Seth Greenberg | ESPN CBB Analyst

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Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. All righty, rock and roll in our number two of our radio program. It is the Zach Gelb Show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. One of the preeminent voices covering college basketball these days is Coach Seth Greenberg of ESPN, and he's kind enough, as always, to join us right here this time of the year on this show. Coach, always great to see you. Thanks so much for doing this, and how you been? Any better?

I couldn't stand myself. This is a great time of the year. You think about a championship week.

Obviously, the bracket reveal, the start of the NCAA tournament. You got the Masters. You got the Derby. I mean, it doesn't get any better than this, and you are such a big shot. Now, I'm just honored that I got invited to be on the Zach Gelb Show.

Well, I really do appreciate that. Let me start you off with Virginia, because you know, this time of the year, there's always a team early that people are like, why did they get into the NCAA tournament? Usually, that team finds a way to win a game or two, but Virginia last night only put up 14 points at half, and it was just really, really ugly to watch, right?

I consider and make a case for Indiana State. You're either Pitt, the three big East schools. Why do you ultimately think the committee put Virginia into that spot last night? I think it was the Florida win early in the season.

You know, you look at their resume. They didn't beat the Dukes in the North Carolina's. I mean, so I mean, the body worked over third place team in the ACC. I was the third place team, plus the ACC didn't get in, so I mean, it's not like that can happen. Their non-conference schedule was pretty good.

That was embarrassing. It was embarrassing for the ACC. When you play the NCAA tournament, you not only play for your brand, your university, but you also play for your conference.

And that was a really bad reflection on the ACC. And I was really surprised they got in. And the reason I was surprised they got in is, look, they had four games in the month of February.

They didn't get 50. So them only getting 14 the first half is not a huge shock. Now, honestly, did I think they were going to be one of those teams that unplugged, plugged back in, rebooted and actually won a couple of games because of style of play?

Yes, but they were absolutely awful. And I think besides being awful, I didn't think they played with a sense of urgency or energy at any point in that game. And that's disappointing. And it's not the system, Zach, all right? Because the system with good players wins. It's the players. They have not recruited well enough. They lost pros and replaced them with role players.

Reece Beekman has not been surrounded by the same players he was surrounded by when he was a freshman and a sophomore. And they've got to go out and they got to get some dudes. They got to improve their NIL.

They might have to go through transfer portal and they can get kids in Virginia. But that was embarrassing. It was hard to watch. But let me just ask you this, and you're more plugged in than I am. And I'm just seeing it from afar. Because of what this new era is with the transfer portal and with NIL and how tough it is to develop players now, does the system then need to change just because of the landscape and the structure of the sport right now?

You probably need to adjust it. You know, agility is the key to any good business, whether it's a coach, whether it's a CEO, whether it's anyone who does anything. I mean, in your business as well.

I mean, you've got to have agility. You got to stay ahead of the curve. That's where John Calipari's been so great. He's always stayed ahead of the curve. You know, Tony is kind of entrenched in what he does, but he said something in his postgame press conference.

He said he's going to have to look at it. Now, they're never going to be a one and done destination and never going to be living in a portal. But you can fill voids in a portal. Like they brought the minor kid in, Jordan Minor, he just wasn't good enough. You're going to go to the portal, you got to go to the portal for someone who can have an impact. And you've got to balance your roster because you're losing players.

Kadeem Shedrick, all right, he's at Texas, he could help them win games this year. And you've got to make it more attractive. And the university's got to help as well with the collectives. The cost of doing business, your investment has to equal your expectation in college basketball. It's sad in a way and I'm all for players getting paid.

That's not a problem. It's sad that there's so much static around these players, whether it's a workout guy, a grassroots coach, or high school coach, a parent. There's so many voices and then you know, they got they got to worry about their social media, they got to worry about the collective, they got to worry about their NIL. Where does winning fit in? And where does just getting lost in the game?

And then where does education fit in as well. So there's a lot of stuff going on. It's got to be cleaned up yet we're gonna have a great NCAA tournament. We've had a great year conference tournaments. You saw all those ones go down all season long. We've seen ranked teams get beat by unranked teams.

