rolling and it just shows you if you can get the right fit for a school, pair with the right coach that fits that school and gets that players to play for them hard, things are wide open for you.

UCLA, we know what McCronean has done, I know some people, I don't get why they doubted that hire, they said maybe it wasn't a fit at UCLA when you hired McCronean and he did a wonderful job at Cincinnati, and we've seen how far he could take the UCLA program. I know they're dealing in the aftermath of Jalen Clark and now him being out for the season, but that's a UCLA team that's dominant. The health of Kansas coach Bill Self, who's already won two championships, very important. He did not coach today with the health issues that he's dealing with, but we know Kansas is a team that, yes, because they won last year, a lot of people say, oh, you can't win and repeat again, but they have just such a dominant offensive team. UConn, Hurley, has them rolling as well. We'll see if this is going to be the year where Mark Few cuts down the nets and wins a championship. Texas with all they did overcome in the aftermath of the Chris Beard situation when you get into those storylines.

And then Houston, it's going to be the health of Marcus Sasser and how available is he going to be and how healthy is he going to be for the NCAA tournament. So I think those are pretty much, we covered all the storylines that there are out of the ones that are easily identifiable, and then March creates its own storylines when you have a team like Princeton winning today, a 15 beating a 2, and Furman, a 13 beating a 4. All right, we'll take a break on the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. When we come on back, we'll do a little news brief. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio.

We'll get to a news brief in just a second. But if you are a commanders fan, you may want to carefully pull over. If you're a commanders fan, you may want to sit down because I do have some exciting news for you.

And I hope it's not misleading, but I do trust this guy, and I trust this guy a lot. Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk. The Sniders have cleared out the commander's facility, and there's a belief in the building hickey that a sale is imminent. Now, in this article, it talks about it potentially being Josh Harris. There is ambiguity around Jeff Bezos, but the big information, according to Mike Florio, per multiple sources, Dan and Tanya Snyder have cleared out the team's facility in advance of the sale of the team. As one source explained it, they left in late December. We're also told that within the building, the word being used regarding a potential sale is imminent.

Multiple sources said that a sale could be approved and announced as soon as the upcoming league meetings in Arizona. So the day that commanders fans have wished and hoped for and implored the sports gods to happen, according to Mike Florio, imminent on the sale of getting Daniel Snyder and Tanya Snyder out of your lives when it comes to running and ruining the commanders. That is very interesting, because a few days ago, my owner, Jim Mercy, out of the blue, posted an awfully edited clip from South Park, where it looked like his daughter was watching on TV, and she was recording with her phone, and it was a skit in which Daniel Snyder is pleading with the owners to basically back him up, and no one is doing so.

They basically said, basically, okay, you're on your own. And it was just out of the blue, so random, he had no caption. It's like, okay, this is just Jim Mercy being Jim Mercy. It makes a little bit more sense now that you know he's on the way out. I'm sure Jim Mercy is in the know and that it's imminent.

It makes a little more sense maybe while you post something like that, where, again, it's not saying anything, but it's also not the best look for a guy that's supposed to be one of your 32 business partners in Daniel Snyder. Now, Jim Mercy has done a really bad job with the Colts recently. He has said a lot, and he really hasn't done much. And the Colts have been an embarrassment the last few years. But the best thing he's done, and probably the last, probably since drafting Andrew Luck, let's just say, is he was the leading force behind getting Dan Snyder out of the NFL. He was the only owner that had the cojones to basically say, it's time to get Dan Snyder out of the NFL, and he deserves to get praised for this, because all the other owners let him, and considering the source, they let him be the spokesperson. So I got to give credit to Jim there, because Jim was willing to say things that other owners were thinking, but didn't have the guts to say it. Now, if we could use those cojones to force Chris Bow to trade up to number one, that'd be great, but yes. Well, you missed it. The Panthers did that.

No, I'm saying before the Panthers did. Use those cojones that you did boldly to call out Daniel Snyder, and also use those to trade up to number one. One out of two.

Love to go 1,000, but one out of two I guess is not bad. So when you win, you don't really win. That's the bottom line.

