Princeton Surprises Arizona (Hour 1)

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Taste your goals. Learn more at Goalie.com today. Live from the police show yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the tenth floor of 345 Hudson Street, welcome on in to this Thursday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS. Remember to jump on in.

855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb. That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. It is a holiday today. It may not be recognized as one, but in the sports world, the first day of the NCAA tournament, and I know the playing games and dating people, oh, the tournament started on Tuesday and Wednesday.

No, in Zach Gelb's world, the NCAA tournament starts on this Thursday. And you can just sense the buzz in this office. Hickey and I had some food before the show. I'd like to thank the guys down the hall. They had just delicious chicken cutlet sandwiches with bacon and mozzarella. You had some fried raviolis as well. There were wings in the newsroom.

We had pizzas. It's just awesome. Because the beauty of this tournament, you could be a big-time college basketball fan, or like most of you, haven't watched a single second of the NCAA this year in college basketball, but everyone's talking about a bracket. Everyone's talking about their picks. Everyone's talking about the potential Cinderella stories and all the upsets, and I don't know how many people still go into their office. Hickey and I are here five days a week, Monday through Friday on CBS Sports Radio, but this is the, I guess, old-school way of really just having water cooler talk in the office, where you could go to the water cooler and you could talk about the NCAA tournament, and it doesn't matter who you are, what you do, everyone fills out a bracket unless if you're boring, and everyone has an opinion.

So here we go, and I think you're going to be surprised. Producing the extravaganza, not the surprise part today, for the next four hours is no other than Hot Take Hickey. Hot Take Hickey. But I have something to say right out of the gate when it comes to the basketball team that Hickey does root for, who does play in the NCAA tournament tonight, the Penn State Nittany Lions going up against Texas A&M, and you know what, Hickey?

I think you need some help. You have been a long-suffering sports fan. You really just got crapped on last night, including yours truly, with the Edwin Diaz news. I can't stand the World Baseball Classic.

This is not me. Oh, just because my player got injured, I'm going to be salty. Don't get me wrong. I am salty, but I don't care about the World Baseball Classic. I never go out of my way to watch it. One of my friends the other day was like, oh, you're going to watch the World Baseball Classic? You're going to talk about the World Baseball Classic?

And I was like, no, unless something horrible goes wrong. And last night, after getting a victory, and he's just celebrating, his teammates start to swarm around him, Edwin Diaz gets hurt, and this is just so Mets, and it just screws us over, and it looks like Edwin Diaz is going to be lost for the season. But that's not where the Hickey torture starts, because you're a Colts fan. The Colts have been absolutely abysmal, and they're not going to get your guy in Bryce Young. As you've been saying for the last two months, pay the price, go get Bryce. Well, Chris Ballard wasn't willing to pay the price.

He was very frugal, and he was very cheap, and he didn't want to go try to be a winner for the next decade, and he's going to sit there and at four, and we'll see what quarterback the Colts wind up with. I know Penn State won the Rose Bowl this year, but it was a lowly rated Rose Bowl, and it really doesn't matter when Ohio State of Michigan is in the college football playoffs. So you know what, Hickey? You need to see a winner. You need some good luck to come your way in the sports world. So if your team's going to go down tonight, I'm going to do something that I never do. I'm going to go down on the ship with you if your team is going to go down, but I think me jumping on the boat with you and saying, oh, goodness gracious, Mom, Dad, I apologize.

All my Temple followers, I apologize. I'm going to say it. We are Penn State! Go, Packcraft! Go, Nittany Lions!