That's going to be a microcosm of the NCAA tournament. Seth Greenberg here with us, not just in their side of the bracket, their region, but in the whole field. Who has the best shot team or to give me two teams to take down Yukon? Like who do you put the most confidence in? If Yukon doesn't win at all, then who's the next two teams?

I'd start in that bracket. I'd say it's Iowa State style of play, you know, style mix fights. And you think about Iowa State, they can maybe disrupt the flow and rhythm of that Connecticut offense. They do a good job once the ball gets below the foul line of keeping it on the sideline forcing it down. They're relentless. They almost play violently. I mean, like there are you watch an Iowa State game and they're, you know, you say aggressive though they're much more than aggressive. They defensively they are violent.

Now how to game efficient going to be officiated is gonna be interesting. They had the ability to get on up and underneath Tristan Newton, they've got the ability to maybe keep it on one side that I've over so they got the ability to disrupt. Yukon offensive plays just differently than everyone else.

I mean, they really do. It's ball and people movement. I always say Danny Hurley, defensively, they play like they're from Jersey City. Offensively, they play like they're from FIBA. And that just, you know, just kind of the way they play. So I would say Iowa State and then I would say on the other side of the bracket, you know, Auburn similar, but not as relentless on the other side of bracket, just on pure talent.

It could be Kentucky. You don't know those young guards had the discipline to defend them, but pure talent that backward is ridiculous. Do you think it all comes together for Kentucky in the tournament? I have them going to the championship game because I like Cal so and I've seen shepherd play.

He's phenomenal. But do you think they could put it all together and go on this run in their region and get to the final four? I think they can.

It's if they will. They got to guard the ball. They've got to have one way to guard the ball screen. They got to keep the ball out of the lane. They got to rebound the ball defensive.

I haven't played in Connecticut in the championship game. I just look at the backward and Tony reached monster season. Actually, every time he shoots it, you think it's going in and it's been good in clutch time, which obviously last year, we really struggled in that game that they lost the NCAA tournament. Reed Shepherd just makes the game easy for everyone else.

You know, you talk about Dillingham, you know, he's like an M1 mixtape. He can get shot anytime you want to Justin Edwards. Yeah, I think that's a big key. Like Justin Edwards is starting to emerge a little bit, which gives him a big wing defender. And he's merged on the defensive end, which has made the game easier for him offensively. They got 21 feet of post player and the keys to this team are a do theater trade Mitchell and and Antonio reefs, because those older guys have got to be the heartbeat of this team and then let the younger guys just go out and hoop. Just go out and play be aggressive. But there's got to be an energy and the one thing cows done with this team.

I'm sure you've seen some of the videos and I've talked to him a whole bunch. He's taken putting all the pressure on himself. He just wants those guys to go out and play. Good enough to win at Auburn good enough to win at Alabama. They're good enough to make deeper in the NCAA tournament.

That's that that was my mindset. And they did a good job of defending Alabama's guards. They did a good job of defending Auburn's guards. So they've done it. But then you know, they have games like they had against a and M. They have games like they had against Gonzaga, where they literally got beat on the same set five times in a row.

And it wasn't even a hard set to defend. But I think they've grown up a little bit since then. Talking to Seth Greenberg. So injury wise, it looks like cold to the play for Marquette. We know McCullough Jr. is now out for Kansas, I guess Dickinson is going to come back. Confidence wise with some of the unknown with Marquette and Kansas going into this tourney.

I'm confident with colic. Speaking of that he heard the other day he said he saw him at the Big East tournament and that he was going to play now he's going to play hasn't played in a while though. What's his conditioning to be like what's his field going to be like? I mean, like he is a connector. He makes the game easy for everyone. I mean, he's ridiculous.

He's tough enough to get lane score. But he's crafty enough to get everyone a shot and possession takes a lot of pressure for Oso Iguodaro takes a lot of pressure over Jones and Jones has been Ken Jones has been terrific with when he's had over 20 points a game, I think over five assists a game. So in a way, you're getting a more versatile Ken Jones alongside his color. Now the Kansas thing. I think it's a mess. I think it's a mess. I think that they're losing the best defender, the best perimeter score, their best shot maker. And the other thing that changes exactly probably notice a little bit.

Everyone moves up on the scattering point. You see, the game was a lot easier when McCollough's on one side for Johnny for free. The game was a lot easier when Dawn Harris could rely on on McCollough without him. The pressure on those two guys is so great. And then spacing.