Well, the Colts will be viewed now in a positive light, I guess you could say, as the driving force of getting the worst owner in sports, or second worst owner in sports, maybe one of the two, one or one A with James Dolan out of the sport. Okay, that's fine. You're going to hang a banner for that then?

No, I'd rather have Bryce Young, but what are you going to do? Let's get to a news brief. Furman, moving on to the second round of the NCAA tournament after taking down number four seed Virginia, 13 seed, moving on to the NCAA tournament. Let's hear this crazy turnover that led to the J.P. Pegues three-pointer to give them the lead by one, which ended up being the final score, 68 to 67. This is John Sadak on the Westwood One NCAA tournament radio network. Bounces back to Clark, ten seconds.

He is double. Slapped at. Prayer pass.

Picked off by Heade. Five seconds. Pegues right wing for the win. Yes!

2.2! And time on Virginia! So J.P. Pegues just getting a crazy opportunity, and he delivers, as Bill Rafferty would say, Ooh, a little onions, double sautéed. But just what a terrible, terrible decision by Kihei Clark. I don't know what he was doing. Like, Hickey, when I look back at that play, he's clearly going for the home run pass, and he panicked, and he didn't see the defender for Furman, and he had two guys back.

But my, oh my, oh my. Just what a brutal decision, and it stinks that your career comes to an end that way, a guy that has won a national championship at Virginia. This is why, for me, I love college sports more than professional, because in college sports, professionals are almost too buttoned up. You would never see a mistake like that happen for the most part. College kids, it's almost a wild card, where there's no reason. You have a timeout, call a timeout.

Almost every pro does it. Let me just throw it up, see what happens, and then you get a crazy ending like this. Alrighty, let's continue here. Here's Furman head coach Bob Ritchie. He says he was screaming for Furman to foul before Virginia threw the ball away. And then we had him trapped. I was calling for a foul, but the good Lord knew me.

They couldn't hear me, and they threw it to us. And JP, he didn't make the all-conference team somehow, but he's on the all-winter team, because he knows how to win, and he had a similar play in high school. That's why we recruited him so hard, because I watched his clutch clips, and I watched him do something very similar in a huge state playoff game, and when I saw the ball go up, I knew it was going in, and what a day to be a Paladin. It's kind of funny, Hickey, because you have a coach who's screaming to foul, foul, foul, and then you have his players not fouling, and then you have a player panicking and throwing the ball up in the air, but then on the other hand, it's like you look at West Virginia and Maryland today with under 10 seconds to go. West Virginia was trying to do the same thing and trap Maryland, and then eventually realized it wasn't working, and then they fouled. I know they had an opportunity at the end, but they basically just ran out of time.

You got to foul quicker there in that situation. So it's funny how you could scream and bitch about something in one game, and the other game, the thing that you were bitching about in the other game is going on, and it actually ends up working. The classic no, no, no. Yes!

Oh, yes! Just like I drew it off. What was the best no, no, no, yes moment in your life when it comes to sports? Because I will never forget, I'm in a basketball game, and let's just say, as a big man, I was not a good shooter. I was put in, grab rebounds, throw elbows, and have a bunch of layups. Like, I was good for a triple-double, 10 points, 10 rebounds, 10 elbows in a game. Like, that was my basketball game, and I was in a corner early on, and I was, like, one step in front of the three-point line, and I'm open. They're letting me shoot, and I hear my coach go, no, no, no, no, literally, and I shot it. It swished, and I looked past him, and I did the shh to my own coach, and I'm like, yes. He was screaming no, no, no, no, no as I was about to shoot. That's bad. Usually, you get, like, your own coach.

Pass the ball, no, not to Galvin, the corner. Oh, yes, yes, that's what I meant, yes. That was my best no, no, no, no, no, yes. I wasn't a bad basketball player, but I just wasn't a shooter. You wouldn't expect, like, I was not made for 2023 basketball, a big guy shooting the rock. That wasn't me. You're not Brook Lopez? No. Flying out to the three and just draining them? A long shot for me was a free throw. That was a long shot for me. Was that the elbow?

Pretty much. You know, the elbow may be the furthest distance that Zach Gelb would usually shoot from. Another early exit for Tony Bennett to a double-digit seed. I know he's a national champion, but on how Virginia moves past this devastating loss. We lost in the first round, and that, as he said, it is what it is, but it doesn't take away from what these guys have done and what we've experienced over the years.