Go, Micah Shrewsbury! I'm hoping, I'm praying, I'm begging, I'm down on one knee imploring the sports gods to help my friend, my producer extraordinaire, the hot take, Hickey, who is wearing what I would usually say are those disgusting Penn State Nittany Lion colors in my presence. I usually and always would never root for his team, but tonight, Hickey, I want to see your team win. We get off the air at 955 p.m. Eastern, and that's when the ball is tipped, and hopefully, maybe it'll be 10 minutes afterwards, who knows, these games never start on time anyway, but we got, we, notice what I just said, Hickey, we got Penn State, Texas A&M tonight, and I am just hoping, I am praying that finally you could see a winner because you associate yourself with a lot of losing, a lot of pathetic teams, and you need a winner. So, Hickey, there you go, the first five minutes of the show dedicated to you. NCAA tournament is bringing us together and making me do something that I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever do, and that is actively, in good faith, in good spirits, and having good intentions, root for your squad in the Penn State, yuck, Nittany Lions. Let's go Penn State, baby. Hickey, what do you got to say about that?

I'm rooting for your squad tonight. I'll be honest, I don't like it. Why not? I want you out, sorry, no. Are you kidding me? Nope, too much bad publicity, too much bad words out of your mouth surrounding Penn State. Now that there's actually some, when it comes to basketball especially, some good times, no, sir. I even texted the athletic director. I want you rooting for A&M, I want you rooting for Buzz Williams, I want you to say Buzz, and you, the next four hours, all you do is buzz for Buzz Williams? No. Fine, I actually would have been probably happier than hearing you say, we are. I actually texted your athletic director.

No, don't like it. He said, good luck this evening, you have me rooting for Penn State, and he responded back, ha ha ha ha, thanks brother, miracles do happen. Your own athletic director realizes how big of a deal this is that Zach Gelb is rooting for Penn State tonight. Where's this game being played?

Des Moines, Iowa. You know what, Spike, we're getting on the private jet. We're ending the show right now.

Get Manny Suss, who's ever in the newsroom, Carlos, they're going to be hosting the show for the next three to four hours. We got a flight to catch, all right? We got to go cheer on the Nittany Lions. You down? You coming on board? You jumping in the carry-on? I'm down to go if only you were wearing maroon and white. You're rooting for the Aggies.

But I'm not a mush, you're the mush. I don't know, I don't like this, it does not feel good. Your predictions suck.

It feels icky to me. I'm going to lead you guys to a victory tonight. They should build the statue of me tonight if Penn State wins. They could use a new statue on that campus. They could put a statue of Zach Gelb up, I could put the number one finger in the air, and I'll lead Penn State to the victory tonight.

Now, I got to come through on my promise, so you could throw the statue in like some library or somewhere if they do not win, but if they do win, I think there's a statue of me on the campus. And I get unlimited, what is it, the Penn State Creamery? The ice cream, isn't that what they call there in Happy Valley, right? The Creamery, yes.

Penn State Creamery is where the great ice cream is. You give me an unlimited pass there, and what's the sandwich shop that we like? What is it, are you hungry? Are you hungry, yes, sir. And you get like a chicken cutlet with mozzarella sticks and fries on that sandwich, right?

That seems like something you order there. That's right, yes, yes. I think I'm making the case tonight to lead the Knicks, and then maybe when they're in the second round, Pat Kraft will invite me and I'll be an honorary captain. I'm looking at Benedict Arnold. That is, we are the Americans, and I'm looking at Benedict Arnold. He's coming over here. I mean, well, look, I love USA.

Tell me your secrets. I come here in peace. USA, USA, UO, Benedict, come on in, welcome. We'll give you everything you want to know.

That's what these last nine minutes, about to be 10 minutes, have felt like. I am looking directly in the eyes of Benedict Arnold, who down deep has a blue shirt on, but I know there's some maroon underneath there somewhere with a big A and a big M. Do you have the Jack Stern audio from last night on the JR Sports Brief extravaganza? Because I want to play this for the listening audience. This is what you don't do when you're a fill-in producer, but this is what Jack Stern did last night with JR on his very fine radio program that comes on after us. I made the same CBS Sports Radio affiliate, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and the free Odyssey app. This is Jack Stern filling in as the producer on the JR Sports Brief.

Listen up. Jack Stern is joining us tonight. Jack, how are you feeling, man? Are you having a good evening? Oh, this is one of the best evenings of my life, JR. Aaron Rodgers is a jet. I actually started a Let's Go Jets chant.