How do you know you want to get 100 tickets to the ball? If he gets frustrated, what does he do? He goes and goes away from basket.

Instead of just getting down a block where he could dominate the game. They're playing against the Sanford team. It's about 45% of the shots from three point line. They turn you over by 21% of possessions. They play at one of the fastest speeds. They score transition altitude could be a factor. They play 10 guys.

A chore chore is, is, is legit. So, I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be interesting. The biggest question mark I have is the Midwest because Tennessee, I like, I love Dalton connect Purdue, right? We know what happened to them last year, Kansas.

You just laid it out perfectly. I pick Creighton because I just don't think a lot of people will pick them, but I can't tell you. I have a ton of confidence with them, but I like McDermott and they have some guys that returned from last year's team Gonzaga. Some people saying they could get upset in the first round.

Other people have them go into the elite eight. Like who's the team in that Midwest region that you latch on and will say, okay, that's the team I'll put in the final four. Um, I'm all in as long as Braden Smith is healthy and playing a hundred percent and he wasn't healthy in that semi-final game against Wisconsin, the way Chucky Hepburn went right around him. And that guy's a tough, hard dose, physical defender. I mean, he gave no resistance. You knew something was if he's healthy, I'm all into Purdue, not per note.

A lot of people call him per dope. I named that bracket to just do it. Bracket like Purdue and Tennessee. Like let's go, man. Let's get to the elite eight.

Let's compete to get to the final floor. Why are you all in on Purdue? Because everyone's going to say, I don't know. People are going to tell me when Virginia lost to UMBC the next year, they got the job done. Why did they get the job done? They're a better team as freshmen or sophomores, Lance Jones helps them Mason Gillis gives them some versatility in their front court. Zach Edie is impossible and a short turnaround to prepare for. You know, look, look, look, I understand the St. Pete and I understand losing to Harvard on the Hackensack.

And I understand that. This team also, if you look at who they played in the non-conference, they played all these great teams, all these different styles, and they kicked the crap out of them. So they got to handle the pressure of the opening round and maybe the opening two games. I have enough confidence in them that as long as they're healthy, now, Braden Smith's not healthy. If he plays like he did against Wisconsin, they might not get they might not get to the sweet 16.

But he's healthy. He changed Braden Smith's in all American, like, you know, we look on it backward, backward, backward, you know, or, well, when they lose, they turn it over 16 times a game. Well, most teams, when they lose, they turn over, but they don't lose very often. You know, I mean, like, if you look at it, like Tennessee loses when they don't shoot the three and opponent shoots the three, you know, Arizona loses when they don't guard the three and they take bad shots. There's always a time, you know, when you lose that part of it, what makes you your team, but there are 40% three-point shooting team. Purdue, they only turned it over 16% of their possessions. They can play inside, outside, they're a terrific passing team. Their analytics are great.

I'm not a big analytics guy. I think them in Tennessee will advance. My sleeper net in that field is is in that bracket is Oregon. Dana Altman has never lost a first round game. That would put him against Creighton probably.

And if I don't, they in the last run in the in the Pac-12 tournament, the final Pac-12 tournament, 2011, two blocks a game. When he's good, then Shellstad's better. When he's good, Kuzma is better. Dana Altman style of play, second day.

Obviously, it would be the old conspiracy theory playing against his team. I like Creighton, but if it was four and four, I'd be all in on Creighton. But five through eight, I have no confidence in any of those guys. And it puts a lot of pressure on Ashworth. You know, like, because Ashworth started to play well, he's played really well.

But look, I have great, I have great, great confidence, confidence in Alexander and Shireman and Koff printer. The other thing is they always play that drop coverage they get against a really good guard. I'm not sure that's when they struggle a little bit.

I just think that when you go to the bench, you're not getting anything out of Miller, they're not getting anything out of any of the guys. Green played really well in the game that they ran Connecticut. But there's a there's a buck to it. I mean, that was Connecticut, short turnaround, big game. You know, there's a lot to that game.

