Selection Sunday Recap (Hour 2)

Alrighty, welcome back in. It is that Gelb show Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We opened up the show today, obviously talking a lot of March Madness. We also squeezed in some football too as Jamar Chase and T Higgins are going back and staying with Cincinnati Bengals on new deals. Diana Rossini did say that Cincinnati is also working to retain Trey Hendrickson and discussions are ongoing between the two sides. According to Diana Rossini, the Bengals are attempting to do what many in the league thought difficult, keep and pay.

All three of their stars, so we'll see if they're going to be able to do that. By the way, it's time to ask the pros. View the listeners get to ask us a question. It's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at INF Sportsnet or at Zach Gelb using the hashtag askthepros. Be listening later in the show and we might answer your question. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs.

Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. We do know that Illinois is going to be playing on Friday in the NCAA tournament. We don't know up against who yet as Texas and Xavier do have to do battle first and the winner will get the fighting Illini. Now joining us is their men's head basketball coach in coach Brad Underwood. Coach, always appreciate you jump on board with us. Congratulations on here. Your name called once again and thanks so much for joining us.

Yeah, I appreciate it guys. There's nothing better than hearing your name called on that selection show. So excited to be here.

Excited to keep playing. Yeah, the last few years and I'm not saying your group didn't have expectations this year, but you had higher expectations. You had a lot of guys. Obviously leave the program this past offseason after a few pretty dominant years.

This is a younger group. You play, you know, a good amount of freshmen to see this team as a sixth seed. I know you want to play longer into the year, but how do you kind of look back on what this group has accomplished so far?

Yeah, I've said all year. I thought the ceiling for this team was as high as any we've had. It's been a trying year from this standpoint.

We've had some some real bad sickness. And we've had a couple injuries and we had 11 starters miss games in league play, but I love this group. Again, we were a very old team last year coming off the Elite Eight team. We lost that group and for this group to stay together, never get splintered, keep fighting. We had games we didn't know who we were starting because we didn't know who we had.

So it's continued to grow. I've loved coaching this team. And like I said, we're healthy and it's exciting to be that as we head into the tournament. Obviously, no one wants injuries.

No one wants illness. But did it make this group, in your opinion, which we're going to see on Friday night in Milwaukee, just be a tougher team this year? I think so. I think it's helped us gain confidence. We've had multiple guys with 20 point games. I think we've got a lot of versatility.

In this group, I think that we're a team that is confident. Our bench guys have been really supportive and very, very good in terms of having to step into starting roles. Getting Merez Johnson back has sure helped.

He was playing terrific when he fell in the Michigan State game, broke his wrist. Now getting him back helps. It helps our front court depth. We've been a confident group all year. Now we're starting to put that confidence with continuity.

That's helping us. You mentioned Merez Johnson coming back. We saw him a little bit in the conference tournament play in two games. For you, how do you kind of evaluate where he is coming off that injury? Full go, all good?

Yeah, full go. The best thing about the Maryland game was Tommy was in foul trouble and Merez got to play a lot. He played 12 minutes in the Iowa game.

Eight rebounds impacted the game. There's nothing like basketball conditioning. He can run on a treadmill and get in a pool and do all that stuff.

But actually getting out there and slamming bodies and running up and down and having adrenaline was the best thing for him. He's been full bore in practice. We're excited about that.

Coach Brad Underwood here with us. How do you kind of prepare? You know that you're going to be playing one of two teams.

What's the work like this week leading into Friday not knowing yet who exactly you're going to be playing? Yeah, it's different. There's no question about that. You've been watching games on one team all last night and another team today.

Looking for similarities. Looking for things that we can carry over to practice with our group. Not get too specific.

We'll know Wednesday night at 10 o'clock when that game's over. And then it's one day prep. We've had some of that this year so it's not new. But again, it's more about us.

It's more about refining some things. We're getting up and down quite a bit which we need to do. It is what it is. So we'll figure it out on Wednesday night. Coach Brad Underwood here with us. Coach, you talked about how high of a ceiling you thought this team had going into the year. And why you were confident.

I don't think you would just say that just to say it. Why was there that initial belief in this squad before the season did commence? Well, even though our guys are freshmen, I think that there's extreme talent there.