Let's go Jets! On the subway tonight. I had a great day. I was extremely productive. I found out my favorite porn star is getting married, which kind of put a damper in the goodness that was going on, but aside from that, I'm doing absolutely fantastic. Thank you, Jack.

This is more information than I would have cared to have learned, so thank you very much. That's a lot to unpack there, but if I had to channel my inner Jack Stern, I will do so right now, Hickey. Let's go State! Let's go State! Let's go State!

We are Penn State! How's that for you? You like that? I got goosebumps in a bad way.

I got chills. This is wrong. This is Brett Favre in a Vikings jersey right now. This is Tom Brady in a Jets jersey.

That's probably the better comparison. This is wrong. Hold on real quickly. We'll get back to this conversation in a second, but Princeton has taken a one-point lead. It's their first lead today. The Princeton Tigers. Come on, Mitch Henderson and Brett McConnell.

They're up by a point with 142 to go. Now, Hickey, do me a favor because Princeton's playing Arizona. Can you remind me who you picked to win the NCAA championship this year?

Who was your pick? Arizona Wildcats. Okay, see? You're already starting to mush them. They're sweating it out against a 15 seed with under two minutes to go, and Princeton is up by one. This just illustrates why you need me more than ever to be on the side of Penn State tonight. I've made some bad predictions. I've made some wrong predictions, but I think you're just in a rut and you need a little helping hand by your friend and yours truly, and that's what I'm trying to do tonight with Penn State. I'm trying to help you out.

That's it. And I think this potential outcome here between Princeton and Arizona should make you embrace Zach Gelb on the Penn State bandwagon tonight. No, and Arizona, however this game ends, is not going to impact my Penn State fandom and welcoming others to the bandwagon. So you're rejecting me? Yes, oh yes.

Yes. I could go above you here and I could just tell Pat I'm rooting for Penn State, which I already did, and he will welcome me with open arms, but all right, you don't want to be a winner? That's fine. How are you watching the game tonight, by the way?

I am Ubering home as fast as I can, getting in front of my couch and sweating the next hour and a half at that point. Can I come? No.

Why not? Sorry, Penn State fans only. I don't need you in my ear. Just you and the missus?

And then all of a sudden, again, Benedict Arnold, A&M goes on a 10-0 run. What a shame. I don't need to hear that, especially then. No way. So you're not accepting my help to you right now?

That is right. If you want to say I'm drowning in the ocean and you're a lifeboat driving by, I'll swim back to shore. I could be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Michael Phelps will swim back. Oh, so you're like in the Titanic where you could fit multiple people on the raft, but you just take up the raft for yourself and then I'm gonna die. You are Rose. I am Jack.

I am in the water. No saving. No problem. Well, wouldn't it be the other way around? Well, no, because Jack dies. Oh, okay. But why do I have to die in this situation? No, you're not.

You're Rose on the raft. Okay. You're saying, help me. And I said, I'm Jack. No, I'm not. No, no help. I will make it back.

No problem. It's 10 degree water. I don't care. I'm a thousand miles from shore.

I'll swim. Okay, that's fine. Don't expect me to go help you out though.

At all. I'm not asking for any help. I am not asking for help.

Once you don't want my services, I don't come back to land another helping hand. That is A-okay. Just know, even if you win, I am rooting still for Penn State tonight. So if they win, it's practically because of my own doing.

Just letting you know. See, this is what I'm talking about, folks. I can't even now enjoy a Penn State win because now it's Zach coming in tomorrow. We're gonna lead the show. Here I am, the savior, the whisper, the winner, to help Penn State out. You know, they were struggling.

They've been hot in March without his help. No big deal coming on in. And now here I am getting the tournament win. This is what I don't need to hear. Well, you used the Temple Man to help save your basketball program. So I think you're now using a Temple Man to help lead you guys through a victory.

That's what I just think it is. Anyway, NCAA tournament will keep you updated. Alabama wins today.

They're opening around game 96 to 75. Kansas, after a close first like 10 minutes or so, Kansas wins 96 to 68. Furman stuns Virginia. Well, I actually picked them, but still another miserable tournament for Tony Bennett unless he wins the championship.