Talking to Seth Greenberg, a few more minutes with the former basketball coach now doing a great job for a bunch of years for ESPN. I think I'm like everybody else in the West. I want to see UNC in Arizona with just the natural Caleb love connection. Is that what you have in the elite eight? Or do you go somewhere else upsetting us of seeing that one to match up? No, that's my till we meet again bracket by the way. Are you gonna sing? No. Look, everyone wants to see RJ and Caleb.

That's great. But I think that game might come down to Harrison Ingram and Keisha Johnson. Keisha Johnson monster year and think about what sending to stay what they've done without Keisha Johnson loose nose guys, but Keisha Johnson brings some toughness that that Arizona team that they need. They've got to be more consistent in a perimeter play, take good shots, defend a little more purposely and they're lost. They haven't defended as well. But I do have that matchup and that'd be fascinating. I mean, let's face it, it'll be an absolute fascinating and seeing those guys to go at it, see how they interact before the game.

The handshakes, everything about it is good drama. So Carolina's good. Cormac Ryan's got to make some shots.

I mean, I think it's the biggest problem for them. I mean, like, they beat Duke, and he's, he's on Franklin street partying, then he struggles. They beat Duke again, he's on the top of the bus, then he struggles. I mean, nothing personal. But Cormac get in the gym and work on your jumper. All right, you can celebrate after the season.

You know, priorities are most important thing. He's a really good player. He brings him toughness. But he's like, he's the threat of making shots. But if he makes one or two, he'll be runs the floor gets out and transition.

What is that? What happens? Now when he runs the floor, you got to match up with him. So now when Armando runs the floor, it's advanced pass post pass layup.

You do that one or two times. Now Armando's energized. Now all of a sudden, you're stretching the court on the first side. Now you're stretching the court on his first side. That means the weak side guys are going to get the help.

So now it's a quick skip, you're forcing closeouts, and guys are driving it and making plays. So I think Ryan's a big part of that. But yeah, I have Carolina, Carolina winning that. And, you know, the black and blue bracket up top is just crazy. You know, you know, when you're talking about, you know, Auburn, Iowa State, you know, San Diego State FAU. I mean, it's just, it's, it's an insane bracket, Drake, who's really good.

Yeah. UConn's the number one overall seed. It doesn't feel like the committee thought they were the number one overall seed though, with the draw.

I guess they gave him a region and then loaded up their region. Look, they're going to take over Brooklyn. And I think you go from Brooklyn to Boston, right? I mean, those are two home games. They remind me about the Huskies. They travel, you know, they remind me of I'm not saying necessarily style of play. But Villanova, that second time that they won the championship under Jay, they had a tough draw, right?

Everyone was loving buddy healed in that matchup. And they just smacked everybody they play. Like that. I think UConn could obviously do that this year.

They don't play a lot of close games. Here's the deal. And you know, I'm pretty close to Danny, this, this is actually a good bracket for him, because the guy needs a cause. He needs something to get his attention and to get his team's attention. And now he's got a cause, you know, we've given us no respect, but he sees big picture. But the way he is he, he, he focuses on what's in front of him.

I can speak to him Sunday night, he said the only thing I'm worried about is Stetson. And that's the way he gets laser focused, or he calls locked in. And they'll worry about what's next next. And they're really, really good at it. And I've said in another film sessions, his film sessions are so real. He's a as good I used to say his dad's practices were the best practices I've ever seen.

And let me tell you something, there's no difference. Every single day, the accountability in those practice, the intensity of those practices from the coaches to the players, to anyone who walks in the gym, it is second to none. It's really, it's really fun to watch.

That's when it was like, or dynamics, it's just so much fun to watch. He's the face of the sport right now, Danny Hurley, 100% 100%. But how about player wise in this tournament, pound for pound? Who do you think is the best player in this tournament? Because the women's game, right? You got Caitlin Clark, you got Angel Reese, you got page buckets, like there's a lot of faces that are the actual players in the men's game.

I'm trying to figure out who is the face of this tournament from a player standpoint? Well, it's got to be Zack into two time player of the year. I mean, along with that goes with pressure, but big guys don't sell.

You know, people can't get excited about big guys. So I mean, is it going to be Rob Dillingham going off and doing crazy things? And like, you know, one night, is it going to be, you know, you can go down that list is Jamal shed coming up with a steal late in the game, you know, is it going to be a matchup that became comes to story? Is it the Cinderella, New Mexico who maybe, you know, gets by Clemson then gets by Baylor and all of a sudden, we do have a potato in the elite, you know, the sweet 16 and elite eight.