You know, starting with Kaspers. He's had an incredible year. We knew what Will Riley could be. He's a guy that classed up. He's gained 22 pounds since he's been here. He's learned to play defense. You know, so his growth has been monumental.

Same with Mares. And so I've always thought our ceiling was high because our talent levels is really good. And it was just going to be growth. And then to lean on Ben Humerical's, Kylan Boswell, Trey White, three guys who are veterans. Even though they were new, those guys have been incredible in terms of what they've added to us. You know, so I was excited about the comfort that they would show once they got through a few games. Their leadership's been great. Trey got really sick.

Missed a bunch of time. And now we're seeing him play great. So yeah, it's just a team I've had a lot of confidence in because of their abilities. And then how hard they all work. So it's been a fun group to coach.

You know, when you got Kaspers, there was something special. This morning, you know, I see him in the top 10 and other mock draft. I see him in the top five for the NBA. Has he even surprised you how easy of a transition he's kind of made this look in the college game? Yeah, no doubt.

No doubt. I mean, we knew he was good. I think the one thing that has been on the defense side, you know, it was the European game is different. He's played at high levels for a long time. Played against great players for a long time. Practiced against great players.

It wasn't that part as much as I was. Just getting adjusted to, you know, our system. He's an unbelievable student of the game.

And it works at that as well. But, you know, defensively, he's been able to be way better than I thought. Just with different athletes, different guys he's played against.

So he's been sensational. I obviously had to want to play college basketball. But how'd you get him to Illinois?

Take us behind the scenes of that one. Yeah, you know, the world's a pretty small place, to be honest, in terms of the basketball world. And we've known about KJ for a long time. Jeff Alexander on our staff is literally in Europe. Seems like every month. You know, so we've known about him since he was 15, 16 years old.

Been involved with that process. We knew we needed, you know, a true lead guard. And, you know, it was right after the season was over last year. It was a quick trip to Spain to see him playing a tournament.

And then it just kind of went from there. But we've known about him for a long time. He's been on our map for a few years. For people that haven't seen him play, because, you know, a lot of people parachute into the sport this time of the year.

And they're going to hear whenever your team plays on Friday, oh, you have a potential top ten, top five pick in the draft. For people that haven't seen him play, how would you describe his game? He's a heady point guard. You know, he's a guy who can really score it. He's a great playmaker for others in ball screens.

He's very, very instinctive, which I think allows him to be great. I think that's one of the things they like for him at the next level. He's, you know, 6'5", 6'6", 215 pounds. So he's got legit size to him already.

He's, you know, he just turned 18 in the fall. But he has been, you know, he's a better than average athlete. You know, he's got great speed. He's a guy who can finish, you know, in the paint in a variety of ways. And then he's a terrific catch and shoot guy, or shoot off the dribble, excuse me. And that makes him very, very hard to guard, very appealing for the next level. Coach, there's so many different waves in basketball, right? One and done, you know, building guys three, four years. Now, year to year, you don't know what's going to happen with the transfer portal, name image and like.

There's things that I'm for, but it is a little bit of a Wild West. When you have a kid that's already projected to be in the top 10 of the draft, do you feel like this is just a one year thing, or is there optimism that maybe you get him back for another year? No, you're going to do what's best for the young man. I mean, there's no doubt that if the information that he starts hearing is that, I don't pay attention to the mock drafts. You know, if he starts hearing that, then he would be foolish not to go.

You know, and those are lifetime dreams. You've always got to make sure, and again, they've got to make sure that they're making the right decision based on him. Every individual is different.

And so it's a, you know, it's like when I had I.O. DeSouma, after his junior year, I told him he couldn't come back. There was no way I wanted him back in our program.

He had done everything he could do and put on 35 pounds. And so every player is different in that role, but we ultimately want them to achieve their dreams and goals, and that's what we're here for. So it seems like you don't really change your coaching that much, even if it's with a younger player. And I know this one I'm not talking about for this specific situation, but you always wonder how a style could work when you're relying on such youngsters. If you're asking a lot out of them, because right now there's so many different people in their ears and how they have it out to get out very quickly if they want.