It usually requires him going down to a double-digit seed. Furman wins 68 to 67. San Diego State survives 63 to 57 up against Charleston. And right now, we do have Arkansas going up against the Fighting Illini of Illinois. Arkansas, led by Eric Musselman's squad, an 8-9 game, is up 55 to 43 with 8-16 to go. And Princeton is up by one, 56 to 55, with 30 seconds to go.

And they do have the Rock. Now, back-to-back years, we have seen a 15 take down a 2 when you did have last year St. Peter's beat Kentucky. And the year before that, Hickey, who was the year before that?

Oh. Oral Roberts. Oral Roberts, of course. Take you down Ohio State. Paul Mills and Max Asmus, where they did take down Ohio State and I led the radio show saying, O-H-N-O.

So we are now looking for it to be back-to-back-to-back years where a 15 takes down a 2. And we had Mitch Henderson on the other day. I used to actually produce his radio show when I worked in the Princeton area when my first job's out of college. And Caden Pierce, who's having a great, and I watched him in the Ivy League tournament, he has been phenomenal as a freshman for Princeton. Even Mitch Henderson was surprised with how you've had the success of him and how seamlessly he's been able to transition into that program.

He just made two free throws and he's up by three. What are you smiling about over there? Just wondering, by the way. Someone said you had not-so-nice texts about me. Oh, no, no, no. Me and my friends are joking because one of my friends in a group chat was asking what I was doing for the game.

He goes, I want you to suffer, and I'm talking to someone else, so I started screaming expletives at him because I am suffering because my national champ is about to go down. Gotcha. Oh, my God. Princeton got the rebound with three seconds to go. Arizona not even close.

Oh, this is unreal. They're going to go to the charity stripe. They are up by three. Oh, I'm so happy for Mitch Henderson and Brett McConnell. Last year, Princeton loses to Yale in the finals of the Ivy League tournament. This year, they beat them. Now, as a 15, they are in the big dance. Mitch Henderson was on Pete Carril's team.

If you recall, when UCLA lost to Princeton, and Pete Carril, unfortunately, did pass away in August, and this is the season honoring Pete Carril, and they are three seconds away going to the charity stripe, Princeton is up by three. Make your free throws. Just make your free throws. That's all we need here. A fortuitous bounce.

How about that? Princeton gets the fortuitous bounce. I don't know about you, Hickey. I thought that one was going to miss. It goes in, and now it's a four-point game with three seconds to go. What a start to March Madness.

Oh, this is sensational. You had Furman beating Virginia, a 13 beat and a four. You didn't think it'd get much better than that. And Princeton, who misses the second, is up by four.

Don't foul. And it's over. Wow! How about them Princeton Tigers? Smart kids winning the NCAA tournament, representing the Ivy League.

Oh, that's awesome. Way to go, Mitch Henderson and company. 59 to 55, they take down the two seed Arizona Wildcats in Sacramento.

Holy smokes. And I'm telling you, Pete Carril is looking down right now, and he is smiling. His former player, Mitch Henderson, who was a part of that team that beat UCLA, the coach of Princeton, and he has the Tigers now, dancing to the second round. And I know Mitch Henderson, when he's walking off this court, he's going to be thinking about coach Pete Carril, who would love to see this in person, unfortunately did pass away in August. And this is a season honoring him.

Oh, I'm so elated. I am so happy for that Princeton program, just first class all the way. Tremendous coaches there once again, and Mitch Henderson and Brett McConnell. And now you got the Tigers. The Princeton Tigers, baby. They're dancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Hickey, let me just ask you this. You sure you don't want to welcome me onto the Penn State bandwagon tonight because you picked Arizona to win it all. I didn't pick Arizona to win it all. I think you should welcome me aboard your bandwagon to Penn State.

You're a mush. It's an Arizona thing. It's not a me thing. I picked Kansas last year correctly. I picked Arizona when they had DeAndre in a few years ago, and they got bounced in the first round.