But, you know, you wanted it when you felt like you had it, and that was a tough one. And I'm grateful to coach them and keep building, keep trusting, and you've got a choice how you respond, and I will choose to respond the right way. How do you respond to that hickey? Like, I don't know what else he's supposed to say. I saw some people clowning him for that answer today.

But what else is the guy supposed to say? He knows it's a horrible loss. And he's already shown it before in overcoming the worst loss you could possibly have in the tournament.

Yeah, 16. And the very next year winning a national title. So I would give Tony Bennett, by far, the benefit of the doubt that he knows how to rebound from an embarrassing tournament exit. Yeah, but it's just crazy. Since winning that national championship and the year before, right, they lose to UMBC, then they win the national championship, then the tournament gets canceled, then he loses to a 13, then makes the NIT, and then loses to a 13 again. It shows you how far away that, even though that championship's not that far away, it feels like it is ancient when you see some of the losses after that. Unfortunately.

But, Tony, I still get the benefit of the doubt at this point. Maybe adjust the offense a little bit. Maybe let's get to 2023 here and start scoring more. It would be nice to have an offense, yeah. Let's go to Mitch Henderson, the Princeton Tigers. We thought the upset was big today with Furman taking down Virginia with a 13 seed beat and a 4.

How about a 15 beat and a 2 for the third straight year? Mitch Henderson discusses his emotions after Princeton did upset Arizona. This courtesy of the Westwood One NCAA Radio Network. We were down the whole game. That was awesome.

I thought it was going to be improbable. They're so good, Arizona. I'm just so proud of Toson and his teammates. The cool part about this for Princeton is you have Mitch Henderson, who was a part of that great victory with Coach Pete Carril when UCLA lost to Princeton, and Mitch was a player on that team. And now you have Mitch Henderson as the coach. And last time they got to the NCAA tournament, I was there, I was in Buffalo. It was in 2017. And I think it was Devin Kennedy, I believe his name was, if memory serves me right, had a chance to win the game, and he just missed the shot like it went in and out or went off the front rim. And they lost another name, but they threw everything they could. Last year, they lose in the finals of the Ivy League tournament to Yale. This year, they beat Yale. After a few weeks ago, they blew a 19 point lead to Yale and lost in overtime. And now you're in the first round of the NCAA tournament. And for basically the last five minutes, you hold Arizona without a bucket or any points at all.

And with eight minutes ago, they were down by 10. So just a heck of a job by Princeton. And this does come in their first year since the unfortunate passing of Pete Carril, who did pass away in the summer.

So the Princeton program, who's synonymous with Pete Carril, obviously they're honoring him this season and good to see them now dancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament. All right, Edwin Diaz last night, just courtesy of Fox Sports, while celebrating the World Baseball Classic, his teammates started to really just mob him. And unfortunately, he did hurt himself and now is expected to miss the entire season for the Mets as he was celebrating Team Puerto Rico's win. Hopefully, Edwin Diaz isn't really hurt. He might be. Gosh, that would be the only thing that could put a damper on a great night for baseball.

Gosh, you can only hope it's not as bad as it looks based on those faces. Mike Trout defends playing in the World Baseball Classic. This is the funnest experience I had on the baseball field to represent your country. It's been a blast.

Obviously, there's risk involved. You're still playing baseball in spring training. So for me, it's just being a part of this atmosphere. It's special. It means a lot to me.

And Mookie Betts echoes that sentiment as well. It's so much fun. This is way better than getting four bats on the backfield. So I encourage those who are watching, come join, come play for Team USA, because this is a lot of fun. So here's the thing. I personally do not care about the World Baseball Classic. The other day, if I was like, oh, you watch the World Baseball Classic? I'm like, no. I don't care for it.