Yeah, that's the hardest thing is making sure you have their ear. K.J. 's an unbelievable student of the game. He's an unbelievable young person in terms of character and a great teammate. I've been able to coach him, you know, in a lot of hard ways, I mean, and to make him better.

He wants that. Every young guy is different. And, you know, it's been fun to coach this group because they're all very different in terms of their personalities, but so receptive. And the true blessing with this group, of freshmen especially, they're great listeners. And that's really hard to find today.

I mean, I probably hit the jackpot in one year with this group. So they all want to learn. They all want to get better. And we've been able to push a lot of buttons to try to help them in those areas.

You've now, and I'll let you run, just one more question. Coach Brad Underwood here with us, Illinois, back in the NCAA tournament. They're a sixth seed and they'll get the winner of Texas and Xavier. This has now been, right, the last five years and it probably would be sixth straight if it wasn't obviously for COVID. You guys had a good team too. You guys really have this thing moving in the right direction.

Obviously, there's still levels to get to. You've won the conference tournament twice. You know, you want to go to a Final Four. You want to go cut down the nets and be the last team standing like every other team. But how about really the last four or five years and where this program is getting looked at and how people are expecting Illinois to do big things year in and year out?

Yeah, it's where it should be. You know, we took a hiatus from whatever, from success, whatever. This program has been outstanding in the history of college basketball. We sell out every game.

Our fans travel. I'm excited for them because of the success that we've been able to get this thing back to the level that they expect and that they know. Great administration. You know, coaches win games.

Administrators win championships. Are we trying to win a national championship? I strive for it every day. Can we do that at Illinois? Absolutely, we can. And, you know, those are the goals. When it becomes less of a goal or not the goal, then I'll go do something else. But that's what we're striving for here.

The Big Ten allows you to do that. But we've got a lot of really good things in place. I've had a great staff, great players. And the way I look at it, we're just back where we should be.

One more and then I promise to let you run. I know I just doubled up on that, but something else popped into my head, Coach Brett Underwood. Because I remember last year having you on and we were talking about Coleman Hawkins and also the relationship that you had, the leader he's been for your program. I know he wasn't back this year, but, you know, I have to ask you about the emotions that you saw of him last week.

When you see a former player like that, you know, leaving your program and then going through things, obviously, just what did you make of the video last week, which was very emotional? Yeah, you know, I love Coleman Hawkins. Nobody appreciates Coleman Hawkins more than I do.

And, you know, somebody who stayed four years with us, went through the ups and downs, the hard times. You know, I said it after watching Peyton Sanford at Iowa, you know, in tears. To me, that's what this is about. You know, Coleman went to my alma mater where I played at Kansas State and no one cares more about people, about winning, about pleasing people than Coleman Hawkins.

And then he's an ultra competitor. It saddens me that whatever the scenario was, and I'm not on social media, so I don't buy into any of that. But I know it's real, and it saddens me for our game.

The young people feel that. And, you know, I can't control that. I wish I could take everybody's phone away during basketball season and nobody ever look at it.

But I also know that's not realistic. But I do know how good a person Coleman Hawkins is, his family. I mean, shoot, he shows up at our game in Kansas City this year when we play Arkansas.

You know, he texts one of my daughters and said he's coming to our NCAA tournament game. He didn't play for us this year, but in my world he's still part of our family and achieved great things. And I couldn't be more excited for what his future holds, even though it was a tough moment for him. I know he'll come through and persevere through all that.

Well said. Hey, Coach, good luck. We always appreciate it. Thanks so much for doing this. You got it. Thank you for having me.

There you go. Coach Brad Underwood always enjoyed when we got a chance to catch up with him talking about Illinois as they will get the winner of Texas Xavier. And that will be in Milwaukee on Friday when you could see their opening round game.

And if you haven't seen Casper's Yacchonas, man, that's good. If they go on a run, that draft stocks only going to go up and up and up. And you heard him say it, right? If those are if that's the grade and I looked at two mock drafts, one Adam going to the top five and the other had him going to the top 10. At that rate, it's like as a coach, sure, you want him back, but you're not going to advise him to do something that's bad for his future. So we'll continue to see if that grade is consistent.