I mean, there's a lot of things that can happen. I'll tell you the other thing just on a big picture yesterday, I watched I was in the studio for the NIT games, how hard those teams played last night was terrific. And like for the people that decided not to go, I have no problem with guys opting out of the NIT. If your team's not going to be committed, if you know half your guys can be with the workout guy trying to get ready for the draft, the other half's already in the portal, because they didn't get to the NCAA tournament.

So they want to transfer. We saw what happened in bowl games, it was brutal. They were exhibitions, they weren't games. Last night, we saw games, we saw guys that were there, we saw Jake Stiebler get his first one as a head coach at at Ohio State. Well, I mean, like when he was, and I'll tell you one thing, if he lost that game, he could have opted out of that thing. And that had the pressure of doing that. So let's say he lost that game was all we do the right thing to be hired, they lost a Cornell. But instead, he coached a brilliant game, managed the game well, got his team back going, they win the game that that like to me, that was the first game pressure that he had.

And he handled it well. We saw a great rivalry in Providence and Boston College, which they should play twice every year. We need to get rivalries back in our game. So you know, we saw Virginia Tech and Richmond, we saw USF in Central Florida, where there was almost a fight on the court. So the teams that did opt in, you know, that was good, hard play in basketball. Look, I have no problem with people opting out.

Like people say, Oh, my God, you got access to you like Tom, and I love Tom Creek, you got access to players 24 seven these days. You know, everyone wants to coach the team. But it's not your decision.

It's your players decision, because you don't have a team, or your team or teammates representative, who wants to coach to walk ons in and three guys that were given the bench to get your rear end kit. So like, in theory, it sounds great. But I think once these teams committed, let me tell you, they committed and they played really, really hard, you know, North Texas defending their championship from a year ago, you saw really good games. And it was fun to watch.

It was fun to watch. And those teams there for the right reasons. So I still think the NIT should be a mid major national championship.

That's what I think it should be. Don't get to the tournament, make the NIT and then blow it up and make it big. You're saying only mid majors get in or just Yep. Okay.

Yep. I think when we break off of these four conferences, I think you take the bottom 16 teams or 18. You know, 18 leagues. And you know, obviously, there are certain teams that will not be in that group that I don't consider mid majors. I don't consider Gonzaga mid major. I don't consider St. Mary's a mid major. I don't consider much of the a 10, a mid major, the bottom of the big 10. I mean, Atlantic 10, a mid major.

So I just think we're gonna have four pods, you talk about the first four, they're gonna be four first fours. All right, and it's gonna be all the mid major, it's gonna be it's gonna be basically all those mid major teams, and they're gonna play their way into the first round. And that's the way because look, yeah, it's like, you're gonna have conferences with 20-25 teams. All right, 20-25 teams, and people can say, Oh, well, you know, that team was, you know, 12 and 12 in their conference. Yeah. Cuz there are no rocking chair games in that conference.

You got to play well every single night, you're only gonna play six other games and probably one MTE and a couple of major TV games. So I think you got to find something that all of the others, whether it's the Northeast Conference, whether it's the MAAC, whether it's the MAAC, whether it's, you know, you there that where they can actually compete for a national championship. And no different than what is the FBS in this, this college football, right?

It's no difference in that you don't think those people and that would FBS is that the lower vision, right? FCS. Yeah. FCS.

Yeah. You don't think those people celebrate that championship. They know they're not Alabama. They know they're not those other those other programs.

But you know what, they can get a chance to play on and celebrate championship. It's great, you know, and build it up where it's something special. Now we have the NIT we got to see the IBS. You got to get it. You got to buy me you look at it. Call from mom. Answer it.

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The field in that thing, it's like, you know, half of the league, half of the tournament is got a losing record. Yeah. Seth, always appreciate it. Thanks so much. Now March Madness can get underway once you join us on this show.

So we appreciate the time. Thank you. You're the man. Proud of you, brother. Proud of you. You got it. There he is, the great Seth Greenberg joining us on the Zach Gelb show. A lot to unpack from that conversation.

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