So you know what? I should have learned my lesson. Never pick Arizona because when you do, they lose in the first round. This is twice now, so shame on me. It's not a me thing. Or actually, shame on Arizona. It's not even me.

I'm not the one playing here. Shame on Arizona. This is not a Ryan Hickey problem. This is an Arizona Wildcats problem.

This sounds like a two-year-old that fails to accept any accountability in life. That's what it sounds like. It is the Zach Guelph Show. We're coming on back. Princeton takes down Arizona, a 15, beats a two, back in five. You're listening to the Zach Guelph Show.

It is the Zach Guelph Show on CBS Sports Radio. It's not even 6.30 p.m. Eastern time yet here on the East Coast in Hickey. We have already seen a 13-seed in Furman today get a victory up against 4th seed Virginia, and that we all probably thought was going to be the biggest upset of the day. Princeton, as we were just talking about a few moments ago as it was happening on the air, they beat Arizona 59 to 55. The Princeton Tigers are a 15-seed, and they take down the two-seed Arizona Wildcats and Hickey with eight minutes to go. Arizona was up by 10.

Think about that. With eight minutes to go in this game, Arizona was up by 10, and not only up by 10, the score was 51 to 41. That was with 8.07 to go when they made a layup. They only scored four points after that.

That's crazy. So in the final eight minutes, Arizona only scores four points, and they got to 55 with, let's see when they got to 55 exactly, with 4.45 to go. So they did not score a free throw, a two-pointer, a three-pointer, nothing, no points in the final 4.45.

And you look at that point in the game where they got it was 55 to 50. Like, Princeton only scored nine more points. So how many opportunities Arizona had to win this game, and they come up short, and they just go ice cold? You know, I didn't think we'd be more stunned than earlier today when you have such an experienced player in Kihei Clark, who's been at Virginia for 9,000 years, just in inexcusable fashion is trapped and then throws the ball all the way down the court, and Furman picks it off, and they throw it over, and they hit a three-point shot to go up by one. But to not be able to score in the final four minutes when you're Arizona, and we had Mitch Henderson on the other day, and he was talking about the size of Arizona, and, hey, if you have any answers to try to slow them down, please help us out. And Arizona just couldn't do anything. Like, credit Princeton, right? Great day, unbelievable day, wonderful for Princeton, and you want to celebrate the Cinderella's here, right, and the team that conquers and finds a way to pull off the upset like Princeton and Furman, but we saw today by Virginia throwing the ball away and then Arizona going scoreless in pretty much the final five minutes of the game.

That, to me, Hickey, those two things, you can't even write it up, and that's what makes the NCAA tournament just so wonderful. Look, I'm no expert, I'm no coach, but I would say if you can't score, you can't win. But to Princeton's credit, like you said, they just did not make anything easy. So Arizona, and you kind of saw the panic, too, which is a little surprising for a team that is pretty battle-tested. The fact that they just look like as soon as, you know, Princeton started making their comeback, they really started to hit the panic button, really started forcing shots they needed to make, forcing, you know, not taking the best shot instead of maybe just taking, instead of making an extra pass, taking a more difficult shot. It was kind of textbook panic that leads to a higher seed losing in these games to lower seeds. It's, yeah, it's not good, it's unexplainable, and that's part of the reason why, you know, March is so special, because you have just, when you're dealing 18- and 22-year-old college kids, nothing can, nothing goes by the book, and no one really knows, even if you've been there before, how to act in the moment. And by the way, just a quick programming note, Jalen Slauson, who of course is of the Furman team, had a sensational season for them, player of the year in the conference, he's going to join us coming up at the top of the hour.