I don't think he's going to need a big NCAA tournament grade to have that continue to be what's out there on him. Alrighty. Let's take a break. 17 after the hour to Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We'll get to a few storylines to watch in the NCAA tournament when we come on back after these short messages.

All right. It is that Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We are deep into the NCAA tournament chatter. Appreciate Chaka Smart from Marquette joining us an hour ago. Brad Underwood just joined us for the last 15 minutes of Illinois and John Fanta, who is one of my favorites and I think he is as good as there is out there when talking about the NCAA tournament. Honestly, I would rather I would want to hear either Fanta or Rothstein, one of those two guys.

If you could tell me you can only pick two people to listen, talk about the NCAA tournament. It would either be John Rothstein or be John Fanta. And I know some people be like, oh, it's because you guys are no longer CBS Sports Radio.

This is why you're going to say this. John works for CBS. All right.

John, you know, John Rothstein, John Fanta does it. But sometimes he'll be like, oh, you know, you're more now willing to rip CBS's coverage compared to previous years. Absolutely not. It's different coverage. But I thought it was obviously a very nice touch with what CBS did honoring Greg Gumbel. Right.

So let me preface that and get that out of the way first, because I don't want to be, you know, disrespectful here. But the actual selection show and I think CBS Sports Network does something afterwards and they have more opinions. But just having, you know, Adam Zucker up there with Jay Wright, Clark Kellogg and I think it's Wally Zurbiak. You know, Seth Davis, too. I thought it was boring. You know, I'm watching the show and I want opinions.

And Seth Davis, he gives you some opinions, but I really do it in an entertaining fashion. And I was watching that show yesterday, Selection Sunday. Right.

When they're revealing the entire bracket, they're telling you the field of 68 was. And I just thought the commentary was just like, oh, my God, puppy to sleep. Seriously.

It was some boring stuff watching it on the main channel, you know, CBS and just seeing the selection show go under way. So, you know, and I know some of those guys ought to talk basketball. Jay Wright, come on. It's one of the great coaches ever. Clark Kellogg has been doing this for years.

Seth Davis has been doing this for years. But maybe this is how it is every year. But I could never remember a year more than ever where I just heard the analysis on the main show and was like, oh, my God, can you guys give an opinion?

Can you give a take? And a lot of things were just said in a very vague and a vague and a boring reaction. You know, they were very vague at times and very ambiguous and very boring. It's almost like I know those guys know what they're talking. I'm not going to say I hate when people.

They they go, oh, you know, clearly the national guys don't know what they're these guys know what they're talking about. But I thought the product after honoring Gumbel right was absolutely horrific. I thought it was a terrible product last night.

And I tweeted this out. I thought they should have put John Fanta and John Rothstein on the show. I know Fanta's with the Big East and is with Fox and Peacock, but they should have Fanta. If I'm running CBS, which obviously I'm not, I would you know, you want to keep Adam Zucker.

They're fine. You know, have to be the host now. You know, I got to have Fanta and Rothstein on that desk.

I got to. And if you want to get a bigger name on there, that's obviously either played or coach. Well, you could put Jay Wright, because I'm telling you, I don't think there's two people on the planet right now that know more about college basketball than John Rothstein and John Fanta. And I thought they could use, you know, Fanta has a more, you know, more personality than than Rothstein. But Rothstein with all the sayings and everything, he makes it fun, too. I think they need to both those guys in the CBS coverage that that's the way that I felt. I thought the Selection Sunday show, the main show, you know, not the CBS Sports Network stuff that they do afterwards, or I don't even know if there's any crossover during the main show, too.

But I thought they needed a little bit more personality on that desk because it was boring. Now, anyway, takeaways from this. I have faded on Auburn. Like a month ago, if you would have said who would have won the NCAA tournament, like who would be a championship of the NCAA tournament? I'd say it's Auburn and Duke. Right.

That's what I would have said. Auburn, the last, you know, week and a half, two weeks. They have, they have, I don't want to say they look bad, right, because they lose a lot of close games like Auburn early in the year. They lost to Duke 84 to 78. They don't lose a lot of games.

When they lose, they lose close. They lost to Florida 90 to 81. You know, but you look from March 4th until that loss in the SEC tournament on March 15th. So really the last two weeks, they lose to A&M 83 to 72. They lose by two, a razor thin margin to Alabama after they beat Bama.