It has never resonated with me. I understand, though, why some players would want to play in the World Baseball Classic. What happened last night, it's unfortunate, it stinks, and for someone that does not like the World Baseball Classic to begin with or doesn't care for it, yeah, I'm really annoyed that a star player like Edwin Diaz gets hurt in this, but I can't fault Edwin Diaz for playing in this or celebrating. And yeah, if he was in spring training, this probably does not happen, but the whole situation just stinks all around, Ticky, and I think it will make a lot of Mets fans irate with the idea of the World Baseball Classic, and you wonder, and I know it's eventually a player's decision, but you're making $20 million a year, Edwin Diaz, by your team. I wonder if an owner in future years says, yeah, you shouldn't play what the player's response would be. I hate the World Baseball Classic.

Well, you hate it because of that. I'm a Mets fan, so I will be full disclosure, but whoever those two, the first two teammates are that jumped on Edwin Diaz after the save, I would like them arrested. The authorities are on it. They are going to pay for knocking my closer out for the entire year.

It is a gut punch. Also, sources are telling me Arizona basketball fans want you arrested for knocking their team out of the NCAA tournament. Arrest themselves. Since you picked them to win. It's not a me problem. It's an Arizona basketball problem. Oh, no, it is. Just a coincidence that two years after they picked them to win a national title, as a two seed and a four seed, they lose in the first round both times. It's just a coincidence.

It's not me. Alrighty, that's the news brief. It is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio.

We will take a break. Maryland going to be playing Alabama coming up on Saturday. When we come on back, you will hear from the man that dominated for the Terps today, Julian Reese, when he joins us on the Zach Gelb Show.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Crazy day of the NCAA tournament. It all did get started off with Maryland taking down West Virginia, 67 to 65. 8th seed of Maryland moving on past 9th seed West Virginia. Maryland will play Alabama coming up on Saturday. And earlier today, I did get to catch up with Julian Reese from the Maryland men's basketball team. He had 17 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

Listen up to this conversation. What was going through your head walking off the court with the game that you had in helping Maryland advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament? You know, I was proud, a very proud moment for me, you know.

Coming to last year, playing in the Big Ten tournament, not scoring any points, you know, losing that first round. And in our season like that, like, just thinking back to that and that disappointed feeling. Compared to this feeling, it's just a blessing, you know, all the work put in in the summer. And I feel like it just all paid off.

I'm just grateful. Yeah, take us through the work that was put in this summer. Obviously, there was a transition, a new head basketball coach in Kevin Willard coming in. But what was the vibe like with this team in the offseason? Yeah, just the overall new culture, new system put in. And I feel like all the players, me included, just bought into that new culture, you know, and just winning.

And I feel like everybody bought into that attitude and we were able to get it done today. You've been given more of an opportunity this year. How have you changed as a player from your freshman year at Maryland to now your sophomore year?

You know, a lot of confidence, things off the court, you know, mental, watching film, learning things, and went out of state in the game more with, like, with fouls and things like that. And I feel like I did a pretty good job of that today. Julian Reese here with us. You guys have a tough team. You guys had a little bit of a sluggish start out of the gate today.

How were you able to fight through that and still find a way to walk out with the victory? You know, we kind of underestimated their physicality, you know. They were able to get us out of our plays and we weren't able to run offense.

And I feel like Coach Willard made some adjustments and we were able to adjust to their physicality and we were able to match their toughness and we were able to get it done. Take me inside the locker room after the game. That's my favorite part of the NCAA tournament. After a hard-fought victory, you guys go into the locker room and celebrate.

Describe that scene to me. You know, pretty hype, you know. Just overall hype, you know, really excited to look forward to the next game and get it done. You know, I feel like everybody in there deserves it and know where we are last year.

You know, everybody else came from losing programs and where they weren't trying to be. And I feel like that was just an overall great feeling and we're trying to look forward to that on Saturday. If I would have told you in the offseason that you guys would be in the NCAA tournament this year and you would have the game that you would have had today with 17 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks and you'd be advancing to the second round, what would you have told me this summer?

I probably would have said I had more points than that. You know, we put in a lot of work this summer. So this isn't surprising to you, what this team has been able to accomplish. No, the sacrifices we made as a team and as an organization, I feel like, second to none throughout the whole country, I feel like we just worked the hardest out of everybody.