We will talk to him. And then also Julian Reese, we will connect with him at some point before the end of the show from the Maryland basketball team, who had 17-9 today as Maryland did beat West Virginia. So just mayhem so far right out of the gate in the NCAA tournament. Maryland beats West Virginia by 2, Missouri crushes Utah State 76-65, San Diego State beats Charleston 63-57, Furman stuns Virginia, a 13-beating of 4, 68-67, Princeton stunner shocker, awesome. They beat Arizona 59-55, that's a 15-beating of 2 for the third straight year. Oral Roberts, St. Peter's the last two, now you add in Princeton, Kansas taking down Howard 96-68, Alabama rolling 96-75, they win. And you have still going on right now, about three minutes to go, Arkansas up 62-53 against Illinois. Still to come this evening, you have Bruce Pearl against Fran McCaffrey in an 8-9 matchup, that gets underway in 18 minutes. You have Duke Oral Roberts, which I am very, very excited for. I think that's going to be a tremendous first round game.

Texas in Colgate at 215, Northwestern against Boise State 7-10, Houston up against Northern Kentucky 116, Tennessee a 4 up against the Raising Cajuns from Louisiana who are a 13 seed, Hickey's Nittany Lions, they're a 10 seed up against A&M, and that game's at 955 p.m. Eastern, you have UNC Asheville going up against UCLA in the 215 game. Let's go real quickly, we'll take one before the break, 855-2124 CBS, 855-212-4227. Uh-oh, let's go to Devin in Tucson, first up on CBS Sports Radio. Devin, what's happening?

Hey Gil, I got to say, not Hickey, but he's got to be the one who's mushing Arizona. I think it's a fair thing to kind of draw your own conclusion on. You know, he told us the Colts are winning the division this year.

Didn't happen. He was telling us the Rangers are going to win the Stanley Cup when they were up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, and they didn't win a game since, you know, in that playoff run. There's been a lot of things, a lot of teams that he's latched on to.

Last night, right before the WBC, he was talking about how great Edwin Diaz was going to be this year, and then he picks Arizona to win the national title, and they go down to Princeton, so I think you're on to something, Devin. All right, Hickey. Hey, never pick Arizona again. Just for me, all right? Don't you worry. That is the second time last time. I promise you that.

And that's the thing, Hickey. Like, I picked them last year to win it all, and I thought they had a better team last year, and I don't remember where you were at last year with Arizona, but clearly you weren't annoyed, and you thought they were going to have some redemption. Yeah, I mean, look, I didn't want to pick Alabama. I was trying to, you know, find some sleeper teams, if you even know they're a two-seed.

I wouldn't say they're a sleeper yet. Let's go Arizona. I mean, again, if we want to bring up predictions, everyone, you know, again, I had some good juju last year picking Kansas. I don't recall that. So it's not like you look at Arizona, and it's like, oh, my God, the kiss of death is here.

Only happens with Arizona, for whatever reason, DeAndre against Buffalo. I mean, show up. That'd be nice. And now today, make a shot.

That'd be nice, too. Oh, I'm going to tell you. It's an Arizona problem. Ack heard you in the newsroom say that you were picking Arizona, and then Ack looked at me, and Ack said, uh-oh, we're in trouble, because he had Arizona as well.

And that was Ack right at halftime, where he knew that you were a mush. Are you kidding me? You said that? You said, I mean, basically rip up the bracket right now that we have the same champion?

Yeah, he said, where's the paper shredder? I don't have him as a champ, but I had him in the Final Four. Oh, you had them in the Final Four. Yeah, I took him just out of principle because I didn't want Alabama there.

There you go. Hickey and I are on the same wavelength here, which is a little scary. And now we're paying the price for it. And at halftime, I was trying to talk Ack off the ledge, and he goes, we're just screwed, because Hickey ended up picking Arizona.

He just knew that you were going to lead them down a path they didn't want to go. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. So, in the south region of the NCAA tournament, we now know three second-round matchups. Alabama is going to be playing Maryland.

That is coming up on Saturday. Now, Brandon Miller, according to Tracy Wilson, suffered a groin injury. That wasn't today where he suffered it. It was actually in their last game going back to the SEC tournament. So, Brandon Miller held scoreless in the victory today, according to Tracy Wilson.