Remember, that was the 1-2 matchup back on February 15th. All right, they beat Ole Miss and they came back and won that up against Chris Beard's squad. And then they lose to Tennessee 70-65. Auburn has a one seed.

They're in the south. Because of the location, if Louisville beats Creighton, with that being in Kentucky, that could be interesting there. And actually, Louisville-Creighton, to me, out of all the first round matchups, that's the one, Kelsey and McDermott, that I'm most intrigued to see. But you look at Auburn's road and some of the seeds here. Michigan's a five. They win the Big Ten. That was like a football game yesterday between Michigan and Wisconsin.

That was ugly and that was sloppy. A&M's a solid team. You got Iowa State, even though they're dealing with an injury, and Michigan State. You know, this road for Auburn is not the toughest road in the world.

You know, it is not Murderer's Road in front of Auburn. And they have the team, you know, led by Janai Broom, and you got Bruce Pearl, who has done an unbelievable job at Auburn. They have a team where they should be in the Final Four.

And I'm looking at this right now and I see a lot of people, including herself right now, I haven't finalized this, that are circling Michigan State. So, I'm curious how we're going to be talking about Auburn. Because if Auburn, bare minimum, is not in the Elite Eight playing for a spot to go to the Final Four, that's a missed opportunity. Like, they should still be able to get to the Final Four, but I do not feel confident about Auburn going into this tournament.

I think the team whose stock is booming the most, and it's weird to say this because of how close they've been, you know, how they've been in the Top Ten, they've been in the Top Five. What Florida has done, winning the SEC, and I still think there's a different gear for Florida. And you got the young coach, Golden, who comes over from San Francisco.

You know, there were some issues early in the year, obviously, with him. But, to see what they've really done here since early February, they've lost one game since early February. And it was by a slim margin to, you know, at Georgia, 88 to 83. But in the SEC tournament, that game up against Tennessee, I think they played a marvelous game. And they still, like, handled Tennessee.

They were in firm control of that game, and they had a very nice victory where they just blew out Alabama the night before. So, Florida, to me, is going to be a trendy pick to win the championship now. Where I think a month ago, people would say, oh, yeah, they get to the Elite Eight, you know, maybe they get to the Final Four. I think a lot of brackets are going to have Florida win the entire thing when you have, what, 14 teams from the SEC making the NCAA tournament. And it's going to be fun to see how we're talking about the SEC at the end of this NCAA tournament. You got a good opening round matchup, UConn, Oklahoma, Porter Moser going up against Danny Hurley with the back-to-back UConn Huskies as national champs. Memphis, Colorado State, you know, a lot of people have Colorado State on, you know, to upset Memphis. You know, Grand Canyon and Maryland, Maryland is a good team. You look around, though, Kansas, Arkansas, in this region, second-round matchup.

St. John's, no offense, I know we're on in Omaha. I'd be very shocked if St. John's loses to Omaha, even though St. John's, their shooting is just all over the place. But they play very good defense, and they go on some big runs. I saw them, they were down 24 to 40, they were down 24 to 9, excuse me, up against Marquette on Friday. And they just quickly erased that deficit, and then they won the game by almost 20 points. So St. John's, you know, I'd be shocked if they're not in the round of 32, but we've seen funky upsets. We've seen 16s beat 1s, so obviously a 15 could beat a 2. And I remember when, right, the great story, Oral Roberts for some reason comes to mind, what they were able to do up against Ohio State a few years back.

That was a fun team with the A. Smiths and I think the kid's name was O'Bannon or something like that. But Kansas, Arkansas, that big coaching matchup, Calipari himself, the winner of that is going to get Patino. And I think a lot of us, no offense to Kansas, Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, KU, a lot of us are going to want to see Arkansas, a little Calipari Patino.

Maybe have a nice Veal Parm after the game or something like that. But I really do believe that a lot are going to have Florida come out of that region. I think a lot of people are going to pick Florida to win it all. You look on the right side of the bracket, Duke, it seems like there's not that much concern with Cooper Flag. And I know Duke, right, you had the craziness up against UNC. Oh, Mr. Tarheel, we need you to talk a little bit about the school that you're rooting for, that lane violation. Oh my goodness gracious, that was something. It happens, not good, but... Not probably the first thing people lead today when talking about UNC.