We dedicate our lives to this. I saw your coach, Kevin Woolard, after the game said, I think Julian Reese has been one of, if not the best big man in the Big Ten Conference the last two months. And so anyone that's surprised by what he did today hasn't been watching us. How do you react when you hear your coach say that about you? No, that's great. My coach has that much confidence in me, especially a man so young and a sophomore and so much older guys on the team. This is another blessing. I feel like that confidence is going to get better and increase more over the time I'm here. Has it settled in yet what you guys accomplished today?

Can you appreciate that in the moment? Yeah, right now we just focus on the next game and focus on the winner of this game that's going on right now. Well, it looks like it's going to be Alabama. We all know they're the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament. They have Brandon Miller, who's probably the best player in the country. How do you guys try to slow him down and what are you going to have to do on the defensive end?

Just stop that one person. I feel like it would be good. They've got other weapons. You've got other guys.

Charles Bidiaco is a pretty good matchup for me, a pretty limping guy. I feel like we just take care of our matchups. It would be good. Where's the confidence of this group at right now? I feel like confidence is pretty high right now being a great team in West Virginia, especially when everybody doubted us.

Since we did that, we can do anything. I feel like we can take it all the way in this tournament. Well, what did you guys prove today? What do you think you sent the message to the nation today about Maryland basketball and what you guys were able to do up against West Virginia? I think we proved that we can compete with the best. We have some pretty good wins throughout the season, Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana at home. I feel like we just proved that throughout the whole season.

I'm not sure why we're still getting the respect we deserve, but I feel like it will come sooner or later. What do you think you showed today individually to all of America? I feel like I showed the same thing.

I compete with some of the best bigs and some of the best competition in the country. I'll tell you, my favorite part about this win was the dunk that you had to put you guys up by five with three minutes to go. That was awesome.

That was with authority. Yeah, I tried to send a message with that and get my team going, and I feel like that run just sealed the game for us and put them away. Was that the moment where you said, okay, you guys are going to win the game? Because like I said earlier, it was a little bit of a slow start for you guys.

No, not really. It came close towards the end, but that's the moment where I felt like, yeah, I got it going now. We're going to keep going, and we're going to have good energy for the rest of the game. We're on top. We got the most energy and most heart on the court.

Before we let you run, Julian Reese, who's a part of the Maryland basketball team, led them in scoring today as Maryland did defeat West Virginia. What was going through your head last night? When you put your head on the pillow and you're about to play in the NCAA tournament, knowing once you get up in the morning, what was going through your mind last night? Yeah, it was kind of nerve-wracking. I was pretty nervous. I never played in the tournament before, but it was kind of more of that and a mix of that and just ready to play against a team like that. I feel like we just got it done. It was a great game.

Well, Julian, heck of a performance before we let you run. I know you come from a basketball family. What's your family say to you after the game, just wondering? You know, just congratulating me and just giving me encouraging words, as always.

My mom would probably come to the game on Saturday, and they're just encouraging me, as they do always, when I lost. Well, enjoy this ride. Congratulations once again on a heck of a game today, and we'll be watching up against Alabama coming up on Saturday. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. There you go.

That is Julian Reese from the Maryland men's basketball team. Just to give you some tournament scores right now, before we take a break, we are under four minutes to go in Birmingham, Auburn and Iowa is now getting a little bit closer. Auburn up 68 to 62 with 3.22 to go. Duke and Oral Roberts is a blowout right now with four minutes to play. The Dukies looking more than good. They're up 67 to 45 up against the Cinderella Darling of Oral Roberts of two years ago, now back in the NCAA tournament. But Duke's going to send them home. They're up 67 to 45. Northwestern and Boise State got 15 minutes to play in this one.

We'll see if Leon Rice's squad could come on back. They're currently down by four up against Northwestern. We are at the half between Texas and Colgate, and Texas is up 41 to 32 up against Colgate right now. And obviously the two biggest stories of the day. Princeton taking care of Arizona, three straight years, a 15 seed has defeated a two, with Princeton beating Arizona 59 to 55. And then, as you know, Furman did take down Virginia today 68 to 67. Okay, take a break. More NCAA tournament reaction when we return. Also, we'll squeeze in a little Aaron Rodgers conversation as well. One team that I think will ultimately regret not landing number 12.