Nate Oates telling her afterwards that after the game, that he's been bothered by a groin injury, suffered in their last game. So, something just to keep an eye on, and we all know how great of a player Brandon Miller is, and we know how great of a team Alabama is. Alabama, my pick to play Alabama, my pick to win the NCAA tournament, most people's pick to go win the NCAA tournament, they're going to be going up against a Maryland team that's going to be dangerous because no one, and I mean no one, is probably going to be expecting them to win or rooting for them to win. And you look at Maryland, who just found a way after a sluggish start today to survive up against West Virginia, that's going to be a very fun second-round matchup. And then just like how we all predicted, Furman is moving on to the second round after beating Virginia. You will get Furman going up against San Diego State, and Hickey, obviously, everyone had Missouri beating Utah State, but the one that no one did see coming, Princeton taking down Arizona.

And you know what? It really says a lot, and I know we've seen a ton of upsets ever since the NCAA tournament has started, but when you look at a few years ago, and I know we talk about Virginia today, who did lose to Furman, and we've seen Virginia throughout the years where they lose to UMBC, who was a six team. They lost to Ohio, who was a 13.

That was the Jason Preston team, and that tremendous story. They lose to a 13 seed to Furman. Obviously, they won a national championship after losing to 16 UMBC, but when that did happen, it gets us all kind of and heightens all of our awareness more on upset alert, and we've never seen a 16 beat a one again, but with that being said, now the 15 seed, like maybe the lowest you would ever go would be like, okay, I'll pick a 14 in my bracket to upset a three seed. Maybe that's like where you're willing to go, but now we've seen back to back to back years where a 15 beats a two, and I don't know, maybe the two seed overlooks the 15 seed and the two seed, if it's close, they end up playing tight and you have something inexcusable like Arizona today, who doesn't score a bucket in the final five minutes, but I really do think, and this is not just being in the moment, but being in the moment does matter when you go into a game now, probably years ago, it was like, oh, I'm a 15 seed. We got no chance, and we're just happy to be here, but some of these 15 seeds that you hear from throughout the years, like I remember we talked to Paul Mills on the night where Oral Roberts beat Ohio State, and he said, we expected to win, and when you talk to him, I even said this to him, I remember the conversation, coach, you feel like this isn't, like it seems like it's not a big deal when just talking to you because he just sounded so, it was like something that he expected and it was just, he was so casual and he was just so calm about it, and the same thing last year, I remember we had on Shaheen Holloway, right after St. Peter's did beat Kentucky, and think about that in terms of upsets, like St. Peter's don't even know who they were last year before the NCAA tournament, and they beat Kentucky, one of the blue bloods in college basketball, and Shaheen Holloway, yeah, he knew it was a big deal, but he sounded like it wasn't a big deal, and Mitch Henderson, when he was on the air with us earlier in the week the other day, when they got to Sacramento, I think he joined us on Tuesday, he kind of, you know, was kind of low key as well, you know, these coaches, and I think it's big with the leadership, if your players realize the coach is nervous or the coach is hesitant, then they're gonna kind of follow that lead and second guess, but all three of these coaches have something in common where, and hopefully we'll get Mitch Henderson on before the end of the show, but it seems like all three of them have something in common where they're not saying, oh, we don't belong, or we don't belong on the same court, we're 15 seed, and we probably got screwed by the committee and should have been higher up there.

Belief is a dangerous thing. It is a very dangerous thing, and like you said, now you're starting to see more and more upsets happen, and we talked about this earlier this week on the show where we have never seen three years in a row of 15 seed take down a two, and we just saw history. This is now the third year in a row of 15 seed has taken down a two. I think a large part you're starting to see and more and more often is, like you said, teams are believing. They are going in there now with confidence. You rarely, 10 years ago, if you were 15 or 16, you're happy to be there, and you're, okay, let's just not lose by 30 and get out of here and just call it a great season.