Yeah, no, exactly. You feel fortunate to get into the NCAA tournament. No, I'm, you know, you could crush me for this, but I thought... You did, you said it. I kept thinking, look, they won 22 games, they're in the ACC, they're in North Carolina. They made a deep run in the ACC tournament, and they nearly beat Duke. So, you know, you could argue all these nets and quads and whatever you want. North Carolina's still North Carolina, and they won 22 games in the ACC. Don't go vacationing in West Virginia any time soon.

You wouldn't be popular. Don't get me started on such stupidity. Stupidity? You know, come on, they're looking into corruption.

First of all... Oh, well, the politicians, sure. First of all, I mean, I can understand West Virginia being upset. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, look, did North Carolina have, you know, a bad record against good teams? Yeah. But, hey, look, you know, it is what it is. And, you know, I don't know exactly, you know, what made them get in over West Virginia, but they're in.

They're North Carolina. I think, you know... Bubba Cunningham being on the committee? Well, he has no say in it, because he's out of the room. I know, I know. He's out of the room.

He's confused himself at all. I heard the explanation, yeah. You know, but that's always the easy one to point to.

Yeah. I mean, everybody, like, loves to go there, but it's, you know, that's nothing, you know, that's moot at this point. So, but, you know, I mean, again... And watch, they'll go on. I feel like whatever the team that doesn't deserve to belong, let's say, and that's the big criticism team, they always find the way to go on, I'm not saying a long run, but a little bit of a run. You know, the whole point of expanding to 68 was because when it was 64, and you had team number 65, everybody's over. And again, this is in every, in the college football playoff, too.

There's always going to be somebody who gets snubbed. Yeah, and I hope this isn't momentum to now, I know there's been talks about further expanding the tournament. I hope that this isn't, like, the final nail in the coffin for that, and they end up expanding it, because it's too many teams.

I mean, it's ridiculous, so... I've never, at the end of this tournament, I never say, oh man, I need more college, I needed, you know, 10 more teams in the tournament, or whatever it is. Yeah, leave it the way it is, let's not make it 96, but, you know, again, you know, maybe there were more worthy teams, I don't, you know, I don't disagree, I won't argue that, but I look at North Carolina, they've been playing very well, you know, that's one criteria that, you know, that teams, you know, that the selection committee takes into place. I don't know what goes through these guys' minds when they're in this room, but, you know, I'm okay with North Carolina being there. And I know John Shire, going back to Duke, he talked about, they're hopeful that they're going to have Cooper Flag coming up on Friday.

I don't think there's any, I know we've seen two 16s beat ones, I would say, hey, rest up. I agree with you. Honestly, they just won the ACC without him. Yeah. No, absolutely. I'm not saying that you should probably go this way and say just, right now, hey, rest up the first weekend, but I don't think you need him to survive this weekend. I was thinking that, too. You know, there also is the thought that, you know, you want to get him some minutes to keep him fresh a little, but, you know, look, there are doctors that will know these answers better than us, but, you know.

They could survive even with a rusty Cooper Flag. You know, and look, if you want to leave him out for Thursday, you know, go ahead. I mean, I agree with you.

And sometimes, like, a draw really does impact with the next statement I'm going to make and then we'll take a break and we'll get an Axe update. You know, I look at Houston. We all know they've been one of the better teams in basketball this year, right? They win the Big 12. Kelvin Sampson has done a remarkable job there in the America and then also, you know, in the Big 12 and has a nice production story.

It's like I look at some of these regions and I then see the draw for Houston. You know, their toughest matchup could actually be if Gonzaga beats Georgia. Gonzaga in the round of 32. Outside of that, you know, no offense to Clemson, McNeese. I know Will Wade's there and he could be at Clemson soon. You know, again, Illinois, Brad Underwood just joined us. Purdue, Kentucky, UCLA, Tennant. You look at some of the, you know, the favorites here. If Houston is not in the Final Four in San Antonio.

I agree. That, like, if I look at all the one seeds, Auburn, Florida, Duke, and Houston. You know, maybe Duke just because of their talent. But even if Duke is one, then Houston has to get to the Final Four. Like that right side of the bracket, I'd be disappointed if we don't see Duke and Houston in the Final Four. I hate to say this. I mean, my preliminary bracket, I have three number ones and I took Michigan State because I didn't want four number ones.

I do think they're really, they're a cut above. It's hard. When you fill out that bracket, you know, of course, you might want to pick it up there too. But when it comes right down to it, when you do those matchups and you say, okay, who's better here? Who's better here?

It's the one seeds that are better. I'll make an admission. And this shows that we got no chance to get in this bracket right. When I saw the bracket get released last night, I just jotted down the four teams I thought would go to the Final Four. I had Duke. I had Houston. I had Florida. And then I go, even though I usually, I love Bruce Pearl, but I'm like, and I don't like the way his team's looked the last two weeks.

And I don't think Michigan State's great, but I like the way that that sub-region plays out for them. Yeah. You know what? If there's going to be chaos.

Just to be different. If there's going to be chaos in one region where it's not like a one or a two get into the Final Four, it could be that south. With Auburn, Louisville, Creighton, Michigan, A&M, we saw Yale last year beat Auburn, Iowa State, Marquette, New Mexico, Michigan State.

There could be something funky happening there. I wonder about New Mexico and Marquette because you... The Patino Factor? Yeah. With where Pop's coaches for St. John just went up against Marquette.

Give a little ring ring into Sonny Ball. It definitely helps. There's no question about it. Yeah.

It's a five minute conversation. Here's what they do well. Here's what they not do well. Yeah. I just don't know. And obviously, hey, Richard Patino's done a very good job, but it's not like Marquette didn't show up.

They're up 24 to 9. Yeah. No, absolutely. Absolutely. And then Patino and his squad just got going.

Especially Zuby was phenomenal that game. All right. We'll take a break. We'll come on back. Update time.

Here's Zach. Time for your Daily News Brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports.

All right. Zach Kelp Show, Infinity Sports Network. News Brief time. NCAA tournament talk, John Fanta going to join us coming up in about 13 minutes from now. Really, this NCAA tournament to me is broke down into three parts. You look at Duke, you know, what is Cooper flag going to be like when he comes back and how much rust is there to knock off after the ankle injury that he suffered in the ACC tournament? You then have the face of the sport right now, which you would say going into the year. It was Dan Hurley because college coaches usually face of their sport, college football, college basketball. But now going into this tournament, I think the face of the tournament, the first face I think of when you talk about coaches, it's Rick Patino. So how long of a run can St. John's go on after winning their first conference tournament championship since 2000? And then the other storyline is how huge of a year is this going to be for the SEC? Fourteen teams in, a lot of people now picking Florida. So let's start off with that.

Here is Todd Golden. He has high praise for his Florida Gators after they won the SEC. Really, I just think we continue to prove what we have been all season, you know, which is being one of the best teams in America, you know, continuing to show that we can beat anybody in America. And, you know, when we're playing like this, I think we are the best team in America and we got to keep going.

Obviously, that can change. And right now, you know, maybe Auburn, I know things have not gone well for them the last two weeks, but they've had a wonderful season. Now it's all about not only finding a way for Bruce Pearl to get back to a final four, but it's to go win a national championship. The one thing missing on his resume as you look at this redemption story of Bruce Pearl and Bruce Pearl, even though they didn't win the SEC conference tournament championship, he did speak about his Auburn Tigers getting the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament being in the South region.

I was hoping we'd get the number one overall. I felt like we deserve it because of the body of the work. We did great work in the non-conference for our league.

A lot of teams did. And because the league sent 14 teams to the SEC tournament, the fact that we were regular season champion of the best conference in history college basketball, I think is the reason why we landed at the number one overall spot. The only thing that concerned me about them, and right, everyone's entitled to go on a little bit of a losing streak. For them, they've lost three out of their last four, losing to A&M, Alabama, and Tennessee. They had moments where they still could have won that game up against Tennessee, which would have put them into the conference tournament championship.