Now we're not just going there to cap off a great year. We're going there to win, and when you have that belief, especially for college kids, as corny as it sounds, all of a sudden now you start believing, and we saw it I think firsthand with Princeton, Arizona, that doubt in Arizona starts to creep in. Even though you're this overwhelming favorite, when you're dealing with college kids, and it's not that easy to kind of respond well in an adverse situation, you see the scales tip, and that's where we're seeing more upsets. And I know we were having fun earlier with the conversation with Ack, but I said to Ack when it was a close game at halftime, and Ack was like, oh, this doesn't look good. I said to Ack, like, let's see where we are the first five, six minutes of the second half, because how many times do you see a 15 seed or a 16 seed give all they can in the first half, and they just don't have the bodies, they don't have the pieces, and they don't have the talent, and then very early on in the second half, you start to see them run away. Well, that's what was starting to happen with Arizona.

And we talked about it, what, eight minutes to go or so? Arizona was up by 10 points. I know that's not, it's not inconceivable to come back from down by 10 points, but when you have a 10 point difference between Arizona and Princeton, it's probably just natural to think, like, I know you gotta be locked in as a player, okay, we're gonna find a way to play our hardest down the stretch, and we're gonna find a way to get the job done, but naturally, it's just like the air gets taken out of the balloon, and when it's a 10 point game with eight or nine minutes to go, no one's expecting Princeton to come back, and then also, when Arizona has a slight lead, I know it's a slight lead with five minutes to go, if you would've told me five minutes ago Arizona would not score a bucket, wouldn't even get a free throw down the stretch.

I would've never believed that. But that's what happens. If you're going up against a Cinderella, if you're going up against a school no one thinks is gonna win, if you allow them to hang in it and you don't knock them out, like, Arizona, when they're up by 10, you gotta get that up to 15, you gotta get that up to 16.

They didn't do that. And they let Princeton hang around, hang around, hang around, and then it eventually happened. Like, you look at that game today between Furman and Virginia, I know when it gets later and it's tighter what we're just all talking about, but how many times did Virginia have opportunities to sink free throws and put the game away?

And they couldn't do it, and then they make an uncharacteristic play with the guy that's been there in forever where they just baseball pass it all the way down the court and it gets picked off. Next thing you know, in a snap of a finger, you have Furman not only sinking the shot to put you up, but basically going on out there with two seconds to go and winning the game. That's why March remains undefeated. And like you said, it's impressive because it's easy to come out of half if you're an underdog and come out firing and, okay, let's see if we can hang around. But once the favorite punch is back, and like I said, Arizona's up by 10 midway through the second half, okay, Princeton got their run, Arizona responded, and now usually that's when you see a lot of these higher seeds pull away and kind of cruise control down the rest of the stretch. It's so impressive that in some ways both Furman and Princeton won the game in similar ways in the sense that both Virginia and Arizona, midway through the second half, was controlling the game after they took a few body blows and now started giving a few back.

But you hang around, you keep the pressure on, and now, again, when you get down to those intense moments with their season on the line with everyone watching, when it's 18 to 22-year-old kids, anything can happen, and in Furman's case, you got a lucky break where a super experienced player in Kihei Clark makes an uncharacteristically bad mistake, and Arizona, in the sense that they choked up, started forcing shots, started feeling the pressure, started rushing things, and that leads to comebacks for Princeton and an opportunity to win the game for Furman. You have something in common with someone that is very important in this world. I do.

Me? Yeah. Is that good or bad? No, I think it's going to prevent you from ending up on all takes exposed tonight. Okay. All right. I don't know if this is good or bad, so I'm trying to brace myself here.

I feel like it's good, but probably not. The president of the United States, Joe Biden, also had Arizona winning it all, just like you. So you and Joe Biden. Me and Joe. One and the same.

Me and Joe. Burn them before we even get halfway through day number one. Maybe he'll invite you to the White House. Maybe he'll invite you to the Oval Office. Get a little tour of the Oval Office.

Great minds think alike. I mean, should we talk policy? I mean, I don't know nothing about policy, but hey. Let's not get political here.

I don't want to get political here. Me and Joe are on the same wavelength, and unfortunately the wrong one here. Geez. Oh, my God. All righty. We will take a break. When we come on back, Furman, one of the teams that are the stars of the NCAA tournament, they're advancing to the second round after their big win up against Virginia. Their star player Jalen Slauson will join us next.