And just how many times they just missed close to the rim. That was a little bit concerning for me when I watched Auburn the other day. Let's go to John Shire on the status of Cooper Flag, this courtesy of ESPN after the Dukies won the ACC. Well, from my perspective, it's full steam ahead, you know, I want to get Coop back as quickly as we can, and he wants to do the same. You know, obviously tomorrow is important. We had an off day today, we got back late, where hopefully he can start to progress starting tomorrow with doing some on-court work, and then build up to where he can practice later in the week. So our goal is for Friday, no question about it.

I know that's his goal as well. We're just going to progress in the right way and still be smart about not doing too much in the beginning of the week. When you hear that full answer, I wouldn't play him Friday. I'm not the coach, though. I'm not a doctor.

I'm not on the medical staff. I just think it's unnecessary when you've had two 16-seeds ever beat a one-seed, and you just had Duke without him just still win the ACC. So this is not a team trending in the wrong direction, and hey, they need him to go beat a 16-seed. It seems like, though, from that answer, even with what I just said, that they're going to try to give him a few minutes in that game. I don't think it's going to be a full go. Cooper Flag, I think they're going to pick their spots, and they're going to try to give them a few minutes. But personally, I would even play him until around the 32 at the absolute earliest.

That would just be me. But that team is still as good of a team as there is in the country, even when he's not able to go, and they showed that in the ACC tournament. Let's go to Sam Darnold now with the Seattle Seahawks. You know, the up-and-down career, or really more the down-and-up career of Sam Darnold, the third overall pick of the draft to the JTS Jets, Jets, Jets, and then quickly jettisoned out of New York. Didn't work out in Carolina, and after redemption season in Minnesota, I know it didn't end the right way with the last two games of the season against the Lions and the Rams, but now he is in Seattle on a, like, really a one-year deal, if you think.

I know it was three, but the more and more that comes out of this contract, there's a lot of outs and a lot of easy way to get out of this contract after one year, so I think it's low-risk, high-reward, but this is Sam Darnold and how he thinks he's turned it around in the NFL. I really, you know, thank Brock a ton, Brock Purdy, for, you know, just his style of playing, and how he kind of described his style as, like, we've got a ton of great playmakers on offense. Like, my job is just to play point guard and get the ball in their hands and let them go do great things with the rock. And when I started to change my thought process as a quarterback to kind of just getting the ball in my guys' hands, then that really, that's kind of where it unlocked for me a little bit.

So, just be a game manager, is what he's saying. I know you did more than just manage the game this year for most of the season, but you got to rely on the talent around you, you don't got to put all the pressure on yourself just to feel like you have to make every play based off your arm. And that Seattle team, like, that's fine if you want to say that.

You had those weapons in Minnesota that made that easier to put you in that situation. Now going to Seattle, Kenneth Walker's good, you know, DK Metcalf's no longer there, Tyler Lockett's no longer there, Jackson Smith and Jigba Went Healthy is a really damn good wide receiver, and they added Cooper Cupp, but Cooper Cupp's only played in 33 games in the last three seasons, so we'll see if he's going to be able to do that in Seattle. And finally, Kyler Murray, KBS World, still has a lot to prove.

I've only been in playoffs once, so that in itself is disappointing to me and frustrating. So got to turn that around, you know, I'm only getting older, but I'm 27, I'm still young, so we got time and I know we're heading in the right direction as far as what I'm working on, just going to continue to grow, continue to grow on and off the field. Obviously there's a lot of talent there, but Kyler Murray was at a point in the NFL where we thought he was good, could he be great, then he got injured, and now it's not can he be great, but can he be good? And we've seen a lot of these crazy stories the last few years where guys have been down and out, and then like a decade later, like look at Geno Smith, they turn around the narrative on their career, what Sam Darnold did in a half a decade, pretty much, but with all that being said, the time's ticking on him in Arizona, because now you have a regime in Austin Fort and also Gannon, they're going into year number three.

And I don't think you could sit there and say, without question, you have your franchise quarterback, even though Kyler Murray is getting paid like he is a franchise quarterback. That's a news brief at the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We will take a break when we come on back. I think the most energetic person talking about college basketball today, Jon Fant is going to join us. He'll do a little bracket breakdown with us when the Zach Gelb show continues in five minutes.